Comment Re:What is the purpose of Government? (Score 1) 249
The purpose of government is to secure individual rights, provide justice, and enforce contracts.
Submission + - Musk says DOGE will upgrade Air Traffic Control soon (thehill.com) 1
SonicSpike writes: Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will make “rapid safety upgrades” to the air traffic control systems with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system,” Musk wrote Wednesday on the social platform X, which he owns.
“Just a few days ago, the FAA’s primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours!” he added, likely referring to an outage of the FAA’s Notice to Air Mission system over the weekend.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN over the weekend that the system allows pilots to download flight details ahead of a trip and is required for planes to fly.
Shortly before Musk’s post on Wednesday, Duffy posted on X that he spoke with the DOGE team, who will “plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”
The Department of Transportation (DOT) did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for more details on what these upgrades could look like.
When asked about the upgrades, a White House spokesperson doubled down on DOGE’s mission.
“With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system,” Musk wrote Wednesday on the social platform X, which he owns.
“Just a few days ago, the FAA’s primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours!” he added, likely referring to an outage of the FAA’s Notice to Air Mission system over the weekend.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN over the weekend that the system allows pilots to download flight details ahead of a trip and is required for planes to fly.
Shortly before Musk’s post on Wednesday, Duffy posted on X that he spoke with the DOGE team, who will “plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”
The Department of Transportation (DOT) did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for more details on what these upgrades could look like.
When asked about the upgrades, a White House spokesperson doubled down on DOGE’s mission.
Submission + - How Life Aboard A Navy Aircraft Carrier Changed When High-Speed Internet Arrived (twz.com)
SonicSpike writes: As it battled Houthi threats around the Red Sea last year, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) also served as a testbed for vastly increasing the level of internet connectivity aboard the Navy’s deployed ships. Now we are learning specific details about how this mammoth change in at-sea connectedness impacted everything from how sailors went about their lives during a grueling deployment to how the ship and its air wing brought its firepower to bear on the enemy.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighters assigned to the carrier offer a case in point for what more shipboard bandwidth — provided by commercial providers like Starlink and OneWeb — can mean at the tactical level. Jets with the embarked Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 took on critical mission data file updates in record time last fall due to the carrier’s internet innovations, a capability that is slated to expand across the fleet.
“This file offers intelligence updates and design enhancements that enable pilots to identify and counter threats in specific operational environments,” the Navy said in an October release announcing the feat. “The update incorporated more than 100 intelligence changes and multiple design improvements, significantly enhancing the aircraft’s survivability and lethality.”
During Lincoln’s cruise, White was transferring at download speeds of 1 gigabyte per second, with 200 megabytes on the upload, he said, provided to the 5,000 sailors on board for personal and work use.
White said there was not one equipment failure aboard Lincoln related to connectivity in the past two years, and that 780 terabytes of data was transferred during the five-and-a-half month cruise.
“I set a goal for a petabyte, but I missed that,” he said. “So there’s room for my relief to excel.”
Lincoln averaged four to eight terabytes of transferred data a day, 50 times greater than the fleet’s current capabilities. His team managed 7,000 IP addresses, with two full-time system administrators, one on during the day and one at night.
To be sure, the system was turned off at the commander’s discretion, particularly when Lincoln was in some of the Red Sea’s weapons engagement zone, and its use always took a backseat to the mission.
“We are not going to get into the details, but this is not counter-detectable,” Lincoln’s commanding officer, Capt. Pete “Repete” Riebe, told WEST attendees. “They did not know our location from what we were using. Now, when we went deep into the weapons engagement zone, we turned it all off. We turned the email traffic off, we turned the WiFi off.”
“Sailors being up on their WiFi, being connected to home, is really what made that doable in this day and age,” he said.
White said the average age of an embarked Lincoln sailor was 20.8, and Riebe noted that to attract young people into service, the Navy needs to recognize the innate connection they have to their devices.
“The next generation of sailors grew up with a cell phone in their hand, and they are uncomfortable without it,” Riebe said. “I don’t necessarily like that, but that’s reality, and if we want to compete for the best folks coming into the Navy, we need to offer them bandwidth at sea.”
Having better connectivity also helped with the ship’s administrative functions, Riebe said, making medical, dental and other work far easier than they have been in the past.
“All of that requires bandwidth, and [White] provided it to the ship, and we’re able to make the ship run more smoothly, more efficiently,” he said.
A sailor who can FaceTime with his family back home carries less non-Navy stress with them as they focus on the life-or-death duties at hand, White said.
“What we tried to do was enable a safe space for those online connections, to allow sailors to continue their continuity of life,” he said. “When it’s time to turn those connections off, the sailors are ready to run to the fire. They are ready to run to the fight, and that is what we saw on Abraham Lincoln.”
