The solar wind tonight is a brisk 363.4 km/sec and the proton count is up to 2.4/cm3. There
are six major sunspot clusters on the Sun today. Coronal holes are places where the sun's
magnetic field opens up and allows the solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing
from this coronal hole will reach Earth on June 5th - 7th, possibly stirring geomagnetic
storms. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
LUNAR ECLIPSE! On June 4th, the full Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth,
producing a partial lunar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth. The zone of
visibility stretches from Asia to North America. In the United States, the event is visible
during the hours before sunrise on Monday morning. Get the full story and a video from
Science@NASA.
VENUS PASSES MERCURY, APPROACHES THE SUN: Venus is approaching the sun in
advance of the June 5th Transit of Venus. From here on Earth, the second planet has
become difficult to see wrapped in bright sunlight. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory,
however, has no such trouble. Amateur astronomers who manage to locate Venus in broad
daylight will find that the planet has turned into a delightfully slender crescent. This is
happening because Venus is turning its nightside to Earth, with only a sliver of reflected
sunlight still shining over the planet's limb.
The crescent could soon become a ring. When Venus is less than few degrees away from
the sun, the horns of the crescent sometimes reach around and touch, producing a
complete and bright annulus. You can easily see this with a medium sized telescope or a
good pair of stable binoculars. The effect is caused by particles in upper layers of Venus's
atmosphere which scatter sunlight around the circumference of the planet. The ring is very
difficult to observe, and often only black-belt astrophotographers are able to record the
phenomenon.
NASA expects quick start to SpaceX cargo
contract
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: June 2, 2012
The top NASA manager in charge of the agency's commercial cargo transportation program
hailed SpaceX's demonstration flight to the International Space Station as a success and indicated
approval for continued resupply missions under a $1.6 billion contract would be a mere
formality.
The Dragon spacecraft spent six days docked at the ISS and then made an on-target splashdown
in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, ending a nine-day mission that set out to prove the capsule's
ability to safely reach the space station, deliver supplies, and return equipment to Earth.
The SpaceX-owned spacecraft will be the only vehicle in the space station's fleet of resupply
freighters able to return to Earth intact with cargo. Other robotic cargo spacecraft built in Russia,
Europe and Japan dispose of trash and burn up in the atmosphere.
Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA's commercial cargo development program, said the flight
looked to be 100 percent successful.
"We'll get a quick-look report from SpaceX next week, and then we'll await a final post-flight
report several weeks later," Lindenmoyer said.
NASA invested $396 million into SpaceX under a public-private partnership agreement signed in
2006. The space agency released payments to the California-based company as it met design,
testing and flight milestones.
Following the announcement of the space shuttle's retirement, NASA started investigating new
ways to transport critical spare parts, food, experiments, and other geat to the space station. But
no companies had the ability to do the job, and NASA wished to set its sights on more ambitious
expeditions into the solar system.
After surveying the market, NASA established the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
program to help fund private development of rockets and spacecraft to resupply the space station.
"You have turned those hopes into a reality today," Lindenmoyer said to Elon Musk, SpaceX's
CEO and chief designer, following Thursday's splashdown.
SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. won agreements with the COTS program. Orbital's first
flight to the space station could launch as soon as October.
SpaceX has received $381 million under the agreement to date, and the remaining $15 million
will be paid at the conclusion of the post-flight review.
"I just don't think it's going to take us very long to make the determination this was an extremely
successful mission, and they should be well on the way to starting services," Lindenmoyer said.
SpaceX's next launch to the space station is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 24. The Falcon 9
rocket for the flight is being checked out in a hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.,
and the Dragon payload will be shipped to the Florida launch site as soon as next month,
according to SpaceX officials.
"We became your customer today," Lindenmoyer said to Musk. "I believe we're very close to
having you provide cargo resupply services to the station on a regular basis."
SpaceX and NASA signed a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract in December
2008 for 12 flights to the space station through 2015. Officials expect a cadence of about three or
four missions per year.
But first, NASA's separate COTS agreement with SpaceX called for three test missions to prove
out the Falcon 9 and Dragon.
The first COTS test flight was in December 2010, during which SpaceX launched a Falcon 9
rocket and a simplified Dragon capsule into orbit, flew the vehicle twice around the world, and
successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
Dragon was hoisted on the deck of a 185-foot recovery barge for the trip back to shore. Credit: Mike Altenhofen/SpaceX
The COTS agreement included provisions for two more Dragon test flights, first to prove the
ship's long-range rendezvous techniques and other advanced systems in a flyby of the space
station, then to berth with the complex with the aid of the space station's Canadian robotic arm.
SpaceX proposed changing the COTS manifest early 2011, instead offering to fly one mission to
achieve the objectives of both flights. NASA agreed, but the launch was delayed one year for
SpaceX to complete ground testing of the spacecraft's unflown components needed to reach the
space station. The space agency also carefully verified Dragon's software code was robust
enough for the mission, triggering a delay of several months.
NASA and SpaceX outlined more than 30 test objectives for the flight, and Dragon met all of
them through Thursday's return to Earth, according to Lindenmoyer.
