Author: Sunfire

RT News

A new state-of-the-art headband is being developed by Tufts University scientists that could help facilitate communication between the human brain and computers.

The new technology – currently being crafted at the university’s Human Computer Interaction Lab – would be capable of scanning an individual’s brain activity, determining whether the person is mentally aware enough to handle the task at hand, fatigued, or even bored with what they’re doing.   Continue reading “Scientists work on backing up human brain with computers”

RT News

Residents of Washington, DC who are found to be in possession of a small amount of marijuana will no longer be charged with a crime after the city council voted Tuesday to reduce the penalty to a small fine.

The members voted 10-1 to drop possession of an ounce or less of cannabis to a civil fine of $25. The council did preserve a law making it illegal to smoke in public, although the maximum penalty for that infraction has been reduced from up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine to up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. That penalty is the same one facing residents who are stopped in public with an open can of alcohol.   Continue reading “Marijuana on its way to being decriminalized in Washington DC”

RT News

About one in five US soldiers have been found to have a common mental illness such as depression or panic disorder upon enlisting in the Army, according to a new study.

A second study showed that over eight percent of soldiers had contemplated suicide and 1.1 percent had attempted suicide, researchers found via confidential surveys and interviews with 5,428 soldiers at Army bases across the US.   Continue reading “​’How did these guys get in the Army?’ New study delves into mental illness”

Mail.com

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews rallied Sunday in the streets of Jerusalem, blocking roads and paralyzing the city in a massive show of force against plans to require them to serve in the Israeli military.

The widespread opposition to the draft poses a challenge to the country, which is grappling with a cultural war over the place of the ultra-Orthodox in Israeli society. The issue of army service is at the core of that struggle. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about 8 percent of Israel’s 8 million citizens, largely have been allowed to avoid military service, compulsory for most Jewish men, to pursue their religious studies. Older men often don’t work and collect welfare stipends while continuing to study full time.   Continue reading “Ultra-Orthodox rally in Israel against draft bill”

Mail.com

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A freshwater channel that separates Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas is a premier Midwestern tourist attraction and a photographer’s delight, offering spectacular vistas of two Great Lakes, several islands and one of the world’s longest suspension bridges.

But nowadays the Straits of Mackinac is drawing attention for something that is out of sight and usually out of mind, and which some consider a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation’s sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines.   Continue reading “Sunken Great Lakes oil pipeline raises spill fears”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sudden reprise of Cold War sensibilities, the U.S. and its allies are weighing sanctions on Moscow and whether to bolster defenses in Europe in response to Russia’s military advances on Ukraine. Secretary of State John Kerry, soon on his way to Ukraine’s capital, said world leaders “are prepared to go to the hilt in order to isolate Russia with respect to this invasion.”

Much as when superpower tensions ruled world affairs, missile defense systems and troop levels in Europe have again become urgent questions in Washington and beyond, a renewed reality that may force President Barack Obama’s administration to give up its intended foreign policy shift to Asia indefinitely.   Continue reading “A Cold War reprise as US seeks Moscow’s isolation”

Mail.com

Mail.com

TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo bitcoin exchange that filed for bankruptcy protection blamed theft through hacking for its losses Monday, and said it was looking into a criminal complaint.

In an announcement posted on the Mt. Gox exchange’s website, CEO Mark Karpeles outlined the events that resulted in the company’s insolvency and said there was a “high probability” theft was behind the disappearance of bitcoins.   Continue reading “Bitcoin exchange looks into criminal complaint”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is hearing an appeal from a Florida death row inmate who claims he is protected from execution because he is mentally disabled.

The case being argued Monday at the court centers on how authorities determine who is eligible to be put to death, 12 years after the justices prohibited the execution of the mentally disabled. The court has until now left it to the states to set rules for judging who is mentally disabled. In Florida and certain other states, an intelligence test score higher than 70 means an inmate is not mentally disabled, even if other evidence indicates he is.   Continue reading “High court looks at death row inmate’s IQ scores”

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Amid unusually tight security, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law goes to trial Monday on charges he conspired to kill Americans in his role as al-Qaida’s mouthpiece after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Spectators at the trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith — the highest-ranking al-Qaida figure to face trial on U.S. soil since the attacks — will pass through a metal detector before entering a Manhattan courtroom where prosecutors will try to prove to an anonymous jury that the one-time terror network spokesman tried to rally others to kill Americans.   Continue reading “NY jury selection starts for bin Laden son-in-law”

RT News

The West’s proposed financial aid will not solve Ukraine’s economic problems, but increase austerity, professor of political economy Jeffrey Sommers told RT.

If the self-proclaimed government in Kiev cooperates with the IMF, it will be regarded as legitimate in the West, even if its decisions are unpopular in Ukraine itself, Sommers says.   Continue reading “‘Any government willing to cooperate with the IMF will be heralded as legitimate’”

RT News

General Keith Alexander, the soon-to-be departed chief of the NSA, admitted Thursday in front of a congressional committee that the massive intelligence agency may be open to extracting less, or more targeted metadata from communication companies.

