Fugitive Technology Executive Sentenced to 30 Months for Stock-Options Backdating Scandal Wall Street Journal (subscription) Jacob Kobi Alexander, a fugitive technology executive who fled to Africa for a decade rather than face criminal charges in a stock-options backdating scandal, was sentenced Thursday in Brooklyn federal court to 30 months in federal prison, the ... |
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Enlarge / Frank Abagnale, as played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, once pretended to be a doctor. Now he's teaching the health industry about the threat of identity theft.
Dreamworks
Frank Abagnale is world-famous for pretending to be other people. The former teenage con man, whose exploits 50 years ago became a Leonardo DiCaprio film called Catch Me If You Can, has built a lifelong career as a security consultant and advisor to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. So it's perhaps ironic that four and a half years ago, his identity was stolenalong with those of 3.6 million other South Carolina taxpayers.
"When that occurred," Abagnale recounted to Ars, "I was at the FBI office in Phoenix. I got a call from [a reporter at] the local TV news station, who knew that my identity was stolen, and they wanted a comment. And I said, 'Before I make a comment, what did the State Tax Revenue Office say?' Well, they said they did nothing wrong. I said that would be absolutely literally impossible. All breaches happen because people make them happen, not because hackers do it. Every breach occurs because someone in that company did something they weren't supposed to do, or somebody in that company failed to do something they were supposed to do." As it turned out (as a Secret Service investigation determined), a government employee had taken home a laptop that shouldn't have left the office and connected itunprotectedto the Internet.
Government breaches of personal information have become all too common, as demonstrated by the impact of the hacking of the Office of Management and Budget's personnel records two years ago. But another sort of organization is now in the crosshairs of criminals seeking identity data to sell to fraudsters: doctors' offices. Abagnale was in Orlando this week to speak to health IT professionals at the 2017 HIMSS Conference about the rising threat of identity theft through hacking medical recordsa threat made possible largely because of the sometimes haphazard adoption of electronic medical records systems by health care providers.
Abagnale warned that the value of a medical record to identity thieves far surpasses that of just a name, date of birth, and social security number. That's because it provides an even bigger window into an individual's life. Abagnale saysthe responses of organizations (including the state government of South Carolina and the OPM) to theft of sensitive personal information is far from adequateand because there's no way to effectively change the data, it can be held for years by criminals and still be valuable.
Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina at the time of the breach, "ordered credit monitoring for every citizen in the state for free for one year," Abagnale said. "I wrote her a letter the next day that said one year of credit monitoring services was worthless, because people who steal mass data warehouse that data for sometimes three to five years. So they're not going to put it in the marketplace when you told them you're giving credit monitoring for one year." President Obama ordered free credit protection for those affected by the OPM breach for 10 yearsthough the original plan ran out in December, and it's on the shoulders of those whose information was exposed to re-up for the protection.
When credit card data is stolen, Abagnale explained, criminals "have to get rid of it right away"because credit cards can be replaced and fraud stopped quickly. "But if it is someone's name, Social Security Number, and date of birththey can't change [those things]. So the longer I keep the data, the more valuable it becomes when I go to sell it." Abagnale noted that some of the personal identity data stolen from the breach at TJ Maxx a decade ago is just starting to surface on the black market, for instance.
Abagnale said that there's been a surge in the past few years in medical identity theft. "It's as simple as, I'm in Orlando and I break my leg, I have no insurance, and I go to the hospital and say I'm you," he explained. "I give them your information, they treat me, they bill your insurance agency, and then your insurance company eventually notifies you because there was a deductible. And you say, 'wait a minute, I was never in Orlando, I never broke my leg.' But it's not that simpletrying to get that fixed, and trying to get it off your medical records, and then having collection agencies hounding you for that money is just unbelievable."
Such a scenario isjust the beginning of what's possible with the theft of medical data today. "Like every form of identity theft, if I can become you," said Abagnale, "what I can do as you is only limited by my imagination."
That's why Abagnale is particularly concerned about the security of smaller healthcare organizations, especially pediatricians' practices. "These days, we're very concerned about the theft of children'sidentities," he explained. "We see a huge uptick in people stealing the identities of children. The younger that child, the more valuable that identity isbecause if I can become that child, I can become that child for a long period of time before that child is going to begetting a credit report or applying for credit or a job. And a two-year-old's [stolen identity] is not going to look like a five-year-old a few years later, because someone can use that identity over and over."
The wave of ransomware attacks against hospitals last year served as a stark wake-up call to health providers that they had a security problem, according to Rod Piechowski, a senior director at HIMSS. "Ransomware got the most publicity," he said. "It put a sense of threats in people'sminds more than any conversation they'd had previously."
For many health organizations, those threats are well outside their wheelhouse. Healthcare organizations have faced a "real lift" in adopting electronic health systems over the past seven years, Piechowski explained, particularly for those that never had an information technology department before. It's "thousands of hospitals and hundreds of thousands of providers having to implement information technology," he says.
Regulations like those under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have always placed privacy and security requirements on healthcare providers, but the Affordable Care Act's incentives were intended "to get people using and reporting that they were using these electronic systems," Piechowski explained. However, the focus wasn't on security practices. "So now all these companies find themselves in a situation where theyve become way more of a target. We're seeing an uptick in the intensity and aggression in targeting of healthcare specifically. There are attackers out there that are aware of the lack of real defense mechanisms in placeit's a new game."
Piechowski's description of what the healthcare industry now faces is similar to what many companies have been facing for much of the last decade"they're constantly seeing phishing attempts, constantly seeing malware," he said. And while there are technical means to screen against many of the more brute-force attacks, the value of data in hospitals has led to much more long-game attacks based on thorough reconnaissance and probing for weak points. "There's a longer road, where first they find out who you are, they learn more about you, and about the hierarchy of your organization," he told Ars. "We're seeing more sophisticated approaches to learning about your organization."
