If you spun a globe and stopped your finger 12 times on 12 random countries, they just might make more sense for a monetary union than the euro zone.

That’s the conclusion from this awesomely clever chart showing the difficulty, and maybe impossibility, of the euro experiment (click to expand).

Here is what this chart shows. Compared across more than 100 factors measured by the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, from corruption to deficits, JP Morgan analyst Michael Cembalest calculates that the major countries on the euro are more different from each other than basically every random grab bag of nations there is, including: the make-believe reconstituted Ottoman Empire; all the English speaking Eastern and Southern African countries; and all countries on Earth at the 5th parallel north.

And here is your tweetable fact: A monetary union might make more sense for every nation starting with the letter “M” than it does for the euro zone.

If you find yourself wondering, as I did, how the 50 states within the U.S. would compare across this measure of dispersion, remember that the nice thing about the United States is that baked into the first word of our name is not only a monetary union (i.e.: we all use dollars) but also a fiscal union. If Mississippi has a bad year (or decade, or century), Washington doesn’t debate whether we should force the state to raise taxes or cut spending to become more competitive. We just keep paying it Medicaid, which is basically a transfer from rich Americans to poor Americans, many of whom live in Mississippi.

Germany doesn’t want to establish any sort of “Peripheraid” — a permanent transfer program from the core to the periphery. And that’s why you should be about as optimistic about the future of the current euro zone as you are about a monetary union for the all the countries in the world that start with the letter “M.”

From TheAtlantic – shaping the national debate on the most critical issues of our times, from politics, business, and the economy, to technology, arts, and culture.

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“This Is The Funniest Graph I’ve Ever Seen About Why The Euro Is Totally Doomed” – Business Insider

Judge: We heard the testimony of Mr. Bloch. I couldn’t have told you the first thing about Java before this problem. I have done, and still do, a significant amount of programming in other languages. I’ve written blocks of code like rangeCheck a hundred times before. I could do it, you could do it. The idea that someone would copy that when they could do it themselves just as fast, it was an accident. There’s no way you could say that was speeding them along to the marketplace. You’re one of the best lawyers in America, how could you even make that kind of argument?

Oracle: I want to come back to rangeCheck.

Judge: rangeCheck! All it does is make sure the numbers you’re inputting are within a range, and gives them some sort of exceptional treatment. That witness, when he said a high school student could do it– —

via Ray Cromwell – Google+ – As a counter to this, I present exhibit A: Judge Alsup from….

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So Judge Alsup – the Oracle/Google Java/Android Judge – is a coder?

• My father’s losing his lower lip to a swinging tank-barrel and having it reconstructed with a graft from his bottom, so he was always talking out of his arse.
• The man-eating lioness which he tracked and shot precisely and fatally in the anus, and which we had as a living-room floor rug and on the head of which I used to sit.
• Floating Land Rovers across rivers by wrapping them in tarpaulins.
• Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, who so loved my Mother that he ordered two silver rings to be made, gave one to her, wore the other, and smashed the ringmould in front of her so no more could be made
• He also offered to adopt my sisters – way before I was born – in the instance that anything should happen to Dad, though in the end he himself was brutally murdered in the 1966 Nigerian coup; Dad himself was on a number of death lists.
• That Kissinger was dad’s lunch buddy at Harvard.
• The shotgun-wielding nutcases who tried to usurp a Canadian campground.

…and so on and so forth; but one of the greatest stories is evidenced by the discovery below.

Not long after Dad died we were sorting out his things and found a heavy-grade envelope containing a rosary and two air-mail letters; for the youth of today the Post Office of the time enforced a kind of IPQoS where you could buy special prepaid lightweight paper, write a message, seal it as a letter and receive express delivery – and these were two of they.

I reproduce the letters below; for background you need to know that Dad was a rapidly promoted Captain in the 1st Battalion Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) which having fought their way up through Anzio and Cassino led to the liberation of Rome.

Wikipedia will also tell you that US forces took Rome 4 June 1944 under US General Mark Clark – because the Loyals were attached to the US Army at that point; further reading will provide a hint of what my father thought about Mark Clark:

At the time, Truscott was shocked […] He went on to write “There has never been any doubt in my mind that had General Clark held loyally to General Alexander’s instructions, had he not changed the direction of my attack to the north-west on May 26, the strategic objectives of Anzio would have been accomplished in full. To be first in Rome was a poor compensation for this lost opportunity”.

[…]

Over the next day, the rearguards were gradually overwhelmed, and Rome was entered in the early hours of June 4 with Clark holding an impromptu press conference on the steps of the Town Hall on the Capitoline Hill that morning. He ensured the event was a strictly American affair by stationing military police at road junctions to refuse entry to the city by British military personnel.

Unfortunately for Clark he missed someone; Dad always had a thing for historical military uniforms and – as a child – always harboured a wish to see the Vatican Swiss Guard… and he’d just arrived in Rome.

