email fff
password 12345
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Oops! United airlines accidentally offers airline tickets for 'Free'
The next time you’re sitting on a full-price seat on a United Airlines flight, the person next to you, likely hogging your armrest too, may have paid just $5, or less. An unknown number of United Airlines customers purchased flight tickets for practically nothing Thursday after a computer glitch caused some fares to show up online for anywhere from $10 to $0. “I just booked a couple of round trips from SJC – BOS via IAH in November and December for $10 round trip. Found them on United.com,” user Quiltingatty posted on FlyerTalk.com, an air travel online forum. “UA: IAD – MSP $5 each way Sept 25th/26th… Just went to book this for a work trip and ended up paying $7.50 all in,” posted another user on the same site. “During this time I’m looking up everything,” said Dawnica Jackson, a United Airlines customer who rushed to book flights after seeing the glitch. “I’m like, we’re going here. We’re going there. I was like we’re going to do Christmas in Maui.” As word spread online of the deals, United quickly shut down the booking section of its website and phone centers to prevent more tickets from being sold. The website began again accepting reservations, at the normal prices, around 2:45 p.m., CST. A spokeswoman for the Chicago-based company told the Associated Press the error was not a website malfunction but an error in filing the fares. The airline does not know how many of the bargain-priced tickets were sold, nor does it know how it will handle the tickets that were sold. “As always, we will do what is appropriate,” United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said. United did not reply to ABC News’ request for comment as of this writing.
Samsung launches smartphone with curved display screen
Samsung Electronics, the world's best-selling smartphone maker, has launched a handset with a curved display screen. Called the Galaxy Round, the smartphone will feature a 5.7in (14.5cm) display. The launch comes just days after rival LG said it would begin production of curved-screen phones next year. Digital display technology has been progressing towards curved screens. Both Samsung and LG alread Samsung said the curved screen display would help consumers use some of the features on the phone, including those that enable users to check information such as date, time and missed calls when home screen is off, with more ease. At the same time, users can also change music tracks on their phone, even while its display is off. The Galaxy Round will initially be launched only in South Korea. The firm gave no indication of its plans for a global launch. 'Internet of Things' The global smartphone market has been growing rapidly. According to research firm CCS Insight, worldwide smartphone sales will hit nearly one billion in 2013 - accounting for more than half the total of 1.7 billion mobile phones sold. As as result, smartphone manufacturers have been keen to offer new products to win consumers. With display technology moving towards flexible and bendy screens, it is one area that companies have been looking at. Some analysts said that while the initial offering of curved-screen phones may not see huge sales, the segment of flexible displays was one to keep an eye on. "These phones may not be a game-changer today, but they are definitely an indication of things to come," Manoj Menon, managing director of consulting firm Frost & Sullivan . "Flexible displays have a huge role to play as the market place for 'internet of things' grows." This refers to the idea that many things in homes or offices - not just typical computers - will soon be connected to the internet. The sector is tipped by many to be a major industry in the near future. Mr Menon said that as flexible screens became more advanced and cost-effective to make, it was likely to speed up growth in the sector
'Hard drugs found' on Greenpeace ship seized by Russia
Russian investigators say they have found what appear to be hard drugs on board the Greenpeace ship seized during a protest in the Arctic last month. "During a search of the ship, drugs (apparently poppy straw and morphine) were confiscated," Russia's Investigative Committee said. Poppy straw, or raw opium, can be used to produce morphine or heroin. Greenpeace said in a statement that any suggestion of illegal drugs being found was a "smear". "We can only assume the Russian authorities are referring to the medical supplies that our ships are obliged to carry under maritime law," it said. Thirty people are being held on suspicion of "piracy" after activists attempted to scale a Russian oil rig. The head of Greenpeace International, Kumi Naidoo, has written to Russian President Vladimir Putin, offering himself as a guarantee for the detainees. There is widespread international concern for the crew of the Arctic Sunrise, who hail from 18 nations. The Netherlands has demanded the immediate release of the detainees, who are being held in the northern port of Murmansk pending trial, as well as the release of their the Dutch-flagged ship. Six Britons are among those arrested, and UK Foreign Office officials have discussed the case with Russia's ambassador in the UK, it was reported on Wednesday. In its statement, the Investigative Committee said charges against some of the detainees might change in the light of evidence gathered from the ship. Apart from the suspected drugs, "dual-purpose" equipment was found on the Arctic Sunrise, it said, adding that this "could be used not only for ecological purposes".
Orbital's Cygnus space freighter embarks on maiden voyage
The new Cygnus commercial cargo ship has launched on a demonstration voyage to the International Space Station. Built by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC), the robotic vessel lifted off atop an Antares rocket from the Wallops spaceport in Virginia, US. Cygnus is one of two private systems seeded by Nasa to meet America's ISS re-supply requirements following the retirement of the space shuttles. A successful mission will see OSC begin a series of operational cargo flights. Nasa has awarded the company a $1.9bn (£1.2bn) contract covering eight sorties to the station. Lift-off occurred at 10:58 local time (14:58 GMT). The two-stage Antares appeared to work flawlessly. Its aim was to put the freighter in an orbit more than 240km above the Earth. Cygnus will have to use its own thrusters over the course of the next four days to raise its altitude and chase down the space station. Because this is a demonstration mission, Nasa has insisted on a number of practice manoeuvres to ensure the ship poses no danger when it approaches the ISS. Assuming all goes well, Cygnus will park itself just under the orbiting lab on Sunday. The astronauts onboard the platform will then reach out with a robotic arm and grab the freighter, berthing it to a free port. The job of unloading the roughly 700kg (1,500lb) of food and equipment will begin on Monday. The expectation is that Cygnus will stay at the ISS for about a month. Before departure, the ship will be filled with station waste. It will take this rubbish into a destructive dive in the atmosphere over the Southern Pacific Ocean. Nasa is attempting to hand over routine human spaceflight operations in low-Earth orbit to commercial industry, in a way similar to how some large organisations contract out their IT or payroll. The carriage of freight is the first service to be bought in from external suppliers; the transport of astronauts to and from the station will be the second, later this decade. The US space agency hopes these changes will save it money that can then be invested in exploration missions far beyond Earth, at destinations such as asteroids and Mars. To this end, it offered Orbital a series of incentive payments to help it develop a cargo-delivery system, with the carrot of a bumper operational contract once it was working. So far, OSC has met 28 of 29 milestones in the development of Cygnus and Antares, earning $285.5m in the process. Satisfactory completion of the demonstration mission will tick a 29th milestone, releasing a final $2.5m payment. But, more importantly, it would also then green-light the first fully commercial run to the space station in December. Although $288m is a sizeable sum, it did not match what the company itself had put up, said OSC vice president Frank Culbertson. "The Orbital investment far exceeds the Nasa investment, so we're hoping for a long series of cargo re-supply missions to help recoup that," he told reporters in a pre-launch briefing.
