The average user isn't going to have (or be able to write) a secure random word selector. He's going to look at the "new password" field and think up 4 words, and they're almost certain to be related somehow.

The Diceware method can be done with a downloaded word list file and some dice. If, as the article suggests, one is only using memorizable passwords where absolutely necessary, this method is neither burdensome nor difficult for even the most 'average' of users.

Just because the author asserts that the password system is broken doesn't make Randall Munroe's point about passwords incorrect. "At least one security researcher rejects that theory." What theory does he reject? It's simple math that shows that Munroe's method is better for creating stronger passwords (at least for the average user), but that has nothing to do with relying on password managers...

In addition, he seems to miss a rather key point about the xkcd method. He goes on about "users should not be choosing passwords" (which is correct), but note that the xkcd comic says 'four random common words'. In other words, in order to follow this method, the user would not be arbitrarily choosing a password but having it generated instead, by for instance using the Diceware method. The core idea is that a human being can much more easily memorize a randomly generated 4-5 word passphrase, as evidenced by the fact that we all seem to remember 'correct horse battery staple'. Yes, password managers are a great tool to handle the ever-growing array of passwords we must manage in our digital lives, but that doesn't preclude the idea that for those 5% of passwords he concedes must be memorized that Munroe's method is not a superior method in those cases, especially since he seems to fundamentally misunderstand it.

Good point. Another thing that muddies the stats is that many of the people who actually do time for MJ are people who had previously served time for some other offense, and the MJ offense winds them up in jail as a probation/parole/3 strikes violation, which depending on the jurisdiction may or may not get counted as "being imprisoned for marijuana".

For some numbers not pulled rectally, according to an ACLU analysis: "Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana." Remember that arrest means you were charged and it goes on your record. That alone should be enough misery to end this stupidity.

I learned this about him more than 10 years ago when i was in my college dorm room googling cannabis before i first tried

As someone who first tried cannabis while Cheech and Choong were still making records, that makes me feel very old.

... or do you think a man with no name just hands the president a picture of JFK's head getting blown off from the perspective of the grassy knoll and says "here's your new talking points?"

Apologies to Bill Hicks.

Nope. Google 'spelt beer'...there are a few commercial ones and many homebrew recipes.

There are even einkorn beers out there. Outside of experimental GMO grains or truly extinct species, I'd guess that...no, there's no grain known to man that someone has not tried to add in some quantity to their mash.

Yep, that's pretty much my take. My first clue was that he does not use the word "hypothesis" once in the entire article. And though I can't say I can quote Francis Bacon chapter and verse, isn't "abstract reasoning about the ultimate causes of things" (based on initial observations) the very definition of formulating hypotheses, which are then subject to the rigors of experimentation and further observation?

It almost seems as if this guy read Feynman's famous quote...

It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.

...and took from it that experiment is the *only* aspect of science that matters.

That's about as "botched" an understanding of science as any.

The only true atheist I have met was a total sociopath of a man, completely oriented to narcisism.

The only true Scotsman I have met was much the same.

What did you load it on? An iPhone 1? A 4? An Osborne Executive?

Funny...I had to google "Osborne Executive", and by whatever coincidence, the picture of it on the WP page has an iPhone next to it. I presume it's for size comparison, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the idea that it was taken by someone trying to get the iOS image running on it.

Exactly. Plants learned *that* lesson long before we did with the Hindenburg. (If you listen very carefully to the video, you can hear all the plants laughing at our naiveté in the background.)

And when plants learned that lesson, one of them must have surely exclaimed: "Oh, the botany!!"

If Republicans had their way, the government would have no power whatsoever to confiscate anything from you without first convicting you of a crime.

Utter and complete bullshit. The asset forfeiture regime was introduced under the Presidentâ(TM)s Commission on Organized Crime in 1986, at which time the President was Republican Saint Ronald Reagan, and was ramped up through the GHW Bush administration.

Not that I absolve the Democrats in any way of their part is this travesty, but make no mistake...when Republicans have their way, this is *exactly* the sort of corrupt power grab they are famous for.

The cops have a tough job and the vast majority are not predators and have our best interests at heart. As long as I know they're keeping us safe, what's a little shakedown here and there? Just make sure you don't like someone who deserves it and take heart that they can only steal what's in the car or on your person. Just be *reasonable* about it, that's all.

And please, stop the nonsense about being in a police state. In a police state, they stick the plunger handle all the way up your ass, here they stop at 2/3 the way. Clearly *not* a police state....yet.

/Stockholm Syndrome