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Submission + - TSA giving out "free" trading cards of canine officers (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Washington Post reports on a new way the Transportation Security Administration is squandering tax money: " Last year, the agency started producing collectible cards featuring the members of the TSA team, more than 107 animals with a nose for things that could go “kaboom.” The novelty items feature a close-up photo of the dog and its biographical info: e.g., Lino, a German wirehaired pointer, born Dec. 1, 2010, educated at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. A smaller image on the flip side shows the dogs in action, like Cymro investigating a garbage can and Jolly poking around a bench. The tiny print describes the dog’s specialty and career highlights.

“Jenny has supported various high profile events such as the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis,” reads the card for the 13-year-old black Labrador retriever.

The free trading cards are available at participating airports, including Reagan National, Denver, Austin, Chicago O’Hare and Fort Lauderdale. Seek out a handler wearing a Department of Homeland Security patch or TSA logo."

Submission + - County Spokesperson: Citizen Complaint Calls are "like a denial of service" (ajc.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: On the Veteran's Day holiday in the US, the Atlanta Braves Major Leage Baseball (MLB) team announced that they would be moving out of the City of Atlanta to a suburban Cobb County, Georgia. Many Cobb County citizens are upset by a backroom deal made to spend 300+ million of tax dollars on a new stadium. The local Teaparty launched a robocall that said: “I’m calling to let you know that your Cobb County Commission chairman, Tim Lee, is planning to spend $300 million of your tax money on a new stadium for the Atlanta Braves, including $9 million from property taxes. If you don’t want multiple new taxes on services, and your property tax dollars used for this stadium deal, you must let Chairman Lee know now by calling his office at.”

The robocall then offered to automatically connect the listender to the Cobb County Government office if the listened pushed 1. So many citizens are pressing '1' that the resulting flood of calls has overwhelmed Cobb County government's phone system. County spokesman Robert Quigley was quoted as having said: “It’s like a denial of service. We’re unable to let anyone who’s calling in with regular business, or needs assistance from the commissioner, to get through. Phones are jammed up. Voicemails are filling up.”

Submission + - TSA Screener Bled to Death because Police wouldn't let Paramedics Into LAX (foxnews.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: An update on the tragic Gunman Opens Fire At LAX (http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/11/01/2014210/gunman-opens-fire-at-lax) story: FoxNews reports (www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/15/lax-security-officer-bled-for-33-minutes-as-help-stood-by) that shot Transportation Security Administration Officer Gerardo Hernandez laid helplessly bleeding after a gunman opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport while paramedics waited 150 yards away because police had not declared the terminal safe to enter.

33 minutes passed before wounded Transportation Security Administration Officer Gerardo Hernandez, who was about 20 feet from an exit, was wheeled out by police to an ambulance. For all but five of those minutes, there was no threat from the suspected gunman — he had been shot and was in custody.

Formal conclusions may take months to reach, but what is already known raises the possibility that a lack of coordination between police and fire officials prevented speedy treatment for Hernandez and other victims. Victor Payes, President of the Union Local for TSA Workers at LAX explained: "I basically think there's a lack of coordination between entities at this airport. That lack of coordination may have led to something that shouldn't have happened. We may be talking about Officer Hernandez as a survivor."

Submission + - An Anonymous US Law Enforcement Officer claims US won't arrest Julian Assange (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/assange-not-under-sealed-indictment-us-officials-say/2013/11/18/8a3cb2da-506c-11e3-a7f0-b790929232e1_story.html) reports that "Federal prosecutors have NOT filed a sealed indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, despite persistent rumors that a nearly three-year grand jury investigation into him and his organization had secretly led to charges, according to senior law enforcement sources."

“Nothing has occurred so far,” said one law enforcement official with knowledge of the case. “If Assange came to the U.S. today, he would not be arrested. But I can’t predict what’s going to happen. He might be in six months.”

The law enforcement official providing this assurance chose to remain anonymous.

