Fish Farming in Aquapods
December 30th, 2014Via: Vice:
Whether it’s found on a plate of sushi, grilled in our backyard, or thrown on pasta, seafood is a staple for many diets around the world, and demand is growing. And as the commercial seafood industry booms, fish stocks worldwide face perilous declines.
We’ve surpassed our capacity to sustainably fish wild caught fish, shrimp, and mollusks from the ocean, and so we’ve turned to aquaculture, or fish farming, as a strategy to meet demand for our growing appetites for water-borne critters. The aquaculture industry is growing fast. According to the FAO, per capita production of seafood from aquaculture has increased 6.9 percent annually since 1970.
Unfortunately for us and for our Earth, current methods of fish farming often involve crowded, tethered pens, which can have poor water circulation and contribute to the spread of disease, and put large amounts of environmental stress on the surrounding waterways.
This is where Steve Page of Ocean Farm Technologies comes in. Taking inspiration from naturally-occurring schools of fish and Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, Page co-designed the Aquapod, a free floating, untethered deep ocean fish habitat which reduces overcrowding, and creates less stress on surrounding environments due to its unique ability to change location with the ocean’s current.
Who Is Watching You?
December 29th, 2014Via: Medium:
We are living in a Dragnet Nation?—?a world of indiscriminate tracking where institutions are stockpiling data about individuals at an unprecedented pace. The rise of indiscriminate tracking is powered by the same forces that have brought us the technology we love so much?—?powerful computing on our desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Before computers were commonplace, it was expensive and difficult to track individuals. Governments kept records only of occasions, such as birth, marriage, property ownership, and death. Companies kept records when a customer bought something and filled out a warranty card or joined a loyalty club.
But technology has made it cheap and easy for institutions of all kinds to keep records about almost every moment of our lives.
Related: The Enormous Implications Of Facebook Indexing 1 Trillion Of Our Posts
Google’s Gmail Blocked in China
December 29th, 2014Via: Reuters:
Google Inc’s Gmail was blocked in China after months of disruptions to the world’s biggest email service, with an anti-censorship advocate suggesting the Great Firewall was to blame.
Large numbers of Gmail web addresses were cut off in China on Friday, said GreatFire.org, a China-based freedom of speech advocacy group. Users said the service was still down on Monday.
The Kirsten Dirksen YouTube Channel
December 27th, 2014Inexpensive dwellings. Vehicle living. Small scale food production. Off grid.
Kirsten Dirksen YouTube Channel
The Snowden Avalanche
December 25th, 2014Cryptogon reader Derek Swannson let me know about his new book: The Snowden Avalanche.
NSA Reports It May Have Broken Laws With Decade of Spying on U.S. Citizens
December 25th, 2014Oh sure, it’s just a few bad apples, combined with people making mistakes plus some coincidences.
Nothing to see here. Maintain Christmas stupor. Situation normal.
Via: Bloomberg:
The National Security Agency today released reports on intelligence collection that may have violated the law or U.S. policy over more than a decade, including unauthorized surveillance of Americans’ overseas communications.
The NSA, responding to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, released a series of required quarterly and annual reports to the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board that cover the period from the fourth quarter of 2001 to the second quarter of 2013.
The heavily-redacted reports include examples of data on Americans being e-mailed to unauthorized recipients, stored in unsecured computers and retained after it was supposed to be destroyed, according to the documents. They were posted on the NSA’s website at around 1:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Story: The CIA Torture Report Is Causing Political Ripples Overseas
In a 2012 case, for example, an NSA analyst “searched her spouse’s personal telephone directory without his knowledge to obtain names and telephone numbers for targeting,” according to one report. The analyst “has been advised to cease her activities,” it said.
Other unauthorized cases were a matter of human error, not intentional misconduct.
Helicopter Drone Makes First Flight from Navy Destroyer
December 25th, 2014Via: Defensetech:
A helicopter drone developed by Northrop Grumman Corp. has made its first flight from a U.S. Navy destroyer, the company announced.
The MQ-8C Fire Scout on Dec. 16 completed 22 autonomous takeoffs and landings aboard the guided-missile destroyer, USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109), off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, according to a Dec. 23 release from the Falls Church, Virginia-based defense contractor.
“This is the first sea-based flight of the MQ-8C and the first time an unmanned helicopter has operated from a destroyer,” Capt. Jeff Dodge, who manages the program for Naval Air Systems Command, said in the release. The technology offers greater endurance, he added, allowing “ship commanders and pilots to have a longer on station presence.”
CDC Reports Potential Ebola Exposure in Atlanta Lab
December 25th, 2014Via: Washington Post:
Researchers studying Ebola in a highly secure laboratory mistakenly allowed potentially lethal samples of the virus to be handled in a much less secure laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, agency officials said Wednesday.
One technician in the second laboratory may have been exposed to the virus and about a dozen other people have been assessed after entering the facility unaware that potentially hazardous samples of Ebola had been handled there.
The technician has no symptoms of illness and is being monitored for 21 days. Agency officials said it is unlikely that any of the others who entered the lab face potential exposure. Some entered the lab after it had been decontaminated. Officials said there is no possible exposure outside the secure laboratory at CDC and no exposure or risk to the public.
“At this time, we know of only the one potential exposure,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a telephone interview.
Urban Farming Guys MakerSpace
December 24th, 2014Via: Urban Farming Guys:
U.S. Military Shot Down MH370, Claims Former Airline Boss
December 23rd, 2014Via: Daily Mail:
A former airline boss and writer claims the U.S. downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 because the military feared it had been taken over by hackers and was about to be used in a 9/11-style attack.
Marc Dugain, the former chief executive of now-defunct Proteus Airlines, said the jumbo jet was shot down near a U.S. military base on the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean after it was hacked.
