View Full Version : Thread for news stories that make you go huh?
Some news stories just defy categorization. So I thought it would be wise to start a thread for weird newsworthy stuff that isnt breaking news kind of stuff.
WASHINGTON—It didn't take long for the Internet to start buzzing with conspiracy theories after the Social Security Administration posted a notice that it was purchasing 174,000 hollow-point bullets.
Why is the agency that provides benefits to retirees, disabled workers, widows and children stockpiling ammunition? Whom are they going to use it on?
"It's not outlandish to suggest that the Social Security Administration is purchasing the bullets as part of preparations for civil unrest," the website Infowars.com said.
Another website, The Daily Caller, said the bullets must be for use against American citizens, "since the SSA has never been used overseas to help foreign countries maintain control of their citizens."
The clamor became such a distraction for the agency that it dedicated a website to explaining the purchase. The explanation, it turns out, isn't as tantalizing as an arms buildup to defend against unruly senior citizens.
The bullets are for Social Security's office of inspector general, which has about 295 agents who investigate Social Security fraud and other crimes, said Jonathan L. Lasher, the agency's assistant IG for external relations.
The agents carry guns and make arrests -- 589 last year, Lasher said. They execute search warrants and respond to threats against Social Security offices, employees and customers.
Agents carry .357 caliber pistols, Lasher said. The bullets, which add up to about 590 per agent, are for the upcoming fiscal year. Most will be expended on the firing range.
Some bloggers have taken issue with the type of ammunition the agency is buying, questioning why agents need hollow-point bullets. Hollow-points are known for causing more tissue damage than other bullets when they hit a person because they expand when they enter the body.
The bullets, however, are standard issue for many law enforcement agencies, Lasher said, a fact confirmed by the directors of two law enforcement training centers.
"For practice ammunition, they do not have to be hollow-points, but hollow-points are the normal police round used for duty ammunition due to their ability to stop when they hit an object as opposed to going through it and striking more objects," said William J. Muldoon, president of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training.
The episode illustrates what can happen when a seemingly salacious tidbit gets amplified and embellished on the Internet.
A few weeks ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had a similar dustup when it solicited bids for 46,000 rounds of ammunition and shooting targets, seemingly to arm workers at the National Weather Service. It turns out the notice had a clerical error and the bullets were for NOAA's Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, the agency said.
Social Security's turn in the pillory hit a crescendo when Jay Leno joked about it in a recent monologue on "The Tonight Show." "What senior citizens are they worried about?" Leno asked. "I mean, who's going to storm the building?"
Lasher said, "That's why we opened a blog post. We were getting a lot of inquiries and the blog gave us a vehicle to put all of the accurate information out there in one place, so that those who are interested or concerned can read what the real story is."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2012/09/04/why_does_social_security_need_174000_bullets/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Linus
09-04-2012, 11:12 AM
WASHINGTON—It didn't take long for the Internet to start buzzing with conspiracy theories after the Social Security Administration posted a notice that it was purchasing 174,000 hollow-point bullets.
Why is the agency that provides benefits to retirees, disabled workers, widows and children stockpiling ammunition? Whom are they going to use it on?
"It's not outlandish to suggest that the Social Security Administration is purchasing the bullets as part of preparations for civil unrest," the website Infowars.com said.
Another website, The Daily Caller, said the bullets must be for use against American citizens, "since the SSA has never been used overseas to help foreign countries maintain control of their citizens."
The clamor became such a distraction for the agency that it dedicated a website to explaining the purchase. The explanation, it turns out, isn't as tantalizing as an arms buildup to defend against unruly senior citizens.
The bullets are for Social Security's office of inspector general, which has about 295 agents who investigate Social Security fraud and other crimes, said Jonathan L. Lasher, the agency's assistant IG for external relations.
The agents carry guns and make arrests -- 589 last year, Lasher said. They execute search warrants and respond to threats against Social Security offices, employees and customers.
Agents carry .357 caliber pistols, Lasher said. The bullets, which add up to about 590 per agent, are for the upcoming fiscal year. Most will be expended on the firing range.
Some bloggers have taken issue with the type of ammunition the agency is buying, questioning why agents need hollow-point bullets. Hollow-points are known for causing more tissue damage than other bullets when they hit a person because they expand when they enter the body.
The bullets, however, are standard issue for many law enforcement agencies, Lasher said, a fact confirmed by the directors of two law enforcement training centers.
