Organised crime targets waste recycling

Organised crime has moved into the recycling industry – a development that has become clear over the past few months after a series of raids to enforce the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.

In a raid at the start of June, police and officials from the Environment Agency targeted two east London locations – a farm at Upminster and an industrial site at Rainham – and forced open around 500 containers full of old computers, monitors, fridges and assorted electrical waste destined for illegal export to Africa, where it would be stripped down for raw materials.

“Our investigations have found that the majority of this equipment is beyond repair and is being stripped down under appalling conditions in Africa. But the law is clear – electrical waste must be recycled in the UK, not sent to developing countries in Africa where unsafe dismantling puts human health and the environment at risk,” said the Environment Agency’s national enforcement service project manager, Chris Smith.

“The Environment Agency has created a national team to stamp out this illegal trade and strong intelligence work has resulted in today’s operation – the most significant action to date in investigating suspected electrical waste being shipped to Africa.”

Read the full story on the Guardian website.

Phorm shares fall as BT opts out

Shares in the online ad firm Phorm have fallen by more than 40% after BT said it had no immediate plans to use the service that tracks online behaviour. The firm’s shares were down 43.16% at 270p at 13:13 BST.

Phorm serves up adverts related to a user’s web browsing history, which it monitors by taking a copy of the places they go and search terms they look for. However, it came in for considerable criticism from privacy groups and prompted an EU investigation.

Phorm builds a profile of users by scanning for keywords on websites visited and then assigns relevant ads. It has proved controversial because it scans almost all sites a user visits and there is an ongoing political debate about how a user gives consent.

Phorm had conducted trials of its technology with BT, which it marketed as Webwise. A spokesman for British Telecom, Mike Jarvis, told the BBC that they were not completely closing the door on Phorm’s Webwise service.

In April, Amazon blocked Phorm from scanning its web pages to produce targeted advertising, as has the UK government, citing privacy concerns.

Phorm declined an interview request, instead issuing a statement saying its activities “remain ongoing” and that it was looking forward ” to creating the conditions necessary for UK ISPs to move to deployment”.

Read the full story on the BBC News website.

Google targets Microsoft with new OS

Google has issued its clearest challenge to rival Microsoft so far, by announcing its plans to create a new computer operating system aimed at laptop users. The Californian internet company said it is working on a lightweight system that is based on the Chrome web browser it launched last year.

“It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” said the company on the Official Google Blog.

The first version of the system, which will be targeted at netbook computers – the small, portable laptops that have become popular in recent years – is due to be made available in the second half of 2010.

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” said the announcement. “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.”

It added that there would be a heavy focus on creating a system that would not require users to worry about security holes and virus warnings.

Although the company was keen to keep expectations low by suggesting a focus on netbook computers, it will undoubtedly be hoping that it can make inroads against Microsoft, the software giant that has dominated the operating system market for more than a decade with Windows.

Read the full story on the The Guardian website.

Governments hit by cyber attack

A widespread computer attack has hit several US government agencies while some South Korean government websites also appear to be affected.

The US Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department were all hit by the attack that started on July 4. In South Korea, the presidential Blue House and Defence Ministry, National Assembly appear to have been hit.

US officials have not released details of the attack. Ben Rushlo, head of internet technologies at web performance firm Keynote Systems described it as a “massive outage”.

Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said the body’s US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) told federal departments about the issue and of steps “to mitigate against such attacks”.

Recently the US homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano told the BBC that protecting against virtual attacks was a matter of “great concern” and something the US was “moving forward with great alacrity”.

The attacks in South Korea seemed to be connected to the attack of US government services, said Ahn Jeong-eun, a spokesperson at Korea’s Information Security Agency. South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency is reporting that North Korea may be behind Tuesday’s cyber attack.

Read the full story on the BBC News website.

Murdoch and Google eye Twitter

As the media world’s most powerful figures gather in Sun Valley, Idaho to discuss the state of the industry the topics are likely to range far and wide.

But aside from subjects like the economy and the influence of the internet, one question is likely to dominate conversations among the event’s moguls and millionaires: will anyone broker a deal to buy Twitter?

The hyped internet company’s chief executive, Evan Williams, is one of hundreds of faces attending the shindig – a high-profile but secretive event organised by investment group Allen & Co.

The fact that his fellow attendees reads like a Who’s Who of the internet industry – including Google boss Eric Schmidt, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, new AOL chief Tim Armstrong, and media magnates Barry Diller and Rupert Murdoch – has lead some to speculate that an acquisition could be on the cards.

“Ev is going to be the belle of the ball,” Mark Pincus, founder of online games company Zynga told the Associated Press. Pincus, who will also be attending the conference, said that the web industry could have something to teach the rest of the crowd.

In the past Twitter – which has more than 30m users worldwide – has turned down offers from a variety of companies, including an approach from Facebook valued at $500m.

Other attendees of the conference include billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Sony boss Sir Howard Stringer, Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy and Bob Iger, the president and CEO of Disney.

Read the full story on the The Guardian website.

What’s right and wrong with media now

Like most things on the Internet, there’s a good side and a dark side to where the media business is headed.

The good side is very good: thousands of layers of mostly needless middlemen and processes are being eliminated as journalists get a direct channel to their readers. And, because it’s a two way medium, readers get that channel right back. And in the cases where the subject of an article has been wronged, the Web gives them powerful megaphones to fight back.

In short, the more everyone has a voice, the more reporters are challenged to make sure they are right, because they will be called out.

But the bad side is also very bad. The elimination of those layers – typically fact checkers, editors, lawyers and just time to make sure a work is fully baked—also allows mistakes, lazy reporting, a dependence on rumors, and hot-headed, unfair treatment to subjects. Worse: The metrics around the Web make it crystal clear which kinds of stories drive the most traffic. That leads to salacious reporting for the sake of clicks and comments.

It’s easy to point the finger at blogs, especially by certain members of old media losing money quarter-after-quarter. But this is not just a technology change as most corners of media are fighting for survival, it’s become a cultural change.

Read the full story on the Tech Crunch website.

Turin Shroud faked by Da Vinci?

The Turin Shroud was faked by Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci using pioneering photographic techniques and a sculpture of his own head, a television documentary claims.

A study of facial features suggests the image on the relic is actually da Vinci’s own face which could have been projected into the cloth.

The artefact has been regarded by generations of believers as the face of the crucified Jesus who was wrapped in it, but carbon-dating by scientists points to its creation in the Middle Ages.

American artist Lillian Schwartz, a graphic consultant at the School of Visual Arts in New York who came to prominence in the 1980s when she matched the face of the Mona Lisa to a Leonardo self-portrait, used computer scans to show that the face on the Shroud has the same dimensions to that of da Vinci.

“It matched. I’m excited about this,” she said. “There is no doubt in my mind that the proportions that Leonardo wrote about were used in creating this Shroud’s face.”

The claims was made in a Channel Five documentary, shown on Wednesday night, that described how da Vinci could have scorched his facial features on to the linen of the Shroud using a sculpture of his face and a camera obscura – an early photographic device.

Read the full story on the Telegraph website.