Florida Atlantic University Naming Stadium for Prison Company
February 22nd, 2013Via: The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Some students and immigrant-rights activists are angry about Florida Atlantic University’s announcement on Tuesday that it would rename its football stadium for a prison company in recognition of a $6-million gift from its charitable foundation. The gift came from the GEO Group, a company that owns or operates a global chain of prisons and detention centers, including one about 10 miles from the stadium. The pledge will be paid over 12 years. The university’s president, Mary Jane Saunders, said in a written statement that the gift represented the company’s “incredible generosity,” noting that its chief executive is a Florida Atlantic alumnus and a former chair of the institution’s Board of Trustees. The company’s critics have accused it of human-rights violations, and some said they don’t want the university to be associated with a company that is facing such allegations.
Research Credit: pookie
Zuckerberg, Brin Join Forces to Extend Life
February 21st, 2013Via: AFP:
Famed founders of Internet rivals Google and Facebook joined forces on Wednesday to back big-money prizes for research aimed at extending human life.
Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg, along with their spouses, joined Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner to award 11 scientists $3 million each to launch the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
“Priscilla and I are honored to be part of this,” Zuckerberg said.
“We believe the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences has the potential to provide a platform for other models of philanthropy, so people everywhere have an opportunity at a better future.”
Art Levinson, who chairs boards at mobile device powerhouse Apple and biotechnology star Genentech, will head the non-profit foundation created to support breakthrough research.
The Drones Come Home
February 20th, 2013Via: National Geographic:
What Jay Stanley of the ACLU calls his “nightmare scenario” begins with drones supporting “mostly unobjectionable” police raids and chases. Soon, however, networks of linked drones and computers “gain the ability to automatically track multiple vehicles and bodies as they move around a city,” much as the cell phone network hands calls from one tower to the next. The nightmare climaxes with authorities combining drone video and cell phone tracking to build up databases of people’s routine comings and goings—databases they can then mine for suspicious behavior. Stanley’s nightmare doesn’t even include the possibility that police drones might be armed.
$10 An Hour Jobs Requiring College Degrees
February 20th, 2013Via: New York Times:
The college degree is becoming the new high school diploma: the new minimum requirement, albeit an expensive one, for getting even the lowest-level job.
Consider the 45-person law firm of Busch, Slipakoff & Schuh here in Atlanta, a place that has seen tremendous growth in the college-educated population. Like other employers across the country, the firm hires only people with a bachelor’s degree, even for jobs that do not require college-level skills.
This prerequisite applies to everyone, including the receptionist, paralegals, administrative assistants and file clerks. Even the office “runner” — the in-house courier who, for $10 an hour, ferries documents back and forth between the courthouse and the office — went to a four-year school.
“College graduates are just more career-oriented,” said Adam Slipakoff, the firm’s managing partner. “Going to college means they are making a real commitment to their futures. They’re not just looking for a paycheck.”
‘No More Hesitation’ Targets Train Police and Feds to Shoot Armed Pregnant Women, Mothers, Children and Elderly
February 20th, 2013In other news: DHS Buying 1.6 Billion Rounds of Ammunition.
Via: Reason:
What if I told you police in your town could desensitize themselves to the idea of shooting a (armed) child, pregnant woman, or young mother, for just a couple of bucks? The “No More Hesitation” series from Law Enforcement Targets Inc. offers exactly that. For less than 99 cents per target, police can shoot at real-life images “designed to give officers the experience of dealing with deadly force shooting scenarios with subjects that are not the norm during training.”
Secret U.S. Military Flights Carried Officials, Equipment to North Korea
February 20th, 2013Via: Asahi:
Senior U.S. administration officials held secret talks in North Korea on at least three occasions in 2011 and 2012, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.
Although the visits had potential implications for Japan, Washington did not inform its security partner at the time and only informally confirmed one of them when the Japanese side pressed, government and other sources in Japan, South Korea and the United States said.
The U.S. State Department even warned the Foreign Ministry against making further inquiries, saying they would harm bilateral relations, the sources said.
U.S. military planes flew from an air base in Guam to Pyongyang and back on April 7, 2012, and again on a longer visit lasting from Aug. 18-20, the sources said.
It is believed that those aboard included Sydney Seiler, director for Korea at the U.S. National Security Council, and Joseph DeTrani, who headed the North Korea desk at the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. DeTrani left the post in May.
