Ignorance may be bliss, but it can also be expensive. Insufficiently knowledgeable computer users are downloading and paying for fake security software in increasing numbers, creating massive revenue for cybercriminals.

Free security apps are linked in the sidebar ...

In an era of ubiquitous broadband, smartphones, and users who manage multiple computers and devices, it just makes sense to move your email, photos, documents, calendar, notes, finances, and contacts to awesome web applications like Gmail, Evernote, Flickr, Google Docs, Mint, etc. But transferring your personal data to hosted web applications has its potential pitfalls, risks that get lost in all the hype around cloud-centric new products like Google's new Chrome OS or the iPhone. When you decide to move your data into the cloud, there are a few gotchas you should know about.

Dan Kaminsky and Kevin Mitnick, two of the biggest names in computer security circles, had their web sites hacked and their personal data posted online just as the Black Hat security conference gets under way in Las Vegas.

Invincibility + INVISIBILITY = Security

It's cheaper to be invisible than it is to be invincible.

In one of her first major speeches since she took the job, Secretary Napolitano hinted at a "new thinking" on how to tackle terrorist threats to the homeland, though she offered few substantive details. She stressed, however, that the new policy would have to balance the needs of security with the American values of individual liberty.

In that ones liberty is always in direct proportion to ones security, she must be referring to people giving up THEIR liberty to improve SOMEONE ELSE'S security.

In the current issue of journal IEEE Intelligent Systems, two engineers propose alternative laws to rewrite our future with robots.

Interesting ...

While surveillance video keeps growing, it's a continuing source of amazement that so few standards exist. The biggest brands of turnkey surveillance systems benefit from proprietary standards that help lock out would-be competitors, partly explaining the predicament. There are many IP cameras available, but compatibility between brands is perennially problematic. Fortunately for companies looking to enter or expand in this market, help is on the way, in the form of two new open standards for the security video market. While these two new security video standards are not technically in conflict with each other, they do reflect very different visions of the future of security video.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is not saying which train will include the cameras, or what line it will be on. But the agency wants to see whether the cameras can help deter crime and aid officials in emergencies.

I think they already know that they won't deter crime and that they will only aid officials to the detriment of the rest of us, so maybe they're just seeing if they can get away with it...

During an intelligence briefing Monday at the U.S. Coast Guard's Puget Sound Joint Harbor Operations Center, which is in Seattle, Ms. Napolitano pressed officials from participating agencies to name a tangible benefit from the fusion centers in terms of disrupting a specific plot, which they were unable to do. But in an interview later, she said she believes the centers are valuable and will push plans to get intelligence professionals from Washington working at all the sites.

We need to get all this out of the news and establish a normalcy that will still be effective 5-10-15 years from now, because they're not going to go for it when we are obviously ready for them (or at least still have them in mind). One approach might be to fill line-level DHS jobs with high-school graduates that do some intense training for a few months, serve for four years while getting DHS-paid college tuition, and then resume their normal lives. Over time, we get security service from young, motivated people who then go out into the normal world, which results in a higher level of security-awareness in the general citizenry.

Hailing from the 1960s to the early 1990s, here are 10 spacecraft and satellites—by no means an exhaustive list—that refuse to give up the ghost decades after deployment.

Impressive, somehow ...

Goodwin said Heath had set up traps with the most productive camera placed in such a way as to snare out-of-town visitors as they enter the city on route 79. The camera is difficult to see on a curve where the speed limit suddenly drops from 50 MPH to 35. She believes this has already had a negative impact on the city. “Many businesses are seeing fewer customers in their stores and less traffic on 79 due to the cameras,” Goodwin said. “Customers have called and told businesses they will not be back unless the cameras come down. We believe the voters will come out and support the issue to ban the cameras.”

While they're at it, they may want to look at replacing the weasels that bought into the system to begin with ...

Instead of reporting, each time an armed robbery, home invasion, or car-jacking occurred, that the violent attacker did NOT have a license to carry, the news media set about to publish lists containing the private, personal information of license-holders, not unlike the state publishes records about registered sex offenders.

On the plus side, there are a lot of pols that are figuring out that losing ONLY the gun nut vote is enough to keep you out of office ...

While victims face multiple offenders in only about 24% of all violent crimes, [93] the victims in our sample who used guns faced multiple offenders in 53% of the incidents. [94] This mirrors the observation that criminals who use guns are also more likely than unarmed criminals to face multiple victims. [95] A gun allows either criminals or victims to handle a larger number of adversaries. Many victims facing multiple offenders probably would not resist at all if they were without a gun or some other weapon. Another possible interpretation is that some victims will resort to a defensive measure as serious as wielding a gun only if they face the most desperate circumstances. Again, this finding contradicts a view that gun defenders face easier circumstances than other crime victims.

Lots of interesting, peer-reviewed facts ...

(via Examiner.com)

“When the police arrived and arrested Colin, I was gobsmacked. It was heartbreaking to see him handcuffed and carted off like a common criminal – he is a hardworking, honest family man. “Any action taken by my husband was as a result of a desire to protect his family and loved ones, and to defend his property.”

Hmmm ... gobsmacked ...

But in an interview with a German Sunday newspaper it was reported he 'gets quite angry' if it is suggested he has become rich through a horror-virus, the fear of which is gripping the world. 'No person ever said on his death bed: I only wish I had earned more money in my life,' he said. 'When it gets to the end one wants to look back and have the feeling that one was important in the lives of others, perhaps to have changed them positively.'

I recommend being damn glad that cash is the motivation that it is ...

A brash Kuwaiti financier facing a fraud suit by U.S. authorities was found dead Sunday in an apparent suicide that sent shockwaves through the Gulf Arab financial sector. A security source told Reuters that Hazem Al-Braikan appeared to have died from a single gunshot wound to the side of the head, while a policeman standing outside Braikan's house said the well-connected financier, 37, had shot himself.

