How many Powerball's would you have to win to be as rich as Bill Gates? How about the Koch Bros? Or Zuckerberg? A Lot!

The lottery has been called a "tax on stupid people" by Brian from Family Guy and "regressive" by economists, raise pinky thusly!


We all know the odds are virtually nil. We all know that the State keeps such a huge percentage of the ticket sales, that it would actually be illegal for the House to do the same in a Las Vegas casino (Nevada is one of the few States where Powerball is not sold).

You may have even heard that in October, the participant States decided to change the Powerball odds from an astronomically high 1 in 175 million, to an unthinkable 1 in 292 million. Ironically, this change was made to INCREASE ticket sales by creating higher jackpots... are you feeling like a sucker yet?

If all that was not enough; The State lotteries are run by an Italian conglomerate; which screams "honest"... seriously, most US State lotteries, including the Powerball are run by an Italian company called Lottomatica. What could possibly go wrong?

Despite all these pesky "facts" that would lead any reasonable person to conclude that the Powerball is a suckers bet at best, you probably ran out to buy a ticket last week for the 900 million USD jackpot, and are running out again for the 1.3 billion USD jackpot this week. Heck, even I did! After all, as the commercials go; "you can't win if you don't play!"

It is worth remembering, however, that although these jackpots have caused America to lose its collective s@#t... it is merely chump change for captains of world industry. Feel like a Serf yet? I guess Brian Griffin had it right!

Here is how many record-breaking winning Powerball tickets you would have to get to equal the wealth of the worlds richest people:

Bill Gates........................................133
Carlos Slim Helu............................128
Warren Buffett................................120
Larry Ellison....................................90
Charles & David Koch....................143
Christy, Jim & Alice Walton...........198
Jeff Bezos (Amazon).......................76
Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)..........60
Larry & Sergey (Google).................100

Before you jump to any conclusions on the numbers, perhaps thinking this might be another Powerball Meme-gate. Here is how the math was done. The Powerball is currently 1.3 billion. If you take the lump sum amount, as any sane person would do with the recent spat of States issuing IOU's to lottery winners, your prize is reduced by 38 percent. A further 25 percent is AUTOMATICALLY withheld for taxes for all winners who are US Citizens. Wink, Wink, if you win, be sure and apply for citizenship to any country for which you may be eligible! State taxes, which vary, would also be withheld...

This brings the grand total take-home for a $1.3 billion jackpot to approximately $599 million.

That brings me to... wait, what time is it...crap! I have to run and get a few more tickets before the grocery closes... Lady luck has to be on my side... this time!

Palmyra arch from Syrian heritage site to be recreated in London's Trafalgar Square

Source: BBC

A monument from a temple in the ancient city of Palmyra destroyed by so-called Islamic State (IS) is to be recreated in London's Trafalgar Square.

The 2,000-year-old arch is all that remains of the Temple of Bel, part of the Syrian Unesco World Heritage site, captured by militants in May.

It will be recreated from photographs, using a 3D printer.

The institute behind the project hopes the arch will draw attention to the importance of cultural heritage.

IS militants have ransacked and demolished several similar ancient sites to Palmyra that pre-date Islam in Iraq, denouncing them as symbols of "idolatry". 

Read the full article here.

Don't worry about strong passwords, the bad guys already have your info!

By now, I am sure that you have seen an endless stream of click-bait-y articles roll across your social stream trumpeting the benefits of "strong" passwords. These articles have no-doubt given you all sorts of tips for creating a password that will keep the bad guys out, including:

-Using a combination of letters, symbols and numbers.

-Adding random words and phrases.

-Changing the "O's" to zeros and the "E's" to threes.

These articles would have also suggested that not using a "strong" password is akin to rolling out the red carpet for bad guys in China, Russia and the Middle East; begging for them to waltz into your personal trove of LOL's, WTF's, naughty selfies, and if they have time left, your bank account.

