40329739
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
"Le Cyberattaque?" Unnamed French officials have been cited in L'Express , claiming that the U.S. directed targeted attacks with the Flame malware, targeting computers belonging to top advisers to, then French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. The United States quickly rebutted such accusations, with an emailed statement by Department of Homeland Security spokespersons, "We categorically deny the allegations by unnamed sources that the U.S. government participated in a cyber attack against the French government." The alleged attacks were made during the cycle of elections in April and May of 2012, when Nicolas Sarkozy failed in his bid to maintain the French presidency against Francois Hollande in a runoff. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has never acknowledged the US sponsorship of Flame, "These programs were never attributed in any way to the U.S. government," and continued affirm her role of protecting civilian infrastructure and that of France as an ally.
37448293
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
In Japan's Miyagi prefecture, harmful levels of cesium-137 were detected in compulsory school lunches served to Elementary and Middle School students, as recently as August.
In response to the public disclosure of the radioactive school lunches, Takao Abe, The Mayor of Kawasaki City, said having to eat radioactive food serves an educational purpose. "Students need to know they live in (a world with) danger by consuming radioactive school lunches. It’s wrong to educate children to be conscious about this level of radiation. There is a risk of being hit by car, there is also a risk of being stabbed by a passerby."
Kawasaki City is some 130km from Tepco's failed Fukushima nuclear plant. On August 30, 12 Bq/kg of cesium were detected in the lunches served to Nakaniida junior high school. Similar levels have been recorded in frozen tangerines and canned apples served in prefecture school lunches, since at least April.
36362861
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
According to Associate Press, the Air Force announced the failure of the X-51A Waverider, after being dropped by a B-52 bomber off the California coast. The unmanned experimental aircraft was designed to reach Mach 6, or 3,600 mph. suffered a control failure during an attempt to fly at six times the speed of sound. But the Air Force said that a faulty control fin prevented it from starting its exotic scramjet engine and the craft was lost. The first Boeing-designed X-51A achieved Mach 5 for about 140 seconds in 2010. A second Waverider flight last year ended prematurely with the craft trying to restart its engine until it plunged into the Pacific.
36253439
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
The Electronic Privacy Information Center posted a brief and detailed notice about the removal of a petition regarding security screenings by the TSA at US airports and other locations.
At approximately 11:30 am EDT, the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House "We the People" website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition. The site also went down for "maintenance" following an article in Wired that sought support for the campaign.
35444595
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
WalMart — the retail king of Big Data analytics — will be meeting Mark Zuckerberg for two days in Bentonville, to "deepen" their relationship with Facebook. The CEO-level strategy summit is intended to bolster the relationship between the world's No. 1 social network and the world's largest retailer. WalMart has been left in the dust online, by the behemoth Amazon. An alliance may be poised to challenge this dominance, particularly in light of Amazon's planned foray into same-day delivery, nationwide. The companies share James Breyer, who sits on the boards of both Facebook and Wal-Mart. Adding another angle to this, Yahoo's new CEO Marissa Mayer was elected to Wal-Mart's board in early June, while she was still at Google. Earlier this month, Facebook and Yahoo settled a patent dispute and announced plans to form another "strategic alliance" involving advertising and distribution. The implications for online privacy in this series of relationships are uncertain.
35393529
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Man with 'world's biggest penis' stopped at SFO security
"They wanted to know if I had something in my pockets, and when I said no, they asked if I had some sort of growth," said Jonah Falcon.
When he replied that it was just his penis, they "checked the area around it" ... They also wiped his hands to check for explosive powder.
"It was probably harder on them than it was on me," Falcon said.
35348873
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
U.S. TSA personnel will be stationed at British airports during the Summer Olympic Games, according to SkyNews. Authorities are scrambling to shore up security before the games open in 11 days. Organizers are already under withering criticism after G4S, the private contractor coordinating security preparations, said last week that it can't supply enough security. Now, TSA seems to be augmenting a beleaguered UK Border Agency. The US agents would begin arriving at Heathrow and other major UK airports next week. The agents will not be allowed beyond boarding gates or onto British aircraft.
