RizWords Show Notes
Until I get a separate blog set up for the RizWords Podcast Show Notes, I'm going to go ahead and post them here. We're still looking for a title for my wife Iris's new podcast coming out in a couple weeks. The person who comes up with the best name gets $10 payable via PayPal instantly!
Also, coming up next week: Interviews with KipTronic, PodZinger and TalkShoe representatives about how to make money with your podcast!
Remember - if you like the show, give me a rating!
The stories for this week:
Hackers Offer Subscription and Support for Malware Stony Stevenson writes "Organised gangs are taking a page out of security vendors' books and setting up their own websites that offer support and subscriptions for malware and spyware. From the article: 'For subscriptions starting as low as $20 per month, enterprises can sell fully managed exploit engines that spyware distributors and spammers can use to infiltrate systems worldwide, said Gunter Ollmann, director of security strategies at IBM's ISS X-Force team. Many exploit providers simply wait for Microsoft's monthly patches, which they then reverse engineer to develop new exploit code against the disclosed vulnerabilities, Ollmann said. "Then all you've got to do is just subscribe to them on a monthly basis.'"
The End for Vonage?Art is staying with Vonage - Mark thinks it is the end and it's time to switch, if you're a Vonage user. We reccomend Broadvoice or the Gizmo Project.
TheRealSCA writes "The latest in Verizon vs. Vonage is in. The judge has basically stopped Vonage from accepting new customers. From the article: 'A judge issued an injunction Friday that effectively bars Internet phone carrier Vonage from signing up new customers as punishment for infringing on patents held by Verizon. Vonage's lawyers said the compromise injunction posted by U.S District Judge Hilton is almost as devastating as an injunction that would have affected Vonage's 2.2 million existing customers. "It's the difference of cutting off oxygen as opposed to the bullet in the head," Vonage lawyer Roger Warin said.'"
Pelosi Behaving Badly: We have pointed out that Speaker Pelosi's attempts at diplomacy in the Middle East haven't received good reviews from the Israelis or, here at home, from even the Washington Post. However, according to WorldNetDaily, she's big hit with terrorists. It reports, for example, that Khaled Al-Batch, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, expressed hope that Pelosi would continue winning elections, and added that her Damascus visit demonstrated she understands the Middle East. Similarly, Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas' military wing in the Gaza Strip, said the willingness by U.S. lawmakers to talk with Syria "is proof of the importance of the resistance against the U.S." To this terrorist, then, Pelosi's visit is a reward for making war on the U.S. and its allies.
Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, was also quite impressed with Pelosi. He said, "I think it's very nice and I think it's much better when you sit face to face and talk to Assad. It's a very good idea. I think she is brave and hope all the people will support her. All the American people must make peace with Syria and Iran and with Hamas. Why not?"
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Fat People from RioRio de Janeiro hospitals have been sending obese people to share medical test equipment with horses at the local race track, drawing complaints from activists who say the practice is humiliating.
"When people weigh more than the standard equipment can support they have to be directed to the Jockey Club, which is the only place in Rio where they have the appropriate equipment," a spokeswoman for the Rio state health secretariat said on Wednesday.
Patients needing stomach reduction surgery require a tomography, or multiple X-raying of body sections, which is normally carried out inside a chamber.
Rio hospitals only have standard tomography equipment for people weighing up to 265-287 pounds (120-130 kg). Tomographs used on horses are sturdier and more spacious than common devices.
Rosimere Lima da Silva, head of the Group for Salvaging Self-Esteem and Citizenship of the Obese (Graco), said many patients feel embarrassed to go there.
"The obese patients already suffer from a lot of prejudice and having to be treated where animals are is not helping their self-esteem. Many simply refuse to go," she said.
Graco staged a small protest on Tuesday outside the state legislative assembly and met some legislators to try to oblige hospitals to buy stronger equipment, including stretchers and wheelchairs for the obese, and to authorise more hospitals to perform stomach stapling surgeries.
Thief Caught in Germany - by OLD LADY! A 95-year-old German woman solved a series of mystery thefts in a retirement home when she set a trap, hid in a toilet, and caught the thief red-handed.
"It was a real case of Miss Marple," said a police spokesman in the eastern town of Saalfeld on Thursday. "It's good to know there are still courageous old ladies out there."
The elderly sleuth left cash out in her room as bait and then withdrew to the toilet to lie in wait. A cleaner then entered and pocketed the money, unaware she was being watched.
"Then the old lady hit the alarm button in the toilet and staff in the home nabbed the cleaner," the spokesman said.
The cleaner, 36, later confessed to police she was responsible for other thefts from the home near the spa resort of Bad Lobenstein.