What else do you do when you’re a victorious Captain but requisition some transport and go sight seeing?

So I’ll let Dad pick up the story of Monday June 5th 1944; I’ve done what I can with the transcription but can only apologise for his lack of use of questionmarks, and anything in [brackets] or ******ed is where I can’t read his writing. Note also the censorship-approval stamps:

Capt. D J Muffett
1Bn Loyal Rgt
CMF

8 June

My Dear Mother,

Well well things have [moved] haven’t they? I suppose you hear quite a lot these days from the air force. However we will hold off from the Second Front a bit and see how it goes and I’ll tell you instead of a remarkable experience that I have had.

On Monday I went into Rome to see the sights and have a look round. Unlike most Iti towns it is quite remarkable and reasonably clean (which is surprising) and doesn’t even smell (which is more surprising). Well I and another chap had a look at the Coliseum and the Temple of Vesta and the Forum and then wandered into the Palazza Venetza where some Jocks were

---

playing themselves in as the massed pipes and drums. We were standing around watching when a lady (about 38-40) came up and said “Excuse me but are you English” we said “yes” and she said “oh I am so pleased, ten years ago I married an Italian and have been here ever since. I used to live in Barons Court.” She took us round the place and showed us the Tiber Bridge, etc.

Well we left her and chuntered into St Peters. Now comes the joke. We wandered around a bit and looked at the ceilings (Michael Angelo) and the statue of St Peter. Then I said I want to see a Swiss Guard. So we wandered outside and had a look at one (in his utility Blue uniform and got a [smashing] Present as a pike!! Well he said “straight up those stairs sir” and shot us inside where there were a couple more. (This time in full dress) who

---

passed us up another flight of stairs, and a third lot shot us into a room where there were some very comfortable chairs so we sat down. Then a very charming Irish Priest came in and said “His Holiness will receive you in a few moments” – I could have dropped dead!! There were [four] of us in there (one was the [******]) so we went into a huddle and [worked] out the [******].

About ten minutes later there was a crashing all along the corridor and in he came surrounded by the noble guard (magnificent uniforms). He came to each of us in turn (the correct thing is to drop on one knee and and kiss St Peter’s ring on the 4th finger R hand.) It is an enormous stone fully 1/2 inch sq. and Blood red. (I was quite adept at this.

The narrative will now be continued in another letter which I will send off at the same time as this.

---

Captain D J Muffett
1st Bn Loyal Rgt
CMF

Well to continue. He spoke to each of us in perfect english and asked how we were, and had we heard from our families and were they well, were we married and had we been particularly [******fortable] and then we fell out after he had given the Papal blessing. Incidentally he gave each of us a rosary which I will send you as a memento by sea. It really was a memorable experience. What with the Coronation and that I do [clock] for State occasions don’t I.

Well I am sure that you will be glad to know that I am unscathed and sound in mind and limb. A certain [******] impression will indelibly remain but on the whole I have been very lucky.

---

The weather has been very good to us and is still boiling hot. I am [waking] up a [*****] tan and am unfalteringly healthy. [Well*****on] please send me some Dettol. A tin if you can get it rather than a bottle. My love to Barney I suppose he looks grand. Encourage him to bring you things and perhaps about Sept Pa could arrange for him to go to a keeper for a month or so to finish off his [training]. Perhaps Mr Morton will know someone.

My love to Arthur and Joan and Maurice. Is he in the second front yet and haven’t they landed yet. Whatever happens you must keep your chin up and keep [smiling]. I am quite sure we will both be OK and anyway why worry.

I hope that the weather soon turns

---

you up and that you get fit and able to go out.

My only worry so far is that I have smashed my watch up which is a pity. However I will soon get another out here.

Well I have exceeded my quota this week by quite a lot this week and the well is beginning to run dry. So TTFN

All my love

David

That’s not all there is to the story – there is more, I have it on tape somewhere; he was the senior officer amongst the (ISTR) three British who were presented – and he had to order a Scots presbyterian who was “agin’ all this papist nonsense” to behave; I think one of the less-legible references in there is about them scrubbing-up prior to meeting the Pope; and then there was the American newspaper photographer who mid-ceremony shouted:

“HOLD IT, POPE!”

…when the pontiff raised his hand in blessing, so that he could get the perfect shot for the cover of (again, ISTR) the New York Times; and the BBC correspondent whom Dad later ran into in Nigeria, who had also seen and heard it all. I think that was Hugh Greene but my sisters will doubtless correct me if I’m wrong.

For a taste, perhaps not of the exact occasion but one around that time, I found a papal speech on the interwebs; but also there’s the US propaganda video on YouTube:

…and yes, there are Jocks.

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The day that my Father gatecrashed the Pope: 5 June 1944

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Upcoming Kickstarter for Geek Porn Anthology

Shelfappeal.com was reported blocked on 15th February 2012 on Orange. This is a blog that features items that can be placed on a shelf.

via Mobile Internet censorship: what’s happening and what to do | Open Rights Group.