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There are people live under Las Vegas in an underground network of tunnels
The tunnels where designed as a city pluvial system. People have found shelter in the tunnels, and they have even gotten used to live in literally pitch black spaces. There are approximately 1,000 people living there and they are mainly people that have lost everything because of gambling, or homeless people. Some of them have even found their other halves and live down in the tunnels. Some of them have day jobs, decorate their place with priced possessions and try to live a normal life. One of the entrances to the tunnels is literally a few feet away from the world famous strip. They admit that there are a few things that they have problems with, such as water, bugs and outsiders. It is really dangerous to live there because if there is more than 3 consecutive days of rain, the tunnels fill with water, whipping anything that is in the tunnels. Matthew O’Brien has dedicated a lot of his life to expose the world to the reality of the situation. He has called the attention of the media, and has helped social workers around the tunnels so that they can be reached and make sure the
New orleans water flushed for brain-eating amoeba
LOUISIANA HEALTH OFFICIALS ARE USING CHLORINE TO KILL A BRAIN-EATING AMOEBA LURKING IN THE NEW ORLEANS WATER SUPPLY. THE AMOEBA, NAEGLERIA FOWLERI, CAUSES A DEADLY FORM OF MENINGITIS WHEN INHALED THROUGH THE NOSE. IT HAS KILLED AT LEAST TWO CHILDREN THIS SUMMER, INCLUDING A 4-YEAR-OLD BOY FROM ST. BERNARD PARISH WHO CONTRACTED THE INFECTION WHILE PLAYING ON AS SLIP 'N SLIDE. "WE KNOW THAT CHLORINE KILLS NAEGLERIA FOWLERI, WHICH IS WHY IT WAS CRITICAL THAT THE PARISH PROACTIVELY BEGIN FLUSHING ITS WATER SYSTEM WITH ADDITIONAL CHLORINE LAST WEEK," LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH SPOKESMAN J.T. LANE SAID IN A STATEMENT, ADDING THAT THE CHLORINATION PROCESS WOULD CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL WEEKS. TESTS BY THE U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION CONFIRMED THE PRESENCE OF NAEGLERIA IN WATER SERVING ST. BERNARD PARISH SEPT. 12, BUT HOW THE AMOEBA INFILTRATED THE WATER SUPPLY REMAINS UNCLEAR. A SIMILAR SITUATION IN AUSTRALIA WAS TRACED TO A STRETCH OF OVERLAND PIPE SUPPLYING WATER THAT WAS OVERHEATED AND UNDER-DISINFECTED, ACCORDING TO THE CDC. THE CONTAMINATION LED TO "MULTIPLE DEATHS" AND RESULTED IN REGULAR MONITORING FOR NAEGLERIA IN DRINKING WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS. THE AMOEBA ALSO THRIVES IN WARM, STANDING FRESHWATER AND THE SEDIMENT OF RIVERS AND LAKES. IN JULY 2013, 12-YEAR-OLD KALI HARDIG CONTRACTED NAEGLERIA FROM A SANDY-BOTTOM LAKE AT WILLOW SPRINGS WATER PARK IN LITTLE ROCK, ARK. SHE'S THE SECOND AMERICAN KNOWN TO HAVE SURVIVED THE INFECTION OUT OF AT LEAST 124 PEOPLE. EARLY SYMPTOMS OF A NAEGLERIA INFECTION INCLUDE A SEVERE FRONTAL HEADACHE, FEVER, NAUSEA AND VOMITING, ACCORDING TO THE CDC. BUT THOSE CAN SWIFTLY GIVE WAY TO A STIFF NECK, SEIZURES, CONFUSION AND HALLUCINATIONS AS THE AMOEBA MAKES ITS WAY UP THROUGH THE NASAL CAVITY INTO THE BRAIN. "AFTER THE START OF SYMPTOMS, THE DISEASE PROGRESSES RAPIDLY AND USUALLY CAUSES DEATH WITHIN ABOUT FIVE DAYS," THE ACCORDING TO THE CDC. "PEOPLE SHOULD SEEK MEDICAL CARE IMMEDIATELY WHENEVER THEY DEVELOP A SUDDEN ONSET OF FEVER, HEADACHE, STIFF NECK AND VOMITING, PARTICULARLY IF THEY HAVE BEEN IN WARM FRESHWATER RECENTLY." LOUISIANA HEALTH OFFICIALS SAID NAEGLERIA COULD NOT BE CONTRACTED THROUGH DRINKING CONTAMINATED WATER, AND EMPHASIZED THAT CHLORINE LEVELS WOULD BE MONITORED DAILY TO ENSURE THE WATER WAS SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION. BUT FAMILIES ARE URGED TO TAKE SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS FOR SWIMMING AND BATHING. THE CDC RECOMMENDS THE FOLLOWING SAFETY STEPS: DO NOT ALLOW WATER TO GO UP YOUR NOSE OR SNIFF WATER INTO YOUR NOSE WHEN SWIMMING, BATHING, SHOWERING OR WASHING YOUR FACE; DO NOT JUMP INTO POOLS OR PUT YOUR HEAD UNDER BATHING WATER; KEEP YOUR POOL ADEQUATELY DISINFECTED BEFORE AND DURING USE; RUN BATH TAPS AND HOSES FOR FIVE MINUTES BEFORE USE TO FLUSH OUT THE PIPES AVOID SLIP 'N SLIDES, AND DO NOT ALLOW CHILDREN TO PLAY UNSUPERVISED WITH HOSES OR SPRINKLERS; KEEP SMALL PLASTIC AND BLOW-UP POOLS CLEAN, AND ALLOW THEM TO DRY AFTER EACH USE; USE ONLY BOILED AND COOLED, DISTILLED OR STERILE WATER WHEN USING NETI POTS OR PERFORMING RITUAL ABLUTIONS.
Lewis Hamilton fastest during first practice in Singapore
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton produced a sensational performance to set the pace in first practice at the Singapore Grand Prix. Hamilton headed Red Bull's Mark Webber by 0.365 seconds, with the Australian's team-mate Sebastian Vettel third. The second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg was fourth, 1.184secs behind his team-mate. Lotus drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were fifth and sixth ahead of Vettel's title rival Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who was 1.3secs off the pace. Alonso is 53 points behind Vettel heading into this race, with 175 still available in the remaining seven grands prix and really needs to beat the German to revive his dwindling hopes. But the Ferrari appeared to be struggling for grip as the team experimented with upgrades, including new front and rear wings, and diffuser. Alonso had a couple of near-misses with the wall and at one point had a moment at Turn 13 when he had a wobble during braking and ran wide on entry. The rear of the car looked loose when Alonso pushed hard and the team will need to make some changes if they are to compete at the front this weekend. His team-mate Felipe Massa, who will be replaced by Raikkonen next season, was 12th, 1.1secs behind Alonso. McLaren's Sergio Perez was eighth fastest after learning ahead of the session that his drive is under threat for next season. His team are trying to prise Alonso away from Ferrari to team him with Button.Alonso is 53 points behind Vettel Perez was told of the development no more than an hour before first practice started. Perez was 0.3secs and six places ahead of Button, who was down in 14th, behind Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne, Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez, Williams's Pastor Maldonado, Massa and the second Williams of Valtteri Bottas. The session suggested that Mercedes and Red Bull are clear at the front of the field - particularly Hamilton and the Red Bulls. The Mercedes did not look as good as the Red Bull out on the track, but Hamilton was at his acrobatic best as he danced the car around the tight corners of the demanding 3.18-mile Marina Bay street track. Hamilton finished the session 0.830secs clear of Vettel, who inherited victory in Singapore last year when the Englishman suffered a gearbox failure in his McLaren while leading the race. BBC 5 live analyst and Williams development driver Susie Wolff said: "I think the battle is going to be between Mercedes and Red Bull. Lotus are going to have to do a bit of work to catch up. BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson added: "I think Ferrari will join that club after they worked out the best combination of the jigsaw of bits they were trying in this session.
