Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR, When Wil Wheaton met Karen Gillan... HolyCrap!! That's Funny!
When Wil Wheaton met Karen Gillan
Site reveals the human slavery behind your stuff - MSNBC.com
My slavery profile by geography
I have 66 slaves working for me. Or at least that’s what Slavery Footprint estimates based on my lifestyle and the size of my family.
For a quick snapshot, you answer 11 pages of questions, including your age, the number of children you have, whether you rent or own a home, what’s in your medicine cabinet, what you eat, the clothing you own, how much jewelry you own and what electronics you have. If you have time, you can fine tune your results by reporting specific number of items. Like how many computers, leather shoes or stuffed animals you have.
Survey questions are graphically based.
For me, the main contributors were my electronics — not a big surprise there, as slavery has a large footprint in mining of raw materials — and my children’s stuffed animals. Now I have a better idea of my impact on human trafficking, and I learned some interesting facts about forced labor while filling out the survey. For instance, did you know that “bonded labor is used in Southeast Asia’s shrimping industry, which supplies more shrimp to the U.S. than any other country?”
The website — which was created by Call + Response, a non-profit dedicated to ending slavery, in collaboration with the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons — estimates the number of slaves by taking a look at more than 450 products, and breaking them down from the sourcing of raw materials through the manufacturing. And the data is taken from legitimate sources such as the Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor 2010, International Labor Organization’s Committee of Experts Reports and Transparency International‘s Corruption Index 2010. Check the site’s Methodology page for a complete explanation and list of sources.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Future of Technology - Energy from hot rocks abounds - msnbc.com
SMU / Google
A new map shows the vast potential for geothermal energy across the U.S.
Clean, accessible, reliable and renewable energy equivalent to 10 times the installed capacity of coal power plants in the U.S. is available from the hot rocks under our feet, according to the results of a new mapping study.
The energy, called geothermal, is generated from heat found deep below the Earth's surface. While there's some geothermal developed in the western U.S., it was previously thought lacking in the eastern portion of the country.
Now, researchers at Southern Methodist University, with funding from Google.org, have compiled geological data from 35,000 sites across the U.S. and found that there's massive potential all across the country, including significant portions of the eastern two-thirds of the U.S.
What's more, the energy can be tapped with existing technology, according to the researchers. That's largely due the recent development of drilling techniques that make methods such as enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) possible.
In EGS, a well is drilled several miles into the Earth's crust, water is injected down that well to fracture hot rocks, creating thousands of small pathways for the water to flow and be heated. This hot water and steam is then piped to the surface, where it powers a turbine to generate electricity.
Key to addressing some of the environmental concerns about excess water usage, the used water is recycled back down the well, creating a closed loop, as Google explains in this introductory video below.
Learn about the potential for EGS with this video from google.org.
Other concerns associated with the technology include the potential to create earthquakes. When the hot rock is broken apart, it induces seismicity — generates earthquakes — that can be felt at the surface. It could also trigger a larger quake.
For a good overview of this risk, read this editorial from Domenico Giardi, director of the Swiss Seismological Service, published in the journal Nature. Earthquakes stopped an EGS project in Basel, Switzerland, in 2009.
A protocol for monitoring and mitigating earthquake problems associated with EGS has been developed, and the new mapping results are compliant with that protocol, according to the SMU researchers.
All of this should help nudge along development of this energy resource, which isn't subject to the fickleness of the weather that hampers wind and solar. And with more than 3 million megawatts of accessible geothermal mapped, the potential seems tempting.
Public safety surveillance drone debuts - Pasadena Star-News -- This makes me uncomfortable!!
Posted: 10/27/2011 03:53:54 PM PDT
MONROVIA - A manufacturer of small surveillance drones for the military has unveiled a model for use by police and other public safety agencies.
Aerovironment Inc. of Monrovia, said Thursday its remotely controlled Qube air vehicle is small enough to fit in the trunk of a car and can be made ready for flight in less than five minutes.
The craft operates like a tiny helicopter with four propellers that allow it to take off and land vertically. It carries color video and thermal cameras that beam images back to the operator. A demonstration video shows how it could be used by police officers to observe a gunman hidden behind a building.
Aerovironment, which makes the Raven, Wasp and Puma battlefield surveillance systems, is inviting agencies to evaluate the Qube.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Alien abductions may be vivid dreams: study - msnbc.com
By Natalie Wolchover
Researchers say they have conducted "the first experiment to ever prove that close encounters with UFOs and extraterrestrials are a product of the human mind."
In a sleep study by the Out-Of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles, 20 volunteers were instructed to perform a series of mental steps upon waking up or becoming lucid during the night that might lead them to have out-of-body experiences culminating in encounters with aliens.
According to lead researcher Michael Raduga, more than half the volunteers experienced at least one full or partial out-of-body experience, and seven of them were able to make contact with UFOs or extraterrestrials during these dream-like experiences.
Raduga designed the experiment to test his theory that many reports of alien encounters are actually instances of people experiencing a vibrant, lifelike state of dreaming. If he could coach people to dream a realistic alien encounter, he said, that could prove that reports of such encounters are really just a product of our imaginations.
"When people experience alien abductions in the night, they usually don't know they are actually in REM sleep and having an out-of-body experience," Raduga told Life's Little Mysteries, adding than an estimated 1 million Americans have such experiences each year.
"It's very realistic and people cannot understand how it happens. [Our study] shows that it's not about aliens, it's about human abilities, and it can happen to almost anyone." [ 7 Things that Create Convincing UFO Sightings ]
Study participants were told to try to "separate from their bodies" every time they became half-awake or lucid during the night. If they were able to dream that they had separated from their sleeping bodies, they were then supposed to look for aliens in their homes. If they were unable to have an out-of-body dream experience, they were told to go back to sleep and try again later in the night.
"Some could do it by the first attempt. Some needed three to five attempts to have an out-of-body experience. Not everybody could do it — some were unable to do it because of their fear. They were able to separate from their body but they became too afraid to look for aliens," Raduga said.
