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wantkitteh writes:

Ars Technica reports that Kaspersky Labs have released further details tying the NSA to a group of expert hackers dubbed "Equation Group".

The Kaspersky researchers once again stopped short of saying the hacking collective they dubbed Equation Group was the handiwork of the NSA, saying only that the operation had to have been sponsored by a nation-state with nearly unlimited resources to dedicate to the project. Still, they heaped new findings on top of a mountain of existing evidence that already strongly implicated the spy agency. The strongest new tie to the NSA was the string "BACKSNARF_AB25" discovered only a few days ago embedded in a newly found sample of the Equation Group espionage platform dubbed "EquationDrug." "BACKSNARF," according to page 19 of this undated NSA presentation [PDF], was the name of a project tied to the NSA's Tailored Access Operations.

Similarities have been noted in the procedures and capabilities of Equation Group and those detailed in Edward Snowden's disclosures concerning the NSA, most notably the the ability to interdict hardware and software during shipping to be replaced with duplicates infected with highly sophisticated malware. The article also points to timestamp analysis that indicates the authors of the captured malware worked regular office hours: 8-5, Monday-Friday in the UTC-3 and UTC-4 time-zones. The Kaspersky report discounted intentional manipulation of these timestamps and suggests that Equation Group are located in the eastern United States.

Hugh Pickens writes:

Erica Goode writes in the NYT that no-till soil-conservation farming, a movement that promotes leaving fields untilled, “green manures” and other soil-enhancing methods, is gaining converts as propnents say the technology mimics the biology of virgin land, to revive degenerated earth, minimize erosion, encourage plant growth and increase farmers’ profits, “It’s a massive paradigm shift,” says Ray Archuleta, an agronomist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, part of the federal Agriculture Department, which endorses the soil-conservation approach. Neatly tilled fields have long been a hallmark of American agriculture and its farmers, by and large traditionalists who often distrust practices that diverge from time-honored methods. Tilling also helps mix in fertilizers and manure and loosens the top layer of the soil. But repeated plowing exacts a price. It degrades soil, killing off its biology, including beneficial fungi and earthworms, and leaving it, as Archuleta puts it, “naked, thirsty, hungry and running a fever.” Soil health proponents say that by leaving fields unplowed and using cover crops, which act as sinks for nitrogen and other nutrients, growers can increase the amount of organic matter in their soil, making it better able to absorb and retain water.

One recent study led by the Environmental Defense Fund suggested that the widespread use of cover crops and other soil-health practices could reduce nitrogen pollution in the Upper Mississippi and Ohio River basins by 30 percent, helping to shrink the giant “dead zone” of oxygen-depleted water in the Gulf of Mexico. But the movement also has critics, who argue that no-tillage and other methods are impractical and too expensive for many growers. A farmer who wants to shift to no-tillage, for example, must purchase new equipment, like a no-till seeder. Even farmers who enthusiastically adopt no-till and other soil-conservation methods rarely do so for environmental reasons; their motivation is more pragmatic. “My goal is to improve my soil so I can grow a better crop so I can make more money,” says Terry McAlister, who farms 6,000 acres of drought-stricken cropland in North Texas. “If I can help the environment in the process, fine, but that’s not my goal.”

janrinok writes:

Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet

On the 25 Feb we published a story about the FCC deliberations regarding net neutrality, which was being decided the following day. The FCC held their vote and made their announcements, but as always the devil is in the detail, and without that detail it was hard to make any meaningful decisions on whether it was good or bad news. Today, the FCC have released the relevant document, which is in the link above, but at almost 600 pages long it will be a while before anyone at SN will have had time to digest it. So I provide the link for you own reference. I still cannot say whether the outcome is good or bad - but I'm hopeful - indeed, almost certain - that some of you will have strong feelings about it. Please share your findings here along with your own views and any potential problems that you might identify.

janrinok writes:

We're pretty used to fluctuations in the number of editorial staff available at any one specific time. There have been several periods since our inception when 2 editors had to keep the site going for extended periods of time. LaminatorX even coined a term for it - 'ironman editing'. It is in exactly that situation that we now find ourselves again. Combining one's personal and professional life with the task of being an active editor without a break is hard work and not without its costs.

