The Pathology of Facebook and Twitter
January 23rd, 2011Via: Guardian:
The way in which people frantically communicate online via Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging can be seen as a form of modern madness, according to a leading American sociologist.
“A behaviour that has become typical may still express the problems that once caused us to see it as pathological,” MIT professor Sherry Turkle writes in her new book, Alone Together, which is leading an attack on the information age.
Turkle’s book, published in the UK next month, has caused a sensation in America, which is usually more obsessed with the merits of social networking. She appeared last week on Stephen Colbert’s late-night comedy show, The Colbert Report. When Turkle said she had been at funerals where people checked their iPhones, Colbert quipped: “We all say goodbye in our own way.”
Turkle’s thesis is simple: technology is threatening to dominate our lives and make us less human. Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world.
DARPA: ‘Anomaly Detection at Multiple Scales’
January 23rd, 2011Via: Fast Company:
As DARPA puts it: “When we look through the evidence after the fact, we often find a trail–sometimes even an ‘obvious’ one. The question is can we pick up the trail before the fact giving us time to intervene and prevent an incident?” Computer forensics companies rise to the challenge.
…
NetCerto is one of the companies that is soliciting grant money from DARPA under the ADAMS program. Many companies will be applying to DARPA claiming they have the next algorithm or bit of software that will finally be able to suss out the dangerous needle in a haystack of data. But in order to ensure that software truly works, DARPA will also need software that simulates an environment in which anomalies occur.
NetCerto’s CEO David Kovar explains this in a neat metaphor: His company creates a simulated crime scene. “If you wanted to test the abilities of a crime scene forensics team,” he tells Fast Company, “you would go out in a parking lot somewhere, you would put bullet casings out, blood marks out, scuff marks in some places. We do the same thing in electronic environments. We will create the clues for people doing analysis to find. And since we created the evidence, we can score them”–i.e., the other applicants for DARPA money, those offering forensic software–“accurately on whether they found them all.”
The same principle could be put to work to catch the next Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter in the Arizona killings. Reports in the wake of the shootings have shown that Loughner left many digital traces signaling anti-government paranoia.
The only problem, points out Kovar, is that anti-government paranoiacs are a dime a dozen. The trick is finding, amidst the tens of thousands, the single one who is planning to act. “That’s the core of the problem,” says Kovar. “There’s so much noise out there….There’s so much rhetoric out there that goes nowhere”–i.e., that doesn’t erupt in violence. Say that the investigation of Loughner reveals a series of characteristics that seem predictors of his violence. “Now you gotta look through the entire Net, and you realize those characteristics match 30,000 people.” How do you winnow down the list to the real threats? “I don’t have the answer, and DARPA doesn’t either, and that’s why they’re running this program,” says Kovar.
Related:
Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation
A Self-Sufficient System of Farming Is Increasing Yields Across Hawaii
January 23rd, 2011“Now my rice growing is simply sowing seed and spreading straw, but it has taken me more than thirty years to reach this simplicity.”
—Masanobu Fukuoka
Via: Star Advertiser:
Farmer Samson Delos Reyes reached into his bluejeans pocket to grab a phone call from a buyer and ended up smiling but shaking his head.
The caller wanted to triple her order of his pungent Thai basil, to 60 from 20 cases a week, but S&J Farms of Waianae is already booked solid. Since trying “natural farming” last year under the guidance of a folksy South Korean master farmer known as Han Kyu Cho, Delos Reyes said production on his 10-acre plot has doubled — and demand is growing even faster.
“This is my first time having earthworms on my farm,” he said, scooping up a handful of earth and nutrient-rich worm castings in his fingers. “They’re cultivating the soil for me.”
Unlike conventional or even organic farming, “natural farming” is a self-sufficient system to raise crops and livestock with resources available on the farm. Rather than applying chemical fertilizers, farmers boost the beneficial microbes that occur naturally in the soil by collecting and culturing them with everyday ingredients such as steamed rice and brown sugar. They also feed their crops with solutions containing minerals and amino acids made from castoff items such as eggshells and fish bones.
