Gazans FAKE INJURIES for Cameras... - Miraculous Recovery by Injured Gaza Man? -

Gazans FAKE INJURIES for Cameras... - Miraculous Recovery by Injured Gaza Man? - 




Barely one day into the fighting in Hamas-run Gaza, the locals are hard at work playing the victim for the world's press.

Footage from the BBC captured by watchdog group Honest Reporting shows a heavy man lying on the ground and being carried away by residents, apparently after being injured by an Israeli attack.

Moments later, that same man again fills the frame, except he is walking about and obviously unhurt.

The widespread staging of such victim situations is a favored tactic of Arabs fighting Israel and has come to be known as "Pallywood." Because Israel is stronger militarily, the Arabs cling to the underdog image of poor refugees under occupation and siege by evil Israelis, thus eliciting sympathy.



Read more -
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/162130#.UKV7WIeaac-

In United Kingdom, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail -

In United Kingdom, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail - 



One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should "go to hell." A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead.

All were arrested, two convicted, and one jailed — and they're not the only ones. In Britain, hundreds of people are prosecuted each year for posts, tweets, texts and emails deemed menacing, indecent, offensive or obscene, and the number is growing as our online lives expand.

Lawyers say the mounting tally shows the problems of a legal system trying to regulate 21st century communications with 20th century laws. Civil libertarians say it is a threat to free speech in an age when the Internet gives everyone the power to be heard around the world.

"Fifty years ago someone would have made a really offensive comment in a public space and it would have been heard by relatively few people," said Mike Harris of free-speech group Index on Censorship. "Now someone posts a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook and potentially hundreds of thousands of people can see it.

"People take it upon themselves to report this offensive material to police, and suddenly you've got the criminalization of offensive speech."

Figures obtained by The Associated Press through a freedom of information request show a steadily rising tally of prosecutions in Britain for electronic communications — phone calls, emails and social media posts — that are "grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character — from 1,263 in 2009 to 1,843 in 2011. The number of convictions grew from 873 in 2009 to 1,286 last year.

Behind the figures are people — mostly young, many teenagers — who find that a glib online remark can have life-altering consequences.

No one knows this better than Paul Chambers, who in January 2010, worried that snow would stop him catching a flight to visit his girlfriend, tweeted: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your (expletive) together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high."

A week later, anti-terrorist police showed up at the office where he worked as a financial supervisor.

Chambers was arrested, questioned for eight hours, charged, tried, convicted and fined. He lost his job, amassed thousands of pounds (dollars) in legal costs and was, he says, "essentially unemployable" because of his criminal record.

But Chambers, now 28, was lucky. His case garnered attention online, generating its own hashtag — (hash)twitterjoketrial — and bringing high-profile Twitter users, including actor and comedian Stephen Fry, to his defense.

In July, two and half years after Chambers' arrest, the High Court overturned his conviction. Justice Igor Judge said in his judgment that the law should not prevent "satirical or iconoclastic or rude comment, the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, banter or humor, even if distasteful to some or painful to those subjected to it."

But the cases are coming thick and fast. Last month, 19-year-old Matthew Woods was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail for making offensive tweets about a missing 5-year-old girl, April Jones.

The same month Azhar Ahmed, 20, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for writing on Facebook that soldiers "should die and go to hell" after six British troops were killed in Afghanistan. Ahmed had quickly deleted the post, which he said was written in anger, but was convicted anyway.

On Sunday — Remembrance Day — a 19-year-old man was arrested in southern England after police received a complaint about a photo on Facebook showing the burning of a paper poppy. He was held for 24 hours before being released on bail and could face charges.

For civil libertarians, this was the most painfully ironic arrest of all. Poppies are traditionally worn to commemorate the sacrifice of those who died for Britain and its freedoms.

"What was the point of winning either World War if, in 2012, someone can be casually arrested by Kent Police for burning a poppy?" tweeted David Allen Green, a lawyer with London firm Preiskel who worked on the Paul Chambers case.

Critics of the existing laws say they are both inadequate and inconsistent.

