Mass password theft hits Hotmail users - 10,000 Hotmail passwords hacked

• A 'phishing' operation has been blamed for the reported theft of thousands of Hotmail users' passwords.
• More than 10,000 Hotmail passwords have been hacked and posted online, a technology website has reported.
• Microsoft, which owns the email service, said it had not yet been able to confirm the report, but it was "actively investigating the situation".
• Technology blog neowin.net reported that an anonymous user had posted the details of Windows Live Hotmail accounts on pastebin.com, a site used by developers to share code, on October 1.
• Neowin administrator Tom Warren wrote on the blog: "The details have since been removed but Neowin has seen part of the list posted and can confirm the accounts are genuine and most appear to be based in Europe.
• The list details over 10,000 accounts starting from A through to B, suggesting there could be additional lists.
• Currently it appears only accounts used to access Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail have been posted, this includes @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com accounts."
• The blog suggested the details were obtained through a hack or "phishing" scam, in which fake websites are used to trick people into revealing usernames, passwords and other information.
• A Microsoft spokesman said: "Microsoft has been made aware of the claims that Windows Live IDs and passwords have been made available on the web.
• We're actively investigating the situation and will take appropriate steps as rapidly as possible."
• Neowin recommended Windows Live Hotmail users "change your password and security question immediately".

By www.MICHAELJACKSON50.com

Kylie Minogue proves big hit in LA - first-ever American tour

• Australian pop star Kylie Minogue performed in Los Angeles on Sunday night as part of her first-ever American tour.
• The sell-out show at the Hollywood Bowl saw Minogue adorned in feathers and lowered onto the stage on top of a giant metallic skull.
• Fans were enthusiastic about the two-hour, fast-paced performance that included her crowd-pleaser Can't get You Out of My Head, her 2001 club hit.
• The energy is so incredible. Everyone's dancing the whole time", said concertgoer Billy Folchetti. "Her outfits were incredible. It was absolutely an all-around fabulous show."
• The 41-year-old Grammy Award-winning artist is performing in the United States for the first time in a music career which has spanned more than two decades.
• Minogue performed outside of San Francisco and in Las Vegas before coming to LA. Next will be stops in Chicago, New York and Toronto.
• The six-stop run is said to be an effort to test the waters in the US.
• If deemed to be successful, promoters say Minogue may be back for a longer tour.

By www.MICHAELJACKSON50.com

Pilots issue safety warning

Pilots' safety warning over flying hours

• The number of hours pilots are required to fly is risking passenger safety, according to claims.
• British pilots are joining flight crews from other countries in warning that the number of hours they are required to fly are putting passenger safety at risk.
• Pilots from 36 countries will protest outside the European Parliament in Brussels, claiming there is scientific evidence to prove that the EU's pilot flight time rules are "flawed."
• Jim McAuslan, who is General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) has written to Transport Secretary Lord Adonis warning that UK standards are threatened by EU laws.
• Pilots across Europe protested three years ago that plans by the European Parliament to standardise pilot flying hours were potentially unsafe and could result in more pilot fatigue.
• Mr McAuslan said: "The European Parliament responded by instructing the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to send the rules to a team of safety experts.
• At the beginning of this year the scientists, some of the most noted fatigue experts in the world, presented their report which concluded that the EU rules were indeed unsafe. But to its shame EASA has ignored this.
• Balpa claims that pressure on pilots was growing as competition between airlines became "brutal."
• The group also says that new EU rules, due to come into effect in 2012, will see the end of an individual country's ability to set their own higher standards, as currently happens in the UK.
• A Department for Transport spokesman said: "The safety of passengers and crew is our top priority and we will not allow this to be compromised."

