Free Republic

Tables Turned, Victims’ Relatives Get Their Chance at Bulger By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE Published: November 13, 2013 BOSTON — David Wheeler stood in the well of a federal courtroom here Wednesday, gesturing toward James (Whitey) Bulger, the elderly man who was once the overlord of the Boston underworld and who had ordered his father’s murder. "Shame on you, Mr. Bulger," Mr. Wheeler declared. "For all your notoriety, you are a punk and you don’t even matter anymore. You’ve turned from a government-sponsored assassin to a pile of jailhouse rags."

Update: Yahoo! Email Recycling October 7, 2013 Allison here. We’ve recently discussed the June 2013 Yahoo! announcement indicating that the company would be recycling old email addresses, allowing users to pick them up if they wanted something simpler i.e. janedoe instead of janedoe34732. This program launched within the past several weeks, and a few users have received emails intended for the previous owner, and these emails emails contain personally identifiable information that put these previous owners at risk for identity theft. However, when Yahoo! first announced this program, they reassured users that it would not compromise their personal information or lead to...

CryptoLocker: A particularly pernicious virus   By Susan Bradley on October 24, 2013 in Top Story Online attackers are using encryption to lock up our files and demand a ransom — and AV software probably won’t protect you. Here are ways to defend yourself from CryptoLocker — pass this information along to friends, family, and business associates. Forgive me if I sound a bit like those bogus virus warnings proclaiming, “You have the worst virus ever!!” But there’s a new threat to our data that we need to take seriously. It’s already hit many consumers and small businesses. Called...

Mapped: Every Protest on the Planet Since 1979 From Cairo to Wall Street to the West Bank, plotting a world of upheaval. BY J. DANA STUSTER | AUGUST 22, 2013 This is what data from a world in turmoil looks like. The Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) tracks news reports and codes them for 58 fields, from where an incident took place to what sort of event it was (these maps look at protests, violence, and changes in military and police posture) to ethnic and religious affiliations, among other categories. The dataset has recorded nearly 250...

Aker has deal to build up to eight tankers  August 13, 2013, 1:08 AM Aker Philadelphia Shipyard has an agreement to build up to eight product tankers for Crowley Maritime Corp. of Jacksonville, Fla., that could keep the yard busy through 2017. Under terms of a joint business venture, Aker signed a $500 million contract with Crowley to build the first four 330,000-barrel tankers, to be completed in 2015 and 2016. The companies agreed to options for a possible four additional tankers. After several lean years, Aker's workforce is back to 1,000 at the Navy Yard. The nation's second-largest commercial...

BORREGO STARDANCE from Sunchaser Pictures "The Trippiest Time Lapse Video We've Ever Seen" -- POPULAR SCIENCE [O]ur next adventure takes us to the desert town of Borrego Springs, California -- a remarkable hidden gem surrounded by the 600,000 acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Just three hours south of Los Angeles, this unspoiled landscape shines not only for its natural wonders, but for the absolutely amazing, enormous metal sculptures left behind by local business leader Dennis Avery. Dragons, Dinosaurs, Giant Scorpions, Wooly Mammoths, and much more!

Another uncertainty for climate models – different results on different computers using the same code Posted on July 27, 2013     |     by Anthony Watts New peer reviewed paper finds the same global forecast model produces different results when run on different computers Did you ever wonder how spaghetti like this is produced and why there is broad disagreement in the output that increases with time? Increasing mathematical uncertainty from initial starting conditions is the main reason. But, some of it might be due to the fact that while some of the models share common code,...

‘A chance to see the future’: U.S. Navy lands fighter-jet sized drone on aircraft carrier for first timeBrock Vergakis, Associated Press | 13/07/11 4:03 PM ET The U.S. Navy successfully landed a drone the size of a fighter jet aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time Wednesday, showcasing the military’s capability to have a computer program perform one of the most difficult tasks that a pilot is asked to do. The landing of the X-47B experimental aircraft means the Navy can move forward with its plans to develop another unmanned aircraft that will join the fleet alongside traditional...

Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying All of the evidence found in this timeline can also be found in the Summary of Evidence we submitted to the court in Jewel v. NSA. It is intended to recall all the credible accounts and information of the NSA's domestic spying program found in the media, congressional testimony, books, and court actions. For a short description of the people involved in the spying you can look at our Profiles page, which includes many of the key characters from the NSA Domestic Spying program.

