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Heard on tonight’s No Agenda and reposting here.
Photog Arrested For Taking Pictures
He says he complied, but then moments later, Rensberger says police officers approached asking why he was taking photos of kids.The argument got heated when police say Rensberger started taking photos of the officers, who then arrested him.Rensberger is now facing battery, resisting arrest and obstructing justice.”American’s gone nuts. We can’t take pictures anymore,” said Rensberger.He continued, “Two gentlemen walked into the store and they asked me if I took a picture of Santa and I said yes I did. And they said, my daughter, my child was on his lap, could you delete that picture? And I said, oh, sure.””These officers approached me, one in particular, and asked me, he said, why are you taking pictures of kids? And I was shocked by that,” Rensberger said.”I snapped off a picture of the officers questioning him and at the same time he grabbed my camera, and I reached up with my left hand to catch the camera from hitting the floor and he said don’t you touch me,” he continued.
Don’t you love the way they trump up endless extra charges against people. Battery? Yeah, right.
Hospital study shows full moons werewolf effect – The Age – Crikey! Good to hear werewolves are adapting to the modern way of life.
A study in an Australian hospital has identified a spike in out-of-control “werewolf” patients when a full moon is out.
There were 91 emergency patients rated as having violent and acute behavioural disturbance at the Calvary Mater Newcastle hospital from August 2008 to July 2009.
Leonie Calver, a clinical research nurse in toxicology, said almost a quarter of the cases (23 per cent) occurred on a night of full moon and this was double the number for other lunar phases.
The patients all had to be sedated and physically restrained to protect themselves and others.
“Some of these patients attacked the staff like animals – biting, spitting and scratching,” Ms Calver said.
“One might compare them with the werewolves of the past, who are said to have also appeared during the full moon.”
[…]
Ms Calver said it appeared the “modern-day werewolf” preferred alcohol or illicit drugs, as more than 60 per cent of the patients reviewed in the study were under the influence.“We don’t know if its more fun to use drugs and alcohol under a full moon or if their behavioural disturbance is directly influenced by the moon,” she said.
“Our findings support the premise that individuals with violent and acute behavioural disturbance are more likely to present to the emergency department during…full moon.”
Make up your minds!
Study of Greenland Ice Finds Rapid Change in Past Climate – NYTimes.com — More research that will be rejected in favor of the “man caused it” theories. The NY Times seems to have switched sides, though, so that could make a difference.
The scientists said their data showed that significantly warmer periods and significantly colder periods had occurred during the last interval between glacial epochs, about 115,000 to 135,000 years ago. They said they could not tell whether that meant similar changes were in store. Their findings were reported today in two papers in the journal Nature.
Previous studies had shown that there were abrupt changes in climate during glacial epochs, but the new results show that the same was true in the periods when glaciers had retreated. In one “catastrophic event” during the last interglacial period, the average temperature plunged 25 degrees Fahrenheit to ice-age levels for about 70 years, the scientists reported.
The authors said they did not have an explanation for the rapid shifts. They also said it was a mystery why the climate of the last 8,000 to 10,000 years had been “strangely stable.”
related link: Global Cooling predicted in the 1970’s
 Note DHS Logo on this thing. Welcome to America!
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CBP Launches New Maritime Unmanned Aircraft System – CBP.gov — This news broke on Wednesday and was under-reported by the media. They keep saying it is unmanned, but never say anything about it being unarmed.
“The Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System has proven its value to homeland security over the nation’s land borders, the Great Lakes region, and in support of DHS hurricane and flood response operations,” said Michael Kostelnik, assistant commissioner for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine. “With the introduction of the Guardian, maritime variant of the Predator B, DHS now has a powerful tool and force multiplier to increase maritime domain awareness and confront threats to our borders.”
The Guardian has been modified from a standard Predator B with structural, avionics, and communications enhancements, as well as the addition of a Raytheon SeaVue Marine Search Radar and an Electro-optical/Infrared Sensor that is optimized for maritime operations.
The Guardian is expected to be ready for Operational Test and Evaluation in early 2010. This OT&E will be conducted jointly by CBP and USCG from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. After the Guardian completes operational testing this spring, it will be deployed to the drug source and transit zones to support joint counter-narcotics operations.
And this is going to do what exactly?
Hugo-award-nominated science fiction author Dr. Peter Watts is in serious legal trouble after he was beaten, pepper-sprayed and imprisoned by American border guards at a Canada U.S. border crossing December 8.
Peter, a Canadian citizen, was on his way back to Canada after helping a friend move house to Nebraska over the weekend. He was stopped at the border crossing at Port Huron, Michigan by U.S. border police for a search of his rental vehicle. When Peter got out of the car and questioned the nature of the search, the gang of border guards subjected him to a beating, restrained him and pepper sprayed him.
