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Searching for Suzy Thunder

A really entertaining and interesting piece by Claire Evans about Susan Thunder aka Susan Headley, a pioneering phone phreaker and computer hacker who ran with the likes of Kevin Mitnick and then just quietly disappeared. This is just a wild, perfect profile.

She was known, back then, as Susan Thunder. For someone in the business of deception, she stood out: she was unusually tall, wide-hipped, with a mane of light blonde hair and a wardrobe of jackets embroidered with band logos, spoils from an adolescence spent as an infamous rock groupie. Her backstage conquests had given her a taste for quaaludes and pharmaceutical-grade cocaine; they’d also given her the ability to sneak in anywhere.

Susan found her way into the hacker underground through the phone network. In the late 1970s, Los Angeles was a hotbed of telephone culture: you could dial-a-joke, dial-a-horoscope, even dial-a-prayer. Susan spent most of her days hanging around on 24-hour conference lines, socializing with obsessives with code names like Dan Dual Phase and Regina Watts Towers. Some called themselves phone phreakers and studied the Bell network inside out; like Susan’s groupie friends, they knew how to find all the back doors.

When the phone system went electric, the LA phreakers studied its interlinked networks with equal interest, meeting occasionally at a Shakey’s Pizza parlor in Hollywood to share what they’d learned: ways to skim free long-distance calls, void bills, and spy on one another. Eventually, some of them began to think of themselves as computer phreakers, and then hackers, as they graduated from the tables at Shakey’s to dedicated bulletin board systems, or BBSes.

Susan followed suit. Her specialty was social engineering. She was a master at manipulating people, and she wasn’t above using seduction to gain access to unauthorized information. Over the phone, she could convince anyone of anything. Her voice honey-sweet, she’d pose as a telephone operator, a clerk, or an overworked secretary: I’m sorry, my boss needs to change his password, can you help me out?

Among her many accomplishments: nearly taking the LA phone system offline; sleeping with all four Beatles … you honestly couldn’t make this stuff up. It is wonderful.

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The Important Thing

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Behind the Scenes of DeMar DeRozan and Ayo Dosunmu

What a great video.

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“We have jetpacks and we do not care.”

Dave Eggers, writing for The Guardian, explains that we have jetpacks and do not care. Not one bit. Jet packs meant the future. It’s here, and most of us are whatever…

We have jetpacks and we do not care. An Australian named David Mayman has invented a functioning jetpack and has flown it all over the world — once in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty — yet few people know his name. His jetpacks can be bought but no one is clamouring for one. For decades, humans have said they want jetpacks, and for thousands of years we have said we want to fly, but do we really? Look up. The sky is empty.

Eggers took a jetpack flying lesson just to see what none of the fuss is about.

It must be said that Mayman’s engineers have done a remarkable job with the balance and the intuitiveness of the controls. Instantly, it feels correct, all of it. That is, until the buckles and straps. There are many buckles and straps, and they fit precisely like a skydiving kit, with an emphasis on groin-cinching. Before I can say anything about the groin-cinching, Jarry is explaining the throttle, which is in my right hand and gives the jet turbines more or less fuel … Mayman fills the pack with kerosene, and steps back to the side of the tarmac, remote control in hand. Jarry asks if I’m ready. I tell him I’m ready. The jets ignite. The sound is like a category 5 hurricane passing through a drainpipe.

Reading the article, I was reminded of this T-shirt.

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A Non-Zero Life

From Shawn Blanc –

As anyone who knows about building habits, long-term consistency is everything. There is an idea with habits and routines that you always want a non-zero day. A non-zero day is a day where you at least do something — just so long as you don’t do nothing: Do at least one push-up, floss at least one tooth, write for at least 1 minute, etc. Non-zero days keep your momentum always moving forward.

A few weeks ago, the thought occurred to me about having more than just a non-zero day — but rather, a Non-Zero Life.

A Non-Zero Life means building simple-but-healthy habits you can do every day that impact every area of your life: Your career, your health, your relationships, your money, your inner-personal life… Don’t let one of these areas slip away.

I am so incredibly bad at this.

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The Unvaccinated Are the Extreme Fringe

Will Leitch on how finally the unvaccinated are the extreme fringe.

People like Djokovic — and Aaron Rodgers, and Kyrie Irving, and Joe Rogan, and Ice Cube — always think people are on their side, like they’re the leaders of some sort of vast movement, like they have public opinion entirely on their side. But they don’t. They’re in the vast minority. And it’s not just that: It’s that most people are absolutely furious about their vaccine stand, and they’re not going to stand for it anymore. People like Rogan believe the majority of people are on their side because that small number of people who are on their side are so loud. But being loud does not make you plentiful.

It is so tiresome to have these loud people dominating the conversation when a vast majority would prefer, they just shut up.

