Adobe has worked with Apple to sandbox Flash Player under Safari in OS X Mavericks, restricting the ability of attackers to exploit any vulnerabilities they might find in the browser plug-in. A sandbox is a mechanism that enforces certain restrictions on how an application interacts with the underlying operating system.
"Flash Player's capabilities to read and write files will be limited to only those locations it needs to function properly," wrote Peleus Uhley, a platform security strategist at Adobe, in a blog post. "The sandbox also limits Flash Player's local connections to device resources and interprocess communication channels. Finally, the sandbox limits Flash Player's networking privileges to prevent unnecessary connection capabilities. ... The result is that customers can still view Flash Player content while benefiting from these added security protections."
[ Safeguard your browsers; InfoWorld's experts tell you how in the "Web Browser Security Deep Dive" PDF guide. | For a quick, smart take on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. ]
Sandboxing Flash Player under Safari on OS X increases the level of protection against Web-based attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in browser plug-ins to install malware on systems. The majority of these attacks target Windows PCs, but Mac users have had their fair share of problems because of vulnerabilities in browser plug-ins like Flash Player and Java. In April 2012, for example, attackers exploited a Java vulnerability to infect about 670,000 Macs with a Trojan program called Flashback.
In February, Adobe released an emergency security update to patch two critical vulnerabilities in Flash Player, one of which was being exploited in attacks against Firefox and Safari users on OS X.
Because of such attacks, Apple started blacklisting outdated versions of Java and Flash Player in Safari via OS X's built-in antimalware mechanism.
In Windows, Flash Player already has been sandboxed under Google Chrome since March 2011, under Mozilla Firefox since June 2012, and under Internet Explorer 10 since it was released on Windows 8.
Star power counts for a helluva lot in Last Vegas, an amiable geezers comedy with an affecting emotional anchor. To call this the geriatric Hangover is both accurate and misleading, as the main fun here is not so much the broad humor as it is to watch five great old pros — Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline and an entirely captivating Mary Steenburgen — imparting pleasure while obviously having it themselves. Although formulaic in design and programmed to meet its quota of laughs, the film makes a point of going beyond basic expectations into some legitimate aspects of mature friendships without getting soggy about it. CBS Films looks to make this visit to Vegas a profitable one.
All wearing their years quite well, thank you — Freeman is the oldest at 76, Kline the youngest at 66, while De Niro is 70 and Douglas 69 — the actors play friends who have known each other for nearly six decades, as glimpsed in a Brooklyn childhood prologue. Nowadays, Archie (Freeman) is a veteran of one stroke whose obsessively protective son holds him health hostage in his New Jersey home, Sam (Kline) is bored in early Florida retirement with his longtime spouse and Paddy (De Niro) no longer leaves his New York apartment after his beloved wife's death.
By extreme contrast, ladies' man and successful Malibu attorney Billy (Douglas) willfully ignores the calendar but finally decides it's time to settle down — with a bride about a third his age. Despite reluctance on the part of Paddy, who says he hates Billy, the guys agree to meet in Vegas for a bachelor party on the Saturday night before Billy's Sunday wedding.
Screenwriter Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love.) delivers the requisite amount of old-age shtick (Sam's wife thoughtfully slips him an envelope containing a Viagra pill and a condom in the hope that some action will revitalize her husband), but quickly takes the story in a refreshingly unexpected direction with the introduction of Diana (Steenburgen), a wise and sassy lounge singer who's very frank about her availability as well as about the hope that Vegas will provide her with a satisfying next act to her life. She teases and engages with the guys, her sultry singing style is wonderful and develops a quick rapport with both Paddy and Billy that inadvertently revives the secret grudge that drove a wedge between them.
For his part, Sam attracts the attention of a drag queen (RogerBart), while Archie's big winnings at blackjack occasion an upgrade into the hotel's most lavish suite, available now that 50Cent has canceled for the weekend. Events naturally conspire for the boys to to use the enormous space to throw a wild party, in the course of which Archie shows off some smooth dance moves, Sam is forced to decide whether or not to use his wife's presents, and 50 Cent, in a cameo, shows up after all to demand that the music be turned down.
Director JonTurteltaub's signal accomplishment here is to have created a congenial environment in which the actors could bond and have fun within proper boundaries. The foursome's approach to these uncomplicated characters is at once relaxed and alert, loose and quick on their toes; they're just darn good company for a couple of hours, both when they're rejecting the usual expectations to act their age but especially when they're working through emotional issues for which even decades of experience provide inadequate preparation.
