Gaddafi calls for war with Italy

 

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Saturday called on war with Italy, citing Italy's 'colonization' attempts.

In a speech delivered at the Libyan state TV, Gaddafi said that he could not prevent war with Italy since Libyans wanted it.

"We are already in a war with Italy since Italians kill our children in 2011 as they did in 1911, that is why I cannot forbid Libyans to defend their lives and carry the military actions on the enemy's territory," Gaddafi said.

Libya was Italian colony from 1911 to 1941. In 2008 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a so-called Friendship Treaty with Gaddafi. Under this pact Italy paid 5 billion euro reparations to Libya for its colonial rule.

In late February Italy suspended the Friendship Treaty.

"Italy insists on repeating the crimes of 1911, in keeping with the same colonialist policy. This is the violent face of Italy. My friend Berlusconi and the Italian parliament are committing a crime," Gaddafi said.

Italy is one of the 14 NATO countries, taking part in the operation Unified Protector in Libya, which includes airstrikes, a no-fly zone and naval enforcement of an arms embargo.

On Tuesday Berlusconi said that Italy would provide additional military support to NATO operation in Libya by authorizing air-to-ground strikes on pro-Gaddafi targets.

Later on Wednesday Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa announced that eight Italian combat aircraft will be directly involved in airstrikes against pro-Gaddafi forces.

Despite dozens of sorties carried out by NATO aircraft against Gaddafi's forces, the government troops maintain their combat capability and continue to pound poorly-equipped rebels with heavy artillery and rocket fire.

MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti) 

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The President's Speech Trailer

 

At the 2011 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, President Barack Obama jokes about a sequel to the film the King's Speech that hits closer to home. The President offers a sneak peak of the parody at the annual event.

 

The White House Correspondent’s Dinner, an annual tradition where the media and political elite meet to roast/congratulate each other, with mixed results, just finished up. Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers hosted the event, and you should be able to watch replays on C-SPAN if you’re interested.

One new twist to the proceedings: The White House, which normally plays along with the event even though the chief occupant gets ribbed, has gone all in. Immediately after showing this video — a parody trailer based on the “The King’s Speech” — at the event, they released it on YouTube (via Twitter, of course).

The bit isn’t LOL-worthy, IMHO. But it does contain jokes, and I think it’s noteworthy that they’re putting this out there for public consumption, at a time when much of the electorate seems particularly… susceptible to jokes. Even more so if they’re easily accessible via Google.

Meanwhile, you can see all 17 minutes of Obama’s presentation here

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Phone Sex Grandma’ is absolutely AMAZING

 

 

This is a short film called “Phone Sex Grandma”, and it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.  The concept is simple: a 60-something Southern grandma works a phone sex line.  I’m sure we’ve all seen a  version of this scene played out in countless films and television shows with varying degrees of hackyness, but somehow, the no-frills bleakness of this one, in depicting a scene which we all essentially already assumed existed, is indescribably divine.  The woman is LITERALLY KNITTING AND SITTING ON THE TOILET while delivering some of the most coarse, disgusting, swear-filled perversion you’ve ever heard. Filth flarn filth flarn filth.  She makes Betty White’s schtick look like a Disney adaptation of a Norwegian black metal song.  And she does it all!  She can play black, Asian, dominatrix, innocent schoolgirl, toothless penis-craving cumdumpster — PICK YOUR POISON!

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Chicken soup and Cola wars

Believe it or not, studies in various species have shown that males in more dominant roles often produce a LOWER quality and quantity of sperm than those in subordinate roles. This is presumably because the dominant males don't have to compete as much as the subordinates, they get first pick of the females. But this hasn't been tested before, because the animals being studied understandably get annoyed when you try to get between them and their chosen female to get a sample of the semen.