Your friends have probably told you how great their passwords are. Making you feel guilty for the obligatory "abc123" and "password" passwords you use on everything except Facebook. Some of them have even subscribed to complex password managers with 2-step authentication in an effort to sleep better at night, with the thought that their inbox is surrounded by a virtual Great Wall! Even Edward Snowden got in on the action, with a little prodding from John Oliver's producers; suggesting that everyone think of "passphrases" instead of "passwords".

Well, I hate to break it to you, but all of that was for naught. You probably already gave your password to the hackers!

The purpose of having an indecipherable password or passphrase is to thwart "brute force" attacks. In a brute force attack, the hacker uses a piece of software to cycle through millions of combinations of passwords until they land on yours. The problem is, this exploit is virtually obsolete, and is very seldom used by anyone other than jealous wives and husbands trying to figure out why their spouse is spending so many late hours at the office, when there are perfectly good chores to be done at home.

Have you ever mistyped a password, and had the system tell you that you had 3 tries left before you had to wait? That dialog is in place to prevent brute force attacks, if the bad guy has to wait; or more specifically, there computer has to wait; for even a second between password attempts, brute forcing is no longer possible.

Virtually all password breaches today are done using 3 methods:

-Phishing

-Social Engineering

-Server side data dumps

"Phishing" is where an attacker sends bulk messages to thousands or even millions of people claiming to be a company that you have an account with, such as; Paypal, Bank of America, or even GULP, Facebook. These emails usually implore you to "sign in" or "verify" your account. When you do, BAM, they got your password, and just like Nick Cage, your money is gone in 60 seconds!

"Social Engineering" is similar to phishing; but is more of a one-on-one con. Someone may call you, or more likely your grandma, saying that the IRS is going to send them to jail unless they pay their back taxes. In these attacks the bad guys are usually looking for cash on the spot as apposed to account access.

The third and most dangerous attack happens on the other side of the wires. When you think about it, why would a hacker spend time and money to get into your account; which may only have a hundred buck's and a few risqué photos from the boudoir; when they could spend that effort to crack into BofA or Ashley Madison and get your info, as well as the info of everyone you have ever met. While the occasional story may surface about data breaches at banks, it is worth noting that they are under no obligation to tell anyone if there is a breach, and are actually incentivized to keep them a secret to avoid collateral damage. I am sure that Target would have preferred to keep their breach a secret, instead of coughing up $67 Million. Hell, the New York Stock Exchange has still not said a word about the attack that knocked the exchange offline for half-a-day in 2015.

Let us not forget about the biggest story of Christmas, 2014... the Sony hack. I am sure all those employees were sleeping sound at night, knowing that their herculean passwords were protecting everything... while a 100 terabytes of data were being vacuumed up!

Oy Vey, what to do? Avoid the internet? Pay bills in cash? Stop Sexting? Never!

For starters; change the "recovery questions" on your accounts. These are the weakest link for someone who really, really wants YOUR info. A person only needed the knowledge of Sarah Palins birthdate, zip code and where she met her husband to gain entry to her email account. Change these questions to something only you would know... if it asks for "name of pet" answer with "mount rainier".

Second; make absolutely sure you enable a pin lock on your phone. If you lose your phone, a bad guy would simply need to select "reset password" for all of your accounts. Since the reset notices get sent via text message or email to accounts that your phone automatically receives, the perp can get your stuff... and lock you out!

Third; and most importantly! Never, Never, Never click on a link in an email you were not expecting. I understand that switching back and forth between browser tabs can become tedious, even maddening... but you can carry your head high knowing that you never handed over the goods to the bad guys!

But in the end, just sit-back, relax and don't sweat it... and change your password every now and then!

What To Know About 'The Revenant' Before You See The Movie

The Story of Hugh Glass and those of many other figures from the fur trapping era are so inundated with legend that sometimes it's hard to tell truth from fiction. Michael Punke discusses this in the historical note at the back of the novel, which surely makes Leonardo DiCaprio's job of portraying a once-living figure a little easier. But as for how the book relates to the film, which may win DiCaprio the credit he deserves as an actor, there are some changes. There are features that may or may not be left out which define the spirit of the story and the period in which it is set.

