RadioShack uses e-mail to fire 400 employees as part of planned job cuts
Associated Press
Published on: 08/30/06
FORT WORTH, Texas — RadioShack Corp. notified about 400 workers by e-mail that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned job cuts.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Senator who put 'secret hold' on bill to open federal records is a secret, too
Aug. 23, 2006, 11:46PM
Senator who put 'secret hold' on bill to open federal records is a secret, too
By REBECCA CARR
Cox News Service
WASHINGTON — In an ironic twist, legislation that would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny has been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver.
An unidentified senator placed a "secret hold" on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search.
Senator who put 'secret hold' on bill to open federal records is a secret, too
By REBECCA CARR
Cox News Service
WASHINGTON — In an ironic twist, legislation that would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny has been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver.
An unidentified senator placed a "secret hold" on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Playing Pirates
Gunfight wounds political campaign worker
MIDTOWN: Volunteer for Murkowski hit as vehicles trade shots.
By RICHARD MAUER and MEGAN HOLLAND
Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 23, 2006
Last Modified: August 23, 2006 at 03:00 PM
.. across from The Mall at Sears as the occupants of two vehicles blasted away at each other.
...
Another man, who also had nothing to do with the original shooting, was issued a citation for disorderly conduct for pointing a plastic musket from the window of a car as it drove amid the chaos. He and others in the car, which had an "I brake for hallucinations" bumper sticker, said they were
playing pirates.
...
With the shooting long over but the traffic jam still building, Ryan Rochon looked out his pickup window into the barrel of a musket pointed in his direction from a red SUV on Northern Lights. He knew the gun was plastic, but it seemed like such a bizarre act under the circumstances that he yelled to a cop. Three squad cars sped after the SUV. The car quickly responded to the officers. Three young occupants were handcuffed and brought back to the Sears mall parking lot, where they were questioned. Their car was brought back there too, a small skull dangling from its rearview mirror.
The first of the three to be released, Trystal Hodge, 19, said she and her friends have been playing pirate since middle school. Wearing goggles against the rain, she said she had stuck her head out of the SUV and yelled pirate lines like, "Avast ye mates" to other cars on Northern Lights. Her friend waved the musket.
MIDTOWN: Volunteer for Murkowski hit as vehicles trade shots.
By RICHARD MAUER and MEGAN HOLLAND
Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 23, 2006
Last Modified: August 23, 2006 at 03:00 PM
.. across from The Mall at Sears as the occupants of two vehicles blasted away at each other.
...
Another man, who also had nothing to do with the original shooting, was issued a citation for disorderly conduct for pointing a plastic musket from the window of a car as it drove amid the chaos. He and others in the car, which had an "I brake for hallucinations" bumper sticker, said they were
playing pirates.
...
With the shooting long over but the traffic jam still building, Ryan Rochon looked out his pickup window into the barrel of a musket pointed in his direction from a red SUV on Northern Lights. He knew the gun was plastic, but it seemed like such a bizarre act under the circumstances that he yelled to a cop. Three squad cars sped after the SUV. The car quickly responded to the officers. Three young occupants were handcuffed and brought back to the Sears mall parking lot, where they were questioned. Their car was brought back there too, a small skull dangling from its rearview mirror.
The first of the three to be released, Trystal Hodge, 19, said she and her friends have been playing pirate since middle school. Wearing goggles against the rain, she said she had stuck her head out of the SUV and yelled pirate lines like, "Avast ye mates" to other cars on Northern Lights. Her friend waved the musket.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Most Widely Read
The catalog, with a print run of 175 million copies in 27 languages and distributed in 35 countries, is thought to have the highest circulation of any publication worldwide – surpassing even the Bible.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
RFID Passport Has Arrived
US offers RFID passports to the public
8/14/2006 3:09:58 PM, by Jon Hannibal Stokes
Today marks the official full-scale, public rollout of the United States' controversial electronic passport initiative. The first, limited round of RFID-based passports went out last month, but now the new passports are available to everyone.
It's been a tough road for RFID passports, fraught with criticism, delays, unsupportable claims for the devices' security, backtracking on said claims, and some genuine listening on the part of State Department officials who appear to want to really get this right.
The new passports, with their metal linings and shared-key encryption, address most of the concerns that have been raised by privacy advocates and security professionals. Specifically, the lining prevents the RFID chips from being read while the passport is closed, and the encryption makes attempts to clone the RFID chips less attractive, since the data that's being copied is encrypted and can't be altered by the cloner.
As it turns out though, these security measures undermine the rationales given by the government for opting for contactless RFID instead of plain old smart cards in the new passports. Originally, the attraction of RFID is that it could be read at a distance with the passport closed, thereby speeding the ID checking process. Now that users not only will have to present and open passport, but they'll also have to have the passport's public encryption key read by an optical scanner, they might as well just be swiped through a contact-based scanner.
8/14/2006 3:09:58 PM, by Jon Hannibal Stokes
Today marks the official full-scale, public rollout of the United States' controversial electronic passport initiative. The first, limited round of RFID-based passports went out last month, but now the new passports are available to everyone.
It's been a tough road for RFID passports, fraught with criticism, delays, unsupportable claims for the devices' security, backtracking on said claims, and some genuine listening on the part of State Department officials who appear to want to really get this right.
The new passports, with their metal linings and shared-key encryption, address most of the concerns that have been raised by privacy advocates and security professionals. Specifically, the lining prevents the RFID chips from being read while the passport is closed, and the encryption makes attempts to clone the RFID chips less attractive, since the data that's being copied is encrypted and can't be altered by the cloner.
