Pentagon SSL Fails, Wind Farms Get Paid to Die, Pint Patrol Rising #612
Description
DoD forgets to renew SSL, wind farms get paid to not exist, and bunnie builds a better PIO
Highlights:
- Cyber.mil: Pentagon's security site tells users to click through cert warnings
- TotalEnergies: US pays $1B to kill offshore wind and fund LNG instead
- BIO: bunnie's RISC-V I/O coprocessor outperforms Raspberry Pi PIO
- LaGuardia: Two pilots dead after plane hits fire truck on runway
- Is it a pint?: Grassroots movement to end American beer fraud
Cyber.mil serving file downloads using TLS certificate which expired 3 days ago
The DoD Cyber Exchange website, which distributes Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs), is serving downloads with an expired TLS certificate. Their official guidance tells users to click through browser security warnings to continue downloading security guidance documents. The irony is palpable.
Take: The organization responsible for teaching everyone else about security can't be bothered to set up a cron job for cert renewal. They're literally telling people to ignore the exact warnings their own security guidelines would flag as red alerts.
US and TotalEnergies reach 'nearly $1B' deal to end offshore wind projects
The US paid TotalEnergies $928 million to abandon their 4GW offshore wind projects off New York and North Carolina. The French company will redirect the funds to US natural gas projects, specifically the Rio Grande LNG plant. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called it 'unleashing' money from 'expensive weather-dependent offshore wind.'
Take: The government is literally paying companies to NOT build clean energy so they can build more fossil fuel infrastructure instead. TotalEnergies CEO called offshore wind 'not the most affordable way to produce electricity' while pocketing nearly a billion to walk away. Peak energy policy.
BIO: The Bao I/O Coprocessor
bunnie designed BIO, an I/O coprocessor for the Baochip-1x SoC. After cloning the Raspberry Pi PIO to understand it, he found it consumes massive FPGA resources due to CISC complexity (barrel shifters, flexible pin mapping). BIO uses four compact RV32E RISC-V cores instead, achieving half the area and 4x the clock rate while offering richer functionality including DMA and C programmability.
Take: bunnie spent months cloning the PIO, learned it was overengineered bloatware disguised as elegant minimalism, then designed something better by going full RISC. The classic 'I copied your homework and improved it' move, except it's hardware and actually impressive.
Two pilots dead after plane and ground vehicle collide at LaGuardia
An Air Canada CRJ 900 carrying 76 people collided with a fire truck responding to a separate incident at LaGuardia Airport, killing both pilots. Forty-one passengers were hospitalized, airport closed. Air traffic control audio captured 'Stop, stop, stop!' seconds before impact. The fire truck occupants survived with non-life-threatening injuries.
Take: In 2026, we still coordinate million-dollar aircraft and ground vehicles using voice radio and eyeballs. ATC audio of someone yelling 'stop stop stop' into a radio while a plane slams into a fire truck is exactly as dystopian as it sounds. Someone please invent runway interlocks.
Is it a pint?
A researcher got frustrated asking 'is this really a pint?' at bars and did the work. The site documents how American bars routinely serve 'pints' in glasses that hold less than 16oz due to thick bases, tapered shapes, and head space. This spawned the 'Pint Patrol' movement pushing for honest beer measurements.
Take: Someone weaponized pedantry for good. Years of suspicion, careful measurement, and righteous anger condensed into a website that proves your bartender has been cheating you. The Pint Patrol is the consumer advocacy movement we deserve.