Alligator forces WALMART to lock doors after blocking entry... -

Alligator forces WALMART to lock doors after blocking entry... - 



Customers and workers dealt with an unwelcome intruder at a Walmart in Central Florida.

A 6-foot gator slithered up to the Apopka store's entryway Sunday morning and stayed there, causing the automatic doors to open and close.

Employees locked the door to keep the gator out while Apopka police officers tried to lure the animal away. 

As customers gathered around to view the alligator and take pictures, the beast took off for the woods. 

Officers scoured the swampy area neighboring the building, but lost sight of the alligator.  

The gator has not been since since it crawled into the woods.

No one was injured in the incident.

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http://www.clickorlando.com/news/alligator-near-walmart-forces-employees-to-lock-doors/-/1637132/22531242/-/cl2pyy/-/index.html

Stanford neuroscientist: ‘We’re now able to eavesdrop on the brain in real life’ -

Stanford neuroscientist: ‘We’re now able to eavesdrop on the brain in real life’ - 



Neuroscientists at Stanford University have made a major breakthrough with regards to how the human brain engages in quantitative thought, and some say it’s opening the door for being able to someday eavesdrop on the mind’s inner-workings.

A team at Stanford’s School of Medicine had their findings published this week in the journal Nature Communications, and their eye-catching result is being considered a big step to understanding how the brain operates, specifically in terms of numbers.

After monitoring the brain waves of three seizure patients, the scientists determined that a particular part of the mind became active when the subjects were asked to solve mathematical equations, but also when quantitative terms — such as “more than” or “an extra little bit” — were spoken during routine discussions.

Bruce Goldman wrote about the study for the Stanford School of Medicine website and said the team of scientists “collected the first solid evidence that the pattern of brain activity seen in someone performing a mathematical exercise under experimentally controlled conditions is very similar to that observed when the person engages in quantitative thought in the course of daily life.”

According to the scientists who conducted the study, however, it could be the start of something much more.

“We’re now able to eavesdrop on the brain in real life,” Dr. Josef Parvizi, the director of Stanford’s Human Intracranial Cognitive Electrophysiology Program and lead scientist behind the studio, said to Goldman.

To conduct the study, Parvizi and company monitored electrical activity in a region of the brain called the intraparietal sulcus which, according to earlier studies, has ties to numerosity, or the mathematical equivalent of literacy, as Goldman explained.

As expected, the Stanford scientists experienced a reaction occurring on that part of the brain when basic math was asked of the subjects. His team also compared those results with video recordings of the patients interacting with friends and family, and determined that just discussing quantitative concepts caused that part of the brain to become active.

“You are able to see how neurons within the human brain are working in a real life setting,” Parvizi told Time Magazine.

“The patient doesn’t need to talk to you. They can think about numbers and you can see that red mark (corresponding with activity in a particular brain region) go up,” he said to CNN.

As the team also learned, quantitative concepts cause similar reactions. When the subjects hear phrases such as “some more” and “many,” electrodes attached to the intraparietal sulcus alerted the doctors of activity. In one patient’s case, her intraparietal sulcus became active when she spoke over the phone about being given “some more Vicodin” and while discussing a “ten-to-fifteen minute seizure.”

Dr. Parvizi told Time that “[t]he only thing we can tell is that they were thinking about numbers,” and not specifics such as what integer in particular. As technology advances, though, new possibilities might someday emerge.

“This is exciting, and a little scary,” Henry Greely, the chair of Stanford’s Center for Biomedical Ethics, said in a statement. “It demonstrates, first, that we can see when someone’s dealing with numbers and, second, that we may conceivably someday be able to manipulate the brain to affect how someone deals with numbers.”

Read more - 

http://rt.com/usa/stanford-parvizi-brain-study-385/

GM got bailout, Can’t be profitable in the USA (Surprise!) Quietly shifts many operations to China -

GM got bailout, Can’t be profitable in the USA (Surprise!) Quietly shifts many operations to China - 



Saving General Motors from bankruptcy was among President Obama’s most frequently cited achievements when he ran for re-election last year. Democrats everywhere touted the company’s revival as proof of the 2009 bailout’s wisdom. That was then. Now, Obama has quietly released the auto manufacturer from a bailout requirement that it increase its production in the U.S. Instead, GM is spending billions of dollars building up its production capacity in ... China.

