United States of America are not only exporting democracy, but also controlling tools sold directly to ‘rogue governments’ and schemes. Of course this practice is not new, but lately it has become a little awkward in the Obama administration.

The U.S. Commerce Department is seeking whether the technology produced by a Californian company, has been able to help the Syrian Police to map and monitor dissidents by bugs. Revolts have been followed by a violent and bloody repression that led to the death of thousands of unarmed civilians.

Trade officials are trying to know if Blue Coat Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., was aware that its equipment and its software could be used by the Syrian government.

The company has already clearly expressed that it did not sell tools or spy software to the Syrian government, but it is aware that its products are used, however in Syria and maybe the regime got them through a third party. The U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria prohibit the tradings of most of the categories and the investigators are trying to determine who gave the Blue Coat technology to Syria.

Here is a declaration from the company, dating back to this month: “Blue Coat is aware of the violence in Syria, and is really sad because of the suffering and loss of human lives that could be the result of actions made by a repressive regime. We do not want our products to be used by the government of Syria or any other country embargoed by the United States.”

According to statements of the company, Blue Coat technology is not designed for surveillance purposes, but it has features that could help the authorities to monitor electronic communications, even allowing to block selected people access to certain websites and certain forms of social media.

Few days ago, in U.S. Parliament, three senators asked the Obama administration to see if Blue Coat and another California company, HP, have been provided with “instruments of repression”  Damascus.

“If the sale of US-made technology devices may have contributed to the ongoing violence, it is unacceptable and a solution should be investigated as soon as possible.”
If the Commerce Department found out that Blue Coat has clearly violated the license, U.S. could make the company pay a fine up to $ 1 million.

U.S. companies wishing to export devices that are “primarily used for hidden interception of oral or electronic communications cable” must contact the Department of Commerce for a license, according to current regulations regarding export. However, sales by U.S. companies in Syria are illegal, starting from the sanctions imposed by President George W. Bush, in 2004.

There’s more. During a Congress audition that took place on November 9, the Assistant Secretary of State, Jeffrey Feltman, said that the Blue Coat technology used in Syria, no export license had been granted.

In addition to Blue Coat, there is also Hewlett-Packard (HP), which has installed more than $ 500,000 of equipment in computer rooms located in Syria. These electronic brains are the basis of a surveillance system being built, able to monitor the use of e-mail and Internet in the country. The operational base of HP is therefore a control center for Syrian officials in Damascus, with whom they could keep track of citizens’ communications and track datas, models and personal contacts. An Italian company, Area SpA, is in charge of running the project.

“HP’s policy is to comply with all applicable export control laws and regulations of the United States,” the company said in a declaration. “We have no employees or facilities in Syria, and our sales in this country have been limited to groups that are recognized by U.S. law. Compliance with the United States and the laws of international trade are the highest priority for HP. “

When we talk about Apple’s mobile devices, namely the iPhone, we know that we can find a huge variety of gadgets and cases to protect it and keep it safe. We also know that there is a software to locate your phone via GPS in the unlucky event of theft or loss. Perhaps we did not know that engineers from Treehouse Lab have designed an interesting way to keep track of everything: phone, keys, wallets.

We are speaking about an innovative system, designed specifically for those who often lose things around, either because they are careless, or because they are running into a busy life, full of unexpected events.

The new system is called BiKN, a term that is pronounced as “beacon”: just as a light it acts illuminating your life, helping you to regain everything lost (if it bears the rught tag).

But let’s step back and focus on the system, thet consists of a special case for the iPhone keeping inside a receiver that interacts with a tracking tag. On your phone, a special iOS application manages the operations, allowing you to locate up to 8 cards simultaneously. All you have to do is to stuck ‘tags’ on items that you often lose.

Your bag, key ring, camera, wallet or even your dog (putting the special ‘tag’ on the collar). But the most interestingthing regards the possibility to set a maximum distance for each item, after which an alarm on the BiKN iPhone case. In this way, busy parents shoppingin the mall will not have to worry too much when they leave their children in the playground area.

