News You Need to Know – Page 81

Insert Generic Doughnut Joke Here

Sometimes you run across a story that is just goofy enough that you don’t know what to make of it. This is one of those stories:

A 25-year-old Ferndale man died Tuesday night after security guards pepper-sprayed him during a confrontation at Northland Center mall in Southfield, police said.

The incident occurred at 5:40 p.m. in the mall’s corridor outside the LA Diamonds jewelry store, after the man told the store owner he wanted to kill somebody, Southfield police Lt. Nick Loussia said today. Paramedics took the man to Providence Hospital in Southfield, where he was pronounced dead at about 6:40 p.m., Loussia said.

[…]

“The guy told him, ‘I want to kill somebody,’ and that’s when the business owner called security,” Loussia said. The man was “not cooperative” with the guards, and when it looked like he might assault them, they pepper-sprayed him and began handcuffing him as he resisted, he said.

“That’s when they realized he’d stopped breathing,” Loussia said.

“When police arrived, he was (found to be) handcuffed, seated against a pillar (and) not breathing,” Loussia said.

[…]

“From what I saw, the three guards were really laying on him,” said Dan Hutchinson, owner of Hutch’s Jewelry.

“He was saying, ‘I can’t breathe — I can’t breathe.’ They said, ‘If you can talk, you can breathe,’ ” Hutchinson said.

Brent Reeves, general manager of Northland Center, said: “I was told they did not” sit on the man. Reeves said guards told him that the man, when asked to leave the mall, refused and “made fists and pumped up his muscles.”

I could go for the low hanging fruit and make a doughnut joke in regard to the security guards accused of sitting on the man, but I won’t. This story contains too much he-said-she-said to make heads or tails of what went on. But it does illustrate the fact that the information we receive is often not enough to make an educated guess of what happened.

Too often people, myself included, end up jumping to a conclusion based on initial reports. It’s a hard habit to break because speculating on what occurred is a fun exercise in deductive logic. But we must remember to separate exercises in logic from judgements. Based on the comments I’ve read the two prevailing sides appear to be those who are generally anti-cop and those who are generally pro-cop. Predictably the anti-cop crowd wants the security guards’ heads while the pro-cop crowd want the guards absolved of any wrongdoing. Neither side knows what actually went down though.

This is a similar outcome to the George Zimmerman incident. Initial reports made Zimmerman look guilty as Hell. As more evidence came to light Zimmerman’s guilt was no longer a sure thing. But the two sides that had developed, the pro-Zimmerman side and the anti-Zimmerman side, seemed willing to either ignore the new evidence or to perform a great deal of mental gymnastics to twist the evidence to support their belief. This is now how judgements are supposed to be made.

Remember, if you make a judgement be willing to modify it as more evidence comes to light. Try to avoid making judgements when you weren’t involved in a situation. Failing to do so leads to rather nasty polarization that makes civil discussion almost impossible.

A New Telephone Scam

Usually when word spreads of a new telephone, mail, or online scam I’m skeptical. Most of the time these scams end up being fear mongering. But I actually know a friend who was cheated by a recent telephone scam so I believe it’s legitimate and therefore worth bringing up:

One of my Facebook followers let me know about an old scam that has roared back to life. Years ago, crooks found a way to exploit a handful of international area codes that don’t require a foreign code to dial up.

Now that scam has resurfaced as what’s being called the “one ring scam.” Crooks are using robocalling technology to place Internet calls that only ring once to cell phones.

If you pick up, the robocaller just drops the line. But the bigger danger is if you miss the call. Like so many people, you might think it’s an important call and dial that number right back.

Bad move.

Turns out the area codes are in the Caribbean. That call will cost you between $15 and $30! And to add insult to injury, the criminals behind these calls will sign you up (through your cell provider) for bogus services that will be crammed on your phone bill if you return their call.

I have a policy of never answering the phone when I don’t recognize the number. If it’s important I know the person will leave a voice mail, which I can use to identify the caller. If I’m unable to identify the caller via their voice mail message or don’t recognize the individual or organization that left the message I don’t bother calling back. My primary reason for this is sheer laziness but it turns out that it also guards against several scams.

Scamming people out of resources is probably the second oldest profession in the world. Unless you want to regularly be separated from your money you need to be extremely skeptical of, well, everything. If you can’t identify the person you’re communicating with then you should assume that it’s a scam or a waste of your time (or both). Even being able to identify the person you’re communicating with isn’t always an effective defense since many so-called friends turn out to be scam artists themselves.

