Sunday, August 4, 2013

The NSA's Future: A Tale of Two Committees

Russia granted Edward Snowden a year's worth of refugee status Thursday, and that may be just enough time to determine whether America's most prominent dissident will achieve his stated goal of dismantling the National Security Agency's "architecture of oppression," as he called it.

A groundswell of congressional support for major new restrictions on the NSA, combined with pressure from the nation's most powerful tech companies, is almost certain to force some of those changes into being. And the battle lines are already being formed between the Judiciary and Intelligence committees in both the House and Senate. Firebrand defenders of privacy rights on the Judiciary committees are seeking to shut down or fundamentally overhaul surveillance, while Intelligence Committee members who tend to stand behind the NSA are trying to preserve as much as they can of what they consider an essential program.

The ideas range from the extreme, shutting the telecommunication and Internet monitoring programs down altogether?something almost certain not to happen?to more feasible ideas that might preserve the heart of the program but add more transparency to the process. Such ideas include one that is gaining momentum in both the House and Senate?appointing a privacy advocate to take the other side against government requests for surveillance in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court?declassifying portions of the FISA orders, making them available to more members of Congress, and redesigning the phone-records collection program so that the NSA does not take possession of all the data itself.

NSA advocates counter that the vacuuming up of huge amounts of data is technically necessary, in part because of the nature of the diffuse threat of terrorism from small "super-empowered" individuals or groups (such as the Boston Marathon bombers) and the need to jump out a few "hops" beyond their immediate phone contacts in order to detect all of them, and in part because the data is disposed of by the private sector too soon. And they fear that greater transparency of any kind will compromise the program, revealing sources and methods to potential terrorists and teaching them how to avoid surveillance.

But even the most stalwart defenders agree that some changes are likely to come. Those familiar with the thinking of Rep. Mike Rogers, the powerful chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, say that some privacy concerns will have to be addressed in order to keep the programs functioning. On the Senate side, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that "I do think we're going to have to make some kind of changes to make things more transparent."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of that committee, says that she knows of "no federal program for which audits, congressional oversight, and scrutiny by the Justice Department, the intelligence community, and the courts are stronger or more sustained." Nonetheless, Feinstein has already proposed several changes in order to assuage critics, including making public every year the number of Americans' phone numbers submitted as queries of the NSA database, along with the number of referrals made to the FBI and warrants to collect the content of any call; publishing the number of times in a year that any company is required to provide data pursuant to FISA's business-records provision; making available to all members of Congress all classified FISA court opinions, in a secure location; reducing the NSA's five-year retention of phone records to two or three years; and employing more liberal members of the FISA court.

At the moment, the House debate seems more energized, with the shockingly close defeat of an amendment that would have effectively defunded Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to force telecommunications companies such as Verizon and AT&T to turn over business records if they are deemed "relevant" to a terrorism investigation. The failed amendment would have restricted such searches only to those persons already targeted by a federal probe. Now the odd-bedfellow alliance that collected 205 votes for that bill?consisting of libertarian conservatives such as Justin Amash, R-Mich., and liberal Democrats such as John Conyers, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and another Michigander?are already planning for a counterattack by supporters of the program.

The NSA opponents say they know the Intelligence committee members, along with the Obama administration (which is already releasing some phone-data collection information), will try to grant cosmetic concessions while trying to preserve the heart of the surveillance program. "The Intelligence Committee is going to be working very hard to head off any substantive change to the programs," says a Democratic congressional aide. "The one thing in our favor is that it's the Judiciary Committee, and not HPSCI, that has primary jurisdiction" over the legality of domestic surveillance.

It is the Intelligence Committee, however, that oversees many national security programs and prepares the budget for the NSA, among other intelligence agencies. And while Rogers and Feinstein have both expressed concern about the sweep of the NSA's data vacuuming, they insist it is necessary?both Section 215 and another provision of FISA, section 702, that covers the other recently declassified NSA program called Prism, which is intended to target the Internet traffic of foreign suspects by tapping into U.S-based servers.

On the House side, Rogers released a joint statement with Intelligence Committee ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., before the vote on the Amash-Conyers amendment that said the data collection program "has been integral in preventing multiple terrorist attacks, including a plot to attack the New York Stock Exchange in 2009." They said the amendment "would have an immediate?and potentially fatal?operational impact and make America more vulnerable to terrorist attacks."

