Wired Exclusive: U.S. spies buy stake in firm that monitors blogs, tweets

America's spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It's part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that's publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.

Visible crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn't touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what's being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords.

“That's kind of the basic step — get in and monitor,” says company senior vice president Blake Cahill.

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Public must learn to 'tolerate the inequality' of bonuses, says Goldman Sachs vice-chairman

One of the City's leading figures has suggested that inequality created by bankers' huge salaries is a price worth paying for greater prosperity.

In remarks that will fuel the row around excessive pay, Lord Griffiths, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said banks should not be ashamed of rewarding their staff.

Speaking to an audience at St Paul's Cathedral in London about morality in the marketplace last night, Griffiths said the British public should "tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity for all".

He added that he knew what inequality felt like after spending his childhood in a mining town in Wales. Both his grandfathers were miners who had to retire from work through injury.

With public anger mounting at the forecast of bumper bonuses for bankers only a year after the industry was rescued by the taxpayer, he said bankers' bonuses should be seen as part of a longer-term investment in Britain's economy. "I believe that we should be thinking about the medium-term common good, not the short-term common good ... We should not, therefore, be ashamed of offering compensation in an internationally competitive market which ensures the bank businesses here and employs British people," he said.

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DEA agents accused in court pleadings of dealing heroin as part of 1990s Pakistan connection

Bill Conroy reports in The Narcosphere:

Agents — Two Since Retired, One Now Leading High-powered Task Force — Call Claims “Absurd” and “Despicable”

A top gun with the DEA’s Special Operations Division, along with two fellow law enforcers, are not what they seem, if Gaetano (Guy) DiGirolamo Sr., a convicted heroin dealer, is to be believed.

The trio are, in fact, drug dealers themselves, argues Yale law professor Steven B. Duke in court pleadings filed on behalf of his client, DiGirolamo.

Those pleadings are part of a long-running effort by DiGirolamo to get his 1994 conviction overturned by the court. To date, DiGirolamo, who is serving a life sentence in a federal penitentiary in Otisville, N.Y., has failed to convince the judicial system of his point of view.

However, documents recently provided to Narco News by DiGirolamo (uncovered years after his conviction), as well as revelations that have surfaced recently in the case of national security whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, seem to open the door to reasonable doubt in the government’s case against DiGirolamo.

As for the three DEA agents involved in his case, they have long maintained that DiGirolamo’s allegations against them are without merit.

One of those agents, Derek Maltz, now serves as the special agent in charge of the high-powered and secretive Special Operations Division, a multi-agency task force under DEA’s umbrella that targets transnational criminal organizations.

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'The Calling' and 'The Awakening' by Max Igan

" In March 2009 I was approached to create a combined and summarized version of "The Big Picture", "Fight the NWO With Global Non Compliance" and "NWO The Final Solution."

The aim was to condense all 3 films into a one hour solution based production that would appeal to a wider audience and be suitable for television.

This film is the result.

Along with some new material this film contains 2 complete chapters of "The Big Picture - Final Cut" that remain virtually unchanged. This has not been done to 'recycle' old material but simply because the information contained within these chapters was relevant and needed to be included.


Should some people you know still remain blind to the urgency of the world situation and to their need to be informed and to act upon such information, it is my sincere hope that this film may help you to open their eyes."

[ via Freedom 4um ]

The complicity of compliance

By Hari Heath

Most people, like water, choose the easiest path. It is much easier to just go along to get along. Some talk of standing strong, but few actually do it. We conjure up heroes to promote our images of greatness, but Americans are not free, nor brave, because they have chosen the path of compliance. That path is now a super highway, thanks to our complicity with the forces of government and commerce -- real, imagined or otherwise.

Where did such complicity begin? It began before our time and will no doubt continue as long as the forces of power can find ways to obtain our compliance. Compliance and complicity are not synonymous words. But compliance creates complicity when we comply with something that is morally, ethically, lawfully or legally wrong. Our act of complying, makes us complicit in the operation of such a wrong.

What do the definers of words have to say?

COMPLIANCE: “Submission; obedience; conformance.” Black's Law Dictionary, 5th Edition.

“Action in accordance with a request, a command, etc. A tendency to submit easily.” Oxford American Dictionary, 1980.

“The act or an instance of complying; obedience to a request, command, etc. The capacity to yield under an applied force. The degree of such yielding. Unworthy acquiescence.” Reader's Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder, 1996.

COMPLY: “Act in accordance (with a wish, command, etc.). Agree, obey, conform, consent, acquiesce, concur, submit, yield, accede.” Reader's Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder, 1996.

“To yield; to accommodate, or to adapt oneself to; to act in accordance with; to accept.” Black's Law Dictionary 5th Edition.

What happens, as a natural consequence, when we “act in accordance with a wish, command, etc.” that is morally or lawfully wrong, or we “obey, conform, consent, acquiesce, submit, accede,” or “yield under an applied force” to what would ordinarily be a crime if it were not sanctioned by the powers to which we are complying? We “accede,” “acquiesce” and “submit” into complicity.

COMPLICITY: “The state of being an accomplice, as in a wrongdoing.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 1969.

“Partnership in a crime or wrong doing. [complice (see ACCOMPLICE) + -ITY].” Reader's Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder, 1996.

“A state of being an accomplice; participation in guilt. Involvement in crime as a principal or as accessory before fact. May also refer to activities of conspirators.” Black's Law Dictionary 5th Edition.

When we comply with that which is a wrong we become a complice or an accomplice.

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The crab revolution

Humorous and insightful animation about a blighted species of crabs.
Dir. Arthur de Pins / France / 2003
http://www.arthurdepins.com/

Don't miss the Orionid meteor shower tonight

... The viewing should be good until dawn. Right before sunrise could even be the best time to view.

That's a lot of rocks

Although the Orionids historically have produced between 10 and 20 meteors an hour, it's trending high.

“Since 2006, the Orionids have been one of the best showers of the year, with counts of 60 or more meteors per hour,” said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

Many meteor scientists believe that 2009 will be more of the same — lots of meteors.

I need GPS

That's good news for skywatching enthusiasts. But what if you're not an astronomer. How do you know where to look?

We advise — up. ...

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