Author: fish1964

Via Daring Fireball, from the husband of a victim in the San Bernandino attack:

In my opinion it is unlikely there is any valuable information on this phone. This was a work phone. My wife also had an iPhone issued by the County and she did not use it for any personal communication. San Bernardino is one of the largest Counties in the country. They can track the phone on GPS in case they needed to determine where people were. Second, both the iCloud account and carrier account were controlled by the county so they could track any communications. This was common knowledge among my wife and other employees. Why then would someone store vital contacts related to an attack on a phone they knew the county had access to? They destroyed their personal phones after the attack. And I believe they did that for a reason.

In the wake of this terrible attack, I believe strongly we need stronger gun laws. It was guns that killed innocent people, not technology. I also believe the FBI had and still has access to a lot of information which they have ignored and I’m very disappointed in the way they’ve handled this investigation.

Finally, and the reason for my letter to the court, I believe privacy is important and Apple should stay firm in their decision. Neither I, nor my wife, want to raise our children in a world where privacy is the tradeoff for security. I believe this case will have a huge impact all over the world.
You will have agencies coming from all over the world to get access to the software the FBI is asking Apple for. It will be abused all over to spy on innocent people.

I’m clearly going for click bait headlines today. From Nate Silver:

So even though the battle between Donald Trump and the Republican “establishment” has been a story since the summer, we should still pause now and again to gawk at the spectacle. On Thursday, Mitt Romney, the previous Republican presidential nominee and the closest thing the GOP has to a party elder, denounced Trump in the strongest possible terms. Trump responded by making what sounded to me like a blow job reference.

This is really happening. At least I think.

In contrast to what you’ve probably heard, some actual data:

Overall, HHS estimates that 20 million nonelderly adults have gained health insurance since 2013. …

The chart on the bottom shows the overall uninsured rate using a variety of measures. The story is pretty much the same no matter whose numbers you use: there are way more Americans with health insurance today than there were three years ago. What’s more, premiums have stayed steady and the total program cost is under budget. If this is a disaster, we could use a few more disasters like it.