Silly/Odd News Stories from around the World

[ganbaru]

Daredevil Nik Wallenda completes high-wire walk across Grand Canyon
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...95K15Z20130624

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

As of, 5 minutes ago Australia has (or will be needing) a new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard voted out in a Party vote in favor of Kevin Rudd.

Linky (live feed)


Saw this linked on Twitter, under #ruddwedding

Spoiler for Game of Thrones reference:

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

As of, 5 minutes ago Australia has (or will be needing) a new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard voted out in a Party vote in favor of Kevin Rudd.

Linky (live feed)

Ouch ... I kind of liked her but then again I'm not really up-to-speed on local issues there that might have derailed her.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Well, I'm not the best since I don't know the specific details, but the short version is that after a series of highly unpopular decisions, and low opinion polls, grumbling in the labour party finally reached critical mass and Rudds supporters pushed for a vote in change of leadership. Sentiments in the labour party have never been good since Gillard stood against Rudd, and ousted him as Prim Minister, and they lost a lot of standing with the public.

TBH the whole situation politically here is pretty stupid, neither party leader is all that popular (I may be a bit biased against the Liberal party from all the feedback from my gay friends, Abbot is a bit of a bigot), Rudd somehow still has quite some popular support in the public, he is pretty charismatic, especially in comparison to both Gillard and Abbot. Honestly I doubt Labour will win an election, so this whole thing was probably just the final death throws for a Labour government. (Which will suck for the new broadband network, Labour is giving FTTH Liberal FTTN and shitty wireless).

Apparently she was voted out unanimously to.

Result was 57 to 45, actually.


She's retiring to, along with a few of the other party folks.


edit: http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/ new live feed, speech's and stuff.

[ganbaru]

Iowa man selling coffin gets questions about bones
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-22-22-27-17

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) -- An Iowa man's online classified ad offering an oak coffin for sale neglected to mention the full skeleton inside, so police interrupted the deal and seized the bones.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Why Snowden asked visitors to stow their phones in the fridge

Hong Kong (June 25, Tue): Before a dinner of pizza and fried chicken late on Sunday in Hong Kong, Edward Snowden insisted that a group of lawyers advising him in the Chinese territory "hide their cellphones in the refrigerator of the home where he was staying, to block any eavesdropping".

Why a refrigerator? The answer does not, as some might assume, have anything to do with temperature. In fact, it does not matter particularly if the refrigerator was plugged in. It is the materials that make up refrigerator walls that could potentially turn them into anti-eavesdropping devices.

The thick metal walls can create a sort of electromagnetic barrier, which enables the device to function as something known as a Faraday cage. A true Faraday cage is a space where radio waves cannot pass and therefore data cannot be transmitted. Although all fridges don't function this way, those constructed with more metal have the potential to serve this purpose.

Blocking data transmission, however, is a different issue from muffling audio. Although a thick refrigerator door is good at masking sound, soundproofing is not necessarily integral to its design.

Given that refrigerators' insulation levels vary, from an audio perspective, burying the phone in a pile of clothes one room over might be a more reliable solution for someone seeking to subvert prying ears.

Those new to these issues are most likely asking the question: Why not just ask everyone to turn off his phone and remove the batteries?

Beyond the fact that many phones these days do not easily enable battery removal, identifying a pure "off" is complicated. A lot of modern devices (not just phones) have states that are somewhere in between fully on and fully off, where some circuits are powered up and others are powered down.

These modes often allow the device to wake up autonomously if certain conditions are met, such as pressing a certain key or even receiving certain data over the Internet on a wired Ethernet connection (known as "wake-on-LAN").

Battery removal can be equally deceptive. Even if one figures out how to extract the primary battery, there may be additional power sources within the apparatus. Some phones use an additional battery for memory management; it's unclear whether this battery could be used by logging and/or tracking systems.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

[Xellos-_^]

a man is not paranoid if someone is out to get him.

[SaintessHeart]

Battery removal can be equally deceptive. Even if one figures out how to extract the primary battery, there may be additional power sources within the apparatus. Some phones use an additional battery for memory management; it's unclear whether this battery could be used by logging and/or tracking systems.

