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Researchers Discover Android Mobile Botnet 100k Strong

FidoSysop — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:16:41 +0000

Beware.. Your Android Phone may be concealing hidden malware as a part of a mobile botnet secretly stealing all your phones stored data and more.

A newly discovered malicious application circulating on third party Android markets in China has created a botnet that contains more than 100,000 compromised devices, researchers report.

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Symantec say the malware, dubbed RootStrap (NC State) installs a known remote access trojan (RAT) named BMaster (Symantec). It is capable of stealing a wide range of information from infected Android devices running versions earlier than 2.3.3 and 3.0, and may be ginning up illicit profits with premium SMS and telephony scams, according to the report from NC State and Symantec.

Malicious software researches and anti virus companies have observed a sharp spike in the number of malicious programs targeting the Android platform in the last year, as the population of Android devices has skyrocketed. However, botnets are still rare for the mobile world.

The Android botnet is mostly confined to China and is the largest such mobile botnet documented to date. With infections that date to September, 2011, the Android botnet sported 11,000 active devices generating revenue for the botmaster as recently as last week. Data from January shows 29,000 active devices, according to Symantec, which analyzed data from a command and control server used by the botnet.

According to Xuxian Jiang of NC State, the RootSmart malware is similar to an earlier AndroidUnlike previous

Android malware, dubbed GingerMaster. Like that malware, RootSmart uses the GingerBreak jailbreak for Android devices that use the Gingerbread version of the Android operating system. Once installed in the guise of the host application, RootSmart fetches the GingerBreak jailbreak and then uses it to elevate its privileges on the device and install both the BMaster remote administration tool and malware from its C&C server, including the DroidLive malware. That infection technique is similar to a proof of concept illustrated by security expert Jon Oberheide in 2010.

Though reliable data on the size and operation of the botnet isn’t available, Symantec estimates that it could generating anywhere between $1,600 to $9,000 per day and $547,500 to $3,285,000 per year for its operators, depending on how many infected devices the botmasters are able to sustain.

RootStrap isn’t the first example of an active, revenue-generating Android botnet, Symantec points out. However, it may be the first that large enough and profitable enough to rival traditional Windows-based bot networks. That, Symantec points out, means it certainly won’t be the last.

Half Of Americans Call Facebook A Passing Fad

FidoSysop — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:09:54 +0000

Half of Americans think Facebook is a passing fad, according to the results of a new poll. And, in the run-up to the social network’s initial public offering of stock, half of Americans also say the social network’s expected asking price is too high.

The company Mark Zuckerberg created as a Harvard student eight years ago is preparing for what looks to be the biggest Internet IPO ever. Expected later this week, Facebook’s Wall Street debut could value the company at $100 billion, making it worth more than Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.

That’s testament to the impressive numbers Facebook has posted in its relatively brief history. More than 40 percent of American adults log in to the site, to share news, personal observations, photos and more, at least once a week. In all, some 900 million people around the world are users. Facebook’s revenue grew from $777 million in 2009 to $3.7 billion last year. And in the first quarter of 2012 it was more than $1 billion.

Just a third of those surveyed think the company’s expected value is appropriate, 50 percent say it is too high. Those who invest in the stock market are more likely to see Facebook as overvalued, 58 percent said so. About 3 in 10 investors say the expected value of shares is fair.

But price worries won’t necessarily stop would-be investors. Half the people surveyed say they think Facebook is a good bet, while 31 percent do not. The rest aren’t sure. Americans who invest in stocks roughly agree, although investors who are more “active”, those who have changed their holdings in the past month, are more negative. Nearly 40 percent say Facebook would not be a good investment.

Young adults, a majority of whom log on to Facebook daily, are more willing to dance to their hoodie-wearing piper, 28-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Among Zuckerberg’s peers, adults under age 35, 59 percent say Facebook is a good bet. Compare that to the views of senior citizens: Only 39 percent age 65 and over say Facebook shares are a good investment. Nearly half of Gen X’ers (ages 35-44) say the company is a good bet, as do 55 percent of middle-aged people.

Those under 35 are the generation most interested in Facebook’s IPO because they’ve grown up immersed in the social network. They were the first users, logging in from their college dormitory rooms. Later, Facebook expanded to allow high school-age and even younger students to sign up. It’s become an integral part of their lives, giving them a launching pad to spread the news of life’s major developments through posts and pictures.

Conversely, it’s the rare senior citizen on Facebook: Just 21 percent have an account. Half of baby boomers, the generation born in the years after World War II, have one. But most of the 56 percent of the country that’s on Facebook is young, two-thirds of Gen X’ers and a staggering 81 percent of people 18-35 use the social networking site. Read MORE HERE.

Man Spends 60K Trying To Get His Dog Knuckles From Ex-girlfriend

FidoSysop — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:52:23 +0000

Craig Dershowitz says his ex-girlfriend “dognapped” his puggle named Knuckles and he’ll do anything to get the pooch back — including going into debt and pleading for donations online to further the effort.

According to the “Rescue Knux” website Dershowitz created as a forum for people to donate to the cause, he claims his ex-girlfriend was taking care of Knuckles while he was looking for a new place to live after their breakup. But when he returned for the pooch, the ex — whom he portrays as Cruella Deville in a video on the site — had left New York and was on her way to California, taking Knuckles with her.

But Dershowitz wouldn’t let her get away that easily. He is now taking her to court to battle for custody of the beloved puggle. Dershowitz has already spent almost $60,000 in fees — and the fight isn’t over yet. That’s why he’s enlisting kind souls and fellow pet lovers to help, asking for donations to further his cause.

Dershowitz told ABC News that he had already received two orders in the state of New York giving him custody of Knuckles. But the situation gets sticky because his ex now lives in Los Angeles. A California judge will hear arguments May 16.

“I know it might sound funny and I understand that. If it wasn’t so painful, I would be laughing too (I mean, c’mon – dognapp – really?) but this is very serious to me and I miss him a lot. Enough that I have gone into debt to retrieve him and enough that I am on here asking for your help. I need the money to keep fighting the court battle,” Dershowitz wrote on the site.

Dershowitz says his ex’s strategy is to bring him down financially by “filing motion after frivolous motion just knowing that each time my lawyer responds it takes me one step closer to having nothing at all.” But that won’t stop him. “This bond is often as strong as between a child and parent. I raised Knux since he was two months old. I trained him, played with him, loved him and felt that he did pretty much the same to me. No, he is not a human being. But, he is a caring, loving being with a soul that I have grabbed and held. He does mean that much to me.”

So far, Dershowitz has collected $410 of the $20,000 he’s asking for.

Yahoo’s Scott Thompson Reportedly Diagnosed With Thyroid Cancer

FidoSysop — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:13:12 +0000

This has got to be disastrous news to him.

The thyroid gland is under the thyroid cartilage (Adam’s apple) in the front part of the neck. In most people, the thyroid cannot be seen or felt. It is butterfly shaped, with 2 lobes– the right lobe and the left lobe– joined by a narrow isthmus. If you (or a loved one) are worried about developing thyroid cancer, have just been diagnosed, are going through treatment, or are trying to stay well after treatment, the Detailed Guide can help you find the answers you need. Read MORE HERE.

I do pray for a quick recovery. But with the latest Resume Gate Scandal hope it’s not just an excuse for sympathy.

Yahoo’s ex-CEO Scott Thompson has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The newspaper, attributing people familiar with the matter, said Thompson, 54, had informed the company’s board of directors and several colleagues about the diagnosis last week, while the board was probing discrepancies in his academic record.

Yahoo announced Sunday that Thompson would be stepping down from the Internet pioneer, effective immediately. Yahoo didn’t give a reason, saying in a press release only that Thompson has “left the company.” But the Wall Street Journal reported that one of the people familiar with the matter said the cancer diagnosis was at least part of the reason for Thompson’s departure.

Monday’s news was a startling development in the Icarus-like tumble of Thompson from the heights of the online world ever since a major shareholder revealed two weeks ago that Thompson had claimed in securities filings that he had a degree in computer science when he did not.

Yahoo initially had defended Thompson, saying the discrepancy was an inadvertent error. But the investor, Daniel Loeb of Third Point LLC, which owns about 5.8 percent of Yahoo, kept up the pressure, calling more than once for Thompson to step down. Read MORE HERE.

JPMorgan Chase Takes $2 Billion Dollar Loss On Bad Investment!

FidoSysop — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:32:59 +0000

Ouch! Didn’t we recently bail them out??

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, which disclosed a $2 billion loss last week, said he was “dead wrong” when he dismissed concerns about the bank’s trading last month.

CEO Jamie Dimon said he did not know the extent of the problem when he said in April that the concerns were a “tempest in a teapot.” After the bank reported the trading loss, investors shaved almost 10 percent off the bank’s stock price.

“We made a terrible, egregious mistake,” Dimon said in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “There’s almost no excuse for it.”

The $2 billion loss came in the past six weeks. Dimon has said it came from trading in so-called credit derivatives and was designed to hedge against financial risk, not to make a profit for the bank.

Dimon said the bank is open to inquiries from regulators. He has also promised, in an email to the bank’s employees and in a conference call with stock analysts, to get to the bottom of what happened and learn from the mistake.

Dimon told NBC that he supported giving the government the authority to dismantle a failing big bank and wipe out shareholder equity. But he stressed that JPMorgan, the largest bank in the United States, is “very strong.”

Lawmakers and critics of the banking industry have seized on the $2 billion loss to say that banks still take too much risk more than three years after the financial crisis.

A piece of the financial regulation known as the Volcker rule would prevent banks from certain kinds of trading for their own profit. Dimon has said the trading involved in the $2 billion loss would not have fallen under the rule. Read More of this article HERE.

Article Source, Fox News & CBS Video.

Fullerton CA Officers To Stand Trial In Kelly Thomas Beating Death

FidoSysop — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:20:10 +0000

I hope these two get everything that they have coming!

A judge Wednesday ordered Fullerton Officer Manuel Ramos and Cpl. Jay Cicinelli to stand trial on all charges in the death of Kelly Thomas, who died five days after he encountered the officers at a Fullerton Transportation Center in July.

Officer Manuel Ramos is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Thomas. Cpl. Jay Cicinelli is charged with involuntary manslaughter and excessive force. Ramos faces a potential sentence of 15 years to life if convicted of second-degree murder but only four years if convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Cicinelli faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Judge Walter Schwarm heard from witnesses and viewed surveillance video of the beating during a preliminary hearing that started Monday. During the transportation center surveillance video, Thomas – a homeless man who suffered from mental illness — can be heard calling for his father and telling officers that he cannot breathe. Thomas died five days later after he was removed from life support.

UC-Irvine trauma surgeon Dr. Michael Lekawa testified Tuesday that Thomas suffered from hypoxia — the body as a whole or a region of the body wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

But defense attorneys have questioned witnesses during the preliminary hearing about whether the actions of responding paramedics might have contributed to Thomas’ death. At a pre-trial hearing in December, Ramos’ attorney said the officer used “only that force that was necessary” to restrain “a non-compliant suspect.”

The 38-year-old Ramos is a 10-year Fullerton police veteran. Cicinelli, 42, and Ramos are on unpaid administrative leave. Four other officers who responded to the bus depot were not charged.

It was Ramos who started the chain of events that led to Thomas’ death, according to District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. He arrived at the transportation center after a report of car break-ins. Officer Joe Wolfe arrived a short time later.

Dr. Aruna Singhania, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Thomas’ body, returned to testify Wednesday. Thomas died due to bleeding from his broken nose and other facial injuries, she testified Tuesday.

The blood filled his lungs and oxygen deprivation left his brain dead, Singhania said.

Security Footage of Homeless Man Beaten To Death By Fullerton Police

FidoSysop — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:07:29 +0000

The Homeless in America have No Rights as evidenced by this security footage of a Fullerton CA homeless man who was beaten to death by police.

SANTA ANA – Defense attorneys for two Fullerton police officers hammered away at a trauma doctor regarding the cause of death for transient Kelly Thomas, who died in an Orange County hospital five days after a violent encounter with Fullerton police last July.

The preliminary hearing for two officers charged in the schizophrenic man’s death, in its second day, will determine if there is sufficient evidence to put the two officers on trial.

Defense attorneys for Officer Manuel Anthony Ramos and Cpl. Jay Patrick Cicinelli suggested in their questioning of a trauma surgeon at UCI Medical Center in Orange — where Thomas died — that the cause of death was due to factors aside from Thomas’ struggle with officers. Prosecutors say the weight of the officers on top of his chest deprived Thomas of oxygen and was a major factor leading to his death.

Questions from attorney John Barnett, who represents Ramos, seem to imply improper or inadequate medical treatment of Thomas after the incident could have played a role in the death.

Dr. Michael Lekawa was asked to view segments of the surveillance video that captured the altercation.

Barnett asked the doctor to point out specific instances on the video where Thomas appears to stop breathing while struggling with officers and screaming. But the doctor pointed out that hypoxia – a condition caused when the body is deprived of oxygen – doesn’t occur instantly.

“His (Thomas) capacity to speak diminished over time,” the doctor said.

Cicinelli’s attorney, Michael Schwartz, pursued the same line of questioning with Lekawa.

Ramos, 38, a 10-year veteran of the department, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for his role in the July 5 incident. Cicinelli, 42, who has been on the force for 12 years, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and excessive force under color of authority. Read More HERE.

Security camera footage showing the police beating of Kelly Thomas, a mentally ill homeless man, at a Fullerton, California bus depot. The altercation begins at 15:20.

Pinellas Head Start Managers Waste Tax $$$ At Saftey Harbor Spa

FidoSysop — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:36:25 +0000

Safety Harbor Resort. Your Tax $$ Being Squandered!

When are Government Agencies going to QUIT Squandering Tax Payers Money??

Largo, Florida. How does a three day training summit at a first-class resort and spa sound to you? Well, that’s where Pinellas Head Start held their summit for the second time… and once again it’s on your dime.

This is an agency that has been under fire before and has been reeling since a highly critical Health Human Services audit came out last May. It appears that the agency and its executive director, Juanita Heinzen, haven’t changed and you are paying for it.

When we last reported on Heinzen, she was walking out of the Pinellas Courthouse after agreeing to a plea bargain for lying to police. But Heinzen, who makes $136,036 a year, has been at much fancier digs lately. She conducted a three day planning summit at the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa.

Pinellas Head Start could have conducted its training in its own building that has facilities to accommodate everyone who went to the training. Their offices have the latest audio visual equipment, big screen TV’s, computers, the works, all paid for with your tax dollars.

But Heinzen believes this facility just isn’t good enough.

“Because of the constant interruptions, people walking in… the cross traffic here is tremendous,” says Heinzen.

This is the second time Pinellas Head Start held a training summit at Safety Harbor Resort and Spa, and it spent between $5,000 and $6,000 in taxpayer dollars. It’s money that won’t be spent on people who some say need it the most.

The latest federal audit: Cited the agency for Improper charges of $31,704 for seven training trips. It noted two of the trips with head start employees and board members were to Las Vegas cost $13,569. A management conference with nine staff member spent $616 for dinner

It something Heinzen didn’t want to talk about. “Thank you very much, have a great day… thank you very much,” said Heinzen as she walked away from us.

The agency has also been cited for conflicts of interest and favoritism involving board members and Heinzen’s own daughter. The improper use of Head Start funds is also being investigated by the FBI, and critics say they wouldn’t be surprised if Heinzen was in court again and not able to walk away so easily.

Article and Video source 10 News Tampa Bay.

Dania Suarez Interview With Today Show’s Michelle Kosinski

FidoSysop — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:57:54 +0000

The Colombian hooker at the center of the Secret Service sex scandal slammed the G-men as “stupid brutes” Monday and confirmed for the first time that she and ex-agent Arthur Huntington had sex.

Dania Suarez told NBC’s “Today” that Huntington and his fellow agents were “very direct” in asking her and her prostitute pals for sex at the Cartagena disco where the scandal erupted last month.

“The way they approached us, it seems obvious that they were used to doing it, because people who do this for the first time are very shy,” Suarez, speaking in Spanish, told NBC’s Michelle Kosinski in an interview from Madrid, where the hooker has been hiding out.

The 24-year-old brunette stunner said the elite agents were flaunting their fit physiques during the booze-fueled night at the discotheque.

“They liked to show off their bodies. Great bodies. Well-defined abs,” Suarez giggled. “They liked attention, and we Colombian women are not used to that.”

Huntington, a 41-year-old married father of two, was particularly proud of his ripped stomach, she said.

“I was surprised every time he danced with me, he lift up his sweater so I could see,” she said.

“They were full of themselves,” she added. “There was an over-crazy guy that jumped up on the bar.”

Last week, Suarez told a Colombian radio show that Huntington did not appear to be looking for a call girl and that she picked him out because he was the “most handsome.” She told “Today” that it was clear Huntington knew she was a hooker before they left the club.

“These are very basic words. Sex, sexo, cash, money, dinero,” she said. “I made a sign with my fingers so he couldn’t pretend I was charging 80 dollars or 80 cents” instead of $800.

The pair eventually went back to Huntington’s room at the swank Hotel Caribe and had “normal sex,” after which he quickly fell asleep, leaving his luggage and secret files out in the open, Suarez said.

The next morning, the agent appeared begged her to stay, she said.

“He told me to stay,” Suarez said. “He told me ‘Stay here, stay my love, stay my love.”

“I told him no. I told him to give me my money, that I was going home,” she said.

Huntington got mad, gave her $50 and then kicked her out of his room, she said.

After she refused to leave and local cops shows up, Suarez said Huntington collected about $250 from his agent pals, and she left.

In previous interviews, Suarez said Huntington only offered her $28.

