The Burlington County Prosecutor's office did get a chance to see the video after Ciemniecki's arrest, however, and with little explanation, said they "were clearly satisfied that dismissal of all charges is the appropriate course of action." A spokesman for the prosecutor's office declined to comment on the case or on what, if anything, was seen on the video that led them to dismiss the charges. Stephen Raymond, Ciemniecki's criminal-defense attorney and a former Burlington County prosecutor, said the U-turn was a surprise. "I'm assuming that when they viewed the video, they couldn't say for sure that it was her," he said. With no job, no apology and a charred reputation, Ciemniecki decided to contact a law firm of her own.

It's odd that they were in such a rush that they didn't bother to make sure they were pointing at the right person before dropping the hammer. It's not like they didn't know where to find her ...

How unique is your browser? Can you be tracked simply by its characteristics? The EFF is trying to find out. Their site Panopticlick will measure the characteristics of your browser setup and tell you how unique it is. I just ran the test on myself, and my browser is unique amongst the 120,000 browsers tested so far. It's my browser plugin details; no one else has the exact configuration I do. My list of system fonts is almost unique; only one other person has the exact configuration I do. (This seems odd to me, I have a week old Sony laptop running Windows 7, and I haven't done anything with the fonts.)

Hmmm ... something new to worry about ...

American Airlines pilot Jerry Leekey practiced breaking a man's nose, twisting his wrist and throwing him to the ground. It's part of a crew member self-defense training class at the Federal Air Marshal compound in Sunrise. "The war on terrorism that we're involved in right now is not always being fought over in Afghanistan and Iraq anymore," Leekey said. "Pretty much our passengers and our crew are on the front lines right now. If something happens on the airplane, it's up to us to defend ourselves."  Federal Air Marshals won't release the exact numbers of how many crew members are trained in this voluntary course, but they do say the number is in the thousands. It's a day long course that teaches crew members how to spot suspicious behavior and react to problems before it's too late.

A whole day ... that's kind of excessive, don't you think ...

Don't worry. Wearing one [or more] of these won't attract attention ...

So why does the administration assume that the reverse is true—that China is less willing to cooperate due to U.S. spying? Why does the administration believe that easing our espionage in China will lead to greater Chinese cooperation? None of Obama’s concessions over the past year has encouraged Beijing to cooperate on Iran or climate change. Nor will this concession; indeed, it is likely to have the opposite effect. If anything, it will encourage Beijing to offer the illusion of greater cooperation while seeking additional concessions. And without good intelligence on Beijing, attempts to negotiate with it on these issues will be unproductive.

A better question is "Why are they able to accurately assess how much espionage we're doing?" ...

Extra security is now in place after Monday's daring robbery of a North Dallas woman just doing her grocery shopping. The victim was attacked in the parking lot of Whole Foods Market at Preston Road and Forest Lane. Her diamond ring and other jewelry were stolen.

Increased security, like being sorry, is only helpful if it occurs before an incident ...

While running FBI Firearms Instructor schools to certify instructors for other agencies, I’d always included several target identification courses. The targets would either consist of typical geometric shapes and colors or would be a series of life-size face photographs of diverse individuals. Each target board would contain six to eight of the different, smaller targets. I would ensure the compilation and placement of the smaller targets on each target board were unique. Targets would be faced away from the shooters. Once in position, I would call out a description of the “shoot” target and face the targets for a few seconds. The Firearms Instructors were to shoot only the called target before it faced away. On command, they would then step to the right to a new target stand, and continue the drill for several rotations. Consistently, in every class, officers would shoot at their target upon hearing others shoot, even when their particular target board did not contain the called target. When asked why they shot at a no-shoot target, the typical response was either, “I don’t know” or “Everyone else was shooting, so I thought I was supposed to be shooting too.” Remember, this is a class of Firearms Instructors in a low-stress atmosphere (other than they wanted to get their certificates) - not a bunch of new recruits. I would also occasionally call out a non-existent target, and again, inevitably some in the class would fire. The number of instructors shooting at “no-shoot” targets was even greater when we did the night-firing exercises and they were required to use flashlights to see the targets. This indicates they trusted their partner’s judgment (or eyesight) better than their own.

"It's OK for astronauts to cry, right?" asked Mike Massimino, one of seven NASA astronauts who flew the space shuttle Atlantis on a daring mission to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. The New York City native made his jest during a special preview screening of early footage from the upcoming Hubble 3-D IMAX film on Thursday, and all the reporters laughed. No one doubted his sincerity in describing his surge of emotion upon watching himself and his fellow spacewalkers floating on the big screen.

A high-altitude balloon made of polyethylene fabric, the thickness of a dry-cleaning bag and filled with helium, will lift a capsule containing Baumgartner to near the top of the stratosphere. With a volume of 29 million cubic feet, it will span 600 feet across at altitude and stretch 600 feet tall. According to Kittinger, “We used a balloon 50 years ago because it was the most practical way to get up there, and it still is.” The capsule developed for the Red Bull Stratos Mission is a 6-foot-diameter fiberglass pressure sphere with a half-inch-thick acrylic door and two side windows. "We started building a gondola and ended up building a spacecraft," says Art Thompson, the mission’s technical project director. After Baumgartner has landed, the capsule will be separated from the balloon remotely. The balloon and cable will fall back to Earth in a clump, and the capsule’s descent will be slowed by a main parachute and stabilized by a drogue. The capsule has a corrugated crunch pad on the base so that it lands with minimal damage. 

Hmmm ... Red Bull ...

With threats such as the 2012 prophecy, global warming, the Democrats losing the Massachusetts election and Jersey Shore looming over our heads, the apocalypse is looking more and more real each day. But deep down, each and every one of us knows how this world will meet its demise. And no, it won’t be from a giant comet or some massive tidal wave due to melting ice caps. It will be because of the hordes of the flesh-eating undead zombies. Fortunately, George A. Romero, alongside various other directors and game companies, have provided the public with several ways in which to mentally prepare ourselves for the inevitable infection. As humanity pushes pharmaceuticals and bio weapons more and more into the future, a zombie outbreak is becoming more likely. If you want to survive, you have to be prepared.

If college was always this fun, everyone would go ...

The Necker Nymph, which launches on 20 February, is a three-person submarine that will be available to hire for people who charter the Necker Belle luxury catamaran or who stay on Necker Island, the Caribbean island owned by Branson. The Necker Nymph will be available at a weekly rate of $25 000 (£15 000). The submarine has been designed by Graham Hawkes of San Francisco-based submarine specialist Hawkes Ocean Technologies. Hawkes was personally commissioned by Branson, according to a spokeswoman for VLE.

You gotta give him this, he knows how to have a good time ...

Identity thefts, invasion by spywares, attacks by cyber-criminals are just some of the real dangers. Using simple IP tracing tools (sniffers) someone can exploit vulnerabilities and hack into your computer. Very commonly, IP addresses are tracked and logged along with your surfing activities to deliver targeted ads to your browser or even spam mail to your inbox. In an extreme case scenario, your passwords are hacked through. All the above dangers have a solution through anonymous surfing. But hey, didn't I say that it's a myth? Well, it is usually, but a few tools do make it possible. The core for most of anonymous browsing is the Tor network. Also called Onion routing, the technology uses a series of encrypted network relays around the world to protect your traffic from prying eyes. Hence, the likeness with an onion.

