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Google Partners With Aclima To Bring Pollution Data To Google Maps

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Google Partners With Aclima To Bring Pollution Data To Google Maps

In an effort to expand its data offerings, search giant Google has collaborated with Aclima, a California-based environment sensory network, to integrate environmental sensors into its Street View cars. After a successful month long test on trial vehicles in Denver’s city streets, and clocking over 750 hours of drive time, the partnership sailed forward towards it goal of better understanding air quality in metropolitan environments.

Google’s Street View platform has shown its users the world on the streets, across forests, over mountaintops, and even underwater in 360 degrees since it’s introduction in 2007. Its latest project aims to provide useful data on the quality and consistency of the air we breathe.

The goal of the collaboration is to create high-resolution maps that will have the ability to read air quality across cities. The Street View cars that have mapped and measured the world’s streets, will soon be equipped with sensors that will allow them to take measurements of environmental gasses that have a harmful impact on health, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, methane, black carbon and more.

“We have a profound opportunity to understand how cities live and breathe in an entirely new way by integrating Aclima’s mobile sensing platform with Google Maps and Street View cars” said Aclima CEO Davida Herzl. “With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, environmental health is becoming increasingly important to quality of life.”

In combination with air quality measurements from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s network of stationary monitoring equipment, the Street View readings will take on a new environmental mission in street level awareness of pollution in urban air. This data will initiate an entire new genre of analysis and dialogue on the condition of inner-city air quality.

Google and Aclima have set the stage for continuous collaboration with scientists and the urban communities they track to make substantial use of the new data collected as they begin the air quality mapping effort in the San Francisco Bay Area this fall.

Uber To Invest $1 Billion Dollars In India Amid Intense Competition

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In an attempt to push competing taxi service OlaCabs from the Indian market, Uber plans to invest a whopping $1 billion into its India operations. Because their ride sharing business requires no infrastructure investment, much of that money is expected to go towards an aggressive marketing campaign, highlighting the intense competition the company faces in large markets like India and China. The funding is also expected to also go towards new products and an improved support network.

President of Uber India, Amit Jain, commented on the company’s impressive growth in India, “We are continuing to see robust 40% growth month-on-month and with more investment in product, hiring and payment solutions, we expect to grow at an even faster rate.” Jain also added that China and uberPOOL are its other main priorities, uberPOOL being a carpooling service that results in lower fares compared to using Uber alone.

The news comes after the announcement in June that Uber would also be investing $1 billion into the Chinese market, which may have been a reaction to the merger in February between China’s most popular mobile taxi-hailing services, Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. OlaCabs still remains the largest player in India, tallying more than twice as many rides per day as Uber in over 100 cities.

OlaCabs is finishing up a round of fundraising, recently acquiring $400 million and bringing the company’s valuation to $2.4 billion, but Uber easily beats OlaCabs in size, currently valued at $40 billion.

The new marketing campaign will have to deal with some existing public backlash after Uber service was suspended in New Delhi last December when a driver was accused of rape. The company has since added a “panic button” feature, which alerts local police in an emergency. If all goes according to plan, Uber hopes to provide 1 million rides per day by March 2016, much higher than their current output of 200,000 rides per day, as well as expanding its current reach in India from 18 cities, to 40, and available drivers from 50,000 to 200,000.

Japanese Scientists Fire World’s Most Powerful Laser

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Japanese Scientists Fire World’s Most Powerful Laser

Japanese laser engineers from Osaka University leaped to the head of their field in laser power output recently, with the first firing of their 2 petawatt (2 x 1015 watts) laser. This power output is twice the power of the world’s second most powerful laser of 1 petawatt, which is located at the University of Texas, Austin. The laser pulse was achieved for the incredibly short duration of one picosecond, or one trillionth of a second, and holds promise to further research in the field of particle physics.

The news comes at the same time as the Japanese Navy announcement of funding being allocated for two future warships, which will include electromagnetically powered railguns for artillery in addition to lasers for ship defense. This comes after the U.S. Navy successfully completed tests on a laser defense system in the Persian Gulf last summer. Star Wars seems closer than ever as the University of Osaka takes its place alongside other pioneers in laser development.

A laser such as the one at the University of Osaka is unlikely to be used in a military application simply due to its size, at more than 300 feet long. Known as a Laser for Fast Ignition Experiments (LFEX), the operation involves applying light energy to a special type of glass, with the resulting beam being amplified and focused over the 300 foot machine. The Osaka laser is most likely to be used in fusion research, nanotechnology, and materials design, rather than in military applications.

To get a sense of how large the power output of the pulse was, it is equivalent to 1,000 times the electrical power consumption of the world. Although at first counterintuitive, the actual energy used during the test is quite small due to the extremely short duration of the pulse, equivalent to the energy to run a microwave for two seconds.

Osaka University scientists are not resting on their laurels, with plans to increase their power output in order to produce a 10 petawatt pulse. Plans for 10 petawatt lasers in Europe, China and elsewhere are underway, but at that level of power, a more damage-resistant mirror will have to be developed.

Former Executives Indicted Over Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

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Former Executives Indicted Over Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Prosecutors in Tokyo were forced by a Japanese civilian judiciary panel to indict three former Tokyo Electric Power Co. executives for their failure to take preventative measures leading up to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Prosecutors at first rejected the move to indict during the initial meeting of the panel in January, but after the panel arrived at the same decision after their second meeting, the prosecutors are required by law to carry out the panel’s recommendations.

According to a copy of the ruling, the former executives failed to take countermeasures to strengthen the Fukushima Daiichi plant despite foresight of the danger posed by tsunamis.

This will be the first criminal case involving Tepco officials regarding the disaster, and the committee’s decision gives voice to a group of more than 5,700 Japanese civilians from Fukushima and other parts of Japan who have urged prosecutors to take action on the issue.

Previous parliamentary investigative reports have criticized a lack of safety culture at TEPCO. Other findings included collusion between TEPCO personnel and regulators as well as the charge that TEPCO ignored taking measures related to tsunami defense.

With the cleanup and decommissioning process expected to take between 10 and 30 years, and some 160,000 residents still under evacuation from the affected area, the decision by the citizen panel still seems unlikely to lead to a conviction of the former executives. Former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, and executives Sakae Muto, and Ichiro Takekuro were indicted for the triple meltdown in what has been described as the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

All 48 functional nuclear reactors are currently offline, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is trying to change that as soon as possible, with two reactors expected to come back online within weeks. Thousands will continue to work on the cleanup effort, collecting the large volumes of contaminated soil, water, and other debris.

Beijing Becomes First City To Host Both Summer And Winter Olympics

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Beijing Becomes First City To Host Both Summer And Winter Olympics

For the first time in Olympics history, one city has been chosen to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (“IOC”) announced earlier today that it has chosen Beijing, China to host the 2022 Winter Games. Beijing also hosted the Summer Games just seven years ago, in 2008. The announcement of Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Games came at the end of a very interesting bidding race. The only other city that was in contention for the Games was Almaty, Kazakhstan, an oil-rich, developing country in Central Asia. Almaty received 40 votes from IOC members while Beijing received 44 votes. The choice between only two cities came after Oslo, Munich, and Stockholm bowed out of the race due to economic and political concerns.

The decision to choose Beijing as the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics was a “safe choice” according to Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC. Beijing’s commercial success at the 2008 Summer Games led voters to believe it could successfully host the 2022 Winter Games in a similar manner. Other members stated that Beijing’s status as a tourist destination was also a factor.

Money and experience were the key elements to Beijing’s presentation to IOC voters. Much of the presentation highlighted the successes of the 2008 Games, where Beijing spent greater than $40 billion to host the world’s largest international sporting event.

Many of Beijing’s citizens did not see exactly why the city would bid for the Winter Games as not many Chinese people play, compete in or watch winter sports. However, China has recently created a special program, costing greater than $30 million, that is intended to produce and develop Chinese athletes in sports like Nordic combined skiing, luge, skeleton and bob sled. Whether the Winter Games will resonate with Chinese citizens is yet to be seen.

The choice of Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Games also has upset many human rights activists and watch groups given China’s stance on certain individual liberties. Minky Worden, the global initiative director at Human Rights Watch, stated that the current situation in China could be described as “the worst crackdown in the post-1989 period across the board.”

There is also concern over Beijing’s continuing air pollution problem. Some experts wonder how the snow-making operation will affect the environment. The IOC responded that Beijing showed it could control smog and air pollution at the 2008 Summer Games and also that the city remains committed to protecting the environment.

Despite all of these issues, the IOC ultimately decided that Beijing was the right choice.

