Walter Hickey

5 days ago | numlock.com | Walter Hickey

By Walt HickeyWelcome back!In the ancient Roman city of Londinium, in a neighborhood on the south shore of the Tamesis river, the Romans built a luxury dwelling between AD 43 and 150, dedicated by a team of painters. Several years later, someone taking possession of the domus thought that it looked like crap and renovated the joint. They demolished the building and dumped thousands of scraps of plaster into a pit, as was the style at the time.

1 week ago | numlock.com | Walter Hickey

By Walt HickeyA new report based on information provided by an industry whistleblower claims that intermediaries in the telecom industry that facilitate text messages between different networks are potential security risks. The whistleblower provided a batch of one million messages carrying two-factor authentication codes that passed through one such intermediary, Fink Telecom Services. The service has been linked with espionage and the surveillance industry in the past.

1 week ago | numlock.com | Walter Hickey

By Walt HickeySeven California men have been charged with stealing $100 million worth of gold, gems and luxury watches from a Brinks truck, a heist which had been a mystery for the past three years. The men tracked a truck containing 73 bags of jewels and stole 24 bags at a rest stop. The thieves didn’t use any weapons during the robbery.

1 week ago | numlock.com | Walter Hickey

By Walt HickeyIn 2024, the systemwide sales of Chick-fil-A hit $22 billion, one of only three chains in the U.S. to crack $20 billion alongside McDonald’s ($53.5 billion) and Starbucks ($30.4 billion). The thing is, Chick-fil-A pulled this feat off with 3,109 stores compared to McDonald’s 13,559 locations. The average unit volume at a Chick-fil-A is $7.5 million, by far the highest among their peers, and it’s not particularly close.

1 week ago | numlock.com | Walter Hickey

By Walt HickeyThe Battle of Trafalgar is generally considered to be one of, if not the most, consequential naval battles in British history. The flag that flew on Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, was draped over his coffin at his state funeral following his death in the battle. After the ceremony, that flag was torn to shreds so that the sailors might have souvenirs. The scraps of this flag regularly go for thousands of pounds at auction.