Posts - Americans

Three Quarters Of Russian Satellite Components Are Actually Built In The United States

News

Given recent tensions between Russia and the United States, its rather strange that the U.S. relies on Russia to bring astronauts to and from the International Space Station. It also relies on Russian RD-180 rocket engines for the United Launch Alliance Commercial Crew program, a fact competitor SpaceX is keen to point out. SpaceX is currently the only commercial provider of made in America rocket engines.

But even stranger than the U.S. relying on Russia to access space is the fact that up to 75 percent of the electronic components for Russian satellites come from U.S. manufacturers, according to Russian space program specialist Nikolay Testoyedov.

That means that the dependency is actually the other way around.

If Moscow ever retaliates by refusing to sell RD-180 rocket motors to Washington, which Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has threatened, Russia’s satellite program could be frozen for at least two years.

“The imported electronic components in our satellites represent 25 to 75 percent of the total in communications; in military ones, somewhat less; in commercial ones, more,” Testoyedov says. Approximately 83-87 percent of the imported components come from the United States, giving Washington leverage.

Recently the United States has indicated it will intensify sanctions against Russia because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Testoyedov says new sanctions will likely target this precise sector because of its national security implications.

Yet Moscow will no face serious problems this year, given current supplies of the components, but in the next two years. “After 2019,” he suggests, Russian satellite producers will use new designs that don’t require these “critical elements.”

Vladimir Shvaryev, the deputy head of the Moscow Center for the Analysis of the Global Arms Trade says that if the U.S. does impose sanctions in this sector, Moscow “could buy everything necessary from China.”

In a show of just how connected the global economy is, such purchases could then provoke the West into imposing limitations on the export of key technologies to China.

There are also doubts about China as a supplier, not only because Chinese production is not as good as America’s in this sector but also because China is also unreliable, at least in the longer term.

“I wouldn’t begin to trust China either,” Yury Karash, a member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, said. “There is the suspicion that Beijing under favorable circumstances would not be against seizing a significant part of Russia.”

Even if it doesn’t do that anytime soon, the new Russian ‘East’ Cosmodrome is a mere 60 miles from the Russian-Chinese border, making it a tempting target.

Israel Explodes Nuclear ‘Dirty Bombs’ In Secret Nuclear Tests

Entertainment News

Israel recently carried out practice detonations containing nuclear material, in an effort to examine the effects of a potential “dirty bomb” attack against it, Haaretz daily newspaper reported this week.

Over 20 detonations were carried out in the practice, which contained between a half pound and 55 pounds of explosives. The practice was conducted at a closed facility in the southern Negev Desert.

“The research concluded that high-level radiation was measured at the center of the explosions, with a low level of dispersal of radiation by particles carried by the wind. Sources at the reactor said this doesn’t pose a substantial danger beyond the psychological effect,” Haaretz reported.

It is likely Israel leaked the results of the test, given they concluded that such devices posed little threat to the country.

“Dirty bombs” are regular explosives detonated with nuclear material nearby. They are intended to contaminate a wide area with radiation.

Israeli defense officials refused to comment on the report.

Israel has never publicly declared what its extensive nuclear weapons program. It is the only country in the world to possess such weapons without declaring them and is also the only country in the middle east to possess them.

In addition to the explosive experiments, another test called “Red House” was conducted, in which Israel tested the results of undetonated radioactive material left in a crowded area.

It is estimated that Israel has over 200 nuclear missiles.

Environmental group Greenpeace found in a report that Israel is conducting nuclear exercises in the Nahal Sorek, Negev, Eilabun, Haifa, Yodfat, Tiros and Kefer Zekeriya regions.

Its possible the leaked test results were also a cover for nuclear weapons testing, though the intense secrecy makes verification next to impossible.

Russian Company Unveils World’s Cheapest Helicopter

Finance

Russian designers are about to fulfill the dream of a truly affordable helicopter, with the launch of the Afalina, which is expected to cost about half the currently cheapest model on the market.

Yet not only will it be cheapest, it will also run on regular gasoline when it goes into production in 2016.

HeliWhale, from the Siberian city of Kemerovo, revealed its unique design at the HeliRussia 2015 exhibition, which took place in Moscow in late May.

The ultra-light, coaxial two-seater is called Afalina, the Russian word for bottle nose dolphin, given the rotorcraft’s hull, which resembles the marine mammal’s body.

The Afalina is capable of performing a variety of tasks, including the training of pilots, maintenance of pipelines and power lines, farm work, police patrolling, aerial surveillance transportation of personnel, and recreational flights.

Yet despite being cheap the model has advanced computer systems which allow the pilot to pick and choose his cockpit display layout from hundreds of devices and functions.

The coaxial positioning of rotors, where two sets of blades sping on top of each other, ensures that the aircraft is easier to pilot, quieter and more resistant to lateral wind gusts.

HeliWhale said that the patented new control system of coaxial rotors also provides the helicopter with high velocity of up to 250 kilometers per hour at max speed.

The aircraft, weighing just 600 pounds, is capable of carrying a payload of another 400 pounds, the company said.

Perhaps the most key feature for hobbyist pilots is that Afalina can refuel using 95 octane gasoline, with the consumption between 3 to 4 gallons per hour.

According to HeliWhale, the helicopter will cost $120,000, including heating and ventilation systems in the cockpit.

“Today nobody else produces aircrafts of this class, even the two-seater ‘Robinson’ is heavier than ‘Afalina’ and is, in fact, a completely different machine,” said Jacov Kolesnikov, general director of HeliWhale.

“The American Robinsons are also much more expensive. A two-seat helicopter costs $300,000,” he added.

The Afalina is an all Russian design, with HeliWhale producing all parts itself, except for the Austrian made engine, Rotax, which may be appealing to western buyers given the critical nature of the component.

“We are looking for domestic engines, and if there is a quality Russian engine, maybe we’ll switch to it,” Kolesnikov said.

The company says it will be able to build between 10 to 15 of the helicopters every year.

Customers will receive their purchases as kit models for self-assembly in order to keep the price low, the developer said.

Besides Russia, HeliWhale is planning to sell to the U.S., Australian, and EU markets, saying that it already has orders for Afalina from abroad.

Given the self assembled nature, the aircraft will likely avoid most FAA regulations, which means you can have your very own helicopter for about the price of a Tesla Model S.

Rise Of Craft Beer Creating Shortage Of Key Ingredient

Finance

Beer drinking, particularity small batch craft beer, is on the rise. While not good news for brewing giants like Coors and Budweiser, its music to the ears of many small-time American brewers.

It’s also been a boon for farmers who supply the key ingredient – hops – on which the brewers depend.

Ben St. Mary, who own a family hops farm in Washington, saying he’s “riding a pretty good wave right now. The whole craft beer thing is great.”

The spike in demand for craft beers has led to hops are in short supply. Growers in the Yakima Valley, which produces 75 percent of the nation’s hops, are rushing to expand their production to meet the demand.

The cone-shaped plants are added to beer during the brewing process to increase bitterness and flavor. In 2014, acreage grew more than 6 percent in Washington from the year before, and is estimated to rise 10 percent this year, according to industry sources.

The shortage is particularly felt by Craft brewers because their beers typically use four to five times more hops in the brewing process than mass-produced beers. The hops industry, which had been in a slump, was caught by surprise.

Some brewers have had to curtail production because of the shortage. It’s not just the hops themselves that are in short supply. The processing facilities that dry and bale the plant are also out of capacity.

