GOTHAMIST asks: Who Is Tom Wheeler And Why Is He Killing The Internet?

The FCC chairman was once a lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry.

Get ready to hear a lot about net neutrality and Tom Wheeler, whether you want to or not.

But it’s important you do.

You could be paying more for services online.. for TV.. for streaming .. 

The GOTHAMIST reports a money quote here:

Does it seems fishy that Obama picked someone who pushed industry deregulation to head the federal agency that regulates said industry? It does, doesn’t it. When he was nominated, an insider told Reuters that, “All of the senators in the Commerce Committee know Tom as a lobbyist who funnels funds to them, not as a stand-up guy from a regulatory agency who is able to take heat.” But it’s probably worth pointing out that Wheeler managed to drum up about $700,000 in campaign contributions to both of Obama’s presidential runs.

Understand net neutrality as if your own free speech depends on it. 

It may.

GOTHAMIST asks: Who Is Tom Wheeler And Why Is He Killing The Internet?

This summer will be miserable, Farmer’s Almanac says

HOT.
HUMID.
STORMY.
SANDY-LIKE STORM IN SEPTEMBER.

By August people will be looking forward to another winter that will never end.

This summer will be miserable, Farmer’s Almanac says

Hacker hijacks baby monitor

This is a true story about modern technology turning very scary..

A Cincinnati Ohio family is learning firsthand how easy it can be to be hacked in our modern age.. FOX 19 reports this:

Heather Schreck was asleep around midnight in her Hebron home when a voice startled her.

"All of a sudden, I heard what sounded like a man’s voice but I was asleep so I wasn’t sure," Heather said.

Disoriented and confused, Heather picked up her cell phone to check the camera in her 10-month-old daughter Emma’s room. The camera was moving, but she wasn’t moving it.

"About the time I saw it moving, I also heard a voice again start screaming at my daughter. He was screaming, ‘Wake up baby. Wake up baby.’ Then just screaming at her trying to wake her up."

That’s when Heather’s husband, Adam, ran into Emma’s room. Adam said the camera then turned from his petrified daughter to point directly at him.

"Then it screamed at me," Adam said. "Some bad things, some obscenities. So I unplugged the camera."

But the Schrecks were only beginning to plug into the truth of what had just happened.

"Someone had hacked in from outside," Heather said.

A baby is the most prized and valued possession of a family. It’s urgently important for parents to constantly keep their children safe, sound, and protected.. The fact that someone can easily hack into a baby monitor and do something of this nature is in itself a very scary thing for a parent.

In some weird way, when I read this, it reminded me of that old story ‘the babysitter.’  A man was harrassing a babysitter by calling over and over again—the punchline came when the operator said “the call is coming from a telephone upstairs!”..  but involved 20th century technology. This new modern ‘hacking’ and thwacking than can occur may be even more frightening. At least in old tales of horror, we knew where the culprit was. In this age, we don’t. He can watch your child, or you, from your computer camera. Or in this case, a baby monitor.

A sense of security is important. When something happens to ruin it—as it did to Heather and Adam Schreck—your life can turn upside down. And you’ll realize how scary this world can be..

 

Hacker hijacks baby monitor

If anyone has a spare ark for sale, there’s a few million people along the East Coast that may want to buy it over the next three days.

These rainfall amounts are impressive and scary.. 6 inches in New York City?

My God.. it will be like a scene from the DAY AFTER TOMORROW if this happens!?

From North Korea. Not with love.

North Korea is in the grips of a crystal meth epidemic. And now 99% pure crystal meth from North Korea is flooding United States drugs markets.. According to DAILY MAIL’s report on the North Korean nightmare, the drug is so common there that people are offered it as much as coffee or tea would be to guests in other countries. And in America? Meth has been found in lots of small hometowns across the fruited plain. Now 99% purity is on the way–thanks to corruption and drug gangs in North Korea.

Great.. this is the last thing the already meth-addicted coal region of Pennsylvania needs. The pure stuff..

Cold water challenge worries

Social media has lit up with the ‘cold water challenge’ ..You jump into cold water and before doing so name three other people who should too. In some sense, it’s for charity–it’s up to you to jump in to avoid paying a charitable donation.  

But accidents happen. A man from West Michigan is in the hospital .. he dove into a lake and could not come back up, now ending up paralyzed after he wanted to take part in the Internet fad.. Another cautionary tale for our internet generation.. Food for thought, perhaps, as this fad continues to compel people across the net world to jump into questionable water..

A friend of mine made a comic inspired by me, Bryan.

He obviously gets me perfect..

