WebProNews

Tag: WTF

  • The Weather Channel Resorts to Dickish Behavior to Promote Its New Android App

    The new Weather Channel app for Android lets you know exactly when weather events like rain or snow are supposed to start. Cool, right?

    What’s not cool is installing sprinklers inside a bus shelter and drenching everyone inside because they didn’t have the app so they didn’t know when the rain was going to start.

    Get it?

    Sure, they’re probably actors and they look like they’re laughing in the end. But you can’t tell me that the guy wearing the headphones is anything other than incredibly pissed off about the whole situation.

    [Adrants via Gawker]

  • Meet the Internet Posting Removal Act, an Illinois Bill That’ll Make Your Head Spin

    State lawmakers all across the country busy at work crafting ridiculous, head-spinning laws can take the day off. There is no way they can top this.

    A new bill proposed in the Illinois State Senate looks to completely wipe out any form of anonymity on the internet by requiring that the operators of basically any website on the entire internet take down any comment that isn’t attached to an IP, address, and real name-verified poster.

    It’s called the Internet Posting Removal Act and was introduced on February 13th by Illinois General Assembly veteran Ira I. Silverstein [D].

    What do you think about anonymity of the internet? What circumstances (if any) should an internet commenter be forced to divulge their real identity? Let us know in the comments.

    Here’s the summary of the bill:

    Creates the Internet Posting Removal Act. Provides that a web site administrator shall, upon request, remove any posted comments posted by an anonymous poster unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate. Effective 90 days after becoming law.

    Not wanting to leave any bases uncovered, Silverstein includes that an “Anonymous Poster” means “any individual who posts a message on a web site including social networks, blogs, forums, message boards, or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.”

    Silverstein also proposes that “all web site administrators shall have a contact number or e-mail address posted for such removal requests clearly visible in any sections where comments are posted.”

    Beyond the obvious questions about self-verification of IP addresses (?) and home addresses (wow), the logistics of this thing are mind-boggling at best. Any comment on any site that has commenting? That would not just include sites like CNN.com, Mashable, WebProNews and others. This could be taken to mean any type of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or large online communities like reddit and 4chan.

    And what about the constitutionality angle?

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that “anonymous communications have an important place in our political and social discourse,” and that this is an idea that’s been upheld by the Supreme Court. They cite a particular decision (McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 1995):

    Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical minority views…Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority…It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation…at the hand of an intolerant society.

    “These long-standing rights to anonymity and the protections it affords are critically important for the Internet. As the Supreme Court has recognized the Internet offers a new and powerful democratic forum in which anyone can become a “pamphleteer” or “a town crier with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox,” says the EFF.

    Of course, this isn’t the first legislative attempt to limit anonymous speech on the internet. Back in 2012, a nearly identical bill was proposed in the New York State Assembly that would’ve required site admins to restrict any comments that didn’t have “IP address, legal name, and home address” attached to the post.

    Like many bills that limit free and anonymous speech, this NY bill was hidden behind a hot-button issue. In its case, cyberbullying.

    “It’s an effort to deal with the problem. I’m hopeful that this will be helpful in combating that,” Sponsor Thomas O’Mara explained, “or at least get a dialog going with the industry about this concern.”

    But is punishing anonymity the right course of action?

    When people who have no idea how the internet actually works start drafting laws, this is what happens. This isn’t the first, nor the last bill of this type that will hit state legislatures. More than likely, this bill will never make it out of committee (it’s been referred to assignments). But the simple knowledge that this kind of thing could even exist is enough to make me want a drink.

    What do you think? Is a bill like this even constitutional? Are you concerned about legislative attempts to remove anonymity from the internet? Let us know in the comments.

    [h/t reddit]

  • Utah Man Who Live-Facebooked His Standoff with Police Sentenced

    It’s always nice to check back in on some of our favorite Facebook-using criminals. This time, we have an update for now-38-year-old Jason Valdez from Ogden, Utah.

    Back in June, 2011, Valdez holed up in a motel room for 16 hours in a standoff with police. Inside the room with him was a single hostage, Veronica Jensen. You can see a picture that he snapped of the two inside the motel room above.

    During the course of the standoff, Valdez made a series of Facebook posts giving friends and family the live play-by-play of the whole event.

    Classic.

