August 2013

Just parted with $695 in support of Ubuntu Edge, an Indiegogo campaign for “the next generation of personal computing: smartphone and desktop PC in one state-of-the-art device”. It’s currently at $8.8 million, with 13 days to reach their whopping $32 million goal. #

Damn: Lavabit, email service Snowden reportedly used, abruptly shuts down

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations.

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I always enjoy Gianni Galassi’s work, but the first shot on his post “Escalator” really impressed me. #

Lavabit’s Ladar Levison: ‘If You Knew What I Know About Email, You Might Not Use It’ #

Politico: Edward Snowden is a patriot, Assange: Obama ‘validates’ Snowden, Lon Snowden, Edward’s father:

“What I would like is for this to be vetted in open court, for the American people to have all the facts.” He said he favored his son’s return if a fair trial was assured.

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When Werner Herzog narrates your Kickstarter video, how could it not fund? Omnivore Salt (file under: if only I had $10,000 laying around, I guess I’ll just have to settle for a bag of salt) #

Yummy, must try: Steak With Tomatillo-Pineapple Salsa (given my recent appreciation of the humble/exquisite tomatillo, see: Campfire quesadillas) #

Well I’m glad that’s over: State court gives final OK to same-sex marriage #

Neat art: Tensioned Suspension #

Wow, the Ubuntu Edge smartphone is the largest crowdedfunded project ever, surpassing the $10,266,845 raised by the Pebble smartwatch. But—it has 6 days to raise another 22 million to meet their audacious 32 million dollar goal… #

Ugly: Glenn Greenwald’s partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours

David Miranda was released, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.

More from Glenn:

They obviously had zero suspicion that David was associated with a terrorist organization or involved in any terrorist plot. Instead, they spent their time interrogating him about the NSA reporting which Laura Poitras, the Guardian and I are doing, as well the content of the electronic products he was carrying. They completely abused their own terrorism law for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism: a potent reminder of how often governments lie when they claim that they need powers to stop “the terrorists”, and how dangerous it is to vest unchecked power with political officials in its name.

With all the coverage this is getting all over the place, something tells me this will not end well for the UK. Conflating journalism with terrorism is a surefire way to piss off the entire fourth estate.

Ugh, it gets worse:

And so one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian’s long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian’s basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents. Whitehall was satisfied, but it felt like a peculiarly pointless piece of symbolism that understood nothing about the digital age. We will continue to do patient, painstaking reporting on the Snowden documents, we just won’t do it in London. The seizure of Miranda’s laptop, phones, hard drives and camera will similarly have no effect on Greenwald’s work.

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Lawyers write the best letters: David Miranda lawyers’ letter to the Home Office #

First the disappointing news: Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison #

Now something to make you smile: Magic Beard #

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – 40 Day Dream

She got jumper cable lips
She got sunset on her breath now
I inhaled just a little bit
Now I got no fear of death now

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Classic David Lebovitz: Grilled Vegetables with Za’atar Vinaigrette

When I stirred up the dressing to pour over the vegetables, it looked different than usual to me. From the looks of things in the dressing dish, he’d made a vinaigrette, not using the traditional dollop of Dijon mustard, but with my homemade yellow mustard mixed into it. He’d also raided my jar of za’atar, and added some of that as well. I was somewhat surprised, and a little furious, because it wasn’t at all the direction that I had intended for my grilled vegetable to go in.

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