Prime Minister of New Zealand on Mobile Phones: “You can use it as a listening device, whether it is on or not”
June 10th, 2015Via: New Zealand Herald:
Prime Minister John Key gets rid of his mobile phone every few months for security reasons.
Mr Key has also revealed that he would never take his phone into sensitive meetings – whether it was turned on or not – for fear that it could be turned into a listening device by those seeking to eavesdrop.
The Prime Minister said his phones have special security on them, however he does not think they are impenetrable to espionage.
“I kind of work on the principle that I will be [listened to] at some point. So I have, without being stupid about it, more security on my phone than most people have, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t break into it,” Mr Key said on More FM today.
“If I was having a conversation with my national security advisers … I would never have a mobile phone in the room I’m in…because you can use it as a listening device, whether it is on or not.”
Mr Key gets rid of his phone every few months incase it has been tampered with or hacked.
“I don’t worry about it a hell of a lot, we have pretty good security…I would never go overseas and not have it [my handset] on me.
“And if I left it in a hotel room by mistake, which I have done on a few occasions, I would just throw it out [after getting it back].”
Tesla Doubles Powerwall Output Specifications Without Raising Prices
June 10th, 2015Disclosures: I sell solar power systems in NZ. I’m long Enphase Energy.
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Panasonic, Mercedes, Enphase and Trina are also jumping in.
Via: Electrek:
Tesla Motors held its 2015 Annual Shareholders Meeting today at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. During his presentation, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, announced that Tesla will be doubling the power output of the Powerwall, Tesla’s residential energy storage system, to 7KW at peak usage and 5KW for steady usage.
Musk confirmed that the price will remain the same, $3,000 for the 7KWh daily cycle version and $3,500 for the 10KWh weekly cycle version.
The Upcoming ISIS Dirty Bomb…
June 10th, 2015In other news: Israel Built, Exploded ‘Dirty Bombs’
Via: Independent:
The Isis militant group has seized enough radioactive material from government facilities to suggest it has the capacity to build a large and devastating “dirty” bomb, according to Australian intelligence reports.
Isis declared its ambition to develop weapons of mass destruction in the most recent edition of its propaganda magazine Dabiq, and Indian defence officials have previously warned of the possibility the militants could acquire a nuclear weapon from Pakistan.
According to the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, Nato has expressed deep concerns about the materials seized by Isis from research centres and hospitals that would normally only be available to governments.
Mass Snooping Fake Mobile Towers Uncovered in UK
June 10th, 2015Via: BBC:
Fake mobile towers that scoop up data from passing phones are routinely being used in London, an investigation by Sky News suggests.
Working with German security company GMSK Cryptophone, it claims to have uncovered direct evidence, the first in the UK, of at least 20 instances of the use of these cell site simulators.
These portable Stingray boxes could be used to track police suspects.
The Metropolitan Police Service refused to confirm or deny it was using them.
All the data captured by the investigation has been put in a Google document.
By mimicking a legitimate mobile tower and tricking every phone in range into connecting to them, the boxes “catch” the international mobile subscriber number (IMSI) and electronic serial number (ESN) of each and reveal the exact location of its user.
Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe told Sky News: “We’re not going to talk about it, because the only people who benefit are the other side, and I see no reason in giving away that sort of thing.”
Get Ready for a 4,000-Point Dow Drop [???]
June 10th, 2015Via: MarketWatch:
Are there parallels to this current market environment? Yes — 1987.
Related: A Derivatives Bomb Exploded Within The Last Two Weeks [Thanks Pookie]
U.S. Ousts Russia as World’s Top Oil, Gas Producer
June 10th, 2015Via: Bloomberg:
The U.S. has taken Russia’s crown as the world’s biggest oil and natural-gas producer, illustrating the seismic shifts in the global energy landscape caused by America’s shale fields.
U.S. oil production rose to an all-time high last year, gaining 1.6 million barrels a day, according to BP Plc’s Statistical Review of World Energy released on Wednesday. Gas output also rose, putting America ahead of Russia as a producer of the hydrocarbons combined.
