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Food Crisis Looms For China As Years Of Mismanagement Take Their Toll On Crop Yields

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Food Crisis Looms For China As Years Of Mismanagement Take Their Toll On Crop Yields

In northern China, the overuse of fertilizers and other unsustainable farming methods are causing farmland to dry out and, according to an international study, posing a significant threat to the country’s food and water resources.

The leader of the study, Yaling Liu said that that the overuse of fertilizers in China, which currently rates high above the global average, dates back to the 1980’s. Liu, a research associate at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said that “A lot of Chinese farmers are not well educated … they’re unwilling to risk reducing fertilizer; traditional thinking is that more fertilizer leads to higher yield”.

Despite these traditional ways of thinking, research has shown that excessive use of fertilizer not only has little effect on crop yield, but also has a range of negative effects on the environment.

Researchers from Beijing’s China Agricultural University and Purdue University looked at data gathered from farmland across northern China. They found that throughout the last three decades, soil moisture had decreased significantly.

Not only was the moisture level well below the optimal level of 40 to 85 percent of the water-holding capacity of the soil, but also levels in northern China seem to only be getting drier. By 2090, Liu predicts that the soil won’t be sustainable for any crop growth. With this region accounting for 65% of China’s farmland, this prediction raises a lot of concern.

This research proves that these damaging farming methods, namely overuse of fertilizer, are the main factors for the dry soil. From 1978 to 2013, the amount of fertilizer used in this region has increased more than six times its original amount.

By compiling data from meteorological monitoring stations, the research team was able to find a correlation between the moisture reduction in soil with the increased use of fertilizer between 1983 and 2012.

Liu says that the main purpose of the study is to educate farmers on the damage that these methods of farming can cause to the environment as well as to encourage the use of more sustainable methods. Liu understands this will be a long-term goal that will take time and patience to achieve.

China’s ruling Communist party is hyper-aware of food security issues and the damage the country has done to its natural resources. China no longer fishes in its own waters due to pollution and overfishing which makes feeding its population more expensive than it otherwise would be. Beijing has recently launched crackdowns on illegal meat sellers and previously conducted similar raids on infant formula makers in efforts to improve the country’s food supply chain.

Cell Phone Use By Parents Shown To Greatly Impact Children’s Mental Health

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Cell Phone Use By Parents Shown To Greatly Impact Children’s Mental Health

In what seems to be an obvious conclusion, research indicates that parents’ seemingly endless use of their cell phones, computers and tablets is negatively impacting their children’s mental well being. Specifically, a recent international study found that one-third of children feel that their parents spend as much or more time with their mobile devices than they do with them. In addition to the negative effects to children’s psychology, out-of-control usage of mobile devices has caused approximately a 22% increase in preventable accidents with young children and their caretakers.

Simply put, children of all ages feel angry and sad that they have to compete with mobile devices for their parents’ attention. The study found that more than half of children feel their parents check their electronics too often and greater than one-third of children claimed that they feel unimportant when their parents are constantly distracted by their phones.

Studies show that mobile devices are actually addictive to their users. They are constructed by manufacturers to notify people in an instant manner and to trigger a dopamine surge to the brain that results in instant reaction. Rather than waiting until a set period of time to check email, messages and voicemails, people are increasingly feeling the need to check instantly upon notification, a behavior that contradicts parents’ instructions to children to be patient and wait for gratification.

Psychologists also point out that when parents are looking at their screens, they are likely to respond more harshly to their children for interruptions. Oftentimes parents feel like their children, rather than their mobile devices, are the inconvenient distractions.

This sobering reality should hopefully convince some parents to limit their screen time around their children and during family time. Going off the grid for a while can allow parents to do as they say and say as they do. While psychologists say that it is not an issue of parents giving their children undivided attention, it is about setting limits, especially during times in the car, mealtimes, bath time and bedtime. Parents should refrain from checking their phones as soon as they walk in the door after work and should really give their children their full attention when greeting them at the end of the day. One dad was quoted as saying “if you feel like your kids are nagging you when you are checking your Facebook account, then put down Facebook.”

Social Media Throws Shade On The Idea That ‘Sex Sells’

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Social Media Throws Shade On The Idea That ‘Sex Sells’

The advertising motto of “sex sells” has been around forever. The shock value of sex always causes debate, and debate means awareness of a company’s brands and products. Despite this traditional advertising tactic, it appears that the prevailing attitude on social media is that quality and substance reign supreme over sex and sensationalism. The result of this shift in attitude is that companies and advertisers are changing their social media campaigns in an effort to attract and keep customers.

An example of this shift in consumers’ attitude is prominently illustrated in the recent events surrounding the “Beach Body Ready” advertising campaign utilized by the company, Protein World. The ads, first placed throughout the London Underground, featured a beautiful, slim woman in a tiny yellow bikini, posing the question whether commuters were beach body ready. Critics of the advertisements were quick to respond stating that the ads imply that only a slim figure could qualify to head to the beach.

Despite the huge backlash, which included a protest in London’s Hyde Park, several complaints to the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (the “ASA”) and a petition on Change.org that included greater than 70,000 signatures, the ASA concluded that the ads did not breach any U.K. rules relating to harm and offense or responsible advertising. Therefore, the ads “were not irresponsible.” Interestingly, the agency did state that the ads cannot run again because it found that the campaign improperly claimed the product’s health and weight loss abilities.

Regardless, Protein World remains unapologetic for its advertising campaign stating that the ads invited viewers to consider whether they were in the shape they wanted to be, and did not imply that everyone should look like the (likely photoshopped) model. Protein World chief executive officer, Arjun Seth, likened the feminists protesting the advertisements to terrorists and Sun columnist Katie Hopkins called the protesters “angry chubsters” on Twitter.

The advertising campaign and its resulting backlash and debate illustrates the point that social media created the awareness for the ads to be banned. This is a victory for social media, as it continues to demonstrate its ability to bypass government agencies that fail to delve into the issue of whether something is socially acceptable. It appears that substance and quality is gaining leaps and bounds over the quick sell of sex.

Canadian Court Challenge Seeks To Clarify Right To Be Cryogenically Frozen After Death

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In British Columbia, a unique law is being challenged that prohibits sale services that use use ultra-low temperatures to preserve human bodies after clinical death in a process known as cryonics. In short, the Canadian province is banning the prospect of being frozen just after death and eventually being brought back to life sometime in the future.

The challenge is taking place in provincial court as Keegan Macintosh and the Lifespan Society of British Columbia filed a civil claim to the Supreme Court of B.C. on Tuesday. They argue that parts of the Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services act are unconstitutional as they prohibit the sale of cryonics. In fact, British Columbia is the only jurisdiction in the world to prohibit the sale of cryonics services.

The society’s legal counsel, Jason Gratl states, “Here what we’re really talking about is the right to a third method of disposition of remains.” Gratl goes on to explain the plaintiff’s are asking whether there is significant validation to deny a person the right to have their bodies preserved in ultra-low temperatures.

As the plaintiff’s allegations are yet to be examined in court, Macintosh nor a government spokesperson was available for comment.

According to the notice, one of the services Macintosh intends to purchase includes vitrification, which replaces the liquids within a corpse with a cooling substance that leads to a process known as suspension. This practice is outlawed by the act in Section 14 which covers the sale or arrangement of “preservation by storage.” Violators of this law can spend up to 12 months in prison, be fined up to $10,000 or receive both penalties. Companies who well these services can be fined up to $100,000.

Although the act doesn’t clearly define cryonics, it prohibits any form of long-term preservation of a body with the intent of future resuscitation, which effectively bans the practice.

Lifespan only offers the possibility of resuscitation in the future yet does not guarantee or embellish the idea of such a result. Gratl says that their needs to be incredible advancements in the future of medical science in order for this practice to become a potential possibility.

The provincial court in British Columbia has about 21 days to respond once they receive the notice from the two parties involved.

Hack Of Italian Cyber Mercenaries Exposes Shadowy World Of Commercial Cyber Spying

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Without the proper security in place, even the hackers can get hacked and that is exactly what happened to the Hacking Team, an Italian group of cyber mercenaries who sold advanced hacking tools to the highest bidder regardless of how they would be used. The Hacking Team was exposed for all of the online world to see by rival hackers, who revealing shocking information when they dumped virtually all the group’s tools and communications online for all to see.

