“Computer Glitch Blamed For Nationwide EBT System Shutdown On Saturday”
October 12th, 2013There’s no shortage of imbeciles on the Internet predicting certain doom every five minutes, but the dole situation is something that Cryptogon readers in the U.S. need to watch carefully—unless you think that tens of millions of heavily armed, broke and hungry people aren’t any cause for concern.
“Normal operations” depend on the availability of the EBT system. If it was to go down for an extended period of time, my guess is that there’s a two to three day window before all hell would break loose in affected areas. That might be an overly optimistic assessment.
Via: CBS:
People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure.
At about 9 a.m. Saturday, reports from across the country began pouring in that customers’ EBT cards were not working in stores.
At 2 p.m., an EBT customer service representative told CBS Boston that the system was currently down for a computer system upgrade.
Xerox spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer released further details later in the afternoon in an emailed statement.
“While the electronic benefits system is now up and running, beneficiaries in the 17 affected states continue to experience connectivity issues to access their benefits. Technical staff is addressing the issue and expect the system to be restored soon,” Wasmer said. “Beneficiaries requiring access to their benefits can work with their local retailers who can activate an emergency voucher system where available. We appreciate our clients’ patience while we work through this outage as quickly as possible.”
Wasmer said the affected states also included Alabama, California, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Courtney Rowe said the outage is not related to the government shutdown.
Shoppers left carts of groceries behind at a packed Market Basket grocery store in Biddeford, Maine, because they couldn’t get their benefits, said fellow shopper Barbara Colman, of Saco, Maine. The manager put up a sign saying the EBT system was not in use. Colman, who receives the benefits, called an 800 telephone line for the program and it said the EBT system was down due to maintenance, she said.
Ghoulish Corporate Fascism and the Cost of Pharmaceuticals
October 12th, 2013In the piece below, “Market competition among pharmaceutical companies,” means a market failure situation with cartel pricing.
Via: New York Times:
Thanks in part to the $250 million last year spent on lobbying for pharmaceutical and health products — more than even the defense industry — the government allows such practices. Lawmakers in Washington have forbidden Medicare, the largest government purchaser of health care, to negotiate drug prices. Unlike its counterparts in other countries, the United States Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which evaluates treatments for coverage by federal programs, is not allowed to consider cost comparisons or cost-effectiveness in its recommendations. And importation of prescription medicines from abroad is illegal, even personal purchases from mail-order pharmacies.
“Our regulatory and approval system seems constructed to achieve high-priced outcomes,” said Dr. Peter Bach, the director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. “We don’t give any reason for drug makers to charge less.”
And taxpayers and patients bear the consequences.
Related: Vitamin D Asthma
Research Credit: ottilie
U.S. Air Force Fires General In Charge of Nuclear Missiles
October 12th, 2013Two top officers involved with nuclear weapons have been removed within a couple of days.
Via: BBC:
The general in charge of the US Air Force’s long-range nuclear missiles has been sacked due to “loss of trust and confidence”, officials have said.
The Air Force said Maj Gen Michael Carey’s removal was for “behaviour during a temporary duty assignment”.
The sacking was not linked to the operation of the nuclear arsenal, which was safe, the officials insisted.
On Wednesday the US Navy announced an admiral overseeing nuclear weapons forces had been sacked from the role.
That was due to illegal gambling activities, officials said.
‘Unfortunate’
Michael Carey is a two-star general in the 20th Air Force and was responsible for maintaining intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at three bases across the US – a total of 450 missiles.
In a statement, the Air Force said Lt Gen James Kowalski, the commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, had made the decision.
It read: “Kowalski made his decision based on information from an Inspector General investigation into Carey’s behaviour during a temporary duty assignment.
“The allegations are not related to operational readiness or the inspection results of any 20th AF unit, nor do they involve sexual misconduct.”
Gen Kowalski said: “It’s unfortunate that I’ve had to relieve an officer who’s had an otherwise distinctive career spanning 35 years of commendable service.”
Gen Kowalski oversees all Air Force nuclear weapons, including aircraft-delivered.
…
On Wednesday the Navy announced that Vice-Adm Tim Giardina had been removed as second-in-command of US Strategic Command.
His job was to oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons forces.
He is accused of using counterfeit gambling chips in “a significant monetary amount” at an Iowa casino.
Adm Giardina was demoted to a two-star admiral and is being reassigned pending outcome of an inquiry.
‘Google Is Going to Include Your Face in Its New Ads’
October 11th, 2013Via: Business Week:
Google (GOOG) is tinkering with the ever-delicate balance between selling advertisements and creeping its users out. On Friday the company said it would begin including recommendations that Google+ users make in advertisements. The new policy kicks in on Nov. 11.
Here’s how it works: You use Google+ to rate some product or service. It turns out the company behind that product wants to advertise on Google. When the company purchases an ad, your friends will see a version that includes your photo along with what you said about the product.
India: Cyclone Phailin
October 11th, 2013Via: Accuweather:
India is expected to suffer catastrophic impacts from Severe Tropical Cyclone Phailin in less than 12 hours.
