`In the 1950s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church struck an extraordinary deal with the US Army. It would provide test subjects for experiments on biological weapons at the Fort Detrick research centre near Washington DC.
The volunteers were conscientious objectors who agreed to be infected with debilitating pathogens. In return, they were exempted from frontline warfare.
Fort Detrick was working on weapons it could use in an offensive capacity as well as ways of defending its troops and citizens.’
`A young girl is recovering after being attacked by a pit bull in West Atlanta on Thursday evening. The dog was owned by another child, who sicced the dog on the girl after getting angry. [..]
It started when a mother sent her kids to clean up some trash thrown into the front yard of their home on Simpson Road.
A group of kids on the sidewalk began poking fun.
“One of the children became upset, went into the house and turned the dog loose,” said D.A. Levine of Fulton Animal Services. “The dog did then bite another child.”‘
`Officials said Leland E. “Leef” Holly IV, 23, of Wexford, fell down a flight of steps Friday night, during a birthday party in Greenfield.
He was put on a couch by his friends, who continued to celebrate.
They did not realize he was dead until Saturday afternoon.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the student died from blunt force trauma to the head.’
`A well known cryptographer has applied power analysis techniques to crack passwords for the most popular brand of RFID tags.
Adi Shamir, professor of computer science at the Weizmann Institute, reported his work in a high-profile panel discussion at the RSA Conference here. Separately, Ron Rivest, who co-developed the RSA algorithms with Shamir, used the stage of the annual panel to call for an industry effort to create a next-generation hashing algorithm to replace today’s SHA-1.
In recent weeks, Shamir used a directional antenna and digital oscilloscope to monitor power use by RFID tags while they were being read. Patterns in power use could be analyzed to determine when the tag received correct and incorrect password bits, he said.’
`A flatulent dog saved two girls from a Valentine’s Day rendezvous with a rape suspect.
The two New York girls, ages 12 and 15, ran away from home Monday on an overnight bus to Minneapolis. One of the girls brought the family dog, Bambi.
She told the bus driver that Bambi was her guide dog. The girls fed the dog junk food on the bus. It gave the dog gas.
Other riders complained about the malodorous mutt. The driver alerted security guards at Cleveland’s Greyhound station and guards called police.
“Of course we quickly figured out this wasn’t a Seeing-Eye dog and neither of the girls is blind,” Lt. Thomas Stacho said.’
`About an hour passed, then it was my time to suit up. A few other gentleman had already taken the Veyron out for a spin, and the flash bulbs were going off like machine guns. It was standing room only trying to catch a glimpse of the burgundy colored Veyron whizzing by. I was eventually waved over by a member of Bugatti, asked to put on a helmet and fill out a brief “driver bio” and then took my place in line. I was instructed to take a nice, easy lap and not to push the car too hard. “Sure” I thought, I can do that.
I get inside the car – which was beautiful by the way – and settle in, trying to get comfortable before my wild ride in the spotlight. After a few minutes of working the shifter and the pedals to settle into my groove, I was waved onto the track and got the green flag. I gave her about half gas and BOOM, I’m off like a shot. I proceed to fly through the course at a gingerly, controlled pace, struggling to keep myself from flooring it and breaking the sound barrier. Turn after turn I fell more in love with the car – the handling and power were so effortless – it was like a racecar with a luxury cockpit. I was in heaven, living every man’s wildest fantasy. For those brief 2 minutes it was good to be me.
Then, about 3/4 of the way around the track, my perfect fantasy was abruptly interrupted. [..]’
`A man who allegedly masturbated onto a computer screen, keyboard and chair in Morgan Library called the accusation against him a “witch hunt” by overzealous library officials.
A witness says he’s sure Fort Collins resident Larry Holgerson, 48, is the man who ejaculated in Room 165 in the library late last month, according to a police report. [..]
Holgerson says he was in Room 165 of Morgan Library on Jan. 27, but denies masturbating and says the accusation against him is ridiculous.
“For him to conclude that I have the ejaculatory capacity to hit the screen is ludicrous,” he said in an interview with the Collegian on Friday afternoon. “At 48, I don’t have the distance.” [..]
“What a nightmare this is,” he said. “This whole thing is turning out to be a nightmare for someone who just wanted to use the library.”‘
`Paris Hilton was reportedly hit by four flour bombs after her catwalk appearance at London Fashion Week last night.
Animal rights campaigners were targeting designer Julian Macdonald, who uses fur, as he and the hotel heiress made their way to the after-show party at Cuckoo Club in Mayfair.
The protestors were from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).’
`A youth who tied himself to a foldaway bed because he was bored was rescued by police after becoming trapped in its mechanism, officials said.
Neighbors alerted the police in the western German town of Schwelm after hearing the 16-year-old’s cries for help.
When police entered the apartment, they found the bed had folded itself away and the red-faced youth was tied upside down to it with a tow-rope and wire and unable to free himself.’
`”Don’t work too hard,” wrote a colleague in an e-mail today. Was she sincere or sarcastic? I think I know (sarcastic), but I’m probably wrong.
According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I’ve only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they’ve correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.