You need a really fast connection to begin with because all of the TOR configurations really slow things down. Also, keep in mind that nothing is fool-proof ...

This got me to thinking about what would happen in a similar situation if, for example, hackers used an insurance customer’s password to compromise an insurer’s systems, then stole valuable personal or financial information that was later sold or used in a criminal manner. Who is to blame then? Is it the insurer for not having adequate security safeguards on its networks; or is it the customer for not having enough security on his home or business computer? Where is King Solomon when we need him? One would think that insurance companies would be in no hurry to sue their valued business customers, but on the other hand if the business loss were significant enough, maybe they would take a shot at blaming the victim. Such a case would be widely publicized, however, and I find it difficult to believe that an insurer would want to be seen as trying to foist blame on its own customers. If I were one of that insurer’s other customers, I would certainly be calling my broker or agent in a heartbeat to change carriers. And what about insurers who include cyber-theft as part of their business interruption coverage? Might they be tempted to preemptively sue their customers who file claims, alleging that the theft took place because the customer didn’t have the latest security measures in place? It could happen, and that’s why the resolution of the Texas case could have repercussions far beyond the Lone Star State. For the first time, it seems, courts are being asked to define exactly what constitutes adequate systems security. Yet I wonder whether most courts are equipped with the knowledge and expertise to make such a judgment—and how such judgments would hold up over time given the rapid advances in security technology.

It'll be interesting to see how this suit goes ...

This should not be necessary; a gun ban is a reasonable policy.

No it isn't ...

"A review of the evidence, including the autopsy report received on January 19, 2010, witness statements obtained by the Baltimore Police Department, and witness interviews conducted by this office, supports the finding that John Pontolillo reasonably believed he was in danger of imminenet death or serios bodily injury and was justified in striking Donald Rice," State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy said in a statement to the press. Pontolillo used a samurai sword to strike Donald Rice, 49, a repeat offender who had just been released from jail a few days before.

Slices, dices, rips, maims and severs ...

Lawmakers are debating legislation that would make sure gun owners can't be prosecuted for showing a weapon to warn someone who is threatening them. HB78 modifies existing law that bans threatening someone with a dangerous weapon in a fight or quarrel. The proposal would exempt from that prohibition anyone who displays a weapon or claims to be carrying one as a self defense measure. 

Good for Utah ...

The bill addresses an issue gaining national attention. In a May report, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates documented 185 cases nationwide of what it calls "aversive interventions" -- physical force, mechanical restrictions or isolation in a locked room, used too often against students who can't speak up to defend themselves. In 65 percent of the cases documented, the children were 10 or younger, and in 71 percent, the parents did not consent to the use of force against their children. The Governmental Accountability Office did its own report, and came up with even more disturbing findings, including 20 children who died and many others who suffered serious injury while being restrained.

Consumers and businesses globally spend hours each day exploring the Internet for news, information, and communications purposes. Today's National Data Privacy Day serves as an important reminder that consumers need to protect their own personal information when accessing the World Wide Web and businesses need to safeguard the information which they are responsible for collecting and storing.

Always worth reiterating ...

The President’s final sentence, though, on matters dear to us here at Secure Freedom Radio—security and freedom—was true and accurate: “America must always stand on the side of freedom and human dignity. Always.”

Lawfully armed citizens aren't the problem. They never have been. It is true that on rare occasions someone will commit a crime and it later turns out they had a concealed carry license. Anti-gunners are quick to seize upon them as shining examples of why they were right to want to ban such practices, but it is the very rarely of such acts that make them newsworthy in the first place. There are far more stories of police officers assaulting their wives and doctors killing their patients than there are of ccw licensees misusing their firearm. The truth is that the sort of person who supports "park bans" or any other firearm ban isn't really interested in reducing crime. They know such policies will not work (how can a law prohibiting guns stop a murder when a law prohibiting killing someone in the first place fails to do so?). What they're really looking to do is further their gun ban agenda in a wild fantasy that gun bans will make them less accessible to criminals. Because, of course, that worked so well with drugs.

In June 2008, tragedy struck Tokyo's geek center Akihabara. A 25-year-old man named Tomohiro Kato drove a rented truck into a crowd of pedestrians. He then got out of the truck and began wildly stabbing bystanders. Seven ended up dead and ten were injured. At that time, the main drag in Akihabara was closed to vehicles, and the street had been dubbed "Pedestrian Paradise". After the massacre, the streets were no longer blocked to automobiles during the weekends. The mood in Akihabara changed forever. In an attempt to restore a sense of security to the area, this past Tuesday saw the installation of sixteen security cameras in the Akihabara streets.

I know I would be damn reluctant to drive a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians and then jump out an start randomly stabbing them to death if there were any chance of it being seen on a video monitor ... especially in a police state ...

A tiny communications satellite designed and built by University of Colorado at Boulder undergraduates has been selected as one of three university research satellites to be launched into orbit in November as part of a NASA space education initiative. The three satellites, dubbed "CubeSats" because of their shape, were built by CU-Boulder, Montana State University and Kentucky Space, which is a consortium of state universities. CubeSats are roughly four inches on a side, have a volume of about one quart and weigh about 2.2 pounds. The satellites are being flown as part of NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellite, or ELaNA, mission, said Chris Koehler, director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, or COSGC, which is headquartered at CU-Boulder.

If college was always this cool, everyone would go ...

News of the December 26 tsunami was almost immediately followed by news of donation scams, inefficient relief efforts, and good intentions gone awry. Longtime World Vision relief director Rich Moseanko sent out a list, condensed here, to help donors understand what’s really needed after a major catastrophe.

Never hurts to reiterate ...

Let's start with the basics. How do you project information about yourself to others in the normal course of your day? At your residence, is your mailbox or front door adorned with your family's name? When you discard mail or files, do you toss the paper intact into the trash and recycling bin? When you make a purchase at a store, when the clerk requests your phone number, do you provide it? What data do you include in application forms filed for your children's activities? If you let a valet park your car, what data is available for perusal in the glove compartment? If your billfold should drop from your pocket or bag, what data has just gone missing? Take a moment and reflect at the variety and volume of actions and interactions in your daily life that involve your personal data. Which actions result in allowing unencumbered access to your data by those to whom you haven't granted explicit permission?

Interesting piece ...

Kingston has unveiled its DataTraveler 5000 line of portable USB flash drives, which boasts government-grade, "ultra-secure" data protection. Aimed at enterprise customers, the drives achieved FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certification (Level 3 pending) with "SPYRUS" technology, which provides 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption, XTS-AES cipher mode, and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) algorithms. 

I would be interested to see a scientific comparison to a $12.00 adata 4GB jumper sporting Truecrypt ...

The challenges are twofold. The first is awareness. “When I talk to one of my clients, they say, ‘Law? What law?’” he said. The second is the requirement for a written information security plan (WISP). “Ninety percent of the clients I deal with on this law do not have a WISP.” The law was written in response to the theft of information on more than 45 million credit card accounts from TJX Companies in 2007. Hacker Albert Gonzalez pleaded guilty to the theft in August 2009.

Hmmm ...

Among the assets U.S. District Court Judge Michael David wants to see returned: $27 million located in offshore accounts, a BMW and two Lexus automobiles, a submarine, a houseboat, a collection of expensive watches, a collection of Faberge eggs, Bon Jovi concert tickets, and $670,000 in cash.

