#2
Now, we're all going to pretend that the NSA's not doing the freaking same thing.
In 'Men In Black' they said that the FBI doesn't have sense of humor that they're aware of. No sense of irony, either, apparently.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/20/2014 11:44 Comments ||
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Monday was a big day for the nation’s cyber police. The Justice Department charged five Chinese military officials with hacking, and brought charges against the creators of powerful hacking software. But FBI Director James B. Comey said Monday that if the FBI hopes to continue to keep pace with cyber criminals, the organization may have to loosen up its no-tolerance policy for hiring those who like to smoke marijuana. Congress has authorized the FBI to add 2,000 personnel to its rolls this year, and many of those new recruits will be assigned to tackle cyber crimes, a growing priority for the agency. And that’s a problem, Mr. Comey told the White Collar Crime Institute, an annual conference held at the New York City Bar Association in Manhattan. A lot of the nation’s top computer programmers and hacking gurus are also fond of marijuana. “I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” Mr. Comey said. Mr. Comey said that the agency was “grappling with the question right now” of how to amend the agency’s marijuana policies, which excludes from consideration anyone who has smoked marijuana in the previous three years, according to the FBI’s Web site. One conference goer asked Mr. Comey about a friend who had shied away from applying because of the policy. “He should go ahead and apply,” despite the marijuana use, Mr. Comey said.
[The Peninsula] Police have incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! around 100 people in global raids against notorious malware being sold complete with "ransom notes" to extort money after taking control of computers.
"During the course of a worldwide investigation, creators, sellers and users of BlackShades malware were targeted by judicial and law enforcement authorities in 16 different countries," Europe-wide police and justice bodies Europol and Eurojust said in a statement.
Thousands of people around the world have bought BlackShades RAT (Remote Access Tools) malicious software or malware, which can be used to secretly take control of a user's webcam or entire computer, as well as encrypt its contents and hold them to ransom.
The malware could also be used to carry out distributed denial-of-service cyberattacks to bring down websites.
BlackShades comes complete with model "ransom notes" for extorting cash after notifying a user that they have lost control of their computer.
"Warning! Your computer has been hacked and your private files encrypted and can only be decrypted by us," reads one such note along with blank spaces for bank account details where the "ransom" should be paid.
Over two days, police and the FBI raided 359 houses, arrested 97 people and seized "substantial quantities" of cash, illegal guns and drugs, as well as over 1,000 data storage devices, the statement said.
"A recent case in the Netherlands of BlackShades malware being used for criminal purposes was that of an 18-year-old man who infected at least 2,000 computers, controlling the victim's webcams to take pictures of women and girls," Eurojust said.
Among the countries raided were the Netherlands, Belgium, La Belle France, Germany, the UK, Italia, the US, Canada, Chile and Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... .
The FBI passed on a list of nationals suspected of having bought or used BlackShades to their respective countries after arresting two people who wrote the software, a judicial source in Gay Paree told AFP.
French police last week raided around 50 properties as part of the investigation, detaining 26 people.
Seven of those detained admitted possessing BlackShades for nefarious purposes, including hacking webcams or Facebook accounts, the public prosecutor said in a statement.
Eight suspects said they used the malware to pirate online video games.
"The investigation is continuing," a French judicial source told AFP.
Hacker websites began reporting three days ago that police were raiding people suspected of buying or using BlackShades, which is reportedly available on the so-called "darknet" network of trusted peers for under $100 (70 euros).
Chatrooms suggested police were using records from the PayPal payment site to identify those who bought the malware. (
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05/20/2014 00:00 ||
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Dozens have been arrested in a king-sized global hacker crackdown. But itÂ’s unclear whether the charges against these supposed cyber criminals will actually stick.
Europol claimed 359 raids connected to the Blackshades investigation, with the FBI confirming 97 arrests in 16 countries. The arrests were trumpeted with press conferences on both sides of the Atlantic. But it’s unclear how many actually used the software for criminal activity—instead of merely possessing it. And it’s unclear whether the charges against all of these supposed hackers will actually stick.
