Russian officials this week carried out a secret inspection of the U.S. strategic missile defense base in California -

Russian officials this week carried out a secret inspection of the U.S. strategic missile defense base in California - 



Russian officials this week carried out a secret inspection of the U.S. strategic missile defense base in California as part of the New START arms treaty, according to Obama administration officials.

The inspection of five missile defense interceptors is allowed under the 2010 arms accord. The treaty requires cuts of U.S. and Russian deployed strategic warheads to 1,550.

A defense official said the visit was a treaty verification visit hosted by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

A State Department official declined to comment on the inspection but confirmed it was related to New START. “Implementation activities under New START are confidential,” the official said.

However, Thomas Moore, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee professional staff member, said the inspection of the base was a controversial part of U.S. and Russian arms talks leading up to New START that was ratified by the Senate in December 2010.

The United States had opposed including the five Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) silos in the treaty inspection terms, said Moore, a specialist on arms control issues.

The Russians refused, and because the five silos had been converted from offensive intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos, negotiators settled on a single inspection, Moore said, adding that he believed this week’s Russian review was that inspection.

Russia had demanded including the five silos in New START inspection provisions to monitor the conversion of long-range launch tubes into missile defense shooters.

“Russia gets one exhibition visit in the first three years of New START and one more if it ever wants to look at them again, for a total of two inspections,” Moore said. ”But this first one has to be the only one where they get to confirm the distinguishing features that set these five silos apart from a launcher of an ICBM.”

Read more -  

http://freebeacon.com/russians-inspect-missile-defense-base-in-california/

Addicted to Facebook? Shocking device ELECTROCUTES social network users to help break the habit -

Addicted to Facebook? Shocking device ELECTROCUTES social network users to help break the habit - 



A pair of procrastinators have come up with a shocking way to tackle their Facebook habits -  a keyboard device that electrocutes them when they spend too long on the site. 
The Pavlov Poke gadget sits under the wrist of a computer user and monitors which sites and applications are used. 
If the user is meant to be working, but keeps getting distracted by Facebook, for example, or spends too long chatting on forums, the device sends an electric shock.

It was developed by Ph.D students Robert R. Morris and Dan McDuff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
A video explaining the concept of the device claimed the pair 'wasted 50 hours a week procrastinating online' and they needed a way of tackling this.
Pavlov Poke uses what McDuff calls 'counter-conditioning' techniques.
It was named after Ivan Pavlov, famous for developing the theory of conditioning in dogs to make them behave a certain way.

According to the video, the shock is unpleasant but it’s not dangerous.
Pavlov Poke is an Arduino board - a board that can be used to develop applications and services - that sits under the wrist of a user. 
The board is then connected to a computer by USB. 
Users must install application logging software designed to monitor and track which programs and sites are used. 
The Poke device can then connect to this software and tracks usage.
If the users spend too long on a site, a warning message will appear on the screen. If they continue to use it, the board will electrocute them.
A Swedish study found that 70 per cent of people access Facebook as soon as the log onto their PCs, while 85 per cent admitted to using the site daily. 
A quarter of people asked said they felt 'ill' if they didn't log on every day. 


Read more: - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2400846/Addicted-Facebook-Shocking-device-ELECTROCUTES-social-network-users-help-break-habit.html?ico=sciencetech^headlines

Could we soon be reading people's MINDS? Software uses brain scans to identify exactly what people are looking at -

Could we soon be reading people's MINDS? Software uses brain scans to identify exactly what people are looking at - 



Researchers are a step closer to being able to read people's thoughts after creating a computer program that can identify what someone is looking at using brain scans. 
A team from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands used image and shape recognition software and a specially designed algorithm to assess changes in a person's brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology.
During tests the scientists showed participants a series of letters and were able to identify exactly when, during the scan, they were looking at which letters.
Functional MRI scans are traditionally used to measure changes in overall brain activity, yet the Dutch researchers used the technology to zoom in on smaller, more specific regions, known as voxels, in the occipital lobe. 
These voxels are around 2x2x2 millimetres big and the occipital lobe is the part of the brain which reacts to visual stimuli and processes what the eyes see through the retina. 

