Get ready folks! Internet firms release data on NSA requests

WASHINGTON (AP) — A flurry of new reports from major technology companies show that the government collects customer information on tens of thousands of Americans every six months as part of secret national security investigations. And the companies' top lawyers struck a combative stance, saying the Obama administrative needs to provide more transparency about its data collection.

Freed by a recent legal deal with the Obama administration, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn and Tumblr provided expanded details and some vented criticism about the government's handling of customers' Internet data in counterterrorism and other intelligence-related probes.

The figures from 2012 and 2013 showed that companies such as Google and Microsoft were compelled by the government to provide information on as many as 10,000 customer accounts in a six-month period. Yahoo complied with government requests for information on more than 40,000 accounts in the same period.

The companies earlier had provided limited information about government requests for data, but an agreement reached last week with the Obama administration allowed the firms to provide a broadened, though still circumscribed, set of figures to the public.

Seeking to reassure customers and business partners alarmed by revelations about the government's massive collection of Internet and computer data, the firms stressed details indicating that only small numbers of their customers were targeted by authorities. Still, even those small numbers showed that thousands of Americans were affected by the government requests approved by judges of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The data releases by the major tech companies offered a mix of dispassionate graphics, reassurances and protests, seeking to alleviate customer concerns about government spying while pressuring national security officials about the companies' constitutional concerns. The shifting tone in the releases showed the precarious course that major tech firms have had to navigate in recent months, caught between their public commitments to Internet freedom and their enforced roles as data providers to U.S. spy agencies.

thank you Tony

How Many Illegal Immigrants Live in Your State?

A bipartisan group of senators this week outlined a plan for comprehensive immigration reform, an issue President Obama has asked Congress to tackle in the first half of the year. Since the last major overhaul of U.S. immigration policy, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 signed by Ronald Reagan, the number of illegal immigrants has risen dramatically. According to the Pew Hispanic Center this week, the number of illegal immigrants peaked in 2007 at about 12 million, just as the Bush administration ramped up enforcement of existing immigration laws. With the Obama administration’s continued enforcement and the economic recession, the estimated illegal immigrants declined to just over 11 million in 2011.

Estimating where exactly illegal immigrants reside in the United States is tricky, but the Pew Hispanic Center did just that in 2011 for each state. Although California has the highest number of illegal immigrants, Nevada has the largest proportion of illegal immigrants—7.2 percent of the state population and as much as 10 percent of its workforce. California and Texas follow at just under 7 percent of their populations, with New Jersey and Arizona rounding out the top five.

A map of estimated illegal immigrant population, state by state.

I wonder if they are just counting Illegal Immigrants from south of the US Border into connecting Mexico, Central, and South American?  I know that there are plenty of Illegals from say Asia, Africa, etc. . .   Also are they counting those that are still here Illegaly lets say on expired Student Visas and such in this count too?   bn~

thank you kevin 

United Nations News Centre - Treatment alone will not win war on cancer: prevention is crucial, UN reports

United Nations News Centre - Treatment alone will not win war on cancer: prevention is crucial, UN reports

Credit: WHO

3 February 2014 – With new cancer cases worldwide expected to rise from 14 million to 22 million per year within the next two decades, and annual cancer deaths rising from 8.2 million to 13 million, the United Nations today called for multipronged preventive action including treaties and laws extending tobacco-style restrictions to alcohol and sweetened beverages.

“More commitment to prevention and early detection is desperately needed in order to complement improved treatments and address the alarming rise in the cancer burden,” saidDr. Christopher Wild, Director of the specialized UN cancer agency in launching a new report ahead of World Cancer Day on Tuesday.

The report warns that the global battle against cancer won’t be won with treatment alone and urgently needs effective prevention measures to curb the disease.

As an example of preventive strategies the report highlights the need for adequate legislation to reduce exposure and risk behaviours, citing the first international treaty sponsored by WHO, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, as critical to reducing tobacco consumption, a major contributor to lung and other cancers, through taxes, advertising restrictions, and other regulations and measures to control and discourage its use of tobacco.

Similar approaches need to be evaluated in other areas, notably consumption of alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages, and in limiting exposure to occupational and environmental carcinogenic risks, including air pollution, it stresses, noting that about half of all cancers, whose total annual economic cost is estimated to reach approximately $1.16 trillion, could be avoided if current knowledge was adequately implemented.

“Adequate legislation can encourage healthier behaviour, as well as having its recognized role in protecting people from workplace hazards and environmental pollutants,” said Dr. Bernard Stewart, who co-edited the report with Dr. Wild. “In low- and middle-income countries, it is critical that Governments commit to enforcing regulatory measures to protect their populations and implement cancer prevention plans.”

The study, World Cancer Report 2014, issued by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a specialized agency of the UN World Health Organization headed by Dr. Wild, stresses that the cancer burden is mounting at an alarming pace. Due to growing and ageing populations, developing countries are disproportionately affected, with more than 60 per cent of cases and 70 per cent of deaths occurring in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.