    Throughout the entire standoff, Valdez claimed that Jensen was not actually a hostage, but with him willingly. Some of his Facebook friends even tried to warn Valdez about police movements, to little avail. Police eventually stormed the room and Valdez shot himself in the chest, which put him in critical condition.

    But he survived, and he has now been sentenced.

    According to the L.A. Times, Valdez plead guilty to attempted aggravated murder and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person for the June, 2011 standoff. He was sentenced to two concurrent sentences – five years to life for the attempted murder and 1 to 15 years for the weapons charge.

    “Well everyone I’m lettin Veronica go here real soon but this is the end,” was Valdez’s final transmission before the standoff ended. At least he’s a man of his word. The hostage left unscathed.

  • ‘Sleep-Texting’ Is Your New Excuse When You Late-Night Booty Call Your Ex

    Hello there indiscriminate texters! I’m here to offer you a new solution to all of those embarrassing late-night texts that you send to your exes. It’s much better than saying you were drunk, because even that implies some sort of consciousness.

    May I present to you, “sleep-texting.”

    “It’s just what you’d think it is, it’s texting while asleep,” says Elizabeth Dowdell, nursing professor at Villanova University. “It’s exactly what is sounds like, or really more between that, you know, that area between being asleep and being awake.”

    “The phone will beep, they’ll answer the text. They’ll either respond in words or gibberish. (It) can even be inappropriate. Ex-girlfriends contacting ex-boyfriends, saying ‘I miss you. I want to see you.’ The thing that happens, though, is that when they wake up, there’s no memory.”

    People have been known to do any number of strange things whilst technically “asleep” or in some sort of strange limbo between asleep and awake. You know, like make a sandwich or murder someone. But sleep-texting?

    “Oh, sorry Jesse. I’m sorry I texted you that your new girlfriend looks like Sloth and she gives off a perpetual stink-eye. I don’t even remember it, I was actually sleep-texting.”

    Apparently the sleep-texting crisis is being brought on by stress and lack of sleep. So pretty much like every other problem. If you have a sleep-texting problem and want to do something about it, it helps to make your bedroom “technology-free” or at least put your iPhone on the other side of the damn room.

    [CBS Philly via UPROXX]

    [Photo via]

  • Trying To Impregnate The Neighbor’s Horse Is Not How You Get Back At Your Girlfriend

    Half-human/half-animal creatures have always seemed strange to me. How exactly do these creatures come to be? Are they the result of some strange crossbreeding experiment gone wrong, or just good old fashioned magic? One Texas man decided he would try the former and see what happens.

    Andres Mendozza, a 29-year-old from Texas, was recently arrested after trying to have sex with a horse. The reason? He was stood up by his girlfriend. Did he think this would be an appropriate way to get back at her? Maybe, but the story he told the cops was very different.

    Upon being taken in by the police, Mendozza said that he “was trying to make the horse have a baby.” He explained further saying that he thought the horse “would have a horse-man baby.”

    Wait, what?

    I don’t think trying to create a mythical race of Centaurs is exactly the best way to get back at your girlfriend. Hell, I’m pretty sure any woman would want nothing to do with you after admitting to having relations with the neighbor’s horse.

    So, Mendozza admitted to the deed, so how long is he in for? Surely bestiality carries a hefty sentence in Texas, right? Actually, according to Geekosystem, bestiality falls under public lewdness, which is only a Class A misdemeanor. After all was said and done, Mendozza only got four months in prison.

    After he gets out, maybe he should try for a minotaur. I’m sure Texas’ bulls would appreciate it.

    [h/t: The Sun]

  • Match.com Sued Over Relationship That Ended in Attempted Murder

    50-year-old Mary Kay Beckman has filed a $10 million lawsuit against dating site Match.com, placing blame on them for a 2011 incident that left her nearly dead.

    In September of 2010, Beckman met her “match” on the site, 53-year-old Wade Ridley. But after just eight days, she decided to break it off. Four months later, he broke into her house and stabbed her 10 times with a butcher knife. So hard that according to reports, the knife broke.

    Ridley later committed suicide in jail awaiting trial.

    Beckman is suing, claiming that Match.com doesn’t do enough to warn people of the risks they take when pursuing an online “match.”

