Monthly Archives: April 2017

LSA Student Government Passes Pro-Free Speech Resolution – The Michigan Review

Posted: April 15, 2017 at 5:22 pm

The LSA Student Government released a statement on April 14 regarding free speech on campus wherein it formally reaffirm[ed] its commitment to the principles of free speech that are meant to guide discourse on any university campus. The statement was written on the heels of the passage of a resolution that asked the university to endorse the Chicago Principles of Free Expression, principles which hold that universities may and should not restrict debate or deliberation because the ideas put forth are thought to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed unless that speech violates the law, is threatening, harassing, or defamatory, or invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests.

Nicholas Fadanelli, President of the LSA Student Government, said in an email exchange regarding the inspirations for and passage of the resolution that, while he cannot speak on behalf of the authors of the resolution, the debates prior to its passing consisted of climate on campus both before and after the November US Elections, the statement made by President Schlissel regarding the lack of a commencement speaker, U-Ms history as a bastion of free speech, incidents happening across the nation in regards to individuals attempting to limit the speech of others, as well as the Central Student Government debate regarding your [this authors] CSG resolution.

Amanda Delekta, one of the authors of the resolution, had this to say: LSA Student Government passing a resolution upholding the freedom of speech at the University of Michigan was an integral first step in increasing discourse on campus; an initiative many members of the government have identified since the 2016 Presidential Election. I believe the resolution will be a mechanism to challenge the hegemonic ideology at the University of Michigan and increase the diversity of speakers it hosts.

The resolution passed with 20 votes in favor, 0 opposed, and 1 abstention. You can read it here.

Deion Kathawa studies philosophy and political science at the University of Michigan. He enjoys ice skating and binge watching Netflix (who doesn't, though?) in his spare time. He can be reached via email at kathawad@umich.edu. Deion tweets @DeionKathawa and invites you to friend him on Facebook.

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LSA Student Government Passes Pro-Free Speech Resolution - The Michigan Review

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Tom Loftus: UW doesn’t need state law to ensure free speech – Madison.com

Posted: at 5:22 pm

Gov. Scott Walker proposed in his budget bill a law to both ensure and restrict free speech on UW campuses. It is 500 words of contradictory and sometimes Orwellian language. "Wrongheaded" speakers get special protection and students and faculty are redefined as "members of the university community."

This is a law that is not needed.

It has been removed from the budget by the Joint Finance Committee and will now have to stand alone as a bill requiring a separate debate, which the First Amendment certainly deserves.

The UW Regents and the chancellors have performed well throughout the history of the university in protecting free speech and have fended off elected officials wanting to restrict that speech.

It was in 1894 that Wisconsin's elected state superintendent of education, Oliver E. Wells, an ex-officio member of the UW Board of Regents, charged professor Richard T. Ely with advocating socialism in his teaching. A trial was held and Ely was exonerated. The Regents' president, William Bartlett, said a "teacher who can teach only what is accepted by everybody, will be confined to a very narrow line of tuition."

The Regents used the trial as an opportunity to say more about freedom of speech, and they adopted a statement written by university President Charles Kendall Adams: "(T)he great State University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found."

Controversial faculty their speech and teaching have been a common complaint echoing through the years since Ely. The most recent was in 2011 when the Walker administration asked for the private emails of professor Bill Cronon. The chancellor and Regents were adamant in denying this request and reaffirming academic freedom in what is now known as the Platteville statement.

However, what has prompted the governor's proposal are recent incidents at Middlebury, UC-Berkeley and Texas A&M, where invited speakers were prevented from speaking by violent student protests.

But here too, in defending and protecting very controversial speakers over the decades UW chancellors and Regents have acted admirably.

At the height of the Cold War and against fierce opposition from legislators, Abner Berry, the Negro affairs editor of the Communist Party's Daily Worker, was allowed to speak. State Sen. Gordon Bubolz called for an investigation of the group that invited him. This caused a yearlong look at the rights of student organizations.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy made it through his speech in 1951 that claimed there were communist infiltrators in the State Department, even though the event devolved into chaos after he called students "braying jackasses."