This is happening despite the fact that the Treasury Department has to date recovered just $36 billion of its original $51 billion loan to GM. By most analysts’ predictions, American taxpayers will be out approximately $10 billion when the remaining stock is sold off. Which is a long way of saying that it now appears that taxpayers paid $10 billion to make it easier for GM to accelerate its foreign outsourcing and send more manufacturing jobs to China.

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Here’s what happened: In exchange for the bailout in 2009, GM promised to meet certain domestic car production targets over the next four years. The obvious point of this stipulation was to ensure that GM jobs remained here at home and weren't shipped overseas. The production targets started at 1.8 million in 2010 and were supposed to rise to 2.26 million by 2014. GM repeatedly missed the targets, beginning with an 81,000-unit shortfall the first year. Production increased thereafter, but never quite enough to meet the targets. Last year, GM fell about 13,000 cars short of its 2 million target.

How did it do this year? GM refuses to say. But in February, GM announced in its annual report to shareholders that Treasury had agreed to “irrevocably waive certain of its rights” regarding the federal loan. These included “certain manufacturing volume requirements.” Guess what happened next? GM announced in June that it would stop releasing its North American production figures altogether. Its spokesman tried to justify this move with Orwellian doublespeak about how providing more information would result in “an incomplete data set to look at.”

The same month, GM announced it would boost its output from its China plants by 70 percent. It is not just selling Chinese-made cars to the Chinese, either. GM is nearly doubling its export production capacity there from 77,000 units to 130,000. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in economics to see what is really going on. GM cannot make the domestic production targets and still turn a profit. It wants to be spared the embarrassment of having everyone know that. Obama, who is in this as deep as anyone can be, doesn’t want the embarrassment, either. So both buried the news.

It is yet more proof that Mitt Romney was right in the 2012 presidential campaign: GM should have gone through a traditional bankruptcy instead of the politicized farce of a taxpayer-funded bailout and government managed “bankruptcy.” The TARP funds involved could have instead been used to provide liquidity for a managed sale to a private buyer that minimized the opportunities for political interference in the new GM’s operations.

Read more -

http://washingtonexaminer.com/examiner-editorial-gm-got-bailout-now-ships-jobs-to-china/article/2537323

RFID Microchips to be Embedded in Breast Implants -

RFID Microchips to be Embedded in Breast Implants - 



A manufacturer of breast implants has announced that it will begin selling its products with an RFID microchip embedded in the implant, partnering with a company whose CEO previously tried to market the implantable microchip as a replacement for the credit card.
Breast augmentation is one of the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures, with a staggering 300,000 women in America alone receiving breast implants every year.
Establishment Labs, a major breast, body and facial aesthetic company which has offices in both Europe and America, recently announced that it has teamed up with VeriTeQ to produce breast implants, “with a radio frequency identification tag built in, with the goal of providing information about the implant to a patient long after the device has been inserted into her body.”
“EL’s Motiva Implant Matrix Ergonomix™ with VeriTeQ’s Q Inside Safety Technology is the world’s first externally identifiable breast implant,” reports Yahoo Finance, adding that the microchip, which can be read via external scanners, has already been approved by the FDA.
A leading chain of plastic surgery clinics in the UK, which has asked to remain anonymous for now, intends to announce it will begin implanting patients with the technology next month.
The use of implantable microchips to track pets has become common over the last decade, but their use in human beings has consistently faced hurdles due to Big Brother concerns about people being electronically tagged like animals, as well as the biblical idea of a “mark of the beast,” which some fear will eventually become a mandatory replacement for the credit card or even a universal form of identification.

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http://www.prisonplanet.com/rfid-microchips-to-be-embedded-in-breast-implants.html

NYPD Mistook Jolly Ranchers For Meth Rocks - was busted after buying the candy at Brooklyn store -

NYPD Mistook Jolly Ranchers For Meth Rocks - was busted after buying the candy at Brooklyn store - 



A New York City man arrested this summer for possession of methamphetamine was actually carrying Jolly Rancher candies that cops mistook for a controlled substance, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Love Olatunjiojo was busted in late-June after being searched by cops who approached the 25-year-old and a friend as they walked on a Coney Island street. According to a police report, officers seized six “crystalline rocks of solid material.” Four of the rocks were blue, while two were red.

As detailed in Olatunjiojo’s October 15 lawsuit (which does not specify monetary damages), he had stopped at the It’Sugar candy store before being approached by police. While there, Olatunjiojo and his friend “purchased various candies…including some ‘Jolly Rancher’ brand candies.”

