http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/2011/12/RIR-111206-asaul.mp3 Description: 
Dr. Andrew W. Saul has 35 years' experience in natural health education. Saul, formerly Assistant Editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, is Editor-in-Chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service. He was on the faculty of the State University of New York for nine years, and taught nutrition, health science and cell biology at the college level. His peer-reviewed, non-commercial popular natural healing website is DoctorYourself.com. Saul is the author of "Doctor Yourself" and "Fire Your Doctor!". He has co-authored 7 books. Andrew can also be seen in the documentary Foodmatters. In this highly informative interview, Dr. Saul begins talking about the media's ridiculous scare tactics about using vitamins. Andrew says we can use nutrition to cure illness and brings up evidence in published medical reports dating back from the 30's. These results are being ignored by the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Saul believes death rates would be cut down by ½ if people were eating properly and getting the required nutrients. We discuss the specifics of a proper diet, vitamin therapy and doctoring yourself. Also, we talk about medicine as a belief system. Andrew brings up the importance of activism against Codex Alimentarius. This content comes from: Red Ice Radio URL: http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/radio.xml
Dr. Andrew Saul - The War on Vitamins & Nutrition
China orders apple supplier plant closure over environmental concerns
CHINESE AUTHORITIES have ordered an Apple supplier to close part of its plant in Suzhou after residents living nearby raised significant environmental concerns.
The Chinese government, widely criticised for its poor policies on environmental issues, has taken a tough stance with the Taiwanese company Catcher Technology, which makes metal casings for notebook computers including Apple's Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. The company also makes chassis for Acer, Dell, Lenovo and Sony.
The shutdown follows complaints from local residents, who said that they could smell foul odours emanating from the plant.
Catcher Technology is now attempting to address concerns by refurbishing the affected part of the plant, which it hopes to complete by the end of the month. However, it will then need regulator approval before it can reopen, which could delay things considerably.
The ordered closure might mark a change in government tactics in efforts to improve China's reputation at home and abroad. While this is good news for the environment, it could be terrible news for the technology industry, which is largely dependent on a number of Chinese companies and manufacturing plants to meet demands.
"Even assuming its competition can somehow make up for the supply shortfall with additional output while Catcher's production is disrupted, we believe the news is generally bad for the overall [PC] sector," said Jenny Lai, head of Taiwan research at HSBC, according to the Financial Times.
This is the latest supply setback to affect Apple. Earlier this year it was hit by supply issues after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan put some suppliers temporarily out of business.
This is also not the first environmental concern to hit Apple. In August a report was released by Chinese environmental groups that accused a number of Apple suppliers of polluting the environment. Apple's 2010 audit also found that 80 facilities used by its suppliers were not up to scratch. Some of these might now be forced to address long-standing concerns, but if so, this will likely come at a temporary cost of lower supply to the world's top computer makers.
Protesters Plan to Picket Obama's Hotel
We're waiting to see whether
President Obama cites the anti-Wall Street protesters during his bus trip through North Carolina and Virginia.
And how much the Wall Street protesters cite Obama.
A group called Occupy Greensboro --modeled after the Occupy Wall Street protests -- seeks a meeting with Obama and may picket the hotel where the president plans to spend the night, reports the Greensboro News & Record.
The newspaper says, "The group voted to ask Obama to meet tonight with some members -- a delegation bearing letters of 'individual grievances.'"
"We wished to invite you to visit with our assembly and hear why the people gathered here are upset with our government," the letter said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to say whether Obama would address the Wall Street protests, but he said the president understands the frustrations behind the demonstrations.
"One, the frustrations that regular folks --middle-class Americans -- feel about the state of the economy, the need for growth to improve, and certainly the need for job creation to improve," Carney said.
"And,' he said, "there is a related frustration that a lot of Americans feel about the idea that Wall Street in the past played by different rules than Main Street."
China's trade growth slows
China's export growth fell in September in a sign of the West's malaise and a setback for hopes Chinese demand will help prop up a shaky global economy.
The slump in Western nations will hurt struggling Chinese exporters and raise the specter of politically sensitive job losses. Economies such as Australia and Japan that supply raw materials and components to China also might suffer because its export manufacturers account for half of Chinese imports and are cutting orders.
Export growth fell to 17.1 percent over a year earlier, down from August's 24.5 percent, customs data showed Thursday. Import growth also fell, while China's politically sensitive trade surplus narrowed to $14.5 billion.
The Associated Press: China's trade growth slows, surplus narrows
Despite divisiveness, Congress passes 3 trade pacts
After a debate marked by disagreement among Democrats, both houses approve free-trade deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea, a key victory for President Obama.
NW medical school doctors paid by drug companies
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/.jukebox/media/kplu/986856/mp3/kplu/podcast/19519/986856.mp3 Description: This content comes from: KPLU News URL: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/.jukebox?action=viewPodcast&podcastId=346
WikiLeaks Cable Shows John McCain Pushed to Arm Gadhafi
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As Ed Schultz noted earlier this week, it looks Sen. John McCain, who's done nothing but criticize President Obama at every turn for his handling of the situation in Libya, has a little explaining to do. This Friday, Chris Hayes went after him for talking tough and playing the bully, when in reality he's just another deal making politician who will cozy up with dictators if he feels it's necessary.
