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mendax writes:

It seems that the Dread Pirate Roberts and company weren't the only ones who tried to get rich from Silk Road. The New York Times is reporting:

On Monday, the government charged that in the shadows of an undercover investigation of Silk Road, a notorious black-market site, two federal agents sought to enrich themselves by exploiting the very secrecy that made the site so difficult for law enforcement officials to penetrate.

The agents, Carl Mark Force IV, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Shaun W. Bridges, who worked for the Secret Service, had resigned amid growing scrutiny, and on Monday they were charged with money laundering and wire fraud. Mr. Force was also charged with theft of government property and conflict of interest.

This may be a route to DPR getting his conviction tossed since:

Mr. Ulbricht’s lawyer, Joshua L. Dratel, said on Monday that shortly before the trial, the government disclosed “only a portion of what is revealed in this complaint,” and over the defense’s objections, “aggressively moved to preclude at trial any reference to Agent Force’s activities.” The judge granted the government’s request.

“It is clear from this complaint that fundamentally, the government’s investigation of Mr. Ulbricht lacked any integrity and was wholly and fatally compromised from the inside,” Mr. Dratel said.

Is it just me or does Carl Mark Force IV, one of the agents accused by the government, have one of the most ridiculous names for any law enforcement agency?

AnonTechie writes:

Survey responses from 19,000 people in 18 European countries, including the UK, showed that "the notion that big welfare states are associated with widespread cultures of dependency, or other adverse consequences of poor short term incentives to work, receives little support."

Sociologists Dr Kjetil van der Wel and Dr Knut Halvorsen examined responses to the statement 'I would enjoy having a paid job even if I did not need the money' put to the interviewees for the European Social Survey in 2010.

In a paper published in the journal Work, Employment and Society they compare this response with the amount the country spent on welfare benefits and employment schemes, while taking into account the population differences between states.

The researchers, of Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway ( https://www.hioa.no/eng/ ), found that the more a country paid to the unemployed or sick, and invested in employment schemes, the more its likely people were likely to agree with the statement, whether employed or not.

They found that almost 80% of people in Norway, which pays the highest benefits of the 18 countries, agreed with the statement. By contrast in Estonia, one of least generous, only around 40% did. The UK was average for the generosity of benefits, and for the percentage agreeing with the statement - almost 60%.

http://phys.org/news/2015-03-welfare-benefits-people.html

[Also Covered By]: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/generous-welfare-systems-actually-make-people-more-keen-to-work-europewide-study-finds-10144712.html

Justin Case writes:

The US airport security agency is facing ridicule after leaked documents revealed its checklist of tell-tale signs that a passenger might be a potential terrorist.

The US government has spent almost $1 billion on a programme deploying Behaviour Detection Officers to airport security. "Stress factors" that could see passengers stopped at security include arriving late for your flight, sweating and "excessive yawning".

Autistics beware: failing to make eye contact is suspicious, but so is a faster eye blink rate or staring (either "cold penetrating" or "widely open"). So brush up on that submissive glance before you fly. Also, don't visually scan the area, and whatever you do, don't express contempt for the screening process. Because once you're accused of being a terrorist, you lose all your rights. No presumption of innocence, no trial. Just bye sucker.

Appalbarry writes:

Just two months after being elected, the new Mayor of Saanich BC made news when he claimed that City staff had installed "spyware" on his computer. It now turns out that he was right - just before he took office City IT staff installed the Spector 360 employee monitoring software on all of their computers. System 360 promises:

Using a combination of keyword detection and snapshot playback, Spector 360 monitors, captures and analyzes all PC and Mac computer user or user group activity, including:

• Email/Webmail
• Keystrokes Typed
• Chat/Instant Messages
• User Activity/Inactivity
• Websites Visited
• File Transfers
• Applications/Programs Used
• Document Tracking
• Online Searches
• Network Activity

In a report released today, BC's Privacy Commissioner takes City staff to task for breaches of privacy laws.