More than two dozen Secret Service agents and U.S. military personnel were disciplined in the aftermath of the scandal, which exploded just days before President Obama arrived in Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas.

Several agents lost their jobs, including Huntington, who packed up his family and fled their Maryland home.

Suarez said the agents got what they deserved.

“I’m not to blame for being attractive. They are to blame for leaving their duty behind,” she said.

“They seem like completely stupid, idiots. I don’t know how Obama had them in his security force. What dumb men.”

Article source, NY Daily News, Video, Today Show.

Arthur Huntington Previous St Petetersburg Fla Police Officer

FidoSysop — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:43:51 +0000

Talk about a Fall From Grace..

From St Pete Traffic Cop to Distinguished Secret Service Agent. Then Disgraced and back to doing maybe private security, or even working at McDonald’s.

Reminds me of an old friends favorite saying. The road to nookie is lined with danger!

ST. PETERSBURG – The prostitution scandal that has engulfed the Secret Service has ties to Tampa Bay, FOX 13 has learned.

CNN is reporting 41-year-old Arthur Huntington was the agent who started the whole controversy when he refused to pay a Colombian prostitute.

The public embarrassment cost Huntington his job with the Secret Service.

But before his elite security assignment, Huntington got his law enforcement training at the St. Petersburg Police Department, explains Public Information officer Mike Puetz.

“He left here under good circumstances and decided he wanted to go work for the Secret Service, and apparently made that change,” Puetz said.

Puetz says Huntington worked in traffic enforcement as a DUI officer for more than four years, and was considered a top cop.

“Clearly, to be hired by another law enforcement agency, especially the Secret Service, you would not need to have any real major issues in your personnel file. Clearly, that was the case in his situation,” Puetz said.

Nothing in his personnel file raised any red flags. In fact, his job performance reviews were glowing. He was often complemented by his supervisors for his calm demeanor, his great work ethic and his top physical shape.

Records show Huntington left the St. Petersburg Police Department in November of 2001, trained with the Secret Service, and was eventually sworn in.

Puetz says they never really heard much about him until now.

“We haven’t seen him in a long time and it’s certainly disconcerting when you hear allegations against any law enforcement officer. And obviously he does have connections to St. Pete, but this is still a breaking issue so we will reserve judgment on this until we hear more,” Puetz said.

Article and videos from multiple sources.

Agent in prostitution scandal had been a St. Pete police officer: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Testers Wanted To Accompany Autonomous Vehicles To Florida

FidoSysop — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:03:02 +0000

TAMPA – Don’t be surprised if you see an odd-looking vehicle with nobody’s hands on the steering wheel this summer. It will be an “autonomous vehicle,” using Florida roads as test tracks.

“I hope to see them here July 1,” said State Representative Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg. “And we’re hoping to have the cars down here for the [Republican National] convention. I think that would be really exciting to show the technology off,” he said.

This past legislative session, Brandes sponsored a bill making Florida the second state to recognize autonomous vehicles. It also encourages testing and development here in the Sunshine State.

Nevada was the first state and a lot of testing is now done there, but Brandes has been making his pitch to Google, one of the leading developers of the technology.

“It’s one thing to test in a state that has 2.1 million people like Nevada,” Brandes said. “It’s another thing to test in a state that has 19.7 million people, like the state of Florida.”

Brandes is in his first term in the legislature, so getting his dream recognized had its challenges.

“I had to convince the Senate it wasn’t witchcraft,” he joked.

At one point, Google took one of its test cars to Tallahassee.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi drove in the car, we had a variety of other legislators drive in the car and their aides drive in the car,” he said. “I can tell you I had it up to 70 miles per hour on I-10.”

In Brandes’ vision, the technology will be ready for real-life highway use in about ten years. He thinks crash fatalities could be cut in half, more cars will fit on existing roads, and commuters will have more productive time.

He also envisions “on-demand cars” that people could summon as needed, eliminating the need for personal vehicles.

Article and video source MyFox Tampa Bay.

Testers want to steer driverless cars to Florida : MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

My Facebook Account Locked Twice, Tracking or Security Concerns?

FidoSysop — Sat, 05 May 2012 15:32:53 +0000

Facebook Security Notification Email

If you log into your Facebook account from an unrecognized location, chances are your account will get a temporary lock placed on it. That’s why it’s so important to keep your security question and cell phone number current.

Twice this month i have got that Locked Out Message after attempting to log into my account. It’s not really a big deal as long as your account profile is current, and I’m glad Facebook has such security in place to protect my account.

However I’m one of those guys that believe it’s none of anyone’s business where my internet travels take me. It’s none of anyone’s business if I’m browsing numerous websites from a search query running down information for a new post. That includes all my friends at Google, Facebook, Linked in, Twitter, etc.

To hide behind a cloak of anonymity i utilize a VPN (virtual private network) that cloaks my true IP address, browser version, plugins, etc. I also scrub my system clean of any tracking cookies, temporary internet files, and who knows what else, when browsing new sites. To accomplish this i use Ccleaner which is another Fantastic FREE utility available HERE.

VPN’s are nothing new, and not illegal to use or operate. There are also hundreds of Proxy servers (not to be compared with a vpn) available to use FREE on the net. However be careful if using one of those freebie sites as it might be harvesting your log in credentials.

Lets face it, the Big Boys all want to keep tabs on your internet habits. They absolutely hate it when someone routinely wipes their system clean, but there is nothing they can do about it if someone does. As for me I probable take that to an extreme.

I absolutely Hate Internet Exploder! Bloated piece of Microsoft Information Harvesting Crap! It’s so bloated it takes a lot of system resources just to open, much less drag older systems down to a crawl.

A much better choice and my favorite browser is Mozilla Firefox. There are thousands of free skins and add on plugins for just about anything you can imagine. Here is the Firefox Download Link. Give FireFox a try, I bet you will love it too.

Seems i started posting about Facebook Security and got a little side tracked while writing this article. I’m a hobbyist and never had any internet training. I learn a little here, and a little there. And i enjoy sharing what i have learned.

But getting back to Facebook Security. Take the time NOW to go into Facebook and be sure all your contact information and personal info i9s current and correct. Same with your Google account. Google has a similar security verification system as Facebook.

Enjoy your Internet Travels..

Dania Suarez Interview With Colombia’s W Radio Translated Audio

FidoSysop — Fri, 04 May 2012 23:02:17 +0000

Dania Suarez Radio Interview Translated.

24 year-old Dania Suarez Lodono from the Island of san Andres was the prostitute in Cartagena, Colombia that got in the center of the whole sex scandal involving President Obama’s secret agents.

The whole mess went public after Arthur Huntington a married secret agent took Dania to his room at the Caribe Hotel, but when the time to pay up for her sexual services came he refused to pay what they previously agreed on the night before. You all know that story by now.

So after that and because many of Dania’s family and friends including her neighbors did not know she was a prostitute and fearful for her safety Dania decided to leave Colombia and hide, so far nobody would reveal her location.

Dania Suarez sat down for an interview with W Radio and Caracol network.

Host: Is The first time you talk and we want to thank you for that, Dania Welcome

Dania: Hello How are You:

Host: How has been you life after all of this?

Dania: Well to tell you the truth it has been difficult because I used to be a normal woman in Cartagena who live her life keeping a low profile and then all of the sudden this whole thing explodes, because I did not know those men where secret agents with Obama, all has been a complete surprise for me

Host: Yes, where were you born Dania?

Dania: I am Sanandresana, from San Andres Island.

Host: Yes, How long have you been living in Cartagena

Dania: approximately ten years.

Host: And all of 10 years you worked doing this same job?

Dania: No, I always had my mother’s support but the income was not enough to have the lifestyle I wanted to have, I always liked to have a high class life style

Host: And what is that kind of lifestyle?

Dania: Well I always liked to give a good example to my son, I didn’t (giggles), but yes to give him a good academic education.

Host: How do get involved in this kind of activity, when did you took the decision to give those services that we all know what they were?

Dania; Well, Julio what can I tell you, I was very young when I became pregnant with my son, I was 16, I always had my mom’s support like I jut said, but when I realized that I had the world upon my shoulders and that much responsibility, house, my son’s school and all the expenses and I also wanted to study to give my son a better future, but what happened a friend very close to me and said.. Dania is an easy life, you will get the money to study, had a better life, I can introduce you to some friends you can earn more money and well is not a little money is amount that you will be able to live on.

Host; how much money did you make?

Dania: minimum one million pesos and maximum 2 million 2 and a half million pesos

Host: Dania there is so much drama about what happened, I understand that right the Cumbre of the America passed you left Cartagena?

Dania: totally.

Host: After all of that many people gave their side of this story, but how exactly did you contacted the secret service agents? Do you work with locals?

Dania; well it was like any other day, I was nit in the street, walking in the streets of Cartagena looking for someone, that day I decided to go out with my girlfriends for drinks, about four friends, one of them well she knew one of the men an he approached us and asked us what we wanted to drink, she told him vodka, so we drank the first bottle of vodka, then the second and a third bottle, Then one of the men there told e that he found me very attractive, very pretty and that he wanted to go out with him, I told him, well love I’ll go out with you but you have to give a little something. I didn’t tell him right away the amount so we kept dancing, talking but when the time came that he wanted to leave and said, OK my love you have to give $800, that is the little something I want to go out with you. And he said” Ah Ok Baby lets go to the hotel” I asked what hotel was he staying and he said the Caribe, While all of tis neither me or my friends knew they were agents for Obama, so we left and I get to this place where I bought condoms and we left to the hotel.

Host: Who is we?

Dania: a friend, well a colleague she is not a friend, the agent that was with me and the other agent, the four of us, my friend left with the agent because she like him, she wasn’t going with him for the same reason that I did, (not just for the sex),

Host:your was purely business.

Dania: mine was all business

Host: then what happened?

Dania: she left with her friend to the room, I left with mine and aha..at about 6:00 a.m we got a call from front desk and said it is check out time, I said oh that is embarrassing, Ok I’m on my way out

Host: but did the hotel knew what you were doing, why did they call you to leave?

Dania: well I could have been a sister or anyone, they call because that is the time everybody leaves

Host: But a guest never gets call at 6:00 asking them to check out if they called is because they became suspicious of you

Dania: well that happens all the time that they call you to get out

Host: but the hotel knew what was going on?

Dania; I don’t know if they knew

A little pause here, I don’t know if in the U.S but in many motels or hotel clients can pay an hourly rate, these kinds of places are commonly used to do this kind of things, what the difference between hotel and motels in Latin America? room at motels have a little garage on each room tat the customer can park, close the garage door and nobody will see them entering or leaving but most importantly with whom.

Host: but after they called you then what happens?

Dania:well I woke the guy up and told him that it was the time for him to give me the little something I asked before, but he said “No. get out bi***h, I am not paying you nothing”, he grabbed his wallet, gave cab fare I was surprise, worried so I said Ok I’m leaving, I got to the room across the hall where his friend was, knocked on the door and told him that his friend only gave 50.000 pesos, he the friend was aware that I asked him about the little something the night before, I told him I need the money I needed to go. The other girl who was there told me not to pay attention not to worry to go just like that.

I said well it does matters, I didn’t came here for the same reason as you, I came here to work

Host: and then what happened

Dania: I begged from 6:00 a.m to 10:00 I didn’t want to go home without my money, I was in the room with the other girl and her agent, the other guy was locked in his room and didn’t want to go out. I knocked repeatedly, we didn’t make a scandal, that is a lie

Host: and then what happened:

Dania: after I saw the time, I decide to leave, I am not going to waste more time with these men, so I got out to aisle in the hotel I saw a local police officer, and I said, I need to tell you something but I don’t know how, because I am ashamed. So he said well tell me because that is what I am here for, maybe because he knew those men were agents and suspect he did something to me, so we get to the room and he knocked on the door and he didn’t answered, but from under the door we saw that he was standing right behind the door and he was not opening, he was aware police was outside, he knew who he was and he didn’t care.

If he cared he would have opened the door, give me the money and nothing would have ever happen, but that wasn’t the case. so I told the police officer to get someone who can speaks English, at that moment his friends were leaving the room, so I thought for sure I would get my money and get home.

Two more agents arrived and asked me what happened and I thought they would solve my problem, but they did they just told me “Please, no police” so I said but I you have no consideration with me, why should I have any with you? at the moment I felt strong, so I told them that the police was going to back me up. [the agent Dania slept with] Never got out of the room so the agents that where with me in the gather gathered $250, so I took the money and went home, three days later hell broke loose, but didn’t know why because I didn’t know they were agents

Host: while you were inside the room weren’t you curious about who was the gringo you were sleeping with?

Dania:Yes I was

Host: did you noticed any guns or Dania: well yes, I saw an uniform, nothing like the ones we have seen but a brown one.

Host: Will you go back to Cartagena?

Dania: No I am too embarrass to go back, my friends, family didn’t know

Host: any of them knew:

Dania: not all of them.

Dania Suarez spend in Dubai the hos asked her if she was there on business or pleasure, she said pleasure, he then asked her how can she afford to stay at a place where only VIP people can, Dania refused to answered, the host then asked how did you decided to fly there, Dania said well I just did, she was questioned about whether or not there is a special person in Abu Dhabi she said “Maybe”.

The host was not other with the questioning he then asked Dania where did she met this person, she said in Cartagena, was it while you were offering your services? the host asked, I reserve the right o answer that.

In the middle of the interview the host took call from all over the world, one in particular is very interesting, this one is from the U.S, and this person asked Dania, so Ok the agent was very drunk and then passed out, do you think if you could look into the agent belongings? Absolutely! she said I could have gone into his wallet, luggage, document even ask him whatever I wanted, for example is I was a spy.

Article content, multiple sources.

Dania Suarez Video interview is below.

Dania Suarez Interview in Spanish Audio.

Dania Suarez Describes Night Of Intimacy With Secret Service Agents

FidoSysop — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:12:11 +0000

Dania Suarez, Interview With Caracol News in Cartagena

A 24-year-old woman who says she is the prostitute at the center of a Secret Service scandal gave the most full account yet of her alleged dispute over payment with an agent that led to revelations of nine Secret Service members bringing prostitutes to their rooms on a presidential business trip to Colombia.

In an interview on Caracol News in Cartagena, Dania Suarez said she and some girlfriends had met for a drink on April 11 when they encountered an American man out carousing and drinking vodka in a Cartagena bar with other Americans. Appearing composed as she spoke, Suarez said in the interview that she agreed to go back to the agent’s hotel room — not realizing he worked for the Secret Service — and they negotiated ahead of time that he would pay her what she called a “little gift” of $800.

When she asked for that money the next morning, Suarez said, the agent’s pleasant personality from the night before had disappeared and he told her : “Let’s go, b—-. I’m not going to pay you.” She said he pushed her out of his room and into the hallway.Suarez’s identity could not be independently verified, but many important details of her account appeared to be consistent with versions shared with The Post by people briefed on the incident or involved in the probe.Hundreds of Secret Service agents were in Cartagena for work preparing for President Obama’s arrival there on Friday for an international summit on economic issues. But several were partying hard on Wednesday night and into the early hours of Thursday morning before they had to report for assignments in the beach resort town, where prostitution is legal.The dispute about the payment eventually led Secret Service supervisors to investigate which other agents had brought women to their rooms that night, and to ship a dozen agents out of the country on suspicion they had solicited prostitutes or engaged in other misconduct.Suarez said that night had been a lot of fun, with the American men she and her friend had met drinking bottle after bottle of vodka. But for her, it was also business. When the agent asked her to come to his room, she said: “I’ll go with you if you give me a little gift At the end I said the little gift is $800.” She described his response this way: “Okay, baby. Vamonos.”

All that changed Thursday morning, when she was awakened in the agent’s room in the Hotel Caribe at 6:30 a.m. by a hotel desk receptionist, calling to explain it was time for non-paying guests to leave. Suarez said she reminded her client she needed to go and needed her “little gift” of $800.

When he then ejected her from the room, she said she knocked on the door of another agent, with whom her girlfriend had spent the night. Suarez stressed that her friend had liked the other agent and had slept with him without any business transaction. “She went with him because she liked him, you understand,” Suarez said. “It was not the same as me. . . . For me it was totally business.”

But in the hallway, the client’s friends didn’t seem to care Suarez had not been paid. She said she sought help from a local police officer, who was supportive, and then said she was going to look for an English-speaking police officer to get the agent to answer the door. She said the agent’s fellow male friends who were in the hallway then begged her not to.

“Please, please. No police, no police,” Suarez said they begged. “I said in Spanish, ‘Look, if you show no consideration for me, why would I have consideration toward you and not call the police?’ ” Suarez recalled. “In that moment, I felt strong.” Suarez said the men hustled to pool together some money, gave her $250 and she agreed to leave.

Suarez’s complaint to the Colombian national police led to a call to the U.S. Embassy, which is required whenever the local police has contact with a foreign national, and then a call to the agent’s top supervisor for the region. Paula Reid, a Secret Service supervisor in charge of the Miami office and with oversight of much of South America, launched an investigation that led to the agency shipping a dozen men out of the country before Obama arrived and recommending removing nine members from their jobs.

It wasn’t for two more days before the story exploded on international news that Suarez said she realized who her client worked for.

Article source, the Washington Post.

This video is in Spanish. Here is the direct link to it’s post page on TV Caracol News.

How To Get Store Items FREE With Extreme Couponing!

FidoSysop — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:07:14 +0000

Extreme Couponing - Shop Until You Drop!

Lets face it, the economy sucks!

I used to have the attitude that coupons would get me to buy something i normally wouldn’t, or to buy a name brand, when i normally wouldn’t.

Well things have changed for the better. Extreme Couponing is here. These value shoppers give a totally new meaning to “Shop Until You Drop!”.

