Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

“I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,” said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. “It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”

Representatives of other large Internet and telecommunications companies expressed concerns about the bill in a teleconference with Rockefeller’s aides this week, but were not immediately available for interviews on Thursday.

A spokesman for Rockefeller also declined to comment on the record Thursday, saying that many people were unavailable because of the summer recess. A Senate source familiar with the bill compared the president’s power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when grounding all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001. The source said that one primary concern was the electrical grid, and what would happen if it were attacked from a broadband connection.

he new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” compu

via Bill would give president emergency control of Internet | Politics and Law – CNET News.

What a fantastic idea! In fact, let’s give the president emergency control of your Autonomic nervous system too.

The brain is on the verge of becoming the next battlefield with weapons currently being designed to hack directly into your nervous system.” according to impactlab.com.

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Japan’s new first lady says rode UFO to Venus

Japan’s next prime minister might be nicknamed “the alien,” but it’s his wife who claims to have had a close encounter with another world.

“While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus,” Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama, wrote in a book published last year.

“It was a very beautiful place and it was really green.”

Yukio Hatoyama is due to be voted in as premier on September 16 following his party’s crushing election victory over the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday.

Miyuki, 66, described the extraterrestrial experience, which she said took place some 20 years ago, in a book entitled “Very Strange Things I’ve Encountered.”

When she awoke, Japan’s next first lady wrote, she told her now ex-husband that she had just been to Venus. He advised her that it was probably just a dream.

“My current husband has a different way of thinking,” she wrote. “He would surely say ‘Oh, that’s great’.”

Yukio Hatoyama, 62, the rich grandson of a former prime minister, was once nicknamed “the alien” for his prominent eyes.

Miyuki, also known for her culinary skills, spent six years acting in the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theater group. She met the U.S.-educated Yukio while living in America.

via Japan’s new first lady says rode UFO to Venus | U.S. | Reuters.

If you’ve had a ride in a black triangle, especially outside of Earth’s atmosphere, please leave a comment and tell us what it was like.

Prehistoric monster terrorises kids in the Ganges

Indian paleontologists are heading to Calcutta in West Bengal after locals claimed to have fished a prehistoric Coelacanth out of the water.

Coelacanths were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period until the first specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa in 1938.

Since then they have been found in the Comoros, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar.

But the experts are trying to work out how what would be the biggest ever Coelacanth specimen weighing 320 kilos came to be floating down the Ganges.

The fish, eight feet long and three feet wide, had a cut on its stomach and some of the fins had been torn free.

Official stands by kids who raised the alarm saying: “Initially we thought that a big sea animal was coming to devour us, it was only when we got out the water we realised it was dead.”

Experts believe that if it is a Coelacanth in the fish may have been caught and dumped by fishermen as it almost worthless because the flesh exudes oils even when dead, giving the flesh a foul flavour and a disgusting smell.

via Prehistoric monster terrorises kids in the Ganges – Around the World – Austrian Times.

Paris mayoral feud blocks street

There has been traffic chaos in two Paris suburbs after their feuding mayors declared the same busy road one-way, but in opposite directions.

Patrick Balkany, the conservative mayor of Levallois-Perret, initially made the D909 one-way to reduce the amount of commuter traffic through his district.

But Gilles Catoire, the Socialist mayor of neighbouring Clichy-la-Garenne, said this increased congestion in his area.

He made his section of the road one-way in the opposite direction.

With the contradictory road-signs in place, the unsurprising result was gridlock, prompting the deployment of municipal and national police to direct traffic away from the area.

“What Clichy has done is not a long-term solution, but it is a response to a unilateral decision by the town of Levallois,” Clichy’s deputy mayor, Alain Fournier, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

But Mr Balkany insisted: “The mayor of Clichy has taken a position that is unreasonable and is hurting his own constituents.”

Thousands of motorists pass between the two suburbs each day on their way into and out of the French capital.

via BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Paris mayoral feud blocks street.

Armless Man Irked Over Thumbprint Rule

A Florida man born without arms said a Tampa-area bank would not let him cash a check because he could not provide a thumbprint.

Steve Valdez didn’t have an account at a Bank of America location in downtown Tampa, where he tried to cash a check from his wife last week. However, Valdez has prosthetic arms and is unable to provide a thumbprint. He said he presented two forms of identification but was still denied.

Valdez said a bank manager told him that he could either come back to the bank with his wife or open an account himself.

A Bank of America representative said the bank has apologized to Valdez and should have offered alternative requirements if an individual is not able to give a thumbprint.

via Armless Man Irked Over Thumbprint Rule – Orlando News Story – WESH Orlando.

Make the most of it. None of us get to choose with what we are born.

Darwin City Council traffic wardens book dog for parking

A DOG has been booked for illegal parking.

The blue heeler was tied to a fence outside Rapid Creek Market when it was approached by two Darwin City Council traffic wardens.