Each participant was wired up to an fMRI scanner and shown the letters B, R, A, I, N and S on a screen in front of them. 
The scientists were able to create a database of the specific changes that occurred in each person's brain after each letter was shown, which highlighted how the brain visualised the different shapes. 
These changes were run through a bespoke algorithm that had been designed to work in a similar way to how brains build images of objects from the sensory information it receives.
This algorithm was able to convert the voxels, and their relevant changes, into image pixels, making it possible to reconstruct a picture of what the person was looking at, at the time of the scan. 
The model has been designed to compare letters, yet could be expanded for other imagery.
Marcel Van Gerven, co-author of the study 'Linear reconstruction of perceived images from human brain activity' said that the algorithm is also capable of becoming more accurate the more times it is used and more data it processes. 
This experiment used information obtained from a selection of 1,200 voxels, yet van Gerven claims the algorithm could also be used to reconstruct any image and his team is working on building more advanced machines that can build images from 15,000 voxels. 
This could include complex imagery such as a person's face. 
During an interview with Wired, van Gerven did warn that this isn't exactly the same as reading a person's thoughts and more work and understanding about how the brain processes internal images would need to be carried out before being able to decode thoughts. 
Yet he added that if its discovered the brain reacts to imagination in the same way it reacts to physical visual stimuli then mind-reading would be possible, potentially leading to so-called telepathic computer programs.


Read more: -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2399790/Could-soon-reading-peoples-MINDS-Software-uses-brain-scans-identify-exactly-people-looking-at.html

Facebook Is New Bouncer At Finnegan’s Irish Pub in Stockton -

Facebook Is New Bouncer At Finnegan’s Irish Pub in Stockton - 



A Stockton Bar owner came up with a way to keep questionable customers out and good customers coming back—people need to become his friend on Facebook before they’re allowed in.

The only way you’ll get into Finnegan’s Irish Pub after 9 p.m. is if they Like you.

“We’re friends.”

And that friendship has to come from Facebook.

“I use Facebook a lot.”

And so does the pub.

Tony Mannor, the pub’s owner, says they use Facebook to screen visitors and keep the establishment safe.

They had no other choice.

“As we became more popular we also attracted some trouble. People don’t know how to have a good time.”

They had problems with undesirables.

“We really didn’t want to attract that crowd.”

So they came up with the idea of requiring people who show up after 9 p.m. to become facebook friends.

But you still couldn’t get on the special guest list until Tony checked out your profile page to see what kind of person you really are.

Tony says Facebook is the best bouncer he’s ever had.

“It eliminated nearly all of our troubles.”

Your Facebook ID is now checked at the door.

“The bouncer actually stands at the front door with a computer to make sure you’re guest,” pub Facebook friend Debbie Walters said.

Guests love the idea. They feel safer.

“For the most part there’s not a lot of trouble here because people know that they can be identified if the do cause trouble.”

Tony says they have about 10,000 friends on Facebook right now.



Read more - 

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/08/22/facebook-is-new-bouncer-at-finnegans-irish-pub-in-stockton/

A word of warning to those who write personal notes to Pope Francis: He might just call you back -

A word of warning to those who write personal notes to Pope Francis: He might just call you back - 



A word of warning to those who write personal notes to Pope Francis: He might just call you back.

Francis has charmed the masses with his informal style, simplicity and sense of humor - and a handful of strangers have gotten the treatment up close, receiving papal phone calls out of the blue after writing him or suffering some personal tragedy.

After another random phone call from the pope this week, Italy's leading Corriere della Sera daily offered etiquette tips for the lucky recipients, proposing conversation starters and no-go areas on its front page Friday.

Topping the list: Be ready, especially if the land line rings.

The 76-year-old Francis has a fondness for making calls the old-fashioned way, using land lines and placing the calls himself, often surprising recipients by simply announcing "It's the pope."

After his election in March, Francis reportedly called his newspaper stand in Buenos Aires to cancel his daily delivery and his shoemaker to tell him not to bother with papal red leather loafers but to keep making his regular black orthotics. The receptionist at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome thought he got a crank call when Francis phoned two days after being chosen pope looking for the Jesuit superior.

