`A 75-year-old Amish widower, afraid his church community would find out about him seeking sex from a prostitute, was scammed out of more than $67,000 from the prostitute and her boyfriend, a prosecutor says.
Jake Byler of Burton Township gave the pair the money because they had convinced him that photos of Byler and the prostitute would appear on the Internet, county prosecutor David Joyce said. [..]
He told detectives that Lansdowne had convinced him that someone broke into his rural home east of Cleveland and installed a camera in the bedroom.
Lansdowne said he knew a man who would get rid of the pictures for money. Byler tapped into his accounts, took out a loan and gave the pair cash he had stored in his home.’
`As the joke goes, on the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog. But although anonymity has been part of Internet culture since the first browser, it’s also a major obstacle to making the Web a safe place to conduct business: Internet fraud and identity theft cost consumers and merchants several billion dollars last year. And many of the other more troubling aspects of the Internet, from spam emails to sexual predators, also have their roots in the ease of masking one’s identity in the online world.
Change, however, is on the way. Already over 20 million PCs worldwide are equipped with a tiny security chip called the Trusted Platform Module, although it is as yet rarely activated. But once merchants and other online services begin to use it, the TPM will do something never before seen on the Internet: provide virtually fool-proof verification that you are who you say you are.’
Clip with some scary footage of Christians.
(8.2meg Windows Media)
`Combing through cosmic radiation could reveal a message from the universe’s creator, if it has one, say two physicists.
According to theory, anyone could make a universe by squashing a lump of matter violently enough to replicate the big bang. And by tweaking something called the inflaton field, the creator–be it a physicist-hacker or a deity–could put a binary message in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Or so argue Stephen Hsu of the University of Oregon, Eugene, and Anthony Zee of the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a paper at arXiv.org. The message might sit, like cosmic Braille, in the bumps and ripples of the CMB, they say. They calculate that it could hold up to 100,000 bits of information–enough to encode, say, clues to the long-sought grand unified theory that joins all the physical forces. Some people “think we are nuts,” says Hsu. “I think it’s a legitimate scientific question.” Telescopes now in the works could detect such a message within 20 years, he says.’
Read the full article: Message in the Sky.
`Sarah Zapolsky was checking in for a flight to Italy when she discovered her 9-month-old son’s name was on the United States’ “no-fly” list of suspected terrorists.
“We pointed down to the stroller, and he sat there and gurgled,” Zapolsky said, recalling the incident at Dulles International Airport outside Washington in July. “The desk agent started laughing. … She couldn’t print us out a boarding pass because he’s on the no-fly list.”
Zapolsky, who did not want her son’s name made public, said she was initially amused by the mix-up. “But when I found out you can’t actually get off the list, I started to get a bit annoyed.”
Zapolsky isn’t alone.’
`Here’s a great gift idea just in time for the holidays: Make your friends and relatives their very own copy-protected CDs using the same industrial-grade passive protection technology built into XCP and Macrovision discs.
Passive protection exploits subtle differences between the way computers read CDs and the way ordinary CD players do. By changing the layout of data on the CD, it’s sometimes possible to confuse computers without affecting ordinary players — or so the theory goes. In practice, the distinction between computers and CD players is less precise. Older generations of CD copy protection, which relied entirely on passive protection, proved easy to copy in some computers and impossible to play on some CD players. For these reasons, copy protection vendors now use active protection — special software designed to block copying.
Discs with XCP or Macrovision protection employ active protection in conjunction with a milder form of passive protection. You can create your own CD with exactly the same passive protection by following a straightforward five-step procedure. I’ll describe the procedure here, and then explain why it works.’
`A family’s display featuring a bloody Santa Claus wielding a knife, beheaded Barbie dolls and a severed head with blood gushing from its eyes has scared children and angered some homeowners in a New York neighborhood, according to a Local 6 News report.
The display, which can be easily seen by neighbors on East 18th Street in New York, was put up by Joel Krupnik, his wife and daughter.
A tree next to the blood-cover Santa Claus has doll heads attached to its branches.’
with pictures.
Ironic ExxonMobil advertisement.
`Thousands of airline passengers unexpectedly found themselves stranded in line at U.S. border checkpoints in August, after a Department of Homeland Security computer crashed. [..]
The holdups can be attributed in part to the Homeland Security Department’s antiquated computer systems. The agency’s mainframes do not share data and are accessible only by some offices. An upgrade to Microsoft’s Windows 2000 operating system failed because of application incompatibilities, which meant one division had to undertake a cumbersome reversion back to Windows 95. [..]
Not one of the systems can talk with another, according to government reports, and not all offices are equipped to log into the systems they need to update records.’
`[..] down on Quassaick Avenue, around the corner from the New Windsor Elementary School, the 6-foot tall, anatomically correct, finely detailed penis raised some questions Monday.
Especially for police.
“We got some calls that people thought it was offensive,” said New Windsor police Chief Michael Biasotti. “We assumed it was some kids who did it.”
Officers found no one home. Assuming the snow sculpture was more prank than nod to Christmas’ pagan roots, the police knocked it down. Beat it down with shovels, actually.’
`A $300 million Pentagon psychological warfare operation includes plans for placing pro-American messages in foreign media outlets without disclosing the U.S. government as the source, one of the military officials in charge of the program says.
Run by psychological warfare experts at the U.S. Special Operations Command, the media campaign is being designed to counter terrorist ideology and sway foreign audiences to support American policies. The military wants to fight the information war against al-Qaeda through newspapers, websites, radio, television and “novelty items” such as T-shirts and bumper stickers.
The program will operate throughout the world, including in allied nations and in countries where the United States is not involved in armed conflict.’
T ajygItRPGfWWbAEX`A DVD that retails for $21.99 could cost a local man more than $100,000, News 5’s John London reported.
Russell Lee is either a slick film pirate or an unwitting victim of someone who fits that description. [..]
Paramount has looked at all four computers in Lee’s home, alleging he had one of them cleaned to erase evidence. The company has filed a federal lawsuit against the Blue Ash man.
But Lee claims that because his wireless connection was unsecured at the time, anyone could have parked near or in front of his home, tapped in and then driven off.’
`A Pennsylvania student is off the hook after the American Civil Liberties Union defended his right to wear a political T-shirt to school.
Chris Schiano’s T-shirt said “International Terrorist” and had a picture of President Bush.
A security guard at his high school north of Philadelphia told him to take it off. He refused.
Schiano says he’s well versed in the First Amendment. He says he “knew right off they had no legal footing to stand on.”‘
T VNfdcwI `The record industry has long considered online file-sharing a serious threat to its livelihood. But a new study released Tuesday suggests that consumer-to-consumer music recommendations — a growing feature of online music stores and Web sites — will benefit the industry, artists and fans alike. [..]
Nearly one-quarter of frequent online music users say that the ability to share music with others is a key factor when selecting an online music service. And a third were interested in technology that helps them discover and recommend music, such as tools that allow Internet users to publish and rank lists of their favorite songs. Perhaps most important for the recording industry, a tenth of those surveyed said they frequently make music purchases based on others’ recommendations.’
`The Sony BMG-Rootkit, DRM, XCP (or whatever you might want to call it) scandal is one of the most important scandals affecting the music world this year. And even if everyone’s argued time and time again about its effects on both company and consumers, people seem to leave out one of the most affected parties , the artists whose CDs are affected by the Rootkit plague.
Actually, they have a problem with Sony as well. Not only that their sales have decreased following this entire scandal, but their popularity too. And that’s why some of the artists are taking matters into their own hands.’
`A Wal-Mart Santa Claus was arrested Monday for allegedly exposing himself to a 15-year-old boy and attempting to have the boy engage in oral sex with him at his home on Dec. 9, according to a City of Newburgh police press release.
Ransford George Perry, 57, of Newburgh, has acted as an advocate for numerous children around Newburgh through a business called the Association Against Biased Educators. He is also a promoter for “talented children,” and a Santa Claus at the Wal-Mart on Route 300 in the Town of Newburgh, police said.’
`It has proved one of the most radical yet popular ideas of the internet age: a free online encyclopedia that anybody can contribute to and edit. But is Wikipedia a reliable source of information, or is it filled with inaccuracy and hoaxes?
According to a study by journal Nature, Wikipedia stuff-ups — such as this week’s one on President Kennedy’s assassination — are “the exception rather than the rule”, and the resource is almost as accurate as the online Encyclopaedia Britannica, at least when it comes to science.’
`A “dead zone” devoid of life has been discovered at the epicentre of last year’s tsunami four kilometres beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean.
Scientists taking part in a worldwide marine survey made an 11-hour dive at the site five months after the disaster.
