Why can't #TheDress colour debaters see eye-to-eye? Experts explain

The internet may not see eye to eye on the colour of "The Dress." But what about the experts?

Brandwatch, which tracks social media hashtag activity, saw more than 1.5 million mentions of the offending dress since Thursday evening, with celebrities including Taylor Swift, Mindy Kaling and Kim Kardashian wading into the debate after the Tumblr photo meme went viral.

A range of scholars and digital imaging professionals weighed in as well.

So, is the dress blue and black, or white and gold?

Here's what those who really know what they're talking about have to say about the matter:

The Vision Expert

University of Waterloo optometry and vision science professor Jeff Hovis. (Courtesy Jeff Hovis)

Jeff Hovis, University of Waterloo optometry and vision science:

We did a lecture about this today. Probably 90 per cent of the class thought it was white and gold; 10 per cent thought it was blue and black.

In order to perceive colours, you have to have a nervous system. There's no physical measure for colour. Everybody's perspective is a little different.

You're looking at the relative responses to three cones to the light. Certain cones can be stronger. Blue cones could be giving a stronger response, likely you're going to see a blueish colour. Similarly, if the red and green cones are more stimulated and not so much the blue, you'll see more yellow. The receptors can adjust their sensitivity according to the amount of stimulation.

If you think that the person is in a shadow, then you may be more likely to call the dress as white and gold. If you don't think that the picture was taken in a shadow, then it would be blue and black or grey.  This is an example of the higher cortical areas influencing your colour perception

There was also a study done a couple of years ago that showed there was a systematic difference between how men and women perceive colours. It wasn't a big difference, but it was repeatable and reliable.

Verdict: White and gold

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The Digital Colour Specialist

Martha DiMeo, a colour correction specialist and digital imaging expert from Boston, displays a colour-checker used in photography for white balancing. (Courtesy Martha DiMeo)

Martha DiMeo, Photoshop and colour correction specialist with ChromaQueen in Boston:

We also need to be talking about the device that was used to take the  photo. That's an important component.

It has to do with the characteristics of the chip in the camera, and it has to do with the light. When light isn't perfectly daylight-balanced, our eyes correct for that cast.

Here, the exposure is thrown off because the background was so bright.

The camera that captured this photo "saw" the light bouncing off the object in a different way than humans would see it. Digital cameras will pick up colour casts we don't perceive. If the light illuminating the dress was daylight balanced, and the photo was perfectly exposed, the recorded colours would have been different. They would have most likely been closer to the actual color of the dress, so blue and black.

For me, the challenge is what's supposed to be a neutral colour in this photograph? In Photoshop, you can take readings of colour, and what I think should be white if the RGB numbers were not balanced.

If someone gave me no instruction and they said to me, "Would you fix this?" I would have most likely done it to white and gold, and I would have been wrong. But I always work with my clients beforehand to get things right the first-time around.

Verdict: White and gold

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The Neuroscientist

McGill University's Christopher Pack studies the visual cortex and holds the Canada Research Chair in the Neurophysiology of Vision. (Courtesy Christopher Pack)

Christopher Pack, McGill University, Department of Neurology, Canada Research Chair in the Neurophysiology of Vision:

The basic thing is the brain's visual system tries to discount the illuminant. You want to have a representation of the visual world that's not dependent on how bright the ambient light is.

The business of subtracting signals to eliminate a kind of background is true everywhere in the brain.

In this picture, the background here is bright, most of the colours are pretty bright. So the visual system is aggressively trying to subtract this bright background. The white light is going to contain all the bright colours.

The photo receptors that encode light are very sensitive to light level. The retina tries to subtract that out, so it tries to figure out if I have, say, blue and it's very bright light, I want to measure not the amount of blue light, but the amount of blue light relative to the overall background.

Verdict: White and gold

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The Philosopher

Sonia Sedivy is an associate professor and associate chair at the University of Toronto's philosophy department. (University of Toronto)

Sonia Sedivy, University of Toronto Scarborough, associate professor of philosophy specializing in philosophy of the mind and perception:

The metaphysics of colour is not at all a settled field yet. There are highly competing theories of colour — what colour is, what sort of property it is and how it is to be explained.

Since perceived colour depends in part on the contrast relationships in the colours of objects and their surroundings, the discrepancy in the perceived colour of the dress presumably has to do at least in part with the contrast information not being sufficient.  But this does not seem to explain fully why people see such different colours.  

I played with one picture, scrolling it up and down, and it was interesting that when I saw the whole dress — where the background light was also visible — the blue was lighter than when I scrolled so that I saw only the bottom half, in which case the blue was darker.

On its website, Roman Originals describes their royal blue dress as "bang on trend." They got that right. (Roman Originals)

I don't know why the debate is quite so furious, but it does seem to suggest that people don't believe that perception of basics such as colours is subjective. And they're right.

I think it's fun that people are so exercised by this, if they really did believe that perception varies widely and thoroughly as the saying "it's all subjective" suggests, why would anyone care?

Verdict: Blue and black

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Social Media:

Of the 1.5 million mentions of the dress debacle on social media, Brandwatch found more than 566,600 tweets and retweets for #TheDress.

While the 150,300 tweets for the #whiteandgold hashtag exceeded those of #blueandblack (56,600-plus) and #blackandblue (54,900-plus) combined, a 30 per cent sampling of mentions broke things down this way:

• Those who perceived the dress as black and blue: 52 per cent
• Those who perceived the dress white and gold: 45 per cent
• Both: 4 per cent

Mentions of #TheDress have popped up all over the world. Most of the conversation was centred in the U.S. (59 per cent), followed by the U.K. (8 per cent) and Canada (three per cent), according to Brandwatch.

A word cloud provided by the social-media tracking service Brandwatch shows the most mentioned search terms of 1.5 million mentions of the offending dress. (Courtesy Brandwatch)

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Once you have this smartwatch, you may throw out your smartphone

A Montreal startup is building a smartwatch that aims to make your smartphone redundant – and eventually your tablet, your laptop and your smart TV too.

The Neptune Hub, expected to ship later this year, can do just about everything a smartphone does — make calls, surf the web, track your position with GPS, and run apps using Lollipop, the latest version of Android.

It's true that the 2.5-inch (6.3-centimetre) screen is a little small for doing a lot of the things you do on your smartphone, like watching videos, playing games or reading e-books.

'If someone buys this, obviously they're going to give up their phone.'- Simon Tian, Neptune

So Neptune, founded and headed by 20-year-old Simon Tian, has come up with a solution — the Hub comes with an extra, smartphone-sized touch screen called the Neptune Pocket. It's a "dumb" screen, like a computer monitor, but acts a lot like a smartphone when connected wirelessly to the Hub. It also acts as an extra battery pack that can be used to recharge the watch. 

Simon Tian, founder and CEO of Neptune, models a prototype of the Neptune Hub smartwatch, billed as the world's smartest wearable device. (Neptune)

Together, the Hub and the Pocket can be pre-ordered as a $798 package called the Neptune Duo. The company is offering discounts of up to $300 to those who pre-pay at least part of the amount.

The Neptune Duo represents the first step toward Tian's vision of a world where smartphones and tablets as we know them are extinct.

Most smartwatches are essentially a smaller, second screen for your phone that let you take calls and messages from your phone but can't do much on their own — the much-anticipated Apple Watch will require you to have an iPhone 5 or later and even the Samsung Gear S, which has its own SIM card and phone number, requires you to have a Samsung Galaxy phone running Android 4.3 or higher.

That's not the kind of smartwatch made by Neptune. In 2013, the company released a very large standalone Android smartwatch called the Neptune Pine that could independently connect to cellular networks and Wi-Fi, play videos and even take photos with its front and rear cameras. About 8,000 of the $349 devices have been sold worldwide.

Neptune bills the Hub, with its quad-core processor, as the "world's smartest wearable."

Tian thinks owning as many powerful computer chips as we do in connected devices ranging from smartwatches to tablets to TVs is redundant in an age when such chips are small enough to wear on your wrist.

"It no longer makes sense to duplicate that in each and every device," he said.

His solution – put all the computing power in a watch that can connect wirelessly to smartphone, tablet, or TV-sized "dumb" displays.

Displays like the Pocket are lighter – and cheaper – than a smartphone because they don't need any hardware to make them "smart," Tian said.

Nor do they need to be tied to any one person, since they don't contain your personal files – those are stored on your watch, which you are arguably less likely to forget and leave behind than a phone.

"Eventually, what I see is a world where these displays are so cheap and commoditized that they're just everywhere, they're part of the environment," Tian said, "and wherever you go, you can just grab one and use it as yours."

That hasn't happened yet, so Neptune is selling one with the watch, with more to come.

Tian said the company plans to unveil more devices in March, including a tablet-sized screen and a dongle that plugs into an HDMI port, allowing you to use a TV or monitor as a screen for your watch.

