Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, June 4, 2013.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Black and White by String Cheese Incident
News below Aunt Flossie's hairdo . . .
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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Destroying a Planet Without Really Trying
By Noam Chomsky
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For the first time in the history of the human species, we have clearly developed the capacity to destroy ourselves. That's been true since 1945. It's now being finally recognized that there are more long-term processes like environmental destruction leading in the same direction, maybe not to total destruction, but at least to the destruction of the capacity for a decent existence.
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So, at one extreme you have indigenous, tribal societies trying to stem the race to disaster. At the other extreme, the richest, most powerful societies in world history, like the United States and Canada, are racing full-speed ahead to destroy the environment as quickly as possible. Unlike Ecuador, and indigenous societies throughout the world, they want to extract every drop of hydrocarbons from the ground with all possible speed.
Both political parties, President Obama, the media, and the international press seem to be looking forward with great enthusiasm to what they call "a century of energy independence" for the United States. Energy independence is an almost meaningless concept, but put that aside. What they mean is: we'll have a century in which to maximize the use of fossil fuels and contribute to destroying the world.
And that's pretty much the case everywhere. Admittedly, when it comes to alternative energy development, Europe is doing something. Meanwhile, the United States, the richest and most powerful country in world history, is the only nation among perhaps 100 relevant ones that doesn't have a national policy for restricting the use of fossil fuels, that doesn't even have renewable energy targets. It's not because the population doesn't want it. Americans are pretty close to the international norm in their concern about global warming. It's institutional structures that block change. Business interests don't want it and they're overwhelmingly powerful in determining policy, so you get a big gap between opinion and policy on lots of issues, including this one.
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It's not that there are no alternatives. The alternatives just aren't being taken. That's dangerous. So if you ask what the world is going to look like, it's not a pretty picture. Unless people do something about it. We always can.
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Facebook's Sean Parker fined for environmentally destructive wedding
By Amy Silverstein
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Forget bridezilla. During the wedding between former Facebook president Sean Parker and singer-songwriter Alexandra Lenas, the couple apparently became something much worse: redwood-zillas.
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The elaborate wedding, which cost $10 million, according to TMZ, came complete with an artificial pond, a stone bridge and other awesome sounding decorations. But Parker didn't get permits to ensure that the sensitive campground could handle those structures before he had them installed. "Structures, walls and elevated platforms have been constructed immediately adjacent to Post Creek with no setbacks employed," the Coastal Commission wrote. The report adds that the wedding put the many redwoods on the site at risk.
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California Coastal Commission Executive Director Charles Lester announced that Parker has been "extremely cooperative," and the Commission added in a press release that the $2.5 million settlement "is consistent with Sean and Alexandra Parker’s long‐standing commitment to the conservation of the beautiful coastal environment in the Big Sur area."
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Apple loses US trade panel ruling in Samsung dispute
By (BBC)
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The International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that Apple infringed on a Samsung patent, which could mean some older models of the iPad and iPhone are banned from sale in the US.
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However, the victory may be largely symbolic, because the ban covers models that are made in China and no longer actively sold in the US market.
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In a separate patent fight in US federal court last year, Samsung was ordered to pay more than $1bn for patent infringement, an award that was later slashed to $598.9m.
Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones. Analysts estimate it outsold Apple by nearly two to one in the first three months of the year.
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US offers rewards for capture of African militants
By (BBC)
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The US is offering rewards for the first time for information on Islamist militants in North and West Africa.
The highest reward of up to $7m (£4.6m) is for information leading to the location of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, the state department said.
Smaller rewards are offered for leading figures in Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao).
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It said Oumar Ould Hamaha had taken part in the kidnapping of foreigners for ransom, including taking a Canadian diplomat captive in Niger in 2008.
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International |
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Xi flies to Mexico as China battles US for influence in Latin America
By Kaitlin Funaro
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Chinese President Xi Jinping is making the most of his four-country tour of the Americas to position China as a competitor to the US and Taiwan's economic influence in the region.
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Mexico and China both enjoy strong exports to the American market but Mexico itself has been flooded with cheap Chinese goods that are displacing domestic goods.
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China is increasing its funding to the region just as the US has been coming under pressure to cut aid and investment.