Tomme Arthur, chief operating officer of The Lost Abbey brewery in California said their solution is to simply contract for more hops than they need.

“For the past three years, we have sold off our surplus to friends and other brewers in need,” Arthur said. Yet they be able to keep doing that as the brewery is expecting growth some 20 percent per year, he said.

Paul Gatza, director of the Boulder, Colorado-based Brewers Association, said prices for hops is rising as the supply remains tight. The group has a goal of 20 percent of the market belonging to craft brewers by 2020, an 11 percent increase from today, he said.

As hops are difficult to grow, the increased demand has spawned interest from farmers in other states, such as Michigan, Montana and New York, because the plants only grow best along the 45th parallel.

But it can take two to three years to get a field into full production. And growing hops has not always been a good business in the past 20 years, when points of oversupply caused demand to plummet and some growers to go out of business. That was before the worldwide economic downturn of 2008, which further hurt the industry.

The events proved that hops are not recession proof. Yet farmers likely won’t be deterred. High crop prices always lead to more planting, so while supplies are tight right now that likely won’t last. Over the next five years prices are forecast to decline, which is just what craft brewers want to hear.

As The World Ends Child Labor, India Passes Laws To Allow More

Entertainment News

While child labor is decreasing worldwide, India is taking firm steps to go in the other direction.

Friday was World Day Against Child Labor, where activists hoped to raise awareness of areas where children are most vulnerable to being exploited.

One of those areas activists are paying particularly close attention to is India, where certain forms of child labor were recently legalized and rates of child labor are skyrocketing in urban centers.

An estimated 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 in India are engaged in work, according to UNICEF.

Activists fear those numbers will spike even higher after an amendment passed last month loosened the restrictions on the Child Labour Prohibition Act, the country’s legal framework for child labor.

The amendment permits children to work in “family enterprises” after school hours or during vacations. Such enterprises account for a large variety of jobs including helping family work in the fields and forests, domestic work, carpet weaving and matchbox making.

The amendment was designed to cultivate an “entrepreneurial spirit” among children, but advocates say it will just unravel years of progress for under-served kids while allowing business owners to benefit from cheap labor.

“All our campaigns to end bonded child labor, starting from the 1980s, will go up in smoke,” said Shamshad Khan, head of the Centre for Rural Education and Development Action “Schools will be emptied out and poor children will be back to working in sheds and makeshift factories that will all go by the nomenclature of family enterprises.”

Over 100 child activists signed a letter protesting the reform, calling it “retrogressive.”

Since 2000, global child labor has dropped by one-third, according to the ILO, but India is bucking the trend.

A recent report by Child Rights and You found a mere 2.2 percent drop over the last decade.

At that pace it will take more than a century for the country to completely eliminate the practice.

Yet in individual areas, the child labor is actually on the rise, and increased a stunning 53 percent between 2001 and 2011.

To combat the lack of progress the ILO is calling for improved access to quality education. India has been singled out for its poor education system which discourages children from wanting to attend school.

The organization is pushing for free, compulsory education for all children, until they reach the minimum age for employment. It would also like to see opportunities for children who were forced to work, thus missing out on early education.

“It is clear that the persistence of child labor remains a barrier to progress on education and development,” said the ILO. “If the problem of child labor is ignored or if laws against it are not adequately enforced, children who should be in school will remain working instead.”

Iran Caught Backing Taliban With Weapons, Cash And Training

Entertainment News

While the Taliban terror network is being increasingly marginalized by rival terror group ISIS, Iran has stepped up to offer them support by sending shipments of weapons and money as well as training, according to stunning new reports.

Citing Afghan and Western officials, the Wall Street Journal has claimed that Iran is backing the militants to prevent ISIS from gaining a foothold in Afghanistan and to counter U.S. influence ahead of the planned withdrawal of American troops in the country by the end of 2016.

Taliban fighters have confirmed the militants receive weapons from smugglers paid by Iran’s government, who traffic the illicit arms through the remote border region where Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan intersect. The weapons shipments consist of mortars, machine guns, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Yet Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, has denied providing financial or military aid to the Taliban.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., condemned the report as further evidence of the administration’s continued willful disregard for the facts showing Iranian aggression in the region.

The report also found that for the past two years Iran has been operating training camps for the Taliban inside its territory, with at least four of the camps currently operating.

A senior Afghan official said that previously Iran had been supporting the Taliban financially, but now they are training and equipping them too, possibly in a sign that Iran views ISIS as growing too powerful too quickly.

UPDATE: Dallas Police Attacker Killed By Police Snipers

News

Confusion continues to surround the circumstances of an attack on the Dallas Police headquarters early Saturday morning.

Police now believe a lone man unleashed a barrage of gunfire on the headquarters and planted explosives outside the building, narrowly failing to wound anyone . The incident led to a chase that ended with officers shooting him in his parked van at a restaurant parking lot.

The suspect is believed to have been killed, although police still haven’t confirmed his death yet. The delayed confirmation is because police are using a robot to probe the van in the suburb of Hutchins because the suspect claimed to have rigged the vehicle with explosives, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said to reporters.

“We believe this suspect meant to kill officers,” Brown said. “We barely survived the intentions of this suspect.”

Before being shot, the suspect ranted to police by phone, stating his name and accusing police of taking his child away from him.

Police will use controlled explosions on the van in the parking lot to ensue the vehicle can be approached safely, Brown said.

The initial attack began shortly after midnight, with the man firing an assault weapon and then a shotgun at the station.

Nobody was injured in the attack and the investigation is ongoing. Police initially suspected multiple parties were involved but have since revised that statement.

U.S. Forces Attacked In Iranian Missile Strike That Killed Saudi Air Force Chief

News

In a huge blow to the Saudi military, Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Muhammad bin Ahmed Al-Shaalan was killed in a Scud missile attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on the giant King Khalid Air Base in the southwestern Saudi Arabia.

Also operating out of the base: A massive U.S. drone fleet.

The attack took place on June 6th, but was concealed under a blanket of secrecy until Wednesday, June 10th. Media reports only started circulating on Friday, in an effort to bury the news in the usual Friday afternoon dump.

For the Saudi’s and their expensive, well trained military, the blow is both militarily significant and politically sensitive.

The attack happened at the largest Saudi air base, where the kingdom has for last two and a half months waged its air campaign to end the Yemeni insurgency.

Saudi and coalition air strikes, directed against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, have killed an estimated 2,000 people, including numerous civilians, women and children.

The delayed official disclosure of Gen. Al-Shaalan’s death Wednesday left more questions than answers. The terse three-line announcement read: “The Commander of Saudi Royal Air Forces Lieutenant General Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Shaalan died Wednesday during a working trip outside the kingdom from a heart attack.”

Yet regional military sources report that the Houthis’ Scud attack caught the Saudis uprepared and came as a total surprise.

The only reaction from the air base came from American teams operating Patriot counter-missile batteries, which tried to shoot down the incoming missiles and managed to intercept only two or three out of a barrage of 15.

The U.S. anti-missile systems have been deployed to shield U.S. special forces units and drones fighting Al Qaeda in Arabia (AQIP) from the base. Yet since the start of the Yemen civil war, American drones have also been feeding the Saudi Air Force with information about Houthi targets and movements.

The missile attack on the Saudi air base represents a major escalation in the Yemeni war, with effects on the complex U.S. and Saudi relationship with Iran. The Yemen conflict has become a full on proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and through the Saudis America.