In this case they decided to try again, using chickens. But not your normal chickens, these were Swedish fowl that live in social groups of up to 16 animals. The males form a dominance hierarchy for access to the females. The most dominant males are obviously going to get first crack at the hens, but the hens will often have multiple matings, and sperm competition is intense. Not only do the females go multiple times, the males can ejaculate up to 40 times within a few hours, which often results in quantity over quality, as the sperm quality decreases over time.

They took males of high and low status, and put them through randomized mating trials over several females, ALSO of high and low status. They took the ejaculate and measured the number of sperm, as well as the velocity, or how good their little swimmers were doing.

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Coca-Cola’s Friendship Machine Rewards Cooperation With Cokes 

The game of vending machine one-upsmanship between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo continues with Coke’s “Friendship Machine.”

Coca-Cola actually planted the machines in Argentina last August to celebrate International Friendship Day, but just this week uploaded the video to its YouTube channel. The machines appear to be about 12 feet tall and requires that you ask a buddy for a boost to use it. Coke rewards that bit of cooperation by dispensing two Cokes instead of one.

The program plays off of Coke’s “Happiness Machine” viral video of 2010, which shows a Coke machine spitting out free soda and pizzas to a group of delighted students. Coke also updated that idea in February with a “Happiness Truck” video that features a Coca-Cola truck giving out Cokes along with surfboards, beach toys and sunglasses.

PepsiCo responded to Coke’s experiments this week with a real-life vending machine that let you gift free Pepsis to friends and strangers via a text message.

 

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Pepsi Vending Machine Lets You Gift Drinks to Friends Via Social Media

Coca-Cola launched a viral video last year that featured a magical vending machine that spat out pizzas and free Cokes. Now, rival Pepsi has introduced a real vending machine that has a magical property of its own: It’s social media-enabled.

PepsiCo’s Social Vending Machine, announced Wednesday at a trade show in Chicago, lets users send free soda to their friends. To do so, users select a beverage and enter the recipient’s name, mobile number and personalized text message with a code redeemable at another vending machine. Consumers can personalize the message with a short video recorded by the machine. There’s also an option to send a free beverage to a stranger.

The new machine “extends our consumers’ social networks beyond the confines of their own devices and transforms a static, transaction-oriented experience into something fun,” said Mikel Durham, chief innovation officer at PepsiCo Foodservice, in a statement. Not surprisingly, Coca-Cola is also experimenting with the possibilities of vending machines. Aside from its fictional “Happiness Machine,” Coke has also introduced interactive machines with touchscreens.

Though Pepsi’s model represents an evolution in the possibilities for vending machines, the lack of a Facebook or Twitter tie-in is a glaring omission. But considering some recent experiments with Facebook-enabled objects, a vending machine tie-in with the social network seems imminent. A PepsiCo rep says Facebook or other social media integration “are Phase 2 — being explored as it evolves.”

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Twin polar bears make their public debut in China

Twin polar bear cubs were introduced to the cameras on Monday at a wildlife park in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

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Apple Filed Patent for Mobile Device Tracking

 

 

Apple's claim that the geolocation tracking of its customers via a stealth file maintained in devices running the iOS operating system are, well, "patently" false.

The stealth iOS file records geolocation information derived from triangulating the location of a device using the signals from the closest cell phone transmission towers and Wi-Fi access points. The data is continuously collected and recorded regardless of whether the user has chosen to disable location services features on their mobile device.

Apple released a statement earlier this week that claims the data collection is caused by a software bug that will be remediated in a soon to be issued update to the iOS. Apple admitted that the information was being sent to the company, but they maintain that they are unable to trace the data a particular phone or user.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs even stated directly that "We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false."

Reports have now surfaced that demonstrate these assurances are false.

Apple filed for a patent in September of 2009 titled "Location Histories for Location Aware Devices" with the intent to develop services based around the company's ability to locate and track mobile devices running the iOS operating system.