Clues to 'bogus' include: Menacing cyber project name, Big media spread in the Daily Beest or other regime-friendly media. Large, professionally made posters, Stern looking Special Agents, large numbers of arrested or detained. Timing of media release coincides with looming PR failures elsewhere.
[The Peninsula] For all the screaming and carrying on, their neighbours thought they'd won the lottery. But it was a lumpy old sofa stuffed with $40,000 in cash that had three young roommates raising a ruckus.
And here's the other side of the ticket: They returned the money to the 91-year-old widow whose couch had been given away.
"We just pulled out envelopes and envelopes," said Cally Guasti, a social worker with Family of Woodstock who shares an apartment with two friends in New Paltz, 75 miles north of New York City. "My mouth was literally hanging open -- everybody's was -- it was an unfathomable amount."
Guasti said that she and her friends had bought the beat-up couch and a chair for $55 at a Salvation Army thrift shop in March. They noticed the arm cushions were weirdly lumpy. Then, one night in April, one of them, State University of New York at New Paltz student Reese Werkhoven, opened a zipper on one arm and found an envelope.
It contained $4,000 in bubble-wrapped bills.
Guasti, Werkhoven and roommate Lara Russo opened the other arm zipper and started mining the treasure stashed inside. They counted it up: $40,800.
"Honestly, I was a little overwhelmed," Russo said. "I wanted to put it back in the couch and like re-find it in the morning when I can process it better."
Gausti said they spread the money on the bed and started counting. "And we were screaming," she said "In the morning, our neighbours were like, 'We thought you won the lottery.'"
Mixed in with the cash was a deposit slip with a woman's name on it. Werkhoven called her the next morning.
"She said, 'I have a lot of money in that couch and I really need it,'" Guasti said.
They drove to the home of the woman, who turned out to be the elderly woman. She cried in gratitude when they gave her the cash she had hidden away. The woman's family had donated the couch to the Salvation Army while she was having health problems.
"It's not our money, said Werkhoven, of New York City. "We didn't have any right to it."
Guasti said the cash simply wasn't theirs. "I think if any of us had used it, it would have felt really wrong."
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05/20/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
3 tickets on the Good Karma Train
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2014 11:59 Comments ||
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#2
Too bad the DEA will probably claim civil forfeiture of it since grandma cant prove its not "drug money".
[ToloNews] For the first time in Afghanistan telecommunication companies will be able to provide better quality service through a satellite named "AfghanSAT1" that belongs to Afghanistan, located in space, 50 degrees east.
Amirzai Sangeen, Minister of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) said that through this satellite local channels can broadcast their programs within Afghanistan with better quality and affordable prices. Minister Sangeen adds that AfghanSAT1 will also provide the opportunity for countrymen in remote areas to have access to inexpensive phone and internet.
People from across the globe will also be able access Afghan channels through the AfghanSAT1.
During the inauguration ceremony held on Saturday, Mr. Sangeen called the event historical and explained in details the cost behind the initiative.
"We only pay $4 million annually for using this satellite instead of the rumored amount of $100 to $200 million," he said. "Annually, we will have a $15 million income from the services of this satellite."
On Saturday, 10 television stations broadcasted via AfghanSAT1.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... the First Vice President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Younus Qanuni, calls the first satellite of Afghanistan a great achievement for Afghans.
"Through this device, Afghanistan will be able to not only cover its provinces, but also the region too," Qanuni said. "This satellite will cover the radios and TV channels of Afghanistan, South Asia and Middle East. It will not only increase the quality and number of viewers, but it will also have a significant economic impact for Afghanistan."
Mr. Qanuni praised the MCIT for this momentous achievement adding that this accomplishment is an addition to their list of many triumphs in the past 12 years.
"In 2001, only 15,000 landline phones existed in Afghanistan," he said. "Today, there are more than 165,000 landlines, more than 22 million Afghans using mobile services, and another four million citizens connected to internet."
AfghanSAT1 is eight years old leaving a life span of seven years, after which a second satellite by the name of AfghanSAT2 will be placed in space. Satellites working life is an average of 15 years.