Chinese Court Rules Michael Jordan Can’t Own His Trademark Name

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Chinese Court Rules Michael Jordan Can’t Own His Trademark Name

At the conclusion of a legal battle that began three years ago, China’s highest court has ruled against basketball king Michael Jordan by dismissing his trademark infringement case. Although Jordan and his legal team lost the case, Jordan considers his adversary, the Chinese company Qiaodan, the de facto loser. In the court’s ruling, which seems backwards according to many United States trademark attorneys, Jordan essentially lost the rights to his own name.

Basketball is extremely popular in China and Michael Jordan is by far the most popular player. “Qiaodan” is the Mandarin transliteration of “Jordan” and has been used to refer to the former NBA star in China since the 1980s. Despite the company calling itself Qiaodan, the court held that “‘Jordan’” is not the only possible reference for ‘Qiaodan’ in the trademark under dispute. In addition, ‘Jordan’ is a common surname used by Americans.” Essentially, the current evidence did not persuade the court that “Qiaodan” determinedly is synonymous with Michael Jordan.

It may make sense that the name Jordan by itself cannot be trademarked. However, when the Qiaodan company sells sports products, especially basketball products including jerseys, shoes and other merchandise, and uses the number 23 and uses an eerily similar version of Michael Jordan’s “Jumpman” mark, it would seem that Michael Jordan and, in turn, Nike trademarks, are improperly being used.

When Jordan, whose personal brand Air Jordan is a division of Nike, demanded the imitator deregister the name in China, Qiaodan Sports instead hit back, giving an incredibly far-fetched explanation for their brand name. Apparently, the Chinese courts bought it. China is known for its rampant counterfeiting and the country is constantly criticized by other countries over little protection of intellectual property rights, including trademarks.

Although Qiaodan won the lawsuit, it definitely suffered in the lengthy legal battle. In 2012, the sportswear company had more than 5,700 stores in China and brought in $276 million in revenue. It was also preparing an Initial Public Offering (“IPO”) in the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Because of its legal troubles, the IPO has been hampered for three years and Qiaodan Sports is now known as a major knockoff, both abroad and in China.

Sports commentator Fang Zhengyu reported that “even if he lost one case after another, as long as he prevented Qiaodan Sports from rising further, Michael Jordan can consider his opponent the de facto loser.” And Jordan himself is not doing too bad either. In 2014, the Jordan Brand made $2.6 billion in U.S. shoe sales alone, and the star earned over $100 million from sponsorship deals.

Breakthrough Double Hand Transplant See Young Boy Receive Two New Hands

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In a medical breakthrough and a surgical first, a 40-member team of surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists successfully attached two hands and forearms to an eight-year old boy who lost his hands when he was just a toddler. The surgery, taking place at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, occurred after the team practiced for months on cadavers. When it was time for the actual surgery, it was like an army going into battle and they were determined to win. Chief surgeon, Dr. L. Scott Levin, told his troops before the operation started that, “We know what we have to do today. I know everybody assembled here has a commitment to this patient and making this a reality for this little boy. We can have complications. We can fail. We can have trouble. But we’re not planning on it.”

The little boy receiving the new hands is Zion Harvey, a child with amazing courage and hope. He told doctors that he wanted hands so that he could swing on the monkey bars and so that he could hold his little sister and swing her in his arms.

The surgery is not the first major hurdle that Zion had to overcome. When he was just two years old, he lost both of his hands and his feet and part of his legs. He suffered a life-threatening bacterial infection that led to not only the amputations, but also to a kidney transplant.

After years of wishing for hands, and over 18 months of observations and evaluations by an array of doctors, the optimistic and fun-loving, little eight-year old received life altering news: he was eligible for a double hand transplant and was placed on a waitlist. Through the Gift of Life Donor Program, he received the call after only a few months on the list that the surgery was going to happen.

Not even the prospect of failure seemed to faze Zion. “When I get these hands, I will be proud of what hands I get, and if it gets messed up, I don’t care because I have my family.”

When the time came, the surgery lasted over 10 hours. The procedure was so complicated that the medical team had to label various anatomical parts with tags. After several hours, Dr. Levin saw signs of success: Zion’s new hand was pink. When doctors pressed his palm, it turned white briefly and then pink again, indicating blood flow in the newly attached hand.

Zion, his family and doctors are thrilled that the surgery was a success, even though he has a long road ahead of him. Zion will be required to take immunosuppressant medication for the rest of his life in order to avoid rejection of his new hands. He also needs to stay at a rehabilitation unit for several weeks where he will undergo rigorous physical therapy before returning to his home in Baltimore. Zion is simply happy the procedure was successful and is taking it all in stride.

The first bilateral hand transplant on an adult occurred in 2011. The foundation that surgeons learned from that procedure as well as developments in pediatric surgery allowed the medical team to take the next step by performing the surgery on Zion. Dr. Levin hopes that Zion’s surgery is just the beginning for what they can do for other children hoping to have their hands restored.

Samsung Profits Tank As Chinese Smartphone Makers Take Over The Industry

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Samsung Profits Tank As Chinese Smartphone Makers Take Over The Industry

Samsung Electronics posted a dismal eight per cent drop in profits for the second successive quarter that was largely attributed to the slow uptake of its smartphone the Galaxy S6 in the face of increased competition. Troubling times are ahead for one of the world’s largest tech companies, largely due to cutthroat competition from Chinese upstarts Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola.

Samsung posted a decline in net profits to $4.9 billion for the period running April to June 2015. The company’s mobile division profits also went down to $2.35 billion from $3.7 billion a year earlier representing a 62 per cent drop. Sales for the company’s products also took a hit, dropping 7.2 per cent to $41.7 billion.

This marks the seventh successive quarter the Korean electronics maker has posted a decline in profits.

Earlier this year, Samsung had warned that it was going to miss its targeted earnings for the second quarter of the year. The drop was expected due to a miscalculation of the expected demand for the company’s Galaxy S6 brands.

Samsung initially predicted that the Galaxy S6 smartphone would sell four times more than its alternative make, the S6 Edge. What played out in reality was different.

In the market, just as many users wanted the S6 as those that did the S6 Edge, evening out demand. This led to a crippling shortage of the S6 Edge and huge stocks of unpurchased Galaxy S6 smartphones across the globe.

Samsung said, “Although revenue increased, profits increased marginally [quarter over quarter], due to supply difficulties from higher-than-expected market demand for the Galaxy S6 Edge, as well as increased marketing expenditures that typically accompany flagship product launches.”
Although the company made efforts to remedy the situation, the unexpected supply boost led to higher supply costs, bringing down the smartphone maker’s profits.

Competition also reared its ugly head in the smartphone maker’s sales books. On the high end, Sammy lost market share to Apple and its trendy iPhone brand. At the lower end, increased production of cheaper smartphones by emerging companies stifled growth.

Operating in the cut throat competitive market has become tougher and Samsung is bracing its shareholders for tougher times by issuing early warnings.

Samsung said “While [the second half of] 2015 is expected to present mounting challenges, the company will try to improve earnings.”

Part of Samsung’s strategy to combat the glut in demand is to unveil a new set of high-end high-priced smart phones, their oncoming Galaxy Note 5 tablet and the reduction of pricing on their low end phones. Already, Sammy’s phone prices have dropped by over 10 per cent to below $300 compared to the iPhone’s price rise by more than $100 in the last year.

Sammy has issued another warning for the coming third quarter as it struggles to even out market demand and supply, while unveiling new products. Analysts are in agreement, things are bound to get worse before they do get better for the Korean company.

First Pieces Of Doomed MH370 Flight May Have Been Found Near Madagascar

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First Pieces Of Doomed MH370 Flight May Have Been Found Near Madagascar

In a major development in one of the greatest aviation mysteries in history, it is possible that the first physical piece of evidence may have been recovered. On Wednesday, at about 9:30 A.M. local time, a group of beach cleaners on Reunion Island stumbled upon a piece of an airplane wing that could be part of missing Malaysian Flight MH370. Analysts say the flaperon, a portion of a plane’s wing, likely belongs to a Boeing 777. If it confirmed that it is part of a 777, it likely belongs to MH370.

MH370 suddenly disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 8, 2014 bound for Beijing, China. The plane had 239 people onboard. Authorities are still baffled as to why the plan suddenly turned dramatically off course over the area between Malaysia and Vietnam before losing all communication and detection with air traffic control. They also do not know where the plane eventually ended its journey.