Even though the dangerous world of modern state surveillance has justly been exposed by whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, the majority of forces that allow this wrongful type of internet spying have somehow managed to go unnoticed. In fact, a world that has yet to be explored. The morally and legally questionable world consists of private sellers secretly collaborating with intelligence agencies in order to assist in the maintenance of their wide range of methods for spying. These security agencies rarely receive any type of scrutiny due to their privileged relationships with influential groups that generally lack any type of mainstream media coverage. However, this month, the dark world of sordid exploit sales at last had its Snowden moment.

An activist hacker known as “PhineasFisher” in early July was able to infiltrate the systems of the Italian company.

PhineasFisher was able to dump 400 Gigabytes of information online for the world to see. At this time, the trove was able to confirm what had long been suspected, as well as shocking revelations that the Hacking Team held business relationships with several different governments, including Russia and the United States, sold spyware to ruthless dictatorial regimes, and sold items directly targeting software developers, journalists, and activists for monitoring and surveillance.

The Hacking Team hack was able to provide significant lessons concerning the vast security ecosystem as well as the diminishing line between public and private entities as we are adapting to the age of hacking lacking borders.

Hacking Team is able to profit by selling and exploiting popular computer software to important groups under the disguise of “cybersecurity.”

When a firm offers to locate and report any vulnerabilities so that they can be patched or improved, this can generally be both a legitimate and beneficial trade. Unfortunately, these groups just sell government entities different ways to either spy on or manipulate innocent citizens and political enemies.

Indeed, there is a difference between these types of groups and the stereotypical hacker-for-hire who dress hoodies, is more often an individual of style instead of ethical substance. Both groups have the ability to make money by purchasing or locating computer bugs that have yet to be discovered and then selling them to terrorist groups, political parties and governments with a significant price increase.

The industry in software exploits trade to additional government surveillance is scary enough as far as privacy is concerned. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Reporters Without Borders, both activist groups, have criticized these practices for the violation of human rights as well as the expansion of the worldwide net of digital surveillance.

For $1 million, a ruthless sociopath sells it to Ethiopia in an effort to wreak havoc on significant portions of the Internet as well as crack down on journalists in the U.S.

In an attempt to determine what software vulnerabilities the Hacking Team was trying to sell in order to keep the public warned concerning which products were in need of updates or needed to uninstalled, security researchers scoured over their dump of data on WikiLeaks. Individuals who keep good cyber hygiene will be able to keep themselves safe from such exploits, the majority of individuals who are less savvy Internet users will likely remain vulnerable to attacks that are sold as “exploit kits”.

It is obvious “security” was not the most important to the Hacking Team as their security was insufficient. Hacking Team lacked sophistication in their own cybercastle as their password was simply “P4ssword.”

During a sensitive email discussion with an associate, Giancarlo Russo, COO of Hacking Team asks, “Do you have PGP [email encryption] by the way? We really do need to encrypt these emails.”

Hacking Team was essentially asking to be attacked by not-so-secretly hoarding lethal exploits and participating in significant bragging. Their one-stop-shop cyberweapons lacked sufficient protection proved too tempting even for competing hackers. CEO of Hacking Team, David Vincenzetti should have been better prepared. In 1992, Vincenzetti was responsible for the development of a “file tampering detector” that was able to repel and identify intruders just like the Hacking Team from computer systems.

Regardless of his early support of email-encryption software, Hack Team’s emails show PGP was hardly used at all.

The Hacking Team’s angle of “freedom hacker turned government tool” is revealing of the disastrous incentive structure given to the small group of elite hackers that are able to build, or break the surveillance network that is able to track all of our online activities. They can decide to fight or expose the system, running the risk of foreign asylum, media demonization or spending the rest of the lives in prison for the brutal crime of defending our online freedoms. Or, they can choose to sell out and enjoy large retirements as dealers of cyberweapons for the repressive states of the world.

Either way, this is a crucial reminder that the open Internet’s enemies are not limited to just the state.

China’s Military Investing Heavily In Long Range Nuclear Bomber

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China’s aggressive military expansion has led the country to develop a new stealth bomber that is capable of penetrating the air defenses of their enemies, possibly even the United States. The new, all-Chinese design, will now be able to make longer flights and carry more bombs than its current soviet-era bombers.

China’s state-run newspaper, China Daily, last week dedicated an entire page to an article on military talks concerning the future advancements of the People’s Liberation Army along with its air force (PLAAF).

The article stated that “The air force does need an intercontinental strategic bomber capable of penetrating an enemy’s air defenses.”

The most important requirements for this new development is the ability to transport 10 tons of missiles and bombs and travel approximately 5,000 miles without having to refuel.

This would allow the new bomber to travel the approximate 2,500 miles to Darwin, Australia from China’s most southern Hainan province, as well as to Perth, which is approximately 3,500 miles away and to Sydney at approximately 4,500 miles away. This will also allow for easier travel to the U.S. military base located in Guam.

Once multiple new military air bases have been completed on newly constructed islands in the disputed Spratly Islands, the distances for this travel will be significantly decreased, allowing the Chinese to strike every-closer American interests.

Rumors have been circulating for some time now on Chinese military blogs of a newly designed Chinese stealth bomber that are similar to the B-2 “Spirit” of the United States, a 25-year old heavy bomber featuring both speed and stealth.

With the unofficial classification H-X, or at times referred to as H-20, the only element concerning design that is certain is stealth and the role it will play in an aircraft that is able to carry a “triad” of nuclear weapons.

The importance of this has been demonstrated with the PLAAF having been labeled a “strategic force” by the Chinese government. This title had only previously been applicable to the PLA’s Second Artillery Corps, who is responsible for the country’s intercontinental ballistic missile supply.

The article in the China Daily also recognized the difficult task that lies ahead, making note that this type of an aircraft requires “a state-of-the-art structure and aerodynamic configuration as well as a high-performance turbofan engine”.

“All of these are major problems facing the Chinese aviation industry,” according to deputy editor Wang Yanan. “I don’t think these difficulties can be resolved within a short period of time.” China has had notorious difficulty reproducing relatively simple Russian jet engines and has been forced to import then despite years of painstaking research and a hacking spree designed to reveal every last secret of the Russian process.

In recent years, China has been quickly growing and modernizing its navy, adding the ability to field their first aircraft carrier as new warships and submarines steadily enter into service.

According to several news reports, it appears that the air force will gain similar attention.

The U.S. and its constant cuts in budget, is beginning to run the risk of falling into a similar economic trap as the former Soviet Union in which they engaged in unaffordable arms races in order to stay in front of rapidly developing technology. The defense cuts, in light of China’s increasing military development, will likely face review when a new President is elected in 2016.

The United States Air Force is currently investing in a similar yet far more advanced replacement to the old and fragile B-2 as well as a wide array of carrier based attack drones.

Congo Shows World The Way By Eating Edible Insects

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Congo Shows World The Way By Eating Edible Insects

A bowl of termites for breakfast, a healthy plate of slithering mealworms for lunch and a dinner table full of twitching crickets, protein has never come in a healthier form. Welcome to the world of edible insects. Many Americans would quickly swat anything that crawls but in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they are a popular delicacy that could prove to be the answer to food insecurity.

In Kinshasa, the Democratic republic of Congo’s capital, insects are sold in abundance. The crawling creatures fill labeled blue and silver trade bowls and are considered the fastest moving consumer products in the market.

Edible insects, still struggling to find acceptance in the U.S., are more popular than pizza or popcorn in Congo. “This is the main food of Congolese. I’m proud to eat that food,” says Marie-Colette Bena, a trader at one of the markets.

It is through this delicacy that the UN, together with the Congolese government, plans to eradicate hunger in the giant Central African Republic.

Reports from the World Food Program (WFP) put the number of Congolese citizens suffering under the yoke of food insecurity at a whooping 6.5 million. The large figure has been as a result of drastically low agricultural productivity coupled with widespread violence in the east. The country’s government has struggled to provide sufficient food for its people. Insect farming offers a welcome relief from the vain burden of farming in harsh terrains.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has established an initiative to promote insect cultivation in the country in a bid to stem the rampant food insecurity. The project that is set to begin in October, will see 200 people trained to cultivate crickets and caterpillars. According to country oversight project manager Laurent Kikeba, such a program would be the first of its kind and would mark the first step toward a hunger-free Congo.

Already, the average home in Kinshasa consumes 10.5 ounces of caterpillar weekly, as per a UN study. However, the insects tend to be pricy because of seasonal supply variations. A kilogram of crickets for instance, retails at $50, twice the price of beef!

Even though the country is estimated to consume more than 14,000 tons of edible insects each year, a crippling lack of insect farms has suffocated market supply of the delicacy. The potential to reap handsome benefits from harvesting insects is enormous, so is the opportunity to put an end to food insecurity.