But in the Senate, Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., disputed that assessment in hearings held this week. He suggested there was no evidence that the program had prevented acts of terrorism, and "if this program is not effective, it has to end." Leahy said a classified list of uses of the phone-record program "does not reflect dozens or even several terrorist plots that Section 215 helped thwart or prevent, let alone 54 as some have suggested."

NSA Director Keith Alexander has contended that the programs conducted allowed U.S. authorities to disrupt 54 "events," 42 of which "involved disrupted plots."

Earlier this week, Leahy proposed a bill?the FISA Accountability and Privacy Protection Act of 2013?that mirrored to some degree the moves made in the House. In part, it too would allow the government to obtain records using Section 215 only when it could establish that the information is relevant to an authorized investigation and somehow linked to a foreign terrorist group or foreign power. Again demonstrating the power of the emerging libertarian-liberal alliance, it was cosponsored by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

And so, while leaker Edward Snowden hides in Russia, the debate he started in Washington will unfold in the ensuing months. The outcome will turn in part on the shifts in public opinion. The most recent national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted July 17-21, found that 50 percent of the public still approve of the government's collection of telephone and Internet data as part of antiterrorism efforts, while 44 percent disapprove. That was actually a slight increase in favor of the NSA from a month before, when 48 percent approved and 47 percent disapproved.

At the same time, however, Pew found that 56 percent of Americans say that federal courts fail to provide adequate limits on the programs. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll also found dramatically rising concerns about intrusions into privacy related to the data collection.

Many opponents of the NSA's practices, including such prominent names in the House as James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., coauthor of the Patriot Act, and California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, say they do not want to shut down the surveillance programs, only restrict them to the actual language of the actual FISA act, which requires that the NSA only collect information directly relevant to a national security investigation. If that doesn't happen, they warn, then the battle will be resumed when the statute is "sunsetted" on June 1, 2015.

And they are indicating that they feel the nation has been led astray because too much trust was put in the Intelligence committees that were supposed to be overseeing the NSA programs. Says the Democratic congressional aide: "In lot of ways it was an Intelligence Committee-driven solution, with no input from rank-and-file members, that got us into this mess."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nsas-future-tale-two-committees-060021003.html

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Bay Area commuters brace for another BART strike

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Agencies are planning ways to get San Francisco Bay area commuters to work Monday if there's a transit strike, but officials say no matter what steps are taken there's no way to make up for the idling of one of the nation's largest transit systems

More ferries and buses will be put into operation to get people across San Francisco Bay. Carpool lanes will be open all day Monday, not just for rush hour. And gift cards for coffee will be handed out to drivers who pick up riders.

BART carries more than 400,000 commuters a day, keeping them off the roads in a region routinely choked with traffic.

"The inescapable fact is BART's capacity can't be absorbed by the other transit agencies," said John Goodwin, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "We're still hoping for the best, but it's time to prepare for the worst."

Meanwhile, Bay Area Rapid Transit and its union were holding weekend-long labor talks in hopes of reaching an agreement by a midnight Sunday.

The two sides were scheduled to return to the negotiating table at 10 a.m. Saturday after recessing for the night Friday.

Key sticking points in the labor talks focused on worker safety, pensions and health care costs, commuters are bracing for what could be the second BART strike in a month.

When transit workers shut down train service for four days in early July, roadways were jammed and commuters faced long lines for buses and ferries. The unions agreed to call off that strike and extend their contracts until Sunday while negotiations continued.

"I didn't really fully appreciate the magnitude of disruption of my commute," said Oakland resident Benny Martin.

Martin, 32, said the short trip to his law firm in downtown San Francisco took him two hours each way. If BART workers strike next week, he just won't go into the office. "It's just not worth it for me."

A strike next week could cause more traffic mayhem than last month's work stoppage, which came around the Fourth of July holiday.

"Without having a holiday in the middle of the week, there's a potential for much greater congestion on the roadways," Goodwin said.

At a news conference Friday, Bay Area and state officials called on BART managers and union leaders to reach an agreement, saying a strike would create financial hardship for working families and hurt the Bay Area economy.

