The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret Seth Shulman closely examines the race to build the first telephone and uncovers potential bombshells with The Telephone Gambit. Although Alexander Graham Bell is widely accepted as the father of the telephone (despite the fact that rival inventor Elisha Gray submitted a similar claim the same day Bell filed his patent), Schulman provides intriguing evidence questioning if the scales were deliberately tipped in Alexander's favor. Was the venerable inventor party to theft from Gray's own research?
While researching Alexander Graham Bell at MIT's Dibner Institute, Seth Shulman scrutinized Bell's journals and within them he found the smoking gun, a hint of deeply buried historical intrigue. Delving further, Shulman unearthed the surprising story behind the invention of the telephone: a tale of romance, corruption, and unchecked ambition.
Bell furtively—and illegally—copied part of Elisha Gray's invention in the race to secure what would become the most valuable U.S. patent ever issued. book
India successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit on Monday January 21, 2008. The launch of the TECSAR satellite by an Indian-made rocket was carried out in clear weather at 9:15 am local time (0345 GMT) from the Sriharikota space station in southern India. (more) (the other one)
A disabled American spy satellite is rapidly descending and is likely to plunge to Earth by late February or early March, posing a potential danger from its debris, officials said Saturday.
Officials said that they had no control over the nonfunctioning satellite and that it was unknown where the debris might land. (more)
"We're long past alligator clips on copper wires." - Roger Pilon, writing in The Wall Street Journal about a bipartisan surveillance authorization measure that's already passed the Intelligence Committee. (more)
"Comrade J.: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America after the End of the Cold War"
Once a senior KGB officer who says he was driven by patriotism, Sergei Tretyakov says he defected in 2000 because he lost faith in post-Soviet Russia and he's now ready to tell his story for the first time.
As deputy head of intelligence at Russia's U.N. mission from 1995 to 2000, Tretyakov directed spy operations in New York and at the United Nations. He says his agents included a former Soviet bloc ambassador and a senior Russian official in the Iraqi oil-for-food program.
Tretyakov's defection with his wife and daughter in 2000 caused only a minor flurry and was shrouded in secrecy.
A new book by former Washington Post journalist Pete Earley reveals he was among the most senior Russian agents to defect to the United States, and that he was a double-agent passing secrets to Washington for up to three years before 2000. (more)
"You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows."Britain's Olympic sailing team have been targeted by the Chinese secret police for conducting "illegal meteorological surveys" at the 2008 Games' venue, Qingdao. The Royal Yachting Association, whose teams have been more successful than any other sports at the past two Olympics, set up a weather station in Qingdao to analyze the conditions that will influence August's races. But towards the end of 2006 the weather station, which cost £8,000, was confiscated by the Chinese authorities and has not been returned. "With the approaching of the Beijing Olympics, foreign illegal meteorological surveys have emerged in several Olympic cities," said the official portal, China.org.cn. "Three cases involving the US, the UK and Australia have been reported since last year. Foreign violators installed illegal monitoring equipments (sic) under the auspices of pre-match preparation. (more)
"For most people, the answer is ...don't worry."
(That, according to Time Magazine, who didn't see this.)"In the mayor's case (see last story), the reason his messages have been exposed is because of the specialized service the city has contracted with to handle wireless communications between city officials. Although the scandal is already being dubbed BlackBerrygate by wags, the gizmo the mayor and Beatty used to communicate wasn't a BlackBerry at all.It was a SkyWriter, and although it looks a lot like a BlackBerry, it's a dedicated messaging device provided to the city by SkyTel, a Mississippi-based wireless company that specializes in providing paging and messaging services to large corporations and governmental bodies through its own wireless network and devices."Every message sent over the SkyTel network ... is recorded, including: Date and time the message was sent... 'From' address... 'To' address... Length of the message..Entire message content up to 2,000 characters ," notes the company on its Web site in an article about the "benefits of message archiving."For major corporations and governments, the automatic archiving of such messages is important, where legal requirements mandate the storage of all business- or government-related communications. But tell the mayor that's a benefit today." (more)
A scandal envelops the mayor of Motown...
MI - It's bone-chillingly cold in Detroit, and the big auto show is going on, but all anyone can talk about is the scandal consuming Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick--the one a local TV station calls "Sex, Lies and Texting."