Destructive winds well over 160 kph (100 mph) and flooding rain of at least 100-200 mm (4-8 inches) is expected across a wide area. There will be a crippling storm surge of 4-6 meters (14-20 feet), as well as wind gusts to 250 kph, near the landfall point of Phailin which is expected across northeastern India Saturday morning EDT.
Anyone residing in the states of Orissa or eastern Andhra Pradesh is encouraged to take proper precautions and prepare for life-threatening conditions.
Spain: Franco-Fascism on the March
October 11th, 2013Via: Christian Science Monitor:
Extreme, neo-fascist groups in Spain are preparing for a show of force during this weekend’s nationalist holiday, and Spanish authorities are keeping a close eye on the situation.
But experts worry that the real fascist concern in Spain is not from small extremist groups, but rather from growing public displays of fascist sympathies by a small part of the conservative government’s constituency – and even among elected officials.
The Big Data Magic 8 Ball Now Hiring
October 11th, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
They can drive cars, win Jeopardy and find your soon-to-be favorite song. Machines are also learning to decipher the most human qualities about you — and help businesses predict your potential to be their next star employee.
A handful of technology companies from Knack.it Corp. to Evolv Inc. are doing just that, developing video games and online questionnaires that measure personality attributes in a job applicant. Based on patterns of how a company’s best performers responded in these assessments, the software estimates a candidate’s suitability to be everything from a warehouse worker to an investment bank analyst.
Welcome to hiring in the age of big data, an ambition marrying automation with analysis in the race to better allocate talent.
USC Helps Hollywood Concoct Obamacare PSYOP: “People Learn from TV”
October 11th, 2013Here are some excerpts from related posts:
‘Clearly a Smash Hit’: Population Reduction Through ‘Long-Running Serialized Dramas’:
And if the story is right, if the narrative is correct, people will live into that narrative. And in the absence of a good narrative will default into – maybe I will call them more “primal” sort of behavior sets.
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As part of its broader efforts to counter extremism in northern Mali, the United States also underwrote a series of radio soap operas whose plot twists emphasized the dangers of extremism.
—
And now…
Via: Marketplace:
Coming soon to your favorite TV shows: plot lines about the Affordable Care Act.
Hollywood Health & Society, a program with the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center got a $500,000 grant this week from The California Endowment to help TV writers tell better stories about the new health insurance law.
Why try to get your public health message into fictional story lines? People learn from TV,” says Marty Kaplan, the director of the Norman Lear Center. “Even if they know it is fiction, even if they know if writers can make stuff up, especially in the realm of medicine and public health, if a doctor says something to a patient, people tend to think that someone has checked that, that it’s true,” Kaplan says.
Kaplan’s group works to make sure that at least some of what comes out of doctors’ mouths is real, or at least real-ish. Hollywood Health & Society has worked with nearly 100 TV shows — everything from “Mad Men” to “Desperate Housewives” to “Dr. Vegas” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” The Center has access to the megaphone that is Hollywood.
And that’s appealing to The California Endowment, which gave the $500,000 grant. Hollywood Health & Society will reach out to TV writers and editors says Daniel Zingale, Senior V.P. of Healthy California at The California Endowment. “They’ll be giving them content, storylines, information, so that people watching those programs will learn about Obamacare and useful information about how to get enrolled.”
“A Corporate Trojan Horse”: Obama Pushes Secretive TPP Trade Pact, Would Rewrite Swath of U.S. Laws
October 11th, 2013Via: Democracy Now:
As the federal government shutdown continues, Secretary of State John Kerry heads to Asia for secret talks on a sweeping new trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is often referred to by critics as “NAFTA on steroids,” and would establish a free trade zone that would stretch from Vietnam to Chile, encompassing 800 million people — about a third of world trade and nearly 40 percent of the global economy. While the text of the treaty has been largely negotiated behind closed doors and, until June, kept secret from Congress, more than 600 corporate advisers reportedly have access to the measure, including employees of Halliburton and Monsanto. “This is not mainly about trade,” says Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “It is a corporate Trojan horse. The agreement has 29 chapters, and only five of them have to do with trade. The other 24 chapters either handcuff our domestic governments, limiting food safety, environmental standards, financial regulation, energy and climate policy, or establishing new powers for corporations.”
Hopey Changey: Obama’s Efforts to Control Media Are ‘Most Aggressive’ Since Nixon
October 10th, 2013Via: Threat Level:
The President Barack Obama administration has “chilled the flow of information on issues of great public interest,” according to a Thursday report that amounts to an indictment of the president’s campaign pledge of a more open government.
The report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit dedicated to global press freedoms, said Obama has “fallen short” on his promises of a transparent government while at the same time forging ahead with an unprecedented effort — the “most aggressive” since the President Richard M. Nixon administration — to silence government officials and the media at large.
“Six government employees, plus two contractors including Edward Snowden, have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information to the press—compared with a total of three such prosecutions in all previous U.S. administrations,” said the committee’s report, prepared by Leonard Downie Jr., the former executive editor of The Washington Post.
In a 2008 campaign speech, however, Obama said: “I’ll make our government open and transparent so that anyone can ensure that our business is the people’s business. No more secrecy.”