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"In the past Chinese presidents were very deferential to the US., always making reference to Washington’s backyard," Ellis said. "You don’t hear any of that from Xi’s team, though you don’t find any threatening rhetoric either."
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Nawaz Sharif to be sworn in as Pakistani prime minister
By (BBC)
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Nawaz Sharif has made history by becoming the prime minister for the third time, but it is not going to be a bed of roses.
Controlling power cuts is his most immediate concern, and a major reason why so many people voted for him.
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While the new prime minister favours talks with the Pakistani Taliban, many expect that once he gets into power, he will accept the army's view that all past negotiations have failed and the only option is to fight the jihadis who attack domestic targets.
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Mr Sharif has continually spoken out against US drone strikes in Pakistan although it is not clear how he can bring these to an end.
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US to deploy missiles and jets to Jordan
By (Al Jazeera)
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The United States will send a Patriot missile battery and F-16 fighters to Jordan for a military drill and may keep the weapons there to counter the threat posed by Syria's civil war, officials said.
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US officials declined to say how many F-16s would be taking part in the exercise, or how many aircraft might remain afterwards.
The US backed a similar move earlier this year in Turkey, with NATO deploying Patriot missile batteries along Turkey's border with Syria.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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Florida Dems Snub Their Own Challenger To Rick Scott
By Stephanie Mencimer
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Florida Governor Rick Scott is highly unpopular with voters, and polls show him losing his reelection race next year to any generic Democrat. But now that at least one Democratic challenger has emerged, it appears that the Democrats may already be shooting themselves in the foot. Case in point: The Florida Democratic Party denied Nan Rich, the only Democrat who's jumped into the race, a speaking slot at its annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner later this month.
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Florida Dems clearly see Crist as the stronger candidate, even if he is, well, a Republican. A recent poll showed Crist prevailing in a Democratic primary, with Rich receiving just 1 percent of the vote, and faring much better than Rich in a matchup with Scott. Still, polls suggest that Crist isn't exactly a shoe-in, with at least one showing him in a dead heat with Scott. And rank-and-file Democrats are understandably leery about jumping on the bandwagon with a candidate who has previously described himself as a "Jeb Bush Republican."
But Rich, a stalwart liberal Democrat known for her work on child welfare issues and sharp criticism of Scott, has had trouble raising money and her profile. She could have used the platform at the dinner to help boost her visibility. Instead, the state Democratic party decided it's more important to hear from the mayor of San Antonio, Texas. Meanwhile, the head of the state GOP, Lenny Curry, has seized the opportunity to taunt Florida Democrats for dissing one of their own. He started the hashtag #FreeNanRich and tweeted, "Are big donors really more important than 5 min for @SenatorNanRich?" . . .
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Top brass takes dim view of Senate efforts to combat sexual assault in the military
By Michael Doyle
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With sexual assault horror stories proliferating and political momentum growing, the military chiefs told the Senate Armed Service Committee that some changes are needed. But in a sometimes heated hearing that clarified the legislative battle lines, war-fighters warned against “unintended consequences” as they cautioned lawmakers not to go too far.
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The military’s position runs counter to a new bill backed by lawmakers, including Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, that would shift serious crimes out of the standard chain of command. Instead, prosecution decisions on most crimes punishable by more than one year in prison would be shifted to outside officers with “significant experience” in such cases.
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The uniformed military chiefs on Tuesday did not voice objections to the idea of restricting the ability of so-called convening authorities to overturn convictions. Odierno added that he supported outlawing sexual activity between military instructors and trainees and barring sex offenders from enlisting, among other changes. Dempsey added that military leaders were still evaluating the proposal to add special victims counsel staff to all branches.
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Following a series of stern speeches by Amos last year, at least 60 Marine Corps sexual assault cases, from North Carolina to California, have been challenged by defense attorneys who allege the trials have been tainted by unlawful command influence.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
Independent spirit is the benchmark of the new millennium. You see it everywhere, from the protests against globalization in Seattle and Quebec City to the new anticorporate stance taken by rock bands. String Cheese Incident is at the top of that list. Voted the 4th favorite jam band on hightimes.com, Boulder's best group kowtows to no one. They have turned down offers from record-industry conglomerates and are proud to release albums, such as their latest, Outside Inside, on their own indie label, SCI Fidelity.
