Random News Stories

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/14/20024025-pentagon-announces-same-sex-spouse-benefits-for-military-couples?lite

At least we're all EQUALLY eligibly to be fucked over by drug enforcement and terrorism prevention.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/08/feds-crack-encrypted-drives/

Federal authorities have cracked two encrypted drives they say are filled with child pornography, leading to an arrest in an ongoing case that shows the limits of encryption and highlights a novel legal issue in which the government has been trying to force the defendant to decrypt the drives to aid his prosecution.

Investigators arrested Jeffrey Feldman in Wisconsin on Tuesday and accuse him of three counts of receiving and possessing child pornography.

The arrest came months after the authorities told a federal judge they were unable to decrypt the drives and needed the defendant to disclose his passwords — pitting the constitutional right against compelled self-incrimination against the government's need to access data. In June, the authorities urged the court to demand that Feldman fork over his passcodes, saying the suspect could "forget his passwords."

FBI agent Chadwick Elgersma said in court documents filed Tuesday that seven more drives await decryption. It remains unclear whether the judge presiding over the case will order Feldman to decrypt them.

Elgersma said in an arrest affidavit that investigators cracked two Western Digital My Book Essential external hard drives they believe were used with a Dell Inspiron 530 personal desktop running Windows 7. Authorities suspect thousands of files on the drives are child pornography, the agent said.

The authorities did not say what type of encryption Feldman used. But the case illustrates that encryption isn't foolproof and that the authorities are making headway cracking encryption.

More and links within the article. The potential for precedent here is worth noting. Add to that that CP is usually one of the best ways to curry public/judicial favour to get what you want and it starts looking a bit odd. I know nothing really about the case, but it will be interesting to see the amount of actual illegal content found. I'd guess it to be substantially less than a full 7 hard drives but still enough to justify the actions.

[Junkenstein]

From the "Incredibly cunning disguise" files:
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20130814/NEWS01/308140125/Police-man-flees-on-scooter-cuts-hair-trying-to-trick-police

After he stole a laptop, a wedding ring and a digital camera, the suspect made his getaway — for a time, police say — on a small, red scooter.

The victim was arriving at her West Elm Street home in late July when she saw the man run from her garage. Police say she described him as having long dreadlocks and a St. Louis Cardinals tattoo on his left cheek.

With that description, nearby Springfield police officers believed it must be 23-year-old Joshua B. Ratliff.

Facial and neck tattoos do not help you in your quest to become a modern gentleman thief.

[Junkenstein]

Some HAHA:
http://boingboing.net/2013/08/14/cops-accidentally-record-thems.html

An anti-rodeo/animal right activist was subjected to a blatantly illegal, harassing traffic stop after he was asked to leave an Oregon rodeo. How do we know it was illegal? Because the cops who stopped him forgot to turn off their own cameras and recorded themselves admitting that the rodeo (which is a major donor to the Malheur County Sheriff's Department) had demanded the traffic stop. The same cops who participated in the stop were previously at the center of a lawsuit that the county settled in which they were alleged to have fabricated evidence, so they've got form for this. Some dialog highlights:

I didn't want to stop the man.

God, we're gonna get sued.

We're gonna be in a world of hurt here.

All because of that rodeo board, you know that right?

Dammit I was still recording!

[Cain]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/08/feds-crack-encrypted-drives/

Federal authorities have cracked two encrypted drives they say are filled with child pornography, leading to an arrest in an ongoing case that shows the limits of encryption and highlights a novel legal issue in which the government has been trying to force the defendant to decrypt the drives to aid his prosecution.

Investigators arrested Jeffrey Feldman in Wisconsin on Tuesday and accuse him of three counts of receiving and possessing child pornography.

The arrest came months after the authorities told a federal judge they were unable to decrypt the drives and needed the defendant to disclose his passwords — pitting the constitutional right against compelled self-incrimination against the government's need to access data. In June, the authorities urged the court to demand that Feldman fork over his passcodes, saying the suspect could "forget his passwords."

