Connecticut: Thousands Flout Gun Registration Law
February 13th, 2014Via: The Courant:
Everyone knew there would be some gun owners flouting the law that legislators hurriedly passed last April, requiring residents to register all military-style rifles with state police by Dec. 31.
But few thought the figures would be this bad.
By the end of 2013, state police had received 47,916 applications for assault weapons certificates, Lt. Paul Vance said. An additional 2,100 that were incomplete could still come in.
That 50,000 figure could be as little as 15 percent of the rifles classified as assault weapons owned by Connecticut residents, according to estimates by people in the industry, including the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation. No one has anything close to definitive figures, but the most conservative estimates place the number of unregistered assault weapons well above 50,000, and perhaps as high as 350,000.
And that means as of Jan. 1, Connecticut has very likely created tens of thousands of newly minted criminals — perhaps 100,000 people, almost certainly at least 20,000 — who have broken no other laws. By owning unregistered guns defined as assault weapons, all of them are committing Class D felonies.
“I honestly thought from my own standpoint that the vast majority would register,” said Sen. Tony Guglielmo, R-Stafford, the ranking GOP senator on the legislature’s public safety committee. “If you pass laws that people have no respect for and they don’t follow them, then you have a real problem.”
Research Credit: RP
You Know Who Else Collected Metadata? The Stasi.
February 13th, 2014Via: ProPublica:
The East German secret police, known as the Stasi, were an infamously intrusive secret police force. They amassed dossiers on about one quarter of the population of the country during the Communist regime.
But their spycraft — while incredibly invasive — was also technologically primitive by today’s standards. While researching my book Dragnet Nation, I obtained the above hand drawn social network graph and other files from the Stasi Archive in Berlin, where German citizens can see files kept about them and media can access some files, with the names of the people who were monitored removed.
After 5 Rejections, Apple Accepts App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes
February 13th, 2014Via: Mashable:
Persistence, it turns out, does pay off. After rejecting it five times, Apple has finally approved an app that tracks every U.S. drone strike and sends a push notification to users every time a flying robot carries out a deadly mission around the world.
Josh Begley, the data artist and developer who made the app, finally got through Apple’s careful approval process on Friday, more than a year and a half after the first rejection by the company’s App Review Team.
It took persistence, but it took also some semantic trickery. Begley got the app approved because he removed the word “drone” from the name of the app and from its description. For the first three attempts, it was called Drones+, then Dronestream for the last two. This latest, successful time, it’s called Metadata+, and Begley initially submitted it with no content or functionality, adding the archive of strikes later.
With those simple gimmicks, the app got the green light from Apple, which didn’t raise any qualms about it.
Much of the Editing Work on Wikipedia Is Done by Bots
February 13th, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review:
Less well known is Wikidata, an information repository designed to share basic facts for use on different language versions of Wikipedia. Wikidata therefore plays a crucial role in lubricating the flow of information between these online communities.
Maintaining all this data is a difficult job. It requires significant editing and polishing, mostly involving mindless, repetitive tasks such as formatting links and sources but also adding basic facts.
So much of this kind of work is automated. Behind the scenes, automated bots scan Wikipedia and Wikidata pages continually polishing the content for human consumption.
But that raises an important question. How much bot activity is there? What are these bots doing and how does it compare to human activity?
Britain: Children Act Out Drug and Rape Scenes from Grand Theft Auto
February 12th, 2014Via: South Wales Argus:
A HEADTEACHER has sent a letter to parents after becoming aware of “extremely concerning behaviour” of pupils, some as young as six, which he puts down to a violent video game.
Pupils at Coed-y-Brain Primary School, in Llanbradach, have been, according to head teacher Morian Morgan, “initiating games that involve simulating rape and sexual intercourse” and “having detailed discussion of drug use”.
Staff at the school discovered that the worrying behaviour was a result of children coming into contact with Grand Theft Auto, or GTA, which follows the dark underworld of America’s biggest cities.
Its latest instalment, Grand Theft Auto V, is thought to be one of the best-selling video games of all time, having sold more than 32 million copies worldwide.
It is certified for people over 18.
The letter to parents also said children were “acting out scenes from the game which include the strongest of sexual swear words”, “having conversations” about sexual acts and “play acting extremely violent games that sometimes result in actual injury”.
Careto: Complex Malware Has Been Targeting High Intelligence Value Individuals Since 2007
February 12th, 2014Via: Vice:
A surprisingly sophisticated malware named Careto has been infecting computers globally since at least 2007, a new report from security firm Kaspersky revealed today. While the virus, also known as The Mask, appears to have originated in a Spanish-speaking country—careto, a Spanish slang term for an ugly face, was found in the code—it’s so complex that it’s not clear the average hacker could have built it.
