tagged w/ Data
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Government proposals to extend powers to watch what people do online would create a "nation of suspects", said MP David Davis.
The former shadow home secretary said the government should be restricting surveillance, not trying to extend it.
Powers granted to police that let them see personal data without a warrant should be rolled back, he said.Government proposals to extend powers to watch what people do online would create a... more
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The deal will see European air carriers automatically transfer all airline passengers' data to the US authorities. The Passenger Name Record (PNR) data includes name, address, passport details, names of fellow travellers, financial details, contact information, and general remarks. Data including flights and hotel reservations, known as 'Advance Passenger Information' (API), is also shared.The deal will see European air carriers automatically transfer all airline... more
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- Every local broadcast station has a repository of documents about political advertising that you have a legal right to see but can do so only by going to the station and asking to see “the public file.”- Every local broadcast station has a repository of documents about political... more
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Edward Lu isn’t the easiest guy in the world to impress. He’s not only an astrophysicist and an electrical engineer, but also an astronaut who’s flown on the Space Shuttle (twice) and the International Space Station — and on top of that, he ran Google’s Advanced Projects Group that gave Google Maps and Google Earth their imaging capabilities.
Then, last year, Lu heard about a technology so simple yet powerful that it could fundamentally change the way oceanographers, meteorologists, fisheries experts and climate scientists gather their data — so he signed on with a company called Liquid Robotics, which owns the technology, as Chief of Innovative Applications. “It seemed like chance to get in on something that can really change way we monitor the ocean,” he said.
“It” is the Wave Glider, a surfboard-shaped apparatus, about 7 feet long, that can sail the open seas propelled by nothing more than wave power. Just last week, a flotilla of four Wave Gliders arrived in Hawaii after a months' long excursion that started in California last November, and they’ll soon be continuing on toward Australia and Japan. For people who keep track of such things, the little vessels have already shattered the Guinness Book World record for distance by an unmanned wave-powered vehicle. “It can go essentially forever,” Lu said, “until it’s covered with barnacles.” (That hasn’t happened yet.)
But for people who care about what human-caused global warming is doing to the oceans, in particular, and the climate more generally, the Wave Glider could turn out to be pretty important. The way it works is completely straightforward: the surfboard part of the device, made of carbon fiber and plastic foam, is connected by a tether about 20 feet long to an underwater “glider,” fitted out with hinged flaps. “It’s kind of like a Venetian blind that lies horizontally,” Lu said.
At 20 feet down, the water is pretty still, so when the surfboard is lifted by a wave, it yanks the glider upward. That makes the flaps angle forward, and propels the whole assembly forward at about 1.5 knots. When the surfboard drops into a trough between two waves, the weighted glider pulls the assembly downward, putting the flaps in a position that moves everything forward as well (it’s hard to describe in words, but there’s a video that helps).
The surfboard itself is covered with solar panels that power any scientific instruments on board, along with a transmitter that uses Iridium satellites to send data to, and receive commands from, a control room at company headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. What that data consists of depends on which customer has signed up as a client — oil companies, for example, which uses Wave Gliders to sniff for leaks around drilling rigs and undersea pipelines; or the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which uses them to tow earthquake-monitoring sensors; or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which uses them to gather carbon dioxide data out at sea where sensing buoys are few and far between. “Over the world’s oceans as a whole,” Lu said, “there are maybe 5,000 or 6,000 buoys, which amounts to two, on average, for an area the size of California.”
Not only could a fleet of Wave Gliders add dramatically to that sparse coverage, Lu said, but it could also fill a crisis that faces climate science: a looming gap in satellite observations as budget problems allow older satellites to fail without new ones ready to go. “We have an uninterrupted 30-year record of climate observations,” Lu said, but if there’s no overlap between older satellites and new ones, there’s no way to calibrate the two to make sure they’re making measurements consistently. It’s kind of like trying to carry out a commando mission without everyone synchronizing their watches.
By Michael D. Lemonick
More ar the linkEdward Lu isn’t the easiest guy in the world to impress. He’s not only an... more
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News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch frequently tweets about how web pirates are destroying the entertainment business by stealing its content and preventing studios from making a profit. But a report by Floor64's Michael Masnick, released by the Computer and Communications Industry Association, shows the opposite is true: The entertainment industry is not being killed by the world wide web. In fact, it's exploding: "Through a decade of economic and technological upheaval, the entertainment industry grew 50 percent while consumers increased spending on entertainment," claims the report.News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch frequently tweets about how web pirates are destroying... more
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While it is reported that intercepting unencrypted drone communication data streams had first been known to US military since the mid-1990's, this exploitation continued on into 2009 where militant laptops were found with drone data and unencrypted video feeds from Predator drones...
https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/18778-How-the-RQ-170-Was-Hijacked.htmlWhile it is reported that intercepting unencrypted drone communication data streams... more
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If we we consider the Occupy movements across the globe, demonstrating and protesting against income inequality and inequitable policies around commerce and taxation, the persistent cart vulnerability could become a seemingly benign form of occupation that could develop into a serious threat...
https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/18630-OWWWS-The-Other-Form-of-Occupy.htmlIf we we consider the Occupy movements across the globe, demonstrating and protesting... more
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Have we now arrived at the point in obtaining medical care that in addition to looking into the medical practitioner's experience and confirming they are compliant with HIPAA, that we now must review their data handling policies before choosing a health care provider?
https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/18525-Are-Your-Health-Records-at-Risk.htmlHave we now arrived at the point in obtaining medical care that in addition to looking... more
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