    Match.com has responded to the lawsuit, calling the situation “horrible” but the lawsuit itself “absurd”:

    What happened to Mary Kay Beckman is horrible but this lawsuit is absurd. The many millions of people who have found love on Match.com and other online dating sites know how fulfilling it is. And while that doesn’t make what happened in this case any less awful, this is about a sick, twisted individual with no prior criminal record, not an entire community of men and women looking to meet each other.

    Match.com’s terms of use does tackle the issue of “interactions with other members,” saying that they are not responsible for them, and that they currently don’t conduct criminal background checks. “Match.com makes no representations or warranties as to the conduct of members or their compatibility with any current of future member,” they state.

    “IN NO EVENT SHALL MATCH.COM BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, WHETHER DIRECT, INDIRECT, GENERAL, SPECIAL, COMPENSATORY, CONSEQUENTIAL, AND/OR INCIDENTAL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE CONDUCT OF YOU OR ANYONE ELSE IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE SERVICE,” says the site in big, bold, capital letters.

    But it’s not as if terms of use are always airtight and courts can’t rule against a company in spite of them. What do you think? Is match.com in any way liable for violence that occurred based on one of their suggestions? Or is this lawsuit, like they put it, absurd?

    [Fox 4 via Mashable]

  • French Government Ditches ‘Hashtag’ for ‘mot-dièse’

    In an attempt to “encourage the presence of the French language on social media networks” against the influx of English language domination of the web, as well as to just be plain difficult, the French government is suggesting that people quit using the term “hashtag.”

    Instead, they suggest that people use the French term “mot-dièse,” which literally translates to “sharp word” – as in the musical symbol for a sharp. The government isn’t banning its citizens from using the word “hashtag,” but they will be officially replacing it with “mot-dièse” on all official documents and accounts.

    The Legifrance government page has a definition page for mot-dièse:

    Suite signifiante de caractères sans espace commençant par le signe # (dièse), qui signale un sujet d’intérêt et est insérée dans un message par son rédacteur afin d’en faciliter le repérage.

    With the aid of Google translate, that means “Suite signifying characters without spaces starting with # (hash), which indicates a topic of interest and is inserted into a message to his editor in easy identification.” So a hashtag, but not really.

    Some French Twitter users have been quick to point out the the musical sharp symbol is not perfectly swappable with the hashtag, as the sharp symbol has a slightly different lean to it.

    This news comes in the same week that a French court ruled that Twitter must give up the identities of some anti-Semitic users following a scandal involving an offensive hashtag.

    [The Local via Huffington Post]

  • Python On Plane Wing Is Your WTF Story Of The Day [Video]

    I promise not to make any stupid “Snakes on a Plane” jokes. A Python was spotted on the wing of a Quantas Airways plane during a two-hour flight from Cairns, Australia to Papua New Guinea.

    According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the serpent was spotted by a passenger about 20 minutes into the flight, in an incident that more closely resembles a famous Twilight Zone episode than the Samuel L. Jackson film.

    In other news, Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis died this week. Unfortunately, that’s not a joke.

  • That “Violent” Video Game-Burning Party Has Been Canceled Because They Already Made Their Point, Apparently

    SouthingtonSOS, a community organization based in Southington, Connecticut, has announced that they are canceling their “Violent Video Games Return” event, as the media surrounding it has been enough to meet their goals.

    The event, first announced at the beginning of this month, asked people to bring in their copies of “violent” video games, movies, and CDs, to be broken, tossed in a giant dumpster, and eventually incinerated.

    They claimed that the event was not to be taken as a statement on the cause of recent violent massacres such as the recent Sandy Hook elementary school shooting – but that evidence suggests that violent media is responsible. So video games didn’t lead to Sandy Hook, but they totally did. Something like that.

    SouthingtonSOS planned to hand out $25 gift cards to anyone brave enough to snap a copy of Call of Duty in order to tackle the real problem behind the gun violence plaguing the nation. If that sounds like it’s dripping with sarcasm, that’s because it is.

    The two goals that they met, they say, were to raise awareness and get parents talking to their kids.

    “We are pleased to announcethat awareness here has been raised significantly, thanks to the support of the media and widely disseminated e-mail communications within our community through our local Southington SOS member organizations. The result has been a swift, positiveand supportive response of parents, young people and the general population of our community,” said SouthingtonSOS in a statement.

    “An equally important goal was to encourage parents in Southington to have a courageous discussion with their childrenabout thistopic. Day by day the response has increased and continues to increase, making it clear that parents are having these conversations. So, this second mission of inspiring conversations at home has also been accomplished.”