User interface is clear and intuitive. “Find” mode includes an audio and video signal meter that helps you find everything that has been lost, every item that has gone out of place. The “Leash” function activates control within exact spatial boundaries. “Page” mode will sound an alert on one or more active tags (or other devices compatible with smart BiKN), becoming very useful for  families or groups.

The special BiKN clips are designed to be easily stuck to any object, a belt, a keychain, a pocket of a jacket. Each tag is equipped with a plug that opens and reveals a micro-USB port, letting users to set and synchronize via the BiKN iPhone case every single clip. in a mall.

Once purchased the case, the USB tag can be bought with an extra charge and they have to be charged through a computer. All equipment is useful and very practical and it will be available in 2012 for Apple iPhone 4 and 4S. There is still no information about the price.

While on Italian newspapers, forums and blogs there is a lot of talk about the bill on wiretapping that the government is attempting to pass, along with an array of other “ad personam” bills clearly aimed at defending solely the prime minister’s interests, on the web this bill seems to be already in effect, in a quiet way, without explicitly banning eavesdropping or telephone interception.

We are talking about Google, which has recently updated the list of categories of items that can not be promoted through its AdWords advertising service, in addition to the usual restrictions that prevent from advertising pornography, material which incites to racial hatred or violence, or any other illegal product or service.

A few days ago, the Italian branch of the Mountain View giant has sent a message to some of its advertisers, and more specifically those who produce or market listening devices, miniature recorders, hidden microphones, miniature cameras, listening bugs and all equipment used by law enforcement or detective agencies for their investigations against organized crime, fraud, corporate espionage or marital infidelity suspicions.

Google informs its advertisers that they have changed their advertising rules, and they no longer accept ads promoting products for espionage or wiretapping equipment.
We have already seen how, as it was the case with China, the Big G programmers have turned a blind eye to the surfers’ right to access to free information, setting up the filters that the Beijing government required to grant Google access to the world’s largest market, with its wealth of over a billion potential customers for advertisers.

In this case, we do not have (nor it is expected) a confirmation in this direction, but as the Italian long-running politician and former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti said, “bad thoughts are a sin, but they are often right”, it is not too unlikely that the long-reaching arm of the Italian government has targeted Google and the search engine’s main source of income: advertising.

If we consider that Mediaset, the broadcasting company owned by the Prime Minister have sued YouTube (which, as you know, is owned by Google), claiming a compensation for copyright infringement over publishing of video footage from its channels, the idea of an “exchange” between the lawsuit and a ban on advertising may not sound too unrealistic.

It would be a small and invisible move, but which would make life more difficult not only for those who use listening bugs to fight crime, but also for those who work behind the scenes in this field, manufacturing the bugs that are used during interception operations.

In short, if the Parliament does not pass the bill, in Italy there is always a way to work around that annoying little thing called law, and achieve the planned bill’s main objective: cutting down on telephone wiretapping.

The U.S. Army researchers are working to test a new robot, designed by Vecna Robotics, which would be used to recover and rescue wounded soldiers during combat. The robot, called BEAR (Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot), can spot a soldier in trouble thanks to its sensors and its cameras.

BEAR is controlled remotely via a special glove that allows the use of simple hand gestures to operate it, to make it approach the wounded soldier, pick him up from the ground and take him as soon as possible to the nearest medical point.

The rescue robot can carry a load of about 230 kg, lifting it gently with its hydraulic “arms”. With a height of about 1.80 m, BEAR can also inspect any area behind a wall, or lift its load on a raised surface. The arms are equipped with “hands” that can carry out precision tasks, ensuring that a wounded soldier will be treated with care and not moved abruptly.

Moreover, thanks to these features, BEAR can be used not only for rescue operations, but also for reconnaissance and surveillance, to transport explosives or hazardous materials that must be handled with care, or to inspect parcels which could conceal a bomb, defuse a mine, all this without putting human lives at risk.