In other words, hospitals are ripe targets for social engineeringsomething Frank Abagnale remainsan expert in. "It's what I did 50 years ago as a teenager. I didn't have the access to computers, so I had to use the telephone. Social engineering is just as powerful today as it was 50 years ago when I used it." Abagnale believes that technology alone will never defeat a good social engineering game"the only answer is to absolutely educate your employees about how to protect themselves and how to protect their company."
To that end for the past eight years, Abagnalehas done "cyber awareness" training at major companies across the US to demonstrate just how vulnerable employees are to the most basic of social engineering tricks. "I don't park in the visitor parking lotI park in the employee parking lot, and then I remove from my pocket 25 or 30 memory sticks that say on them 'confidential' [and drop them in the parking lot]. Then at lunchtime, I'll open my laptop to see how many employees actually went to see what that memory stick had on it, and I can tell whether they put it in their computer and didn't open it or if they opened it. In the 7 or 8 years that I've been doing cyber awareness month, I've yet to be to a companyand they're all household nameswhere someone hasn't gone to see what the file on the stick says. And of course what it says is, 'this is a test and you've failed.'"
Abagnale's seminars hammer home the damage that employees can expose companies to by simply plugging in a USB drive they found in the parking lot. "I explain to them that I could have cost their company a billion dollars overnight. I could have destroyed the hundred-year-old brand of their company just by the act of their taking a look at that," he says. "That's the way you have to bring home that point, and you have to keep bringing it home. They will get it, but they need to understand how these things occur. You can't just say to them, 'Hey, people will hack in; you need to be careful.' You have to explain to them how they do it, why they do it, what they're trying to obtain. And once they understand it, they're smart enough to protect themselves from being a victim against that risk."
Abagnale and Piechowski believe the best defense against breaches is using this sort of reinforcement of the threat posed by not following policies and procedures. "What we're alluding to here," explained Piechowski, "is that it's not just technologythere's people involved, there's process involved, and if you don't have a process in place that people understand, then technology alone is not going to keep you safe." The only effective way to get people to understand and change to follow policies, he noted, is to spell out whats at risk.
"The culture of the organization will change in time once it recognizes the business threat," Piechowski said. "Because if the business isn't viable, that's their livelihood."
So the next time you're frustrated by the arcane processes of your health provider, rememberthey're in placefor everyone'sprotection.
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Frank Abagnale, world-famous con man, explains why technology won't stop breaches - Ars Technica
February 23, 2017 8:06 PM
BOSTON (CBS) The highly-specialized technology that police used to create a profile of Vanessa Marcottes killer, could mean the difference between solving a crime and a cold case.
Marcotte was 27 when she was killed while jogging near her parents Princeton home on August 8, 2016.
The technology has the potential to show police the killers face and give them desperately needed clues.
Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early said Thursday that the person of interest is described as a Hispanic or Latino man with an athletic build, light or medium skin, and shaved or very short hair.
Scientists at the Parabon NanoLab are able to predict what the suspect looks like by using a small amount of DNA taken from the crime scene.
Dr. Ellen McRae Greytak, the director of the Virginia lab, explained how the technology works.
Greytak said, We focus on things that dont change with the environment, so we do pigmentation which is eye, hair, and skin color, as well as freckling.
Police head into the woods on August 11 to search the area where Vanessa Marcotte was found dead. (WBZ-TV)
She says the lab also focuses on the face and persons ancestry.
When investigators run out of options, Greytak says they contact her lab, where a majority of these cases become cold cases.
And what we do is we tell them of those 400 people in the area, you can eliminate 90-95 percent because they dont match this profile, Greytak said. And now you can focus in a manageable number of people.
From there, the investigators have more information to work with and become more hopeful of solving the case.
The technology is being used in a Springfield cold case, where investigators say it has helped invigorate interest.
It is not yet possible to predict height and weight using the technology.
Link:
I-Team: Specialized Technology Could Help Solve Murder Of Vanessa Marcotte - CBS Local
The Belgian side reached the round of 16 by the skin of their teeth following a dramatic late goal in the Russian city of St. Petersburg
Frank Ancheampongs Anderlecht left it very late to secure passage into the next round of the Europa League on Thursday against Zenit as they lost 3-1 on the night but qualified via the away goal after it ended 3-3 on aggregate.
Acheampong had a less than stellar game despite being the scorer of the two goals in the first leg. He lasted for 89 minutes and earned a yellow card in a game where he scored the lowest rating of any player on both teams.
The hosts took a three-goal lead via Giulianos brace that sandwiched Artem Dzyubas goal and thought they had it all wrapped up having upturned the 2-0 first leg deficit.
But there was to be late drama when Isaac Thelin nodded home on 90 minutes from one of the Belgians most sustained moments of pressure as elimination stared them in the face.
Instead it was the Russian team that crumbled under the enormous pressure after feeling they had done enough to progress into the round of 16 when they went up by three goals.
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Acheampong's Anderlecht survive Zenit scare to progress - Goal.com
'Progress' and the 'Rational Optimist' Genre of Nonfiction Inside Higher Ed (blog) Johan Norberg's new book, Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future, is a worthy addition to this collection. Progress is all about how long-term positive trends - such as improvements in food security, life expectancy, sanitation, poverty ... |
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'Progress' and the 'Rational Optimist' Genre of Nonfiction - Inside Higher Ed (blog)
Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern called for a rethink on sanctions imposed on Russia, saying that the regime of penalties over Kremlin-backed incursions in Ukraine has failed to yield enough progress.
