Fewer Americans Than Ever Trust U.S. Government
March 12th, 2013In other news, 1.6 Billion Rounds Of Ammo For Homeland Security? It’s Time For A National Conversation:
The Denver Post, on February 15th, ran an Associated Press article entitled Homeland Security aims to buy 1.6b rounds of ammo, so far to little notice. It confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security has issued an open purchase order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. As reported elsewhere, some of this purchase order is for hollow-point rounds, forbidden by international law for use in war, along with a frightening amount specialized for snipers. Also reported elsewhere, at the height of the Iraq War the Army was expending less than 6 million rounds a month. Therefore 1.6 billion rounds would be enough to sustain a hot war for 20+ years. In America.
Add to this perplexing outré purchase of ammo, DHS now is showing off its acquisition of heavily armored personnel carriers, repatriated from the Iraqi and Afghani theaters of operation.
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows…
Via: CBS News:
The Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. has found that fewer Americans than ever trust the decisions made by the government.
Data collected from a survey taken in January of this year indicates that all demographics and partisan groups experienced an increasing lack of faith in government leadership, according to a release posted on the Pew Research website late last week.
“However, there are disparities,” the official summary noted. “[M]ore than twice as many Hispanics as whites (44 percent vs. 20 percent) trust the federal government, and more blacks (38 percent) than whites trust the government.”
Researchers additionally observed that younger Americans trust the government more than their older counterparts, and that more liberals believe in the administration of President Barack Obama than either independents or Republicans.
Conversely, distrust of federal government is presently at 73 percent. Earlier on in the Obama administration, it reportedly hit a record high of 80 percent, according to a graph constructed and presented by researchers at Pew.
James Holmes: ‘Narco Analytic Interview’
March 12th, 2013Via: Sky:
The student accused of the Colorado cinema massacre could be given “truth serum” to help determine whether he is insane, a judge has ruled.
James Holmes, 25, who is accused of killing twelve people and injuring 70 others during a shooting rampage at a Batman movie premiere, is expected to enter a plea today.
Defence lawyers have indicated that the former neuroscience graduate might plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
If he does, the judge has ruled, he might have to submit to a “narco analytic interview” – including the use of what some have dubbed a “truth serum” – as part of the evaluation of his mental state.
A narcoanalytic interview is a decades-old process in which patients are given drugs to lower their inhibition.
The judge said Holmes could also be given a lie detector test as part of the evaluation.
Holmes will face 166 counts during an arraignment hearing in connection with the shooting spree at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, last July.
Facebook Reveals Secrets You Haven’t Shared
March 12th, 2013Via: Financial Times:
The increasing amount of personal information that can been gleaned by computer programs that track how people use Facebook has been revealed by an extensive academic study.
Such programmes can discern undisclosed private information such as Facebook users’ sexuality, drug-use habits and even whether their parents separated when they were young, according to the study by Cambridge university academics.
In one of the biggest studies of its kind, scientists from the university’s psychometrics team and a Microsoft-funded research centre analysed data from 58,000 Facebook users to predict traits and other information that were not provided in their profiles.
The algorithms were 88 per cent accurate in predicting male sexual orientation, 95 per cent for race and 80 per cent for religion and political leanings. Personality types and emotional stability were also predicted with accuracy ranging from 62-75 per cent.
Facebook declined to comment.
‘Algae-Like Structures Inside a Sri Lankan Meteorite Are Clear Evidence of Panspermia’
March 11th, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review:
On 29 December 2012, a fireball lit up the early evening skies over the Sri Lankan province of Polonnaruwa. Hot, sparkling fragments of the fireball rained down across the countryside and witnesses reported the strong odour of tar or asphalt.
Over the next few days, the local police gathered numerous examples of these stones and sent them to the Sri Lankan Medical Research Institute of the Ministry of Health in Colombo. After noticing curious features inside these stones, officials forwarded the samples to a team of astrobiologists at Cardiff University in the UK for further analysis.
The results of these tests, which the Cardiff team reveal today, are extraordinary. They say the stones contain fossilised biological structures fused into the rock matrix and that their tests clearly rule out the possibility of terrestrial contamination.
Study: The Polonnaruwa meteorite: oxygen isotope, crystalline and biological composition
Ohio Judge: Traffic Cameras Are a Scam Against Motorists
March 11th, 2013Via: Columbus Dispatch / AP:
A southwestern Ohio judge yesterday ordered a halt to a speeding-ticket blitz in a village that installed traffic cameras, saying it’s “a scam” against motorists.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman blasted the cameras and the thousands of $105 citations that resulted. He ruled that they violate motorists’ constitutional rights to due process and said the village’s enforcement was stacked against drivers.
“Elmwood Place is engaged in nothing more than a high-tech game of 3-Card Monty,” Ruehlman wrote, referring to a card game used by con artists. “It is a scam that motorists can’t win.”
Microsoft Phone App Collects Audio from Bars and Restaurants to ‘Deduce the Current Atmosphere’
March 11th, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review:
An app called Bing Now, demonstrated at Microsoft’s headquarters last week, could give Web searchers a way to gauge the current vibe of a bar or restaurant before they book a table.
