GCHQ Mass Surveillance: KARMA POLICE
September 26th, 2015Via: The Intercept:
THERE WAS A SIMPLE AIM at the heart of the top-secret program: Record the website browsing habits of “every visible user on the Internet.”
Before long, billions of digital records about ordinary people’s online activities were being stored every day. Among them were details cataloging visits to porn, social media and news websites, search engines, chat forums, and blogs.
The mass surveillance operation — code-named KARMA POLICE — was launched by British spies about seven years ago without any public debate or scrutiny. It was just one part of a giant global Internet spying apparatus built by the United Kingdom’s electronic eavesdropping agency, Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.
The revelations about the scope of the British agency’s surveillance are contained in documents obtained by The Intercept from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. Previous reports based on the leaked files have exposed how GCHQ taps into Internet cables to monitor communications on a vast scale, but many details about what happens to the data after it has been vacuumed up have remained unclear.
Recovery: Caterpillar to Cut at Least 10,000 Jobs, First Time in Company’s 90 Year History That “Revenues Have Decreased Four Years in a Row”
September 24th, 2015Via: Chicago Tribune:
Construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar plans to lay off 10,000 workers — or more — in a bid to save $1.5 billion a year in operating costs, it announced Thursday.
Nearly half of those job losses — 4,000 to 5,000 salaried and management employees — will come before the end of 2016, with most completed this year, the company says in an SEC filing.
Doug Oberhelman, CEO of the Peoria-based firm, blamed “challenging marketplace conditions” in the energy and mining sectors, as Caterpillar, one of Illinois’ biggest employers, revised downward its sales projections for 2015 by $1 billion, to $48 billion.
It noted in a news release that this is the “company’s third consecutive down year for sales and revenues, and 2016 would mark the first time in Caterpillar’s 90-year history that sales and revenues have decreased four years in a row.”
In 2016, Passports Required to Clear Airport Security in New York, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Louisiana and American Samoa
September 24th, 2015Via: Money:
The reason: At some point in 2016—the precise date hasn’t yet been announced—driver’s licenses from those states will no longer be considered sufficient to clear airport security and board an airplane.
This new policy is a result of the Real ID act, passed by Congress in 2005 as a counterterrorism measure to standardize the reliability and efficacy of personal identification. Unfortunately, the driver’s licenses of that handful of states did not make the cut, failing to provide enough security features in the cards themselves or enough verification of identity and immigration status in the application processes.
The Department of Homeland Security began rolling out Real ID in 2014. Phase one involved restricted government areas, and phases two and three concerned semi-restricted areas like nuclear power plants. But phase four touches federally regulated aircraft—and therefore will affect millions of people.
General Atomics Wants to Install 150-Kilowatt Laser Onto its Avenger UAV
September 23rd, 2015Via: DefenseOne:
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., or GA-ASI, the San Diego-based company that makes the Predator and Reaper drones, is undertaking a privately funded study to integrate a 150-kilowatt solid-state laser onto its Avenger (née Predator-C) drone. If the company gets its way, a drone with a high-energy laser will be a reality at some point in 2017, company executives told Defense One.
Millions of Americans Raiding Their Retirement Savings
September 23rd, 2015Via: Money:
With the effects of the financial crisis still lingering, 30 million Americans in the last 12 months tapped retirement savings to pay for an unexpected expense, new research shows. This undercuts financial security and underscores the need for every household to maintain an emergency fund .
Boomers were most likely to take a premature withdrawal as well as incur a tax penalty , according to a survey from Bankrate.com. Some 26% of those ages 50-64 say their financial situation has deteriorated, and 17% used their 401(k) plan and other retirement savings to pay for an emergency expense.
DHS Wants Boeing to Test a Brain Chip in Firm’s Self-Destructing ‘Black’ Spyphone
September 23rd, 2015Via: NextGov:
The Department of Homeland Security is funding a Boeing company to create a “brain chip” for its self-destructing Black smartphone that could be adapted for any device, DHS officials say.