An urban legend becomes reality..
For years, gamers have told of a story from 1983..A market crash was so bad that Atari buried thousands of ET THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL in a New Mexico landfill. Construction workers found the stash.. as XBOX WIRE reports, it is not in the category of urban legend anymore.

The big unearthing even forced SNOPES to change its page on this ‘legend,’ of course with SNOPES standing by its label of ‘legend’ since it was not millions dug up. 

The Escapist has more photos.

TAKE THAT SNOPES.
Sometimes legends are true..

Saint Nestle and the doves that died: Some thoughts on the big day in Rome

Saint Nestle and the doves that died: Some thoughts on the big day in Rome

Stabbing suspect said, 'I have more people to kill,' complaint says

Stabbing suspect said, 'I have more people to kill,' complaint says

Sun Unleashes Major Solar Flare

The sun erupted with a massive solar flare late Thursday (April 24), triggering a temporary communications blackout on some parts of Earth. See video of the X1.3 solar flare here.

It was a big flare—and for the most part extremely unreported.

Though a lack of information was given to the citizens of the planet earth, they were actually affected, at least in parts, such as with blackouts in the Pacific Ocean region and the Pacific Rim.. 

There are some who believe solar flares affect how people act, too.Though it’s difficult to tell if the sudden burst of solar energy towards the planet earth actually intensifies earthlings’ already bizarre behavior, since humans already act that way anyway.

Some also believe an increase in heart ailments can occur and other types of bodily conditions.

Those are not always based in scientific fact.

What is science fact is that a big solar flare can happen and knock communication and power out for a long time. Something that no one on this planet seems concerned about. Except Newt Gingrich—a man scientists don’t consider themselves sharing a bed with.

But disaster preparedness sure can make strange bedfellows.

Sun Unleashes Major Solar Flare

U.S. Reporters Grill Obama in Asia: Did You Like Your Green-Tea Ice Cream?

Journalism.

I would actually have asked him why he didn’t finish his sushi—something else American reporters have been focusing on.

The world is lucky to have a press core from other nations—if they relied on American ones the news would be filled with 100% political gossip and fear mongering..  The great free press is lax in its responsibilities.. Hardcore questions are over.. People are more worried about sharing a cocktail at some lame D.C. bar to get more access.. They are more concerned about their big wig bosses at the network, who most likely are talking a merger with some other giant corporate conglomerate. And they are too worried about internet bloggers who they see as nothing more than reptile bile, only fitting for mocking instead of propping up.

But when they get their big chance to swing a hard question, they prod the President about his affinity for green tea ice cream..

Name your dead journalist. He or she rolls in a grave somewhere deep in the American heartland..

U.S. Reporters Grill Obama in Asia: Did You Like Your Green-Tea Ice Cream?

US Sees Activity at North Korea Nuke Site During Obama Visit

US Sees Activity at North Korea Nuke Site During Obama Visit

The timing of events so often gives me pause.. Do things happen for a reason? IS there a message in tragedy? A news event did not make too many headlines but I have been thinking deeply about whether there is any potential meaning behind it: Just days before Pope John Paul II is to be declared a saint in front of millions in Rome, a crucifix dedicated to him collapsed and killed a 21-year-old man named Marco Gusmini.

The man was killed instantly .. he was visiting the vilage of Cevo with other younger friends.

There is also some irony: Gusmini lived on a street in Bergamo named John XXII..

Next time you’re watching the beautiful cheerleaders at Buffalo Bills games, think about this little factoid: The “Buffalo Jills” as they are called received an instructional manual from their managers telling them how to eat soup and when to change their tampons..

They say: “The Jill Cheerleaders Code Of Conduct instructs the women on how to keep certain ‘intimate areas’ fresh, offering advice such as ‘When menstruating, use a product that (sic) right for your menstrual flow.’: ..

They were also told to say excuse me when they burp and said “Oh my goodness” instead of Oh my God…

Oh my God…

Autism Nation: America's Chemical Brain Drain

Americans are exposed to over 83,000 industrial chemicals as part of modern civilization. Virtually all pregnant women are walking chemical repositories.

The linked article is interesting and disturbing.. Why is autism so high? Sure, we’re told that it’s because of ‘better screening.’ I am getting tired of the ‘better screening’ argument.. anyone with common sense knows that there are many more instances of severe autism hitting families across the planet.. especially America and other ‘industrialized nations’…

Counties and states killing weeds with sprays.. Food filled with chemicals.. BPA in plastics.. heavy metals, fluoride in water for babies who still don’t have their first set of teeth..

The article details toxins in food, air, and everything. Every place your child plays.. every place your baby in a womb goes.. 

