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A Congolese Warlord Just Went On Trial And Experts Think He’ll Eventually Get Off

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A Congolese Warlord Just Went On Trial And Experts Think He’ll Eventually Get Off

Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in proceedings that legal experts expect to be lengthy and have a slim chance of the Rwandan born general being found guilty.

The hearing took place at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Ntaganda is accused of conspiring to give the Hema ethnic group control over Congo’s northeast Ituri province in the early 2000’s and thereby seizing the province’s vast diamond, gold and oil reserves.

The charges include rape, murder, pillage and ethnic persecution. Under international law he can be personally charged with crimes carried out by forces he was commanding.

Ntaganda, known as “The Terminator,”  led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and an associated guerrilla army known as the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC).

The court was told 5,000 civilians were killed during the 2002-03 ethnic war.

Although there has been a precedent set for Ntaganda case, as co-conspirator Thomas Lubanga was found guilty of similar charges in 2012 and is currently serving  a 14-year prison sentence, experts say this holds little weight.

They cite the ICC’s record since its formation in 2002 of only convicting little-known warlords. They say most of the court’s high profile indictees remain at large or are still in power. The court’s recent case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta fizzled after many witnesses refused to testify.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the court of one incident where forces from Ntaganda’s UPC had tricked opposing ethnic Lendus, who were controlling the land they wanted, to attend bogus peace talks in order to kill them.

“Bosco Ntaganda was the UPC’s highest commander, in charge of operations and organization,” Bensouda told the court. She said Ntaganda allowed the killings to go unpunished and had praised the field commander responsible, calling him “a real man.”

The court heard about one witness who had found the bodies of his children and wife among slaughtered victims in a banana field.

Ms Bensouda also told of how female child soldiers had been used as sex slaves by soldiers under Ntaganda’s command.

Ntaganda was indicted in 2006 but remained on the run till 2013 when, fearing for his life, he handed himself in at the US embassy in Rwanda

He is reported to have said that handing himself in to face charges was “already a step towards relief and some rehabilitation.”

As China Flaunts Its Military Muscle, Neighbor Taiwan Counters With Plans To Build Modern Sub Fleet

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While China today showed off its military strength during its annual grand parade in Beijing, neighboring Taiwan has allocated $92.55 million towards beefing up its naval strength by building its own diesel-electric submarines.

There has been talk of the submarine build up since 2000 when technical and political constraints sunk a deal that the small Island state, whose sovereignty is disputed by the Chinese, had with the U.S. to purchase eight diesel-electric submarines.

The expansion plans comes at a time when the other regional navies build their submarine fleets in strategic moves against China’s growing naval presence in Asian waters.

Although Taiwan’s military overall is considered modern, its submarine fleet of four is considered out of date with two dating back to World War Two. China is known to have 70 submarines, dozens of surface ships and a recently modernized aircraft carrier.

Its also been increasingly vocal about controlling shared waters in the region, something its neighbors have started to respond to.

Necessary to Taiwan’s plans to build its own submarine fleet is the cooperation of the U.S. and other western nations, as it lacks the latest technology required to build modern subs. That need presents a political problem as China is against any form of military co-operation with Taiwan, even technological transfers or weapons sales to the country it considers a rogue province.

“Our determination to build indigenous submarines is very firm. The navy is very actively pushing this matter,” said Major-General David Lo, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense spokesman.

Taiwan’s government supported Ship and Ocean Industries R&D Center (SOIC), is expected to put together a consortium to lead contract negotiations for the initial design phase of the submarine program, with experts saying this will allow Taiwan to develop its ship building capabilities by acquiring the needed intellectual property.

Meanwhile, following today’s annual grand parade in Beijing, which was attended by Russian President Putin, Chinese leaders downplayed the concerns of neighboring countries of Chinese military threats. They hinted at cuts to troop numbers in 2017 and other military reforms though these just amount to a shift in focus to high-tech, low manpower weapons.

Arrest Warrant Issued For Guatemalan President As Country Descends Further Into Chaos

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Just days before a general election, Guatemalan President Otto Perez has been issued an arrest order on charges of graft. The country has been thrown into chaos by the detention order and the arrest or removal of other high ranking Government ministers and officials.

Lawmakers stripped Perez of any immunity from prosecution protection he had enjoyed and which had kept him from being charged ever since the graft scandal was “officially” discovered several months ago.

The irony behind his arrest order is that the 64-year-old retired general won the presidency campaigning on a crime and corruption ticket.

News of the president being issued an arrest warrant were tweeted by the office of Attorney General Thelma Aldana. The tweets said Perez would face charges of taking bribes, illicit association, and customs fraud. The judge who signed and issued the warrant was not named in order to protect him and his family from possible revenge attacks from Perez supporters. He was referred to as simply Judge “B”.

Perez, who is unable to seek re-election under the Guatemalan constitution and was due to handover the presidency to a newly elected president in January has claimed he is innocent and has to date refused to resign.

His Government has spent much of 2015 involved in corruption allegations and charges, with Perez himself firing several government ministers in May, a move experts say was a passing of the buck.

Vice President Roxana Baldetti resigned last May although denying any wrongdoing. After her resignation she was arrested on charges of  bribery, illicit association, and fraud.

Prosecutors have said that If Perez is jailed, the courts could order the end of his presidency, with vice president Alejandro Maldonado stepping in.

Most of the charges relate to a customs racket which prosecutors have labelled “La Linea,” (the line) due to a phone hotline used by importers who avoided paying customs duties in exchange for bribes.

This HIV Drug Is So Effective Health Officials Worry People Will Stop Fearing The Disease

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This HIV Drug Is So Effective Health Officials Worry People Will Stop Fearing The Disease

A new drug, known as Truvada, has shown game changing results in fighting HIV. In a study of 650 individuals who took the drug over three years no HIV infections were detected in the trial group, demonstrating that the drug works in a real-world setting.

The clinical trial by Kaiser Permanente involved sexually active participants many of whom did not use condoms for protection. Half of the group contracted other sexually transmitted diseases during the study.

Truvada was originally intended as a treatment for HIV itself, but has now been shown to reduce the risk of infection for high risk individuals by at least 92 percent.

The drug must be taken daily and has a cost of around $50 a month for Kaiser patients, while the uninsured cost is around $1,500 a month. Side effects from the drug were minor and did not present in the majority of study participants.

Critics of the medication claim that it promotes unsafe sex, referring to the 41 percent of participants in the study who decreased their condom use. Study participants were also asked about other changes in sexual behavior, with 74 percent reporting no change in their number of sexual partners, 15 percent reporting a decrease, and 11 percent reporting an increase.

Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is one of the critics, and decries the fact that Truvada’s availability is giving today’s generations a false sense of security. The CDC disagreed with this assessment, stating that the drug should be used as a prophylactic among those who have a high risk of infection. That group could include sex workers, those with HIV-positive partners, and IV drug users.

San Francisco health advocates view the drug as a means to success for its Getting to Zero program, which aims to make San Francisco the first city in the nation to bring its incidence of new HIV infections to zero, along with deaths from the disease.

The CIA Just Launched A New Drone Based Targeted Killing Program In Syria

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The CIA, along with U.S. special operations forces, have launched a new campaign of targeted killings in Syria using armed drones. Several recent strikes in Syria are attributed to the program, which is being carried out by Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

The CIA’s role relates to the agency’s Counterterrorism Center (CTC), which is involved in target selection and location of ISIS members. U.S Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) oversees JSOC, but declined to comment on the program.

The choice to involve CIA and JSOC assets in the fight against ISIS illustrates an increase in the perceived risk from the militant group. The CTC previously used drones in the search for Osama bin Laden.

