Big Google is Watching You

Google recently was awarded an U.S. Patent known as “Advertising Based on Environmental Conditions." This patent is one of the most troubling advances in the growth of Big Brother Google as it proposes that background sounds, temperature, humidity, light and air composition can all be monitored in order to serve highly targeted advertisements. The patent states that a web browser or search engine which the user is using can actually be used to obtain what could very well be highly private information about the environment surrounding the user.

“Advertisers may specify that ads are shown to users whose environmental conditions meet certain criteria,” the patent states, although it could quite obviously also be used as yet another way to gather massive amounts of private information on Americans.

After all, the National Counterterrorism Center can now hold on to private data belonging to Americans with no known or suspected links to terrorism for a shocking five years. Coupled with the National Security Agency’s new massive data center complex in Utah and the announcement from American internet service providers (ISPs) that they will soon begin to conduct the largest digital spying operation in history, this does not look good.

Google is now even being criticized by some of their former executives, including James Whittaker, who said, “the Google I was passionate about was a technology company – the Google I left was an advertising company.”

However, Google is more of a tool of the Western intelligence community than anything else at this point, and the recent announcement that the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) would be leaving for Google just reinforces this long-standing relationship.

One of the many troubling aspects of this patent is the claim that it will utilize a computer-implemented method of grabbing environmental data from a wide variety of devices including one or more of the following, “[a] mobile phone, a personal computer, a digital billboard, a digital kiosk, or a vendor machine.” This could incorporate sound, such as speech and background noise, as well as images and video signals, which Google can already hijack through their programs loaded on to smartphones.

The disturbing part of this technology is that, when considered with their new privacy policy, Google could essentially collect data covering just about anything and everything you might do in your life, store it one central location for easy retrieval, all indefinitely and all with no limits to who they can share the information with.

One must wonder if anything is stopping them from rolling out this technology under our noses without actually telling anyone. Something tells me that there is absolutely nothing in their way from doing such a thing, in fact, I would be surprised if they weren’t already leveraging their ability to remotely access cameras and other parts of unsuspecting users’ devices to gather data either for intelligence purposes or advertising.

What do you think? Should people be concerned about this patent approval and the growing tide of Big Brother technology in the United States?

Nasa Making Chemtrails?

There has been a lot of controversy about toxic chemtrails being sprayed from military jets. These chemtrails are sprayed into the upper atmosphere by military airplanes, and the trails left by these airplanes do not dissipate like the normal jet contrails. No, these chemtrails are completely different. They remain in the sky, and eventually spread out to form a haze or weird cloud formations. Leaving trails at low altitudes, spray lines creating X's, S's and parallel lines, lines that slowly spread to create a canopy of haze, and reports of unusual smells, tastes, and even illness related to the trails. The problem with these chemtrails is that they are a cocktail of aluminum, barium, sulfur-dioxide, and other fine particles that can make you extremely sick. These chemical trails can cause heart attack, stroke, cancer, dementia, and just about any kind of disease you can think of. The chemicals fall to earth and get into our reservoirs, irrigation systems, and into our drinking water. They settle onto our crops, forests, pastures and damage them as well.

Well NASA is gearing up to launch five sounding rockets into space and the rockets will be measuring 200–300 mile-per-hour winds as they race through the upper atmosphere jet stream at the edge of space for between eight to 10 minutes. The mission is known as ATREX (Anonymous Transport Rocket Experiment).The rockets will release a chemical tracer into the air. This substance is called trimethyl aluminum. NASA said the chemical forms milky, white clouds that allow people on the ground to "see" the winds in space and track them with cameras. This substance will be released in space out over the Atlantic Ocean at altitudes from 50 to 90 miles. NASA said the cloud tracers will last for up to 20 minutes and will be visible in the mid-Atlantic region, and along the east coast of the US from parts of South Carolina to New Jersey.

So what is NASA hoping to achieve from the short rocket mission? The space agency said it is hoping to garner more insight about the winds that rush through the upper atmosphere jet stream about 60 to 65 miles above Earth's surface. Another aim of the experiment is to help explain how the effects of atmospheric disturbances in one part of the globe can be transported to other parts of the globe in just a day or two.