By the end of the study, 35 percent of the volunteers said they had made visual contact with aliens, and they described their encounters for the researchers.
One participant, identified as Alexander N., recalled making a successful attempt to separate from his body: "I [then] tried to find aliens. Three of them materialized right before my eyes. They seemed more like creatures from the movie 'The Thing' than tadpoles with eyes like Princess Jasmine. They wanted to scare me, not to 'make contact.' As a result, I was extremely frightened and regained awareness in my own body."
Raduga plans to publish his results and to conduct further studies on humans' ability to fabricate alien encounters that seem real.
Cannon From Notorious Pirate Blackbeards Ship Is Lifted From The Seabed After 300 Years | Sky News
1:23am UK, Thursday October 27, 2011
A one-ton cannon from the wreck of Blackbeard's pirate ship has been raised from the seabed after nearly 300 years.
The cannon was onboard the Queen Anne's Revenge which ran aground and sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718.
Blackbeard, whose real name was thought to be Edward Teach, became one of the world's most notorious and feared pirates as he roamed seas around the West Indies and the east coast of the American colonies.
The British pirate's reign of terror only lasted two years before the Royal Navy was sent out to sea to capture him.
He was eventually killed in a battle with Lieutenant Robert Maynard who cut off his head and hung it from the bow of his ship as a warning to other pirates.
When Blackbeard died he took the secret of where his treasure was hidden with him.
The Queen Anne's Revenge was found in 1996 and over 250,000 artifacts have already been recovered from it.
The cannon is encrusted in sand and salt from its years under the sea
The cannon will be put on public display for one day before it is taken to a laboratory for tests.
After almost three centuries underwater, the cannon has become encrusted in sand, barnacles, salt and shells.
Blackbeard has inspired books and films over the years.
Parallels have been drawn between his character and Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Steve Jobs Warned Obama Of 'One-Term Presidency,' Bio Reveals
ReutersCUPERTINO, Calif. – Steve Jobs warned President Barack Obama last year that he risked losing re-election over his policies toward business, according to the official biography of Apple's late co-founder."You're headed for a one-term presidency," Jobs told Obama when the two met in the fall of 2010, according to The Huffington Post, which obtained a copy of the book.Jobs told Obama he had to adopt more business-friendly policies, saying companies were more likely to build factories in China because of "regulations and unnecessary costs" in the United States.The meeting at the Westin San Francisco Airport almost did not occur, the biography reveals. The iconic CEO, notorious for his stubborn personality, initially insisted that he wanted to receive a personal invitation from the president. He ultimately gave in after maintaining his demand for five days, The Huffington Post reported.Jobs also suggested Obama convene with CEOs but became irritated when the White House added too many people to the guest list, threatening that he had "no intention of coming."Jobs fussed over the menu for the dinner meeting, telling venture capitalist John Doerr that the planned meal of shrimp, cod and lentil salad was "far too fancy." When he objected to a chocolate truffle dessert, he was rebuffed by the White House, which said the president was fond of cream pie.The biography, which is written by Walter Isaacson and is set for release on Oct. 24, also reveals that Jobs offered to design ads for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign."He had made the same offer in 2008, but he'd become annoyed when Obama's strategist David Axelrod wasn't totally deferential," Isaacson wrote, adding that Jobs later divulged that he envisioned the ads would aid Obama in the same way the optimistic "Morning in America" commercial helped Ronald Reagan.
Dating after diagnosis: Love in the time of chemotherapy - TODAY.com
After surgery and during chemo, Diane Mapes puts on her "date face" — a wig made of her own hair, penciled-in eyebrows and prosthetics.By Diane MapesHealth writer
TODAY.comCall me crazy, but I went on a date two weeks after my double mastectomy.It was also my first social outing since the surgery, not counting the shambling walks around my neighborhood or the sobering follow-ups with my doc who told me I needed both chemo and radiation since my cancer had been upgraded from Stage 1 to what I called Stage WTF.
The date — a double date, to be specific — was with some married friends and a buddy of theirs. It was very casual, which was good since I was still wearing my surgical drains (stuffed down the front of my pants at this point) and was about as prepared to hold a conversation with an eligible man as I was to walk on the moon.
Thanks to the painkillers, half the time I thought I was on the moon.
Getting back out there
But I did it. Not so much because I was desperate to date but because I needed to get used to life without breasts at some point and figured I might as well get cracking.
I also was completely cancered out. I wanted to have fun, to feel like a normal person again, to have a conversation about something other than lymph nodes or chemo side effects or when, exactly, I'd be getting my new girls (despite my assumptions, chemo — and particularly radiation — meant reconstruction was at least a year away).
"Don't worry, he knows what's going on," my girlfriend told me as we headed out that night, which was great because I certainly didn't.
Overnight, my body had gone from an hourglass to a pyramid. My "killer" breasts now looked like they'd been run over by a Mack truck — or ironed. I still had my skin and nipples thanks to my superstar surgeon, but there were bruises, there were bandages, there were weird tubes under my skin and plastic grenades full of fluid hanging off my sides.
I felt like the breast cancer version of Spider Man's old nemesis, Doc Ock.
I also felt about as ugly as a woman can feel. But I was alive and would stay that way, thanks to the surgery and the forthcoming treatment.
Related stories by Diane Mapes:
Cancer kiss-off: Getting dumped after diagnosis
Mastectomy and the single girl: A bucket list for boobs
Getting to know me
After a few weeks, though, the bruises, bandages and drains went away and I actually began to look at myself more in the mirror, trying to figure out who — or what — I'd become.
"I look like a 10-year-old boy who's been in a bad fight," I'd tell my friends, trying to power through the pain with bravado and bad jokes. Inside, I told myself other things, praying they were true.
I'm the exact same person, my boobs are just a little different, I'd whisper as I ran through the streets of Seattle. I'm still pretty; it's just a different kind of pretty.
