"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
Clearing a fair path to citizenship - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
2:52 pm EDT, Mar 26, 2010
Real ID is back.
We would require all U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who want jobs to obtain a high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security card. Each card's unique biometric identifier would be stored only on the card; no government database would house everyone's information. The cards would not contain any private information, medical information or tracking devices. The card would be a high-tech version of the Social Security card that citizens already have.
YouTube - Band Of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You
Topic: Miscellaneous
2:19 pm EDT, Mar 26, 2010
I've been on Delta flights so much in the past couple of months that the music they play while you're waiting to push back from the gate has become stuck in my head. This song was literally driving me mad until I found it on youtube.
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. Buddha
Every American should stand in the intersection where the Boston Massacre occurred and look up at the balcony of the Old State House, from which they had the audacity to read the Declaration of Independence whilst framed by the Lion and the Unicorn of the British Monarchy - a balcony off the very room where the Constitutionality of the Writs of Assistance was debated. This country has a lot of hallowed ground but I cannot think of a more profound location.
Interstellar travel is impossible - very interesting!
Captain Kirk might want to avoid taking the starship Enterprise to warp speed, unless he's ready to shrug off interstellar hydrogen atoms that would deliver a lethal radiation blast to both ship and crew.
There are just two hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter on average in space, which poses no threat to spaceships traveling at low speeds. But those same lone atoms would transform into deadly galactic space mines for a spaceship that runs into them at near-light speed, according to calculations based on Einstein's special theory of relativity.
The original crew of "Star Trek" featured as unfortunate examples at a presentation by William Edelstein, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University, at the American Physical Society conference in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 13. The physicist showed a video clip of Kirk telling engineer Scotty to go to warp speed.
"Well, they're all dead," Edelstein recalled saying. His words caused a stir among the audience.
Edelstein's personal interest in this thought experiment began 20 years ago, when his son Arthur asked him if there was friction in space. The father responded that yes, there would be hydrogen bumping off a spaceship. But he soon realized that the stray atoms of hydrogen gas would actually go right through the ship traveling close to light speed, and irradiate both crew and electronics in the process.
Feds push for tracking cell phones | Politics and Law - CNET News
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:08 pm EST, Feb 11, 2010
The Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.
Twitpix, EXIF and GPS: I Know Where You Did it Last Summer
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:13 am EST, Feb 11, 2010
In order to test the prevalence of these tags and analyze the information leaked via EXIF tags, we collected 15,291 images from popular image hosting site Twitpix.com...
399 images included the location of the camera at the time the image was taken, and 102 images included the name of the photographer....
The lion share of images that included GPS tags came from iPhones... It not only includes the phone's location, but also accelerometer data showing if the phone was moved at the time the picture was taken and the readout from the build in compass showing in which direction the phone was pointed at the time...
The picture at the Afghan - Pakistan border shows a pizza... Osama got away again I guess.
Actually I think its a quiche, and they are bloody lucky Osama hasn't called a bombing into that location.
My Blackhat DC paper, slides and videos are online
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:27 am EST, Feb 7, 2010
There is material covered in the talk that isn't covered in the paper, so it might make sense to start with the sides. I'm very interested in any thoughts, comments, or feedback that you might have.
Cisco's wiretapping system open to exploit, says researcher
Topic: Miscellaneous
8:09 pm EST, Feb 4, 2010
To meet the needs of law enforcement, most telecommunications equipment includes hardware and software that allow for the monitoring of traffic originating with the targets of investigations. The precise capabilities are often dictated by formalized standards, which allow any hardware maker to implement a compliant system. Unfortunately, these standards often leave the hardware wide open to various attacks that leave regular users vulnerable, and provide savvy surveillance targets the opportunity to evade the snooping. An IBM researcher has put Cisco's system under the microscope at a Black Hat Conference, and found it comes up short.