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TIL: UK censored/blocked websites include ShelfAppeal: blog featuring items that can be placed on a shelf

Welcome To Toresano – Spanish Tapas Bar.

Lovely people, too…

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Unsolicited plug: Toresano, St John’s Wood, London – Great #tapas, best #churros in London.

Near the end of the application process, an I.O.C. evaluation committee was permitted to visit London. Bid-committee officials knew that London’s transportation system was a weak spot on the city’s application. “Our nightmare was it would take forever to get to the venues,” Mills recalled. A bid-committee team planned the routes that I.O.C. members would travel around the city, and G.P.S. transmitters were planted in all of the I.O.C. members’ vehicles so they could be tracked. From the London Traffic Control Center, near Victoria Station, where hundreds of monitors display live feeds from London’s comprehensive CCTV surveillance system, each vehicle was followed, from camera to camera, “and when they came up to traffic lights,” Mills said, “we turned them green.”

via Can London Afford the $14.5 Billion Price Tag of the Summer 2012 Olympic Games? | Culture | Vanity Fair.

And.

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London #Olympic / IOC Committee was tracked via #GPS & #CCTV to smooth them through traffic lights # Keeping London Moving

HPCwire: Open Source Compiler Adds Support for Nvidia GPUs.

Maybe I should finally get one of these vector-processors GPU things? Is it like a bit-blitter?

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HPCwire: Open Source Compiler Adds Support for Nvidia GPUs #LLVM

A science fiction story about what you see when you die. Or: the Singularity, ruined by lawyers.

Welcome to Life « Tom Scott.

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Welcome to Life « Tom Scott # HT: @tomscott – 165 seconds of excellent copyright dystopia scifi

(caution: links exist in original)

Two years ago, Hyoungshick Kim, Jun Ho Huh and I wrote a paper On the Security of Internet banking in South Korea in which we discussed an IT security policy that had gone horribly wrong. The Government of Korea had tried in 1998 to secure electronic commerce by getting all the banks to use an officially-approved AciveX plugin, effectively locking most Koreans into IE. We argued in 2010 that this provided less security than it seemed, and imposed high usability and compatibility costs. Hyoungshick presented our paper at a special conference, and the government withdrew the ActiveX mandate.

It’s now apparent that the problem is still there. The bureaucracy created a procedure to approve alternative technologies, and (surprise) still hasn’t approved any. Korean web businesses remain trapped in the bubble, and fall farther and farther behind. This may well come to be seen as a warning to other governments to adopt true open standards, if they want to avoid a similar fate. The Cabinet Office should take note – and don’t forget to respond to their consultation!

via Light Blue Touchpaper » Blog Archive » I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.

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Light Blue Touchpaper » Blog Archive » I’m from the Government and I’m here to help #security #openstandards

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Has someone yet doxed the #part3 “completely considered you when i saw this” Twitter worm/bug/hole?

Suggestions?

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A few years ago the Dell 2407WFP was a must-have geek monitor; what’s its modern equivalent?

The series was dubbed into Spanish in Mexico, where it is known as Skippy el canguro, and has been distributed to most Spanish-speaking countries, including Cuba and Spain, where it became very popular. The series crossed the Iron Curtain and was aired in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s, and is still being broadcast in Iran. The show was forbidden to be shown in Sweden, where psychologists feared the show would mislead children into believing animals could do things they actually could not.

via Skippy the Bush Kangaroo – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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TIL that Sweden banned “Skippy the Bush Kangaroo” for being unrealistic

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The Oatmeal on The C-word

First, find your Roomba.

Today it had gotten through the slightly-ajar lounge door, cleaned the exposed carpet and then wedged itself trying to climb over/eat the bellows.

Overall: it works. The house is cleaner and I can walk around barefoot without that ‘gritty’ feeling underfoot. My bet is that if it does 80% of the vacuuming repeatedly each night – a-la cronjob – then the house is cleaner overall, the 20% will tail off over time (since the Roomba will get most of the dust before it has a chance to move and collect in Roomba-resistant places) and the remaining work is is doable in hour or so.

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Each morning is now spent imagining – reconstructing – Roomba’s Big Adventure #roomba

Seems like some random Anonymous groups have run a DDOS campaign against Virgin media and some other sites.

We’d like to be clear about our view on this:

We do NOT encourage these actions. We believe in the open and free internets, where anyone can express their views. Even if we strongly disagree with them and even if they hate us.

So don’t fight them using their ugly methods. DDOS and blocks are both forms of censorship.

If you want to help; start a tracker, arrange a manifestation, join or start a pirate party, teach your friends the art of bittorrent, set up a proxy, write your political representatives, develop a new p2p protocol, print some pro piracy posters and decorate your town with, support our promo bay artists or just be a nice person and give your mom a call to tell her you love her.

via (1) Seems like some….

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“DDOS and blocks are both forms of censorship” – PirateBay upbraids some-bunch-of-Anonymous-people