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Posted by TJ on Monday February 1, 2010 @ 01:14 AM
[Tags: facebook, news, internet]

I would like to create a list of all social networking holidays that people celebrate on facebook/myspace/twitter, etc.

Apparently this week is Doppelganger Week (1st week of February), Facebook users switch their profile pictures to famous people they have been told they resemble.
Read more: dailynews.com

Rubber Ducky Day is January 13th Why? the Rubber Duckie Song appeared on Semame street in 1970 in which it actually made the Billboard hits chart. January 13th is supposedly to be Ernie Duck's birthday, hence the holiday Read more

International Caps Lock Day is October 22 and June 28th. For these days, and these days only, people aren't allowed to belittle you for writing IN ALL CAPS Official website

What are some other holidays to celebrate on the web?



Posted by TJ on Friday October 30, 2009 @ 11:10 AM
[Tags: news, local, topten]

CNN published an article listing the 10 most expensive colleges in the US, and of course New York owns the title to 4 out of 10.
  1. Sarah Lawrence College
    Bronxville, N.Y. - $55,788/yr

  2. Parsons The New School for Design
    New York, N.Y. - $52,400/yr


  3. Georgetown University
    Washington, D.C - $52,161/yr

  4. New York University
    New York, N.Y. - $51,193/yr


  5. George Washington University
    Washington, D.C. - $51,775/yr

  6. Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore, Md. - $51,690/yr

  7. Columbia University
    New York, N.Y. - $51,544/yr


  8. Wesleyan University
    Middletown, Conn. - $51,432/yr

  9. Trinity College
    Hartford, Conn. - $51,400/yr

  10. Washington University in St. Louis
    St. Louis, Mo. - $51,329/yr
link: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/news/0910/gallery.most_expensive_colleges/5.html





Posted by TJ on Monday October 12, 2009 @ 05:56 PM
[Tags: link, news, business]

Bernie Madoff is the top selling costume this Halloween. I kinda agree he is a bigger creep than most costumes on the market.

http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-madoff-masks,0,601399.story



Posted by TJ on Tuesday June 30, 2009 @ 03:24 PM
[Tags: news, celebrities, music]

I've read so many reports about Michael Jackson over the past few days I don't know what to believe. This article this is well written informative article that is backed with descriptive details.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
'I'm better off dead. I'm done': Michael Jackson's fateful prediction just a week before his death

By Ian Halperin
Last updated at 3:58 PM on 29th June 2009

* Genetic condition had ruined his lungs and left him unable to sing
* He became so skeletal, doctors believed he was anorexic
* He had nightmares about being murdered – and wanted to die
* He used swine flu as an excuse to avoid coming to England
* He thought he was agreeing to 10 concerts – it was 50

Whatever the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. Had he not been driven – by a cabal of bankers, agents, doctors and advisers – to commit to the gruelling 50 concerts in London’s O2 Arena, I believe he would still be alive today.

During the last weeks and months of his life, Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for the concert series scheduled for next month – a series that would have earned millions for the singer and his entourage, but which he could never have completed, not mentally, and not physically.
Michael Jackson with face mask

Ailing: Michael Jackson may have worn a mask in public to protect his diseased lungs

Michael knew it and his advisers knew it. Anyone who caught even a fleeting glimpse of the frail old man hiding beneath the costumes and cosmetics would have understood that the London tour was madness. For Michael Jackson, it was fatal.

I had more than a glimpse of the real Michael; as an award-winning freelance journalist and film-maker, I spent more than five years inside his ‘camp’.

Many in his entourage spoke frankly to me – and that made it possible for me to write authoritatively last December that Michael had six months to live, a claim that, at the time, his official spokesman, Dr Tohme Tohme, called a ‘complete fabrication’. The singer, he told the world, was in ‘fine health’. Six months and one day later, Jackson was dead.

Some liked to snigger at his public image, and it is true that flamboyant clothes and bizarre make-up made for a comic grotesque; yet without them, his appearance was distressing; with skin blemishes, thinning hair and discoloured fingernails.

I had established beyond doubt, for example, that Jackson relied on an extensive collection of wigs to hide his greying hair. Shorn of their luxuriance, the Peter Pan of Neverland cut a skeletal figure.

It was clear that he was in no condition to do a single concert, let alone 50. He could no longer sing, for a start. On some days he could barely talk. He could no longer dance. Disaster was looming in London and, in the opinion of his closest confidantes, he was feeling suicidal.

To understand why a singer of Jackson’s fragility would even think about travelling to London, we need to go back to June 13, 2005, when my involvement in his story began.

As a breaking news alert flashed on CNN announcing that the jury had reached a verdict in Jackson’s trial for allegedly molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch in California, I knew that history had been made but that Michael Jackson had been broken – irrevocably so, as it proved.

Nor was it the first time that Michael had been accused of impropriety with young boys. Little more than a decade earlier, another 13-year-old, Jordan Chandler, made similar accusations in a case that was eventually settled before trial – but not before the damage had been done to Jackson’s reputation.
Michael Jackson is pushed in a wheelchair

Michael had not helped his case. Appearing in a documentary with British broadcaster Martin Bashir, he not only admitted that he liked to share a bed with teenagers, mainly boys, in pyjamas, but showed no sign of understanding why anyone might be legitimately concerned.

I had started my investigation convinced that Jackson was guilty. By the end, I no longer believed that.

I could not find a single shred of evidence suggesting that Jackson had molested a child. But I found significant evidence demonstrating that most, if not all, of his accusers lacked credibility and were motivated primarily by money.

Jackson also deserved much of the blame, of course. Continuing to share a bed with children even after the suspicions surfaced bordered on criminal stupidity.

He was also playing a truly dangerous game. It is clear to me that Michael was homosexual and that his taste was for young men, albeit not as young as Jordan Chandler or Gavin Arvizo.

In the course of my investigations, I spoke to two of his gay lovers, one a Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor. The waiter had remained friends, perhaps more, with the singer until his death last week. He had served Jackson at a restaurant, Jackson made his interest plain and the two slept together the following night. According to the waiter, Jackson fell in love.

The actor, who has been given solid but uninspiring film parts, saw Jackson in the middle of 2007. He told me they had spent nearly every night together during their affair – an easy claim to make, you might think. But this lover produced corroboration in the form of photographs of the two of them together, and a witness.

Other witnesses speak of strings of young men visiting his house at all hours, even in the period of his decline. Some stayed overnight.

When Jackson lived in Las Vegas, one of his closest aides told how he would sneak off to a ‘grungy, rat-infested’ motel – often dressed as a woman to disguise his identity – to meet a male construction worker he had fallen in love with.

Jackson was acquitted in the Arvizo case, dramatically so, but the effect on his mental state was ruinous. Sources close to him suggest he was close to complete nervous breakdown.
Michael Jackson's rental home

The ordeal had left him physically shattered, too. One of my sources suggested that he might already have had a genetic condition I had never previously come across, called Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency – the lack of a protein that can help protect the lungs.