The program comes amid a push by the Obama administration to re-focus the CIA’s efforts on espionage, and away from its recent trend toward becoming a paramilitary force. Opposition from Capitol Hill lawmakers, however, has led to a shift in the administration’s strategy where the Syria offensive may be used as a model for future conflicts. This would have the CIA’s continued involvement in the targeting procedure, with JSOC responsible for the execution of the actual strike missions.

The JSOC group Delta Force was reported to have launched a raid in May of this year, killing an ISIS leader as well as capturing intelligence that helped to form the current list of targets for the Syria program.

A British militant known as Junaid Hussain was killed last month after being linked to the gunmen killed in Garland, Texas. U.S. officials stated that Hussain was involved in social media campaigning for ISIS, illustrating a shift in policy, which had previously barred the killing of terrorist suspects only involved in propaganda.

Syria is the latest battleground in a drone strike campaign that already includes Pakistan, Yemen, North Africa, and Somalia.

Canadian Airline Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Cheap Tickets It Claims Were A Mistake

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Canadian Airline Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Cheap Tickets It Claims Were A Mistake

A first of its kind class action lawsuit has been filed against Canadian airline Air Canada over claims that customers from all over the world, including the United States, purchased tickets from the company at prices the company thereafter alleged were the result of a “computer error.”

The special was run on the website from August 25th-28th, where customers could book a 10-credit flight pass costing $800. This meant that customers could purchase 10 one-way flights for a total of $800, or $80 per flight.

Many customers jumped on the deal and purchased the pass. However, when they went to actually book their flights, they were unable to do so.

Apparently, Air Canada meant to run a deal for the 10-credit flight pass totalling $8,000 – not the $800 originally listed.

Yet the story gets stranger, as Air Canada did allow some people, who both bought the passes and then booked flights using the passes, to take the cheap flights. The company then denied others who had yet to redeem any of the passes.

Garrett Munroe, an attorney with the British Columbia firm Munroe and Company, filed the suit and said it could involve thousands of people. He stated that only Air Canada knows the exact number of people who bought the passes at the $800 price.

Munroe stated the lawsuit is based on basic contract principles: “Our view here is that Air Canada has made an enforceable contract, it delivered the flight packages to consumers and it has improperly taken them away. Air Canada is duty bound and legally obligated to honor its bargain.”

Air Canada, however, claims a “computer-loading” was responsible for the “temporary mispricing.” A statement released by the company indicates that, “Air Canada has contacted purchasers to apologize and provide a refund.” It said that passengers who (were quick enough) to purchase their tickets before the mistake was realized will be allowed to keep the discounted price. But, those who did not yet purchase their actual flights will not be allowed to do so at the discount.

Munroe wants the courts to force Air Canada to live up to their original deal. “They say it’s a mistake, but how much recklessness is reasonable in terms of allowing the website to show an offer that they don’t intend to be bound by. It would create a significant amount of confusion and uncertainty in the marketplace if consumers were conducting business with the possibility that the merchant is going to come back and attempt to undo the deal that it made.”

In fact, one customer sent to Air Canada a screenshot of the website showing Air Canada’s own statement that, “the price of the Flight Pass is guaranteed. You will pay nothing more if the price of the Flight Pass changes after you purchase it.”

That section in the company’s FAQ section was quickly removed.

Munroe pointed out that a class action rather than several lawsuits is the better course of action. “Rather than having tens-of-thousands of lawsuits, it can be dealt with as one.”

The outcome will be interesting for North American companies who increasingly price items using complex computer models. The models are becoming so complex that they can spit out unintended prices, either well above or well below the intended price.

If companies use such predatory pricing models, is it fair that they can simply retract prices the models spits out while keeping others that drive up profits? A Canadian court will soon decide, in a battle that could very well end up at the Supreme Court.

Obama Administration Eyes Charleston As Replacement For Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility

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Obama Administration Eyes Charleston As Replacement For Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility

The closing of the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, came one step closer today with news that officials are inspecting and surveying the Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, as an alternative.

Official inspections and surveys are required to determine potential sites for detaining military prisoners and estimate the costs of doing so.

Cmdr. Gary Ross, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters today that a “broad list” of military and civilian sites could be looked at to determine if they can hold “law-of-war detainees” securely and humanely.

“Only those locations that can hold detainees at a maximum security level will be considered,” said Ross, adding the list is “informed by past assessment efforts.”
The surveys are part of President Obama’s push to close Guantanamo before he leaves office next year. Cries of “not in my backyard” from state officials and lawmakers have put an end to earlier attempts to close the prison.

Guantanamo currently holds 116 detainees, with 52 having been cleared for transfer to third-party countries. The Obama administration wants the remaining prisoners to be held in the U.S.

Answering fears that holding prisoners in the U.S was dangerous, Ross said convicted terrorists had been held in the U.S. “for years” without incident, and that transferring prisoners now in Guantanamo “will not risk the wellbeing of nearby residents.”

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said this week that even though he supports Obama’s efforts to close Guantanamo, some prisoners held there were too dangerous to be moved.

He said “It ends up being part of jihadi recruiting and so forth and I would just as soon not leave that to a future president. But it’s tricky to do that. The reason it’s tricky to do that is this: some of the people who are there at Guantanamo Bay have to be detained indefinitely, they just gotta be locked up. So if they’re not locked up in Guantanamo Bay they need to be locked up somewhere, so we are looking at places in the United States, prisons and other places, where they can be moved.”

“Right now we’re working with Congress because they have to agree to this … to see if we can do that or not,” he continued. “It would be a nice thing to do and an important thing to do, but we gotta be realistic about the people who are in Guantanamo Bay — they are there for a reason.”

Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman said he could not rule out Obama taking e executive action to close the facility and moving the prisoners to the U.S.

“I think it is fair to say that we have taken a number of steps to try to reduce the prison population there so we can get closer to closing the prison,” he said. “The president and his team are always considering a wide array of options.”

Chinese Smartphone Giant Xiaomi Is Going To Use Cheap Laptops To Crack The U.S. Market

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Chinese Smartphone Giant Xiaomi Is Going To Use Cheap Laptops To Crack The U.S. Market

According to reliable sources, Xiaomi, which presently ranks as China’s most prominent smartphone seller, is mulling over the launch of its first laptop in early 2016, establishing a new front in its war against China’s Lenovo Group and Apple Corp.

Xiaomi’s laptop may be established in the first quarter of 2016 to face such premium brands as Lenovo’s ThinkPad and Apple’s MacBook Air, the sources said, asking to remain anonymous, because the matter is confidential.

According to the sources, Xiaomi has held discussions with Samsung Electronics to furnish them with memory chips, and that original contract may extend to supplying displays.

Only five years after its establishment, Xiaomi leaped into the international smartphone market’s top ranks by supplying stylish gadgets with premium components at average prices.

It has spent 2015 opening online stores in the United States and the United Kingdom though curiously has not offered many of its popular phones and tablets for sale. It has instead sold accessories like battery packs and headphones.

Yet at some point it will no doubt sell products that compete head-on with major western brands and it appears a laptop may be the first salvo in what will undoubtedly be a drawn out war.

Xiaomi’s entry into the computer business will bring extra cost pressures against market leaders Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Lenovo.

Furnishing Xiaomi with chips will boost Samsung’s components sector as its attempts to reduce dependence on supplying its own Galaxy devices with the components.

Xiaomi and Samsung were not willing to give statements on the matter.

The Chinese company co-founded by tycoon Lei Jun made its mark with less costly smartphones sold over the internet before venturing into higher-end gadgets, buoyed by a flourishing online community.

