Monthly Archives: June 2013
Bloomberg News encouraged conflict of interest
Interviews with more than 30 current and former Bloomberg employees paint a picture of an aggressive, hyperkinetic organization that not only tolerated but encouraged an unusual symbiotic relationship between the company’s news operation and its business interests, including the use of the terminals to break news. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/business/media/bloomberg-reporters-tactics-become-crucial-issue-for-company.html?hp Many of these reporters say they routinely used […]
Tech companies claim impotence vs NSA
In 2008 Yahoo became part of the National Security Agency’s secret Internet surveillance program, Prism, according to leaked N.S.A. documents, as did seven other Internet companies. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/technology/secret-court-ruling-put-tech-companies-in-data-bind.html?hp Like almost all the actions of the secret court, which operates under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the details of its disagreement with Yahoo were never made public […]
Local police surreptitiously add to DNA database
Slowly, and largely under the radar, a growing number of local law enforcement agencies across the country have moved into what had previously been the domain of the F.B.I. and state crime labs — amassing their own DNA databases of potential suspects, some collected with the donors’ knowledge, and some without it. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/us/police-agencies-are-assembling-records-of-dna.html?hp&_r=0 These local […]
Greece shuts down public broadcaster
Greek opposition leader Alexis Tsipras earlier urged President Carolos Papoulias to cancel an executive order closing public broadcaster, ERT. Mr Tsipras described the closure as “illegal”, adding: “Many times the word ‘coup’ is used as an exaggeration. In this case, it is not an exaggeration.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22871734 Protest rallies are being held in support of the […]
Fashion police target young minorities
A beach town in the US state of New Jersey is passing a ban on the wearing of low-slung trousers, jeans or shorts on its boardwalk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22876667 Wildwood joins a handful of other small US communities that have acted against wearing low-slung trousers. ‘I’ve been coming here 20 years, 30 years, 40 years and I’m […]
US diplomats enaged in pedophilia, drug ring
A former ambassador who oversaw an audit of the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security has outlined several cases of alleged misconduct by American diplomats and security agents. The misconduct — which the State Department said had been investigated — included the solicitation of sex from prostitutes, possibly minors; the existence of an “underground drug […]
Farmers sue Monsanto over GMO spread
Farmers in Idaho have filed a potentially class action lawsuit against seed giant Monsanto after genetically engineered wheat was found in an eastern Oregon field. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/06/12/us/ap-us-genetically-modified-wheat.html?ref=us The federal lawsuit Friday contending that Monsanto’s development of Roundup Ready wheat resulted in increased production costs and lowered prices because the genetically engineered wheat is likely to infiltrate […]
Scientists try to spin drone use
Speakers at the TEDGlobal conference have been debating the positive use of drones in society. “There are tonnes of great uses for unmanned drones but we need a framework for robotic weapons as it puts too much power into too few hands,” “Increasingly combat drones are making lethal decisions about human beings.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22863447 In 2011 […]
Assange hails Snowden as hero
Wkileaks founder Julian Assange calls Edward Snowden a “hero” who has exposed “one of the most serious events of the decade – the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/10/julian-assange-praises-edward-snowden Assange called on supportive countries to “line up” and offer support to Snowden. “It will be really telling to see which countries really protect […]
UK appears complicit in US surveillance scheme
The British government has yet to confirm or deny reports that it had been given information from an American surveillance program called Prism, which is said to have collected Internet data on foreigners abroad from companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Skype. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/world/europe/britain-gchq-surveillance.html?ref=world “Because circumstances vary and because procedures vary according to the […]
Arms sales have “very high risk” of corruption?
The Congressional Research Service estimated last year that global arms exports had swelled to $85 billion. And several prominent criminal investigations have added to the pressure for change. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/business/report-aims-to-help-military-industry-fight-corruption.html?ref=us&_r=0 BAE Systems, Europe’s largest military contractor, agreed in 2010 to plead guilty to criminal charges in the United States and Britain related to billions of dollars […]
Cyborg research continues with humans
Participants’ neural activity was recorded by using sensors implanted in their brain, which were linked to a computer that translated electrical impulses into actions. The researchers believe people will be able to perform increasingly complex tasks just by thinking them. “If we slowly work to add in more and more difficulty, we can push the […]
Cyborg testing on cockroaches
A project aimed at creating cyborg cockroaches is being launched at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh. The insects are controlled via a mobile phone. The cyborg insect is created by attaching a backpack that communicates directly with neurons in the cockroach’s antennae. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22786371 The neurons convey information back to the insect’s brain using electricity. The […]
Leak sheds light on system of private intelligence contractors
Booz Allen Hamilton, has become one of the largest and most profitable corporations in the United States almost exclusively by serving a single client: the government of the United States. Over the last decade, much of the company’s growth has come from selling expertise, technology and manpower to the National Security Agency and other federal […]
NSA whistleblower warning, “architecture of oppression”
“If you realize that that’s the world you helped create and it is going to get worse with the next generation and the next generation and extend the capabilities of this architecture of oppression, you realize that you might be willing to accept any risks and it doesn’t matter what the outcome is,” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/us/former-cia-worker-says-he-leaked-surveillance-data.html?hpw The […]
Alex Jones talks Bilderberg on BBC while being ridiculed
Alex Jones has been getting some media coverage from the BBC while covering the secretive, conspiratorial Bilderberg conference in the UK. Alex joined host Andrew Neil and Times columnist David Aaronovitch to discuss Bilderberg on ‘Sunday Politics’ where Jones subsequently dressed-down host and columnist Pierce Morgan style. Truly a lesson on how to deal with the […]
EU: US snooping reminiscent of Fascism
Privacy is an emotional issue in Europe, where memories of state-sponsored snooping by communist and fascist regimes still linger. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/business/global/us-internet-spying-draws-anger-and-envy.html?ref=world And so the revelation Thursday that the U.S. National Security Agency had obtained routine access to e-mail, Web searches and other online data from many of the biggest U.S. Internet companies — whose users stretch […]
Tech companies aid in violating 4th amendment
Internet companies, increasingly at the center of people’s personal lives, interact with the spy agencies that look to their vast trove of information — e-mails, videos, online chats, photos and search queries. They illustrate how intricately the government and tech companies work together, and the depth of their behind-the-scenes transactions. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/technology/tech-companies-bristling-concede-to-government-surveillance-efforts.html?hp&_r=0In recent months, the chairman […]
Google passwords: face recognition, retina scan
Google has filed a patent suggesting users stick out their tongue or wrinkle their nose in place of a password. It says requiring specific gestures could prevent the existing Face Unlock facility being fooled by photos. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22790221 The document – which was filed in June 2012 but has only just been published – suggests the […]
Dirty Babylon 
The NYT split: ed board gets real, columnists not so much
The Times editorial board gets to the point on the Snowden leak while Friedman and Brooks abet the witch hunt. “The question is whether the security goals can be achieved by less-intrusive or sweeping means, without trampling on democratic freedoms and basic rights. Far too little has been said on this question by the White […]