Although up to 100,000 Americans are severely affected by it, it is an under-recognised condition. Michael was receiving regular injections of Alpha-1 antitrypsin derived from human plasma. The treatment is said to be remarkably effective and can enable the sufferer to lead a normal life.

But the disease can cause respiratory problems and, in severe cases, emphysema. Could this be why Jackson had for years been wearing a surgical mask in public, to protect his lungs from the ravages of the disease? Or why, from time to time, he resorted to a wheelchair? When I returned to my source inside the Jackson camp for confirmation, he said: ‘Yeah, that’s what he’s got. He’s in bad shape. They’re worried that he might need a lung transplant but he may be too weak.

‘Some days he can hardly see and he’s having a lot of trouble walking.’

Even Michael Jackson’s legendary wealth was in sharp decline. Just a few days before he announced his 50-concert comeback at the O2 Arena, one of my sources told me Jackson had been offered £1.8million to perform at a party for a Russian billionaire on the Black Sea.

‘Is he up to it?’ I had asked.

‘He has no choice. He needs the money. His people are pushing him hard,’ said the source.

Could he even stand on a stage for an hour concert?

‘He can stand. The treatments have been successful. He can even dance once he gets in better shape. He just can’t sing,’ said the aide, adding that Jackson would have to lip-synch to get through the performance. ‘Nobody will care, as long as he shows up and moonwalks.’

He also revealed Jackson had been offered well over £60million to play Las Vegas for six months. ‘He said no, but his people are trying to force it on him. He’s that close to losing everything,’ said the source.
michael jackson this is it tour

Indeed, by all accounts Jackson’s finances were in a shambles. The Arvizo trial itself was a relative bargain, costing a little more than £18million in legal bills.

But the damage to his career, already in trouble before the charges, was incalculable. After the Arvizo trial, a Bahraini sheikh allowed Jackson to stay in his palace, underwriting his lavish lifestyle. But a few years later, the prince sued his former guest, demanding repayment for his hospitality. Jackson claimed he thought it had been a gift.

Roger Friedman, a TV journalist, said: ‘For one year, the prince underwrote Jackson’s life in Bahrain – everything including accommodation, guests, security and transportation. And what did Jackson do? He left for Japan and then Ireland. He took the money and moonwalked right out the door. This is the real Michael Jackson. He has never returned a phone call from the prince since he left Bahrain.’

Although Jackson settled with the sheikh on the eve of the trial that would have aired his financial dirty laundry, the settlement only put him that much deeper into the hole. A hole that kept getting bigger, but that was guaranteed by Jackson’s half ownership of the copyrights to The Beatles catalogue. He owned them in a joint venture with record company Sony, which have kept him from bankruptcy.

‘Jackson is in hock to Sony for hundreds of millions,’ a source told me a couple of months ago. ‘No bank will give him any money so Sony have been paying his bills.

‘The trouble is that he hasn’t been meeting his obligations. Sony have been in a position for more than a year where it can repossess Michael’s share of the [Beatles] catalogue. That’s always been Sony’s dream scenario, full ownership.

‘But they don’t want to do it as they’re afraid of a backlash from his fans. Their nightmare is an organised 'boycott Sony' movement worldwide, which could prove hugely costly. It is the only thing standing between Michael and bankruptcy.’
Pop star Michael Jackson (centre) holds the hands of his two children Paris Michael, four, and son Prince Michael, five, with their faces covered during a visit to Berlin Zoo.

The source aid at the time that the scheduled London concerts wouldn’t clear Jackson’s debts – estimated at almost £242million – but they would allow him to get them under control and get him out of default with Sony.

According to two sources in Jackson’s camp, the singer put in place a contingency plan to ensure his children would be well taken care of in the event of bankruptcy.

‘He has as many as 200 unpublished songs that he is planning to leave behind for his children when he dies. They can’t be touched by the creditors, but they could be worth as much as £60million that will ensure his kids a comfortable existence no matter what happens,’ one of his collaborators revealed.

But for the circle of handlers who surrounded Jackson during his final years, their golden goose could not be allowed to run dry. Bankruptcy was not an option.

These, after all, were not the handlers who had seen him through the aftermath of the Arvizo trial and who had been protecting his fragile emotional health to the best of their ability. They were gone, and a new set of advisers was in place.

The clearout had apparently been engineered by his children’s nanny, Grace Rwaramba, who was gaining considerable influence over Jackson and his affairs and has been described as the ‘queen bee’ by those around Jackson.

Rwaramba had ties to the black militant organisation, the Nation of Islam, and its controversial leader, Louis Farrakhan, whom she enlisted for help in running Jackson’s affairs.

Before long, the Nation was supplying Jackson’s security detail and Farrakhan’s son-in-law, Leonard Muhammad, was appointed as Jackson’s business manager, though his role has lessened significantly in recent years.

In late 2008, a shadowy figure who called himself Dr Tohme Tohme suddenly emerged as Jackson’s ‘official spokesman’.

Tohme has been alternately described as a Saudi Arabian billionaire and an orthopaedic surgeon, but he is actually a Lebanese businessman who does not have a medical licence. At one point, Tohme claimed he was an ambassador at large for Senegal, but the Senegalese embassy said they had never heard of him.
MICHAEL JACKSON AND CANCER SUFFERER GAVIN ARVIZO

Tohme’s own ties to the Nation of Islam came to light in March 2009, when New York auctioneer Darren Julien was conducting an auction of Michael Jackson memorabilia.

Julien filed an affidavit in Los Angeles Superior Court that month in which he described a meeting he had with Tohme’s business partner, James R. Weller. According to Julien’s account, ‘Weller said if we refused to postpone [the auction], we would be in danger from 'Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam; those people are very protective of Michael'.

He told us that Dr Tohme and Michael Jackson wanted to give the message to us that 'our lives are at stake and there will be bloodshed'.’

A month after these alleged threats, Tohme accompanied Jackson to a meeting at a Las Vegas hotel with Randy Phillips, chief executive of the AEG Group, to finalise plans for Jackson’s return to the concert stage.

Jackson’s handlers had twice before said no to Phillips. This time, with Tohme acting as his confidant, Jackson left the room agreeing to perform ten concerts at the O2.

Before long, however, ten concerts had turned into 50 and the potential revenues had skyrocketed. ‘The vultures who were pulling his strings somehow managed to put this concert extravaganza together behind his back, then presented it to him as a fait accompli,’ said one aide.

‘The money was just unbelievable and all his financial people were telling him he was facing bankruptcy. But Michael still resisted. He didn’t think he could pull it off.’

Eventually, they wore him down, the aide explained, but not with the money argument.

‘They told him that this would be the greatest comeback the world had ever known. That’s what convinced him. He thought if he could emerge triumphantly from the success of these concerts, he could be the King again.’

