Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Sinkhole of Bureaucracy
March 24th, 2014Via: Washington Post: The trucks full of paperwork come every day, turning off a country road north of Pittsburgh and descending through a gateway into the earth. Underground, they stop at a metal door decorated with an American flag. Behind the door, a room opens up as big as a supermarket, full of five-drawer file […]
Turkey Tries to Block Twitter
March 22nd, 2014Via: BBC: Some users trying to open the twitter.com website are apparently being redirected to a statement by Turkey’s telecommunications regulator. It cites a court order to apply “protection measures” on the website. This comes after PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “wipe out Twitter” following damaging allegations of corruption in his inner circle. The […]
How Virtual Gaming Worlds Are Revealing the Nature of Human Hierarchies
March 20th, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review: The way players form into groups in online games reveals that hierarchies are an inevitable product of the human condition, say complexity scientists.
U.S. Tech Giants Knew of NSA Data Collection, Agency’s Top Lawyer Insists
March 19th, 2014Via: Guardian: The senior lawyer for the National Security Agency stated unequivocally on Wednesday that US technology companies were fully aware of the surveillance agency’s widespread collection of data, contradicting months of angry denials from the firms. Rajesh De, the NSA general counsel, said all communications content and associated metadata harvested by the NSA under […]
UK Government Wants ‘Unsavoury’ Web Content Censored
March 18th, 2014Via: Wired: The UK minister for immigration and security has called for the government to do more to deal with “unsavoury”, rather than illegal, material online. James Brokenshire made the comments to the Financial Times in an interview related to the government’s alleged ability to automatically request YouTube videos be taken down under “super flagger” […]
Obama Administration Cites ‘National Security’ More Than Ever to Censor, Deny Records
March 18th, 2014No more secrecy: Your what hurts? Via: AP: The Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press. The administration cited more legal exceptions it said justified withholding […]
Navy SEALs Seize Oil Tanker from Libyan Rebels
March 18th, 2014Via: USA Today: A U.S. Navy SEAL raid to seize control of an oil tanker that had been commandeered by Libyan rebels reflects a broad U.S. policy to try and help bolster the country’s weak central government, which has struggled since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. No shots were fired during the operation, […]
The One About Satellites Beaming Power Down to Earth Is Making the Rounds Again
March 17th, 2014*roll eyes* Via: Wired: For decades, the Pentagon has been the world’s largest oil consumer, and as global petroleum prices continue to rise, the military has been searching for feasible energy alternatives. Now they’re looking in space. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is building technology that will allow the military to capture solar power […]
A Tale of Two Internets
March 15th, 2014It sounds a lot like U.S. politics: “A world where you think you are making choices, but in reality, your options are narrowed and refined until you are left with merely the illusion of control.” Via: Scientific American: Imagine an Internet where unseen hands curate your entire experience. Where third parties predetermine the news, products […]
RUSSIAN FORCES SEIZE GAS FACILITY INSIDE UKRAINE
March 15th, 2014Via: Telegraph: Ukraine’s military mobilised to thwart an apparent Russian advance for the first time on Saturday night as Kiev sent paratroops to defend a gas facility near Crimea with tensions high in the hours leading up to Sunday’s independence referendum. The foreign ministry in Kiev denounced an “invasion” by Russia’s forces into its mainland, […]
