Hanford Nuclear Waste “Cleanup” Disaster
May 10th, 2013Via: Scientific American:
The most toxic and voluminous nuclear waste in the U.S.—208 million liters —sits in decaying underground tanks at the Hanford Site (a nuclear reservation) in southeastern Washington State. It accumulated there from the middle of World War II, when the Manhattan Project invented the first nuclear weapon, to 1987, when the last reactor shut down. The federal government’s current attempt at a permanent solution for safely storing that waste for centuries—the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant here—has hit a major snag in the form of potential chain reactions, hydrogen explosions and leaks from metal corrosion. And the revelation last February that six more of the storage tanks are currently leaking has further ramped up the pressure for resolution.
After decades of research, experimentation and political inertia, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) started building the “Vit Plant” at Hanford in 2000. It’s intended to sequester the waste in stainless steel–encased glass logs, a process known as vitrification (hence “Vit”), so it cannot escape into the environment, barring natural disasters like earthquakes or catastrophic fires. But progress on the plant slowed to a crawl last August, when numerous interested parties acknowledged that the plant’s design might present serious safety risks. In response, then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu appointed an expert panel to find a way forward. Because 60 of the 177 underground tanks have already leaked and all are at increasing risk to do so, solving the problem is urgent.
Lawyer Who Represented Kaczynski, Loughner and Rudolph Will Also Represent Tsarnaev
May 10th, 2013Via: Boston Herald:
The lawyer who got life sentences for a string of mass killers — Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Tucson shooter Jared Loughner and Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph — has been added to the defense team for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Judy Clarke, a San Diego lawyer who has built a reputation for working out plea deals and sparing her high-profile clients the death penalty, was approved by a federal judge today to join the group of lawyers representing Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old accused of working with his brother to set off a pair of deadly bombs at this month’s Boston Marathon.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform
May 10th, 2013Via: Wired:
The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.
Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.
Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.
This piece of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is aimed at curbing employment of undocumented immigrants. But privacy advocates fear the inevitable mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit, board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet. Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother cataloging every check-in.
“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state, you do have to get permission to do things,” said Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. “More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”
One-Third of U.S. Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter, Threatening Food Supply
May 10th, 2013Via: Wired:
Nearly one in three commercial honeybee colonies in the United States died or disappeared last winter, an unsustainable decline that threatens the nation’s food supply.
Multiple factors — pesticides, fungicides, parasites, viruses and malnutrition — are believed to cause the losses, which were officially announced today by a consortium of academic researchers, beekeepers and Department of Agriculture scientists.
“We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,” said entomologist Dennis vanEngelstorp of the University of Maryland, who led the survey documenting the declines.
Beekeepers lost 31 percent of their colonies in late 2012 and early 2013, roughly double what’s considered acceptable attrition through natural causes. The losses are in keeping with rates documented since 2006, when beekeeper concerns prompted the first nationwide survey of honeybee health. Hopes raised by drop in rates of loss to 22 percent in 2011-2012 were wiped out by the new numbers.
The honeybee shortage nearly came to a head in March in California, when there were barely enough bees to pollinate the almond crop.
Had the weather not been ideal, the almonds would have gone unpollinated — a taste, as it were, of a future in which honeybee problems are not solved.
Missouri Legislature Nullifies All Federal Gun Control Measures by a Veto-Proof Majority
May 10th, 2013
Via: Tenth Amendment Center:
Tonight, the Missouri State House voted to send Governor Jay Nixon what could arguably be the strongest defense against federal gun control measures in American history. The vote was 116-38.
HB436, introduced by Representative Doug Funderburk in February, was initially passed by the House in April by a vote of 115-42. Last week, the State Senate approved the bill with an amendment which did not change any of its nullification aspects. The vote there was 26-6. The bill then needed one final vote in the house which happened just before 10pm local time this evening.
The votes in both the House and Senate are by a strong veto-proof majority. Local activist Matt Radcliffe acknowledged as much when he said, “Governor Nixon can do nothing and it will automatically become law July 1st. Or he can sign it into law. Or he can veto it then his veto will be overridden in the house and it will become law anyway!”
As law, HB436 would nullify virtually every federal gun control measure on the books – or planned for the future.
State Department Asks Defense Distributed to Take Down Its 3D-Printed Gun Plans; Hilarity Ensues
May 10th, 2013These are probably some of the most mirrored files ever, and news of the ban is just causing more people to become interested in them.
