Weird News of the World Thread - Part 1

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Two Trains Taken Out of Service as Bedbug Infestation Hits NYC Subway

If you're a regular commuter or tourist in New York City, here's some exciting news: Earlier this week, MTA officials discovered that three N trains were infested with bedbugs.

The New York Daily News reports that two of the trains were taken out of service while a third was sent for fumigation.

"When we found them, we exterminated them," Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Adam Lisberg told the Daily News. At least some of the bugs were found in the cabs used by the trains' motorman and conductors; it's not clear if any were discovered in the passenger area.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bedbugs-found-3-n-line-subway-trains-article-1.1893220

I hate bedbugs with a passion. So hard to get rid of the little bastards, you basically have to burn everything you own

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Russian Hackers Are Hoarding More Than a Billion Stolen Passwords

A Russian crime gang is in possession the largest known collection of stolen passwords, user names, email addresses, and other online credentials. That's one of the worst collections a Russian crime gang can have other than, I don't know, rocket launchers and dirty bombs.

Milwaukee-based security research firm Hold Security says that the Russian hacking ring holds over 1.2 billion user name and password combinations and 500 million email addresses. They reportedly used a series of botnets to trawl the web, eventually collecting over 4.5 billion records (though many overlapped, so there were 1.2 unique combinations).

The New York Times consulted other experts for more information; what they found is scary:

At the request of The New York Times, a security expert not affiliated with Hold Security analyzed the database of stolen credentials and confirmed it was authentic. Another computer crime expert who had reviewed the data, but was not allowed to discuss it publicly, said some big companies were aware that their records were among the stolen information.

But just because companies are aware doesn't mean they've fixed the problem and your information is safe:

"Hackers did not just target U.S. companies, they targeted any website they could get, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to very small websites," said Alex Holden, the founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security. "And most of these sites are still vulnerable."

So what can you do? Change up your passwords and usernames, or at least your passwords. It appears the crime gang, which is based in south central Russia and is thought to be run by men in their 20s, has not sold the information. Instead, Hold Security believes they're using it to spam people on Twitter.

Hackers are continuing to outpace the digital security precautions of so many companies and organizations that it's starting to feel like a losing battle. Hold Security is working to develop a tool people can use to check if some grubby Russian Millennial has a copy of their information, but until then, there aren't many practical steps people can take besides changing their information regularly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/t...-internet-credentials.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Seems like ever few weeks something new about why our info isn't safe on the web pops up. After Heartbleed I started using Lastpass on the recommendation of Teelie. Now it looks like I need to start changing passwords on a regular basis as well too

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Cat-Eating 12-Foot Python Caught by Florida Police

Bad news: If your cat went missing in Port St. Lucie, Fla. recently, a 12-foot Burmese python probably ate it. Police have since apprehended the 120-pound snake, which was discovered hiding in waist-high brush, a cat's corpse rotting in an empty lot nearby.

According to the Palm Beach Post, the Burmese python was banned from being imported into the state in 2012. From WTSP:

Pythons are an invasive species in Florida, where researchers believe they are eating their way through populations of native mammals in the Everglades. No one knows exactly how many pythons there are here, but the population likely developed from pets released into the wild.

And according to the Christian Science Monitor, the Everglades has been facing a Burmese python infestation since last year, undoubtedly made more difficult by the fact that the snakes lay between 20–80 eggs every spring.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/port-st-lucie-police-find-12-foot-python-that-they/ngx2P/

Damn pythons are a huge problem here in FL. So many idiots just let them go once they got too big for them.

 

[squeekness]

Cat-Eating 12-Foot Python Caught by Florida Police

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/port-st-lucie-police-find-12-foot-python-that-they/ngx2P/

Damn pythons are a huge problem here in FL. So many idiots just let them go once they got too big for them.

That and the climate there is perfect for them to breed in. You're never getting rid of them for good.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

They have a python hunting season every year with a contest for whoever gets the biggest one

 

[squeekness]

Yeah but I read in the National Geographic that we're not getting nearly enough of them to make a real difference. They are probably here for good.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Sad but true. Every time I hear or read about an invasive species I always remember that seen from the Simpsons were Bart lets loose a bullfrog and when they are on the plane leaving the bullfrogs are taking over Australia

 

[squeekness]

Sad but true. Every time I hear or read about an invasive species I always remember that seen from the Simpsons were Bart lets loose a bullfrog and when they are on the plane leaving the bullfrogs are taking over Australia

Lol, that was a great episode even if its message was very real.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ya, that guy with the giant boot to kick him in the rear and then his but looks like Nixon haha. That was back in it's prime before they started trying to write over everyone's heads

 

[squeekness]

I haven't watched a new Simpson's episode in a long while. They just stopped being funny.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I've seen a few episodes here and there in the past few years. But for a long while now they have been writing jokes that only Harvard educated business men would get. It's like they are daring people to try and get the reference. I like high brow comedy when it's done right but if I have to do research on why a joke is supposed to be funny I'll take a pass.

