Saturday, April 14, 2012

A New Microchip Knows Just Where You Are, Indoors and Out

According to Technology Review:

Broadcom has just rolled out a chip for smart phones that promises to indicate location ultra-precisely, possibly within a few centimeters, vertically and horizontally, indoors and out.

The unprecedented accuracy of the Broadcom 4752 chip results from the sheer breadth of sensors from which it can process information. It can receive signals from global navigation satellites, cell-phone towers, and Wi-Fi hot spots, and also input from gyroscopes, accelerometers, step counters, and altimeters.

The variety of location data available to mobile-device makers means that in our increasingly radio-frequency-dense world, location services will continue to become more refined.

In theory, the new chip can even determine what floor of a building you're on, thanks to its ability to integrate information from the atmospheric pressure sensor on many models of Android phones. The company calls abilities like this "ubiquitous navigation," and the idea is that it will enable a new kind of e-commerce predicated on the fact that shopkeepers will know the moment you walk by their front door, or when you are looking at a particular product, and can offer you coupons at that instant.

More...

Gunter Grass Is Vilified by Israeli Authors for a Poem Harshly Critical of Israel

After the Nobel laureate published a poem suggesting that Israel might be plotting to destroy Iran, the state banned him for life. Several members of the country’s literary establishment also condemned the poem, but some also say that Israel overreacted.

More...

See also:

Günter Grass says Israel ban reminds him of East German Stasi

12m - Next Global Action 12 May 2012. We are the 99%....


The next global protest is happening on 12 May 2012. Join us in protesting the current crisis in the world, against the corruption of politicians, bankers, big corporations, demanding our basic rights as human beings!
http://international.democraciarealya.es/12m/
http://interoccupy.org/globalspring/BCN
http://occupytogether.org
http://takethesquare.net



Drinking Alcohol May Significantly Enhance Problem Solving Skills

From the Medical Daily:

Drinking alcohol may enhance a person’s problem solving skills, according to a new study.

Scientists found that men who either drank two pints of beer or two glasses of wine before solving brain teasers not only got more questions right, they also were quicker in delivering correct answers, compared to men who answered the questions sober.

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Occupy Wall Street revival?


The Occupy Wall Street movement has vowed to amp up its presence this spring. According to reports, approximately 100,000 activists will be assisted by difference organizations to become better more effective protesters. The series of training sessions is believed to revive the movement. J.A. Myerson, investigative journalist, joins us for the latest on OWS.

More Evidence the 1% are Getting Nervous

From the Consent of the Governed blog:

...DHS, ordered 2,717 International® MaxxPro® Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in January... So? What "hot" area in the US do they think they will be fighting in that they need a Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicle??? or are those and the gun ports just to protect you and make you feel safer???

Is there a war stateside that I am unaware of?
Honestly, what is the reason for having this type of vehicle on American streets?...

See Homeland Security Vehicles On The Move.

...Navistar Defense, LLC received an award to conduct the installation work associated with its January order to upgrade 2,717 International® MaxxPro® Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles with a new vehicle chassis. The $21 million contract from the U.S. Army Contracting Command is just one of Navistar's many reset offerings aimed at revitalizing existing defense assets for future missions...
According to the Courthouse News Service:

The Department of Veterans Affairs must disclose certain documents that a class of veterans hopes will prove they were used as guinea pigs by the CIA in Cold War-era drug experiments, a federal judge ruled.

Vietnam Veterans of America filed a class action against the U.S. government in 2009, claiming that at least 7,800 soldiers had been used as guinea pigs in Project Paperclip. The experiments were allegedly conducted at the Baltimore-area Edgewood Arsenal.

Soldiers were allegedly administered at least 250 and as many as 400 types of drugs, among them Sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD.

Using tactics it often attributed to the Soviet enemy, the U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis and enhance a person's ability to withstand torture, according to the complaint.

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'The Soil of Burma is Red, and So are Its Rocks'

Akira Ifukube's score for Kon Itchikawa's anti-war classic 'The Burmese Harp'.



The movie apparently also inspired the short film 'Shell' by Michael Fisher.