Monthly Archives: November 2019

The Value of Working Expeditiously – The New York Times

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FRIDAY PUZZLE A puzzle by Robyn Weintraub that fought me, then yielded to me. I know I had a good time, because my cheeks hurt from all the smiling I did.

That is really what I remember from this solve. The process was as follows: Read clue, think about answer, receive a whammy of an Aha! moment, smile.

You cant ask for better than that on a Friday.

One of the things I really liked about Ms. Weintraubs puzzle is that while the puzzle contains only 70 words (as opposed to the maximum 78 for a puzzle that runs earlier in the week), it felt much more open than that. There are some fantastic long entries (LICKETY SPLIT, TIME IS MONEY, DIRECTORS CUT, RICE COOKER, ACT YOUR AGE, MINOR CHORD and DECODER RING stood out to me) and the rest of the fill is not only entertaining, its very clean. The cluing is fun and challenging too.

6A: Yes, I fell into the ALTO trap, too. I tentatively filled in AL-, which were correct. Then I entered the T and that was incorrect (I solve using Autocheck to keep me moving at file five columns a week speed). The role of LIESL, the Von Trapp daughter at 1A, actually calls for a mezzo soprano. So we know that the clue Range for 1-Across is not referring to her vocal range. The range in the clue is the ALPS, the mountains she and her family crossed to escape from the Nazis.

17A: You might be tempted to think about a steam engine for the clue Steam-powered device? but its really a hint at one of my favorite home appliances, the RICE COOKER, which also makes its debut today. You know what also fits in that slot? Instant Pot. But that is not the correct answer for this puzzle.

34A: I admit that I had to run the alphabet on this one. I had CRE_ _, and the pepper herb is CRESS.

38A: I got this from the crossings. ASLOPE is one of those words that you rarely use outside of crosswords, and On the up and up? is an interesting misdirection.

39A: In this puzzle, a Leasing unit is not a room, but a MONTH, because you can lease an apartment month to month.

4D: My nomination for Clue of the Year. There is an art to taking an extremely common word like SHE and figuring out how to dress it up with a clever clue. In this puzzle, we are asked to figure out the subject of the clue Marine mollusk exoskeleton vendor, in a tongue twister?

The trick is not to allow the first four, somewhat complex words in the clue to shut down your brain. First look at the tail end of the clue: in a tongue twister? There are only so many tongue twisters, which immediately narrows down the possibilities.

Now look at those four words at the beginning: How many tongue twisters do you know that revolve around someone selling marine mollusk exoskeletons? Thats right, the tongue twister is SHE sells seashells by the seashore.

10D: Another great clue, to go with an entry that is a lot of fun. The clue asks us for a Useful cryptography tool to have on hand? The key phrase is on hand. A cryptography tools helps people decode messages, and having one nearby or on hand is very convenient. But thats not where this clue is going. It wants us to think about a tool that you would actually have on your hand: a DECODER RING.

24D: Hand up if you entered TAO for the clue The way. I did too. Heres the thing: If we stayed with that answer, then 23A would begin with the letters CT, which is unlikely; 27A would be SHARES, which is not a good answer for Props (up); and 29A would be SHOOERCAP instead of SHOWERCAP. Thats just silly.

So instead, the answer is HOW, as in Show me HOW/Show me the way. Peter Frampton knew that all along.

26D: The Ones turning up the volume are not rock bands. They are LIBRARIANS, who help readers find books (also known as volumes).

29D: [Sound of a record needle being dragged across vinyl] Hold up. I need to climb up on my soapbox for this. Monty Pythons Flying Circus is not what I would call a SLAPSTICK troupe. Sure, they did a few SLAPSTICK things, like pies in the face, being knocked into a canal during the Fish-Slapping Dance and maybe the Ministry of Silly Walks if you really want to count that, but their genre is really satire and surreal sketch comedy. Also, they are brilliant and I love them.

