hypnosec writes: The government of Russia has announced a ~$110, 000 bounty to anyone who develops technology to identify users of Tor, an anonymising network capable of encrypting user data and hiding the identity of its users. The public description (in Russian) of the project has been removed now and it only reads “cipher ‘TOR’ (Navy).” The ministry said it is looking for experts and researchers to “study the possibility of obtaining technical information about users and users’ equipment on the Tor anonymous network.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Continued here:
Russia Posts $110,000 Bounty For Cracking Tor’s Privacy
As part of the site’s ongoing Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Made series, MSN has a video about Mexico’s Richart Sowa, a former carpenter who became interested in ecological engineering and left his job to spend over six years building a manmade island made from mostly recycled materials. Read more… 
Airbnb announced today that it will begin charging San Francisco’s 14 percent hotel tax on reservations in the city, starting this summer. The taxes will be paid by guests. Last week, the company announced a different partnership in Portland, Oregon, where Airbnb itself will pay some city taxes. Read more… 
Nerval’s Lobster writes “Commercial package-delivery drones such as those revealed by Amazon and DHL could face danger from more than shotgun-toting, UAV-hunting yahoos following the successful test of a drone-killing laser by the U.S. Army. Though it’s more likely to take aim at enemy observation drones than Amazon’s package-deliver ‘copters, the U.S. Army’s High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL-MD) did prove itself in tests last week by shooting down 90 incoming mortars and a series of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The original goal during the test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico was to burn out or blow up mortar rounds and blind the cameras or other sensors carried by drones. The laser proved capable enough to damage or slice off the tails of target drones, which brought them down, according to Terry Bauer, HEL MD program manager, as quoted in the Dec. 11 Army announcement of the test. The quarter-sized beam of super-focused light set off the explosives in the 60-millimeter mortars in mid-flight, leaving the rest to fall ‘like a rock, ‘ Bauer said. The laser could target only one mortar at a time, but could switch targets quickly enough to bring down several mortars fired in a single volley. The laser and its power source are contained in a single 500-horsepower, four-axle truck but was directed by a separate Enhanced Multi Mode Radar system. The next step is a move from New Mexico to a testing range in Florida early next year ‘to test it in ran and fog and things like that, ‘ according to Bauer.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 