Lol @ Congressmen complaining that their phones are tapped.
Welcome to the America that you voted for on behalf of the American people. Remember? “Support the troops! Honor the police. If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be worried. The PATRIOT Act is a good thing.”
Excuse me if I reserve my sympathy for someone who really needs it. I hope their deepest, darkest secrets become a source of public humiliation. They deserve to be paranoid about their privacy. Sleep well.
Isn’t it interesting how, in states where recreational use of marijuana has been legalized, police refuse to adhere to the law because they don’t agree with it? Yet, when draconian laws are passed that violate the rights of people, you almost never hear of a police officer refusing to enforce the law.
In fact, I’ve never heard of a cop saying, “I don’t care what the law says, that’s not right and I’m not going to enforce it”… ever… that is until marijuana was legalized. You see, anti-prohibition cuts into their funding. That’s why it bothers them so much.
One of the bills currently meeting resistance, after it failed to pass last year, is the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Despite public protests the bill passed the House last week, and it’s now on its way to a Senate vote.
As the title suggests the main goal of the bill is to deal with “cybersecurity,” but with a lack of definition as to what that actually entails, this term is also one of its major weaknesses.
In short, CISPA would allow companies to spy on Internet users and collect and share this data with third-party companies or Government agencies. As long as the company states that these privacy violations are needed to protect against “cybersecurity” threats, they are immune from civil and criminal liabilities.
Critics of the bill point out that it would allow companies to spy on Internet users, and with flexible definitions of cybersecurity it could potentially be used to monitor the download habits of Internet subscribers.
A wide variety of citizen rights groups are continuing with anti-CISPA actions to prevent the bill from becoming law. Starting off today, Anonymous is holding a CISPA blackout with a few hundred websites participating. Undoubtedly other protests will make headlines in the weeks to come.
In light of the above, we thought that it would be interesting to turn the tables on some of the pro-CISPA forces. How would they like it if their download habits ended up exposed? And what if everyone could see their Google searches or the websites they visit?
As it turns out, no CISPA is needed to do the above. With help from BitTorrent monitoring company Scaneye and the privacy invasive ExtremeTracking service we found plenty of information to expose.
Let’s begin the search with the House of Representatives, who voted in favor of CISPA. Data from public BitTorrent trackers shows dozens of House IP-addresses linked to pirated content. Below is a small selection of the alleged downloads we found.
Interestingly, no more downloads were recorded after November last year. While Scaneye only covers a small percentage of all BitTorrent downloads, the lack of hits may be the result of a new anti-P2P policy which also blocked Spotify on the Hill.
Aside from BitTorrent data it’s also possible to search for the browsing history of House staff. Through ExtremeTracking alone we found hundreds of hits, showing browser versions, screen resolutions, visited websites and search queries. To highlight one, here’s a House IP-address searching for an adult video site.
Next up is the U.S. Senate who will soon have to decide on the fate of the cybersecurity bill.
The Senate results mimic the House findings. Again there are plenty of employees who allegedly downloaded copyright material. Copies of recent TV-shows and movies are relatively popular.
The Senate’s browsing habits also reveal some information, and show that articles about Wikileaks revelations are on the public reading list.
Finally we took a look at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), one of the organizations which will use CISPA information. Gathering intelligence on the CIA is not as hard as it sounds, since their employees use public facing IP-addresses that can be directly linked to the agency.
Again, the BitTorrent tracker data mostly turned up pirated video content that were allegedly downloaded at the CIA, with some titles nicely fitting agency’s niche. Unlike at the congressional offices, we also saw some more recent hits.
Looking at their browsing data we found only a few hits for the CIA via ExtremeTracking. However, this does include a referral from a video store selling rather perverted material.
The above is of course no argument against CISPA. Instead, it shows how much sensitive data is already out there. The question is, do we really want companies to have the ability to spy even more?
For those who want to learn more about CISPA and what action can be taken to stop it, FFTF and EFF are required further reading.
Finally, a word of advice to anyone who doesn’t want their private browsing and download habits out in the open, including Government workers. Get a VPN while you still can, or stop using the Internet altogether.
While a lethal-injection machine exists, and was once used by several states, most states now opt to perform the injections manually due to the fear of mechanical failure. Usually an execution team comprises prison employees. Some states use the same personnel for every execution, while others rotate the duty among several employees.
The execution team is either in a separate room or behind a curtain and cannot be seen by witnesses or the condemned. In some cases, the executioners may wear a hood to conceal their identity. At the warden’s signal, the execution team will begin injecting lethal doses of two or three drugs into the IVs. Some states use multiple executioners, all of whom inject drugs into an IV tube — but only one of the executioners is actually delivering the lethal injection. None of the executioners know who has delivered the lethal dose and who has injected drugs into a dummy bag.
The drugs are administered, in this order:
- Anesthetic - Sodium thiopental, which has the trademark name Pentothal, puts the inmate into a deep sleep. This drug is a barbiturate that induces general anesthesia when administered intravenously. It can reach effective clinical concentrations in the brain within 30 seconds, according to an Amnesty International report. For surgical operations, patients are given a dose of 100 to 150 milligrams over a period of 10 to 15 seconds. For executions, as many as 5 grams (5,000 mg) of Pentothal may be administered. This in itself is a lethal dose. It’s believed by some that after this anesthetic is delivered, the inmate doesn’t feel anything.
- Saline solution flushes the intravenous line.
- Paralyzing agent - Pancuronium bromide, also known as Pavulon, is a muscle relaxant that is given in a dose that stops breathing by paralyzing the diaphragm and lungs. Conventionally, this drug takes effect in one to three minutes after being injected. In many states, this drug is given in doses of up to 100 milligrams, a much higher dose than is used in surgical operations — usually 40 to 100 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight. Other chemicals that can be used as a paralyzing agent include tubocurarine chloride and succinylcholine chloride.
- Saline solution flushes the intravenous line.
- Toxic agent (not used by all states) - Potassium chloride is given at a lethal dose in order to interrupt the electrical signaling essential to heart functions. This induces cardiac arrest.
Within a minute or two after the last drug is administered, a physician or medical technician declares the inmate dead. The amount of time between when the prisoner leaves the holding cell and when he or she is declared dead may be just 30 minutes. Death usually occurs anywhere from five to 18 minutes after the execution order is given. After the execution, the body is placed in a body bag and taken to medical examiner, who may perform an autopsy. It is then either claimed by the inmate’s family or interred by the state.
“In civilized society, we reject the principle of literally doing to criminals what they do to their victims: The penalty for rape cannot be rape, or for arson, the burning down of the arsonist’s house. We should not, therefore, punish the murderer with death. Capital punishment is a barbaric remnant of uncivilized society. It assures the execution of some innocent people. As a remedy for crime, it has no purpose and no effect. Capital punishment is immoral in principle, and unfair and discriminatory in practice. No one deserves to die. When the government metes out vengeance disguised as justice, it becomes complicit with killers in devaluing human life and human dignity.” -ACLU
