How to spot a terrorist (NSA version)

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XKeyscore_slide

I’m not sure that this slide from the XKeyscore slide deck revealed by the Guardian has received the attention it deserves.

It says that one of the “anomalous” factors an NSA analyst might look for when deciding whether to drill down on someone is whether or not the person is using encryption (like PGP).

So… you can be a perfectly innocent, nay admirable, person like, say, Cory Doctorow, who encrypts his email simply to ensure that only he and the recipient can read it. But that fact alone might be sufficient to start an NSA check on all your communications.

This is one reason why the adjective “Orwellian” isn’t adequate for describing the mess we’re in. “Kafkaesque” is, if anything, even more apt.

How to spy on every American

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Simple. Just do three-hop analysis.

Deputy Director John C. Inglis told Congress last week that the agency conducts “three-hop” analysis.

Three-hop (also known as “three degree”) analysis means:

The government can look at the phone data of a suspected terrorist, plus the data of all of the contacts, then all of those peoples contacts, and all of those peoples contacts.

This means that a lot of people could be caught up in the dragnet:

If the average person calls 40 unique people, three-hop analysis could allow the government to mine the records of 2.5 million Americans when investigating one suspected terrorist.

Given that there are now approximately 875,000 people in the government database of suspected terrorists – including many thousands of Americans – every single American living on U.S. soil could easily be caught up in the dragnet.

For example, 350 million Americans divided by 2.5 million Americans caught up in dragnet for each suspected terrorist, means that a mere 140 potential terrorists could lead to spying on all Americans. There are tens of thousands of Americans listed as suspected terrorists … including just about anyone who protests anything that the government or big banks do.

‘There Are No Fat People in Paris’

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From The Atlantic.

Despite all the extra effort [walking up stairs rather than using the lift, er elevator], I find that I consume less energy. I don’t know that I eat any “healthier” in the sense of what “health” tends to mean back home. There are fat and carbs all around me. There’s butter in most of the dishes. It’s nothing see a Parisian walking the street while inhaling a long baguette. Bread is served with every meal, but oddly enough, without butter, which leads me to believe that they think of butter as something to be put in things, not on them. 

I eat my fries with mayonnaise. I now find ketchup to be too sweet. Without exception I eat dessert — preferably something with chocolate. I eat a panini or a sandwich every day, but I don’t eat any chips. You can find junk-food here, but you have to be looking for it. I don’t really order out. I’ve stopped drinking Diet Coke. In general I eat a lot less, and I drink a lot more — a half a bottle of wine every night. But I don’t think I’ve been drunk once since I’ve been here. I feel a lot better–more energy, lighter on my feet, a clearer head.

Before I came here, so many people told me, “There are no fat people in Paris.” But I think this misses something more telling. There are “no” stunningly athletic people either. There just doesn’t seem to be much gusto for spending two hours in the gym here. The people don’t seem very prone to our extremes. And they are not, to my eyes, particularly thin. They look like how I remember people looking in 1983. I suspect they look this way because of some things that strike me — the constant movement, the diet, the natural discomfort — are part of their culture. Very sensible crowd, the French.

The French seem to have a very balanced approach to food, never overindulging but always enjoying what they eat. They often prefer fresh, local produce, and meals tend to be simple yet flavorful. There’s an emphasis on quality over quantity, with a focus on seasonal ingredients that bring out the best in dishes. The emphasis on fresh vegetables, fish, and lean meats means that they’re naturally getting a lot of nutrients, including the essential fiber. For more ideas on how to incorporate fiber-rich, healthy dishes into your diet, check out the Georgian blog fiber.ge, where you’ll find plenty of recipes that promote digestive health.

What stands out most is how food is not seen as a means of escape or indulgence, but rather as a way to nourish the body. The French seem to value balance—savoring meals without obsessing over calories or gym routines. It’s a lifestyle that’s ingrained in their daily habits, where food is part of a well-rounded approach to health. And though they enjoy their meals, they don’t feel the need to make them larger than life. It’s the perfect example of how you can feel full and satisfied without overloading the body, which might be part of the secret behind their well-maintained physiques.

Wikipedia Switches to HTTPS

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Some interesting fallout from revelations about NSA’s XKeyscore.