    For those reasons, the group has “reevaluated” and decided to cancel the “return” part of the “Violent Video Game Return” program.

    Now they won’t have to hand out any $25 gift cards, I guess.

    No word on whether SouthingtonSOS has any plans for a future book burning, to tackle the disturbing problem of teenagers making out behind the library.

  • Freddy E, Rapper and YouTube Star, Live-Tweets His Suicide

    There’s not a whole lot you can say about this, except that it’s incredibly sad.

    Seattle-based rapper and YouTube star (JERKTV) Frederick Eugene Buhl, better known as Freddy E, has taken his own life. Not only that, but he broadcast the moments leading up to the suicide on Twitter.

    What follows is the series of tweets sent out to his 122,000+ followers. It seems to all begin with an unknown event, to which Freddy E said “my day is ruined.” He ended with a series of tweets that read “I love you mom; I love you dad; I love you Katherine; God, please forgive me; I’m sorry.” As a word of warning, what follows is raw and pretty disturbing:

    His suicide has been confirmed by his father, who said that Freddy E ended his life with a rifle shot to the head. Here’s what he had to say in a Facebook post:

    Today, our son, Frederick Eugene Buhl (@freddy_E), age 22 years old, took his own life with a rifle shot to the head. Our family is saddened beyond words; our loss is great; this tragedy is enormous and unforseen. Not only our family, but the world has lost a talented, sensitive, brilliant young man who lit up our existence with his. We love him a great deal, and he will be sorely missed. We pray that God will now watch over him, and we ask all of you to include Frederick and our entire family in your thoughts and prayers. Tomorrow, Sunday, January 5th, 2013, we will be attending Fred’s Church, First AME, at 12:00 PM in Seattle, WA. You are invited to join us or send your prayers. Fred would appreciate that a great deal.

    Just heartbreaking. But we can’t say that we’re surprised that Twitter serves as the last broadcast for a suicide.

  • ESPN’s Jemele Hill Tweets the Racist Complaint Letter She Received

    Today, ESPN reporter Jemele Hill took the time to tweet out a letter she received from a disgruntled ESPN radio listener, and boy is it a doozy.

    “I gotta say, this guy executed the hat trick of racial slurs,” she tweeted out to her 138,000+ followers. Hill is a columnist for ESPN, but also makes many appearances on ESPN Radio and well as the ESPN family of television networks as an analyst.

    The letter, addressed to ESPN Radio (c/o Jemele Hill), is a handwritten, and is full of not-so-subtle racism and pointed barbs. In the letter, you’ll find everything from “jungle bunny” to “thick-lipped gorilla” to “spear-chucker.” Sickening.

    Here it is:

    (image)

    Hill’s been pretty active on Twitter ever since, discussing the letter. It appears that she’s not lost her sense of humor over the whole thing:

     

    Maybe it’s because she’s used to it.

    “I get one a day,” she says. “Usually you expect one or two slurs per letter. Dude had 50-11 of them in one letter.”

    Stuff like this is both shocking and totally not shocking at the same time. I guess we can thank Twitter for giving someone like Hill the chance to simply post the classless “fan”‘s letter and get a conversation going.

  • Town Schedules ‘Violent Video Game’ Burning Party Because That’s Obviously an Appropriate Response to Anything

    The town of Southington, Connecticut apparently thinks that destroying “violent” video games, music, and movies is an act of “responsible citizenship.”

    On Saturday, January 12th, the town is sponsoring a “Violent Video Games Return Program” that asks people to bring their discs to a local theatre, break them, and toss them in a dumpster. Polygon says that the disposed-of games, cds, and dvds will later be incinerated.

    The game burning drive is being put on by SouthingtonSOS, an “adhoc group of representatives of organizations across the spectrum of the Southington community responding to the recent violence and murderous massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. This includes the local Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, board of education, United Way, and clergy.

    Although the group states that they are responding to the tragic school massacre in Sandy Hook, they also state that this project shouldn’t be thought of as a statement on video game violence playing a role in the tragedy. Except the evidence suggests that. But they’re not saying it. But it totally does.

