Archive for February, 2012
Durable Goods Orders in U.S. Slump 4%, Most in Three Years
February 28th, 2012Via: Bloomberg: Orders for U.S. durable goods fell in January by the most in three years, led by a slowdown in demand for commercial aircraft and business equipment. Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years slumped 4 percent, more than forecast, after a revised 3.2 percent gain the prior month, data from […]
White House Pumped Millions Into NYPD’s Muslim Surveillance Programs
February 28th, 2012Via: CBS: Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance. The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations […]
IBM Breakthrough May Make Practical Quantum Computer 15 Years Away Instead of 50
February 28th, 2012Via: New York Times: I.B.M. is jumping into an area of computing that has, until now, been primarily the province of academia: the quest to build a quantum computer. A computer that took advantage of the oddities of quantum physics could solve in seconds certain problems that would occupy present-day computers for billions of years. […]
University of Melbourne ‘Ethicists’ Call for Legalized Murder of Newborns
February 28th, 2012Via: Journal of Medical Ethics: Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption […]
U.S. Air Force Developing “Optionally-Manned” Nuclear Bomber
February 27th, 2012Via: The Diplomat: The Air Force has been working on a bomber since 2006, according to most reports, with the aim of first complementing then replacing the existing fleet of 150 B-52, B-1 and B-2 bombers, the oldest of which date from the early 1960s. Then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates suspended the bomber development […]
Diabetes May Start in the Intestines
February 27th, 2012Via: Science Daily: Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have made a surprising discovery about the origin of diabetes. Their research suggests that problems controlling blood sugar — the hallmark of diabetes — may begin in the intestines. The new study, in mice, may upend long-held theories about the causes of […]
U.S./Mexico Border Fence
February 27th, 2012Enjoy the TSA’s full body X-ray or groping at the airport… Via: YouTube: Research Credit: P&P
Swarms Of Autonomous Micro-Air-Vehicles Modeled On Insects
February 27th, 2012Via: NPR: Do bees, swarms of bees, make you nervous? Maybe not. Maybe they remind you of honey, flowers and warm summer days. You stay out of their way and they stay out of yours. What if, however, the bees weren’t bees at all but hundreds (or thousands) of autonomous microbots, facsimiles of the real […]
Wikileaks Stratfor Emails
February 27th, 2012Via: Wikileaks: Today, Monday 27 February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence […]
Greece: Farmers Cut Out Parasitic Middlemen, Sell 24 Tons of Potatoes Directly to Consumers
February 27th, 2012Yes. This is the way to do it. Via: Guardian: Hammered by the financial crisis that has led to ever diminishing income, a group of residents in northern Greece have joined forces with potato farmers to slash consumer prices and ensure producers can get their crop to markets by cutting out the middle man. Hundreds […]