33279651
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Papers Please Dept.:
Elizabeth Moon, author of an extensive corpus of Science Fiction, opines for the BBC: “If I were empress of the Universe I would insist on every individual having a unique ID permanently attached — a barcode if you will; an implanted chip to provide an easy, fast inexpensive way to identify individuals. It would be imprinted on everyone at birth. Point the scanner at someone and there it is. ... In war soldiers could easily differentiate legitimate targets in a population from non combatants... Anonymity would be impossible as would mistaken identity making it easier to place responsibility accurately, not only in war but also in non-combat situations far from the war." Does it make sense to establish military and criminal accountability at the potential expense posed to privacy and liberty?
33055557
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Virtually all cells "breathe" by pumping protons, in the form of hydrogen ions, across a membrane. Molecular biologist Leslie Orgel considers this the single most counterintuitive idea in biology after Darwin's, and the only one to bear comparison with the concepts of Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Einstein. Brainchild of biochemist Peter Mitchell, the concept was controversial for a twenty year period now known as the "ox-phos wars". The wars drew to an end only after Mitchell received the Nobel Prize in 1978. Complex life is dependent on this process, but only now are the pertinent questions being asked, about why this is so.
32533959
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Officials of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the Riken research foundation said on April 19 that the activity of sunspots appeared to resemble a 70-year period in the 17th century. Known as the Maunder Minimum, temperatures are estimated to have been about 2.5 degrees lower than in the second half of the 20th century. The researchers also found signs of unusual magnetic changes in the sun. Normally, the sun’s magnetic field flips about once every 11 years. The solar observation satellite Hinode found that the north pole of the sun had started flipping about a year earlier than expected, with no noticeable change in the south pole. It's possible the north pole could complete its flip in May 2012 but create a four-pole magnetic structure in the sun, with two new poles created in the vicinity of the equator of our closest star.
32449265
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
BBC reports today that the High Court here in Britain has ordered that ISPs must block access to the Pirate Bay. The judgement was handed after an earlier blocking request was refused by ISPs, who would not block the site unless a court order was made, as is now the case. Interestingly, Virgin Media is an ISP which is complying in dissent with the remedy. Part of the Virgin Group which arguably has a stake in the position taken by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) an equivalent to America's RIAA. "Sites like The Pirate Bay destroy jobs in the UK and undermine investment in new British artists" Chief BPI executive Geoff Taylor said that the court "has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale. Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works." Other affected ISPs include Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and British Telecom
32114685
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
"bears for the bear" dept:
It's not the setup for a Yakov Smirnoff joke: "In soviet Russia, stock market halts you." Rather more seriously, all trading appears to have been suspended, and after the third delayed time for re-opening, the closure has been announced ominously: "The technical suspension of trading to be extended. The situation has been recognized as an emergency. Further actions will be announced shortly." There is very little news available about this, and it is unknown if these are technology problems or manged by the Russian state — but Zero Hedge has been tracking the issue. At this time, a site hacking and defacement has now been largely ruled out.
32010011
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
While conducting investigative reporting on civilian contractors in the Pentagon's "InfoOps" Internet propaganda operations, two reporters found themselves the subject of a highly targeted, professional media manipulation effort. Reporter Tom Vanden Brook and Editor Ray Locker found that Twitter and Facebook accounts have been created in their names, along with a Wikipedia entry and dozens of message board postings and blog comments. Websites were registered in their names. Some postings merely copied Vanden Brook's and Locker's previous reporting. Others accused them of being sponsored by the Taliban. "I find it creepy and cowardly that somebody would hide behind my name and presumably make up other names in an attempt to undermine my credibility," Vanden Brook said. If these websites were created using federal funds, it could violate federal law prohibiting the production of propaganda for domestic consumption.
31923455
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Khosrow Zarefarid warned of the security flaw in Iran’s banking system providing affected institutions of the details, including 1,000 captured bank accounts. When the affected banks, including the largest state institutions didn’t respond, Khosrow then hacked 3 million accounts across at least 22 banks. He then dropped these details — including card numbers and PINs — on his blog: ircard.blogspot.ca. Three Iranian banks Saderat, Eghtesad Novin, and Saman have already warned customers to change their debit card PINs. "Zarefarid is reportedly no longer in Iran, though it is unclear when he left."
31761645
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
I guess this explains why the pothole in the state expressway is still awaiting repairs. Goldman Sachs, General Electric, Sears are among over 2,700 companies withholding income from their employees — but instead of sending the money to the state coffers they're keeping it for themselves. With the legal blessings of your own state.
