Sure, but how likely is it, really?
Clearly the government knows something about how to track terrorists that I don’t. Because, honestly, I would never have supposed that terrorists would even consider using an anonymous, but public, online virtual world to organize or plan some kind of nefarious attack. But over the last year, we’ve seen examples of the Feds wanting to investigate more into these worlds — the intel community wants to find evildoers in “Second Life” and “World of Warcraft.” Heck, Congress held a much-ridiculed hearing on “Second Life” in April.
But the man on the intersection between military, intelligence and technology, Noah Shachtman, points us to a recent presentation by Dr. Dwight Toavs, a professor at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University. He outlined a possible scenario of how terrorists might use “World of Warcraft” to plan for, and possibly rehearse, an attack on the White House.
In it, two World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the “White Keep” inside the “Stonetalon Mountains.” The major objective is to set off a “Dragon Fire spell” inside, and make off with “110 Gold and 234 Silver” in treasure. “No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast,” one player, “war_monger,” crows.In this example, the “White Keep” is the White House and the 110 gold and 234 silver refer to coordinates so that the plotters can align and overlay a map of Washington on top of an in-game map, and so forth.
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Dr. Dwight Toavs, via Danger Room
Is this really a plausible scenario? I mean, it would seem that getting groups of disparate terrorists who already know the language substitution codes on a game where they probably would be spotted as newbs pretty quickly would be fairly elaborate. That’s, of course, aside from the fact that “World of Warcraft” currently doesn’t even support Arabic — despite the fact that there are Arabic-speaking WoW players. Further, while we know that these guys use YouTube (in a really basic way), they’re not exactly the most tech-savvy crowd here.
I called Steven Aftergood, of the Federation of American Scientists, who has been watching the intel community for awhile now, to see how plausible that terrorists would infiltrate “World of Warcraft.”
“I thought it was possible that the presenter was using ‘World of Warcraft’ as a metaphor for various kinds of new technology options that were not available in the recent past, but that need to be considered today,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything about ‘World of Warcraft’ or ‘Second Life’ or whatever it may be that is uniquely suited to terrorist planning.”
He added that what the intelligence community needs to worry about more is other technologies that don’t require as much skill to understand, acquire and operate that would give attackers a significant advantage over yesterday’s adversaries. These include hand-held GPS devices and high-quality online digital mapping, like Google Maps or Google Earth.
Then again, Bruce Schneier, a noted security expert, boils it down to the following maxim: “Google Earth is not the problem; the problem is the availability of short-range missiles on the black market.”
Fake text messages give false voting information
Obama prevailed, but there were still troubling problems with the voting process. Isn't it time to standardize federal elections?
This election has been full of superlatives and firsts. I’ve never been prouder to be an American abroad than right now. The historic rise of this unlikely candidate, in the unlikely story that is America, fueled by this unlikely swelling of the online masses donating in unprecedented numbers, is nothing short of historic and astonishing.
But there were also a few troubling episodes on the technological front, with text messages and e-mails being used as a way to perpetuate false information.
Wired reported late last night that voters in Florida and New Mexico received a fake text message from 505-507-6041 that says things like: “Due to long lines if you are voting for Barack Obama you can vote tomorrow,” or “Due to the long lines today, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday.”
The AP adds that there have been reports of similar “robo-calls” and fake texts in Missouri and that the Missouri secretary of state and U.S. Attorney’s Office have been notified. I’m glad that this wasn’t widespread enough to have made a difference, but it’s still a troubling development.
But that’s not all. Thousands of students at George Mason University received an e-mail spoofed to look like it was from Provost Peter N. Stearns saying that “election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.” Apparently the FBI is on the case.
And finally, while the outcome of the election was by a pretty overwhelming margin, there were still problems with electronic voting in numerous states, although not enough to have any sort of real impact.
Still, we as a country really need to have a single standard for federal elections, get rid of these awful e-voting machines, and streamline this whole process so we don’t have to deal with this kind of crap anymore.