One of the inspectors wrote out a ticket – and taped it to the dog’s lead.

Witness Ray McEvoy said he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“I watched an elderly lady and her very faithful blue heeler roll up at the market,” he said.

“The lady tied the dog to the fence and gave him a bowl full of water.

“And off she went into the markets.

“Then two traffic inspectors came along. They had a bit of a talk and, to my amazement, wrote out a warning infringement notice for the dog and taped it to his lead rope.”

Mr McEvoy said the dog was tied to a fence well away from the foodstalls.

“It was on a path rarely used,” he said. “And the owner made sure the dog was in the shade.

“It wasn’t in distress at all. In fact, it was the most placid blue heeler I’ve seen in my life.”

via Darwin City Council traffic wardens book dog for parking | The Courier-Mail.

Well, there’s your problem right there. It’s the name. See, no one has ever heard of a “placid blue heeler”, have they? So, it makes sense that some parking inspector could become confused and believe the dog was a car.

French savers seek to milk cows for cash

With interest rates at record lows and banks still tarnished by the financial crisis, some French savers are returning to grass roots and pumping money into cows.While France’s most popular savings account, the Livret A, offers returns of little more than 1 percent, cow owners can expect yields of 4-5 percent a year for an initial investment of around 1,200 euros 1,060 pounds per animal, promoters say.

Unlike the stock market, this particular cash cow is presented as low-risk, with gains based on the sale of the herd’s calves.Pierre Marguerit, director of Gestel, a company in southeastern France that manages some 30,000 animals on behalf of 1,000 investors, said sales have doubled in the past year.

“You buy one or more cows, which are rented out to professional farmers. Your herd then increases as the years go by. A herd of 20 cows will bring you one extra cow every year, that’s roughly 4-5 percent,” said Marguerit.

Although the birth rate within the herd is higher, a portion of the offspring will make up for deaths, while others are sold off to cover the costs of rearing the animals. However, in a particularly fertile year, the net increase can run as high as 7 percent. – stv

Hard times for Afghan opium farmers as price falls

Growing opium is hardly worth the risk any more for Dost Mohammad, a farmer in Helmand, a province of Afghanistan which by itself produces almost enough opium to satisfy all the heroin addicts on earth.

“Opium farmers benefit nothing from the crops and spend their day and night in misery,” he told Reuters.

“We spend six months in the field working hard, then the government can destroy it in a single day.”

According to the United Nations, prices for opium have plummeted in Afghanistan, causing farmers to switch to other crops, a rare bit of good news for Western efforts in a country where an 8-year-old war is at its most violent.

The paste, produced from the bulbous pods of the poppy flower, is refined to produce heroin and exported around the world.

Two years ago, a farmer growing opium could earn 10 times as much as a farmer growing wheat on the same piece of land. Today, it is only worth three times as much. For many, that means producing the drugs is no longer worth the risk or effort.

According to the U.N.’s annual report into Afghanistan’s drug harvest, 800,000 Afghans abandoned the trade this year. Opium, which accounted for 27 percent of Afghanistan’s economy in 2002, now accounts for just 4 percent.

via Hard times for Afghan opium farmers as price falls | Reuters.

Wolf-Nappers Stealth Fail

Authorities grew suspicious when they noticed two men driving a car with a matching wolf on the roof.

Another painted wolf statue went missing in Abingdon over the weekend – but this time the statue was recovered and two men were arrested.

Bascome Howell, 44, and his brother, Ernie Howell, 37, both of Pine Hill Road, were arrested near the intersection of Reedy Creek and Harleywood roads around 11:20 a.m. Sunday, said Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman.

Ernie Howell was charged with grand larceny and being intoxicated in public. Bascome Howell was charged with accessory to grand larceny, third offense driving under the influence, refusing a breathalyzer test and driving suspended.

The wolf is one of about two dozen painted statues on display around town as public art. They will be auctioned in November as a fundraiser for Advance Abingdon, a downtown development organization.

The wolf taken Sunday from the corner of Cummings and Main streets, titled Anubis Virginius, was the third to be stolen since the wolves were unveiled in June.

The theft was spotted by a town public works employee, who reported it and then followed the vehicle to help police, the sheriff said.

Two wolves disappeared in late June, just after they were put on display, and reappeared days later following a plea by town officials who promised not to charge anyone.

Newman said he does not believe the latest theft is connected to the earlier capers.

Greg Mercier, who took photos of the arrest from across the street Sunday morning said it was “just comical pulling out of the driveway and seeing those guys pulled over and that wolf sitting on the car.”

Myra Cook, tourism director for the town, said she’s “just grateful that it’s back and unharmed.”

“We hope to see those wolves out even past the wolf auction in November,” she said. “We hope that whoever buys them at auction will continue to have them out for the public to enjoy.”

via Wolf-Nappers Collared By Long Leash Of The Law | TriCities.