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Considering the success of Phish and the Dead, SCI are in terrific company. Founded in 1994 originally as the Blue String Cheese Band . . . (t)hey were into a little bit of everything, with a special debt to the Dead. They showed their wry sense of humor when Nershi sang, "Johnny Cash don't smoke hash."
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But will they fit in? "One of the most important components of what we've got going is the pretty intact family atmosphere that's happening in the crowd," Travis says. "I worry about a mass influx due to heavily pushing the album on radio or TV. We're just more satisfied with letting it grow naturally."
You can say that about Travis' favorite plant as well. "I use the herb to enhance my creative outreach at times," he offers. "Like all the other oppressions, it's not a coincidence that marijuana is illegal because it unlocks people from past patterns. It's a very freedom-bringing drug, like LSD, so they clamp down on it. Pot is so not dangerous."
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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China signals hunger for Arctic's mineral riches
By Ed Struzik
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When China — along with Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, and Italy — was granted permanent observer status in the Arctic Council last month, it left many experts wondering whether a paradigm shift in geopolitics is taking place in the region.
Until recently, security issues, search and rescue protocols, indigenous rights, climate change, and other environmental priorities were the main concerns of the intergovernmental forum, which includes the eight voting states bordering the Arctic and several indigenous organizations that enjoy participant status. But the admission of China and other major Asian economic powers as observer states is yet another strong sign, experts say, that the economic development of an increasingly ice-free Arctic is becoming a top priority of nations in the region and beyond.
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China hasn’t been biding its time waiting to hear how its application to the Arctic Council would be decided. In spite of Iceland’s rejection of the real estate deal, China recently signed a free trade agreement with the tiny North Atlantic country and built a new embassy there.
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Oran Young, co-director of the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says many of these developments are an unavoidable fact of life that reflect both the growing global economic importance of the Arctic and China’s position as a pre-eminent economic force. “The Chinese are proceeding in the Arctic in much the same way they are proceeding in other parts of the world, which is largely through economic initiatives,” he says. “They develop connections that offer them the chance to develop natural resources.”
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Methane leaks could negate climate benefits of US natural gas boom: report
By Suzanne Goldenberg
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Carbon dioxide emissions fell last year to their lowest point since 1994, according to the Department of Energy. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were 12% below 2005 levels.
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They were also being offset by a sharp rise in methane, the most powerful greenhouse gas on a human timescale, that was being released into the atmosphere at well sites, compressor stations and along pipelines.
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The report adds to growing evidence of the down sides of America's natural gas boom – beyond the widely reported contamination of local wells by chemicals used in the process of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking".
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How to get precious metals without mining: Dig up city streets
By Sarah Laskow
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Kate Ravilious interviewed these scientists for a (paywalled) New Scientist article and found that, while city streets may not be literally paved with gold, they are covering up a whole bunch of valuable copper. Atlantic Cities summarizes:
Recently Eklund and company have focused their attention on copper stocks embedded in municipal power grids. They estimate that there’s upwards of 90,000 tons of the stuff buried beneath Swedish cities, though recovering it may not be “economically justified” at the present time. … If they did find a cost-efficient way to harvest and recycle the copper, however, the environmental savings compared to traditional mining would be substantial — roughly 360,000 tons of carbon dioxide, according to Ravilious.
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'Coronation meadows' plan seeks to revive wildflower sites
By (BBC)
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Sixty "Coronation meadows" have been identified across the UK as part of a Coronation anniversary campaign to restore threatened wildflower meadows.
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The project, led by the Prince of Wales and three wildlife and livestock organisations, will take seed and green hay from these designated meadows to recreate new ones.
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The variety of flowers and grasses that are characteristic of wildflower meadows also support an array of wildlife, and are especially vital for many of the UK's insect and butterfly species.
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Today, meadows still provide hay and bedding for animals but the intensification of farming methods over the last century has been attributed to their decline.
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Science and Health |
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Our early ancestors loved the taste of grass, study says
By Alexander Besant
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Before the major change hominids ate what can only be considered the real paleo diet: shrubs, leaves, herbs and fruits off trees.
That changed as hominids moved into Africa's open savannahs and began eating grass and possibly animals.
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"What we have is chemical information on what our ancestors ate, which in simpler terms is like a piece of food item stuck between their teeth and preserved for millions of years," said study co-author Zeresenay Alemseged, of the California Academy of Sciences.