The financial details of the O2 concerts are still murky, though various sources have revealed that Jackson was paid as much as £10million in advance, most of which went to the middlemen. But Jackson could have received as much as £100million had the concerts gone ahead.

It is worth noting that the O2 Arena has the most sophisticated lip synching technology in the world – a particular attraction for a singer who can no longer sing. Had, by some miracle, the concerts gone ahead, Jackson’s personal contribution could have been limited to just 13 minutes for each performance. The rest was to have been choreography and lights.

‘We knew it was a disaster waiting to happen,’ said one aide. ‘I don’t think anybody predicted it would actually kill him but nobody believed he would end up performing.’

Their doubts were underscored when Jackson collapsed during only his second rehearsal.
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley

‘Collapse might be overstating it,’ said the aide. ‘He needed medical attention and couldn’t go on. I’m not sure what caused it.’

Meanwhile, everybody around him noticed that Jackson had lost an astonishing amount of weight in recent months. His medical team even believed he was anorexic.

‘He goes days at a time hardly eating a thing and at one point his doctor was asking people if he had been throwing up after meals,’ one staff member told me in May.

‘He suspected bulimia but when we said he hardly eats any meals, the doc thought it was probably anorexia. He seemed alarmed and at one point said, 'People die from that all the time. You’ve got to get him to eat.'’

Indeed, one known consequence of anorexia is cardiac arrest.

After spotting him leave one rehearsal, Fox News reported that ‘Michael Jackson’s skeletal physique is so bad that he might not be able to moonwalk any more’.

On May 20 this year, AEG suddenly announced that the first London shows had been delayed for five days while the remainder had been pushed back until March 2010. At the time, they denied that the postponements were health-related, explaining that they needed more time to mount the technically complex production, though scepticism immediately erupted. It was well placed.

Behind the scenes, Jackson was in rapid decline. According to a member of his staff, he was ‘terrified’ at the prospect of the London concerts.

‘He wasn’t eating, he wasn’t sleeping and, when he did sleep, he had nightmares that he was going to be murdered. He was deeply worried that he was going to disappoint his fans. He even said something that made me briefly think he was suicidal. He said he thought he’d die before doing the London concerts.

‘He said he was worried that he was going to end up like Elvis. He was always comparing himself to Elvis, but there was something in his tone that made me think that he wanted to die, he was tired of life. He gave up. His voice and dance moves weren’t there any more. I think maybe he wanted to die rather than embarrass himself on stage.’

The most obvious comparison between the King of Pop and the King of Rock ’n’ Roll was their prescription drug habits, which in Jackson’s case had significantly intensified in his final months.

‘He is surrounded by enablers,’ said one aide. ‘We should be stopping him before he kills himself, but we just sit by and watch him medicate himself into oblivion.’

Jackson could count on an array of doctors to write him prescriptions without asking too many questions if he complained of ‘pain’. He was particularly fond of OxyContin, nicknamed ‘Hillbilly heroin’, which gave an instant high, although he did not take it on a daily basis.

According to the aide, painkillers are not the only drugs Jackson took.
michael jackson

‘He pops Demerol and morphine, sure, apparently going back to the time in 1984 when he burned himself during the Pepsi commercial, but there’s also some kind of psychiatric medication. One of his brothers once told me he was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger, so it may be to treat that.’

His aides weren’t the only ones who recognised that a 50-concert run was foolhardy. In May, Jackson himself reportedly addressed fans as he left his Burbank rehearsal studio.

‘Thank you for your love and support,’ he told them. ‘I want you guys to know I love you very much.

'I don’t know how I’m going to do 50 shows. I’m not a big eater. I need to put some weight on. I’m really angry with them booking me up to do 50 shows. I only wanted to do ten.’

One of his former employees was particularly struck by Jackson’s wording that day. ‘The way he was talking, it’s like he’s not in control over his own life any more,’ she told me earlier this month. ‘It sounds like somebody else is pulling his strings and telling him what to do. Someone wants him dead.

'They keep feeding him pills like candy. They are trying to push him over the edge. He needs serious help. The people around him will kill him.’

As the London concerts approached, something was clearly wrong. Jackson had vowed to travel to England at least eight weeks before his first shows, but he kept putting it off.

‘To be honest, I never thought Michael would set foot on a concert stage ever again,’ said one aide, choking back tears on the evening of his death.

‘This was not only predictable, this was inevitable.’

On June 21, Jackson told my contact that he wanted to die. He said that he didn’t have what it would take to perform any more because he had lost his voice and dance moves.

‘It’s not working out,’ Jackson said. ‘I’m better off dead. I don’t have anywhere left to turn. I’m done.’

Michael’s closest confidante told me just two hours after he died that ‘Michael was tired of living. He was a complete wreck for years and now he can finally be in a better place. People around him fed him drugs to keep him on their side. They should be held accountable.’

Michael Jackson was undoubtedly a deeply troubled and lonely man. Throughout my investigation, I was torn between compassion and anger, sorrow and empathy.

Even his legacy is problematic. As I have already revealed, he has bequeathed up to 200 original songs to his three children, Prince Michael, aged 12, Paris Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II (also known as Blanket), seven. It is a wonderful gift.

Yet I can reveal that his will, not as yet made public, demands that the three of them remain with Jackson’s 79-year-old mother Katherine in California. It promises an ugly row.

Ex-wife Deborah Rowe, the mother of the eldest two, has already made it clear to her legal team that she wants her children in her custody, immediately.

The mother of the third child has never been identified. I fully expect that it will emerge that the children had a ‘test tube’ conception, a claim already made by Deborah Rowe.

Michael Jackson may very well have been the most talented performer of his generation, but for 15 years that fact has been lost to a generation who may remember him only as a grotesque caricature who liked to share his bed with little boys. Now that he’s gone, maybe it’s time to shelve the suspicions and appreciate the music.

* Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson by Ian Halperin is published by Transit Publishing in the UK at £14.99 and Pocket Books in the US at $24. To order your copy at the special price of £13.50 with free p&p, call The Review Bookstore on 0845 155 0713.





Posted by TJ on Friday February 27, 2009 @ 03:27 PM
[Tags: news, humor, local]

Hmmm... this happened not too from not too far from me.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20090227/NEWS04/902270400 said:

Troopers: Man covered in red paint was carrying deer parts on I-84 median

By Terence Corcoran
The Journal News • February 27, 2009

EAST FISHKILL - State police arrested a Dutchess County man yesterday after they found him walking on the median of Interstate 84, covered in red paint while carrying a deer head and leg.

Police said that James Carlson, 19, of Hopewell Junction had a spray can or red paint along with the dead deer parts when was found around 11:25 a.m.

"Mr. Carlson could not give any reasonable explanation for walking out on the highway, carrying paint and dead deer parts," police said in a release today.

He was charged with possession of graffiti instruments, a misdemeanor, being a pedestrian on a controlled access highway and disorderly conduct, violations, police said.

