Artists, activists unite at Bradley Manning trial

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) ? Clark Stoeckley is Bradley Manning's most visible supporter at the soldier's court-martial. He arrives each day in a white box truck with bold words painted on the sides: "WikiLeaks TOP SECRET Mobile Information Collection Unit." The provocative gag even has a nonworking satellite dish and two fake security cameras on it.

Stoeckley, a 30-year-old art instructor at a New Jersey college, is among the more colorful of the 10 to 20 supporters who regularly attend Manning's trial, which resumed this week. The loose-knit group of mostly retirees or self-employed workers sits through hours of sometimes bland testimony at Fort Meade, a military installation near Baltimore. They take notes, make courtroom sketches or write blogs, posting their drawings and articles on websites designed to inform people about the court-martial and raise money for Manning's defense.

They do so because they are united in skepticism of the U.S. government and the belief that Manning exposed wrongdoing by leaking hundreds of thousands of battlefield reports and State Department cables, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan war video.

Stoeckley, who teaches at Bloomfield College, is spending his summer sketching the courtroom drama, making colorful drawings of the Army private in his dress blue uniform; witnesses in their Army fatigues and Manning supporters in their black T-shirts with the word "truth" across the chest.

Stoeckley got involved after seeing a video Manning gave to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. The video showed a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed at least eight people, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.

The Pentagon concluded the troops reasonably mistook the camera gear for weapons and that the journalists were in the company of armed insurgents. Stoeckley calls it a war crime.

"My immediate reaction was, 'This is the deal-breaker. This is what's going to end the Iraq war,''" he said.

But it didn't end the war and the video became evidence that led the military to charge Manning with 22 counts, including espionage, computer fraud and aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence. There's no question Manning leaked the information, but he says none of it put troops or the government in harm's way.

On Wednesday, about 50 sympathizers attended and heard from a former State Department official who testified about access to diplomatic cables. About 30 supporters were allowed in the courtroom and the others watched a closed-circuit video feed from a trailer outside the courthouse.

The government has been moving quickly through its case, presenting evidence from more than 60 witnesses in just 10 trial days since it started June 3.

Manning's supporters are mostly anti-war and have a history of civil disobedience. They identify with groups such as Courage to Resist; Veterans for Peace and the Center on Conscience and War.

They try each day to fill the 20 seats reserved for the public and media in the small courtroom, and have done so most days. They protest just outside the Fort Meade gates with "Free Bradley Manning" signs before the testimony begins at 9:30 a.m., then they enter the base, leaving behind their signs, buttons and anything with Manning's name on it. Those things are banned inside the courtroom.

At lunchtime, they eat pizza, sub sandwiches and other fast-food at the nearby PX, talking about everything from the trial to their personal lives. Some say they have grown close.

"We talk about news items, what's happening this weekend, where somebody's appearing at a church or some kind of gathering," said Bill Wagner, 75, a retired NASA research manager who takes notes during the trial.

He estimated he had been to about one-third of the court-martial over the last 18 months and now has a new group of friends and email correspondents, including a couple from Michigan and attorney Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

"I retired and had a lot of friends at work. To some extent, that's supplanted it or replaced it," Wagner said.

When court recesses for the day, sometimes as late as 7 p.m., Wagner heads home to his wife in Rockville, about 20 miles away.

Leah Brown, a Washington bookkeeper and peace activist, said the Manning supporters haven't caused much of a stir at the fort, even wearing their "truth" shirts at the PX. She says she already knew some of the activists from other events, but has also met new friends.

"Everybody I meet there is there for a good reason. They go there because they really care about what happens to Bradley Manning personally and about what it means to all of us in the future if the government succeeds in what they're trying to do to him," she said.

Bradley Manning Support Network campaign organizer Emma Cape said the group has several thousand supporters on the East Coast and she's trying to persuade more of them to show up. So far, nearly 20,000 people worldwide have donated more than $1.1 million to Manning's defense fund.

Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and Princeton professor Cornel West have attended some of the court-martial. Other big-name supporters, including film directors Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, and actors Russell Brand and Roseanne Barr, have left the daily court-watching to supporters who live nearby.

Debra Van Poolen, an artist and activist, may be one of the most determined sympathizers. She said she pedals her folding bicycle three miles from home to a commuter rail stop, rides the train about 12 miles, then either catches a carpool ride or bikes five more miles to Fort Meade.

"It's been logistically challenging," she said.

___

Online:

http://www.bradleymanning.org

http://couragetoresist.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/artists-activists-unite-bradley-manning-trial-182714233.html

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How reliable are microchips for horse identification?

