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takyon writes:

Antonin Scalia, a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice, has died:

US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia - one of most conservative members of the high court - has died. Justice Scalia's death could shift the balance of power on the US high court, allowing President Barack Obama to add a fifth liberal justice to the court. The court's conservative majority has recently stalled major efforts by the Obama administration on climate change and immigration.

Justice Scalia, 79, was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. He died in his sleep early on Saturday while in West Texas for [a] hunting trip, the US Marshall service said. Justice Scalia was one of the most prominent proponents of "originalism" - a conservative legal philosophy that believes the US Constitution has a fixed meaning and does not change with the times.

Justice Scalia's death is, unsurprisingly, now being widely reported.

From the San Antonio Express News:

According to a report, Scalia arrived at the ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people. When he did not appear for breakfast, a person associated with the ranch went to his room and found a body.

[...] The U.S. Marshal Service, the Presidio County sheriff and the FBI were involved in the investigation. Officials with the law enforcement agencies declined to comment.

A federal official who asked not to be named said there was no evidence of foul play and it appeared that Scalia died of natural causes.

A gray Cadillac hearse pulled into the ranch last Saturday afternoon. The hearse came from Alpine Memorial Funeral Home.

Most major news outlets are covering this story, including CNN [video autoplays], The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NBC.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

As expected, gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, have been detected by the LIGO Collaboration:

Scientists are claiming a stunning discovery in their quest to fully understand gravity. They have observed the warping of space-time generated by the collision of two black holes more than a billion light-years from Earth. The international team says the first detection of these gravitational waves will usher in a new era for astronomy.

It is the culmination of decades of searching and could ultimately offer a window on the Big Bang. The research, by the LIGO Collaboration, has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters. The collaboration operates a number of labs around the world that fire lasers through long tunnels, trying to sense ripples in the fabric of space-time. Expected signals are extremely subtle, and disturb the machines, known as interferometers, by just fractions of the width of an atom. But the black hole merger was picked up by two widely separated LIGO facilities in the US.

The historic paper in question: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger (open, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102)

Archived video of the press conference webcast will be available here.

NASA provided an infographic for their Astronomy Picture of the Day feature with details about the discovery.

Also at NPR, NYT, Scientific American, and Ars Technica Live, The New Yorker. BBC's Jonathan Amos offers an analysis of the discovery.

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Previously: Militia Occupies Federal Building in Oregon After Rancher Arson Convictions

Russia Today reports:

Ammon Bundy, the leader of the armed group occupying a federal wildlife refuge near Burns, Oregon, and four others have been arrested by law enforcement amid gunfire, according to the FBI.

At 4:25 pm on [January 26], the FBI and Oregon State Police "began an enforcement action to bring into custody a number of individuals associated with the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. During that arrest, there were shots fired", the Bureau said in a statement.

The FBI said one person who was "a subject of a federal probable cause arrest is deceased". He said they are not releasing any information on the person "pending identification by the medical examiner's office".

One person suffered non-life threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. He was arrested and is in custody.

The arrested individuals include:
- Ammon Edward Bundy, age 40, of Emmett, Idaho.
- Ryan C. Bundy, age 43, of Bunkerville, Nevada.
- Brian Cavalier, age 44, of Bunkerville, Nevada.
- Shawna Cox, age 59, of Kanab, Utah.
- Ryan Waylen Payne, age 32, of Anaconda, Montana.

CNN, NYT, Washington Post, BBC, OregonLive.

Original Submission

cmn32480 writes:

From the BBC:

Iran holds two US Navy boats and crew, Pentagon says, adding it has assurances Tehran will return them "promptly"

As this was released at about 4:15pm Eastern time (9:25pm UTC) there are no futher details at this time.

We will update this summary when more information is available.

UPDATE - 9:35pm UTC:

The incident happened near Farsi Island after one of the ships encountered mechanical problems. Fox News reported that the sailors had drifted into Iranian waters, but that has not been independently confirmed. Iran has assured the US that the sailors and two small vessels would be returned promptly, the Associated Press reported.

