As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
South Korea Nuclear Plant Operator's Computers Hacked, But Officials Say No Risk To Safety Of Reactors
SEOUL (Reuters) – Computer systems at South Korea’s nuclear plant operator have been hacked, but only non-critical data has been lost and there is no risk to the safety of nuclear installations including the country’s 23 atomic reactors, the company and the government said on Monday.
The attacks come amid concerns that North Korea may mount cyberattacks against industrial and social targets after accusations by the United States that Pyongyang was responsible for a devastating hacking assault on Sony Pictures.
South Korea is still technically at war with the North.
South Korea’s energy ministry said it was confident that its nuclear plants could block any infiltration by cyber attackers that could compromise the safety of the reactors.
“It’s our judgment that the control system itself is designed in such a way and there is no risk whatsoever,” Chung Yang-ho, deputy energy minister, told Reuters by phone.
An official at Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co Ltd (KHNP), the nuclear plant operator that is part of state-run Korea Electric Power Corp, told Reuters that the hacking appeared to be the handiwork of “elements who want to cause social unrest”.
“It is 100 percent impossible that a hacker can stop nuclear power plants by attacking them because the control monitoring system is totally independent and closed,” the official said.
Neither Chung nor the KHNP official made any mention of North Korea.
They also said they could not verify messages posted by a Twitter user claiming responsibility for the attacks and demanding the shutdown of three aging nuclear reactors by Thursday.
The user who was described in the posting as chairman of an anti-nuclear group based in Hawaii said more documents from the nuclear operator will be posted if the reactors are not closed.
Seoul prosecutors are conducting a criminal probe into the leak of data from KHNP, including blueprints of some nuclear reactors, electricity flow charges and radiation exposure estimates.
They have traced the IP used for a blog carrying the stolen documents to an online user in a southern city who has denied knowledge about the postings and claimed his user ID has been stolen.
(Additional reporting by Sohee Kim; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
VIDEO: Testing out a hoverboard
The BBC’s Richard Taylor tests out a hoverboard that uses magnetic levitation.
Could North Korea Take Over the Internet?
The cyber attacks on Sony have given rise to much commentary on the sophistication of the North Korean state’s cybersecurity program. The hermit kingdom is far from alone in its offensive and defensive cyber build up with numerous nations around the world seeking to join the list of the cyber powers. But just how much damage could North Korea do? To help answer that question, let’s go to Dr. Charlie Miller, who says that he can crash the Internet and take control of some of the most protected computer systems in the world.
Miller, now a cybersecurity analyst at Twitter, was the first person to break into Apple’s iPhone; he discovered a software flaw that would have allowed him to take control of every iPhone on the planet. He has won the prestigious Black Hat cybersecurity competition, among numerous other awards, and worked for the NSA for five years. In 2010, while presenting at a NATO Committee of Excellence conference on cyber conflict in Tallinn, Estonia, Miller conducted a thought experiment — if he was forced to, how would he go about crashing the Internet and taking control of well-defended computer systems? In the scenario that he imagined, former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il had kidnapped and induced him to “hack the planet” — to control as many protected systems and Internet hosts as possible so as to dominate cyberspace. Miller then cataloged all of the steps that would be required to meet this audacious and dastardly goal.
He would need people — roughly 600 working throughout the world, and a way to communicate with them. The trick would be identifying them — a task made easier if Miller or another expert in the field was a willing co-conspirator with a North Korean intelligence agency like the Cabinet General Intelligence Bureau.
Miller’s army would need funding and “weapons” like botnets, distributed denial of service attacks, bots, and — above all — zero-day exploits that take advantage of fundamental flaws in programs. These weapons would often use the Internet, but to complete his hack, Miller would also need to compromise hard, protected targets that are often “air gapped,” or not connected to the Internet. High-profile attacks like Stuxnet, the exfiltrated documents published by WikiLeaks, and the 2008 breach of classified U.S. government systems are examples of these types of attacks on supposedly isolated targets. Attackers look for entry points that are poorly defended with the goal of using one host to infect others on the closed network. This could be accomplished by low-tech means, such as through a simple flash drive.
