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23 and Plea
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Presidential Proclamation -- Thanksgiving Day, 2013
Archived Version
Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:05
THANKSGIVING DAY, 2013
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Thanksgiving offers each of us the chance to count our many blessings -- the freedoms we enjoy, the time we spend with loved ones, the brave men and women who defend our Nation at home and abroad. This tradition reminds us that no matter what our background or beliefs, no matter who we are or who we love, at our core we are first and foremost Americans.
Our annual celebration has roots in centuries-old colonial customs. When we gather around the table, we follow the example of the Pilgrims and Wampanoags, who shared the fruits of a successful harvest nearly 400 years ago. When we offer our thanks, we mirror those who set aside a day of prayer. And when we join with friends and neighbors to alleviate suffering and make our communities whole, we honor the spirit of President Abraham Lincoln, who called on his fellow citizens to "fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union."
Our country has always been home to Americans who recognize the importance of giving back. Today, we honor all those serving our Nation far from home. We also thank the first responders and medical professionals who work through the holiday to keep us safe, and we acknowledge the volunteers who dedicate this day to those less fortunate.
This Thanksgiving Day, let us forge deeper connections with our loved ones. Let us extend our gratitude and our compassion. And let us lift each other up and recognize, in the oldest spirit of this tradition, that we rise or fall as one Nation, under God.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 28, 2013, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage the people of the United States to join together -- whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place of fellowship for friends and neighbors -- and give thanks for all we have received in the past year, express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own, and share our bounty with others.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.
Presidential Proclamation -- Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2013
This August, as we marked the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, we were reminded that the measure of America's progress is not whether the doors of opportunity are cracked a little wider for a few, but whether our economic system provides a fair shot for the many. Minority-owned businesses play a crucial part in driving this progress -- not only when their founders pursue their fullest measure of success, but also when they offer employees of all backgrounds a chance to enter the ranks of the American middle class. During Minority Enterprise Development Week, we recognize the strength of our diverse workforce and the many ways minority entrepreneurs contribute to our economy, our society, and our Nation's fundamental promise.
America's minority enterprises include everything from Main Street cornerstones that sustain communities to global firms that drive innovation in the industries of tomorrow. Together, these businesses employ almost 6 million Americans and contribute 1 trillion dollars to our economy every year. Minority entrepreneurs bring unique perspectives to every corner of our country, and their understanding of diverse cultures often gives them an advantage in the international marketplace.
As our economy continues to recover, our investments in minority owned and operated firms will help create jobs, strengthen families, and build ladders of opportunity in underserved communities. Over the past 5 years, my Administration has worked to empower minority entrepreneurs by connecting them with billions of dollars in contracts and access to capital. And to better serve America's business community, we launched www.Business.USA.gov, where any firm can seek out financing opportunities, navigate Federal bureaucracy, and cut through red tape.
This week, we celebrate America's minority enterprises, renew our commitment to helping them grow, and look with pride toward the promise of the future.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 1 through December 7, 2013, as Minority Enterprise Development Week. I call upon all Americans to celebrate this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities to recognize the many contributions of our Nation's minority enterprises.
WORLD AIDS DAY, 2013
Thu, 28 Nov 2013 01:47
Each year on World AIDS Day, we come together as a global community to fight a devastating pandemic. We remember the friends and loved ones we have lost, stand with the estimated 35 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and renew our commitment to preventing the spread of this virus at home and abroad. If we channel our energy and compassion into science-based results, an AIDS-free generation is within our reach.
My Administration released the first comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy in 2010. Since then, we have made significant progress in strengthening scientific investments, expanding effective HIV/AIDS education and prevention, and connecting stakeholders in both the public and private sectors. At the same time, advances in our scientific understanding have allowed us to better fight this disease. We know now that by focusing on early detection and treatment, we can both prevent long-term complications and reduce transmission rates. To build on this progress, I issued an Executive Order in July establishing the HIV Care Continuum Initiative, which addresses the gaps in care and prevention, especially among communities with the greatest HIV burden. And this November, I signed the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act, lifting the ban on research into the possibility of organ transplants between people with HIV.
My Administration remains committed to reducing the stigma and disparities that fuel this epidemic. Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act will require health insurance plans to cover HIV testing without any additional out-of-pocket costs. It will also prohibit discrimination based on HIV status and eliminate annual benefit caps. Under this law, we have already expanded Medicaid for working class Americans and banned lifetime limits on insurance coverage.
Our work to end HIV extends far beyond our borders. This is a global fight, and America continues to lead. The United States has provided HIV prevention, treatment, and care to millions around the world, helping to dramatically reduce new infections and AIDS-related deaths. This year we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a powerful bipartisan effort to turn the tide on this epidemic. Through PEPFAR, we are making strong global progress and are on track to achieve the ambitious HIV treatment and prevention targets I set on World AIDS Day in 2011. Because country ownership and shared responsibility are vital to a2
strong and sustained global response, we launched PEPFAR Country Health Partnerships, an initiative that will empower our partner countries as they progress toward an AIDS-free generation. In the next few days, my Administration will host the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's Replenishment Conference to enlist new partners, leverage American funding, and increase our collective impact against these diseases. With continued United States leadership, strong partners, and shared responsibility, we can realize this historic opportunity.
We will win this battle, but it is not over yet. In memory of the loved ones we have lost and on behalf of our family members, friends, and fellow citizens of the world battling HIV/AIDS, we resolve to carry on the fight and end stigma and discrimination toward people living with this disease. At this pivotal moment, let us work together to bring this pandemic to an end.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States do hereby proclaim December 1, 2013, as World AIDS Day. I urge the Governors of the States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials of the other territories subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and the American people to join me in appropriate activities to remember those who have lost their lives to AIDS and to provide support and comfort to those living with this disease.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.
FDA Tells 23andMe to Halt Sales of Genetic Test - ABC News
Mon, 25 Nov 2013 19:47
The Food and Drug Administration has ordered Google-backed genetic test maker 23andMe to halt sales of its personalized DNA test kits, saying the company has failed to show that the technology is supported by science.
In a warning letter posted online Monday, FDA regulators say that the Silicon Valley has not shown that its tests are safe or effective despite "more than 14 face-to-face and teleconference meetings" and "hundreds of email exchanges." The agency orders 23andMe to stop marketing its test immediately, warning that erroneous results could cause customers to seek unnecessary or ineffective medical care.
23andMe's saliva-based test kit, launched more than 5 years ago, claims to tell customers if they are at risk for more than 250 diseases and health conditions. The FDA says only medical tests that have been cleared by the government are permitted to make such claims.
The letter follows years of back-and-forth between the government and 23andMe, the most visible company among a new field of startups selling personal genetic information. The spread of consumer-marketed DNA tests has troubled doctors and health officials who worry that the products are built on flimsy science.
For years, 23andMe resisted government regulation, arguing that it simply provides consumers with information, not a medical service. But last year the company changed course, submitting several of the disease-specific tests included in its test kit.
A spokeswoman for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said 23andMe recognizes it has been late responding to FDA questions about the application.
"Our relationship with the FDA is extremely important to us and we are committed to fully engaging with them to address their concerns," said Kendra Cassillo in a statement.
The FDA letter suggests that regulators have gone to great lengths to try and work with the company, citing months of meetings and dozens of letters between the two parties.
"However, even after these many interactions with 23andMe, we still do not have any assurance that the firm has analytically or clinically validated" its technology, states the letter.
The FDA warning, dated Nov. 22, takes issue with a number of claims the company makes for its test kit, particularly calling it a "first step in prevention" against diseases like diabetes, heart disease and breast cancer. Regulators worry that false results from the test could cause patients to receive inadequate or inappropriate medical care. For instance, 23andMe says its test can identify women who carry the BRCA gene mutation that significantly increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. But a false result could lead women to undergo unnecessary screening, chemotherapy and surgery.
The FDA gives the company 15 days to respond in writing to the letter's concerns. Warning letters are not legally binding, but the government can take companies to court if they are ignored.
23andMe was co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, who recently separated from her husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Both Google and Brin have invested millions in the privately held company over the years.
Company executives previously said that they first contacted the FDA in 2007, before launching their product. The agency did not take an interest in the technology until 2010, when it issued letters to several testing companies, warning that their products must be approved as safe and effective.
The FDA already regulates a variety of genetic tests administered by health care providers. The FDA's concern with 23andMe appears to center on its marketing approach, which sidesteps doctors and health professionals.
Consumers order the company's $99 product online. Once the kit arrives by mail they are instructed to spit into a small tube, providing a saliva sample which is sent back to the company for analysis. 23andMe says the customer's DNA is analyzed to determine their likelihood of developing various diseases and responding to various drugs. The test also claims to provide information about ancestral background, though this information is not regulated by the FDA.
2013 > 23andMe, Inc. 11/22/13
23andMe, Inc.
Dear Ms. Wojcicki,
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is sending you this letter because you are marketing the 23andMe Saliva Collection Kit and Personal Genome Service (PGS) without marketing clearance or approval in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act).
This product is a device within the meaning of section 201(h) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 321(h), because it is intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or is intended to affect the structure or function of the body. For example, your company's website at www.23andme.com/health (most recently viewed on November 6, 2013) markets the PGS for providing ''health reports on 254 diseases and conditions,'' including categories such as ''carrier status,'' ''health risks,'' and ''drug response,'' and specifically as a ''first step in prevention'' that enables users to ''take steps toward mitigating serious diseases'' such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and breast cancer. Most of the intended uses for PGS listed on your website, a list that has grown over time, are medical device uses under section 201(h) of the FD&C Act. Most of these uses have not been classified and thus require premarket approval or de novo classification, as FDA has explained to you on numerous occasions.
Some of the uses for which PGS is intended are particularly concerning, such as assessments for BRCA-related genetic risk and drug responses (e.g., warfarin sensitivity, clopidogrel response, and 5-fluorouracil toxicity) because of the potential health consequences that could result from false positive or false negative assessments for high-risk indications such as these. For instance, if the BRCA-related risk assessment for breast or ovarian cancer reports a false positive, it could lead a patient to undergo prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, intensive screening, or other morbidity-inducing actions, while a false negative could result in a failure to recognize an actual risk that may exist. Assessments for drug responses carry the risks that patients relying on such tests may begin to self-manage their treatments through dose changes or even abandon certain therapies depending on the outcome of the assessment. For example, false genotype results for your warfarin drug response test could have significant unreasonable risk of illness, injury, or death to the patient due to thrombosis or bleeding events that occur from treatment with a drug at a dose that does not provide the appropriately calibrated anticoagulant effect. These risks are typically mitigated by International Normalized Ratio (INR) management under a physician's care. The risk of serious injury or death is known to be high when patients are either non-compliant or not properly dosed; combined with the risk that a direct-to-consumer test result may be used by a patient to self-manage, serious concerns are raised if test results are not adequately understood by patients or if incorrect test results are reported.
Your company submitted 510(k)s for PGS on July 2, 2012 and September 4, 2012, for several of these indications for use. However, to date, your company has failed to address the issues described during previous interactions with the Agency or provide the additional information identified in our September 13, 2012 letter for (b)(4) and in our November 20, 2012 letter for (b)(4), as required under 21 CFR 807.87(1). Consequently, the 510(k)s are considered withdrawn, see 21 C.F.R. 807.87(1), as we explained in our letters to you on March 12, 2013 and May 21, 2013. To date, 23andMe has failed to provide adequate information to support a determination that the PGS is substantially equivalent to a legally marketed predicate for any of the uses for which you are marketing it; no other submission for the PGS device that you are marketing has been provided under section 510(k) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360(k).
The Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health (OIR) has a long history of working with companies to help them come into compliance with the FD&C Act. Since July of 2009, we have been diligently working to help you comply with regulatory requirements regarding safety and effectiveness and obtain marketing authorization for your PGS device. FDA has spent significant time evaluating the intended uses of the PGS to determine whether certain uses might be appropriately classified into class II, thus requiring only 510(k) clearance or de novo classification and not PMA approval, and we have proposed modifications to the device's labeling that could mitigate risks and render certain intended uses appropriate for de novo classification. Further, we provided ample detailed feedback to 23andMe regarding the types of data it needs to submit for the intended uses of the PGS. As part of our interactions with you, including more than 14 face-to-face and teleconference meetings, hundreds of email exchanges, and dozens of written communications, we provided you with specific feedback on study protocols and clinical and analytical validation requirements, discussed potential classifications and regulatory pathways (including reasonable submission timelines), provided statistical advice, and discussed potential risk mitigation strategies. As discussed above, FDA is concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the PGS device; the main purpose of compliance with FDA's regulatory requirements is to ensure that the tests work.
However, even after these many interactions with 23andMe, we still do not have any assurance that the firm has analytically or clinically validated the PGS for its intended uses, which have expanded from the uses that the firm identified in its submissions. In your letter dated January 9, 2013, you stated that the firm is ''completing the additional analytical and clinical validations for the tests that have been submitted'' and is ''planning extensive labeling studies that will take several months to complete.'' Thus, months after you submitted your 510(k)s and more than 5 years after you began marketing, you still had not completed some of the studies and had not even started other studies necessary to support a marketing submission for the PGS. It is now eleven months later, and you have yet to provide FDA with any new information about these tests. You have not worked with us toward de novo classification, did not provide the additional information we requested necessary to complete review of your 510(k)s, and FDA has not received any communication from 23andMe since May. Instead, we have become aware that you have initiated new marketing campaigns, including television commercials that, together with an increasing list of indications, show that you plan to expand the PGS's uses and consumer base without obtaining marketing authorization from FDA.
Therefore, 23andMe must immediately discontinue marketing the PGS until such time as it receives FDA marketing authorization for the device. The PGS is in class III under section 513(f) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 360c(f). Because there is no approved application for premarket approval in effect pursuant to section 515(a) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 360e(a), or an approved application for an investigational device exemption (IDE) under section 520(g) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 360j(g), the PGS is adulterated under section 501(f)(1)(B) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 351(f)(1)(B). Additionally, the PGS is misbranded under section 502(o) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 352(o), because notice or other information respecting the device was not provided to FDA as required by section 510(k) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360(k).
Please notify this office in writing within fifteen (15) working days from the date you receive this letter of the specific actions you have taken to address all issues noted above. Include documentation of the corrective actions you have taken. If your actions will occur over time, please include a timetable for implementation of those actions. If corrective actions cannot be completed within 15 working days, state the reason for the delay and the time within which the actions will be completed. Failure to take adequate corrective action may result in regulatory action being initiated by the Food and Drug Administration without further notice. These actions include, but are not limited to, seizure, injunction, and civil money penalties.
We have assigned a unique document number that is cited above. The requested information should reference this document number and should be submitted to:
James L. Woods, WO66-5688
Patient Safety and Product Quality
Office of In vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health
If you have questions relating to this matter, please feel free to call Courtney Lias, Ph.D. at 301-796-5458, or log onto our web site at www.fda.govfor general information relating to FDA device requirements.
23andMe - Genetic Testing for Health, Disease & Ancestry; DNA Test
We provide both established and preliminary research reports to ensure that you have the latest information about a disease or condition.
Established reports are defined by genetic associations supported by multiple, large, peer- reviewed studies. Preliminary reports are based on peer-reviewed, published research with findings that still need to be confirmed by the scientific community.
New discoveries in genetics are published all the time, and we're constantly updating our reports to give you the latest information on genetics and health.
23andMe, GoldieBlox, and Silicon Valley Arrogance | News & Opinion | PCMag.com
Tue, 26 Nov 2013 21:17
This week, DNA-testing firm 23AndMe and toymakers GoldieBlox showed off the worst in Silicon Valley arrogance, the idea that because you're "disruptive" you don't have to play by anyone else's rules or consider anyone else's feelings.
The 23AndMe and GoldieBlox controversies just promote the view of Silicon Valley as Ayn Randville, a heartless, cutthroat culture of entitled, self-absorbed people for whom "disruption" is the highest goal. While this sort of attitude clearly spurs innovation, it's time to put the brakes on and show some heart.
GoldieBlox: Engineers Without HeartsA maker of tech toys for girls, GoldieBlox clearly thought it had a smart idea when they turned the Beastie Boys' already-sarcastic song "Girls" into a cheery but humorless girl-power tune. They also didn't think they had to ask permission.
The company's "parody" is much less witty than it appears. One of rap's more politically and socially conscious groups, the Beastie Boys have always been pretty pro-woman. The original lyrics to "Girls" feature a girl with her own mind and sexual agency, who turns down one of the Boys in favor of another. Does he call her names, threaten violence, posture, or rage? Does he act entitled? Nope. He just expresses his "dismay" and laughs it off, with no disrespect.
Who are these boys' types of girls? Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Kate Schellenbach of Luscious Jackson - not exactly the kinds of women who will put up with being stuck with household chores. Yes, Rick Rubin made them ditch Schellenbach, but after a few years, they ditched Rubin in turn, and recorded an apology to anyone who might have thought them disrespectful towards women on "Sure Shot."
I could probably go on about the Beastie Boys for another several pages, but I won't.
Okay. Back to GoldieBlox. The Beastie Boys have long had a policy of not allowing their music to be used in product advertisements, a policy written into now-deceased member Adam Yauch's will. This isn't about money, it's about principle. According to a statement from the band, when the Beasties sent GoldieBlox a letter saying, "hey, what's up?" GoldieBlox sued them with a speed that clearly showed GoldieBlox was raring for a fight. In a follow-up letter, the Beasties made it clear that they approve of GoldieBlox's social mission, and politely asked them to stop using the song.
Who's in the legal right here? You shouldn't care. The point is, the Beasties asked politely to respect their dead member's wishes, and GoldieBlox said, basically, screw you. GoldieBlox isn't just raising engineers. They're raising selfish, cutthroat engineers who succeed by ignoring other people's feelings.
23AndMe: Technology Above the LawAt least Anne Wojcicki's 23AndMe isn't disrespecting a dead artist and philanthropist. It's just ignoring the government.
23AndMe lives at the junction of technology, medicine, and consumerism, which is a tough place to hang out. Because medical decisions can be life-or-death, the FDA tends to try to keep a handle on the efficacy of products that make health claims.
Testing your DNA for your ancestry is one thing, but testing for tendency towards cancers is another. As Angelina Jolie recently showed, some genes are so dangerous that they can lead people to get preventative mastectomies. With that on the table, the FDA just wanted some scientific proof that 23AndMe's tests work - and the agency gave the company years to figure it out.
But 23AndMe, apparently, just hasn't bothered. Petty government regulators just get in the way of disruption, right? Shouldn't the free market be able to determine the difference between real medicine and snake oil? I really hope that's not a world you want to live in - or if it is, you're the one who ends up consuming the snake oil.
23AndMe is acting humble enough right now, saying that the company is "committed to fully engaging with [the FDA.]" Well, of course; the FDA has the power to shut them down. This couldn't have occurred to them in the past five years?
The bold innovators of Silicon Valley clearly aim to innovate and drag the rest of society behind them into a glorious future, making money along the way. But an attitude that entitled is obviously going to raise some hackles. Technologists need to remember that they aren't above society - they're part of it.
Rs9332964(A;A) - SNPedia micropenis
User:Lennon answers questions for NPR's On The Media
Jump to: navigation, searchmicropenisIs agenotypeofrs9332964GeneSRD5A2Chromosome2Position31,754,395mentionedbyMagnitude4ReputeBadGenoMagSummary(A;A)4micropenis(A;G)2.5carrier for mutations linked to micropenis(G;G)0averageRetrieved from "http://www.snpedia.com/index.php?title=Rs9332964(A;A)&oldid=464283"Category:Is a genotype
Startup Will Soon Offer Kit for Telomere Testing at Home | phase2minds
Posted by David Korsunsky on May 25, 2013 in Health | 2 commentsIn this post I'll cover an exciting new company I discovered at the recent Quantified Self Silicon Valley Meetup Group. The company is called ''Telome Health'' and they are close to launching a service that will offer high quality testing for individuals who want to measure their telomere length. This is an extremely exciting service because telomere length is considered to be the most accurate predictor of an individual's disease risk and life expectancy. According to the Telome Health website:
''Telomere length is one of the best biomarkers of overall health status. It is a major ''integrator'' of current and lifelong factors that impact health, including genetics, diet, fitness, toxins, and chronic stress. Knowing your telomere length (and monitoring changes over time) can provide valuable information on your disease risk '' or even the rate at which you are aging. With this information, you have the knowledge to change the quality of your life and health status at a cellular level.''
Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of our DNA and they protect cells from the diseases of aging, much like the plastic tips at the end of a shoelace protect the lace from fraying. As we age, our telomeres gradually shorten and eventually reach a point where they are no longer able to protect the cell. While this is a natural part of the aging process, there are many ways that our telomeres may shrink prematurely, thereby putting us at increased risk for disease and posing a threat to our longevity. With the testing from Telome Health, an individual will theoretically be able to easily measure their telomere length using a saliva test at home, which can be sent in for analysis. With regular testing a person will be able to assess whether their lifestyle choices are having a positive or negative impact on their telomere length and make adjustments as appropriate. This information could become even more powerful when combined with biomarker data from companies like WellnessFX and genetic data from companies like 23andme.
Not surprisingly, one of the most common sources of premature telomere damage is emotional stress. This can take the form of a serious, traumatic event or in the form of prolonged, low grade stress over many years that is left unchecked. However we do have some control over telomere length and we can reverse the effects of stress and other lifestyle choices. One highly effective method is through mindfulness meditation, and one of the most comprehensive studies on the effects of mindfulness meditation on the brain to date, including effects on telomere length, has been the Shamatha Project out of UC Davis. In this study, sixty participants were randomly assigned to participate in a three-month silent meditation retreat or to a control group. Blood samples obtained at the end of the retreat revealed that telomerase activity was significantly greater in retreat participants (vs. controls) and that telomerase activity was related to meditation-induced changes in well-being.
One of the company founders is Elizabeth Blackburn from UCSF, who is credited with discovering the molecular features and mechanisms of telomerase maintenance and the enzyme telomerase and was listed by Time Magazine as one the ''100 Most Influential People in the World'' in 2007. Blackburn and her colleagues also received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for ''the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.''
Telome Health plans to offer a saliva kit that can be ordered and used at home to collect samples, much like the 23andme DNA test. This should be an exciting tool to add to our repertoire of services that we can employ for our own health management.
War on Printers
VIDEO- Philadelphia To Become First City To Ban 3D-Printed Guns - YouTube
City of Philadelphia - File #: 130584
Amending Title 10 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled 'Regulation of Individual Conduct and Activity,-- by adding a new Chapter 10-2000, prohibiting the use of a three-dimensional printer in order to manufacture a firearm, under certain terms and conditions.
THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA HEREBY ORDAINS:
SECTION 1. Title 10 of The Philadelphia Code is hereby amended to read as follows:
TITLE 10. REGULATION OF INDIVIDUAL CONDUCT AND ACTIVITY.
CHAPTER 10-2000. USE OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTER TO MANUFACTURE FIREARMS.
§ 10-2001. Definitions.
(1) Firearm. Any device designed, made or adapted to expel a projectile through a barrel by using the energy generated by an explosive or burning substance or any device readily convertible to that use.
(2) Three-dimensional printer. A computer-driven machine capable of producing a three-dimensional object from a digital model.
§ 10-2002. Restriction on Use.
No person shall use a three-dimensional printer to create any firearm, or any piece or part thereof, unless such person possesses a license to manufacture firearms under Federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 923(a).
§ 10-2003. Penalties.
A violation of this Chapter shall be a Class III offense and subject to a fine as set forth in § 1-109 of this Code.
Italics indicate new matter added.
WAR ON PRINTERS-Pennsylvania to Play Major Role in 3D Printing Explosion
Mark Meier | Thursday, October 04, 2012
In August 2012, a consortium of 65 companies, universities, community colleges, and non-profit organizations won a three-year, $45-million grant from the federal government to establish and operate the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII). The institute hopes to facilitate collaboration to improve and expand additive manufacturing, colloquially known as 3D printing.In this process, instead of cutting away materials from a raw shape in order to produce a finished object, the object is built, layer by layer, by precisely depositing or fusing material with the help of a computer. Additive manufacturing thus saves material and energy and is increasingly important to Pennsylvania and industry. Although NAMII's headquarters are located in Youngstown, Ohio, Pennsylvania will play an outsized role in the new institute, which is expected in turn to benefit the commonwealth.
Of the 14 universities and community colleges in NAMII, half are in Pennsylvania, ranging from research universities such as Penn State and Carnegie Mellon to community colleges such as Westmoreland Community College and Northampton Community College. The community colleges in particular will play an important role in connecting innovations in additive manufacturing to their deployment in industry: these colleges have experience teaching 3D printing from when it was used on a smaller scale for prototyping and modeling and they will train future workers for expanded additive manufacturing.
Dr. Paul Pierpoint, Vice President of Community Education for Northampton Community College, explains the school got involved with NAMII in part becuase it already has a fabricating lab in South Bethlehem.
''The facility was put together to try to help inventors and people with ideas to create real physical objects,'' he says. ''One of the tools we got was a 3D printer; it was one of the first in the region."
Hence, as innovations emerge from NAMII, Northampton will be among the first to disseminate them.
"From the community college's perspective," says Pierpoint, "we want to be sure that anyone who wants to introduce this new manufacturing technique has the workers they need to do it. If we want to maintain a manufacturing base in the Lehigh Valley, this is the way we need to go."
At Pennsylvania College of Technology, a special-mission affiliate of Penn State in Williamsport, Vice President for Workforce and Economic Development Tracy L. Brundage tells a similar story.
"We have a credit degree program in advanced manufacturing that offers coursework in additive manufacturing (rapid prototyping), so we felt that we had a number of resources that would benefit the initiative in terms of faculty expertise, equipment, state-of-the-art labs, and curriculum.says Brundage.
''Our faculty will gain access to a network of other subject-matter experts which can help guide future programming decisions, curriculum updates, and equipment specifications."
Brundage also hopes Penn College will lead the way in local workforce training as demand spreads for advanced manufacturing. She expects Penn College's role to be defined further when NAMII members meet for the first time October 10.
In addition to benefiting from trained workers, Pennsylvania companies expect to benefit from NAMII in other ways while also helping it. For instance, Allegheny Technologies, Inc. in Pittsburgh sells several billion dollars annually in specialty metals, primarily for aerospace and defense, both key markets for additive manufacturing. The company's CEO and chairman Richard Harshman was on the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Steering Committee, which originally proposed creating innovation institutes such as NAMII. The company can provide metallurgical expertise to the institute and, in turn, expects to gain industry contacts and new ideas.
"ATI is at the leading edge and we want to stay at the leading edge,'' says spokesman Dan Greenfield. ''But innovation is not easy to schedule. It happens when you put the right people in the right circumstances."
Nearby in Latrobe and only slightly smaller in sales, Kennametal produces specialized components for metalworking, mining, and other markets. Kennametal, too, sees part of its future in additive manufacturing and thus joined NAMII. Corporate communication manager Christina Sutter says training the manufacturing workforce "is important to the long-term sustainability of the industry and something Kennametal is dedicated to addressing." She also expects NAMII will increase business opportunities for 3D printing and thus increase demand for Kennametal's products.
Other members of NAMII with a significant presence in Pennsylvania are Westinghouse Nuclear, with headquarters in Cranberry; Catalyst Connection, a consultancy; Penn State Tool & Die; and ExOne, a 3D metal printing firm founded in Germany. Other members range from smaller corporations to ones as large as Honeywell, IBM, Boeing, and General Electric.
Finally, Pennsylvania's non-profit organizations have played and will play an important role in NAMII. Ben Franklin Technology Partners supports the state's economic development through assisting technology-driven entrepreneurship, a mission which led it to NAMII. Innovation Works, the Ben Franklin Technology Partner for Southwestern Pennsylvania, is an active member in NAMII and is developing ways in which NAMII programs dovetail with the extensive hardware-oriented programs, activities and businesses operating in southwestern Pennsylvania.
NAMII itself will be run by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining. With headquarters in Blairsville in Indiana County and a branch office in Chambersburg at the Letterkenny Army Depot, the organization's mission is to improve manufacturing for the military while lowering costs, which makes it a natural partner to advance additive manufacturing on behalf of the nation as well as the state.
MARK MEIER is a writer, independent consultant, and part-time professor who lives in Dunmore and plants butterfly gardens in Scranton (which is his backyard). Send feedback here.
Photographs by BRAD BOWER
DOE Manufacturing Institute
The topic area of the Funding Opportunity Announcement for the DOE Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute is wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor power electronic devices. This foundational technology is broadly applicable to multiple industries and markets with potentially transformational technical and economic impact. By using less electricity, these highly efficient and reliable semiconductors can produce low-cost, better performing electronics that will meet the power needs of the future. Additional information can be found on the DOE Advanced Manufacturing Office website.
Read about wide bandgap semiconductors for power electronic devices. and its FOA
Go to the White House Press Release: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/09/obama-administration-launches-competition-three-new-manufacturing-innova
Go to the DOD Manufacturing Institutes
Read the FAQ about the three new Institutes and National Network for Manufacturing Innovation: NNMI_FAQ.pdf (Updated July 30, 2013 '' A new question has been added on page 3.)
Christine Furstoss: Adding the Next Layer to Additive Manufacturing | Ideas Lab
The promise of additive is palpable; realizing its full potential will require us to address gaps and enable new capabilities.
Additive manufacturing has begun to generate real excitement within the larger manufacturing community. For a long time in many industrial sectors, additive has been known as a great tool for rapidly prototyping new design concepts. But today the technology is on the cusp of reaching a new, critical level of innovation'--so long as industry is there to help it along.
GE has been developing additive technologies since the early 1990s, but within GE's research labs, the first signs that additive was about to take off appeared about five years ago. It was not so much a Eureka moment, but rather a natural reaction to helping our industrial businesses address a more competitive manufacturing landscape. GE's served industries were experiencing much greater pressures to go faster and push design concepts to levels that conventional manufacturing processes could not easily meet.
Over the next few years, for example, GE's Aviation business will introduce more new engine platforms than it has in the last few decades. This requires a whole new level of capability in the speed of innovation and design of new parts and components. Increasingly, we have turned to a new toolkit of additive technologies to help address these challenges.
Most often when you hear about additive, it's synonymous with 3D printing. But for GE and many industry insiders, we know 3D printing is one of a broad suite of creative tools that you can work with in additive manufacturing. Laser sintering, coating processes like cold spray and electron beam technology are all other additive processes GE scientists and engineers work with as well.
