Cops Seize Cell Phone, Impersonate Owner
July 21st, 2012Via: Ars Technica:
Court says sending texts using a seized iPhone doesn’t violate privacy rights.
In November 2009, police officers in the state of Washington seized an iPhone belonging to suspected drug dealer Daniel Lee. While the phone was in police custody, a man named Shawn Hinton sent a text message to the device, reading, “Hey whats up dogg can you call me i need to talk to you.” Suspecting that Hinton was looking to buy drugs from Lee, Detective Kevin Sawyer replied to the message, posing as Lee. With a series of text messages, he arranged to meet Hinton in the parking lot of a local grocery store—where Hinton was arrested and charged with attempted possession of heroin.
Hinton wasn’t Sawyer’s only target. According to a court decision summing up the facts, “Sawyer spent about 5 or 10 minutes looking at some of the text messages on the iPhone; he also looked to see who had been calling. Many of the text messages that Lee’s iPhone had received and stored were from individuals who were seeking drugs from Lee.”
So Sawyer texted one of the individuals on the list and asked him if he “needed more.” The individual, Jonathan Roden, replied, “Yeah, that would be cool. I still gotta sum, but I could use some more. I prefer to just get a ball, so I’m only payin’ one eighty for it, instead of two Ts for two hundred, that way.” (The court helpfully explained that a “ball” is “a drug weight equivalent to approximately 3.5 grams.”)
But can cops legally do this with seized cell phones? When their cases went to trial, Hinton and Roden both argued that Sawyer had violated their privacy rights by intercepting, without a warrant, private communications intended for Lee.
But in a pair of decisions, one of which was recently covered by Forbes, a Washington state appeals court disagreed. If the decisions, penned by Judge Joel Penoyar and supported by one of his colleagues, are upheld on appeal, they could have far-reaching implications for cell phone privacy.
Japan Investigating Alternative Capitals in Case Earthquake Takes Out Tokyo
July 21st, 2012This has nothing to do with that Fukushima reactor 4 spent fuel pool situation. *wink*
Via: Nikkei:
A Cabinet Office council has proposed five cities — Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya and Fukuoka — to replace Tokyo as the seat of government should an earthquake knock out the capital.
In an interim report issued Thursday, the Central Disaster Management Council outlined steps to prepare for a major offshore quake in the Nankai Trough, which runs southwest from Shizuoka Prefecture to Kyushu, or a direct hit on Tokyo.
The government will seek funding for the most urgently needed measures in next fiscal year’s budget.
UV Skin Damage from Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
July 21st, 2012Via: Photochemistry and Photobiology:
Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs can provide the same amount of lumens as incandescent light bulbs, using one quarter of the energy. Recently, CFL exposure was found to exacerbate existing skin conditions; however, the effects of CFL exposure on healthy skin tissue have not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, we studied the effects of exposure to CFL illumination on healthy human skin tissue cells (fibroblasts and keratinocytes). Cells exposed to CFLs exhibited a decrease in the proliferation rate, a significant increase in the production of reactive oxygen species, and a decrease in their ability to contract collagen. Measurements of UV emissions from these bulbs found significant levels of UVC and UVA (mercury [Hg] emission lines), which appeared to originate from cracks in the phosphor coatings, present in all bulbs studied. The response of the cells to the CFLs was consistent with damage from UV radiation, which was further enhanced when low dosages of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs), normally used for UV absorption, were added prior to exposure. No effect on cells, with or without TiO2 NPs, was observed when they were exposed to incandescent light of the same intensity.
Portugal: Number of Drug Addicts Halved a Decade After Drug Decriminalization
July 20th, 2012Via: Global Post:
On July 1, 2001, Portugal decriminalized every imaginable drug, from marijuana, to cocaine, to heroin. Some thought Lisbon would become a drug tourist haven, others predicted usage rates among youths to surge.
Eleven years later, it turns out they were both wrong.
Over a decade has passed since Portugal changed its philosophy from labeling drug users as criminals to labeling them as people affected by a disease. This time lapse has allowed statistics to develop and in time, has made Portugal an example to follow.
First, some clarification.
Portugal’s move to decriminalize does not mean people can carry around, use, and sell drugs free from police interference. That would be legalization. Rather, all drugs are “decriminalized,” meaning drug possession, distribution, and use is still illegal. While distribution and trafficking is still a criminal offense, possession and use is moved out of criminal courts and into a special court where each offender’s unique situation is judged by legal experts, psychologists, and social workers. Treatment and further action is decided in these courts, where addicts and drug use is treated as a public health service rather than referring it to the justice system (like the US), reports Fox News.
