Report: Ordinary Americans caught up in data sweep

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted the online accounts of legally targeted foreigners over a four-year period it also collected the conversations of nine times as many ordinary Internet users, both Americans and non-Americans, according to a probe by The Washington Post.

Nearly half of those surveillance files contained names, email addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents, the Post reported in a story posted on its website Saturday night. While the federal agency tried to protect their privacy by masking more than 65,000 such references to individuals, the newspaper said it found nearly 900 additional email addresses that could be strongly linked to U.S. citizens or residents.

At the same time, the intercepted messages contained material of considerable intelligence value, the Post reported, such as information about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks.

As an example, the newspaper said the files showed that months of tracking communications across dozens of alias accounts led directly to the capture in 2011 of a Pakistan-based bomb builder suspected in a 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali. The Post said it was withholding other examples, at the request of the CIA, that would compromise ongoing investigations.

The material reviewed by the Post included roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts. It spanned President Barack Obama's first term, 2009 to 2012, and was provided to the Post by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.

The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted were catalogued and recorded, the Post reported. The newspaper described that material as telling "stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes." The material collected included more than 5,000 private photos, the paper said.

The cache Snowden provided to the newspaper came from domestic NSA operations under the broad authority granted by Congress in 2008 with amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to the Post.

By law, the NSA may "target" only foreign nationals located overseas unless it obtains a warrant based on probable cause from a special surveillance court, the Post said. "Incidental collection" of third-party communications is inevitable in many forms of surveillance, according to the newspaper. In the case of the material Snowden provided, those in an online chat room visited by a target or merely reading the discussion were included in the data sweep, as were hundreds of people using a computer server whose Internet protocol was targeted.

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Online:

Washington Post: washingtonpost.com

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How to handle emergency with push-button ignition

In your column you gave advice on what to do if someone experienced a stuck throttle. With a traditional key I understand the steps you mentioned. But our next vehicle may be equipped with a push-button ignition. How would we handle an emergency situation like a stuck accelerator or unintended acceleration? Also, one of the vehicles we are interested in has a push-button transmission, not a normal gear shifter. Does shifting to neutral still apply?

We currently have a vehicle with electronic rather than mechanical door locks and a fob-in-pocket push-button ignition on the dash. I don't care for either of these. If the car battery goes dead, the doors cannot be unlocked from the outside. You must use an emergency key stored in the fob to unlock the rear hatch and pull a cable to mechanically unlock the front door. If you are inside the vehicle when the battery fails and the doors are locked — exceptionally rare, of course, but still a possibility — you must pull an emergency door release lever to open the door.

As modern and slick as this technology is, I can't help but wonder what the true benefits are. A remote keyless entry system opens doors from the outside and a key-in-the-ignition switch started and stopped the engine. Mind you, these electronic systems aren't necessarily bad but I don't see any real advantage.

In reference to dealing with a stuck throttle or unintended acceleration, the push-button ignition switch does suggest a possible complication. In order to shut off the engine, one must depress and hold in the button for a short period of time — a demanding and difficult procedure when dealing with an emergency.

To deal with a stuck throttle/unintended acceleration with a system like this, shift the transmission into neutral, then steer and brake the car to a safe stop — as I suggested in my earlier column. Again, modern engine management systems will prevent the engine from over-revving in neutral in this situation.

Whether the shift mechanism is push-button, floor-mounted or on the steering column doesn't matter. Immediately shift into neutral and then deal with the situation.

I love my Dodge Intrepid, but the headlights have never been adequate. I keep the lenses polished and clear but the lights are worse than the 6-volt bulbs in my 1951 Ford sealed-beam headlights. What can I do? I need better lights to drive at night.

Age and your eyes may be part of this, but regardless, you can upgrade the halogen bulbs in your composite headlamp assemblies. Probably your best choice would be to install a xenon HID (high-intensity discharge) headlamp kit. HID headlamps are original equipment on many newer vehicles and offer a significant improvement in lighting. The installation isn't quite as simple as replacing the standard bulb — it requires a ballast assembly and additional wiring harness. Prices are in the $100-$300 range for the kit.

I have a 2007 Chevy 1500 V8 that can burn E85. I got the flex fuel option when E85 was about 65 cents per gallon less than gas. Now I am seeing a difference of about 25 cents, which means it doesn't make sense to burn E85. Is there a formula for figuring the break-even point? If you use E85 on every fill, will that harm the engine or make it run rough?

There's no perfect answer here. E85 prices vary state-to-state from about 10 to 25 percent less than gasoline, thus the economics vary tremendously. The EPA combined mileage estimates for a 2014 Chevy 5.3-liter K1500 4WD are 18 mpg on gasoline and 13 mpg on E85 — a difference of more than 25 percent. Compare this with the percentage difference in cost between fuels and you'll have your answer for that fill-up. While there is no benefit to engine reliability or durability, E85 won't harm your engine.

