Recovery: Participation Rate in Labor Force Matches 35-Year Low
January 10th, 2014Via: MarketWatch:
Ouch.
The economy gained a meager 74,000 jobs last month, the weakest result since early 2011, according to government data released Friday morning.
Also not good: The participation rate in the labor force declined one-fifth of a percentage point to 62.8% in December, matching October’s level, which was the lowest since 1978.
What It’s Like When The FBI Asks You To Backdoor Your Software
January 10th, 2014Via: PC Mag:
At a recent RSA Security Conference, Nico Sell was on stage announcing that her company—Wickr—was making drastic changes to ensure its users’ security. She said that the company would switch from RSA encryption to elliptic curve encryption, and that the service wouldn’t have a backdoor for anyone.
As she left the stage, before she’d even had a chance to take her microphone off, a man approached her and introduced himself as an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He then proceeded to “casually” ask if she’d be willing to install a backdoor into Wickr that would allow the FBI to retrieve information.
‘We were pressured to weaken the mobile security in the 80’s’
January 10th, 2014Via: Aften Posten:
Audestad says that the British were not very interested in having a strong encryption. And after a few years, they protested against the high security level that was proposed.
They wanted a key length of 48 bit. We were very surprised. The West Germans protested because they wanted a stronger encryption to prevent spying from East Germany. The compromise was a key length of 64 bit – where the ten last bits were set to zero. The result was an effective key length of 54 bit.
West Virginia Chemical Spill Cuts Water for Up to 300,000
January 10th, 2014Freedom Industries, F*ck Yeah!
Via: Reuters:
A chemical spill along a West Virginia river on Thursday has resulted in a tap water ban for as many as 300,000 people, shutting down bars and restaurants and forcing residents to line up for bottled water at stores.
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency for nine counties as a result of the spill of 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, a chemical used in the coal industry. The spill occurred along the Elk River in Charleston, the capital and largest city of the eastern U.S. state.
Health officials were advising residents to use the water only for flushing toilets and fighting fires.
“West Virginians in the affected service areas are urged NOT to use tap water for drinking, cooking, washing or bathing,” Gov. Tomblin said in a statement. “Right now, our priorities are our hospitals, nursing homes, and schools.”
Local media showed pictures of West Virginia residents lining up at stores for bottled water, and store shelves that had been emptied of their supplies.
…
The spill originated with Freedom Industries, a Charleston company, according to Laura Jordan, external affairs manager for West Virginia American Water.
It occurred right above the intake of the Kanawha Valley water treatment plant in Charleston – the largest in West Virginia – and affects 100,000 homes and businesses, or 250,000 to 300,000 people, Jordan said.
Indiana Guardsman Stopped for Speeding in Madison County Had 48 Bombs
January 8th, 2014Update: Chemical Weapons Charge Added
Via: Dayton Daily News:
A former Fairborn resident and Wright State University graduate reportedly had more than 80 explosives devices, plus the materials to make more, inside his van when he was stopped on Interstate 70 New Year’s Day, the Columbus bomb squad commander testified Friday.
Andrew Scott Boguslawski, 43, of Moores Hill, Ind., faces a new charge of illegal assembly and possession of chemical weapons in addition to his initial felony charge of illegal manufacture or processing of explosives. The charges stem from a traffic stop New Year’s Day on westbound I-70 in Madison County when Trooper W. Scott Davis said he clocked Boguslawski driving 85 mph in a 70 mph zone.
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For the first time in several years, I’m adding new category. [???] will be a lot like Florida, minus the Florida.
Via: The Columbus Dispatch:
An Indiana National Guardsman was arrested outside Columbus on New Year’s Day after a state trooper found nearly 50 bombs and the blueprints for a Navy SEAL training facility inside his car, the Madison County prosecutor said yesterday.
Andrew Scott Boguslawski, 43, also had a remote-control device to detonate the bombs, Madison County Prosecutor Stephen Pronai said. Boguslawski’s civilian job is as a groundskeeper at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in south-central Indiana. Prosecutors could not say definitively yesterday whether the blueprints in his car were for the facility where he worked.
Boguslawski also had a bulletproof vest in his car, Pronai said.
“He said something to the trooper about making a bomb vest,” Pronai said.
Lt. Col. Cathy Van Bree, a spokeswoman for the Indiana National Guard, said Boguslawski is a specialist in the guard who does intelligence analysis and has top-secret clearance.
