tagged w/ Jennifer Welker
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The Pentagon's way-out researchers don't just want to build an Internet simulator, to test out cyberwar tactics. They want the range's operators to "realistically replicate human behavior and frailties," too.
Congress has ordered the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, to put together a National Cyber Range, as part of a massive (and massively secret) $30 billion, government-wide effort better prep for battle online. The project is now considered a top priority for the Agency. And to make sure the facility is as true-to-life as possible, Darpa wants the contractors running the Range to be able to "replicate realistic human behavior on nodes," a request for proposals, released today, reveals.The Pentagon's way-out researchers don't just want to build an Internet... more
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The glowing amber dot on a light switch in the entryway of George Tsapoitis' house offers a clue about the future of electricity.
A few times this summer, when millions of air conditioners strain the Toronto region's power grid, that pencil-tip-sized amber dot will blink. It will be asking Tsapoitis to turn the switch off - unless he's already programmed his house to make that move for him.
This is the beginning of a new way of thinking about electricity, and the biggest change in how we get power since wires began veining the landscape a century ago.The glowing amber dot on a light switch in the entryway of George Tsapoitis'... more
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If you had died 50 years ago, your body would have stood a pretty good chance of serving science. In the 1960s, autopsy rates at US hospitals exceeded 50 percent. Pathologists weren't necessarily looking for what killed people — they were taking advantage of the fact that a body was available and ready for inspection. There was still much to learn about normal human biology, the thinking went, so every corpse was an educational opportunity.
These days, autopsy rates have fallen below 10 percent, a decline that's symptomatic of a larger deficiency. Medicine has become all about finding a problem — a tumor, a heart attack, a failing kidney — and deploying advanced treatment technologies. In the process, we seem to have given up on measuring and tracking what constitutes normal. That's an alarming — and potentially dangerous — trend.
What's normal matters because we're entering a new era of health care, one in which we look not for causes of illness but for risks. It's called predictive medicine, and its primary tool is the screening test. A good screening test should provide a range of results, distinguishing between a condition within normal parameters — which doesn't require intervention — and an anomaly, which demands it. That's how most blood tests work, for instance. But for all sorts of conditions, there's often no definition of normal. In heart disease, for example, CT screening tests can spot abnormalities in arterial plaque — but no research exists on whether that information is actually predictive of heart disease or stroke. "We need to know normal variation," says Pat Brown, a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine. "It's really underappreciated as a part of science." In too many areas, Brown argues, we're too quick to jump at any blip without understanding whether it's a true red alert or just normal background noise.If you had died 50 years ago, your body would have stood a pretty good chance of... more
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A conservative lobby group is urging Congress to reject legislation that would repeal "Don't Ask, Don' Tell", the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.
The Military Readiness Enhancement Act which would repeal the decade old DADT has bipartisan support and hearings are expected to be held this year.
Americans For The Military, part of the conservative Center for Military Readiness, is circulating a petition online to pressure members of Congress to maintain the ban.
"Our nation's military should not be used as a tool to advance the goals of gay activist groups," the petition to members of Congress says.
"Forcing a sexual agenda on the armed forces would hurt discipline and moral ... As an American I ask that you uphold this law to help to protect and preserve our military."
In an online video, Center President Elaine Donnelly called for an "online army to support the troops".
Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays calls the campaign "misleading, offensive" and said that it is disrespectful to America’s military personnel.
"It is outrageous that some in our country would answer the service and sacrifice of their fellow citizens by calling for them to be fired simply because of who they are," said PFLAG executive director Jody M. Huckaby. A conservative lobby group is urging Congress to reject legislation that would repeal... more
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Senior World Food Program officials yesterday defended their emergency request for $775 million to offset the high price of food and fuel, saying that the agency's billion-dollar cash reserve has already been budgeted for programs and expenses.
A Fox News report yesterday questioned whether the Rome-based organization should be issuing such a large appeal when it is sitting on $1.22 billion and short-term investments.
“Almost all of that money is already allocated,” said Nancy Roman, director of public policy for the World Food Program (WFP), comparing the fund to a family's bank account that will be used to pay for rent and groceries.Senior World Food Program officials yesterday defended their emergency request for... more
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The American economy lost 20,000 jobs in April, the fourth consecutive month of decline, in what many economists took as powerful evidence that the United States is almost certainly now ensnared in a recession.The American economy lost 20,000 jobs in April, the fourth consecutive month of... more
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The mysterious circle of stones that rises on Salisbury Plain near here has stood as an archaeological marvel for thousands of years, its origins and purpose shrouded in the mists of history.