FBI agent Chadwick Elgersma said in court documents filed Tuesday that seven more drives await decryption. It remains unclear whether the judge presiding over the case will order Feldman to decrypt them.

Elgersma said in an arrest affidavit that investigators cracked two Western Digital My Book Essential external hard drives they believe were used with a Dell Inspiron 530 personal desktop running Windows 7. Authorities suspect thousands of files on the drives are child pornography, the agent said.

The authorities did not say what type of encryption Feldman used. But the case illustrates that encryption isn't foolproof and that the authorities are making headway cracking encryption.

More and links within the article. The potential for precedent here is worth noting. Add to that that CP is usually one of the best ways to curry public/judicial favour to get what you want and it starts looking a bit odd. I know nothing really about the case, but it will be interesting to see the amount of actual illegal content found. I'd guess it to be substantially less than a full 7 hard drives but still enough to justify the actions.

There have been a couple of cases along these lines.

Of course the authorities wont say what encryption Feldman used, because they want others to use it as well.

Though in some ways, this is a good thing, as it doesn't set a precedent whereby the accused is legally compelled to give up their password.  There are some legal precedents for such things...but they're murky and not strongly tested.  Because they cracked the encryption on the first one, they can show ownership, intent and established cause for looking at the other six encrypted drives.

Still, it's nevertheless the case that America's drive into a police state has shifted into a higher gear, going by the last page.

[Junkenstein]

Appreciated, I was under the impression that this was the first time this had come up.

Lets just keep up the HA HA though:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/us/in-150-shootings-the-fbi-deemed-agents-faultless.html

"The F.B.I. takes very seriously any shooting incidents involving our agents, and as such we have an effective, time-tested process for addressing them internally," a bureau spokesman said.

But if such internal investigations are time-tested, their outcomes are also predictable: from 1993 to early 2011, F.B.I. agents fatally shot about 70 "subjects" and wounded about 80 others — and every one of those episodes was deemed justified, according to interviews and internal F.B.I. records obtained by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

The last two years have followed the same pattern: an F.B.I. spokesman said that since 2011, there had been no findings of improper intentional shootings.

In most of the shootings, the F.B.I.'s internal investigation was the only official inquiry. In the Orlando case, for example, there have been conflicting accounts about basic facts like whether the Chechen man, Ibragim Todashev, attacked an agent with a knife, was unarmed or was brandishing a metal pole. But Orlando homicide detectives are not independently investigating what happened.

"We had nothing to do with it," said Sgt. Jim Young, an Orlando police spokesman. "It's a federal matter, and we're deferring everything to the F.B.I."

Boston Bombings related, Still no closer to finding out what went on here really. When we do, I'm sure we'll find out it was totally justified however. Even when the FBI fuckup and shoot by mistake they miss.

Occasionally, the F.B.I. does discipline an agent. Out of 289 deliberate shootings covered by the documents, many of which left no one wounded, five were deemed to be "bad shoots," in agents' parlance — encounters that did not comply with the bureau's policy, which allows deadly force if agents fear that their lives or those of fellow agents are in danger. A typical punishment involved adding letters of censure to agents' files. But in none of the five cases did a bullet hit anyone.

Here's something funny too - 5 out of 289 are "Bad shoots". That's 1.7%. The FBI have totally different force continuum protocols (Ie, police have to announce they are police, request you to put gun down twice then shoot. FBI can just shoot. Simplifying but you get the point)

So how can you make a bad shoot when you've got carte Blanche to shoot whenever and whoever you want? Is this implying that they were bad because they missed?

[McGrupp]

Some HAHA:
http://boingboing.net/2013/08/14/cops-accidentally-record-thems.html

An anti-rodeo/animal right activist was subjected to a blatantly illegal, harassing traffic stop after he was asked to leave an Oregon rodeo. How do we know it was illegal? Because the cops who stopped him forgot to turn off their own cameras and recorded themselves admitting that the rodeo (which is a major donor to the Malheur County Sheriff's Department) had demanded the traffic stop. The same cops who participated in the stop were previously at the center of a lawsuit that the county settled in which they were alleged to have fabricated evidence, so they've got form for this. Some dialog highlights:

I didn't want to stop the man.