This beefed-up bandwidth allowed 38 sailors to witness the birth of their child, while others were able to watch their kids’ sporting events, White said. Several crew members pursued doctorate and master’s degrees while deployed due to better internet, while others were able to deal with personal or legal issues they had left behind back home. One officer was able to commission his wife remotely from the ship.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighters assigned to the carrier offer a case in point for what more shipboard bandwidth — provided by commercial providers like Starlink and OneWeb — can mean at the tactical level. Jets with the embarked Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 took on critical mission data file updates in record time last fall due to the carrier’s internet innovations, a capability that is slated to expand across the fleet.
“This file offers intelligence updates and design enhancements that enable pilots to identify and counter threats in specific operational environments,” the Navy said in an October release announcing the feat. “The update incorporated more than 100 intelligence changes and multiple design improvements, significantly enhancing the aircraft’s survivability and lethality.”
During Lincoln’s cruise, White was transferring at download speeds of 1 gigabyte per second, with 200 megabytes on the upload, he said, provided to the 5,000 sailors on board for personal and work use.
White said there was not one equipment failure aboard Lincoln related to connectivity in the past two years, and that 780 terabytes of data was transferred during the five-and-a-half month cruise.
“I set a goal for a petabyte, but I missed that,” he said. “So there’s room for my relief to excel.”
Lincoln averaged four to eight terabytes of transferred data a day, 50 times greater than the fleet’s current capabilities. His team managed 7,000 IP addresses, with two full-time system administrators, one on during the day and one at night.
To be sure, the system was turned off at the commander’s discretion, particularly when Lincoln was in some of the Red Sea’s weapons engagement zone, and its use always took a backseat to the mission.
“We are not going to get into the details, but this is not counter-detectable,” Lincoln’s commanding officer, Capt. Pete “Repete” Riebe, told WEST attendees. “They did not know our location from what we were using. Now, when we went deep into the weapons engagement zone, we turned it all off. We turned the email traffic off, we turned the WiFi off.”
“Sailors being up on their WiFi, being connected to home, is really what made that doable in this day and age,” he said.
White said the average age of an embarked Lincoln sailor was 20.8, and Riebe noted that to attract young people into service, the Navy needs to recognize the innate connection they have to their devices.
“The next generation of sailors grew up with a cell phone in their hand, and they are uncomfortable without it,” Riebe said. “I don’t necessarily like that, but that’s reality, and if we want to compete for the best folks coming into the Navy, we need to offer them bandwidth at sea.”
Having better connectivity also helped with the ship’s administrative functions, Riebe said, making medical, dental and other work far easier than they have been in the past.
“All of that requires bandwidth, and [White] provided it to the ship, and we’re able to make the ship run more smoothly, more efficiently,” he said.
A sailor who can FaceTime with his family back home carries less non-Navy stress with them as they focus on the life-or-death duties at hand, White said.
“What we tried to do was enable a safe space for those online connections, to allow sailors to continue their continuity of life,” he said. “When it’s time to turn those connections off, the sailors are ready to run to the fire. They are ready to run to the fight, and that is what we saw on Abraham Lincoln.”
This beefed-up bandwidth allowed 38 sailors to witness the birth of their child, while others were able to watch their kids’ sporting events, White said. Several crew members pursued doctorate and master’s degrees while deployed due to better internet, while others were able to deal with personal or legal issues they had left behind back home. One officer was able to commission his wife remotely from the ship.
Comment "Ghost gun" is a propaganda term... (Score 5, Informative) 199
It should really be "homebuilt firearm" which is indeed legal in most US states.
Submission + - 'Ghost Gun' Linked to Mangione Shows Just How Far 3D-Printed Weapons Have Come (wired.com) 4
SonicSpike writes: More than a decade after the advent of the 3D-printed gun as an icon of libertarianism and a gun control nightmare, police say one of those homemade plastic weapons has now been found in the hands of perhaps the world’s most high-profile alleged killer. For the community of DIY gunsmiths who have spent years honing those printable firearm models, in fact, the handgun police claim Luigi Mangione used to fatally shoot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is as recognizable as the now-famous alleged shooter himself—and shows just how practical and lethal those weapons have become.
In the 24 hours since police released a photo of what they say is Mangione’s gun following the 26-year-old’s arrest Monday, the online community devoted to 3D-printed firearms has been quick to identify the suspected murder weapon as a particular model of printable “ghost gun”—a homemade weapon with no serial number, created by assembling a mix of commercial and DIY parts. The gun appears to be a Chairmanwon V1, a tweak of a popular partially 3D-printed Glock-style design known as the FMDA 19.2—an acronym that stands for the libertarian slogan “Free Men Don’t Ask.”
The FMDA 19.2, released in 2021, is a relatively old model by 3D-printed-gun standards, says one gunsmith who goes by the first name John and the online handle Mr. Snow Makes. But it’s one of the most well-known and well-tested printable ghost gun designs, he says. The Chairmanwon V1 remix that police say Mangione had in his possession when he was arrested in a Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s varies from that original FMDA 19.2 design only in that another amateur gunsmith, who goes by the pseudonym Chairmanwon, added a different texture to the gun’s grip.
