Using DSLR Cameras in London
April 26th, 2012Grim.
Google Tries To Slam Brakes On Privacy Outcry Over ‘Google Drive’
April 26th, 2012Via: Talking Points Memo:
Google on Tuesday unveiled what it affectionately referred to as its “Loch Ness Monster” of products, a long-rumored cloud-based file storage service called simply “Google Drive.”
But now, Google is having trouble keeping its monster under control as a number of Web users have raised privacy issues with the new product.
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Specifically, Web users and tech writers have expressed misgivings about Google’s terms of service for Google Drive and all of its other Web products, which seem to allow the company to access and manipulate information uploaded by users to the cloud-based hard drive for any purpose Google deems fit.
The key passage of Google’s terms of service that has caused many to think twice about taking Google Drive for a test drive reads as follows:
“When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. ”
Google prefaces this by stating that it won’t assume ownership of your content, “You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours,” and by stating that it will only use the information uploaded to Google Drive and other products “for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.”
Pope Calls in Opus Dei Troubleshooter to Uncover Source of Vatican Leaks
April 26th, 2012Via: Guardian:
Vatican staffers who have been leaking embarrassing letters about corruption and nepotism inside the tiny city state are to be hunted down by a crack squad of cardinals led by a senior member of the religious group Opus Dei.
Irritated by the anonymous release of documents to the press this year, Pope Benedict has named Cardinal Julian Herranz, 82, to lead a three-man team which will haul in staffers for questioning and rifle through files until they catch the perpetrators of what has been dubbed “Vatileaks”.
A short statement printed on Thursday on the front page of the Vatican’s daily newspaper warned the team had a full “pontifical mandate” to “shed complete light” on the whistle blowers, who have lifted the lid on alleged theft and false accounting.
Herranz was a long-time personal secretary to Josemaría Escrivá , the now canonised founder of Opus Dei, which has been accused of excessive secrecy, strict control over members and undue influence within the Vatican – a reputation pushed by Dan Brown’s thriller The Da Vinci Code.
One of two cardinals who are members of the group, Herranz has insisted that Opus Dei has “no hidden agenda” and is only interested in the “the message of Christ”, but he does appear to be cut out to be a Vatican troubleshooter, once stating that “men need to act decisively, like Jesus Christ – who was a real man”.
Herranz’s squad, which met for the first time this week, is just one of three inquiries now under way at the Holy See into the leak of letters in January and February that discuss the mysterious kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi – the daughter of a Vatican employee in 1983 – the likely date of Benedict’s death and an internal row over just how transparent the Vatican bank should be as it tries to shrug off allegations of money laundering.
CISPA Bill To Obliterate Privacy Laws Under Guise of Cybersecurity, A Blank Check of Privacy Invasion
April 26th, 2012Via: Hot Hardware:
There’s a bill currently up for debate in the US House of Representatives that would give companies and government agencies the right to share information when issues of cybersecurity were at stake. If the first thing you thought after reading that was “Wait, don’t we already do this,” the answer is “Yes, we do.” The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is drawing fire for certain provisions that drastically expand the definition of what data can be shared and for the way they handle existing data protections.
At present, the government’s ability to share data on its citizens is fairly restricted, insomuch as the various agencies must demonstrate cause and need. This has created a somewhat byzantine network of guidelines and laws that must be followed — a morass of red tape that CISPA is intended to cut through. One of the bill’s key passages is a provision that gives private companies the right to share cybersecurity data with each other and with the government “notwithstanding any other provision of law.”
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One of the other major issues raised by the groups against CISPA is that none of the proposed amendments restrict how agencies like the CIA or NSA could use the information they gather. In the eyes of many, the push to secure the United States’ digital borders is little more than a power grab based on spooky cyberboogymen. The idea that we suddenly need a new law that would carry a built-in override to the privacy protections already in place seems out of proportion to the dubious reality of current “cyber threats.”
North Carolina: State Threatens to Shut Down Nutrition Blogger
April 26th, 2012Via: Carolina Journal:
The North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition is threatening to send a blogger to jail for recounting publicly his battle against diabetes and encouraging others to follow his lifestyle.
Chapter 90, Article 25 of the North Carolina General Statutes makes it a misdemeanor to “practice dietetics or nutrition” without a license. According to the law, “practicing” nutrition includes “assessing the nutritional needs of individuals and groups” and “providing nutrition counseling.”
Steve Cooksey has learned that the definition, at least in the eyes of the state board, is expansive.
When he was hospitalized with diabetes in February 2009, he decided to avoid the fate of his grandmother, who eventually died of the disease. He embraced the low-carb, high-protein Paleo diet, also known as the “caveman” or “hunter-gatherer” diet. The diet, he said, made him drug- and insulin-free within 30 days. By May of that year, he had lost 45 pounds and decided to start a blog about his success.
