NASA’s Cassini probe has just done a very close fly-by of Saturn’s 6th largest moon, Enceladus.
The results of that are yet to be released, but The Atlantic has an amazing photo set of some of the stuff Cassini has spotted on its way over to the 504km diameter “snowball” moon.
There are some closer pics too, but they’re almost disappointing in comparison to the distant shots, with Saturn’s rings in the background. Still, go look at them all.
Overshare. No, I’m not (just) talking about the locker room conversations about the after-effects of your recent curry, I’m talking about the stuff people choose to post on their social media accounts.
People have amazing lives, don’t they? The happy happy joy joy stuff that gets shared on Facebook tells us so, be it yet another amazing dinner at that amazing restaurant, the amazing results of your amazing child at their amazing school, or the amazing trip to that amazing place that you’re about to take on that amazing plane. We’re all guilty of it to a greater or lesser extent.
But overshare can be dangerous – be it sharing pictures of your children (I think that this one is a bit dramatic, but that’s more down to the extrapolation by the author; the points within are valid) – or, as Brian Krebs told us recently – putting a photo of your boarding pass onto the internet. Because then people can find out loads about you, just by using the barcode and an online barcode reader like this one.
Besides his name, frequent flyer number and other [personally identifiable information], I was able to get his record locator (a.k.a. “record key” for the Lufthansa flight he was taking that day).
I then proceeded to Lufthansa’s website and using his last name (which was encoded in the barcode) and the record locator was able to get access to his entire account. Not only could I see this one flight, but I could see ANY future flights that were booked to his frequent flyer number from the Star Alliance.
The Star Alliance, by the way, is a group of 27 member airlines, offering mutually beneficial deals to passengers using their services. It has nothing to do with Darth Vadar. Yes, I was also disappointed.
No-one is going to be able to kidnap your children if you share your boarding pass, but with full access to your travel plans, they could easily change details of your flights, steal frequent flyer miles or work out when you are out of town. And together with that photo you shared of your amazing new 72″ TV, that last one could be valuable information.
The thing is, it’s rather unlikely that anyone would ever use this information against you. But without victim blaming, if they did, you should be fully aware that you could have stopped it happening by just not showing off about your amazing trip to New York.
Buzzfeed quizzes aren’t really my thing, but this one, spotted on Facebook (obvs) was quite fun. If you are a fan of football (or more specifically, if you were a fan of Premier League football in the late ’90s) you might enjoy it too:
What? I’m not helping you.
I managed full marks, but there were a couple that I had to close my eyes and hope for the best.
How’s your Scandinavian Liverpool Central Defender Knowledge from 18 years ago? Let me know.
We’ve seen Cape Weavers on this blog before. Here, to be exact. That one was at Houw Hoek Inn, where we had stopped off for some brunch. This one is rebuilding for Summer 2015/16 down in Suiderstrand:
This guy was a whole lot less photogenic, but he was a whole lot busier, having just started on his new-build, which will take him about a week to complete. And when you’re a male Cape Weaver, quality is everything. How else are you to attract one of your UP TO SEVEN mates, if you don’t show off your beautifully constructed nest?
“Back to mine then? For a… coffee?
Yeah. Built this all myself, love.
And if you like the kidney-shaped, fully waterproof structure made of woven broad strips of grass, you’re going to love the mood lighting I’ve put in.”
*Barry White starts to play*
I’d imagine that things happen pretty much like that, anyway.
This one is just up the road from us (in fact, many of those woven broad strips of grass came from my back garden), so I’ll let you know how he gets on this season.
Yeah. It’s a British warship, but it’s named after a place on *that side* of the Pennines. Still, it was deemed worthy of a 21-gun salute from Signal Hill this morning (thus alarming thousands of unaware Capetonians who thought we were under attack and prompting a flurry of hits on this old post), and it might also be something you want to go and see on the public holiday and pseudo long weekend.
Hey. Great news. You can.
The ship will be open to the public on Heritage Day, 24 September. This will enable members of the public to board and view the ship. Visitors will be able to tour the upper deck, view the impressive weapon systems and see the new Wildcat Helicopter and her aircrew.
As with all these opportunities, you should probably expect long queues, but if you can get on board, you should probably expect quite a tour as well. Details are on that link above.