Once chemo started and I lost my hair, this last line became more difficult to swallow. Granted, I had a beautiful wig — made out of my own hair by a father and son team who specialize in chemo wigs — but once that and my fake boobs came off, I felt disconnected, scattered, like the Scarecrow after the flying monkeys got through with him.
Video: A different kind of pretty (on this page)
Part of me was here; another part there. And what was left looked a bit like a space alien.
Not a real boon when it comes to dating. Although as one friend pointed out, I could always post my picture on a fetish site where I'd probably "find some dude who's into that sort of thing."
Breast cancer dating etiquette
Instead, I tried to "pass," to pretend cancer and I had never met.
Whenever I'd stumble upon some potential date — either through an online site or just out and about — I'd pretend I didn't have a care in the world, even though the previous week, chemo and its accompanying bone pain, nausea and fatigue had wrung me out like an old dishrag.
This worked great with one guy, until he put his hand on the back of my neck at the end of our date and I jumped three feet, positive he could feel my wig.
Trying a new tack, I told the next guy all about the breast cancer only to be bombarded with a series of questions like "Sooooo, what are your odds?'" over cocktails.
Better than yours right now, I told him dismissively. Four hours later. In my head.Was I supposed to tell them? Not tell them? Just bite the bullet and post an online ad that said it all: "Angry, bald, boobless woman seeks smart, patient man willing to endure endless conversations about breast cancer, chemotherapy, nausea, Neulasta, bone pain, prostheses, and how pretty my hair used to be. Interests include short walks, Netflix, and napping."
"Don’t put it on your profile," Gina Maisano, author of "Intimacy After Breast Cancer" and founder of the No Surrender Breast Cancer Foundation advised me via phone. "You don’t want to be defined by your breast cancer. And don't talk about all the gruesome surgeries and side effects."
Maisano, a two-time breast cancer survivor, said I also shouldn't fret so much about my wig.
"Nobody notices," she said. "You can even wear it in bed. He just can't be pulling your hair when you're having sex."
Dating too soon?
Listening to her talk about sex made me wonder if I was even ready to date. Perhaps I'd jumped the gun by getting out there too soon. Perhaps I wasn't dating so much as trying to convince myself — through men — that I wasn't some weak, washed-up breast cancer victim. That I was still attractive. That I was still, well, human.
"If you can get out of the house and not be in Cancerland for a couple of hours, I think dating is a healthy thing to do," Maisano advised. "But there's nothing wrong with not being up to it. Just go with how you feel."
As chemo's side effects escalated and I had to give up the things that truly mattered to me — running, swing dancing, walking up four flights of stairs without resting — I realized I wasn't up to it.
So I changed tacks again.
These days, I'm hanging out with a new guy, a neighbor who lives up the street. He's smart, funny, cusses nearly as much as I do and is a cancer survivor himself. He's also 76 and doesn't mind when I ask if we can stop and rest during our morning constitutions.
It's not what you'd call a love connection. But it's a connection. We're comfortable with each other. We click.
I look forward to feeling the same way about my new body one of these days.
Diane Mapes is a frequent contributor at msnbc.com and TODAY.com. She's also the author of "How to Date in a Post-Dating World." Her website is dianemapes.net.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Rapidly Inflating Volcano Creates Growing Mystery | Our Amazing Planet
How long has this been going on? Uturuncu, a Bolivian volcano that is inflating at an incredible rate. Credit: Noah Finnegan.
Should anyone ever decide to make a show called "CSI: Geology," a group of scientists studying a mysterious and rapidly inflating South American volcano have got the perfect storyline.
Researchers from several universities are essentially working as geological detectives, using a suite of tools to piece together the restive peak's past in order to understand what it is doing now, and better diagnose what may lie ahead.
It's a mystery they've yet to solve.
Uturuncu is a nearly 20,000-foot-high (6,000 meters) volcano in southwest Bolivia. Scientists recently discovered the volcano is inflating with astonishing speed.
"I call this 'volcano forensics,' because we're using so many different techniques to understand this phenomenon," said Oregon State University professor Shan de Silva, a volcanologist on the research team. [See images of the inflating volcano here.]
Researchers realized about five years ago that the area below and around Uturuncu is steadily rising — blowing up like a giant balloon under a wide disc of land some 43 miles (70 kilometers) across. Satellite data revealed the region was inflating by 1 to 2 centimeters (less than an inch) per year and had been doing so for at least 20 years, when satellite observations began.
"It's one of the fastest uplifting volcanic areas on Earth," de Silva told OurAmazingPlanet."What we're trying to do is understand why there is this rapid inflation, and from there we'll try to understand what it's going to lead to."
The peak is perched like a party hat at the center of the inflating area. "It's very circular. It's like a big bull's-eye," said Jonathan Perkins, a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who recently presented work on the mountain at this year's Geological Society of America meeting in Minneapolis.
Scientists figured out from the inflation rate that the pocket of magma beneath the volcano was growing by about 27 cubic feet (1 cubic meter) per second.
"That's about 10 times faster than the standard rate of magma chamber growth you see for large volcanic systems," Perkins told OurAmazingPlanet.
However, no need to flee just yet, the scientists said.
"It's not a volcano that we think is going to erupt at any moment, but it certainly is interesting, because the area was thought to be essentially dead," de Silva said.
Sunset at Uturuncu. Credit: Jonathan Perkins.
Uber-Uturuncu?
Uturuncu is surrounded by one of the most dense concentrations of supervolcanoes on the planet, all of which fell silent some 1 million years ago.
Supervolcanoes get their name because they erupt with such power that they typically spew out 1,000 times more material, in sheer volume, than a volcano like Mount St. Helens. Modern human civilization has never witnessed such an event. The planet's most recent supervolcanic eruption happened about 74,000 years ago in Indonesia. [Related: The 10 Biggest Volcanic Eruptions in History]
"These eruptions are thought to have not only a local and regional impact, but potentially a global impact," de Silva said.
Uturuncu itself is in the same class as Mount St. Helens in Washington state, but its aggressive rise could indicate that a new supervolcano is on the way. Or not.
