As the election draws near, most Americans are faced with the sort of existential dread that can only accompany being forced to choose between the Annoying Orange’s Racist Uncle and Darth Sidious in a Pantsuit. Indeed, to many it seems as though our country is damned to be consumed in eternal hellfire, in which the only respite from our mortal strife is the sweet release of death. Or moving to Canada. However, some do not share this pessimistic worldview; instead they are optimistic in their political champions’ abilities to change this great country for the better. This reporter interviewed two of these individuals in an attempt to understand their bizarrely manic outlooks.

  The first such individual we found was Lorrika Miller (pronouns xe, xim, xumself) who is a self-identified tri-gendered polysexual trans-black squirrelkin Social Justice Warrior, or SJW. When approached, xe was more than happy to comment.

  “Trump is literally Hitler,” Lorrika said, xer blood-of-the-patriarchy red lips turned up in a sneer of disgust. “If I believed in violence I’d shoot him and all of his disgusting cronies.”

  When asked about how xe felt about Clinton’s faults, namely the famed email debacle, xe replied that Secretary Clinton was absolved of any wrongdoing due to the fact that, as a woman, she was repressed by the patriarchal environment of the State Department, and as such was forced to delete her emails by her male colleagues.

  “Women, genetically speaking, are superior to men. They don’t lie, they don’t cheat, and they can never be sexist, unlike men, who are literal garbage.” When asked if this statement was somewhat contradictory, this reporter was told to “check [his] privilege, shitlord”.

  The next individual we caught up with was Chad P Jennings, a local Alt-Rightist, who was easily distinguished by his custom-made “Make America Great Again” fedora. When we asked him for a comment on the upcoming election, he was more than willing to give us one, provided we were not part of the “Liberal Jew Media”.

  “This whole election thing has gotten way too politically correct. Like, if someone is inferior to me, why should I be punished for being the one to point it out?”

  When asked about Trump’s plan for a border wall between Mexico and the U.S., he said this: “It’s going to be great! We’re going to get all of those dirty Mexicans and Muslims out of our country. They hate us, they hate our democracy, they hate our freedoms, they hate how we welcome and accept everyone. So, we throw ‘em out. If they try to get back in, we’ll shoot ‘em!”

  When asked to describe Trump’s opponent, he used the words “socialist”, “freedom hater”, and “bitch”; when asked for his thoughts on Clinton instead of his thoughts on Senator Ted Cruz, he said he thought she was “crooked”.

  Before we left him, he gave us one last thought he’d like to share with those us who will be voting tomorrow; “I hope all of you faggots who don’t vote Trump get lynched. Make America Great Again!”

  God help us all.

- Doctor Ector

Dissertation Defense Announcement

Cross-Layer Techniques for Boosting Base-Station Anonymity in Wireless Sensor Networks

Sami Alsemairi

9:30 Wednesday, 9 November 2016, ITE 346

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) provide an effective solution for surveillance and data gathering applications in hostile environments where human presence is infeasible, risky or very costly. Examples of these applications include military reconnaissance, guarding boarders against human trafficking, security surveillance, etc. A WSN is typically composed of a large number of sensor nodes that probe their surrounding and transmit measurements over multi-hop paths to an in-situ Base-Station (BS). The BS not only acts as a sink of all collected sensor data but also provides network management and serves as a gateway to remote commend centers. Such an important role makes the BS a target of adversary attacks that opt to achieve Denial-of-Service (DoS) and nullify the WSN utility to the application. Even if the WSN applies conventional security mechanisms such as authentication and data encryption, the adversary may apply traffic analysis techniques to locate the BS and target it with attacks. This motivates a significant need for boosting BS anonymity to conceal its location.

In this dissertation, we address the challenges of BS anonymity and develop a library of techniques to counter the threat of traffic analysis. The focus of our work is on the link and network layers. We first exploit packet combining as a means to vary the traffic density throughout the network. We call this technique combining the data payload of multiple packets (CoDa), where a node groups the payload of multiple incoming data packets into a single packet that is forwarded toward the BS. CoDa cuts on the number of transmissions that constitute evidences for implicating the BS as a destination of all traffic and thus degrades the adversary’s ability in conducting effective traffic analysis.

Next we develop a novel technique for increasing BS anonymity by establishing a sleep/active schedule among the nodes that are far away from the BS, and increasing the traffic density in selected parts of the network in order to give the impression that the BS is located in the vicinity of the sleeping nodes. We call this technique Adaptive Sampling Rate for increased Anonymity (ASRA). Moreover, we develop three novel techniques based on a hierarchical routing topology. The first, which we call Hierarchical Anonymity-aware Routing Topology (HART), forms clusters and an inter-cluster-head routing topology so that a high traffic volume can be observed in areas away from the BS. The second is a novel cross-layer technique that forms a mesh topology. We call this technique cluster mesh topology to boost BS’s anonymity (CMBA). CMBA opts to establish a routing topology such that the traffic pattern does not implicate any particular node as a sink.

The third technique creates multiple mesh-based routing topologies among the cluster-heads (CHs). By applying the closed space-filling curves such as the Moore curve, for forming a mesh, the CHs are offered a number of choices for disseminating aggregated data to the BS through inter-CH paths. Then, the BS forwards the aggregated data as well so that it appears as one of the CH. We call this technique boosting the BS anonymity through multiple mesh-based routing topologies (BAMT). We validate the effectiveness of all anonymity-boosting techniques through simulation and highlight the trade-off between anonymity and overhead.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL !

United Christian Council's: Night of Worship is back again! 

Our theme for this Semester's event is YOU. ARE. LOVED. !

