XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 04/08/11

Friday, 8 April 2011

The Russian security service proposed banning Skype, Hotmail and Gmail "uncontrolled use" could pose a security threat -

The comments from the head of the service's information and special communication centre Alexander Andreyechkin were disowned by the Kremlin but come amid mounting concern over state meddling in the internet in Russia.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) is "increasingly concerned" by the mass use of these services, which use foreign-made encryption technology, Mr Andreyechkin said, RIA Novosti agency reported.
"Uncontrolled usage of these services may lead to massive threat to Russia's security," he said at a meeting of the government's communication and technology committee.
Control of internet traffic through these services is done from servers outside Russia, and so they are often used by extremist organisations, Mr Andreyechkin was reported as saying before the meeting continued without the press.
Deputy communications minister Ilya Massukh later said that recommendations on regulating the mass usage of encryption technology would be given to the government by October 1.

The FSB would like to ban these services in Russia because "security authorities cannot access them," Massukh was reported as saying.
Russian agencies quoted a Kremlin source later Friday as saying that Mr Andreyechkin's statements were "his own opinion and don't reflect the government's policy regarding development of the internet."
"Andreyechkin overstepped his authority and made hasty remarks about these popular services," the source said, RIA Novosti reported.
"State policy in the sphere of internet technology is not set by security services."
Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev affirmed later that there were "no plans to cut off Skype, Gmail, Hotmail or any other foreign services working in Russia," the Interfax news agency reported.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the other hand defended Mr Andreyechkin's view, calling it "based on the (FSB) service's duties" and "well-reasoned", Interfax reported.
All points of view will be discussed before any further recommendations are made, Peskov added.
The FSB warning came the same week that the LiveJournal blogging site, hugely popular in Russia, fell victim to repeated cyber-attacks that bloggers blamed on the Russian security services and the authorities' desire to disrupt internet communication ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections.
President Dmitry Medvedev, who prides himself on his use of Twitter and also maintains a LiveJournal weblog, called the attack "outrageous and illegal".
A spokeswoman for LiveJournal Russia told AFP on Friday that the company was preparing to file an official complaint on the attacks so the interior ministry could launch a criminal investigation.
Oppositional newspaper Novaya Gazeta on Friday reported a similar attack on its website, which was down most of the day. The paper claimed in its blog that the attack was carried out by the same hackers who crashed LiveJournal.
The secretive FSB, which is a successor to the Soviet KGB, has denounced popular non-Russian internet services in the past.
But this is the first time the FSB appears to propose restrictions on a national level, said security analyst Andrei Soldatov.
"This is definitely alarming," he told AFP, saying the FSB's goal may be not to close access to the public, but to improve its own access to encrypted information.
"The goal may be to bargain with these services to disclose at least partially their encryption technology," he said.
Internet usage in Russia grew rapidly in the last decade, from less than two per cent of residents in 2000 to 29 per cent in 2009. Internet penetration now stands at 42.8 per cent, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Read more - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8438617/Russian-security-service-wants-to-ban-Skype-and-Gmail.html

Navy Shows Off Powerful New Laser Weapon - gun capable of targeting moving boats, unmanned aircraft, & incoming missiles -

One if by land … lasers if by sea.
A futuristic laser mounted on a speeding cruiser successfully blasted a bobbing, weaving boat from the waters of the Pacific Ocean -- the first test at sea of such a gun and a fresh milestone in the Navy's quest to reoutfit the fleet with a host of laser weapons, the Navy announced Friday.
"We were able to have a destructive effect on a high-speed cruising target," chief of Naval research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr told FoxNews.com.
The test occurred Wednesday near San Nicholas Island, off the coast of Central California in the Pacific Ocean test range, from a laser gun mounted onto the deck of the Navy’s self-defense test ship, former USS Paul Foster.
In a video of the event, the small boat can be seen catching fire and ultimately bursting into flames, a conflagration caused by the navy's distant gun. Some details of the event were classified, including the exact range of the shot, but Carr could provide some information: "We're talking miles, not yards," Carr said.

