Gmail Hackers Used US Government Backdoor

 

Remember the Chinese hackers who hacked into gmail last year? Turns out they were able to do that because Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts for the US Government.

Security expert Bruce Schneier says it’s not just Gmail that’s affected:

China’s hackers subverted the access system Google put in place to comply with U.S. intercept orders. Why does anyone think criminals won’t be able to use the same system to steal bank account and credit card information, use it to launch other attacks or turn it into a massive spam-sending network? Why does anyone think that only authorized law enforcement can mine collected Internet data or eavesdrop on phone and IM conversations? [...]
In Greece, between June 2004 and March 2005, someone wiretapped more than 100 cell phones belonging to members of the Greek government: the prime minister and the ministers of defense, foreign affairs and justice.
Ericsson built this wiretapping capability into Vodafone’s products and enabled it only for governments that requested it. Greece wasn’t one of those governments, but someone still unknown — A rival political party? Organized crime? Foreign intelligence? — figured out how to surreptitiously turn the feature on.

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E. coli outbreak hits Europe

The news started in Germany but now France is also warning over possibly tainted cucumbers from Spain. Most of the cases have been in Germany but other EU countries have also been hit with problems. So far there are at least 2 deaths that they believe are directly associated with E. coli.

Reuters:

An E. coli outbreak in Germany which has infected more than 270 people and killed at least five is one of the biggest of its kind worldwide and the largest ever in Germany, European health experts said Saturday.

German officials said Thursday they suspected cucumbers imported from Spain as a possible source of the outbreak of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication of a type of E. coli known as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC).

In a risk assessment of the outbreak, the Stockholm-based European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in the European Union, called it "one of the largest described outbreaks of STEC/HUS worldwide and the largest ever reported in Germany."

Brazilian farmer found dead in the Amazon

Police said Sunday they are investigating the death of a farmer whose body was found near where a land activist and his wife were recently killed in Brazil's Amazon.

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Metropolis

Kids paid to skip college

Businessman pays students to skip college

Tycoon Peter Thiel offers two dozen students $100,000 each to develop tech projects.  

Avoid becoming 'debt slaves' 

Also: 

• More on the mogul
• The value of college
• Screenings go high-tech

Shoe

How to improve your eyesight

Easy ways to improve your eyesight

Exercises will help you maintain optimal vision and may also prevent annoying floaters.

The best vitamins to take 

Also: 

• Are probiotics worth it?
• Signs of food allergies
• New blood pressure study

Heterochromia Iridum

It's about eye color:

Heterochromia of the eye is of two kinds. In complete heterochromia, one iris is a different color from the other. In partial heterochromia or sectoral heterochromia, part of one iris is a different color from its remainder.

Here's a List of people with heterochromia.

Culinary DeLites

Secrets to foolproof summer grilling

Avoid common barbecue mistakes with these tips from experts on timing and technique.

Trick to perfect kebabs 

Also: 

• New guidelines for pork
• Easy kebab recipes 
• Barbecue sauce taste test

5 secrets for perfect potato salad

A secret ingredient makes this version of the summer picnic staple stand out.

Types of potatoes never to use 

Also: 

• More potato salad recipes
• Summer cooking ideas
• Tasty main dish salads

Workout-ruining mistakes

Eating mistakes that sabotage your workout

Protein shakes and energy bars could actually hinder your tone-up routine.
Don't fall for the 'after-burn' myth 

• 5 fitness rules to break
• Top at-home abs moves
• Reasons to skip a workout

Manage Your Life

6 things to do before emailing your resume

12 tricks to make groceries last (and save money)

