Archive for March, 2012

Privacy setting loophole gives Facebook stalkers surprising way to spy on you

Thursday, March 22, 2012 by:Francisca Ortega
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AFP/Getty Images

Two computer-scientists from the University College London have discovered a surprising new way Facebook stalkers may be spying on you.

Shah Mahmood, a student at UCL, and Yvo Desmedt, chair of information communication technology at UCL, found that by activating and deactiving their Facebook accounts they were able to see friends’ information without that person being able to either defriend them or change their privacy settings. The findings were published in a research paper.

They call it the “zero day privacy loophole” and compare it to the cloaking method used in “Star Trek.”

How it works is when a user deactivates their account they become “invisible” to other Facebook users, making it impossible for users to change their privacy settings in regards to the deactivated account. Since Facebook wants to encourage users not to cancel their accounts for good, when an account is deactivated it is not deleted. The user can then reactivate it whenever they choose. At that time the user can then see updates from all their friends. And since Facebook does not alert users when their friends’ accounts are activated and deactivated, they would not know when this is occurring and would be unable to quickly change their privacy settings.

“Once the attacker is a friend of the victim, it is highly probable the attacker has indefinite access to the victim’s private information in a cloaked way,” they write in the report.

“We demonstrate the impact of the attack by showing the ease of gaining trust of Facebook users and being befriended online. With targeted friend requests we were able to add over 4300 users and maintain access to their Facebook profile information for at least 261 days. No user was able to unfriend us during this time due to cloaking and short de-cloaking sessions. The short de-cloaking sessions were enough to get updates about the victims.”

So, the moral of the story is, be careful who you friend on Facebook, because even if you think you can control your privacy settings you might not be able to.

H/t msnbc.msn.com

Minn. firefighters battle truck fire in drag

Thursday, March 22, 2012 by:anna.gallegos@chron.com (Anna Gallegos)
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Two volunteer firefighters from Sedan, Minnesota deserve to be voted “best dressed.”

A video of Ted Aubert and Ben Terhaar went viral this week after they went to work while wearing designer dresses at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. The men were all dolled up as a part of an annual fundraiser for their central Minnesota fire house, according to Fox 9 News.

Every year, the men in the Sedan Fire Department trade their firefighting frocks for designer dresses as part of a beauty pageant of sorts that raises money for new equipment; however, as they were getting ready to ride in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, a pickup truck caught fire.

That blaze spread to another car, and both Aubart and Terhaar hitched up their skirts and sprang into action.

Despite all of the press and video views, the two guys are upbeat about the experience and attention.

School says no to teen’s prom date – a porn actress

Thursday, March 22, 2012 by:Laura Weisman
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A Minnesota high school senior cannot bring his chosen date to the prom, so say Tartan High School officials in Oakdale for the simple fact that she’s Megan Piper, a porn actress, according to KSTP-TV in St. Paul.

Mike Stone, 18, asked more than two dozen girls to go with him to the May 12 dance, but they all turned him down, so he took to Twitter and started asking celebrities, like Kim Kardashian and Snooki.

Stone says he simply can’t take any more rejection from the girls at Tartan High. “It made me a little mad, and a little sad, that they didn’t want to go,” he said.

As for Piper, “I really wish I had gone to my prom,” she said. But when her family moved to a new state her senior year, she says she missed out. Stone’s invite, she says, she just couldn’t turn down. “It was a sweet gesture. It was so cute. I couldn’t say no,” she said. “I don’t plan to show up butt naked or anything. I’m going to wear a pretty prom dress!”

Stone says he’s a fan of Megan’s “work” but claims he’s never actually watched one of her performances. “I’ve just seen pictures,” he claimed.

Patty Phillips, superintendent of the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District, told FoxNews.com in an email that Piper would be prohibited from attending the dance because her appearance would be “inconsistent” with two district policies pertaining to visitors to school buildings and sites.

Etch a Sketch remark draws fire from Romney foes

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 by:Mike Moffitt
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Mitt Romney had plenty of reason to smile today – he won the Illinois primary Tuesday in a romp and scored a formidable endorsement Wednesday morning from Jeb Bush.

Then one of his lieutenants got a little colorful in his speech, and suddenly those Team Mitt grins turned to grimaces.

CNN’s “Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien” asked Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom if the campaign was concerned that conservative positions adopted by Romney in recent months would hurt him with moderates in November. Replied Fehrnstrom:

“Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.”

It didn’t take Rick Santorum’s campaign long to pounce on the fresh meat. Spokesman J. Hogan Gidley fired off an email:

“We all knew Mitt Romney didn’t have any core convictions, but we appreciate his staff going on national television to affirm that point for anyone who had any doubts. With the two-year anniversary of the signing of ObamaCare upon us, can voters really believe that the man who urged the president to use his healthcare plan in Massachusetts as a model would really repeal ObamaCare? Or is that promise just something they would ‘shake up and restart’ with when Romney hits the general election?”

