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Published: 10:02PM Friday August 27, 2010
Source: AAP
A 26-year-old Australian man allegedly was held against his will for six months by a couple who beat him and forced him to do household chores.
Police allege the couple locked the man in a child's cubby house, starved him and beat him up.
They say the man lost almost half his body weight - falling from 70kg to 40kg - during his ordeal after he moved into the couple's home near Bathurst as a lodger in February this year.
Doctors who examined him on August 10 found he had suffered spinal, jaw and rib fractures as well as a punctured lung, police said.
He allegedly had been made to perform all the cleaning duties around the home after having his mobile phone confiscated.
Police arrested a 41-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman in Fish Parade, Gormans Hill.
More here
Friday, August 27, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Back home from convention
After a full on weekend in Palmerston North, things are closer to normal again. It was a long trip but well worth it. There were many fine talks and presentations. The drama was excellent (I won't spoil it for you). If you haven't been yet, go there when it reaches your area!
News:Computer blow to Europe's Goce gravity satellite
By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
Goce artist's impression (Esa) Goce flies lower than any other scientific satellite
A flagship European Earth observation satellite has been struck by a second computer glitch and cannot send its science data down to the ground.
The Goce spacecraft is on a mission to make the most precise maps yet of how gravity varies across the globe.
In February, a processor fault forced operators to switch the satellite over to its back-up computer system.
This too has now developed a problem and engineers are toiling to make the spacecraft fully functional again.
more here
Goce artist's impression (Esa) Goce flies lower than any other scientific satellite
A flagship European Earth observation satellite has been struck by a second computer glitch and cannot send its science data down to the ground.
The Goce spacecraft is on a mission to make the most precise maps yet of how gravity varies across the globe.
In February, a processor fault forced operators to switch the satellite over to its back-up computer system.
This too has now developed a problem and engineers are toiling to make the spacecraft fully functional again.
more here
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Will be away at convention for a few days
From tomorrow morning, I will be traveling to a convention at the Te Raupraha Stadium in Palmerston North. The event lasts until Sunday. The venue is about 100km from home. One of the roads has been closed, so an alternate route must be used. Wishing you all well until I return safe to you again on what will be Sunday evening here.
Man battered ex-wife over Facebook taunts
17 August 2010
A man has been convicted of murdering his ex-wife after she taunted him on Facebook about paying child support.
Adam Mann used a hammer to batter Lisa Beverley, 30, before slashing her neck with a knife, the Old Bailey was told.
Jurors heard she had been online at her home in Plumstead, south London, on 15 September but the session came to an abrupt end at 2200 BST.
Mann, 29, of Springfield Road, Welling, Kent, was found guilty of murder and is due to be sentenced on 4 October.
more here
A man has been convicted of murdering his ex-wife after she taunted him on Facebook about paying child support.
Adam Mann used a hammer to batter Lisa Beverley, 30, before slashing her neck with a knife, the Old Bailey was told.
Jurors heard she had been online at her home in Plumstead, south London, on 15 September but the session came to an abrupt end at 2200 BST.
Mann, 29, of Springfield Road, Welling, Kent, was found guilty of murder and is due to be sentenced on 4 October.
more here
Monday, August 16, 2010
Facebook 'dislike' scam warning
Facebook users are being targeted in a scam that offers them a chance to install a "dislike" button.
The scam tricks users into allowing a rogue application to access their profile page, which then posts spam messages.
It also attempts to lure people into completing an online survey, for which the scammers are paid money.
The social network already offers a "like" button that allows people to rate other user's comments and posts.
Graham Cluley of security firm Sophos said it was the latest in a series of "survey scams" that included links to a video purporting to show an anaconda vomiting up a hippo.
"One thing we commonly see is that the message starts 'OMG, shocking video'," he said.
"And they appear to come from your Facebook friend, giving it a ringing endorsement."
Sunday, August 15, 2010
News:Killer exposes loophole in jury system
Published: 6:06PM Sunday August 15, 2010
Justice Minister Simon Power will be briefed today on how one of the country's most notorious killers was able to contact a juror during one of his recent trials, as revealed on ONE News last night.
The Ministry of Justice will meet under urgency after a juror's safety was compromised by the contact.
Baker, already in prison for the killing of teenager Liam Ashley in a prison van, was found guilty this month of kidnap, threatening to kill and assault with a weapon during a hostage siege at Paremoremo.
At his kidnap trial he represented himself and played a part in selecting the jury, which gave him access to their full names, home addresses and occupations.
It's alleged Baker contacted a woman juror after getting her details from jurors' list, exposing a loophole in the system.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
News:New police anti-fraud bureau makes first arrests
The new National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has made its first arrests.
The three men and one woman are suspected of running a fraudulent music and sporting ticket sales website, Gigsport.com. Many customers said they never received their tickets.
Once the bureau - part of City of London Police - had intelligence of 250 alleged victims, it launched Operation Cyborg, which led to the arrests.
