Israeli Forces Shoot Dead Two Unarmed Palestinian Teenagers from 200 Meters
May 21st, 2014Via: Al Jazeera:
Defence for Children International (DCI) posted the two-minute video on YouTube, which it said was edited from six hours of surveillance footage from fixed security cameras at a Palestinian-owned business that overlooked the scene.
The group said the video showed that troops had committed “unlawful killings where neither child presented a direct and immediate threat to life at the time of their shooting”.
The Israeli rights group B’Tselem said the images back its findings that troops killed the teens without cause by firing live rounds from more than 200 metres away. The soldiers were in “zero danger” at the time, said Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem.
Palestinian hospital officials said Mohammad Abu Thaher and Nadim Nuwara were both shot in the heart. Officials originally gave their respective ages as 22 and 17, but later said they were 16 and 17.
Inside Italy’s Secret Toxic Waste Crisis
May 21st, 2014Via: Journeyman Pictures:
Class Action Suit Against Google for Ripping Off Website Operators
May 20th, 2014This happened to me back in 2006. *sigh* So this is definitely one for the News-Not-News file folder…
I used to recommend AdBlock Plus, which even blocks ads on my own site. More recently, Google has apparently bought off AdBlock Plus developers to cause the software to not block Google ads by default. You will want to go into Options – Filter Preferences and uncheck, “Allow some non-intrusive advertising.” After that, AdBlock Plus should work properly against Google again.
Via: Hagens Berman:
Hagens Berman, a consumer rights law firm, today filed a national class-action lawsuit against Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), claiming the company unlawfully denies payments to thousands of website owners and operators who place ads on their sites sold through Google AdWords.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Google abruptly cancels website owners’ AdSense accounts often without explanation shortly before payments are due, and refuses to pay for the ads that ran prior to the cancelation.
“This wrongful practice has sparked numerous bitter complaints from website owners across the Web, with some reporting losses reaching thousands of dollars a pop,” said Steve Berman, attorney representing consumers and founding partner of Hagens Berman. “What we believe to be true from our research is that Google’s practice is likely hurting thousands of website owners and operators who feel they have no way to fight giant company like Google.”
According to the suit, Google’s popular AdSense program translates annually to billions of dollars payable to website operators that host its ads via AdSense. Google’s AdSense advertising program induces website operators to host space for ads on their websites. Each time a visitor to the website interacts with the ad, the ad publisher who hosts the ad earns payment.
The complaint claims that the contracts and terms of service Google requires web publishers to sign are unconscionably one-sided, giving Google free reign to embark on what the suit claims are actions devoid of good faith or fair dealing.
“We have heard from Web publishers who tell us the same thing: Google cuts them off right before a payment is due, and stonewalls them when they object,” Berman said. “Google’s company motto is ‘Don’t be evil.’ Knowing what we know, I think they have a lot of work to do to be true to that goal.”
“Why I Was Forced to Shut Down Lavabit”
May 20th, 2014Via: Guardian:
If my experience serves any purpose, it is to illustrate what most already know: courts must not be allowed to consider matters of great importance under the shroud of secrecy, lest we find ourselves summarily deprived of meaningful due process. If we allow our government to continue operating in secret, it is only a matter of time before you or a loved one find yourself in a position like I did – standing in a secret courtroom, alone, and without any of the meaningful protections that were always supposed to be the people’s defense against an abuse of the state’s power.
China Bans Use of Microsoft’s Windows 8 on Government Computers
May 20th, 2014To save energy. *wink*
Via: Reuters:
China has banned government use of Windows 8, Microsoft Corp’s latest operating system (OS), in a blow to the U.S. technology company which has long been plagued by sales woes in the country.
The Central Government Procurement Center issued the ban on installing Windows 8 on government computers as part of a notice on the use of energy-saving products, posted on its website last week.
Focus Fusion
May 20th, 2014Via: Indiegogo:
The goal of Focus Fusion is to provide clean, safe and affordable energy around the globe.
Scientists at LPP Fusion, led by Chief Scientist Eric Lerner, are just one step away from this groundbreaking technology and we need your help for the final push.