Not the sub ...

As the threat evolves, The U.S. remains unprepared said Stephen Flynn, President of the Center for National Policy. Flynn served as President Obama's lead advisor on homeland security during the presidential transition. He said the U.S. is more vulnerable because of where and how we live today: concentrated in fewer urban areas, millions of more Americans are reliant on the same power grids, and transportation systems.

The threat hasn't really evolved all that much. A few righteous hometown Americans are more than a match for those whose plan involves blowing their weasels off. Yeah, we might not be ready for Jack Bauer-esque pocket-nukes, but considering most of these guys seem to be low-level, rock-throwers, I'm not convinced that we need to do anything more than offer a standing reward to any citizen or group of citizens (or their heirs) that take down a tango op ...

When the first officers on the scene originally questioned Woodson, he became "extremely nervous" and fled from the cops into a trailer park. He was subsequently found hiding in the bushes nearby, and police tackled him after he attempted another escape on foot, prosecutors said. 

Don't know what to say on this one ...

In October, Gaffney played up the data center's mission in protecting the military's computer networks from cyber attacks. He declined to say what else it would do. "I can't get into some of the specific details of the kind of work that will go on at the center," Gaffney said. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who sits on an intelligence committee, has been reluctant to offer any details and wasn't available for comment Tuesday. There's a good reason for secrecy: Disclosing the center's actual operations or tactics would render it obsolete against threats from hackers, criminals and foreign enemies, Sen. Bob Bennett has said. 

There's an old saying that goes: If you don't know who the patsy is, there's a good chance that it's you ...

PlainsCaptial sued Hillary on Dec. 31, 2009, citing a letter from Hillary that demanded repayment for the rest of the money and alleged that the bank failed to employ commercially reasonable security measures. The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to certify that PlainsCapital’s security was in fact reasonable, and that it processed the wire transfers in good faith. The documents filed with the court allege that the fraudulent transactions were initiated using the defendant’s valid online banking credentials.

I wonder how this is going to work out ...

The idea is relatively simple. If you’ve got a problem making the arms express what the torso wants, instead of the other way around, all you have to do is eliminate the arms. That’s right cut them off and immediately notice that your Kung Fu gets a lot more lively because your entire body has to take part in each and every motion. (That’s part of what we refer to as “organic”, that term so many of you ask about.) You can do this, and we do, by strapping that arms to the body so they cannot move independently. This is the “shortening” method. Another way, often better, is to extend the arms out in space as though they were 2 X 4’s. This is the “lengthening” method.

Interesting ...

At the same time, the QCPD said it was considering a permanent implementation of the gun ban. “We intend to put up checkpoints in selected areas in the city because we observed that crimes committed during daytime have increased while crimes committed at nighttime have decreased,” Chief Supt. Elmo San Diego, QCPD chief, said in a press conference held at Camp Karingal, the QCPD headquarters. However, San Diego clarified that the total number of crimes have gone down since the election gun ban took effect. He said that crime incidents have been reduced by at least 40 percent since the ban was implemented on Jan. 10.

I bet you didn't see that comin' ...

As an example, let’s say that our subject denies stealing a woman’s purse from the local library at 4:00 p.m. The subject acknowledges that he was at the library during the day but claims that he left at about 2:00 p.m. Later in the day when the subject walked past the library at 5:00 p.m. he was stopped for questioning by the police based on the fact that he very closely resembled the description of the individual whom the victim had seen in the immediate area when her purse was stolen. The bait dialogue would be as follows: “Lou, you told us that you left the library at two o’clock and later walked past the library at five o’clock. Now, I’m sure that you are aware that there are surveillance cameras throughout the building. Is there any reason why when we finish viewing all of the security videos that we will see you inside the library at about four o’clock? I am not saying that you were involved in taking the woman’s purse, but you know how easy it is to lose track of time. Is it possible that you could be mistaken on the time and were inside the library at around four o’clock?” 

According to a federal affidavit unsealed Tuesday in New Orleans, O'Keefe and three others were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses to commit a felony on Monday when they told the senator's aide they were repairmen and needed access to the main phone line at the reception desk. O'Keefe has appeared on numerous conservative stations with his videos of ACORN operations. He is most widely known for pretending to be a pimp and secretly taping ACORN officials in several cities, where he obtained advice on tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution. To many he has become a conservative folk hero and has promised similar techniques to ambush other liberal organizations.

Hmmm ...

Yes, but your actions would have the opposite effect. Most CSU students, and all but one of their representatives, don’t want the ban for one basic reason: They don’t want to become sitting ducks for violent criminals. They don’t want to become the next victims, such as those at Virginia Tech, watching helplessly as some psychopath shoots up a university, unimpeded for hours, in direct violation of a gun ban. They don’t care much about left wing or right wing ideology. They just want to be safe. Nearly ever mass shooting in this country has occurred in a gun-free zone, such as the one CSU’s governing board plans to create next month with the blessing of faculty and administration. That’s because maniacs on suicidal mass murder missions have amazingly dismissive attitudes toward gun bans. They do respect the bans, they just don’t obey them. They respect the fact these gun bans guarantee them thousands of defenseless human targets who can’t shoot back. Rapists and deranged stalkers also have a fondness for campus gun bans. Do the math: Law abiding people obey gun bans; dangerous criminals do not.

Finally, our political system is structured to overreact to attacks on aircraft and to underreact to other kinds of attacks, particularly shooting sprees. In reaction to the "shoe bomber," we now all take off our shoes at security checkpoints. Because of the "underwear bomber," we now may be subject to thorough body scans before boarding a flight. The 2006 plot to blow up seven transatlantic flights out of London cursed us with the inability to bring a bottle of water on board. Security agencies feel duty-bound to do something, and politicians wring their hands about whether they are doing enough. In comparison, there appears to be no limit to the number of fatalities that can be inflicted by automatic weapons fire in the United States without generating a political reaction. Politicians limit themselves to expressions of sorrow for the victims and the families, and then the matter is quietly dropped.

It WOULD be interesting to know why this is ...

This article describes how to encrypt a whole disk with PGP Desktop 9.x for Windows 2000, XP, and Windows Vista. 

Although getting the info straight from PGP is probably reliable, I strongly recommend practicing on a USB stick or an outboard hard-drive with non-essential data on it for awhile until you are absolutely certain you are ready to encrypt the stuff you still need access to ...

"Prior to questioning ... the agents read the defendant his Miranda rights, which he waived orally and in writing," the letter said. It described the first session with Medunjanin, which occurred in a hospital after he crashed his car on New York's Whitestone Expressway. "In addition, the agents specifically advised the defendant that they were aware that he was represented by an attorney, and asked the defendant if he wished to speak with them despite being represented. The defendant informed the agents that he was willing to answer their questions without an attorney, and added that he no longer wished to be represented by Robert Gottlieb," the letter said.

If the tango is denying it, just show the judge the video of him waiving his rights and agreeing to answer their questions ...

Hundreds of photographers filled London's Trafalgar Square Saturday to protest the use of terrorism laws to keep them from taking pictures. The crowd was estimated at more than 2,000 and included a mix of professionals and hobbyists, The Guardian reported. Many carried signs reading "I'm a photographer, not a terrorist," the name of the group that organized the demonstration.