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How I edited my summer vacation

Summer vacation means lots of photos and videos waiting to be edited and preserved, and Animoto for iPad has arrived just in time to make the process easier than ever.

Animoto started out as a Web-based videomaker, added a smartphone app and recently an app for iPad, joining a number of self-serve video apps that are increasingly letting amateur videographers do the work of pros.

This sleekly designed app lets you pick up to 12 videos and photos from your camera roll to use in your film. Then you choose a visual theme and a soundtrack, and Animoto turns your selections into a short movie. The finished product can be stored in the cloud or shared on social networks.

After getting back from a week on the Cape with my family a few days ago, I used Animoto to produce a minute-long video of our vacation. The entire process — from clip selection to watching my finished film — took no more than two minutes.

The free version of Animoto is good for short flicks, but there are limitations: individual clips can't be longer than five seconds, and the entire video is limited to 30 seconds in length. So I took the plunge with Animoto Plus, a $29.99, one-year subscription that works with clips that are up to 30 seconds long, and includes an expanded library of templates and royalty-free music. It also lets users download finished video projects to a computer or DVD.

There are additional subscription plans for personal and business use that allow much longer and more sophisticated-looking videos. Animoto's website blog boasts that a growing number of educators, businesses and photographers are using the service to produce pro-quality videos on the fly.

Animoto isn't the only video template app worth looking at. There's also Magisto, available for Android and iOS, which was just updated yesterday to include improvements that add to its gorgeous look and feel. It's equally easy to use — with themes and soundtracks to choose from that rival Animoto. In some cases, Magisto's finished product looked more professional and heavily edited, but videos took longer to process.

There's also Videoshop, which costs $1.99 in the Apple app store and is worth a try because it has a ton of filters and themes, along with the ability to add any music, voiceovers or text easily from a mobile device. It lacks those fun and artistic templates that are the hallmark of Animoto and Magisto, but it does boast some advantages in the number of manual controls.

So download one of these apps, and impress your friends and family with your newfound video editing "skills."

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Fiesta’s a fuel-sipper with power

Finding a sedan that has both fuel economy and power is a pet project of mine, because my commute includes a 200-mile round trip along the Mass Pike several days a week, plus additional miles in and around Boston.

The 2014 Ford Fiesta is appealing as it pushes the balance between fuel economy and power with a three-cylinder, 123-horsepower gasoline engine. While not the smallest engine and not the only inline-three (I-3) on the market, the Fiesta's I-3 EcoBoost is still an engineering marvel. The turbocharged, 1-liter engine ran smooth on the highway and hustled the five-passenger sedan around town. The fuel-sipping subcompact sedan yielded 32/45/37 miles per gallon city/highway/combined fuel economy.

The downside to the Fiesta's three-banger is it's only available with a manual transmission. And since the engine choice is part of an EcoBoost efficiency package, it costs an additional $995. The $15,580 base model Fiesta SE comes with a 1.6-liter, inline-four cylinder engine that actually produces slightly less horsepower and fuel economy. Our tester with the efficiency package also had a $290 Comfort package that included automatic climate control, heated side mirrors and front seat-
warmers. The total MSRP for our tester was $17,335, which included a $395 ruby red paint job.

I actually enjoyed the 
Fiesta's five-speed manual. It took a day or two to get used to the clutch, but by the end of the week I was downshifting as I entered corners, using the lower gears to slow down while maintaining engine speed for acceleration as it exited the turns. The sedan's 
diminutive engine size was apparent on highway inclines as I had to grab a lower gear to pass slower-moving trucks. I also had to downshift on residential hills with a carload of kids and the air conditioning cranking.

I was able to fit three children across the backseat, two with boosters, the one in the middle without. However, three adults would be a little tight in the back.

Overall, the Fiesta's interior was well built and comfortable. An elbow rest on the door and an arm rest atop a center storage compartment were well positioned, better than many high-end luxury cars. Controls on the center console were within easy reach. The Fiesta's trunk space was outstanding for a subcompact sedan — it swallowed up several beach chairs, kid's bags, coolers, toys and was still hungry for more on a day trip to the beach. Squeezing the sedan into tight city parking spots was a breeze, although a rear-view camera would have been helpful.

Overall, I was pleased with the Fiesta's fuel economy and adequate power. The manual transmission and I-3 engine combination provided just enough power for highway and around-town driving. I'm sure I could get away with the clutch and stick if I was only commuting on the highway, but stop-and-go city driving makes it a tough choice. The 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage is also worth a look as it has an inline-three and is available with an automatic transmission.