In every instance, the long-buried feelings that fire the dynamics of the men's character arcs cut rewardingly across the sitcommy ways the guys are initially presented: Cranky stay-at-home Paddy evolves into a man afflicted with profound romantic angst; Archie's life-loving bonhomie asserts itself once he escapes his son's overbearing surveillance; Sam reverses course from premature calcification to libidinous reawakening, while Billy risks renewed conflict with Paddy to at long last look beyond a woman's surface charms and probe the potential of a mature romantic relationship. These may be obvious trajectories but they serve to invest a farcical context with plausible facsimiles of real people.
The actors are all great to watch. It may be that Freeman's work stands out simply because, since he's now most often cast in solemn, grave, not to say God-like roles, he hasn't cut loose like this in a long time; like his character, he should do it more often. At first it seems that Douglas as an L.A. playboy is just too obvious, but the sensitivity and soul that Diana ushers to the surface as Billy spends more time with her elicits many grace notes from the actor. While Kline's role could have benefited from more meat in the script, his impeccable timing makes you pine for more mature serio-comic roles for this acting wizard. De Niro morphs his stubborn Archie Bunker-like complainer into a hurt man with a couple of exceptional grievances.
And then there's Steenburgen's Diana. Her musical gifts draw you in first but her self-deprecating humor, wisdom of the ways of the world and fundamental optimism make her a keeper and deserving of heated competition among men. In her best film role in years, the actress delivers a fully realized character from the outset and deepens it into someone you really care about even in an essentially comic context.
Opens: Nov. 1 (CBS Films) Production: Laurence Mark Productions Cast: Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen, Jerry Ferrara, Romany Malco, Roger Bart Director: Jon Turteltaub Screenwriter: Dan Fogelman Producers: Laurence Mark, Amy Baer Executive producers: Nathan Kahane, Jeremiah Samuels, Lawrence Gray Director of photography: David Hennings Production designer: David J. Bomba Costume designer: Dayna Pink Editor: David Rennie Music: Mark Mothersbaugh PG-13 rating, 104 minutes
Samantha Langello and her daughter Alanna, 2, stand in front of their flood-damaged house in Fox Beach on Staten Island, N.J.
Joel Rose/NPR
Samantha Langello and her daughter Alanna, 2, stand in front of their flood-damaged house in Fox Beach on Staten Island, N.J.
Joel Rose/NPR
After Hurricane Sandy, the south shore of Staten Island looked like it had been hit by a tsunami. The storm surge devastated whole neighborhoods suddenly, in a matter of hours. In the year since the storm, some families have been rebuilding their homes and their lives. Others are ready to sell their flood-damaged properties and move on.
Joe Salluzzo lives in a neighborhood called New Dorp Beach, a few blocks from the ocean. He rode out the storm on the second story of his brick bungalow, which he's been repairing himself every since.
People are coming back "little by little," Salluzzo says. He's staying put: "This is the only house I got."
Around the corner, Linda Azzara is basking in the sunshine on the deck in her front yard. A year ago, she was clinging to it for dear life as the flood waters rose.
"We were the last family rescued here. They took us from the deck here, from the top step, in a boat," she says.
Today Azzara's yard is immaculate. And her house is in good shape, too. But she says the repairs cost her $80,000 out of her own pocket. Azzara says her insurance company was no help. She says few of her neighbors saw any payments from theirs either. Officials at FEMA say they've distributed more than $8 billion in total disaster assistance in New York. But in her neighborhood, Azzara says that help has been inconsistent.
"FEMA helped some of us, and not some of us. It was a weird thing. I think it was who came to your house," she says. "If you were lucky to get somebody with a little heart, they helped you. If not, they gave you $200."
'We Are Staying!!!'
Azzara has a red and white sign on her fence that says "We Are Staying!" You see the same sign in windows and front yards up and down her block. But for many of her neighbors, the hard work continues.
Electricians are still working on the house next door. A few houses on the block have new windows and doors. Others look like they've been abandoned since the storm.
"Everybody thinks a year later, we're New York and ... everybody's fine and dandy. No, it isn't," says Scott McGrath, who lives across the street. "It's real out there. It's still a lot of people needing help."
McGrath and his wife started a non-profit organization called Beacon of Hope New York to help rebuild the neighborhood. They made the "We Are Staying" yard signs. But McGrath admits that not everyone will. Like many of his neighbors, McGrath has to decide whether to meet new requirements to raise his house further off the ground or face a huge jump in his flood insurance premiums.