An international team of experts used the principles of ocean currents and satellite data to eventually calculate that the plan likely went down in the southern Indian Ocean. Since the disappearance of the plane, Australia has been leading the search for the aircraft, and teams have focused their efforts painstakingly searching the ocean floor in the Indian Ocean. The search area is approximately 2,300 miles from where the debris was found Wednesday morning. Since the plane’s disappearance, Australia, Malaysia, the United States and other countries have spent tens of millions of dollars searching for the missing plane.

Although officials are cautiously optimistic that the debris is a piece of the missing plane, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak went so far as to say that the debris is “very likely from a Boeing 777.” If it is from a 777, it is very likely from MH370 because there have been very few 777 crashes, and none have occurred near the area where MH370 is suspected to have gone down. The Malaysian Transport Ministry cautioned that “until there is tangible and irrefutable evidence that the flaperon does belong to the missing aircraft, it would be premature to speculate.”

Australian officials hopes to hear by the weekend definitively whether the debris is from MH370.

Genetically Modified Rice Discovered That Produces Higher Yields While Cutting 90% Of Greenhouse Gases

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Genetically Modified Rice Discovered That Produces Higher Yields While Cutting 90% Of Greenhouse Gases

Scientists in China have come up with a new genetically modified breed of rice that can produce higher yields and starch content while reducing methane gas emissions. The new breed of rice has been heralded as the best way to increase food production for the growing masses without compromising on quality or the environment.

Talk of greenhouses gases and methane immediately comes to mind. Methane is one of the largest contributors to ozone layer depletion known to man. Traditional reserves for methane are usually linked to naturally occurring gases and livestock. However, rice farming is also one of the largest sources of methane gas.

Roots of rice plants release organic compounds that decompose and are eaten by microbes in the muck of rice paddies, turning them into methane. What have been known for long as simply rice paddies are actually human controlled wetlands contributing to methane gas emissions on a global scale.

Researchers led by Jun Su, Xia Yan and Chanquan Hu from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have found an answer for this phenomenon: a gene found in barley.
Through the gene occurring naturally in barley, the scientists sought to genetically modify rice plants to reduce methane production.

The researchers planted several hybrid rice plants across several areas, monitoring their growth. They also checked their methane gas emissions. The results were startling.

At the baseline, the microbes present at the roots of the plants reduced by over a half, completely starved of food. Methane gas emissions reduced by 90 to 99 per cent depending on the plant’s growth stage. But what was happening above ground?

They discovered that the barley gene concentrated above ground growth leading to stronger flower clusters and higher yield. The hybrid plants resulted in higher yields per plant-approximately 50 per cent more in terms of weight. The starch content present was also higher than for ordinary rice seeds. Per seed, starch content increased by 10 per cent. Conclusively, above ground weight went up by 30 per cent while below ground weight decreased by 35 per cent.

Methane gas emissions have been a poignant problem with rice plantations worldwide. Conventional methods of combating their emission bore no fruit as they led to lower yields, leading many farmers to abandon these methods completely. With the new research, scientists are hoping to end greenhouse gas emissions at the plantations once and for all.

Giant New Oil Spill Spotted Off The Coast Of California

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A “very large” oil slick was spotted along the coast of Santa Barbara, Southern California on Wednesday, with initial reports putting the spill at about two miles long and just yards away from where a May oil spill leaked 21,000 gallons of oil into the ocean, completely damaging the coast’s ecosystem.

The spill was first spotted off the beach in Goleta on Wednesday morning at around 10am. Santa Barbara County Fire department reported being alerted by calls from people complaining about the smell of oil along the coastline near the University of California.

Firefighters arrived at the scene to find two kayakers coming ashore with their feet and boat covered in oil.

Immediately, a marine safety team was dispatched to investigate the cause of the oil leak. No clear indication has been given of its source.

Petty Officer 1st class Sondra-Kay Kneen said of the investigations, “I’m not sure when we’ll find out.”

Initial aerial photos of the slick showed it floating close to Santa Barbara’s Platform Holly oil facility. Officials from Venoco Inc., which operates the facility have refuted any incidents at their facility.

According to officials, the platform was shut down and there was no oil in its pipeline. Zach Shulman, company director for corporate finance and investor relations said, “Absent another source, the sheen is most likely due to natural seepage, which can vary from day-to-day.”

Earlier this year on May 19, an onshore pipeline burst open, releasing 100,000 gallons of pure crude, 21,000 gallons of which leaked into the ocean. The resulting environmental impact was nerve wracking.

The entire coast line reeked of oil, beaches and campgrounds were closed, commercial fishing was banned and nearly 300 aquatic mammals and birds died. It would be weeks before the oil could be cleared.

Clean up costs for the spill were estimated at $92 million. Refugio, one of the hardest hit beaches, reopened only two weeks ago.

Officer Kneen, in clarifying the extent of the current sheen, reported that it had not come ashore. She also added that it would clear naturally as it wasn’t “thick enough to scoop up.”

Oil slicks around the Santa Barbara coastline occur frequently. The region is blessed with abundant reserves of offshore oil, making it prone to the environmentally degrading seepages. Operations along the town’ coastline continue uninhibited as a report on the cause of the seepage is awaited.

Amazon Shows Its Dead Serious About TV After Luring Hit Show Top Gear Away From Netflix

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Amazon Shows Its Dead Serious About TV After Luring Hit Show Top Gear Away From Netflix

In a major coup for Amazon, it has finalized a three-year deal with the stars and producer of the BBC hit, Top Gear. Amazon Prime Video beat out other suitors, including ITV, Hulu and Netflix, despite bookmakers’ predictions that Netflix had the edge. In fact, Netflix was a 6-4 favorite over Amazon or Hulu. Speculation had been mounting over the team’s next move, and the deal with Amazon comes as a surprise to many media analysts, who had considered the streaming service an outside contender for Jeremy Clarkson’s signature. It is not yet apparent as to why Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May chose Amazon over its competitors, but one can speculate that Amazon made a deal the trio could not refuse.

Top Gear, one of the BBC’s most watched shows, aired on the British channel for 21 seasons. The show generated over $78 million for BBC Worldwide. Its stars, Clarkson, Hammond and May won millions of viewers’ hearts with their personalities, automotive knowledge and camaraderie. Because of that goodwill, Amazon officials are not worried about not being allowed to take the Top Gear name with them. Former Top Gear executive producer, Andy William stated that, “[t]he show went global because of Richard, James and Jeremy, and grew at a time when channel loyalty, schedules, all those pillars of traditional TV watching, have fallen away . . . [They] are looking for a global platform.”

The move to Amazon comes after Clarkson was abruptly fired by BBC after he punched one of the show’s producers in the face over a hot meal. Specifically, the producer failed to get the star a hot dinner after a long day of filming, and the two got into a brawl. Although BBC made very generous offers to Hammond and May to remain with Top Gear, the two stated that no amount of money would persuade them to stay with BBC without Clarkson. Hence the move to another platform.

Amazon is attempting to take on Netflix by airing more original content and attracting major projects. Jay Marine, vice-president of Amazon Prime Video in Europe stated that, “[c]ustomers told us they wanted to see the [Top Gear] team back on screen, and [Amazon] is excited to make that happen. . . Millions of Prime members are already enjoying [its] ground-breaking original shows. [It] can’t wait to see what Jeremy, Richard, James and the team will create in what is sure to be one of the most globally anticipated shows of 2016. . .[Amazon’s] approach is to give programme makers creative freedom to be innovative and make the shows they want to make. This is just the start, [viewers] should expect to see more world-leading talent and the biggest shows on Prime Video.”

Amazon’s mission statement seems to be extremely similar to that of Netflix. It is likely that competition between the two companies will heat up as both try to attract the entertainment industry’s top stars and talent.

Politicians Defend Their Own As Rep. Fattah Indicted For Racketeering

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Politicians Defend Their Own As Rep. Fattah Indicted For Racketeering

Democratic Congressman Chaka Fattah was indicted along with four associates Wednesday on racketeering conspiracy charges involving the misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grant money to further personal and political interests.

The five indictments detail schemes which include the acceptance of an illegal loan of $1 million for Rep. Fattah’s failed campaign for Mayor in 2007. The loan, from a “wealthy supporter”, was repaid by “charitable and federal grant funds” through a nonprofit which Fattah founded and controlled, said U.S. Attorney David Memeger.

Federal authorities went on to accuse Fattah, who represents parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, PA, of using his influence to seek a $15 million federal grant for a political consultant as part of a plan to “extinguish” a debt of $150,000 Fattah owed to him. Fattah also allegedly accepted an $18,000 bribe in return for his attempt to secure an ambassadorship or appointment to the U.S. Trades Commission for a lobbyist. Furthermore, Fattah was accused of using funds from his mayoral and congressional campaigns to repay a $23,000 student loan for his son, Chaka “Chip” Fattah, Jr.