Without a doubt, additive technologies will help us go faster and meet shorter cycles for new product lines. But they give us something else. Additive technologies give us the ability to develop advanced materials concurrently with design. This is radically changing how manufacturing is done. It no longer has to be a sequential process where you wait for the design to be completed before determining your material selection and manufacturing approach. It will be a non-linear world that is more flexible and moves at faster speeds. For example, if you are not happy with the design of a part, tools exist to change the parameters of your CAD model and reprint it. With conventional manufacturing, that flexibility and ease of performing iteration after iteration just doesn't exist.
Additive manufacturing in and of itself is exciting and transformational, not only for the process technology toolkit it encompasses, but also for the mindset it requires to succeed. New, concurrent interactions and interdependencies among design, materials, and manufacturing will be required. This is imperative not only because we can create structures at a pace and with features never before seen, but additive manufacturing also allows us to concurrently create new material properties. This opens up a whole new paradigm, but also requires new analytical and design tools, special materials, and a whole new way of managing innovation.
Late last year, GE's Aviation business acquired additive developer and manufacturer Morris Technologies. It will help us begin to address what is a key challenge for industry going forward: bringing it to scale. With the Morris acquisition, we will have a full-scale additive manufacturing production facility'... and we will need it.
In 2016, GE will enter a new jet engine into service called the CFM LEAP'--the first in GE's line to incorporate 3D-printed parts. Specifically, it will be a combustion component that would not be possible to make using conventional processes. By 2020, more than 100,000 additive parts are expected to be in service. GE also has plans to produce a low-cost ultrasound transducer for Healthcare through additive manufacturing, and expects to find more applications through other businesses, which will add significantly to the workload within our production facility.
As an industry, we have to find ways to go faster. For all of the time you can save in the design phase, the actual printing or production of parts using additive technologies is still too slow. To help address this challenge we have a joint technology development agreement with Sigma Labs Inc., to develop in-process inspection technologies of additive components with the goal of reducing production time up to 25 percent.
Ultimately, we need a global ecosystem of collaborators working together to advance the industry and drive new innovation models. For companies like GE to maximize the full opportunity with additive, we know we have to help others in the supply chain grow in scale and capability. Toward that end, GE convened a summit on additive manufacturing last year that brought together key industry players and experts from around the world to discuss the current and future state of the industry. We will continue to engage the additive community to foster and bring about more collaboration and advancements going forward.
This past June, GE had a strong presence at the RAPID 3D Printing Conference in Pittsburgh. At the conference, we launched two additive manufacturing quests that have invited the participation of external innovators and entrepreneurs. One of the quests is a design challenge for the design of new metal brackets for our jet engines; the second is a production challenge to facilitate new ideas for improving production capabilities. The end goal for both of these is to foster a community of experts and new ideas to advance additive manufacturing.
Following the Summit, scientists and engineers in our Additive Manufacturing Lab hosted a Topology Optimization Summit at our Research Lab in Upstate New York. Again, the goal here was to understand how we could new software enabled tools could help strengthen capabilities and what we can create with this amazing technology.
As we look the future, it's clear that additive's role in manufacturing will only grow. It won't entirely replace conventional manufacturing, but its footprint will continue to build layer by layer in the manufacturing of new parts and products.
Christine Furstoss is Technical Director for Manufacturing and Materials Technologies at GE, based at GE's Global Research Center.This piece first appeared on the Digital Manufacturing report. She's also hosted a Google+ Hangout on ''The Future of Additive Manufacturing''.
World Bank says no money for nuclear power
Source: Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories
World Bank says no money for nuclear power28 minutes agoThe World Bank building entrance is seen on May 8, 2007, in Washington, DC.
The World Bank and United Nations on Wednesday appealed for billions of dollars to provide electricity for the poorest nations but said there would be no investment in nuclear power.
"We don't do nuclear energy," said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim as he and UN leader Ban Ki-moon outlined efforts to make sure all people have access to electricity by 2030.
Kim said $600-$800 billion a year will be needed to meet the campaign target of universal access to electricity, doubling energy efficiency and doubling the share of renewable energy by 2030.
In some countries, only 10% of the population has electricity.
So far, the campaign has a pledge of one billion dollars from the OPEC Fund for International Development, Bank of America has raised $500 million through the world's first 'green bond' and Norway has committed to spend two billion krone ($325 million) on renewable energy efforts in 2014.
Kim said the World Bank is preparing energy plans for 42 countries that would be ready in June, but said any money raised would only go to new power sources.
"Nuclear power from country to country is an extremely political issue," Kim told reporters.
"The World Bank Group does not engage in providing support for nuclear power. We think that this is an extremely difficult conversation that every country is continuing to have.
"And because we are really not in that business our focus is on finding ways of working in hydro electric power in geo-thermal, in solar, in wind," he said.
"We are really focusing on increasing investment in those modalities and we don't do nuclear energy."
Kim highlighted private financing for power expansion in Nigeria and Ivory Coast and said efforts were being made to launch a similar deal for Myanmar, where the government has launched major reform efforts.
"We are working and moving very quickly to try to ensure that Myanmar experiences a clear democracy dividend," Kim said.
The World Bank chief said it had been difficult to find long term capital for poorer countries but insisted: "We will show investors that sustainable energy is an opportunity they cannot afford to miss."
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India's Nuclear Scientists Keep Dying Mysteriously | VICE United States
(Photo via)
Indian nuclear scientists haven't had an easy time of it over the past decade. Not only has the scientific community been plagued by "suicides," unexplained deaths, and sabotage, but those incidents have gone mostly underreported in the country'--diluting public interest and leaving the cases quickly cast off by police.
Last month, two high-ranking engineers'--KK Josh and Abhish Shivam'--on India's first nuclear-powered submarine were found on railway tracks by workers. They were pulled from the line before a train could crush them, but were already dead. No marks were found on the bodies, so it was clear they hadn't been hit by a moving train, and reports allege they were poisoned elsewhere before being placed on the tracks to make the deaths look either accidental or like a suicide. The media and the Ministry of Defence, however, described the incident as a routine accident and didn't investigate any further.
This is the latest in a long list of suspicious deaths. When nuclear scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam's body turned up in June of 2009, it was palmed off as a suicide and largely ignored by the Indian media. However, Pakistani outlets, perhaps unsurprisingly, given relations between the two countries, kept the story going, noting how quick authorities were to label the death a suicide considering no note was left.
Five years earlier, in the same forest where Mahalingham's body was eventually discovered, an armed group with sophisticated weaponry allegedly tried to abduct an official from India's Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC). He, however, managed to escape. Another NPC employee, Ravi Mule, had been murdered weeks before, with police failing to "make any headway" into his case and effectively leaving his family to investigate the crime. A couple of years later, in April of 2011, when the body of former scientist Uma Rao was found, investigators ruled the death as suicide, but family members contested the verdict, saying there had been no signs that Rao was suicidal.
Trombay, the site of India's first atomic reactor. (Photo via)
This seems to be a recurring theme with deaths in the community. Madhav Nalapat, one of the few journalists in India giving the cases any real attention, has been in close contact with the families of the recently deceased scientists left on the train tracks. "There was absolutely no kind of depression or any family problems that would lead to suicide," he told me over the phone.
If the deaths of those in the community aren't classed as suicide, they're generally labeled as "unexplained." A good example is the case of M Iyer, who was found with internal haemorrhaging to his skull'--possibly the result of a "kinky experiment," according to a police officer. After a preliminary look-in, the police couldn't work out how Iyer had suffered internal injuries while not displaying any cuts or bruises, and investigations fizzled out.
This label is essentially admission of defeat on the police force's part. Once the "unexplained" rubber stamp has been approved, government bodies don't tend to task the authorities with investigating further. This may be a necessity due to the stark lack of evidence available at the scene of the deaths'--a feature that some suggest could indicate the work of professional killers'--but if this is the case, why not bring in better trained detectives to investigate the cases? A spate of deaths in the nuclear scientific community would create a media storm and highly publicised police investigation in other countries, so why not India?
This inertia has led to great public dissatisfaction with the Indian police. "[The police] say it's an unsolved murder, that's all. Why doesn't it go higher? Perhaps to a specialist investigations unit?" Madhav asked. "These people were working on the submarine program, creating a reactor, and have either 'committed suicide' or been murdered. It's astonishing that this hasn't been seen as suspicious."
Perhaps, I suggested, this series of deaths is just the latest chapter in a long campaign aiming to derail India's nuclear and technological capabilities. Madhav agreed, "There is a clear pattern of this type of activity going on," he said.
INS Sindhurakshak (Photo via)
The explosions that sunk INS Sindhurakshak '' a submarine docked in Mumbai '' in August of this year could have been deliberate, according to unnamed intelligence sources. And some have alleged that the CIA was behind the sabotage of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Of course, the deaths have caused fear and tension among those currently working on India's various nuclear projects. "[Whistleblowers] are getting scared of being involved in the nuclear industry in India," Madhav relayed to me. Their "families are getting very nervous about this" and "many of them leave for foreign countries and get other jobs."
There are parallels here with the numerous attacks on the Iranian nuclear scientist community. Five people associated with the country's nuclear programme have been targeted in the same way: men on motorcycles sticking magnetic bombs on to their cars and detonating them as they drive off. However, the Iranian government are incredibly vocal in condemning these acts'--blaming the US and Israel'--and at least give the appearance that they are actively investigating.
The same cannot be said for the Indian government. "India is not making any noise about the whole thing," Madhav explained. "People have just accepted the police version, [which describes these incidents] as normal kinds of death."
If the deaths do, in fact, turn out to be premeditated murders, deciding who's responsible is pure speculation at this point. Two authors have alleged that the US have dabbled in sabotaging the country's technological efforts in the past; China is in a constant soft-power battle with India; and the volatile relationship with Pakistan makes the country a prime suspect. "It could be any of them," Madhav said.
But the most pressing issue isn't who might be behind the murders, but that the Indian government's apathy is potentially putting their high-value staff at even greater risk. Currently, these scientists, who are crucial to the development of India's nuclear programes, whether for energy or security, have "absolutely no protection at all. Nothing, zero," Madhav told me. "Which is amazing for people who are in a such a sensitive program."
@josephfcox
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EARon
ALERT-Statement by the Press Secretary Regarding Robert Levinson | The White House
On March 9, 2007, American citizen and retired FBI Agent Robert Levinson went missing during a business trip to Kish Island, Iran. Today, Mr. Levinson becomes one of the longest held Americans in history.
As we approach the upcoming holiday season, we reiterate the commitment of the United States Government to locate Mr. Levinson and bring him home safely to his family, friends, and loved ones. We welcome the assistance of our international partners in this investigation, and we respectfully ask the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to assist us in securing Mr. Levinson's health, welfare, and safe return.
Compromise floated on enrichment issue in Iran nuclear talks -envoys - chicagotribune.com
Louis CharbonneauReuters2:43 p.m. CST,November 22, 2013
GENEVA (Reuters) - A major sticking point in nuclear negotiations between Iran and six world powers may have been overcome with compromise language in a draft deal regarding Iran's demand for a "right to enrich" uranium, Western diplomats said on Friday.Iran has insisted that any pact to curb its sensitive nuclear activity explicitly recognize its right to refine uranium, a process that can produce fuel for civilian power plants or atomic bombs. Western powers say there is no such thing as a right to enrich under international law.
This issue has emerged as one of the most difficult areas of disagreement between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, diplomats close to the Geneva negotiations said.Iranian media quoted unnamed Western officials on Friday as saying that Western powers had agreed to acknowledge Tehran's right to enrich. Western diplomats vehemently denied that. They said a compromise had been proposed that does not explicitly recognize a right to produce nuclear fuel by any country.
"If you speak about the right to a peaceful nuclear program that's open to interpretation," a diplomat told Reuters without elaborating.
Earlier this week a senior U.S. administration official told reporters in Geneva that a formula could be found to satisfy all sides.
"Article Four of the NPT, the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is silent on the issue. It neither confers a right nor denies a right. So we don't believe it is inherently there. Do I believe this issue can be navigated in an agreement? Yes, I do. And we will see if that can be done or not."
Another stubborn dispute in the talks has been Iran's insistence on continuing construction of the Arak heavy-water research reactor, which could yield plutonium if completed.
Western powers want Tehran to scrap the plant as part of an interim deal under which Iran would freeze parts of its nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from international sanctions.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
IR-40 | Facilities | NTI
In a letter dated 5 May 2003, Iran informed the for the first time of its plan to construct a 40MW(t) heavy water fueled by natural oxide. [1] The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) states that the reactor, called the IR-40, will be used for research, production, and technical training. [2] The reactor is expected to become operational in late 2014.
Iran tried to purchase a heavy water moderated reactor in the 1990s. Tehran secretly approached at least four nuclear suppliers, but was repeatedly turned down. However, after unspecified foreign experts provided technical assistance, Iran began constructing the reactor on its own. [3] Starting in August 2008, Iran stopped permitting IAEA visits to the construction site. After Iran completed construction of the reactor vessel's dome, the Agency was unable to remotely monitor construction progress. [4] Following repeated requests, Iran provided the IAEA access to the IR-40 reactor in August 2009, at which time the Agency was able to carry out design information verification (DIV). [5] The IAEA confirmed that the facility "at its current stage of construction conforms to the design information provided by Iran as of 24 January 2007," although Iran still has not provided updated and detailed design information. [6] At the time of the inspection, Iran estimated that the plant was approximately 63% completed, including installation of the reactor vessel's containment dome. [7]
Heavy water reactors are of proliferation concern because they are optimal for the production of high quality, . The reactors also do not require to produce weapons-usable material, as they are fueled by natural uranium. [8] The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) estimates that if operated efficiently, the IR-40 will be capable of producing 9kg of plutonium annually, enough for approximately one-and-a-half nuclear weapons per year. [9] Before Iran could use any of the plutonium in a nuclear weapon, however, it would first need to separate it from the reactor's . There are currently no known spent fuel facilities in Iran. In 2004, Iran declared that due to difficulties in obtaining equipment and technical information, it would not consider constructing hot cells for long-lived at the Arak complex. [10] Yet according to the August 2009 IAEA report, Iran stated that it had been trying to procure hot cell windows and manipulators for the IR-40 from foreign sources, and was considering producing them domestically. [11]
In May 2013, Iran reported its commissioning schedule for the IR-40 to the IAEA as follows: "Phase 1 '' pre-commissioning (using dummy fuel assemblies and ) in the fourth quarter of 2013; Phase 2 '' commissioning (using real fuel assemblies and heavy water) in the first quarter of 2014; expected to become operational during the third quarter of 2014." Iran further informed the Agency of its plans to produce 55 fuel assemblies by 9 August 2013. In its May 2013 report, the IAEA highlighted Iran's failure to provide an updated Design Information Questionnaire (DIQ) for the reactor since 2006, thereby falling short of meeting its obligations under the modified Code 3.1 of the General Part of the Subsidiary Arrangements to its Agreement. The report further underlined the impact of this failure on the IAEA's ability to verify the design of the facility, and to implement an effective safeguards approach in light of the approaching date of the IR-40's operation. [12] In July 2013 David Albright and Christina Walrond of the Institute for Science and International Security reported that in spite of sanctions they expect construction on the IR-40 will be completed by 2014, although delays in commissioning are expected. [13]
Many analysts question the need for a large, heavy water-moderated reactor for scientific research and isotope production. Robert Einhorn argued in 2006 that "much smaller, light-water research reactors are fully satisfactory for the kinds of applications Iran says it is interested in," and compared Iran's plan to use the IR-40 for peaceful purposes to using a 12-inch hunting knife for spreading jam on toast. [14] In response to an IAEA query, Iranian officials stated that that they had planned to procure a new reactor from abroad to replace the aging Tehran Research Reactor, but were unsuccessful. Instead, Iran decided to construct a heavy water reactor fueled by natural uranium oxide, and determined that a 30-40 MW(t) capacity was necessary for sufficient flux. [15]
Sources:[1] "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 6 June 2003, www.iaea.org.[2] David Albright and Paul Brannan, "Arak Heavy Water Reactor Construction Progressing," The Institute for Science and International Security, 13 November 2008, www.isis-online.org.[3] Robert Einhorn, "Iran's Heavy-Water Reactor: A Plutonium Bomb Factory," Arms Control Association, 9 November 2006, www.armscontrol.org.[4] "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and the Relevant Security Council Resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 5 June 2009, www.iaea.org.[5] International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and the Relevant Security Council Resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Report by the Director General, 28 August 2009, www.iaea.org.[6] International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and the Relevant Security Council Resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Report by the Director General, 28 August 2009, www.iaea.org.[7] International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and the Relevant Security Council Resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Report by the Director General, 28 August 2009, www.iaea.org.[8] Robert Einhorn, "Iran's Heavy-Water Reactor: A Plutonium Bomb Factory," Arms Control Association, 9 November 2006, www.armscontrol.org.[9] The IAEA considers six kilograms of plutonium sufficient for production of a nuclear weapon. David Albright and Paul Brannan, "Arak Heavy Water Reactor Construction Progressing," The Institute for Science and International Security, 13 November 2008.[10] "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 1 June 2004, www.iaea.org.[11] International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and the Relevant Security Council Resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Report by the Director General, 28 August 2009, www.iaea.org.[12] International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Report by Director General, 22 May 2013, www.iaea.org.[13] David Albright and Christina Walrond, "Update on the Arak Reactor," Institute for Science and International Security, 15 July 2013, www.isis-online.org.[14] Robert Einhorn, "Iran's Heavy-Water Reactor: A Plutonium Bomb Factory," Arms Control Association, 9 November 2006, www.armscontrol.org.[15] International Atomic Energy Agency, "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Report by the Director General, 10 November 2003, www.iaea.org.
White House fact sheet on the Iran deal | JPost | Israel News
US Sec. of State Kerry hugs EU foreign policy chief Ashton Photo: Reuters
THE WHITE HOUSEOffice of the Press SecretaryFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENovember 23, 2013
Fact Sheet: First Step Understandings Regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's Nuclear Program
The P5+1 (the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and China, facilitated by the European Union) has been engaged in serious and substantive negotiations with Iran with the goal of reaching a verifiable diplomatic resolution that would prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
President Obama has been clear that achieving a peaceful resolution that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is in America's national security interest. Today, the P5+1 and Iran reached a set of initial understandings that halts the progress of Iran's nuclear program and rolls it back in key respects. These are the first meaningful limits that Iran has accepted on its nuclear program in close to a decade. The initial, six month step includes significant limits on Iran's nuclear program and begins to address our most urgent concerns including Iran's enrichment capabilities; its existing stockpiles of enriched uranium; the number and capabilities of its centrifuges; and its ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium using the Arak reactor. The concessions Iran has committed to make as part of this first step will also provide us with increased transparency and intrusive monitoring of its nuclear program. In the past, the concern has been expressed that Iran will use negotiations to buy time to advance their program. Taken together, these first step measures will help prevent Iran from using the cover of negotiations to continue advancing its nuclear program as we seek to negotiate a long-term, comprehensive solution that addresses all of the international community's concerns.
In return, as part of this initial step, the P5+1 will provide limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible relief to Iran. This relief is structured so that the overwhelming majority of the sanctions regime, including the key oil, banking, and financial sanctions architecture, remains in place. The P5+1 will continue to enforce these sanctions vigorously. If Iran fails to meet its commitments, we will revoke the limited relief and impose additional sanctions on Iran.
The P5+1 and Iran also discussed the general parameters of a comprehensive solution that would constrain Iran's nuclear program over the long term, provide verifiable assurances to the international community that Iran's nuclear activities will be exclusively peaceful, and ensure that any attempt by Iran to pursue a nuclear weapon would be promptly detected. The set of understandings also includes an acknowledgment by Iran that it must address all United Nations Security Council resolutions '' which Iran has long claimed are illegal '' as well as past and present issues with Iran's nuclear program that have been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This would include resolution of questions concerning the possible military dimension of Iran's nuclear program, including Iran's activities at Parchin. As part of a comprehensive solution, Iran must also come into full compliance with its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its obligations to the IAEA. With respect to the comprehensive solution, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Put simply, this first step expires in six months, and does not represent an acceptable end state to the United States or our P5+1 partners.
Halting the Progress of Iran's Program and Rolling Back Key Elements
Iran has committed to halt enrichment above 5%:
' Halt all enrichment above 5% and dismantle the technical connections required to enrich above 5%.
Iran has committed to neutralize its stockpile of near-20% uranium:
' Dilute below 5% or convert to a form not suitable for further enrichment its entire stockpile of near-20% enriched uranium before the end of the initial phase.
Iran has committed to halt progress on its enrichment capacity:
' Not install additional centrifuges of any type.
' Not install or use any next-generation centrifuges to enrich uranium.
' Leave inoperable roughly half of installed centrifuges at Natanz and three-quarters of installed centrifuges at Fordow, so they cannot be used to enrich uranium.
' Limit its centrifuge production to those needed to replace damaged machines, so Iran cannot use the six months to stockpile centrifuges.
' Not construct additional enrichment facilities.
Iran has committed to halt progress on the growth of its 3.5% stockpile:
' Not increase its stockpile of 3.5% low enriched uranium, so that the amount is not greater at the end of the six months than it is at the beginning, and any newly enriched 3.5% enriched uranium is converted into oxide.
Iran has committed to no further advances of its activities at Arak and to halt progress on its plutonium track. Iran has committed to:
' Not commission the Arak reactor.
' Not fuel the Arak reactor.
' Halt the production of fuel for the Arak reactor.
' No additional testing of fuel for the Arak reactor.
' Not install any additional reactor components at Arak.
' Not transfer fuel and heavy water to the reactor site.
' Not construct a facility capable of reprocessing. Without reprocessing, Iran cannot separate plutonium from spent fuel.
Unprecedented transparency and intrusive monitoring of Iran's nuclear program
Iran has committed to:
' Provide daily access by IAEA inspectors at Natanz and Fordow. This daily access will permit inspectors to review surveillance camera footage to ensure comprehensive monitoring. This access will provide even greater transparency into enrichment at these sites and shorten detection time for any non-compliance.
' Provide IAEA access to centrifuge assembly facilities.
' Provide IAEA access to centrifuge rotor component production and storage facilities.
' Provide IAEA access to uranium mines and mills.
' Provide long-sought design information for the Arak reactor. This will provide critical insight into the reactor that has not previously been available.
' Provide more frequent inspector access to the Arak reactor.
' Provide certain key data and information called for in the Additional Protocol to Iran's IAEA Safeguards Agreement and Modified Code 3.1.
Verification Mechanism
The IAEA will be called upon to perform many of these verification steps, consistent with their ongoing inspection role in Iran. In addition, the P5+1 and Iran have committed to establishing a Joint Commission to work with the IAEA to monitor implementation and address issues that may arise. The Joint Commission will also work with the IAEA to facilitate resolution of past and present concerns with respect to Iran's nuclear program, including the possible military dimension of Iran's nuclear program and Iran's activities at Parchin.
Limited, Temporary, Reversible Relief
In return for these steps, the P5+1 is to provide limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible relief while maintaining the vast bulk of our sanctions, including the oil, finance, and banking sanctions architecture. If Iran fails to meet its commitments, we will revoke the relief. Specifically the P5+1 has committed to:
' Not impose new nuclear-related sanctions for six months, if Iran abides by its commitments under this deal, to the extent permissible within their political systems.
' Suspend certain sanctions on gold and precious metals, Iran's auto sector, and Iran's petrochemical exports, potentially providing Iran approximately $1.5 billion in revenue.
' License safety-related repairs and inspections inside Iran for certain Iranian airlines.
' Allow purchases of Iranian oil to remain at their currently significantly reduced levels '' levels that are 60% less than two years ago. $4.2 billion from these sales will be allowed to be transferred in installments if, and as, Iran fulfills its commitments.
' Allow $400 million in governmental tuition assistance to be transferred from restricted Iranian funds directly to recognized educational institutions in third countries to defray the tuition costs of Iranian students.
Humanitarian Transactions
Facilitate humanitarian transactions that are already allowed by U.S. law. Humanitarian transactions have been explicitly exempted from sanctions by Congress so this channel will not provide Iran access to any new source of funds. Humanitarian transactions are those related to Iran's purchase of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices; we would also facilitate transactions for medical expenses incurred abroad. We will establish this channel for the benefit of the Iranian people.
Putting Limited Relief in Perspective
In total, the approximately $7 billion in relief is a fraction of the costs that Iran will continue to incur during this first phase under the sanctions that will remain in place. The vast majority of Iran's approximately $100 billion in foreign exchange holdings are inaccessible or restricted by sanctions.
In the next six months, Iran's crude oil sales cannot increase. Oil sanctions alone will result in approximately $30 billion in lost revenues to Iran '' or roughly $5 billion per month '' compared to what Iran earned in a six month period in 2011, before these sanctions took effect. While Iran will be allowed access to $4.2 billion of its oil sales, nearly $15 billion of its revenues during this period will go into restricted overseas accounts. In summary, we expect the balance of Iran's money in restricted accounts overseas will actually increase, not decrease, under the terms of this deal.
Maintaining Economic Pressure on Iran and Preserving Our Sanctions Architecture
During the first phase, we will continue to vigorously enforce our sanctions against Iran, including by taking action against those who seek to evade or circumvent our sanctions.
' Sanctions affecting crude oil sales will continue to impose pressure on Iran's government. Working with our international partners, we have cut Iran's oil sales from 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in early 2012 to 1 million bpd today, denying Iran the ability to sell almost 1.5 million bpd. That's a loss of more than $80 billion since the beginning of 2012 that Iran will never be able to recoup. Under this first step, the EU crude oil ban will remain in effect and Iran will be held to approximately 1 million bpd in sales, resulting in continuing lost sales worth an additional $4 billion per month, every month, going forward.
' Sanctions affecting petroleum product exports to Iran, which result in billions of dollars of lost revenue, will remain in effect.
' The vast majority of Iran's approximately $100 billion in foreign exchange holdings remain inaccessible or restricted by our sanctions.
' Other significant parts of our sanctions regime remain intact, including:
o Sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran and approximately two dozen other major Iranian banks and financial actors;
o Secondary sanctions, pursuant to the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA) as amended and other laws, on banks that do business with U.S.-designated individuals and entities;
o Sanctions on those who provide a broad range of other financial services to Iran, such as many types of insurance; and,
o Restricted access to the U.S. financial system.
' All sanctions on over 600 individuals and entities targeted for supporting Iran's nuclear or ballistic missile program remain in effect.
' Sanctions on several sectors of Iran's economy, including shipping and shipbuilding, remain in effect.
' Sanctions on long-term investment in and provision of technical services to Iran's energy sector remain in effect.
' Sanctions on Iran's military program remain in effect.
' Broad U.S. restrictions on trade with Iran remain in effect, depriving Iran of access to virtually all dealings with the world's biggest economy.
' All UN Security Council sanctions remain in effect.
' All of our targeted sanctions related to Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism, its destabilizing role in the Syrian conflict, and its abysmal human rights record, among other concerns, remain in effect.
A Comprehensive Solution
During the six-month initial phase, the P5+1 will negotiate the contours of a comprehensive solution. Thus far, the outline of the general parameters of the comprehensive solution envisions concrete steps to give the international community confidence that Iran's nuclear activities will be exclusively peaceful. With respect to this comprehensive resolution: nothing is agreed to with respect to a comprehensive solution until everything is agreed to. Over the next six months, we will determine whether there is a solution that gives us sufficient confidence that the Iranian program is peaceful. If Iran cannot address our concerns, we are prepared to increase sanctions and pressure.
In sum, this first step achieves a great deal in its own right. Without this phased agreement, Iran could start spinning thousands of additional centrifuges. It could install and spin next-generation centrifuges that will reduce its breakout times. It could fuel and commission the Arak heavy water reactor. It could grow its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium to beyond the threshold for a bomb's worth of uranium. Iran can do none of these things under the conditions of the first step understanding.
Furthermore, without this phased approach, the international sanctions coalition would begin to fray because Iran would make the case to the world that it was serious about a diplomatic solution and we were not. We would be unable to bring partners along to do the crucial work of enforcing our sanctions. With this first step, we stop and begin to roll back Iran's program and give Iran a sharp choice: fulfill its commitments and negotiate in good faith to a final deal, or the entire international community will respond with even more isolation and pressure.
The American people prefer a peaceful and enduring resolution that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and strengthens the global non-proliferation regime. This solution has the potential to achieve that. Through strong and principled diplomacy, the United States of America will do its part for greater peace, security, and cooperation among nations.
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Iran Gold Sanctions Easing Seen Having Little Price Impact - Bloomberg
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What You Need to Know About the Iran Nuclear Deal
The easing of sanctions on trading gold with Iran probably will have little impact on prices, according to Standard Bank Group Ltd. and Societe Generale SA.
''Gold overall is dominated by much bigger forces right now,'' Walter de Wet, an analyst at Standard Bank in Johannesburg, said before Iran and world powers announced their wider nuclear agreement yesterday. Prices plunged 27 percent this year, headed for the biggest annual drop in three decades, as some investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value.
While Iran doesn't disclose gold reserves, its demand for the metal used in jewelry and other fabrication last year was 36.9 metric tons, or 1.4 percent of the global total, according to data from Thomson Reuters GFMS. The Persian Gulf nation probably expanded holdings in 2012 and early this year by taking metal as payment for energy exports, Roubini Global Economics LLC said in a report in May.
The agreement in Geneva was the first since Iran's nuclear program came under scrutiny in 2003. The Persian Gulf nation will get about $7 billion in relief from economic sanctions over six months, including the suspension of ''certain sanctions on gold and precious metals,'' the U.S. government said. Iran will be barred from accepting precious metals as payment for oil or any other sanctioned transaction, according to diplomats who asked not to be identified because of diplomatic protocol.
Nuclear ProgramSanctions also are being suspended on Iran's automotive industry and petrochemical exports, and the country will be allowed access to civilian aircraft parts as well as repatriate $4.2 billion in frozen assets. The two sides now aim to conclude a comprehensive accord within six months.
Iran in return must improve cooperation with United Nations monitors, commit to eliminate its stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent levels, and halt advanced centrifuge installation, the White House said in a statement. Iran also won't commission its Arak heavy water reactor.
Gold for immediate delivery lost as much as 1.5 percent to $1,225.55 an ounce, the lowest since July 8. The price was at $1,231.17 by 11:21 a.m. in London. The precious metal is set for its first annual decline since 2000. Bullion is 36 percent below the record $1,921.15 set in September 2011.
