Not even on earth. Not even in California.

McDermott says he’s never laid eyes on the nearly 400-foot waterfall that park officials recently discovered in a remote corner of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, 43,000 acres of wilderness in northern California.

“Sure, I was surprised,” he said from his home in the park, where he’s lived for more than 70 years. “I’ve been all around that place, I never seen ’em.”

Not even on earth. Not even in California.

McDermott says he’s never laid eyes on the nearly 400-foot waterfall that park officials recently discovered in a remote corner of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, 43,000 acres of wilderness in northern California.

“Sure, I was surprised,” he said from his home in the park, where he’s lived for more than 70 years. “I’ve been all around that place, I never seen ’em.”

I got a call claiming to be from my Discover Card. The caller asked me if I wanted to make a balance transfer at an attractive rate. I said, “Sure, but I won’t give you my credit card numbers since you can’t authenticate that you really are Discover Card.”

Triumphantly, the agent told me the last four digits of my credit card number, my “member since” date and my last transaction. While this does indicate that the caller has access to my bill or account (or did at one time), it does not authenticate them as Discover Card because they could have stolen a bill from my mailbox.

More insidiously, they could have dialed a wrong number or a house guest or sitter could have picked up the phone. They did not authenticate me before giving me the personal information that they were so proud of. Not that they could have authenticated me since I would be reluctant to provide any personal information to someone who I did not already know was authentic and authorized.

I asked if there was a way to contact them through my number on the back of my card. They said no, but “I can make a notation on your account and customer service can verify its authenticity and you can call me back on a separate number.” While just possibly securely authentic (if the employee isn’t steering me to an illegitimate outsider), it requires me to make two calls. Why not just call the credit card directly and speak with someone else? I could, but my guy would have trouble getting a commission on the transaction. Maybe they should arrange for a share of any transfers I initiate in the next few minutes or ask for me to do a three-way call to my issuer.

I like checks better. They only go back to the offering party after they have been cashed and even then there might not be any evidence of what account I paid off.

July 20th is chock full. In addition to the first Apollo landing, it’s also the day that Viking 1 landed on Mars, in 1976. And in the non-space category, it’s sixty-one years since the failed attempt on Hitler’s life (an alternate history of what would have happened had that succeeded might be interesting). Also, it’s been a dozen years since Vince Foster’s body was found in Fort Marcy Park, and his killer and the location where his demise occurred remain unknown.

Better than blogging? The mind boggles at the concept.

Better than blogging? The mind boggles at the concept.

Better than blogging? The mind boggles at the concept.

Have you ever gotten a call from a credit card company purporting to be from their security department asking to verify a charge? Asking to call a special number for the fraud/verification department? With the person who answers asking for personal identifying information such as mother’s maiden name?

I have multiple times. I ask the credit cards to authenticate. Do the credit card companies authenticate? No.

They tell customers never to give out such secret personal identifying information to strangers. Now a stranger calls and asks for it. Oops.

A credit card fraud department, should ask the card customers to call the main customer service number on the back of their cards and press a button for the fraud department.

Otherwise, the bank may find its fraud department outsourced. Without permission.

London has “won” the right to be bankrupted and disrupted by a bunch of athletes and their fans. I watched all of the cheering, and couldn’t figure out whether it was because they had gotten the bid, or because France had lost it. I have mixed feelings on the matter, because while having an Olympics is one of those things that I’d wish on my worst enemy, the French (particularly in Paris) seem much too unhappy about it for me to truly feel angst about their “loss.”

Unsurprisingly, at least one poster at Samizdata is quite unhappy, as he so eloquently expresses.

That was the title of a Fox News column I wrote three years ago. It’s still appropriate:

It is instructive, and educational (particularly for those who haven’t seen it since high-school civics class, if then) to read aloud Jefferson’s work of genius, the Declaration of Independence. In so doing, we are reminded of the principles on which this country was founded, the offenses committed against our ancestors by the English king, and the reasons that we forged our own nation.

Note also that this is the 142nd anniversary of the Union victory at Gettysburg, and the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which gave the Union control of the Mississippi River and cut the Confederacy in half. It was the beginning of the end for the southern cause, and for better or worse, helped preserve the young nation that had begun (in Lincoln’s words) four score and seven years before.

[Update at 10:40 AM EDT]

Professor Reynolds has some related thoughts.