Original Submission

GungnirSniper writes:

Legendary rock showman David Bowie has passed away from cancer at the age of 69.

This comes after the recent passings of Scott Weiland and Lemmy Kilmister. Keith Richards is still standing.

See also BBC coverage.

Original Submission

North Korea Detonates First Hydrogen Bomb

HughPickens.com writes:

The NYT reports that North Korea has announced it has detonated its first hydrogen bomb dramatically escalating the nuclear challenge from one of the world's most isolated and dangerous states. "This is the self-defensive measure we have to take to defend our right to live in the face of the nuclear threats and blackmail by the United States and to guarantee the security of the Korean Peninsula," said a female North Korean announcer on the state-run network. "With this hydrogen bomb test, we have joined the major nuclear powers." The North's announcement came about an hour after detection devices around the world had picked up a 5.1 seismic event that South Korea said was 30 miles from the Punggye-ri site where the North has conducted nuclear tests in the past.

"North Korea's fourth test — in the context of repeated statements by U.S., Chinese, and South Korean leaders — throws down the gauntlet to the international community to go beyond paper resolutions and find a way to impose real costs on North Korea for pursuing this course of action," says Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. According to the Times, the test is bound to figure in the American presidential campaign, where several candidates have already cited the North's nuclear experimentation as evidence of American weakness — though they have not prescribed alternative strategies for choking off the program. The United States did not develop its first thermonuclear weapons — commonly known as hydrogen bombs — until 1952, seven years after the first and only use of nuclear weapons in wartime.

mendax writes:

The New York Times is reporting a claim made by the North Korean government in which is says that it has detonated a hydrogen bomb:

a claim that, if true, would dramatically escalate the nuclear challenge from one of the world's most isolated and dangerous states.

In a brief announcement, about an hour after seismic detectors around the world picked up a 5.1 magnitude seismic event along the country's northeast cost, officials said that the test was a "complete success." But it is difficult to tell whether that boast is true, and it may be weeks or longer before detectors sent aloft by the United States and other powers can determine what kind of test was conducted.

The apparent North Korean test took place at or near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where the three previous tests have been conducted over the past nine years. But if the North Korean claim is true, this one was of a of a different nature.

Like most of the rest of the world who know something about the physics of these devices, I'm very skeptical of this claim, given that, even on a slow news day, the North Korean government has about as much credibility as the boy who cried wolf.

cmn32480 writes:

Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock:

With a heavy heart Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock, stalwart proponent of Free Open Source Software, Father, Son, and the 'ian' in Debian.

Ian started the Debian project in August of 1993, releasing the first versions of Debian later that same year. Debian would go on to become the world's Universal Operating System, running on everything from embedded devices to the space station.

Ian's sharp focus was on creating a Distribution and community culture that did the right thing, be it ethically, or technically. Releases went out when they were ready, and the project's staunch stance on Software Freedom are the gold standards in the Free and Open Source world.

Ian's devotion to the right thing guided his work, both in Debian and in the subsequent years, always working towards the best possible future.

Ian's dream has lived on, the Debian community remains incredibly active, with thousands of developers working untold hours to bring the world a reliable and secure operating system.

The thoughts of the Debian Community are with Ian's family in this hard time.

His family has asked for privacy during this difficult time and we very much wish to respect that. Within our Debian and the larger Linux community condolences may be sent to in-memoriam-ian@debian.org where they will be kept and archived.

Docker, Murdock's employer, has this statement (cache).

Ian Murdock: How I came to find Linux, from August.

Previous coverage.

Original Submission

http://store.steampowered.com/ has been taken offline because a DDOS attack was allowing users to see random other users account profiles.

There are reports of seeing pages displayed in different languages (Russian, English, German, etc.) as well as the display of other people's account details such as email address, account balance, friends, etc.

Other coverage:

• Gaming souk Steam spews credit cards, personal info in Xmas Day security meltdown
• Steam Goes Nuts, Offers Access To Other People's Accounts [UPDATE]
• Is something wrong with Steam?
• Steam Is Randomly Logging Users Into Other People's Accounts And Exposing Their Information [Update]
• Steam Is Going Haywire, People Can Access Others' Accounts [Updated]

UPDATE [2015/12/26-00:03:00]: There are reports that the Steam store was taken offline. Further, I have seen reports that the Steam store is now back up, but some people report still being unable to login.