Speaking in an interview in Vienna on Thursday, Kern said that the European Union may need to consider new ways to put leverage on President Vladimir Putin to bring more success and be less economically damaging to Europe. At the same time, he said it was important that Europe remains united in its stance.
Asked if he favored a partial lifting of penalties in exchange for progress in adhering to the so-called Minsk peace process, Kern said absolutely.
Austria would be better off, and the concept that we are imposing sanctions and then will come to good conclusions with Russia has not worked out, the chancellor said. I think we need a different concept.
The future of sanctions was thrown into doubt when Donald Trump won the U.S. election promising a reset in relations with Putin. While the new administration has since expressed support for Ukraines territorial integrity, and said that Russia will be held to account, Vice President Mike Pence said this week in Brussels that the U.S. will search in new ways for new common ground with Russia.
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Austria is interested in lifting some penalties, according to Kern. But we have to accept that the lifting of sanctions has to go along with the implementation of the Minsk agreement, he said. As long as there is no progress then I know its going to be difficult to lift the sanctions.
For an explanation of why the Ukraine conflict drags on, click here
Its a sensitive issue and we have to stay united. Kern said.
Even so, he pointed out that the economic fallout is hurting the Austrian economy at a time of rising unemployment. The sanctions are really detrimental for our economy -- the costs in Austria are around 0.3 percent of our GDP -- so we are are not so happy about the economic consequences, he said.
Continue reading here:
Austria Calls for Russian Sanctions Rethink to Bring Progress - Bloomberg
Donald Trump's trans bathroom restrictions will stunt much-needed progress in school sports Quartz Bathrooms are once more a political battleground in America. US president Donald Trump's rollback of the Obama administration's policy on transgender bathroom use yesterday (Feb. 22) rescinds previous federal guidance that allowed transgender students ... Trump Rescinds Rules on Bathrooms for Transgender Students |
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Donald Trump's trans bathroom restrictions will stunt much-needed progress in school sports - Quartz
NBC4i.com | Ohio task force finds mixed progress on college cost-cutting NBC4i.com The panel found overall progress, but said too few schools have identified how their newfound savings and resources will improve college affordability and education quality. The core principle is that students must benefit, said Pamela Morris, a task ... |
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Ohio task force finds mixed progress on college cost-cutting - NBC4i.com
We're breaking down the top segments from Thursday's edition of PFW in Progress radio show so you don't miss a thing.
PFW in Progress 2/23 Podcast >>
0:02:00 - Fred Kirsch and Erik Scalavino began today's off season edition of PFW In Progress. Andy Hart and Paul Perillo apparently had better things to do then be on the show and Fred Kirsch was not happy about it.
0:25:00 - Andy Hart filled in as his son's youth basketball coach and things did not go well for Andy or the referee.
0:50:00 - Cyrus Jones was food for thought on today's show. What will the Patriots do with him in 2017?
1:05:00 - Larry in San Diego bought the boys lunch and while on the topic of food, the TB12 diet was dismissed by Andy Hart and Paul Perillo. Does Brady's diet work for everyone?
1:25:00 - If Logan Ryan is not signed by the Patriots, what will the solution be to replace him?
1:45:00 - The show wrapped up with Fred taking emails and the guys answering some questions about all-time great Patriots and how they would stack up with players on the current team. Read
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PFW in Progress Recap 2/23: Who goes and who stays for Patriots free agents - Patriots.com
Its time for our periodic update on the plan to improve Rosewood Courts. Im pleased to report this can be viewed as a progress report, as in there are hints of progress on an important project that has defied progress.
The quick history: As a project built by the feds in 1939 as the first public housing for blacks, Rosewood Courts on Rosewood Avenue in East Austin has an important place in local and national history. But as homes, despite patchwork upgrades over the years, the 124 apartments are nothing wed allow to be built today.
So the Housing Authority of the City of Austin, which is a public but not a city government entity, decided several years ago to seek a $30 million federal grant to help pay for 21st-century housing that could cost a projected $40 million to $55 million. Six of the original 24 buildings would be preserved.
That wasnt enough preservation for some folks. The project stalled, and Austin City Council Member Ora Houston, whose district includes Rosewood Courts, stepped in and got a panel appointed with an eye on maximizing preservation.
READ: Report offers options to remodel units to preserve them
So thats where we were. Were now at a new place with a report and a new president, both of which could impact where we go next.
The report is a preservation feasibility study recently completed by h+uo architects of Austin that captures the challenge and cost of preserving the history of Rosewood Courts while also providing more and better low-income housing.
Houston has shared the concerns of preservationists and was instrumental in putting together a working group that recently received the architects report. It shows the cost of upgrading apartments in the old buildings would range from $274 per square foot to $350 per square foot. Housing authority President and CEO Michael Gerber says new construction would cost about $175 per square foot. But, armed with the numbers and preservationist input, he now thinks its possible to preserve more than six buildings.
I think the right number is probably six to nine, somewhere in there, he said.
Gerber notes the new report shows preservation is possible but pricey. But its the right thing to do, he said, and we can afford it.
(More in a minute about how paying for the ambitious project has become more challenging.)
WATCH: Rosewood Courts, an uncertain future
To be determined is how many and which buildings to modernize on the inside while preserving on the outside. Gerber said its a topic of very productive conversations with Houston, whom he credits as a very productive part of the process. She is trying to find consensus where sometimes it just doesnt exist.
Lindsey Derrington, programs coordinator at Preservation Austin and president of Mid Tex Mod, which advocates for significant modern places, is on the Rosewood Courts working group. She said the numbers in the new report supplant what she had seen as vague negativity about whether the old buildings were worth saving. Derrington notes the report focuses on rehabilitation and not restoration, which would be more museum than living space.