The resulting effect: a drastic reduction in addicts, with Portuguese officials and reports highlighting that this number, at 100,000 before the new policy was enacted, has been halved in the following 10 years. Portugal’s drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states, according to the same report.
One more outcome: a lot less sick people. Drug related diseases including STDs and overdoses have been reduced even more than usage rates, which experts believe is the result of the government offering treatment with no threat of legal ramifications to addicts.
Colorado Movie Theater Massacre
July 20th, 2012Prop Master of Dark Knight Rises Died 3 Months Before Movie Release
Via: Daily Paul:
So, the map says “Sandy Hook”…Well, the ‘prop master’ for the Dark Knight movie, Scott Ketzinger, died in early April of this year, just months before the movies release. As I’m understanding this (please correct me if I’m wrong), it is the ‘prop master’ that would have had “control” of the map that says “Sandy Hook”. Now, I’m not saying that it is Scott Ketzinger (the prop master) that inserted “Sandy Hook” onto the map, but take one guess where Mr. Ketzinger just so happened to be from, and where he died…Newtown.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004050/
“Getzinger suffered multiple broken bones, but was described as conscious and alert after being cut out of the 2002 Ford F-150 pickup truck he was driving. State police initially characterized his injuries as non-life threatening.
The accident was reported at 7:02 p.m. when a 1999 Lexus RX300 driven by Alexandra Orteig, 18, of New Canaan.”
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Newtown-man-die…
There was a “passenger” with Ms. Orteig when the accident happened, but they did not go to the hospital and were not identified.
Alexandra Orteig’s father, Stephen Orteig, is a member of the U.N. Committee of New Cannan.
http://uncommitteeofnc.org/aboutus.html
Research Credit: jimbo2120
—
Holmes Saw Three Mental Health Professionals at University of Colorado Prior to Massacre
Via: CBS:
Alleged Aurora, Colo, shooter James Holmes met with not one, but at least three mental health professionals at the University of Colorado prior to the massacre. How long he met with each one and the depth of their involvement is not clear, but it adds to the picture of Holmes being clearly on their radar in the time period leading up to the shootings. When contacted by CBS News, school spokesperson Jacque Montgomery declined comment, citing a judge’s gag order.
At the University of Colorado Anschutz Campus, James Holmes had been a PhD student in neuroscience. But last June, he dropped out and was buying guns. Before he left this campus, he had seen at least three mental health professionals associated with student mental health services.
—
Jenny Gallagher: Nurse Who Treated Colorado Shooting Victims Drowns
Via: Irish Times:
US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle paid tribute to Jenny and her colleagues who are credited with saving the lives of some of those injured in the massacre.
PHD student James Holmes has been charged in relation to the shootings which left 12 people dead.
However, her family has now been plunged into a sense of grief of their own. Jenny was out swimming in a lake close to her home when she is believed to have drowned.
—
Gag Order Still in Place for James Holmes Trial
Via: Los Angeles Times:
Most of the details of the case against James E. Holmes, the man accused of the midnight movie shooting that left 12 dead and 58 injured, will remain sealed to the public, a judge ruled Monday.
Saying that Holmes’ right to a fair trial outweighed the media’s quest to release more details and shed light on the proceeding, District Judge William Sylvester left intact much of the gag order for those connected to the case and kept most of the police and court documents sealed, including arrest and search warrants.
Twenty media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, argued last week to ease the gag order and unseal documents in the case.
In his rulings, Sylvester acknowledged the huge public and media interest in the mass shooting at the July 20 midnight movie premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” at an Aurora movie theater.
Yet he ultimately decided that allowing the wholesale release of information would be a mistake that could not be undone. It would be, he wrote, like “stepping on the brakes of an automobile in midair after driving off a cliff — a driver can pump the brakes all he/she wants but the impending wreck is inevitable.” Disclosures could produce “untold harm” to the case, he said.
Last week Daniel King, Holmes’ court-appointed lawyer, said media leaks had already damaged his client’s case. King also revealed a hint at his defense strategy, alluding to his client’s mental illness.
—
Judge Accused of Creating ‘Unusual Shroud of Secrecy’ in Movie Theater Shooting Case
Via: Denver Post:
In other words, people often follow such stories because they’re responsible citizens, not because they are voyeurs out for cheap thrills.
That’s one reason we hope District Judge William Sylvester reconsiders his rulings that have imposed an unusual shroud of secrecy on the case. A hearing on a motion by the media to unseal the court file, for example, comes up later this week.
To be clear, we’re not talking about items that could jeopardize the defendant’s right to a fair trial but rather routine motions and such documents as executed search warrants. Even the number and nature of filings have not been officially disclosed, although these court records are generally open to inspection.