Here's more on the leaked cable from Politico --Leaked cable: John McCain pushed to arm Qadhafi:
A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable shows that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain promised to help Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi obtain U.S. military hardware in 2009.
The cable, released by the open information group WikiLeaks, reveals the pledge came at meeting that was attended by other prominent members of Congress, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
In the meeting, Muatassim Qadhafi, the Libyan leader’s fifth son and national security adviser, requested U.S. assistance in obtaining military supplies, both lethal and non-lethal.
The cable indicates that McCain was the dominant voice among the congressional delegation in a push for military hardware for Qadhafi.
“Sen. McCain assured Muatassim that the United States wanted to provide Libya with the equipment it needs for its … security,” according to the cable.
McCain said that he understood the need for Libya to upgrade its existing ranks of C-130 Hercules aircraft. Libya had bought eight of the military cargo aircraft in the 1970s, but as bilateral relationships with the United States deteriorated, a ban of arms sales prevented the aircraft from being moved to North Africa. McCain pledged to do what he could to move the issue forward in Congress.
McCain stressed that Libya needed to fulfill its commitments of giving up its weapons of mass destruction in order for bilateral engagement to go forward.
Brian Rogers, communications director for McCain, said in a statement to POLITICO that the Arizona Republican never made any promises to Libya and never acted to help the Qadhafi regime.
“At no point did Senator McCain ever promise to help the Qaddafi regime secure U.S. military assistance. Upon the his return to Washington, there were no follow-up discussions and no action taken by Senator McCain or his staff to provide the Qaddafi regime with C-130s or any other military assistance,” said Rogers. “There has been no greater champion than Senator McCain for Libya’s democratic revolution and for the toppling of the brutal Qaddafi regime.”
Appeals Court: Arresting Guy For Filming Cops Was A Clear Violation Of Both 1st & 4th Amendments
Segederin may have been better off if he'd waited a couple weeks for an appeals court ruling that came out Friday, because that ruling found that arresting someone for filming the police is a clear violation of both the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. How the case got to this point is a bit complex, but basically, a guy named Simon Glik saw some police arresting someone in Boston, and thought they were using excessive force. He took out his camera phone and began recording. The police saw that and told him to stop taking pictures. He told them he was recording them, and that he'd seen them punch the guy they were arresting. One officer asked him if the phone recorded audio as well and Glik told him it did. At that point, they arrested him, saying that recording audio was a violation of Massachusetts wiretap laws.
Even more ridiculous, they then had him charged not just with that, but also with disturbing the peace and "aiding in the escape of a prisoner." After realizing that last one didn't even pass the guffaw test, Massachusetts officials dropped that charge. A Boston court then dumped the other charges and Glik was free. However, he wanted to take things further, as he thought his treatment was against the law. He first filed a complaint with Boston Police Internal Affairs who promptly set about totally ignoring it. After they refused to investigate, Glik sued the officers who arrested him and the City of Boston in federal court for violating both his First and Fourth Amendment rights. The police officers filed for qualified immunity, which is designed to protect them from frivolous charges from people they arrest.
The district court rejected the officers' rights to qualified immunity, saying that their actions violated the First & Fourth Amendments. Before the rest of the case could go on, the officers appealed, and that brings us to Friday's ruling, which, once again, unequivocally states that recording police in public is protected under the First Amendment, and that the use of Massachusetts wiretapping laws to arrest Glik was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights as well. The ruling (pdf) is a fantastic and quick read and makes the point pretty clearly. Best of all, it not only says that it was a clear violation, but that the officers were basically full of it in suggesting that this was even in question. The court more or less slams the officers for pretending they had a valid excuse to harass a guy who filmed them arresting someone.
The 4th Amendment bit may not be as widely applicable, since it mainly focuses on the Massachusetts wiretapping law. Here, the court notes that the law only covers audio recording in secret. But there is no indication that Glik did any of his filming in secret. It found the officers' arguments that he could have been doing lots of things on his mobile phone completely uncompelling, stating that the "argument suffers from factual as well as legal flaws."
The full ruling is embedded below, but a few choice quotes:
Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting "the free discussion of governmental affairs." Mills v. Alabama, 384 U.S. 214, 218 (1966). Moreover, as the Court has noted, "[f]reedom of expression has particular significance with respect to government because '[i]t is here that the state has a special incentive to repress opposition and often wields a more effective power of suppression.'" First Nat'l Bank, 435 U.S. at 777 n.11 (alteration in original) (quoting Thomas Emerson, Toward a General Theory of the First Amendment 9 (1966)). This is particularly true of law enforcement officials, who are granted substantial discretion that may be misused to deprive individuals of their liberties....
[....]
In our society, police officers are expected to endure significant burdens caused by citizens' exercise of their First Amendment rights. See City of Houston v. Hill, 482 U.S. 451, 461 (1987) ("[T]he First Amendment protects a significant amount of verbal criticism and challenge directed at police officers."). Indeed, "[t]he freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state." Id. at 462-63. The same restraint demanded of law enforcement officers in the face of "provocative and challenging" speech, id. at 461 (quoting Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1, 4 (1949)), must be expected when they are merely the subject of videotaping that memorializes, without impairing, their work in public spaces.
[....]
The presence of probable cause was not even arguable here. The allegations of the complaint establish that Glik was openly recording the police officers and that they were aware of his surveillance. For the reasons we have discussed, we see no basis in the law for a reasonable officer to conclude that such a conspicuous act of recording was "secret" merely because the officer did not have actual knowledge of whether audio was being recorded.
