Archive for March, 2013
Elizabeth Warren: ‘How Many Billions Have To Be Laundered For Drug Lords Before We Consider Shutting Down A Bank?’
March 22nd, 2013Via: Daily Bail: During Senate testimony Liz Warren asks how much drug-laundered money it takes before banking regulators consider shutting down a bank. Hilarity ensues. And no one ever answers the question. Witnesses were: David Cohen, Sec. for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, U.S. Treasury Thomas Curry, Comptroller, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Jerome […]
Google Glass Might Control Real World Objects
March 22nd, 2013Via: Cnet: You may eventually be able to operate your TV, refrigerator, or garage door through Google Glass. Published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a Google patent application called “Wearable Computer with Superimposed Controls and Instructions for External Device” describes a technology in which a Google Glass wearer could control a real […]
Homeland Security Will Scan More Private Web Traffic and Email
March 22nd, 2013Via: Reuters: The U.S. government is expanding a cybersecurity program that scans Internet traffic headed into and out of defense contractors to include far more of the country’s private, civilian-run infrastructure. As a result, more private sector employees than ever before, including those at big banks, utilities and key transportation companies, will have their emails […]
CIA CTO: ‘We Fundamentally Try To Collect Everything And Hang On To It Forever’
March 21st, 2013Via: Huffington Post: The CIA’s chief technology officer outlined the agency’s endless appetite for data in a far-ranging speech on Wednesday. Speaking before a crowd of tech geeks at GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference in New York City, CTO Ira “Gus” Hunt said that the world is increasingly awash in information from text messages, tweets, and videos […]
How Rich Is the Catholic Church?
March 20th, 2013Via: Slate: Pope Francis is not just the spiritual leader of one of the world’s major religions: He’s also the head of what’s probably the wealthiest institution in the entire world. The Catholic Church’s global spending matches the annual revenues of the planet’s largest firms, and its assets—huge amounts of real estate, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, […]
Majoring in Drones: Higher Ed Embraces Unmanned Aircraft
March 20th, 2013Via: Time: Curriculums and research projects related to drones are cropping up at both large universities and community colleges across the country. In a list of 81 publicly funded entities that have applied for a certificate of authorization to fly drones from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), more than a third are colleges, according to […]
Ye Olde Sneaker Net: Cubans Evade Censorship by Exchanging Computer Memory Sticks
March 20th, 2013Via: McClatchy: Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez on Saturday told newspaper publishers from around the Western Hemisphere that “nothing is changing” in Cuba’s ossified political system and that “the situation of press freedom in my country is calamitous.” But Sanchez said underground blogs, digital portals and illicit e-magazines proliferate, passed around on removable computer drives […]
Texas: Arlington Police Get Federal Approval to Fly Drones Across City
March 20th, 2013Via: Dallas News: Two remote-control helicopters could be photographing crime scenes and searching for missing people in Arlington as soon as next month. Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson announced Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration has given the city permission to get the rotors turning on the project in late February. Police are quick to […]
New York’s Police Union Worked With the NYPD to Set Arrest and Summons Quotas
March 20th, 2013Via: The Nation: Audio obtained by The Nation confirms an instance of New York City’s police union cooperating with the NYPD in setting arrest quotas for the department’s officers. According to some officers and critics of quotas, the practice has played a direct role in increasing the number of stop-and-frisk encounters since Mayor Michael Bloomberg […]
Defense Contractor Allegedly Compromised by Honey Trap
March 20th, 2013Via: ABC: A defense contractor and former U.S. Army officer has been charged with communicating national defense secrets to a 27-year-old Chinese national with whom he had a romantic relationship. According to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court Monday in Hawaii, Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, who held a top secret clearance, transmitted “national defense […]
