ForumKorner News - 4/23/14

Welcome to the seventeenth edition of ForumKorner News. To read any previous editions, inquire the spoiler below.



The newest upgrade group has officially been implemented. The group is named Supporter and can be purchased through a subscription-based system. Along with this new group, there has also been an award added. This award, one of the first GIF awards, is handed out to all of those who purchase Supporter for one year. @Philly also announced that he would be adding something special available for members of this group, something that members have been asking for. Stay tuned for the announcement of this new feature.

There are now three GIF awards available here on ForumKorner. Elite Upgrader, Philly's Star, and Supporter all have their own special animated images. Elite Upgraded is earned by upgrading 50 members and Supporter is earned by purchasing a one year subscription to Supporter. Philly's Star will be handed out at @"Philly"'s discretion. Click here to view the awards. Along with these new awards, profiles were revamped and a new scroll bar was added. You can also find a special surprise in the Marijuana sub-forum. In addition to all these changes, a new sub-forum was added for loans and partnerships. Check out Loans, Investments, and Partnerships.


Goodbye, for now. by @Sector - One of ForumKorner's most beloved members posted his farewell this week.

Forum Feedback by @Leader - This user shares some of his feedback for FK.

New Upgrade Group: Supporter by @Philly - Our admin explains the perks of this new upgrade group and details regarding the purchase of a subscription.

ForumKorner News - Weekly Reports by @Leader - Use this thread to report anything newsworthy.

Regarding Word Filter Evading by @Michael - The staff member @Michael created a thread addressing issues with evasion of word filters.



• @"op." hit 100 reputation points.
• @Fanboy amassed 500 reputation points.
• @Michael attained 8,000 posts.
• @Leader nailed 5,000 posts.


• @Vengeance was temporarily banned for the reason "100% Warning Level"


• @Poop was permanently banned for the reason "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."
• @RPG was permanently banned for the reason "You're a piece of shit scammer."
• @Morgue was permanently banned for the reason "Until you pay those you owe, you have had long enough."
• @Sin was permanently banned for the reason "Bye swear."
• @demon was permanently banned for the reason "Making threats towards our domain."


Current Jackpot: 18.90
Current Tickets Bought: 89
Last Week's Winner: @Pun
Last Week's Payout: 17.40


Lee Joon-Seok, captain of a South Korean ship, is facing a series of criminal charges for his part in last week’s ship sinking. A total of 87 people have died in the sinking, while 215 others, many of whom are teachers and students on a field trip from a high school near Seoul, remain missing. Captain Lee is said to have abandoned the sinking ship on one of its lifeboats, leaving the various crewmembers and all of the passengers sinking to their demise. Captain Lee’s prosecutor told the semiofficial Yonhap news agency, “Mr. Lee is charged with causing the Sewol ship to sink by failing to slow down while sailing the narrow route and making (a) turn excessively.” Captain Lee, who, if convicted, faces between five years to life in prison, has recently defended his order to delay the evacuation of the ferry. South Korean President Park Geunhye has stated, “The actions of the captain and some of the crew are unacceptable, unforgivable actions that are akin to murder.” She also mentioned that she and many other South Koreans were filled with “rage and horror.” As the search for the missing passengers continues on, the actions taken by both the captain and crew remain under heavy scrutiny.

It currently remains unclear whether climbs on the world’s highest peak will continue, just days away from the beginning of Mount Everest’s busiest climbing season. This past Friday, 13 people were killed when an avalanche suddenly came down the mountain. Three climbers remain missing and are assumed dead after the single deadliest Mount Everest accident in history. Five sherpas were lost in the accident by the Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International, who has decided to abandon its expedition on the peak in wake of the deadly avalanche. “There is a lot of sadness at the moment, and it could be up to a week before a decision is made,” said Ang Tshering Sherpa of Asian Trekking. The avalanche is said to have taken place immediately above the base camp in the Khumbu Ice Fall.