Lastly, Miller would need time. For the first three months, his cyber army would search for vulnerabilities. From three to nine months, zero-day exploits would be identified and used to take over routers. After one year, some hard, protected targets would be compromised. At eighteen months, sufficient zero-day exploits would be found and air-gapped systems compromised to begin final planning. Finally, after two years, the attack could start manifesting itself assuming that no law enforcement agency or other group identified the attackers in the meantime, which is a rather large assumption.
The bottom line, according to Miller, is that the Internet and even air-gapped computer systems may be controlled or crashed for roughly $50 million, which is reportedly less than what North Korea spends on cybersecurity annually. Richard Clarke, among others, has warned that North Korea will not shy away from using its cyber warfare capabilities in a conflict. This danger is posed by other isolated regimes as well, and there is “anecdotal evidence that unknown parties have explored the possibility of disrupting the global network.”
Sound ripe for a spy thriller? What is good for genre-writing enthusiasts is rarely an ideal starting point for policymakers. According to some commentators, such narratives merely serve to inflate fears and undermine constructive efforts to enhance cybersecurity, and it is true that such a scenario is highly unlikely. But there is some value to be extracted from this tale. The vulnerabilities that Miller points to are real and require our attention if we are to ensure that fiction does not become reality, and that the most recent cyber attacks on Sony are the end and not the beginning of a new era in state-sponsored cyber attacks.
This post is an excerpt of Scott Shackelford, Managing Cyber Attacks in International Law, Business, and Relations: In Search of Cyber Peace (Cambridge University Press, 2014), available here.
North Korea Threatens To Attack U.S. If Obama Retaliates Over Sony Hacking
A top North Korean defense committee threatened attacks on “the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland” if President Barack Obama retaliates over last month’s cyberattack on Sony Pictures, according to a statement posted Sunday to the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“The army and people of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the U.S. in all war spaces including cyber warfare space to blow up those citadels,” said the statement, which was attributed to North Korea’s top policymaking institution, the National Defense Commission. The statement did not provide further details of the threatened attacks. Pyongyang has a long history of issuing ominous warnings to other nations.
The statement said that President Obama is ‘recklessly’ spreading rumors about North Korea’s involvement in the recent cyberattack on Sony Pictures.
North Korean officials on Friday denied having a part in the Sony hack after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation released a statement concluding that “the North Korean government is responsible for these actions.” Obama said he was considering a proportionate response, including adding North Korea back to the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Sony canceled its Dec. 25 release of “The Interview,” a comedy directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, after hackers threatened to attack screenings of the film, prompting major theater chains to pull it. The movie concerns a fictional assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and reportedly includes a graphic depiction of Kim’s head exploding.
In Sunday’s statement, the National Defense Commission said it had “clear evidence” that the U.S. government was involved in the making of the film, with the intention of undermining Kim’s regime. It’s not clear what evidence, if any, exists to support that claim.
The commission praised the hackers for their “righteous action,” but added that the hackers acted independently of the regime.
“We do not know who or where they are but we can surely say that they are supporters and sympathizers with [North Korea],” the statement read.
Pyongyang could not resist bragging about the “tremendous losses” to Sony caused by the data breach, in which confidential Sony emails and unreleased movies were posted online. The attack is believed to be one of the most expensive corporate hacks in history.
“One may say this is the due price incurred by wrong deed, the evil act of hurting others,” the statement said.
16 Christmas Someecards That Will Have You Ho-Ho-Ho-ing With Laughter
Is it just us, or have their been an abundance of hilarious Christmas cards floating around the Internet this year?
From clever cards to awesome card outtakes to cards for couples that are more naughty than nice. You can find a funny card for literally anyone on your list… if you’re organized, bought the cards, found the addresses, and sent them out in the mail. Butttt, let’s be real. That’s probably not happening.
Might as well let Someecards do the heavy lifting instead. Merry Christmas, y’all!
McCain Calls Sony Hack An 'Act Of War'
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) are at odds over whether the cyberattack on Sony Pictures, which the FBI has blamed on North Korea, should be considered an “act of war.”