"I was looking at the criteria we set for the mission, and pretty much every one of them looked
solid," Lindenmoyer said. The only thing left to go is actual recovery of the cargo."
SpaceX will hand over a few items from Dragon's cargo cabin as soon as Saturday, when the
capsule reaches the Port of Los Angeles on the deck of a 185-foot recovery barge.
The rest of the equipment returned by Dragon will be retrieved when the spacecraft reaches
SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas, where NASA officials will take custody of the rest of
the ship's 1,367-pound cargo cache.
Future Dragon flights will haul up to 7,300 pounds of pressurized and external cargo to the space
station. Dragon can return up to 5,500 pounds of internal equipment to Earth.
"We look forward to doing lots more missions in the future, and we will continue to upgrade the
technology and push the frontier of space transportation," Musk said.
SpaceX has a backlog of about 40 commercial and NASA launches with the Falcon 9 rocket, and
the company plans to modify the Dragon spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the space
station.
SpaceX is competing with other commercial firms for NASA funding to support the crew effort,
and the agency expects to announce awards in August.
EPA-NASCAR green deal covers
everything--but racing!
May 22, 2012 -- 9:40 AM
Odd couple. NASCAR and the EPA are teaming to promote green products. Here, NASCAR
champion Tony Stewart meets with President Obama at the White House. (Photo by Ned
Dishman/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Paul Bedard
Tue, 2012-05-22 09:40
President Obama’s eco-friendly EPA inked a green partnership deal with high-octane
NASCAR Monday to promote recycling and environmentally-friendly products to the sport’s
millions of fans.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, NASCAR will encourage fans to buy
“sustainable concessions” at races, expand the use of “safer chemical products,” conserve
water, reduce waste, promote recycling, push products approved by the EPA that have a
small enviro footprint and encourage suppliers to get an “E3 tuneup” aimed at promoting
sustainable manufacturing.
Missing: any talk of greening races or race cars that consume about two million gallons of
gas a year and average five miles per gallon.
“Yes, the focus is on suppliers and programs, not green cars,” said an EPA spokesman.
Instead, it’s a first step to get fans and suppliers to think green while favorites like Dale
Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart lay down some rubber.
“Because NASCAR is followed by millions of passionate fans and many businesses, it can
be a powerful platform to raise environmental awareness, drive the adoption of safer
products by more Americans, and support the growing green economy,” said Jim Jones,
EPA’s acting assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution
Prevention.
The agreement “is a great example of NASCAR’s commitment to green innovation and our
role as a leader in sustainability,” said Steve Phelps, Chief Marketing Officer of NASCAR.
Probably the furthest sport from the green movement, NASCAR for the past four years has
nonetheless pushed an environmentally-friendly agenda in unusual ways. They even have a
manager of “green innovation,” Michael Lynch.
In a white paper issued last month, NASCAR reports that they will plant 10 trees every time
the green flag is raised, which they claim will capture “100 percent of the emissions
produced” in races. They also have largest recycling program in sports and last year
starting using E15 fuel.
“This partnership will provide new resources that will allow our industry to create innovative
environmental education and awareness platforms while continuing to build on our strong
momentum in reducing the environmental impact of our sport,” said NASCAR’s Lynch.
Egyptians choose their leader for first time in 5,000 years
There are no more pharaohs any more. One by one, the men who would rule over
Egypt's 80 million people arrived at their polling stations, posed for the cameras, and
with self-consciously modest smiles walked to the back of the queue.
By Richard Spencer, and Magdy Samaan in Cairo
6:55PM BST 23 May 2012
It never used to be like this. The moment Egyptians finally lost their respect for President Hosni
Mubarak, whose joyless grin dominated their lives for three decades, came when a state
newspaper carried a photograph of Middle East leaders at the White House grotesquely
photoshopped to show him standing not behind but in front of President Obama.
Now men like Amr Moussa, used to receiving sheikhs and monarchs with due pomp and
ceremony as head of the Arab League, and Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood have
waited decades for their chance at power, had to wait behind their fellow citizens, like everybody
else.
There were few overt signs of celebration on this, the first of two days of voting in Egypt's
presidential elections, at how everything had changed.
There was enthusiasm that voters would get to choose their leader for the first time in 5,000
years of glorious history, but no whoops or fireworks.
Some of the excitement of the Tahrir Square revolution last year has undoubtedly worn off, and
voters are nervous too about what lies in store
It has not been a clean transition of power, and there is not even as yet a constitution laying out
what powers the new leader will have.
Many voters are disappointed with the choice of candidates, even though there are 13 of them none would be said even by their supporters to have both the hoped-for charisma and a detailed
plan to rescue Egypt from poverty and chaos.
But many also seemed to realise this was not such a bad thing - that having a choice at all was as
important as how to exercise it; and that, barring some new dictatorship, they would have second
chances, to vote out the man they now vote in should he disappoint them.
Some of the young liberals who brought this day about by fighting the police, their rifles and
their tear gas, chose to boycott the vote, complaining it had become a contest between "felloul" remnants of the old regime - and Islamists who did not share their modern values. They also feel
that, whoever wins, the military will not give up its power lightly.
