SHOW INTRO:
Today we’ll discuss
- North Korea stands accused
- The Top 10 passwords used in 2017
- And President Trumps approval rating is…
Don’t go anywhere, we begin in only a few seconds…
<intro>
Today is Wednesday, Dec 20th
Welcome to the Bruce show, it’s Wednesday, hump day, and here’s the news you should know about…
- On Scotland’s remote isle of Skye, scientists have discovered rare meteoric minerals*
- Geologists from Birkbeck university of london discovered the minerals at the site of a prehistoric meteor strike on Scotland’s remote Isle of Skye.
- The researchers were examining the base of a 60-million-year-old lava flow when they discovered the osbornite.
- Thankfully the lava had not yet reached the site and was discovered in a swampy area where the team was up to their thighs in mud.
- The mineral is called osbornite – it was discovered decades ago when nasa brought back some dust from the moon.
- A second site was discovered roughly 4 miles away with the same mineral composition.
- If mineral that make up meteors interest you, the The scientists’ findings have been published in the journal GeoScienceWorld… the link is in the source below.
- http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/12/19/amazing-alien-mineral-discovery-site-60-million-year-old-meteorite-strike-stuns-scientists.html
- https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/525169/discovery-of-a-meteoritic-ejecta-layer-containing%E2%80%AC
- When I first brought up the possibilities of the FCC retracting net neutrality rules months ago, I mentioned the other way to skin this particular cat was for legislators in congress to write the rules into law
- Republican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday unveiled what a bill entitled Open Internet Preservation Act.
- Now if you look at the net neutrality rules, there are three distinct pillars
- First, net neutrality ISPs could not block access to content on the internet from consumers
- Second, it ensured ISPs could not throttle (or slow down the speed) for any particular website or content
- And Third, it prevented “paid prioritization,” or the ability of Internet providers to speed up certain websites in exchange for money.
- Blackburns bill writes into the law the first two pillars, but not the third.
- It also requires the FCC to regulate everything related to the bill.
- In my humble opinion, omitting the third pillar that prevents ISP from <quote> speeding up</quote> certain content for a paid premium will still lead to ISPs being dishonest in what their base speed is…
- For example, Comcast may offer a 300mbps up and down speed as their best package or consumers, but for an extra $10/mth we’ll speed up Netflix to a gigabit…
- My question is, isn’t that the same as slowing down some sites vs. others?
- As an ISP why wouldn’t I just keep the spoeeds in my packages slow unless you game me a premium rate to speed them up?
- If I put my positivity hat on, this feels like the only legislation that would get approved from the Trump administration…
- However It’s like having a car with body and engine, but no tires… Sure you could call it a car, but you can’t go anywhere with it… you’re in the same situation without it.
- That’s this bill… we need all three pillars, without them… we’re stuck
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/12/19/this-gop-net-neutrality-bill-aims-to-replace-some-but-not-all-of-the-fccs-rules/?utm_term=.be67b022f27a
- The whitehouse came out and told us North Korea was behind the ransomware attacks that crippled Brittain’s national health service back in may
- Deemed the “wannacry” attacks, Homeland security adviser Tom Bossert told reporters Pyongyang will be held accountable for their actions.
- The WannaCry attack struck more than 150 nations in May, locking up digital documents, databases and other files and demanding a ransom for their release.
- The WannaCry ransomware exploited a vulnerability in mostly older versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Affected computers had generally not been patched with security fixes that would have blocked the attack.
- Security experts, however, traced the exploitation of that weakness back to the U.S. National Security Agency; it was part of a cache of stolen NSA cyberweapons publicly released by a group of hackers known as the Shadow Brokers.
- Yes, you heard that right… it was our hack, stolen and given to the North Koreans…
- Microsoft president Brad Smith likened the theft to “the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen,” and argued that intelligence agencies should disclose such vulnerabilities rather than hoarding them.
- WannaCry came to a screeching halt thanks to enterprising work by a British hacker named Marcus Hutchins, who discovered that the malware’s author had embedded a “kill switch” in the code. Hutchins was able to trip that switch, and the attack soon ended.
- What did he get for his efforst? Arrested by the FBI…
- Well, he was arrested for other malware he was responsible for… but COME ON… Give the guy a job! Dude played cyber superman for a day.
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/trump-administration-blames-nkorea-for-big-ransomware-attack/2017/12/18/aa6f9e3e-e468-11e7-927a-e72eac1e73b6_story.html?utm_term=.2355a72f099f
Q3
- Splash Data has published a list of the top passwords used in 2017
- Variations of 123456 make up the top 5 spots
- Starwars breaks into the list for the first time at number 16
- Check out the full list in the source below:
- https://www.cnet.com/news/worst-passwords-2017-star-wars-splashdata-list/
- Facebook will soon send you alerts when it sees you in untagged photos
- I can’t wait to see if the technology will notice me back when I was a kid. Think about how many of your friends post old pictures of you in school!
- To learn more, check out the link below.
- http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/19/technology/facebook-facial-recognition-untagged-photos/index.html
- EPA contract w/ media
- The Environmental Protection Agency is canceling a $120,000 “media tracking” contract it recently signed with a Republican public affairs and opposition-research firm.
- Yes… that company is as bad as it sounds…
- THanksfully it’s been cancelled
- Check out more in the sources below: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/12/19/epa-to-end-controversial-contract-with-conservative-media-monitoring-firm/?utm_term=.172d16c9eb45
Trump Dump
- Trump will end the year with the lowest approval rating of any modern president at this stage of his first term.
- According to real clear politics, President trump is at 38%
- To put that in perspective…
- Bush, 2001 86%
- Kennedy, 1961 77%
- Bush, 1989 71%
- Eisenhower, 1953 69%
- Nixon, 1969 59%
- Carter, 1977 57%
- Obama, 2009 54%
- Clinton, 1993 54%
- Reagan, 1981 49%
- But Trump… he’s at 38%
- http://www.newsweek.com/trump-december-approval-rating-lowest-all-time-752399
- https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html
that’s it for Trump Dump… pew pew
DYK
- Speaking of our first story and alien minerals found here on earth… Did you know that you’ve probably NEVER seen the most abundant mineral here on earth!
- AND THAT Mineral didn’t even have a name until 2014!
- Called Bridgmanite, it’s a mineral made up of magnesium, iron and silicon dioxide and it’s estimated to make up 38% of earth’s volume.
- It didn’t have a name until recently because scientists were unable to observe it closely – bridgmanite’s favorite habitat is hundreds of miles under the earth’s surface, where it forms under really intense temperatures and pressures.
- Now, you may know that scientists are aware of roughly 5k minerals here on earth…
- But did you know that they believe over 1500 have yet to be discovered?
- If you’d like to read more about bridgmanite, or undiscovered minerals, check out the sources below…
- Read more in the sources below: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/most-abundant-mineral-world-named-180951818/#Dfcd6yBVCZku8rUk.99
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2016/12/04/what-are-the-most-common-minerals-on-earth/#73370e19615c
- https://www.seeker.com/earth-has-more-than-1500-yet-undiscovered-minerals-1770180549.html
And that wraps up another did you know as well as our show for the day…
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outro