LiamMcCalloway

I spent last Sunday's lunch explaining to my girlfriend the revolution that being able to compute your longitude was (I could not help myself). There were prizes offered by the trading companies and governments to whomever would devise a reliable way to determine one's longitude.

Conceptually, it's interesting that longitude is mostly useful only if you know your latitude (that's because 1degre of change in longitude does not translate to the same distance traveled whether you're at the equator or at the pole.)

Both U.S. navy ships had damage consistent with being hit head-on by merchant vessels. We're talking about the navy ships' hulls and structure resisting forces necessary to slow down the container ship enough that the ships can disentangle. I would not underestimate the forces that applied.

As a natural monopoly seems closer to the GP's argument.

The article is somewhat misleading in portraying Germany as a leader. In fact, these policies find their origin in the 2003 EU Energy Directive. What they describe is true in all the E.U. countries which met their respective renewable energy objectives as mandated by the E.U.

Newsdiffs.org is useful to track both minor and major changes made to stories.

More generally, it's a convenient if limited way into the publishing process. It deserves scrutiny, all the more so for those PR-type articles that essentially try to covey nonsense.

http://www.newsdiffs.org/article-history/www.nytimes.com/201...

You are looking for two things, not one, I think. You are looking for people who are abnormal in a select few categories (intelligence, physical ability), but also normal in all the others, say sociopathy or anxiety.

Incidentally, this is my gripe with 'intelligence' based selection systems in universities or companies. We conveniently forgo assessing people (and weighing) people's scores on categories other than intelligence.

Can you confirm it's got LTE _everywhere_? (6 continents)

I agree wrt security-through-community and its weaknesses. And indeed turning your guns inwards seems like the wrong move.

It's a nice way to alleviate the barrier to monetization that open-source-as-security poses. In short, instead of having lamdba user trusting 'the community' for security audits, now each user has to implement security measures.

This leaves users holding the bag. Well, it should work for you but remains subpar.

Congrats nonetheless.

I am surprised this exerpt from Alan Rusbriger's article in the New York Review of Books [1] hasn't made the rounds:

> "But I did have an interesting (unattributable, of course) briefing from someone very senior in one West Coast mega-corporation who conceded that neither he nor the CEO of his company had security clearance to know what arrangements his own organization had reached with the US government. “So, it’s like a company within a company?” I asked. He waved his hand dismissively: “I know the guy, I trust him.”

West Coast mega-corporation does not know what West Coast mega-corporation does.

[1] http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/nov/21/snowden...

As everyone is pointi ng out, usability is too low. A good target for usability would be TextSecure, the OTR for sms Android app (why I'm sure everyone is using).

Essentially, TextSecure works because: 1. It reverts to completely normal behavior if the recipient doesn't use TextSecure. 2. It automatically sets up keys if it recognizes the recipient uses TextSecure. 3. It never asks you for anything besides a password when you start the app the first time.

Point 2 is the difficult one for email, as is the the fact that people use email on a variety of devices, requiring syncing between computer/devices.

I would suggest emails get a X-smtg header which advertises the sending device is PGP capable, and the email client prompts the user automatically to set up key exchange. Remains syncing, which afaik isn't the hardest part.

Don't forget the Declaration of Independence:

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
 are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
 Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

EDIT: I quote it because it too makes a universal claim

What matters is that the message suggests that a German MP 'responsible for the supervision of the intelligence apparatus' is not certain whether German intelligence has access to PRISM and other related programs' data.

He's retaining a sense of humor:

> Our founders did not write that "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all US Persons are created equal."

I understand "direct access" to be the conflation of 2 different things: the first is the FISA-stamped requests to private companies for their records, and the second is the intercepts of data transmitted over the internet or phone networks by being listening in on the wires/radio-waves themselves (raw SIGINT). This seems overly schematic, however, and I would welcome corrections.

Saving you all ddging it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Christian_Str%C3%B6bele

Oh wow:

MP_Stroebele_GER 17 June 2013 3:53pm

Mr Snowden, as a deputy at the Bundestag (German Parliament) who is responsible for the supervision of the intelligence apparatus, I am eager to know if you have any knowledge about information which was given to the German Government or the Bundesnachrichtendienst by the NSA within the PRISM programme. If so, do you know how much and what kind of information was given to them and if the BND knew that it was gathered by PRISM? Best regards, Hans-Christian Ströbele

I think most people respond to their mails pretty much as they come in. I'd add that in corporate settings a norm of near immediate response has developed. I've set my timeout at 9999sec -- mutt throws in an error if I add a digit.

I don't use OSX, but can you comment on how easy key exchange is nowadays?

I have to admit that I have it set up and ready to roll, but pretty much no one I know is willing to take the plunge.

Set-up can be daunting, but I always found that entering one's password every time a new mail comes in is unbearable. They should highlight that the pgp password timeout can be changed to something less intrusive.

You're welcome. I'd be happy to read more on the same topic, if you stumble upon anything of interest.

I didn't check whether the paper was publicly available and not on gated publishers' websites, my apologies.

Academic version: http://db.tt/6UA1bXZq

DIVIDE AND CONQUER: DISTORTED COMMUNICATION IN NETWORKS, POWER, AND WEALTH DISTRIBUTION Wilson Perez-Oviedo

Cornell University and Banco Central del Ecuador

Abstract In a society composed of a dictator and its citizens, what are the determinants of the political equilibrium between these two? What are the conditions for a successful citizens’ revolt? What kind of strategies do governments follow to prevent such revolts? The situation of these types of societies can be understood as a game played between a leader, who has to decide the distribution of the aggregate income, and a group of citizens who have the opportunity to revolt if they are unhappy with the distribution. Coordinated action by citizens is possible because they form nodes in a communication network. However, communication through the network is distorted, which could preclude the emergence of collective action among citizens. The network structure and the distortion level are determinants of the political equilibrium and wealth distribution. The model explains how the dictator could use propaganda, cooptation, and repression to increase his expected utility. Finally, the model is illustrated by applying it to cases in Nigeria and Zaire/Congo.

A good watch before The Gatekeepers, both on its on terms and as on of the inspirations for the The Gatekeepers' director Dror Moreh.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. What did you think the fact that their maps did not show this island mean?

Not sure what you mean about SHOM?

The 2003 Directive you quote (2003/30) is for biofuels, whereas 2003/54 deals with renewable electricity. Both refer to 2001/77, which details the condition of access to the grid for renewables. The language is relatiely clear Art. 7 - 1, if we distinguish between "access to the grid" meaning in the first part "right to connect" and "right to output" in the second part.

> Without prejudice to the maintenance of the reliability > and safety of the grid, Member States shall take the necessary > measures to ensure that transmission system operators and > distribution system operators in their territory guarantee the > transmission and distribution of electricity produced from > renewable energy sources. They may also provide for priority > access to the grid system of electricity produced from renew-able energy sources. > When dispatching generating installations, > transmission system operators shall give priority to > generating > installations using renewable energy sources insofar as the > operation of the national electricity system permits.

However, it is superseded by 2009/28, which states in Art. 16 - 2 (a):

> Member States shall ensure that transmission system opera­tors and distribution system operators in their territory guar­antee the transmission and distribution of electricity produced from renewable energy sources

I believe the confusion stems from the distinction between right to connect to the grid and right to offload power to the grid. It seems clear the latter is indeed mandated at the E.U. level.

Renewable energy bills are paid for by consumers in their eletricity bills, as was made clear in the article.

As per the 2003 E.U. directive on renewable energy, renewables have priority access to the rid to offload their production. This is makes sense because it ensures full utilization of the assets and helps reduce their costs.

EDIT: grammar