Blogs

Originally published in the Davis Vanguard

Last week, the ACLU sent a letter to Superintendent Winfred Roberson alleging that on the morning of May 12, 2011, a Davis High Student, Alana de Hinojosa "was pulled out of her class at Davis High in front of her teacher and all her classmates, and escorted by a school staff member to the office of the head campus supervisor. There, Ms. de Hinojosa was questioned by a sworn officer of the Davis Police Department, Officer Ellsworth, the High School's vice-principal, and another school staff member about her newspaper article."

The ACLU claims that at no point was she informed of her right not to answer questions or advised that she was free to leave the room.

Ms. de Hinojosa spoke to the Vanguard late last week. In her account she described the Davis police officer, Officer Ellsworth, as threatening her with legal and other consequences should she not turn over the names of individuals she interviewed when she wrote an article on graffiti artists and taggers.

Orignally published at CaliforniaProgressReport.com - Posted on 19 August 2011

By Eric Lee

BART actions to inhibit free speech activity isn't new to University of California students who earlier this year uncovered internal documents showing officials has conspired to monitor and control constitutionally-protected fee hike protests at UC Davis.

High-ranking University of California, Davis administrators including Chancellor Linda Katehi, several vice chancellors, more than 30 staff members, and campus police were involved, according to internal documents uncovered by students involved in the demonstrations.

Students and community members are particularly disturbed in light of similar Bay Area Rapid Transit police transgressions on the freedom to communicate.

calcala@sacbee.com
Published Friday, Aug. 19, 2011

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging what it calls "prolonged, coercive interrogations" of two Davis students earlier this year, and asking the school district to change policies to prevent a repeat.

Alana de Hinojosa and a second unnamed student were questioned by a Davis police officer at their schools in May after de Hinojosa wrote about graffiti and the other student did a documentary on it.

Stealing ATM PINs with thermal cameras

by Chester Wisniewski on August 17, 2011

At the USENIX Security Symposium last week, researchers Keaton Mowery, Sarah Meiklejohn and Stefan Savage from the University of California at San Diego presented their paper "Heat of the Moment: Characterizing the Efficacy of Thermal Camera-Based Attacks." [PDF]

Inspired by previous research on safecracking by Michał Zalewski, they thought it would be easier for a criminal to snoop on ATM PINs using a thermal (infrared) camera to detect residual heat from keypresses rather than current techniques using traditional video cameras.

Thermal imaging provides several advantages. Unlike with traditional cameras, visually masking the PIN pad does not defeat the attack, and the ability to automate PIN harvesting using computer software further simplifies the task.

Torture in the US Prison System: The Endless Punishment of Leonard Peltier

[...]

More than 20,000 inmates are caged in isolation in the United States at any one time. Originally designed as a temporary disciplinary action, solitary confinement has drifted into use as a long-term punishment. This act of inhumanity is a clear contradiction of the Eighth Amendment. During the Pelican Bay hunger strike that rippled into prisons across the country, a 66-year-old man with extreme medical needs, Leonard Peltier, was forced into "the hole" at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania.

Nightmarish as it is, what follows is fact.

FYI, the title is snark. More of Arthur Silber, here

Thank God for Obama's Enlightened and Transformational Leadership

Of course, God is one vicious sadist:
Citing the Defense of Marriage Act, the Obama administration denied immigration benefits to a married gay couple from San Francisco and ordered the expulsion of a man who is the primary caregiver to his AIDS-afflicted spouse.

Facial Recognition Software Takes One Glance at You and Brings Up Your Facebook Profile

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 08.05.2011 at 12:50 pm

Worried about privacy on the Internet? It may be even worse than you thought — with rapidly improving face recognition technology, your automatically tagged Facebook pictures could help a stranger, or the authorities, quickly identify you on the street.

A simple system that compares Facebook pictures and webcam snapshots can make a positive match after less than three seconds, according to Carnegie Mellon University researchers. Alessandro Acquisti and colleagues presented their findings at the Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas

“A stranger could know your last tweet just by looking at you,” Acquisti told CNET’s privacy blog.

Here's how I began a post six years ago

There are many reasons that hundreds of thousands if not millions of Europeans immigrated to the United States after it was discovered and before it became a country; some of which were economic, religious, or political, everyone of those people had a story.

D.A. MAY PRESS CHARGES WEDNESDAY AGAINST 71 TEACHERS, STUDENTS, SUPPORTERS ARRESTED AT CAPITOL; SOME QUESTION WASTE OF TAX DOLLARS

SACRAMENTO – The first of 71 teachers, students and supporters arrested and jailed after a peaceful, May 9 Wisconsin-type occupation of the State Capitol Rotunda have their first court appearance Wednesday at Sacramento Superior Court.

A rally and news conference by dozens of lawyers and those arrested will be held WEDNESDAY, 8 a.m. in front of the Courthouse (720 9th St.).

The hearings are scheduled at 8:30 a.m. in Dept. 3 and 4.

Legal observers are expressing surprise the District Attorney is even considering pressing charges, especially given the financial woes of the county that makes it difficult to prosecute serious, violent crimes. The California Highway Patrol arrested the 71 people for trespassing in a government building after hours "without lawful business."