Archive for August, 2012
Gauss: Another Cyber-Espionage Toolkit Based on Flame Platform
August 9th, 2012Via: Kaspersky Lab: While analyzing the Flame malware that we detected in May 2012, Kaspersky Lab experts identified some distinguishing features of Flame’s modules. Based on those features, we discovered that in 2009, the first variant of the Stuxnet worm included a module that was created based on the Flame platform. This indicates that there […]
Kamikaze Drones
August 9th, 2012Via: Army Technology: From the earliest days of military bomb-disposal robotics, their very purpose embraced the possibility that they may be damaged or destroyed during their mission, while protecting the lives of humans who would otherwise be doing the job. But the great expense involved in their development and production meant that every precaution possible […]
Blackwater Pays Millions in Arms Smuggling Case
August 9th, 2012Via: Wired: Depending on how you look at it, the world’s most notorious mercenary firm just got away with misleading the government about arming and training foreign governments — or the company agreed to pay millions, only to defer a potential prosecution on those charges. The firm formerly known as Blackwater has agreed to fork […]
Kremlin Wiretaps Dissident Blogger — Who Tweets the Bug
August 9th, 2012Via: Wired: Alexei Navalny showed up to work in Moscow on Monday to discover he was being bugged. He called the police, like many perhaps would, but not before tweeting photos and video of himself and his colleagues taking the Kremlin’s monitoring devices apart. It’s not hard to figure out why Navalny was bugged. He’s […]
Treasury’s Secretive $2.4 Trillion Fund Guarantee
August 9th, 2012Via: CNBC: Details about a secretive government program to bail out money-market mutual funds are finally coming to light. Acting without any explicit Congressional authority, the U.S. Treasury guaranteed in excess of $2.4 trillion of money market funds after the giant Reserve Primary Fund “broke the buck” following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. The program, […]
$9 Corn Could Be a Big Problem for Economy
August 9th, 2012Via: CNBC: Corn prices – which have already surged about 50 percent in the past two months – could go significantly higher if current trends hold up, and the effects might be felt throughout the economy. Price momentum indicates corn could rise at least 21 percent over the next six months, putting $9.50 a bushel […]
3-D Printer Brings “Magic Arms” to a Two-Year-Old
August 9th, 2012Via: AllThingsD: Two-year-old Emma Lavelle was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (or AMC), a condition that stunts the development of her muscles and stiffens her joints. As a result, her capacity for movement has been severely limited, and she has spent much of her life undergoing surgeries and corrective treatments. One of the most promising […]
NYPD and Microsoft Team Up to Peddle Retroactive Surveillance System
August 9th, 2012Via: Wall Street Journal: Microsoft helped the New York Police Department build a surveillance and intelligence sharing network to fight terrorism and help investigators solve crimes. Now the NYPD will get a hefty cut of the revenue as the partners prepare to jointly market the intelligence system to other police departments around the world. Microsoft […]
FastStone Image Viewer
August 9th, 2012I’ve recently gotten back into photography a bit. I bought a Sony RX-100 (which I think of as producing results akin to a pocketable DSLR) and a Canon PIXMA iP4950 photo printer. The print quality that’s available to people at home is just amazing with these tools. One thing I was missing was a fast […]
Olympics Spectator Arrested for Not Smiling
August 8th, 2012Via: Guardian: A man with Parkinson’s disease who was arrested during the Olympic men’s cycling road race while sitting beside the route has said he wants a “letter of exoneration” from Surrey police, claiming their treatment of him was disproportionate. Mark Worsfold, 54, a former soldier and martial arts instructor, was arrested on 28 July […]
