NSA to Monitor Computer Networks of All Federal Agencies

President Bush signed a directive this month that expands the intelligence community's role in monitoring Internet traffic to protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies' computer systems.
The directive, whose content is classified, authorizes the intelligence agencies, in particular the National Security Agency, to monitor the computer networks of all federal agencies -- including ones they have not previously monitored.
Washington Post

American citizens needs a license to return home ... hehe

Under new regulations and procedures announced to take effect over the next month, citizens of the USA will, for the first time, be required to obtain USA government permission in order to return home to their own country from abroad -- from anywhere else in the world, by air or sea or land.

Hasbrouck

Afghanistan: Planned British Covert Operation Included Training in “Farming and Irrigation Techniques” for Taliban Fighters

Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December.

The Afghan government claims they prove British agents were talking to the Taliban without permission from the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, despite Gordon Brown’s pledge that Britain will not negotiate. The Prime Minister told Parliament on 12 December: “Our objective is to defeat the insurgency by isolating and eliminating their leaders. We will not enter into any negotiations with these people.”

Independent

Science Fiction Technologies We Could Build

Possibility isn't limited by technology. And it's certainly not limited by human imagination. What makes something impossible is the lack of cold, hard, cash ...

Wired

Can A Robot Draw A Map

On a dry lakebed in the Mojave desert, a small experimental rover named Zoe wanders back and forth between dusty clay sediments and black fields of basaltic lava, belched out during eruptions that formed the nearby cinder cone, Amboy Crater.

Atop a small rise in the landscape, in the shade of a six-foot-square canopy, a quartet of researchers sit in folding chairs, portable computers on their laps, alternately scanning screens of status data transmitted by Zoe, discussing the robot's behavior, and writing on-the-spot patches to its control software.

Zoe carries with it, on a hard disk, a crude map of the region it's exploring, based on data collected by ASTER, an infrared spectrometer onboard NASA's Earth Observing Satellite.

Zoe's goal is to produce a more-detailed map that clearly defines the boundaries between areas of the terrain dominated by clay and those dominated by basalt. It would be a relatively simple matter for a field geologist to do this work. But what the Carnegie Mellon University researchers who are part of this Science on the Fly experiment want to know is: can a robot can do it too? ...

The Daily Space

Iran Opens New Space Center

Iran on Monday fired a rocket into space to mark the opening of its first space centre, triggering swift condemnation from the United States amid continued tensions over the Iranian nuclear drive.

The space centre, located in the remote desert of western Iran, will be used to launch Iran's first home-produced satellite "Omid" (Hope) in May or June this year, officials said.

"We witness today that Iran has taken its first step in space very firmly, precisely and with awareness," declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he gave the order for the rocket's launch.

"The evil and dominant system's most important instrument is humiliating people and nations by making them think that they are incapable," he said ...

The Daily Space

NASA calls for ambitious outer solar system mission

NASA is planning a major new mission to the outer solar system, along with three new robotic missions to the Moon, and two new Earth science missions, according to its 2009 budget request.

President George W Bush requested a total of $17.614 billion dollars for the agency in fiscal year 2009, up 2.9% over NASA's actual budget for 2008 ...

The New Scientist

Text Opens Public Toilets in Finland

Finland's Road Administration has started locking its isolated roadside toilets - and unlocking them via SMS. In response to incidents of arson and thefts, the transport authority came up with the novel solution which increased security, without reducing access for the public.

The new system was introduced in last month in the rest areas along Highway 1 in Paimio and Salo near Turku.

The toilets have been secured, and a sign outside explains that the user just sends the word "open" (in Finish) to a short code and the door will be unlocked remotely. The company managing the service will keep a short term record of all users phone numbers, simply so that if the toilet is then damaged by criminals, they can be traced by the police.

There is no premium charge for the SMS.

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/29010.php