Lets Play Password!

I kind of have a thing for passwords. 

I've blogged before about "type the picture" passwords so difficult they are impossible.

So naturally I read a story about how 8068 is the least popular pin for MAC cards.  The three most popular?  1234, 1111, and 0000.  Its not that these are just bad passwords; its that researchers calculate that those three comprise approximately 20 percent of all passwords.  Find a MAC card on the street and use those three combinations and you have a one-in-five chance of guessing correctly.

Other findings: people prefer evens over odds, more passwords start with 1 than any other number, followed by 0 and 2, 8675309 is the fourth-most popular seven-digit password, and passwords with large gaps between numbers (29, 37) are disfavored.

I myself continually searched for ways to make passwords for 25 different sites easy to remember while simultaneously making them hard to guess.  Based on the study cited above, most people are at least going for that first one.  Then I read a story saying that most password advice we were given accidentally made most of our passwords hard to remember, but easy for a computer program to guess.  I'll pass along the secret to a really great password: make up some nonsense phrase containing at least one number, take the first letter of each word plus the numbers as your password ...

Phrase: I Made 10 Passwords When I Was 57.
PW: Im10PwIw57

Easy to remember because its something you came up with that can have some meaning to you (unlike the easy to figure out birthday or family name) but very hard to guess, becuase its 10 digits containing both caps and lowercase and numbers.  You can even come up with something site specific, so that every site is different...

Bank:
Phrase: I Have 10 Dollars At Continental Bank
PW: Ih10DaCb

Credit Card:
Phrase: I Have 10 Dollars At Mastercard
PW: Ih10DaM

Again, easy to remember all your logins, but hard for a computer to guess, and if one password is compromised, its hard for a hacker to get into all your accounts.  Also, you never need to follow the advice (which seems to be falling out of favor anyway) of changing your passwords every month or 6 months or whatever.  If a hacker gets your password, he'll likely use it almost immediately.  Changing your password is nothing but a hassle for you.

Antibiotics and obesity

Two new studies suggest that antibiotic use - especially in the under 6 month old set - can cause gut bacteria to rebalance. This potentially sets the stage for obesity. The discovery coincide with a rise in the use of antibiotics, including at a younger age. I've also been doing a lot of reading of emerging science on just how complicated our gut bacteria is. It plays a big and fascinating role in our life. When things go wrong with it, it can have depressing consequences.

But you know, maybe we should ban soda.

Mixed Messages

Want to know about unintended consequences and what they can do to you and society in general? Look no further than the sudden interest in the obesity crisis. From Michele Obama’s campaign for fitness and backyard gardens to NY Mayor Bloomberg’s war against soda, the government’s major push is against fat.


And its working. According to Gallup, 81 percent of us think obesity is an “extremely serious” or “very serious” social problem. All fine and good, if you ignore that while I was in high school, it was a national crisis that all the girls were developing eating disorders based on unfair media images of women.

The sad thing is, only 67 percent of us rate cigarettes as “extremely serious” or “very serious.” I say sad, because - without getting into the nitty gritty details - using cigarettes is roughly twice as bad for you as being obese. Cigarettes raises your risk of disease 4x, while being obese only raises is 2x. And being just a little overweight actually lowers your risk of dying below 1 (where 1 = average risk) while using cigarettes only occasionally actually puts you at the same risk as an obese person.

The government not only permits cigarettes, it provides manufacturers with tax breaks. Meanwhile, it also helped promote the obesity crisis by pushing low fat, high carb diets as the food choice du jour.

Having promoted both problems, it now tamps down slightly on the most dangerous, while launching an all out war on the less dangerous problem. Most likely because it has run out of ways to shame hard-core smokers, while the social stigma against being obese allows it target them without problem.

Milk Dud

Here is an article that caught my eye titled “5 ways milk doesn’t do a body good. It’s a The Week story apparently based on an opinion piece in the New York Times.

The gist is that there are reasons why humans should not drink milk, or at the very least, the downsides to such consumption. But the reasoning is a bit flawed; to say the least. I take down the five (really four and one half) arguments below. “Checks” indicate my support with the argument. “Milk dud” indicates I think the argument falls short.

First description of problem: I’m guessing they put it up top is because it’s the best. Anyway, the article notes milk is high in calories and saturated fat. The article notes that milk has the same calorie load as soda on an ounce for ounce basis. Also: Sugar. Egad! And the story notes milk consumption is linked to type 1 diabetes and that milk contains as much saturated fat as French fries.

My thoughts: Since when did calorie load become the absolute measuring stick for food health? Just about everything seems inflated when compare to carrots or kale, so should we only be eating those things? (yes, I realize comparing something to unhealthy soda is a bit different than comparing it to healthy kale). And I thought we had largely given up the saturated fat fear, but I’ll go along.