Happening on Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 8:00PM.

Come out and be blessed by our Worship and Praise and Discussion Questions that will spark in-depth conversation and thought.

ATTACHED, is the Flyer for this semester's Worship Night.

UNITED Christian Council would like to extend an invitation to ALL Christian Organizations. 

You are open to share with your family and friends.

Hope to see you there.

If you want to Volunteer - Click the link Below!!

Laura Numeroff,   If You Give a Mouse  a Brownie

Laura Numeroff,   Si Le un Pastelito A un Gato

Melissa Sweet,  Some Writer: The Story of E.B.White

Patricia MacLachlan,  The Poet’s Dog

Jory John,  Penguin Problems

Mo Willems,  Hoy Volare

Mo Willems,  Nannette’s Baguette

David Macaulay,  The Way things Work Now

Andrea Beaty,  Ada Twist Scientist

Susan Verde,  Water Princess

J.K. Rowling,  Harry Potter I The Cursed Child

J.K. Rowling,  Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets Illustrated

Amy Vanderwater,  Every Day Bird

Jon Klassen,  We Found a Hat

Louise Erdrich,  Makoons

Alexandra Day,  Good Dog Carl and the Baby Elephant

Nancy J, Cavanaugh,  Just Like Me

Judi Barrett,  Excessive Alphabet

Justin Richardson,  And Tango Makes Three

DK,  365 Things to do With Lego Bricks

Pat Huchins,  Rosie’s Walk

Patrick McDonnell,  Tek

Steve Anthony,  I’ll Wait Mr. Panda

Kam Mak,  My Chinatown

Leslea Newman,  Heather has Two Mommies

Winston Jeffers,  Child of Books

Adam Lehrhaupt,  Please Open This Book

Michael Hall,  Wonderfall

Harper Design,  Fantastical Beasts Coloring Book

Rhonda Greene,  Push! Dig! Scoop!

DK,  Children Just Like Me

Liz Scanlon,  All The World

Are you in the field of the Biological Sciences?

Are you trying to improve your elevator speech? Or, are you working how to effectively  deliver your research to a particular audience?

If you answered “yes” to the above questions, then, this multi-day conference is an opportunity for you!

Currently, applications for the 2017 Young Scientist Seminars (YSS) are now open (application deadline is Dec. 15, 2016). The YSS is open to PhD students and postdoctoral fellows in the biological sciences. Four accepted applicants will have the opportunity to attend a multi-day workshop in San Franscisco, CA where all expenses are provided by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The event is organized by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and iBiology.

As per their website, winners will have the opportunity to:

”

• Participate together in a workshop to receive first-rate science communication training from the Alda Center for Communicating Science. During the workshop, they will make improvements to their 30-minute research talks.
• Record their improved 30-minute research talks in a studio after the workshop.
• Receive a $500 honorarium.
• Have their studio-recorded research talks featured on iBiology.org and broadly advertised!”

For more information regarding the application requirements and more details about the Young Scientist Seminars, please visit https://www.ibiology.org/ibioseminars/young-scientist-seminar-series.html.

Do you know the candidates running for Maryland Senate? How about the nominees running in your district for the House of Representatives? Are you familiar with the candidates vying for a position on your county’s Board of Education?

If your answers to those questions are “no,” then you make up the vast majority of Americans.

Down-ballot candidates have become seemingly obscured in the media’s shifting dispersion of limelight, concentrated exclusively on the presidential race. This phenomenon could have negative impacts in the future for a multitude of reasons.

For one, down-ballot votes are important. The candidates running for these positions, if elected into office, will be able to write and interpret legislation that could affect you in the near future. Senators and representatives in the United States Congress have the power to pass or reject legislation that would become legal code for all 50 states. State governments are responsible for making laws concerning public safety, health, taxes, minimum wage rates and other areas of concern.

A key example is that federal, state and local legislators have a say in defining what “sexual assault” entails and how it is investigated in colleges across the nation.

The point is that these candidates matter. And for millennials, that could be a problem.

According to a Pew Research Center study conducted last year, 61 percent of Millenials receive their news through Facebook. And unsurprisingly, only 37 percent acquire their news through local television.

The articles seen in social media timelines are predominantly posted by media giants such as The Huffington Post, CNN, FOX, etc. These publications are not going to produce content based on local elections simply because such content is not “viral.”

However, down-ballot elections are discussed on local news networks. The problem is that this is the place where only roughly one-third of millennials go to obtain information.

It may seem that social media is becoming the hub of all communication, but it is worth mentioning that social media is simply a construct built upon what the users share, like and post. That is the foundation of any successful social media site– they are merely platforms of expression in various forms.

Instead of blaming the media giants for only focusing on the presidential election, we should reflect on what we have the power to do. Local television networks and newspapers have pages on social media sites. Perhaps share an article or two written about a down-ballot candidate, or contribute to the comment section of one.

Becoming engaged and cultured with down-ballot elections will make the media aware that we do care about those elections. It will result in fairer elections with the most qualified candidates prevailing. Voters will be more likely select a down-ballot candidate come election day as opposed to leaving the particular section blank.

Many of us show up at the polls on November 8 solely to vote for president. That is a waste. The amount of votes cast for president vastly outnumber those cast for down-ballot candidates, meaning votes for down-ballot candidates have more weight.

If you really want to make your vote mean something this November, become engaged in the political process outside of the presidential election. Elected down-ballot positions have responsibilities that are worthy of our commitment to learning about the individuals who pursue them. Show the media and your friends that you are interested in other elections. We have the power to control our news.

The post The importance of down-ballot voting to millennials appeared first on The Retriever.