“For someone who has been building firearms like this for five years, it’s a bit of an odd choice. We’ve been building nicer models,” says Mr. Snow Makes, who hosts an annual ghost gun shooting competition. But he adds that “this is one of the earliest 3D-print Glock styles that was widely tested and successful at creating a reliably functional firearm.”
Authorities in New York charged Mangione on Monday in the December 4 murder of Thompson, alongside weapons charges and other alleged offenses in Pennsylvania. A handwritten “manifesto” police say they found on Mangione's person upon his arrest laments UnitedHealthcare's practices and the US health insurance industry more broadly. Bullet casings discovered at the scene of the shooting outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan were reportedly emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend,” “depose”—likely criticisms of health care industry practices.
In the 24 hours since police released a photo of what they say is Mangione’s gun following the 26-year-old’s arrest Monday, the online community devoted to 3D-printed firearms has been quick to identify the suspected murder weapon as a particular model of printable “ghost gun”—a homemade weapon with no serial number, created by assembling a mix of commercial and DIY parts. The gun appears to be a Chairmanwon V1, a tweak of a popular partially 3D-printed Glock-style design known as the FMDA 19.2—an acronym that stands for the libertarian slogan “Free Men Don’t Ask.”
The FMDA 19.2, released in 2021, is a relatively old model by 3D-printed-gun standards, says one gunsmith who goes by the first name John and the online handle Mr. Snow Makes. But it’s one of the most well-known and well-tested printable ghost gun designs, he says. The Chairmanwon V1 remix that police say Mangione had in his possession when he was arrested in a Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s varies from that original FMDA 19.2 design only in that another amateur gunsmith, who goes by the pseudonym Chairmanwon, added a different texture to the gun’s grip.
“For someone who has been building firearms like this for five years, it’s a bit of an odd choice. We’ve been building nicer models,” says Mr. Snow Makes, who hosts an annual ghost gun shooting competition. But he adds that “this is one of the earliest 3D-print Glock styles that was widely tested and successful at creating a reliably functional firearm.”
Authorities in New York charged Mangione on Monday in the December 4 murder of Thompson, alongside weapons charges and other alleged offenses in Pennsylvania. A handwritten “manifesto” police say they found on Mangione's person upon his arrest laments UnitedHealthcare's practices and the US health insurance industry more broadly. Bullet casings discovered at the scene of the shooting outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan were reportedly emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend,” “depose”—likely criticisms of health care industry practices.
Submission + - AT&T to kill off landline phone service for most people by 2029 (zdnet.com)
SonicSpike writes: AT&T customers who still use the carrier's landline service should be prepared to say goodbye sometime in the next five years.
At its 2024 Analysts and Investors Day on Wednesday, the company said that it's "actively working to exit its legacy copper network operations across the large majority of its wireline footprint by the end of 2029." Yep, that means its traditional landlines will largely be gone by that point, at least if the roadmap comes true.
Like many carriers, AT&T has devoted more of its time, money, and resources to its broadband network and wireless services. AT&T in particular has focused on building out its fiber network, which it forecasts will expand to more than 50 million locations in the US by the end of 2029.
The problem with copper lines, argue the carriers, is that they're old, vulnerable to power surges and other electrical issues, and subject to damage from weather and other conditions. Plus, companies like AT&T simply don't want to support traditional landlines when so many people have switched to mobile or broadband services.
At its 2024 Analysts and Investors Day on Wednesday, the company said that it's "actively working to exit its legacy copper network operations across the large majority of its wireline footprint by the end of 2029." Yep, that means its traditional landlines will largely be gone by that point, at least if the roadmap comes true.
Like many carriers, AT&T has devoted more of its time, money, and resources to its broadband network and wireless services. AT&T in particular has focused on building out its fiber network, which it forecasts will expand to more than 50 million locations in the US by the end of 2029.
The problem with copper lines, argue the carriers, is that they're old, vulnerable to power surges and other electrical issues, and subject to damage from weather and other conditions. Plus, companies like AT&T simply don't want to support traditional landlines when so many people have switched to mobile or broadband services.
Submission + - Trump might create "A.I. Czar" position (axios.com) 1
SonicSpike writes: President-elect Trump is considering naming an AI czar in the White House to coordinate federal policy and governmental use of the emerging technology, Trump transition sources told Axios.
Why it matters: Elon Musk won't be the AI czar, but is expected to be intimately involved in shaping the future of the debate and use cases, the sources said.
Behind the scenes: We're told the role is likely but not certain.
Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — who are leading Trump's new outside-government group, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — will have significant input into who gets the role.
