‘Mind-Control’ Gaming Devices Leak Brain Data That Help Researchers Guess Users’ Secrets
August 18th, 2012I’d classify this one mainly as entertainment for the moment, but it does really make one wonder what the next decade or two will hold along these lines… Assuming, of course, that we don’t turn our planet into a radioactive cinder.
Via: Fortune:
The budding field of brain-machine interfaces promises a science-fictional future where games, computer operating systems, and prosthetics can be controlled with thought alone. But a new study shows that connecting minds to machines could let sensitive private information leak out along with those mental commands.
At the Usenix security conference in Seattle last week, a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, Oxford University and the University of Geneva presented a paper (PDF here) that hints at the darker side of a future where brain sensors are used to let thoughts manipulate computers as fluidly as a mouse. In a study of 28 subjects wearing brain-machine interface devices built by companies like Neurosky and Emotiv and marketed to consumers for gaming and attention exercises, the researchers found they were able to extract hints directly from the electrical signals of the test subjects’ brains that partially revealed private information like the location of their homes, faces they recognized and even their credit card PINs.
Former U.S. Marine, Brandon Raub, Arrested and Taken to Mental Hospital for Facebook Posts
August 18th, 2012Circuit Court Orders Brandon Raub Released, Dismisses Case Against Marine Arrested, Detained in Veterans Admin. Psych Ward over Political Views, Song Lyrics Posted on Facebook
Via: The Rutherford Institute:
In an unexpected ruling handed down today by Circuit Court Judge Allan Sharrett, the judge dismissed the government’s case against Brandon Raub, the Marine who was arrested by local police and FBI agents, detained in a psychiatric ward and forced to undergo psychological evaluations based solely on the controversial nature of lines from song lyrics, political messages and virtual card games which he posted to his private Facebook page. Judge Sharrett dismissed the petition for involuntary commitment on the grounds that the petition “is so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.” Raub is expected to be released immediately.
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Detained for 30 Days
Via: The Rutherford Institute:
In a hearing held at the hospital, government officials disregarded Raub’s explanation that the Facebook posts were being interpreted out of context, sentencing him up to 30 days’ further confinement in a VA psych ward.
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I looked through Brandon Raub’s Facebook page to try to see what touched this off.
Was it this post?
Brandon J Raub
The Revolution will come for me. Men will be at my door soon to pick me up to lead it. 😉
Wednesday at 10:15am
About two days later, he was cooling his heals in a mental hospital.
Via: Youtube / Josh Tolley Channel:
More: Daily Paul
Research Credit: RP
Baromney 2012
August 17th, 2012Via: End of the American Dream:
What a depressing choice the American people are being presented with this year. We are at a point in our history where we desperately need a change of direction in the White House, and we are guaranteed that we are not going to get it. The Democrats are running the worst president in American history, and the Republicans are running a guy who is almost a carbon copy of him.
‘A Soft Veil of Descending Pesticide’ for Dallas
August 17th, 2012They’re spraying Duet.
Via: Dallas News:
As the first plane flew over at about 11:05, a baby coyote wandered across Walnut Hill. It was startled by either the reporter or the airplane. It immediatley turned around and ran back into the bushes where it will no doubt enjoy the sweet smell of Duet the rest of this night.
More: To Combat West Nile, Dallas Will Spray Pesticide From Planes
Research Credit: TTC
Facebook Now Actually Deleting Photos After Users Delete Them?
August 17th, 2012Breaking URLs is not “confirmation” that Facebook is deleting the data. It’s confirmation that the data isn’t accessible from the Internet. This says zippo about what they’re actually doing with the data.
I suppose it’s possible that Facebook is deleting the data, but claiming that the data was deleted because it’s not accessible is a ridiculous stretch.
Via: Ars Technica:
Since February, all of the direct photo links that were sent to me by Ars readers disappeared, and I began deleting my own photos again from Facebook’s site to see how long it would take for them to be removed from the CDN. I tested this with two photos while saving their direct URLs, and both photos became inaccessible within two days of deletion.
Wolens confirmed to Ars that this was a result of Facebook’s new photo deletion policy and storage systems.
“As a result of work on our policies and infrastructure, we have instituted a ‘max-age’ of 30 days for our CDN links,” Wolens told Ars this week. “However, in some cases the content will expire on the CDN much more quickly, based on a number of factors.”
Wolens wouldn’t elaborate on what those factors are, but he did emphasize once again that people casually surfing Facebook would stop seeing the photo immediately upon deletion.