The weird thing is a lot of times when I do flip the show on it will be a repeat of one of the new ones I have seen. I just find it odd since I rarely watch it these days. Seriously what are the chances of them running the only episode I saw last season?

 

[squeekness]

Maybe they were just trying to see if anyone noticed,

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Utah Teen Dies After Being Run Over While Sunbathing in Driveway

A Utah teenager is dead after after being accidentally crushed by a pickup truck while she was sunbathing in the driveway of her suburban Salt Lake City-area home.

Marli Hamblin, 15, died in a Utah hospital on Sunday two days after sustaining severe head injuries at her home in Syracuse, about 25 miles north of Salt Lake City.

According to authorities, Hamblin was listening to her iPod and could not hear the truck as it backed out of the garage. The truck was being driven at the time by Hamblin's older sister, who told investigators that she didn't know her younger sibling was behind the vehicle when she pulled out.

"She's having a very difficult time, beating herself up. All we can do is encourage her, you know. It's just an accident, it can happen to anybody at any given time," the sister's grandfather, Ron Hamblin, told FOX 13.

Police say that there won't be any charges filed in the case.

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/sta...cle_7c597138-f1a7-5eaf-8912-f593772f38b1.html

What a tragic story, sad she lost her life and I'm sure this will really screw with her sister's head. Hopefully she realizes it was a tragic accident and is able to move forward

 

[squeekness]

That sucks. She's going to be messed up for a while.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Forty Percent of Your Kids Will Get Diabetes

If you have a "young one" waddling around your home at the moment (because it is your child), I suggest you lift them off the ground with a mighty effort, shake them (as much as you're able), and scream, "There's a 40% chance you will have diabetes one day!" (until your muscles give out).

Forty percent???? Forty percent!!! Bloomberg reports on The Lancet's latest estimates of how screwed our children are:

Forty percent of Americans born from 2000 to 2011 will develop diabetes, double the risk of those born a decade earlier, signaling a sharp increase in the disease's prevalence, researchers found...

The risk is even higher for minorities. More than half of all Hispanics and non-Hispanic black women born from 2000 to 2011 will develop diabetes in their lifetime, the study found. For black men, the lifetime risk is 45 percent.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...doubles-as-disease-rises-sharply-in-u-s-.html

Those are some crazy numbers. Maybe we can find a cure some day? Nanobots with direct insulin injections perhaps?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

More and More Southern California Grandparents Are Using Meth

The leading age group of methamphetamine-related deaths in San Diego County? Baby Boomers, according to county records.

"A lot of grandmas and grandpas are using meth and have been using for many, many years," Diana Julian, the program manager for recovery center McAlister Institute told NBC Los Angeles:

Sixty-nine people age 50 to 59 died from meth intoxication. Thirteen deaths were among those 60 or older.

In 2013, meth intoxication was listed as the cause of death for 80 people age 45 to 54, 48 people age 55 to 64 and four people 65 or older.

Earlier this summer, 67-year-old Carl Salayer went missing, and was discovered a week later by police in a field of brush. The San Diego County Medical Examiner determined Salayer's cause of death to be "acute methamphetamine intoxication." The medical examiner also found Salayer suffered from Parkinson's Disease.

Julian told NBC Los Angeles that the elderly turn to meth as their health declines, and often don't have the support they would need to stop.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/c...270750251.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_LABrand

Had no idea all these old folks were tweaking

 

[squeekness]

I suppose it would give them energy. Or pain relief or both.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Teen Lives Inside a Texas Walmart Unnoticed for Days

A teenager with an apparent affinity for Great Value products and fluorescent lighting built "secret compounds" inside a Walmart store in Coriscana, Texas, living there for two-and-a-half days. The 14-year-old was so determined to not be discovered and stay in the store, he reportedly wore diapers. A trail of trash eventually led to the teen being discovered by store employees.

From the CBS affiliate in Dallas:

Customers who walked down the aisles where the teen was living never noticed two hidden compounds where the boy was able to store necessities, sleep in a makeshift bed and and eat items taken from inside the store.

He created a crack in the back wall of the drink aisle to grab juice and even collected a fish from the pet department.

"You never expect that you're at Walmart and someone has been living there for four days. That's crazy," Myrna Aguilar, a Walmart customer, told CBSDFW. (You don't say!)

According to the Dallas-Fort Worth Fox affiliate, the teen created a hideout in the baby stroller aisle and another behind paper towels and toilet paper.

The teen was living with his aunt while his mother was away, and apparently has a history of running away and "has hidden in abandoned houses, businesses and creeks in the past."

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/08/13/teenager-made-corsicana-walmart-his-home/

You gotta give this kids props for going somewhere that literally has anything he needs

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Masked Gang Lifts $10 Mil From Armored Truck in Chilean Airport Heist

Disguised as workers in a white van, a team of eight masked gunmen pulled off the largest heist in Chilean history without firing a single shot. The BBC reports that the money was on route to banks and mining operations in Copiapó, a rich silver and copper mining district in northern Chile.

