The Kingdom of Tonga

Tonga



The coolest (not to mention the only) kingdom in the Pacific, Tonga is a smattering of islands that knows not only does royalty hang in the back of the bus, it takes the whole bus over.

Covering 800 square miles when in a good mood, Tonga snagged the hippest spot in the Pacific -- 2/3rds of the way between Hawaii and New Zealand, or more accurately, smack dab between the best surfing here, and the best surfing anywhere.

Four times the size but one-fifth the people of Washington D.C., Tonga sells stuff to Japan and the U.S. and buys different stuff from New Zealand and Fiji. Out goes the squash, coconuts, and vanilla, in comes other food and machinery.

Tongans abroad send money home, actually more than tourism nets them -- but don't let that stop you! One and a half to two pa’anga to the US dollar means you can get twice the bang for your buck, and the Kingdom of Tonga encourages you to do so. There are 169 islands, but less than 40 of them sport people. Malo e lelei! Just remember to stay loose during cyclone season (October to April) and mind the volcano on Fonuafo'ou.

The Tongans are so cool theirs is the only South Pacific country never to have been colonized by a foreign power. Yeah, baby. Every day, they sport an in-your-face flag , (red with a bold red cross on a white rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner), flying proudly in the nation's capital of Nuku'alofa.

Taking a tip as a former UK protectorate, Tongans prop their feet up and enjoy an hereditary constitutional monarchy. Straight up, no ice. With an English-inspired legal system, including a Privy Council, Cabinet and Prime Minister to keep the king relaxed, a Legislative Assembly of ministers and nobles, and a monarch-appointed Supreme Court, in sunglasses and with a great tan, they vote at the age of 21 and then some. Not to mention arguing their politics in English and Tongan.

Other countries only wish they had the natural hipness Tonga displays, so they register cruise ships out of Tonga in an attempt to make up for it. From Austria to Lebanon to the U.S., don't be surprised to see those flags flying from ships at anchor in Neiafu, Nuku'alofa, or Pangai, or tripping merrily along at sea.

Lowest point -- when Menudo broke up -- oh, sorry. Sea level. Island nation. Hello?
Highest point -- when Menudo broke up -- ahem. Kao Island 1,033 m.

Tonga is the coolest land in the tropics! Mean annual temperature in Nuku'alofa is 23.7 C, with a mean humidity of 76%, and a positively cherry Internet country code of '.to'.

Facts: The CIA World Factbook
Hipster Slang: Sidra Vitale

Voting in Massachusetts

Just came over the VotingTech mailing list:

The Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project has released a new report, Voting in Massachusetts.

This report is a comprehensive study of current voting systems in Massachussetts and recommendations for improvement.

Ewwwww

Presidential Prayer Team

Yeah. Then look at the poll results on their home page.

C'mon! Sign it!

I got friends and family who need this. From QueerDay:

Gov. Gray Davis, currently the focus of a recall election, announced Saturday he would sign legislation giving domestic partners most of the same legal rights that married couples have. The bill has passed the state Assembly and is scheduled to be considered Monday by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The domestic partners bill would, among other things, allow domestic partners to file joint state income tax returns and give them the same tax exemptions enjoyed by married couples. It would also give them the same rights as married couples regarding the acquisition, transfer and sharing of property, health insurance and pension coverage and collection of government benefits, including public assistance. Wired News

More on e-Voting

Kudos to K for the tip! Many links from Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram:

The software running on touchscreen machines in an individual voting booth at a precinct:

E-Voting Flaws Risk Voting Fraud
Analysis of an Electronic Voting System (PDF)
Bald-Faced Lies About Black Box Voting Machines and The Truth About the Rob-Georgia File

The software on the server used to store and report votes from multiple precincts:

Bigger Than Watergate!
Inside a U.S. Election Vote Counting Program
Voting Machines Blasted by Scientists
How To Rig An Election (mostly material from earlier Scoop reports)

General or related to both applications:

System Integrity Flaw Discovered at Diebold Election Systems (distribution of patches and/or test code for either system)
** (404 - might just be me, Sid)
Proprietary Voting Computers: Threat or Menace?
Could the Next US Election Be Stolen?


I'm going to comment on something that seems small, but isn't:

For a mission-critical system (say, software that's going to run on the space shuttle, or, perhaps, an electronic voting system), the audit and quality control process for developing the software is as mission-critical as the software itself. If you can't prove that you validated X, or that you developed Y under specific controls in order to keep as many feature flaws[*] and outright bugs[**] out of the software as possible, then you cannot release that software for use with any confidence.

People's lives, or the life of a government, perhaps, are depending on this software. The development process must be very well documented and adhered to. If it's not, you can't trust the application.

So, when you read about the Rob-Georgia file over at Scoop, or one of Bev Harris's earlier articles (the System Integrity Flaw article) on the use of an FTP server to distribute software patches at the last minute before an election, you have to understand that if those patches haven't been rigorously tested (and the 'Rob' article indicates otherwise) the entire touchscreen application on the machine a patch has been installed on is suddenly suspect. Because you don't *know* what the software will do, because that version of the application has not been tested, validated, or certified by any kind of oversight group. Because it's a last-minute patch, and that's the definition of 'last minute'. A developer pounded out a fix, performed the barest minimum of testing (because that's all a developer can do), and released a revised .cpp or .h file for use. "Here!" they said, wiping sweat off their brow, "this should fix it!" -- that's how it happens. Honest to god.

Was a standard development methodology followed (requirements-design-develop-test-release)? Were design and code reviews used? Where is the documentation - the audit trail - that proves it?

