Cryptogon Reader Sends Contribution
November 1st, 2011There was one more donation in October. Thanks to wonkette.com for sending $50.
BostonDynamics PETMAN
November 1st, 2011This is SciFi:
And this is… not SciFi:
PETMAN is an anthropomorphic robot developed by Boston Dynamics for testing special clothing used by the US Army. PETMAN balances itself as it walks, squats and does simple calisthenics. PETMAN simulates human physiology by controlling temperature, humidity and sweating inside the clothing to provide realistic test conditions. PETMAN development is lead by Boston Dynamics, working in partnership with Measurement Technologies Northwest, Oak Ridge National Lab and MRIGlobal. The work is being done for the US Army PD-CCAT-TI. For more information about PETMAN visit us at www.BostonDynamics.com.
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Don’t worry, it’s just for testing clothing. [wink]
Research Credit: jrock
EU Mulls Biometric Borders
October 31st, 2011Via: Planet Biometrics:
The European Commission has adopted a Communication which sets out the main options for using new technologies, such as biometrics, to simplify life for foreigners frequently travelling to the EU and to better monitor third-country nationals crossing the borders.
Enabling smooth and fast border crossing for travellers, while ensuring an adequate level of security, is a challenge for many Member States. Every year more than 700 million EU citizens and third country nationals cross the EU’s external borders. This number is expected to rise significantly in the future. By 2030 the number of people at European airports could increase by 80%, which will result in longer delays and queues for travellers if border checking procedures are not modernised in time.
“The Union must continue to modernise the management of its external borders and ensure that the Schengen area is better equipped to cope with future challenges”, said Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Home Affairs. “The ‘Smart Borders’ initiative would speed up border crossing for regular travellers but could also help us to better secure our external borders. We now need to make sure that the most efficient systems are in place and I am looking forward to discussing the available options with the European Parliament, the Council and the European Data Protection Supervisor”.
Research Credit: noncompliant
MF Global Going Down
October 31st, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
MF Global Holdings Ltd., the futures broker run by Jon Corzine, was suspended from conducting new business with the New York Federal Reserve today after posting a record loss.
The firm’s board met through the weekend in New York to consider options, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. It was stopped from doing new business with the New York Fed until it shows it’s able to fully discharge its responsibilities as a primary dealer or until its status as a primary dealer is suspended, according to a statement on the regulator’s website. Trading in MF Global’s stock was also halted.
Britain: Met Police Using Mass Surveillance System to Monitor Mobile Phones
October 31st, 2011Via: Guardian:
Britain’s largest police force is operating covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network, transmitting a signal that allows authorities to shut off phones remotely, intercept communications and gather data about thousands of users in a targeted area.
The surveillance system has been procured by the Metropolitan police from Leeds-based company Datong plc, which counts the US Secret Service, the Ministry of Defence and regimes in the Middle East among its customers. Strictly classified under government protocol as “Listed X”, it can emit a signal over an area of up to an estimated 10 sq km, forcing hundreds of mobile phones per minute to release their unique IMSI and IMEI identity codes, which can be used to track a person’s movements in real time.
The disclosure has caused concern among lawyers and privacy groups that large numbers of innocent people could be unwittingly implicated in covert intelligence gathering. The Met has refused to confirm whether the system is used in public order situations, such as during large protests or demonstrations.
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Datong’s website says its products are designed to provide law enforcement, military, security agencies and special forces with the means to “gather early intelligence in order to identify and anticipate threat and illegal activity before it can be deployed”.
The company’s systems, showcased at the DSEi arms fair in east London last month, allow authorities to intercept SMS messages and phone calls by secretly duping mobile phones within range into operating on a false network, where they can be subjected to “intelligent denial of service”. This function is designed to cut off a phone used as a trigger for an explosive device.
Research Credit: irab
And Now: ‘U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq’
October 31st, 2011Via: New York Times:
The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.
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With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran, the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. While the United States has close bilateral military relationships with each, the administration and the military are trying to foster a new “security architecture” for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval patrols and missile defense.
The size of the standby American combat force to be based in Kuwait remains the subject of negotiations, with an answer expected in coming days. Officers at the Central Command headquarters here declined to discuss specifics of the proposals, but it was clear that successful deployment plans from past decades could be incorporated into plans for a post-Iraq footprint in the region.
For example, in the time between the Persian Gulf war in 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States Army kept at least a combat battalion — and sometimes a full combat brigade — in Kuwait year-round, along with an enormous arsenal ready to be unpacked should even more troops have been called to the region.
“Back to the future” is how Maj. Gen. Karl R. Horst, Central Command’s chief of staff, described planning for a new posture in the Gulf.
Related: U.S. Troops to Leave Iraq by Year’s End, Obama Says [wink]
Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Released in Cayman Islands, Malaysia and Brazil
October 31st, 2011Via: New York Times:
These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill — their own children.
Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.
The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria.
But the research is arousing concern about possible unintended effects on public health and the environment, because once genetically modified insects are released, they cannot be recalled.
Authorities in the Florida Keys, which in 2009 experienced its first cases of dengue fever in decades, hope to conduct an open-air test of the modified mosquitoes as early as December, pending approval from the Agriculture Department.
“It’s a more ecologically friendly way to control mosquitoes than spraying insecticides,” said Coleen Fitzsimmons, a spokeswoman for the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District.
The Agriculture Department, meanwhile, is looking at using genetic engineering to help control farm pests like the Mediterranean fruit fly, or medfly, and the cotton-munching pink bollworm, according to an environmental impact statement it published in 2008. Millions of genetically engineered bollworms have been released over cotton fields in Yuma County, Ariz.
Yet even supporters of the research worry it could provoke a public reaction similar to the one that has limited the acceptance of genetically modified crops. In particular, critics say that Oxitec, the British biotechnology company that developed the dengue-fighting mosquito, has rushed into field testing without sufficient review and public consultation, sometimes in countries with weak regulations.
“Even if the harms don’t materialize, this will undermine the credibility and legitimacy of the research enterprise,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, professor of international health law at Georgetown University.
The first release, which was discussed in a scientific paper published online on Sunday by the journal Nature Biotechnology, took place in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean in 2009 and caught the international scientific community by surprise. Oxitec has subsequently released the modified mosquitoes in Malaysia and Brazil.
CIA Assassinates 16 Year Old American from Denver
October 30th, 2011Via: Time:
A wave of CIA drone strikes targeting al-Qaeda figures in Yemen is stoking widespread anger there that U.S. policy is cruel and misguided, prioritizing counterterrorism over a genuine solution to the country’s raging political crisis.
Politics has never been a concern to Sam al-Homiganyi and his fellow teenagers. This month, though, they were shocked by the sudden death of a friend and are struggling to understand why.
Fighting back tears, his gaze fixed downward, al-Homiganyi, a lean-looking 15-year-old from the outskirts of Sana’a, told TIME, “He was my best friend, we played football together everyday.” Another of his friends spoke up, gesturing to the gloomy group of jeans-clad boys around him: “He was the same as us. He liked swimming, playing computer games, watching movies … you know, normal stuff.” (See photos of Yemen on the brink.)
The dead friend was Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a 16-year-old born in Denver, the third American killed in as many weeks by suspected CIA drone strikes in Yemen. His father, the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, also an American citizen, was killed earlier this month, along with alleged al-Qaeda propagandist Samir Khan, who was from New York. When Abdulrahman’s death was first reported in the Western press, his age was given as 21 by local Yemeni officials. Afterward, however, the Awlaki family put out a copy of Abdulrahman’s birth certificate.
Which U.S. Organization Bought Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat System?
October 30th, 2011I’ve been watching Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat saga for over a year, and it just took a turn for the weird.
Cryptogon is read by all of the alphabet agencies, military branches, some members of the Congress (or their staffs), and the White House. Someone reading this post could know the answer to this simple question:
Who bought Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat system?
Via: Wired:
The successful test should pave the way for further work at the University of Bologna, and more contracts with the enigmatic customer. NyTeknik did discover one possible clue to their identity. The customer’s controller, one Domenico Fioravanti, apparently reports to a man whose title is “Colonel”. This suggests that the mystery customer might be DARPA, the Pentagon’s extreme science wing which, as Wired.co.uk has previously noted, has expressed interestin Rossi’s work — but which might not be quite ready to explain to its political masters why it spent millions on a cold fusion device.
Northeast: Snowstorm Leaves Two Million Homes Without Electricity
October 30th, 2011Update: Three Million Homes and Businesses Without Electricity
—End Update—
Via: Reuters:
Transportation in the Northeast was hard-hit on Sunday by a rare October snowstorm that also cut power to more than 2 million homes and killed at least three people.
The heaviest snow was recorded in Western Massachusetts, where 27.8 inches/(71 cm) was measured in Plainfield, according to the National Weather Service. Just 45 minutes northwest of New York City, in West Milford, New Jersey, 19 inches/(48 cm) of snow fell.
“A historic October storm is still crushing New England with heavy snow and howling winds,” meteorologist Meghan Evans said on Accuweather.com on Sunday.
The storm was expected to push out of Maine on Sunday but not before dumping up to a foot/(30.5 cm) of snow on northern New England states, particularly southern Vermont, the NWS said.
The heavy, wet snow snapped enormous trees like twigs, downing power lines from West Virginia to Massachusetts.
New Jersey Transit and Metro-North Railroad suspended service on several lines into New York City on Saturday and continued the suspension on Sunday.
Many flights at New York City-area airports were canceled. Authorities warned drivers to stay off icy roads. Slippery road conditions were blamed for a crash that killed a motorist in Colchester, Connecticut.
