Cancers Strike Veterans Who Deployed to Uzbek Base Where Black Goo Oozed, Ponds Glowed
December 22nd, 2019Via: McClatchy:
U.S. special operations forces who deployed to a military site in Uzbekistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks found pond water that glowed green, black goo oozing from the ground and signs warning “radiation hazard.”
Karshi-Khanabad, known as K2, was an old Soviet base leased by the United States from the Uzbek government just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because it was a few hundred miles from al Qaeda and Taliban targets in northern Afghanistan.
The base became a critical hub in the early days of the war to provide airdrops, medical evacuation and airstrike support to U.S. ground forces in Afghanistan.
But K2 was contaminated with chemical weapons remnants, radioactive processed uranium and other hazards, according to documents obtained by McClatchy.
At least 61 of the men and women who served at K2 had been diagnosed with cancer or died from the disease, according to a 2015 Army study on the base. But that number may not include the special operations forces deployed to K2, who were likely not counted due to the secrecy of their missions, the study reported.
Invisible Ink Embeds Immunization Records Into a Child’s Skin, “The Team Eventually Wants to Inject Sensors”
December 22nd, 2019Via: Scientific American:
Keeping track of vaccinations remains a major challenge in the developing world, and even in many developed countries, paperwork gets lost, and parents forget whether their child is up to date. Now a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers has developed a novel way to address this problem: embedding the record directly into the skin.
Along with the vaccine, a child would be injected with a bit of dye that is invisible to the naked eye but easily seen with a special cell-phone filter, combined with an app that shines near-infrared light onto the skin. The dye would be expected to last up to five years, according to tests on pig and rat skin and human skin in a dish.
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The work was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation…
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The researchers hope to add more detailed information to the dots, such as the date of vaccination. Along with them, the team eventually wants to inject sensors that could also potentially be used to track aspects of health such as insulin levels in diabetics, Jaklenec says.
Giant Surveillance Balloons Are Lurking at the Edge of Space
December 22nd, 2019Via: Ars Technica:
It’s a brisk December morning at Spaceport Tucson, America’s premiere (only?) dedicated launch pad for stratospheric balloons, and a small army of technicians in reflective vests is milling around on the concrete and thawing out after a long, cold night. Nearby, a white metal tripod the size of a smart car is tethered to two dozen solar panels and hundreds of feet of clear plastic that stretches across the pad.
This alien-looking contraption is referred to as a “stratollite,” a portmanteau of “stratospheric satellite,” operated by a company called World View Enterprises. It’s a finely honed surveillance device outfitted with a suite of sensors and a camera sensitive enough to detect people standing on the ground from the edge of space. The stratollite travels by virtue of two balloons, one filled with helium to provide lift, and the other with pressurized air, which functions as a steering system.
Wrangler Riggs Workwear Men’s Short Sleeve Pocket T-Shirt
December 22nd, 2019Are you tired of poorly made, tight fitting, negligee thin t-shirts?
I have finally found a high quality heavy weight t-shirt: Wrangler Riggs Workwear T-shirt.
Imagine the nicest t-shirt you have ever had, maybe from 20 or 30 years ago, and now try to imagine it even better. Much better. Not only is this Wrangler Riggs t-shirt made out of extremely heavy 7oz cotton, it fits the way t-shirts used to fit; loose, with plenty of room to move. The workmanship is far beyond anything else I’ve ever seen. It also features vented side seams, a taped neck seam and a hidden utility loop to keep a pen (or something similar) secure in the pocket.
Yes, this Wrangler Riggs t-shirt is much more expensive than a commodity t-shirt, but there’s no comparison. I’m going to stock up on these, because you know what will happen with something this good: It won’t be around for long.
Boeing’s Starliner Enters Wrong Orbit, Won’t Dock with ISS
December 20th, 2019Via: Daily Mail:
Boeing’s new Starliner capsule won’t dock with the International Space Station on Saturday after launching into the wrong orbit just minutes after blasting off on its first test flight.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said it burned more fuel than anticipated to maintain control which ‘precluded a space station rendezvous’.
The Starliner capsule went off course into the wrong orbit just minutes after blasting off on its first test flight – a crucial dress rehearsal for next year’s inaugural launch with astronauts.
Apple Has Secret Team Working on Satellites to Beam Data to Devices
December 20th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. has a secret team working on satellites and related wireless technology, striving to find new ways to beam data such as internet connectivity directly to its devices, according to people familiar with the work.
The Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker has about a dozen engineers from the aerospace, satellite and antenna design industries working on the project with the goal of deploying their results within five years, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal company efforts. Work on the project is still early and could be abandoned, the people said, and a clear direction and use for satellites hasn’t been finalized. Still, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has shown interest in the project, indicating it’s a company priority.
Google Goes Offline After Fibre Cables Cut
December 20th, 2019Via: BBC:
Severed fibre optic cables disrupted internet access in parts of eastern Europe, Iran and Turkey on Thursday.
The issue, which lasted for about two hours, was caused by multiple fibre cables being physically cut at the same time, a highly unusual thing to happen.
Google said its services were among those unavailable in the region for about 30 minutes.
The company told internet service providers to connect to its other servers to “route around the problem”.
In a statement, the company blamed “multiple simultaneous fibre cuts”, which are very rare.
BBC Monitoring confirmed that internet access in Bulgaria, Iran and Turkey had been disrupted for about two hours on Thursday morning.
Sadjad Bonabi, a director at Iran’s Communications Infrastructure Company, said two cuts happened at once, one between Iran and Bucharest and the other on a line to Munich.
This disrupted traffic on one of the major fibre cables in the region. But Mr Bonabi said traffic had been routed on to “healthy” connections in western and southern Iran.
No explanation for the cut cables has been offered.
Pig Ebola: Chinese Banks Offer Pork to Reward Customers for Opening New Accounts
December 19th, 2019Via: South China Morning Post:
Handing out servings of expensive pork as a reward for opening an account is the latest gimmick being used by a growing number of small local banks across China to lure new depositors.
Banks are being forced to go to greater lengths to attract new deposits, since they generally earn less money from lending and have fewer funding options than their larger peers.
The fact that pork could be seen as a desirable reward for opening a bank account also speaks to the country’s massive shortage of its favourite staple meat.
Warrant Not Always Needed for ‘Inadvertent’ NSA Surveillance of Americans
December 19th, 2019This sort of fluff is nothing compared to: “It’s just like laundering money – you work it backwards to make it clean.”
Enjoy your 4th Amendment.
Via: Reuters:
The U.S. government may collect information about U.S. citizens without obtaining a warrant if the information is gathered inadvertently while legally carrying out surveillance of non-nationals abroad, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday.
Vampire Squid May Admit Guilt, Pay $2 Billion Fine in Corruption Scandal
December 19th, 2019Via: Reuters:
Goldman Sachs Group Inc is in talks with the U.S. government and a state regulator to possibly pay up to $2 billion and admit guilt to resolve investigations into its role in the 1MDB Malaysian corruption scandal, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The bank and U.S. officials have discussed a deal in which a Goldman subsidiary in Asia would plead guilty to violating U.S. bribery laws, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Thursday.
