Proposed DHS Rules May Cause The Deaths They Claim To Prevent
Back at the end of March, the Department of Homeland [in]Security issued rules stating that all electronics larger than a smartphone should be checked instead of kept in a carry-on on flights into the US from 10 airports or on 9 airlines from mainly Muslim countries in the middle east and north Africa. This was following claims by US and UK intelligence that terrorists are smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items to ‘target commercial aviation‘.
Not only does this not pass the smell test — anyone looking to bring down an aircraft with explosive devices won’t care if they’re in the cabin or the hold: boom is boom. The idea that items are going to go through some sort of super-secret screening is laughable, when red-team penetration tests find it trivial to get prohibited items onto aircraft (including via people with no ticket who bypass security screenings). And, of course, airports already require carry-on electronics to be x-rayed, and often swabbed for explosive residue. What’s more, I remember seeing ‘explosives smuggled on board’ hysteria since Pan Am 103 almost 30 years ago, where Czech explosive Semtex was suspected to be in everything from fake muesli to electronics following the use of just 12 ounces (340g) to blast a 50cm hole in the 747’s hold.
A more “credible” theory is potential “cyber warfare” (a pox on that term). With electronics out of sight of the passengers after check-in, access to them is far easier for ‘security services’. As well as allowing easy access to snoop on passenger electronics and data, there is a potential for far more nefarious actions in the tradition of Stuxnet.
Stuxnet was a worm that targeted a certain Siemens industrial control system primarily used by Iranian nuclear centrifuges. However, it spread via infected USB drives to computers, and from those computers to other USB drives, all the while using rootkits with compromised digital signatures to hide. It essentially used a digital version of ‘6 degrees of separation‘ to eventually infect its target. What better way to spread similar malware than to infect a bunch of computers on flights to the target country? It’s not just laptops either, cameras need memory cards and are just as easy to infect. As a theory, it’s got a lot to commend it, but that’s beside the point, because, remember, this is about ‘safety’ and people not taking bombs into aircraft cabins.
So fast forward to the present, and while expanding the ban has been kicked about, a JetBlue flight has shown the incredible danger of requiring electronics to be put into bags that often are kicked about.
May 30th’s JetBlue flight 915 (NY JFK to San Francisco) had to make an emergency landing in Michigan after a AA lithium battery in a backpack started to smoke. When it was noticed, the backpack was moved to the aircraft bathroom which presumably dislodged whatever was causing the short. Luckily that was enough to prevent the fire from getting started, which would have soon gotten out of control.
And therein lies the problem. Lithium battery fires are very dangerous, and one of the things that make them more dangerous than most other fires is that most of the things you’d do by instinct to put out a fire (smother it, put water on it) actually makes them worse. Realistically, the only way to deal with a lithium fire is to stop it before it starts, and while that happened this time, if it were in the hold we’d be looking at a downed Airbus A321 with 158 dead.
Airlines know this and have for a long time. In 2000, I tried to fly with 2 batteries in my checked baggage from the UK to San Francisco with Virgin, and to Las Vegas with TWA. The batteries, Hawker (now Enersys) SBS40‘s were 38Ah, 12v batteries (yes, you can easily start a car with them) and were packed safely into my checked baggage as well as being certified safe for air travel (they won’t leak if tipped or punctured). Virgin had no problems, but TWA flatly refused, citing a risk of fire in the hold (and at 28lb/12.7kg each, carry-on wasn’t an option)
Now bear in mind this is a battery designed for rugged use, puncture resistant and safe (which is why they were used in Battlebots entries, which is why I was taking them, for the Suicidal Tendencies team), in a fire-resistant case where the only available fuel might be some small amounts of hydrogen gas, and whatever items are around. Lithium batteries generally don’t come in rugged fire-resistant cases, provide their own fuel, and worst of all, physical damage (such as heavy-handed baggage handlers) can cause such damage.
If you want a more specific example of the risks, just cast your minds back to last year and the Samsung note7. With just the potential for a fire with note7 battery, they were banned from aircraft for safety reasons. They weren’t consigned to the hold, where they can cause problems without anyone noticing.
And it gets worse, Lithium-ion batteries are EVERYWHERE. Aside from the rechargeable AA and AAA batteries like the one that caught fire on flight 915, lithium batteries are in laptops and cameras. Here are some examples of lithium batteries I had to hand, that I’d take on a trip with me and have to check.
That’s a laptop battery, a digital camera battery, a phone battery and a video camera battery (I have 4 of these). One of them is 10 years old, that’s how long these batteries have been out there.
Any of these can cause an uncontrollable fire if mishandled (and sometimes, just from age). What’s more, any of these devices wouldn’t take much to rig with a short-range detonation using nothing more than their own battery as the bomb. A bomb which will pass all the cursory security checks because there are no obvious chemicals (RDX, TNT, etc) to detect.