Police believe hundreds of people may have been deceived by the online scam.
A man and a woman were arrested at their home near Waltham Abbey, Essex just before 0700 BST on Thursday.
Another man was arrested in an office on the edge of the City of London, where police officers seized paperwork and computers. A third man was also arrested in London.
Gigsport.com was still available on the internet on Thursday, advertising tickets for Cliff Richard and the Six Nations rugby tournament, among other events.
David Gray, from Meopham in Kent, paid more than £1,000 for Wimbledon tickets in June but never received them.
"What I was surprised at was the actual make-up of the actual website, which was very professional and very tempting indeed," he said.
Tammy Foster, from Birmingham, spent £185 on two Pink concert tickets that never arrived.
Describing her emotions when she found out she had been ripped off, she said: "I wanted to kill someone. I was absolutely disgusted.
"It was made worse because my partner had bought the tickets for my birthday."
She added: "One time when I did phone up, they were verbally abusive to me, telling me to basically go to Trading Standards, and that nothing was going to get done about it and not to phone their office again."
'Deliberately targeted'The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau was launched on 16 June.
At the heart of the NFIB is a computer system which takes in data from banks, police forces, government departments, the NHS, Royal Mail, phone companies and Trading Standards departments among others.
The computer server is in Gloucestershire, but it is operated by City of London Police officers.
Continue reading the main story
Tips for avoiding scams
- Don't be rushed into any deal
- Ensure you have complete contact details of any trader you deal with
- Protect yourself online
- Use a credit card for extra protection on purchases over £100
Source: Consumer Direct
Specially-designed software allows officers and analysts to map fraud networks, and see how far their tentacles spread. This means the force can focus on the fraudsters doing the greatest damage, and nip growing networks in the bud.
City of London Police's head of economic crime, Det Ch Supt Steve Head, said: "The vast majority of our victims are the vulnerable. They are the elderly. They are, in actual fact, targeted - deliberately targeted - by serious organised criminal families and networks. They know what they are doing, and they will target these people repeatedly.
"They will drive them into the ground on occasions, leading to suicides, leading to financial ruin - we have seen all of that in this department. They will bleed these people dry so that they can lead a rock-and-roll lifestyle at their expense."
The NFIB was set up after the then Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith's Fraud Review, commissioned in 2006.
He found that "fraud may be second only to class A drug trafficking as a source of harm from crime; and there is evidence that fraud funds terrorism, drugs and people trafficking".
Source
News:Swede faces world-record $1m speeding penalty
A Swedish driver who was caught driving at 290km/h (180mph) in Switzerland could be given a world-record speeding fine of SFr1,080m ($1m; £656,000), prosecutors say.
The 37-year-old, who has not been named, was clocked driving his Mercedes sports car at 170km/h over the limit.
Under Swiss law, the level of fine is determined by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
BBC news:Why do we all use Qwerty keyboards?
11 August 2010 Last updated at 08:41 GMT
By Nick Baker Producer, BBC Radio 4
Look down from the screen on which you are reading this, and wonder. Q-W-E-R-T-Y. How on earth did this pattern of letters get so locked into our language?
It seems so random. Patchily alphabetic, and in places wantonly arbitrary.
Yet it is also the ultimate software - hard-wired into tens of millions of brains and hundreds of millions of fingers around the world.
It is the ultimate user-machine interface - replicated on the keyboards of computers, and some of the most sophisticated PDAs and mobile phones across the world.
Yet it is pretty much unchanged since it was standardised in the 1870s.
Why do we all use Qwerty keyboards?
By Nick Baker Producer, BBC Radio 4
Look down from the screen on which you are reading this, and wonder. Q-W-E-R-T-Y. How on earth did this pattern of letters get so locked into our language?
It seems so random. Patchily alphabetic, and in places wantonly arbitrary.
Yet it is also the ultimate software - hard-wired into tens of millions of brains and hundreds of millions of fingers around the world.
It is the ultimate user-machine interface - replicated on the keyboards of computers, and some of the most sophisticated PDAs and mobile phones across the world.
Yet it is pretty much unchanged since it was standardised in the 1870s.
Why do we all use Qwerty keyboards?
News:Coroner's criticism over photos of dying Dorset girl
A coroner has condemned the "shabby" actions of people who took mobile phone photographs of a teenage girl after she jumped from a multi-storey car park.
Robyn Nixon, 15, had suffered bullying by being excluded from a group of friends and had also broken up with her boyfriend, an inquest heard.
She died when she jumped from the car park in Weymouth, Dorset, on 11 April.
The coroner praised passers-by who tried to help her but said some took photographs as she lay dying.
More here
Robyn Nixon, 15, had suffered bullying by being excluded from a group of friends and had also broken up with her boyfriend, an inquest heard.
She died when she jumped from the car park in Weymouth, Dorset, on 11 April.
The coroner praised passers-by who tried to help her but said some took photographs as she lay dying.
