March 3, 2015

House Oversight Committee to 'Explore' Clinton's E-Mail Use, Chairman Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-03/house-oversight-committee-to-explore-clinton-s-e-mail-use-chairman-says

The Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform Committee said Tuesday his panel will look into the revelation that Hillary Clinton used a personal e-mail account, not a government account, to conduct business as secretary of state.

“Violations of the Federal Records Act within federal agencies is something we take very seriously,” Representative Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, said in a statement. His panel will work with the House Select Committee on Benghazi and its chairman, Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, “to further explore Hillary Clinton’s use of personal emails while at the State Department.”

The department recently gave the Benghazi panel, whose leaders have said they want to interview Clinton about the attacks, about 300 of her messages.

The New York Times first reported Monday on Clinton's e-mail practices as President Obama's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013, raising transparency questions ahead of a likely presidential campaign. Experts told Bloomberg that Clinton's practices may not have broken the law but did expose her to hacking risks.

March 3, 2015

Justice Department Finds Pattern of Police Bias and Excessive Force in Ferguson

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/us/justice-department-finds-pattern-of-police-bias-and-excessive-force-in-ferguson.html


WASHINGTON — Police officers in Ferguson, Mo., have routinely violated the constitutional rights of the city’s black residents, the Justice Department has concluded in a scathing report that accuses the officers of using excessive force and making unjustified traffic stops for years.

The Justice Department, which opened its investigation after a white Ferguson police officer shot and killed a black teenager last summer, says the discrimination was fueled in part by racial stereotypes held by city officials. Investigators say the officials made racist jokes about blacks on their city email accounts.

Ferguson is a largely black city with a government and a police force that are mostly white. After the shooting of the teenager, Michael Brown, the city erupted in angry, sometimes violent protests and looting. Since then, Ferguson has been at the center of a national debate over race and policing that has drawn in President Obama, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey.

The report’s findings were summarized by a federal law enforcement official. The full report is expected to be released on Wednesday. A separate report is expected to clear the officer, Darren Wilson, of any civil rights violations in the shooting of Mr. Brown.

March 1, 2015

W*nkers of the world unite to SAVE THE PLANET one jerk-off at a time

(yes that's the actual headline)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/01/p0rnhub_band_power_generation/

?x=648&y=429&crop=1

A standout smut peddler wants its customers to take a shot at saving the planet with a kinetic power generator, tastefully dubbed the Wankband, which uses the wrist action favoured by onanists.

"This is how we came up with Wankband, a wearable technology that enables users to create and harvest energy from their 'daily routines' to power, for example, a smartphone – or depending on how long one's routine, a smartphone and a tablet. This could have a major impact on power consumption and give much pleasure to Mother Nature."

The firm's bold thrust into power generation uses some pretty simple technology; an up-and-down movement rocks a small ball in its tube with the trickle of juice generated being stored in the wristband. Phones or tablets can then access the hard stuff via a micro-USB slot.

A representative from Pornhub told The Register that "a single session" with the Wankband should generate enough power for a 15 minute smartphone conversation or an hour's worth of standby time – which suggest its testers are either really good at it or really, really bad at it.

probably NSFW video at link

March 1, 2015

First day of Spring is March 20th, at 6:45 PM EDT

http://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-spring-vernal-equinox

Spring is coming, hang in there everyone! Snow will be melting (not fun or good in some situations), warmer weather, leaves on trees, birds chirping!

Happy upcoming spring, DU'ers!

February 28, 2015

I have to hand it to Madonna...

She is my age, and I don't think I could have gotten up from the fall and head-smack-on-floor she took, and kept performing. That's what I call a real TROUPER!

You may not like her music (if you ever did, I liked it), her personality, or her latest statement about "Nazi Germany", but you have to give the lady a lot of credit for being a trouper. I have a newfound respect for her.

This article about her and Yoko Ono (who's 82 and still performing) made me think of her: http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/feb/27/yoko-ono-and-madonna-both-fight-ageism-in-radically-different-ways

February 28, 2015

NO ONE is making money from YouTube, even Google – report

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/26/no_one_making_money_from_youtube_google_report_claims/

It seems no one is making money from online goggle box YouTube, least of all Google – despite reports that the company generated $4bn (£2.6bn) revenue last year.

While YouTube accounted for about six per cent of Google’s overall sales last year, it didn’t contribute to earnings, a source told the Wall Street Journal.

YouTube's revenue increased by $1bn (£644m) in 2014. But after paying for content and the equipment to deliver speedy videos, YouTube’s bottom line is “roughly break-even,” the source told the paper.

YouTube's "content generators" have also complained that the service also leaves them out of pocket.

more at link above

February 28, 2015

The Register is hiring, in case someone needs a job....

This part below is by a Register editor, in the comments section of the article:

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2015/02/27/us_production_editor/#c_2451895

Here's a few other paragraphs:



much more at this link

February 27, 2015

Ms. Clinton

Bravenak informed me of a statement Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton made in 2008.

Here's the quote from her interview with USA Today:

I've never been anti-HRC, but quite frankly, that comment bothers me. Does anyone have any additional information ?

February 27, 2015

Iran hacks America where it hurts: Las Vegas casinos

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/27/iran_behind_us_casino_hack/

US director of National Intelligence James Clapper has accused Iran of orchestrating a 2014 hack of the Las Vegas Sands casino. The attack crippled the magnificent cultural institution's IT infrastructure.

Clapper told a US Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday (US time) that the hack of the US$14 billion casino was the handiwork of Iran rather than ordinary hacking groups, Bloomberg reports.

"While both of these nations (Iran and North Korea) have lesser technical capabilities in comparison to Russia and China, these destructive attacks demonstrate that Iran and North Korea are motivated and unpredictable cyber-actors," Clapper says.

The attacks brought down the casino's IT systems including email but not the most valuable components of the organisation.

more at link

February 25, 2015

UPDATE 2-TJ Maxx raises wages, following Wal-Mart's lead

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/tjx-companies-results-idINL4N0VZ3E120150225

Feb 25 (Reuters) - It didn't take long for a big retailer to follow the lead of Wal-Mart Stores in raising minimum pay for workers.

TJX Cos Inc, owner of the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls discount chains, said on Wednesday it would raise its minimum wage to $9 an hour in June and to $10 next year.

The announcement comes less than a week after Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, announced that it was giving half a million U.S. workers a raise, bringing its minimum hourly pay to $9 in 2015 and $10 next year.

Analysts had predicted that other low-wage employers would be under pressure to follow the lead of Wal-Mart, the largest private U.S. employer with 1.3 million workers.