Xiaomi’s venture into personal computers comes as expansion in its core industry winds down. International smartphone sales recorded their slowest expansion rate since 2013 in the second quarter of 2015.

A quickly maturing domestic market has encouraged Xiaomi to focus on Brazil, India and other less saturated smartphone markets.

Samsung too is struggling with slow sales of its own high-end Galaxy class and in July, it recorded a fifth direct drop in quarterly profit.

It seems like this declining growth will nudge Xiaomi into launching a major product into the United States and all signs, at least at this stage, point to an inexpensive laptop.

China Is Preparing A Dramatic Shakeup Of Its Military That Will Give It Virtually The Same Capability As The United States’

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China will be sure to unveil its latest offerings of military technology in Thursday’s WW2 victory parade, but there are rumors that president Xi Jinping may announce a dramatic modernization plan for the Chinese military. The move would follow in the wake of dramatic increases in military spending over recent decades.

Xi may choose his final plan from among several proposals, but it is strongly suspected that it will include a shift away from an army-dominant structure, towards one in which the navy and air force share equal power to the army. Leadership spots in the Central Military Commission that are currently dominated by army generals, would be rebalanced to have more representation from the navy and air force.

Xi’s anti-corruption campaign has been one of the cornerstones of his policy, and it has extended to the military, with two vice-chairmen of the CMC having been removed in the past two years. Sources say that his original intent was to pursue the corruption in the military prior to attempting any organizational reforms.

The integration of the country’s naval forces is the most pressing issue, as it continues its territorial claims to waterways that have previously been claimed by its neighboring countries: the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. China has an extensive fleet of naval vessels to back up its claims to the area, but the current structure of the military is heavily compartmentalized with a lack of networking between the different service branches.

The U.S. has recognized China’s South China Sea shift, but has been fairly passive in its responses to the territorial disputes. The region is home to a majority of the world’s shipping lanes and may also hold a wealth of oil and natural gas deposits.

As Xi enjoys a morale boost following the V-day parade, he may be able to redirect the country’s attention away from its faltering economy towards the rising power of its military.

Despite Notable Gains, Politics Means School Lunches Won’t Be Getting Healthier Any Time Soon

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U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama has proven to be a formidable opponent to Republicans and food business interests in her campaign for American schools to provide healthier lunches, but her dreams of kids eating more vegetables, fruit and whole grains in school may not be realized.

Laws governing school lunch standards are up for debate in the Senate this month, and because most companies supplying food to schools have gone as far as they will go, it looks like there will not be support for more stringent rules governing school lunch nutrition requirements, even though some companies have found providing healthier food options has been profitable.

The U.S. school lunch market is worth an estimated $10 billion annually.

The first lady lobbied heavily for The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act which was introduced in 2010 to provide healthier school lunches. She and the Act have been heavily criticised by Republicans who call it government interference.

Mrs Obama has made it clear she would like to see more fruit, vegetables, grains and fat free milk as legally required options, but experts say it is very unlikely this will happen.

Vice president of the education division at foodservice distribution company KeyImpact Sales & Systems, Gary Vonck, said “I think a large percentage doesn’t want to change at all. I think they feel like they’ve gone through all the changes they need to go through to follow the rules.”

The director of the Safe and Healthful Kids Food project at the Pew Charitable Trusts Jessica Donze Black, said food companies felt they had adapted to healthier food regulations already and so “it would probably be a mess if the pipeline changed dramatically. I think for some manufacturers, it’s been a great opportunity.”

The House Education and the Workforce Committee is reportedly drafting a new bill aimed at giving schools more flexibility in what they serve for lunches even though The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other experts says since the Act was introduced, studies have shown school children are generally eating healthier than they did previously.

Some school lunch providers like Schwan’s that were against the healthier school lunch initiative, have found they can actually make money by providing healthier food options. Schwan’s’ reduced-sodium Big Daddy’s pizza, reduced-fat Doritos and whole-grain rich Pillsbury breakfast cinnamon rolls are selling like hot cakes.

Pizza empire Domino’s has found that since entering the healthier school lunch market, it’s been nothing but good news. The company entered the K-12 school food market because of opportunities that came with nutrition requirement laws. It developed the whole grain, lower sodium, lower fat Smart Slice just for school cafeterias and expects it will be sold in 5,000 schools in 44 states this coming school year.

Yet despite the success and capitulation by many school lunch providers there seems to be little willingness to extend the gains made to date.

Trump’s Border Fence Idea Looks Dated Compared To High Tech Arizona ‘Virtual Fence’

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The plans for a virtual fence along the southern U.S. border have been revived by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in recent weeks, after cancellation of the previous attempt in 2011 by then Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

The news comes as Republican presidential candidates have been putting forth their own proposals for dealing with illegal immigration.

The previous virtual fence known as the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBIN) will be replaced by a new series of sensor towers that are first being tested in Nogales, Arizona.

Homeland Security has designated $145 million for purchasing of up to six sets of towers in the state in order to detect illegal crossings.

The SBIN project’s failure was partially due to its poor implementation. Little collaboration between Boeing, who won the contract, and the border personnel who would be using the system led to many issues of poor performance. It also had difficulty coping with the harsh desert environment, and would sometimes alert border personnel to moving foliage and raindrops.

The current contract is with Elbit Systems of America, which has previously developed sensor technology for Israel’s wall with the West Bank. The company has also reportedly developed tunnel-detection systems for Israel.

The first series of towers in Arizona cost $23 million and have been built and tested, with supplemental equipment consisting of truck-mounted cameras and ground sensors. According to the contract awarded to Elbit, the system will be able to detect persons travelling by foot, vehicle, or animal.

Donald Trump has received criticism for his proposals on illegal immigration, but his idea for a physical wall may become irrelevant if the system by Elbit proves successful. The U.S. Border Patrol statistics on illegal alien apprehensions have been on a downward trend dating back to 2005, stabilizing in recent years between 200,000 and 300,000 per year. That number would likely jump if the SBIN is the success many in the area hope it to be.

Sony Pictures Reportedly Toned Down NFL Culpability In ‘Concussion’ To Avoid Angering The League

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The NFL seems to be making headlines daily. Some people (and players) view the NFL as the evil empire that controls the most popular sport on American television. Its reputation certainly has not improved as a result of its handling of “Deflategate” and its part in the concussion lawsuit brought by 5,000 former NFL players.

In fact, the issue of concussions is raised in a new movie released by Sony Pictures Entertainment starring Will Smith. Interestingly, Sony “softened” the movie, due out in December, in order to avoid the wrath of the NFL.

That move indicates both how powerful the league is and how damaging the concussion issue is to its product.

The movie, simply entitled “Concussion,” focuses on the death and dementia professional players have suffered from repeated blows to the head. It also emphasizes the NFL’s efforts towards covering up its knowledge of concussion-related diseases and on the research of the first scientists to discover and disclose the problem. Smith plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, whose research led to the diagnosis of C.T.E., a degenerative brain disease that develops as a result of multiple hits to the heads. Recent suicides of former NFL players has brought heightened scrutiny upon the NFL for its handling of the situation.

The reports that Sony tweaked the movie came as a result of the major hack of Sony studio emails that were published recently on WikiLeaks. The president of domestic marketing at Sony Pictures, Dwight Caines, wrote in an August 2014 email that, “Will [Smith] is not anti football (nor is the movie) and isn’t planning to be a spokesman for what football should be or shouldn’t be but rather is an actor taking on an exciting challenge. We’ll develop messaging with the help of [the] NFL consultant to ensure that we are telling a dramatic story and not kicking the hornet’s nest.”

