Silly/Odd News Stories from around the World

[aohige]

I heard in South Korea, they do a Starcraft match. 3 out of 5, race shuffled.


*hides*

[Terrestrial Dream]

Eh, sadly these days it is decide by LOL.

[SaintessHeart]

Penitent Romanian hacker aims to protect world's ATMs

VASLUI, Romania (Reuters) - Valentin Boanta, sitting in his jail cell, proudly explains the device he has invented which, he says, could make the world's ATMs impregnable even to tech-savvy criminals like himself.

Boanta, 33, is six months into a five-year sentence for supplying gadgets an organized crime gang used to conceal ATM skimmers, which can copy data from an unsuspecting ATM user's card so a clone can be created.

He said he had started to make the devices for the sheer excitement of it and denies ever planning to use them himself, saying he only sold them to others.

Boanta says his arrest in 2009 and trial brought contrition, as he realized the impact of his actions and felt an urge to make amends. It also brought the former industrial design student a flash of technical inspiration.

"When I got caught I became happy. This liberation opened the way to working for the good side," Boanta said.

"Crime was like a drug for me. After I was caught, I was happy I escaped from this adrenaline addiction," he said. "So that the other part, in which I started to develop security solutions, started to emerge."

It was during his trial that he got down to work. The stage for Boanta's product pitch these days is the book-lined cell in the northeastern Romanian town of Vaslui he shares with five pickpockets and burglars.

"All ATMs have ageing designs so they are prone to vulnerability, they are a very weak side of the banking industry," he said.

"Every ATM can be penetrated through a skimming crime. My security solution, SRS, makes an ATM unbreachable."

Boanta says his "Secure Revolving System-SRS" can be installed in any ATM. It allows the bank card to be inserted longer side first and then rotates it to prevent skimmers being able to lock on to the magnetic data strip. The system returns the card to its user with a reverse rotation.

Outwardly it is a trapezoidal metallic box around 6 inches long with the card slot in the middle.

The SRS, funded and developed by a technology firm near Bucharest called MB Telecom, is patented and won an award this year at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva. The inventor and company are not yet saying how much it will cost, but insist it will be available soon.

"He fully deserves such recognition," said SRS co-inventor and MB Telecom president Mircea Tudor. "He's taking part in improving Romania's image abroad and he'll surely join our team when released."

Romania has a deep well of technical expertise stemming from the time of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who backed computer research and technical education.

Digital piracy flourished after his violent overthrow in 1989, as people who could not afford proprietary products bought cheap copies instead.

Romanian hackers stole about $1 billion from U.S. accounts in 2012, according to the U.S. embassy in Bucharest. A report by Verizon said Romania was the world's second-biggest hacking centre after China. The FBI has even set up an office in Romania and helped to train specialist police agents.

And the bank director said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Penitent Romanian hacker aims to protect world's ATMs



And the bank director said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It's broken but they don't want to recognise it.

Funeral home has bicycle hearse for 1 last ride
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...05-17-11-59-22

[SaintessHeart]

Bra-nomics works to stimulate inflation

Bra-maker Triumph unveils its own strategy to stimulate growth, mirroring Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ''Abenomics'' vow to rekindle Japan's economy.

NSFW

And it gets bigger and bigger, closer and closer......

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[mangatron]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Bra-nomics works to stimulate inflation

lol... nice to see bra's in the news these days, but.... just 2% growth? With my super ero hands, I can make those girls grow 20% in no time

Oh....it's about the economy Wait a minute, did that reuters girl call the Japanese girls "flat"? I know she did! They are not flat! Look at my avatar!!

NSFW

And it gets bigger and bigger, closer and closer......

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Why do you need to ask, I'm always the first one to be bombed it is a fact that I, the premier test subject, sacrifice myself for the good of mankind, but wait, since my results vary every time, the test will never end so I live happy

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Bra-nomics works to stimulate inflation

NSFW

And it gets bigger and bigger, closer and closer......

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I volunteer for this duty, may mainkind be advanced by my sacrifice

[ganbaru]

Should we let wunderkinds drop out of high school?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...05-21-02-55-28

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Hollywood Tries to Censor Movie About Hollywood Censors

Have to admit I laughed quite a bit.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Should we let wunderkinds drop out of high school?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...05-21-02-55-28

one of my biggest issue with public school is that if the student is one of those genius who are the off the chart talented there is almost no resources or guidance for them in public school.

[andyjay729]

Look what a dolphin found today off the coast of my hometown.

Spoiler for gargantia spoiler:

No, not revelations on the origins of the Hideauze.

