technology

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Danny Thompson, son of American racing legend Mickey Thompson, has set a land speed record at age 66. And it was a long time coming.

1960 -
In 1960, Mickey hit Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in a streamlined car called Challenger that was built to set a land-speed record. And it did. Sort of.
He made a single 406.6 mph pass, becoming the first American to break the 400 mph barrier. However, official speed records require two consecutive runs, one in each direction, and mechanical issues prevent him from making the second attempt.

1968 –
Mickey returned in 1968 with a new car dubbed Challenger 2, but the event was cancelled due to bad weather and the car was eventually mothballed as he focused on other racing and business pursuits.

1988 –
But about twenty years later, the bug bit again, and he and Danny hatched a plan to update the car and go for a record again, this time in the Southern California Timing Association’s naturally-aspirated, piston-powered, wheel-driven class. Tragically, before they could, Mickey and his wife were gunned down in what authorities later discovered was a hit put on Thompson by a former business associate, and the dream died with them in 1988.

2014 -
At least it seemed like it did. A few years ago, Danny decided to finish the family business once and for all. So he dug the car out of storage, put in a pair of nitro-burning Hemi V8 engines with a total of 4,000 horsepower and an all-wheel-drive system, and went back to Bonneville Speed Week in 2014.

2015 -  read more »

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MiamiHerald July 25, 2016 Judge ruled: Bitcoin is not actually money
In a case closely watched in financial and tech circles, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler ruled that Bitcoin was not backed by any government or bank, and was not “tangible wealth” and “cannot be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars.”

A Miami-Dade judge ruled Monday that Bitcoin is not actually money, a decision hailed by proponents of the virtual currency that has become popular across the world.

In a case closely watched in financial and tech circles, the judge threw out the felony charges against website designer Michell Espinoza, who had been charged with illegally transmitting and laundering $1,500 worth of Bitcoins. He sold them to undercover detectives who told him they wanted to use the money to buy stolen credit-card numbers.

But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler ruled that Bitcoin was not backed by any government or bank, and was not “tangible wealth” and “cannot be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars.”

“The court is not an expert in economics; however, it is very clear, even to someone with limited knowledge in the area, the Bitcoin has a long way to go before it the equivalent of money,” Pooler wrote in an eight-page order.

The judge also wrote that Florida law — which says someone can be charged with money laundering if they engage in a financial transaction that will “promote” illegal activity — is way too vague to apply to Bitcoin.  read more »

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2016/06/06 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hacked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts were allegedly hacked Sunday by a group believed to be from Saudi Arabia as a demonstration of the vulnerability of social media accounts, even for top tech leaders. Embarrassing security lapses are nothing new for Zuckerberg. He was hacked in 2013 by an unemployed Palestinian, Khalil Shreateh. The group claims that it hacked two of Zuckerberg’s social media accounts, supposedly to alert the Facebook founder to a security weakness by tweeting to Zuckerberg:
"@finkd, we got access to your Twitter & Instagram & Pinterest, we are just testing your security, please dm [directly message] us. "

Zuckerberg responded less than an hour later, telling the “skids” to leave him alone. But six minutes later, a tweet on Zuckerberg’s account revealed a password that OurMine claims to have acquired in last month’s database leak at LinkedIn.  read more »

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The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate strait, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km), three-mile-long (4.8 km) channel between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It opened in 1937 and was, until 1964, the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet (1,300 m). It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Construction began on January 5, 1933. The project was finished and opened May 27, 1937. The bridge-opening celebration began on May 27, 1937 and lasted for one week. The day before vehicle traffic was allowed, 200,000 people crossed either on foot or on roller skates.

CNN May 27, 2016 Nearly 60,000 bridges across the country are in desperate need of repair. One example is just down the street from the White House and Capitol Hill. In the nation's capital, 68,000 vehicles cross the Arlington Memorial Bridge between Washington and Virginia every day. CNN was granted rare access to go inside the crumbling bridge. "It's just eroding and concrete is falling off," said National Park Service spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles as she showed how the original support beams from 1932 are corroding. The beams have never been replaced, and the bridge could be closed to vehicle traffic within five years if it isn't fixed. It'll cost $250 million.  read more »

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Apr 12, 2016 - ABC News Report: Data Breaches Bigger, Worse Than You Think In addition to 9 “mega-breaches” of personal data in 2015, tens of millions of personal records were likely exposed or stolen the same year but went unreported because the companies or entities involved chose to keep the size of the breach a secret, The report from California-based Symantec said that the number of companies that refused to report the scope of a data breach jumped by 85 percent last year, what one senior Symantec officer said was a “disturbing trend.” Some 429 million personal records were exposed in 2015 -- many of them through mega-breaches like the Office of Personnel Management hack and one that reportedly hit a huge voter database -- but that number is only based on entities that shared the scope of the breach. Symantec estimates that the real number of exposed or stolen records, including those that went unreported, likely tops half a billion. Senior Vice President at Symantec told ABC News that the research shows cyber-crime has moved on from its “start-up phase.” “As a growth business, these guys have figured out how to make money,”

Growing business has moved on from its “start-up phase.”
A “disturbing trend - a market has evolved to meet demand.”  read more »

Ski touring group climbs adjacent to the Bec des Rosses mountain above the Swiss Alps resort of Verbier.

"Death from overworking" claims hit record high in Japan - legal claims relating to "karoshi" rose to a record high of 1,456 last financial year.

a baby crocodile decided to climb onto the head of a hapless frog

Billions: Sir Richard Branson, head of Virgin Group, said that he felt ‘sadness’ after Virgin America was bought by Alaska Airlines under a $2.6 billion deal.

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Update 15 May 2016 Unlucky woman's GPS led her straight into a lake
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Technology doesn't always love you back.
A woman in Tobermory, Ontario drove down a boat ramp and into Lake Huron last Thursday thanks to faulty directions from her GPS.
The GPS has not yet apologized for its actions.
Luckily, she was able to roll down the window, retrieve her purse and clamber out of the car before it started to sink.
She is reportedly doing just fine, with no injuries other than a few technological trust issues.

26 March 2016
BBC: The company said Google Maps directed them to the wrong address; they were supposed to tear down a home just one block away. Diaz says she has now received a personal apology but hopes the company will change its procedures to ensure addresses are more thoroughly checked before any demolition starts. And she warns against relying on GPS for directions. "I do not like to rely on GPS," she says. "I've had GPS take me to the wrong places also. So I look at the map."

Diaz says the demolition crew, who were still at the site of her home when she arrived, did offer a kind of explanation. One employee told her they had been due to tear down a house at 7601 Cousteau Drive, one street away, but their GPS mapping system had taken them to her home at 7601 Calypso Drive instead - The building, which included two homes, was pummelled in December's tornado but was due to be repaired  read more »