cryptogon.com

Beetles and other flying insects are masters of flight control, integrating sensory feedback from the visual system and other senses to navigate and maintain stable flight, all the while using little energy. Rather than trying to re-create these systems from scratch, Michel Maharbiz and his colleagues aim to take advantage of the beetle’s natural abilities by melding insect and machine. His group has previously created cyborg beetles, including ones that have been implanted with electronic components as pupae. But the current research, presented at the IEEE MEMS in Italy, is the first demonstration of a wireless beetle system.

The beetle’s payload consists of an off-the-shelf microprocessor, a radio receiver, and a battery attached to a custom-printed circuit board, along with six electrodes implanted into the animals’ optic lobes and flight muscles. Flight commands are wirelessly sent to the beetle via a radio-frequency transmitter that’s controlled by a nearby laptop. Oscillating electrical pulses delivered to the beetle’s optic lobes trigger takeoff, while a single short pulse ceases flight. Signals sent to the left or right basilar flight muscles make the animal turn right or left, respectively.

Most previous research in controlling insect flight has focused on moths. But beetles have certain advantages. The giant flower beetle’s size–it ranges in weight from four to ten grams and is four to eight centimeters long–means that it can carry relatively heavy payloads. To be used for search-and-rescue missions, for example, the insect would need to carry a small camera and heat sensor.

In addition, the beetle’s flight can be controlled relatively simply. A single signal sent to the wing muscles triggers the action, and the beetle takes care of the rest. “That allows the normal function to control the flapping of the wings,” says Jay Keasling, who was not involved in the beetle research but who collaborates with Maharbiz. Minimal signaling conserves the battery, extending the life of the implant. Moths, on the other hand, require a stream of electrical signals in order to keep flying.

Thinking it might contain food that had been imported illegally, the agent opened the parcel. Inside, he found US$380,000 in counterfeit US$100 bills hidden among 20 bags of dried seafood.

The discovery earned Chen Mei-ling, 47, a Taiwanese woman from Kaohsiung City to a 33-month prison sentence and a US$4,300 fine last week.

It has also reawakened fears in the US that Taiwan is a center for the printing of so-called “supernotes” — forged currency that is so nearly perfect that it is almost impossible to detect.

Court papers showed that Chen arrived in San Francisco in July and stayed at the home of her former husband in Sunnyvale, California.

She has pleaded guilty to bringing US$20,000 in counterfeit US$100 bills into the US.

Within a few days she had used the forged money to buy luxury items at stores including Louis Vuitton, Coach, Foot Locker and Bath and Body Works.

Her plan had worked perfectly — until the fishy smelling parcel arrived at customs. She had posted the parcel to herself at her former husband’s address before leaving Taipei.

The customs agent took the notes to government experts who determined they were forged, whereupon Chen was arrested and charged.

Later, she admitted to having used US$3,200 in counterfeit bills at local shops.

Chen has been in custody since her arrest.

The US Secret Service, which investigates all forgery cases, as well as providing security for the president and other VIPs, determined that the fake money fell into the “supernotes” category.

“The Secret Service has led a 19-year investigation into the production and distribution of this highly deceptive family of counterfeit notes,” prosecutors said.

“First detected in 1989, the supernote is of such high quality that it often goes undetected until it reaches the Federal Reserve Bank. The Secret Service’s investigation has spanned the globe, involving more than 130 countries and resulting in more than 200 arrests,” they said.

On Aug. 20 — about a month after Chen’s arrest — Taipei police discovered what media reports described as “the most sophisticated counterfeiting factory ever found in Taiwan, with finished and semi-finished US$100 bills whose printing technology shocked the US.”

In addition to her prison sentence and fine, Chen was also ordered to pay US$3,200 in restitution to the stores where she used the fake bills and will be on probation for three years after she leaves prison.

US law enforcement sources said Taiwan has long had a reputation as a center for high-quality counterfeit money production. In recent years, however, the forgers were believed to be concentrating on the Chinese currency.

In his teens, he was a drill sergeant in the cadets. While still in his early 20s, he started volunteering information to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. A few years ago, at age 30, the Canadian-born Muslim was publicly advocating for sharia law while privately making $1,500 a month for informing on Islamic extremists.

He submitted an application to be a CSIS intelligence officer, but was not upset when turned down.

“I was happy it did not work out,” Mr. Shaikh, now 33, testified Friday in a Brampton court. “I was interested in a more central role.”