While this case isn't over yet, it's still a huge victory for those arrested by police for filming them in action. It suggests such people can bring charges against the police for civil rights violations in taking away their First Amendment rights. A tremendous ruling all around.
Source: Appeals Court: Arresting Guy For Filming Cops Was A Clear Violation Of Both 1st & 4th Amendments
Virginia nuke plant “venting steam” — Spokesman says “no release of radioactive material” (PHOTO & VIDEO)
North Anna Power plant reactors shuts down -- 5 pm, WAVY, ...Read More
Ben Stein Destroys Bill O'Reilly's Idea Taxing The Rich Hurts The Economy
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Bil O'Reilly started his program off with his Talking Points Memo attacking Obama's vacation. See, Liberals were upset that George Bush took over 1000 vacation days were just as wrong headed as conservatives who say that Obama's 26 days off are more than Bush's downtime. He's the king of keeping it real.
Bill did his usual propaganda, blaming all our deficit problems on Obama and says he's glad the President is on vacation. His real point of TPM (and mission in life) is to cut our social safety nets and to spread his anti-tax increase on the rich dogma. He's outraged at the idea we should raise taxes on the right-wing job producers because that's a job killer in every economic time and Warren Buffett is out of his mind in Margaritaville for saying we need to raise taxes on the wealthy. (He really said Margaritaville) Anyway, Fox News stock "market gurus" Ben Stein (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and Wayne Rogers (M.A.S.H) joined him to discuss Bill's brilliance. However, Stein didn't play the game and he's usually on board with the whole taxing thing.
O'Reilly: Alright Mr. Stein, you know, you know that everything I said in the memo was true, correct?
Stein: Absolutely not, I would say that almost every part of it is wrong except for the fact that it's better he's on vacation because he works terribly hard and he deserves a vacation...
Then BillO did his usual interrupting routine by asking him if he thought Obama was a positive force in the economy. Stein shot back that Bush caused the recession and debt and Billie started yelling I mean now, now, now...Rogers said he was a neutral force because it's up to Congress to pass the laws. They were brought on to talk about his opening remarks (of which Ayn Rand would be proud) but that's Bill and that's why he's good at his job. I usually don't find Ben Stein agreeable, but in this segment he flat out beat back the lie.
Bill then held up the lie chart about IRS stats produced by the WSJ to prove his points about there are less wealthy people now to tax so what's the point? By the way, that WSJ report was thoroughly debunked by Chelsea Rudman.
O'Reilly: You get more money the better the economy is
Stein: Absolutely.
O'Reilly: If you take (meaning taxes from millionaires) then you're helping the recession. You're feeding the flames o fit.
Stein: That's not true.
O'Reilly: Sure it is
Stein: There's no correlation, I'm going to call you Mr. O'Reilly. There's no correlation Mr. O'Reilly, between tax rates on millionaires and people above that level (billionaires) and the growth of the economy... We had the highest growth in capitol and productivity and in the economy in general in the 40's, 50's and 60's when we had much higher taxes then..(Bill: yea, but they were inaudible ) Higher taxes don't correlate with inaudible growth...
(Below is the TPM video that they discussed)
Virginia Nuclear Plant Had Quake Sensors Removed Due to Budget Cuts
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A nuclear power plant that was shut down after an earthquake struck central Virginia Tuesday had seismographs removed in 1990s due to budget cuts.
U.S. nuclear officials said that the North Anna Power Station, which has two nuclear reactors, had lost offsite power and was using diesel generators to maintain cooling operations after an 5.9 earthquake hit the region.
The North Anna plant, which was near the epicenter of Tuesday's quake, is reportedly located on a fault line.
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Senior Scholar Bob Alvarez told the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) that the North Anna plant was built to withstand a 5.9-6.1 quake.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rates the plant as the seventh most likely to receive core damage from a quake. But they say the chances of that are only 1 in 22,727.
According to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME), the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory (VTSO) removed all seismographs from around the plant in the 1990s due to budget cuts.
In February, Dominion Virginia Power confirmed its commitment to add a third reactor to the plant.
"While Dominion has not decided on the schedule to build the unit, the company will continue to move forward with the federal combined operating license process and preliminary site development work," Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said in a statement.
“Tends to concentrate in the testicles”: 360+ atoms of radioactive sulfur per day may have been inhaled by Californians after Fukushima
Stop Coddling the Super-Rich
Source: Stop Coddling the Super-Rich
I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
The Coup's Boots Riley on His Next Record, Hip-Hop for White Kids, and Loving Battlestar Galactica in SF Weekly (Interview)
It's been almost a decade since 9/11 -- which means (among other things) that it's been 10 years since Boots Riley was seemingly everywhere, coolly responding to outrage over someextremely ill-timed album art depicting explosions at World Trade Center. It's also been five years since the last album from the Coup, 2006's critically acclaimed Pick a Bigger Weapon.
But rest assured, the Oakland native has been busy. Aside from releasing and touring an EP and a full-length studio album with Tom Morello as the rap-rock outfit Street Sweeper Social Club, booking speaking engagements on racism, capitalism, and grassroots organizing, and guesting on the upcoming Star Fucking Hipsters album, Riley recently found time to write a feature-length screenplay before heading into the studio to record tracks for a new Coup album, due out at the beginning of next year.
