China: 50ft Tsunami of Foam Sweeps Through Village After Chemical Spill
September 30th, 2012Harmless. Nothing to see here. Carry on.
Via: Daily Mail:
This wall of foam sparked widespread panic among locals as it rushed along a river in southern China.
The mass of soapy suds blanketed the water in Xintang, in China’s Guangdong province, leading to evacuations along the banks of the river.
But officials have now said the only threat posed by the foam – thought to have been caused by chemicals washed into the river – was the possibility of ‘one or two dead fish’ lurking in the bubbles.
Robert McKeon
September 29th, 2012Via: Bloomberg:
Robert McKeon, the founder of private-equity firm Veritas Capital and a former chairman of Wasserstein Perella Management Partners, died Sept. 10 at his home in Darien, Connecticut. The cause of death was suicide, according to the office of Connecticut’s chief medical examiner.
Darien police in an e-mail confirmed McKeon’s death and said the incident isn’t considered suspicious. He was 58.
…
McKeon, a founding partner of Wasserstein Perella & Co., started Veritas in 1992, building it into a $2.2 billion firm. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and was appointed in 1993 to chairman of the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority.
Related: ‘Asphyxia Due to Neck Compression’
Research Credit: almaverdad2
‘It’s Like the Gardener’s Version of Graffiti’
September 29th, 2012Via: Los Angeles Times:
Today, Hui is the force behind Guerrilla Grafters, a renegade band of idealistic produce lovers who attach fruit-growing branches to public trees in Bay Area cities (they are loath to specify exactly where for fear of reprisal).
Their handiwork currently is getting recognition in the 13th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy, as part of the U.S. exhibit called “Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good.” Closer to home, however, municipal officials have denounced the group’s efforts.
Even the urban agriculture movement is torn when it comes to the secretive splicers, outliers in a nascent push to bring orchards to America’s inner cities. While many applaud their civil disobedience, others fear a backlash against community farming efforts. And few believe their work will ever fill a fruit bowl.
Not that that really matters.
“It’s like the gardener’s version of graffiti,” said Claire Napawan, assistant professor of landscape architecture at UC Davis and a grafters sympathizer. “Even if there’s some question about its ability to produce enough food to make a difference … as an awareness piece, it’s a good idea.”
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Big Sis Doesn’t Use Email
September 29th, 2012Via: National Journal:
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who is a key player in national cybersecurity efforts, said on Friday she doesn’t use e-mail.
“Don’t laugh, but I just don’t use e-mail at all,” she said during a discussion at a Cybersecurity Summit hosted by National Journal and Government Executive. She didn’t explain what communications tools she does use.
President Obama, who appointed Napolitano, broke precedent by carrying his own BlackBerry device. But in response to a question about her personal cybersecurity practices, Napolitano said she avoids many online services. “I don’t have any of my own accounts. Some would call me a Luddite,” she said.
Comedy Gold: Force Protection Vehicle 60 MPH Brake Test
September 29th, 2012Via: YouTube:
Justice Department’s Warrantless Spying Increased 600 Percent in Decade
September 29th, 2012Via: Wired:
The Justice Department use of warrantless internet and telephone surveillance methods known as pen register and trap-and-trace has exploded in the last decade, according to government documents the American Civil Liberties obtained via a Freedom of Information Act claim.
Pen registers obtain, in real time, non-content information of outbound telephone and internet communications, such as phone numbers dialed, and the sender and recipient (and sometimes subject line) of an e-mail message. A trap-and-trace acquires the same information, but for inbound communications to a target. No probable-cause warrant is needed to obtain the data. Judges are required to sign off on these orders when the authorities say the information is relevant to an investigation.
The One About the Unemployment Rate Dropping in Los Angeles
September 28th, 2012Via: CNN:
The unemployment rate has been falling lately in Los Angeles County, but not for the right reasons.
Last month, the jobless rate for the county fell to 11%, down from 12.4% a year earlier.