June 25, 2013 ? Until recently, horses were generally branded to be able to identify individual animals. Since this practice gives rise to longstanding wounds and brand marks cannot be reliably read, there has been a gradual switch towards the use of microchips. But how reliably can microchips be located and read, and are the horses injured by having chips implanted? These issues have been addressed by the team of Christine Aurich at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

The results are available online in The Veterinary Journal and show that chips are highly biocompatible and easy to read, at least with scanners of high quality.

Traditional methods of marking larger farm animals rely on branding with hot irons or on ear-tagging. Dogs and cats are instead identified by the implant of a microchip transponder. With very few exceptions, it is now mandatory within the European Union to mark horses by means of transponders. Nevertheless, some sport-horse registries oppose the use of microchips because they believe that the rate of identification failure is unacceptably high. To date, no systematic examinations to see whether chips are easy to decode, have been conducted. Manuela Wulf in the group of Christine Aurich at the Vetmeduni Vienna has therefore examined the readability of microchips in more than 400 horses. She tested each of the chips with three different scanners. The scanners differed in diameter and field strength. The scientists tested both sides of the animals' necks.

Only high quality scanners are recommended

The results were intriguing. The "best" scanner (equipped with a digital signal processing function that filters interfering signals) detected and read all chips correctly when it was placed on the side of the neck where the chip was implanted and located nearly 90% of the chips even when it was on the other side of the neck. However, the other two scanners performed considerably less well, producing correct reads in around 90% of the cases when on the same side of the neck. On the opposite side of the neck, the success rate ranged between 20-25%. As Wulf puts it, "It is important that the scanners find and read the chips correctly in every case. We can only recommend the top-of-the-range scanner, which should ideally be placed on the side of the horse's neck where the chip was implanted." However, Aurich adds, "Even the lowest quality scanner we tested, performed much better than traditional branding methods of horse identification."

Chipping causes less injury than branding

The major objection to the use of branding relates to the pain and long-term damage it inflicts on the animals. Wulf and her colleagues thus investigated whether the use of microchip markers was any better. She looked closely at the site of chip implantation in 16 horses of nine different breeds and of various ages that had been submitted to the Vetmeduni for post mortem examinations. In the vast majority of cases, the chips seemed to have caused absolutely no ill effects: the two animals that were moderately affected had probably only been chipped recently and there had not yet been time for the wound to heal. As Aurich sums up the findings, "Not only is chipping a far more reliable method for marking horses than traditional methods of branding, we also found that it causes far less injury to the animals."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. M. Wulf, P. Wohlsein, J.E. Aurich, M. Nees, W. Baumg?rtner, C. Aurich. Readability and histological biocompatibility of microchip transponders in horses. The Veterinary Journal, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2013.04.028

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/QjpaSoL93gs/130625121231.htm

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This is the Modem World: Internet radio is inhuman

Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

I gripped the handset, twirling the coiled wire around my wrist, listening for a ring tone. Instead, a busy signal triggered an autonomous twitch reaction in my teenage hand: hang up, wait for dial tone, hit redial, listen for ring tone. Again. Again.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/internet-radio-is-inhuman/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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94 in Alaska? Weather extremes tied to jet stream

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The jet stream, the river of air high above Earth that generally dictates the weather, usually rushes rapidly from west to east in a mostly straight direction.

But lately it seems to be wobbling and weaving like a drunken driver, wreaking havoc as it goes.

The more the jet stream undulates north and south, the more changeable and extreme the weather.

The most recent example occurred in mid-June when some towns in Alaska hit record highs. McGrath, Alaska, recorded an all-time high of 94 degrees on June 17. A few weeks earlier, the same spot was 15 degrees, the coldest recorded for so late in the year.

You can blame the heat wave on a large northward bulge in the jet stream, Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis said.

Several scientists are blaming weather whiplash ? both high and low extremes ? on a jet stream that's not quite playing by its old rules. It's a relatively new phenomenon that experts are still trying to understand.

Some say it's related to global warming, but others say it's not.

Upside-down weather also happened in May: Early California wildfires fueled by heat contrasted with more than a foot of snow in Minnesota. Seattle was the hottest spot in the nation one day, and Maine and Edmonton, Canada, were warmer than Miami and Phoenix.

Consider these unusual occurrences over the past few years:

? The winter of 2011-12 seemed to disappear, with little snow and record warmth in March. That was followed by the winter of 2012-13 when nor'easters seemed to queue up to strike the same coastal areas repeatedly.

? Superstorm Sandy took an odd left turn in October from the Atlantic straight into New Jersey, something that happens once every 700 years or so.