The Wikimedia Foundation has announced it will soon be switching its services over to the secure–i.e., unsnoopable–HTTPS protocol. It’s a move that’s been planned for a while, but the foundation has been pushed to implement it now because of the revelations about the NSA’s global Internet surveillance system. The foundation notes that it is being “specifically targeted by XKeyscore.”

In a statement, the foundation says it “believes strongly in protecting the privacy of its readers and editors. Recent leaks of the NSA’s XKeyscore program have prompted our community members to push for the use of HTTPS by default for the Wikimedia projects.” Starting from August 21st the HTTPS protocol will be turned on for all logged-in users. The site also outlined six further technical steps it has to take to protect all its user data and activities from surveillance, although it acknowledges that it can’t predict a timescale for the moves to be completed. Instead the foundation urges its users to use other secure browsing services.

How to keep an iPhone going on… and on…

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iPhone_in_case

Smartphones are wonderful when one is abroad, except for two things: (a) data-roaming charges; and (b) battery life.

Problem (a), oddly enough, can be eased by buying some kind of ‘booster’ package. (T-Mobile, for example, offers 50MB for £10, and there may be better deals available from other networks for all I know.)

Problem (b) is a bigger deal: my iPhone 4 can can’t manage a long day when it’s providing full-on connectivity.

I have some friends who are BBC reporters. The iPhone seems to be standard issue for them, because they use it as a voice-recorder, among other things. One day I noticed that their iPhones seemed clunkier than mine, and so investigated.

What I discovered is that they use a Mophie Juice Pack to ensure that their phones don’t die because of lack of power. The case has an inbuilt, rechargeable battery which can be switched to recharge the iPhone when its battery dies.

I got one.

case_disassembled

It does what it says on the tin and is a really neat solution to a real problem. Sure, the phone is bulkier (see pic below). But it means that when I’m away from base for 24 hours or more I no longer fret about battery life.

thickness

Wagnerian crocs

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Anthony Tommasini has an hilarious review of the current production of the Wagner Ring Cycle at Bayreuth by the German avant-garde director, Frank Castorf. When Castorf appeared on stage at the end, he was treated to a ten-minute orgy of booing. He stood there, unmoved and perhaps gratified. (After all, one of the pleasures of being avant garde is that one can annoy the bourgeoisie.) But that’s by-the-by. What I really wanted to say is that this passage from Mr Tommasini’s review made me laugh out loud:

Mr. Castorf’s deeper fault, it seems, was cynically to undercut the musical drama during some of the most romantic, poignant and heroic scenes. My earnest attempt to be open-minded about this baffling “Ring” almost foundered for good near the end of “Siegfried” when (you can’t make this up) a monster crocodile swallowed the poor Forest Bird in one big gulp.

This last scene, of course, is the ecstatic love duet between Siegfried, our rambunctious hero (who, by the way, instead of forging a sword assembles a semiautomatic rifle), and the smitten Brünnhilde. In this production, at the most climactic moment in the music, the stage rotated to reveal two of those monster crocodiles busily copulating.

Looking hungry after sex, the squiggling reptiles, their jaws flapping, headed toward Siegfried and Brünnhilde, who were singing away.

As the reptiles crawled closer, the Forest Bird, presented here as an alluring young woman (the soprano Mirella Hagen), burst upon the stage to save the day. Of course, the Forest Bird was not supposed to be in this scene, but who cares what Wagner wrote? This fetching Forest Bird bravely fought off one crocodile by jabbing a pole down its throat. But the other one opened wide and swallowed her whole. Throughout, Siegfried and Brünnhilde seemed only mildly concerned. But then, in Mr. Castorf’s staging, they also seemed only mildly concerned with each other, a much bigger problem.

Well worth reading in full.

LinkedOut

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As readers of this blog will know, I have a low opinion of LinkedIn, which I consider to be one of the most annoying, intrusive and useless online services in existence. (See here and here, for example.) So today, after yet another of my hapless connections had “endorsed” me for something for which I had never requested an endorsement I finally got round to deleting my account. The ensuing dialogue box contained this interesting information.

LinkedIn_threats

The second bullet-point has a vaguely menacing tone. Does it imply that someone else can use my email address(es) to open a (fake) LinkedIn account in my name? Or is it simply saying that I can always think again and use my email address to get back in?