Regional intelligence experts found that Houthi Scud crews undoubtedly received precise data from Iranian intelligence about the whereabouts of Gen. Al-Shalaan and his top staff at the time of the attack.They were then able to time their attack for 3am before dawn and specifically target the base’s living quarters and aircraft hangars.

The attack likely had three purposes. For Iran, it was to strike a powerful blow against the Saudis and serve notice to America that it does not care for its drones in the region. On a more practical level, damage to aircraft and runways will slow down the pace of drone missions and Saudi air strikes.

Both the Saudi’s and the Obama administration have been keeping the incident secret so as not to jeopardize the nuclear negotiations with Iran as they enter the final lap before the June 30th deadline.

Both parties would also rather not draw attention to their joint involvement in the conflict, nor the embarrassing defeat at the hands of Iran.

ISIS Launches NPR Style Radio Station

Entertainment News

As U.S. officials admitted to the New York Times on Friday that ISIS continues to win the war of words, news broke that the radical Islamic terrorists were stepping up their propaganda machine by launching a 24 hour a day radio station.

“We thank our listeners for tuning in and present the following Islamic State news bulletin,” is what listeners hear when they tune into the “Al-Bayan” radio network, which launched in Mosul on April 7th and now covers most of ISIS’ territory. The station is broadcast in Arabic, Kurdish, English, French and Russian languages.

Delivered in a smooth, American male voice, the English-language newscast starts with “a glimpse of the main headlines” and is followed by updates from the “wilayats” (Arabic for “states”) of ISIS while providing details on “martyr” operations by “soldiers of the caliphate” against the “enemy.”

The professional tone of the anchor and sound quality of the broadcast are very similar to the National Public Radio (NPR) or England’s BBC.

“The language is broadcast radio. It sounds like we are listening to the BBC,” Jasmine Opperman, a senior analyst for the Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium (TRAC), said to reporters.

“They are diversifying their central message of success on the battlefield,” said Opperman.

“ISIS would not launch a propaganda campaign like this if it did not have a target audience in mind,” she elaborated.

ISIS’s use of media, both social and traditional, “promotes its soft power,” said William Youmans, a professor of media and public affairs at the George Washington University.

“As ISIS seeks to become an established state, it knows it must seek legitimacy, and that it cannot just rule on violence, even if that is how it gains territory and represses people living under its rule,” Youmans said.

“In terms of its efficacy in recruiting foreign fighters, their media production must be somewhat effective as they continue to invest in it and are becoming more sophisticated,” he added.

“One of the common accusations of the west is that under Islamic State education will suffer, religious studies and changes to the curriculum don’t quite fit their image of progressive schooling. But here in Halab, these young men here are learning Qur’an recital and languages, and with any luck they will form the mujahideen for the next generation in this region,” captive British photojournalist John Cantlie is heard saying in ISIS documentary “Inside Halab.”

“ISIS has a big incentive to show itself as friendly to families and generous in welfare to undermine the images of its brutality. It would want to widen the tent of people it could attract,” explained Youmans.

Al Bayan’s newscasts, in contrast to ISIS social media posts and video documentaries, sound more serious and focus on updates from the battlefield. When announcing the name of a suicide bomber on the program, the anchor’s tone remains calm, which is different from the usual “sensationalization” of ISIS “martyr” deaths in its other propaganda.

“There is a tension in ISIS media strategy,” said Youmans.

“It wants on one hand to show that it is exciting to join and is winning battles, yet a group grounded in higher values, on the other. It seeks normalization and legitimacy, while also trying to be attractive as a sort of adventure for foreigners.”

“It is possible this reflects ISIS’s media savvy. The people who work on media likely have a sense of how audience breaks down per each medium, and try to tailor the messages based on who they think they are more likely to get,” he added.

Opperman argues that such newscasts “are nothing new to ISIS’ propaganda.”

Analysts see the newscasts augmenting its already heavy media propaganda, while also providing vital communication across its increasingly sprawling empire. While its social media campaigns and documentaries are designed for audiences outside its territory, to either recruit or fundraise, the radio channels are designed for people living inside the Islamic State in an effort to make their daily lives seem normal.

World’s First Penis Transplant Recipient Set To Become A Father

Health & Wellness

In a stunning testament to the power of modern medical science, a 21-year-old South African who became the world’s first penis transplant recipient just 10 months ago now looks set to become a father, the world learned on Friday.

The groundbreaking nine-hour operation was performed at the Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, after the man’s penis was amputated in a circumcision-gone-wrong.

Professor André van der Merwe, who lead the team that conducted the surgery, said news the patient would become a father confirmed the procedure’s success.

“Our goal was that he would be fully functional at two years and we are very surprised by his rapid recovery,” van der Merwe said.

Van der Merwesaid called the the news “a milestone” and was keen for similar operations to be carried out in the future.

The operation was conducted as part of a pilot study by the hospital and the University of Stellenbosch aimed at helping the 250 or so young South African men who lose their penises each year due to botched coming-of-age rituals.

The men, primarily from the Xhosa tribe, celebrate their passage into manhood by shaving their heads and smearing themselves with white clay from head to toe. They lived in special huts away from the community for several weeks, and then undergo ritual circumcision to become a man.

But the practice is exceedingly dangerous. In May 2013 alone, more than 20 youths died after initiation rituals in the northerly Mpumalanga province. The deaths have prompted calls to abandon the outdated and unsafe ritual.

Just a few months later, police made several arrests for murder after an additional 30 young men died due to the rituals in rural Eastern Cape.

The rituals have the potential to injure up to 300 young men across the province in the space of a week, while the most unlucky simply lose their penises.

Professor Merwe sees penis transplants being eventually offered to men who have lost their penis from cancer or even as a last resort for severe erectile dysfunction.

Nine more patients have been lined up to have the operation, and Professor Merwe thinks that he “will transplant again within the next 10 months.”

As the procedure is refined and made more effective it could become one of the most common elective transplant procedures in medicine.

Professor Merwe already receives dozens of emails a week from around the globe seeking to get on the waiting list for a transplant.

While Yahoo Signs Celebs, Google Aggressively Ramping eSports TV

Finance

Google is known to be a data driven business. Virtually every decision the search giant makes across all its product lines is supported by rigorous data analysis. Competitors like Netflix are also known to do the same, carefully observing what users do to build products that they find pleasing.

This is how we know, for instance, that Yahoo grossly overpaid for the rights to stream the first NFL football game on the web. Given that both Google owned YouTube and Netflix took a pass on the game, we know Yahoo overpaid – likely by a decent sum. The same can probably be said for Yahoo’s decision to hire Katie Couric, who didn’t exactly have big web TV companies beating down her door to procure her services.

Yet Google and Netflix are hardly sitting still, as Google on Friday confirmed plans to pursue the newly created, multi-billion dollar, online TV gaming market.

Specifically its YouTube property will focus on televising video game battles, with the launch later this year of a dedicated YouTube app and website.

The move comes after the company failed to buy Twitch, the leader in televised eSports, for $1 billion last year. The move was announced in a blog post on Friday, with the new service coming to the U.S. and UK this summer.

Google appears to have put considerable effort behind signing video game publishers, announcing that “more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams”.

Popular games such as Zelda, Call of Duty and Asteroids will have their own channels.

Interestingly, Google announced that gaming content will be “front-and-centre” on a newly redesigned YouTube site.

The move highlights Google’s appreciation for the economics of web TV, which is about low cost production and wide distribution rather than the high quality production value of traditional TV.

For Yahoo this could be problematic, as they are taking the opposite approach, spending $10 million per year alone on one single news anchor. While Google is operating on cold, hard numbers, Yahoo is pursuing an old media strategy that probably won’t end well.