In the meantime, does he really think people are going to give up their smartphones for the Neptune Duo?

"If someone buys this, obviously they're going to give up their phone," he says. "If the question is more, 'Do you see a majority people giving up their phones for this?' I think that will be a very gradual process. I think the current version as it is…really is a first step."

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Leonard Nimoy's legacy reaches far beyond science fiction

Leonard Nimoy didn't just leave a lasting impression on the science-fiction world, he also left his mark on science itself.

Seth Shostak, who researches the possibility of real-world extraterrestrial life as the senior astronomer at SETI Research, recalled that Nimoy was regularly willing to lend the organization a helping hand. When he was asked to narrate a planetarium introduction or appear as a guest at an event, Nimoy did so graciously and never charged.

"That struck me then, and it strikes me now," said Shostak. "If you play a famous alien, you might have little interest in how science is searching for real aliens, but Nimoy was actually interested in the science — and he was always willing to help us out."

Remembrances poured in from beyond the entertainment spectrum after news spread Friday about the death of the 83-year-old actor, who played the half-alien, half-human Spock in Star Trek films, TV shows and video games. NASA, Virgin Galactic, Intel and Google all sent messages, as did other groups motivated by Nimoy and his role as the truth-seeking science officer.

"Leonard Nimoy was an inspiration to multiple generations of engineers, scientists, astronauts and other space explorers," said NASA administrator Charles Bolden. "As Mr. Spock, he made science and technology important to the story, while never failing to show, by example, that it is the people around us who matter most."

NASA posted a photo online taken in 1976 of Nimoy and his Trek cast mates in front of NASA's real-life space shuttle Enterprise, parked outside the agency's manufacturing facilities in Palmdale, California.

Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian astronaut aboard the International Space Station, similarly tweeted her condolences from space.

"Live Long and Prosper, Mr. #Spock!" she wrote.

Don Lincoln, a senior physicist at Fermilab, said he was inspired to go into science not just because Nimoy's portrayal of the logical Mr. Spock but also because of In Search of..., the curious 1970s TV series hosted by Nimoy that was dedicated to mysterious phenomena.

"Despite the fact he worked in fiction, anyone who can inspire that many people to look into the sky and wonder has done something really important for mankind," he said.

Lincoln noted that Trek and the character of Spock, armed with his Vulcan nerve pinch and phase set to stun, provided the world with a dynamic look at someone interested in science.

"The fact is that Spock was a cool geek," said Lincoln. "Scientists are not always portrayed as being very strong. Usually, they're the guy with the tape on their glasses and their pants too high. He was clearly a person who had desirable components beyond just being smart."

Nimoy's commitment to astronomy frequently warped from beyond the Alpha Quadrant and into the real world. He and his wife, Susan, donated $1 million to the renovation of the iconic Griffith Park observatory complex overlooking Los Angeles. The observatory's theatre is named after Nimoy.

"Mr. Nimoy was committed to people, community and the enlarged perspective conferred by science, the arts and the places where they meet," the observatory said in a statement. "The theatre honours Nimoy's expansive and inclusive approach to public astronomy and artful inspiration."

The actor, director and photographer narrated several films focusing on astronomy, including a 2012 short film about NASA's Dawn mission and the 1994 IMAX documentary film Destiny in Space.

"All I can say is if and when we pick up a signal, it'll be wonderful if the real aliens are half as appealing as Mr. Nimoy was as Spock," said Shostak of SETI Research.

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Apple Watch? Event on March 9 comes a month before launch

'Spring forward' event invitations say

Thomson Reuters Posted: Feb 27, 2015 8:50 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 27, 2015 8:53 AM ET

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Apple Inc sent out invitations for a media event in San Francisco on March 9, about one month before the much-anticipated launch of the new Apple Watch.

The world's largest technology company did not specify what the event will be about in the invitation which reads simply "Spring Forward," a word play on the resetting of watches for daylight saving time.

The Apple Watch is expected to debut early next year, but there are few clear answers about whether checking it from the driver's seat constitutes distracted driving. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)

The event will be streamed live online starting 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET).

Chief Executive Tim Cook said last month that the company plans to launch the smartwatch in April. The watch, which will let consumers check their email, pay for goods at retail stores and monitor personal health information, represents Apple's first major new product introduction since the 2010 launch of the iPad.

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Reef relief: Algae living off UAE coral 'gives hope' against coral bleaching

Scientists have discovered a new species of algae in the United Arab Emirates that helps corals survive in the warmest seawater temperatures on the planet.

Researchers from the University of Southampton and the New York University Abu Dhabi described the "heat-tolerant species" in a paper published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

'It gives hope to find that corals have more ways to adjust to stressful environmental conditions than we had previously thought.'- Jorg Wiedenmann, Coral Reef Laboratory at University of Southampton Ocean

Waters in the Persian Gulf can reach temperatures of up to 36 degrees Celsius at the peak of summer — warm enough to kill off corals found anywhere else in the world.

How Gulf corals manage to thrive in such habitats likely has something to do with the nutrient-rich algae living in their tissue, the researchers believe.

It seems the algae living off Gulf corals in a symbiotic relationship give their coral hosts a heat-resistant edge not found in reefs elsewhere.

"When analyzed by alternative molecular biological approaches, we found pronounced differences that set this heat-tolerant species clearly aside," the researchers said in a statement.

In reference to its ability to survive unusually high temperatures, the researchers named the algae Symbiodinium thermophilum.

Higher water temperatures often cause corals to lose their colour and die, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. (Ove Hoegh-Guldberg/Centre for Marine Studies/The University of Queensland)

Algae are known to deliver nutrition to the coral they inhabit. However, algae are also sensitive to environmental changes, with even slight increases in seawater temperatures putting them at risk.

Loss of algae on corals in the symbiotic relationship often results in "coral bleaching," in which the white skeletons of corals are left exposed once their algae tissue thins or dies.

"In Gulf corals, both the coral host and the associated algal partners need to withstand the high seawater temperatures," Jörg Wiedenmann, head of the Coral Reef Laboratory at the University of Southampton Ocean, said in a statement.

John Burt, with NYU Abu Dhabi, said the team confirmed the new type of algae is prevalent year-round across several dominant species found near the coast of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.

Wiedenmann said more research must be done to better understand how the Gulf's coral reefs can withstand extreme temperatures, in order to get a better grasp of how reefs elsewhere are dying as a result of climate change.

"It gives hope to find that corals have more ways to adjust to stressful environmental conditions than we had previously thought," Wiedenmann said. "However, it is not only heat that troubles coral reefs. Pollution and nutrient enrichment, overfishing and coastal development also represent severe threats to their survival."

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Bombardier set to test fly CSeries plane for 1st time today

COMING UP LIVE

Transport Canada gives OK to test flight of new jet

CBC News Posted: Feb 27, 2015 9:14 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 27, 2015 9:28 AM ET

Bombardier says it will proceed with the first test flight for its new CSeries jet today, at an airport just outside Montreal.

The test was supposed to happen earlier this week, but was postponed because of inclement weather.

The Montreal-based company said early Friday that the CS300 will have its first test flight sometime Friday after getting Transport Canada's OK. The regulator's permission was an important final hurdle before Bombardier could get its much-anticipated jet into the skies.

Bombardier has more than 240 firm orders for its next-generation jet, which has been plagued by delays.

More to come

Bombardier is testing its new CSeries for the first time in the skies over Montreal on Friday. (Jennifer Choi/CBC)

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Online nude photo ban won't undo damage

The ban on sexual content that is posted online without consent – to be implemented by Reddit and Google in March – is an admirable effort, experts say, but they also paint a fairly bleak picture about its likely success at preventing further damage. 

The ban by Google's Blogger service and social-networking and news site Reddit takes aim at leaked or stolen nude photos and so-called revenge pornography — the posting of explicit images of former lovers.  

Beginning March 10, anyone who wants a Reddit image or video of themselves removed from Reddit can email the site (contact@reddit.com), but that doesn't mean it's gone.

Effective March 23, Blogger will no longer allow most nude photos to be posted on anything other than a private site.

"The internet has no delete button," said Carmi Levy, a technology analyst with voices.com, a tech company in London, Ont. So once something goes online chances are it's going to pop up elsewhere. It is very much like a game of whack-a-mole – trying to find out where else it popped up and trying to get ahead of it."

No permanent eraser

While a successful copyright complaint or email to Reddit could scrub images from one site forever, victims have to remain vigilant and continue filing takedown notices elsewhere on the web.

Reddit and Google are taking a tougher stance against nudity in an attempt to prevent their services from turning into online peep shows. (Robert Galbraith/Reuters)

"If you are a victim of having something posted about you against your will, there really isn't a whole lot you can do," Levy said. "You can't simply go online and look for photos of yourself. Unless it's properly tagged, you might never even know. It's a very frightening place to be."