MCIT purchased this satellite five months ago from a La Belle France based company known as EutelSat. EutelSat has a total of 36 satellites orbiting space.
[AnNahar] Tunisia on Monday formed a long-awaited truth and justice commission, more than three years after the 2011 revolution, to implement "transitional justice" and compensate the victims of decades of dictatorship.
The 15-member body, which was elected by the national assembly with a majority of 71 votes, will also be tasked with identifying and bringing to trial those responsible for abuses committed under the former regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Habib Bourguiba.
Its formation comes after two years of political bickering that stalled progress on the country's institution building, and six months after the transitional justice law was finally ratified by parliament after repeated delays.
A planned reconciliation mechanism, whose details have yet to be elaborated, will be responsible for "strengthening national unity".
The new commission is made up of human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... activists, representatives of victim groups, opponents of Ben Ali and judges.
Crimes it is tasked with identifying include voluntary homicide, rape, extrajudicial killings and torture, as well as economic crimes such as misappropriating public funds and financial corruption.
The transitional justice system also aims to reform the laws and institutions of the judiciary that allowed such abuses to happen, in order to strengthen the rule of law.
Since the January 2011 uprising, Tunisia's new rulers have yet to implement any significant reforms of the judiciary, penal code or the security services on whom Ben Ali relied to suppress dissent.
Separately, the national assembly was due to debate a bill on Monday that would set up special tribunals to try those responsible for the bloody crackdown on popular protests that led to Ben Ali's ouster, in which more than 300 people were killed.
The initiative comes after a military tribunal allowed the then head of presidential security Ali Seriati and interior minister Rafik Belhaj Kacem to walk free after controversially cutting their jail sentences on appeal, in rulings that sparked public anger.
Both men had initially been handed heavy prison terms for their part in the deaths of protesters during the uprising.
[MAGHAREBIA] The annual pilgrimage to Africa's oldest synagogue wrapped up Sunday (May 18th) on Tunisia's Djerba Island.
"Celebrations marking the end of the annual visit to Ghriba synagogue went peacefully amid tight security measures that secured the departure of Jewish visitors from the island," Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesperson Mohammed Ali Aroui told TAP Sunday evening.
"About 2,500 visitors took part in the pilgrimage to Ghriba synagogue, and this was beyond expectations," Aroui confirmed. "There were only 350 visitors last year."
He added, "The interior ministry continues to secure the tourist season and to receive tourist groups under good circumstances."
Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou also paid a field visit to Djerba Island last Tuesday to inspect security preparations for the pilgrimage.
"Tunisian authorities have mobilised all capabilities, especially those pertaining to security, to make this Jewish pilgrimage to Ghriba synagogue a success," said Perez Trabelsi, head of the Jewish community in Djerba and president of the Ghriba board.
"This is a proof of the religious tolerance that distinguishes Tunisia from other countries," he added. "It's also a service to Tunisian citizens, as more than 2,000 Jews live on Djerba Island."
Trabelsi said that Tunisian authorities made the pilgrimage season a success. "All attendees were impressed by the security arrangements," he told Magharebia.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/20/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] At least nine people have died in a cholera outbreak in war-torn South Sudan, scores of others are sick and the epidemic looks set to worsen, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
"There have been nine deaths and 138 cases so far," WHO front man Tarik Jasarevic told Agence La Belle France Presse in Geneva.
"The epidemic is intensifying and more cases are expected," he said.
The U.N. health agency and other aid organizations were rushing supplies to the affected region in and around the South Sudanese capital Juba, he added.
The outbreak of the highly contagious disease has raised the specter of an even broader spread, given that 1.3 million South Sudanese have been forced from their homes by five months of fighting.
Huge numbers of people across the country are surviving without proper shelter, clean water or toilets.
Over 79,000 civilians are sheltering in hugely overcrowded United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... peacekeeping bases, including over 32,000 civilians crammed into U.N. camps in the capital alone.
Heavy rains are sweeping the impoverished country, hampering aid efforts and potentially exacerbating the spread of the disease.
