(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

After several months of near-constant chatter about Chinese hackers, the U.S. government has finally come right out and said it: the Chinese military is probably, right this very minute, trying to hack into America's computers to steal our precious bodily fluids state secrets.

That's from the Pentagon's annual report to Congress which, as the New York Times reports, was unusually direct in accusing China of hax0ring America's shit. For example:

“In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military,” the nearly 100-page report said.

One possible motive? Mapping “military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.” The report also says that cyberweapons are an increasingly important element of China's strategic arsenal. Don't everyone start writing Red Dawn-meets-Neuromancer all at once!

China, however, has denied everything:

‘‘We’re willing to carry out an even-tempered and constructive dialogue with the U.S. on the issue of Internet security. But we are firmly opposed to any groundless accusations and speculations, since they will only damage the cooperation efforts and atmosphere between the two sides to strengthen dialogue and cooperation.’’

Oh, well, in that case, a thousand pardons.

(Photo: Twitter)

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Startup incubator Y Combinator has announced a VC program, allowing YC students access to guidance and an $80,000 investment from firms like Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst. The program will replace the Start Fund. [Y Combinator]

First we worried that tech sites were turning into press release regurgitation factories; now it turns out some of those press releases aren't even true. Here's how PRWeb helps distribute fake and sketchy press releases. [Search Engine Land]

Tumblr has broken into the top 10 sites in the U.S. with a worldwide audience of 170 million people. [Tumblr]

Don't worry: the Pentagon says a human will always decide if a robot kills you. Feel better now? [Wired]

Kickstarter is being sued for patent infringement over a $3 million 3D printing project. [The Daily Dot]

(Photo: Living Indefinitely)

The federal government spends money to fix the country's infrastructure, help senior citizens get affordable access to health care and beef up national security, but did you know that it also pays for stuff like workshops on Star Trek musings?

The Washington Times reports that Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn has brought to light some of the Pentagon's non-security focused spending, which--as a small-government Republican--he naturally wants cut. Buried among the list of things the Pentagon supposedly spent money on, including a new form of rolled-up beef jerky, is this little gem:

$100,000 for a 2011 workshop on interstellar space travel that included a session entitled "Did Jesus die for Klingons too?" The session probed how Christian theology would apply in the event of the discovery of aliens.

We're unsure how a workshop focusing on the hypothetical mixture of Star Trek and Christian doctrine cost $100,000, unless they actually hosted it in space, but perhaps that new rolled-up beef jerky is expensive to cater.

This isn't the first time Klingons and Jesus have been thrown into the same mix. There's actually a website called Klingons for Jesus, which satirically claims, "Jesus is the messiah the Klingons have been waiting for all along."

Sadly, it appears the $100,000 question was never actually answered.

Should've read the terms of service.

The cost of Google's purchase of Frommer's is said to be $23 million. At that price, how could they not buy it? [New York Times]

At last, a service that flags troublesome clauses lurking deep within those terms of service agreements you don't read. No longer need you fear becoming part of a human CentiPad. [TechCrunch]

The latest addition to Facebook's timeline: "Expecting a Baby." The Unbaby.me folks are going to love this. [Facebook]

The Pentagon is testing "hypersonic" flight technology that makes the Concorde (R.I.P.) look lame. Try New York to London in an hour. You can't even get to Bay Ridge that fast. [CNN]

In the future, we will all telecommute via iPads on wheels with giraffe-like necks. [The Verge]

In fact, they're soliciting proposals to build what Bits calls, "at its most basic level, an Internet meme tracker" that would use tools like "linguistic cues, patterns of information flow, topic trend analysis, sentiment detection and opinion mining." So, basically, the Pentagon is working the same program as Buzzfeed circa 2006?

There's one big difference of note, however, the Pentagon's memetracker will also be used for "countermessaging." Bits says:

"A successful program would influence attitudes through methods including automatically generating content, formerly known as spam, and “inducing identities,” which might be whipping up fake combatants."

Wonder what it says about our chances of winning the war on cyber-terrorism if the battle for foreign hearts and minds has come down to fake avatars and the Content Formerly Known As Spam.

In other words: We've created a monster.

"National security is being redefined by cyberspace," the report says. The Pentagon is ramping up its cyberwar strategy, though, with plans to hire more IT workers, tighten security against cyberattacks on government systems, wind down dependence on overseas servers/personnel and work with tech companies to get data about malicious cyber activities.

"Cyberspace is now an 'operational domain' just as land, air, sea and space have been for decades for the military," writes the DC-based Hillicon Valley, which goes on to observe that "the reaction from Capitol Hill in the immediate wake of the plan’s unveiling was mostly muted. Cybersecurity is not a polarizing political issue in the way some defense issues are, like missile defense." Sounds like a certain government agency has been slacking on its fearmongering!