Vox and ProPublica rickroll America's old voting machines

It will be April Fools Day in two days, which reminds me that in the very first April Fools post on this blog, I asked my readers "Hey, what did you expect out of me today, a rickroll?"  (Yeah, I rickrolled my readers.)  It turns out the First Lady and I aren't the only ones still using this staple of 21st Century trolling.  ProPublica reported on another in Election Security a High Priority — Until It Comes to Paying for New Voting Machines.

[E]lection officials are still concerned about systems’ vulnerability to hacking by bad actors who gain access to individual machines on Election Day, and about the public’s ability to draw a distinction between small-scale in-person hacks and large-scale remote ones. There is no shortage of demonstrations of the former. Over a long weekend last summer, hackers at a conference in Las Vegas, DefCon, managed to breach all five models of paperless voting machines, as well as an electronic poll book. The hack received a great deal of media attention. One machine, called a WINvote by Advanced Voting Solutions, was hacked in under two hours and reprogrammed to play Rick Astley’s 1987 song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

That seems silly, but Vox shows how serious it really is in US voting machines are failing. Here’s why.

The greatest threat to American voting machines might not be hacking, but old age.
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In our latest collaboration with ProPublica, we take a look at US election security and the status of American voting machines.
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In 2017, hackers Rick Rolled a voting machine in Las Vegas. Even though the machine was out-of-date and the demonstration didn’t replicate real-life conditions, the stunt brought national attention to an election crisis that has been building ever since the “hanging chad” fiasco that occurred during the 2000 Presidential election recount.
In her story on American election security, ProPublica’s Kate Rabinowitz revealed that many state and local election officials are suffering a funding crisis. Without the money needed to maintain and update electronic voting machines, officials are having to make do with equipment that was manufactured in 2008 or even earlier. At that time, most machines had recently been replaced thanks to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, but few have been updated since.
By isolating machines from the internet and keeping them in secure locations, officials are able to reduce the threat of widespread hacking, but the machines are plagued with more mundane technical problems that states have been slow to address and could have major consequences for future elections.
On the bright side, the omnibus spending bill that was passed in March 2018 allocated $380 million dollars for state election officials to update their voting infrastructure. Whether that money is actually provided and how it will be spent, however, remains to be seen.

I hope that money actually makes it to the states and municipalities that need it.  I also hope the state and local governments heed the warning in ProPublica's report: "For others, though, the DefCon report was a resounding signal to end the use of paperless voting machines."  That's no April Fools.

Stay tuned for the last post of March, followed by a real April Fools post.  A drum corps Easter on April Fools Day anyone?

Melania Trump: Rickrolling and Plagiarism

"Excuse me, I'm going to watch 'Young Za Za Gabor' AKA Melania Trump speak." So read the Facebook status I left last night when I went from one screen to another to watch what I expected to be the highlight of last night's session of the Republican National Convention. I was not disappointed and got more entertainment value than I was expecting. To begin with, Mrs. Trump rickrolled the audience.


I caught that instance of copying at the time, but I didn't catch the next one until after the speech: Comparing Melania Trump and Michelle Obama's speeches.

At least one passage in Melania Trump's speech Monday night at the Republican National Convention plagiarized Michelle Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

I should have been appalled at this. Instead, it amused me even more. Thanks to Melania, I've had my daily dose of irony.

April 1st and it's business as usual

I have good food news!



Original at Calculated Risk

National Restaurant Association: Restaurant Industry Outlook Improved in February as Restaurant Performance Index Stood Above 100 for the Fifth Time in Six Months
Sales and traffic levels rose in February; Capital spending outlook hit a 40-month high
March 31, 2011

(Washington, D.C.) Driven by improving same-store sales and customer traffic levels as well as growing optimism among restaurant operators, the outlook for the restaurant industry improved in February. The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 100.7 in February, up 0.4 percent from its January level. In addition, February represented the fifth time in the last six months that the RPI stood above 100, which signifies expansion in the index of key industry indicators.

“February’s RPI gain was driven by solid improvements in the same-store sales and customer traffic indicators,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the Association. “Restaurant operators reported positive same-store sales and customer traffic results in February, after January’s results were dampened by extreme weather conditions in many parts of the country.”

“In addition to improving sales and traffic indicators, restaurant operators’ outlook for capital spending hit a 40-month high, while their expectations for staffing growth rose to the highest level in nearly four years,” Riehle added.

Oh, wow, great news!

The Current Situation Index, which measures current trends in four industry indicators (same-store sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures), stood at 99.4 in February – up 0.9 percent from its January level. However, the Current Situation Index remained below 100 for the fourth consecutive month, as the softness in the labor and capital expenditure indicators outweighed the gains in same-store sales and customer traffic.

Don't worry, spending and employment will follow!

Restaurant operators reported a solid improvement in same-store sales in February. Forty-nine percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between February 2010 and February 2011, up from 39 percent of operators who reported higher same-store sales in January. In comparison, 37 percent of operators reported a same-store sales decline in February, down from 44 percent of operators who reported lower sales in January.

Restaurant operators also reported a net increase in customer traffic levels in February. Forty-one percent of restaurant operators reported an increase in customer traffic between February 2010 and February 2011, up from 35 percent of operators who reported higher traffic in January. In comparison, 39 percent of operators reported a traffic decline in February, down from 44 percent in January.

See, I told you, good news!

The Expectations Index, which measures restaurant operators’ six-month outlook for four industry indicators (same-store sales, employees, capital expenditures and business conditions), stood at 101.9 in February – up slightly from January’s level of 101.8. In addition, the Expectations Index stood above the 100 level for the seventh consecutive month, which signifies expansion in the forward-looking indicators.

Restaurant operators remain solidly optimistic that their sales levels will improve in the months ahead. Forty-eight percent of restaurant operators expect to have higher sales in six months (compared to the same period in the previous year), up slightly from 47 percent who reported similarly last month. In comparison, just 12 percent of restaurant operators expect their sales volume in six months to be lower than it was during the same period in the previous year, down from 14 percent who reported similarly last month.

Bolstered by an improving sales outlook, restaurant operators’ plans for capital spending rose to its highest level in 40 months. Fifty-two percent of restaurant operators plan to make a capital expenditure for equipment, expansion or remodeling in the next six months, up from 48 percent who reported similarly last month.

For the fifth consecutive month, restaurant operators reported a positive outlook for staffing gains in the months ahead. Twenty-six percent of restaurant operators plan to increase staffing levels in six months (compared with the same period in the previous year), while just 10 percent said they expect to reduce staffing levels in six months.

See, I told you, nothing but good news, as the restaunteurs think things will improve for them! Business as usual will resume!

While restaurant operators are bullish about their sales prospects in the months ahead, they are somewhat less optimistic about the direction of the overall economy. Thirty-four percent of restaurant operators said they expect economic conditions to improve in six months, down from 42 percent who reported similarly last month and the lowest level in six months. In comparison, 14 percent of operators said they expect economic conditions to worsen in the next six months, up from 10 percent who reported similarly last month.

April Fools!

Hey, what did you expect out of me today, a rickroll?