7 weird family vacation spots

Spring Cleaning

How to Tell if you Need to Do Some Spring Cleaning

1. Do you make panic runs to the garbage can for fear that someone has thrown away something "important"?
2. Could you feed a family of four for more than two weeks from supplies found inside your sofa?
3. Have you put off purchasing a refrigerator until you can find a self-cleaning model?
4. Have you written to Dow to ask how you can get your Janitor in a Drum out?
5. When you hear the phrase "cleanliness is next to…" do you fill in the blank with "impossible"?
6. Do you own more than 5 sets of keys you had made when the current set was "missing in action"?
7. Is there something growing inside your refrigerator that puts your houseplants to shame?
8. Have you ever put off a diet because you lost the book?
9. Do you put off redecorating the den because you haven't seen the floor in so long that you've forgotten what color the carpeting is?
10. Do you know laundry can reproduce in a hamper?
11. Do you have at least three bags of "stuff to sort later" stashed somewhere in the house?
12. Have you ever lost something in your bedroom, like the bed?
13. When visitors suggest that they'll throw their coats on the bed, do you offer to set up a cot in the hall?
14. Does your storage system consist of 30 boxes marked "miscellaneous"?
15. Have you ever gone to put up the holiday decorations, only to discover that you hadn't taken them down from last year?

A Quick One

This Brit goes to Australia for a tourist trip and on the border they ask him if he had ever stayed in jail or had been arrested.

So he says: "I did not know that was still required."

Boy and sea otter race at zoo

Boy and sea otter race around the zoo

At first, these two adorable pals appear to just be coincidentally moving in the same direction.

But then ... 

Also: 

• Lion steals video camera
• Penguin dozes off
• Polar bear's new hat

Record surf off famous bluff

Legendary spot yields its biggest rides yet

Four surfers take on record waves at a famous Tasmanian break known for its fury even on average days.

Watch 

Also: 

• World's best surfers
• New jet-powered boards
• Volcom Pipe Pro photos

The Straw Hat Riot

 

The Straw Hat Riot of 1922 is an example of what can happen when folks take fashion too seriously. Unbelievable as it sounds, a gang of young hoodlums in New York City decided to enforce an unwritten rule that straw hats were not to be worn after September 15. Beginning a little early on September 13, 1922 they snatched straw hats from people’s heads and trampled them, beating with sticks those who resisted. The mob’s numbers swelled to 1000 and the brawling continued through the next night leading to hospitalizations and imprisonment for some.

The tradition of hat smashing continued for some time after the riots of 1922, although they marked the worst occurrence of hat smashing. In 1924, one man was killed when he resisted having his hat smashed. 1925 saw similar arrests made in New York. The tradition died out along with the tradition of the seasonal switch from straw to felt hats.

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A "glis"

A "glis" (primitive ice skate)

From the collections of the Memory of the Netherlands, this bone converted to an ice skate is dated to approximately 1100-1550 A.D.  

(via A London Salmagundi).

While looking for more information, I found this (at The Virtual Ice Skates Museum):

There is a written 'description of the most noble city of London', drawn up in Latin and published in 1180, which was translated by Stow, a London chronicler, into English in the 16th century. The account was written by a man named Fitzstephen, who, at that time, was secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Beckett, and reads as follows: "(...) when the great fenne or moore (which watereth the walles of the citie on the North side) is frozen, many young men play upon the yce, some striding as wide as they may, doe slide swiftly (...) some tye bones to their feete, and under their heeles, and shoving themselves by a little picked staffe, doe slide as swiftly as birde flyeth in the aire, or an arrow out of a crossbow. Sometime two runne together with poles, and hitting one the other, eyther one or both doe fall, not without hurt; some break their armes, some their legs, but youth desirous of glorie, in this sort exerciseth it selfe against time of warre (...)". From this description it appears that it is likely that in the 12th century ice skates with metal blades did not yet exist.

In the 19th century, when archaeology became a science, these bones were found at several places in Europe when making excavations. Generally they concern bones out of the legs of cattle like horses, cows and sheep. They were made suitable for gliding by flattening one side and drilling holes athwart for fastening them with laces. Further research has made clear that the use of bones as gliders under sledges and feet in northern Europe has been wide spread.

And this from a more recent era:

Though the enemy could iron their boots and thus walk on the slippery surface they had few chances against the defenders that moved around at great speed on their ice skates. The picture shows that regiments were drilled to move on frozen water, here on the River Merwede before the city of Dordrecht. 

And finally, the word "glis" for the skate is not to be confused with glis glis, which is an edible dormouse.

Patient

Bubbling sea signals coral threat

Bubbling sea signals coral threat

Findings from a "natural laboratory" in seas off Papua New Guinea suggest that acidifying oceans will severely hit coral reefs by the end of the century.

• Coral reefs heading into crisis
• In pictures: Coral reefs under threat

Awesome Pictures