Archive for the 'Technology' Category
UK: Pilots Refuse to Take Part in National Identity Card Trials
May 6th, 2009Via: Guardian: Airline pilots are to become the first group to refuse to take part in the national identity scheme when compulsory trials start at Manchester and London City airports this autumn. The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa ), which represents more than 80% of commercial airline pilots, is to mount a legal challenge to […]
Coral Cross: The World’s First Global Flu Pandemic Alternate Reality Game; But Just Weeks Before The Scheduled Launch, An Extraordinary Coincidence Occurred…
May 2nd, 2009“The flu crisis in now real. And so is Coral Cross.” Via: Alternate Reality Gaming Network: Dystopic literature often turns to the threat of pandemics for inspiration. From Albert Camus’ La Peste to Stephen King’s The Stand, authors create global pandemics in their stories to confront issues raised by a threat to human survival that […]
MI6 Scrapped Major Drug Operation After Data Loss
April 28th, 2009Via: IT News: The UK’s MI6 had to abandon a multimillion pound covert anti-drugs operation after it lost a memory stick containing the project’s top secret information. The data was lost in 2006 by a female agent, known only as ‘T’, but was only confirmed by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) on Saturday. MI6 […]
Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine Launches in London
April 27th, 2009Reading about something like this is fine, but I had to see it go: Via: Guardian: It’s not elegant and it’s not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press more than […]
Brazilians, Including Organized Crime Groups, Using Improvised Radio Gear to Communicate Over Old U.S. Navy Satellites
April 23rd, 2009Via: Wired: The problem goes back more than a decade, to the mid-1990s, when Brazilian radio technicians discovered they could jump on the UHF frequencies dedicated to satellites in the Navy’s Fleet Satellite Communication system, or FLTSATCOM. They’ve been at it ever since. Truck drivers love the birds because they provide better range and sound […]
Britain: Children Tracked by GPS, Encouraged to Report Anti Social Activity to Police
April 23rd, 2009Via: Telegraph: Children will be tracked by satellite on public transport and encouraged to spy on their friends and report bad behaviour, under a pilot scheme by the Welsh Assembly. The project is being trialled across the six North Wales counties to tackle anti-social behaviour on school buses. Pupils will use a picture swipe card […]
Name Not on Our List? Change It, China Says
April 21st, 2009Chinese newspeak. Via: New York Times: “Ma,” a Chinese character for horse, is the 13th most common family name in China, shared by nearly 17 million people. That can cause no end of confusion when Mas get together, especially if those Mas also share the same given name, as many Chinese do. Ma Cheng’s book-loving […]
Phoenix: Radar Camera Employee Murdered
April 21st, 2009Via: Arizona Republic: It has come under attack from protesters, politicians and even a pickax-wielding resident, but sentiment against Arizona’s photo-enforcement program had not turned to bloodshed until Sunday night. Doug Georgianni, 51, of Cave Creek, was shot and killed while sitting in a van alongside the highway and monitoring cameras that snap photos of […]
U.S. Military Now Issues the iPod Touch
April 20th, 2009Designed in California. Made in China. Killing in Iraq. Via: Newsweek: Tying the hands of a person who is speaking, the Arab proverb goes, is akin to “tying his tongue.” Western soldiers in Iraq know how important gestures can be when communicating with locals. To close, open and close a fist means “light,” but just […]
Raytheon Will Run Narus Insight on Government Networks
April 17th, 2009This is mainly a thought criminal detection system for people who work for the government. Yes, it also does traffic management, but Narus has the biggest stick in the playground when it comes to surveillance. Their Semantic Traffic Analysis technology is a purpose built hardware and software package designed for real time operations on the […]