Sanctions imposed on Iran include limits on its financial transactions and crude exports, the country's main source of revenue. Oil production dropped by about 1 million barrels a day to 2.6 million barrels since the start of 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Bullion ImportsAs sanctions limited Iran's ability to receive payments, the country expanded its use of gold. Imports of bullion from neighboring Turkey, a buyer of Iranian natural gas, jumped to 126 tons last year from 1 ton in 2011, according to data from the International Trade Centre, an agency of the UN and World Trade Organization.
Iran last reported its gold reserves to the International Monetary Fund in March 1996, when it held about 168.6 tons, the Washington-based lender's website shows. That would place it outside the 20 largest holders now.
''For Iran to buy gold, they need to have income, which normally comes from oil revenues, and at the moment they're in dire straits,'' Andrey Kryuchenkov, a commodity strategist in London at VTB Capital, said Nov. 19. ''I don't think it will significantly affect the market.''
The IMF estimates that Iran's economy will contract 1.5 percent this year after shrinking 1.9 percent in 2012, and will expand 1.3 percent in 2014.
''I don't think that because there's been effective sanctions on gold trading that Iranian individuals, as well as more official people, haven't been able to invest bits here and there,'' Robin Bhar, an analyst at Societe Generale SA in London, said Nov. 19. By lifting sanctions, ''you're not going to see a significant investment or divestment,'' he said.
Bloomberg competes with Thomson Reuters Corp. in selling financial and legal information and trading systems.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net; Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Whitney McFerron at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net
Enlarge imageGold BarsAlessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg
Gold fell 6 percent this month, heading for the worst slide since June, when the metal reached a 34-month low.
Gold fell 6 percent this month, heading for the worst slide since June, when the metal reached a 34-month low. Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Jonathan Barratt, chief executive officer of Barratt's Bulletin in Sydney, talks about the gold, oil and metal markets. He speaks with Angie Lau on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- David Cohen, the U.S. Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, talks about Iran's accord with world powers to limit its nuclear program in exchange for as much as $7 billion in relief from sanctions. He speaks with Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television's "Market Makers." (Source: Bloomberg)
Iran, the U.S., and the Middle East Balance of Power | Stephen M. Walt | Stephen M. Walt
The interim nuclear deal with Iranis an important step forward, and the various negotiating teams can be justlyproud of their achievement. Far be it from me to be a killjoy at this raremoment of progress, but let's not lose our heads amid all the high-fiving andback-patting. Why? Because Iran's nuclear program is not in fact the realissue. The more important issues are Iran's future relations with the outsideworld and whether the deal paves the way for reintegrating that country intothe world economy and the broader international community.
There is something of a paradox inthe ways that opponents and supporters of a deal approach the whole subject ofIran's nuclear program and the country's broader relations with the UnitedStates and other major powers. Opponents of a deal tend to believe that 1) Iranis governed by irrational and highly aggressive Shiite fanatics; 2) it is hellbenton getting a nuclear weapons capability; and 3) if Iran does get the bomb, itwill have dramatic and overwhelmingly negative consequences for regionalstability and world politics more generally. Given those (unwarranted) beliefs,you'd think hawks would be thrilled with this deal, insofar as it freezesIran's current capabilities, will reduce the stockpile of 20 percent enricheduranium (i.e., the stuff that could be enriched to weapons grade fairlyquickly), and leaves all the truly significant sanctions in place. If thenuclear program is your big concern, then this is a great first step and a morefar-reaching comprehensive deal would be even better. (The alternatives -- anunconstrained Iranian program or another Middle East war -- are clearlyinferior.)
By contrast, many who support thecurrent deal believe that 1) Iran's leaders are rational individuals seeking toadvance Iran's national interests; 2) Iran has not yet decided to seek anuclear weapon and probably prefers a condition of nuclear latency to afully developed nuclear arsenal; and 3) getting the bomb wouldn't transformIran into a major world power overnight and certainly wouldn't enable it tothreaten Israel or blackmail its neighbors. If this view is accurate, then afinal deal on Iran's nuclear program -- i.e., one that scales back thoseelements that shorten the breakout period but leaves Iran with some enrichmentcapacity -- isn't that significant by itself, because Iran wasn't really seeking a weapon anyway and its gettinga few bombs wouldn't have that big an impact on world politics.
Thus, the paradox: Many supportersof a diplomatic deal don't believe the danger of a "nuclear Iran" isall that momentous, while opponents of the current deal think Iran's nuclearprogram poses a grave and imminent threat. One would think the former would bemore relaxed about recent progress, while the latter would be moreenthusiastic. But that isn't the case: Those with a moderate view of thenuclear danger are much happier with the deal than those who (logically) oughtto be more interested in anything that constrains what Iran is able to do.
In fact, the real issue isn'twhether Iran gets close to a bomb; the real issue is the long-term balance ofpower in the Persian Gulf and Middle East. Iran has far more power potentialthan any of the other states in the region: a larger population, a fairly sophisticatedand well-educated middle class, some good universities, and abundant oil andgas to boost economic growth (if used wisely). If Iran ever escapes theshackles of international sanctions and puts some competent people in charge ofits economy, it's going to loom much larger in regional affairs over time. Thatprospect is what really lies behind the Israeli and Saudi concerns about thenuclear deal. Israel and Saudi Arabia don't think Iran is going to get up oneday and start lobbing warheads at its neighbors, and they probably don't evenbelieve that Iran would ever try the pointless act of nuclear blackmail. No, they'rejust worried that a powerful Iran would over time exert greater influence inthe region, in all the ways that major powers do. From the perspective of TelAviv and Riyadh, the goal is to try to keep Iran in a box for as long aspossible -- isolated, friendless, and artificially weakened.
But from the U.S. perspective,that's neither a realistic nor a desirable long-term goal. As I laid out last week, America's main strategic interest inthe Greater Middle East is a balance of power in which no single statedominates. In such a situation, U.S. interests and leverage are best served byhaving good relations with as many states as possible and at least decentworking relations with all of them. America's long-term interests are bestserved by helping reintegrate Iran into the global community, which is likelyto strengthen the hand of moderate forces there and make Iran less disruptivein other contexts (e.g., Lebanon). Managing this process will requirereassuring existing allies, but this development would also force currentallies to listen to Washington a bit more attentively, which wouldn't be a badthing.
Over the next six months, the finedetails of a long-term nuclear deal will receive enormous attention and debate.Given the attention that Iran's nuclear program has received over the pastdecade or more, that level of scrutiny is unavoidable. But in the end thenuclear issue doesn't matter that much; what matters is whether an agreement onthat issue will allow relations between Iran and the United States and the restof the P5+1 to normalize in the months and years ahead. And it is thatdevelopment that opponents of an agreement will be desperate to prevent.
SnowJob
Spies worry over doomsday cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden | Reuters
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTONMon Nov 25, 2013 3:58pm EST
A woman holds a portrait of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden in front of her face as she stands in front of the U.S. embassy during a protest in Berlin, in this file photo from July 4, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Thomas Peter/Files
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a "doomsday" cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud.
The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter said.
The data is protected with sophisticated encryption, and multiple passwords are needed to open it, said two of the sources, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
The passwords are in the possession of at least three different people and are valid for only a brief time window each day, they said. The identities of persons who might have the passwords are unknown.
Spokespeople for both NSA and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
One source described the cache of still unpublished material as Snowden's "insurance policy" against arrest or physical harm.
U.S. officials and other sources said only a small proportion of the classified material Snowden downloaded during stints as a contract systems administrator for NSA has been made public. Some Obama Administration officials have said privately that Snowden downloaded enough material to fuel two more years of news stories.
"The worst is yet to come," said one former U.S. official who follows the investigation closely.
Snowden, who is believed to have downloaded between 50,000 and 200,000 classified NSA and British government documents, is living in Russia under temporary asylum, where he fled after traveling to Hong Kong. He has been charged in the United States under the Espionage Act.
Cryptome, a website which started publishing leaked secret documents years before the group WikiLeaks or Snowden surfaced, estimated that the total number of Snowden documents made public so far is over 500.
Given Snowden's presence in Moscow, and the low likelihood that he will return to the United States anytime soon, U.S. and British authorities say they are focused more on dealing with the consequences of the material he has released than trying to apprehend him.
It is unclear whether U.S. or allied intelligence agencies - or those of adversary services such as Russia's and China's -
know where the material is stored and, if so, have tried to unlock it.
One former senior U.S. official said that the Chinese and Russians have cryptographers skilled enough to open the cache if they find it.
Snowden's revelations of government secrets have brought to light extensive and previously unknown surveillance of phone, email and social media communications by the NSA and allied agencies. That has sparked several diplomatic rows between Washington and its allies, along with civil liberties debates in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.
Among the material which Snowden acquired from classified government computer servers, but which has not been published by media outlets known to have had access to it, are documents containing names and resumes of employees working for NSA's British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), sources familiar with the matter said.
The sources said Snowden started downloading some of it from a classified GCHQ website, known as GC-Wiki, when he was employed by Dell and assigned to NSA in 2012.
Snowden made a calculated decision to move from Dell Inc to another NSA contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton, because he would have wide-ranging access to NSA data at the latter firm, one source with knowledge of the matter said.
"EXTREME PRECAUTIONS"
Glenn Greenwald, who met with Snowden in Hong Kong and was among the first to report on the leaked documents for the Guardian newspaper, said the former NSA contractor had "taken extreme precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these archives to insure the stories will inevitably be published."
"If anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he has arranged for them to get access to the full archives," Greenwald said in a June interview with the Daily Beast website. He added: "I don't know for sure whether has more documents than the ones he has given me... I believe he does."
In an email exchange with Reuters, Greenwald, who has said he remains in contact with Snowden, affirmed his statements about Snowden's "precautions" but said he had nothing to add.
Officials believe that the "doomsday" cache is stored and encrypted separately from any material that Snowden has provided to media outlets.
Conservative British politicians, including Louise Mensch, a former member of parliament, have accused the Guardian, one of two media outlets to first publish stories based on Snowden's leaks, of "trafficking of GCHQ agents' names abroad."
No names of British intelligence personnel have been published by any media outlet. After U.K. officials informed the Guardian it could face legal action, the newspaper disclosed it had destroyed computers containing Snowden material on GCHQ, but had provided copies of the data to the New York Times and the U.S. nonprofit group ProPublica.
Sources familiar with unpublished material Snowden downloaded said it also contains information about the CIA - possibly including personnel names - as well as other U.S. spy agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which operate U.S. image-producing satellites and analyze their data.
U.S. security officials have indicated in briefings they do not know what, if any, of the material is still in Snowden's personal possession. Snowden himself has been quoted as saying he took no such materials with him to Russia.
(Editing by Warren Strobel and Tim Dobbyn)
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NSA collected porn visits data to discredit 'radicalizers'
Source: RT - USA
Published time: November 27, 2013 11:18Edited time: November 27, 2013 12:47Demonstrators hold up their signs during the "Stop Watching Us: A Rally Against Mass Surveillance" march near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, October 26, 2013 (Reuters / Jonathan Ernst)
The National Security Agency has been collecting a mountain of dirt on the online sexual activity of individuals, all of them Muslims, whom the agency seeks to discredit due to their 'radicalizing' efforts.
The expression 'all's fair in love and war' just took on a whole new meaning in the ongoing debate that pits national security against personal privacy.
Yet another top-secret NSA document - one of many whisked out of the United States by whistleblower Edward Snowden - revealed that the agency sought to discredit the ''credibility, reputation and authority'' of six Muslim 'radicalizers' through their online sexual activity and visits to pornographic websites, according to Huffington Post.
The targeted ''exemplars,'' whose identities are not revealed, are purportedly attempting to recruit and radicalize followers through ''incendiary speeches.''
The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, aims to exploit the ''personal vulnerabilities'' of its targets through their online tendencies, including ''viewing sexually explicit material online'' and ''using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.''
The Huffington Post said it is withholding the names and locations of the six targeted individuals, whose alleged online activities ''cannot be verified.''
The Director of the National Security Agency ("DIRNSA") distributed the top secret document to a number of government agencies, including the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and US Customs.
'We can discredit them'Snowden's revelation's turned a spotlight on the NSA and its warehousing of billions of pieces of information - emails, phone calls, photos and videos. However, in its effort to find the proverbial needle in a haystack, the NSA is scooping up millions of innocent people in its dragnet.
However, in the never-ending fight against terrorism, proponents of the NSA's eavesdropping techniques, which have spied on everything from the offices of the United Nations to the Vatican, maintain a position of security over privacy.
Stewart Baker, former general counsel for the NSA, supported the idea of practicing what essentially amounts to character assassination against individuals who are believed to pose a risk to US security interest.
"If people are engaged in trying to recruit folks to kill Americans and we can discredit them, we ought to," Baker said, as quoted by HP. "[D]ropping the truth on them," as opposed to a drone missile attack, for example, is ''fairer and maybe more humane.''
Who's next?Although the NSA document only mentions Muslims on its list of targets, critics of the clandestine data mining system worry that such tactics could be used against ordinary Americans for any number of reasons.
"This kind of dragnet surveillance is precisely what the Fourth Amendment was meant to prohibit," said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer, who presented arguments against the NSA surveillance in a US federal court last week.
"The Constitution does not permit the NSA to place hundreds of millions of innocent people under permanent surveillance because of the possibility that information about some tiny subset of them will become useful to an investigation in the future," Jaffer added.
Jaffer said it is right to ask if a "president will ask the NSA to use the fruits of surveillance to discredit a political opponent, journalist or human rights activist."
"The NSA has used its power that way in the past and it would be na¯ve to think it couldn't use its power that way in the future," he said.
None of the individuals listed in the NSA document, all of whom are believed to reside outside the United States, is accused of being involved in terror plots against US interests, the article concluded.
Snowden Document Reveals The Government Is Tracking Individuals' Online Activities for the Explicit Purpose of Embarrassing Them
Source: Patterico's Pontifications
The latest Edward Snowden document shows the government tracking online activities of people in order to discredit them with charges of hypocrisy for viewing porn and such. But it's OK, nothing to worry about . . . they're all Muslims:
The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as ''exemplars'' of how ''personal vulnerabilities'' can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target's credibility, reputation and authority.
The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger.''
It doesn't take a genius to see how a brass knuckles politician might drool over access to information that would embarrass and destroy their critics and political opponents. And it does not take a fanatical student of political smear jobs to imagine information like this being used in a political campaign. See if you buy this argument in response:
Stewart Baker, a one-time general counsel for the NSA and a top Homeland Security official in the Bush administration, said that the idea of using potentially embarrassing information to undermine targets is a sound one. ''If people are engaged in trying to recruit folks to kill Americans and we can discredit them, we ought to,'' said Baker. ''On the whole, it's fairer and maybe more humane'' than bombing a target, he said, describing the tactic as ''dropping the truth on them.''
Any system can be abused, Baker allowed, but he said fears of the policy drifting to domestic political opponents don't justify rejecting it. ''On that ground you could question almost any tactic we use in a war, and at some point you have to say we're counting on our officials to know the difference,'' he said.
Sorry, Stu: no sale. Everything about this story screams, in 20-foot red letters: ''POLITICIANS CAN AND WILL ABUSE INFORMATION LIKE THIS!!!!'' This is pretty much a vindication of everyone who trumpeted the importance of the information being released by Snowden. This document, in my view, reveals important information that shows a fundamental restructuring of the relationship between the government and an individual. It doesn't make Snowden a hero, necessarily . . . but I find this story eye-opening about the government's real purposes in tracking Internet activity. We increasingly live our entire lives online these days. Maybe you don't look at pornography at all, but don't worry. Once the government is able to track and store all your internet activity, it can find some other way to intimidate you.
The depressing part is, I doubt any level of outrage is going to change the fact that government will do this. If they can do it, they will.
What, you got a problem with that? OK, I'm happy to hear you out, sir. Before we discuss your concerns, though, could I just ask you a few quick little questions about your browsing history?
Yeah. That's what I thought. Have a nice day . . . sir.
Top-Secret Document Reveals NSA Spied On Porn Habits As Part Of Plan To Discredit 'Radicalizers'
WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as ''exemplars'' of how ''personal vulnerabilities'' can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target's credibility, reputation and authority.
The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger. ''A previous SIGINT" -- or signals intelligence, the interception of communications -- "assessment report on radicalization indicated that radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent,'' the document argues.
Among the vulnerabilities listed by the NSA that can be effectively exploited are ''viewing sexually explicit material online'' and ''using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.''
The Director of the National Security Agency -- described as "DIRNSA" -- is listed as the "originator" of the document. Beyond the NSA itself, the listed recipients include officials with the Departments of Justice and Commerce and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"Without discussing specific individuals, it should not be surprising that the US Government uses all of the lawful tools at our disposal to impede the efforts of valid terrorist targets who seek to harm the nation and radicalize others to violence," Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for National Intelligence, told The Huffington Post in an email Tuesday.
Yet Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said these revelations give rise to serious concerns about abuse. "It's important to remember that the NSA's surveillance activities are anything but narrowly focused -- the agency is collecting massive amounts of sensitive information about virtually everyone," he said.
"Wherever you are, the NSA's databases store information about your political views, your medical history, your intimate relationships and your activities online," he added. "The NSA says this personal information won't be abused, but these documents show that the NSA probably defines 'abuse' very narrowly."
None of the six individuals targeted by the NSA is accused in the document of being involved in terror plots. The agency believes they all currently reside outside the United States. It identifies one of them, however, as a "U.S. person," which means he is either a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident. A U.S. person is entitled to greater legal protections against NSA surveillance than foreigners are.
Stewart Baker, a one-time general counsel for the NSA and a top Homeland Security official in the Bush administration, said that the idea of using potentially embarrassing information to undermine targets is a sound one. "If people are engaged in trying to recruit folks to kill Americans and we can discredit them, we ought to," said Baker. "On the whole, it's fairer and maybe more humane" than bombing a target, he said, describing the tactic as "dropping the truth on them."
Any system can be abused, Baker allowed, but he said fears of the policy drifting to domestic political opponents don't justify rejecting it. "On that ground you could question almost any tactic we use in a war, and at some point you have to say we're counting on our officials to know the difference," he said.
In addition to analyzing the content of their internet activities, the NSA also examined the targets' contact lists. The NSA accuses two of the targets of promoting al Qaeda propaganda, but states that surveillance of the three English-speakers' communications revealed that they have "minimal terrorist contacts."
In particular, ''only seven (1 percent) of the contacts in the study of the three English-speaking radicalizers were characterized in SIGINT as affiliated with an extremist group or a Pakistani militant group. An earlier communications profile of [one of the targets] reveals that 3 of the 213 distinct individuals he was in contact with between 4 August and 2 November 2010 were known or suspected of being associated with terrorism," the document reads.
The document contends that the three Arabic-speaking targets have more contacts with affiliates of extremist groups, but does not suggest they themselves are involved in any terror plots.
Instead, the NSA believes the targeted individuals radicalize people through the expression of controversial ideas via YouTube, Facebook and other social media websites. Their audience, both English and Arabic speakers, "includes individuals who do not yet hold extremist views but who are susceptible to the extremist message,'' the document states. The NSA says the speeches and writings of the six individuals resonate most in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Kenya, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia.
The NSA possesses embarrassing sexually explicit information about at least two of the targets by virtue of electronic surveillance of their online activity. The report states that some of the data was gleaned through FBI surveillance programs carried out under the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act. The document adds, "Information herein is based largely on Sunni extremist communications." It further states that "the SIGINT information is from primary sources with direct access and is generally considered reliable."
According to the document, the NSA believes that exploiting electronic surveillance to publicly reveal online sexual activities can make it harder for these ''radicalizers'' to maintain their credibility. "Focusing on access reveals potential vulnerabilities that could be even more effectively exploited when used in combination with vulnerabilities of character or credibility, or both, of the message in order to shape the perception of the messenger as well as that of his followers," the document argues.
An attached appendix lists the "argument" each surveillance target has made that the NSA says constitutes radicalism, as well the personal "vulnerabilities" the agency believes would leave the targets "open to credibility challenges" if exposed.
One target's offending argument is that "Non-Muslims are a threat to Islam," and a vulnerability listed against him is "online promiscuity." Another target, a foreign citizen the NSA describes as a "respected academic," holds the offending view that "offensive jihad is justified," and his vulnerabilities are listed as "online promiscuity" and "publishes articles without checking facts." A third targeted radical is described as a "well-known media celebrity" based in the Middle East who argues that "the U.S perpetrated the 9/11 attack." Under vulnerabilities, he is said to lead "a glamorous lifestyle." A fourth target, who argues that "the U.S. brought the 9/11 attacks on itself" is said to be vulnerable to accusations of ''deceitful use of funds." The document expresses the hope that revealing damaging information about the individuals could undermine their perceived "devotion to the jihadist cause."
The Huffington Post is withholding the names and locations of the six targeted individuals; the allegations made by the NSA about their online activities in this document cannot be verified.
The document does not indicate whether the NSA carried out its plan to discredit these six individuals, either by communicating with them privately about the acquired information or leaking it publicly. There is also no discussion in the document of any legal or ethical constraints on exploiting electronic surveillance in this manner.
While Baker and others support using surveillance to tarnish the reputation of people the NSA considers "radicalizers," U.S. officials have in the past used similar tactics against civil rights leaders, labor movement activists and others.
Under J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI harassed activists and compiled secret files on political leaders, most notably Martin Luther King, Jr. The extent of the FBI's surveillance of political figures is still being revealed to this day, as the bureau releases the long dossiers it compiled on certain people in response to Freedom of Information Act requests following their deaths. The information collected by the FBI often centered on sex -- homosexuality was an ongoing obsession on Hoover's watch -- and information about extramarital affairs was reportedly used to blackmail politicians into fulfilling the bureau's needs.
Current FBI Director James Comey recently ordered new FBI agents to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington to understand "the dangers in becoming untethered to oversight and accountability."
James Bamford, a journalist who has been covering the NSA since the early 1980s, said the use of surveillance to exploit embarrassing private behavior is precisely what led to past U.S. surveillance scandals. "The NSA's operation is eerily similar to the FBI's operations under J. Edgar Hoover in the 1960s where the bureau used wiretapping to discover vulnerabilities, such as sexual activity, to 'neutralize' their targets," he said. "Back then, the idea was developed by the longest serving FBI chief in U.S. history, today it was suggested by the longest serving NSA chief in U.S. history."
That controversy, Bamford said, also involved the NSA. "And back then, the NSA was also used to do the eavesdropping on King and others through its Operation Minaret. A later review declared the NSA's program 'disreputable if not outright illegal,'" he said.
Baker said that until there is evidence the tactic is being abused, the NSA should be trusted to use its discretion. "The abuses that involved Martin Luther King occurred before Edward Snowden was born," he said. "I think we can describe them as historical rather than current scandals. Before I say, 'Yeah, we've gotta worry about that,' I'd like to see evidence of that happening, or is even contemplated today, and I don't see it."
Jaffer, however, warned that the lessons of history ought to compel serious concern that a "president will ask the NSA to use the fruits of surveillance to discredit a political opponent, journalist or human rights activist."
Adriana Usero and Ryan J. Reilly contributed reporting
Arguments for which radicalizers are being targeted:
Where the report was sent:
Intelligence gleaned from electronic surveillance:
Also on HuffPost:
Understanding the Enemy - Skating on Stilts
The latest Snowden leak story is in the Huffington Post. It says that NSA thought about exposing the hypocrisy of Islamic extremist recruiters by revealing their financial greed or predatory sexual habits. I'm quoted in support of considering such tactics, but the backstory of the interview may be more interesting.
When one of the authors, Ryan Grim, called me for comment, he said that while Glenn Greenwald was transitioning to his new Omidyar-funded venture he was temporarily publishing his Snowden leaks with HuffPo. So when he asked for my take on the NSA story, pretty much the first words out of my mouth were, "Why wouldn't we consider doing to Islamic extremists what Glenn Greenwald does routinely to Republicans?" The story quotes practically everything I said to Grim except that, although I returned to the point a couple of times and emphasized that it summed up my view.
I don't think HuffPo cut the quote because they ran out of electrons. The article itself is so tediously long that I defy anyone to read every word in a single go.
Nor because my remark was inaccurate. It turns out that Glenn Greenwald has written an entire book devoted to exposing the contradiction between Republicans' ideology and their private lives. In Greenwald's words, "While the right wing endlessly exploits claims of moral superiority ... virtually its entire top leadership have lives characterized by the most decadent, hedonistic, and morally unrestrained behavior imaginable ...[including] a string of shattered marriages, active out-of-wedlock sex lives, and highly 'untraditional' and 'un-Christian' personal lives [endless detail omitted]." His book certainly makes the NSA memo sound restrained and cautious, but both are motivated by the same idea.
Grim and Greenwald very likely cut the quote because it would have undermined the narrative of the piece, which combines solicitude for the poor Islamists whose sexual and financial hypocrisy might be exposed with outrage at the NSA for even considering such a tactic. The quote would have made them look like, well, hypocrites.
The incident makes me wonder what else Greenwald leaves out of his stories. And why we should continue to trust snippets of documents selected by someone who thinks that the difference between Islamist extremists and Republicans is that one is an enemy that deserves no quarter and the other is sort of like Martin Luther King, except for the part about trying to kill us.
Keeping Secrets: Pierre Omidyar, Glenn Greenwald and the privatization of Snowden's leaks | PandoDaily
By Mark AmesOn November 27, 2013
Who ''owns'' the NSA secrets leaked by Edward Snowden to reporters Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras?
Given that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar just invested a quarter of a billion dollars topersonally hire Greenwald and Poitras for his new for-profit media venture, it's a question worth asking.
It's especially worth asking since it became clear that Greenwald and Poitras are now the only two people with full access to the complete cache of NSA files, which are said to number anywhere from 50,000 to as many as 200,000 files. That's right: Snowden doesn't have the files any more, the Guardian doesn't have them, the Washington Post doesn't have them'... just Glenn and Laura at the for-profit journalism company created by the founder of eBay.
Edward Snowden has popularly been compared to major whistleblowers such as Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning and Jeffrey Wigand. However, there is an important difference in the Snowden files that has so far gone largely unnoticed. Whistleblowing has traditionally served the public interest. In this case, it is about to serve the interests of a billionaire starting a for-profit media business venture. This is truly unprecedented. Never before has such a vast trove of public secrets been sold wholesale to a single billionaire as the foundation of a for-profit company.
Think about other famous leakers: Daniel Ellsberg neither monetized nor monopolized the Pentagon Papers. Instead, he leaked them to well over a dozen different newspapers and media outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post, and to a handful of sitting senators '-- one of whom, Mike Gravel, read over 4,000 of the 7,000 pages into the Congressional record before collapsing from exhaustion. The Papers were published in book form by a small nonprofit run by the Unitarian Church, Beacon House Press.
Chelsea Manning, responsible for the largest mass leaks of government secrets ever, leaked everything to WikiLeaks, a nonprofit venture that has largely struggled to make ends meet in its seven years of existence. Julian Assange, for all of his flaws, cannot be accused of crudely enriching himself from his privileged access to Manning's leaks; instead, he shared his entire trove with a number of established media outlets including the Guardian, New York Times, Le Monde and El Pais. Today, Chelsea Manning is serving a 35-year sentence in a military prison, while the Private Manning Support Network constantly struggles to raise funds from donations; Assange has spent the last year and a half inside Ecuador's embassy in London, also struggling to raise funds to run the WikiLeaks operation.
A similar story emerges in the biggest private sector analogy '-- the tobacco industry leaks by whistleblowers Merrell Williams and Jeffrey Wigand. After suffering lawsuits, harassment and attempts to destroy their livelihoods, both eventually won awards as part of the massive multibillion dollar settlements '-- but the millions of confidential tobacco documents now belong to the public, maintained by a nonprofit, the American Legacy Project, whose purpose is to help scholars and reporters and scientists fight tobacco propaganda and power. Every year, over 400,000 Americans die from tobacco-related illnesses.
The point is this: In the most successful whistleblower cases, the public has sided with the selfless whistleblower against the power- or profit-driven entity whose secrets were leaked. The Snowden case represents a new twist to the heroic whistleblower story arc: After successfully convincing a large part of the public and the American Establishment that Snowden's leaks serve a higher public interest, Greenwald promptly sold those secrets to a billionaire.
He justified this purely on grounds of self-interest, calling Omidyar's offer ''a once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity.'' Speaking to the Washington Post, Greenwald used crude careerist terminology to justify his decision to privatize the Snowden secrets:
''It would be impossible for any journalist, let alone me, to decline this opportunity.''
Let alone me.
News about Greenwald-Poitras' decision to privatize the NSA cache came just days after the New York Times reported on Greenwald's negotiations with major movie studios to sell a Snowden film. This past summer, Greenwald sold a book to Metropolitan Books for a reportedly hefty sum, promising that some of the most sensational revelations from Snowden's leaks would be saved for the book.
Indeed what makes the NSA secrets so valuable to Greenwald and Poitras is that the two of them have exclusive access to the entire cache. Essentially they have a monopoly over secrets that belong to the public. For a time, it was assumed that Snowden had kept copies of the leaked documents, possibly on a number of laptops he was carting around the world. Greenwald and Poitras were simply conduits between Snowden's cache and the public. In late August, Greenwald disclosed for the first time in a statement to BuzzFeed:
''Only Laura and I have access to the full set of documents which Snowden provided to journalists.''
Later, from his hideout in Russia, Snowden released a statement claiming he had left all the NSA files behind in Hong Kong for Greenwald and Poitras to take. A third Guardian journalist in Hong Kong at the time, Ewen MacAskill, confirmed to me on Twitter that only Greenwald and Poitras took with them the full cache. Even the Guardian was not allowed access to the motherlode.
Clearly, in a story as sensational and global and alluring as Snowden's Secrets', exclusive access equals value. And for the first time in whistleblower history, that value has been extracted in full through privatization.
It is one thing for Greenwald to maintain that exclusivity '-- or monopoly '-- while working with the Guardian, a nonprofit with institutional experience in investigative journalism. It is quite another for him to sell them to a guy with a history of putting profits before public interest. As Yasha Levine and I wrote at NSFWCORP, Omidyar invested in a third-world micro-loans company whose savage bullying of debtors resulted in mass suicides. Rather than acknowledge this tragedy, Omidyar Network simply deleted reference to the company from his website when the shit hit the fan.