31D: Great misdirection. Winter setting in Tinseltown" sounds like a snowy paradise, doesnt it, with tinseled Christmas trees and snow white expanses as far as the eye can see but its not. Tinseltown is a nickname for Hollywood, Calif. and the time setting on the West Coast is Pacific Standard Time, or PST.

I was very pleased with myself for my clever clue for DECODER RING: Handy cryptography tool? If only Id been able to take it a step further to the absolutely perfect upgrade that appears today: Useful cryptography tool to have on hand. To have on hand! I was so close.

Some of my favorite clues today: This might sound sad for MINOR CHORD, Shopping destination that sounds risqu for STRIP MALL and Marine mollusk exoskeleton vendor, in a tongue twister as a twist on an old clue for SHE.

I was 99.9 percent certain that my original ART HISTORY clue wouldnt make the cut: Major for those who want to learn Manet things?, but I just thought it was so stupidly adorable that I submitted it anyway (does this qualify as a bad DAD(S) joke?). At least I got to share it here.

Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? Weve got you covered.

Warning: There be spoilers ahead, but subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.

Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here.

Your thoughts?

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The Value of Working Expeditiously - The New York Times

The Xi Effect Chinese Government to Fund Blockchain Projects – Bitcoin News

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Chinese President Xi Jinpings announcement that the country would invest heavily in blockchain technology coupled with a sweeping move to remove online posts suggesting such technology is a scam has nourished optimism long-held by crypto advocates. Of course, the reality is that Chinas marked shift towards pro-blockchain policies is part of a much wider trend which has seen Asian multinationals and governments embrace the considerable potential of distributed ledger technologies.

Also read: China Ranks 35 Crypto Projects as President Xi Pushes Blockchain

President Xis announcement centered on the creation of a state-backed digital currency (a stablecoin tied to the renminbi), an idea which has been gestating since the countrys central bank started exploring the possibility as far back as 2014. With the dawn of a new decade, a law will come into effect on January 1 with the aim of facilitating the development of the cryptography business and ensuring the security of cyberspace and information.

It is predicted that the currency in question will launch soon after, although perhaps the possibility of blockchain technologies powering the continued transformation of Chinas vast industries is of greater significance. Xi specifically mentioned that the technology could be applied to realms including finance, public services, employment, education and infrastructure management. Its all a far cry from 2017, when the government imposed a general ban on all crypto businesses and exchanges. From deep suspicion, to a state-supervised (albeit heavily surveilled) cryptocurrency, in just two years is quite a turnaround.

Soon after the announcement was made, the local government of Guangzhou announced a $150 million fund for outstanding blockchain projects, with more initiatives expected in the near future.

Needless to say, the news which provoked a huge spike in search traffic for terms like blockchain and bitcoin hasnt harmed the prospects of Asian crypto projects in general, with stocks of various blockchain companies in the region soaring. On the markets, some of this weeks biggest beneficiaries have been Chinese blockchains, even if theres nothing to suggest theyre due to receive an influx of fresh business from government enterprises. In fact, six of the seven best-performing crypto assets in the top 50 this week have Chinese origins. Bitcoin cash, up 38% in the past seven days, is the only outlier.

Other companies seem to be riding the wave or at least benefiting in a roundabout way from the prevailing mood music: South Korean conglomerate Samsung has just announced the integration of Tron (TRX) with the Blockchain Keystore found on the Galaxy S10. As well as facilitating the creation of decentralized applications (dapps) running on the Tron ecosystem, the Keystore will let users access and trade TRX directly from the wallet on their handset. Perhaps coincidentally, industry sources are mulling over rumours that Samsung is outsourcing a part of its smartphone manufacturing to China.

Samsung has been experimenting with blockchain technologies for some time now, and with their growing dapp arsenal, their long-term strategy seems positively crypto-centric. It isnt the only smartphone company testing the blockchain waters either; Taiwanese electronics giant HTC has also invested heavily in decentralized services and a blockchain-powered handset, the Exodus 1, and its successor, the 1s, which can run a full Bitcoin node.

