Archive for January, 2009
When You Watch These Ads, They Watch You
January 31st, 2009Via: AP: Watch an advertisement on a video screen in a mall, health club or grocery store and there’s a slim — but growing — chance the ad is watching you too. Small cameras can now be embedded in the screen or hidden around it, tracking who looks at the screen and for how long. […]
Could Hyperinflation Happen Again?
January 31st, 2009WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. They can’t bring themselves to write the word gold. But keep the naughty four letter word in mind as you read the last paragraph of this piece. Via: Morgan Stanley: Against this backdrop, could hyperinflation or high inflation happen again? Possibly […]
Every Military Net Accessed at Once, Thanks to ‘OB1’
January 31st, 2009Machines that are physically connected to the public internet are going to share physical connections with classified networks. * grin * What could possibly go wrong? If the hacker owns the hypervisor, he/she owns all data traversing the hypervisor and is in a position to sample, redirect, or spoof anything. Without some form of fail-safe, […]
General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations; Money to Come from U.S. Bailout
January 31st, 2009Via: Latin American Herald Tribune: General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker. According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the […]
Oil Players Stockpile Cheap Crude on Tankers
January 31st, 2009Via: Houston Chronicle: Oil demand has plummeted along with home prices and stock market indexes, but discerning where energy demand could go in 2009 isn’t easy. That’s why, as oil markets attempt to calibrate in the face of this recession, some traders, refiners, big oil companies and other interests have been buying cheap oil in […]
‘Soviet’ Britain Swells Amid the Recession
January 31st, 2009Yes, Minister – Empty Hospital. Via: Times Online: PARTS of the United Kingdom have become so heavily dependent on government spending that the private sector is generating less than a third of the regional economy, a new analysis has found. The study of “Soviet Britain” has found the government’s share of output and expenditure has […]
Humans ‘Will be Implanted with Microchips’
January 31st, 2009Via: NineMSN: All Australians could be implanted with microchips for tracking and identification within the next two or three generations, a prominent academic says. Michael G Michael from the University of Wollongong’s School of Information Systems and Technology, has coined the term “uberveillance” to describe the emerging trend of all-encompassing surveillance. “Uberveillance is not on […]
Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go
January 31st, 2009Via: Chronicle of Higher Education: Just to be clear: There is work for humanities doctorates (though perhaps not as many as are currently being produced), but there are fewer and fewer real jobs because of conscious policy decisions by colleges and universities. As a result, the handful of real jobs that remain are being pursued […]
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions
January 31st, 2009MO sent $20. IL sent AU$100. And let’s see… I think there’s one more here to close out the month. Dagobaz sent $751. * grin * Thank you.
Defense Department Announces Civilian Expeditionary Workforce
January 30th, 2009Via: Infowars: The Defense Department has established a “civilian expeditionary workforce” that will see American civilians trained and equipped to deploy overseas in support of worldwide military missions. The move is seen by some as an initial step towards fulfilling president Obama’s promise to form a civilian national security force as powerful as the U.S. […]