Not Everything Involving Race is Racism

Racism is one of those things I will never understand. Basing personal judgements on the color of another person’s skin ranks right up there with judging another person based on the color of their shoes. It’s a characteristic that tells you nothing about the person’s character, which is what I give value to. With that said, there are times when a person’s race is a notable characteristic. Namely when you’re trying to describe a single individual out of the seven billion that occupy this planet. In such a case any physical characteristic such as height, weight, race, eye color, hair color, hair style, clothing, tattoos, physical deformities, overt injuries, nose shape, etc. are valuable criteria points. This is why I this request rather absurd:

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – School officials at the University of Minnesota are working with black student and facility organizations after they wrote a letter to the school’s president about the racial descriptions given in crime alerts.

According to the story the letter requested that racial descriptions be omitted from suspect descriptions given by campus security. The organizations that submitted the letter were concerned about racial profiling due to the racial descriptions given of robbery suspects near the University of Minnesota campus. While profiling is certainly unwarranted and should be actively fought the inclusion of race as a description of a suspect is not, in of itself, racist so long as it’s accurate.

As I said, there are seven billion humans on this planet. Trying to uniquely describe each one of us isn’t easy. Unless you have every available physical characteristic in hand you’re going to have a hard time. Race is a common description given by victims because it is an easily noticeable characteristic. With a quick glance we can generally note a person’s skin color, height, weight, and a vague idea of what they’re wearing.

When discussing social issues like racism and sexism we must keep in mind that there are legitimate reasons to note such features as race and sex. The important thing is to separate the legitimate reasons from the illegitimate reasons and work to fight the latter.

The Conveniences of Our Modern World

The conveniences of this modern world never ceases to amaze me. I have access to the collected knowledge of man via a computer that fits in my pocket, can complete a 30 mile drive in 30 minutes or less, can purchase any number of fruits and vegetables from around the world from most grocery stores, and can now get an exorcism via Skype:

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The practice of exorcism isn’t anything new. It’s been around for thousands of years.

But thanks to the age of technology a Scottsdale reverend says he is getting a chance to help people possessed by demons, all over the world.

[…]

In the age of electronics, exorcisms are done over Skype.

I wonder if he can exorcise demons from my computer. That would hold real value for me.

Land Speed Record for Zero to Godwin

I may have found the record time for zero to Godwin in a print publication. According to Tom Perkins of Kleiner Perkins the war against the “one percent” is very similar to the Holocaust:

Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its “one percent,” namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the “rich.”

I can kind of see his point so long as you ignore the parts of the Jewish prosecution where the Jews were forced to live in ghettos, loaded onto cattle cars, forced to perform hard labor while they’re starved, and gassed by the millions.

I do understand what Perkins is trying to say but he really sucks at saying it. His implication is that we’re at the beginning of the persecution of the “one percent” and people are failing to see it just as people failed to see the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. But the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany holds significant emotional pain and comparing events to it can’t be done lightly. Perkins analogy falls apart as soon as you consider the “one percent” have the political system in their pocket whereas the Jews of Nazi Germany didn’t. That difference isn’t insignificant.

Spies are Treated Better

Edward Snowden is not only a hero but he’s a pretty witty hero as well. After being accused of working as a Russian spy Edward Snowden made and excellent point:

Snowden, in a rare interview that he conducted by encrypted means from Moscow, denied the allegations outright, stressing that he “clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no assistance from anyone, much less a government.” He added, “It won’t stick…. Because it’s clearly false, and the American people are smarter than politicians think they are.”

If he was a Russian spy, Snowden asked, “Why Hong Kong?” And why, then, was he “stuck in the airport forever” when he reached Moscow? (He spent forty days in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo International Airport.) “Spies get treated better than that.”

It’s true, if Snowden were a Russian spy he would have been met at the airport by several state agents and escorted to whatever headquarters he worked for. Instead he sat around in an airport while he awaited news of whether or not he would be granted asylum in Russia.

He also makes a valid point about the intelligence of the average American. The great state propaganda machine assumes we’re all idiots that will happily lap up anything it publishes. While there are quite a few people who do trust the propagandists they are, I believe, in the minority.

The Propaganda Machine is Getting Slow

Edward Snowden has been disseminating information about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance apparatus since June 5^th of last year. In all of that time the state’s propaganda machine has been making feeble attempts to combat these leaks. These attempts have ranged from trying to label Snowden a traitor to claiming the state’s surveillance apparatus is necessary to keep American’s safe. Over seven months after Snowden began his heroic efforts the state’s propaganda machine is finally putting some real effort into attempting to discredit him:

Washington – Edward Snowden, who leaked classified National Security Agency documents, might have been working for Russian spy services before he left his job as an NSA contractor last year, the heads of the House and Senate intelligence committees said Sunday.