"For practice ammunition, they do not have to be hollow-points, but hollow-points are the normal police round used for duty ammunition due to their ability to stop when they hit an object as opposed to going through it and striking more objects," said William J. Muldoon, president of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training.
The episode illustrates what can happen when a seemingly salacious tidbit gets amplified and embellished on the Internet.
A few weeks ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had a similar dustup when it solicited bids for 46,000 rounds of ammunition and shooting targets, seemingly to arm workers at the National Weather Service. It turns out the notice had a clerical error and the bullets were for NOAA's Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, the agency said.
Social Security's turn in the pillory hit a crescendo when Jay Leno joked about it in a recent monologue on "The Tonight Show." "What senior citizens are they worried about?" Leno asked. "I mean, who's going to storm the building?"
Lasher said, "That's why we opened a blog post. We were getting a lot of inquiries and the blog gave us a vehicle to put all of the accurate information out there in one place, so that those who are interested or concerned can read what the real story is."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2012/09/04/why_does_social_security_need_174000_bullets/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
It makes sense when explained.
I'm not sure why, however, someone would steal millions of dollars of maple syrup: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/01/maple-syrup-theft-millions-of-dollars-quebec_n_1848805.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news&ir=Weird%20News
Maybe an extra sweet tooth? :blink:
Is your data safe anywhere? Just months after a half-million Yahoo! passwords, 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords, and 55,000 Twitter passwords were leaked, the hacktivists at AntiSec have found their next data goldmine: a stash of 12.4 million Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDID).
According to the Anonymous-allied hackers, a list of 12.4 million Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDID) was found on an FBI agent's Dell notebook. Each UDID was associated with user names, device info, and in some cases, phone numbers, names, and addresses. It is unknown why the FBI would have such information on hand. AntiSec leaked 1,000,001 of those UDIDs to bring light to the government's data collecting effort.
As of now, there's no reason for panic — AntiSec scrubbed a lot of personal information from their list before releasing it. But if you're still worried about your own Apple UDID appearing on the AntiSec hack list, TheNextWeb has created a web tool for checking if your information was compromised.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/hacking-group-leaks-1-million-apple-user-ids-161351857.html
Linus
09-04-2012, 01:37 PM
Is your data safe anywhere? Just months after a half-million Yahoo! passwords, 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords, and 55,000 Twitter passwords were leaked, the hacktivists at AntiSec have found their next data goldmine: a stash of 12.4 million Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDID).
According to the Anonymous-allied hackers, a list of 12.4 million Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDID) was found on an FBI agent's Dell notebook. Each UDID was associated with user names, device info, and in some cases, phone numbers, names, and addresses. It is unknown why the FBI would have such information on hand. AntiSec leaked 1,000,001 of those UDIDs to bring light to the government's data collecting effort.
As of now, there's no reason for panic — AntiSec scrubbed a lot of personal information from their list before releasing it. But if you're still worried about your own Apple UDID appearing on the AntiSec hack list, TheNextWeb has created a web tool for checking if your information was compromised.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/hacking-group-leaks-1-million-apple-user-ids-161351857.html
I call FUD* on this article! FUD, I say! It's like saying "I got all the addresses and zip code of every house in Los Angeles".
*FUD, for those who may not know, means Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. It's a form of "control" by scaring an audience/reader into buying into something or buying something to protect them (e.g., think of the TV commercials that convince you the importance of home security).
I call FUD* on this article! FUD, I say! It's like saying "I got all the addresses and zip code of every house in Los Angeles".
*FUD, for those who may not know, means Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. It's a form of "control" by scaring an audience/reader into buying into something or buying something to protect them (e.g., think of the TV commercials that convince you the importance of home security).
My brain isnt working too good today. Does this mean this is made up or embellished?
Does this mean the supposed data breaches at yahoo, linkedin and twitter are the same? I dont remember hearing anything about these before.
Linus
09-04-2012, 01:48 PM
My brain isnt working too good today. Does this mean this is made up or embellished?
Does this mean the supposed data breaches at yahoo, linkedin and twitter are the same? I dont remember hearing anything about these before.
It's embellished. HUGELY.
They cannot get any passwords, yahoo, Google, etc. info from this. It's a hardware identifier and that's it.
It's the difference between knowing a street address for a house (which you can get in any real estate guide available at any public library) and actually breaking into a house, stealing your address book, bank statements and so on.
It's embellished. HUGELY.
They cannot get any passwords, yahoo, Google, etc. info from this. It's a hardware identifier and that's it.
It's the difference between knowing a street address for a house (which you can get in any real estate guide available at any public library) and actually breaking into a house, stealing your address book, bank statements and so on.