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Seeing Our Errors Keeps Us On Our Toes
By (ScienceDaily)
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If people are unable to perceive their own errors as they complete a routine, simple task, their skill will decline over time, Johns Hopkins researchers have found -- but not for the reasons scientists assumed. The researchers report that the human brain does not passively forget our good techniques, but chooses to put aside what it has learned.
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In a report published May 1 in the The Journal of Neuroscience, the Johns Hopkins researchers describe their latest efforts to study how motor memories are formed and lost by focusing on one well-known experimental phenomenon: When people learn to do a task well, but are asked to keep doing it while receiving deliberately misleading feedback indicating that their performance is perfect every time, their actual performance will gradually get worse.
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Adds Shadmehr, "Our results correct a component of knowledge we thought we understood. Neuroscientists thought decay was intrinsic to motor memories, but in fact it's not decay -- it's selection."
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Obese Patients Trust Diet Advice from Overweight Physicians More Than Normal Weight Physicians
By (ScienceDaily)
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When it comes to taking diet advice from a physician -- size matters. This is according to a new study led by a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who examined the impact of primary care physician BMI (body mass index) on their patients' trust and perceptions of weight-related stigma. They found that overweight and obese patients trust weight-related counseling from overweight physicians more than normal weight physicians and patients seeing an obese primary care physician were more likely to perceive weight-related stigma.
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"While weight-related stigma has been documented among health professionals for decades, as well as lower physician respect towards patients with a higher BMI, our finding that weight-related stigma increases with physician BMI was quite surprising," notes Bleich. "Recent changes to obesity coverage among the publicly insured makes understanding primary care physicians' barriers to providing effective obesity care critical. Existing research suggests that primary care physicians face numerous challenges to providing optimal obesity care which include knowledge deficits, negative attitudes and structural barriers. Future research should further examine the impact of physician BMI on obesity care. In particular, why patient-perceived physician stigma is higher among heavier primary care physicians and why the patterns we observed between physician BMI and trust in weight-related counseling differ by the type of counseling."
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Technology |
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DOJ Lawyer Says Apple's E-Book Price-Fixing Cost Consumers "Millions of Dollars"
By Tiffany Kaiser
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The e-books price-fixing trial with Apple has begun, and a U.S. government lawyer accused Apple of conducting shady business practices with the five book publishers.
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But when e-books came along, this model was challenged. Amazon started selling best sellers for as low as $9.99 to encourage its Kindle e-reader sales. Publishers were not happy with this because they thought the prices were too low.
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In April of this year, DOJ used an old email from former Apple CEO Steve Jobs as evidence in the e-books case. The email (dated in 2010) from Jobs to James Murdoch of News Corporation said, "Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99.”
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Why the FBI's plan to require weak security in all American technology is a terrible, terrible idea
By Cory Doctorow
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Bruce Schneier's editorial on CALEA-II is right on. In case you missed it, CALEA II is the FBI's proposal to require all American computers, mobile devices, operating systems, email programs, browsers, etc, to have weak security so that they can eavesdrop on them (as a side note, a CALEA-II rule would almost certainly require a ban on free/open source software, since code that can be modified is code that can have the FBI back-doors removed).
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This is an old debate, and one we've been through many times. The NSA even has a name for it: the equities issue. In the 1980s, the equities debate was about export control of cryptography. The government deliberately weakened U.S. cryptography products because it didn't want foreign groups to have access to secure systems. Two things resulted: fewer Internet products with cryptography, to the insecurity of everybody, and a vibrant foreign security industry based on the unofficial slogan "Don't buy the U.S. stuff -- it's lousy."
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In 2012, we learned that every phone switch sold to the Department of Defense had security vulnerabilities in its surveillance system. And just this May, we learned that Chinese hackers breached Google's system for providing surveillance data for the FBI.