Though there were no official figures, turn-out was reported to be significantly lower than at the
parliamentary elections in December and January.
The performance of parliament, which often appears to television viewers to be little more than
an argumentative rabble, has been held to damage the chances of the Brotherhood, which is the
largest party.
It may have dented democratic confidence altogether, and certainly far more voters than last
year's revolutionary fervour would suggest said they were voting for Ahmed Shafiq, the "felloul"
candidate, a former air force general and Mr Mubarak's last prime minister.
But most who did turn out thought a boycott a wasted opportunity. "If you boycott the elections
now, when will you participate?" asked Bassem Mohammed Sayed, 38, an accountant. "This is
something we have never seen before - the first time we have had an election and we don't know
the winner in advance."
Mohammed Abdul Aziz, a teacher, said it was a celebration. His main concern was that whoever
won, the choice would be respected. "I think the election will be fair," said Omar al-Sioufi, 25, at
a polling station in the middle class Cairo district of Mohandessin. "I don't trust the army, but the
Egyptian people know how to protest." No-one thought the vote would be perfect. There have
been several reports of vote-buying, particularly by the campaigns of Mr Shafiq and Mr Morsi.
There were breaches of an election law banning active campaigning in the two days of voting,
with Mr Shafiq giving press conferences and interviews in his own cause.
Farouk Sultan, the head of the presidential election commission, said these two campaigns and
that of the "moderate Islamist" Abdulmoneim Aboul Fotouh would be referred to the
prosecutor's office, though he also stressed the alleged breaches were not serious.
People often did not know what to do. One complainant to Mr Sultan was an elderly man whose
hand was shaking so much he asked the polling station's presiding judge to mark his ballot for
him - and then claimed the man had ticked the wrong box.
Oliga Yusef, 80, coming out of a polling station in Cairo, said: "I cannot read or write. I asked
the man inside what to do, and he said I should mark whoever I liked - so I ticked a box, but I
have no idea who I voted for."
By no means perfect, then. But even those who did not know how to vote, knew why it was
important. "I came here for my sons, so that they can have a better future," Mrs Yusef said,
walking off proudly.
SceneTap: The creepy app that
scans bar-goers' faces
Does this new service help people find the most interesting
crowds, or is it just another "stalker app"?
POSTED ON MAY 23, 2012, AT 7:40 AM
Using cameras installed in bars and facial-detection software, the new app SceneTap scans the faces of patrons to
determine age and gender makeups of crowds. Photo: SceneTap
A new smartphone app called SceneTap made a big splash with its recent launch, but
not all of the reviews were entirely favorable. The app employs facial-detection software
and cameras placed strategically in bars and nightclubs to tell users the age and gender
makeup of an establishment they're thinking of visiting. The problem is that the patrons
being scanned by cameras don't necessarily know that they're being monitored. Some
privacy advocates call it "creepy." Is it an invasion of privacy for your neighborhood
watering hole to install cameras and scan your face? Here, a brief guide to the
controversy:
How does the app work?
The people behind SceneTap have installed cameras in bars in San Francisco; Austin,
Texas; Athens, Ga.; Bloomington, Ind.; Chicago; Gainesville, Fla.; and Madison, Wis.
The cameras use facial-detection software, which unlike facial-recognition software,
only picks up on basic data about people and can't specifically identify faces. SceneTap
uses this information to come up with a rundown of ages and sexes, so the app can
give users real-time updates on which nightspots are full of women, or men, and how
old or young the crowd is.
What's the point?
SceneTap CEO Cole Harper says the app helps people find places that offer the type of
crowd they're looking for. That, fans of the app say, would help people avoid the hassle
of going out of their way to get to a bar, only to be disappointed by the human
prospects. "If I was a single dude living in the city, I would use it," says Sean Silva of
San Francisco, where the app launched on Friday in two dozen bars.
Is that really so bad?
According to privacy advocates, yes, it is. Let's be honest, says Violet Blue at ZDNet,
this "bro-app" is designed to help "brotards" get liquored up and go straight to the bars
"with the most chicks in them," which is "sure to make women feel a little more like
hunted prey" than they do already. News of the launch in San Francisco provoked so
many complaints that several bars that had planned to participate backed out. Critics
compare SceneTap to the controversial "stalker app" Girls Around Me, which uses
information from Facebook and Foursquare to tell users what spots around town are
filled with young women.
What will SceneTap users know about you?
Harper promises that the service won't collect any personal information. "It's not
recorded, it's not streamed, it's not individualized," Harper says. According to
SceneTap, "You actually give up more information when you hand a bouncer your ID at
the door." Sure, for now, says Jennifer Van Grove at Venturebeat, but who's to say
SceneTap — which a colleague recently called a "sewer of an app" — "won't start
collecting other traits such as height, weight, ethnicity, or wealth" down the road?
Homeland Security Streetlights include surveillance cameras and
loud speakers
(NaturalNews) As part of a federally funded project, public street lights will soon have the ability to record conversations,
warnings, advertise just about anything, and possibly even x-ray bodies for concealed weapons, just like the highly contro
street light surveillance systems are fail-proofed because they are linked together through underground cables and a wire
out, the rest still work in tandem.
