Savile’s Convicted Pedophile BBC Driver Found Dead on Day of Trial for Sex Crimes
October 29th, 2013Via: Daily Mail:
A former BBC driver found dead in an apparent suicide ahead of his child sex abuse trial has ‘cheated’ his victim of justice, a leading lawyer has today said.
The body of David Smith, 67, chauffeur to disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile and other celebrities during the 1980s, was found at his south-east London home, on Monday – the eve of his court appearance.
It has emerged the former driver was a prolific sex offender with a string of previous convictions for sexual offences against young boys, dating back to 1966, on his criminal record.
Research Credit: conceptualdecay
Another Google Barge Spotted on East Coast
October 29th, 2013If there was a list of Cryptogon axioms, #1 would probably be: No collapse due to energy scarcity.
I’ve gone into why for many years, so feel free to look through the archives.
Terawatts of untapped energy are just swirling around out there in the oceans, waiting to turn the gears of fascism.
It was just a matter of time…
Via: Cnet:
As CNET reported Friday, it looks very much like Google has been building a floating data center made from shipping containers on a barge in the middle of San Francisco Bay. But it may not be the only one of its kind.
Google has not responded to multiple requests for comment. But the project in San Francisco Bay appears likely to be the manifestation of a 2009 patent for a “water-based data center,” and would likely leverage the fact that wave energy can provide cheap and plentiful power.
Now it seems as though Google may well have built a sister version of the project, and, according to the Portland Press Herald, it recently showed up in the harbor in Portland, Maine.
In both cases, the structures on both barges appear to be made from a number of shipping containers, many of which have small slats for windows, and each has one container that slants down to ground level at a 45-degree angle.
Shocker: Doctors Motivated by Profit Treat Patients as ATMs
October 29th, 2013Via: Mish:
US Healthcare System Explained in Six Succinct Points
1. A constant battle is underway between insurance companies that do not want to pay any claims, even legitimate ones, and doctors and hospitals incentivised to rip off patients, insurers, and taxpayers with unnecessary surgeries and Medicare fraud.
2. Insurance companies demand massive amounts of paperwork out of rational fear of fraud and unnecessary treatments. Doctors perform for-profit (as opposed to for-patient) procedures that guarantee more explanations and more paperwork.
3. Doctors and hospitals have direct personal contact with patients, but insurance companies don’t. In cases where doctors put patients at huge risk with needless procedures and surgeries, it’s easy for hospitals and doctors to point their finger at insurance companies. On the other hand, many sincere, honest doctors have difficulty getting patients the care they should have because insurers believe they are getting ripped off by unnecessary procedures, even when they aren’t.
4. Doctors make needless tests out of fear of being sued for not doing them.
5. The vast majority of healthcare costs occur in final last year or so of someone’s life. Politicians who want to do something sensible about this issue get accused of “rationing healthcare”.
6. Doctors not only have a financial incentive to prolong life needlessly, they also worry about not prolonging life out of fear of being sued by family members unless there is a living will, and perhaps even if there is a living will.
China: The Making of ‘Gutter Oil’
October 29th, 2013Via: YouTube:
Research Credit: RP
Facebook Requiring Some Users to Provide Government ID to Login
October 29th, 2013You betcha.
Via: The Drum:
Thousands of Facebook users have vented their fury at the social media site on Twitter after they were locked out of the site, and were requested to provide “Government ID” to log back in.
Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours
October 28th, 2013Via: IndustryTap:
We have seen huge advancements in 3D printing. We’ve even seen oversized wrenches printed that measure 1.2 meters in length. Now, we can print an entire 2,500 sqft house in 20 hours.
In the TED Talk video below, Behrokh Khoshnevis, a professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), demonstrates automated construction, using 3D printers to build an entire house in 20 hours.
Food Stamp Cut Hits Friday
October 28th, 2013Via: NPR:
Poor families across the country will have a harder time stretching their food budgets after Friday, as stimulus funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) automatically expires. The 13.6 percent boost in SNAP benefits the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act instituted in April 2009 ends Nov. 1.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the cuts translate into $29 per month less for an average family of three. They will be left with $319 per year or $1.40 per person per meal, based on cost estimates from the Department of Agriculture’s “Thrifty Food Plan.”
Since the funding increase came from federal dollars, every SNAP recipient will experience reduced benefits.
Keeping Blood Sugar Low May Protect Memory
October 28th, 2013Via: NPR:
There’s a growing body of evidence linking elevated blood sugar to memory problems.
…
Study author Agnes Floel of Charite University Medicine in Berlin says there may be a couple of things at play. It’s possible that blood vessel effects can damage memory. “Elevated blood sugar levels damage small and large vessels in the brain, leading to decreased blood and nutrient flow to brain cells,” explains Floel.
Another explanation: Elevated blood sugar “may impair the functioning of brain areas like the hippocampus, a structure particularly relevant for memory,” Floel says.
“When you’re making a decision or trying to retrieve [information from your memory], the hippocampus requires a lot of glucose,” explains Gail Musen of the Joslin Diabetes Center.
But when glucose levels rise in the body, it may lead to a disruption in the transport of glucose through the blood-brain barrier to the hippocampus. And this may impact the integrity of the hippocampus, according to the findings of the new study.
So it seems that when blood sugar in the body rises, it may be “more difficult to get that glucose to the hippocampus,” Musen explains.
Research Credit: windhorse
Siri, Have Those People Killed
October 28th, 2013Via: GQ:
In 2011, Air Force psychologists completed a mental-health survey of 600 combat drone operators. Forty-two percent of drone crews reported moderate to high stress, and 20 percent reported emotional exhaustion or burnout. The study’s authors attributed their dire results, in part, to “existential conflict.” A later study found that drone operators suffered from the same levels of depression, anxiety, PTSD, alcohol abuse, and suicidal ideation as traditional combat aircrews. These effects appeared to spike at the exact time of Bryant’s deployment, during the surge in Iraq. (Chillingly, to mitigate these effects, researchers have proposed creating a Siri-like user interface, a virtual copilot that anthropomorphizes the drone and lets crews shunt off the blame for whatever happens. Siri, have those people killed.)
Electric Utility Executives Worry About Solar Panels
October 28th, 2013Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
Sitting on a rooftop, soaking up sun, the humble solar panel may not look like a threat to a multibillion-dollar industry.
But some electric utility executives say it is. They even have a name for the nightmare scenario solar could create – the “death spiral.”
They fear solar’s rapid spread across homes and businesses, combined with the increasing efficiency of modern buildings and appliances, could slowly erode the utilities’ ability to grow. California utilities get paid based on the value of the assets they own – the transmission lines, substations and wires. As more businesses and homeowners generate their own electricity, the utilities won’t need to add as many of those assets as before.
At the same time, the costs of maintaining the electricity grid might fall on fewer and fewer nonsolar utility customers. The companies could compensate by tacking on fixed monthly charges for all customers, solar and nonsolar alike. But those new charges would jack up bills, and that could prompt more people to slap panels on their roofs.
The problem will only get worse if advanced battery packs become cheap enough for home use, parked in the basement by the water heater.
Research Credit: ottilie