Sony representatives maintain that the studio was in no way bowing to the NFL but rather wanted to make sure the movie accurately portrayed both the facts and the actions of individuals – rather than portray the NFL as a corrupt organization. Sony claims that it did not want to take too much creative license because it wanted to maintain the credibility of the movie – and not later be criticized for painting an exaggerated or untrue story.

The movie’s writer and director, Peter Landesman, stated in an interview that, “We don’t want to give the NFL a toehold to say, ‘They are making it up,’ and damage the credibility of the movie.” He added that, “There were things that might have been creatively fun to have actors say that might not have been accurate in the heads of the NFL or doctors. We might have gotten away with it legally, but it might have damaged our integrity as filmmakers. We didn’t have a need to make up anything because it was powerful and revelatory on its own.” He further emphasized that, “There was never an instance where we compromised the storytelling to protect ourselves from the NFL.”

It is not uncommon for companies to be wary of the NFL’s reaction to products or programming. In 2013, the NFL complained that ESPN was producing “League of Denial,” a documentary regarding the league’s response to the dangers of concussions and head trauma. ESPN produced the documentary with Frontline. After the NFL’s request, ESPN stopped working on the project, but it was later broadcast by Frontline.

In 2004, NFL complained to the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ESPN, about a television series that portrayed a very repugnant depiction of professional football players. The show was not renewed for a second season.

In response to “Concussion,” the NFL commented only that it welcomes attention to safety and health issues. “We are encouraged by the ongoing focus on the critical issue of player health and safety. We have no higher priority. We all know more about this issue than we did 10 or 20 years ago. As we continue to learn more, we apply those learnings to make our game and players safe.”

Still, it probably is not a good idea to take on the evil empire. Sony certainly seems to think so.

China And Russia Just Announced Plans To Develop A Wide Body Plane To Fight Boeing’s Dominance

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In an effort to rely less on the United States and Europe for large jets, Russia and China are working together on a wide-body jet that is aimed at competing with aircraft from leading manufacturers Airbus Group SE and Boeing Co.

The collaboration between Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. and Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China is scheduled to be solidified by agreement later this year. It may expand to also include the development of a jet engine, something China has had particular difficulty producing despite long ago stealing detailed technical documents from leading engine manufacturers.

The wide-body aircraft would contain two aisles and seat over 160 passengers.

President Vladimir Putin is working with China on a variety of matters in order to offset the industry strength of the United States and Europe. The shift comes as tensions between the West and Russia have escalated due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Despite the growing ties between China, to date, Putin has made little progress in the partnership as the Chinese economy is in distress and the prices of oil and commodities have plummeted. As a result of those two factors, trade between Russia and China has actually decreased 29% in the first half of 2015, though that is largely due to oil prices.

The Russia-China plan to develop a viable wide-body aircraft will likely need investments totalling as much as $20 billion and the Russian government claims it is ready to fund the initial stage of the ambitious project.

In order to keep up with demand, airlines across the globe will need as many as almost 9,000 wide-body mets in the over the next 20 years. Demand in China alone requires the production of at least 1,500 aircraft.

Presently, Boeing and Airbus have had a combined monopoly over the production of wide-body aircraft. The more crowded narrow-body planes are manufactured by a few more companies with Boeing and Airbus leading the way.

In addition to the wide-body aircraft collaboration, Russia and China plan to sell Russia’s Superjet 100 regional plane in both China and other Asian markets under a leasing agreement framework signed earlier this year. The two countries plan to compete with market leaders both under the collaboration as well as separately. Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. is developing the MC-21 and Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China is developing the C919. Both planes are scheduled to for the first time by early 2016.

Federal Reserve Study Shows Americans Are Moving Back In With Their Parents At Highest Rate Ever

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With an effect that is most pronounced among the millennial generation, a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has found that a growing share of adults from every age bracket are now moving back in with their parents. Overall, the percentage living with their parents from each age bracket has more than doubled between 1980 and 2013.

population living with parents

The new trend is due to multiple factors, with one among them being the shift in the median age of first marriage. Men typically first marry at 28, and women at 26, which is five years later than in 1970. With fewer marriages and the new families associated with them, there is also less of a need for new housing.

population marriage

Another influence has been a wave of immigration from Asian and Latin American populations, who are more likely to live in multi-generational housing, than are Americans born in the U.S. This does not exclude native-born Americans from the trend, however.

Additionally, with the advent of safety net programs like Social Security and general improvements in health care during the 20th century, there was less of a need to live with multiple generations in one home. Adult children who used to perform caretaking tasks moved into their own homes, and by 1980 only 17% of those aged 65 and older lived in a multi-generational household. That number has since risen to 20% in 2008.

Most Baby Boomers are still in the workforce, and regardless of whether they choose to cohabitate with their children or downsize their homes and continue to live alone, the effects on the housing market will be considerable. Boomers who decide to stay independent would be in competition for housing of younger generations, whereas an increasing trend toward multi-generational housing would lower the demand for housing.

The findings have particular implications for city planners. Most cities are building a flurry of small condo and apartment units that are utterly unsuitable for multi-generational families. As the trend continues to rise it could lead to an exodus from cities, something most state officials are keen to avoid.

Ghanaian Student’s High Profile ISIS Recruitment Leads To Fears Of African Terrorist Invasion

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In the African nation of Ghana last week a young university graduate left the country in order to join the militant group ISIS. The incident was not the first, but in what was once thought to be one of Africa’s most stable and prosperous nations, social media and declining economic trends have heightened the threat of radicalization among its youth.

Its the latest sign that terror group ISIS is slowly invading Africa, even those countries which should not be susceptible to its propaganda.

The graduate was 25 year old Nazir Alema Nortey. He texted his family to tell them he had left the country to join ISIS. His family described him as polite and kind, active on campus and that he also had a girlfriend.

Ghana’s National Security Coordinator, Yaw Donkor, stated that potential members are being headhunted in Ghana using WhatsApp and Facebook.

A local radio station in Ghana released a report that ISIS agents are attracting unemployed youth with cash and the promise of guaranteed salvation. There are worries the group could attempt to exploit a possible rift between the minority Muslim demographic and the majority Christians. In June, a predominantly Muslim slum neighborhood was destroyed following official orders, which left thousands homeless.

The Christian demographic is mostly in the south and although relations between the two groups have been good, it has been increasingly noted that development and education progresses much more quickly in the southern region than in the Muslim north.

Ghana’s proximity to Nigeria is a risk factor, considering the presence of the radical group Boko Haram. It recently pledged allegiance to ISIS in March of this year, and its insurgency has spread to nearby Chad, Niger, and Cameroon.

Nortey was from a prosperous background, but even so, the opportunities for young people have not been sufficient in recent years. President John Mahama has stated that growth needs to be above 8% in order to provide enough jobs, but currently it is around 4%, which has led the country to seek aid from the International Monetary Fund.

So far there has been no evidence of a widespread trend towards radicalization, but the danger is currently rising, and Ghana has taken little action in its anti-terrorism efforts.

Apple Is Not-So-Secretly Working On A Virtual Reality Headset

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Apple Is Not-So-Secretly Working On A Virtual Reality Headset

All signs are indicating smartphone giant Apple will soon announce its serious entry into the immersive 3D technology sector based on industry chatter, patent filing information and the recent hiring of ‘CPU Software and Audio Engineer’, Nick Thompson.

It also makes sense given just about everyone, including Facebook, Google, Samsung and HTC, is planning a 3D headset of some sort for launch in 2016, which will likely be the year 3D displays hit the mainstream.

