Tags: Law

Don't Talk to the Police

- Saturday, March 30, 2019 No Comments

In this video, Professor James Duane*, expands on famous advice given by Justice Robert H. Jackson**, that "...any lawyer worth his salt will tell the suspect in no uncertain terms to make no statement to the police under any circumstances." (See Watts v. Indiana)

Professor Duane is an American law professor at the Regent University School of Law, a former criminal defense attorney, and is also recognized as a Fifth Amendment expert. While his video "Don't Talk To Police" is essentially a lecture that he gave to a group of law students with Virginia Beach Police Department Officer George Bruch, the video has gone viral over the years, with one version receiving more than six million views before it was taken down because of a copyright claim. Together, Professor Duane and Officer Bruch explain in practical terms why citizens should never talk to police under any circumstances.

Viewers of the video are given several specific reasons supporting the idea that of never talking to police: (1) Even perfectly innocent citizens may get themselves into trouble even when the police are trying to do their jobs properly, because police malfeasance is entirely unnecessary for the innocent to convict themselves by mistake; (2) talking to police may bring up erroneous but believable evidence against even innocent witnesses, and; (3) individuals convinced of their own innocence may have unknowingly committed a crime which they inadvertently confess to during questioning.

^** Professor Duane is also known for his views that there are bizarre legislative drafting errors in the Virginia Statute on Privileged Marital Communications, as well as issues involving the introduction of hearsay evidence at trial (known as "bootstrapping"). Duane, a member of the advisory board of the Fully Informed Jury Association, has also written in defense of jury nullification.

^* Justice Jackson was United States Attorney General (1940–1941), an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1941–1954), and was the chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. Many lawyers revere Justice Jackson as one of the best writers on the court, and one of the most committed to due process protections from overreaching federal agencies.

Tags: Politics

Will Russia Disconnect From the Internet?

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Earlier this year, Russia announced plans to briefly disconnect its internet from the rest of the world by or on April 1. The scheduled exercise was intended to test its ability to create an isolated, sovereign internet. However, it’s unclear if the test will proceed on the original timeline.

The internet disconnection experiment was agreed on in January during a session of the Information Security Working Group, which includes a co-founder of Kaspersky Lab and representatives of major telecommunications companies such as Beeline and MTS. The working group is advising the Russian Duma on implementing a sovereign internet bill currently under consideration. The bill aims to create a centralized traffic control system in Russia, build a national domain database, and require Russian network operators to install government-approved tools for counteracting potential cyber threats. As Robert Morgus and Justin Sherman described recently in Future Tense, with this bill, Russia is taking steps to alter the very architecture of its internet, “which, once enacted, would be difficult to reverse.”

As lawmakers debated the draft of the bill, however, concerns arose about the feasibility and costs of the project, prompting the decision to hold a test prior to proceeding. The proposed test caught both Russian and Western media’s attention in February when the outlet RBC reported that it would take place by April 1, in line with the Information Security Working Group’s recommendation. Natalia Kaspersky, who chairs the working group, confirmed to RBC that a test “or something similar” would be needed “to understand how the project can be carried out.” However, Kaspersky didn’t provide a timeline for the testing. On March 28, Russian media again reported that a test was scheduled to take place before the second reading of the bill but gave no specific dates for the test or the reading. (Typically, a bill is required to pass through three rounds of readings, according to Duma regulations. The version of the bill presented in the second reading is supposed to contain all necessary amendments, based on lawmaker and expert feedback to the first draft. If no more changes are proposed, the bill passes to the third reading, when deputies cast their final votes on the measure.)

The goal of the test is to supply internet service providers with data about how their networks would react if the domestic internet were disconnected from global servers. It’s also meant to be a showcase of ISP capabilities to direct data to government-controlled routing points, which filter traffic and only allow data exchanged between Russians to reach its destination. So, if and when the test is conducted, Russians won’t find themselves entirely without the internet—they just won’t be able to receive and send data beyond Russian borders. It’s not clear how long the exercise is intended to last.

In order to pull this off, Russia would have to ensure that all the content Russians want to access is located inside the country, Nicole Starosielski, a professor at New York University, told Wired in February. Issues are almost certain to arise: ISPs cannot know precisely how much their networks actually rely on infrastructure outside Russian borders until they’re disconnected.

According to Noah Buyon, a research associate at Freedom House, the planned test is a lose-lose scenario for users. If Russia succeeds at isolating its internet from the global network, “users could lose access to web resources hosted beyond Russia’s territorial borders, including independent news media and pathways for circumventing existing website blocks,” he told me via email. And if the test fails, “the country may experience a self-inflicted internet shutdown. In that case, web services that users rely on every day could be disrupted.” No matter the outcome of the experiment, Russians will suffer its consequences.