Derrington said saving all of the old buildings would be the best preservation outcome, but she understands that would mean losing much-needed low-cost housing units.
I think what the plan shows is that you can put very modern apartments into the historic buildings, she said, adding that shed like to see more than nine of the old buildings preserved but is encouraged to hear that Gerber said as many as nine could be saved.
In a statement released by her office, Houston said shes reviewing the new report. And she expressed gratitude to the working group members and praised HACA officials and Rosewood Courts residents for being open and willing to work with the community and stakeholders in an effort to find common ground to preserve and rehabilitate this historic site.
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Laura Toups, a local civil engineer who has helped lead the working groups discussion, said its been easy to sense the passion of the preservationists and the sincere needs of the current residents, two different views in search of an elusive compromise.
I dont know what that number is, she said of the correct number of buildings to preserve. I believe its more than the six that HACA had in its original plan.
But Toups said she believes its less than the full 24 some want: Its hard for me as a citizen and a professional to say that preserving the whole site serves the greater good the best.
But she has come to fully understand what she calls the really strong emotional response that the Rosewood Courts discussion stirs in some. Its hard, she said of the search for compromise. But if we dont take advantage of opportunities to increase resources to the underserved, its a big issue for us a city.
Thats the update on the old challenge. Now theres a new one: The housing authoritys original plan counted heavily on a $30 million grant from the federal governments Choice Neighborhoods program. The program still exists, but Gerber, nodding to the change in Washington, said, I suspect its not going to for long.
He doesnt see that as fatal for the Rosewood Courts project, but it will mean finding another funding mix. Its doable, he said.
So theres progress on an old challenge and potential problems on a new one.
Im encouraged that theres a more cooperative tone among those involved. Several people have told me that Houston should get much credit for this. Thats leadership.
However it happened and whoever caused it, I find cause for optimism that were on track toward a compromise that preserves for all of us an important slice of Austins past while providing better low-income housing for Austins present and future.
Read the rest here:
Herman: Progress on updating Austin's Rosewood Courts public housing - MyStatesman.com
Forbes | Despite Baidu's Progress, Wall Street Remains Mostly Negative Going Into Earnings Tonight Forbes Baidu, the Chinese search giant, is set to report earnings for its December quarter and for FY16 on Thursday after the closing bell. Wall Street consensus for Q4:16 earnings is for $0.90 per share on revenues of $2.67 billion for the December quarter ... |
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Despite Baidu's Progress, Wall Street Remains Mostly Negative Going Into Earnings Tonight - Forbes
If you have young children and arent a professional movie viewer, chances are youre only well-acquainted with this years Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature. And even then, youve probably still only seen three of the contenders, the two Disney productions, Zootopia and Moana, and maybe the stop motion adventure Kubo and the Two Strings. That last one may even have been a little too scary for your kids. As for the other two, My Life as a Zucchini and The Red Turtle, theyre foreign-made movies that arent easy family fare, and they havent been widely available.
Until now. Possibly. Depending on where you live. This weekend, The Red Turtle is making its way to theaters beyond the nations major cities, though its still a relatively limited number of locations. Also this Friday, which just so happens to be the start of Oscar weekend, My Life as a Zucchini opens in New York City and Los Angeles, kicking off its own rollout across the rest of the country through March. Neither will win the Academy Award, but whether youre able to see them before Sundays show or only afterward, they must not be dismissed or forgotten about as also-rans.
Its hard to argue that either of them deserve the Oscar over the three mainstream American movies, because theyre just so different from the usual anthropomorphic animal stories and singing princess fairy tales and more calculated yet less soulful stop motion efforts. It doesnt matter which takes the prize, as together the five films offer a wonderful range of animation delights. And My Life as a Zucchini and The Red Turtle represent the most distinctly different achievements of the bunch. With the former, though, you just need to be sure you see the right version.
My Life as a Zucchini is a coming-of-age movie, directed by Claude Barras based on the 2002 French novel Autobiographie dune Courgette, about a kid nicknamed Zucchini who accidentally kills his alcoholic mother. He winds up in a small foster home, finding a kind of family there among the other abandoned and orphaned children and their caretakers. Although the new movie version has been sanitized somewhat from the book, which isnt exactly for young readers, the story as well as some of the themes and visuals are most appropriate for viewers aged in the double digits.
Plus, to best appreciate My Life as a Zucchini, youll want to see the original French-language version, and yes that means youll want the subtitled rather than the dubbed release. Fortunately, most theaters will be showing both versions. Heres what you get with the original that you dont get with the dubbed incarnation: the child actors who voice the children characters (including Gaspard Schlatter as Zucchini) have a natural, almost improvisational quality to their speech, the result of Barras not making them memorize their dialogue so much as speak the lines in their own words.
That approach really makes the film, fitting well with the crude yet cute character design. The voice acting in the dubbed version (which includes famous adults like Nick Offerman and Ellen Page, as well as child actors who sound like veteran professionals in spite of their age, including Erick Abbate as Zucchini), has a more conventional, polished sound that feels overproduced and not at all right for the story. Knowingly emphasizing its voice work, My Life as a Zucchini also has a bonus scene during the end credits depicting, in animation, Schlatters casting session (the dubbed version includes the scene intact with Schlatters voice, subtitled, which doesnt make much sense after watching with Abbate voicing the role).
As for the rest of the movie, its fine, often very sweet, and it handles the heavy themes of death, drug abuse, child abuse, and more very well from the perspectives of the children. I do wish My Life as a Zucchini was better focalized with regards to it being Zucchinis story, as the title claims and as the bits of voiceover narration adhere to; for a while its much more concentrated on another one of the orphans. But otherwise theres nothing to criticize thats not wholly subjective and a matter of my personal dislike of the look of some of the characters, specifically their scratchy red noses.
