Archive for March, 2009
Passwords of 8,000 Comcast Customers Exposed
Brad Stone, NY Times: A list of more than 8,000 user names and passwords for customers of Comcast, one of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, sat unprotected on the Web for the last two months.
Kevin Andreyo, an educational technology specialist in Reading, Pa., and a professor at Wilkes University, came across the list Monday on Scribd, a document-sharing Web site.
Mr. Andreyo was reading a recent article in PC World entitled “People Search Engines: They Know Your Dark Secrets… And Tell Anyone,” when he was inspired to find out what information about him was online. He searched for his own e-mail address on the search engine Pipl.
The list on Scribd was one of four results, and it also included his password, which was a riff on his love for a local sports team. Statistics on Scribd indicated that the list, which was uploaded by someone with the user name vuthanhan2004, had…
IMF to Create Billions of Dollars Worth of ‘Super-Currency’
Edmund Conway, Telegraph: The International Monetary Fund is poised to embark on what analysts have described as “global quantitative easing” by printing billions of dollars worth of a global “super-currency” in an unprecedented new effort to address the economic crisis.
Alistair Darling and senior figures in the US Treasury have been encouraging the Fund to issue hundreds of billions of dollars worth of so-called Special Drawing Rights in the coming months as part of its campaign to prevent the recession from turning into a global depression.
Should the move, which is up for discussion by the summit of G20 finance ministers this weekend, be adopted, it will represent a global equivalent of the Bank of England’s plan to pump extra cash into the UK economy.
However, economists warned that the scheme could cause a major swell of inflation around the world as the newly-created money filters through the system. The idea has been…
Humans No Match for Their Go Bot Overlords
Brandon Keim, WIRED: For the last two decades, human cognitive superiority had a distinctive sound: the soft click of stones placed on a wooden Go board. But once again, artificial intelligence is asserting its domination over gray matter.
Just a few years ago, the best Go programs were routinely beaten by skilled children, even when given a head start. Artificial intelligence researchers routinely said that computers capable of beating our best were literally unthinkable. And so it was. Until now.
“It’s a silly human conceit that such a domain would exist, that there’s something only we can figure out with our wetware brains,” said David Doshay, a University of California at Santa Cruz computer scientist. “Because at the same time, another set of humans is just as busily saying, ‘Yes, but we can knock this problem into another domain, and solve it using these machines.’”
In February, at the Taiwan Open — Go’s popularity…
Love Your Indie: The Contest
Joe Hill: Okay, been thinking about this whole March-is-love-your-Indie-Bookstore month, and I realized trying to guilt people into going shopping with their local guy sucks. We don’t need guilt here; we need a contest.
So here’s introducing March-is-love-your-Indie-Bookstore: The Contest.
How to Play: Go to a local independent bookstore. Buy something. Save the receipt. Send a photo or scan of the receipt to this address: indie@joehillfiction.com. Make sure either your e-mail or your receipt includes the name and phone number of the bookstore in question.
Prize: At the end of March I’ll have a random drawing, and send the winner a signed slipcased copy of GUNPOWDER.
BUT WAIT! There’s more. As this thing goes along, I’ll be adding other signed editions of other books for other randomly drawn winners. Stay tuned.
And remember, even if you lose you win, because you will have supported a small bookstore, and come away with something worth reading.
Douglas Rushkoff: Let it Die
Douglas Rushkoff writes:
With any luck, the economy will never recover.
In a perfect world, the stock market would decline another 70 or 80 percent along with the shuttering of about that fraction of our nation’s banks. Yes, unemployment would rise as hundreds of thousands of formerly well-paid brokers and bankers lost their jobs; but at least they would no longer be extracting wealth at our expense. They would need to be fed, but that would be a lot cheaper than keeping them in the luxurious conditions they’re enjoying now. Even Bernie Madoff costs us less in jail than he does on Park Avenue.
Alas, I’m not being sarcastic. If you had spent the last decade, as I have, reviewing the way a centralized economic plan ravaged the real world over the past 500 years, you would appreciate the current financial meltdown for what it is: a comeuppance.
…
Christians Fight Back Against Kosher Salt
“What the heck’s the matter with Christian salt?” After repeatedly watching television chefs recommend kosher salt in recipes, retired barber Joe Godlewski was inspired to invent a bible-friendly alternative.
Blessed by an Episcopal priest, Blessed Christians Salt is on sale now nationwide in Christian bookstores and via the website of Tennessee-based seasonings manufacturer Ingredients Corporation of America. It comes in bottles with big red crosses which are sure to command your attention at the table. It is unclear whether Godlewski is aware that kosher salt is not blessed by a rabbi; rather, the term refers to salt that is natural, course, and crunchy, regarded as desirable for cooking.
