All Intel vPro CPUs (which include new mobile Core i5 and Core i7 chips) have an undocumented 3G chip inside -

All Intel vPro CPUs (which include new mobile Core i5 and Core i7 chips) have an undocumented 3G chip inside - 



We wonder if anyone expected this, but we suppose Intel had to drop a bomb at some point. And what better way to secure your spot on the enterprise 2-in-1 laptop, tablet and mobile workstation market, than by giving all of those PCs 3G support? 

Hilariously enough, Intel has created one of the most sought after technologies without letting anyone know about it. Basically, all Intel vPro CPUs (which include new mobile Core i5 and Core i7 chips) have an undocumented 3G chip inside. That chip is visible to the 3G network, even when the PC is not powered on. 

Freelancer Jim Stone has just discovered the secret (or so he says), and according to him, the 3G is part of a second physical processor embedded within the main one. Said second CPU has its own embedded operating system and can be woken up at any time because the “phantom” power of the system is always there to draw upon. 

In other words, the secret 3G chip can act as a backdoor, complete with wake-on-LAN and wake-on-mobile. Which is to say, the computer can be turned on remotely through this undocumented 3G radio. 

Intel actually embedded the 3G radio chip in order to enable its Anti Theft 3.0 technology. And since that technology is found on every Core i3/i5/i7 CPU after Sandy Bridge, that means a lot of CPUs, not just new vPro, might have a secret 3G connection nobody knew about until now. 

Read more - 

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Secret-3G-Radio-in-Every-Intel-vPro-CPU-Could-Steal-Your-Ideas-at-Any-Time-385194.shtml

New birthing fad sees newborns left with placenta attached for up to 10 days... -

New birthing fad sees newborns left with placenta attached for up to 10 days... - 



When Adele Allen's family and friends arrived for a first cuddle with her newborn son, they could be forgiven for feeling a little squeamish. Although baby Ulysses was a healthy little boy, he had a rather unusual companion at night - his umbilical cord and placenta.
Ulysses was six days old before he was finally parted from the, by then, rotten support system which had kept him alive for nine months in the womb.
His mother and father are part of a growing band of parents who believe that lotus birthing, the practice of leaving the placenta attached to the baby until it falls off naturally, has physical and emotional benefits for newborns.

However, obstetricians this week expressed grave concerns about this new trend of leaving the umbilical cord on babies tummies for between three to ten days, which they warn could lead to serious infection and even death in newborns.

'We are aware that a number of women are choosing umbilical non-severance, known as lotus birth, and this is something we would discourage,' says consultant obstetrician Pat O'Brien, spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. 
'If you wanted to pick an environment that encourages bacteria to grow you probably could not do better than to leave the placenta attached after birth.
'Soon after the baby is born there is no longer any circulation in the placenta, so it’s dead tissue and full of blood, making it the perfect culture medium for bacteria.

'The placenta belongs to the baby and they often spend a lot of time touching the cord in the womb, so it's a very familiar, comforting thing for them'
'Babies who go through the normal process of having the cord cut soon after the birth can sometimes develop infections in the little stump and, if not treated, these can lead to septicaemia which gets into the bloodstream, making the baby very ill. If the baby is not treated with antibiotics, usually in hospital, it can sometimes even be fatal.
'If the placenta remains attached, that risk of infection is greater.'
Even more troubling is the fact that many who opt to have lotus births also have 'unassisted home births' with no midwife or doctor present.
This was the case with Adele, 29 a one-time yoga instructor and now a full-time mum who lives in Brighton, and her husband, Matt, 30, a yoga instructor and health coach.
'Rather than increase it, we believe non-severance actually reduces the risk of infection because there are no open wounds, unlike when the cord is cut and clamped,' says Adele.
Umbilical cord non-severance, popular with early western European settlers in America, was revived in the 1980s by yoga practitioners exploring natural birth and has since been more widely practised in Australia and some parts of America. The yogis gave it its lotus birth moniker, creating a link between the preciousness of the placenta and the high esteem in which the lotus is held in the Hindu and Buddhist faiths.
During a normal birth, the umbilical cord is clamped within minutes of the baby being delivered, though mothers can request that it is not severed until the placenta has come away from the womb - up to 25 minutes after the birth.
While doctors are adamant that there are no medical advantages to lotus birthing, Adele, like its other advocates, insists otherwise.


Read more: - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2432412/The-craziest-birthing-fad-lotus-birthing-newborns-left-placenta-attached-10-days.html

Doctors grow nose on man’s forehead - 



Surgeons at a hospital will transplant a new nose grown on a patient’s forehead to his nasal spot in Fuzhou City, east China’s Fujian Province.

