News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
It began with this letter from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to Lute Pease of the Newark Evening News, commenting on how much the Director enjoyed Mr. Pease’s “Bigger Game at Large” cartoon:
The Newark Public Library provided this scan of the cartoon from the May 6, 1936 edition:
Additional information at the National Archives.
The linked articles give compelling evidence for the case that leaded gasoline caused the huge spike in violent crime starting in the ’60s, as well as the equally sharp decline starting in the ’90s. From the cover story:
“All of these studies tell the same story: Gasoline lead is responsible for a good share of the rise and fall of violent crime over the past half century.”
“Everyone over the age of 40 was probably exposed to too much lead during childhood, and most of us suffered nothing more than a few points of IQ loss. But there were plenty of kids already on the margin, and millions of those kids were pushed over the edge from being merely slow or disruptive to becoming part of a nationwide epidemic of violent crime.”
Thanks to Josh for these links.
Link #1 (synopsis): http://www.motherjones.com/…
Link #2 (cover story): http://www.motherjones.com/…
Here at Chad’s News, we’ve previously written about the lack of internet privacy and wireless security. Now we can extend that realm to include cell phones, especially ones that use GSM. At last month’s DEF CON convention, security researcher Chris Paget demonstrated a home-brewed cell phone tower setup that was able to easily intercept calls from members of the audience. The total cost of the hardware was about $1500.
This type of equipment, known as an IMSI catcher, has been available to law enforcement for years, but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Link: http://www.wired.com/…
(via engadget)
Here’s the situation: “DNA traces of an unknown eastern-European woman had been found at almost 17 crime scenes, including two murders … but also car jackings, unprofessional break-ins and on a bullet fired in a marital dispute. The crimes [were] spread around a large area including south-west Germany, France and Switzerland.” Law-enforcement officials set up a massive task force to track down this super-criminal, and they believe they’ve found the culprit—a woman at the factory that makes cotton swabs for DNA tests. The swabs used at the crime scenes were contaminated with her DNA. Oops.
Link #1: http://mwinkelmann.com/…
(via Slashdot)
Link #2: http://en.wikipedia.org/…
Link #3: http://www.reuters.com/…
In the UK, suspected criminals are required to provide their encryption keys to law enforcement officials, even if the unencrypted data would be incriminating. From the linked article, “In the decision, the Court stated that although there was a right to not self-incriminate, this was not absolute, and that the ‘public interest’ can supersede this right in some circumstances.” All I can say is thank God for the Bill of Rights. (Chad’s New has previously covered the UK’s use of ubiquitous surveillance cameras.)
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
In George Orwell’s famous novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, a primary feature of the totalitarian government is that every citizen is under continuous observation. Over the past couple years I’ve read about how various parts of the United Kingdom have gone all-out with video surveillance cameras. The linked video shows how pervasive it is. Oh, and you get to see a neat, 8-foot tall alien.
Some tips on what and what not to do when you’re pulled over by the police.
Link: http://www.caranddriver.com/…
(via digg)
A precise and difficult sniper shot, caught on video.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via digg)
A teenager in Washington state was using a MySpace account to send bomb threats to his school. The FBI was able to infect his home computer with spyware that harvested enough information to identify him. Details are not clear about exactly how the FBI managed to get the spyware installed on his computer, but the article covers several ways in which it might have been done.
Link: http://www.computerworld.com/…
(via Kim Komando)
There have been a few recent cases where people were arrested for using open (or even free) wireless connections. In the linked article, a man parked in front of a coffee shop and used its open wireless connection without going inside or purchasing anything. In another case I read about, a man found an open wireless connection in a residential neighborhood, and accessed it from his parked car. A police officer got suspicious and arrested him. The applicable laws about unauthorized access can be stretched to cover this type of situation. So the moral of this story is that even though the wireless connection is wide open, it’s still illegal to use it without authorization of some sort. And in Michigan at least, it’s a felony offense.
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/…
(via Consumerist)
Researchers tested 45 Irish banknotes and found traces of cocaine on all of them. Assuming this also applies to most American high-denomination currency, the finding is especially significant for people in the US—because detecting traces of drugs on currency is sufficient cause for law enforcement to seize (and keep) the money via a process known as forfeiture. Simply put, don’t carry large amounts of cash.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…
(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)
This college student packed three flour-filled condoms in her luggage for a trip home. Unsurprisingly, she was detained, arrested, and held in jail for three weeks until tests determined it was only flour. Note that the linked article doesn’t give all of the information. Security officials did a field test that came back positive, so they did have cause to arrest her.