YouTube’s product manager Alan Joyce said of the move:

“On top of existing features like high frame rate streaming at 60fps, DVR, and automatically converting your stream into a YouTube video, we’re redesigning our system so that you no longer need to schedule a live event ahead of time. We’re also creating [a] single link you can share for all your streams.”

Google’s move will also counter Amazon acquiring Twitch. Expect more YouTube announcements this summer, particularly around virtual reality and 3d videos. 2016 looks set to be the year VR goes mainstream and its unlikely YouTube will be missing the party.

Court Rules Google Is, In Fact, Subject To Canadian Law

Finance

Google has long had a belief that because it is ‘From The Internet’ regular laws, rules and regulations don’t apply to it. This week we reported that in France, Google tried, and failed, to use this argument to exempt itself from the EU’s Right To Be Forgotten laws, by removing links on google.fr yet keeping them on google.com.

This shell game was struck down by French courts, who will now, slowly, sanction Google should it fail to comply.

In Canada this week another court rejected Google’s ‘we’re from the Internet so laws don’t apply to us’ defense of a similar case.

A Canadian court rejected Google’s laughable claim that it can’t control its own search engine, instead concluding that the search giant can indeed control what does and doesn’t appear in its powerful search rankings.

The case, Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Google Inc., revolves around the de-listing of rogue websites from search results.

Equustek caught one of its distributors, Datalink, first rebadging Equustek’s products and then producing a copy that it called the GW1000. Despite a court ordering Datalink to stop selling the GW1000, Datalink has continued selling them under a variety of names.

Datalink sold these products online, where it relied on search result traffic to reach customers.
In 2012 Google voluntarily removed 345 URLs listing Datalink’s gear, at the behest of Equustek, who eventually obtained a court order that would have forced the move anyway.

Yet Google, despite removing the links, fought the order, then attempted to restrict it to Google.ca only – making the injunction worthless, just like it recently did in France.

The Canadians, jut like the French, didn’t appreciate Google’s smarmy shell game of removing the links one place and keeping them in another, so they ruled last year that Google should delist the Datalink sites across all Google domains.

Google appealed the ruling, enlisting the help of big media companies and an NGO it funds, the EFF, to argue that the court didn’t have any authority over Google, because the plaintiff was Canadian and, disingenuously, that Google is a “passive” operation.

While Google uses algorithms to determine which sites to show the ‘passive’ part is laughable, as Google is well known for taking “manual actions” to punish search results that are not caught by its algorithms yet are clearly gaming the system.

It just doesn’t like people to know about its manual ability because manual actions require people, which being expensive, cut into profit margins.

The judge had rejected the argument that Google was ‘passive’.

On Friday, Justice Harvey Groberman agreed with the earlier ruling.

The chambers judge carefully examined the evidence, and found that the injunction would not inconvenience Google in any material way, and that Google would not incur expense in complying with it. She also found that the granting of the injunction was the only practical way for the defendants’ websites to be made inaccessible.

The importance of freedom of expression should not be underestimated. As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has said in its factum: ‘A nation’s treatment of freedom of expression is a core part of its self-determination, rooted in the nation’s historical and social context, and the ways in which its constitutional values (whether written or unwritten), norms and legal system have evolved.’ For that reason, courts should be very cautious in making orders that might place limits on expression in another country. Where there is a realistic possibility that an order with extraterritorial effect may offend another state’s core values, the order should not be made.

“In the case before us,” he went on, “there is no realistic assertion that the judge’s order will offend the sensibilities of any other nation. It has not been suggested that the order prohibiting the defendants from advertising wares that violate the intellectual property rights of the plaintiffs offends the core values of any nation. The order made against Google is a very limited ancillary order designed to ensure that the plaintiffs’ core rights are respected.”

What decision means that in Canada, the rights and interests of powerful global corporations don’t come before other rights, such as being able to conduct a lawful business, simply because a company says they’re ‘From The Internet.’

Senate Votes To Keep Relying On Russian Space Transport, Give Massive Pork To Boeing And Lockheed

News

While NASA, our national space agency, continues to perform beautifully the pigs in congress continue to play hard nosed politics with funding for the research agency.

The latest disgrace comes from the Senate Appropriations Committee, which approved a spending bill June 11th that leaves NASA with some $239 million less than the agency needs for 2016. In addition to short changing the agency, the bill crucially shifts funds away from cheap, commercial space programs and towards pricey, pork ridden systems that may never see the light of day.

The benefactors? Boeing and Lockheed Martin, two of the most notorious defense contractors when it comes to sucking up Congressional pork.

The NASA funding of $18.29 billion comes after The White House asked lawmawkers to fund NASA at $18.529 billion.

But the bill shifted funding from some programs, including commercial crew and space technology, to the Space Launch System (SLS) and planetary science.

The SLS is a long-term oriented NASA space program that is developing a large rocket to transport humans to Mars.

The Commercial Crew program is designed to stop America from relying on Russian rockets and instead use commercial launch systems from SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA). ULA is a consortium of Boeing and Lockheed.

Both Boeing and Lockheed despise the Commercial Crew program, as it introduces competition to their once easy space related profits. Upstart SpaceX is radically lowering the costs of putting American astronauts in space, denting the margins for the big incumbents and forcing them to compete.

Yet the monster defense contractors have deep ties to elected officials and a powerful lobby, so they simply got the budgets re-written so that more funds will go to the lucrative programs they control and less to the programs that are actually good for America.

The result for the American space program is that it will now have to continue to rely on Russian transportation to the international space station, an increasingly risky proposition.

The reduced funding for commercial crew prompted a strong response from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who said in a June 10 statement he was “deeply disappointed” by the Senate’s decision.

“By gutting this program and turning our backs on U.S. industry, NASA will be forced to continue to rely on Russia to get its astronauts to space – and continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the Russian economy rather than our own,” he stated.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) also criticized the commercial crew funding cut in a speech on the Senate floor. “If that cut in the subcommittee is sustained,” he said, “it’s going to delay us from being able to launch Americans on American rockets.”

Senate Denies Obama Right To ‘Fast Track’ Trade Deals

News

Democrats voted overwhelmingly Friday to derail giving the President “fast-track” authority to conduct high-stakes Trans-Pacific trade talks, rejecting a personal plea from Barack Obama,

The vote reduces the chances for a sweeping trade pact, though much political wrangling is still to do.

The 302-126 vote may derail Obama’s quest to have the Trans-Pacific Partnership be one of the twin pillars of his presidential legacy, along with Obamacare.

Friday’s vote likely just sets the stage for another round of congressional wrangling and another vote, perhaps as early as next week. A new vote might include measures to assist workers displaced by the trade pact combined with fast-track authority, in a classic quid-pro-quo our elected officials are known for.

A little pork for key voters goes a long way in DC.

Republicans overwhelmingly backed giving the President fast-track authority to negotiate deals, but Mr. Obama had to make a rare, last-minute trip down Pennsylvania Avenue to woo reluctant Democrats.

The President, who has a frosty relationship with Congress, alternately begged and threatened Democrats opposed to granting him absolute power on trade. Many Democrats regard freer trade as responsible for the loss of millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

“Basically the President tried to both guilt people and then impugn their integrity,” said Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat who strongly opposes fast track authority.

Even Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who has loyally backed the President for years, turned against Obama on the sweeping trade authority.