Francis has since called an Italian man whose brother was killed and a Colombian woman who works in Rome to thank her for a book.

Beppe Severgnini, a noted humorist and Corriere columnist, offered other tips in his article:

- Listen first, then talk, and if the conversation permits, ask the soccer-mad Francis about the recent friendly between Italy and Argentina.

- Always ask how Benedict XVI is doing. "It'll make him happy," Severgnini noted. Francis frequently refers fondly to his 86-year-old retired predecessor who is living on the other side of the Vatican gardens.

- Avoid touchy subjects like Vatican policy or scandal.

- Don't ask for any favors.

Severgnini also said even though Francis is fond of using the informal "tu" in conversation, stick with the formal "lei" but don't overdo it with exaggerated titles like "magnificent."

The recipient of this week's call, a 19-year-old student Stefano Cabizza, was quoted by Corriere as saying that Francis had told him to refer to him with the informal "tu," noting that "Even Jesus and the apostles used the `tu.'"

Cabizza said he received the call after leaving a letter for Francis following his Mass at Castel Gandolfo on Aug. 15. He declined to say what he had written.

Finally, Severgnini advised people not to be worried about what to say.

"Just be natural," Severgnini wrote. "If he wanted to get bored, he would have called a government minister."

Read more - 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_VATICAN_PAPAL_CALLS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-23-10-03-51

'Boyfriend Tracker' app raises stir... - a "private detective in your partner's pocket." -

'Boyfriend Tracker' app raises stir... - a "private detective in your partner's pocket." - 



Brazilians were outraged when they learned their country was a top target of the U.S. National Security Agency's overseas spying operation, with data from billions of calls and emails swept up in Washington's top secret surveillance program.
Yet when it comes to the cloak and dagger effort of catching philandering lovers, all high-tech weapons appear to be fair game - at least to the tens of thousands of Brazilians who downloaded "Boyfriend Tracker" to their smartphones before the stealthy software was removed from the Google Play app store last week, apparently in response to complaints about privacy abuses and its potential to be used for extortion or even stalking.
"Brazilians are a jealous people, what can I say? Of course it's going to be popular," said Marcia Almeida, a 47-year-old woman in Rio whose marriage ended seven years ago in large part because of what she said was her husband's infidelity.
"It's a different type of spying," she said of comparisons to the NSA surveillance program. "You're checking up on somebody you know intimately, not some stranger."
The app, called "Rastreador de Namorados" (Portuguese for Boyfriend Tracker), promises to act like a "private detective in your partner's pocket."
Functions include sending the person doing the tracking updates on their partner's location and forwarding duplicates of text message traffic from the targeted phone. There is even a command that allows a user to force the target phone to silently call their own, like a pocket dial, so they can listen in on what the person is saying.
Similar apps are marketed for smartphone users in other countries, including Europe and the U.S., but Boyfriend Tracker is the first that has made any impact in Brazil, a country still irate as it learns more about Washington's snooping. Brazil has sent a government delegation to meet with U.S. leaders about the spy program that was revealed by Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who has been on the run since May and was recently granted asylum in Russia.
Google spokeswoman Gina Johnson said by email that as a policy the company doesn't comment on why apps are removed.
Critics say even as advertised, apps like Boyfriend Tracker can violate privacy rights, and they warn that in the wrong hands they could be used for more sinister purposes, like stalking. Some in Brazil argue it breaks an anti-online harassment and hacking law in place since April. The law is named after Brazilian actress Carolina Dieckmann, who had nude photos of herself leaked by hackers in 2012 after she refused to pay about $5,000.
However, similar apps popular on Google Play market themselves to parents as a means of monitoring how teenage children use the phone and where they are at any given moment.
Matheus Grijo, a 24-year-old Sao Paulo-based developer behind Boyfriend Tracker, says it has attracted around 50,000 users since its launch about two months ago, most since the site began attracting media attention two weeks ago.
Grijo insists his lawyer vetted the app and determined it does not violate any Brazilian laws. Despite being removed by Google, it is still available via direct download from his company's website.
A disclaimer on that website stipulates the app is for "social and recreational use" and absolves the developer of responsibility for any misuse. The first line of the download instructions says a woman installing the tracker on her boyfriend's phone should do so "with his consent."
"We are waiting for Google's position on the removal of 'Boyfriend Tracker' from Google Play, which we consider an error," read a posting on a Facebook page Grijo set up for the app.
To install Boyfriend Tracker, suspicious partners have to get their hands on their loved one's smartphones and upload the app. A free version leaves the app's icon visible on the target's phone, while a version that costs $2 a month masks the icon.
Grijo said the app began as a joke between him and his girlfriend but the idea quickly caught on among their friends.