He is due March 12 in East Fishkill Town Court.




Posted by TJ on Wednesday January 14, 2009 @ 10:36 AM
[Tags: news, local, humor]

GPS Stupid is when people place too much reliance on their GPS (Global Positioning System) and do not rely on common sense when driving.

To give you more of an idea let me tell you about an intersection with a train crossing in my home. In the past year there have been three incidents where a train hit a car because they got stuck on the tracks. In two of the incidents the drivers admitted that they turned onto the tracks because their GPS told them too.

The intersection is located in Bedford, NY on Green Ln just before the entrance to the Saw Mill River Parkway:


View Larger Map

Incident #1: 1/3/08 GPS mishap caused Bedford Hills train-car crash - NY Journal News

Incident #2 - 9/30/08: Car GPS blamed for train accident ABC News

Incident #3 - 1/9/08: Driver whose car was hit by Bedford train: Signals were late (appears non GPS related but same intersection)



Posted by TJ on Tuesday January 13, 2009 @ 01:09 AM
[Tags: news, local, links]

I want to give a shout out to emtbravo for being fast to the scene. EMTbravo provides fire and police incident reports in Westchester and NYC's other Northern suburbs.

I just heard a siren hear in Mount Kisco and again we have a fire:

emtbravo.net said:

Date: 1/13/09
Time: 0030
Location: 70 Boltis Street Mount Kisco
Frequency: 46.2600 - County Trunk System
Units Operating: Mount Kisco FD / Bedford Hills FD
Description Of Incident:structure fire
Writer: Crime Cop

0028 Command O/S reporting a working structure fire
0030 Command requesting Bedford Hills F.A.S.T. team to the scene
0036 Chappaqua one engine and one truck relocate to Mt. Kisco Station 1


There was a fire not far from here in Bedford on my birthday that completely gutted a house not far from here:

Quote:

Date: 12/30/2008
Time: 1334hrs
Location: 411 Bedford Rd
Frequency: 46.26, Trunk 16 FG 1
Units Operating: Bedford Hills E-198, 199, TL-57, T-5, Car 2032, 2033; Mount Kisco FAST, E-104; Katonah Engine.
Description Of Incident: Fully-involved 2.5-story frame 20X40 P/D.
Writer: EJS1810, Truck4


EMTbravo had the incident report almost immediately after I heard the fire alarms which was pretty impressive. So if your looking for westchester county fire incident reports check out emtbravo. They are an excellent resource when your wondering why the hell you heard all those sirens or why a house in your neighborhood you saw up yesterday is burned down today.



Posted by TJ on Tuesday November 4, 2008 @ 09:52 AM
[Tags: news, health, facts]

I just saw that a second runner died after running the New York City ING marathon. There were about 38,000 people who ran in the race in NYC. I think this makes running the marathon more dangerous than parachuting. Of 2.2 million jumps by parachuters there were only 18 reported deaths according to the US Parachute Association USPA.org. Going by these statistics alone you are 15 times more likely to die from running in a marathon then by jumping out of a airplane.

NY Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/sports/othersports/04marathon.html?ref=sports



Posted by TJ on Saturday September 27, 2008 @ 11:11 AM
[Tags: news, tv, rip]

I added Paul Newman to the list of famous colorblind people on the colorblind facts YESTERDAY. I checked the news today and the poor man died of cancer. Talk about weird coincidence, huh.

RIP Paul Newman January 26, 1925 - September 26, 2008



Posted by TJ on Saturday September 20, 2008 @ 04:28 PM
[Tags: news, article, tv]

Okay I feel like traveling by airplane is getting a lot more dangerous while advances in technology should be making it more safer. Below is a list of plane crashes involving famous people. Note that these are all private planes so don't worry commercial airlines are probably still the safest way to travel, however, it does seem like a lot more famous people die from private airplane crashes then car accidents.

  • James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 - missing September 3, 2007, declared legally dead February 15, 2008) was an American aviator, sailor, and adventurer who became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon. Partial remains and wreckage of his plane was not found until a year later on September 29th 2008. Source

  • Cory Fulton Lidle (March 22, 1972 – October 11, 2006) was a Yankee right-handed baseball pitcher who died when the small aircraft he owned crashed into a residential building in New York City. Source

  • Peter David Tomarken (December 7, 1942 – March 13, 2006) was an American television personality primarily known as the host of Press Your Luck. Tomarken, a private pilot, and his second wife, Kathleen, were killed when his Beechcraft Bonanza A36, N16JR, crashed a few hundred feet offshore in Santa Monica Bay during climb-out from the Santa Monica Airport in California on the morning of March 13, 2006 Source

  • John Thomas Walton was a decorated American war veteran, and a son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. On June 27, 2005, Walton died when the CGS Hawk Arrow homebuilt aircraft that he was piloting Crashed shortly after takeoff. Source

  • Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001) was a Grammy-nominated American singer, dancer, actress, model, teen idol. Aliyah's plane crashed shortly after takeoff killing all 7 on board citing overweight cargo (sound equipment) and an unqualified pilot as the cause. Source

  • John F Kennedy Jr, the third son of the late president JFK. On July 16, 1999, at the age of 38, Kennedy died along with his wife and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, when the aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Source

  • John Denver (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), One of the most popular artists of the 1970s, was an American Country Music/folk singer-songwriter and folk rock musician. On October 12, 1997, Denver was killed when the Long-EZ aircraft he was piloting crashed just off the coast of California at Pacific Grove, shortly after taking off from the Monterey Peninsula Airport. Source

  • Thurman Lee Munson (June 7, 1947 – August 2, 1979) was an American catcher in Major League Baseball who played with the New York Yankees from 1969 to 1979. Munson was killed at age 32 while trying to land his personal airplane during a test fligh. Thurman is one of three Yankees who died in aviation accidents, including pitchers Jim Hardin in 1991 and Cory Lidle in 2006. Source

  • Lynyrd Skynyrd was an American Southern rock band that would be later inducted into the Rock and Roll of fame in 2006. Their plane crashed October 20, 1977 due to low-fuel killing 6 including the lead vocalist, guitarist, and road manager. Source

  • Rocky Marciano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969), born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1952 to 1956. In August 31, 1969, on the eve of his 46th birthday, Marciano died when the small private plane crashed in bad weather with an unqualified pilot. Source

  • Otis Redding is best known for his hit, “Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay,” which was released after his death. Redding had recorded the song just three days earlier. Him and and four members of his band were killed when their Beechcraft H18 plane crashed during a fog. Source

  • Buddy Holly (Holley), the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) , and Ritchie Valens all Rock and Roll Hall of famers died on February 2, 1959 when their Beechcraft Bonanza crashed during a winter storm "The day the music died". Source

Other interesting incidents:
Travis Barker, Adam Goldstein (DJ AM) Four people died but Travis Barker and Adam Goldstein survived when their private plane crashed off a runway on September 20, 2008. Travis Barker was best known as being former guitartist for the rock band Blink 182.
  • Barak Obama was a passenger in private plane on January 12, 2008 that clipped another airplane on the ground source
  • Patrick Swayze survived a emergency landing on June 1, 2001 Source
  • Sandra Bullok Survived a crash landing on Decmeber 20, 2000. Source



  • Posted by TJ on Wednesday July 16, 2008 @ 12:01 PM
    [Tags: news, tjshome, internet]

    TJShome is not by far a new concept to America. Research into national newspaper archives show that "tjshome" appeared in american culture as early as March 23, 1938.