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Falcon 9 Stage 1 successful landing

e_armadillo writes:

I just watched the live stream at http://www.spacex.com/, and they did it! Elon is the man!

SpaceX Succeeds in Landing Booster

J053 writes:

SpaceX has successfully launched their upgraded Falcon-9 rocket, returned and successfully landed the booster stage (on land!), and deployed a constellation of 11 Orbcomm satellites.

SpaceX Just Landed a Rocket for the First Time

martyb writes:

Wired is reporting that SpaceX Just Landed a Rocket for the First Time:

They stuck the landing! For the first time ever, SpaceX has landed a booster after sending its payload into orbit—on the ground.

Over the past year, SpaceX has tried and failed to land the first-stage booster of its Falcon 9 rocket twice on a drone barge in the ocean. (And on its third try, the rocket blew up on launch, which, yeah.) This time, SpaceX managed to land its rocket on a landing pad on Cape Canaveral, Florida. Being able to reuse the booster could help cut launch costs in the future.

Also, SpaceX's YouTube channel posted a 56-minute video: "ORBCOMM-2 Full Launch Webcast by SpaceX".

SpaceX Stage 1 Booster Landed Successfully

el_oscuro writes:

Elon Musk's SpaceX not only blasted 11 satellites to orbit on Monday, but also brought its towering first-stage booster back down, with a historic landing at a pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

It was the company's first launch since its rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station exploded on June 28.

The full video is available http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-return-to-flight-20151221-story.html

The launch is at about 32 minutes in, and the booster lands at about 42 minutes.

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cmn32480 writes:

This evening, December 20, 2015, SpaceX will be launching the upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with 11 Orbcomm communications satellites.

SpaceX's live webcast begins at 8:05 p.m. EST (0105 GMT), less than a half-hour before the Falcon 9's scheduled launch time of 8:29 p.m. EST (0129 GMT) with 11 communications satellites for Orbcomm.

Live updates, and the stream of the launch are available at SpaceflightNow.com

From the SpaceflightNow article (separate from the live stream):

SpaceX says Sunday is the target launch date for the first launch of a remodeled version of its Falcon 9 rocket, and the launcher's first mission since a June failure, after completing a practice countdown and engine ignition test Friday.

The mission's firsts, including a possible landing attempt for the Falcon 9's first stage, make it a critical launch for SpaceX as the company simultaneously resumes flying its fully-booked manifest, debuts a new generation Falcon booster, and continues a lengthy research and development initiative into rocket reusability.

Sunday's launch attempt is timed for 8:29 p.m. EST (0129 GMT Monday) from Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad.

Sources said only an instantaneous launch opportunity is available Sunday due to restrictions imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration, which may be hesitant to re-route holiday week air traffic around the Cape Canaveral launch base for several hours in case of launch delays.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

On Tuesday morning, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, a governmental agency which operates hundreds of schools in Los Angeles and nearby areas, sent all its students home. The agency did not make its buses available, but instead asked parents to pick up their children from outside the schools. Superintendent Ramon Cortines ordered all the schools in the district closed because of a threatening message regarding "many schools" which was received by a member of the school board. Cortines called the closure a "precaution based on what has happened recently." Police and the district's "plant managers" are searching the campuses.

Sources:

• Los Angeles Times
• Reuters
• KTLA-TV
• New York Times

From Reuters:

The unprecedented move left some 643,000 students of the Los Angeles Unified School District and their families scrambling to make alternate arrangements and drew criticism as officials in New York said they received the same threat and deemed it not to be credible.

A law enforcement source told Reuters that Los Angeles authorities ordered the closure to allow a full search of about 900 public school facilities without consulting with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which takes the lead on any potential terrorism investigation.

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"exec" writes:

Police are attending a shooting in California, with reports of 20 victims, say officials.