Once known as America's first hip-hop mayor, Kilpatrick, 37, had notably toned down his living-large lifestyle in his second term as the mayor of Motown. But this week, his partying past caught up with him.
The Detroit Free Press published text messages between Kilpatrick (who is married with children) and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty (divorced with children), that seem to confirm what both have denied under oath: that they had an illicit affair. (more)
MA - Students (Jason Kuo and Nathan Yeo) writing for Newton South High School's newspaper (Denebola) discovered that secret cameras were installed in their school.
"Two cameras are located near the locker rooms and are enclosed in black translucent domes. Three others are in halls around the school and are disguised as smoke detectors. They have clear views of bathrooms that school administrators believe are at most risk of vandalism." (more)
"It's just really concerning that the general public just wasn't made aware of the fact that they installed these cameras," said Jason Kuo, a managing editor who worked on the story.
School Principal Brian Salzer wrote an internal e-mail, "They were installed without permission from anyone. I didn't know they were up! The students broke the story to (Superintendent) Jeff Young, School Committee and me." ...Salzer, who wouldn't speak on camera, admitted he later learned who installed the cameras but refused to reveal names. He also indicated in his e-mail that he believed the cameras would be removed soon. (more)
Researchers claim they have perfected a system that uses computers to accurately identify images of people's faces, which could aid in the apprehension of criminals in public places such as airports that use surveillance cameras. (more)
MA - A 2006 graduate of New England School of Law will stand trial on Jan. 29 in Boston Municipal Court on charges of wiretapping, aiding an escape and disturbing the peace for allegedly using his cell phone to record the arrest of a 16-year-old juvenile in a drug case.The matter, which stems from an Oct. 1 incident, has drawn the ire of local legal heavyweight Harvey A. Silverglate — who has penned an op-ed on the case for the Jan. 28 issue of Lawyers Weekly — and others who worry about the consequences for “concerned citizens” who choose to record possible police misconduct. (more)
UPDATE - 2/1/08 - A Boston lawyer charged with wiretapping, disturbing the peace and aiding the escape of a suspect while using his cell phone to film a Boston Police officer won dismissal of the aiding-an-escape charge in Boston Municipal Court yesterday.
It pays to be a lawyer...
The trial of attorney Simon Glik is not the first time Massachusetts has pursued wiretapping charges against citizens with cameras. A Brighton District Court jury on Dec. 5, 2007 convicted protester Peter Lowney, 38, of Newton, of wiretapping when he video recorded a Boston University police sergeant during a demonstration - despite that officer's repeated instructions to stop taping. Lowney was sentenced to six months probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine. (more)
NY - Perhaps he was worried that Big Brother was listening in, but an extremely cautious Isiah Thomas did not deny Larry Brown's damning contention that the Garden was a veritable spy nest during Brown's one season coaching the Knicks.Finally breaking his silence on his disastrous season in New York, Brown told Philadelphia Magazine that "they had security people standing close to me in press conferences, and spies throughout the arena."So welcome to another PR mess for the Knicks. When asked yesterday after practice if Brown had ever complained to him about the spies, Thomas - Brown's boss in 2005-06 - took a long pause, but never denied the charge when he said, choosing his words carefully, "I don't think we need to revisit any of that." (more)
Ever consider that today was somebody else's future?What were they thinking about us?
Were they correct?
David Szondy knows.
You will find him here.
Take all the 'tours'.
You will never see your future the same again.
Need a daily dose to make you feel superior to your ancestors? Visit Ephemeral Isle.
Ever wonder what the News Hounds on Guam are craving?This is your chance to spy on them. (more)
Australia - Criminals are using wireless technology to skim personal identification numbers from bank cards at ATMs while sitting up to 100m away.Detective Superintendent Brian Hay of Queensland police said the new technology also meant skimmers no longer needed to install spy cameras on ATMs to record PINs. "All the card data is transmitted to their laptops while they're having a cup of coffee up to 100m away,'' he said. "They design the keypad overlays for specific types of ATMs so it makes them very difficult to detect.'' Police found the technology could be bought on the internet from black market websites. (more)
The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret 
