Addition by subtraction

It’s Thursday, National Beer Day. (We all put the yeast in!)

Russian aggression isn’t just an abstract notion in Estonia. Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has some strategic—and tactical—advice for the West.

When US companies failed to detect and remove Russian malware from their networks, the government got a warrant and did it themselves. This is modern preemptive cyberwar.

George Grella reviews Philip Glass‘s 13th Symphony, performed this week in a world premier by the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. It’s great to have another Glass symphony and nice to see him take the stage after the performance.

Richard Davey is being introduced to New Yorkers at a time when subway crime is a big concern. It doesn’t sound like he’ll get much of a honeymoon period. The Post has already nicknamed him the newTrain Daddy.’ (His predecessor, the old ‘Train Daddy’, lasted only 25 months in the job.)

And a $20 dollar bill with a banana sticker on it? How did that happen?

From comedy to tragedy

Sunday, Sunday. Let’s have a parade.

The St. Patrick’s Day breakfast can be streamed here this morning.

In the TV show Servant of the People, a hapless history teacher stumbles into the presidency of Ukraine. The teacher is played by none other than Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who himself later in real life stumbled into the presidency of the Ukraine. It’s available on Netflix with subtitles and it’s worth watching if only to see how beautiful and vibrant Ukrainian society was before the war. The whole thing is really very weird but it puts images and stories like this and this into perspective, making them much more relatable and tragic.

Conti, Cozy Bear and the FSB, a nest of vipers.

Today’s assessment from the Institute for the Study of War is kind of a stunner: “Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war. That campaign aimed to conduct airborne and mechanized operations to seize Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and other major Ukrainian cities to force a change of government in Ukraine. That campaign has culminated. Russian forces continue to make limited advances in some parts of the theater but are very unlikely to be able to seize their objectives in this way.” … They go on to say that Russia will need to pause and regroup with new forces and supplies to win this war, but they don’t seem to be doing that.

And the reviews are in for Apple’s Universal Control. I’ve tried it with two Macs and it does ‘just work.’

Politics as usual

Monday again. Pi Day.

Tom Brady is pulling a Garth Brooks. That was one short retirement.

I used to think Elizabeth Warren had her feet on the ground. This endorsement makes me think otherwise.

Swedes have traditionally been cool to the idea of joining NATO. But now, as Thomas Lassi reports, almost half are warming up to the idea.

Drew Litrell gives us some history on the first computer virus. MIT. Fall of 1988.

And for Nantucket, an island 30 miles off the coast, UPS is critical infrastructure. Too bad they forgot to buy a ticket for the ferry.

Proxy wars

Today is Saturday, March 5th. The anniversary of Stalin‘s death.

Samsung is cutting off Russia. It’s a pretty big deal.

Glenn Gerstell believes that we need to get our cyber act in gear—especially now. The worse off Russia is economically as a result of sanctions the less they have to lose in launching a full out cyber attack against the west. Bobby DeSimone says the recent White House Zero Trust memo is a good beginning for getting our defenses up.

Ernie Boch Jr. is mourning the loss of his factory-fresh Bentley, sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic along with a bunch of rare 12-cylinder Lamborghinis. It’s a loss that’s “tough for the public,” he told WJAR before noting that he re-ordered another Bentley.

Dave Levitan and Lili Pike dig into the Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and how it could have, and still could, play out.

And the People’s Convoy seems to have lost its focus as it nears Washington. No one seems to have a plan. “We still don’t know where and what the end game is,” one participant told the Post. 10-4 good buddy.

The dog that didn’t bark

Wednesday. The peak of the week.

The craic is back… Boston Irish reports.

We all expected a cyber attack from Russia. But it hasn’t happened yet. So far only Ukraine has been hit and that attack was largely mitigated. One reason may be that some hacker groups are siding with Ukraine. But that can’t be the whole story. Brian Krebs writes about what to expect going forward.

Nigel Gould-Davies thinks Putin has painted himself into a corner. Yuval Noah Harari says that even though the war could go on for a long time, it’s already over for Russia. And Justin Bronk, a specialist in air power and military science, wonders what happened to the Russian Air Force.

Beth Daley (late of the Globe and now managing editor at The Conversation (and no relation)) writes about Jeff Bezos’ quest for immortality.

And the Boston accent has been voted as the most annoying accent in the country. That can’t be true. But if we’re talking about non-Bostonian actors trying to affect a Boston accent, which is what most people have the biggest exposure to, I would have to agree.

