Submission + - ICE uses tool to find "derogatory" speech online (404media.co)
The documents peel back the curtain on a powerful system, both in a technological and a policy sense—how information is processed and used to decide who is allowed to remain in the country and who is not.
“The government should not be using algorithms to scrutinize our social media posts and decide which of us is ‘risky.’ And agencies certainly shouldn't be buying this kind of black box technology in secret without any accountability. DHS needs to explain to the public how its systems determine whether someone is a ‘risk’ or not, and what happens to the people whose online posts are flagged by its algorithms,” Patrick Toomey, Deputy Director of the ACLU's National Security Project, told 404 Media in an email. The documents come from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by both the ACLU and the ACLU of Northern California. Toomey from the ACLU then shared the documents with 404 Media.
Comment So this is why they pinged me (Score 1) 30
Comment Pot meet kettle (Score 0) 66
Comment I told them go ahead and keep it (Score 1) 113
Submission + - NSA Releases Guidance on Limiting Location Data Exposure (cisa.gov)
- Disable device location services
- Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth if you don't use them frequently
- Enter airplane mode when not using the device
- Only allow an app to have the minimum required permissions
- Turn off tracking features such as "find device"
- Minimize web browsing on your device and do not allow browsers to access location services
- Use an anonymous VPN
- Minimize location information stored in the cloud
Submission + - Woz Turns 70th Birthday into Charity Event (wozbday.com)
The challenges will officially begin on August 11th, but you can get a head start by going to WOZBDAY.COM for details.
The first challenge will be to help Woz spread the word about his birthday party and fundraiser on August 11th. All challenges will be due on August 21st at 11:59pm PDT. Challenge winners get special prizes!
Woz also stated:
"Iâ(TM)m lucky to be able to do this for a foundation oriented towards helping children, especially ones in need of finding themselves."
A livestream featuring a star-studded list of performers (see list at the birthday site) and other guests will begin on August 11, 2020 at 5 pm, PDT.
Come celebrate the life of one of the true pioneers in the Personal Computer Revolution. Listen to some music, hear some great stories, and maybe even help some kids in need!
Submission + - The Underhanded C Contest is back (xcott.com)
Comment Sir Issac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch (Score 1) 277
— Gunnery Chief, Mass Effect 2
Comment ...sigh... and they worked SO hard on the book. (Score 4, Interesting) 91
The whole book is this heist.
Literally.
Just check out the summary.
The thing that makes this book series special is that they don't say, "I ran nmap and knew from the output they were running a webserver."
They say "I ran nmap with 'sudo nmap -P0 -T3 -p 80 127.0.0.1 -oA localscan'
And got:
Starting Nmap 5.21 ( http://nmap.org/ ) at 2012-01-17 20:55 PST Nmap scan report for localhost (127.0.0.1) Host is up (0.000083s latency). PORT STATE SERVICE 80/tcp open http Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.07 seconds And could see from the line "80/tcp open http"
http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Network-How-Own-Continent/dp/1931836051
Comment Anon never went after WBC (Score 1) 1
Comment Re:Or, translated in plain english (Score 1) 318
Comment Re:This is being whitewashed from the white house (Score 5, Funny) 197
Comment Re:Danger (Score 1) 467
An excursion event in a reactor isn't even close to the kiloton range (the one in reactor 4 at Chernobyl was only 33GW). The explosion you mentioned at Chernobyl was enough to toss a 2200 ton slab... but guess what... it was just steam radioactive as hell due to contamination from damaged rods (normally water in reactors when irradiated creates N-16 which is a short -lived (as in a few minutes) alpha emitter)
Second:
Critical mass only means you've got enough neutrons to maintain a fission reaction, that's it, scale has nothing to do with it. The neutron flux between rods is moderated by steam, water, and other neutron absorbers, adding more fissile material into the equation doens't equal more energy. In fact it can STOP your reaction as enough material will absorb neutrons but not emit them with enough energy to really do anything.
Third:
Yes there is such a thing as passive cooling systems that require no moving parts. Most nuclear subs use molton sodium as a coolant and natural convection moves the sodium in a loop. Fukushima had such a thing but it the command lines to that value were cut and power to open the valve wasn't there anyway. That still didn't matter as the valve could be opened by hand except that the radiation in that part of the plant was too high. Some estimates but it at almost 30Sv MINUTE and no matter how fast you ran or with how much protection you'd still be dead before you could open the valve.
Fourth:
Dumping cold water into a reactor, especially sea water, is a big no-no as that'll immediately cause an excursion in 99% of situations, passive cooling or not. The water would stop the reaction immediately but the excess neutrons would have no place to go, as the water attenuated the neutron flux, and would MELT the fuel rods in a few minutes. If it's sea water you also get corrosion. When ordinary water is irradiated with strong alpha it becomes corrosive, reactor piping is designed to deal with the chemical reaction (peroxide) and so isn't in any danger as long as procedures are followed. Sea water on the other hand is corrosive against the same materials that are generally inert against irradiated water.
Fifth:
Fukushima had a N+2 failure system, you'd need two completely isolated systems to fail before things got ugly and the odds of that happening were extremely unlikely.
Um... what type of reactor are you an expert in as doing what you said in that last post would be a very stupid thing to do?
Comment Re:Danger (Score 2) 467
First: Say it with me. Nuclear reactors ARE NOT nuclear bombs.
Unless you're dealing with highly enriched materials with proper reflectors and shape (these things REALLY matter) you're generally not going to get any sort of supercriticality, not to mention setting off a nuclear explosion isn't something that you can do just by accident. Even a simple device like 'Little Boy' requires some extreme engineering. A multistage device with a megaton yield....by accident? Not gonna happen... this pesky thing called physics will get in the way.
Second: We don't care about using unenriched uranium. That's a good thing to use as enriched uranium is incredibly dangerous to make (Bing uranium hexafloride), and dealing with weapons-grade anything is always dangerous.
Third:
Traveling wave reactors are fairly hands off deals. Most other reactors require constant attention to maintain their "balance" and if intimate knowledge of the system (along with piss poor planning and bad control rod design) is lacking then you can end up with situations like Chernobyl. If your DR plan doesn't account for a completely passive cooling system, as in Fukushima, or a dark plant... again see Fukushima.