Even the ethics of creating an intelligence get a look in, which is something even the theologians don’t seem to have dealt with much. Getting taught ethics by humans may be like getting taught hairdressing by the Grim Reaper, but it’s nice to know someone’s willing to try.

Hmmm ...

The common legend involves the young woman Yim Wing Chun (Wing Chun literally means beautiful springtime or praising spring) at the time after the destruction of the Southern Shaolin and its associated temples by the Qing government. After Wing Chun rebuffs the local warlord’s marriage offer, he says he’ll rescind his proposal if she can beat him in a martial art match fight. She asks a Buddhist nun- Ng Mui, who was one of the Shaolin Sect survivors, to teach her boxing; this still nameless style enables Yim Wing Chun to defeat the warlord. She thereafter marries Leung Bac-Chou and teaches him the style, which he names after her.

Interesting discussion about Wing Chun ...

DHS has serious and well-documented deficiencies. Among them is an abundance of political appointees, which means high turnover and a regular loss of institutional knowledge. Moreover, DHS's authorities are plagued by a host of jurisdictional conflicts between federal, state, and local governments and the private sector when it comes to disaster preparedness and response. The struggle to respond to Hurricane Katrina is a prime example. And the overabundance of congressional oversight runs in direct opposition to one of the key recommendations of the 9/11 commission, which urged a more streamlined oversight process.

We worry too much about things being to big to fail ...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to speedily react to a public health threat posed by formaldehyde-contaminated trailers it provided to Hurricane Katrina victims, according to a report (PDF) released Thursday night by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. The report bolsters the findings of a ProPublica investigation published last year, which found that FEMA misused a flawed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study to suppress public concerns about the formaldehyde problem.

Hmmm ...

Alarm tech

SimpliSafe seems like a pretty simple (get it?) home security system for those of us who value our safety, but not enough to get a professional security system installed and, especially, anyone who lives in an apartment or moves around a lot.

I'm not familiar with the REFLEX band but the unit looks like simplicity itself ...

I love it when they fight back ...

40 year old Dallas Helton, of Paint Lick, KY, was allegedly wearing a ski mask and gloves, while carrying a crow bar, as he broke in to a Cartersville, KY home. The owner of the rural home fired one shot in self defense, saving himself from violent attack, and fatally wounding the home invader. The home owner then called police, who found two people waiting outside the home in a car. Police reportedly arrested Tanya A. Fowler, the deceased home invader's wife, and a juvenile identified as their son. Fowler has reportedly been charged with complicity to commit burglary in the second degree, and the juvenile was released to the custody of relatives.

The U.S. military currently has 72 contracts that provide 5,600 civilian guards, mostly local Afghans, at forward bases across Afghanistan, according to Lt. Cmdr. Christine M. Sidenstricker, chief of media operations for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. The intent of the proposed contract is to bring all "disparate and subordinate contracts" under single, theater-wide management at a time when the U.S. forces are expanding, she said.

My suspicion is that we're buying friends amongst the harder classes, because using military personnel will typically result in much better security ...

This new report today from The New York Times' Mark Mazzetti and David Johnston reveals an entirely unsurprising though still important event: in 2002, Dick Cheney and David Addington urged that U.S. military troops be used to arrest and detain American citizens, inside the U.S., who were suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda. That was done pursuant to a previously released DOJ memo (.pdf) authored by John Yoo and Robert Delahunty, addressed to Alberto Gonzales, dated October 23, 2001, and chillingly entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the U.S." That Memo had concluded that the President had authority to deploy the U.S. military against American citizens on U.S. soil. Far worse, it asserted that in exercising that power, the President could not be bound either by Congressional statutes prohibiting such use (such as the Posse Comitatus Act) or even by the Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which -- the Memo concluded -- was "inapplicable" to what it called "domestic military operations."

14. These phrases: “right of the people peaceably to assemble,” “right of the people to be secure in their homes,” “enumerations herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people,” and “The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people” all refer to individuals, but “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” refers to the state.

I've had this list up before, but it's worth repeating ...

Clocks, Falkenberg said, may carry cameras inside. If you look closely, Falkenberg said, you can see the camera. And these cameras aren't rigged this way. You can buy them online, and they have nightvision capabilities and motion detection. To avoid being taped with an electronic device like this, Falkenberg suggested bringing your own electronics to hotels and removing as many as you can that you don't need. Also, if there are two smoke detectors in a room Falkenberg said something may be very wrong. A smoke detector, he explained, can give a 360 degree view of the room, and more than one camera may be stashed away inside.

When in doubt, cover with duct tape ...

The case unfolded June 26 when groups of people began brawling outside Club Cohiba around closing time. Fonoti, who was providing security at an event at the club, unsuccessfully tried to stop the fights before allegedly fired his gun in the air. The bullet traveled over a mile and struck the 49-year-old unidentified woman, who was sleeping on her deck. Fonoti, who could not be reached for comment, was arrested that night and released on bond, according to the Los Angeles County sheriff's website.

Always a bad idea ...

Yemeni security forces on Thursday opened fire on thousands of protesters in the south chanting anti-government slogans, killing 12 and wounding scores of others, medics and eyewitnesses said.

Hmmm, no mention of the protesters firing back ... must not be citizens ...

The most frequent questions I get about LCROSS go something like, “You’ve been flying for ‘x’ days…aren’t you at the moon already?”, “Why does it take so long to reach the moon?”, or “What are you doing with all the extra time between now and impact?” Admittedly, the answers are hard to communicate, because the LCROSS mission profile isn’t as straightforward as one might guess.

Interesting, but somewhat crunchy ...

Gatesgate ...

The major debate seems to be centered around two questions. First, were the police justified in arresting Gates? Secondly, was the President justified in using the "stupidly" remark? The answer to the second question obviously depends to a large degree on the first. As the President said we do not have all the facts but we do know some things.

I do love it when they fight back ...