Even more disturbing, Sylvester ordered the University of Colorado to seal all records relating to Holmes, including those normally subject to the Colorado Open Records Act. As it happens, CORA does include a mechanism to seal records given a “substantial” public interest in doing so. Yet those procedures were bypassed.
Was that because authorities sought to hide the fact that a CU psychiatrist who had been seeing the accused was so alarmed that she notified a threat-assessment team, as news reports last week revealed? We’d like to believe otherwise, but it’s hard not to harbor suspicions.
—
James Holmes’ “Mentor” Admits to Mind Manipulation
Via: Deadline Live:
So the accused Batman shooter, who appeared drugged out of his mind during his first court appearance, and the District Attorney later said she had “no information” on whether Holmes was on medication in court [3], is closely associated to a boastful mind manipulator.
—
Accused Mass Murderer Keeps Asking ‘Why Am I Here?’
Via: NY Post:
The Joker is playing the amnesia card.
Accused mass murderer James Holmes told jailhouse workers that he remains stumped about what landed him in a Colorado lockup, a jail staffer told the Daily News.
“He claims he doesn’t know why he’s in jail,” the worker said Thursday. “He asked, ‘Why am I here?’”
—
Aurora Police and Radio Traffic
Fire is left channel, police is right channel.
qsl.net/ke4znr/AuroraCoShooting/AuroraCoAudio1211am0241am.mp3
38:14 “One of the shooters might be wearing a white and blue plaid shirt.”
40:00 “Suspect saying he’s the only one, but I’m getting conflicting suspect description from the witnesses out here.”
52:30 “Male red backpack … headed towards Alameda.”
52:52 “Male dressed in black with a black backpack going to the northeast.”
1:43:45 “Possibly secondary devices are gonna be in the front parking lot.”
1:44:32 “I’m talkin to people been getting statements. It sounds like we have possibly two shooters. One that was in theater 8, seated. Another one that came in from the outside into theater 9. Sounded like it was a coordinated attack.”
1:45:15 “Possible second shooter still at large.”
1:49:04 “Fire’s moving their equipment due to the devices.”
1:55:05 “All units have been advised to clear the main parking lot. A secondary device was found.”
—
Real Life Shooting Imitates Training Exercise at Parker Medical School
Via: Denver Post:
The tragedy that played out in an Aurora movie theater Friday was ironically paralleled as a classroom learning experience in a medical school in Parker the same day.
Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine is in the middle of holding specialized classes in disaster life support for 150 second-year medical students. Along with response to natural disasters like hurricanes and floods and terrorist attacks, one of the scenarios being used to train the students is how to respond if a shooter fires at people in a movie theater and also uses a bomb in the attack.
“The irony is amazing, just amazing,” said Rocky Vista Dean Dr. Bruce Dubin.
Research Credit: D
—
With Regard to Multiple Shooters/Suspects Theories
Of course, the official version of the story states that Holmes went to an exit, propped the door open, went outside, retrieved his weapons and body armor, etc. and then returned.
I’m just noting these stories here in case they disappear.
This is an unnamed witness. WKYC: Witness: Someone Let Gunman Inside Colorado Movie Theater:
A man who was at the Colorado movie theater where a dozen people were killed this morning, says he saw the gunman.
He says he thinks someone deliberately let the gunman inside once the movie started.
Here’s what he told TV station KCNC this morning live on their newscast.
“As I was sitting down to get my seat, I noticed that a person came up to the front row, the front right, sat down, and as credits were going, it looked like he got a phone call. He went out toward the emergency exit doorway, which I thought was unusual to take a phone call. And it seemed like he probably pried it open, or probably did not let it latch all the way. As soon as the movie started, somebody came in, all black, gas mask, armor, and threw a gas can into the audience, and it went off, and then there were gunshots that took place.”
Fox:
James Cameron, who was in an adjacent theater, said he heard commotion and screaming. People seated around him began coughing and having difficulty breathing.
“By the sound of it, it sounds like there could have been three or four guys shooting,” he said.
Oates said there’s no evidence of any other attackers. There was also no immediate word of any motive.
—
Did Robert Holmes, Father of James Holmes, Work for the U.S. Navy Before 2000?
Here’s a U.S. Navy report called, “Forecasting PCS ORT Moves Using Tree Classifications,” by Robert M. Holmes, Jr. and Chester Pabiniak. The date is August 1989.
Research Credit: TR and RT
—
Where Did Robert Holmes, Father of James Holmes, Work Before 2000?
I would be interested in knowing where Robert Milton Holmes, the father of James Holmes, worked before 2000. If anyone has this information, please send it to me.