If you thought the Patriot Act was an infringement of civil and personal rights, wait until you get a load of this. Like some s
concentration camps, the manufacturer Illuminating Concepts is now installing hi-tech devices, paid for with tax dollars, w
monitor, record, display, and announce just about anything he wants.
or against this latest disturbance of the peace? When people drive down the street with car stereos pumping music too loud, police
have any say at all in what pumps out of the street speakers: including political propaganda, pharmaceutical advertisements, religious
, and inappropriate, unrated or biased information.
s, Michigan is the first guinea pig for the new Homeland Security light poles, which include the speaker system for emergency broadc
destrian and road traffic, and an LED video display for directional instructions.
ng them as surveillance tools. The city of Middlesbrough uses the speakers to bark orders at people and reprimand them for "inappro
enses in public.
Unseen Sight
this social protest feeds on minds of the paranoid, and the sane
Coming soon to a public video camera operator near you: N.Y.'s Surveillance Camera Players.
Part social protest, part theater, part Manhattan mapmaking, and part playful cynicism, this group
doesn't want your spectatorship, they want [you] to fight for your right to privacy. Debunking the
conventional wisdom that only people with something to hide could object to being observed in
public places, the Surveillance Camera Players (SCP) protests such surveillance as a violation of
the Constitutionally-protected right to privacy. [The] SCP argues public surveillance is
subjective to the point of prejudice, ineffective as a deterrent to crime, and, ultimately,
mechanistic in the name of social control, quietly leading us towards tyranny rather than
combatting it. "Only someone completely distrustful of government would be opposed to what
we are doing with surveillance cameras," argued N.Y. Police Commissioner Howard Safir in
1999. [The] SCP says that's how they feel: "completely distrustful of all government."
In what seems to have begun as a light-hearted spoof, [the] SCP was established in N.Y. in 1996
to protest surveillance cameras in public places; they manifest their protest by engaging in live
performances, acted in front of surveillance cameras for an audience of the operators and owners
themselves. [The] SCP counts on media, their website, and your action to promote change. The
group admits to being loosely organized; none is trained in acting nor experienced in politics,
and their plays are notoriously adaptable for however many "actors" are available (extras may
[for example] carry a sign reading "Big Brother is Watching You").
But take one look at their catalogue of position papers, and you will see that [the] SCP is no
lightweight. Treatises on paranoia and deception accompany open letters to prominent officials
such as Robert Flowers, director of the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command. These essays
betray an emotional tenor unchecked in unforgivable phrases like "quadruply ironic" and
"reciprocal transparency." Even co-founder and director Bill Brown admits [the] SCP's "practice
is more advanced than its theory."
In practice, at least until 1999, [the] SCP performed silent adaptations of literary classics,
including Waiting for Godot. More recently, the group has relied on works by "famous"
playwright, Art Toad. This pun on the name of famed actor and theorist Antonin Artaud is just
one more sign that [the] SCP is in on the joke. Look to Artaud himself to understand the group's
migration towards more grass-roots plays: "All writing is shit," he writes in Nerve Meter (1925).
"One mustn't let in too much literature." And [the] SCP doesn't. The newer [post-1999]
performances are often a series of placards; in Headline News, a series of signs mock local
evening news programs, complete with SNL-style commercial boards roasting the likes of Nike,
Pepsi, and CBS. In God's Eyes Here on Earth, always performed in front of cameras which
monitor church property, the placards ask, "Why are there surveillance cameras at the church?
Doesn't God see everything? Daddy says the cameras are God's eyes. Now I pray to the cameras.
I want God to see me."
Angered by law enforcement's growing desperation to combat urban maladies like crime and
terrorism, [the] SCP asserts that, not only is the purpose of public surveillance muddied and
unjustified, but also the practical abuses defeat any respectable crime-fighting purpose. For
example, deterrence is often cited as the motive for surveillance, but as [the] SCP points out,
people are typically surveilled unaware of the fact and therefore behave as they would without
cameras. [The] SCP asserts that the very lack of signs provides a tacit admission that deterrence
is not the motive, and furthermore, the cameras provide operators with a false sense of security.
The N.Y. Civil Liberties Union agrees that public video surveillance should be considered
invasive rather than protective. [As the SCP has pointed out,] These cameras generate vast
quantities of information that must be analyzed and processed before it is useful, and the [Hull
University] documented voyeuristic behavior of male operators towards female suspects and
extended surveillance of young, black males, in comparison to other demographics, demonstrate
that public surveillance is a tool that enables malfeasance. Even red light cameras, touted as a
public safety success, are the object of [the] SCP's ire. Criticized [by the SCP] for missing
information on motorcycles and therefore unequally targeting automobile drivers, these cameras
also pick up ("search and seize") volumes of unrelated material.
Proponents of public surveillance argue, however, that privacy in public space cannot be
expected, and Supreme Court cases [other than Katz v. the United States] confirm that if others
have an open vantage point to your behavior, then law enforcement is likewise entitled to it. [As
the SCP has pointed out,] At the time the Bill of Rights was drafted, however, the photographic
camera had not even been invented; closed-circuit television, digital photography, and wiretaps
were not even technological fantasies, but rather, veritable impossibilities until recently which
now improve or create vantage points previously unavailable. In this light, [the] SCP contests
that we must maintain the forefathers' ideals even in this landscape so vastly altered from their
own.