The abstract of the patent reads as follows:

"A location aware mobile device can include a baseband processor for communicating with one or more communication networks, such as a cellular network or WiFi network. In some implementations, the baseband processor can collect network information (e.g., transmitter IDs) over time. Upon request by a user or application, the network information can be translated to estimated position coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, altitude) of the location aware device for display on a map view or for other purposes. A user or application can query the location history database with a timestamp or other query to retrieve all or part of the location history for display in a map view."

The patent text goes on to outline how the tracking data could be accessed by applications, indicating Apple intends to build salable services around the collected data and allow third parties the ability to access it:

"A user or application can query the location history database with a timestamp or other query to retrieve all or part of the location history for display in a map view. In some implementations, the size and "freshness" of the location history database can be managed by eliminating duplicate entries in the database and/or removing older entries. The location history can be used to construct a travel timeline for the location aware device. The travel timeline can be displayed in a map view or used by location aware applications running on the location aware device or on a network. In some implementations, an Application Programming Interface (API) can be used by an application to query the location history database."

The patent application then goes on to describe how the location tracking data can include transmitter identifiers that correlate the data to a specific phone - which means a specific user - and how the data can be transmitted to network servers for processing:

"In some implementations, the network information can include transmitter identifiers (IDs). For example, Cell IDs can be tracked and recorded. The Cell IDs can be mapped to corresponding cell tower locations which can be used to provide estimated position coordinates of the location aware device. When a location history is requested by a user or application (e.g., through an API), the transmitter IDs can be translated to position coordinates of the location aware device which can be reverse geocoded to map locations for display on a map view or for other purposes. In other implementations, the network information can include WiFi scan data (e.g., access point IDs) which can be used to determine position coordinates of the location aware device, which can be reverse geocoded for display on a map view. In some implementations, the network information can be sent to a network server, which can translate the network information into position coordinates, which can be returned to the location aware device for processing by a location aware application."

Revelations of the patent application now confirm suspicions that Apple was quite aware of the storage of geolocation tracking data, that it was not merely a database of Wi-Fi locations, and the building of location histories on their customers was not due to a software glitch.

The full Apple patent application can be found HERE. 

 

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Congress Has Questions for Sony About Attack

 

 

A House of Representatives subcommittee sent a letter to Sony on Friday asking for information about the attack on the Sony Playstation Network by hackers last week. The gaming network has 77 million registered users.

The letter, which was addressed to Mr. Kazuo Hirai, chairman of Sony, asked the company to answer a detailed list of questions related to the intrusion. It wants a reply by May 6.

In the letter, which was written by the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, the group’s chairman, Representative Mary Bono Mack, Republican of California, asked a number of security and privacy related questions that Sony has never disclosed to the public. They included when the intrusion occurred, if Sony knew who was responsible for the attack and when the company notified law enforcement.

The letter also asked Sony to explain what it knew about the type of data that was stolen by the hackers and if it included any credit card information.

Although Sony says it doesn’t have evidence that customers’ credit card numbers were stolen, on Thursday it was reported that hackers on underground Web forums had claimed to have access to a database that included PlayStation customer names, addresses, usernames, passwords and as many as 2.2 million credit card numbers.

The PlayStation Network has been down for nearly two weeks and it is unclear when the service will be fully back online.

The letter sent to Sony. The full document can be seen here.

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Girl with a split tongue.

Should make for some interesting comments.

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Fanatics' fury at Muslim Playgirl

A MUSLIM actress has caused a storm by posing naked for Playboy.

Sila Sahin has been branded a "whore" and a "western slut" after appearing topless on the cover of the German edition of the men's magazine.
A kebab shop owner, asked on German TV what he would do if Sila were his daughter, replied: "I would kill her. I really mean that. That doesn't fit with my culture."

The Islamic Community of Germany has called for a boycott of Sila.

About three million Muslim immigrants live in Germany, which has seen numerous honor killings in recent years by fanatical husbands, fathers and brothers.

And Islamic fanatics have posted threatening internet messages.