Musk — who owns a leading AI company, xAI — has feuded publicly with rival CEOs, including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Google's Sundar Pichai. Rivals worry Musk could leverage his Trump relationship to favor his companies.
The big picture: Trump, partly in response to the enlarged coalition that fueled his victory, plans to be super attentive to emerging technologies.
Trump's transition has vetted cryptocurrency executives for a potential role as the first-ever White House crypto czar, Bloomberg reported last week.
The AI and crypto roles could be combined under a single emerging-tech czar.
Zoom in: The AI czar will be charged with focusing both public and private resources to keep America in the AI forefront.
The federal government has a tremendous need for AI technology, and the new czar would likely work with agency chief AI officers (which were established in President Biden's AI executive order, and could survive Trump).
The person also would work with DOGE to use AI to root out waste, fraud and abuse, including entitlement fraud.
The office would spur the massive private investment needed to expand the energy supply to keep the U.S. on the cutting edge.
The backstory: The idea has been kicking around Trumpworld for several months, as the transition considered structural changes at the White House to prioritize staffing for Trump's priorities.
The model is similar to the National Energy Council that Trump said will be chaired by his designee for Interior secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Trump's Energy nominee, fracking executive Chris Wright, will be a member of the council.
Trump's announcement said the council "will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy."
"This Council will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation."
Why it matters: Elon Musk won't be the AI czar, but is expected to be intimately involved in shaping the future of the debate and use cases, the sources said.
Behind the scenes: We're told the role is likely but not certain.
Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — who are leading Trump's new outside-government group, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — will have significant input into who gets the role.
Musk — who owns a leading AI company, xAI — has feuded publicly with rival CEOs, including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Google's Sundar Pichai. Rivals worry Musk could leverage his Trump relationship to favor his companies.
The big picture: Trump, partly in response to the enlarged coalition that fueled his victory, plans to be super attentive to emerging technologies.
Trump's transition has vetted cryptocurrency executives for a potential role as the first-ever White House crypto czar, Bloomberg reported last week.
The AI and crypto roles could be combined under a single emerging-tech czar.
Zoom in: The AI czar will be charged with focusing both public and private resources to keep America in the AI forefront.
The federal government has a tremendous need for AI technology, and the new czar would likely work with agency chief AI officers (which were established in President Biden's AI executive order, and could survive Trump).
The person also would work with DOGE to use AI to root out waste, fraud and abuse, including entitlement fraud.
The office would spur the massive private investment needed to expand the energy supply to keep the U.S. on the cutting edge.
The backstory: The idea has been kicking around Trumpworld for several months, as the transition considered structural changes at the White House to prioritize staffing for Trump's priorities.
The model is similar to the National Energy Council that Trump said will be chaired by his designee for Interior secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Trump's Energy nominee, fracking executive Chris Wright, will be a member of the council.
Trump's announcement said the council "will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy."
"This Council will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation."
Submission + - Police arrest girl for transmitting nude deepfakes in Florida (pnj.com) 1
SonicSpike writes: The girlfriend of a young Pensacola man who allegedly used Artificial Intelligence to digitally “undress” pictures of more than a dozen girls and women has been arrested for sending the images without consent. The 18-year-old former Washington High School student who parents and victims say made the pictures has not been charged.
Pensacola police issued a press release Thursday afternoon saying investigators have charged 17-year-old Jaylyn Lee with promoting an altered sexual depiction of an identifiable person without consent, a third-degree felony.
Investigators say Lee obtained the cell phone of a “male acquaintance” that contained AI generated nude photos of 14 females. They say she then made a copy of the photos with her cell phone and kept them for a month before disseminating them to 17 high school students, some of whom were not depicted in the AI generated photos.
Investigators obtained a warrant for Lee’s arrest, and she turned herself in today, police say.
The News Journal first reported on the AI altered images in October after young women and girls, as well as their parents, reached out about their concerns that the photos were created in the first place and said they wanted the 18-year-old man who made them held accountable.
According to the victims and their families, the young man made dozens of fake nude pictures but they weren’t discovered until a girl he had dated found the images on his phone, took a video of them, and allegedly sent them to others including people depicted in the pictures.
The 18-year-old daughter of Pensacola attorney Autumn Beck Blackledge is one of the victims who says a picture of her and a friend she had posted to social media when she was a minor was downloaded and “undressed” using an online app that allows users to create homemade nude pictures from existing photos.
Julie Harmon's daughter is also among the girls and women depicted in the fake nudes photos. Harmon is outraged that he has not been charged, along with Lee who took the photos off her "ex-boyfriend's" phone, held onto it like collateral and sent out the video of the pictures after he "dumped" her, Harmon said.
"He stole those girls' photos without their permission and edited them, so technically it started with him," Harmon said. "How is it that sending it is a felony but creating it for your own pleasure is not? How are you able to hold onto it and it's not against the law, but the minute you send it, it is. The only thing he's going to get is a possible misdemeanor for cyber stalking and harassment."