The experts say rumors have been floating around for several years that Apple was building a team to “explore the augmented reality (AR) space”, yet nothing had ever been confirmed. They say these rumours now appeared to be more fact than fiction with the appointment of Thompson, who formerly headed Microsoft’s HoloLens engineering team.  

The experts said one interesting aspect of the new hire was that it really was a rehire as Thompson’s LinkedIn profile shows he has had a previous stint of seven years at Apple, as the senior engineering manager of the company’s audio software division. His industry profiles shows he was responsible for design, implementation and execution of Mac product’s built-in audio systems as well as the first-generation Apple TV.

Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst with a good track record on Apple calls said  “Based on recent acquisitions of augmented reality companies, hiring of a key Microsoft Hololens employee, and conversations with industry contacts within the virtual and augmented reality spaces, we believe Apple has a team exploring the AR space,” he said.

Munster also noted that the acquisition of AR company Metaio by Apple was further evidence of the company’ intentions. Metaio is the holder of  171 worldwide patents and patent pending applications.

The experts say that following HoloLens’ “impressive debut” at the launch event for  Microsoft’s Windows 10 in January this year, awareness of AR had been raised considerably as it showed that such hardware  was possible with existing technology.

Munster said “We believe AR audio is often thought of as not important or secondary to the experience, however, we believe positional audio is what sells the experience and convinces the user there is a real object in front of you or behind you. The ability to re-create sound coming from a distinct location and changes based on proximity and direction of the object should not be overlooked.”

Al-Shabab Terror Network Kills Over 50 African Union Peacekeepers In Bloody Raid On Army Base

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Al-Shabab Terror Network Kills Over 50 African Union Peacekeepers In Bloody Raid On Army Base

Terrorist group Al-Shabab on Tuesday claimed it had killed “scores” of African Union peacekeeping troops in an attack south of the Somali capital Mogadishu. Residents from Janaale where the attack took place, in the country’s Lower Shabelle province, confirmed the attack but could not give exact casualty numbers.

Witnesses said the attack began when a car apparently loaded with explosives breached the outer defences of an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and exploded.

The explosion was followed by heavily armed fighters storming the base, 55 miles south of Mogadishu.

Eyewitnesses said they had counted 20 AMISOM bodies but al-Shabab claimed they had killed 50 soldiers. Although the terrorist group is known to exaggerate “body counts,” Somali situation experts say they expect the final death toll to be “very large.”

An AMISOM  release statement has condemned the “heinous” attack.

The statement read “The AMISOM base at Janaale, Lower Shabelle Region in Somalia came under attack from al-Shabab militants today.”

“The militants used a car loaded with explosives to trigger the attack and to facilitate their forced entry into the camp after which they engaged our soldiers in a gun-battle.”

“Although our troops undertook a tactical withdrawal following the initial vehicle borne explosive attack, they have since consolidated and regained full control of the base.”

Shortly after the Janaale attack, al-Shabab also claimed responsibility for a car bombing close to Mogadishu’s Jazeera Hotel in Mogadishu, which killed 10 people.

Yesterday US President Barack Obama said in Nairobi, that al-Shabab was still an overall threat despite having been “weakened”.

Al-shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed a year ago in a U.S. led airstrike.

Al-Shabab which is al-Qaida aligned, has stated its aim is to overthrow Somalia’s Central government and establish a state governed by its own interpretation of Islamic law.

Bush Launches Attack Ads, Tweets, Against Trump As Gloves Come Off In GOP Race

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The Jeb Bush presidential campaign gloves came off Tuesday as he attacked fellow Republican White House candidate Donald Trump by accusing him of being an unabashed liberal, a label which experts say Trump has been trying to distance himself from.

The accusations came in a video titled “The Real Donald Trump,” in which in two separate spots, the billionaire candidate says he has “lived in New York and Manhattan my whole life” and that “my views are a little bit different than if I had lived in Iowa”.

Accompanying text says “Liberal Things That Trump Says,” before changing to “Liberal Things That Trump Believes.” , references to Trump having in the past made a point of holding eclectic policy views.

In a clip from a 1999 “Meet the Press” interview, Trumps tells interviewer Tim Russert that he is “very pro-choice,” ,a complete different view from what he said a decade later when he announced that he opposed abortion except in cases of incest and rape, or to protect the life and health of the mother.

The video also highlights Trump’ singing the praises of single-payer health care systems in Scotland and Canada during last month’s Republican Party presidential nominee debate.

In the Bush camp released video, Trump is also shown in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in 2007 during which he says Hillary Clinton, now his biggest rival for the Presidency, “would do a good job” negotiating a deal with Iran, and then later saying he sees himself as being more of a Democrat than a Republican.

The video also notes Trump was a registered Democratic voter in 2001.

The video was released through Bush’s Twitter account in which he tweeted “Why are you a Republican @realDonaldTrump…The answer is, you’re not.”.

Trump fired back a three tweet salvo within a minute of Bush’s tweet hitting cyberspace, calling the video a “weak hit by a candidate with a failing campaign.”

The release of the video comes at a time when Trump has increased his lead over Bush in polls and has been needling the former Governor of Florida for having too easy a stance on illegal immigrants.

Bush is scheduled to spend over $10 million this month on video advertising and it appears much of that spend will go towards negative attack ads on Trump.

California Ends ‘Inhumane’ Long Term Isolation In Its Prisons

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California Ends ‘Inhumane’ Long Term Isolation In Its Prisons

The life of imprisoned gang leaders in California prisons got a little easier yesterday with the announcement the State will put an end to its unlimited isolation policy that has seen some inmates kept in segregated cells for ten years or longer.

The move follows a class action courtroom victory for the New York based Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of 3,000 inmates held in isolation in California’s prisons.

Jeffrey Beard, California’s Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary said the State will now only isolate inmates who commit new crimes while in prison, and that it will no longer lock up gang leaders in windowless, sound proofed cells to stop them from directing gang members to commit illegal activities.

“It will move California more into the mainstream of what other states are doing while still allowing us the ability to deal with people who are presenting problems within our system, but do so in a way where we rely less on the use of segregation,” said Beard.

Over the last few months California’s isolation policy has drawn wide criticism from US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and president Barack Obama following widespread hunger strikes protests by prisoners in protest.

The successful lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2009, argued that isolating prisoners in 80-square-foot cells for all but 1 ½ hours per day, with no physical contact with visitors and limited reading materials and outside world communication, was an unusual and cruel punishment.

Under the settlement, prisoners can still be isolated for up to five years for crimes they commit behind bars.

Beard said the isolation system began 35 years ago after a string of killings of both inmates and guards.

“We probably had too many people locked up too long, because over 70 percent of the people that were reviewed were actually released, and we’ve had very, very few problems with those releases,” said Beard.

The World’s Oceans Are Now So Polluted That By 2050 99.8% Of Sea Birds Will Have Eaten Plastic

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The World’s Oceans Are Now So Polluted That By 2050 99.8% Of Sea Birds Will Have Eaten Plastic

A recent scientific study on marine birds show some sobering statistics about the state of the world’s environment. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that currently over 300,000 tons of plastic are floating around in Earth’s oceans.

This means about 90% of 80 different species of marine birds have consumed pieces of that plastic.

By 2050 about 99.8% of the species studied will have at some point eaten plastic.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (“CSIRO”) in Hobart, Australia and was led by marine ecologist Chris Wilcox.

The study shows that the worldwide production of plastic has doubled about every 11 years since the 1950s. As such, an increased amount of plastic, including bottle caps, bags and other synthetic fibers, has ended up in the oceans. Once the plastic reaches the sea, either through river runoff or waste dumps, the plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. Seabirds then consume the plastic bits, which can have a detrimental effect on the animals.

