SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

THE NEW KIND OF WARFARE – FROM THE LA TIMES:  A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across the country on Saturday including the Los Angeles Times, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.  The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and several other major newspapers that operate on a shared production platform. It also stymied distribution of the West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which are all printed at the Los Angeles Times’ Olympic printing plant in downtown Los Angeles.  “We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.  No other details about the origin of the attack were immediately available, including the motive. The source identified the attacker only as a “foreign entity.”   Chilling.  Imagine if airlines and hospitals were affected.  This is a new type of warfare and I'm not sure we're prepared for it.

THERE IS INDEED FAKE NEWS – FROM RTE:   Influential German news weekly Der Spiegel said it has suspended two senior editors following the scandal involving a reporter who admitted faking stories for years.  The company said the contracts of Ullrich Fichtner, an editor in chief, and Matthias Geyer, a chief editor, had been suspended.  The suspension "will remain until the (magazine's) internal commission has completed its investigation into the affair," the editor in chief Steffen Klusmann said in an internal letter.  Earlier this month, Der Spiegel stunned the media world by revealing that one of its award-winning reporters had falsified stories for years.  Claas Relotius, 33, resigned this month after admitting he had made up stories and invented protagonists in more than a dozen articles in the magazine's print and online editions.  Yes, Virginia, there is fake news.  A lot more of it than you think.

COMING SOON TO AN AMERICAN CAMPUS NEAR YOU – FROM DAILY MAIL:  An Egyptian court has sentenced a 25-year-old woman to three years in prison for 'sexually harassing' a monkey in the country's north, state daily Al-Ahram reported Friday.  A court in Mansoura city charged Basma Ahmed with 'inciting debauchery' and 'committing an obscene act in public', a judicial source told the newspaper.  She was arrested in October after a 90-second video of the incident went viral, particularly among young people and students, Al-Ahram said.  Anyone who opposes the rights of monkees is a blatant monkist.  There'll be a march for monkey freedom in Washington in April.  Be there.

December 29, 2018