Everyone getting jittery about technology in wrong hands

Television anchors introducing a news clip will often say, “The following report contains flash photography.” It is a warning to people suffering from epilepsy who may succumb to seizures on exposure to flashing or flickering lights.

It was probably only a matter of time, but now somebody has deliberately used the technique to produce just such an effect in a specific person.

John Rayne Rivello, 29, of Maryland, United States, had issues with Kurt Eichenwald, a writer for Newsweek magazine, who is epileptic. He sent Eichenwald an animated image with a flashing light on Twitter. “You deserve a seizure for your posts,” he wrote. Eichenwald did suffer a seizure, police said.

In posts to other Twitter users, Rivello said: “I hope this sends him into a seizure,” and, “Spammed this at Eichenwald, let’s see if he dies.”

A lawyer for Eichenwald said the Twitter message was no different from “a bomb sent in the mail or anthrax in an envelope. It triggers a physical effect.”

Rivello has been charged with criminal cyberstalking and could face a 10-year sentence.

As technology improves day by day, the world seems to be getting ever more jittery about it. The United States and Britain are banning electronic devices from cabin baggage on flights from eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

EXPLODE BOMB

The governments did not say why, but it is known that last February a passenger exploded a bomb in his laptop after take-off from Mogadishu, Somalia. He was sucked out of the plane to his death but the aircraft managed to land safely.

All large electronic devices will be affected by the order, including laptops, tablets, cameras, DVD players and electronic games, but not phones.

Phones do enough damage in irresponsible hands, with the “selfie” (taking photos of yourself) becoming known as the “killfie.”

Last week, three Italian boys stood on rail tracks taking selfies in the path of an oncoming train. Two leapt to safety in time, the third was killed.

TheObserver reported at least 127 people have been killed around the world taking selfies since 2014. Most happen when the photographer steps backwards off a roof or a cliff edge or into a river or lake. One official category is titled “Posing with firearms.” It does not take much imagination to guess what happened in these cases.

Most deaths have taken place in India, Pakistan and the United States and most of the victims are men under 24.

As for social media, online abuse gets worse and worse, especially that sent to known people. There is mounting concern that MPs are facing unprecedented levels of abuse online.

JO COX

A specialist police unit was set up to investigate traffic sent to MPs after the murder of a popular Member, Jo Cox, by a neo-Nazi. The unit dealt with 50 complaints in its first six months, including 33 reports of malicious communications, 13 reports of theft and four allegations of criminal damage at MPs’ homes or offices.

Far-right trolls mailed a woman MP a picture of a body with a severed head. In response, she tweeted, “Think how my kids feel next time you mock up a picture of me dying.”

Another MP received a message saying: “You should think very carefully about how you vote for the future of your family.”

MPs spent nearly £64,000 (Sh8,128,000) last year on bolstering security at their homes and constituency offices.

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More nastiness: It looks exactly like a regular metal road sign, a silhouette inside a red triangle indicating danger. Except the scene depicted is of an elderly orthodox Jewish man leaning on a cane and wearing a traditional Fedora hat.

The sign appeared on a lamp post just yards from a synagogue in the Jewish neighbourhood of Stamford Hill in north London.

Barry Bard, of the Jewish Neighbourhood Watch group, said: “The people of Stamford Hill are very sadly used to instances of anti-Semitic hate crime, but most of these times it will be verbal abuse or assault.

“The person who planned this sign has obviously gone to great effort to cause alarm and distress to local people.”

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English, I fancy you will agree, is the funniest language you ever did see.

There is no ham in hamburger, no egg in eggplant and neither pine nor apple in pineapple. The plural of man is men, but the plural of pan is pans.

If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat? If we are the human race, who is winning?

Beware the letters “ough,” they can be pronounced at least seven ways: Plough (plow), rough (ruff), through (throo), bought (bort), dough (doe), cough (coff) and hiccough (hiccup).

Finally, there is a word which changes from plural to single by adding an “s.” It is princes, which becomes princess.

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