The practical result of this amendment, objected to by plaintiffs, is that in criminal investigations, the government can now avoid the Fourth Amendment's probable cause requirement when conducting surveillance or searches of a criminal suspect's home or office merely by asserting a desire to also gather foreign intelligence information...

In place of the Fourth Amendment, the people are expected to defer to the Executive Branch and its representation that it will authorize such surveillance only when appropriate. The defendant here is asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning. This court declines to do so.

This is complicated. On the one hand this is one of those provisions of the Patriot Act which I don't like, because it allows for anti-terrorism powers to be applied in cases which aren't primarily related to anti-terrorism. This passage, and others like it, are, in my view, the core problem with the Patriot Act: that it was a set of anti-terrorism powers obtained in the wake of a dramatic terrorist attack and yet many of them are designed to be used in contexts that have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism.

However, I'm not sure thats whats going on in this case. This guy was implicated (albeit incorrectly) in an international terrorism attack. It seems to me that the primary purpose of searching such a person would be national security related. I don't have time to read it... Eagerly awaiting Orin Kerr's analysis...

Patriot Act provision struck

Germany basically banned all "hacking tools." "Hacking tools" are not defined. This is having a spectacularly destructive impact on computer security research world wide as German resources become unavailable and people are starting to avoid traveling there. (Image from this story.)

Schneier on Security: New German Hacking Law

Star magazine, via Celebitchy, says that Tom Cruise is planning to build a ... wait for it ... wait for it ... a 10 million dollar underground bunker in Colorado to prepare for the arrival of Xenu, his alien god who is at the heart of scientology.

TOM CRUISE IS NUTS, TINY - What Would Tyler Durden Do

Parallel universes really do exist, according to a mathematical discovery by Oxford scientists described by one expert as "one of the most important developments in the history of science".

The parallel universe theory, first proposed in 1950 by the US physicist Hugh Everett, helps explain mysteries of quantum mechanics that have baffled scientists for decades, it is claimed.

In Everett's "many worlds" universe, every time a new physical possibility is explored, the universe splits. Given a number of possible alternative outcomes, each one is played out - in its own universe.

A motorist who has a near miss, for instance, might feel relieved at his lucky escape. But in a parallel universe, another version of the same driver will have been killed. Yet another universe will see the motorist recover after treatment in hospital. The number of alternative scenarios is endless.

It is a bizarre idea which has been dismissed as fanciful by many experts. But the new research from Oxford shows that it offers a mathematical answer to quantum conundrums that cannot be dismissed lightly - and suggests that Dr Everett, who was a Phd student at Princeton University when he came up with the theory, was on the right track."

Parallel Universes Exist

To access buoy data by phone, select the “Dial-A-Buoy” heading. The Dial-A-Buoy Data Center (888-701-8992) provides telephone access to all of the weather reports from the buoy and coastal weather stations operated by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) and numerous Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOSS) partners. The telephone-accessed computer system allows selection of a reporting station by its ID (look it up on line and save the reference number for later use) or by entering the buoy’s approximate latitude and longitude. An interactive voice menu allows selection of the desired reporting station or buoy. Both current observations and forecasts are delievered in a computer-generated voice. Mariners sailing in areas such as the Gulf of Mexico can also access weather information from sensors on oil platforms such as Station 42362 — Brutus — Green Canyon 158, a fixed drilling platform located at 27.8° N, 90.67° W.

In my phone phreaking days I would have thought it interesting to know of a phone number from which one could receive an automated weather report from an ocean buoy.

Weather call | Articles | Ocean Navigator

skullaria wrote:
I'm always afraid that I might become a social suspect one day simply for NOT carrying my cell phone with me.

Very interesting! Not too long ago possession of a cellphone, at least by people in certain socioeconomic classes, was likely to arouse suspicion. I recall when I was young it was literally illegal to possess a cellphone or pager if you were under 18, as only drug dealers would need to do so (according to the authorities). I resented this as a technically inclined person who wanted to early adopt such toys. It seemed like more irrational, mindlessly overboard assertions of authority by adults. I legally possessed a radio that enabled me to (illegally) listen in to people's cell phone calls but I could not possess the phones that made those calls. Clearly only criminals communicate with each other!

Now it is becoming a social expectation that you carry a phone. All those old laws have met with resistance and have been repealed. Pay phones are being pulled off the street because no one needs them anymore. In the future perhaps it will be more so... only extremely poor, marginal people would fail to carry a cellphone. Most payment for goods might occur with the phone. Numerous public services might be operated under the assumption that users carried web browsers with them. Public transport maps and schedules, for example, might only be made available electronically. Restaurants might expect you to access electronic menus or request a reservation via SMS before you arrived. Communities seeking beautification might pass sign ordinances reducing outdoor advertisement in favor of location based messaging that would make it difficult to even identify businesses without an electronic device.

A middle class person without a phone would be viewed as garishly eccentric in a way that arouses suspicion. As people become more familiar with the idea that cellphones are used by the authorities to monitor them, failing to carry one might be taken not merely as extreme luddism, but as a sign that you have something to hide... Like a stranger who doesn't have a credit card or a driver's license; there was a time when most people carried neither.

RE: You have no 4th amendment right to privacy in regard to your physical movements.

This morning, you left the house tagged with a tracking device that the government can use to find out where you have been and where you are going.

I'm talking, of course, about your cell phone...

While most courts considering the issue have held that police need "probable cause" to track your movements, a new decision (.pdf) last week out of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts holds that law enforcement need show only "relevance to an ongoing investigation" to get a historical record of your past movement (something like the Jeffy trail in The Family Circus cartoon).

You have no 4th amendment right to privacy in regard to your physical movements.

This month the city of Rockford, Illinois will begin allowing residents to call the police and have any vehicle seized on the mere accusation that the car used a loud stereo system...

The ordinance states that "hearsay evidence shall be admissible" and that property will be seized upon the assertion of probable cause...

...The city may then wait another 45 days to schedule a hearing while storage fees accumulate up to $1100. If the vehicle's owner does not receive the mailed notice or cannot pay the fees within 30 days, the city will confiscate the vehicle permanently.

crooks

Illinois: We'll seize your car if someone complains about your stereo.

She's extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare told The Associated Press. "And she's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

The quote above is a Massachusetts State Police Officer publicly threatening to murder an MIT student who accidentally showed up at the airport wearing an electronic art project. She has, yet again, been charged with carrying out a hoax. Remember kids, anytime a Massachusetts police officer is confused, its your fault for confusing them, and not theirs for being fucking stupid and paranoid, and you are likely to go to prison or worse if it happens.

MIT student arrested for entering Boston airport with art project

Just two days after it was yelled out in a University of Florida lecture hall, "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" has become the newest cultural touchstone of our pop-cultural lexicon.

Don't Tase Me, Bro!