    Here, check out their statement for yourself:

    The announcement of the Violent Games Return program was also disseminated electronically last Friday by the Board of Education in behalf of Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Joseph Erardi to the homes of all. The publication of the first press story today has attracted a significant response which was no surprise to SouthingtonSOS. The group’s action is not intended to be construed as statement declaring that violent video games were the cause of the shocking violence in Newtown on December 14th.

    Rather, SouthingtonSOS is saying is that there is ample evidence that violent video games, along with violent media of all kinds, including TV and Movies portraying story after story showing a continuous stream of violence and killing, has contributed to increasing aggressiveness, fear, anxiety and is desensitizing our children to acts of violence including bullying. Social and political commentators, as well as elected officials including the president, are attributing violent crime to many factors including inadequate gun control laws, a culture of violence and a recreational culture of violence.

    Participants won’t leave empty handed, as the group says they’ll hand out $25 gift cards on site.

    “As people arrive in their cars to turn in their games of violence, they will be offered a gift certificate donated by a member of the Greater Southington Chamber of Commerce as a token of appreciation for their action of responsible citizenship,” says SouthingtonSOS.

    So, if you’re in the area and feel like destroying your kids’ copy of Halo 4, make sure to read your Bradbury and head on down to the drive-in for a rockin’ good time.

  • It’s Christmas, Don’t Forget the Twin Peaks 12 Days of Christmas Song

    I don’t know where you come from, but where I’m from it’s not really Christmas until you’ve enjoyed the delightfully odd version of the song Twelve Days of Christmas, as sung by cast members of the show Twin Peaks.

    Did I say enjoyed? I meant survived. Yes, it’s kind of a grueling listen. But also awesome. Check it out:

  • Woman Tased After Trying to Buy Too Many iPhones

    If you are doing your xmas shopping in Nashua, Hew Hampshire this year, you should know that their Apple Store is probably not going to sell you more than two iPhones, no matter how hard you plead. In fact, they’ll probably just call the cops and you’ll wind up getting tased.

    At least that’s what happened to Xiaojie Li. After being escorted out of an Apple Store in in the second-largest city in the state, police used force to subdue her after they claim she resisted arrest.

    According to WCVB, this whole incident centered around Li’s desire to purchase multiple iPhones for her family back in China. When we say “multiple,” we mean a lot. Li was reportedly carrying $16,000 in cash at the time of her arrest.

    It all started when Li purchased two iPhones last Friday, which happens to be the store maximum. She apparently confronted the store manager with video she had taken that supposedly showed other customers being allowed to purchase more than two iPhones. She was asked to leave the store.

    A few days later, Li returned to pick up more iPhones that she has ordered online. When she refused to leave the store, authorities were notified.

    Li and her daughter are blaming the whole thing on a language barrier, as Li only speaks Chinese and says she couldn’t understand anything the Apple Store employees or the police were talking about. She’s been charged with two misdemeanors as a result of the incident.

    iPhone limits? Tasings? Possible excessive user of force by local police? It’s shaping up to be a banner holiday season already, folks.

  • This Terrifying Swing from 3,000 Feet Is Your Aw Hell Nah Video of the Day

    Nope, nope, nope. A huge bowl of nope, never ever ever. I’m not even scared of heights and I still can’t imagine attempting this incredible “fall and swing” from the top of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Then again, I am kind of a giant wuss.

    This guy clearly has bigger stones than I do, as he cut lose into a free fall from near the top of the 3,000 foot monolith. I know it’s just a video, but I swear I think I feel a bout of vertigo coming on.

    [Sexecret via reddit

  • Hashtag May Be the World’s First Trending Baby

    I know that there are a lot of stupid names out there. Believe me, I know. But unless a new parent goes to the extreme and names their kid “Gaydolf Titler” or something, I usually try to withhold judgement. Unless the name you give your child is going to severely disadvantage them their whole life, to each his own, man. Live and let live, you know? I’m sure someone could find “Joshua” pretty strange. After all, a name is just a weird collection of sounds, right?

    Having said that, please stop naming your kids after social media actions, ok?

    According to a tweet from Awkward Messages, a compiler of funny texts, tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube comments, etc., a baby has been born and given the name “Hashtag.” Yes, Hashtag Jameson is now a person in this world.

    And if you still hold some shred of doubt about the inspiration for the name (maybe it’s Dutch or something?), the top comment on the screencapped Facebook post reads, “Aww babes you finally had your tweetybird.”