The simulations and tests on BEAR are going on since about a year, and also include the development of a new iGlove, the glove used to control it, which will allow for a more precise control and for the ability to send advanced instructions, for example when defusing a bomb. In addition, the future version of BEAR will have several autonomous functions, which can be carried out without human intervention.

For U.S. soldiers deployed on the frontline in war zones, danger is always around the corner, in the form of an IED (Improvised Explosive Device), an ambush or a sniper. The most common effect of these threats is represented by the injuries sustained by soldiers, and of all wounds, the most dangerous ones are those which are not visible, ie those caused by head injuries or concussions.

Modern helmets provide adequate protection to the skull, but to protect the head, one often forgets that the face is exposed. To overcome these shortcomings, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working to create some sort of shield to be applied to helmets, which by increasing the protection for the user’s face, can similarly reduce the risk of head injury.

This sort of helmet shield, has been developed by the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, by analyzing via computer simulation the different consequences on the soldiers’ skull caused by exposure to explosions without a helmet, with an ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet) or wearing one with a transparent polycarbonate shield. In the latter case, the shock at brain level was significantly lower.

So far, the test was conducted by using only one scenario, involving an explosion taking place in front of the soldier. In the future, other tests will be made, simulating explosions of varying intensity, distance and angle, so as to measure the consequences, for example, in the neck area, and find ways to provide adequate protection to that part of a soldier’s body.

Obviously, everything is still in the planning phase, and the shield is not yet in production. American soldiers at the front look forward to the day when they will be able to use it to protect their faces from enemy threats.

To many of you, the term femto-photography will sound quite strange and meaningless, and to be honest, even your humble blogger had never heard it before, or at least, before an article appeared on the BBC defining it as a form of photography that uses the speed of light to create so-called “light echoes” and use them to photograph objects hidden from direct view, for example behind a corner.

According to this principle, the light that shines on an object and defines its shape can “bounce” around it, and based on this idea, a research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a kind of laser camera that using high-intensity and short-wave frequency laser beams, can manage to capture this light.

In this way, the camera is capable of discerning the shape of an object outside its direct viewing field, using a wall or door as a kind of “billiard bank” to get a view that its creators dubbed as similar to that of X-rays, but without radiation.

The technology that makes this possible is based on a laser that can fire a laser beam in pulses that last only a quadrillionth of a second, flooding the scene with light particles that start bouncing around the room or environment that you are trying to view.

By collecting these fragments of light that bounces off the walls, it is therefore possible to rebuild, at least in part, the image of what is inside the room without having a direct view; once the right way is found to obtain the whole image, the system could be used for example for fire rescue operations, or on a smaller scale, for endoscopic surgery.

For once, since it’s Friday and the weekend is coming, we want to allow us a little “light” diversion, talking about an item which, more than having a true utility function, has a “diplomatic” one, so to speak.

It is called Phone Kerchief, and it basically is, yes, a handkerchief that you can use to cover your phone. Thanks to the particular material of which it is made up of, the tissue is able to block the phone signal, preventing it from working and allowing its user to devote full attention to their counterparts or to an important meeting.

As a further sign of courtesy, the Phone Kerchief also has a small embroidery that reads “My phone is off for you“, which the wearer can use to communicate to the person in front of them that their conversation is more important than any incoming phone call.

Of course, the first thing that might come to anyone’s mind ask is that maybe, instead of spending $60 for a handkerchief in shielding material, it may be wiser to save a few bucks and turn off the phone with a simple gesture, but you know, marketing’s ways are not always so rational…

If you need to block all mobile traffic within a certain environment, such as a conference room during a meeting or a private negotiation, then it is surely wiser to use a much more advanced, although less “diplomatic”, technological support such as a jammer, which can block incoming calls as well as outgoing; a jammer is certainly much safer and more effective than the use of a simple handkerchief, and it also prevents prying ears from hearing the contents of your conversations.