Read more - 

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130822/DA8ATF600.html

American, Israeli And Jordanian Troops And CIA Agents Have Entered Syria, Le Figaro Reports -

American, Israeli And Jordanian Troops And CIA Agents Have Entered Syria, Le Figaro Reports - 



We have yet to see secondary confirmation of the following breaking news from the second largest French newspaper, Le Figaro, but if accurate, it means the Nobel Peace Prize winning president has just engaged in yet another unsanctioned by Congress war.

From Le Figaro, google translated:

According to our information, the regime's opponents, supervised by Jordanian, Israeli and American commandos moving towards Damascus since mid-August. This attack could explain the possible use of the Syrian president to chemical weapons.

According to information obtained by Le Figaro , the first trained in guerrilla warfare by the Americans in Jordan Syrian troops reportedly entered into action since mid-August in southern Syria, in the region of Deraa. A first group of 300 men, probably supported by Israeli and Jordanian commandos, as well as men of the CIA, had crossed the border on August 17. A second would have joined the 19. According to military sources, the Americans, who do not want to put troops on the Syrian soil or arming rebels in part controlled by radical Islamists form quietly for several months in a training camp set up at the border Jordanian- Syrian fighters ASL, the Free Syrian Army, handpicked.

According to this expert on the region, the idea proposed by Washington would be the possible establishment of a buffer zone from the south of Syria, or even a no-fly zone, which would cause opponents safely until the balance of power changes. This is the reason why the United States has deployed Patriot batteries and F16 in late June Jordan.

Why is the US, or rather Federal Reserve, desperate for a war with Syria?  It was all explained previously here, but here is the one matters.




In brief: to allow the Untaper once the Taper ends, the US needs to find much more deficit funding needs, and as always there is no place better to achieve this than to spike the contracting spending budget by engaging in war.

And now, the ball is in Putin's court.

Read more -

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-22/american-israeli-and-jordanian-troops-and-cia-agents-have-entered-syria-le-figaro-re

Doctor: 'Sleep Texting' Becoming Common Problem For Smartphone Owners... -

Doctor: 'Sleep Texting' Becoming Common Problem For Smartphone Owners... - 



Smartphones have become a major part of many people’s everyday lives. More and more smartphone owners use their devices to text, email, and surf the web throughout the day.

Now, some people have started using them in their sleep.

“My charger is right there in the corner so sometimes I would keep it right here next to me. I guess I got up and texted and went back to bed but I don’t remember it,” sleep texter Megan told CBS 2′s Kristine Johnson.

Friends and family were receiving messages from Megan that she didn’t even remember sending.

“4 o’clock in the morning, 3 o’clock in the morning, it would just be a sentence of jumbled up stuff,” she said.

Sleep texting has become more common and in addition to being embarrassing it could also have some serious health consequences, sleep specialist Dr. Josh Werber explained.

“They’re not getting the deep sleep or the rapid eye movement which is really critical to higher brain function,” he said.

For texters the impact on sleep quality is noticeable.

“I wake up exhausted the next day and I don’t know if it’s from tossing and turning or answering a text message,” Laura Hogya said.

Hogya is a serial sleep texter.

“When I do wake up to go to the bathroom or drink some water I’ll look at my phone and start answering but I won’t remember any of it till I wake up the next morning,” she explained.

Hogya’s messages make sense but she told CBS 2 that she is concerned about where they will wind up.

