Pentagon Developing Brain Implants That Use Fiber Optics to Stimulate Neurons
May 10th, 2010Via: Wired:
Significant progress has already been made in understanding brain injury. Scientists can create conceptual, mathematical models of brain activity, and are also able to record the electrical pulses emitted by individual neurons in the brain, which offers insight into how those neurons communicate. That knowledge has spurred rapid progress in neural-assisted prosthetic devices, a program that Shenoy collaborated on with Geoffrey Ling, the same Darpa program manager behind REPAIR.
But what experts can’t yet do, Shenoy said, is alter those electrical pulses to turn brain circuits on or off. His team will use optogenetics, an emerging technique that involves emitting light pulses to precisely trigger neural activity, to develop an implanted TBI treatment device.
“Before this, emitting light into the brain would be like hitting it with a hammer,” Shenoy said. “What we’re doing now is pin-pointing a single neuron, and that neuron will naturally change its activity depending on the cue.”
The implants developed by the project will likely be composed of electrodes or optical fibers, and will sit on the surface of the brain. They’ll read electrical signals from neurons, and deliver appropriate light pulses to stimulate other brain regions in response. The implants would allow the brain to operate normally, by acting as substitutes for areas that were damaged or “unavailable.”
Journalists Barred from Gitmo for Revealing Already-Public Information
May 10th, 2010Via: Wired:
For reporters covering the war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, the ground rules are pretty draconian: As a condition of attending, they have to sign agreements not to disclose anything the court deems secret; media officers review all photos and videos shot on the island; and there sure as hell ain’t no Tweeting from the super-secure courtroom.
Now the military has taken another great step toward enhancing the credibility of the proceedings by booting four reporters for violating a judge’s secrecy order. Their violation? Publishing the name of a former military interrogator who was a witness at the hearing. The Pentagon has now barred Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard, Globe and Mail reporter Paul Koring and CanWest news service reporter Steven Edwards from covering future military commissions at Gitmo.
And here’s the kicker: The identity of the interrogator had been widely reported before the trial. The name of the individual — known as “Interrogator No. 1? in the courtroom at Gitmo — had been published during a 2005 court-martial in which he pleaded guilty to prisoner abuse in Afghanistan. And he had also allowed the use of his name in an interview with Shepard (!) in 2008.
Marines Axe Internet Bomb-Shopping Plan
May 10th, 2010Via: Wired:
Remember the Marines’ buy-bomb-parts-on-the-Internet research proposal? Well, forget it. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory canceled the effort, after word of it leaked to Danger Room.
The “Commercial Hunter” project was supposed to help the Corps understand what kind of arsenal could be ordered online, by giving university researchers 40 hour to conduct an ersatz shopping spree. The program was unclassified. But the Warfighting Lab didn’t want the general public to find out about it, apparently.
“Please advise me on who provided the info on Commercial Hunter RFQ. My understanding is that the info was targeted specifically to colleges and universities. Also, who in the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory is the source that provided you this data. I ask because all interviews and info requests are to go through me and then vetted through command leadership prior to release,” Lab spokesman Victor Lopez e-mailed Danger Room on Wednesday.
Obviously, I turned down that request. So we got another e-mail this morning, from Teri Snyder, a contracting officer at the Warfighting Lab.
“Please be advised that due to the release of information not cleared by the Contracting Officer, the RFQ that you published on your blog has been cancelled,” she wrote. “If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.”
So I did.
“Just curious: Why was the release of information so damaging to the project? What about having Commercial Hunter public made it difficult to conduct?” I asked.
I’ll let you know if I hear back from her.
Christian Right Leader George Rekers Takes Vacation with “Rent Boy”
May 10th, 2010Via: Miami New Times:
On April 13, the “rent boy” (whom we’ll call Lucien) arrived at Miami International Airport on Iberian Airlines Flight 6123, after a ten-day, fully subsidized trip to Europe. He was soon followed out of customs by an old man with an atavistic mustache and a desperate blond comb-over, pushing an overburdened baggage cart.
That man was George Alan Rekers, of North Miami — the callboy’s client and, as it happens, one of America’s most prominent anti-gay activists. Rekers, a Baptist minister who is a leading scholar for the Christian right, left the terminal with his gay escort, looking a bit discomfited when a picture of the two was snapped with a hot-pink digital camera.
Reached by New Times before a trip to Bermuda, Rekers said he learned Lucien was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.” (Medical problems didn’t stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)
Yet Rekers wouldn’t deny he met his slender, blond escort at Rentboy.com — which features homepage images of men in bondage and grainy videos of crotch-rubbing twinks — and Lucien confirmed it.
At the small western Miami townhome he shares with a roommate, a nervous Lucien expressed surprise when we told him that Rekers denied knowing about his line of work from the beginning. “He should’ve been able to tell you that,” he said, fidgeting and fixing his eyes on his knees. “But that’s up to him.”