[willx]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

one of my biggest issue with public school is that if the student is one of those genius who are the off the chart talented there is almost no resources or guidance for them in public school.

Well, that's actually the same in most private schools too, the really crucial factor is whether the parents are 1) educated, 2) informed and 3) take an interest in their children. Many kids I know could have skipped grades or otherwise gone down "enriched education" paths but their parents were immigrants and simply didn't have the time or know about the few programs that do exist.

There's a reason most doctors are children of other doctors, etc etc.

In other news: Be the voice of NPR

https://careers-npr.icims.com/jobs/1673/job

Be the “voice of NPR.” We’re looking for a great voice talent, with production chops to match, to be the voice of NPR’s national funding credits, corporate, and promotional materials. You’ll record all of NPR’s “support for this program comes from” announcements in our national programs, and edit/produce/traffic them though our system. Heard by millions of people each week, you’ll get to say, “This is NPR” each day.

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

4 Things Rich People Should Stop Saying

My God. What ignorant/insensitive folks.
At least i know your not one of them.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

My God. What ignorant/insensitive folks.
At least i know your not one of them.

You get used to them. Usually those who say that grow up from second-generation money, same as those CEOs who pull strings to get to where they are despite having a history of damaging companies then blaming the workers (i.e - oh they don't know how to speak English).

[willx]

^ I agree that all of it is douchebaggery .. except for the "trickle-down" point. They're missing out on what the definition of trickle-down actually means. Contributing to charity is great and all but is not trickle-down at all, it shows a complete misunderstanding of what that concept even means.

Trickle-down is either 1) investment or 2) consumption that results in additional jobs all the way down the chain. Here's an example: A bunch of rich people start buying product X in Singapore, it could be robot dogs for all I care, the companies that make robot dogs generate profits and either a) take the profit themselves and spend it on product Y (robot cats?) or b) hire more workers/invest in more machinery/buy more from their suppliers

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by willx

^ I agree that all of it is douchebaggery .. except for the "trickle-down" point. They're missing out on what the definition of trickle-down actually means. Contributing to charity is great and all but is not trickle-down at all, it shows a complete misunderstanding of what that concept even means.

Trickle-down is either 1) investment or 2) consumption that results in additional jobs all the way down the chain. Here's an example: A bunch of rich people start buying product X in Singapore, it could be robot dogs for all I care, the companies that make robot dogs generate profits and either a) take the profit themselves and spend it on product Y (robot cats?) or b) hire more workers/invest in more machinery/buy more from their suppliers

Yes, though the issue seems to be that whether the money that trickled down is into domestic pockets or foreign ones where the robot dogs are actually made.

Manufacturing tends to draw most of the trickled money in the case you are talking about, if the manufacturing is overseas and the sales services are local, more money is dragged up rather than pulled down domestically.

[willx]

^ Except for all the jobs where people are selling the robot dogs. Storefront leases, customer service representatives, service centers for broken robot dogs. Anyways, it was just an example that "consumption" is still trickle-down whereas charity is definitely not. (Author did not get the concept)

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by willx

^ Except for all the jobs where people are selling the robot dogs. Storefront leases, customer service representatives, service centers for broken robot dogs. Anyways, it was just an example that "consumption" is still trickle-down whereas charity is definitely not. (Author did not get the concept)

What if the number of storefront representatives and service engineers, as compared to workers in a manufacturing plant, is signifcantly less? They may be paid higher than manufacturing workers, but the number of staff employed are still less, so as a whole much of the total revenue still does not trickle down (sales & repairs) as compared to what is flowing up (customers)?

I may be wrong or confused though, please highlight if you think so.

[willx]

Your example doesn't make sense to me -- because your case was that the robot dogs are produced overseas -- so unless the companies are making negative profit plus all the ancillary services are making negative profit due to the robot dogs there wouldn't be a negative flow of funds. Basically, did that aggregate selling of robot dogs, generate profit for people along the supply chain. If yes, then trickle-down, if no, then no trickle-down. It can be less or more in one geography or sector than another, but in this example, due to it being "$1 of additional spending" there was no negative-drag.

Keep in mind though that "trickle-down" as used in my case and by the author of that article will be easily misunderstood by many people because it is current tied very closely to "tax cut for the rich" debates, which is not what we're discussing here.

[Anh_Minh]

The problem is that they're not buying enough robot dogs, I guess. (And really, unless you collect them, how many robot dogs do you need?)

And doesn't charity kinda trickles down? It's like buying a bag of rice, except somebody else eats it.