Here we have an example of chemtrails actually being used and nobody can deny now that chemtrails exist and that they are used. Sure in this case it seems like a harmless experiment to test wind patterns, but the fact remains they do exist and can be utilized in many ways. This is an example of conditioning us to think these are used for some harmless testing, so let's consider some other uses:

Weather Modification - Humans have had the ability to physically affect the weather since learning how to seed clouds in 1946. The popular conception of weather manipulation is limited to cloud seeding, but the possibility that the extents of our abilities may have progressed in the meantime is definitely plausible. The fact that the military is very interested in weather control is no secret and many propose that the Chemtrail Phenomena is a part of this.

Population Control - The use of chemical and biological agents by a government against it's own people is, unfortunately, a historical fact. Even unintentional accidents can occur. But, some people suggest that Chemtrails could actually be part of a program to reduce the population and many feel Chemtrails have caused them to become ill and perhaps they are right. 

In this story I get the feeling that Nasa is up to much more than what we are being told on the surface. Are they gearing up for more chemtrail and spraying experiments? Their sure is a lot of mystery behind chemtrails and you have to ask yourself why couldn't they be used? Is it so out of the question that chemicals can be sprayed into the atmosphere? We already know from this story that surely they are being used. Next time on a sunny day look up at the sky throughout the day and see if you can observe chemtrails and if you see any patterns or weather changes to follow.

Facebook Privacy and Your Job

As digital technology grows and evolves, our notion of issues like our own privacy change. What goes on the Internet is always out there somewhere.

Facebook, the most popular of the social networks, has more than 800 million active users worldwide and about 200 million in the United States. That means that two-thirds of the U.S. population uses Facebook.

Well The Associated Press reported this week that potential employers are asking applicants for their Facebook log in information if their profile information isn't public. It's been the custom for employers to have a look at an applicant's publicly available Facebook pages during the vetting process. But if you've taken the steps to protect your privacy, it's not right to demand access as a condition for employment.

Do you think this is to envasive? What does it matter what you post on facebook in regards to getting a job? Well perhaps the employer feels they can get to know more about the real "you" this way by examining who your friends with, what networks you belong to and what kinds of status updates and pictures you post. I mean afterall how many times have you seen people posting wild pictures, or complaining about their current job in their status updates? Maybe an employer would like check in on you to make sure you are not posting negative things about their company. But where is the line drawn here? What if you list a particular religion or group that you are apart of in your profile and your employer finds that offensive, they could potentially fire you now for this just by seeing something they don't agree with in your profile. Even worse you could the most qualified candidate but be denied a job opportunity simply because of what you have on your facebook page. Some may say, "go ahead and check my profile I have nothing to hide." That may be the case but what kind of doors are we opening here into our personal and private lives. Then again, how private is the internet anyway? These days, not very. Some might argue that employers have the right to find out as much as possible about a job candidate. They may interview neighbors, test for drug use, check for criminal backgrounds, do a credit search and require personality tests. But they don't go through your personal mail, read your personal emails, scour your home computer, peruse your health records or tour your home looking for questionable behavior.

All I can say is that if you don't want your boss - or anyone else for that matter - to know something, don't put it on the World Wide Web.

Prototype of the American Police State

New York City has long been celebrated as the cultural capital of the world, renowned for its art, music and film. Presently, however, the “city that never sleeps” is serving as the staging ground for a futuristic police state. Although the NYPD was recognized for its countless acts of bravery during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the department has gained notoriety in recent years for its overt racial profiling, and spying programs.

Boasting a $4.5 billion budget, a counterterrorism unit that includes 35,000 uniformed police officers and 15,000 civilians, and a $3 billion joint operations center with representatives from the FBI, FEMA, and the military, the NYPD operates much like an autonomous Department of Homeland Security—only without the constraints of the Constitution.