Fattah roundly denied the charges, smiling as he told reporters in Washington, “I’ll stand by my previous statement that I’ve never been involved in any wrongdoing, any unlawful activity, any misappropriation of federal funds.

Fattah added “This is not Deflategate”, referring to the New England Patriots Super Bowl cheating scandal. Fattah said his work for his constituents was of primary importance, and that he would “try not to have it be a distraction.” Fattah’s lawyer Luther Weaver said that he could not provide comment since he had not yet seen the indictment.

Today’s indictments have been years in the making. Federal subpoenas have been issued to Fattah’s office,. and there has been much legal wrangling over access to work e-mails regarding cases against Fattah, Jr. and his two closest political advisors during Fattah’s mayoral campaign. Fattah has maintained his innocence throughout the investigations, saying that federal prosecutors were pursuing charges for personal reasons.

Fattah’s wife, NBC 10 News anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, is currently on leave from her position, having been mentioned throughout the 85-page indictment, including as a participant in a scheme to falsely report the $18,000 sale of her Porsche Carrera Convertible to a lobbyist.

The other four persons indicted were Bonnie Bowser, Fattah’s chief-of-staff; Karen Nicholas, a former staffer; Herbert Vederman, a lobbyist and deputy mayor during the tenure of Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell; and Robert Brand, who runs a technology company. Mr. Vederman’s attorney Catherine M. Recker said that he will plead innocent, accusing the government of cherry-picking facts “to support its cynical view of friendship and wrongly labeled it bribery.

Outside City Hall, Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter, a 35-year colleague of Fattah, praised the Congressman a longtime champion for the city and the nation.

“I’ve said many, many times…Chaka Fattah has probably helped more children go to college than any other member of the U.S. Congress,” Nutter said. He declined to comment further on the investigation, or on whether Fattah should step down from his seat.

Fattah earned further praise from U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who called Fattah a “tireless and effective advocate for America’s hardworking families” and said she found the indictment “deeply saddening”. She told reporters that Fattah has already stepped down as the ranking Democratic member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee. Philadelphia Democratic Party Chairman Rep. Robert Brady called the indictment “a major loss for the city”, saying that hearing of the indictment on Wednesday morning “knocked [him] for a loop.”

Federal officials stressed the importance of the indictment. Leslie Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department said “Corruption like what is charged today really shakes public confidence.”

Edward Hanko, the special agent-in-charge at the FBI’s Philadelphia Office, said “As citizens, we expect honest services from those elected to represent us at all levels of government.” He called the alleged crimes and subsequent cover-ups “a breach of the public trust.”

Study Finds Fifteen Per Cent Of Americans Don’t Use The Internet

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Study Finds Fifteen Per Cent Of Americans Don’t Use The Internet

An stunning 15 per cent of Americans do not use the internet according to a new study by Pew Research that revealed close to 47 million U.S. citizens simply don’t go online. Age, internet costs and regional demographics are chiefly to blame.

The number of people not on the internet has remained steady since 2013. According to Pew, “the size of this group (of non-Internet users) has changed little over the past three years, despite recent government and social service programs to encourage Internet adoption.”

So who exactly are they? The elderly, accustomed to life without the internet, make up a large number. The research revealed that 40 per cent of people aged 65 and older do not go online. This compares with just 3 per cent of 18-29 year old millennials, who use the connection technology in virtually all aspects of their life.

While 40 per cent may seem large, Pew found that the figure has actually gone down, with more and more seniors getting connected. In 2000, 86 per cent of Americans aged above 65 were not online.

The cost of internet access has been blamed as the prime reason for the poor uptake of broadband connectivity. The research revealed that low income people were less likely to use internet than the more affluent. One out of every four people earning less than $30,000 a year was unconnected. The proportion was eight times less than that of the wealthier demographic.

Generally, the cost of internet connection has gone down. Internet enabled technology costs have declined, but not enough for everyone. Reuters reports that consumers pay an average of $50 monthly for broadband, which is $10 more than what was paid 10 years ago.

Other factors were found to play a role in determining online access. An example is the rural-metropolitan demographic. 24 per cent of rural individuals did not have access to the web while only 13 per cent of the urban folk were offline.

Whites and Asian Americans were the most likely to use the internet while only one in five African Americans and only 18 per cent of Hispanics went online.

In general terms, the number of Americans actively using the internet has increased. In 2000, only half of the U.S. citizens used the internet. Today the figure is way up at 85 per cent.

Pew researchers said, “Despite some groups having persistently lower rates of Internet adoption, the vast majority of Americans are online.”

The study was conducted by polling 5,005 adults in 2015. The margin of error has been placed at 1.6 percentage points.

An increasing uptake of connectivity by Americans shows just how far digital connection has come. Only time will tell whether the remaining 15 per cent will be roped into the fold, as politicians and major internet companies steadily push to connect 100 per cent of the population.

Hacked Federal Employees Swamp Identity Theft Protection Program

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Hacked Federal Employees Swamp Identity Theft Protection Program

In the wake of the devastating hack of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), nearly 22 percent of the 4.2 million victims who had their personal information exposed subsequently enrolled with CSID, a company that provides credit and identity theft protection services. Prior to the OPM hack, only between 3-5 percent of victims opted into these services.

Furthermore, an OPM spokesman said that even those who did not proactively enroll will receive identity restoration services, which automatically restore credit and assist with any legal proceedings in the event of personal information being used for nefarious purposes.

The number of victims signing up for post-hack protections is quite unprecedented–960,000 victims signed up for CSID services, nearly a quarter of all those hacked. By comparison, only 3 percent of the 3.5 million victims of a recent Texas comptroller’s office hack signed up for CSID services. The demand for such services is even lower in the private sector: in the recent massive hack of the insurance giant Anthem, only 0.5 percent of the 80 million victims who had their information exposed enrolled in protection services.

In an interview with Government Executive, CSID co-founder and President Joe Ross attributed the high rate of enrollment to a combination of “circumstances and calculated effort.”

After the hack, CSID collaborated with OPM to ensure that every current and former employee affected would receive a notification via email or Postal Service. If a “return-to-sender” message was encountered, CSID went into the USPS national registry to attempt to find an updated address. These measures, coupled with heavy press coverage, drove numbers of enrollment to unexpected levels, Ross explained.

Ross said that neither CSID nor OPM made a concerted effort to encourage those contacted victims to enroll, however CSID set up an easy-to-use Web portal for that purpose. Still, CSID was “caught off guard” by the number of individuals enrolling for protection services; both employees and their advocates began complaining of long wait times and poor customer service.

Winvale, the company that won OPM’s contract and in turn contracted CSID, collected a flat fee of $21 million. Similarly, CSID collected a flat fee based on the size of the hacked population.

Ross said that CSID’s services go beyond simple monitoring of credit, remarking “Your IPhone can do that.” Hack victims will be instantly notified if their name or address is falsely given in connection to a crime or added to a sex offender list. Notifications will also be sent in the event of address changes, or if personal information is posted on the “Dark Web.”

OPM has started “ongoing discussions” with bidding candidates for a contractor that will offer protection services to the 21.5 million people affected by the background investigations data breach, which included not only federal employees and contractors, but their family members as well as applicants. Potential candidates are warned that their services will have to be geared for an extraordinarily high number of users, and that the demand for services could be in excess of 20 percent. Bidders on the new OPM contract will have to take higher enrollment rates into account, says Ross, noting that “we set the bar, not just for the take rate but also the breach response product.”

Winvale CEO Kevin Lancaster confirmed to Government Executive that his company is already expected to make an attempt for this second contract, saying that while the victims of the government hack “took it a lot more serious”, he hopes that the victims of the second hack will react in a similar fashion, “because this is a serious problem.”

Army Testing Frightening New Noise Cannon As Push To Digital Weapons Continues

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The U.S military is due to begin tests on a new weapon designed not to kill the enemy but frighten them into a state of retreat. The weapon is known as the Laser-Induced Plasma Effect (LIPE) or LIPE, and is currently being fine tuned by two U.S companies that have been awarded $1.5 million each to do so.

LIPE was invented by the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWD), an organization that has been given the task of inventing options for checkpoint security and crowd control. The weapon “fires” a 130-decibel roar right into your face without you being able to identify where the sound originates from.