    Source: Newark Advocate, March 23, 1938

    Or is this just another example of the still imperfected OCR (Optical character recognition) technology? ... Maybe...



    Posted by TJ on Thursday July 3, 2008 @ 11:57 AM
    [Tags: internet, news, business]

    Wired.com said:

    Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom
    By Ryan Singel July 02, 2008 | 7:16:54

    Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday.


    This can't be anything but bad news for the future of youtube.com. I think this is a huge evasion of privacy as the judge should at least ordered a censored list with no name or ip addresses.

    Link: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/judge-orders-yo.html






    Posted by TJ on Friday May 23, 2008 @ 09:36 AM
    [Tags: bored, links, news]

    Think you're smarter than the average driver? When's the last time you took a written drivers test? When you were 16 getting a permit? How do you think you'd score if you took it again today? Take the GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test and see if you pass with flying colors, or if you could use a little brushing up.

    I got 19 out of 20 correct.

    NY was rated second worst drivers as NJ was #1 for being the overall worst drivers. GO NY!



    Posted by TJ on Friday May 16, 2008 @ 10:19 AM
    [Tags: news, humor, satire]

    It only took 141 years but finally a white person, Joshua Packwood will become the valedictorian for Morehouse College. Joshua says that he is frequently referred to as "White boy" and has been fighting with racism all his life since he grew up in a predominantly black area. Even after being awarded as valedictorian he still his frowned upon by some of his peers, Muhammad, a junior said "I just kind of wish he had done it at a different institution."

    Link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/16/white.valedictorian/index.html





    Posted by TJ on Thursday May 8, 2008 @ 09:32 PM
    [Tags: links, humor, news]

    [Mood: Tired]

    NASA is offering $17,000 for a test (human) subject to stay in bed for 90 days. This is according to their website:
    Participants will spend 90 days lying in bed, (except for limited times for specific tests) with their body slightly tilted downward (head down, feet up). Every day, they will be awake for 16 hours and lights out (asleep) for 8 hours.
    Hmm... this could work for me as long as there is internet provisions haha.. bonus if the 90 days fall during tax season. I find it rather appalling that the price is so set so high anyways I'm sure they can really find a good subject for less than their offer. It's good to know our tax dollars go towards paying for someone who's only duties are to sleep on the job. This is the best use of tax dollars yet.

    Link: Application





    Posted by TJ on Friday March 14, 2008 @ 10:11 AM
    [Tags: news, myspace, internet]

    News Corp bought Myspace back in 2005 for $580 million dollars. It is estimated that myspace is worth over 15 billion now. That greater than a 100% return each year. Forgot stocks.. from now on I'm buying whole companies.

    This comes as AOL agrees to buy other popular social networking site for $850 million. I never heard of this site till today but I'm thinking of trying to outbid AOL. Any one want to fund this?

    Link: MSNBC: AOL to buy Bebo for $850 million




    Posted by TJ on Thursday March 13, 2008 @ 12:38 AM
    [Tags: news, myspace, internet]

    I am not much of an myspace fanatic like a lot of people these days. However I do like hows it's a great way to get a glimpse inside people's minds. When I see a name in the news I often find myself going quickly to myspace and doing a search on the name to see if I can spot their profile before its put to private. I had success numerous times including this one just now.


    Here's the link to the Spitzer call girl who got the governer of NY, Elliot Spitzer in hot water and caused him to step down.

    link: Ninavenetta's Myspace

    I normally wouldn't post a link for this as I think it's disrespectful for the person involved. However, she has had ample time to set her profile to private. Frankly I think she wants the attention as this may be the perfect opportunity to jump start her music career. Listen to her song its not bad.. if you're into the Britney spears type anyways.





    Posted by TJ on Thursday February 14, 2008 @ 05:22 PM
    [Tags: news, games, thoughts]

    The school shooters seem to be getting older. A decade ago it seems every week there was another shooting at a high school in the news ... currently it appears as this is the case with college's.

    I say this as the AP reports at least 18 Injuries in shooting at Northern Illinois University

    Link: QC Times Article

    This is quite scary as are they going to graduate and start shooting up the workplace?

    Can the video games generation be to blame? Could it be that the kids who grew playing the violent video games now are in college? I never believed that whole argument but it makes you think there could be some correlation.

    Before the Virginia Tech you barely heard about university shootings in national news. I however, was on the campus of Westchester Community College (NY Times Feb 8 2000) when a non-student shot his ex girlfriend then killed himself on campus. That was the worst college shooting I ever heard about before the Virginia Tech Massacre.




    Posted by TJ on Monday February 4, 2008 @ 11:34 AM
    [Tags: news, internet, links]

    Is it just a weird coincidence that four backbone net cables to the mideast have cut within a single week? Or could it be some malicious sabatage or ... terrorist? One thing is it doesn't effect the United States that much as almost all the internet content is located in the States. I do feel bad though for all my Iranian viewers as they can't read my blog!!

    Anyway, here is some links:

    World Map of Undersea Cables

    News Story





    Posted by TJ on Monday October 15, 2007 @ 04:36 PM
    [Tags: politics, news, opinion]

    Everyone is pointing fingures at the government, how they should have been able to prevent the attacks and had information beforehand that could of helped prevent the attacks on America.

    On the other note what we learn in economics about the stock markets is you can not use currents news to base your decision on whether to buy or sells stocks becuase that news is already reflected in the price of stock.

    If you look at a graph of the stock market 2-3 weeks before the September 11, 2001 you will see a gradial decline the market. Starting on August 24, 2001 and decreasing all the way through September 21, 2001. We all know why the stocks decreased after September 11, 2001 but made the stocks decrease before the attacks? Was a steep decline bound to happen anyway? Or, did investors have advance knowledge of these attacks?



    Just something to think about next time the market is in a gradial decline.






    Posted by TJ on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @ 01:10 PM
    [Tags: news, rant]

    The reason scientist have yet to find the cure for cancer is they are too busy doing studies on preposterous points. Take this article for example:


    Study: T-rex could outrun David Beckham
    CNN.com


    LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The smallest dinosaur could reach speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour and even the lumbering Tyrannosaurus rex would have been able to outrun most modern-day sportsmen, according to research published on Wednesday.


    Even T-rex, who wasn't incredibly fast, could chase down footballer David Beckham.

    Scientists using computer models calculated the top speeds for five meat-eating dinosaurs in a study they say can also illustrate how animals cope with climate change and extinction.

