Sunday, October 14, 2007

^*Delayed 45 Minutes due to heavy rain

Colombia and Brazil opened their 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification campaign with a 0-0 draw.

Despite inexperienced squad, Colombia had most of the chances and Brazil became less of a threat as the game went on.

The match started 45 minutes late after a torrential downpour left the pitch temporarily unplayable. But the water drained away quickly.

Colombia pressed forward after for the majority of the game. However, they couldn’t take any of their chances and ended with a 0-0 scoreline.

Brazil could find themselves in trouble with an accumulation of yellow cards as 4 of their players picked up their 1^st yellow cards.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

On Monday, digital security researchers Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens of Belgium’s KU Leuven university publicly disclosed a security vulnerability in the WPA2 Wi-Fi (wireless local-area networking) protocol, which they called KRACK (for Key Reinstallation Attack). Their study claimed KRACK affects every modern device using Wi-Fi; it can be fixed by a software update, researchers said.

Vanhoef wrote, “Attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted. This can be abused to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos and so on.” Vanhoef notified vendors about the flaw in July, including UNIX-like operating system OpenBSD. “If your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected. […] In general, any data or information that the victim transmits can be decrypted”, he wrote.

The study papers, which were submitted for review on May 19, were kept in confidence allowing companies to fix the security flaw. The United States-based Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) informed vendors on August 28. The Wi-Fi Alliance said it “could be resolved through a straightforward software update.” OpenBSD released their software patch on August 30.

Exploring the flaw which affected every device the researchers had tested, National Cyber Security Centre of the UK said “the attacker would have to be physically close to the target”. But due to this flaw, an attacker can send malware or ransomware on the websites, Vanhoef claimed.

Linux-based operating systems including Android v6.0 and higher are especially affected by this flaw, while Windows and iOS are not as vulnerable as Android by this flaw as they do not fully implement WPA2.

Microsoft reportedly has released security patches for Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. Google said Android operating systems would receive the updates in the software update scheduled to be made available on November 6. Apple has implemented the patch in the beta versions of their operating system iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS, however it is yet to roll out patches for stable operating systems.

WPA2 protocol has been used for more than a decade, and has been compulsory for Wi-Fi since 2006. KRACK would also affect various home appliances which can be controlled over Wi-Fi, within the so-called “Internet of things”. Andrew Martin from Oxford University said, “We can be sure a lot of these devices won’t be patched[…] Whether that matters for this attack or only for some future attack is yet to be seen.”

The study and its findings are scheduled for presentation at the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Computer and Communications Security conference on November 1.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Zach Scruggs, a lawyer for United States Senator Trent Lott, says that State Farm Insurance Company is destroying records related to claims for damage from Hurricane Katrina.

The records allegedly contain information saying that State Farm fraudulently denied insurance claims made by its policy holders, including Lott, that had homes there were damaged or destroyed when Hurricane Katrina came ashore on the Gulf Coast.

Scruggs said that Lott has “good faith belief” that many employees of the insurance company in Biloxi, Mississippi are destroying engineer’s reports that were inconclusive as to whether or not water or wind was the main cause of damage to the buildings affected by the hurricane.

Lott is among thousands of home and/or business owners who had their property damaged or destroyed during the hurricane and had their claims denied because State Farm claimed that their policies don’t cover damage caused by floods or water that was driven by the wind.

State Farm has not issued a statement on the matter so far.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005A survey carried out by BBC Wales has revealed that the contents of a school meal in Wales cost on average just £0.49 per pupil. Average spending on meal ingredients varied slightly from council to council; with the Cardiff City council spending just £0.40 on each meal, whilst Powys council lavished £0.69 per pupil.

The survey follows a recent surge in media coverage of the eating habits of teenagers and children in the UK. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver recently embarked on a campaign to improve food standards and raise awareness in schools. In response to his campaign the government has promised to spend an additional £280 million over three years on school food in England.

The survey covered twenty councils throughout Wales.

Friday, November 6, 2009

The unemployment rate in the United States has surpassed ten percent, according to figures released by the US Department of Labor on Friday.

The jobless rate, now at 10.2%, is the highest it has been since April 1983, and was an increase over September’s level of 9.8%. 190,000 jobs in total were lost last month, and 8.2 million total people have become unemployed since the recession officially began in December 2007.

“It’s pretty disappointing overall. Job losses are not moderating as quickly as I had hoped despite those earlier indicators on jobs,” economic analyst Richard Franulovich at the Westpac financial services company said.

Some economists say the jobless rate could reach 10.5% next year because employers are still reluctant to hire. Economist James Shugg predicted the weakness in the US job market is expected to continue.

“It is a lot easier for firms to make the decision not to lay someone off than it is actually to decide to take someone on,” Shugg said. “I think we are still at that point, the firms are getting less aggressive in terms of job cutting. But putting people on is still a little way to come yet.”

Despite the news, most analysts have said that this is an improvement in a way, as the rate of job losses has slowed in the past year. This January, for instance, saw 741,000 job cuts. The US gross domestic product also grew by 3.5% from July through September. President Barack Obama, however, suggested that the jobless rate may still continue to rise in the immediate future. “We are just not where we need to be yet. We’ve got a long way to go,” he said.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

On Sunday Peter Capaldi was named as the twelfth Doctor on BBC’s Doctor Who. The announcement was made as part of a live broadcast by the BBC.

Capaldi had been considered by executive producer Steven Moffat for the role of the eleventh doctor before Matt Smith was ultimately chosen. The role became vacant after Smith announced earlier this year that he would be leaving the show. Capaldi said of his selection for the role, “Being asked to play the Doctor is an amazing privilege. […] Like the Doctor himself I find myself in a state of utter terror and delight. I can’t wait to get started.”

Capaldi’s first screen appearance in this role is scheduled to air on television in late 2013. He will be the second oldest Doctor in the show’s history, with only the original Doctor being older.

As of earlier today, the official BBC Doctor Who Facebook page has 138,238 likes and 47,809 shares for the news of Capaldi taking on the role.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

NASA have today announced that the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, mission STS-122, which is a module delivery mission to the International Space Station (ISS), will be delayed until January 2nd, 2008 at the earliest, after scrubbing today’s launch attempt, and an earlier attempt on December 6th.

The decision to scrub the launch attempt was made at 7:24 a.m. EST by shuttle program managers. The reason behind the scrubbing is to allow shuttle engineers to spend time diagnosing and fixing the erroneous readings presented to the crew and Mission Control by the intermittent malfunctioning of a critical engine cutoff sensor (ECO). While only one of the four sensors was malfunctioning, the current launch criteria for the mission state that all four ECOs must be functioning correctly in order to launch.

At a meeting held at 9 a.m., NASA’s Mission Management Team for STS-122 decided on a postponement until January 2nd at the very earliest. Atlantis is due to deliver the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Columbus laboratory module to the ISS. Alan Thirkettle, ESA’s Space Station Program Manager, said, regarding the delay in launch: “In the big picture, it’s not a setback. [But] it is disappointing because we have 750 people over here.”