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14 Aug 2011 22:20

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U.S.: Anonymous BART hack: Thousands of users hit in retaliatory attack

  • 2,000+ people affected by MyBART hack source
  • » Were the right people affected? While members of the group Anonymous claimed that the hack was intended to draw attention to a recent attempt by BART to quell a planned protest by blocking cell-phone signals, users affected by the hack felt that the attack hit the wrong target. One MyBART user on the list, Owen Rubin, put it like so: “I understand the reason why they’re protesting, but they’re hurting the wrong people. They’re hurting the commuters, and they’re hurting the consumers like me who have nothing to do with BART other than having to ride it as a way to get to and from work.” For what it’s worth, those who leaked the data claim that the site was very insecure — “Any 8 year old with a internet connection could have done what we did to find it,” the note accompanying the data breach says — but the frustration is something that users affected by many recent hacks will understand. These victims suffer indirectly, exploited as something of a third party to the real target in question, be it Sony, BART, or the federal government.

14 Aug 2011 21:25

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U.S.: Andrew Cuomo sure flies around a lot using taxpayer money

  • bad A little while back, cost-cutting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got a lot of crap over taking a helicopter to his son’s softball game. He ended up repaying the costs of the plane ride, but he didn’t apologize, claiming that it was important for him to be a good father.
  • worse Now, his neighbor directly to the north, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is facing similar scrutiny, but in his case, he used state aircraft to fly 19 times between his girlfriend’s place in Westchester and his job in Albany. Should we judge him for this? source

14 Aug 2011 20:25

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Politics: Rock bottom? Gallup poll has Obama approval rating below 40 percent

  • His worst showing ever: President Obama isn’t exactly well-liked these days. With an approval rating hovering below 40 percent according to Gallup, Obama’s feeling the compounding hurt of a debt ceiling crisis that left no politician unscathed, an economy that refuses to let up, and a stock market that looks like it’s gonna hurl any second. But the thing is, he’s still doing better than Congress. According to this RealClearPolitics average of approval ratings for Congress, they’re hovering around 16.8 percent. RCP has Obama averaging 43.4 percent — with the Gallup number by far the lowest. We know who won the Toilet Bowl, guys! source

14 Aug 2011 11:23

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Music, U.S.: Indiana stage collapse follows Flaming Lips, Cheap Trick incidents

  • We are all right. We are praying for our fans, and the people of Indianapolis. We hope you’ll join us. They need your strength.
  • The members of Sugarland • In a tweet sent out soon after last night’s devastating stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair, where Sugarland was performing last night. There has been a spate of these lately — just last weekend, The Flaming Lips suffered a bunch of damage to their gear after a similar stage collapse in Oklahoma which took out a massive video screen. And prior to that, Cheap Trick had a stage fall to the ground in Canada, nearly injuring the band and thousands of spectators. The Indiana situation was clearly the worst, however — five lives were lost and 40 people were injured, and those numbers could go up. Devastating. source