My brain thanks you. Love your new avatar. :)
CA_BabyCakes
09-04-2012, 01:59 PM
Purple is the most amorous color, according to a new study which found that people who decorate their bedrooms in the color have the most active sex lives.
The survey of 2,000 British adults by retailer Littlewoods found that those with purple bedding or furniture had 3.49 "intimate encounters" per week. The least active color scheme in the survey was gray, averaging 1.8.
'For years I have been telling British homeowners, a beige bedroom makes for a beige sex life," Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, homes style expert for Littlewoods told the Daily Mail. "That's one thing I wouldn't want to wish on anyone."
The survey also found that those with silk sheets were the most sexually active, averaging 4.25 intimate encounters per week.
A 2011 survey of 26 countries found the U.S. and U.K. to be near the bottom in terms of both frequency of sexual activity and reported satisfaction with sexual activity. Greece, Brazil and Russia topped the survey, with Japan far behind the pack in both categories.
And while purple was on top of the Littlewoods survey, it was by no means the only color to rise above Britain's national average for sexual activity. Bedrooms decorated in red (3.18) sky blue (3.14) pink (3.02) and black (2.99) were also above average.
Joining gray near the bottom of the list were green (1.89) and beige (1.97).
Purple is the most amorous color, according to a new study which found that people who decorate their bedrooms in the color have the most active sex lives.
The survey of 2,000 British adults by retailer Littlewoods found that those with purple bedding or furniture had 3.49 "intimate encounters" per week. The least active color scheme in the survey was gray, averaging 1.8.
'For years I have been telling British homeowners, a beige bedroom makes for a beige sex life," Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, homes style expert for Littlewoods told the Daily Mail. "That's one thing I wouldn't want to wish on anyone."
The survey also found that those with silk sheets were the most sexually active, averaging 4.25 intimate encounters per week.
A 2011 survey of 26 countries found the U.S. and U.K. to be near the bottom in terms of both frequency of sexual activity and reported satisfaction with sexual activity. Greece, Brazil and Russia topped the survey, with Japan far behind the pack in both categories.
And while purple was on top of the Littlewoods survey, it was by no means the only color to rise above Britain's national average for sexual activity. Bedrooms decorated in red (3.18) sky blue (3.14) pink (3.02) and black (2.99) were also above average.
Joining gray near the bottom of the list were green (1.89) and beige (1.97).
Hm now there's an incentive to replace the green carpeting in the bedroom.
I still dont get the appeal of silk sheets tho. Slippery little buggers.
The next time you stop by the cemetery, you may learn a lot more about your dearly departed than their names and a few ceremonial words.
A few companies are now marketing quick response (QR) codes for gravestones, which will allow visitors to connect their smartphones to a website containing a collection of information on a deceased person, including photos, videos and testimonials from family and friends.
"It's about keeping people's memories alive in different ways," Poole, England based Chester Pearce Associates Managing Director Stephen Nimmo told Reuters.
"When you lose somebody, whether it be suddenly or ongoing, you can really struggle with things. Talking about them is very important, keeping their memory going is very important and this is just an add-on to that."
QR codes have become commonplace on advertising campaigns, allowing a smartphone owner to scan the bar code on an ad to obtain more information about the product or campaign online.
U.S. customers can get their own QR code gravestones as well. Quiring Monuments (http://www.monuments.com/living-headstones), based in Seattle, Wash., has created a video for the company's version of the product.
Of course, adding publicly available information after a person's death raises some issues of privacy and taste. Though there are a few obvious precautions, such as adding password protection to a grave's QR code. In addition, if the product catches on, people will most likely begin stipulating in their estate planning what sort of information they'd want included.
"It's a new technology, it's something that there will be people who like it, there will be people who don't and that's the same in everything that we do," Nimmo said.
Nimmo says Chester Pearce charges customers about $500 for the QR code service, which can be placed on memorial benches or plaques in addition to the grave sites themselves.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/gravestone-app-companies-sell-interactive-smartphones-202753442.html
lusciouskiwi
09-06-2012, 05:53 PM
Perhaps this should go elsewhere? But a bit of news from Malaysia:
http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/Dalam_Negeri/20120905/dn_09/Sekolah-asrama-lahirkan-golongan-LGBT "Ministry of Education asked to monitor boarding schools are seen potentially produce the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)."