For example, some plastics actually absorb various environmental pollutants. After a seabird ingests the plastic, the pollutants can be released into the birds’ digestive systems.

Additionally, the chemicals that keep plastic soft and pliable are also ingested – but sometimes, the plastic is not flexible enough to travel through the digestive system. Most species of birds have difficulty passing large bits of plastic which can lead to a buildup in the birds’ stomachs.

The increased intake of chemicals is simply one of the results of birds ingesting plastic bits. Marine Biologist Richard Thompson points out that, “We don’t fully understand all of the physical effects of ingesting plastic, but it’s hard to imagine that the effects are going to be positive.”

And birds are not the only species affected by plastic trash floating in the oceans. A 2012 study published by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity illustrates that greater than 600 species from microorganisms to whales are injured every year by the floating plastic. They either ingest the plastic or sometimes get tangled in the pieces, such as left-behind fishing nets.

Wilcox stresses that the problem is very serious and should not be taken lightly. He states that, “For the first time, we have a global prediction on how wide-reaching plastic impacts may be on marine species – and the results are striking.”

Canada Just Uncovered A Real Life Version Of ‘The Americans’ And The Legal System Doesn’t Know What To Do

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Canada’s citizenship by birth laws are being severely tested by the sons of a Russian couple who were outed as “deep cover” spies in 2010 after having lived for 20 years as Canadian citizens. The duo assumed the identity and citizenship of two people who had died as infants.

Alexander and Timothy Vavilova, 21 and 25 respectively, have sued the Canadian Government, claiming they are being denied their birthright to Canadian citizenship.

They are the children of Russian operatives Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova, Russian who were “planted” into Canada to develop identities and backgrounds that would allow them easy access into the United States and then eventually American citizenship.

The pair stole the  identities two Canadians who had died when babies – Tracey Foley and Donald Heathfield, and managed to avoid detection for 20 years until their arrest in the USA in 2010 and deportation to Russia in a spy swap.

Before moving to the States the couple had lived in Toronto where they had two children, something which authorities are arguing was part of a master plan to allow them to blend into everyday American life as a close knit family.

The real life plot parallels the hit TV show ‘The Americans’ which features a similar deep cover Russian spy family living in the United States.

When Bezrukov and Vavilova were deported, their two children naturally went with them and now five years later the pair are arguing they have the right to Canadian citizenship.

“I am first and foremost Canadian,” said Timothy Vavilova in documents submitted to the court. “I have lived for 20 years believing that I was Canadian and still believe I am Canadian, nothing can change that.”

His brother Alexander claims in the documents that his Canadian heritage is “an important part of who I am. It is the only culture I can associate with, and has been a cornerstone of my identity.”

However Canadian intelligence is not buying into the brothers’ citizenship plea, accusing Timothy Vavilov of being a Russian operative just as his parents were.

The two brothers’ citizenship by birth was  revoked in 2014 with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) telling them children born in Canada to foreign government representatives weren’t eligible for Canadian citizenship.

But experts say the Vavilov brothers have somewhat of an edge in their legal battle for citizenship, because the Canadian government made two major “slip ups”. In 2012 they granted Alexander Vavilov a student’s permit to study in Canada, which was later cancelled after his parents’ background was discovered. In 2013 the government sent him a certificate of Canadian citizenship, with Passport Canada agreeing to renew his passport, until “officials” managed to persuade them to change their minds.

Sergio Karas, a Toronto based immigration lawyer  said “It is interesting that it took so long for the authorities to realize that the application for citizenship was without merit, since they had already known that the parents’ citizenship was fraudulent.”

CIC’s documents obtained by the media show that The Canadian Security Intelligence Service believes the older Vavilova brother now works for the same organization that deployed Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova to Canada and then the U.S. –  the Russian SVR Foreign Intelligence Service,  but that “It is not know if Alexander has also pledged allegiance to the SVR.”

In documents submitted to the Canadian courts, Timothy Vavilov denies he was groomed to be a spy by his parents and he accuses Canadian authorities of attempting to “tarnish our lives.” and that he and his brothers had been “warned” to not apply for Canadian citizenship

“The representatives of the Canadian Secret Service stated that ‘if you continue, there will be consequences — for example, a campaign to publish damaging information about you in the press,’” he said. “I have a strong belief that the reason for the revocation is political and is not something we can influence.”

The Canadian Federal Court has yet to decided on Timothy Vavilov’s case, but it has upheld the government’s decision to revoke his brother Alexander’s  Canadian citizenship.

PayPal Launches Digital IOUs Amid Fierce Competition To Own The Digital Wallet

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In an attempt to expand its e-commerce payment system dominance, PayPal is introducing a new service called PayPal.Me to make it easier for people to pay their friends back and even purchase a pie at a bake sale simply by using their phones.

PayPal is rolling out the new service in order to boost user growth for PayPal’s other services. It also is staying current with the times as digital wallets continue to gain popularity among consumers which has led to successful competitors like Venmo and most recently Apple Pay.

PayPal’s Director of Consumer Product Marketing, Matt Gromada, stated that, “As we see money going digital and mobile, people need more flexible ways to manage their money. It’s simple – we all want no-fuss to pay and get paid back, and avoid awkward IOU conversations. PayPal pioneered sending money digitally 16 years ago, and we are continuing to lead the way with our P2P offerings.”

PayPal recently conducted a survey of 4,000 consumers in Germany, Canada, Australia and the United States. The study shows that one-third of adults in the United States have a ruined personal relationship over IOUs. The main reason for this is that people simply feel uncomfortable asking their friends and loved ones to pay back owed money.

Psychology professor Dr. Ryan Howell aptly stated that, “Money is still considered an incredibly private, personal topic for many people due to deep-seated cross-cultural stigmas around money.”

That is where PayPal.Me comes in. It is a free, personal service that people can use to request money from anyone anywhere in the world. It is a personal link that can be sent to friends, family or anyone else for a quick, easy way to pay someone back.

As PayPal’s head of consumer marketing, Kerry Reynolds, points out, PayPal’s “primary mandate has been to make it easy to move money around the globe and back and forth, making it easier for users to access their money.”

With PayPal’s success in pioneering the e-commerce payment industry, it seems likely that it will succeed with peer-to-peer commerce with PayPal.Me. Its goal of becoming the basic unit of pay-with-your phone in the mobile era is definitely on the right track though it remains to be seen if it will dominate the space like it once did for online payments.

The reason is because Venmo has already been offering this type of service for years and one can’t necessarily rule out Apple Pay having created a similar platform. Then there are banks and other startups all looking to tackle the same problem, albeit without PayPal’s scale.

SpaceX Will Return To Space With An Upgraded Version Of Its Falcon 9 Rocket

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SpaceX, the privately held rocket company owned and by technology guru Elon Musk, plans to return its Falcon 9 rocket to flight in a few months with the launch of an upgraded Falcon 9, sometimes called Falcon 9 v 1.2.

The update has been delayed due to a June 28th launch failure.

Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2015 Conference, SpaceX president Gwynne Stockwell promised that, “Our next flight will be both the return to flight and the first flight of the upgraded vehicle. So whenever people ask me what keeps me up at night, it’s getting ready for that flight.”

Prior to the June launch failure, the Falcon 9 was scheduled to launch in September, carrying the SES-9 satellite owned by the Luxembourg based satellite company, SES.