If we were to divide the cost equally among 34 million Canadians, each of us will be contributing $26. That would be a little over $100 for our family of four. As British Columbians, we'll be paying a lot more than that, since as the province is picking up $252 million of the $900 million directly, or about $60 each, so my family's share of the Olympic security costs rises to more than $300. Now we're talking real money. So much, in fact, that I think it's time to start asking whether the cost of security has become a game-changer for the Olympics. We are approaching the point where it is costing almost as much to protect the Olympics as it does to stage them. Leave out the big-ticket items that have value on their own -- the Sea to Sky Highway, the convention centre expansion and the Canada Line -- and security is the largest single budget item for Canadian taxpayers. In London, planners for the 2012 Games are now looking at a tab that is headed toward £1.5 billion, or $2.5 billion.

Wait 'til you see what you're actually getting for all that money ...

The defendants fraudulently obtained goods including computer and telecommunications equipment, generators, and office space, along with services relating to their use, according to the FBI. They allegedly used shell companies to hide their identities. "If convicted, the conspiracy charge carries a maximum statutory sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine", the FBI said. Several defendants have also been charged with obstruction due to the hiding of assets and destruction of evidence.

Police say that at about 10:00 PM, a robber whose name has not yet been released entered the S and A Liquor store on the 1400 block of Cedarwood Drive.  The robber is said to have demanded money while attacking the clerk.  The clerk reportedly fired in self defense, striking the robber and causing him to flee, ending the attack.  A man is said to have arrived at a local hospital, suffering from a gunshot wound that later proved fatal, and police reportedly identified this man as the robber.

Gotta love it ...

Fletcher says the surveillance system "has the potential to revolutionize public safety." 

Looks like someone needs voted out of office ...

My favorite conversation is when Dennis Quaid as Dennis says, "This is all so crazy. I don't even believe in God!" To which Michael replies, "That's OK. God doesn't believe in you, either." Ouch. So it turns out that "Legion" is a religious zombie movie with one good angel and the rest bad, where the hopes of a baby ... let's call him the Second Coming ... might be the light of the future of Man, only God wants the baby eliminated because he's tired of man's inhumanity to his fellow man ... 

Hmmm ...

Latah County Sheriff's officers have arrested two juvenile boys after receiving at least 20 reports of vehicles being hit by shots fired on State Highway 8 in north Idaho. The sheriff's office said no one was hurt. The gunfire prompted authorities to temporarily close a portion of the rural road between the small towns of Deary and Bovill. Deputies think the first shots were fired about 11 a.m. Friday with the last damage reports phoned in about 4:30 p.m.

I know ..., it's fun ..., but don't do it!

Hardware Maintenance This Weekend

After an unidentified man’s laptop set off alarms at Munich’s international airport Wednesday indicating the possible presence of explosives, the traveler simply picked up the computer, walked into the crowded departure terminal and disappeared, touching off the fourth airport security scare in a month.

These are probably improving the security breed, a bit ...

In a world filthy with people who want to kill us, security has never been more important. Terrorists and other bad guys are endlessly creative and highly motivated, so even one little mistake on the part of the good guys can lead to world-ending disaster. Unfortunately, those little mistakes get made all the time. Also, some huge, laugh-out-loud ridiculous ones.

Delta Airlines, parent of Northwest Airlines, CEO Richard Anderson basically said the government needs to step up because the airline has done everything the government has asked. I say this exemplifies why airline security should be handled by the airlines. When the government is calling the shots in regards to security, it’s easy for the airline to pass the buck. However, if left to the airlines, I guarantee security measures — ones much more effective than those established by Uncle Sam — would be put into effect.

There are so many interferences that withdrawing just the one probably wouldn't result in much improvement. If the airlines were able to work toward profits across decades instead of chasing the next quarters results, then the market would be much more likely to create good flight security ...

Top 10 network security tips

For individuals, the magic number in disaster preparedness is 72. “Have a kit; have a plan,” Kesler said. “Be ready to be on your own for 72 hours.”

Probably a good starting place anyway ...

Juval Aviv's exploits as an Israeli counterterrorism agent are widely believed to be the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's 2005 film "Munich." After wrapping up his career as a major in the Israel Defense Forces (and reportedly working for the secretive Mossad), Aviv launched a lucrative career as a security consultant and investigator. His Interfor corporate intelligence firm was hired by Pan Am to investigate the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. After setting up shop in Manhattan, Aviv wrote Staying Safe, a book focusing on how individuals, business entities and families can protect themselves from criminals and terrorists. In an interview with The Jewish Press, Aviv spoke of the security challenges facing the U.S.

Defense company Lockheed Martin usually focuses on building advanced aircraft, missiles, and bits of spacecraft. This makes their newest venture all the more baffling. Lockheed Martin is partnering with IronKey to deliver a line of super secure USB thumb drives. The so called “IronClad” USB keys will apparently come with a custom software package you won’t find anywhere else.

Interesting ...

A new rifle has been acquired for British troops in Afghanistan that the country's Ministry of Defence will improve the long-range firepower available on the front line. The L129A1 Sharpshooter rifle will fire a 7.62x51mm round and will enhance accuracy of engagement during longer-range firefights with the Taliban. The weapon will be used by some of the best shots in the infantry. More than 400 of the semi-automatic Sharpshooter rifles have been bought as a GBP1.5 million Urgent Operational Requirement. It is the first new infantry combat rifle to be issued to troops for more than 20 years.

When it comes to combatting terrorist bombers and hijackers on airplanes, Canada has a secret weapon that is the envy of every nation: our sky marshals, a covert cadre of elite RCMP officers. Armed undercover operatives, they are rigorously trained to detect and eliminate any and every threat to passengers, flight crew and aircraft, and they must be re-certified twice a year. “What happens at 30,000 feet must end very quickly,” the officer in charge of the Canadian Air Carrier Protective Program told Maclean’s on condition of anonymity. “The only way to do that is to be very­, very good at your job.” Canadian sky marshals are so good at their job, in fact, that they have trained Thailand’s unit, and played a major role in creating the French, Dutch, Czech, Polish and British in-flight security programs. Now even Israel, whose Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv is considered the gold standard of airport security, wants to learn from Canadian sky marshals. “Their training is first-class, next to none,” says Rafi Sela, president of AR Challenges, a security consulting agency active in Israel and North America, who has chastised other aspects of Canadian air transport security. “The air marshal program in Canada,” he told Maclean’s, “is the best in the world.”

They manage to avoid being the Great Satan, as well, hmmm ...

Police say Mark Anthony Bowens, 37, and Rodney Bowens, 45, both of Belmont, were kicked out of the nightclub and then returned a short time later with at least one handgun and started shooting. Bar owner Roosevelt Hinton, 67, of Charlotte, grabbed a handgun and fired back in self-defense, shooting Mark Bowens in the head and abdomen, police said. Police found Mark Bowens on the pavement outside the club. Mark Bowens has served four stretches in North Carolina prisons, including more than six years for a 1991 second-degree murder conviction in Mecklenburg County. He also served time for a March 2004 drug conviction in Gaston County.

Gotta love it ...