This '-- this? '-- is the guy we're supposed to trust with the as-yet unpublished NSA files? He's the one we're relying on to reveal any dark secrets about the tech industry's collusion with the NSA? Let's hope there's nothing in there about eBay. Whoops! Deleted!
Since we first raised our concerns, Yasha and I have been swamped with responses from Greenwald's followers. The weird thing is, not all of those responses have been negative: even Wikileaks '-- Wikileaks! '-- responded that, ''We have not [fallen out with Greenwald] but @Pierre is seriously compromised by Paypal's attacks on our organisation and supporters.''
Greenwald's leftist and anarchist fans have always had an almost cult-like faith in his judgment, seeing him as little less than a digital-age Noam Chomsky. But now they're reeling from cognitive dissonance, trying to understand why their hero would privatize the most important secrets of our generation to a billionaire free-marketeer like Omidyar, whose millions have, in some cases, brought market-based misery into some of the poorest and most desperate corners of the planet.
A Greenwald-Omidyar partnership is as hard to swallow as if Chomsky proudly announced a new major venture with Sheldon Adelson, on grounds that it's a ''once-in-a-career dream academic opportunity.''
WikiLeaks' concern about Omidyar can be traced back to PayPal's decision in December 2010 to blockade users from sending money to WikiLeaks. PayPal (founded by Pando investor, Peter Thiel '-- more on that below) is owned by eBay, where Omidyar has served as the chairman of the board since 2002. Before the blockade, PayPal was the principal medium for WikiLeaks donations, according to the Washington Post.
As the single investor, founder and CEO of ''NewCo'', Omidyar's self-professed helplessness at eBay doesn't extend to his new journalistic venture.
More troubling for fans is that Greenwald has repeatedly provided cover for Omidyar, claiming that he ''had nothing to do with [the blockade]'' despite his board status. Whether or not eBay's chairman really was ignorant of his company's most controversial decision in years, there's no denying that Omidyar is also eBay's largest shareholder. At nearly 10%, his stake is worth billions and is more than twice as large as that of the next largest shareholder.
By Greenwald's reasoning, even though Omidyar is the founder, largest shareholder, and chairman of the body responsible for eBay/PayPal management oversight, he had ''nothing to do with'' its policy towards Wikileaks. Zero. None. He was as helpless as you, me, Batkid, or Grumpy Cat.
Fortunately, as the single investor, founder and CEO of ''NewCo'', Omidyar's self-professed helplessness at eBay doesn't extend to his new journalistic venture. With that level of autonomy, no one '-- not even Glenn Greenwald, who has admitted that Omidyar's money is irresistibly persuasive '-- can tell him which secrets to publish on his new site, and which should remain hidden forever.
We can all rest easy in our beds, then, knowing that Omidyar is in charge of our secrets. Information of national importance, such as which major tech companies colluded with the US government to spy on private citizens, will be published at the discretion of the founder and largest shareholder of one of those companies.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul (and Mark). An important footnote about Peter Thiel and Pando, by Paul Carr
When NSFWCORP's acquisition by Pando was announced, Greenwald raced to Twitter to accuse us of hypocrisy because Peter Thiel (another billionaire whose previous business dealings could fill a book, and who sold PayPal to eBay in the first place) once invested $200,000 in PandoDaily, through his Founders Fund.
That's absolutely true. Founders Fund's investment is disclosed here on Pando's main about page, along with the names of the other investors who collectively invested the remaining $2.8m raised by Pando.
The difference between us selling our company to a media outlet that once received a minority investment from Founders Fund and Greenwald being personally hired by Omidyar should be obvious to anyone with a brain. But at the risk that category excludes Glenn's most ardent supporters, we're happy to spell out the difference (apart from the monetary difference of $249,800,000 between Thiel's $200k and Omidyar's $250 million, of course):
Peter Thiel has no involvement with the running of Pando. Zero. He doesn't make hiring or firing or any other kind of decisions (nor do any other investors), Founders Fund isn't Pando's only (or even closest largest) investor and no one from Founders Fund has a board seat, voting rights or any other input in business or editorial policy. In other words, Thiel has less ability to dictate editorial policy here, in fact, than the guy who cleans the coffee cups (at least that guy has a key to the office).
Pierre Omidyar is personally hiring the journalists for his new project, starting with Greenwald himself. He is the venture's sole backer. But, you know what? All of that would still be OK if Greenwald would make a simple, unequivocal, public pledge: to cover any bad behavior by Pierre Omidyar in the same way that he would cover someone who wasn't backing him with millions of dollars.
Should be a simple thing to promise, right?
Here's our absolute, unequivocal pledge: we will cover Peter Thiel and Pando's other investors just as fiercely as we cover Pierre Omidyar or anyone else. In fact, it's likely due to proximity that we will cover Pando's investors even more fiercely. That's how we always worked at NSFWCORP '-- and it's how we'll work here. Our past coverage of Thiel can be found all over the web, including here, here and even right here on Pando. Or see how we've covered NSFWCORP/Pando investors CrunchFund and Vegas Tech Fund.
When we asked Glenn to make that same pledge about his single investor, in light of our coverage of Omidyar, he responded simply: ''I can't speak for Omidyar Network,'' adding he had ''no idea'' about Omidyar's involvement in micro loans.
We contacted Omidyar Network for comment on this story but neither had responded at press time. We'll update here if they do.
Illustration by Brad Jonas.
Leakers, privacy activists find new home in Berlin - The Washington Post
A rare privacy haven
For many of the privacy advocate expatriates, Britain and the United States don't feel very comfortable anymore. Former Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, who has asked to be known as Chelsea, was sentenced to 35 years in prison this year after releasing a trove of State Department cables to WikiLeaks in 2010. Snowden is under indictment in the United States on charges of espionage. David Miranda, the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has reported on many of the Snowden leaks in the Guardian newspaper, was detained at London's Heathrow Airport in August under terrorism-related statutes. And New York Times journalist James Risen is risking jail by refusing to testify in the trial of a former CIA official who is accused of leaking information.
The uproar within Germany about the U.S. surveillance allegations has been the strongest of any American ally. Top German officials have flown to Washington to push for new restrictions on U.S. spy activity in their country. Major German telecommunications companies have announced efforts to build a new Internet infrastructure that would keep domestic Internet traffic firmly within national borders, thus ensuring, they say, that German national privacy law would be respected.
And the leakers themselves have been hailed as heroes and offered at least some officialprotection. Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said in an interview last month that U.S. authorities had asked her to sign an agreement to extradite Snowden to the United States should he step foot on German soil. She refused, she said.
''Germany has a history with these types of issues that is not forgotten, but it is in fact carried forth and remembered today,'' Appelbaum said in August during a ceremony in Berlin at which Snowden was awarded a whistleblower prize.
Historical consciousness
Privacy advocates say Germany is particularly sensitive to privacy concerns because of its 20th-century history of being watched over '-- first by the Nazis, then in Communist East Germany by the secret police known as the Stasi. Some Stasi victims say that explanation is a bit too glib, because the United States and modern-day Germany are democracies and East Germany was not.
Among hackers, the city is world-renowned. Groups here such as the Chaos Computer Club provide homes to technology geeks who like to do everything from crack the new iPhone's fingerprint sensor to design ways to stay hidden on the Internet.
Businesses have started to take note, which means that the new transplants might find plenty of opportunities to earn paychecks. GSMK, a secure-cellphone company, is headquartered in Berlin and says that it is receiving more than five times the usual amount of inquiries about its products.
''It's of utmost importance that our customers can trust that the parts that we build are actually trustworthy, and Germany is a good place to do so,'' GSMK chief executive Bjoern Rupp said. ''German law really makes sure that you can build strong crypto products.'' He wouldn't locate his company any other place, he said.
In 1990, ''after reunification, the city had to reinvent itself. It was a question of survival,'' he said. ''And ever since then, it has been characterized by dynamism that I don't think you'd find in any other European capital.''
Police: Officer's wife grabbed, fired his gun - WFSB 3 Connecticut
LAKEVILLE, CT (AP) -Connecticut State Police say they've ended their investigation into charges that the wife of a Newtown police officer grabbed his gun and fired it in the wall of a Salisbury hotel at a police gathering.
The Register-Citizen reports that State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance said Monday that police have concluded the probe into the alleged Nov. 16 incident involving Police Sgt. John Cole and his wife, Ellen.
The 53-year-old Ellen Cole has been arraigned on misdemeanor charges of illegal discharge of a firearm, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief. It's not known if she's represented by a lawyer.
Kevin Bousquet, manager of the Interlaken Inn, says the incident took place at about 10:30 p.m. as a dozen Newtown police officers and their spouses were attending a first responders event.
Massachusetts Votes To Delay Implementation Of Common Core
Source: Weasel Zippers
Via Heritage:
This week, the Massachusetts Board of Education voted to slow the transition to Common Core.
The board decided to delay implementation for two years while it compares the Common Core aligned Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests to their existing'--and widely praised'--Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam.
Commissioner Mitchell Chester, who also chairs the governing board for the PARCC consortium, says that adopting the Common Core by the 2014''2015 deadline would cause Massachusetts ''too precipitous a transition.''
Keep reading'...
N.Y. school principals write letter of concern about Common Core tests
Here's what we know:1) NYS Testing Has Increased Dramatically: We know that our students are spending more time taking State tests than ever before. Since 2010, the amount of time spent on average taking the 3-8 ELA and Math tests has increased by a whopping 128%! The increase has been particularly hard on our younger students, with third graders seeing an increase of 163%!2) The Tests were Too Long: We know that many students were unable to complete the tests in the allotted time. Not only were the tests lengthy and challenging, but embedded field test questions extended the length of the tests and caused mental exhaustion, often before students reached the questions that counted toward their scores. For our Special Education students who receive additional time, these tests have become more a measure of endurance than anything else.
3) Ambiguous Questions Appeared throughout the Exams: We know that many teachers and principals could not agree on the correct answers to ambiguous questions in both ELA and Math. In some schools, identical passages and questions appeared on more than one test and at more than one grade level. One school reported that on one day of the ELA Assessment, the same passage with identical questions was included in the third, fourth AND fifth grade ELA Assessments.
4) Children Have Reacted Viscerally to the Tests: We know that many children cried during or after testing, and others vomited or lost control of their bowels or bladders. Others simply gave up. One teacher reported that a student kept banging his head on the desk, and wrote, ''This is too hard,'' and ''I can't do this,'' throughout his test booklet.
5) The Low Passing Rate was Predicted: We know that in his ''Implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards'' memo of March 2013, Deputy Commissioner Slentz stated that proficiency scores (i.e., passing rate) on the new assessments would range between 30%-37% statewide. When scores were released in August 2013, the statewide proficiency rate was announced as 31%.
6) The College Readiness Benchmark is Irresponsibly Inflated: We know that the New York State Education Department used SAT scores of 560 in Reading, 540 in Writing and 530 in mathematics, as the college readiness benchmarks to help set the ''passing'' cut scores on the 3-8 New York State exams. These NYSED scores, totaling 1630, are far higher than the College Board's own college readiness benchmark score of 1550. By doing this, NYSED has carelessly inflated the ''college readiness'' proficiency cut scores for students as young as nine years of age.
7) State Measures are Contradictory: We know that many children are receiving scores that are not commensurate with the abilities they demonstrate on other measures, particularly the New York State Integrated Algebra Regents examination. Across New York, many accelerated eighth-graders scored below proficiency on the eighth grade test only to go on and excel on the Regents examination one month later. One district reports that 58% of the students who scored below proficiency on the NYS Math 8 examination earned a mastery score on the Integrated Algebra Regents.
8) Students Labeled as Failures are Forced Out of Classes: We know that many students who never needed Academic Intervention Services (AIS) in the past, are now receiving mandated AIS as a result of the failing scores. As a result, these students are forced to forgo enrichment classes. For example, in one district, some middle school students had to give up instrumental music, computer or other special classes in order to fit AIS into their schedules.
9) The Achievement Gap is Widening: We know that the tests have caused the achievement gap to widen as the scores of economically disadvantaged students plummeted, and that parents are reporting that low-scoring children feel like failures.
10) The Tests are Putting Financial Strains on Schools: We know that many schools are spending precious dollars on test prep materials, and that instructional time formerly dedicated to field trips, special projects, the arts and enrichment, has been reallocated to test prep, testing, and AIS services.
11) The Tests are Threatening Other State Initiatives: Without a doubt, the emphasis on testing is threatening other important State initiatives, most notably the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Parents who see the impact of the testing on their children are blaming the CCSS, rather than the unwise decision to implement high stakes testing before proper capacity had been developed. As long as these tests remain, it will be nearly impossible to have honest conversations about the impact of the CCSS on our schools.
Here's what we do not know:
1) How these Tests will Help our Students: With the exception of select questions released by the state, we do not have access to the test questions. Without access to the questions, it is nearly impossible to use the tests to help improve student learning.
2) How to Use these Tests to Improve Student Skills or Understanding: Tests should serve as a tool for assessing student skills and understanding. Since we are not informed of the make-up of the tests, we do not know, with any level of specificity, the content or skills for which children require additional support. We do not even know how many points were allotted for each question.
3) The Underlying Cause of Low Test Scores: We do not know if children's low test scores are actually due to lack of skills in that area or simply a case of not finishing the test '-- a problem that plagued many students.
4) What to Expect Next Year: We do not know what to expect for next year. Our students are overwhelmed by rapidly changing standards, curriculum and assessments. It is nearly impossible to serve and protect the students in our care when expectations are in constant flux and put in place rapidly in a manner that is not reflective of sound educational practice.
5) How Much this is Costing Already-Strained Taxpayers: We don't know how much public money is being paid to vendors and corporations that the NYSED contracts to design assessments, nor do we know if the actual designers are educationally qualified.
Please know that we, your school principals, care about your children and will continue to do everything in our power to fill their school days with learning that is creative, engaging, challenging, rewarding and joyous. We encourage you to dialogue with your child's teachers so that you have real knowledge of his skills and abilities across all areas. If your child scored poorly on the test, please make sure that he does not internalize feelings of failure. We believe that the failure was not on the part of our children, but rather with the officials of the New York State Education Department. These are the individuals who chose to recklessly implement numerous major initiatives without proper dialogue, public engagement or capacity building. They are the individuals who have failed.
As principals of New York schools, it is always our goal to move forward in a constant state of improvement. Under current conditions, we fear that the hasty implementation of unpiloted assessments will continue to cause more harm than good. Please work with us to preserve a healthy learning environment for our children and to protect all of the unique varieties of intelligence that are not reducible to scores on standardized tests. Your child is so much more than a test score, and we know it.
Sharon FougnerPrincipal, E.M. Baker ElementaryCarol Burris, Ed.D.Principal, South Side High SchoolPeter DeWitt, Ed.D.Principal, Poestenkill ElementaryTim FarleyPrincipal, Ichabod Crane Middle SchoolSean C. Feeney, Ph.D.Principal, The Wheatley SchoolAndrew GreenePrincipal, Candlewood Middle SchoolElizabeth PhillipsPrincipal, P.S. 321Katie Zahedi, Ph.D.Principal, Linden Avenue Middle School
Zuckerberg Wants Your Kid's Student Data
Source: Valleywag
Code.org'--a tech non-profit backed by Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and other top brass'--wants to improve computer science education for young women and minorities. And hey, that's great. But it wouldn't be a Zuck joint without something insidious: the group will hold private data about kids for years.The initiative is trying to sign up entire school districts to test the curriculum: Code.org will provide schools with course materials, teacher stipends, and general support. What a deal!
But as Slashdot just pointed out, there's some iffy fine print in the sample contract (read it in full at the bottom):[It] not only calls for collecting children's data for Code.org ("Code.org's ongoing studies review longitudinal student achievement data for the current year, the preceding four (4) to six (6) academic years, until the end of the student's academic history in the district"), but also locks teachers into a 2+ year commitment on behalf of Code.org ("Each teacher selected to participate in the Code.org Program shall commit to teaching in the Code.org Program for a minimum of two school years through a letter of intent administered by the district"). Among other requirements, the contract calls for "an Entity participating in the Code.org Program" to "offer courses, select teachers to receive professional development, and to
market these courses to students and parents."The relevant bit about student data is here:
Code.org promises it complies with all pertinent privacy laws and will do its darndest to keep it all locked up. But beyond performance reviews, it's unclear what will be done with the test scores of children, and to what end. Code.org reserves the right to figure that out as it goes along:
Use or access to any protected data obtained as a result of these studies will be limited to representatives with a legitimate interest in accessing this data, which will include the Entity Coordinator, school administrators, and other persons who are specifically authorized by the Entity as having a legitimate interest in receiving the data.
You should probably just trust them.
Hollywood Whackers
Hollywood film producer confirms he was Israeli spy - Telegraph
According to an unauthorised biography published two years ago, Mr Milchan worked for Israel's now-defunct Bureau of Scientific Relations, known as Lekem, which worked to obtain information for secret defense programs. The bureau was disbanded in 1987 after it was implicated in the spying affair for which Jonathan Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy, was sentenced to life in prison.
Mr Milchan also says other big Hollywood names were connected to his covert affairs.
"When I came to Hollywood I detached myself completely from my physical activities to dedicate myself to what I really wanted - filmmaking," he said. "(But) sometimes it gets mixed up."
The 68-year-old founded the New Regency film company and has produced more than 120 movies since the 1970s, working closely with directors such as Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, Sergio Leone and Oliver Stone. He forged an especially close relationship with Robert De Niro, who along with actors Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, is featured in Uvda's broadcast.
"I had heard but I wasn't sure," De Niro said, of Mr Milchan's activities. "I did ask him once and he told me that he was an Israeli and of course he would do these things for his country."
Edited by Bonnie Malkin
The last Tycoon - article on Zionist Jew Arnon Milchan from Los Angeles Magazine - Radio Islam
Author: Ann Louise Bardach
Issue: April, 2000
Like a figure out of fiction, Arnon Milchan is the kind of mysterious character Hollywood loves to invent. He has produced nearly 50 films, including L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and PRETTY WOMAN now he's in business Rupert Murdoch. Yet he remains the town's most secretive mogul. Could it be the Israeli arms deals?
ARNON. MMM," MURMURS A VETERAN MOVIE PRODUCER. "You know how he made his fortune, don't you?" It is the invariable, hushed preamble to the subject of Arnon Milchan. Confidential stories quickly follow--sketching a man of irascible charm and a shrouded, mysterious past, bearing more in common with Jay Gatsby or even James Bond than, say, Jack Warner or Mike Ovitz.
Twenty years ago, Milchan, an unknown Israeli tycoon, pitched his hat into the Hollywood ring. Today he runs his own mini studio within a studio on Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox lot. It is the reward for being one of the town's most prolific producers of successful quality movies, more than 60 in all, including Fight Club, L.A. Confidential, Entrapment, Pretty Woman, JFK, The King of Comedy, Brazil, Natural Born Killers, Heat, The Mambo Kings and The War of the Roses. Now, having conquered movies, Milchan has set his sights on the even more lucrative small screen. His first sitcom, Malcolm in the Middle, became an almost instant hit and the phenomenon of the TV season. Premiering in January to some of the best ratings and reviews in Fox's 13-year history, the show was the most watched comedy in the country in only its second week on the air. Milchan is currently plotting a TV pilot of L.A. Confidential and a program by the creators of The Blair Witch Project and, of course, more movies.
Although kingpins like Warner Bros.' Gerald Levin and Disney's Michael Eisner are quick to return his calls, and celebrities like Tom Cruise, Barbra Streisand, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino count him as a friend, Milchan rarely turns up in print, and not by accident. He is an authentic Hollywood anomaly. "My idea of a good profile is no profile," he tells me over the telephone. In a town where disclosure and revelation are as banal as cereal, Arnon Milchan has kept his secrets to himself.
In 1996, Milchan briefly popped onto the media radar screen when he nearly seized control of MGM with his partner, Australian media baron Kerry Packer. But only Kirk Kerkorian was willing to pay $1.3 billion for the studio that he had already bought and gutted twice before. "Sometimes losing is winning," Milchan told me smoothly at the time.
Determined to build his own media giant, Milchan promptly moved on to other ventures and bought a 32 percent stake in the German sneaker giant Puma for $150 million ("We have total control over the company," boasts Milchan). He also gobbled up Restless Records to produce film scores and carved a distribution deal with BMG music. Then in 1997, ending a six-year relationship with Warner Bros., he embarked on perhaps his boldest move yet, a partnership with Murdoch, selling him 20 percent of his film company, New Regency Productions, for $200 million. Murdoch also invested another $30 million in Regency Television. Milchan's tony offices occupy most of Building 12, right next door to the Executive Building on the Fox lot. And it is from this seat of power that Milchan is building an entertainment empire that could one day rival Murdoch's.
FOLLOWING WEEKS OF A TRANSCONTINENTAL PHONE CHASE, MILCHAN RELUCTANTLY AGREES TO MEET WITH ME ONLY TO "CONSIDER" THE POSSIBILITY OF AN INTERVIEW. A young-looking, exceedingly fit 55-year-old man, Milchan appears at the bar of the Hotel Bel-Air wearing khakis, a T-shirt and an elegant, single-breasted blue blazer. Notwithstanding encroaching baldness and rimless eyeglasses, Milchan has the boyish jaunt and ease of a tennis player. In fact, he is a formidable tennis player, hitting, the courts for at least three, sometimes six hours a day.
Milchan is quick to make clear his reservations about doing an interview. "I know how you reporters work," he says, his voice tinged with the distinctive guttural tones of an Israeli. "You sit down at your computer and you hit NEXIS and then," a flourish of his hand and some eye-rolling, "it's the same old stuff all over again." His eyes meet mine, his meaning clear. "You mean, the arms dealing?" I venture cautiously. But before I finish, Milchan is waving his hands dismissively. "See what I mean?" he says plaintively. I fear that this may be the end of our brief meeting. After a weighty silence, I tell him that I assume he sees himself as a "patriot." He brightens considerably. "Absolutely. Of course I am," he says, leaning across the table. "But all that is old business---something I did a long time ago." Well, not exactly, but a topic to pursue later.
It is agreed we will talk in Montfort l'Amaury, a bucolic region about an hour outside of Paris, where Milchan owns a restored 18th-century home, formerly a hunting lodge, on a 50-acre farm. It is replete with pond, chickens, ducks, three horses, five ponies and two donkeys. The estate, which Milchan bought 18 years ago, sprawls onto the Bois de Rambouillet, a lush forest preserved by the French government next to the country home (and far less grand property) of French president Jacques Chirac. Milchan has kept the residence simple, preferring traditional furnishings and representational paintings. The grounds include a clay tennis court, enclosed pool, spa, gym and guest house, where photos of him with his celebrity friends adorn the walls. For his L.A. spread, Milchan has recently purchased and is renovating a home in Malibu in an area that could be called Mogul Beach, with neighbors like David Geffen, Terry Semel and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Then there are houses in Tel Aviv and Monaco--where Milchan enjoys tax-free citizenship.
But we first meet at the Hotel Trianon in Versailles, halfway between Paris and Montfort l'Amaury. Milchan announces that he has a precondition for the interview. I'm fairly sure it's going to center on arms dealing, but to my surprise and relief, Milchan has an even more sensitive subject. Before I go to his home, I have to agree not to write about whom he lives with and where. Milchan explains with discomforting sincerity that he doesn't want "to hurt anyone's feelings," though it is transparently dear that self-interest is, at least, equally important. Director Terry Gilliam, who made Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen with him, says he's got "a tall Scandinavian blonde in every port." When I mention Gilliam's quip, Milchan laughs. "Okay, you can say that," he hedges. "Just nothing specific." Steve Reuther, Milchan's former business partner, offers his own assessment of Milchan's lifestyle. "I've seen better," he says, his voice tinged with the jaundice of show business, "and I've seen worse."
Born in Tel Aviv, Milchan describes himself as a "10th-generation Palestinian." Indeed, he was born into Israeli aristocracy. "My family's been there for 500 years. My grandfather was a very close friend of President Weizman." Milchan's father was an enviable success story himself, having laid the sprinklers that irrigated Israel. Later, he would handle some of Israel's lucrative military contracts, according to his son. However, it was young Milchan who put the company on the map internationally, after his father's sudden death. Following a spot of schooling in London and Geneva, where he excelled in soccer and tennis, Milchan dropped out and returned to Israel. Soon, he struck gold. By marketing a newly discovered nutrient that quadrupled citrus production, he brought his company stratospheric sales throughout the world. "This is a man who made his fortune by screwing with nature," says screenwriter Shawn Slovo, who began her career as Milchan's secretary in 1977. "He's the Israeli who made the desert bloom. Amazing when you think about it. He could have retired at the age of 22."
Instead, like a kid racing around the Monopoly board, Milchan gobbled up another half dozen businesses--including electronics, chemicals, aerospace and plastics. Still in his early twenties, he met the Shah of Iran and reportedly talked the wily Persian into dozens of contracts, one to build much of Tehran's airport. By then, he had met a sultry French model named Brigitte Genmaire in the lobby of a Tel Aviv hotel. "She converted to Judaism when she was nine months' pregnant," says Milchan. "It was funny, because part of her vows was declaring to the rabbi that she was a virgin." Milchan says his young wife had no problem moving to Israel and raising three children there. "The problems began when she learned Hebrew and I really learned French," he says with his well-practiced impish grin. "When we could finally communicate with each other, then there were problems." The marriage ended in divorce.
Milchan says that 30 years ago he frequented a Tel Aviv restaurant where the best and brightest Israelis hung out. "There was this brilliant guy who wanted to start a new political party," he recalls. The young man's name was Shimon Peres, and he eventually did launch his own party, along with a handsome Israeli war hero named Moshe Dayan, a young Teddy Kolleck, Chaim Herzog and Milchan himself. Milchan's partners nominated him to be finance minister, and he briefly flirted with a political career before deciding against a life in the public eye. Nevertheless, Milchan's political connections would prove to be the foundation of his future empire. In addition to agriculture, there would be biotechnology, advertising, aerospace and the biggest jackpot of them all--arms.
MMM. YOU KNOW HE'S AN ARMS DEALER, DON'T YOU?" THE PRODUCER CONTINUES. Details are not provided, only a whispered confidence charged with admonition and awe. And notwithstanding Milchan's denials, dismissals and wafflings, arms dealing has surely contributed to his fortune. (He claims that his parent company, Regency Enterprises, is valued at more than $1 billion.) As the Los Angeles Times coyly put it, "Milchan has also worked in arms consulting." Throughout the 1970s, '80s and even up until the Gulf War in 1991, Milchan was Israel's foremost weapons procurer, brokering deals for such prized superweapons as the Hawk missile and the famous Scud-foil of the Gulf War, the Patriot--"everything from nuclear triggers to rocket fuel to guidance systems," according to NBC News. At different times in his career, his Israeli company, Milchan Brothers, has represented arms manufacturers such as Raytheon, North American Rockwell, Beechcraft, Bell Helicopter and Magnavox. Or, as Milchan downplays it, "there were a bunch of them." Nevertheless, he bristles at being called an arms dealer. "I'm their rep in Israel," he says emphatically. "I get a fee, a commission. I'm not even the buyer. I'm an agent. Never, ever, ever," he says, growing visibly irritated, did he sell to countries other than Israel. "I want to make that point, because I know some people would label me an arms dealer.
"What we do is send my people to the United States," Milchan explains, curiously in the present tense, "so we know what these guys are talking about, and you go back and say to the buyer, `I think this guy has some interesting stuff. Would you meet with him?' And then you arrange a meeting with the head of the [Israeli] air force and the head of this and the head of that." Representing Israel, a country that practices war games during the lulls when it is not waging war, is about as plum as it gets in the arms bazaar. "Israel was the only place where America could use their systems in battle without having to send soldiers," he explains. "That's why Israel is so strategically important for the aerospace industry."
Gilliam says he'll never forget a visit to the Paris Air Show with Milchan during the filming of Baron Munchausen. "It was wonderful to see how the whole arms business worked," says Gilliam. "Amon was very psyched about the video games. He brought his son with him, who was then a teenager, to play the games, which can replicate the destruction of the planet. He took me to the Raytheon booth, and it was all showmanship. He was obviously a big star to Raytheon."
Milchan's relationship with Raytheon has been a long and, at times, bumpy one. His first flap with controversy came in 1975, over an "improper $300,000 commission paid to his company by a Raytheon subsidiary for the sale of Hawk missiles," according to Robert Windrem, coauthor of Critical Mass: The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting World. The case made headlines, but Milchan was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing. Considerably more trouble and bad press resulted from one of Milchan's ventures in South Africa in the mid-'70s, erupting in a national scandal dubbed Muldergate.
With both Israel and South Africa increasingly isolated at the time, the two countries had embarked on a series of joint ventures running the gamut from public relations to the acquirement of nuclear technology. "Yes, there was a coordinated effort to explain apartheid in a way that it was not such a bad thing," says Milchan, who claims he was innocently and naively brought into a project whose goal was to buy media sources around the world in order to promote a better image of South Africa. According to Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, authors of Dangerous Liaison, "the Rabin government recruited ... Milchan to launder cash ... to purchase influential publications." Milchan puts it another way, saying he was asked by prominent Israelis if "we can use your companies to make deals to buy newspapers. I said, `Sure. It sounds like fun.' Basically, I was used as a middleman." Later, Milchan says, when he realized the true nature of apartheid, he pulled the plug on the deal.
Milchan's closest call with catastrophe came in 1985, when a business associate, Richard Kelly Smyth, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on charges of smuggling 810 krytons (electronic timing devices that can be used to trigger nuclear explosions) to Israel. Smyth first met him in the early 1970s when he was working for Rockwell. In 1973, Smyth started his own company called Milco, financed, according to the Washington Post, by Milchan, hence its name. Up to 80 percent of Milco's business was reportedly with Milchan and Israel. Milchan claims he has never had any financial interest in Milco. Although selling arms to Israel is legal, any weapon or resource with a nuclear capability requires either a munitions license or an end-user certificate, both of which would be denied by the State Department because Israel has refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. However, in 1980, the federal indictment asserted, Smyth and Milco sent 610 krytons to Israel without the necessary licenses, plus another 200 in 1982.
In August 1985, U.S. Customs subpoenaed the financial records linking Smyth and Milchan. The records were neither turned over nor found. Smyth and his wife disappeared just days before his scheduled trial, which almost certainly would have involved Milchan. "I don't know what the hell they were talking about," he told Windrem about the Smyth case. Milchan's lawyer also claimed he had proof that his client's company had instructed Smyth to apply for the proper licenses. Milchan refuses to divulge details but offers a cryptic aside. "Let's assume that there's nothing that Israel and the United States do separately," he says with a trace of amusement. Smyth, a U.S. fugitive for more than a decade, was last seen in Herzliya Pituach, an affluent suburb of Tel Aviv, where Milchan owns a home.
