Feel safer now?

Missile defense workers told to stop surfing porn sites 

A government cybersecurity specialist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because such work is classified, said that many pornographic websites are infected and criminals and foreign intelligence services such as Russia’s use them to gain access to and harvest data from government and corporate computer networks.

“There are great dangers in interacting with any site that has high-quality imagery, whether it’s pornographic or not, or a lot of links,” said Chase Cunningham, chief of cyber analytics at Sterling, Virginia-based Decisive Analytics Corporation, in a telephone interview yesterday.

Using what is called steganography, Cunningham said, a programmer can embed malicious computer code that infects computers, opens ports, steals data or gains access to networks when photos, videos or other files are downloaded.

Oh yeah – it’s also theft, since these pervs are doing their sex thing on company time.

Taxes and income

Curious how much it takes to be in the top 5% of US income earners? Kiplingers provides the answer, based on latest IRS data from 2009 (other sources I Googled show the same numbers)

(Here’s the number of individuals in each category – 1,380,000 top 1%, 7,000,000 top 5% – which includes the 1%ers)

Promise made, promise kept

 

Thanks to me, we’re number one!

US economic “recovery” now weakest in the world, eclipsing even Japan’s “lost decade”.

Fun stats

The reach of the Internet, since last February. Can’t seem to get the full picture, so to speak, posted here, but who knew there were FWIW readers in Mongolia?

New listing in OG that might be of interest

(Representative picture)

9 Quintard, south of the Village, has just been listed for $2.2 million. I haven’t seen the house (the listing claims a renovation was performed back when Hector was a pup) and there’s no mention of a broker open house, but on its face, $2.2 for Quintard Avenue sounds like a pretty good deal.

That word again

 

I blame Bush

U.S. manufacturing “unexpectedly” declines for second-straight month.

If not screaming bargains, at least sane prices

59 Londonderry

59 Londonderry has sold for $1.850 million. I liked this house: good condition, nice yard overlooking the golf course and a pool.

And 6 Meadowbank, Old Greenwich, finally has an accepted offer after three years. It asked $1.699 back in 2009 but it’s a split – level on a grossly undersized lot, so that just wasn’t

6 Meadowbank

going to do it. It finally dropped to $1.350 recently and attracted two offers at least (could have had a third, possibly, from my own clients but we were one day too late). At its new price, it’s no wonder buyers were interested. Split-level or not, the house is in great condition and you can’t beat Meadowbank for a quality location close to the beach. In fact, the house went from being an overpriced blunder to, in my opinion, the best house available in its price range south of the village.

Can’t win for losing

 

Mustn’t substitute the team custodian

Badminton teams disqualified for deliberately throwing matches.

Didn’t realize there was a minimum age requirement for entry to to these shops

12-year-old tasered at Victoria’s Secret. “You ever seen the damage a bra clip can cause?” the taser-happy cop explained, “it was her or me.”

This ought to scare the bejeezus out of establishment pols of both parties

Tea Party candidate whups the Texan Republican’s candidate by 13 points.

[L]ast night the Tea Party candidate beat his opponent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, by 13 points. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Cruz won a stunning 56.8 percent of the vote with Dewhurst only getting 43.2 percent.

That in spite of being outspent more than 3-to-1 and his opponent being fully backed by Texas governor Rick Perry.

UPDATE: An InstaPundit reader, a Mr. Will Collins, emailed the professor this note:

Ted Cruz wasn’t the only Tea Party victory yesterday. The entire political establishment of Georgia (including the Republican governor and legislative leadership, plus the Democratic mayor of Atlanta and his machine), just got its collective ass royally kicked by the Tea Party. “TSPLOST,” a sales tax hike that would have funded a multi-billion dollar slush fund for transit boondoggles and taxpayer-funded development bootstrapping was supported by $10 million in relentless advertising. Tea Party groups spent all of $15,000 in paid opposition.

Result: 69-31, against. And that was in the Atlanta metro region.

Obama announces new rules for Olympic medal distribution

Harvard intra-mural swimmer Dick Blumenthal finally receives his due

Alarmed at the boastful attitude of U.S. Olympic gold-medal winners, the President announced today that he is exercising his authority as Supreem Messiah to adjust things in a more just fashion.

“Look, you have a medal – good for you. But you didn’t earn that, somebody else made that happen. You say you worked hard? Well let me tell you, there are plenty of hardworking Americans out there who just never had a chance.

“So today I’m announcing a new plan, one that will recognize the debt you prima donnas owe to society. All gold medals are hereby declared forfeit to the state and they’ll be melted down and returned to the treasury. But we’re not gonna take everything away from you: you’ll get a bronze, and so will two other average Americans, people who worked just as hard as you or would have, if they’d thought about it.

“We can’t give everyone a bronze; that would diminish the prize, so we’re opening this up on just a limited basis. You sign on to the Obama Reelection site and pledge three dollars – just three bucks! – and you’ll be entered into a lottery. If you’re as lucky as these Olympic guys are, you’ll win diner with one of my staff, a signed picture of George Clooney and a bronze thing for your tit. Who loves ya, baby?”

If you want less of something, tax it

Obama knows this, which is why he promised to bankrupt coal plants by imposing crushing taxes. Now France has decided it has too many rich people and financial transactions and has gone after them, doubling the tax on stock purchases and taking a knife to the throats of its wealthy.

France estimated that the doubling of the tax will bring in an additional 170 million euros in 2012 and 500 million euros next year. The state will start collecting the tax in November, Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac’s press office said.

It’s too bad that no one’s going to report next year on how much money this tax actually produces. That would be information of interest to everyone except the looters and their supporters in the press.

The cops are coming to Greenwich Avenue

Nah, not directing traffic but holding a block party from Fawcett Place on down. Waterslide, food and drink available outside (and inside – the restaurants and shops are staying open), bands, etc. . Sunday 3:00 – 9:00, ten bucks admission, which, except for a small portion diverted to the Thomas Keegan Beer Fund, all goes to a good cause.  And if you’re nice, you probably won’t get ticketed.