Some parents and victims who want the teen who created the fake nudes charged say police told them investigating the case is challenging because state laws haven’t kept up with technology.
Pensacola police issued a press release Thursday afternoon saying investigators have charged 17-year-old Jaylyn Lee with promoting an altered sexual depiction of an identifiable person without consent, a third-degree felony.
Investigators say Lee obtained the cell phone of a “male acquaintance” that contained AI generated nude photos of 14 females. They say she then made a copy of the photos with her cell phone and kept them for a month before disseminating them to 17 high school students, some of whom were not depicted in the AI generated photos.
Investigators obtained a warrant for Lee’s arrest, and she turned herself in today, police say.
The News Journal first reported on the AI altered images in October after young women and girls, as well as their parents, reached out about their concerns that the photos were created in the first place and said they wanted the 18-year-old man who made them held accountable.
According to the victims and their families, the young man made dozens of fake nude pictures but they weren’t discovered until a girl he had dated found the images on his phone, took a video of them, and allegedly sent them to others including people depicted in the pictures.
The 18-year-old daughter of Pensacola attorney Autumn Beck Blackledge is one of the victims who says a picture of her and a friend she had posted to social media when she was a minor was downloaded and “undressed” using an online app that allows users to create homemade nude pictures from existing photos.
Julie Harmon's daughter is also among the girls and women depicted in the fake nudes photos. Harmon is outraged that he has not been charged, along with Lee who took the photos off her "ex-boyfriend's" phone, held onto it like collateral and sent out the video of the pictures after he "dumped" her, Harmon said.
"He stole those girls' photos without their permission and edited them, so technically it started with him," Harmon said. "How is it that sending it is a felony but creating it for your own pleasure is not? How are you able to hold onto it and it's not against the law, but the minute you send it, it is. The only thing he's going to get is a possible misdemeanor for cyber stalking and harassment."
Some parents and victims who want the teen who created the fake nudes charged say police told them investigating the case is challenging because state laws haven’t kept up with technology.
Submission + - Netflix fails users during Tyson vs Paul boxing match (reuters.com)
SonicSpike writes: Streaming platform Netflix was down for thousands of users in the United States late on Friday, outage tracking website Downdetector.com said, just as viewers tuned into a highly anticipated boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.
The number of users indicating problems was 85,021, by 10:35 p.m. ET (0335 GMT Saturday), according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from various sources.
Downdetector reported that the outage primarily impacted users in major metropolitan areas, including New York, Seattle and Los Angeles, with scattered reports from other regions.
Netflix said it had no immediate comment in response to a request from Reuters.
The platform has faced outages during live or highly anticipated events in the past, with spikes in user traffic often being a contributing factor.
The number of users indicating problems was 85,021, by 10:35 p.m. ET (0335 GMT Saturday), according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from various sources.
Downdetector reported that the outage primarily impacted users in major metropolitan areas, including New York, Seattle and Los Angeles, with scattered reports from other regions.
Netflix said it had no immediate comment in response to a request from Reuters.
The platform has faced outages during live or highly anticipated events in the past, with spikes in user traffic often being a contributing factor.
Submission + - Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht Is Waiting for Trump to Free Him (wired.com)
SonicSpike writes: As Americans and the world grapple with how last week’s election will reshape the next four years and beyond, few have as much personally at stake from a new presidential administration as one 40-year-old man in a federal penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona. For Ross Ulbricht, creator of the legendary dark-web drug market known as Silk Road, who has been in prison since 2013, a Donald Trump presidency could mean the difference between freedom and a lifetime in a cell.
“Immense gratitude to everyone who voted for President Trump on my behalf. I trust him to honor his pledge and give me a second chance,” Ulbricht wrote on X one week after the election, through an account controlled by his wife. “After 11+ years in darkness, I can finally see the light of freedom at the end of the tunnel. Thank you so much, @realDonaldTrump. ”
After the government identified him as the administrator behind Silk Road’s cryptoanarchic marketplace and arrested him in an FBI sting in late 2013, Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 on seven charges relating to money laundering, computer hacking, and the distribution of narcotics and was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. Nearly nine years later, at the Libertarian National Convention this May, then-presidential candidate Trump promised to commute Ulbricht’s sentence “on day one” if reelected, letting him walk free. There were cheers from the audience—many waving “Free Ross” signs—for the former dark-web mastermind, who has become a cause célèbre in the cryptocurrency and libertarian worlds.
Now that Trump has emerged victorious, however, Ulbricht and his supporters must wait at least another agonizing nine weeks to find out whether the president-elect—who has a history of abandoning campaign promises and who once rejected calls to pardon Ulbricht at the end of his first term—will act on his pledge.