Written in 2002, The story follows the gruesome experience of Hugh Glass, Jim Bridger, and others who went west before everybody else with the disappointing illusion that they would live the lives of rich men. On one such excursion, Glass, the central character, is mauled by a bear along the Grand River. After weeks on the precipice of life and death, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company leader, Andrew Henry, decides it's time to stop dragging the mortally wounded frontiersman across the plains. This leads is the start of Glass's journey towards survival and ultimate revenge.

As Hugh slips intermittently between the real world and a terrifying subconscious, John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger (yes, the famous mountain man) are left to wait for him to die in order to give him a proper burial. This doesn't happen.

Glass's most prized possession in life is his Anstadt Rifle, a piece of fine craftsmanship and deadly function. As a prisoner of the pirate Jean Lafitte in his seafaring days, Glass escaped the destruction of Campeche with one thing. his rifle. Taking to a life on the American plains, the weapon is as precious as a child. So when the rifle goes missing, Hugh Glass drags himself from the stupor of near death and drags himself hundreds of miles to find and punish the men who left him to die. He begins his journey by crawling.

Now, if you start this book, go into it knowing that you will cringe. You might even have a few hunger pains as Glass struggles to feed himself in his injured state. But press forward bravely knowing that there is probably a Chipotle just down the street from where you live. Also know that the film, although yet to be released, is already shaping up to be quite different from the film. Glass doesn't lose a rifle to John Fitzgerald, but a son. Because only a book could make rifle seem important enough to pursue slow, painful vigilante justice over.

The Revenant is a story that traverses the plains over the course of nearly a year. Glass experiences injury, starvation, frigid cold, and hostile Indians. This was the daily struggle for frontiersmen in the first half of the 19th century and it's presented in a way that makes the reader feel the passion and despair of the men who made their living in the unknown.

But the desperation of frontier life isn't the only thing I hope the filmmakers can communicate to the audience on screen. A major part of the novel expresses the wanderlust that drove men from their hometowns, inspired by the parts of the map marked Terra Incognita and the journey of Lewis and Clark. That is why the Western genre persists in our culture. Because these men had the opportunity to explore at a time when there were still places on Earth readily explored. It's a fantasy. A cultural wet-dream that is more than just violence and machismo.

The Revenant is in theaters December 25th.

Pictured: Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass

Google Sure Likes Seinfeld... If Only Jerry, Elain, George and Kramer Had Cell Phones!

It would appear that Seinfeld is still a popular program in Silicon Valley. Either that or Eric Schmidt is trying to make use of his new DVD box set. The ad takes a scene from the "wallet" episode of Seinfeld... you remember; the one where George stuffs his wallet so full that it ruins his back and eventually implodes; and modifies it to appear that the protagonist is pulling a tab from a flyer for Google Wallet.

For me, one of the most interesting points of this new advertisement is the post processing that was done. The colors are vibrant, the video is sharp, the audio is crisp and its 16:9... all this from a TV show that ran in the good old days of 480 60i. How could that be? As it turns out, Seinfeld was actually shot on 35mm film, yeah it was a big budget production, although only in 1.33 aspect ratio, the same shape as an analog TV! So the Google Wallet commercial must have been pulled from an HD film scan, then cropped.

Hungarian Census Commercial... they really want to know how many residents are in the dwelling!!

Do not be fooled by the somewhat racy youtube thumbnail... this video is in-fact a nationally televised, government sponsored advertisement. Nationally televised in the nation of Hungary, of course! I seem to remember the ads here in the good 'ol US of A having a slew of average looking, middle-aged, middle-class suburbanites chanting about how it only takes 5-minuets to fill out... While on the other side of the world, there tagline is, send in the census form, or we might catch you being naughty!

Zoom H1 Video Review

Check out this video review of the Zoom H1 Audio Recorder.

For $100 it is most certainly the best deal running in the handheld audio world. Sure it may not have XLR inputs, and 4-channels, like its big brother the H4N; but hey, it will only set you back a Benjamin!

I will let the video speak for itself, but long story short... its a buy!