The Democrats welcomed the gaffe with equal glee.

“We’ve been saying it for months – and Mitt Romney has had a reputation for it for years: He’ll say or do anything to get elected – absolutely anything,” DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse wrote in an email. “Now his own top adviser has confirmed that Mitt Romney has absolutely no core and will in fact say anything to get elected.”

Asked by TPM to clarify his remark, Fehrnstrom explained that he was referring to the broad character of the race and not to Romney’s specific positions.

“The campaign changes,” Fehrnstrom told TPM. “It’s a different race, with different candidates, and different issues that get discussed.”

Regardless of his intent, the incident only reinforces criticism of Romney as a flip-flopper.

Instead of Etch A Sketch, his campaign could be playing Operation in the fall – with no guarantee of the patient’s survival.

Driver cuts in line at gas station, blows up pump

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 by:Laura Weisman
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An impatient driver in Miami Beach cut in line at a gas station and crashed into a pump causing an inferno, destroying her Jeep and the gas pump. Thankfully, there were no reported injuries, reports CBSMiami:

Apparently, when she sped up, she lost control and slammed into the gas pump which caused a huge explosion and fire.

… (Surveillance) video shows the gold-colored Jeep SUV swerving in front of the Hummer and slamming into the gas pump as it burst into flames.

Then two women can be seen running out of the SUV as other vehicles in the gas station also back away from the flames.

Fighting cancer with a hairy ballerina

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 by:Laura Weisman
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Cows. Riverside County, California. 2007. (Bob Carey / Facebook.com)

A Brooklyn, N.Y., photographer, whose wife is battling breast cancer, is trying to keep her spirits up in a most amusing way: The Tutu Project in which he photographs his big hairy self against beautiful backdrops dressed solely in a pink tutu.

The New York Daily News reports that Bob Carey started the project in 2003, around the time his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer:

“It helped me cope,” he explained.

“It gave us something to focus on that was fun,” said his wife.

Every time he went on the road, Bob would pack the fluffy tutu — and a pair of pink shorts so he didn’t break any exposure laws.

Hilarity ensued.

Absolutely. See Carey’s photos on his Facebook page and wish him and his wife luck.

Roller Coaster. Wildwood, New Jersey. 2008. (Bob Carey / Facebook.com)

What Taco Bell has done for Mexican food in its 50 years

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 by:erin.mulvaney@chron.com (Erin Mulvaney)
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This week marks the 50-year milestone for  Taco Bell,  and one California-based blogger gathered the restaurant’s top accomplishments.

Sadly, the Doritos cheese taco didn’t make the list.

OC Weekly writer Gustavo Arellano, who writes the well-known column “Ask a Mexican,” said Taco Bell has made headlines for E. coli breakouts and for its use of low quality beef in the last few years, but it’s also done a lot of good for the genre of food.

Arellano, who calls Taco Bell, “the fast-food giant every loves to hate,” asked his readers to put aside the negative stigma (albeit often deserved)  to reflect on what the chain has done for Mexican food in the U.S.

Here are his five top reasons that Taco Bell deserves some credit:

1. Taco Bell brought Mexican restaurants to places that never had one, thereby whetting appetites for the better Mexican food to come

2. Taco Bell convinced non-Mexicans that they, too, could get rich off Mexican food

3. Taco Bell helped to popularize the burrito

4. Taco Bell has long made bilingualism cool

5. Taco Bell is proof that Mexican food isn’t static but rather evolutionary

Safeway stores pull ‘pink slime’ beef

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 by:Laura Weisman
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Safeway, second-largest supermarket chain, has announced it will no longer sell what the meat industry calls “lean finely textured beef” and the public has come to call “pink slime,” ABC News is reporting.

Safeway released this statement today:

Safeway is committed to providing our customers with the highest-quality products. While the USDA and food industry experts agree that lean finely textured beef is safe and wholesome, recent news stories have caused considerable consumer concern about this product. Safeway will no longer purchase ground beef containing lean finely textured beef.

ABC reports:

Makers of “lean finely textured beef” and the USDA say that it is not an additive and need not be labeled, and is safe to eat. But critics, including former USDA scientists, contend the ammonia treated “pink slime” — made from low quality scraps once used for dog food and cooking oil — is less nutritious than pure ground beef.

Stores operating under the Safeway banner include: Randalls, Tom Thumb, Vons, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Pavilions and Carrs.

Karen Darnell at Safeway headquarters in Pleasanton, Calif., said the statement applies to all of Safeway’s stores in the United States.

Here’s a list of which stores carry the “pink slime” meat.

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