The long-term effect of Chinas increasingly pro-blockchain outlook remains to be seen, and until its state cryptocurrency is hatched and various policies put into action, we wont be able to quantify the consequences for blockchain technology and digital currencies more generally. That said, interest in the region is largely unrelated to the Presidents ringing endorsement; according to a report by the Financial Times, Chinese companies have filed more patents on blockchain than companies from any other region in the world. A significant percentage of bitcoin mining is concentrated in the region, and many of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges are either based or were founded in the Asian continent, from Beijing and Singapore to Hong Kong and Tokyo. Regardless of its real ramifications, Asian crypto companies were never going to let President Xis decree go to waste.

Do you think Chinas pro-blockchain legislation will benefit Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Coincodex.

Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see whats happening in the industry.

Kai's been manipulating words for a living since 2009 and bought his first bitcoin at $12. It's long gone. He's previously written whitepapers for blockchain startups and is especially interested in P2P exchanges and DNMs.

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The Xi Effect Chinese Government to Fund Blockchain Projects - Bitcoin News

Fired-up Gun backs campaign to free Assange – Camden New Journal newspapers website

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Julian Assange

KATHARINE Gun, whose exposure of a dirty Iraq War secret the government tried to hide is sticking her neck out again!

In the Hollywood film version of Guns life Official Secrets she is played by Keira Knightly she is seen working for GCHQ when she stumbles on a CIA email trying to blackmail UN Security Council members and leaks it to the press.

Now she is daring to publicly support the campaign to free Julian Assange who appears to be Britains No 1 pariah. She has allowed her photograph and statement backing him to appear on a leaflet distributed by his few supporters.

Assange has served his time for breach of bail but the establishment is keeping him in custody in the tightest security jail in the UK, Belmarsh, south London.

He should be on bail awaiting an extradition hearing next February to the US but, punitively, Westminster Magistrates Court maintain he is a flight risk and should remain in jail. He is kept 23 hours in solitary and only allowed out of his cell for a short period on his own. He is not allowed to mix with other prisoners.

But decency, which boils down to a moral judgment, is clearly lacking in this case.

Katharine Gun on the leaflet with her statement in support of Julian Assange

The fact is Assange has been abandoned by both the mainstream media as well as liberal opinion and Labour and Left protesters.

A protest outside the BBC in Langham Place, West End, on Saturday gathered just a 100 or so protesters mainly middle aged and elderly women and men and a sprinkling of a youngsters. But where was the so-called Left that are often accused of taking over public protest gatherings? I didnt see a single face of any Camden Labour or Lib Dem member. I didnt see any poster from the Labour Party or the Lib Dems.

And there certainly werent any posters from far-left groups.

Why? Because he is not a particularly well-liked person he was alleged to have committed acts of sexual assault in Sweden and fled to the UK, then he is believed to have lost a great deal of money friends had offered up as a bail surety before he sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy.

Moral judgments do not appear to play the part they should have in public dissent. The moment public dissenters think you are not a nice sort of person they are likely to walk by when you need them most.

Conditions in Belmarsh are notoriously bad. Even convicted criminals should not be kept in those conditions. Conditions in British prisons have never been as bad as they are today, mainly because of cuts in staffing and resources, something the Prison Justice ministry admit.

But, it is clear, the Home Office is determined to keep him inside a jail, whatever the conventions of the law. Is that to appease the US government who want him for trial in the US?

Who is Julian Assange? He is an Australian, a publisher and a journalist.

He helped to leak documents that exposed secrets the US wanted to keep from the public. For that he is paying a terrible price. In the past few years a strong authoritarian streak has begun to run through various governments.

Youd think newspapers and independent TV channels, like Channel 4, would take up his cause. Even if they didnt feel it breached the hallowed canons of press freedom there is the moral issue a man being kept of solitary confinement. Perhaps, all they can see is the original allegations of sexual assault, and that, to them, is enough to justify his incarceration.