A 74 year old man, whose name has not been released, was parked in front of his house, waiting to take his wife and daughter to the airport. An assailant, believed to be 18 years old, approached the man when he opened the car door, put a knife to the man's throat, and threatened his life as part of a carjacking attempt. The man was able to grab his gun and shot the attacker twice in the chest. The attacker then fled. On a nearby street, a suspect suffering from two gunshot wounds to the chest was found unconscious, and taken to a nearby hospital. Police interviewed the 74 year old man, and do not expect to file any charges against him in this justified self defense shooting.

Martial arts classes can be a fantastic vehicle for your son or daughter's personal development. As noted, exposure to the training goes much further than simply learning techniques. The instruction teaches personal refinement and self-control. It provides focus and discipline for kids. It strengthens both their mind and body, and offers improved agility and coordination. That said, selecting the right martial arts school for your children requires thought and research. You'll need to consider factors such as the ongoing costs, your child's age, signing contracts, and the dojo's philosophy. You should also let your child contribute to the decision.

Interesting thoughts on CCW reciprocity

Imagine you're visiting Idaho or Arizona. A cop pulls you over and asks to see your driver's license. Then, even though your license is current, he draws his sidearm, cuffs you, and hauls you off to the calaboose. Your crime? You were driving on a Nevada license; you neglected to get a new and separate driver's license, in advance, for each state you're planning to pass through. Ridiculous? Of course it is. Article IV of the Constitution stipulates, "Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state," and Congress is empowered to make laws describing how "such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved." So if you're married (or divorced) in Nevada, your status remains unchanged when you visit Arizona. The other 49 states also have to honor your license. But in fact, the situation described above is precisely what confronts a law-abiding gun owner who wants to carry his weapon on an interstate trip. Some states honor the "concealed carry permits" of some other states, but not of others. Get out a map, take a few months and a few thousand dollars, send away for the varying requirement to obtain "permits" from seven or eight states -- some of which you may have no intention of visiting -- in order to have a fair chance of being legal wherever you travel (though you can forget New York, California, Washington or Chicago).

The legal revisions were made last November after a dagger was used in a random attack in Akihabara in June 2008, which left seven people dead and 10 others injured. The ban covers double-edged knives, including daggers, with blades measuring 5.5 centimeters or longer. Offenders may receive a prison term of up to three years or a fine of up to 500,000 yen. Police have already taken action in 11 cases where people were caught carrying such knives, an act not covered by the grace period. Calling on owners to voluntarily hand in knives, they initially collected about 500 blades a month, but received about 8,600 in the last month.

Gee whiz, it sucks to be a subject ...

A 50-year-old former wushu champ chased and caught a motorcycle-borne thief who snatched his wife's gold necklace in Dongan county, Hunan province, on Monday. Yi Yuankun kicked off his leather shoes and ran barefoot to catch the thief. Yi, a wushu champion in his county in 1984 and 1986, handed over the thief, wanted for many years, to the police.

Ya gotta love that ...

What happened between Sun's admission of the missing prototype and his suicide is in dispute. According to various sources, including China Radio International and VentureBeat, Sun was allegedly beaten during a search of his apartment by Foxconn security personnel. A few hours later, Sun committed suicide - an act that was videotaped by security cameras.

The Russian government has issued an order telling postal workers that police and security agents have a right to open mail, causing alarm among rights advocates who fear a return to the Soviet-era tactics of the KGB.

They merely have the power ...

His rehabilitation will sicken families whose loved ones were killed at Lockerbie and in Northern Ireland by bombs supplied by Libyan agents. Muammar Gaddafi is today, though, a close ally in the fight against international terrorism. As one observer told me on a recent visit to Libya: “If there is one thing that keeps Gaddafi up at night, it is probably the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.” The eyes and ears of his pervasive police state work closely with Western agencies in the fight against global jihad. His return to the top table of international politics began in 2003 when he surrendered his weapons of mass destruction programmes. He delivered the Lockerbie bombing suspects for trial. And in November 2008 he agreed to a $1.8 billion compensation package for bomb victims. His relationship with the West was revived at a stroke and the pariah state opened its doors to foreign trade.

Mr. Kasich holds the key to the one glaring hole in his conservative pedigree in his hands. All he has to do is make it clear to gun owners that he won't support new gun control schemes, and he is likely to win back their support. If he doesn't, there will always be that nagging question in the mind of Ohio's gun voters. And keep this in mind - Ohio's gun vote is one of the largest in the country, and was likely the difference between President Bush and President Gore or President Kerry.

But while Sufism is no doubt fascinating in its diversity and complexity, can it really bend terrorist swords into plowshares? The question is most urgent in South Asia, home to more than a third of the world's Muslims and the historic cradle of Sufi Islam. Shrines of Sufi saints are ubiquitous in India and Pakistan and still attract thousands of devotees from all sectors of society. Yet the Taliban in Pakistan have set about destroying such sites, which are anathema to their literalist interpretation of the Koran. "Despite our ancient religious tradition," says Ayeda Naqvi, a writer and Sufi scholar from Lahore, "we are being bullied and intimidated by a new form of religion that is barely one generation old."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just published "Surveillance Self-Defense International: 6 Ideas For Those Needing Defensive Technology to Protect Free Speech from Authoritarian Regimes and 4 Ways the Rest of Us Can Help."

EFF does a lot of good work ...

(via Boing Boing)

If you happen to be in Hong Kong between July 22nd and August 1st, you might want to check out the first ever Hong Kong International Kung Fu Festival.

This looks like fun ...

Improvised weapons

... using a metal ball in a sock as an improvised weapon.

Sounds effective ...

"I'm scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner," he says at one point in the 28-minute recording. "I have my girlfriend who is hoping to marry. . . . I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America."

It's hard to watch this video and not want to convert a lot of Talibani M to E via C-squared multiplication ...

Police in San Diego County were searching Sunday for a suspect who shot an on-duty security officer twice on a light-rail train platform and then stole the officer's gun and ammunition before fleeing.

Always remember, today's the day - everyday!