“Whatever the deal is with other countries, we want a better deal for America’s workers,” Ms. Pelosi said, despite not even knowing the precise deal on the table thanks to the Obama administration’s fanatical secrecy around the pact.

The President signaled his worry that the closed door meetings weren’t enough to secure his further increase in power as he returned to the White House in his armoured limousine.

“I don’t think you ever nail anything down around here,” he said.

The TPP trade deal is widely regarded as a gift to loyal corporate supporters of the Obama presidency. The few details that have emerged show both large corporations and foreign governments benefiting, with little to no regard paid to the impact on American families and workers.

There will likely be more votes on the deal in the coming weeks as the Obama administration seeks to ram through its last piece of notable legislation before its term expires next year.

The Federal Data Breach Keeps Getting Worse – The Chinese Now Know Detailed Info On All Security Clearance Holders

News

News came, when else, late on Friday that the Chinese attack on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) were even worse than previously thought.

Not only was the personal information of every government employee stolen in the attack but the Chinese hackers gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances.

The stolen forms, known as Standard Form 86, detail deeply personal information about mental illnesses, drug and alcohol use, past arrests and bankruptcies. They also list the contacts and relatives of employees, exposing any foreign relatives of U.S. intelligence employees to coercion. Both the applicant’s Social Security number and that of his or her cohabitant is further listed on the detailed form.

This confirms a vague statement issued by the White House on June 8, that there was “a high degree of confidence that … systems containing information related to the background investigations of current, former and prospective federal government employees, and those for whom a federal background investigation was conducted, may have been exfiltrated.”

“This tells the Chinese the identities of almost everybody who has got a United States security clearance,” said Joel Brenner, a former top intelligence official. “That makes it very hard for any of those people to function as an intelligence officer. The database also tells the Chinese an enormous amount of information about almost everyone with a security clearance. That’s a gold mine. It helps you approach and recruit spies.”

While the OPM didn’t comment, the latest admission flies in the face of statements issued by OPM that have consistently said there was no evidence that security clearance information had been compromised.

The White House statement said the hack of the security clearance database is separate from the breach of federal personnel data announced last week, though it is within the same agency.

The previous breach is itself appearing far worse than first believed, with over 4.1 million federal employee records stolen.

In short, China now knows the identity of every single U.S. security clearance holder – and what makes them tick.

Yahoo Keeps Overpaying, Re-Signs Katie Couric To $10 Million Per Year Deal

Finance

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is known to spend money. Worth hundreds of millions of dollars herself, the flashy CEO will often wear designer dresses worth as much as a car to the office and even once chartered a private jet to fly cupcakes from New York to California.

The so-called Cupcake Princess has racked up a series of expensive acquisitions during her time as Yahoo’s CEO, spending $30 million for 18 month old Summly, a startup that didn’t even own the technology that made its product. She further paid $1.1 billion for mostly-porn blog network Tumbler and recently outbid the rest of Silicon Valley for the rights to live-stream an early morning, low ratings, NFL game.

Ms. Mayer continued her spendthrift ways on Friday, by retaining high profile yet questionable value proposition Katie Couric, as global news anchor for Yahoo.

Yes, Yahoo has a TV news network.

Ms. Couric will receive a whopping $10 million per year to be the face of Yahoo news, principally conducting high profile interviews like the one she had with Senator Lindsey Graham earlier on Friday.

The move to retain Couric shows Yahoo’s desire to transition from a wire copy and video syndication model to more original news content.

While already one of the country’s most popular news web site, it produces virtually none of its own news.

The $10 million payday represents a 66 percent raise from the $6 million she was previously paid. While the new package contains some performance incentives in order to hit the $10 million it likely those will be achieved, given Team Couric’s savvy at negotiating the deal.

For Yahoo the pricey contract, coming amid flat revenues and profits during Mayer’s tenure, makes it hard to imagine it ever recouping such an investment in any host. Unlike television networks Yahoo has no subscription revenue streams, relying solely on advertising. This makes it far less lucrative than television.

Yahoo declined to comment on the new deal but did seem to hint that Ms. Couric will be sticking around.

It’s hard to imagine anyone wouldn’t stick around for $10 million cash per year.

Chaos In Dallas As Armed Attackers Assault Police Headquarters

News

Unknown attackers unleashed gunfire on Dallas police headquarters early Saturday morning, driving up in an armored van. They then proceeded to ram a squad car as they fled, according to authorities.

Police returned fire, causing what appears to be one individual to be separated from the group who left in the armored vehicle. Police would not confirm whether that suspect was apprehended.

Four suspicious bags were found after the attack near the headquarters with at least one containing explosives. The police headquarters has been evacuated as a result.

An explosives handling robot was destroyed as the package blew up when it was approached, said Maj. Max Geron in a tweet.

Police Chief David Brown believes that “there might be up to four suspects,” who used automatic weapons to attack the police building. Shooters were both inside and outside the armored van.

While windows were shattered and bullets pierced squad cars, no one was injured in the attack.

Police gave chase to the van, with the attackers and officers exchanging gunfire in the chase. Police have now cornered the van in a fast food restaurant parking lot near the interstate.

“There is currently a standoff with what appears to be an armored vehicle in the Dallas suburb of Hutchins, Texas, around I-20 and I-45,” said Maj. Max Geron.

A SWAT team is negotiating with a single suspect, who gave the name James Boulware. While police found a previous record of domestic violence by a man under that name, they cannot confirmed the man’s real identity. The suspect has informed police that he was angry because they took away his child and deemed him to be a terrorist.

He broke off negotiations and threatened to blow police up, Brown said.

Dallas police stations and Dallas City Hall have been put under high security as a result of the attack.

Drone Racing Is About To Go Mainstream And Sponsors Are Already Lining Up

News

Video games aren’t the only electronic sport that is making it into the mainstream. Drone racing is about to take off and will likely be just as huge.

Drone racing is unlike any sport known to man. Its half video game, half real world competition. Competitors use purpose-built quadcopters and wear specialized goggles which allow them to compete in the race from “first person view” (FPV).

This means its like you’re flying an airplane through the forest at high speed, without the possibility of killing yourself crashing into a tree. The only thing on the line is the fate your racing drone. And maybe a little pride.

On June 6th, a race was held in the old Bradmill Warehouse on the outskirts of Melbourne. On July 17th, the California State Fair will host the U.S. National Drone Racing Championships. All around the world such races are happening, either as professional events or amateur enthusiasts looking for a day of fun.

The sport isn’t just for geeky drone enthusiasts either. Most of the drones are “blinged” up with LED lights and accessories, making for an amazing spectacle as brightly colored drones whiz through the air and dart around obstacles and each other.

The courses are either urban, like go-kart tracks, farms or warehouses, or rural, such as through forests or around ponds. The drones race around at up to 30 miles per hour.

A typical amateur race will have about 30 people in attendance. They usual race is a full day even, with four or five hours to practice and then a one hour long race.

The multi-rotor racing scene is taking off, with the National Drone Racing Championship regulating the more professional U.S. races and Australian company QAROP sanctioning drone races within Australia.

“I have flown model planes all my life, I have my pilots licence and fly real planes,” new enthusiast Peter Richie told website Mashable. “I love the concept of FPV — putting you in the pilot’s seat, without the risk of injury but all the fun.”

With smaller quadcopters now on the market the racing has become easier and cheaper, both for drones but also compared to go-karts or amateur car racing. The latter two carry hefty price tags and require ongoing commitments just to participate.

Drone racing, by comparison, is cheap. Yet just as fun, if not more.