Children are at particular risk from cholera.
"The severity of the cholera outbreak is just one manifestation of a country failing its children," said Jonathan Veitch, who steers South Sudan aid operations for U.N. children's agency UNICEF.
"Cholera puts ever more strain on the most vulnerable, whose health is already compromised by a nutritional crisis," he said in a statement.
Cholera is transmitted through drinking water or eating food contaminated with feces or dirty hands.
After a short incubation period of two to five days, the disease causes severe diarrhea, draining the body of its water. The dramatic loss of fluid is often fatal.
Aid organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the young nation, including the risk of famine if rebel and government forces continue to fight.
[AnNahar] Saudi health authorities reported Monday new deaths from the MERS coronavirus, taking to 173 the overall number of fatalities from the disease in the world's worst-hit country.
The health ministry said on its website that five people have died, including a 28-year-old woman in the port city of Jeddah, and a 32-year-old man in northern Tabuk.
A woman aged 69 died in Riyadh and a 55-year-old man died in the city of Mecca, home to Islam's holiest site which is visited by millions of pilgrims each year.
A fifth man, 59 died on Sunday in the western city of Taif.
The ministry said the total numbers of infections has reached 537 case.
Other nations including Egypt, Jordan, Leb, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United States have also recorded cases, mostly in people who had been to the desert kingdom.
MERS is considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.
#1
An associate of mine claims that, after his service in the US Navy, he worked as a civilian at an elderly veterans' hospice in Chicago where many patients were afflicted/ among other, wid a dormant form or variant of MERS.
Didn't kill or seriously affect them, but they had it nonetheless.
He believes something has changed which has caused MERS to dangerously mutate + transmit from person-to-person.
#2
Interesting, JosephM. That would make sense, since apparently there also is a mild form out there... or at least that some people are not experiencing a dangerous infection in need of hospitalization.
#4
Found this when I searched for how viruses mutate.
Antigenic shift results when two different flu [and other viruses] strains combine and infect the same cell. This mutation is what allows flu [and other] viruses to move from animals to humans.
#14
Bad's got a little script — Bad's got a little script
Of RBee pretenders who might as well be Saudi bound,
And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!
There's the pestilential trolls who write faux Hemingway —
All who have made olde Pappy mad today,
And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!
Bad's got a little script — Bad's got a little script
[Dhaka Tribune] The three former RAB officials who are remanded in police custody have denied their involvement in the gruesome murder of Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and five others.
Lt Col (retd) Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, Maj (retd) Arif Hossain and Lt Commander (retd) SM Masud Rana have refused to admit having taken Tk6 crore to kill the seven people.
A highly placed source yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that the three, who were sent on forced retirement following the allegation of their involvement in the incident, had claimed to have been victims of a "media trial."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/20/2014 00:00 ||
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With a summit meeting between the Russian and Chinese presidents due to begin Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin has followed last week's rhetorical bombshell — that Russia was not interested in extending operation of the International Space Station, or ISS, beyond 2020 — by trumpeting a future of increased cooperation with the emerging Chinese National Space Agency.
Meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister Wang Yang, in Beijing on Monday, Rogozin announced on Twitter that he had signed "a protocol on establishing a control group for the implementation of eight strategic projects." In a later Facebook post, he said "cooperation in space and in the market for space navigation" were among the projects.
Rogozin and Wang agreed to hold a meeting between the heads of their respective agencies "in the near future," so that Beijing and Moscow could sow the seeds of a potential space partnership.
Federal Space Agency chief Oleg Ostapanko wants to allow "Chinese colleagues participate in some of the most interesting projects that can replace the ISS," Rogozin said, adding that they would also discuss "projects such as cooperation in the field of rocket engine development," and cooperation in the growing market of space applications services — which primarily applies to the development of the Chinese Beidou satellite navigation system and Russia's Glonass navigation system, both rivals to the U.S.' GPS.
However, analysts doubted Russia's ability to be a reliable and fruitful partner to China beyond 2020, as Russian capabilities in space have drastically withered in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Russian space program lacks clear direction or goals.