As a policy to prevent bombings, it’s not useless, it’s actually WORSE than useless, as it makes it FAR easier to take down an aircraft with electronics, just by accident, let alone by design.
The only people who benefit from this policy were it to be enacted worldwide, would be the computer snoopers, and of course, the many thieves, pilferers, 5-finger-discount shoppers, and general low-life criminals that seem to be employed at most airports in their security/baggage handling/TSA departments. Anyone else is potentially flying corpse-class.
Now, some might say that in this case, having lithium-ion batteries of any kind on an aircraft — whether in checked luggage or carry-on — is a recipe for disaster, and that they should be banned in general. But what I’m saying is that they are more prone to fire through mishandling than other battery types, and that such a fire, once it has started and takes hold, is more difficult to get under control easily. Well-maintained, well-treated batteries are safe if they’re kept in the cabin, as any incident can at least be quickly addressed, as the recent JetBlue incident showed. Requiring they be put into baggage that is dropped, thrown, punted, squished, molested, rummaged through and otherwise mishandled, before being packed tightly into an aircraft hold unattended means that damage leading to a fire is far more likely, and that fire is unlikely to be discovered ? let alone extinguished ? before it is too late for the safety of the aircraft.
And if you’re wondering how to put out a lithium battery fire when started, the answer is to use a class-D fire extinguisher (which only works on metal fires) but in a pinch, salt (pun intended) or sand can be used. Good luck finding the former, or enough of the latter two at 43,000ft. In a pinch, you can use water in mist form to cool around the battery and bring its temperature down (this can take a LOT of water and time), while also isolating it from any other fuel where possible (which was done in this case). Again, this is not really feasible if the fire is in the hold. Here’s a demonstration of extinguishing a laptop battery fire, and how even when prepared, and waiting for it, with an extinguisher at the ready, it can still take a minute or two to put it out. Most people would be tempted to stop once the flames go out, allowing for re-ignition.
Reposted from the Politics & P2P blog
Look, you can't go expecting the cops to have to do things like "follow the law", and "know the law" - I mean if you're going to put restrictions like that on them, and make them abide by obscure things like 'the constitution', then why would anyone want to be a cop?
I suspect that the reason you can't "write a contract that says "it can remove you for any reason"" is not because of legal restrictions, but because of basic competence limitations.
Corruption in public office
Actions like this are some of the biggest means by which rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the basic competence of politicians. After all, competent politicians wouldn't put incompetent's judges in office, or allow them to continue. As for this judge, attempting to enforce an action using a law that was already deemed unconstitutional shows he's not fit for office. The question is if it's a case of him just not being mentally up to the task, if he's letting his personal/political feelings impact his judgement, or if he's literally been paid off to do this. Unfortunately for him, he fucked up, BIGLY. And it's time that judges be held to task for their inability to discharge their offices honestly and independently. So he should maybe face a corruption in public office investigation, and be suspended from the bench while it's ongoing.
No, that isn't 'practicing medicine', that is 'repeating established pharmacology'. And yes usually antiparasitics are not antivirals, they're two different things. I'm amazed you managed to type all that though, because all that twisting and spinning you had to do would have left me too dizzy to write anything resembling english. Is it due to practice, or is there a 'special trick' like dancers use to avoid getting dizzy when they do some crazy spinning?
Misconduct results should equal starting penalty
So, any misconduct should give - as a STARTING POINT - the same penalty as the inconvenience. So, he caused a false inprisonment of 128 days, and at least two more instances, so lets's say 130. So as a starting point, there's 130 days in prison for Hughes. As it was through deliberate choice (didn't just slip his mind, all this was premeditated) that should provide an aggravating factor, and double it. So there's 260 days in prison before anything else. This should be the STANDARD for any police officer caught acting improperly by falsifying, or concealing evidence - the case tossed and those that conspired get double the penalty they inflicted on others. It'd be a GREAT deterrent to that kind of dirty cop behavior. Next, as he had an illegal warrant, so let's start charging him with the crimes related to that. So that's breaking and entering, commission of a felony while armed. false imprisonment (kidnapping?) Oh, police officers not liking the charges being stacked like that? You prefer it when it's done to others not you? Tough shit. Can't do the time, then don't do the crime. Just do your job properly and honestly then.
