I guess I do not find it surprising that they want controls, but it is a but curious how they are trying to get them put into place:
The Guardian has learned that police and security agencies have been lobbying ministers and senior officials, expressing fears about the potential for voice-over-internet-protocol technologies to hide a caller’s identity. Their aim? To get VoIP providers to monitor calls and find ways to identify who is calling whom – and even record them.
Though enforcement agencies say their main concern is VoIP’s inability to deliver a 999 service, sources counter that this is a smokescreen to cover police efforts to monitor calls and identify individuals – an agenda that becomes more credible in the light of submissions made by police to the communications regulator, Ofcom.
[…]
“At present, law enforcement agencies have great difficulty in tracing the origin of VoIP calls,” wrote [Detective Superintendent] Macleod. “This poses significant threats to our democratic society”
[…]
According to experts at BT’s Martlesham Heath research labs, the only real solution would be a complete overhaul of the routers that make up the internet backbone, an exercise they estimate will cost £1bn.
“The network was never designed with identity in mind. When it was set up it was for the free and easy exchange of data.”
The Guardian does a fine job explaining how portable devices and VoIP are becoming so common so fast that the government regulators are having a hard time keeping up. The quote by Macleod is very telling of the kind of one-sided position the police might attempt to force, unfortunately. In other words, are we meant to believe that surveillance does not also pose a threat to democratic society?
The Brazilians get a lot of press for their efforts with Ethanol, but it looks like they are also making real inroads with biodiesel technology as well. The Inter Press Service reports:
The production of biodiesel from low-quality coffee, from the oils extracted from urban runoff, or from cattle fat is a pioneering initiative in Brazil, where efforts are under way to diversity the raw materials used as clean fuels, the consumption of which is on the rise.
Under the Brazilian system for the voluntary addition of two percent biofuel to petroleum diesel (B-2), the demand currently stands at about 800 million litres annually. This mixture will be obligatory beginning in 2008, and the proportion will rise to five percent in 2013, driving up total biodiesel consumption to an estimated 2.5 billion litres a year.
The surplus of animal fat on the market would allow production of biodiesel that is about 10 percent cheaper than soy-based fuel, a considerable advantage in the energy market. An estimated 23 million head of cattle are consumed in Brazil each year, which could produce 350 million litres of fuel from animal fat annually.
Mandatory B-2 seems like a really good idea. Technology from Italy? What’s taking the US so long to get these types of initiatives underway? Bureaucratic questions?
The US Naval Safety Center has an amusing story and photos to help explain why communication for safety sake needs to be clear.
They also have a page that shows the danger of gasoline. Biodiesel does not have the same issue, as it’s not classified as an explosive (no diamond necessary), but it’s still a fuel source and needs to be handled with care.
I found an obscure news story about a man who was recently killed in Idaho while welding a biodiesel tank. And then there was a biodiesel plant fire recently in California. While a lighter or even butane torch might not light up biodiesel, welding a tank full of oil or biodiesel seems like a really bad idea. Safety first.
YNet reports that the phone company is trying to find a way to block the messages:
Dozens of Israeli customers of the Orange cellular service provider received unexpected SMS messages on their phones Wednesday evening, with the English message:
“Now Now Now…Go out from your home Hizballah willing shelling of the area, Israel Government Cheating you And refuse recognition Defeat.â€?
[…]
Rani Rahav, a spokesperson for Orange, responded that the text messages were coming from a small service provider “somewhere out there in the Pacific Ocean. We are working right now to block the provider from transmitting further messages to Orange customers.�
Who pays for those SMS threats? We always hear about the Internet being a concern in modern information warfare, but cellular phones clearly play a more significant role since they are so mobile and resilient. Blocking an entire provider sounds like the system does not have granularity, which may turn into a sticky problem for Orange if the attackers can spread the origin of their messages. Denial of service also blocks helpful messages.
The US Naval Safety Center has an amusing