De Silva said it appears that local volcanoes hoard magma for about 300,000 years before they blow — and Uturuncu last erupted about 300,000 years ago.
"So that's why it's important to know how long this has been going on," he said.
To find an answer, scientists needed data that stretch back thousands of years — but they had only 20 years of satellite data.
Jonathan Perkins, along with his advisor, Noah Finnegan (he's behind the camera), conduct field work in the barren landscape surrounding the volcano. Credit: Noah Finnegan.
Volcano rap sheet
"So that's where we come in as geomorphologists — to look for clues in the landscape to learn about the long-term topographic evolution of the volcano," Perkins said.
Perkins and colleagues used ancient lakes, now largely dry, along the volcano's flanks to hunt for signs of rising action.
"Lakes are great, because waves from lakes will carve shorelines into bedrock, which make lines," Perkins said.
If the angle of those lines shifted over thousands of years — if the summit of the mountain rose, it would gradually lift one side of the lake — it would indicate the peak had been rising for quite some time, or at least provide a better idea of when the movement began.
The local conditions, largely untouched by erosion or the reach of lush plant and animal life, lend themselves to geological detective work, Perkins noted.
"It's a really sparse, otherworldly landscape," Perkins said. "Everything is so well preserved. There's no biology to get in the way of your observations."
Perkins said that surveys conducted on the lakes last autumn didn't indicate long-term inflation. However, tilting lakes are only one indicator of volcano growth, he said.
De Silva said the geological detective team is working to combine data from a number of sources — seismic data, GPS data, even minute variations in gravity — to pin down when and why the mountain awoke from its 300,000-year-long slumber, and better predict its next big move.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Bottom Line - Exploding diapers take prize in contest for worst ad
A TV commercial featuring diaper-filling babies took the top prize for "Worst Ad in America" in an annual contest sponsored by The Consumerist.
More than 115,000 of the website's readers cast votes in the contest, with the Luvs diaper commerical the clear winner, garnering 32 percent of the votes.
The advertisement features three grimacing cartoon babies who are part of a so-called “Heavy Dooty Championship,” set to the Tag Team’s 1990s hit “Whoomp There It Is.” The babies appear in succession on a stage, only to turn their backsides toward a panel of judges and have their diapers balloon to become supersized, evidently filling them with, um…dooty. (The Consumerist jokingly refers to the ad as “Poop, there it is.”)
The judges hold up numerical ratings signs in response to each baby’s ever-expanding diaper, and the third baby, whose diaper explodes to become the largest, is given the highest mark. The voiceover explains that “What happens in diapers should stay in diapers.”
Luvs did not immediately respond to a call for comment about the contest achievement.
An advertisement for AT&T wireless service featuring a henpecked husband took second place in the survey, with 24 percent of the vote.
In the spot, a man named Steve excitedly tells his wife, who is gardening in a greenhouse, that he has signed up the whole family for an unlimited messaging plan, after which she berates him for doing something so expensive without asking her. Then, she even lets it slip that she should have married some other guy named John Clark, whence we find out from poor Steve that the unlimited messaging plan was actually free.
In third place, with 18 percent of the vote, was an advertisement for Summer’s Eve, whose commercial for feminine wash implies that wars have been fought and lives lost over women’s nether regions, and so ladies had better lather up.
AT&T fared particularly poorly (or well, depending on one’s perspective) in The Consumerist’s contest, with a total of three ads placing across various categories. Its ad for the Samsung Infuse mobile phone, which runs on AT&T’s 4G wireless service, took fourth place in the “worst ad” category, capturing 14 percent of the vote.
And AT&T’s “flash mob” commercial, in which a man mistakenly participates in an embarrassing display of dancing at New York City’s Grand Central Station because he didn’t get the message that the flash mob was postponed, took first place in the “most grating performance by a human” category. Of course, that might have been the intention of the commercial.
Red Tape - 'Son of Stuxnet' virus could be used to attack critical computers worldwide
A powerful new computer virus that some are calling the "Son of Stuxnet" has been discovered, and researchers are concerned about its potential for attacking critical infrastructure computers around the world.
The mysterious Stuxnet worm -- perhaps the most powerful ever created -- managed to infiltrate computer systems in Iran and do damage to that nation's nuclear research program. The new worm, dubbed Duqu, has no such targeted purpose. But it shares so much code with the original Stuxnet that researchers at Symantec Corp. say it must either have been created by the same group that authored Stuxnet, or by a group that somehow managed to obtain Stuxnet's source code. Either way, Duqu's authors are brilliant, and mean business, said Symantec's Vikrum Thakur.
"There is a common trait among the (computers) being attacked," he said. "They involve industrial command and control systems."
Symantec speculates that Duqu is merely gathering intelligence as a precursor to a future industrial-strength attack on infrastructure computers.
“Duqu's purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities, such as industrial control system manufacturers, in order to more easily conduct a future attack against another third party,” Symantec said in an announcement. “The attackers are looking for information such as design documents that could help them mount a future attack on an industrial control facility.”
At the moment, Duqu only creates a back door into infected systems, connecting them to a command computer somewhere in India. No marching orders have yet been given, Thakur said. But those who control the machines could do virtually anything they wanted, Thakur said.
"The kinds of consequences we could see ... if the computer is told download this file, it will download the file. If the file says shut off this service, and that had an effect on a power plant or a conveyor belt, it would do that," he said.
Duku is so similar to Stuxnet that F-Secure's antivirus program initially identified it as Stuxnet, said F-Secure's Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen.
"Duqu's kernel driver is so similar to Stuxnet's driver that our back-end systems actually thought it was Stuxnet," he said in a Tweet.
The mysterious Duku is designed to leave the back door open for precisely 36 days, and then self-destruct.
Symantec was first alerted to the existence of Duqu on Friday, when an unnamed security firm that had already worked with a Europe-based victim shared his research with the firm. Symantec researchers worked through the weekend trying to understand the virus, which they have since learned has infected industrial computers "around the globe," Thakur said. He wouldn't identify the initial victim or say how many known victims there are.
