Free Republic

JUNE 7, 2006 | We recently got hired by a credit union to assess the security of its network. The client asked that we really push hard on the social engineering button. In the past, they'd had problems with employees sharing passwords and giving up information easily. Leveraging our effort in the report was a way to drive the message home to the employees. The client also indicated that USB drives were a concern, since they were an easy way for employees to steal information, as well as bring in potential vulnerabilities such as viruses and Trojans. Several other clients...

USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea (NNS) -- The “Maulers” of Sea Control Squadron (VS) 32, currently assigned aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65), are the first squadron to test the first-generation capabilities of the Low Altitude Navigation and targeting Infrared System for Night (LANTIRN) pod on their S-3 Viking aircraft. LANTIRN provides the aircraft with new capabilities, such as Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR), live video feedback to the ship for real-time use, and video recording for later intelligence debriefing. Future models of LANTIRN will include laser designation capabilities. This sophisticated sensor pod mounts on the aircraft's wing station and is operated by the...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German police have arrested a man on suspicion of murdering a woman with a Bockwurst sausage. Prosecutors and police said the 50-year-old was arrested after the discovery of a woman's body in an apartment in Zwickau, eastern Germany. They said she had choked on a Bockwurst, which is a popular large German sausage. The prosecutors said the man had given a patchy account of events, acknowledging that he may have "administered" a Bockwurst to the woman. They are now working to establish exactly what happened in the run up to her death.

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 8, 2006) -- Another day on the sand-bitten streets of a small town in Iraq lapsed for the passersby, who carelessly walked to and from their normal routine tasks. A few insurgents entered the town, choosing it as their safe haven while preparing their next strike against the U.S. service members. Cruising just below its ceiling at approximately 15,000 feet, a small unmanned aerial vehicle hovered over the dusty community just beyond earshot, as it tracked the insurgents to their current location with real-time video and relayed the information to the people who could do something...

Big Breakup: That's the way the comet crumbles Ron Cowen Scores of telescopes are watching a comet fall apart, and the main show may be only beginning. The comet has already fragmented into at least 59 pieces and may continue to break up as it reaches its position closest to the sun on June 6. In mid-May, the chunks will venture within 11.7 million kilometers of Earth—the closest any comet has come to our planet in 20 years—and the largest fragments should be visible with binoculars. Called Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, this body passes near the sun every 5.4 years and...

In the leak scandal that led to five indictments for a top-level White House official, reports this week cite that former US Central Intelligence Agency employee Valerie Plame was allegedly following Iran's nuclear activities before her identity was revealed. Democrat Party Senator Frank Lautenberg, in a letter to CIA Director Porter Goss, asked for an evaluation of the harm outing Plame has caused. In the letter, the Senator reminds Director Goss of recent news stories which report that before Plame was outed, she participated in intelligence works on the Iranian nuclear dossier, and her subsequent outing gravely jeopardized the US’...

When you're in orbit, which way is Mecca? 12:14 21 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kelly Young Dan Bursch, Yuri Onufrienko and Carl Walz pose with their Christmas tree aboard the International Space Station in 2001 (Image: NASA)Malaysia's National Space Agency is trying to determine how its astronaut candidates will practice Islam in space. Three of its four astronaut candidates are Muslim, and two will be selected for a future Russian space flight. Once in their orbiting spacecraft, they will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes. Traditionally, Muslims pray five times per day, at times connected to the position...

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, April 19, 2006 – A cooperative group of officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and coalition forces in Afghanistan held its 16th meeting here today. Delegates to the Tripartite Commission included Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hyat, vice chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan; Gen. Bismullah Khan, chief of staff of the Afghan National Army; and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, commander of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. This was the third meeting in which the Afghanistan and Pakistan delegations were represented at the four-star-general level, U.S. officials said. Officials from NATO and the International Security Assistance Force again participated...

MARINE CORPS RECRUITING STATION DENVER, Colo. (March 13, 2006) -- It was a perfect day in Denver to build a house for Habitat for Humanity -- assuming your idea of perfect is 12 degrees below zero. The weather factor, however, did not deter the Marines and poolees of Recruiting Substation Metro South, Recruiting Station Denver, who teamed up to build a home in the Denver area as a part of their weekly pool function. “The weather, in fact, made the experience much more memorable and rewarding,” said Staff Sgt. James D. Regan, canvassing recruiter, RSS Metro South. “When one steps...

February 17, 2006 -- The Upper West Side street on which ABC News' headquarters is located is getting a second name — in honor of the late Peter Jennings. West 66th between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue will be Peter Jennings Way as of next Tuesday. Jennings, 67, died in August, just four months after disclosing that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He anchored "World News Tonight" for 22 years and, with Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, was considered one of the Big Three evening-news anchors. Brokaw retired from "NBC Nightly News" in 2004 and Rather from...