“Regardless of what one thinks of Silk Road, Ross’ actions, or the political aspects of Trump and the largely right-wing crypto community’s support for Ross, I firmly believe his sentence is unjust,” says Alex Winter, the actor and director who released a documentary about Ulbricht’s case in 2015. Winter says he has corresponded intermittently with Ulbricht over the years since then. “He’s already been in prison for over a decade, and he should be free.”
However, Winter has less faith than Ulbricht in Trump’s vow to grant him clemency. “I’m not someone who trusts Trump to be true to his word,” Winter says. “So it’s a bit anxiety-provoking to wait and see if he makes good on this promise.”
“Immense gratitude to everyone who voted for President Trump on my behalf. I trust him to honor his pledge and give me a second chance,” Ulbricht wrote on X one week after the election, through an account controlled by his wife. “After 11+ years in darkness, I can finally see the light of freedom at the end of the tunnel. Thank you so much, @realDonaldTrump. ”
After the government identified him as the administrator behind Silk Road’s cryptoanarchic marketplace and arrested him in an FBI sting in late 2013, Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 on seven charges relating to money laundering, computer hacking, and the distribution of narcotics and was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. Nearly nine years later, at the Libertarian National Convention this May, then-presidential candidate Trump promised to commute Ulbricht’s sentence “on day one” if reelected, letting him walk free. There were cheers from the audience—many waving “Free Ross” signs—for the former dark-web mastermind, who has become a cause célèbre in the cryptocurrency and libertarian worlds.
Now that Trump has emerged victorious, however, Ulbricht and his supporters must wait at least another agonizing nine weeks to find out whether the president-elect—who has a history of abandoning campaign promises and who once rejected calls to pardon Ulbricht at the end of his first term—will act on his pledge.
“Regardless of what one thinks of Silk Road, Ross’ actions, or the political aspects of Trump and the largely right-wing crypto community’s support for Ross, I firmly believe his sentence is unjust,” says Alex Winter, the actor and director who released a documentary about Ulbricht’s case in 2015. Winter says he has corresponded intermittently with Ulbricht over the years since then. “He’s already been in prison for over a decade, and he should be free.”
However, Winter has less faith than Ulbricht in Trump’s vow to grant him clemency. “I’m not someone who trusts Trump to be true to his word,” Winter says. “So it’s a bit anxiety-provoking to wait and see if he makes good on this promise.”
Submission + - Behind the Scenes of a Minuteman ICBM Launch with 3 Test Warheads (airandspaceforces.com) 1
SonicSpike writes: VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif.—The U.S. launched a Minuteman III missile here at 11:01 p.m. Pacific Time on Nov. 5., in an important test of the weapon’s ability to strike its targets with multiple warheads.
The Minuteman III missiles that form a critical leg of the U.S. nuclear triad each carry one nuclear-armed reentry vehicle. But the missile that was tested carried three test warheads.
The ICBM test was controlled by an airborne command post in a test of the U.S. ability to launch its nuclear deterrent from a survivable platform.
“These tests are demonstrative of what Striker Airmen bring to the fight if called by the president,” Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, the commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a release. “An airborne launch validates the survivability of our ICBMs, which serve as the strategic backstop of our nation’s defense and defense of allies and partners.”
After the launch command was transmitted by a U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury, the Minuteman III blasted out of a silo at the launch facility on the north side of this base on the California coast. Airmen from the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron of Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., were aboard the E-6 along with Navy aircrew.
The three test reentry vehicles—one high-fidelity Joint Test Assembly, which carries non-nuclear explosives, and two telemetry Joint Test Assembly objects—struck the Reagan Test Site near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands roughly 30 minutes later after launch, a flight of about 4,200 miles.
“They make up essentially a mock warhead,” Col. Dustin Harmon, the commander of the 377th Test and Evaluation Group, the nation’s operational ICBM test unit, said in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. “There’s two different types. One is telemetered, so it’s got a radio transmitter in it, it’s got antennas, gyroscopes, accelerometers—all the things that can sense motion and movement. And we fly those or we can put one in there that’s called a high-fidelity. That is assembled much like an actual weapon would be, except we use surrogate materials, and so we want it to fly similarly to an actual weapon. It has the explosives in it that a normal warhead would to drive a detonation, but there’s nothing to drive.”
The Minuteman III missiles that form a critical leg of the U.S. nuclear triad each carry one nuclear-armed reentry vehicle. But the missile that was tested carried three test warheads.
The ICBM test was controlled by an airborne command post in a test of the U.S. ability to launch its nuclear deterrent from a survivable platform.
“These tests are demonstrative of what Striker Airmen bring to the fight if called by the president,” Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, the commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a release. “An airborne launch validates the survivability of our ICBMs, which serve as the strategic backstop of our nation’s defense and defense of allies and partners.”
After the launch command was transmitted by a U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury, the Minuteman III blasted out of a silo at the launch facility on the north side of this base on the California coast. Airmen from the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron of Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., were aboard the E-6 along with Navy aircrew.