“I don’t think it was an act of war,” Obama told CNN Sunday. “I think it was an act of cybervandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionally.”
But McCain, in a Sunday appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” advanced a different argument.
“The president does not understand that this is a manifestation of a new form of warfare,” said McCain. “When you destroy economies, when you are able to impose censorship on the world and especially the United States of America, it’s more than vandalism. It’s a new form of warfare that we’re involved in, and we need to react and react vigorously.”
McCain suggested that the U.S. should begin by reimposing sanctions against North Korea that were lifted during the George W. Bush administration.
He also argued that the U.S. government should do more to engage people in Silicon Valley to help address cybersecurity issues.
“It’s very hard to determine where national security ends and personal privacy begins,” said McCain. “This is a continuing debate that we have. I’ve been to more meetings on cyber than any other issue in my time in the Congress, with less accomplished than any other, and it’s time we sat down together.”
North Korean hackers are believed to have targeted Sony Pictures over the film “The Interview,” a comedy directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg that includes a scene of Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s head exploding. “The Interview” was scheduled to premiere on Dec. 25. North Korean officials had deemed the film itself an “act of war” several months ago.
Sony canceled the film’s release last week, citing security concerns.
'SNL' Investigates The Story Of Christmas With A 'Serial' Parody
This weekend, “Saturday Night Live” investigated the story of Christmas, “Serial” style. In a sketch parodying the mega-popular “This American Life” spin-off podcast, the show tried to figure out whether Kris Kringle’s story about delivering presents to all the world’s homes in one night could really be true. “Serial” listeners will find Cecily Strong’s impression of Sarah Koenig and Aidy Bryant’s of Cristina Gutierrez pretty spot-on, and your favorite email service even makes an appearance.
US mulls putting NK on terror list
The US is considering putting North Korea back on its terrorism sponsors list, President Barack Obama says, after a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures.
Obama: U.S. Reviewing Whether To Put North Korea Back On Terrorism Sponsor List
HONOLULU (AP) — The United States is reviewing whether to put North Korea back onto its list of state sponsors of terrorism, President Barack Obama said as the U.S. decides how to respond to the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment that law enforcement has blamed on the communist nation.
Obama described the hacking case as a “very costly, very expensive” example of cybervandalism, but did not call it an act of war. In trying to fashion a proportionate response, the president said the U.S. would examine the facts to determine whether North Korea should find itself back on the terrorism sponsors list.
“We’re going to review those through a process that’s already in place,” Obama told CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview to air Sunday. “I’ll wait to review what the findings are.”
North Korea spent two decades on the list until the Bush administration removed it in 2008 during nuclear negotiations. Some lawmakers have called for the designation to be restored following the hack that led Sony to cancel the release of a big-budget film that North Korea found offensive.
Only Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba remain on the list, which triggers sanctions that limit U.S. aid, defense exports and certain financial transactions.
But adding North Korea back could be difficult. To meet the criteria, the State Department must determine that a country has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, a definition that traditionally has referred to violent, physical attacks rather than hacking.
Obama also leveled fresh criticism against Sony over its decision to shelve “The Interview,” despite the company’s insistence that its hand was forced after movie theaters refused to show it.
While professing sympathy for Sony’s situation, Obama suggested he might have been able to help address the problem if given the chance.
“You know, had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what that story was,” Obama said.
Sony’s CEO has disputed that the company never reached out, saying he spoke to a senior White House adviser about the situation before Sony announced the decision. White House officials said Sony did discuss cybersecurity with the federal government, but that the White House was never consulted on the decision not to distribute the film.
“Sometimes this is a matter of setting a tone and being very clear that we’re not going to be intimidated by some, you know, cyberhackers,” Obama said. “And I expect all of us to remember that and operate on that basis going forward.”
North Korea has denied hacking the studio, and on Saturday proposed a joint investigation with the U.S. to determine the true culprit. The White House rejected the idea and said it was confident North Korea was responsible.
But the next decision – how to respond – is hanging over the president as he vacations with his family in Hawaii.
