Identity Theft Statistics

The statistics on identity theft are staggering. According to the firm id Alerts 13.3 people per minute across North America become victims of identity theft, that works out to 799 people per hour and 19,178 people per day.

As a reporter, I've covered the identity theft issue pointing out that it could happen to anyone. It's one thing saying that, it's another living it. I lost my wallet recently at a large downtown Ottawa hotel with thousands of people floating around. When I realized it was lost and went back to find it, no one on staff had seen the wallet or the coat it was tucked inside of, now also lost.

But at least I had just spoken to some of the best experts in the business of protecting your vital data.

Feds Charge Investigator in HP Spying Scandal

A private investigator accused of illegally accessing a reporter's private phone records as part of the Hewlett-Packard boardroom spying scandal has been charged with federal identity theft and conspiracy charges. U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan filed the charges on Wednesday in San Jose, Calif., federal court against Bryan Wagner.

World’s Most Powerful Rail Gun Delivered to Navy

That, of course, is the problem with rail guns: Like lasers, they're out of step with modern-day generators and capacitors. Eight and 9-megajoule rail guns have been fired before, but providing 3 million amps of power per shot has been a limitation. At 32 megajoules, this new system appears to be the most powerful rail gun ever built, and the Office of Naval Research is installing additional capacitors at the Dahlgren facility to support it. The planned 64-megajoule weapon, if it's ever built, could require even more power—a staggering 6 million amps.

According to Dr. Amir Chaboki, the program manager for Electro-Magnetic Rail Guns at BAE Systems, “The power is available. The challenge is how you use it." The Navy's electrically-propelled DDG 100 Destroyer, Chaboki says, is a prime candidate for the final 64-megajoule system.

Housing decline hits area unevenly

January seemed to bear that out, with sales rising for the first time in more than a year just before the all-important spring season. But even last year, average prices increased at least 10 percent in a third of Baltimore's suburban communities -- and in a remarkable three-quarters of city neighborhoods.

Old computers play a brand new song

Favorites include the Commodore 64 and Atari 800, but the most popular chiptune gadget may be the Game Boy, the monochrome handheld device Nintendo debuted in 1989. The instruments have only a fraction of the computing power of today's average cellphone, but that's part of the appeal.

Proving that chiptune is about more than nostalgia, a few Blip attendees were too young to remember the gadgets that inspired it.

WaMu closing home-loan offices, cutting staff

Washington Mutual, the nation's largest savings and loan, is closing offices and laying off workers in response to problems in the mortgage and credit markets.

Disaster Capitalism and its Shock Doctrine-- making Nazism seem tame

The main story Klein tells is that the US has helped dictators, in dozens of nations, to create chaos and confusion using military coups, torture, mass killings and horrific repression of free speech and protest. They use these criminal actions to: -take over a country,-drastically reduce government services,-reduce or eliminate laws and regulations that regulate corporations,-take national resources that belong to the people and sell them off, privatizing them, to corporations-- things like water, forests, schools, roads, armies-destroy the middle class to take away their power. They do these things to implement Milton Friedman's free trade, globalist theories as taught and promoted by the University of Chicago School of Economics. Friedman and his acolytes would consult with the worst of the torturing, murdering dictators, encouraging them to go ever further in destroying the middle class, in eliminating protections against corporate abuse.

Is Curry's Shoulder Injury Holding Him Back?

When we saw Eddy Curry grabbed three offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter last week against Denver and even swat away one of Marcus Camby's shots, you couldn't help but think; now that's what a center should do.

Curry had two opportunities to build on his performance against Denver and make a statement to Howard and O'Neal, the best young big man and the aging legend.