Sounds noble and American, doesn't it? Not according to the behavior of the U.S. military.
Despite the legal, non-violent nature of [the] SCP's protests, the group [actually, it's website] is
subjected to monitoring by government agencies and militaries around the world. In the U.S.
alone, the CIA, Commerce Department, NASA, National Institute of Health, and an array of
military bases, among many other groups, have checked the site. The regularity and sheer
number of visits (overwhelmingly made [the SCP has speculated] by "siphon" programs that
extract who is posting to the site and who is viewing it) seem only to confirm [the] SCP's theory
that the line between military intelligence and civilian law enforcement is becoming dangerously
blurred in the wake of [the war against] international terrorism. [The] SCP naturally asks, "What
point is there in spying upon a group that displays itself in front of surveillance devices?" It all
evokes an Orwellian shadow of Big Brother that even the most resistant paranoid must admit is
at least a little creepy.
Recently, the group has spawned a series of weekly walking tours. In a methodical yet losing
[sic] effort, [the] SCP [never] sends volunteers on foot to map out public surveillance cameras
[preferring to do it themselves]; the maps are far from exhaustive, but [the] SCP documents urge,
"You've seen the maps; now see the cameras themselves!" Free and open to the public, these
walking tours scour heavily-surveilled neighborhoods like Times Square (there are 258 cameras
in a 5-block radius), Harlem [which is in fact relatively unsurveilled], City Hall, and around the
UN for a "choice selection" of video cameras in public places. Hard to say if these will catch on
as well with tourists as the Circle Line Cruise, but it's a tour unbeatable in terms of urban reality
and [unless you've actually been on one] paranoiac fantasy.
"No one these days gives a shit about either theater or protest," says Brown [in one of his texts],
"but if they are put together (they both suffer from isolation) and in the right combination (of
course), the result reinvigorates both theater and protest, and suggests a superior third form. . . ."
Indeed, [the] SCP has carved out a space in modern urban protest and innovation, sparking a
National Public Radio debate on privacy and coordinating an [sic] international day of
collaborative protest [there were in fact two such events]. Public surveillance carries a potency
that degrades our democratic freedoms, claims [the] SCP. If, as Don DeLillo asserts in Videotape
(1997), "The world is lurking in the camera, already framed . . ." then the outlook for persuading
surveillance operators to shut down in grim. [The] SCP, however, shows no signs of slowing,
promoting new walking tours and lectures in Portland, Chicago, and New Haven and anticipating
performances increasing in number with the arrivals of spring and summer. In the meantime,
keep an eye out.
I believe it is only a matter of time before the network of surveillance cameras is published just lie
Heavens-Above publishes the route of satellites for the public. Of course, outside the US, these routes
are not available by internet. The areas over their own countries are blacked out.
Let's be honest here - these activities are just a way of getting some extra attention. Basically you are
laughing at other peoples confusion by doing weird things in public. Well some attention whore's just
love that kind of stuff. Most of these activities will be way more impressive with more people
attempting to confuse. One person acting looks crazy - multiple people acting crazy can make
everyone else quite confused. Safety first and don't break the law. Make sure you bring your camera
phone or digital camera so you can document the event and put it up on Facebook or Youtube.
Drone News
Groups Concerned Over Arming Of Domestic Drones
May 23, 2012 1:18 PM
A quadrocopter drone equipped with a camera stands on display at the Zeiss stand on the first day of
the CeBIT 2012 technology trade fair on March 6, 2012 in Hanover, Germany. (credit: Sean Gallup/Getty
Images)
WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – With the use of domestic drones increasing, concern has not just come up
over privacy issues, but also over the potential use of lethal force by the unmanned aircraft.
Drones have been used overseas to target and kill high-level terror leaders and are also being used along
the U.S.-Mexico border in the battle against illegal immigration. But now, these drones are starting to be
used domestically at an increasing rate.
The Federal Aviation Administration has allowed several police departments to use drones across the
U.S. They are controlled from a remote location and use infrared sensors and high-resolution cameras.
Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Texas told The Daily that his
department is considering using rubber bullets and tear gas on its drone.
“Those are things that law enforcement utilizes day in and day out and in certain situations it might be
advantageous to have this type of system on the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle),” McDaniel told The
Daily.
The use of potential force from drones has raised the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“It’s simply not appropriate to use any of force, lethal or non-lethal, on a drone,” Catherine Crump, staff
attorney for the ACLU, told CBSDC.
Crump feels one of the biggest problems with the use of drones is the remote location where they are
operated from.
“When the officer is on the scene, they have full access to info about what has transpired there,” Crump
explained to CBSDC. “An officer at a remote location far away does not have the same level of access.”
The ACLU is also worried about potential drones malfunctioning and falling from the sky, adding that
they are keeping a close eye on the use of these unmanned aircraft by police departments.