While that’s far higher than the 8.1% unemployment rate for the nation as a whole, it nevertheless seems to show progress for the City of Angels… right?
Wrong. In Los Angeles, the falling unemployment rate is slightly misleading, just as it has been for the country overall.
When surveyed by the government, fewer L.A. residents say they’re unemployed compared to a year ago. But it’s not because they’re finding jobs. It’s because they’re dropping out of the labor force altogether.
75% Tax on Top Incomes in France
September 28th, 2012Via: Reuters:
President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government unveiled sharp tax hikes on business and the rich on Friday in a 2013 budget aimed at showing France has the fiscal rigor to remain at the core of the euro zone.
…
To the dismay of business leaders who fear an exodus of top talent, the government confirmed a temporary 75 percent super-tax rate for earnings over one million euros and a new 45 percent band for revenues over 150,000 euros.
Virginia: Family Killed, Husband and Wife Both Had Direct Links to Black World Contractors
September 28th, 2012Update: ‘He said he wanted to expose something at work’
Where did Albert Peterson work after he left Northrop Grumman?
Update/Answer: BAE
Cryptogon reader Alma Verdad found his Linkedin page which indicates that he was a, “Senior Subcontracts Administrator at BAE Systems Information Technology.”
Via: Daily Mail:
Mr Peterson, also mentioned pressures at work that troubled Maggie.
Explaining his increasingly erratic behavior, she said: ‘He said he wanted to expose something at work. He also got the impression at work, that if they didn’t vote for Obama and get him elected, they would lose their jobs,’
—End Update—
Via: ABC News:
A Virginia man is believed to have killed his wife and two sons in a murder-suicide at their home in Virginia, police said today.
The bodies of Albert and Kathleen Peterson and their sons were found Tuesday morning by police performing a welfare check on the family after one of the adults did not show up to work for two days.
Today, Fairfax County police said that the investigation is now pointing toward Albert Peterson, 57, as the killer. All four members of the Peterson family received gun shot wounds to their upper bodies, according to a statement released by the police.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that Albert Peterson killed his wife and their children before taking his own life,” the Fairfax County police said in a statement.
Kathleen Peterson, 52, worked for defense contracting firm Blackbird Technologies in Herndon, Va., where the couple lived. Albert Peterson had worked for Northtrop Grumman until he resigned in 2009. It is not clear where he was working at the time of the incident.
The couple had two children: Matthew, 16, a high school sophomore, and Christhoper, 13, who was in eighth grade.
Neighbor Jeremy Wilcox told local news radio station WTOP that the family had attended a community picnic together on Sunday and “showed no signs of any problem.”
Another neighbor, Alvaro Lopes, told local news station WNEW that Albert Peterson had tried to commit suicide in the past, and that he had been taking new heart attack medication that seemed to affect his personality.
“He seemed dizzy, just different,” Lopes said. “Hearing about what happened today made me think that could have something to do with it.”
Police would not comment on any possible connection between the deaths and Peterson’s medication.
Major Banks Hit with Biggest Cyberattacks in History
September 27th, 2012Via: CNN:
Since Sept. 19, the websites of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and PNC Bank have all suffered day-long slowdowns and been sporadically unreachable for many customers. The attackers, who took aim at Bank of America first, went after their targets in sequence. Thursday’s victim, PNC’s website, was inaccessible at the time this article was published.
Security experts say the outages stem from one of the biggest cyberattacks they’ve ever seen. These “denial of service” attacks — huge amounts of traffic directed at a website to make it crash — were the largest ever recorded by a wide margin, according to two researchers.
Banks get hit by cyberattackers all the time and typically have some of the best defenses against them. This time, they were outgunned.
“The volume of traffic sent to these sites is frankly unprecedented,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of CrowdStrike, a security firm that has been investigating the attacks. “It’s 10 to 20 times the volume that we normally see, and twice the previous record for a denial of service attack.”