The Red Turtle is a little easier on the whole family, as theres almost no dialogue, and what little there isa few utterances of hey!requires no English-language version. No subtitling, no dubbing. Its a marvelously visual film, though its possibly too slow for younger children anyway. Its not a kid movie nor an adult movie. Its not for any audience in particular other than one that likes to be enchanted by visual storytelling and basic fairy tale and mythology plots. The story concerns a castaway who one day encounters a large sea turtle that magically changes the course of his desert-island-dwelling life.
Directed and co-written by Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit (a previous Oscar winner for his 2000 short, Father and Daughter), The Red Turtle has its own issues, but theyre minor and Im nitpicking to address them. As much as I love that the film is dialogue-free, that actually becomes somewhat implausible for the story in the latter half. The first part is also much more exciting in its depiction of the adventurous survivalism of the stranded man. And there are a lot of questions that arise about where the story goes that cant be answered because theres nobody to explain the details or the characters motives.
Yet every single shot in The Red Turtle is perfect, especially because of the intricate and beautifully imagined backdrops, and in terms of just what is on screen, the story action is directed faultlessly. While theres not always the greatest emotional connection to the characters, between them or for the audience, the film is occasionally pretty affecting for something of its simple 2D hand-drawn style. We dont get many films of any format so lacking in their dependence on dialogue these days, and its essential that we see more like this and the past-nominated works by Sylvain Chomet.
The essential charms of My Life as a Zucchini and The Red Turtle are contrasting components. The former is worth seeing for its voice work and what it does freely with its dialogue, while the latter is a must-see feature because of its lack of voice work (and coming from Studio Ghibli, whose films tend to get distracting celebrity-filled dubs, thats really notable) and what it does freely with its imagery, including fantastic dream sequences. They face strong mainstream competition at the Oscars this year, but hopefully they at least benefit in the notice of being nominated.
See them both once theyre playing near you.
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The Essential Animation Charms of 'My Life as a Zucchini' and 'The Red Turtle' - Film School Rejects
Past popes knew well that Freemasonry is Satan's chosen instrument for attacking the Catholic Church. To this day itremains the most condemned belief system in the Church's history.
Pope Leo XIII wrote an encyclical on Freemasonry in 1890 titledDall'Alto Dell'Apostolico Seggiocondemning masonic sects.
They are already judged; their ends, their means, their doctrines, and their action, are all known with indisputable certainty. Possessed by the spirit of Satan, whose instrument they are, they burn like him with a deadly and implacable hatred of Jesus Christ and of His work; and they endeavor by every means to overthrow and fetter it.
The concerned pontiff spoke of previous papal condemnations of this secret society, which cloaks itself in charitable garb.
Many times have We sounded the alarm, to give warning of the danger; but We do not therefore think that We have done enough. In face of the continued and fiercer assaults that are made, We hear the voice of duty calling upon Us more powerfully than before to speak to you again.
In his encyclical, the venerable Holy Father touches on some of the perverted goals of this seemingly altruistic society:
The masons laid out even more insidious plans to directly attack the Church in their document Alta Vendita. It's been called a masonic blueprint for destroying the Catholic Church by plotting to capture the papacy. Their plans fell into the hands of Pope Gregory XVI and were subsequently published under the authority of both Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XIII.
The manifesto declares, "Our final end is that of Voltaire and of the French Revolution, the destruction forever of Catholicism and even of the Christian idea, which, if left standing on the ruins of Rome, would be the resuscitation of Christianity later on."
The document calls for corrupting the young clergy and religious with fFeemasonry's secular humanist doctrines. This clergy would then go on to make revolutionary changes in the Church and select ill-formed leaders who would perpetuate the worldly errors.
Modern Freemasonry is thought to have originated in the Grand Lodge of London in 1717.Pope Clement XII in 1738 was the first Roman Pontiff to condemn Freemasonry with his papal bull, In Eminenti. Subsequent popes did likewise, namely, Benedict XIV, Pius VI, Leo XII, Pius VII, Pius VIII, Gregory XVI, Pius IX and Leo XIII.
The most recent statement against Freemasonry came from then-Cdl. Joseph Ratzinger as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Following the promulgation of the current Code of Canon Law, Cdl. Ratzinger in 1983 affirmed that it was still a mortal sin for Catholics to become masons.
"The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion," he declared.
Pope Leo XIII in his encyclicalProvidentissimus Deus, describes the rationalists of the Enlightenment, like Voltaire, as spawn of Martin Luther's Protestant Revolt. Describing the enemy as those who espouse private judgment of Scripture, Leo XIII calls Catholics to battle "rationalists, true children and inheritors of the older heretics, who, trusting in their turn to their own way of thinking, have rejected even the scraps and remnants of Christian belief. ... They deny that there is any such thing as revelation or inspiration or Holy Scripture at all."
Pope Pius XII gives freemasons credit for begetting rationalists, communists and secular humanists. In his 1958 address to the Seventh Week Pastoral Adaptation Conference in Italy, Pius XII related, "[T]he roots of modern apostasy lay in scientific atheism, dialectical materialism, rationalism, illuminism, laicism and Freemasonry which is the mother of them all."
The attacks on the Church by Communism alone are myriad. Dr. Alice von Hildebrand told Church Militant how one Communist, Bella Dodd, helped over a thousand Communist sympathizers become ordained priests. Their mission was to subvert the Church from within.
One such masonic French priest, who subsequently had a change of heart, revealed his marching orders stipulating how he was to adversely influence the Church. The plan was to encouragefellow Catholics to do the following:
Pope Leo XIII urged Catholics to ardently resist the multifaceted attacks of Freemasonry. The saintly Pope warned, "To shrink from seeing the gravity of this would be a fatal error." He admonished Catholics to fight the evil of this cult with all their might.