In 1967, the university held fast to the right of Dow Chemical, the maker of napalm, to recruit on campus. This decision was made, of course, without knowing a melee seen around the world would result. But it is important to point out the UW could have denied Dow there was no state or federal law to consider. It was UW's choice.

I came home from the Army in 1968, returned to UW-Whitewater and then transferred to UW-Madison in 1969 as a junior. That semester the campus was occupied by the National Guard and tear gas was so common it was like the weather. The Guard was there to keep the campus open in the face of mass anti-war demonstrations and student demands to shut down the campus.

The UW president and Regents held fast and kept it open.

Gov. Walker would do well to look at a 1951 Legislative Council study of the future of the university that was directed by two future governors, state Sen. Warren Knowles and state Sen. Gaylord Nelson. They considered whether there was a need to curtail the speech of students. They concluded there was not, and their reasoning is as sound now as it was then. It is contained in one eloquent paragraph:

"We are trying to develop self-directing mature citizens capable of making their own evaluation of truth and falsehood. A more dogmatic policy might shield the individual student so much that he would be deprived of this essential educational experience. We believe in freedom of discussion and that continued emphasis on the privileges and benefits of our government and our system of free enterprise will make the youth of Wisconsin better citizens."

We have made it this far without the law the governor wants. The members of the Joint Finance Committee did the university, the Legislature and the First Amendment a service by eliminating the governor's proposed law from the budget bill.

Tom Loftus of Sun Prairie is a former member of the UW Board of Regents and speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly. He wasambassador to Norway from 1993 to 1998.

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.

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Tom Loftus: UW doesn't need state law to ensure free speech - Madison.com

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Hitler Was Not a Christian – Splice Today

Posted: at 5:22 pm

Although he posed as one for propaganda purposes.

Adolf Hitler was not a Christian. The German dictator was a pantheist.Thats the argument put forward by the new book Hitlers Religion: the Twisted Beliefs That Drove the Third Reichby Richard Weikart, published by Regnery. The book comes along at a good time, offering penetrating research in a milieu where everyone from the alt-right to Black Lives Matter is accused of being Hitler. The Fuhrer is the go-to intellectual comfort food for lazy, virtue-signaling hacks.

Pantheism is the idea that all of nature is God, Weikart, a history professor at California State University, explained to me in a recent interview. Because Hitler thought that nature was God, he thought that following the laws of nature was doing the divine will.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, nature is a creation of God, not God himself. According to Weikart, Hitler believed that God was found in the power of nature, particularly the violent Darwinian struggle for survival. Hitler thought that destroying people he thought as weak or inferior was in perfect accordance with what nature does, Weikart says. After all, in nature, animals get killed, and certain species go extinct. Hitler thought the same thing should go on in human society because he thought certain races were inferior to others, so he thought destroying them was a good thing. This kind of ruthless theology can be found on both extremes of modern politics, from the laissez-faire survival-of-the fittest rants of free market conservatives to the abortion on demand evil of the left (theres also alt-right maestro Richard Spencers sickening pro-abortion musings).

Discerning Hitlers religion is a complicated task. The German dictator often spoke about what religious beliefs he didnt believe in, but never clearly stated which ones he did. He rejected Christianity but also atheism, mysticism, occultism, and neo-paganism. Hitler would often publicly claim to be Christian, even saying in 1922, My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. Yet he also said the following: The Christian-Jewish pestilence is surely approaching its end now. It is simply dreadful, that a religions even been possible, that literally eats its God in Holy Communion.

Hitler of course in public at times did claim to be Christian for propaganda purposes, Weikart says. But if you look more deeply Hitler very often in private was speaking very contemptuously of Christianity. In Mein Kampf he actually calls Christianity spiritual terror, which was destroying the ancient Greco-Roman world. Hitler loved the Greco-Roman world, which he thought was produced by Aryans. He thought Christianity had come along and done a disservice by undermining the Greco-Roman world.

Hitlers Religion reveals pantheism was an idea that was popular in the culture of Austria and Germany in the decades leading up to and in the years following Hitlers birth in 1889. It was part of the Romantic movement that arose in the 18th century as a reaction to the Enlightenment. Pantheism is an open secret in Germany, poet Henrich Heine wrote in 1835.

