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Female scammer who taunted US authorities online finally caught in Mexico

A Southern California woman who mocked American authorities via Twitter—after having fled the country—was finally arraigned on Monday in a San Diego courtroom. Wanda Lee Ann Podgurski, 60, was arrested in Rosarito, Mexico on July 4, 2013. This was a month after she tweeted “ Catch me if you can , ” seemingly directed at San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis , apparently the only person Podgurski followed on Twitter at the time. A superior court judge sentenced Podgurski in absentia on June 21, 2013 to 20 years and four months in state prison. She was  convicted (PDF) of 29 felony counts stemming from an insurance fraud scam. Podgurski worked as a clerk for Amtrak and held health insurance policies with six different companies, then she filed claims with all of them after she declared that she was disabled from supposed fall in her home in August 2006. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Female scammer who taunted US authorities online finally caught in Mexico

America’s Second-largest Employer Is a Temp Agency

cold fjord writes “From the Examiner: ‘…the second-largest employer in America is Kelly Services, a temporary work provider. … part-time jobs are at an all-time high, with 28 million Americans now working part-time. … There are now a record number of Americans with temporary jobs. Approximately 2.7 million, in fact. And the trend has been growing. … Temp jobs made up about 10 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, but now make up a tenth of the jobs in the United States. In fact, nearly one-fifth of all jobs gained since the recession ended have been temporary.’ The NYT has a chart detailing the problem.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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America’s Second-largest Employer Is a Temp Agency

“Umami” Was Coined by the Inventor of MSG to Describe Its Taste

In 1908, Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda created monosodium glutamate , more commonly known to English-speakers of the 21st century as the often-maligned MSG. Ikeda thought that his discovery was so special that the taste deserved to be described with a brand new word, a word that a century later has become quite popular among food critics and even graces the signs of a burger chain here in Southern California. Ikeda’s word was umami . Read more…        

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“Umami” Was Coined by the Inventor of MSG to Describe Its Taste

Netflix keeps eyes on wider library with extended CBS pact

The latest stage in their content arms race, Netflix extends its agreement for classic and recent CBS shows, after Amazon Prime starts streaming “Under the Dome” days soon after they air. [Read more]        

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Netflix keeps eyes on wider library with extended CBS pact

iOS 7 beta 3 released, brings a bundle of bug fixes and improvements

iOS 7 was revealed less than a month ago, and already Apple has pushed out its third beta release for the operating system. Yes, mobile devs, that means you’ve got a new download coming to you from Cupertino that’ll fix a plethora of problems found in beta 2 , and add a few improvements as well. The full list of additions is too lengthy to include here, but registered devs can find the full release notes at the source, and other folks can peruse them over at 9to5Mac . Filed under: Software , Mobile , Apple Comments Via: 9to5Mac Source: Apple Developer

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iOS 7 beta 3 released, brings a bundle of bug fixes and improvements

In a Security Test, 3-D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

GenieGenieGenie writes “After all the talk of printed guns and the problems they pose to traditional methods of perimeter security, we get a live demo courtesy of some rather brave journalists from Israel’s Channel 10, who took the plastic weapon known as the Liberator past security into the Israeli parliament, and held it within meters of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I say brave because had they been caught pulling this stunt, which involved taking their toy out of the bag while sitting in the audience of a speech by the prime minister, they would have faced some real steel. Haaretz has the video (sorry, Hebrew only at the moment) [Google-translated version of the article — Ed.] where you can follow the breach (from ~6:30) and see them pass the metal detector and the moment when the gun comes out. The movie also shows some testing of the gun in a police-supervised weapons range. Parliament security officials said that ‘this is a new phenomenon and they are checking the subject to give it a professional solution as quickly as possible.’ I hope this doesn’t mean we will now officially face an era of ever more intruding security checks at entrances to events like this.” Would-be Liberator printers, take note: the testing shows the barrel violently separating from the rest of the gun. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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In a Security Test, 3-D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

What Your Flight Number Actually Means

Traveling this summer? Don’t forget to pack the suntan lotion. And check in to your flight online. And check if your flight is delayed using your flight number. Speaking of, how the hell do airplanes come up with flight numbers? Apparently there’s a system! Like did you know flights that go east or north are usually given even numbers while west and south flights have odd flight numbers. Read more…        

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What Your Flight Number Actually Means

Navy awards weaponized railgun manufacturing contract to BAE Systems

Just over 18 months after making its video debut , the Navy’s electromagnetic railgun has a manufacturer. BAE Systems — known for e-ink-powered tank camouflage , autonomous spiderbots and machine-gun-mounted lasers — won the government contract and hopes to have phase-two prototypes ready “as early as next year.” While the current design is capable of firing one shot, the Office of Navy Research hopes for six to ten shots per minute. If that doesn’t scare you, consider this: The pulse-driven projectiles travel at Mach 6 and can hit targets over 100 nautical miles away. Don’t worry, it’s not too late to rethink that career of sailing the high seas as a pirate and get to work on that accounting degree instead. Filed under: Science Comments Via: Defense Tech Source: BAE Systems

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Navy awards weaponized railgun manufacturing contract to BAE Systems

Bluebox reveals Android security hole, may affect 99 percent of devices

Researchers at Bluebox Security have revealed a disturbing flaw in Android’s security model, which the group claims may affect up to 99 percent of Android devices in existence. According to Bluebox, this vulnerability has existed since Android 1.6 (Donut) , which gives malicious app developers the ability to modify the code of a legitimate APK, all without breaking its cryptographic signature — thereby allowing the installation to go unnoticed. To pull off the exploit, a rotten app developer would first need to trick an unknowing user into installing the malicious update, but hackers could theoretically gain full control of a user’s phone if the “update” posed as a system file from the manufacturer. Bluebox claims that it notified Google of the exploit in February. According to CIO , Bluebox CTO Jeff Forristal has named the Galaxy S 4 as the only device that’s currently immune to the exploit — which suggests that a security patch may already exist. Forristal further claims that Google is working on an update for its Nexus devices. In response to our inquiry, Google told us that it currently has no comment. We certainly hope that device manufacturers do the responsible thing and distribute timely security patches to resolve this issue. Absent that, you can protect yourself by installing updates through the Play Store and Android’s built-in system update utility. Filed under: Software , Mobile , Google Comments Source: Bluebox Security , CIO

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Bluebox reveals Android security hole, may affect 99 percent of devices