Twitter to give bushfire alerts
By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney

Ruins of a fire-hit home in Mudgeegonga, Victoria, Australia, 10 February 2009
February's bushfires struck some towns with little warning

Australia is to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to give people early warning of bushfires.

Residents of towns in Victoria state have said they had little or no warning of the devastating blazes that killed 173 people in February.

The usual advice for homeowners to stay and defend their properties or to seek refuge elsewhere will be revised to put far more emphasis on leaving early.

To help people decide, officials want to speed the flow of information.

Victorian state premier John Brumby says social networking sites on the internet will help to improve advice to households.

"We'll be providing more information to the community, like Twitter and Facebook - alternative means of communication to get the information out to the public," Mr Brumby said.

"So that they've got better information from a variety of sources and if they need to make a judgement to go early, they will go and they will go early," he added.

Deadly speed

Many victims of February's bushfires were killed trying to defend their homes against some of the most ferocious blazes Australia has ever seen.

Others were engulfed as they tried to flee, tragically ambushed by the sheer speed of the fires' advance.

A judicial inquiry into the causes of the disaster and the responses of the emergency services is due to hand down its interim findings next month.

Cybercriminals Steal $415,000 From County in Kentucky

Monday, July 06, 2009


Sophisticated international cybercriminals stole $415,000 from a bank account belonging to Bullitt County, Ky. last month — and got two dozen regular citizens to help them.

"It's stolen just the same way as if someone had come and took a .45 [caliber] pistol and held up a teller," county attorney Walt Sholar told TV station WLKY.

A gang based in the former Soviet Union used viruses to secretly take control of computers used by county officials, including the country treasurer and a local judge, according to the Washington Post.

Then they secretly re-routed e-mails containing one-time passwords that both the treasurer and the judge would have to use to authorize wire transfers from the account, which belonged to Bullitt County Fiscal Court in Shepherdsville and was used to make payroll.

Beginning on June 22, the hackers began sending transfers, each under $10,000 so as not to alert federal watchdogs, to the bank accounts of 25 different Americans who'd been unwittingly recruited as "mules" by the Eastern European criminals.

The mules, who'd responded to ads for temporary at-home editing work on the job-placement Web site CareerBuilder.com, were instructed to keep 5 percent of the transfers as "commissions" and wire the rest of the money to accounts in Ukraine and Russia.

One mule found herself out thousands of dollars once Bullitt County got wise to what was happening and its bank started recalling the transfers.

County officials stressed that police, fire department and EMS workers would still be paid on time, and that the bank itself, First Federal Savings Bank, was never hacked into or compromised.

But the entire episode unsettled county residents.

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As Unbreakable as ... Glass?



 CLEAR VIEW A project lets visitors see all angles from the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago. Builders are experimenting with new materials and methods to expand the use of glass in construction

CHICAGO — To truly appreciate how glass can be used structurally, make your way to 233 South Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. More precisely, make your way 1,353 feet above South Wacker, to the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower.

Nice idea. Will contribute here when i get back.