Until now, Reddit has had a hands-off approach to privacy, largely allowing its 160 million users to police their own forums within certain guidelines such as no child pornography or spam. The change comes about six months after hackers obtained nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities and posted them to social media sites, including Reddit.

Reddit was initially criticized for leaving the images up and for its hands-off policy. The site also came under fire when Wired reported that Reddit made enough money off the stolen celebrity photos to keep its servers running for almost a month.

The company was applauded over Tuesday's announcement for taking a stand against revenge porn and the posting of nude photos without consent, which Jennifer Lawrence called a "sex crime." 

Levy said, "It's an admirable effort by both Reddit and Google to get ahead of a problem that has become very significant in recent years. Unfortunately, because of the way the internet is structured, it really is little more than wrapping paper."

Reddit called the move "one more step in the right direction," saying it would share how often these takedowns occur in its yearly privacy report.

"You shouldn't do it because it's good PR, you should be liable for the damages the victims will suffer," Dr. Avner Levin said. Levin is an associate professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University and chair of the law and business department.

Google's Blogger service is giving its users until March 23 to delete sexually explicit or 'graphic nude' images from their sites. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)

"That is what we have in terms of intellectual property. We should have a legal structure like that for people's private images."

Legislation passed by Parliament in October makes it illegal in Canada to circulate an intimate image without the subject's consent, but critics warn the law is too broad and vague.

"The big challenge is that with the provision of the intimate image there is a defence of whether the person being photographed had a reasonable expectation of privacy," Levin said. "What is the context of the photo taking? What was the expectation when the photo was taken and has it been breached?" 

Victims can still sue for defamation, breach of privacy and copyright law violation, but "the internet is the technological equivalent of the Wild West," Levy says. "By the time this works its way through the legal system, years will have gone by and your bank account will have been depleted."

"The legal system simply cannot keep up with technology."

Cultural shift

The only real solution for the time being, Levy says, is to not take those kinds of photos in the first place.

'The legal system simply cannot keep up with technology,' says tech analyst Carmi Levy. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images)

"It might sound overly simplistic," he said. "But when relationships end these photos now become weapons used by one party against another and that happens time and again."

However, that seems unlikely.

Millennials who grew up in the digital age of cell phones and selfies have ushered in a shift in the culture of documenting our daily lives.

"I think it's really common," says Michelle Drouin, a developmental psychologist who specializes in social media and the growing use of sexting. "Sexting has become so integrated with sexuality. This is a part of becoming a sexual person in this decade."

Drouin says she is discouraged by how little people can do to protect their privacy and private images.

"I think we need a really aggressive campaign telling young people that these photos are forever," she said. "Teenagers are so vulnerable. They don't know yet if these photos will haunt them in the future."

Levin disagrees.

"It's human nature to take photos. The education there will fail," he said. "And people go on Reddit because they want to socialize. You're not going to change the way human beings behave. You want to find a way for them to get recourse and a legal system that helps them do that. We are missing that."

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NASA investigates helmet water leak after spacewalk

Two U.S. astronauts finished a 6½-hour spacewalk on Wednesday to prepare parking spots for new commercial space taxis then discovered water had leaked into a spacesuit helmet, a problem that led to the near-drowning of another astronaut in 2013, officials said.

Unlike the 2013 incident, astronaut Terry Virts was not in any danger, said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias.

Virts discovered a small amount of water was floating in his helmet after he and spacewalk partner Barry "Butch" Wilmore had returned to the station's airlock following a successful outing.

NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore, left, and Terry Virts took their second spacewalk outside the International Space Station Wednesday to prepare the orbiting lab for future American crew capsules. (NASA-TV/Associated Press)

"I really can't see any immediate danger," station flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy radioed to ground control teams at Mission Control in Houston.

In July 2013, NASA hastily aborted a spacewalk when the helmet worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano began filling with water. By the time he returned to the airlock, his vision was blocked and communications equipment had stopped working.

NASA suspended spacewalks while engineers searched for the cause of the problem.

Engineers do not yet know why Virts' helmet leaked, nor if the issue is related to the previous problem, Navias said.

NASA managers plan to meet on Friday to decide whether to proceed with Sunday's outing, he added,

During Wednesday's spacewalk, the astronauts removed a cover protecting the space shuttle's docking port, one of two sites being reconfigured for new spaceships under development by Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX.

The work paves the way for the arrival later this year of two international docking port adapters, which will be installed during four more spacewalks NASA plans in 2015.

The spacewalkers finished routing two power and data cables on Wednesday then greased the grapple fixture at the end of the station's robot arm.

They also prepared the Tranquility connecting node for the September arrival of an experimental inflatable habitat built by privately owned Bigelow Aerospace. Sunday's spacewalk is devoted to setting up a new communications system for the visiting vehicles.

The station, a partnership of 15 nations, is a collection of laboratories and platforms for materials and life science experiments, Earth studies, physics and other investigations that take advantage of the microgravity environment and unique vantage point of space. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday it would remain part of the international outpost until 2024, a four-year extension proposed by the United States.

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Net neutrality fight ends today as 'little guy' looks to win back equal internet

The future of a fair and open internet is at stake in Washington today, with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission expected to vote to regulate internet service like a public good, the way it has been treated in Canada for years.

The expected ruling to support "net neutrality" — the concept that all online traffic must be equally accessible — would deliver a blow to senior Republicans and large U.S. cable providers such as Comcast and Verizon, which have sunk $44.2 million into lobbying efforts to allow some internet users to pay for zippier connectivity.

In response, grassroots activists quickly mobilized online to oppose such preferential treatment for "fast lane" access, with more than four million people filing public grievances to the FCC.

Today's long-awaited vote should end the debate at last.

Josh Tabish, a Vancouver-based campaign manager with the nonprofit public internet advocacy group OpenMedia.org, anticipates an outcome favouring a neutral internet that will stand up in court.

Victory expected for 'little guy'

"The little guy has won," he said. "This shows that when rules are proposed that favour a small handful of powerful telecom conglomerates at the expense of everyone else, we can coalesce to fight that, and so we're expecting a win."

In an op-ed to Wired magazine posted online, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said his plan would regulate internet service much like phone service or any other public utility. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)

Abolishing net neutrality would have meant some websites hosting their own material could slow to a crawl, or Netflix could experience stuttering video playback – unless those internet companies dug into their pockets for fast-lane access.

When the big U.S. cable providers succeeded last year in having a D.C. appeals court strike down open internet rules, "the internet freaked out collectively," Tabish said.

Many users had adopted an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset on internet policy, he said.

A "fatal flaw" in the previous rules, according to Tabish, came down to a loophole linking back to an 81-year-old piece of legislation from the Roosevelt era.

"The rules weren't founded on Title II of the Communications Act," he explained, referring to the 1934 regulations covering common carriage rules "going all the way back to the telegraph and telephone networks."

Reclassifying as public utility

In the U.S., broadband internet is classified as an "information service," which is subject to less regulation.

In advance of the FCC's landmark decision on net neutrality, internet freedom group OpenMedia set up a 'Jumbotron' in Washington broadcasting public appeals to keep the internet neutral. (Courtesy OpenMedia.org)

But if the FCC reclassifies internet broadband as a Title II service — effectively making the internet a public utility — web access would be "bulletproof" against meddling by internet service providers, Tabish said.

That's why reclassification as a public utility is so key, he said, noting that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission adopted that approach in 2009 and now has a "very strong" net neutrality policy.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, a former lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry, is now putting forward the same kind of proposal.

'It's a foundational principle to …allow users to access what they want in a manner they want, without undue or unfair interference from these larger carriers.'- Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law

Republicans on Capitol Hill have also backed off from trying to pass a legislative roadblock, conceding any such bill would need broader bipartisan support.

"The carriers really thought they had this issue won," said Michael Geist, a professor at the University of Ottawa and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law.

So how did things begin to tip in favour of net neutrality?

Geist credits "a strong public voice" online, as well as HBO host John Oliver's comedy segment explaining the issue.

Support from Obama

"The public spoke very loudly, and it's been well chronicled that many of the smaller internet companies began to speak out aggressively as well," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama also weighed in last November.

In Canada, internet access is already treated like a telecommunications service, but in the U.S., it's considered an 'information service,' which is not as strictly regulated. (Shutterstock )

"For almost a century, our law has recognized that companies who connect you to the world have special obligations not to exploit the monopoly they enjoy," he said. "It is common sense that the same philosophy should guide any service that is based on the transmission of information — whether a phone call, or a packet of data."

Canada now has strong net neutrality rules governed by Internet Traffic Management Practices. The rules prevent throttling, establishment of paid priority fast lanes or slow lanes, and website blocking.

That's not to say what happens with the FCC ruling won't impact Canadians.