Ahead of the Coup's Aug. 19 show at the Independent, we grabbed a drink with Riley to find out more about what to expect.
Read the full interview at SFWeekly.com...
The Daily Mail knowingly and commercially used my photos despite my denying them permission.
I tweeted it, and TwitPic'd one picture. Then Cory BoingBoing'ed it. Then the WashPo emailed, asking permission to reprint, and asked for a quote or two. I said yes. I sent them a further pic, too.
Then the Daily Mail got in touch. Could we use the photos, they said. I said, yes, if you donate £250 - a standard photo fee in my book, certainly less than what Getty charges, say - to a charity of my choice. I don't like the Daily Mail, and didn't want to give them commercial use of my pictures for free.
*On Behalf Of *Alice Taylor
*Sent:* 14 August 2011 06:48
*To:* Ariel Ramerez <Ariel.Ramerez@mailonline.com>
*Subject:* Fwd: Fwd: skinny model pix
Hi Ariel,
I can't give the Daily Mail permission to use
these pictures conmercially, for free.
I'm happy to licence the Daily Mail a commercial
usage if it donates a standard picture fee (£250+)
to a charity of my choice however.
Best!
Alice.
They came back and said, too expensive:
On 14/08/11 22:16, Ariel Ramerez wrote:Hello Alice,
Thank you for getting back to me. Appreciate it.
We are the MailOnline - the web portion.
Unfortunately, your listed price far exceeds our
budget - which also comes in $. We'd be happy to
make the donation however we would need it to
meet our budgetary constraints.
Please let me know.
Best,
Ariel Ramerez
...to which I said, oh well - sorry, then it's no. (The Daily Mail can afford the photo fee - and if it doesn't want to, then I'm not selling it the rights to my photos.)
From: Alice Taylor
Sent: 15 August 2011 05:28
To: Ariel Ramerez
Subject: Re: Fwd: skinny model pix
Oh well - it's a no then.
(IMHO, obv, the Mail can afford it, and
I have no love for that paper so
- apols!)
Thanks for the interest tho!
A.
It was acknowledged:
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:46:11
From: Ariel Ramerez <Ariel.Ramerez@mailonline.com>
Thanks for letting me know.
Best,
Ariel
And then, instead, the Daily Mail then used both my photos - despite being denied permission - lifting them directly from the WashPo, along with the quotes I gave that newspaper, too.
The Daily Mail links neither to BoingBoing, nor to the WashPo, nor indicates my comments were to the WashPo either. Their reporting makes it sound like I talked to them directly.
To add insult to injury, they remove all the linkbacks, present in the WashPo article, to my original tweet, and to Cory's BoingBoing post.
They don't even link to the WashPo article that they lifted the quotes and photographs from.
I've asked the Daily Mail to now pay up for the unauthorised use - and knowing infringement - of these pics. I'm currently requesting 2 x £1000 charitable donations, which I will request go to MIND and ORG.
Updates to come, I'm sure.
UPDATE 1: 100s of retweets of this post later, but still no response to my email to the DM. Apparently they do this - wilful copyright infringement - rather a lot.
Police Try To Bring Wiretapping Charges Against Woman Who Filmed Them Beating A Man
You would think that Sedergren, who was suspended for 45 days for his actions in the video, would know better and just get on with his life. Instead, he's 'filed an application for a criminal complaint' against Greene, saying she violated wiretapping laws in filming him without his permission. Everyone involved knows the law is not intended for situations like this, where an officer of the law is out in public. If this officer's response to being filmed involved in questionable activities is to push for criminal charges against the person who caught him doing it, it seems like he does not deserve to be an officer of the law at all any more. What a massive abuse of the law.
Source: Police Try To Bring Wiretapping Charges Against Woman Who Filmed Them Beating A Man
Facing Ninth Deployment, Army Ranger Kills Himself. 'No Way' That God Would Forgive Him For What He'd Seen, Done, He Told Wife
JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier's widow says his fellow Army Rangers wouldn't do anything to help him before he took his own life - after eight deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army found Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann's body at a training area of Joint Base Lewis McChord a few weeks ago.
A spokesman for the base tells KOMO News that the nature of the death is still undetermined. But Staff Sgt. Hagemann's widow says her husband took his own life - and it didn't need to happen.
'It was just horrible. And he would just cry,' says Ashley Hagemann.
Ashley says her husband Jared tried to come to grips with what he'd seen and done on his eight deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'And there's no way that any God would forgive him - that he was going to hell,' says Ashley. 'He couldn't live with that any more.'
More U.S. soldiers and veterans have died from suicide than from combat wounds over the past two years.
And as a special way of thanking those who served, Texas Republicans want to make it harder for young, homeless and traumatized veterans to vote.
British PM Considers Social Network Censorship In The Wake Of London Riots
When tyrants in Middle Eastern countries cut Internet access in the midst of political upheaval, it's pointed to as yet another symptom of a sad and brutal dictatorship. Does that thinking hold true when a Western country censors its citizen's ability to speak online? We may soon find out. In the wake of the devastating riots in the heart of London, Prime Minister David Cameron alluded to the House of Commons that the British government may consider pulling the plug on social networks when the goings get rough in the UK.
'Mr Speaker, everyone watching these horrific actions will be stuck by how they were organised via social media,' Cameron said. 'Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them.'
'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.'
