The term 420, four-twenty, started cropping up on mailing lists, blogs and in classroom discussions with regularity a few days ago. Much as every year in recent memory.
Paul Goyette reminded me of this annual discussion. For those of you who are afraid to ask (some time ago it took me a few years to figure it out) Snopes has the story though perhaps one of those San Rafael kids had read some Lovecraft while enjoying a bit of Acapulco Gold.
I am often annoyed by the stretched attemps of journalists and their editors (and your current host) to tempt readers with stupid puns, alliterations and the like. For some reason, yet to be explored, this does not bother me so much when bloggers are the perps.
I am doubly annoyed when they lie at the same time. Today C/net published an article with this headline:
‘Phishing’ scams luring more users
I have a few samples of Phishing scam emails locked away in a folder and, yes, the headline lured me to the article to see if there was new info. Especially the bit about the apparent growing success of these scams.
But it turns out they have no clue. Here is the meat:
…said Monday that in September 2003 the company encountered just 279 phishing e-mails. In January 2004, this figure reached 337,050 and then dropped back to 215,643 by March. The company said it is impossible to estimate exactly how many people have been fooled by the phishers.
You read it right. The rate is down and there is nothing to substantiate the headline’s allegation that these scams “‘are luring more users.” Argggghhhh….
All this aside you might want to make antiphishing.org a regular stop for the latest scam updates.
Jaquandor is back and already in fine form.
However, if you are hung over or in an altered state of consciousness you may not want to visit this site which presents some challenging species mixing.
Oh, and Jaquandor and Aaron may not know that, while Britney can not hold a candle her, Salma is not the top rated Hayek in some circles.
Unplugged and out of touch.
4+ days with no net access and while newspapers were available I let them be grist for others.
By the third day unconnected seemed normal and the withdrawal symptoms were relatively mild.
But, just to show that withdrawal was not complete, when I saw this guy:
I couldn’t help but think of PZ Myers.
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Regular posting should slowly return to normal, whatever that is, over the weekend.
The Modulator staff will be vacationing most of this week.
Both connectivity and writing time will be limited so expect a slow posting week.