Bleak Prospects
"The purpose of any cooperation between states in space is to minimize the costs of complex projects and the development of science and technology," Pavel Luzin, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Science's Institute for World Economy and International Relations told the Moscow Times Monday.
By this measure, Luzin sees little point in a Russia-China space partnership. China needs Russia only for "technologies they have not yet developed," and Russia lacks both a long-term vision for its space program and an industry capable of supporting it.
Aside from the failed Phobos-Grunt scientific mission to one of the Martian moons in 2011, the history of Russian-Chinese cooperation in space amounts to little more than technology transfer.
"In particular, the Chinese manned space program — spacecraft, spacesuits, etc. — is largely built on borrowed Soviet and Russian technology," Luzin said, and "such cooperation should not be exaggerated."
China does not need Russia as a genuine partner in space, Luzin thinks. Having been barred by the U.S. from the International Space Station program — a $100 billion international scientific project involving 15 nations — China has unilaterally pursued an ambitious exploration program in recent years, convinced that a great power must have a commanding presence in space.
James Oberg, an expert on the Russian space program and NASA mission control veteran, rated China's progress highly. "China's program has moved from methodical recapitulation of Western stages into some breathtakingly innovative new mission designs, such as its asteroid fly-by mission ... [which] shows Beijing's intention to pioneer space exploration in the decade ahead."
In 2003, China became the third nation to independently put a man in space, and in 2011 it deployed its first small, single-module space station — Tiangong. By 2023 it hopes to build a multi-module space station, resembling Russia's Mir space station. China may therefore be interested in using Russia to master the required technology and techniques, but beyond that there is little reason for China to be interested in Russia as a partner, according to Luzin.
Aside from expertise in space station construction, Russia could share expertise on reusable spacecraft and rocket engine technology. Engines are one of Russia's greatest contribution to Western space efforts — U.S. spacecraft manufacturers have been big buyers of Russia's powerful RD-180 and NK-33 engines.
"But here too, cooperation cannot be long term. It will end after the transfer of technology has been completed," Luzin said.
The Price of a Pivot
Were Russia to turn its back on its U.S. partners in space to focus on cooperation with China, it would lose more than it would gain: "It is obvious that without cooperation with the West that Russia would lose in the competition in science and technology," Luzin said.
With a history of cooperation dating back to 1975, the U.S. and Russia have cultivated an intimate partnership in the field of space exploration over the 20 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, a relationship solidified on the ISS joint project. Representatives of both countries' space agencies are present in Mission Control Moscow and Houston at all times to support each other's operations on the ISS, and scientific collaborations are constant.
This relationship has given Moscow a reputation as a reliable and generous partner in large-scale technology projects — Russia has been giving U.S. astronauts rides to the ISS aboard its Soyuz launch vehicle following the retirement of the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet — as well as insight in to advanced Western space technology and science.
"Throwing both away for spite is more than foolish, it is reverting to a doomed path of space development that will harm Russia most, since Russia remains critically dependent on Western technology imports," NASA's Oberg said.
Luzin hit back at that notion — the scientific value of Russia's participation in the ISS program is marginal, he said, and presents little value beyond 2020, since "Russia is not doing anything new on ISS compared to what it was doing aboard the Mir space station between 1986 and 2001."
To Boldly Go
Currently, the Russian space program is entirely tied to the ISS, which Luzin said "receives the lion's share of spending on civil space exploration." This is a product of its integration with the Western aerospace community through the ISS program, which was consciously fostered to address the problem of modernizing the Soviet-era space industry and its integration into the global economy.
Unfortunately, none of these problems were appropriately addressed, said Luzin, and any discussion of Russia's future in space beyond 2020 "rests on the need for deep structural reforms, which not only Rogozin is unprepared for, but the entire Putin team. Moreover, there is no understanding in government of where and how we can and must develop in space."
Oberg was blunt — Russia's main gain in courting Chinese space cooperation is in "fanning nostalgia for obsolete anti-U.S. alliances," he said.
