Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 84 of 153).

Hackers Are Now Leery About Inviting the NSA to Their Conventions

Ruh-roh.

The announcement appeared at the conference website yesterday, in a post titled, “Feds, We Need Some Time Apart.”

For over two decades DEF CON has been an open nexus of hacker culture, a place where seasoned pros, hackers, academics, and feds can meet, share ideas and party on neutral territory. Our community operates in the spirit of openness, verified trust, and mutual respect.

When it comes to sharing and socializing with feds, recent revelations have made many in the community uncomfortable about this relationship.

via Hackers Are Now Leery About Inviting the NSA to Their Conventions – Yahoo! News.

What It’s Like to Get a National-Security Letter : The New Yorker

Nice first-person account of what it’s like to get a “national security letter” from the FBI.

I spoke with Brewster Kahle, the founder of the nonprofit Internet Archive, perhaps the greatest of our digital libraries, and of the Wayback Machine, which allows you to browse an archive of the Web that reaches back to 1996. He is one of very few people in the United States who can talk about receiving a national-security letter. These letters are one of the ways government agencies, in particular the F.B.I., can demand data from organizations in matters related to national security. They do not require prior approval from a judge, only the assertion that the information demanded is relevant to a national-security investigation. Recipients of a national-security letter typically are not allowed to disclose it.

via What It’s Like to Get a National-Security Letter : The New Yorker.

Ancient DNA mapped from 700,000-year-old horse

Fascinating.

Gene experts said Wednesday they’ve been able to unravel the genetic blueprint of a prehistoric horse that lived in Canada some 700,000 years ago, the oldest DNA mapping effort ever attempted.

A dramatic extension of the limits of ancient DNA recovery, the advance re-creates a gene map, or genome, which is roughly 10 times older than the previous record-holder. The feat suggests that ancient DNA may be recoverable from frozen remains almost a million years old, raising the possibility of someday recovering even more ancient gene maps of humanity’s primitive ancestors.

via Ancient DNA mapped from 700,000-year-old horse.

Coyotes!

Looks like you can add another urban critter to the list of critters seen in my East Raleigh neighborhood: coyotes! A neighbor reported an encounter with one this morning in the Woodcrest neighborhood:

This morning at about 6:30 AM I saw a coyote walking across Dennis down towards Banks Street. I also saw a couple of foxes around Lions Park late Wednesday night.

Keep an eye on your pets when you let them out. There seems to be several predators living in or around the neighborhood.

Last week, a friend told me of an encounter he had last month on the Middle Crabtree Creek greenway. I described it to my friend John Connors who works at the Nature Research Center:
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Are You Smart Enough to Be a Citizen? Take Our Quiz – Eric Liu – The Atlantic

The Atlantic’s Eric Liu totally stole my idea.

By the way, I scored a 73. Those dadgum Supreme Court justices need to get out more.

To become a citizen of the United States, naturalizing immigrants must take a test. Many native-born Americans would fail this test. Indeed, most of us have never really thought about what it means to be a citizen. One radical idea from the immigration debate is the repeal of birthright citizenship—guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment—to prevent so-called anchor babies. Odious and constitutionally dubious as this proposal may be, it does prompt a thought experiment: What if citizenship were not, in fact, guaranteed by birth? What if everyone had to earn it upon turning 18, and renew it every 10 years, by taking an exam? What might that exam look like?

via Are You Smart Enough to Be a Citizen? Take Our Quiz – Eric Liu – The Atlantic.

Did U.S. Gov’t Lie about TWA Flight 800 Crash? Ex-Investigators Seek Probe as New Evidence Emerges | Democracy Now!

There is a petition active with the NTSB to reopen the investigation into the crash of TWA 800. The plane exploded in July 1996, shortly after leaving New York.

The official explanation blamed a short circuit in the center wing fuel tank, though that’s never happened to a 747 before. Many witnesses reported seeing a streak of light rise in the vicinity of the plane.

I stopped believing the official explanation early on when I read a CNN story reporting that the nose-wheel doors were blown inward, suggesting an external explosion had taken place. The NTSB said the investigation would have to see how that evidence fit the official theory:

But Shelly Hazle, an NTSB spokeswoman, downplayed the significance, emphasizing that investigators will have to see how this newly discovered evidence fits into their theory of how the plane blew up.