2015 Cadillac Escalade unveiled
Hot on the heels of the successful Cadillac ATS and CTS sedans, Cadillac introduced its new 2015 Escalade luxury full-size SUV, claiming big improvements in quality, craftsmanship and technology. The fourth-gen Escalade is a new design but Cadillac says it will be instantly recognizable. “Cadillac's growth provides the ideal stage for the all-new Escalade to take a major leap forward,” said Bob Ferguson, senior vice president, global Cadillac. “The 2015 Escalade is completely new and elevated in design and technology, inside and out. The clear objective is to once again assume the leadership position among luxury SUVs.” The Escalade line will again have short- and long-wheelbase versions. The ESV model is about 20 inches longer than the standard model and has a 14-inch longer wheelbase. Two- and four-wheel drive will be offered and Magnetic Ride Control is now standard across the board and includes Tour and Sport modes. Cadillac says in efforts to make the Escalade even quieter on the road, the new truck's box frame is 75 percent high-strength steel. The big story is inside, where Cadillac says it has made huge efforts in improving materials, fit and finish. Instrument panel and door panel tolerances have been tightened up. The redone interior has ambient lighting as well as cut-and-sewn materials with various wood trim choices. Cadillac says the seats were engineered to be more comfortable and look more sculpted. Big efforts were made to make the new interior dramatically quieter as well, thanks to a stronger new body structure, new acoustic material (and more of it), and Bose Active Noise Cancellation technology. “An exceptional level of craftsmanship has gone into the redesign of the 2015 Cadillac Escalade, and it all centers on the premium materials and extensive use of cut-and-sew live stitching -- the way fine furniture is produced,” said Eric Clough, director of design, Cadillac Interiors. CUE, Cadillac's system for connectivity and control, is standard, featuring voice recognition with touch controls meant to be common with tablets and mobile devices. The “favorites” section has been expanded, offering quick access to phone contacts, nav destinations and digital music in the same one-touch form as traditional radio presets. A standard 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster can be reconfigured with four themes. Head-up display is optional. Also optional is a Blu-Ray DVD rear entertainment system with a 9-inch roof-mounted screen on the standard model Escalade and two 9-inch screens on the ESV. Up front there's 1.5 inches more headroom and more than 4 inches of additional legroom compared to previous models. The second- and third-row seats now fold flat for more cargo versatility. The hands-free liftgate has programmable height settings. New tech goodies include front- and rear-automatic braking -- radar technology and ultrasonic sensors are meant to help the driver avoid front and rear low-speed collisions with a progression of alerts extending to a full stop if necessary. Also new is the front seat center-mounted air bag; Cadillac calls it the first in the segment, and the idea is to provide more protection for drivers and front passengers in far-side impact crashes, where the affected occupant is on the opposite, non-struck side of the vehicle. A Driver Awareness package includes forward-collision alert, lane departure warning, and safety alert seat, offering directional vibrations to alert the driver about potential crashes. The Driver Assist package adds adaptive cruise control, front and rear automatic braking and automatic safety belt tightening. Side blind zone alert, rear cross traffic alert and lane change alert are standard on Luxury and Premium models.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Navy Yard: Swat team 'stood down' at mass shooting scene
One of the first teams of heavily armed police to respond to Monday's shooting in Washington DC was ordered to stand down by superiors, the BBC can reveal. A tactical response team of the Capitol Police, a force that guards the US Capitol complex, was told to leave the scene by a supervisor instead of aiding municipal officers. The Capitol Police department said senior officials were investigating. Aaron Alexis, 34, killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. "I don't think it's a far stretch to say that some lives may have been saved if we were allowed to intervene," A former Navy reservist, Alexis was working as a technical contractor for the Navy and had a valid pass and security clearance allowing him entry to the highly secure building in south-east Washington DC. About 8:15 local time (12:15 GMT), Alexis entered Building 197, headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command, which builds and maintains ships and submarines for the Navy, and opened fire. Armed with a shotgun and a pistol he took from a guard he had shot, he sprayed bullets down a hallway and fired from a balcony down on to workers in an atrium. He fired on police officers who eventually stormed the building, and was later killed in the shootout. Multiple sources in the Capitol Police department that its highly trained and heavily armed four-man Containment and Emergency Response Team (Cert) was near the Navy Yard when the initial report of an active shooter came in about 8:20 local time. According to a Capitol Police source, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Washington DC's main municipal force, told the Capitol Cert officers they were the only police on the site equipped with long guns and requested their help stopping the gunman.
A 555 lbs. lady lost 443 in one year by eating nothing but baby food!
Dolly Dimples was a sideshow fat lady who weighed 555 lbs. In the mid-1900s. She was born Celesta Herrmann in Cincinnati on July 18, 1901. As a baby her eating habits and weight were amongst normal ranks. Her early weight gain was contributed to the visitations of a family friend. The friend was a butcher that often played with young Dolly and the game involved dangling bits of butchered meat in front of her. Thanks to this game and her early eating disorder, her first word was “meat”. As she grew older her fascination with food grew along with her appetite. She often spent her allowance by buying baked goods and cookies. In 1950, Dolly suffered a near fatal heart attack. Her Doctors told her to alter her diet or else she would die. While frightened, she decided to changer her eating habits. In fourteen month she weighed 112 pounds. She had lost over 443 pounds by limiting her diet to baby food! Baby food doesn’t sound that bad now, huh?
Colorado Couples Keep Wedding Day Despite Massive Flooding
They say it's good luck to have it rain on your wedding day, but what do you do if rain becomes record-breaking downpours and devastating flooding that leaves your wedding guests stranded and your venue under water? Three Colorado couples, all of whom spent at least a year planning their weddings for this past weekend, were forced to come up with a Plan B in a matter of hours when faced with raging floodwaters, calling upon the help of family, friends, total strangers and, for one bride, a police escort, to make their big day happen. All said they felt "blessed" they were still able to have their special day in the midst of a natural disaster. "We never thought the flood would stop us from getting married," said Joshua Bundy, 25, of Thornton, Colo. Bundy, a petty officer first class in the Navy, and his new bride Lacy Wilkinson, a 25-year-old senior at the University of Denver, also from Thornton, had planned their wedding for Saturday, Sept. 14, in Estes Park, Colo., where heavy flooding has now destroyed 1,500 homes. As wedding guests started arriving Tuesday, Sept. 10, the couple said they kept an eye on the weather. "And it said 'sun' on Saturday and we thought that we were good to go," Wilkinson said. But then the rains came and didn't stop, and by Friday morning, the night of their rehearsal dinner, roads were closed. "Before our venue was canceled, we had 30 out-of-state guests coming in, and they were getting called first. Their hotels said they had to cancel their reservations, 'we're evacuating,'" Wilkinson said. When the couple couldn't get ahold of their rehearsal dinner venue, they realized they needed a new plan, and said they had upwards of 25 people working the phones to find a new venue. "We were getting married no matter what, we just needed a different location," Bundy said. "We were going as far as to just pick a park from somewhere," Wilkinson said. During this time, Sarah Roshan with "Save My Colorado Wedding," one of many initiatives helping displaced Colorado couples with their flood-affected weddings, reached out to Wilkinson and Bundy and offered to help them make their wedding happen, pro-bono. "'Save My Colorado Wedding' was pretty much the catalyst for having the wedding go through," Wilkinson said. Roshan, a Denver-based wedding photographer who works as part of a wedding collective with a few wedding planners, set up the "Save My Colorado Wedding" Facebook page with a friend last Thursday night. "When I woke up Friday morning I had like 100 message," she said. "It was insane." Through the initiative, she and her all-volunteer team have spent the past few days solving wedding crisises across Colorado, from finding a venue that was not underwater to getting vendors to donate services. "A florist called me and said, 'I have