Whatever you do, do NOT get in the checkout line behind this kind of shopper.

Hard-core couponers are in it to win it — for free, if at all humanly possible. They plot their grocery-store trips with the precision of military commanders. They load up three or four shopping carts at a time. They test the mettle — and the congeniality — of cashiers by having them tally dozens of discounts on their behalf.

And what do they get in exchange? Hundreds of dollars’ worth of merchandise for as little as $5 to $10, the applause of onlookers — and a surge of adrenaline that can be downright addicting.

“You come to realize that you should never really pay full price for anything — ever!” said Tiffany Ivanovsky, 35, who lives just north of Houston, Texas, and is part of a growing and dedicated subculture of “super couponers.”

In this economy, high-level couponing exploits are generating so much interest that they’re about to become the focus of a new reality TV show. Ivanovsky’s zeal for saving money caught the eye of TLC producers and landed her a spot on the series “Extreme Couponing,” which premieres Wednesday night.

Ivanovsky never anticipated this much attention. A few years back she started using coupons in earnest and in a state of panic after her husband lost his job.

“Today I save $1,000 a month just on groceries and toiletries,” she said. “That, to me, is a great part-time job.”

The thing is, Ivanovsky already has a full-time job as the director of a preschool. Not only that, she has seven kids ranging in age from 8 months to 13 years old. How does she find the time to clip even a single coupon?

Short answer: She makes time because it’s proven to be so helpful for her family’s budget.

“I probably spend two to three hours total a week cutting out coupons and looking online for more,” she said. “That’s really not that bad. You can do it at night after the kids are in bed. …

“I also believe in bribery! My older children will help me cut coupons out. It’s worth a dollar to me to have them do that.”

The“Extreme Couponing” show is as billed extreme. The couponers featured on the show have had to rearrange their homes, garages, vehicles and entire lives to make room for the mountains of toilet paper, razors, shampoo, jarred peanuts and canned corn they’re stockpiling. Plenty of American consumers have grown accustomed to shopping in bulk — but this is more like shopping in anticipation of a coming apocalypse.

“I kind of feel like sometimes the walls are just closing in on me,” Ivanovsky admitted on “Extreme Couponing” when describing the stash she keeps at her Texas home. “My children call our home the Ivanovsky Mini-Mart just because you’re going to find all kinds of groceries all over the entire house.”

Why the excessive stockpiling? The super-couponer mentality goes something like this:

Time the purchase of a certain grocery item so you’re buying it only when it’s on sale.

Combine that sale with a coupon that can be doubled in value. Or, shop during the sale and stack a manufacturer’s coupon with a store coupon.

In many cases, the combined discounts will result in a free product. Wheeeeee!

Haul as many of those freebies home as you can carry — and then you won’t ever need to buy that item again for three to 12 months.

Since grocery-store sales tend to be cyclical, with many items being discounted at least once every three months or so, it doesn’t take too long for a super couponer’s inventory to begin resembling that of well, a grocery store.

This extreme portrayal of couponers as hoarders makes Collin Morgan more than a little uneasy. The founder of the coupon site Hip2Save.com said the vast majority of coupon users she knows are simply trying to save money in smart ways and buy only what they need.

“I’ve learned over time that there are so many stages of couponing,” Morgan said. “[The show] is showing that first stage, when you do get a little bit obsessed. When I first started I couldn’t have enough shampoo or toothpaste … and you do get a really big high from it.

“But then I realized so much more balance is needed. I got to the point where I could say, ‘I don’t need to go to five different stores today and try to get all these deals because I want to spend time with my kids or have other priorities.’ ”

Determined stockpilers say their shopping and storage patterns can have unexpected benefits — for all kinds of people. Ivanovsky said she’ll pick up products for free, even if her family doesn’t need them, because she figures she can donate them. “During Hurricane Ike, we were able to donate over $1,200 worth of toiletry items to my children’s school,” she wrote on her blog, MyLitter.com. In like manner, 12-year-old Emma McDaniel has been bitten by the coupon bug, and she’s been making headlines for her money-saving prowess — and her generosity. McDaniel has donated thousands of dollars’ worth of goods to needy children in her home state of South Carolina.“I’m couponing for everybody,” she said in a local television interview. “I’m couponing to give back.”

Nicole Bamber, a publicist for the cable TV network TLC, said network executives were astonished by the popularity of an initial one-hour special of “Extreme Couponing” that aired back in December. The special had 2.1 million viewers and created a huge buzz online.

“It was very unexpected,” Bamber said. “It kind of took off and went viral. I think, because of the economy, it’s trendy to save money right now. People aren’t embarrassed about it.”

How to get started: Like so many people out there, are you intrigued by the couponing movement but convinced you don’t want to install special shelving systems in your home to store groceries? Not to worry. It isn’t hard to start small and get in the habit of saving money by tapping into some of the pros’ cleverest tricks. For instance:

Save now! 10 tips to be a better coupon sleuth: Use the sale-plus-coupon-stacking method described above. Try it just once, with one item, to get the feel for how the process works.

Try scouring the Sunday paper one time for coupons you might actually use. If you hate clipping, just throw entire ads into a folder. If you hate this process altogether, read the next step.

Take a few minutes to print out coupons you might actually use. Just visit the websites of manufacturers you like, click on the “coupons” tab, and start printing. You can do this for a huge array of products, including organic and all-natural foods. Morgan of Hip2Save.com mentioned that Horizon Organic Milk offers great coupons online.

If you can’t find coupons on a company’s website, dash off a quick, one- to two-sentence email to the company and request free samples and coupons. They almost certainly will show up in the mail.

Create special “fake,” if you will email and Facebook accounts just for couponing. This will help you protect your privacy and keep the emails you receive from companies all in one place.

Visit companies’ Facebook pages and “like” certain products with your newfound, fake Facebook identity. (This will prevent your mother and your boss from learning that you “like” K-Y Jelly, for example.) By liking certain products, you’ll gain access to all sorts of coupons and free samples. Remember that you can go in and “unlike” something once you’re done.

Join rewards programs at drugstores. Ivanovsky said she avoided shopping at drugstores for years because she thought their prices were too high — until she learned about the rewards programs at places like CVS and Walgreens. Now that she’s figured out how to use the programs, she’ll go through the checkout line multiple times in a row at those stores. Why? We’ll let Ivanovsky explain:

“OK, so at CVS, they give you ‘ExtraCare Bucks,’ or ECBs, when you buy certain things. Your ECBs show up at the bottom of your receipt, and they’re like cash. I view them as gift cards. You can keep rolling those ECBs from one purchase to the next purchase. At that same CVS I will go through the checkout line five different times. I keep getting more ‘cash’ and using it to buy more stuff right then. I’ll get $60 to $80 worth of products and only pay $6 to $8. …

“Grocery stores have the same thing on their receipts. They’re called catalinas, and a lot of those are the same as cash also. Just look at your receipt! You can walk back in right then and get a gallon of milk or whatever.”

Article and Video’s source NBC Today.

What Caused N.J. Tanning Mom’s Rough Leathery Look?

FidoSysop — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:11:06 +0000

Patricia Krentcil Excessive Tanning Addict

Ugggggg! And to think she put her daughter in a tanning bed!

According to Today: That’s was the reaction of many of our readers after seeing burnt-to-a-crisp New Jersey mom Patricia Krentcil, who made news after authorities arrested her for taking her 5-year-old daughter to a tanning salon to tan, a claim she denies.

Krentcil does admit that she enjoys tanning — perhaps a bit too much — but all those hours in UV light have likely damaged the collagen in Krentcil’s skin, causing her leathery, brown visage.

“That’s a result of chronic exposure, which causes darkening of the skin,” says Dr. Shannon Campbell, clinical assistant professor of general dermatology and cutaneous oncology at The Ohio State University James Cancer Center.

While many people just desire a bronze color, a tan is actually the body’s way of protecting itself. “Why is she so dark? Tanning is a protective mechanism that the body has and it is sign of skin damage if the body tans. That explains why her skin is so dark,” says Campbell.

Collagen, which is in the dermis, the second layer of the skin, gives the skin its elasticity. Collagen keeps skin strong and elastic, but as it lessens due to age or UV damage, the skin sustains cracks or wrinkles. It’s what makes skin pliable and the less one has, the more wrinkles occur. That’s what’s causing Krentcil to look prematurely aged and leathery (she’s 44, but could easily pass as a Golden Girl).

And tanning — especially indoor tanning — causes more than just hideous looks. Campbell says that people who use tanning beds are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinomas (BCC). Someone with such a tanning history would also suffer from a weakened immune system (people often develop cold sores after tanning) and an increased chance of getting cataracts and ocular melanoma, a rare and often overlooked eye cancer caused by overexposure to UV light.

Krentcil’s excessive tanning has focused attention on “tanorexia,” a habit that research indicates can be as addictive as alcohol or smoking. A small study from 2006 found that when people who compulsively sunbathe — whether in a tanning booth or outdoors — stop, they can feel withdrawal symptoms from their UV high. And an earlier msnbc.com story reported that many teen girls hit the tanning salon for the first time with mom. Researchers from East Tennessee state University found that nearly 40 percent of young women, ages 18 to 30, who participated in a small study said their first experience with indoor tanning was with their mother.

Whether someone is hooked on rays — artificial or real — the World Health Organization classifies ultraviolet radiation as a known carcinogen, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, author of “Your Body Beautiful,” told TODAY Thursday. “They put it on the same level as cigarettes, on the same level as plutonium. So it’s dangerous.”

But there is hope for Krentcil. If she stops tanning her skin might lighten and different treatments could repair her collagen, leading to a more youthful appearance. Yet, Krentcil will probably always be at higher risk for cancer:

“To a degree the damage has already been done,” Campbell says.

BBB Rating Scam Hamas Terror Group Bought A- Rating For $425!

FidoSysop — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:01:48 +0000

Hamas Terror Group BBB $$$ A- Rating!

Lets face it, America these days is all about “Show Me The Money” and that apparently includes the Better Business Bureau. The BBB These days is more like a modern Tony Soprano and associates protection hustle!

According to ABC News: The Better Business Bureau, one of the country’s best known consumer watchdog groups, is being accused by business owners of running a “pay for play” scheme in which A plus ratings are awarded to those who pay membership fees, and F ratings used to punish those who don’t.

To prove the point, a group of Los Angeles business owners paid $425 to the Better Business Bureau and were able to obtain an A minus grade for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle Eastern terror group.

“Right now, this rating system is really unworthy of consumer trust or confidence,” said Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal in an interview to be broadcast as part of an ABC News investigation airing tonight on 20/20.

In an official demand letter sent to the national headquarters of the Better Business Bureau Thursday, Blumenthal called on the BBB to stop using its grading system, which he said was “potentially harmful and misleading” to consumers.

“The BBB accreditation and the BBB ratings systems is not about generating money,” said BBB national president and CEO Steve Cox. He said the A minus grade for Hamas was given in error. “Plain and simple, we made a mistake,” Cox told ABC News.

Errors seem to abound at the Better Business Bureau. As reported by an anonymous blogger the BBB also awarded an A minus rating to a non-existent sushi restaurant in Santa Ana, California and an A plus to a skinhead, neo-Nazi web site called Stormfront. Each listing cost $425.

“They ran the credit card and within 12 hours they were an approved, accredited member,” said the anonymous blogger, who runs a site called bbbroundup.com. “They’re more interested in the money than their credibility,” he said.

The BBB’s Cox said the three listings were all mistakes made by sales people. “That’s an inaccurate statement that business people are able to buy A’s,” Cox said. “We have more than 500,000 non-accredited businesses who have A ratings,” he added.

Better Business Bureau: Pay for Play? Yet, as part of the ABC News investigation, an ABC News producer with a camera was present as two small business owners in Los Angeles were told by Better Business Bureau tele-marketers that their grades of C could be raised to A plus if they paid $395 membership fees.

“So, if I don’t pay, even though the complaint has been resolved, I still have a C rating?” Hartman then read off her credit card number and the next business day the C grade was replaced with an A plus, and the one complaint was wiped off the record.

In a second case, Carmen Tellez, the owner of a company that provides clowns for parties was also told she had to pay to fix her C- grade, based on a two-year old complaint that she says had already been resolved.

The C minus became an A plus the very next day after she provided her credit card number for the $395 charge. “If I’m paying for a grade, then how are the customers supposed to really trust the Better Business Bureau?” she asked.

Article and video source ABC News

video platform video management video solutions video player

FDIC Warns Of Fraudulent E-mail Survey Scams

FidoSysop — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:41:20 +0000

FDIC Email Survey Scam

Scammers are always trying another way to steal your Identity and Your Money!

According to the FDIC.gov website: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of fraudulent e-mails that have the appearance of being sent from the FDIC.

The e-mail exhibits the “Subject” line: “SURVEY CODE: STJSPNUPUT”. The “From” line may exhibit variations; however, the messages are similar.

The email states, “You have been chosen by the FDIC to take part in our quick and easy 5 questions survey. In return we will credit $100 to your account just for your time!” The recipient is then instructed to “Click here to Continue.” Recipients should not click on the link provided.

This email and link are fraudulent. Recipients should consider the intent of the email as an attempt to collect personal or confidential information, or to load malicious software onto end users’ computers. As a reminder, the FDIC does not send unsolicited emails to consumers or business account holders.

Folks.. Just remember, nothing on this earth is FREE. Someone somewhere is always paying for it.

Beware if that promise in an email sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Don’t be a victim of consumer fraud, or Identity theft.

Google it up and see what others are saying.

Dania Suarez To Pose In Nude Photos For Whoever Pays The Most!

FidoSysop — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:17:20 +0000

Lets See Them Hooters

Hehehehe..

Yea that’s the ticket baby.. Get the $$ while your HOT in the public’s eye!

Soon the whole world may be able to see what the Secret Service did.

The Colombian hooker at the center of last month’s sex scandal is negotiating a deal to pose nude for either Playboy or Hustler, according to a report.

Dania Suaréz has worked with photographers and is looking to sell her body – again – to the highest bidder.

“This is the way this is going to end,” said a Colombian official who asked not to be identified told El Nuevo Herald Tuesday.

“She’s going to pose nude in Playboy, where a renowned journalist will interview her and write an article telling the whole story of what happened,” the official told the Spanish-language paper.

Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler, confirmed that Suarez took photos but that a deal has not yet been struck.

However, a spokeswoman at Playboy told the Herald that the skin magazine had not spoken to Suarez.

Suarez, 24, demanded that agent Arthur Huntington pay her $800 for a “date” night – but the cheapskate agent only ponied up $28.

That prompted the brunette bombshell to cause a scene in the hallways of the Cartagena hotel, which set off a chain of events that ensnared more than two dozen agents and members of the U.S. military.

Nine agents, including Huntington, have been forced out of the Secret Service, which has changed its code of conduct to prevent further embarrassing incidents.

President Obama had not yet arrived in Cartagena when the Americans allegedly brought more than 20 hookers back to their rooms in the Hotel Caribe.

The Daily News printed the first photos of Suaréz – clad in a bikini – but the prostitute has stayed out of the spotlight in the weeks after the scandal.

It was not immediately known how much money she was seeking for the nude photos.

Huntington, 41, and his family have apparently abandoned their Maryland home and have gone into hiding.

His wife told relatives that she planned to stay with the disgraced former agent.

Article Source, NY Daily News.

Boeing 727 Plane Intentionally Crashed Into Desert

FidoSysop — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:15:42 +0000

727 Air Liner Crashed Into Desert

There were No Survivors other than crash test dummies.

Television producers at the Discovery Channel, Channel 4 in the UK and Pro Sieben in Germany recently crashed a Boeing 727 in the name of science.

The plane’s pilot ejected from the aircraft minutes before the jet, guided remotely, went down in an isolated part of Mexico’s Sonoran Desert, according to a press release from the Discovery Channel.

“Rather than carrying passengers, the plane was packed with scientific experiments, including crash test dummies,” the statement said. “Dozens of cameras recorded the crash from inside the aircraft, on the ground, in chase planes and even on the ejecting pilot’s helmet.”

Scientists and veteran crash investigators will review the results of the crash. Laurie Goldberg, executive vice president of public relations at the Discovery Network, told msnbc.com that the company is not releasing the names of the experts at this time.

The goal of the experiment, according to Discovery, is to learn more about how to improve survival chances when a crash occurs.

Intentionally crashing a plane is an atypical way of testing for safety. Laura Brown, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, told msnbc.com that the agency has in the past conducted “drop tests,” which involves dropping a plane fuselage (the body minus its wings) from a certain height.

The FAA, which was not involved in the Discovery Channel experiment, requires that manufacturers build planes to certain safety specifications, and create their own tests accordingly. Brown said that manufacturers, for example, frequently test wing structure and strength by bending it until the snapping point.

Such tests are a lot less dramatic than crashing a plane, but still effective in keeping passengers safe.

Boeing 727s were “the best-selling airliner in the world during the first 30 years of jet transport service,” Boeing said on its website. The jet was produced from 1960 through 1984.

The crash will air later this year on the Discovery Channel program “Curiosity.”

Article source, NBC News.

Unused New 5 Year Old Metro Dade Fleet Vehicles Tax Dollars Wasted!

FidoSysop — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:43:46 +0000

Metro Dade County Government Waste!

What do twelve Ford F-250s, at least fifteen minivans, five Toyota Prius, and a hodgepodge of barely used government-purchased vehicles have in common? They make up a portion of the 100 or so Miami-Dade County cars which sit idly at the Earlington Heights Metrorail garage, totaling about $965,000.00 in dormant assets.