FAO expects the increased harvesting of edible insects will drive up supply, in turn bringing down demand and making food cheaply available for majority of Congolese citizens.

Curbing food insecurity is one of the biggest challenges of the UN. Through the insect harvesting program in Congo, FAO seeks to make sure no living human being should suffer the torture and indignity of going hungry, in turn eradicating hunger one household at a time.

IBM’s Breast Milk Delivery Service Makes Life A Whole Lot Easier For Working Moms

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IBM may have just redefined the concept of employee satisfaction after it announced that it is launching a breast-milk-delivery service for all of the company’s working moms. Those in need, who are frequently on the road and away from their newborns, will be given access to a free breast milk delivery which will ship their milk back home at no cost whatsoever.

With the growing advocacy for breastfeeding by health experts and the fact that most companies only offer paid maternal leave for a grossly short three months, mothers across the country have been forced into making a tough call between the best interests of their child and the careers. More often than not, they end up sacrificing their professional careers.

IBM, one of the largest technology companies in the U.S., has sought to ensure their moms do not have to give up breastfeeding for work. The company will offer working moms private spaces in the workplace where they can pump breast milk and a storage device for the breast milk to keep it at optimum temperatures while it is being transported back to their toddlers at home. All of this at no cost to the parent. The convenience being offered is unimaginable.

Buildings in the 21st century were not made for breastfeeding, neither was the work environment in most parts of the U.S. In case your profession involves plenty of travel, as is often the case in IBM, airports do not have breast feeding spaces. Further complicating matters, most airports do not allow more than 10 ounces of breastmilk past the security check points. Working moms simply had no way to pump milk for their babies and send it back on time and at the right temperature. When IBM decided to put their working moms first, it was a godsend.

Executives at the Big Blue revealed that they saw the effort as a huge benefit for their women who form 29 per cent of their workforce.

The company intends to launch the service in the U.S. first before making it global. It will be interesting to see which other companies follow suit.

Employers across North America had long been deaf to the requests of working moms and it was only until Obamacare recently made it a requirement for workplaces to include breastfeeding spaces did employers start paying attention to their female workforce. IBM has set the bar high with their added free breast milk delivery service. For other companies that have been neglecting their female employees, change is inevitable. No longer are working moms asking if they will get breast feeding spaces, but when they would.

Proposed Chinese Acquisition Of Chipmaker Micron Will Face Tough National Security Review

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Proposed Chinese Acquisition Of Chipmaker Micron Will Face Tough National Security Review

A bid by China’s largest computer chip maker to take over Micron, one of the largest American computer chip companies, has raised a large number of eyebrows in Washington. China’s offer to buy out the American company that produces millions of chips used in smartphones all over the country will severely compromise U.S. security and ultimately the safety of the everyday American according to many who have analyzed the deal.

Tsinghua Unigroup, a Chinese state owned company, is proposing a $23 billion buyout of Micron, the fourth largest semiconductor maker in the world. The deal was reported on Tuesday, pricing each share of Micron at $21. Though experts determined the valuation as being too low, concern was also leveled towards implication Chinese control over the chipmaker would have on national security.

China’s emerging economy has seen the country’s appetite for technological advancements grow enormously, along with it appetite for hacking. The Chinese navy has more than doubled, military bases have been built on artificial islands in the ocean and an expanding air force set to bring the U.S. within are reach are but some of the advancements that have caused plenty of unease in Washington.

More notably, the recent theft of employee records of every U.S. government employee was traced back to China, which has waged an unprecedented cyberwar against American targets in both government and industry.

But where do computer chips come in? War machines now all run on computers, which in turn run on computer chips. Tsinghua’s planned acquisition of Micron, which incidentally also makes chips used in smartphones across North America, raises fears that the chips would be used in manufacturing military weapons or embedded with backdoors that would allow Chinese hackers to easily control a variety of military and civilians computer-enabled devices.

Mergers and acquisitions experts say the proposed deal will require the notoriously strict approval of the Committee of Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS is an inter-agency committee consisting of more than a dozen highly specialized agents from across all departments of the United States government. The committee is responsible for determining whether potential mergers and acquisitions involving U.S. companies do pose a threat to national security.

Anne Salladin, special counsel at Stroock & Lavan, said the deal would likely come under the sharp scrutiny of the CFIUS. She said, “It appears to have all the hallmarks – China, foreign government control and US high-tech – which can often result in heightened scrutiny by CFIUS.”

Transactions covered by CFIUS undergo a 30-day review. Should security concerns be realized, the case would undergo a 45-day probe after which the committee would ask the U.S. President to make a determination.

Experts believe the deal, which comes amid heightened worry over cyber attacks attributed to Chinese hackers, will not be approved. Senior analyst Mark Newman, Bernstein Research, said the bid “would have a high risk of not going through due to the national security concerns of selling advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology to China.”

Tsinghua’s acquisition of Micron would hand China unlimited access to NAND and DRAM memory chips used in computers and mobile devices for data storage across the U.S.. To say the American people’s security and right to privacy would be compromised would be an understatement. Concern over the major acquisition is well placed. Washington must act in the best interests of the country.

Zimbabwe To Give Back Some Properties Stolen From White Farmers Decades Ago

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Zimbabwe To Give Back Some Properties Stolen From White Farmers Decades Ago

Fifteen years ago the African state of Zimbabwe, led by ruthless dictator and known xenophobe Robert Mugabe, pushed for the brutal overtaking of property owned by white Zimbabweans.
Over a decade later Mugabe has recently announced that certain properties within the African country will be returned to their original owners.

According to the Zimbabwe Mail, 10 leaders, one from each of the country’s 10 provinces, will create a draft list of farms from their own district that they decide to be “of strategic economic importance.” The current Zimbabwean government is also establishing a commission, backed by the European Union, to assess the frequently violent land grab practices from the 2000’s.

Mugabe’s government took nearly 4,000 farms from white families who had been operating the farms for decades and proceeded to mismanage them, plunging the country into economic chaos. While many families had come to make a fortune from the political system in the British colony of Rhodesia built on racial hierarchy, the attempt to rid the country from its colonial legacy backfired as it sent the country spiraling into economic crisis and left many civilians dead.

Currently, only 300 white farmers are still operating on their original farms. Zimbabwe, in an effort to ward off starvation, has had to import food, because several of the seized farms have ceased production and operation for many of the 15 years after the government ordered the seizure.

In the face of the Zimbabwean situation and the obvious failure on the government’s part to promote agricultural success on the seized farms, president Mugabe still unapologetically stands by the decision he made more than a decade ago. Yet recent actions may show he has, on some level, had a change of heart.

During a recent meeting of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriot Front, Mugabe warned, “Don’t be too kind to white farmers. They can own industries and companies or stay in apartments in our towns, but they cannot own land. They must leave the land to blacks”.

Yet president Mugabe still seems to publicly maintain the same ill-will and distrust of white farm owners that he did in the past, despite the disastrous consequences of this stance suffered by millions of his people.

Russian President Putin Advocates For ‘Minimal’ Internet Restrictions

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Russian President Putin Advocates For ‘Minimal’ Internet Restrictions

At the National Education Youth Forum held Tuesday, Russian president Vladimir Putin told young IT professionals that he favored only “minimal” Internet restrictions for Russian citizens, bucking a worldwide trend that sees western nations increasingly trying to restrict the online activities of their citizens.

However, he further stated that he expects Russian citizens to respond to any “hostile” online publications with a forceful promotion of Moscow’s views and policies. Opponents of Putin’s Internet restrictions argue that said measures have the potential to chill speech on the Internet, could restrict the free flow of online information and access to information, could damage the universality of the Internet and eventually allow private entities to restrict content.

At the Forum, Putin also promised to consider delaying the implementation of a Russian law requiring online companies to store Russian users’ data in Russia. The law, which as of now will become effective on September 1st, is vehemently opposed by certain Internet freedom proponents. These supporters of Internet freedom argue that the law is only one part of Putin’s more expansive goal to tighten control over Internet communications.

In discussing his policies, Putin reiterated that Internet restrictions should be minimal but that people, especially young people, must be protected from detrimental or hostile influences. On one hand he states that Russian citizens should not be prohibited or forbidden from reading, viewing or listening to something on the Internet, but on the other hand, citizens should be prepared to receive any type of information and be able to respond in a “harsh, timely, beautiful and talented manner” regarding and supporting Russian views.