all these flowers. Can you help me find someone to get them to?' And they were picked up by a bride who was displaced," Roshan said. "We have bridal shops that have offered to let brides use their sample dresses. "Whatever we can do for these couples, we're willing to do," she added. "So far we haven't had a request we haven't been able to fulfill." To date, Roshan said her team has helped more than 50 couples and is currently working with 32 more. Bundy and Wilkinson were the first couple she reached out to. Roshan was able to reschedule their whole wedding at a new venue. After being in "panic mode" for most of the day, Bundy and Wilkinson said yes to Roshan's offer without even seeing the venue and were married at the Spruce Mountain Lodge in Lakespur, Colo. "It was like, 'holy smokes,'" Bundy said. "Did we just pull off a whole year of planning in eight hours?" Wilkinson added. Out of the 120 guests invited, only about 10 people weren't able to come, the couple said, and some were because their families' homes were evacuated. Although they had to pay extra for the new venue, the couple said the lodge is giving them 30 days to pay in full. "A lot of our guests who knew the situation ... said it seemed as though it was the wedding we had planned the whole time," Bundy said. "Obviously it was still the best day of my life," Wilkinson added. "I couldn't have had a better day, given the circumstances." But for Jyssica Lasco, a 24-year-old nanny from Englewood, Colo., her flood-impacted wedding day didn't go as smoothly. She and her new husband Grant Hetherington, a 27-year-old auto technician, had spent two years planning their dream wedding in Lyons, Colo. The ceremony was supposed to be set against a mountain backdrop surrounded by large trees, with a reception near the famed Red Rocks and an after-party at a local brewery. The wedding was scheduled for Friday, Sept. 13. As "huge horror movie lovers," Lasco said getting married on Friday the 13th was special to both of them. But on Thursday morning, Lasco said she woke up to a stream of text messages from friends and family asking if she was safe. Then she turned on the news. "And literally at that exact moment they said, 'Lyons is an island, you can't get get in or out of Lyons,'" she said. "We went from having an entire dream wedding planned in two years to planning a new wedding in 36 hours." Lasco said family members from both sides sprang into action to find a new venue that was still open and could hold her 100-person guest list. After a few hours, they finally found an indoor space in Loveland, Colo., which should have taken less than an hour to drive to, and was willing to keep her Friday date. But when she and her maid-of-honor headed out on Thursday, Lasco said they ran into road block after road block, and found themselves stranded for almost four hours at a bridge in the southern part of Loveland. Finally, Lasco said, a police officer was able to escort them across to the north part of the city. After her mother called her during the virtual walkthrough of the new venue, and told her it was an all-concrete space that "smelled like a thrift shop," Lasco said she broke down in tears. It was not exactly what she had envisioned for her special day and she considered canceling. "We were still having a wedding and I'm so grateful," she said. "[But] that is our one day that it was just going to be us and it kind of snowballed into a mess, but it still ended up beautiful... pretty much all I remember from the day is walking down the aisle." Despite guests having to take roundabout routes to get to the wedding -- it took Lasco's grandfather 11 hours to come in from Wyoming -- her caterer having to prepare all the food with only his wife for help, and the minister and the groomsmen getting stuck in road blocks on the way to the new venue, Lasco and Hetherington were still able to say "I do" in front of around 80 guests. "On Friday I was all smiles. I was grinning ear-to-ear because everyone was able to make it there and was safe," Lasco said. "People kept coming up to me and saying, 'you have been one of the most mellow, laid-back brides, why aren't you freaking out?' ... and I said, 'you're here, you're safe, and I'm not worried about you.'" Sarah Simonic, 24, and her new husband Alan Stratton, 31, both of Boulder, Colo., also had planned an outdoor wedding in Lyons, but at a farm. Things seemed to be going as planned for most of the week, despite the rain, until the owner of the farm texted Simonic on Friday and said, "Do you have a plan B?" After working the phones, the couple's families were able to book the Avalon Dance venue in Boulder for their Sunday wedding date. Canceling wasn't an option, the couple said. "Honestly was it was my family who had to push me at the last minute to say, 'lets look at a new venue,'" Simonic said. "In my heart I thought I would be getting married outdoors ... [but] I feel very lucky. I feel blessed we were able to pull through." Once the venue was nailed down, it was a mad scramble to set everything up, which took some improvising -- the dance studio provided no dressing room space for the bridal party, so they had to create one. When only one member of the band they hired made it through the floodwaters, the couple used an iPod. "We understood quite quickly that it wasn't going to be the wedding that we [originally] wanted or planned, but it was still the wedding that we wanted," Stratton said. "It was a little stressful, but I had a lot of good people helping and a lot of hands." The groom, who took charge of last minute set-up, said he didn't start getting ready for the wedding until 15 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start at 3 p.m. "Up until 2:45, I was in plain clothes, jeans and t-shirt, still setting up tables, still deciding where the bar should go," he said. "Someone literally tied my tie for me... it was a huge group effort to make me look presentable."
Military base shootings shake sense of security
Armed guards stand at the gates. IDs are needed to pass through electronic barriers. And uniformed members of the American military — trained and battle-tested to recognize the enemy and kill — are everywhere, smartly saluting as they come and go. And yet, twice in less than four years, a person with permission to be there passed through the layers of protection at a U.S. base and opened fire, undermining the sense of security at the installations that embody the most powerful military in the world. "It is earth-shattering. When military bases are no longer safe, where is safe if that even doesn't exist anymore?" said Col. Kathy Platoni, a reservist who keeps a gun under her desk after witnessing the shooting at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, when Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people. In the wake of this week's deadly rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the Pentagon to review security at all U.S. defense installations worldwide and the issuing of security clearances that allow access to them. "We will find those gaps and we will fix those gaps," Hagel vowed on Wednesday. After Fort Hood, the military tightened security at bases nationwide. Those measures included issuing security personnel long-barreled weapons, adding an insider-attack scenario to their training, and strengthening ties to local law enforcement, said Peter Daly, a vice admiral who retired from the Navy in 2011. The military also joined an FBI intelligence-sharing program aimed at identifying terror threats. Then, on Monday, Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old former Navy reservist who held a security clearance as an information technology employee at a defense company, used a valid pass to get into the Washington Navy Yard and killed 12 people before dying in a gun battle with police. Among other things, the attack has raised questions about the adequacy of the background checks done on government contractors who hold security clearances. Alexis had a history of violent behavior and was said to be hearing voices. Many of the security improvements adopted after 9/11 and Fort Hood were created largely with terrorism in mind, not unstable individuals with no apparent political agenda. Those threats can be more difficult to detect. Daly, who directs the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Md., said more can be done when it comes to vetting people before issuing them credentials that allow them inside. "The bottom line is, once you're inside that hardened line of defense, that is the most difficult scenario," he said. "We need to look at how these clearances are granted to contractors and subcontractors and to make sure once someone is granted clearance, that we come back and check again." Some of the shock and sudden sense of vulnerability caused by Fort Hood and the Navy Yard attack may be based on the mistaken belief that military personnel are armed when they are on domestic installations. Most military personnel are, in fact, barred from carrying weapons onto a base, and Hasan and Alexis probably knew it. Another little-known fact is that many searches are random. Not all vehicles or packages are checked. John Barney, the owner of Tri-Star Commercial, an Austin-based security company that has installed cameras and card access systems at several military installations, said that after Fort Hood, the military mostly responded by increasing the armed police presence, but added few electronic measures.