But a just-completed excavation of Stonehenge, the first within the ancient circle in more than 40 years, could provide some of the first reliable explanations for one of the greatest wonders of the prehistoric world.The mysterious circle of stones that rises on Salisbury Plain near here has stood as... more
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Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede.
In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.
The switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles has been building in recent years, but has accelerated recently with the advent of $3.50-a-gallon gas. At the same time, sales of pickup trucks and large sport utility vehicles have dropped sharply.
In another first, fuel-sipping four-cylinder engines surpassed six-cylinder models in popularity in April.
“It’s easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here,” said George Pipas, chief sales analyst for the Ford Motor Company.
The trend toward smaller and lighter vehicles with better mileage is a blow to Detroit automakers, which offer fewer such models than Asian carmakers like Toyota and Honda. Moreover, the decline of S.U.V.’s and pickups has curtailed the biggest source of profits for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into... more
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South Sudan's defence minister has been killed in a plane crash involving about 20 people, according to officials in Khartoum and the south.
Defence Minister Dominic Dim was aboard the plane with other passengers returning from a conference, said a source in the southern capital, Juba.
South Sudan's defence minister has been killed in a plane crash involving about... more
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The Secret Service is investigating whether the racially-charged symbol of a noose was displayed in its Maryland training facility.
An instructor "observed a rope tied in a loop, which was interpreted as a noose, in one of the training buildings" at the James J. Rowley Training Center in Beltsville, Maryland, on April 16, the Secret Service said.
The instructor is a 38-year-old African American member of the Secret Service's Uniformed Division.
A white agent admits leaving it, but it is unclear if the rope was intended to be a noose or was tied in a loop for some other reason. The white agent is currently on administrative leave while the Service's Office of Professional Responsibility investigates.
The rope was found tied to a building where agents do tactical training. In a statement to CNN, the Secret Service said "There has been no indication of racial intent on the part of the employee who has claimed responsibility."
The officer who found the rope reported the incident to management at the site later that same day, but it wasn't until eight days later that the Office of Professional Responsibility, the service's internal affairs branch, were brought in to do a formal investigation.The Secret Service is investigating whether the racially-charged symbol of a noose was... more
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Magola Franco Pérez, principal of Leonardo da Vinci High School in Colombia allowed 700 students to jeer in unison, "We Don't Want You" at a lesbian student couple being allowed to register for classes under a court order. According to a blog by Andres Duque, "She had threatened to resign if the two young women were ever allowed to return to school," but she did not. She is now trying to stop the girls from attending by saying they signed incorrect registration forms.Magola Franco Pérez, principal of Leonardo da Vinci High School in Colombia... more
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Hillary Clinton appeared on FOX's The O'Reilly Factor for the first time last night.
O'Reilly started out the discussion by focusing on the Rev. Wright controversy. Said Clinton: "“Well, I take offense at it. I think it's offensive and outrageous. And, you know, I'm going to express my opinion, others can express theirs. But, you know, it is -- it is part of, you know, just an atmosphere that we're in today where all kinds of things are being said...And people have to, you know, decide what they believe. And I sure don't believe the United States government was behind AIDS."Hillary Clinton appeared on FOX's The O'Reilly Factor for the first time... more
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The woman dubbed the DC Madam killed herself yesterday, police said, just weeks after she was convicted of running a prostitution ring that catered to highly placed US government officials.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, became a tabloid celebrity in the US after her escort ring led to criminal charges and she threatened to reveal the names of the men who patronised her "erotic fantasy" service.
Police yesterday said Palfrey hanged herself at her mother's home in the town of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Her mother, 76, discovered the body in a shed on the property and remained "very distraught", a police spokesman said. Police said there were a number of suicide notes, but did not disclose the contents.
"Handwritten notes were found on scene that describes the victim's intention to take her life, and foul play does not appear to be involved," said Captain Jeffrey Young in a statement. The woman dubbed the DC Madam killed herself yesterday, police said, just weeks after... more
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As he fixes a broken sliding glass door at an apartment in Anaheim, California, Eduardo Gutierrez worries about his parents in Mexico.
He can no longer afford to send the $200 to $300 a month he had been sending back home to support his ailing father.
"I kind of feel bad that I can't help my parents," said Gutierrez, a legal immigrant who has worked in the United States for 20 years. "I try. But I can't these days, and it's a tough situation."
