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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

On July 5th , the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion which found, in part, that sharing passwords is a crime prosecutable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The decision, according to a dissenting opinion on the case, makes millions of people who share passwords for services like Netflix and HBOGo into "unwitting federal criminals."

The decision came in the case of David Nosal, an employee at the executive search (or headhunter) firm Korn/Ferry International. Nosal left the firm in 2004 after being denied a promotion. Though he stayed on for a year as a contractor, he was simultaneously preparing to launch a competing search firm, along with several co-conspirators. Though all of their computer access was revoked, they continued to access a Korn/Ferry candidate database, known as Searcher, using the login credentials of Nosal's former assistant, who was still with the firm.

Nosal was eventually charged with conspiracy, theft of trade secrets and three counts under CFAA, and was sentenced to prison time, probation, and nearly $900,000 in restitution and fines.

Nosal's conviction under CFAA hinged on a clause that criminalizes anyone who "knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer without authorization". Though CFAA is often understood to be an anti-hacking law, that clause in particular has been applied to many cases that fall far short of actual systems tampering.

What about sharing your Kickass Torrents password?

Source: http://fortune.com/2016/07/10/sharing-netflix-password-crime/

takyon: Non-Fortune link: Ever Use Someone Else's Password? Go to Jail, says the Ninth Circuit

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

A U.S. Marine officer facing involuntary discharge for improperly handling classified information is hoping to receive the same lenient treatment the FBI recommended for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Maj. Jason Brezler has been embroiled in a legal battle since December 2014. Brezler is facing an involuntary discharge from the service after he admitted sending classified information to an unclassified email address in 2012. He was trying to warn fellow Marines about a corrupt police chief in Afghanistan. Several weeks later, a deputy of that police chief killed three Marines in a rifle attack.

An internal review in 2013 recommended that Brezler be removed from the service for possessing classified material, a decision that remains under appeal. However, both the Marine Corps and the Navy Department have already upheld the initial recommendation.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/07/marine-officer-wants-same-treatment-as-hillary-clinton.html

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fork(2) writes:

An article for anyone concerned about MERS... and anyone who routinely has to visit the ER. From ScienceDaily

Since it was first identified in 2012, MERS-CoV has spread to 27 countries. Patients develop severe acute respiratory illness with symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath. Approximately 3-4 out of every 10 patients reported with MERS-CoV have died, most of whom had an underlying medical condition.

Previous studies have suggested that the potential for MERS-CoV to spread to large numbers of people was low. However, an outbreak in Saudi Arabia in 2013 saw one patient transmit the virus to seven others, raising concerns about so-called super-spreaders -- patients who infect disproportionally more secondary contacts than others also infected with the same disease.

Between May and July 2015 there was an outbreak of MERS-CoV in South Korea. The authors trace back that outbreak and study "how Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus was transmitted from a single super-spreader patient in an overcrowded emergency room to a total of 82 individuals over three days including patients, visitors and health-care workers. The study, published today [July 10] in The Lancet, maps the transmission of South Korea's first outbreak of MERS virus and the case of highest transmission of MERS virus from a single patient outside the Middle East."

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takyon writes:

Yes, the phrase used in the headline is a direct quote. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is teasing new details about the company's future, set to be announced later this week. The news may be in reaction to slipping stock prices and troubles with regulators following a recent crash:

While offering no other details, the master plan is likely a follow-up to a 2006 blog post titled "The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me)," in which Musk laid out his vision for Tesla, including eventual plans for the Tesla Roadster, the Model S sedan and the upcoming (and more affordable) Model 3 sedan.

It may not be a bad idea for Musk to roll out some optimistic news. In recent weeks, the electric car company has become the subject of a federal safety investigation following at least two crashes — one fatal — possibly related to its highly touted autopilot feature; Tesla has announced a drop in Model S shipments; and Musk himself has come under fire after proposing that Tesla purchase SolarCity, which he is also the chairman of, much to the chagrin of shareholders.