Smartphones can already deliver directions to a restaurant, endless reviews, and other static information. But without making a phone call, or actually going, there’s no means of knowing if a place is busy and playing loud rock music or empty and playing quieter tunes. Microsoft researchers think that smartphone owners who are already there could collect this kind of up-to-the-minute information.
“Every time a user checks in to a business, he actually explicitly tells us where he is going, and we actually know the phone is in the user’s hands,” says Dimitrios Lymberopoulos, who is in the sensing and energy group of Microsoft Research. When a person checks in, as a Foursquare user would, the phone could collect 6- to 10-second audio samples, process them on the device, and send off the extracted data. From this information, software models developed by Microsoft’s researchers could tease out the size of the crowd, the level of chatter, and the music volume and classify them as “low,” “normal,” or “high.” The app could even tell a searcher what song is playing.
Electronic Sensors Printed Directly on the Skin
March 11th, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review:
Taking advantage of recent advances in flexible electronics, researchers have devised a way to “print” devices directly onto the skin so people can wear them for an extended period while performing normal daily activities. Such systems could be used to track health and monitor healing near the skin’s surface, as in the case of surgical wounds.
So-called “epidermal electronics” were demonstrated previously in research from the lab of John Rogers, a materials scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the devices consist of ultrathin electrodes, electronics, sensors, and wireless power and communication systems. In theory, they could attach to the skin and record and transmit electrophysiological measurements for medical purposes. These early versions of the technology, which were designed to be applied to a thin, soft elastomer backing, were “fine for an office environment,” says Rogers, “but if you wanted to go swimming or take a shower they weren’t able to hold up.” Now, Rogers and his coworkers have figured out how to print the electronics right on the skin, making the device more durable and rugged.
Thousands of Dead Pigs Found in Shanghai River
March 11th, 2013Drinking water quality normal, comrade.
Via: South China Morning Post:
Chinese officials have found a total of 3,323 dead pigs in a Shanghai river as of Monday afternoon and discovered swine virus in one of them, but they have stressed that the disease is not known to be infectious to humans.
The virus is known as Pocine Circovirus type 2, or PCV-2, a statement posted on Shanghai Agricultural Commission’s official account on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo said on Monday morning. The statement stressed the virus is not known to cause disease in humans but noted China had seen an increasing occurrence of this kind of virus causing sickness in pigs.
On Thursday, dead pigs were found floating at the Songjiang district section of the Huangpu River that flows through Shanghai. The city’s Water Authority reported the number of dead pigs found to be 3,323 as of Sunday evening, local internet portal Xinmin.cn reported on Monday morning.
The commission conducted tests on multiple organs from five samples, and found the virus present in one sample, while ruling out five other commonly seen diseases, it said in a statement.
The city’s water authority said it had closely monitored the quality of tap water since the dead pigs were discovered and said the water quality remained “normal”, state media Xinhua reported.
Based on the labels found on the dead pigs’ ears, officials said the pigs were raised in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, which is located on the upper reaches of Huangpu River.
Jiaxing local media reports last week said more than 18,000 pigs from one village had died from illness in the last two months. The reports have sparked fears that residents dumped all of the diseased animals in the river.
CCTV reported local residents near Huangpu River saying that dumping dead, diseased pigs in the river was common practice. “After the sick pigs died [they] just dumped them in the river…Constantly. Every day,” one villager said.
“They are everywhere, and smell very bad,” another said.
Research Credit: ottilie
China: Data About Soil Pollution a ‘State Secret’
March 11th, 2013Don’t worry, they’re just a few Five-Year-Plans away from having the clean, green farmscrapers up and running.
Via: Reuters:
When China’s environment ministry told attorney Dong Zhengwei he couldn’t have access to two-year old data about soil pollution because it was a “state secret”, it added to mounting public outrage over the worsening environment.
Microbloggers, state media and even delegates to this week’s session of the National People’s Congress, the largely rubber-stamp parliament, were already critical of the government for poor air and water quality. Now they are also expressing disquiet over the scarcity of information about the environment available to them.
Related:
Secret Organic Gardens for China’s Elite
China: Regime Admits 10% of Farmland Polluted with Heavy Metals
Americans Training Syrian Rebels in Jordan
March 11th, 2013Via: Reuters:
Americans are training Syrian anti-government fighters in Jordan, the German weekly Der Spiegel said on Sunday, quoting what it said were participants and organizers.
Spiegel said it was not clear whether the Americans worked for private firms or were from the army but said some wore uniforms. The training focused on use of anti-tank weaponry.
Some 200 men have already received such training over the past three months and there are plans in the future to provide training for a total 1,200 members of the “Free Syrian Army” in two camps in the south and the east of the country.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper also reported that U.S. trainers were assisting Syrian rebels in Jordan. British and French instructors were also participating in the U.S.-led effort, the Guardian said on Saturday, citing Jordanian security sources.
Jordanian intelligence services are involved in the program, which aims to build around a dozen units totaling some 10,000 fighters to the exclusion of radical Islamists, Spiegel reported.
“The Jordanian intelligence services want to prevent Salafists (radical Islamists) crossing from their own country into Syria and then returning later to stir up trouble in Jordan itself,” one of the organizers told the paper.
The reports could not be independently verified.
