I don’t believe in ghosts. But for the bereaved, receiving ‘messages’ from beyond the grave can help us feel connected to the departed

We all have ridiculous conversations with our mates, but negotiating a ghost pact with my friend as she lay on her deathbed was, without question, my most surreal.

The pact itself was simple. After my friend Ruth Francis departed this world, she was to give me a sign from beyond the grave.

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• Six drivers taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries

• F1 world champion Max Verstappen is competing at event

A driver has died following a crash in an endurance sports car race on Saturday at the Nürburgring circuit in Germany, where four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen was also preparing to race.

Organisers of the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers said that Swedish driver Juha Miettinen died after a crash involving seven cars. He was 66.

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Op de Schubertstraat in Numansdorp is zaterdagavond een tiener gestoken met een scherp voorwerp. Dit gebeurde tijdens een ruzie tussen meerdere jongeren. De politie heeft een verdachte aangehouden. Het betreft een 15-jarige jongen uit Numansdorp.

LEERDAM (ANP) - Maatregelen die Rijkswaterstaat heeft genomen om sluipverkeer aan te pakken tijdens grootschalige werkzaamheden aan de A2, lijken de overlast te hebben verminderd. Die indruk heeft burgemeester Sjors Fröhlich van de gemeente Vijfheerenlanden, waar onder meer Leerdam en Vianen onder vallen. "Zeker, het was opnieuw druk vandaag vanwege de afsluiting van de A2, maar het was goed te doen. Zowel voor automobilisten op de snelweg als voor de inwoners van Vianen en omliggende dorpen", twitterde hij zaterdag.

Fröhlich beklaagde zich afgelopen weken over de gevolgen van de snelwegafsluiting. Die leidde herhaaldelijk tot dichtslibbende binnenwegen, terwijl de omleidingsroute het verkeer over de A27 stuurt. Rijkswaterstaat deed eerder deze week een oproep aan alle weggebruikers om niet af te wijken van die officiële route: "Rijd niet binnendoor of op de navigatie."

Fröhlich denkt dat de oproep en enkele extra afsluitingen in de omgeving effect hebben. Hij bedankt de wegbeheerder daarvoor.

BEIROET (ANP/AFP) - Het Israëlische leger heeft in het zuiden van Libanon een "gele lijn" ingesteld, vergelijkbaar met de denkbeeldige lijn waarmee het in Gaza zijn troepen scheidt van de door Hamas gecontroleerde gebieden. Het leger zei ook dat het een "terreurcel" had uitgeschakeld die langs deze grenslijn actief was.

In een verklaring zei het leger dat het ondanks het staakt-het-vuren bevoegd is om op te treden tegen onmiddellijke dreigingen. Ze zeiden niet hoeveel verdachte militanten zijn gedood.

Na de uitbraak van de oorlog in Iran laaide ook het conflict tussen Israël en Hezbollah opnieuw op. Afgelopen week werd onder druk van de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump een staakt-het-vuren ingesteld in Libanon.

20-year-old Matthew Lane sent a text message to ABC News as his parents drove him to federal prison in Connecticut. "I'm just scared," he said, calling the whole situation "extremely sad."


Barely a year earlier, while still a teenager, he helped launch what's been described as the biggest cyberattack in U.S. education history — a data breach that concerned authorities so much, it prompted briefings with senior government officials inside the White House Situation Room. The breach pierced the education technology company PowerSchool — used by 80% of school districts in North America... [and operating in about 90 countries around the world]. With threats to expose social security numbers, dates of birth, family information, grades, and even confidential medical information, the breach cornered PowerSchool into paying millions of dollars in ransom.

"I think I need to go to prison for what I did," Lane told ABC News in an exclusive interview, speaking publicly for the first time about the headline-grabbing heist and his life as a cybercriminal. "It was disgusting, it was greedy, it was rooted in my own insecurities, it was wrong in every aspect," he said in the interview, two days before reporting to prison... At about 6:30 on a Tuesday morning last April, FBI agents started banging on the door of Lane's second-floor dorm room. "FBI! We have a search warrant," Lane recalled them shouting. They seized his devices and many of the luxury items he bought with "dirty" money, as he put it. He said he felt a "wave of relief.... I'm honestly thankful for the FBI," he said. "After they left, I was like, 'It's over ... I'm done with this'..."

A federal judge in Massachusetts sentenced him to four years in federal prison and ordered him to pay more than $14 million in restitution.

"In the wake of the breach, PowerSchool offered two years' worth of credit-monitoring and identity protection services to concerned customer," the article points out. But it also notes two other arrests in September of teenaged cybercriminals:
- A 15-year-old boy in Illinois who allegedly attacked Las Vegas casinos, reportedly costing MGM Resorts alone more than $100 million
- A British national who when he was 16 helped breach over 110 companies around the world and extort $115 million.

But ironically, Lane tells ABC News it all started on Roblox, where he'd met cheaters, password-stealers, and cybercriminals sharing photos of their stacks of money, creating a "sense of camaraderie"
Lane and others warn that online forums also attract criminal groups seeking to recruit potential hackers. "The bad guys are on all the platforms watching the kids playing," Hay said. "And when they see an elite-level performer, they go approach that kid, masquerading as another kid, and they go, 'Hey, you want to earn some [money]? ... Here are the tools, here are the techniques'...."

According to Lane, he spent his "ill-gotten gains" on designer clothes, diamond jewelry, DoorDash deliveries, Airbnb rentals for him and his friends, and drugs — "lots of drugs." He said he would numb ever-present feelings of guilt with drugs — from high-potency marijuana to acid. But it was hacking that gave him the strongest high. "It's indescribable the adrenaline you get when you do something like that," he said. "It's way more than driving 120 miles per hour. ... Incomparable to any drug at all, as well."

"On Monday, Roblox announced that, starting in June, it will offer age-checked accounts for younger users that limit what games they can play, and add 'more closely align content access, communication settings, and parental controls with a user's age.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

handwritten on slide, "L. Geo"

We all love Space Ghost. But have you heard him in Spanish?

In my case, this was my first introduction to Space Ghost, as we were living in Colombia at the time (it was 1995, I was around 9). According to Bluesky's Ghost Planet, "The European Spanish dub of Space Ghost Coast to Coast was probably Coast to Coast's most robust localisation, even having unique local interviews to replace some guests deemed too obscure for a Spanish audience"