In addition to the Russian user data storage law, another law signed by Putin this week will require search engines to delete the personal information of Internet users upon request if the personal information is “in violation of Russian Federation law, is false or outdated.” This “right to be forgotten” law contains no criteria for evaluating the veracity of the disputed information but rather that users can seek the assistance of Russian courts if search engines deny their requests to remove their information.

Opponents of the right to be forgotten law claim it is arbitrary and will allow Russian politicians the ability to prevent the public from learning about their past actions or lies.

In response to the criticism of the restriction laws, Putin countered that Russia’s Internet restrictions are similar to those being implemented by Germany and Great Britain. However, many activists denounce Putin’s claim and argue that unlike those countries, Russia can simply pass any law it chooses and will continue to expand its already tight restrictions on its citizens’ access to the Internet.

Canadian Harassment Case Has Vast Implications For Online Freedom Of Speech

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Canada and the rest of the world are awaiting the ruling on what is believed to be Canada’s first case of alleged criminal harassment, via Twitter. As serious as the ramifications of the ruling could be for the accused, they could also have an enormous impact on free speech on the Internet.

The case began in 2012, where Greg Elliott was accused and charged with criminally harassing two Toronto feminist political activists, Stephanie Guthrie and Heather Reilly. Elliott and Guthrie met online in 2012 when she advertised for someone to create a free poster for an event she organized for the Women in Toronto Politics, a group she co-founded. Elliott responded to the advertisement and the two even met for dinner. Although Guthrie claims she was supposedly “creeped out” by Elliott, she continued her professional relationship with Elliott.

The two had a major falling-out, however, over how Guthrie treated a man named Bendilin Spurr. Spurr had created a violent video game where users could “punch” an image of feminist video blogger Anita Sarkeesian until the screen turned red. Guthrie, in her own words, sicced the Internet on Spurr. She Tweeted to prospective employers to warn them about Spurr and even sent the local newspaper a link to the story about the video game. Elliott disagreed with Guthrie’s tactic of public shaming stating that her actions were “every bit as vicious” as the video game.

Guthrie then blocked Elliott on Twitter, but he continued to watch the hashtags she followed and kept himself apprised of the events she organized. She supposedly believed he was obsessed with her politics.

During the trial, Elliott’s attorney, Chris Murphy, asked Guthrie to point to just one Tweet that had instilled fear in her, to which Guthrie responded her feelings developed over time. Murphy argued that Guthrie and Reilly simply hated Elliott and were determined to silence him because he disagreed with their feminist politics. In fact, the supposed victims met in 2012 to discuss how they would deal with Elliott, such as bombarding their followers with furious Tweets and re-Tweets about Elliott. Murphy likened the case to a high school spat and was astonished that the courts were acting as a referee in an online political debate. He stated that Reilly, an anonymous Twitter user who directed several hateful Tweets at Elliott, was abusing the system by alleging she was criminally harassed.

In Canada, criminal harassment is defined as any unwanted conduct- whether actually following someone or barraging him or her with unwanted Tweets- which causes the target to reasonably fear for his or her safety. Moreover, the perpetrator must know that his or her conduct made the target feel harassed or be reckless as to whether he or she felt harassed or not.

Murphy argued that the alleged victims never felt afraid but rather that they disagreed with Elliott’s politics.

After Guthrie’s accusations, Elliott, a graphic artist and father of four children, lost his job and could now face up to six months in prison if the court rules in Guthrie’s favor. As dire as those consequences are for Elliott, they could be even more dire for online free speech. Fear of being prosecuted for disagreeing with someone’s point of view or politics could greatly chill people’s ability to communicate on the Internet as a whole and not just Twitter.

Twitter’s Stock Falls Victim To Modern Day Pump And Dump Scam

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In a twist on the old stock scam known as the “pump and dump,” Twitter’s stock briefly spiked yesterday as a result of a fake buyout story. Specifically, a false story claiming that Twitter had received a $31 billion buyout offer appeared on the website ‘www.bloomberg.market’, which is in no way affiliated with Bloomberg or its newspage bloomberg.com. As a result of the false report, Twitter shares rose a whopping 8.5% and the stock was heavily traded for a short period of time. Once the story was confirmed fake, the stock dropped and closed up only 2.6% at $36.72 per share.

The fake report seemed believable to many investors due to Twitter’s recent financial struggles. The messaging service went public in 2013 but as of yet, it is not profitable and its user growth is sluggish at best. As of Monday’s close to the stock exchange, the value of Twitter shares was down 31% since April 27th. The stock plummeted after Twitter’s first quarter report showed dismal revenue and a forecast lower than Wall Street expected.

The fake Twitter buyout story comes in the wake of another scam involving Avon Products. In that instance, a fake document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission claimed there was a bid for the cosmetics company. As a result of the bogus report, Avon’s shares soared as much as 20% before falling.

Following the Avon scam, the SEC sued Nedko Nedev, a Bulgarian man who claimed he and a few others worked together to violate United States securities laws by creating fake takeover offers. The SEC reported that Nedev and his cohorts made fake bids for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Tower Group International in addition to Avon.

In these scams, known as pump and dump schemes, investors of a particular stock mislead people into buying shares with fake news or false “insider information.” The duped individuals buy shares, the share price goes up, and the deceitful investors sell their stock at a profit. The value of the shares then plummets and the unwitting purchasers lose money. Such scams are the basis for Hollywood movies such as Boiler Room and The Wolf of Wall Street.

The recent scams further demonstrate the important lesson that retail investors must be careful when trading in the stock market and that any such stories influencing stock prices must be verified beforehand.

Cutthroat Chinese Smartphone Industry May Foreshadow Future Of Western Markets

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One startup smartphone maker has become so popular, now everyone is trying to make a smartphone. In a market that has recently started to slow down, there are questions about what red-hot Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi need to do in order to remain profitable.

In China, entrepreneurs are finding the world’s largest market for smartphones hard to resist.  Even the construction workers and rock musicians are mimicking Xiaomi , a local trailblazer, with their own smartphones.

Yet for the first time in six years, the Chinese smartphone market started to shrink in early 2015, with sales falling for the one-time leader Xiaomi. This sudden about-face has started to raise questions as to whether there was any hope for companies such as Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai, SANY Group Co. Ltd. and Cui Jian, a veteran rockstar.

This market slowdown could prove to be too much for everyone but the biggest handset makers, much less the wide array of me-toos, according to analysts. In an already crowded market, filled with price wars, those entering the market will have to convince shoppers to leave the already established brands, with handsets that outperform even the high end models, according to Gartner, a U.S. research firm.

“It’s not that easy to go bankrupt making phones, but it’s also not easy to be profitable,” said Gartner analyst CK Lu. “If you don’t have good differentiation, you’re putting yourself in a saturated market.”

As of the end of March, China had 155 different brands of smartphones selling more than 1,000 each month, up from 110 just two years ago, according to Neil Shah, analysis for Counterpoint Research. In India, there were 103 different brands, with more than half being Chinese.

Gartner states that the smaller players who compete only get one-fifth of the market, with the remaining being held by the 10 largest incumbents – including Lenovo, Apple and Samsung.

It could cost a few hundred thousand dollars to bring a smartphone market to China, with the money going towards designs from manufacturers and licensing. For even larger scale the design involvement, offline sales distribution and marketing can send costs soaring to the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Shah.

Few companies are likely to survive without big sales, such as Xiaomi , or other companies who show support for the smartphone divisions that are losing money, such as Lenovo.  Their best hope is to link the smartphones to new divisions such as smart home appliances and wearable devices.

Xiaomi and its fairy tale success have enticed new hopefuls into the market. Xiaomi was valued by investors in December at $45 billion, this just five years after it was founded, making the company one of the most valuable startups in the world.

Smartisan, a Chinese startup established in 2012, has become very popular just as Xiaomi has due primarily to focusing on marketing by word of mouth and on social-media, rather than advertising.

“Xiaomi’s phones were definitely already successful (in 2012),” according to a Smartisan spokeswoman. “Because of that, getting investment and bringing in talent for smartphones became much easier… Before Xiaomi, this would have been very difficult.”

“Xiaomi does so many products now,” Chen Xudong President of Lenovo Mobile Group. Xiaomi has expanded its market from being an online smartphone vendor to manufacturing other home appliances and consumer electronics.

Instead of replicating Xiaomi’s original model, Nicole Peng, Chinese research director of Canalys, stated that the opportunities for these entrants lie in the manufacturing of smart appliances and wearables along with smartphones, similar to the current strategy of Xiaomi.

“I think no more than three new brands can be commercially successful in the short term, any others will only acquire a tiny portion of the market,” stated Peng. “But if they want to be profitable just selling phones, the chances are very, very low.”