Related:
Masanobu Fukuoka’s Natural Farming and Permaculture
Research Credit: latincognito
Situation at Cairo Airport Involving Gold and Cash Smuggling to Netherlands
January 23rd, 2011Readers capable of doing high confidence translations from Arabic to English are welcome to submit them. So far, there is no English language source for this.
Here’s the Google machine translation to English.
Via: Google Translate / egypt.com:
Cairo Airport Authority announced today the state of emergency to re-examine the expulsion of 59 gold and foreign currencies was on its way out of Egypt on the path of smuggling after the discovery of tearing some pillow cases before they are shipped to the Netherlands.
The workers were shipping on the plane heading to Amsterdam, the Netherlands were surprised to tear bags under the 59 parcels containing large quantities of gold and foreign currencies worth tens of millions were reported to officials.
Committee was formed headed by one official of the Egyptian banks have been re-examine the packages and parcels to make sure that shortages and supervise the shipment on the plane.
Original Source in Arabic: egypt.com
Possibly Related: Ex Tunisia President’s Wife Left with 1.5 Tons of Gold
Research Credit: eomx
10,000 Cattle Dead In Vietnam: Cows, Buffalo Part Of Mass Die-Off
January 22nd, 2011Via: Huffington Post:
In the latest of a string of mass animal deaths, 10,000 cows and buffalo have died in Vietnam.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed the news this week that more than 10,000 cows and buffalos died nationwide due to harsh weather conditions.
Cattle have been dying throughout Vietnam, which has had a particularly intense winter. The northern mountainous province of Cao Bang was hardest hit with 2,260 dead cattle, per Thanh Nien News. Some have said the number of total dead cattle may be as high as 13,000.
Cryptogon.net: Cryptogon News Network
January 22nd, 2011If you read and enjoy Cryptogon, there’s a good chance that you have information that would interest me, and other Cryptogon readers. The Cryptogon News Network is an informal way for you to share that information. This is a dedicated, Cryptogon themed social news site that isn’t subject to the same constraints as the Cryptogon main page.
My goal with the main page is to actually give people less to read. For years, I’ve realized that discernment is much more important for producing actionable intelligence than a deluge of stories. We all have enough to read each day, and Cryptogon works mostly because of what I exclude. What remains has been useful to readers since 2002.
While I need control over the main page—in order to produce an overall representation of information that I’m happy with, and one that readers have come to expect—that presents limitations. Without those limitations, Cryptogon wouldn’t work, but they’re still limitations. We can cast the net wider on cryptogon.net.
Let’s work together to uncover the best information and share it with each other. You never know… I might think that your information belongs on the Cryptogon main page.
Notes:
The HotaruCMS theme I’m using was very broken with Internet Explorer out of the box. I spent some time trying to fix it and it’s pretty much working (although I have no idea why anyone would be using Internet Explorer).
The post sort order defaults to ‘All’ which actually means chronological; new posts on top, regardless of score. ‘Popular’ are posts with at least a vote score of 2 (I started this out low and I can adjust it as necessary). ‘Latest’ shows posts in chronological order that don’t yet have a score of 2. Once they are upvoted they no longer appear in ‘Latest’. If you mainly want a chronological sort order, that’s what you will get when you go to the home page. If you want popular stories, click the ‘Popular’ tab at the top.
I think the creator of Hotaru built a system similar to Digg. Digg always gave me a headache to look at, so I’m not that familiar with it. I’m mainly interested in a chronological view of the posts, so that’s why ‘All’ is the default view. If you like one of the other views, simply bookmark it.
Ok, so consider this a Beta phase. I have no idea how robust Hotaru is or isn’t. I intentionally announced this on the weekend when traffic is low. Cryptogon.net is running on its own hosting account, so it can’t impact the operation of cryptogon.com in any way.
Head on over there and try it out.