The technology powering the devices potentially could identify the user’s walking style, for example. Officials would be alerted if the gait does not match the authorized user’s walk – a red flag the phone might have fallen into the wrong hands, officials said.
The “secret sauce” of the mobile device is a so-called neuromorphic computer chip that simulates human learning, Vincent Sritapan, the program manager for DHS’ mobile device security program, told Nextgov.
Gait recognition — driven by the phone’s accelerometer, GPS and the chip — is but one of many kinds of continuous ID verification intended to tighten access controls on mobile devices.
Boeing and HRL Laboratories, a software firm jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors, are partnering under a DHS project worth $2.2 million over 2.5 years.
The One About David Cameron and the Pig
September 22nd, 2015If you’re sick of this story, I’ll apologize right away.
Very briefly, my guess about this story is that it’s a warning to Cameron about something he has done, is about to do, or is refusing to do. It’s a strong warning. Maybe other photos exist of Cameron; much more shocking photos.
The reason these guys are allowed into positions of apparent power is because their tickets can be punched at any time should the need arise.
Maybe that’s what’s happening here. Again, just a guess.
Via: Independent:
Ashcroft writes: “[Cameron] also got involved in the notorious Oxford dining society, the Piers Gaveston, which specialises in bizarre rituals and sexual excess.
“A distinguished Oxford contemporary claims Cameron once took part in an outrageous initiation ceremony involving a dead pig. His extraordinary suggestion is that the future PM inserted a private part of his anatomy into the animal’s mouth.”
Ashcroft said the source was an MP who first made the allegation at a business dinner in June 2014 – saying he had seen photographic evidence of the “disgusting ritual”.
Ashcroft said he is aware that the MP made the allegation on two separate occasions, providing more detail, including “the dimensions of the alleged photograph” and the “name of the individual who he claims has it in his keeping”.
Homeless Tech Bus Drivers Live in Cars
September 21st, 2015Via: NBC:
Drivers of Silicon Valley’s tech bus shuttles might not earn enough pay to have a stable place to live in the Bay Area.
San Francisco Chronicle reported that two Apple shuttle bus drivers live in their own vehicles, though one would only speak anonymously.
“Living in a car is hard,” Scott Peebles, 53, said on the record. He has lived in his car for two months while continuing to drive Apple employees to the company campus. “I don’t care who you are. . . It’s too small of a space.”
Apple’s Electric Car: 2019
September 21st, 2015Via: Wall Street Journal:
Apple Inc. is accelerating efforts to build an electric car, designating it internally as a “committed project” and setting a target ship date for 2019, according to people familiar with the matter.
The go-ahead came after the company spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, including meetings with two groups of government officials in California. Leaders of the project, code-named Titan , have been given permission to triple the 600-person team, the people familiar with the matter said.
Apple has hired experts in driverless cars, but the people familiar with Apple’s plans said the Cupertino, Calif., company doesn’t currently plan to make its first electric vehicle fully autonomous. That capability is part of the product’s long-term plans, the people familiar with the matter said.
Apple’s commitment is a sign that the company sees an opportunity to become a player in the automotive industry by applying expertise that it has honed in developing iPhones—in areas such as batteries, sensors and hardware-software integration—to the next generation of cars.
Real Headline: “Marines Test Google’s Latest Military Robot”
September 21st, 2015Via: PC World:
The latest version of a walking, quadruped battlefield robot from Boston Dynamics, the military robotics maker owned by Google X, was tested by U.S. Marines last week.
Spot weighs about 70kgs, is electrically operated and walks on four hydraulically-actuated legs. It’s controlled via wireless by an operator who can be up to 500 meters away.
It underwent trials and testing at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia as part of evaluations by the Marines on future military uses of robotic technology. In a series of missions, it was evaluated in different terrains including hills, woodlands and urban areas.