"We need an agreement and not a strike in our BART Service," San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said. "They need to know that it is no longer a matter of inconvenience to the ridership. It is hardship."

On Thursday, two transit unions? which represent nearly 2,400 train operators, station agents, mechanics, maintenance workers and professional staff ? issued a 72-hour strike notice. They plan to participate in labor talks up until the contract expires at midnight Sunday in hopes of averting a strike.

At a meeting of BART's board Friday, union leaders urged the directors to give workers what they called a fair contract.

"I'm here to say we will not be busted," John Arantes, president of SEIU local 1021. "We are more united now than ever before."

BART General Manager Grace Crunican said the two sides were working hard at the bargaining table, but they remain far apart on wages, pensions and health care. There's still time to reach a deal before the strike deadline, she said.

"Three days is a long time when you've come as far as we have," Crunican told reporters.

Under state law, Gov. Jerry Brown has the authority to seek a court-ordered 60-day "cooling off period" that would temporarily block BART workers from striking.

"The governor is considering all his options and closely monitoring the situation," said spokesman Evan Westrup.

___

Associated Press writers Martha Mendoza, Jason Dearen and Sudhin Thanawala contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bay-area-commuters-brace-another-bart-strike-191159552.html

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Saturday, August 3, 2013

Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH.

By Jim Fisher

Leica's f/2 Summicron lenses have traditionally delivered excellent performance at a reasonable (for Leica) price tag. The Summicron-M 50mm f/2 sells for a mere $2,295, and even the current version has been on the market for enough time so that used examples are available for much less. So why does the new Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. ($7,195 list) cost more than three times as much? Quite simply, it's as close to perfect as any that I've shot with. It's sharp from edge-to-edge, even at f/2, shows no distortion, and is completely free of chromatic aberration. It's very expensive, and chances are that you don't need a perfect lens for your camera, but we're awarding it an Editors' Choice award based on its exemplary performance.

Like most rangefinder lenses, the APO-Summicron-M is quite small. It measures just 1.9 by 2.1 inches (HD), but is a bit heavy at 10.6 ounces. Its density is in part due to its all-metal construction, but you can't discount the heft of the glass?there are eight internal lens elements, arranged in five groups. The front element is fairly small in diameter, allowing you to use 39mm screw-in filters as needed. Like most rangefinder lenses, the close focus capability is limited to 0.7 meters. Aperture ranges from f/2 down to f/16 in half-stop clicks, and there are 11 aperture blades. There's a notch on the lens barrel to aid in focus adjustment, a physical aperture ring, and a telescoping hood. The lens ships with a slip-on metal cap with a soft, black felt lining.

I used Imatest to check the performance of the lens when paired with the full-frame M (Typ 240). Its performance is, to put it lightly, impressive. We consider an image to be sharp if it manages to resolve more than 1,800 lines per picture height using a center-weighted analysis of our SFRPlus test chart. The Apo-Summicron records 2,788 lines at f/2, with sharpness that is even from edge to edge. Stopping down to f/2.8 improves its score to 3,496 lines, and it peaks at 3,843 lines at f/4. There's absolutely no distortion, and the apochromatic design means that you won't see any purple or green fringes at areas of high contrast or bokeh. To compare, the excellent Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. managed to record about 2,300 lines at f/2, and the best performance we were able to muster was at f/8?3,680 lines. We tested that lens with the M Monochrom, a camera that benefits from an inherent advantage in sharpness due to the lack of a color filter.

If you want the absolute best 50mm lens that money can buy, the Leica APO-Summicron-M f/2 ASPH. is it. That kind of performance comes at a cost that not many are willing or able to pay. The lens is impressively small, but extremely well built. I'm not sure if I'd call anything perfect, but the APO-Summicron comes close. We're rewarding its design with a rare 5-star rating and our Editors' Choice award. Thanks to its cost, it's not a lens that many will get to shoot with, but those who do get the opportunity will undoubtedly walk away happy with the resulting images.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/wKJHQ-winas/0,2817,2422556,00.asp

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Letter: Delta mayor and council need to work with MLA Huntington

Published: July 28, 2013 9:00 AM

In their many years of service to Delta, Mayor Jackson and councillor MacDonald have done many good things but their vendetta against Vikki Huntingdon is in my humble opinion very destructive.

