Samwise rides again

From SMH …

AFTER 105 witnesses and three months of evidence, a drug trial costing $1 million was aborted yesterday when it emerged that jurors had been playing Sudoku since the trial’s second week.

More than 20 police gave evidence in the case, in which the two accused faced a common charge of conspiracy to manufacture a commercial quantity of amphetamines. One faced further firearms and drug possession indictments. The prosecution and defence were due to deliver final addresses to the jury this week.

But last week, as one of the accused was giving evidence, he saw the jury forewoman playing what he thought was Sudoku. His co-accused saw it too, and the defence counsel, Adam Morison and Michael Coroneos, made a joint application for a discharge.

four or five jurors had brought in the Sudoku sheets and photocopied them to play during the trial and then compare their results during meal breaks.

She admitted to having spent more than half of her time in court playing the game. The trial, which started on March 4, has cost more than $1 million, including counsels’ fees, staff wages and court running costs for 60 days of hearings. Judge Zahra, who had previously commended the jury for its apparent diligence, told the forewoman that the Sudoku players had let down their fellow jurors and all involved in the trial.

There is no offence under the NSW Jury Act for playing games or being inattentive to a degree that causes a trial to be abandoned.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions must now decide whether to recommence the proceedings against the men.

Thanks to Jess for forwarding me this one.

UPDATE : A murder trial has been halted, and will have to start again due to a ruling by the British law lords on anonymous witnesses, from Aunty …

Law Lords ruled that defendants had a right to know the identity of those testifying against them.

Four witnesses had given evidence under false names and from behind screens during the two-month trial of the two men accused of killing Charles Butler in Dagenham, east London, in 2004.

In their ruling, the Law Lords argued it has been a fundamental principle of English Law that the accused should be able to see his accusers and challenge them.

Judge Paget said it would be “frankly impossible” to ask the jury to forget what they had heard from anonymous witnesses.

He told the jury: “You have heard evidence from a number of witnesses that you should not have heard.”

the Law Lords had given their ruling “because of the difficulties caused to the defence if they do not know the identity of witnesses against them and are deprived of investigating why these people may be inaccurate or, worst, untruthful”.

“It’s fundamentally important that we are able to protect, in very, very rare cases, anonymity of witnesses, otherwise we’re not able to get justice for people.”

“Intimidation of witnesses is a very serious problem, but a balance must be found which protects them without compromising the integrity of the trial.”

I have to say in all fairness that I agree with the law lords ruling, civil liberties are already eroding faster than ever in the UK, and there is a real threat of some kafkaesque bureaucratic legal system. On the other hand I appreciate the seriousness of needing to protect witnesses. I am not sure what the solution is that balances both of these factors, but I have faith that there is one, I doubt however we shall see it practiced any time soon due to many pending cases which can be thrown out, or even old ones such as the automated speeding ticket.

Aunty …

An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan’s Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry

A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security.

Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in.

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials.

The customs officer conducted the test on a passenger’s bag against regulations. Normally a training suitcase is used.

“I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability,”

Japan has strict laws against drugs and possession of small amounts of cannabis can lead to a prison sentence.

The buzz from the Bee Beecee …

“Bee health is at risk and, frankly, if nothing is done about it, the fact is the honey bee population could be wiped out in 10 years.”

In a few weeks’ time, Britain’s thousands of amateur beekeepers will face what might be called “Bee-Day”. In the south of England, the weather will be warm enough that apiarists can lift the tops off their hives for the first time and find out if their colonies have survived the winter.

And these beekeepers are worried. Every winter some colonies are lost. But last year saw widespread anecdotal reports of above average losses, and the enthusiasts fear this year could be worse.

“Last winter a number of very experienced beekeepers lost colonies in very mysterious circumstances.”

One change is in the varroa mite, identified by Lord Rooker as the main threat.

The mite, which latches onto bees and sucks their “blood”, arrived in the UK in 1992. Within a few years it had spread throughout the country and took the wild honey bee population to the brink of annihilation. Managed hives were also hit hard.

But having long been kept under control using chemical treatments, there is now a new problem.

“The mites are becoming resistant, there are no good alternatives for treatment,” says Carreck.

And as well as varroa, the devil that beekeepers know, there is another cloud on the horizon. Across the Atlantic US honey bees are being wiped out in vast numbers by a mysterious condition that leaves hives deserted.

Scientists are working frantically to identify the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, but UK beekeepers fear it could soon spread to them. One swarm of bees in a ship container might be enough to bring the disease.

“If it did arrive we don’t know how to tackle it,” says Ivor Davis, an amateur apiarist in Bristol and former president of the British Beekeepers Association, which has 11,000 members. “The government doesn’t seem that concerned.”

