Free Republic

Operators of certain 737 Next Generation planes will be required to make inspections, the FAA said. The cracking was found in the plane’s pickle forks, which attach the plane’s body to its wing structure, CNN affiliate KOMO reported. Pickle forks are designed to last more than 90,000 landings and takeoffs without cracking, the affiliate said, and there could be dire results if the system fails, it said. In a statement, Boeing said the “cracking issue” was found on a small number of airplanes. “No in-service issues have been reported,” the company said. “Over the coming days, we will work closely...

Back in June 2015, a burst of galactic cosmic rays born from a giant cloud of plasma on the Sun’s corona struck Earth’s magnetic field at 2.5 million kph pounded for two hours. This produced radio signal blackouts at high altitude areas and created an unusually pronounced aurora borealis. The GRAPES-3 muon telescope, located in the Tata Institute in India, has determined those cosmic rays actually cracked the magnetosphere, warping its size and allowing additional radiation to pass through. The bombardment was able to compress the magnetosphere, from 11 to 4 times the radius of Earth. The telescope also detected...

CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed in May that her computer had been compromised. When asked about the situation, CBS News responded with a statement that it was conducting an investigation. That investigation has reached the following conclusions, according to CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair: “A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed...

OAKLAND — Strategically positioned high above the water, in a narrow crawl space between the new Bay Bridge deck and the top of its big pier east of the tower, instruments are listening for the sounds of cracking inside steel anchor rods. Caltrans placed 10 acoustic emission sensors on select rods in early April after some of the massive bolts -- 3 inches in diameter and 17 to 24 feet long -- snapped and triggered widespread worry about the replacement eastern span's seismic safety. The instrument records the energy produced when a crack initiates, spreads or moves within the rod,...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered the immediate closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge on Friday evening. Transportation officials in Kentucky and Indiana were informed Friday of the discovery of two cracks in the load-carrying element of the bridge on Thursday. Officials with the Indiana Department of Transportation said the crack is in an arch support over the Ohio River. There are two archways on the bridge; the crack was found on the underside of the roadway, near the archway closest to the Ohio River. Officials called the cracks incredibly serious and potentially catastrophic. "I would not have...

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment as the first state in the nation to bring legal action against SONY for illegal "spyware." The suit is also the first filed under the state’s spyware law of 2005. It alleges the company surreptitiously installed the spyware on millions of compact music discs (CDs) that consumers inserted into their computers when they play the CDs, which can compromise the systems. The Attorney General’s lawsuit alleges the New York-based company violated a new Texas law protecting consumers from the hidden spyware. The company accomplished this by using...

Police cracking down on violence around border nightclubs YUMA, Ariz. San Luis, Mexico, police are tired of rowdiness at town nightclubs. They're doubling their presence near the city's nightclubs in response to recurring weekend violence. Police have placed between 16 and 20 patrol cars in the center of town near the clubs. They've also have stepped up I-D checks before patrons are allowed to enter clubs. A San Luis police commander says many underage teenagers try to enter the clubs. Mexico's drinking age is 18. Authorities say many are coming into San Luis Rio Colorado from the U-S. Mexican police...

Hacker Breaches T-Mobile Systems, Reads US Secret Service Email By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Published Wednesday 12th January 2005 09:47 GMT A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor US Secret Service email, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has learned. Twenty-one year-old Nicolas Jacobsen was quietly charged with the intrusions last October, after a Secret Service informant helped investigators link him to sensitive agency documents that were circulating in underground IRC chat rooms....

Trying to Crack An Icy Mystery Cryogenetic Secrets May Aid Organ Transplant First, as the temperature drops below 32 degrees, ice crystals start to form just beneath the frog's skin. The normally pliant and slimy amphibian becomes  for lack of a better word -- slushy. Then, if the mercury continues to fall, ice races inward through the frog's arteries and veins. Its heart and brain stop working, and its eyes freeze to a ghostly white. "Imagine an ice cube. Paint it green," and you've got the wood frog in winter, said Ken Storey, a professor at Carleton University in...

Unconventional Protests With the cops cracking down on dissent, will the protests get out of hand? By MICHELLE GOLDBERG If you're a delegate attending the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden later this month, Jamie Moran knows where you're staying. He knows where you're eating and what Broadway musical you plan on seeing. For the past nine months, Moran has been living off savings earned as an office manager at a nonprofit and working full-time to disrupt the RNC. His small anarchist collective, RNCNotWelcome.org, runs a snitch line and an e-mail account where disgruntled employees of New York hotels,...

Mouse clicking your way to martyrdom. Are you an Islamicist with a computer and some spare time? Do you want to contribute to the jihad against the Crusaders but can’t quite make the commitment to fly into buildings or strap on a bomb? Do you “solemnly swear to use your talents only to destroy the Jews with God as your witness?” Then you are just the kind of person being sought to join the “Arab Electronic Jihad Team” (AEJT), a recently announced terrorist initiative preparing to bring the Web to its knees. The AEJT seeks to bring down all Web...

Congress to turn hacks into hackers By Thomas C Greene in Washington Posted: 07/24/2002 at 13:25 EST If House Hollywood sock puppet Howard Berman (Democrat, California) gets his way, it will become legal to hack a network in efforts to impede the on-line illicit trade in copyrighted works. He's preparing legislation, apparently forced on him by the Hollywood fat cats he represents and who have lavishly bribed him into docile, purring submission. The bill will create a legal safe harbor for what Berman euphemistically calls "technological self-help measures." He really means 'technological vigilantism', but whatever you call it, I like...