In January, researchers of the INT applied for a patent of a technology which allows the horns of parked cars to be activated in case of disaster. The technology is based on the eCall emergency system, which new cars are going to be equipped with as from September 2010. The eCall system was developed at the initiative of the EU Commission to help reduce the number of road traffic fatalities. It consists of a GPS sensor and a mobile phone component, which is activated only in case of an accident (i.e. when the airbags are triggered) and which can transmit data (e.g. accident time, coordinates and driving direction of the vehicle) to an emergency call center.

Hmmm ... can't think of any way for this to be misused ...

Lots of interesting stuff here ...

Filthy lucre ...

Every time I write something about the incredible feat of putting someone on the Moon, as happened almost exactly 40 years ago, there is an inevitable chorus of criticism - much of it justified - about how the huge sums of taxpayers' money involved rendered the project beyond the pale, even if the critics grudgingly accept what a great adventure the whole thing was. It has to be accepted that by "crowding out" private space initiatives in the way they did, government agencies both in the US, former USSR and elsewhere have arguably retarded more promising, long-term space ventures that might have got off the ground. The existence of large, politically directed agencies like Nasa do not help innovation, either. Consider how quickly the aircraft design process occured from the Wright Brothers and through to the jet age, and then compare the rate of progress of space flight over the past 40 years. It is not a flattering comparison. So this is precisely why Dale Amon is so right to comment on stuff like this.

I really like that I was able to use 'lucre' in a title ... thanks to Samizdata.net ...

The rules of these battles are simple and sparse. Eye-gouging, groin shots, biting, head-to-head contact, and other primitive techniques are disallowed. Common offensive maneuvres are kicks, punches, knees, elbows, takedowns, and throws. Through these techniques, fighters often shift from standing and trading strikes to grappling on the ground.

I've been meaning to mention this for awhile, now. This particular practice of MA is supposed to be the most realistic, but keep in mind that when a competitor 'shoots in' all of his opponents buddies don't rush in and start stomping on the back of his neck and kicking his kidneys the way they do in real life! Know what to do on the ground, but don't ever go there voluntarily unless your own associates are more numerous and of superior quality to those of your opponent ...

A whole slew of cool HDR ...

Joshua Mumata and his father traveled from Joppa, Mo., to attend the Legends of Kung Fu Martial Arts Championship on Saturday. Joshua, who is 10, doesn't play soccer, baseball, basketball or any other team sport. He focuses entirely on kung fu, practicing an hour or two a day and attending four classes per week."It's fun," he said. "It teaches me self-discipline and self-defense."Joshua joined about 500 other participants ranging in age from 5 to 82 at the three-day event, which is being held at the Plano Centre and ends today. They came from around the U.S. and from other countries, such as China and Japan, said organizer Jimmy Wong.

You don't hear a great deal about 'light contact' and demo events anymore ... their vibe is a cross between a gun show and a church picnic, only with simulated beatings ... what a great time ...

In Indonesia, security is tight at five-star hotels, where guests must typically walk through metal detectors and vehicles are inspected. But many visitors say searches are often cursory. Defense analyst Paul Beaver, former top editor at Jane's Defense Weekly, said putting in place the kind of stringent security measures needed to help prevent attacks was difficult for hotels - and risked making properties that are supposed to be welcoming to weary travelers feel like prisons. "You don't want to embarrass your guests with security measures," he said, noting that plotters in dozens of countries can also alter tactics based on experience gained from prior attacks. "This is the risk we take. There are a number of attacks like these waiting to happen."

This is the real difficulty in commercial security operations. If the operation is very pro-active at all, the guest will only put up with it for a very short while, and having a reactive operation in a bombing situation is like having no security at all ...

Uhhh ... stick your fingers in it's eyes and say hello ...

Scientists at US DOE's (Department of Energy's) Argonne National Laboratory have devised a program that allows for Cyber Security defense systems to communicate when attacked and transmit that information to cyber systems at other institutions in the hopes of strengthening the overall cyber security posture of the complex.

Hmmm ... sounds like it might be useful in some instances ...

A man says he used his chainsaw to fight off a starving mountain lion that attacked him while he was camping in the Shoshone National Forest.

Damn convenient having a chain-saw running when the lion attacks. If I were him I'd head for Vegas ...

There have not been any major bomb blasts in Indonesia for several years while this month's presidential elections passed off peacefully, underscoring the progress made by the world's most populous Muslim nation since the chaos and violence that surrounded the downfall of ex-autocrat Suharto in the late 1990s.

That seems to be over ...

The power to protect the nation, said Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist, "ought to exist without limitation," because "it is impossible to foresee or define the extent and variety of national exigencies, or the correspondent extent & variety of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them." To limit the president's constitutional power to protect the nation from foreign threats is simply foolhardy. Hamilton observed that "decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch will generally characterize the proceedings of one man, in a much more eminent degree, than the proceedings of any greater number." "Energy in the executive," he reiterated, "is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks."

My suspicion is that if they had said "Hey, we were looking everywhere but if it didn't lead to actual terror cells we simply forgot it" instead of "Oh, were only doing it for national security but if we find evidence of people doing other crimes we're referring it to the regular prosecutors" it probably would have been OK. Also, it strikes me as valid as an exception for about six months until you can get up to speed. After five or six years, your just taking advantage ...

What is the purpose of every security program, security policy, security device and/or security barrier, to name a few? Answer: To alter behavior!

Interesting ...

Whether "big" science is any better than "small" science is a matter of controversy. Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory Alvin Weinberg (who coined the term "Big Science" in the 1960s) defended the organization and big-budget financing of Big Science as the only way to continue research into progressively more complex scientific matters. On the other hand, science historian Paul Forman posited that defense-related funding by the government shifted the focus in physics from basic to applied research.

Gotta love it ...

As of today, you can carry a gun into a bar or restaurant in Tennessee -- that is, those which don't decide on their own to ban them. And I predict it won't take long for state legislators to regret passing that law. Nearly every weekend I see police reports on fights in bars. And I'll admit that, in all honesty, there probably have been unseen guns on bar customers for years. But with guns legally allowed, watch out for gunfire to start erupting. Guns, alcohol and anger don't mix well.

