CIAO!

Someone named Budiman posted this article on DIGG:

Bank ATM’s Converted to Steal IDs of Bank Customers

A team of organized criminals are installing equipment on legitimate bank ATM’s in at least 2 regions to steal both the ATM card number and the PIN. The team sits nearby in a car receiving the information transmitted wirelessly over weekends and evenings from equipment they install on the front of the ATM (see photos). If you see an attachment like this, do not use the ATM and report it immediately to the bank using the phone on the front of the ATM.

The equipment used to capture your ATM card number and PIN are cleverly disguised to look like normal ATM equipment. A “skimmer” is mounted to the front of the normal ATM card slot that reads the ATM card number and transm its it to the criminals sitting in a nearby car.

At the same time, a wireless camera is disguised to look like a leaflet holder and is mounted in a position to view ATM PIN entries.

The thieves copy the cards and use the PIN numbers to withdraw thousands from many accounts in a very short time directly from the bank ATM.

I wonder why miracles like this don’t make it to the headlines. A 14-year-old girl named D’Zhana Simmons lived for 118 days without a heart. Since July, she’s had two heart transplants but with no heart between. During the 118 days, D’Zhana had kidney and liver failure and gastrointestinal bleeding.

In the past, this case could have been fatal because pediatric heart surgery wasn’t approved by the law then. What more, this miracle could not have happened.

If it is true that some filthy rich people started getting their hands implanted with the 666 chip last year, then that would suggest that Armageddon is really near (see pochp.wordpress.com). But those Christians who spread rumors that Obama is the Antichrist should hold their tongues and research instead.
Virginia Jackson of ‘Saturday Night Live’ fueled the rumor when she wrote that ‘Obama bears traits that resembles the Anti-Christ.’ Mat Staver, a dean of a law school was saner when he said he doesn’t believe that Obama is the Antichrist. Most bible scholars (Caucasians at that) agree that the Antichrist would come from Europe- not America. So ignorant Christians should watch what they say.

David Bain, a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Glasgow really had a go at David Lewis, a Princeton philosopher (because of his first name?). He cautions us to be wary of Lewis ‘who believed that for each of the ways things might have been but are not, there is a world at which they are that way, eg (sic) a world at which your counterpart is spending today with the world’s greatest sex god or goddess.’

Bain gave us ‘some pesky arguments’ to apply our minds to:

1 .Should we kill healthy people for their organs?
2. You are not the person who started reading this article.
3. Is that really a computer screen in front of you?
4. You did not freely and responsibly choose to read this article.

I will later comment on his elaborations on these when I have time. He quoted TS Eliot in conclusion:
‘…the end of our exploring, will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.’

Someone sent me this essay. I’ll post it here not to plagiarize but because I think the essay is very profound. I’m sorry but it was written in ‘taglish’ i.e Tagalog-English but it still remains great. I’ll include the author’s name later when I find out who. Just ignore the html script and roll down a little.

REFLECTIONS

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1950’s, 60’s and 70’s !!

First, some of ussurvived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us.

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, ate isaw, and didn’t worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads , sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na)

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711 ( minsan straight from the faucet or poso)

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contacted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, drank raw eggs straight from the shell,  and drank sofdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we weren’t sick or overweight kasi nga……

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso , habulan at taguan.

No one was able to reach us all day ( di uso ang cellphone , walang beepers ) . And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street , only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (seweage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD’s, no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters……. …WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo,,,,ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga !

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. we were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns ” gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan..pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.

We made up games with sticks ( syatong ), and cans ( tumbang preso )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay.paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala yang mga childhood depression at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tignan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO’s, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who’ve had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.

And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn’t it?!

PS - The big letters are because your eyes may not be able to read this if they were typed any smaller (at your age).

Concerning Yang’s stepping down as Yahoo CEO, I think Pyykkonen’s (of Wunderlich Securities) comment was the most realistic. He said, ‘Jerry was miscast in this CEO role as far as running Yahoo at this point’. But ‘because he’s stepping down doesn’t mean the company is going to magically be wonderful again.’
Yang’s euphemism was more intriguing: ‘All of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple’. He may be referring to his loyalty, or blood color?

A contact of mine sent me a FWD message about future buying and selling which the message claimed has started last year. It mentioned about a chip being embedded inside your hand. Anybody who wants to get the message may request it from me. It’s free.A contact of mine sent me a FWD message about future buying and selling which the message claimed has started last year. It mentioned about a chip being embedded inside your hand. Anybody who wants to get the message may request it from me. It’s free.

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