God, we're gonna get sued.

We're gonna be in a world of hurt here.

All because of that rodeo board, you know that right?

Dammit I was still recording!

  That's priceless.

[Salty]

That is so beautiful.



So is this:

This new kit is a military imperative. Taliban ambushes of supply convoys are a major killer. The Pentagon says the cost of refueling forward bases is $400 a gallon.

Har har har.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10242882/Solar-power-to-trump-shale-helped-by-US-military.html

[Cramulus]

 

this is the best

http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2013/08/15/chinese-zoo-under-fire-for-disguising-hairy-dog-as-lion


Chinese zoo under fire for disguising hairy dog as lion

A customer ... wanted to show her son the different sounds animals made – but he pointed out that the animal in the cage labelled 'African lion' was barking.

it's actually depressing because I don't know what news story could possibly fill this one's boots.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh?  Check out the AZ thread.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/the-best-of-vladimir-zhirinovsky-russias-craziest-politician

One late night in 2002, so wasted he had to be propped up by two lackeys, he gave a riveting speech against the War in Iraq. He counselled Bush on his daddy issues, called America a "second-hand goods store" filled with "cocksuckers, handjobbers, and faggots," and threatened to change the gravitational field of the Earth in order to sink the entire country. 

If you skip to 5:16, you can listen to him call Bush an ignoramus who can't count and say much, much worse things about Condoleezza Rice: "She is a black whore who needs a good cock. Send her here, one of our divisions will make her happy in the barracks one night. She will choke on Russian sperm as it will be leaking out of her ears... until she crawls to the US embassy in Moscow on her knees."

Stay classy Russia. More impressive craziness at the link.

[Junkenstein]

There's something pretty fucked up here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23721893

The case came to court because of undisputed evidence that DE does not have the capacity to decide whether or not to consent to sterilisation, meaning a judge had to make the decision.

In her ruling, Justice King said DE lived with his parents but had a long-standing, loving relationship with his girlfriend PQ, who also has learning disabilities.

The birth of the couple's first child had a "profound" effect on both families, and measures were taken to ensure there was no further pregnancy, including supervision of DE at all times.

The judge said the couple's relationship "nearly broke under the strain, but remarkably weathered the storm".

She said it was now "lawful and in DE's best interests" that he should undergo a vasectomy and all "reasonable and proportionate steps" should be taken to enable the operation to go ahead.

Naturally, there will be layers of nuance that are not going to be talked about in court but this is giving me a shudder. With the UK increasingly taking steps to secret courts, secret evidence and secret trials it would follow to me that secret punishments can't be far behind. With the precedent now set that you can enforce this on those who do not have the capacity to decide if that is what they want, the world just seemed to get a little darker.

[McGrupp]

This could just be a marketing gimmick. If so, its working. I'm planning to go eat there tomorrow.

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/06/fast-food-joint-pays-workers-12-an-hour-and-lives-to-tell-the-tale/

I'm always leary of posting news that have video from work because I can't see the video. Hopefully its not just 12 minutes of a guy screaming ethnic slurs. I'm just assuming its not.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This could just be a marketing gimmick. If so, its working. I'm planning to go eat there tomorrow.

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/06/fast-food-joint-pays-workers-12-an-hour-and-lives-to-tell-the-tale/

I'm always leary of posting news that have video from work because I can't see the video. Hopefully its not just 12 minutes of a guy screaming ethnic slurs. I'm just assuming its not.

That's pretty awesome, actually.

[McGrupp]

This could just be a marketing gimmick. If so, its working. I'm planning to go eat there tomorrow.

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/06/fast-food-joint-pays-workers-12-an-hour-and-lives-to-tell-the-tale/

I'm always leary of posting news that have video from work because I can't see the video. Hopefully its not just 12 minutes of a guy screaming ethnic slurs. I'm just assuming its not.

That's pretty awesome, actually.

Sure seems that way. I'm driving right by there tomorrow. I'll let you know how the food is.