It's weird how these predictions never come to pass. I'd think the folks making them would get tired of being wrong all the time ...

As I previously discussed in greater detail, robbery is a crime against the victim’s person more so than against their property. That is true even when the robber takes only a few dollars of cash. But when the robber breaks into a person’s home, pistol whips that person, pulls the prosthetic legs off their body, and then dumps those legs in an alley, that is an offense against the victim’s person like no other.

Really need to vote the weasels out ...

Let’s say you’re a kawaii loving Harajuku girl. Until now, it was almost impossible to balance your desire for almost painful, over the top cuteness with a serious weapon of self defense. That has changed, thanks to the Hello Kitty Taser Gun. So the next time some random degenerate tries to snap some upskirt photos with their cellphone, your favorite Harajuku princess will be ready:

Criminy ...

Travelling at a speed of 0.7c is the “break even” point, where the combination of spacecraft velocity and Lorentz Contraction means you are travelling at “functional light speed” (the distance to Alpha Centauri in that frame would be 3.1 light-years and the travel time 4 years, 5 months). Of course time passes at different rates based upon their relative speeds as well, a phenomena called relativistic time dilation, so if Phaeton were travelling at a speed of .7c, for every year that passes for the crew, a year and five months would pass for The Edge of Never viewers back on Earth. Billie Kashmiri alludes to this in her confessional near the end.

Really crunchy, and really interesting ...

Determining the launching State for each of more than 19,000 objects in orbit currently being tracked is an extremely daunting task. The US military tackles this through a process of “cradle to grave” surveillance, meaning that they attempt to maintain an orbital history of an object from the moment it is launched to the moment it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere. It should be noted that this does not mean every object is continuously tracked all the time: the technique employed is one of periodic spot checks to determine an object’s position at various points.

Hmmm ... crunchy, but interesting. Horrifying pic at the top, too!

Arizonans with concealed weapons permits will be allowed to take a handgun into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol under a bill signed Monday by Gov. Jan Brewer.

I think the Alaska/Vermont model is the only way to go, but congrats to our AZ brethren (and sistren) anyway ...

As reported, a robber entered the Golden Food Market in South Richmond, VA. The criminal then opened fire on the shopkeeper and several customers, wounding the shopkeeper. A friend of the store owner happened to be in the store, saw the robbery, and drew his revolver. Before the robber to kill the shopkeeper or harm any customers, the armed citizen shot and wounded the robber, putting an end to the attack. The shopkeeper is expected to recover, and the robber was apprehended by police. The shopkeeper referred to the armed citizen who stopped the violent robber as a “guardian angel.”

Rather, my point is how the ordinance seems to deliberately marginalize defensive purposes for gun ownership. Sporting purposes are labeled legitimate, and other purposes, including defensive ones, are labeled illegitimate. And of course if that is broadly done and broadly accepted -- once people buy into the notion that the legitimacy of gun use rests on its "sporting" applications -- further steps towards broader gun and ammunition bans become much easier. After all, the only thing that would be at stake in such bans would be "sport"; how can that measure up against the supposed crime-fighting (or even accident-fighting) benefits of gun control? Why not require that all guns and ammunition be stored at the range or at the hunting lodge, and never at home? Why not even ban the sport altogether, in the interests of saving lives?

Volokh is always interesting ...

"Research by the Violence Policy Center found that from 1996 to 2000, Texas concealed handgun license holders were arrested for weapon-related offenses at a rate 81 percent higher than that of the general population of Texas, aged 21 and older.

And just so you can look it up yourself, we're going to cite the study like all the ... what's that ... erm ... ahhh ... never mind.

“A Muslim cannot be a terrorist and a terrorist cannot be a Muslim, because the inhuman methods used by terrorist are not in accord with what Islam teaches,” Jilani said.

There isn't a great deal of info in this post, but I think that if there is Islamic canon that refutes terrorism, getting it widely disseminated is probably the most effective long term solution to the Islamic terrorism problem. Drive it home that Muslims DO NOT serve Allah by blowing up babies ...

"The moon will essentially walk around underneath the orbiter," says Garvin. "With the detail we get in the photographs, every picture will be like a mini-landing." That includes photos of the Apollo sites, all half-dozen of which should have their portraits snapped. If NASA gets lucky, Garvin believes the first such images could be in hand by the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, on July 20.

The project, spearheaded by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and made possible by AOL, goes through 11 stages of the original Apollo 11 mission. It is a full-featured Flash website that recreates the mission. It provides information on the astronauts, has mission countdown timers, displays the current status of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, and even updates you on the mission status via Twitter. Clicking on the pulsating icons will provide image galleries, videos, and more.

This looks like fun ...

And then? "In the first quarter of 2016, we'll prep and de-orbit the spacecraft," says NASA's space station program manager, Michael T. Suffredini. That's a polite way of saying that NASA will make the space station fall back into the atmosphere, where it will turn into a fireball and then crash into the Pacific Ocean. It'll be a controlled reentry, to ensure that it doesn't take out a major city. But it'll be destroyed as surely as a Lego palace obliterated by the sweeping arm of a suddenly bored kid.

I would think that there should be some group of businesses that could afford to keep it in orbit. I would think that materials and pharma could do a very profitable business having access to zero-G development labs ...

Oklahoma's self-defense law states that you can shoot if you perceive your life is being threatened, but once the threat is neutralized, you have to stop shooting. If you don't, you've committed a crime, and it doesn't matter if you're fed up, if you think criminals deserve it, or if you've been the victim of violent crime. That is, if you really do believe that you have to follow the strict construction of the law and you believe that empathy shouldn't play a part in adjudicating a case like this. If you are a strict constructionist, that means you support Mr. Ersland being punished if found guilty of breaking the law, yet I'm wondering how many who consider themselves "strict constructionists" and who rail against "activists judges," would take an activist view and say to hell with the law? Imagine he's found guilty and the judge, rather than following the letter of the law, suspends any jail sentence and let's Mr. Ersland go free? That would be applauded by the many conservatives in the Oklahoma newspaper threat who think Ersland did the right thing. Why? Because we're empathetic.

