Starvin Larry

***information provided in the Edward Snowden leaks outlines U.S. government systems that can intercept and redirect Internet traffic to a site of their choosing.

The American system, according to the documents, which were published by The Intercept, can deploy a system of programs that can intercept web traffic on a mass scale and redirect it to a site of their choosing. The N.S.A. and its partners appear to use the programs for targeted surveillance***

On Friday morning, news reports surfaced that China had acquired an Internet cannon. And … wait: What is this about China having an Internet cannon?

If you feel terrifyingly out of the loop, take a deep breath and read the following to learn more about what an Internet cannon is and what it can do.

What is an Internet cannon?

More commonly known in the hacker community as a Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC or WebLOIC), an Internet cannon is a type of computer program used to force traffic overloads (or denial-of-service) onto targeted websites. It uses the Internet to blast out cyberattacks. It’s not a literal cannon.

So even though you read “Internet cannon” and were probably imagining something like this:

(US Navy)

 it actually looks more like this:

(Wikimedia Commons)

Why does China have one?

A new report and analysis claims that China is using what is being termed the “Great Cannon,” ostensibly a type of LOIC, to force an overflow of Web traffic and malicious code onto sites its government wishes to squash in the name of censorship. (If a website is overwhelmed by traffic, real or manufactured, no one will be able to visit it.) The new cybertool is being used in conjunction with its “Great Firewall,” which already blocks access to sites like Facebook and Twitter on Chinese networks.

Denial-of-service attacks on two GitHub project pages last month are now being credited to China’s Great Cannon. The GitHub pages were hosting Chinese censorship circumvention projects run by the anonymous, presumably Chinese activist site GreatFire.org.

Jeesh. That sounds terrible. What kind of country would build such a heinous cyberweapon?

Well, the United States has a similar program.

According to the New York Times, information provided in the Edward Snowden leaks outlines U.S. government systems that can intercept and redirect Internet traffic to a site of their choosing.

Read the rest @  https://www.yahoo.com/tech/china-now-has-an-internet-cannon-wait-whats-an-116045635559.html

“But it’s only a few bad apples” “All cops aren’t that way”

Must be a lot of bad apples-cuz we aint seeing no good ones lately.

Due to illness,I will not be posting for a few days-unless I recover sooner than expected,in which case-I’ll resume posting.

Le Bourget (France) (AFP) – One of France’s top Muslim leaders has called for the number of mosques to double over the next two years to remedy a shortage of places of worship for the country’s millions of faithful.

Speaking at a weekend gathering of French Islamic organisations, where participants asked for respect in the face of a rise in anti-Muslim attacks, Dalil Boubakeur said the 2,200 mosques in the country did not adequately represent Europe’s largest Muslim community.

“We need double (that number) within two years,” the head of the French Muslim Council and rector of the Paris mosque said in the town of Le Bourget near the capital.

“There are a lot of prayer rooms, of unfinished mosques, and there are a lot of mosques that are not being built,” he added Saturday at the Muslim gathering, billed as the largest in the Western world.

This annual convention of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF), which groups together more than 250 Muslim associations, comes just months after jihadist gunmen killed 17 people in and near Paris.

Since then, there has been a marked rise in Islamophobia in France, with 167 acts against mosques or threats recorded in January alone compared to just 14 in the same month last year.

France has long had a difficult relationship with its Muslim minority — currently estimated at between four and five million — that dates back to bloody struggles in its former North African colonies and the legacy of immigrants trapped in some of the country’s poorest districts.

Long decades of insurgency against French rule in Algeria in the mid-twentieth century, followed by a spate of Algerian extremist attacks in France in the 1990s created difficulties for communal relations — which reawakened with the rise of global jihadism after 9/11.

Apart from physical acts, anti-Muslim sentiment in the country varies from mayors refusing to have mosques built to resistance to halal meals being served in prisons or schools.

Participants at the gathering — which while organised by the UOIF, a group close to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, ranged from liberal to ultra-conservative — denounced violence committed in the name of Islam.

“We are loyal to our country, France. We love God, we love our prophet, but we also love the French Republic,” said Amar Lasfar, UOIF head.

Boubakeur agreed, adding nevertheless that Muslims must also be respected in Franc

“Islam is no longer an Islam stemming from immigration, it is a national Islam that has the right to the recognition and consideration of the French population, just like other communities in France,” Boubakeur said.

Many people think of night vision gear as cutting edge technology, and they wouldn’t be wrong. As evidenced by their exorbitant price, night vision scopes and goggles are highly sophisticated pieces of technology. Yet scientists are already looking into the next best thing: injecting temporary night vision directly into your eyes. Is it possible? Well, a research group called Science for the Masses has already done it by injecting a chemical called Chlorin e6 (Ce6) into human retinas. Ce6 is commonly used to treat cancer and night blindness in humans, and is occasionally found in some deep-sea fish. According to the researchers, it can also be used to improve dim light vision for several hours. Gabriel Licina, a biochem scientist on the team, volunteered to be a test subject.

Ce6 by itself is a sticky black powder, so the team had to mix it with insulin and other materials. Once a liquid, the Ce6 solution was applied directly to the conjunctival sac in the eye and was absorbed by the retina. Licina and other test subjects were given sunglasses to further reduce light conditions.

“The Ce6 solution has been shown to work in as little as one hour, with the effects lasting for ‘many hours’ afterwards. After 2 hours of adjustment, the subject and 4 controls were taken to a darkened area and subjected to testing,” the researchers wrote in their report. “Three forms of subjective testing were performed. These consisted of symbol recognition by distance, symbol recognition on varying background colors at a static distance, and the ability to identify moving subjects in a varied background at varied distances.”

The test was a success. Licina could make out dark shapes placed 10 meters away, and later at a distance of 25 to 50 meters. Although it may not be as effective as current night vision technology, researchers said the Ce6 injection had increased the participants’ ability to see in low light conditions.

“The other test, we had people go stand in the woods,” Licina told Mic.com. “At 50 meters, we could figure out where they were, even if they were standing up against a tree.”

Without the injection, the test group stumbled around in the woods and had difficulty finding the hidden volunteers. The “night vision” afforded by the Ce6 solution lasted only for a few hours though, and was gone by the next day. The group said that 20 days after the intial testing, no side effects have surfaced.

Hunting Tech of the Future? Scientists Discover Way to Inject Human Eyes with Night Vision