Fat, half check; diabetes risk, check; calories, half check.

Second description: A lot of people can’t drink it. Like, 50 million people and 90 percent of Asian-Americans and 75 percent of African-Americans!

My thoughts: Um, Ok. A lot of people can’t run a 4-minute mile or do a triatholon either. My son Liam and many others can’t handle penicillin-based antibiotics (that’s 20% of this family!). This argument is so irrelevant that I’m not sure what to say.

Lots of people can’t drink it! Bad argument. Milk dud.

Third description: Milk is often full of chemicals. The article notes additives have been blamed for skin conditions, acne (aren’t they the same?) and inflammation. Its source appears to be Blisstree’s Deborah Dunham, who notes that we are the only species to drink milk from another species.

My thoughts: Let’s ignoring the boogieman of “chemicals” and the fact that “chemical” doesn’t equate with bad or harmful. “Natural” products can sometimes be more harmful than “chemical” ones. Even then, lots of products are full of chemicals. Tea has photochemicals like HGCG that are very good for you. Merely saying “chemical” isn’t going to win me over. Secondly, we are also the only species with a legal system, or cars, or clothing made from the hides of other species, but I doubt you would use that argument for those items. And besides, I think the cross-species milk drinking probably has a lot to do with the fact that in nature, species tend to be hostile to one another.

Chemicals! I hate doing this based on the unreasonable fear, but half-check for at least listing potential problems, even if they are shadily sourced.

Fourth description: Many people are allergic (hey, didn’t we see something like this already?). Milk follows only peanuts as a food allergen.

My thoughts: Allergies! This is literally the end of the argument. So, are we to abandon peanuts? And once we’ve abandoned peanuts and milk, are we then going to abandon the new #1 and #2 allergens? Something has to be #1 on the list. Not going to cut it. Milk dud.

Fifth description: You don’t need milk for strong bones. Exercise and Vitamin D contribute to strong bones.

My thoughts: Yeah, but just about every food has an alternate supplier of the nutrients its supplies. Life isn’t about optimizing nutrient delivery; at least mine isn’t. Absolutely deplorable. Milk dud

The article ends on an odd note by quoting someone at Lifehacker regarding the health benefits of milk, but then says you should drink milk because you enjoy it and not for its health claims. Um, what? This despite the fact that the opening paragraph of the story noted that milk is “packed with nutrients” and helps kids grow taller.

Awaiting a ruling

Just a quick update to say that I’m excited for tomorrow’s Supreme Court ruling on the challenges to the PPACA (Obamacare). I’m a nerd, and currently a law nerd; I know.


Still, this represents one of those cases where a perfectly good and desirable outcome – everyone having healthcare – can be gotten through a means that is deleterious. There are ways to ensure universal healthcare (though maybe not obtainable politically) that would ensure its constitutionality. Instead, some individuals let an end goal we can all probably sympathize lead them down a path from which there is probably no return.

If you can be forced to purchase healthcare because it affects everyone, you can probably be forced to purchase or consume certain foods (broccoli being the one most named) because that too is used by and affects everyone, especially after healthcare is federalized. And what about voting? Elections affect everyone and national elections certainly affect interstate commerce. Can we be forced to vote? I would argue that the answer to all three (healthcare, food and voting) should be answered in the negative. Allow for the mandatory healthcare, however, and I see no line that requires exclusion of food and voting.

Maybe those two wouldn’t happen today, but without a line they could, and in all likelihood would, eventually happen.

Dalai "Quote Machine" Lama

I don't post quotes very often, because I generally find people tend to use them in place of actual, good, intelligent arguments.  As if having posted Quote X effectively wins the argument.  Fact is, you can find a smart-sounding quote to support just about anything.  They are the original sound bite.  A good quote can add finality to an argument, but it doesn't comprise an argument.  Most conflicts are much too complicted to be resolved in a quote.  Sadly, many people seem not to know this and merrily go about with it anyway.  Confirmation bias and all.

Having said that, here you go:

"I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether." - Dalai Lama

I told you so

It happened faster than I thought, but I have to say I told you so.

The board/commission that will consider banning large sodas is also making noise regarding popcorn and milk-based drinks such as milkshakes and various coffees.

First they came for cigarettes, then candy bars, then soda, then coffee, then popcorn, then ... [hey, you know what has a lot calories, pizza, burgers, hotdogs are a nutritional wasteland almost on par with soda, and also: food in general].

I for one would rather enjoy a nice unhealthy food every now and again and die 5 years earlier than not enjoy the food and die 5 years later, probably after a long, insidious disease that deprives me of every enjoyable part of life.  Life is to be enjoyed, not just lived.

Hopefully by the time pizza is illegal, assisted suicide will be legal.

UPDATE: I changed the last sentence.