Very interesting ...

One fine day about 74,000 years ago, a giant volcano on Sumatra blew its top. The volcano, named Toba, may have ejected 1000 times more rock and other material than Mount St. Helens in Washington state did in 1980. In the process, it cooled the climate by at least 10°C, causing a global famine. But could the aftermath have been even worse? A new study puts to rest questions about whether Toba plunged Earth into a 1000-year deep freeze and whether an equivalent event today could jump-start a new, millennia-long ice age.

This I can buy ...

Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.

I'm not sure whose security these are supposed to improve but I think it's clear that it isn't the people being required to have the embedded documents ...

Scientists have devised a hair test that the government hopes will help check the alibis of terrorist suspects and asylum seekers. They believe new laser scans of individual hair strands can reveal where a person has been living for the previous two months. Researchers at the National Metrology Institute in Teddington, Middlesex, have developed the laser to measure tiny changes in hair that are caused by diet or the immediate environment.

I hope they prove this before they start acting on the results ...

The CIA withheld information about a secret counter-terrorism program from Congress for eight years on orders from former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, the New York Times said on Saturday. Citing two unidentified sources, the newspaper said Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta disclosed Cheney's involvement in closed briefings to congressional intelligence committees late last month.

Hmmm ...

Lieberman, I-Ct., said the GAO's probe included such troubling findings as a report that 73 percent of FPS contract guards lacked valid certifications and a report that one security guard allowed a baby to pass through an X-ray machine -- breaches in security he said make the country vulnerable to terrorist attack. Lieberman said the guard, who was later fired, filed a lawsuit and won after FPS could not provide sufficient proof that he had been properly trained. The GAO report found that a vast majority of security guards received no X-ray or metal detection training at all.

Do not let the hedges, shrubs, trees and bushes that are near the windows of your property to become overgrown, as this can provide a burglar with a convenient hiding place on your property, making it more likely that they will target your home.

I would change this one to replace them with large rosebushes (the baddies really hate getting all cut up during burglaries), but the rest of the ideas sound good ...

No one was killed but one woman who described the chaos said she's lost feeling in much of her leg as a result of the bullet that passed through her knee that day. Carrie Zerivica said she has filed suit against New York New York for what she calls lax security there.

I wonder what her qualifications are for judging the security ...

More really cool HDR ...

Fears about the purpose and origins of the cyber-offensive grew after South Korea's National Intelligence Service reported suspicions that "North Korea or its sympathizers" were masterminding the attack on South Korean websites.

It's odd that backward little NoKor could pull this off.

This is a bigger deal than might appear at first glance. Any computation can be expressed as a Boolean circuit: a series of additions and multiplications. Your computer consists of a zillion Boolean circuits, and you can run programs to do anything on your computer. This algorithm means you can perform arbitrary computations on homomorphically encrypted data. More concretely: if you encrypt data in a fully homomorphic cryptosystem, you can ship that encrypted data to an untrusted person and that person can perform arbitrary computations on that data without being able to decrypt the data itself. Imagine what that would mean for cloud computing, or any outsourcing infrastructure: you no longer have to trust the outsourcer with the data.

Hmmm ... crunchy!

A 13-year-old who celebrated the Fourth of July by tossing lit firecrackers into two local establishments could face terrorism charges for his actions. Jennings Police Det. Steve Gauthier said two people were transported to a local hospital as a result of the pranks.

I don't even know where to start on this one ...

Another argument, and one everyone should reject, is that some parents at youth sporting events are known to lose control of their better judgement and do stupid things such as starting fights. Some worry about what would happen if one of these parents had possession of a gun. Frankly, fear of such an event cannot be allowed to overrule common sense and deprive law abiding citizens of their constitutional rights.

It is probably worth considering the possibility that these parents behave irresponsibly specifically because they go through life not having to worry about catching an incoming round as a result of their irresponsible behavior. It has long been known that an armed society is a polite society. Anyone that grew up in places where every pickup had a loaded rifle rack in the back window will confirm that.

Some very cool HDR collections here and here.

Investigators carried liquid explosives and low-yield detonators -- materials investigators note are not normally carried into federal buildings. The GAO said security concerns prevent it from revealing the exact locations or cities of the affected facilities, but that eight of them were government owned, while two were leased. They included offices of a U.S. senator and House member, as well as offices for the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State, the GAO reported. In one instance, the GAO obtained a building security tape showing an investigator walking through a security checkpoint with bomb making materials.

Usually, this is a result of having exceptions to policies. Once there is an exception, exceptions become perks; and, at that point, you might as well toss the security policies all together because every time a policy enforcer challenges someone's right to an exception the enforcer will inevitably be challenging someone well up in the pecking order and will be penalized accordingly. Why risk enforcing the policy at the risk of losing your job? If you want effective security, don't allow exceptions.

For years, government officials have urged people to protect their Social Security numbers by giving out the nine-digit codes only when absolutely necessary. Now it turns out that all the caution in the world may not be enough: New research shows that Social Security numbers can be predicted from publicly available birth information with a surprising degree of accuracy.

Astronauts from the Apollo space endeavours described seeing odd flashes of light that were even visible with their eyes closed. Scientists have clarified that these flashes were cosmic rays; energetic particles emanating from outside the solar system. Cosmic rays constantly bombard earth’s atmosphere and have enough energy to negatively affect electronic components.

Interesting ...

''This is Washington's problem,'' said Mr. Timoney, referring to the federal ban on the sale of assault weapons, such as the AK-47, that Congress let lapse in 2007. Cowed by the NRA, Democrats and Republicans alike caved to the group's political strong-arming by failing to muster the votes to uphold the sensible, life-saving ban.

