Topic: COMPUTER - on June 11, 2013 at 5:31:00 PM CEST
Bank Employee In Germany Naps On Keyboard, Accidentally Transfers Millions
An obviously tired German bank employee fell asleep on his keyboard and accidentally transformed a minor transfer into a 222 million euro ($293 million) order, a court heard Monday.
The Hessen labour court heard that the man was supposed to transfer just 62.40 euros from a bank account belonging to a retiree, but instead "fell asleep for an instant, while pushing onto the number 2 key on the keyboard" -- making it a huge 222,222,222.22 euro order.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 11, 2013 at 5:27:00 PM CEST
NSA leaks: Russia 'would consider' Edward Snowden asylum claim – live
Russia will consider a claim of political asylum from Snowden, according to the Russian business paper Kommersant, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “If we receive such a request, we will consider it,” Peskov is quoted as saying. Snowden is currently in Hong Kong, but moved to a safer hotel yesterday. A landmark legal ruling in Hong Kong could yet buy him time if he decides to apply for asylum. Activists in Iceland are making preparations should the whistleblower try to head there.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 11, 2013 at 5:25:00 PM CEST
The NSA Black Hole: 5 Basic Things We Still Don’t Know About the Agency’s Snooping
The headquarters of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland.Last week saw revelations that the FBI and the National Security Agency have been collecting Americans’ phone records en masse and that the agencies have access to data from nine tech companies.
But secrecy around the programs has meant even basic questions are still unanswered. Here’s what we still don’t know:
Has the NSA been collecting all Americans’ phone records, and for how long?
It’s not entirely clear.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 11, 2013 at 4:27:00 PM CEST
In Light of PRISM, Furious European Politicians to Fight Back Against U.S. Surveillance Overreach
When details emerged last week about the National Security Agency’s Internet surveillance system PRISM, President Obama attempted to reassure Americans that it was not being used to target them. Instead, he implied, it is aimed at the other 95 percent of the world’s population.
The PRISM system, according to a set of leaked top-secret PowerPoint slides, enables the NSA to obtain private emails and other user data directly from the central servers of major Internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Yahoo. The companies named as part of the program initially denied involvement, but some anonymous executives have since acknowledged the system’s existence, saying it is used to share information about foreign customers with the NSA and other parts of the U.S. intelligence community. At the heart of the PRISM story is a scandal that is not domestic but global.
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Topic: DRUGS - on June 11, 2013 at 4:04:00 PM CEST
Recreational marijuana timeline released
The Washington State Liquor Control Board announced dates for their recreational marijuana draft rules. According to their timeline, they will begin to accept license applications in September.
Timeline June 19, 2013 – Board work session on proposed rules; July 3, 2013 - Board files official draft rules with the state Code Reviser; August 7, 2013 - Public hearing on draft rules; August 14, 2013 - Board adopts rules; September 14, 2013 - Effective date for rules; and September 14, 2013 - WSLCB begins accepting applications for all license types.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 11, 2013 at 4:02:00 PM CEST
KEEP CALM and Carry On: PRISM itself is not a big deal
Analysis PRISM, the top secret US National Security Agency web communications and user data collection program revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden last Friday, and targeted on nine top US web service providers, would seem unlikely to be the total, tyrannical surveillance behemoth reporters first assumed.
That’s because its numbers, as published, just don’t add up.
The Guardian may also have missed a potentially significant scoop buried within the PRISM revelations – apparent confirmation that about the time in 2011 that Microsoft acquired Skype for $7bn, the U.S. government also acquired a back way in to the
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 11, 2013 at 2:59:00 PM CEST
Opt out of PRISM, the NSA’s global data surveillance program
Stop reporting your online activities to the American government with these free alternatives to proprietary software.
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Topic: DRUGS - on June 11, 2013 at 1:17:00 PM CEST
High Country: A Mind-Melting Journey Through the Silicon Valley of Weed (Part 2)
motherboard.vice.com High Country: A Mind-Melting Journey Through the Silicon Valley of Weed (Part 1)
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 10, 2013 at 3:50:00 PM CEST
NSA Whistleblower: The Ultimate Insider Attack
When computer security companies release their annual reports about hacking and breaches, they take pains to point out that the insider threat from someone with internal access to data is a far greater risk to a company than an outside hacker.
The more than a million government documents leaked by former Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning showed this to be true.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 10, 2013 at 1:51:00 PM CEST
The United Stasi of America
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Topic: NATURE - on June 10, 2013 at 1:46:00 PM CEST
Natural Lighting: Grow Your Own Glow-in-the-Dark Plants
What started as a Glowing Plant campaign to raise just sixty-five thousand dollars has now ended with ten times that much in funding, all toward one purpose: naturally-glowing, biologically engineered plant life. The seed funding, in both senses, has been secured.
Glowing plants are not new, but crowd-funding the research and gene splicing, aiming for sustained bioluminescence, and distributing the resulting plants all push into new (and apparently fertile) territories. The project team will start small, with household plants including glowing roses, and work up from there.
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Topic: DRUGS - on June 9, 2013 at 10:17:00 PM CEST
New Study: Cannabinoids Protect the Brain and Heart From Injury
Cannabis is in the news again for its purported medicinal benefits, with researchers in Israel last week indicating it may help prevent trauma to the brain in certain circumstances and may also help with cardiac problems. A few months ago an English pharmaceutical company that manufactures cannabinoids announced it was developing a new treatment for epilepsy using them.
Prof. Yosef Sarne in the Adelson Center for the Biology of Addictive Diseases in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Tel Aviv University says that cannabis has neuro-protective qualities. He has found that extremely low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC- the psychoactive component of marijuana- can protect the brain from long-term cognitive damage in the wake of injury from hypoxia (lack of oxygen), seizures, or toxic drugs.
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