$ORCL Promises to Fix the Java Security Bug Identified for Leaving Open Doors for Hackers to Drop Malware Into Your PC

“Oracle said it is preparing an update to address a flaw in its widely used Java software after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged computer users to disable the program in web browsers because criminal hackers are exploiting a security bug to attack PCs.

“A fix will be available shortly,” the company said in a statement released late on Friday.

Company officials could not be reached on Saturday to say how quickly the update would be available for the hundreds of millions of PCs that have Java installed.

The Department of Homeland Security and computer security experts said on Thursday that hackers figured out how to exploit the bug in a version of Java used with Internet browsers to install malicious software on PCs. That has enabled them to commit crimes from identity theft to making an infected computer part of an ad-hoc computer network that can be used to attack websites.

Java is a computer language that enables programmers to write software utilizing just one set of codes that will run on virtually any type of computer, including ones that use Microsoft’s Windows, Apple‘s OS X and Linux, an operating system widely employed by corporations.

It is installed in Internet browsers to access web content and also directly on PCs, server computers and other devices that use it to run a wide variety of computer programs.

Oracle said in its statement that the recently discovered flaw only affects Java 7, the program’s most-recent version, and Java software designed to run on browsers.

Java is so widely used that the software has become a prime target for hackers. Last year, Java surpassed Adobe Systems Inc’s Reader software as the most frequently attacked piece of software, according to security software maker Kaspersky Lab.

Java was responsible for 50 percent of all cyber attacks last year in which hackers broke into computers by exploiting software bugs, according to Kaspersky.

That was followed by Adobe Reader, which was involved in 28 percent of all incidents. Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer were involved in about 3 percent of incidents, according to the survey.

The Department of Homeland Security said attackers could trick targets into visiting malicious websites that would infect their PCs with software capable of exploiting the bug in Java….”

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B.I . reports no big news over the weekend. With Japan closed we look to Australia and South Korea….YAWN!  Singapore is getting hammered though.

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Today was the 12th annual no pants subway ride held in NY. Apparently there is a group of people who meet up on trains, take their pants off, and act like nothing is wrong. Read More

Here is the 2012 video:

#NPSR is the hashtag they are using on twitter

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police shot and critically wounded a gunman Saturday in a San Diego movie theater as more than a dozen moviegoers ducked for cover on the floor.

No moviegoers or officers were hurt in the shooting inside Reading Cinemas Carmel Mountain innorthern San Diego, officer David Stafford said.

The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital with several gunshot wounds and was expected to survive, Capt. Terry McManus told U-T San Diego. He became the target of an intense police search after witnesses reported seeing him confront his 19-year-old girlfriend at a parking lot across the street from a shopping plaza where the Cineplex is located.

Witnesses tried to intervene, but he threatened them with a gun and ran to the shopping plaza.

The owner of a business next to the Cineplex said police shut down the shopping center’s parking lot and stopped every car to look for the man. Officers with dogs checked each store, while a police helicopter hovered above.

“There were 20 police cars blocking the entrance, then the fire truck and the ambulance rushed in,”Steve Krongard, the owner of the Nickel City arcade, said. “Then we saw seven cops with what looked like rifles, then paramedics went into the theater.”

McManus said police turned their attention to the Cineplex when two women told officers the suspect they were looking for matched the description of someone they saw inside the Cineplex. Police searched theater by theater and evacuated moviegoers until two officers spotted him in a theater with about 15 others.

McManus told the paper that the man initially complied with officers’ order to put his hands up, but then he put them back in his lap and brandished a handgun. He said one of the officers opened fire.

The officers thought their lives were threatened, he said, “and more importantly, they thought the lives of others were in jeopardy.”

The theater’s manager told Krongard the shooting occurred during a screening of “Les Miserables.”

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The Obama administration ended speculation Saturday that it would mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin as a way to avoid the debt ceiling.

Treasury Department spokesman Anthony Coley said the agency wouldn’t mint one and the Federal Reserve would not accept the coin.

“Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit,” he Coley said.

His statement was followed by one from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

“There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or it can fail to act and put the nation into default,” Carney said.

Though the idea seemed far fetched when it recently resurfaced, the Obama administration appeared to add speculation by not dismissing the idea outright.

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The human race is scary! #18 on the list was just plain sickening for me….

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Notice how both have the same initials. Something to be superstitious about when naming your kid and you last name starts with an S….

“British police have finally issued their first major report on the criminal sex scandal that has rocked Britain’s TV and entertainment industry, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), for well over a year and the details are shocking.

Late BBC TV and radio star Jimmy Savile is accused of physically abusing hundreds of children–the youngest of whom was just 8–as well as many young adults whom he met through his high profile charity work at various children’s hospitals throughout England.

Savile’s crimes began in Manchester in 1955, peaked in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and continued at a lower pace all the way until at least 2009, two years before his death at 85.

The police report concludes that Savile committed 214 criminal offenses including 34 rapes or other serious sexual assaults across England. 450 people have come forward with information about Savile’s crimes…”

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“How bad is Chuck Hagel for the state of Israel? Al Jazeera is rejoicing in his nomination for Secretary of Defense. And who is leading the celebration in a piece written for their website called “Obama Defeats The Israeli Lobby”?..”

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This is hilarious. My question is how many showers will be allowable per day ?

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Just a taste here….

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“from the we-have-one-thing-to-do-and-that-is-[tbd] dept

The problem with large government agencies is “feature creep.” If given a broad enough area to cover, years of territorial expansion and absorption of “related” entities will render the agency nearly unrecognizable from its original form. Not only that, but any stated directive or focus will have been lost, abandoned or hopelessly mutated as well.