The money quotes you should consider:

Americans are exposed to over 83,000 industrial chemicals as part of modern civilization. Virtually all pregnant women are walking chemical repositories. Tracking 163 chemicals, 99 percent of pregnant women tested positive for at least 43 different chemicals 

And

Other studies show that the average newborn enters the world on day one “pre-polluted,” harboring hundreds of chemicals and heavy metals acquired during intrauterine life, and many of those undoubtedly reach the brain during critical windows of embryonic development. None of those chemicals enhance the natural process of brain maturation; many of them are known to be toxic to neurons and brain tissue.

And this:

Most pesticides work by causing chemical disruption of the brain and nervous system of insects. In fact, many pesticides are merely derivations of chemical warfare agents of the World War I and World War II era, i.e. nerve gases. It should be no surprise, then, that human nerve cells could also be affected, especially when considering that at the critical embryonic stage, the human fetal brain is no larger than that of many insects. 

How ‘safe’.. 

Often I offer only bad news with no hope.

There may be hope today though, hope that wasn’t here before.

There could game changing positive breakthroughs coming.. 7 SAN DIEGO says this, 

Autistic stem cells are starting respond to experimental drugs in what San Diego researchers are calling a breakthrough in the disorder affecting one in 68 children.

UC San Diego scientists took stem cells from children with autism and reprogrammed them into brain cells.

Amazing times we live in.
But poisonous times, too..

While we work on the ‘cure’ for autism, we should also try to find the trigger. Or triggers. Or chemicals. 

The truth is out there… maybe in the air, water.. or land. But it’s there somewhere..

Autism Nation: America's Chemical Brain Drain

imwithkanye:

Influence

But did they superimpose a bump on your crotch? Or is that Sasha Fierce coming out?

Take a bow..

The President is in Japan. He had time to meet ASIMO, the Advanced Step in Motivative Mobility. 

ASIMO is a robot. When President Obama met it, he bowed.
The robot didn’t bow back..

Obama has been criticized in the past for bowing to world leaders—though he’s not the first.. Remember those photos of the Bush family exchanging hugs and kisses with Middle Eastern kings?

Nonetheless, the height of absurdity appears to be the leader of the free world with the poor middle class bowing to a machine.. 

The AP reports it this way:

The voice was slightly halting, childlike. “Welcome to Miraikan, Mr. President, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

President Barack Obama bowed, looking delighted.

His greeter, after all, was a 55-inch-tall, give or take, humanoid robot with the look of a diminutive Star Wars storm trooper.

"It’s nice to meet you, too," Obama said, pausing to watch the robot, named ASIMO, perform during a tour of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.

Despite Obama’s background in constitutional law, there’s a presidential geek side that always seems charmed, if not bemused, by technological advances.

Asimo, made by Honda, announced “I can really run fast” before loping toward a soccer ball and informing Obama, “I can kick a soccer ball, too.”

The already bizarre photo op got weirder, it actually almost looked like Obama’s face was wincing in pain as he realized what a strange conundrum of PR he got himself into..

ASIMO then kicked a soccer ball at Obama.. the President’s face appeared to get a bigger smile but it seemed to be coupled with a clinched jaw of uncomfortable feelings..

In the end, the AP reports:

"I have to say the robots were a little scary," he said afterward. "They were too life-like."

MH370: Radar Detected UFO Before Jet Goes Missing; Malaysian Air Force Head Reportedly Confirms Sightings

The search for the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 continues, but to no avail, mysteries still hover over the disappearance of the jet-passenger along with the 239 people on board. More than a month since it vanished, a new theory has emerged that would surely trigger debates about the existence of unidentified flying objects.

Note the source on this article: The INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES..

However, the article is mocking in tone. The TIMES reports on internet conspiracy theorists and bloggers online who allege UFOs had some sort of nefarious action that abducted the plane from the skies..

But logical people—the ones who wear their tin foil hats a little loose on top—don’t bring up the UFO theory as one to claim the pilot and plane’s passengers were taken to the planet Pop Tart. They bring it up to imply a theory not mentioned much on any news story: That a meteor may have struck or potentially been near Flight 370 on the fateful night it vanished from radar and our world itself.. 

Early in this story, Malaysian officials said that they were investigating an ‘unidentified flying object’ around the time the plane vanished, as seen on this UK TELEGRAPH wrap of the timeline (see the page about halfway down) .. 

Early this morning some wreckage that ended up on Australia’s coast line was thought to be from Flight 370. As expected, this was not the case. Hours ago, that wreckage was ruled to  have nothing to do with flight 370..

MH370: Radar Detected UFO Before Jet Goes Missing; Malaysian Air Force Head Reportedly Confirms Sightings

Texas robbery victim forced kill his dog with his bare hands after cop shoots it for barking

Texas robbery victim forced kill his dog with his bare hands after cop shoots it for barking