Top 5 dangers that remain after the financial collapse
On the fifth anniversary of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing, which many say catalyzed the financial collapse that began in 2008, five experts share the biggest lessons from that era and dangers that could spark another crisis. We asked how much has changed since the crisis that nearly brought down the world's financial system and whether it can happen again. The thing that drives Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets Inc., "crazy" about the bailouts, he says, is the idea that the government made a profit after the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, plus the trillions of dollars in commitments it made. Better Markets hosted a conference on Thursday in Washington, D.C., posing the question: are we better prepared for the next financial crisis? "The number one lesson learned is that we must do whatever is necessary to prevent another financial crash because the crash and economic crisis it caused is going to cost the American people tens of trillions of dollars," he said. Kelleher said it's a "lie and a fraud" to say the government made money from the bailout with a "1 percent return," "It's like saying you and I went to the bank and I got a one percent return and you got 50 percent return," he said. "It's true: we both got a return, but you did a lot better but I look like a fool. And I am a fool if you got 50 and I got 1 percent; that's the U.S. government." Former Senator Ted Kaufman was one of the panelists who spoke at Thursday's Better Markets conference. As former chair of the congressional oversight committee for TARP, Kaufman reflected on working on Dodd Frank Wall Street reform in 2009 and 2010. He said there was "little agreement" on most issues between the Democratic and Republican Senators. "In spite of this, there was one thing all the Senators agreed on; the American taxpayer should never again have to bail out a big bank," he said. "Here we are five years later and the big banks are bigger than ever, much bigger than they were in 2008 when we know they were too big to fail. Many respected bankers, including both Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and Bank of England head Mark Carney have said that our banks are too big to fail. In spite of this, the President and the Congress are doing nothing to fix this basic problem." Back in 2009, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the multi-trillion direct and indirect bank government bailouts by explaining, "it wasn't to help the big firms that we intervened . . .when the elephant falls down, all the grass gets crushed as well." "Yet, today, the elephants are even larger than ever and the grass is still crushed," says Jennifer Taub, Vermont Law School professor. In addition to the large size of many banks, Taub is concerned that giant firms are still permitted to borrow excessively, up to $97 for every $100 in assets they own. "Of greatest concern to me is a point often overlooked -- in addition to size and leverage, banks are still dangerously interconnected and prone to wholesale runs due to their excessive dependence on short-term, often overnight lending," said Taub, author of the forthcoming book, "Other People's Houses: How Decades of Bailouts, Captive Regulators, and Toxic Bankers Made Home Mortgages a Thrilling Business." Taub points out that the run on Bear Stearns in March and the run on Lehman in September 2008 was by other financial institutions through the wholesale funding market, known as the tri-party repo market. Yet today there's nearly $2 trillion in this "fragile" funding outstanding, she said. Regulators and bankers have also expressed concerns about the risky conditions of the financial industry. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein testified at a Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing in 2010, saying, "Certainly, enhanced capital requirements in general will reduce systemic risk. But we should not overlook liquidity. If a significant portion of an institution's assets are impaired and illiquid and its funding is relying on short-term borrowing, low leverage will not be much comfort." "It is high time to consider restrictions on short-term funding throughout the system," Taub said. "This is the tinderbox that awaits an asset reversal or shock to ignite." Lehman Was Symptom, Not Cause, of the Financial Crisis Norbert Michel, research fellow with The Heritage Foundation, said the "key policy failure" that led to the crisis was the government's bail out of Bear Stearns investment bank in March 2008. Michel said it set the expectation that Lehman would also be bailed out, "setting up investors and creditors for a fall," he writes in a Heritage report. "The notion that allowing Lehman to file bankruptcy caused the financial crisis is both wrong and dangerous," Michel said. "The danger in this myth is that it perpetuates the policy of bailing out financial institutions with taxpayer money—and that it allows policymakers who caused the crisis to escape responsibility for their actions." The Power of Banking Lobbying John Coffee, professor at Columbia Law School, said some regulatory agencies have put forward "cosmetic" changes in assuring history does not repeat itself with another financial crash. "My view is that we've made at best uneven and modest progress towards curbing systemic risks for a variety of reasons," he said. The most important barrier, he says, is that the financial services lobby "is most powerful interest group in U.S. and doing everything possible to slow down the pace of change," he said. Coffee said he has dozens of examples where lobbyists have prevented regulatory action to support financial stability. For example, without a required capital buffer by law, Coffee is concerned about a future run on money market funds. He blames lobbyists for influencing Congress, which oversees federal agencies. "The SEC won't dare move in that direction. Congress would curb their budget if they move in that direction," he said.
THIS IS CRUEL: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words.
There are a lot of interesting and random phopias out there. Dendrophobia is the fear of trees. Blennophobia is the fear of slime. And neophobia is the fear of anything new. However, the fear of long words may have the most ironic (and cruelest name). Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. So let’s say you do have this phobia. You’d be terrify to name your ailment. Kind of a conundrum.
Amanda Knox haunted by prison
Amanda Knox is no longer sleeping in a prison cell, but she is haunted by her 1,400 nights in an Italian jail. Panic attacks and symptoms of PTSD plague her and often leave her in shambles. Knox says physical freedom did not mean a free mind. "I was continuing to have panic attacks and nightmares, and I was continuing to think that strangers on the street were prisoners that I had known," she told ABC News in a recent interview. She says the breakdowns began in prison. "I had panic attacks and just broke down. And I couldn't breathe," she said. Knox, 26, is just days away from going back on trial for the alleged murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher in November 2007. Knox was convicted in 2009, but then acquitted on appeal and set free on Oct. 4, 2011. In March, however, the Italian Supreme Court rejected the Appeals Court ruling and ordered a new trial for Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 29 set to begin Sept. 30 in Florence, Italy. Knox says she will not return for the trial. Though Knox was paid nearly $4 million by Harper Collins for her book, "Waiting to Be Heard," she says most of that money has gone to legal bills, taxes and other debt her family accrued during the four year ordeal between her arrest and release. After her return home to Seattle, Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, suggested she see a therapist. "I started talking [to the therapist] about how difficult it was coming back and coming back into a world of the familiar, but feeling like I had to get to know it all over again. And in the course of talking to him-- I think it took about 15 minutes of speaking before I was inconsolable. I was weeping and unable to speak and I had to leave. Leave. I had to cut the session short. And I left. And my boyfriend picked me up and I spent the rest of the night crying," she said. Mellas says Knox brought some of her prison habits home with her. When Knox returned home, she immediately cleaned her room almost bare. "She was just overwhelmed by stuff because she had been in such a stark environment," her mother said. "So I saw things like her hand washing her clothes. We had to reintroduce her to 'This is a washing machine, and it's okay, you don't have to hand wash your clothes, and hang them up.'" Knox had also never heard of Justin Bieber or seen an iPhone. Knox says the emotional toll of her ordeal hit her as she wrote her memoir and re-lived every minute of her ordeal. "I was at times so angry and so sad and I had to, I just had to step away. I had to get away from my computer, I had to get away from the memory, I had to go on my bed and cry. I had to go and walk around the block five, 10 times to just breathe and get my way through it and then go back and try not to instill the emotions that I was experiencing now into the emotions I was experiencing then. I was, I mean, I'm very aware of that." Knox has begun to recognize the changes from the 20-year-old girl who left for Italy to study aboard. "I've become a little more introverted and quiet and less sociable. My sister's always telling me that I should go out more and have more fun when what I tend to look for now is quiet. And space to move. That's really important. I'll take ridiculous walks just because I can. So that's different. I'm a lot quieter," Knox said.
Van Persie loving Rooney partnership
Manchester United striker Robin van Persie hailed team-mate Wayne Rooney following his side's 4-2 Champions League win on Tuesday. The Dutchman notched his sixth goal of the season against Bayer Leverkusen in the first match of the group stage but Rooney stole the limelight with a double that took him to 200 goals for the club. The England international is now the fourth-highest scorer in United's history, a fact with which he is delighted, and Van Persie is enjoying the experience of playing alongside him. "Wayne played really well," he told MUTV. "I love to play with him as he can do everything; he can drop, he can go in behind, he can play the short and the long game. He did really well." The Netherlands marksman was also full of praise for new addition Marouane Fellaini, who impressed in his 80 minutes on the field. "Marouane did really well also," Van Persie added. "He was very solid and gets a lot of loose balls back. He's very confident and always tries to get the ball going forward."
