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FBI Director James Comey's letter to Congress indicating that the bureau has "learned of the existence of (Hillary Clinton) emails" which he concluded must be reviewed "to determine whether they contain classified information" has led to all kinds of people declaring the move an "unprecedented" October surprise. Even some people who should know better have called it the "Mother of All October Surprises." Perhaps it ultimately will be, but as things currently stand, it's not really in the running for current champion. The press's institutional memory is so weak, and its insistence on burying long-ago inconvenient truths is so strong,...

Microsoft and the Samba project fixed a vulnerability in their implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocol after the flaw was initially announced three weeks ago under the name Badlock. The vulnerability, covered by Microsoft in its MS16-047 security bulletin published Tuesday, was also fixed in Samba 4.4.2, 4.3.8 and 4.2.11. It could allow a man-in-the-middle attacker to impersonate an authenticated user and execute arbitrary network calls to the server, possibly with administrative privileges. Badlock's existence was announced on March 22 by a company called SerNet, which offers Samba consulting, support and development services. It employs the person who found the flaw:...

MINNEAPOLIS - The mothers of two of three Americans jailed in Iran for nearly a year said Thursday that an Iranian nuclear scientist's return to his homeland after being in the United States has given family members hope for the release of their loved ones. "I'm very happy that he's been returned, that he can reconnect with his family," Cindy Hickey, the mother of jailed American Shane Bauer, told The Associated Press of Sharan Amiri, shortly after his return to Tehran. "I can't help but be hopeful this might loosen things up a bit." Hickey was quick to caution that...

CANCUN, Mexico - Roland Emmerich has an ongoing project: destroying the world. In 1996's Independence Day, the German director sent aliens to wipe out the White House. In 1998, he unleashed Godzilla to wreak havoc on the streets of New York. In 2004's The Day After Tomorrow, he froze the planet in a new ice age. But in his new film, 2012, to be released Nov. 13 and already the eye of a vast promotion storm, things get really bad. Emmerich, who has earned the unofficial title of "Master of Disaster," admits having searched Google for a doomsday scenario even...

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is accusing YouTube LLC of acting too quickly to comply with copyright infringement notices by yanking his campaign videos. McCain's campaign sent a letter Monday to YouTube parent company Google Inc., protesting YouTube's removal of unnamed videos from the site after receiving take-down notices claiming copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The McCain camp goes on to suggest that YouTube set up a special process for reviewing the legal merit of take-down requests for YouTube accounts associated with candidates or their campaigns. The letter asserts that numerous times during the campaign, YouTube...

New Jersey government workers who were idled this week because of the state shutdown might end up with an extra week of paid vacation. Unions representing the 45,000 state workers ordered to stay home during the historic government shutdown are pushing for full pay for the lost work week. "We feel we should not be penalized - we were willing and able to come to work," said Lisa Ciccone, business representative of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers-Local 195 which has 6,500 members. More than half of the state's 84,000 workers had been deemed "non-essential" during the crisis...

Wikipedia founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales this week announced the opening of a wiki devoted to hot-button political topics such as gay marriage and environmental protection. Jimmy Wales Political junkies who can't get enough of Daily Kos or RedState (depending on party preferences) may now have a new Web 2.0 toy in the form of Campaigns Wikia. As with Wikipedia, Wiktionary and other wikis, contributors to Campaigns Wikia will be able to edit any section of the site, provided that they register for free accounts first. Campaigns Wikia was unveiled, appropriately, on July 4, with an "open letter to the political...

PHILADELPHIA -- A man pleaded guilty to weapons of mass destruction charges for sending a mail bomb to a Chicago surgeon he said botched his penile enlargement surgery, though his attorney questioned whether the charges fit the offense. Brett R. Steidler, 25, of Reamstown, Pa., mailed the explosive device in February 2005 because he was "extremely unhappy with the results" of the $8,000 surgery, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in court filings. Reamstown is in Lancaster County. But Steidler alerted authorities before the bomb arrived and it was retrieved from the mail and disarmed. His attorney, Luis A....

The 58-story Comcast Center rising over 17th Street is already destined to be Philadelphia's tallest and most environmentally friendly skyscraper. But its developer, Liberty Property Trust, dreams of claiming an even more prestigious title: America's tallest green building. Unfortunately, the city's quest for national glory may go down the drain of a waterless urinal. The local plumbers union is blocking Liberty's plan to install no-flush, water-saving urinals in the men's rooms at the Comcast Center. Without them, the finished skyscraper would guzzle an extra 1.6 million gallons of water a year, and Liberty could have trouble obtaining a coveted seal...

Traditional and new media will join forces for a multipronged, interactive approach to covering Tuesday night's State of the Union address. ABC and AOL News late last week began soliciting opinions on what ordinary citizens think about the state of the union via a poll, text messaging and even videos in a type of "citizen journalism" in which the citizens tell journalists--and their fellow citizens--what they think about the nation's course. The efforts will ramp up Tuesday night, when ABC News and AOL will carry President Bush's speech (and the Democrats' response), and offer the reactions of viewers and real-time...