“One of the most disappointing findings in my investigation of the District of Saanich’s use of employee monitoring software is the near complete lack of awareness and understanding of the privacy provisions of B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act,”

The good news is that this decision is going set the bar for employee monitoring in all businesses, not just municipal government.

Phoenix666 writes:

It turns out the "standby" mode on your game console sucks energy like it's going out of style:

[It] draws about 33W of power on the Wii U, 92W on the Xbox One, and a whopping 130W on the PS4. Leaving your PS4 sitting on the menu like this all year would waste over $142 in electricity costs.

OK, "turn off your consoles when you're not using them" is kind of an obvious tip. The tricky part is that all three major consoles have two levels of "off" these days; one that's truly off (drawing only about 0.3W to detect a power signal from a controller); and one that puts the system in a power-hogging "standby" mode (like the Xbox One's "instant on" mode).

When idling, at ConEd rates of $0.35/kwh, for 24/7/365 standby that's $101.18/yr for the Wii U, $282.07/yr for the Xbox One, and $398.58/yr for the PS4. You could almost buy yourself a whole new console for that money. Less power hungry standby modes can still cost $30-$45/year or so at those ConEd rates.

Phoenix666 writes:

Miami is hosting the first of two races for the Formula E, the world's first fully electric racing series:

The series kicked off in Beijing in September 2014, and this inaugural 11-round season ends in London this June. Each race takes place in a city center on a temporary street circuit, and the events are condensed into a single day. This both maximizes the spectacle for the fans in attendance and minimizes the disruption to everyone else in the city (with the road closures and so on). It's one of many things we discovered Formula E does in contrast to the more traditional two- or three-day race meeting.
...
Ah yes, battery life. This is Formula E’s elephant in the room. At 28 kWh, the SRT_01E’s batteries don’t store enough electricity to last a full race, and recharging takes almost an hour—far too long to be practical in a pit stop. What’s more, a decision was made to use the battery’s safety cell as part of the car’s structure, so they can’t just be swapped during a race (even though Williams had just such a system in development).

The solution? Each Formula E driver needs two cars for the race, jumping from one to the other during a pit stop. In the lead up to the season, this idea drew much derision, and we must confess it still doesn’t sit right. However, the alternative would be a battery that weighed twice as much. The current Formula E battery has roughly the same energy density as Tesla’s 85 kWh unit, which weighs more than twice as much. And at almost 2,000 lbs, the SRT_01E could ill afford to gain more weight.

Electric cars are well-known for their instant torque and smooth acceleration, so it will be interesting to see how that affects driver tactics and strategies. But will racing fans miss the scream of the engines?

GungnirSniper writes:

The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending all liquid medicine for children be measured in milliliters instead of the traditional teaspoons and tablespoons.

"Metric dosing is the most precise way to dose medications and prevent overdoses," said Dr. Ian Paul, lead author of a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Accidental medication overdoses send more than 70,000 children to U.S. emergency rooms each year, according to background information with the statement, which is published online March 30 in the journal Pediatrics.

Using only milliliters "eliminates at least some significant sources of dosing confusion and errors," he added.

Currently, some over-the-counter medications include metric dosing instructions along with a measuring device marked in teaspoons, the academy noted.

Previous research has found that parents who use only milliliters when giving kids medicine make fewer errors than parents who use teaspoons or tablespoons, the statement said.

NASA uses metric units, although Lockheed Martin used pound force seconds instead of newton seconds in calculations with the Mars Climate Orbiter, causing it to burn up in the Martian atmosphere.

Phoenix666 writes:

Privacy advocates are worried that public acceptance of corporate and government spying on our most intimate details is dangerous:

Private business tracks your clicks. Your boss knows your digital trail. Your online activity is more public than private.

Almost all Americans now realize this. Most still aren't bothered by it.

A poll released this month - two years after startling revelations about the government's digital surveillance capabilities - shows 9 out of 10 Americans recognize their digital lives aren't secret. Yet clear majorities said they weren't overly concerned about the government snooping around their calls and emails.

"I am not doing anything wrong, so they can monitor me all they want," one user told researchers from the Pew Research Center.