“You have complete freedom to move in any direction. Racing is even more exciting because you have to pick your lines just right and have to react in a split second when things go wrong. One mistake and the tiny gap you’re aiming for becomes a wall or a tree and you’re down and out,” said Richie.

As the scene builds, expect sponsors to line up. Already the U.S. national championships are seeing interest from e-commerce brands like HobbyKing.com and a variety of drone suppliers.

Expect this to quickly turn to the likes of Red Bull, as well as big drone manufacturers like DJI and action sports brands like GoPro.

Zimbabwe Throws In The Towel, Abandons Own Currency And Adopts The U.S. Dollar

Entertainment News

Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe makes no secret of his xenophobic hatred of Americans, yet the president’s government will discard its virtually worthless national currency for U.S. dollars next week.

The exchange rate? 35,000,000,000,000,000 to one U.S. greenback.

The Zimbabwean dollar has been ruined by hyperinflation, which hit 500 billion per cent in 2008. The economic chaos is a reflection of Mugabe’s isolationist and racist policies, which have seen virtually all major corporations withdraw from the country and nearly all white-owned businesses confiscated by his regime.

The southern African country began using foreign currencies, including both the U.S. dollar and South African rand, in 2009 after people began having to carry wheel barrows full of cash to buy a single load of bread.

Beginning Monday, customers who held Zimbabwean dollar accounts before March 2009 can have their bank balances converted into U.S. dollars, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, John Mangudya, said in a statement.

Zimbabweans will have until September to exchange any old banknotes, which people commonly sell as souvenirs to the few tourists brave enough to visit the country.

Under the exchange program, accounts with balances of up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars will get $5. Those with balances above 175 quadrillion dollars will have the additional funds exchanged at a rate of $1 for 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.

In 2008 the country printed a 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar banknote. Yet it was not even enough to ride a public bus to work for a week.

The bank has set aside $20 billion to pay Zimbabwean dollar currency holders U.S. funds.

Female Scientists Post #DistractinglySexy Photos In Protest Of Sexist Comments

News

Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt sparked controversy and sharp criticism earlier this week when he decided to share his thoughts about the “trouble with girls” in science at a conference of science journalists. “Three things happen when they are in the lab,” he said, “you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them they cry.”

In response to the offensive comments, female scientists have been sharing “distractingly sexy” photos of themselves on social media.

While Hunt claims his comments were meant to be a “light-hearted, ironic comment”, he has now resigned from his position at the prestigious University College London.

On Thursday the hashtag #DistractinglySexy began taking off, amassing more than 10,000 tweets in a few hours. The trend was started by the feminist online magazine Vagenda, which encouraged female scientists to share pictures of themselves at work.

We’ll leave it to our readers to determine just how distractingly sexy hard working female scientists really are.

Politics As Usual: Foreign Governments Are Paying Former Senators To Promote Secret TPP Trade Deal

News

While the shady details of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal come to light and President Obama defends it as “the most progressive trade treaty ever,” the lobbyists who populate K Street smell opportunity.

But the big corporations who typically lobby our elected officials are already taken care of by the Obama administration.

Instead, foreign governments are running sophisticated operations to influence Congress and gather intelligence on the super-secretive negotiations.

While this may seem shocking, its now “par for the course,” says Lydia Dennett, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight [POGO], a nonprofit watchdog. “If a certain country wants trade legislation that will be beneficial to them they can hire an American lobbyist to get them the access the need.”

Foreign government work also happens to be the most lucrative practice area for lobbyists.

While, like so much that happens in DC, we will never know who all is involved, Japan has emerged as a huge lobbyist in the TPP negotiations. The country has signed up former Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, in addition to well-connected public relations firm DCI.

Yet the full scope of the work won’t be known until the next series of Foreign Agent Registration Act [FARA] disclosure reports are filed with the Department of Justice in a few months.

This lack of timely FARA reporting, purposely architected by lawmakers to hide influence peddling from voters, will almost totally obfuscate the lobbying going on at the behest of foreign clients.

What makes matters worse is that a 2014 report by POGO found that 46 percent of the reports were filed late, while enforcement is rare for these infractions.

The DOJ doesn’t even really enforce the existing, already lax, rules. Instead, it “seeks to obtain voluntary compliance with the statute.”

Common Cause, a government transparency advocacy organization, sounded all too familiar alarms. “Our concern is in ensuring that the process is fully transparent and that the laws barring foreign nationals from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly, are fully observed,” said Dale Eisman, the organization’s communications director.

The lobbying revelations, which so far also include TPP party Vietnam, indicate that when it comes to the TPP, American citizens will be the last concern, behind big corporations, foreign countries and government agencies.

North Korea Caught Interrogating Children About Parent’s Drug Use

Entertainment News

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at one point had the power to become the most humanitarian leader of the last 200 years, when at just 27 he was elected leader of the hermit kingdom upon his father’s death.

Yet rather than move his nation out of tyranny, starvation and abuse, Jong Un has encouraged the diabolical behavior. His latest move to showcase this resolve is the announcement that he has restored the practice of interrogating children about whether their parents are drug users, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday.

He’s sure to find no shortage of drug addicts, as the country has experienced a surge of addiction to methamphetamine. North Korea is now the largest per capita user of Meth in the world.

North Koreans use the drug to combat extreme hunger. Methamphetamine suppresses appetite, making dealing with the chronic food shortages the country experiences more tolerable. It is also used to escape the dreary, harsh everyday life of North Korea.

Security officials have now decided to crack down on drug use rather than tackle the root causes of the issue – namely the kingdom’s obsession with expensive weapons programs, which come at the direct expense of its people.

In an elementary school in the city of Hamhung, a security official drew pictures of drug paraphernalia and presented them to seven-year-old students.

Those who could recognized the tools were called up to explain how they had acquired such knowledge.

Students who got up were “cajoled and threatened” by security officers into confessing that their parents were drug users. Officials subsequently arrested those parents, who will likely die in a harsh prison labor camp.

“Security officials in charge of schools are intimidating and interrogating elementary school students to investigate drug offenses,” an anonymous source informed Radio Free Asia.

The new policy is similar to one imposed by Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s father, where North Koreans were ordered to anonymously submit wrongdoings of friends and relatives. That system, which aimed mostly at finding people opposed to the regime, was suspended because of its unpopularity.

North Korea, enabled by Chinese chemical suppliers, produces some of the most pure crystal meth in the world, which it began manufacturing it in the early 2000s in order to generate income.

This production, while mostly for export, has led to a huge rise in drug use inside the country, as Koreans prefer the cheap high of meth to harsh lives and chronic hunger.

France Give Google 15 Days To Comply With Right To Be Forgotten Or Face Penalties

Finance

In Europe, Google must remove links to inaccurate or outdated information from its search engine, after the EU government ruled people fundamentally have a ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ on the internet.

Yet Google doesn’t like this – it creates work and reduces profitability. In an effort to resist being accountable Google has so far been removing such links only from the local site for each country, such as google.fr or google.co.uk.

Google.com has retained all links, a typically Googley way of holding itself unaccountable by mere legal systems. So while links are removed from local versions of the search engine they remain, forever, on the global version.

A French court begs to differ with this practice, as last November it ruled that removing links from google.fr was insufficient, and ordered Google to remove the links worldwide or face sanctions.

But Google simply ignored the ruling.

This has finally caught up to the search giant as French data protection regulator CNIL has given the company 15 days to comply before imposing financial penalties.

CNIL said for over a year Google has ignored its request to remove links worldwide, making it in breach of the ruling. While the threat exists, it hardly sounds urgent.