This isn't the first technological-themed response to the riots; as we told you the other day, a group of Google users is trying to ID rioters captured in photographs using facial recognition technology. But if the British government indeed decides that it's acceptable to disconnect social networking services during times of duress, it seems like it would be acting contrary to the recommendations of a recent UN Human Rights Council report.
Paragraph 79 of "The Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression,' (PDF) which was officially recognized by the UN Human Rights Council on June 3rd, states: 'The Special Rapporteur calls upon all States to ensure that Internet access is maintained at all times, including during times of political unrest.' Sure, denying access to social networks isn't quite the same thing as cutting Internet access entirely, but we're 'Spirit of the Law' types of people (and yeah, we know we originally covered the UN report from the file sharing slant, but it works here, too).
Image credit: AP/huffingtonpost.com
Source: British PM Considers Social Network Censorship In The Wake Of London Riots
Download the Latest Security Tools to Your Flash Drive with SSDownload
Source: Download the Latest Security Tools to Your Flash Drive with SSDownload
Need biofuel from bacteria? Run their fat-burning cycle in reverse
The majority of plant matter we have available to produce biofuels comes in the form of cellulose, a long polymer of sugars. It's easiest to convert this material to ethanol, but that creates its own problems: ethanol is less energy dense than petroleum-based fuels, and most vehicles on the road can't burn more than a 15 percent mix of ethanol and standard gasoline.
These disadvantages have led a number of labs to look into ways of using a cellulose feedstock to produce something more like standard fuels. In yesterday's Nature, researchers proposed a clever way of doing this: take the biochemical pathway that normally burns fat and run it in reverse.
Source: Need biofuel from bacteria? Run their fat-burning cycle in reverse
New LCD Tech Could Make Self Charging Android Handsets a Reality
Some mad scientists over on UCLA’s engineering team have effectively developed a new type of LCD using photovaltaic polarizers that recycle energy from sunlight or a device’s own backlight to charge itself. Pretty epic, right? If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, this could be exactly what Android ordered.
Youssry Boutros, program director for the Intel Labs Academic Research Office, which supported the research explains:
“The polarizing organic photovoltaic cell demonstrated by Professor Yang’s research group can potentially harvest 75 percent of the wasted photons from LCD backlight and turn them back into electricity. The strong collaboration between this group at UCLA Engineering and other top groups has led to higher cell efficiencies, increasing the potential for harvesting energy. This approach is interesting in its own right and at the same time synergetic with several other projects we are funding through the Intel Labs Academic Research Office.”
Before you get your hopes up, it could be quite sometime before we could see this technology (or something just like it) adopted by handset manufacturers. Still, Professor Yang remains hopeful:
“In the near future, we would like to increase the efficiency of the polarizing organic photovoltaics, and eventually we hope to work with electronic manufacturers to integrate our technology into real products. We hope this energy-saving LCD will become a mainstream technology in displays.”
Me too, Mr. Yang. Me too…
[Via Engadget]
Judge Actually Recognizes The 4th Amendment: Says Police Can't Get Location Info From Telcos To Arrest You
Here’s the basic reasoning of the opinion. First Judge Gauvey creates what a appears to be a new distinction in Fourth Amendment law: a distinction between (a) Fourth Amendment rights in location at a given time, and (b) Fourth Amendment rights in movement over time. According to Judge Gauvey, individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in both. There is a reasonable expectation of privacy as to a person’s location if a person cannot be visually observed in that same way. And there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in movements, which Judge Gauvey seems to be taking from the DC Circuit’s Maynard/Jones “mosaic theory” case (which the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear). Judge Gauvey then reasons that if everyone has this Fourth Amendment right, people who have warrants out for their arrest have this right to privacy, too. For that reason, the information held by the phone company as to the location of the phone user is protected by the Fourth Amendment.
Judge Gauvey then considers whether the Fourth Amendment allows a warrant to be issued based on probable cause that the information will help execute an arrest warrant. She concludes the answer is no: A Fourth Amendment warrant requires probable cause that evidence or contraband is located in the place to be searched or that a person who committed a crime is in the place to be searched. Mere probable cause to believe that location information would help the police execute a warrant is not enough under the Fourth Amendment.
Kerr suggests that the case law actually disagrees with the judge in this case, and even the judge appears to admit that she thinks the Supreme Court might disagree, but she said without specific guidance from the Supreme Court, she believes her ruling is correct.
Source: Judge Actually Recognizes The 4th Amendment: Says Police Can't Get Location Info From Telcos To Arrest You:
The NYPD Has Hacked Together a Social Media Taskforce [Police]
In the midst of the ongoing violence in London and after what must be boatloads of crimes stemming from online activity, the NYPD has formed a unit dedicated to sifting through Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace for information on dangerous activity. More »
Source: The NYPD Has Hacked Together a Social Media Taskforce [Police]: "
Hacker Group Anonymous Aims To Destroy Facebook on Nov. 5
Hackivist group Anonymous vows to “kill Facebook” on November 5, citing users’ lack of choice in privacy as its reason for attack.
Update: Anonymous confirmed via a tweet that while some of its members are organizing the upcoming attack against Facebook, the hacker organization as a whole does not necessarily agree with the attack.
The group of hackers has claimed participation in just about every recent notable hacking attack of this year and successfully broke into 70 law enforcement websites and took down the Syrian Ministry of Defense website this week alone.