Milchan says he dropped out of weapons sales, which he calls "aerospace," in 1991, post-Gulf War, after "selling the Patriot missiles to Israel to defend against the Scuds." He he quit for various reasons, not the least being that he was tired of being stigmatized by what he calls "cheap shots." Some question whether he is really out of the business. Even Milchan is somewhat ambiguous: "I'll say it in my own words. I love Israel, and any way I can help Israel, I will. I'll do it again and again. If you say I'm an arms dealer, that's your problem. In Israel, there is practically no business that does not have something to do with defense."
PEOPLE COME TO HOLLYWOOD to be born again. The promised land of indulgence and amnesia, Hollywood cares little about people's pasts. Indeed, Milchan's weapons dealing has, if anything, augmented the aura and mystique of his outsider, bad-boy profile. Moreover, anything done for the benefit of Israel is given a wide berth. "I remember a front-page story in London about Amon and nuclear triggers," recalls one of Hollywood's most prominent producers. "Hollywood doesn't give a shit about it. They think it's glamorous. It's like Begelman. Anything goes, as long as your pictures make money."
But given his combative nature, Milchan has had his share of skirmishes. "Arnon was a pirate, a buccaneer in Hollywood," says Gilliam. "He ran into Hollywood's anti-Semitism. They don't like real Jews. They don't like Israelis. Arnon has a Levantine soul. Everything is horse trading and carpet dealing." A top Hollywood executive once warned Oliver Stone to stay clear of Milchan. "He told me that Arnon was a Middle Eastern rug dealer. Beware," recalls Stone, embittered from business dealings gone sour. "I should have listened to him. He was right."
In one bruising battle during the making of Brazil, then-MCA president Sidney Sheinberg shot off a memo to Milchan: "In Texas, we have a saying, `Put your money where your mouth is.' I'm sure there's a Hebrew equivalent." Milchan, who later battled Sheinberg over the release of the film, was unamused and dismissed the executive as "an assimilated Beverly Hills Jew."
Ultimately, it is Israel and its sense of persecution that colors Milchan's personal and professional life. Former Fox president and now independent producer Larry Gordon remembers getting a call a few years ago from Milchan, who was on his first trip to Tokyo. "At the time, I was partnered with the Japanese, and Arnon called and said, `Larry, I feel really weird here. It's very strange the way they treat me.' I said, `Arnon, you gotta understand, these people don't like Americans, they don't like Jews, and they especially don't like Israelis. That's just the way it is.' There was a long pause, and then Arnon says, `You mean, like Baghdad?'"
Milchan first started producing films in Israel with a movie called Black Joy in the mid-'70s, then forayed into Hollywood by covering the completion bond for the television miniseries Masada in 1981. "I was discovered by a guy called Elliot Kastner," says Milchan. A lover of glamour, glitz and girls, Milchan became hooked on show business after a dinner with Kastner and Elizabeth Taylor. "You kind of buy yourself into it to be humiliated--into becoming the next sucker in the business. So I voluntarily said, `Okay, I just want to be around.' All of a sudden, I'm in business with this guy," says Milchan. "Just staying alive is the name of the game. So I hung on."
A former employee says that Milchan used his invincible charm to convince Cannes officials that Black Joy was a worthy entry into the festival. After a few films and a falling-out with Kastner, Milchan set out on his own, setting up Regency Productions and establishing a reputation for making prestige pictures with respected directors such as Sydney Pollack, Sidney Lumet, Ridley Scott, Ron Shelton and Martin Scorsese (The King of Comedy is Milchan's favorite of the movies he's produced). Adding to his outsider mystique, the multilingual Milchan continued to live and work most of the time away from Hollywood, shuttling between his various homes--the consummate jet-setter.
"He's one of those rare people who can do the detail work and also stay focused on the big picture," says former partner Steve Reuther. "I knew he had a dozen other businesses, but here he only talked about the movie business." A current associate describes him as "both a dealmaker and a filmmaker who's pretty hands-on when he's in town." Robert De Niro, who has made five films with Milchan (Brazil, Guilty by Suspicion, Heat, The King of Comedy and Once Upon a Time in America), says that "compared to some of the people out there who have nothing on them but an Armani suit, Arnon is the real thing. He's paid his dues, he's got good taste, works very hard, and he's totally committed. He spins circles around those other guys."
Milchan runs his company like a family business. Heading up New Regency Productions for him is his childhood friend David Matalon, whose parents were best friends with Milchan's. Daughter Alexandra is vice president of production in Los Angeles; son Yariv, a photographer, shoots movie stills, while daughter Elinor is an independent producer, presently making a documentary on Cuban artists. All three children speak reverentially of their father, who raised them from their teen years. French is the family language, Israel the family identity, says Elinor. "When we were kids, we wanted more time with him," says Alexandra, "but now I realize it's quality, not quantity, of time. Growing up, I would read that he was an arms dealer; he was in the MOSSAD, and he was a movie producer. But what I like is that he is really close to the ground, very real and simple. Until recently, we traveled coach. He wanted us to know the real world. The worst thing that could happen to me is to lose his trust and respect. My family is not a family--it's a clan."
In Israel, Milchan spends much of his time with best friend Shimon Peres, the former prime minister who recommended two books to him, The Name of the Rose and The Remains of the Day. (Rose was developed by Milchan and eventually made into a movie by other people.) His relationship with Peres almost led to another unlikely collaboration. "I was over at his house during Passover in 1995," recalls Milchan. Anyway, we're getting drunk, having a good time, and all of a sudden he's looking at his watch. He said, `Oh. It's 11:30. I have a meeting with the Palestinians.'" Moments later, "security men and the [Palestinian] delegation come in, including Nabil Shaat, an Arafat lieutenant. And it's `Shimon promised me this and that.' I'm absolutely impressed with how smart they are, how in good faith and trusting they are. Seriously. I here was more good faith there than there is in Hollywood. And I'm sitting there and nobody has noticed me, and Shimon says, `This is Arnon, he's a good friend. He makes movies.' And somebody says, `Really? What movies?' `Oh, he made Pretty Woman.' And they say, `That's Arafat's favorite movie. He saw it 20 times. Oh, you did The Client? Oh, my God.' At the end, they are designing a movie about a Palestinian and a Jew."
Recently, Milchan has become close to Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and is anxiously watching the Israel-Syria peace talks. "I think Barak will get a good deal. It has got to be done. Look, we can always go back to war if it doesn't work out," he cracks, but adds, "give peace a chance."
Former colleagues say Milchan shifts from kindly patriarch to vengeful demagogue, veering between outrageous generosity and inexplicable miserliness. "On Brazil we had a great relationship," says Gilliam, "on Munchausen, he was dreadful." The nub of their falling-out was a $150,000 development fee that Fox had paid out for the rights to the screenplay. According to Gilliam and others on the production, Milchan simply pocketed the money, pushing the overbudget, disaster-plagued shoot into more red ink. Milchan says that the money was reimbursement for his own out-of-pocket expenses on the film. When Gilliam decided to take his beleaguered film elsewhere, Fox demanded its development fee back--the first Gilliam had heard about it. Later, when he and Milchan split, Milchan insisted on another $75,000 payment plus profit points before signing off from their deal. "Arnon has to screw everyone--partners, friends--literally, figuratively, in every sense of the word," says Gilliam with a raucous laugh. "It's pathological. He can't stop himself. At some point, he needs to invent an enemy." Another filmmaker says wearily, "Sooner or later, you'll be on the outside with Arnon. This is a man who has to win. He doesn't believe that both parties can win."
On one occasion, according to producer Gordon, Milchan was playing tennis with his best friend, Meier Tepper, at the Hotel du Cap on the French Riviera. "Meier is a really sweet, nice guy, and Arnon almost always beats him. But this one time, Meier was up five-love. Arnon threw a fit--screaming that his friend was cheating him and carrying on like it was some blood feud, until he just psyched Meier out and won. To my mind, he's as competitive as Eisner and Murdoch."
Roman Polanski has enjoyed a 20-year friendship with Milchan. "Dinners, parties, nightclubs," says Polanski from his home in Paris. "He's fun." In 1981, Milchan produced the French version of the stage play Amadeus, which Polanski directed and starred in as Mozart. "It was a big success and could have gone on for years, but I couldn't do it anymore," says Polanski, who adds that Milchan has also helped him with advice about distribution of his films. However, they have yet to make a movie together. "Of course, I've heard what people say: `Better to be friends with him than do business.' I know he's a tough businessman. Tough is fine, ruthless, no--but I haven't seen that."
ALONGSIDE THE POND at Milchan's home in France is a life-size sculpture of a man sitting at a table, facing a plateful of money. It's called The Last Meal of a Greedy Man. Milchan tells me it was a gift to him from director Sergio Leone, but he's quick to add that Leone was not sending him a message. Stone, who made JFK and Natural Born Killers with Milchan, thinks otherwise. "He's as cheap as they come," says a furious Stone. "He's sick about money, obsessed with losing it. I learned a very hard lesson, and it cost me a lot of my personal money. I don't want to get into a pissing contest, but Arnon can be very nasty." Even former partners in Hollywood--where the dictum is "no memory, no enemies"--say that a tangle with Milchan can be costly. Concurs one, "He approaches everything like tennis, and it's unbearable for him to lose--even a point."
Natalie Zimmerman, an interior designer who was married to Reuther, recalls a dinner at Cannes some years ago where the topic was two competing Christopher Columbus projects, one to be made by Ridley Scott, the other by the Salkind family. "Arnon said, `I bet neither one gets off the ground,'" remembers Zimmerman, who replied that she thought otherwise. "I said, `I bet they both get made.' Arnon gave me one of his looks and says sarcastically, `Look who's talking. The interior designer!' See, he likes to humiliate people. Then he says, `I'll bet you any watch in the world that neither movie will get made.'" Zimmerman won the bet but had to badger Milchan before he finally sent her a Rolex, "a cheap one," she adds.
Nevertheless, Milchan continues to attract high-class talent and partners. Like Fitzgerald's Gatsby, Milchan possesses "a heightened sensitivity to the promise of life," which draws the best and brightest toward him. However studied and contrived his casualness, self-deprecating charm and perpetual enthusiasm may be, it's an irresistible package to many. "He consistently picks winners. Most of his movies do very well," admits one of his critics. "The showmanship is the side I like, except when it's self-serving," says Gilliam. "That's the sad part." Previous to Munchausen, Gilliam was taken with Milchan's ostensible generosity and grandiosity. "His great skill was pretending that he's very rich. He'd rent two cabanas--not one--at the Beverly Hills Hotel to out-impress the other big shots," says Gilliam. "It was his belief that Hollywood throws money at money. But he never spends his own money." "Personally, I don't know anyone who has ever made money with Arnon," says a major Hollywood producer. "It will be real interesting to see what happens with Rupert Murdoch. Real interesting."
Milchan clearly relishes his relationship with Murdoch and, judging by his own recent global moves, certainly sees him as a role model. "I consider him one of my best friends, and I think vice versa. We're having a ball. He's a very cool guy." On Murdoch's recent remarriage to 32-year-old Wendi Deng, Milchan says, "He's like a kid now. They giggle and enjoy each other. Rupert's a gentleman, and I know you'll laugh at this, but he's a gentle person."
Milchan offers a description of Murdoch that could almost describe himself. "He reminds me of the Michael Douglas character in Falling Down, who says, `I just want to go home, and if no one gets in my way, nobody's gonna get hurt.'"
IN MID-JANUARY, Milchan is in an ebullient mood. He has survived the worst storm of the century in Europe, holed up in his mansion in the French countryside for nine days without electricity, water, heat or telephone. "It was crazy. Here I was, a Jew in a storm. I slept 18 hours a day. It was great. Every time I woke up, I took a sleeping pill."
Milchan is not cheerful simply because he has caught up on his sleep. He has just received the ratings numbers for his new sitcom, Malcolm in the Middle. "We're going to save the Fox network," he says gleefully. But television and movies are only part of the big picture for Milchan. He promises that another substantial acquisition is in the offing but with typical secretiveness declines to disclose any specifics. In the meantime, he has masterminded a merchandising deal between his sneaker company, Puma, and 13 pro football teams, including the St. Louis Rams and the Tennessee Titans. Much to Milchan's delight, the Super Bowl rivals performed in front of an estimated TV audience of 130 million sporting Puma patches on their jerseys.
"It's the synergy between films, music and sports," Milchan tells me. "That's where the future lies." And his model is Murdoch's News Corp., which in addition to its Fox Sports Network also owns the Dodgers. Rather than spend 20 years building a sports company, Milchan saw Puma as a shortcut into the sports world, using his movies and Murdoch's TV programming to promote the brand name.
And, of course, athletes have to be doing something while they wear his shoes, so Milchan spent $120 million to acquire nine-year television rights for the Women's Tennis Association Tour. This was potentially an even better fit with Murdoch's worldwide television interests. For Milchan, the tennis deal had all the ingredients of a movie--stunning women, glamour, exotic locations. At the time of the deal in 1998, he suggested using movie costume designers to outfit his female players. And to prove that tennis had the requisite sizzle, he showed up at the French Open with supermodel Naomi Campbell and at Wimbledon with Kevin Spacey.
Milchan's deal with Fox also assures him a level of financial security. With Murdoch's $200 million investment and a subsequent $600 million line of credit from a team of banks led by Chase Manhattan, Milchan is well into mogul territory. Although New Regency has been in more of a start-up phase than a production mode at Fox and has yet to have a hit, he expects the company to eventually finance about nine pictures a year. Squelch, directed by film noir master John Dahl, will be released this summer; Joel Schumacher's Tigerland and Big Momma's House, starring Martin Lawrence, are in production.
With a 15-year distribution arrangement at Fox, Milchan is unlikely to make any moves to acquire another studio, as he did with MGM. "If you buy a studio, you're going to be under intense scrutiny," says one former studio head. "And Arnon's got most of his assets tied up in foreign entities. They would take a close look at all that. Also, running a studio means collective decisions with a board and all that, and I don't see Arnon as being one who likes to consult with a lot of people. I think he's better off doing what he's doing."
"Arnon gets to do what we all dream about, but you can't if you're running a studio," says former Warner Bros. cochairman Terry Semel. "You can't run Warners or MGM from France. He is a superb producer--brilliant at putting people and things together--but he'd have to trade it all if he became a corporate officer."
And for all of his wheeling and dealing, Milchan is not a corporate creature. He continues to spend only a few days a month in L.A.; the rest of the time, he is flying between Paris, Monte Carlo and Tel Aviv, often visiting stars on the sets of his movies. He loves reading scripts and jet-setting with the talent. Although he's not always involved in the day-to-day operation of his company, he still retains the final say on all New Regency product.
In 1994, for his 50th birthday, his longtime paramour produced a video tribute based on his need to conquer and please, titled Natural Born Seducer. Hollywood stories, probably apocryphal, suggest he built a tennis court for one Industry executive and bought a house in the south of France for another. "Arnon has three great assets," Sergio Leone was fond of telling people. "Charm, charm and charm." I get a chance to see this firsthand. Days after I mention my interest in Mideast politics, particularly in Morocco, Milchan calls to invite me to a birthday party for Moroccan King Hassan II's son, who has since ascended to the throne. "Now I'm working for you," he jokes.
The next day, he has chartered a jet for the flight. "I'm nervous," he says. "This will be my first time to an Arab country. You know I have an Israeli passport." We are met at the airport in Rabat by one of the court's ladies-in-waiting. Before the party, Milchan and his son run off to the beach for a swim. Still in his shorts and T-shirt, Milchan drops in at the home of the king's chief adviser, Andre Azoulay, a Moroccan Jew who had previously been a political prisoner. In the space of two hours, Milchan announces his intention to invest in Moroccan agriculture and in starting a new media company. Azoulay is so impressed that he calls and notifies the king midway through the meeting.
Later that night, at the prince's party, an event as lavish and surreal as any Fellini movie, Milchan mingles easily with the polylingual glitterati, imported Eurotrash and powers that be. After leaving Morocco on a hired jet, he lands at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, helicopters to his home in Montfort l'Amaury, sleeps two hours, helicopters back to the airport, jumps on the Concorde to JFK and then another helicopter to a waiting boat in East Hampton for a weekend cruise with his children, then heads off to L.A. for the premiere of one of his films. "Arnon is too smart to waste life on pessimism," says his old friend Shimon Peres. "But he is more than an opportunist; he's an opportunity creator."
Indeed. A few years back, during Benjamin Netanyahu's hectic first visit to the States as Israel's prime minister, Milchan somehow wangled a dinner date with him. Never mind that Netanyahu had ousted Peres, whom Milchan had spent election night consoling. Not one to let stones gather moss, Milchan was eager to offer congratulations. Charmed, the new prime minister took time out of his frantic schedule to accompany Milchan to a specially arranged screening for the producer's latest film, A Time to Kill. Even for a social magician like Milchan, the evening paid a handsome dual dividend--cementing a relationship with Israel's new leader while garnering a fresh dollop of buzz for his film. "No one but Arnon could get Netanyahu to go to his movie. No one. That's his genius," says Gordon. Even Gilliam agrees. "Arnon could be king of the world--if he only stopped doing petty, stupid things."
ANN LOUISE BARDACHIn her long journalism career, Ann Louise Bardach has interviewed world leaders from Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto to Cuba's Fidel Castro. Bardach stays on the world stage this month with her story on enigmtic producer Arnon Milchan ("The Last Tycoon" page 74), who already exerted a certain global influence before he came to town. "Most Hollywood people think they're very sophisticated, but in fact, they're not," says Bardach, who writes for Vanity Fair and the New York Times and is the winner of the 1995 PEN West Award for Journalism. "Milchan is truly an international player" Bardach's work has also appeared in The New Yorker and the New Republic.
Animals Were Harmed: Hollywood's Nightmare of Death, Injury, and Secrecy Exposed | Hollywood Reporter Exclusive
The result of the flaws in the AHA's process '-- from its selection of monitors to the restrictions on their work and the organization's resistance to aggressively investigate alleged animal mistreatment '-- calls into question the film ratings published on the organization's website, which assess the quality and scope of animal welfare on productions, and the ''No Animals Were Harmed'' credit itself.
Given the end credit's blunt declarative statement, there would not appear to be much wiggle room. But interviews with AHA sources, along with internal documents, suggest that the AHA repeatedly has presented a more positive picture of what transpired on productions than its own monitors' internal logs would justify. Sources say that the end credit disclaimers are adjudicated, and film-rating reviews composed, without the input of the monitors who were actually on set during production, and sometimes without even reviewing their reports. (The AHA denies this.) Indeed, they say there is no set formula governing such findings, which in the end have in certain cases been determined by executives who are overly concerned with how such decisions may affect the organization's industry relationships.
''The AHA does not explain why the films get the ratings they do to hide the fact that they do not give them accurately across the board and that special relationships may be taken into account,'' says one staffer. ''Management pressures postproduction [its department responsible for the assessments] to give good reviews. Even relationships that aren't special yet might be in the future, and they don't want to rock the boat.''
For example, Disney's Eight Below was awarded the end credit despite a March 21, 2005, incident report that noted: ''The hero dog seriously got into a fight with two other dogs. The trainer beat the dog harshly, which included five punches to its diaphragm. Our rep spoke to him about this, and he expressed that he had no choice. The office instructed [the rep] to pull the dog.'' In its statement to THR, the AHA says, ''The trainer had to use force to break up the fight. As a result, the dogs were not injured.'' The AHA rep also asked for more trainers to be on set.
On another Disney project, 2008's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, horses repeatedly were pulled from production for lameness and injuries '-- AHA internal database notes from June 23, 2007, show that 14 were out of commission at once '-- with problems ranging from a sore tail and a sore back to a ''wound on nose.'' Yet the production still received the ''No Animals Were Harmed'' disclaimer. According to AHA's statement to THR, the end credit was justified because ''none of the injuries were serious and none were due to intentional harm.''
In another incident, 2005's Son of the Mask, from New Line, received the end credit, though a Feb. 2, 2004, incident filing reveals that ''most of the fish died today that were under the care and control of the prop department. [Rep] said they died when the prop department totally changed the water in the tank and replaced it with town tap water.'' Again, the AHA says in its statement, the credit was bestowed because ''we believed this was not an intentional act of cruelty,'' though it also added that the organization ''today would not evaluate it in the same way.''
In an interview with THR, Candy Spelling, a national AHA board member, defends the organization's intent behind the ''No Animals Were Harmed'' end credit. ''I think what people think [it means] is that when a horse dies in the movies, it didn't really die,'' she says. ''I think that people think [the AHA's monitoring] is just when the cameras are rolling.'' As for her interpretation of the end credit, she says, ''I assume that no animals were harmed during the shooting.''
MIC me out to the Movies
Source: Lame Cherry
Interesting what not eh? Someone does not like the pet critters being film kill............yes that is my word and if PETA or other terrorists use this word I will require a million dollar royalty.
NYC SECRET: 1 million bodies buried in mass graves...
Invisible island for poor and unidentified...
So...........................
We do not care about the dead people during the regimes, as this is really important in dead critters and the culprits being blamed.
Interesting that Mockingbird is now using the bun huggers to expose a direct attack upon the Obama voters who are the direct cause of Birther Hussein's occupation of a doomsday freezer.
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: 'LIFE OF PI' tiger 'damn near drowned'...27 animal deaths on 'THE HOBBIT'...Dog punched repeatedly in popular DISNEY movie...Secret emails, documents exposed...Spielberg protected by cover-up of 'WAR HORSE' death... MORE...
What is interesting in this is the pissy pissing in all of this. Alec Baldwin gets canned. Steven Spielberg gets nailed for dead nags. Someone was at the glam parties and did not get bent at the waist proper.
MIC is having an interesting effect in all of this as more and more of this money flow is being strangled and the MIC is taking things back. It should be interesting in that little nuclear war the Obama regime just staged in the Middle East.Yes give Iran full nuclear development and nuclear Saudi Arabia and Israel are just going to wait to be vaporized.
Well enough of this.........as animals which are not machines, but break down and die like machines when in use are now the dead horse being whipped to attack Obama liberal movie patrons.
Think of it all you hobbit fans on the left in your enjoyment came from killing poor critters.
Wars kill animals and abuse them, just like all the Scott Hennen types of North Dakota abuse their puppies by neglect as they have lives just like the Obama's never look at that Teddy Kennedy pooch who is neglected.
I am all for this MIC coup though. Nothing like smearing Hollywood for not bending at the waist properly for the real lords who rule the world. Nice the aristocrats are back and demanding more than Paris Hilton.
Yes there is road kill and now the Lame Cherry exposing all of this in FILM KILL>>>>>
agtG
NOAA: Slow Atlantic hurricane season coming to a close
No major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic basin - first time since 1994November 25, 2013
GOES East satellite tracks Subtropical Storm Melissa, the last storm of the season.
Download here. (Credit: NOAA)
The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends on Saturday, Nov. 30, had the fewest number of hurricanes since 1982, thanks in large part to persistent, unfavorable atmospheric conditions over the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and tropical Atlantic Ocean. This year is expected to rank as the sixth-least-active Atlantic hurricane season since 1950, in terms of the collective strength and duration of named storms and hurricanes.
''A combination of conditions acted to offset several climate patterns that historically have produced active hurricane seasons,'' said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service. ''As a result, we did not see the large numbers of hurricanes that typically accompany these climate patterns.''
Thirteen named storms formed in the Atlantic basin this year. Two, Ingrid and Humberto, became hurricanes, but neither became major hurricanes. Although the number of named storms was above the average of 12, the numbers of hurricanes and major hurricanes were well below their averages of six and three, respectively. Major hurricanes are categories 3 and above.
Suomi NPP satellite peers into Tropical Storm Andrea, the first storm of the season.
Download here. (Credit: NOAA/NASA)
Tropical storm Andrea, the first of the season, was the only named storm to make landfall in the United States this year. Andrea brought tornadoes, heavy rain, and minor flooding to portions of Florida, eastern Georgia and eastern South Carolina, causing one fatality.
The 2013 hurricane season was only the third below-normal season in the last 19 years, since 1995, when the current high-activity era for Atlantic hurricanes began.
''This unexpectedly low activity is linked to an unpredictable atmospheric pattern that prevented the growth of storms by producing exceptionally dry, sinking air and strong vertical wind shear in much of the main hurricane formation region, which spans the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea,'' said Bell. ''Also detrimental to some tropical cyclones this year were several strong outbreaks of dry and stable air that originated over Africa.''
Unlike the U.S., which was largely spared this year, Mexico was battered by eight storms, including three from the Atlantic basin and five from the eastern North Pacific. Of these eight landfalling systems, five struck as tropical storms and three as hurricanes.
NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Reserve flew 45 hurricane hunter aircraft reconnaissance missions over the Atlantic basin this season, totaling 435 hours--the fewest number of flight hours since at least 1966.
NOAA will issue its 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Outlook in late May, prior to the start of the season on June 1.
NOAA's National Weather Service is the primary source of weather data, forecasts and warnings for the United States and its territories. NOAA's National Weather Service operates the most advanced weather and flood warning and forecast system in the world, helping to protect lives and property and enhance the national economy. Working with partners, NOAA's National Weather Service is building a Weather-Ready Nation to support community resilience in the face of increasing vulnerability to extreme weather. Visit us online at weather.gov and on Facebook.
NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and our other social media channels.
Technical Support Document: Technical Update of the Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis Under Executive Order No. 12866
Source: Federal Register Latest Entries
Notice Of Availability And Request For Comments.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requests comments on the Technical Support Document entitled Technical Update of the Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis Under Executive Order 12866, available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/inforeg/technical-update-social-cost-of-carbon-for-regulator-impact-analysis.pdf. The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) is used to estimate the value to society of marginal reductions in carbon emissions. This Technical Support Document explains the derivation of the SCC estimates using three peer reviewed integrated assessment models and provides updated values of the SCC that reflect minor technical corrections to the estimates released in May of this year.
OMB requests that comments be submitted electronically to OMB by January 27, 2014 through www.regulations.gov.
To ensure consideration, comments must be in writing and received by January 27, 2014.
Submit comments by one of the following methods:
www.regulations.gov: Direct comments to Docket ID OMB-OMB-2013-0007.Email: SCC@omb.gov.Fax: (202) 395-7285.Mail: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attn: Mabel Echols, NEOB, Room 10202, 725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503. To ensure that your comments are received, we recommend that comments be electronically submitted.All comments and recommendations submitted in response to this notice will be made available to the public. For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary information. The www.regulations.gov Web site is an ''anonymous access'' system, which means OMB will not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment.
For further information, contact: Mabel Echols, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, NEOB, Room 10202, 725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503. Telephone: (202) 395-3741.
Rigorous evaluation of costs and benefits is a core tenet of the rulemaking process. It is particularly important in the area of climate change. The current estimate of the social cost of CO 2 emissions (SCC) has been developed over many years, using the best science available, and with input from the public.
In February 2010, after considering public comments on interim values that agencies used in a number of rules, an interagency group of technical experts, coordinated by OMB and the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), released improved SCC estimates. The interagency group estimated the improved SCC values using the most widely cited climate economic impact models. Those climate impact models, known as integrated assessment models, were developed by outside experts and published in the peer-reviewed literature. Recognizing that the models underlying the SCC estimates would evolve and improve over time as scientific and economic understanding increased, the Administration committed in 2010 to regular updates of these estimates.
In May of this year, after all three of the underlying models were updated and used in peer-reviewed literature, and agencies received public comments urging them to update their estimates, the interagency group released revised SCC values. The May 2013 estimates reflect values that are similar to those used by other governments, international institutions, and major corporations. Those estimates have been available for public comment in several proposed rulemakings since May, and agencies have already received comments that are under review.
The revised Technical Support Document that was issued in November, 2013 is based on the best available scientific information on the impacts of climate change. We will continue to refine the SCC estimates to ensure that agencies are appropriately measuring the social cost of carbon emissions as they evaluate the costs and benefits of rules.
Request for Comment: OMB requests comments on all aspects of the TSD (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/inforeg/for-agencies/Social-Cost-of-Carbon-for-RIA.pdf) and its use of integrated assessment models (IAMs) to estimate SCC values to support agency regulatory impact analyses. We are particularly interested in comments on the following topics:
The selection of the three IAMs for use in the analysis and the synthesis of the resulting SCC estimates, as outlined in the 2010 TSD the model inputs used to develop the SCC estimates, including economic growth, emissions trajectories, climate sensitivity and intergenerational discounting;how the distribution of SCC estimates should be represented in regulatory impact analyses; andthe strengths and limitations of the overall approach (see also the February, 2010 TSD available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/inforeg/for-agencies/Social-Cost-of-Carbon-for-RIA.pdf).OMB is not requesting comments on the three peer reviewed IAMs themselves; rather we are requesting comments on their use in developing the SCC estimates.
Howard Shelanski,
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
BILLING CODE P
Environmentalism Is the New Racism - Climate Change Dispatch
Written by Daniel Greenfield, FrontPage Magazine, November 27 2013.
At the heart of all the left's political agendas is wealth redistribution. That is as true of the Global Warming eco-scam as it is of anything else.
The left knows that idealism is a puny force compared to the power of profit. It may employ the slogans of idealism, recruiting college students to wave signs, dress up as polar bears and cry Armageddon; but it uses the appeal of cold hard cash to invest as many people as it can into its cause.
Wealth redistribution gave the left a firm grip on power in America. No matter how many lies it tells or how many crimes it commits, it knows that when election time comes around those who profit from its wealth redistribution programs will flock to the polls; caring about nothing but their own bottom line.
The Global Warming scheme began the same way with tiers of economic interest.
The first tier came out of the expert elites; scientists who had grant money waved under their noses and environmentalists who went from waving signs outside corporate offices to working as consultants for those corporations. Publicizing the scam were the journalists and politicians who reinvented themselves as environmental crusaders pumping out books warning that the end of the world was near.
Soon an entire expert class was profitably employed predicting doomsday and teaching corporations to Greenwash their products. These were the Green versions of the leftist sociologists who had predicted race wars if economic inequity went on and the radical Black activists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who had monetized their instant racism into sensitivity consulting firms and national organizations.