For decades, George Alan Rekers has been a general in the culture wars, though his work has often been behind the scenes. In 1983, he and James Dobson, America’s best-known homophobe, formed the Family Research Council, a D.C.-based, rabidly Christian, and vehemently anti-gay lobbying group that has become a standard-bearer of the nation’s extreme right wing. Its annual Values Summit is considered a litmus test for Republican presidential hopefuls, and Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have spoken there. (The Family Research Council would not comment about Rekers’s Euro-trip.)
Research Credit: FJ
Confetti Schredder Rally Time
May 10th, 2010UPDATE: FEDERAL RESERVE OPENS EMERGENCY CREDIT LINE TO EUROPE
Via: AP:
The Federal Reserve late Sunday opened a program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe in a move to head off a broader financial crisis on the continent.
Other central banks, including the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan also are involved in the dollar swap effort.
The move comes after the European Union and International Monetary Fund pledged a nearly $1 trillion defense package for the embattled euro, hoping to calm jittery markets and halt attacks on the eurozone’s weakest members. The ECB also jumped into the bond market Sunday night, saying it is ready to buy eurozone bonds to shore up liquidity in “dysfunctional” markets.
The Fed’s action reopens a program put in place during the 2008 global financial crisis under which dollars are shipped overseas through the foreign central banks. In turn, these central banks can lend the dollars out to banks in their home countries that are in need of dollar funding to prevent the European crisis from spreading further.
The Fed said action is being taken “in response to the reemergence of strains in U.S. dollar short-term funding markets in Europe,” and to prevent the spread of that strain to other markets and financial centers.
A so-called “swap” line with the Bank of Canada provides up to $30 billion. Figures weren’t provided for the other central banks. The arrangements are authorized through January 2011.
—End Update—
WEEEE!
European markets are up over 4% right now.
U.S. futures sharply higher…
The only question now is: Who got filled around zero last week? This thing is a scam wrapped inside a swindle.
EMERGENCY: OM NOM NOM: ECB to Intervene in Bond Market to Fight Euro Crisis
May 10th, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Why can’t the ECB just eat the debt, like the Federal Reserve has been eating it?
Does anyone know why not?
It doesn’t seem fair that Uncle Sugar can rally its silly confetti by feeding it into a shredder. The ECB should be able to do the same with its confetti, right?
—Many Possible Triggers for Wider Euro Debt Crisis
LOL. I love it.
OmNomNomNom
I was pretty sure that a bounce was coming, but I badly botched the timing. Now, on that post, dagobaz, who has been short EUR/USD since the 140s, left the following comment:
I am holding for parity on the eurusd, before the eoy.
That was back on 5 May.
This is from earlier today: AFP: Euro Could Reach Parity with Dollar: German Economist:
BERLIN — Battered by the Greek fiscal crisis, the euro could weaken to the point of parity with the US dollar, a top German economist said Sunday, as others warned of inflation in Europe’s biggest economy.
“As long as uncertainty over Greece and other countries on the periphery of the euro area continues, the euro will remain under pressure,” Thomas Mayer, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, told the Bild am Sonntag weekly.
“I think we could soon see 1.20 against the dollar and a further decline in the direction of parity is definitely possible,” added Mayer.
On Friday, as volatile markets closed for the week, the euro fetched 1.2755 dollars as investors warned that failure to nail down a credible rescue plan at Sunday’s meeting of EU finance ministers could pressure the euro even more.
Meanwhile, other economists warned of the dangers of inflation returning in Germany in the wake of the Greek crisis.
So, is it a dead cat bounce on the euro? Does the ECB action amount to spit balls? My official guess right here is that it’s too blurry to tell, but if you forced me to call it, here it is:
Now that the weekly support has been blown out, I’d say that a move to at least as low as EUR/USD 1.23 looks likely. My premise for long euro was based on a bounce with the weekly trend remaining in tact. We have a weekly red candle fully breaching that support and the bounce coming as a result of ECB manipulation.
EUR/USD Weekly Interval
Via: Bloomberg:
The European Central Bank said it will buy government and private bonds as part of an historic bid to stave off a sovereign-debt crisis that threatens to destroy the euro.
The ECB wants “to address severe tensions in certain market segments which are hampering the monetary policy transmission mechanism and thereby the effective conduct of monetary policy,” the central bank said in a statement today, minutes after European finance ministers announced a loan package worth almost $1 trillion to staunch the market turmoil.
The central bank said it will intervene in “those market segments which are dysfunctional,” signaling it views the recent surge in some of the region’s bond yields as unjustified. Policy makers are seeking to restore confidence in markets and protect the economy from a double-dip recession. The bank said the moves won’t affect monetary policy and the resulting liquidity will be reabsorbed.
Research Credit: tochigi
Just Curious: BullionVault User Activity
May 10th, 2010I recently received a large single commission from BullionVault activity. BullionVault provides me with no information about the identity of the user at all, whether the deal was gold or silver, or even if the transaction was a purchase or sale. So, someone either bought or sold a relatively large amount of gold or silver.
