Congress holds hearing on virtual crime  

In one of the stranger hearings, Philip Rosedale, the founder of virtual world Second Life, testified before a U.S. House of Representatives last week. Some lawmakers expressed concern over whether operators of this virtual world - which resembles an interactive, online video game composed of an unlimited number of users - is doing to prevent real crimes from happening in the digital world.  On the list of concerns was terrorism, money-laundering and the exploitation of children.

"I am not advocating censorship. But I am asking what we can to make certain that these glorious tools are not ... changed into tools that facilitate the use of terror attacks on innocent civilians around the world," said Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, of California.

Harman cited a British newspaper report last year saying that Islamic extremists were suspected of using Second Life to recruit and mimic real-life terrorism.  Rosedale stated he had never seen or heard about any such instances.

Mine safety agency blamed for Utah mine collapse 

The Labor Department's Inspector General concluded that the Mine Safety and Health Administration "negligently" allowed Murray Energy to employ a technique known as "retreat mining" that led to the deaths of six miners and three rescuers when the roof of the Crandall Canyon, Utah mine collapsed last year.  Retreat mining allows parts of the mine's roof to collapse behind the miners as they work their way out of the mine. 

Army Runs Fake Spam Site 

Over 10,000 soldiers, civilians, and military family members with .mil email extensions were duped by a bizarre, security exercise conducted by the Army on Sunday. The exercise set out to test susceptibility to phishing - attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic medium.

New study reveals interesting trends in federal hiring practices

A new study of federal hiring patterns revealed that a third of those hired by the government admitted to not applying for other federal jobs they wanted because they did not want to spend more time writing new essays or revising existing essays describing their knowledge, skills and abilities. Additionally, one out of every four new hires stated they did not apply to other jobs because they would have needed to rewrite or reformat their résumé. 

Military study supported secretly hiring bloggers for American propaganda

A 2006 report by Joint Special Operations University, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested "clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers" in order to "verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message." 

The report seems to contradict recent crackdowns by the Air Force and other military branches against blogging for security reasons.  In reality, the report supports blogging so long as the blogger is obtaining a military advantage by winning over the hearts and minds of adversaries and not giving away American secrets in the process.