Random News Stories

[Telarus]

WTH? Geez....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/third-navy-official-arrested-in-bribery-probe/2013/11/06/467f9e80-4735-11e3-a196-3544a03c2351_story.html
Third Navy official arrested in bribery probe

Federal prosecutors arrested a third senior Navy official in a widening bribery scandal Wednesday, charging that he delivered classified and other sensitive information to a major defense contractor in exchange for prostitutes, luxury travel and more than $100,000 in cash.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/cia-is-said-to-pay-att-for-call-data.html?_r=0
C.I.A. Is Said to Pay AT&T for Call Data

WASHINGTON — The C.I.A. is paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to assist with overseas counterterrorism investigations by exploiting the company's vast database of phone records, which includes Americans' international calls, according to government officials. The cooperation is conducted under a voluntary contract, not under subpoenas or court orders compelling the company to participate, according to the officials. The C.I.A. supplies phone numbers of overseas terrorism suspects, and AT&T searches its database and provides records of calls that may help identify foreign associates, the officials said. The company has a huge archive of data on phone calls, both foreign and domestic, that were handled by its network equipment, not just those of its own customers.

[Salty]

That last one is just a lollercoaster of duh.

What, the US defines ATT's network as US infrastructure because it cares about the well being of its citizens infrastructure?



Prediction of number of ATT customers who will complain about this in stores: 0

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It may be counterintuitive, but walking might be worse for the environment than driving.
That's the conclusion Richard B. Mckenzie, a professor of Economics at the Paul Merage School of Business comes to in his blog post on EconLib.

Because of the way food supply chains work, walking a mile — and consequently expending calories that need to be replaced — might actually be more wasteful and polluting than driving a mile.

He takes the example of a 180 pound man who chooses to walk a mile to work instead of driving. Walking a mile will burn 200 calories more than the 2000 calories he burns just to survive. Producing food worth 200 calories takes up to 3000-4000 calories. So a person that drives a high fuel economy car that burns 40 miles per gallon will be using only a half to two-thirds of the energy than the walker uses in replacing the calories he expended on walks.

The heavier you get, the less efficient walking is, as a heavier person would burn more calories from walking a mile. So walking can be 1.5 to 2 times more polluting than driving a high mileage car.

Emphasis not mine.

But don't go out and buy yourself a new Hummer just yet. The less mileage your car has, the better walking looks in comparison. Also, if you're eating a mostly vegetarian diet, your energy consumption and pollution through food is minimized.

Dumbasses. The obvious best solution for the environment and health is for everyone to just get food delivered directly to their door minimising any energy output by you to near zero.

What the fuck is this nonsense?

The nonsense assumes that the food for every person is grown individually.  Also, the cost of getting oil out of the ground, transporting it, refining it, transporting it again PLUS the cost of making the car and all the components (plastic, rubber, steel, etc) is far higher than the cost of growing food and then transporting it.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

http://www.businessinsider.com/walking-may-be-worse-for-the-environment-than-driving-2013-11

Check out this heady dose of bullshit.

Those food supply chains are in our best interest. In fact, it reinforces this idea and binds it to the sales of automobiles.

From the article:
"The heavier you get, the less efficient walking is, as a heavier person would burn more calories from walking a mile.

WELL WE CERTAINLY CAN'T HAVE THAT! 

[Salty]

I internet a lot, and I'm not alone there, but that shit is the dumbest shit I've ever seen in my entire life, considering the level of detail in that analysis.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I thought you'd like that.

It's mind-bogglingly fucking idiotic.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I wonder which auto company paid him to write that.

You know, the auto companies are in a bit of a pinch right now, because younger people aren't especially interested in buying cars. Not the way they used to be. Plus, increasing urbanization means that cars are becoming less and less necessary, or even useful.

Paolo Solari would be proud.

[Junkenstein]

This is probably worth it's own thread depending on coming developments:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24863120

The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with radioactive polonium, according a Swiss forensic report.

