FBI Weighs Looser Pot Rules for New Hires – Funny

Posted on 2014-05-212014-05-21 by Daniel Fishman

From todays WSJ – quote from FBI Director James Comey

Congress has authorized the FBI to add 2,000 personnel to its rolls this year, and many of those new recruits will be assigned to tackle cybercrimes, a growing priority for the agency. That is a problem, said Mr. Comey, as a lot of the nation's top computer programmers and hacking gurus are also fond of marijuana.

"I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview," Mr. Comey said. He added that the agency was now "grappling" with how to amend its marijuana policies. Full Article

Why You Shouldn’t Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Posted on 2014-04-212014-04-21 by Daniel Fishman

By ROBERT LEE HOTZ
Wall Street Journal
April 18, 2014

Talk about dirty money: Scientists are discovering a surprising number of microbes living on cash.

In the first comprehensive study of the DNA on dollar bills, researchers at New York University’s Dirty Money Project found that currency is a medium of exchange for hundreds of different kinds of bacteria as bank notes pass from hand to hand.

By analyzing genetic material on $1 bills, the NYU researchers identified 3,000 types of bacteria in all—many times more than in previous studies that examined samples under a microscope. Even so, they could identify only about 20% of the non-human DNA they found because so many microorganisms haven’t yet been cataloged in genetic data banks. READ MORE at WSJ

Proposal to Prevent Grid Attack Lacks Power, Critics Say

Posted on 2014-04-202014-04-20 by Daniel Fishman

By REBECCA SMITH

April 17, 2014

A year after gunfire knocked out a substation that funnels power to Silicon Valley, the U.S. government has promised to make power companies amp up protection of equipment vital to the electric grid. Read full article at the WSJ

See original post

Assault on California Power Station Raises Alarm on Potential for Terrorism

Posted on 2014-02-062021-03-20 by Daniel Fishman

By REBECCA SMITH

February 5, 2014

SAN JOSE, Calif.—The attack began just before 1 a.m. on April 16 last year, when someone slipped into an underground vault not far from a busy freeway and cut telephone cables.

Within half an hour, snipers opened fire on a nearby electrical substation. Shooting for 19 minutes, they surgically knocked out 17 giant transformers that funnel power to Silicon Valley. A minute before a police car arrived, the shooters disappeared into the night. Read the original WSJ article about the susceptibility of the US power grid and how a critical vulnerability of being ignored.