Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Trillion Dollar Boondoggle
December 14th, 2011Via: Wired: The most expensive weapons program in U.S. history is about to get a lot pricier. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, meant to replace nearly every tactical warplane in the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, was already expected to cost $1 trillion dollars for development, production and maintenance over the next 50 years. […]
The Neil Keenan / “Dragon Family” Trillion-Dollar Lawsuit Is Real
December 14th, 2011The full text of the lawsuit (Case 1:11-cv-08500-JFK, Filed 11/23/11, downloaded from pacer.gov) has been posted at the Divine Cosmos website: This is a civil claim arising out of the concerted, knowing, malicious scheme and international conspiracy engaged in by the Defendants for the designed purpose of defrauding plaintiff KEENAN, the designated Agent of his […]
Multimillion Dollar Crowdturfing Industry Growing Exponentially
December 13th, 2011Incredibly, laughably, this piece doesn’t mention things like the U.S. Military’s desire to develop persona management software or Team Themis (HBGary Federal, Palantir and Berico): After having spent several months studying those emails and otherwise investigating the industry depicted therein, I have revealed my summary of a classified US intelligence programme known as Romas/COIN, as […]
FBI Holding Carrier IQ Data for ‘Law Enforcement Purposes’
December 13th, 2011There’s a shocker. Via: The Verge: When we spoke to Carrier IQ at length about the company’s controversial cellular tracking service, there was one question we didn’t include in the transcript. “Would you say no if the government asked Carrier IQ for a wiretap into user databases?” we asked. At the time, we felt the […]
Butter Shortage in Norway: Bids to Roughly $465 Per Pound
December 12th, 2011Via: AFP: An acute butter shortage in Norway, one of the world’s richest countries, has left people worrying how to bake their Christmas goodies with store shelves emptied and prices through the roof. The shortfall, expected to last into January, amounts to between 500 and 1,000 tonnes, said Tine, Norway’s main dairy company, while online […]
Internet Piracy Bill: A Free Speech ‘Kill Switch’
December 12th, 2011Via: The Hill: What began as an attempt to restrain foreign piracy on the Internet has morphed into a domestic “kill switch” on First Amendment freedom in the fastest-growing corner of the marketplace of ideas. Proposed federal legislation purporting to protect online intellectual property would also impose sweeping new government mandates on internet service providers […]
Beyond Guantánamo, a Web of Prisons for Terrorism Inmates
December 12th, 2011Via: New York Times: It is the other Guantánamo, an archipelago of federal prisons that stretches across the country, hidden away on back roads. Today, it houses far more men convicted in terrorism cases than the shrunken population of the prison in Cuba that has generated so much debate. … As of Oct. 1, the […]
Moscow Braces for Mass Anti-Kremlin Protest
December 10th, 2011Monitoring… Via: Telegraph: Tens of thousands of anti-Kremlin protestors are expected to take to the streets of Moscow on Saturday in the biggest demonstration of its kind since Vladimir Putin came to power more than ten years ago. More: BBC: At Least 50,000 Police and Riot Troops Deployed in Moscow Ahead of Saturday’s Protests
Sound-Triggered Smartphone Ads
December 10th, 2011The really terrifying aspect of this is not the technology itself, but that some group of troglodytes will actually install this on their phones on purpose. Related: shewhomeasures.com: How about genitalia couplers (like in the video above—yes, watch closely) that communicate with the phone via Bluetooth? You know, for those extra special notifications, like when […]
Microsoft Can Remotely Kill Purchased Apps
December 9th, 2011Microsoft has had this capability for years, but it was related to pirated software and they would just kill certain functionality (see Office Genuine Advantage program). What you’ll be reading below is Microsoft taking another page out of Apple’s locked-down-vending-machine playbook. Via: PC Magazine: Microsoft’s terms of service for its Windows Store allows the company […]