“I don’t think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling” of Russia’s state security service, said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House panel.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, was asked whether she agreed with Rogers that Snowden may have had help from the Russians. “He may well have. We don’t know at this stage,” she said.

Neither Rogers nor Feinstein offered evidence that Snowden had been working with Moscow. Both lawmakers said their committees would continue to pursue the suspicions.

It’s a little late to start playing this game. Attempts to discredit somebody need to occur very soon after he or she beings whatever deed warrants discrediting. After a short time frame any attempts to discredit the person appear shady. Such delays make it appear as though you had to invest time into fabricating stories and evidence instead of relying on readily available facts.

The damage Snowden has done to the NSA’s credibility is done. There is nothing the state can do to repair its reputation. Any attempts, other than completely dismantling the NSA, reek of desperation and inability to take responsibility. I’m sure we will be presented with evidence that Snowden was secretly working for the Russians soon but we know that any such evidence will be a pathetic fabrication meant to discredit a great man.

What Could Go Wrong

Let’s play the game of creating a hypothetical situation. Assume that two countries in close proximity to one another are having a strong disagreement. One of these countries is the source for most of your goods and the other is a country that hosts one of your foreign military bases. What would be the best course of action for your country? Would you try to stay out of it and let the two countries duke it out or would you send your warships into the fray? If you answers the latter you may be ready for a career in the United States war department:

China has confirmed that one of its warships — reportedly the newly deployed aircraft carrier Liaoning — had an “encounter” with a U.S. guided missile cruiser in the South China Sea earlier this month.

The incident, in which American officials say the USS Cowpens was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision, was first revealed by Washington last week. China’s state media has said it was Liaoning involved in the incident, but Beijing’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday would only say that the U.S. vessel had been “tailing and harassing” one of its warships while it was engaged in drills. It did not say which of its warships was involved.

What could possible go wrong with involving ourselves in this dispute between China and Japan? Especially when you consider there is really not reason for the United States to be in that region other than to expand its empire. The thing that worries me is incidents of harassment turning into incidents of combat. Warring with China is a recipe for failure considering the economy power it wields.

A Promising Steganography Tool

Encryption is a wonderful tool that grants us information control. But there is one thing that encryption generally fails to do, conceal the fact that you’re using encryption. This is where steganography comes in. Steganography is the art of concealing hidden messages in plain sight. There are numerous tools that allow you to do this, most of which conceal data inside of image files. The creator of BitTorrent is developing a new steganography tool can conceal data inside of any file type:

For the last year Cohen, who created the breakthrough file-sharing protocol BitTorrent a decade ago, has been working on a new piece of software he calls DissidentX. The program, which he released over the summer in a barebones prototype and is now working to develop with the help of a group of researchers at Stanford, goes beyond encryption to offer users what cryptographers call “steganography,” the ability to conceal a message inside another message. Instead of merely enciphering users’ communications in a scramble of nonsensical characters, DissidentX can camouflage their secrets in an inconspicuous website, a corporate document, or any other, pre-existing file from a Rick Astley video to a digital copy of Crime and Punishment.

“What you really want is to be as unsuspicious as possible,” says Cohen, who spoke with me about DissidentX at the Real World Crypto conference in New York Tuesday. “We don’t want an interloper to be able to tell that this communication is happening at all.”

As world governments become more tyrannical I believe it will become critical to have means of communicating securely in a way that doesn’t reveal the use of secure communications. Embedding an encrypted message inside of a picture of a cat, for example, is likely to go undetected on the Internet. Communications could be setup in such a way that uses embed a message in an image, upload it to a specific image sharing site, and decrypted by the recipient without anybody else knowing the image contains a message.

Civil Suit Moving Forward in Kelly Thomas Case

Kelly Thomas’s murderers may have beaten criminal charges but the victim’s father is planning on bringing a civil suit against his son’s killers:

LOS ANGELES – The father of Kelly Thomas said Tuesday that the fight to get justice is “not over,” even though a jury cleared two former Fullerton officers in the death of his mentally ill son.

“I look at this like a prize fight. It’s not over,” Ron Thomas said at a news conference in Los Angeles. “We still have several rounds to go.”

[…]

During the news conference, Ron Thomas’ attorney, Garo Mardirossian, said they will go forward with a civil case and will present evidence that was not allowed in the criminal trial to let a jury “see the full story of what happened.”

I do hope the case ends up costing the officers a great deal of personal wealth. While it would be far from a perfect, or even remotely just, outcome it would be better than nothing.