As it turns out though, these security measures undermine the rationales given by the government for opting for contactless RFID instead of plain old smart cards in the new passports. Originally, the attraction of RFID is that it could be read at a distance with the passport closed, thereby speeding the ID checking process. Now that users not only will have to present and open passport, but they'll also have to have the passport's public encryption key read by an optical scanner, they might as well just be swiped through a contact-based scanner.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Friday, August 11, 2006
Jumping Sturgeon
Wednesday, August 9, 2006; Posted: 1:37 p.m. EDT (17:37 GMT)
WILDWOOD, Florida (AP) -- A man riding a personal watercraft was injured after a 4-foot-long sturgeon jumped out of the water and hit him, wildlife officials said.
Blake Nicholas Fessenden, 23, was heading north on the Suwannee River on Sunday when he was hit and fell off the craft, according to a statement from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Fessenden was knocked unconscious.
WILDWOOD, Florida (AP) -- A man riding a personal watercraft was injured after a 4-foot-long sturgeon jumped out of the water and hit him, wildlife officials said.
Blake Nicholas Fessenden, 23, was heading north on the Suwannee River on Sunday when he was hit and fell off the craft, according to a statement from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Fessenden was knocked unconscious.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Happy Slapping
French pranksters held for traffic stunts in Spain
Tue Aug 8, 11:19 AM ET
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested four Frenchmen for jumping in front of cars on a busy road so that they could film them and post the footage on the Internet, the newspaper El Pais said on Tuesday.
The four jokers took turns to leap in front of cars, forcing the drivers to swerve or brake sharply and putting themselves and other vehicles in danger, town hall officials in Alicante were quoted as saying on the El Pais Web site.
Their intention was to film the reaction of drivers, on the road between Benidorm to La Nucia, and post them on the Web, the officials said.
Relatively rare in Spain, a youth craze known as "happy slapping" took off in Britain last year, in which groups of teenagers slapped or mugged strangers while filming the victims' reaction on camera phones. The images were then sent to friends or posted on Web sites.
Spanish police and local government officials were unavailable for comment.
Tue Aug 8, 11:19 AM ET
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested four Frenchmen for jumping in front of cars on a busy road so that they could film them and post the footage on the Internet, the newspaper El Pais said on Tuesday.
The four jokers took turns to leap in front of cars, forcing the drivers to swerve or brake sharply and putting themselves and other vehicles in danger, town hall officials in Alicante were quoted as saying on the El Pais Web site.
Their intention was to film the reaction of drivers, on the road between Benidorm to La Nucia, and post them on the Web, the officials said.
Relatively rare in Spain, a youth craze known as "happy slapping" took off in Britain last year, in which groups of teenagers slapped or mugged strangers while filming the victims' reaction on camera phones. The images were then sent to friends or posted on Web sites.
Spanish police and local government officials were unavailable for comment.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Journalist Creates His Own War Picture For Reuters
Reuters Pulls Doctored Photo
Photo from Beirut freelancer represents "a serious breach of Reuters standards."
By Miki Johnson
August 7, 2006
Reuters Pulls Doctored Photo
Reuters issued a "picture kill" advisory immediately after being notified of the manipulation.
Reuters pulled a photograph of burning buildings in Beirut yesterday after a post on the Little Green Footballs blog outed it as digitally manipulated.
The photo, filed on Saturday by freelance photographer Adnan Hajj, ran with the caption "Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs."
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Freedom To Fascism
Neither left- nor right-wing, this startling examination exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America. Through interviews with US Congressmen, a former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents, tax attorneys and authors, Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, voter fraud, the national identity card (becoming law in May 2008) and the implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track citizens. A striking case about the evolving police state in America.
A message from Aaron Russo
Friday, 02 June 2006
Dear Lovers of Liberty,
I am currently in Munich, Germany and receiving treatment at a cutting- edge cancer clinic.
A message from Aaron Russo
Friday, 02 June 2006
Dear Lovers of Liberty,
I am currently in Munich, Germany and receiving treatment at a cutting- edge cancer clinic.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Children arrested, DNA tested, interrogated and locked up... for playing in a tree
Children arrested, DNA tested, interrogated and locked up... for playing in a tree
By KHUSHWANT SACHDAVE, Daily Mail 22:27pm 23rd July 2006
Kids locked up for playing in a tree
Locked up in custody for two hours: Tree-climbing friends Katy Smith, left, Sam Cannon and Amy Higgins
To the 12-year-old friends planning to build themselves a den, the cherry tree seemed an inviting source of material.
But the afternoon adventure turned into a frightening ordeal for Sam Cannon, Amy Higgins and Katy Smith after they climbed into the 20ft tree - then found themselves hauled into a police station and locked in cells for up to two hours.
Their shoes were removed and mugshots, DNA samples and mouth swabs were taken.
By KHUSHWANT SACHDAVE, Daily Mail 22:27pm 23rd July 2006
Kids locked up for playing in a tree
Locked up in custody for two hours: Tree-climbing friends Katy Smith, left, Sam Cannon and Amy Higgins
To the 12-year-old friends planning to build themselves a den, the cherry tree seemed an inviting source of material.
But the afternoon adventure turned into a frightening ordeal for Sam Cannon, Amy Higgins and Katy Smith after they climbed into the 20ft tree - then found themselves hauled into a police station and locked in cells for up to two hours.
Their shoes were removed and mugshots, DNA samples and mouth swabs were taken.
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