‘DARPA Is Building a $10 Million, Open Source, Secure Voting System’
March 14th, 2019Mmm hmm.
If this system relies on elliptic curve cryptography, an attacker with a large quantum computer will be able to crack it.
Via: Vice:
For years security professionals and election integrity activists have been pushing voting machine vendors to build more secure and verifiable election systems, so voters and candidates can be assured election outcomes haven’t been manipulated.
Now they might finally get this thanks to a new $10 million contract the Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched to design and build a secure voting system that it hopes will be impervious to hacking.
The first-of-its-kind system will be designed by an Oregon-based firm called Galois, a longtime government contractor with experience in designing secure and verifiable systems. The system will use fully open source voting software, instead of the closed, proprietary software currently used in the vast majority of voting machines, which no one outside of voting machine testing labs can examine. More importantly, it will be built on secure open source hardware, made from special secure designs and techniques developed over the last year as part of a special program at DARPA. The voting system will also be designed to create fully verifiable and transparent results so that voters don’t have to blindly trust that the machines and election officials delivered correct results.
But DARPA and Galois won’t be asking people to blindly trust that their voting systems are secure—as voting machine vendors currently do. Instead they’ll be publishing source code for the software online and bring prototypes of the systems to the Def Con Voting Village this summer and next, so that hackers and researchers will be able to freely examine the systems themselves and conduct penetration tests to gauge their security. They’ll also be working with a number of university teams over the next year to have them examine the systems in formal test environments.
The College Admissions Scandal Is A Perfect Example Of How Deeply Corrupt America Has Become
March 13th, 2019Via: Activist Post:
Is there anything left in this country that has not been deeply tainted by corruption? By now you have probably heard that dozens of people have been arrested for participating in a multi-million dollar college admissions scam. Enormous amounts of money were paid out in order to ensure that children from very wealthy families were able to get into top schools such as Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Texas and the University of Southern California.
We should certainly be disgusted by these revelations, but we shouldn’t be surprised. Such corruption happens every single day on every single level of society in America. At this point our nation is so far gone that it is shocking when you run into someone that actually still has some integrity.
Parents Blame Elementary School’s Cell Tower After 4th Student Diagnosed with Cancer
March 13th, 2019In other news: Scientists call for Protection from Non-ionizing Electromagnetic Field Exposure:
We are scientists engaged in the study of biological and health effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF). Based upon peer-reviewed, published research, we have serious concerns regarding the ubiquitous and increasing exposure to EMF generated by electric and wireless devices. These include–but are not limited to–radiofrequency radiation (RFR) emitting devices, such as cellular and cordless phones and their base stations, Wi-Fi, broadcast antennas, smart meters, and baby monitors as well as electric devices and infra-structures used in the delivery of electricity that generate extremely-low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF EMF).
Via: CBS Sacramento:
A fourth child has been diagnosed with cancer at a San Joaquin County elementary school, and parents believe it’s because of radiation caused by a cell phone tower.
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Parents want the mast removed, but the district won’t budge. Parents say the district gets a kickback of $2,000 a month to have the tower for a telephone company, but the district so far has not commented.
U.S. Government Will Be Scanning Faces at 20 Top Airports
March 13th, 2019Via: BuzzFeed:
For Hasbrouck, the big takeaway is that the broad surveillance of people in airports amounts to a kind of “individualized control of citizenry” — not unlike what’s already happening with the social credit scoring system in China. “There are already people who aren’t allowed on, say, a high-speed train because their social credit scores are too low,” he said, pointing out that China’s program is significantly based in “identifying individual people and tracking their movements in public spaces though automated facial recognition.”
“This is opening the door to an extraordinarily more intrusive and granular level of government control, starting with where we can go and our ability to move freely about the country,” Hasbrouck said. “And then potentially, once the system is proved out in that way, it can literally extend to a vast number of controls in other parts of our lives.”
Facebook Bans Zero Hedge
March 12th, 2019Update: Facebook Reverses Zero Hedge Ban, Says It Made A “Mistake”
Mmm hmm.
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Via: ZeroHedge:
Over the weekend, we were surprised to learn that some readers were prevented by Facebook when attempting to share Zero Hedge articles. Subsequently it emerged that virtually every attempt to share or merely mention an article, including in private messages, would be actively blocked by the world’s largest social network, with the explanation that “the link you tried to visit goes against our community standards.”
Desperate Venezuelans Swarm Sewage Drains in Search of Water
March 12th, 2019Via: Reuters:
The lack of water has become one of the most excruciating side effects of the nationwide blackout that the government of President Nicolas Maduro has blamed on U.S.-backed sabotage but his critics call the product of corruption and incompetence.
The blackout has worsened the situation of a country already facing a hyperinflationary economic collapse that has spurred a mass migration and turned once-basic items like corn flour and toilet paper into unaffordable luxuries for most people.