Since 2006 and 2007, Miami-Dade County has left the vehicles parked, out of service, and lying in wait. And, as we all know, unused cars don’t exactly remain maintenance or cost free – tires, batteries, fluids…and let’s not forget insurance. So why, in the name of all things holy, does Miami-Dade have 100+ cars collecting dust?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is anything but satisfying. The County decided to purchase these vehicles just before the Great Recession unfolded. Shortly after buying, the economy tanked and Miami-Dade had to trim their workforce and – you guessed it – number of cars on the road.

The next domino fell, which effectively assured that nearly a million dollars in vehicles would be stored away: then-currently operating vehicles were given priority to remain in use as a cost saving measure. Five, and in some cases six, years have passed.

“That is something that shouldn’t have happened. I’m trying to take care of the problem, but I am trying to in a logical manner,” County Mayor Carolos Gimenez stated to Local 10. “If you sell them you will only get 10 cents on the dollar, and these are brand new vehicles. So if I sell them all, next year I will have to buy new ones at 100 percent.”

But at least one Commissioner isn’t too thrilled with Mayor Gimenez’s rationale. Commissioner Lynda Bell responded, “I’m appalled by this, I can’t figure it out…My district needed a vehicle and now I see we have almost a million dollars’ worth of vehicles there.”

Not to mention that mint condition, extremely low mileage vehicles would not receive 10 cents on the dollar, even at auction, OR that new vehicles purchased in bulk are never bought at 100 percent value.

Nevertheless the Mayor does make a strong case for keeping the vehicles until they’re absolutely needed for service. For now they represent the flagrant waste of our pre-Recession boom, but going forward we can still use these assets as intended. Let’s just hope those Toyota Prius batteries can still hold a charge.

Article and Photos source, Local 10 Miami.

Metro Dade County Unused NEW Fleet Vehicles

Talk about a HUGE Waste Of Tax Dollars! Here is nearly a Million Dollars worth of NEW Fleet Vehicles. These cars, trucks, vans, have been sitting unused for 6-7 Years. Doing nothing but depreciate in value. Unbelievable!

George Zimmerman 200K Donations Via PayPal And Still Collecting!

FidoSysop — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:37:59 +0000

It’s interesting that the media are talking about George Zimmerman’s Website, Facebook and Twitter Accounts saying they all have been shut down, But Zimmerman’s PayPal Donation account is still available to anyone that want’s to donate a quick buck.

I wonder if anyone that made donations through PayPal with their Credit Cards might consider doing a Charge Back if the judge rules Zimmerman can’t keep the donated proceeds?

Another thing to consider is how would PayPal recover any money that is charged back to Zimmerman’s PayPal account? Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s attorney said the PayPal account has been shut down and the funds have been put in his trust account for the time being.

It just don’t sound like PayPal letting that account be emptied out without placing some form of hold on it. A hold is about the only way PayPal could recover any charge backs that could possibly be filed if Zimmerman is not allowed to keep the money.

Meanwhile, Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester said he wants to know more about the money before he decides whether to adjust the bond. The judge said he will make a decision at a later date.

Video source NBC News.

Confirmed Mad Cow Disease Discovered In Hanford California

FidoSysop — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:43:08 +0000

1st Case Of Mad Cow Disease Since 2006

The first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2006 surfaced in California’s Central Valley on Tuesday, triggering concerns about food safety. But health officials stressed that the diseased animal never entered the human food chain and that U.S. beef and dairy products are safe.

The diseased cow “was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health,” John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief veterinarian, said in a statement.

Mad cow disease was most famously imprinted on the minds of consumers by a massive outbreak in the United Kingdom that killed more than 150 people and 180,000 cattle. The disease can be passed to humans who eat tainted meat. The World Health Organization says research shows that milk does not carry the disease.

Previous scares were crippling to the cattle industry. Beef exports dropped by more than 70% after the first case in 2003.

“This is a big deal. People have a lot of fear over mad cow disease and for good reason,” said Stevie Ipsen, director of communications for the California Cattlemen’s Assn. “But our country’s meat is still the safest in the world. We’re confident people will carry on eating beef.”

Cattle ranchers cited Tuesday’s confirmation of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), as proof that a sound screening system is in place.

“This clearly illustrates the firewall is working. This is only the fourth case in nine years and none of them were headed for the food supply,” said Mike Smith, a projects manager with Harris Ranch Beef in Coalinga.

But Michael Hanson, a senior scientist with Consumer Reports and a longtime critic of U.S. mad cow disease policy, said the discovery could be alarming.

In 1997 the U.S. changed the rules for cattle food. Until then, rendered cows could become part of cattle feed. The strategy was to get the disease out of the food chain and then the disease would eventually disappear.

“If it turns out this cow is less than 14 years old, it proves my biggest concern: Cattle feed is still not protected from mad cow,” he said.

“We still allow risky practices. You can’t feed cows to cows directly. But you can feed cows to pigs and chickens and then feed them to cows.”

Clifford said the cow died of an atypical strain of the disease. Officials believe it is a rare spontaneous case and not linked to contaminated food.

The diseased cow died while still on the farm. On any given day a dairy has three or four carcasses of cows that may have died from old age. Rendering companies, commonly known as “fat and bone collection,” pick them up for processing into commercial products such as makeup, chicken feed and pet food.

This cow was headed to a rendering plant in Kerman, said Dennis Luckey, executive vice president of Baker Commodities. A random sampling taken when the cow was at a transfer station in Hanford last Wednesday proved inconclusive and the sample was forwarded to the government.

The USDA tests about 40,000 cows a year. Technicians who work for rendering plants cut the head off the cow and take a sample from the brain stem that is then sent to scientists for testing.

Cattle infected with the disease have been found in the U.S. only three previous times — in a Canadian-born cow in 2003 in Washington state, in a Texas cow found in 2005 and in one in Alabama in 2006.

Clifford said data show that the safeguards that the U.S. and other countries have put in place are successful. In 2011 there were only 29 worldwide cases. The peak was 37,311 cases in 1992.

Article source, La Times, Video NBC Today Show.

Feds Make 1st Arrest In BP Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Case

FidoSysop — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:07:49 +0000

Feds Make 1st BP Gulf Oil Spill Arrest

A BP engineer intentionally deleted more than 300 text messages indicating the amount of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico was much greater than what the company later reported and that BP’s efforts to control the spill were failing, the U.S. Justice Department alleged Tuesday in its first criminal charges related to the deadly explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Kurt Mix was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of obstruction of justice for allegedly destroying evidence sought by federal authorities.

The charges came a day before a federal judge in New Orleans was to consider a motion granting preliminary approval of a $7.8 billion civil settlement between BP and a committee of plaintiffs in a civil case. Shrimp processors have raised objections, saying the settlement does not adequately compensate them.

Criminal penalties that could be levied against BP and its partners in the operation would be based in part on estimates of the amount of oil that spilled from the Macondo well.

In an emailed statement, BP said it would not comment on the case but is cooperating with the Justice Department and other investigations into the oil spill. “BP had clear policies requiring preservation of evidence in this case and has undertaken substantial and ongoing efforts to preserve evidence,” the statement said.

Mix, 50, of Katy, Texas, was scheduled to appear in federal court in Houston on Tuesday afternoon. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count. The statement did not say whether Mix had a lawyer.

The engineer deleted more than 200 messages sent to a BP supervisor from his iPhone in October 2010 containing information about how much oil was spilling out – and then erased 100 more the following year after receiving numerous legal notices to preserve the information, the Justice Department said in a news release.

On the very first day in May of 2010 that BP began to use the “top kill” method to plug the leaking well by pumping heavy mud into the blown-out well head, Katy estimated in a text to his supervisor that 15,000 barrels of oil per day were spilling – an amount greater than what BP said the method could likely handle.

The BP-leased rig Deepwater Horizon exploded the night of April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and setting off the nation’s worst offshore oil disaster. More than 200 million gallons of crude oil flowed out of the well off the Louisiana coast before it was capped.

Article source, WLOX13 and YouTube.

How To Avoid July 9th “Internet Doomsday” Malware DNS Changer

FidoSysop — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:44:22 +0000

July 9th 2012 is Internet Doomsday!

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.

Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, www.dcwg.org, that will inform them whether they’re infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won’t be able to connect to the Internet.

Most victims don’t even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.

“We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because … if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service,” said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. “The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get `page not found’ and think the Internet is broken.”

On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two Internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March, giving everyone opportunity to clean their computers. But it wasn’t enough time. A federal judge in New York extended the deadline until July.

Now, said Grasso, “the full court press is on to get people to address this problem.” And it’s up to computer users to check their PCs.

This is what happened: Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the Internet’s domain name system.

The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address – such as www.ap.org – into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.

The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least $14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their Internet browsing.

When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie’s clean ones. Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about $87,000.

The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.

Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.

FBI officials said they organized an unusual system to avoid any appearance of government intrusion into the Internet or private computers. And while this is the first time the FBI used it, it won’t be the last.

“This is the future of what we will be doing,” said Eric Strom, a unit chief in the FBI’s Cyber Division. “Until there is a change in legal system, both inside and outside the United States, to get up to speed with the cyber problem, we will have to go down these paths, trail-blazing if you will, on these types of investigations.”

Now, he said, every time the agency gets near the end of a cyber case, “we get to the point where we say, how are we going to do this, how are we going to clean the system” without creating a bigger mess than before.

The FBI touts the DNS Changer Working Group’s website, which can discern whether you’re infected and explain how to fix the problem. But there are other ways.

Testing for the presence of the malware is easy. Because it redirects your web traffic from “good” to “bad” sites, a simple test at the DNSChanger Eye Chart can readily discern where it sends you. If the site goes red, you’re in harm’s way. Green means clean.

The FBI also has a lookup form on its website, PCMag.com reports. The user can type in the IP address of the DNS server configured on the machine to find out if it is one of the malicious ones identified by law enforcement authorities.

And Kaspersky Lab offers TDSSKiller, a rootkit removal tool, which can also detect DNSChanger and remove it from infected systems.

Article source, Fox News and FBI Website.

Meow, Fat Cat Weighs In At 39 Pounds Is Looking For A Home

FidoSysop — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:38:24 +0000

There’s a lot more of this cat to love than the average feline. Meow, a cat being cared for by the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society, weighs in at 39 lbs., 10 oz., which is more than most human toddlers! Adult cats usually weigh between 7 to 12 pounds.

When he was a kitten, all seemed normal for Meow. Now he’s 2 and weighs the cat equivalent of a 600-pound human.

Santa Fe Animal Shelter trying to adopt out a 39-pound cat that was recently surrendered by its owner.

Meow arrived at the shelter several days ago after the 87-year-old owner said she could no longer take care of her.

The owner told employees Meow was 2 years old, was fit as a kitten but suddenly ballooned.

The cat should be about 12 pounds, according to veterinarians who say 39 pounds for a cat is equivalent to a 600-pound man.

Meow - The Flabby Tabby - Santa Fe Animal Shelter Adoption - On A Diet

The vets added Meow’s health is in serious danger just like a morbidly obese person. His heart will have a hard time working through all that fat.

Shelter workers don’t know what the owner was feeding Meow, but he has already lost two pounds since being placed with a foster family.

Veterinarians are working to reduce the cat’s weight but say it has to be done slowly to keep the cat healthy.

The Santa Fe Humane Society hopes to help the 2-year-old flabby tabby, whose elderly owner could no longer care for him, shed some weight before he’s adopted. You can follow his weight loss journey on the Society’s Facebook page.

Article source Santa Fe Animal Shelter, Video NBC Today Show.

Walmart To Be Investigated By Congress Over Mexican Bribery Scandal

FidoSysop — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:22:41 +0000

Soon, the world’s biggest retailer will be forced to answer to Congress.

Two Democratic Representatives launched an investigation Monday afternoon into the Walmart bribery scandal, which broke on Saturday with a New York Times story that claimed Walmart had systematically bribed Mexican officials in order to obtain permits during its hasty expansion in the country.

As a first step, Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) and Henry Waxman (D-California) sent a letter to Mike Duke, Walmart’s CEO, requesting an in-person meeting with company officials by April 27.

The letter to Duke heavily cited the NYT’s investigation, which also alleged that Walmart shut down an internal investigation into the bribery in order to keep the news from surfacing.

“The allegations that Wal-Mart officials in Mexico may have broken U.S. laws by bribing officials to get their stores built faster raise serious concerns,” Representative Cummings wrote The Huffington Post in an email statement. “But I am even more alarmed by reports that top company executives in the U.S. tried to cover-up these abuses. We need to ensure that US corporations comply fully with the law, and we need to determine the full scope of these alleged abuses.”

The report raises concerns that Walmart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a federal law that prohibits bribery of foreign officials, the Representatives said in their letter.

As part of their investigation, the Representatives are also contacting Walmart executives named by the NYT, including Joseph R. Lewis, Walmart’s former director of Corporate Investigations and Maritza Munich, the former General Counsel of Walmart International, who both helped lead the company’s internal probe into the bribery. They are also contacting Sergio Cicero Zapata, a former attorney in Wal-Mart de Mexico’s Real Estate Department who was interviewed extensively by the NYT.

Article and Video source Huffington Post.

Lamborghini Urus SUV The Fast & Sexy Italian Soccer Mom Cruiser

FidoSysop — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:59:38 +0000

That’s one Sweet Sexy Italian SUV!

You might not think that there would be much overlap between Lamborghini lovers and SUV drivers.

After all, the flashy sports cars are usually driven by sports stars and musicians, while rugged off-road vehicles are more the preserve of farmers and outdoorsmen – or, in recent years, suburban soccer moms.

But the two worlds are about to collide, as the luxury Italian firm launches its own four-by-four, for the lumberjack who wants to look smart as he traverses the forest.

The Lamborghini Urus was unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show this week, and it could be coming to a road – or dirt track – near you before too long, according to CNN Money.

It arguably looks more like a sports car than like the average SUV, with its aerodynamic shape, sleek design and glossy finish.

At just 5ft 6in, the car is also significantly smaller than most other four-wheel drives, making it more attractive to the city-dwellers who provide Lamborghini’s usual customer base.

And its more hi-tech features are a world away from the rural origins of the the SUV, as it is equipped with all sorts of clever gadgetry.

Instead of wing mirrors, it has cameras feeding to video screens positioned next to the driver.

The Urus – named after an extinct ancestor of the cow – is packed with carbon fibre, which is exceptionally strong relative to its weight – and has a price tag to match.

And the car even changes its own shape, with a front spoiler which adjusts its position depending on whether the driver is off-road or speeding down the freeway.

Surprisingly, this is not the first time Lamborghini has tried to launch an SUV.

From 1985 to 1992 they made the LM002, a less fashionable model which did not find success as just 300 were ever sold.

The company is determined that the Urus will be different, and is planning to turn out as many as 3,000 per year.

That would make the SUV Lamborghini’s most popular model – but it remains to be seen whether the firm is ready to shift from boy racers to rednecks.

Article and Photos source CNN.

N.Y.T. “The Haggler” Tosses PayPal Under The Bus Again!

FidoSysop — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:30:48 +0000

PayPal must be feeling like a punching bag these days.

THE Haggler’s recent column about PayPal, the online money transfer company, summoned forth a fresh round of “I can’t stand PayPal” e-mail. This one stood out.

Q. My company is new, and as yet has processed just three transactions using credit cards through PayPal. In all of these cases, the payment has been held up for about 24 hours because the buyer was “unverified.” This has happened even when the credit card was the corporate card of a well-known company. Twenty-four hours may not seem long, but in my case it is critical.

My company sells schedule risk analysis software. It can be downloaded from the Web for a 30-day free trial, at the end of which the user must buy a license key to continue using the software. This key is delivered automatically, by e-mail, within seconds of the purchase — except when this purchase is made through PayPal, in which case it takes 24 hours or more.

Furthermore, while PayPal informs me of the delay, it does not apparently inform the buyer. This is allegedly meant to be a protection for me, but other Internet vendors accept credit cards without question, and I don’t see why PayPal should be any different. Also, in my particular case, if I were not to get paid for some reason I can retrospectively disable the license key. So I don’t need or want this protection. I have tried to make this case to PayPal several times, but I get bland responses that avoid the key points. Can you help? Tony Welsh

A. The Haggler got in touch with a publicist at eBay, which owns PayPal, and learned that Mr. Welsh simply misunderstood a key detail about payment review, as this feature is known. Namely, that he can opt out of it.

Which led the Haggler back to Mr. Welsh: Why didn’t you just say you wanted no part of payment review?

He had. Several times. He sent the Haggler a few of the many e-mails between him and PayPal reps. One was this bracing no-way-José from an Executive Escalations team member: “You asked why you are unable to opt out of the payment review process. Payment review is an automatic process within the PayPal system that cannot be overridden. It is a tool we use to prevent loss for our customers and ourselves. If PayPal allows an unauthorized transaction to process, we are at risk for reversals from the credit card companies.”

Not only does this contradict the notion that anyone can forswear payment review, but it says that opting out isn’t possible because it’s “automatic.” Further, it contradicts the point of the program, which a publicist said was all about protecting merchants. Now we learn that it’s about protecting merchants and PayPal.

It gets better. The Haggler was told that most reviews occur in a matter of seconds; 24 hours is a worst-case-scenario number. But Mr. Walsh was told, in yet another e-mail, that a review “usually takes 24 hours, although in some cases this time frame can extend to 48 hours.”

The Haggler bundled up all this information and forwarded it to eBay/PayPal. Katherine Hutchison, a senior director at PayPal, apologetically explained that her underlings had given Mr. Welsh wrong information. She added that as a result of his experience, the company was in the process of retraining its reps so they understand that payment review is optional.