Obama: Republicans using 'extortion' on debt limit
US President Obama has said he is willing to hold budget talks with Republicans, but not until they agree to lift "threats" against the economy. Mr Obama said they were committing "extortion" by demanding policy concessions in return for raising the US debt limit and reopening government. The US government shut down last week when Congress failed to agree a budget. Republican leaders on Tuesday reiterated calls for Mr Obama to open negotiations over ending the impasses. At the White House, Mr Obama said he had spoken to Republican House Speaker John Boehner and was "happy to talk with him and other Republicans about anything". But Mr Obama said any negotiations on the ongoing government shutdown or the debt limit "shouldn't require hanging the threats of a shutdown or economic chaos over the heads of the American people". "We can't make extortion routine as part of our democracy," Mr Obama said. "Democracy doesn't function this way. And this is not just for me. It's also for my successors in office, whatever party they're from." 'Very deep recession' He also warned of the repercussions of defaulting on the government's debt should Congress fail to raise the borrowing limit, currently set to be reached on 17 October. Mr Obama said breaching the borrowing limit could disrupt capital markets, undermine international confidence in America, permanently increase the nation's borrowing costs, add to its deficits and debt, and pose the "significant risk of a very deep recession". The US government partially shut down operations on 1 October after Republicans who control the House of Representatives refused to approve a budget, saying they would only do so if Mr Obama's healthcare reform law were delayed or stripped of funding. Mr Obama and the Democrats have thus far refused, noting the law was passed in 2010, subsequently approved by the Supreme Court, and was a central issue in the 2012 election which Mr Obama won handily. At the same time, the Republicans have refused to approve an increase in the US debt limit unless it is accompanied by significant spending cuts and other policy concessions. Mr Obama maintains Mr Boehner could end the current government showdown by allowing the House to vote on a "clean" budget bill that does not alter the health law, because that could pass with votes from both Democrats and moderate Republicans. But doing so would risk his standing with the most conservative elements of his caucus, analysts say. On Tuesday, Mr Boehner told reporters he "wanted to have a conversation" with Mr Obama and congressional Democrats. "I'm not drawing lines in the sand," he said. "It is time for us to just sit down and resolve our differences." 'Too much shock' US and foreign officials and economists have warned of severe economic consequences if the US defaults on its debt because the government is unable to borrow money to fund its obligations. "Failure to lift the debt ceiling would be a major event. Prolonged failure... would almost surely derail the US recovery," said International Monetary Fund economic counsellor Olivier Blanchard on Tuesday. "But the effects of any failure to repay the debt would be felt right away... leading to potentially major disruptions in financial markets both in the United States and abroad." Philippine President Benigno Aquino warned that what happens in the US "affects us all". "The US economy is the number-one economy in the world," he said while attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) in Bali. "The world economy obviously is not in a position to withstand too much shock at this time." At the White House, Mr Obama said that if the US eventually dealt with the impasse "the way we should", then "folks around the world will attribute this to the usual messy process of American democracy but it doesn't do lasting damage". He sought to reassure US bond holders and others that the country remained good for its debts, despite the shutdown. "My message to the world is the United States always has paid its bills and it will do so again," Mr Obama said. The shutdown has already had a significant impact in the US. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been sent home without pay, national parks, museums, and tourists sites have been closed, research has halted, and more. On Monday, US defence contractor Lockheed Martin said it would put 3,000 workers on unpaid leave, warning that number would rise if the government shutdown continued. That announcement followed United Technologies' decision to lay off 2,000 employees temporarily, saying manufacturing had halted because there were no government inspectors working to sign off products.
Business trip: Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is a prime example of the “build it and they will come” strategy that is sweeping across the Arabian Peninsula, from Riyadh to Dubai. And the strategy appears to be working. The number of nights booked at Abu Dhabi hotels jumped 25% in the first half of 2013 compared to the same time in 2012, plus passenger arrivals at Abu Dhabi International Airport and revenues for national carrier Etihad Airways were both up 13% in the same time frame. In the last decade, nearly every global hotel chain has opened four- or five-star hotels in the central business district or on the Corniche, the city’s glittering waterfront. In 10 short years, Etihad Airways has grown to operate 1,300 flights a week to 86 destinations around the world. By late 2017 the enormous Midfield Terminal Complex (currently under construction) will open at Abu Dhabi International Airport, built to handle 20 to 30 million passengers per year. Globally recognised hospitals such as the Cleveland Clinic, and universities such as Paris-Sorbonne and New York University are opening satellite campuses here, too, helping the local economy diversify from its reliance on petroleum. Abu Dhabi is still very much a work in progress. The master-planned cultural enclave of Saadiyat Island, located about 10km north of the city centre, is currently a beehive of construction as a flurry of luxury hotels are built and multimillion-dollar outposts of international museums rise up alongside the Sheikh Zayed National Museum. Architect Jean Nouvel designed the unusual laced-dome Louvre Abu Dhabi, which will open in 2015. The contemporary, visually arresting, Frank Gehry-designedGuggenheim Abu Dhabi opens in 2017. Elegant Abu Dhabi is home to the most expensive hotel ever built – the 11 billion dirham, 394-room Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2005 at the south end of the Corniche with its its own marina and helipad. Even if you are not staying there, visit to enjoy a lavish high tea at Le Café or to gawk at the marble, crystal, gold and silver. Across the street is the stunning, sculptural 382-room Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, which opened in late 2011. Guests rave about the modern rooms, 12 restaurants and bars, dramatic water views, expansive pool/beach area and the courteous, helpful staff. Nearby, the new 283-room St Regis Abu Dhabi, opened August 2013, offers the luxury chain’s famous butler service and has soaring views from its perch between the 33rd and 50th floors of one of the two Nation Towers office buildings. Further inland near the iconic Sheikh Zayed Mosque, is the 447-room, Venetian-inspired Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal, opened March 2013, where the most well-appointed (and expensive) rooms are located on the 7th floor club level overlooking the canal. These rooms have access to a stunning, glassed-in Club Lounge where guests enjoy breakfast and a regularly restocked buffet of snacks and canapés, plus views over the historic Al Maqtaa Fort. Edgy The visually stunning 499-room Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi is situated on the edge of the Yas Marina – with half of it built on land, half over water. The entire structure, which includes the hotel and 12 dining and lounging venues, is covered by a gorgeous, curvilinear steel-and-glass canopy that mimics the look of a fishing net thrown over water. At night, its neon glow can be seen from all over the city. The hotel is located on the eastern side of town near the airport and Ferrari World – the largest indoor amusement park in the world. You will not believe your eyes when you see the new 189-room Hyatt Capital Gate Abu Dhabi hotel, located in a glass tower that leans at a record-breaking 18 degrees – more than Italy’s leaning tower of Pisa. The sleek five-star hotel is part of the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, located near the capital’s embassy and government district on the southern side of the central business district. The upscale dining scene in Abu Dhabi revolves around the big international hotels, each of which offers multiple restaurants that specialise in cuisine from all corners of the globe. But there are only a few that focus on local Emirati dishes, of which the most popular is Mezlai, tucked into the cavernous Emirates Palace hotel. Sit indoors or out and sample local seafood specialties such as jasheed(shark braised with tomatoes, onions, spices and lemon juice) or tender lamb medfoun, which is cooked slowly in a banana leaf and served with camel-milk mashed potatoes
Five civilians incl three children killed in NATO Afghan airstrike
Five civilians, three of whom were children, were killed in an overnight airstrike in eastern Afghanistan, local police said on Saturday. NATO has said it does not know anything about the victims. The civilians had been going out to hunt birds with air rifles in the Nangarhar province when they were shot down by NATO forces. “Last night around 11 pm, five civilians aged between 12 and 20 carrying air guns wanted to go hunting birds some eight kilometers from the center of the city of Jalalabad. They were targeted and killed by a foreign forces airstrike,” provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal. The boys were heading there from Saracha, a few kilometers from the city. Their bodies were later taken to the central hospital in Jalalabad. A NATO spokesperson was unable to confirm the deaths to the agency, but said that he was aware of the airstrike, the news agency reports. However, a provincial spokesperson, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, confirmed that the incident had taken place, with Mohammed Atif Shinwari, a spokesman for the Nangarhar education department, adding that two of the civilians killed had been brothers. Deepak Tripathi, an Afghanistan expert from Roehampton University, said the airstrike was part of a pattern of intelligence failure in the country. “In Afghanistan, every adult carries a gun, or has the ability to acquire a gun. The interesting thing in the latest strike, if the reports are to be believed, is that some of [the victims] were as young as 12 years of age. They were certainly boys if the reports were correct. It is difficult to differentiate between insurgents and ordinary Afghans, but that’s where intelligence comes in. Afghan security forces, both the army and police, are at the forefront. The Americans are not fighting mainly on the ground. So it is their job to collect accurate intelligence and pass it on before such strikes are launched,” he said. Nationwide NATO strikes resulting in civilian deaths have been an ongoing point of contention in Afghanistan. Although US led NATO operations are winding to a close prior to the withdrawal of troops in 2014, operations have continued to be a sore point. Last month, 16 civilians were killed in a single airstrike in the eastern province of Kunar. However, NATO denied that civilians had been harmed and said that the strike had hit local militants. A UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) mid-year report was released in July, and examined the overall protection of civilians in the country. It documented 1,319 civilian deaths and 2,533 injuries as a result of the conflict in the country – a total of 3,852 civilian casualties in the first half of 2013 alone.
