Government Pays for Empty Flights to Rural Airports
August 12th, 2011Via: AP / San Francisco Chronicle:
On some days, the pilots with Great Lakes Airlines fire up a twin-engine Beechcraft 1900 at the Ely, Nev., airport and depart for Las Vegas without a single passenger on board. And the federal government pays them to do it.
Federal statistics reviewed by The Associated Press show that in 2010, just 227 passengers flew out of Ely while the airline got $1.8 million in subsidies. The travelers paid $70 to $90 for a one-way ticket. The cost to taxpayers for each ticket: $4,107.
Russia: Government Sponsored Youth Camp
August 12th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times:
They wake up to the Russian national anthem and gather near the main stage lined with huge portraits of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his boss (on paper at least), President Dmitry Medvedev, where they do their morning exercises to music interrupted periodically by recorded quotations from both leaders.
As the day goes on, they are taught how to keep secrets from journalists, how to be active on the Internet, how to set up youth organizations and how to raise funds. They are trained in martial arts by an expert from the Vladimir Putin Fight Club and instructed to read books suggested by Putin.
One thing they don’t need to be taught is to adore Putin. They already do.
In this sprawling Kremlin-sponsored youth camp 220 miles northwest of Moscow — 99 acres of white sand, tall pines and Lake Seliger, a jewel of Russian nature — thousands of young men and women are learning how to be supporters of the ruling United Russia party, future politicians and senior government officials.
Research Credit: minerva
Epidermal Electronic System
August 12th, 2011Via: National Science Foundation:
Through a combination of careful theoretical modeling and precise micro-manufacturing, a team of engineers and scientists has developed a new type of ultra-thin, self-adhesive electronics device that can effectively measure data about the human heart, brain waves and muscle activity–all without the use of bulky equipment, conductive fluids or glues.
The researchers have created a new class of micro-electronics with a technology that they call an epidermal electronic system (EES). They have incorporated miniature sensors, light-emitting diodes, tiny transmitters and receivers and networks of carefully crafted wire filaments into their initial designs.
The technology is presented–along with initial measurements that researchers captured using the EES–in a paper by lead author Dae-Hyeong Kim of the University of Illinois and colleagues in the Aug. 12, 2011, issue of Science.
The EES device was developed by collaborators from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, Tufts University, the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore, and Dalian University of Technology in China.
“Our goal was to develop an electronic technology that could integrate with the skin in a way that is mechanically and physiologically invisible to the user,” says corresponding author John Rogers, a professor in materials science and engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “We found a solution that involves devices we designed to achieve physical properties that match to the epidermis itself. It’s a technology that blurs the distinction between electronics and biology.”
While existing technologies accurately measure heart rate, brain waves and muscle activity, EES devices offer the opportunity to seamlessly apply sensors that have almost no weight, no external wires and require negligible power.
Because of the small power requirements, the devices can draw power from stray (or transmitted) electromagnetic radiation through the process of induction and can harvest a portion of their energy requirements from miniature solar collectors.
The EES designs yield flat devices that are less than 50-microns thick–thinner than the diameter of a human hair–which are integrated onto the polyester backing familiar from stick-on tattoos.
The devices are so thin that close-contact forces called van der Waals interactions dominate the adhesion at the molecular level, so the electronic tattoos adhere to the skin without any glues and stay in place for hours.
The recent study demonstrated device lifetimes of up to 24 hours under ideal conditions.
France, Belgium, Italy and Spain Ban Short Selling
August 11th, 2011Via: New York Times:
A European market regulator announced on Thursday night that short-selling of financial stocks in several countries would be temporarily banned in an effort to stop the tailspin in the markets.
The European Securities and Markets Authority, a body that coordinates the European Union’s market policies, said in a statement that these negative bets on stocks would be curtailed effective on Friday in France, Belgium, Italy and Spain. They are already banned in Greece and Turkey.