That noise comes from a manipulation of energy and matter which produces and fires extremely short bursts of directed high energy at a target – a person, an object or an area of space. The energy separates electrons and nuclei at the target to create a blue ball of plasma which is then hit with pulses of directed laser energy which manipulates the ball into creating a noise that appears to come from nowhere.

JNLWD technology chief David Law said “We’ve demonstrated it in the lab at very short ranges. But we haven’t been able to demonstrate it at even 100 meters. That’s the next step.”

That step will cost $3 million which will be shared by Physical Optics Corp, which will develop the lighting effects, and Tucson headquartered company GEOST, which will work on the sound aspect.

LIPE isn’t the first attempt by the U.S. military to use plasma matter. In 2002 ,JNLWD developed a program named the Pulsed Energy Projectile which the New Scientist magazine reported at the time as a sound effect to “literally knock rioters off their feet.” Then in 2004, the U.S. Navy trialed plasma’s properties as a missile deflector.

Both of these early plasma weapons required enormous power and weighed in excess of 500 pounds but over the years have been refined.

“What we do with these prototypes to date is power them off of just a regular car battery. They don’t take a lot of energy, but there is … very high peak power, which is what makes this thing work,” said Law.

“Current plasmas maybe achieve 90 to 100 decibels … we are trying to get to be around 130 or a little more. We’ve been working this in bits and pieces since 2009, but it really has been just over the past couple years that the laser technology has matured enough to be able to potentially get this kind of sound out.”

Law said the goal is to have LIPEs ready for full testing by May, 2016.

Kentucky Man Arrested For Shooting Down Drone Highlights Gaps In Legal System

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A Hillview, Kentucky resident has been arrested for shooting down a drone that was hovering over his home – and he’s not going to apologize for it. The case raises fresh legal and ethical issues over behavior relating to the use of drones and citizens’ expectations of privacy in the drone era.

William Meredith shot down the drone at his home, on Sunday night, close to the Smith Lane intersection in Earlywood Way in Bullitt County.

Police from the local Hillview station were first alerted by a call from a resident complaining of a firearm. When the local police arrived, Meredith told them that he had just shot down a drone hovering above his property.

Police records indicate that the owner of the flying drone said he launched the drone to get better pictures of his neighbor’s house. On inquiry, he further claimed the drone cost over $1,800.

The police arrested Meredith and charged him with first degree wanton endangerment and first degree criminal mischief. He was later booked into Bullitt County Detention Center.

In an interview with WDRB News, Meredith said he had no apologies for his actions.

He said he was first alerted of the hovering drone by his children who were out playing with the neighbors. When he went out to see it, he found the drone flying over his neighbor’s property before stopping, just hovering there and moving on to the next house. He strongly felt that this was a blatant breach on his and his neighbors’ right to privacy.

“I went and got my shotgun and I said, ‘I’m not going to do anything unless it’s directly over my property. Within a minute or so, here it came,” he said. “It was hovering over top of my property, and I shot it out of the sky.”

It was a short while later before the police knocked on his door, whisking Meredith off to detention.

Detective Charles McWhirter of the Hillview Police said it was illegal to fire a gun in the city. “We do have a city ordinance against discharging firearms in the city, but the officer made an arrest for a Kentucky Revised Statute violation,” said McWhirter.

Meredith remains unapologetic and plans to take the matter to court. “You know, when you’re in your own property, within a six-foot privacy fence, you have the expectation of privacy. We don’t know if he was looking at the girls. We don’t know if he was looking for something to steal. To me, it was the same as trespassing.”

He further added, “We’re not going to let it go. I believe there are rules that need to be put into place and the situation needs to be addressed.”

Drones and their implications on Americans’ right to privacy have been a widely debated topic in the digital age. Worries that individuals’ right to privacy are being breached every day by the hovering aircraft have been shared with reluctant authorities to no avail. Laws that put these acts of trespassing in their place seem increasingly necessary as legal definitions are stretched far beyond their original intent.

World’s Insatiable Demand For Gold Is Causing Catastrophic Rainforest Loss

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World’s Insatiable Demand For Gold Is Causing Catastrophic Rainforest Loss

A flurry of gold mining has caused rapid deforestation of tropical rain forests in South America, raising concerns about the environmental impacts and sustainability of mining the world’s most popular metal.

A study published in Environmental Research Letters, a journal by IOP Publishing, uncovered the shocking extent of deforestation taking place in South America as a result of increased gold production.

Conducted by researchers from University of Puerto Rico, the study showsed that between 2000 and 2013, close to 650 square miles of indigenous rainforest was lost due to gold mining in South America. Of the lost amount, the highest depreciation in forest cover occurred just after the 2007 financial crisis, indicating a relationship between increased gold exploration and financial crises.

The report also highlighted the areas prone to the highest rates of deforestation. These were the Guianan forest, the Tapajos-Xingu forest, the Magdalena Valley and the Southwest Amazon, all major tropical forest sites and representing 89 per cent of the areas that have faced deforestation.

According to Nora Alvarez-Berrios, lead researcher of the study, “Although the loss of forest due to mining is smaller in extent compared to deforestation caused by other land uses, such as agriculture or grazing areas, deforestation due to mining is occurring in some of the most biologically diverse regions in the tropics. For example, in the Madre de Dios Region in Perú, one hectare of forest can hold up to 300 species of trees.”

The increased tree cutting has been as a result of a consistent rise in the demand for gold worldwide. To meet this demand, production of gold rose from 2445 metric tons to 2770 metric tons over the same period. The price of gold over the years has reflected its increased demand, shooting from $250 an ounce in 2000 to $1300 for the same ounce in 2013.

Stimulated mining activities have seen tropical rainforests replaced with mines and vegetation with roads for transporting the precious mineral. This has created grave environmental impacts in South America including the consistent loss of biodiversity, release of carbon dioxide, inhibited vegetation growth and altered rainfall patterns.

Awareness must be spread to protect the tropical rainforests and the environment from complete depletion. According to the researchers, the best way to do so is to sensitize gold products purchasers on the social impacts of sustained purchasing on tropical deforestation.

Sarah Palin’s PAC Caught Contributing Just A Tiny Fraction Of Donations To Candidates

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Sarah Palin’s PAC Caught Contributing Just A Tiny Fraction Of Donations To Candidates

Sarah Palin’s political action committee, known as SarahPAC, has contributed more money fortifying its own existence or to Palin personally instead of funding GOP candidates across the country. Despite SarahPAC’s recent comments that donations to the committee will be used to “fight against liberals like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders,” and to “stop the illegal invasion,” and further help “defund and investigate Planned Parenthood,” among others, the committee has never given more than a small percentage of its income to the Republicans it supports.

Although the SarahPAC recently reported that it has $562,000 cash on hand, which is better than what the majority of political committees could hope for, it is the lowest total since Palin founded the committee in 2009. Since late 2009, SarahPAC has almost always reported greater than $1 million on its books and has never had less than $800,000 in its accounts. The decline in funds coincides with Palin’s falling out of the public eye. In June, Fox News decided not to renew Palin’s contract as a contributor and the Sarah Palin Channel, a subscription only, online television feed, is no longer running as of this week.

Despite the SarahPAC’s decline in funds, Palin still has loyal followers, especially on social media. Palin is an avid Facebook user and over 4.4 million people have liked her page, where she routinely posts comments about the SarahPAC.

If SarahPAC only contributes a tiny percentage of its money to Republican candidates, the question arises as to where the rest of the expenditures are going. The committee reports a number of pricy expenditures including the following: over $230,000 on consultants; almost $140,000 on direct mail; approximately $82,000 on travel and accommodations for Palin and her crew, including airfare, hotels, car rentals and travel agents; about $48,000 on speech writing; and almost $37,500 on Internet fundraising.

Palin recently posted on her Facebook page that “thanks to [her follower’s] support, SarahPAC has grown to become one of the strongest forces within conservative politics. Together we are working hard to support and elect conservative leaders who will fight for what’s right in America!”

Apparently much of the “support” she receives by way of donations goes to the fund itself and to support Palin personally rather than the election of conservative leaders whom the committee claims to support.

Baby Boomers Facing Hunger, Unemployment and Bad Health

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Baby Boomers Facing Hunger, Unemployment and Bad Health

The image of the United States of America, supposedly the richest country in the world, has taken a slap in the face with the release of a study that shows a stunning 8 million baby boomers are going hungry and are turning to charity for food.

The baby boomer generation (people aged between 50 and 64) were born at a time when America was going through an unprecedented period of economic growth and it was thought they would never have to face hardships as their parents and grandparents had done after the depression and two world wars.

