Archive for December, 2013
U.S. Doctors Choose a $2000 Drug Instead of a $50 Alternative to Treat Eye Condition
December 8th, 2013Via: Washington Post: The two drugs have been declared equivalently miraculous. Tested side by side in six major trials, both prevent blindness in a common old-age affliction. Biologically, they are cousins. They’re even made by the same company. But one holds a clear price advantage. Avastin costs about $50 per injection. Lucentis costs about $2,000 […]
The Day Mandela Was Arrested, With A Little Help From the CIA
December 7th, 2013Via: Time: One of the great things about the late great Nelson Mandela is that he didn’t hold grudges. How else could he have accepted normal relations with the CIA, which tipped off the white-supremacy regime to his whereabouts in 1962? According to a 1990 Johannesburg Sunday Times newspaper account, a CIA agent by the […]
Birds Will Attack Amazon’s Delivery Drones
December 7th, 2013Amazon is just one potential operator. Once the rules are formalized in 2015, tens of thousands of organizations are going to be operating similar aircraft. Via: Slate: Birds already cause a lot of problems for other things in the airspace. The FAA has tracked more than 121,000 instances of bird-aircraft collisions since 1990. These are […]
Reagan Administration, CIA Complicit in DEA Agent’s Murder, Say Former Insiders
December 7th, 2013Via: Tico Times: Former DEA El Paso boss: Agent Camarena had discovered the arms-for-drugs operation run on behalf of the Contras, aided by U.S. officials in the National Security Council and the CIA, and threatened to blow the whistle on the covert operation. Two former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and a former U.S. Central […]
Stanford: Method of recording Brain Activity Could Lead to ‘Mind-Reading’ Devices
December 7th, 2013Intracranial implant required. Via: Stanford: A brain region activated when people are asked to perform mathematical calculations in an experimental setting is similarly activated when they use numbers — or even imprecise quantitative terms, such as “more than”— in everyday conversation, according to a study by Stanford University School of Medicine scientists. Using a novel […]
Northrop Grumman RQ-180
December 7th, 2013Via: Aviation Week: A large, classified unmanned aircraft developed by Northrop Grumman is now flying—and it demonstrates a major advance in combining stealth and aerodynamic efficiency. Defense and intelligence officials say the secret unmanned aerial system (UAS), designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, is scheduled to enter production for the U.S. Air Force […]
Japan: Special State Secrets Law
December 6th, 2013Update: Japan Enacts Strict State Secrets Law Despite Protests — Via: Guardian: Whistleblowers and journalists in Japan could soon find themselves facing long spells in prison for divulging and reporting state secrets, possibly including sensitive information about the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the country’s souring relations with China. Under a special state secrets bill expected […]
NROL-39: Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach
December 6th, 2013Via: Register: The NRO are totally embracing their menacing Big Brother persona and putting it out there for world+dog to see, having launched a bunch of satellites and a mysterious payload on a spacecraft yesterday – complete with the logo of a creepy octopus sucking the life out of our world. The Office of the […]
Rise of the Machines – USA
December 6th, 2013Via: Journeyman Pictures:
Microsoft Mood Bra to Help Women with Emotional Pigouts [???]
December 6th, 2013Via: BBC: Microsoft researchers have designed a smart bra that can detect stress. The prototype contains removable sensors that monitor heart and skin activity to provide an indication of mood levels. The aim was to find out if wearable technology could help prevent stress-related over-eating. Mood data was provided to the wearer via a smartphone […]