US beekeepers, who make money from taking their bees from state to state for pollination of commercial crops, have been replenishing stocks from Australia. But in the UK, which imports the vast majority of its honey, beekeeping is dominated by amateurs. Many will not be able to afford repeated purchases of new bees in the event of the disease arriving.

“If we give up because it is too hard then the country is in trouble - 99% of beekeepers are hobbyists,” says Davis.

Beekeepers want the government to contribute more than the £200,000 it currently spends on research into bee diseases and the £1.8m it spends on the National Bee Unit and inspections of colonies.

The position of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is clear. There is no evidence the US disease is spreading in the UK, and while it does liaise with American scientists, it is awaiting compelling evidence that there should be a big increase in spending.

But if CCD hasn’t spread to the UK yet, why are bees dying in greater numbers than usual? The answer, according to many beekeepers, may lie as much with a mixture of erratic unseasonal weather as it does with disease.

Mild winters are not good for bees, says Carreck. A sudden warm snap, as experienced in some parts of England at the weekend. can persuade the bees that spring is here. They venture out and expend energy but find there is no food for them, and then the cold returns.

Chris Slade, from Maiden Newton in Dorset, has been keeping bees for 30 years and blames his higher-than-normal losses on a phenomenon caused by excessively long summers. But he believes the bees will adapt to the erratic weather and that concerns over disease are overstated.

“There is a lot of hyperbole. Beekeeping always goes through periods of prosperity and dearth. People do enjoy a good panic.”

But there is no doubt the consequences of a severely depleted honey bee population would be grim.

“Insects are essential for the pollination of a very large proportion of produce,” says Carreck. And of the insects, bees are key because of the times of the year they are available to spread pollen.

To take just two examples, the British apple industry would face devastating consequences if there were no bees, while bird populations would also suffer.

The prospect of this catastrophic loss of bees has driven Guardian journalist and beekeeper Alison Benjamin to write her upcoming book A World Without Bees.

Benjamin, who lives in Battersea, is one of a growing number of young, urban-dwelling beekeepers. She has five hives, one at her current flat, one at her old flat, and three at the bottom of her parents’ garden.

“It’s about bringing a bit of nature into the city. And it’s argued they produce better honey in the towns than they do in the countryside.”

In the US they are vital to agribusiness, with their owners taking them on a tour of the nation’s foodstuffs. First hives might be taken by truck to Massachusetts, Benjamin says, then on to Maine for blueberries, then Florida for oranges and California for almonds.

This constant movement has been blamed for the prevalence of the varroa mite in the US and the spread of disease, as stressed bees come into contact with a plethora of infections.

It is one reason that some believe the UK, which does not have nomadic beekeepers, will not be affected by CCD in the same way.

Previous episodes :

• The Blight on Black Bees in Blighty
• Honeybee Mite
• When animals bees disappear

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE

I always wanted to be a Viking from a Monty Python sketch.

Good ol’ Aunty …

The Top Gear host revealed his account numbers after rubbishing the furore over the loss of 25 million people’s personal details on two computer discs.

He wanted to prove the story was a fuss about nothing.

But Clarkson admitted he was “wrong” after he discovered a reader had used the details to create a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK.

Clarkson published details of his Barclays account in the Sun newspaper, including his account number and sort code. He even told people how to find out his address.

“All you’ll be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out. Honestly, I’ve never known such a palaver about nothing,” he told readers.

But he was proved wrong, as the 47-year-old wrote in his Sunday Times column.

“I opened my bank statement this morning to find out that someone has set up a direct debit which automatically takes £500 from my account,” he said.

“The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again.

“I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake.”

Mr.Clarkeson is a modern man with well thought out reasonable ideas, I am sure he will bounce back with his tail between his legs. ;O)

Schneier powers through the reader supplied questions on the NYTimes freakonomics blog …

Fifty years is a long time. In 1957, fifty years ago, there were fewer than 2,000 computers total, and they were essentially used to crunch numbers. They were huge, expensive, and unreliable; sometimes, they caught on fire. There was no word processing, no spreadsheets, no e-mail, and no Internet. Programs were written on punch cards or paper tape, and memory was measured in thousands of digits. IBM sold a disk drive that could hold almost 4.5 megabytes, but it was five-and-a-half feet tall by five feet deep and would just barely fit through a standard door.

Read the science fiction from back then, and you’d be amazed by what they got wrong. Sure, they predicted smaller and faster, but no one got the socialization right.

Security is a trade-off, just like anything else. And it’s not true that we always disproportionately value other things before security. Look at our terrorism policies; when we’re scared, we value security disproportionately before all other things. Looking at security through the lens of economics is the only way to understand how these motivations work and what level of security is optimal for society.