On his Linkedin profile Robert Holmes lists a University of California, Berkeley Ph.D. in Statistics from 1981. He currently works for FICO, but also lists working for HNC Software from 2000 to 2002. (HNC Software was acquired by FICO.)
We have a DARPA link in HNC Software.
This is from a 1999 company profile for HNC Software:
HNC Software Inc. is San Diego’s largest software company and develops predictive software solutions for business-to-consumer service companies. These solutions allow companies to make more intelligent and profitable decisions and are marketed to industries- including financial, insurance, retail, telecommunications and the Internet.
Like many San Diego-based software companies, HNC Software Inc. traces its origins to the defense industry. When the company was launched in 1986, it focused on defense-related research and development. But over the years as defense budgets shrank not only in San Diego, but nationwide, HNC quickly realized that in order to succeed and grow, other commercial applications had to be found for its products.
…
But perhaps the most exciting frontier awaiting exploration and commercial development by HNC is in an area that scientists still know very little about: the human brain. HNC is working on a long-term research project launched in 1998 that is jointly funded by HNC and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the U.S. Defense Department, to investigate ‘cortronic neural networks,’ a concept originally proposed by Robert Hecht-Nielsen, HNC’s co-founder and chief scientist.
HNC hopes to develop new capabilities in the areas of textual, aural and visual representation, and to actually build three new predictive, neural-net based systems: one that reads, interprets and searches text more effectively; a second recognizing speech and other sounds, enabling users to perform audio searches; and a third that can scan for and interpret images. The ultimate goal is to integrate all three systems. The net result – machines that someday might be able to reason like humans.
“This is the most important scientific challenge of our time, and finding the answer will be the adventure of the millennium,” says Hecht-Nielsen.
—
James Holmes: Accused Colorado Shooter Is Grandson of Decorated Veteran, Has Mamily Roots in Monterey County
Via: Contra Costa Times:
James Holmes, the man believed responsible for killing 12 people Friday during one of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, is the grandson of a decorated military veteran who was a respected educator at prestigious York School in Monterey.
Lt. Col. Robert M. Holmes, who served in the Okinawa campaign during World War II, retired in 1963 as the last commander of the Nike missile group in San Francisco Bay. He was one of the first Turkish language students at the Army Language School, now the Defense Language Institute, graduating in 1948, a school spokesman confirmed Friday.
After his military retirement, Holmes taught math and science at York School for 17 years. He died in 1990. His wife, Mary Jane Crawford Holmes, attended Stanford University and worked at the Monterey City Library, Fort Ord Library and Pacific Grove High School before finishing her career as librarian and college counselor at York School. She died in 2010.
A 1945 graduate of Pacific Grove High School, she was also a member of numerous historical societies, including the Order of the Crown of Charlemagne, Descendants of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston and the Monterey Bay Colony of Mayflower Descendants, of which she served as governor.
Their personal histories, taken from their obituaries in The Monterey County Herald, are difficult to reconcile with the most indelible image of their 24-year-old grandson.
Research Credit: TR
—
Colorado Batman Shooting Shows Obvious Signs of Being Staged
Research Credit: TR
—
Flashback 2005: CIA Plans to Shift Work to Denver
Via: Washington Post:
The CIA has plans to relocate the headquarters of its domestic division, which is responsible for operations and recruitment in the United States, from the CIA’s Langley headquarters to Denver, a move designed to promote innovation, according to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials.
About $20 million has been tentatively budgeted to relocate employees of the CIA’s National Resources Division, officials said. A U.S. intelligence official said the planned move, confirmed by three other government officials, was being undertaken “for operational reasons.”
A CIA spokesman declined to comment. Other current and former intelligence officials said the Denver relocation reflects the desire of CIA Director Porter J. Goss to develop new ways to operate under cover, including setting up more front corporations and working closer with established international firms.
—
Update: “I am The Joker”
Via: AP:
Holmes was studying neuroscience in a Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver, university spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said. Holmes enrolled a year ago and was in the process of withdrawing at the time of the shootings, Montgomery said.
ABC News reported that Holmes told police “I am the Joker,” according to NYPD police commissioner Ray Kelly. The report also says Holmes had died his hair like The Joker.
—End Update—
Via: CNN:
The man suspected of shooting up an Aurora, Colorado movie theater screening the new Batman film early Friday, killing 12 and wounding 59, also left his apartment rigged with traps, police said.
“It’s booby trapped with various incindiery and chemical devices and trip wires,” Aurora police chief Dan Oates said, adding that it could take days to work through the apartment safely.
Five buildings around suspect James E. Holmes’ Aurora apartment were evacuated, Oates said.