According to CNIL:

If Google Inc does not comply with the formal notice within the fifteen days the President will be in position to nominate a Rapporteur to draft a report recommending to the CNIL Select Committee (the Committee in charge of imposing sanctions in case of violation of the French data protection law) to impose a sanction to the company.

So in typical EU fashion, a violation of one agency’s order will lead to the matter being referred to another body who may, then, be able to refer it to a third body which could, possibly, level sanctions.

Its clear why Google is playing chicken – it will be some time before anything happens and it can always just decide to comply with the ruling.

In the meantime, it remains above the law.

Turkey Caught Smuggling ISIS Fighters Into Syria

Entertainment News

Video footage that surfaced late Thursday has confirmed widespread allegations that the Turkish government’s intelligence agency has been ensuring ISIS terrorists safe passage into Syria.

Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet released secret videos late Thursday implicating the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) in assisting the notorious Takfiri group, which is essentially an ISIS brigade.

The footage shows drivers saying they are “doing their duty to the state” by helping the militants avoid the heavily-defended Syrian city of Kobani.

The drivers explain how Turkish MİT agents accompany the militants during the trip, which starts from the Atme camp in Syria and ends at the border town of Akçakale in Şanlıurfa Province, where the militants and their cargo then reenter Syria.

One driver said “they didn’t allow us to leave the vehicle [once we had arrived at Akçakale]. One of them [ISIS militant] was waiting by our side. Another vehicle came and parked behind my coach and they started moving the cargo from my vehicle [into the other one]. There were 46 [ISIS militants] in my coach, and I learned later on that there were 27 in the other bus. They were bearded men, scruffy looking.”

The newspaper has been carefully investigating reports of Turkey helping ISIS and released videos on June 5th and May 29th that implicate the country in providing material support to ISIS.

U.S. intelligence has confirmed that Turkey is the main buyer of illicit ISIS crude oil, the terrorist group’s number one business.

Syria has become vulnerable since March 2011 when the U.S. and its regional allies, notably Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, began supporting militants operating inside Syria.

U.S. Bird Flu Crisis Spreads To Arizona

News

The U.S. bird flu epidemic looks to have found its way to Arizona, as The Department of Agriculture announced it is investigating the state’s first potential cases of avian influenza on Friday.

13 quail and chickens and approximately 40 quail and partridge eggs were shipped from hard-hit Iowa, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.

First detected in April, the disease has affected more than 30.7 million birds thus far. According to the Department of Agriculture birds at the Iowa farm became ill a short time after the Arizona-bound shipment left the facility.

Initial test results were positive for H5N2 avian influenza.

The Iowa birds and eggs ended up at properties in Pinal, Mohave, Santa Cruz and Yavapai counties, which are all now under quarantine. While the birds will be tested, results will likely take up to six months to confirm.

“Bird enthusiasts and breeders who are shopping on the Internet need to take care when ordering,” state veterinarian Dr. Perry Durham said. “These birds and eggs came from a state where Avian Influenza is rampant, responsible for the loss of millions of turkeys and hens.

If you are importing birds or eggs into the state, check the list of states with Avian Influenza and do not bring birds or eggs from them to protect your flock and others.”

The infected farm in Iowa shipped birds and eggs to almost 75 percent of the country in the weeks before the positive test. This means bird flu could appear all over the country in the coming weeks.

The disease is highly contagious, affecting chickens, ducks, pheasants, turkeys, geese, quail and many wild birds.

Contact with infected birds, contaminated equipment, and even droplets bodily fluids can spread the virus.

“No human infections with these viruses have been detected at this time, however similar viruses have infected people in other countries and caused serious illness and death in some cases,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus has resulted in millions of birds being slaughtered across the United States, which has led to egg shortages and is forecast to impact the supply of thanksgiving turkeys.

U.S. Military Has No Idea What To Do With ISIS Prisoners

News

The first high level detainee in America’s war on ISIS isn’t just a terrorist, its also a female child sex trafficker.

And U.S. forces have no clue how long they’ll hold her, or where she’ll go next.

The indefinite detainment of the wife of a high-level ISIS commander is raising questions about the Obama administration’s strategy for attacking the militant group and the legal and political challenges it could face once more fighters are taken into American custody.

The issue is the same faced by the Bush administration over its detainment of Al-Qaeda terrorists in Guantanamo Bay.

Detainee Umm Sayyaf, the wife of Abu Sayyaf, the ISIS leader killed in a gunfight in Syria last month by American special-operations forces, will remain in U.S. custody for weeks or months more but officials have not yet determined where she will go afterward.

She is being interrogated at a secret location in Iraq for her participation in the Islamic State’s kidnapping and ransom operations. She is widely regarded as a key ISIS sex trafficker, coordinating the child sex slave markets frequented by ISIS soldiers.

The options for her next destination include:

Remaining in American custody

Being transferred to Iraqi custody

Face charges in a U.S. court

Or be released

Computers and other electronic equipment captured in the raid on Abu Sayyaf “have absolutely” provided key intelligence, U.S. military officials said, yet Umm Sayyaf’s information hasn’t yet been verified.

“There are words coming out of her mouth. We have yet to determine whether those words are helpful,” a defense official stated on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. military, highlighting just how uncoordinated the response to ISIS has become, fully intended to take Umm Sayyaf into custody when it launched the raid yet had no plan for what to do with her afterward.

Spokespeople for the National Security Council, the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all refused to comment on the blunder.

The Obama administration is now playing catch up, and has to come up with a legal basis for holding Umm Sayyaf indefinitely.

“If she’s a member [of ISIS], she’s detainable” under the Obama administration’s rationale, said Bobby Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law and an authority on detainee policy.

But while the legal issues will likely be cleared, there is significant political pressure not to capture more ISIS fighters. More captures will require the U.S. to build a new detention program that would see hundreds of militants held indefinitely in American custody.

“The problems here are really more political problems than they are legal problems,” Chesney said.

“The Obama administration has come full circle on exactly these issues that it and others had criticized the Bush administration for,” said John Belligner, a legal adviser to the State Department and National Security Council during the Bush years.

For an administration that came to power in opposition of the Bush-era detention policies, re-opening similar detention programs would further solidify its reputation as ‘more of the same’, something Obama is keen to avoid.

Coming into office on the promises of ‘Hope’, ‘Change’ and ‘Transparency’, the Obama administration has upheld none of those. It is regarded as the most secretive presidency in history, routinely removing hostile reporters, limiting exposure to the press and conducting nearly all foreign policy negotiations in secret.

It has continued the Bush-era drone strikes and global war on terror, yet did manage to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camps.

This now puts the U.S. on tricky footing – how do we fight a war without the ability to capture and detain high level ISIS leaders?

Given there is only one year left in his presidency, expect the Obama administration to find temporary solutions to this problem in order to leave it to his successor and avoid further damage to his legacy.

Boeing Delivers New 787-9 Airliner Capable Of Near Vertical Takeoff

News

The Paris Airshow is almost here but plane maker Boeing just couldn’t wait to show off its new 787-9 Dreamliner’s ability to perform a near vertical takeoff.

The company released a new promotional video showcasing the new plane’s abilities over a lake in Washington, which included the most aggressive takeoff ever performed by a passenger plane.

While such near vertical takeoffs are common for military aircraft, in order to quickly gain altitude to avoid small arms fire in a war zone, they haven’t been possible in passenger aircraft.