It all comes down to moral judgments. Libertarians and lefty protesters are quick to rush to the barricades on big sweeping issues the Iraq war, Brexit but they often flounder on moral issues.The only public figure who dared to attend the protest was Ken Livingstone but then, condemned by more than 100 Labour MPs as anti-semitic, he is used to being treated as a pariah.

He made a very short speech, mainly against the machinations of US policy, and left. I have to go to look after the kids, he apologised. He is 74, and in quite good shape though suffering a bit from arthritis.

The next protest by the small band of brethren who feel Assange is getting a raw deal will be held outside the Home Office on November 5.

Then another at St Pancras Church on November 28 where journalist John Pilger, academics and artists will appear.

Excerpt from:
Fired-up Gun backs campaign to free Assange - Camden New Journal newspapers website

Edward Snowden says Facebook is just as untrustworthy as the NSA – Vox.com

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American whistleblower Edward Snowden is living a life of exile in Russia because he shared thousands of top-secret government documents with journalists. But six years after he exposed how the US government surveils the digital lives of everyday Americans, Snowden is not just worried about the powers of government agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA), hes concerned about big technology companies, too.

In an upcoming interview with Recodes Kara Swisher on the Recode Decode podcast, Snowden said he thinks its a mistake to see the NSA as a bigger threat to privacy than tech companies.

Facebooks internal purpose, whether they state it publicly or not, is to compile perfect records of private lives to the maximum extent of their capability, and then exploit that for their own corporate enrichment. And damn the consequences, Snowden told Swisher. This is actually precisely the same as what the NSA does. Google ... has a very similar model. They go, Oh, were connecting people. They go, Oh, were organizing data. Although, Snowden said, these companies still dont know as much as the government, which can gather information from all of the many tech platforms.

Snowden was talking to Swisher about the publication of his new book, Permanent Record, in which he details his journey from an idealistic young national security contractor, eager to help protect the US from foreign threats in the aftermath of 9/11, to a disillusioned whistleblower. The massive government surveillance effort he revealed in 2013 wouldnt be possible without the data-gathering that tech companies do in the first place, Snowden said.

The more Google knows about you, the more Facebook knows about you, the more they are able ... to create permanent records of private lives, the more influence and power they have over us, Snowden told Swisher. There is no good reason why Google should be able to read your email. There is no good reason why Google should know the messages that youre sending to your friend. Facebook shouldnt be able to see what youre saying when youre writing to your mother.

Snowden also pointed out that the Fourth Amendment which protects citizens from searches unless law enforcement has a warrant or probable cause only applies to government, not to companies. So while the FBI might need a warrant to probe your inbox, theres no constitutional barrier to a company like Facebook searching and retrieving peoples private information without a judges approval.

The former NSA systems engineer said to better protect people from being exploited by the data collection of major tech companies, the US should have software liability laws. These would be similar to consumer product liability regulations that can hold companies and executives responsible for selling physical goods that harm people.

We have serious liability laws in every other sector, said Snowden. If you produce medicine and put it on the shelves and your baby aspirin kills babies, you get sued. You go to jail, right? If you build a car and it catches on fire and kills people, you get sued, your company might get shut down, you might go to jail. We have no software liability laws in the United States.

Recently, companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon have come under fire by regulators for their perceived negative effects on society from alleged monopolistic practices to data breaches.

When you look at technologists as a class, were at a fork in the road, said Snowden. There is a class led by Mark Zuckerberg that is moving toward the maximization of technological power and influence that can be applied to society because they believe they can profit by it or, rightly or wrongly, they can better use the influence that their systems provide to direct the world into a better direction. ... And then you have this other fork in the road where there are people ... [who] go, The advance of technology is inevitable and technology can do very good things for the world, but we need to understand that there must be limits on how that technological power and influence can be applied.

Snowden also pushed back on the idea that people dont care about their data privacy because they still use services like Facebook that have notoriously failed to steward user data.

People actually care. They care very much. But they feel powerless to change it, said Snowden, so they adopt a position of laissez-faire, I dont care, as a psychological coping mechanism, because otherwise you are being victimized, and thats a difficult thing to deal with.