The Haggler doesn’t doubt that the PayPal phone and e-mail agents are about to be retrained. But the Haggler can’t help but notice a pattern. The previous column was about the thousands of eBay sellers who were chagrined to learn that their money would be held by the company for as many as 21 days. In that matter, as with this current one, eBay/PayPal spokespeople said that preventing fraud — not enhancing profits, by accumulating bank interest — was the point of hanging on to the money.

That might well be true, but the Haggler must humbly suggest that PayPal has a credibility problem. It stems from its policy, described in this space two years ago, of asking users to “verify” their account after transferring $10,000 over the company’s network. One can get “verified” by either handing over bank account information or signing up for a PayPal-affiliated credit.

PayPal has long described this as a “risk-prevention technique,” but that makes little sense, because even customers with perfect track records must comply. No, PayPal wants bank account information, as a spokeswoman acknowledged in that 2010 column, because it’s cheaper to scoop money from a bank than to deal with a credit card. And if PayPal has to deal with a credit card, it would like to deal with a PayPal credit card.

In short, this is more about profits than risk prevention. Nothing wrong with profits. But PayPal says not a word about the financial upsides it enjoys courtesy of “verification.” Ms. Hutchison said that the verification process is evolving and that users can now be verified without giving bank account information or acquiring a PayPal credit card. But amazingly, that option never shows up on any online menu. It’s available only to people annoyed enough to call or write.

“We are working to improve the experience,” Ms. Hutchison wrote in an e-mail.

Great. But until then, the process is a pretty shabby one for consumers. The Haggler thinks that when PayPal asks to “verify” its customers, it should level with them. Until then, in disputes like the one involving Mr. Welsh — which could either stem from poor communication, as the company contends, or be part of a strategy to enhance the bottom line — it will be hard to give the company the benefit of the doubt.

Got a PayPal problem? E-mail: haggler@nytimes.com. Keep it brief and family-friendly, go easy on the caps-lock key and include your hometown. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

Article source, NYT The Haggler.

Woman Embezzled $30 Million To Fund Horse Breeding Business

FidoSysop — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:05:39 +0000

Dixon, Illinois Comptroller, Rita Crundwell, Allegedly Embezzled $30 Million!

Municipal budgets around the country have been squeezed tight in recent years, and a city official in one town allegedly exacerbated those financial woes to fund her horse breeding habit.

Rita Crundwell, the comptroller and treasurer of the small Illinois town of Dixon, was arrested Tuesday on charges of embezzling $33.2 million from city coffers.

Crundwell, who is also a championship horse breeder, reportedly bought more than $300,000 worth of jewelry with the money, but sank most of it into running her horse breeding business, Meri-J Ranch, including a $2.1 million motor home, according to International Business Times. In fact, her successful horse business, which boasts 52 champion horses on its website, may have served as a cover for her alleged criminal activity.

The city of Dixon has faced budget cuts in recent years, forcing officials to close the town’s public pool, with Crundwell remaining entrusted with the town’s $8 million budget through it all. That is, until a secret account was discovered while she was taking time off, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Google Cached Page From www.merijranch.com Advertising NO Reserve Sale 07/26/2012

Indeed, the $30 million hit is bound to be a big one for such a struggling small town. It’s not alone, as cities across the country struggle with budget shortfalls. North Las Vegas is stretched so thin city officials are debating charging residents to use a new city park. Last year Jefferson County, Alabama filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in history. Central Falls, Rhode Island filed for Chapter 9 a few months before that.

But Crundwell is hardly the first government employee to be accused of embezzling government funds. In March, a former employee of Detroit’s Department of Human Services was charged with embezzling $18,000 in community block grant funds. Small peas compared to former Washington D.C. district tax manager Harriette Walters. In 2009, she was found guilty and sentenced to 17 years in prison for a $48 million embezzlement scheme.

It appears from a cached page on the now inoperative www.merijranch.com website, that Crundwell was planning a NO Reserve Auction on July 28th 2012. That sale has obviously been canceled indefinitely.

Below is the text of that cached page. (text formatting corrected)

July 28th, 2012. Sale located at rita’s ranch. ofFspring eligible for Over $50,000 in incentive awards.

All horses will be sold to the highest bidder, and some horses will sell with a reserve.

The results speak for themselves! Rita Crundwell is not only an AQHA Leading Breeder, she is also AQHA’s Leading Owner of World Champions for the last eight years straight.

Not only does Rita breed winners…she sells winners! Invest your money wisely and buy with confidence from a program backed by solid-gold success. Every bid counts! “If you’re interested in quality show horses, this sale offers gigantic opportunities!

Rita is in the business to breed and sell champions and she is not afraid to sell the good ones. It only helps her breeding program to see other people out there winning with horses she’s bred or sold.

With the economy as it is, this is a great opportunity for trainers and owners alike to find a prospect straight out of the pasture that has unlimited potential and is backed by a proven record of winning. This is your chance to pick one from the ground up and get in early.” – AQHA Professional Horseman Jim McKillips. horses bred by Rita have earned, 52 World Championships, 32 Res World Championships, Over 12,100 AQHA Points, 52 All-Around Wins, 57 Superior Awards, 243 ROM Awards, $490,056 in AQHA Incentive Fund, World Show & NSBA Earnings. Don’t miss this golden opportunity.

Crime Does Not Pay – Criminals Get Caught Sooner Or Later!

Article content from multiple sources.

Dirk The Penguin = 3 Aussies in Jail, Dumb, Dumber, and Idiot

FidoSysop — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:13:32 +0000

I’m sure you have heard of the 3 Stooges.

Well here we have the 3 Drunken Australian Idiots!

Dirk, a fairy penguin stolen from an Australian marine park, has been safely returned, but not before being hounded by a dog and chased by another animal, possibly a shark.

Police allege three young men broke into Sea World on Queensland’s Gold Coast on Saturday night, swam in the dolphin enclosure and then stole seven-year-old Dirk as they made their escape.

The little bird was found, exhausted but otherwise well, on Sunday after a couple spotted him in a nearby shallow estuary.

“They heard a scuffle in the water, and this penguin came out onto the sand,” Sea World’s director of marine sciences Trevor Long told reporters.

“They thought it was very, very unusual, so they got on to their iPhone and googled ‘lost penguin’. That came up with the story, and from there they were able to contact us.”

Long said the couple saw the captive-bred penguin get chased out of the water by another animal — possibly a shark — before it was then herded back in by a dog. Sea World workers eventually came to retrieve him.

“Had we not got him it wouldn’t have been a good situation at all in the long term for Dirk,” Long said.

The penguin, who had never been in the wild before and is part of a breeding colony, has since been reunited with his mate Peaches.

“These penguins do mate for life and that’s why it was so important to get this bird back,” Long said.

Police have charged three men over the theft after they were tipped off by a member of the public, after the trio reportedly posted about their exploits on Facebook.

The three, aged 18, 20 and 21, have been charged with trespassing, stealing and unlawfully keeping a protected animal. They allegedly told police they released Dirk into the Broadwater, a waterway known for its sharks.

The penguin, meanwhile, is recovering.

Dania Suarez, The Hooker That Brought Down The Secret Service

FidoSysop — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:01:46 +0000

Newly released photos of Dania – a Columbia single mom and prostitute that took down the U.S. Secret Service last week.

Going by the name Dania, the Colombian prostitute (pictured below) was one of a reported 20-12 women hired to service a room full of federal agents and military servicemen, all of whom were on duty for an important international summit.

She complained loudly when a cheapskate Secret Service agent who stiffed her, alerting hotel personnel and prompting the controversy.

The scandal is currently being investigated by the House Oversight Committee chaired by Florida Republican Darrell Issa. Several Secret Service agents have already resigned, with more resignations expected in the coming days.

The dispute — he offered $30 for services she thought they had agreed were worth 25 times that — triggered a tense early morning struggle in the hallway of the posh hotel involving the woman, another prostitute, Colombian police officers arguing on the women’s behalf and American federal agents who tried but failed to keep the matter — which has shaken the reputation of the Secret Service — from escalating.

Sitting on a couch in her living room wearing a short jean skirt, high-heeled espadrilles and a tight spandex top with a plunging neckline, the woman described how she and a girlfriend were approached by a group of American men at a discotheque. In an account that tracked with the official version of events coming out of Washington, but could not be independently confirmed, she said the men bought a bottle of Absolut vodka for the table and when that was finished bought a second one.

“They never told me they were with Obama,” she said. “They were very discreet.”

Dania - The Colombian Hooker Who Brought Down The U.S. Secret Service

A taxi driver who picked up the woman at the Hotel Caribe the morning of the encounter said he heard her and another woman recount the dispute over payment. When approached by The Times, the woman was reluctant to speak about what occurred. As she nervously told her story, a friend gave details that seemed to corroborate her account.

There was a language gap between the 24-year-old woman, who declined to give her full name, and the American man who sat beside her all night and eventually invited her back to his room. She agreed, stopped on the way to buy condoms but told him he would have to give her a gift. He asked how much. Not knowing he worked for President Obama but figuring he was a well-heeled foreigner, she said she told him $800.

The price alone, she said, indicates that she is an escort, not a prostitute. “You have higher rank,” she said. “An escort is someone who a man can take out to dinner. She can dress nicely, wear nice makeup, speak and act like a lady. That’s me.”

Dania - The Colombian Hooker Who Brought Down The U.S. Secret Service Bikini Photo

By 6:30 the next morning, after being awoken by a telephone call from the hotel front desk reminding her that, under the hotel’s rules for prostitutes, she had to leave, whatever deal the two had agreed on had broken down. She recalled that the man told her he had been drunk when they discussed the price. He countered with an offer of 50,000 pesos, the equivalent of about $30.

Disgusted with such a low offer, she pressed the matter. He became angry, ordered her out of the room and called her an expletive, she said.

She said she was crying at that point and went across the hall, where another escort had spent the night with a second American man from the same group. Both women began trying to get the money.

Dania - The Colombian Hooker Who Brought Down The U.S. Secret Service Cleavage Photo

They knocked on the door but got no response. She threatened to call the police, but the man’s friend begged her not to, saying they did not want trouble. Finally, she said, she left to go home but came across a policeman who was stationed on the hallway and called in an English-speaking colleague.

He accompanied her back to the room and the dispute escalated. Two other Americans from the club emerged from their rooms and stood guard in front of their friend’s locked door. The two Colombian officers tried to argue the woman’s case.

A hotel security officer arrived. Eventually, she lowered her demand to $250, which she said was the amount she has to pay the man who helps find her customers. Eager to resolve the matter fast, the American men eventually gave her a combination of dollars and local currency worth about $225, and she left.

It was only days later, once a friend she had shared her story with called to say that the dispute had made the television news, that she learned that the man had been a Secret Service agent.

I bet those Agents will think twice before drinking and parting next time!

Article and Photos, multiple sources, Video NBC News.

05/04/2012: This video is in Spanish. Here is the direct link to it’s post page on TV Caracol News.

Crazy Clearwater Woman Hangs Baby By His Feet Over Sea Wall

FidoSysop — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:45:29 +0000

Clearwater, Florida — The police officer who rescued a 3-month-old boy from a mother who was hallucinating says he was ready to jump in the water after the child.

Clearwater Police Officer Brian Tejera told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that when he arrived to find Lydia Chako in only a T-shirt next to the water talking about her son being dirty and needing to be decontaminated. He said he was ready to do anything to save the boy.

“First thing that came to my mind was that she was either going to throw the baby in the water or both of them were going in the water. I had every intention that I was going to jump in the water. I’m just glad it didn’t come to that,” Tejera said.

The 5-year veteran of the Clearwater Police Department said he was able to distract Chako long enough to approach her and grab the infant. Another officer, Darcy Hunt, was then able to place Chako under arrest. Chako is now charged with child abuse.

Police were called to Chako’s apartment at 1209 N. Osceola Ave. on Tuesday afternoon by the building’s owner.

“She was thinking the baby had demons in its stomach and it didn’t of course,” Deborah Wells told 10 News. She said Chako had also tried flushing some baby clothes down the toilet and had filled the child’s bassinet with water.

“Very sad story, she was off her medication from what everyone told me and she lost it,” Wells added.

Wells said eventually Chako ran out of her apartment, half-naked and headed for the water carrying her son.

When officer Tejera arrived Chako was standing inches from the water at the end of Palm Bluff Street.

“You definitely feel sad,” Tejera said of the entire situation.

He noted he also had Chako Baker Acted back in 2009 but said he didn’t immediately recognize the 38-year-old mother when he first arrived on scene.

Chako is currently in custody while her son is with state welfare workers.

Chako’s record includes an arrest in 2006 for battery and another arrest in 2009 for trespassing.

“I hope the medical health department has enough sense or the police department to not give the child back because she has problems,” Wells said. “It’s not that she doesn’t need her baby, she doesn’t need her baby in the condition she’s in.”

Article source Fox 13 Tampa Bay.

Pissed Off Flyer Strips Naked Protesting TSA Jerks

FidoSysop — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:54:56 +0000

Hehehehe.. Too bad he didn’t Moon em too.

A 50-year-old man who said he felt that airport screeners were “harassing” him stripped naked at Portland International Airport, police in Oregon said.

Police charged John E. Brennan with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure after he disrobed while going through the security screening area at the airport Tuesday evening.

“When interviewed about his actions, Mr. Brennan stated he fly’s (sic) a lot and had disrobed as a form of protest against TSA screeners who he felt were harassing him,” a police incident report said.

He was not intoxicated or under the influence of drugs at the time, police said.

Brennan was scheduled to fly on Alaska Airlines from Portland to San Jose, California.

Police said screeners asked him “numerous times” to put on his clothes, but he refused.

“Mr. Brennan’s actions caused two screening lanes to be closed and while some passengers covered their eyes and their children’s eyes and moved away from the screening area, others stepped out of the screening lanes to look, laugh and take photos of Mr. Brennan,” the police report said.

It’s not worth getting arrested to me, but as long as he enjoyed his moment of fame that’s all that counts.

Those TSA Screeners can be really mean and down right nasty!

Article and Video Source CNN.

American Bandstand Host Dick Clark Dead At 82

FidoSysop — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:16:41 +0000

Famed television personality Dick Clark died of a heart attack Wednesday morning in Los Angeles, his spokesman confirms. Clark was 82.

Clark is best known for hosting long-running television shows such as “American Bandstand,” the game show “Pyramid” and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”

He was nicknamed “America’s oldest teenager” and maintained his youthful looks into his 70s.

Clark had been in St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., after undergoing an outpatient procedure Tuesday night. He suffered the heart attack following the procedure and attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Clark is survived by his wife, Kari, and his three children.

Clark, who started out as a TV announcer in Utica, New York, parlayed his “Bandstand” fame into a career as a producer and host of dozens of other shows, including ABC’s annual New Year’s Eve telecast, which he launched in 1972.

The original “American Bandstand” was one of network TV’s longest-running series as part of ABC’s daytime lineup from 1957 to 1987. It later aired for a year in syndication and briefly on the USA Network. Over the years, it introduced stars ranging from Buddy Holly to Madonna. The show’s status as an American cultural institution was solidified when Clark donated Bandstand’s original podium and backdrop to the Smithsonian Institution.

Clark joined “Bandstand” in 1956 after Bob Horn, who’d been the host since its 1952 debut, was fired. Under Clark’s guidance, it went from a local Philadelphia show to a national phenomenon.

“I played records, the kids danced, and America watched,” was how Clark once described the series’ simplicity. In his 1958 hit “Sweet Little Sixteen,” Chuck Berry sang that “they’ll be rocking on Bandstand, Philadelphia, P-A.”

As a host, he had the smooth delivery of a seasoned radio announcer. As a producer, he had an ear for a hit record. He also knew how to make wary adults welcome this odd new breed of music in their homes.

Clark endured accusations that he was in with the squares, with critic Lester Bangs defining Bandstand as “a leggily acceptable euphemism of the teenage experience.” In a 1985 interview, Clark acknowledged the complaints. “But I knew at the time that if we didn’t make the presentation to the older generation palatable, it could kill it.”

“So along with Little Richard and Chuck Berry and the Platters and the Crows and the Jayhawks … the boys wore coats and ties and the girls combed their hair and they all looked like sweet little kids into a high school dance,” he said.

But Clark defended pop artists and artistic freedom, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said in an online biography of the 1993 inductee. He helped give black artists their due by playing original R&B recordings instead of cover versions by white performers, and he condemned censorship

For a time in the 1980s, he had shows on all three networks and was listed among the Forbes 400 of wealthiest Americans. Clark also was involved in radio as a partner in the United Stations Radio Network, which provided programs — including Clark’s — to thousands of stations.

Clark idolized his athletic older brother, Bradley, who was killed in World War II. In his 1976 autobiography, “Rock, Roll & Remember,” Clark recalled how radio helped ease his loneliness and turned him into a fan of Steve Allen, Arthur Godfrey and other popular hosts.
From Godfrey, he said, he learned that “a radio announcer does not talk to ‘those of you out there in radio land’; a radio announcer talks to me as an individual.”

“There’s hardly any segment of the population that doesn’t see what I do,” Clark told The Associated Press in a 1985 interview. “It can be embarrassing. People come up to me and say, ‘I love your show,’ and I have no idea which one they’re talking about.”

Clark’s clean-cut image survived a music industry scandal. In 1960, during a congressional investigation of “payola” or bribery in the record and radio industry, Clark was called on to testify.

He was cleared of any suspicions but was required by ABC to divest himself of record-company interests to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. The demand cost him $8 million, Clark once estimated. His holdings included partial ownership of Swan Records, which later released the first U.S. version of the Beatles’ smash “She Loves You.”