"Somebody was apparently watching him," said Detective Mohammad Khan of the Houston Police Department. Investigators said it was no coincidence that the victim was robbed seconds after cashing his $4,000 tax return. "They knew to come over here and tip the robber when he had his money cashed," said Det. Khan. Despite surveillance video showing two suspects, one with a handgun, the other pilfering the victims pockets, they did not find the money.

Richard's 2nd Law of Security: It's cheaper to be invisible that it is to be invincible.

Schene said he used standard techniques taught to him to control Calhoun, including kicking her at first to spin her around, grabbing her hair to control her, shoving her against a wall in a failed attempt to handcuff her and forcing her to the ground in order to handcuff her. He said he also punched Calhoun twice in the left shoulder while she was on the ground because she was resisting him and his partner, who was also trying to handcuff her.

Sounds like a hard sell, to me ...

Ahead of an Israeli-German cabinet meeting in Berlin, median reports indicate that Israel intends to station one of its German-made Dolphin submarines in the waters of the Persian Gulf. “Israel’s use of the dolphin submarine in exercises in the red sea aroused fears that Israel may seek to maintain a continued presence in the Persian Gulf as soon as it receives its submarines form Germany in 2011-2012,” the tagesspiegel said on Sunday. 

That's what I'd do with 'em ...

"But smartphones have access to more sensitive data every year, and security must be tightened to prevent the theft or loss of important business information."The solution: security client software loaded on a mobile terminal, and a service to remotely lock a handset, erase its data, or locate it.

The third step, Schumer says, is to increase penalties for tampering with travel documents, and introduced legislation to make altering and faking a boarding pass or other travel document in order to conceal the bearer’s identity a felony.

Hmmm ... John Lott's website ...

The ISS is a synthesis of several space station projects that includes the American Freedom, the Soviet/Russian Mir-2, the European Columbus and the Japanese Kibō. Budget constraints led to the merger of these projects into a single multi-national programme. The ISS project began in 1994 with the Shuttle-Mir programme, and the first module of the station, Zarya, was launched in 1998 by Russia. Assembly continues, as pressurised modules, external trusses and other components are launched by American space shuttles, Russian Proton rockets and Russian Soyuz rockets. As of November 2009[update], the station consisted of 11 pressurised modules and an extensive integrated truss structure (ITS). Power is provided by 16 solar arrays mounted on the external truss, in addition to four smaller arrays on the Russian modules. The station is maintained at an orbit between 278 km (173 mi) and 460 km (286 mi) altitude, and travels at an average speed of 27,724 km (17,227 mi) per hour, completing 15.7 orbits per day.

Plus some really cool pics ...

The incident, which stopped traffic in and out of the plant, caused about 25 drivers to park on either side of FM 2373 around the plant entrance and stalled another 50 at the employee entry gate. Pantex, located about 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, assembles and dismantles nuclear weapons. The plant, one of the most heavily guarded locations on the planet, also stores tons of plutonium recovered from dismantled weapons. Erhart said the lockdown was conducted in accordance with strict security procedures and guidelines in place when responding to a security issue. He has worked at the plant since July 2001, and said he could not recall the last time the facility had been shut down. Erhart said the plant will conduct a full review of the incident. 

Considering what they do there, the reaction probably wasn't out of line ... no one died ...

"The ability of terrorists to infiltrate the military or become radicalized once inside underscores the severity of the terrorist threat we face as a nation," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

More Kool-aid, anyone ...

TSAs explanation is that Mikey shares the name with another Michael Hicks who made the Department of Homeland Securitys watch list. Attempts to remove Mikey from the list have been unsuccessful. It appears there is problem. The parents of an 8-year-old cub scout from New Jersey can get him off the watch list and a father who warned officials his son had been radicalized by Islamic terrorists in Yemen, couldnt get the underwear bomber on the list. Look for these discrepancies to increase if President Obama is successful in securing the nomination of Erroll Southers as the head of the TSA.

I think that DHS and TSA are both just to big to ever be effective ... to difficult to find the right person to blame and get rid of ...

While the international rescue operation is beginning to swing into full gear, desperation is growing for Haiti and the security situation is beginning to deteriorate. Looters in Port-au-Prince broke into a U.N. warehouse stocked with 15,000 tons of provisions. Elsewhere, people formed roadblocks with the bodies of victims to demand faster aid. With Haiti's national police nowhere to be seen, international troops must be relied on to keep order.

I seriously doubt that it was ever very good there to begin with ...

I would like to share 4 different aspects of combat situations. These are the cold hard truths when it comes to reality based self defense. If you end up in an altercation outside a bar, or inside your home here are some facts to follow to stay alive and become a survivor.

Never hurts to reiterate ...

The true objective of self-defense is to survive and escape death or serious injury from an attack. That objective is very clearly first and best accomplished by conflict avoidance which is made much more possible by knowing the ways of the human predators. That is how they think, how they chose their victims and thus how not to appear as an unattractive and ideally unacceptable victim to them. Self-Defense training must also include de-escalation and conflict avoidance training and skills. Asian martial arts do not even address or acknowledge the need or existence of any of these critical survival self-defense skills at all. Instead Asian Martial Arts follows a syllabus almost wholly devoted to the practice of physical technique alone. The majority of that physical technique is wholly impractical for most people to employ effectively in an actual self-defense situation too.

This article paints with a rather broad brush. There are quality teachers, students and arts out there ...

Where Google’s new stance on China’s censorship and violation of dissidents’ privacy seems at odds with CEO Eric Schmidt’s recent statement that “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” an interesting implication of this statement about what information was compromised brings things back into expected focus. That sort of information is exactly the kind of thing that can legally be acquired by United States law enforcement agencies by way of a court order. This suggests that some part of the process of handing over private information to law enforcement personnel serving a court order has been automated, and that security crackers working for the Chinese government found a way to exploit that automated access.

Interesting ...

Not much survived this week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti… We all wonder what it must have been like, especially those of us who have never lived through and real-life earthquake. How could the ground moving up and down a few times cause such widespread destruction? Well, one surveillance video seemed to have made it out of the rubble and on “the youtube.” Check out this rollercoaster.

Video shown a couple of different ways to emphasize the rock and roll aspect ...

"But when he came to the studio, I remember I hugged him and I could feel that he had on a bulletproof vest. I couldn't imagine being that successful. I mean, he's a guy who loves rap and wanted to be successful his whole career. Then he finally gets it, and there's this dark cloud over him. He has to be afraid to walk around New York freely. I was like, 'Here it is. You've gotten everything you wanted, and now you're a prisoner of your own fame.' That's sad to me - that you have to walk around in a bulletproof vest after you've sold 20 million records. I found it sad."

This is one of the modern Tai Chi Chuan forms, but she is very, very good at demonstrating it ...

The room contained three rifles, multiple rounds of ammunition and two "shooting areas" specifically set up to view approaching police, with a table containing neatly stacked blankets to rest a weapon on, state police Commissioner Col. Frank Pawlowski said Thursday afternoon. Each of the shooting areas afforded Smith a wide area of his 3-acre property to view anyone approaching the house, Pawlowski added. "This was premeditated, an ambush, and troopers didn't have a chance," Pawlowski said. 

Today's the day, every day ...