However, the recent launch failure and the added work of checking and double checking the new rocket has delayed the upcoming launch. According to SpaceX, the June launch was carrying a cargo ship headed toward the International Space Station for NASA. A metal strut holding down a helium bottle in the rocket’s upper stage broke. Helium then leaked from the bottle causing over-pressurization of the second stage engine. It burst and the rocket exploded over the Atlantic Ocean.

The accident, along with a failed launch of an Orbital ATK Antares rocket also carrying cargo for the space station, has left NASA dependent on Japanese and Russian launches to resupply the station.

Shotwell pointed out that while the problem with the June launch is something that can be “easily corrected,” SpaceX is not taking chances with any other part of the rocket. “We’re taking more time than we originally envisioned, but I don’t think any one of our customers wants us to race to the cliff and fail again . . . What we wanted to do was to take advantage of the lessons that we learned from that particular failure and make sure we’re not seeing something like that anywhere throughout the vehicle.”

The next mission scheduled for SpaceX had been to launch a United States government ocean-monitoring satellite named Jason 3. However, it looks that the U.S. has been bumped from the front of the line and a commercial satellite will launch first.

One of SpaceX’s main goals is not only to have a successful launch, but also to have a successful landing so that the company can refurbish and reuse the rocket. Shotwell stated that, “I want to see a Falcon 9 first stage land on a drone ship or land on my landing site this year. I want to stick a landing this year.”

Google Partners With Sanofi To Make Major Push Into Healthcare

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Google has begun a major search for new ways to manage and treat diabetes under a partnership between its recently re-organized Life Sciences division and French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.

Experts say the partnership was the first indication Google is serious about the division making a real contribution to the world of biomedical research after having recently hired prominent immunologists, neurologist and nanoparticle engineers.

Google said the life sciences division has already developed a blood glucose level measuring contact lens, and has entered into an agreement with medical equipment producer Dexcom to develop a convenient and inexpensive device for continuous glucose monitoring.

Medical experts said because sudden fluctuations in blood sugar was the main cause for the worst outcomes like strokes, heart disease, and nerve damage in diabetes patients, it was vital that monitoring devices were available to all. The experts also said that currently even the most basic blood sugar measuring units and their associated test strips were relatively expensive which was one reason many people did not monitor their blood sugar levels on an ongoing basis.

Through its data-centric work with Sanofi, Google hopes providing doctors and patients with better information could help prevent or mitigate these fluctuations.

In a released statement Google said the diabetes focus was a move away from the traditional “tech centric” approach to a “disease centric” one.

“New technologies could make it simple for a physician to understand when a patient’s blood sugar is tracking high for days in a row,” Google said, “or could offer new ways for a patient to get real-time information and specific guidance about diet or insulin dosage.”

Although Google realizes new technologies could take years to be readily available, it said one of the major goals of the Sanofi partnership was to speed up the time between medical breakthrough and patient accessibility.  

The company said the partnership would not be solely diabetes focused as in the coming months it will release details on its plans to take on other diseases including heart disease, neurodegenerative conditions and cancer.

Russia Has Created A Siberian Research Center To Focus On Bringing Extinct Animals Back To Life

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It seems like a scene out of Jurassic Park – taking DNA from an extinct animal and attempting to bring the species back to life. That very thing is what scientists from Russia are trying to do with the wooly mammoth and other frozen animals that have long been extinct. Leading the charge on these initiatives is Russia, which recently opened a research facility in Yakutsk, Siberia for the purpose of seeking out live cells from a preserved wooly mammoths.

Semen Grigoryev, director of the Mammoth at Northeastern Federal University said that “the priority is to look into bringing back the mammoth.” As exciting as this may be, there are also ethical questions raised by the process.

Each country involved in the research, including China, South Korea and the United States, is focusing on different aspects of the task of bringing back the mammoth.

Earlier this year, scientists at Harvard University reported that they had copied several wooly mammoth genes and inserted them into the DNA genome from a living Asian elephant. Russian researchers have access to an enormous collection of greater than 2,000 remains of prehistoric animals, including primitive dogs and mammoths – all found frozen in the Siberian permafrost.

The scientists hope to find cell tissue from these remains from which to extract DNA.

Presently, scientists have yet to uncover the most important element needed to clone: actual living cells. As such, the search for the key to life, nuclear DNA, continues.

Once that is located, molecular biologists could begin the process of trying to culture wooly mammoth stem cells. The next step would be to replace segments of elephant DNA with the newly created segments of wooly mammoth DNA. The living cells would then be spliced into an elephant embryo which would be implanted into a female elephant.

Hopefully, the elephant would then give birth to a wooly mammoth.

While all of this sounds absolutely amazing, there are some ethical concerns raised by cloning a wooly mammoth.

Researcher Dr. Tori Herridge points out that cloning would be a step backwards as the task potentially endangers existing elephants as they would face significant risks going through the surrogacy process. Moreover, the issues facing existing elephants, including poaching, could be ignored as the race for cloning wooly mammoths takes place.

Yet others believe that the risks are worth it. The study of the mammoth genome and perfecting the cloning process has applications that could benefit humans.

As we saw in the blockbuster Jurassic Park, the newly cloned dinosaurs did not act according to plan. The movie points out that dinosaurs had their chance and we know what happened. Could bringing back an extinct species such as the wooly mammoth defy the natural order of the universe and cause only problems? That remains to be seen.

The Polio Virus Is Back And Medical Researchers Are Panicked About The Consequences

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The Polio Virus Is Back And Medical Researchers Are Panicked About The Consequences

Once thought to be completely eradicated, a new survey has found the polio virus living inside a man’s gut for many years. The results have sent shockwaves across the global medical community who have long thought the virus had been wiped out.

An anonymous British man showed no signs of the illness, but his stool was found to contain a highly infectious form of the virus. After receiving a full supplement of oral polio immunization at the required intervals, an unrelated health condition affected his immune system rendering it incapable of eliminating the virus. At least 100 stool samples collected over 20 years confirm the virus’ continual presence.

The survey is available in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

Though viral stool has been seen before, particularly in the case of the herpes virus, this is the most significant case that medical experts have ever seen. 73 other incidences of people whose immune systems have been incapable of destroying the virus have also been verified.

As for the British individual, contact with people who have been fully immunized against the virus does not pose any threat. Were he to be intimate with someone with a condition similar to his, though, a polio outburst could be the result.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative selected 2018 as the year when the illness would be wholly eliminated from Earth. However, international conflicts and the mutation of the disease through immunizations have made this hard to achieve. Three types of feral poliovirus do exist in the world and raise doubt that the virus can ever be fully eradicated.

They raise fears about just how much of the virus is lingering around the world. If the virus is still around, which the new study has confirmed, it could only be a matter of time before virulent new mutations appear that cannot be treated by normal drug therapies.

The World Health Organization is set to trial a new vaccine for polio in April 2016.

Apple Is Getting Ready To Make Its Own Movies And TV Shows

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Apple, joining Netflix, Amazon, Yahoo and a host of others, is supposedly getting into the original programming business.

The iPhone manufacturer has started meeting with major Hollywood studios to get a feel for interest,according to Variety. While there’s no consensus about how serious the smartphone maker is about original programming, one reliable source informed Variety that the Cupertino Corporation wants to make both TV shows and movies.

Next month, Apple is likely to launch a new version of Apple TV, and perhaps even a new service dedicated to live channels, similar to Sling TV. However, that might just be an insignificant part of a very enormous strategy. Earlier this summer, Apple supposedly tried to acquire the services of Top Gear stars Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May following their leaving from BBC, but Amazon finally won the lengthy bidding war.