The trends in China may bode poorly for global smartphone makers, who are both trying to enter the Chinese market and also may soon be competing with Chinese makers at home. Xiaomi, for instance, already has stores in the United States and United Kingdom meaning that consumers will soon have access to its full line of high quality low price phones. Its surely only a matter of time before other rivals invade western markets, meaning already thin margins will likely become even thinner.

Iran Nuclear Deal Could Lead To $2 Per Gallon Gasoline

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Later this year, drivers in the U.S. can anticipate gas prices dropping into the $2 range due in part to the Iran nuclear deal that was announced Tuesday. Once the Iranian oil markets are open, gas prices will only drop a few cents in the beginning. However, huge savings could be seen as early as September according to analysts.

According to Oil Price Information Service’s chief analyst Tom Kloza, “Once we get past Labor Day, we should see gas falling by 10 to 15 cents a month. By December a lot of places are going to see gasoline at $2 or less”.

In an attempt to inhibit Iran’s plans to have nuclear power, several Western countries, the U.S. included, imposed sanctions on Iran. For this reason, it has been almost 20 years since Iran has sold oil to the U.S. Rather than the U.S., Iran has been selling to Turkey, China and India.

It is still unknown how the sanctions will be lifted or what the trade relationship will be like between the U.S. and Iran.

Despite some criticism in Congress pushing for the preservation of the sanctions, President Obama has made clear his intentions to veto these moves. Global oil market prices will go down regardless of these sanctions when Iran begins selling more oil to Europe.

Experts at a Credit Suisse conference revealed that 500,000 barrels of oil could be added daily to the worldwide market by Iran. After the sanctions are lifted, it is projected by the International Energy Agency that Iran could provide around 800,000 barrels daily. FACTS Global Energy says an estimated 30 million barrels are in storage and awaiting sale.

Massive amounts of oil have recently been added to the worldwide market. Countries such as North America, members of OPEC, Russia and now Iraq have ramped up production of oil as demand in China and Europe is being curbed. According to Kloza, Iran’s oil industry infrastructure that worsened under the sanctions, will improve as more Iranian oil is added to the markets next year.

Investigation Reveals Government Agencies Subsidizing Google’s Private Jets

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Investigation Reveals Government Agencies Subsidizing Google’s Private Jets

A recent investigation of federal documents suggests that the Department of Defense and NASA have been selling millions of dollars worth of below market price jet fuel to a company owned by the Google founders. Reportedly, the fuel was used by the company H211 to fly Google’s private jets around the world.

According to officials in Santa Clara County, local tax rolls of roughly $500,000 per airplane per have been lost because no property taxes were being paid on the airplanes. H211 keeps their two helicopters and seven airplanes on land that taxpayers own at Moffett Field at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

A deal was struck between NASA and H211 under a NASA Space Agreement. H211 agreed to pay around $100,000 a month in return for letting NASA use some the planes for science.

NBC Bay Area uncovered records that proved only 155 of the over 1,000 flights were used for science. The flights were proved to have used below-market fueling to fly to vacation destinations such as Cancun, Paris, Hawaii and Tahiti. Conveniently, Google’s worldwide headquarters is only 3 miles from the hangar.

Just as these investigations by NBC Bay Area were beginning, the Department of Defense claimed the government would stop selling fuel to H211 starting August 31, 2013. Some members of Congress are pushing for further investigation as the deal between H211 and NASA was a bit fishy to begin with.

Charles Grassley, Iowa Senator, is encouraging NASA’s and the Department of Defense’s Inspector General to investigate further into this case. After NBC Bay Area’s report, Grassley began to speak out about this issue. Grassley stated “If there’s one dollar of taxpayers’ money that is being wasted– and people know it when it‘s being wasted that obviously is not only a fiscal issue, that’s a moral and ethical issue and probably a violation of law”.

With below market priced fueling purchases totaling just shy of $8 million, many people wonder whether the deal between NASA and H211 is fair. As taxpayers were essentially being used for this deal, it seems ridiculous to have millionaires be flying around in private jets on cheap fuel flying from a hangar with no taxes. Many people are concerned the whole deal between NASA and H211 is just used to have a cheap landing strip and hangar for vacations.

ISIS Now Moving Into Russia, Sparking Fears Of European Attacks

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ISIS Now Moving Into Russia, Sparking Fears Of European Attacks

Although attention has been placed on ISIS involvement in Syria and Iraq, new concerns are emerging that the terrorist group continues to spread closer to mainland Europe.

According to retired Air Force Col. Cederic Leighton, ISIS is now starting to join with Russian extremists. Leighton said, “They are riding a wave of popularity – wherever they get traction, that’s where they are going to have a franchise operation and they are doing a great job of it in the Caucasus at the moment.”

Russia is no stranger to terror attacks, with most being linked to the Caucasus region in Russia. In the 2000’s, two terrorist attacks took place in a Moscow theater and in a school killing over 400 people.

Vice President of the Heritage Foundation, James Carafano, pointed out that the Islamist minority in Russia that has been seeking independence from the government was the root cause of these problems. Carafano admitted that these extremist groups had potential to reach out to others and grow.

As Russia recognizes this extremist group as a domestic threat to the stability of their way of life, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has attempted to lead a campaign against the terror threat.

Carafano warns that if Russia responds as they have in the past, with a strong physical response, the problems will only get worse.

Southern Russia has become a concern for the U.S. after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, as it is believed that Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother were receiving radical training as they visited family in the region.

Leighton warns about these issues in Russia making their way to the U.S. borders and posing potential threats to U.S. security. As the threat increases so too does the possibility of refugees fleeing from these areas.

The Russians are terrified of the influence ISIS could potentially have through social media. With worldwide access to ISIS sympathizers, it is feared the terrorist group has the potential to radicalize followers across the world.

The United States will be watching the developments in Russia with a close eye in an attempt to prevent the threat from coming closer than it already has, yet watching won’t be enough. The Obama administration needs to come up with a cohesive ISIS strategy which it has admittedly so far failed to do.

New Study Shows Its Media Companies, Not Spotify, That Keep Artist Payments Low

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You would think that the artist gets the biggest cut from streaming music, however a new study finds that’s not actually the case. Berklee College of Music, a prominent Boston-based music school, has recently taken a stab at untangling the giant web of fees and monies associated with streaming music and just who gets paid, yielding some debate-changing results.

Individuals in the music industry all agree that the payments received from streaming services are too low. However, just who do they blame? It is not very easy to follow the money flow from the fans to those who write and sing the music thanks to a complex web of secret deals, service fees and royalty payments.

Berklee College of Music’s Institute of Creative Entrepreneurship’s Rethink Music initiative examined the music industry’s business practices and while both industry leaders Spotify and Pandora have been portrayed as villains in the media it is in fact, according to Berklee, the middlemen who prevent things from getting easier.

“This is an industry whose fundamental business model has been completely upended, but its cost structure and its intermediary structure haven’t changed from a very different era,” according to the institute’s managing director, Panos Panay. “Let’s just face it: You don’t need all these people in the supply chain.”

When a song is streamed, two types of royalties have to be paid out. The largest goes to the artist who performed the song, or the company-usually the record label- who owns those royalties. The other amount will go to the songwriter or again, the company that controls those rights. There are times when the streaming services do not even directly pay those companies, relying on companies that manage royalties for big groups of owners of copyrights. At each point along the way, another entity gets a cut.

Berklee gives a breakdown as to the typical way royalties for a streamed song would be divided up.

“It’s a typical collective-action problem, where everybody is benefiting in a small way from the inefficiencies in the way things are done,” said D.A. Wallach, Spotify’s artist in residence.
Money can get caught up in the system a lot of different ways. Labels or record companies make deals where they take royalty rates that are less than generous in exchange for rights to the streaming services themselves, all with the possibility to earn the big money if these services happen to go public or are picked up by a bigger company. Who is not included in those paydays? The individual musicians.

Streaming deals have the possibility of including service fees paid to labels and are typically not split with the musicians.

A lot of musicians do not get royalty checks until their record labels have recovered their expenses for marketing and other costs. Labels who take on big advance payments for royalties from streaming services expected to be paid out often find themselves with money left over. Berklee’s report estimates artists are potentially losing hundreds of millions of dollars by not getting their cut of the money.

An even more basic problem exists. All the math is only applicable after the appropriate rights-holders have been determined. An estimated 20-50 percent of money generated by streaming services never makes its way back to the artists whose songs played.