No means must be neglected that are in your power. All the resources of speech, every expedient in action, all the immense treasures of help and grace which the Church places in your hands, must be made use of, for the formation of a Clergy learned and full of the spirit of Jesus Christ, for the Christian education of youth, for the extirpation of evil doctrines, for the defence of Catholic truths, and for the maintenance of the Christian character and spirit of family life.
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(This comes from Rev. John Cooper, who isa Unitarian Universalist minister and a chaplain. His faith journey has led him on a wide path, including natural spirituality, rationalism, shamanism, Buddhist studies and Kung Fu.)
I have been struck by contrast today, a polarization of opposites. It is early spring (or maybe late winter) here in the desert highlands, and the very weather seems to speak of polarization. Yesterday, it was warm and clear enough for me to walk for an hour outside without a coat on, today, after a shift overnight, there is a dust of snow all over the mountains, melting into the ground in the valley. Just a few hundred feet above me, the snow is blocking roads and causing delays, whereas a few hundred feet below, it feels like a cool spring day.
I feel like the weather and political climate are synchronized. The weather moves back and forth between winter and early spring, thaws interrupted by moments of freeze. Cold snow still falling not far from where new buds of hope whisper throughout the valley.
When I look to the news, it seems to shift between springs of compassion and rhetoric of icy exclusion.
Erase Bullying. Photo from the Province of British Columbia (cc) 2013.
In the news today, it is Anti-Bullying or Pink Shirt Day in Canada and that struck a chord. As I watch political leadership that seems to have lost the ability to confront disagreement with polite kindness. A recent NY Times article The Culture of Nastiness laments the loss of civic disagreement, quoting Professor Andrew Reiner at Towson University about how people have come to believe, If I disagree with you, then I have to dislike you, so why should I go to a neighborhood meeting when its clear Im going to disagree with them?
The ability to disagree with one-another in kindness and respect is often a challenge for Unitarian Universalists in our congregations. We are a strong-willed, critically-minded, and gracious people who struggle to learn to share our diverse and powerful opinions and reflections with one-another in ways that are engaging, accepting, even welcoming of The Other. Civic disagreement is a spiritual practice for us. This is a place where our movement has something powerful to offer the larger world. Whether we come from Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, Humanist, Pagan or other religious roots and beliefs, when we enter into a shared UU community, we learn how to civically disagree with one-another, not only in the arena of faith, but in the areas of community administration, worship planning, religious education and more. Our way is to walk together in love and care for one-another, even when we disagree with one-another. It is our highest of callings; to welcome that which is different into our midst, to welcome it with a holy curiosity, and to treat it as a sacred stranger, to be fed, encouraged, uplifted and learned from, even when we disagree.
Not too long ago on Patheos, The Zen Pagan Time Swiss wrote about thesacred nature of hospitality, reminding us that it is not only the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) that treat hospitality as a sacred responsibility, but the ancient Celtic and Norse traditions as well. The Havamal, the Poetic Edda of Odins wisdom says Scoff not at guests nor to the gate chase them, But relieve the lonely and wretched. The call to be hospitable to the strange among us is ancient and profoundly spiritual.
I recently preached a sermon in my local UU congregation entitled Encountering Change: A Chaplains Perspective which would have been perhaps more aptly entitled Encountering the Other: A Chaplains Perspective. The key anecdote in the sermon was about how the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr talked about his white jailers in his infamous sermon The Drum Major Instinct (which is an amazing read, and an even better listen, if you have never heard it, go listen now wait finish reading this, then go listen).
During his stay in Birmingham, the Rev. Dr. King visited with his white jailers daily. They would approach to tell him how his views on integration and equality were wrong, he would debate, and then he would listen. Through those conversations, the Rev. Dr. King discovered that they were earning salaries similar to many of the people of color in his movement. That was a powerful realization that Rev. Dr. King came to discover because he was in conversation with The Other. His conversations with his white jailers helped to clarify for the Rev. Dr. King that he was struggling against not only racial injustice, but economic injustice as well. In his sermon, Rev. Dr. King said that he would preach first, calmly because they wanted to talk, and that it took two or three days of polite debate before they could listen to one-another. Two or three days of polite debate.
What I take from that is that polite disagreement, civil engagement, is a prerequisite for differing views to hear one-another. Like the flip back and forth between the seasons that I see today we humans cannot find common ground in our disagreements unless we can first move civically and politely back and forth through our seasons. It is how we are made. It is manifest in the creation I see around me. Like the transition from winter to spring, we have to shift between our differences with respect before we get to the part where we hear one-another.
Flags at 25 Beacon, photo by Chris Walton (cc)
As members of intentionally diverse Unitarian Universalist communities, I think that we have cultivated this practice perhaps more than our neighbors. This time is a time where we have an opportunity to lead in our places of work, our neighborhoods, the schools our children attend we members of the Unitarian Universalist movement have an opportunity to demonstrate and model how to disagree with one-another respectfully, in love, yet without losing sight of our own values and position. Perhaps through our spiritual practice of engaging that which is different with sacred curiosity and welcome, we can help this world around us, which grows ever ruder in its disagreement, to remember how to argue with civility. Maybe then, we can all get to the part, two or three days down the road, where we learn something new from one another.
We can get to the part where spring emerges from the conversation. Perhaps even to a warm summer.
Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have namedbut a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.
Robert A. Heinlein,Friday
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Encountering Change: A Chaplain's Perspective - Patheos (blog)
The 2016-2017 Elizabeth Allen Visiting Scholars in Art History Series presents Dr. Sherry Lindquist, an alumna of NIUs art history program and an associate professor of art history at Western Illinois University, speaking on The Body and the Book of Hours: Somaesthetics, Posthumanism and the Uncanny Valley.