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Dumb

I can’t stop thinking about how dumb the Cowboys-49ers game was. I don’t watch much NFL football, but I did have this game on in the background. The last play of the game, a shockingly dumb call that had Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott run the ball up the middle with 14 seconds and no timeouts left, slide down, then attempt to get his team lined up for a spike, only for the clock to run out after the center tried to place the ball himself instead of letting the referee do it, as the rule states was mind-numbing in its ineptitude.

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Mini-Golf in Gerrymandered Districts

The Washington Post has an interactive game that’s smart and fun.

Play a 9-hole course of mini-golf where each hole is shaped like a gerrymandered voting district. The 8th hole, of comically shaped 4th district in Illinois, is a par 12. (Hole 9 is a par 26 in Maryland.) 

This is more fun than it should be. 

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Carl Sagan Predicting the Future

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The New York Times to Buy The Athletic for $550 Million in Cash

Lauren Hirsch, Kevin Draper, and Katherine Rosman, writing for The New York Times, tell the story of their acquisition of The Athletic.

The New York Times Company has reached an agreement to buy The Athletic, the online sports news outlet with 1.2 million subscriptions, in an all-cash deal valued at $550 million, The Times said on Thursday.
The deal brings The Times, which has more than eight million total subscriptions, quickly closer to its goal of having 10 million subscriptions by 2025, while also offering its audience more in-depth coverage of the more than 200 professional teams in North America, Britain and Europe that are closely followed by The Athletic’s journalists.

The Athletic is terrific. Good writers, good design, and a model that supports both national and local coverage. There’s no clickbait shit, no intrusive ads, and basically a clean, simple, and informative site.

They went through a spell where they had to let go of some writers. I hope they rehire them back. For example, Bernie Miklasz was fantastic at writing about the St. Louis Cardinals.

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Ayo Dosunmu Jersey Raising

Just an incredible honor. What a great ceremony.

It also speaks volumes that DeMar DeRozan, his Bulls teammate, NBA All-Star, and MVP Candidate made the trek to watch this ceremony.

Jeremy Werner talked to DeRozan and got an impressive quote:

“It’s big. That’s my teammate,” DeRozan told Illini Inquirer in the bowels of State Farm Center. “We spend the majority of our days together. We go to work together. This moment is something special. It’s more of an intimate type of thing that you just want to experience. I know what it’s like. I had the honor to get my jersey retired in college. I know what that was like to have friends and close people that I respect and appreciate be there, it meant a lot. I just know what that moment means for him. …I didn’t care how far it was. I just wanted to come support my teammate.”

If I was an NBA player with basketball 24/7 and traveling all the time, I’d have a hard time spending a full evening traveling to watch some college basketball. It was really cool of DeRozan to make the trek.

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The Big Lie

Kevin Drum lays the basics of what happened a year ago today.

Here are the basics. Gruesome details are available everywhere for anyone who’s interested.

  1. On November 3, 2020, Joe Biden was elected president.

  2. Donald Trump then spent months promoting lawsuits and other efforts designed to overturn the 2020 election, which he claimed Democrats had stolen. Fox News and the entire conservative press helped him along eagerly.

  3. Nothing worked, so as a last ditch effort Trump tried to compel VP Mike Pence to renounce his constitutional duty to certify the electoral vote.

  4. Pence did his best to figure out a way to comply, but in the end he couldn’t quite do it.

  5. On January 6, the day the electoral vote was scheduled to be certified in Congress, Trump speaks to a rally of protesters.

  6. After he leaves, a mob attacks the Capitol building, hoping to stop Pence from certifying the electoral vote and thereby keeping Trump in office.

  7. Trump spends the entire time refusing to make any kind of public statement urging the mob to stand down.

  8. In the immediate aftermath, Republicans denounce both Trump and the mob. However, as time goes by their criticism wanes. Today, most of them pretend that it was no big deal.

  9. Two-thirds of Republican voters agree because they think Democrats stole the election in the first place. Fox News and the others continue to promote this idea.

  10. If this happened in any other country, it would be called both an attempted insurrection and an attempted coup. Nothing like it has happened in American history.

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Rein in the Panic

Kevin Drum, on his blog, has a few ideas about COVID panic.

I think it’s time to rein in the testing panic a bit. It’s probably also time to rein in the overall COVID panic a bit, but this message is aimed more at the media than at ordinary people.

News coverage of COVID is just beyond belief these days. Newspapers, TV, and the internet are blanketed every day with stories about new COVID records; reports of new CDC recommendations; interviews with people who think the new CDC recommendations are stupid; feature stories about how COVID is affecting _______; op-eds accusing everyone else of being either too strict or too loose about COVID rules; essays about what we’ve all learned from COVID; news about how things are going in Israel; other news about why we should ignore how things are going in Israel; feelgood clickbait about people who braved COVID to see an old friend; stories about the latest antics from a red-state governor positioning himself for 2024; and of course all the latest statistics in an EZ-to-read dashboard format.

