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The declaration of war from Fidel Castro to the US, published 50 years later

The Cuban newspaper Granma published yesterday the declaration of war to the United States that Fidel Castro wrote 50 years ago. In this card dated June 5th 1958, written to his wife Celia, the Cuban leader who’s leading a guerrilla against a dictatorial Cuba, is disgusted of the help the US offers to Cuba.

I swore to myself that Americans will pay a high price for what they are doing. When this war is over, another one, longer and larger, will start for me: I’m going to throw the war on them [the US]. I am realizing this is my true destiny.

According to Granma, this card was written just before the bombing by Cuba, with US backup, that destroyed the house of a farmer, Mario Sariol. Mario showed Fidel Castro the remains of a US missile.

carta

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News Random

Hacker steals $50,000 a few cents at a time

When opening an online brokering account it is common practice for companies such as E-trade and Schwab to send a tiny payment – ranging from only a few cents to a couple of dollars – to verify that the user has access to the bank account listed. Services such as Google Checkout and Paypal use a similar tactic to verify credit and debit cards linked to accounts.

According to court documents, Californian Michael Largent used an automated script to open 58,000 such accounts, collecting many thousands of these small payments into a few personal bank accounts.

Largent also performed the same trick with Google’s Checkout service, cashing more than $8,000 alone from the service.

When his bank contacted him about the thousands of small payments, Largent explained that he had read the terms of service of the sites he was targeting, and believed he was doing nothing wrong, claiming that he needed the money to pay off debts.

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News Opinions Random

Maps Explaining Why Americans Know Less About the World

Speaking at the TED Conference, Alisa Miller (CEO of Public Radio International) explains why Americans know less and less about the rest of the world. Along the way, she uses some eye-popping graphs to put things in perspective.

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News Random

Obey Sample Sales

Obey is having a sample sale this week:

Date:
Friday, May 30th (9am – 7pm)
Saturday, May31st (8am – 3pm)

Location:
3500 W. Carriage Dr.
Santa Ana CA, 92704

Last time we went, we had to wait 2.5 hours in line! I still can’t believe I waited that long without ending up on the news for murder…

This year my friend Sean, ex Obey employee, is getting us in day earlier. Thanks, buddy!

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News Random Tech

Rocketman flies with jet-pack strapped to his back

The self-built contraption took the former fighter pilot five years to build and perfect – and yesterday he gave it its maiden flight.

Stepping out of an aircraft at 7,500ft, Rossy unfolded the 10ft rigid wings strapped to his back as he plummeted earthwards.

Passing from freefall into a gentle glide, he triggered the four jet turbines and accelerated to 190mph above the mountaintops.

With his first big test under his belt, Rossy, 48, is ready for bigger challenges: he plans to cross the English Channel later this year, before attempting to fly through the Grand Canyon.

So far, Rossy and his sponsors have poured more than $240,000 and countless hours into building the device.

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Internet News

MySpace wins $234M spam judgment

MySpace has won a $234 million judgment over junk messages sent to its members in what is believed to be the largest anti-spam award ever, The Associated Press has learned.

A federal judge ruled against two of the Internet’s most prominent spam defendants, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, after the two failed to show up at a court hearing.

Rines and Wallace worked in concert to create their own MySpace accounts or take over existing ones by stealing passwords.

They then e-mailed other MySpace members asking them to check out a cool video or another cool site. When you go there, they were making money trying to sell you something or making money based on hits or trying to sell ring tones.

It would be a surprise, though, if MySpace ever collected. The giant judgments are all defaults, which means they don’t necessarily even know how to find the spammer.

There was no telephone listing for Wallace in the Las Vegas area, where he is last known to live. Service was disconnected for two listed numbers for Rines in Stratham, N.H., his last known address; a third number was unlisted.

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Business Internet News

CraigsList sues eBay

A few weeks after being sued by eBay, CraigsList is now suing the auction giant, alleging eBay had used its minority stake in Craigslist to steal corporate trade secrets.

Craigslist’s complaint alleges a plan by eBay to use its position as a minority shareholder in Craigslist and its position on the Craigslist board to gather competitive information that led to the launch of eBay’s rival classifieds business. The suit claims eBay code-named Kijiji its “Craigslist killer” in internal strategy discussions.

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Green News Random

Space Vegetables Could Solve World’s Food Crisis

The seeds from which these giant veggies grew were fired into space, where they orbited the Earth for two weeks. Once they returned they were cultivated in hothouses, producing the monster specimens seen here.

China, which is behind the space fruit and veg, says they could be the answer to the world’s food crisis. China has been experimenting with space plants since the 1980s.

pumpkin

Previously it has claimed that the near zero gravity conditions – microgravity – have created high-yield rice and wheat plants, and tomatoes and peppers with harvests ten to 20 per cent greater than normal.

The most recent batch of 2,000 seeds was launched into orbit in 2006 on the Shijian 8 satellite. Afterwards they were cultivated and the best specimens selected for further breeding. The results include two-foot cucumhebers and 14lb aubergines. China says its giant fruit and veg have already been sold to Japan, Thailand and Singapore.

Researcher Lo Zhigang admitted he and his colleagues could not explain why time in orbit causes the seeds to mutate. But they suspect exposure to the cosmic radiation that bombards spacecraft in orbit, as well as microgravity, could play a part.

chilli

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News

RIP Murray Jarvik, co-inventor of nicotine patch

Dr. Murray Jarvik, a pioneer reacher of smoking addition and co-inventor of the nicotine patch, has died. He was 84.

In the early 1990s, Jarvik invented a transdermal patch that delivers nicotine directly into the body to help smokers fight the urge to light up.

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News

Wetsuit’s inventor dies

hugh bradnerSurfing would still be shivering and facing a high risk for hypothermia if it weren’t for Hugh Bradner, inventor of the first wetsuit.

Bradner, a renowned physicist and professor emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography died May 5, 2008, in San Diego after a prolonged illness. He was 92.

RIP