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Potential Houston midair plane collision averted

HOUSTON — Federal Aviation Administration authorities say air traffic controllers at a Houston airport averted a potential midair collision of two planes.

The incident happened Thursday night 10 miles northeast of Bush Intercontinental Airport, when a Singapore Airlines 777 jumbo jet and Delta Airlines A320 came about a half-mile horizontally and about 200 feet vertically of each other. Federal guidelines say aircraft should be separated a half-mile vertically and three miles horizontally.

FAA's Lynn Lunsford tells the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1zgaVY5) that an air traffic controller noticed the danger and gave pilots instructions.

Lunsford says they have taken steps to ensure flight crews are aware of the guidelines.

In May, the FAA was investigating an incident in which an air traffic controller's mistake put two planes on collision course.

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Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com

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Boston firms hosting startups

Some of Boston's big companies are teaming up to house startups in their headquarters to provide mentoring and guidance.

"The idea is to create an industry-specific location that works well with (startups)," said Bill Jacobson, co-founder and CEO of Workbar. "By working with leading industry companies, startups in a specific sector can have space and access to mentorships."

Workbar, which offers shared office space in Cambridge and Boston, along with several other locations, is working with Boston area companies to match early-stage startups with big companies that can help guide them along the way. Called Centers of Excellence, the large companies house and support the startups within their offices.

"It's about developing those relationships," said Ernesto Humpierres, a co-founder of Socrex, a startup that aggregates non-traditional credit information for people with little credit history. Socrex, along with three other financial technology startups, is working out of Digital Federal Credit Union's Boston office.

At DCU, the startups have access to the bank's leadership team for everything from marketing advice to technology help. Even DCU's CEO is getting involved.

"The goal for us is just to learn what's the next best technology that's going to be coming," said David Araujo, vice president of information systems for DCU. "There's so many things we can think of for our users, but at the end of the day there's a lot of young, innovative companies that we can learn from."

Araujo said the immediate goal is not to invest or partner with the companies, but its something DCU is not ruling out.

"We're really there to help them along, but if we can benefit at some point in time, fantastic," Araujo said. He said the best-case scenario is for the companies to develop tools and services that DCU will one day use.

Jacobson is in discussions with a Boston marketing company to create a marketing technology Center of Excellence, and said he is also looking to create design and education technology versions.

"The idea is for younger companies, startup companies to have a little bit more centered knowledge and connections in their industry," Jacobson said.

The marketing center is close to being finalized, Jacobson said, but the others are in their early stages.

Shared office space for startups is on the rise in Boston. National companies WeWork and Coalition have expanded into Boston, and the Cambridge Innovation Center is in the process of opening space for 300 startups in the Financial District.

"There's a ton of co-working spaces in Boston, but there wasn't anyone who had a differentiator for us," Humpierres said. "This gave me access to the experts at DCU and the contacts in the industry."

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Website sells work of disabled artists

Allen Chamberland has lived on disability for the past decade, but a startup that sells the work of disabled and homeless artists might just change that one day.

About three years ago, Chamberland began doing paper cuttings, intricate designs cut out of a single sheet of paper.

"At first, it started as a hobby to give me something to do," said the 49-year-old South End resident, who was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which makes it difficult for him to breathe.

He never thought he'd be successful at it until a chance encounter last year with Liz Powers, who was looking for works by homeless and disabled artists for a show at Boston's Prudential Center. By the end of the show, a dozen of Chamberland's works had sold.

So last December, Powers and her brother, Spencer, started ArtLifting, a low-profit LLC with a website that initially featured the work of Chamberland and three other artists.

"It was very clear these artists would benefit from having a way to sell their work not just once a year but every day," Spencer Powers said. "And it was also clear that customers loved their work."

Within one month, the company sold $11,000 worth of work, with 55 percent of the profits going to the artists ­­— compared to a typical gallery split of 50/50 — and the rest going toward overhead.

"That first month was a shocker to us," Spencer Powers said. "It showed we could build something great."

The company's first corporate client, Jay Connolly, bought more than two dozen for the commercial buildings his Beverly firm, Connolly Brothers, Inc., owns and manages.

"People have actually come down to our management office and asked what ArtLifting is," Connolly said. "Some of the people in our office even went and bought the original works once they saw the prints."

In May, ArtLifting was one of 128 finalists in the Boston startup accelerator and competition MassChallenge, entitling the company to free office space, mentoring and a chance at a share of 
$1.75 million in cash prizes. Its goal is to one day reach homeless and disabled artists across the country.

"A month or so ago, somebody saw my work on ArtLifting, and because of that, I'm having my first solo show in Cambridge in October," Chamberland said. "If things keep going like this, I won't have to live on disability anymore. And that feels great."

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17 coal miners trapped underground in west China

BEIJING — Rescuers on Sunday worked to free 17 miners trapped following a gas explosion at a coal mine in western China, the country's official news agency reported.