[*] a mistake in the design itself -- "we thought we wanted it [the code] to send an email, but now we think it should print a report."
[**] a mistake in implementing some aspect of the design -- "the code prints the same report every time regardless of data."

Not Me!

A life form that can take it at 121 Celsius -- so not me. Bear in mind, American readers, 121C is around 250 Fahrenheit. (The National Weather Service out of Buffalo, NY offers an F/C converter, btw, it's kinda cute: http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm)

Anyway, step up and learn more about the not-me life form. Neat!

Censorware/Bait And Switch

I love Bennett. I've fallen away from my advocacy regarding censorware -- not so much out of lack of interest as too many other interests. But the idea (of letting software do your parenting for you, yippee) hasn't gone away, and neither has Peacefire.

Read on about the Bait and Switch project. A perfect example of the incompleteness, uselessness, and hypocrisy of not only censorware, but the companies who make such products.

Feast of the Assumption

(I dunno, my mama raised me not to speculate without data. Assumption? Get it? Yeah. Fair and Balanced Humor, baby. Right here.)

Believe It, or Not

Today marks the Roman Catholics' Feast of the Assumption, honoring the moment that they believe God brought the Virgin Mary into Heaven. So here's a fact appropriate for the day: Americans are three times as likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in evolution (28 percent).

...The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time.

... I do think that we're in the middle of another religious Great Awakening, and that while this may bring spiritual comfort to many, it will also mean a growing polarization within our society.

But mostly, I'm troubled by the way the great intellectual traditions of Catholic and Protestant churches alike are withering, leaving the scholarly and religious worlds increasingly antagonistic. I worry partly because of the time I've spent with self-satisfied and unquestioning mullahs and imams, for the Islamic world is in crisis today in large part because of a similar drift away from a rich intellectual tradition and toward the mystical. The heart is a wonderful organ, but so is the brain.

I don't know what to say aside from such obvious, unhelpful remarks like:

This does not make me feel 'in touch' as an American.
I do understand better how the Bush Administration both came to power and keeps it, in a high-level strategic way.
American Christians are whacky.

This public service announcement brought to you by Blammo!

Usability

Usability News -- volume 10 is out.

Why is usability so important, kids? Say it with me -- because it's the users that use your product. Build it for their use, and it might be successful. Build it "the way you like it", and you're screwed.

Lindner Says Murder "Is a Bad Thing"

Oh, and I bet it hurt him to admit it.

Anti-gay Lindner slightly moved by Holocaust exhibit

A traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum came to Minneapolis in part because of comments by state Rep. Arlon Lindner that gay-rights protections need to be struck down before the U.S. faces an AIDS crisis on the scale of the one in Africa. Lindner attended the exhibit and afterward agreed that murdering innocent people is a bad thing, but says he hasn't changed his mind about his support for sodomy laws and his desire to remove sexual orientation from Minnesota protections, even the one about insurance for Holocaust victims. "It's a perverted lifestyle," quoth he. startribune.com

Idiot. Africa's AIDS crisis keeps growing thanks to heterosexual sex, possibly even in the missionary position -- women are catching it from their husbands, infected men are dipping the wick in a virgin in an attempt to cure what ails them, and men are insisting on unprotected sex with the sex workers they hire.

Does Lindner think everyone in Africa is gay?

iAy Caramba, Taco Bell!
Being a former OC'er, this made me laugh out loud for various reasons: but mainly, it's funny, and humor has always seemed to me to go against the grain of Orange County (California)'s makeup.

iAy Caramba, Taco Bell! by W. W. Bedsworth . Linked via How Appealling.

West Nile Vaccine Candidate

West Nile Kin a Potential West Nile Vaccine -- A mild relative of the West Nile virus may be a vaccine for its more dangerous cousin.

CDC::West Nile

He's Tapping in Heaven, Now

On the wooden floors of Valhalla, no doubt cracking a joke about Mjollnir in the process. No one should make Odin spew mead, but Greg Hines would do it with a flourish.

Gegory Hines, 57, Dies

More Recall 'Circus'

Prominent Democrat drops out of California recall race just before filing deadline

"I know firsthand that this recall election has become a circus," Garamendi said. "I have concluded I will not engage in this election as a candidate."

And, how much money is my state going to spend on all this? Gobs. Maybe 30 million, maybe 70 million.

In the two-part ballot, voters will first vote on whether Davis should be removed from office, then pick someone to succeed him if he is ousted. The list of potential candidates includes a number of longshots, from Hustler publisher [Larry] Flynt to a Sacramento bail bondsman and the owner of a discount cigarette chain.

Just everybody go home and shut up, all right, already?

Details of Recall Effort

Score One For Common Sense

What do you do when your loved one's flat tire leaves her in a situation where she winds up abducted and murdered?

Try to sue Ford and Firestone.

What the Nebraska Supreme Court said in response:

if Ford and...Firestone had no reason to expect intentional tortious or criminal acts by a third person, they are not liable under Nebraska law for the harm caused thereby, even though their negligence afforded the opportunity for such conduct to occur.

[the negligence in question has to do with a specific type of Firestone tire in use on the Ford Explorer said victim was driving]

We have found no authority recognizing a duty on the part of the manufacturer of a product to protect a consumer from criminal activity at the scene of a product failure where no physical harm is caused by the failure itself...

The [plaintiffs] have not and could not allege any special relationship between Ford and Firestone and the criminal actor or the victim of his crime, which would extend their duty, as manufacturers and sellers of products, to protect a consumer from harm caused by a criminal act perpetrated at the scene of a product failure.

the ruling (PDF, 17 pages)