The innovation argument

If net neutrality advocates were to lose out, Tabish warned, this could create a "trade barrier" for companies wishing to expand into the U.S., meaning Canadian companies would have to negotiate how their content gets treated by American internet service providers.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke out in support of net neutrality in November. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

While Canadians may not live in the U.S., many of their favourite websites do, he added.

Activists have also warned an uneven online playing field could put a chokehold on innovation.

"It's a foundational principle to allow innovation and allow users to access what they want in a manner they want, without undue or unfair interference from these larger carriers," Geist said.

Established internet companies such as Twitter, Netflix and Amazon have realized this too, added Tabish, reasoning it's in everyone's best interest to have an internet landscape that could be an incubator for the next big idea.

"The promise of the internet has always been if you have a good idea and a computer, you can change the world," Tabish said. "Net neutrality will keep things that way."

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Apple ordered to pay $533M over iTunes-related patent infringement

Apple Inc has been ordered to pay $532.9 million US after a federal jury in Texas found that its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by patent licensing firm Smartflash LLC.

Though Smartflash had been asking for $852 million in damages, Tuesday night's verdict was still a blow to Apple.

The jury, which deliberated for eight hours, determined Apple had not only used Smartflash's patents without permission, but did so wilfully.

Apple, which said it would appeal, said the outcome was another reason reform was needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that don't make products themselves.

"We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system," Apple said in a statement.

Smartflash sued Apple in May 2013, alleging its iTunes software infringed its patents related to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games.

"Smartflash is very happy with the jury's verdict, which recognizes Apple's longstanding wilful infringement," Brad Caldwell, a lawyer for Smartflash, said in an email.

The trial was held in Tyler, which over the past decade has become a focus for patent litigation.

Smartflash's registered office is also in Tyler.

It was also in Tyler federal court that a jury in 2012 ordered Apple to pay $368 million to VirnetX Inc for patent infringement. A federal appeals court later threw out that damages figure, saying it was wrongly calculated.

Apple tried to avoid a trial by having the lawsuit thrown out. But U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who presided over the case, ruled earlier this month that Smartflash's technology was not too basic to deserve the patents.

Apple had asked the jury to find Smartflash's patents invalid because previously patented inventions covered the same technology.

Smartflash's suit said that around 2000, the co-inventor of its patents, Patrick Racz, had met with executives of what is now European SIM card maker Gemalto SA, including Augustin Farrugia, who is now a senior director at Apple.

Smartflash has also filed patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, HTC Corp and Google Inc.

The case is Smartflash LLC, et al v. Apple, Inc, et al, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 13-cv-447.

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The next prize for hackers? The phone in your pocket, McAfee Labs warns

Smart devices carried in millions of pockets are potentially giving would-be hackers unlocked access to user data, McAfee Labs warns in its latest threat report, citing a failure by mobile app developers to patch vulnerabilities.

This month's Threats Report released by the leading cybersecurity firm criticized the makers of 18 popular apps for being too slow to plug security holes that were already flagged in September 2014.

Last year, Carnegie Mellon University's computer emergency response team found that more than 20,000 mobile apps — for everything from games to sports to weather information — had an easily exploitable weakness known as a secure socket layer (SSL) vulnerability.

McAfee Labs followed up in January, testing the top 25 most popular apps outed by the university for having "the most basic" SSL problem — improper validation of website certificates. The vulnerability could lead to theft of user passwords and usernames.

"A lot of the discussion right now is about the value of data on your device, in this case your cellphone," McAfee spokesman Gary Davis said, noting that such data can be used in insurance fraud and identity theft schemes.

'Poor programming' went unfixed

"Addresses, dates of birth, these are all data elements you'd need to in essence steal somebody's identity, or perhaps conduct insurance fraud, and it's all being made available through different applications."

Gary Davis, VP of global consumer marketing for Intel Security at McAfee Labs, says mobile malware kits are now being sold online to would-be cyberattackers. (McAfee Labs)

The McAfee team still found "poor programming practices" that exposed users to cyberattacks. One such application, a mobile photo editor, has been downloaded as many as 500 million times.

(McAfee decided against naming the apps in its report, reasoning that it wanted to focus instead on highlighting the fact that such vulnerabilities exist.)

"To our surprise, even though CERT notified the developers months ago, 18 of the 25 most downloaded vulnerable apps that send credentials via insecure connections are still vulnerable," the McAfee report says, adding that typically private online sessions would be compromised without a user's knowledge.

The SSL weakness means that mobile phone users could have their supposedly secure online communications intercepted by unknown third parties.

'[Hackers] want to have the ability to reach inside a device and collect this information.'— Gary Davis, vice-president, Global Consumer Marketing, Intel Security

This would be possible owing to problems allowing potential cyberattackers to generate their own digital certificates, which would normally be granted by authenticated website certificate issuers, the McAfee report says.

Compromised apps would accept those illegitimate certificates without proper verification.

To test this vulnerability, McAfee researchers simulated "man in the middle" attacks, in which a communication is set up, but a third party redirects the traffic to a different server, Davis said.

"There's tons of rich data when you're using passwords to authenticate [to visit] a game site," he said. "Users tend to use the same usernames across the board, so you could get credit card information. Hackers know this….[and] they want to have the ability to reach inside a device and collect this information."

Passwords, usernames up for grabs

The McAfee report says researchers "were able to intercept the app's username and password credentials entered to log into the cloud service to share and publish photos."

Facebook credentials were also captured in the case of one mobile instant messaging app.

Security researchers revealed this month that some computers sold by Lenovo had a major security hole that could let any garden-variety hacker impersonate shopping, banking and other websites and steal users' credit card numbers and other personal data. (Andy Wong/Associated Press)

In the last quarter of 2014, McAfee Labs detected more than six million samples of mobile malware.

Davis said that as more would-be cybercriminals realize the value of encrypted data on mobile devices, mobile malware kits will circulate on the so-called Dark Web that allows hackers to surf anonymously.

Unless app writers take better notice about patching for well-documented vulnerabilities such as the Heartbleed or BERserk bugs, he said, criminals will thrive.

"Authors are starting kits, and making it available for sale so criminals can do their stuff targeting mobile sites in particular," he said.

"It's super important when we get the highly visible vulnerabilities down because the longer they're out there, the more they'll get exploited and the more damage that can be done to consumers and their lives."

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Spy agency monitors millions of Canadian emails to government

Canada's electronic spy agency collects millions of emails from Canadians and stores them for "days to months" while trying to filter out malware and other attacks on government computer networks, CBC News has learned.

A top-secret document written by Communications Security Establishment (CSE) analysts sheds new light on the scope of the agency's domestic email collection as part of its mandate to protect government computers.

CBC analyzed the document in collaboration with U.S. news site The Intercept, which obtained it from U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Canada's electronic spy agency watched visits to government websites and collected about 400,000 emails to the government every day, storing some of the data for years, according to the 2010 document. Today's volume is likely much higher given online traffic growth.

Common online activities involving the government include Canadians filing their taxes, writing to members of Parliament and applying for passports.

The program to protect government servers from hackers, criminals and enemy states is raising questions about the breadth of the collection, the length of retention and how the information could be shared with police and spy partners in other countries.

Chris Parsons, an internet security expert with the Toronto-based internet think tank Citizen Lab who viewed the document, said there are legitimate purposes for the agency to monitor your communications with the government.

"But you should be able to communicate with your government without the fear that what you say … could come back to haunt you in unexpected ways," says Parsons.

"When we collect huge volumes, it's not just used to track bad guys. It goes into data stores for years or months at a time and then it can be used at any point in the future."

CSE says "specific communications" are examined if they are "suspected to relate to a cyberthreat that could harm government of Canada systems and networks."

Metadata kept 'months to years'

The surveillance service vacuums in about 400,000 emails to and from the government every day and then scans them using a tool called PonyExpress to look for any suspicious links or attachments, according to the top-secret document.

On mobile? Click here for the CSE document

That automated system sifts through them and detects about 400 potentially suspect emails each day — about 146,000 a year. That system sends alerts to CSE analysts, who then can take a closer look at the email to see if it poses any threat.

Only about four emails per day — about 1,460 a year — are serious enough to warrant CSE security analysts contacting the government departments potentially affected.

"It's pretty clear that's there's a very wide catchment of information coming into [CSE]," said Micheal Vonn, policy director at the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

CSE holds on to emails for "days to months," while metadata -- the details about who sent it, when and where -- is kept for "months to years," according to the document. The agency also records metadata about visits to government websites.

Under the Criminal Code, CSE is barred from targeting the content of Canadians' emails and phone calls, but it gets special ministerial exemptions when protecting government IT infrastructure.

The agency refused to provide specifics about the amount of email and metadata collected, and when they are deleted, insisting such information "could assist those who want to conduct malicious cyberactivity against government networks."

IT security analysts at CSE only use and retain information "necessary and relevant to identify, isolate or prevent harm to government of Canada computer networks or systems," the agency told CBC News in a written statement. Data that poses no threat or is not relevant to that goal "cannot be used or retained, and is deleted."