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Edward Snowden says Facebook is just as untrustworthy as the NSA - Vox.com

What is Pegasus, the chosen tool for total surveillance? – Livemint

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New Delhi: You have heard the name Pegasus by now. The spyware, developed by Israel-based security company, NSO Group Technologies, was used to hack and snoop on journalists, lawyers and activists in India, presumably by the government. What does Pegasus do? How does it work?

According to the spywares product details, uploaded to document cloud by Claudio Guarnieri, Head of Security Lab at Amnesty International, Pegasus is meant to infiltrate smartphones silently and work on three things -- collect historic data on device, continuously monitor activity and transmit this data to a third party.

Other than Android and iOS systems, Pegasus can also penetrate Symbian and BlackBerry-based devices. The malware can infect devices via phishing text messages that trick users into clicking a particular link, using the over-the-air update system and more. In WhatsApps case, it used a vulnerability in the app that allowed infection through missed video calls. This security gap was plugged by WhatsApp back in May this year.

The same was confirmed by WhatsApps Global Head, Will Cathcart, through an op-ed in the Washington Post.

In all forms of installations, the spyware completes the process in the background, completely out of the users notice. This, combined with the fact that Pegasus doesnt require the users attention is one of the reasons why the spyware is so dangerous and popular amongst security contractors.

The iOS version of this spyware was found first (in 2016), while it was revealed to be on Android too, by security firm Lookout, at the Security Analysts Summit, 2017. Chrysaor, is the name assigned to the Android version of Pegasus by Google.

Lookouts technical analysis of Pegasus and the product document shared by Guarnieri, both clarify one thing -- that WhatsApp isnt the only sufferer. Its reach spreads much beyond that. As for surveillance, lets be clear: Were talking total surveillance," wrote security firm Kaspersky in a blog post.

Once on your phone, Pegasus has access to data thats already on your phone, including photos, videos, text messages, email apps, browsing history, contact list, location, files, other messaging apps (like Viber, Skype, Messenger) etc. It can also listen to you and sounds around you through the phones microphones, record incoming and outgoing calls, capture screenshots and use the phones camera to take photos.

Further, Pegasus doesnt transmit data when a smartphone is on roaming unless its on WiFi. This is of course done to hide its tracks, since users might notice high data usage bills while roaming. Instead, the spyware collects and stores data on your phone in an encrypted buffer, waiting to transmit it once youre out of roaming. It does the same when the phone doesnt have an active Internet connection or is at under 5% battery.

To ensure you never find out, Pegasus is designed to never use more than 5% of the free space on your phone. So, if you have 10GB of free space the malware will use only about 500MB at a time, something thats near impossible to detect on a smartphone, even if youre checking. Pegasus removes data on a first in first out basis if it hasnt been able to transmit to its servers for a while.

NSO has created an intuitive" front-end for users of Pegasus to parse through the data they gather. This allows operators of the programme to easily sift through the tonnes of data they might be getting through Pegasus.

Interestingly, theres no real way to avoid a Pegasus attack other than the regular best practices. Security experts have repeatedly advised against downloading suspicious files, clicking on unknown links etc. and those remain the best way to fight this malware.

Here are some of the famous surveillance programs:

RCSAndroid: An Android surveillance tool designed by Milan-based company, Hacking Team. It is a data collection tool sold to law enforcement and government agencies. It was disguised as a news app on the Play Store and somehow escaped Googles security scans.

DROPOUTJEEP: A program which was revealed to have been the go to tool for the US National Security Agency (NSA), allowing it to compromise Apples iPhones. It could access files on the device, read SMS texts, voicemail messages and more.

XKeyscore: The NSA, in its training material, called this its widest reaching" system for gathering intelligence off the Internet. XKeyscore was amongst the programs revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Livestrong: An exploit used by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to compromise devices running on Android 4.4 KitKat, revealed by WikiLeaks as part of the famous Vault7 data dump.