The presentation will be given at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 2, in room 100 of the Visual Arts Building. The talk is free and open to the public.
The Book of Hours and the Body:Somaesthetics, Posthumanism and the Uncanny Valley explores our corporeal connection to the past by considering what three recent theoretical approaches to the postmodern body may reveal about premodern terms of embodiment.
Lindquist received her M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from Northwestern University. The author of numerous publications, her book, Agency, Visuality and Society at the Chartreuse de Champmol, was published in 2008. She has also edited a number of volumes, including The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art (Ashgate, 2012).
The Elizabeth Allen Visiting Scholars in Art History Series is hosted by the Art History Division and funded in part by the NIU School of Art and Design Visiting Artists and Scholars Program. For more information email avandijk@niu.edu.
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Talk utilizes postmodern approaches to explore images of the medieval body - NIU Today
Google has released to developers the source code to Perspective, a new machine tool designed to flag toxic comments online. Its creators hope the AI will clean up internet debate, but critics fear it will lead to censorship instead.
Perspective was created by Jigsaw and Googles Counter Abuse Technology team both subsidiaries of Googles parent company Alphabet in a collaborative research project called Conversation-AI. Its mission is to build technology to deal with problems ranging from online censorship to countering violent extremism to protecting people from online harassment.
Jigsaw has partnered with online communities and publishers to measure the toxicity of comments, including the New York Times, Wikipedia, Guardian and the Economist.
This gives them (news sites and social media) a new option: Take a bunch of collective intelligence that will keep getting better over time about what toxic comments people have said would make them leave, and use that information to help your community discussions, said CJ Adams, product manager of Googles Conversation AI,according to WIRED.
Until now, for news sites and social media trying to rein in comments the options have been upvotes, downvotes, turning off comments altogether or manually moderating, Adams said.
Twitter and Facebook also have recently announced anti-trolling moves.
On a demonstration website launched Thursday, anyone could type a phrase into Perspectives interface to instantaneously see how it rates on the toxicity scale.
RT America tested the AI with some comments from our own website. Type he is a Communist with a Jew nose into its text field, and Perspective will tell you it has a 77 percent similarity to phases people consider toxic. Write I piss on Confederate graves; I wholly agree with your views of these fellows and Perspective will flag it as 42 percent toxic, while Please RT no more Libtards gets a 33 percent rating.
Jigsaw developed the troll detector by taking millions of comments from Wikipedia editorial discussions, The New York Times and other unnamed partners. The comments were shared with ten people recruited online to state whether they found the comments toxic. The resulting judgements provided a large data set of training examples to teach the AI.
Ultimately we want the AI to surface the toxic stuff to us faster, Denise Law, the Economists community editor, told WIRED. If we can remove that, what wed have left is all the really nice comments. Wed create a safe space where everyone can have intelligent debates.
Jared Cohen, Jigsaws founder and president, said the tool is just one step toward better conversations, and he hopes it will be created in other languages to counter state-sponsored use of abusive trolling as a censorship tactic.
"Each time Perspective finds new examples of potentially toxic comments, or is provided with corrections from users, it can get better at scoring future comments," Cohen wrote in a blog post.
Not everyone thinks Perspective is wonderful, however. Libertarian journalist Virgil Vaduva ran his own experiment on Perspective, and concluded that the AI can easily be used to censor controversial speech, whether that speech comes from the left or the right of the American political spectrum.
Applying the AI to censor comments will create an environment empty of value where everyone agrees with everyone, or so it may appear, Vaduva wrote.
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Perspective or censorship? Google shares AI designed to fight online trolling - RT
Censorship is the opposite of what art should be about. Nobody is saying that we should accept alt-right ideas. But artists and curators must be free to let their imaginations, and political ideas, run wild. Rather than just disagreeing with the content of the work on display, these protesters want to limit the creative imagination, and limit what the public is able to engage with.
Even to the end of tackling bigotry, censorship is counter-productive and cowardly. Its much easier to call for the silencing of offensive ideas, and far harder to counter arguments in the form of art, literature or political manifestos. But it is only through democratic challenge that backward ideas are defeated.
The LD50 gallery describes the reaction to its shows as exceptionally aggressive, militant and hyberbolic. Sadly, this isnt the first time this sort of thing has happened. For years, art galleries have been called upon to No Platform particular artists, even where the work itself is not explicitly prejudiced. Exhibit B, an anti-racist installation, was closed at the Barbican in 2014 after protesters deemed it racist.
Whats astounding is that those behind Shutdown LD50 dont even consider themselves censors. The group says the gallery and its collaborators are the authoritarian ones, for giving a platform to hate speech. Some protesters have gone so far as to label LD50 actual fascists, comparing themselves to those who faced off Oswald Mosley at Cable Street. A pink swastika has been painted on the gallery door.
These people seem to think that racist words are in themselves violent and anti-democratic, that they pose a threat to people from ethnic minorities. The act of displaying white-supremacist works in an art gallery is seen as just as much of a threat as a national, fascistic movement, crushing freedom through terror and violence. In truth, it is LD50 that is the real threat to liberty.
As someone who considers themselves a progressive, and who supports immigration and equality, it might seem strange that Im so concerned about the illiberal tactics of these protesters. Why not focus on opposing right-wing ideas? But the fact remains that you cant oppose authoritarian, illiberal ideas through authoritarian and illiberal means. Both sides in this case must be criticised.
Undermining democratic values is the wrong way to oppose views you disagree with. Its also inconsistent. How can those who support equality argue that certain rights must not extend to far-right voices, and galleries willing to give them a platform. Clearly, these protesters dont support freedom or equality at all.