The Syrian government announced on Monday that its presidential elections would be held on June 3rd, while bloodshed and chaos continue to ravage on throughout the country. The constitutional court will begin to accept presidential nominations on Tuesday, said Parliament Speaker Mohammad Jihad al-Laham. However, it is still unclear as to whether or not the elections will yield any major change in the country, which has been overwhelmed with violence over the past three years. Well over 100,000 have been killed in the Syrian civil war, a number comprised of many civilians. Opposition activists have reported more barrel bombs raining down on neighborhoods across Syria as the government announced the June 3rd election date. By midday Monday, at least nine people across the country have been killed as a result. Foreign fighters have joined both sides of the civil war over the past year.

Recently, a 16-year-old boy stowed away in the landing gear of a 767 going from California to Hawaii. Fortunately, the boy was able to survive the flight, despite the frigid temperatures that could have killed him. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, The Santa Clara, California runaway is one of only twenty-five people to survive such a journey since 1947, although more than one hundred others have tried. Roger Connor, curator at the National Air and Space Museum, said, “It’s amazing. He’s very, very lucky to be alive. Something like that happens only once in a long time.” Both the lack of pressure and oxygen and the extreme cold are just two of a number of deadly hazards that await a prospective stowaway. As a matter of fact, the freezing temperatures can actually turn out to be a life-saver for those who survive the expedition. There have been 105 stowaways since 1947, according to the FAA. 80 of these 105 people have died, while a small 25 have been lucky enough to survive. FBI Spokesman Tom Simon announced Sunday night that the boy apparently ran away from his family after an argument.


The composer of the original Halo soundtracks says he has been fired from his job at the video games' creator. Marty O'Donnell revealed the news in a tweet: "I'm saddened to say that Bungie's board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014." Bungie has confirmed the move but suggested they remained "friends". Mr O'Donnell had been working on music for the firm's forthcoming title Destiny in collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney. In an interview about the tie-up for Edge magazine last year, Mr O'Donnell commented: "It's hard for me - and some of the guys get impatient about it, like 'Hey Marty, quick just write an iconic theme and show it to us'. "But that's not what I did with Halo. I like to write music... [and] we have this really great start on many, many pieces of music that all seem to work together well." A spokesman for Sir Paul said he was "unable to pass comment".

The fingerprint sensor on Samsung's Galaxy S5 handset has been hacked less than a week after the device went on sale. Berlin-based Security Research Labs fooled the equipment using a mould it had previously created to spoof the sensor on Apple's iPhone 5S. The researchers said they were concerned that thieves could exploit the flaw in Samsung's device to trigger money transfers via PayPal. The payments firm played down the risk. "While we take the findings from Security Research Labs [SRL] very seriously, we are still confident that fingerprint authentication offers an easier and more secure way to pay on mobile devices than passwords or credit cards," it said. It added that even if users were hacked it would cover their losses. A spokesman for Samsung was unable to comment. SRL created its hack by lifting a real fingerprint from a smartphone screen and then carrying out a fairly elaborate process to create a mould out of glue and graphite spray. This was then swiped across the sensor that sits in the phone's home button.

After being shut down altogether several years ago, the BioShock movie may again be moving forward, as evidenced by several domain names registered last month by Sony Pictures. The domain names, as found by Kotaku, include bioshock-movie.com, bioshock-movie.net, and bio-shock.net. All three list Sony Pictures in their registration information. Sony was never publicly involved with previous attempts to develop a BioShock film, but these registrations suggest it may now be looking to do so. Back in 2008, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski was set to direct a BioShock film being financed by Universal Pictures. A year later, reports circulated that Verbinski was thinking of backing out, which he did after production was halted due to concerns regarding the budget and the R rating Verbinski wanted. Earlier this year, concept artist Jim Martin published concept art he had created for the BioShock movie, providing us with some sense of what had been envisioned when Universal was involved with the movie's production.