Classified documents leaked last summer by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the intelligence agency currently compels at least three major telephone providers – Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T – to turn over call information on millions of Americans. Among that information, known as metadata, is the duration of the call, the time the call was made, who the phone call was to, and where it originated.   Continue reading “Limit surveillance to ‘terrorist communication,’ says outgoing NSA boss”

RT News

President Barack Obama is pressuring Israel to stop carrying out assassinations of top nuclear scientists in Iran as the Islamic Republic continues its negotiations with world powers over its uranium enrichment program, according to a new book.

Apart from pressure from Washington that Israel give up the assassination program, sources close to Israel’s intelligence agencies told CBS News’s Dan Raviv that Mossad itself viewed the campaign as too dangerous to continue. Raviv, who was updating a book he co-wrote about the history of Israel’s intelligence agencies, said the pressure form the Obama administration was “more than a hint.”   Continue reading “Obama pushes Israel to stop assassinations of Iran nuclear scientists – report”

RT News

“Significant construction flaws” have been found in at least 6 of the 28 double shelled radioactive waste storage tanks at the Hanford nuclear waste complex in Washington State, which may lead to additional leaks, documents obtained by the AP say.

After one of the 28 huge underground double shelled tanks was found to be leaking in 2012, subsequent surveys performed for the US Department of Energy by one of its Hanford contractors found that at least six of the other tanks shared the same defects, according to the documents. A further 13 tanks may also be compromised, the inspectors found.   Continue reading “‘Construction flaws’ in six Hanford nuclear waste tanks, 13 more may be compromised – report”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Saturday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate the tense atmosphere in Ukraine by pulling his forces back to bases in the country’s Crimean region and to refrain from interfering elsewhere in the former Soviet republic.

Obama delivered the message to Putin during a 90-minute telephone conversation, the White House said. But Obama’s request appeared likely to go unheeded as the Kremlin said Putin, in turn, emphasized to Obama the existence of real threats to the life and health of Russian citizens living in Ukraine and that Russia has the right to protect its interests there.   Continue reading “US calls on Russia to withdraw forces from Ukraine”

Mail.com

BAGHDAD (AP) — The United Nations said Saturday that violence across Iraq in February killed 703 people, a death toll higher than the year before as the country faces a rising wave of militant attacks rivaling the sectarian bloodshed that followed the U.S.-led invasion.

The figures issued by the U.N.’s mission to Iraq is close to January’s death toll of 733, showing that a surge of violence that began 10 months ago with a government crackdown on a Sunni protest camp is not receding. Meanwhile, attacks Saturday killed at least five people and wounded 14, authorities said.   Continue reading “UN says 703 killed in Iraq in February attacks”

RT News

A new painkiller set to hit the market in March is coming under heavy fire from doctors and lawmakers warning of its powerful ability to kill.

Although the opiate Zohydro was ultimately approved by the US Food and Drug administration, that endorsement went against the recommendation given by the agency’s own advisory panel. The panel voted 11 – 2 against approving the drug, but the FDA argued its availability is necessary to help patients unfazed by current medication.   Continue reading “Doctors warn new FDA-approved painkiller is deadly dangerous”

RT News

Colorado prison inmates who have spent time in solitary confinement should prepare to see their conditions change after the new executive director of the state’s department of corrections said spending 20 hours in isolation has inspired him to reform it.

Rick Raemisch announced his intentions in an editorial for the New York Times, using the space to remind the public that prisoners who have committed even minor infractions in prison can often spend nearly two years in what is known as the solitary housing unit (SHU), or administrative segregation (ad-seg).   Continue reading “Colorado prison director to reform solitary confinement after enduring it himself”

RT News

Following the revelations that Britain’s spy agency intercepts Yahoo users’ private data, three outraged American senators plan to launch an investigation into the NSA’s involvement in the GCHQ operation.

The scandal with the British GCHQ intelligence agency collecting images of Yahoo users by secretly connecting to people’s webcams has made American lawmakers curious about whether their own National Security Agency has been cooperating with British intelligence in this respect.   Continue reading “US senators plan probe into NSA’s role in Yahoo webcam spying scandal”

RT News – by Patrick L Young

Having spent all the money they can possibly borrow, the West’s rapacious governments are, like a drug-addled addict, desperate for more. To that end, taxes are on the up and a mantra of wealth redistribution is at the top of political wish lists.

This is of course a woeful state of affairs as the ability of governments to spend other people’s money wastefully is endless. The ability of governments to spend other people’s money in a useful fashion has always proven limited. The road to prosperity involves empowering innovation, small business and bottom-up growth. Top-down government meddling and rapacious taxes don’t help.   Continue reading “Why govt wants to steal your money”