The second tier came from the bankers and corporations looking to profit from the crony capitalist sphere known as the Carbon Economy by selling other companies the power to impose costs on their rivals and customers through environmental regulations.
An entire fictional economy sprang up with artificial shortages and imaginary products and services sold. Artificial shortages were used to limit carbon emissions requiring the purchase of credits. Environmental regulations made carbon into a currency using the threat of catastrophe and the promise of profit.
Once again, Green followed Black. J.P. Morgan had received hundreds of millions in state payments from its food stamp card empire. Herbert and Marion Sandler made billions from subprime mortgages and Google is cashing in on housing project tax credit funds managed by a financial services company heavily invested in by Warren Buffett.
The dirty little secret of the welfare state is that most of the money doesn't go to the minorities on whose behalf it operates; but to the big banks and liberal billionaires who keep the wealth redistribution going, not for the sake of the poor or the planet, but for their own personal profit.
While the public was dazzled with daily accounts of melting poles and polar bears fleeing the far north for London and New York as harbingers of the tidal waves of melting ice that would soon sweep across the coastal cities; their pockets were being picked by the gangs of eco-criminals.
Substandard products were pawned off on customers by calling them Green. In the kitchen, lower quality paper could be used in paper towels while more dish detergent had to be used to wash the same amount of dishes so long as the environmentalists were paid to certify the inferior products as Green.
And if the customers chose not to go along; the combined pressure of Green activists and corporations would eliminate any other option through regulatory mandates. Greenwashing compelled customers to pay more for less while the corporations and environmental consultancies pocketed the profits.
Once there was an expert and financial constituency in place to press for further changes; the third tier of large scale wealth redistribution could be unleashed.
The dreams of the Green criminals were modest. A worldwide carbon economy in which every human activity would be taxed, where everyone would need a permission slip to sneeze out some carbon in the spring and universal employment for environmental consultants with environmental impact reviews required for every single business down to the tykes with their neighborhood lemonade stand.
At stake were trillions of dollars; a dizzying amount that made the biggest financial frauds of the century no more than clumsy pickpockets lifting wallets.
To achieve these ends, the constituency had to be broadened with large scale wealth redistribution. Al Gore, James Hansen and a handful of bored college kids were never going to shake loose the insane sums of money that would make Green into the new Black and Environmentalism into the new Racism.
Enter the Third World.
Climate reparations bring poor countries on board by promising them billions for every island state that gets hit by a typhoon and every African warlord whose territory suffers from drought. If your weather is soggy or your wheat just won't grow; blame the white man with his terrible industrial machine.
It's the grandest crime of a new century that will outshine the massive welfare state looting before it. Twentieth century wealth redistribution was imposed by fear of race riots. Twenty-first century wealth redistribution however is being driven by threats of planetary annihilation.
The obscene trick of climate reparations is the seduction of Third World countries hit by natural disasters with promises of getting back on their feet with loads of cash stolen from the First World. Western taxpayers and consumers buy relief from the apocalypse and the Third Worlders become a wealth redistribution constituency demanding more free money in a system of blackmail and lies.
It's the same scam that destroyed the Black community in America extended across the Third World. The welfare state did more damage to minorities than anything else. Now the Greens would like to repeat the process worldwide; pitting the First World against the Third World and profiting from the massive climate fraud that they have been slowly unrolling.
Radical regimes like South Africa, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia had already climbed aboard the ''Bad Weather Reparations'' express; but the global walkout from climate negotiations in Poland shows that the greed for climate theft cash has spread throughout the Third World.
The same crony capitalist dynamic that induces corporations to attack their rivals by supporting environmental regulations is playing out globally. China pushes for climate reparations by the First World while Western countries demand that China slow down the pace of its industrial production.
The hypocrites who congregate at these summits don't believe the scams that they're selling, but are exploiting them to handicap each other's economies while their corrupt expert elites greedily predict absurd visions of doom that their own data no longer supports.
Global Warming has become a micro-economy and a macro-cult; a massive financial scam for a world financial system running low on ways to escape its collapse and a pseudo-religion for a secular world. These believer-profiteers are turning environmentalism into the new racism using the dead from every typhoon and weather tragedy as poster children for their terrible eco-scam.
Slave Training
A list of the National Planning Scenarios:Scenario 1: Nuclear Detonation '' Improvised Nuclear DeviceScenario 2: Biological Attack '' Aerosol AnthraxScenario 3: Biological Disease Outbreak '' Pandemic Influenz
Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
A list of the National Planning Scenarios:Scenario 1: Nuclear Detonation '' Improvised Nuclear DeviceScenario 2: Biological Attack '' Aerosol AnthraxScenario 3: Biological Disease Outbreak '' Pandemic InfluenzaScenario 4: Biological Attack '' PlagueScenario 5: Chemical Attack '' Blister AgentScenario 6: Chemical Attack '' Toxic Industrial ChemicalScenario 7: Chemical Attack '' Nerve AgentScenario 8: Chemical Attack '' Chlorine Tank ExplosionScenario 9: Natural Disaster '' Major EarthquakeScenario 10: Natural Disaster '' Major HurricaneScenario 11: Radiological Attack '' Radiological Dispersal DeviceScenario 12: Explosives Attack '' Bombing Using Improvised Explosive DeviceScenario 13: Biological Attack '' Food ContaminationScenario 14: Biological Attack '' Foreign Animal DiseaseScenario 15: Cyber Attack
http://cartusers.curry.com/chad.christiandgk2/arc/2013/11/27/badchad.html?ts=1385513084Link Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
TSA Travel Tips Tuesday: Holiday Travel Reminders & How To Increase Your Chances on Being Selected for TSA Pre''''
Source: The TSA Blog
With the busiest travel time of the year upon us, I thought it might be a good idea to offer a few reminders and tips for today's post.First off, if you haven't already, plan ahead and read our Thanksgiving Travel Tips post. It's chocked full o' tips and useful information you might need before your trip.Secondly, keep an eye on the weather. If you think there might be a delay or closure, you can check the My TSA app for airport statuses. If you don't have a smart phone, you can check the statuses here. Remember, this is the busiest travel time of the year. While we plan ahead and fully staff our checkpoints, it's always best to arrive early when you can.Lastly, for all of you using TSA Pre'''', it's very important you enter the correct info when booking your flight or you may not get selected for expedited screening.While some eligible passengers are randomly excluded from expedited screening in TSA Pre'''' lanes, we were surprised to learn that some U.S. and Canadian citizens who are enrolled in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) trusted traveler program have been excluded because of errors made in entering information when they book their reservation. On a given day, some have missed out on expedited screening because of a few simple errors. A few of the basic reasons are as follows:Entered the incorrect Membership Number / PASSID (also known as your known traveler number or trusted traveler number), or entered it in the wrong field when making their airline reservation online. Entered a date of birth (DOB) when making their reservation that did not match the DOB they provided to CBP for Global Entry or another CBP trusted traveler program. Didn't enter their full name: first, middle and last name. These should match:TSA Pre'''' participants who qualify via their membership in a CBP Trusted Traveler program should enter their full name '-- first, middle and last '-- exactly as it appears on their Global Entry card or in their Global Online Enrollment System (GOES) account, along with their date of birth, gender, and nine digit Membership Number / PASS ID when making a reservation for travel. A reservation made with a name that does not exactly match a passenger's Global Entry card or GOES account will result in the passenger not being considered for TSA Pre'''' expedited screening. If you click the ''manage membership'' button when logged into your GOES account, it will direct you to the page in the image below where you'll be able to ensure your account info '-- under the personal information section '-- matches the information in your travel reservation and your frequent flyer program: first, middle and last name fields.You should make sure your airline frequent flyer profile and any current and/or future reservations matches this information. You may have to reach out directly to your carrier to make sure this information is correct and consistent, especially your first, middle and last name. You should ask them to update your profile information and/or saved Secure Flight data.A quick recap: Remember these important tips so that you will be included in TSA Pre'''':Make sure your booking agent/airline has your number and full name stored correctly. The name '-- first, middle and last '-- should match how you applied for a trusted traveler program, as listed above.If you have Global Entry and want to qualify for TSA Pre'''', enter your Membership Number / PASS ID '-- not the GOES ID '-- in the 'Known Traveler/Trusted Traveler' field when booking flight reservations '-- a nine digit. Only enter your Membership Number / PASS ID in the 'Known Traveler/Trusted Traveler' field to ensure TSA Pre'''' eligibility. Don't type ''Opt In'' or ''TSA Pre'''''' or any other text.If you don't know what your PASS ID is, you can find it on the back of your Global Entry card, or you can log in to your GOES account to get the ID number.Open the Global Online Enrollment System (GOES) web site https://GOES-app.cbp.dhs.gov Provide your login information. Click on the Sign In button. Look for your Membership Number / PASS ID on the main screen.You can also watch this helpful video. Have a great holiday, and I'll be back next Tuesday with more travel tips.
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Bob BurnsTSA Blog Team
If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us byclicking here.
Union proposes armed TSA officers at every checkpoint in wake of LAX shooting.
Source: WT news feed
As autopsy results of a fallen TSA officer killed earlier this month were released Friday, union officials are outlining increased security measures for both the public and Congress to consider.While a final report of the Nov. 1 shootings of TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez and two other officers who were wounded has yet to be released, the American Federation of Government Employees has developed proposals for increased security measures for transportation security employees, which were released in a Nov. 14 statement.
One proposal suggests creating a separate unit of armed, law enforcement-trained TSA officers at security checkpoints.
''People don't realize our TSA officers aren't law enforcement officers,'' said AFGE general counsel David Borer. ''They don't have that authority under the law; they don't have arrest power; they don't have the ability to detain people.''
The proposed special unit of Transportation Security Administration officers would be required to undergo law enforcement training as well as obtain proper weapons certifications. Though a call to arm all 45,000 TSA officers was never proposed, Borer said, officers wouldn't replace existing airport authorities either.
''At O'Hare you'll see Chicago Police Department officers in the terminal, but some airports have officers and some do not. This new unit would have to coordinate with whatever those existing programs are,'' Borer said. ''And we're not proposing every officer should be armed, rather that every checkpoint should have an armed officer. Someone who is specifically there to protect those who work at the checkpoint or passengers who come through.''
Borer added that due to increasing harassment of TSA officers, employee safety at checkpoints has become a major concern.
''The event at LAX was the first time we've had an officer killed, but our officers are attacked both verbally and physically far too often.'' Borer said. ''We have officers punched, knocked out, kicked and tackled and spat upon on a fairly routine basis.''
AFGE's second proposal involves implementing a raised platform or podium that would provide TSA employees better visibility around the checkpoint. Passengers would be able to better identify officers as well.
''A raised platform would go hand-in-hand with putting armed officers at those locations,'' Borer said. ''It's a deterrent, but the platform can also be reinforced in a way that gives them a certain amount of protection if an event were to start and they needed a location from which to return fire, for example.''
The third proposal deals with airport exit lanes, and the restoration of TSA officers to these lanes with the addition of an armed officer. For budgetary reasons, the Transportation Security Administration began phasing out staffing at exit lanes in April, instead turning over jurisdiction to local airport authorities.
But Borer said this move was a mistake.
''Until we secure those exit lanes, that's always going to be a point of vulnerability,'' Borer said. ''We need someone to stop any shooters, like the shooter in LA who allegedly killed Officer Hernandez and afterwards proceeded through the exit lane unimpeded down Terminal 3, where he shot three more people.''
Since it's not considered part of the screening process, the TSA does not provide exit lane security at more than two-thirds of federalized airports, according to Ann Davis, regional TSA public affairs manager.
''To most efficiently use TSA's limited resources and to focus on the priority of screening passengers and baggage, the TSA has proposed transferring exit lane access control responsibility to local airport authorities, reducing the agency's budget request by $88.1 million for fiscal year 2014,'' Davis wrote in an email.
Making the responsibility standard across all airport exit lanes, ensuring consistency with airport perimeter access controls and maintaining TSA's compliance through its regulatory inspection program were additional reasons to eliminate TSA exit lane staffing, according to Davis.
AFGE's last proposal entails the Behavior Detection Officer program, which was subject to a Nov. 14 House Subcommittee on Transportation Security meeting.
Behavior detection officers are trained to detect unusual or suspicious behaviors through the SPOT program '' screening of passengers by observation techniques '' and investigate situations in which someone poses a threat.
But a study released this month by the Government Accountability Office, ''Aviation Security: TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities,'' indicated the program lacked scientific evidence of its effectiveness. The study recommends the Secretary of Homeland Security direct the TSA Administrator to limit future funding for the BDO program until it can demonstrate the program's effectiveness in identifying passengers who pose an aviation security risk.
According to the study, the BDO program has spent $900 million since it was implemented in 2007.
The TSA isn't cutting BDO programs at O'Hare and Midway airports, and there are no plans to eliminate the program at these airports at this time, according to Davis.
Though Borer thinks if enough behavior detection officers been present the day of the shooting, maybe the disaster could have been avoided. And contrary to the study's recommendations, what AFGE proposes is an expansion of the Behavior Detection Officer program.
But it's difficult to put a ballpark figure on how much it would cost to expand the BDO program, and implement each of AFGE's three other proposals.
''Obviously there is not an unlimited amount of funds,'' Borer said, ''but if the government's going to put officers in harm's way, they need to give them enough backup to protect themselves.''
Antelope's Center High School trains students to handle emergency calls - Education - The Sacramento Bee
''Ring, ring.''
Taylor Andreasen took the call. Someone had found a decomposing body. She flipped through her police protocol cards asking question after question.
Tiara Graves took a call about 15 ''middle-age'' loiterers in red vests. Emily Utterback took a call from a man hiding from burglars in a closet.
They are part of the Center High School Dispatch Program, a unique two-year track that turns students into certified emergency dispatchers by the time they graduate high school. It is perhaps the most comprehensive such program available at any high school or community college, said Shawn Messinger, a police consultant at Priority Dispatch Corp.
''These kids are getting access to a level of training that professional 911 centers have been using for almost 34 years,'' he said.
The Center High School students hunched over their computers Thursday under a banner that declared, ''What we learn today will save lives.'' Each student diligently typed in the information given by each caller.
Students train specifically for fast-paced, higher-stress 911 dispatching, said teacher Holland Myers, 58. But the program also prepares students for jobs at lower-stress call centers like those used for retail sales, the electric or gas company, or automobile services like AAA.
Messinger, whose company offers products and training to dispatch centers, arranged for the donation of curriculum, manuals and flip-card sets to the class through the nonprofit International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. He said students in the Center High program are less likely to ''drop out or wash out'' when they take a job as a dispatcher.
The program is an anomaly in an era of reductions that have severely impacted high school vocational education programs across the state. Center High School has shuttered its auto shop, culinary arts program and all but one class of wood shop, according to Myers. The lack of vocational education is particularly dire at a school where Myers said only about 20 percent of students go on to graduate from college.
''If they want to go to college, they have to have something to make money, and it's not McDonald's,'' he said.
Dispatchers can earn $38,000 to $47,000 a year before overtime, as well as retirement, health benefits and paid vacation, Myers said. He said the amount often approaches $62,000 because of overtime.
''For someone out of high school, that's remarkable money,'' he said.
Word of the program is spreading, resulting in the transfer of 10 new students to the Antelope school since last school year '' a feat usually reserved for schools with Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate college-prep tracks. The Center High School dispatcher program currently has 60 juniors and seniors in two classes.
Students graduating from the Center High School program can receive certification in CPR, use of an automated external defibrillator and emergency technician work. They also can receive emergency, police, fire and medical certifications and are prepared to take the general aptitude test necessary to obtain jobs at dispatch centers. Applicants usually are also required to take psychological and drug tests and go through a background check.
Utterback is excited about the prospect of earning the certifications, which she says will give her an upper hand when competing for jobs. Although the senior ultimately wants to be a probation officer, Utterback said she needs a part-time dispatching job to help pay her way through college.
Myers decided to start the program three years ago after listening to his wife, Janice Parker, complain about how difficult it was to train and keep new dispatchers at the Sacramento Regional Fire communications center, where she works in human resources.
The Center High School Dispatch Program graduated its first 40 students in June. Since then, one student has taken a job as a dispatcher. Others received offers from Bay Area call centers but declined them, Myers said.
Recruiters from the San Mateo County Office of Public Safety and Communications have asked to come to the school in April to recruit students. ''They were salivating when they heard about somebody with a program,'' Myers said.
Senior Lorena Valenzuela wants to sign on with San Mateo County after she graduates. Valenzuela says she will attend college to become a veterinarian while working as a dispatcher. ''It will help a lot, having this job,'' she said. ''It's better than $8 an hour.''
Other students want to go into careers in criminal justice or law enforcement and don't have any way to pay for the training. A large number of students were recommended to the program by counselors because they lacked direction, Myers said. ''The biggest group are students with no purpose or goal before now, because they never had a feeling that they could do anything important,'' he said.
Now students in the class talk about saving lives and helping others. ''You get adrenaline when you take a call,'' Utterback said. ''It's a rush when you help.''
Call The Bee's Diana Lambert, (916) 321-1090. Follow her on Twitter @dianalambert.
' Read more articles by Diana Lambert
Los Angeles Considering Proposal To Ban Feeding Homeless People In Public | ThinkProgress
By Scott Keyes on November 26, 2013 at 11:02 am
"Los Angeles Considering Proposal To Ban Feeding Homeless People In Public"
A homeless man and his possessions in downtown Los Angeles
CREDIT: AP
There's a perpetual yuppie belief that society's true failing isn't the fact that half a million residents don't have shelter, but that some do-gooders have the audacity to give homeless people food. The latest epicenter of this thinking is Los Angeles, where the City Council is considering a ban on feeding homeless people in public areas after complaints from nearby homeowners.
Los Angeles has the second highest homeless population in the country, at 53,800 individuals, according to the 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report. And although the number of homeless people went down nationally over the past year, it increased by 27 percent in Los Angeles.
For a quarter-century, the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, a group of community members who strive to meet homeless people ''on their own turf, talk to them, and listen,'' has served meals to the hungry every evening. On any given night, volunteers will hand out as many as 200 meals.
However, the group is now facing a backlash from locals who don't like the presence of homeless people near their homes. The New York Times quotes one such man, an actor named Alexander Polinsky, who lives nearby: ''If you give out free food on the street with no other services to deal with the collateral damage, you get hundreds of people beginning to squat. They are living in my bushes and they are living in my next door neighbor's crawl spaces. We have a neighborhood which now seems like a mental ward.''
As bad as Polinsky thinks he has it, it's safe to assume that any one of the 100 homeless people lined up for a meal would, given the chance, switch spots with him without hesitation.
But complaints like those from Polinsky are beginning to fall on sympathetic ears among City Councilmembers, two of whom have already called on the city to ban groups like GWHFC from feeding homeless people in public. One of them, Councilman Tom LaBonge, called the charities ''well-intentioned'' but said the effort has devolved into a ''free-for-all'' that ''has overwhelmed what is a residential neighborhood.''
But GWHFC and other charities are critical for the homeless who rely on these meals to survive. ''People here '-- it's their only way to eat,'' said one homeless man, Aaron Lewis, who lives on the sidewalk outside a 7-Eleven. ''The community doesn't help us eat.'' Another man, Emerson Tenner, agreed: ''There are people here who really need this,'' he said while waiting in line for a meal. ''A few people act a little crazy. Don't mess it up for everyone else.''
The proposal will need to pick up more support among the 15-member Council in order to become law.
If passed, though, Los Angeles would join a growing number of other cities that have banned or passed significant restrictions on charities attempting to feed the homeless, including Raleigh and Orlando.
The invisible island where New York buries its poor and unidentified - The Week
Nearly one million people are buried in mass graves off of the Bronx. But the city prefers you know nothing about it.
Hart Island does not appear on the MTA's subway map or the Department of Transportation's bicycling maps. The AAA map in my car shows the blue dotted line of a public ferry from City Island to Hart Island, but the ferry closed to the public in 1976. Panorama, the room-sized Robert Moses-commissioned sculpture at the Queens Museum of Art '-- which displays every street and nearly every building in New York City '-- excludes the island entirely.
From an airplane at night, Hart Island is invisible from the west. It can be seen only on clear nights, only from the east and by inference, when lights from the city bounce off the water of the Sound and leave the island backlit. It appears as negative space, the darkest ink spot on a page of black.
Hart Island can be found on Google Maps, which labels the northern half of the island "Potter's Field," a term commonly used to refer to a place where unknown or unclaimed bodies are buried. The location is no longer accurate, and the name never was. When the city bought Hart Island for $75,000 in 1868, the new potter's field was set on 45 acres at the island's northern tip. Administration was handed over to what was then called the Department of Charities and Correction, which operated a prison and a technical school for delinquent boys on the island. Inmates were given the job of burying the dead, a practice that continues to this day. The Department of Correction estimates that more than 850,000 people are now buried on Hart Island, noting that the actual number may be somewhere between 750,000 and a million, a standard deviation that is jarring when you think about it.
(More from Narratively: Reinventing the 'oldest profession')
In the last few years the old cemetery filled up, so the burials moved to Hart Island's south side. In 2010, there were 695 adults and 504 babies buried there. Four days a week, prisoners from Riker's Island lay plain pine boxes into two mass graves. In the adult grave, coffins are stacked three high. It will be filled with between 150 and 165 bodies (depending on the number of extra-wide coffins), plus separate coffins for body parts, and covered with 36 inches of dirt. The other grave, for fetuses and stillborn babies, will be loaded with 1,000 miniature coffins buried five deep. Both trenches are already open, dug by a yellow Caterpillar backhoe.
And then there is the name. In Matthew 27:3-10, Judas cast the 30 silver pieces he received for betraying Jesus onto the temple floor, and then hung himself in shame. The priests, concerned that adding blood money to the temple's treasury would violate church law, "bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers. Therefore that field has been called the 'Field of Blood' to this very day." We are lucky the name "potter's field" stuck, since printing the alternative on maps would be rather purple.
Lots of unidentified people are buried on Hart Island, and lots of poor people, too. But not everyone interred there is unknown and destitute. The first person buried in the potter's field died in Charity Hospital on Roosevelt Island '-- then called Blackwell's Island '-- with no relatives or friends to claim her body, but we do know her name: Louisa Van Slyke, and she was 24. It's reasonable to assume that Slyke was laid in the ground by inmates because the wife of Fred Bartels, the island's first warden, recorded the burial on April 20, 1869. Since then, Hart Island's dead have included victims of yellow and typhoid fever; veterans who died in Veterans Administration hospitals (whose names were known, and who should have been buried in individual graves in a national cemetery); and the first child to die of AIDS in New York, who received the field's only private grave and the only personal gravestone, reading "SC B1 1985" [Special Child, Baby 1, and the year of death]; well-known writers and actors including Bobby Driscoll, who played Peter Pan in the 1953 Disney movie; and Lewis Haggins, who founded an advocacy group called Picture the Homeless. Haggins was buried as an unidentified body in 2004 even though he had received food stamps, spent time in prison, and lived in city shelters, which meant at least three government agencies held his fingerprints on file. His friends later had him disinterred and buried elsewhere.
(Narratively/Luke Rafferty)
"Sometimes people wind up in city cemetery when they shouldn't be there at all," says Amy Koplow, executive director of the Hebrew Free Burial Association, which works to arrange burials for indigent Jews and keep them out of the potter's field. "They're not indigent. They're not unknown. Sometimes they just slip through the system."
One person who is buried on Hart Island who should not be is Laurie Grant's daughter. Grant was an obstetrician and gynecologist with a successful private practice in Westchester County. Her pregnancy in 1993 was hard. She felt nauseous for months, became dehydrated and malnourished, and required a feeding tube. At 33 weeks she was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital. Tests on July 12, 1993 found the fetus had no heartbeat.
(More from Narratively: How a woman from Queens became a man)
Grant's stillborn baby was delivered by Caesarian section. Grant nearly died. The epidural numbed only one side of her body, leaving the other half in stabbing pain. A few days later, a nurse asked what she wanted to do with the body.
"The city can arrange it," Grant remembers the nurse saying.
"How?" Grant asked.
The city could take care of the burial, the nurse said. Grant would be able to visit the grave, which would be marked with a number instead of a name. Grant was grieving, malnourished and delirious with pain. She was on so much medication she was barely conscious.
"I don't remember signing any papers. I was really out of it," says Grant, who is now 59.
As a doctor, Grant easily could have afforded private burial in the cemetery plot her family already owned in the Valhalla area of Westchester County, a few minutes' drive from her current home. Grant was too sick to think if it, however, and hospital staff did not ask her relatives about other burial options. So the baby's body was placed in a pine coffin and buried in a mass grave on Hart Island.
(AP Photo/Claire Yaffa)
Grant's experience was typical, says Melinda Hunt, an artist who has been fascinated with Hart Island since the early 1990s, and went on to publish a book and produce a film about it. In 2011 she founded the Hart Island Project, a charity that helps families around the world search for relatives who went missing in New York, and who may be buried in the potter's field. Many families were told by hospital nurses or social workers to "Let the city handle it," Hunt says, maybe to smooth the ordeal's jagged edges, and possibly to speed things along. Parents are commonly assured that the grave will be marked (which is sometimes true, but not always), and that parents will be allowed to visit the graves (which is almost never true)."It's not explained that this is a mass grave and you can't go visit it," Hunt says. "If families were made aware of that, I think most would opt for a private burial."
(More from Narratively: Sexless in the city)
Sometimes it's adults who get buried on Hart Island by mistake. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the police department's missing persons unit use personal records, prescription bottles and fingerprints to identify people who die in hospitals, nursing homes and on the street without identification. They do a good job. Of the nearly 1,200 people buried on Hart Island last year, only about fifteen were unidentified, says Dan Stevelman, deputy commissioner for operations at the medical examiner's office.
But some advocates doubt whether officials are as diligent about tracking down next of kin as they are about identifying the deceased. Hunt regularly receives emails from family members who can easily afford an individual grave in a private cemetery, but who never received word that a loved one was dead. Leonard Melfi, an influential playwright in the 1960s, was buried on Hart Island by mistake when he died in 2001. His family had the body disinterred and re-buried in a private grave. Amy Koplow remembers a man who was buried on Hart Island despite his sizable pension from his career as a backstage technician at CBS television studios. The man had the misfortune of dying on Presidents' Day weekend; that meant city employees responsible for locating his family did not get to his case until the man was already buried on Hart Island.
"His case got lost in the shuffle," Koplow says. "There's all kinds of rotten stuff that happens."
Elaine Joseph's daughter Tomika was born premature at Beth Israel Hospital during the blizzard of 1978. The baby suffered Tetralogy of Fallot, a heart deformation. Joseph was sent home to Brooklyn, and her baby was transferred to Mt. Sinai Hospital for surgery. There, the baby died. With the subways closed and all transportation to Manhattan shut down, Joseph called the hospital morgue for four days, getting no response. When someone finally answered, Joseph was told that she had signed papers allowing Tomika to be buried in the potter's field.
This was impossible, since the storm had prevented Joseph from ever getting to the hospital.
"People say, 'Who cares about the potter's field? It's just a bunch of bums,'" says Joseph, 58, who went on to serve 23 years in the Navy and retire as a lieutenant commander. "Well, I'm no bum. My daughter was not a bum."
Read the rest of this story at Narratively.
Narrativelyis an online magazine devoted to original, in-depth and untold stories. Each week, Narratively explores a different theme and publishes just one story a day. It was one of TIME's 50 Best Websites of 2013.
Missing: hard drive containing Bitcoins worth £4m in Newport landfill site | Technology | theguardian.com
The 7,500 Bitcoins on the hard drive were worth around £500,000 when it was thrown in the rubbish. Since then, the value has soared. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Buried somewhere under four feet of mud and rubbish, in the Docksway landfill site near Newport, Wales, in a space about the size of a football pitch is a computer hard drive worth more than £4m.
It belonged to James Howells, who threw it out when he was clearing up his desk in mid-summer and discovered the part, rescued from a defunct Dell laptop. He found it in a drawer and put it in a bin.
And then last Friday he realised that it held a digital wallet with 7,500 Bitcoins created for almost nothing in 2009 - and then worth about the same.
"You know when you put something in the bin, and in your head, say to yourself 'that's a bad idea'? I really did have that," Howells, who works in IT, told the Guardian. "I don't have an exact date, the only time period I can give '' and I've been racking my own brains '' is between 20 June and 10 August. Probably mid-July". At the time he obliviously threw them away, the 7,500 Bitcoins on the hard-drive were worth around £500,000. Since then, the cryptocurrency's value has soared, passing $1,000 on Wednesday afternoon.
In 2009, a few months after Bitcoin's launch, it was comparatively easy to 'mine' the digital currency, effectively creating money by computing. Photograph: Rick Bowmer/APAlthough Bitcoins have recently become part of the zeitgeist '' with Virgin saying it will accept the currency for its Virgin Galactic flights, and central bankers considering its position in finance seriously '' Howells generated his in early 2009, when the currency was only known in tech circles. At that time, a few months after its launch, it was comparatively easy to "mine" the digital currency, effectively creating money by computing: Howells ran a program on his laptop for a week to generate his stash. Nowadays, doing the same would require enormously expensive computing power.
That lost hard drive, though, contains the cryptographic "private key" that is needed to be able to access and spend the Bitcoins; without it, the "money" is lost forever.
And Howells didn't have a backup.
Howells stopped mining after a week because his girlfriend complained that the laptop was getting too noisy and hot while it ran the programs to solve the complex mathematical problems needed to create new Bitcoins.
In 2010, the Dell XPS N1710 broke after he accidentally tipped lemonade on it, so he dismantled it for parts. Most were thrown away or sold, but he kept the hard drive in a desk drawer for the next three years '' until that fateful summer day when he had the clearout.
Howells didn't realise his mistake until Friday. Since then, he said, "I've searched high and low. I've tried to retrieve files from all of my USB sticks, from all of my hard drives. I've tried everything just in case I had a backup file, or had copied it by accident. And '... nothing."
He even went down to the landfill site itself. "I had a word with one of the guys down there, explained the situation. And he actually took me out in his truck to where the landfill site is, the current ditch they're working on. It's about the size of a football field, and he said something from three or four months ago would be about three or four feet down."
After he stopped mining Bitcoins in 2009, Howells hadn't given the currency much thought. "I hadn't kept up on Bitcoin, I'd been distracted. I'd had a couple of kids since then, I'd been doing the house up, and forgot about it until it was in the news again."