Obama’s options are limited. The U.S. already has trade penalties in place and there is no appetite for military action.
—
Reach Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
Want Your Cookies To Look Really Fancy? Try This 3D Printer
Behind on your holiday baking? Maybe a 3D printer would help.
Natural Machines, a Barcelona-based startup, has created a 3D printer for food, called the “Foodini.” It won’t do all the work necessary to make a batch of cookies, but it at least helps with assembly, giving non-experts a way to make intricate food creations.
Here’s how it works, with some help from a video put together by Reuters. In the video, the machine is a large prototype, but the consumer product appears to be fully enclosed and designed not unlike a microwave.
First, start with a recipe — one of your own, or you can choose from an online database put together by the Foodini makers and in the future, other Foodini owners. The printer can help prepare pasta, pizza, quiches, cookies, brownies, chicken nuggets, burgers and really whatever you want to shove in there. Gather your ingredients, mix them up and then pack them into a capsule that will snap into the device to dispense your food.
Put the capsule in the Foodini.
Use a touchscreen to tell the machine what you want to make, and it will dispense your batch accordingly — in a few minutes you can have the base for a beautiful cookie.
Then you can add toppings. That’s easy when its icing or sauce, but if you’re looking for something else — chopped mushrooms, say, you’ll have to do some more prep without the machine. The device doesn’t bake or cook whatever you make, but that may be an addition for the future.
Is this even edible? This guy proved it was, after the cookie was baked separately.
So there’d still be some work involved in making cookies and other stuff with a Foodini, but maybe not as much as there would normally be. Owning a “Foodini” is like having your own food-processing plant, except you can control what goes in and see what comes out, cofounder Lynette Kucsma wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Kucsma told Reuters that she hopes the machine will make people buy fewer pre-processed foods.
The company launched an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign in April 2014, failing to meet a goal to raise $100,000. But it is scheduled to make a small number of Foodinis early in 2015. The device should cost about $1,300.
U.S. Consulting UK, Australia, New Zealand On North Korea Hack Response
By Julia Edwards
Honolulu (Reuters) – The Obama administration is consulting the UK, Australia and New Zealand, among other countries in hopes of organizing an international response to the cyberattack on Sony Pictures that it has pinned on North Korea, an administration official told Reuters on Saturday.
The U.S. is also consulting South Korea, Japan, China and Russia for help reining in North Korea.
(Reporting by Julia Edwards)
Microsoft Work & Play Bundle – $149 At Microsoft Stores
Okay, so if you follow me on Twitter then you have undoubtedly seen my posts throughout the afternoon on the Microsoft Work & Play Bundle that I picked up today at my local Microsoft store here in Dallas. Seriously peeps, the Work & Play bundle @microsoftstore is a huge deal. $149 for 12 Months @xbox Gold & Music, @skype @office365 Home — Clinton Fitch (@ClintonFitch) December 20, 2014 I appreciate that I may be beating the proverbial dead horse. I got it… but this is a seriously good deal peeps if you use these services from Microsoft. Even if you
The post Microsoft Work & Play Bundle – $149 At Microsoft Stores appeared first on Clinton Fitch.
BitTorrent Urges Sony To Release 'The Interview' On Its Paid Service
Filing-sharing giant BitTorrent is urging Sony Pictures to release “The Interview” on its new, paid service.
The software company, synonymous with illegal music and movie pirating, had several talks this week with the embattled movie studio about debuting the canceled Seth Rogen action-comedy as a “bundle” of links to files that can be controlled and sold to users legally. Sony scrapped plans to debut the picture in theaters next week after suffering a devastating cyberattack by hackers linked to North Korea — apparently in retaliation for the film’s depiction of the fictional assassination of the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
“A group of hackers stopped an American company from releasing a commercial film — this should not stand,” Matt Mason, the chief content officer at BitTorrent, told The Huffington Post on Saturday. “This is wrong and we can help make it right.”
BitTorrent bills its bundle service as the most lucrative means for artists and studios to distribute music, ebooks and films. It has positioned itself as an alternative to streaming services as more artists, such as Taylor Swift, abandon Spotify and Pandora in protest of the meager cut of revenues they receive. In September, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke became arguably the most famous musician to sell an album exclusively through a bundle. It was downloaded more than 1 million times.