On a more personal and professional note, I share with you the news that this is my last post in Machinist, which is going on hiatus beginning tomorrow.
I thank all of you for reading and for your thoughtful and critical comments. If you’d like to follow me and/or any of my other work on public radio or elsewhere, you can do so on my blog: cyrusfarivar.com (where I’ll be announcing the result of our little trial voter-verified election), and/or you can email me at cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org.
Cheers!
CNN debuts hologram technology to beam people in 3-D
Yellin to Blitzer: "[I feel] a bit like Princess Leia right now."
Among the wackiest technologies that I’ve seen during this election night is CNN’s hologram technology — something that was predicted back in the Star Wars era.
There’s not much info as to exactly how this stuff works, other than what USA Today has reported:
CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There’ll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.
Jessica Yellin was the first CNN reporter to be “beamed” to the New York newsroom, where Wolf Blitzer interviewed her — and she reported that there were only 35 cameras pointed at her, and that “talk to the cameras in New York.” Apparently representatives in the Obama campaign in Chicago and the McCain campaign in Phoenix will be interviewed as holograms later in the evening.
It’s still unclear who makes this hologram technology, nor how much it costs, nor how exactly it works — nor when I’m going to get it in my house. Man, and I was just getting used to Skype video chat. Still, scope out the video below.
Top 10 songs to rock your Obama victory party
From reggaeton to techno, he's everywhere.
At the risk of being a bit premature, I decided to poke around the Internet to find what tunes I could spin to spice up my Obama victory party tonight. After consulting Wired, About.com and this massive list on YouTube, I’ve come up with my Top 10 Obama songs:
1) Mariachi Aguilas de Mexico – Viva Obama
This is without a doubt the best Obama song that I’ve seen so far. It’s got catchy lyrics — Viva Obama! — snappy outfits, a line about healthcare, and that female violin player? Muy caliente!
This half Kenyan band (just like Obama!) rock out on this chillaxed benga track. Great guitar riffs.
Jamaican reggae star Coco Tea recorded this tune earlier this year, earning a small writeup in the Jamaica Observer at the time.
As he told the newspaper:
“If you notice, Obama is getting a lot of support from the young people, and when the younger generation begin to call for change, it usually comes, as they and the future, and Obama’s future is in their hands. Support for Obama is also coming from other quarters including the Kennedy family, as he is seen as the man with a plan, therefore I was guided by Jah on this one.”
How can you argue with Jah?
4) Docta Musica WashiWara – Barack Obama
This tune comes to us from Cameroon, and if you believe what the Docta says on his Web site: “The video has quickly becomed a big hit on Youtube.” Indeed.
5) crbballgal – BARACK THE VOTE!
How can I deny two fly girls, an ’80s-style synth, and rapping in front of a bathroom mirror? Well done, ladies.
6) Mighty Sparrow – Barack the Magnificent
Mighty Sparrow is the world’s leading calypso singer, hailing from the island of Grenada. Cop a read on the lyrics over here — I’m sure this is the first time that the phrase “Foreign Relations Committee” has worked its way into a calypso song.
7) Obama Song Spanish Reggaeton
I’m not sure who wrote this song, but nothing makes me want to sing “Si se puede!” louder than this reggaeton tune.
Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
This song debuted just two days ago at a rally in Cleveland, so if you drop this joint at your fiesta, you’ll definitely be about 75 percent as cool as the Boss himself.
Although college a capella may get mocked on Stuff White People Like, this cover of the famed will.i.am song is perfectly pulled off by Barackapella, a group from Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. (Also, don’t forget the parody, by john.he.is!)
I really, really hope that this is the first song that the Obamas dance to at the inagural ball. Or at least at the party in Chicago tonight.
Where to watch election results live online
And people, please go vote.