It's worth noting that the NRA is strong because it represents a large number of citizens that will absolutely VOTE YOU OUT for coming down wrong on this one issue.

Luke Sanchez, a 38 year old man from Belen, New Mexico and a former US Marine, was driving near his home when he saw a business bing burglarized. As someone who had been the victim of repeated crimes over the last few months, he felt a civic duty to help the business owner. He called 911, and followed the criminal’s van, trying to the their license plate number. The criminals realized they were being followed, stopped their van, and then and approached Sanchez’s truck. One of the criminals, who had a lengthy criminal record that included attacking a police officer, broke Sanchez’s truck’s window, hit Sanchez in the face, and tried to pull him from the vehicle. Fearing for his life, Sanchez fired one shot, which killed the violent criminal. The criminal’s accomplice then fled, and remains at large. Sanchez has been charged with murder for defending himself against the violent criminal, and remains in custody in lieu of a $100,000 bond.

Yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune had the front-page headline: "Co-sleeping kills about 20 infants each year." (The headline in the web article is different.) The only problem is, in either case, there's no additional information with which to make sense of the statistic. How many infants don't die each year? How many infants die each year in separate beds? Is the death rate for co-sleepers greater or less than the death rate for separate-bed sleepers? Without this information, it's impossible to know whether this statistic is good or bad.

Some Bruce ...

What most people don’t understand is that Tai Chi , ultimately, is not an art about making the body powerful. It is the space that is the body that is the intent of Tai Chi power. When you pretend you are fighting in slow motion you are feeding awareness into the body, and, eventually, you reach the conclusion that the body is merely a space within the universe.

Interesting description ...

Called Disruption Tolerant Networking, or DTN, the new technology will enable NASA and other space agencies around the world to better communicate with international fleets of spacecraft that will be used to explore the moon and Mars in the future. The technology is expected to lead to a working "Interplanetary Internet," said Kevin Gifford, a senior research associate at CU-Boulder's BioServe Space Technologies and a faculty member in the aerospace engineering sciences department.

A lawyer for a man accused of organizing fights among developmentally disabled Texans for entertainment argued Monday that cell phone videos of the events should be suppressed. The grainy cell phone videos showing the students forced to fight each other was expected to be the evidence centerpiece this week as four former employees at the Corpus Christi State School go on trial.

Oops ... must have forgotten that EVERYONE has video capability these days IN THEIR PHONES ...

The scale of such transformations is staggering. For example, at the beginning of the war in Iraq, US forces had no robotic systems on the ground. However, by 2004, they already deployed 150 robots, in 2005 there were 2,400; and by the end of 2008, about 12,000 robots of nearly two dozen varieties were operating on the ground, according to The New Atlantis.

Hmmm ...

The violent crime rate, per 100,000 people, in England is 2,034, while the violent crime rate here in America is 466. England has banned handguns, banned rifles, restricted the hell out of shotguns, and is starting to ban knives, and yet their violent crime rate is over four times America's. Is there a better indication that banning inanimate objects does not stop criminals?

Retail-shelf-friendly options, from simple front-door video intercom kits to IP-networked, wireless multi-camera systems, are gradually earning real estate in some CE chains and on many of the big-box stores' e-tailing sites. The intended audience: do-it-yourself consumers and small-business owners who are looking for low-cost alternatives to custom installations, according to multiple suppliers. There are currently a number of options on the market at price points less than $500.

There are some very reasonably priced kits out there, but don't overestimate the effect that it will have on your security ...

Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras. That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge sobriety checkpoints. "I think that's the whole point of this program," she told The Examiner. "It's designed to circumvent law enforcement -- law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives."

It's odd that she would find the citizen's use of tech to counteract her use of tech to be offensive. It has that 'It all started when he hit me back' quality ...

Some interesting thought on reciprocity ...

He added: "It did mean that we actually had to skew the conduct of operations to take account of the sorts of criticisms that we'd been subject to but been unable to counter because of what we couldn't say about forthcoming cases." But in remarks going beyond the world of policing, he appeared to question the wider basis for the contempt laws themselves. "There seems to be a presumption that juries are not capable with dealing with the information that's put before them, incapable of deciding whether something is probative or prejudicial to a defendant," he said.

It's good to know that it's not just here ...

"The security services may have been badly prepared, which explains why we arrested thousands of people," said Moroccan political analyst Mohamed Darif. "They have now begun to master the situation and no longer arrest just anyone."

That's nice ...

Plainly, the erosion of civil liberties and legal rights is a very slippery slope. While of concern in isolation, the impact of each measure has to be considered in conjunction with related attacks on the right of the accused, that only compound the effect. So far this year for instance we have seen the current government oversee the erosion of the power to remain silent. It has also enacted changes to the need for a unanimous decision by a jury of twelve of one’s peers, and also the abolition of the defence’s automatic right of access to witnesses in oral depositions during pre-trial proceedings.

Hmmm ... look up slippery slope and it's a picture of England ...

The Firearm Blog highlights a new California-legal AR-15 made by Daniel Defense. It has a magazine release that can only be triggered by a bullet tip or similarly-shaped tool so that it does not violate California's "assault weapon" ban. While it's easy to make fun of re-engineering rifles to meet goofy legal standards, Daniel Defense deserves credit for supporting the gun culture in California. It's an uphill battle.

Gun is here ...

In tiny, economically distressed Hardin, Mont., officials figure a brand-new, empty medium-security jail built two years ago for $27 million stands ready to have Guantanamo's displaced fill many of its 460 beds — even though the state's congressional delegation thinks it's a bad idea. Town leaders say the jail, conceived as a holding facility for drunks and other scofflaws, could be fortified with a couple of guard towers and razor wire. Many residents in Florence, Colo., also have spoken in favor of housing some of the Guantanamo detainees at the nearby federal supermax prison, which Colorado's Democratic governor, Bill Ritter, has called "well-suited" for the task.