The blast at the mine 120 kilometers (70 miles) from Urumqi, the capital of the sprawling Xinjiang region, happened on Saturday evening, according to the Xinhua News Agency. It said three other people working inside the mine at the time had been rescued.

China has the world's deadliest mines, although the safety record has been improving in recent years as regulators have strengthened enforcement of safety rules.

Xinhua said the pit is mined by Dahuangshan Yuxin Coal Mining Co. Ltd., owned by the sixth agricultural division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. It is a paramilitary organization that was revived by the central government in the 1980s to aid the region's construction and development.

Calls to the organization rang unanswered on Sunday. A duty officer at Xinjiang's work safety bureau said he had no information about the incident.

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Nonprofits' contraceptive cases next for justices

WASHINGTON — Faith-affiliated charities, colleges and hospitals are leading the next legal dispute over religion, birth control and the health law that's likely to be resolved by the Supreme Court.

The issue in more than four dozen lawsuits from religious nonprofit groups that oppose some or all contraception as immoral is how far the Obama administration must go to accommodate them.

Just this past week, the justices relieved businesses with religious objections of their obligation to pay for women's contraceptives among a range of preventive services the law calls for in their health plans.

The nonprofits already could opt out of covering the contraceptives. But they say the administration's accommodation is not enough because they remain complicit in the provision of government-approved contraceptives to women covered by their plans.

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Judge to mull senator's suit over health exchanges

MADISON, Wis. — A federal judge will hear arguments this week on whether to toss a U.S. senator's lawsuit challenging rules that force congressional members and their staffs to obtain government-subsidized health insurance through small business exchanges.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin contends that senators, representatives and their employees aren't eligible for the exchanges under the federal health care law because they work for a government that employs millions. He also argues that premium subsidies that congressional members and staffers receive will foster resentment among his constituents.

Republicans have spent years railing against President Barack Obama's health care reform law, known as the Affordable Care Act. Johnson isn't attacking the act itself, focusing instead on rules imposing the act on Congress. But he's using the lawsuit as a mechanism to complain more broadly about what he sees as Obama unilaterally rewriting the act.

"This lawsuit offers a landmark opportunity to re-establish the balance between the executive and legislative branches of government," Johnson said in a statement last month.

Government attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge William Griesbach to throw the case out of court. They argue Johnson hasn't shown how the rules hurt him or his staff.

"This allegation ... describes an abstract injury that might or might not occur depending on how third parties (Senator Johnson's constituents) perceive and react to (the) regulations," U.S. Justice Department attorneys wrote.

Griesbach, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, has scheduled a hearing for Monday in Green Bay to consider dismissing the lawsuit.

The dispute stems from language Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, inserted into the act during debate. Under those provisions, the only health care plans the federal government can offer to congressional members and staffers must come through an exchange. That means members and staffers must leave their old government health plan, which subsidized 75 percent of their premiums through tax-free contributions.

Grassley's move was a political ploy designed to force the act's Democratic supporters into the same situation as uninsured Americans. But the problem is that congressional members and staffers make too much money to qualify for government subsidies other exchange users can receive, stoking fears that staffers would flee for the private sector because they wouldn't be able to afford full premiums.

Enter the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. An arm of Obama's administration, it published rules in October 2013 stating the only health insurance plans available to congressional members and staffers must be offered through the small business exchanges but allowing them to continue receiving the premium subsidies they got under their old plan.

Johnson filed the lawsuit in January, demanding a judge invalidate the rules. Federal employees can't legally use small business exchanges because they're limited to people who work for businesses with fewer than 100 employees, he contends. What's more, he says, the rules hurt his credibility with constituents because the government's premium contributions put him "in a privileged position."

Dozens of Republican House and Senate members have rallied behind Johnson, arguing in court filings the rules are another example of Obama trying to change the law on his own. They point to a number of administration moves in addition to the congressional rules, including postponing requirements that employers supply workers with health insurance and extending subsidies to people who obtain insurance through federally established exchanges even though the act says only those who go through state-built exchanges are eligible for help.

"The remedy to address ... unpopular laws is through their repeal or modification by Congress, not through the President turning those laws on-and-off," they wrote.

Government attorneys say those points don't matter because Johnson lacks standing to sue.

"These principles do not fall away merely because a Member of Congress is accusing the Executive Branch of acting unlawfully," they wrote.

If Johnson prevails the rules would be invalidated. The provisions in the act would then apply to the senators, representatives and staffers' health care coverage. They could enter exchanges for individuals sans subsidies or they could seek insurance elsewhere on their own.

If congressional members don't like that prospect, Johnson's attorney, Rick Esenberg said, they can amend the act or raise staffers' pay.

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