The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) blog was one of many websites hacked by Anonymous. MmMMMM
The Israeli government has become a victim of cyber-warfare attacks since Operation Pillar of Defense began four days ago. On Saturday, hacktivist group Anonymous launched a massive attack on over 700 Israeli websites.
The country’s finance minister has acknowledged the recent wave of attacks, saying the government is now waging a war on a “second front.”
Over the past four days, Israel has “deflected 44 million cyber-attacks on government websites,” Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told AP.
Steinitz said the government has come up with a backup for “essential websites,” should they be taken down by hackers.
“This is an unprecedented attack, and our success has been greater than we anticipated,”he said.
He did not say who was responsible for the hacking attempts. He also declined to disclose which countries the attacks were coming from.
His comments come just one day after hacktivist group Anonymous launched a massive attack on almost 700 Israeli websites, calling the campaign #OpIsrael.
The group took down the Israeli president’s official website and the blog of the country’s Defense Force, www.idfblog.com. The collective posted the news on Twitter using their infamous #TANGO DOWN hashtag. The blog is still down.
Screenshot from idfblog.com
It also attacked the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s international development program, in a protest against an alleged Israeli threat to cut the Gaza Strip’s internet connections.
DESERT HOT SPRINGS, CA – The 2012 Desert Hot Springs Holiday Parade entry forms and packet are now available and this year’s parade committee has made it really easy for everyone to participate.
“We are looking forward to a really nice event,” said Joe McKee, this year’s parade chairman. “The committee has been working hard and all that’s left is for people to show up for a really good time.”
McKee said the committee has already signed up marching bands, car clubs, community groups and residents planning to enter floats.
“If you ever wanted to be in a parade, it could not be easier,” said McKee. “Sign up sheets are at the Visitor Center. There is a small fee for businesses that want to enter but for just about everyone else there is no charge to enter.”
This year’s parade marks the 25th anniversary of the Desert Hot Springs Parade and the return of the parade to the city after a four year break. The parade route follows Desert Hot Springs holiday tradition with a march down Palm Drive.
Making this years parade possible are several corporate and other sponsors, including Desert Valley Disposal, Wintec, Mission Springs Water District and Miracle Springs Resort & Spa.
The parade will start at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 15 and will travel Palm Drive from Desert View Avenue to Two Bunch Palms Trail and ending in the Kmart center.
‘It has been a lot of work to make this parade possible and with so many people volunteering to help it is hard to mention them all,” said McKee. “I really look forward to see the parade floats I hear are in the works.”
If you would like to be in the parade, there is still plenty of time to decorate you golf cart or pick up, turn your garden trailer into a float or polish up your classic car. The last day to register is December 12 so there is still plenty of time.
But, the 2012 Holiday Parade will be limited to the first 100 entries and McKee recommends registering early to insure a place in the parade. The deadline to register for the Christmas Parade is Monday, November 26.
For additional information about the Holiday Parade, please call 760 671-4063 and leave a message or visit www.deserthotsprings.mobi/
Council-members Russ Betts and Adam Sanchez Thanksgiving 2012
Desert Hot Springs, CA.- While the economy is showing some signs of improvement, there are still many families in Desert Hot Springs struggling to make ends meet. The holidays add extra pressure to already strained family budgets. To help ease the holiday pressure, Council Members Russell Betts and Adam Sanchez have arranged to supply 250 turkeys to Desert Hot Springs residents.
“We hope this will help take some of the financial pressure off families in our city that are struggling this Holiday Season,” said Betts. “I certainly want thank John Nielsen of Dillon Road House for helping make this possible. He is obviously a friend of this city.”
As a business owner in Desert Hot Springs, Nielsen is aware of the tough times residents of Desert Hot Springs are going through. When contacted by Betts and Sanchez to see if he would be willing to help, he agreed.
“John saw the need and immediately said yes,” said Sanchez. “This is no small gesture. It is really nice to see a business owner care so much about our city and to know 250 families in our city will not be without a turkey for Thanksgiving.”
The Turkeys will be passed out at Dillon Road House, 64647 Dillon Road, Desert Hot Springs (on Dillon Road just west of Little Morongo Road) at the following dates and times:
Photo: Top left to right: Ben Reece, Tom Warrick,Terry Huber,Bottom left to right: Tom Orr, Scott Driscoll.(not shown Ryan Dominguez)
Rancho Mirage, CA – Desert Rose Productions, Inc., the Coachella Valley’s live LGBT and gay-friendly stage company,has extended its run of the hit parody musical revue“Dirty Little Showtunes!”to December 29, 2012.The show opened on July 21at The Commissary in Rancho Mirage, CA. For this final month of the run, the revue will bepartially revised to feature holiday themes, new cast member Scott Driscoll, and signatureparody creations written and performed by lyricist and cast member Tom Orr.