I tend to wonder exactly how much security is actually necessary. Supermax detainees are all still just flesh and bone so anything beyond basic security measures such as steel bars and cement walls in the basic lock-up configuration is likely intended to see how inhumane we can be without having to admit it rather than serving any useful security purpose.

A Transportation Security Administration agent was arrested at a New Jersey airport after authorities say she avoided a pre-flight screening and boarded a plane.

This illustrates why leaving your security in the hands of others is a bad idea. They will not usually care about your security, particularly if it isn't you personally handing out the check each week.

If the size of your company grows past 150 people, it's time to get name badges. It's not that larger groups are somehow less secure, it's just that 150 is the cognitive limit to the number of people a human brain can maintain a coherent social relationship with.

Some Bruce ...

A good, basic video primer on how surveillance technology works ...

The case is well known to gun people because the death weapon was Fish’s Kimber 10mm semiautomatic pistol, loaded with Federal hollow point ammunition, and the prosecution made a huge deal about the powerful weapon and its deadly dum-dum bullets. These arguments were not effectively countered by defense counsel at trial, and jurors later stated that these factors did indeed influence their decision to convict. Significantly, none of that is addressed in the appellate court’s opinion, which tells us that it’s wise to be able to explain to lay people on a jury why we use the firearms and ammo we do to protect ourselves.

TSSAA said it practices a zero tolerance policy on school grounds with weapons, and that extends to off-campus events like Spring Fling.No guns are allowed during the tournament.The city can vote to opt out of the new guns in parks law, but one Murfreesboro councilman said one yearly event shouldn't dictate all policy.

Maybe some pressure should be brought to bare on the TSSAA folks who, by adopting ANY zero tolerance policy, seem to be saying that they don't want to be called on to use judgment ...

Chief Superintendent Isagani Cuevas, Western Visayas police director, said in a statement that his office was finalizing plans for the implementation of the ban on the 1,032-hectare island-resort. He said the measure was included in a comprehensive plan to improve peace and order and to avert terrorist attacks on tourist destinations. Similar steps will be undertaken on Guimaras Island, another tourist destination in the Visayas. The ban will cover all persons entering the island and off-duty security guards and law enforcers. Off-duty security guards, especially those outside the areas of their assignment, will be prohibited from carrying firearms. The ban will also cover policemen and members of the Armed Forces who are not in uniform, as well as the security aides of politicians and officials.

Another model of effectiveness, no doubt ...

Another type of home security camera is the wireless Internet camera. This camera can be placed anywhere in your home and sends images to the Internet and can be accessed anywhere with an Internet connection. You may have seen the news report about a woman in Florida who happened to check her home Internet camera from work only to discover that a group of men were invading her home and stealing her possessions. She was able to call the police while she was watching and watch the police arrest the thieves. This situation is precisely why homeowners need to have home security cameras.

Make sure that the internet-exposed parts are hard-encrypted so that ONLY you can access them ...

The biggest lie of all, though, is that these ccw holders are going to be shooting up bars and restaurants. What the anti-gunners won't tell you is that 39 other states have somecriminals who do so. Some states even allow permit holders to consume alcohol while they're carrying and yet still there are no problems. Lawful gun owners are responsible, trustworthy, and law abiding. It is the armed robbers, muggers, rapists, gang members, and killers that are the problem. The very people that armed citizens are wanting to defend themselves against. provision in their laws for citizens to be allowed to carry firearms into places that serve alcohol, and in not one of these states is it a problem. Lawfully armed citizens aren't the ones breaking the laws, it is the

Nevada has created new requirements for those seeking a Concealed Carry permit in their state. You must fire and qualify with the weapon you are going to carry in Nevada, but this is not true in Utah, so reciprocity between the states is no longer valid.

Vermont and Alaska are certainly the American Heroes in this area of interest ...

On the other hand, the Solar Impulse -- a new Swiss solar-powered aircraft that was unveiled on Friday -- could have commercial uses (though as of yet, it only has enough space for the pilot). As we reported last month, the aircraft, which doesn't require a single drop of fuel, is designed to run on sunlight alone, as its four engines would be powered by electricity converted via the wings' solar cells. Thanks to this design, the aircraft has the potential to stick around in the air for longer than your average airliner.

There's a cool photo with the article ...

In March 1982, 25 years ago, the small town of Kennesaw – responding to a handgun ban in Morton Grove, Ill. – unanimously passed an ordinance requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun. Since then, despite dire predictions of “Wild West” showdowns and increased violence and accidents, not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting – as a victim, attacker or defender. The crime rate initially plummeted for several years after the passage of the ordinance, with the 2005 per capita crime rate actually significantly lower than it was in 1981, the year before passage of the law.

Kinda hard to argue with ...

Scientists with the University of Arizona-led Phoenix Mars Mission are publishing research today that advances the theory that water once flowed and the Red Planet was once habitable. Researchers found a lot of the basic ingredients that life needs to survive, including water in the form of ice, various minerals and a salt called perchlorate that microbes on Earth use as an energy source.

It's a frequent scene in television crime dramas: Clever police technicians zoom in on a security camera video to read a license plate or capture the face of a hold-up artist. But in real life, enhancing this low-quality video to focus in on important clues hasn't been an easy task. Until now.

Sounds like a sales pitch ...

Rand rose out of the ashes of World War II. After witnessing the success of the Manhattan Project—the $2 billion initiative that created the first atomic bomb—a five-star Air Force general named Henry “Hap” Arnold (pictured) concluded that America needed a team of great minds to keep the country’s technology ahead of the rest of the world. In 1946, he gathered together a small group of scientists and $10 million in funding and started RAND (which stands for Research and Development). He even convinced a family friend, aircraft magnate Donald Douglas, to house the project at his factory in Santa Monica.

Interesting ...

Robot designs often rely on vision to identify objects, but this new technology relies solely on sophisticated touch technology, enabling the robot to function in spaces such as dark or smoke-filled rooms, where vision cannot be used.