Engineering Evil

Anti-Japanese demonstrators in China attacked the car of the US ambassador to the country. The diplomat is unhurt, though the car has been slightly damaged. Over 50 Chinese activists protesting against Japanese claims over the Diaoyu Islands — known… Read More ›

USAid ordered out of Moscow as Putin’s protest crackdown continues

American agency for international development has until 1 October to shut its office in Moscow Miriam Elder in Moscow and Chris McGreal in Washingtn guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 September 2012 16.43 EDT Vladimir Putin has drawn on stereotypes and conspiracy theories to… Read More ›

Senkaku / Diaoyu Island Dispute Intensifies. China and Japan both claiming provocation

Anti-Japan protests reignite across China on occupation anniversary By Ben Blanchard and Antoni Slodkowski | Reuters – 3 hrs ago BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) – Anti-Japan protests reignited across China on Tuesday, the sensitive anniversary marking Tokyo’s occupation of its giant neighbor,… Read More ›

Debt crisis: central bank action is work of the devil, says Germany’s Jens Weidmann

The head of Germany’s Bundesbank has raised eyebrows across Europe after he appeared to compare Mario Draghi’s bond buying programme with the “devil’s work”. Jens Weidmann said that efforts by central banks to pump money into the economy reminded him… Read More ›

Beijing hints at bond attack on Japan

A senior advisor to the Chinese government has called for an attack on the Japanese bond market to precipitate a funding crisis and bring the country to its knees, unless Tokyo reverses its decision to nationalise the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands… Read More ›

Farmers accuse Madagascar mining company of killing bees

By Agence France-Presse Tuesday, September 18, 2012 15:07 EDT Topics: Ambatovy ♦ madagascar ♦ pesticides A swath of farmland around a giant nickel and cobalt mine in Madagascar has been contaminated by pesticides that have wiped out local bee populations,… Read More ›

California set to approve drivers licenses for deferred-deportation participants

By Arturo Garcia Tuesday, September 18, 2012 14:05 EDT Topics: California ♦ driver’s license ♦ President Barack Obama Nearly half a million young undocumented immigrants in California could soon be eligible for a drivers license as part of their participation… Read More ›

Federal court allows top donors to tax-exempt groups to remain secret

By Eric W. Dolan Tuesday, September 18, 2012 17:03 EDT Topics: chris van hollen ♦ court of appeals ♦ FEC The D.C. Circuit Court on Tuesday ruled that tax-exempt groups like Crossroads GPS only had to disclose donors who give… Read More ›

Court restores Obama’s indefinite detention power

By Stephen C. Webster Tuesday, September 18, 2012 14:15 EDT Topics: indefinite detention ♦ Obama ♦ President Barack Obama A federal appeals court has temporarily frozen a lower court’s order that blocked the Obama administration from arresting and imprisoning American… Read More ›

The United States, long considered a champion of economic freedom, plunged to No. 18 in new rankings published in the 2012 Economic Freedom of the World

The United States, long considered a champion of economic freedom, plunged to No. 18 in new rankings published in the 2012 Economic Freedom of the World, an annual report co-authored by Florida State University economics Professor James Gwartney. The report… Read More ›

UPDATE 1-Germany urges public to stop using Internet Explorer

Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:24pm EDT * Move comes after Microsoft warns of bug in browser * German gov’t says hackers using bug to launch attacks * Microsoft plans to release fix within next few days * Researcher says attacks… Read More ›

Flame cyber virus linked to more malware: report

By Agence France-Presse Monday, September 17, 2012 16:29 EDT Topics: iran ♦ Kaspersky Lab WASHINGTON — The Flame virus believed to be part of a cyberwarfare effort against Iran was developed as early as 2006 and is linked to at… Read More ›

Former Justice Souter: ‘Pervasive civic ignorance’ in U.S. could bring dictatorship

By Eric W. Dolan Monday, September 17, 2012 18:20 EDT Topics: Justice Souter ♦ Souter ♦ U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter ♦ University of New Hampshire School of Law Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter thinks… Read More ›

Obama considers executive order in wake of Cybersecurity Act failure

By Eric W. Dolan Monday, September 17, 2012 20:16 EDT Topics: executive order ♦ Homeland Security and Counterterrorism ♦ President Barack Obama The Obama administration is considering issuing an executive order to achieve some of the aims of the Cybersecurity… Read More ›

Japanese ex-pats in hiding in China and workers urged to stay indoors as fury over islands dispute grows

Violent attacks on Japanese companies such as Toyota and Honda Dispute could damage trade ties between Asia’s two biggest economies Disagreement flared after Japanese government bought island from private owner By Phil Vinter PUBLISHED:07:40 EST, 17 September 2012| UPDATED:09:48 EST,… Read More ›

Brief History of The Islands in Dispute between China and Japan: Islands Just sold for 26 Million

