Archive for August, 2013
Michael Hastings Believed His Car Was Being Tampered With
August 22nd, 2013Via: LA Weekly: He came to believe his Mercedes was being tampered with. “Nothing I could say could console him,” Thigpen says. One night in June, he came to Thigpen’s apartment after midnight and urgently asked to borrow her Volvo. He said he was afraid to drive his own car. She declined, telling him her […]
NASDAQ MARKET HALTED
August 22nd, 2013Via: Reuters: All trading on Nasdaq, the second-biggest U.S. stock exchange, was halted on Thursday shortly after midday due to a technical problem, the exchange said. All traffic through Nasdaq stopped at 12:14 p.m. EDT, the exchange said on its website, citing a problem distributing stock price quotes. The exchange, which lists about 3,200 companies, […]
Fukushima Leak Is ‘Much Worse Than We Were Led To Believe’
August 22nd, 2013Via: BBC: A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated. Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has previously advised the French and German governments. He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no […]
United States Military Interest in New Zealand Cable
August 22nd, 2013Via: Stuff: The United States Defence Department could help pay for a new cable linking New Zealand, Australia, the United States and several Pacific Islands, an Auckland source says. He said the department had an interest in spending about US$100 million (NZ$120m) to directly or indirectly acquire a pair of optical fibres between the US, […]
Hundreds Dead in Apparent Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria
August 21st, 2013Via: BBC: Chemical weapons attacks have killed hundreds on the outskirts of Damascus, Syrian opposition activists say. Rockets with toxic agents were launched at the suburbs of the Ghouta region early on Wednesday as part of a major bombardment on rebel forces, they say. State-run news agency Sana said the claims were “baseless” and an […]
Government Issued Credentials For Use Online
August 21st, 2013Via: Forbes: The Federal Cloud Credential Exchange (FCXX) is designed to enable individuals to securely access online services —such as health benefits, student loan information, and retirement benefit information—at multiple federal agencies without the need to use a different password or other digital identification for each service. The first federal agency to use it will […]
The NSA: ‘The Abyss from Which There Is No Return’
August 21st, 2013Via: Rutherford Institute: “The National Security Agency’s capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. If a dictator ever took over, the N.S.A. […]
Genetically Modified Crops Pass Benefits to Weeds
August 21st, 2013Via: Nature: A genetic-modification technique used widely to make crops herbicide resistant has been shown to confer advantages on a weedy form of rice, even in the absence of the herbicide. The finding suggests that the effects of such modification have the potential to extend beyond farms and into the wild. … Making weedy rice […]
What NSA Transparency Looks Like: Redacted
August 21st, 2013Via: ProPublica: Last week, the Washington Post published an internal audit finding the NSA had violated privacy rules thousands of times in recent years. In response, the spy agency held a rare conference call for the press maintaining that the violations are “not willful” and “not malicious.” It’s difficult to fully evaluate the NSA’s track […]
New Zealand Extends Domestic Spying Powers
August 21st, 2013Via: BBC: New Zealand has passed legislation allowing its main intelligence agency to spy on residents and citizens. Parliament voted 61 to 59 on Wednesday to expand the powers of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