This recent interest in Facebook, despite a slew of privacy concerns raised against the social network since its founding, may be a result of Anonymous’s recent announcement that it plans to create its own social network, called AnonPlus. After the group’s Google+ account, called “Your Anon News,” was banned, it began fleshing out AnonPlus.com, “a new social network where there is no fear … of censorship … of blackout … nor of holding back.”
Below is a video and statement released by Anonymous explaining the reason for its upcoming battle with the world’s largest social network. Let us know your thoughts on the group’s statement in the comments below.
Anonymous Statement
Attention citizens of the world,
We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.
Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your 'privacy' settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you 'delete' your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more 'private' is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.
http://www.physorg.com/news170614271.html
http://itgrunts.com/2010/10/07/facebook-steals-numbers-and-data-from-your-iphone/You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.
The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It's unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don't understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them 'for their own good' while they then make millions off of you. When a service is 'free,' it really means they're making money off of you and your information.
Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.
This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.
We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us
Source: Hacker Group Anonymous Aims To Destroy Facebook on Nov. 5:
Wil Wheaton Explains Why Hollywood Needs To Compete With 'Piracy'
It starts out with Wil saying: 'As soon as the entertainment industry provides an alternative to Bittorrent or an alternative to piracy, that makes it just as easy for honest people to get access to the programming, then the piracy dries up.' Of course, plenty of us have said this for years, but it's nice to see another actor speaking up about this, even if it's one as 'in touch' with the tech world as Wheaton. Wheaton goes on to quote Gabe Newell, to explain how the industry is too often focused on pirates who will never pay, and to talk about the ridiculousness of him not being able to watch videos he had legally purchased while travelling in Canada because he was outside the proper territory. The whole (short) video is completely worth watching. He notes that it's difficult to pull the entertainment industry into the modern era and suggests that they're just about reaching 1997 right now.
Source: Wil Wheaton Explains Why Hollywood Needs To Compete With 'Piracy':
As the rate of cancer spikes among Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officers who work near the full-body scanners at the Boston Logan Airport, union reps are alarmed at having been misinformed by the Department of Homeland Security
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| Abode of Chaos image
Flickr Creative Commons |
EPIC says the relinquished documents indicate that DHS “publicly mischaracterized” safety findings by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) by intimating that the organization had “affirmed the safety” of the ominous scanners. In fact, antipodal to confirming their safety, the documents obtained by EPIC show that NIST cautioned that TSA officers should avoid standing next to the machines, as to keep exposure to caustic radiation “as low as reasonably achievable.” In contradistinction to repetitive TSA claims that Johns Hopkins had authenticated the benign nature of the scanners, the FOIA docs illustrate how the university's study actually unveiled that radiation zones around the machines could exceed the “General Public Dose Limit”. In fact, Dr. Michael Love, head of the X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins, publicly stated that “statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays”.
Dr. David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s center for radiological research, discovered in a study conducted last year that the machines are likely to lead to an increase in basal cell carcinoma, a common type of skin cancer affecting the head and neck. Post-study, Brenner urged medical authorities to overview his work, indicating the critical notion of mass scanning millions of people without proper oversight. February 2010 saw like concerns voiced by the prominent Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, who warned in a report that the scanners increase the risk of cancer and birth defects and should not be used on pregnant women or children. And Bloomberg reported, “Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency”.
A dark pall has hung over these devices since their inception. If they are really as benign as they are claimed to be, then why did EPIC have to sue for the culpable information? This past December, TSA workers complained about the radiation peril of the scanners, declaring they were being kept in the dark by their employers, in spite of ongoing requests for information. TSA union reps at the Boston airport requested dosimeters (radiation-monitoring devices) to monitor the safety of their officers but have yet to receive them.
Source: As the rate of cancer spikes among Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officers who work near the full-body scanners at the Boston Logan Airport, union reps are alarmed at having been misinformed by the Department of Homeland Security
Fourth Day of Riots in London
Source: Fourth Day of Riots in London
Tokyo Nuclear Professor "It's All About Money"
He was a professor at Tokyo University before he became the chair of the NSC in April 2010. He gave an interview to a citizens' group back in 2005 on nuclear energy. Far from being 'falsehood' or 'nonsense', his talk was very frank, and totally made sense.
He quite readily admitted, among other things, that:
- He and his fellow nuclear scientists in Japan didn't quite know what they were doing;
- There is no such thing as safe nuclear technology;
- The nuclear power generation was filthily profitable;
- It's all about money - if someone's unwilling to have a nuclear waste dump in his backyard, tell him you'll pay him twice the amount promised before. If he still says no, tell him you'll pay him 5 times as much, or 10 times as much.
Too bad it had to take the Fukushima nuke accident for the average Japanese to realize not only they'd been served with imperfect and dangerous 'clean energy' technology but also that a nuclear expert like Madarame at the nation's top research institute knew quite well about the danger and the nature of the nuclear technology and industry and was openly telling people about it. Laughing, as if it was a funny joke.
Quite a contrast to another Tokyo University professor, Tatsuhiko Kodama, who seems to have inspired many people beyond Japan's border.
Madarame also said in the interview, 'Trust us.' And trust we did.
Here's the 2005 interview video with English subtitle (EX-SKF/Tokyo Brown Tabby):
Source: Shell admits liability for huge Nigeria oil spill. 'BP did more in six months for the US communities than Shell has done in 50 years for the Ogoniland,' activist says.