Kenneth Smith, Olatunjiojo’s lawyer, told TSG that the Jolly Ranchers were in their “individual wrappers” when seized by police.

Olatunjiojo, who is of African descent, was charged with drug possession. He spent 24 hours in custody before being released on his own recognizance on the misdemeanor count.

A Criminal Court complaint alleged that officers seized a “quantity of methamphetamine” that field tested positive for a controlled substance. One of the arresting officers “has had professional testing as a police officer in the identification of methamphetamine.”

But the crystalline rocks purportedly containing methamphetamine were not illegal. Two days after Olatunjiojo’s arrest, the NYPD’s Controlled Substance Analysis Section performed lab tests that revealed they contained no controlled substances. A resulting lab report directed cops to notify the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office of the test’s negative results.

Despite that warning, the narcotics count against Olatunjiojo remained pending until a September 19 court hearing, when a prosecutor moved to drop the charge.

Olatunjiojo’s friend, who was also carrying Jolly Ranchers, was similarly arrested on a drug possession count, said Smith, who added that the criminal charge was subsequently dropped. A third man was busted for interfering with police as they arrested his two friends. That man, Smith said, exclaimed to cops that, “It’s candy!”

Read more - 

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/stupid/jolly-ranchers-not-meth-765094

Hotels hire specialists to cure guests' hangovers... -

Hotels hire specialists to cure guests' hangovers... - 



Want to smell like Chanel No.5, get rid of a hangover, or score hand-shaved artisanal chocolate soap — all without leaving your hotel room? (Yeah, me too.) If you’re a guest at some luxury hotels, a “specialty concierge” can take care of that.

High-end hotels are hiring highly specialized butlers and staffers who attend to very select needs of guests, be it their love lives (romance concierge), hangovers (recovery concierge), or cleanliness (bath butlers). Just this year, Westin Hotels & Resorts hired a running concierge, who helps coach hotel guests by giving running advice and tips, and last year Rosewood Hotels began offering guests the services of fragrance butlers, who bring perfume and cologne to guest rooms, in its New York, Dallas, Menlo Park, Vancouver and Saudi Arabia locations.

Hotels say these specialists enhance the guest experience. Brian Povinelli, the global brand leader for Westin Hotels & Resorts, says the hotel hired the running concierge because they thought he would “seamlessly connect with our guests and ultimately help them achieve their goals.” Pedro Lara, General Manager at Viceroy Riviera Maya, says “the soap concierge is one more way to surprise and delight guests.” And Laura Benge, Exhale Spa’s national spa director (the spa has partnered with the Gansevoort Hotel Group to offer bath butler service) says that “the bath butler service is one way we make traveling easier for our guests.”

Read more - 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hangover-theres-a-hotel-concierge-for-that-2013-10-18

Machine gun-toting robots may soon back up U.S. soldiers -

Machine gun-toting robots may soon back up U.S. soldiers - 



A robot, equipped with an M240 machine gun, moves through the darkness until it stops under a stand of trees 100 yards from its squad of U.S. troops. The robot uses thermal imaging to detect enemy combatants hiding up ahead and aims its gun at them.

With a single command from its human controller, who is with the squad 100 yards back, the robot opens fire and takes out the enemy, saving the troops from a potentially deadly attack.

A weaponized robot acting as a member of a squad of U.S. soldiers fighting on the battlefield is no longer science fiction. They may not be two-legged, humanoid robots yet, but with wheels or tracks they are able to follow troops through a wide range of terrain and back them up in battle.

Both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marines have tested prototypes of weaponized robots on the battlefield. However, armed robots are not currently in the Army's inventory of weapons.

Army leaders got a look at what technology is available for the battlefield during a robotic live-fire demonstration at Fort Benning, Ga., this week.