Civil liberties lawyer Vonn argues that there's "much more" Canadians should be told about the agency's collection of their data, such as how long it's held, without putting national security at risk.

"It's distressing that we have to find [details] out in dribs and drabs as opposed to having the appropriate discussion nationally and democratically.

"If we're going to have trust that our agencies are acting responsibly, we need as much light shone on the architecture, the laws and the rules, as possible," said Vonn.

Length of retention an 'utter mystery'

Cybersecurity experts say storing emails and data helps IT security analysts fix vulnerabilities.

CSE, under its mandate to protect federal government computer networks, vacuums up emails sent to and from the government and monitors website traffic, looking for malware and intrusions. (Canadian Press)

"Sometimes when they discover something they want to go back and check if this was the beginning or first of this particular kind of attack, so the data is actually very useful to them," said Queen's University computing professor David Skillicorn.

Still, documents suggest some of the data can be held as long as decades or even indefinitely.

CSE, under its cyberdefence mandate, is allowed to hold on to personal information — email addresses, IP addresses and other identifiers — for up to 30 years, then transfer it to Library and Archives Canada, according to the agency's own description of its databanks in the federal Info Source publication.

Vonn says it's "an utter mystery" why the government would need to retain personal information of those implicated in a potential cyberthreat for that long.

80 million probes a day

Skillicorn says the documents illustrate the great skill with which CSE is protecting both government websites and email traffic.

"I was impressed by the level of sophistication and cleverness and thoughtfulness," said Skillicorn. "It really does try to do everything that's possible to do in some very, very clever ways."

CSE says it's trying to set up defences because government networks are probed up to 80 million times a day by hackers looking for network vulnerabilities.

Skillicorn says most of those probes involve automated attempts equivalent to harmless mosquito bites, with only a tiny fraction meriting action.

Canada's economic activities, international roles and technology know-how make it an attractive target for cyberattacks by other countries, criminals and hackers.

On mobile? Click here for CSE's response

A single breach in the government's online armour can leave it vulnerable, with the potential that a wealth of sensitive data could end up in the wrong hands.

Soon after the 2010 top-secret presentation, several key federal departments — including the finance department and Treasury Board — suffered major attacks by hackers that forced them offline.

More recently, Canada Revenue Agency shut down in 2014 during income-tax season when a hacker broke into the site via a security bug known as Heartbleed.

Still, Vonn says while government cybersecurity is essential, citizens' level of trust in the post-Snowden era remains low, with many Canadians concerned about CSE activities.

"Accountability is central to understanding how this is keeping us safer and not in fact endangering our cybersecurity, our liberty, our ability to dissent."

---

CBC is working with U.S. news site The Intercept to shed light on Canada-related files in the cache of documents obtained by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The CBC News team — Dave Seglins, Amber Hildebrandt and Michael Pereira —collaborated with The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher to analyze the documents.

For a complete list of the past stories done by CBC on the Snowden revelations, see our topics page. Contact us via email by clicking on our respective names or search for our PGP keys here.

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How 'dangerous' pro-eating disorder communities thrive online

Photos of emaciated women proudly displaying their protruding hips and ribs, as well as thinspirational quotes "fat-shaming" those who dare to eat, continue to thrive on social media, despite the best attempts by sites like Instagram to temper the reach of the pro-eating disorder community. 

Some girls gain thousands of followers posting pictures of "thigh gaps" and "bikini bridges," as well as underweight celebrities and thinspirational quotes like model Kate Moss's mantra: "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."

"It just provides a lot of positivity for them, just in a very maladaptive way," says Edward Selby, of the more visual outlet that sites like Instagram provide.

An assistant professor of clinical psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Selby is the director of a lab there that studies what makes people more likely to develop anorexia (self-starvation), bulimia (binge-eating and purging) and other eating disorders.

About one in 20 young women in Canada has an eating disorder, according to the Toronto-based National Initiative for Eating Disorders.

And people suffering from these diseases often feel good after exercising, purging, swallowing a laxative or doing other things that contribute to their illness, Selby says.

They get caught in a "cyclic feedback loop," with the positive emotions pushing them to engage more in these risky behaviours.

Online pro-anorexia and bulimia communities simply add to that loop by celebrating a person's unhealthy achievements, he says.

The #thinspo world

'It would help me in my eating disorder, like in the most negative way.'- Antonia Eriksson

"Finally under 130! Woohoo!" writes one user with a photo of her feet on a scale. "Yay congrats," reads a response.

Another girl posts a screen grab from an app claiming that she's been fasting for more than a day. It receives 32 likes and a "great job" among the comments.

Some also leverage likes, retweets and comments to set rigid rules about eating and exercise. "Name a food and I won't eat it for two weeks," reads one user's Instagram photo. Another user posts an intricate workout list; for each share, she'll do one set of those exercises.

Not all accounts appearing to promote pro-eating disorder content identify as such, of course. Some post disclaimers denying the association.

Antonia Eriksson posted this photo to her Instagram account shortly after being admitted to hospital for an eating disorder in September 2012. She started an Instagram account then to chronicle her recovery. (Antonia Eriksson/Instagram)

​Antonia Eriksson, a 20-year-old student living in Linköping, Sweden, perused some of these "thinspirational" accounts nearly three years ago when she was struggling with an eating disorder.

"They're really dangerous," she says. Eriksson is now in recovery from anorexia, and runs an Instagram account and blog focused on fitness and healthy eating. But back then, she was easily triggered into unhealthy behaviour by those images.

"It would help me in my eating disorder, like in the most negative way... It would keep me sick," she says.

When she was hospitalized for anorexia in September 2012, she deleted all those accounts from her Instagram feed.

But while she managed to completely break from viewing all this the pro-eating disorder content, she says it can be easy for people to "get stuck" in the #thinspo world.

More than 100,000 visitors to one pro-ana site

Instagram isn't the first online space on which the pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia community converged. They started springing up as websites and on LiveJournal, an online diary platform launched in 1999.

Dr. Rebecka Peebles, co-director of the Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has been studying pro-anorexia sites for more than a decade.

In 2010, she published an analysis of what's found on more than 200 of these sites — one of which, she says, has more than 100,000 visitors.

Most of the websites her team studied showcased thinspirational images or writing, like the so-called thin commandments, to encourage weight loss and disordered eating. While most offered dieting and fasting advice, nearly half offered tips and tricks specific to disordered eating.

British model Kate Moss is often quoted in the thinspirational community after saying, 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.' (Jonathan Short/Invision/The Associated Press)

Those types of websites still exist, but the community has since expanded onto social media. Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube all have pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia content that is "very, very similar" to the sites Peebles studied.

In 2012, Instagram attempted to curb the community's growth by banning #thinspiration, #probulimia, #proanorexia and other hashtags that glorify self-harm. It also threatened to disable those accounts. But people simply tweaked their hashtag use, relying on more neutral ones (#anorexia, #bulimia, #anagirl) or ones with altered spelling (#thinspooooo, #thygap).

Now, a quick warning about graphic content pops up if someone clicks onto a troublesome hashtag, and users can opt to view the #thinspooooo or be re-directed to the National Eating Disorders Association.

Tumblr, Facebook and Pinterest have also attempted to circumvent users' access to material that promotes self-harm.

#ANAwarriors promote recovery

Peebles has "mixed feelings" about shutting down the sites because much of their content is similar to what shoppers can see on the covers of tabloids at a grocery store checkout.

Additionally, not all the content is inherently negative, she says. Her study found that nearly 40 per cent of the sites included pro-recovery information. Many of the troubling Instagram posts also include pro-recovery tags: #EDrecovery, #ANAwarrior, #BeatANA.

She believes that reflects the nature of the disease. "Part of you wants to get better, and part of you wants to stay sick."

Eriksson was once an #ANAwarrior. She started an Instagram account, which has since grown to nearly 40,000 followers, the day before she was hospitalized to document her six-week in-hospital treatment and recovery.

What she calls her Instagram family helped motivate her recovery. "I wanted to show them that it was possible," she says. "So I just kept fighting it."

As she got stronger and healthier, she changed her account name to eatmoveimprove and now posts pictures of #fitspo or fitness inspiration: fruit-filled oatmeal bowls, selfies with flexed, toned muscle and inspirational quotes.

#Fitspo and orthorexia

Ericsson's and other fitspo accounts are often criticized for promoting another rigid standard of beauty. She says she is often asked about orthorexia, an obsession with healthy eating, but refutes accusations that she's crossed over to the opposite end of the eating disorder spectrum.

'If we were helping them effectively, I think the websites would be a lot less intriguing to them.'- Dr. Rebecka Peebles

She preaches balance: working out for the love of it and nourishing your body to give it energy.

She allows herself to give in to treat cravings, with the occasional Ben & Jerry's ice-cream or slice of pizza.