Howells considered retrieving the hard drive himself, but was told that "even for the police to find something, they need a team of 15 guys, two diggers, and all the personal protection equipment. So for me to fund that, it's not possible without the guarantee of money at the end." As such, he's resigned to never getting the virtual money back.
"There's a pot of gold there for someone '... I'm even thinking of registering www.returnmybitcoin.com. It's available," he said. He has also set up a Bitcoin wallet for donations aimed at recovering the hard drive.
"If they were to offer me a share, fair enough," he said. "If they were to go out and find it for themselves '... it's my mistake throwing the hard drive out, at the end of the day."
A spokeswoman from Newport council emphasised that any treasure hunters turning up to the landfill site wouldn't be allowed in, but "obviously, if it was easily retrieved, we'd return it."
"I'm at the point where it's either laugh about it or cry about it," Howells says. "Why aren't I out there with a shovel now? I think I'm just resigned to never being able to find it."
Nonetheless, he continues to believe, as he did four years ago, that Bitcoin is the future of money. "I still think it's going to go higher. I just think it's the next step of the internet, which is why I mined it in the first place. When I first came across it, I knew straight away. We had everything else at the time; Google, Facebook, they were already the market leaders in their areas. The only thing that was missing was an internet money."
' Bitcoin: what you need to know
BAN-Bill Would Restrict Electronic Cigarettes in New York - NYTimes.com
Trendsetters who have circumvented New York City's public smoking bans by ''vaping'' electronic cigarettes would no longer be able to do so under legislation proposed by the City Council that would crack down on the smokeless cigarettes.
E-cigarettes are a growing industry and phenomenon, partly because of a perception they are healthier than regular cigarettes and partly because, for the moment anyway, they are not covered by many existing bans.
But antismoking advocates have argued that the electronic devices are a gateway to conventional cigarettes, particularly for teenagers, and that the potential health hazards of the devices have not been sufficiently studied to declare them safe.
The law would add electronic cigarettes to the conventional tobacco products '-- like cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos '-- that are now banned in almost all public places in New York, including offices, bars, restaurants, parks, beaches and public plazas.
''We see these cigarettes are really starting to proliferate, and it's unacceptable,'' Councilman James Gennaro said on Wednesday. He and Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker, are the lead sponsors of the measure.
''I get reports of people smoking cigarettes in public libraries,'' Mr. Gennaro said. ''Certainly, they're becoming more common in restaurants and bars.''
He said the Bloomberg administration supported the bill. City Hall did not immediately return phone calls seeking confirmation of that.
The bill is being fast-tracked, because new council members will be seated in January, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will be succeeded by Bill de Blasio. If the bill does not pass before then, it would have to be reintroduced.
A hearing on the bill will be held next week, and Mr. Gennaro said the Council expected to take it up on Dec. 19.
E-cigarette makers are expected to mount a strenuous challenge to the bill. The industry has grown in recent years to more than 200 manufacturers in the United States doing $1.7 billion in annual sales; Lorillard, one of the major traditional tobacco companies, acquired Blu, one of the best-known e-cigarette brands, last year.
Lara Logan's Mystery Man
Nobody at 60 Minutes has been fired or even publicly disciplined for its odd, inflammatory and dead-wrong October 27 story on the Islamist assault in Benghazi that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. But it has apologized. That mea culpa, however, left some large and troubling questions unanswered; the most important one is how CBS's superstar correspondent, Lara Logan, her producer and other network news executives let security contractor Dylan Davies on the air with his explosive tale about what he did and saw during that attack.
While Davies was the central on-camera personality in that report, the most interesting figure in this mystery was never on screen, nor listed as a contributor to the piece. It is Logan's husband, Joseph W. Burkett, a former Army sergeant and onetime employee of a private intelligence outfit hired by the Pentagon to plant pro-U.S. stories in the Iraqi media in 2005.
One recent account implied that Burkett, 42, was the Svengali behind the now infamous story that pinned responsibility for the Benghazi attack on al Qaeda, without citing any sources.
''He was an employee of the Lincoln Group, a now-shuttered 'strategic communications and public relations firm' hired by the Department of Defense in 2005 to plant positive stories written by American soldiers in Baghdad newspapers during the Iraq War,'' the website Gawker reported.
The Gawker account also implied Burkett was a key operator in the covert action. A source intimately familiar with Burkett's family told Newsweek that he regularly suggested he was some sort of super-spook.
According to an internal company document obtained by Newsweek, the Lincoln Group specialized in producing films, news clips, and print stories in Baghdad that would be fed to the media through cutouts on an unattributed basis, making them appear as originating from legitimate news organizations.
During the 2006 battle for Fallujah, ''Our development of documentaries of the Fallujah campaign and our ability to develop non-Coalition attributable messages enabled us to reach out to the Iraqi audience,'' the document says. ''This multifaceted project produced content for Western, Arab, and Iraqi audiences and is still ongoing. For each audience we have identified content and formatting that is appropriate and non-attributable to the actual source.'' (Italics added.)
But others who claim to have known Burkett in Baghdad paint a starkly different portrait of the former enlisted man, one more akin to the role Steve McQueen played as a gofer for army supply sergeant Jackie Gleason in Soldier in the Rain.
According to a source intimately familiar with his family, Burkett routinely implied, without foundation, that he was a key player in classified operations in Iraq.
''He's what we call a puffer '' he puffs himself up,'' said the source, on condition of anonymity. ''He alluded to top-secret work, but he didn't make as much money as a truck driver over there. He had some kind of minuscule position.'... He was kind of an errand person or something like that.''
Besides, the source says, ''People who are spies don't really tell people they're spies.''
When Logan and Burkett began their affair in Baghdad, he was married and she was in a relationship. They were married in 2008. ''I knew him for about six years before we got together,'' she told The New York Times in a soft-focus feature in 2012. ''He had a very secretive job, and I always respected that. I know tons of people in that world, and I never ask them questions because it's a violation right there.''
''He never crossed my boundaries,'' Logan said of Burkett. ''I never crossed his.''
After Logan was named CBS's chief foreign correspondent, she purchased a $1.5 million home in D.C., which she now shares with Burkett and their two children. When asked for comment on Wednesday at the couple's Cleveland Park home, Burkett angrily ushered me out the door. (CBS also declined to comment.)
Since returning from Iraq, Burkett appears to have cut ties with Lincoln and its various corporate permutations, but he has clearly kept a hand in the world of security contractors. In 2011, according to Texas public records, he was listed as ''managing member'' of Janus Lares Associates, an Austin-based ammunition dealer. (Burkett is from a prominent family in Kerrville.) In 2011, he was also named as the ''governing person'' of Sakom Services LLC in San Marcos, Texas, which lists an office in the UAE, whose owner-director is Justin Penfold, a U.K.-based ''subject matter expert in the security industry'' with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Whatever Burkett is doing now, it doesn't appear to be a full-time job. When New York Times reporter Sally Singer interviewed Logan at her home last year, she identified Burkett as a ''work-at-home Congressional liaison,'' without noting his employer. When I spoke to him midday on Wednesday, Burkett was home in jeans and a T-shirt, having just emerged from the shower, helping take care of the couple's two kids with paid helpers in the kitchen and the backyard.
''Congressional liaison'' is another way of saying lobbyist, but a search of public records did not reveal Burkett's name. Nor did his name pop up in a search of the Justice Department's registered foreign agents.
None of this would matter or even be a topic of conversation had Logan's Benghazi story not included so many errors, documented most thoroughly by McClatchy Newspaper's Cairo correspondent Nancy A. Youssef.
The unmasking of security contractor Davies as a fabricator was the starting point for Youssef and other critics, but what stood out for them was Logan's unsourced allegations pinning responsibility for the attack solely on al Qaeda, and in particular, operatives with close ties to Osama Bin Laden. The effect of such allegations is to once again undermine the Obama administration's position that the attack had local origins and came as a surprise, and that all that made rescuing the besieged Americans very difficult, if not impossible. And the 60 Minutes broadcast was hardly off the air when South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, a persistent critic of the administration for its handling of the Benghazi attack, declared he would block all of Obama's nominations for government posts until he got more answers.
The State Department and CIA have conducted extensive internal investigations that, to unbiased observers, persuasively debunk charges of an orchestrated cover-up of the events in Benghazi.
Asked about the 60 Minutes report this week, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Newsweek that, based on what U.S. intelligence has learned, ''members of several militia groups and al Qaeda linked affiliates participated in the attack.'' However, he added on the condition of anonymity, since he was discussing a still-sensitive matter, ''even though it has yet to be determined who called the shots, I have not seen any credible information that it was core al Qaeda.''
So why did Logan put that story on the air? Her pro-military bias is as well known, but so is her mettle '' she's worked in some of those most dangerous parts of war-ravaged Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt, where she was sexually assaulted by a mob. She won an Emmy for one of her Iraq reports.
In other words, she's a smart, tough, experienced reporter. And the producer and writers and reporters who helped her put this Benghazi story together are honored, respected professionals, many of whom have been covering the region for years. Whoever fooled them, whoever convinced them that al Qaeda orchestrated that attack on the U.S. embassy, had to be smart, incredibly persuasive and savvy about the media. And unquotable.
In other words, an intelligence source. And the person closest to Logan with those credentials is her husband. But he's not talking.
Jeff Stein is a Newsweek contributing editor in Washington.
This story has been corrected to reflect that the original 60 Minutes report aired on October 27.
CBS Puts Laura Logan On Leave After Review Of Flawed Benghazi Report : NPR
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MediaAfter Internal Review On Benghazi Report, CBS Puts Logan On Leave
Leaked European Commission PR strategy: "Communicating on TTIP" | Corporate Europe Observatory
CEO has today published a leaked version of the European Commission's communication strategy for overcoming public skepticism about the controversial EU-US trade negotiations, the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The document was discussed at a meeting with EU member states on Friday 22 November. In order to "reduce fears and avoid a mushrooming of doubts", the Commission proposes to "further localise our communication effort at Member State level in a radically different way to what has been done for past trade initiatives".
Issues paper Communicating on TTIP '' Areas for cooperation between the Commission services and Member States
On 22 November 2013 in Brussels, the Commission is organising an informal meeting with Member States representatives to discuss issues related to communication on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The meeting is intended to explore possibilities for greater cooperation and coordination of respective communication activities around TTIP. The present paper provides additional background for this discussion. It highlights a number of key issues to be discussed at the meeting.
I. ContextStrong political communication will be essential to the success of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), both in terms of achieving EU negotiating objectives and of making sure that the agreement is eventually ratified. So far, the negotiations have experienced an unprecedented level of public and media interest. No other negotiation has been subject to a similar level of public scrutiny. Communicating on TTIP and engaging with stakeholders is therefore crucial when taking the negotiations forward.
There are three main communication challenges:
Making sure that the broad public in each of the EU Member States has a general understanding of what TTIP is (i.e. an initiative that aims at delivering growth and jobs) and what it is not (i.e. an effort to undermine regulation and existing levels of protection in areas like health, safety and the environment).Managing relations with third countries, as the agreement will affect also our other trading partners, in particular the multilateral level, our neighbourhood and major partners like China.Supporting our negotiating objectives vis- -vis the US negotiators, in particular in areas not falling under the direct responsibility of USTR. This may be the case with federal regulatory agencies and state-level authorities where there will be a need for the EU to help persuade these decision makers to also engage.In order to be successful in these areas, the Commission services and the Member States will need to work closely together and to collectively manage and coordinate our communication and outreach strategies.
The Commission, on its side, has put in place a dedicated TTIP communications operation, an approach that has already delivered results. However, the negotiations are just beginning and considerable challenges lie ahead. The communications effort is led by a Head of Communications in DG Trade with support of other Commission services, namely DG Communications and the Spokespersons Service. It is coordinated across the Commission, with Commission representatives in Member States and, through the EEAS, with EU Delegations.
II. The current approachThe overall approach is holistic, uniting media relations, outreach and management of stakeholders, social media and transparency. The approach will need to further localise our communication effort at Member State level in a radically different way to what has been done for past trade initiatives, in addition to deploying efforts in Brussels, in the US and around the world, providing clear, factual and convincing arguments on all aspects of the negotiations.
The aim is to define, at this early stage in the negotiations, the terms of the debate by communicating positively about what the TTIP is about (i.e. economic gains and global leadership on trade issues), rather than being drawn reactively into defensive communication about what TTIP is not about (e.g. not about negotiating data privacy, not about lowering EU regulatory standards etc.). For the approach to be successful it needs to be both proactive and quickly reactive, involving monitoring of public debate, producing targeted communications material and deploying that material through all channels including online and social media.
So far, this has allowed us to:
produce and disseminate communication materials on the narrative of the negotiations as a whole, as well as more focused material on specific issues: e.g the strategic, third country impact, the regulatory cooperation/convergence element, a detailed defence of the economic analysis behind the TTIP and a detailed rebuttal document on why the agreement is not ACTA.make clear that transparency will be a key part of the EU approach to the negotiations by publishing the EU's initial position papers on key aspects of the negotiations, holding early stakeholder engagement meetings, committing to closer than usual consultation with the European Parliament, communicating directly with members of the public through a dedicated TTIP Twitter account with a considerable message-multiplying effect.keep a handle on the mainstream media narrative on the negotiations, where there is broad support for the logic and intended substance of the agreement.achieve traction in national media, at least in some Member States,reach out to influential third parties to secure their public support for the negotiations.With the substance of the TTIP negotiations still to come, and an intensive ratification debate to follow, there is much more work to be done but the systems and approach we have now put in place provide a firm basis for future action. This needs support from and coordination with the Member States.
III. Key issues to watch1. Anxiety around the potential impact on the European social model and approach to regulation: We need proactive, early and widespread communication on the reality of what is under discussion in sensitive areas and on the EU's strong record in international negotiations. While still respecting the confidentiality required for the negotiations to succeed, the process also needs to be transparent enough to reduce fears and avoid a mushrooming of doubts before the deal is even concluded. This messaging needs to be accompanied by clear communication about the benefits of the TTIP.
2. Challenges arising from the institutional characteristics of the EU: The huge interest in the process means that there will be many moments of intense public pressure around the negotiations. At such moments, and indeed throughout the process, it is vital that the EU speaks as much as possible with one voice. The election campaign for the European Parliament will be an important factor in this context. It seems clear that given the salience of the negotiation political groups in several Member States will position themselves around different aspects of the negotiations.
3. The strategic dimension of TTIP (impact on third countries and multilateral): We need to provide a clear, reasonable definition of the real strategic potential of TTIP. This is obviously more than just another FTA, if only because its scale. It's bigger, broader and potentially deeper. As a result it will allow the EU and the US to show leadership on world trade, setting global precedents (e.g. in regulatory areas) that can help form the basis for future global trade negotiations in new areas. Single transatlantic rules, where possible, also offer benefits to third countries, whose exporters will find compliance less burdensome.
4. Making clear that this is a negotiation between equals: Many of the fears about what TTIP may represent are linked to a perception that the EU is not in a sufficiently strong position to engage with the United States. Some of this also stems from the fact that the EU is currently in a weaker economic position than the US and that therefore we need TTIP more than they do. We need to make clear that this is not the case, that despite the crisis the EU remains the world's largest market and is as such an indispensable partner for any trading economy (i.e. both sides have major economic interests in these negotiations). We must also make clear that we have as strong a track record as the US in trade and other negotiations, including with the US itself.
5. Transparency & stakeholder communication: Given the breadth of the issues under discussion, which cover much broader elements of policy-making than traditional trade agreements, expectations of transparency from stakeholders are higher than in previous trade negotiations. The complexity of the potential deal also means that negotiators have a greater need for stakeholder input during the process to make sure that proposed solutions to difficult issues are effective. At the same time negotiations demand a degree of confidentiality if they are to succeed.
IV. Possible questionsWhat are the key communication challenges for TTIP in respective Member States?
What activities are currently undertaken at Member State level to communicate about TTIP?
Who are the main stakeholders to be addressed? Do we have adequate tools?
In which areas could Commission services and Member States work closer together?"
EU lays down steps US must take to protect data
EU lays down steps US must take to protect data1 hour agoA pictures shows binary code reflected from a computer screen in a woman's eye on October 22, 2012
The EU on Wednesday laid down steps Washington must take to restore trust after a huge spying scandal, including giving EU citizens the right to US legal redress to protect personal data.
"Massive spying on our citizens, companies and leaders is unacceptable," EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said, adding there was "now a window of opportunity to rebuild trust which we expect our American partners to use."
An umbrella agreement being negotiated on EU-US data protection "has to give European citizens concrete and enforceable rights, notably the right to judicial redress in the US whenever their personal data are being processed in the US," Reding said in a statement.
A key concern in Europe'--where memories of surveillance by fascist and communist dictatorships remain alive'--is the pressure Washington exerts on giant US companies to hand over personal data, including of EU citizens, on national security grounds.
Up to now Brussels and Washington have reconciled their differences in a 'Safe Harbour' agreement which aims to ensure US companies respect EU norms on commercial personal data use.
In the EU, personal data protection is considered a basic right whose commercial use must be carefully controlled.
Data protection has become a hugely sensitive topic since intelligence leaker Edward Snowden described a massive network of US spy operations on friend and foe alike earlier this year
Safe Harbour now needs to be tightened up, Reding said, with 13 suggested changes, including a provision requiring US companies to make clear the extent to which US authorities have the right to collect and process data they may have gathered.
The national security justification often cited for such government access must also be used only if strictly necessary.
Reding said the EU must conclude reform of its own data protection laws and be actively involved to ensure that US reforms promised by President Barack Obama "also benefit EU citizens."
Highlighted by the reported US tapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, data protection has become a hugely sensitive topic since intelligence leaker Edward Snowden described a massive network of US spy operations on friend and foe alike earlier this year.
The uproar prompted the European Parliament to call for talks on a massive free trade deal with the United States to be halted and the Safe Harbour system to be scrapped in protest.
But the European Commission stressed again Wednesday that data protection standards would not be part of the negotiations on the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
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Joseph Kony peace talks may be just another tactic
A former child soldier following his rescue from the LRA. InmediahkThe government of the Central African Republic claims to be in talks with one of the world's most enigmatic African guerrilla leaders, Joseph Kony. But Kony has entered talks before with no intention of backing down. This latest announcement follows all the same patterns and should be treated with scepticism.
This is the first official set of meetings with Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, since talks in Uganda were aborted in 2008. Those talks were ostensibly unsuccessful because Kony feared that he would be turned over to the International Criminal Court, which has a warrent out for his arrest. Since then, he has fled his homeland of Northern Uganda and has cut a bloody swathe across the Northern Democratic Republic of Congo, eventually settling in an area of dense forest straddling the DRC, Sudan and the CAR.
The current leader of the CAR, Michel Djotodia, himself the leader of a rebel group that seized power earlier this year, says Kony has asked for food supplies and support for his followers around the town of Nzako. The CAR itself is in no position to do anything about the hardened rebels of the LRA. The country has just 200 police officers for its population of around 4.6 million people. It is a relatively lawless country, which makes it a perfect sanctuary for a group that sets itself beyond the conventional rule of law.
Mystical originsThe LRA is a semi-mystical group that grew out of the ruins of the Holy Spirit Movement in Uganda, which was led by Alice Lakwena, a reputed witch. Lakwena, who died in Kenya in 2007, was said to be possessed by several spirits, including various dead Italians. Her violent millennial movement came in reaction to the end of Acholi power in Uganda when Yoweri Museveni became president in 1986.
Kony claimed kinship to Lakwena and adopted several mystical devices to manage the LRA. This includes citing the Ten Commandments in its plans, spirit possession and the adoption of different spirits into a very specific cosmology, including both Allah and Jesus.
The emphasis on cosmology has been an integral part of the violence and brainwashing that has been the hallmark of the LRA itself. The group operates a regime of kidnapping of children and is reported to have taken up to 70,000 in its history. These children are then brutalised and become loyal followers.
The most common method of binding the children to the LRA cause is reportedly to wait until one child tries to escape and is captured. Former rebels report that the others are forced to kill the escapee, sometimes in extremely brutal ways, such as by biting them to death. These young children are then told that they cannot go back to their original homes and that the LRA is now their family.
Whilst the LRA itself was chased across the Nile in 2005 and effectively exiled from Uganda in 2008, they have continued to terrorise local communities in the DRC and Sudan and to poach elephants for ivory.
Unusual tacticsAs well as being a somewhat bizarre entity itself, the LRA has also been subject to several unconventional attempts to end its existence. The hunt for Joseph Kony hit the mainstream last year as a result of a campaign by the NGO Invisible Children and the subsequent very public meltdown of its leader. The group used crowdsourcing to support its work and sought to recruit high-profile supporters for its cause.
But before the Kony 2012 campaign, a US millionaire funded a hunt for Kony organised by the former mercenary Eeben Barlow. More recently, African Union troops supported by around 100 US Special Forces have been flying over the jungle in helicopters broadcasting ''go home'' messages to the LRA rank and file.
Why we should be scepticalThe AU and US military intervention appears to have had a significant effect and Kony has been pushed into Nzako. And it is this success that casts doubt on the future of the latest peace talks.
Kony has form when it comes to using peace talks to buy time to regroup. The timing of these latest talks is very similar to the abortive talks in 2008 when the LRA had again been under military pressure. He is using the same tactics, notably greatly exaggerating the strength of the LRA, in order to increase supplies. Whilst the CAR estimates the strength of the LRA given by Kony as around 2,000, a more realistic estimate is a few hundred.
On top of the pressure from outside forces, the LRA has reportedly been subject to an internal purge by the increasingly unstable Kony. He has a history of executing leadership rivals and an internal purge has reportedly led him to demote several LRA commanders and murder others. This has clearly contributed to the high desertion rate amongst LRA troops as many seek to go home.
Finally, the purported peace offer comes from an approach from one of Kony's commanders, Otto Ladeere, who commands an LRA satellite group, rather than from Kony himself. It is possible that Ladeere is using Kony's name to give himself legitimacy, but even if Kony is involved, the history of the LRA and particularly of Kony would emphasise that extreme caution is required whenever he talks about peace.
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Elite$
Willie Brown Says Techies Have Started A Class War in San Francisco
Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown has looked out his 35th floor window at the St. Regis and decided he doesn't like what he sees. In his latest Willie's World column for the San Francisco Chronicle, Brown admonishes local techies for fueling class warfare in the streets.
Brown argues that the tech sector won't keep benefitting from government perks'--i.e. the "Twitter tax break"'--if startups alienate all the residents with voting power. That seems like a naive reading on how local politics get funded. However, his suggestion that charity work start in your own back yard is well-timed with the news of food bank shortages in Silicon Valley over the holiday.
There's a war brewing in the streets of San Francisco, and a lot of people could get caught up in it if the tech world doesn't start changing its self-centered culture.
Every day in every way, from rising rents to rising prices at restaurants to its private buses, the tech world is becoming an object of scorn. It's only a matter of time before the techies' youthful lustre fades, and they're seen as just another extension of Wall Street.
And when that happens, tenant advocates, community activists, labor unions and Occupy types are going to start asking why we're giving away the city to all these white-male-dominated businesses that don't even hire locals.
At which point, the politicians will do what they always do - count votes. And by my last count, for all of their hype and money, tech types were still a decidedly small part of the vote. If they even vote at all.
What the tech world needs to do is nip this thorny plant in the bud. They need to come off their high cloud efforts to save Africa or wherever they take adventure vacations and start making things better for folks right here.
They need to start helping in Hunters Point and in Chinatown.
Most of all, they need to start hiring locals.
Otherwise, the next time it comes to a tax measure or a vote at the Planning Commission, they could find themselves getting skinned.
That is if there are any non-millionaire locals left in San Franciscoto hire.
Brown's regular column in the Chronicle forgoes transitions entirely'--jumping from thought-to-thought with only a line break in between. While that's great preparation for talking to your relatives on Thanksgiving, that leaves Brown's peacekeeping mission hanging while he meanders over to talk shit about Mayor Ed Lee.
Lucky for Brown's readers, a non sequitur buried in the middle of the column actually provides the kind of reality check the industry needs. From inside its private club, no less:
I'm sitting at the Battery the other night next to three women, all of whom were trying to find their husbands. They started talking about a new app that lets them fix on another cell phone and figure out exactly where it is.
Then they demonstrated how it works with each other's phones.
You were saying something about Wall Street in innovator's clothing?
[Image via Getty]
Techies must nip growing scorn in bud - SFGate
Mayor Ed Lee, the next ambassador to China? Even Rose Pak was laughing at that rumor.
If anyone should be offered the Beijing posting, it's Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She was the first mayor to establish a Sister City relationship with Shanghai, and she chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, so she's well aware of the challenges and tensions of our relationship with China.
It would be a fitting sunset for a great career. Plus, it would give Gov. Jerry Brown the chance to appoint his wife, Anne Gust Brown, as Feinstein's replacement in the Senate.
It appears that, as I predicted, Nancy Bechtle has taken it upon herself to keep George Lucas and his proposed museum out of the Presidio.
And from the coverage so far, I'd say The Chronicle agrees with her.
Bechtle's position has put her at odds with many of her Gold Coast neighbors, including the Gettys, Maryon Lewis, Dede Wilsey and even Dianne Feinstein.
It's much the same story we saw when the late Donald Fisher wanted to install his modern art collection at the Presidio. At least those works stayed in town, at the Museum of Modern Art. Don't look for Lucas to do the same.
So California is suddenly swimming in a multibillion-dollar budget surplus. If Gov. Jerry Brown is smart, he'll hold a press conference tomorrow and pledge to use the money to pay down the state's Wall of Debt.
But he needs to make the call right away, before my fellow Democrats or the teachers or the doctors or the other special interest groups with pull start demanding a cut.
I immediately decided to start leaving my cell phone at home.
Movie time: "The Book Thief." This is the first movie I can recall that shows what Nazi Germany was like from the perspective of Germans who opposed Hitler. The title character, Sophie N(C)lisse, is terrific. Add in the always-worthwhile Geoffrey Rush, and you have a movie well worth seeing.
If it's laughs you're looking for, try "The Best Man Holiday," starring a roguish Terrence Howard and a talented supporting cast. Good any time, day or night.
After writing about the homeless lined up along Mission Street, I received a number of notes from people telling me to visit the Embarcadero BART Station after 11 p.m.
Sure enough, the homeless encampment in and around the station has gone from bad to worse, and it's somewhat scary for everybody. Even me.
Maybe we should have a receiver, a person in charge with unlimited powers, run BART for a while. I'm almost certain that would eliminate mistakes in contracts as well as software screwups. So goodbye, elected officials and union leaders.
I was in Best Buy the other morning looking at the new TV sets. They have one that lets you use your hand as the remote.
You hold up your hand and a little target flashes up on the screen, and you move the cursor wherever you want with your fingers.
The salesman said, "Go ahead and do it."
"Just one problem," I said.
"What's that?"
"I can't see where the little dot is."
If you buy one, I hope you can spot the dot.
Want to sound off? E-mail wbrown@sfchronicle.com.
Why Have 10 Major Volcanoes Along The Ring Of Fire Suddenly Roared To Life?
Source: WTF RLY REPORT
The Truth Winsby Michael Snyder
Ten major volcanoes have erupted along the Ring of Fire during the past few months, and the mainstream media in the United States has been strangely silent about this. But this is a very big deal. We are seeing eruptions at some volcanoes that have been dormant for decades. Yes, it is certainly not unusual for two or three major volcanoes along the Ring of Fire to be active at the same time, but what we are witnessing right now is highly unusual. And if the U.S. media is not concerned about this yet, the truth is that they should be. Approximately 90 percent of all earthquakes and approximately 80 percent of all volcanic eruptions occur along the Ring of Fire, and it runs directly up the west coast of the United States. Perhaps if Mt. Rainier in Washington state suddenly exploded or a massive earthquake flattened Los Angeles the mainstream media would wake up. Most Americans have grown very complacent about these things, but right now we are witnessing volcanic activity almost everywhere else along the Ring of Fire. It is only a matter of time before it happens here too.
Sadly, most Americans cannot even tell you what the Ring of Fire is. The following is how Wikipedia defines the ''Ring of Fire'''...
The Ring of Fire is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. It has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.
An easy way to think about the Ring of Fire is to imagine a giant red band stretching along the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean.
And yes, that includes the entire west coast of the United States and the entire southern coast of Alaska.
10 major volcanoes along the Ring of Fire have suddenly roared to life in recent months. The following are short excerpts from news reports about those eruptions'...
Volcano creates new island off the coast of Japan: A dramatic volcanic eruption in the Pacific Ocean has created a tiny new islet in Japan's territorial waters, officials said Thursday, the first time in decades the nation has seen the phenomenon.
The navy spotted smoke about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) south of Tokyo on Wednesday and Japan's coastguard later verified the birth of the islet around the Ogasawara island chain.
Video footage showed plumes of smoke and ash billowing from the 200-metre island, and Japan's coastguard said it was warning vessels to use caution in the area until the eruption cools off.
Mount Sinabung in Indonesia: A volcano in western Indonesia has erupted eight times in just a few hours, ''raining down rocks'' over a large area and forcing thousands to flee their homes, officials said Sunday.
Mount Sinabung has been erupting on and off since September, but went into overdrive late Saturday and early Sunday, repeatedly spewing out red-hot ash and rocks up to eight kilometres (five miles) into the air.
Colima in Mexico: On Monday night and Tuesday morning, the Colima volcano showed two strong exhalations; ejecting lava down its slopes and ash skyward, that has reached several villages. Since last Sunday, the Volcan de Fuego de Colima was reactivated after several weeks of apparent calm and until Tuesday registered between 30 and 35 puffs per day, spewing lava down its slopes and ash that reached the people of Cheese, municipality of Cuauht(C)moc, Colima, and some towns in the state of Jalisco.
Sakurajima in Japan: After a short phase of weaker activity, the volcano began to erupt more violently yesterday with a series of powerful explosions that sent ash plumes up to 15,000 ft (4,5 km). Near-constant ash emissions have been taking place from the Showa crater.
Fuego in Guatemala: Two lava flows are active on the upper slopes of the volcano at the moment, to the Taniluya (south) and Ceniza canyon (SE). The effusive activity started on 11 Nov and increased on 18 November, reaching a length of 600 m. Constant avalanches detach from the flow fronts. At the same time, explosive activity at the summit crater remained at low to moderate levels, with strombolian explosions that produce ash plumes of up to 800 m height and incandescent jets visible from distance.