The only overhead for the content creator is the 10 percent cut of each purchase that BitTorrent takes and the cost of processing the payments through PayPal or a credit card company. The artist is usually left with, on average, 85 percent of the revenue, Mason said.
That could be the file-sharing network’s best pitch.
Sony stands to lose almost $200 million on the movie, according to Bloomberg. Canceling the film stirred public outrage, and calls for the studio to release “The Interview” online have grown louder over the past few days. Some have declared it a “civic duty” to see the film.
During a Friday appearance on CNN, Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton said no major video-on-demand distributors or e-commerce sites had offered to screen the film.
Sony did not respond to a request for comment.
Streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon and platforms like iTunes and Google Play would undoubtedly court a similar cyberattack if they released the movie. And Sony has been reluctant to offer the film at all. The hackers, who the FBI claims are agents of Pyongyang, have threatened to release more of its trove of humiliating internal emails and documents if they reversed plans to drop “The Interview” altogether.
BitTorrent works as a peer-to-peer file-sharing network, with about 170 million users running the software each time their computers share files. It would be nearly impossible for hackers to suppress the movie as the files bounced between viewers’ computers.
Plus, BitTorrent is beloved by hackers. The BitTorrent protocol — a means by which computers communicate with each other — makes up nearly 3.4 percent of all bandwidth used for file-sharing worldwide, making it by far the most popular software in that category.
“This is a way for Sony to not only deliver the film in a real way, but get out on the side of the hacker community,” Mason said. “This is an issue that’s bigger than ‘The Interview,’ bigger than the Sony hack — it’s really about free speech.”
Briefly: Procreate Pocket illustration app; Switcheasy's new releases
Savage Interactive has released an iPhone version of its illustration app Procreate Pocket, a scaled-down version of its iPad app Procreate. Intended for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Procreate Pocket is powered by a 64-bit Silica engine, offering a variety of drawing tools and 250 levels of “Undo.” Among its features, its 18 layers of Blend Modes allow for versatile composition, and 1080p video recording option can document all stages of the drawing process without interruption. Priced at $3, Procreate Pocket requires iOS 8.1 or later.
Google Doesn't Want To Go It Alone With Driverless Cars
Google doesn’t want to be the next Ford.
The Internet behemoth, bent on building the first fully-automated cars, said Friday that it plans to partner with traditional automakers when development of its self-driving technology is complete.
“We don’t particularly want to become a car maker,” Chris Urmson, the director of Google’s self-driving car project, told The Wall Street Journal. “We are talking [with] and looking for partners.”
Auto executives in Detroit and abroad confirmed they had been approached by Google, the Journal reported.
Google did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
Recent advances in driverless technology have ignited competition in Silicon Valley. Google announced in April that its automated cars could successfully detect and avoid pedestrians and bicyclists. In October, Tesla Motors equipped the new D line of its Model S sedan with a limited autopilot feature. Mercedes-Benz’s latest S-Class features a “traffic jam assist” that allows the car to automatically follow the vehicle in front of it at at low speeds.
Still, fully automated vehicles have a long drive ahead of them before they hit the market.
Regulatory and insurance policies will have to come first. Moreover, the technology faces serious ethical questions — namely, if an accident becomes unavoidable, who should die?
Consider this scenario, spelled out by Jason Millar in the September issue of Wired:
You are travelling along a single-lane mountain road in an autonomous car that is fast approaching a narrow tunnel. Just before entering the tunnel a child errantly runs into the road and trips in the centre of the lane, effectively blocking the entrance to the tunnel. The car is unable to brake in time to avoid a crash. It has but two options: hit and kill the child, or swerve into the wall on either side of the tunnel, thus killing you. Now ask yourself, Who should decide whether the car goes straight or swerves? Manufacturers? Users? Legislators?
Google is as yet unprepared to answer that question.