"You can walk up and down the block and you're gonna see For Sale signs in a lot of areas. They're selling their homes due to the fact they're not gonna be able to pay that flood insurance — so you might as well cut your losses now," McGrath says. "A lot of people are gonna take a hit on their property."
A year after Superstorm Sandy some residents of Fox Beach on Staten Island are determined to stay in the flood-ravaged town.
Joel Rose/NPR
A year after Superstorm Sandy some residents of Fox Beach on Staten Island are determined to stay in the flood-ravaged town.
Joel Rose/NPR
Homeowners across the region are finding they can't sell their houses for anything near what they were worth before the storm. But in another part of Staten Island, there is one big exception to that rule.
When Rebuilding Is Not An Option
Samantha Langello opens the door to her house in the Fox Beach neighborhood — or what's left of it. Sandy was the third big flood here in 5 years.
"It kind of just melted," Langello says. "The salt-water like just ate through the sheet rock."
When the state offered to buy these homeowners out at pre-storm values, almost all of them jumped at the chance. Real estate broker Joseph Tirone — who owns a rental property in Fox Beach — helped organize the effort. Tirone says the first checks went out this month.
"Rebuilding was not an option here. Not in this area," he says. "When they start getting their checks, I think initially they're gonna be extremely happy. But I think walking away from their home, I think that's gonna be tough on them."
Langello — toting a 2-year-old on her hip — says it's not easy to watch the neighborhood where she's been raising her two young children turn back into marshland.
"Sad and relief are probably the two main emotions," she says.
Langello knows her family is lucky to be getting the buyout.
"You get a little tired of picking up your wet sea-smelling clothes and going through things to see what you can salvage. In that sense I'm relieved that I won't have to deal with the clean-up ever again," she says.
Langello hopes other Sandy victims can know that feeling, too. But for most, that sense of relief may still be months or years away.
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Norway's domestic intelligence service tried to prevent one of the suspected gunmen in the Nairobi mall attack from joining Somali militants more than three years ago, but failed to talk him out of it, the agency's chief said in an interview Wednesday.
The man has been identified in Kenya as Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, a 23-year-old Somalia native whose family moved to Norway in 1999. Norwegian authorities have still not named him, and had previously not said whether they knew of him before the four-day siege of the Westgate mall that killed nearly 70 people in the Kenyan capital.
But Marie Benedicte Bjoernland, the head of Norwegian security service PST, told The Associated Press that the Norwegian suspect was well known to her agency and that it even tried to dissuade him from becoming a jihadist.
"We had several talks with him ... before he left Norway more than three years ago," Bjoernland said at PST's headquarters in Oslo. "Obviously we didn't succeed, but there was quite an effort put into the preventive side of this."
Bjoernland declined to give details of the conversations, and said the Norwegian "most likely" died in the attack, though PST investigators haven't confirmed that. The Kenyan government said Sunday it believes it has recovered the remains of the four gunmen seen in CCTV footage carrying out the attack.
Security camera images showed what appeared to be Dhuhulow and three other gunmen firing coldly on shoppers as they made their way along store aisles after storming the upscale mall.
The Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility, saying the September attack was retribution for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.
Dhuhulow's sister told AP last week that her brother went to the Somali capital of Mogadishu for a three-month visit in 2009, then moved to Somalia for good in March of the following year. She said she didn't believe he was among the gunmen seen in the footage.
Just days after Dhuhulow's identity became known, Norwegian police issued international alerts for two Norwegian-Somali sisters, ages 16 and 19, who told their family they were traveling to Syria to join the civil war. They were last spotted on the Turkish-Syrian border.
"We see a growing problem when it comes to people traveling to war zones, and specifically the last year we've seen a growing number of persons traveling to Syria," Bjoernland said.
She said between 30-40 people have left Norway to take part in the Syrian civil war, but added that the number is uncertain and may be bigger.
That conflict has attracted hundreds of foreign fighters from European countries, many of whom have joined Islamic militant groups. Western security services are concerned that they could pose terror threats when they return home with combat experience and terrorist training — and possibly traumatized.
"When they are radicalized and when they are determined to go, for instance to Syria or other conflict areas, we don't have many legal measures to stop them," Bjoernland said.
Norway just recently made it illegal to receive training from terror groups. But even with that law it is difficult for authorities to prove that a suspected want-to-be militant is traveling abroad to train with or join jihadist groups.
