A Government of the People, by Some Other People

A couple of years ago I signed a petition asking for a full pardon for Edward Snowden. Roughly two years behind schedule, The White House has responded to that petition. No surprise: TWH has declined to issue a pardon. The Intercept has summarized the errors and misleading statements in the response. Among their points:

Snowden is willing to accept the legal consequences of his acts — but, were he to come home under the current circumstances, [he] would be barred under the draconian Espionage Act from publicly arguing that his leaks were justified.

Ars Technica expanded on this and other inaccuracies in The White House's response. With emphasis added:

Another one of Snowden’s US-based lawyers, Jesselyn Radack, reiterated to Ars that her client is not "running away."

"Snowden is in Russia because of the United States, which revoked his passport while he was transiting through there to Latin America," she said. "How does President Obama think Snowden should have ‘constructively addressed these issues’ when his administration has led the worst crackdown on national security and intelligence whistleblowers in US history? Earlier, President Obama stated that he had passed an executive order that Snowden could have used in order to go through proper channels. That statement was false. Presidential Policy Directive #19 was not implemented when Snowden blew the whistle on NSA and does not protect contractors like Snowden."

The White House is intent on prosecuting Ed Snowden, but it shows no interest in prosecuting those responsible for the illegal collection of bulk call data. Also see:

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/16/an-nsa-coworker-remembers-the-real-edward-snowden-a-genius-among-geniuses/
• http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/07/aclu-to-appellate-court-please-halt-nsas-resumed-bulk-data-collection/

Simulators and Aviation Safety

Everything We Thought about Training Was Wrong | Flying Magazine:

"In addition to the benefits technology in the cockpit afford, there are two big trends affecting safety in a positive way. The first is the increased use of simulator technology in preparing students for flight and maintaining proficiency. "

Hanging Out With Someone Who Walked On The Moon | Hackaday:

"David [Scott, Apollo astronaut] told us that the simulations were remarkably accurate. His recollection was the only difference between the simulation and being on the moon was the fact that you were on the moon. Quite an endorsement of the Apollo simulators.

"David is a big fan of simulations. He told us that when traveling into space you want to simulate as much as possible while on the ground so that you get to know the systems and your fellow crew members. Apollo went so far as to simulate parts of the mission with the CM and LM inside of a huge vacuum chamber."

It probably doesn't need emphasis, but Dave Scott was talking about realistic simulations. Simulations need to be sufficiently realistic that, when training scenarios play out in real life, the pilot can recognize what's happening as something familiar.

Aside: I loved this bit from NOVA's "First Man on the Moon", around the 24:19 minute mark:

NARRATOR: Back in orbit, Armstrong kept his cool, figuring out his only remaining option: disengage all the maneuvering thrusters including the one that was stuck and use the re-entry thrusters to counteract the tumbling and regain control of the spacecraft.

SCOTT:
He had to reach up above his head and throw switches under this high-speed roll. That's amazing that he was able to do that and he knew exactly where the switches were, exactly which ones to throw.

SCOTT: I mean, the guy was brilliant.
He knew the system so well that he found the solution, he activated the solution under extreme circumstances, and I gotta say it was my lucky day to be flying with Mr.
Neil Armstrong.

Pres. Obama: NSA security backdoors are a bad idea

The headline is misleading. He didn't really say that. At least, not on purpose. As far as I know.

From 2 March 2015:

Exclusive: Obama sharply criticizes China's plans for new technology rules | Reuters:

In an interview with Reuters, Obama said he was concerned about Beijing's plans for a far-reaching counterterrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys, the passcodes that help protect data, and install security "backdoors" in their systems to give Chinese authorities surveillance access.

Obama said the rules could also backfire on China.

"Those kinds of restrictive practices I think would ironically hurt the Chinese economy over the long term because I don’t think there is any U.S. or European firm, any international firm, that could credibly get away with that wholesale turning over of data, personal data, over to a government," he said.

From 24 February 2015, an exchange between Yahoo's Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos and NSA Director Mike Rogers, in which Mr. Stamos challenges the NSA's plan to ban working crypto:

Yahoo's security boss faces down NSA director over crypto ban - Boing Boing:

AS: [...] So, if we’re going to build defects/backdoors or golden master keys for the US government, do you believe we should do so — we have about 1.3 billion users around the world — should we do for the Chinese government, the Russian government, the Saudi Arabian government, the Israeli government, the French government? Which of those countries should we give backdoors to?

[...]

MR: I think we can work our way through this.

AS: I’m sure the Chinese and Russians are going to have the same opinion.

MR: I said I think we can work through this.

AS: Okay, nice to meet you. Thanks.