Many of the charges come under a section of the 2003 Electronic Communications Act, an update of a 1930s statute intended to protect telephone operators from harassment. The law was drafted before Facebook and Twitter were born, and some lawyers say is not suited to policing social media, where users often have little control over who reads their words.

It and related laws were intended to deal with hate mail or menacing phone calls to individuals, but they are being used to prosecute in cases where there seems to be no individual victim — and often no direct threat.

And the Internet is so vast that policing it — even if desirable — is a hit-and-miss affair. For every offensive remark that draws attention, hundreds are ignored. Conversely, comments that people thought were made only to their Facebook friends or Twitter followers can flash around the world.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that First Amendment protections of freedom of speech apply to the Internet, restrictions on online expression in other Western democracies vary widely.

In Germany, where it is an offense to deny the Holocaust, a neo-Nazi group has had its Twitter account blocked. Twitter has said it also could agree to block content in other countries at the request of their authorities.

There's no doubt many people in Britain have genuinely felt offended or even threatened by online messages. The Sun tabloid has launched a campaign calling for tougher penalties for online "trolls" who bully people on the Web. But others in a country with a cherished image as a bastion of free speech are sensitive to signs of a clampdown.

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/20104567/in-uk-twitter-facebook-rants-land-some-in-jail

180 Million Rats Face 22 Tons of Poison on Galapagos Islands -

180 Million Rats Face 22 Tons of Poison on Galapagos Islands - 


Call it ratmageddon.

Ecuadorean authorities say the unique bird and reptile species that make the Galapagos Islands a treasure for scientists and tourists must be preserved — and that means the rats must die, hundreds of millions of them.

A helicopter is to begin dropping nearly 22 tons of specially designed poison bait on an island Thursday, launching the second phase of a campaign to clear out by 2020 non-native rodents from the archipelago that helped inspire Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

The invasive Norway and black rats, introduced by whalers and buccaneers beginning in the 17th century, feed on the eggs and hatchlings of the islands' native species, which include giant tortoises, lava lizards, snakes, hawks and iguanas. Rats also have depleted plants on which native species feed.

The rats have critically endangered bird species on the 19-island cluster 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from Ecuador's coast.

"It's one of the worst problems the Galapagos have. (Rats) reproduce every three months and eat everything," said Juan Carlos Gonzalez, a specialist with the Nature Conservancy involved in the Phase II eradication operation on Pinzon island and the islet of Plaza Sur.

Phase I of the anti-rat campaign began in January 2011 on Rabida island and about a dozen islets, which like Pinzon and Plaza Sur are also uninhabited by humans.

The goal is to kill off all nonnative rodents, beginning with the Galapagos' smaller islands, without endangering other wildlife. The islands where humans reside, Isabela and Santa Cruz, will come last.

Previous efforts to eradicate invasive species have removed goats, cats, burros and pigs from various islands.

Pinzon is about seven square miles (1,812 hectares) in area, while Plaza Sur encompasses just 24 acres (9.6 hectares).

"This is a very expensive but totally necessary war," said Gonzalez.

The rat infestation has now reached one per square foot (about 10 per square meter) on Pinzon, where an estimated 180 million rodents reside.

The director of conservation for the Galapagos National Park Service, Danny Rueda, called the raticide the largest ever in South America.

The poisoned bait, developed by Bell Laboratories in the United States, is contained in light blue cubes that attract rats but are repulsive to other inhabitants of the islands. The one-centimeter-square cubes disintegrate in a week or so.

Park official Cristian Sevilla said the poison will be dropped on Pinzon and Plaza Sur through the end of November.

A total of 34 hawks from Pinzon were trapped in order to protect them from eating rodents that consume the poison, Sevilla said. They are to be released in early January.

On Plaza Sur, 40 iguanas were also captured temporarily for their own protection.

Asked whether a large number of decomposing rats would create an environmental problem, Rueda said the poison was specially engineered with a strong anti-coagulant that will make the rats dry up and disintegrate in less than eight days without a stench.

It will help that the average temperature of the islands is 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius), he added.

The current $1.8 million phase of the project is financed by the national park and nonprofit conservation groups including Island Conservation.