By Ralph Turchiano on September 17, 2012 • ( 1 )

October Surprise: 2012 Sino-Japanese War Edition A chain of islands with a land area just a little more than 10% that of Manhattan is causing big trouble in East Asia. The Senkaku Islands are a persistent thorn in Sino-Japanese relations,… Read More ›

Insight: In India, gift-giving drives drug makers’ marketing: shower Indian doctors with gifts, posh junkets abroad, and cash payments disguised as consultancy or other types of fees

By Ralph Turchiano on September 17, 2012 • ( 1 )

By Frederik JoelvingPosted 2012/09/17 at 7:20 am EDT MUMBAI, Sep. 17, 2012 (Reuters) — Sales representatives for Abbott Laboratories Inc’s Indian subsidiaries know what it takes to get a doctor to prescribe the drugs they market: a coffee maker, perhaps,… Read More ›

Democracy declined worldwide in 2011, Arab Spring nations at risk: report

By Stella DawsonPosted 2012/09/17 at 8:26 pm EDT WASHINGTON, Sept 17, Sep. 17, 2012 (Reuters) — Democratic governance declined throughout the world in 2011, showing that gains made in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring are… Read More ›

U.S. military suspends joint patrols with Afghans ” our allies — have turned their guns on NATO forces 36 times this year, killing 51, most of them Americans”

(CBS News) The strategy for getting U.S. forces out of Afghanistan depends on training Afghan soldiers and police to protect the country themselves, but on Monday the U.S. military suspended most joint field operations with Afghan forces because so many… Read More ›

Can we engineer love and morality?

By Ralph Turchiano on September 17, 2012 • ( 1 )

By RICHARD WEIKART The Modesto Bee Published: Sunday, Sep. 16, 2012 – 1:00 am Recently Oxford philosophy professor Julian Savulescu moved his campaign for “moral enhancement” out of the ivory tower and into the mainstream. This month Reader’s Digest… Read More ›

US wades into China-Japan island dispute with missile defense deal

Published: 17 September, 2012, 13:32 Edited: 17 September, 2012, 16:44 A territorial dispute between China and Japan could spark a “violent conflict,” US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said. The US also inked a missile defense deal with Tokyo likely to… Read More ›

Transsexual wife killer who was granted tax-payer funded sex change will also have his legal fees paid, judge rules

Robert Kosilek was convicted of murdering his wife Cheryl in 1990 In prison, he changed his name to Michelle, sued for the state to pay for a sex change and attempting to castrate herself in custody Massachusetts judge ruled that… Read More ›

‘He is still alive!’: Video shows the moment ambassador’s body is pulled from embassy . . . as witness says he was breathing

Engineering Evil – Do not proceed if you are easily disturbed… I am posting this article due to the lack of disregard that certain politicians have for those on the front lines. In hopes that that maybe they stop lying, and… Read More ›

Japan firms close Chinese plants after protests

By Agence France-Presse Monday, September 17, 2012 7:05 EDT Topics: china ♦ japan ♦ plants Japanese firms including Panasonic suspended operations at plants in China, companies and reports said Monday, after mass anti-Tokyo protests at the weekend over disputed islands… Read More ›

From vitro to vivo: Fully automated design of synthetic RNA circuits in living cells

From vitro to vivo: Fully automated design of synthetic RNA circuits in living cells September 14, 2012 by Stuart Mason Dambrot Schemes of methodology and designs. (A) Thermodynamic scheme of RNA interaction, showing the different free energies at play and… Read More ›

Libyan president contradicts U.S.: ‘No doubt’ embassy attack was preplanned

By Stephen C. Webster Monday, September 17, 2012 9:24 EDT The president of Libya said this weekend that the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi was carefully planned for months, contradicting a U.S. official’s assurance that there… Read More ›

Back to school: Is higher education making you fat?

Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism 17 September 2012 Click here for the PDF version of this press release Ottawa, Canada – A new study published today in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism (APNM) looks beyond the much-feared weight… Read More ›

Insight: China builds its own military-industrial complex: “China’s military spending is now second only to the United States”

By David Lague and Charlie ZhuPosted 2012/09/16 at 5:14 pm EDT HONG KONG, Sep. 16, 2012 (Reuters) — When China turned to Russia for supplies of advanced weapons through the 1990s, it kick-started Beijing’s military build-up with an immediate boost… Read More ›

Scores at risk as new breed of mosquito foils malaria prevention methods: There is NO KNOWN DNA match

Published: 16 September, 2012, 21:14 Annual deaths could jump by the hundreds of thousands because of a new species of mosquito, which bites people in the early evening rather than at night, making bed nets useless in the battle against… Read More ›

The government was mum when China’s heir apparent Xi Jinping went missing, and political jitters persist now that he’s reappeared. How many scandals can the leadership take?