The data showing the U.S.’s emergence as the world’s top driller confirms a trend that’s helped the world’s largest economy slash imports, caused a slump in global energy prices and shifted the country’s foreign policy priorities.
“We are truly witnessing a changing of the guard of global energy suppliers,” BP’s Chief Economist Spencer Dale said in a presentation. “The implications of the shale revolution for the U.S. are profound.”
SpaceX Files with Government to Provide Internet Service from Space
June 9th, 2015This has been only a couple of years away for the past two decades.
Via: Washington Post:
Elon Musk’s space company has asked the federal government for permission to begin testing on an ambitious project to beam Internet service from space, a significant step forward for an initiative that could create another major competitor to Comcast, AT&T and other telecom companies.
The plan calls for launching a constellation of 4,000 small and cheap satellites that will beam high-speed Internet signals to all parts of the globe, including its most remote regions. Musk has said the effort “would be like rebuilding the Internet in space.”
If successful, the attempt could transform the L.A.-based SpaceX from a pure rocket company into a massive high-speed Internet provider that would take on major companies in the developed world but also make first-time customers out of the billions of people who are currently not online.
The idea of saturing Earth with Internet signals from space has long been the dream of prominent business tycoons, including Bill Gates in the 1990s. But many of these ventures have run into obstacles that Musk is working to avoid. Musk has his own rocket, and he has said his swarm of satellites will be more efficient and inexpensive than relying on a handful of big devices that are difficult to replace.
‘Why Didn’t My Doctor Tell Me Chemo Kills?’
June 9th, 2015Via: New Eastern Outlook:
In my daily research I came across a report so alarming I put aside planned writing in order to bring this to the attention of those who care about life. It has to do with one of the main treatments for cancer used in modern medicine—chemotherapy. New research has documented that chemotherapy, far from ridding anyone of cancer actually feeds the growth and spread of cancer.
Sometimes it almost seems like the drugs industry works overtime to find new ways to hurt, cripple or even kill us. Scientist Peter Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in a write-up of a study of why cancer cells were so easy to kill in the lab but not inside our bodies, found that healthy cells damaged by chemotherapy secreted more of a protein called WNT16B which boosts cancer cell survival. “The increase in WNT16B was completely unexpected,” Nelson told AFP.
He added that,“WNT16B, when secreted, would interact with nearby tumor cells and cause them to grow, invade, and importantly, resist subsequent therapy.” That would explain why in cancer treatment, tumors often respond well initially, followed by rapid regrowth and then resistance to further chemotherapy.
The study was conducted by a team of scientists from different cancer research centers, universities as well as from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. It was published online in August 2012 in the journal Nature Medicine. Among their alarming conclusions was that, “The expression of WNT16B in the prostate tumor microenvironment attenuated the effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy in vivo, promoting tumor cell survival and disease progression.”
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Israel Built, Exploded ‘Dirty Bombs’
June 9th, 2015Via: AP:
Israel built and exploded so-called “dirty bombs,” explosives laced with nuclear material, to examine how such explosions would affect the country if it were to be attacked by the crude radioactive weapons, the Haaretz daily newspaper reported Monday.
Israeli defense officials and scientists refused to comment on the report when reached by The Associated Press. However, Israel has what is widely considered to be an extensive nuclear weapons program that it has never declared.
The Haaretz report, which included photographs, said the project conducted 20 detonations with explosives laced with a radioactive substance. Mini-drones measured radiation levels and sensors logged the force of the explosions, Haaretz reported.
Researchers quoted in the Haaretz report said the Israeli tests were for defensive purposes only. They said high radiation was found at the center of blasts while small particles carried by wind didn’t pose serious danger, except for the psychological effect of such an attack.
The newspaper said the project, code-named “Green Field” and conducted by staff from Israel’s nuclear reactor in the southern town of Dimona, ended in 2014 after four years of tests. Most were conducted in Israel’s Negev Desert and one in a closed facility, it said.
5-Mile Hyperloop Test Track in California
June 8th, 2015Via: Navigant Research:
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. has struck a deal with landowners in central California to build the first hyperloop test track in the world. The track will encompass a 5-mile stretch near the busy Interstate 5 highway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