Defence lawyers put him on the stand Friday alleging he played a central role – and then some – in unfurling Canada’s most high-profile terrorism conspiracy. Calling Mr. Shaikh an “agent provocateur” they suggested that, in the cause of fighting terrorism, he committed terrorist offences himself.

Ten adults have yet to face trial in the 2006 conspiracy, whose key elements now notoriously involve a winter training camp, an alleged bomb plot and some chatter by would-be jihadists about storming Parliament and beheading politicians.

While trials are far off for the people accused of being the ringleaders, a young man whose case was peripheral, but proceeded faster, was found guilty last fall of being part of a terrorist group. The landmark verdict was hailed as an important bellwether for the wider case and test of Canada’s counterterrorism laws.

The conviction has not technically been registered, pending the outcome of the defence’s abuse-of-process motion to have the charges stayed.

The defence has argued this week that without Mubin Shaikh, there would have been no terrorist conspiracy.

The young man’s lawyers called Mr. Shaikh this week to recap his work infiltrating a group of young extremists, first as a CSIS informant, but ultimately as a police agent. Posing as a committed jihadist, he gave the group tips on countersurveillance, led paramilitary training exercises, and even bought a rifle for a ringleader (before getting rid of it, unfired).

“I thought that if the RCMP didn’t tell me I couldn’t do it, I inferred that I could do it,” Mr. Shaikh testified.

But Mitchell Chernovsky, the lawyer for the defendant, now 21, plans to argue that the police agent committed more illegal acts than his client, found guilty of participating in terrorist training led by Mr. Shaikh. The lawyer is arguing that police agents cannot commit crimes to unfurl wider conspiracies – at least not unless special strictures are followed.

Beyond, that Mr. Chernovsky suggests, federal agents have a moral obligation not to entrap vulnerable youth. “Did you ever tell anyone clearly and unambiguously terrorism was wrong,” he asked Mr. Shaikh.

The agent replied, “not so much.” The voluble witness agreed he played his role “to the hilt,” becoming a mentor, a role model and drill sergeant to young recruits. Unlike ringleaders whom he said were demonstrably dangerous, he characterized the younger recruits as sheep who were easily manipulated.

Regardless, “I could not come out and say terrorism is against Islam. … I had to play my role,” Mr. Shaikh said.

He added that he tried to drop hints aimed at turning the teen away from terrorism, at least when no one else was watching.

“I liken it to the breadcrumbs of Hansel and Gretel,” he said. “I tried to leave a trail where I could.”

Charges were stayed long ago against other teenagers who were accused of peripheral involvement. The youth at hand, a zealous convert arrested shortly before his 18th birthday, remains the only non-adult offender before the courts.

A publication ban shields the identity of all accused.

The world’s largest maker of plasma display TVs also announced a net loss for the October-December quarter and lowered its forecast for the fiscal year through March to a net loss of 380 billion yen ($4.2 billion), its first annual loss in six years.

Panasonic blamed the dismal results on the global slowdown set off by the U.S. financial crisis, the rapid surge of the yen and sudden price drops. Sales slid in a wide range of products, including flat-panel TVs, DVD recorders, microwaves, lamps and semiconductors, it said.

The Osaka-based manufacturer plans to cut the jobs — half of which will come in Japan — by the end of March 2010. They amount to about 5 percent of its 300,000-strong global work force.

Panasonic also will shutter 14 overseas plants and 13 plants in Japan by the end of March to adjust production and cut costs, company spokesman Akira Kadota said. The company said it has 230 production sites around the world but declined to give a regional breakdown.

…That any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are not limited to:

I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State.

II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

III. Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

The Obama administration has given the Pentagon a $527 billion limit, excluding war costs, for its fiscal 2010 defense budget, an official with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said Monday.

The average workweek in December fell to 33.3 hours. That’s the lowest average on record, dating back to 1964, and a sign of more job reductions to come since businesses often cut hours before eliminating positions entirely.

Those are the “official” government numbers. But, as a closer look demonstrates, the unemployment figures can be understated – and misleading.

The government actually compiles unemployment figures in six different categories; as you might expect, the numbers tend to minimize the bad news.

The most commonly number quoted in the media is the “official” unemployment rate – known as U3 (the bottom line of the three in the chart below) – which now stands at 7.2%.

But to get the real picture, you have to add both in what the government refers to as “discouraged” workers (U4) and “marginally attached” workers (U5) – those who have stopped looking for work, or who haven’t looked for work recently (represented by the middle line of the three in the chart). That number (U6) depicts an unemployment rate t that’s approaching an eye-popping 14%.

And it gets worse.