Canadian mounties have arrested a teenager who, they say, used the Heartbleed Internet bug to hack into the country's tax agency. Shortly after the Internet bug was revealed to the world last week, the Canada Revenue Agency suffered a data breach that leaked the Social Insurance Numbers of about 900 taxpayers. The agency was forced to shut down its website temporarily to prevent further theft of sensitive personal information. On Wednesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it arrested 19-year-old Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes at his London, Ontario home a day earlier. During the police raid, agents seized computer equipment as evidence. Solis-Reyes now faces two counts of computer-related crimes. He is scheduled to appear in an Ottawa courtroom on Thursday. The arrest appears to be the first related to the Heartbleed bug since it was discovered last week.

A US appeals court has upheld a contempt of court ruling against Lavabit, the secure email service used by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The company was found in contempt of court last year after refusing to comply with an FBI order to hand over encryption keys in an investigation thought to relate to Mr Snowden. After that ruling, Lavabit's owner Ladar Levison closed down the service. Mr Levison could appeal against this latest decision in a higher court. "I haven't read the court's opinion, nor sought advice from lawyers on any possible legal strategy, so that is still pending," he told news website Ars Technica. Last June, the US government obtained a court order for Lavabit's encryption keys in order to allow investigators to track the email traffic of an unnamed target, thought to be Mr. Snowden, who had an email account with the service.

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Be sure to let us know what you thought of this week's news edition. We love feedback! Thanks for reading this week's edition of ForumKorner News!

Did we miss something newsworthy? Did we say something faulty? Let us know in the comments and we'll address it accordingly.

I wish I had the time to read this all. Great work Leader, im sure is high quality.

Good read as always man, looking forward to making next weeks Gaming & Tech section as usual.

Deuce said:

Good read as always man, looking forward to making next weeks Gaming & Tech section as usual.

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I can't thank you enough for the amount of work that you put into each edition.

Dang I love reading these keep up the great work guys

I got updated to Onyx !
Also reached the 300 posts.

I got past 400 rep and also got upgraded to power

I'm seriously in love with this threads format

The Flying Dutchman said:

I got updated to Onyx !
Also reached the 300 posts.

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Rambo said:

I got past 400 rep and also got upgraded to power

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Any milestones in the user news come from the Milestones & Achievements sub-forum. If you want your milestone posted in the news, post it here.

dui said:

I'm seriously in love with this threads format

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Thanks. I try to keep it simple, and it works out nicely.

Leader said:

Any milestones in the user news come from the Milestones & Achievements sub-forum. If you want your milestone posted in the news, post it here.


Thanks. I try to keep it simple, and it works out nicely.

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I already did its Rambos Achievements

The Flying Dutchman said:

I got updated to Onyx !
Also reached the 300 posts.

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I include only certain milestones. Neither of those milestones fulfill my criteria.

Cann!bal said:

I include only certain milestones. Neither of those milestones fulfill my criteria.

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Alright, no worries.
Thanks for telling me anywise.

Pleased with this edition but sad that my interviewee couldn't respond.

Keep up the good work, guys!

I enjoyed reading this week's edition, as usual. It's great to be a part of the team.

I appreciate you covering for me this week.

Ayy I'm in here u know only real savages in here u know

Astro said:

I appreciate you covering for me this week.

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It was the least I could do. Make sure to have your article ready for next week, though.

Yet another great edition! Well done guys!

Edit recommendation: Might wanna put @NARC as Staff up there. Only posted it yesterday so it should be added. :3

Good job on the news though everyone.

Hitmarker said:

Edit recommendation: Might wanna put @NARC as Staff up there. Only posted it yesterday so it should be added. :3

Good job on the news though everyone.

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If a war were to outbreak the following day after a weekly newspaper is published, would you recall all the newspapers that were distributed the day before to make an edit to include news that happened in the thereafter of its publishing?

It'll be included in the next edition of ForumKorner News.