Sila, raised in Germany by conservative Turkish parents, says she fears being "spat at" and "shamed".

Her parents are said to have reacted with "horror" at the 12-page coverage, and her mother has apparently cut off all contact.

Sila, 25 - star of German soap Good Times, Bad Times - claimed the shoot was a reaction to the "slavery" of her youth.

She added: "What I want to say with these photos is, 'Girls, we don't have to live according to the rules imposed upon us'.

"For years I subordinated myself to various societal constraints. The Playboy photo shoot was a total act of liberation."

Threats

But Islamic internet sites are being monitored by the BND - the German intelligence agency - after threats were posted about her "shaming Muslim womanhood" and "prostituting herself for money".

One poster on the Jihad Watch website wrote: "She needs to be very careful..." Another simply said: "She must pay."

A kebab shop owner, asked on German TV what he would do if Sila were his daughter, replied: "I would kill her. I really mean that. That doesn't fit with my culture."

The Islamic Community of Germany has called for a boycott of Sila.

About three million Muslim immigrants live in Germany, which has seen numerous honour killings in recent years by fanatical husbands, fathers and brothers.

In 2009, an asylum seeker was sentenced to life after killing his "too independent" German wife.

One police intelligence officer said of Sila: "I think what she did was either very brave, or very stupid.She will be double-locking her door at night for a long time to come."

 

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Former Miss USA: 

TSA Agent “Touched My Vagina”

 

Susie Castillo was crowned Miss USA (not Miss America) back in 2003. She recently made a trip to Rio and on her return trip through Dallas was given a pat-down that she found both intrusive and upsetting. This is video of her describing what happened just a few minutes after the pat-down by a female TSA agent:

Given the poor treatment people of all ages have been given at the hands of the TSA, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. While her case would be stronger if she had video of the pat-down itself, I think it’s safe to assume those are real tears.

Notice Mrs. Castillo says she underwent a previous pat down on this same trip which was not problematic. So this is not a case of someone who has simply never experienced a pat-down finding it unpleasant. She’s objecting to the specific procedure she underwent at this airport:

What bothered me most was when she ran the back of her hands down my behind, felt around my breasts, and even came in contact with my vagina! Honestly, I was in shock, especially since the woman at LAX never actually touched me there. The TSA employee at DFW touched private area 4 times, going up both legs from behind and from the front, each time touching me there. Was I at my gynecologist’s office? No! This was crazy!

On one hand, TSA could claim this is just a case of one employee in need of retraining. On the other hand, this incident begs the same question that is raised every time the TSA frisks someone who is extremely unlikely to be planning any sort of terror attack. Why are TSA’s procedures so stupid?

I just kept thinking, “What have I done to deserve this treatment as an upstanding, law-abiding American citizen?” Am I a threat to US security? I was Miss USA, for Pete’s sake!

It’s a perfectly good question, and yet in each previous incident like this, TSA has assured us that everything was done properly. In this case, that might be a bit harder if only because the offended party is not a horrified child but an articulate woman who will likely be invited to make appearances on a few TV shows. She has already organized a petition on Twitter aimed at the TSA blog team.

Can “Blogger Bob” once again justify what happened here? He can try, but let’s face it… If your procedure leads you to vigorously frisk Miss USA for a bomb, there’s a problem with your procedure.

 

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SpaceX video depicts crewed Dragon spacecraft landing on Mars

This SpaceX video unveiled today at a NASA press conference shows how commercial flight crew will take off, travel, and land in the company's Dragon spacecraft.... on a mission to Mars. Notable for details like, "escape engines for on-target propulsive landing will enable landing on any solid surface in the solar system," followed by a CGI dude high-fiving another CGI dude.

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Can you guess what this is?

Yes, you got it right. It’s a sperm retrieval machine and in case of mafunction, you’re doomed…

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South Park Plays Into Apple 'Locationgate'

Think Apple isn't tracking you? This South Park spoof may have you guessing again.

