"We kill people based on metadata"

Thus spoke General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and the CIA. Metadata is information about information, in this case, collecting metadata about phone calls. It knows A called B on a certain date and time and for a certain amount of time. It then can go out 2-3 hops, A<->B is one, B then calls C is 2, C calls D E and F for three. So A never talks to F, but they are indelibly associated, so if one is labeled a terrorist, there's an extremely high chance the other is. But maybe it's just a neighborhood pizza joint that delivers.

And with every drone strike we radicalize more people to become terrorists, and we've given them an exceptionally bright and clear target: the USA. I guess winning hearts and minds is too wussy these days.

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/may/10/we-kill-people-based-metadata/

China wants to build a 125 mile undersea tunnel connecting to Alaska

The one thing that I don't see mentioned in the articles that I've seen on this is a mention of plate tectonics and earthquake zones. Based on the occasional report of Chinese bullet train wrecks and bridges collapsing from shoddy work and cost-cutting/fraud, I would not want to ride in such a tunnel.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/05/09/china-may-build-an-undersea-train-to-america/

Department of Justice wants increased authority to hack computers

I can sympathize with them, when you're dealing with botnets and distributed enterprises and such, it can be hard to conduct an effective criminal investigation. But I don't know that giving them carte blanch to go on a hacking rampage is the solution.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248242/DOJ_seeks_new_authority_to_hack_and_search_remote_computers