Hasta La Gadget!

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) doesn’t trust that former NSA director Keith Alexander is reportedly being paid $600,000 a month by the largest banking trade groups in the country merely for his advice on cyber security issues.

Alexander, who has repeatedly warned of the financial industry’s vulnerability to state-sponsored cyber attacks, recently entered negotiations with the Security Industries and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), Consumer Bankers Association and the Financial Services Roundtable as a cyber-consultant. He initially set his service fee at $1 million a month, according to Bloomberg.

“It would be devastating if one of our major banks was hit, because they’re so interconnected,” Alexander, who retired from the NSA in March, told Bloomberg last week.

Alexander’s resignation was announced in October 2013, amid revelations of the agency’s controversial surveillance programs leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

In a letter to the three groups Wednesday, Grayson accused the former head of U.S. Cyber Command of disclosing classified information obtained while serving at the NSA for personal gain.

“Disclosing or misusing classified information for profit is, as Mr. Alexander well knows, a felony. I question how Mr. Alexander can provide any of the services he is offering unless he discloses or misuses classified information, including extremely sensitive sources and methods,” he wrote SIFMA. “Without the classified information that he acquired in his former position, he literally would have nothing to offer to you.”

Grayson, a longtime critic of the NSA, also cited security expert Bruce Schneier, who initially flagged the costly fee as a potential indication of classified disclosures.

“Think of how much actual security they could buy with that $600K a month,” Schneier wrote on Tuesday. “Unless he’s giving them classified information.”

Grayson asked all three organizations to “send me all information related to your negotiations with Mr. Alexander, so that Congress can verify whether or not he is selling military and cybersecurity secrets to the financial services industry for personal gain.”

Last month, the House Science and Technology Committee passed Grayson’s Internet security amendment, marking the first time any body of Congress approved legislation restricting NSA powers.

The proposed amendment would remove the requirement that the National Institute of Standards and Technology confer with the NSA on encryption standards.

Republican lawmakers are holding hearings this week on the surge in unaccompanied alien minors reaching our borders. The Obama Administration’s response to what was labeled a “humanitarian crisis,” has evolved into a surge of its own, sending teams of immigration judges and federal attorneys to expedite deportation hearings for the children and families who are overwhelming most existing federal detention facilities.

The Department of Homeland Security announced that 52,000 unaccompanied children had been detained as of last week, and by year’s end DHS expects that number to have increased to as many as 90,000.

The difference with the most recent entrants from those in the past is a spike in the number of girls and of children younger than 13 years of age, including some barely old enough to walk. In the past, approximately 70 percent have been between the ages of 15 and 17. There are also more pregnant and parenting teen mothers arriving.

The sharp increase has generated tremendous media coverage and speculation by elected officials and others about the reasons. However, many of the explanations are overly simplistic. Some say this surge is the result of immigration reform promises or administrative reforms in enforcement that have sent encouraging signals to Central Americans, suggesting that they may enjoy a “de facto amnesty” if they get across the Mexico border. Others say the children are being drawn by rumors about special protections for migrant children by the Administration, and point to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program announced in 2012.

In reality, the problem is enormously complex. The Women’s Refugee Commission found through interviews with 151 such youth that their migration arose out of longstanding, complex problems in their home countries – that is, the growing influence of youth gangs and drug cartels, targeting of youth by gangs and police, gender based violence, rising poverty, and continuing unemployment. Over 77 percent of the participants stated violence was the main reason more children were fleeing their countries.

• Violence in home countries. Honduras, where the largest numbers of unaccompanied minors are coming from, has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world. In 2011, Honduras became the country with the highest murder rate in the world. Homicide rates in El Salvador are only marginally lower than in Honduras, with 66 individuals killed for every 10,000 inhabitants.

• Children are at a greater risk of gang violence. Collaboration between drug cartels and gangs has led to a significant increase in violence, with children and teens being the primary targets. According the University of Democracy, Peace and Security, 920 Honduran children were murdered between January and March of 2012. In El Salvador, gangs have increasingly targeted children at their schools, resulting in El Salvador having one of the lowest school attendance rates in Latin America.

• Human and drug trafficking: Due to the influence of cartels in Mexico and at the border, the current migratory experience is very much connected with human and drug trafficking. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that organized criminal groups coerce children into prostitution and to work as hit men, lookouts, and drug mules. Drug traffickers may target minors in their home country and force them to traffic drugs across the border and once they are in the United States. Because these youth often travel alone and are escaping death in their home countries, they are often faced with no choice but to carry drugs or work for drug cartels in order to across the border. Gang and drug trafficking in Central America are also increasingly recruiting girls to smuggle and sell drugs in their home countries, using gang rape as a means of forcing them into compliance. Many gangs are targeting younger girls, some as young as nine-years-old, for rape and sexual assault. Gangs also use the threat of rape as a tactic to gain money through extortion and kidnapping.

A recent survey conducted by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center of immigrant youth legal service providers confirmed that there is no simple answer to why these children are migrating to the United States in large numbers. Twenty-five percent of respondents found that youth come to the U.S. based on a combination of four factors: neglect, abuse, or abandonment, gang violence, drug violence, and poverty. This was followed by 19 percent fleeing gang violence and 16 percent fleeing poverty. In particular, many respondents found that these cases involved youth who faced gang recruitment and threats in their home country. These youth also suffered abuse within their families or abandonment by one or both parents and have little to no parental presence.

This is indeed a humanitarian crisis that deserves a humanitarian response. Let’s take a deep breath and stop playing politics with children’s lives. Some of the youth may qualify for special immigrant juvenile status, asylum or visas for victims of crime. If so, let’s live up to our humanitarian responsibilities and act accordingly.

Are you struggling with Hearthstone‘s Arena mode? Do you have more red X marks than keys to your name? Thingiverse user Danny Dillen knows how you can get more keys: print them. Danny is working on 3D models of the Arena’s symbols of victory and loot.

The key pictured above was printed and painted by Thingiverse user Bioluminescence, who used Danny’s 3D model. Check out Danny’s current set of keys:

You don’t have to grind for gold to get the files. Danny is sharing them for free on his Thingiverse page.

Netflix is launching its first original anime series on July 4: the futuristic Knights of Sidonia. The first season, already broadcasted in Japan, is 12 episodes of space opera epic drama that apparently is full of cool spaceships and mechas. Here’s the synopsis:

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They’ve been a popular option for pet owners taking road trips with their dogs in Sweden for the past decade, but these wonderfully over-engineered Variocages are finally available in North America. Like your car, the cages are designed with crumble zones to absorb impacts during a crash, providing extra protection for your dog inside.

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