Archive for April, 2014
U.S. Government Spied on Human Rights Workers
April 9th, 2014Shocker. Via: Guardian: The US has spied on the staff of prominent human rights organisations, Edward Snowden has told the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Europe’s top human rights body. Giving evidence via a videolink from Moscow, Snowden said the National Security Agency – for which he worked as a contractor – had deliberately snooped […]
Serious Reading Takes a Hit from Online Scanning and Skimming
April 9th, 2014Via: Washington Post: Claire Handscombe has a commitment problem online. Like a lot of Web surfers, she clicks on links posted on social networks, reads a few sentences, looks for exciting words, and then grows restless, scampering off to the next page she probably won’t commit to. “I give it a few seconds — not […]
Beef Prices Hit All-Time High in U.S.
April 9th, 2014Via: Los Angeles Times: Come grilling season, expect your sirloin steak to come with a hearty side of sticker shock. Beef prices have reached all-time highs in the U.S. and aren’t expected to come down any time soon. Extreme weather has thinned the nation’s beef cattle herds to levels last seen in 1951, when there […]
Takeda, Lilly Jury Awards $9 Billion Over Actos Cancer Risks
April 9th, 2014Via: Bloomberg: Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. were ordered to pay a combined $9 billion in punitive damages after a federal court jury found they hid the cancer risks of their Actos diabetes medicine in the first U.S. trial of its kind.
Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 MPH
April 9th, 2014Via: Wired: The U.S. Navy is tapping the power of the Force to wage war. Its latest weapon is an electromagnetic railgun launcher. It uses a form of electromagnetic energy known as the Lorentz force to hurl a 23-pound projectile at speeds exceeding Mach 7. Engineers already have tested this futuristic weapon on land, and […]
LAPD Officers Tampered with In-Car Recording Equipment
April 9th, 2014Via: Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles police officers tampered with voice recording equipment in dozens of patrol cars in an effort to avoid being monitored while on duty, according to records and interviews. An inspection by Los Angeles Police Department investigators found about half of the estimated 80 cars in one South L.A. patrol division […]
NATO Warns Russia Against Further Intervention
April 8th, 2014Via: BBC: Nato has warned Russia that further intervention in Ukraine would be a “historic mistake” with grave consequences. Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Moscow must pull back troops it has massed on the Ukrainian border. On Tuesday, Ukraine regained control of one of the government buildings occupied by pro-Russian activists in the east of […]
Al Sharpton’s Secret Work As FBI Informant
April 8th, 2014Via: The Smoking Gun: The former mob snitch has become a regular in the White House, where he has met with the 44th president in the East Room, the Roosevelt Room, and the Oval Office. He has also attended Obama Christmas parties, speeches, policy announcements, and even watched a Super Bowl with the First Family […]
‘Heartbleed’ Bug in OpenSSL Puts Encrypted Communications at Risk
April 8th, 2014Via: PC World: Computer security experts are advising administrators to patch a severe flaw in a software library used by millions of websites to encrypt sensitive communications. The flaw, nicknamed “Heartbleed,” is contained in several versions of OpenSSL, a cryptographic library that enables SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Security Layer) encryption. Most websites […]
U.S. Navy Scaling Up Fuel from Seawater Program
April 8th, 2014Via: U.S. Naval Research Lab: Navy researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Materials Science and Technology Division, demonstrate proof-of-concept of novel NRL technologies developed for the recovery of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater and conversion to a liquid hydrocarbon fuel. Research Credit: ottilie