She acknowledges having bad days and openly discusses them on her blog.

"Today, I deal with my feelings," she says. "Food and anxiety are not connected today. Workouts and anxiety are not connected today."

Selby says health-care professionals can be concerned about recovering anorexics developing orthorexia.

Many with the disease view it as "kind of a friend" he says, and doctors haven't come up with a great answer for how to help them replace it as they move closer toward a healthy weight. He believes it's important to help patients apply the skills that made them successful at weight loss to a healthier, more productive activity.

'Walking wounded' left undiagnosed

Peebles is more concerned about the large eating disordered population that doctors aren't even working with.

One of her studies found that the majority of people frequenting pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia sites had a healthy body mass index (a way doctors measure a person's body fat by using height and weight). Out of more than 1,200 people surveyed, 54 per cent fell within a healthy BMI range. About 21 per cent were overweight or obese.

Despite not being underweight, these people "scored out of the stratosphere" for disordered eating behaviours, says Peebles. Nearly three-quarters of the respondents had purged, binged or used a laxative to help them lose weight.

This means physicians are missing identifying those with eating disorders among seemingly normal, overweight and obese populations, she says.

"Who are the walking wounded with these illnesses that ... are all among us and we're not identifying and helping them?" she asks. "If we were helping them effectively, I think the websites would be a lot less intriguing to them."

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'Creepy when you think about it:' Superfish adware could be a hacker's paradise

Superfish, the much-maligned adware that came pre-installed on Lenovo laptops, is but one of several "creepy" digital pests capable of wriggling past encrypted web-browsing sessions, cybersecurity experts warn.

Not even trusted banking and e-commerce sites are impregnable to what researchers call "man in the middle" attacks that could exploit the security flaw.

Lenovo laptop users who may have purchased a new laptop in late 2014 are being urged to check their computers for the Superfish adware that came pre-installed on 43 different models of Lenovo products. (CBC)

"We're just kind of scratching the surface," said Ken Westin, a senior security analyst with cybersecurity firm Tripwire. "I guarantee you within the next week or two, we'll start hearing more about things like this."

The vulnerability allows hackers to intercept secure communications, inject ads into encrypted sites and peer into what should be secure web traffic.

Dave Fewer, director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, described the flaw as "a huge betrayal of trust."

To understand why, it helps to get a grasp of how websites ensure safe web browsing, who could be affected, and why the adware was created.

What is Superfish?

Superfish is a visual search tool that analyzes images algorithmically to generate ads based on searches.

Ostensibly, the add-on was preloaded onto Lenovo computers so it could change or insert advertisements into a user's regular web browsing.

Calgary cybersecurity expert Tom Keenan says the Superfish software could give hackers the ability to redirect web traffic from legitimate sites to spoof websites. (CBC)

"It knows what you're looking at and can feed you ads as a result. So if you're looking at couches online, it'll tell show you ads for furniture," Fewer said. "Really creepy when you think about it."

Superfish circumvents the secure sockets layer (SSL) that is a standard security protocol for trusted websites.

"When you see a little lock icon and you see the HTTPS popping up there, you should have a certain amount of confidence that your communication is being encrypted," said Tom Keenan, a fellow with the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.

"This thing defeats that, so you think you're secure, but you're not."

What went wrong?

The adware "hijacks" website certificates that are typically only issued by recognized certificate authorities such as Symantec and Comodo, Keenan said.

While root certificates act as verified chains of trust in online transactions, the problem is that Superfish "signs" its own root certificates, Fewer said, "effectively tricking the operating system, and therefore the user, into thinking it's got legitimate business intercepting secure transactions."

For example, a user whose Lenovo laptop is compromised might check the website certificate on a banking website and see it's protected by "Superfish Inc." instead of a proper issuer of digital certificates.

The incentive for Superfish to do this might have something to do with not wanting its search-tracking abilities to be blocked by encrypted communications.

Who might be affected?

Lenovo, the world's largest PC manufacturer, identifies 43 different models of affected laptops and mobile devices.

The fact Superfish was pre-installed on all of them is worrisome, because most users don't take proactive steps to secure their hardware.

Devices shipped worldwide, including to Canada, between October 2014 and December 2014 were affected with the potentially malicious software.

A spokesperson with Public Safety Canada said the government "is aware of the Superfish vulnerability" and is "assessing the possible impact and sharing cyberthreat and mitigation information."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security advised Lenovo customers to remove Superfish from their laptops last week.

Lenovo has introduced a Superfish remove tool, and some third-party firms such as the password service LastPass have created tools to help users check to see whether their devices are affected.

Why should consumers care?

The main concern is with "SSL spoofing," in which cybercriminals set up fake website certificate authorities.

Analysts call the ability to intercept, decrypt and inject communications between a host and server MITM (man-in-the-middle) eavesdropping.

China's Lenovo is the world's biggest PC maker. (Shutterstock)

Attackers could "impersonate" a legitimate website, "and there are no limits to what you can pretend to be," said LastPass CEO Joe Siegrist.

"[A cyber attacker] can pretend to be Gmail and watch all communications going through," Siegrist said. "Just about anybody who has network access can do this."

Theft of banking passwords is another worry.

According to Siegrist, more than five per cent of people who have checked their laptops for Superfish via LastPass's online web tool have learned they were affected, including "Canadians on home networks, commercial networks, and universities."

How common are these MITM vulnerabilities?

If there's any positive outcome from the Superfish fallout, it's that the revelations have led to greater awareness of these types of vulnerabilities, said Westin, the threat intelligence expert with Tripwire.

'I'd rather pay $20 more for a laptop that's private and secure than have to deal with this.'— Ken Westin, Tripwire

"Researchers are finding these techniques are used by a lot of other companies," he said. "This thing with Lenovo is just the first shoe to drop."

Siegrist said that while "seven or eight" Superfish-style codes have recently been identified, Superfish is catching the most flak because it was pre-installed and distributed so broadly on Lenovo products.

Lenovo is also not the only PC manufacturer to pre-install software on new computers, however.

Keenan said that bundling in such "annoyware" often brings down costs of new computers, as software makers might pay the vendors for the privilege of being preloaded.

For his part, Westin wants to see the practice to stop.

"I'd rather pay $20 more for a laptop that's private and secure than have to deal with this," he said.

How can consumers protect themselves?

The best practice is to completely wipe Windows and reinstall it after bringing a PC home, Westin said.

It's the only way to eliminate unwanted customizations.

A screen grab from LastPass's Superfish checker shows a message indicating a computer has not been affected by the adware. (CBC)

"I think it's a way of them decreasing the cost of the laptop, but also it's just a general outdated monetization strategy," he said.

Although no attacks have as of yet been reported, Lenovo's image has already taken a big hit.

"When you spend a bunch of money on a laptop and find out they compromise your security for their own profit, that's a bad thing," Westin said.

"It has a significant impact on the perception of the brand, and I think Lenovo's going to be hurt by the sales for a quite a long time."

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Bomb-sniffing elephants trained in South Africa for 'biodetection'

In the South African bush, elephants are being trained in the art of "bio-detection" to see if they can use their exceptional sense of smell to sniff out explosives, landmines and poachers.

Supported by the U.S. Army Research Office, the project looks promising.

During a recent test run, a 17-year-old male elephant named Chishuru walked past a row of buckets. A swab laced with TNT scent had been stapled to the bottom of one.

Sticking his trunk into each bucket, Chishuru stopped and raised a front leg when he came across the one with the swab. He got the bucket right each time.

And like a sniffer dog, he was rewarded with a treat: marula, a fruit that elephants love.

No return to combat

"An elephant's nose is amazing. Think about mammoths, which had to find food through the ice," said Sean Hensman, operator of Adventures with Elephants, the game ranch 180 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg where the training is being conducted.

'We could bring scents from the field collected by unmanned robotic systems to the elephants for evaluation.'- Stephen Lee, chief scientist of the U.S. Army Research Office

The project has a number of roots. Elephants in Angola, which suffered decades of civil war, have been observed avoiding heavily-mined areas, suggesting their trunks were warning them to stay away.

In Hensman's case, he said his father was startled in the 1990s while watching a herd of elephants in Zimbabwe to discover that a female member of the herd had tracked him.

Inspired, his father trained 12 elephants for anti-poaching patrols in Zimbabwe but in 2002 the family lost their three farms to President Robert Mugabe's land seizures and came to South Africa.

U.S. army researchers, who have been involved in the project for five years, say unlike in Hannibal's day, elephants will not be staging a return to the theatre of combat.

Robots collect, elephants evaluate

"We could bring scents from the field collected by unmanned robotic systems to the elephants for evaluation," said Stephen Lee, chief scientist of the U.S. Army Research Office.

And who has the better nose, the dog or the elephant?

"In our work I don't believe we have a firm conclusion. We would like to better quantify this," Lee said.

But the old adage about an elephant never forgetting seems to have some basis in truth.

