Author: NewMexiKen

Oops!

Justice can be swift, and very funny: Hacker deletes own hard drive:

A CHAT CHANNEL spat ended when a wannabe hacker was duped into deleting his own hard drive.

The 26 year-old German claimed he was the baddest hacker in town and threatened to attack a moderator on #stopHipHop’s RC Channel because he thought he’d been thrown out.

He demanded the moderator cough up his IP address and prepare to be hacked.

So the moderator said that his IP number was 127.0.0.1 (which is IP for “self”). Then he leaned back and waited.

Finally the hacker declared success. “I can see your E: drive disappearing, he gloated. “D: is down 45 percent!” he cried, before disappearing into the ether.

But he hasn’t been heard from since.

Translated transcript of the IRC session

Discourse.net

Two for the price of one

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) – The leading candidate for mayor of San Antonio admitted on Thursday using his twin brother as a stand-in at a civic event without telling anyone it was not him.

Julian Castro, a 30-year-old city councilman, said brother Joaquin, his identical twin, rode for him in the annual River Parade through downtown San Antonio on Monday.

Reuters

Which one is the evil twin?

Yikes!

One thing to read about it; quite another to see it. Gasoline prices posted today in Needles, California — $3.199.

NewMexiKen, who can open the refrigerator and not remember why, remembers the first time I ever paid a dollar for a gallon of gasoline. It was in June 1979 in Barstow, California (999 cents to be precise). The first time I ever paid more than two dollars for a gallon was in May 2003 in — you guessed it — Barstow, California ($2.299).

So, heading west today from Needles I’m thinking surely gas will be three dollars or more in Barstow and I can complete a gasoline sticker shock trifecta. As I crossed the Mojave Desert against a strong headwind, however, mileage dropped and 45 miles from Barstow the gasoline warning light came on. What to do? How many miles can I go with the light on? Thirty? Forty? Fifty?

After about 35 miles I began to panic. Running out of gas in these modern fuel-injected cars is no picnic. I give up on the Barstow triple treat (I’m thinking photos, etc.) and exit I-40 at Daggett, ten miles from my objective.

Guess what? Despite the sign, there’s no gasoline for sale in Daggett (which isn’t much of a place). After asking a kid, I follow his directions for almost as far as if I had stayed on I-40. I finally find gasoline in Daggett (at I-15, not I-40). 38 miles since the warning light came on (I had at least a gallon left).

But it was “only” $2.479.

Look, up in the sky!

It’s Jupiter shining brightly, followed by the moon, followed by the star Spica.

Jupiter is the third-brightest object in the night sky, after the Moon and Venus. But Venus isn’t in view right now, so there’s nothing to compete with Jupiter.

Spica is a true star — one of the brightest in the night sky, even from its distance of 260 light-years.

Look for Spica, the Moon, and Jupiter lining up atop the southeastern horizon in early evening. The Moon will move closer to Spica during the night, and appear quite close to the star at dawn tomorrow.

StarDate Online

The moon will be full Sunday.

Judge not, lest ye be judged

“Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise a court,” [James C.] Dobson said. “They don’t have to fire anybody or impeach them or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s gone.”

Evangelical Christian leaders, who have been working closely with senior Republican lawmakers to place conservative judges in the federal courts, have also been exploring ways to punish sitting jurists and even entire courts viewed as hostile to their cause.

An audio recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times features two of the nation’s most influential evangelical leaders, at a private conference with supporters, laying out strategies to rein in judges, such as stripping funding from their courts in an effort to hinder their work.

The discussion took place during a Washington conference last month that included addresses by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who discussed efforts to bring a more conservative cast to the courts.

Los Angeles Times

Culprit fingered

A woman who said she found part of a human finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili last month has been arrested and charged with larceny in connection with the incident, authorities said on Friday. …

Wendy’s International Inc., was “thrilled that an arrest has been made,” Tom Mueller, president of the company’s North American business, said in a statement.

The larceny charge, which originated in San Jose, was related to the finger incident, but the origin of the finger was still unknown, said San Jose police department spokesman Nick Muyo.

Reuters

Charles Mingus …

was born in Nogales, Arizona, on this date in 1922.

Irascible, demanding, bullying, and probably a genius, Charles Mingus cut himself a uniquely iconoclastic path through jazz in the middle of the 20th century, creating a legacy that became universally lauded only after he was no longer around to bug people. As a bassist, he knew few peers, blessed with a powerful tone and pulsating sense of rhythm, capable of elevating the instrument into the front line of a band. But had he been just a string player, few would know his name today. Rather, he was the greatest bass-playing leader/composer jazz has ever known, one who always kept his ears and fingers on the pulse, spirit, spontaneity, and ferocious expressive power of jazz.

All Music Guide

Charles Mingus died in 1979. There’s an attractive Official Mingus Web.

Earth Day

Earth Day was first observed in Spring of 1970. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities out of which came the largest grassroots environmental movement in U.S. history, and the impetus for national legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. By the twentieth anniversary of that event, April 22, 1990, more than 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day celebrations.

Library of Congress

Whoopie ti yi yo, git along little dogies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home

Nearly 400 bison were pushed back into Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday, topping a single-day record for government agents working on the park’s western border.

Montana Department of Livestock officials said 396 bison were hazed into the park and 50 more may be pushed back today.

On Tuesday, 37 bison were captured and tested for exposure to brucellosis, the contagious disease that government officials worry the bison may spread to nearby cattle.

Of those 37, 16 tested positive for exposure and will be sent to slaughter, 18 tested negative and were released and three calves were taken to an experimental quarantine facility near Gardiner, according to Karen Cooper, a spokeswoman for the Department of Livestock.

Billings Gazette

Inquiring minds want to know

Eat your way to the bottom of almost any bag of popcorn, and there they are: the rock-hard, jaw-rattling unpopped kernels.

The nuisance kernels have kept many a dentist busy, but their days could be numbered: Scientists say they now know why some popcorn kernels resist popping into puffy white globes.

It’s long been known that popcorn kernels must have a precise moisture level in their starchy center – about 15 percent – to explode. But Purdue University researchers found the key to a kernel’s explosive success lies in the composition of its hull.

Unpopped kernels, it turns out, have leaky hulls that prevent the moisture pressure buildup needed for them to pop and lack the optimal hull structure that allows most kernels to explode.

AP via The Albuquerque Tribune

Jay talking

• Electronics experts say that by 2009 people will be able to watch TV programs on their cell phones. So we are now exactly four years away from the largest car accident is history.

• Business news — U.S. Airways and America West are in talks to merge…to form one really crappy airline.

Jay Leno