VALLEY FORGE - An Iraqi couple visiting the United States is speaking out about conditions under Saddam Hussein and why they are grateful he has been removed from power. Yousif Mitty, the founder and director of the Evangelical Church of Iraq, is in the United States as a speaker at several engagements. His wife, Alia Mitty, a Kirkuk native who built a women's education center in the war-torn country, made the journey with him. The Mittys lived in Kirkuk, just south of the United Nations no-fly zone in Iraq. Several years ago, they say, they began making furtive trips into...

Google has begun to make good on its commitment to plow a small fraction of the proceeds from its wildly successful stock offering into social investment projects. Funding for "good works" will largely be derived from the donation of 1 percent of the equity from last year's initial public offering, along with 1 percent of its annual profits. Google said Tuesday that it plans to organize its charitable work under the umbrella of a new organization it calls Google.org. The mission is to focus on vast issues like global poverty, energy and the environment. "These are big problems, so our...

The Democrat's name appears on billboard and bus ads for the merged Scranton Times-Tribune. It might just have faded like any other promotional campaign. The newly merged Scranton Times-Tribune wanted to call attention to itself with advertisements that appear this summer on TV, billboards and buses. The ads featured a mock newspaper with a banner headline: "Casey to run for Senate." But at issue now - unfolding against the backdrop of a high-profile U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Rick Santorum and Democrat Bob Casey Jr. - is whether the ads are a harmless promotion for a business or a...

MOSCOW - A Russian village was left baffled on Thursday after its lake disappeared overnight. NTV television showed pictures of a giant muddy hole bathed in summer sun, while fishermen from the village of Bolotnikovo looked on disconsolately. “It is very dangerous. If a person had been in this disaster, he would have had almost no chance of survival. The trees flew downwards, under the ground,” said Dmitry Zaitsev, a local Emergencies Ministry official interviewed by the channel ... ... “I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us,” said one old woman, as she sat on the ground...

NORRISTOWN -- President George W. Bush is coming to Montgomery County to win public support for his plan to strengthen Social Security. The president is scheduled to hold a "Conversation on Strengthening Social Security" late Thursday afternoon at the Montgomery County Community College, which is located in the 300 block of DeKalb Pike (Rt. 202) in Whitpain. During his televised State of the Union address Feb. 2, Bush told Congress and the nation that, unless reforms are implemented, Social Security is headed for bankruptcy. One of the controversial reforms he has proposed would allow younger workers to divert Social Security...

The Guardian, a London-based newspaper, ended a letter-writing campaign aimed at defeating U.S. President George W. Bush after a Web site hosting the promotion was attacked by hackers. Ian Katz, an editor at the British newspaper who thought up "Operation Clark County," said in a letter posted to the company's Web site on Thursday that despite garnering an overwhelming response from the public, the project was being scrapped. The campaign asked for non-American volunteers to pen letters to undecided voters in Clark County, Ohio--which the Guardian had identified as a crucial region in a battleground election state--urging them to vote...

Anyone notice any pattern here to these headlines, found using google.com, searching for "Kerry Slams Bush" (in quotes)? USAToday.com: Kerry slams Bush over economy - Sep 21, 2004 Yahoo! News: Kerry Slams Bush on Iraq War, Economy - Sep 2, 2004 CNN.com: Kerry slams Bush on terrorism - Feb 27, 2004 CNN.com: Kerry slams Bush over deficit - Apr 7, 2004 sacbee.com: Kerry slams Bush, proposes debt relief - Aug 28, 2004 Gulf Daily News: Kerry slams Bush move - Sep 5, 2004 ABCNEWS.com: Kerry Slams Bush Over Health Care, Jobs - Sep 4, 2004 Reuters: Kerry slams Bush 'compassion'...

Philadelphia proved a little too real for The Real World. After squabbling with local unions, the producers of the MTV series yesterday gave up on Philadelphia as the site of its 15th season. Taping was to begin in three weeks. "After considerable evaluation, we are disappointed to announce that Bunim/Murray Productions has decided not to shoot The Real World in Philadelphia," a spokeswoman for the company said yesterday afternoon. She declined to elaborate. MTV's selection of Philadelphia was accompanied by unbridled civic rejoicing when it was announced Feb. 26. City leaders believed that The Real World, with its huge audience...

A little New Year's humor... You Know You're Italian If... You have many relatives named either Joe or Mary, and you have at least one brother named Joe You grew up in a small house, but you still had two kitchens. (One was in the basement)When you were growing up, you had five cousins all living on the same streetWhen you were growing up, you thought that all wine was red and that it only came in gallon jugs If someone in your family grows beyond 6’ 2”, it’s presumed that the mother had an affair There were more than...

PHILADELPHIA -- In the latest in the federal investigation into Mayor John Street, a newspaper is reporting that the bug planted in the mayor's office was only in place two weeks before it was discovered, and a federal judge has refused to unseal warrants related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe. Citing unidentified sources familiar with the investigation, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the judge who approved the bugging only allowed FBI agents to listen to conversations from a short list of visitors, and that the devices had been installed with just weeks to go in Street's tight re-election...