Get out of the way... he hasn't forgotten By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 16/02/2006) The reputation that elephants have for never forgetting has been given a chilling new twist by experts who believe that a generation of pachiderms may taking revenge on humans for the breakdown of elephant society. The New Scientist reports today that elephants appear to be attacking human settlements as vengeance for years of abuse by people. In Uganda, for example, elephant numbers have never been lower or food more plentiful, yet there are reports of the creatures blocking roads and trampling through villages, apparently without...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2006 – The Defense Department unveiled the Quadrennial Defense Review today, charting the way ahead for the next 20 years as it confronts current and future challenges and continues its transformation for the 21st century. The 92-page report, sent to Congress beginning today, represents "a common vision of where we need to go and what we need to do," Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary for policy, told Pentagon reporters today. The report was driven, managed and authored by senior leaders throughout the department, from Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 26, 2005 – It was 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and it was raining at an air base in Kuwait. The "moon dust" that overlays everything in the country was now a gooey mire that stuck to everything. Contrary to popular belief, it does get cold in the Middle East, and it was wet and cold. About 60 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division waited in a tent for a flight to Baghdad. They had been there a while, as previously scheduled flights were diverted or cancelled. They sat or stretched out on aluminum Army cots, and slept...

Spiral arm of Milky Way looms closer than thought 19:00 08 December 2005 NewScientist.com news service Maggie McKee The Milky Way is made of four main arms curving around its centre – astronomers measured the distance from Earth to a star-forming region called W3OH inside the Perseus arm (Image: Y. Xu et al/Science) One of the Milky Way's star-studded spiral arms lies twice as close to Earth as some previous estimates suggested. New research has produced the most accurate distance measurement ever made of the arm, which could help astronomers understand how our galaxy's spiral structure formed. The Milky Way...

HOUSTON (Nov. 4) - A Texas death row inmate somehow found some civilian clothing, changed out of his orange jumpsuit and used a fake ID badge to escape late Thursday from the Harris County Jail. Charles Victor Thompson, 35, of Tomball, was in Houston after being re-sentenced last week to execution. "He managed to get some civilian clothing. He had changed out of the orange jumpsuit that inmates ordinarily wear," Harris County sheriff's Lt. John Martin said in the online edition of the Houston Chronicle. "He may have been taken out of the cell block and put in the attorney...

30,000 migrants 'ready to force way into Europe' By David Rennie in Luxembourg (Filed: 13/10/2005) Up to 30,000 African migrants are determined to reach Europe through Spain, a senior European Union official warned yesterday. The figure, based on reports by European intelligence agencies, dwarfs the crowds of desperate migrants already seen storming Spain's two north African enclaves bordering Morocco. Franco Frattini, the EU justice commissioner, sounded the alarm at a meeting of ministers from all 25 member governments in Luxembourg. He also launched a radical scheme under which the EU will pay African governments to offer better treatment to would-be...

Clinton CD on way By Tom Baldwin in Washington August 17, 2005 Bill Clinton / Reuters YOU'VE read the book and you've seen the interviews but if you were thinking that there is no more juice to be squeezed out of the Bill Clinton experience, think again. The former president is producing a CD, The Bill Clinton Collection: Selections from the Clinton Music Room. The 11-track compilation goes on sale next month. Mr Clinton is so taken with the album that he is reported to have been blasting it through the open windows of his people-carrier as he drives. The...

The Milky Way is not a perfect spiral galaxy but instead sports a long bar through its centre, according to new infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Galaxies come in a wide variety of shapes usually thought to be produced by gravitational interactions with nearby objects. Some spiral galaxies look like pinwheels, with their arms curving out from a central bulge, while others have a straight bar at their centres. Radio telescopes detected gas that hinted at a bar at the heart of the Milky Way in the late 1980s. A decade later, observations with the near infrared survey...

Popularity of Clinton, Reagan, pave way for new stamp DAVID HAMMER Associated Press Posted on Thu, Aug. 04, 2005 Former President Bill Clinton sits near a representation of the U.S. Postal Service's presidential library stamp Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005, during dedication ceremonies at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark. The design for the stamp was unveiled Thursday at each of the 12 presidential libraries and museums across the country. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston) LITTLE ROCK, Lit. - The U.S. Postal Service's Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee received 50,000 suggestions for stamps every year and of all of them, a Little...

Hillary Clinton clears way for presidential run By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 01/06/2005) Senator Hillary Clinton has decided to remove a key obstacle to a run at the presidency, further fuelling fevered speculation about her hopes for America’s top job. Mrs Clinton is understood to be ready to drop a pledge to serve a full six-year term when she seeks re-election as senator for New York next year. This will be the clearest sign of her intention to run for the White House, since she pointedly told New York voters in 2000 that she would not curtail her term...