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Submission + - Shark Week Ain't Over (ocearch.org)

Submitted by kodiaktau
kodiaktau writes: If you would very much like to spend the next couple of hours looking at sharks and where they have been I would highly recommend OCEARCH. The interface is a little slow to load but the information is AWESOME. Each shark in the program is tagged with a Smart Position and Temperature Tag (SPOT). Although the info is sporadic as it is only trasmitted when sharks surface, the info is pretty interesting. There is a profile for each shark captured including a travel path.

OCEARCH is a non-profit that is researching great white sharks and other apex predators and is working to save the worlds shark population.

My money is on Lydia.

Submission + - Thousands Gather in Washington for anti-NSA 'Stop Watching Us' Rally

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: The Guardian reports that thousands gathered by the Capitol reflection pool in Washington to march, chant, and listen to speakers and performers as part of Stop Watching Us, a gathering to protest "mass surveillance" under NSA programs first disclosed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. The program at the reflecting pool included ex-politicians, whistleblowers, professional activists, poets and a punk band. Thomas Drake, the former NSA official who blew the whistle on government surveillance and waste following 9/11 and was charged under the Espionage Act, spoke about recent revelations that the US government had tapped the phone of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and other world leaders. "For what? Why would you violate her rights? Because, what, she might know something about terrorism?" Drake said. But the big star of the day, despite his physical absence, was Edward Snowden – "Thank you, Edward Snowden" was the most popular banner slogan among the crowd. Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department ethics advisor who is now a director with the Government Accountability Project, read a statement from Snowden to the crowd. "This isn't about red or blue party lines, and it definitely isn't about terrorism," Snowden wrote. "It's about being able to live in a free and open society." Protesters plan to deliver a petition to Congress that organizers say was signed by more than 575,000 people, calling for transparency and accountability in U.S. surveillance.

Submission + - Japan refused to help NSA tap Asia's Internet (japantimes.co.jp)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The NSA sought the Japanese government’s cooperation to wiretap fiber-optic cables carrying phone and data across the Asia-Pacific region but the request was rejected. The NSA wanted to intercept personal information including Internet activity and phone calls passing through Japan from Asia including China. The Japanese government refused because it was illegal and would need to involve a massive number of private sector workers. Article 35 of the Japanese Constitution protects against illegal search and seizure.

Submission + - Why Johnny Can't Speak: A Cost of Paywalled Research

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: That there's no easy way for her to get timely, affordable access to taxpayer-funded research that could help her patients leaves speech-language pathologist Cortney Grove, well, speechless. In a cruel twist, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who prosecuted Aaron Swartz, enjoy free, all-they-can-eat access to JSTOR-paywalled research, a perk of an elite education that's paid for by their alma maters. "Cortney's frustration," writes the EFF's Adi Kamdar, "is not uncommon. Much of the research that guides health-related progress is funded by taxpayer dollars through government grants, and yet those who need this information most-practitioners and their patients-cannot afford to access it."

Submission + - Federal Prosecutors, in a Policy Shift, Cite Warrantless Wiretaps as Evidence (nytimes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Justice Department for the first time has notified a criminal defendant that evidence being used against him came from a warrantless wiretap, a move that is expected to set up a Supreme Court test of whether such eavesdropping is constitutional.

The government’s notice allows the defendant's lawyer to ask a court to suppress the evidence by arguing that it derived from unconstitutional surveillance, setting in motion judicial review of the eavesdropping.

Submission + - The Linux Foundation deletes video and posts about surveillance keynote. (google.com)

Submitted by Valentin Gosu
Valentin Gosu writes: Mikko Hypponen's talk at LinuxCon on surveillance and the NSA was published on youtube/G+/Fb and then removed a day later. The video says nothing new about everything that has occurred, but it does put things into perspective. The real question is: why was the video and post actually removed?
You can read the outline of the talk here starting at 10:22.
And of course, deleted posts can't be reshared except through the magic of PrintScreen

Submission + - Surveillance protest planned for Washington D.C. on Saturday (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: About 4,500 people have indicated they plan to attend a rally Saturday in Washington, D.C., to protest surveillance programs run by the U.S. National Security Agency. " Edward Snowden released a statement to the ACLU yesterday in support of the rally saying: "Now it’s time for the government to learn from us. On Saturday, the ACLU, EFF, and the rest of the StopWatching.Us coalition are going to D.C. Join us in sending the message: Stop Watching Us.

Submission + - Feds confiscate investigative reporter's confidential files during raid (dailycaller.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Using a warrant to search for guns, Homeland security officers and Maryland police confiscated a journalist’s confidential files.

The reporter had written a series of articles critical of the TSA. It appears that the raid was specifically designed to get her files, which contain identifying information about her sources in the TSA.

        “In particular, the files included notes that were used to expose how the Federal Air Marshal Service had lied to Congress about the number of airline flights there were actually protecting against another terrorist attack,” Hudson [the reporter] wrote in a summary about the raid provided to The Daily Caller.

        Recalling the experience during an interview this week, Hudson said: “When they called and told me about it, I just about had a heart attack.” She said she asked Bosch [the investigator heading the raid] why they took the files. He responded that they needed to run them by TSA to make sure it was “legitimate” for her to have them. “‘Legitimate’ for me to have my own notes?” she said incredulously on Wednesday.

