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Are You Being Watched? Probably

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:48:47 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: Looking back at the surveillance all around us--from wiretapped phones to security cameras

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

When traveling to London, be sure to smile: the city is home to at least half of a million surveillance cameras—if you count video systems at banks, supermarkets and other commercial locations, according to The New York Times. And motorists with obnoxious vanity license plates, take heed: New York City has plans to install cameras that will snap a photo of every plate that enters the borough of Manhattan.

The range of human vocalization, from a full-throated bellow to a hushed whisper, typically lets you decide who will hear your voice. But what happens when that choice is taken away by technology that can pick up and transmit even the softest sounds?

Add security cameras at gas stations, convenience marts, subway stops and street corners, and privacy appears to be little more than a quaint notion.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Public telephones have become increasingly scarce in the era of cell phones, but land lines still serve as a vital communication link where cell phones won't work

Revealed: The Internet's Biggest Security Hole

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:29:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Two security researchers have demonstrated a new technique to stealthily intercept internet traffic on a scale previously presumed to be unavailable to anyone outside of intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency.

The tactic exploits the internet routing protocol BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to let an attacker surreptitiously monitor unencrypted internet traffic anywhere in the world, and even modify it before it reaches its destination.

The demonstration is only the latest attack to highlight fundamental security weaknesses in some of the internet's core protocols. Those protocols were largely developed in the 1970s with the assumption that every node on the then-nascent network would be trustworthy. The world was reminded of the quaintness of that assumption in July, when researcher Dan Kaminsky disclosed a serious vulnerability in the DNS system. Experts say the new demonstration targets a potentially larger weakness.

Tags: internet, security hole

Fun with a laser cutter: Tinysaur is Tiny

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:48:55 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: This was cut using our new epilog laser at NYCResistor. Look at how little and awesome he is! I wonder how the heck Kelly put it together.

Clip Source: www.nycresistor.com

Martin sent us a dino pattern to celebrate our laser. I made a regular size dinosaur, but Kelly made a tiny tinysaur!

Where do you hide all the best object files on the internet? We want to play with them!

The tinysaur has been spotted again! - Link

Tags: dinosaur, tiny, laser, nycresistor

The key to oil independence is a new electrical grid

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:17:49 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: It seems that with alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar, the United States has the potential means to substantially reduce our dependence on oil - especially once plug-in cars are on the market.

But until we substantially upgrade our nation's electrical grid with modern technology that will enable the energy created by these sources to be transmitted intelligently around the county, their impact will be limited.

It's going to take a greater commitment from Congress to jump start this. Making it happen will provide a huge boost to our economy, environment and political leverage with the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela and more.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.

The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads.

“We need an interstate transmission superhighway system,” said Suedeen G. Kelly, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“The windiest sites have not been built, because there is no way to move that electricity from there to the load centers,” he said.

Tags: alternative energy, grid, electricity, wind, solar

Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:32:44 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: What a great invention.
This is where we should be spending money - improving the way of life - instead of building more war machines and blowing things up. Just my opinion of course.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum.

That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward -- with a proud expression on his face -- as passersby stare in surprise.

Tags: medical, exoskelton, paralysis, invention, israel

Green technology creating 'green collar' jobs

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:37:42 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: I stand strongly behind my belief that if this country committed ourselves to becoming energy independent with the same determination that we committed to putting a man on the moon, that we could do it and we could create millions of new jobs in the process. It would be an enormous driver of economic growth and strengthen our leverage in the Middle East because we would no longer be reliant on their oil.

Clip Source: greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com

As Detroit automakers shutter SUV and truck factories, the decades-long de-industrialization of the Midwest continues apace. But amid the idled assembly lines, a new wave of manufacturing has taken root as solar energy companies set up shop in the heartland.

In fact, nearly all the United States’ current solar manufacturing capacity is in the Midwest, save for Silicon Valley company Ausra’s factory in Las Vegas. (Thin-film startup Nanosolar is building a factory in San Jose, Calif.)

“Our processes really require high productivity, so what makes it competitive here in the Midwest is that we have a great labor force that is eager to work and well-trained already,” ECD chief executive Mark Morelli told Green Wombat on Monday.

Tags: alternative energy, solar, green energy, jobs

The Brilliance of Thomas Jefferson

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:53:25 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: He'd tear King George The Deciderer a new one, just as he did 200+ years ago.

Clip Source: quotes.liberty-tree.ca

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
We must make our election between economy and liberty
or profusion and servitude.
If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and
in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and
our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...
[we will] have no time to think,
no means of calling our miss-managers to account
but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves
to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers...
And this is the tendency of all human governments.
A departure from principle in one instance
becomes a precedent for [another ]...
till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery...
And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt.
Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."

Source:

Letter to Samuel Kercheval, Monticello, July 12, 1816

Tags: damn, straight!