Comment Re:He needs to have the guts to go further (Score 1) 550

Venezuela enacted a complete gun ban several years ago. First they stopped sales of guns, then ammo, then banned ownership. Yes, people griped, but the results have been worth it. 1/1000 as much violent crime as they had before the ban. The streets are safe there.

Criminals don't need guns when the government is their partner in crime, at least when it comes to looting electronics retailers:

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/13/11/13/009248/venezuela-cheap-television-sets-for-all

Submission + - Getting off Grandpa's Lawn: Teenagers leaving Facebook for Mobile Apps (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: In The Guardian, technology writer Parmy Olson points out (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/10/teenagers-messenger-apps-facebook-exodus) that Facebook (FB) made a startling admission in its earnings announcement this month: it was seeing a "decrease in daily users, specifically among teens". While teenagers are still on Facebook; they're not using it as much as they did. It was a landmark statement, since teens are the demographic who often point the rest of us towards the next big thing.

The exodus of teenagers "to messaging apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat and KakaoTalk boils down to Facebook becoming a victim of its own success. The road to gaining nearly 1.2 billion monthly active users has seen the mums, dads, aunts and uncles of the generation who pioneered Facebook join it too, spamming their walls with inspirational quotes and images of cute animals, and (shock, horror) commenting on their kids' photos. No surprise, then, that Facebook is no longer a place for uninhibited status updates about pub antics, but an obligatory communication tool that younger people maintain because everyone else does.

All the fun stuff is happening elsewhere. On their mobiles."

Submission + - US Navy paid $1.6 million to Auto Mechanic for gun silencers worth $8,000 (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senior-navy-civilians-investigated-in-alleged-scheme-to-defraud-military-for-16-million/2013/11/12/74383ffa-4bbb-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html) reports on the latest example of how the US is being overrun by hoodlums in suits and uniforms: three Navy officials, who oversee highly classified programs, arranged for a hot-rod auto mechanic in California to build a specially ordered batch of unmarked and untraceable rifle silencers and sell them to the Navy at more than 200 times what they cost to manufacture.

None of the three Navy civilian intelligence officials who arranged the deal have been charged in the investigation. However, auto mechanic Mark Stuart Landersman, 52, of Temecula, Calif was arrested Oct. 29 and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to transport unregistered firearms. Landersman paid $8,000 to a machinist to produce 349 "small-engine mufflers”, then resold the devices as silencers to the US Navy for $1.6 million.

According to a court document, auto mechanic Landersman is the brother of "Conspirator #1", David W. Landersman, the senior director for intelligence in the Navy’s directorate for plans, policy, oversight and integration intelligence.

Submission + - Disney pissed about Horror Flick filmed --without permission-- at Disneyworld (slate.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Escape from Tomorrow (Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS__FFOkcyU) is a dark drama filmed by Randy Moore. It premiered in January at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was later a personal selection of Roger Ebert, shown at his 15th annual film festival in Champaign, Illinois. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Tomorrow)

The movie was filmed without permission at Disneyworld. Moore and a small group of actors and crew went undercover as tourists for just under a month in order to film the movie. Scripts and all shooting directions were kept on their iPhones so that “when actors and crew were looking down between takes, passersby just thought they were glancing at their messages.” The actors wore the same clothes every day, but park employees seemed unsuspecting—perhaps, Moore has noted, because there are so many people who come and go through the park every day, taking pictures and recording home movies constantly. The kind of camera Moore’s crew used, a Canon 5D DSLR camera, while pricey, is small and inconspicuous. Smart phones and hidden digital recorders placed on the actors’ bodies recorded the sound. (https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slate.com%2Fblogs%2Fbrowbeat%2F2013%2F01%2F23%2Fescape_from_tomorrow_filmed_secretly_at_disney_parks_can_disney_block_the.html&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where Disney representative were heard saying that "Escape From Tomorrow" will never be released anywhere. But surprisingly, the studio has yet to sue. In fact, the film has already been acquired for distribution and was released on October 11th. (http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=29398#ixzz2en96fsJ2)

Submission + - 14-year-old South Korean Law requires use of Internet Explorer (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: South Korea is renowned for its digital innovation, with coast-to-coast broadband and a 4G LTE network that reaches into Seoul’s subway system, yet has an online commerce economy stuck in 1999.