[...] Tesla shares are down almost 10% year-to-date, and down more than 16% in the past 12 months.

You may also be interested in this NYT editorial about "Lessons From the Tesla Crash".

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fork(2) writes:

Satellite imagery refers to images of the earth taken by satellites. The sharpest imagery available commercially is provided by Westminster, Colorado-based DigitalGlobe, which provides resolution as sharp as 31 centimeters (about 12 inches). The Denver Post says that, "The 31-centimeter resolution images allow viewers to discern, for example, the windshield of a car and the direction the car is facing."

On Wednesday (July 6), SpaceNews carried an article indicating that SI Imaging Services of South Korea had begun offering less-than 50-centimeter-class images commercially, making it the sharpest imagery available after that of DigitalGlobe.

SIIS, in response to SpaceNews inquiries, on July 7 said it would be selling 40-centimeter imagery after resampling Kompsat-3A's native 55-centimeter pictures, the same way that Airbus Defence and Space resamples Pleiades 70-centimeter images to produce a 50-centimeter product.

DigitalGlobe intends to launch a new satellite, WorldView-4, in September which will be capable of producing 25-centimeter imagery.

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fork(2) writes:

      ScienceDaily reports on yet another threat to the beleaguered marine environment...almost 5 trillion cigarette butts annually.

Littered cigarette butts may be an important source of metal contaminants leaching into the marine environment and potentially entering the food chain, suggests research published online in the journal Tobacco Control.

Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter found in the marine environment, with an estimated 5 trillion or so discarded outdoors around the globe every year. Previous research has also suggested that metals can leach from cigarette butts.

To gain an understanding of the potential implications, levels of metals in cigarette butts were monitored at nine different locations along the north part of the Persian Gulf in the Bushehr seaport coastal areas during the summer of 2015.

The metals assessed included cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), arsenic (As) nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn) from discarded cigarette butts in the top 10 cm of sediment and deposited at the tidal mark on the beaches.

The response of animal and plant life to metal content is highly variable, they point out. "Whereas elevated concentration of heavy and trace metals in water and soils can adversely affect some species, contamination may increase the metal tolerance of other organisms," they write.

      The paper, "Association of metals (Cd, Fe, As, Ni, Cu, Zn and Mn) with cigarette butts in northern part of the Persian Gulf" appears in the journal Tobacco Control .

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takyon writes:

Robbers have used the popular Pokémon Go augmented reality smartphone game to lure victims directly to them. The game has purchasable "Lure Modules" which temporarily attract wild pokémon into an area for players to catch. Businesses can use these to attract potential customers, and now criminals have gotten in on the action to attract young and naive targets:

As popular as Pokémon Go has become, that it sends players out into the real world to find Pokémon is creating new, unexpected problems. The O'Fallon, Missouri Police Department reported on Facebook today that armed robbers have used the app to lure victims in and rob them at gunpoint.

The police received reports about the robberies and were able to apprehend four suspects in the area. Apparently, the thieves used the app to set up a beacon at a Pokéstop within the game. Using this method, Sergeant Bill Stringer of the OPD told Motherboard that the culprits were able to rob 11 players, all between the ages of 16 and 18, in the St. Louis and St. Charles counties of Missouri.

From the O'Fallon Police Department's press release:

Just before 0200 hours this morning, we received a 9-1-1 from Circle K at Hwy K and Feise Road for an Armed Robbery. The victim, a pedestrian nearby on Feise Road, described four occupants of a black BMW. A responding officer observed a similarly occupied BMW southbound on Hwy K leaving the area of occurrence. The officer stopped the BMW on the CVS lot at Routes K and N, where an occupant tried to discard a handgun out of the vehicle. Four suspects were identified, and taken into custody. Further investigation revealed that there have been similar armed robberies in St. Louis City, County, and St. Charles County MO over the last couple of days with a similar vehicle being described by other victims.

