Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

17 Apr 2011 21:51

tags

U.S.: Disgruntled hacker claims he broke a bunch of wind turbines

  • Here comes my revenge for illegitimate firing from Florida Power & Light Company… ain’t nothing you can do with it, since your electricity is turned off !!!
  • An anonymous hacker named “Bgr R.” • Claiming that he reportedly managed to break a Florida wind-turbine system with the ability to create 200 megawatts of energy. While it’s not clear that he was actually able to damage the turbines, owned by Florida Power & Light subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources, he did provide screenshots of the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems that appeared legitimate. “I want people to know about them and how they really work on SCADA security,” he said in an e-mail interview. One of the key points he showed from the screenshots: The plant’s router password was the ultra-secure “cisco.” Ouch. If this isn’t a hoax, someone’s got a bunch of giant fans to deal with tomorrow morning. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Apr 2011 21:33

tags

U.S.: Yikes: Playboy Mansion spreads disease that infects dozens

  • 123 people got ill from legionella bacteria, aka Legionnaires’ disease
  • 69 of those people got sick on the same day in February as the event
  • 79 people reported their illness on social media sites — fascinating source
  • » Guess where the root cause was? If you said the hot tub at the Playboy Manion, you’d be correct. Oh boy. It’s like the setup is right there, begging for a really bad joke to be made. We … just … can’t … do … it.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Apr 2011 11:22

tags

U.S.: Little girl + giant ears = Cosmetic surgery? Apparently

  • Her ears look great. Throughout the checkup after surgery and when she got the bandages off, there wasn’t a peep or a tear out of her.
  • Plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Pearlman • Describing the situation of seven-year-old Samantha Shaw, who had her ears pinned back in a process called “otoplasty,” because she and her parents were upset about kids making fun of her for her big ears. Well, that’s one way to solve the problem, we guess. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Apr 2011 16:38

tags

U.S.: FAA: Maybe we need to change air-traffic controllers’ schedules

  • cause Like sharks in a slow news period, air-traffic controllers have fallen asleep numerous times over the past few weeks — including one just last night in Miami.
  • reaction In an effort to help limit the workers’ on-the-job issues, the FAA plans to change their schedules to better adapt to the late-night shifts. source
  • » Some hard numbers: Our whole grumbling about air traffic controllers being the new sharks did get us curious about whether there were actually more errors among air traffic controllers. But USA Today beat us to the research back in February. Their findings? Incidents involving air traffic controllers are up 81 percent since 2007, from 1,040 to 1,887 in 2010. More serious incidents — which we’re assuming “sleeping on the job” includes — are up 26 percent over the same period, from 34 to 43. Not to say air traffic controllers shouldn’t be incredibly good at their jobs, but considering that we’re still talking about less than 2,000 incidents nationwide — big or small — over an entire year suggests at least some degree of overreaction.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Apr 2011 11:34

tags

U.S.: Scary report: Many meats have high levels of drug-resistant bacteria

The Translational Genomics Research Institute notes that while the meat is safe to eat, consumers should take care in handling and cooking it. Still though, yikes. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Apr 2011 11:04

tags

U.S.: Poker sites work around federal shutdowns, get sites back up

  • The developments are confined to the U.S. and do not have any impact on your ability to continue using our services. Please be assured player balances are safe. There is no cause for concern. For all customers outside the U.S. it is business as usual.
  • A statement from PokerStars • Informing users that despite its site being shut down in a federal sting, its app is still operating and will continue to do so … for users outside the U.S. The site is now located at PokerStars.eu. Full Tilt Poker, relocated to a .net domain, has a similar message up at the moment. (Absolute Poker, however, isn’t up as of this writing.) We imagine a bunch of poker addicts high-tailing it to Canada to get their fix. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Apr 2011 16:27

tags

U.S.: Ultra-popular online poker sites shut down by federal government

  • Like online poker? Well, you won’t like this story. A bunch of executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker just got charged with money laundering and bank fraud, and their sites had to shut down. Above is what Full Tilt Poker‘s front page currently looks like. This is alarming — nearly a million unique visitors went to that site in March. While AbsolutePoker.com is still up as of this writing, PokerStars has a similar message. Sucks to be a gambler. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

14 Apr 2011 21:10

tags

U.S.: On the FAA, air traffic controllers and sudden media attention

  • Over the last few weeks we have seen examples of unprofessional conduct on the part of a few individuals that have rightly caused the traveling public to question our ability to ensure their safety. This conduct must stop immediately.
  • FAA chief administrator Randy Babbitt • Expressing anger and outrage over the reports that a number of their air-traffic controllers have been caught sleeping. The situation is the key reason why the FAA Air Traffic Organization’s leader, Hank Krakowski, no longer has a job. To us, to be completely honest, sleeping air traffic controllers are the new sharks. The fact of the matter is, air traffic controllers probably slept through a lot of incidents like these before the media started paying attention. Now that they are, it’s imperative to change things. But we bet that things are only changing because the media suddenly cares. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 15:20

tags

U.S.: House passes shutdown-averting budget deal easily

  • 260-167 the yays over the nays source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Apr 2011 23:42

tags

U.S.: Kobe Bryant issued $100,000 penalty for calling a ref a bad word

  • $100k fine to Kobe Bryant for anti-gay slur source
  • » During a game against San Antonio, Kobe Bryant became angry at having been issued a technical foul, and referred to the referee using an anti-gay word that we won’t repeat. Unfortunately, the exchange was captured on camera, and following criticism from several prominent gay rights groups, the NBA decided to fine him $100,000. This may sound steep, but Bryant makes over $300,000 per game, so it’s really just a drop in the bucket. A very large drop, that is, in a very large bucket.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>