"Dogs require constant training while the elephants seem to understand and remember the scent without the need for constant training," Lee said.

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Telus bails on unlimited internet, bandwidth plays on for a price

It seems the days of cheap, unlimited internet are over. With Telus's announcement Friday that it is implementing usage-based charges in B.C. and Alberta, all major Canadian internet service providers are now using data caps when billing customers.

Usage-based pricing is when consumers pay internet service providers for a specific amount of data they agree to consume instead of a flat fee for unlimited data. 

Users who go over data caps usually face extra charges or slower internet speeds, and large ISP providers are all now offering users the option to pay an extra monthly fee for higher caps or unlimited usage.

Learning that Telus will charge its biggest users up to $75 for going over monthly usage allowances, internet freedom group OpenMedia.ca posted a message online reading, "Telus: Now charging $75 for 'too much internet.'" 

On mobile? Read the tweet here. 

How much internet is too much?

Until now, Telus users had it comparatively easy as far as internet prices go as Telus offered one of the best deals in the country based on price-per-gigabyte of data, and data caps were not enforced.

'I don't think people know how much data is used when they download an episode of Modern Family or download a movie.'- Business ethics professor Chris MacDonald

"Western Canada has gone longer without caps," said Dan Deeth, spokesman for Waterloo-based ISP research firm Sandvine.

"In Ontario, it's been more common for a longer period of time."

And for those consumers who already have usage-based pricing, a 2013 survey by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre showed 78 per cent of Canadians said the were satisfied with their current monthly data caps.

At the same time, 42 per cent weren't very familiar with the concept of data caps and how it affected their monthly bill. Consumers are often unclear about what online activities consume the most data.

"I don't think people know how much data is used when they download an episode of Modern Family or download a movie," said Chris MacDonald, a business ethics professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. "People don't have a sense of how data intensive something like Google Maps is."

Telus will start charging up to $75 for customers who go over their monthly usage allowance. (Denis Rozhnovsky/Shutterstock)

Telus says customers will be notified when they have reached 75 per cent of their data allowance, again when they reach 95 per cent and finally when they have exceeded their data allowance.

"Companies need to provide fairly explicit information about data usage and not bury it six levels deep on their website — just like a car company needs to be transparent about gas mileage," MacDonald said.  

Most customers won't notice a difference in the new billing system, the company says. 

"No one will be surprised when they open their bill," said Telus spokesman Shawn Hall. "We have a robust usage notification system, and will be sending email alerts to customers as they approach and pass their allowance, and at every 50 GB bucket."

Paying your fair share

According to Telus, usage charges have been designed to ensure the amount a customer pays for internet service reflects the actual data consumption. "You pay for what you use," the company said. 

Their announcement reads: "In the last 16 months alone our customers' monthly internet data usage has more than doubled. Further, much of this consumption is being driven by a minority of our customers — in fact, less than five per cent of our internet customers are consuming 25 per cent of the data on our network in any given month."

But as OpenMedia.ca spokesman David Christopher says, "when it comes to home internet, it's the speed that people pay for, not a capped amount.

"In other industrialized nations customers do not face these kinds of caps and overage fees. Customers are getting nickled and dimed," he said.

Not so, says Telus. 

"Data usage charges are common in many developed countries around the world," said Hall. "In the U.K., for example, British Telecom offers plans with 10-40 GB a month and charges the equivalent of $10.81 for another 5 GB."

What can I do online with one gigabyte?

In Canada, most internet packages from large providers such as Bell and Rogers range from about 30 GB of data to 500 GB with the cost ranging from about $50/month to $100/month.

With one GB of data you can send/receive 105,000 emails, download more than 200 songs, download about 1½ movies or stream about one hour of Netflix.

Telus had offered one of the best deals in the country based on price-per-gigabyte of data before it announced that data caps would be enforced. (Galit Rodan/Canadian Press)

Casual users of the internet may use only a few gigabytes a month. But usage can increase rapidly if your smartphone accesses your wireless network at home and you play things like YouTube videos or you watch last night's hockey highlights on your smartphone.

Your usage will increase exponentially if you download a lot of movies or stream through subscription services like Netflix.

Netflix offers tips on how to use less data while streaming videos by changing the video quality settings, which allow Canadian customers to use less of their monthly data allotment by lowering their picture quality.

"It's moving backwards in many ways," said Christopher.

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos famously quipped when the video streaming giant came to Canada, "it's almost a human rights violation what they're charging for internet access in Canada."

"The only major difference between networks that have unlimited data and usage-based pricing is you'll see less file-sharing traffic on usage-based pricing," said Deeth. "That's typically something that can be controlled. If I use bit torrent I know I'll go over my cap."

Will usage-based billing change your habits?

For heavy users who will now face usage-based billing, costs will increase. For the rest, it remains to be seen.

According to Deeth, the amount of streaming that takes place during peak hours, between 7 p.m and 11 p.m., is about the same for everyone, with or without unlimited internet data.

However, there are concerns that everyone will be using far more bandwidth as the way we use the internet evolves.

If most of the television programs or movies that Canadians watch are seen online, rather than on traditional TV, consumers could quickly surpass a cap of 100 GB a month.

Telus provides an upgrade to unlimited data for a surcharge of $30/month, and for managing your data the company recommends password protection for Wi-Fi, installing anti-virus software and turning off streaming music and video when it's not in use, so you are not charged for what you are not watching. 

Canadian broadband internet service prices, based on Canadian Radio-Television and Communications Commissions' latest data from 2013. (CBC/Wall Communications)

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African superheroes take flight in video games

The fantasy for Eyram Tawia began, as it has for millions of children before him, thumbing through comic books.

"When I saw Superman fly, I'm like: 'How can I see myself doing that?' " he recalls.  

A couple of decades later, the 31-year-old Tawia has that superpower and many more at his fingertips in his office in Accra, Ghana. 

He is the co-founder of Leti Arts, an African company that is playing a key role in building the comic and gaming industry on the continent from the ground up.   

The centrepiece of the fledgling company is its mobile game, Africa's Legends, and the digital comic books that will explore the stories of each of its characters.   

At this point, it's a simple mobile game, not dissimilar to other ubiquitous "Match 3" phone games. It is available free for Android on Google Play. 

But Africa's Legends differs markedly from other comics and games. All of its superheroes and villains are African.  

When Tawia was getting hooked on comics as a child, his favourite characters — from Superman to Spider-Man to Thor — were all Caucasian. 

Not much of a following

Eventually, he began to question that.

"Why do black superheroes struggle to be popular, even in the Marvel universe, the DC universe? They are either add-ons or they don't have much of a following."

Leti Arts co-founder Eyram Tawia, standing left, and online manager Nana Kwabena Owusu, standing right, supervise interns working on animation for a new game. (Carolyn Dunn/CBC)

​Tawia says the answer became obvious to him over time. "It is because there's no existing gaming culture in Africa."

He met Wesley Kirinya, a fellow comic and gaming enthusiast from Kenya, online and the pair set about to change that. 

The Africa's Legends characters are based on or inspired by folklore from across the continent. 

Characters include Ananse the West African god of wisdom, the conqueror and warrior king Shaka Zulu of South Africa and Pharoah, based on Egyptian rulers.  

Tawia likens them to The Avengers of Africa, age-old characters fighting modern evil on the continent. 

Overcoming inferiority

"Bringing back our girls, cleaning out the pirates on the shores [of Somalia and Kenya], pushing out greedy presidents," Tawia says. "You know, we just want to create this franchise that people will cling to."

A big part of realizing the vision for Leti Arts is tackling a sense of inferiority that seems ingrained in many African youth.

'It was my biggest dream, but I never thought it would be possible.'- Rudolf Zejlo

"When something really exciting happens, there's always an attribution to a Western influence," says online marketing and business manager Nana Kwabena Owusu of Accra. 

"Either the person is trained outside of Africa [or] the person is schooled in Harvard, so it always feels as if you can't really be schooled in Africa, live in Africa and do world-class things and that's what we're trying combat."

Leti Arts interns Rudolf Zejlo and Robert Grayson Dzamedzi both grew up with that sense of limitation. 

A talented illustrator, Zejlo never thought his sketches would amount to anything more than a fun hobby. He couldn't imagine realizing his ambition of becoming a game developer.

"It was my biggest dream, but I never thought it would be possible," Zejlo says.

Then, right out of high school, he began an internship with Leti Arts and today, he and Grayson Dzamedzi are working on a child-friendy version of Africa's Legends called Africa's Legends Scouts. 

Bright future

Dzamedzi studied animation at college and even now, as he adds artistic shading to the hands of a miniature African superhero, he is thinking of the next step to become a game developer: learning programming.

"The future is really bright," he says. "So bright I need spectacles to see it."

Leti Arts is looking to the future, too, counting on recent successes — like winning a prestigious industry award, the Vodaphone Appstar, for best developed application — to bring it to bigger and better things.

