Lifeboat Foundation

In a major blow to citizens’ privacy, the US Senate voted today to give law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA the power to look into your browser history without a warrant. Thanks, Mitch McConnell.

Senators Ron Wyden from Oregan and Senator Steve Daines of Montana led the charge to insert privacy protections into the Patriot Act, which gives law enforcement agencies power for surveillance in order to maintain national security. However, the privacy protection amendment fell short by just one vote, as many senators who may have voted in favor of it didn’t show up.

‘s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

A group of prominent academic scientists that has been advising the U.S. government on security matters since the Cold War is conducting a quick-turnaround, pro bono study of a new threat to national security—the impact of COVID-19 on academic research. And this time it’s personal.

Last month, some 30 members of Jason began to tackle the thorny question of how to reopen university laboratories safely in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Nobody is paying for the study, a rare departure for the group, whose work is usually financed by government agencies and often involves classified information. But the study’s leader, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) physicist Peter Fisher, says several federal agencies have expressed interest in the group’s analysis of the technical challenges facing every university that wants to resume research operations without jeopardizing the health of the faculty, students, and staff who work in those labs.

If schedules hold, United Launch Alliance and SpaceX will highlight this weekend with back-to-back rocket launches, a cadence rarely seen on the Space Coast.

First on the Space Force’s calendar is X-37B, a secretive Department of Defense spaceplane that stays in orbit years at a time, testing new systems and capabilities. The 29-foot vehicle will fly on an Atlas V rocket between 6:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Saturday, though an exact time has not yet been released due to security concerns. Launch Complex 41 will host the attempt.

Though most of the spaceplane’s capabilities are classified, the Space Force said the mission known as Orbital Test Vehicle 6 will host more experiments than ever before. Some of those include testing radiation’s effects on seeds, transforming solar power to transmissible microwave energy, and how space affects different kinds of materials.

WASHINGTON — SpaceX on May 6 was awarded an $8.9 million contract modification that gives the U.S. Space Force direct insight into the inner workings of the company’s commercial and civil space missions.

The contract for “non-National Security Space fleet surveillance” gives the Space Force access to SpaceX missions until November.

“This contract provides for non-NSS fleet surveillance efforts across the SpaceX family of launch vehicles for non-NSS missions,” said the contract announcement. The $8.9 million is an addition to an existing $297 million contract awarded to SpaceX in February 2019 for three national security launches.

Physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) have invented a new radar prototype that uses quantum entanglement as a method of object detection. This successful integration of quantum mechanics into devices could significantly impact the biomedical and security industries. The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon whereby two particles remain interconnected, sharing physical traits regardless of how far apart they are from one another. Now, scientists from the research group of Professor Johannes Fink at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) along with collaborators Stefano Pirandola from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of York, UK, and David Vitali from the University of Camerino, Italy—have demonstrated a new type of detection technology called microwave quantum illumination that utilizes entangled microwave photons as a method of detection. The prototype, which is also known as a quantum radar, is able to detect objects in noisy thermal environments where classical radar systems often fail. The technology has potential applications for ultra-low power biomedical imaging and security scanners.

Samsung has confirmed a “perfect 10” critical security issue that has been present in every Galaxy smartphone from late 2014 onward. Here’s what you need to know.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A former Green Beret has taken responsibility for what he claimed was a failed attack Sunday aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and that the socialist government said ended with eight dead.

Jordan Goudreau’s comments in an interview with an exiled Venezuelan journalist capped a bizarre day that started with reports of a predawn amphibious raid near the South American country’s heavily guarded capital.

An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general now facing U.S. narcotics charges to train dozens of deserters from Venezuela’s security forces at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia. The goal was to mount a cross-border raid that would end in Maduro’s arrest.

Murphy’s Law: Everything that can go wrong will in fact go wrong.

Here is how to set the table for Murphy’s Law and become the epic center in the world for the COVID-19:

A. Eliminate the entire global health security team at the White House. Their job? Managing pandemics like COVID-19.

Continue reading “France’s first Covid-19 case ‘dates back to December’, flu retest shows” »

Thermal cameras sound like a great idea for folks who are looking for a false sense of security and/or lack a basic understanding of what being an asymptomatic carrier means…

When the Venetian Resort reopens following the lifting of Las Vegas’ stay-at-home order, it will empoy thermal screening and full-time medics.