"We do preventive work. We talk to them. We try to persuade them not to go, because it's a dangerous journey," Bjoernland said. "I wish we were more successful. We have succeeded in turning some around from traveling. But quite a few have actually left."
She called on other parts of society, including parents, child protective services, police and Muslim leaders to intervene when young Muslims are at risk of becoming radicalized.
Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida breaks down, in ultra-slow motion, the moves that have made him famous. Watch for these moves as he battles Mark Muñoz at UFC Manchester: Machida vs. Muñoz on Fox Sports 2, October 26.
MIAMI – The Authority has found a way to ensure that the recently fired Big Show will not interfere during tonight’s WWE Hell in a Cell pay-per-view: They have filed a restraining order against him.
Per the order, filed today by WWE COO Triple H & Stephanie McMahon, the former World Champion must remain 100 yards away from the building at all times tonight. If the giant does not comply and breaks the order, he is to be arrested on sight.
Photos: Big Show storms Battleground | Watch his latest disruption on Raw
The restraining order represents The Authority’s latest levy against its enemies, and perhaps its boldest effort yet in stopping the giant’s one-man campaign against the corporate power since his termination by Stephanie McMahon. Though some in the WWE Universe might see a restraining order as an excessive response, given the amount of problems Big Show has caused The Authority in recent weeks, clearly, extreme measures were required.
Watch: David Otunga discusses Big Show's counter-suit
Keep checking back with WWE.com for more details as this story progresses.
Kate Middleton and Prince William fawned over Prince George in a new christening photo and Christina Ricci tied the knot with her fiance James Heerdegen: See Us Weekly's top 5 stories from the Oct. 26 weekend in the roundup!
Sweet baby George! One more photograph from Prince George's special christening day has been released! The royal family celebrated Prince George's christening at the Chapel Royal at St. James Palace in London on Wednesday, Oct. 23. The following day, four beautiful snapshots were released from the historic occasion.
Christina Ricci is hitched! The actress tied the knot with fiance James Heerdegen on Saturday, Oct. 26, Us Weekly can confirm. The two said "I do" on the Upper East Side in New York City.
In absolute heaven! Kim Kardashian is still on a high following Kanye West's epic proposal earlier this week, and topped off her 33rd birthday celebrations by partying in Las Vegas on Friday, Oct. 25. There with family, friends and her new fiance, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star dished about baby North and how the proposal (heard around the world!) made her feel.
Mom on-the-go! Jessica Simpson stepped out looking absolutely flawless without makeup in Calabasas, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 25. With daughter Maxwell in tow, the fresh-faced singer was photographed picking up Mexican food for dinner during the errand.
Miley Cyrus is hitting the road! The "We Can't Stop" singer announced she will be going on tour during a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live during Ed Norton's monologue on Oct. 26.
"I'm really great. Really quick, I'd just like to announce to all of my fans that I am about to be going on tour," the 20-year-old said to the host and the audience during her drop by.
She also gave the Academy Award-nominated actor some hosting tips. "Eddie, here are Miley's three rules to hosting," she boasted. "One, you've got to have fun. Two, you gotta keep your energy up and three, you gotta stick your tongue out like this." The Moonrise Kingdom star seemed hesitant, but quickly mimicked the blonde beauty by sticking out his tongue. (Cyrus previously hostedSNL earlier this month.)
Miley Cyrus announces her new tour on Saturday Night Live alongside host Ed Norton Credit: NBC
After her appearance, the "Wrecking Ball" entertainer tweeted the news about the upcoming tour herself and celebrated at 1 Oak club in NYC. "I'm gooooing on tooooooour!! #Bangerz2014Tour," Cyrus excitedly wrote to her over 14 million followers. She added: "#Drinkinouttavasesamirightttt #celebrate #Bangerztour2014."
At the club, Cyrus was spotted wearing the same white crop t-shirt and tight black pants she donned on the SNL stage earlier in the evening. "She was non-stop dancing" for two hours, a source reveals to Us Weekly. "[The club] played two of her songs" and "she had her hands up" while dancing.
What do we know -- and not know -- about fracking?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
27-Oct-2013
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Contact: Kea Giles kgiles@geosociety.org Geological Society of America
2013 GSA Annual Meeting Pardee Keynote Sympsium
Boulder, Colo., USA - Fracking is in the headlines a lot these days, and everyone has an opinion about it. But how much do we really know for certain about the oil and gas extraction technique and its health effects? And how do we find out the truth among all the shouted opinions? To help cut through the static, several scientists have put together a multidisciplinary session on fracking and health at the meeting of The Geological Society of America (GSA) in Denver on Sunday.
