Secretary of State Debra Bowen began her top-to-bottom review of the voting machines certified for use in California on May 31, 2007. The review is designed to restore the public's confidence in the integrity of the electoral process and is designed to ensure that California voters are being asked to cast their ballots on machines that are secure, accurate, reliable, and accessible.

California Secretary of State - Voting Systems Review

Existing low-latency anonymity networks are vulnerable to traffic analysis, so location diversity of nodes is essential to defend against attacks.

Previous work has shown that simply ensuring geographical diversity of nodes does not resist, and in some cases exacerbates, the risk of traffic analysis by ISPs. Ensuring high autonomous-system (AS) diversity can resist this weakness. However, ISPs commonly connect to many other ISPs in a single location, known as an Internet eXchange (IX).

This paper shows that IXes are a single point where traffic analysis can be performed. We examine to what extent this is true, through a case study of Tor nodes in the UK.

Also, some IXes sample packets flowing through them for performance analysis reasons, and this data could be exploited to de-anonymize traffic. We then develop and evaluate Bayesian traffic analysis techniques capable of processing this sampled data.

Sampled Traffic Analysis by Internet-Exchange-Level Adversaries

Spooky offers a free 71 minute mix. Grab it!

Brian Eno once famously remarked that the problem with computers is that there isn't enough Africa in them. I kind of think that its the opposite: they're bringing the ideals of Africa: after all, computers are about connectivity, shareware, a sense of global discussion about topics and issues, the relentless density of info overload, and above all the willingness to engage and discuss it all - that's something you could find on any street corner in Africa.

I just wanted to highlight the point: Digital Africa is here, and has been here for a while. This isn't "retro" - it's about the future.

There's some great stuff at around 57:00, in conjunction with Duke Ellington's "Afro-Euraasian Eclipse". I first heard these samples on DJ/rupture's album, Minesweeper Suite, which I've been meaning to recommend for a while now. From the emusic review:

Barcelona-based DJ/rupture shows off his formidable turntable skills (and frighteningly deep record collection) with a three-deck mix that spans dancehall reggae, Middle Eastern drumming, underground London breakcore and Hot 97-ready a cappellas. ... /rupture's knack for drilling holes through genres (mashing up Aaliyah's "Resolution" with apocalyptic drum 'n' bass, screwing hip-hop into psychedelic glitch-folk) threads a groove that could spin any pair of hips out onto the dancefloor. The form (beat-oriented fusion) and the content (any sound you can imagine, never deracinated but instead radically re-contextualized) make the perfect icebreaker to get trainspotters talking politics, and vice versa.

DJ SPOOKY: Venice Biennale 2007

Hard core ...

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said Wednesday that it thwarted a double suicide attack set for Tel Aviv and Netanya last month, orchestrated by Islamic Jihad and meant to be carried out by two Palestinian women, one of them pregnant.

One of the women, Fatma Zak, 39, a mother of eight in her ninth month of pregnancy, has been director of Islamic Jihad's women labor department in Gaza City for the past four years. As part of her job, she was in direct contact with senior terrorists and served as a go-between for women interested in becoming suicide bombers.

The second suspect is Zak's 30-year-old niece, Ruda Habib, a mother of four. Both were arrested by the Shin Bet at the Erez Crossing on May 20, moments before entering Israel.

Have you seen Day Night Day Night?

Double suicide bombing foiled

A major British arms contractor paid more than $2 billion clandestinely into bank accounts in Washington controlled by Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, two British news organizations reported Thursday. Prince Bandar denied accepting “improper secret commissions.”

... the government canceled an official inquiry last December into the claims of corruption that have swirled around the transaction.

Mr. Blair said, “We would have lost thousands, thousands of British jobs.”

$2B from BAE to Bandar

Heads up ... Clear your shelf for William Gibson's new book -- due out in August.

