Monthly Archives: May 2013
Soylent Green and the In-Vitro hamburger
The hamburger, assembled from tiny bits of beef muscle tissue grown in a laboratory and to be cooked and eaten at an event in London, perhaps in a few weeks, is meant to show the world — including potential sources of research funds — that so-called in-Vitro meat, or cultured meat, is a reality. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/science/engineering-the-325000-in-vitro-burger.html?ref=science […]
Bloomberg News teaches hacking
Reporters at Bloomberg News were trained to use a function on the company’s financial data terminals that allowed them to view subscribers’ contact information and, in some cases, monitor login activity. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/business/media/bloomberg-admits-terminal-snooping.html?ref=business&_r=0 The company acknowledged that at least one reporter had gained access to information on Goldman Sachs after the bank complained to the company […]
UAVs tested for commercial flight
A Jetstream aircraft became the first to fly “unmanned” across UK shared airspace last month. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22511395 During the 500-mile journey, the specially adapted plane was controlled by a pilot on the ground. The 16-seater aircraft flew in airspace shared with passenger carriers. Known as “the Flying Testbed”, it contains on-board sensors and robotics to identify […]
“Nation Building” another police state in Afghanistan
The authorities in Afghanistan are seeking the arrest on murder and torture charges of a man they say is an American and part of a Special Forces unit operating in Wardak Province. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/world/asia/afghans-say-an-american-tortured-civilians.html?ref=world Zakaria Kandahari, and much of his unit are American. There is testimony and documents implicating Mr. Kandahari and his unit in the […]
Beta testing SARS-CoV, The new pandemic
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a press release stating that the coronavirus identified by a number of laboratories was the official cause of SARS. Samples of the virus are being held in laboratories in New York, San Francisco, Manila, Hong Kong, and Toronto. On April 12, 2003, scientists working at the Michael Smith Genome […]
FBI withheld info on bombing suspects
The F.B.I. did not tell the Boston police about the 2011 warning from Russia about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombings, the city’s police chief said Thursday during the first public Congressional hearing on the terrorist attack. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/us/boston-police-werent-told-fbi-got-warning-on-tsarnaev.html Officers worked with the F.B.I. on a Joint Terrorism Task […]
Domestic terrorist had contact with FBI
A Tunisian man has been accused of seeking to develop a terrorist network in the United States and of proposing to poison the water or air to kill up to 100,000 people, federal prosecutors said. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/nyregion/tunisian-is-charged-with-seeking-to-build-a-terrorist-network-in-the-us.html?emc=eta1 A prosecutor asked at the time that the case remain secret for one week to determine whether Mr. Abassi […]
Savile’s Friday Morning Pedophile Club
An inquiry uncovered evidence of what seemed a cozy and largely undocumented network of high-level contacts between Jimmy Savile and the police and other members of the elite at a regular social gathering known as the Friday Morning Club in his apartment. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/world/europe/british-police-deny-protecting-jimmy-savile.html?emc=eta1&_r=0 The police force in the hometown of the disgraced British television presenter […]
Malcom X grandson prophesied own murder
Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X, was killed in Mexico City on Thursday morning. He claimed that he was being investigated by a counterterrorism team with the F.B.I. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/nyregion/troubled-life-in-malcolm-xs-shadow-comes-to-a-violent-end.html?hp&_r=0 “I was picked up by authorities after I filed for a visa to Iran, and two days before my departure,”Mr. Shabazz wrote on his blog […]
US slows “Plastic Guns for Everyone” campaign
The US government has demanded designs for a 3D-printed gun be taken offline. The order to remove the blueprints for the plastic gun comes after they were downloaded more than 100,000 times. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22478310 Before making the Liberator, Mr Wilson got a licence to manufacture and sell the weapon from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, […]
Terrorism may be blamed for Texas fertilizer plant explosion
Texas authorities said on Friday that they had opened a criminal investigation into last month’s deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed 14 people and injured some 200 others. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/us/west-tex-emt-faces-charges-of-having-bomb-parts.html?ref=us An affadavit sworn out by a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the authorities had found the parts […]
US to strengthen “back door” surveillance rules
The administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than by traditional phone services. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/us/politics/obama-may-back-fbi-plan-to-wiretap-web-users.html?hp&_r=0 The FBI since 2010 has pushed for a legal […]
US “Nation Building” police states
The core of Sunni grievances in Iraq is a set of laws and practices imposed by the United States in the earliest days of the occupation. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/world/middleeast/sunnis-in-iraq-protest-antiterror-tactics-that-hurt-innocents.html?ref=world The results of those policies, particularly a set of antiterrorism measures, are visible today throughout the country. Informants who once helped the American military now do the same […]
US gun crime down sharply according to recent studies
Gun homicides in the United States have fallen sharply since peaking in 1993, two studies have found. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22443441 The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics said firearms-related homicides had dropped to 11,101 in 2011 from 18,253 – a reduction of 39%. Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center found gun homicides fell to 3.6 per 100,000 people in […]
Court strikes down workers rights rule
“The Republican judges of the D.C. Circuit continue to wreak havoc on workers’ rights,” said the National Labor Relations Board. While The National Association of Manufacturers applauded the court’s ruling, calling it “an important victory in the fight against an activist N.L.R.B. and its aggressive agenda.” The labor board’s rule told employers to post a […]
UK looks to futher snooping capabilities
UK proposals to be brought forward would address the fact the police – who can already tell when, where and who made a mobile phone call or sent a text message – cannot always trace the origin of an email, a message sent via instant messaging or a phone call made over the internet. In […]
Standing up to Google Glass and the surveillance state
“This is just the beginning,” said a Los Angeles lawyer specializing in privacy issues. “Google Glass is going to cause quite a brawl.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/technology/personaltech/google-glass-picks-up-early-signal-keep-out.html?hp&_r=0 The glasseslike device, which allows users to access the Internet, take photos and film short snippets, has been pre-emptively banned by a Seattle bar. Large parts of Las Vegas will not […]
UK celebrity pedophile ring exposed
Another well-known television personality was drawn into Britain’s growing child sexual abuse scandal on Tuesday when British news media identified a 73-year-old man arrested over allegations dating back to the late 1970s as the entertainer Jimmy Tarbuck. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/world/europe/british-tv-star-jimmy-tarbuck-identified-in-child-sex-inquiry.html?ref=world The new arrest stems from an investigation into Jimmy Savile, the BBC television host who died in […]
Domestic drone surveillance in the name of science
The Raven, with its 55-inch wingspan, looks like one of those radio-controlled planes beloved of hobbyists. But its sophisticated video uplink and computer controls give it away as a small unmanned aerial system, better known as a drone. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/science/drones-offer-a-safer-clearer-look-at-the-natural-world.html?ref=us Drone technology, which has become a staple of military operations, is now drawing scientists with its […]
Domestic right-wing terrorists?
The authorities disrupted a terror attack in the small city of Montevideo when they arrested a man at a mobile home that contained Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms, the F.B.I. said Monday. Buford Rogers, 24, was arrested Friday on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He remained in […]
Dirty Babylon 