Via: Atlantic Wire:
Defense Distributed, the Texas-based nonprofit that wants to empower people to 3D print their own guns, has hit a bit of a legal snag. According to founder Cody Wilson, DEFCAD, the open source weapon-printing project powered by Defense Distributed, received a letter (embedded below) from the State Department’s Office of Defense Trade Compliance, telling him to remove the blueprints of the Liberator, his 3D printed gun, from the web so that they may be reviewed by the department.
The group’s website currently has a red banner appended to the top that reads, “DEFCAD files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.”
Britain: Snooper’s Charter
May 9th, 2013Via: Guardian:
The government appears to have left open the door to the resurrection of the controversial “snooper’s charter” bill to track everyone’s email, internet and mobile text use.
Whitehall sources confirmed that the possibility of legislation remains under discussion despite a declaration by Nick Clegg that the communications data legislation “isn’t going to happen while Lib Dems are in government”.
A Downing Street background briefing note on investigating crime in cyberspace published alongside the Queen’s speech says: “We are continuing to look at this issue closely and the government’s approach will be proportionate, with robust safeguards in place.”
The text of the Queen’s speech gives the go-ahead to legislation, if needed, to deal with the limited technical problem of there being many more devices including phones and tablets in use than the number of internet protocol (IP) addresses that allow the police to identify who sent an email or made a Skype call at a given time.
The carefully crafted sentence agreed by the prime minister, David Cameron, and Clegg, says: “In relation to the problem of matching internet protocol addresses, my government will bring forward proposals to enable the protection of the public and the investigation of crime in cyberspace.”
‘And – you’re going to laugh – he said he was in the CIA.’
May 9th, 2013Update: Ariel Castro Found Hanged in His Ohio Prison Cell
And that’s that.
Via: USA Today:
Ariel Castro, who was convicted last month on charges related to the capture and imprisonment of three women in Cleveland, has been found hanged in his prison cell, according to various sources.
Castro, 52, was being held at the Correction Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, according to the Cleveland Leader.
Castro was found hanging in his cell at about 9:20 p.m .ET, according to 10TV in central Ohio.
After prison officials attempted lifesaving measures, Castro was transported to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m. ET, 10TV reported.
—
Probably nothing… but I’ve been keeping an eye on this horrific Cleveland abduction spectacle from the beginning, just to see what might emerge.
And then…
Via: Reuters:
One childhood friend said a music session with Castro, who was born in Puerto Rico, suddenly turned bizarre.
“Ariel was in my garage probably five or six years ago. We were recording a song, an idea we had – a little hard rock with some Latin,” said Joe Popow, 45, a father of six who said he has known the Castro brothers since childhood.
“And – you’re going to laugh – he said he was in the CIA. And I don’t know if he was joking or not, but it’s the way he said it, how serious he said it. I didn’t know what he was capable of. That just put me on defense, and I just started stepping away,” Popow said.
…
Emily Castro, 25, is serving 25 years in an Indiana prison on attempted murder for slashing the throat of her 11-month-old daughter in April 2007, Allen County, Indiana, Superior Court records show.
Rio de Janeiro: Police Spray Automatic Weapons Fire at Fleeing Suspect Vehicle in Crowded Neighborhood
May 8th, 2013Madness.
Via: Independent:
Footage of a shootout between police and an alleged drug trafficker in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has emerged.
In the short video, police can be seen firing from a helicopter at a car, as it speeds through the city.
The car eventually stops and is surrounded by people from the local area but the suspect flees the scene. The accused drug trafficker was found dead a day later in a parked car.
The chase happened last year and authorities have now launched an investigation into whether the officers involved used excessive force.
Nordstrom Using Smart Phones To Track Customer Movements
May 8th, 2013Via: CBS:
Nordstrom says it wants to serve you better, so it’s tracking your movements through their stores. The CBS 11 I-Team has learned the retailer is using software to track how much time you spend in specific departments within the store. The technology is being used in 17 Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores nationwide, including the NorthPark store in Dallas.
A company spokesperson says sensors within the store collect information from customer smart phones as they attempt to connect to Wi-Fi service. The sensors can monitor which departments you visit and how much time you spend there.
However, the sensors do not follow your phone from department to department, nor can they identify any personal information tied to the phone’s owner, says spokesperson Tara Darrow.
“This is literally measuring a signal. You are not connected to the signal,” says Darrow.
The store calls the information “anonymous aggregate reports that give us a better sense of customer foot traffic” and will ultimately be used to increase the shopping experience for Nordstrom customers. Darrow says the company could use the information to increase staffing during certain high-traffic times or change the layout of a department.
