Fat Finger: ‘Data-Entry Error’ Led Military to Falsely Claim Taliban Attacks Are Down
March 2nd, 2013Via: Wired:
The U.S. military proudly touted a 7 percent drop in Taliban violence in 2012 as a measure of progress in America’s longest war. Only one problem: The drop never happened.
Its explanation: a data-entry error.
The Associated Press’ Robert Burns discovered the mistake, which undercut a January claim by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO military command in Afghanistan. In reality, Burns reports, there was no substantive change in the level of “enemy-initiated attacks” in Afghanistan during 2012.
“During a quality control check, ISAF recently became aware that some data was incorrectly entered into the database that is used for tracking security-related incidents across Afghanistan,” ISAF spokesman Jamie Graybeal told Burns.
Defense Distributed 3D Printed AR-15 Lower Survives 600+ Rounds
March 2nd, 2013
Via: Defense Distributed:
Recovery: Disposable Income Takes Biggest Plunge Since Monthly Records Began in 1959
March 1st, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
Disposable income, or the money left over after taxes, dropped 4 percent after adjusting for inflation, the biggest plunge since monthly records began in 1959. The drop also reflected the lapse of the payroll tax holiday. Excluding the effect of the tax and other special factors such as the timing of bonuses and dividends, disposable personal income would have increased 0.3 percent in January, the same as in December, the report said.
Arm Added to Big Dog Robot
March 1st, 2013😯
Via: YouTube / Boston Dynamics:
First Brain-To-Brain Interface Allows Transmission of Tactile and Motor Information Between Rats
March 1st, 2013Via: Duke University / Nicolelis Lab:
A brain-to-brain interface (BTBI) enabled a real-time transfer of behaviorally meaningful sensorimotor information between the brains of two rats. In this BTBI, an ‘‘encoder’’ rat performed sensorimotor tasks that required it to select from two choices of tactile or visual stimuli. While the encoder rat performed the task, samples of its cortical activity were transmitted to matching cortical areas of a ‘‘decoder’’ rat using intracortical microstimulation (ICMS). The decoder rat learned to make similar behavioral selections, guided solely by the information provided by the encoder rat’s brain. These results demonstrated that a complex system was formed by coupling the animals’ brains, suggesting that BTBIs can enable dyads or networks of animal’s brains to exchange, process, and store information and, hence, serve as the basis for studies of novel types of social interaction and for biological computing devices.
Dairy Industry Wants to Add Artificial Sweeteners to Milk Without Disclosing This on Labels
March 1st, 2013Via: Yahoo Health / Healthline:
Got diet milk? In a highly controversial move, the dairy industry wants to market artificially sweetened milk—without any special label to alert consumers.
In a petition filed with the FDA, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) seek to change the definition of “milk” so that chemical sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose can be used as optional ingredients not listed on the product label.
If the petition—originally filed in 2009 and now under consideration by the FDA—is successful, these hidden additives could also be included in 17 other dairy products—including whipping cream, low-fat and non-fat yogurt, eggnog, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and half-and-half—without requiring any special labeling.
The dairy industry contends that using artificial sweeteners like aspartame as optional ingredients in milk and other dairy foods without any special labeling would “promote more healthy eating” and boost kid appeal. Currently, milk consumption is dropping among both children and adults.
How a Family of Four Manages to Live Well on Just $14,000 Per Year
March 1st, 2013Nope, this isn’t about my family. 😉 However, this will all seem very familiar to long time Cryptogon/Farmlet readers.
Definitely click through for the whole thing, but I’ve excerpted the most important factor of them all.
Via: Business Insider:
“But we decided the best option would be not to have a mortgage payment at all,” she said. “We found a fixer-upper that didn’t have a kitchen … and we paid cash.”
Manning Admits Providing Classified Data to WikiLeaks
March 1st, 2013Via: Wired:
Wearing his Army dress uniform, a composed, intense and articulate Pfc. Bradley Manning took “full responsibility” Thursday for providing the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks with a trove of classified and sensitive military, diplomatic and intelligence cables, videos and documents.
In the lengthiest statement to a military tribunal Manning has provided since his nearly three-year long ordeal began, Manning, 25, said WikiLeaks did not encourage him to provide the organization with any information. But he also sketched out his emotionally fraught online interactions with his WikiLeaks handler, a man he knew as “Ox” or “Nathaniel” over Internet Relay Chat and Jabber, and whom the government maintains was Julian Assange.
Manning’s motivations in leaking, he said, was to “spark a domestic debate of the role of the military and foreign policy in general,” he said, and “cause society to reevaluate the need and even desire to engage in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations that ignore their effect on people who live in that environment every day.” Manning said he was in sound mind when he leaked, and so deliberately, regardless of the legal circumstances.
Remarkably, Manning said he first tried to take his information to the Washington Post, the New York Times and Politico, before contacting WikiLeaks.
The statement came as Manning pleaded guilty on Thursday to ten of 22 charges the Army has levied against him. Manning admitted to improperly storing classified information; having unauthorized possession of such information; willfully communicating it to an unauthorized person; and other “lesser-included” offenses. Each of the ten offenses to which Manning pleaded guilty carries a sentence of up to two years’ imprisonment, for a total of 20 years in prison.
But Manning pleaded not-guilty to 12 more charges, including the most serious: aiding the enemy, which carries a sentence of life imprisonment. He also denied disseminating any information that he believed could harm U.S. national security, a key aspect of prosecution’s espionage case.
That means the guilty pleas will not necessarily end Manning’s legal woes. The government has the option of pressing forward with the remaining charges, as well as to contest aspects of the lesser charges Manning pleaded guilty to committing. If they proceed, Manning’s trial is expected to formally start here in June.
Kerry Announces More Support for Syrian Rebels
February 28th, 2013Here’s an excerpt from a previous post on this claim of not supplying weapons:
If you want to read detailed, voluminous accounts of how the U.S. covertly and illegally provides weapons to any state or group it pleases, see, Spider’s Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq by Alan Friedman and, Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA by Terry Reed.
Too long; didn’t read: CIA cutouts and contractors, international arms dealers, transshipping.
Via: BBC:
The US is to step up its support for the Syrian opposition as it fights to topple President Bashar al-Assad, Secretary of State John Kerry says.
Mr Kerry said the US would provide direct support to rebel forces in the form of medical and food supplies.
He also promised an additional $60m (£40m) in aid to the opposition to help it deliver basic governance and other services in rebel-controlled areas.
Mr Kerry was speaking at a gathering of the Friends of Syria group in Rome.
‘Out of time’
The promise of direct, non-lethal aid to the rebels represents a shift in US policy on Syria, correspondents say.
However it falls short of providing the weapons and munitions that the rebels say they need to defeat government forces.
ViaMat to Stop Vaulting Gold Outside of the U.S. for Americans
February 28th, 2013Via: Wall Street Journal:
The Swiss-based company said it will no longer offer to store gold outside of the U.S. to private clients with potential U.S. tax liability, starting from the middle of 2013. The company attributed the decision to regulatory changes without specifying exactly what regulations led to the decision.
More: Privacy at Risk: Global Gold Storage Firms Get Rid of US Citizens
Research Credit: JJ