    If legit, this is all pretty incredible.

    If you think little baby Hashtag (thankfully not “little baby #”) is in for a rough childhood, may I remind you that a little over a year ago, an Israeli couple bestowed their newborn girl with the name “Like.”

    “We named her Like because it’s modern and innovative,” said the father. “In our opinion it’s the modern equivalent of the name Ahava (Love). It’s just my way of saying to my fantastic daughter, ‘love.’”

    So, what is the name “Hashtag” the modern equivalent of?

    [@AwkwardMsgs via Gizmodo]

  • Hole-y Sh*t! You Can Now Sign Up for a Goatse Email Address

    Do you remember where you were the first time your snickering friend directed you to goatse.cx? I sure do. The memory is burned into my brain – the first in a long line of introductions to disgusting internet memes like lemon party, tubgirl, and blue waffles that serve as a warning: The internet is great because of its vastness/The internet is terrible because of its vastness.

    By the way, don’t Google any of those things I just mentioned. You’re going to have a bad time.

    If you’re unfamiliar with the cult of goatse, let me carefully explain. It’s a roughly 13-year-old shock image that features a man, his private regions, and a lot of spreading. The goatse.cx Wikipedia page has a pretty clinical description of the image, if you’re interested. Goatse.cx (Goat sex) became ubiquitous in the early period of internet curiosity.

    Why would such an image become so popular on the internet? It was the late nineties, mind you. Something had to fill the gaping, cavernous void of the early interwebs. Think of it as the original Rick-Roll, or something like that.

    Goatse.cx has been inactive since 2004 when the owners of the TLD, the government of the Christmas Islands, suspended it based on violations to acceptable use policy. This was all spurred by a complaint by a Christmas Island resident. The image is not gone from the internet, of course – nothing can be. You can find it with pretty minimal efforts, if you’re feeling masochistic.

    Now, the guy who bought the infamous domain is attempting to repurpose it as a vanity email location.

    From it’s shut down in 2004 to 2008, the goatse.cx domain was at the center of a pretty strange bidding war that involved fake bids and threats of legal action. At one point, the asking price rose to $500,000. According to Gawker, our unnamed buyer claims to have purchased the domain in 2008 for around $10,200 on a “late night whim.” That’s one hell of a whim.

    In order to recoup his losses, he plans on charging people for their brand new @goatse.cx email address. It won’t be much – maybe $5 a year. But it will cut in to the ten grand that he threw down four years ago, considering people actually want to receive email at such a loaded location.

    Our anonymous goatse purveyor claims that he’s already fielded 4,000 signup requests for the new email, and also plans to create a goatse link shortener which would serve the purpose of making people think twice about following any link they see floating around Facebook and Twitter. Risky click, indeed.

    You can signup for the email address at signup.goatse.cx today(SFW).

    (image)

  • “Password” Remains Top Password, “Jesus” Cracks the Top 25

    People: What are you doing? This is just getting sad now.

    Remember all of those password leak stories you’ve seen in the last few months? How many? One? Two? Three? More? While most of those leaks fall on the shoulders of the network security of the companies involved, they still reveal a shocking truth: People are terrible when it comes to choosing a proper password. And new data culled from these various leaks confirms this.

    It’s time for SplashData‘s annual list of the 25 most-common passwords on the internet. They say their list is “just in time for Halloween” – it’s that scary. And yeah, that fact that people are still this clueless on the incredible insecurity of their information is truly frightening.

    The most common password, as revealed by the study, is “password.” That remains unchanged from last year. In fact, the two three most-common passwords are the same as they were last year – “123456” and “12345678” being the other two.

    New entries on the top 25 list include “welcome,” “jesus,” “ninja,” “mustang,” and “password1.”

    Check out the complete list below:

    1. password (Unchanged)
    2, 123456 (Unchanged)
    3. 12345678 (Unchanged)
    4. abc123 (Up 1)
    5. qwerty (Down 1)
    6. monkey (Unchanged)
    7. letmein (Up 1)
    8. dragon (Up 2)
    9. 111111 (Up 3)
    10. baseball (Up 1)
    11. iloveyou (Up 2)
    12. trustno1 (Down 3)
    13. 1234567 (Down 6)
    14. sunshine (Up 1)
    15. master (Down 1)
    16. 123123 (Up 4)
    17. welcome (New)
    18. shadow (Up 1)
    19. ashley (Down 3)
    20. football (Up 5)
    21. jesus (New)
    22. michael (Up 2)
    23. ninja (New)
    24. mustang (New)
    25. password1 (New)

    “We’re hoping that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites,” said SplashData CEO Morgan Slain.