Carts Of Darkness
The Canadian documentary ‘Carts Of Darkness’ follows a community of homeless men in Vancouver who, in addition to collecting bottles for recycling money, do extreme racing and stunts with shopping carts. They reach incredible speeds on the city’s steep hills, defying death and shocking passersby. Watch part or all of the film below:
Man Shoots Neighbor, Thinks She’s a Monkey
A Malaysian woman gathering fruit in a tree was shot by her neighbor after he thought she was a monkey.
Global Cannabis Commission | Vienna
Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug, making it the mainstay of the ‘War on Drugs’. The UN has estimated that cannabis is used by 4% of the global adult population. The number of users has risen by 10% since their last estimate in 2005, despite the call for a drug free world. This compares to a figure of 1% for the use of all other illegal drugs combined. However, the focus of international attention has concentrated on that 1% which causes the most harms leading to cannabis being largely ignored in international drug policy discussions while.
You can download the FULL Cannabis Comission | Vienna here.
To view the Beckley Foundation website, come over here .
What Do Dreams Mean? Whatever Your Bias Says
JOHN TIERNEY, NY Times: Suppose last night you had two dreams. In one, God appears and commands you to take a year off and travel the world. In the other, God commands you to take a year off to go work in a leper colony.
Which of those dreams, if either, would you consider meaningful?
Or suppose you had one dream in which your friend defends you against enemies, and another dream in which that same friend goes behind your back and tries to seduce your significant other? Which dream would you take seriously?
Tough questions, but social scientists now have answers — and really, it’s about time. For thousands of years, dreamers have had little more to go on than the two-gate hypothesis proposed in “The Odyssey.” After Penelope dreams of the return of her lost-long husband, she’s skeptical and says that only some dreams matter.
“There are two gates,” she explains, “through…
20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Time
LeeAundra Temescu, DISCOVER:
1. “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so,” joked Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Scientists aren’t laughing, though. Some speculative new physics theories suggest that time emerges from a more fundamental—and timeless—reality.
2. Try explaining that when you get to work late. The average U.S. city commuter loses 38 hours a year to traffic delays.
3. Wonder why you have to set your clock ahead in March? Daylight Saving Time began as a joke by Benjamin Franklin, who proposed waking people earlier on bright summer mornings so they might work more during the day and thus save candles. It was introduced in the UK in 1917 and then spread around the world.
4. Green days. The Department of Energy estimates that electricity demand drops by 0.5 percent during Daylight Saving Time, saving the equivalent of nearly 3 million barrels of oil.
5. By observing how quickly bank tellers…
The Secrets of My Success!
The Infinite and the Beyond — Podcast: Episode #003 — The Secrets of My Success!
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
In this episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, we acknowledge the use of glitter in a Midsummer Sabbat and discuss anomalous pets and what to do if you think you have one. As recent experiences have led my to wonder if I truly have a ghost cat in my apartment because up until now I’ve been the only one who has thought to have witnessed the mysterious feline wandering the hall.
We also discuss the benefits of backgrounds and the freedom to wander through your path as paganism is not a set-in-stone faith tradition, but is one which develops through exploration and personal introspection.
We hear what composer Kristian Stout has evolved into as I play the song "Simple Pleasure" performed by his band The Evolutionaries who have previously been featured on such podcasts as Thelema Coast to Coast and the ever popular deo’s Shadow.
I say thank you to Kia Dragon from the podcast Pagan Chaos Magic who had some wonderful things to say about me and the beginning episodes of this podcast. I respond to listener email and have some laughs doing it.
In A Corner in the Occult we learn about famous 19th century French occultist and magickian Eliphas Levi who authored many influential texts on occultism and magick and has inspired such notable individuals in occult history such as Aleister Crowley, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, Arthur Edward Waite and even organizations such as The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis.
We begin a new show segment with an introduction to my other favorite text which should occupy nine future episodes as we make our way through the book. And later in the show, we continue with our discussion on community, that we began in Episode #002 – Beyond 93!, by addressing covens.
To message the show please go here.
How to Spot Atheists and Report Them to the FBI
Unless you’re Catholic or have been living in a cave for the last 20 years, you already know that Landover Baptist’s Pastor Deacon Fred and Brother Harry Hardwick are the world’s foremost Christian experts on the disease, Atheism, and its carriers called, Atheists. Both Pastors have risked infection and death to speak at countless Atheist conventions. Pastor Hardwick recently remarked as a guest on “The No Spin Zone:” “As long as there’s twenty-four hour room service and they pick up my first class airfare, I’ll give my 18.4 minute inspirational presentation to Lucifer himself! Besides, a relaxing walk through the parking lot outside an Atheist convention can harvest hundreds of car tag numbers for the FBI’s computers. And with Mr. Ashcroft paying a dollar a tip, that can add up to a complimentary tour of the hotel gift shop, my friend.”
When not bringing financially sound believers to the bosom of…
Who Says Sex Workers Want To Be ‘Saved’?