“As you know, the photos stop being shown to other users on Facebook immediately when the photo is first deleted by the user. The 30-day window only applies to the cached images on the CDN,” Wolens said.
Better late than never, but 3+ years is still quite a while for the world’s most popular social network to figure out how to remove images from its CDN properly.
South Africa: ‘More Than 30’ Miners Killed by Police
August 17th, 2012Update: Police Planted Weapons
Via: BBC:
South African police have been accused of planting weapons near the bodies of workers killed during strikes at the Marikana platinum mine.
Photographs taken by police suggested large knives had been placed near the bodies after they had been shot, a lawyer told an inquest into the deaths.
Thirty-four miners died when police opened fire at striking miners in August, leading to widespread shock.
The police say they were acting in self-defence.
The bloodshed occurred on 16 August, days after the deaths of 10 people, including two police officers who were hacked to death. Judges are holding an inquiry into all 44 of the deaths.
The inquiry was presented with photographs showing the bodies of the miners after the shooting – the most deadly police action since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Machetes and handcuffs
In one photograph, a dead man is seen lying on rocky ground near the mine. A second picture, taken later the same day, is identical except a yellow-handled machete is now lying under the man’s right hand.
—End Update—
Via: Reuters:
The killing by police of more than 30 striking platinum miners in the bloodiest security operation since the end of white rule cut to the quick of South Africa’s psyche on Friday, with people and the media questioning its post-apartheid soul.
Newspaper headlines screamed “Bloodbath”, “Killing Field” and “Mine Slaughter”, with graphic photographs of heavily armed white and black police officers walking casually past the bloodied corpses of black men lying crumpled in the dust.
The images, along with Reuters television footage of a phalanx of officers opening up with automatic weapons on a small group of men in blankets and t-shirts, rekindled uncomfortable memories of South Africa’s racist past.
After over 12 hours of official silence, police minister Nathi Mthethwa confirmed that at least 30 men had died when police moved in against 3,000 striking drill operators armed with machetes and sticks and massed on a rocky outcrop at the mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.
“A lot of people were injured and the number keeps on going up,” he said in an interview on Talk Radio 702.
One radio station caller likened the incident, at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum plant, to the 1960 Sharpeville township massacre near Johannesburg, when apartheid police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters, killing more than 50.
Saudi Arabia’s National Oil Company Kills Network After Cyber Attack
August 16th, 2012Via: Security Week:
Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company and the largest in the world, has confirmed that is has been hit by a cyber attack that resulted in malware infecting user workstations, but did not affect other parts of its network.
“On Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012, an official at Saudi Aramco confirmed that the company has isolated all its electronic systems from outside access as an early precautionary measure that was taken following a sudden disruption that affected some of the sectors of its electronic network,” the company wrote in a statement.
“The disruption was suspected to be the result of a virus that had infected personal workstations without affecting the primary components of the network.”
The company did not comment on the vector of attack or who may behind it, but insists its core operations have not been impacted as a result of the security breach.
Texas Researcher Adds ‘Enemy’ Feature to Facebook
August 16th, 2012*chortle*
Via: The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Dean Terry has 400 friends on Facebook, but he wants some virtual enemies.
Mr. Terry, who is director of the emerging-media program at the University of Texas at Dallas, says a major flaw of the popular social network is that it’s all sunshine and no rain: The service encourages users to press the “like” button, but offers no way to signal which ideas, products, or people they disagree with. And “friend” is about the only kind of connection you can declare.
Real-world relationships are more complicated than that, so social networks should be too, the scholar argues. He’s not alone—more than three million people have voted for a “dislike” feature on an online petition on Facebook.
But Mr. Terry has decided to take action, protesting the ethos of Facebook by literally rewiring the service. Or at least, adding the ability to declare “enemies.”
“It’s social-media blasphemy, in that we’re suggesting that you share differences you have with people and share things that you don’t like instead of what you do like,” he told me last week. “I think social media needs some disruption. It needs its shot of Johnny Rotten.”
Research Credit: Pookie
No One Will Charged With a Crime for the MF Global Collapse
August 16th, 2012Lehman? Meh.
The Squid? *pfft*
AIG? Fuggetaboutit.
This MF Global thing is noise level by comparison.
Via: Atlantic Wire:
Authorities are winding down their criminal investigation of the failed brokarage firm, MF Global, and despite the lack of oversight and the loss of more than $1 billion in customer funds, it now seems unlikely that anyone at the firm will face criminal charges.