According to Kaspersky’s report, Careto is definitely aimed at power brokers—government and diplomatic targets, private companies (especially in the energy sector), research institutions, private equity firms, and activists—and 380 victims with over 1000 IP addresses in 31 countries have been found so far.
Aside from its targets, the truly notable thing about the virus is how flexible it is. The researchers write that it “includes an extremely sophisticated malware, a rootkit, a bootkit, 32- and 64-bit Windows versions, Mac OS X and Linux versions and possibly versions for Android and iPad/iPhone (Apple iOS).” Once a system is infected, Careto can access network traffic, log keystrokes, record Skype conversations, and hunt around for files—most notably PGP keys.
As you might expect based on the targets, finding sensitive data appears to be Careto’s specialty, “including encryption keys, VPN configurations, SSH keys and RDP files,” the report states. “There are also several extensions being monitored that we have not been able to identify and could be related to custom military/government-level encryption tools.”
More: Kaspersky (.pdf)
That Chemical Subway Ditched? Yep, It’s Everywhere
February 12th, 2014Via: CNBC:
This week, Subway found out customers don’t like eating a chemical found in yoga mats, shoe rubber and synthetic leather.
After one blogger’s petition against azodicarbonamide generated widespread uproar, the sandwich chain announced plans to remove the ingredient from its bread. Currently, its 9-grain wheat, Italian white and sourdough breads contain it.
“We are already in the process of removing azodicarbonamide as part of our bread improvement efforts despite the fact that it is a USDA and FDA approved ingredient. The complete conversion to have this product out of the bread will be done soon,” Subway told CNBC in an email.
…
Although the product is approved for use in the U.S. as a dough conditioner and flour bleaching agent up to a certain limit, Europe and Australia have banned it as a food additive, writes Vani Hari, who drafted the petition and runs the site FoodBabe.com. Hari noted that her site’s traffic has doubled since she began the petition. To date, it’s drawn more than 75,000 signatures.
According to restaurant websites, here is a list of some products that contain it as an ingredient:
McDonald’s: regular bun, bakery style bun, bagel and English muffin, Big Mac bun and sesame seed bun.
Burger King: specialty buns, artisan-style bun, sesame seed bun, croissant, English muffin, home-style Caesar croutons and French toast sticks.
Wendy’s: bagel, premium toasted bun, sandwich bun and panini bread
Arby’s: croissant, French toast sticks, harvest wheat bun, honey wheat bread, marble rye bread, mini bun, onion bread and sesame seed bun
Jack in the Box: bakery style bun, jumbo bun, croissant, grilled sourdough bread and regular bun
Chick-fil-A: chargrilled chicken sandwich, chicken salad sandwich, and chargrilled chicken club sandwich
Retired Lawyer Killed After Package Sent to Home Explodes
February 12th, 2014Via: CNN:
Bewildered residents in rural Tennessee are grappling with fear and confusion as they try to understand why someone would send a bomb in the mail to their neighbor.
Retired lawyer John Setzer, 74, died Monday after “an unknown package exploded,” the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
His wife, 72-year-old Marion Setzer, was seriously injured and airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
A barrage of federal, state and local authorities descended on the neighborhood near Lebanon, Tennessee, about 30 miles east of Nashville. The FBI, U.S. postal inspectors, the Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also investigating.
So far, they haven’t publicly disclosed a motive. Those who knew the couple well are astonished.
Black Man in Jasper, Texas Found With Cut Throat And Missing Ear—Ruled ‘Accidental Overdose’
February 12th, 2014Via: DailyKos:
Alfred Wright was a 28-year-old physical therapist, a “man of great faith,” and father of three sons. He grew up in Jasper, Texas along with four siblings, and a father who was both the town’s pastor and gym teacher. Friends described him as ambitious, clean-living, hard-working, fun-loving, brilliant and a wonderful father.
He went missing for 18 days. He was found by volunteers and his father, stripped down to his shorts and one sock, with his throat cleanly slit and one ear missing. His front teeth were broken and missing.
The police recorded the cause of death as “accidental drug overdose.”
Case closed, according to Jasper cops.
Research Credit: ottilie
Eerie Parallels: Chart of Dow Jones Industrial Average 1928-1929 vs. Today
February 12th, 2014Queue your Twilight Zone mood music…
Via: CBS:
There are eerie parallels between the stock market’s recent behavior and how it behaved right before the 1929 crash.
That at least is the conclusion reached by a frightening chart that has been making the rounds on Wall Street. The chart superimposes the market’s recent performance on top of a plot of its gyrations in 1928 and 1929.
The picture isn’t pretty. And it’s not as easy as you might think to wriggle out from underneath the bearish significance of this chart.