“That’s how flame wars get started,” says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University. “People in our study were convinced they’ve accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance,” says Epley.’
`A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans’ Constitutional rights.
Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations he has concerns about a “special access” electronic surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the warrentless wiretapping recently exposed by the New York Times but he is forbidden from discussing the program with Congress.
Tice said he believes it violates the Constitution’s protection against unlawful search and seizures but has no way of sharing the information without breaking classification laws. He is not even allowed to tell the congressional intelligence committees – members or their staff – because they lack high enough clearance.’
`A bright yellow slime mould that can grow to several metres in diameter has been put in charge of a scrabbling, six-legged robot.
The Physarum polycephalum slime, which naturally shies away from light, controls the robot’s movement so that it too keeps out of light and seeks out dark places in which to hide itself.
Klaus-Peter Zauner at the University of Southampton, UK, who developed the slime-controlled bot with colleagues from Kobe University in south-central Japan, says the idea is to find simpler ways to control a robot’s behaviour.’
`Australians are more hostile than ever towards the United States and view China’s global influence more favourably than that of Canberra’s key ally, a new global poll has found.
The poll, released yesterday in the influential US magazine Foreign Policy, describes America as globally “red, white and booed”, noting: “The United States’s standing dropped sharply as a result of the Iraq war, and it hasn’t hit rock bottom yet.”
In interviews conducted between last October and January, only 29 per cent of Australians had a “mainly positive” attitude towards the US, while 60 per cent were “mainly negative” and 11 per cent undecided. This is down on last year, when 40 per cent of Australians were positive about the US.’
Now, just gotta get that 29% down to 0%. 🙂
`An Australian TV channel has broadcast previously unpublished images showing apparent US abuse of prisoners in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail in 2003.
The images on SBS TV are thought to be from the same source as those that caused an outcry around the world and led to several US troops being jailed.
The new images show “homicide, torture and sexual humiliation”, SBS said.
The US has said the images could only “incite unnecessary violence” and endanger US military personnel.’
And here’s the new Abu Ghraib images themselves.
`For the first time, researchers have created a working prototype of a radical new chip design based on magnetism instead of electrical transistors.
As transistor-based microchips hit the limits of Moore’s Law, a group of electrical engineers at the University of Notre Dame has fabricated a chip that uses nanoscale magnetic “islands” to juggle the ones and zeroes of binary code. [..]
Because the chip has no wires, its device density and processing power may eventually be much higher than transistor-based devices. And it won’t be nearly as power-hungry, which will translate to less heat emission and a cooler future for portable hardware like laptops.’
`Video games and the Internet have been subject to suspicion since the computer became a household fixture. One complaint: People get sucked into spending enormous amounts of time on the computer, to the detriment of other parts of their life.
But are they addicted?
The answer depends on what you mean by “addicted.” Most experts say computers are not addictive in the same sense that drugs are, but they could be on the same level as gambling.’
I should have been at work about an hour and a half ago. Heh. 🙂
`Bang! Fark.com’s Drew Curtis was in the line of fire and he got peppered pretty good. The insults rained like small lead pellets, and they may have come from none other than Tom Cruise.
While the grammatically-impaired emailer responsible for the missive below didn’t signal or indicate or announce himself, “I’m pretty positive this is him,” Drew tells Boing Boing, The I.P. belongs to Paramount Studios, and he’s writing about a story we linked about him and Katie splitting up.”‘
`Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) has asked Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson for a thorough inquiry of his agency’s investigation into whether a V.A. nurse’s letter to the editor criticizing the Bush administration amounted to “sedition.” [..]
Laura Berg, a clinical nurse specialist for 15 years, wrote a letter in September to a weekly Albuquerque newspaper criticizing how the administration handled Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq Wwr. She urged people to “act forcefully” by bringing criminal charges against top administration officials, including the president, to remove them from power because they played games of “vicious deceit.” She added: “This country needs to get out of Iraq now and return to our original vision and priorities of caring for land and people and resources rather than killing for oil….Otherwise, many more of us will be facing living hell in these times.”
The agency seized her office computer and launched an investigation. Berg is not talking to the press, but reportedly fears losing her job.’
`A jilted romeo is accused of launching an elaborate land and sea operation to dispose of his male competition – breaking into the man’s luxurious canal-front home on the Gold Coast and stabbing him with a fishing knife before chasing the naked couple through the mansion. [..]
Corfield and Gentry, who became live-in lovers just weeks before the February 2003 attack and are now engaged, had been lying in bed about 10pm when Arroyo, dressed in a wetsuit and holding a large knife, allegedly appeared in their bedroom. [..]
Mr Fuller showed the jury what appeared to be a timeline, or to-do list, that was later found in Arroyo’s Main Beach apartment which contained a list of items including “crowbar for door”, “wetsuit” and “snorkel”. The word “kill” was among the jottings.’
`A Serbian man needed emergency surgery after sticking a pencil inside his penis to keep it stiff during sex.
Zeljko Tupic, from Belgrade, told doctors he had experienced erectile difficulties in the past.