Turns out Russia was afraid of competition in human space access so pulled up their pants and made a deal with China. The plan to take the propulsion unit of the space station with them. So we either need to make a replacement ASAP or watch the Ruskies crash it to earth.
Same with speeding up funding for commercial manned access to space.
Either do it or give up on space travel.
#4
...yeah, while one has a lot of population looking for some key resources while the other has a lot less population sitting on a lot of key resources. Let's see, build a large navy with extended and long lines of communications to cover the import of key resources or just move north and acquire same said resources. There's got to be some trade offs there.
#6
China's track record of honoring intellectual property rights is abysmal. Russia is letting the pirates in through the front door. Good luck with that.
Our strength is private enterprise and a huge investment in black programs. Maybe it is time for some of the latter to see the light.
" If the United States wants to keep the orbiting laboratory functioning beyond its putative end of use date of 2024, it will have to work out another way of carrying supplies and astronauts to and from the ISS. Joint cooperation in space continued between the United States and the Soviet Union even during the Cold War, so this announcement implies an even frostier relationship than was true in the middle of the last century."
[Ynet] MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... has ordered troops deployed in regions near Ukraine to return to their home bases, the Kremlin said Monday.
The move appears to indicate Putin's intention to de-escalate the crisis over Ukraine, the worst in Russia's relations with the West since
the end of the Cold War. The West has protested the deployment of 40,000 Russian troops near the border with Ukraine, seeing it as a possible preparation for grabbing more land after the annexation of Crimea in March.
Putin has previously said he has ordered troops to return from the area near the Ukraine border, but the United States and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... have said they see no sign of a pullout and have threatened more sanctions if Russia tries to derail Ukraine's presidential vote set for Sunday.
#1
It also costs a lot more to feed and maintain large formations in the field than in garrison. You got to move food, comm, and other stuff away from the efficiencies attained in garrison. Going to the field is expensive, unless you live off the land for which the locals take great umbrage. Also, when you distribute a lot of live ammo out there when you're not in a society known for a long tradition of democratic transitions, one must look to one's own security by making sure no one gets any ideas about who should be running the place.
#5
Just as a note of interest. The Egyptians employing Soviet doctrine conducted several exercises in which they moved up to the Suez to practice crossing it. Then one day, they did. Takes a few tries to work out the bugs and lull your opponent into complacency.
[The Peninsula] Rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine launched a desperate appeal yesterday for more fighters to join their insurgency against Kiev's rule, saying even women were welcome.
"We have achieved victories and more are to come," boasted Denis Pushilin, a leader of the self-declared "People's Republic of Donetsk" at a rally in the main city in Ukraine's eastern industrial belt. But he added: "We need strong men to protect our republic because civil war is raging in our region. "Many men are falling every day, so we need more."
He gave no specific figures on the number of casualties among rebel ranks, although fighting is reported almost every night around krazed killer flashpoints such as Slavyansk.
The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... said in a report on Friday that 127 people had been killed in fighting in the east since the pro-Russian separatists took up arms against the central government in Kiev in early April. Pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk and the neighbouring region of Lugansk declared their own sovereign republics after claiming victory in independence referendums on May 11 that were denounced as illegal in Kiev and the West.
The separatists in Donetsk have since set up their own parliament and a government headed by a shadowy Russian "consultant" called Aleksandr Borodai, and appealed to join the Russian Federation. Donetsk's "defence minister" Igor Strelkov, one of the top rebel commanders in the flashpoint city of Slavyansk, also took the unusual step of issuing a recruitment call in a video posted on YouTube.
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[AF.REUTERS] A Turkish court ruled on Sunday to keep three suspects in custody out of 25 people detained on a provisional charge of "causing multiple deaths" in last week's mine disaster, the prosecutor in charge of the case said.
Prosecutor Bekir Sahiner told reporters an initial report on the possible causes of the accident, in which 301 people died, indicated that the fire could have been triggered by coal heating up after it came into contact with the air.
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[DAWN] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... health department has begun a 12 days immunisation campaign in the province to protect children against measles.
