LIARS (8) TOP CHOICE WORDS

Odds are, you and your guy have a great relationship, and the only lies he tells are little fibs. But it's good to know how to spot the signs he could be telling a whopper. Lie detection expert Janine Driver, author of the new book, You Can't Lie to Me, fills us in on the words that give away a liar. 

By Korin Miller 

"Left"

Sure, sometimes 'left' is the only word you can use in a situation, but there's some kind of drama involved when he uses it in place of another word that will do (think: "I left the bar at six" vs. "I went home at six"). It could be due to his desire to "leave" the lie behind. 

"Never" 
The big thing to look out for is when he says "never" when "no" will do. It's a sign he's overcompensating. For example, if you ask, "Did you just look at that girl's butt?" and he says, "Never!" 

"That" 
Like never, it depends on how he uses it. If he puts "that" in front of a noun, like "that woman" or "that money," it's a subconscious attempt for him to distance himself from the word. This is a common trick of manipulators. 


"Would" 
If he skips "no" and goes straight to "I would never do something like that!" when talking about a past event, be wary. For example, "Are you still talking to your ex?" "I would never do that to you!" "Would never" suggests that he plans to do it in the future. 

"Yes, ma'am" 
If your guy is a Southern gentleman, then this doesn't apply. But if he suddenly says "ma'am" to you out of nowhere, be cautious. It's a sign that he feels like he's feeling stressed and knows he's in trouble. 

"By the way…" 
Liars use phrases like this to try to minimize what they say next-but usually it's what's most important to the story. Pay extra attention to what he says afterward. 

"But" 
Liars usually try to downplay what they say with this word, so pay attention when he says something like, "I know this is going to sound strange, but…" or "I know you think I'm lying, but…" 

"Why would I do that?" 
It's a favorite stalling line of liars, so they can buy a little time to work out what to say next. These phrases also fit the bill: "What kind of person do you think I am?", "Are you calling me a liar?", and "I knew this was going to happen to me!"

(Cosmopolitan.com)

TOP WORST PASSWORDS FOR LAST YEAR

If you see your password below, STOP!

Do not finish reading this post and immediately go change your password -- before you forget. You will probably make changes in several places since passwords tend to be reused for multiple accounts.

Here are two lists, the first compiled by SplashData in 2011:

1. password

2. 123456

3.12345678

4. qwerty

5. abc123

6. monkey

7. 1234567

8. letmein

9. trustno1

10. dragon

11. baseball

12. 111111

13. iloveyou

14. master

15. sunshine

16. ashley

17. bailey

18. passwOrd

19. shadow

20. 123123

21. 654321

22. superman

23. qazwsx

24. michael

25. football

Last year (2011), Imperva looked at 32 million passwords stolen from RockYou, a hacked website, and released its own Top 10 "worst" list:

1. 123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. Password

5. iloveyou

6. princess

7. rockyou

8. 1234567

9. 12345678

10. abc123

If you've gotten this far and don't see any of your passwords, that's good news. But, note that complex passwords combining letters and numbers, such as passw0rd (with the "o" replaced by a zero) are starting to get onto the 2011 list. abc123 is a mixed password that showed up on both lists.

Last year, Imperva provided a list of password best practices, created by NASA to help its users protect their rocket science, they include:

It should contain at least eight characters

It should contain a mix of four different types of characters - upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special characters such as !@#$%^&*,;" If there is only one letter or special character, it should not be either the first or last character in the password.

It should not be a name, a slang word, or any word in the dictionary. It should not include any part of your name or your e-mail address.

Following that advice, of course, means you'll create a password that will be impossible, unless you try a trick credited to security guru Bruce Schneir: Turn a sentence into a password.

For example, "Now I lay me down to sleep" might become nilmDOWN2s, a 10-character password that won't be found in any dictionary.

Can't remember that password? Schneir says it's OK to write it down and put it in your wallet, or better yet keep a hint in your wallet. Just don't also include a list of the sites and services that password works with. Try to use a different password on every service, but if you can't do that, at least develop a set of passwords that you use at different sites.

Someday, we will use authentication schemes, perhaps biometrics, that don't require so much jumping through hoops to protect our data. But, in the meantime, passwords are all most of us have, so they ought to be strong enough to do the job.