Adobe in source code and customer data security breach
Adobe has confirmed that 2.9 million customers have had private information stolen during a "sophisticated" cyber attack on its website. The attackers accessed encrypted customer passwords and payment card numbers, the company said. But it does not believe decrypted debit or credit card data was removed. Adobe also revealed that it was investigating the "illegal access" of source code for numerous products, including Adobe Acrobat and ColdFusion. "We deeply regret that this incident occurred," said Brad Arkin, Adobe's chief security officer. "Based on our findings to date, we are not aware of any specific increased risk to customers as a result of this incident," he said. But Chester Wisniewski, senior adviser at internet security company Sophos, told the BBC: "Access to the source code could be very serious. "Billions of computers around the world use Adobe software, so if hackers manage to embed malicious code in official-looking software updates they could potentially take control of millions of machines. "This is on the same level as a Microsoft security breach," he added. Adobe said it had been helped in its investigation by internet security journalist Brian Krebs and security expert Alex Holden. The two discovered a 40GB cache of Adobe source code while investigating attacks on three US data providers, Dun & Bradstreet, Kroll Background America, and LexisNexis. Mr Krebs said the Adobe code was on a server he believed the hackers used. Compromised Adobe said that it is resetting passwords for the customer accounts it believes were compromised, and that those customers will get an email alerting them to the change. It is also recommending that, as a precaution, customers affected change their passwords and user information for other websites for which they used the same ID. For those customers whose debit or credit card information is suspected of being accessed, Adobe is offering a complimentary one-year subscription to a credit-monitoring programme. Finally, the company said it had notified law enforcement officials and is working to identify the hackers.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
US shutdown: Defence staff told to return to work
Most of the 400,000 US defence department staff sent home amid the US government shutdown have been told to return to work next week. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the decision was based on an interpretation of the Pay Our Military Act. A budget row between Republicans and Democrats has forced the closure of federal services for five days now. But the sides have now voted to approve back-pay for the 800,000 federal workers sent home without salaries. In a rare moment of bipartisan co-operation, the House of Representatives on Saturday approved by 407-0 a bill to pay the federal workers once the shutdown ends. There remains no sign of any deal on the federal budget, however. Republicans who control the House of Representatives have refused to approve the budget, saying they would only do so if President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law was delayed or stripped of funding. Mr Obama and the Democrats have refused, noting the law was passed in 2010, subsequently approved by the Supreme Court, and was a central issue in the 2012 election which Mr Obama won. 'Undiminished' The Pay Our Military Act was passed by Congress shortly before the shutdown. Mr Hagel said earlier in the week he wanted to find a way to get his civilian staff back to work. He said lawyers had told him the Pay Our Military Act permitted employees "whose responsibilities contribute to the morale, well-being, capabilities and readiness of service members" to be exempted. "I expect us to be able to significantly reduce - but not eliminate - civilian furloughs under this process," he said. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday warned that any prolonged shutdown could affect the US internationally. But, speaking at a meeting of Asian leaders in Indonesia, he said any impact was "momentary" and Washington's commitment to the region was "undiminished". President Obama cancelled his Asia visit because of the shutdown. In his weekly radio address, Mr Obama urged the Republicans to "end this farce". The next key deadline will be 17 October. Unless Congress agrees to raise the $16.7 trillion (£10.4 trillion) statutory borrowing limit by then, the US could default on its debts for the first time in its history. Mr Obama said: "For as reckless as a government shutdown is, an economic shutdown that comes with default would be dramatically worse." Mr Obama has refused to negotiate with the Republicans until they pass a temporary bill to end the shutdown and raise the debt limit. The leader of the Republicans in the House, Eric Cantor, said negotiations could end the deadlock, but that President Obama "seems to be unwilling to sit down and talk with us". Mr Cantor said: "It doesn't make any sense if the president has an axe to grind with the opposing party, why he would want to put the American people in the middle of that?"
Google has begun rolling out a redesign of its homepage - the world's most visited web address. The revamp features a flattened, reshaped logo and replaces the previous menu bar with a smaller range of links on the page's right-hand side. The move comes in the same month that Yahoo's logo and Microsoft's Bing search tool have also been updated. A Google spokeswoman said that similar changes would now be "slowly rolled out" across its products. A blog post added that the firm intendedto "streamline" users' experience of its services to prevent "distractions". It is the first change to Google's logo since 2010. Not all users will be able to see the redesign yet. "This is the season for consumer tech updates and whether you sell a product or it's free everyone wants to look fresh ahead of the Christmas shopping season," said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at the tech consultancy Forrester. "What they are doing is actually pretty subtle and that's because these software companies depend on user loyalty - they don't want to do anything that would alienate their customers." Another analyst suggested that cutting down the number of links would encourage people to use Google's social network, Google Plus. To reveal other products - such as Google Drive storage, YouTube videos or the Android app Play Store - visitors to the firm's search page must now click on an icon made up of small squares. "I do think that there is a move to try to make Google+ more central to everything its users do," said Carolina Milanesi from the tech advisors Gartner. "It might be the case that it is not obvious to some people that they need to click on the box to reveal the firm's other services."
Google has begun rolling out a redesign of its homepage - the world's most visited web address. The revamp features a flattened, reshaped logo and replaces the previous menu bar with a smaller range of links on the page's right-hand side. The move comes in the same month that Yahoo's logo and Microsoft's Bing search tool have also been updated. A Google spokeswoman said that similar changes would now be "slowly rolled out" across its products. A blog post added that the firm intendedto "streamline" users' experience of its services to prevent "distractions". It is the first change to Google's logo since 2010. Not all users will be able to see the redesign yet. "This is the season for consumer tech updates and whether you sell a product or it's free everyone wants to look fresh ahead of the Christmas shopping season," said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at the tech consultancy Forrester. "What they are doing is actually pretty subtle and that's because these software companies depend on user loyalty - they don't want to do anything that would alienate their customers." Another analyst suggested that cutting down the number of links would encourage people to use Google's social network, Google Plus. To reveal other products - such as Google Drive storage, YouTube videos or the Android app Play Store - visitors to the firm's search page must now click on an icon made up of small squares. "I do think that there is a move to try to make Google+ more central to everything its users do," said Carolina Milanesi from the tech advisors Gartner. "It might be the case that it is not obvious to some people that they need to click on the box to reveal the firm's other services."
You're more likely to die on your way to buy a lottery ticket than you are to actually win the lottery.
We’ve all heard the adage “you’re more likely to get struck by lightning than to win the lottery.” Sounds grim. Apparently, it’s also more likely that you will die on the way to buying your lottery ticket than actually win the lottery. Of course this all depends on your mode of transportation to buy the ticket and the characteristics of the area where you buy it and even your demographics. It is true that you are more likely to die in a car accident than win though. The gist is that it’s very unlikely that you will win the lottery. Some other things that are more likely than winning the lottery? Dying from flesh-eating bacteria, dying from a bee sting, becoming a movie star, dying in a bathtub and having identical quadruplets.