Read more - 
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/weird/180-Million-Rats-Targeted-with-22-Tons-of-Poison-on-Galapagos-179468621.html

Israeli Company Trains Mice To Sniff Out Bombs -

Israeli Company Trains Mice To Sniff Out Bombs - 


In an effort to ferret out those trying to carry and conceal hidden bombs, drugs or other suspect materials, one Israeli company claims they have trained mice to sniff out any potential threats.

BioExplorers have developed a system where a person is hit by a small blast of air that is immediately pushed into a chamber where eight mice are waiting. The mice then smell the air for potentially hazardous or incendiary materials. They can even detect money.

If the person is a threat, the mice reportedly know to gather in a separate compartment as a means of alerting humans, AFP News learned.

“The idea began in 2000-2001, when there were many suicide bombings on [Israeli] buses,” BioExplorers founder and chief technology officer Eran Lumbroso was quoted as saying at the Israel Homeland Security exhibition in Tel Aviv.


He further explained, “”I was in the army at the time, and the idea emerged to use small animals instead of dogs in detecting suicide bombers.”

Animals are often used in finding bombs throughout the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“The ATF explosives detection canine, a graduate of ATF’s 10 week explosive detection training program, has been conditioned to detect explosives, explosives residue, and postblast evidence,” the official website states. “As a bonus, because of their conditioning to smokeless powder and other explosive fillers, ATF trained explosives detection canines can detect firearms and ammunition hidden in containers and vehicles, on persons and buried underground.”

AFP News learned that mice allegedly have even better senses of smell than dogs, however.

“The mice can also be easily trained, and thanks to their small size, you can use a small group of them and have multiple sensors,” added Lumbroso.

The animals reportedly work for four hours, before the next eight-mouse shift takes over. BioExplorer researchers also told the news service that they are careful to give the mice better treatment than that given to ordinary lab rodents.

Read more - 
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/11/15/israeli-company-trains-mice-to-sniff-out-bombs/

Paper-thin super material stops flying bullets -

Paper-thin super material stops flying bullets - 



Bulletproofing for soldiers and law enforcement officers has lightened up considerably in recent years, but it promises get insanely thin with new nanotechnology coming out of MIT and Rice University.
A team of mechanical engineering and materials scientists from Rice University and MIT created special materials that were able to stop bullets in the lab. The group, which included Rice research scientist Jae-Hwang Lee and School of Engineering dean Ned Thomas, recently published their findings in Nature Communications (abstract).
The type of material, called a structured polymer composite, can actually self-assemble into alternating glassy and rubbery layers. When performing ballistic tests on the material at MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, those 20-nanometer-thick layers were able to stop a 9-millimeter bullet and seal the entryway behind it, according to a Rice University article.
However, one of the challenges to making thinner and lighter protective gear is being able to test new, promising materials effectively in the lab. Researchers need to know precisely why those nanolayers are so good at dissipating energy, but analyzing the polymer can take days.
So the MIT-Rice team also came up with an innovative testing method, where they shot tiny glass beads at the material. Although the beads were only a millionth of a meter in size, they simulated bullet impacts, according to MIT News. Under a scanning electron microscope the material's layers look like corduroy so the projectile impact can be seen clearly.
The nanomaterial, along with improved impact testing, could translate into safety beyond vests. According to the researchers, these advancements could accelerate progress on protective coatings for satellites and even jet engine turbine blades.
Meanwhile the team has a disk of the bullets trapped in the clear material to show any skeptics. Ned Thomas told Rice University, "This would be a great ballistic windshield material."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/11/14/paper-thin-super-material-stops-flying-bullets/?intcmp=trending