The Navy set fire to a bobbing and weaving boat with a new laser gun mounted to a cruiser -- a first-of-its-kind test that moves the prototype closer to reality.
The Navy, Army and other armed forces have been working to incorporate so called "directed energy" laser weapons in a range of new guns, from tank-mounted blasters to guns on planes or unmanned balloons. But this marks the first test of a laser weapon at sea -- and proof that laser rifles are no mere Buck Rogers daydream.
“This is the first time a [high-energy-laser], at these power levels, has been put on a Navy ship, powered from that ship and used to defeat a target at-range in a maritime environment,” said Peter Morrison, program officer for the Office of Naval Research.
"The Navy is moving strongly towards directed energy," Carr told FoxNews.com.
The weapon, called the maritime laser demonstrator, was built in partnership with Northrop Grumman. It focused 15 kilowatts of energy by concentrating it through a solid medium -- hence the name.
"We call them solid state because they use a medium, usually something like a crystal," explained Quentin Saulter, the research office's program officer. It was used in Wednesday's demonstration against a small boat, but Carr told FoxNews.com that this and other types of laser weaponry could be equally effective against planes and even targets on shore.
"To begin to address a cruise missile threat, we'd need to get up to hundreds of kilowatts," Carr said.
The Navy is working on just such a gun of course.
Called the FEL -- for free-electron laser, which doesn't use a gain medium and is therefore more versatile -- it was tested in February consuming a blistering 500 kilovolts of energy, producing a supercharged electron beam that can burn through 20 feet of steel per second.
The FEL will easily get into the kilowatt power range. It can also be easily tuned as well, to adjust to environmental conditions, another reason it is more flexible than the fixed wavelength of solid-state laser. But the Navy doesn't expect to release megawatt-class FEL weapons until the 2020s; among the obstacles yet to be overcome, the incredible power requirements of the FEL weapons require careful consideration.
Also in the Navy's futuristic arsenal: a so-called "rail gun," which uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound.
Railguns are even further off in the distance, possibly by 2025, the Navy has said. But the demonstration of the maritime laser demonstrator this week proves that some laser weapons are just around the corner: Northrop Grumman experts aim to have the final product ready by June of 2014.
"One of the things that amazes me about this business is that the future is getting closer every day," Carr said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/08/navy-showboats-destructive-new-laser-gun/#ixzz1IyaiX71E

What a Bite! - Scientists have documented the first case of a sexually transmitted disease from a mosquito bite -

Scientists think they may have documented the first case of a sexually transmitted insect-borne disease, according to a study in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Brian Foy, a vector biologist at Colorado State University who traveled to Senegal, was bitten by a mosquito and subsequently developed the Zika virus, which causes fatigue and joint pains.
When Foy returned to the U.S. and had sex with his wife, he unknowingly transmitted the disease to her.
Foy, who is also the author of the study, initially wrote about three anonymous patients, but later revealed in an interview with Science Now that he is patient No. 1; his colleague, Kevin Kobylinski, a Ph.D student who accompanied Foy on the trip, is patient No. 2; and Foy’s wife, Joy Chilson Foy, is patient No. 3. Chilson Foy co-authored the study.
Foy and Kobylinski returned from Senegal in August 2008 after collecting mosquitoes as part of their research. Five days later, they both developed rashes on their torsos, fatigue, headaches, and swollen, painful wrists, knees and ankles. Foy said he also had an inflamed prostate, painful urination and blood in his semen.
Maculopapular rash on patient 3 infected with Zika virus, Colorado, USA
By early September, Chilson Foy became ill – she also had a headache with hypersensitivity to light, muscle pains and chills. The Foy’s children did not get sick. The couple said they started to feel better within a week, except for the joint pains.
The Foys took their case to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab for insect-borne diseases in Fort Collins, Colo., and the scientists there were just as stumped. Foy and Kobylinski both tested positive for dengue fever, but Chilson Foy did not. However, a medical entomologist at the University of Texas Medical Brach at Galveston, Andrew Haddow, had another theory – the Zika virus.
Since Foy had kept serum samples frozen, he had a colleague of Haddow’s run tests and sure enough, the samples came back positive for Zika.
According to Foy’s study, the circumstantial evidence for Chilson Foy’s sexual transmission is strong.
“Patients 1 and 3 reported having vaginal sexual intercourse in the days after patient 1 returned home but before the onset of his clinical illness,” he wrote.
Foy said there are hints in other literature that sexually transmitted mosquito-borne viruses are possible. Boars who were infected with Japanese encephalitis shed the virus in their semen, and when female pigs were artificially inseminated with the boars’ semen they also became infected.
Haddow said most cases of the Zika virus are mistaken for dengue fever, which is mostly found in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/04/08/man-sexually-transmits-insect-borne-disease-wife/#ixzz1IyYrCqSl

U.S. Customs and Border Protection bans Kinder Eggs - hollow milk chocolate eggs contain a toy surprise hidden inside -

With the spring travel season upon us, U.S. Customs and Border Protection would like to remind importers and the traveling public of a product popular this time of year which is banned from import into the U.S.

