California Throws Away Enough Food to Fill 35 Stadiums Per Year
May 22nd, 2010Over at Technofascism Blog, Tony writes, “Keep this story in mind next time you hear that nonsense from people like Bill Gates insisting we need GM crops to feed a hungry world.”
Besides Atomic Audit, this represents just about the clearest proof that the depth of our society’s madness is infinite.
Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
Farmers, restaurants and supermarkets throw away millions of tons of edible food each year at a time when a growing number of Californians struggle to put food on the table.
More than 6 million tons of food products are dumped annually, enough to fill the Staples Center in Los Angeles 35 times over, state studies have found. Food is the largest single source of waste in California, making up 15.5 percent of the state’s waste stream, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board.
An examination by California Watch and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California found shortcomings along California’s food distribution chain that allow vast amounts of food to go to waste in landfills, despite incentives that encourage food donations.
SSL Enabled Google Searches
May 22nd, 2010“Your investigative staff will collect its best evidence while users are lulled into a false sense of security afforded by web, e-mail or VOIP encryption.”
—Governments Using Forged SSL Certificates for Man in the Middle Attack on “Secure” Web Sessions
A reader asked me if SSL enabled Google search was worth using.
I would say that this is probably worth using for most people. It will prevent teenagers and some other miscreants on the wire from intercepting your search sessions. However, this does nothing to keep your data private from intelligence organizations that can decrypt SSL at will. Also, Google still maintains your files for law enforcement to access.
If you have half a role of Reynolds Wrap around your skull, you might think that intelligence agencies will pay extra close attention to the searches conducted via SSL enabled pages.
My guess, though, is that the benefits of keeping things secure from just about everyone except Google, law enforcement and intelligence agencies outweighs any possible additional scrutiny this might bring from those organizations. I mean, they have it all when you use the standard session anyway, so, why not cut your boss (assuming that you can use your own computer on your office’s network; this won’t do crap for you if you’re using a machine provided by your employer), your neighbor’s teenage son, who has cracked the encryption on your wi-fi base station, and the freak who owns the coffee shop, etc. out of the picture when it comes to your search queries?
Via: Google:
As people spend more time on the Internet, they want greater control over who has access to their online communications. Many Internet services use what are known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections to encrypt information that travels between your computer and their service. Usually recognized by a web address starting with “https” or a browser lock icon, this technology is regularly used by online banking sites and e-commerce websites. Other sites may also implement SSL in a more limited fashion, for example, to help protect your passwords when you enter your login information.
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When you search on https://www.google.com, an encrypted connection is created between your browser and Google. This secured channel helps protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party on your network.
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A few notes to remember: Google will still maintain search data to improve your search quality and to provide better service. Searching over SSL doesn’t reduce the data sent to Google — it only hides that data from third parties who seek it. And clicking on any of the web results, including Google universal search results for unsupported services like Google Images, could take you out of SSL mode. Our hope is that more websites and services will add support for SSL to help create a better and more consistent experience for you.
FDIC: ‘Problem’ Banks at 775 or 10% of the Total
May 21st, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal:
A total of 775 banks, or one-tenth of all U.S. banks, were on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s list of “problem” institutions in the first quarter, as bad loans in the commercial real-estate market weighed on bank balance sheets.
Poor loan performance in other sectors also continued to hurt banks, with the total number of loans at least three months past due climbing for the 16th consecutive quarter, FDIC officials said in a briefing on Thursday.
“The banking system still has many problems to work through, and we cannot ignore the possibility of more financial market volatility,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said.
BP Admits Underestimating Oil Leaking from Gulf of Mexico Well
May 21st, 2010Imagine our shock.
Via: Telegraph:
BP was on Thursday accused of seriously underestimating the flow of oil from its Gulf of Mexico well.
In a further blow the beleaguered oil giant was also ordered to use less toxic chemicals to disperse its growing slick.
It came as more damaging, heavy crude hit Louisiana’s coastal wetlands and experts warned that the Gulfstream current could carry the slick round Cuba and into the Florida Keys.
The British energy major – already under pressure from the US government – admitted the well was gushing out more than the 5,000 barrels a day it had previously estimated. It could not give a new figure for the flow, three weeks after the Deepwater Horizon rig owned and operated by its contractor Transocean exploded and sank, killing 11 men.
It is now siphoning 5,000 barrels a day up to a boat, but said although the flow had “noticeably reduced” there was still a plume of oil leaking into the ocean.
One scientist, Steve Wereley, associate mechanical engineering professor at Purdue University, believes as much as 70,000 barrels could be emerging per day, based on a video released by BP.
“This is not rocket science,” Mr Wereley told a US congressional panel. “All outside estimates are considerably higher than BP’s.”
Cryptogon Readers Sign Up for Hosting with BlueHost
May 21st, 2010Thanks to the owners of worldwatchers.info and birthcenterofgainesville.org for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $180.
TD Ameritrade Clients Unable to Log In, Trade
May 20th, 2010Say what?
Morningstar analyst Michael Wong said all of the online brokers had similar problems during the sudden market plunge on May 6.