During the campaign, one dose of anti-measles vaccine will be administered to 9.6 million children from six months to 10 years of age across the board.
A total of 5,000 teams, 1,075 area chiefs and 202 zonal supervisors are part of the exercise during which oral polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccine (OPV) will also be given to the children under the age of five years in all seven Southern districts of the province, including Kohat, Hangu, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... , and two high-risk union councils in Nowshera district.
In all, 4,341 teams will vaccinate 1,201,466 children against polio. Dr Jan Baz Afridi, deputy director at the provincial Expanded Programme on Immunisation, told Dawn that the campaign would help the province achieve the Millennium Development Goals on healthcare. He said the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation and the provincial government supported the children's immunisation.
The EPI official said the provincial health departments tried to control measles through patchy vaccination and outbreak response campaigns targeting different age groups with available vaccines for routine programme resulting in high incidence of measles.
"1,008 measles cases were reported in 2010, 2,702 in 2011 and 10,000 from Jan 2012 to Feb 2013. During the Jan 2012-Feb 2013 period, more than 500 deaths by the disease were reported prompting authorities to launch aggressive immunisation of children," he said.
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#5
proton mail. hey I signed up for the Beta. In theory it sounds reasonable...encryption resides on end user equipment...not on the server (in Switzerland)...might not be perfect but maybe perfect enough..
#1
Big issue is man-rated boosters even though crew transport module is getting the press.
Space-X probably in the lead for the Crew transport module, but in terms of looks, everybody seems to love the SNC lifting body mini-orbiter. Its designed to sit on an Atlas-V. I wonder if it can be lifted by some version of the Space-X Falcon booster?
#4
OS - they claim it's booster agnostic. Just that wind tunnel tests have only been done with the Atlas. Lockheed is building the actual airframe for SNC. Second choice of LV for the Dreamchaser is Falcon 9.1. Folks think it could use a Delta too if Delta ever gets man rated. Same for the CST-100 from Boeing.
One of the optional upper stages on a delta is the same as the one they are spec'ed with on the Atlas.
Delta's primary man rating problem appears to be older avionics.
#7
Dead-on Ship. Something like this should have been in space 40 years ago. Johnson wanted "the n****** (his words) voting for Democrats for the next 200 years", so that what we got. Plus Vietnam. That got the 3 Apollo missions scrubbed, and left NASA flatfooted.
NASA screwed it up post-Apollo. They let the military dictate that the shuttle become a cargo truck, instead of a manned flight only system.
Now it looks like heavy goes on its own, and manned goes on a less complex, lighter reusable platform. Should have been this way all along - put the heavy lift on a different (unmanned) launch platform, since its almost completely a different beast, aerodynamically speaking. Keep the manned stuff smaller, safer to recover, and easy to launch (think rescue). Gemini,Apollo and Skylab showed orbital rendezvous can be routinely accomplished between manned and unmanned space platforms.
#9
As for heavy lift: Think about a hollowed out Shuttle, sans all that crew space and equipment. Why not make a thick kinda like the X37B only jumbo sized, with higher sustainable G forces, etc (due to not needing to be man rated).You'd think that would work, re-using the SRBs, Fuel Tank, main engines, and much of the shuttle design with newer materiel and electronics.
#12
NASA screwed it up post-Apollo. They let the military dictate that the shuttle become a cargo truck, instead of a manned flight only system.
As I recollect, NASA was trying to justify budgets by saying that the space shuttle could be a truck. Dumb, dumb, idea. Too dangerous for the truck drivers. The military was happy with its own cheaper unmanned delivery systems. After Challenger, the military went back to them.
#13
Actually, Squinty, the military wanted to try to build an RLV (or many) back in the 90's, but the Clinton Administration moved their RLV efforts to NASA, where they were quietly strangled. The military got EELV, which turned into two expendable vehicles: one paperworked to death, and the other half-built by Russians, which is where we are today.
Shipman: Have you seen the XCOR Lynx vehicle? It looks a lot like that X-20.