Kinder eggs are hollow milk chocolate eggs about the size of a large hen’s egg, and are usually packaged in a colorful foil wrapper. These eggs are a popular treat during the Easter holiday season. Kinder eggs are a prohibited item because they contain a toy surprise hidden inside that poses a choking and aspiration hazard for children younger than three years of age.

The toy within the egg is contained in an oval-shaped plastic capsule, and has small parts that may require assembly. Each egg contains a different toy. Many of the toys have been tested by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and have been determined to present a choking hazard for young children. Kinder eggs may not be imported into the U.S., and will be confiscated and destroyed, or the traveler may be allowed to return to Canada with their kinder eggs.

Outrage After Officer Pepper Sprays Baby Squirrel - watch the video -

A YouTube video of a police officer using pepper spray on a baby squirrel has sparked outrage in the city of Mesquite, Tx.

A student recorded the incident. In the video, the officer is seen spraying the animal after it began chasing students around at Kimbrough Middle School.

Students are heard begging the cop, reffered to as Officer Davis on the video, to stop with cries of "No!" and "Don't spray him!"

Mesquite Police Department has defended the officer's actions.

Sgt. Wes Talley said the officer stood between a group of students and the animal because he thought it may have been rabid.

Talley said after several unsuccessful attempts to scare the squirrel away, the officer used his pepper spray on it to protect the welfare of the students.

One parent questioned why the students weren't simply moved away from the squirrel.

Two students told Fox 4 in Dallas that a school official had kicked the squirrel before the officer arrived. The district denied that ever happened.

Animal control officers took the squirrel back to the shelter after the incident. It was cared for and released back into the wild, Talley said.

World's smallest apartment - 90 Sq/Ft Manhattan Apartment, NY - its so small you have to go outside to change your mind -

Harry Reid: Shutdown Would Hurt The "Cherry Blossom Festival" - People plan to come here all year -

Harry Reid: Shutdown Would Hurt The "Cherry Blossom Festival" - People plan to come here all year -

"This is Virginia's big weekend. It's the cherry blossom, the cherry blossom festival. People plan to come here all year, and one of the things they want to do when they come here is take a walk down the Mall, go to the National Art Gallery, go to one of the great Smithsonian museums. Won't do that, they'll close at 12:00 tonight. All of this to stop women from getting the regular tests and preventative services that they need," Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said at a press conference with a large number of Democratic caucus members this afternoon.

Read more - http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/04/08/harry_reid_shutdown_would_hurt_cherry_blossom_festival.html

Care for a slab of Frankenstein steak? Just glue meat scraps together and serve ‘em up. Side of blood clots, optional -

The white powder sold by the kilo, above, is the meat industry’s dirty little secret. It’s “meat glue.” It makes pieces of beef, lamb, chicken or fish that would normally be thrown out stick together so closely that it looks like a solid piece of meat. See also our posts on Israel’s frozen fish scandal and how garlic from China is scary stuff.

Restaurants and butchers can now sell their scraps as premium meat. Good way to use them up – and charge premium prices for them too. Best of all, you don’t have to tell the customer.Once the glued meat is cooked, even professional butchers can’t tell the difference.

“Meat glue” is transglutaminase, an enzyme in powder form, derived from beef and pork blood plasma.See the Wikipedia description of it here. Chefs most commonly use the Activa RM brand, which is transglutaminase mixed with maltodextrine and sodium caseinate, a milk protein. Using enzymes in food isn’t a new technique. Papaya seed is the main ingredient in meat tenderizers, for example. Rennet and yeasts produce enzymes that make cheese and alcohol, too. Natural enzymes. Meat glue is a darker product altogether.

Yet according to Cooking Issues, the French Culinary Institute’s blog (USA), meat glue is safe. That is, the major study carried out to gain acceptance by the FDA says so. And why shouldn’t we believe? It was funded by Ajinomoto, the product’s manufacturer, after all.

This video from Australia’s TodayTonight TV show demonstrates how easily you can create Frankenstein meat. Just sprinkle a teaspoon of powdered transglutaminase on various meat scraps, knead them together and roll them up in plastic wrap. Put in the fridge and 6 hours later, you have an easily-sliced piece of meat that looks like real fillet.

Cosmic burst in distant galaxy puzzles NASA burned for more than a week - has mobilized to study the phenomenon -

NASA is studying a surprising cosmic burst at the center of distant galaxy that has burned for more than a week, longer than astronomers have ever seen before, the US space agency said Thursday.

