I cannot summarize this article because I don't understand it, beyond the headline information.

"DROPOUT JEEP is a software implant for the Apple iPhone that utilizes modular mission applications to provide specific SIGINT functionality. This functionality includes the ability to remotely push/pull files from the device. SMS retrieval, contact list retrieval, voicemail, geolocation, hot mic, camera capture, cell tower location, etc. Command, control and data exfiltration can occur over SMS messaging or a GPRS data connection. All communications with the implant will be covert and encrypted."

I believe this is part of an elite NSA hacking group called either QUANTUM or QUANTUMTHEORY. I am not sure they're connected, but they have similar names, and similar missions. Der Spiegel has a long article on their capabilities.

ake, for example, when they intercept shipping deliveries. If a target person, agency or company orders a new computer or related accessories, for example, TAO can divert the shipping delivery to its own secret workshops. The NSA calls this method interdiction. At these so-called “load stations,” agents carefully open the package in order to load malware onto the electronics, or even install hardware components that can provide backdoor access for the intelligence agencies. All subsequent steps can then be conducted from the comfort of a remote computer.

These minor disruptions in the parcel shipping business rank among the “most productive operations” conducted by the NSA hackers, one top secret document relates in enthusiastic terms. This method, the presentation continues, allows TAO to obtain access to networks “around the world.”

I'm not so certain I am worried about this. I keep saying this, but we went through this in the 1970s, when the nation got upset about how the CIA had been conducing itself.

The NSA said approximately that in its defense:

Responding to a query from SPIEGEL, NSA officials issued a statement saying, "Tailored Access Operations is a unique national asset that is on the front lines of enabling NSA to defend the nation and its allies." The statement added that TAO's "work is centered on computer network exploitation in support of foreign intelligence collection." The officials said they would not discuss specific allegations regarding TAO's mission.

Are we really upset to discover that the national security apparatus has been thinking up new ways to spy on targets?

If so -- what did everyone think we were paying them to do, exactly?

Posted by: Ace at 02:18 PM | Comments (294)
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Apart from Obama and Obamacare, the obvious choices.

Freddoso names Detroit, the Gun Control Lobby, Abortion and both the Tea Party and Establishment Republicans as having a year nearly as bad as Obama.

You know who had the worst 2013? Alex the Chick did, or at least she will have after watching this Vine Video.

Thanks to @slublog for that horrible thing.

Posted by: Ace at 12:17 PM | Comments (196)
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The Good Lord giveth, and then he taketh your breath away.

Fearless NBC News boss Deborah Turness is turning her attention to her troubled Sunday talk show, “Meet the Press” — asking staff to write a mission statement and explain what works and what doesn’t, The Post has learned.

...

With “Meet the Press” slipping in the ratings, WME’s Ari Emanuel has been making a serious pitch for his clients, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” to take over, several sources said.

Oh, but they're not the only two possibilities. NBC is really thinking outside the box as far as hosts.

...

Turness could find a cure for the show’s blues by raiding ABC News’ “Good Morning America” host, George Stephanopoulos, whose contract expires in January, some TV insiders said.

...

The network has seen “Meet the Press” rack up some of the worst ratings in decades in recent months, though network insiders claim that both CBS and ABC engage in unfair ratings measures to boost their numbers.

Thanks to DrewM.

Posted by: Ace at 11:14 AM | Comments (336)
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Originally published August 26, 2004.

For some time, I've been casting about looking for guest contributors who could help shoulder the blogging load. Recently I received the following essay in an email, and I think the writer's words are important for all of us.

If You Touch My Hoagie One More Time, I Will Fucking Kill You

by Rich "Psycho" Giamboni
Special Guest Columnist for Ace of Spades HQ

If you touch my hoagie one more time, I will fucking kill you. I don't mean that metaphorically. I mean I will fucking reach across this table and literally, physically kill you.

You had your fun. You thought you were cute. You thought it was clown-time, and you were driving the little car. You touched the top of my turkey and provolone hoagie, and now I've had to rip off the piece of bread that you fucking contaminated.

Well I've got news for you, Chuckles. Clown-time is over. Now it's Psycho-Time. And if you touch my goddamned hoagie one more time, I'm going to fuck you up so bad you'll end up looking like Kuato from Total Recall.

Don't believe me? Think I'm joshing with you? Look at my face: I am not joshing with you, pal. I am deadly serious, and if you so much as fucking lay another finger on this sandwich you'll enter a world of hurt of beyond your very capability to conceive. No fuckin' foolin', you touch this hoagie one more time and I will spill life's blood all over this fucking Quizno's.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:45 AM | Comments (146)
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As former MSNBC host Martin Bashir introduces the clip, MSNBC is "a place where we try every day to elevate political discourse."

One clip came in too late (I imagine) to make the Washington Free Beacon's supercut -- Joy Reid playing the Pro Wrestling Heel, claiming, absurdly, that Biblical passages forbidding the making of wooden totems plated with gold (that is, idols of false gods) actually forbid the dressing of Christmas trees, a German/pagan practice unknown at the time the Bible was written.

The left has this idea -- which I am trying to get out of their heads, but it's in their pretty firmly -- that they are Smart and so they should Say Clever Things.

But they are not Smart, and when they attempt to Say Clever Things, it's idiotic ahistorical low-level-blogger nonsense like this.