The study produced and released by Feeding America – a nonprofit network of food banks – with funding from the AARP Foundation, found that baby boomers were also facing “serious health and economic challenges” with the main contributing factors being unemployment, housing shortages and poor health.

According to the report, which surveyed 60,000 people, two-thirds had been unemployed over the last year, 73% said they were in poor health, and 67% reported they lived in households with a yearly income under $20,000.

President of Feed American, Matt Knott said “Our network serves 13 million older adults and we expect that number to rise. This is absolutely the right time to be taking a hard look at the data to determine the challenges our mature clients face.”

Baby boomers are not yet eligible for federal programs like Medicare or social security.

The lead author of the report Professor Dana King, who is chair of West Virginia University’s Department of Family Medicine said “Increasing chronic disease and disability in baby boomers can have consequences beyond poor health and higher medical bills. Disability can lead to unemployment and lower income, and lower income can lead to having less money for essentials such as food.”

“Addressing the system-wide economic issues is obviously needed. The private sector can help by promoting workplace wellness and contributing to community public health programs that encourage regular exercise and healthy diet habits in the adult working population,” said Professor King.

Experts interviewed on the situation said businesses had a role to play in addressing the problem by along with employing older adults also helping fund programs aimed at improving the health of boomers.

3,500 Migrants Attempt To Storm Chunnel In Bid For British Residency

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3,500 Migrants Attempt To Storm Chunnel In Bid For British Residency

Some 3,500 migrants attempted to enter the UK this week via the 31 mile long Channel Tunnel connecting Calais, France with Folkstone, England. The surge brings the total for the year to 35,000. Also known as the “Chunnel,” migrants attempting to cross via the tunnel have long used Calais as a gathering place, reportedly cutting fencing in the area in repeated attempts to cross. The journey can be dangerous and just recently a 23 year-old woman from Eritrea was killed in a car impact while crossing, the eighth person to die since June 1st. While short term fixes to the problem are being made there is currently no long term strategy to prevent the conditions that create these migrants.

The addition of new barriers and lighting is being implemented to prevent injuries and deaths, with the UK government contributing $26.5 million for increased security of the Eurotunnel. With improved lighting it is hoped that truck drivers will be able to spot migrants who attempt to sneak on board during the night.

British Home Secretary Theresa May stated that both France and Great Britain must combine their efforts, “to return migrants, particularly to West Africa, to ensure that people see that making this journey does not lead to them coming to Europe and being able to settle in Europe.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron tried Wednesday to calm the frustrations of travelers on their summer holiday that are having to deal with frequent traffic disruptions.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve illustrated that prevention is the only real solution to the problem, “If we want to solve this problem in Calais, if we want to prevent the networks of smugglers from driving vulnerable men, women and kids to Calais, we need to work on this problem in its origin.”

Mainland Europe has seen a flood of migrants this year traveling by boat yet the issue is now beginning to reach as far the United Kingdom, increasing pressure on Europe as a group to come up with a long term solution to the problem.

Consulting Giant Accenture Latest To Scrap Employee Rankings, Annual Performance Reviews

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Consulting Giant Accenture Latest To Scrap Employee Rankings, Annual Performance Reviews

Starting in September professional services firm Accenture, one of the largest companies in the world, will be eliminating the practice of annual reviews and instead focus on giving reviews on performance as needed. The company will also be scrapping the practice of employee rankings, following in the footsteps of software giant Microsoft, which ceased its ranking system two years ago. Accenture joins many other Fortune 500 companies who have stopped ranking their employees after research showed that the practice wasn’t improving their performance.

Accenture CEO Pierre Nanterme stated about the new policy, “All this terminology of rankings—forcing rankings along some distribution curve or whatever—we’re done with that. We’re going to evaluate you in your role, not vis-à-vis someone else who might work in Washington, who might work in Bangalore. It’s irrelevant. It should be about you.”

In a similar move, consulting and accounting firm Deloitte stated in March that they would be remove rankings from their evaluations and also move away from the annual reviews toward an ongoing evaluation process.

Management research firm CEB found that the employees that do best in performance reviews are usually the most narcissistic and self-promoting. After crunching the numbers on their performance review research, CEB also found that at a company of 10,000 employees, $35 million will be spent per year to conduct their reviews. Nanterme emphasized the point, “The process is too heavy, too costly for the outcome. And the outcome is not great.”

Despite the change in company policy, the advantages will not come in the form of saving time and money on employee evaluations, but instead on the return on investment from the new method itself. HR leader Brian Kropp from CEB stated, “The smartest companies are asking, how do we get the best value out of the time and money we are spending?”

Accenture acknowledged all this by realizing that performance reviews that only occur once a year, are too far removed from the behavior they are intended to evaluate, which led them to implemented their ongoing review policy, where staff are reviewed at the conclusion of each assignment rather than at the end of the year.

“It’s all about selecting the person. And if you believe you selected the right person, then you give that person the freedom, the authority, the delegation to innovate and to lead with some very simple measure,” Nanterme said.

U.S. Military Making Huge Push Into Directed Energy Weapons

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The U.S. military is making an unprecedented effort to develop and use directed energy weapons, according to reports from U.S. lawmakers. The new class of weapons using laser, microwave and other directed energy technology are currently being tested by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as the Marine Corps.

Commander for the Continental U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, Lieutenant General William Etter, said “Directed energy brings the dawn of an entirely new era in defense.”

Directed energy weapons use focused energy in the form of microwaves, lasers, radio waves, electromagnetic radiation, particle or sound beams. Although Lasers are already used to guide bombs, in the future they would be used as weapons themselves.

Etter said although work on these weapons has been going on for decades, earlier technology challenges were finally being overcome.

He said directed energy weapons could be cheaper than conventional weapons, speed up response time to attacks, and cut civilian deaths.

Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall said funding for directed energy programs would be $300 million per year.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the U.S. Navy Secretary said a laser already used on the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf can destroy small boats and aerial vehicles, as well as be used as a telescope. He said a an electrically powered electromagnetic projectile launcher would be tested next year.

Mabus said Iran was already using lasers to target ships and commercial airliners which meant the U.S needed to speed up acquisition processes to ensure it stayed ahead of potential enemies.

According to the vice commander of U.S. Air Combat Command, Major General Jerry Harris, the Air Force has developed a highly-powered microwave weapon that could be used to disperse crowds without killing people by quickly raising body temperature with the weapon being able to be used on drones and/or other aircraft.

Chinese State Hackers Fingered In Attack On Health Insurer Anthem

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Internet security firm Symantec says it has evidence which shows that Chinese state sponsored hackers stole data on 70 million clients of health insurance giant Anthem.

Labeling the hackers the Black Vine group, Symantec said the group’s espionage activities were ultra-sophisticated and that in what is considered unusual behavior for hackers, the group is very keen to share its hacking secrets with rival hackers. Black Vine had access to Anthem’s files for 300 days before the hack was discovered.

Jon DiMaggio, Symantec’s lead researcher, said The Black Vine group is based in Beijing and possibly has members with ties to rival security company TopSec , which in the past has hired Chinese hackers.

“Based on the samples analysed in our investigation, Symantec identified that the Black Vine malware variant known as Mivast was used in the Anthem breach. Open source data suggests that some actors of Black Vine may be associated with a Beijing-based company known as Topsec.” said DiMaggio.

He said other on-line evidence shows Black Vine also has members who work for Beijing’s secretive National Ministry of State Security (MSS), and that breached data from the Anthem hack may be used to target high profile Anthem clients.

A statement released by Symantec said “If the MSS was involved, we can deduce that the Anthem hack could have been for the purposes of gathering sensitive information for follow-on HUMINT targeting via blackmail, asset recruitment or technical targeting operations against individuals at home.”

Symantec also claimed that four cyber attacked in 2012 and 2014 by Black Vine suggests it is connected to other hacking groups ” built on shared goals” with the groups having worked together. It said in February 2014, Black Vine hacked a U.S. aerospace firm just two days after a separate group hacked into the US Veterans of Foreign Wars computer system.

“The simultaneous attacks between different attack groups seen in 2012 and 2014 exploited the same zero-day vulnerabilities at the same time, but delivered different malware. The malware used in these campaigns are believed to be unique and customized to each group. However, the concurrent use of exploits suggests a shared access to zero-day exploits between all of these groups,” read the Symantec statement.

It said Black Vine targets organisations connected with healthcare, energy, and aerospace, all of which have been heavily attacked by Chinese cyber warriors over the past ten years.