        Asked how many sources she thinks may have been exposed, Hudson said: “A lot. More than one. There were a lot of names in those files. This guy basically came in here and took my anonymous sources and turned them over — took my whistleblowers — and turned it over to the agency they were blowing the whistle on,” Hudson said. “And these guys still work there.”

Submission + - Russia Plans To Implement US intelligence Methods Revealed In Stolen Documents (smh.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Sydney Morning Herald reports, ". . . after granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, Russia is preparing to implement the kind of electronic surveillance that he uncovered in the US. The Russian communications ministry and the KGB's successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB), have drafted a regulation requiring internet providers and mobile operators to install equipment allowing spy services to record and store for no less than 12 hours any data passing through their networks. . . . the draft directive also orders providers to store identifying information about participants in all data exchanges. This would include email addresses, internet addresses, web chat IDs and the physical locations of people . . . The equipment is to be installed by July 1, 2014. The directive appears to violate Article 24 of the Russian constitution . . . The country's existing electronic surveillance system, known as SORM, allows intelligence services to monitor internet traffic but does not require providers to record information. Even some Russian MPs, notorious for their hardline stance on most issues, were cautiously outraged. ''If indeed communications providers will be obliged to act in that way, I believe this will be a direct violation of the Russian constitution,'' . . . Sergei Mironov, told state news agency RIA Novosti. Neither Mr Mironov nor the public can know exactly what the directive says, because it hasn't been made available. . . . It would appear that after Snowden's revelations, the Russian intelligence services decided SORM needed an upgrade."" — The Moscow Times has previously made more than one interesting comment.

Submission + - Citizen eavesdrops on former NSA director Michael Hayden's phone call (washingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Washington Post has the news (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/24/this-dude-just-eavesdropped-on-former-nsa-director-michael-hayden-and-hes-tweeting-about-it/) that former head of the NSA Michael Hayden took a call while on the Acela train between D.C. and Boston. Hayden was talking to a journalist "on background", which means the reporter that Hayden was talking to is not allowed to cite Hayden by name.

Unfortunately for Hayden, another train passenger overhead the call and live-tweeted it.

Submission + - 87-Year-Old World War II Veteran takes on the TSA (orlandosentinel.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Orlando Sentinel columnist Lauren Ritchie has written (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-lk-lauren-ritchie-tsa-search-elderly-20131025,0,2675395.column) about how Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints handle her father Sam, an 87-year-old who has a propensity to question authority in a quiet way, and make his target feel stupid.

Sam points to the signs that the TSA posts stating that those above the age of 75 don't have to take off their shoes for screening. Maybe the TSA thinks all old people wear floppy tennies, but Sam's favorite pair have metal. So every time Sam goes through the screening, an alarm goes off, and an officer makes him remove his shoes. And every time he feels compelled to test the TSA. Sometimes, Sam spots them a few points by warning them ahead of time that his shoes have metal.... it got to be a ritual for a while, ending with him throwing his hands up and remarking to the TSA person: "Hey, something's not right here."

Sam also refuses to let TSA separate him from his wallet; he is convinced that it will disappear from the moving belt or that someone will pick it up on the other side if he can't get there quickly enough. His wallet stays buttoned securely into his back pocket. His daughter doesn't even want to know how much money is in his wallet because he never got the memo that America has become a cashless society.

Admittedly, the TSA is right in a way — Sam does know a little bit about planes being used as flying bombs. He was aboard the U.S.S. Idaho battleship during a massive attack on Okinawa on April 11, 1945, when six Japanese kamikazes took aim and dived toward the decks. Anti-aircraft fire took out five of them, but the last one slammed into the port side of the Idaho. The battleship, a veteran of landing after landing in the Pacific, sailed to Guam for repairs and was back in Okinawa four weeks later. Sam still was aboard when she steamed triumphantly into Tokyo Bay on Aug. 27, 1945, and anchored there during the signing of the World War II surrender.

Submission + - Fighting Paralysis With Electricity (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: In spinal cord injuries, the brain's commands can't reach the lower body — so in a ground-breaking experiment at the University of Louisville, researchers are providing artificial commands via electrodes implanted in the spine. The first paralyzed people to try out the tech have already been able to stand on their own, and have regained some bowel and sexual function. A video that accompanies the article also shows paralyzed rats that were able to walk again with this kind of electrical stimulation.

Submission + - Virtualization in the US Navy (defenseone.com)

Submitted by kodiaktau
kodiaktau writes: The US Navy has been working to reduce capital IT expenditures. Navy CIO Terry Halvorsen is planning to make all Navy servers virtualized and to remove some 7,500 desktops moving them into a data center. Some of that work completed in July 2012 included removing 1/3 of its shore-side servers through virtualization. Interestingly the Navy has partnered with VMWare, which will necessarily require licensing fees and could quickly escalate costs as the strategy progresses. Hopefully Halvorsen has set an exit strategy if costs rise to quickly. One would also think he must be looking at open source as an alternative.

Submission + - Chrome Is Used More Than Firefox, IE, And Opera Combined

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Social analytics firm Shareaholic today released browser share data for the year 2013 so far. There are quite a lot of figures to go over, but the biggest trend that immediately jumps out is Chrome’s utter dominance. In September, Chrome was used more than Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera combined. If you combine Chrome and the Android stock browser, Google’s browsers have greater usage share than Firefox and Safari combined.

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