“Dirty Little Showtunes!” is the very popularmusical revue that marries Broadway’s greatest melodies with the lyrics of matchless parodist Tom Orr for a rollicking look at gay life and love.Audiences and critics have supported the production for anunprecedented 18-week run. With the new closing date, Dirty Little Showtunes!will be performed for a total of 24 weeks – a benchmark for a local non-profit theatre production!
Jim Strait, Artistic Director of Desert Rose Productions, says, “We are all so proud of this delightful production and of the support we have received from the community, from visitors to the Valley, and from members of the press. Dirty Little Showtunes! is a labor of love for our company. The fact that we are able to perform this show for nearly six months as the debut production for Desert Rose Productions is nothing short of astounding! Many thanks to our performers and our production team for their dedication and boundless talent, and to our audiences whose raucous laughter and heart-felt applause make every performance a joyous occasion! Come see us for the holidays!”
Performances are Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 PM with Sunday matinees at 2 PM.
An exceptionally rare deep blue diamond has sold at Sotheby’s auction for US$10.86 million, three times the reserve. The price has set a world record for a blue diamond per carat.
Blue-chip luxury jeweler Laurence Graff has purchased the fancy deep blue briolette diamond weighing 10.48 carats, described as “an extraordinary stone, a very, very mystical deep blue.”
Passions ran high in the auction room, as a number of collectors were keen to get hold of the blue diamond, which had been estimated to fetch 3.2 million to 4.2 million francs.
Earlier this week rival Christie’s auction house set another record when it sold a 76-carat Archduke Joseph Diamond for nearly $21.5 million in Geneva, a world record auction price per carat for a colorless diamond.
The rock reportedly came from the ancient Golconda mines in India. Named after Archduke Joseph August of Austria, the great-grandson of a Holy Roman emperor and a French king, the diamond passed to his son, Archduke Joseph Francis, who put it in a bank vault, then to an anonymous buyer who kept it in a safe during WWII. In 1993, Christie’s sold it for $6.5 million.
“It’s a great price for a stone of this quality,” Alfredo J. Molina, chairman of California-based jeweler Black, Starr & Frost, told AP about the latest sale results.
“It’s one of a kind, so it’s like saying ‘Are you pleased when you sell the Mona Lisa?’ Or ‘Are you pleased when you sell the Hope Diamond?’ It’s all what the market will bear, and the stone sold for a very serious price,” he added.
President Obama wasn’t the only big winner on Tuesday: the Monsanto Co. and the billion-dollar business behind genetically modified foods were victorious in California, where a measure that would’ve required the labeling of GMOs lost at the polls.
Proposition 37, a state-wide initiative that aimed to increase consumer awareness about the food industry’s growing use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), was defeated by a margin of 53 to 47 percent, with nearly all of the polls accounted for Wednesday morning.
Had Prop 37 been approved, foods containing GMOs would have been mandated to make the fact clear on the product’s label. If passed, the law would’ve meant most processed foods would be forced to include notes to consumers that they were “partially produced with genetic engineering” or “may be partially produced with genetic engineering” by 2014. Additionally, the words “genetically engineered” would be required to appear on packaging as well.
The Missouri-based Monsanto Company, an international leader in agricultural biotechnology and a proponent of GMO use, dumped millions of dollars into a campaign that opposed the ballot measure — a maneuver that many are saying was singlehandedly responsible for swinging the vote.
“Vote No,” a campaign waged against the proposition, was funded with at least $45 million worth of contributions from some of the biggest businesses in the industry that feared mandatory labeling would have cast a dark cloud over their products, pushing consumers away from purchasing items that have to identify GMO use. Although much research has found no conclusive proof that GMOs are directly hazardous to the health of humans, the relatively immature technology has attracted a fair share of skepticism by activists, scientists and agricultural experts who fear not enough testing has been done to show how safe those products are. Despite a grassroots effort from those behind Prop 37 to push for public awareness, supporters failed to compete with the grossly funded “Vote No” campaign, coming up with only $8 million they managed to garner in backing.
The “Vote No” campaign’s biggest supporter was Monsanto, who threw more than $8 million themselves into efforts to defeat the measure. Dupont, Pepsico, Bayer, Dow and Syngenta were also big funders of the opposition, each contributing at least $2 million apiece.
Just weeks before Election Day, support for Prop 37 was tremendous, receiving favor from around 66.9 percent of likely-voters as of a September 27 poll conducted by California Business Roundtable/Pepperdine University. In the days since those results were published, though, “Vote No” launched a pricey advertisement blitz, blanketing airwaves across the state with calls to shun the measure.
“Desperate times have apparently caused them to resort to desperate measures,” Kathy Fairbanks, a spokeswoman for the No on 37 campaign, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel earlier this month. Elsewhere in the press, she said the proposition’s forced labeling was“anti-science” that would spur millions of dollars in lawsuit and problems for the consumer over allegedly inflated retail prices expected to occur if it passed.
Those favoring the bill said it wasn’t a matter of arguing with science, but more of fighting for safety.
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