Facebook privacy - Change these settings today!

So you think you have your Facebook privacy settings all under control?

Well think again:

• Facebook's privacy settings are too complex for ANYONE to use - Change these settings today
• When you share personal data with Facebook friends, you're sharing your personal data with every app your friends use

More Bad News for Anonymous

Hot on the heals of 25 Anonymous members being arrested come new arrests of members of a group within Anonymous called LulzSec.  LulzSec is part of the hardcore of Anonymous and the group has just been decapitated.  These top members were caught after their leader (who was arrested last June) made a deal and cooperated with the FBI in exposing and tracking them down.

I wonder what the rank and file of Anonymous are thinking right now?  Maybe, "Am I next?" or "Should I move to Antarctica?"  The way things are going, Antarctica is probably the only place they could go to avoid arrest.

Exclusive: Infamous international hacking group LulzSec brought down by own leader

More Anonymous criminals get busted

After their DDOS spree on the heals of the Megaupload piracy operation being shut down, dozens of Anonymous members all over the globe have been tracked down and arrested.

While the arrests aren't directly connected to the Megaupload tantrum, here's hoping those idiots who joined in the twisted criminal crusade, not only gave away their banking information but also their IP addresses.

Hey! I know what you could try next - launch DDOS attacks against the web sites of the prisons your members are incarcerated in.  Oh, but wait, do prisons even have web sites?  Are steel bars affected by DDOS attacks?  Or better still, get arrested so you can go join them.

Anonymous hackers become hackees

This is funny!  Apparently there is no "honor amongst thieves" or in this case "criminals".
After a pirating operation called Megaupload was put out of business, the criminals at Anonymous decided to launch attacks on various targets they thought should pay for enforcing the law, such as the U.S. Department of Justice, RIAA, etc.

So some unknown member (aren't they all?) put out a list of attack tools called "Idiot's Guide to Be Anonymous".  And the criminal geniuses downloaded and installed. 

Now here is the funny part - It turns out that one popular attack tool, called "Slowloris", was actually malware.  Someone had inserted the "Zeus" Trojan into it.  So while the happy little Anons attacked their preferred targets, their email account data, bank account data and more was being stolen.  "Idiot's Guide to Be Anonymous" - how very appropriate.

Of all the things I've seen read about this, my favorite is definitely:

So congratulations script kiddies, I'm sure the satisfaction of knocking a few websites offline for a couple of hours in that online tantrum was totally worth opening your collective wallets to the Internet. I'm equally sure that whichever slick sumbitch that inserted the Zeus and effortlessly exploited your blind, slavering, eagerness to be part of the crowd shares your high-minded ideals about IP protection policies.  (from Gizmodo)

Anonymous supporters attacked, their bank data vulnerable

Anonymous Members Hacked During Their Own DDoS Attacks

Would you like suicide with your fries?

You have to wonder at our culture when a restaurant uses as its main method of marketing, the fact that its food is not just unhealthy but actually dangerous.

Seriously, the "Heart Attack Grill" in Las Vegas doesn't just pretend that it's food is fine (like McDonalds pretends) but it actually promotes the fact that it is serving dangerous foods and warns you that its food will kill you.  Their slogan is "Taste Worth Dying For."

It's all very funny and of course no one takes it seriously.  Until a customer has a heart attack while eating the "Triple Bypass Burger".  If that doesn't give you some idea of how unhealthy their food is then how about the fact that their 29 year old, 575 lb spokesperson died last year.

"But I don't eat that kind of food," I hear you say.  Well, if you are living in North America or Western Europe, then I have an 90% chance of being right if I say - "Yes you do."  Perhaps you don't eat an 8,000 calorie (that's about 4 days worth of calories for an average person) "Quadruple Bypass Burger" everyday, but you probably regularly eat what goes into one.

If you are interested in building a healthy future for yourself and don't want to end your days like 90% of others in the West, with a heart attack, cancer or from the side-effects of diabetes or the many other degenerative diseases caused by our diets then read this book: Eat to Live."

And if you don't care then good luck, and remember to think the same thought as the WWI soldiers as they ran towards the machine guns: "I'll be okay, it's the other guys who'll get mowed down."

(Thanks to Emily Boller for drawing my attention to the article.)

FTC launches investigation of Google

More scrutiny for Google. I hope it starts to filter through to people sometime soon that Google is a publicly traded corporation that is just like any other profit making entity. First and foremost they are there to make a profit for their shareholders and they will do whatever they need to to make that profit.

They are as ethical/unethical as any other such corporation. So keep that in mind when you use their services.

Here is the story: FTC launches investigation of Google.

How to get healthy

Great video on the health and bad-health effects of food and how to improve your diet:

Google is at it again

Google just seems to love violating people's privacy.

Google deflects PR firm's attack of Gmail privacy

Google Monopoly Under More Pressure to Obey the Law

Google lost an important case related to their continuing effort to violate more copyrights than any entity in the history of the world: Judge echoes Google critics in digital book ruling.

You'd think they would have gotten the message by now that people don't want their books put online without their permission, but Google just doesn't seem to get it.

Clearly, part of the drive to put all books online is the intention to drive more people to Google's site and bump up their advertising revenue. But that's not something you'll hear from Google. Oh, no. All you hear from them is how philanthropic the whole effort is. Yeah right.