Read more - 

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243164/Machine_gun_toting_robots_may_soon_back_up_U.S._soldiers?source=CTWNLE_nlt_wktop10_2013-10-18

Syria’s civil war has become so dire that some Islamic clerics are telling starving Syrians to eat Cats and Dogs -

Syria’s civil war has become so dire that some Islamic clerics are telling starving Syrians to eat Cats and Dogs - 



Syria’s civil war has become so dire that some Islamic clerics are telling starving Syrians to eat cats and dogs.
A bad humanitarian situation has turned worse as Syrian President Bashar Assad has escalated a war against rebels, including some with ties to al Qaeda, even as progress has been made on the destruction of the regime’s stockpiles of chemical weapons.
The Assad regime has tightened siegelike conditions around rebel-held parts of the country, including Damascus neighborhoods, its suburbs of Ghouta and Muadhamiya, and the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees.
Deprived of food and medicine, many residents are starving and traumatized. Videos shared by activists show images of emaciated children.
The grim circumstances prompted religious leaders to issue a fatwa, or ruling, allowing starving citizens to eat animals normally forbidden by Islam to consume.
Syrian activists said the fatwa appeared to be an attempt to focus international attention on the humanitarian crisis engendered by the 2½-year-old civil war.
The fatwa coincides with the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha, a festival marked by lavish feasts.
“It is difficult to celebrate when every day children are dying around us,” said Sami Ibrahim, a Damascus-based spokesman for the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
Meanwhile, the Western-backed opposition political coalition suffered a potential setback Wednesday as dozens of rebel groups in southern Syria reportedly rejected its authority.
A rebel commander said in a video that the Syrian National Coalition had failed the revolution, the Associated Press reported. He said he was joined by 66 rebel groups in disavowing the coalition. His claims could not be independently verified.


Read more: -

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/16/clerics-permit-hungry-syrians-eat-dogs-and-cats/

71 percent of people ages 18 to 29 —say the Internet is their number one News source -

71 percent of people ages 18 to 29 —say the Internet is their number one News source - 



Kids (and adults) these days. According to a new study from Pew Research Center, the majority of young Americans — a whopping 71 percent of people ages 18 to 29 —say the Internet is their number one news source. TV was the runner-up, at 55 percent. Only 22 percent of young people said the good old fashioned newspaper was their main news center.

For those of us who are fat and old (30 to 49), the Internet is tied with TV as our main source of news, at 63 percent. Oddly enough, radio comes in second for this group, at 27 percent. Radio is followed by newspapers, at a lowly 18 percent.

While you’re busy cursing the young and old for abandoning newspapers, here are some other highlights from the report:

Overall, TV is still the clear winner; 69 percent of the general public say it’s their main source of news.
Last year, 19 of Americans reported viewing a news story on a social network “yesterday.” That’s more than double the nine percent who had reported doing so in 2010.
65 percent of those who claim the Internet as their main news source say news organizations are politically biased.

Read more - 

Fukushima Beta-Radiation Levels Soar To New Record In Aftermath Of Typhoon Wipha -

Fukushima Beta-Radiation Levels Soar To New Record In Aftermath Of Typhoon Wipha - 



It is only fitting that on the day the Stalingrad & Poorski 500 rises to a new record high, that that other centrally-planned catastrophe, the exploded Fukushima nuclear power plant, in the aftermath of Japan's Radioactivetyphoonado reports a completely different record: namely the level of beta radiation levels at Fukushima. Bloomberg notes that the nationalized utility Tepco, which has taken denial to a different superstring dimension altogether, has detected beta radiation levels of 400,000 becquerels per liter in a water sample taken yesterday from a monitoring well near storage tank area H4 at Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. This was the highest reading on record. This number compares to Beta radiation levels of 61 Bq/L in the sample taken Oct. 16 and 90 Bq/L in the Oct. 15 sample.

Japan Times has more:

The highest level yet of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances, including strontium, has been detected at one point in a drainage ditch at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant where measurements are regularly taken, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday.

According to Tepco, a water sample taken Wednesday at a point in the ditch some 300 meters from the ocean was found to contain 1,400 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances, the highest level ever detected at that location.

Tepco said water that passed through the ditch may have entered the sea.

A water sample taken Tuesday at the same point contained 19 becquerels of such radioactive substances.

The radiation level surged after heavy rain caused by Typhoon Wipha, which hit the Tohoku region, including Fukushima Prefecture, on Wednesday, Tepco said. It is thought the rain washed out radioactive substances that had been absorbed by the ground.

Radiation levels also hit record highs in water samples collected Wednesday at three upstream points in the drainage ditch, which passes close to the storage tank from which highly radioactive water spilled in August, with the amount of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances ranging from 2,000 to 2,300 becquerels per liter.
And while 400,000 may sound like a lot, keep in mind it is substantially less than the P/E Ratio that Mr. Yellen has in store for the S&P before this whole manipulated farce ends up in a just as radioactive pile of dust.

Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-17/fukushima-beta-radiation-levels-soar-new-record-aftermath-typhoon-wipha