But this past January the state diatetics and nutrition board decided Cooksey’s blog — Diabetes-Warrior.net — violated state law. The nutritional advice Cooksey provides on the site amounts to “practicing nutrition,” the board’s director says, and in North Carolina that’s something you need a license to do.
Unless Cooksey completely rewrites his 3-year-old blog, he could be sued by the licensing board. If he loses the lawsuit and refuses to take down the blog, he could face up to 120 days in jail.
The board’s director says Cooksey has a First Amendment right to blog about his diet, but he can’t encourage others to adopt it unless the state has certified him as a dietitian or nutritionist.
Milwaukee Red Cross Told To Prep For Chicago Evacuation During NATO Summit
April 26th, 2012Via: CBS:
Is there a secret plan to evacuate some residents of Chicago in the event of major trouble during the NATO summit next month? CBS 2 has uncovered some evidence that there is. It comes from the Milwaukee area branch of the American Red Cross.
CBS 2 News has obtained a copy of a Red Cross e-mail sent to volunteers in the Milwaukee area.
It said the NATO summit “may create unrest or another national security incident. The American Red Cross in southeastern Wisconsin has been asked to place a number of shelters on standby in the event of evacuation of Chicago.”
According to a chapter spokesperson, the evacuation plan is not theirs alone.
“Our direction has come from the City of Chicago and the Secret Service,” she said.
TSA Screeners Charged in L.A. Drug Trafficking Probe
April 26th, 2012Via: AP:
Duane Eleby, a suspected drug courier, was all set to sneak 10 pounds of cocaine through a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport last February with the help of a former Transportation Security Administration employee and a screener.
Eleby, however, bungled the plan by going to the wrong terminal and was arrested after another TSA screener found the cocaine, which set in motion a series of undercover operations that led to Wednesday’s announcement that two former and current TSA employees had been indicted on federal drug trafficking and bribery charges.
A 22-count indictment outlined five incidents where the TSA employees took payments of up to $2,400 to provide drug couriers unfettered access at LAX over a six-month period last year. In all, seven people are facing charges, including Eleby.
“The allegations in this case describe a significant breakdown of the screening system through the conduct of individuals who placed greed above the nation’s security needs,” said U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.
Obama Regime Escalates Drone War in Yemen
April 26th, 2012Via: Washington Post:
The United States has begun launching drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen under new authority approved by President Obama that allows the CIA and the military to fire even when the identity of those who could be killed is not known, U.S. officials said.
The policy shift marks a significant expansion of the clandestine drone war against an al-Qaeda affiliate that has seized large pieces of territory in Yemen and is linked to a series of terrorist plots against the United States.
U.S. officials said that Obama approved the use of “signature” strikes this month and that the killing of an al-Qaeda operative near the border of Yemen’s Marib province this week was among the first attacks carried out under the new authority.
Debt Collectors in Hospitals
April 26th, 2012Via: New York Times:
Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside.
This and other aggressive tactics by one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debts, Accretive Health, were revealed on Tuesday by the Minnesota attorney general, raising concerns that such practices have become common at hospitals across the country.
The tactics, like embedding debt collectors as employees in emergency rooms and demanding that patients pay before receiving treatment, were outlined in hundreds of company documents released by the attorney general. And they cast a spotlight on the increasingly desperate strategies among hospitals to recoup payments as their unpaid debts mount.
To patients, the debt collectors may look indistinguishable from hospital employees, may demand they pay outstanding bills and may discourage them from seeking emergency care at all, even using scripts like those in collection boiler rooms, according to the documents and employees interviewed by The New York Times.
In some cases, the company’s workers had access to health information while persuading patients to pay overdue bills, possibly in violation of federal privacy laws, the documents indicate.
The attorney general, Lori Swanson, also said that Accretive employees may have broken the law by not clearly identifying themselves as debt collectors.
Research Credit: valix
Sci-fi Publisher Announces Tor and Forge Will Go DRM-Free with All E-Book Titles
April 26th, 2012Via: Tor:
Tom Doherty Associates, publishers of Tor, Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen, today announced that by early July 2012, their entire list of e-books will be available DRM-free.
“Our authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time,” said president and publisher Tom Doherty. “They’re a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another.”
DRM-free titles from Tom Doherty Associates will be available from the same range of retailers that currently sell their e-books. In addition, the company expects to begin selling titles through retailers that sell only DRM-free books.
In addition, Tor UK announced on Wednesday, April 25 that it will also be going DRM-free.