“We don’t need a situation where Americans feel there is in an invisible eye in the sky,” Jay Stanley,
senior policy analyst at ACLU, told CBSDC.
Joshua Foust, fellow at the American Security Project, feels domestic drones should not be armed.
“I think from a legal perspective, there is nothing problematic about floating a drone over a city,” Foust
told CBSDC. “In terms of getting armed drones, I would be very nervous about that happening right
now.”
McDaniel says that his community should not be worried about the department using a drone.
“We’ve never gone into surveillance for sake of surveillance unless there is criminal activity afoot,”
McDaniel told The Daily. “Just to see what you’re doing in your backyard pool — we don’t care.”
But the concern for the ACLU is just too great that an American’s constitutional rights will be trampled
with the use of drones.
“The prospect of people out in public being Tased or targeted by force by flying drones where no
officers is physically present on the scene,” Crump says, “raises the prospect of unconstitutional force
being used on individuals.”
MORE
Virginia governor Bob McDonnell said he is open to looking into any new technology that can
keep police officers safe, make law enforcement more productive and save the state money.
“I think it’s great, I think we ought to be using technology to make law enforcement more
productive, cuts down on manpower and also more safe, that's why we use it on the battlefield,”
McDonnell said.
The governor also talked about the issue of privacy, adding that he believes it would be
important to maintain civil liberties and address all of those issues if drones were put in place.
Industry experts insist that with the right rules in place, unmanned aerial vehicles are a cost
saving way to do jobs they call too dangerous or too dull for humans.
Ben Gielow with the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems adds, "They could have
agriculture applications, you could monitor pipelines, power lines with them...You could do
environmental research, wildlife research...there's a whole host of applications where you could
use them systems."
McDonnell says a proposal to use drones in the state hasn’t reached his desk, but he says he
knows state law enforcement is always looking at the best new ways to fight crime. The one
thing left out of this article is the huge payback in traffic fines that could be collected. Everyone
who travels knows that the police patrol the highways to raise money for local jurisdictions that
are strapped for cash. There is no reprieve from this type of speed tax.
Drones will allow the traffic revenuers to keep an eye in the sky to report vehicles to ground officers
who can administer the citations. Drones will generate millions a month for local municipalities in new
revenues from safe and prudent drivers traveling Federal highways through their states. Drones are a
method of tax enforcement using weapons of war.
Charles Krauthammer says that the first person to shoot down a drone will be a folk hero.
Charles Krauthammer Quote
Well, have you watched any footage from Syria lately? Have you watched people in sneakers and sweat
pants shooting RPG’s at military helicopters in a residential neighborhood? Let’s put another spin on
this film footage. The Syrian neighbors are civilians trying to stop military helicopters from flying
overhead. Don’t think for one moment that Americans doing the same thing would be anything less
than enemies of the State.
What Stuxnet's Exposure As
An American Weapon
Means For Cyberwar
jfogelI find Stuxnet to be slicker than snot. Talk about cool.
Nader NazemiThose who
created the program are evil and terrorists. Wasn’t the US condemning China for hacking
into google etc., and threatening a direct military attac [...]
Nader NazemiThose whom
created the virus are terrorists. On par with Al-Qaeda. To destroy sensitive facilities and
potentially endangering thousands of lives is on par [...]
brettThe us doesn’t attack
anyone without a reason, selfish or not. But iran with nuclear weapons would just make the
world infinitely unsafe. This attacka was [...]
Steven GilbertThis article and many others
that I’ve read have a clear hand-wringing sense as if to, say, in effect, What have we
wrought? Think in terms of “The Scream. [...]
bodoThe timely revelation that Obama
personally was involved in the action to destroy the Iranian nuclear capabilities may help his
re-election campaign.
leslie finchthe usa has complained and so did alot of western
powers about the cyberwar, i think there was even a conference dedicated to the matter not
too long ago. [...]
rasputinIntended target struck with zero collateral damage. Show me a
conventional weapon that can do that. Well done.
15 comments, 11 called-out
+ Comment now
Two years of theories and speculation in the cybersecurity research community were
confirmed Friday morning: Stuxnet was indeed the first known digital attack launched by a
government to destroy another country’s physical infrastructure. And the government that
launched it was ours.
As revealed in an extensive report from an upcoming book by New York Times‘ Washington
correspondent David Sanger, the Stuxnet malware that has fascinated cybersecurity
researchers since it was discovered in the fall of 2010 was in fact built by U.S. and Israeli
government agencies and deployed to disrupt Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities. It seems
to have worked: One thousand of Iran’s 5,000 enrichment centrifuges were temporarily put
out of commission by the malware, and some sources within the Obama administration told
the Times that Iran’s nuclear ambitions may have been set back by as much as 18 months
to two years.
But even in 2010, the Obama administration knew that the potential exposure of the
program, which it codenamed “Olympic Games,” would spell trouble.
“Mr. Obama, according to participants in the many Situation Room meetings on Olympic
Games, was acutely aware that with every attack he was pushing the United States into
new territory, much as his predecessors had with the first use of atomic weapons in the
1940s, of intercontinental missiles in the 1950s and of drones in the past decade,” Sanger
writes. “He repeatedly expressed concerns that any American acknowledgment that it was
using cyberweapons — even under the most careful and limited circumstances — could
enable other countries, terrorists or hackers to justify their own attacks.”