The NTSB was cherry-picking evidence to support its theory. I knew then that the investigation was a sham. What downed the plane? I have no idea, but I do firmly believe the federal government knows more than it’s telling.

Seventeen years ago, TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island, killing all 230 people aboard. The official government investigation blamed mechanical failure, but now a group of former investigators are petitioning the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen the probe, saying the original report was falsified. Was the plane accidentally shot down by the U.S. Navy conducting a nearby exercise, or was it a terrorist attack?

via Did U.S. Gov’t Lie about TWA Flight 800 Crash? Ex-Investigators Seek Probe as New Evidence Emerges | Democracy Now!.

Discovering Names Of Secret NSA Surveillance Programs Via LinkedIn | Techdirt

While the NSA can use the Internet for spying on law-abiding citizens, the same citizens can use it for spying on the NSA. One Internet sleuth searched LinkedIn for a few of these codeword programs and turned up several resumes full of programs:

So, over the weekend, the Washington Post revealed some of the code names for various NSA surveillance programs, including NUCLEON, MARINA and MAINWAY. Chris Soghoian has pointed out that a quick LinkedIn search for profiles of people in Maryland with codenames like MARINA and NUCLEON happen to turn up profiles like this one which appear to reveal more codenames:

+Skilled in the use of several Intelligence tools and resources: ANCHORY, AMHS, NUCLEON, TRAFFICTHIEF, ARCMAP, SIGNAV, COASTLINE, DISHFIRE, FASTSCOPE, OCTAVE/CONTRAOCTAVE, PINWALE, UTT, WEBCANDID, MICHIGAN, PLUS, ASSOCIATION, MAINWAY, FASCIA, OCTSKYWARD, INTELINK, METRICS, BANYAN, MARINA

TRAFFICTHIEF, eh? WEBCANDID? Hmm… Apparently, NSA employees don’t realize that information they post online can be revealed.

via Discovering Names Of Secret NSA Surveillance Programs Via LinkedIn | Techdirt.

Cheney Says Leaks Were Traitorous – NYTimes.com

The New York Times decided to report on this appearance by Dick Cheney on Fox News Sunday:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney defended on Sunday the newly disclosed electronic surveillance programs operated by the government and called the former National Security Agency contract worker who disclosed them a criminal and a traitor.

“I think it’s one of the worst occasions in my memory of somebody with access to classified information doing enormous damage to the national security interests of the United States,” said Mr. Cheney, a forceful advocate for the classified programs when he was in office.

There’s no polite way to put this but you’ve got to be fucking shitting me.

Hey, Dick, does the name Valerie Plame mean anything to you? You remember her, the career CIA agent you outed when she and her husband proved your case for war with Iraq was built on a pack of lies? You destroyed her career not for any greater good, but simply as revenge for proving to the world that you’re a bully as well as a pathological liar?

Yeah, Dick Cheney was a “forceful advocate for classified programs” except for those times he betrayed them himself. Dick Cheney recklessly ended the career of a CIA agent. The only career that Edward Snowden ended is his own.

Dick Cheney makes my blood boil. He’s got zero credibility. Zero. He doesn’t belong on TV, he belongs in prison. And shame on Times reporter John Broder for writing this tripe.

via Cheney Defends Surveillance and Says Leaks Were Traitorous – NYTimes.com.

Avila and the broadband divide

It’s refreshing to see Rep. Marilyn Avila express some concern about the lack of broadband.

Avila was praised by N&O executive editor John Drescher in her defense of requiring local governments buy newspaper space for their legal notices:

“Are our citizens going to have to bookmark every website for every department in every division and check it every day to figure out what we’re up to down here?” she asked, adding that many residents don’t have Internet access.

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Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?

In addition to collecting call detail records, there is some speculation that phone conversations themselves are being harvested. Recall this exchange from last month, as reported by Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian:

On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:

BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It’s not a voice mail. It’s just a conversation. There’s no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?

CLEMENTE: “No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It’s not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.

BURNETT: “So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.

CLEMENTE: “No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.”

via Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government? | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.