“Unfortunately, the adage ‘follow the money’ leads only to a dense thicket of micropayments and ‘black boxes’ where relationships among rights, royalties, processes, and participants, in the eyes of many, are deliberately obscured or, at best, have become hopelessly complex and outdated,” according to the Berklee report.

In order to determine when a song is played and who needs to be paid is an area that has a significant amount of room for improvement. Performing-rights organizations traditionally have been responsible for determining when someone played a song and then ensuring the songwriter was paid.

A system that tracks when a song is played and who owns the different rights to said song is something the music industry has attempted and failed to develop in the past. A method to link this to payment methods would be required and this is how Bitcoin could help.

A blockchain like Bitcoin keeps a public tally of all transactions that occur. This system automatically divvies out payments to the proper person and immediately disburses it. In theory, it is clever. It is still unclear how an industry that has typically not been technologically savvy could transition to Bitcoin.

Wallach of Spotify initially made the suggestion.

“There’s’ no reason this shouldn’t happen. You have a really archaic infrastructure that these media businesses are sitting on, and the people who really suffer are the people who create stuff,” Wallach said.

“The reason I’m not doing it,” Wallach states, “is because I don’t want to spend a decade on it.”

California Eyes Tough New Laws For Unsafe Drone Operation

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A California lawmaker has decided enough is enough with drone traffic after a recent interference impacted firefighting efforts in San Bernardino County, California. A drone flying over a wildfire caused firefighting efforts to be cancelled due to an inability to drop fire retardant on portions of the fire. Now lawmakers are eyeing tough new fines and even jail time for those that cause havoc while operating their drones.

In late June, 30,000 of wilderness were burned up due to the Lake Fire in San Bernardino County, California. In an effort to keep the flames away from nearby homes, the U.S. Forest Service dispatched three plans containing fire retardant to dump over a portion of the fire.

Unfortunately, that retardant never made it to its intended target because these low-flying planes encountering a drone flying approximately 800 to 900 feet from the ground. The plane was able to release its retardant at another location; however, two of the planes had to dump their loads in order to land.

The cost of this aborted mission cost the U.S. Forest Service approximately $10,000. Lawmakers have introduced new legislation to ensure this does not happen again.

Last Week, Paul Cook, California representative introduced to the House of Representatives, H.R.3025. H.R.3025 would deem any interference with firefighting attempts on federal land a criminal offense. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard that aerial firefighting was brought to a grinding halt because a reckless individual decided to fly a drone over the Lake Fire,” according to Cook. “Not only did it put the lives of aerial firefighters in jeopardy, but the loss of air support for fire crews allowed the wildfire to spread.” Cook’s district is in California, near the area burned by the Lake Fire.

The bill has been named by Cook the Wildfire Airspace Protection Act of 2015, in which he proposes the flying of drones near firefighting efforts result in a fine and the possibility of jail time.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto and State Senator Ted Gaines want stricter fines for the interference of firefighting efforts in California. Gaines’ consultants, while finalizing the bill’s wording, stated the bill would also allow a maximum of six months’ jail time if the interferences are deemed to be either intentional or reckless.

Gatto previously stated he would be considering instating a maximum fine of $25,000 for drone pilots witnessed flying near wildfires. Eric Menjivar, Gatto’s communications director, stated the assemblyman would take into consideration imposing the highest maximum fine, while “that number could be completely different in the bill, we’re going to try to negotiate it and get it as high as possible,” according to Menjivar.

“It’s probably neat for people who have drones to observe a local fire this way,” Gatto stated last week. “But we just can’t let people interfere with aircraft.”

Drone traffic has become a big problem for legislators and regulators because the unmanned aircrafts have become available to the public. Due to ill-fated drone flights, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has ruled all drones flown by civilians must fly at an altitude no less than 400 feet, and are forbidden from ever flying near airports, stadiums and especially the White House.

Media Giant Wants You To Pay To Sing ‘Happy Birthday’

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Despite being the English language’s most popular song, “Happy Birthday to You” actually belongs to Warner/Chappell and is not public domain. The company has sensationally claimed ownership rights to the song sang in millions of birthday celebrations from time immemorial and would enforce payment rights for its use against all who sing without their prior consent.

Warner/Chappell, in a hearing on Monday at downtown Los Angeles’s Edward R. Roybal courthouse, sought a summary judgement from U.S. District Judge George King, affirming their ownership rights for the popular song. In the class action complaint that was first filed in 2013, Warner opposed claims that the song was in the public domain, justifying the downright illegal arm twisting of people who use the song into paying them.

Good Morning to You Productions, the plaintiff, in challenging Warner’s claim, sought a judgement declaring the 120-year-old song was in the public domain, hence no company had exclusive rights to its use and benefits.

Shocking revelations emerged in the hearing of how Warner strong armed people into paying for the song’s use. Even more shocking were the ridiculous amounts the company claimed from people for using the song, some of which went up to six figures!

Speaking for the Good Morning to You Productions, presenter Jennifer Nelson said she once paid $1500 for the use of the song that has been in the public domain for over 65 years.

Nelson said, “If you don’t pay for the license to the song they will notify you and let you know that you have to pay. They’ve never actually sued anybody but they have strong-armed people into having to pay.”

In defence, Warner stated before the court that the company had a valid copyright for the song registered in 1935.

The original melody for the song was strung up in the late 1800s, years before Warner/Chappell, through Clayton F. Sunny Company, sought two copyright registrations for the song. The song was played across the world by millions of people for over 30 years before Warner sought the controversial copyrights. How does that not amount to being the public domain?

The plaintiffs would have none of it. They averred that the song could not possibly be copyrightable as it was already in the public domain. They further downplayed the two copyrights, stating that they were only for “specific piano arrangements,” not for general use.

Should Judge King decline to rule in favor of either or the parties, the case would go to trial.

Warner’s claims are as sensational as they are baseless. To deny millions the right to sing English’s most recognizable song, or worse, make them pay for it would not only be a travesty to justice but would amount to exactly what is wrong with capitalistic America today.

New Supersonic Jetliner Aims To Fill Gap Left By Concorde Retirement

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From New York to London in a record three hours! A new supersonic jet offers incredible travel convenience by massively cutting down travel time, making cities half the world away almost as close as stops on a subway line.

The Spike Aerospace S-512 Supersonic jet first, introduced to the world in 2013, has undergone plenty of modifications from its initial model with the latest upgrades setting it on sight to be the fastest commercial beast in the sky.

Spike Aerospace, a Boston based company, announced that it would be revamping the S-512 to give it a new ground breaking top speed of 1370 mph. That’s a whopping 1.8 times the speed of sound, something not seen in the skies since the fuel-hungry Concorde retired from passenger service in 2003.

The fastest Boeing 747 commercial plane can tear through the air at a top speed of 700 mph, a meager half of the new S-512’s flight capabilities. And while business jets like the Gulfstream G-650 go within a hair of the speed of sound, the jet would be the first new commercial plane to rival the military’s F-18 Hornet, which has a similar top speed.

The earth shattering speed of the supersonic jet is guaranteed to have its passengers travel from New York City to London, U.K. in three hours. Alternatively, one could choose to fly to Dubai, from Paris, “for shopping and entertainment and back home in time for dinner,” a statement from the company said. Say goodbye to jet lag, long boring muscle stiffening flights. The world just got a lot smaller.

Anutosh Moitra, Spike Aerospace’s senior engineer attributed the plane’s death defying speed to its new delta wings. Moitra said, “The new delta wing of the S-512 delivers high aerodynamic efficiency and improved flight performance in both low-speed flight and supersonic cruise.”
The shape of the delta wings and the jet’s tail help reduce drag, which is responsible for slowing the plane down. The new tail is also much lighter, boosting the plane’s speed.

Of course the convenience of time carries a cost. The supersonic jet is set to retail at between $60 million to $80 million. No meager sum by any regard yet just twenty percent more than a high end business jet, assuming the project comes in on budget.

Should the S-512 be produced, it is sure to be the future of aviation. Yet the hurdle is large as the company has thus far not announced a firm timeline for construction, nor has it signed up an always crucial launch customer.

Israel Condemns Controversial Iran Nuclear Deal As ‘License To Kill’

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Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration has condemned the Iran nuclear deal as “a license to kill” that endangered the lives of thousands of Israeli citizens. Netanyahu challenged the U.S.’s lifting of nuclear sanctions against an administration that was sponsoring attacks on their people before issuing clear threats against the realization of the controversial deal.