"Right now, we're just making simple games to gain some traction," Tawia says, but ultimately he sees his company becoming a a big player in the global gaming industry, complete with high-end games. 

"Once serious investment has been made in quality games then yes, those games will definitely be paid for." 

Growth is already in the works as Leti Arts negotiates a presence on other platforms. 

Its biggest market is outside Africa, the diaspora and gamers who are drawn to the uniquely African superhero universe. 

But Tawia says the games and comics will always be created in Africa to inspire African kids to think big.

"We bridge the gap by bringing all the black superheroes flying and doing all the cool stuff," he says.

"That then psychologically works on the mind of every kid."

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Dinosaurs for sale: How fossil business impacts science

In 2009, commercial fossil hunters in Montana excavated what was, unbeknownst to them, the jaws of an important new species of dinosaur.

Scientists weren't informed, and the fossil was sold to a private collector.

Fortunately, the story doesn't end there, as it sometimes does.

'It's wrong for people to assume they can get something for free.'- Peter Larson, Black Hills Institute of Geological Research

In the fall of 2010, the private collector heard that paleontologist David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto would be visiting his town of Fort Peck, Mont. He wanted to know more about the fossil he had purchased, so he showed it to Evans. 

"I was blown away," Evans recalled. "I instantly knew it was a new species of raptor."

"It was a unique find that is scientifically very important," added Evans, who co-authored a paper describing the new raptor in 2013.

The jaws turned out to belong to the only raptor from its time period ever found in North America. The turkey-sized meat-eater named Acheroraptor temertyorum would help paint a more vivid picture of the diverse ecosystem where Tyrannosaurus rex stalked Triceratops 66 million years ago.

Acheroraptor also revealed a surprise — it was a close relative of dinosaurs in Asia, suggesting that dinosaurs were migrating between continents.

But no one knew any of that until Evans, the  ROM's curator of vertebrate paleontology and an associate professor at the University of Toronto, talked the collector into selling his treasure to the ROM. It became part of the ROM's collection in 2011. The museum doesn't disclose the prices it pays in order to minimize their effect on the market, but Evans said it was reasonable and affordable.

Bringing the fossil into a museum was the only way it could be studied and be recognized as a new species with its own scientific name. That's because science needs to be repeatable by other scientists, Evans said, and that's possible only when they have unrestricted public access through an institution such as a museum.

"If we had not bought it," he added, "it would have continued to be in the hands of a private collector and off-limits to science."

Acheroraptor is a newly discovered species of turkey-sized meat-eating dinosaur that lived alongside T. rex and Triceratops. (Julius Cstonyi)

The story of Acheroraptor illustrates how buying fossils from commercial collectors can provide scientists and the public with access to extraordinary dinosaur specimens they couldn't otherwise study. But it also shows how easily the commercial trade can inadvertently keep important specimens out of scientists' reach.

That is, the bustling dinosaur business has a profound influence on the science of paleontology – something that paleontologists struggle with.

Canadian museums often buy dinosaur fossils 

Dinosaurs are a huge public draw, but for many Canadian museums, buying dinosaurs is the only way to get them.

Laws enacted since the late 1970s in the main provinces where dinosaur fossils are found — Alberta and Saskatchewan — specify that dinosaur fossils are owned by the Crown. Regulations effectively ban them from being removed from the province.

If the Royal Ontario Museum had not bought the Acheroraptor fossil, it would have remained off-limits to science, says curator and paleontologist David Evans. (Royal Ontario Museum)

Paleontologists say the laws do a good job of safeguarding fossils for science. But they mean museums like the ROM, located in Ontario where no dinosaur fossils have been found, can't grow its collection except by buying fossils from outside Canada, mainly from the U.S.

"Every major museum in Canada buys fossils and it's been a common practice for a century," Evans said.

That said, museums far prefer to collect fossils themselves than buy them — partly because many have trouble affording them, and partly because commercial specimens are often missing important scientific data about their origins.

The U.S. is one of the few places in the world where dinosaur fossils collected on private land can be legally bought and sold in a mostly unfettered free market.

Driven by supply and demand, the market has commanded some impressive prices in the past decade. They peaked in 1997 with Sue, a T. rex bought at auction for $9.7 million Cdn by the Field Museum of Chicago.

Predators worth more than herbivores

Peter Larson is president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research Inc., a major commercial fossil dealer based in Hill City, South Dakota that played a role in selling Sue and has sold dinosaurs to Canadian museums including the ROM.

He says prices for entire dinosaur skeletons can range from tens of thousands of dollars to millions, with large meat eaters like T. rex fetching far more than herbivores such as duck-billed hadrosaurs.

Larson said Sue's record auction "made a big difference in what people think dinosaurs might be worth.""The coolness factor plays a part no matter who buys the fossil."

Sue the T. rex is the most expensive dinosaur skeleton ever sold. The Field Museum in Chicago bought her at auction for $8.6 million in 1997. (Sue Ogrocki/Reuters)

Commercial collectors surged into the market, eager to cash in, offering private landowners money in exchange for access to their fossil beds.

Evans said farmers and ranchers who once provided paleontologists with access to their land started shutting them out. Those who once donated their finds to museums sold them to commercial collectors instead.

Larson thinks that's how it should be.

"It's very difficult to make a living as a rancher and a farmer. Those people own that land," he said. "It's wrong for people to assume that they can get something for free."

Peter Larson is president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, which collected and sold Sue the T. rex. He said Sue's record auction "made a big difference in what people think dinosaurs might be worth." (Black Hills Institute of Geological Research)

Many Canadian paleontologists accept that argument, at least to some extent.

"I'm not completely against it," said Hans Larsson, Canada Research Chair in vertebrate paleontology at McGill University. He acknowledged that fossils have market value, and being able to buy them promotes interest in paleontology.

"However, once we get into scientifically interesting specimens… those specimens should not be for sale publicly."

In many cases, Larsson said, commercial collectors who recognize that a fossil is a new species will save it for a museum. 

The same goes for scientifically important fossils like whole skeletons. Peter Larson said the Black Hills Institute has never sold one to anyone but a museum. Private individuals are more likely to buy dinosaur parts such as vertebrae or leg bones that are smaller and have less scientific value, he added.

But as turkey-sized Acheroraptor shows, "the most interesting species are not always the big ones," says Evans.

He noted that many recently discovered dinosaur species would easily fit in a collector's living room.

Poachers smash skulls

He doesn't think that the parts favoured by collectors have less scientific value. In fact, he says, they're often exactly the parts needed to identify a new species.

"What people want on their mantelpieces are the skulls."

Deinocheirus was similar in size to Tyrannosaurus rex and belonged to a group of ostrich-like dinosaurs. (Michael Skrepnick)

The high perceived price of dinosaurs after Sue's sale encouraged not only legal commercial collectors, but also illegal poachers, paleontologists say. When poachers are involved, even small dinosaur parts for sale can leave a trail of destruction.

Philip Currie, who holds a Canada Research Chair in dinosaur paleobiology at the University of Alberta, makes annual trips to Mongolia to collect dinosaur fossils. Many times, he has come across skeletons badly damaged by poachers, who take only the parts they can sell most easily.

"They'll take a pickaxe and they'll smash up the skull and take the teeth or dig until they find the hands and feet and they'll take all the claws," he said.

Earlier this year, Currie finally described an extraordinary dinosaur called Deinocheirus. He found the remains of its poached skeleton a few years ago, but couldn't identify and describe it until its skull and hand were found in a fossil dealer's shop and returned to Mongolia.

Professional ethics prevent paleontologists from studying poached specimens.

Lost data

An additional problem with poached specimens and some commercial specimens is they are often missing important scientific data such as the GPS co-ordinates of their location and their position within the layers of rock — necessary to figure out exactly when the dinosaur lived and its place in its ecosystem.

"There are definitely people who need to learn more about what they're doing," said Peter Larson, whose company takes great care to collect the scientific data and excavate fossils properly.

But he added  that commercial collectors in the U.S. have helped find and dig up far more dinosaurs than museums and university researchers have the resources to find. This is valuable work, given how fast fossils exposed on the surface of the ground weather away.

"In some instances, even if they don't do a good job, it's better than letting the fossil rot."

Evans said laws allowing commercial collection of dinosaur bones in the U.S. are unlikely to change, so it's important for paleontologists to forge good relationships with commercial and private collectors. That way, they are more likely to learn about important finds and can encourage the collection of important data along with the fossils.

"The private market is really, really big," he said. "And it can be heartbreaking to a scientist to realize that so many potentially important specimens are being held in private hands, outside the realm of science."

Evans thinks there are big scientific advantages to a system like Canada's where most dinosaur fossils remain in the public trust, whether they were found in public or private lands.

"All scientists prefer that model," he said, "because there is no chance of specimens being lost to a mantelpiece."

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