More here
Sunday, August 8, 2010
BBC Spaceman
Boeing flags its intentions in commercial space
I entrust my life to the Boeing corporation every year; as do the many millions who board planes to fly around the globe. The Seattle-based company has been in business for almost 100 years. Safety is everything.So when I got to meet a group of its space executives this week at the Farnborough Air Show, I wanted to know how a company of its pedigree reacted when it heard US senators talk of commercial space as being too soon, and "too big a risk".
If it hadn't been for a Eurofighter screaming above the Boeing chalet at the time, you might have been able to hear a pin drop. These are delicate times politically, and no-one wants to speak too soon just in case anything they say comes out in a way that could be misinterpreted.
More here
Friday, August 6, 2010
The price of being single
Living alone costs singletons an extra £250,000 over a lifetime compared to couples, it is claimed. So what is the "singles tax", asks Tom de Castella.
The illusion of single life being one long party has been shattered, was the bold claim.
Carrying the full burden of a mortgage, holidays and bills all adds up and single people spend more than £250,000 over the course of their life because they are not part of a couple, a new study suggests.
Researchers compared the spending of people living alone with couples, says price comparison website uSwitch, who commissioned the study. According to the findings single people are paying a hefty penalty for going it alone - hence the non-stop party illusion being shattered. But is it really true?
The price of being single
The illusion of single life being one long party has been shattered, was the bold claim.
Carrying the full burden of a mortgage, holidays and bills all adds up and single people spend more than £250,000 over the course of their life because they are not part of a couple, a new study suggests.
Researchers compared the spending of people living alone with couples, says price comparison website uSwitch, who commissioned the study. According to the findings single people are paying a hefty penalty for going it alone - hence the non-stop party illusion being shattered. But is it really true?
The price of being single
Thursday, August 5, 2010
News:Poo-powered car
A "poo-powered" VW Beetle has taken to the streets of Bristol in an attempt to encourage sustainable motoring.
The Bio-Bug runs on processed methane gas generated as part of the raw sewage treatment process.
Engineers from Wessex Water estimate the waste from 70 homes would generate enough gas to run the car for 10,000 miles (16,100km).
Despite being powered by fuel created from sewage, the car does not smell unpleasant.
"It performs like a normal car - you wouldn't know it was powered by biogas," a company spokesman said.
More here
The Bio-Bug runs on processed methane gas generated as part of the raw sewage treatment process.
Engineers from Wessex Water estimate the waste from 70 homes would generate enough gas to run the car for 10,000 miles (16,100km).
Despite being powered by fuel created from sewage, the car does not smell unpleasant.
"It performs like a normal car - you wouldn't know it was powered by biogas," a company spokesman said.
More here
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
News:Europe breaking electronic waste export ban
4 August 2010
more here
Old televisions and computers containing hazardous substances are still being exported from Europe despite a ban aimed at stopping the trade, which poisons workers at makeshift recycling plants in Africa and Asia.
In Rotterdam a Dutch customs officer swings open a heavy metal door to reveal a pile of old televisions stacked tight within a shipping container.
Instead of proceeding to Ivory Coast, these goods will be impounded, checked and most likely sent back to Germany, from where they arrived.
This is the front line of the European effort to stop electronic and electrical equipment, consumed and discarded in ever greater quantities, from being dumped in the developing world.
A customs official at Rotterdam port opens a container filled with suspected e-waste
It is a daunting task.
Rotterdam is Europe's busiest port, a hub for regional shipping. More than nine million six-metre (20ft) containers or their equivalent pass through each year.
Just one-third of those carrying goods for export are from the Netherlands, with most coming from the EU's other 26 states, including the UK and southern Europe.
Customs officials select suspect shipments through risk profiling, sorting through a list of indicators including the container's sender and its destination.
more here
News:Chipmaker Intel settles FTC antitrust lawsuit
US chipmaker Intel has settled an antitrust lawsuit filed against it by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Charges that Intel had "illegally stifled competition" have been resolved, the FTC said.
Intel had been accused of "a systematic campaign to shut out rivals's competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace".
Intel is the world's largest chipmaker, making 80% of the microprocessors for the world's personal computers.
There were no details on any money changing hands as a result of the settlement.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Note from the blog master
Please feel free to find and add new relevant material to the blog. Those who have chosen to follow things here are also encouraged to write comments, articles and suggest things for including here. I know you have ideas to offer along with insight on the matters of interest or concern to you. What else would you like to include?
News:Microsoft issues 'critical' patch for shortcut bug
Microsoft has issued a "critical" security update to fix a flaw in the way Windows handles shortcuts.
The bug allowed attackers to craft booby-trapped shortcuts that allow them to take over a target computer.
Many users set up shortcuts to get to programs and places in Windows that they use regularly.
Microsoft said it released the patch because it had seen an increase in the number of attacks on the vulnerability.
The fix will be sent out to those that automatically update their machines. It will also be available via the Windows Update site.
more here
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