When the idea of holding a test was proposed, the Information Security Working Group said that it plans to study the results and then recommend changes to the internet bill before it proceeds to its second Duma reading. The overall budget for the Runet project is estimated at 27 billion rubles (about $415 million), although only 2 million rubles (about $31,000) have been allocated for the test disconnection.

If the test ever actually takes place, whether Sunday or some other time, it will be an indication Russia could be well on its way to its goal: routing up to 95 percent of internet traffic through domestic servers by 2020.

Tags: Music

Incense and Peppermints

- Friday, March 29, 2019 No Comments

This is the debut long-player from the southern California-based Strawberry Alarm Clock -- the title track of this album topped national singles charts in December of 1967. As the cover art might suggest, their image practically defined both the musical as well as peripheral aspects of the pseudo-psychedelic counterculture. However, below that mostly visual veneer, Strawberry Alarm Clock actually have more in common with other "Summer of Love" bands such as Love and Kak than the bubblegum acts they have long been associated with.



Prior to Strawberry Alarm Clock, the band was initially named Thee Sixpence and issued a 45 -- "In the Building" b/w "Hey Joe" -- in the spring of 1966. As legend has it, none of the actual band members sang lead on the hit single; the singer was, in fact, a vocalist named Greg Munford, who was attending the session as a visitor. The track was originally issued by Thee Sixpence on the regional All-American label. By the second pressing, however, the band's name had changed to Strawberry Alarm Clock. Sensing the possibility of a national hit, they were scooped up by the MCA Records subsidiary Uni and given the go-ahead to commence recording this, their debut LP.

Much of the band's sound is due at least in part to the writing styles of George Bunnell (bass/vocals) and the uncredited Steve Bartok (flute/vocals). The edgy fuzz-toned guitar sound of "Birds in My Tree" and the Los Angeles freeway-inspired "Paxton's Back Street Carnival" exude a garage rock flavor similar in style to that of Spirit's self-titled debut long-player. Another distinguishing factor is Strawberry Alarm Clock's multi-layered vocals. "Hummin' Happy" and "Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow" are precursors to the sophisticated harmonies that would also inform "Tomorrow" and "Pretty Song From Psych-Out," from their follow-up long-player, Wake Up... It's Tomorrow

Tags: Privatization

Acme International Space Station

- Sunday, February 11, 2018 No Comments

The Trump administration wants to turn the International Space Station into a commercially run venture, NASA document shows...

The White House plans to stop funding the station after 2024, ending direct federal support of the orbiting laboratory. But it does not intend to abandon the orbiting laboratory altogether and is working on a transition plan that could turn the station over to the private sector, according to an internal NASA document obtained by The Washington Post.

“The decision to end direct federal support for the ISS in 2025 does not imply that the platform itself will be deorbited at that time — it is possible that industry could continue to operate certain elements or capabilities of the ISS as part of a future commercial platform,” the document states. “NASA will expand international and commercial partnerships over the next seven years in order to ensure continued human access to and presence in low Earth orbit.”

Source: Washington Post

Tags: Federal / Fraud

'Fat Leonard' and the Navy

- Thursday, February 1, 2018 No Comments

The scope of the Fat Leonard scandal expanded when the Navy confirmed was investigating about 190 current and retired Navy personnel — mostly officers — to determine what role they may have played in the scandal and whether disciplinary measures are warranted.

Former US Navy Cmdr. Troy Amundson, 50, admitted taking bribes, including accepting the services of several prostitutes, from foreign contractor Leonard Glenn Francis, known as "Fat Leonard," and his Singapore-based company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia.

"Amundson admitted that from September 2012 through October 2013, Francis paid for dinner, drinks, transportation, other entertainment expenses, and the services of prostitutes for Amundson and other US Navy officers."

See more at CNN

Tags: digital / entertainment / film

Internet, Keep Your Hands Off My Rom Coms

- Friday, December 29, 2017 No Comments

The tech world is often misunderstood as hard and cold. Movies about the internet have commonly fallen into the sci-fi and dramatic genres. Romantic comedies just don’t work for us web-dwellers because we’re all robots and we have no feelings, right?

Nope. There’s nothing Meg Ryan and a little soft focus can’t warm up. Take these tech-inspired romantic comedies (rom coms) and warm up your cold, bionic heart.

Tags: Business / smart / world

Plotter Turns the Map on Your iPhone Into a Social Discovery Tool

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For all the talk about how much better Google Maps is than Apple’s default maps app on the iPhone, the experience for both essentially boils down to the same thing: search for a place on a map and look up directions. Plotter aims to take mapping on the iPhone to the next level by adding a social layer and some features that will appeal to your inner cartographer.

