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Submission + - U.S. appeals court says NSA phone surveillance is not authorized by Congress

Submitted by IronOxen
IronOxen writes: A panel of three federal judges for the second circuit overturned an earlier ruling. The court has ruled that the bulk collection of telephone metadata is unlawful, in a landmark decision that clears the way for a full legal challenge against the National Security Agency. “We hold that the text of section 215 cannot bear the weight the government asks us to assign to it, and that it does not authorize the telephone metadata program,” concluded their judgement.

Submission + - Mysterious osmosis lets spiders weave graphene-reinforced webs (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Italian researchers in Trent have enabled 15 Pholcidae spiders to spin graphene-strengthened dragline silk just by spraying them with a solution containing carbon nanotubes and graphene flakes. The resulting fiber is as strong as Kevlar 49, and ranks among the most resilient and ductile in the world of manufacturing. But Emiliano Lepore’s research [http://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.06751v1] has not succeeded in understanding by what process the spiders are able to incorporate the ambient materials into their webs. Since spider-farming is historically unproductive, the possibility of continuing the research on silk-worms has been presented.

Submission + - Santa Clara County opts against buying Stingray due to excessive secrecy (mercurynews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Santa Clara County (California) Board of Supervisors voted in February to acquire a Stingray device for the sheriff's office. The subsequent negotiations with Harris Corp. required such a level of secrecy that the county announced that it will forego the $500,000 grant and not buy the device.

Submission + - Verizon Subscribers Can Now Opt Out Of 'Supercookies' (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Verizon said in January that it would allow subscribers to opt out of having a unique identifier placed on their phones that critics have labelled a ‘supercookie’ because it’s almost impossible to remove, but it didn’t say when. On Tuesday, Verizon said the identifier won’t be inserted for customers who opt out of its mobile advertising program: 'Verizon Wireless has updated its systems so that we will stop inserting the UIDH after a customer opts out of the relevant mobile advertising program or activates a line that is ineligible for the advertising program,” such as as a government or business line,' Verizon said in a change to its policies Tuesday.

Comment Re:I don't think it's recording calls (Score 1) 303

by IronOxen (#48749081) Attached to: FBI Says Search Warrants Not Needed To Use "Stingrays" In Public Places
Actually, the leaked information on stingray and other similar IMSI capture devices say they can snoop on the communications by becoming the most powerful cell in the area which cell phones will attach to and then basically proxying all calls to a legitimate tower. A true man-in-the-middle attack. Then, although 3G and 4G offer sufficient cryptographic protection from eavesdropping, that stronger encryption can be downgraded to the insecure A5/1 algorithm or completely disabled by forcing a mobile device into 2G mode. There is a lot of info on these devices collected at the Android IMSI-Catcher Detector (AIMSICD) project page on github. https://secupwn.github.io/Andr...

Comment Re:Yeah, but... (Score 3, Informative) 303

by IronOxen (#48748353) Attached to: FBI Says Search Warrants Not Needed To Use "Stingrays" In Public Places
You will not find any federal government agencies with licenses with the FCC. Contrary to what most people think, the FCC does not control spectrum allocation in the U.S., the National Telecommunications and information administration (NTIA) does. All federal government agencies , including the FCC, is allocated the spectrum they manage by NTIA.
Science

Carl Sagan, as "Mr. X," Extolled Benefits of Marijuana 263

Posted by timothy from the what-about-neil-degrasse-tyson dept.
New submitter Colin Castro writes with an exceprt from the San Francisco Chronicle that reveals a different side of Carl Sagan: MarijuanaMajority.com founder Tom Angell spent a few days this summer in the Library of Congress researching the iconic American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist and author and has come away with a bounty. Angell says he found some never-before-released writings on marijuana policy from the author of classics such as 'Contact' and the TV show 'Cosmos', which is the most widely watched series in the history of American public television. ... I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, unavailable to us without such drugs,' Sagan wrote in 1971, under the name Mr. X.
Biotech

Study: An Evolutionary "Arms Race" Shaped the Human Genome 33

Posted by samzenpus from the cell-wars dept.
An anonymous reader writes "An evolutionary race between rival elements within the genomes of primates drove the evolution of complex regulatory networks that orchestrate the activity of genes in every cell of our bodies, reveals new research. The race was between mobile DNA sequences known as 'retrotransposons' (jumping genes) and the genes that have evolved to control them. Scientists at the University of California Santa Cruz, identified genes in humans that make repressor proteins to shut down specific jumping genes. "We have basically the same 20,000 protein-coding genes as a frog, yet our genome is much more complicated, with more layers of gene regulation. This study helps explain how that came about," said Sofie Salama, a research associate at the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute who led the study."

Comment Re:Why yes, we should blame the victim here (Score 1) 311

by IronOxen (#47418713) Attached to: Tor Project Sued Over a Revenge Porn Business That Used Its Service

So... why is it the people who upload and host this stuff do not have consequences? Why is it people who are actively crappy to others do not have this same mantra associated with them?

Because the actively crappy people often don't have enough cash or earning potential to make it worth suing them.

Comment Sue Earth-Day organizers next (Score 1) 311

by IronOxen (#47417465) Attached to: Tor Project Sued Over a Revenge Porn Business That Used Its Service
I was hit with a baseball bat made from wood harvested from a tree that grew from a seedling planted by an earth-day participant. Earth-day organizers conspired to grow trees in an obvious conspiracy that must have included the 7 year-old at a little league game who lost his grip and threw said wooden bat. Sounds like a RICO case to me.

Comment Re:Won't pay? (Score 5, Insightful) 266

Actually, he also exposed a bug in the bug reporting system that prevents it from responding to and or acknowledging the exact type of vulnerabilities it was designed to find. It was obviously repeatable since the vulnerability was reported twice and was ignored both times. He should be paid for that one as well.

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