Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Meet CGI Federal, the Company Behind the Botched Launch of HealthCare.gov
October 23rd, 2013Via: Washington Post: Over the past few weeks, if you’ve been paying attention at all to the unfolding disaster of people trying and failing to sign up for Obamacare online, one name keeps coming up: CGI Federal, the IT contractor that has orchestrated most of the Healthcare.gov Web site. By most accounts, it’s been a […]
NSA Intercepts Millions of Telephone Calls… In France
October 21st, 2013Via: AFP: France and Mexico have angrily demanded prompt explanations from the United States following “shocking” new spying allegations leaked by former US security contractor Edward Snowden. The reports published in French daily Le Monde and German weekly Der Spiegel reveal that the US National Security Agency secretly monitored tens of millions of phone calls […]
China: Smog Emergency Shuts City of 11 Million People
October 20th, 2013Via: Reuters: Choking smog all but shut down one of northeastern China’s largest cities on Monday, forcing schools to suspended classes, snarling traffic and closing the airport, in the country’s first major air pollution crisis of the winter. An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading […]
Next Homeland Security Chief Held Pentagon Post
October 18th, 2013Via: USA Today: President Obama plans to nominate former Pentagon attorney Jeh Johnson as the next secretary of Homeland Security, a White House official said Thursday. Johnson, general counsel for the Defense Department during Obama’s first term, will be introduced by the president at a ceremony on Friday. If confirmed by the Senate, Johnson would […]
The Science-Is-Self-Correcting Myth
October 17th, 2013The scientific method sounds great on paper. Mix in grant swindling, incompetence and fraud and the “science” you get out the other side can turn into a bunch of bullshit. But don’t worry, science is self correcting! Via: The Economist: Academic scientists readily acknowledge that they often get things wrong. But they also hold fast […]
Senate Leader Announces Bipartisan Deal to Avoid Default, End Government Shutdown
October 16th, 2013Mmm hmm. Via: AP: Democratic leader Harry Reid says Senate leaders have reached a bipartisan deal to avoid default and end the government shutdown, now in its 16th day. … The deal would reopen the government through Jan. 15 and increase the nation’s borrowing authority through Feb. 7.
Bitcoin As a Law Enforcement/Natsec Honeypot?
October 16th, 2013Via: Easy Questions Are Boring: Paranoia appears to be the order of the day, given what we know about the NSA and GCHQ thanks to Edward Snowden. Absent from the stories so far is any mention of Bitcoin. I find this odd – Bitcoin is the most cypherpunky of all crypto technologies, after all. I […]
GCHQ Accused of Monitoring Privileged Emails Between Lawyers and Clients
October 15th, 2013Via: Guardian: GCHQ is probably intercepting legally privileged communications between lawyers and their clients, according to a detailed claim filed on behalf of eight Libyans involved in politically sensitive compensation battles with the UK. The accusation has been lodged with Britain’s most secret court, the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT), which examines complaints about the intelligence […]
Fort Benning: Companies Demo Armed Robots for Ground Combat
October 15th, 2013You know why they chained the weapon to posts in the ground, right? *chortle* See: ED209 Malfunction Via: Computerworld: A weaponized robot acting as a member of a squad of U.S. soldiers fighting on the battlefield is no longer science fiction. They may not be two-legged, humanoid robots yet, but with wheels or tracks they […]
In Big Win for Defense Industry, Obama Rolls Back Limits on Arms Exports
October 15th, 2013Via: ProPublica: The United States is loosening controls over military exports, in a shift that former U.S. officials and human rights advocates say could increase the flow of American-made military parts to the world’s conflicts and make it harder to enforce arms sanctions. Come tomorrow, thousands of parts of military aircraft, such as propeller blades, […]