Plotter’s app users a simple way to create, share and discover maps with friends and the Plotter community. Rather than simply look up a bar on Google Maps, you can use Plotter to plot out all your favorite bars in a particular city and then share that map with friends. Likewise, if you’re new to an area, you could surf Plotter to search for maps from other users of things to do.

“Plotter was built out of necessity,” the company’s founder and CEO Tom Nolan told Mashable. “As a frequent traveler and constant user of my native maps app on the iPhone, I was always hoping for additional functionality with maps.”

In some ways, Plotter is reminiscent of Stamped, an app recently acquired by Yahoo and subsequently shut down, which let users mark their favorite venues on a map. However, the map wasn’t the central feature of Stamped and users didn’t have the option to create and share multiple maps of recommendations like they do on Plotter.

Tags: App Development / digital / Enterprise / Mobile

Mobile Apps In The Enterprise: 7 Essentials

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Mobile devices have become the world’s steady companions that we take anywhere and use everywhere. A recent forecast by McKinsey & Company estimates that by 2014, 1.7 billion mobile devices will be accessing the Internet – and a steady diet of online content. Widespread smartphone and tablet adoption is giving birth to a new ecosystem of mobile apps. Apple with its iTunes App Store is currently the gold-standard of the mobile experience, and it enables distribution to millions of users. In early 2013, Apple announced that users had downloaded an astounding 40 billion apps from its App Store, with almost half of that total logged in the last year.

The rollout of smart mobile apps yields numerous benefits not only to consumers but also for the enterprise. Mobile apps for business must offer the expected, Apple-easy download experience, but the enterprise requires quite a bit more for apps to be successful and risk-free. Many companies are struggling to manage the proliferation of mobile apps and connect to business content.

Here are seven critical areas for enterprises to address as apps multiply through the mobile enterprise ecosystem.

1. Not Point Products: Using An Enterprise Mobility Platform

The basic foundation of the mobile enterprise begins with deployment of the devices – employee and corporate-owned — along with a portfolio of productivity apps. The goal is simple: The user downloads an app and starts using it. All onboarding, app registration and bootstrapping is done by the enterprise mobility platform — the server strings, logon information or certificates are pushed to the user’s device automatically.

2. Configuration: Based On Roles And Responsibility

Deployment and configuration policies have to go hand-in-hand. Ultimately, enterprise workers want to be able to use any device and any app, accessing content without any roadblocks. Ideally, if an employee has an iPhone or Android phone provided to them, they will immediately have the secured content and correct business apps configured based on their roles and responsibilities (finance, HR, sales, etc.).

3. Deployment: Cloud vs. On Premise

Enterprises have a choice of where they get content and apps. They can come from the cloud, be stored on premise, or in some hybrid combination. This piece of the mobile equation doesn’t have a correct answer, but IT has to remain keenly aware where each component of mobile content resides and (most importantly) who has authorized access.

4. Beyond MDM: Managing Devices, Apps, Content And Things

IT must maintain control over how mobile devices access corporate information: At the very least, IT has to be able to turn off the device, content or app if the mobile hardware is lost or stolen. A key component of that is creating lockable configuration and security policies. Mobile Device Management (MDM) software helps IT centrally manage, secure and deploy mobile data, applications and devices, including tablets and phones. The journey continues beyond MDM to Mobile App Mgmt (MAM), Mobile Content Mgmt (MCM) and eventually takes you on the journey to securing not just devices but every machine in the Internet of Things.

5. Security: At Every Stage In The Lifecycle

A Symantec study calculated that the average annual cost of mobile breaches for an enterprise business was $429,000. Security has to be part of the fabric of mobile throughout the enterprise. It must be integrated into the initial mobile strategy – and into each subsequent stage in the mobile lifecycle. It must be nimble and designed for the post-PC era of mobile computing.

6. Interoperability: Take A Cross-Platform Approach

In a mobile enterprise, all devices, apps and cloud services need to recognize each other and be able to share content. As we deal with a combination of HTML-based mobile-Web apps and device-native apps, three key factors contribute to interoperability.

First is cross-platform support. Most enterprises will have to cater to Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows and BlackBerry.

The second factor is backend connectivity: While all mobile users will run Tripit, for example, against the same hosted backend, your enterprise apps needs to run against your company’s backend systems. For example, a customer relationship management (CRM) app needs to access your customers in your CRM system. A Leave Request app has to run against your own enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Third, enterprise apps must adhere to your company’s information technology security standards. Employees will access your corporate data from the open Internet, and you need to safeguard your business data.

7. Mobile Apps: Buy And/Or Develop Your Own

Mobility starts with the app creator, which could be an individual developer, a customer who wants to develop an app, a partner or an internal development team. Many larger organizations will benefit by designing their own apps for mobile-enabled business processes. These mobile solutions can tap into different applications and workflow tools using dashboards to monitor everything from sales to the health of the entire business in real time.