Surprise, Surprise: Vodafone Reveals Secret Government Wiretaps

From The Telegraph:

Government agencies are able to listen to phone conversations live and even track the location of citizens without warrants using secret cables connected directly to network equipment, admits Vodafone today.

The company said that secret wires have been connected to its network and those belonging to competitors, giving government agencies the ability to tap in to phone and broadband traffic. In many countries this is mandatory for all telecoms companies, it said.

Vodafone is today publishing its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report which will describe exactly how the governments it deals with are eavesdropping on citizens. It is calling for an end to the use of “direct access” eavesdropping and transparency on the number of warrants issued giving access to private data.

Of course, anyone who has been paying attention knows that this is not really news, since it has been known for years that governments have been secretly tapping the telephony  backbone.  What is new in the present instance is that the company itself has revealed the illegal wiretaps rather than continue to engage in a conspiracy against its own users aided and abetted by criminal governments.  If this is news to you, you might consider looking into AT&T Room 641A.

Download Cat Videos In The Middle Of Nowhere, Thanks To Google's New Satellite Fleet

Hundreds of millions of prospective internet users may soon be granted access thanks to a new satellite fleet being developed by Google. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has noted that "nearly two-thirds of the world's citizens have no access to the Internet at all", and they seek to remedy that via a combination of small satellites and drones.


The satellites, which are being developed for Google by O3B Networks (whose title refers to the "other three billion" people sans internet access) weigh in at a significantly small 250 pounds, and travel around 5,000 miles above the Earth's surface. Four satellites are currently in use, with four more slated to launch next month.


Read more about Google and O3B's project here.

Reprinted On The Red Planet: Could We "Grow" Humans To Colonize Mars?

Martian exploration is a tempting challenge for space agencies worldwide, but NASA's current budgetary woes and the extensively dangerous elements of such an operation are keeping any advanced projects on the red planet still firmly in the realm of science fiction.

However, scientists have pondered a fascinating plan to colonize Mars much in the way that they suspect life arrived here on earth: first send bacteria to terraform the harsh environment, then send bacteria encoded with DNA plans.

The Huffington Post quoted Harvard biologist Gary Ruvkun as saying, "If we could also send along assembly instructions, for the bacteria to produce an array of descendent organisms that assemble the genome segments over some time period into a human, it is a way to 'print' humans remotely."

The ability to "encode" the human genome into bacteria may be within our reach in the next few decades, and though it may be some time before the human-printing "instructions" can manifest, the idea offers an interesting option for the beginning of Martian colonization.

New Blood-Alcohol Content Breathalyzer App Wants To Party With You

New app startup Alcohoot is turning around police-grade technology into an app that wants to improve your lifestyle. The device, which costs $99 and plugs into the headphone jack of a smartphone, not only calculates your BAC, but offers a "morning after" ranking system with reviews of how you felt your night went for further analysis.

The device is being created in partnership with major alcohol conglomerate Pernod Ricard. Their President and CEO Bryan Fry claims that "Alcohoot engages people and has the potential to change behavior."

Learn more about Alcohoot and other BAC-calculation apps here.

Hemp-Composite Cars Could Roll In Eco-Friendly Transportation Future

With many Americans waking up to the fact that oil is politically, economically, and environmentally unstable as a continued abundant resource, alternatives for automotive transportation are manifesting some interesting new "green" ideas.

According to www.lamag.com, "The first car manufactured in an eco-friendly manner was supposedly prototyped by Henry Ford in 1941, with a plastic composite of organic materials including hemp. That was over 70 years ago." They hasten to add that a variety of concept cars built from hemp composites could soon be ready to roll as viable new auto options. With bodies that don't necessarily sacrifice style to include sustainability, the various modern models focus on hemp composite-based, eco-friendly construction, rechargeable battery or compressed-air power, and clean emissions.

With the topic of marijuana legalization still a hot-button political issue (despite creating millions in tax revenue in Colorado, where is has been legalized), the notion of industrial hemp as a constructive fiber continues to prove itself strong and versatile.

The Lotus Eco Elise

Secret Service Using Totally Cool Sarcasm Detector While Watching Social Media

The United States Secret Service has escalated their social-media surveillance methods as of late, and it makes things soooo much better for the common person. If you don't have a specially-crafted program to filter that sentence, it contained sarcasm, which has become a problem for Big Brother by creating false positives for threats during their nitpicking of our online brain droppings.

The new technology is considered superior than tasking agents with creating fake profiles to gather and assess the public's social media commentary.  According to www.nextgov.com, the technology also includes the abilities for “sentiment analysis,” "influencer identification," "access to historical Twitter data," “ability to detect sarcasm," and "heat maps" or graphics showing user trends by color intensity, agency officials said.

The program will operate in real time and totally respects your opinion.

Oxymoronic GOP Science Committee Claims Global Warming "Debunked"

Despite many reputable, repeatable reports on the topic presented to the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, the GOP Science Committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith informed the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Process that their facts were wrong.

Claiming that the figures (accepted by 97% of scientists) that global warming is primarily man-made have been "debunked", Rep. Smith went on to blame Obama for the misrepresentation.

Human contributions to global warming are vast, including the excavation and burning of fossil fuels, as well as the acceleration of deforestation, both of which are tied to financial interests of the Republican party.

Despite placing blame elsewhere and burying their heads in the non-scientific sand, the GOP Science Committee's claims are refuted by many studies, including one by NASA, that base their findings from technological readings, well-observed weather issues, and changing environments worldwide.