The patient, nicknamed "Xiaolian," 22, suffered a severe nasal trauma in a serious car accident in August 2012.

He just received basic medical remedy rather than a plastic surgery out of financial concerns following the accident.

After months, however, his condition was infected due to absence of surgery and his nasal cartilage started to be corroded, making it impossible for surgeons to do nasal reconstruction.

However, surgeons came up with an idea of growing a nose on Xiaolian’s forehead — a medical practice never tried in the world.

The way is to grow the nose by placing a skin tissue expander onto Xiaolian’s forehead, cutting it into the shape of a nose and planting a cartilage taken from his ribs.

Read more - 

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/25/doctors-grow-nose-on-mans-forehead/?intcmp=features

Dog Shoots Man In Freak Accident -

Dog Shoots Man In Freak Accident - 



Man's best friend may be no more, after a dog reportedly shot his owner in the leg with a shotgun during a hunting trip that turned ugly.

The unnamed man was hunting waterfowl from a boat on the Leech River in Cass County, Minneapolis, when his dog jumped in the boat, landed on the hunter’s shotgun and inadvertently pulled the trigger.

The shot man was rushed to hospital where his gunshot wound was determined to be non life-threatening, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.

The incident is under investigation but no criminal charges are pending, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Incredibly, the incident is not the first of its kind.

Earlier this year Gregory Dale Lanier, 35, was shot by his dog while traveling in his truck.

According Highlands Today, Lanier told authorities that he didn't realize his .380 pistol was loaded, until his dog kicked the weapon, firing a round into Lanier's leg.

"Lanier said he heard boom, saw smoke and felt a burning in his leg," Sebring Police Commander Steve Carr explained.

As chance would have it, a similar dog-shoots-master situation occurred just months before.

Billy E. Brown, 78, was shot in the thigh by his dog as he drove to a deer-hunting spot in Pasco County. The bulldog, named Eli, apparently became excited and knocked into the rifle.

Last year, a hunter in France had to have his right hand amputated after his dog fired his gun while apparently attempting to "cuddle" his master, the BBC reported.

"It wasn't the dog's fault," the hunter later told radio station France Bleu.

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/25/dog-shoots-man_n_3987303.html?utm_hp_ref=canada&ir=Canada

New Island Emerges From The Sea After Quake -

New Island Emerges From The Sea After Quake - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/25/pakistan-earthquake-islan_n_3987610.html?utm_hp_ref=canada&ir=Canada

A deadly earthquake in Pakistan has resulted in the creation of a new island of the country's coast.

The 7.7 magnitude quake struck the province of Baluchistan, on the border of Iran, and killed 200 people.

The tremors were powerful enough to create a small mountainous island, 600 metres off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian sea. Television cameras captured the mountain rising from the sea as crowds of people watched, dumbfounded.

The island is about 100 foot in diameter, with a height of around 30 foot, GEO TV reported.

At least 208 people were killed in the district of Awaran and the city of Turbut in Balochistan province.

Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Baluchistan assembly, told Reuters that at least 30 per cent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district had caved in.

Rescue workers are still working to free people still trapped in their homes, with the death toll expected to increase. The army said it had deployed 200 troops to help deal with the disaster.

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/25/pakistan-earthquake-islan_n_3987610.html?utm_hp_ref=canada&ir=Canada

“Naked and Scared Challenge,” visitors to strip down to nothing and enter one of their haunted houses completely nude -

“Naked and Scared Challenge,” visitors to strip down to nothing and enter one of their haunted houses completely nude - 



The phrase, “that scared my pants off,” will take on a new meaning this Friday in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania.

“If you know you have no protection, you become very vulnerable and I thought ‘Wow! That would be amazing in a haunted house.’”
- Patrick Konopelski, president and owner of Shocktoberfest

An attraction at Pennsylvania's "premier haunted scream park," Shocktoberfest, will be offering nude tours of its haunted house.

Labeled the “Naked and Scared Challenge,” the unique brand of Halloween experience asks visitors to strip down to nothing and enter one of their haunted houses completely nude.

According to Patrick Konopelski, president and owner of Shocktoberfest, the inspiration came from Discovery Channel’s show “Naked and Afraid,” in which two castaways must survive in the wild without any outer wear.

Konopelski came up with idea after watching an episode of the show at home with his four teenage children.

“I’m watching these two people running around naked in the woods and they were genuinely scared,” Konopelski told FoxNews.com. “If you know you have no protection, you become very vulnerable and I thought ‘Wow! That would be amazing in a haunted house.’”