Thanks Corporate America, you're the best!
Shock, awe: British government agrees that copyright has gone too far
Responding to an independent study done earlier this year, the government has also endorsed the creation of a digital copyright exchange to facilitate licensing. Within limits, the government endorses the view that 'the widest possible exceptions to copyright within the existing EU framework are likely to be beneficial to the UK.'
Tortured Contractor Can Sue Rumsfeld
"This is how we treat our allies and civilians."
U.S. Debt Reaches 100 Percent of Country's GDP
Source: U.S. Debt Reaches 100 Percent of Country's GDP
Color video from Hiroshima
The Nation's Greg Mitchell has a new book out about the strange saga of color video, shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the nuclear bomb attacks, which was suppressed for nearly 40 years. You can see a couple of clips from that video in the trailer he's put together for the book.
In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan sixty-six years ago this week, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. This included vivid color footage shot by U.S. military crews and black-and-white Japanese newsreel film.
The color US military footage would remain hidden until the early 1980s, and has never been fully aired. It rests today at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, in the form of 90,000 feet of raw footage labeled #342 USAF.
When that footage finally emerged, I spoke with and corresponded with the man at the center of this drama: Lt. Col. (Ret.) Daniel A. McGovern, who directed the US military film-makers in 1946, managed the Japanese footage, and then kept watch on all of the top-secret material for decades. I also interviewed one of his key assistants, Herbert Sussan, and some of the Japanese survivors they filmed.
Now I’ve written a book and e-book about this, titled Atomic Cover-up: Two US Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and The Greatest Movie Never Made.
What I think is particularly striking about the clips in Mitchell's preview video: They're heart-wrenching, but, at this point, not particularly shocking. The US Military may have successfully covered up video that showed the brutality of atomic warfare, but, in the intervening years, we saw the brutality of war (in general) in Vietnam and we saw what acute radiation poisoning can do the human body in Chernobyl. Secrets don't stay buried even when secrets stay buried.
Tomatoland: How modern industrial agriculture destroyed our most alluring fruit review
There is a very good reason why tomatoes are the most popular vegetable grown in the home garden, you can’t beat the taste of a home grown tomato. Tomatoland
Matter of Taste
As many of you may or not know below is what your delicious red tomato looks like when picked from the vine. By picking the tomatoes young this helps prevent fungal diseases prone to the humid Florida area where a good portion of our tomatoes from grocery stores and restaurants are grown. This also assists in the transportation of these tomatoes without damage to areas like where I live which is about far away from Florida as you can get. So how does these less appealing tomatoes look like the perfect ones we see in the stores? Once they reach their destination they are gassed with ethylene to give them their nice red appearance.
There have also been decades of breeding to produce a perfectly round, high yielding tomato, disease tolerant, and of proper size. Unfortunately during this process taste has not really been a consideration into this breading process. Along with taste tomatoes have lost much of the nutritional value they have had in the past. “According to analyses conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 100 grams of fresh tomato today has 30 percent less vitamin C, 30 percent less thiamin, 19 percent less niacin, and 62 percent less calcium. So you grandmother may have been correct telling you to eat your vegetables back in the day…sadly maybe this is no longer the case.
Human Factor
Most people are aware that insecticides and pesticides are used to grow most of our commercially produced produce. We have been told that end up on our fruits are so small that there is no risk to humans. This statement is definitely an easily arguable statement but in this book the author goes into great detail of the effects of these pesticides on the farm workers who were forced to go into fields too soon before application and in many cases pesticides actually being sprayed directly on the workers. As a result this led to many cases of reproductive issues with the farmers leading to many cases of amoralities of children at birth as well as sickness and injuries, rashes during the immediate exposure.
The book also details the outright slavery existing in the Florida tomato fields as less than a decade ago. This is something that surprised me that I had not heard about this. There are also examples of modern day indentured servitude by offering an appealing wage but then extorting money from the workers for simple items such as water, “showers” (using a garden hose to rinse of pesticides, food, and premium rent at living quarters which normally would include sharing a small trailer with several other men.
Overall
Overall I thought Tomatoland was a great book and help reinforce my reasons for growing my own produce and supporting my local organic farmers. It also encouraged me to me aware of who’s hands my food my travel as I decide to make a purchase at my local grocery store. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels that paying a little extra for organic products is just too much to pay or anyone simply interested in how the tomato industry is run.
Can Planting Vegetables in Vacant Lots Save Cleveland?
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/growing-self-sufficient-cities/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29
Light LED’s with FIRE!
Reader [Andre] sent in a link which tells us all about this “cool” Copper Oxide Thermoelectric Generator. All you need is a bit of solid copper wire and a gas torch. Burn the wire so it gets a nice coating of oxide. From there, it is a matter of making the 2 sections of burned wire cross at a point and heat up only one of the wires. Whichever is hotter forms a cathode and whichever one is cooler is the anode.
Just one of these junctions is enough to produce a few hundred millivolts, but the author takes it a step further, well 16 steps further. He made a ring of these junctions in series, which is enough to light a bright blue LED. While the author notes that this thing is producing a considerable amount of voltage, its not producing much amperage. This could come in very handy in the future, like if you need some additional LED lighting for your camp stove.
Filed under: chemistry hacks
Need a Job? How About $600 for 4 Hours a Day
Wanted: 20 Healthy Males Who Want over $600 for 4-Hour Work a Day for One Month to Help Disaster-Affected TohokuIt's probably a job in the disaster-affected area called Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant...
