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Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

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Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#31

Another possibility is that he had a nervous breakdown or substance abuse episode, leading to both the paranoid emails and the irrational vehicle operations. Obviously I'm not saying that's the case, but the extremely irrational driving goes fits a theory of paranoid delusions (brought on by any number of mechanisms), just as the hacked car system goes with about to uncover something big.

Or, an even less interesting possibility: Hastings might in fact have been under some kind of investigation; he might have not slept well the prior night; and he might have fallen asleep at the wheel. This is consistent with the facts of the case: the crash happened in the middle of the night, just after Hastings sped through a red light.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#33
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think given the fact that the US is literally Nazi Germany, it's pretty much assured that the US assassinated him for what he knew. I'm so glad that these kind of pieces are being upvoted here so we can finally stop talking about all that technology bullshit. Upvote on the left if you agree.

I think given the fact that the US is literally Nazi Germany Literally is metaphorically literally? I hate it when people abuse language like that, even though usage dictates conventions.

The above post's style is straight out of reddit's /r/circlejerk. Funny, but bound for downvotes on hn.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#34
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think given the fact that the US is literally Nazi Germany, it's pretty much assured that the US assassinated him for what he knew. I'm so glad that these kind of pieces are being upvoted here so we can finally stop talking about all that technology bullshit. Upvote on the left if you agree.

I think given the fact that the US is literally Nazi Germany Literally is metaphorically literally? I hate it when people abuse language like that, even though usage dictates conventions.

I believe the poster was making a sarcastic point about the kinds of stories that are currently popular on HN. He does have a point hidden beneath the snark. I believe that you could post a story about Majestic 12 and have it make the front page right now.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#35

Another possibility is that he had a nervous breakdown or substance abuse episode, leading to both the paranoid emails and the irrational vehicle operations. Obviously I'm not saying that's the case, but the extremely irrational driving goes fits a theory of paranoid delusions (brought on by any number of mechanisms), just as the hacked car system goes with about to uncover something big.

I think given the fact that the US is literally Nazi Germany, it's pretty much assured that the US assassinated him for what he knew. I'm so glad that these kind of pieces are being upvoted here so we can finally stop talking about all that technology bullshit. Upvote on the left if you agree.

> account created 4 minutes before the post

I think it might be best to sit this one out boss

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#36
This Hastings incident has interesting parallels to Andrew Breitbart's death.

http://rt.com/usa/coroner-arsenic-death-breitbart-456/

Namely the fact that both of these men were prominent journalists, living in the US, each with 'big stories' they were working on that have not seen the light of day due to their untimely death shortly after proclaiming they were working on said stories.

To compound the dire possibilities, in February the US Justice Department confirmed the existence of legal justification for the assassination of American citizens:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/us/politics/obama-orders-r...

Not drawing conclusions here, but I think it's important in this day and age to be diligent in connecting dots and evaluating ALL possibilities.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#37

How does a 2013 model Mercedes Benz with a five star ANCAP safety rating (the highest rating you can get) scoring 35.51 points scored out of 37 (an Australian car safety rating for reference) with more airbags than wheels (8 airbags for those of you playing at home including a curtain airbag that drops in-front of the passenger and driver protecting the head and upper-body from impacting anything) crash into a tree w…

This is how conspiracy theories are promulgated: propose an preposterous alternate reality and then find real facts wanting in comparison.

In this case the alternate reality is that it is "impossible" to crash recent model year Mercedes unless you intend to. This is obviously preposterous since it's not hard to find reports of such crashes with 5 minutes on Google.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#38
post #3

Anybody read through http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-usenixsec2011.pdf already? My car-tech knowledge is way to rudimentary to get a better idea on that stuff.

>"Anybody read through http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-usenixsec2011.pdf already?"

To what end?

At a glance:

* These attacks were demonstrated on a "moderately priced late model sedan" which is surely a bit of a different situation than a brand new luxury car.

That could mean more sophisticated systems and likely less time to reverse engineer - assuming you don't believe the manufacturer is complicit.

* On page 5 and 6 they describe the work necessary to pull the exploits off. They dumped over two dozen ECUs, desoldering them where necessary and, if I'm not mistaken - reverse engineered them and injected the code which was necessary to support the follow-on attacks.

Assuming the same type and method of attack, the attacker would have had to succesfully generate attack knowledge for a 2013 model-year car then gain intimate physical access to the vehicle to seed the exploits before eventually remotely exploiting them.

That reads like a tall order to me, but it could be the opposite. I could certainly imagine newer, increasingly connected vehicles being more exploitable.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#39

Another possibility is that he had a nervous breakdown or substance abuse episode, leading to both the paranoid emails and the irrational vehicle operations. Obviously I'm not saying that's the case, but the extremely irrational driving goes fits a theory of paranoid delusions (brought on by any number of mechanisms), just as the hacked car system goes with about to uncover something big.

I think given the fact that the US is literally Nazi Germany, it's pretty much assured that the US assassinated him for what he knew. I'm so glad that these kind of pieces are being upvoted here so we can finally stop talking about all that technology bullshit. Upvote on the left if you agree.

A common oversight in politics is that some corporations and even other foreign dignitaries will fund political campaigns and lobby politicians.

Side Note: Please don't ask people to upvote you.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#40

How does a 2013 model Mercedes Benz with a five star ANCAP safety rating (the highest rating you can get) scoring 35.51 points scored out of 37 (an Australian car safety rating for reference) with more airbags than wheels (8 airbags for those of you playing at home including a curtain airbag that drops in-front of the passenger and driver protecting the head and upper-body from impacting anything) crash into a tree w…

Any number of normal scenarios. An animal on the road is one common one. I have seen a lot of people overcorrect to miss a dog, duck, or other animal on the road. Almost lost an aunt that way (she actually ended up wedged between two trees, a bit to one side and she would have been a goner).
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