By www.MICHAELJACKSON50.com

Michael Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him - June 25 2009

• LONDON, England - How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it's just one - if that one is Michael Jackson.
• The biggest showbiz story of the year saw the troubled star take a good slice of the Internet with him, as the ripples caused by the news of his death swept around the globe.
• Between approximately 2:40 p.m. PDT and 3:15 p.m. PDT today, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson, a Google spokesman told CNET, which also reported that Google News users complained that the service was inaccessible for a time. At its peak, Google Trends rated the Jackson story as "volcanic.
• As sites fell, users raced to other sites: TechCrunch reported that TMZ, which broke the story, had several outages; users then switched to Perez Hilton's blog, which also struggled to deal with the requests it received.
• CNN reported a fivefold rise in traffic and visitors in just over an hour, receiving 20 million page views in the hour the story broke.
• Twitter crashed as users saw multiple "fail whales" -- the illustrations the site uses as error messages --user FoieGrasie posting, "Irony: The protesters in Iran using twitter as com are unable to get online because of all the posts of 'Michael Jackson RIP.' Well done." The site's status blog said that Twitter had had to temporarily disable its search results, saved searches and trend topics.
• Wikipedia saw a flurry of activity, with close to 500 edits made to Jackson's entry in less than 24 hours. CNET reported that by 3:15pm PDT, Wikipedia seemed to be "temporarily overloaded.
• The LA Times, the first news organization to confirm Jackson's death, suffered outages. The site also reported that AOL's instant messenger service had been hit, quoting an AOL statement that said, "AIM was down for approximately 40 minutes this afternoon." The statement said, "Today was a seminal moment in Internet history. We've never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth.
• By Friday morning, news sites seemed to be coping with traffic but Jackson fan site mjfanclub.net was still performing sluggishly. Mashable.com reported that tributes to, and remarks upon, Michael Jackson's death were responsible for 30 percent of tweets.
• As with any breaking piece of news on the Web, the reports of Jackson's death sparked something of a feeding frenzy -- and with that came rumor that dragged in other celebrities completely unconnected to the King of Pop's death.
• One Wikipedia prankster wrote that Jackson had been "savagely murdered" by his brother Tito, who had strangled him "with a microphone cord."
• Soon rumors spread online that movie star Jeff Goldblum had fallen from the Kauri Cliffs in New Zealand while filming his latest movie. On several search engines, "Jeff Goldblum" soon became the only non-Jackson-related term to crop up in the top 10.
• The rumors forced Goldblum's publicist to issue a statement to media outlets, saying: "Reports that Jeff Goldblum has passed away are completely untrue. He is fine and in Los Angeles."
• At the same time Harrison Ford was also rumored to have fallen from a yacht off the south of France.
• Web site snopes.com, which shoots down rumors, gossip and urban legends -- and how they originated -- said the likely culprit was a Web site which allows users to input celebrity names -- and then inserts them into fake templated stories (a further variant has stars dying in a plane crash).
• In a sense the feeding frenzy was understandable -- Jackson's death, coming only hours after that of 1970s icon Farah Fawcett, left many Web users, shocked by the news of Jackson's death, asking what would happen next. In this febrile climate any rumor runs the risk of being seized on, believed and treated with more credulity than usual.
• The need of the professional media to be first with the news -- many did for a short time report the Goldblum rumor as fact -- adds further veracity. And, of course, the whole process is speeded up by the Web.
• There is also, of course, the old adage that celebrities die in threes, with the deaths of Gianni Versace, Princess Diana and Mother Teresa in 1997 frequently held up as an example of this.
• But while Diana and Teresa passed away with seven days of each other in August and September, Versace was killed in early July. Their deaths were most keenly mourned by the same broad sections of the public -- and hence were inextricably interlinked.
• The Web can link disseminate news -- but like any form of communication it can also help us create what we expect to see next.