Santa Mara/Santiaguito in Guatemala: A phreatomagmatic (water-magma interaction driven) explosion yesterday morning produced a plume of fine ash rising to 3.2 km altitude (700 m above the lava dome) and drifted SE, causing ash fall in Finca La Florida.
Yaser in Vanuatu: Geohazards reports that the volcano continues to produce near-continuous ash emissions while explosions are relatively weak. This phase of ash emissions began on 3 November and are likely to continue into the coming days and weeks.
Popocatepetl in Mexico: The Popocatepetl volcano showcased with a layer of snow was observed throughout the morning and mid-day from the city of Puebla and columns generated by medium-intensity exhalations. According to the monitoring system of the National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) in the last 24 hours, the colossus presented 57 exhalations of low intensity, probably accompanied by emissions of steam and gas.
Mount Marapi in Indonesia: Mount Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia, erupted earlier Monday, shooting a cloud of black ash about 2,000 meter high, officials said.
Kliuchevskoi on the Kamchatka Peninsula: Kliuchevskoi on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia had a busy weekend after its busy week '-- and a lot of the action was caught on the webcams pointed at the volcano or by satellite. For much of Friday and into Saturday (October 18-19), the volcano continued to produce some vigorous lava fountains and lava flows, mixed in with Strombolian explosions that sent bombs down the slopes of the volcano. This activity was significant enough to cause some aviation alerts even over the western Aleutian Islands.
Why is the Ring of Fire suddenly roaring to life?
And what could this mean for the United States?
The Truth Wins
Comet ISON Model
Comet ISON ModelComet ISON real-time interactive 3D model - comet's current position, path through the solar system and where is ISON visible in the night sky.
2013 Comet, 3D, Model, Interactive model, Real-Time Visualization, Simulation, Trajectory, Orbit, Solar system, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Planets, Stars
NA Tech
About the Data Set - Common Crawl - Confluence
OverviewThe Common Crawl data set contains approximately 6 billion web documents stored on a publicly accessible, scalable computer cluster. Here is some more information on the content and storage of the data set.
File LocationsThe entire Common Crawl data set is stored on Amazon S3 as a Public Data Set:
http://aws.amazon.com/datasets/41740
The data set is divided into three major subsets:
Archived Crawl #1 - s3://aws-publicdatasets/common-crawl/crawl-001/ - crawl data from 2008/2010 Archived Crawl #2 - s3://aws-publicdatasets/common-crawl/crawl-002/ - crawl data from 2009/2010 Current Crawl - s3://aws-publicdatasets/common-crawl/parse-output/ - crawl data from 2012
The two archived crawl data sets are stored in folders organized by the year, month, date, and hour the content was crawled. For example:
s3://aws-publicdatasets/common-crawl/crawl-002/2010/01/06/10/1262847572760_10.arc.gzthe contents of this file were crawled started on January 6th, 2010 at 10 AM.
The current crawl data set is stored in the "parse-output" folder in a similar manner to how Nutch stores archives. Crawl data is stored in a "segments" subfolder, then in a folder that starts with the UNIX timestamp of crawl start time. For example:
s3://aws-publicdatasets/common-crawl/parse-output/segment/1341690169105/1341826131693_45.arc.gzThe "crawl-intermediate", "merge-output", and "stats-output" subfolders are used for internal data processing, and, while publicly available, are currently not documented and are not considered part of the corpus.
File TypesThe current crawl data set includes three different types of files: ARC raw content, Text Only, and Metadata.
The archived crawl data sets contain only ARC raw content files.
ARC Files - Raw ContentARC files contain the full HTTP response and payload for all pages crawled. The ARC file format was designed by the Internet Archive. You can read more about this file format here:
http://archive.org/web/researcher/ArcFileFormat.php
ARC files are a series of concatenated GZIP documents. The first compressed member is a ARC file header, which usually looks like this:
filedesc://1341817173109_4.arc.gz 0.0.0.0 20120709065933 text/plain 731 0 CommonCrawlURL IP-address Archive-date Content-type Archive-lengthThis file header lists the fields that are used in the record header of subsequent records: URL, IP Address, Archive Date, Content Type, Archive Length
The rest of the individually compressed members consist of an ARC record header, followed by the full HTTP response:
http://www.srlchem.com/products/ 74.55.84.98 20120518232759 text/html 28556HTTP/1.1 200 OKServer:nginxDate:Fri, 18 May 2012 23:28:04 GMTContent-Type:text/html...The ARC files reside in timestamp-based folders in the archived crawls, and in the segment folders in the current crawl. They files are named "*.arc.gz". For example:
s3://aws-publicdatasets/common-crawl/parse-output/segment/1341690169105/1341826131693_45.arc.gzThe Metadata files, described below, contain offsets into the ARC files. You can use these offsets as a cross-reference between content metadata and the actual content.
Text Files - Text OnlyCommon Crawl also produces a series of text only files. These files take content returned as HTML or RSS and parse out just the text content - making it easier for researchers to perform text-based analysis.
Text Only files are saved as Hadoop SequenceFiles using GZIP compression. The key and value data types are both Text. The key in these files is the URL, and the value is the actual text content. From HTML pages, the text content includes the page title, the page meta description content, and all text content from the HTML body. They are located in the segment directories, with a file name of "textData-nnnnn". For example:
s3://aws-publicdatasets/common-crawl/parse-output/segment/1341690169105/textData-00112The numbers at the end of the filename are sequentially assigned to Text Only files within the segment - they have not specific meaning.
Further, Text Only files are translated from their native character sets into UTF-8. All Text Only content (in all languages) can be read using the UTF-8 character set.
Currently, we are only producing Text Only files from HTML and RSS/Atom content. The Text Only files are on average 20% of the size of the raw content.
MetadataIn addition to content files, Common Crawl produces a series of Metadata files that provide useful information about the crawled content. For each URL, the Metadata files contain status information, the HTTP response code, and file names and offsets of ARC files where the raw content can be found.
Most importantly for some users, the Metadata files contain the HTML title, HTML meta tags, RSS/Atom information, and all anchors/hyperlinks from HTML documents (including all fields on the link tags). Users can scan the metadata files to pick up extracted links rather than extracting the links themselves.
Records in the Metadata files are in the same order and have the same file numbers as the Text Only content.
Metadata files are saved as Hadoop SequenceFiles using GZIP compression. The key and value data types are also both Text. The key in these files is the URL, and the value is a JSON structure of fields and subfields - the full structure is defined below.. Just like the Text Only files, the Metadata files are located in the segment directories, with a file name of "metadata-nnnnn". For example:
s3://aws-publicdatasets/common-crawl/parse-output/segment/1341690169105/metadata-00112Metadata SchemaThe Metadata file JSON contains the following attributes.
All attributes are considered optional, and are only present when they apply.
General AttributesThe following attributes apply to all types of content:
Attribute NameAttribute DescriptionAvailableattempt_timeThe time (in UNIX time format) that the crawl of this page was attempted.alwaysdispositionSUCCESS if the crawler received a successful HTTP response; FAILURE if not.alwaysfailure_reasonA code representing why the crawl of this page failed.on failurefailure_detailA message, if available, on why the crawl of this page failed.on failureserver_ipThe IP address of the server that returned the response.on successhttp_resultThe HTTP result code.on successhttp_headersA JSON object containing all returned HTTP headers as key/value pairs.on successredirect_from if URL was redirectedcontent_lenThe value of the Content-Length HTTP header.on successmime_typeThe value of the Content-Type HTTP header (stripped of the charset).on successdownload_sizeThe actual size of the downloaded content.on successcontent_is_gzipOptional attribute that specifies that source content was gzip'd.if payload is gzip'dgunzip_content_lenIf the content was gzip'd, this is the decompressed length of the incoming content.if payload is gzip'dmd5The md5 hash of the downloaded content.on successtext_simhashThe 64-bit simhash of the text (UCS-2) content if document was a valid text type.if payload is textcharset_detectedThe character set Common Crawl detected for the downloaded content.on successcharset_detector0 - The character set was derived from an HTTP header.1 - The character set was derived from an HTML "meta" tag.2 - The character set was derived from the ICU detector.3 - The character set was derived from the Mozilla detector.10 - The character set could not be determined. ISO-8895-1 is assumed.
on successparsed_ashtml - Downloaded content was parsed as HTML.feed - Downloaded content was parsed as an RSS/Atom feed.on successcontentIf the HTTP response code was 20x, and if the downloaded content was parsed as HTML oras Feed, a JSON object represent the document's metadata.
HTTP Code = 20xarchiveInfo
A JSON object with information about where the content for this retrieved URL can be found.on successarchiveInfo > arcSourceSegmentId
The segment that contains the ARC file in which the content for this record is stored.i.e. ../parse-output/segment/[arcSourceSegmentId]/[arcFileDate]_[arcFileParition].arc.gzon successarchiveInfo > arcFileDateThe date prefix of the ARC file in which the content for this record is stored.i.e. ../parse-output/segment/[arcSourceSegmentId]/[arcFileDate]_[arcFileParition].arc.gzon successarchiveInfo > arcFileParitionThe partition ID of the ARC file in which the content for this record is stored.i.e. ../parse-output/segment/[arcSourceSegmentId]/[arcFileDate]_[arcFileParition].arc.gzon successarchiveInfo > arcFileOffsetThe byte offset at which the ARC file record is stored.on successarchiveInfo > compressedSizeThe compressed size of the ARC file record associated with this URL.on successHTML Content AttributesThe "content" JSON object of an HTML document can contain the following fields:
Attribute NameAttribute Descriptioncontent > typeAlways "html-doc".content > title
The value of the HTML "title" tag.content > meta_tagsA JSON array of objects representing each "meta" tag found by the parser.
Note: If the "meta" tag uses a "property" attribute instead of a "name" attribute, "property" is used as the key.
content > linksA JSON array of objects representing each link found by the parser.content > links > typeThe HTML tag type that the link was found in. Examples: a, area, frame, iframe, script, img, link, etc.content > links > hrefThe URL associated with the tag, usually from the "href" attribute.content > links > textThe text displayed for the link. Usually the value of the link element.content > links > *Every attribute of the link tag is provided.The "content" JSON object of an RSS feed document can contain the following fields:
Attribute NameAttribute Valuecontent > typeAlways "rss-feed".
content > titleThe value of the feed "title" element.content > linkThe value of the feed "link" element.
content > descriptionThe value of the feed "description" element.content > updatedThe later of either the "lastBuildDate" or the "pubDate" elements.content > generatorThe value of the feed "generator" element.
content > ttlThe value of the feed "ttl" element.content > categoriesA JSON array of category names associated with the feed.content > itemsA JSON array of objects representing each feed item.content > items > titleThe value of the item "title" element.content > items > descriptionThe value of the item "description" element.content > items > linkThe value of the item "link" element.content > items > authorThe value of the item "author" element.content > items > commentsThe value of the item "comments" element. A URL where users can comment on the feed item.content > items > publishedThe value of the item "pubDate" element.content > items > guidThe value of the item "GUID" element. A unique identifier for the feed item.content > items > categoriesA JSON array of category names associated with the item.content > items > contentA JSON object or array of objects containing any links embedded in the body of the item.
Atom Content AttributesThe "content" JSON object of an Atom feed document can contain the following fields:
Attribute NameAttribute Valuecontent > typeAlways "atom-feed".
content > titleThe value of the feed "title" element, stripped of any HTML.content > linkA JSON object representing the feed rel=alternate "link" element.
content > descriptionThe value of the feed "description" element.content > updatedThe value of the feed "updated" element.content > generatorThe value of the feed "generator" element.
content > authorsA JSON array of authors associated with the feed.content > categoriesA JSON array of category names associated with the feed.content > itemsA JSON array of objects representing each feed item.content > items > titleThe value of the item "title" element, stripped of any HTML.content > items > descriptionThe value of the item "description" element.content > items > linkA JSON object or array of objects representing the item rel=alternate "link" elements.content > items > selfA JSON object or array of objects representing the item rel=self "link" elements.content > items > repliesA JSON object or array of objects representing the item rel=replies "link" elements.content > items > authorsA JSON array of objects represeting the item authors.content > items > publishedThe value of the item "published" element.content > items > updatedThe value of the item "updated" element.content > items > categoriesA JSON array of category names associated with the item.content > items > contentA JSON object or array of objects containing any links embedded in the body of the item.
VIDEO-Ministry of Defense Report: Mysterious 'Fireball' That Streaked Across The Oregon Sky A Chinese Missile - The Freedom Report | The Freedom Report
by THETOTALCOLLAPSE.COM on NOVEMBER 23, 2013
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) is reporting today that the Vityaz early-warning radar system deployed along the entire Russian border has confirmed the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) launching from their Type 092 Xia-class nuclear ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN) of two atomic JL-2 missiles off the Northwest American coastline near the State of Oregon on Wednesday 30 October and Wednesday 20 November.
According to this report, these two latest sub-launched nuclear ballistic tests by China off the west coast of the United States were preceded by a similar test conducted on Monday 10 November 2010 when a Chinese Navy Jin class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, deployed secretly from its underground home base on the south coast of Hainan island, launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from international waters off the southern California coast in full view of Los Angeles.
As the Pentagon and their US mainstream media sycophants covered up the 10 November 2010 China missile launch, this MoD report continues, they have likewise labeled the 30 October missile launch as a fireball-meteor and the 20 November one as 'maybe'another fireball-meteor or contrail.
Important to note, Russian intelligence analysts in this report say, was that China ''cryptically warned'' the US about its planned 30 October launch test when on Sunday 27 October the world was given a rare glimpse into China's nuclear-powered submarine fleet, with State-owned media carrying extensive coverage of the previously mysterious strategic deterrence force.
The unprecedented revealing of the underwater fleet was a demonstration of China's confidence in its sea-based nuclear strike capability and serves as a deterrent to any attempted provocation amid the changing geopolitical situation, said military observers.
Starting on Sunday 27 October, China Central Television carried serial coverage two days in a row on the submarine force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's Beihai fleet in its flagship news program Xinwen Lianbo.
The People's Daily, the PLA Daily and the China Youth Daily on Monday all carried front-page stories, features and commentaries on the submarine force, applauding its achievements since the launch of China's first nuclear-powered submarine in December 1970.
To the most chilling warning to the Obama regime from China regarding these missile tests the Washington Times News Service further reports:
''Chinese calculations for nuclear attacks on the U.S. are chillingly macabre.
''Because the Midwest states of the U.S. are sparsely populated, in order to increase the lethality, [our] nuclear attacks should mainly target the key cities on the West Coast of the United States, such as Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego,'' the Global Times said.
''The 12 JL-2 nuclear warheads carried by one single Type 094 SSBN can kill and wound 5 million to 12 million Americans,'' the Global Times reported.
China also has developed land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles '-- notably the DF-31A, which has a range of 7,000 to 7,500 miles.
''If we launch our DF 31A ICBMs over the North Pole, we can easily destroy a whole list of metropolises on the East Coast and the New England region of the U.S., including Annapolis, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Portland, Baltimore and Norfolk, whose population accounts for about one-eighth of America's total residents.''
All the state-run press reports stressed the point that the PLA's missile submarines are now on routine strategic patrol, ''which means that China for the first time has acquired the strategic deterrence and second strike capability against the United States.''
Though the American people themselves have been kept in near total ignorance of the coming war between them and China, the same cannot be said of the rest of the world, including Doug Saunders of The Globe and Mail, Canada's leading newspaper, who reported in its 15 July edition that the United States and China have been preparing for an all-out war and which we, in part, quote from The Nation News Service:
''Both the Pentagon and the People's Liberation Army are building up their military strategies. It appears that a global war is in the making.
Saunders wrote that the Pentagon is proceeding with war preparations without oversight from the White House or Congress. This gives the impression that the Pentagon is operating as an independent state within the state. The Pentagon is relying on the AirSea Battle strategy, in which the US Army and Air Force will stand ready to support 320,000 military personnel in a simultaneous land and air attack against China in the event of a spillover war in the South China Sea or surrounding areas.
President Obama has spoken of a pivot to Asia, followed by the US Defence Department's plan to move most of the US naval capability to the Asia Pacific to counter the rise of China. We can feel that the US military, in spite of the turmoil in Syria, Egypt and the Middle East, is re-asserting its influence in the Asia-Pacific. The US and China are now engaging in a full-scale currency war. A physical war could be the inevitable course. A rise of China threatens the US dollar as the world's reserve currency and the US supremacy.
On China's side, we can assume that the Chinese leadership has ordered a full preparation for a war with the United States. China has secretly built up its military capability, with modern weapons and sophisticated technology. China said it is ready to develop an anti-AirSea Battle strategy. China's President has urged the military to prepare for the war and to fight to win.''
To how soon open warfare between China and the US will break out this report doesn't say. However, it does note that China's ''bombshell move'' against the US Dollar this week makes its likelihood much sooner than later.
Keep on reading @ thetotalcollapse.com
'--'--'--'--'---
The Huffington Post | By Sara GatesPosted: 11/21/2013 2:00 pm EST | Updated: 11/21/2013 2:04 pm EST
Sorry, extraterrestrial fanatics. That ''fireball'' that streaked across the Oregon sky Wednesday morning probably wasn't alien in nature.
Local KOIN meteorologist Bruce Sussman said that the unknown object, which some took for a UFO, was most likely a contrail left in the wake of an aircraft. Sussman ''solved'' the mystery by analyzing the station's time-lapse footage of the sky.
Previously, the U.S. Strategic Command ruled out the possibility the fireball was a man-made object re-entering the atmosphere, KATU News reported.
Some early morning skywatchers were stumped by the unusual sight, since the object appeared as a bright streak across the sky over east Portland.
Flaming 'Fireball' Mistakenly Seen Over Portland If Sussman is correct, it seems sun rays caused the vapor trail to appear ablaze.
But Jim Todd of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry has his doubts. While the director of space science education does not believe the fireball is space junk or anything man-made, he couldn't confirm the origin of the object.
''The verdict is still out whether it was a fireball or a contrail,'' he told local FOX affiliate KPTV.
Keep on reading @ huffingtonpost.com
VIDEO-EXPALINING THE NUKES Secretary Kerry's Video Message on the Geneva Talks With Iran
SECRETARY KERRY: You'll be hearing a lot about what the United States and our partners just achieved in Geneva so I wanted to take a minute to share with you an inside view of what we really accomplished here and to explain very clearly what it is and what it isn't. First of all, this is a beginning. It's a first step. Over the coming months, we're going to roll up our sleeves and keep working with the parties at the table in order to reach a final, comprehensive agreement that ensures Iran will not acquire a nuclear weapon and that the nuclear program that they do have will be entirely peaceful. And that has to be absolutely verifiable.So let me lay out the main points of what we've already achieved here in this first step agreement. And the reason I want to do that is, it's significant. This agreement that we've just signed is the first in almost a decade to put any kind of meaningful limits on Iran's nuclear program. And we're not just slowing down its progress; we're actually halting it and even rolling it back in some key areas. That's very important. It means that even as we continue to move forward with negotiations, Iran's nuclear program will not move forward, and in some respects it's going to be moving backwards.
So here's exactly what this agreement does. In order to work, nuclear weapons require either highly enriched uranium or plutonium. Uranium, as I'm sure you know, is found in nature, but it's found in a form, a raw form, that can't be used for a bomb. So to make it useful for nuclear weapons, you need to separate the majority of the uranium that is not useful for nuclear weapons from the small amount that is, and this is a process called enrichment.
Highly enriched uranium, or HEU, can be produced in a number of ways, but an increasingly common way is through the use of centrifuges because they are low power, very cheap to operate, and easy to hide. Uranium for weapons is about 90% enriched. And uranium for reactors, for instance to give you nuclear power for your electricity in your home, is usually at about 5%. So you see the difference here. Plutonium, on the other hand, is not found in nature. It requires putting uranium into a reactor and then you separate out the plutonium from the uranium. Our proposal addresses both of these paths to nuclear weapons.
On enrichment, we are eliminating Iran's stockpile of already enriched - 20% enriched - uranium. We are holding their centrifuge program where it is today, and we are stopping them from using their most advanced centrifuges. These are centrifuges that can separate uranium very quickly and do the enrichment very fast so they are very risky and that's why we keep them away from that process for now.
On plutonium, we're putting on hold the most meaningful parts of their reactor that's currently under construction in a place called Arak, Iran. Now this is their most likely source of plutonium, and that's why it's something we are absolutely determined to stop. On top of this, we're also adding more international inspections so that we know exactly what Iran is doing at these risky places and that is very consistent with our deal and, most importantly, it's so that we can make absolutely certain that they are not using these facilities during the time that we're negotiating the comprehensive deal in order to move towards nuclear weapons. In other words, we're verifying, and for the first time, we will get inspectors into their critical facilities every single day.
Now let me tell you what this first step does not do, because some people are putting out some misinformation on it and I want it to be clear. It does not lift the current architecture of our sanctions. Our sanctions are basically banking and oil sanctions, and those sanctions will stay in place. All the core sanctions on financial services remain firmly in place, and we do this in exchange for Iran keeping its end of the agreement -- that they will get a small amount of additional money which is totally reversible if we need to, if they don't keep their word, but we give them a small amount of relief. Iran will be allowed to repatriate about $4.2 billion or so in oil revenues and will be allowed to export about $2.5 billion in petrochemicals and vehicles. So believe me, when I say this relief is limited and reversible, I mean it.
We all know that if the agreement falls apart, Iran is going to quickly face even tougher sanctions. I want you to know these were not easy negotiations. We drove a very hard bargain to achieve what we needed to in terms of our verification and certainty about where they're going. And we drove a hard bargain because we have one unwavering purpose in our goal. President Obama has been absolutely clear that Iran cannot and will not acquire a nuclear weapon. And today, thanks to this effort, we took an important first step towards guaranteeing that that never happens, and I think we did it in the most effective way. We did it through diplomacy.
So now it's time to get back to work. We are immediately going to work on the final agreement, the comprehensive agreement, and our diplomats and our experts will be at the negotiating table very soon again working to achieve this final comprehensive agreement that addresses all of our concerns and our friends: Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Arab Emirates, others. The whole world has an interest in making sure that this is a peaceful program. We absolutely also have an interest in trying to achieve that through a peaceful, diplomatic means and also to have a total answer to the question that challenges the security of the United States, the Middle East, and the world.
So we're going to get this done, I hope, but we're not cocky about it. We're not overconfident. It's going to take a lot of work, and in the end, it's really up to Iran to make the choice, to prove that its program is indeed peaceful. They can say it, but saying it doesn't make it happen. It has to be proven. And in the end, they have to be the ones to make the choice to do that. So let's work together, all of us, to try and forge a different future that benefits all of us. Thank you.
VIDEO-BBC News - 'Epic' comet Ison approaching the Sun
Comet Ison's close encounter with the Sun could give astronomers and stargazers a visual treat to be savoured.
Described as the "comet of the century", Ison's loop around the Sun has been eagerly awaited, but scientists fear it could break up during its pass.
Rebecca Morelle reports.
VIDEO-Major film producer Arnon Milchan says he was a spy - YouTube
VIDEO-Kerry: 'There is no Right to Enrich' in Iran Nuclear Deal | MRCTV
MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
Copyright (C) 2013, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
VIDEO- John Kerry "None Of This Is Based On Trust!" - YouTube
VIDEO- Report On Sandy Hook School Shooting Missing Key Details Including Police Timeline - YouTube
VIDEO- "Is It Really All That Important That The Details Of What Occurred At The School Come Out?" - YouTube
VIDEO-Ga. juror form lists 'slave' as occupation
An online juror form from Dekalb County, Georgia lists 'slave' as an occupational option. Locals reacted with disbelief and confusion. The designer of the online software insists that all the survey info is inputted by the user.
Rebecca Lindstrom, WXIA-TV, Atlanta11:45 a.m. EST November 26, 2013
Free online classes, open to the public, are growing more popular and extensive. They are offered through many websites and universities, including Harvard, Yale and Duke.(Photo: Getty Images/Pixland)
Story HighlightsA potential juror completing the form hit the letter "s" for sales and he says he got "slave" insteadCourt administrator says the list of occupations is 62 pages longThe word slave was removed from the form within an hour after county officials learned about itSHARE515CONNECTEMAILMOREDECATUR, Ga. '-- A potential juror filling out a new DeKalb County Court online questionnaire discovered an unusual option among the occupation choices: slave.
A man completing the form hit the letter "s" for sales and he says he got "slave" instead.
Court Administrator Cathy McCumber said the questionnaire went online a month ago, but is based off an internal list that's been used for 13 years.
She says the list of occupations is 62 pages long, so she's not sure if the word slave has always been on it, or if it was added before the questionnaire went online to the public.
At the courthouse Monday, residents responded with disbelief when shown the questionnaire with the offending job title.
"That is not an occupation, slave is not an occupation," said Cheryl Glass.
"So they're saying it's a mistake? asked Bridgette Mathis. "I don't think so. Why is that even an option? Wow."
The company that designed the software says the drop-down menus in the survey are populated by the county.
"Hopefully it's just a glitch and hopefully it will be worked out," said Anna Wyatt. "It doesn't make sense, but at the same time people make mistakes."
McCumber said the word was removed from the online form within an hour after it was brought to county officials' attention. But figuring out how it got there, and when will take much longer.
Until a month ago, jurors had to fill out the questionnaire by hand and mail it in to the courthouse. The online form is supposed to be easier and more efficient.
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VIDEO- Judge Orders Release Of Sandy Hook 911 Calls! "We Have To Be Willing To Infringe On People's Rights" - YouTube
VIDEO-CDC: More Than 20% of 14-Year-Old Boys Diagnosed With ADHD | CNS News
(CNSNews.com) - More than 20 percent of the 14-year-old boys in the United States have been diagnosed at some point in their lives with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a newly released study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study also said more than 20 percent of 11-year-old boys had been diagnosed with ADHD at some point in their lives.
The study indicated that American boys were 125 percent more likely than girls to be diagnosed with ADHD, and that boys were 127 percent more likely than girls to be medicated for it.
13.3 percent of American 11-year-old boys are being medicated for ADHD, said the study.
Overall, the percentage of children from 4 through 17 years of age who have been diagnosed with ADHD increased 42 percent from 2003 through 2011.
The study also found that children in public health programs (Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program) were 53 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children with private health insurance.
''The parent-reported prevalence of a history of an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis by a health care provider among U.S. school-aged children increased from 7.8% in 2003 to 11% in 2011, an increase of 42% in less than a decade,'' said the study published by the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
''This study is really based on the parent-reported survey data and it extends what we know about the increasing prevalence of health-care-provider diagnosed ADHD,'' said Susanna Visser of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities in a CDC podcast.
''It highlights the consistent increases in ADHD diagnoses since 2003,'' said Visser, who is one of the authors of the study. ''Now we also document that there's been significant increases in the percentage of kids 4-17 years of age who are taking medication for ADHD since 2007.''
ADHD diagnoses, according to the study, are not distributed evenly among the nation's children.
''Ever-diagnosed ADHD was more common among children with health care coverage than those without coverage, and among those with public coverage than with private coverage,'' said the study.
''Nearly 1 in 5 high school boys and 1 in 11 high school girls had been diagnosed with ADHD,'' said the study.
''Estimates of medicated ADHD increased in 2011, as compared to 2007, particularly among teen boys. In 2011, the highest medicated ADHD prevalence was among 11-year-old boys (13.3%).''
The study was based on the National Survey of Children's Health, which has been conducted in three phases, including one in 2003, another in 2007, and a third in 2011. The survey interviewed a random sample of tens of thousands of parents (95,677 in the 2011-2012 phase), asking each parent interviewed about one child in their family. Among the questions asked was whether a doctor or other health provider had ever told the parent the child in question had ADHD, and whether this child is currently taking medication for ADHD.
In the 2003 survey, 7.8 percent of parents said their child had been diagnosed at some point with ADHD. In 2007, 9.5 percent said that, in 2011, 11.0 percent said that.
Children who did not have health-care coverage were least likely to have been diagnosed with ADHD, and children children on Medicaid and SCHIP were most likely. In the 2011 survey, 6.4 percent of children without health coverage were diagnosed, compared to 9.4 percent with private coverage, and 14.4 percent with Medicaid or SCHIP.
The 14.4 percent of children on Medicaid or SCHIP diagnosed with ADHD was 125 percent more than the 6.4 percent with no health coverage and 53 percent more than the 9.4 percent with private health coverage.
According to the 2011 survey, 15.1 percent of all American boys 4 to 17 years old have been diagnosed at some point with ADHD. That compares with 6.7 percent of girls in that age bracket. Thus, boys are 125 percent more likely than girls to be diagnosed with ADHD.
The 2011 survey also showed that 8.4 percent of American boys who are 4 to 17 years old are currently being medicated for ADHD, while only 3.7 percent of girls are being currently medicated. Thus, boys are 127 percent more likely than girls to be medicated for ADHD.
The study said: ''Among boys, the 2003 prevalence of ever diagnosed ADHD '... was less than 15%, regardless of age; in 2007, the estimates exceeded 15% for individuals 9 to 17 years of age, with the exception of those 12 years of age (13.6%); in 2011 the estimates exceeded 15% for those 10 to 17 years, and exceeded 20% for those 11 years and 14 years.''
''Nationally, the increases in parent-reported ADHD diagnosis and associated medication treatment occurred during a period in which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued 3 Public Health Alerts and a series of communications regarding cardiac and psychiatric risks of ADHD medications,'' said the report.
The CDC describes ADHD symptoms as follows: ''A child with ADHD might: daydream a lot, forget or lose things a lot, squirm or fidget, talk too much, make careless mistakes or take unnecessary risks, have a hard time resisting temptation, have trouble taking turns, have difficulty getting along with others''
''We also have new information from the survey about the age of health-care-provider diagnosed ADHD and overall we estimate that children are diagnosed at an average age of 7, with about half of these children diagnosed by age 6,'' said the CDC's Visser in her podcast.
VIDEO-If You Like Your Plan You Can Keep It: The Rap (w/ Remy) - YouTube
VIDEO-Steve Jobs 1995 Interview NeXT Computer
In 1995, Steve Jobs was on the cusp of middle age -- 40 years old -- when he sat down for an extensive and revealing one-on-one interview by the Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation as part of an oral history project. The Foundation also produced the Computerworld Honors Program, whose executive director, Daniel Morrow, conducted this interview.
When Jobs sat down for this interview, which was recorded on videotape, his return to Apple was still two years away -- and his once and future company was struggling to remain relevant. The products that would turn Apple around in the first decade of the 21st century -- Mac OS X, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, the iTunes store -- did not exist.
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