Brady Reaffirms Innocence As Four Game Suspension Left Standing

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Brady Reaffirms Innocence As Four Game Suspension Left Standing

Earlier this morning, Tom Brady released his much anticipated response to the NFL’s decision to uphold his four-game suspension. The NFL’s finding that Brady “probably” had “general awareness” of misconduct regarding the New England Patriots’ use of underinflated footballs holds, at least for the moment. In his heartfelt statement, Brady stated unequivocally that, “[he] did nothing wrong and no one in the Patriots organization did either.” This statement is the latest development in so called “Deflategate” and only further fuels the fire surrounding the biggest sports story in the country.

The NFL’s 20-page decision on Brady’s appeal was handed down over one month after the star quarterback’s appeal hearing and only one day before the Patriots’ training camp begins. The decision to uphold the suspension rehashed old evidence and cited new evidence that on or shortly before March 6th, the day Brady was interviewed by the NFL’s supposedly neutral investigative team, Brady instructed his assistant to destroy his cellphone he had been using since early November 2014. The destroyed phone was used by Brady during the period including the Patriots’ AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts, where the Colts accused the Patriots of using slightly underinflated footballs.

Goodell said that Brady was aware of, and took steps to support, the actions of team employees to deflate game footballs below the levels allowed under NFL rules. The report specifically states that, “[t]he evidence fully supports [Goodell’s] findings that (I) Mr. Brady participated in a scheme to tamper with the game balls after they had been approved by the game officials for use in the AFC Championship Game and (2) Mr. Brady willfully obstructed the investigation by, among other things, affirmatively arranging for destruction of his cellphone knowing that it contained potentially relevant information that had been requested by the investigators . . . All of this indisputably constitutes conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and public confidence in, the game of professional football.”

In response to the accusation, Brady stated that “[he] replaced [his] broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER [his] attorneys made it clear to the NFL that [his] actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. . .To suggest that [he] destroyed a phone to avoid giving the NFL information it requested is completely wrong.”

In light of the NFL’s decision, the NFL Players Association (“NFLPA”) and Brady have authorized his legal team to file a lawsuit in federal court, where he hopes to get an injunction of the four-game suspension that will allow him to play in games while the matter makes it way through court. The basis of the lawsuit will center around the process used by the NFL to make its decision about Brady’s supposed guilt.

Both legal and sports analysts alike have differing opinions regarding Brady’s likelihood of success in court. Some analysts believe Brady and the union have a strong case and an excellent chance of winning. The NFLPA can argue that the finding by NFL-appointed investigator Ted Wells that Brady probably was at least generally aware of a football-deflation scheme is not legally sufficient for the discipline that was imposed. The NFLPA can also argue that the NFL’s guidelines for handling footballs apply to teams, and not to players, and that Brady was given an arbitrary punishment without a precedent. Additionally, the union can harshly attack the league’s approach to explaining the science related to the possible impact of weather conditions on football deflation.

Those who believe that Brady’s appeal will be unsuccessful is because federal courts generally do not like to get involved in privately arbitrated manners. ESPN legal analyst Lester Munson stated that, “[a]lthough [Brady] enjoys top-of-the-line legal representation and his lawyers will file a brilliantly written lawsuit, his effort to stop the suspension is doomed. There are two reasons why: First, federal judges are reluctant to reconsider the rulings of arbitrators; second, Goodell produced a decision on Brady that is brilliantly reasoned, meticulously detailed, and well-written. Goodell’s recitation of the evidence of the tampering with game balls is powerful, and his description of Brady’s attempt at a cover-up is persuasive.”

In an effort to beat Brady to the punch, the NFL filed a lawsuit in New York to affirm its decision to uphold the four-game suspension. The NFLPA was likely to file its suit in Massachusetts, where Brady has home field advantage, or Minnesota, where the federal court has oftentimes ruled against the NFL and in favor of the players.

At this point, only time will tell whether Brady gets to clear his name and continue his dominance both on and off the field. Regardless of the outcome one thing appears certain – an angry Tom Brady is one to be feared on the field. When he gets on the field, whether in Game 1 or Game 5, you can be sure he will be more prepared than ever and determined to continue his amazing run as quarterback of one the greatest football franchises ever to play the game.

Internet Condemns American Trophy Hunter Accused Of Killing Prized Lion

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The killing of Cecil the lion has outraged animal lovers all over the world and many people are making sure their voices are heard. The role of Walter Palmer in the inhumane killing of the revered Zimbabwean lion has made him an online and social media target of epic proportions with the backlash forcing him to close down his dental practice, remove his practice’s website from the Internet and generally go into hiding.

Walter Palmer, an avid hunter from Minnesota reportedly paid upwards of $55,000 to travel to Zimbabwe with the hopes of tracking and killing a lion. He succeeded – at a heavy price. The animal he killed was named Cecil, a beloved lion who resided in Hwange National Park and was a national draw for the country’s tourism. In response to the outrage that followed news of the kill, Palmer stated that “[he] had no idea that the lion [he] took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt. [He] relied on the expertise of [his] local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt.”

Those so called professional guides are expected to appear in court Wednesday for their role in the killing. The Zimbabweans, Theo Bronchorst, a professional hunter, and Honest Trymore Ndlovu, a landowner, were charged with illegally killing the lion because they had “no permit or quota to justify the offtake of the lion and therefore are liable for the illegal hunt,” the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said in a statement Monday. The organization further stated that “[a]ll persons implicated in this case are due to appear in court facing poaching charges.”

Not only was the gorgeous lion killed, she suffered a painful and long death. The investigation by officials concluded that the hunters lured Cecil out of the national park, followed by Palmer shooting her with his bow and arrow. However, the arrow was not strong enough to kill Cecil, and she survived another 40 hours until she was tracked down and shot with a gun.

Conservationists are not only outraged by Cecil’s death, they are also very concerned about the safety of her cubs. The Zimbabwe Conservation Force stated that, “[t]he saddest part of all is that, now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho, will most likely kill all Cecil’s cubs so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females. This is standard procedure for lions.” Jeff Flocken, the North American regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, stated that compounding the problem is that, “the females of the pride could die trying to defend those young.”

The killing of Cecil and resulting media surrounding her death have prompted conservationists around the world to demand a ban on trophy hunting of animals like lions in Africa. The African lion populations have decreased about 60% over the past 30 years. Oxford University researchers also note that a complete moratorium on trophy hunting in areas surrounding Hwange National Park between 2005 and 2008 resulted in a 50% increase in the lion population in that area.

Walter Palmer, who also has a felony record over the 2006 hunting of a black bear in Wisconsin, said in a statement to NBC News: “I have not been contacted by authorities in Zimbabwe or in the U.S. about this situation, but will assist them in any inquiries they may have.” It is likely that those authorities will be knocking on Palmer’s door in the very near future.

Amazon Reveals Comprehensive Plan For Prime Air Delivery Drones

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Amazon Reveals Comprehensive Plan For Prime Air Delivery Drones

In the latest development in Amazon’s plans to deliver packages by unmanned drones, it has announced a comprehensive proposal for turning its lofty dreams into reality. Amazon Prime Air unveiled its plan on Tuesday at a NASA convention in California, and central to its proposal is the creation of a 200 foot slice of air, located between 200 feet and 400 feet from the ground, that would only be used by drones equipped with the technology that will allow them to fly safely and autonomously. A further 100 feet of airspace, between 400 feet and 500 feet, would be a no-fly zone. If Amazon’s proposed plans are accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”), the American public could see tens of thousands of drones whizzing by in the air within the next several years.

Specifically, Amazon prioritizes safety and lays out the following proposed guidelines that drones must follow if they are to be allowed to fly in the set aside flight zone: 1) the drones must have GPS tracking allowing them to relay their exact location and relative to other drones flying nearby; 2) an onboard Internet connection allowing the drones to maintain real-time GPS data and their location relative to other drones; 3) an online flight plan allowing them to predict and relay their flight path; 4) communications equipment allowing them to communicate with other drones in the air zone so as to avoid collisions; and 5) sensor-based equipment allowing the drones to bypass all obstacles including other drones, birds, buildings and cables.

Before Amazon’s ambitious plan is realized, it has some hurdles to overcome. In addition to convincing the FAA to move forward with the discussion, it also has to appease amateur drone flyers across the country.

Amazon’s proposals are much more ambitious than what the FAA proposed in its recent attempt to draft commercial drone rules earlier this year. In that draft legislation, the FAA proposed that commercial drones only fly during the day and within the plain view of a licensed operator from the ground. These two restrictions alone make Amazon’s Prime Air delivery system virtually impossible.