The Fukushima disaster occurred on March 11, 2011, and the Stuxnet virus was found to
have been installed into the core systems at all reactors. In the hours and days that followed,
reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced full meltdown.[9][10] As workers struggled to cool and shut down
the reactors, several hydrogen explosions occurred.[11] The government ordered that seawater be
used to attempt to cool the reactors—this had the effect of ruining the reactors entirely.[12] As the
water levels in the fuel rods pools dropped, they began to overheat. This is precisely what the
virus was crafted to do. Keep in mind that the cooling pumps did not run on electricity, but on
the steam from the reactor itself. The news media led the world to believe it was the flooded
generators that could not power the pumps to cool the reactors, but it reality it was the valve
switching software that had become corrupt, not allowing the water to reach the reactor core that
was the real issue. The large explosion shown on the news was from a reactor that was empty of
fuel and was no online at the time, indicating an explosive device was responsible for the event.
That acknowledgement has now arrived, thanks in part to a bug in Stuxnet that caused it to
spread far beyond its intended targets and to catch the eye of antivirus researchers, and in
part due to Sanger’s own excellent reporting that ties the malware directly to Washington.
So will the public confirmation of America’s role as a cyberwarfare aggressor lead to the
escalation of the digital arms race that Obama feared?
I t was widely held that Israel was responsible for writing and installing the virus onto the
servers at Fukushima, but new allegations are being made now that the closely guarded
secret that the virus was actually American made. It seems that a plethora of national
security secrets are being released from this Administration. What activist in their right
mind would help America now? Your promise of anonymity will be rewarded with 33 years
in a Pakistani prison with no one listing a finger to get you out. Remember what happened
to the last CIA operative that helped the US fight the Soviets in Afghanistan? They broke
into his home and shot him in the face and dumped him in the ocean.
Jeffrey Carr, author of Inside Cyberwarfare and chief executive of cybersecurity consultancy
Taia Global, believes the exposure of this top secret will lead to a vicious and merciless
cyberwar. ”This is a gift to Iran,” says Carr of the Times‘ revelations. “I think it will give a
reason–an excuse–for other countries to ramp up their offensive cyber capabilities. Certainly
it gives Iran an excuse to take steps to retaliate in exchange for what’s occurred. It’s a
really unfortunate disclosure.” Actually, Mr. Carr, it is an act of treason that will end up
costing thousands of American lives, perhaps millions. Do you know how many nuclear
power plants there are in America, and how many people rely upon the security of that
power? Being caught in a hot tub with Menudo is an unfortunate disclosure. This was a
felony of the highest order and should result in immediate lockout from all national secrets
and a speedy impeachment of every official involved, including the President.
After all, the original advantage of using a digital attack to sabotage Iran’s nuclear facilities
instead of a physical one, Carr says, was to keep the operation secret and allow deniability
if it were discovered. “The whole point of a secret operation is that it stays secret and
doesn’t blow back on the country that launched it,” says Carr. “Now there’s really no doubt
left. It’s really damning.”
According to the Times‘ story, in fact, much of Stuxnet’s effectiveness came from the
mystery it created for the Iranians. The malware generated malfunctions in the centrifuges
of the Natanz enrichment plant at random intervals over months, using different errors
every time, and rendering them undetectable to the diagnostic systems in the control room.
The Iranians became so paranoid about their own hardware, according to Sanger, that they
assigned staff to physically watch the centrifuges. ““The intent was that the failures should
make them feel they were stupid, which is what happened,” one source said. In the
Iranians’ confusion, the plant workers closed down entire sections of the facility and fired
workers. With so many details of Stuxnet’s workings–and its origins–now revealed, it’s
unlikely the next digital weapon will have the same effect.
But the exposure of American involvement in Stuxnet shouldn’t be blamed on the Times,
says Mikko Hypponen, a malware analyst who closely analyzed Stuxnet since its discovery
in 2010. American fingerprints were all over Stuxnet since antivirus researchers first saw
the malware disseminating out of the Middle East and infecting their clients’ machines. “All
the other governments must have already assumed it was the United States or the Israelis,”
says Hypponen. “We’re already in this arms race, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it
now.”
As early as the fall of 2010, researchers like Ralph Langner and a team at antivirus firm
Symantec had reverse engineered Stuxnet to show that it specifically targeted centrifuges
at enrichment facilities like Bushehr and Natanz, leaving little doubt of who created it. And if
independent researchers like Langner were able to come to that conclusion, it’s likely
foreign intelligence services and others had already confirmed U.S. and Israeli involvement.
BY the way, you know who Symantec is right? Well, just to refresh your memory, they are
the gurus down at Norton antivirus. You know, the virus firm that sells antivirus software to
stop the viruses they probably originate? How many of you out there have spent weeks
trying to purge Norton from your computer to regain control over your computers? It isn’t
easy, is it? There are dozens of antivirus packages that run perfectly in the background
without slowing down your computer, but Norton is like pouring molasses directly on the
hard drive. It is the ultimate trojan. Surprizingly, they are the ones who claimed to have
reverse engineered the Stuxnet virus. Yeah. Tell me another one.