PIN CODE CRACKING: EASY AS 1-2-3-4

If you lost your ATM card on the street, how easy would it be for someone to correctly guess your PIN and proceed to clean out your savings account? Quite easy, according to data scientist Nick Berry, founder of Data Genetics, a Seattle technology consultancy.

Berry analyzed passwords from previously released and exposed tables and security breaches, filtering the results to just those that were exactly four digits long [0-9]. There are 10,000 possible combinations that the digits 0-9 can be arranged into to form a four-digit code. Berry analyzed those to find which are the least and most predictable. He speculates that, if users select a four-digit password for an online account or other web site, it's not a stretch to use the same number for their four-digit bank PIN codes.

What he found, he says, was a "staggering lack of imagination" when it comes to selecting passwords. Nearly 11% of the 3.4 million four-digit passwords he analyzed were 1234. The second most popular PIN in is 1111 (6% of passwords), followed by 0000 (2%). (Last year SplashData compiled a list of the most common numerical and word-based passwords and found that "password" and "123456" topped the list.)

Berry says a whopping 26.83% of all passwords could be guessed by attempting just 20 combinations of four-digit numbers (see first table). "It's amazing how predictable people are," he says.

We don't like hard-to-remember numbers and "no one thinks their wallet will get stolen," Berry says.

Days, Months, Years

Many of the commonly used passwords are, of course, dates: birthdays, anniversaries, year of birth, etc. Indeed, using a year, starting with 19__, helps people remember their code, but it also increases its predictability, Berry says. His analysis shows that every single 19__ combination be found in the top 20% of the dataset.

"People use years, date of birth — it's a monumentally stupid thing to do because, if you lose your wallet, your driver's license is in there. If someone finds it, they've got the date of birth on there. At least use a parent's date of birth [as a password]," says Berry.

Somewhat intriguing was #22 on the most common password list: 2580. It seems random, but if you look at a telephone keypad (or ATM keypad), you'll see those numbers are straight down the middle — yet another sign that we're uncreative and lazy password makers.

The Least Predictable Password

The least-used PIN is 8068, Berry found, with just 25 occurrences in the 3.4 million set, which equates to 0.000744%. (See the second table for the least popular passwords.) Why this set of numbers? Berry guesses, "It's not a repeating pattern, it's not a birthday, it's not the year Columbus discovered America, it's not 1776." At a certain point, these numbers at the bottom of the list are all kind of "the lowest of the low, they're all noise," he says.

A few other interesting tidbits from Berry:

-The most popular PIN code (1234) is used more than the lowest 4,200 codes combined.
- People have even less imagination in choosing five-digit passwords — 28% use 12345.
- The fourth most popular seven-digit password is 8675309, inspired by the Tommy Tutone song.
-People love using couplets for their PINs: 4545, 1313, etc. And for some reason, they don't like using pairs of numbers that have larger numerical gaps between them. Combinations like 45 and 67 occur much more frequently than 29 and 37.
- The 17th most common 10-digit password is 3141592654 (for those of you who are not math nerds, those are the first digits of Pi).

(www.yahoo.com)

Justin Bieber – Target Of A Murder Plot

Megastar pop singer Justin Bieber was the target of a bizarre plot hatched by an imprisoned, Bieber-obsessed murderer who allegedly dispatched two New Mexico men to kill and castrate the teen hearthrob at his recent Madison Square Garden show.

Via: The Post,
One of those men was busted upstate on Nov. 20 — allegedly with pruning shears that were to be used to cut off Bieber’s manhood at a price of $2,500 for each testicle, according to court documents.
Tanner Ruane, 23, and his ex-con uncle Mark Staake, 41, were supposed to strangle 18-year-old Bieber and his bodyguard with a paisley tie at the singer’s late November show at the Garden, then castrate them both.
“We take every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin and his fans,” Bieber’s management team said in a prepared statement last night, refusing to comment further.
The sickening scheme supposedly was set in motion by Dana Martin, 45, who is serving a life sentence for the 2000 rape and murder of a 15-year-old Vermont girl named DeAndra Fiorucci — whom he strangled with a paisley tie.

(www.rick.com)

Gabby Douglas Book Signing in Madison

At 16-years old, Gabby Douglas is a two-time gold medalist, she has met President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, she is in the running for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and she made Barbara Walters’ “10 Most Fascinating People.

She has also written an autobiography and that is bringing her to R.J. Julia in Madison tonight.