The three test reentry vehicles—one high-fidelity Joint Test Assembly, which carries non-nuclear explosives, and two telemetry Joint Test Assembly objects—struck the Reagan Test Site near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands roughly 30 minutes later after launch, a flight of about 4,200 miles.
“They make up essentially a mock warhead,” Col. Dustin Harmon, the commander of the 377th Test and Evaluation Group, the nation’s operational ICBM test unit, said in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. “There’s two different types. One is telemetered, so it’s got a radio transmitter in it, it’s got antennas, gyroscopes, accelerometers—all the things that can sense motion and movement. And we fly those or we can put one in there that’s called a high-fidelity. That is assembled much like an actual weapon would be, except we use surrogate materials, and so we want it to fly similarly to an actual weapon. It has the explosives in it that a normal warhead would to drive a detonation, but there’s nothing to drive.”
Submission + - Court rules ISP should have terminated Internet users accused of piracy (arstechnica.com) 1
SonicSpike writes: Music publishing companies notched another court victory against a broadband provider that refused to terminate the accounts of Internet users accused of piracy. In a ruling on Wednesday, the conservative-leaning US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sided with the big three record labels against Grande Communications, a subsidiary of Astound Broadband.
The appeals court ordered a new trial on damages because it said the $46.8 million award was too high, but affirmed the lower court's finding that Grande is liable for contributory copyright infringement.
"Here, Plaintiffs [Universal, Warner, and Sony] proved at trial that Grande knew (or was willfully blind to) the identities of its infringing subscribers based on Rightscorp’s notices, which informed Grande of specific IP addresses of subscribers engaging in infringing conduct. But Grande made the choice to continue providing services to them anyway, rather than taking simple measures to prevent infringement," said the unanimous ruling by three judges.
Rightscorp is a copyright-enforcement company used by the music labels to detect copyright infringement. The company monitors torrent downloads to find users' IP addresses and sends infringement notices to Internet providers that serve subscribers using those IP addresses.
"The evidence at trial demonstrated that Grande had a simple measure available to it to prevent further damages to copyrighted works (i.e., terminating repeat infringing subscribers), but that Grande never took it," the 5th Circuit ruling said. "On appeal, Grande and its amici make a policy argument—that terminating Internet services is not a simple measure, but instead a 'draconian overreaction' that is a 'drastic and overbroad remedy'—but a reasonable jury could, and did, find that Grande had basic measures, including termination, available to it. And because Grande does not dispute any of the evidence on which Plaintiffs relied to prove material contribution, there is no basis to conclude a reasonable jury lacked sufficient evidence to reach that conclusion."
The appeals court ordered a new trial on damages because it said the $46.8 million award was too high, but affirmed the lower court's finding that Grande is liable for contributory copyright infringement.
"Here, Plaintiffs [Universal, Warner, and Sony] proved at trial that Grande knew (or was willfully blind to) the identities of its infringing subscribers based on Rightscorp’s notices, which informed Grande of specific IP addresses of subscribers engaging in infringing conduct. But Grande made the choice to continue providing services to them anyway, rather than taking simple measures to prevent infringement," said the unanimous ruling by three judges.
Rightscorp is a copyright-enforcement company used by the music labels to detect copyright infringement. The company monitors torrent downloads to find users' IP addresses and sends infringement notices to Internet providers that serve subscribers using those IP addresses.
"The evidence at trial demonstrated that Grande had a simple measure available to it to prevent further damages to copyrighted works (i.e., terminating repeat infringing subscribers), but that Grande never took it," the 5th Circuit ruling said. "On appeal, Grande and its amici make a policy argument—that terminating Internet services is not a simple measure, but instead a 'draconian overreaction' that is a 'drastic and overbroad remedy'—but a reasonable jury could, and did, find that Grande had basic measures, including termination, available to it. And because Grande does not dispute any of the evidence on which Plaintiffs relied to prove material contribution, there is no basis to conclude a reasonable jury lacked sufficient evidence to reach that conclusion."
Submission + - FBI secretly created a coin to investigate crypto pump-and-dump schemes (theverge.com) 1
SonicSpike writes: The FBI created a cryptocurrency as part of an investigation into price manipulation in crypto markets, the government revealed on Wednesday. The FBI’s Ethereum-based token, NexFundAI, was created with the help of “cooperating witnesses.”
As a result of the investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged three “market makers” and nine people for allegedly engaging in schemes to boost the prices of certain crypto assets. The Department of Justice charged 18 people and entities for “widespread fraud and manipulation” in crypto markets.
The defendants allegedly made false claims about their tokens and executed so-called “wash trades” to create the impression of an active trading market, prosecutors claim. The three market makers — ZMQuant, CLS Global, and MyTrade — allegedly wash traded or conspired to wash trade on behalf of NexFundAI, an Ethereum-based token they didn’t realize was created by the FBI.