Variety doesn’t give many particulars, and, actually, it looks like whatever Apple is planning is in the very initial stages. One likelihood is for Apple to copy Netflix’s model, which functions with outside production corporations to create original content; another option is for Apple to establish its own internal studio, though Microsoft tried that and the strategy proved difficult.

At this phase, it’s uncertain how Apple will handle the situation. The organization has dabbled in the indie circuit for many years by snatching up movies from festival circuits and dispensing that content on iTunes. Nevertheless, Variety does not say whether Apple intends to provide a service based on single transactions or a subscription-based service.

With services like Netflix and Amazon Prime growing in size, along with others like Hulu and Yahoo, it seems the next major content frontier will be original programming.While Apple will be joining a crowded and severely competitive industry, it surely has the muscle to do so.

It’s highly unlikely we’ll see any official mentions of such an attempt at next week’s annual Apple product unveiling. But by this time in 2016,  Apple TV, currently a box serving everyone else’s content, might be much more of a living room focus than it has been to date.

Furious T-Mobile CEO Calls His Customers “Thieves” For Daring To Use Their Unlimited Data Plans

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John Legere, T-Mobile US Chief Executive, launched a tirade on Sunday over customers who make substantial use of tethering on his system.

According to Legere his organization will tell 3,000 subscribers that they risk having their “unlimited” mobile network plans terminated if they don’t stop sidestepping T-Mob’s restrictions on LTE tethering.

All this anger despite customers paying for plans that are clearly advertised as “unlimited.” Except in the case of T-Mobile ‘unlimited’ actually means very limited. Subscribers are permitted to download just 7GB per month when tethering their LTE device – in straightforward terms, turning it into a wireless network hotspot to link a laptop to the internet over the mobile network.

Once the 7 GB is exhausted, T-Mobile decreases the speed of the network.

According to Legere, some users have altered their mobile devices to not send reports of tethered data, enabling them to access the internet at LTE speeds with no restrictions on data.

Legere claims that subscribers are stealing his organization’s “unlimited” plan to get limitless data, in some incidences as much as 2TB downloaded in a month.

Legere said, “This week, I am taking aim at a select group of individuals who have actually been stealing data from T-Mobile.”

He added, “If their activities are left unchecked, their actions could eventually have a negative effect on the experience of honest T-Mobile customers. Not on my watch.”

According to Legere, the ‘bad’ subscribers are just “1/100 of a percent” of T-Mobile’s customers, but nonetheless are capable of reducing LTE broadband speeds across the board for all users.

Or so the story goes. There is little evidence of this in fact happening given most mobile networks are vastly under-used. They’re designed this way after all.

As of yesterday T-Mobile began utilizing detection devices to sense when subscribers are circumventing data restrictions. Those who are detected trying to conceal their tethering traffic will be given a warning and, if caught a second time, will have their LTE plan lessened to T-Mobile’s “entry level” plan, though just how the legalities of this will work remain to be seen.

“I’m not in this business to play data cop, but we started this wireless revolution to change the industry for good and to fight for consumers,” Legere stated, once again using words the mean the exact opposite of what he intends.

He added, “I won’t let a few thieves ruin things for anyone else. We’re going to lead from the front on this, just like we always do.”

The somewhat comical, somewhat annoying incident highlights that when it comes to telecom companies up continues to mean down and black continues to mean white. And those who say otherwise are just ‘thieves.’

Netflix Ditching Movies Shows Its All In On Original Programming

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Lovers of movies like World War Z and The Hunger Games are digesting the awful news this week that Netflix will not refresh its agreement with Epix, the first-class cable channel, whose contract with Netflix put those films (and many of others) on the streaming facility.

While this may be sad for some viewers, it speaks to a marked strategy shift by the former aggregator of tv shows and moviews.

Netflix now offers so much first-rate original programming that it doesn’t think you’ll miss the Epix films.

In the blog post, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos  said, “While many of these movies are popular, they are also widely available on cable and other subscription platforms at the same time as they are on Netflix and subject to the same drawn out licensing periods.” (Epix later verified that it had endorsed a contract with Hulu to take these films.) Sarandos pointed to Netflix innovative programming like A Very Murray Christmas, Narcos, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend as reasons why subscribers should stick around.

Its move to original content is yet another barrier against a host of streaming TV offerings: You either have Netflix, with its original shows, or you do not.

All of this is related to the continuing narrative in the pay TV industry of cord cutters turning the industry upside down.

Netflix gave a lifeline to many of these cable companies by licensing their long-standing programming and bringing in subscribers—customers whose money is now being used to finance innovative programming that it doesn’t have to reconsider the rights for two years down the line.

For that reason, Netflix is becoming more like a TV channel, but with the additional bonus of controlling its own distribution model: Netflix takes all of the finances its subscribers remit monthly, whereas ordinary television channels have to handle complex cable organization deals.

Sarandos’s remark hints that Netflix no longer wants to be a replacement for cable. Instead, it wants to be considered as more of an independent content producer—a service customers pay for irrespective of whether or not they have a cable subscription.

In short, its the HBO model except with full control of distribution.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Sued For Claiming It Sells GMO Free Food

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A California woman has filed a court case last week complaining that Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is making deceitful and misrepresentative claims by stating that its menu is free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

In a lawsuit filed on Aug. 28th in the United States District Court, Northern District of California, Colleen Gallagher complained on behalf of all California customers who ate at or bought food from Chipotle on April 27 to this day.

She is represented by Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP, a law firm in San Francisco, which seeks class-action status for the lawsuit.

In April, Chipotle unveiled a multimedia movement describing its menu as being free of GMOs at United States locations. The fast-casual chain, which is based in Denver, had been moving toward that objective for over a couple of years, citing worries about the way GMO organisms are cultivated, and mentioning that GMOs are restricted in many other nations.

“It’s clear that a lot of research is still needed before we can truly understand all the implications of widespread GMO cultivation and consumption,” Chipotle co-CEO Steve Ells said, adding, “While that debate continues, we decided to move to non-GMO ingredients.”

In the court case, which seeks unspecified financial damages, Gallagher says that Chipotle’s assertions are deceitful and misrepresentative because the organization continues to sell meat from animals that eat GMOs, including corn and soy, and that the chain’s cheese and sour cream come from farms that feed dairy animals with GMOs.

Chipotle also serves soft drinks that are made from corn molasses, which is a genetically modified component, the case claims.

“Consumers today are very concerned about what they eat and restaurants know that consumers place a premium on food that is considered to be healthy or natural,” said Laurence King, an advocate for the suggested class. “As a result, Chipotle’s advertising in its stores should have accurately informed customers about the source and quality of its ingredients and should not mislead consumers that they are serving food without GMOs when, in fact, they are.”

Chipotle communications director, Chris Arnold, said the organization does not talk about pending cases as a matter of policy. Though, he added, “We do plan to contest this.”

As part of the April declaration, the company said on its official website that a good percentage of animal feed in the United States is genetically modified, which implies that the dairy products and meat served at Chipotle came from organisms that were given a considerable amount of GMO feed.

“We are working hard on this challenge, and have made substantial progress: for example, the 100-percent grass-fed beef served in many Chipotle restaurants was not fed GMO grain — or any grain, for that matter,” the company announced on its official website.

It further stated, “Many of the beverages sold in our restaurants contain genetically modified ingredients, including those containing high-fructose corn syrup, which is almost always made from GMO corn.”

The court case, however, argues that Chipotle “takes no meaningful steps to clarify consumer misconceptions in its advertisements and its billboards, both in stores and in print, which instead say ‘all’ of the ingredients used in its food products are ‘non-GMO,’” the complaint stated. “A Chipotle meal was, and remains, the very definition of a GMO meal.”

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