This is similar to Martin Bashir's outrageous pronouncements about the foul mistreatment of slaves. They're all borrowing from Keith Olberman's idiot schtick of quickly skimming a Wikipedia entry on a historical event and then twisting it to somehow connect to current controversies.

They think this makes them Sound Smart. In fact it exposes them as ignorant buffoons. They simply do not know what the hell they're talking about, and by attempting to put on airs as learned scholars, they only expose themselves as ludicrous Bluffers.

Scalzi's Law and the Olberman Imitators of MSNBC: ZBBMcFate reminds us of author John Scalzi's Law of attempted cleverness:

The failure mode of "clever" is "asshole."

more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:20 AM | Comments (195)
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Sounds about right.

From New York Magazine:

Star New York Times columnist and Jay-Z enthusiast David Brooks is taking his talents to New Haven. The Yale Herald‘s Bullblog noticed that every liberals’ “favorite conservative” will be teaching a class in the spring titled just plain “Humility.” According to its description, the course promises to explore “The premise that human beings are blessed with many talents but are also burdened by sinfulness, ignorance, and weakness,” as demonstrated by men such as Moses, Homer, and “others,” like maybe Paul Krugman.

The class is a 300 level elective and has a prerequisite of Advanced Trouser Crease Appreciation 201.

Posted by: Ace at 09:43 AM | Comments (188)
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• Obama's Top 10 Constitutional Violations Of 2013
  
• Second Suicide Blast In Russia
  
• America's Internal Checkpoints
  
• Climate Clowns Trapped In Antarctic Sea Ice
  
• Will Insurers Ever Say Enough's Enough To Obamacare?
  
• Only The Best And Brightest Work For The State
  
• Yes, There Is Evidence Linking Al Qaeda To Benghazi
  
• Should Americans Read Other Americans' Mail
  
• Duck Dynasty Reversal Shows GLAAD Has An Expiration Date
  
• Three Predictions For 2014
  
• Hollywood Is Remaking Starship Troopers
  
• Cool Mind Bending Illusion
  
• In Case You Forgot, Spitzer Loved Choking Prostitutes
  
• Cop "Punished" For Illegal Cavity Searches
  
• Peyton Manning Sets Single Season Passing Record
  
• Are You Ready For A Plus Sized Barbie?
  
• Gruesome Leg Injury In An MMA Fight (NSFW)
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:11 AM | Comments (223)
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Happy Monday.

We're apparently still stuck in the holiday news slump. So, here's photos of the 38 Most Haunting Abandoned Places On Earth.

Lawgeeks may be interested in the recent and ongoing upheaval in Fourth Amendment law. Somewhat related, if you missed me on Vigilant Liberty Radio on Saturday talking about the NSA phone metadata program, you can get that right here.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:47 AM | Comments (201)
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We Politely Request That All Off-Topic or Political Comments Be Directed to the Thread Directly Below This One, Which Will Serve Officially as the Current "Active Conversation" Thread for All Discussions Not Related To This Topic.
note- ONT below]

Welcome again to the Spaced-Out Challenge. Whether you have a question about a scope, a new astronomical discovery you want to expand on, or just want to kick back and enjoy the cosmos above, come one come all on our weekly journey through space and time.

This week, we take another break from our Winter Sky Guide and focus entirely on the noobs: welcome to astronomy! I wanted to make a thread just for those of you who unwrapped that first telescope or pair of binoculars, itching to try them out. We'll also briefly discuss 2014's sole impressive meteor shower* coming up later this week. more...

Posted by: CAC at 05:43 PM | Comments (49)
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Duck Dynasty 1, A&E, GLAAD, Bill O'Reilly 0

Still, the bottom line is that regardless of what A&E says to provide cover for itself, Disney, or the Hearst Corporation, Robertson was reinstated only nine days after being indefinitely suspended. Throughout his suspension he did not cower down to A&E. Rather, he said he had simply quoted the Bible in his comments to GQ and made clear that he would not apologize for doing so.

Bill O'Reilly is a big loser here as well. He too kicked Robertson while he was down, criticizing him for quoting the Bible in a way that singled out one group of people.

Par for the course for Bill O'Reilly - he's obsequious to those on the way up and kicks those who he thinks are down. Because just lookin' out for the folks.

Also What It's Like Being Put on GLAAD's Blacklist

In case you don't know the full extent of GLAAD's fascism, let me tell you what GLAAD did to me.

I won't hyperlink this, but if you go to GLAAD's website and seek out their "commentator accountability project," you will find my name.  This is GLAAD's blacklist.  Within hours of GLAAD's publication of my addition to the list, which amounts to an excommunication from polite society, an e-mail was sent to the president of my university, along with dozens of other high officials in California, with the announcement: ROBERT OSCAR LOPEZ PLACED ON GLAAD WATCH LIST.

The e-mail stated clearly that as a result of my being placed on this list, I would never get a direct interview in the United States.  (Whoever "they" are, they made good on the threat, because when I was brought onto Al Jazeera, they made sure that I was the only one critical of gay adoption, versus two hosts and two other panelists who were for it, and the host cut my microphone.)

According to the press release sent to my university, any media outlet introducing me would be bound to introduce me as an "anti-gay activist" certified by GLAAD as a bigot.

"Nothing says Aspie quite as loudly as riding your Segway around the grocery store while open-carrying your 'SIG .45.'"

Heh.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 04:45 PM | Comments (634)
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