“If I answer a client e-mail that’s something that I have to worry about,” she said.

Experts offered a simple solution to the sleep texting problem. Move the phone.

“Sometimes I’ll put it here in my vanity and other times if I’m really stressed out I’ll keep it all the way out here,” Megan said.

Not only can removing the phone from your bedroom prevent you from sending a late night text it can also help you sleep better.

“The light is also disturbing your ability to go to sleep because it’s sending a signal to your brain that you still want to be awake,” Dr. Werber explained.

To create optimal sleeping conditions Dr. Werber suggested shutting down gadgets an hour before going to bed.



Read more - 
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/08/21/seen-at-11-dont-remember-sending-that-text-you-might-have-been-asleep/

Welcome to Prison. Will You Be Paying Cash or Credit? -

Welcome to Prison. Will You Be Paying Cash or Credit? - 



Southern hospitality is famous, but the accommodations at Anderson County Jail will no longer be gratis. Inmates at this correctional institution northwest of Knoxville, Tenn., will soon have to pay fed-up taxpayers $9.15 for each pair of pants issued during their stay, $6.26 for each blanket and $1.15 for each towel. They’ll even have to shell out 29¢ for toilet paper.

A county of about 75,000 people, Anderson, like many municipalities across the country, has seen the cost of housing inmates rise in the past few years. And like many states, cities and counties facing tight budget constraints, Anderson has turned to the inmates themselves to defray some of those costs.

“Our taxpayers pay $62 a day to house one inmate,” says Jay Yeager, the Anderson County law director who proposed the program. “Our inmate care, medical care, housing care, all those budgetary codes have escalated over the past several years, and it’s an unreasonable burden on our taxpayers. What we’re trying to do is shift the burden off the taxpayers’ back, to the inmates.”

Anderson County is only the latest in a long line of cash-strapped municipalities to levy fees to help fund their criminal-justice systems. The practice is common in California, Texas, New York and Illinois. Since 1996, Florida has added 20 fees. And in 2010, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School surveyed the 15 states with the highest prison populations, which accounted for nearly 70% of all state prisoners in the country, and found myriad fees assessed both during and after prison stays: administrative fees, supervision and transportation fees, even a $60 fee in Pennsylvania just to enter the parole program.

Policies charging inmates are popular with taxpayers, but legal experts are skeptical about whether they close budget gaps. “It may be more symbolic than anything else,” Dwight Aarons, a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, says of Anderson County’s new policy. “I really don’t know how people in jail are supposed to make enough money to be able pay for those items.”

Read more: - 

Yahoo beats Google in traffic for first time since 2011 -

Yahoo beats Google in traffic for first time since 2011 - 



In the longstanding battle of Yahoo vs. Google, score one for the underdog.
For the first time in more than two years, Yahoo sites were the most visited in the country in July, according to a monthly report from comScore, which tracks unique visitors to U.S. properties across the web.

With 196.6 million visitors to 192.3 million who visited Google properties, Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) bested its competitor, which has long held onto the top spot, for the first time since May 2011. Yahoo's unique visitors were up by roughly 20% compared to July of last year, when it came in third behind Google and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), according to comScore.
July's no. 1 spot is a notable win for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who has made a number of changes since taking over the troubled company last July. Yahoo did not respond to a request for comment.
Since Mayer took the reigns, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has acquired more than a dozen start-ups, most notably Tumblr, and revamped a number of the sites.

Traffic for Tumblr -- which was the web's 28th most popular U.S. property in July, according to the report -- did not directly contribute to Yahoo's visitor tally, said Andrew Lipsman, comScore's vice president of industry analysis.
In an earnings call last month, Mayer noted that Yahoo page views were rising after more than a year of declines, citing recently refreshed versions of Yahoo mail, weather, sports, news and Tumblr, both on desktop and mobile.
The revamped Yahoo mail app for tablets, for instance, brought a 120% increase in daily active Yahoo mail users, according to the company.
Mayer has repeatedly said that she wants the company to focus on consumers' "daily habits" in order to make products that will become a part of users' routines.

Read more - 

http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/21/technology/yahoo-traffic-google/index.html?iid=GM