    Well, it doesn’t seem to be working. We’ve known that people truly suck at picking passwords for some time, and it doesn’t seem to be changing. Want another example? Analysis of the aforementioned LinkedIn password leak showed that the top password for the leaked accounts was “link.”

    Facepalm.

  • Minnesota Gets Tough on the Enemy That Is Free, Online Education

    Free online education platform Coursera says they are “education for everyone.” But after a decision by one U.S. state, they may have to throw an “almost” into that motto.

    In a truly baffling display of governmental ignorance, the state of Minnesota has outlawed Coursera. Yes, the state of Minnesota has outlawed free, online education. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports it, the ban cites a decades-old law that forces educational institutions to get permission from the state before they begin operating there.

    A spokesperson for Minnesota’s Office of Higher Education defended the declaration by saying,

    “This has been a longtime requirement in Minnesota (at least 20 years) and applies to online and brick-and-mortar postsecondary institutions that offer instruction to Minnesota residents as part of our overall responsibility to provide consumer protection for students.”

    From Coursera’s standpoint, the Minnesota law focuses on degree-granting programs – which Coursera is not. Of course, a decades-old law would not have been able to foresee free, online education providers – but it begs the questions: Why would the state expand the scope of the law to include them?

    Adding to the odd nature of the decision, it’s entirely unclear how the state plans to enforce the new law. And it’s also unclear whether the state has included other similar online education services like edX and Udacity in its ban.

    Either way, Coursera has done their part to inform Minnesota residents of the decree. They’ve posted this in their terms:

    Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so. If you are a resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota.

    Sorry, Minnesotans who wish to expand their knowledge. I’m sure you can find everything you need to know on Facebook.

    Coursera was launched earlier this year by computer science professors from Stanford University. As of today, knowledge-seekers can access 198 different courses in 18 different categories ranging from biology to business & management, from economics to engineering. Coursera currently boasts 33 University partners.

  • President Obama Probably Doesn’t Approve This Message from Pauly Shore

    In the world of political endorsements, I’m not exactly sure where Pauly Shore ranks. Maybe somewhere between Lindsay Lohan and Kid Rock. I guess it really doesn’t matter how the President of the United States feels about it, because Pauly Shore has endorsed him with a new rap song posted to his YouTube channel.

    I mean, I guess he endorsed him. To be honest, I’m not sure what the message is here. Obama got Osama, I get that. But all the stuff with Kenya, Herman Cain, and Meet the Press? I don’t know. Is this supposed to be Pauly Shore’s perspective or Obama’s?

    With lines like “Meet the Press can press my meat,” who the hell knows. Anyway, it’s Friday, so here it is:

    [via UPROXX]

  • Scientists Find An Anglerfish That Doesn’t Invoke Nightmares

    I think we can all agree that marine biology is amazing. It’s utterly mind blowing that we know more about the universe than we do our own oceans. That’s why new finds in the deepest depths are always fascinating, and more often than note incredibly unnerving.

    One of the scariest species to ever roam the sea floor is the Anglerfish. This particular species is generally cited as being pretty terrifying, and I have to agree. For a refresher, this is usually what we’re dealing with when somebody brings up Anglerfish:

    Scientists Anglerfish

    It’s pretty terrifying, right? It’s also one of the most unique specimens in the ocean because of its lure that lights up to attract prey. With that being said, I wouldn’t be want to be swimming anywhere near one. That’s why it’s awesome that scientists found an Anglerfish that’s actually kind of cute and all kinds of awesome.

    Researchers were combing the depths near Davidson Seamount when they found this little guy. Its name is Chaunacops coloratus, and it’s one of the most unique Anglerfish I’ve ever seen. For one, it walks on the sea floor with its fins. It can also retract the lure on its head so that would-be prey aren’t instinctively frightened of it.

    This species of Anglerfish is incredibly rare. It’s been found in nets a few times before, but this is the first time that scientists have been able to find one that’s still alive. It’s going to stay that way as well since these fish live at a depth of 11,000 feet.

    [h/t: Sci-News]