"There is so much perceived information on fracking in the media, with so little of it based on real science and actual data," says Thomas Darrah, a medical geologist at Ohio State University and one of the conveners of the GSA Pardee Keynote Session, "Energy and Health: The Emergence of Medical Geology in Response to the Shale Gas Boom."
"Fracking has moved so quickly, and the research community is playing catch up on water, air, and health issues," said Robert Jackson, an environmental scientist at Duke University who will present his research this Sunday. "The goal is to present a state of the science for researchers and the public."
The afternoon keynote session is designed to cover a lot of ground. It will start with the geologists, hydrologists, and air-quality experts who are studying the chemistry and the physical properties of fracking in the ground, water, and air. Then the session veers into territory not often covered at a geological meeting, with talks by toxicologists, researchers in occupational medicine, and epidemiologists.
"This session includes people who would normally not be anywhere near a GSA conference," said Darrah. "The idea is that we end the session by having the geoscience community interact with a group of people who are looking at health data sets: epidemiologists. That way we can put people working on the other end of the equation in the same room." Included in the eleven scheduled presentations, and at the medical end of the equation, is a talk titled "Public Health Implications of Hydraulic Fracturing," by David O. Carpenter of the University of Albany's School of Public Health, and another, "Energy and Health: The Emergence of Medical Geology in Response to the Shale Gas Boom: An Occupational and Environmental Medicine Perspective," to be delivered by Theodore F. Them of Guthrie Clinic Ltd.
For his part, Darrah will be presenting a talk about his work, "Understanding In-House Exposures to Natural Gas and Metal-Rich Aerosols from Groundwater within an Unconventional Energy Basin."
There are two additional presentations on the air-quality issues of fracking, which is perhaps the topic the public knows the least about. Gabrielle Petron of the University of Colorado and NOAA will be talking about outdoor air emissions from hydraulic fracturing activities, and public health researcher Lisa M. Mackenzie of the University of Colorado will talk about work evaluating specific health risks from exposure to natural gas drilling in Garfield County, Colorado.
###
WHAT:
Session No. 64
P6. ENERGY AND HEALTH: THE EMERGENCE OF MEDICAL GEOLOGY IN RESPONSE TO THE SHALE GAS BOOM
Search the complete program by author or keyword at https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/start.html.
ON-SITE NEWSROOM
Contact: Kea Giles
Colorado Convention Center, Room 608
+1-303-228-8431
The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with more than 25,000 members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, USA, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth science education.
http://www.geosociety.org
[
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Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
What do we know -- and not know -- about fracking?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
27-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Kea Giles kgiles@geosociety.org Geological Society of America
2013 GSA Annual Meeting Pardee Keynote Sympsium
Boulder, Colo., USA - Fracking is in the headlines a lot these days, and everyone has an opinion about it. But how much do we really know for certain about the oil and gas extraction technique and its health effects? And how do we find out the truth among all the shouted opinions? To help cut through the static, several scientists have put together a multidisciplinary session on fracking and health at the meeting of The Geological Society of America (GSA) in Denver on Sunday.
"There is so much perceived information on fracking in the media, with so little of it based on real science and actual data," says Thomas Darrah, a medical geologist at Ohio State University and one of the conveners of the GSA Pardee Keynote Session, "Energy and Health: The Emergence of Medical Geology in Response to the Shale Gas Boom."
"Fracking has moved so quickly, and the research community is playing catch up on water, air, and health issues," said Robert Jackson, an environmental scientist at Duke University who will present his research this Sunday. "The goal is to present a state of the science for researchers and the public."
The afternoon keynote session is designed to cover a lot of ground. It will start with the geologists, hydrologists, and air-quality experts who are studying the chemistry and the physical properties of fracking in the ground, water, and air. Then the session veers into territory not often covered at a geological meeting, with talks by toxicologists, researchers in occupational medicine, and epidemiologists.
"This session includes people who would normally not be anywhere near a GSA conference," said Darrah. "The idea is that we end the session by having the geoscience community interact with a group of people who are looking at health data sets: epidemiologists. That way we can put people working on the other end of the equation in the same room." Included in the eleven scheduled presentations, and at the medical end of the equation, is a talk titled "Public Health Implications of Hydraulic Fracturing," by David O. Carpenter of the University of Albany's School of Public Health, and another, "Energy and Health: The Emergence of Medical Geology in Response to the Shale Gas Boom: An Occupational and Environmental Medicine Perspective," to be delivered by Theodore F. Them of Guthrie Clinic Ltd.