In 2004, Clark announced plans for a revamped version of “American Bandstand.” The show, produced with “American Idol” creator Simon Fuller, was to feature a host other than Clark.

He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1994 and served as spokesman for the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

Dick Clark Bio. Photos of Dick Clark.

Article and Video Source MSNBC.

These Dick Clark historic videos courtesy of NBC Today Show.

Scripps Local News Removing NASA Videos From YouTube

FidoSysop — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:54:24 +0000

Today i was browsing NASA TV’s YouTube channel watching the space shuttle Discovery’s final journey to the Smithsonian Museum.

I had put together a few clips for this post of Discovery’s final journey, but couldn’t find the one NASA TV uploaded of the Boeing 747 Carrying Discovery as it took off from cape Canaveral. Puzzled why the one of the takeoff was not there i decided to look again later.

A few hours later i looked again, wouldn’t you know it was there this time in their channel view.. Cool. But when i clicked to view the video YouTube sent a message that it was removed by Scripps Local News as it contained their Copyrighted Material. WTF??

Who is Scripps Local News? I somehow doubt they have anything to do with NASA or NASA TV.

YouTube is really out of control. They allow obvious stolen videos, then remove a piece of America’s Space Exploration History as Copyright Infringement.

That Really Sucks!

YouTube NASA TV Channel Showing Copyright Violation By Scripps Local News

Space Shuttle Discovery Video Of It’s Final Journey 04/17/2012

FidoSysop — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:16:01 +0000

Today was the space shuttle Discovery’s final flight.

Watch as it is attached atop a heavily modified Boeing 747 In preparation for it’s final flight.

Space shuttle Discovery was lifted and placed atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility mate/demate device in the early morning hours of April 15 in preparation for its ride to Washington Dulles International Airport on April 17.

Live feed from NASA TV.

Discovery is set to depart just after sunrise and arrive in the Washington, D.C. area around 10 a.m. After arriving at Dulles, Discovery will be moved on April 19 to the nearby Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center for permanent public display.

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ferrying orbiter Discovery performs a flyby at Dulles International Airport on Apr. 17 following its journey from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ferrying orbiter Discovery lands at Dulles International Airport on April 17 2012 following its journey from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver heads a list of dignitaries on hand to greet the NASA 905 crew after ferrying orbiter Discovery from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to Dulles on Apr. 17.

Escorted by a NASA T-38 jet, Space Shuttle Discovery — atop the NASA 905 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, made its much anticipated arrival in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

It was the thirty-eighth and final time Discovery has traveled piggyback on the modified Boeing 747 — and undoubtedly the most anticipated. Onlookers gathered on rooftops, along the National Mall — wherever they could … to catch a glimpse of the iconic shuttle as it was flown overhead. After a series of flyovers, The SCA and the most prolific space shuttle in history made a picture-perfect landing at Dulles International Airport in advance of its induction into the Smithsonian — and display at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Northern Virginia.

Following delivery of Discovery, NASA 905 will ferry Enterprise from Udvar-Hazy to the Intrepid Museum in New York City. Endeavour is scheduled to be similarly moved to the California Science Center in Los Angeles later this year. Also, three of the six crew members aboard the International Space Station talked with reporters during a NASA Television news conference, Seeking Healthy Spaceflight at a new space medicine facility in Houston, a festival in the California desert shows how the extreme conditions there helps NASA prepare for surface exploration of Mars, a New Spot for astronaut TJ Creamer and more.

2br 1ba Apartment For Rent $750 Old Safety Harbor 34695

FidoSysop — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:04:34 +0000

Here is a real nice 2br 1 bath apartment for rent in old Safety Harbor Fla 34695.

645-A 3rd Ave North. Less than a block from Safety Harbor Middle School.

It is about 1000sf and has tile floors, lots of cabinet and closet space, washer and dryer hookups, free basic cable tv. Recent new energy efficient central heat and air.

$750 Month with a 12 month lease. Call Bruce Middleton at (727) 492-5833 for further details and to schedule a viewing.

U.S. Secret Service Team Caught With Cartagena Hooker

FidoSysop — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:06:02 +0000

Nothing like getting caught with your pants down.

Five Department of Defense service members may have been involved in an incident of “misconduct” allegedly involving at least one prostitute that led to the removal of up to 12 Secret Service agents from Cartagena, Colombia working for the president’s visit for the Summit of the Americas.

Most of the Secret Service agents embroiled in a prostitution scandal brought women back to their Colombia hotel rooms before President Obama arrived in town for an international summit, Rep. Pete King said Saturday.

King said the raunchy rendezvous involved 11 agents and went sour when an agent refused to pay one of the women, who were presumed to be hookers.

“The agent said, ‘I don’t owe you anything,’ but gave the woman some money,” said King (R-L.I.),the head of the House Homeland Security Committee, who was briefed on the matter. “I don’t know how much, and it was settled right there.”

IN COLOMBIA, THE SEX BUSINESS IS SO BIG THAT SOME CALL IT THE ‘THAILAND OF LATIN AMERICA’

As it turned out, the agents’ troubles were just beginning. Local cops were called to the hotel in Cartagena and, because the matter involved foreigners, a report was written up and sent to the U.S. Embassy, King said.

Embassy officials in turn notified the Secret Service, which immediately launched an investigation.

At least one supervisor was among the agents involved, King said. He was not certain exactly how many women were involved.

The scandal — a black eye for the United States’ reputation abroad was revealed Friday just hours before President Obama arrived in Cartagena.

The 11 agents were part of an advance team assigned to secure a local hotel before the summit began, yet their attention apparently turned to taking advantage of Colombia’s policy of legal prostitution.

Five American service members were also accused of misconduct stemming from the scandalous incident at the hotel, according to the U.S. military.

“They had arranged to have a bunch of prostitutes come by and one of the agents refused to pay a prostitute,” said author Ronald Kessler, one of the leading experts on the Secret Service. “Yes, doubly good judgment there.”

Kessler, who was briefed on the investigation by his sources within the agency, told the Daily News Saturday that the spurned hooker told police about the lack of payment.

The 11 agents were immediately recalled to Washington. Their careers are over, said Kessler.

Number one, it is against basic ethics to go to a prostitute, he continued. Number two, it is incredibly embarrassing to the White House.

And number three, he continued. It could leave them open to blackmail and a possible assassination attempt.

Obama still has full confidence in the Secret Service, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, who declared late Saturday that the incident “has been more of a distraction for the press” than the President.

Kessler said two of the agents were supervisors who attempted to cover up the mortifying incident.

The agents were staying at the beachfront Hotel Caribe, which is also hosting the White House staff and the traveling press team.

Guests at the swanky hotel told reporters that several of the agents had been spotted drinking heavily during their weeklong stay.

Details of the incident remain murky, but U.S. officials believe one agent took a woman back to his room Wednesday night and threw her out in a dispute over money.

The woman caused a commotion in the hallway, getting the attention of local cops and other Secret Service agents, a senior official told The New York Times.

Though it was not known if all 11 members of the Secret Service team are suspected of wrongdoing, they were all recalled as part of the investigation. Several of the agents are married, according to reports.

Prostitution is legal in Colombia, as long as it is conducted in so-called tolerance zones.

Though the exact boundaries of the zones frequently change and are rarely enforced by police, the coastal city of Cartagena is a popular destination for prostitution and sex tourism.

Hookers can easily be procured online or in bars or hotels in much of the city. It was not clear how the agents met the women involved in the incident.

The scandal threatened to overshadow President Obama’s visit to the important summit. He landed in Cartagena Friday night and attended a formal dinner with the other world leaders at Castillo San Felipe de Barajasajas, an historic Spanish fortress.

The President, who had a full day of summit events Saturday, has not addressed the Secret Service scandal. He is not staying at the Hotel Caribe.

The Secret Service did not elaborate on the allegations Saturday. The night before, the agency which is charged with protecting the President simply confirmed that the officers were pulled back to Washington.

All of the agents are based in Washington, D.C., according to Kessler, author of “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect.”

The matter was turned over to the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which handles the Secret Services’ internal affairs.

New Details On Costa Concordia Captain’s Blunders

FidoSysop — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:20:29 +0000

Three months after the Costa Concordia ran aground off the Tuscan coast, new details about what occurred that night have emerged.

According to a segment from “Today,” Vanity Fair has published a detailed account of what transpired the night Costa Concordia hit the rocks. The 17-page story “reads like a laundry list of incompetence,” the broadcast said, citing mistakes made by Captain Francesco Schettino such as going too fast, navigating by sight and talking on the phone.

The CEO of Costa Concordia’s parent company has blamed Schettino for the ship’s crash. Schettino famously said he abandoned ship because he tripped into a lifeboat.

But, “the mistakes that the captain made after hitting the rock were worse than actually hitting the rock,” Bryan Burrough of Vanity Fair told “Today.”

Here is a link to the Vanity Fair Article Online.

Also check this websites Costa Concordia Category for all our postings. Including a Full Documentary from the Discovery Chanel.

North Korea Rocket Fail | Explodes And Crashes Into Yellow Sea

FidoSysop — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:29:31 +0000

The 90-ton rocket launched at 6:39 p.m. EDT, but 81 seconds into the launch, the U.S. detected a substantially larger than expected flare and by ten minutes after launch, the rocket was no longer on several radar screens, U.S. officials said.

According to a statement from U.S. Northern Command and NORAD, the missile was tracked on a southerly launch over the Yellow Sea.

“Initial indications are that the first stage of the missile fell into the sea 165 km west of Seoul, South Korea,” the statement said. “The remaining stages were assessed to have failed and no debris fell on land. At no time were the missile or the resultant debris a threat.”

The rocket was launched from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the northern part of the country, near North Korea’s border with China.

After the launch, South Korea’s president Lee Myung Bak called an emergency cabinet meeting of his government.

Anticipation of the missile launch began in March when the Communist nation announced a five-day window for launching a satellite, which began on Wednesday.

The main audience for this missile is internal not external. This is Kim Jong Un’s way of demonstrating to the people of North Korea he is in charge and his country is capable of high tech things. It is a manifestation of his power.”

North Korea claimed the planned rocket launch was just a satellite called Shining Star, which was being launched into orbit to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the regime’s founder, Kim Il Sung.

video platform video management video solutions video player

Yo-Yo Finance Scam Targets Credit Challenged Car Buyers

FidoSysop — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:12:53 +0000

Imagine this: You buy a car, sign all the paperwork and drive home.

A few days or weeks later, you’re contacted by the dealer and told the financing has fallen through and you need to bring back the car or pay more money.

Leslie Hurst of Ludlow, Ky., doesn’t have to imagine what it’s like to be the victim of a “yo-yo” finance scam. Three weeks after she bought her car, the salesman called and said she couldn’t afford it and needed to bring it back.

“I couldn’t understand how this could happen,” she says. “I had signed a contract and finance agreement with them. I had a payment plan set up. As far as I was concerned I had bought the car.”

Not knowing what else to do, she returned the car, which left her without transportation.

For Carolyn Edwards of Wellington, Fla., the yo-yo financing nightmare started three weeks after she bought her Range Rover. The dealer called and said she couldn’t afford it. Edwards wouldn’t return the vehicle, so the dealer had it repossessed.

“It was horrible. It was very humiliating,” she remembers. “They took the vehicle away with all my stuff inside.”

“The dealers were lying,” says attorney Raymond Ingalsbe, who represents Edwards and Hurst. “Once a buyer signs an installment credit contract, financing is extended by the dealer.”

If the dealer can’t sell the contract for the price they expected, Ingalsbe explains, they tell the buyer the financing fell through and demand a bigger down payment, a higher interest rate or both. In some cases, they want to cancel the deal and demand the vehicle back.

The yo-yo scam is really bait-and-switch on the financing. According to new research from the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL):

The victims are usually buyers with poor credit or no credit and few financing options.
More than half the victims of a yo-yo scam had trouble reclaiming their down payment or trade-in vehicle.

A majority signed a new contract – with a higher interest rate – for the same car.

“This is much more than a once-in-a-while problem,” notes CRL’s Chris Kukla, senior counsel for government affairs. “This is a pretty pervasive thing.”

For its report, Deal or No Deal: How Yo-Yo Scams Rig the Game against Car Buyers, the Center for Responsible lending surveyed five organizations that help people with auto finance problems. It found that 27 percent (that’s 590 out of 2,100 people) of their clients in the last twelve months experienced a yo-yo scam.

The National Automobile Dealers Association says the practices laid out in the CRL report should not be present in the marketplace. In a statement to msnbc.com, David Hyatt, NADA’s vice president and chief communications officer, wrote: “It’s important to note that the CRL report describes 590 complaints of alleged yo-yo financing that is fraudulent and already illegal in all 50 states. In those cases, it’s a matter of enforcement.”

(Read: NADA’s comments to the Federal Trade Commission, pages 6-9)

Today’s sales are conditional
Dealers say most auto sales today are conditioned upon financing – you get the car on the spot, even though the loan approval isn’t final. In other words, when you finance through the dealer, in most cases the dealership reserves the right to unwind the deal if it doesn’t make enough money selling your loan on the open market.

NADA says the conditional nature of the transaction is explained to customers. Language to that effect is in the paperwork they sign.

Tom Domonoske, an attorney with 15 years experience handling auto financing cases, says many people don’t understand that the dealer can revoke the sale after they sign the sales contract.

At the same time, the finance manager is looking the consumer in the eye and saying, ‘Congratulations, you’ve bought the car,’ they’re slipping in this document that says we haven’t agreed to sell you anything yet.”

It’s not easy to protect yourself. Only about a third of the states have any sort of restriction on conditional auto sales. Everywhere else, there’s only one guaranteed way to eliminate the risk of getting burned by a conditional sale being revoked: Skip the dealer financing and get your auto loan from a bank or credit union or some other lender.

“This would prevent a yo-yo transaction and let you negotiate the best deal,” says John Van Alst with the National Consumer Law Center.

Unfortunately, as Van Alst points out, this is not an option for many people with bad credit.

If you finance through the dealer you need to read the contract and look for any language that says the sale is conditional.

Can something be done about this?
The car dealers don’t see any problem. Consumer advocates want the federal government to end this practice. They want federal rules in place that require auto sales contracts to be binding on both parties.

“We think the one-way deal is unfair,” says Chris Kukla with the Center for Responsible Lending. “The dealer should not have the ability to back out of the deal – days, weeks or even months later – because they’ve decided that the profit is not to their liking. No other industry is allowed to do that. We think it’s inappropriate and it needs to stop.”

Last year the Federal Trade Commission held a series of workshops on auto financing. Will this result in new regulations?

“We are considering what next steps, if any, we should take,” says Malini Mithal, assistant director of the FTC’s division of financial practices.

These next steps could include consumer education, enforcement actions or new rules.

My two cents
Right now, unless you’re a lawyer or have one read the sales contract for you, you can never be 100 percent sure that your sale is final when you finance through the dealer. That’s crazy. That’s why I hope the FTC will propose some new rules that protect buyers.

The industry says there are millions of these conditional transactions each year and most take place without a hitch. OK, but why should anyone be left in the lurch like this?

Car buyers today want to drive home with their new vehicle. Dealers want you to do that so you can’t shop someplace else.

We live in a computer age. These transactions can take place at Internet speed. If the dealer can get his price for my loan, then sign the paperwork and be bound to it. If not, tell me you can’t sell me the car today.

Article source MSNBC. More info: How a Dealer “Yo-Yo” Scam Works.

Google Gives World A Glimpse Of Augmented Reality Glasses

FidoSysop — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:03:51 +0000

Google on Wednesday gave the world a glimpse of its vision for letting people look at life through Internet-tinted glasses.

A video posted at a Project Glass page at Google+ social network confirmed the rumor that the technology titan is working on eye wear that meshes the online world with the real world.

“We think technology should work for you — be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t,” members of the project team said in a Google+ post.

“A group of us from Google X (Labs) started Project Glass to build this kind of technology; one that helps you explore and share your world.”

Images showed people wearing eyeglasses with stylish silver frames that featured tiny cameras and on-lens displays to discretely show information such as walking directions, weather forecasts or messages from friends.

Built-in microphones let wearers command the Internet-linked glasses by speaking.

“We took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do,” Google said, stressing that the glasses were a concept far from being brought to market.

“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input.”

And a parody about the negative aspect of this new technology.

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CBS 60 Minutes Host Mike Wallace Dead At 93

FidoSysop — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:01:35 +0000

Mike Wallace, the grand inquisitor of CBS’s “60 Minutes” news show who once declared there was “no such thing as an indiscreet question,” has died at the age of 93, the network said on Sunday.

Wallace died on Saturday evening with his family by his side at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years, CBS said in a statement and on its Sunday morning news broadcast.

“His extraordinary contribution as a broadcaster is immeasurable and he has been a force within the television industry throughout its existence. His loss will be felt by all of us at CBS,” Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation, said in the statement.

Wallace left his full-time role at “60 Minutes” in 2006 after 38 years and was given the title correspondent emeritus and a part-time contributor role. His last interview was with Roger Clemens, the star baseball pitcher accused of steroid use, in 2008.

A special “60 Minutes” program dedicated to Wallace will be aired April 15.

“It was 65 years from Mike’s first appearance on camera – a World War II film for the Navy – to his last television appearance, a ’60 Minutes’ interview with Roger Clemens, the baseball star trying to fight off accusations of steroid use,” colleague Morley Safer wrote in a tribute on CBSNews.com.

Just about anyone who made news during the past six decades – in the United States, but often abroad too – had to submit to a grilling by Wallace.

In almost 40 years on “60 Minutes,” the ground-breaking investigative journalism program, he worked on some 800 reports, won 20 Emmys and developed a relentless on-air style that was often more interrogation than interview.