Discovery Channel host, assisted by Ministry of National Defense R.O.C, sponsored by Longtan Township Hall and WARGAME.NET.     Front view of CM-32 Cloud Leopard armored vehicle and you can see the add-on armor blocks and remote-control weapon station.     Military Police's Cadillac V-150S armoured personnel carrier(Many more - hit the link.)

Mapping the world with Tweets Posted By Joshua KeatingWednesday, May 8, 2013 - 3:39 PM   A new paper on the peer-reviewed online journal First Monday summarizes the results of a project to use geographic data gathered from Tweets to create a picture of the world according to Twitter. The researches, led by GDELT co-creator Kalev Leetaru, used the Twitter decahose, a massive feed of 10 percent of all tweets, access to which is normally sold at high price to marketers. The project covers the period of the Oct. 23, 2102, to November 30, 2012. During this time, 1,535,929,521...

Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell's Trial Should Be a Major News Story By Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic | National Journal The grand jury report in the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, is among the most horrifying I've read. "This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy - and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors," it states. "The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in...

Baroness Thatcher to receive ceremonial but not state funeral Baroness Thatcher will receive a ceremonial funeral with full military honours at St Paul’s Cathedral, it has been announced. The funeral will have official status, similar to that accorded to the funeral of the Queen Mother, but it will not be a full state funeral in line with her own wishes and those of her family. Lady Thatcher will not lie in state and there will be no military fly-past. Full details of the ceremony will be announced in coming days but Downing Street said a “wide and diverse range...

School Reform Commission Votes To Save Four Schools, 23 To CloseBy Chelsea KarnashPHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The School Reform Commission has voted to save four public schools from closure in Philadelphia. The four schools are Roosevelt Middle School, Taylor Elementary, Pierce Elementary and Robeson High School. Twenty-three other schools on the chopping block will close. "This was a difficult vote, but it focused on our goal to provide safe, high-quality seats while being fiscally responsible," said Pedro Ramos, Chairman of the School Reform Commission, in a release from the district. "By not taking action now, we would continue the deterioration...

3 Dead, 2 Officers Wounded In Delaware Courthouse ShootingFebruary 11, 2013 5:30 PMWILMINGTON, Del. (CBS) – According to the Delaware State Police, three people were killed, including the suspected gunman, after a gunfight erupted inside the lobby of the New Castle County Courthouse Monday morning. Two Capitol police officers were wounded during the shootout. The shooting happened at about 8 a.m. Monday at the Courthouse building in the 500 block of N. King Street. According to investigators, the alleged gunman, approximately 50-60 years of age, entered the lobby of the courthouse, pulled out a gun and opened fire —...

How Google Earth Owns North Korea 8 minute long video of targets being pointed out over North Korea on Google Earth. All military targets. Highly advanced Google satellites positioned over North Korea took high definition pictures of military bases and areas. There are a large number of the vehicles that are older soviet-cold war era jets and planes that are still in service with the NK airforce. Many of these pictures range from 2010-2013. It takes Google multiple years to take pictures of every part of a country and put it together to make one entire image.

Full Moon Silhouettes Full Moon Silhouettes is something that I’ve been wanting to capture for a over a year now. The video is a real time capture of the moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in the capital city of Wellington, New Zealand. On the evening of the 28th January 2013, after a lot of planning and many failed attempts, I finally managed to pull it off. There were numerous factors I had to consider and get right to capture the footage. The weather, moon phases and  finding a suitable location where I could actually get the moon...

Why you can't compete with Chinese labor Check out this video: Chinese Labor

French court overturns Concorde crash conviction By ASSOCIATED PRESS | November 29, 2012 | Updated: November 29, 2012 11:21am VERSAILLES, France - A French appeals court overturned manslaughter convictions against Houston's Continental Airlines and a mechanic for the July 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde that killed 113 people, ruling Thursday that their mistakes did not make them legally responsible for the deaths. The crash hastened the end for the already-faltering supersonic Concorde, synonymous with high-tech luxury but a commercial failure. The program, jointly operated by Air France and British Airways, was taken out of service in 2003....

Judge: Northside ISD CANNOT Expel Student for Rejecting RFID Tracking Chip says district's tracking program 'violates fundamental Constitutional Rights' A judge in Texas has barred a school district from expelling a student because she refused to wear a Radio Frequency Identification chip as part of an effort by the school to track students and make sure they attend class, 1200 WOAI news has learned. "This is a national issue," John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, a free market advocacy from which filed the lawsuit, told 1200 WOAI news. "Do we want to live in a surveillance state where everybody...