Taking it Outside

This demands we turn over unlimited surveillance powers and a massive secret budget to the intelligence agencies so they can produce their massive success, in their own words.

This demanding we turn over unlimited surveillance powers and a massive secret budget to the intelligence agencies so they can produce their massive success, in their own words.

Cyber-espionage y'all! Aren't we already doing that?

Any?

Some of the implants burrow so deep into the computer systems, Kaspersky said, that they infect the “firmware,” the embedded software that preps the computer’s hardware before the operating system starts. It is beyond the reach of existing antivirus products and most security controls, Kaspersky reported, making it virtually impossible to wipe out. In many cases, it also allows the American intelligence agencies to grab the encryption keys off a machine, unnoticed, and unlock scrambled contents. Moreover, many of the tools are designed to run on computers that are disconnected from the Internet.....

Saw the underlying story last week, but, I guess we are at war with Hezbollah and CIA isn't interested in anyone finding out. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/hezbollah-imad-mughniyeh-assassination-newsweek-cia-114984.html?hp=t4_r

The Justice Department has acknowledged constructing a database to track the movements of millions of vehicles across the U.S. in real time. The program, whose existence was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is primarily overseen by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to combat drug trafficking near the U.S.-Mexico border. However, government emails indicate that the agency has been working to expand the database throughout the United States over the past several years. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/27/justice-department-working-on-national-car-tracking-database/ Previously reported: The Drug Enforcement Administration has formally acknowledged that it maintained a sweeping database of phone calls made from the United States to multiple foreign countries. The program has since been discontinued, the Justice Department said Friday. The revelation was made in a court filing in the case of a man accused of conspiring to export goods and technology illegally to Iran. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/16/dea-acknowledges-massive-phone-call-database/

Even though my original prediction of a Packers-Patriots Superbowl was correct (the only obstacle being that the Packers technically lost to Seattle and their Coach Mike McCarthy last weekend), I will nevertheless predict the winner of the purported Seahawks-Patriots matchup in 10 days: Seahawks, 34-10.

A nice explanation here http://luckypeach.com/a-guide-to-the-regional-ramen-of-japan/

This weekend is the Daigaku Nyūshi Sentā Shiken, often referred to as 'the Center test'. Imagine the worst aspects of any standardized test that you could imagine and then multiply it by ten and you have a small idea of this test. A Korean colleague noted that the Korean version is even more hard-core, all air-traffic is grounded during the duration of the test. discuss