Duck and cover

Good morning. It’s Sunday. John Steinbeck‘s birthday.

Russian nukes are on alert. That’s never a good thing.

Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College in London, thinks Putin has bitten off more than he can chew. But Chris Miller, from the Fletcher School at Tufts, thinks the Russian knows what he’s doing and that he has a range of options. “Putin could simply choose to destroy Ukraine and leave the West to pick up the pieces. Such a dismembered, dysfunctional Ukraine could well suit his interests.”

Joshua Yaffa is on the ground in Kyiv.

For what it’s worth, US and Canadian liquor stores, including those in Virginia and New Hampshire, are ceasing the sale of Russian vodka. That’ll show them. Also Rick Steves is cancelling his St. Petersburg tour. Russia is kicked out of Eurovision. And Putin’s conductor friend lost his gig at Carnegie Hall this weekend. Tough medicine all around. Meanwhile, did I mention that Russian nukes are on alert.

And where there’s a crisis there will be scammers. In this case, crypto scammers.

Turning the page

It’s Thursday already. Almost Friday.

North Korea hacked a hacker and so the hacker hacked back, shutting down the entire country’s Internet.

One thing the old Globe building in Dorchester had was parking. There was a huge lot behind the building. It was needed for all those trucks that transported the bundled papers—hot off the big presses—to newsstands and corner stores around New England. The good old days. Those trucks are no more and Gintautas Dumcius reports that developers want to use the big lot behind what used to be the Globe, and is now ‘The Beat‘, for a 6 story biotech facility.

Bogie and Bacall. Antony and Cleopatra. Jay and Bey. Donald and Lindsay. Margaret Hartmann writes about the strangely persistent relationship between Donald Trump and Lindsay Graham.

It’s government shutdown time again. A February 18th budget deadline looms and another temporary stopgap measure is in the works.

And Facebook is having a Myspace moment. I guess it’s all downhill from here.

Reducing the attack surface

Happy Friday. Today’s word is myopic.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a big storm on the way. Bombogenesis!

It turns out that the federal government’s new zero trust cybersecurity paper is substantive and aggressive in its approach. That’s a good thing, especially as we gear up for conflict with Russia, one of the biggest threats in the space. Sharon Goldberg read the paper and highlights some of the main points.

Despite all the gloom and worry about inflation and supply chain problems the economy is doing pretty well. Neil Irwin: “Personal consumption expenditures rose at a 3.3% annual rate, and spending started to rebalance, with services spending (+4.7%) rising much faster than durable goods spending (+0.5%).” Also, even with supply constraints Apple had one of its best quarters ever.

Licensing Board news: There will be wine in South Bay but no tacos at 4 AM in Allston.

Geoff Diehl might have an opponent in the Republican primary for the governor’s race. Chris Doughty is more Baker-like than Diehl, who channels Trump. It will be interesting to see where the Republican party in Massachusetts stands these days relative to the rest of the country.

And there are some new emojis on the way. Melting face will have its uses.

Earthquake insurance

Today is Tuesday. Opposite Day.

If Brady is a maybe on retirement, it sounds like Gronk is definitely a probably.

According to an Axios review of social media interactions, politicians who are moderate, competent and boring don’t stand a chance. That doesn’t bode well. Neither does this. The ground is rumbling.

Another milestone for the Webb Telescope. It has arrived at its destination at L2. Joe Pinkstone, writing for The Telegraph, tried to explain what L2 was but he didn’t quite get it right.

2021 was a banner year for ransomware. To make things worse, of the people notified that their account had been compromised in a breach, only about half bothered to change their passwords.

And those long promised flying cars are almost here. Right. I’ve heard that before. And it wan’t even Opposite Day.

Outsourcing responsibility

Good morning. It’s Thursday, December 30th.

Where is winter?” First of all, just posing the question is asking for trouble. And besides that, who’s complaining?

Michael Norton reports from the State House on the lack of results from a commission set up to make recommendations on standards for police body cameras. He notes that “lawmakers over the years have increased their reliance on special commissions, often punting major topics to appointed panels that don’t always meet their deadlines.”

T-Mobile has had some SIM swap data breach incidents recently. The only way to prevent this is to step up internal controls and accountability for staff.

Jobless claims are down and layoffs have fallen to a fifty year low. (Thanks Biden.) Now we just have to get past Omicron.

And Patriots fans are sad. We’re the second saddest fans in the league, according to a survey by Lineups. But at least we’re not as miserable as Jets fans.