For his part, Darrah will be presenting a talk about his work, "Understanding In-House Exposures to Natural Gas and Metal-Rich Aerosols from Groundwater within an Unconventional Energy Basin."
There are two additional presentations on the air-quality issues of fracking, which is perhaps the topic the public knows the least about. Gabrielle Petron of the University of Colorado and NOAA will be talking about outdoor air emissions from hydraulic fracturing activities, and public health researcher Lisa M. Mackenzie of the University of Colorado will talk about work evaluating specific health risks from exposure to natural gas drilling in Garfield County, Colorado.
###
WHAT:
Session No. 64
P6. ENERGY AND HEALTH: THE EMERGENCE OF MEDICAL GEOLOGY IN RESPONSE TO THE SHALE GAS BOOM
Search the complete program by author or keyword at https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/start.html.
ON-SITE NEWSROOM
Contact: Kea Giles
Colorado Convention Center, Room 608
+1-303-228-8431
The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with more than 25,000 members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, USA, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth science education.
http://www.geosociety.org
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
At the dawn of FM radio, sometime around the fall of 1967, I remember sitting on my stoop in Queens, N.Y., when a neighbor told me he heard this band called the Velvet Underground. I'd never heard of them, but loved the band name, and was fortunate enough to have an FM radio in my house. Few people had them then, and they certainly weren't in cars in those days. Commercial AM pop was all there was.
Hearing the Velvet Underground on the radio was a life-changing experience. Despite the rich change that was happening in music that year, nothing sounded like that band. It was so very raw and spare in comparison to everything else: that drone, that desperate, bursting sound. Lou Reed would be the one to sum it up best a handful of years later in his song "Rock 'n' Roll":
"Jenny said, when she was just 5 years old you know there's nothin' happening at all. Every time she put on the radio there was nothin' goin' down at all, not at all.
One fine mornin', she puts on a New York station and she couldn't believe what she heard at all. She started dancin' to that fine-fine-fine-fine music ooohhh, her life was saved by rock 'n' roll, hey baby, rock 'n' roll
Despite all the amputation you could dance to a rock 'n' roll station, and it was all right."
This is the greatest song about the power of music from a band that actually sold few records, got nearly zero exposure on the radio, and was about to break up. But the one thing I've always believed — and the one thing the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed would prove — is that great music rises to the top. The Velvets and Lou set off a revolution, one that still inspires. They may well be the most universally respected band in rock 'n' roll. Lou Reed's own solo career was also filled with vibrance. His work with David Bowie, trumpeter Don Cherry, his songs of Andy Warhol with former bandmate John Cale are brilliant songs of magic and loss and the heart.
In the days since that autumn day in Queens when I discovered Lou, I've rarely gone a week without listening to his music. I've seen many musicians leave this world, but losing Lou is the saddest of them all. I just feel fortunate that he was able to be with us this long. He defied the odds in life. I'll miss him terribly, but he left a legacy. I trust for the next year, I'll be hearing young bands take on his music in their encores. I trust I'll cry every time.
Share your own thoughts of Lou Reed and his music in our comments section or via twitter @allsongs.
When iOS 7 was announced, one of the most frequent questions in the Apple design and development community immediately became - what will Tweetbot do? The thing about Tweetbot, and all of Tapbot's apps, was the way they looked. The personality. That was achieved through heavy, textured design. And iOS 7 was the opposite of that. All the personality was in the physics. And that's just where it's gone in Tweetbot 3 as well.
Bereft of the chrome that so dominated previous versions, Tweetbot 3 is clean and clear. It has iOS 7-style round avatars, of course, and Neue-thin glyphs. But it also has buttons that bounce into place, dialogs that drop from view, backgrounds that blur away, overlays that can be spun around, and other delightful, decidedly iOS 7-touches, that also come off as so very Tapbots.
This is Mark Jardine the designer, and Paul Haddad the developer, having fun again. I remember seeing Paul at a party right after the WWDC 2013 keynote, and instead of dread in his eyes, there seemed to be excitement. Cautious, of course, but palpable.
I've been using Tweetbot 3 since it went into beta, and using it a lot. (I tweet, sometimes too much. I know this about myself.) It has most of the same great workflows that have made it my go-to Twitter triage app of choice for years, but it's opened up now. It breathes. It feels alive. It embraces iOS 7, but architecturally, not just cosmetically.