Basically, the problem is that the secret ballot means that most of the security tricks we use in things like electronic funds transfers don’t work in voting machines. The only workable solution against hacking the voting machines, or — more commonly — innocent programming errors, is something called a voter-verifiable paper trail. Vote on whatever touch-screen machine you want in whatever way you want. Then, that machine must spit out a printed piece of paper with your vote on it, which you have the option of reviewing for accuracy. The machine collects the votes electronically for a quick tally, and the paper is the actual vote in case of recounts. Nothing else is secure.

Social engineering will always be easy, because it attacks a fundamental aspect of human nature. As I said in my book, Beyond Fear, “social engineering will probably always work, because so many people are by nature helpful and so many corporate employees are naturally cheerful and accommodating. Attacks are rare, and most people asking for information or help are legitimate. By appealing to the victim’s natural tendencies, the attacker will usually be able to cozen what she wants.”

The trick is to build systems that the user cannot subvert, whether by malice, accident, or trickery. This will also help with the other problem you list: convincing individuals to take organizational security seriously. This is hard to do, even in the military, where the stakes are much higher.

There’s a huge difference between nosy neighbors and cameras. Cameras are everywhere. Cameras are always on. Cameras have perfect memory. It’s not the surveillance we’ve been used to; it’s wholesale surveillance.

What’s happening is that we are all effectively under constant surveillance. No one is looking at the data most of the time, but we can all be watched in the past, present, and future. And while mining this data is mostly useless for finding terrorists, it’s very useful in controlling a population.

Cameras are just one piece of this, but they’re an important piece. And what’s at stake is a massive loss of personal privacy, which I believe has significant societal ramifications.

I’ve written about that UK data loss fiasco, which seems to be turning into a privacy Chernobyl for that country

Of course. I shop online all the time; it’s far easier than going to a store, or even calling a mail-order phone number, if I know exactly what I want.

What you’re really asking me is about the security. No one steals credit card numbers one-by-one, by eavesdropping on the Internet connection. They’re all stolen in blocks of a million by hacking the back-end database. It doesn’t matter if you bought something over the Internet, by phone, by mail, or in person — you’re equally vulnerable.

I like this one because when I found fraudulent payments on my card the first response from nearly everyone I told was that I had been duped by a phishing scam or some other high tech scam. Funnily enough, or maybe that should have been ironically enough, some of those same people got hit the same way a month or so after. My guess is that it was the cash machine outside the local bank. Doesn’t matter really.

It’s surreal to be mentioned in The DaVinci Code, to appear before the House of Lords, or to answer questions for the Freakonomics blog.

The hardest part is the responsibility. People take my words seriously, which means that I can’t utter them lightly. If I say that I use a certain product — PGP Disk, for example — people buy the product and the company is happy. If, on the other hand, I call a bunch of products “snake oil,” people don’t buy the products and the companies occasionally sue me.

it’s impossible to function in modern society without leaving electronic footprints on the Web or in real life.

I run an open wireless network at home. There’s no password, and there’s no encryption. Honestly, I think it’s just polite. Why should I care if someone on the block steals wireless access from me? When my wireless router broke last month, I used a neighbor’s access until I replaced it.

I myself run an open wireless network, though admittedly it is incredibly flakey on certain days, I can understand that people are often held liable for all access from their connection, I still don’t worry.

Aunty reports …

Iran remains a threat to the world despite new intelligence saying the country may not be building nuclear weapons, the US president says.

Mr Bush said the report released on Monday was a “warning signal” and his view that a nuclear Iran would be a danger “hasn’t changed”.

Unfortunatly Mr.Bush’s track record on countries that may or may not have weapons-of-mass-destruction is not perfect, not great, not even good, in fact it is rather poor, still noone likes a quitter.

From Aunty …

The Oxford University study suggests 1,500 girls are “missing” from the birth statistics in England and Wales from 1990 to 2005.

It shows the proportion of boys compared with girls born to Indian-born mothers has increased since the 1970s.

Dr Sylvie Dubuc said this could be due to “sex selective abortion”.

Dr Dubuc, who studied birth rates of different ethnic groups in England and Wales, found that in the 1970s 103 boys were born for every 100 girls.

Between 2000 and 2005, the proportion of boys over girls had increased abnormally to 114 boys for every 100 girls, she said.

Figures showed 26,662 babies were born to Indian-born women in England and Wales from 1990 to 2005, excluding the first or second child.

“According to my calculation around 1,500 girls are missing… it’s significant compared to the total number of births,”

…

An estimated seven million girls have gone missing from India’s population over the last 25 years.

Some of them will have been killed after they were born, or allowed to die within their first few days. But most of them will have been aborted.

Selective abortion is happening all over India as ultrasound machines - which carry out the scan - have become cheaper

Previously …

UPDATE : Doctor sought over illegal scans.

http://www.xkcd.com/349/

Apparently “40% of OpenBSD installs lead to shark attacks. It’s their only standing security issue.”

It’s true, I’m being attacked by a shark right now.

http://xkcd.com/327/