The capabilities of the department are astounding. The NYPD has radiation detectors on their boats, helicopters, and officers’ belts. The NYPD also has a $150 million surveillance system, a network of 2000+ cameras, which is monitored by an advanced computer system. This computer system can detect suspicious packages and perform tasks such as pulling up all recorded images of someone wearing a red shirt, thus streamlining the process of tracking New Yorkers. The NYPD’s latest toy is Terahertz Imaging Detection, which allows police officers to peek under people’s clothing as they walk the streets. The NYPD cooperated with the US Department of Defense in creating this portable scanning technology. The NYPD even has the capability to take down an aircraft should the need arise.

Despite the fact that the city explicitly forbids profiling based upon religion, police officers in New York initiated a spying program which includes amassing data on New York Muslims, such as where they buy groceries and which cafes they visit. The NYPD relies on so-called “mosque crawlers” that document the activities at mosques and “rakers” that spy on Muslims in cafes and bookstores within the Muslim community. Outside of spying on innocent people, the NYPD is also infamous for its crackdowns on protesters.

Americans will most likely see the rise of rogue police organizations all across the country as civil liberties are thrown aside in favor of brute government force. One thing is for sure: what’s happening in New York illustrates how easily people are led into the illusion that security should trump freedom. However, as past regimes illustrate, such security measures eventually become tools of terror against the citizens themselves.

Self-Guided Bullets

Precision guided ammunition has it roots going all the way back to World War II. The Germans were first to develop steerable munitions, using radio control or wire guidance. The U.S. tested TV-guided,semi-active radar-guided, and infrared-guided weapons. In 1962, the US Army began research into laser guidance systems and laser-guided weapons did not become commonplace until the advent of the microchip. They made their practical debut in Vietnam in 1972. The first large-scale use of smart weapons came in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm. Some of these "smart" weapons over the years have included bombs, missiles and rockets.

We all know about guided Tomahawk missiles and drones but now smart bullets are about ready for action as in the future U.S. military snipers might not have to worry about missing. Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico has nearly completed a self-guided bullet that aims to kill every time.

Each self-guided bullet is around 4 inches in length. At the tip is an optical sensor, that can detect a laser beam being shone on a far-off target. Actuators inside the bullet get intel from the bullet’s sensor, and then “steer tiny fins that guide the bullet to the target.” The bullet can self-correct its navigational path 30 times a second, all while flying more than twice the speed of sound.

Even with an ace marksman, researchers found that a typical unguided bullet  operating in real world conditions that might include crosswinds or changes in air density would miss a target that was a half-mile away. A guided bullet, however, could get within eight inches of that same target. While the current testing has focused on gun-lased targets, lasing could also be accomplished from one or more unmanned aerial vehicles.  Using  pre-flight range-finding information, a bullet's targeting algorithms could correct around a lased obstacle (say a tree), and be strung around to the next lased target. a researcher speaking to the BBC said that improved ground munitions would be extremely useful to troops, allowing them them not just to hit the bad guys better, but to avoid civilians. If you can be sure your bullet will go exactly where you’re aiming it, you can take the shot and not worry about a pocket of turbulent air nudging your bullet into the house next door.

Smart weapons will only keep evolving and the applications they are used for will keep growing as The Sandia engineers now hope to take the patented design and create a second-generation prototype, by collaborating with partners in the private sector. These four-inch bullets would likely be very expensive and require special hardware to fire, so they’ll be a specialty item for some time most likely.

Eyes in the Sky

In the near future you may start seeing drones over your head as all the pieces appear to be lining up for the eventual introduction of routine aerial surveillance in everyday life. Drones small enough to fly around your window or large enough to hover far above the earth, out of site but watching over miles of land will be used in a variety of ways from surveillance to marketing purposes. Police enthusiasm for military weaponry (and a drone industry salivating over a new market) is driving a rapid spread of domestic law enforcement drones, which are already being used by border agents. In February, the FAA was directed to lay out guidelines opening up airspace for commercial and civil drones by 2015, at the latest; the technology is likely to be embraced by property companies, paparazzi, and totally random people who want to spy on others. (There are also many positive uses, like helping track wildfires or oil spills.)