Fast-forward to April 2004 - the Karch Oil Depot in Lutafiyah, Iraq. Reichert, then a Platoon Sergeant, was a trained sniper/scout. He was providing cover to a squad of Marines from the top of an oil tank as the squad attempted to rout out a group of insurgents that had ambushed the Marines. During an intense, day-long firefight, Reichert, armed only with an SASR .50 caliber sniper rifle, shot and killed a number of enemy combatants, some from as far as a mile away, then got pinned down in his position by friendly fire for many hours.

A bag containing a small amount of white powder residue that was later confirmed to be cocaine was discovered in the space shuttle Discovery's hangar at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The hangar, known as the Orbiter Processing Facility, is a restricted zone for shuttle workers only.

Section 44 allows the police to stop and search anyone on the basis of a ‘reasonable suspicion’ that they may be in posssession of information or items that may be useful in committing an act of terrorism. The case in the ECHR was on several principles, most of which were rejected, but most importantly the Court found that arbitrary stop and search dis violate Article 8 of the European Convention, on the right to privacy. This was because “the use of the coercive powers conferred by the legislation to require an individual to submit to a detailed search of his person, his clothing and his personal belongings amounts to a clear interference with the right to respect for private life”.

It'll be interesting to see whether this makes them stop doing them ...

Without directly accusing the Chinese government, Google said that in mid-December it became aware that sophisticated attacks from China had resulted in theft of intellectual property. Attackers also tried to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, with limited success, Google revealed. Google went public and insisted it will no longer adhere to the  Chinese government's online censorship rules, even though that may mean ending business operations there. In doing so, Google has taken a stand that could have historic ramifications politically and defies conventional reactions to security incidents, many say. "When these kinds of attacks happen, no company wants to step forward and say 'it happened to us,'" notes Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at ScanSafe. But Google, which "has the technological ability to make credible assertions" by declaring it happened to them, "is shedding light on a problem that everyone in the security industry has been talking about and worrying about."

Doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason ...

We are working with multiple organizations that were impacted by this attack as well as the government and law enforcement. As part of our investigation, we analyzed several pieces of malicious code that we have confirmed were used in attempts to penetrate several of the targeted organizations.

Google announced Tuesday that it had been the target of a “ against its corporate network. It said the hackers had stolen intellectual property and sought access to the Gmail accounts of human rights activists. The attack originated from China, the company said.highly sophisticated” and coordinated hack attack The attackers used nearly a dozen pieces of malware and several levels of encryption to burrow deeply into the bowels of company networks and obscure their activity, according to Alperovitch. “The encryption was highly successful in obfuscating the attack and avoiding common detection methods,” he said. “We haven’t seen encryption at this level. It was highly sophisticated.”

Each time a mobile device is lost or stolen, the opportunity for a data breach of sensitive information increases. Since 2005, more than 245 million records containing sensitive personal information have been involved in security data breaches in the United States alone. The average cost of a data breach to organizations in the United States in 2008 rose to $202 per compromised customer record, up from $197 the year prior. According to recent estimates, data breaches cost companies in the United States an aggregate $18 billion annually. The opportunity to conduct business anywhere, anytime, clearly comes at a price.

"The security forces can't stage a coup. Our security forces are professional," military spokesman Mohammed Askari said at a news conference. "The era of coups is gone. "Rather, he said, the government had ordered the lockdown to foil a major plot involving car bombings and suicide attacks on civilian and government targets.

Sounds like a coup, alright ...

Last night, Google announced that Gmail sessions will now be fully encrypted with HTTPS by default. This is excellent news — EFF congratulates Google for taking this significant step to safeguard their users' privacy and security. Previously, it was possible to encrypt your access to Gmail, but it required altering the default configuration. Now every Gmail user will get the benefits of encryption without needing to know that they need it.

You gotta love that ...

"In most cases, it's a stupid mistake," said Douglas Laird, who runs an airport security consulting business in Reno, Nev. "Most people don't say: 'I'm going to breach.'" The bill proposed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey will call for the tougher penalties, but he has not offered specifics other than calling for allowing the federal government to charge people who create scares — even those who are more bonehead than bomber. Such offenses are now regulated by local law and often fall far down the scale of criminal offenses.

Ahh ... the solution to EVERY problem ...

Google, by implying that Beijing had sponsored the attack, has placed itself in the center of an international controversy, exposing what appears to be a state-sponsored corporate espionage campaign that compromised more than 30 technology, financial and media companies, most of them global Fortune 500 enterprises. The U.S. government is taking the attack seriously. Late Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement asking the Chinese government to explain itself, saying that Google's allegations "raise very serious concerns and questions."

Interesting ...

The U.S. government still can't quite manage to appropriately provision its soldiers with body armor. But gosh darn it, the world's soccer fans will be more that adequately prepared for any stabbing that may occur at this year's South Africa-based World Cup.

Reason is my favorite ...

After the bloody attack on CIA officers in Afghanistan and the near success of the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing, some are calling for the revival of the so-called "Team B" -- an outside group of conservative analysts formed in the Ford era to re-examine all classified data on the Soviet threat. This time, though, Team B would reassess the threat the U.S. faces from Islamic terrorist networks. "The Team B concept has been successful in previous administrations when fresh eyes were needed to provide the commander in chief with objective information to make informed policy decisions," Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. wrote in a letter to President Obama on Tuesday. "I believe it can work now, too."

Profiling is like taking DayQuil for your cold. It’ll make you feel better, but it isn’t going to cure your cold. The editors say, “we, as a society confronted by implacable enemies, should not shrink from [profiling’s] use.” They present us with the idea of profiling as if it were heroic. In actuality, it’s our cowardice that forces us to entertain using profiling as a method to curtail terrorism. We’re scared of what we don’t know, and, thankfully, we don’t know what it is like to be so extreme in our beliefs that we can use those beliefs as an excuse to murder innocent men, women, and children. We will never conquer terrorism if we don’t understand its ideology, and open ourselves up to the potential of peaceful compromise with the religious and world leaders, because as long as nothing changes in the way we conduct ourselves, and how we treat our enemies, we will still be the target of hatred by these terrorist regimes. Compromise is surely better than more lives lost or fighting more wars.

Do you really think compromise will work with the folks you just described ...?

While I agree that arguing that terrorism is statistically harmless isn't going to win any converts, I still think it's an important point to make. We routinely overestimate rare risks and underestimate common risks, and the more we recognize that cognitive bias, the better chance we have for overcoming it. And Kevin illustrates another cognitive bias: we fear risks deliberately perpetrated by other people more than we do risks that occur by accident. And while we fear the unknown -- the "reminder that al-Qaeda is still out there and still eager to expand its reach and kill thousands if we ever decide to let our guard down a little bit" -- more than the familiar, the reality is that automobiles will kill over 3,000 people this month, next month, and every month from now until the foreseeable future, irrespective of whether we let our guard down or not. There simply isn't any reasonable scenario by which terrorism even approaches that death toll.

A Guatemalan lawyer who accused the country's president of his murder in a video made before his death actually contracted the hitmen to kill him, U.N. investigators announced Tuesday. Attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg contacted cousins of his first wife to help him find a hitman to deal with an extortionist -- when he really was orchestrating his own slaying amid severe personal problems, according to a special international group commissioned by the government.

Gee whilickers ...

Instead of spending more money on more security equipment and more TSA agents the money might be better spent creating a reward fund. The million dollar fund would be used to pay reward money to anybody who stops a terrorist act or security breach at an airport or onboard any airplane. TSA agents and other airline security personnel are not eligible to get paid from the fund; only everyday people who paid their hard earned money for a plane ticket or just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

This is a damn good idea ...