Blowing the Whistle on Big Pharma

This is an awesome video! An ex-pharmaceutical drug rep tells you the truth about the intentions of big pharma:

Top Ten Violence Inducing Drugs

A survey of the FDA adverse reactions database has produced a list of the top ten prescription drugs linked to violent behavior. You can see the list here: Study reveals top ten violence-inducing prescription drugs.

Not surprisingly the majority of the top ten are anti-depressants and all but one of the rest are psychiatric or psychiatric type drugs.

So next time you see an ad for the latest wonder drug that will save you from some terrible mental problem (addiction to cigarettes, depression, ADHD, etc.) realize that it's an ad. It's not reality. The reality is the FDA adverse reactions database.

Trouble with Google

This is bad news and possible good news at the same time.

Google has a virtual monopoly on search. One sign of this is that there are people who blog exclusively about how to SEO Google and ignore everyone else because "everyone else" has such a low market share.

But last year, Google's search results began to deteriorate and it has been noticed: Trouble In the House of Google.

I sort of noticed it myself because a month or so ago I got fed up with not finding what I wanted on Google and I switched to Bing as my primary search provider.

So on the one hand, it is bad news that search results from "the" search engine are deteriorating but on the other hand maybe it will mean the end of the Google monopoly and the start of more options. Personally I'd like to see more choices.

Invictus

I just saw the movie Invictus. The name is Latin for "unconquered, unconquerable, undefeated" and is the title of the very inspiring poem that helped Nelson Mandela survive 30 years of imprisonment by the apartheid regime in South Africa. The movie is very inspiring also.

I knew that Nelson Mandela was a remarkable man, but after seeing this movie I realize that he is not only an amazing statesman but also an incredible human being.

For me, one line in particular from the movie sums up Nelson Mandela: The night after visiting the prison where Mandela was held for 30 years and seeing the tiny cell he lived in and the yard where he did hard labor, the captain of the South African Rugby Team is staring out of his hotel window when his wife asks him what he is thinking about and he says, "I was thinking how a man could spend thirty years in prison, and come out and forgive the men who did it to him..."

I highly recommend the movie.

Oh, and the poem, Invictus:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley 1849 - 1902

Big Pharma is lower key, but still in control at Psychiatric Convention

As reported in the article, No Free Pens But Pharma Influence Still Felt at Psychiatric Meeting, Big Pharma is trying to be less noticeable, but is still in control of the psychiatric industry.

Google getting in more trouble over privacy violations

I'm not particularly anti-Google, but when a for-profit company tries to put itself forward as primarily a public benefit entity, then I don't like it.

For many years the persona that has been promoted for Google has been one of anti-corporate and pro-user. They try to make themselves seem like "one of the boys". But the truth is that Google is in it for the money. An alarming example of this is the personal data harvesting activities that the Google Maps Street Scenes photographing cars were engaged in. Many countries around the world are now investigating Google for this.

So don't fall for it. If a company wants to be a public benefit entity then they need to change to a non-profit status and act accordingly.

Google's Wi-Fi data harvest facing more probes, lawsuits

And you thought "Men who stare at goats" was bad

The movie "Men who stare at goats" was not very good. It had great potential - based on a true story of the military trying out "psychic warriors" - but it never delivered on the humor. However, we find that reality - what the military and the CIA were really up to - is even weirder and far worse than anything in the movie.

New documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that "human experiments … not easily justifiable on medical-therapeutic grounds" were not a problem for the CIA and its willing accomplices in the psychiatric community. Experimenting on unwitting subjects? No problemo. Pentagon officials are said to have “work[ed] directly with the CIA” and dosed “thousands” of military subjects with LSD and other drugs.

And what has changed to make us think they ever stopped?

Read more at: Chemical Concussions and Secret LSD: Pentagon Details Cold War Mind-Control Tests

Don't get complacent about Privacy

Google is in the news again for privacy violations. Seems their cars that went around photographing your neighborhood so they could show them on Google Maps were also recording your personal Wi-Fi traffic.

Now that they have been found out they are very apologetic, but the point is that they did it.

It just goes to show that you can't relax when it come to privacy on the Internet. And you can't regard any company as totally trustworthy.

Google apologizes for grabbing personal info off of Wi-Fi networks

How to screw up a scientific study

All too often the media publicizes the findings of a study without any sort of thought or logical analysis. A scientist says "this study shows that ..." and the press mindlessly repeats it. Never mind that the interpretation of the data is incorrect, a scientist said it, therefore it is gospel.

It reminds me of the middle ages where anything a priest said was blindly believed.

What this is all leading to is my comment on the recent idiotic media reports that fruits and vegetables provide only modest protection from cancer. Despite 50 years of research and over 15,000 studies that prove that fruits and vegetables provide major protection from cancer, a single, poorly executed and poorly interpreted study says otherwise and the media trumpets it. It just goes to show that you really have to pay attention and question everything.

For an accurate analysis of that recent study: Fruits and vegetables provide only modest protection from cancer?

Food: Healthy or Unhealthy

Which foods promote health and which don't? Here is an article that gives you some accurate, science based data. I think you will be surprised.

What are true health-promoting and disease-promoting foods?

The big question: Organic or Conventional?

Some people swear by organic produce, others say there is little or no difference between organic and conventional. Here is an article that helps clarify the issue: Which foods should we buy organic?