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Apple denies iPhone tracking claims

Don't follow me ... Apple says that it does not track the 

location of a user's iPhone and 'has never done so'

Apple says it has never tracked the locations of iPhones and iPads, but admits a software fault means data is still sent to the company

Apple has admitted that a bug in its software has allowed iPhones and iPads to collect data related to their location even when users turn off permission to collect it – but says it will soon remedy this oversight.

The admission follows a storm of controversy after the Guardian's exclusive revelation last week that the devices stored a file containing details from which a user's movements could be reconstructed.

In a statement on its website, the company says that: "Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans ever to do so."

It says that the file discovered by researchers and described in the Guardian is not used for tracking of the phone or its owner. "The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and [mobile network] cell towers surrounding the iPhone's location, which can be more than 100 miles away from the iPhone." It adds: "We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon."

That will cut the amount of data stored from as much as a year's worth of location information to just seven days, the company says. That is likely to be roughly comparable with the store used on Android phones, which record the past 50 cell towers and 200 Wi-Fi networks that the phone has "seen".

That data is uploaded to Apple in an "encrypted and anonymous" form, it says.

It admits that a software fault means that if users turn off Location Services – which should prevent the upload – the data is still sent. "It shouldn't. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly," the company says.

Future versions of the file will be encrypted on the phone. That will allay fears that law enforcement and security services could copy the file and analyse it without a valid warrant.

Apple accepts some of the blame for the concern over the revelations, which have seen it threatened with lawsuits and put under focus from US lawmakers and potentially by European governments. "Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date," the company says in its statement.

The data is stored because it helps the iPhone to calculate its location, Apple says. "Calculating a phone's location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple."

Apple also insists that it cannot identify individuals from the data because the data about networks and Wi-Fi – which is reported to the company's servers – is anatomized and encrypted.

The Guardian approached Apple ahead of publication last week of its article detailing the findings by the researchers, but the company declined to comment at the time. Repeated requests for comment received no response until now.

Since then Apple has found itself under fire, with the US Democratic senator Al Franken writing directly to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs demanding to know why the phones retained the data, and attempts to file a class action lawsuit against the company.

Jobs himself was curtly emphatic in an email earlier this week in which he insisted "we don't track anyone" and that "the info circulating around is false".

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Apple, Jobs Repond to Data Gathering

Apple defended the process it uses to gather location information via the iPhone and unveiled a software update to scale back such practices.

 

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Live from space: You talk to Commander Mark Kelly and the Endeavour Crew

We’ve always jumped at the chance to bring the wonders of space a little closer to home. We’ve announced a Moon office, a Moon race and an expedition to Mars and brought many nooks and crannies of the universe to Google Earth—Sky, Moon, Mars, NASA images and a Hubble tour, to name a few.

On Friday, April 29, the crew of STS-134 will launch into space for the final mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour and we want to give you the chance to connect with them. On May 2, NASA Commander Mark Kelly and his crew will take your questions live from space on YouTube. PBS NewsHourMiles O’Brien curating and asking your questions to the crew.
will live stream the interview from its YouTube channel with veteran space reporter
Starting today, you can visit www.youtube.com/pbsnewshour to submit a video or written question for the crew of STS-134 to be used in the live interview and vote for your favorite questions. You can also submit questions on Twitter with the hashtag #utalk2nasa. Don’t be shy—if you’re most curious about how to prepare for a spacewalk or wondering if the astronauts have a speech prepared for an extra-terrestrial encounter, this is your chance to find out. Here’s a video from PBS and Miles O’Brien to inspire you:

 

A few suggestions before submitting your questions:

Video questions are preferred, and should be a max of 20 seconds long

Speak clearly and film in a place with minimal background noise. Keep the camera as still as possible and ask the question directly to the camera

Look through NASA videos on YouTube about STS-134 to learn more about the mission and crew

You have until Saturday April 30 at midnight ET to submit your questions. The top ranked questions will be used in the live interview on Monday, May 2 at 2:15pm ET / 11:15am PT.

