Archive for May, 2012
Military to Avoid Embarrassing Pictures by Banning Photography
May 30th, 2012Via: Anti War: It sounds like the punchline of a bad joke, but after years of dealing with photographs of troops torturing prisoners, desecrating corpses and generally behaving badly, commanders in southwestern Afghanistan have announced that they are going to solve the problem by banning photography. The command, which covers some 36,000 troops including 15,800 […]
To Avoid Counting Civilian Deaths, Obama Re-Defined “Militant” to Mean “All Military-Age Males in a Strike Zone”
May 30th, 2012Via: Salon: Virtually every time the U.S. fires a missile from a drone and ends the lives of Muslims, American media outlets dutifully trumpet in headlines that the dead were ”militants” – even though those media outlets literally do not have the slightest idea of who was actually killed. They simply cite always-unnamed “officials” claiming […]
Rothschild’s RIT Capital Partners Buys 37% of Rockefeller Financial Services, Inc.
May 30th, 2012Via: Reuters: Two of the most glamorous names in global finance are linking up, with the Rothschild banking dynasty agreeing to buy a stake in the Rockefeller group’s wealth and asset management business to get a long-sought foothold in the United States. Rothschild’s London-listed RIT Capital Partners (RCP.L) said on Wednesday it was buying the […]
Japan: Mobile Phone with Geiger Counter
May 30th, 2012I’m surprised that it took so long to appear. Via: Wired: Following Fukushima’s nuclear disaster, Japanese citizens have been especially wary of radiation exposure. SoftBank on Tuesday revealed a new smartphone to answer such concerns. The company’s Pantone 5 107SH is the world’s first phone with a built-in geiger counter, capable of measuring radiation levels […]
Solar Powered Ground Sensors That Can Transmit Information for Decades
May 29th, 2012Via: Wired: America is supposed to wind down its war in Afghanistan by 2014. But U.S. forces may continue to track Afghans for years after the conflict is officially done. Palm-sized sensors, developed for the American military, will remain littered across the Afghan countryside — detecting anyone who moves nearby and reporting their locations back […]
Western Nations Expel Syrian Diplomats
May 29th, 2012Via: Wall Street Journal: Syria’s international isolation deepened Tuesday as several Western countries said they were expelling Syrian diplomats, in a coordinated response to the killing of 108 civilians last week in a single attack. The U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, France, Germany and some other European countries announced Tuesday they were kicking out senior Syrian […]
Stubborn Infection, Spread by Insects, Called ‘The New AIDS of the Americas’
May 29th, 2012I’ve never heard of this. Via: New York Times: Chagas disease, caused by parasites transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects, has been named “the new AIDS of the Americas” in a lengthy editorial published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Wikipedia: Chagas Disease
Tepco Admits Fukushima Disaster Released 2.5 Times More Radiation Than Indicated by Initial Government Lies
May 29th, 2012Imagine my shock. But if they’re admitting this, what is the real number? Via: Reuters: The radiation released in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was almost 2-1/2 times the amount first estimated by Japanese safety regulators, the operator of the crippled plant said in a report released on Thursday. Tokyo Electric Power […]
Naoto Kan, Japan’s Former Leader, Condemns Nuclear Power
May 29th, 2012Via: New York Times: In an unusually stark warning, Japan’s prime minister during last year’s nuclear crisis told a parliamentary inquiry on Monday that the country should discard nuclear power as too dangerous, saying the Fukushima accident had pushed Japan to the brink of “national collapse.” … He said he feared additional meltdowns could “release […]
Made in China: Backdoor Found in Chip Used by U.S. Military
May 29th, 2012Via: Information Age: A microchip used by the US military and manufactured in China contains a secret “backdoor” that means it can be shut off or reprogrammed without the user knowing, according to researchers at Cambridge University’s Computing Laboratory. The unnamed chip, which the researchers claim is widely used in military and industrial applications, is […]
