Cave News

Sweet reward for stolen candy

There is a sweet reward for aiding the recovery of a truckload of candy and gum.

There was 36,416 pounds of confections in a McCain trailer that went missing from Crazy D's Truck Plaza at Indiana 1 and Interstate 70 on Aug. 22.

The refrigerated trailer was found empty at a truck stop near Ann Arbor, Mich., almost a month later. It apparently had been abandoned there several days before, Michigan police reported.

McCain wants the candy and gum back and is offering a reward.

The driver of the candy truck parked the trailer at Crazy D's on Aug. 20 and took the tractor home for a weekend of rest. When he came back, the trailer was missing.

Each item in the trailer amounts to a low priced item in the form of candy bars and bubble gum. However, the value of the missing load in that 53 foot trailer is set at $69,000. That’s 30 pallets of potential tooth decay.

The $10,000 reward for recovery is contingent on finding all of the candy and gum. The amount of the reward will be prorated if only part of the loot is recovered.

Link here.

Kids can crank-up this Linux $100 laptop

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed a new computer for kids. The computer is designed so they can be used by children everywhere -- including kids in underdeveloped countries.

This MIT designed computer will be durable, flexible and self-reliant.

It is puposely designed with a unique look to make this computer a standout.

The idea is to prevent the $100 laptops from being widely stolen or falling into the "gray market."

The designers hope it would "socially be a stigma to be carrying one if you are not a student or a teacher."

The machines' AC adapter would double as a carrying strap, and a hand crank would power them when there's no electricity. Two minutes of cranking would provide ten minutes of use.

They'd be foldable like traditional notebook PCs, and carried like slim lunchboxes.
For outdoor reading, their display would be able to shift from full color to glare-resistant black and white.

They would have a A 500-megahertz processor and flash memory instead of a hard drive with moving parts.

To save on software costs, the laptops would run the freely available Linux operating system instead of Windows.

The computers would be able to connect to Wi-Fi wireless networks and be part of "mesh" networks in which each laptop would relay data to and from other devices, reducing the need for expensive base stations. Plans call for the machines to have four USB ports for multimedia and data storage.

Perhaps the defining difference is the hand crank, though first-generation users would get no more than 10 minutes of juice from one minute of winding.

A prototype is expected to be available in November. No specific date for production.

For more information with drawings of this computer click here, here, here, here.

Hackers may spy on your every keystroke

In the last few months the direction of internet crime seems to be changing. We still need to be alert to phishing scams where internet crooks have us click on links in emails that take us to fake web sites that look like our bank's web site where they ask for SS numbers, bank account numbers and pin numbers.

The number of reported phishing attacks fell in July from June, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group... but the number of programs aimed at stealing passwords more than doubled in the same period.

Bank customers know to shield their ATM passwords from prying eyes. But with the rise of online banking, computer users may not realize electronic snoops might be peeking over their shoulder every time they type.

In a twist on online fraud, hackers and identity thieves are infecting computers with increasingly sophisticated programs that record bank passwords and other key financial data and send them to crooks over the Internet.

Our computers could be infected with a “keylogging” program very easily.

The keylogging programs can install themselves after computer users open faked e-mails, instant messages or even advertisements on mainstream websites.
Then they record everything typed on a computer — or just what's typed during user visits to specified financial sites. Such information is sometimes sent to the hackers in neat bundles, with a column for the relevant financial website followed by columns for the user's log-in name and password.

So far, most of the fraud from keylogging programs has been used to access and draw money out of accounts one by one.

However, recently thieves have been working to automate more of the process which would allow them to attack thousands of accounts simultaneously.

One financial institution has already seen attempted withdrawals that occurred in alphabetical order by the names of customers.

Does this mean we may be safer banking at a small local bank? It is harder all the time to find a local bank that is not affiliated with a large banking chain.

Link here to the LA Times article: “Now, Every Keystroke Can Betray You.”

LED binary clock - drive your friends nuts

Hey kid, want a clock your mom can’t read? If you want to build it yourself, the kit is $50. Fully assembled it’ll set you back twenty bucks more.

Well, maybe your mom can read this clock. If she can read it she is probably a computer science major.

A few days ago we showed a “new fashioned” LED clock which was much easeir to read than this binary clock.

This one would be a good companion clock to have -- if for no other reason than to impress (or confuse) your friends.

Link to more information here. Basic instructions here.

Most Beautiful Bulldog Contest winner

This cutie sits on the throne after being crowned the winner of the 26th annual Drake Most Beautiful Bulldog Contest, Monday, April 25, 2005, in Des Moines, Iowa.

The dog’s name is Tiberius and is owned by Karen and Phil Swift of Ankeny, Iowa.

The pageant kicks off the Drake Relays festivities at Drake University where a bulldog is the mascot.

Cooing at babies violates their rights

Do you think that cooing at babies is a violation of their human rights? A hospital in England does.

A British hospital is banning visitors to the maternity ward from "cooing" at babies because the practice threatens the newborns' human rights.

One ward at the Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, West Yorkshire, even features a doll asking visitors, "What makes you think I want to be looked at?"

The manager of the hospital's special baby care unit says the ban is meant to protect the privacy of newborn babies, saying, "Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me."

One interesting comment to the story on BBC News:

Great! Maybe now we will also see a ban on old women pulling at the cheeks of grown children and (what is surely one of the greatest offences to human rights this country has ever seen) spitting on tissues in order to clean wayward toddlers' faces. Lock 'em up and throw away the key - that's what I say!

Don’t you just love the comment shown above! Just shows how absurd the cooing ban really is.

I agree with British Labour MP (Member Parliament) Linda Riordan when she said the measures were "bureaucracy gone mad.”

Could it happen in this country? Don’t bet against it. The ACLU and EEOC are probably studying the matter right now.

Link here. Hat tip to Mel Wade for this story.

Batman at Michigan NASCAR race

It looks like Batman is entering his Batmobile in a NASCAR race.

But it’s just a publicity photo showing a NASCAR driver talking with a man in a Batman suit standing next to the Batmobile.

The photo-op was held last June to promote the movie. The picture was taken at Michigan International Speedway, in Brooklyn, Michigan.

Using her head for $10,000 cash

Did it all start with the Omaha man found here?

This Utah woman sold advertising space space on her forehead to a web gambling site for $10,000.

She claimed she did it for her son. But how will she explain it later to her sons children?

I can hear it now: “hey, come and see what grandma went and did.”

Will The Donald change diapers?

Will this man change diapers?

Donald Trump and his third wife Melania are expecting a child next spring.

Melania, who has appeared in numerous print ads and graced the covers of Vogue and British GQ magazines, is Trump's third wife.

He has four children from his previous marriages: Donald Jr., 27; Ivanka, 23; and Eric, 21, with first wife Ivana Trump, and Tiffany, 11, with second wife Marla Maples

Link here.

Horsing around in England at Epsom Derby

Racegoers wearing horses heads discussing the races at the Epsom Derby last June at the Epsom Downs Racecourse, in Epsom, England.