To get the full experience of STS-134, you can also watch a live stream of the shuttle launch on Friday April 29 starting at 3:47pm ET at www.youtube.com/pbsnewshour. Both the launch and the interview will be available for archived viewing.

Houston, we’re ready for lift-off.

Posted by Ginny Hunt, Public Sector Program Manager

 

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INCREDIBLE. Man struck by lightning and walks away

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"Syria is not Libya"

 

 

Only with great effort is devoted to the Security Council of violence in Syria. The security forces of President Bashar al- Assad should have been shot dead hundreds of protesters. Whether in New York a planned press release views of the consent of the 15 Council members has failed, or the opposition a veto power, according to estimates by diplomats completely open.

In the design of sanctions is the question. He only condemned the brutality of the regime in Damascus against its own people and calls for an end to the bloodshed. But even this modest step, the two veto-wielding Russia and China, and Lebanon, currently the only Arab country in the Council, not yet join. Beirut waits for the question nevertheless consent of the Arab League. Beijing has always been reluctant when it came to responding to domestic political problems of other countries. And Russia hesitates when it comes to further pressure on the long-time ally Syria. Moscow makes no secret of his displeasure with the international action against the regime of Muammar al- Gaddafi in Libya.

Whether the Arab world will double standards, was UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on Tuesday night in New York asked. Had the demonstrators in Syria the same entitlement to assistance offered to the people of Libya, the Security Council by its resolutions 1970 (penalties) and 1973 (military action) in February and March? "Unfortunately, we now have several of these cases in the Middle East and North Africa," said the chief diplomat. "Everyone seems to have different backgrounds and different kind."

Indeed, Libya's rulers denied the Gaddafi regime opponents in his country any type of reform. He threatened that his people would go from street to street and house to house and arrest all the opponents, if necessary kill. Now that even the Arab League of Gaddafi had been averted, the UN decided to Security for an international military action to protect Libyan civilians.

Syria's Assad replied that they would reform-ready, but has taken no decisive change in eleven years. Assad makes foreign schemers for the situation in his country responsible. His UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari, said that armed groups mingled with the demonstrators and fired on the military. "Through it comes to the many dead." The American UN Ambassador Susan Rice noted again that Assad is support from Iran leave. Damascus turn to the same brutal measures to keep Tehran in check his people.

The fact that the Security Council now with Syria, is also due to the driving force of Germany. Berlin had put itself in the sanctions to the wheel, the mandate for the military campaign against Tripoli, but did a bicycle kick. Now the Foreign Office worked together with London, Paris and Lisbon, the draft of the Syria- Declaration. "The events in Syria simply require the Council's attention," says the German UN Ambassador Peter Wittig. From German diplomatic sources said that the meeting on Wednesday of the Security Council was a milestone reached.

Whether in the end, sanctions follow? Completely ruled out it is not. In the case of Libya, just four days went from mild press statement to the adoption of sanctions. The UN Chief warns against excessive expectations in this regard. "Syria is not Libya," Ban said.

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Tech and Tweets Saving Lives as Tornadoes Wreak Havoc Again

[VIDEO]

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Tornadoes are wreaking havoc across the South again tonight, and according to TV station ABC 33/40, dozens of people have died so far. Social media and technology is helping to spread the word, perhaps saving many more lives. Watch the dramatic video above as a tornado slams into Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where you can easily sense the fear in the shallow breaths of the videographer.

After Tuscaloosa, Alabama was hit hard, now residents of the Birmingham and Anniston, Alabama area take cover. Take a look at this live Ustream video from Birmingham television station ABC 33/40, where meteorologists are broadcasting to thousands of online viewers. The weather personnel are using sophisticated radar tech to spot funnel clouds, warning residents to take cover.