Lora Bentley spoke with Amanda McPherson, marketing and developer programs VP at the Linux Foundation. She and two colleagues recently released a new paper, “Estimating the Total Development Cost of a Linux Distribution.”

A Calaveras County family is dressing their 11-year-old daughter in body armor and a Kevlar helmet as a means of protection after string of random shootings near Valley Springs. The family did not want to be identified, but explained that they are taking this precaution during the girl's trips to and from school.

In that instance, Prince Mohammed was receiving guests in his palace in Jeddah when he was approached by a suicide bomber who had successfully bypassed palace security protocols. The assassin was not carrying a weapon or parcel of any kind and he had no explosives strapped to his body. The assassin carried his explosives stuffed into a major body cavity. (No, it wasn’t an ear, a nostril, or his mouth.) 

I don't think this is a good argument against using the back-scatter scanners. There are probably far fewer Muslims that want to 'meet Allah' having just jammed a boomer up their whatchacallit than there are willing to do it otherwise. Knowing that they'll have to put their bomb where the sun never shines in order to blow up a plane will make planes invisible as targets to most bombers ...

For example, is a SHA-256 hash of the user's password enough? Or do we need SHA-384? SHA-512, maybe? Would that really be any more secure? It's hard to know. And yet, all sorts of investment and deployment questions depend on the basic question "is the security good enough?" When similar products based on the SHA-3 family arrive, should we immediately scrap those based on SHA-2? Or can we continue using them happily until a natural replacement opportunity? Keep in mind, this is a USB drive we're talking about. One, single, small component. Replicate these questions, this complexity, throughout all of the other IT components-the disk drives, the network cards, the database engines, the application software, the everything-and you start to get an idea why security is so hard. The vulnerabilities can be anywhere, the complexities are everywhere. That's why we can't have nice security--at least, not with the simplicity and assurance we so crave.

So true, at least where computers are involved ...

Kepler is continuously monitoring more than 100,000 stars considered likely to have planets. The challenge is weeding out false positives, when a star dims for some other reason.

India has begun development of lasers and an exo-atmospheric kill vehicle that could be combined to produce a weapon to destroy enemy satellites in orbit, the director-general of India's defense research organization said Jan. 3. "The kill vehicle, which is needed for intercepting the satellite, needs to be developed, and that work is going on as part of the ballistic missile defense program," said V.K. Saraswat, director-general of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, which is part of India's Ministry of Defence.

India seems to be getting after the whole space thing. Glad they're allies ...

Air travelers strongly approve of the government's use of body scanners at the nation's airports even if the machines compromise privacy, a USA TODAY/Gallup poll finds. Poll respondents appeared to endorse a Transportation Security Administration plan to install 300 scanners at the nation's largest airports this year to replace metal detectors. The machines, used in 19 airports, create vivid images of travelers under their clothes to reveal plastics and powders to screeners observing monitors in a closed room.

I think it's a good idea ...

Most Tai Chi practiced in America is very weak, not at all like the art that was created 350 years ago by the Chen family in China. Recently, I read an Internet article listing 10 concepts you need to know to practice Tai Chi, but the teacher writing the article is teaching a weak version of the art.

Longish ...

Allen's bulletproof vest stopped at least some of the shots, said Lt. Dave Parker, a spokesman. "The family has been visiting and he's made good progress medically."

It's interesting that they don't have more info if the vic isn't veg-ed ...

As our lives become integrated with technology, keeping our private information confidential becomes more difficult. Electronic transactions can leave you vulnerable to fraud and identity theft. The following are a few simple tips that can help keep your information safe.

Never hurts to reiterate ...

Police raided three locations in Baghdad on Friday, a week after Iraqi authorities were incensed by a U.S. judge's decision to throw out charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing over a dozen Iraqi civilians in 2007.Officials said they are targeting private security companies that are no longer legally licensed to operate in Iraq."All those companies with their work permits expired are not allowed to move one meter inside Baghdad, or own one piece of weaponry," Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi said.

I'm thinking they're still not getting that whole 'rule of law' thingy ...

In the House of Representatives, the Intelligence Committee is scheduled to receive a briefing from top officials on Wednesday about progress into the investigation of the investigation into Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. It was not US intelligence but passengers and crew who averted potential disaster when they overpowered Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, after explosives allegedly stitched into his underwear failed to detonate aboard the aircraft carrying nearly 300 people.

That is typically how it will be in a free society ...

Officials from the Transportation Security Administration have faced widespread criticism for not having working cameras in the Newark terminal and for having to rely on video from Continental Airlines to track down the culprit. One of those critics, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg (D), said he hopes Jiang's arrest sends a message. "If you breach a secure area, you're going to have to pay a price," Sen. Lautenberg said.

It does, but not the one you were hopin' for ...

He carved a swastika — now faded to a scar — onto his forehead, likely with a paper clip, shocking people in the courtroom at his arraignment in Brockton Superior Court in May.

Interesting legal strategy, there dude ...

Hollywood action star Jackie Chan wants to tell his life’s story through a self-written musical.

An Anchorage police officer was ambushed without provocation by unknown gunmen early Saturday as he sat in his patrol car working on an apparently unrelated assault case, police said, and city officials vowed to catch those responsible.

Hmmm ... I wonder how they know it was without provocation if they don't know who did it ...

Under the new rules, all citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen must receive a pat down and an extra check of their carry-on bags before boarding a plane bound for the United States, officials said. Citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria — nations considered “state sponsors of terrorism” — face the same requirement. In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), part of the giant Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said a majority of all other U.S.-bound international travelers — not just from the 14 countries — will also face random and threat-based enhanced screening.

The FCC has granted Cablevision a waiver of its encryption rule prohibiting cable operators from scrambling their basic tiers for the cable operator's New York franchise--Bronx and the majority of Brooklyn--which it is converting to all-digital. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Association for Maximum Service Television had opposed the waiver. They argued that it would negatively affect thousands of consumer devices, disenfranchise those consumers and could put some companies out of business. The wavier was announced just as CEA is meeting in Las Vegas for its annual Consumer Electronics Show, and at almost the same time FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was scheduled for a Q&A session with CEA president Gary Shapiro. The encryption rule was adopted to insure that viewers with cable-ready sets would not have to buy/rent set-tops to get their programming. But the FCC left room for waivers in some circumstances, and said Jan. 8 that Cablevision had made a strong case for the waiver. Cablevision said the waiver would allow it to connect and disconnect remotely, though that means its subs would have to have either a set-top or a TV set with the CableCARD security hardware.

As a result, hardware-encrypted USB sticks have seemed like a good idea, even if they are hideously expensive (the SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise 8GB retails for nearly £300 at the time of writing; 10 times more than a non-encrypted version). Trouble is, it turns out they’re utter rubbish. When it comes down to it, all Verbatim, SanDisk, and Kingston hardware-encrypted USB sticks use the same encryption system. That system uses AES-256. Unfortunately, every single stick uses the same encryption key, regardless of the password the user sets, as reported on ZDNet:

“The crack relies on a weakness so astoundingly bone-headed that it’s almost hard to believe. While the data on the drive is indeed encrypted using 256-bit crypto, there’s a huge failure in the authentication program. When the correct password is supplied by the user, the authentication program always send the same character string to the drive to decrypt the data no matter what the password used.”