Spain Plans Partial Nationalization of Savings Banks
January 22nd, 2011Via: Reuters:
Spain plans a partial state takeover of its weakest savings banks as it seeks to reassure investors a rescue will not weigh on its deficit.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday the government would force debt-laden regional savings banks to become conventional banks and seek stock market listings to persuade skittish investors that they are good investments.
The state-backed bank restructuring fund (FROB) would then take stakes in the banks — known as cajas — that fail to attract private investment, the source said.
Up to now the FROB has functioned as a lender of last resort to the cajas.
Winning Over Hearts and Minds: U.S. Turns Afghan Town to Dust with 49,200 Pounds of Ordnance
January 21st, 2011The before and after pictures sum it up.
Via: Foreign Policy:
On October 6, Flynn’s unit approved use of HIMARS, B-1, and A-10s to drop 49,200 lbs. of ordnance on the Taliban tactical base of Tarok Kalache, resulting in NO CIVCAS. Their clearance of Babur, Khosrow Sofla, Charqolba Sofla, and other villages commenced October 7, aided by USSF, ABP, and an additional infantry company from B/1-22 IN. Not long after, Flynn shared one insight into the burden of command: “I literally cringed when we dropped bombs on these places — not because I cared about the enemy we were killing or the HME destroyed, but I knew the reconstruction would consume the remainder of my deployed life.”
Flashback: “‘It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.'”
Largest Ever West Coast Rocket Launch Carried National Reconnaissance Office Satellite Into Space
January 21st, 2011Update: Some Guesses Mentioned on CNN
Just to clarify what’s being said below: It’s not a KH-11, which hasn’t been produced since 1990.
See the Wikipedia page for “KH-12”:
“KH-12” is an unofficial designation of the successor to the KH-11 KENNAN (“Crystal”) spy satellite. A system with the official designation KH-12 does not exist because the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) decided to refer to satellites by a random numbering scheme after repeated public references to KH-8 GAMBIT, KH-9 HEXAGON, and KH-11 satellites.
Via: CNN:
But some analysts say they believe the orbiter will be an imagery satellite capable of seeing images as small as a human fist from hundreds of miles away.
“It will be used to produce high-resolution imagery of military and terrorist facilities around the world,” said Jeffrey Richelson, an expert on space reconnaissance with the National Security Archive.
According to experts, the satellite, known as a KH-11, is not capable of reading a license plate number or a newspaper headline, as seen in Hollywood movies. But due to its large size and bigger optics, the satellite has advanced resolution that can see much finer detail on the ground than anything similar.
“Being able to see things four inches across has tremendous value. If you’re trying to assess what’s the capability of a new missile on a launch pad in North Korea — could it reach the U.S. for example — if you could see that rocket with enough precision, enough detail to get accurate dimensions, you can then determine what its capabilities are,” said Ted Molczan, an amateur astronomer who specializes in tracking satellites in secret orbits.
Molczan said there are currently 3 KH-11s in orbit and he believes the purpose of this launch is to replace one that has been in orbit since 2001.
—End Update—
Via: AP:
The largest rocket ever launched from the West Coast blasted off Thursday with a classified defense satellite on board.
The 235-foot-tall Delta IV Heavy Launch Vehicle lifted off at 1:10 p.m. carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.
…
United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of rocket builders Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., said in a statement that the launch was a success.
…
No payload details were released. The NRO operates satellites that provide information to the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense.
Possibly Related: Unknown Budget, Unknown Purpose: U.S. Air Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle
Research Credit: eo
Antibiotics May Be Responsible for Increase in Asthma in Children
January 21st, 2011Via: Boston Globe:
One of the great public health mysteries is why asthma has become more common among children, even as air pollution has decreased and fewer parents are smoking. One possibility is that antibiotics have kept infants’ immune systems from developing properly, making them vulnerable to asthma and allergies later on. The Yale study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, supports this hypothesis.
Researchers found that infants treated with antibiotics in their first six months were up to 52 percent more likely to develop asthma and allergies by age 6 than babies who did not get antibiotics. This result buttressed scientists’ suspicion that early use of the drugs can cause imbalances in the immune system and a poor allergic response.
Research Credit: Matt