It's translated so it might read a bit funny.
some of this is old...it has happened in the past. i guess the tainted food and treats are still out there. wanted to post here before i went on to other news. just fyi for people with pets
has to do with chicken jerky treats...this lady has the scoop
http://poisonedpets.com/national-animal-poison-control-helpline-warns-of-poisoning-hazard-associated-with-jerky-treats/
http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ProductSafetyInformation/ucm319463.htm
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/14/13865945-pet-jerky-treat-death-toll-360-dogs-1-cat-fda-says?lite
http://www.dinovite.com/blog/2012/02/pets-being-poisoned-by-dog-treats-and-they-are-still-being-sold-to-consumers/
HONG KONG (Reuters) - The newly married lesbian daughter of a Hong Kong tycoon who offered a $65 million "marriage bounty" to any man able to win her love, on Thursday said she'd been flooded by marriage proposals but harbored no animosity towards her father.
Since Hong Kong property billionaire Cecil Chao, known in the tabloid media for his prolific womanizing, dangled a $65 million reward for any man able to lead his daughter, Gigi Chao, down the aisle, she says she's been bombarded by marriage proposals from strangers, date requests, and even an offer from a Hollywood film producer to buy her story.
Gigi said her billionaire father, who drives a Rolls Royce and flies a helicopter but had a poor early childhood in Shanghai, had been upset when his daughter's longtime lover revealed the couple had wed in Paris in April, leading to his impromptu HK$500 million "marriage bounty" offer to any man able to set her straight.
"I wasn't angry at all. I was really quite touched, very touched and very ... how should I say? moved, by Daddy's announcement," said the 33-year-old.
"I mean, it's really his way of saying 'baby girl, I love you. You deserve more,' basically," added Chau who works as an executive director in the family firm Cheuk Nang Holdings. :|
http://news.yahoo.com/suitors-bombard-hong-kong-tycoons-gay-daughter-dowry-155419846--finance.html;_ylt=AjqVH2TQKGmgQdcg1HzcIzmr9HQA;_yl u=X3oDMTUwc2VpNThmBGNjb2RlA2N0LmMEbWl0A0FydGljbGUg TW9zdCBQb3B1bGFyBHBrZwMxYjgxZGFhNi0xOTI5LTMzNjgtYj k0OC0yMmMzYTQ2ZDBlM2MEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RN aXhlZE1vc3RQb3B1bGFyQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgM3NTAwNjA4Zi0wOT BkLTExZTItYmZkZS1mMjNiMjJlZGU2YmY-;_ylg=X3oDMTMwaDNnaHRoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRw c3RhaWQDMTI5ZmNiZWItYjhiZi0zNjY3LWE3YzctZDg2ZmNmMW ZlYTEwBHBzdGNhdANlbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFn ZQ--;_ylv=3
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Antonin Scalia says his method of interpreting the Constitution makes some of the most hotly disputed issues that come before the Supreme Court among the easiest to resolve.
Scalia calls himself a "textualist" and, as he related to a few hundred people who came to buy his new book and hear him speak in Washington the other day, that means he applies the words in the Constitution as they were understood by the people who wrote and adopted them.
So Scalia parts company with former colleagues who have come to believe capital punishment is unconstitutional. The framers of the Constitution didn't think so and neither does he.
"The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state," Scalia said at the American Enterprise Institute.
He contrasted his style of interpretation with that of a colleague who tries to be true to the values of the Constitution as he applies them to a changing world. This imaginary justice goes home for dinner and tells his wife what a wonderful day he had, Scalia said.
This imaginary justice, Scalia continued, announces that it turns out "'the Constitution means exactly what I think it ought to mean.' No kidding."
http://news.yahoo.com/scalia-says-abortion-gay-rights-easy-cases-073501926.html
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I'm still working on my first cup of coffee. Have to reread this when my brain is more awake. Might even have to see if the library has this book. Maybe. Crap, the library has it. This is the publishers blurb:
In this groundbreaking book, Scalia and Garner systematically explain all the most important principles of constitutional, statutory, and contractual interpretation in an engaging and informative style - with hundreds of illustrations from actual cases. Is a burrito a sandwich? Is a corporation entitled to personal privacy? If you trade a gun for drugs, are you "using a gun" in a drug transaction? The authors grapple with these and dozens of equally curious questions while explaining the most principled, lucid, and reliable techniques for deriving meaning from authoritative texts. Meanwhile, the book takes up some of the most controversial issues in modern jurisprudence. The authors write with a well-argued point of view that is definitive yet nuanced, straightforward yet sophisticated. - Publisher.
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