The Latest from Boing Boing

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• NYT vs. Huffington
• Supernatural hi-jinx in india
• Husband plays funny fake news prank on his wife
• Jesus (Cheese-us?) appears in a three-cheese pizza
• Artist Ron English's April Fool's sign at US-Mexico border
• NASA cybersecurity report: ISS, Hubble, Shuttle vulnerable when hackers penetrated NASA network
• Giant pumps airlifted on Giant Planes to help with Giant Japan Nuke Crisis. Bonus: They're "Putzmeisters"
• Legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan is retiring
• Japan: Fukushima reactor pit leaking radioactive water directly into the sea
• Israeli weapons in Libya? Andy Carvin and his Twitter followers debunk sloppy reporting, tweet by tweet

NYT vs. Huffington Posted: 02 Apr 2011 08:47 PM PDT In the week that the NYT ran an amusingly hostile "interview" with Arianna Huffington, Felix Salmon charts how the newspaper assiduously avoided crediting her website for a scoop one of its paid reporters turned up. [Reuters] P.S. Did you know the NYT somehow managed to spend $40m building its paywall? How about that.

Supernatural hi-jinx in india Posted: 02 Apr 2011 05:00 PM PDT [Video Link] It's not often that you get to see a coconut possessed by an evil spirit. Keep watching for the terrific surprise ending.

Husband plays funny fake news prank on his wife Posted: 02 Apr 2011 10:48 AM PDT Pete says: I know my wife has this "AP Mobile" news app on her phone and receives text message alerts whenever something big is happening around the world, I decided to play a little prank on her. This morning I changed my name in her contact list to "AP Mobile" and sent her a short and sweet message and waited for her to turn her phone on. Her mouth almost came down to the floor.

Jesus (Cheese-us?) appears in a three-cheese pizza Posted: 02 Apr 2011 10:18 AM PDT From Australia: "In a purported "miracle'', the face of Jesus Christ has appeared on a three-cheese pizza made at Posh Pizza in New Farm, Brisbane. Posh Pizza's Maree Phelan said her pizza oven was seemingly blessed with the presence of Jesus Christ, who chose a three cheese pizza as his medium." (Thanks, Oxblood)

Artist Ron English's April Fool's sign at US-Mexico border Posted: 02 Apr 2011 10:05 AM PDT Artist Ron English went to the US-Mexico border for April Fool's day and pulled a few pranks. The above sign is one of them. Unfortunately this piece of sociopolitical satire is going to backfire because the Tea Party will find out about it and demand that it be permanently installed at every border crossing. Artist Ron English's April Fool's sign at US-Mexico border

NASA cybersecurity report: ISS, Hubble, Shuttle vulnerable when hackers penetrated NASA network Posted: 02 Apr 2011 10:07 AM PDT The office of NASA's Inspector General released a report this week titled "Inadequate Security Practices Expose Key NASA Network to Cyberattack," which details pretty much what it says on the tin: the International Space Station, the Hubble telescope, the space shuttle, and other key assets were made vulnerable back in 2009 when hackers penetrated the NASA computer network that controls them. The vulnerabilities have since been addressed, but NASA still lacks a recommended cybersecurity oversight progam to reduce future risks. From a related story in the Huntsville Times: Also in 2009, hackers stole 22 gigabytes of export-controlled data from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and opened links between the NASA network and 3,000 foreign IP addresses. NASA has closed the worst holes in its system, according to the audit released Monday, but other risks will remain until NASA establishes IT safeguards for the entire agency. NASA says it will do that by the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. NASA said in a statement Tuesday that its chief information officer will work with NASA centers, including Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center, to make sure computers are secure. And more about the past intrusions, directly from the NASA Inspector General's report: We found that computer servers on NASA's Agency-wide mission network had high-risk vulnerabilities that were exploitable from the Internet. Specifically, six computer servers associated with IT assets that control spacecraft and contain critical data had vulnerabilities that would allow a remote attacker to take control of or render them unavailable. Moreover, once inside the Agency-wide mission network, the attacker could use the compromised computers to exploit other weaknesses we identified, a situation that could severely degrade or cripple NASA's operations. We also found network servers that revealed encryption keys, encrypted passwords, and user account information to potential attackers. These data are sensitive and provide attackers additional ways to gain unauthorized access to NASA networks. These deficiencies occurred because NASA hadnot fully assessed and mitigated risks to its Agency-wide mission network and was slow to assign responsibility for IT security oversight to ensure the network was adequately protected. In a May 2010 audit report, we recommended that NASA immediately establish an IT security oversight program for this key network. However, even though the Agency concurred with the recommendation it remained unimplemented as of February 2011. Direct link to the Inspector General's cybersecurity audit here. (thanks, Miles O'Brien)

Giant pumps airlifted on Giant Planes to help with Giant Japan Nuke Crisis. Bonus: They're "Putzmeisters" Posted: 02 Apr 2011 10:33 AM PDT The AP reports that two gigantic concrete pumps, the largest equipment of this type in the world, will be air-lifted to Japan to help pour water on damaged reactors at Fukushima. The machines are designed to spray concrete for new skyscrapers, bridges and similarly large-scale construction projects, but they're being modified to spray water for this use. "But if a decision is made to encase a reactor in concrete -- similar to a method used in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster -- the machines would be capable of doing that as well," explained an executive from the company that made them. They'll be carried over on an Antonov 225, the world's heaviest aircraft. The company, and the devices: "Putzmeister." Yes, that's right. Giant, phallic-shaped pumps that spew liquid all over hot cores. They're huge. They're PUTZMEISTERS. Read the full story here. (via Paul Saffo) Update: So, one of Putzmeister's biggest competitors is a company called SCHWING (thanks, V). Did Austin Powers write this script or what, people?

Legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan is retiring Posted: 02 Apr 2011 09:29 AM PDT Aerospace legend Burt Rutan, whose aviation design career includes numerous firsts in flight—Voyager and SpaceShipOne are but two— is retiring. The be-sideburned engineer, 67, will be moving to Idaho with his wife. (LA Times)

Japan: Fukushima reactor pit leaking radioactive water directly into the sea Posted: 02 Apr 2011 09:24 AM PDT "Highly radioactive water is leaking directly into the sea from a damaged pit near a crippled reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant." (NYT, via NYTJim)

Israeli weapons in Libya? Andy Carvin and his Twitter followers debunk sloppy reporting, tweet by tweet Posted: 02 Apr 2011 09:20 AM PDT NPR's Andy Carvin has become the go-to-guy on Twitter for evolving, conversational, investigative reporting on breaking news in the mideast—140 characters at a time. He has published a fascinating item on storify about the process of digging into reports from various news organizations claiming evidence of Israeli munitions being used in Libya. "My Twitter followers and I investigated the claims and ultimately debunked them," says Andy. "Here's the story of how we did it and the evidence we found along the way." Andy writes that it all started with this photograph posted on the Facebook page for Al Manara, a popular Libyan expat news service based in the UK. Headlined "Israeli industry against the Libyan people," the photo shows what some type of mortar shell with what appears to be a Star Of David on it, as well as some form of crescent-like symbol. Al Manara assumed the Star Of David meant it was manufactured by Israel, and claimed as such in the headline. "Israeli weapons In Libya? How @acarvin and his Twitter followers debunked sloppy journalism" (storify)

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