As of now, it is unclear whether the FAA will allow for drone delivery, a move that Amazon Prime Air vice president Gur Kimchi calls behind the times. Kimchi stated that current drone operators and companies are not cooperating with each other to create a safe environment. Kimchi stated that Amazon’s proposals “can only be safe if everyone else is safe.” He further stated that, “[t]he key here is to simplify the airspace, not complicate.” Parimal Kopardekar, head of NASA’s drone management project stated that he hopes the United States can adopt a universal drone traffic system before a tragedy occurs. “It’s crucial,” he stated. Without a uniform system, “everyone flies anywhere they want to and they end up going into no-fly zones and into firefighting efforts and near airports.”

Time will tell, probably in the near future, whether Amazon Prime Air will get airborne and start delivering packages to doorsteps around the country.

Google’s Internet Balloons Will Finally Be Going Live In Sri Lanka This Fall

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Google’s Internet Balloons Will Finally Be Going Live In Sri Lanka This Fall

Sri Lanka will become the first country in the world to have full broadband coverage provided by floating telecom towers following an agreement between the country’s Government and Google.
The coverage will be provided by Google Loon high altitude balloons.

The announcement is particularly interesting for being both the first commercial deployment of the crazy-sounding project and also for being the first rival to Facebook’s insideous Internet.org scheme, which seeks to address the same problem.

Google’s project, while requiring new technology to be developed, preserves net neutrality by offering the full internet rather than Facebook’s heavily filtered list of sites available through Internet.org

The deal was announced yesterday through Deputy Economic Policy Minister Harsha de Silva’s twitter feed which read “Hopefully in a few months every person and every device on the island will be covered by 3G (third generation).”

The country’s Telecom Minister Mangala Samaraweera confirmed the deal and said the Google Loon balloons would provide the 3G service from the country’s northernmost villages to those in the country’s southernmost points.

“Sri Lanka is on its way to becoming the very first country in the world to have network connectivity cover the entire country. Allow me to conclude by saying that I am proud to declare that we are at the cusp of a reclaiming our heritage of being connected to each other and connected to the world. In a few months we will truly be able to say: Sri Lanka. Covered.”

Cassidy and Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremsinghe’s signed off on the contract in Colombo, the country’s capital.

According to Sri Lanka’s Deputy Investment Promotions Minister Eran Wickremeratne, each of the Google Loon balloons would provide 3G coverage for approximately 2000 square miles with a dozen balloons expected to be enough to cover all of the Island country. The balloons have standard LTE transceivers which can connect to cell phone networks which would fill gaps not provided by the network of balloons.

“Service providers will enter in to agreements with ‘floating cell towers’ that will be shared bringing down transmission costs leading to further reductions in cost of service provision,” said de Silva.

“All in all I feel today’s agreement will certainly provide a huge boost to our game plan to create a knowledge based highly competitive social market economy that will help every household achieve their own dreams.” he said.

Sri Lanka’s mobile and fixed phones now exceed the population which till the mid 90’s had to wait 15 to 20 years to get a phone. Samaraweera was responsible for changes to the communication’s backwater when he opened up the Government’s telecom monopoly by inviting private companies to set up mobile networks.

Despite Court Rulings Illegal NSA Surveillance Programs Continue Unchecked

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The National Security Agency (NSA) will continue with its controversial collecting and holding of American telephone records despite the program being ruled illegal by the court back in May.
The NSA is openly dismissing a ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that termed the U.S. government’s collection and hoarding of Americans’ phone conversations as “unprecedented and unwarranted,” signalling a blatant abuse of power.

The ruling declared the NSA’s dragnet program was not authorized by the USA Patriot Act under Section 215, hence was unjustifiable in law and a breach to Americans’ privacy.
However, the U.S. government, in seeking a prolonged allowance to spy on everyday Americans, declared on Monday that the ruling was trumped by Congress’ passing of the USA Freedom Act. The Act put an end to the NSA’s spying program but allowed a six month toning down period.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has decried the extended privacy breach by the U.S. surveillance arm and has moved to the Second Circuit Court through a lawsuit to seek the enjoinment of the program to the May ruling. This would effectively make it outlawed.
The ACLU averred that even the temporary continuation of the program was a blatant breach on Americans’ liberal rights.

Jameel Jaffer, ACLU Deputy Legal Director said in a statement, “We strongly disagree with the government’s claim that recent reform legislation was meant to give the NSA’s phone-records dragnet a new lease on life. The appeals court should order the NSA to end this surveillance now. It’s unlawful and it’s an entirely unnecessary intrusion into the privacy of millions of people.”

The U.S. government has come out to defend the program saying, “Contrary to plaintiffs’ insistence, Congress in that legislation did not contemplate an abrupt and immediate end to the Section 215 bulk telephony-metadata program. Quite the opposite… That transition period reflects Congress’s and the President’s combined judgment that there should be an orderly transition from the existing program to the new one, during which the government should retain needed tools to protect against the continuing terrorist threat.”

Through the winding down period, the U.S. government has successfully postponed the closure of the controversial dragnet program and bought itself more time to infringe upon the rights of the ordinary Americans. The absolute closure of the program, as envisioned in the court’s May ruling, now seems remote as the agency employs sophisticated legal tactics to avoid oversight or accountability.

Shi’ite Militia Leader Slams U.S. Failure To Combat ISIS

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Shi’ite Militia Leader Slams U.S. Failure To Combat ISIS

Qais al-Khazali, leader of one of the most powerful Shi’ite militias battling the Islamic State in Iraq, has lambasted the American campaign against the terror group which has raged for over a year in both Iraq and Syria.

The head of an Iranian-backed paramilitary group called Asaib Ahl al-haq, Khazali made the comments in an interview with Reuters, saying that the campaign against ISIS was essentially placed on the backburner due to an American agenda to redraw the borders of nations within the Middle East.

“We believe the USA does not want to resolve the crisis but rather wants to manage the crisis,” Khazali told Reuters. “It does not want to end Daesh [another name for ISIS]. It wants to exploit Daesh to achieve its projects in Iraq and in the region. The American project in Iraq is to repartition the region.”

Khazali accused Washington of lacking the will to uproot the Sunni jihadis who blitzed a bloody path across Iraq a year ago, and said the US-led coalition had failed to fulfill its pledges to step up its campaign of airstrikes against the terrorist organization.

Asaib Ahl al-Haq joins other Shi’a organizations such as the Badr Brigades and Kataib Hezbollah in the Popular Mobilization Committee (Hashid Shaabi), an official Iraqi government body which organizes volunteers in the battle against ISIS. Since the effective collapse of the Iraqi Army a year ago when ISIS forces advance within a few dozen miles of Baghdad, the Hashid Shaabi has become the primary fighting force in the nation.

However, Shi’a paramilitary groups have come under fire for alleged abuses in Sunni areas previously under ISIS control. Khazali, 41 has bluntly denied the accusations, which include looting, killings, and the burning of Sunni homes, saying “not one” innocent citizen’s death could be attributed to Shi’a militias. Washington and its Sunni Arab allies have been hesitant to provide much support to Shi’ite paramilitary forces for fear of igniting even more sectarian violence in the area.

Khazali accused Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of caving to U.S. demands to limit the presence of Shi’ite fighters during the campaign to retake the key province of Anbar, a Sunni area. Khazali said that the “magnitude of the pressure” from Washington threatened to “limit the presence of the Hashid Shaabi to the borders of Fallujah and not reach Ramadi.

Qais al-Khazali was initially a member of a splinter group of the Mahdi Army, the Shi’ite paramilitary force headed by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which did battle with American troops during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, notably during the siege of Fallujah. Khazali was arrested in 2007 for his involvement in an attack on an Iraqi government compound which left five Americans dead in the Shi’ite stronghold city of Karbala.

Khazali traded his cleric’s robes for green camouflage and joined the ranks of thousands of militia who journeyed to Northern Iraq last June to do battle with extremely well-armed and funded ISIS militants after they took large swathes of territory, imposing a severe form of what they call “sharia justice” in those areas where they take control. A seemingly endless array of torture and execution videos by ISIS and its affiliates have flooded the Internet in that time.

Despite being among the most feared militia leaders in Iraq, and arguably Iran’s most important ally in the region, Khazali says the paramilitary fight against ISIS is hampered by mistrust and a lack of coordination between U.S. and Shi’ite forces.

“We do not agree to participate in any area where there are American strikes. We will place full responsibility on the American administration for any strike that happens under the guise of being a mistake,” Khazali declared.

“The Americans do not trust us because we resisted them during the occupation. There is no prospect [for better cooperation]” he continued.

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