    The velociraptor, whose speed and ferocity was highlighted in the film "Jurassic Park", reached 24 miles per hour while the T-rex could muster speeds of up to 18 miles per hour, the study published in the Royal Society's Biological Sciences showed.

    "Our research, which used the minimum leg-muscle mass T-rex required for movement, suggests that while not incredibly fast, this carnivore was certainly capable of running and would have little difficulty in chasing down footballer David Beckham, for instance," said Phil Manning, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester, who worked on the study.

    The smallest dinosaur -- the Compsognathus -- could run nearly 40 miles per hour, about 5 miles per hour faster than the computer's estimate for the fastest living animal on two legs, the ostrich.

    A top human sprinter can reach a speed of about 25 miles per hour.

    The researchers used a computer model to calculate the running speeds of the five dinosaurs that varied in size from the 6.6 pound Compsognathus to a six-ton Tyrannosaurus.

    They fed information about the skeletal and muscular structure of the dinosaurs into the computer and ran a simulation tens of millions of times to see how fast the animals moved, said William Sellers, a zoologist at the University of Manchester, who led the study.

    They checked their method by inputting data of a human with the muscle and bone structure of a professional sportsman and found the computer accurately spat out a top running speed just behind T-rex's pace.


    "People have estimated speeds before but they have always been indirect estimates and hard to verify," Sellers said. "What we found is they were all perfectly capable of running."

    Looking at how these ancient animals lived and died out is also important in trying to predict how modern day species may cope with future climate change, Sellers added.

    This study helps to build a biological picture that scientists can use to better understand how dinosaurs adapted to changes in the weather just before they went extinct some 65 million years ago, he said.

    "Knowing how these animals coped over the past millions of years will give us clues to what is going to happen over the next thousand years," he said. "That is why there has been more recent interest in biology of these animals." E-mail to a friend


    Okay so maybe the point of the study was not to determine if the T-rex could outrun the popular soccer star David Beckham. But why did they put that in the title? To get people like me to read it, and I felt for it and now you did to



    Posted by TJ on Tuesday August 7, 2007 @ 11:25 AM
    [Tags: news, opinion, internet]

    The Wallstreet Journal is trying to get into the technology market...

    ...and they failed.

    Below is an article from the Wallstreet Journal<(WSJ.com)


    Office Technology
    Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You
    By VAUHINI VARA
    July 30, 2007; Page R1

    Admit it: For many of us, our work computer is a home away from home.

    It seems only fair, since our home computer is typically an office away from the office. So in between typing up reports and poring over spreadsheets, we use our office PCs to keep up with our lives. We do birthday shopping, check out funny clips on YouTube and catch up with friends by email or instant message.

    And often it's just easier to accomplish certain tasks using consumer technology than using the sometimes clunky office technology our company gives us -- compare Gmail with a corporate email account.


    Security expert Mark Lobel of PricewaterhouseCoopers describes the most common things employees do on the internet to jeopardize company security.
    There's only one problem with what we're doing: Our employers sometimes don't like it. Partly, they want us to work while we're at work. And partly, they're afraid that what we're doing compromises the company's computer network -- putting the company at risk in a host of ways. So they've asked their information-technology departments to block us from bringing our home to work.

    End of story? Not so fast. To find out whether it's possible to get around the IT departments, we asked Web experts for some advice. Specifically, we asked them to find the top 10 secrets our IT departments don't want us to know. How to surf to blocked sites without leaving any traces, for instance, or carry on instant-message chats without having to download software.

    But, to keep everybody honest, we also turned to security pros to learn just what chances we take by doing an end run around the IT department.

    For hacking advice, we asked Gina Trapani, editor of Lifehacker.com, an online guide to being more productive on the Web; Leon Ho, editor of Lifehack.org, a blog with a similar mission; and Mark Frauenfelder, founder of the wide-ranging blog BoingBoing.net and editor of the do-it-yourself technology magazine Make.

    To find out the risks, we talked to three experts who make a living helping IT departments make the rules and track down the rogue employees who break them. They are: John Pironti, chief information risk strategist at Amsterdam-based IT-consulting firm Getronics NV; Mark Lobel, a security expert in PricewaterhouseCoopers's advisory practice; and Craig Schmugar, a threat researcher at security-software maker McAfee Inc.

    * * *
    1. HOW TO SEND GIANT FILES

    The Problem: Everybody needs to email big files from time to time, everything from big marketing presentations to vacation photos. But if you send anything larger than a few megabytes, chances are you'll get an email saying you've hit the company's limit.

    Companies cap the amount of data employees can send and store in email for a very simple reason: They want to avoid filling up their servers, and thus slowing them down, says messaging-research firm Osterman Research Inc., of Black Diamond, Wash. And getting your company to increase your email limit can be a convoluted process.

    The Trick: Use online services such as YouSendIt Inc., SendThisFile Inc. and Carson Systems Ltd.'s DropSend, which let you send large files -- sometimes up to a few gigabytes in size -- free of charge. To use the services, you typically have to register, supplying personal information such as name and email address. You can then enter the recipient's email address and a message to him or her, and the site will give you instructions for uploading the file. In most cases, the site will send the recipient a link that he or she can click to download the file.


    Because these services send your files over the Web, they're outside of your company's control. That makes it easier for a wily hacker to intercept files during their travels.

    How to Stay Safe: Some of the services are more reputable than others. YouSendIt, for instance, is a start-up run by a former Adobe Systems Inc. executive and funded by well-known venture-capital firms. Others offer little information on their sites about themselves and could be more susceptible to security holes that could let a hacker steal your information.

    If the site's backers aren't immediately apparent, there are other clues that can help. Look for a "secure" icon -- in Internet Explorer, it's a little lock on the bottom of the screen -- which signifies that the site is using encryption to protect its visitors' confidential information. A logo from a security company such as VeriSign Inc., meanwhile, means VeriSign has confirmed the identity of the site's owner.

    * * *
    2. HOW TO USE SOFTWARE THAT YOUR COMPANY WON'T LET YOU DOWNLOAD

    The Problem: Many companies require that employees get permission from the IT department to download software. But that can be problematic if you're trying to download software that your IT department has blacklisted.

    The Trick: There are two easy ways around this: finding Web-based alternatives or bringing in the software on an outside device.

    The first is easier. Say your company won't let you download the popular AOL Instant Messenger program, from Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit. You can still instant-message with colleagues and friends using a Web-based version of the service called AIM Express (AIM.com/aimexpress.adp). There's also Google Inc.'s instant-messaging service, Google Talk, accessible at Google.com/talk. There are Web-based equivalents of software such as music players and videogames, too -- typically, skimpier versions with fewer features than the regular programs.