Thanks to the Dreamliner’s lightweight carbon fiber body and powerful General Electric GEnx engines, the plane has remarkable performance for a passenger aircraft. In the past planes of this size were made from aluminium, which is strong yet heavy, decreasing performance.

In addition to being faster and more powerful, the new dash 9 variant is about 18 feet longer than its predecessor, boosting passenger capacity.

Boeing has 30 customers lined up for the new aircraft, with that tally likely to increase by the time the Paris Air Show comes to a close. The world’s largest air show sees Boeing and rival Airbus make a string of customer announcements as they battle each other for bragging rights. United Airlines appears to be the first U.S. customer, with plans to use the plane for its Melbourne to Los Angeles route.

Reassuringly for passengers, the incredibly steep ascent pictured above is something they will not have to experience. While flyers can expect a steep lift off, it will not be as extreme as that shown in Boeing’s promotion for passenger comfort reasons.

Researchers Uncover Revolutionary New Diet That Could Completely Change The Idea Of Human Nutrition

Health & Wellness

There’s new hope for the 60 percent of Americans who are overweight or obese: Revolutionary new diets may be just around the corner. The computer generated food plans work specifically for your body type, in particular the bacteria unique to your gut. Rather than eating the same foods as everyone else, your meal plan will be full of what works best for your particular body.

Researchers believe the personalized diets will stem the rising tide of diabetes, heart disease and obesity that is plaguing America.

The Personalized Nutrition Project, run by leading researchers in Israel, will have its first results unveiled on Friday at the Human Microbiome conference in Heidelberg, Germany. The project puts forth the notion that rather than general recommendations about healthy foods, diets should be optimized and based on people’s unique biological composition.

“We are all different,” said Eran Segal, a computational biologist who, along with Eran Elinav at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, authored the study. “We see tremendous variability in people’s responses to foods, so if you want to prescribe diets, they have to be personally tailored.”

An early trial found that tailored diets designed by a computer algorithm benefited 20 people with pre-diabetes. The positive effects were achieved by preventing high spikes in blood sugar levels after meals. Some of the patients even found their blood glucose had returned to healthy levels during the trial.

“In the end, I think this will be relevant for everyone, whether they want to lose weight, or to maintain their weight,” Segal told reporters.

Over the past two years the scientists have enrolled nearly 1000 people in the study, which particularly focuses on blood sugar levels after meals.

The subjects each wore blood sugar monitors in the first phase of the project and kept a diary of their eating habits and lifestyle for a week. By logging their blood sugar levels every five minutes, researchers could see how their bodies responded to different foods.

When a person eats a meal, the food is broken down into sugars by bacteria in the gut. No two people have the identical composition of gut bacteria meaning that sugar levels after a meal differ from person to person. A healthy body maintains a steady amount of sugar in the blood and spikes or drops are very unhealthy.

Rather than just eating the recommended five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day, Segal believes that personalized diets could be more effective at helping people to control their blood sugar, thus preventing them from developing diseases. “Blood glucose is key to weight management and diabetes, and is linked to many, many other diseases, including cancer,” he said.

After analyzing 50,000 meals, the researchers found that blood sugar levels varied enormously. “In some people, when they have bread, they show no change in glucose levels, but others spike dramatically,” Segal said.

To better understand this difference, the researchers looked at the make-up of the collection of bugs that lived in their patients’ guts. What they found is that the types of microbes present in a patient’s gut had a significant impact on how their bodies responded to meals.

The researchers then trained a computer algorithm on their data such that it could accurately predict how different people would respond to different meals.

The researchers than created bespoke diets for 20 pre-diabetic people. The researchers then created two diets for two different weeks: One to minimize blood sugar using the computer algorithm and another that only looked to have the same number of calories as the first week’s diet.

“In all these cases, there was a big difference between the good diet and the bad diet, even though they contained the same calories,” said Segal. “By personalising these diets, on the good week, in some people, blood glucose fell to healthy levels, whereas in the bad diet week, they had glucose spikes that would be considered as glucose intolerant.”

“Calories are definitely an important player, but we’ve been led to think that it’s the only player, and that is absolutely not true,” said Segal.

The researchers haven’t published their findings in a peer-reviewed journal, but in the next few months are launching a much larger trial to properly test just how effective the personalized diets are.

Yuval Dor, a professor of biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the work had enormous potential. “This may open up new ways to design nutrition to control the outcome much better,” he said. “It could be of huge value for pre-diabetics as well as for people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Eran may come up with an entirely new, simple and feasible way of achieving this,” he said.

That’s good news for Americans, as a recent study, which we covered earlier, concluded that to get America healthy radical new medical intervention would be necessary.

Blackberry Is Going To Start Putting Android On Its Awesome Smartphones

Finance

There’s good news for all those who can’t do without Blackberry’s famously amazing keyboard: The company is pondering a move to Google’s Android operating system, according to reports.

The major strategic shift could see Google’s operating system on Blackberry’s very next phone, according to Reuters’ sources.

The move would be part of BlackBerry’s new strategy of focusing on software and device management.

Just how running someone else’s software is a software strategy remains to be seen, but Blackberry has long been able to put its secure email on virtually any device, having previously made it available for Nokia phones.

It decided to copy Apple and scrap the program, ensuring if you wanted Blackberry software you had to buy a Blackberry phone.

So while a shift in strategy it isn’t something completely new to the Canadian company.

In February, Blackberry deepened its partnership with Google by allowing its server software to manage Android Lollipop devices, becoming part of Google’s ‘Android for Work’ enterprise mobility initiative.

It has also recently partnered with Amazon.com to make 240,000 Android applications available to BlackBerry users via the Amazon Appstore.

“We don’t comment on rumors and speculation, but we remain committed to the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which provides security and productivity benefits that are unmatched,” Blackberry said in a statement.

Russian Jet Comes Within Ten Feet Of U.S. Spy Plane

News

A Russian fighter jet came within just 10 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft last month, showing that Russia shows no signs of letting up its displays of military might.

The encounter took place at high speed, meaning there was little room for error. The event occurred in international airspace over the Black Sea late last month, according to U.S. officials.

In a familiar dance to U.S. pilots in the region, the Russian fighter flew alongside the U.S. plane, broke off, and then resumed shadowing the plane before leaving the area in the May 30th incident. The U.S. aircraft did not take evasive measures, and no other details of the encounter were released.

The incident comes weeks after another encounter between the U.S. and Russia over the skies of Europe, when a U.S. RC-135U flying in international airspace was approached by a Russian SU-27 Flanker in what officials described as an “unsafe and unprofessional manner.”

The incidents haven’t just been happening with aircraft, as earlier this month, the U.S. Navy released video of Russian Su-24 aircraft flying past the guided missile destroyer USS Ross in the Black Sea.

The video was released to counter Russian reports that the approach wasn’t normal despite the fact the airplanes and ship had a routine encounter. It shows a Russian fighter approaching and then quickly zooming past the American vessel, which happens with some regularity.

Further proof of the benign nature of the incident was that the Russian aircraft was not armed, according to a U.S. defense official.

Russia has been aggressively working the media and social networks to spin such encounters are either pro-Putin or anti-American, which U.S. defense officials are increasingly taking note of and actively responding to. By releasing footage of the encounter, U.S. officials are showing the actual facts rather than stories which are almost certainly exaggerated.

While the naval encounter was routine and part of increased military drills in the region, the two air incidents are concerning because of the danger they posed to U.S. aircraft and personnel.

The increased belligerence has come at a cost for the Russian Air Force – its lost three planes in five days due to the increased workload.