“People are philosophizing about it,” Ron Medford, the director of safety on Google’s self-driving car project, told The Associated Press last month, “but the question about real-world capability and real-world events that can affect us, we really haven’t studied that issue.”
'The Interview' Porn Parody Is Really Going To Upset Kim Jong-Un: Hustler Boss
Nothing screams freedom of speech like a good ol’ American parody porn film.
Hustler boss Larry Flynt announced that he’s producing a parody version of ‘The Interview’ as a response to the film being pulled from theaters amid threats by hackers linked to North Korea.
Sony’s move was criticized by President Barack Obama, as well as Hollywood A-listers like George Clooney and Sean Penn.
But Hustler Video is not backing down. The parody, which is titled “This Ain’t The Interview XXX,” will be released first quarter of 2015.
In “The Interview,” Seth Rogen and James Franco travel to North Korea in a plot to kill leader Kim Jong-un with an exploding tank shell that blows off the dictator’s face. What raunchy surprises will the Hustler treatment of the film have in store?
“If Kim Jong-un and his henchmen were upset before, wait till they see the movie we’re going to make,” Hustler founder and chairman Larry Flynt said, according to AVN. “I’ve spent a lifetime fighting for the First Amendment, and no foreign dictator is going to take away my right to free speech.”
Like Us On Facebook |
Follow Us On Twitter |
Contact The Author
Microsoft Store Super Saturday Deals
Today is Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas here in the United States and the Microsoft Store has put together a lot of great deals for you today. I have put together a list of the deals that are running today online and at the retail stores and some of these are outstanding deals. While you will have to pay extra at this point to get it shipped to you by Christmas, you will still be able to get a great price on some great Windows PCs, Tablets and Phones. Surface Pro 3 – Free Sleeve and $100 Gift
The post Microsoft Store Super Saturday Deals appeared first on Clinton Fitch.
Best Tweets: What Women Said On Twitter This Week
The holiday season is officially here. Mary Charlene is definitely in the Christmas spirit, tweeting: “My ugly Christmas sweater perfectly matches my ugly personality.” Oh.. adorable.
Twitter user Tammy is celebrating a bit differently this year, tweeting, “Tequila has never made my clothes fall off. // Challenge accepted.” Sounds like a great way to ditch that ugly sweater.
For more great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.
My favorite Christmas carol is the one where they blame the weather for their social anxiety and just stay home.
— (maura) (@behindyourback) December 18, 2014
[During Interview]
“Do you have any questions?”
- Yeah, inTitanic why did Jack sink when he died but everyone else floated?
— Jamie Lynn (@Jay_FrickinLynn) December 14, 2014
“this salad is really hitting the spot”
- no one ever
— Carly Ledbetter (@ledbettercarly) December 15, 2014
my ugly Christmas sweater perfectly matches my ugly personality
— Mary Charlene (@IamEnidColeslaw) December 17, 2014
I’m Irish on my mom’s side, narcissistic maniac on my dad’s.
— Shalyah Evans (@ShalyahEvans) December 17, 2014
Just got sent a bottle of red wine and a blanket at work, because apparently someone wants me to accomplish nothing today.
— Emma Gray (@emmaladyrose) December 16, 2014
“I had to wonder.. are our girlfriends our real soul mates, and males are just biological accidents?” – me if I was a popular dating blogger
— Callie Beusman (@cal_beu) December 16, 2014
Home for the Honda Days
— shelby fero (@shelbyfero) December 16, 2014
I am in my own clique, just me, myself, and all my other personalities
— Feeds On Your Soul (@tiemespankme) December 17, 2014
Hypocrites
Because the world needs yet another derivative of assholes.
— ALICE (@In_Twittaland) December 15, 2014
Always hated Merry-Go-Rounds.
I can go nowhere in my own life.
And not get nauseous doing it.
— Ginger (@GingerJ17) December 16, 2014
Plug the coffee maker into an Ethernet hub to see what happens.
Not (too) much.
— ~Tweety~ (@XAIMMadellynne) December 15, 2014
I’ve noticed that my last hour at work is usually spent coming up with different reasons as to why I can’t cook dinner when I get home.