Wallace also drew criticism for his go-for-the-throat style and the theatrics that sometimes accompanied it. He also became caught up in a $120 million libel suit that resulted in no judgment against him or CBS but triggered a case of depression that led him to attempt suicide.

Wallace interviewed every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy – with the exception of George W. Bush – and dozens of other world leaders like Yasser Arafat, Ayatollah Khomeini and Deng Xiaoping.

Other interview subjects included everyone from Malcolm X to Janis Joplin, Martin Luther King Jr., Johnny Carson, Vladimir Horowitz and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

When Wallace prefaced a question with “Forgive me for asking …” or responded to a dubious answer with “Oh, come on,” “60 Minutes” viewers knew he was about to get tough. His sometimes-abrasive manner resulted in the nickname “Mike Malice,” and some viewers will always remember him as the man who made diva Barbra Streisand cry on camera.

Wallace contributed periodically to “60 Minutes” until 2008 after retiring as a regular correspondent in 2006.

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Navy F18 Jet Crashes Into VA Apartment Complex

FidoSysop — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:00:44 +0000

Emergency crews extinguished fires and were searching for victims at a cluster of apartments in Virginia Beach, Va., Friday after a Navy F/A-18 jet crashed into the complex, destroying two buildings and damaging several others, authorities and witnesses said.

Three hours after the crash, medical personnel at a hospital reported that eight people were injured, including the two pilots, none with life-threatening injuries. No fatalities have been reported.

The crash was caused by “catastrophic mechanical malfunction” that forced the two pilots in the jet to eject, Capt. Mark Weisgerber, deputy commodore of Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic, said at a news conference. He said the pilots were a student and an experienced instructor. He said he didn’t want to speculate on the specifics of the malfunction.

One pilot was briefly tangled at the crash site and had to be freed from the wreckage by residents at the scene, David Schleck, assistant city editor at the Virginia Pilot, told msnbc cable television.

“(The pilot) was snagged on the burning building,” said Schleck. “They actually cut him free from the building and then emergency crews showed up a little bit later and were able to get him a safe distance from the burning building.”

A Navy official said that both pilots were taken to a hospital to be checked out. “They were ambulatory,” the official said.

The buildings were in the Mayfair Mews Apartments, about four miles northeast of the Naval Air Base Oceana, where the jet had taken off. Virginia Beach, about 400 miles south of Washington, D.C., on the Atlantic coast, is a major military center as well as vacation destination.

Cmdr. Phil Rosi of the Navy said the two-seat jet fighter crashed about 12:05 p.m. shortly after takeoff and both crew members ejected. The jet was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106 at the base, he said.

Witness accounts of the jet dumping fuel before the crash suggest that the pilots averted a worse disaster, Bruce Nedelka, the Virginia Beach EMS division chief, told The Associated Press.

“By doing so, he mitigated what could have been an absolute massive, massive fireball and fire,” Nedelka said. “With all of that jet fuel dumped, it was much less than what it could have been,” he said.

Chief Tim Riley of Virginia Beach Fire and Rescue said four to five buildings caught fire and that there was significant damage to about 20 apartments.

Witnesses described a frightening scene as they saw the aircraft plummet toward the ground.

Article Source, MSNBC News.

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After 100 Years Titanic’s Allure Still Strong

FidoSysop — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:12:29 +0000

Tom and Sheila Byron are packed and ready to go.

They’ve looked over their 50-item checklist no fewer than a dozen times. After planning for this journey to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary for the better part of three years, they want to be prepared. It is, after all, the trip of a lifetime.

On Sunday, the retired couple from Marietta, Georgia, will set sail from Southampton, England, along with more than 1,300 other passengers on a cruise to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

And as the date draws nearer, their excitement builds.

“I think it will be fascinating. I get chills just thinking about it,” Sheila Byron says.

Perhaps that’s with good reason.

The Titanic Memorial Cruise will follow the route the Titanic took, and is scheduled to be in the exact spot at the exact time the Titanic struck an iceberg close to midnight on April 14, 1912, sending it to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean a little less than four hours later. More than 1,500 people lost their lives, and about 700 — mostly women and children — survived.

For Titanic enthusiasts like the Byrons, marking the tragedy where it happened is part of the appeal.

“There is a little bit of excitement and a little bit of trepidation to be on the ship outside at night with the chaplain conducting a Christian ceremony to honor the deceased that came from all walks of life,” Tom Byron says.

“To be out there and know that 100 years ago, they were not doing what we will be doing; that they were wondering how much longer they had left to live … it’s overwhelming actually.”

While not everyone would go to these lengths to mark a historic disaster, it’s human nature to be interested.

“Some people may say the curiosity is ghoulish and macabre, but this is really just an ordinary reaction to extraordinary events,” says Jerry Jacobs, a psychology professor and director of the Disaster Mental Health Institute at the University of South Dakota.

“It’s a fairly universal interest that human beings have to try to see someone going through what we might experience ourselves,” Jacobs says. It’s why people slow down when they drive past an accident, he adds.

But it isn’t just the tragic nature of the Titanic that captivates the Byrons. The mystique of a lost era also fascinates them.

The cruise, organized by a British travel agency and sailing on the liner MS Balmoral, will feature history lectures; a stop at Cobh, Ireland, the Titanic’s last port of call; and a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where many of the victims were buried.

“The dining rooms are going to follow the etiquette that was used during the Gilded Age. And on the night of the 14th a lot of people will be in period costumes,” Sheila Byron says.

“The people on the ship represented a lifestyle that disappeared when the ship sank,” Tom Byron says. “It was the end of the Gilded Age — the Edwardian period where the rich people got off the ship, mostly, and the third class of people mostly perished.”

Sheila Byron has been interested in the Titanic since she was a child. And she’s far from the only one.

The facts surrounding the ill-fated maiden voyage permeate popular culture. The disaster has spawned countless books, television specials and movies — perhaps none more famous than James Cameron’s Oscar-winning film “Titanic,” one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. To coincide with the anniversary the epic film is being re-released in 3-D in theaters on Friday.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the White Star Line’s most infamous ship was built, a new museum opened last month complete with interactive, hands-on exhibits, adding to a growing list of museums dedicated to the disaster, including one in Southampton, the point from which the ship set sail. And there are sister Titanic attractions in Branson, Missouri, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, catering to the fascination of American audiences.

What is it that makes the Titanic so intriguing and universal to so many people?

“I think it’s the fact that it was called unsinkable; that no one thought this was going to happen. A lot of the people on the boat still didn’t think it was going to happen when they were sitting in a lifeboat waiting to be rescued,” Sheila Byron says.

Jacobs agrees. Heavy publicity as the ship was built helped cement the mythology.

“There was tremendous wealth and glamor on this ‘unsinkable’ ship,” he says. “But you don’t have to win the lottery to be happy, and you don’t escape terrible things in life just because you are wealthy, and that’s characterized in the fascination of the Titanic.”

The Byrons know some people think they’re crazy for what could be looked at as tempting fate.

“When you say you are going on a cruise, the first thing people ask is ‘where’? And then I go, ‘oh dear, here we go again,’” Sheila Byron says.

“A lot of them say ‘Our prayers will be with you,’ or ‘Have a good time.’ But not too many of them say they would do it.”

The thought of disaster is there, Tom Byron says, but it’s not dampening the couple’s enthusiasm.

It’s one last look at my 50-item checklist that I’ve looked at for weeks and weeks and weeks,” he says smiling. “It’s all organized. It’s time to go. Let’s go.

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What Cameron Fixed For Titanic’s Re-Release In 3D

FidoSysop — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:24:23 +0000

Moviegoers who are headed out to see “Titanic’s” remastered 3-D release this week will actually see something new: Director James Cameron has swapped out the stars that are seen in a crucial scene in the original 1997 film in order to portray an accurate sky.

Cameron’s re-editing was prompted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who’s also the director of the Rose Center for Earth and Space at New York’s American Museum of Natural History.

Tyson has noted that the stars Kate Winslet’s character Rose views as she lies upon a piece of driftwood are inaccurate, a flub he found surprising from a filmmaker known for being an obsessive perfectionist.

“Neil deGrasse Tyson sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen,” Cameron told U.K. publication the Telegraph.

And so, Cameron has edited the scene to portray the star field that would have actually been viewed on April 15, 1912 at 4:20 a.m.

But stars aside, how well does the 15-year-old film hold up in 3-D?

The Telegraph found that Cameron used 3-D with “intelligence, and often restraint…Re-watching ‘Titanic’ 15 years on, there can surely be little remaining doubt that this film ranks alongside ‘Gone With the Wind’ and ‘Cleopatra’ as a once-in-a-generation Hollywood epic. It has aged without dating. It transcends its target audiences. It is simply too big for genre.”

Stateside, reviews were mostly just as enthusiastic. USA Today raves that “time proves surprisingly kind to the characters,” and while its still the same story, “the dizzying visuals are even more spectacular, and the tension ratchets up several notches with the film’s rebooting in 3-D.”

The Detroit Free Press agrees that the film “is aging surprisingly well,” and “quibbles” like running time, dialogue and “digital effects…fade with time.”

The Philadelphia Daily News offers a voice of dissent, critiquing “Titanic” in 3-D as “offering no new moviegoing thrills,” and, to this reviewer at least, “a less enjoyable visual experience.”

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Yahoo To Lay Off 2,000 Employees

FidoSysop — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:15:35 +0000

If you didn’t know it, Yahoo no longer runs their own search crawler, and subcontracts with Bing as it’s search provider. Just like AOL subcontracts it’s search out to Google.

This leaves only TWO major search engines in the USA, Google and Bing. The BIG just get bigger. It’s the survival of the fittest on the Internet. And we all know it was only a matter of time until Yahoo! Inc stumbled and fell.

Whether CEO Scott Thompson can turn Yahoo around is anyone’s best guess. But when a company has such mismanaged discussion forums that are utterly disgusting as just another example of how low the company has sunk. It has been rumored that the previously mentioned forum is controlled by eBay Inc sock puppets and astroturfers.

Yahoo is laying off 2,000 employees as new CEO Scott Thompson sweeps out jobs that don’t fit into his plans for turning around the beleaguered Internet company.

The cuts announced Wednesday represent 14 percent of the 14,100 workers employed by Yahoo, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The housecleaning marks Yahoo’s sixth mass layoff in the past four years under three different CEOs. This one will inflict the deepest cuts yet, eclipsing a cost-cutting spree that laid off 1,500 workers in late 2008 as Yahoo tried to cope with the Great Recession.

Thompson is making his move three months after Yahoo lured him away from his previous job running eBay Inc.’s online payment service, PayPal.

1940 Census Report Released Look Up Family Etc Online

FidoSysop — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:49:08 +0000

NEW YORK – When the 1940 census records were released Monday, Verla Morris can consider herself a part of living history.

Morris, who is in her 100th year, will get to experience the novelty of seeing her own name and details about her life in the records being released by the U.S. National Archives online after 72 years of confidentiality expires.

“I’d be happy to see it there,” she said. “I don’t think anything could surprise me, really.”

Morris is one of more than 21 million people alive in the U.S. and Puerto Rico who were counted in the 16th federal decennial census, which documents the tumultuous decade of the 1930s transformed by the Great Depression and black migration from the rural South. It’s a distinction she shares with such living celebrities as Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman.

Morris, who has been working on her family history since 1969 and has written six books on its branches, said census records were essential for her genealogical work because oftentimes people don’t want to give their personal information.

“Lots of times I just have to wait until maybe they die,” she said. “Then I’ll have all their information.”

But census records, which include names, addresses and – in the case of the 1940 census, income and employment information – are rich with long-veiled personal details.

Morris, who turns 100 in August and was contacted through the National Centenarian Awareness Project, said she was working as a keypunch operator in Fairfield, Ill., when the 1940 census was taken. “I don’t remember them taking my census,” said Morris, who lives in Chandler, Ariz.

While a name index will not be immediately available to search, tens of thousands of researchers across the country are expected to go on a monumental genealogical hunt this week through the digitized records for details on 132 million people. Access to the records will be free and open to anyone on the Internet.

Every decade since 1942, the National Archives has made available records from past censuses. Some privacy advocates have opposed releasing such large amounts of personal information about living people.

The American Civil Liberties Union, for instance, has for over 30 years opposed any unrestricted release of census records.

Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU, said harm could come from combining the rich 1940 census data with other information.

“Computer technology today allows you to take information from different sources and combine it into a very high resolution image of somebody’s life,” he said. “Each particular piece of information might just be one pixel. But when brought together, they become very intrusive.”

A document obtained from the National Archives by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that, in 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau raised privacy concerns about the disclosure of the 1940 census by the nation’s record-keeper.

Census Bureau spokesman Robert Bernstein said in an email that any fears the data could be used to harm anyone living today “such as through identity theft” were alleviated when the archives said no birth dates or Social Security numbers would be in the records. One 1940 census question asked a sample group of over 6 million people whether they had a Social Security number, but did not explicitly ask for the number itself.

Susan Cooper, a spokeswoman for the National Archives, said the agency did not do a privacy impact assessment of the records. She said archives officials did not know of any complaints from the public about the impending release.

Robert Gellman, a privacy and information consultant, said he doubted the records would be of much value to crooks, given how easy it is to obtain personal information on the Internet.

“There’s nobody out there complaining about 70-year-old records being used against them,” he said.

Morris is also unconcerned about personal information from 1940 being made public.

A self-confessed genealogy addict, she said it was important for people to be able to learn about their ancestors through genealogical research and relies on census records constantly.

“Every family should be interested enough to have a family history,” she said.

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GSA Martha Johnson Resigns Over Wasteful Vegas Seminar

FidoSysop — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:08:08 +0000

The head of the General Services Administration resigned Monday after a scathing report that called government spending on a training seminar in Las Vegas “excessive, wasteful, and in some cases impermissible.”

The White House put out a statement that President Barack Obama was “outraged” when he found out about the spending.

GSA Administrator Martha Johnson admitted in a letter of resignation that her agency had made a “significant misstep” and that “taxpayer dollars were squandered.”

A GSA Inspector General’s report on the 2010 GSA “Western Regions” training conference in Las Vegas shows the government spent more than $822,000 for the 300 attendees, including $75,000 on team building exercises, $6,000 on commemorative coins and $6,000 on canteens, key chains and T-shirts.

President Obama was informed about the report last week before his South Korean trip and administration officials said he acted quickly. “He was outraged by the excessive spending, questionable dealings with contractors, and disregard for taxpayer dollars.” White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said in a statement Monday.

Lew said the president called for all those responsible “to be held fully accountable given that these actions were irresponsible and entirely inconsistent with the expectations that he has set as president.”

An administration official said the president respects Johnson’s decision (to resign), and believes as stewards of taxpayer dollars, these episodes are not acceptable.

The Inspector General’s findings show the 2010 training conference was held at the lavish M Resort Spa and Casino outside of Las Vegas.

The report shows that GSA employees “scouted” the location several times before the conference and that travel for conference planning totaled more than $100,000, with catering costs of more than $30,000. Add to that costs for the actual conference of more than $686,000 and the total comes to $822,751.

In her letter of resignation, Johnson said that when she was made aware of the allegations of excessive and questionable spending for the conference she launched internal reviews, took “personnel disciplinary action” and instituted “tough new controls to ensure this incident is not repeated.” That was not enough, she said, adding she is resigning to allow the GSA to “move forward at this time with a fresh leadership team.”

Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman leveled bruising criticism. “This was a stupid and infuriating waste of taxpayer dollars. The people responsible for it should be held accountable,” Lieberman said in a statement.

Johnson came into her position amid controversy. Her appointment as head of the GSA was held up for 10 months through an arcane Senate procedure known as the “hold,” in which one senator can delay a nomination without reason. When Johnson was finally confirmed by the Senate in 2010, the White House touted it as an example of why Americans are so frustrated with Washington.

Motorcyclist Hangs On For His Life In Road Rage Attack

FidoSysop — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:25:04 +0000

Video has captured the moment an angry driver rammed a motorcyclist who was forced to cling to the suv’s windshield after a road rage dispute.

Footage uploaded shows the motorbike rider kick the front of the silver four-wheel-drive as he argues with the driver while stopped at a traffic light on a three-lane highway.

The SUV driver then suddenly hits the accelerator and steers into the motorbike, which is pushed into the middle lane, narrowly missing another vehicle.

The motorbike rider abandons his bike after it topples onto the road, and goes storming towards the SUV.

He is next seen hanging onto the front of the vehicle as the driver cuts across the road, weaving through other vehicles, and crashes into a car in a car park at the side of the road.

The motorbike rider leaps off the vehicle’s hood, reaches through the driver’s side window and begins to struggle with the driver as onlookers rush over to help.

He finally gives up with a look of disgust and stalks back to inspect his bike, which is lying scratched and dented on the road.

911 Call Of Trayvor Martin Cry For Help & Gun Shot Sound

FidoSysop — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:53:15 +0000

Here is a combined 911 Call placed by George Zimmerman and the video of Zimmerman being escorted into Sanford Fla jail booking area. He don’t look the slightest bit injured.

Also i do believe it was or had been raining in the area. Note the back of Zimmermans jacket looks clean as does the rest of his clothes. Surprising for someone that was allegedly punched in the nose and pinned down on the ground with the back of his head being smashed into the pavement by Trayvon Martin.

This is the released 911 audio recording of who i believe is Treyvon Martin calling out for help. A couple of seconds later a gunshot can be heard. I’m no expert in this field, but after hearing Zimmerman’s call to 911 reporting a suspicious person wearing a hoody in his neighborhood, the person hollering for HELP sure didn’t sound like the one in this recording.

However, One of George Zimmerman’s neighbors is speaking out, saying looks can be deceiving.

