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'Shadow Brokers,' Facial Recognition, Dog Days of Summer


Coming up on today's show:
<ul><li>This week, a group calling themselves the "Shadow Brokers" claim they have hacked into the mothership of internet security: The National Security Agency. <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenLevy">Steven Levy</a>, a senior staff writer for Wired, and <a href="https://twitter.com/ncweaver">Nicholas Weaver</a>, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute, have the details on the hack. </li>
</ul><ul><li>It's the dog days of summer, and many people around the nation have been grappling with heat waves. The problem is particularly acute for those who live in cities, thanks to the so-called "<a href="https://www.epa.gov/heat-islands">urban heat island effect</a>." How does extreme heat impact health, and who is most at risk? Reporter <a href="https://twitter.com/GonzalezSarahA">Sarah Gonzalez</a>, who has been working on WNYC's Harlem Heat Project, weighs in.</li>
</ul><ul><li>More than 70 percent of Texas prisons don’t have air conditioning. While advocates are working to find temporary solutions, two heat-related lawsuits are making their way through the Texas courts. <a href="https://www.texascivilrightsproject.org/en/who-are-we/our-team/">Wallis Nader</a>, a staff attorney with Texas Civil Rights Project, explains. </li>
</ul><ul><li>The London Metropolitan Police Service is turning to a special group of individuals that have been identified as "super recognizers," or people who have excellent facial recognition abilities. <a href="http://public.gettysburg.edu/~rrussell/">Richard Russell</a>, a psychology professor at Gettysburg College, was one of the researchers to publish a 2009 study identifying this population, and presented the idea that facial recognition ability is a spectrum, rather than something one does or does not possess.</li>
</ul><ul><li>A new report reveals that women are the fastest growing segment of America’s incarcerated population. In 1970, there were fewer than 8,000 women in American jails, but by 2014, that number skyrocketed to more than 110,000. We look at why this number is growing with Renia "Angel" Farmer, a former inmate, speaker and facilitator at the advocacy group <a href="http://letsstart.org/">Let's Start</a>.</li>
</ul><ul><li>We conclude our exploration of the oceans with a look at the human-produced noise that interferes with marine life that relies on echolocation and other techniques to communicate with <a href="https://twitter.com/mdjasny">Michael Jasny</a>, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project and the Land and Wildlife Program for the Natural Resources Defense Council.</li>
</ul>

The Takeaway

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview. 
New data from shipping routes across the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean reveals that little oversight exists for ships and vessels entering European ports after passing through questionable terrorist hot beds, like Syria and Libya.  
<a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/4d71dc5e-c8ec-11e5-be0b-b7ece4e953a0.html#ixzz3zD5B1HFQ">The Financial Times</a> and Winward, an Israeli maritime intelligence company, uncovered a number of vulnerabilities in the international maritime industry. In one case, a cargo ship switched off its location and transmitting signals while sailing near the coast of Tunisia. In another, a ship departing from Genoa, Spain, made a 500 nautical mile detour off the coast of Africa, where it stopped and lingered before returning to it's original destination in Portugal. 
Maritime terrorist attacks are rare, but not unheard of.  In 2000, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in the Gulf of Aden killed 17 Americans and injured dozens more. Exactly two years later, suicide bombers on a dinghy loaded with explosives rammed into the Limberg oil tanker, killing one crew member and spilling 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden. 
Since 9/11, security measures across the aviation industry have been strengthened, but maritime security measures across Europe remain inconsistent. With thousands of miles of coastline across the Middle East and Europe, some experts are concerned that terrorist groups may begin to exploit those vulnerabilities along the vast terrain of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
Gerry Northwood, a former Royal Navy captain and chief operating officer of <a href="http://www.mast-security.com/">Maritime Asset Security and Training</a> (MAST), a global security provider, reflects on the state of maritime security, and the biggest threats facing ships and ports.

Oceans

Two proposals to clean up our oceans of garbage: Will either work?

Sea ice has hit new record lows at both poles

Can a lawsuit against the EPA help solve ocean acidification?

Diving Deep for Site-Specific Art

A Rockefeller uses his oil legacy to help save the oceans

Synergy: Artists Take on Ocean Science

Latest Episode

Wednesday, August 17, 2016