Archive for August, 2011
Chinese Want to Place an Asteroid in Earth Orbit and Mine It – “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”
August 31st, 2011Fantastic plan, comrade! In other news: Chinese Bullet Train Crash Kills 40. Via: MIT Technology Review: Most of the discussion about near Earth asteroids focuses on whether they represent a threat to Earth and what to do take if they turn out to be heading our way. But today, Hexi Baoyin and pals at Tsinghua […]
Scott Air Force Base: “Normal Suspicious Package” Sends Three People to Hospital
August 31st, 2011Via: Washington Post: Three people from Scott Air Force Base in southwestern Illinois were hospitalized with rashes Wednesday and parts of the facility were evacuated after a suspicious package arrived at the base’s mail center. Capt. Kathleen Ferrero said 14 people were decontaminated on site and the three others were treated at a hospital in […]
AI vs. AI. Two Chatbots Talking to Each Other
August 31st, 2011HAHA. Isn’t it reassuring to know that these types of systems are trading stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities and derivatives millions of times per second? Never mind the killer robot applications… Have a nice day! Via: Cornell University / YouTube: Research Credit: jakdmsy
‘Smart’ CCTV Could Track Rioters
August 31st, 2011Yeah, in other words, ‘smart’ CCTV could track anyone. I’d be shocked if it turned out to be the case that this wasn’t already operational for the British equivalent of MAIN CORE, assuming there is one (which I do). Via: BBC: CCTV that can automatically monitor criminal behaviour and track suspects is being developed by […]
Obama DOJ: John Yoo Memos on Spying Must Stay Secret
August 31st, 2011Via: The Atlantic: What was Bush Administration lawyer John Yoo thinking when he wrote various legal memos declaring that the president has the power to spy on American citizens without getting a warrant or telling anyone about it? The Obama Administration isn’t telling: The Obama administration has refused to declassify a secret memo from the […]
Seasonic Fanless Power Supplies
August 31st, 2011I’m doing more book length reading at my computer and the power supply fan noise just had to go. I’d estimate that the power supply was making about 75% of the total system noise. Maybe 15% was CPU fan noise, with the rest of the noise split among the video card fan, case fan and […]
Cryptogon Readers Sign Up for Hosting with BlueHost
August 31st, 2011Thanks to the owners of three different domains who signed up for hosting with BlueHost. I received $270 as a result. None of the sites are active yet. If you signed up for hosting and want me to mention your site here, just send me an email from the domain that you used to set […]
Cryptogon Readers Sent Contributions in August
August 31st, 2011Thanks to the five readers below who sent contributions in August. Pookie $75 Eileen $100 AB $50 MW $20 CW $50
America’s Secret Libya War
August 31st, 2011Via: Daily Beast: The U.S. military has spent about $1 billion so far and played a far larger role in Libya than it has acknowledged, quietly implementing an emerging “covert intervention” strategy that the Obama administration hopes will let America fight small wars with a barely detectable footprint. Officially, President Obama handed the lead role […]
Google Wants to Become an Identity Service
August 30th, 2011Oh sure. Via: Business Week: Ever since Google (GOOG) launched its new Google+ social network, we and others have pointed out that the search giant clearly has more in mind than just providing a nice place for people to share photos of their pets. For one thing, Google needs to tap into the “social signals” […]