Now Shocktoberfest will invite its guest to experience the same kind of fear. Participants will walk through the haunted house called “The Unknown,” themed to a former industrial park filled with zombies.

The patrons are offered two options: nude or prude. They can go through the haunted house completely nude or wearing only their underwear. 

For those who do decide to go with the Full Monty, they won’t have to worry about many onlookers, as the Naked and Scared Challenge takes place at midnight after all other customers have left. The attraction will also only be offered to guests 18 years of age or older.

For guests afraid of being caught in the nude, a fully clothed option is available during normal business hours as well.

According to the Shocktoberfest website, the attraction will have plenty of security on staff during the naked hours to ensure there is no inappropriate behavior.

A disclaimer on the site reads:

Shocktoberfest has created this experience so their customers can explore a new level of fear. This is about fear and pushing oneself out of their comfort zone. This is not about sex. No sexual misconduct, inappropriate or disrespectful behavior will be tolerated.

*Please note there is an additional cleaning charge if we scare the p*ss out of you!

Konopelski admits that there has been some criticism of the new clothing-free addition to Shocktoberfest, citing some very heated debates that have occurred on the event’s Facebook page.

“I have been involved in the haunted house business for 27 years,” writes one user. “This is the worst idea I have ever heard of. I wonder if they have informed their city officials of this idea? If not, the first complaint to the mayor and this will be shut down.”

“Its [sic] mostly going to be a bunch of fat old creepy men in there lol,” writes another.

Konopelski says he did initially have trouble convincing everyone -- from city officials to his wife -- that the idea was a good one, but now he says the response has mostly been positive.

“A lot of people have preconceived notions about what it may become,” Konopelski told FoxNews.com. “It’s just consenting adults given the opportunity to be as vulnerable as possible in a haunted house…The beautiful part about living in America is that if you’re a consenting adult and you want to experience something you should have the right to do it.”

Read more - 

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/09/24/haunted-house-invites-visitors-to-take-naked-and-scared-challenge/?intcmp=latestnews

Parisian cat cafe offers "purr therapy" to animal-lovers -

Parisian cat cafe offers "purr therapy" to animal-lovers - 



Customers braving the rush at Paris's newest cafe to order their coffees and croissants, are now able to enjoy them in the company of a dozen resident cats.
The "Cafe des Chats" in the heart of the capital's chic Marais district is home to a dozen felines who weave in between the tables or curl up on armchairs as diners tuck in.
The establishment is aimed at Parisians unable to keep pets in cramped city-centre apartments and though the idea may seem eccentric, cafe manager Margaux Gandelon says the potential health benefits of "purr therapy" are real.
"Purring produces vibrations which relieve arthritis and rheumatism, which lower your blood pressure and your heartbeat," Gandelon said.
This month's opening weekend saw queues snaking along the pavement and bookings taken from now until November. Some 300 potential customers had to be turned away.
Gandelon says animal welfare is paramount and customers are prohibited from subjecting the cats to undue stress. She is prepared to evict any customers who fail to play by the rules although she admits she is more lenient with the animal residents: "Cats are cats," she said.
The animals themselves are abandoned and stray cats adopted from pet rescue centres. Among them is Habby who suffers from feline dwarfism with a stunted tail and unusually short paws.
Despite two years spent with foster families the sweet-tempered tabby was never adopted but has now settled down to cafe life.
Visiting the cafe out of curiosity, business student Florian Laboureau described it as a "great concept", but admitted he is more of a dog person.

Read more - 

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/parisian-cat-cafe-offers-purr-therapy-animal-lovers-083948120.html

White House Celebrates Bisexual Visibility Day -- With Closed-Door Event... -

White House Celebrates Bisexual Visibility Day -- With Closed-Door Event... - 



Did you know that today is Bisexual Visibility Day?

You may not be aware, but they are at the White House and will be celebrating with an official event.

Seriously, this is not a joke.

Today, in honor of Bisexual Visibility Day there will be a White House roundtable discussion “about issues facing the bisexual community” attracting bisexual activists from around the nation.

This first-time White House event was called to my attention on Sunday when I saw a piece in the Miami Herald with the headline, “A voice for bisexuals, Miami activist heads to D.C.”

The piece highlighted Luigi Ferrer who is program and grants development director for Pridelines Youth Services. The Miami Herald reports:

“I am the Florida representative,” said Ferrer, a longtime bisexual activist who joins about two-dozen others at the roundtable, which coincides with international Bisexual Visibility Day on Sept. 23.

“They decided to celebrate bisexuality day by inviting the national bisexual leadership roundtable to the White House for a policy meeting,” said Ferrer, who received an email invitation about a month ago from the Barack Obama administration.