The real importance of confirming Stuxnet’s American origin may be more introspective,
says Bruce Schneier, a well-known cybersecurity guru and author: Now we know beyond a
doubt that the potential for a physical cyberattack, so often portrayed as a foreign (and
specifically Chinese) threat, actually starts at home. “Every country is engaging in the cyber
war arms race,” says Schneier, ”This isn’t one of our finer moments. But it’s the truth. It’s
icky. But it’s good to get the truth out.” Thank you, Bruce. The US Justice Department is
going to crucify Julian Assange for much less, and we let these treasonistas stay in office
and act like it was an unfortunate disclosure. My god, Earth explorers. When are we going
to get a clue what we are dealing with here?
Feds to Florida: halt non-citizen voter purge
The Justice Department told Florida election officials that they
must stop their non-citizen voters purge. Florida argues it is not
violating any law.
By Marc Caputo
mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com
Evidently, the Justice Department wants to ensure that America’s largest growing minority gets a
chance to have their vote counted in Florida. That’s right. The Justice Department ordered Florida’s
elections division to halt a systematic effort to find and purge the state’s voter rolls of noncitizen
voters and those voters who are already dead. Just because they are no longer around to breathe
air, or have no legal right to be in this country is no reason why they should not be included in the
upcoming election. By the way, the dead voters are on record as voting for Democrats almost 99%
of the time.
Florida’s effort to legitimize its voter rolls appears to violate both the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which
protects minorities, and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act – which governs voter purges – T.
Christian Herren Jr., the Justice Department’s lead civil rights lawyer, wrote in a detailed two-page
letter sent late Thursday night.
State officials said they were reviewing the letter. But they indicated they might fight DOJ over its
interpretation of federal law and expressed frustration that President Barack Obama’s administration
has stonewalled the state’s noncitizen voter hunt for nine months.
“We are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to
cast a ballot,” said Chris Cate, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who was ordered by
Gov. Rick Scott to conduct the search for potentially ineligible voters.
DOJ’s written demand came hours after the agency refused to comment on the matter to The Miami
Herald. It also followed a federal court ruling Thursday that struck down a Republican voterregistration law that a judge found too onerous.
So far, Florida has flagged 2,700 potential noncitizen voters and sent the list to county elections
supervisors, who have found the data and methodology to be flawed and problematic. The list of
potential noncitizen voters – many of whom have turned out to be lawful citizens and voters –
disproportionately hits minorities, especially Hispanics. Recently, more than 53,000 dead voters
were discovered to have voted int eh last presidential election.
About 58 percent of those flagged as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic
immigrant population, a Miami Herald analysis found. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall
11.3 million active registered voters.
Independent voters and Democrats are the most likely to face being purged from the rolls.
Republicans and non-Hispanic whites are the least likely.
Under the Voting Rights Act, Florida needs federal approval before it makes changes to voting
because five Florida counties – Monroe, Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee and Hendry – had minorityvoting troubles decades ago
"Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United
States District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the Attorney General for
administrative review as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act," Herren wrote.
"Accordingly, it is necessary that they either be brought before that court or submitted to the Attorney
General for a determination that they neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of
discriminating on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group under Section
5."
He gave the state until next Wednesday to inform the Justice Department of its planned course of
action.
“Specifically, please advise whether the State intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that
the Department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary,” Herren wrote.
Herren also said that the National Voter Registration Act bans Florida’s effort because it says “a
State shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for
Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible
voters from the official lists of eligible voters.”
Florida elections officials have repeatedly said that their efforts comply with all federal laws, which
aren’t clearly written. The also say there’s nothing discriminatory or partisan about the effort. It’s
simply trying to remove ineligible voters: felons, dead people and noncitizens.
To spot noncitizens, though, the state began comparing voter rolls with a Department of Highway
Safety and Motor Vehicle database that contains some citizenship information that the agency
collects when people get a state ID such as a driver’s license.
But the citizenship data in many cases is out of date. That is, many people become citizens after
they get their ID and then register to vote. But the highway safety database isn’t updated.
As a result, the state has performed its own checking and double-checking and winnowed down a
pool of 180,000 potential noncitizens to a list of about 2,700. It is asking the counties to contact the
voters by mail. Those who don’t respond within about two months of being contacted could be
stricken from the rolls.
A coalition of liberal-leaning civil rights groups complained to the Justice Department and the state
about the process, pointing out that it burdens citizens instead of the government.
Cate, the state elections spokesman, said the state will have a full response soon. The agency also
seemed to express frustration with the lack of help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
which maintains citizenship data but won’t share its database with Florida.
Detzner asked again for DHS help on Thursday.
“We provided information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security today in hopes that the
federal government would help us identify ineligible voters,” Cate said. “While this isn’t a response
from DHS as to why they haven’t provided us access to their data, at least we know the federal
government knows we take ineligible voters on the voter rolls seriously. We hope the federal
government will recognize the importance of accurate voter rolls and support our efforts.”