Your gadgets are crawling with germs, but experts say don't worry -

Your gadgets are crawling with germs, but experts say don't worry - 


There's good news and bad news about what lies on the surfaces of your computer keyboard, mouse, smartphone or tablet.
The bad news: in all likelihood they're absolutely covered in tiny bugs, which could potentially include bacteria and viruses such as parainfluenza, E. coli, C. difficile and drug-resistant MRSA. If you share the device, or commonly let others use it, the danger of it harbouring some scary germs is even higher.
The good news: there's no real reason for concern, especially if you've developed good hand-washing habits. The odds of getting sick from the bacteria and viruses that linger on computers and gadgets -- even those stationed in the public and used by many grubby-handed people -- are about as miniscule as the tiny organisms themselves, says Dr. Alison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.
When asked about the chances of getting sick from using a computer keyboard in a public library, she said: "Zero. Very close to non-existent."
Still, learning about what lingers on our digital toys and tools can be plenty unnerving.
According to a 2008 study co-authored by Charles Gerba at the University of Arizona, viruses and bacteria on computer equipment typically thrive in high numbers, even though people have been conditioned to regularly use sanitizing wipes and sprays.
Computers at home were found to be far germier than the equipment at offices.
"Particularly the keyboard keys you touch the most -- the E, S, T -- are the heavily most contaminated, and of course the return and space bar," Gerba says.
Last year, the London School of Hygiene reported that 92 per cent of the phones they tested in an experiment were contaminated with bacteria, and 18 per cent came back positive for fecal bacteria.
Gerba has done similar research on digital touchscreens in hospitals and supermarket self-service checkout lanes. Despite the presence of so many sick people, hospitals fared relatively well, largely because of rigorous infection control policies. But the supermarket screens were found to be filthy.
"I don't think anyone really ever disinfects a touchscreen in supermarkets because you might as well stick your hand in a toilet, you'd probably get fewer bacteria on it," says Gerba.
Still, there's no need to completely avoid the self-checkout section, says McGeer. There's nothing to fear about touching those dirty surfaces -- as long as you wash your hands diligently.
Bacteria and viruses are omnipresent, always within reach, so avoiding them entirely is impossible. Getting germs on your hands isn't necessarily a problem, as long as they don't find their way in your body.
"The bacteria or viruses on your fingers don't do any harm at all, it's only if they get into your mouth or around your eyes or through cuts that they pose a risk. So when you kind of multiply that out, the risk of transmission from the environment around you is really low, the big risk of transmission is other people," says McGeer, adding that you're better off trying to avoid running into someone's sneeze or cough.
"Pretty much all infection, any pathogenic bacteria or virus comes from somebody."
McGeer's advice even applies to the dirty surfaces people have long feared touching, including elevator buttons.
"If I had a nickel for everybody who said to me that we could fix infections in hospitals if we cleaned elevator buttons I would be a rich woman -- the elevator buttons are not the problem," McGeer explained.
"It's not touching the elevator button, or the keyboard, or the subway poles. If you wash your hands regularly, if you don't touch your mouth with your hands, that's much more important than worrying about cleaning the environment."
Even if those germs aren't inherently hazardous to your health, it still makes sense to clean the surfaces you frequently touch. Keyboards and mice can be cleaned with a disinfecting wipe, while smartphone and tablet manufacturers recommend using a damp lint-free cloth on the glass surfaces.
And give your keyboard a good shake.
"Turn your keyboard over sometime, you'll be amazed at what comes out of it," Gerba says.
"If you turn a keyboard over in New York City you get a bagel flake snowstorm."


Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/your-gadgets-are-crawling-with-germs-but-experts-say-don-t-worry-1.1038217

'Rogue planet' found wandering through space -

'Rogue planet' found wandering through space - 



A rogue planet wandering through the cosmos apparently without a star to orbit has been identified by an international team using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

It's the first time astronomers have been able to look closely at planets of its kind without getting interference from intense nearby light.

"These objects are important, as they can either help us understand more about how planets may be ejected from planetary systems, or how very light objects can arise from the star formation process," Philippe Delorme, a University of Grenoble, France, astronomer who was lead writer on the project

"If this little object is a planet that has been ejected from its native system, it conjures up the striking image of orphaned worlds, drifting in the emptiness of space."

Possible examples of free-floating planets have been found and identified, but it hasn't been possible to determine much about them.

In this case, however, the object — dubbed CFBDSIR2149 — seems to be part of a nearby stream of young stars known as the AB Doradus Moving Group.