She was elected by the people of? Delta South and is our official representative in the legislature.

To treat her with disrespect is to treat us with disrespect. To ignore her is to ignore us.

She has taken on a very important job and is keeping her constituents informed very well. The mayor and council would do well to meet with her and listen to her.

She has a unique position in the legislature and they would do well to take advantage of it.

By all means they should talk and deal with the other MLA, as he represents North Delta.? As far as him having the ear of the government is concerned, past experience has taught me to question that belief.

Delta would be better served if there was co-operation in place of the confrontation the mayor and councilor are attempting.

Ken Atkey
Ladner

Source: http://www.southdeltaleader.com/opinion/letters/217182651.html

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Monster galaxies lose their appetite with age

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Our universe is filled with gobs of galaxies, bound together by gravity into larger families called clusters. Lying at the heart of most clusters is a monster galaxy thought to grow in size by merging with neighboring galaxies, a process astronomers call galactic cannibalism. New research from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is showing that, contrary to previous theories, these gargantuan galaxies appear to slow their growth over time, feeding less and less off neighboring galaxies.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/8UCm2dF0cSU/130801195743.htm

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Friday, August 2, 2013

Chinese automaker shamelessly copies Volkswagen Taigun Concept

Unheard-of Chinese automaker Jiangsu Lake Motors is preparing a 99 percent copy of the Volkswagen Taigun Concept.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but this is just too much. You are looking at a car created by Jiangsu Lake Motors which is currently known simply as the "SUV". The real VW Taigun won't be out until 2016 but a very similar design will probably be seen on Chinese streets a lot sooner.

These photos are actually from a patent application and show virtually the same styling, including the alloy design (albeit with significantly slimmer tires). The main difference between the two can be seen at the rear doors where the "SUV" gets normal door handles.

This latest patent application comes after a string of China-made copy/paste models, including the recent Lamborghini Urus lookalike from Sichuan Yema and the C-Class impersonator known as the Brilliance BS6.

Source: http://www.worldcarfans.com/113080261026/chinese-automaker-shamelessly-copies-volkswagen-taigun

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Lawyer: Mayor didn't get harassment training

A lawyer for San Diego Mayor Bob Filner criticized the city for not providing sexual harassment training to the mayor, saying its failure to do so violated the law.

In a letter to the city attorney, Harvey Berger wrote that Filner might never have been sued for sexual harassment had he been properly trained.

"If there is any liability at all, the city will almost certainly be liable for 'failing to prevent harassment,' " Berger wrote in a letter dated Monday and obtained Wednesday by CNN from City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.

An intent of Berger's letter was to urge the city to pay Filner's legal fees associated with a sexual harassment filed against him by his former spokeswoman, Irene McCormack Jackson. The city is named as a co-defendant in that lawsuit.

On Tuesday, the City Council voted 9-0 to deny the mayor's request for taxpayers to pay his legal fees, according to Matt Awbrey, spokesman for council member Kevin Faulconer.

Filner never received sexual harassment training while serving in Congress from 1993 to December 2012, Berger wrote. He was set to get such training -- which is required within six months of one's start date -- after becoming mayor, but the trainer canceled the session and never rescheduled, according to the lawyer.

"There is very, very good reason for mandatory sexual harassment training," Berger said. "If nothing else, it makes people think about the subject and how they interact with fellow employees."

While the mayor has admitted unspecified inappropriate behavior in the past, he denies the allegations against him by Jackson.

"This is not a request for the city to agree to pay any verdict; it is simply a request for defense against unverified claims being brought against the mayor -- claims which are denied," Berger said.

Jackson isn't alone. Seven other women have said they were subjected to "crude and disgusting" comments and inappropriate touching -- including groping and kissing -- by Filner. Many of the alleged incidents of which he's being accused took place during his five terms in a U.S. representative, before he was elected mayor last year.

Source: http://www.wdsu.com/news/national/Lawyer-Mayor-didn-t-get-harassment-training/-/9853500/21271588/-/11tqc8w/-/index.html?absolute=true

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