Green river killer claims he murdered dozens more women
Gary Ridgway, the Seattle-area truck painter who was unmasked as the Green River serial killer and went on to plead guilty to killing 49 women, now claims that he killed closer to 80 women over two decades. In exclusive interviews with ABC News affiliate KOMO, Ridgway, who is currently serving 49 consecutive life sentences in a Washington State penitentiary, told reporter Charlie Harger that he is confessing to dozens more murders to help bring closure to the families of his unidentified victims. "The total number [of victims] is 75 to 80," Ridgway said in a phone interview recorded by Harger and broadcast on KOMO. Ridgway, who said he is a changed man who has found God, now says that while he was telling police of his crimes following his 2001 arrest and subsequent confession, there was more he could have said to help locate other victims. But Harger said he remains skeptical about Ridgway's motive and tendency to lie. "The strange thing about Gary Ridgway is if you didn't know the depravity, if you didn't know the evil that this man committed, you would have no clue when you talked on the phone with him," said Harger, a reporter for KOMO Newsradio. "This man sounds like he would be a perfect neighbor." Ridgway confessed that he picked up prostitutes and teen runaways throughout the 1980s and 1990s in Washington's King County, strangled them during sex and dumped their bodies in remote areas near King County's 65-mile long Green River. Ridgway had been a suspect in the killings for years, but it wasn't until 2001 that he was arrested, thanks to DNA testing advances. To avoid the death penalty, Ridgway confessed to 48 murders in 2003. In 2011 a 49th body was found, and he received an additional life sentence. Now that he has admitted to dozens of other murders, the question remains whether he is now genuinely trying to help the families of supposed victims, or if he's trying to "up his count" for further notoriety. Harger said that Ridgway is a sly, deceptive man. "Gary Ridgway is absolutely playing me. He's playing everybody when he talks," Harger said. "I don't think Gary Ridgway can even comprehend the truth. "I think he wants to show the world that, 'Here I am, Gary Ridgway, the truck painter from Kenworth, the guy who everybody thought was slow since elementary school, somebody who couldn't hold a candle to Ted Bundy. But, here I am, and I'm the best at something,'" Harger said. Ridgway has been speaking with Air Force criminal investigator Rob Fitzgerald for years about his crimes, and for the past five years, Fitzgerald has hunted for unidentified victims of the Green River Killer. The two men speak multiple times per week, KOMO reports, and Ridgway even provides Fitzgerald with photos of supposed "dump sites" that he says should be searched. Despite Ridgway's dubious motive for divulging these locations, Harger said he should still be heard, for a possible "nugget of truth" in what might be a web of lies. "Maybe if we listen to the clues and cut through his lies, we will find a nugget of truth, the clue investigators have waited for," he said. "It's a chance we have to take."
Costa Concordia pulled upright in salvage effort
The wreckage of the Costa Concordia cruise liner has been pulled upright after a 19-hour, first-of-its-kind engineering feat to salvage the ship that slammed into a reef near Giglio Island 20 months ago. ''The parbuckling operation has been successfully completed," the project's organizers said in a statement early this morning. "The wreck is now upright and resting safely on the specially built artificial sea bed, at a depth of approximately 30 meters." The daring operation to right the Concordia began early Monday morning off the coast of Tuscany and had been expected to take no more than 12 hours. The operation continued an additional seven hours and dragged into this morning after a fierce thunderstorm and some initial delays with the vast system of steel cables, pulleys and counterweights. Twenty-two hydraulic pumps were also used to force the ship to an upright position. The Concordia is now resting on six underwater platforms made of steel. It will eventually be towed back to shoreand broken apart for scrap. Celebrations rang out as the most complicated salvage operation in maritime history is now 80 percent complete. "Brilliant! Perfetto," Nick Sloan, the engineer and salvage master who is leading the effort, said. "It was a struggle, a bit of a roller coaster. But for the whole team it was fantastic." The Costa Concordia struck a reef near Giglio Island Jan. 13, 2012, killing 32 of the 4,200 passengers and crew members. The bodies of a passenger and waiter on board have not been recovered. Never before had engineers tried to lift such a large vessel so close to land. Leading up to the start of the operation, engineers said they had only one opportunity to right the ship, which weighs more than 100,000 tons and is larger than the Titanic. Engineers knew of the long list of problems if they failed or if the ship broke apart during the process. Retrieving the Concordia is the most expensive maritime salvage procedure with the estimated cost of about $800 million. But engineers said this was the time for the ambitious operation because the Costa Concordia would not have lasted another winter stuck on the reef. Engineer Sloan said an initial inspection of the starboard side, covered in brown slime from its 20 months underwater while the ship was stuck on a rocky seabed perch, indicated serious damage that must be fixed in the coming weeks and months. The damage he said was caused by both the capsizing and the operation to rotate the ship. "We have to do a really detailed inspection of the damage," he said. "She was strong enough to come up like this, she's strong enough to be towed." Experts will be working for weeks now to patch up the starboard side of the vessel and make sure it is stable before they can begin to tow it away sometime next year. Work crews will eventually return the personal belongings that were left on the ship by passengers who fled the sinking vessel on that harrowing night.
Euro 2020: UK & Ireland keen to host Championship matches
England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland have told Uefa they want to stage European Championship matches in 2020. Uefa says 32 of its members have stated an interest in hosting games after deciding the tournament would be shared among 13 cities across Europe. England wants to host games in London and Scotland has chosen Glasgow. Wales has opted to go for matches in Cardiff, while the Republic has picked Dublin as its venue. All of the major European football nations, including France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain have also expressed their desire to host matches. The candidates have the right to change their initial host city selection, but must submit their final choices by 25 April next year. The English Football Association wants to host either the 'finals' package - which is the semi-finals and final - at Wembley, or a 'standard' package of three group games and a knockout round match, while Scotland is keen on the latter. Uefa president Michel Platini has previously stated his support for Istanbul to host the finals if the Turkish city lost out on hosting the 2020 Olympics, which it failed to get. Uefa will decide on 25 September 2014 which 13 cities will host games. "We are extremely proud to see the huge interest in the bidding process, with more than half of our member associations willing to host matches at Euro 2020," said Platini. "The finals will be a great celebration of football across the European continent and the 60th anniversary edition will be truly special by really coming to the doorstep of all football fans." The tournament is usually held by one or two nations and Euro 2016 will be in France, with the competition being expanded from 16 teams to 24. Uefa has changed the hosting format for the 2020 event to mark 60 years since European football's governing body was formed. There will be 13 different packages for Euro 2020, with 12 of them including three group matches and one knockout game from either the last 16 or quarter-finals. The other 'finals' package is to host the semi-finals and the final, and the English FA has expressed an interest in both options. "We would be delighted for London and Wembley Stadium to be chosen to host either of the two packages available and we look forward to working with Uefa on the forthcoming selection process," said English FA general secretary Alex Horne. "It would be great to see England playing in front of their home fans here in London as part of a Euro finals tournament, but many countries have also put themselves forward as hosts and we expect this to be a very competitive bidding process." "We fit the criteria in terms of capacity and footprint around the stadium," said an SFA spokesperson. "The one red flag is the number of hospitality boxes, but the feeling from Uefa is that that might not inhibit our chances of hosting games." The Football Association of Wales said: "The FAW expressed an interest in bidding and will fully evaluate, with our sporting, political and business partners, the possibility of submitting a formal bid when the full details are released by Uefa. "Showcasing the best international football through the hosting of major events and finals tournaments remains a strategy of the FAW." The 32 countries interested in hosting Euro 2020 games: Armenia (Yerevan), Azerbaijan (Baku), Belarus (Minsk), Belgium (Brussels), Bulgaria (Sofia), Croatia (Zagreb), Czech Republic (Prague), Denmark (Copenhagen), England (London), Finland (Helsinki), France (Lyon), Macedonia (Skopje), Germany (Munich), Greece (Athens), Hungary (Budapest), Israel (Jerusalem), Italy (Rome and Milan), Kazakhstan (Astana), Netherlands (Amsterdam), Poland (Warsaw and Chorzow), Portugal (Lisbon and Porto), Republic of Ireland (Dublin), Romania (Bucharest), Russia (St Petersburg), Scotland (Glasgow), Serbia (Belgrade), Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia), Sweden (Solna), Switzerland (Basel), Turkey (Istanbul), Ukraine (Kyiv and Donetsk) and Wales (Cardiff).
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