Palestinian investigator Tawfik Terawi and Arafat's personal doctor hold a news conference to discuss the Swiss scientists' findings.

All sorts of potentially shady shit here. Polonium may ring some bells as spooks new fangled poison of choice. It's even been used in the UK, allegedly by Russians.

Which makes all of this very interesting to me. Arafat didn't have many friends, but I didn't think his enemies were this stupid.

Israel strongly denies any involvement of course. The Swiss are making no friends here either but they at least seem to be doing the right thing.

[Junkenstein]

UK continues to ape USA. We want our own highly profitable student loans sector too:

Some universities may eventually charge students from England up to £20,000 a year, a vice-chancellor has told the Times Higher Education magazine.

Tuition fees paid by home students at English institutions are capped at £9,000, overseas students pay more.

The sector may start to see both groups the same way, says Prof Nick Petford, of Northampton University

His comments come as a report argues that universities will need more money to cope as demand for places rises.

The report, published on Thursday by the umbrella group Universities UK (UUK), says that higher fees charged by universities since last year have merely replaced cuts to government funding

Prof Petford argues that some universities "with high brand value will be able to charge £17,000, £18,000 or £20,000 in the future - I am sure of that".

Small steps, but the path is clear. I'd guess that 20K figure to be reached within 6 years, and probably upwards of 30 in a decade or so. There's fucking huge wads of cash to be made out of these people before tying them into jobs that have no hope of repaying the debt before they're around 50.

Good luck getting any students to believe that any political party will actually fight for their interests. Results in non-voting youth who are able to be screwed over even harder.

[Reginald Ret]

I thought you'd like that.

It's mind-bogglingly fucking idiotic.

I came to that conclusion and stopped reading at "professor of Economics".
I'll try again for the lulz.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I wonder which auto company paid him to write that.

You know, the auto companies are in a bit of a pinch right now, because younger people aren't especially interested in buying cars. Not the way they used to be. Plus, increasing urbanization means that cars are becoming less and less necessary, or even useful.

Paolo Solari would be proud.

I hate having a car, and I have TWO of the bastards. I fantasize more often about my city implementing effective mass transit than about being marooned on an island full of beautiful ladies who have no word for "modesty." If I found a magic lamp my first wish would be for Phoenix to build a subway system that rivals Tokyo, followed by a wish for a free lifetime pass, and then (maybe) for world peace. I hope I live long enough to see this awful automobile culture wither and die for good.

[Sita]

Every time I hear about people doing without a car the one thing that always comes to mind that I wonder about is how do they shop for groceries?
Devote an entire day just to go to the store and back? Seeing as you can't typically carry more than 4 bags of groceries at a time....

[Salty]

Well, for one, I either have a bike trailer/sled get up. Or very large backpacks and the bus. Or walking with a sled/duffle bag. Or a cab.

We also mostly make our own food, so wheat/oats/other bulk items are only purchased so often.

I'd like to have more bulk food delivered. Tea and flour and such.

[Salty]

It's way fucking easier with a car.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I wonder which auto company paid him to write that.

You know, the auto companies are in a bit of a pinch right now, because younger people aren't especially interested in buying cars. Not the way they used to be. Plus, increasing urbanization means that cars are becoming less and less necessary, or even useful.

Paolo Solari would be proud.

I hate having a car, and I have TWO of the bastards. I fantasize more often about my city implementing effective mass transit than about being marooned on an island full of beautiful ladies who have no word for "modesty." If I found a magic lamp my first wish would be for Phoenix to build a subway system that rivals Tokyo, followed by a wish for a free lifetime pass, and then (maybe) for world peace. I hope I live long enough to see this awful automobile culture wither and die for good.

Yep. There's no infrastucture here - CAINT HAVE THEM COMMUTER RAILS! HOW WE GONNA SELL ERL?

San Antonio is considering putting in a trolley system and people are BITCHING about that.