The way the BullionVault commission system works makes it hard to how much the deal was for, because the commission will vary depending on how much metal the person has bought already. Assuming that this was for gold, it would have been at least the mid five figures, but if the person has already been buying metal for the year, this could have been much bigger, easily six figures. But, as a rough guess, let’s say that this was at least thirty grand in one shot.
If you are the one who is responsible for this deal, I’m just curious: Do you know something that you feel like sharing with the rest of us?
If you feel like getting in touch, let me know it’s you by giving me the date on which you did that deal. There’s no need to tell me your name, or anything else about yourself, unless you feel like it, of course. Feel free to use a throw away email address to hide your identity from me (as long as you understand that you are not hiding from state intelligence services by doing that). Hiding your identity from me is simple. Hiding your identity from Them is not simple.
The last time I got curious about an outlier commission event was related to a large long term storable food purchase.
And if you don’t want to write in, let me just say this: Thanks for supporting Cryptogon.
EU Crafts $928 Billion Loan Package in Attempt to Halt Euro Decline
May 10th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
European finance ministers put together an unprecedented loan package that may be worth 720 billion euros ($928 billion) for debt-swamped governments in a bid to restore faith in the euro and prevent Greece’s fiscal woes from unleashing a global crisis.
Jolted into action by last week’s slide in the currency to a 14-month low and soaring bond yields in Portugal and Spain, the 16 euro governments pledged to make 440 billion euros available, with 60 billion euros more from the EU’s budget, said Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado at a press conference in Brussels today. The International Monetary Fund may provide a further 220 billion euros, she said.
“We are placing considerable sums in the interests of stability in Europe,” Salgado told reporters in Brussels after chairing the 14-hour meeting.
Under pressure from the U.S. and Asia to stabilize markets, the European governments gambled that the show of financial force would prevent a sovereign-debt crisis and muffle speculation that the 11-year-old euro might break apart.
The European Central Bank will announce “intervention” in financial markets, Luxembourg Finance Minister Luc Frieden told reporters, without giving further details.
Europe’s failure to contain Greece’s fiscal crisis triggered a 4.1 percent drop in the euro last week, the biggest weekly decline since the aftermath of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse. It prompted President Barack Obama to call German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday to urge “resolute steps” in Europe to prevent the crisis from cascading around the world.
BP Oil-Collection Chamber Clogs, Removed From Leaking Gulf Well
May 9th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
BP Plc’s latest effort to prevent oil leaks from damaging wildlife and tourism on the U.S. coast are being stymied as cold and pressure a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico formed ice that clogged a containment device.
The device, a 40-foot-tall steel chamber BP hoped would capture the gushing oil and funnel it to an overhead drillship, was blocked by ice crystals formed from gas hydrates at the well site, the company said. An estimated 5,000 barrels of crude are spilling each day from the well, threatening shrimping and fishing grounds that supply a quarter of the U.S. seafood.
“I wouldn’t say it’s failed yet,” Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, said yesterday. BP expects to break up the hydrates by sending warm water through an insulating layer, he said.
…
The containment system, now set aside on the seabed about 200 meters (656 feet) from the biggest leak, was London-based BP’s best hope for slowing the spread of oil while it drills a relief well aimed at relieving pressure so the flow can be stopped altogether. BP has 20 experts studying the possibility of injecting pieces of rubber into the well to stop up the pipe.
“We continue to look to see if that’s going to be a viable option” and not make the leak worse, Suttles said yesterday at a press conference in Robert, Louisiana.
Meanwhile, BP will consider ways to prevent the containment dome from clogging, such as applying heat. Hydrate gases crystallize like ice in the cold waters and high pressure 5,000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface.
BP engineers thought the opening atop the dome was large enough that it wouldn’t clog with hydrates, Suttles said.
The company expected the containment system, a rectangular structure with a pyramid-shaped dome on top, to capture as much as 85 percent of the flow of oil. He said the relief well is “ahead of plan,” having reached a depth of 9,000 feet.
EU Finance Chiefs Race to Ready Euro Stability Fund for Monday Morning
May 9th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
European Union finance ministers meet today to hammer out the details of an emergency fund to prevent a sovereign debt crisis from shattering confidence in the 11- year-old euro.
Jolted into action by last week’s slide in the currency to the lowest in 14 months and soaring bond yields in Portugal and Spain, leaders of the 16 euro nations agreed to the financial backstop at a May 7 summit. They assigned finance chiefs to get it ready before Asian markets open later today European time.
“We will defend the euro, whatever it takes,” European Commission President Jose Barroso told reporters in the early hours yesterday after the leaders met in Brussels.
Europe’s failure to contain Greece’s fiscal crisis triggered a 4.3 percent drop in the euro last week, the biggest weekly decline since October 2008. It prompted the U.S. and Asia to urge broader steps to prevent a global sovereign-debt crisis from pitching the world back into a recession.
“Europe is getting its act together,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “Time will tell if this statement is enough to satisfy the European bond market vigilantes.”
European officials declined to disclose the size of the stabilization fund, to be made up of money borrowed by the EU’s central authorities with guarantees by national governments.
Research Credit: PD