Police say Holmes, 24, dressed head-to-toe in protective tactical gear, set off two devices of some kind before spraying the theater with bullets from an AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and at least one of two .40-caliber handguns police recovered at the scene.
Oates said investigators are confident that Holmes acted alone.
The shooting unfolded inside a darkened theater packed with Batman fans, some in costume for the premiere of the movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” Screaming, panicked moviegoers scrambled to escape from the black-clad gunman, who wore a gas mask and randomly shot as he walked up the theater’s steps, witnesses said.
It was a scene “straight out of a horror film,” said Chris Ramos, who was inside the theater.
“He was just literally shooting everyone, like hunting season,” Ramos said.
Holmes surrendered without resistance within minutes of the first calls from panicked moviegoers reporting a shooting inside the Century 16 theater, Oates said. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, court officials said.
Facebook, Wal-Mart Chiefs Meet to ‘Deepen’ Relationship
July 20th, 2012The mind boggles.
Via: Reuters:
Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is about to add the biggest retail players to his list of friends.
Zuckerberg and his senior management team will spend two days at Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s Bentonville, Arkansas home office this week, meeting with executives of the world’s largest retailer and discussing ways to “deepen” their relationship.
The Facebook team will meet with Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke and his lieutenants on Friday, in the first such meeting between the two corporations’ senior management teams. Zuckerberg and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will then speak to hundreds of Wal-Mart employees on Saturday at the retailer’s monthly meeting.
Representatives at both companies declined to discuss the specific agenda for Friday’s meeting other than noting that the summit is intended to bolster the relationship between the world’s No. 1 social network and the world’s largest retailer.
Army Mortuary Unit Deploys to Middle East
July 20th, 2012Via: AP / Army Times:
More than 40 soldiers from Fort Lee are deploying to Kuwait and Afghanistan.
Officials at the Army base near Petersburg say the soldiers from the 111th Quartermaster Company left Wednesday for an at least six-month deployment.
The soldiers are part of one of the Army’s only two active duty mortuary affairs units.
“The film – to be fed into the opening ceremony – was given the name ‘The Arrival'”
July 20th, 2012Really?
Via: News Ltd:
JAMES Bond star Daniel Craig is to open the London 2012 Olympic Games ceremony after a personal invitation from Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen asked Craig into Buckingham Palace to film spectacular scenes as 007 for London’s sporting extravaganza, The Sun reports.
In the film, he arrives by Royal Appointment to be told his latest mission is to launch the Games.
Her Majesty may even make a cameo appearance but the Palace is keeping details a secret.
A billion people watching on TV around the world will see Bond getting his instructions before he is taken by helicopter to parachute into the Olympic stadium in Stratford, East London.
Apple Yanks Privacy App From The App Store
July 19th, 2012Via: Security Week:
Back in May of this year, Internet security firm Bitdefender launched an App and service designed to help iOS users get a grip on what the apps installed on their mobile devices may be up to.
Dubbed “Clueful” by Bucharest, Romania-based Bitdefender, the App tells owners of iOS devices which applications may be accessing more information than they need, and identifies potentially “misbehaving” apps, giving users an inside look at all the information app developers can gather about a user. In simple terms, Clueful identifies potentially intrusive applications and shows users what they do behind their back.
Seems legit, right? Apple doesn’t think so. Or at least they have an issue with something behind the App that sparked them to pull it from the App Store this week.
After initially reviewing and approving the App that was released on May 22, and has been available in the App store for months, Apple has had a change of heart and has removed the App from the AppStore.
“Apple informed Bitdefender’s product development team of the removal — for reasons the company is studying — after initial approval and sale in the App Store,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.
So why would Apple pull such an App from the App store? It’s unclear, and Bitdefender told SecurityWeek that the company is under NDA as far as explanations for the removal.
IARPA Contracting for Quiet Surveillance Drone
July 19th, 2012Via: Aviation Week:
Now small firm D-Star Engineering has received what appears to be the first contract (for $4.8 million) awarded under the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (IARPA) Great Horned Owl (GHO) program to develop a new class of quiet small unmanned aircraft.
…
Sound is the number one signature that gives away the presence and location of small UAVs, says IARPA, and Phase 1 of GHO is focused on reducing the noise produced by power sources and propulsors. A separately competed Phase 2 will build the technology into a flight vehicle.
Although battery-powered UAVs are quiet, they don’t have the payload or endurance required, IARPA says, so GHO is focused on hybrid turbine-electric propulsion systems that run on readily available automotive fuels – gasoline or diesel. The idea is to turn fuel into electricity and electricity into thrust.
