I’m sure many people have been asking the questions, “Is DEFCON happening this year? And will it be in-person or virtual?”
The answers are: yes, yes, and yes.
Summarizing:
Well, I threatened some mixology, and it has been a while since I’ve done anything with cocktails…
Two videos on the gin and tonic, with associated discussion on malaria and quinine: the “How to Drink” guy:
And Alton Brown:
Bonus, also from the “How to Drink” guy: “A history of Tiki: Donn the Beachcomber”. Personally, I find the backstory behind Donn Beach interesting, which is why I’m linking the video here. The cocktails strike me as sort of fussy and requiring various specialized syrups and ingredients (“Velvet Falernum”, “Fassionola Syrup”), which you may be able to get mail order (if the store isn’t sold out). Frankly, I like cocktails that I can make from a relatively small number of ingredients that are available locally.
The “Missionary’s Downfall” does sound feasible, though I don’t generally keep peach brandy around.
The NYT has published an obit for Dan Kaminsky that’s both respectful and timely.
His childhood paralleled the 1983 movie “War Games,” in which a young child, played by Matthew Broderick, unwittingly accesses a U.S. military supercomputer. When Mr. Kaminsky was 11, his mother said, she received an angry phone call from someone who identified himself as a network administrator for the Western United States. The administrator said someone at her residence was “monkeying around in territories where he shouldn’t be monkeying around.”
Without her knowledge, Mr. Kaminsky had been examining military websites. The administrator vowed to “punish” him by cutting off the family’s internet access. Mrs. Maurer warned the administrator that if he made good on his threat, she would take out an advertisement in The San Francisco Chronicle denouncing the Pentagon’s security.
“I will take out an ad that says, ‘Your security is so crappy, even an 11-year-old can break it,’” Mrs. Maurer recalled telling the administrator, in an interview on Monday.
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