Category Archives: wtf

Selfies: more hazardous than sharks?


Nearly 38% more deaths from selfies than from sharks:

Conde Nast Traveler reported on Sept. 16 that 11 people had died during selfie accidents, while eight people worldwide were killed in shark attacks. The story picked up steam with the recent death of a tourist who fell down the stairs at the Taj Mahal while trying to snap a selfie, bringing the tally up to 12. Mashable created an infographic to illustrate how much deadlier careless selfies are compared to shark attacks.

Yes, it’s 11 vs. 8, but if it saves one life…:-)

Selfies: more hazardous than sharks?


Nearly 38% more deaths from selfies than from sharks:

Conde Nast Traveler reported on Sept. 16 that 11 people had died during selfie accidents, while eight people worldwide were killed in shark attacks. The story picked up steam with the recent death of a tourist who fell down the stairs at the Taj Mahal while trying to snap a selfie, bringing the tally up to 12. Mashable created an infographic to illustrate how much deadlier careless selfies are compared to shark attacks.

Yes, it’s 11 vs. 8, but if it saves one life…:-)

She must be a hasher

bad-decision-bearsOnly a hasher would think this is a great idea:

Hero: Unable to carry on, woman chugs entire bottle of cognac at airport security

Consider this your evening palate cleanser, appropriately alcohol- and China-related in light of today’s drink-inducing rollercoaster ride on Wall Street.  Sorry aspirants — this year’s Alcohol Olympics are over, and we have ourselves an undisputed gold medalist. Raise the flag and strike up the band:

We’ve all been stopped at airport security with a forgotten bottle of water, which we can either toss away or drink quickly in front of airport security. But what happens if that liquid is not water, but an entire bottle of European cognac? For airline passenger Miss Zhao, there was only one solution: slam it back at once. Zhao was transferring to a Wenzhou flight at Beijing Airport at noon on August 21 when she was stopped at airport security. A worker told the woman in her forties that she was not able to bring the imported cognac through the security checkpoint in her carry-on. As it was too late to transfer the cognac to her checked-in luggage, Zhao did what any responsible person that hates wasting food would do: she sat down in a corner and drank the entire bottle of cognac herself.

But to paraphrase Hillary Clinton’s top spokesperson, it seems as though Ms. Zhao didn’t quite think this “solution” through:

That created a new security problem though, and it had to do with the bottle of cognac that was now inside her. Zhao started acting wildly and yelling incoherently. Due to her massive inebriation, when Zhao fell to the floor, that’s where she stayed. When police arrived at the scene, they decided not to let her board her flight out of concern that she had become a security risk to others and herself as Zhao was travelling alone. Zhao was taken to a convalescence room and was checked out by a doctor. It wasn’t until 7pm when she sobered up and realized what she had done. Zhao was eventually released by police to her family who had come to Beijing Airport to escort her home.

Password requirements FAIL

pwfail

I went to sign up with the DMV website to put in a change of address.  After providing some info off my license and some other bits, they sent a link to the page shown above.

Only eight characters?  Not case-sensitive?  Really?

It also barfed on some of the non-alphanumeric characters KeePass wanted to use…an unstated requirement, apparently, is that only the three non-alphanumeric characters given are acceptable.  I’m used to giving websites passwords that are 20 or more characters of random gibberish to provide plenty of entropy; the limits imposed by the DMV website only allow about 50 bits of entropy, which is fairly weak security.

The length limit suggests that perhaps they’re storing raw passwords in their database, as that’s the only reason to have a length limit.  Even Ashley Madison probably didn’t make that kind of rookie mistake.

(Of course, no post on password strength issues is complete without this: https://xkcd.com/936/)

‘Deez Nuts’ polling at 9% among North Carolina voters

Who’s next…Al Kaholic?  Mike Rotch?  Maybe even Mike Hunt?

‘Deez Nuts’ polling at 9% among North Carolina voters

The 2016 race for the Republican presidential nomination is officially nuts — “Deez Nuts.”

The race, which already comprises 17 major candidates, got an additional entrant this week who has fashioned his name after an infamous rap song.

A person named “Deez Nuts” filed official paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for President Sunday, CBS News reported, joining more than 500 other random contenders who have the legal right to run for the presidency.

More shockingly, however, is how well Nuts, who is running as an independent, is faring in the key state of North Carolina, where, according a to a Public Policy Polling poll, the mysterious figure got the support of 9% of likely voters.

Life imitates art

Do you suppose this one also answers to “Heisenberg?”

Meth Trafficker Walter White Wants Stuff Back

Methamphetamine trafficker Walter White wants law enforcement officials to return his gun, truck, and other belongings confiscated during a raid, according to court records.

White, who was sentenced in December 2013 to 12 years in prison, has petitioned a federal judge to order Department of Justice prosecutors to return property “illegally seized” by members of a drug task force.

In addition to his .45 caliber pistol and Ford Bronco, White, 55, wants a flat screen TV, two laptop computers, and a camera surveillance system turned over to his son Bradley, a Montana college student. The elder Mr. White is being held at the federal lockup in Big Spring, Texas until March 2024.