:-P
footie is footie, not rugger
Australia has the AFL, which plays on an oval pitch, and has 4 goal posts (malbourne, richmond, collingwood, essendon, hawthorn and carlton all use the Melbourne Cricket Club as their home stadium, the GWSydney Giants use the GIANTS stadium, which was the olympic baseball stadium. And American football is like rugby for the under 5s (you pad them, let them take a break every minute or so, give them a small field and let them have 10 yards for 4 downs and not 5 downs for the whole field. About 20 years ago I looked into the possibility of an international charity game for 9/11 and when I asked plasyers of two NFL teams (I was at an event with both the oakland raiders and the SF giants in november 2001) they both said no, because rugby players are F**king crazy. and I've had rugby players say the same about Aussie-rules players. Likewise, these days Aussie politicians are rapidly turning into 'fucking nuts' people, crazy lunatics eager to destroy anything like cracked-up Bogans, with this idea of encryption bypassing. Because if you put in a backdoor to encryption you no longer have encryption much as that TSA padlock is less secure now than a velcro loop to hold your zip together, because velcro takes as long to open but also makes a noise (a point I made in this talk a few years back with EFF Kurt Opsahl's and AccessNow's Amie Stepanovich.
Weird how they couldn't ask Maricopa SO if they could borrow a drone, since they had 56 of them as of last summer.
Four Inspire 2's, sixteen M300's, eight Matrice 210's, and 28 Mavic 2s (four Zoom's, twelve Pro's, and twelve Enterprise Zoom's)
So, this incident that they need the drones for, happened inside Maricopa county, and yet 56 drones did nothing. What do they think PhoenixPD adding a few more would do?
Last I checked, they don't come with a 'time rewind' feature, where you can go fly one where it happened and then have it record what happened hours earlier.
BTW, I checked out the map. It's almost exactly 6 miles direct from Phoenix PD HQ to the incident (and a 7.7 mile drive). It is 8.8 miles to Glendale PD's HQ.
Distance from the incident to Maricopa County SO? 2.9 miles - its almost mid-way between the incident and the Phoenix PD HQ.
(anyone that knows the area, it's right by the Marshals and fed-ex distribution centers between broadway and buckeye just east of the 202)
There's this phrase I keep hearing "If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear", I just wish I could remember what the people who constantly repeat that phrase do for a living....
I for one would love to be a Big Tech Lobbyist. How do I go about that? I'm assuming it's well paid? So, how did all those people in your office become lobbyists, Blumenthal?
Whats that? You want me to "get off your lawn'"?
Thing is, first sale doctrine is a doozie.
They've sold it to someone and now it's theirs. Documents are not under copyright, so they can't make a copyright claim, and under the first sale doctrine they can distribute it out to anyone they want, as the SCOTUS made clear in Kirtsaeng.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
You'd have a point, if it wasn't that ContentID was developed in 2008
the US Copyright office just had a consultation on these systems and - as you'd expect with a Registrar of Copyrights that was the head of Legal for the IFPI when they were pushing SOPA/PIPA, they had a real hard-on for these systems. And by 'just' I mean 'it closed on the 9th'
That said, I already included a bunch of examples of similar stupidity, including my own experiences with the white/pink noise claims. forgot about this one though, so I didn't include it.
Typical for butts
They're often the arse of the area. and I say that having lived within 25 miles of Butts county for exactly 19 years today.
It's the county that had one of its LT's terrorize and falsely arrest contractors working on a home he got foreclosed on, to repair the vandalism he did.
That guy ran the county SWAT team, which is a busy one as it also covers the north side of Macon, and a lot of TV filming (stranger things, walking dead)... oh and the state prison and 'diagnostic hospital', including that special room where they diagnose prisoners to death.
They're even thinking of turning the county seat's name from Jackson, to JackASS.
But if they don't pay, what incentive does zombie (or perhaps after 63 years just an animate skeleton) Edvard Eriksen have to create more art?
More importantly, what incentive does Edvard Eriksen's kids have to do anything if they're not being paid for work from 109 years ago?
Yeah, but if those cops have to go out on the streets, they might die from fentanyl!
And if you replace tough, hardworking, strong NYPD officers with weak pathetic civilians (and totally glossing over that cops are civilians too) then think of the danger! if merely touching fentanyl can almost kill a cop, seeing a picture of it, or a report that references it will put some 'civilian employee' into some kind of coma at best!
And worse, with them not being part of the thin blue line of Omerta, what incentive is there for them to lose files and reports on officers and their actions when officers are being investigated, vital functions of officers in administrative roles.
Re: I'm not seeing the profit being made here
it depends what the difference is. If before they started doing this shit, they only brought in $20,000 in fines, the department thus went from costing half a million, to making a profit of 76 grand.
Re: UK variations
The machine talked about here is one of the station-based "intoximeters", not one of the handheld systems (I linked its manual above)
I'm the unnamed questioner, if anyone wondered.
So we have a product sold to the government, which misrepresents what it does and how it does it.
That sounds like the CEO has just admitted he committed fraud on Government Contracts. I suspect the FBI will not be investigating though.....