Kitty At The Beach

Posted in Photos on February 11, 2013 by RickNews

Shot with an iPhone 4S

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How I Began My Day 2

Posted in Photos on February 8, 2013 by RickNews

Shot with an iPhone 4S

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How I Began My Day

Posted in Photos on February 7, 2013 by RickNews

20130207-082843.jpgShot with an iPhone 4S.

 

Scottie Pinwheel

Posted in General Interest on January 25, 2013 by RickNews

Enjoy these Scotties whirling around a bowl of goat’s milk.

This Man Is A Genius

Posted in General Interest on January 17, 2013 by RickNews

From the BBC Comes this gem of a story:

A security check on a US company has reportedly revealed one of its staff was outsourcing his work to China.

The software developer, in his 40s, is thought to have spent his workdays surfing the web, watching cat videos on YouTube and browsing Reddit and eBay.

He reportedly paid just a fifth of his six-figure salary to a company based in Shenyang to do his job.

Operator Verizon says the scam came to light after the US firm asked it for an audit, suspecting a security breach.

According to Andrew Valentine, of Verizon, the infrastructure company requested the operator’s risk team last year to investigate some anomalous activity on its virtual private network (VPN) logs.

“This organisation had been slowly moving toward a more telecommuting oriented workforce, and they had therefore started to allow their developers to work from home on certain days. In order to accomplish this, they’d set up a fairly standard VPN concentrator approximately two years prior to our receiving their call,” he wasquoted as saying on an internet security website.

The company had discovered the existence of an open and active VPN connection from Shenyang to the employee’s workstation that went back months, Mr Valentine said.

And it had then called on Verizon to look into what it had suspected had been malware used to route confidential information from the company to China.

“Central to the investigation was the employee himself, the person whose credentials had been used to initiate and maintain a VPN connection from China,” said Mr Valentine.

Further investigation of the employee’s computer had revealed hundreds of PDF documents of invoices from the Shenyang contractor, he added.

The employee, an “inoffensive and quiet” but talented man versed in several programming languages, “spent less than one fifth of his six-figure salary for a Chinese firm to do his job for him”, Mr Valentine said.

“Authentication was no problem. He physically FedExed his RSA [security] token to China so that the third-party contractor could log-in under his credentials during the workday. It would appear that he was working an average nine-to-five work day,” he added.

“Evidence even suggested he had the same scam going across multiple companies in the area. All told, it looked like he earned several hundred thousand dollars a year, and only had to pay the Chinese consulting firm about $50,000 (£31,270) annually.”

The employee no longer worked at the firm, Mr Valentine said.

Eleganza Fashions

Posted in General Interest on January 16, 2013 by RickNews

Back in the early-1970s, men were peacocks, and the folks at Boston-based Eleganza Fashions provided the feathers.

Things do happen…like you might get a beat-down if you wore these get-ups today.

 

“Sold by mail only.” Probably because no store would carry these garments.

 

I Bet Obamacare Covers This

Posted in General Interest, Music on December 23, 2012 by RickNews

From GlobalPost:

In Sweden, a headbanger has succeeded in having his heavy metal music obsession declared an addiction that requires state disability benefits.

Roger Tullgren, 42, a heavily tattooed metal head who works as a dishwasher in southern Sweden, said he consulted three psychologists to receive statements testifying to the extent of his heavy metal music dependency, reports the Local, a Swedish news website.

The piece goes on,

Tullgren, who is described as having long black hair, tattoos and a collection of skull and crossbones jewelry, said his heavy metal addiction caused him to attend nearly 300 concerts last year that left him unable to hold down a job, and forced to go on welfare.

His new part-time job as a dishwasher at a restaurant in the city of Hassleholm will be supplemented by disability benefits.

Read more here.

 

New Orleans Prostitutes, 100 Years Ago

Posted in General Interest on December 21, 2012 by RickNews

These are images of streetwalkers in the Storyville area of New Orleans, taken in 1912.

 

More found here.

People Actually Wore These Glasses

Posted in General Interest on December 19, 2012 by RickNews

Once upon a time, in the era known as the 1980s, fashion itself was a “new frontier.” Sometimes, fashion got it right and other times, wrong. The latter applied to the Cazal “luxury eyewear” brand: a pair of Cazals in the Reagan decade meant nueveau-riche…or rapper. Either way, a pejorative.

Amazingly, Cazals are “in” again…with rappers, again.

 

See more here.

 

“It’s On,” by Flowered Up. You’re Welcome.

Posted in Music on December 13, 2012 by RickNews

From their Wikipedia entry:

The band was formed in mid-1989 by singer Liam Maher, along with his younger brother Joe (guitar). After a few changes in personnel, the settled line-up included Tim Dorney (keyboards), Andy Jackson (bass guitar), and John Tuvey (drums), with dancer Barry Mooncult adding to their live shows. After releasing two singles (“It’s On” and “Phobia”) on Heavenly Records, both of which were minor hits, Flowered Up signed to London Records and recorded their only album, A Life With Brian, in 1991. “Take It” had lyrics from Joe Strummer. The group appeared on the covers of both Melody Maker and NME before releasing the album.

A Life With Brian contained many of their popular live songs, as well as new versions of the previously released singles. Not long afterwards, Flowered Up released the 13-minute long single “Weekender” on Heavenly,[2] with a video directed by W.I.Z. starring Lee Whitlock and Anna Haigh. After much publicised drug problems with some members of the band, and unproductive (and some unreleased) studio work, the band split up. Keyboardist Tim Dorney went on to form Republica.

A Life With Brian was re-released by London Records as The Best of Flowered Up, and included the original version of “Weekender”. Flowered Up tried to re-form in 2007, but Dorney refused, and the planned reunion tour was cancelled. On 20 October 2009, Liam Maher died of a heroin overdose, aged 41. In November 2012 Joe Maher died.