Symantec’s analysis shows the Duqu may have been used to surveil computers around the world as far back as December 2010.
McAfee researchers Guilherme Venere and Peter Szor said in a blog post that they are pretty sure Duqu was written by Stuxnet's authors, in part because both programs utilize fraudulent "stolen" digital certificates which had been issued to companies in Taiwan. The use of what appear to be real digital certificate keys make both programs particularly deceptive. It also proves the programmers are clever enough to fool Certificate Authorities who issued the certificates.
"It is highly likely that this key, just like the previous two, known cases, was not really stolen from the actual companies, but instead directly generated in the name of such companies at a CA as part of a direct attack," the blog entry said.
Duqu’s attack pattern differs dramatically from Stuxnet, which was designed to attack a very specific computer system -- one that was involved in critical nuclear research inside Iran. The virus’ target led many to speculate that the virus was invented by Israeli programmers, or a cooperative effort of government-backed Israeli and American computer hackers.
This "Son of Stuxnet," with its much wider focus, might call into question the origin of the virus, but Thakur wouldn't speculate on that.
"It's my personal belief that the guys who wrote Stuxnet knew exactly what they were doing, and if you thought they were good guys then, you probably don't have anything more to worry about now," he said. "But if you didn't, you probably have a lot to worry about."
Symantec isn't finished analyzing Duqu; it has several other samples of the virus from other victims which it is analyzing now.
"We wanted to put out the word so people know about the threat, and know what to watch out for, such as traffic to unknown servers or what files to look for so they can try to block them," he said. "In the coming days, we will look into information from other sources we have and see if we can get more information on what these guys are actually going for. The key thing missing here, unlike Stuxnet, is we don't know what they are looking for."
NASA's IMAGE Spacecraft View of Aurora Australis from Space [video]
NASA file image acquired September 11, 2005
To view a still image of this event go here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6257079237/
From space, the aurora is a crown of light that circles each of Earth’s poles. The IMAGE satellite captured this view of the aurora australis (southern lights) on September 11, 2005, four days after a record-setting solar flare sent plasma—an ionized gas of protons and electrons—flying towards the Earth. The ring of light that the solar storm generated over Antarctica glows green in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, shown in this image. The IMAGE observations of the aurora are overlaid onto NASA’s satellite-based Blue Marble image. From the Earth’s surface, the ring would appear as a curtain of light shimmering across the night sky.
Like all solar storms, the September storm distorted the shape of the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth. Without buffeting from the solar wind (charged particles like protons and electrons that are ejected from the Sun), the Earth’s magnetic field would look something like a plump doughnut, with the North and South poles forming the slender hole in the center. In reality, the nearly constant solar winds flatten the space side of the “doughnut” into a long tail. The amount of distortion changes when solar storms, such as the flare on September 7, send stronger winds towards the Earth. Changes to the magnetic field release fast-moving particles, which flow with charged particles from the Sun towards the center of the “doughnut” at the Earth’s poles. As the particles sink into the atmosphere, they collide with oxygen and nitrogen, lighting the sky with Nature’s version of neon lights, the aurora.
Though scientists knew that the aurora were caused by charged particles from the Sun and their interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field, they had no way to measure the interaction until NASA launched the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite in 2000. The satellite’s mission was to collect data that would allow scientists to study the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s magnetic field for the first time. Designed to operate for two years, IMAGE sent its last data to Earth in December 2005 after a highly successful five-year mission.
Since 2000, IMAGE has provided insight into how the Earth’s powerful magnetic field protects the planet from solar winds. Without the shield the magnetic field provides, the upper atmosphere would evaporate into space under the influence of solar winds. IMAGE has shown scientists what sort of changes the magnetic field undertakes as it diverts solar winds from the Earth. For a summary of the discoveries that IMAGE has made possible, see IMAGE Discovers.
Instrument: IMAGE
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Truck with equipment for Obama tour stolen in Va.
HENRICO, Va. (AP) -- Authorities are investigating the theft of a truck containing presidential seals, podiums and sound equipment for President Barack Obama's bus tour of Virginia and North Carolina.
Richmond station WWBT-TV ( http://bit.ly/pW3cBk ) reports that the truck was parked at a hotel in the Richmond area when it was stolen Monday. The truck was recovered in the parking lot of another hotel near the Richmond International Airport.
WWBT-TV says the truck contained sound equipment, podiums and the seals.
The Defense Information System Agency said Tuesday in a statement that a government vehicle was stolen and then recovered. The theft is being investigated in coordination with law enforcement agencies.
It's unclear whether the equipment was recovered.
The federal agency says the vehicle didn't contain any classified or sensitive information.
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Information from: WWBT-TV, http://www.wwbt.com/
Monday, October 17, 2011
Dead German satellite will fall to Earth this week - Space.com - msnbc.com
German Aerospace CenterArtist's impression of the ROSAT satellite in space.By Denise Chow
A defunct German satellite is expected to plunge to Earth this week, but exactly when and where the satellite will fall remains a mystery.
The massive German Roentgen Satellite, or ROSAT, is expected to plummet to Earth on Saturday or Sunday (Oct. 22 or 23), though German space officials have also offered a wider re-entry window of between Oct. 21 and Oct. 25. This latest falling satellite comes about a month after a dead NASA climate satellite, called the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), plunged into the Pacific Ocean in late September.
The 2.4-metric ton X-ray space observatory is expected to break up as it travels through Earth's atmosphere, but some large pieces will likely make it through the intense heat of re-entry. According to German aerospace officials, approximately 1.7 metric tons of satellite debris, consisting primarily of up to 30 large glass and ceramic fragments, could survive the journey through the atmosphere and reach the Earth's surface.