CBS screen shot
If you’re like me, you’re going to spend Election Night pretty much glued to the Internet, waiting for news to pop up wherever it might — on Twitter, blogs, YouTube and, yes, that good ol’ stalwart, the mainstream media. Usually I don’t watch television, but there are a few instances — like today — when I actually do want to watch something like CNN with the graphics, the analysis, the whole shebang. Further, I’m abroad, so it’s not like I can simply hop over to my local bar to watch election results (here’s a handy map showing when the polls close). So where can I go to watch live coverage online?
CNN is offering live coverage here and here. I’ve also found CBS‘s coverage to be working well so far — as of this writing, CBS has a camera trained (sans commentary) on a gym in Chicago where Obama is voting. (See photo at top.)
Oh yeah, and don’t forget about the ever-reliable C-SPAN.
Apparently ABC and MSNBC will be offering live coverage online as well, but I haven’t been able to find the respective sites yet.
There’s also this gray-market online streaming site, Channel Chooser, which offers both American channels and foreign ones, including BBC, France 24, Al Jazeera English and Sky News Australia.
Alley Insider has a bunch of live feeds from the McCain and Obama camps and some conservative Christian groups as well.
For live radio coverage, there’s NPR and CBC.
The New York Times has built a neat little election dashboard that updates every two minutes, and Google has gotten in on the action with its own map-based results page.
And finally, of course, there’s Salon’s own coverage.
Happy voting!
France flexes its tech muscle with pending bill, new policies
If Digital France 2012 passes, l'Hexagone could see a slew of new tech-related laws.
The French seem to be all over all kinds of new, far-reaching digital policy.
First, the French Senate “voted overwhelmingly” (297-15) late last week to create a sort of digital three strikes law, which after the third strike, would cut people off from the Internet. It’s not entirely clear how a law like this would be enforced, especially considering the fact that people can access the Internet from home, from their workplace, and also from free, public Wi-Fi hot spots, not to mention at other locations such as a public library.
The bill now heads to the French National Assembly for final approval.
But, as the BBC reported this morning:
If enacted, the law will put France on a collision course with Brussels, which rejected a call to impose such “three strikes” laws across Europe in April 2008.
Throwing people offline, it said, conflicted with “civil liberties and human rights”.
Second, late last month Eric Besson, a Sarkozy cabinet minister in charge of the “development of the digital economy,” presented a new 81-page Digital Plan 2012 for France, which apparently was one of Sarkozy’s presidential campaign promises.
If enacted, this would be one of the most ambitious technological policy plans in Western Europe in recent years. (And while I don’t mean to harp on Estonia, the Baltic powerhouse has had a few of these items, like digital ID cards and health records, for some time now.)
Among other things, the report says that “high-speed Internet,” like water and electricity , is “essential.” And as such, 2 million to 4 million French citizens are without it — and the government needs to work such that by 2010, every single citizen has 512 kbps that costs no more than 35 euros per month. Further, every French citizen should have access to high-speed mobile Internet as well, which only covers 85 percent of the citizenry as of today.
Other proposals include:
- allowing the old analog television signals to be opened up to wireless and mobile Internet access.
- an electronic national identity card for each citizen starting in 2009 (Estonia already has this).
- a doubling of cyber-crime law enforcement agents by 2012
- the promotion of telecommuting in the public sector
- a digital medical file for each citizen by 2012
- a Green IT and Cleantech prize
- a migration away from the American-dominated ICANN toward a more multilateral and international organization to run the infrastructure of the Internet.
As of yet, this remains but a proposal — but an interesting and ambitious one — and if Sarkozy is serious about keeping his campaign promise, especially while France holds the the Presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of the year, it could be a boon to France.
Page 1 of 16 in Cyrus Farivar
At the CPAC-Occupy beer summit 
Whitney Houston’s lessons in love 
Our non-withdrawal from Afghanistan 
“We don’t need someone to think” 
How rough it’s gotten for Mitt 
The Grammys’ most memorable moments 
A passport to utopia 
“The Fault in Our Stars” and “There Is No Dog”: Not kids’ stuff 
Ricky Gervais: My conscience never takes a day off 
Lessons of a very sexy pirate costume 
