Egyptian Military Using Very Powerful Incapacitating Agents on Tahrir Square Protesters

November 26th, 2011

Via: Guardian:

Egyptian security forces are believed to be using a powerful incapacitating gas against civilian protesters in Tahrir Square following multiple cases of unconsciousness and epileptic-like convulsions among those exposed.

The Guardian has collected video footage as well as witness accounts from doctors and victims who have offered strong evidence that at least two other crowd control gases have been used on demonstrators in addition to CS gas.

Suspicion has fallen on two other agents: CN gas, which was the crowd control gas used by the US before CS was brought into use; and CR gas.

Some protesters report having seen canisters marked with the letters “CR” – although the Guardian has not been able to confirm this independently.

Both gases can be more dangerous than CS and can cause unconsciousness and seizures in certain circumstances.

Concern began to emerge over the use of more powerful incapacitating agents after reports of gassed protesters falling unconscious and having attacks of jerking spasms.

Those who have experienced the more powerful gas have described it as smelling different and causing an unusual burning sensation on the skin. Others have complained of rashes.

On Tuesday afternoon al-Jazeera reported that some of the recent deaths in Cairo were believed to have been caused by gas asphyxiation.

In one field clinic, set up in a mosque near Tahrir Square, a Guardian videographer recorded footage of a young man brought in insensible and convulsing, whose symptoms were typical of those seen in recent days in Cairo.

A doctor treating him described both the symptoms and the gases used.

“We have been attacked with four different kinds of gas bombs,” said Dr Ahmad Sa’ad. “I have never seen these ones before because the patients come in with convulsions. I’ve never seen patients like that before. You can see it yourself. You can be 100 metres away from the gas bombs [and it will still affect you].”

Similar reactions were reported earlier this year in Yemen where demonstrators also suffered convulsions after being hit with old stocks of CN gas held by the regime.

Another concern, raised by the group Campaign Against Arms Trade, is over the age of some of the CS gas that has been used by Egyptian security forces. Gas canisters more than five years old can become more toxic, and some canisters that have been used in the last few days are up to a decade old.


Climategate 2.0 Emails

November 26th, 2011

WattsUpWithThat

Climategate 2 FOIA 2011 Searchable Database


Senator Joe Lieberman Asks Google for a Terrorist Flagging Button on Blogger

November 26th, 2011

lol

Via: The Verge:

Well, Joe’s at it again, and this time, it really is as embarrassing as it sounds. The Senator has taken pen to paper and written a letter to Google asking that its blogging platform Blogger be equipped with a flagging feature… for terrorists. This is largely because Jose Pimental, a man suspected of attempting to build a pipe bomb to attack the US military hosted his blog on Blogger. Now, there are a lot of terrible Blogger blogs to be sure, but is this really the best way to deal with such a problem?

Talking Points Memo acquired the letter and published it earlier today. “Pimentel’s Internet activity — both his spreading of bomb-making instructions links and his hate-filled writings — were hosted by Google” writes Lieberman, going on to add that, unlike YouTube, “Blogger’s Content Policy does not expressly ban terrorist content nor does it provide a ‘flag’ feature for such content.”

Google has not yet responded to Senator Lieberman’s request for the Blogger kill switch.

Research Credit: noncompliant


So Far, Rabobank Is OK

November 26th, 2011

We keep a substantial portion of our savings with Rabobank. Since Rabobank is a Dutch bank, I’ve been closely monitoring the financial chaos in Europe. As of now, Rabobank indicates that it has prepared for the, “Highly unlikely scenario that we’re now living in,” and won’t need to raise any additional capital until 2013.

In other news, noncompliant sends, Europe liquidity crisis has a number: $30 trillion. So, yeah.

Via: Bloomberg:

Rabobank Nederland, the fourth- largest corporate bond issuer in Europe, plans to halve sales of senior debt next year to reduce its reliance on a market roiled by the sovereign crisis.

The world’s highest-rated private lender will seek 20 billion euros ($27 billion) to 25 billion euros from senior bond offerings in 2012, according to Michael Gower, the head of long- term funding at Utrecht-based Rabobank. Investors will be denied AAA rated securities that returned 3.3 percent this year, more than double the average for securities in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s EMU Corporates, Banking index.

“We’ve been extremely conservative by raising a significant amount of capital over a number of years, just to be prepared for what was a highly unlikely scenario that we’re now living in,” Gower said in an interview. “The bank doesn’t need to borrow until 2013 so there’s no pressure.”

Rabobank raised more than 40 billion euros from senior debt sales this year, 43 percent more than it needed to refinance securities coming due. The lender is stockpiling reserves as the debt crisis intensifies, sending borrowing costs in core economies outside Germany to euro-era records and driving relative yields on bank bonds to the highest since May 2009.