Would you feel observed, regardless of how or whether the information was actually used? Well I have found a list of spy technologies and surveillance programs, military and civilian, that can take to the air on drones within the next few years.

WiFi and phone hacking: The Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform (WASP) can break into WiFi networks and hack cell phones. Plus, its antennas mimic cell phone towers, allowing the machine, allegedly, to tap into cell phone conversations and access text messages.

NYPD sensor that sees through clothes: The NYPD, which is not known for its cautious approach to the use of surveillance, announced recently that it was perfecting a sensor that uses radiation to reveal weapons hidden under a person's clothes. I could see them attaching these sensor to drones.

Biometrics: Advances in facial recognition, iris scans and other identifying biometric markers are speeding along, with both police departments and federal agencies. Biometrics like facial recognition (and eventually iris scans) are a natural fit for aerial vehicles, as camera zoom and image quality continue to improve. Meanwhile, government databases are collecting more biometric information from more people, making the technology increasingly useful as an identification and tracking tool. The logical outcome: a zoom lens on a drone could zero in and snap a picture that can be scanned and run through a number of databases.

Video analytics:
Private companies, government agencies and academic institutions are working to improve cameras that can hone in on specific objects or people, figure out location, or pick people out of a crowd.

Sense-through-the-wall (STTW) technology: For about a decade various branches of the military have been working to create sensors that can penetrate walls. DARPA's Visibuilding project is working on "surveillance capabilities to detect personnel within buildings, to determine building layouts, and to locate weapons caches and shielded enclosures within buildings.

These are just some of the uses for the drones that will be cluttering our airspace soon. How do you feel about drones being used more in the civilian sector? Safer? Regardless of what we may think or feel about them, the eye in the sky will be watching.

Mind Set Daily with Joe Dunn

My new podcast, Mind Set Daily has begun and this bite sized mini-cast is now airing twice a week on Tuesday and Thursdays on the Mind Set Central network. I'll be splitting the hosting duties with Mind Set Central's Gareth Davies and am looking forward to doing the shows! Mind Set Daily, broadcasting bite sized alternative news and thoughts for a fast paced world. Check it out and subscribe to the show for free today!
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Laser Guided Lightning

Lightning is a fascinating but dangerous atmospheric phenomenon and for years people have experimented with its power in order to harness and control it. Lightning has already been triggered by launching lightning rockets carrying spools of wire into thunderstorms. The wire unwinds as the rocket ascends, providing a path for lightning. Imagine however if you could harness and control lightning with a laser and redirect it to strike the same place over and over! New research reveals that brief bursts of intense laser light can redirect these high-power electrical discharges.

In a series of new experiments, a French research team sent a laser beam skimming past a spherical electrode to an oppositely charged electrode. Using an experimental apparatus reminiscent of a classic Frankenstein movie, French researchers coaxed laboratory-generated lightning into striking the same place, not just twice, but over and over by using pulses of laser light to create a virtual lightning rod out of a column of ionized gas. This is the first time that these laser-induced atmospheric filaments were able to redirect an electrical discharge away from its intended target. Since lightning tends to follow the path of least resistance, it would preferentially strike the nearest object; in nature, that would be the tallest object. Without the laser, the discharge obeyed this rule and always struck the taller, pointed electrode. With the laser, however, the discharge was redirected, following the filaments instead. This occurred even after the initial path of the discharge began to form.

This is a major development for science and now we are that much closer to harnessing and controlling the power of lightning. Imagine the benefits of what targeted lightning could provide. What are some uses you can think of? Perhaps a benefit is to target lighting from storms to a specific location to prevent damage. Maybe all energy from the lightning could be targeted to a generator and used for power or charging stations. Let's take this deeper and suggest that maybe this harnessed lighting would be used by military forces as a potential weapon. Regardless of how it is used in the future, the potential and benefits of using harnessed lightning is unlimited. Are we one step closer to controlling nature? According to this story, it appears that we are...

