News and WTF
DayPage for October 29th, 2013
They just don’t get it. Rex Latchford with another DayPage. On the pages of this morning’s New York Times, the Editorial Board writes “The Obama administration offers platitudes about security, and vague talk of inconclusive inquiries.” That and four bucks won’t even get you on the subway. Also in the Times, the headline “Obama May Ban Spying on Heads of Allied States” — finally a vague response to the wrath of Angela Merkel.
More snooping: this time School Gate. Schools are increasingly monitoring students, in some cases around the clock via social media and in-school surveillance. You might remember years ago the outcry over a school snooping through school supplied laptop cameras leading to leaks of images of naked or otherwise indisposed students, and the arrest of a student observed taking pills as observed through the computer camera — that turned out to be Good-and-Plenty’s.
Apparently now a mouthpiece for the NSA and Administration, NPR News continues to use the word “alleged” to describe the NSA’s own documents leaked by Snowden. Not even the NSA or Administration will disavow the obviously authentic documents, so where does that leave NPR news? Maybe they should re-brand as “NPR Propaganda”. More news-bites now…
- Kvetching over the National Healthcare Website continues unabated. Something apparently both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill can agree on. Sort of.
- In the economy, U.S. Consumer Spending is up, but Auto Sales are, unobservably, down.
- Microcredit, a popular financing mechanism in the Third World is no taking hold in the U.S. which doesn’t say much about the REAL state of the economy. The Times reports on a Microcredit store in Queens, New York.
- DejaVu all over again? Tech stocks may be getting overvalued again as the economy heats up and investors become eager. But who in tech businesses wouldn’t welcome a return to the roaring 90’s at this point?
- Also, why Apple wants to Bust Your iPhone. Apple is advanced in terms of obsoleting your prized devices, as I found out when I couldn’t update my 6 month old iPod Touch to iOS7.
- A security firm says a WiFi related vulnerability is present in hundreds of iOS apps tested, from stock management to news apps!
- Criminals are said to have planted chips in appliances from electric irons to tea kettles that launch spam attacks.
- William C. Lowe, who oversaw the Birth of the IBM PC, is dead at 72. I believe I met the fellow at an IBM function years ago.
- The Times has figured out that American’s dependence on cards results in lost hours that could otherwise be spent on exercising or socializing — and it’s — duh — taken a toll on our health.
- In an ongoing twist on the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” debacle in Iraq, the chemical sites in Syria that actually did contain chemical weapons have nearly all been reached by UN inspectors in unprecedented cooperation claimed by the U.S. and Russia.
And finally, we time for the WTF department!
- Six South Koreans claim they fled to North Korea for a better life.
- Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion who retired in 2005, will try to unseat the eccentric president of the World Chess Federation. Perhaps with a chess match?
- Vlad Putin promises to welcome gays to the Winter Olympics in Sochi
- Criminals are said to have planted chips in appliances from electric irons to tea kettles that launch spam attacks.
That’s more than we have time for! Collect all the DayPages at DayPage.net, it’s a production of Radio InfoWeb. Tune in tomorrow for another… DayPage.