5796535
submission
ScentCone writes:
The ELF (Earth Liberation Front) has claimed responsibility for destroying the primary AM towers used by KRKO in Washington state. From their statement, 'AM radio waves cause adverse health effects including a higher rate of cancer, harm to wildlife, and that the signals have been interfering with home phone and intercom lines.' The poor intercom performance must have been the last straw.
5580483
submission
ScentCone writes:
Three New Jersey-ites have been indicted in a crack/breach caper that netted them 130 million credit/debit card records and other sensitive info. Astonishingly, this was chalked up to SQL injection attacks, with data stolen from Heartland (a large card processing operation), 7-Eleven, and a grocery chain. The man named in the indictment, Albert Gonzalez, is already waiting trial for his alleged involvement in similar attacks on other retailers and restaurant chains in 2008. DoJ says the new data theft is the largest on record. Anybody recently buy a Slurpee with a credit card?
718101
submission
ScentCone writes:
A spokesman for China's foreign ministry says that — China being the "developing nation" that it is — he doubts that his country has the sophistication to hack foreign systems. This in response to statements by two congressmen regarding apparent probing by China-based crackers into congressional systems for information about communication between US officials and activists in China.
392677
submission
ScentCone writes:
The Telegraph covers a New Scientist report (subscribers only) about two US comsologists who suggest that, a la Schrodinger's possibly unhappy cat, the act of obvserving certain facets of our universe may have shortened its life . FTA, 'Prof Krauss says that the measurement of the light from supernovae in 1998, which provided evidence of dark energy, may have reset the decay of the void to zero — back to a point when the likelihood of its surviving was falling rapidly.' Warning: if you've read this summary, you may have already changed the article.
36448
submission
ScentCone writes:
New Zealand's Qualification Authority (which sets testing standards for the public schools) is confident that those grading papers will understand the meaning of students' responses, even if they use phone/IM-style text-speak. FTA, "credit will be given if the answer 'clearly shows the required understanding,' even if it contains text-speak." Many teachers are not amused, and critics say that the move will devalue NZ's equivalent of a high school diploma.
16073
submission
ScentCone writes:
North Korea says that it has conducted its first nuclear weapons test and "brought happiness to its people."
Japan and China earlier issued an unusual joint statement saying that such a test would be "unacceptable."
As of 11:10PM EST, the USGS says that it has not detected any unusual seismic activity on the Korean peninsula in the last 48 hours. Is NK's declaring a successful test with no apparent seismic indicators suggesting that they have actually done so just a more over-the-top-than-usual bit of propoganda?