Calling it “one of the most puzzling cosmic blasts ever observed,” NASA said it has mobilized the Hubble Space Telescope along with its Swift satellite and Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the phenomenon.

“More than a week later, high-energy radiation continues to brighten and fade from its location,” NASA said in a statement.

“Astronomers say they have never seen such a bright, variable, high-energy, long-lasting burst before. Usually, gamma-ray bursts mark the destruction of a massive star, and flaring emission from these events never lasts more than a few hours.”

Obama friend arrested in Hawaii - allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover officer - President golfed with him Jan 2nd -

A friend of President Barack Obama was arrested Monday for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover officer posing as a prostitute, according to CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now.

Robert Richard Titcomb, 49, was arrested with three other men Monday night and released later that evening after posting $500 bail. He is scheduled to appear at the Honolulu District Court May 2.

The Honolulu Department of Public Safety confirmed Titcomb's arrest to CNN Wednesday. The Honolulu Police Department confirmed an arrest with matching information but would not disclose the name of the individual.

According to Hawaii News Now, Titcomb and the president have been close friends since high school. The two are frequently seen golfing and dining together when the Obama family visits Hawaii.

Most recently the Obama family spent time with the Titcombs on a trip to Hawaii in late December 2010 and early January 2011. White House pool reports at the time noted Titcomb by name on multiple dates during the trip. According to CNN records, President Obama golfed with Titcomb on December 23, December 26, December 28 and January 2. The first family was joined by the Titcomb family on Christmas Day and spent most of December 30 at the Titcomb residence eating, playing volleyball and enjoying time on the beach. The first couple also had dinner with the Titcomb on December 29.

UK To Hire 'Twitter Czar' For $232,000 - should apply for the lucrative post in less than 140 characters -

The UK government was advertising Friday to hire a "Twitter czar" on a £142,000 ($232,000) annual salary, which would make the successful candidate one of the best paid bureaucrats in the nation.

The generous paycheck almost matches the £142,500 annual salary that British prime minister David Cameron gets for running the country, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The vacancy, posted on the official Civil Service jobs website, is officially titled the "new and exciting role of Executive Director of Digital."

But critics labeled the job the "Twitter czar," jokingly asking online whether they should apply for the lucrative post in less than 140 characters, the maximum allowed on the social networking site.

The job advertisement says, "the successful candidate will have proven credibility in transformation through the delivery of digital channels and engagement together with a track record of leading digitally enabled change at a strategic level, in a large federated organization with complex delivery chains."

The job offer follows the government's decision last year to cut 75 percent of its websites, reducing annual online spending from £560 million to £200 million each year.

But a spokesman for the Cabinet office said, "to call this role a Twitter czar is like calling Richard Branson a flight steward [attendant]. This role is a major cross-government job -- replacing three existing posts -- that will oversee the government's online presence."

Texans With a Need for Speed Soon May Be Able to Drive 85

In Texas, it seems 80 mph just isn't fast enough.
A bill passed in the state House of Representatives would raise the speed limit to 85 miles per hour on certain long stretches of road or designated lanes. The Senate is working on a similar proposal.
If the bill becomes a law, Texas will have the highest speed limit in the country.
More than 500 miles of interstate, particularly in West Texas, are already set at 80 miles per hour, and would be candidates for the change.
Some worry raising the speed limit to 85 miles per hour would cause more accidents and could be unsafe.

"The two things that contribute most to traffic accidents are speed and alcohol," Jerry Johns, president of the Southwest Insurance Information Institute, told Reuters. "The higher the speed limit, the more accidents there are, the more injuries, and the more deaths."
But officials in Texas say they would study the conditions on the ground with safety in mind before determining where the speed limit would be increased.
"You're looking at the road. You're looking at the safety features, slight distances and curvature," Cynthia Northrop White, a Texas Department of Transportation representative told MyFoxDallas.com. "You're looking at the 85th percentile of what people are actually traveling on that road."
Texas isn't the only state with a need for speed.
Utah's speed limit reaches 80 mph along certain segments. The limit was raised from 75 mph in 2009.
"In Utah, after they adjusted from 75 to 80, nothing happened to the accident rate," Gary Biller, executive director of the National Motorist's Association, told Reuters.
Many other western states have 75 mph speed limits including Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Idaho, and Colorado, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Montana had its speed limit repealed in 1995, leaving the highways without any specific speed limit until 1999, according to the Montana Department of Justice. The speed limit is now 75.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/07/texans-need-speed/#ixzz1IvyDyShg