Another rejection. This one was about critical vulnerabilities in ELM and mplayer which I suspect will lead to the first widespread trojans for linux. Especially because mplayer is currently (2nd September) still vulnerable, and people use it to play movies from P2P networks.

So, for now, do not play untrusted movies with mplayer.

Story at: http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,104260,00.html

(Another rejected slashdot submission).

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Sunshine Project uncovered pentagon proposals for weapons to make the adversary gay or give him severe halitosis. The pentagon says they were part of a brainstorming session.

(Aside: in projects, the brainstorming technique is regarded as a valid way of coming up with new ideas. It is also notorious coming up with silly ideas, but that's the point - to consider all ideas without restricting them immediately).

The pentagon claims the ideas were discarded at the time. The Sunshine Project says that it is untrue that these ideas were discarded, and shows evidence that the ideas were pursued at least until 2000.

Perhaps the true origin of the JATO urban legend is this. A close copy of that text is also at wired. Is the tale true or false? I don't know. I would love it if the slashdot hive mind discussed and dissected it. Maybe it will happen some day, though I had it rejected as a story submission some time ago.

In any case, settle in for a good long read.