Archive for February, 2012
The Boy Who Played with Fusion
February 19th, 2012One for your bulging Parents-of-Sons file folder… Via: Popular Science: One afternoon, Tiffany ducked her head out of the door to the garage and spotted Taylor, in his canary yellow nuclear-technician’s coveralls, watching a pool of liquid spreading across the concrete floor. “Tay, it’s time for supper.” “I think I’m going to have to clean […]
‘What will the millions of middle-age, unskilled workers do when they are displaced by technology?’
February 19th, 2012My guess is that something like this will be part of the answer: Engineered H5N1: A Rare Time for Restraint in Science: Two scientific teams have recently engineered the H5N1 virus to make it readily transmissible between ferrets. Given that ferrets are considered the most reliable animal surrogate for human influenza infection, the newly engineered […]
China: Electric Cars Could Cause Worse Pollution Than Conventional Cars
February 19th, 2012While it might be obvious to you and me that burning coal to charge electric vehicles makes about as much sense as pissing into the wind, my guess is that this would be news to many. Via: io9: The electric (or even hybrid) car has been heralded as a way to help limit the amount […]
FOIA Request Shows Which Printer Companies Cooperated With U.S. Government
February 18th, 2012Via: Slashdot: Easy enough to avoid government dots; just don’t buy printers from Canon, Brother, Casio, HP, Konica, Minolta, Mita, Ricoh, Sharp, or Xerox.
Nevada Approves Regulations for Self-Driving Cars
February 18th, 2012Via: CBS: Nevada is envisioning a day when taxicabs might shuttle fares without a driver, or people with medical conditions that make them ineligible for a license could get around with a virtual chauffeur. The concept took a big step when Nevada became the first state to approve regulations that spell out requirements for companies […]
McCain: Cybersecurity Bill Ineffective Without NSA Monitoring the Net
February 18th, 2012John, maybe you didn’t get the memo. The NSA is already monitoring the net. Via: Wired: McCain and his colleagues oppose the current bill on the grounds that it would give the Department of Homeland Security regulatory authority over private businesses that own and operate critical infrastructure systems and that it doesn’t grant the National […]
SWIFT READY TO BLOCK IRANIAN BANK TRANSACTIONS
February 18th, 2012When I studied International Relations in college, we were taught that economic sanctions could be on par with, “Rockets and bombs,” as one professor put it, and potentially much worse. Questions about economic sanctions amounting to collective punishment and other violations of International Law are ignored by the perpetrators. These types of policies resulted in […]
Statements by James Blackheath, House of Lords, 16 February 2012
February 18th, 2012Also see: Did Somebody Just Try to Buy the British Government? Record $6 Trillion of Fake U.S. Bonds Seized in Mafia Probe Via: Lords Hansard: 16 Feb 2012 : Column 1016 5.20 pm Lord James of Blackheath: My Lords, I hope the minute that that has taken has not come off my time. I do […]
Iranian Naval Ships Enter Mediterranean via Suez
February 18th, 2012Via: Reuters: Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt’s Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel. “Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces,” a source in the canal authority said on Friday. The destroyer and a […]
FBI Manages to Produce Another ‘Homegrown’ Terrorism Spectacle
February 18th, 2012Via: Washington Post: The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police arrested a Moroccan man Friday in downtown Washington after a lengthy investigation into an alleged plot to carry out a shooting spree and a suicide bombing at the Capitol. Amine el-Khalifi, 29, was picked up while carrying an inoperable MAC-10 automatic weapon and a fake […]