“Despite exciting advances, this report shows that we cannot treat our way out of the cancer problem,” Dr. Wild said, noting that the situation in the developing world is made worse by the lack of early detection and access to treatment.

Access to effective and affordable cancer treatments in developing countries, including for childhood cancers, would significantly reduce mortality, even in settings where health-care services are less well developed, the report notes.

The Number of People Who Read the News Is Lower Than You Think : The New Yorker

The Number of People Who Read the News Is Lower Than You Think : The New Yorker

 Once upon a time, as legend has it, things were different: most Americans tuned into Walter Cronkite in the evening or picked up the morning newspaper, which covered matters of national and international importance, like politics, foreign affairs, and business developments.

If analysts at Microsoft Research are correct, a startling number of American Web users are no longer paying attention to the news as it is traditionally defined. In a recent study of “filter bubbles,” Sharad Goel, Seth Flaxman, and Justin Rao asked how many Web users actually read the news online. Out of a sample of 1.2 million American users, just over fifty thousand, or four per cent, were “active news customers” of “front section” news. The other ninety-six per cent found other things to read.

The authors defined an active news customer as someone who read at least ten substantive news articles and two opinion pieces in a three-month period—if you remove the requirement of reading opinion pieces, the number of news readers climbs to fourteen per cent. The authors studied U.S.-based Web users who, between March and May of 2013, accumulated a total of 2.3 billion page views.

The number may also help us understand why a relatively small number of motivated people can have such a significant effect on American politics and policy. For better or worse, the number of people in this game is pretty small. Bottom line: if you can get one per cent of the population vaguely interested in something nowadays, that’s huge.

JANUARY 29, 2014

DOESN’T ANYONE READ THE NEWS?

POSTED BY TIM WU

Who Knew? Mosquito sperm have 'sense of smell', Calling a 'transgender' a tranny was offensive, to getting a court order to be allowed to masterbate while watching porn at work. . .

Mosquito sperm have 'sense of smell'

This unexpected discovery is reported in an article published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the week of Feb. 3 by a team of Vanderbilt University biologists.

The scientists report that they have detected a suite of specialized chemical sensors called odorant receptors (ORs) in mosquito sperm. These are the same as the sensors that play a central role in the mosquito's olfactory system, which is found on the insect's antennae.The researchers found that the odorant receptors in the sperm are expressed along their tails where they drive the rapid increase in the movement (beating) of the sperm tails.

"This discovery is really 'out of the box' for us," said L.J. Zwiebel, the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biological Sciences who directed the study. "It is the first time that insect ORs have been found to function in non-sensory cells or tissue. We think this could be an entirely new paradigm for how insect reproduction is regulated. If it is, it could provide a powerful new approach for controlling populations of insects of medical and/or economic importance."

The origin of the discovery was an observation the researchers made several years ago as part of their research into the olfaction system of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. They found unusually high expression of a group of odorant receptors in the bodies of male mosquitoes. This caught the researchers' attention because they were receptors that females use so they didn't expect them to be enhanced in males. It took them several years to follow up on the observation. When they did, they tracked these receptors to the males' testes and ultimately to the sperm themselves.

The finding sparked their interest further because of controversial research that has reported finding olfactory receptors in human sperm. "Evidence for the presence of these receptors in human sperm is very solid. What is controversial is whether they play any role in human reproduction," Pitts said.

Because of ongoing research that the Vanderbilt researchers have been conducting aimed at discovering new and more effective mosquito repellents, they had developed the tools they needed to determine if the odorant receptors in the mosquito sperm were functional. In particular, they had identified specific chemical compounds that specifically activate insect odorant receptors as well as others that prevent them from activating.Read more at: 

Gabourey Sidibe Repeatedly Uses The Word 'Tranny' On 'Arsenio Hall Show' [UPDATED]  

Inspired by the Special Olympics campaign against the word “retard”, several associates of transgender-activist Monica Helms got together to make a PSA against trans slurs. So what words should we avoid when talking about our trans brothers and sisters?

It’s rude to call a trans person a “tranny, he-she, it, shemale, transvestite, man in a dress, hermaphrodite, or a freak.” It’s also rude to call them by the wrong gender pronoun—if you’re not sure, just ask which they prefer. And while we’re at it please don’t ask a trans person what their name “used to be” or questions about their genitals. What? Were you raised by goblins? source

Full story here: http://www.queerty.com/lets-learn-the-nine-anti-trans-slurs-we-should-avoid-20110620/#ixzz2sJKGjeI3

I guess saying chicks with dicks or something like that is acceptable?  That is the way they are acting. . .

Actress Gabourey Sidibe repeatedly used a transphobic slur when she recently visited "The Arsenio Hall Show" to discuss living in New Orleans.

The "American Horror Story: Coven" star said the word "tranny" no less than five times in under a minute when she appeared on the show on January 23:

Audience: [Laughter]
Sidibe: Specifically trannies.
Arsenio Hall: Yeah…
Sidibe: And I don't know what goes on with trannies but that tranny on tranny crime needs to stop!
Arsenio Hall and audience: [Laughter]
Sidibe [chuckling]: It is tearing our nation apart!