"Looking for planets around their stars is akin to studying a firefly sitting one centimetre away from a distant, powerful car headlight," said Delorme.

"This nearby free-floating object offered the opportunity to study the firefly in detail without the dazzling lights of the car messing everything up."

Able to make inferences
Researchers found it in observations from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and harnessed the power of European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope to examine it more closely.

Because it's in motion with other planets, astronomers have been able to make inferences about its age and properties.

"We find that [the object] is probably a 4-7 Jupiter masses, free-floating planet with an effective temperature of ~700K and a log g of ~4.0, typical of the late T-type exoplanets that are targeted by direct imaging," Delorme wrote.

The Canadians on the project included study co-authors Etienne Artigau and Jonathan Gagné of the University of Montreal.

"We observed hundreds of millions of stars and planets, but we only found one homeless planet in our neighbourhood," Artigau told the BBC.

The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope is operated by the National Research Council of Canada, the Institut National des Science de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii.

Read more - 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/11/14/sci-rogue-planet.html

Russia loses contact with satellites, space station - RIA -

Russia loses contact with satellites, space station - RIA - 



Russia has lost contact with most of its civilian satellites as well as the Russian part of the International Space Station after a communications cable broke in Moscow, state-run RIA news agency reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed source.

RIA cited the source as saying it would take at least 48 hours to fix the cable.

Read more - 
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49820628

Man swallowed 220 diamonds in smuggling attempt -

Man swallowed 220 diamonds in smuggling attempt - 



Police in South Africa say they’ve arrested a 25-year-old man who swallowed 220 polished diamonds in an attempt to smuggle them out of the country.

Capt. Paul Ramaloko of the South African Police Service said investigators arrested the man Tuesday night as he waited in line at security at O.R. Tambo International Airport just outside of Johannesburg. Ramaloko said a scan of the man’s body showed the diamonds, which later were recovered. He said the man had been on his way to Dubai.

Ramaloko said the diamonds are worth about $2.3 million. Authorities believe the man belongs to a smuggling ring, as another man was arrested in March attempting the same thing.

South Africa is one of the world’s top diamond producers.

Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1287498--man-swallowed-220-diamonds-in-smuggling-attempt-say-police

Camera-toting bird spurs fish photo mystery -

Camera-toting bird spurs fish photo mystery - 




It sounds like a fish tale — a Saskatchewan woman comes to the aid of a water bird with a camera hanging around its neck ... only to discover numerous fish photos on the memory card.

But it happened to Saskatoon's Karen Gwillim in September, as she was driving through the village of Craven.

Approaching a bridge, she saw a young bird struggling with something, so she got out to investigate.

"It was a cormorant, a black water bird with kind of a long neck," she said. "It had this silver camera kind of dangling from its neck."

When she approached the bird, which weighed about two kilograms, it didn't try to flee or resist. She took the camera off, it flapped its wings and it was gone.

"I think he was relieved to have something that heavy removed," she said. "He seemed all right."

With the bird saved, Gwillim turned her attention to the camera, a point-and-shoot model that had obviously been in the water for a while.

She went home, took out the memory card, let it dry out and booted up her computer.

Fortunately, the pictures were intact. There were about 200 of them, many of them having been taken in October, 2011.

"Lots of fishing pictures, giant fish, guys with fish, mostly," she said.

There were also pictures from a wedding, some houses and other photos that seemed to be from the Shell Lake area.

She posted them on her Facebook page, hoping the camera-owner would find them, but for weeks heard nothing.

However, after Gwillim was interviewed by CBC Afternoon Edition host Craig Lederhouse on Tuesday, a Saskatoon man stepped forward to say he's in some of the pictures and knows whose camera it is.

Frank Resendes told CBC the camera owner dropped it while helping a friend haul in a fish near Craven about eight months ago.

"He's going to help his buddy land this fish so he's getting closer to the edge of the water, almost falls into the water and that jars the camera out of his pocket and it falls into the canal never to be seen again," Resendes said. "It just disappears."

Arrangements were being made today to reunite the man with his pictures.

Read more - 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2012/11/14/sk-bird-with-camera-1211.html