Wednesday, December 31, 2014

UPDATE at end! What the Hell is Google's New Division - Workers Uniting Group? And Why is Google Alerts Sending Me There?

As of today,  my Google Alerts are falsely leading me to a site which tries to get me to download books that are fraudulently claimed to be about the subject of my Google Alert.

And the URL of the site was supposedly just registered by Google after it was allowed to expired by a left-wing European labor union while the site has now been renamed - Watch E-Book Online.

Also no information is given on the site as to who they are (other than a link) and I am hesitant to click to 'who we are' link since their products appear to be merely randomly put together, barely related,  news items - and  the site also appears to be less than a week old (see 3rd paragraph below).  So all this makes we question even more - how could this site have a sky-high Google authority ranking?
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Again, here is what Google Alerts sent me as a match for the Southern California Historical Society - even though that phrase is a one time mention in an alleged e-book about gardening that is only a collection of barely related on-line stories about gardening.

And here is a many years old link to where it is stated that the organization has disbanded (the organization which first owned the domain name) and that their website will be removed.

Now when I tried to research the history of the URL (something I have never done before), I found it appeared to still be owned by GoDaddy but when I looked for an update to include the past few days - this is what I got:  http://www.websitescale.com/websites/workersunitinggroup.com - with it now showing a Kansas address for the site,

However, another site shows it as being located on Google's Mountain View Campus.
http://domain-kb.com/www/workersunitinggroup.com. - but I have no idea if I did this correctly - or not.

And since this a realm I know less than nothing about - I can not even begin to parse any of this.

The only thing I can be 100% certain of  is that Google Alerts is now sending me to sites that have close to zero about the word or alert that is in my Google Alert.

UPDATE!   My Google Alert for The Last Bookstore does to a site that bares little resemblance to the site described in the link.  It is - instead - another yet request for me to download a file  
Now this may be a perfectly innocent site - but the hosting site is  in French - and the Google Alert appears to show that the linked to site is in English - which it could be.   But I'm not going to download anything this suspicious to find out

Friday, December 19, 2014

One Hundred Christmas Books at $1 Each at The Last Book Store!

It you looking for books on how to craft Christmas decorations - or  make Christmas gifts - or gifts of any kind - or if you are looking for new - or old - recipes for any of the year end holidays and celebrations - the $1 room at The Last Bookstore (at 5th & Spring in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles) now has three different displays where you can find those $1 books as well as Christmas themed novels ranging from romantic to inspirational - and most everything in between.  Below are photos of a few of those hundred books taken by what is - undoubtedly- the world's single worst camera phone.

And - if you are still looking for stocking stuffers - or the hard to find perfect gifts for those special people on your list - be sure and pick up some gift cards at the check out register.




Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Now That The SONY Hackers Plan to BOMB the Theaters - Will the White House Continue to Be Silent on the SONY Hack?

Even before this threat to bomb the theaters showing the SONY film about North Korea - I've been wondering - where the hell has the present administration in Washington been during this whole nightmare?   If these hackers succeed - this will make every US company - and every government entity - a sitting duck for them and others to cyber attack.  And what is now happening to SONY - could be happening to dozens of companies - and government agencies.

 And yet - so far - not a word from the White House.  Here's the opening to the Variety article:

The Sony hackers have threatened a 9/11-like attack on movie theaters that screen Seth Rogen and James Franco’s North Korean comedy “The Interview,” substantially escalating the stakes surrounding the release of the movie.
The attackers also released the promised “Christmas gift” of files. The contents of the files are unknown but it’s called “Michael Lynton,” who is the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“The world will be full of fear,” the message reads. “Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment
Past messages have included budgets to Sony films, salary information of top executives, and employee medical records and social security numbers.
There have been suspicions that the attack may have been launched by North Korea in retaliation for “The Interview’s” depiction of an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-un. The country has denied involvement but praised the attacks.
A spokesman for the studio, an FBI spokesman and a spokesman for the National Association of Theatre Owners were not immediately available for comment.

Monday, December 08, 2014

Massive Fire in Downtown Los Angeles - And Massive Media Confusion Regarding the Buildings



If you live in Downtown Los Angeles and were woken up after 1:30 AM this morning –  and  kept awake the rest of the night by the sounds of fire engines and helicopters – here is what happened.    
The  G. H. Palmer apartment building under construction at Fremont Street - which is next to the intersection of Figueroa,  Temple and the Harbor Freeway was almost  totally engulfed in flames.  

And almost all the reports say this building is on the 900 block of North Fremont Street - despite it being on the 200 block of N. Fremont.  It is, however, located on the 900 Block of West Temple. 

Also news reports state the building is 1.3 million square feet, but the Palmer web site states that it is only 579,000 feet - and that seems to include the part of the building that is north of Temple and which appears to have not burned.   Now this might just be an error - or it might also include the parking structure - or it might include an additional yet to be built phase of the project - or it might be a combination of all three

In addition the City of LA owned sixteen story 221 N. Figueroa building (which early stories wrongly called either 212 and 222 N. Figueroa - which would put it on the other side of the street, mislabeled it as being six rather than sixteen stories and incorrectly stated it had around 140,000 square feet rather than 300,000 square feet)  had active fire on several floors and water damage due to the fire sprinklers activating on six of its floors.  313 N. Figueroa - the LA County Health Services Building - also had some radiant heat damage and papers on desks were just catching fire when the fire men entered that part of  the building.   And both of the high rises might have had far worse damage but for one lucky coincidence.   The responding fire station - was only 100 yards from the edge of the fire.  Below are some photos from the web.
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