While Sidibe brings up a good point about the treatment of transgender people by the police (and not just in New Orleans, where the profiling and abuse of trans women of color by the police was allegedly so bad the Justice Department launched an investigation, a recent study found that "trans people across the U.S. experience three times as much police violence as non-transgender individuals" and that "even when transgender people were the victims of hate crimes, 48 percent reported receiving mistreatment from the police when they went for help") the use of the term "tranny," the tone of the segment and the way the segment was packaged and presented on "The Arsenio Hall Show's" YouTube channel has many upset.
Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told The Huffington Post:

Gabourey Sidibe: There was a bar that we would frequent and every time we'd go, when we were leaving every single time there was always like a gang of cops arresting trannies.

Using the word 'tranny' isn't OK anymore. Using it to make fun of people is definitely not OK. And using it to make fun of any kind of violence is just plain wrong. I know she meant it in fun but that's the problem in this case. It's not just that she used the word 'tranny' but that she's making fun of violence in a city where the police have a history of committing violence and discriminationagainst trans women of color. It's the kind of thing that trans people listen to and say, 'This is someone who is not thinking about our lives. This is someone who is making fun of our problems.' Gabby is someone who has approached lots of different social issues with grace and class and so this is just such a disappointment. read more

Woman wins right to watch porn and masturbate at work

Brazilian woman Ana Catarian Bezerra, has won the right to masturbate and watch pornography in the workplace.

The 36-year-old accountant, suffers from a chemical imbalance that triggers anxiety and hypersexuality. She is said to need to masturbate for at least fifteen minutes every two hours.

The condition, that requires the sufferer to orgasm to relieve stress and anxiety, caused Ms Bezerra difficulty at work. At the peak of her condition she was having to masturbate up to forty-seven times a day.

Guanabee.com quotes Ms Bazerra as saying: "I got so bad I would have to masturbate up to forty seven-times a day. That's when I asked for help, I knew it wasn't normal,"

Now on on a variety of tranquillisers, Bezerra reportedly (only) has to masterbate around 18 times a day.

This is a landmark trial, which see’s the condition known as ‘compulsion orgasmic’ and the need to orgasm recognized by law.

In winning this case, the court ruled that Ms Bezerra is allowed to masturbate at work, and is also allowed to watch porn on her office computer.

What is compulsion orgasmic?

‘Compulsion Orgasmic’ is a condition characterised by the near-constant desire to achieve orgasm.

The sufferer will feel deep distress if they are not able to receive sexual gratification.

The sufferer can be in physical and/or psychological pain that is releaved by chemicals released in orgasm.  >more<   thank you for sharing this article Craig

Rachel Aviv: The Scientist Who Took on a Leading Herbicide Manufacturer : The New Yorker

Rachel Aviv: The Scientist Who Took on a Leading Herbicide Manufacturer : The New Yorker

Hayes has devoted the past fifteen years to studying atrazine, a widely used herbicide made by Syngenta. The company’s notes reveal that it struggled to make sense of him, and plotted ways to discredit him. Photograph by Dan Winters.

KEYWORDS

TYRONE HAYES;

 

BIOLOGISTS;

 

SYNGENTA;

 

SCIENCE;

ATRAZINE;

 

HERBICIDES;

 

PESTICIDES

In 2001, seven years after joining the biology faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, Tyrone Hayes stopped talking about his research with people he didn’t trust. He instructed the students in his lab, where he was raising three thousand frogs, to hang up the phone if they heard a click, a signal that a third party might be on the line. Other scientists seemed to remember events differently, he noticed, so he started carrying an audio recorder to meetings. “The secret to a happy, successful life of paranoia,” he liked to say, “is to keep careful track of your persecutors.”

Three years earlier, Syngenta, one of the largest agribusinesses in the world, had asked Hayes to conduct experiments on the herbicide atrazine, which is applied to more than half the corn in the United States. Hayes was thirty-one, and he had already published twenty papers on the endocrinology of amphibians. David Wake, a professor in Hayes’s department, said that Hayes “may have had the greatest potential of anyone in the field.” But, when Hayes discovered that atrazine might impede the sexual development of frogs, his dealings with Syngenta became strained, and, in November, 2000, he ended his relationship with the company.

Hayes continued studying atrazine on his own, and soon he became convinced that Syngenta representatives were following him to conferences around the world. He worried that the company was orchestrating a campaign to destroy his reputation. He complained that whenever he gave public talks there was a stranger in the back of the room, taking notes. On a trip to Washington, D.C., in 2003, he stayed at a different hotel each night. He was still in touch with a few Syngenta scientists and, after noticing that they knew many details about his work and his schedule, he suspected that they were reading his e-mails. To confuse them, he asked a student to write misleading e-mails from his office computer while he was travelling. He sent backup copies of his data and notes to his parents in sealed boxes. In an e-mail to one Syngenta scientist, he wrote that he had “risked my reputation, my name . . . some say even my life, for what I thought (and now know) is right.” 

D.R.I. -"Acid Rain"