They met with North Korean officials and discussed policies following the death of leader Kim Jong Il in December 2011.
The North Korean delegation included Jang Song Thaek, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission and husband of Kim Jong Il’s sister. Jang is widely considered to serve as a mentor for Kim Jong Un, who succeeded his father as his nation’s leader.
The Japanese government only learned about the flights after receiving reports from hobbyists monitoring activity at military bases and also analyzing air traffic flight plans.
When the Japanese side submitted an official inquiry, U.S. officials expressed frustration that the request had been made, citing the subject’s confidential nature. The State Department warned Japan against inquiring further, saying Washington-Tokyo ties could be damaged.
The third visit that The Asahi Shimbun has confirmed is one that took place in November 2011. Sources said at least one military aircraft from the Guam air base loaded heavy equipment, including bulldozers, at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo and flew to Pyongyang.
It is believed that the delegation included officials from the U.S. Pacific Command. They met with North Korean officials and discussed efforts to recover the remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, the sources said.
When Japan inquired about this visit, U.S. officials unofficially confirmed that it had taken place, the sources said.
Regular Patron Given Key to Room 322 at the ZaZa Hotel in Houston by Mistake
February 20th, 2013The gallery is here.
The story that goes along with those is posted on GLP.
Sweet dreams.
Chelyabinsk Meteor Was Largest to Hit the Earth in Over a Century
February 19th, 2013Via: Wall Street Journal:
The meteor that crashed to earth in Russia was about 55 feet in diameter, weighed around 10,000 tons and was made from a stony material, scientists said, making it the largest such object to hit the Earth in more than a century.
Large pieces of it have yet to be found. However, a team from Ural Federal University, which is based in Yekaterinburg, collected 53 fragments, the largest of which was 7 millimeters, according to Viktor Grokhovsky, a scientist at the university.
Data from a global network of sensors indicated that the meteor’s fiery disintegration as it neared earth near Chelyabinsk, Russia, unleashed nearly 500 kilotons of energy, more than 30 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
It is the largest reported meteor since the one that hit Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The U.S. agency’s new estimate of the meteor’s size was a marked increase from its initial one.
NZ: Ministry of TeleFone Announces New Submarine Cable
February 19th, 2013I guess it’s better than a kick in the teeth. *groan*
There still won’t be any competition, but at least there will be another physical path.
If you don’t get the TeleFone joke, it simply refers to Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone increasingly colluding on service offerings. See the Rural Broadband Initiative, for example.
Now this…
Via: New Zealand Herald:
A second internet link out of New Zealand announced today will not address Telecom’s “monopoly” on international connectivity, says the Green Party.
The Labour Party and a consumer advocate has also signalled some disquiet over potential competition issues that could arise from the venture.
Telecom, Vodafone and Telstra have announced a deal to build a new undersea telecommunications cable between Auckland and Sydney, which should dramatically increase the amount of internet data able to be sent to and from New Zealand.
The companies say the new cable, tentatively titled the “Tasman Global Access” cable, will “significantly improve New Zealand’s international telecommunications connectivity as well as strengthen links into fast-growing Asian markets.”
The total cost of the cable is expected to be less than US$60 million ($70.9m).
A design is expected to be finalised within the next few months, with a likely completion date of mid to late next year.
The cable will incorporate three fibre pairs with a current design capacity of 30 terabits per second – approximately 300 times the current internet data demand out of New Zealand.
The First Bionic Hand that Can Feel
February 18th, 2013Via: Independent:
The first bionic hand that allows an amputee to feel what they are touching will be transplanted later this year in a pioneering operation that could introduce a new generation of artificial limbs with sensory perception.
The patient is an unnamed man in his 20s living in Rome who lost the lower part of his arm following an accident, said Silvestro Micera of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
The wiring of his new bionic hand will be connected to the patient’s nervous system with the hope that the man will be able to control the movements of the hand as well as receiving touch signals from the hand’s skin sensors.
Dr Micera said that the hand will be attached directly to the patient’s nervous system via electrodes clipped onto two of the arm’s main nerves, the median and the ulnar nerves.
This should allow the man to control the hand by his thoughts, as well as receiving sensory signals to his brain from the hand’s sensors. It will effectively provide a fast, bidirectional flow of information between the man’s nervous system and the prosthetic hand.