The last time that I was this involved was during the second half of last year. In the end, I had to take a 2 month break which necessitated medical treatment and prolonged rest. I am beginning to feel the same as I did then, and I cannot keep going at this rate. So I have a plea - all those who are authorised Soylent editors, please consider if you can make a small but sustained effort to help keep this site active 24/7. I know that you all have demands on your time but if you find yourself able to process a couple of stories a day, particularly at weekends, then it would go a long, long way to helping us overcome this current manning problem.

Over the last 2 weekends, the effort of being an editor has been severely tested by a very small number of our community swamping several worthwhile stories with, in my opinion, childish behaviour. I have decided that I am not able to continue to work 7 days a week at this level of intensity. If we cannot muster enough editors to keep the site active 7 days a week then I will stop editing at the start of my weekend and return the following Monday morning. I, too, need to rest and spend time with my family.

There are some others who do contribute to the editorial task - and to them the current active editors are extremely grateful - but they have their own roles to play in the team and it is not fair that they should have to shoulder the extra burden. I hope that someone out there will be able to make the not insignificant effort that is now needed.

frojack writes:

It has been thought that the Chameleons change their color by moving pigments within their skin. New research suggests the process less chemical and more crystalline in nature. The research appeared in Science Communications, (pay walled) but was summarized in The Scientists.

The color changes, which are completely reversible and occur within minutes, may not be related to pigments at all. The new research suggests they are the result of quick changes in the spacing of light-reflecting guanine nanocrystals, which creates structural color within chameleon skin.

Structural colors, in contrast to those produced by pigments or dyes, arise from the physical interaction of light with biological nanostructures (crystals) "grown" within skin layers. A wide range of organisms evolved ways to fine-tune the geometry of some of the most abundant (and often colorless) biomaterials, engineering grooves, pockets, and films that scatter light waves and cause them to interfere with each other in ways that change how the reflected light appears to predators, prey, and mates.

Two layers of cells known as iridophores contain these nanocrystals. A superficial layer, known as S-iridophores, actively alters the spacing of these crystals to cause the rapid color changes, while a deeper layer, made up of D-iridophores, reflects a broader spectrum of light near the infrared wavelengths.

The scientists discovered this effect with high speed photography. They then used sample of skin, and elicited the same color changes by using salt water to shrink the skin, causing the crystals to cluster. This caused the shifting of reflected wavelengths from yellow to green and then blue.

fritsd writes:

BBC News business reports that the city of Drammen in Norway has made substantial savings on their district heating bill, by switching over to a large-scale geothermal heat pump which uses the water of the nearby fjord as its heat source:

The county capital, 40 miles west of Oslo in Norway, extracts most of the heat needed to insulate its houses, offices and factories against the biting Nordic cold from the local fjord, or more precisely from the water held within it.

Averaging 8C throughout the year - it's literally cold enough to take your breath away. So cold, in fact, that open water swimmers classify it as freezing.

But somehow, an open-minded district heating company, backed by an environmentally-conscious city council, together with a large measure of Glaswegian nous, have built a system to meet the heating needs not just of Drammen's 65,000 residents, but its businesses as well.

The system was built in 2011 and (according to the BBC) it exceeded all expectations.

hemocyanin writes:

Blackhats employed by the US Federal Government are of course trying to extract secret keys built into hardware, but this is astounding:

The security researchers also claimed they had created a modified version of Apple's proprietary software development tool, Xcode, which could sneak surveillance backdoors into any apps or programs created using the tool. [...] The modified version of Xcode, the researchers claimed, could enable spies to steal passwords and grab messages on infected devices. Researchers also claimed the modified Xcode could "force all iOS applications to send embedded data to a listening post." It remains unclear how intelligence agencies would get developers to use the poisoned version of Xcode.

Windows users have been targeted by compromising the TPM chip to give up its secrets, thereby defeating bitlocker.

Naturally, phones are attacked:

A joint task force comprised of operatives from the NSA and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, formed in 2010, developed surveillance software targeting iPhones, Android devices and Nokia’s Symbian phones.

But the backdoor xcode IDE takes the cake. Especially in light of Obama's criticism of China for trying to force backdoors into products:

"Obama’s comments were dripping with hypocrisy," says Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. "Don’t get me wrong, his actual criticism of China for attempting to force tech companies to install backdoors was spot on — now if only he would apply what he said to his own government. Since he now knows backdooring encryption is a terrible policy that will damage cybersecurity, privacy, and the economy, why won’t he order the FBI and NSA to stop pushing for it as well?"