From the BBC:

Fire officials in San Bernardino said it was responding to a "20 victim shooting incident" and it was working to clear the scene.

ABC News reports that there are 12 people dead but police have not confirmed that number.

It is still a "very active scene" and police are trying to secure the building, said a police spokeswoman.

There may be up to three gunmen, she said, and they were heavily armed and possibly wearing body armour.

-- submitted from IRC

Update 1: BBC Live stream updates

Original Submission

AndyTheAbsurd writes:

My local news station

AP story BBC story

Original Submission

takyon writes:

CNN reports on the downing of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 fighter-bomber jet that reportedly violated Turkish airspace:

One of the world's most volatile regions was roiled further Tuesday when a Russian warplane was shot down near the Turkish-Syria border. Turkey said it shot down a plane after the aircraft repeatedly violated its airspace and ignored several warnings.

Turkey's semi-official Anadolu news agency quoted Turkish presidential sources in reporting that the Russian SU-24 was "hit within the framework of engagement rules" in Syria's Bayirbucak area, near the border with Turkey.

But Russia's state-run Sputnik news agency said that "According to preliminary reports, the plane was gunned down from the ground."

Russian officials denied that the plane had violated Turkish airspace. Both pilots ejected from the plane, but their fate is unknown, Sputnik said.

NYT, Reuters. Also BBC Live Reporting and The Guardian live updates:

Turkey has released flight radar images appearing to show that the Russian jet briefly flew over southern Turkey before it as shot down, CNN Turk reports.

[...] Graphic video purporting to show a dead Russian pilot is being widely circulated, but we cannot verify its authenticity. BrookingsDoha analyst Charles Lister says the video shows the dead pilot wearing Russian uniform and equipment. He says the dead pilot is now reported to be in the hands of anti-Assad rebels from the Alwiya Al-'Ashar group.

Update #1

Reuters reports:

A video sent to Reuters by a Syrian rebel group on Tuesday appeared to show a Russian pilot immobile and badly wounded on the ground, and an official from the group said he was dead.

"A Russian pilot," a voice is heard saying as a group of men gather around him. "God is great," a voice is heard saying.

The video was sent to Reuters by a rebel group operating in the northwestern area of Syria, where groups including Free Syrian Army are operating but Islamic State has no known presence.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Various Dell laptops and desktops are shipping with a pre-installed root certificate:

The US IT titan installs a powerful root CA certificate, including its private key, on its Windows notebooks and desktops. These can be abused by eavesdropping miscreants to silently decrypt encrypted web browser traffic without victims noticing.

If you try to remove the dodgy certificate, the file is automatically reinstalled during or after the next boot up. The root CA cert appears to have been created in early April this year, and expires in the year 2039.

How can this certificate be abused? Well, an attacker could, for example, set up a malicious Wi-Fi hotspot in a cafe or hospital, intercept connections from Dell machines, and then automatically strip away the encryption – a classic man-in-the-middle attack, all enabled by Dell's security blunder. The decrypted traffic will include usernames, passwords, session cookies, and other sensitive information. The root CA certificate – eDellRoot – can even be used to sign programs, allowing scumbags to dress up malware as legit apps.

The problem was spotted by Joe Nord (Reddit). Reaching this page without a privacy error means your machine is affected, and this page includes a test for the certificate. Mozilla Firefox ignores (does not trust) the Dell certificate, and thus should be safe to use. To remove:

According to an analysis [PDF] by Duo Security, a bundled plugin reinstalls the root CA file if it is removed. First, you must delete Dell.Foundation.Agent.Plugins.eDell.dll from your system (search for it) and then remove the eDellRoot root CA certificate.

Dell has admitted the mistake and will provide its own guide to fixing it soon (the above information):

The recent situation raised is related to an on-the-box support certificate intended to provide a better, faster and easier customer support experience. Unfortunately, the certificate introduced an unintended security vulnerability.

How about a little comedy courtesy of Reuters?

Dell said it would provide customers with instructions to permanently remove the certificate by email and on its support website, a process that will likely be highly technical.

Original Submission