With only 1/1000th the budget of the huge government funded projects, we are closer to affordable, unlimited, and ultra-clean energy than anyone else in the world.
Related: Focus Fusion Society
Illuminating Neuron Activity in 3-D
May 20th, 2014Via: MIT News:
Researchers at MIT and the University of Vienna have created an imaging system that reveals neural activity throughout the brains of living animals. This technique, the first that can generate 3-D movies of entire brains at the millisecond timescale, could help scientists discover how neuronal networks process sensory information and generate behavior.
The team used the new system to simultaneously image the activity of every neuron in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, as well as the entire brain of a zebrafish larva, offering a more complete picture of nervous system activity than has been previously possible.
“Looking at the activity of just one neuron in the brain doesn’t tell you how that information is being computed; for that, you need to know what upstream neurons are doing. And to understand what the activity of a given neuron means, you have to be able to see what downstream neurons are doing,” says Ed Boyden, an associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and one of the leaders of the research team. “In short, if you want to understand how information is being integrated from sensation all the way to action, you have to see the entire brain.”
Russia Close to $400 Billion Gas Pipeline Deal in Pivot to China
May 20th, 2014Via: Bloomberg:
Russia is close to signing a decades-long contract to supply natural gas to China at a price that would value the deal at about $400 billion, according to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev’s boss Vladimir Putin arrives in Shanghai today to try and complete an agreement after more than 10 years of talks. The stumbling block has been price, but with Putin facing trade and financial sanctions from the U.S. and European Union after he annexed Crimea from Ukraine, a deal is seen as probable.
“It’s time we reached an agreement with the Chinese on this issue,” Medvedev said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Moscow yesterday. “It is very likely that there will be a contract, which means long-term contracts.”
OAO Gazprom (OGZD), the world’s largest natural gas producer, aims to sign a contract with China National Petroleum Corp. during the visit, Russian executives and officials have said. China, Russia’s largest trading partner with $94.5 billion of business last year, was the only country in the United Nations Security Council not to censure Putin’s actions in Ukraine.
“We expect the Sino-Russia gas deal to be finally ratified during President Putin’s visit and the pricing terms will not be too demanding for China,” said Simon Powell, head of oil and gas research as CLSA Ltd. in Hong Kong.
The NSA Is Recording Every Cell Phone Call in the Bahamas
May 20th, 2014Via: First Look:
The National Security Agency is secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation on the island nation of the Bahamas.
According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the surveillance is part of a top-secret system – code-named SOMALGET – that was implemented without the knowledge or consent of the Bahamian government. Instead, the agency appears to have used access legally obtained in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to open a backdoor to the country’s cellular telephone network, enabling it to covertly record and store the “full-take audio” of every mobile call made to, from and within the Bahamas – and to replay those calls for up to a month.
SOMALGET is part of a broader NSA program called MYSTIC, which The Intercept has learned is being used to secretly monitor the telecommunications systems of the Bahamas and several other countries, including Mexico, the Philippines, and Kenya. But while MYSTIC scrapes mobile networks for so-called “metadata” – information that reveals the time, source, and destination of calls – SOMALGET is a cutting-edge tool that enables the NSA to vacuum up and store the actual content of every conversation in an entire country.
Related: NSA Capable of Recording Audio from 100% of Unnamed Country’s Phone Calls
U.S. Army’s Creepy Sci-Fi Helmets Come With Built-In A/C
May 20th, 2014Via: Bloomberg:
If the U.S. Army greenlights a radical new helmet design, its soldiers may have a harder time winning hearts and minds overseas. Quite simply, the thing is frightening—think motocross storm trooper.
Functionally, however, the helmet unveiled Tuesday marks a major advance. The same features that make it look so fierce—a full face mask and eye shield—filter out chemical attacks and biological pathogens. The screen over the eyes will populate with real-time data, like a sort of G.I. Google Glass.
The real masterstroke is a lightweight fan that cools the head and runs off batteries attached to a soldier’s hip or back. The next version will “sense,” using body sensors, when the fan needs to turn itself on, according to the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center.
Research Credit: emulsified