— NotTHATSheila (@peb671) December 16, 2014
You know you’re tired when you drop something and negotiate with yourself how badly you need it…before you bend down to pick it up.
— blondie (@Blonde4Dayz) December 16, 2014
Who called it “twittercide” and not “doing something productive and meaningful with your life?”
— protolalia (@protolalia) December 17, 2014
Those stick figures on the back of cars represent what’s in there?
*Attaches pics of dried cheese sticks, 13 random socks & biohazard sign*
— Marl beans (@Marlebean) December 16, 2014
The amount of times you tell yourself it doesn’t matter is directly proportional to how much it does.
— Ann (@writerPT) December 16, 2014
You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why. Life gets worse when you’re an adult.
— Tweets by Dreidel (@OhNoSheTwitnt) December 17, 2014
Tequila has never made my clothes fall off
Challenge accepted
— Tammy (@OkieGirl405) December 16, 2014
“whale” is the weakest insult ever. oh, i have a giant brain and rule the sea with my majesty? what have you accomplished lately, steve?
— Lindy West (@thelindywest) December 19, 2014
Imagine me, sexting you.
Nope.
More sitting on the toilet.
— NickyNackyNoo (@BritishNicx) October 10, 2014
Ways to get me to fall in love with you:
1. Be a donut.
— The Alicianater (@leechee420) December 19, 2014
Follow HuffPostWomen’s board Funny Tweets From Women on Pinterest.
Scrap Tire Playgrounds Lighten Landfills, But Raise Cancer Fears
The fire burned for nine months, billowing toxic black smoke thousands of feet above its Appalachian valley source and across five states. It would take 20 years and $12 million to clean up the remains of the tire heap.
At the time of the 1983 Rhinehart, Virginia, tire fire, about 90 percent of America’s discarded tires went to landfills. There, they would take up massive amounts of space, occasionally ignite, and collect water that created fertile breeding grounds for disease-transmitting mosquitoes. Today, in part because of actions sparked by the Virginia disaster and many smaller tire fires, more than 90 percent of the nation’s approximately 230 million tires scrapped each year are put to use — burned as fuel, incorporated into asphalt roads and, increasingly, shredded into components of products such as synthetic turf sports fields and children’s playgrounds.
Industry leaders tout this as a win-win for businesses and the planet. But others say we’ve simply swapped one bad set of environmental health risks for another. And these critics highlight moves by industry and government to promote lucrative landfill diversions, such as ground-up tires — so-called crumb rubber — despite acknowledging hazards.
Meanwhile, the old tires keep coming.
In 2007, a committee of state, academic, industry and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representatives published action plans to “promote increased use of ground rubber made from scrap tires” in playgrounds, sports fields and colored mulch, among other products. The toxicity, volatility, leachability and flammability of the tire products were noted in the document, as was a need to “identify and mobilize champions” to “enhance market growth” in the face of these “barriers.”
Nearly 60 million tires were ground up for reuse in 2013.
“How do you turn a hazardous material into something you can sell the public on? I would say they’ve done an ingenious job,” said Nancy Alderman, president of the nonprofit Environment and Human Health Inc., who has advocated against the use of crumb rubber where children play.
Crumb rubber contains carcinogens, advocates warn. (Lynne Peeples)
“On the face of it, recycling material that is otherwise going to waste piles sounds good,” said Linda Chalker-Scott, an associate professor of urban horticulture at Washington State University Extension. In fact, she is among proponents for the use of scrap tires in energy production and rubberized asphalt.
But as Chalker-Scott wrote in an academic fact sheet, set for publication soon, that grinding up old tires can put their toxic components — including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals and carbon black — in close contact with people, pets and the environment.
Chalker-Scott’s expertise is in rubber mulch, a bark look-alike made from recycled tires and popular in yards and children’s playgrounds. “Some of what leaches out of the rubber as it decomposes can be pretty toxic,” she said.
The same worries are spreading among athletes, coaches and parents. In May, a college soccer coach in Seattle sparked a national conversation with her suspicions concerning a number of current and former soccer goalkeepers who had developed rare cancers. They had all played on artificial turf fields infilled with recycled rubber tire crumbs.