By www.MICHAELJACKSON50.com

Top 10 unusual outdoor activities in the UK

• Try something a little out of the ordinary with our top ten unusual outdoor activities in Britain.
• 1. River bugging'River what?!' you may well ask. River bugging was invented in New Zealand and basically involves strapping yourself into an inflatable armchair and throwing yourself down white-water rapids. The single-person craft makes the rider, or 'bugger' (we kid you not), look like a bug or insect, hence river 'bugging'. There are only around 20 places in Europe where you can go river bugging, and 12 of them are in Scotland!
• 2. Bushcraft and survival skillsThere's a little bit of Britain's favourite “born survivor” Bear Grylls in all of us. Try a bushcraft and survival skills course to bring him out of you. Bushcraft is the art of learning to live in the wilderness and feel at home within the natural world just like our ancestors. Firecraft, tracking, hunting and shelter building are just a few skills you'll learn; practices familiar to our ancestors and many aboriginal and native people around the world today.
• 3. Gorge walkingReady for an extreme river adventure great for families and kids too? Gorge walking gives a whole new meaning to a nice nature walk. Here, you'll walk along steep sided gorges following the course of the river by any means necessary. This can involve climbing beside waterfalls, sliding down rapids, floating down fast flowing chutes and clinging onto rock faces. Wales has some of the best natural formations for gorge walking in the world.
• 4. Canyoning & coasteeringCanyoning is the crazy big brother of gorge walking. Like gorge walking, you'll navigate you way along a river's course, but this is far more extreme involving heart-stopping jumps off steep gorges and high waterfalls. Coasteering is the saltwater cousin of canyoning. Instead of waterfalls, you'll work your way around the coastline by rock climbing, cliff jumping and swimming. Neither are for the faith hearted!
• 5. ZorbingZorbing is one of those things that makes you think, 'who the hell came up with that idea?', but in the same breath scream, 'I wanna have a go!'. It basically involves climbing inside a giant inflatable ball and being bounced, rolled and tumbled head-over-heels down a hill at speeds of up to 30mph. For zorbing in the South West see Zorb South, but there are places to Zorb all over Britain.
• 6. QuadbikingQuad bikes were originally used by farmers in difficult terrain, but it wasn't long before the speed freaks caught on. What's not to like about tearing through fields and woods, up and down steep ditches, through streams and across muddy bogs on a four-wheeled buggy capable of stomach-turning twists and jumps?! Forget a gentle bike ride through the countryside, spin, twist, skid and leap your way through the great outdoors.
• 7. Caving and potholingCaving takes you on a journey deep into Britain's underbelly, where you and your team guide each other through vast underground caves full of striking stalagmites and stalactites. Potholing takes this a step further and is a claustrophobe's nightmare. Here, you'll slide and wriggle through narrow tunnels, cross underground lakes and see sites that went undiscovered for thousands of years.
• 8. BlokartingAlso called land yachting, blokarting is like yachting, but in a kart on land instead of a boat on water. A blokart is essentially a long, thin, three-wheeled buggy with enough room for you to sit inside and a sail to accelerate and manoeuvre. The best place to blokart in Britain has got to be the beach and there are clubs based all around the coast.
• 9. SandboardingSandboarding is to sand what snowboarding is to snow. Now Britain might not have the best snowboarding conditions, but with over 10,000 miles of coastline lined with staggering sand dunes, we certainly have excellent year-round sandbording conditions. If you've never tried it before, it's best to search online for a course, but many experienced snowboarders just use an old snowboard and get going. You could even dig your old sledge out of the garage and try a bit of sand-sledging!
• 10. Power kitingAlso known as traction kiting, power kiting is nothing like flying a kite in the park. The power harnessed by specially designed power kites is enough to drag you along the ground and lift you into the air like you're jumping on the moon. You can use a power kite on its own, known as 'power jumping', or pair it up with a vehicle or board for a more extreme ride.

By www.MICHAELJACKSON50.com

Stunned passengers watch 'pilot punch-up'

Stunned Passengers Watch Pilots Slug It Out

• Two pilots have been grounded after they allegedly left their cockpit mid-flight to trade punches.
• Two pilots have been grounded after they allegedly left their cockpit mid-flight to trade punches with crew members in front of stunned passengers.
• Severe turbulence broke out on the Air India flight after an air hostess accused the men of sexual harassment.
• The 120 passengers watched as the pair left the jet controls to brawl in the aisle with the crew, the Times Of India reported.
• As the row escalated the pilots threatened to divert the jet to Pakistan.
• Air India said the two pilots had been de-rostered and an investigation has been been launched.
• Two crew members have also been suspended.
• A 24-year-old air hostess has filed a police complaint against one of the pilots for "outraging the modesty of a woman", the paper said.
• The woman is alleged to have been pushed out of the cockpit after she deflected the pilots' attentions.
• The air hostess sustained bruises and injuries on her hand, Joint Commissioner of Police (operations) Satyendera Garg said.
• There are several eyewitnesses and we are recording their statements.
• The brawl kicked off on the Airbus A-320 flight from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Delhi.
• But co-pilot Amit Khanna denied there had been a punch-up.
• There was no fight between us on the flight," he told the paper.

By www.MICHAELJACKSON50.com

MICHAEL JACKSON CHILDREN ARE COPING WELL

• MICHAEL JACKSON's three children are faring well since their grandmother KATHERINE took them into her care, according to a U.S. judge.
• The King Of Pop's beloved mother was granted permanent custody of Prince Michael, Paris and Prince Michael II in August (09), just weeks after Jackson died from a cardiac arrest.
• Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff announced at a hearing on Friday (02Oct09) that the children are happy under the court guardianship.
• Insisting he has no plans to set a further date for custody matters. Discussing a status report he received, Beckloff declared, "It was an excellent report" and that the kids are "really doing wonderfully with the grandmother as the guardian".
• Jackson's estate is paying Katherine $60,000 (£40,000) a month to care for the youngsters.

By http://www.michaeljackson50.com/