As residents upload dozens of pictures and videos with their mobile devices, the Weather Channel’s Twitter feed for breaking news is busy tonight, re-tweeting images of the destruction.

Even though television stations often unnecessarily inform viewers of impending rainstorms, this is not one of those times. If you’re in Alabama and hanging out with your computer tonight, check out those Twitter feeds, turn on the TV/radio or watch that livestream linked above. Be safe.

Update: Here’s a tip from one of our Facebook friends:

“There’s a hashtag people can use to follow information- #[state abbreviation]wx. So, for Arkansas, it would be #ARwx, and for Georgia, it would be #GAwx. Spotters, reporters and emergency people are starting to use this more widely. Twitter is more useful than facebook in this regard.”

This is an unedited video of the horrible Tuscaloosa Tornado of 4/27/11

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Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones jailed for refusing pay $1 'peace' bond at court hearing over mosque protest 

 

He accidentally fires gun into the floorboard of his car

Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones was jailed briefly for refusing to pay a $1 'peace' bond over his  planned protest outside the largest mosque in America.

Jones was also banned from demonstrating and ordered him to stay away for three years from the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan.

The pastor and a supporter, Wayne Sapp, were later released from custody after the bond was paid.

Earlier, a jury decided his protest was 'likely to breach the peace' in the Detroit

suburb with a large Muslim American population.

Heavy police presence: The pastor is hoping to hold the protest in Dearborn, home to the highest proportion of Muslims in America

Jones had asked for a permit to stage a Good Friday demonstration on public land across from the mosque and four other churches where several thousand worshippers were expected.

Judge Mark Somers issued a preliminary ruling last Thursday in favor of prosecutors who sought the bond on the grounds that the appearance by Jones would require heavy police protection to prevent violence.

Meanwhile, Jones accidentally accidentally fired his gun in his car before his court appearance following an interview at Fox channel WJBK.

On its Facebook page, myFoxdetroit.com, the station said: 'Pastor Terry Jones just discharged his firearm in our parking lot.

Jones had asked for a permit to stage a Good Friday demonstration on public land across from the mosque and four other churches where several thousand worshippers were expected.
Judge Mark Somers issued a preliminary ruling last Thursday in favour of prosecutors who sought the bond on the grounds that the appearance by Jones would require heavy police protection to prevent violence.
Meanwhile, Jones accidentally accidentally fired his gun in his car before his court appearance following an interview at Fox channel WJBK.
On its Facebook page, myFoxdetroit.com, the station said: 'Pastor Terry Jones just discharged his firearm in our parking lot.

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PlayStation hacker took user info

Users trying to connect to the PlayStation Network are met with an error message

Sony has warned users of its PlayStation Network that their personal information, including credit card details, may have been stolen.

The company said that the data might have fallen into the hands of an "unauthorized person" following a hacking attack on its online service.

Access to the network was suspended last Wednesday, but Sony has only now revealed details of what happened.

Users are being warned to look out for attempted telephone and e-mail scams.

In a statement posted on the official PlayStation blog, Nick Caplin, the company's head of communications for Europe, said: "We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network".

The blog posting lists the personal information that Sony believes has been taken.

Name

Address (city, state/province, zip or postal code)

Country

E-mail address

Date of birth

PlayStation Network/Qriocity passwords and login

Handle/PSN online ID

Mr Caplin added: "It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained.

"For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information."

Credit cards

Sony admitted that credit card information, used to purchase games, films and music, may also have been stolen.

"While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility," Mr Caplin said.

"If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained."

Sony has not given any indication of how many PlayStation Network users may have had their information taken, but the service has around 70 million members worldwide.

'PR Disaster'

The theft of so much detailed customer data would be seen as a "public relations disaster", according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos.

"This is a big one," he told BBC News.

"The PlayStation Network is a real consumer product. It is in lots of homes all over the world.

"The impact of this could be much greater than your typical internet hack."