“It’s a testament to this administration that they are focusing on all elements of the LGBT community and they should be applauded for hosting an event focused on some of the specific issues impacting bisexual people,” said Michael Cole-Schwartz, spokesman for HRC,Human Rights Campaign in Washington.

Intrigued by today’s White House roundtable discussion, I did a quick check and found in the Washington Post a piece dated August 22 announcing the event that included this puzzling statement:

“The White House will hold a closed-door roundtable discussion on issues facing bisexuals Sept. 23.”

Why a closed-door roundtable discussion in the “People’s House?” Wasn’t Obama’s administration supposed to be the most transparent ever?

I am shocked.

“Shocked,” because with all that is going on in our nation and the world, how does the White House find the time and resources for such an event?

Wouldn’t you just love to know what this bisexual “roundtable discussion” is costing the American taxpayer?

Read more -

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/09/23/white-house-celebrates-bisexual-visibility-day-with-an-official-closed-door-event/

$3.39T Explosion: Fed Owns More Treasuries and MBSs Than Publicly Held Debt Amassed From Washington Through Clinton - 



The same day that the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee announced last week that the Fed would continue to buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) and $45 billion in U.S. Treasury securities per month, the Fed also released its latest weekly accounting sheet indicating that it had already accumulated more Treasuries and MBSs than the total value of the publicly held U.S. government debt amassed by all U.S. presidents from George Washington though Bill Clinton.

Since the beginning of September 2008, in fact, the Fed's ownership of Treasury securities and MBSs has increased seven fold.

As of the close of business Thursday, the Fed said, it owned approximately $2,052,055,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities and approximately $1,339,771,000,000 in mortgage-backed securities—for a combined total of about $3,391,826,000,000 in Treasury securities and MBSs.

The U.S. Treasury divides the U.S. government debt into two parts: debt held by the public, which includes publicly traded Treasury securities such as Treasury bills, notes and bonds, and intra-governmental debt, which is money the Treasury has borrowed out of the Social Security trust fund and other government trust funds and then used to pay current expenses.

As of the opening of business back on Nov. 23, 2001, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, the federal government’s total debt held by the public was $3,383,605,000,000. (By the close of business that day, the total debt held by the public would increase to 3,406,661,000,000.) The $3,383,605,000,000 in U.S. Treasury debt held by the public as the morning of Nov. 23, 2001, represented the total publicly held debt the federal government had accumulated until that date from the moment the Treasury first opened during the presidency of George Washington.

The $3,383,605,000,000 the Treasury owed to the public as of the morning of Nov. 23, 2001 was less than the $3,391,826,000,000 in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities owned by the Federal Reserve as of the close of business last Thursday.

Thus the Federal Reserve now owns more debt in the form of U.S. Treasury securities and MBSs than the sum total of the publicly held debt that the U.S. government accumulated from George Washington’s administration into November 2001, during President George W. Bush’s first term.

The mortgage-backed securities owned by the Fed are those that have been issued and guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. Ginnie Mae is government-owned corporation operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are congressionally chartered, government-sponsored enterprises, that are now held in conservatorships by the federal government.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are chartered by Congress as government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to provide liquidity in the mortgage market and to promote homeownership for underserved groups and locations,” the Congressional Research Service explained in a report published this August. “They purchase mortgages, guarantee them, and package them in mortgage-backed securities (MBSs), which they either keep as investments or sell to institutional investors. In addition to the GSEs’ guarantees, investors widely believe that MBSs are implicitly guaranteed by the federal government. In 2008, the GSEs’ financial condition had weakened and there were concerns over their ability to meet their obligations on $1.2 trillion in bonds and $3.7 trillion in MBSs that they had guaranteed. In response to the financial risks, the federal government took control of these GSEs in a process known as conservatorship as a means to stabilize the mortgage credit market.”

The federal government first took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008. In its last weekly accounting sheet released before that, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008, the Fed said that it owned $479.726 billion in U.S. Treasury securities. That sheet did not even include a line item for mortgage-backed securities.

The Fed’s combined ownership of  $3,391,826,000,000 in Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities is now more than 7 times as great as the $479.726 billion in Treasury securities it owned five years ago before the takeover of Fannie and Freddie.

Of the ten members of the Federal Open Market Committee who voted on whether the Fed should continue purchasing $40 billion in MBS each month and $45 billion in Treasury securities, only one voted no. That was Esther George, who is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

The Fed’s  press release announcing the vote said George voted against the continued buying of Treasury securities and MBS because she was “concerned that the continued high level of monetary accommodation increased the risks of future economic and financial imbalances and, over time, could cause an increase in long-term inflation expectations.”