"We don't expect big parts to re-enter, except the mirror and the glass and ceramic parts," Jan Woerner, head of the executive board of the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany's space agency, told SPACE.com. "Usually during re-entry, you have rather clear burning of all the elements, but glass and ceramics may survive and may come down in bigger pieces." [Photos: Germany's ROSAT Satellite Falling to Earth]
There is a 1-in-2.000 chance a piece of ROSAT could strike someone on Earth, DLR officials have said. That's a slightly higher risk than the 1-in-3,200 chance of a debris hit NASA gave for the UARS satellite fall.
German aerospace officials are actively tracking ROSAT, but they will not be able to determine precisely when and where the satellite will fall until roughly two hours before it impacts Earth.
ROSAT's orbit extends from the latitudes of 53 degrees north and south, which essentially covers a huge swath of the planet. This means the satellite could fall anywhere stretching from Canada to South America.
Officials at Germany's space agency calculated a 1-in-2,000 chance that someone on Earth will be hit by ROSAT debris, but the risk of serious injury from such an event remains extremely remote.
Originally, the dead satellite was projected to fall to Earth in November, but refined estimates show that the spacecraft will likely make its fiery descent through the atmosphere later this week — earlier than mission controllers previously thought. [6 Biggest Uncontrolled Spacecraft Falls From Space]
"With satellites like ROSAT, you depend on external circumstances," Woerner said. "For instance, solar wind and changes in the atmosphere may change the time of re-entry. We just have to wait and observe."
ROSAT was launched in June 1990 as a joint venture between Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In 1998, the satellite's star tracker failed, which caused its onboard camera to be directly pointed at the sun. This permanently damaged the spacecraft, and ROSAT was officially decommissioned in February 1999.
Since the satellite does not have a propulsion system, and there is no fuel left onboard, the satellite will make an uncontrolled return to Earth.
"We expect public attention because it's a satellite coming down, but in history, we have had much bigger debris fall," Woerner said.
On Sept. 24, NASA's UARS satellite fell uncontrolled toward Earth and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. The event captured the attention of people around the world, and ROSAT's impending re-entry will mark the second time a large spacecraft makes a publicized fall from space within two months.
Officials at Germany's space agency studied NASA and the U.S. Air Force's response to the falling UARS satellite in order to prepare for ROSAT's final return to Earth.
"For us, it was an advantage that UARS fell before," Woerner said. "We know now a little better how to interpret all the data and use the global network. It was an advantage that the satellite came down before so that now we can look at how to deal with ROSAT and how we deal with this in the future."
This story was updated to indicate the mass of ROSAT in metric tons. You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Weapons stolen from Los Angeles SWAT training site
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Dozens of police weapons, including submachine guns, were stolen from a SWAT training building by thieves who cut through a series of locked doors, police said.
The 21 MP-5 submachine guns and 12 large-caliber handguns were altered to fire blanks, but police were concerned that they could be converted back to take live ammunition.
The unguarded building was considered secure, LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing told the Los Angeles Times.
"I guess `secure' is all relative now," he said. "It's embarrassing. ... It's a lesson learned."
The guns were moved Wednesday night to a multistory downtown building and stored in a locked box on the first floor, Downing said.
The building is about a mile from SWAT headquarters. It was donated to the department and has no alarm or surveillance systems.
SWAT members were scheduled to train at the building Thursday, but a police officer arriving at about 9 a.m. found that the weapons were missing, Downing said.
Thieves cut locks on an outside door and two inside doors and forced their way through a metal roll gate, he said.
The building was openly used as a SWAT training site and sometimes public demonstrations were held there. However, police have not ruled out the possibility that the theft might have involved police officers, Downing said.
"You wonder if this was a planned operation, what information they had, whether they were conducting surveillance," he said.
Since the theft, "appropriate measures" have been taken, Downing said, without providing details.
However, regional law enforcement agencies have been notified.
"This is a big deal," Downing said. "We're concerned. We want to recover them."
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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com
Saturday, October 15, 2011
King-Size and Mini
Paradoxically, in Squeeland the mini-size almost always offers more squee than the king-size.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Indiana Flatbed Theft Leads To Unclaimed $3M Mystery
RENSSELAER, Ind. – Anybody missing $3 million? That's what authorities in northern Indiana are asking as they try to determine where a stash of unwrapped U.S. currency found in a tractor-trailer cab came from.
Police say they found the money in the sleeper of a tractor-trailer cab that three Chicago men allegedly had just used to steal a flatbed trailer, The Journal & Courier of Lafayette reported (http://bit.ly/qgpGux). The money was discovered following a 14-mile chase that ended on Interstate 65 near Rensselaer. A week later, authorities are still trying to determine who the $3,029,000 belongs to.
"Nobody's claiming that right now," Jasper County Terry Risner said.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by police, two truck drivers, Juan Gonzalez and David Zuniga, pulled over on Oct. 6 near Remington, about 90 miles northwest of Indianapolis, because they had a flat tire. Gonzalez told police he was securing the tarp on the flatbed trailer when three men came out of the cornfield and attacked them.
Gonzalez said he fled after he was struck on the head with a gun. Two men knocked Zuniga to the ground, kicked him and then handcuffed him, Gonzalez said. The men then hooked a purple Kenworth tractor up to the trailer Gonzalez and Zuniga had been pulling and took off.
Police pursued the truck north on I-65 and used stop sticks to end the chase. They found the money in the cab and household items in sealed crates.
Police arrested Clarence Magee Jr., 38; Tavair N. McCain, 34; and Alfonzo A. Spraggins, 34. The men are charged with two counts of robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, criminal confinement, and battery by means of a deadly weapon. Magee also is charged with resisting arrest.
Not guilty pleas were entered on their behalf at initial hearings Tuesday. They were being held Friday at the Jasper County Jail, with bond set at $500,000 each. A message seeking comment from their attorney, Scott King, was left at his office Friday by The Associated Press.
Police said Gonzalez sustained a cut and bump on the back of his head; Zuniga suffered a large laceration on the back of his head that required 11 staples.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Gonzalez affirmed that the currency found in the cab was on the trailer he had been hauling. Risner said all police found on the trailer were household items in sealed crates.
