In the aftermath of the 2010 election, the world goes on:
Plastic explosives found in laser printer cartridges that traveled from Yemen to the UK and Dubai were connected to cellphone-based detonation circuits, prompting concerns that the bombs could have been triggered by calling or texting the handset, New Scientist and other publications said. New Scientist quoted several security experts who said the discoveries cast doubt on the wisdom of allowing in-flight communications involving the internet or cellphones.
Aircraft bombs may mean end to in-flight Wi-Fi, mobile
The real news here is that this is in the news. Cell phone bombs have been around longer than airplane WI-FI, so why has this not already been anticipated and debated to death?
From Baghdad to Madrid, bombs triggered by mobile phones have become as ubiquitous in the terrorist’s arsenal as cell phones in the pockets of businessmen.
“It’s not rocket science,” says John Pike of Globalsecurity.org, a Washington think tank. “Cell-phone detonators are pretty straightforward tradecraft.”
Cell phones jury-rigged to detonate bombsAlthough the FBI said it has no information indicating cell phones would be used by terrorists in the United States, the bulletin urged local officials to take several precautions if a suspected device is found.
For instance, officers should “immediately evacuate the area to a minimum distance of 300 yards. Radios, cellular telephones and pagers should not be used within 50 feet of the suspected device,” the bulletin said.Terrorists also have used pagers and radio systems to detonate bombs by remote control, the FBI said.
FBI: Cell Phones Triggered Bombs
The next Big Technology Feeder Project?
The 100-Year Starship study will examine the business model needed to develop and mature a technology portfolio enabling long-distance manned space flight a century from now. This goal will require sustained investments of intellectual and financial capital from a variety of sources. The year-long study aims to develop a construct that will incentivize and facilitate private co-investment to ensure continuity of the lengthy technological time horizon needed…
The 100-Year Starship study looks to develop the business case for an enduring organization designed to incentivize breakthrough technologies enabling future spaceflight.
DARPA, NASA team on ‘100-Year Starship’ project
This looks like a feasibility study for a long-term, perhaps generational, project to generate new technologies and markets using government leadership and private investment.
Whew, that was a mouth full.
Whether the conservatives like it or not, few (if any) industry-creating inventions happen these days without a hefty nudge from the government. The private sector is too focused on the bottom line to take any long-range risks.
The start-up costs for something truly new is just too high – and I mean private-sector costs – for new industries to emerge without government assistance.
I am still not square with corporations having free speech rights. We can restrict sales of tobacco, alcohol, and pornography, but somehow this does not get the same treatment. Some day, when my to-do list is short, I am going to have to look into why that is.
Games that allow children to act out violence that would not be tolerated from anyone in real life strikes me as a desensitizing indoctrination into a culture of cruelty. And people wonder why talk of “2nd Amendment solutions” make people nervous.
About 26 tons of marijuana had been transported through the tunnel to San Diego, and 10 of those tons were intercepted Tuesday by authorities as a tractor trailer was transporting the load from the Otay Mesa warehouse, officials said. About five tons were found by the Mexican military inside the Tijuana warehouse and the tunnel, officials said.
Authorities discover 30 tons of marijuana, border tunnel
Another day in the life of border security. I really should not make light of what is a significant accomplishment by ICE and our partners in Mexico.
Unknown attackers have been targeting a previously unknown vulnerability in Internet Explorer to take control of machines running the Microsoft browser, security watchers warned on Wednesday.
Unpatched IE bug exploited in targeted attacks
Integrating the browser into Windows created an irreparable security problem. There are just too many opportunities for mischief, and the vulnerabilities change with every rebuild.
They did it to create an unfair advantage, and succeeded in destroying Netscape, but in doing so they lost any incentive to improve IE. Their proprietary extensions of HTML created problems for webmasters and inconsistencies for browsers. Their mediocre adoption of the standards combined with the open source movement to create an opening for browsers like Firefox to flourish. Now they have a competitor they cannot crush economically, making IE a burden for them.
US public-safety officials are involved in a tug-of-war with commercial interests about who gets control over the coveted 10MHz “D-Block” — and here in The Reg’s San Francisco territory, said public-safety folks are harming their own cause through bickering and infighting.
Silicon Valley wrestles self over public safety spectrum
California seems to be an endless story of self-inflicted wounds.
- Their tax revenue base was made too focused on a narrow range of sources.
- Their conservatives successfully handcuffed their legislature’s ability to deal with serious economic problems.
- They privatized the electrical utilities, which was an economic disaster.
- The AMPTP tried to cheat the WGA out of new revenue streams, and the writers struck back. This bit of class warfare created a recession in California just as the Bush economy was starting to unravel.
- More recently, problems of excessive pay and retirement packages for some small-town government leaders have emerged.
- Now we see a story of what might be corruption or simple negligence throwing kerosene on a public/private feud at an extremely tense moment in time.
I wonder what it will take for the citizens of California to trade in some of their laid-back lifestyle for a little vigilance.
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