Is China Losing It? Sep 16, 2012 4:45 AM EDT This year has been Beijing’s annus horribilis. The Chinese regime has been pummeled by a steady stream of political controversies, purges and rumor mongering, made all the more nerve-wracking because… Read More ›

Woman picked to lead Air Force training base after sex scandal involving at least SIX male instructors

Col. Deborah Liddick is to command the 737th Training Group The Lackland Air Force Base in Texas is where every new American airman reports One in five recruits are women with most instructors men She takes over for Col. Glenn… Read More ›

Japan’s ambassador-designate to China dies in Tokyo: ministry

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s ambassador-designate to China, Shinichi Nishimiya, died on Sunday in a Tokyo hospital, the Foreign Ministry said, three days after he was found unconscious on a Tokyo street. Doctors were looking into the cause of death,… Read More ›

13 things that do not make sense

By Ralph Turchiano on September 16, 2012 • ( 2 )

Re-Posted from 2005 19 March 2005 by Michael Brooks 1 The placebo effect Don’t try this at home. Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. You control the pain with morphine until the final… Read More ›

Police could create image of suspect’s face from DNA

11:40 14 September 2012 by Andy Coghlan For similar stories, visit the Genetics Topic Guide Police may one day be able to reconstruct the shape of a suspect’s face from their DNA. The possibility is drawing closer thanks to identification… Read More ›

How artificial intelligence is changing our lives

By Ralph Turchiano on September 16, 2012 • ( 9 )

By The Christian Science Monitor Sunday, September 16, 2012 13:38 EDT In Silicon Valley, Nikolas Janin rises for his 40-minute commute to work just like everyone else. The shop manager and fleet technician at Google gets dressed and heads out… Read More ›

Declassified documents from 1980 show how US planned to fight a nuclear war: Directive 59

By Ralph Turchiano on September 16, 2012 • ( 1 )

By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED:12:45 EST, 16 September 2012| UPDATED:12:53 EST, 16 September 2012 Declassified documents have revealed for the first time how the Carter administration planned to fight a nuclear war. Presidential Decision Directive 59, signed by President Jimmy… Read More ›

Was the bloody attack on U.S. diplomats preventable? Libyan security official claims he warned Americans about possible hostilities in the country THREE DAYS before assault

Jamal Mabrouk serves with the February 17th Brigade The Brigade is a Libyan militia affiliated with the country’s military Mabrouk claims he met with U.S. diplomats to tell them about the deteriorating security situation By Snejana Farberov PUBLISHED:11:00 EST, 16 … Read More ›

Meet the Israeli female super-spies who FLIRT their way into deciphering enemy secrets

By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED:23:12 EST, 14 September 2012| UPDATED:23:12 EST, 14 September 2012 When most people think of international spies, they probably imagine hyper-masculine figures such as James Bond or Jason Bourne. But Israel’s fearsome secret service has developed… Read More ›

$1m an hour to schmooze sheiks? No wonder Mr Blair’s preening like the new peacocks on his country estate

* Engineering Evil Note: This is also filed under Security. Reason being, this Makes Mr. Blair a security risk. By Paul Scott PUBLISHED:18:34 EST, 14 September 2012| UPDATED:18:34 EST, 14 September 2012 Schmoozing sheiks: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair … Read More ›

A Merger of German and French Defense Industries for a United Europe?

BAE-EADS merger would advance Europe’s military goals : By Adrian CroftPosted 2012/09/16 at 11:22 am EDT BRUSSELS, Sep. 16, 2012 (Reuters) — Merging Britain’s BAE Systems with EADS to create a global aerospace and defense giant would be a significant… Read More ›

‘Poverty barons’ who make a fortune from taxpayer-funded aid budget

Britain’s swelling overseas aid budget has created a new group of “poverty barons” paying themselves up to £2 million a year for their work helping the disadvantaged. By Andrew Gilligan 10:00PM BST 15 Sep 2012 The Department for International Development… Read More ›

Armada of British naval power massing in the Gulf as Israel prepares an Iran strike

By Ralph Turchiano on September 15, 2012 • ( 2 )

An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s covert nuclear weapons programme. The Strait of Hormuz is only 21 miles wide at… Read More ›

NSA whistleblower: Illegal data collection a ‘violation of everybody’s Constitutional rights’: The Story of “ThinThread”

By Paul Harris, The Guardian Saturday, September 15, 2012 14:53 EDT Former National Security Agency official Bill Binney says US is illegally collecting huge amounts of data on his fellow citizens Bill Binney believes he helped create a monster. Sitting… Read More ›

Basseley Nakoula had worked as a government informant on a Bank Fraud case

Producer Of Anti-Islam Film Was Fed Snitch L.A. man began cooperating with prosecutors after 2009 fraud bust SEPTEMBER 14–In remarks stressing that the U.S. government had “absolutely nothing to do with” the anti-Islam film that has touched off violence in… Read More ›

Berlin rejects Israeli pressure over submarine sales to Egypt