I haven’t looked at it myself (yet), but apparently this is the video to watch to learn about Window 8 Metro apps

[Quote]:

What’s undeniable about the Truther movement, all nonsense, pseudoscience and straight up hallucinations aside, is that there is historical precedent behind the idea of the U.S. government launching so-called “false flag” attacks to dupe the public into blindly supporting the thorough shelling/hating of Perceived Enemy X.

It was the early 1960s, height of Missile Crisis era Cold War tensions. Fidel Castro was the new face of Cuban Communism, and the U.S., feeling quite threatened by our red neighbor to the southwest, needed to quickly drum up public backing for a potential clash with the island nation. So what do we do? Covertly plot all sorts of twisted CIA chicanery, of course. Operation Northwoods outlined hijackings and bombings against “friendly” Cuban defectors, U.S. military and civilian targets alike, in addition to dispersing bunk evidence and rumors (“many”) via clandestine radio. The hope was that these top-secret terror and disinformation campaigns, whether real or simulated, would implicate the Cuban regime. And while the proposals included in the plan (PDF) were never accepted nor executed, Operation Northwoods had written approval of the Chairman (Lyman Lemnitzer) and all members of his Joint Chiefs of Staff and was formally submitted to Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense.

The proposed attacks centered in on Florida, Washington, D.C., and southwest Cuba. And there were many.

[Quote]:

But after 10 days, hell broke loose in his hospital room. He began shaking with chills. His temperature shot up. His blood pressure shot down. He became so ill that doctors moved him into intensive care and warned that he might die. His family gathered at the hospital, fearing the worst.

A few weeks later, the fevers were gone. And so was the leukemia.

[..]

But scientists say the treatment that helped Mr. Ludwig, described recently in The New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine, may signify a turning point in the long struggle to develop effective gene therapies against cancer. And not just for leukemia patients: other cancers may also be vulnerable to this novel approach — which employs a disabled form of H.I.V.-1, the virus that causes AIDS, to carry cancer-fighting genes into the patients’ T-cells. In essence, the team is using gene therapy to accomplish something that researchers have hoped to do for decades: train a person’s own immune system to kill cancer cells.

And to those in the past who wondered why we’re spending money on a “gay disease”, I’ve got some choice words for you right now..

[Quote]:

A little-known Republican businessman from Queens, channeling voter discontent with President Obama into an upset, won election to Congress on Tuesday from the heavily Democratic district in New York City last represented by Anthony D. Weiner.

[..]

“I am a registered Democrat, I have always been a registered Democrat, I come from a family of Democrats — and I hate to say this, I voted Republican,” said Linda Goldberg, 61, after casting her ballot in Queens. “I need to send a message to the president that he’s not doing a very good job. Our economy is horrible. People are scared.”

You hear that, Obama? If you can’t fix the economy, we’ll elect someone who won’t. That’ll teach you!

[Quote]:

If you are a Canadian citizen trying to visit the US, but have a history of mental illness — even just a minor, non-violent incident that was recorded in official records — you could be denied entry by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to a recent report by CBCNews in Canada.

Sixty-five year old Lois Kamenitz from Toronto found this out the hard way recently when US customs officials at Pearson International Airport (PIA) refused to allow her to board a flight she booked to Los Angeles, Cal. Because Kamenitz had tried to take her life back in 2006, which was recorded by police who were present after the woman’s partner called them to the scene, DHS ultimately refused her entry.

When questioned about the incident, DHS officials claimed they did not actually access Kamenitz’ medical records, but instead obtained information via a “contact note from the police” that had visited her home. According to a Wikileak report released earlier this year, all information that is entered into the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database, including Kamenitz’ suicide incident, is fully accessible to US authorities.

In Kamenitz’ case, her suicide attempt was not a crime, it did not involve violence, and she has not had any further incidents since that date. But because DHS was able to access her private information without so much as a cursory review of the circumstances, they ultimately prevented her from traveling on the basis that she might be a threat to herself or others.

But the real question is this. Why do US authorities have access to private information about Canadians in the first place?CBCNewsexplains that both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and DHS have “reciprocal direct access” to criminal databases, but it also appears that they might have reciprocal access to details, which they then use to gain further access to private medical records.

“These are private and personal medical records that I’m now handing over to a foreign government,” said Kamenitz to CBCNews, following her eventual admittance into the US. DHS ultimately forced her to surrender a copy of her medical records, and pay a DHS-approved doctor $250 to gain official clearance into the US.

[Quote]:

Federal agents have broken up a drug ring that paid police and airport security officers to protect the illegal shipment from Florida to Connecticut of enormous quantities of highly addictive pain medication, authorities said Tuesday.

Three federal Transportation Security Administration officers, two police officers and 13 drug dealers in Florida, New York and Connecticut were charged with working for the ring that, in some weeks, dumped tens of thousands of oxycodone pills in the Waterbury area, according to a variety of federal and local police agencies involved in the investigation.

Authorities said that the TSA officers — two in Florida and one in New York — were paid to help drug couriers move pills and the stacks of cash they generated through airport screening systems. One of the police officers — a Florida state trooper — took drug money to travel to Connecticut, where he provided “protection” to a courier selling thousands of pills to a dozen or more lower-level dealers, authorities said.

Feel safer yet ?

[Quote]:

It looks like all the negative news stories about photographers’ rights in the UK is finally causing some positive change — private security guards across the nation are being instructed (for the first time) to exercise some common sense when stopping and questioning picture-takers:

Detective Sergeant David Parkes, a counter-terrorism advisor at the Metropolitan Police, has instructed private security staff to consider why a terrorist planning an attack would openly take photos in locations that can be readily viewed on the internet.

‘Why would a terrorist put himself at risk of being caught if he can get [the image] by logging onto Google,’ said DS Parkes [...]

[...] Parkes replied that the type of equipment is of ‘no significance’ to the risk a person may be planning a terrorist attack, adding that he believed ‘the bigger the camera, the less likely they are going to do anything [suspicious] with it’.