Risner said he couldn't say much about the case because it is still under investigation. He said the only thing he knows for sure is the money was in the cab when people stopped it.
"I can't vouch for where the money was prior to that," he told the AP Friday.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is assisting in the investigation.
UK medical group rejects new skin cancer treatment - AP Medical Writer
LONDON (AP) -- An independent British medical watchdog says the first treatment proven to help people with the deadliest form of skin cancer is too expensive to be used by the U.K.'s health care system, a recommendation critics called a potential death sentence.
The drug, Bristol-Myers Squibb's Yervoy, has offered some hope to people with advanced skin cancers, though a study of patients with advanced, inoperable melanoma showed it extended survival only four months on average.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence, or NICE, advised Friday that at a cost of 80,000 pounds ($126,600) Yervoy "could not be considered a cost-effective use" of health funds. A final decision is expected next month after a public consultation.
In the U.K., most medicines are paid for by the government, as long as they're recommended by the cost-efficiency watchdog. The agency commonly rejects expensive drugs, including recently advising against new treatments for prostate cancer, breast cancer, and multiple sclerosis, though patients and doctors are increasingly protesting the decisions.
The government usually adopts NICE's recommendations, meaning doctors in the government-funded health service cannot prescribe Yervoy without NICE's approval.
In its decision, NICE said it was not convinced by the evidence, saying the data for Yervoy, which works by stimulating the immune system to fight cancer, did not compare it to older drugs used to treat melanoma. NICE also said the trial was too short to know how long the drug's effects would last and raised concerns about the drug's side effects, including diarrhea, rash, fatigue and nausea, which they said could affect a patient's quality of life.
"We need to be sure that new treatments provide sufficient benefits to justify the significant cost (the health care system) is being asked to pay," said Sir Andrew Dillon, NICE's chief executive, in a statement.
Patient groups and charities slammed the decision, labeling it a "death sentence" for people with advanced skin cancer.
"The breakthrough that patients and clinicians throughout the U.K. have been waiting for arrived in the form of this drug," said patient advocacy group Factor 50 and the skin cancer charity SKCIN, in a statement. "To have come so close to a breakthrough and to be told no at this stage is truly devastating."
Drugmaker Bristol-Myers will provide additional evidence in hopes that the agency "will reconsider this decision so that all patients with metastatic melanoma can access this potentially life-extending treatment," European vice president Amadou Diarra said in a statement.
NICE does not usually approve any treatments that cost more than 30,000 pounds (US$47,492) to buy an extra healthy year of life, though it does occasionally make exceptions for lifesaving therapies.
In recent years, NICE has been forced to overturn a number of its original judgments after public outcry. "They actually reverse their decisions quite a lot," said Aparna Krishnan, a senior health care and pharmaceutical analyst at IHS Global Insight in London.
In 2005, the agency refused to recommend Alzheimer's drugs including Aricept. Public protests forced a reconsideration, and the drugs were finally recommended to all Alzheimer's patients last year. In addition, NICE has reversed its decisions on drugs including the kidney cancer drug Sutent, the flu drug Relenza, Velcade for blood cancer, and Herceptin for stomach cancer.
NICE has also been criticized for taking too long to recommend drugs. After Herceptin was first approved for breast cancer, the agency had to scramble to speed up its evaluation process after several women sued their hospitals to get treatment before advice was issued.
Some analysts said the spiraling cost of specialized cancer drugs would mean fewer hospitals and insurers willing to pay for them - particularly those with cash-strapped public health systems.
"Drug companies, meet reality," said Erik Gordon, an analyst and professor at University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. "There isn't enough money to pay $100,000 for therapies that don't show massive benefits, unless there is a politically powerful patient advocacy group behind it."
Analyst Krishnan said she wasn't sure if patient and doctor protests would ultimately convince NICE to recommend Yervoy, but acknowledged it was a possibility. "They are in a very difficult position," she said. "They are increasingly just looking at the cost, but the pressure from the public can be very powerful."
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AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
French Teacher Dies After Setting Herself On Fire In Schoolyard
BEZIERS, France -- Police say a teacher in France who immolated herself in the school yard in front of students died Friday of her injuries, AFP reports.
The math teacher was hospitalized Thursday with third-degree burns after attempting to take her own life by walking onto the playground of a high school with a can of fuel and lighting herself on fire.
Parents and students at the scene Thursday said the 44-year-old teacher had a difficult relationship with several students in her math class who described her teaching style as too strict.
They had a meeting to clear the air Wednesday which became rowdy, AFP reports.
The teacher reportedly came to school Thursday morning with a gas can, taught a class at 9:00am local time and then, when the morning break came, walked to the center of the yard, poured the fuel on herself and set herself alight, AFP reports.
Mastectomy and the single girl: A bucket list for boobs - TODAY Health - TODAY.com
Courtesy of OldSchoolPinups.comAfter being diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2011, writer Diane Mapes had pin-up photos taken as a way to document and remember how she looked before her double mastectomy. It was the first item, she writes, "on the bucket list for my boobs."By Diane MapesHealth writerTODAY.comMost people cry and cuss and rage at the universe when they're first diagnosed with breast cancer.
Me? I scheduled a pin-up shoot.
Not that I didn't do all of that other stuff, too, along with cracking bad jokes and mocking any and all medical personnel within spitting distance.
When the radiologist — aka Dr. Debbie Downer — came into that small dark room to tell me that the ultrasound had found three masses in my two breasts, I cried and raged plenty. I also told her I couldn't have cancer because I was health writer, as if knowledge comes with a protective shield.
But just like the other 230,000 plus women diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. every year, I had no shield. What I had instead was a needle biopsy, which confirmed that the masses were all positive for invasive lobular carcinoma, a "sneaky" cancer seldom found in the early stages because it doesn't create a lump.
One of the tumors had caused a tuck, though, a small dent under my left nipple. That dent — and the fact that I had checked it out — undoubtedly saved my life.
Well, that and the fact that I'd lost 50 pounds during the previous six months by running my tuchus off, a fortuitous feat that made it possible for me to see the change in my breast.