At the end of it, local police laid a felony charge of assault against a federal officer against Peter.
On Wednesday, he posted bond and was taken across the border to Canada in shirtsleeves (he was released by Port Huron officials with his car and possessions locked in impound, into a winter storm that evening).
He’s home safe. For now. But he has to go back to Michigan to face the charge brought against him.
The charge is spurious. But it’s also very serious. It could mean two years in prison in the United States, and a ban on travel in that country for the rest of Peter’s life. Peter is mounting a vigorous defense, but it’s going to be expensive – he’s effectively going up against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and he needs the best legal help that he can get.
RTFA for details, an interview with Peter, comments by friends and peers.
Thanks, Cinaedh
Iraq is on course to overtake Iran as the holder of the world’s second-largest proven oil reserves, solidifying its position as the energy industry’s new frontier in the scramble to secure fresh resources.
Baghdad agreed on Friday to deals with Royal Dutch Shell and China’s CNPC for two large oilfields, following on from similar accords with ExxonMobil, Eni and BP.
Consultants who have analysed the agreements struck by Baghdad said the contracts underlined the companies’ confidence that they would be able to use modern seismic and drilling technology to get far more oil out of the fields than had previously been thought possible.
Iraq’s proven reserves now stand at 115bn barrels, below Iran’s 137bn and Saudi Arabia’s record 264bn. But Iraq’s reserves data dates from the 1970s, before the improvements in technology that transformed the industry.
[…]
Raad Alkadiri, an Iraq expert at PFC Energy in Washington, said the companies offered Iraq very good terms in the deals because they believed that the oilfields held more recoverable oil than was commonly assumed.
Read the article for a Q&A with someone who would have a field day with Adam and John who are, obviously, mentally deranged for daring to question.
Even as the science of global warming gets stronger, fewer Americans believe it’s real. In some ways, it’s nearly as jarring a disconnect as enduring disbelief in evolution or carbon dating. And according to Kari Marie Norgaard, a Whitman College sociologist who’s studied public attitudes towards climate science, we’re in denial.
“Our response to disturbing information is very complex. We negotiate it. We don’t just take it in and respond in a rational way,” said Norgaard.
[…]
Norgaard: In order to have a positive sense of self-identity and get through the day, we’re constantly being selective of what we think about and pay attention to. To create a sense of a good, safe world for ourselves, we screen out all kinds of information, from where food comes from to how our clothes our made. When we talk with our friends, we talk about something pleasant.Wired.com: How does this translate into skepticism about climate change?
Norgaard: It’s a paradox. Awareness has increased. There’s been a lot more information available. This is much more in our face. And this is where the psychological defense mechanisms are relevant, especially when coupled with the fact that other people, as we’ve lately seen with the e-mail attacks, are systematically trying to create the sense that there’s doubt.
If I don’t want to believe that climate change is true, that my lifestyle and high carbon emissions are causing devastation, then it’s convenient to say that it doesn’t.
I ran across this post in Lifehacker about a program for the Mac that recovers deleted photos from digital cameras, even if the memory card has been reformatted. There are lots of other programs like it are out there.
But how many average, non-techie users know that deleting files on a camera, computer, flash drive, etc, really doesn’t delete them? Not a problem unless your camera is stolen or seized by overzealous cops for taking pictures of public areas. Who knows what innocent photos will be used against you or sexy photos of you uploaded to the Interwebitubes. So, beware.
You know that sinking feeling you get when you accidentally delete your photos or reformat your camera’s memory card without first removing the pictures on it? Reach for Exif Untrasher instead antacids and rescue those pics from annihilation.
Use Exif Untrasher to mount the memory card on your Mac, just as if it were a regular volume. Choose a destination folder for the rescued images, and let the app do its thing. It’s not a 100% foolproof way to recover pictures you’ve accidentally deleted or overwritten, but since it doesn’t tamper with your card in any way, you’ve got nothing to lose.
To take this app for a test drive, I batch deleted a bunch of photos (that I had already backed up) from my camera’s memory card, then reformatted it. I then plugged the card into my card reader, mounted the volume, and Exif Untrasher recovered everything but the MOV file, all in under a minute.
Oh, brother.
This would be cool if it was half the price that it’s selling for. ($500)
Test Your News IQ – Pew Research Center — Take the simple Pew Research test. The general public is hitting 50-percent right. I’m guessing a DU reader will do what I did. Nail it at 100-percent.
Via David Sifry on Twitter.
Via David Sifry on Twitter.
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