Nathalie Rothschild, Guardian: In these times of economic implosion, it seems there is one industry that the government is actually keen on crushing. The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, recently unveiled a proposal for new legislation aimed at bringing the sex industry to its knees (metaphorically speaking). If we tackle the demand, Smith proclaimed, then supply will diminish. In other words, Smith wants to penalise punters.
Under the proposal, anyone who buys sex or other erotic services from someone who is “controlled for another person’s gain” could be fined and receive a criminal record. Ignorance of the circumstances would be no defence. Harriet Harman, the minister for women, believes the proposed legislation will help stamp out sex trafficking, which she has described as a “modern-day slave trade”.
Yet if speakers at a panel debate this week on sex trafficking held at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts are to be believed, most sex workers…
Who Profits From Red-Light Cameras?
AP (CLIVE, Iowa): Minutes after Neel Manglik illegally turned right on a red light in the Des Moines suburb of Clive, a video popped up on a computer at an office park outside Scottsdale, Ariz.
The $75 citation arrived in the mail weeks later, making Manglik one of the millions of Americans ticketed as part of a growing industry that is making handsome profits for companies that operate video cameras at busy intersections throughout the nation.
As more cities sign up and others invest their profits into more cameras, those companies expect increased revenue for years to come.
What’s less clear is whether the cameras improve safety. While studies show fewer T-bone crashes at lights with cameras and fewer drivers running red lights, the number of rear-end crashes increases. Aaron Quinn, spokesman for the Wisconsin-based National Motorists Association, said there are cheaper safety alternatives to red-light cameras, including lengthening yellow-light times.
Madoff Had Accomplices: His Victims
JOE NOCERA, NY Times: Just about anybody who actually took the time to kick the tires of Mr. Madoff’s operation tended to run in the other direction. James R. Hedges IV, who runs an advisory firm called LJH Global Investments, says that in 1997 he spent two hours asking Mr. Madoff basic questions about his operation. “The explanation of his strategy, the consistency of his returns, the way he withheld information — it was a very clear set of warning signs,” said Mr. Hedges. When you look at the list of Madoff victims, it contains a lot of high-profile names — but almost no serious institutional investors or endowments. They insist on knowing the kind of information Mr. Madoff refused to supply.
I suppose you could argue that most of Mr. Madoff’s direct investors lacked the ability or the financial sophistication of someone like Mr. Hedges. But it shouldn’t have mattered.…
Scientists Claim Giant Sand Worms Once Existed on Earth
Telegraph: Scientists have found evidence of a giant prehistoric sand worm in an English seaside resort. Proof of the creatures’ existence, which lived 260 million years ago, has been found in Torbay, Devon.
The worms, which grew up to 3 ft long and 6 in wide, are thought to have lived underground before dinosaurs roamed the earth. Experts at the English Riviera Geopark organisation have found large burrow holes that are said to have been made by the creatures as they travelled beneath the surface.
Geologist Dr Kevin Page said the discovery of the underground holes is an unprecedented find in science and represents “life — but not as we know it”. He said: “It really is quite extraordinary. Nothing like this has ever been found before. The underground area is peppered with these burrows.
“There is no supporting evidence to suggest they were made by creatures we know about, so what were…
Fox News’ Sean Hannity States Christianity Is Compatible With Torture
David Edwards, RAW Story: Fox News’ Sean Hannity doesn’t let his religion get in the way for his support of a controversial anti-terror tactic. Hannity invited Meghan McCain on his show to talk about a court filing by 9/11 defendants detained at Guantanamo Bay.
“Do you disagree with your dad at all about enhanced interrogations?” asked Hannity. Before allowing McCain to answer, Hannity went on a mini-diatribe and suggested that his religious beliefs wouldn’t prevent him from supporting an anti-terror tactic almost universally considered to be torture.
“Because my attitude is that if we capture an enemy combatant in the battlefield — or we can use Osama bin Laden — who may have information about a pending attack. You know what, I don’t have any problem taking his head sticking it underwater and scaring the living daylights out of him and making him think we’re drowning him,” declared Hannity, “and I’m a…
A Real-Life Doctor Manhattan
Annalee Newitz, i09.com:
In Watchmen, one of the most intriguing characters is the omnipotent Dr. Manhattan, a superhero who can manipulate the physical laws of the universe as the result of a strange accident involving “atomic physics.” After being exposed to radiation, Dr. Manhattan is suffused with a blue glow and can see through time. But it turns out there was actually a real-life version of Dr. Manhattan, a physical chemist named Louis Alexander Slotin who was exposed to the same radioactive particles as Dr. Manhattan and many other superheroes.
As Think Artificial puts it:
It’s May 21, 1946, Louis Alexander Slotin, scientist with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, is working on the Manhattan Project with his colleagues. Their experiment involves fission reaction, placing two half-spheres of beryllium around a plutonium core. At 3:20 p.m. Slotin is grasping an upper beryllium hemisphere with his left hand while maintaining separation of the sphere with…