Gutierrez said he earns $18.50 an hour as a glazier, installer and fixer of glass in all shapes and sizes.
But with the U.S. economy sagging, his hours have shrunk, even as his gas and grocery bills have skyrocketed along with other expenses. He's struggling just to support his wife and three children.As he fixes a broken sliding glass door at an apartment in Anaheim, California,... more
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The number of Iraqi refugees allowed into the United States rose again in April, reaching the highest level for any month since 2003. But the Bush administration is still falling short of its target of resettling 12,000 by the end of September.
The State Department said Thursday that 974 Iraqi refugees entered the country last month. That was up from 751 in March, 444 in February and 375 in January. Previously the most Iraqis ever admitted to the U.S. in a month since 2003 was 889 last September.The number of Iraqi refugees allowed into the United States rose again in April,... more
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The Middle East is hardly known as the capital of clean energy, but Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are trying to change that.
A few weeks ago, 100-foot-wide propellers began turning on the recently completed World Trade Center building, making Bahrain home to the world's first building-integrated wind turbine skyscraper. The building includes two sail-shaped towers that climb 54 floors above the beachfront site. Three small bridges link the towers, with a massive wind turbine hanging from each. The towers funnel the ocean winds into the turbines, which generate more than 10% of the energy used by the building. The Middle East is hardly known as the capital of clean energy, but Bahrain and the... more
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A van full of insurgents speeds through the desert. They do not notice a series of networked ground sensors that have begun tracking their every move.
Hovering somewhere overhead, a tiny robot points its camera at the van and takes note of its color scheme and markings. An even bigger drone, thousands of feet above its hovering kin, maintains a God’s-eye vigil on the whole hunt.
Everything these robots see is radioed to monitors thousands of miles away -- and into the targeting systems of a B-52 bomber winging, silent and nearly invisible, several miles overhead.
This scenario, played out at a remote Nevada facility last week, was the first major test of the Army’s $160-billion, 20-year plan to build a high-tech family of networked robots and hybrid-electric armored vehicles. The “Future Combat Systems” program, co-managed by Boeing and consultants SAIC, aims to equip roughly a third of the Army with 14 new vehicle types that are connected constantly to a vast communications net.
The theory behind the FCS is that dispersed, intelligent robotic systems plugged into a universal communications network can help small numbers of U.S. troops riding in new vehicles to control huge swaths of terrain. Any ship, airplane or tank fitted with the FCS network devices will be able to see everything the others see.A van full of insurgents speeds through the desert. They do not notice a series of... more
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On April 27, 2007, Estonia was attacked in cyberspace. Following a diplomatic incident with Russia about the relocation of a Soviet World War II memorial, the networks of many Estonian organizations, including the Estonian parliament, banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters, were attacked and -- in many cases -- shut down. Estonia was quick to blame Russia, which was equally quick to deny any involvement.
It was hyped as the first cyberwar: Russia attacking Estonia in cyberspace. But nearly a year later, evidence that the Russian government was involved in the denial-of-service attacks still hasn't emerged. Though Russian hackers were indisputably the major instigators of the attack, the only individuals positively identified have been young ethnic Russians living inside Estonia, who were pissed off over the statue incident.
You know you've got a problem when you can't tell a hostile attack by another nation from bored kids with an axe to grind.
Separating cyberwar, cyberterrorism and cybercrime isn't easy; these days you need a scorecard to tell the difference. It's not just that it’s hard to trace people in cyberspace, it's that military and civilian attacks -- and defenses -- look the same. On April 27, 2007, Estonia was attacked in cyberspace. Following a diplomatic incident... more
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For nine decades after Bolshevik executioners gunned down Czar Nicholas II and his family, there were no traces of the remains of Crown Prince Alexei, the hemophiliac heir to Russia's throne.
Some said the delicate 13-year-old had somehow survived and escaped; others believed his bones were lost in Russia's vastness, buried in secret amid fear and chaos as the country lurched into civil war.
Now an official says DNA tests have solved the mystery by identifying bone shards found in a forest as those of Alexei and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria.
The remains of their parents -- Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra -- and three siblings, including the czar's youngest daughter, Anastasia, were unearthed in 1991 and reburied in the imperial resting place in St. Petersburg. The Russian Orthodox Church made all seven of them saints in 2000.For nine decades after Bolshevik executioners gunned down Czar Nicholas II and his... more
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Hillary talks about Rv.Wright with O'Reilly April 30, 2008
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