Scientist Makes H5N1 Highly Contagious

November 26th, 2011

Via: NPR:

If the virus evolves to spread as easily between people as seasonal flu, however, it could cause a devastating global pandemic. So in an attempt to stay ahead of H5N1, scientists have been tweaking its genes in the lab to learn more about how this virus works, and what it is capable of.

In September, one scientist made a stunning announcement. At a flu conference held in Malta, he said he’d done a lab experiment that resulted in bird flu virus becoming highly contagious between ferrets — the animal model used to study human flu infection. It seemed that just five mutations did the trick.

News of the results raised red flags for Dr. Thomas Inglesby, a bioterrorism expert and director of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

“It’s just a bad idea for scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious virus. And it’s a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it,” says Inglesby.

No science journal has published the information yet. And Inglesby hopes none of them do.

Biology research usually has a culture of openness. Scientists report their methods and results so others can repeat their work and learn from it.

Inglesby agrees that’s the way to go the vast majority of the time. But not this time. “There are some cases that I think are worth an exception to that otherwise very important scientific principle,” he says. “I can only imagine that the process of deliberating about the publication of these findings is quite serious.”

The researcher who presented these findings at the science meeting is virologist Ron Fouchier, of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. NPR has learned that his work is now under scrutiny by a committee called the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity.

Related: Man-Made Super-Flu Could Kill Half of Humanity

Research Credit: windhorse


Apple iTunes “Flaw” Allowed Government Spying for 3 Years

November 25th, 2011

Via: Telegraph:

An unpatched security flaw in Apple’s iTunes software allowed intelligence agencies and police to hack into users’ computers for more than three years, it’s claimed.

A British company called Gamma International marketed hacking software to governments that exploited the vulnerability via a bogus update to iTunes, Apple’s media player, which is installed on more than 250 million machines worldwide.

The hacking software, FinFisher, is used to spy on intelligence targets’ computers. It is known to be used by British agencies and earlier this year records were discovered in abandoned offices of that showed it had been offered to Egypt’s feared secret police.

Apple was informed about the relevant flaw in iTunes in 2008, according to Brian Krebs, a security writer, but did not patch the software until earlier this month, a delay of more than three years.

“A prominent security researcher warned Apple about this dangerous vulnerability in mid-2008, yet the company waited more than 1,200 days to fix the flaw,” he said in a blog post.

“The disclosure raises questions about whether and when Apple knew about the Trojan offering, and its timing in choosing to sew up the security hole in this ubiquitous software title.”


Robots Will Soon Begin Patrolling South Korean Prisons

November 25th, 2011

Via: Telegraph:

Robot guards with sensors to detect abnormal behaviour will soon begin patrolling South Korean prisons to ease the burden on their human counterparts, researchers said on Thursday.


ITALIAN DEBT FUNDING COSTS SOAR

November 25th, 2011

Via: Reuters:

Italy paid a record 6.5 percent to borrow money over six months on Friday and its longer-term funding costs soared far above levels seen as sustainable for public finances, raising the pressure on Rome’s new emergency government.

The auction yield on the six-month paper almost doubled compared to a month earlier, capping a week in which a German bond auction came close to failing and the leaders of Germany, France and Italy failed to make progress on crisis resolution measures.

Though Italy managed to raise the full planned amount of 10 billion euros, weakening demand and the highest borrowing costs since it joined the euro frightened investors, pushing Italian stocks lower and bond yields to record highs on the secondary market.

Related: Italy Collapse Would Be The ‘End Of The Euro’


The Surveillance Catalog

November 24th, 2011

Via: Wall Street Journal:

Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal open a rare window into a new global market for the off-the-shelf surveillance technology that has arisen in the decade since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people’s computers and cellphones, and “massive intercept” gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country.

The documents—the highlights of which are cataloged and searchable here—were obtained from attendees of a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month.

Research Credit: GP


Google Quits Plans to Make Cheap Renewable Energy

November 24th, 2011

Via: Reuters:

Google Inc has abandoned an ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, the latest target of Chief Executive Larry Page’s moves to focus the Internet giant on fewer efforts.

Google said on Tuesday that it was pulling the plug on seven projects, including Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal as well as a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia service known as Knol.

The plans, which Google announced on its corporate blog, represent the third so-called “spring cleaning” announcement that Google has made since Google co-founder Page took the reins in April.

The changes come as Google is facing stiff competition in mobile computing and social networking from Apple Inc and Facebook, and as some investors have groused about rising spending at the world’s No.1 Internet search company.

“To recap, we’re in the process of shutting down a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward,” wrote Google Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Holzle in the blog post.

Google said that it believed other institutions were better positioned to take its renewable energy efforts “to the next level.”

Google began making investments and doing research into technology to drive down the price of renewable energy in 2007, with a particular focus on solar power technology.


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