Tito is in his early twenties. Born in Cuba, he speaks fluent Russian, lives in one room in a NoLita warehouse, and does delicate jobs involving information transfer.

Hollis Henry is an investigative journalist, on assignment from a magazine called Node. Node doesn't exist yet, which is fine; she's used to that. But it seems to be actively blocking the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivate before they start up. Really actively blocking it. It's odd, even a little scary, if Hollis lets herself think about it much. Which she doesn't; she can't afford to.

Milgrim is a junkie. A high-end junkie, hooked on prescription antianxiety drugs. Milgrim figures he wouldn't survive twenty-four hours if Brown, the mystery man who saved him from a misunderstanding with his dealer, ever stopped supplying those little bubble packs. What exactly Brown is up to Milgrim can't say, but it seems to be military in nature. At least, Milgrim's very nuanced Russian would seem to be a big part of it, as would breaking into locked rooms.

Bobby Chombo is a "producer," and an enigma. In his day job, Bobby is a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one. Hollis Henry has been told to find him.

(Previously discussed in March; if you've been counting the days ... we're down to 54.)

Spook Country

Ask someone to listen for words you use too much, like "basically," "clearly," or "actually." People overuse those words and have no idea.

Please, do this! For the sake of the children in the audience.

Fast-Track Your Career By Speaking Well

The gist:

Goth obviously emerged from punk, but punk didn't last. The same is true of most subcultures: Hippies are old hat; skinheads have come and gone; grunge is yesterday's news. Why does goth alone remain undead?

Some tidbits:

If it suits you, you can be a goth all your life.

Taking for granted the misery of the human condition, goth turns depression into an aesthetic, a semi-ironic pose — a perfect style for the awkward and self-conscious.

Goth's Wan Stamina

"Attention, attention, attention, there has been an indirect fire attack," says a pleasant woman's voice, as if announcing the 8:20 Southwest flight into BWI instead of a potentially deadly rocket or mortar attack.

... residents here are known as "Fobbits," residents of a Forward Operating Base or FOB. They resemble the hobbits of fiction, reluctant to venture far from their comfortable and familiar burrows.

"Biggest threat here is gaining weight," huffed a beefy airman.

Once a week the command opens an Iraqi bazaar where real Iraqis come to sell souvenirs and crafts. A large sign outside proclaims "No Bargaining," thus prohibiting the social interaction integral to a Middle East marketplace.

Down at the cement factory, operations are supervised by a demonstrative young Turkish woman who favors skin-tight jeans, cowboy boots and strategically tight white blouses. Soldiers try to find an excuse to drop by.

... rising powers ... are creating a strategically tight market for the rest of the world.

"I'd like to think I'm a strategically tight player, but I'm going to keep people guessing, at least for a while."

... those kind of strategically tight and faded jeans that made men glad to be alive.

Having ascended to the pop stratosphere with a Top 40 anthem and strategically tight, white underwear, Wahlberg legitimized his pop-icon status by appearing in one of the best American films of the last 10 years.

A Day in the Life of a Fobbit

Obviously there are many, many people who could do what I am doing, if there were only more companies with the wisdom to employ them in this kind of work.

And what is this work? This work is democratic dialogue work. This work is the many speaking; this is the work of a national dialogue. That is what we are doing. We are, in essence, every day as we converse and compose intimate portraits of ourselves for critique and commentary, creating the kind of country we want to live in.

And so what kind of country do I want to live in? I want to live in the kind of country where a woman doesn't get slapped for wearing a "Kitty Not Happy" T-shirt.

Customers who bought this item also bought:

Happy Kitty Bunny Pony: A Saccharine Mouthful of Super Cute, by MST3K's Mike Nelson

What is it about fluffy bunnies with bows, baby ducks splashing in puddles, kittens snuggled in baskets, and little lambs on their way to school?

Happy Kitty Bunny Pony celebrates America's "cult of the cute" in all its campy, kitschy, ironic glory.

'Kitty Not Happy'