That view worries a growing coalition of privacy experts and advocates trying to speed up efforts to block surreptitious peeking into our digital habits.

[More after the break]

Phoenix666 writes:

Scientists from the International Research School of Planetary Sciences, Università d’Annunzio, Pescara[Italian language link], report that features identified on Mars strengthen the possibility of groundwater now or in the past, and that similar features on Earth have conditions that are amenable to microbial life.

Science Daily gives an overview of the research:

Monica Pondrelli and colleagues investigated the Equatorial Layered Deposits (ELDs) of Arabia Terra in Firsoff crater area, Mars, to understand their formation and potential habitability. On the plateau, ELDs consist of rare mounds, flat-lying deposits, and cross-bedded dune fields. Pondrelli and colleagues interpret the mounds as smaller spring deposits, the flat-lying deposits as playa, and the cross-bedded dune fields as aeolian.
Related Articles

They write that groundwater fluctuations appear to be the major factor controlling ELD deposition.

Pondrelli and colleagues also note that the ELDs inside the craters would likely have originated by fluid upwelling through the fissure ridges and the mounds, and that lead to evaporite precipitation. The presence of spring and playa deposits points to the possible presence of a hydrological cycle, driving groundwater upwelling on Mars at surface temperatures above freezing.

The research [Abstract only; full paper pay-walled] is being published in the Geological Society of America's Bulletin.

Mars holds a special place in the human imagination, but scraping dirt there looking for life seems like weak beer now that we know liquid water exists on Europa and Enceladus, or that a hydro-carbon based life might have evolved on Titan where methane flows on the surface.

Phoenix666 writes:

The Morris County Public Safety Training Academy in Morristown, New Jersey now provides a virtual reality-based training program for the Morris County Poice. The program is intended to help officers hone their use of force decision-making skills.

From the Wired article by Issie Lapowsky:

this system, designed by a company called VirTra, is actually critical in helping police officers hone their skills as decision makers before they’re let out in the real world. Morris County installed the technology last November, smack dab in the middle of one of the most contentious periods in recent history between police and the public. And while Digiralomo, director of the county’s Department of Law and Public Safety, says that wasn’t why the academy bought the roughly $300,000 system, it’s hard not to see the connection.
...
Systems like VirTra’s are designed with just that in mind. “We’re finding there’s a need for cities and national agencies to train at above minimum standards,” says Bob Ferris, CEO and founder of VirTra. “With this new technology, they can better prepare officers for use of force and the life and death situations that often make the headlines.”

While the scenario described in the article isn't quite as cut and dried as this one, one can hope that this type of training can help police make better use of force decisions in the field.

The Virtra Systems[auto-play video enabled] product is one of several used by police departments around the United States.

Hugh Pickens writes:

The NYT reports that the Secret Service is recruiting some of its best athletes to serve as pretend fence jumpers at a rural training ground outside Washington in a program to develop a new fence around the White House that will keep intruders out without looking like a prison. Secret Service officials acknowledge that they cannot make the fence foolproof; that would require an aesthetically unacceptable and politically incorrect barrier. Prison or Soviet-style design is out, and so is anything that could hurt visitors, like sharp edges or protuberances. Instead, the goal is to deter climbers or at least delay them so that officers and attack dogs have a few more seconds to apprehend them. In addition, there might be alterations to the White House grounds but no moat, as recently suggested by Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee. “When I hear moat, I think medieval times,” says William Callahan, assistant director for the office of protective operation at the Secret Service.

The Times also reports that the Secret Service wants to spend $8 million to build a detailed replica of the White House in Beltsville, Maryland to aid in training officers and agents to protect the real thing. “Right now, we train on a parking lot, basically,” says Joseph P. Clancy, the director of the Secret Service. “We put up a makeshift fence and walk off the distance between the fence at the White House and the actual house itself. We don’t have the bushes, we don’t have the fountains, we don’t get a realistic look at the White House.” The proposed replica would provide what Clancy describes as a “more realistic environment, conducive to scenario-based training exercises,” for instructing those who must protect the president’s home. It would mimic the facade of the White House residence, the East and West Wings, guard booths, and the surrounding grounds and roads. The request comes six months after an intruder scaled a wrought-iron fence around the White House and ran through an unlocked front door of the residence and into the East Room before officers tackled him.

elf writes:

Eve Valkyrie is the spin off game of the popular MMO Eve, the difference between this and most other MMO's is that this game is going to be built with Virtual Reality (VR) in mind from the get go. With VR headsets not really main stream at all at the moment it is a bold strategy, but at the same time it holds a lot of intrigue and appeal to know more.

