Criminal profiling is easy, apparently. According to this fascinating article in New Yorker, it uses the same tricks as stage psychics and other cons. Hat-tip to denialism blog.
Principles help win over panic
“Everything looks like a failure in the middle,” warns Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Any new enterprise encounters roadblocks. As the obstacles multiply, the situation looks hopeless. That’s precisely when you need to hold onto your principles, your long-term view, to help get you past that panic. Read more at Long Views.
Elephant grass is not turtle grass
Do not confuse them. Elephant grass refers to either the African species Pennisetum purpureum, the southern Asian grass Saccharum ravennae, or Asiatic Zebra grass or Porcupine Grass Miscanthus sinensis. Turtle grass, however, is a member of the Hydrocharitaceae family of aquatic plants.
And they still get a vote, part 2
About 5pm this afternoon I overheard the following conversation on a train approaching Central station. I’m guessing these two guys were in their mid-20s, and weren’t merchant bankers.
Lad #1: Interest rates have gone up 25% today. So your rent’s going to go up.
Lad #2: What the fuck?
Lad #1: Yeah, I heard it on the radio. The guy who owns your place has to pay 25% more, so you’ll have to pay 25% more rent.
Lad #2: Fuck that! That’s what? Fuck! That’s $75 [presumably a fortnight]. No fuckin’ way! No cunt’s charging me any fuckin’ more for that fuckin’ crack den I live in.
And you thought you had it tough…
Face facts: Macs get malware, people look at porn
Some days (like today) I get thoroughly annoyed with society’s continual states of denial. Yes, “states” plural. This BBC news story about the “first” Trojan Horse for the Mac is wrong in four important ways — and it perpetuates another “myth of denial”.
[T]he first serious threat to Mac users has been observed “in the wild”.
It’s a Trojan Horse, a piece of code that pretends to do one thing but actually compromises your computer.
This one spreads through online video sites…
That puts my son right in the middle of the vulnerable population because he likes to watch video clips via sites like YouTube and Flixster…
The Trojan sits behind an online video and when you try to play it you get a message from Quicktime telling you to get a new codec, and if you follow the link you’ll be sent to a site that hosts the malicious software.
Click “ok” and enter your systems administrator’s password and it will be installed on your computer with full system access after which you are, to use the jargon, “pwned”, or scuppered.
And you don’t even get to see the video you were after….
At the moment the fake codec is being spread via porn sites, but it will quickly spread to more mainstream sites, and that’s when it will get dangerous…
Here’s why this article is wrong…
Continue reading “Face facts: Macs get malware, people look at porn”
Toy of the Year’s “Magic Beads” are… magic beads!
The Hong Kong-manufactured craft toy Bindeez, named as Australia’s Toy of the Year, is being withdrawn because its “magic beads” turn into the drug GHB (“fantasy”) when you ingest them.
Sydney-based poisons specialist Dr Naren Gunja said the list of Bindeez’s ingredients supplied by the manufacturer said it should contain the non-toxic chemical known as 1,5-pentanediol.
“What we’ve found in the beads from testing done … by our hospital scientists is that it contains 1,4-butanediol,” Dr Gunja said, adding that this chemical was metabolised by the body into GHB.
“Magic beads” indeed. Get ’em while they last.