If you are vaxxed and boosted, your current odds of getting COVID are roughly 1 in 500 over the course of a month. If you’re under 65, your odds of a serious infection are about 1 in 5,000. Your odds of dying are 1 in 200,000. Calm down.

I can’t quite find the middle ground here. I have to pay attention, but do I have to spend a lot of attention? Strangers are still a danger, but what if they are all vaccinated or have vaccinated, boosted, and had COVID? Am I safe?

This is so hard.

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Mayo Clinic Fires 700 Unvaccinated Employees

CBS Minnesota reports the firing of hundreds of unvaccinated employees from the Mayo Clinic.

The dismissed employees make up about 1% of Mayo’s 73,000 workforce. Officials say while it’s sad to lose valuable employees, it’s essential to keep patients, the workforce, visitors and communities safe.

People released Tuesday can return to Mayo Clinic for future job openings if they get vaccinated.

More of this, please.

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Preview the Kaiju Preservation Society

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Defensive/offensive/actual

Seth Godin somehow has found a way to describe me perfectly. I don’t like it.

The problem with becoming defensive is that our internal narrative gets in the way of expressing what’s actually going on. Because we’re imagining all the blame and shame and scorn that the other person may or may not be feeling toward us, we bring those feelings into our words and actions, and end up making a mess.

And the problem with being offensive is that the person we’re offending can no longer hear what we’re saying.

Communication lives between the two. We do best when we can describe the actual, the same way we might talk about the weather. Here is what is. Simply that.

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Behind Low Vaccination Rates Lurks a More Profound Social Weakness

Anita Sreedhar and Anand Gopal writing in The New York Times about vaccine hesitancy in the US hits on an idea that is disappointing, but not surprising.

Public health is no longer viewed as a collective endeavor, based on the principle of social solidarity and mutual obligation. People are conditioned to believe they’re on their own and responsible only for themselves. That means an important source of vaccine hesitancy is the erosion of the idea of a common good.

That’s the crux. People don’t give a shit about other people. Or… actually more relevant is people who believe in science and have empathy versus conspiracy theorists who don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves.

The vaccine-hesitant are mostly Republicans.

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Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Personal Account

Daniel Politi, writing for Slate, reports on Marjorie Taylor Greene not understanding the First Amendment.

Twitter permanently suspended the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeatedly violating the company’s policy against publishing COVID-19 misinformation on the platform. 

More of this, please.

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The Story and The Climb

The best part of the special. Easily.

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January 1

December 31 means a great deal to me.

It’s the last day of the year, of course. However, it’s also my mother’s birthday and the day I lost my right eye in a freak accident.

My accident isn’t something I think about daily. I was only eight years old. When I do think about it, I only think of fleeting things like getting the wind knocked out of me, being carried to my back door, the stitches, and staying in a hospital for a bit.

I don’t think about blindness, mostly because I can see just fine out of my left.

It was a football accident, so my chance of ever playing football in high school was pretty much over. Because I lost depth perception, playing baseball was out of the question, especially when they started throwing curveballs. I found other interests and other sports.

Blindness in my right eye probably restricted my life in a few minor ways, but it wasn’t that big of a deal in reality. I certainly never allowed it to define my life. On the other hand, my mother certainly shaped me for the better.

She was of the stay-at-home variety, and I saw my Mom every day after school. She grew up as a latch-key kid, but I did not. She never wanted that for her children and didn’t go into the workforce until both of her kids were essentially out of the house.

When she married my father, she could hardly boil water. We would nearly always come down to eat at the dinner table as a family. Dinner time was family time. Over the decades, cooking became a passion, and she still loves to experiment and try new recipes.

I learned most from my mother that family is the most important thing. Your family is the one to rely on when you need help. When confronted with obstacles or realized successes, my family was there.

As I reflect on the lessons taught by accidents and mothers, my goal for 2022 is to keep these ideas alive in me, not as some resolution, but as a steadfast core belief in myself.

Hello, January 1, 2022, and goodbye to 2021. Goodbye to a year of doubt and fear. Goodbye to the need to be like others or worry about how others view me. Just be me. I may be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of what I want to accomplish, but I can’t be paralyzed by it. I can’t be fearful.

It’s hello to a restored sense of family. I will embrace what I have right in front of me and worry less about what I think I want or desire. This is the year I find my voice and quit letting the successes of others drive me or attempt to mimic their unique achievements. I’m the star of my own life, and I need to start acting like it.

The best motivator for me is me. Do better than before. Get better. Find the next level and keep at it, in my writing, with my family, and in how I approach this precious thing called life.

The adventure is just beginning.