Archive for September, 2011
U.S. Kindle Users Can Now Borrow E-Books from Local Libraries
September 22nd, 2011DISCLOSURE: Cryptogon is an Amazon affiliate. This whole Kindle thing moved so fast that I didn’t really have a chance to form my nonspecific sense of doom about it into much besides, Amazon is Tracking the Most-Highlighted Kindle Passages. And now, people will be signing into their Amazon accounts to borrow ebooks from public libraries. […]
Video Games Intruding on Reality: ‘Game Transfer Phenomena’ [???]
September 22nd, 2011Wow, if there was one for the top of your Not The Onion stack, this is it. Via: New Zealand Herald / AP: Some video-game players are so immersed in their virtual environment that when they stop playing, they transfer their experiences into the real world. A study found evidence of game transfer phenomena, which […]
Next Generation Hardware Specification Could Prevent Computers from Booting Linux
September 21st, 2011Update: Microsoft Responds Via: Microsoft: Who is in control? At the end of the day, the customer is in control of their PC. Microsoft’s philosophy is to provide customers with the best experience first, and allow them to make decisions themselves. We work with our OEM ecosystem to provide customers with this flexibility. The security […]
Lloyd’s of London Pulls Euro Bank Deposits
September 21st, 2011Hmm. What did they do with the money? Via: Bloomberg: Lloyd’s of London, concerned European governments may be unable to support lenders in a worsening debt crisis, has pulled deposits in some peripheral economies as the European Central Bank provided dollars to one euro-area institution. “There are a lot of banks who, because of the […]
BofA, Wells Fargo Downgraded by Moody’s
September 21st, 2011Via: Bloomberg: Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Wells Fargo & Co. had their long-term credit ratings downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service, citing a decreasing probability that the U.S. would support the lenders in an emergency. Citigroup Inc.’s short-term rating also was cut. The government is “more likely now than during the financial crisis to […]
Germany: ‘Forest Boy’
September 21st, 2011Update: Identified Via: MSNBC: Police in Berlin said on Friday they had identified the mysterious “Forest Boy” who turned up in the German capital nine months ago claiming to have lived in woods for several years. Investigators said a woman in The Netherlands contacted Dutch police, saying she recognized the young man as her 20-year […]
SSL Broken
September 21st, 2011SSL… that’s ok for buying a book online, but no tinfoiler in his right mind would bet his life on SSL. —Cryptogon, 2007 Turns out, the part about it being ok for buying a book online was too optimistic. Haha. Via: Register: Researchers have discovered a serious weakness in virtually all websites protected by the […]
Nanoparticles Cause Brain Injury in Fish
September 21st, 2011Via: Science Daily: Scientists at the University of Plymouth have shown, for the first time in an animal, that nanoparticles have a detrimental effect on the brain and other parts of the central nervous system. They subjected rainbow trout to titanium oxide nanoparticles which are widely used as a whitening agent in many products including […]
U.S. Assembling Drone Bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula
September 21st, 2011Via: Washington Post: The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, U.S. officials said. One of the installations is being established in Ethiopia, a U.S. […]
Rumsfeld Stripped of Immunity in Case Involving Torture of U.S. Citizens
September 21st, 2011Via: USC – Neon Tommy: Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was stripped of immunity in a case involving the torture of two United States citizens. Two FBI informants, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, were detained and tortured by United States military personnel in Iraq in 2006. They filed suit against Former Secretary of Defense […]