So as he prepared for a night with his new lover, he decided to insert a thin pencil into his penis.
Tupic had to cut his sex session short when the pencil shifted and became lodged in his bladder, forcing him to call an ambulance, the daily Kurir reported.’
`6. Total number and types of nuclear warheads and bombs built, 1945-1990: more than 70,000/65 types [..]
8. Number of nuclear warheads requested by the Army in 1956 and 1957: 151,000 [..]
13. Fissile material produced: 104 metric tons of plutonium and 994 metric tons of highly-enriched
uranium [..]
41. Volume in cubic meters of radioactive waste resulting from weapons activities: 104,000,000 [..]’
`A Serbian funeral director is facing legal action after organising the burial of a man who was still alive.
The mistake was noticed only as the coffin was being lowered into the ground, prompting angry scenes from grieving relatives.
The family from Novi Sad in Serbia had been told that the head of their family, Bogoljub Topalovic, 84, had died in hospital. But the body of another man who had died at the same hospital was in the coffin.
Mourners realised a mistake had been made when Bogoljub rang his daughter on her cellphone during the funeral service to ask why no one had been to visit him for a few days.’
`This website features a series of drawings made by children who were abducted by aliens for the alien purpose of creating a new race of alien/human hybrids. [..]
The pictures were drawn by children who successfully resisted the aliens by using a “thought screen helmet” which blocks the telepathic control aliens have over humans.
The helmet is a leather hat lined with eight sheets of Velostat, an electrically conductive plastic used to prevent static electricity damage to electronic components. The girl in this photo has two other cloth hats lined with Velostat which she wears to school.’
`Treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay constitutes torture in some cases and violates international law, a leaked UN draft report says.
The document, seen by the Los Angeles Times, suggests that investigators will recommend the prison camp is shut down.
It also questions the legal status of the camp and the classification of detainees as enemy combatants.
US state department spokesman Sean McCormack criticised the draft report as “hearsay”.’
Mashup of The Beatles and The Beastie Boys.
Kinda interesting if you like both of those bands. If you don’t, then maybe not so interesting. 🙂
`SiteAdvisor helps protect you from all kinds of Web-based security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, online fraud and identity theft.
Our automated testers continually patrol the Web to browse sites, download files, and sign-up for things with e-mail addresses. As you search, browse, download or register online, SiteAdvisor’s safety ratings help you stay safe and in control.’
Interesting looking Firefox/IE plugins.
‘”Firewall” is [Harrison] Ford’s latest excavation of the family-in-peril thriller, and it is a mostly rote attempt to reboot “The Desperate Hours” — the taut psychological standoff between Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March from 1955 — for the computer age. Instead of dramatic tension, “Firewall” makes do with a lot of frantic typing at computer keyboards. It’s like watching Microsoft’s Service Pack 2 download for nearly two hours. [..]
You don’t go to a Harrison Ford movie expecting gritty realism, but even by the lowered standards of the modern thriller, what finally causes “Firewall” to collapse is a series of increasingly improbable plot twists. The most laughable of these can’t be discussed without revealing the movie’s climax, but it is accompanied by what is sure to be one of the year’s funniest lines (though not intentionally): “Where are they, Rusty?” Jack asks the family dog, completely serious. “Where have they gone?”
This comes shortly after he uses his daughter’s iPod to hot-wire the bank’s servers, moving $100 million to Cox’s offshore account, while downloading Sharon Stone’s celebrity playlist from iTunes. (OK, he doesn’t really get the playlist, just the $100 million.) [..]’
Also the Firewall trailer.
`[..] Since then I have built a considerably more general device. My new device is capable of working with nearly any kind of 125 kHz card, and most types of 13.56 MHz cards. It is also capable of bidirectional communication, so that it can send data from the reader to the tag. This is necessary to work with most of the newer tags, including any cryptographic tag. (Note, of course, that a tag that uses cryptographic techniques can resist any practical attempts to clone it over the air; but I can still talk to the tag, and do anything that its reader could, even if I cannot clone the thing.)’
`For the first time in more than 20 years, U.S. nuclear-weapons scientists are designing a new H-bomb, the first of probably several new nuclear explosives on the drawing boards.
If they succeed, in perhaps 20 or 25 more years, the United States would have an entirely new nuclear arsenal, and a highly automated fac- tory capable of turning out more warheads as needed, as well as new kinds of warheads.
“We are on the verge of an exciting time,” the nation’s top nuclear weapons executive, Linton Brooks, said last week at Lawrence Livermore weapons design laboratory.’
followup to: US scientists designing new generation of nuclear arms
‘US Vice President Dick Cheney did not have a permit to hunt quail when he accidentally shot a 78-year-old hunting partner over the weekend, the White House says.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department informed Mr Cheney that he lacked a stamp for hunting “upland game birds” in the state when the shooting incident occurred, the Vice President’s office said in a statement.
Texas authorities said they would issue a warning citation to Mr Cheney but impose no penalty or fine for failing to have the stamp.’
followup to Dick Cheney misses bird, hits fellow hunter.
Update: here’s the official Incident Report Form.