I would like to see some additional gesture shortcuts to replace the old tap shortcuts that no longer are. A faster way to reply would be great. To be able to see more in the compose window when I reply would be fantastic. It's also iPhone only for now. They've been devoting all their time and effort to achieving what they wanted on the small screen, and haven't looked at the big one yet. But overall, on the iPhone, spectacular.
Twitter isn't making it easy on developers. They have limited tokens, which means one day they won't be able to sell their app anymore. It's artificial, but it's scarcity. Not everyone is going to be willing to pay for a Twitter client anymore, much less an update. And that's okay. For those who want something other than the official Twitter app, something powerful and yet elegant, throw some money Tweetbot's way. You'll be glad you did.
On sale for $2.99 ($4.99 regularly) for a limited time.
Google last week announced a beta service that will offer protection from Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS) to human rights organizations and media, in and effort to slow the amount of censorship that such attacks cause.
The announcement of Project Shield came during a presentation at the Conflict in a Connected World summit in New York. The gathering included security experts, hacktivists, dissidents, and technologists, in order to explore the nature of conflict and how online tools can both be a source of protection and harm when it comes to expression, and information sharing.
Protecting free speech
"As long as people have expressed ideas, others have tried to silence them. Today one out of every three people lives in a society that is severely censored. Online barriers can include everything from filters that block content to targeted attacks designed to take down websites. For many people, these obstacles are more than an inconvenience—they represent full-scale repression," the company explained in a blog post.
Project Shield uses Google's massive infrastructure to absorb DDoS attacks. Enrollment in the service is by invitation only at the moment, but it could be expanded considerable in the future. The service is free, but will follow page speed pricing, should Google open enrollment and charge for it down the line.
However, while the service is sure to help smaller websites, such as those ran by dissidents exposing corrupt regimes, or media speaking out against those in power, Google makes no promises.
"No guarantees are made in regards to uptime or protection levels. Google has designed its infrastructure to defend itself from quite large attacks and this initiative is aimed at providing a similar level of protection to third-party websites," the company explains in a Project Shield outline.
Inviting new types of attacks
One problem Project Shield may inadvertently create is a change in tactics. If the common forms of DDoS attacks are blocked, then more advanced forms of attack will be used. Such an escalation has already happened for high value targets, such as banks and other financial services websites.
"Using Google's infrastructure to absorb DDoS attacks is structurally like using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) and has the same pros and cons," Shuman Ghosemajumder, VP of strategy at Shape Security, told CSO during an interview.
The types of attacks a CDN would solve, he explained, are network-based DoS and DDoS attacks. These are the most common, and the most well-known attack types, as they've been around the longest.
In 2000, flood attacks were in the 400Mb/sec range, but today's attacks scale to regularly exceed 100Gb/sec, according to anti-DDoS vendor Arbor Networks. In 2010, Arbor started to see a trend led by attackers who were advancing DDoS campaigns, by developing new tactics, tools, and targets. What that has led to is a threat that mixes flood, application and infrastructure attacks in a single, blended attack.
"It is unclear how effective [Project Shield] would be against Application Layer DoS attacks, where web servers are flooded with HTTP requests. These represent more leveraged DoS attacks, requiring less infrastructure on the part of the attacker, but are still fairly simplistic. If the DDoS protection provided operates at the application layer, then it could help," Ghosemajumder said.
"What it would not protect against is Advanced Denial of Service attacks, where the attacker uses knowledge of the application to directly attack the origin server, databases, and other backend systems which cannot be protected against by a CDN and similar means."
Google hasn't mentioned directly the number of sites currently being protected by Project Shield, so there is no way to measure the effectiveness of the program form the outside.
In related news, Google also released a second DDoS related tool on Monday, which is possible thanks to data collected by Arbor networks. The Digital Attack Map, as the tool is called, is a monitoring system that allows users to see historical DDoS attack trends, and connect them to related news events on any given day. The data is also shown live, and can be granularly sorted by location, time, and attack type.
RIDGECREST, Calif. (AP) — Sergio Munoz was known around this small desert city to acquaintances as a personable dad, and to police for his long rap sheet.
In recent weeks, he began losing the moorings of a stable life — his job, then his family. Kicked out of the house, he had been staying at a friend's place, using and dealing heroin.
Life fully unraveled when Munoz, with two hostages in his trunk, led officers on a wild chase Friday after killing a woman and injuring his crash-pad friend. He shot the friend after he had refused to join what Munoz planned would be a final rampage against police and "snitches."
