Archive for November, 2013
Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
November 13th, 2013Via: WikiLeaks: Today, 13 November 2013, WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief […]
inFORM Is a Dynamic Shape Display That Can Render 3D Content Physically
November 13th, 2013Via: MIT / YouTube: inFORM is a Dynamic Shape Display that can render 3D content physically, so users can interact with digital information in a tangible way. inFORM can also interact with the physical world around it, for example moving objects on the table’s surface. Remote participants in a video conference can be displayed physically, […]
Tina Turner ‘Relinquishes’ U.S. Citizenship
November 13th, 2013Via: Washington Post: This item just in via an “activity” report from the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, headlined “Soul Legend Relinquishes U.S. Citizenship.” “Long-time Swiss resident Tina Turner” was in the embassy Oct. 24 to sign her “Statement of Voluntary Relinquishment of U.S. Citizenship under Section 349 (a)(1) of the INA” — the Immigration […]
Government Spying Causing Self-Censorship, Privacy Fears Among U.S. Writers
November 13th, 2013Via: CBS: In the wake of revelations about intrusive government surveillance, many American authors are worrying about the freedom of the press and some simply are avoiding controversial topics. A new report from the PEN Center and the FDR Group entitled “Chilling Effects: NSA Surveillance Drives U.S. Writers to Self-Censor” finds that 85 percent of […]
Americans 34 Times More Interested In Buying Guns Than Obamacare
November 13th, 2013Via: Zerohedge:
Kickstarter: Heirloom Chemistry Set
November 12th, 2013Treasure ahead. Via: Kickstarter: This is the chemistry set you always wanted as a kid but either didn’t get it or you got stuck with some cheap plastic wannabe.
The Second Operating System Hiding in Every Mobile Phone
November 12th, 2013The Find: Back in July 2013, The Washington Post reported that nearly a decade ago, the National Security Agency developed a new technique that allowed spooks to “find cellphones even when they were turned off. JSOC troops called this ‘The Find,’ and it gave them thousands of new targets, including members of a burgeoning al-Qaeda-sponsored […]
Qatar: Sahara Forest Project
November 12th, 2013Via: Science: A project to “green” desert areas with an innovative mix of technologies—producing food, biofuel, clean water, energy, and salt—reached a milestone this week in the Gulf state of Qatar. A pilot plant built by the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) produced 75 kilograms of vegetables per square meter in three crops annually, comparable to […]
Sweden Closes Four Prisons as Number of Inmates Plummets
November 12th, 2013Wikipedia: United States Incarceration Rate: The incarceration rate in the United States of America is the highest in the world today. As of 2009, the incarceration rate was 743 per 100,000 of national population (0.743%). In comparison, Russia had the second highest, at 577 per 100,000, Canada was 123rd in the world at 117 per […]
State Obamacare Exchanges Enroll Only 3 Percent of Target
November 12th, 2013Via: Reuters: President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform has reached only about 3 percent of its enrollment target for 2014 in 12 U.S. states where new online health insurance marketplaces are mostly working smoothly, a report released on Monday said. States with functioning exchanges have signed up 49,100 people compared with the 1.4 million people expected […]