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What is Pegasus, the chosen tool for total surveillance? - Livemint

UK art exhibition for Julian Assange: If courage was not contagious, I wouldn’t be here today – World Socialist Web Site

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By Paul Bond 1 November 2019

In the face of a media blackout and state-orchestrated vendetta, support for Julian Assange is growing among artists. An Exhibition of Free Expression by three local artists on the UKs Isle of Wight offered a revealing glimpse of popular opposition to the attempts to silence the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and award-winning journalist.

The subtitle of the show, which ran until November 1 and included the work of Anna Fauzy-Ackroyd, Nicola Gibbs and Henriette Burns, was An exhibition dedicated to the defence and freedom of Julian Assange. Launching the exhibition, Fauzy-Ackroyd gave a half-hour presentation titled, Courage Is Contagious, explaining how the idea for the show had come about.

During her regular attendance at Gibbs weekly art class, Fauzy-Ackroyd had discussed Assanges case. She and Gibbs had agreed on the need to defend Assange. Subsequently, Fauzy-Ackroyd discovered that Burns had also dedicated work to Assange, and the three of them agreed to curate an exhibition in his defence.

All three artists produce colourful abstract expressionist work. This is not an exhibition of artistic representations ofor responses toAssanges situation, so much as a group of artists using their existing work, and their current artistic practice, to draw attention to the journalists plight.

Publicity for the exhibition featured Assanges comment that If war can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth. For courageously publishing the truth, Assange has been charged under the US Espionage Act and faces 175 years in prison. The imperialist powers, led by the US, UK, and Australia, are attempting to destroy Assange and WikiLeaks. The defence of truth and the publics right to know have become revolutionary questions.

Art was very close to Assanges heart, Fauzy-Ackroyd told the WSWS. In her presentation at the shows launch, she quoted Assange that even where words are silenced, creativity can transcend censorship.

Fauzy-Ackroyd is an articulate and informed defender of Assange. In the materials prepared for the exhibition she provided a list of independent and alternative media sources, including the WSWS, as offering useful information on Assange and his defence. She was pleased to learn that a WSWS reporter was present, indicating that she reads its coverage regularly and that her respect for it had gone up and up.

Courage Is Contagious gave a useful overview of Assanges case and WikiLeaks role in publishing material in the public interest with a 100 percent accuracy rate. Fauzy-Ackroyd also outlined her own participation in the campaign for Assanges freedom. She had first become aware of WikiLeaks in 2010, after a friend had shown her the Collateral Murder video. As she put it, this video encapsulated ongoing war crimes.

She had followed the case closely, but when Assange obtained asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy she had taken it on trust that he was now safe. That view changed dramatically in April when she saw the footage of Assange being brutally dragged from the embassy.

Fauzy-Ackroyd outlined the illegality of the revocation of Assanges asylum, and the shocking personal privations to which he has been subjected. Her presentation was clear about the implications for Assanges health, and the political motivations for attacking him and Chelsea Manning.

One of the first government ministers to denounce Assange after his removal from the embassy was Isle of Wight Conservative MP Bob Seely, a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, who wrote an op-ed in the Telegraph. Fauzy-Ackroyd replied with a letter of complaint to the newspaper detailing the blatant inaccuracies in Seelys report. She received no response.

Since then, she has been active in letter-writing and promoting the work of the Julian Assange Defence Committee. Her letter in June to local website On the Wight, raising concerns for Assanges life, elicited a sympathetic response. The presence of two dozen people at her launch eventin a broadly conservative local environmentis indicative of a change taking place.

Fauzy-Ackroyds concluding remark pointed to the implications of growing public support for the imprisoned WikiLeaks journalist and publisher: If courage was not contagious, I wouldnt be here today.

An Exhibition of Free Expression: Dedicated to the defence and freedom of Julian Assange, at Monkton Arts, Ryde, Isle of Wight, until November 1.

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UK art exhibition for Julian Assange: If courage was not contagious, I wouldn't be here today - World Socialist Web Site