Research Credit: conceptualdecay
Gamers Who Play for Hours ‘Prone to Hallucinations’ [???]
January 8th, 2014I just assumed that a crew from 4chan was responsible for this, because I’ve played games for hours and none of this stuff has ever happened to me.
See the bit in bold at the bottom.
Via: Telegraph:
Gamers who play for hours are prone to hallucinations and seeing distorted versions of reality, according to a new study.
Respondents reported seeing “distorted versions of real world surroundings” and “misinterpreted real life objects” after they had stopped playing. Others said that game menus appear in front of their eyes during conversations.
The study, compiled from responses by 483 forum users, explored the concept of “game transfer phenomena” – experiences where players’ perceptions, cognitions and behaviours are influenced by images seen while gaming.
Among the categories of experience recorded were “multisensorial”, for example hearing video game music, and “retinal sensations” when players see “game elements intermittently or episodically in the back of the eyelids”.
Some gamers told scientists at Nottingham Trent University’s International Gaming Research Unit that they see “coloured images” and “heads up displays” while driving on the motorway.
…
However, some players can play a game intensively and it may not have any effect. It’s about their susceptibility.
Related: Video Games Intruding on Reality: ‘Game Transfer Phenomena’ [???]
France-UAE Satellite Deal Shaky After U.S. Spy Tech Discovered Onboard
January 8th, 2014Via: Space War:
The sale of two intelligence satellites to the UAE by France for nearly a billion dollars could go south after they were found to contain American technology designed to intercept data transmitted to the ground station.
The equipment, costing 3.4 billion dirhams ($930 million), constitutes two high-resolution Pleiades-type Falcon Eye military intelligence satellites, which a top UAE defense source has said contain specific US-made components designed to intercept the satellites’ communications with their accompanying ground station, Defensenews.com said in a report.
“The discovery [of the US-made components] was reported to the [office of the] deputy supreme commander [Sheikh Mohamm ed Bin Zayed] in September,” an unnamed defense source said. “We have requested the French to change these components and also consulted with the Russian and Chinese firms.”
BMW Builds a Self-Driving Car — That Drifts
January 7th, 2014Via: Wired:
BMW makes the Ultimate Driving Machine, and now it’s made the Ultimate Drifting Machine. Except it’s the code that’s in control.
At CES, BMW is showing off a modified 2-Series Coupe and 6-Series Gran Coupe that can race around a track at the limits of adhesion, and slide around corners like a throttle-happy Formula Drift ace.
Both cars are outfitted with a LIDAR system, 360-degree radar, ultrasonic sensors, and cameras that track the environment. Partnered with the electronic braking, throttle, and steering control that’s standard on all new BMWs, the prototypes can run through a high-speed slalom, perform precise lane changes, and slide around corners, without any driver intervention.
Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton
January 7th, 2014Via: Wired:
A new drone with the mammoth wingspan of a Boeing 757 is set to give the U.S. Navy some serious surveillance power.
Northrop Grumman and the Navy say they’ve just completed the ninth flight trial of the Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS), an improvement upon its predecessor in the Air Force, the Global Hawk.
With its 130-foot wingspan, Triton will provide high-altitude, real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) from a sensor suite that supplies a 360-degree view at a radius of over 2,000 nautical miles, allowing monitoring from higher and farther away than any of its competitors.
RAF Jets Fly with 3D Printed Parts
January 7th, 2014Via: BBC:
RAF Tornado fighter jets have flown with parts made using 3D printing technology for the first time, defence company BAE Systems has said.
The metal components were used in test flights from the firm’s airfield at Warton, Lancashire, late last month.
The parts include protective covers for cockpit radios and guards for power take-off shafts.
It is hoped the technology could cut the RAF’s maintenance and service bill by over £1.2m over the next four years.
BAE engineers are producing the parts for four squadrons of Tornado GR4 aircraft at RAF Marham in Norfolk – with some parts costing less than £100.
Mike Murray, head of airframe integration at BAE Systems, said: “You are suddenly not fixed in terms of where you have to manufacture these things. You can manufacture the products at whatever base you want, providing you can get a machine there, which means you can also start to support other platforms such as ships and aircraft carriers.
“And if it’s feasible to get machines out on the front line, it also gives improved capability where we wouldn’t traditionally have any manufacturing support.”