Munoz knew the authorities well enough that after the initial, pre-dawn slaying he called one patrol officer's cellphone and announced that he wanted to kill all police in town. But because he would be outgunned at the station he would instead "wreak havoc" elsewhere, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a news conference Friday.
Munoz kept his word, first firing at drivers in Ridgecrest, according to police, then taking shots at pursuing officers and passing motorists during a chase along 30 miles of highway that runs through the shrub-dotted desert about 150 miles north of Los Angeles. He ran traffic off the road, firing at least 10 times at passing vehicles with a shotgun and a handgun, though no one was hurt.
In the end, Munoz pulled over on U.S. 395, turned in his seat and began shooting into the trunk — which had popped open earlier in the pursuit to reveal a man and woman inside.
As many as seven officers opened fire and killed him. The hostages were flown to a hospital in critical condition, but were expected to survive. Their names have not been released and police have not said anything about their relationship to Munoz except that he knew them.
In the neighborhood where the first shooting happened, people said Munoz was an affable man who would stop to chat, revealing no signs of inner turmoil.
"He didn't show any anger," said Edgar Martinez, who would see Munoz at a nearby gym and said he cleaned his house several years ago.
Others described him as respectful and humble.
But recently, his life began to crumble.
First, he became unemployed. According to his Facebook page, Munoz worked at Searles Valley Minerals, a company that makes products such as borax and soda ash by extracting a salty mix from beneath a desert lake bed. It was not clear whether he lost his job at Searles, or another business, and officials at Searles were unreachable Saturday.
Last Sunday, Munoz, 39, was arrested again — police found ammunition and a syringe at the house where the slaying would happen five days later. Munoz is a felon with convictions dating back to 1994, when he was sentenced to more than two years in prison for receiving stolen property. In May, he was arrested for possessing ammunition as a felon, but the felony charge was dismissed.
After making bail on the latest arrest, Munoz returned to the house where he first started staying about two weeks ago.
A neighbor heard Munoz bemoaning his life, saying he was losing everything due to drugs.
"He was a cool guy," said the neighbor, Derrick Holland. "He was just losing his mind."
Munoz's estranged wife, Sandra Leiva, said that they separated because she finally had enough of his bad choices.
"Tough love and drugs, that's what brought him down," Leiva said.
On Saturday morning, Munoz's 15-year-old daughter, Viviana, reflected on her father's life in a Facebook post.
"Your such a great dad when you were not on drugs...I remember how you used always try and teach us how to dance all crazy with your chicken legs haha," she wrote. "You were a good father and person, you just made a sad choice."
She promised to watch over her two younger brothers, now that their dad was gone.
Ridgecrest is a city of about 27,000 people adjacent to the vast Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. It sits near U.S. 395, which runs through the western Mojave, below the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada.
"It's a small town, pretty much everybody knows everybody," said Ridgecrest police Sgt. Jed McLaughlin, who himself had arrested Munoz about 10 years ago.
The violence that ended with Munoz's roadside death began Friday around 5:30 a.m. when Munoz rolled up the driveway to the house where he had been staying with his friend, Thaddeus Meier, and Meier's longtime girlfriend.
"We're going to reduce all of the snitches in town," Munoz told Meier after rousing him with a knock on the front door, according to Meier's sister, Dawn, recounting what her brother said from the hospital.
When her brother declined, Munoz shot him at least twice, then shot and killed Meier's girlfriend. The Kern County Sheriff's Office later identified her as Brittany Matheny.
Dawn Meier said she saw Munoz using heroin and dealing the drug out of the house. She had been staying there with her brother until about a week ago, when her boyfriend insisted that she move out with her 7-month-old son due to all the drug-related foot traffic.
She said her brother called Munoz "a very, very good friend of mine" but that she is a good judge of character and thought him unpredictable, "just by the vibes I got."
___
Associated Press writer Tami Abdollah in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
You may not have been bitten by a radioactive spider, but thanks to Marvel's new Creativity Studio and its accompanying stylus, you can at least draw the person who did. The app and pen combo, which is the fruit of a collaboration between Marvel and eKids, is a tool for those young imaginations out ...
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You may not have been bitten by a radioactive spider, but thanks to Marvel's new Creativity Studio and its accompanying stylus, you can at least draw the person who did. The app and pen combo, which is the fruit of a collaboration between Marvel and eKids, is a tool for those young imaginations out ...
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