Anyone care to join "Fukushima 50"? It's not too late. They need fresh workers in the "new normal" at the plant where 10 sieverts/hour radiation is considered no big deal. (TEPCO says it doesn't matter because no work is planned in the area of 10-plus sieverts/hr radiation.)
Someone in Japan (t2aki) posted the photo of an ad on a utility pole, which reads:
Urgently Wanted
50,000 yen [US$648] per day
4 hours a day work
(and in handwriting)
Only for one month (20 working days)
2 days of training given
Work to assist recovery in the disaster affected area in Tohoku
No age limit
Healthy males
20 workers wanted
Probably an ad by a subcontractor of a subcontractor of a subcontractor .... many degrees removed from TEPCO.
Death By XBOX
Game addict, 20, killed by deep vein thrombosisDeep vein thrombosis (also known as deep venous thrombosis and usually abbreviated as DVT) is the formation of a blood clot (“thrombus”) in a deep vein. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_vein_thrombosis
A LAD of 20 has been killed by a blood clot caused by playing his Xbox for up to 12 hours at a time.
A post mortem revealed that Chris Staniforth – addicted to games such as Halo – had suffered a deep vein thrombosis. It can be triggered by sitting in one position for long spells.Stunned dad David, of Sheffield, said: “He lived for his Xbox. I never dreamed he was in any danger.”As a parent you think playing computer games can’t do them any harm because you know what they are doing.”Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods – they don’t realise it could kill them.”
Chris collapsed seconds after telling a friend how he had been experiencing a strange sensation in his chest.
The pair were chatting outside a JobCentre where Chris had an interview.
David said: “He told his friend how he was woken in the night by a strange feeling in his chest.
“He said his heart rate had been incredibly low but it went back to normal and he fell asleep again.
Read more: http://www.shtfnews.com/death-xbox-no-bs/#ixzz1TiCPmgZj
Samsung NC215S solar netbook delayed until August
Well, that didn't take long. The sun's only set once since we reported Samsung's solar NC215S netbook was up for pre-order and we're already getting word that it's been delayed. Despite earlier estimates of a July 3rd US shipping date, Liliputing is now saying that the solar-powered laptop won't make it to consumers until sometime in mid to late August, due to hold ups involving the machine's custom panels. Here's hoping this doesn't spoil anyone's plans to journey out of the house this summer.
Samsung NC215S solar netbook delayed, won't see sunlight until August -- Engadget
Radioactive Container Truck Spews Gamma Rays On Unsuspecting Traffic On Interstate Highway
Apparently just having a sign labeled “radioactive” allows truckers to transport material that radiation on unsuspecting traffic as evidence in this video posted on YouTube.
While one would assume that truck is lined with a protective barrier made out of a material such as lead that prevents radiation from leaking from the truck and the radioactive sign on the truck is just a warning in the event of an accident or leakage that clearly is not the case.
As evidence below, the video shows an Inspector Geiger counter picking up Gamma radiation at levels up to .320 millirems per hour, or .320 microseiverts, per hour of radiation being emitted from a truck traveling down Interstate 270 through Saint Louis Missouri on July 1st.
The truck in question is operated by Associated Couriers, Inc. out of Saint Louis with the signage on the truck showing a phone number of 314-739-0400.
Radioactive Container Truck Spewing Gamma Rays Into Traffic on I-270 in Saint Louis, Missouri
We got stuck next to this truck during the 7pm July 1st holiday traffic on North bound I-270, after seeing the Radioactive warning placards we pulled out the Geiger Counter and Camera. Lesson learned, AVOID RADIOACTIVE TRUCKS!
The Geiger counter samples over a 30 second moving average, updated every 3 seconds. Notice how the reading on the Geiger Counter keeps moving upwards after we pass the truck; had we stayed next to the radioactive truck the readings would have went even higher.
Pray for the truck driver; the source of gamma rays appeared to be located almost directly behind the driver. One would think that these things would be much more heavily shielded, located further away from the driver, and that such materials would be transported when other people are not on the road.
The truck exited I-270 at Lilac Ave.
To be fair, according to those measurements after standing next to the truck for an entire year you would receive a dose a little under that of a dental x-ray or about a dose of 2.8 millsieverts. However ever that reading, according to person who shot the video was only the Gamma radiation count with alpha, beta and x-ray radiation not being accounted for.
The radiation reading was also taken from a vehicle quickly passing by at a distance of several feet away from the radioactive truck. While that may give a fair estimation of the gamma radiation dose afflicted on the average unsuspecting vehicle just passing by it does not account for vehicles who travel alongside the truck for an extended period of time.
In fact, as stated in the video’s description, the counter was calculating values based on a 30 second moving average and being updated every 3 seconds. That means to get an accurate reading the full Gamma Radiation being emitted, the Geiger counter would have needed to stay next to the truck for a full 30 seconds, which it was not.
That means that the true Gamma radiation reading was much higher that what was displayed on the screen. The value on the screen, being a 30 second moving average, was actually being under reported by an order of a magnitude at the least, because 30 seconds prior to the elevated readings we were seeing virtually no radiation being detected by the Geiger counter.
Source: Radioactive Container Truck Spews Gamma Rays On Unsuspecting Traffic On Interstate Highway ©
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