    The other approach to this problem is more involved but gives you access to actual software programs on your computer. All three of our experts pointed to a company called Rare Ideas LLC (RareIdeas.com), which offers free versions of popular programs such as Firefox and OpenOffice. You can download the software onto a portable device like an iPod or a USB stick, through a service called Portable Apps (PortableApps.com). Then hook the device up to your work computer, and you're ready to go. (But if your company blocks you from using external devices, you're out of luck.)

    The Risk: Using Web-based services can be a strain on your company's resources. And bringing in software on outside devices can present a security problem. IT departments like to keep track of all the software used by employees, so that if a bug or other security problem arises, they can easily put fixes in place. That's not the case if you've brought the program in on your own.

    Another thing to keep in mind: Some less reputable software programs, especially underground file-sharing programs, could come loaded with spyware and make it possible for your own files to leak onto the Web.

    How to Stay Safe: If you bring in software on an outside device, says Mr. Lobel, make sure you at least tweak the security settings on your computer's antivirus software so that it scans the device for potential threats. That's easy to do, usually through an Options or Settings menu. Likewise, if you use a file-sharing service, set it up so that others can't access your own files, also through an Options or Settings area.

    * * *
    3. HOW TO VISIT THE WEB SITES YOUR COMPANY BLOCKS

    The Problem: Companies often block employees from visiting certain sites -- ranging from the really nefarious (porn) to probably bad (gambling) to mostly innocuous (Web-based email services).

    The Trick: Even if your company won't let you visit those sites by typing their Web addresses into your browser, you can still sometimes sneak your way onto them. You travel to a third-party site, called a proxy, and type the Web address you want into a search box. Then the proxy site travels to the site you want and displays it for you -- so you can see the site without actually visiting it. Proxy.org, for one, features a list of more than 4,000 proxies.

    Another way to accomplish the same thing, from Mr. Frauenfelder and Ms. Trapani: Use Google's translation service, asking it to do an English-to-English translation. Just enter this -- Google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.blockedsite.com -- replacing "blockedsite.com" with the Web address of the site you want to visit. Google effectively acts as a proxy, calling up the site for you.

    The Risk: If you use a proxy to, say, catch up on email or watch a YouTube video, the main risk is getting caught by your boss. But there are scarier security risks: Online bad guys sometimes buy Web addresses that are misspellings of popular sites, then use them to infect visitors' computers, warns Mr. Lobel. Companies often block those sites, too -- but you won't be protected from them if you use a proxy.

    How to Stay Safe: Don't make a habit of using proxies for all your Web surfing. Use them only to visit specific sites that your company blocks for productivity-related reasons -- say, YouTube. And watch your spelling.

    * * *
    4. HOW TO CLEAR YOUR TRACKS ON YOUR WORK LAPTOP

    The Problem: If you use a company-owned laptop at home, chances are you use it for personal tasks: planning family vacations, shopping for beach books, organizing online photo albums and so on. Many companies reserve the right to monitor all that activity, because the laptops are technically their property. So what happens if your -- ahem -- friend accidentally surfs onto a porn site or does a Web search for some embarrassing ailment?

    The Trick: The latest versions of the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers both make it easy to clear your tracks. In IE7, click on Tools, then Delete Browsing History. From there, you can either delete all your history by clicking Delete All or choose one or a few kinds of data to delete. In Firefox, just hit Ctrl-Shift-Del -- or click Clear Private Data under the Tools menu.

    The Risk: Even if you clear your tracks, you still face risks from roaming all over the Web. You could unintentionally install spyware on your computer from visiting a sketchy site or get your boss involved in legal problems for your behavior. If you're caught, it could mean (at best) embarrassment or (at worst) joblessness.

    How to Stay Safe: Clear your private data as often as possible. Better yet, don't use your work computer to do anything you wouldn't want your boss to know about.

    * * *
    5. HOW TO SEARCH FOR YOUR WORK DOCUMENTS FROM HOME

    The Problem: You're catching up on work late at night or over the weekend -- but the documents you need to search through are stuck on your office PC.

    The Trick: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask unit have all released software that lets you quickly search your desktop documents. On top of that, some will let you search through documents saved on one computer from another one. How does it work? The search company keeps a copy of your documents on its own server. So it can scan those copies when you do a search remotely.

    To use Google's software -- among the most popular -- follow these steps on both your work and home PC. First, you'll need to set up a Google account on both machines by visiting Google.com/accounts. (Be sure to use the same account on both computers.) Then go to Desktop.Google.com to download the search software. When it's up and running -- again, do this on both machines -- click on Desktop Preferences, then Google Account Features. From there, check the box next to Search Across Computers. After that point, any document you open on either machine will be copied to Google's servers -- and will be searchable from either machine.

    The Risk: Corporate technology managers offer this nightmare scenario: You've saved top-secret financial information on your work PC. You set up desktop-search software so that you can access those files when working from home on your laptop. Then you lose your laptop. Uh-oh.

    Getting hold of your company's internal documents could give others insight into your plans, and losing certain information could have legal repercussions. In particular, myriad state laws regulate how a company has to react when it loses private information about customers or employees; most require notifying those people about the breach in writing. Sending those notifications can be costly for your company -- not to mention damaging to its reputation.

    On top of that threat, researchers have found vulnerabilities in Google's desktop-search software that could let a hacker trick a user into giving up access to files, says Mr. Schmugar of McAfee. (Those vulnerabilities have since been fixed, but more could crop up, he says.)

    Matt Glotzbach, product management director for Google Enterprise, says there are bound to be vulnerabilities in any software and that, to the best of his knowledge, none of the Google Desktop vulnerabilities were exploited by hackers. He adds that when Google finds out about a vulnerability, it quickly fixes it and notifies users.

    How to Stay Safe: If you have any files on your work PC that shouldn't be made public, ask your IT administrator to help you set up Google Desktop to avoid accidental leaks.

    * * *
    6. HOW TO STORE WORK FILES ONLINE

    The Problem: Desktop search aside, most people who often work away from the office have come up with their own solution to getting access to work files. They save them on a disk or a portable device and then plug it into a home computer. Or they store the files on the company network, then access the network remotely. But portable devices can be cumbersome, and company-network connections can be slow and unreliable.

    The Trick: Use an online-storage service from the likes of Box.net Inc., Streamload Inc. or AOL-owned Xdrive. (Box.net also offers its service inside the social-networking site Facebook.) Most offer some free storage, from one to five gigabytes, and charge a few dollars a month for premium packages with extra space. Another guerrilla storage solution is to email files to your private, Web-based email account, such as Gmail or Hotmail.

    The Risk: A bad guy could steal your password for one of these sites and quickly grab copies of your company's sensitive files.

    How to Stay Safe: When you're thinking about storing a file online, ask yourself if it would be OK for that file to be splashed all over the Internet or sent to the CEO of your company's top rival. If so, go for it. If not, don't.

    * * *
    7. HOW TO KEEP YOUR PRIVACY WHEN USING WEB EMAIL

    The Problem: Many companies now have the ability to track employees' emails, both on work email accounts and personal Web-based accounts, as well as IM conversations.