What Your Video Game Console Knows About You

We all love our entertainment and media devices such as game consoles. Though we surrender lots of our time to games is it really all fun and games? Think about all the information and data your game console already knows about you which is stored away in some massive database. Who cares right as long as we are having fun? After all entering all our personal information into an online gaming network sounds just fine to me as long as I can access all the latest fun and virtual entertainment right? Well here is an example of what a gaming console can learn about you.

There is a wave of concern over the privacy implications of our increasing reliance on Facebook and Google. What most people don’t realize, however, is that these issues are dwarfed by the potential for privacy invasion that’s presented by a gaming platform and lets consider the Kinect.

People choose to post personal information on Facebook and Google. Game platforms like the Kinect, by contrast, continuously observe your nonverbal behavior. Movements and gestures may seem harmless to share with others, but decades of psychological research demonstrate that the way you move is more revealing than what you say.

Though it’s designed for gaming, the Kinect can be modified to track other behaviors as well. Scientists at the University of Southern California have already used devices much simpler than the Kinect to diagnose classroom behavior. A system examining nonverbal behavior in real time could use this data to automatically diagnose kids in school. Other scientists have developed applications for detecting behavior in the home. Let's take this deeper and perhaps this technology could be modified to be used in police cameras to observe and analyze your behavior.

It just illustrates how something as harmless such as an entertainment device can evolve to into so much more...

Supermoon Event

"Supermoon Event"


An extremely rare lunar event on the night of Jan. 4, 1912, may have set in motion history's most infamous iceberg: the one that, three and a half months later, would collide with the Titanic, plunging the ship along with 1,500 passengers and crew into the icy waters of the North Atlantic.


The gravitational forces between the Earth and the Moon cause some interesting effects. The most obvious is the tides. The Moon's gravitational attraction is stronger on the side of the Earth nearest to the Moon and weaker on the opposite side. The effect is much stronger in the ocean water than in the solid crust.


Astronomers David Olson and Russell Doescher say they have discovered that a "supermoon" event coincided with spring tide and on or around the same January night one century ago. Together, these events caused extreme tides that could have dislodged icebergs and flung them into southbound ocean currents. By Apr. 14, one of these bergs could have dipped just southward right in time to intercept the Titanic's maiden voyage.


Though the ultimate cause of the deadly shipwreck was the failure of the Titanic crew to respond to warning messages about the icy conditions that night, "the lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic," Olson said. Do you think the moon's gravity had an effect on the Titanic and it's destiny?

Firefighting Robots

Robots are becoming more human like everyday and they are increasingly taking on jobs and tasks that used to be done by humans. Can you see where this could be leading? A robot filled society perhaps? We already depend heavily on technology in our daily lives and our dependency on it is growing all the time. Are robots the next the step? They certainly make our lives easier by doing mundane tasks that we are to busy to be bothered with, maybe like cleaning a house for example. More complex tasks range from building our cars to fixing space shuttles and satellites out in space. The point here is that they benefit people in many facets of society already and that it is only evolving. Of course the military has their uses for them as well and in fact much of the time new technologies are used and tested in military applications first before making their way into the population. Think of a robotic soldier for instance and one day those same robotic soldiers could be converted to work on your local police force. How does that sound, robots patrolling the streets? Or how about in this case a robotic firefighter.

Well you can add another lifelike robot to the military’s rapidly expanding android army. This one is, of all things, a mechanical firefighter. And not only can it climb ladders like its flesh-and-blood counterparts, it’s designed to interact with human handlers in a kind of human/robot bucket brigade. The U.S. Navy's firefighting robot "Autonomous" or (SAFFIR) for short. The robot utilizes a system called "force control" which allows its A.I. to tell its motor to exert a specific amount of force in a certain direction. This combined with titanium springs designed to simulate a human tendon.

The Autonomous Firefighting Robot, there's more to it than just its legs. They intend to develop algorithms that will help this robot to move and make decisions autonomously, while still being able to understand directions and hand signals. I have to ask, if it can make its own decision why does it need to take directions? Firefighting robots in the Navy? It won't be long now before they are fighting the fires in our cities. Although the robot is still a ways off from being used in real world situations though a significant test will take place late 2013.