Recent Posts
Did they come with a piece of string to connect them with?-Stoic Joker (August 02, 2013, 10:10 PM)
Damn those pesky two edged swords.-Stoic Joker (August 02, 2013, 09:58 PM)
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And this is the classic downside of idiotic policies like "If you see something say something". All you end up with is a bunch of tattle-tails that suddenly realize that their own dark agendas can now be safely (for them) pushed off on an overzealous branch of enforcement ... That will then happily and brainlessly destroy any unwanted competition for them.
This is why witch-hunts are considered to be bad.-Stoic Joker (August 02, 2013, 11:21 AM)
Super_Simple_resized_see-and-say_512x914.jpg (68.4 kB. 512x914 - viewed 227 times.)Probably no amount of idiocy from the TSA would be particularly surprising to most people, given the TSA's past performance.-IainB (August 02, 2013, 02:42 AM)
He pointed out that of all of the NSA's analysts, only 35 are authorized to run queries on the database that contains metadata vacuumed up by Section 215. "They have to go through three separate training regimen, and pass tests, to do queries into that database," he said, highlighting that not all NSA employees can access the data it has collected.
Collect. If an intelligence official says that the NSA isn’t “collecting” a certain kind of information, what has he actually said? Not very much, it turns out. One of the NSA’s foundational documents states that “collection” occurs not when the government acquires information but when the government “selects” or “tasks” that information for “subsequent processing.” Thus it becomes possible for the government to acquire great reams of information while denying that it is “collecting” anything at all.
The cynic in me (like how I did that renegade?) is screaming that the Russians just wanted to have the hold card in their hand at this point...-wraith808 (August 01, 2013, 12:32 PM)
Video to see:- ECYM
EVERY CALL YOU MAKE...
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=loSlVXtZj8s-Tinman57 (August 01, 2013, 08:07 PM)
Hackers to NSA chief: Read the Constitution
The head of the NSA faces a tough audience as he appeals to hackers and security professionals at Black Hat 2013 to help the U.S. government build better spying tools.
Alexander returned repeatedly to the question of how to balance security vs. civil liberties and privacy. But when it came time for the question-and-answer session, he faced more heckling and skepticism.
The questions had been prepared in advance via a questionnaire organized by Black Hat's new general manager, Trey Ford, who read the questions from the stage. But first, an audience member shouted out a question to the general.
"Why do so many countries want to attack us?" the person asked.
The general replied that America stands in the way of them reaching their objective, which is to force everybody to comply with sharia law.
"They want to attack us because we're bombing them!" shouted another person, to much chuckling from the audience.
All I know is if I’m going to buy a pressure cooker in the near future, I’m not doing it online.
I’m scared. And not of the right things.
Or off the plank...either is fine.-Stoic Joker (August 01, 2013, 11:43 AM)
Innocent Couple Visited by Feds After Google Searching for Backpacks and Pressure Cookers
...
Another reason to switch to DuckDuckGo.
Would be an interesting scenario if vitamins ended up getting a health warning like with cigarettes.-tomos (August 01, 2013, 05:57 AM)
Okay...Then I'd be pissing myself laughing.-Stoic Joker (August 01, 2013, 11:32 AM)
The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour!-Renegade (August 01, 2013, 06:39 AM)
However, I would predict that that research is unlikely to take place at more than a glacial speed - simply because most research is funded by Big Pharma who are only likely to be interested in funding research which leads to a new, profitable patented drug or medical procedure. You can't patent vitamins that occur in nature - though I recall reading elsewhere that Big Parma had lobbied some US Senators to pass a bill that might allow them just that, making the current method of production of vitamins to the food-additive market illegal.
To a large extent, in medicine and in other areas, genuine scientific research and the scientific process seem to have been hijacked and monopolised by powerful commercial interests.-IainB (August 01, 2013, 01:02 AM)
Would be an interesting scenario if vitamins ended up getting a health warning like with cigarettes.-tomos (August 01, 2013, 05:57 AM)
Nowadays any single one of the "how to" cards listed on that page would result in a dozen lawsuits within a month after hitting the printers.-mouser (August 01, 2013, 12:03 AM)
Google Engineer Wins NSA Award, Then Says NSA Should Be “Abolished”
Last week, Dr. Joseph Bonneau learned that he had won the NSA’s first annual “Science of Security (SoS) Competition.” The competition, which aims to honor the best “scientific papers about national security” as a way to strengthen NSA collaboration with researchers in academia, honored Bonneau for his paper on the nature of passwords.
And how did Bonneau respond to being honored by the NSA? By expressing, in an honest and bittersweet blog post, his revulsion at what the NSA has become:On a personal note, I’d be remiss not to mention my conflicted feelings about winning the award given what we know about the NSA’s widespread collection of private communications and what remains unknown about oversight over the agency’s operations. Like many in the community of cryptographers and security engineers, I’m sad that we haven’t better informed the public about the inherent dangers and questionable utility of mass surveillance. And like many American citizens I’m ashamed we’ve let our politicians sneak the country down this path.
In accepting the award I don’t condone the NSA’s surveillance. Simply put, I don’t think a free society is compatible with an organisation like the NSA in its current form.
In an interview with Andy Cush at Animal, Bonneau went even farther in his critiques of the NSA:I’d rather have it abolished than persist in its current form. I think there’s a question about whether it’s possible to reform the NSA into something that’s more reasonable…But my feeling based on what I’ve read is that I don’t want to live in a country with an organization like the NSA is right now.
When Bonneau learned that he has won the award from the NSA, he considered turning it down. However, he ultimately decided upon accepting as a way to potentially bridge academic gaps with the NSA, as a means of opening up at least one avenue into the organization that has been mostly closed.
That said, the winner of the NSA award wants, like many privacy rights activists and citizens concerned with the government’s Fourth Amendment violations, for the NSA to be reformed by a political process (like the one which narrowly failed in the House yesterday).
Either that, or have it abolished altogether.
So, how long do you think it will be before we all get our Lifeclock crystals, move into a shopping mall?-app103 (July 31, 2013, 09:11 PM)
(see attachment in previous post)
9 reasons why you don't want to be rich-Arizona Hot (July 31, 2013, 02:47 PM)
Speechless.