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

Some days just suck [Caution - ABE alert - only click this link if you know what you are doing].

In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him. As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirize this world: he did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention.

Terry faced his Alzheimer's disease (an 'embuggerance', as he called it) publicly and bravely. Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.

This has not been a good month for awesome people.

bob_super adds:

His twitter account confirms that DEATH paid him a visit:
"AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER."

More here from the BBC.

VanessaE writes:

From a story on The Washington Post:

In what advocates describe as an historic first, a trio of senators plan to unveil a federal medical marijuana bill Tuesday.

The bill, to be introduced by Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), would end the federal ban on medical marijuana and implement a series of reforms long sought by advocates. They include downgrading its status with the Drug Enforcement Agency from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2, allowing doctors to recommend its use in some cases to veterans, expanding access to researchers and making it easier for banks to provide services to the industry.

fliptop writes:

As reported in The Wall Street Journal (paywalled):

The Central Intelligence Agency played a crucial role in helping the Justice Department develop technology that scans data from thousands of U.S. cellphones, part of a little-known high-tech alliance between the spy agency and domestic law enforcement, according to people familiar with the work.

The WSJ reported last year on how the Justice Department flew low-flying light aircraft over US towns and cities in an effort to hunt suspected criminals. In the process, a significant number of Americans' data is scooped up. The CIA is not allowed to conduct most of its operations on US soil so this cooperative effort demonstrates how criminal investigations rely on technical and operational support from intelligence agencies.

fliptop writes:

"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen" could be the unofficial motto of the Linux kernel community. Over the years, there has been one conflict after another in the heart of the the Linux development community, the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML). Now, in order to make the LKML more peaceful, the group has adopted a Code of Conduct:

The Linux kernel development effort is a very personal process compared to "traditional" ways of developing software. Your code and ideas behind it will be carefully reviewed, often resulting in critique and criticism. The review will almost always require improvements to the code before it can be included in the kernel. Know that this happens because everyone involved wants to see the best possible solution for the overall success of Linux. This development process has been proven to create the most robust operating system kernel ever, and we do not want to do anything to cause the quality of submission and eventual result to ever decrease.

The new code, which was made as (what else) a Linux patch, continues:

"If, however, anyone feels personally abused, threatened, or otherwise uncomfortable due to this process, that is not acceptable. If so, please contact the Linux Foundation's Technical Advisory Board or the individual members, and they will work to resolve the issue to the best of their ability.

Original story spotted on ZDNet.

janrinok writes:

• St Louis Post-Dispatch [Edited 14:13 UTC]
• Reuters
• www.bbc.com

Two police officers have been shot in Ferguson, a Missouri town hit by riots over the killing of an unarmed black teenager last year. One officer was shot in the face and one in the shoulder, St Louis County police chief Jon Belmar said. Both suffered "very serious gunshot injuries" but were conscious, he said.

The incident followed the resignation of Ferguson's police chief, after a federal report alleged widespread racial bias in his department. Protesters had gathered outside Ferguson police headquarters late on Wednesday, in what was initially a relatively low-key demonstration. But shortly after midnight at least three shots were fired as the crowd of protesters was starting to break up, Mr Belmar said. He said he was assuming that "these shots were directed exactly at my police officers", rather than the officers being hit by stray bullets.

One protester, Keith Rose, said he saw an officer "covered in blood", and that other officers were carrying and dragging him, leaving a trail of blood on the ground. Police were keeping protesters in the area in order to take witness statements, he said. Demonstrators were calling for further action to be taken over the federal report, and for more resignations in the police department, Mr Rose said.

[Format Edited at 14:27 UTC - janrinok]

Daiv writes:

In September 2013, the Detroit Blight Removal Task Force was assembled and charged with finding a way to rid Detroit of abandoned, run-down and dangerous properties. Jerry Paffendorf, CEO of Loveland Technologies and creator of "Why Don't We Own This?", a website that posts Detroit (and now other US cities) property information including ownership and foreclosure risks, was tapped to help out.

Over the course of 40 snowy working days from December 2013 to January 2014, Loveland had 150 people survey Detroit’s 380,000 properties. They found that about 50,000 were totally abandoned, and another 10,000 were probably unoccupied. From this list, Loveland created an interactive map that indicates properties’ occupancy, condition, level of fire damage, and the presence of garbage dumped on them.