[...] Using the geolocation feature of the "Pokemon Go" app the robbers were able to anticipate the location and level of seclusion of unwitting victims. The suspects range in age from 16 to 18 years of age and all reside in the St. Charles County Area.

Going outside is risky business, kids.

In other news, Android malware has been found in knockoff copies of the game circulating on third-party stores. The game has only launched in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, presumably leading the rest of the planet to download trojan horses in their confusion.

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The News Wheel reports

For 2015, Subaru added a family-friendly feature to its SirusXM satellite radio function for the Outback and the Legacy. Simply put, if you are listening to a station with risqué content and turn your car off with that station on, the next time you turn your car on, the radio will default to the SiriusXM preview station. That way, if you turn the car on with your kids in the backseat, they aren't immediately greeted by the raunchy content you listen to when it's just you and the open road.

Parents who have some secret radio fetishes probably benefit from this feature without even realizing it, but some drivers without kids are finding this feature insulting, invasive, and totally unnecessary. One 2016 Outback driver in particular, Vince Patton, took his concerns to Automotive IT News, stating that channels such as Comedy Central, Laugh USA, and Comedy Greats were among the stations that automatically revert to the default preview station--and he's not happy about it.

[...] Before you ask, no, you can't turn this feature off, and that seems to be the sticking point for those who are angered by this.

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fork(2) writes:

Phys.org reports that researchers at National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) are developing an emotion-based artificial intelligence.

An intelligent agent called Virtual Actor that has both narrative and emotional intellect is under development at MEPhI, expected to be online within the next year and a half. It will have both an emotional and a narrative intellect. It will understand the context of what is going on, as well as unfolding scenarios. Based on this information, it will make plans and set targets. One of its capabilities is to be an actor, a virtual robot playing the role of a particular person.

"Our principal goal is to formulate the basic principles that natural intelligence in the human brain is built upon. Biological solutions are in many respects superior to artificial solutions in terms of their adaptability, learning ability, resistance to unexpected interventions, and so on, and we would like to model these principles on the computer," explained Professor of the Cybernetics Department Alexei Samsonovich.

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tonyPick writes:

Paweł Zadrożniak has built an impressive music machine from old computer hardware. Featuring 64 floppy drives, 8 hard disks and 2 scanners he's calling it The Floppotron.

How does it work? The principle is simple. Every device with an electric motor is able to generate a sound. Scanners and floppy drives use stepper motors to move the head with sensors which scans the image or performs read/write operations on a magnetic disk. The sound generated by a motor depends on driving speed. The higher the frequency, the greater the pitch. Hard disks use a magnet and a coil to tilt the head. When voltage is supplied for long enough, the head speeds up and hits the bound making the „drum hit" sound

Paweł's Youtube channel has an overview of the device in action and this impressive Hawaii Five-O cover.

Originally spotted on Lobste.rs.

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fork(2) writes:

ScienceDaily reports on a new result published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"To uncover the nature of dark energy and the origin of our 14 billion year old accelerating universe, we have to compare the results from big studies to computational models of the universe," explained Dr Andrew Pontzen, UCL Physics & Astronomy.

"Exciting new ventures, including the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and the Javalambre Physics of the Accelerating Universe survey, are on the horizon, and we want to be ready to do the best possible job of understanding them," added joint author Dr Raul Angulo, CEFCA, Spain.

Dr Pontzen continued: "But every computer simulation we run gives a slightly different answer. We end up needing to take an average over hundreds of simulations to get a 'gold standard' prediction. We've shown it's possible to achieve the same model accuracy by using only two carefully-constructed virtual universes, so a process that would take weeks on a superfast computer, can now be done in a day."

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fork(2) writes:

Less than a week after reporting that the Operational Control Segment system (OCX) achieved a Nunn-McCurdy breach (SoylentNews July 02), the Air Force has requested another $39M "to address deficiencies found during testing of the system earlier this year."

SpaceNews.com reports:

[...] Part of the money, the Pentagon said, would go to Raytheon, OCX's prime contractor, to add staff to solve the problems.