The new-generation synthetic fields began popping up in the 1990s. Nearly 10,000 of them can now be found at schools, parks and professional stadiums, each providing a home for about 40,000 scrap tires. While initially pricey, the turf generally holds up better to weather and wear than natural grass.
Public health experts have given some credence to rising concerns over possible health risks, including cancers, although they underscore the need for more study before any definitive links can be made.
“The research is not solid yet one way or another,” said Chalker-Scott. “But that’s the whole problem — it hasn’t really been studied.”
Susan Buchanan, associate director of Great Lakes Center for Children’s Environmental Health and an assistant professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, shared her worry about the particular vulnerability of young children exposed to the loose little black bits on fields and playgrounds. She also noted the dearth of data.
“I think the EPA promoted this in good faith,” said Buchanan. “But they did not have adequate data on the safety of exposure in children. The data are still inadequate.”
In the wake of the recent alarm, some schools and municipalities have canceled plans to install crumb rubber turf. Lawyers, such as Connecticut’s Ed Jazlowiecki, who called crumb rubber “the next asbestos,” are collecting names for class-action lawsuits. And citizen-advocates are pushing their local governments to change policies.
Carolyn Dennis, a health advocate in Kentucky, is calling for her state to stop issuing grants for schools and municipalities to use crumb rubber. A Lexington news station recently told the story of one former local soccer player who has twice battled lymphoma. The athlete’s twin sister, who chose not to play competitive soccer growing up, never developed cancer.
“Something has got to change,” said Dennis.
Dick Brown, spokesman for the Kentucky Division of Waste Management, noted in an email to HuffPost that he is reviewing the crumb rubber issue. “The division has not asked for applications to apply for the next round of funding,” he said.
Industry representatives emphasize that the emerging cancer stories, while tragic, remain anecdotal. They also point to research they say supports the safety of crumb rubber. Among their highlighted studies is one published by the EPA in 2009.
An EPA spokeswoman said in an email to The Huffington Post that the agency’s research was “very limited in scope” and was “intended to determine a testing method to study tire crumb, not to determine the potential health risks.”
“The agency believes that more testing needs to be done, but, currently, the decision to use tire crumb remains a state and local decision,” added Rachel Deitz, the EPA spokeswoman. Deitz said the EPA no longer has an initiative to reduce tires in landfills.
Recycled tires are one of five options recommended by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as a shock-absorbing playground material “to reduce the severity of injury to children when they fall,” said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the commission.
“The CPSC is always interested in new research or more data to be brought to our attention regarding any sort of risk of exposure or chronic hazard to children,” added Wolfson. “We’re trying to address an acute hazard for children but always cognizant of the role we play to try to address chronic hazards to children.”
Some destinations for scrap tires remain less controversial, including energy production with low-emission technologies, and rubberized asphalt. From 800 to 2,000 old tires can be incorporated into one lane-mile of roadway, said Dan Zielinski, a spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturers Association. In addition to fewer tires in landfills, he added, drivers get a durable, quieter road that requires less maintenance than standard asphalt.
Zielinski also emphasized how individuals can help reduce the number of scrap tires: “Look for a high-mileage tire, keep up with wheel alignments and rotations, and maintain proper air pressure to keep them on the road as long as possible.”
Generating fewer scrap tires also means fewer will be exported, which remains the fate of some 250 million tons of U.S. tires every year. Some of those tires put in additional mileage abroad, but all eventually become scrapped.
Evans Afriyie-Gyawu, environmental health and toxicology researcher at Georgia Southern University, has begun investigating a practice he has so far confirmed in at least six countries, including Ghana: The burning of scrap tires to singe meat. His preliminary data suggests the cooked meat is contaminated with toxic chemicals. But perhaps even more concerning to him are the massive plumes of toxic smoke that he has seen meat processing plant workers and children inhaling.
“This is a huge problem,” said Afriyie-Gyawu. “It doesn’t sit well with me at all.”
Thanks for reading our digest. Opinions in the articles above are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Digital Workshed ltd.