As a result of the investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged three “market makers” and nine people for allegedly engaging in schemes to boost the prices of certain crypto assets. The Department of Justice charged 18 people and entities for “widespread fraud and manipulation” in crypto markets.
The defendants allegedly made false claims about their tokens and executed so-called “wash trades” to create the impression of an active trading market, prosecutors claim. The three market makers — ZMQuant, CLS Global, and MyTrade — allegedly wash traded or conspired to wash trade on behalf of NexFundAI, an Ethereum-based token they didn’t realize was created by the FBI.
Submission + - How Digital Forensics Experts Read Your Encrypted WhatsApp Messages (forbes.com)
SonicSpike writes: WhatsApp is one of the world's most popular messaging apps. It employs robust security to protect its users' communications, known as end-to-end encryption. This ensures that messages remain private and secure from the moment they leave the sender's smartphone and reach the intended recipient.
Cell phone forensics technology can exploit this process if access to the device, the smartphone itself, can be obtained. With physical access to the cell phone, forensic tools can extract the WhatsApp database directly and then decrypt the database. This means the communications are viewable to the digital forensics examiner just like they would be to the WhatsApp user.
While it depends on the smartphone's make and model and operating system version, cell phone forensics technology can not only decipher encrypted communication but also recover deleted messages from WhatsApp and many other messaging applications.
Even if the smartphone is locked, WhatsApp communication is not guaranteed to be protected, as many government agencies and select private digital forensics experts have access to technology that can crack or bypass smartphone passcodes.
Cell phone forensics technology can exploit this process if access to the device, the smartphone itself, can be obtained. With physical access to the cell phone, forensic tools can extract the WhatsApp database directly and then decrypt the database. This means the communications are viewable to the digital forensics examiner just like they would be to the WhatsApp user.
While it depends on the smartphone's make and model and operating system version, cell phone forensics technology can not only decipher encrypted communication but also recover deleted messages from WhatsApp and many other messaging applications.
Even if the smartphone is locked, WhatsApp communication is not guaranteed to be protected, as many government agencies and select private digital forensics experts have access to technology that can crack or bypass smartphone passcodes.
Submission + - Creator of Kamala Harris video sues California over election 'deepfake' ban (politico.com)
SonicSpike writes: The creator of a video that used artificial intelligence to imitate Kamala Harris is suing the state of California after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed laws restricting the use of digitally altered political “deepfakes,” alleging First and 14th Amendment violations.
Christopher Kohls, who goes by the name “Mr Reagan” on X, has been at the center of a debate over the use of AI-generated material in elections since he posted the video in July, calling it a parody of a Harris campaign ad. It features AI-generated clips mimicking Harris’ voice and saying she’s the “ultimate diversity hire.” The video was shared by X owner Elon Musk without calling it parody and attracted the ire of Newsom, who vowed to ban such content.
The governor made good on that promise Tuesday by signing laws targeting fraudulent campaign materials. Now, Kohls is suing, arguing the governor is trying to make computer-generated parody illegal and asserting that political satire is a “fundamental First Amendment Right.”
The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court, seeks permanent injunctions against the laws.
One of the laws in question, the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act, specifies that it does not apply to satire or parody content. It requires large online platforms to remove or label deceptive, digitally altered media during certain periods before or after an election.
Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement that Kohls had already labeled the post as a parody on X.
“Requiring them to use the word ‘parody’ on the actual video avoids further misleading the public as the video is shared across the platform,” Gardon said. “It’s unclear why this conservative activist is suing California. This new disclosure law for election misinformation isn’t any more onerous than laws already passed in other states, including Alabama.”
Christopher Kohls, who goes by the name “Mr Reagan” on X, has been at the center of a debate over the use of AI-generated material in elections since he posted the video in July, calling it a parody of a Harris campaign ad. It features AI-generated clips mimicking Harris’ voice and saying she’s the “ultimate diversity hire.” The video was shared by X owner Elon Musk without calling it parody and attracted the ire of Newsom, who vowed to ban such content.
The governor made good on that promise Tuesday by signing laws targeting fraudulent campaign materials. Now, Kohls is suing, arguing the governor is trying to make computer-generated parody illegal and asserting that political satire is a “fundamental First Amendment Right.”
The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court, seeks permanent injunctions against the laws.
One of the laws in question, the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act, specifies that it does not apply to satire or parody content. It requires large online platforms to remove or label deceptive, digitally altered media during certain periods before or after an election.
Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement that Kohls had already labeled the post as a parody on X.
“Requiring them to use the word ‘parody’ on the actual video avoids further misleading the public as the video is shared across the platform,” Gardon said. “It’s unclear why this conservative activist is suing California. This new disclosure law for election misinformation isn’t any more onerous than laws already passed in other states, including Alabama.”
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Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