? One 12-month period had a record number of tornadoes. That was followed by 12 months that set a record for lack of tornadoes.

And here is what federal weather officials call a "spring paradox": The U.S. had both an unusually large area of snow cover in March and April and a near-record low area of snow cover in May. The entire Northern Hemisphere had record snow coverage area in December but the third lowest snow extent for May.

"I've been doing meteorology for 30 years and the jet stream the last three years has done stuff I've never seen," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private service Weather Underground. "The fact that the jet stream is unusual could be an indicator of something. I'm not saying we know what it is."

Rutgers' Francis is in the camp that thinks climate change is probably playing a role in this.

"It's been just a crazy fall and winter and spring all along, following a very abnormal sea ice condition in the Arctic," Francis said, noting that last year set a record low for summer sea ice in the Arctic. "It's possible what we're seeing in this unusual weather is all connected."

Other scientists don't make the sea ice and global warming connections that Francis does. They see random weather or long-term cycles at work. And even more scientists are taking a wait-and-see approach about this latest theory. It's far from a scientific consensus, but it is something that is being studied more often and getting a lot of scientific buzz.

"There are some viable hypotheses," Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh said. "We're going to need more evidence to fully test those hypotheses."

The jet stream, or more precisely the polar jet stream, is the one that affects the Northern Hemisphere. It dips down from Alaska, across the United States or Canada, then across the Atlantic and over Europe and "has everything to do with the weather we experience," Francis said.

It all starts with the difference between cold temperatures in the Arctic and warmer temperatures in the mid-latitudes, she explained. The bigger the temperature difference, the stronger the jet stream, the faster it moves and the straighter it flows. But as the northern polar regions warm two to three times faster than the rest of the world, augmented by unprecedented melting of Arctic sea ice and loss in snow cover, the temperature difference shrinks. Then the jet stream slows and undulates more.

The jet stream is about 14 percent slower in the fall now than in the 1990s, according to a recent study by Francis. And when it slows, it moves north-south instead of east-west, bringing more unusual weather, creating blocking patterns and cutoff lows that are associated with weird weather, the Rutgers scientist said.

Mike Halpert, the deputy director of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, said that recently the jet stream seems to create weather patterns that get stuck, making dry spells into droughts and hot days into heat waves.

Take the past two winters. They were as different as can be, but both had unusual jet stream activity. Normally, the jet stream plunges southwest from western Washington state, sloping across to Alabama. Then it curves slightly out to sea around the Outer Banks, a swoop that's generally straight without dramatic bends.

During the mostly snowless winter of 2011-12 and the record warm March 2012, the jet stream instead formed a giant upside-down U, curving dramatically in the opposite direction. That trapped warm air over much of the Eastern U.S. A year later the jet stream was again unusual, this time with a sharp U-turn north. This trapped colder and snowier weather in places like Chicago and caused nor'easters in New England, Francis said.

But for true extremes, nothing beats tornadoes.

In 2011, the United States was hit over and over by killer twisters. From June 2010 to May 2011 the U.S. had a record number of substantial tornadoes, totaling 1,050. Then just a year later came a record tornado drought. From May 2012 to April 2013 there were only 217 tornadoes ? 30 fewer than the old record, said Harold Brooks, a meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Brooks said both examples were related to unusual jet stream patterns.

Last fall, a dip in the jet stream over the United States and northward bulge of high pressure combined to pull Superstorm Sandy almost due west into New Jersey, Francis said. That track is so rare and nearly unprecedented that computer models indicate it would happen only once every 714 years, according to a new study by NASA and Columbia University scientists.

"Everyone would agree that we are in a pattern" of extremes, NOAA research meteorologist Martin Hoerling said. "We don't know how long it will stay in this pattern."

___

Online:

NOAA on the jet stream: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/global/jet.htm

Jennifer Francis study linking Arctic sea ice loss to jet stream changes: http://bit.ly/1aAFM5g

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/94-alaska-weather-extremes-tied-jet-stream-070623134.html

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Google Currents for iOS updated with audio playlists and vertical article pagination

They may not be anything new to the Android faithful, but Google's today brought a few notable additions to the iOS version of Currents. First, the software now sorts audio playlists for any listening content that you fancy alongside the existing playback features. Version 2.1 of the app also displays articles in a vertical-scrolling format and allows for pinch-to-zoom on pictures should the need arise. If your iPhone or iPad has yet to alert you to the update -- or if you're looking to nab the reader for the first time -- you can snag the latest release via the source link that follows.

