The economic crisis in Europe has affected several nations, but Greece, Ireland and Italy the most, and an alarming increase in suicide rates among entrepreneurs and small-business owners is leading some European newspapers to call the trend “suicide by economic crisis”.

Furthermore, reading the newspapers and watching the television you can also understand how the crisis is leading people to commit different crimes: burglary, drug pushing and usury.

Yesterday in Italy, for example, five people were arrested for having lent money at usury rate to several Tuscan entrepreneurs, threatened and intimidated with actions which are typical of the mafia behaviour.

To get rid of from the clutches of usury is not simple. You may fear retaliation in case of complaint against the loan shark, the same retaliation you would probably have in case of nonpayment.

Nevertheless, who is victim of usury should find the strength to face the problem for his own good and for his loved ones.

It goes without saying that cooperation with the police force is vital, but to catch the usurer red-handed you can rely on several technological devices, such as bugs and micro digital voice recorders. Thanks to their small size, they can easily be hidden in any medium, allowing the person who brings them with herself to have her conversations listened and recorded. In this way, the police can intervene at the right time and arrest the criminal.

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. “

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.

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.

Until a few years ago, the only ones to use a miniature audio recorder, of the kind with micro cassette tapes, were journalists, and many times we happened to see one only on television during an interview with a politician, a celebrity or a sportsman.

Nowadays, not only audio cassettes, but also compact discs, are obsolete audio media, and have been replaced by digital media and memory cards which provide for a much larger storage space and ease of use, all this teamed up with a much smaller encumbrance.

Thanks to this, the world of audio recording as we know it today is totally different than it was a few years ago.

Now, with devices that are small but highly powerful, yet flexible and very easy to use, the ones that use a digital voice recorder are no longer only journalists, but many other types of professionals: managers may want to use it to record an important meeting in the office; students can take notes in audio format, or simply record their teachers during a lecture; private detectives and police officers, thanks to a digital recorder which comes in microscopic size, are able to gather evidence against a criminal or an unfaithful spouse, and use them as decisive evidence before a court of law.

These of course are just a few examples, but the bottom line is that digital technology of the twenty-first century is now present in many fields, and if used in the right way, may prove useful not only at work, but also in leisurely opportunities.

To find out the various models of digital micro recorders available in the market, and their different characteristics that make them suitable for professional use, for leisure or for investigation and surveillance, we recommend that you visit the Endoacustica website to find the right model for you.

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.

Stalking is a phenomenon that we often happens to read about on papers, when we see reports about of annoying fans of actresses, singers and celebrities who follow them everywhere, harassing them by phone and in some cases even reaching extreme consequences, with attacks such as the one that claimed the life of John Lennon in 1980.

Unfortunately, however, it is only famous people who can fall victims of this kind of harassment: every day we can see news about rejected ex boyfriends who attack their ex, or they “simply” call them on the phone at any time, day and night.
To protect oneself against this kind of occurrence, there is a simple and painless way that does not even require changing your phone number or even your home address: Just change your voice!

This is made possible through the use of a voice changing device, a simple box which, when connected to your home phone or your mobile handset, works on the frequencies of the human voice, so that when you speak normally, your counterpart on the other side of the receiver will think that they are talking to someone else.

This device, in fact, can change the voice in an absolutely natural and clean way, with no metallic tones, making you sound like a man, a woman, an elderly or young person, or even a child: a great way to protect yourselves from telephone harassment, not only of this kind but also by annoying creditors or telemarketing companies, without having to hide or change your address.

To find out in detail how the voice changer works, and discover the range of available models, as well as several items for protection of your privacy, we recommend that you contact Endoacustica, an industry leader with many years of experience in the security field at your complete disposal.

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.