Douglas will be signing Grace, Gold, and Glory: My Leap of Faith, which is about Douglas’ “journey to the Olympics and the ups and downs of that journey.”

The interest has been strong. The tickets are almost gone, R.J. Julia posted on its Facebook page around 11 a.m.

To enter the ticket line, you must buy the book at R.J. Julia and be in line by 7 p.m. to ensure that your book is signed. They are no longer selling the books online or over the phone.

The "purchased at R.J. Julia bookmark" must be inside the book to be signed and the line will be outside.

Douglas will only sign her book, no memorabilia. Photos of Gabrielle from the line will be allowed. Anyone purchasing three or more books will be given an opportunity to take a photo with Gabrielle.

This is not Douglas’ first trip to Connecticut. Just after the 2010 U.S. Championships, she trained at Gymnastics Express Too in Glastonbury.

R.J. Julia is located at 768 Boston Post Road in Madison.

(www.nbcconnecticut.com)

ARMY NEW GEARS SUPERHERO STYLE

One of the best parts about the Army-Navy game — other than the amazing pageantry on the field — is the specially designed uniforms both teams get to wear.

Navy announced its uniforms a couple weeks ago and Tuesday, Army unveiled its new kit for the final game of the regular season.

According to a release by West Point, the uniform design, which is Army's classic black and gold, pays tribute to 1944, which included the first of Army's three consecutive national championships and the World War II victory at the Battle of the Bulge.

The uniforms include a historical map imprinted inside the numbers, on the helmet stripe, on the gloves, the sleeves and on the inside of the shoes. The helmet also features a small black spade on the side to honor the 101st Airborne Division, which fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

Army's uniforms are usually pretty sharp for this game, but these are by far the best we've seen in quite some time. I mean, using the map as part of the uniform is genius. It looks really cool. As a big history/war buff, I'm a fan of Nike's design here. And if you're a big fan, you can order all of Army's gear from the team's website.

In the battle of the uniforms, Army wins.

(www.yahoo.com)

KATE MIDDLETON IS PREGNANT! Prince William Expecting First Child

The most eagerly awaited pregnancy was announced today by St. James Palace on behalf of Middleton and her husband Prince William.

The child, whether boy or girl, will eventually be heir to the British throne according to new legislation awaiting final approval.

The duchess was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital today in central London with hyperemesis gravidarum, an acute morning sickness which requires supplementary hydration and nutrients, the palace said.

"As the pregnancy is in its very early stages, Her Royal Highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter," the statement said. The royal family was clearly delighted with the news.

"Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby," the palace said in a statement today. "The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry and members of both families are delighted with the news."

The baby will be the queen's third great-grandchild.

Robert Lacey, author of the definitive book "Majesty" said, "The British public and indeed the whole world will be delighted for the same, it keeps the monarchy going. The royal wedding brought a magic back to the monarchy and people are fascinated by William and Catherine."

The announcement follows relentless public and media speculation about when Prince William and his wife would have an heir. The guessing game began almost immediately after the couple said, "I do."

Tabloids began snapping close-ups of Middleton's stomach for any indication of a baby bump. Baby rumors abounded when the duchess held a baby at a press event and when she declined peanut butter at another event. British physicians are known to warn women against eating peanuts during pregnancy. When the couple got a dog, Lupo, headlines wondered if they were practicing for another addition to the family.

The palace, which rarely comments on speculation, took the unusual step of saying, "We would be the ones to make the announcement, not Hollywood."

"It is quite strange reading about it, but I try not to let it bother me," Prince William said in an interview with ABC News' Katie Couric in May 2012. "I'm just very keen to have a family and both Catherine and I are looking forward to having a family in the future."

Asked by Couric if there was anything else he wanted to share, he coyly answered, "You won't get anything out of me. Tight lipped." 

Brad Pitt’s New Movie Tanked On Its Opening Weekend

Brad Pitt has just had his worst movie debut ever. On opening weekend, his new crime thriller, called “Killing Them Softly,” only sold 7-million dollars worth of tickets. In this one, he plays a hit man for the mob. And on top of the bad box office numbers, the first viewers gave the movie an ‘F’ on CinemaScore. However, it’s getting a good score on Rotten Tomatoes – and the critics generally gave it good reviews.

James Gandolfini & Ray Liotta are also in the movie.

(www.rick.com)