Wires Crossed #50 – September 2

Hackers Target Hollywood
An alleged offshoot of notorious hacking ‘group’ Anonymous is going after Hollywood celebrities by hacking into their Twitter accounts. While the old star-making adage ‘any publicity is good publicity’ might be true for some, we’re sure that wannabe rapper Kreayshawn might not think so as the hackers allegedly distributed nude photos of her around the net. We’re not too sure why they are going after celebs – maybe they’re trying to create a buzz of their own?

Friending On Facebook Could Cost You Time
Is there even one smidgeon of civilised society that isn’t tainted by the monolith that is social networking? Now even jury pools can be tainted. Looks like 22-year-old Jonathan Hudson, who was sitting on a Texas jury, had the hots for the defendant in the case so decided to friend her on Facebook. The young lady didn’t take kindly to be picked up while her life was being put through the shredder, so she reported him to authorities. The judge gave him a couple of days community service for tainting the jury pool, and was kicked off the jury. However, we love his excuse for trying to friend her – “I thought she was somebody else”. Sure you did, pal. Have fun picking up rubbish on the highway.

Cop Loses Job Over MySpace Remarks
Once it stays on the net, it’s there forever, a lesson Albuquerque police officer Pete Dwyer is now finding out. He posted a couple of allegedly objectionable comments on his MySpace account, which his boss took issue with and so he was summarily sacked. There are a couple of issues here. When does your personal life cross over into your working life in regards to social media? Dwyer was in no way depicted or seen to be representing his police department. However, should a police officer be held to a higher standard than others as his boss claimed? As you would expect, being an American story, Dwyer is suing for his job back.

Allen Puts Island On The Market
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is putting his island up for a sale. The asking price? A cool $13.5 million, which is a cut-rate price considering the technology mogul was asking $25 million for it six years ago. There’s not much to the 292 stretch of land, other than a log cabin and an airstrip. It begs the question why is he selling. Are billionaires also struggling in the current economic climate? Let’s not forget that most rich listers’ wealth is tied up in assets and stocks, not cold, hard cash. Then again, maybe he just wants some play money.

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