While admitting that Hitler never came out and declared himself a pantheist, Weikart argues that the German leader fit most comfortably in a scientific and materialistic view of pantheism, and often referred to nature as God and vice versa. To Hitler, says Weikart, Evil and sin was anything that produced biological degeneration.

Despite this evidence, Weikart says, the idea that Hitler was a Christian still pops up in liberal arguments and on atheist websites. One of the reasons they argue that Hitler was a Christian is that they are atheists or agnostics and want to bash Christianity. Theyre wanting to show the evils of Christianity, so making Christianity responsible for the Holocaust meets their idea about Christianity representing all the evils in the world.

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Hitler Was Not a Christian - Splice Today

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Human Genetic Engineering on the Doorstep – hgalert.org

Posted: at 5:20 pm

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Human Genetic Engineering on the Doorstep - hgalert.org

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Auroras on Uranus Dazzle in New Hubble Telescope Views – Space.com

Posted: at 5:19 pm

Uranus is not just a featureless ball of bluish-green gas.

Bright auroras light up the planet's atmosphere in two newly released photos, which combine observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the agency's Voyager 2 probe. (Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986 as part of a "grand tour" of the solar system's outer planets that the spacecraft performed with its twin, Voyager 1.)

Uranus' auroras are driven by the same basic processes that cause auroras here on Earth, which are also known as the northern and southern lights. [Take a Video Look at the Auroras on Uranus]

"Auroras are caused by streams of charged particles like electrons that come from various origins such as solar winds, the planetary ionosphere and moon volcanism," NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) officials wrote in an image description today (April 10). (Hubble is a joint NASA/ESA mission.)

Bright auroras are clearly visible in this composite photo of Uranus, which combines two different observations made by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope (one each for the planets rings and auroras) and one image by the agencys Voyager 2 probe, which flew by Uranus in 1986.

"They become caught in powerful magnetic fields and are channeled into the upper atmosphere, where their interactions with gas particles, such as oxygen or nitrogen, set off spectacular bursts of light," they added.

This isn't the first Uranus aurora observation for Hubble; the telescope also captured them back in November 2011.

The butt of solar system jokes, Uranus is also a spectacular blue planet still hiding many scientific secrets. See how much you know:

0 of 10 questions complete

Uranus Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Tilted Planet?

The butt of solar system jokes, Uranus is also a spectacular blue planet still hiding many scientific secrets. See how much you know:

The newly released photos also show Uranus' ring system, which appears to circle the planet's poles. But the rings actually gird Uranus' equator, just like those of Saturn: Uranus orbits the sun on its side, with the planet's spin axis pointing nearly directly at the star. Astronomers think the gas giant was knocked off-kilter long ago by a collision with an Earth-size planet, or perhaps by a series of impacts with smaller objects.

Uranus is the third-largest planet in the solar system, with a diameter about four times that of Earth. Uranus lies about 19 times farther from the sun than our planet does, and it takes 84 Earth years to complete one orbit.

The Hubble telescope launched on April 24, 1990, aboard the space shuttle Discovery and was deployed a day later. The space telescope is still going strong, as is Voyager 2; the spacecraft, which launched in 1977, is currently about 12.8 billion miles (20.6 billion kilometers) from Earth and is expected to pop free into interstellar space soon. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in August 2012 and is also still sending data home to its handlers.

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NASA finds evidence of ingredients to support life on two moons – Emirates 24|7

Posted: at 5:19 pm

Two moons - one of Saturn, the other of Jupiter - show evidence of the ingredients needed to support life, NASA said on Thursday.

The findings on Saturn's moon Enceladus were captured by the Cassini space probe, which has been orbiting Saturn for 13 years. The findings on Jupiter's moon Europa were discovered by the Hubble telescope, NASA said at a news conference in Washington.

NASA scientists said huge plumes spewing gases on the surface of Enceladus indicate the presence of hydrogen gas, which could potentially provide a chemical energy source for microbial life. The source of the plumes is hydrothermal activity on the floor of an Enceladus ocean.

According to dpa, researchers with the Cassini mission said ample hydrogen in the ocean of Enceladus means that microbes - if any exist there - could use it to obtain energy by combining the hydrogen with carbon dioxide dissolved in the water.

On Jupiter's moon Europa, the Hubble telescope observed probable plumes erupting last year, indicating what they believe is a form of chemical energy that life can feed on. These were observed at the same location where Hubble saw evidence of a plume in 2014.

The images from Europa bolster evidence that its plumes could be a real phenomenon, flaring up intermittently in the same region, NASA said.

This is the closest we've come, so far, to identifying a place with some of the ingredients needed for a habitable environment, said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

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Le Pen criticizes Trump’s new found NATO stance – CNN

Posted: at 5:19 pm

"Undeniably he is in contradiction with the commitments he had made," Le Pen said in an interview with France Info radio. "I am coherent, I don't change my mind in a few days. He had said he would not be the policeman of the world, that he would be the president of the United States and would not be the policeman of the world, but it seems today that he has changed his mind."

Her comments come just two days after Trump hosted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House and declared that the military alliance is no longer outdated, which had been a frequent refrain of his during the 2016 campaign.

"I said it was obsolete," he said Wednesday. "It's no longer obsolete."

Le Pen, leader of The National Front, went on to say that while she does not know if Trump would continue to abandon his "America First" approach, she herself would stick to a France first approach if elected president.

"Will he persist, or is it a political coup which facilitates his domestic policy, I have absolutely no idea. But I am coherent in my analyses. When something favors France I say so, when it doesn't I say so too," she said.

Le Pen has been a strong critic of NATO during the French presidential campaign and has included pulling France back from NATO in her campaign platform. The leader of the National Front party, on track to make it through to the run-off election on May 7, has recently seen her momentum slowed.

"I consider that France does not have to submit to the calendar of the United States, so I want France to leave the integrated command of NATO," she said.

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Trump’s tone on NATO has changed, but he still puts ‘America first’ – The Hill (blog)

Posted: at 5:19 pm


The Hill (blog)
Trump's tone on NATO has changed, but he still puts 'America first'
The Hill (blog)
During Wednesday's press conference with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, President Trump announced what many interpreted as a key policy change: I said [NATO] was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete..
Trump's Previous View of NATO Is Now ObsoleteNew York Times
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Encourages Debate Between MembersU.S. News & World Report
What is Nato? Why did Donald Trump say Nato is 'no longer obsolete'?Express.co.uk
Chicago Tribune -Aljazeera.com -ABC15 Arizona -Wall Street Journal
all 749 news articles »

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NSA’s arsenal of Windows hacking tools have leaked | ZDNet

Posted: at 5:17 pm

(Image: file photo)

A new trove of alleged surveillance tools and exploits from the National Security Agency's elite hacking team have been released by the Shadow Brokers' hacking group.

The group Friday appeared to release tools designed to target Windows PCs and servers, along with presentations and files purporting to detail the agency's methods of carrying out clandestine surveillance.

According to several documents, the NSA used the Windows hacking tools to target several banks, including the SWIFT banking system.

The dump of Windows exploits -- arguably affecting the most people and organizations and likely to cause the most damage and embarrassment to the intelligence agency -- has been expected since the hacking group first emerged on the scene last year.

In case you missed it, hacking tools that were confirmed to belong to the NSA's so-called Equation Group were stolen last year in one of the biggest breaches of classified files since the Edward Snowden revelations. These tools, allowed NSA analysts to break into a range of systems, network equipment, and firewalls, and most recently tools to target the Linux operating system -- many of which were old and outdated. The group attempted to auction off the files but failed, and have been releasing portions of the stolen files in stages.

Researchers are currently poring over the cache of files.

Several of the files we've seen appear to be "top secret" in classification, such as JeepfleaMarket, which appears to utilize the Jeepflea program to collect data on servers at least nine international banks.

The document purports to show the infrastructure behind the system, along with another document, which shows that the NSA has deep access to some networks by exploiting VPN and firewall systems.

(Image: supplied, via Kevin Beaumont)

It appears that most of the exploits target older Windows versions, dating back as early as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Among the more interesting exploits found in the cache include ExplodingCan, which exploits older versions of Windows' web server Internet Information Services with a remote backdoor. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont, who examined the exploit, said in a tweet that the tool was "very well" built.

Another exploit, dubbed EmeraldThread, is a remote Windows SMB exploit for Windows XP and 2003.

And while little is known about the so-called OddJob implant, it appears to have exploits for almost every version of Windows 2000 and later, including some server editions, some of which may still work.

Other tools point to several other remote exploits in every version of Windows, according to Hacker Fantastic, a security researcher who has been analyzing the files. (The researcher followed up in a tweet noting that not current all patches were applied at the time.)

The researcher was able to run many of the exploits found in the cache, according to a tweet.

It's not known how many of the exploits, if any, are unknown to the manufacturer. These so-called zero-day vulnerabilities are closely guarded secrets to allow analysts to carry out surveillance.

But Beaumont said that some of the tools he examined "may be" previously undisclosed, but they have yet "to be confirmed."

A Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement late Friday that it has "confirmed that the exploits disclosed by the Shadow Brokers have already been addressed by previous updates to our supported products," and gave a more detailed breakdown in a blog post.

A spokesperson for the NSA did not return a call Friday.

This post has been updated several times over the past few days, and some information relating to Windows 8 was removed after claims were proven incorrect.

Everyday ways your personal privacy is under threat:

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New leak suggests NSA penetrated banking networks in Middle …

Posted: at 5:17 pm

PARIS -- A new set of documents purportedly lifted from the U.S. National Security Agency suggests that American spies have burrowed deep into the Middle Easts financial network, apparently compromising the Dubai office of the anti-money laundering and financial services firm EastNets. The company said Friday that the documents were dated and denied that any customer data had been affected.

TheShadowBrokers, which startled the security experts last year by releasing some of the NSAs hacking tools, has recently resumed pouring secrets into the public domain. In a first for TheShadowBrokers, the data includes PowerPoint slides and purported target lists, suggesting that the group has access to a broader range of data than previously known.

This is by far the most brutal dump, said Comae Technologies founder Matt Suiche, who has closely followed the groups disclosures and initially helped confirm its connection to the NSA last year. In a blog post, he said it appeared that thousands of employee accounts and machines from EastNets offices had been compromised and that financial institutions in Kuwait, Bahrain and the Palestinian territories had been targeted for espionage.

In a statement, EastNets said there was no credibility to the allegation that its customers details had been stolen.

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The company, which acts as a service bureau connecting customers to the financial worlds electronic backbone, SWIFT, said the ShadowBrokers documents referred to a low-level internal server that had since been retired and that a complete check of its systems had turned up no evidence of any compromise.

The denial drew skepticism from those whod reviewed the files.

Eastnets claim is impossible to believe, said Kevin Beaumont, who was one of several experts who spent Friday combing through the documents and trying out the code. He said hed found password dumps, an Excel spreadsheet outlining the internal architecture of the companys server and one file that was just a massive log of hacking on their organization.

SWIFT, based in Belgium, released a less categorical statement, saying, we understand that communications between these service bureaus and their customers may previously have been accessed by unauthorized third parties. It said there was no evidence its own network had been compromised.

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Repeated messages seeking clarification from EastNets went unreturned.

The leak also included tools designed to target computers and servers running Microsofts Windows operating system, ZDNet reports. Most of the exploits target older Windows versions, dating back as early as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but many supported versions are still on the list, including Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Beaumont said the exploits suggest the work of a sophisticated actor and are a potential worry for many of Windows hundreds of millions of users.

The opinion was seconded by Matthew Hickey of Prestbury, England-based cybersecurity company Hacker House.

Its an absolute disaster, Hickey in an email to the Associated Press. I have been able to hack pretty much every Windows version here in my lab using this leak.

Microsoft said in a statement that it is reviewing the leak and will take the necessary actions to protect our customers. It declined to elaborate.

The NSA, which did not respond to emails, has previously shown interest in targeting SWIFT, according to documents leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, and Suiche said other documents in the release suggested an effort to monitor the worlds financial transactions that went beyond EastNets.

Ill bet its not the only SWIFT service bureau thats been compromised, he said.

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