Wikipedia: X-37C
In 2011, Boeing announced plans for a scaled-up variant of the X-37B, referring to the spacecraft as the X-37C. The X-37C would be between 165% and 180% larger than the X-37B, allowing it to transport up to six astronauts inside a pressurized compartment housed in the cargo bay. Its proposed launch vehicle is the Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. The X-37C may compete with Boeing's CST-100 commercial space capsule.
#18
Squinty: I wasn't talking about the X-37, I was talking about a real RLV. A followup to DC-X, for instance. The X-37 is just another reusable payload.
#20
On the guy who gave the 36 rocket Block Buy to ULA this just came out:
Here's the link to the Correll story mentioned above:
http://nlpc.org/stories/2014/05/18/space-launch-deal-puts-spotlight-revolving-door
"One of his last official acts before his "retirement" in January was to oversee a deal with a company called United Launch Alliance (ULA) for a whopping 36 future launches."
"This month, Correll popped up with a new job with Aerojet Rocketdyne, which just happens to supply rocket engines to ULA. His title is Vice President for Government Acquisition and Policy, seemingly more than befitting of his role."
This is on top of the troop movements I noted Monday and the martial law declared yesterday in Thailand. This is what advanced warfighting looks like. You sit there and scratch your head and wonder why all the accidents break in favor of the other guy.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
05/20/2014 00:10 ||
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#1
Thing - reminds me of killing the Lion of Panjar just before 911.
But, we know Obama and folks don't read Sun Tzu.
[AnNahar] Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq hoped on Monday that Emirati nationals would once again return to Leb "after stability in the country has been restored" due to the implementation of the government's security plan.
He said while on a trip to the UAE: "There are positive signs that the emirate may lift the advisory against its citizens traveling to Leb, but I have not yet received such a pledge."
"I am optimistic however that my visit will pave the way for better ties between Leb and the UAE," he added.
"The visit will help restore the trust and economic ties between the two sides," noted the minister after holding talks with his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Seif bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
He also cited Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's recent encouragement of its citizens to travel to Leb as a sign that the advisory may be lifted.
Mashnouq traveled to the UAE on Sunday, the first stop of a tour of the Arab Gulf ahead of an expected decision by the Gulf Cooperation Council to lift a travel advisory to Leb.
The deterioration of the security situation in Leb in light of the developments in Syria in recent months prompted the Gulf states of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar to issue the advisories.
Media reports said last week that Saudi Arabia is likely to lift its travel ban at the end of May.
The report came in light of the return of Saudi Ambassador to Leb Ali Awadh Asiri to the country with his family on May 2 to resume his diplomatic duties.
The Saudi diplomat stated upon his arrival in Beirut that there is no ban on visits by Saudi nationals to Leb.
[USnews] Lawyers who have represented VA informers say the agency is a heinous abuser of rights.
Conscientious workers at the Veterans Health Administration aware of their employer's reputation for punishing people who expose wrongdoing were given a new outlet last week.
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America unveiled an encrypted web submission form Thursday soliciting horror stories in the wake of a nationwide furor about fudged wait time records and related veteran deaths in Phoenix.
POGO Director of Communications Joe Newman says the groups are looking for systematic problems and received 310 submissions as of Monday morning. The majority of reports are thus far from veterans and members of the public, and less than 10 percent are from VA employees, Newman says.
A few appear promising, but POGO plans to carefully vet allegations before moving forward.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Peninsula] Police have 
[The Peninsula] For all the screaming and carrying on, their neighbours thought they'd won the lottery. But it was a lumpy old sofa stuffed with $40,000 in cash that had three young roommates raising a ruckus.
[AnNahar] At least nine people have died in a cholera outbreak in war-torn South Sudan, scores of others are sick and the epidemic looks set to worsen, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
[AnNahar] Saudi health authorities reported Monday new deaths from the MERS coronavirus, taking to 173 the overall number of fatalities from the disease in the world's worst-hit country.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[DAWN] The 
Reminds me of my H2O Water Pump Rocket. I've got it around here somewhere. 