Now, I was being rewarded for my all my hard work — and my fit new body — with a double mastectomy. And possibly chemo and radiation.
Ah, life.
And life was what it was all about, at least to my family and friends.
To me, it was all about my boobs. I liked them, I wanted them, and, as a single 50-year-old woman, I felt they still came in pretty handy. While some survivors I talked to seemed almost eager to get rid of their girls ("I couldn't get my surgery fast enough!"), I was terrified of losing my breasts, even though I knew doing could save my life.
Would men cringe at the sight of me? I wondered. Would I?
Granted, I knew I was more than the sum of my parts, but these were particularly nice parts, or so they seemed with the scalpel of Damocles dangling over my head. In my mind, my breasts became perfect, despite the cancer lurking within.
Story: Cancer kiss-off: Getting dumped after diagnosis"Not to brag or anything," I found myself telling a friend on the phone one day. "But I have spectacular nipples."
And those nipples, I knew, would never be the same, even if they could be spared. The nerves would be severed during surgery which meant my entire chest would become a Dead Zone — no feeling, no sensitivity, no nothing. I would be left with a bad case of erectile dysfunction that no amount of Viagra could cure.
Was I a freak for caring about this? Or shallow, as some friends and family had implied?
"You are not a freak and you are not shallow," Dr. Stacy Lindau, director of the Program in Integrative Sexual Medicine for Women and Girls with Cancer at the University of Chicago, told me via phone. "Would we tell a man that being concerned whether he has a penis or not is shallow? I think not."
According to Lindau, sexuality is a huge concern for women diagnosed with breast or gynecological cancers, yet, unlike men diagnosed with prostate cancer, women don't get the sexual counseling they need. And according to her latest study, most want it.
"It's hard for some people to understand that a woman's breasts are as important a sexual organ as a man's penis," she says. "Everybody finds [mastectomy] to be a very difficult thing to face."
I certainly did in the days before my surgery, dark days in which I thought about dying, about committing suicide, about running away to Mexico.
But then I thought about my sisters and nephews and nieces, who couldn't care less whether my bra was full of breast tissue or Gummi bears. I thought about the woman a nurse told me about who'd refused to have a mastectomy until it was too late and the tumors came bursting through her chest like some killer cauliflower.
That's when I realized the clock was ticking and came up with a bucket list for my boobs.
I did the pin-up shoot, which was my way of commemorating both my fit body and my ill-fated breasts before the surgeon's knife — and any forthcoming treatment — changed both forever.
I climbed a mountain with a handsome young Russian and sang "Ring of Fire" (as Johnny Cash) on stage at a karaoke bar. I flew to Texas and spent five days talking, laughing, fighting, antique shopping and eating Mexican food with my sisters. I lindy hopped and tap danced and ran as often as I could. I held a Cancer Eviction party with a score of supportive friends. And yes, I even hooked up with the ex who'd dumped me after my diagnosis for a bit of "hot cancer sex."
Was it smart? Probably not. But it kept me from careening through the streets with a T-shirt emblazoned with "Act now! These breasts are available for a short time only!"
Then suddenly, just like that, I was in the shower, scrubbing down with a bottle of pre-surgical soap they really ought to just dub "Liquid Hospital."
I was still sick at the thought of losing my breasts, my desirability, my sexuality. Not to mention my life if the doctors found the cancer was more advanced than the tests indicated.
But I had no choice. At this point in time, none of us do.
So I put on my big girl pants and left for the hospital.
Next week: Grappling with life after surgery
Diane Mapes is a frequent contributor at msnbc.com and TODAY.com. She's also the author of "How to Date in a Post-Dating World." Her website is dianemapes.net.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Sleep Expert Says Giving Michael Jackson Propofol was 'Inconceivable': LAist
Right before Michael Jackson died, he allegedly consumed three drugs: propofol, lorazepam and midazolam. The cocktail was reportedly administered to help the singer sleep.
But experts who are being called as witnesses in the trial of Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal doctor at the time of his death, said that using those medications to treat a sleep disorder is "inconceivable."
During questioning by the prosecution yesterday, CNN reports that sleep expert Dr. Nader Kamangar told the court that giving a patient propofol, which is a surgery-grade anaesthetic, outside of a hospital and without monitoring equipment nearby is "nothing we would even really conceive of doing."
According to LA Now, Kamangar also said, "It's kind of beyond a departure of standard of care to something that we would never even fathom."
The defense has argued that Jackson may have administered the propofol himself, but cardiologist Alon Steinberg, who was also called to the witness stand as an expert, said that even if that were the case, Murray would have been at fault for making the drugs accessible to Jackson while the singer was sedated.
"It's like leaving a baby that's sleeping on your kitchen countertop," Steinberg said. "You look at it and it's probably going to be OK and you're just going to go grab some diapers or go to the bathroom, but you would never do it."
According to My FOX LA, Murray was being paid $150,000 a month to care for Jackson during the singer's "This Is It" tour. He was allegedly brought on after he let another doctor use his office to administer propofol to Jackson for six hours.
Murray is being charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Contact the author of this article or email tips@laist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
US ties Iran to plot to assassinate Saudi diplomat on US Soil
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department on Tuesday accused elements of the Iranian government of being involved in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, and Attorney General Eric Holder said the U.S. would hold Iran accountable.
Two people, including a member of Iran's special operations unit known as the Quds Force, were charged in New York federal court. Holder said the bomb plot was a flagrant violation of U.S. and international law.
"We will not let other countries use our soil as their battleground," Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said at a press conference in Washington with Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, was charged along with Gholam Shakuri, whom authorities said was a Quds Force member.
FBI Director Robert Mueller says many lives could have been lost in the plot to kill the ambassador with bombs in the U.S.
Holder said the U.S. government would be taking unspecified action against the Iranian government as early as Tuesday afternoon. Asked whether the plot was blessed by the top echelons of the Iranian government, Holder said the Justice Department was not making that accusation.