Water Quality Crisis In United States Lake Region
In the impoverished United States province of Michigan, the post industrial hell hole commonly referred to as "Flint" is going through a water quality crisis. Dangerous levels of lead, iron, and other metals had been detected in Flint's municipal for months, and now there are concerns that Flint's water problems are contributing to an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease (archived). Outbreaks of disease caused by Legionella bacteria have been increasing across the United State with deteriorating healthcare facilities most frequently being affected. The Flint outbreak is exceptional in the size geographic area apparently being affected. Travellers to the United States would be prudent to avoid drinking tap water that has not been further purified at the point of consumption. Much of Michigan is surrounded by the Earth's largest system of freshwater lakes.
OpenSSH Client Bug Leaks Memory Contents
A newly revealed bug in the OpenSSH client from versions 5.4 through 7.1 allows memory contents to be read by malicious servers (archived). The vulnerability exists in code that allows "roaming" which was added to the OpenSSH client but not the OpenSSH server. Patches which remove the roaming code from the OpenSSH client are available.
Coindesk Acquired By Silbert Group
Today Coindesk announced their acquisition by Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group (archived). Silbert's group was reportedly an early investor in that website. They further announced with the acquisition a May conference in the capital of anti-Bitcoin activity.
Mining Difficulty Already Up 9.12% This Year
While pundits seek alpha amid omega, fiat flows on towards its only good use: subsidizing Bitcoin mining. The new difficulty of 113,354,299,801.4711`3037 (a 9.12% increase over the 2015 close) pushes hashpower estimates over 850 PH/s, placing what nobody could've predicted merely 17.6% away (readily attainable in a single leap, should miners quit dicking about and resume their one fucking job).
Ulbricht Appellate Brief Filed
Ross Ulbricht's attorneys have filed their appellate brief. Full text below or pdf here. Continue reading
In Memoriam
Two US Navy Boats And Ten Sailors In Iranian Custody
Iran has reportedly taken custody of two small United States Navy boats and the ten sailors accompanying them in an Iranian controlled portion of the Persian Gulf (archived). Representatives of Iran and the United States are reportedly negotiating a resolution to this situation.
Europol Claims DD4BC Action
Europol is claiming one arrest and several other detentions in relation to the long running DD4BC group (archived). DD4BC began their career by utilizing denial of service extortion attacks against various Bitcoin properties before moving on to extort various fiat interests in the last year.