After five days without electricity to pump water, Venezuelans from working-class neighborhoods to upscale apartment towers are complaining of increasingly infrequent showers, unwashed dishes, and stinking toilets.
Caracas needs 20,000 liters of water per second from nearby watersheds to maintain service, said Jose de Viana, an engineer who ran Caracas’ municipal water authority in the 1990s.
Last week that had fallen to around 13,000 and since Thursday’s blackout it has halted completely, he said.
VW Cutting Jobs, Electric Vehicles Require Fewer Workers
March 12th, 2019Via: Reuters:
Volkswagen said it will cut jobs as it launches almost 70 new electric models by 2028, accelerating its rollout of zero-emission cars as earnings revealed the operating margin at its core brand had taken a hit.
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“The reality is that building an electric car involves some 30 percent less effort than one powered by an internal combustion engine,” Chief Executive Herbert Diess explained at the company’s annual results press conference in Wolfsburg on Tuesday.
“That means we need to make job cuts,” he added.
Zuckerberg Wants Facebook to Build a Mind-Reading Machine
March 11th, 2019Via: Wired:
Of course, Facebook already follows you around as you make your way through the world via the GPS in the smartphone in your pocket, and, likewise, follows you across the internet via code implanted in your browser. Would we really let Facebook inside those old noggins of ours just so we can order a pizza faster and with more toppings? Zuckerberg clearly is counting on it.
To be fair, Facebook doesn’t plan to actually enter our brains. For one thing, a surgical implant, Zuckerberg told Zittrain, wouldn’t scale well: “If you’re actually trying to build things that everyone is going to use, you’re going to want to focus on the noninvasive things.”
The technology that Zuckerberg described is a shower-cap-looking device that surrounds a brain and discovers connections between particular thoughts and particular blood flows or brain activity, presumably to assist the glasses or headsets manufactured by Oculus VR, which is part of Facebook. Already, Zuckerberg said, researchers can distinguish when a person is thinking of a giraffe or an elephant based on neural activity. Typing with your mind would work off of the same principles.
Zuckerberg Wants Facebook to Build a Mind-Reading Machine
March 11th, 2019Via: Wired:
Of course, Facebook already follows you around as you make your way through the world via the GPS in the smartphone in your pocket, and, likewise, follows you across the internet via code implanted in your browser. Would we really let Facebook inside those old noggins of ours just so we can order a pizza faster and with more toppings? Zuckerberg clearly is counting on it.
To be fair, Facebook doesn’t plan to actually enter our brains. For one thing, a surgical implant, Zuckerberg told Zittrain, wouldn’t scale well: “If you’re actually trying to build things that everyone is going to use, you’re going to want to focus on the noninvasive things.”
The technology that Zuckerberg described is a shower-cap-looking device that surrounds a brain and discovers connections between particular thoughts and particular blood flows or brain activity, presumably to assist the glasses or headsets manufactured by Oculus VR, which is part of Facebook. Already, Zuckerberg said, researchers can distinguish when a person is thinking of a giraffe or an elephant based on neural activity. Typing with your mind would work off of the same principles.
Left Handed, Large Hands? SteelSeries Sensei 310 Mouse
March 11th, 2019If you’re looking for a high quality, larger-than-average mouse to use left handed, the SteelSeries Sensei 310 is a fantastic option.
I’ve gone from office grade Logitech mice, to Razer, to G-Skill and the Sensei 310 finally feels like my PC mouse search is over. The fit of the mouse in hand is very comfortable. The movement is smooth and precise. All the buttons are crisp and satisfying.
I especially like the scroll wheel. I’d call the rotation detent stiffness as medium, with no play in between notches. It is just stiff enough for gaming, but it’s perhaps slightly better suited for normal scrolling in applications. The click is precise and goes straight down without causing any unwanted wheel rotation.
The mouse’s skates snap into place. They won’t rub off or shift positions. However, they can be easily removed if you need to replace them.
If you use a mouse left handed, you already know that there aren’t many options if you want something nice. And if that left paw is very large… *groan* (My hand is 20cm long by 10.5cm wide.) Welcome to the club, my friend. If the Sensei 310 isn’t at the top of the list for this situation, I’d like to know what’s better. Perhaps the case could be made for the Logitech G Pro Wireless, but I didn’t want to spend more than $50.
Yes, the Sensei 310 is an E-sports (competitive gaming) grade mouse with RGB lighting, but you can turn the lights off if you prefer. I have a backlit keyboard, so I set the mouse to match. I work mostly at night, so I find the the lights to be pleasant.
While the Sensei 310 may be used left or right handed, if you’re looking for an ergonomic, right handed only version, check out the SteelSeries Rival 310.