The van, seen below surrounded by investigators, was found abandoned in a field after the robbery this Tuesday.

Chile's Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo described the gang responsible for the heist as "highly organized" and—wow—he is not kidding. Airport security footage shows they were done in two minutes.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28770199

GTA V IRL

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Lightning Destroyed the Zephyrometer in a Fireball Yesterday

The New Zealand capital's famed Zephyrometer, a weathery sculpture that stands a little over 100 feet tall, met its demise after a thunderstorm struck Wellington on Thursday and a bolt of lightning destroyed the sculpture in a fireball, hurling its fiery remains onto the street below.

[YT]v2NLJOZnC2w#t[/YT]

According to its Wikipedia page, the 11-year-old sculpture told passers-by the speed and direction of the wind, essentially making it a fancy weather vane. The fiberglass Zephyrometer, which derives its name from the word "zephyr," meaning a "very slight or gentle wind," didn't stand a chance when the bolt of lightning knocked the wind out of it.

AccuWeather reports that the storm also produced 62 MPH winds at the city's airport around the time the installation got fried. As the northern hemisphere makes its slow transition from summer to fall, the southern hemisphere is making the volatile switch from winter to spring.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/lightning_strikes_new_zealand/32200119

Raiden must not have approved

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Texas Ministry Fed an 800-Pound Tiger Shark to the Homeless

In what is apparently not a Shark Week publicity stunt, a fisherman who caught an 809-pound tiger shark donated the animal's meat to a Texas ministry, where it was breaded, baked, and served to the poor and homeless.

Ryan Spring spent seven hours bringing in the 12-foot, 7-inch shark from the Gulf of Mexico, the San Antonio Express-News reports. He arranged to give 75 pounds of meat to Timon's Ministries in Corpus Christi, where one of his friends is a volunteer.

The center was able to serve 90 people, with some meat left over for next week's seafood stew.

"Most people really enjoyed it," Timon's Ministries director Kae Berry told the Express-News.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...shark-feeds-90-poor-5688847.php#photo-6725735

Definitely I good use of the meat. I've had shark before and it was good although I can't remember what type it was

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Chinese Newspaper Ran a Fake Obit Saying Its Rival Died of AIDS

Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily ran a full-page ad in its Thursday edition that was an obituary for the founder and owner of its main rival, the Beijing-critical and pro-democracy Apple Daily. The fake obituary, in giant Chinese characters, said Jimmy Lai had died of AIDS.

From Agence France-Presse:

It changed the tycoon's name, replacing one character with another that sounds identical, but the biographical details were otherwise identical to Lai's.

It stated that Lai, 65, had died on August 7 of AIDS and cancer, adding that there would be no funeral because his family members were also suffering from illnesses.

"They want me to die? Is it really that easy?" Lai apparently fired back in a video. "Sorry to disappoint you." According to the Associated Press, the fake obituary made jabs at Lai's company and gave him a (lame) nickname:

The graphic style of the fake obituary mirrored that of real obituaries in Hong Kong media. It said the tycoon was also known as "Fatty Lai" and that his family members also had severe diseases and couldn't attend his funeral. It offered condolences to staff at Two Media, a reference to Lai's company, which in Chinese is known as One Media.

The Agence France-Presse reports that it's still unknown who bought the ad.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hk-news-boss-counters-rivals-fake-obit-video-24992320

That is all kinds of hilarious t:

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

San Diego Women Held Hostage By Cat

A cat named Cuppy was a beloved family pet for about 14 years. But after holding his owners hostage in their bedroom earlier this week, his days at the residence might be numbered.

Southern California's Chula Vista police received a 911 phone call at 4 a.m. on Aug. 12 from a distraught mother and daughter who were forced to take refuge in a bedroom from a very pissed off cat.

"He's just a ball of fury I guess," Karen Yarger, a neighbor, told KGTV-TV.

According to the 911 dispatchers, the women tried to leave their barricaded bedroom, but Cuppy wouldn't have it.

The cat eventually left the premises when a pair of police officers—who were apparently having a slow night—rescued the family by "softly" calling Cuppy's name and cajoling him to leave.

It's not clear what made the once happily domesticated Cuppy mad.

http://www.10news.com/news/cat-gets-into-standoff-with-chula-vista-police

Another cat taking people hostage, just one more reason cats suck

 

[Teelie]

A Texas Ministry Fed an 800-Pound Tiger Shark to the Homeless

Spoiler

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...shark-feeds-90-poor-5688847.php#photo-6725735

Definitely I good use of the meat. I've had shark before and it was good although I can't remember what type it was

The only major downside is shark meat is full of mercury. So feed the homeless and poison them at the same time.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

2 birds one stone Teelie, they knew what they were doing