Now, Loveland and the Task Force have created Blexting: Anyone in Detroit can upload photos and descriptions of properties they see. And, as they do, the database of properties can be updated to reflect which spots have gotten worse and which have gotten better. “You can start making those much more intelligent decisions about how to allocate resources,” he said.

GungnirSniper writes:

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published a study on 'Origins of narcissism in children'. The summarized results from ABC News:

The study evaluated 565 Dutch children ages 7 through 12 for narcissist tendencies such as feelings of superiority and self-satisfaction. The investigators also questioned the children’s parents about how, when and how often they offered praise and other feedback.

The kids whose parents consistently told them they were superior to other children, no matter what, scored higher on measurements for narcissism compared to kids who were given a more realistic view of themselves, the investigators found. That’s because over-praising children can lead them to believe they are special people who deserve special treatment all the time, explained Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University and one of the study’s authors.

Quartz notes that fathers are more likely to overvalue their children, and that boys have both higher self-esteem and higher narcissism:

Predictors of narcissistic parenting start even at a child’s birth. Parents raising narcissistic children tend to give them unique names, a sign that they’re more special than everyone else. These parents also lavished praise, whether the child deserved it or not, and believed their child had a higher IQ than they actually did, Brummelman says.

Researchers asked parents whether their children were familiar with a number of topics, including some they made up. The parents of budding narcissists were so confident in their children that they said their kids would be familiar with topics that didn’t exist—The Tale of Benson Bunny, for example. (That’s not a real thing.)

On a related note, parental reinforcement of gender stereotypes may help explain why fewer women have careers in STEM.

 

Hugh Pickens writes:

Experts and laymen have long assumed that people who died by suicide will ultimately do it even if temporarily deterred. Now Celia Watson Seupel reports at the NYT that a growing body of evidence challenges this view with many experts calling for a reconsideration of suicide-prevention strategies stressing “means restriction.” Instead of treating individual risk, means restriction entails modifying the environment by removing the means by which people usually die by suicide. The world cannot be made suicide-proof, of course. But, these researchers argue, if the walkway over a bridge is fenced off, a struggling college freshman cannot throw herself over the side. If parents leave guns in a locked safe, a teenage son cannot shoot himself if he suddenly decides life is hopeless.

Reducing the availability of highly lethal and commonly used suicide methods has been associated with declines in suicide rates of as much as 30%–50% in other countries (PDF). According to Cathy Barber, people trying to die by suicide tend to choose not the most effective method, but the one most at hand. Some methods have a case fatality rate as low as 1 or 2 percent,” says Barber. “With a gun, it’s closer to 85 or 90 percent. So it makes a difference what you’re reaching for in these low-planned or unplanned suicide attempts.” Ken Baldwin, who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in 1985 and lived, told reporters that he knew as soon as he had jumped that he had made a terrible mistake. "From the instant I saw my hand leave the railing, I knew I wanted to live. I was terrified out of my skull." Baldwin was lucky to survive the 220 foot plunge into frigid waters. Ms. Barber tells another story: On a friend’s very first day as an emergency room physician, a patient was wheeled in, a young man who had shot himself in a suicide attempt. “He was begging the doctors to save him,” she says. But they could not.

wantkitteh writes:

BBC News are reporting that parliamentary advisors have declared a ban on the Tor anonymity network would be technologically infeasible and unwise.

Parliamentary advisers said networks such as Tor could be used for criminal ends but also in the public interest.

The advice for MPs contradicted the Prime Minister David Cameron, who has said law enforcement should be handed the keys to encrypted communications.

One expert said the document showed Mr Cameron's plans to be "noble", but ultimately unworkable.

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (Post), which issues advice to MPs, said that there was "widespread agreement that banning online anonymity systems altogether is not seen as an acceptable policy option in the UK".

This directly contradicts Prime Minister David Cameron's assertions in January following the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

"In extremis, it has been possible to read someone's letter, to listen to someone's call to mobile communications. [...] The question remains, 'Are we going to allow a means of communications where it simply is not possible to do that?' My answer to that question is, 'No, we must not.'"

The report uses as an example the problems the Chinese government has in it's attempts to block access to Tor. It also acknowledges that Tor makes up a large part of the "dark net", not the whole thing.