Louisiana: Two Sheriff’s Deputies Dead, Two Others Wounded In Shootouts; Five People in Custody
August 16th, 20127 Arrested in Probe of Louisiana Shootings that Left 2 Deputies Dead, 2 Wounded
Via: AP / Washington Post:
A man accused of making threatening comments about law officers in Nebraska was one of seven people arrested in connection with the shootings of four Louisiana sheriff’s deputies, including two who were killed, state police said Friday.
The two other deputies were recovering Friday from serious gunshot wounds after the Thursday morning shootings.
Motives behind the shootings and exactly how they unfolded have not been released. The seven were arrested in connection with the attempted murder of the first deputy shot, Michael Scott Boyington. Charges have not yet been filed in connection with the two deputies who were killed or the second wounded deputy.
“We don’t know precisely what happened yet,” Ronnie Jones, an assistant to the state police superintendent, said at a news conference. “We’re still putting pieces together.
The superintendent, Col. Mike Edmonson, said the case is complex, involving two different crime scenes, multiple weapons and numerous witnesses. He said evidence and interviews so far place five of those arrested at the scene where Boyington was shot — the entrance of a parking lot used by contract workers on a job at a nearby oil refinery. Boyington was working off-duty on a security detail at the lot.
Shortly thereafter, more deputies were shot at a nearby trailer park where a car involved in the first shooting was spotted. There, St. John the Baptist Parish deputies Brandon Nielsen and Jeremy Triche were killed.
Brian Lyn Smith, 24, was charged with attempted first-degree murder.
Terry Smith, 44; Derrick Smith, 22; Kyle David Joekel, 28; and Teniecha Bright 21, face charges of principal to attempted first-degree murder. Terry Smith is the father of Brian and Derrick Smith, police said.
Arrested as accessories after the fact were 37-year-old Chanel Skains and 23-year-old Britney Keith. Authorities listed all as being from LaPlace, about 25 miles west of New Orleans.
Joekel and Brian Smith are hospitalized with gunshot wounds and will be jailed once they are out of the hospital. The others were jailed with bonds ranging from $350,000 to $750,000.
Trooper Melissa Matey, a state police spokeswoman, said “principal” charges indicate some sort of active participation in a crime, while accessory charges usually involve some aid to the suspect or an effort to hinder an investigation.
Neither Edmonson nor Sheriff Mike Tregre would discuss the criminal histories or possible motives of any of the suspects.
However, details on some suspects’ past were beginning to emerge.
The Gage County, Neb., Sheriff’s Office website listed Joekel among its most wanted fugitives, saying he is accused of making “terroristic threats” to patrons of a Nebraska bar and law enforcement officials.
The sheriff’s office confirmed on the website that Joekel has been arrested in Louisiana but said it would release no other details, referring calls to Louisiana authorities. The same website also said Joekel is wanted in Kansas for felony flight to avoid arrest in connection with the Nebraska threats. The site said Joekel fled when Marshall County Sheriff’s Office deputies tried to stop the vehicle he was driving.
In DeSoto Parish in northern Louisiana, Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle said authorities were working to confirm whether some of the suspects arrested in the Thursday shootings had been among a group of people under surveillance for suspicious activity at an RV park in his area. DeSoto deputies had started watching the RV park after three men and two women were seen getting in and out of vehicles with assault weapons.
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St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre News Conference
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Via: AP:
Two sheriff’s deputies in Louisiana were shot to death and two others were injured in an early morning shootout west of New Orleans, authorities said Thursday.
The sheriff in St. John the Baptist Parish said five people are in custody.
A tearful Sheriff Michael Tregre said the incident started when a gunman opened fire for unknown reasons on a deputy working an off-duty traffic detail along a highway that connects U.S. Highway 61 with the busy industrial corridor along the Mississippi River. That deputy was wounded.
Tregre said someone called deputies with a description of a car fleeing the scene, and officers tracked it to a nearby trailer park.
When officers found the car, they handcuffed a suspect outside a trailer, then knocked on its door. Tregre said someone with a dog answered.
“Another person exited that trailer with an assault weapon and ambushed my two officers,” Tregre said. Two deputies were killed and a third was wounded.
Two suspects were wounded in the shootout before officers subdued them, Tregre said.
The dead deputies were identified as Brandon Nielsen, 34, and Jeremy Triche, 27. The wounded officers were Jason Triche, 30, and Michael Boyington, 33. They were being treated at area hospitals but the extent of their injuries was not known. The Triches are not believed to be related.
The suspects were not immediately identified.