“Today some authorities have decided to impose or extend existing short-selling bans in their respective countries,” the authority said. “They have done so either to restrict the benefits that can be achieved from spreading false rumours or to achieve a regulatory level playing field, given the close inter-linkage between some E.U. markets.”
The statement said details for each country would be posted on their individual financial regulators’ Web sites.
Ireland Being “Run by Mad People in Brussels”
August 11th, 2011Via: Irish Times:
POTENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL candidate Gay Byrne has expressed concerns about the development of the European Union, saying Ireland was being “run by mad people in Brussels”.
The veteran broadcaster, who revealed this week he had been asked to consider running for the presidency by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, outlined his worries while speaking to reporters in Dublin last night.
“Those concerns are that I think it’s a crazy notion from the very beginning. We crossed the Rubicon when we joined the single currency. I think there’s no backing out now but it’s a mad, mad world and we are being run by mad people in Brussels,” Byrne said.
Gold Falls Most in Seven Weeks as Margins Raised
August 11th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
Gold futures fell the most in seven weeks after CME Group Inc. boosted margins on Comex contracts, prompting investor sales after a three-day rally to a record topping $1,800 an ounce and as equities rebounded.
CME Group, owner of the world’s largest futures market, raised margins on gold contracts by 22 percent. The minimum amount of cash that speculators must keep on deposit for an initial account increased to $7,425 on a 100-ounce contract from $6,075. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose as much as 3.2 percent after a drop in U.S. jobless claims.
Related: Wall Street Rallies 4%
Japan’s Nuclear Agency Hides Radiation Results from Thyroid Tests on Children
August 11th, 2011Different, But Related: I wonder what will happen to the data…
Via: ABC:
Japan’s nuclear watchdog has denied public access to the results of thyroid check-ups for more than 1,000 Fukushima children exposed to radiation.
Critics have accused Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission of denying the public accurate information about the crisis.
The commission had earlier uploaded the test results of more than 1,000 children who were checked to see if radioactive substances were accumulating in their thyroids.
TEPCO Lost Contact with 143 Nuclear Plant Workers; Kept No Records of Their Addresses or Exposure to Radiation
August 11th, 2011Many of these workers are homeless. See: Nuclear Ginza.
Via: Japan Today:
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Thursday that it has not been able to locate 143 individuals working to restore the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant since May. The utility said it has no idea if the 143 have been exposed to radiation and to what level.
According to a report from TEPCO given to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, TEPCO hired many of the workers through subcontractors from all over Japan for limited periods and kept no records of their addresses. On any given day, TEPCO said it has had up to 1,000 workers on rotating schedules at the stricken power plant.
China, North Korea, Iran, Libya… David Cameron Threatens to Shut Down UK Social Networks When Pre-Crime Detected
August 11th, 2011Via: Thinq:
In a move worthy of China’s communist regime, UK PM David Cameron wants to shut down social networks whenever civil unrest rears its head in Britain’s towns and cities.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Cameron said, “Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were, organised via social media.
“Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”
Although the Old Etonian didn’t give any clue as to how he intends to block use of the likes of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry messenger – which have all been implicated in the mob’s ability to stay 17 steps ahead of the cops as they turn up hours after the nation’s shops and businesses have been picked clean by gangs of feral teenagers – but the only way we can see it working is if the entire cellular network is turned off in affected areas.
Google Admits Handing over European User Data to U.S. Intelligence Agencies
August 11th, 2011Via: Softpedia:
Google has admitted complying with requests from US intelligence agencies for data stored in its European data centers, most likely in violation of European Union data protection laws.
Gordon Frazer, Microsoft UK’s managing director, made news headlines some weeks ago when he admitted that Microsoft can be compelled to share data with the US government regardless of where it is hosted in the world.
At the center of this problem is the USA PATRIOT ACT, which states that companies incorporated in the United States must hand over data administered by their foreign subsidiaries if requested.
Not only that, but they can be forced to keep quiet about it in order to avoid exposing active investigations and alert those targeted by the probes.