Read more at http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-03/27/eve-valkyrie-interview

Phoenix666 writes:

Washington Post's Fareed Zakaria writes:

If Americans are united in any conviction these days, it is that we urgently need to shift the country’s education toward the teaching of specific, technical skills. Every month, it seems, we hear about our children’s bad test scores in math and science — and about new initiatives from companies, universities or foundations to expand STEM courses (science, technology, engineering and math) and deemphasize the humanities. From President Obama on down, public officials have cautioned against pursuing degrees like art history, which are seen as expensive luxuries in today’s world. Republicans want to go several steps further and defund these kinds of majors. “Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists?” asked Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott. “I don’t think so.” America’s last bipartisan cause is this: A liberal education is irrelevant, and technical training is the new path forward. It is the only way, we are told, to ensure that Americans survive in an age defined by technology and shaped by global competition. The stakes could not be higher.

This dismissal of broad-based learning, however, comes from a fundamental misreading of the facts — and puts America on a dangerously narrow path for the future. The United States has led the world in economic dynamism, innovation and entrepreneurship thanks to exactly the kind of teaching we are now told to defenestrate. A broad general education helps foster critical thinking and creativity. Exposure to a variety of fields produces synergy and cross fertilization. Yes, science and technology are crucial components of this education, but so are English and philosophy. When unveiling a new edition of the iPad, Steve Jobs explained that “it’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — that it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.”

It's another installment in a running debate, but with reports that 1/3 of student loans in the United States are delinquent, perhaps it's worth revisiting now.

An Anonymous Coward provides the following story:

A Guardian story from a week or two back shows that not all in the scientific community are as diligent or trustworthy in their research as would be hoped:

"It appeared to be one of archaeology's most sensational finds. The skull fragment discovered in a peat bog near Hamburg was more than 36,000 years old - and was the vital missing link between modern humans and Neanderthals. This, at least, is what Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten - a distinguished, cigar-smoking German anthropologist - told his scientific colleagues, to global acclaim, after being invited to date the extremely rare skull.

However, the professor's 30-year-old academic career has now ended in disgrace after the revelation that he systematically falsified the dates on this and numerous other "stone age" relics."

"Anthropology is going to have to completely revise its picture of modern man between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago," said Thomas Terberger, the archaeologist who discovered the hoax. "Prof Protsch's work appeared to prove that anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals had co-existed, and perhaps even had children together. This now appears to be rubbish."

Damn it science.

kaszz and Phoenix666 write in with news of an incident at the headquarters of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) in Fort Meade, Maryland this morning which left one dead and two injured.

CNN reports[Autoplay enabled] that:

Shortly before 9:00 AM today, a vehicle containing two individuals attempted an unauthorized entry at a National Security Agency gate," Jonathan Freed, NSA director of strategic communications, said in a statement.

Fox News is reporting[Autoplay enabled] that:

Two men dressed as women tried to ram a stolen car through the gate of the National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade with an SUV Monday morning, resulting in a shooting that left one person dead, according to authorities and sources familiar with the investigation.

The Washington Post provided further details:

Law enforcement officials familiar with the case said the two men in the vehicle were dressed as women and that they had earlier robbed another man of the SUV from a motel on Route 1 in Howard County. One of the officials, who spoke on the condition they not be named to discuss a pending case, said the incident began in Baltimore City on Sunday when the three met. The exact circumstances were still being sorted out by police. Several law enforcement officials said the trio spent the night at a Howard County motel.

[More after the break]