If the government agency was crafted in “response” to a tragic event, the problem is both magnified and accelerated. As Wired reports, slightly more than a decade on from its formation,the Department of Homeland Security is having trouble defining the very thing it’s in charge of.

What is “homeland security?” The federal bureaucracy doesn’t know, and that’s problematic for a government that has been fighting the ill-defined “war on terror” following 9/11, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

In short, “homeland security” is whatever the government says it is.

Thirty federal entities — among them agriculture, education, labor, treasury and social security — are receiving “homeland security” funding. The actual Department of Homeland Security, created in the aftermath of 9/11, receives 52 percent of the “homeland security” money pie, according to the Tuesday report.

“Ten years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. government does not have a single definition for homeland security,” the report said. “Currently, different strategic documents and mission statements offer varying missions that are derived from different homeland security definitions.”

The varied definitions given by the DHS and the White House still put the main focus on “terrorism,” but others list “Homeland Security” responsibilities as including border/maritime security, immigration, natural disasters and “other hazards.”

According to the Congressional Research Report, posted at Secrecy News, this lack of definition undermines the very “security” the agency is supposed to be providing….”

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First the soda, then the gun talk, now the pain killers???

Chilax bro!

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Dr. Peter Linnerooth spent nearly five years wearing an Army uniform, including the bloodiest 12 months in Iraq at the height of the surge. As a mental-health professional, his top mission was to keep troops from killing themselves. After he returned home, he spent another two years trying to save the vets he loved, working for the VA in California and Nevada.

Few who wore the uniform in the nation’s post-9/11 wars better understood the perverse alchemy that can change the rush and glory of combat into a darkening cloud of anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress. But strikingly, all that understanding — and the knowledge, education and firsthand experience that nurtured it — didn’t save Linnerooth.

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BURLINGTON, N.C. — Police in North Carolina say a deaf man was stabbed several times after his sign language was mistaken for gang signs by another man.

Burlington Police Sgt. Mark Yancey said 45-year-old Terrance Ervin Daniels was using sign language with another deaf man. He said a third person saw them, thought they were flashing gang signs and stabbed Daniels with a kitchen knife. A neighbor saw the victim and called emergency personnel.

Full Article Here

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“Sheep”

Cheers on your weekend!
Click on the link below for your lesson.

Pyramids of Waste AKA The Light Bulb Conspiracy from Andreas Wagner on Vimeo.

Planned Obsolescence is the deliberate shortening of product life spans to guarantee consumer demand.

As a magazine for advertisers succinctly puts it: The article that refuses to wear out is a tragedy of business – and a tragedy for the modern growth society which relies on an ever-accelerating cycle of production, consumption and throwing away.

The Light Bulb Conspiracy combines investigative research and rare archive footage to trace the untold story of Planned Obsolescence, from its beginnings in the 1920s with a secret cartel, set up expressly to limit the life span of light bulbs, to present-day stories involving cutting edge electronics (such as the iPod) and the growing spirit of resistance amongst ordinary consumers.

This film travels to France, Germany, Spain and the US to find witnesses of a business practice which has become the basis of the modern economy, and brings back disquieting pictures from Africa where discarded electronics are piling up in huge cemeteries for electronic waste.

“We recently saw U.S. initial jobless claims tick up a bit.

While it’s far too early too call it a trend, we can certainly think in terms of hypotheticals.

Enter Citi chart guru Tom Fitzpatrick, who presented some eerie charts of initial jobless claims and the Dow to King World News.

“Initial Claims, one of our favorite leading indicators of the overall economic picture, appear to be bottoming, pointing to a deteriorating employment situation in the US,” said Fitzpatrick.  “Fitting with idea that a low could be forming just as it did in late 1978.”

Citi via King World News

Again, it’s too early to call a turn in jobless claims.

Here’s Fitzpatrick’s chart overlaying the Dow today with the Dow during the 1970’s

Citi via King World News

Fitzpatrick concludes….”

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“For the past few months, Goldman Sachs has had a problematic trade on its hands.

On October 22, 2012, the bank’s currency strategists recommended clients go long the euro against the Canadian dollar. The trade was initiated at a level of 1.296 with a target of 1.37. (At the time, Goldman saw more upside to the euro in Canadian than in U.S. dollar terms, owing to a projected shift in Bank of Canada monetary policy).

The trade has gone nowhere. It reached its highest point on December 28 – but by then had only risen to around 1.3170. After that, it tanked into the new year and has languished in recent days.

That is to say, the trade languished up until yesterday, when ECB President Mario Draghi revealed that the central bank’s latest decision not to cut interest rates was unanimous on the Governing Council.

Bloomberg, Business Insider

Since then, the euro has staged a sizable rally.

Today, Goldman Sachs FX strategist Robin Brooks says in a note to clients that it should go much higher. However, Brooks’ reasoning still has more to do with what Draghi said in July – that the ECB would “do whatever it takes to save the euro” – than what he said yesterday.

Since the introduction of the ECB’s OMT bond market intervention later this summer, government borrowing costs have dropped precipitously in the periphery. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Italy, where the spread between Italian 10-year sovereign bonds and German bunds fell below 250 basis points today for the first time since before the euro crisis exploded.

However, recently the euro crisis conversation has turned to fundamental economic growth and eurozone member states’ inability to meet economic targets. Today, the rate of contraction in Spanish industrial production unexpectedly accelerated to a staggering 7.2 percent, well below the 3.1 percent decline in the previous month and economists’ expectations of a 1.5 percent contraction.

Hence, a new debate: what’s really driving the euro? ..”

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