Back in the last 90s, South Korea’s government was among the first to encourage shopping and banking online. To reassure South Korean customers, the government created its own system to authenticate the identities of online buyers. To make purchases, shoppers had to supply their names and social security numbers and apply for government-issued “digital certificates,” which they could present to sellers as proof of ID. Unfortunately, the government used Microsoft's ActiveX, which works only with Internet Explorer.

South Korean law continues to require the government-issued ActiveX certificates be used for online transactions above 300,000 won — about $280. Critics argue that the dependence on Internet Explorer has actually made the nation more vulnerable to malware. They point to a string of massive data thefts and cyberattacks in recent years.

Comment Summary edit (Score 1) 1

by McGruber (#45340053) Attached to: Back in 2011, Frequent Flyers predicted an Attack on TSA

After clicking submit, I realized the summary needs to make the point that frequent business travelers have the most experience dealing with the TSA. Here's a revised submission with a new sentence in bold:

"Flyertalk (http://www.flyertalk.com) is a forum for frequent business travelers like George Clooney's character in the "Up in the AIr" movie (http://www.theupintheairmovie.com/). Flyertalk posters, being very frequent flyers, encounter TSA checkpoints every week, so they are very aware of how TSA operates. Back on April 30, 2011, a Flyertalk poster started a thread titled "I'll predict that there will be an attack at an airport, and the target will be TSA" (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/checkpoints-borders-policy-debate/1210846-ill-predict-there-will-attack-airport-target-will-tsa.html). The poster also noted "TSA is about as popular as a case of the clap these days, and when even tourists are commenting on them negatively — which is really a positive for us [business travelers abused by TSA] — I just think something is going to happen. Maybe not a shooting but a beatdown or something along those lines."

Two-and-a-half years --and one murdered TSA employee-- later, the TSA union has called for armed guards at TSA checkpoints (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/11/03/199218/tsa-union-calls-for-armed-guards-at-every-checkpoint)."

Submission + - Back in 2011, Frequent Flyers predicted an Attack on TSA (flyertalk.com) 1

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Flyertalk (http://www.flyertalk.com) is a forum for frequent business travelers like George Clooney's character in the "Up in the AIr" movie (http://www.theupintheairmovie.com/). Back on April 30, 2011, a Flyertalk poster started a thread titled "I'll predict that there will be an attack at an airport, and the target will be TSA" (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/checkpoints-borders-policy-debate/1210846-ill-predict-there-will-attack-airport-target-will-tsa.html). The poster also noted "TSA is about as popular as a case of the clap these days, and when even tourists are commenting on them negatively — which is really a positive for us [business travelers abused by TSA] — I just think something is going to happen. Maybe not a shooting but a beatdown or something along those lines."

Two-and-a-half years --and one murdered TSA employee-- later, the TSA union has called for armed guards at TSA checkpoints (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/11/03/199218/tsa-union-calls-for-armed-guards-at-every-checkpoint).

Submission + - TSA worker goes postal at LAX, shoots seven coworkers (latimes.com) 1

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: According to the Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-live-lax-shooting-tsa-agent-alleged-gunman-shot-20131101,0,3517669.story), a TSA worker shot seven people today at the Los Angeles Airport (LAX), before he was killed by police officers:

11:36 a.m.: Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times that the gunman was a Transportation Security Administration employee at LAX. The gunman was killed by authorities after he opened fire Friday morning. He allegedly shot and killed a fellow TSA employee.

11:20 a.m. The gunman who opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday morning, killing a TSA agent, is dead, law enforcement sources told The Times.

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