Mr Cluley warned that, even without credit card details, the information taken was enough to help criminals carry out further attacks on other services.

"Some people will use the same passwords on other sites. If I was a hacker right now, I would be taking those e-mail addresses and trying those passwords," he said.

User anger

PlayStation users got their first indication that something was wrong with the service when it became unavailable on Wednesday 20 April.

In the following days, Sony issued three brief statements asking users to be patient while it investigated an "external intrusion", or hack.

However, the fact that it took almost seven days for the company to reveal that data had been taken has angered some gamers.

Commenting on the Sony blog, Tacotaskforce wrote: "You waited a week to tell us our personal information was compromised? That should have been said last Thursday."

Another user Sid4peeps wrote: "This update is about 6 days late. I think it is time to move to the other network, no regard for customers here."

But some PlayStation users appeared to be happy with Sony's handling of the matter. Ejsponge61 commented: "Wow, this is alot of info. Thanks, this is very much appreciated by all of us PlayStation fans."

The Sony PlayStation Network remains unavailable to users. The company has not said when service will be restored.

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Mississippi town figures out simple, effective way to stop Westboro Baptist Church funeral protest

Brandon, Mississippi will go down in history as the town where the Westboro Baptist Church met its match.

The lunatics showed up to protest at the funeral of local hero Staff Sgt Jason Rogers who was killed in Afghanistan, but left town without making a peep. They may have made a few moans and groans, but no peeps.

 

A couple of days before, one of them (Westboro protestors) ran his mouth at a Brandon gas station and got his arse waxed. Police were called and the beaten man could not give much of a description of who beat him. When they canvassed the station and spoke to the large crowd that had gathered around, no one seemed to remember anything about what had happened.

Rankin County handled this thing perfectly. There were many things that were put into place that most will never know about and at great expense to the county.

Most of the morons never made it out of their hotel parking lot. It seems that certain Rankin county pickup trucks were parked directly behind any car that had Kansas plates in the hotel parking lot and the drivers mysteriously disappeared until after the funeral was over. Police were called but their wrecker service was running behind and it was going to be a few hours before they could tow the trucks so the Kansas plated cars could get out.

A few made it to the funeral but were ushered away to be questioned about a crime they might have possibly been involved in. Turns out, after a few hours of questioning, that they were not involved and they were allowed to go on about their business.

No lawyers. No judges. No counter protests. Just a good old fashioned ass kicking.

That’s exactly what the Westboro lunatics have been asking for, so it’s only fair that the good folks in Rankin County gave it to them.

Next time, put it on pay per view and make a fortune for the widows and children of the military heroes. We know we’d pay to see it.

Update: We thought we should include the video that accompanied the original story. It’s the view from a trooper’s dash cam recording the escort of Marine Staff Sgt Jason Rogers as hundreds or even thousands of onlookers gathered alongside the roadway to pay their respects.

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Aflac Has Found Its New “Spokesduck” [VIDEO]

Daniel McKeague, a sales manager from Minneapolis heard about the opening shortly after Gilbert Gottfried, the comedian who served as the voice of the Duck for more than 10 years, was dismissed for posting a sequence of tasteless jokes on Twitter about the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan six weeks ago.

The auditions were conducted almost entirely online and advertised widely on Aflac’s social media channels — a smart move, given that much of the negative reaction to Gottfried’s misfires was centered on those channels. Ninety percent of the 12,500 entrants submitted recordings of their voices via an online entry form. The remaining 10% showed up at live auditions in six major U.S. cities.

The first commercial with McKeague’s voice will air during NBC’s The Voice at 9 p.m. ET. Aflac worked with ad agency Digitas on the campaign


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Google Inside Out With Steven Levy

The Churchill Club posted this video of a morning interview session with author and journalist Steven Levy last week in Silicon Valley.

Levy talked about his new book, “In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives.”

Here’s his take on the search giant:

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