Benjamin Netanyahu publicly denounced Tuesday’s deal between western powers and Iran as a “bad mistake of historic proportions.” The Israeli Prime Minister was referring to a deal signed between the U.S. and Iran that sought to grant Iran billions of dollars in relief from sanctions in exchange of curbing Iran’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu expressed deep rooted concern that the new deal would only empower Iran to continue what it had been doing for years before, which is to make nuclear weapons behind the world’s back. Harsh criticism was aimed at the deal, which according to Netanyahu, only opened the floodgates for an attack by Iran of nuclear proportions, unlike any of their recent sponsored attacks.

The Israeli Prime Minister had openly challenged and criticized U.S. President Barrack Obama’s commitment to having the controversial deal signed. Iran is already sponsoring rebel attacks on Israel, a deal to have sanctions against their nuclear program lifted undoubtedly amounts to a rubber stamping of the mass murder of innocent Israeli citizens.

On the eve of the deal’s signing, Netanyahu reiterated his stand against the deal and even went on to issue a veiled threat saying, “One cannot prevent an agreement when the negotiators are willing to make more and more concessions to those who, even during the talks, keep chanting: ‘Death to America.’ We knew very well that the desire to sign an agreement was stronger than anything and therefore we did not commit to preventing an agreement. We did commit to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and this commitment still stands.”

Criticism for the deal was shared by Israel’s top leaders across party lines. Education Minister Naftali Bennett stated that July 14 would be forever remembered as a “dark day for the free world.” Bennett’s cabinet colleague Miri Regev was more vivid, equating the agreement to a “license to kill.”

The head of Israeli’s Yesh Atid opposition party, Yair Lapid, in a blatant attack on Iran’s administration, told the Associated Press, “This is a regime based in deceit, and now they are going to do what they did for the last 20 years, which is trying to get themselves nuclear weapons behind the back of the world. Now they are going to do it with the help of the international community.”

Netanyahu’s administration plans to embark on widespread lobbying efforts in the U.S. Congress so as to oppose the bill.

Though Republicans are strongly in opposition of the agreement, little can be done as President Obama conveniently does not need congressional support for a multinational deal, especially one that is not designated a treaty. The train has left the station, the U.S. Congress’ hands are tied, so are Netanyahu’s efforts and the fate of thousands of Israeli citizens.

The Iran nuclear agreement has completely erased years of gains made by the free world in curtailing the mass production of nuclear war heads. With Iran’s military experiments off the hook, Israel’s safety is in doubt. This deal will prove to be far more harmful to the world than beneficial.

Internet Data v. Speed: Which Would You Choose?

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Most cell phone-carrying Americans have contracts with their cell phone service providers that include monthly limits on data usage, otherwise known as data caps. These providers apply expensive overage fees or other penalties for using more data than is included in the plan. The result of overage fees and penalties is that people reduce their data usage significantly when they might risk going over the data cap. Conversely, people who are closing in on the end of their monthly billing cycle, but still have lots of data usage left, will increase their data activity in order to get their money’s worth.

While this sounds like an obvious conclusion in the context of people’s cell phone plans, it also rings true for data caps on residential Internet. Such caps on home broadband are rare, but some providers may begin to use them in the near future. A 2012 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research took actual data on data usage from a North American Internet provider. It showed that users of residential Internet tended to act as if there was a data cap monthly.

The study shows that in 2012, the particular Internet provider studied offered higher speeds to those who purchased capped plans. The provider likely did so as an incentive to get users of unlimited data plans to switch plans. According to the study, people on unlimited data plans paid less per gigabyte of data compared to those on capped plans- roughly $1.68 versus $3.02- a difference of nearly 80%. Those on limited plans got more data for their money, although at slower speeds. In the business sense, that is lost money for the Internet provider.

So, the question becomes whether people will pay for greater speed or more data usage. According to the 2012 study, Internet subscribers were far more willing to pay for a little more speed. In fact, users were willing to pay an average of $2.00 for an extra megabit per second of speed. Conversely, the study showed that people would likely only pay $0.36 for an extra gigabyte of data.

However, very recently, as Americans increasingly use the highly data-intensive Internet phenomenon of streaming video, it appears that the amount of data used by providers may prove more valuable than speed. Streaming video, for example, greatly increases the amount of data an average user consumes. If more providers impose data caps, users may find themselves reaching those caps in a shorter period of time.

While Comcast’s Gigabit Pro Internet service offers speeds at 200 times the national average, there is the issue of whether (today) people will ever need that much speed. Although people will likely find a way to use that speed in the future, it does not appear necessary now. It does suggest that people may want to maintain their unlimited data usage plans for as long as possible as the future is always closer than it looks.

In Bid To Engage Young Viewers, NASA Releases First Pluto Photo On Instagram

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In Bid To Engage Young Viewers, NASA Releases First Pluto Photo On Instagram

In what appears to be the first major debut by NASA on Instagram, the space agency released a breathtaking image of Pluto one hour before releasing the image on its own website. The amazing picture is the closest image of the dwarf planet yet to be released. Releasing the sneak peek of the image on Facebook-owned Instagram is a huge win for the company as users who wish to share the image post links or embed the Instagram version rather than the plain image file. This allows Instagram to feature its recently-launched update to its “search and discover” features with a specific list of space-related Instagram accounts, including NASA’s account, under the application’s Explore tab.

The stunning image was taken at about 4:00 P.M. yesterday, according to NASA, from 476,000 miles away. The high-resolution image was released after the highly anticipated flyby, and in the image, the “heart” of Pluto is visible in much greater detail than before. Craters that were impossible to make out in previous images are visible, as well as an amazing view of the dwarf planet’s dark equatorial belt.

NASA made the decision to release the image of Pluto on Instagram in an effort to engage new (younger) audiences. It did so rather than releasing the image of such a historic occasion on its own public website as it has it has traditionally done in the past.

Interestingly, NASA’s Instagram account is incredibly popular, where its recent photos have over one hundred thousand likes per image. The account has over 3.5 million followers, which is more than many celebrities and popular groups.

While NASA released the Pluto image on Instagram one hour before officially releasing it on its public website along with the science that surrounds the image, questions arise regarding favoritism. Specifically, the issue of whether a public agency should give preference to a specific private media outlet is raised. While it is one thing to release new images on an agency’s public site and simultaneously on social media, it is another thing to pick one private site and give it an exclusive debut.

While the image released to Instagram is the closest image of Pluto yet, it will not be the closest for the New Horizons spacecraft, which has travelled greater than nine years and over three billion miles. Those images will be released by NASA on Wednesday, July 15th.

Google Resorts To Cost Cutting in Effort to Grow Profits

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Google is making an effort to get its profit growth back on the upswing, marking a turn from high growth business to mature cash cow. The mega company is trying to grow its profits by implementing a series of cost-saving measures including the capping of hiring at its struggling Google+ social media division and placing greater scrutiny on requests for supplies, events and travel. These measures come in the wake of a dwindling operating-profit margin, which declined to 32% in 2014 from 38% in 2011.

Financial analysts and investors have understandably become disappointed in the company due to the decreasing growth rates. While Google’s 2015 first-quarter results revenue rose to $17.3 billion, compared with the first three quarters of the prior year, its 2014 fourth-quarter sales fell short of expectations, growing only 15.3% to $18.1 billion, which was below the expected $18.5 billion.

There are several factors which have led to dwindling stock prices such as lowered cost-per-click prices and a slowdown in per-share prices. However, investors and analysts still believe that Google can bounce back. In addition to the cost-saving measures listed above, Google needs to strengthen its mobile ad solutions just like Facebook has done. The social media networking giant has earned 70% of its revenue through mobile ads and Google should concentrate on building stronger mobile networks.

In addition to the struggling Google+ division, other divisions have yet to make a profit. Google’s YouTube, which is very popular among its users, is grappling to get in the black. Although YouTube’s revenue increased by $1 billion in 2014, after paying for content and equipment needed to deliver rapid videos, its bottom line is approximately break-even.

In light of lowered cost-per-click prices and some struggling divisions, Google needs to get on the ball in order to get its profit growth back on track. Google will post its second-quarter results on Thursday, July 16, 2015.

Smoking And Drinking Alcohol Linked To Decreased Risk Of Parkinson’s Disease

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Smoking And Drinking Alcohol Linked To Decreased Risk Of Parkinson’s Disease

Recent studies suggest that the consumption of coffee and smoking cigarettes is linked to potentially decreasing one’s chances of getting Parkinson’s disease. Hesingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily newspaper, has reported on a counter-intuitive study conducted at a Finnish university that suggests one can decrease their chances of getting Parkinson’s disease by drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.