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How a Simple Google Search Unmasked a Chinese Cyber Espionage Network
By David Talbot
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Deibert told me today that one big surprise was indeed how easy it sometimes was to see exactly what the Chinese hackers were doing. . . It turns out that the key to the puzzle was a Google search. As the researchers sniffed traffic from compromised computers, a 22-character string kept appearing. So they entered the term into the Google search bar and saw that it was the address of a Chinese website. They then visited the site and found open directories, lacking password protections, that showed everything else the network was doing, if not who they actually were. “China-based espionage networks are actually very sloppy. We’ve seen this over and over again–sloppy careless steps that allowed us to see what they were doing. There is a huge outsourcing of the cyber criminal underworld, and it is not as sophisticated as one might assume, which may mean it’s not that closely directed by the government – at least not the ones that we see.” And it also said something about the level of hyperbole by security companies. “A lot of companies like to trumpet their unique investigative powers, but cracking one of the cyber espionage networks came down to a researcher in a university lab Googling something,” he added.
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Cultural |
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'Lending Circles' Help Low-Income Communities Join the Financial Mainstream, Study Suggests
By (ScienceDaily)
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In a lending circle, participants join a group of at least four individuals in which each contributes an equal amount and receives the total sum in rotation. For example, someone participating in a circle with seven other people could contribute $100 a month for 8 months in exchange for an $800 loan.
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The impact of lending circles can be felt in the wider community as well, Reyes said. Many clients, for example, used their loan to expand an existing business, bringing an infusion of capital and entrepreneurship to vulnerable neighborhoods. The financial sector also benefits by gaining new customers who were previously unable to access traditional banking services.
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The reports suggest that community-based organizations, particularly those that already have financial programs such as free tax preparation, job training or homeownership preparation, are ideal for implementing the program with the support of a central agency that secures the loans and handles loan processing, reporting and other administrative functions.
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Farming could be key to solving youth unemployment in Africa
By Karen Brooks
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Agriculture employs most of Africa's young people and is likely to continue to do so in the future. But to meet the aspirations of millions who want rewarding work, the continents's agricultural sector will have to change markedly. Today's farming by machete and hand hoe does not appeal to young Africans or to policymakers. Farming is not even viewed as a "job" by many young Africans, who instead reserve the term for employment that requires clean clothes and a desk. Yet for a generation of young people entering adulthood, agriculture offers the best opportunity to move out of poverty and build satisfying lives.
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Many young people will not want to take the risk of establishing their own mid-sized farms, instead they opt for a combination of some part-time farming and supplying services to their neighbours, such as machinery service, transport, simple veterinary services, repair of equipment, etc. Others may choose from an even wider range of wage-based work, from unskilled day labour to highly skilled positions on large commercial farms or in food processing. All of these options represent real opportunities for Africa's young people.
In order to take advantage, however, they need skills to handle a range of tasks and equipment. An excellent example of the type of wage-based employment that will require young people to receive some technical training is Red Fox Ethiopia, a floriculture firm outside Addis Ababa that draws labour from the surrounding rural areas and towns and offers employer-provided transport to work, life and health insurance and a subsidised cafeteria.
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The scientific foundations of African agriculture need rapid and focused strengthening. Regulations and policies still impede rapid progress in a variety of areas, from difficulty transferring rights to use land, to slow approval of new seeds and plant protection agents, to barriers at borders for trade in products, inputs, and technologies.
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Will Malaysia's brain drain block its economic ambitions?
By Jennifer Pak
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Over plates of marbled beef, Mr Lee explained that he used to have businesses in Malaysia ranging from gold mining to stem cell banking.
But he left in 2008 because, he said, a policy favouring the Malay-majority over ethnic minorities was "blatantly abused" to enrich those in power.
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Some flew to Malaysia just to cast their ballots but when the opposition won 50% of the popular vote and still didn't form the government, many went back feeling hopeless, Mr Oh said.
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But to attribute the election results to the racial divide is too simplistic. Analysts say more urban Malays also supported the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition, which advocates dismantling race-based quotas.
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Yet he believes Malays are not sharing in the country's economic spoils because of cronyism. He supports the opposition's drive to clean up corruption.
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German dictionary: So long, long words?
By (BBC)
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The German language has lost its longest word. BBC News Magazine's Jon Kelly asks how lovers of plus-sized lexicography will cope.
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Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz - meaning "law delegating beef label monitoring" - has been excised from the lexicon. All 65 letters of it.
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To some, this is entirely natural. "The way language develops is that terms will shorten over time," says Denny Hilton, a senior assistant editor at the Oxford English Dictionary. "It's just how words tend to evolve."
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Still, the German language remains replete with bandwurmworter (tapeworm words) sprawling across Teutonic pages.
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |