Month: July 2017

Maryland prosecutors have tossed 34 criminal cases and are re-examining dozens more in the aftermath of recent revelations that a Baltimore police officer accidentally recorded himself planting drugs in a trash-strewn alley.

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said that, in all, 123 cases are under review in the wake of a scandal in which one officer has been suspended and two others put on administrative duty. Body cam footage revealed nearly two weeks ago showed one of the officers planting drugs when he didn't realize his body cam was recording. The Baltimore Police Department's body cams, like many across the nation, capture footage 30 seconds before an officer presses the record button. The footage was turned over to defense attorneys as part of a drug prosecution—and that's when the misdeed was uncovered.

"We are dismissing those cases which relied exclusively on the credibility of these officers," Mosby told a news conference Friday. She said the dismissed cases, some of which have already been prosecuted, involved weapons and drugs. Another dozen cases will stand because of "independent corroborative evidence," she said.

Enlarge / Hencha Voigt, seen here in a May 28 photo, is accused of sextorting Julieanna Goddard. (credit: Hencha Voigt)

The FBI has inserted itself into an ongoing state case in Miami involving two suspects accused of sextorting Julieanna Goddard, a South Beach socialite who goes by YesJulz online. The accused sextortionists are reality-TV star Hencha Voigt and her then-boyfriend, Wesley Victor.

According to a recent court filing, which was provided to Ars by the Miami Herald, the FBI offered to cover Florida's costs to pay Cellebrite, a well-known Israeli digital forensics firm, to extract data off of one of the suspects’ iPhone 6. The Cellebrite effort was successful.

The case provides a clear look into the efforts that the federal government is willing to go to—even in local, non-terrorism cases—to aid local law enforcement’s attempts to defeat strong encryption.

Enlarge (credit: Chevrolet)

The United States Special Forces are perhaps the best tactical fighting force the world has ever seen. Whether it's hostage rescue, covert operations, or a Bin Laden-esque kill-or-capture mission, the Tier 1 Operators of the US military are the ones to beat.  As any Boy Scout can tell you, being prepared is the key to success. For these operators, it's about having the best training, the best intelligence, and the best equipment—whether it's $40,000 night vision goggles that turn day into night or $60,000 blacked-out SUVs.

That last bit is why Chevrolet invited a small group of journalists to Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg and the Joint Special Operations Command that oversees the Army's Delta Force and several other elite units. The carmaker's PR machine wanted to show how some former operators—the preferred term for members of the most elite special forces units in the US—use the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban SUVs in environments a bit more challenging than your typical Whole Foods grocery run.

Our destination was The Range Complex, a shooting range and training facility just outside Ft. Bragg that's owned and operated by former Delta Force members. It's a firearm enthusiast's dream on 1,982 acres (8km2), complete with tactical pistol and rifle ranges out to 100 yards (91m), a 600-yard (549m) long-distance rifle range, a 50-yard (46m) competition training range, and a pair of live-fire shoot houses complete with multiple rooms and an overhead catwalk for instructors to supervise activities.

Enlarge (credit: Chevrolet)

The United States Special Forces are perhaps the best tactical fighting force the world has ever seen. Whether it's hostage rescue, covert operations, or a Bin Laden-esque kill-or-capture mission, the Tier 1 Operators of the US military are the ones to beat.  As any Boy Scout can tell you, being prepared is the key to success. For these operators, it's about having the best training, the best intelligence, and the best equipment—whether it's $40,000 night vision goggles that turn day into night or $60,000 blacked-out SUVs.

That last bit is why Chevrolet invited a small group of journalists to Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg and the Joint Special Operations Command that oversees the Army's Delta Force and several other elite units. The carmaker's PR machine wanted to show how some former operators—the preferred term for members of the most elite special forces units in the US—use the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban SUVs in environments a bit more challenging than your typical Whole Foods grocery run.

Our destination was The Range Complex, a shooting range and training facility just outside Ft. Bragg that's owned and operated by former Delta Force members. It's a firearm enthusiast's dream on 1,982 acres (8km2), complete with tactical pistol and rifle ranges out to 100 yards (91m), a 600-yard (549m) long-distance rifle range, a 50-yard (46m) competition training range, and a pair of live-fire shoot houses complete with multiple rooms and an overhead catwalk for instructors to supervise activities.

Enlarge / You're feeling sleeeeeeepy... (credit: Sim Dawdler)

The brain is a strange thing, and hypnosis may be one of the weirdest brain phenomena around. Some dude waves a watch at you and tells you there is an elephant in the room. Voila, your brain invents an elephant, acts out the elephant's behavior, and the rest of your brain responds as if this is real. This weirdness is partially why I noticed a paper on how hypnotism changes visual perception. The rest is paranoia.

I've been suffering from a deadly combination of fascination and suspicion when it comes to hypnotists for a long time. When I was in my teens, I remember a hypnotist visiting town—this was before anyone in New Zealand thought that hypnotism was anything but entertainment, I guess. He set up a little stage in a shopping center and invited a couple of teenage boys on stage.

The two dudes strutted up, full of pride. After hypnotizing them, the hypnotist got them to do all sorts of things, right down to performing a strip show. They were down to their tighty-whities when the hypnotists woke them up. Needless to say the two young men were not just shocked, they were highly embarrassed. To make matters worse for them, the crowd roared. No gentile clapping and polite laughter—these two got the full thank-god-that-isn't-me belly laugh. The hypnotist had chosen a particularly cruel joke to play on a pair of highly suggestible young men.

Enlarge / Kim Dotcom, as seen in 2014. (credit: Hannah Peters / Getty Images News)

Kim Dotcom is about to upgrade his lifestyle, and he plans to move from Auckland, New Zealand to Queenstown, a city in the far south of the country, according to a few recent tweets.

The Megaupload founder has been battling an American criminal copyright case from New Zealand for years now, and so far he's successfully resisted extradition. Dotcom was also hit with a civil forfeiture case filed by the Department of Justice, which was brought 18 months after the initial criminal charges. Prosecutors have sought to seize an extensive list of assets, including millions of dollars in various seized bank accounts in Hong Kong and New Zealand, multiple cars, four jet skis, the Dotcom mansion, several luxury cars, two 108-inch TVs, three 82-inch TVs, a $10,000 watch, and a photograph by Olaf Mueller worth over $100,000.

Earlier this month, a New Zealand judge revealed that the country’s signals intelligence agency, known as the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), illegally spied on Dotcom for two months longer than previously admitted.