    The Trick: When you send emails -- using either your work or personal email address -- you can encrypt them, so that only you and the recipient can read them. In Microsoft Outlook, click on Tools, then Options and choose the Security tab. There, you can enter a password -- and nobody can open a note from you without supplying it. (Of course, you'll have to tell people the code beforehand.)

    For Web-based personal email, try this trick from Mr. Frauenfelder: When checking email, add an "s" to the end of the "http" in front of your email provider's Web address -- for instance, https://www.Gmail.com. This throws you into a secure session, so that nobody can track your email. Not all Web services may support this, however.

    To encrypt IM conversations, meanwhile, try the IM service Trillian from Cerulean Studios LLC, which lets you connect to AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and others -- and lets you encrypt your IM conversations so that they can't be read.

    The Risk: The main reason companies monitor email is to catch employees who are leaking confidential information. By using these tricks, you may set off false alarms and make it harder for the IT crew to manage real threats.

    How to Stay Safe: Use these tricks only occasionally, instead of as a default.

    * * *
    8. HOW TO ACCESS YOUR WORK EMAIL REMOTELY WHEN YOUR COMPANY WON'T SPRING FOR A BLACKBERRY

    The Problem: Anyone without a BlackBerry knows the feeling: There's a lull in the conversation when you're out to dinner or an after-work beer, and everyone reaches for their pocket to grab their BlackBerry, leaving you alone to stir your drink.

    The Trick: You, too, can stay up to date on work email, using any number of consumer-oriented hand-held devices. Just set up your work email so that all your emails get forwarded to your personal email account.

    In Microsoft Outlook, you can do this by right-clicking on any email, choosing Create Rule, and asking that all your email be forwarded to another address. Then, set up your hand-held to receive your personal email, by following instructions from the service provider for your hand-held. (That's the company that sends you your bill.)

    The Risk: Now, not only can hackers break into your personal account by going online on a computer, they can also break into it by exploiting security vulnerabilities on your mobile device.

    How to Stay Safe: There's a kosher way to access work email on some devices, by getting passwords and other information from your IT department.

    * * *
    9. HOW TO ACCESS YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL ON YOUR BLACKBERRY

    The Problem: If you do have a BlackBerry, you've probably got a different problem: You want to get your personal email just as easily as work email.

    The Trick: Look at the Settings area of your personal email account, and make sure you've enabled POP -- Post Office Protocol -- a method used to retrieve email from elsewhere. Then log in to the Web site for your BlackBerry service provider. Click on the Profile button, look for the Email Accounts section and click on Other Email Accounts. Then click Add Account and enter the information for your Web-based email account. Now your personal emails will pop up on the same screen as your company email.

    The Risk: Your company probably uses a whole bunch of security technology to keep viruses and spies out of your files. When you receive personal email on your BlackBerry, it's coming to you without passing through your company's firewall. That means viruses or spyware could sneak onto your BlackBerry via a personal email, says Mr. Schmugar of McAfee. Worse yet, he says, when you plug your BlackBerry into your work computer, there's a chance that the malicious software could jump onto your hard drive.

    How to Stay Safe: Cross your fingers and hope that your personal email provider is doing a decent job weeding out viruses, spyware and other intruders. (Chances are, it is.)

    * * *
    10. HOW TO LOOK LIKE YOU'RE WORKING

    The Problem: You're doing some vital Web surfing and your boss turns the corner. What do you do?

    The Trick: Hit Alt-Tab to quickly minimize one window (say, the one where you're browsing ESPN.com) and maximize another (like that presentation that's due today).

    The Risk: The good news is that there are no known security risks.

    How to Stay Safe: Get back to work.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118539543272477927.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report
      There are several problems with this article
    • Wallstreet Journal is for wallstreet not h4ck3rs 4 dummies.
    • The wallstreet articles should be professional and not a guide how to circumvent your companies internal security measures.
    • It is not good advice to put confindential files up on a website for download.
    • A person who wants to keep their job should not upload their companies files to a third party website for searching while they are at home with out permission by their employers.
    • Some of these "hints" could lead to violations of the Sarbanes Oxley act. Sections 302(a)(4) and 404 require a public company to make disclosures and certifications to the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the company's system of internal controls.

    I think WSJ should stick with Wallstreet.






    Posted by TJ on Wednesday August 1, 2007 @ 05:08 PM
    [Tags: news, guide]

    It always amazes me how much news comes out of New York. It seems like 70% of the news stories I read from CNN or MSNBC seem to be from either NYC or some odd town in upstate NY. Well I decided to some "Goosearch" to help prove my hypothesis. First, lets define "Goosearch" as some of you may not know what it refers to (I just made it up): Goosearch is using the quantity of results for a specific phrase to prove the popularity or every day usage in culture of a term.

    So lets start

    All research was done using the Google News Search Engine (http://news.google.com)

    Which state is the most newsworthy?

    "New York" 388,538 results
    "New Jersey" 46,400 results
    "texas" 133,429 results
    "California" 154,006 results
    Florida 114,298
    Wyoming 10,388


    Looks like New York is the most news worthy state by far. New York had 100% more results than the California which was the nearest contender.


    However, unlike many other state's New York's largest city, "New York City" also has the state's name in it so could this scewing results?

    A search for all news articles including "New York" but not "New York City" returns 347,383 results, not significantly different for a search for just "New York"
    See for yourself: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&um=1&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=%22new+york%22+-%22new+york+city%22


    Is New York City the most popular city in the world?

    Manhattan - 31,600 results
    manhattan OR bronx OR queens OR Brooklyn - 60,554 results
    New York city - 42,218
    manhattan OR bronx OR queens OR Brooklyn OR "New York City" 90,820 results



    Posted by TJ on Wednesday June 6, 2007 @ 11:16 PM
    [Tags: news, law, humor]

    Some one from the sellers of this energy drink must of urged this guy to file this suit. Just think of the sales increase.


    A man has sued the maker of the health drink Boost Plus, claiming the vitamin-enriched beverage gave him an erection that would not go away and caused him to be hospitalized.

    The lawsuit filed by Christopher Woods of Manhattan said he drank the nutrition beverage, which is made by the Novartis pharmaceutical company on June 5th, 2004.

    Novartis' Boost Plus Web site describes the drink as "a great tasting, high calorie, nutritionally complete oral supplement for people who require extra energy and protein in a limited volume."

    Woods' court papers say he woke up the next morning "with an erection that would not subside" and sought treatment of the condition. The 29-year-old says he underwent surgery that day for implantation of a Winter shunt, which moves blood from one area to another.

    The lawsuit, filed late Monday, says Woods had problems that required a hospital visit and medical procedures to close blood vessels on his penis.

    Woods' lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. A spokeswoman for the drug company says the company did not comment on pending litigation.

    source: http://www.myfoxny.com/


    I'm out to get me some now... ah maybe not