Tessa Mayes is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. Visit her website here.
For permission to republish spiked articles, please contact Viv Regan.
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Georgias colleges and universities would be required to expand areas designated for free speech under legislation filed in the state House on Thursday.
House Bill 471, byRep. Buzz Brockway, R-Lawrenceville, says public colleges and universities may notlimit or restrict a students expression or discipline a student because others oppose the students speech.
Any member of the university community who wishes to engage in expressive activity shall be permitted to do so, the bill says, in anygenerally accessible outdoor areas of campuses.
But the bill also says schools may not deny agroup of students the right to form an organization ordiscriminate against a student organization based on the expression of the organization.
Brockway said the bill includes protections for schools to combat harassment or bullying and from organizations like the KKK from forming on campuses.
They have these tinyfree speech zones, that gives ahecklers veto to anyone who opposes what is being said, Brockway said.
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Bill requires free speech on campus for all - Atlanta Journal Constitution
Last night in Charleston, South Carolina, police arrested local Black Lives Matter leader Muhiyidin dBaha for taking away a Confederate flag from a member of the SC Secessionist Party and damaging it. Authorities held dBaha overnight. Today they charged him with disorderly conduct and malicious injury to real property. He was released this afternoon.
W. Scott Poole
The incident occurred at an event sponsored by the College of Charleston featuring Bree Newsome, herself arrested in 2015 for tearing the flag of the dead slaveholders republic from the flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina State House. The College, of which I am a faculty member, created a free speech zone for those Confederate flag enthusiasts who sought to intimidate those attending the event even though the group has threatened to visit our campus every Sunday in retaliation for asking Newsome to speak.
Muhiyidin dBaha, however, was the one arrested for disorderly conduct.
About seven neo-Confederates appeared (four according to a colleague) and faced a counter-demonstration of perhaps two hundred students and community allies, including BLM and a white anti-racist ally organization called SURJ (Showing Up For Racial Justice). During the event, one man held the Confederate flag while others stood by facing the massive counter-protest.
At least one of the neo-Confederates yelled insults, including racial epithets at African American students. Police and campus security fully protected the S.C. Secessionist Party in their free speech zone, including the symbolic act of waving a symbol that reminds not only of slavery but the 150 years of racial violence that have followed, including the 2015 slaying of nine black parishioners of Charlestons Emanuel AME Church by Dylann Roof, himself a fan of the Confederate flag.
But the authorities have charged Muhiyidin dBaha with disorderly conduct.
SURJ began a fundraising campaign for dBaha last night and quickly met their goal for his bail. SURJ allies also went to court today and stood in solidarity with him. However, one member of SURJ told me they had been disturbed that some white liberals expressed anger at dBahas action, suggesting that he violated the tenets of peaceful demonstration. The SURJ activist confessed concern over this attitude since it reflects the tendency of even allies to be shaped by white privilege and expectations about proper Black behavior.
After all, Muhiyidin dBaha took a symbolic action just as did the whites who sought to intimidate with their use of the flag. They received a free speech zone. He went to jail for disorderly conduct and, in context, the ridiculous charge of malicious damage to real property.
The American South, even in the century after slavery, maintained a tradition enforced by violence of racial etiquette. dBaha rejected that whole tradition last night. In the spirit of Bree Newsomes talk that the SC Secessionists wanted to prevent, he sought to tear hatred from the sky.
I dont expect white conservatives to think Muhiyidin received any less than he deserved. So I dont write for them. But white allies owe him more.
At a public forum today on Frederick Douglass, one of my colleagues read a portion of his speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? It is not light that is needed, but fire, she read, it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and Man must be proclaimed and denounced.
Last night in Charleston, a city slavery built, Muhiyidin dBaha brought the storm, the whirlwind and the earthquake. Others brought their shameful efforts to frighten and intimidate with a symbol that festers with a sordid past.
So the police arrested dBaha for disorderly conduct and the damage he did to real property.
In South Carolina, there is free speech and then there is Black Speech.
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Free Speech and Black Speech in Charleston, South Carolina - Huffington Post
In the week that saw Milo Yiannopoulos lose a book deal, a speaking gig and his Breitbart platform, he left the burning building, still slow dancing with his core value of free speech. I want people to be able to be, do, and say anything, he asserted at his press conference. Thats the ideal. But Milo is proof that free speech obviously isnt free. It has limits. Even in the US, where the First Amendment is a revered cornerstone of the Constitution and a wrong word can cost you sorely.
Its a curious anomaly, and it could be the wording thats the problem. Free speech sounds like an absolute term. Say what you like and done.
But in reality, it more likely exists in gradations; refracted through a variety of subjective differentiators. Free-ish might be the better term.
Pew Research gauging support for freedom of expression confirms where the main fault lines lie: in the US, 95% agree that they should be able to publicly criticize government policies.
Support drops to 77% when it comes to offending religious beliefs. 67% thought people should be able to make statements offensive to minority groups.
Half (52%) say that sexually explicit statements are OK. And 44% are comfortable with calls for violent protests.
Compared to the global median, the research shows the US values freedom of expression more highly across a wider range of issues. But the pattern of depreciation is there. The more racial, explicit and likely to incite violence the more support drops.
There are even more variables you could factor in partisanship, class, gender and the range of what could tick people off becomes so wide that censoring yourself against every potential instance of offence isnt feasible.
Free speech becomes a mire; a tight-rope walk. But the one good guide among the blurred lines is reciprocity. If you can flip what youre saying, so that it applies to you and yours, and youre still cool with expression of the sentiment, then congratulations. Youre a free speech absolutist.
But if you cant take the same back; or dont want to weather the inquiry and criticism that are products of free speech then it has limits. And youve defined them.
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