Good work, morons. Nice to see you’re taking this security lark seriously.

 Hmmm ... also troubling ...

Comelec regional director Michael Abas said they will fully implement the total gun ban as provided for under Comelec Resolutions 1814 and 8714 aimed to ensure security during the election period. “Definitely we will not be issuing any exemption to any civilian, including the politicians,” Abas said. Abas said strictly enforcing the gun ban will restrict and control the movement of alleged private armies or armed bands being controlled by some politicians in the region and the neighboring areas.

It will be interesting to see whether the country breaks up into civil war over this ...

History often moves with small steps, but such steps sometimes turn out to have big implications. This New Year’s Eve, Sweden made history in a small way by ending the last rotating foreign and security policy presidency of the European Union. After years of rotation every six months, Stockholm handed the job over to the EU’s new permanent structures, established in Brussels in accordance with the Lisbon Treaty.

According to Damer, what made this computer, which he has nicknamed "the Sac State 8008," special was that it was far more sophisticated, even in 1972, than was the Altair 8800 when it was released in 1975. In particular, he noted, the Sacramento State computer had the operating system and the assembly language--in this case, IBM's Basic Assembly Language (BAL). To be sure, the external components were not built for the computer. Rather, Damer explained, the Sacramento State team pulled them off of a mainframe. Still, the peripherals, such as the hard drive--a Memorex with 3 Megabyte platters--worked with the machine. "There wasn't a microcomputer equivalent (to this)," Damer said, "until the late 1970s or early 1980s."

Interesting ...

Discoveries, devices, and developments that have changed the way we view our world over the past ten years.

Yesss, both rightly and wrongly ...

We must see that we are currently entangled in a problem of semantics, and not "just semantics." If we don't know what we mean by a word (like "terrorism"), we will never be able to take appropriate steps against it. Language is only words but more than words, and only by stepping back and asking what this rather new and very frightening word really means will we manage to take hold of it.

Words do seem to significantly affect how we think ...

Sure, the gear may look like it came straight out of Avatar or Battlestar Galactica. But all of the laser weapons, robots, sonic blasters and puke rays pictured here are real. Some of these weapons have already found their way onto the battlefield. If the rest of this sci-fi arsenal follows, war may soon be unrecognizable.

Interesting ...

DIY at its very best ...

According to witnesses the teens were shot dead by an unknown gunman as they drove away from their high school on Wednesday.

As far-fetched as that sounds, systems that aim to get inside an evildoer's head are among the proposals floated by security experts thinking beyond the X-ray machines and metal detectors used on millions of passengers and bags each year.

I don't think that magical thinking is all that helpful ...

Do the Israelis engage in profiling passengers? You bet, and the results speak volumes - no flight leaving Ben Gurion has ever been hijacked and not one of the state's El Al planes has been attacked by terrorists in 35 years. America has to start thinking outside the box on this. We have to create a much more robust and intelligent TSA force that is fully engaged in keeping air travel safe. It's got to be more than agents who simply bark out robotic orders to empty pockets and toss water bottles. 

I wonder how many completely innocent folks can't travel by air from Ben Gurion ...

These drives received the U. S. Government's FIPS 140-2 certification based mainly on the fact that they use tough 256-bit AES encryption, and indeed the encryption itself is not at fault. Rather, the research team discovered that the actual encryption key used is not dependent on the password. The password-verification utility sends the same decryption string on receipt of a valid password, so they simply hacked it to always send that decryption string.

Score this one for the hackers ...

Faked Outlook updates in recent weeks have emerged as a  popular vehicle to implant banking Trojans -- which bad guys use to access your online account to make fraudulent transfers.

So now we have three observations: the Pioneer anomaly, the flyby anomaly, and the interesting degree of the Pioneer effect. To these I added another anomaly, the galaxy rotation problem, which notes that the arms of spiral galaxies, from just outside the central bulge to the edge of the galaxy, spin at an almost constant speed...and according to Newtonian physics, such masses traveling at such speeds would tend to fly away and escape from the galaxy.

Interesting, even if somewhat crunchy ...

More detainees released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay are returning to terrorist activity, a new classified Pentagon report is expected to say. The report by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency has not been released publicly, but a senior Pentagon official said it will show more former detainees returning to terrorist activity after being released to their home countries.

I wonder if the report will address how many of the wrongfully detained 'return' to terrorism ...?

People were allowed to begin boarding planes again just under seven hours after screening was first shut down, and the T.S.A. expected all passengers to be rescreened by 12:30 a.m. on Monday. Officials did not locate the man who caused the alert. The situation caused significant disruption at the airport. With flights having been grounded after several hours, and planes bound for Newark severely delayed because there were no gates available at the terminal, Continental announced that passengers scheduled to fly into or out of the airport on Sunday and Monday could reschedule trips without penalty. Officials estimated that thousands of people were affected.

Gee, whilickers ...

Decker's response to Vonderheide's complaint concurred, stating that the video records "would reveal the capabilities and scope of the county video surveillance system in the courthouse, and would jeopardize the ability of the sheriff's office to provide protection within the courthouse," according to the state ruling. But the state knocked down that argument, with Glinn ruling that "the release of video records that are obtained for security purposes does not automatically constitute a reasonable likelihood of risk or harm to security." The video, she wrote, is of areas open to the public, and just because a video record is used for security purposes doesn't automatically mean its release would jeopardize public safety.

Releasing the video would tend to give away info such as camera resolution and effect of lighting (can you see VPL on a black skirt, etc?), but in a tax-payer-subsidized public environment, you should expect to give it up to anyone with a legitimate cause of action ...

The event was organized by the Otero Tea Party Patriots, the Alamogordo Second Amendment Task Force and the Sons of Liberty Riders, a motorcycle rights organization. Protesters were encouraged by the organizing groups to bring their guns. New Mexico’s Constitution allows for open carry of firearms to most public places. A permit was acquired for the protest and the police were notified of the details before the event.

"The objective of the Transformer (TX) program is to demonstrate a 1 to 4 person transportation vehicle that can drive and fly, thus enabling the warfighter to avoid water, difficult terrain, and road obstructions as well as IED and ambush threats. "The vehicle will be capable of driving on prepared surface and light off-road conditions, while flight functionality will require Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL). In addition, range and speed efficiencies will allow for tactically relevant missions to be performed on a single tank of fuel." In other words, flying car. Or at least some sort of ground effects vehicle.

About damn time, too ...

Passengers selected for a full-body scan can decline, but if they do, they must submit to full-body pat-downs by a TSA officer. The technology was introduced a couple of years ago, but U.S. airports have been slow to install the machines, partly because of privacy concerns raised by some members of Congress and civil liberties groups. 

On the one hand, the folks watching the monitors are going to be extremely jaded almost immediately, and on the other hand, I'm good with passing out guns and frangible ammo at the boarding gate, too, if you prefer ...

#10 The last but not least is a breath. You must focus your breath on your dan-tien but this should be done without exerting any force. As you practice more and more you will be able to synchronize your breathing with your movements which is very important. Also you should always ask your teacher when you should inhale and exhale.

And not in the 'Mother May I?' sense, either ...