Filed under: Software, Google

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Source: iTunes

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/0CBneaNjPyg/

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Video game tech used to steer cockroaches on autopilot

June 25, 2013 ? North Carolina State University researchers are using video game technology to remotely control cockroaches on autopilot, with a computer steering the cockroach through a controlled environment. The researchers are using the technology to track how roaches respond to the remote control, with the goal of developing ways that roaches on autopilot can be used to map dynamic environments -- such as collapsed buildings.

The researchers have incorporated Microsoft's motion-sensing Kinect system into an electronic interface developed at NC State that can remotely control cockroaches. The researchers plug in a digitally plotted path for the roach, and use Kinect to identify and track the insect's progress. The program then uses the Kinect tracking data to automatically steer the roach along the desired path.?

The program also uses Kinect to collect data on how the roaches respond to the electrical impulses from the remote-control interface. This data will help the researchers fine-tune the steering parameters needed to control the roaches more precisely.

"Our goal is to be able to guide these roaches as efficiently as possible, and our work with Kinect is helping us do that," says Dr. Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work.

"We want to build on this program, incorporating mapping and radio frequency techniques that will allow us to use a small group of cockroaches to explore and map disaster sites," Bozkurt says. "The autopilot program would control the roaches, sending them on the most efficient routes to provide rescuers with a comprehensive view of the situation."

The roaches would also be equipped with sensors, such as microphones, to detect survivors in collapsed buildings or other disaster areas. "We may even be able to attach small speakers, which would allow rescuers to communicate with anyone who is trapped," Bozkurt says.

Bozkurt's team had previously developed the technology that would allow users to steer cockroaches remotely, but the use of Kinect to develop an autopilot program and track the precise response of roaches to electrical impulses is new.

The interface that controls the roach is wired to the roach's antennae and cerci. The cerci are sensory organs on the roach's abdomen, which are normally used to detect movement in the air that could indicate a predator is approaching -- causing the roach to scurry away. But the researchers use the wires attached to the cerci to spur the roach into motion. The wires attached to the antennae send small charges that trick the roach into thinking the antennae are in contact with a barrier and steering them in the opposite direction.

The paper, "Kinect-based System for Automated Control of Terrestrial Insect Biobots," will be presented at the Remote Controlled Insect Biobots Minisymposium at the 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society July 4 in Osaka, Japan. Lead author of the paper is NC State undergraduate Eric Whitmire. Co-authors are Bozkurt and NC State graduate student Tahmid Latif. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/technology/~3/INaQYtNvF54/130625121233.htm

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Cleveland Browns Name Zak Gilbert as Director of Communications ...

At the end of May, it was reported that the Cleveland Browns were letting VP of Media Relations Neal Gulkis go some time in mid-June. Gulkis reportedly worked his final day on the job last Friday, and today, the team announced the hiring of a Director of Communications: Zak Gilbert.

"We are thrilled to add someone with Zak?s skills and background to lead our communications department," said Browns CEO Joe Banner. "He brings nearly 20 years of expertise on both the collegiate and professional level. We are happy to welcome him to the Browns organization."

Gilbert was the Director of Media Relations for the Oakland Raiders in 2012. Usually, you don't have interesting back-stories about your PR guys. Things are different in Gilbert's case. He was fired by Raiders owner Mark Davis on June 1. According to Silver and Black Pride, the firing came as a result of Davis not liking what was said in a piece that was published by Sports Illustrated:

Gilbert had been brought over from the Green Bay Packers by Reggie McKenzie as part of the regime change. His dismissal came straight from Mark Davis and was reportedly because of an article in Sports Illustrated which spoke of the Raiders' legacy being tainted by the past ten years of non-winning seasons.

Since the article came out, Gilbert had been put on leave and had not been at the Raiders' facility, performing many of his duties from home while assistant media directors Will Kiss and Erin Exum were coordinating things from Raiders headquarters.

A week later, Silver and Black Pride explained more about why Gilbert was fired by Davis:

Mark did not provide a direct response about the firing of Gilbert, but in essence he really did reveal that he did not like the approach that the Raiders were taking to distance themselves from his father. He does not want to move on with the image of Al being incapable of adapting to the new NFL, he wants the image to be the timeless ones of his father holding the Lombardi trophy.

Per Gilbert's LinkedIn account, he is, "actively seeking new opportunities to serve a championship organization." The firing of Gilbert created a stir in Oakland and the national media earlier this month, so I'd imagine that he was well-liked by outsiders. Maybe the Cleveland media will be happier with how things are run now than they were under Gulkis?

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Source: http://www.dawgsbynature.com/2013/6/24/4461220/cleveland-browns-name-zak-gilbert-as-director-of-communications

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