Read more - 
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/339t-quantitative-explosion-fed-owns-more-treasuries-and-mbss

Popular Bathroom Wipes Blamed for Sewer Clogs -

Popular Bathroom Wipes Blamed for Sewer Clogs - 



Increasingly popular bathroom wipes — pre-moistened towelettes that are often advertised as flushable — are being blamed for creating clogs and backups in sewer systems around the nation.

Wastewater authorities say wipes may go down the toilet, but even many labeled flushable aren’t breaking down as they course through the sewer system. That’s costing some municipalities millions of dollars to dispatch crews to unclog pipes and pumps and to replace and upgrade machinery.

The problem got so bad in this western New York community this summer that sewer officials set up traps — basket strainers in sections of pipe leading to an oft-clogged pump — to figure out which households the wipes were coming from. They mailed letters and then pleaded in person for residents to stop flushing them.

“We could walk right up, knock on the door and say, ‘Listen, this problem is coming right from your house,’” said Tom Walsh, senior project coordinator at South & Center Chautauqua Lake Sewer Districts, which was dispatching crews at least once a week to clear a grinder pump that would seize up trying to shred the fibrous wipes.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies, which represents 300 wastewater agencies, says it has been hearing complaints about wipes from sewer systems big and small for about the past four years.

That roughly coincides with the ramped-up marketing of the “flushable cleansing cloths” as a cleaner, fresher option than dry toilet paper alone. A trade group says wipes are a $6 billion-a-year industry, with sales of consumer wipes increasing nearly 5 percent a year since 2007 and expected to grow at a rate of 6 percent annually for the next five years.

One popular brand, Cottonelle, has a campaign called “Let’s talk about your bum” and ads showing people trying to wash their hair with no water. It ends with the tagline: “You can’t clean your hair without water, so why clean your bum that way?”

Manufacturers insist wipes labeled flushable aren’t the problem, pointing instead to baby and other cleaning wipes marked as nonflushable that are often being used by adults.

“My team regularly goes sewer diving” to analyze what’s causing problems, said Trina McCormick, a senior manager at Kimberly-Clark Corp., maker of Cottonelle. “We’ve seen the majority, 90 percent in fact, are items that are not supposed to be flushed, like paper towels, feminine products or baby wipes.”

Wastewater officials agree that wipes, many of which are made from plastic, aren’t the only culprits but say their problems have escalated with the wipes market.

Vancouver, Wash., sewer officials say wipes labeled as flushable are a big part of a problem that has caused that city to spend more than $1 million in the past five years replacing three large sewage pumps and eight smaller ones that were routinely clogging.


To prove their point, they dyed several kinds of wipes and sent them through the sewer for a mile to see how they would break up. They didn’t.

Those labeled flushable, engineer Frank Dick said, had “a little rips and tears but still they were intact.”

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which serves Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland, has also spent more than $1 million over five years installing heavy-duty grinders, while the Orange County, Calif., Sanitation District, in a single year recorded 971 “de-ragging” maintenance calls on 10 pump stations at a cost of $320,000.

Clogging problems in Waukesha, Wis., prompted the sewer authority there to create a “Keep Wipes out of Pipes” flier. And Ocean City, Md., and Sitka, Alaska, are among cities that have also publicly asked residents not to flush wipes, regardless of whether they are labeled flushable.

The problem got worldwide attention in July when London sewer officials reported removing a 15-ton “bus-sized lump” of wrongly flushed grease and wet wipes, dubbed the “fatberg.”

The complaints have prompted a renewed look at solving the problem.

The Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, the trade group known as INDA, recently revised voluntary guidelines and specified seven tests for manufacturers to use to determine which wipes to call flushable. It also recommends a universal do-not-flush logo — a crossed-out stick figure and toilet — be prominently displayed on non-dispersible products.

The wastewater industry would prefer mandatory guidelines and a say in what’s included but supports the INDA initiatives as a start. Three major wastewater associations issued a joint statement with INDA last week to signal a desire to reach a consensus on flushability standards.

“If I’m doing the test, I’m going to throw a wipe in a bucket of water and say it has to disintegrate,” said Rob Villee, executive director of the Plainfield Area Regional Sewage Authority in New Jersey.

Nicholas Arhontes, director of facilities support services in Orange County, Calif., has an even simpler rule for what should go down the toilet.

“Only flush pee, poop and toilet paper,” he said, “because those are the only things that sanitary sewers were really designed for in the old days.”

Read more -

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/09/23/popular-bathroom-wipes-blamed-for-sewer-clogs/