Without the additional $39 million, OCX would be delayed an additional four months and cost $90 million more to complete, the Pentagon said. Already, the program is not expected to be complete until 2021 at the earliest.

Interestingly, as the above SoylentNews article said, "the Air Force said in a June 30 press release that Raytheon has received none of the potential $43.9 million incentive fee payments. Remaining incentives fees are being restructures,[sic] the service said."

The SpaceNews article goes on to say:

In addition, the Air Force asked for another $30 million to support "test and experimentation environments" for the Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center, or JICSpOC, located at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The JICSpOC is conducting ongoing experiments, sometimes by moving live satellites, to play out how the Defense Department and intelligence community would act during a war in space.

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fork(2) writes:

ScienceDaily reports on a new study explores the theory behind the relationship between musical sound and body movement.

Investigators have explored the theory behind the relationship between musical sound and body movement. Research shows that people tend to perceive affinities between sound and body motion when experiencing music. The so-called 'motor theory of perception' claims these similarity relationships are deeply rooted in human cognition.

The paper, "Exploring Sound-Motion Similarity in Musical Experience" appears in Journal of New Music Research.

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fork(2) writes:

A day after hitting Taiwan with powerful winds and heavy rains and causing at least 3 deaths, Typhoon Nepartak slammed into Fujian Province as a powerful tropical storm. Wunderground's tracking map shows the route and intensity level of this storm as it moved to land-fall.

The Bangkok Post reports:

China's official Xinhua news agency reports that Nepartak has inflicted huge damage after making landfall on Saturday afternoon in east China's Fujian Province.

Calling the storm a "typhoon" , not a "tropical storm" , Xinhua says Nepartak made first landfall early on Friday in eastern Taiwan, packing winds of up to 190 km per hour, gusting up to 234 km per hour.

According to Xinhua a red rainstorm alert was issued in Putian City, which experienced more than 250 millimeters of precipitation in four hours early this morning. Forty-three people in a residential area were rescued by firefighters after floodwaters submersed two buildings. Many buildings have collapsed and landslides were reported in rural and mountainous areas.

An incomplete estimation showed more than 420,000 people in four cities, including the provincial capital of Fuzhou, have been urgently relocated, Xinhua says.

On Saturday (July 9), WHNT (CNN) reported:

Nepartak is Taiwan's largest super typhoon in about six years and the first for 2016 in the northern hemisphere, after an unusually quiet storm season.

Until now, the northwest Pacific had experienced its longest streak on record without a named storm, totaling 200 days since December 2015.

On social media, meteorologists and storm chasers have been sharing their awe over the shape and size of super typhoon Nepartak, describing it as a "near-perfect" storm.

[...] Nepartak is expected to bring further devastating rainfall to China, which is already reeling from its worst flooding since 1998 [...] An estimated 29 million people have already been affected by floods, hailstorms and landslides, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said, while China's Flood Control Department said the country was experiencing its worst flooding since 1998.

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ticho writes:

The [Hong Kong] city was hit by a whopping 10,000 bolts of lightning during an epic 12-hour overnight thunderstorm, with even meteorologists taken aback by the intensity.

Hong Kong residents were barely starting to cool down from the hottest July day in half a century when the Observatory issued a thunderstorm warning at 6.45pm on Saturday, alerting the public to seek shelter and get off high ground.

In more than five hours up to 12am, the Observatory recorded 5,905 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, most of them hitting Lantau Island and the New Territories. An amber rainstorm warning was issued on top of that at 9.55am, as downpours lashed parts of Hong Kong with more than 30 millimetres [1.18 inches] of rain.

The rolling thunder and intense flashes continued into Sunday morning, which saw another 4,095 bolts of lightning strike from cloud to ground.

[...] About 3,122 cloud-to-cloud bolts of lightning were also counted in the two days.

Some youtube footage of a lightning-filled night sky over the city:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RFP8KZdINs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1pJ6b90IS0

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