There was sharp selling today as well.
Still believe that ‘fatfinger’ nonsense from May 6?
Via: AP:
Some clients of online brokerage T.D. Ameritrade Holding Corp. were unable to log into their accounts during Thursday’s market slide.
With the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes exceeding 3 percent declines, the company posted the following message on the site: “We are having technical difficulties that may result in limited access to your account. We are working to correct this problem as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
A representative of T.D. Ameritrade did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press. But customers expressed frustration with the problem, posting numerous messages on social networking websites.
Nick Jackson, a customer from the Phoenix area, said in an interview he couldn’t get on for about 30 minutes. When he called the company’s customer service line, he was given an access code to another site.
“By the time I could get somebody on the phone, I was already down about $2,000,” Jackson said.
Morningstar analyst Michael Wong said all of the online brokers had similar problems during the sudden market plunge on May 6.
‘Artificial Life’
May 20th, 2010Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us
Via: BBC:
Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell.
The researchers constructed a bacterium’s “genetic software” and transplanted it into a host cell.
The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species “dictated” by the synthetic DNA.
The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms.
The researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases.
The team was led by Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Maryland and California.
He and his colleagues had previously made a synthetic bacterial genome, and transplanted the genome of one bacterium into another.
Now, the scientists have put both methods together, to create what they call a “synthetic cell”, although only its genome is truly synthetic.
Dr Venter likened the advance to making new software for the cell.
The researchers copied an existing bacterial genome. They sequenced its genetic code and then used “synthesis machines” to chemically construct a copy.
Dr Venter told BBC News: “We’ve now been able to take our synthetic chromosome and transplant it into a recipient cell – a different organism.
“As soon as this new software goes into the cell, the cell reads [it] and converts into the species specified in that genetic code.”
The new bacteria replicated over a billion times, producing copies that contained and were controlled by the constructed, synthetic DNA.
“This is the first time any synthetic DNA has been in complete control of a cell,” said Dr Venter.
Oil as Thick as Chocolate Syrup on the Coast of Louisiana
May 20th, 2010What, no U.S. Coast Guard threatening the news crew with arrest on behalf of BP?
Via: Technofascism Blog:
According to a recent NPR article, Steve Wereley, engineering professor at Purdue University, estimates the oil spill as “now approaching 100,000 barrels a day. And, there’s another leak he has yet to analyze.” That’s 4.2 million gallons per day. By his estimate, 124 million gallons have spilled so far.
If Prof Wereley is correct, it’s only been a month and the amount of oil spilled has already topped the second largest oil spill in history: the Ixtoc 1 Mexico Oil Spill of 1980. By coincidence, that spill was also in the Gulf of Mexico. Like the BP oil spill, the Ixtoc spill was due to an explosion in an offshore oil rig that caused a leak that couldn’t be capped for a entire year despite attempts to shoot material into the well pipe and drilling nearby relief wells.
During that year, the Ixtoc spill continuously leaked 30,000 gallons per day. If it also takes a year to cap the BP spill, by that time, over a billion gallons of oil will have spilled into US coastal waters making it the worst oil spill in history. With that much oil carried by the currents of the Gulf Stream, the entire Eastern seaboard of the US and even Europe could be affected.
Australia: Travellers to be Searched for Porn
May 20th, 2010Via: The Age:
Australian customs officers have been given new powers to search incoming travellers’ laptops and mobile phones for pornography, a spokeswoman for the Australian sex industry says.
Fiona Patten, president of the Australian Sex Party, is demanding an inquiry into why a new question appears on Incoming Passenger Cards asking people if they are carrying “pornography”.
Patten said officials now had an unfettered right to examine travellers’ electronic devices, marking the beginning of a new era of official investigation into people’s private lives. She questioned whether it was appropriate to search people for legal R18+ and X18+ material.
Research Credit: B
FBI Finds Pipe Bomb Used in Blast at Florida Mosque
May 20th, 2010Via: AOL News:
FBI officials in Jacksonville, Fla., say they have found the remnants of a pipe bomb used in a possible hate crime at a mosque during evening prayers.
Along with local police, the FBI launched an investigation after an explosion shook the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida at 9:35 p.m. Monday, when approximately 60 people were inside praying. No one was injured.
“They heard a loud explosion and went out an emergency exit in the back,” Muhammad Mansoori, a Jacksonville resident who worships at the mosque, told AOL News. “There was a fire, and a wall where the bomb was left was blackened. Otherwise, the building is sturdy, no real damage.”
Mansoori said the Muslim population in Jacksonville totals around 5,000 families and that most who practice the religion do so at the Islamic Center mosque.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations held press conferences in Miami and Tampa today, and announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person who planted the bomb.
“This incident comes after a man was seen barging into the mosque on April 4, shouting anti-Muslim slurs and threatening to come back later,” Ibrahim Hooper, the council’s communication director, told AOL News. “We’re not sure if he is involved with this latest attack.”
The FBI has released surveillance video taken at the mosque that shows a potential suspect walking in the area where the bomb exploded and close to the time the blast occurred.
Research Credit: dilinger