Despite booking video from the Sanford Police Department that many say shows George Zimmerman largely unscathed from his encounter with Trayvon Martin, the neighbor said he saw Zimmerman with obvious injuries.

The neighbor is talking for the first time about what he saw on George Zimmerman’s face less than 24-hours after Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin.

“I saw George. He was banged up. His head had two big bandages, that weren’t flat, had a bump on them,” the neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said.

He described where the injuries were. “I seen him have a big bandage on his nose and his nose swollen. On the side, where his eyes were at, it was swollen,” he said. He points out exactly where on a picture. “I seen the bandage right here, and this side of his nose and this side of his nose was swollen.

The surveillance video was released by Sanford police of Zimmerman when he was brought in for questioning after the shooting. Bruises and bandages aren’t visible, but you can see an officer looking at the back of his head.

“Once you get into a fight you don’t show bruises that day, it shows the next day,” he said. The neighbor says Zimmerman had to have acted in self-defense. “I think something happened that night where he had to defend himself,” the neighbor said.

He says that the voice heard screaming on the 911 call is that of George Zimmerman. “I hear his voice every single day, I talk to him every single day,” he said. He says the case has haunted him. “I’ve been thinking about it morning noon and night ever since I seen the bandages on him,” he said.

He believes Zimmerman was defending his life, and that’s why he’s defending Zimmerman now. He says he doesn’t believe race played a role in what happened.

“I don’t think race is involved at all, because I’ve seen black, African-American folks come to George’s house,” he said. The neighbor says he’s tired of Zimmerman being portrayed as the bad guy. “Everyone needs to let the justice system take its course before rushing to judgment,” he said.

Trayvon Martin’s Parents Seek Federal Review Of Prosecutor

FidoSysop — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:57:50 +0000

Trayvon Martin’s parents will ask the U.S. Justice Department to review a local Florida prosecutor’s interactions with police investigating the teen’s shooting death, the family’s lawyer said.

The Justice Department launched an investigation into Martin’s death on March 19, but the family is now asking it to look for possible interference by State’s Attorney Norm Wolfinger’s office with Sanford, Florida, Police Detective Chris Serino, attorney Ben Crump said.

The Martin family will send a formal request to the Justice Department Monday, Crump told CNN Sunday.

Martin, 17, was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, 28, after Zimmerman called police to report him as a “suspicious” person on the evening of February 26.

Zimmerman says he killed Martin in self-defense after the teen punched him and slammed his head on the sidewalk, according to an Orlando Sentinel report that was later confirmed by Sanford police.

Police cited Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force anywhere they feel a reasonable threat of death or serious injury, for not immediately arresting Zimmerman.

Authorities have said Zimmerman was not immediately charged because there were no grounds, at the outset, to disprove his account that he’d acted to protect himself. Martin’s family and supporters say Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, racially profiled the teen, who was black, and ignored a police dispatcher’s directive not to follow him.

The killing sparked nationwide protests, including a march Saturday by civil rights luminaries, carrying “Justice for Trayvon” signs in a marching to the Sanford police headquarters.

The Sanford police department has come under intense scrutiny for its actions following the shooting, and protesters renewed their call for the firing of police Chief Bill Lee, who stepped aside temporarily this month amid criticism.

The local prosecutor also stepped aside. Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special investigator to decide if Zimmerman should be charged, cleared or if the case should be sent to the grand jury.

Arrest George Zimmerman for The Murder Of Trayvon Martin!

FidoSysop — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:03:46 +0000

Teen Killer - Someone Git A Rope!

Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law – does not cover Racially Motivated Murder!

SANFORD, Fla. – Pressure is building for authorities in Florida to arrest George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last month.

The incident is now a federal case, and it’s slated to go before a grand jury.

It’s been 25 days since Martin was shot and killed inside a gated community. The admitted gunman is still free. And despite two ongoing investigations by the Justice Department and state attorney, outrage within this community continues to grow daily.

So many people wanted to attend a gathering inside a church in Sanford that hundreds were forced to express their frustration outside, on the street. One shouted, “That was murder.” In the church, repeated chants of “Arrest Zimmerman” could be heard.

It’s all part of the continuing controversy over Martin’s death – and on Tuesday it reached Capitol Hill.

“I am tired of burying young black boys,” declared Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who represents the district where Martin lived. “No more racial profiling,” she continued. “I’m tired of fighting when the evidence is so clear.”

That evidence wasn’t enough for local police to arrest Zimmerman, who cited self-defense.

Martin had been to a convenience store three weeks ago when Zimmerman, whose family says he is Hispanic but who police have described as white, and who was acting as a neighborhood watch volunteer, called police to report a suspicious person.

In the 911 tapes, Zimmerman can be heard saying, “He’s got his hand in his waistband and he’s a black male.”

“Are you following him?” the dispatcher asks.

“Yep,” Zimmerman answers.

“We don’t need you to do that,” the dispatcher says.

Zimmerman told police that he began retreating to his car, and only fired his gun after Martin jumped him. But Martin’s girlfriend, who was on the phone with him when it happened, says Zimmerman was the aggressor.

In a phone call, she says that, “Trayvon said, ‘What are you following me for?’ And the man said, ‘What are you doing around here?”‘

Zimmerman, who’s called police dispatchers 46 times in the last 14 months, remains in hiding, as Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law remains hotly-debated. The law gives the benefit of the doubt to anyone claiming self defense — no matter where.

Frank Taaffe is Zimmerman’s friend and a fellow neighborhood watch volunteer.

He told me he doesn’t carry a weapon when he’s out on watch, though he has one.

Does he think Zimmerman should have been carrying one?

“No,” Taaffe responded.

Why was Zimmerman carrying a weapon?

“I can’t answer that,’ Taaffe replied. ” … The two components don’t match up. You have George, the demur, congenial, amiable guy, carrying a weapon of destruction.”

More protests were slated Wednesday, in Orlando, Miami and New York, with a major rally expected here Thursday night.

Fake Avastin From Overseas Ends Up In The U.S.A.

FidoSysop — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:30:04 +0000

From CBS News, Back in February, the FDA issued a warning about vials of a popular cancer drug that turned out to be fakes. The vials labeled “Avastin” contained a liquid that was worthless. Who would sell a fake drug to cancer patients and where the counterfeit vials came from? CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian followed the trail.

Avastin is a lifeline in the fight against cancer. Five million vials were sold in the U.S. last year.

“We use Avastin in combination with other chemotherapy,” said Dr. James Speyer, head of the NYU Langone Cancer Center. “In some these colon, lung and renal cancers, it significantly changes the rate of response and may change survival.”

The only Avastin approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States is manufactured in the United States by Genentech.

As many as 19 medical practices in the U.S. purchased a version of Avastin that turned out to be from outside this country and contained no active ingredients. Some vials had little more than salt and starch.

“Counterfeit drugs is a huge problem in the United States,” said Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. “The estimates are that $75 billion worth of sales of counterfeit drugs occur annually.”

How did the fake Avastin reach doctors’ offices here in America? CBS News followed the trail. The counterfeit Avastin was sold by a company known as Montana Healthcare Solutions. It offered 400-milligram vials for just under $2,000 — about $400 less than the manufacturer’s price.

One source told CBS News that when doctors called the company originally registered to an address in Montana, their calls were routed to an office complex in the Caribbean nation of Barbados, where CBS news has learned that Montana Healthcare Solutions is owned and operated.

CBS News found the fake drug sold by Montana Healthcare Solutions was shipped to the U.S. by a company with the same owner in the U.K. Prior to that, it had been sold through companies in Denmark and Switzerland.

And before that, Egypt, at a company located in a gritty neighborhood outside Cairo, where on Tuesday, a man associated with the company told CBS News the drugs came from Turkey, where the Avastin was originally manufactured is unknown. But remember only Avastin made in the U.S. is legal in the U.S.

“When you have those out there,” said Catizone, “where there are no controls,” “no regulations, and in the hands of people dealing with counterfeit drugs that have no concern about that drugs integrity or the patient, you create an even more dangerous situation for anybody who buys or uses that drug.”

Keteyian recently traveled to Barbados to interview the man responsible for bringing the worthless Avastin into the United States, Tom Haughton. That segment featuring Haughton will air Wednesday on the CBS Evening News.

Oprah Winfrey Cancels The Rosie O’Donnell Show

FidoSysop — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:04:40 +0000

Rosie O’Donnell Show Cancelled By Oprah, Described as “F–king Hellhole” By Staff

Now that it’s been cancelled, staffers from Rosie O’Donnell’s ill-fated OWN talk show are coming forward with some great quotes about why it was canned.

“It was such a f**king hellhole,” one former staffer told The Daily Beast.

The reason for that? O’Donnell’s frequent, temperamental clashes with The Rosie Show staff. During a taping last fall, “O’Donnell uncontrollably yelled at a publicist backstage because she didn’t like the parameters agreed upon for an interview.”

Several staffers were also very upset “when O’Donnell clashed with Oprah Winfrey’s longtime director Joe Terry. People thought she humiliated him when she scolded him in front of a live audience for using the wrong camera shots.” Rosie “suggested he didn’t know what he was doing.

She fired Winfrey’s stage manager because she felt he was ignoring her and not doing his job properly.”

She was also unhappy with her band leader, Katreese Barnes, a two-time Emmy winner from SNL, as he couldn’t play obscure Broadway songs off the cuff.

And, in what is seen as a final insult to the staff, on Friday, when Rosie’s cancellation was publicly announced with a glowing statement by Oprah Winfrey herself, Rosie was not in Chicago to personally break the news to her crew. Instead, she was Tweeting about what a great time she was having in NYC.

WWE Network Launch Date Pushed Back Possibly To Fall 2012

FidoSysop — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:01:28 +0000

I enjoy the show that the WWE puts on.

But some of the BS just goes too far. Like Alberto Delrio’s different car every week. And that Jackass Micheal Cole constantly running his mouth. Just two name a couple.

But then again It’s just a show, but an entertaining one for sure.

It was especially funny last week when Vicky Guerrero slammed the cage door shut on one of her boyfriends giving Jack Swagger a good sized knot on the forehead, while Santiago Mirilla slid out of the open cage door to win the title match.

There was all the hoopla about the NEW WWE Network that was launching in April, then nothing was said at all.

I decided to Google up the scoop about what was going on with that deal last night during the match and found this article by Cageside Seats. Looks like Vince McMahon bit off a whole lot more than he could chew!

“We’ve covered extensively the many issues the company has run into with its ambitious plan to roll out a Network from the ground up in just over three months. The initial idea was to make sure it was ready to hit the same day as WrestleMania 28, which is expected to be the biggest pay-per-view show in the history of pro wrestling.

The problem, of course, is that Vince McMahon was biting off far more than he could chew, as reported by industry insiders with knowledge of television workings. Realistically, there was never any chance that WWE could get clearances and cut distribution deals in such a short period of time. Not only that, they still haven’t hired the necessary number of people to even run the channel, let alone a competent executive to head the project.

As stated previously, the issue many of the leaders in the industry are having is that they can see more than six inches in front of their face and this entire ordeal has failure written all over it. Associating yourself with a disaster waiting to happen is a business decision even the simplest of simpletons could recognize as silly.

McMahon is stubborn as a mule and is pushing as hard as possible to make the channel a reality. They still don’t have a full slate of shows to even fill 24-hours, at least not as far as original programming goes. Sure, they have enough archival footage to run non-stop, but that’s not a big enough selling point to get anyone to purchase a channel.

Other ideas included shifting “B-show” pay-per-views to the Network while simultaneously offering them for pay. While a good idea in theory, this could prove to be a disaster in practice, if it’s ever something they would bother to go through with. They have a hard enough time selling those shows now, splitting up the audience this early in the game is a terrible idea that wouldn’t see benefits for some time. And with an operating budget reportedly close to $100 million, there’s very little room for error.

At the very least, cooler heads seem to have prevailed and the WWE Network will not be launching on April 1. Even if the idea is to launch in the fall, and that’s certainly not set in stone at this point, that could prove to be far too soon for a successful channel.”

I enjoy the twice a week show on my local cable channel, but would never pay for a pay-per-view. And i think if i had to pay extra to my cable co to get the WWE network, just to watch Raw and Smack Down, Vince would loose me as a regular viewer. Times are tough in this economy. What about you? Would you pay to watch Raw and Smack Down?

Also has anyone noticed McMahon keeps digging up old no longer seen super stars trying to fill the void for those that have either been injured or retired. Jack Swagger, Kane, Undertaker are three that i can thing of right off my head. Isn’t their any new talent to bring in?

Maybe the WWE is loosing it’s luster.

Largo Father Head Of International Organized Crime Ring

FidoSysop — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 22:53:23 +0000

From ABC News, Tampa Bay. Largo, Florida – It’s considered one of the largest cases of organized crime in Tampa Bay and detectives say at the center of it all was a Bay area father with two kids at home.

In the 53 years that Bob Sydnor has lived in Largo, he says nothing has surprised him more than the accusations involving his next door neighbor, 32-year-old Tihomir Botchev

“Golly, I can’t believe it. He always had new automobiles,” Sydnor says.

But at question is how Botchev was able to buy those luxury vehicles, like an $80,000 2010 BMW X6 and a $78,000 2010 Nissan GTR.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says Botchev had help buying the vehicles thanks to eight other men who he says were in on it too.

“Members of the organization would go into car dealerships and purchase cars on loan from various financial institutions, again using false employment verification and other false information to establish their credit worthiness,” says Sheriff Gualtieri.

Arrested Thursday were Botchev, Lubomir Sandov of Clearwater, and from St. Petersburg Ivan Petrov, Georgi Angelov, and Martin Jordanov.

The sheriff says they never paid back car loans involving 37 vehicles, which amounted to $2.1 million in losses. Sheriff
Gualtieri adds, “They would then ask the dealership to register the cars in Illinois. They would ship the car to Lithuania and Bulgaria, where the car would sell up to double the value.”

And that’s not all. Investigators with the sheriff’s office and the U.S. Secret Service say the suspects also opened multiple credit card accounts by using false personal information. The credit cards bills also were never paid. That crime cost banks one million dollars.

The alleged crime ring took investigators three years to break up and they say in all, $3.1 million was swiped. Gualtieri says, “All the victims are financial institutions, banks, credit unions, vehicle companies with financial services.”

Back at Botchev’s home, investigators say they found evidence of false tax returns, false liens and other financial documents. His neighbor wonders what will happen now to Botchev’s wife and their small kids.

Sydnor says Botchev’s wife is a hard worker who is employed. “‘Cause she’s a real nice gal. Very nice.”

Five suspects have been arrested, but detectives are searching for five other suspects. They are all facing racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges.

The men detectives are currently searching for are Nikolay Poibrenski, Atanas Zagorov, Ivan Staykov, Kiril Dinev and Ivavylo Georgiev aka Rumen Naydenov.

Here are the busted crooks mug shots.

Baby Osprey Put Back In Nest By Weeki Wachee Citizens

FidoSysop — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:44:53 +0000

This baby Osprey fell out of his nest but was rescued by several kind people nearby.

A group of Weeki Wachee, Fla, volunteers including the seabird sanctuary came to the little fellas rescue.

They fed him for a couple of days, then a local power company employee with a bucket truck gently put him back in his nest.

Nice to see good stories like this that end well.

Mozilla Releases Firefox 11 And Fixes Pwn2Own Bug

FidoSysop — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:07:07 +0000

Mozilla has released Firefox 11 and acknowledged that the security vulnerability that a pair of researchers used in the Pwn2Own contest last week was one that the company already was aware of and working on repairing.

The bug that researchers Willem Pinckaers and Vincenzo Iozzo used to compromise Firefox during Pwn2Own was a “memory safety” issue in the array.join function, Mozilla said. The company said on Monday that it was planning to delay the release of Firefox 11 in order to get the details of the vulnerability from TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative, which runs Pwn2Own, and also to ensure that the patches released by Microsoft on Tuesday wouldn’t cause any unforeseen issues with the new version of the browser.

But once the details of the ZDI bug came in, Mozilla officials realized it was one of the vulnerabilities that they already were planning to fix in Firefox 11 and went ahead with the release Tuesday afternoon.

“The security bug reported by ZDI is one we had already identified and fixed through our internal processes. This eliminates the need for us to delay this week’s releases, and we will be shipping them later today. However, in order to understand the impacts of Microsoft’s “Patch Tuesday” fixes, we will initially release Firefox for manual updates only. Once those impacts are understood, we’ll push automatic updates out to all of our users,” Johnathan Nightingale of Mozilla said in a blog post.

Mozilla has adopted an accelerated release schedule for Firefox in recent months and is now pushing out a new version of the browser every six weeks. That’s far more often than Microsoft or Apple release new versions of their browsers, but it’s still much less frequently than Google updates Chrome. Google has gotten to a point now where it rarely goes three weeks without releasing a new version of Chrome. Last week alone Google released two new versions of Chrome in order to fix vulnerabilities disclosed as part of its Pwnium contest at CanSecWest.

The full list of bugs fixed in Firefox 11 includes:

MFSA 2012-19 Miscellaneous memory safety hazards (rv:11.0/ rv:10.0.3 / rv:1.9.2.28)
MFSA 2012-18 window.fullScreen writeable by untrusted content
MFSA 2012-17 Crash when accessing keyframe cssText after dynamic modification
MFSA 2012-16 Escalation of privilege with Javascript: URL as home page
MFSA 2012-15 XSS with multiple Content Security Policy headers
MFSA 2012-14 SVG issues found with Address Sanitizer
MFSA 2012-13 XSS with Drag and Drop and Javascript: URL
MFSA 2012-12 Use-after-free in shlwapi.dll