An individual who has a continuous history of extensive smoking has a decreased risk of 36-50 percent, while a regular coffee drinker decreases his chances by another 33 percent. The exact link to this phenomenon is not currently known.

The University of Helsinki in Finland produced the results from a review of the literature on the topic and prior study results, which after thorough analysis gave some indication that the surprising factors were linked to the composition of the intestinal bacterial strain.

While it is still unknown as to Parkinson’s disease’s (PD) etiology and pathogenesis, evidence has been shown for factors in lifestyle that influence disease risk. Smoking cigarettes and the consumption of coffee are the best established inverted associations. Microbiome composition within the gut is an additional lifestyle factor that may play a role as well. It has been speculated, when taking into consideration the involvement of the gastrointestinal in PD, that the relationship between PD, smoking and coffee risk could be moderated by gut microbiota.

The work is the latest to suggest that the bacterial composition of our bodies plays an important role in all sorts of health conditions such as weight loss, colitis and now Parkinsons.

Another Week, Another Criminal Conspiracy At Deutsche Bank

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Another Week, Another Criminal Conspiracy At Deutsche Bank

It appears U.S. authorities aren’t finished with thinly disguised criminal racket Deutsche Bank after it emerged this week that regulators are beginning yet another investigation into criminal conduct by the bank, this time looking into a possible money laundering scheme performed in Russia.

Officials are investigating the transactions, worth billions of dollars, under the belief that they may have been used to cover up the illegal movement of money outside of Russia.

Sources report that the investigation of Deutsche Bank began earlier this summer and was initiated by The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS).

According to the same sources, there was an unsuccessful attempt to bribe an employee from Deutsche Bank by a client in Moscow to cover up the origin of their money.

A spokeswoman from Deutsche Bank said that the banking giant had “a small number of individuals” placed on leave from its Moscow office who were pending further review from within.

“We are committed to participating in international efforts to detect and combat suspicious activities and we take strong action where we find evidence of misconduct,” she said.

Deutsche Bank has informed regulators at Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and Germany’s BaFin of its internal probe into the Russian division’s transactions from 2011-2015.

Investigators in New York suspect securities purchased in Moscow via Deutsche Bank were completed in parallel with other trades from Deutsche Bank in international currencies in London.

Sources say that this probe within the Russian section of Deutsche Bank focus on the possibility of these transactions, also known as “mirror trades” gave clients the ability to move large sums of money out of Russia while also covering up the source of the funds.

The DFS fined Deutsche Bank back in April to the tune of $600 million for meddling with Libor interest rates, which were used to fix millions of contracts worldwide. In this multi-bank conspiracy, Deutsche Bank also received a portion of a total of $2.5 billion in fines filed by British and US authorities.
The latest revelations, again, beg the question: At what point is a ‘bank’ just a criminal conspiracy whose operators should be subject to prosecution under the RICO statute?

U.S. Obliterates Dozens Of ISIS Positions As Airstrikes Reach Highest Tempo Yet

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United States-led airstrikes barraged western Iraq yesterday, backing the country’s efforts after the Iraqi government declared yesterday that it was going to retake from ISIS the western province of Anbar, which includes the cities of Ramadi and Falluja. The airstrikes, consisting of bomber, attack, fighter-attack and drone aircraft, come one week after President Obama promised a long-term campaign in order to defeat ISIS. The attacks marked a significant escalation in the United States’ involvement in Iraq and its battle with terror group ISIS.

The coalition’s airstrikes carried out Monday more than doubled the typical daily activities taking place recently. However, United States officials cautioned that this operation was just the beginning of a likely long-term campaign due to ISIS tactics. In Ramadi, ISIS militants have had approximately 2 months to increase their defenses and to wire buildings with bombs.

One important question is whether the coalition-led offensive has the support of many groups that all consider ISIS the enemy but also have tense relations with one another. For example, within Iraq, this includes the Shiite fighters from the south and some Sunni forces. As far as the rest of the world, the key players include the United States and Iran, who obviously have their issues with each other. However, despite their differences, the Anbar operation included Shiite militias, Sunni tribal forces, regular army forces, special forces and federal policemen.

Greater than one year after ISIS took large regions of northern and western Iraq, its militants continue to hold the area, including Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. By taking Ramadi, ISIS strengthened its hold on Anbar, a large desert region that allows it to hold Mosul to the north and cross easily into its territory in Syria.

The United Nations released a report yesterday which stated that greater than 3,300 Iraqi civilians were killed and greater than 7,400 were injured during the five-month period from December 2014 to April 2015. The report also stated that ISIS likely committed war crimes and possibly genocide during its attacks on Iraqi civilians this year.

Giant African Land Snails Now Spreading Beyond Florida

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Giant African Land Snails Now Spreading Beyond Florida

The Giant African Land Snail (Achatina Fulica), which can grow up to eight inches in length, is threatening to expand its presence beyond the Florida borders. This is bad news for the American public because in addition to being an agricultural pest, the giant snail carries with it the parasite known as the rat lungworm. This parasite can burrow into humans and cause salmonella and meningitis, a condition that causes painful headaches, vomiting and stiff joints.

United States geological Survey biologist Deborah Iwanowicz recently collected several snails in one-third of the locations where Florida agriculture officials stated the snails were concentrated in 2013. Unlike samples that were collected in prior studies, Iwanowicz collected two samples from each snail she studied. By using this method, she found that “[c]ollecting just one additional sample per snail increased the number of snails testing positive for the rat lungworm by 13 percent.” Iwanowicz’s research was published in the Journal of wildlife Diseases.

The Giant African Land Snail was introduced to the United States in 1966, when a Miami boy smuggled three snails into the country. His grandmother eventually released the snails into a garden, and in approximately seven years, there were greater than 18,000 snails found in Florida. The Florida state eradication effort took over 10 years at a cost of $1 million. However, an emergence of the snails was discovered about four years ago in southern Florida. By going door-to-door in the Miami area, Florida officials found approximately 150,000 snails and two properties alone contained over 700 snails.

Giant African land snails are illegal in the continental U.S. because of the health risks and because they are highly invasive, and can cause widespread damage to important food crops and other agricultural and natural resources. They eat at least 500 different types of plants. If fruits or vegetables are not readily accessible to the snails, they will eat a variety of house plants, tree bark and even paint and stucco on houses.

These giant snails also reproduce rapidly, laying as many as 100 to 400 eggs in a single session. Snails are hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female reproductive organs. They can lay up to 1,200 eggs per year.

These hardy creatures can also live in colder temperatures, which allows them to spread to northern parts of the United States. In cold weather, the snails become slow and sluggish, practically hibernating, until warmer weather returns. Therefore it seems like the Giant African Snail is not ready to leave the United States.

China Latest Country To Implement Internet Kill Switch ‘For Your Safety’

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China Latest Country To Implement Internet Kill Switch ‘For Your Safety’

Joining countries like the United States, the State Council in China now has the power to shut down or restrict mobile phone and internet communications within certain regions according to a new law. Officially to protect the national security and order of the social public in times of severe ‘social security incidents’ the new power effectively gives the Chinese government complete authority to shut off access to the internet and cellphone communications when significant ‘social security incidents’ occur. Just what those might be and why they would necessitate cutting off people’s communications remains to be seen.

This gives the ruling Communist Party, one of the most repressive regimes when it comes to personal expression and freedom of speech, the ability to disrupt protests, activists and uprisings regardless of their pretense.

Under the new law, critical infrastructure organizations including foreign entities will also be required to store “important” information on Chinese land unless granted special permission to host offshore.

According to analysts Lu Wei, Director of the Cyberspace Administration, played a lead role in the efforts to coordinate and plan the new information security policy.

An English translation of the draft law was posted online outlining the details about the new security approach.

“To fulfill the need to protect national security and social public order, and respond to major social security incidents, the State Council … may take temporary measures regarding network communications in certain regions, such as restricting it,” according to the document posted online.

Critical operators of the infrastructure who would like to have personal information or any other type of “important data” for the Chinese citizens stored offshore will need to perform security assessments as required by the Government.

“Where due to business requirements it is truly necessary to store it outside the mainland or provide it to individuals or organizations outside the mainland, they shall follow the measures jointly formulated by the State network information department and the relevant departments of the State Council to conduct a security assessment.”

Operators of the critical infrastructure will be required to conduct annual network security assessments as well as submit reports to a variety of State departments. “Security drills” may be required to be run if ordered by the Cyberspace Administration.

Only a portion of the laws that had been planned to be formally enacted into national law had been previously detailed in contracts. Analysts blame this on the rise in Beijing’s prioritization of information security defense.

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