They were shocked to find no sign of life around the epicentre, which opened up a 1000-metre chasm on the ocean floor.
Instead, there was nothing but eerie emptiness. The powerful lights of the scientists’ submersible vehicle, piercing through the darkness, showed no trace of anything living.’
`Christopher Lemay, 18, is accused of paying a 16-year-old-girl to perform the act on another boy at Sandalwood High. Those two are under-age, so First Coast News is not releasing their identities.
Sandalwood administrators say the act happened under a table in a large class full of students, so the teacher had limited visibility.’
`Italy’s cash-strapped government has decided to hike taxes on one of the country’s few vibrant industries, pornography, to help rein in the burgeoning budget deficit, government sources told Reuters Tuesday.
The “porno-tax,” which imposes an additional levy of 25 percent on all income from pornography, is contained in a package of amendments to the 2006 budget to presented in the Chamber of Deputies Tuesday or Wednesday, the sources said.
Under the amendment, subscribers to hard core television channels must also pay additional value-added tax of 10 percent. Altogether, the tougher tax-treatment of porn should bring the government some 300 million euros next year.’
`Technonerds go to movies strictly for entertainment, and of course, the most entertaining part comes after the movie when they can dissect, criticize, and argue the merits of every detail. However, when supposedly serious scenes totally disregard the laws of physics in blatantly obvious ways it’s enough to make us retch. The motion picture industry has failed to police itself against the evils of bad physics. This page is provided as a public service in hopes of improving this deplorable matter. The minds of our children and their ability to master vectors are (shudder) at stake.’
`The Bible tells us that God created Adam and Eve just a few thousand years ago, by some fundamentalist interpretations. Science informs us that this is mere fiction and that man is a few million years old, and that civilization just tens of thousands of years old. Could it be, however, that conventional science is just as mistaken as the Bible stories? There is a great deal of archeological evidence that the history of life on earth might be far different than what current geological and anthropological texts tell us.’
`A large percentage of the energy released when petroleum is burned disappears out the exhaust system as heat. This has always been the case but the amount of energy released looks set to be cut by more than 80% thanks to a new system devised by BMW. BMW’s announcement of the new technology is somewhat of a technological bombshell as it adds yet another form of hybrid automobile – a turbosteamer. The concept uses energy from the exhaust gasses of the traditional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to power a steam engine which also contributes power to the automobile – an overall 15 per cent improvement for the combined drive system. Even bigger news is that the drive has been designed so that it can be installed in existing model series – meaning that every model in the BMW range could become 15% more efficient overnight if the company chose to make the reduced consumption accessible to as many people as possible.’
`After writing my posts about the casts of Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, I thought for a while of other movies that prove influential during my formative years, and realized that to complete the quartet, I also needed to cover Debbie Does Dallas. Aside from Deep Throat, DDD is possibly the most successful adult movie ever made, and hails from the “golden age” when an adult film director still regarded a “plot” as a necessity rather than baggage. [..]
And so come with us now, as YesButNoButYes answers the all important question about the stellar cast of Debbie Does Dallas – “Where are they now?” (Viewer discretion advised)’
UoP ARCR `Skirt-chasing playboy Daniel Anceneaux spent weeks talking with a sensual woman on the Internet before arranging a romantic rendezvous at a remote beach — and discovering that his on-line sweetie of six months was his own mother!
“I walked out on that dark beach thinking I was going to hook up with the girl of my dreams,” the rattled bachelor later admitted. “And there she was, wearing white shorts and a pink tank top, just like she’d said she would.
“But when I got close, she turned around — and we both got the shock of our lives. I mean, I didn’t know what to say. All I could think was, ‘Oh my God! it’s Mama!’ “‘
`”Hiya,” says an email we received a couple of hours ago. We don’t usually open emails that start with Hiya. But this one looked a little different and, “I’m an open source developer and I’ve just finished a project I thought you might be interested in writing about,” it said —– a php script that, “generates fake apache directory indexes for the purpose of slowing, and overloading with false positives the RIAA/MPAA’s spider bots.”
Say no more : )’
`There’s no more room to bury the dead, they can’t be cremated, and laws forbid a new cemetery. So the mayor of this Brazilian farm town has proposed a solution: Outlaw death.
Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva’s proposal to the town council asks residents to “take good care of your health in order not to die” and warns that “infractors will be held responsible for their acts.”’