The additional battery is to ensure a small charge maintained in the memory device to retain information, similar in a way how Gameboy cartridges keep your savegames.

It is not a wireless-monitoring enabled pacemaker......yet.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

a man is not paranoid if someone is out to get him.

Even if he has reason to be paranoid do not mean than he isn't

[GDB]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Even if he has reason to be paranoid do not mean than he isn't

The definition of paranoia is "the baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others". That he has all the reason in the world to be suspicious, it cannot be baseless or excessive, and thus is not truly paranoid.

[JokerD]

Cautious, maybe. Through? likely not. Putting the phones into a fridge would stop the phone recording there and then, but the location can still be leaked out during the time when they step into the house and when it is placed into the fridge. For recording, camera can now be the size of a shirt button, so that's no help...

[NoemiChan]

This guy simply has too many secrets...

[AnimeFan188]

Horse throws rider, goes on to win race at Belmont:

"Strike a blow for the forces of horse freedom! In the sixth race at Belmont on
Wednesday, Downtown Hottie, age 6, decided she'd had quite enough of The Man
holding her down, whipping her back end and telling her which way to turn and how
fast to run. So she dumped his sorry behind, and as so often happens in these
situations, she was the better for it, going on to win the race."

See:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/the-tu...130603903.html

[NoemiChan]

hahaha....or is she just too damn heavy so winning is far from reach if she continues to ride the horse....

[ganbaru]

Mich. man recognizes mom as bank robbery suspect
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-26-16-29-30

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Teen charged with making 'terrorist' remarks.

Seriously, that is quite possibly the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. Sure the kid should have been smacked upside the head for being a dumbass and not realising Facebook is public and the internet isn't an impenetrable shield for douchbaggery, but potentially 8 years in prison is mind meltingly stupid. Hell, the fact he has spent 3 months so far in prison should never have happened. Way to completely ruin someones life.

If (when!) he gets cleared, or whatever, I'm wondering if he could sue the living shit out of certain paranoid people. Could he seek restitution against that canadian woman?

[MeoTwister5]

Texas is one giant prison in reality it seems. The last thing you need to do is set up electric fences all around.

Oh wait I think they're doing that along the Mexican border. My bad.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Teen charged with making 'terrorist' remarks.

Seriously, that is quite possibly the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. Sure the kid should have been smacked upside the head for being a dumbass and not realising Facebook is public and the internet isn't an impenetrable shield for douchbaggery, but potentially 8 years in prison is mind meltingly stupid. Hell, the fact he has spent 3 months so far in prison should never have happened. Way to completely ruin someones life.

If (when!) he gets cleared, or whatever, I'm wondering if he could sue the living shit out of certain paranoid people. Could he seek restitution against that canadian woman?

8yrs is too much but hopefully that 3 months in jail will scare him into being more aware of the world around him.

[SaintessHeart]

In light of the overturning of gay marriage ban in the US, we decided to do the same.

Record-breaking attendance at Pink Dot 2013

An estimated record-high of 21,000 people turned up at Hong Lim Park on Saturday evening for this year's Pink Dot rally, forming a sea of pink at the Speaker's Corner.

Straight and gay, young and old, they were there to show their support for Singapore's LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) community and to campaign for equal rights regardless of sexual orientation.

This year's Pink Dot ambassadors were actress and television host Michelle Chia, sportscaster Mark Richmond and well-known thespian Ivan Heng.

The issue of gay rights have been in the news recently. Earlier in April this year, a petition by two gay men to the Singapore High Court asking for Section 377a to be repealed was rejected. They are in the process of appealing again.

For years, activists such as Maruah, a local human rights non-governmental organisation, have been calling for the Singapore government to repeal the section because it is a “critical first step” towards eliminating discrimination against homosexuals.

This year’s Pink Dot turnout of 21,000 is a marked increase from 2012's 15,000. In its first year, 2,500 people attended Pink Dot. This number grew to 4,000 in 2010 and 10,000 in 2011.

I demand that Whitley detention centre reserve a special place in there for gay men flaunting their sexual orientation in public as "Special Case Public Nuisance" in the event 377A is repealed. It is a bad influence to pure and innocent young girls.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Pink? Usually it is rainbow, right?