Category: News

My take on news from around the world…

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RFID and Mythbusters

You’re probably familiar with Mythbusters, a show on the Discovery Channel that tries to debunk urban legends and other myths using scientific experiments. Well, it seems that the show’s producers wanted to do a piece on RFID, the tiny, controversial microchips that are increasingly coming into use on credit cards, passports and other items. According to Mythbusters’ Adam Savage, the show was ready to expose “the weak security behind most RFID implementations but was shut down by lawyers from ‘American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else… [who] absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode'”.

Check out his comments about it on YouTube:

Scary… but why can’t the credit card companies simply take the money they’re giving to their lawyers and give it to their engineers instead, so that they could actually, you know… fix the problem?

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R.I.P. Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed, country music and film star and an Atlanta native, has passed away at the age of 71.

Reed, a talented guitarist, was best known for his movie roles in the Smokey and the Bandit films and Gator, as well his country music hits like “East Bound and Down” and “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot”.

Yahoo! reports that the star died of “complications from emphysema”.

Goodbye, Snowman! You’ll be missed!

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Ricardo Colclough: Oooooops!

Former Pittsburgh Steeler Ricardo Colclough was arrested for DUI here in Charlotte at 2:35am Saturday morning.

Colclough, who won a Super Bowl ring as part of the 2005 Steeler team, was released by Pittsburgh in 2007 after playing three games. He was then picked up by the Cleveland Browns, who kept him for the rest of the 2007-2008 season. Released by the Browns, Colclough came to Charlotte, where he seemed to be assured a spot as a backup cornerback and kick returner for the Panthers.

Unfortunately, the arrest couldn’t have come at a worse time for Colclough, coming on the very weekend when all NFL teams have to trim their rosters from 76 to 53 players. The Panthers have apparently released Colclough, and mainly because of the DUI. Interestingly, the arrest came less than a day after Colclough recovered a fumble in a preseason game against… the Pittsburgh Steelers. Perhaps he was out partying with old friends? Couldn’t someone have picked up the tab for a taxi?

If you’re bored today, why not head over to this Mecklenburg County website and look up his arrest record, complete with the mug shot shown above. You can search using his name, or PID #: 0000364673  JID #: 08-069265

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It’s Finally Happened!

How bad are things in the airline industry? So bad the regional Canadian airline Jazz has decided to ditch life vests as a cost-saving move. Jazz can get away with it because Canadian regulations say that seat cushions are sufficient if the planes stay within 50 miles of the shore.

Jazz spokeswhore Manon Stuart said: “We used to carry both the flotation device, which is the seat cushion, as well as life vests. The nature of our operations doesn’t require that we carry both”. But Newfoundland politician Woody French disagrees: “They are going to save about 50 pounds [per flight]. Taking off 50 pounds is not going to make a hell of a lot of difference to the fuel consumption”. Mr French has been trying to get the Canadian parliament to pass a “passenger’s bill of rights” for beleaguered travelers in our neighbor to the north.

I can’t say that I disagree with him on this one. I just hope the American carriers don’t hear about this. The next thing you know, they’ll be taking out the oxygen tanks too!

Read the sad, sad tale here.

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Enzyte Guy Gets 25 Years

Smiling BobBreaking news from The Consumerist:

Steve Warshak, the founder of the company that makes (made?) Enzyte, a male enhancement “drug”, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined $93,000. Additionally, Warshak’s company has been ordered to refund $500 million to consumers ripped off by the company.

Everyone I know assumed that the product didn’t work. After all, if it did, they’d be selling it at every convenience store and pharmacy in the United States. The thing is, Warshak knew it didn’t work from the very beginning. It was an out and out scam, and Warshak and company made it as difficult as possible to get a refund. According to a former VP that testified against Warshak, the company would go so far as to require notarized documents from a doctor proving that the customer had small genitals in order to get a refund; knowing that few men would willingly go to a doctor and ask them to sign a note saying they had a small penis, the company was able to bilk millions of men out of millions of dollars.

It’s too bad Enzyte doesn’t work. Steve will need it where he’s going!

Read all about it here.

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Bourdain Interviewed

The Times Record News (of Wichita Falls, Texas, of all places!) has posted a great interview with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain here. In it, Bourdain discusses the places he visits, how the show is filmed, what he thinks is wrong with American cuisine, and even talks about how he’s tired of bashing on Rachel Ray.

Here’s a brief excerpt, where he’s asked what he’d do if Rachel Ray came to him and asked for his help with her cooking technique:

Q: So if she came to you and said, “Tony, help me get better,” what would you say?

A: She doesn’t have to ask me! Read (expletive) Julia Child or Ina Garten! You know, it’s not like she doesn’t have a template here. Just take a half hour and tune in Ina Garten. I may not want to hang out with Ina all weekend, either. We’re not the same kind of people at all. I have nothing in common with her other than the fact that when Ina Garten cooks, she’s cookin’ correct.

Read the interview in full here.

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Don’t Get Scammed!

The folks over at Windows Live posted this handy guide that helps you identify email scams.

None of the information is new, and there’s nothing in it that you probably haven’t come across a hundred times in your own inbox. Still, the information is nice to have.

Maybe you can forward a link to your less tech-savvy friends and relatives?

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Those Crazy Italians!

Ever wonder why Italian-Americans pronounce mozzarella as “muzzarell”, prosciutto as “pro-SHOOT”, calzones as “cal-ZONEs” and pasta e fagioli as “pasta fasul”?

It seems that the “official” Italian dialect comes from Florence, where people do, in fact, pronounce prosciutto as “pro-SHOOT-toe” and pasta e fagioli as “PAH-stah eh faj-YOH-lee”. However, most of the Italians that migrated to the United States came from southern Italy, where the alternate pronounciations you often hear in The Sopranos and Martin Scorsese films are common.

This article from the New York Times is really worth the read and will further clear up the mystery.

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Steal Microsoft Office!

A while back, Microsoft offered “The Ultimate Steal” – a fully copy of Office 2007 Ultimate (retail price $680) to college students for the low, low price of $59.99. With the fall semester right around the corner, Microsoft has brought the deal back: just click here to get the full details. All you need to get the downloadable software is an email address with an .edu extension and a credit card.

If you’ve already graduated from college, don’t fret: most college alumni associations offer their alums a free .edu address if requested. Check out your alumni assocaition’s website for more details. Once you get your alumni .edu address, head back to Microsoft’s site to order the software.

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Georgia Tech Scores!

The latest US News and World Report college rankings are out, and Georgia Tech is once again at or near the top in most engineering fields. Here’s how the school ranks in the various disciplines:

Aerospace Engineering: #2
Biomedical Engineering: #3
Civil Engineering: #5
Computer Engineering: #6
Electrical Engineering: #5
Environmental Engineering: #6
Industrial Engineering: #1
Materials Engineering: #9
Mechanical Engineering: #4
Overall Best Undergraduate Engineering Program: #5

And just for kicks – and you knew this was coming… Georgia Tech ranks as the #35 school overall in the rankings… while that damn farm school in Athens keeps piling on the weak sauce at #58. I guess the UGA student body is just too tired from slopping the hogs to hit the books!