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A camp for firefighters battling a British Columbia wildfire had to be shut down because of “persistent bear activity,” Canada wildlife officials reported. About 160 firefighters at a camp near Goldbridge to fight the Downton Lake wildfire relocated to T’it’q’et First Nation and Lillooet community facilities, officials said on Twitter, now rebranded as X. The British Columbia Wildlife Service said it ordered the closure to “ensure the safety” of firefighters. Conservation officers are working to find a safe place for a new camp so firefighters can resume battling the wildfire, officials said. Officials did not provide details on the bear...

A SMALL private firm in the US has developed a surveillance system of Orwellian proportions that could very well be the future of big brother. Thirty kilometres above a chosen city, a plane hangs out of sight of the thousands of people scurrying below — continuously circling the metropolis underneath. Every second, the plane takes a photo of the entire city and all the happenings within a 64sq km radius. The images are beamed down to a control centre where they create what is akin to a real-time Google map of everything taking place. When a crime occurs, teams of...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The freeze that lingered over much of the nation Wednesday was expected to be followed by strong winds and more bitter cold through the Midwest and deep into the South. The unusually persistent Southern cold snap has been blamed for at least six deaths and threatened to freeze Florida citrus crops. The cold was expected to continue through the weekend. The National Weather Service predicted the heaviest snow from the fast-moving system would fall on Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, with 4-6 inches predicted along with some locally heavier amounts through Thursday. In a rare turn for the...

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2007 – The U.S. military is involved in a “persistent conflict,” and the Army must be prepared to handle the commitment, the Army chief of staff said today. Gen. George W. Casey Jr. spoke to reporters in the Pentagon today in his first interview since he took the position a month ago, after commanding coalition forces in Iraq for almost three years. “The enemy that has attacked us and we are fighting in places around the world isn’t going to fold up and go home,” he said. “They are going to continue to press us.” Casey...

Can Ambien Wake Up PVS Patients? The Guardian gives credence to a case report concerning three patients purportedly diagnosed in PVS for more than three years who were "aroused transiently every morning after zolpidem," a sleeping pill. That would be Ambien. The report, by Clauss and Nel, of Royal Surrey County Hospital and of Family Practice of Pollack Park South Africa, was published in this month's issue of Neurorehabilitation. There are 26 million annual prescriptions for Ambien, most of which are probably not to patients in a persistent vegetative state. Recall that Ambien is oft reported to cause odd behavior...

The idea of persistent surveillance as a transformational capability has circulated within the national intelligence community and the Department of Defense (DOD) for at least 3 years.1 Persistent surveillance, also known as persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); persistent stare; and pervasive knowledge of the adversary, is an often-used term to describe the need for and application of future ISR capabilities to qualitatively transform intelligence support to operational and tactical commands.2 The idea surfaces in many forms, including defense program reviews and congressional testimony.3 Each expression envisions a system achieving near-perfect knowledge and removing uncertainty in war. Persistence means that...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2005 – Operations that have been ongoing in the Iraq's Anbar province since September have had a significant impact nationwide and have limited the ability of terrorists to conduct suicide attacks, a U.S. military spokesman said today in Baghdad. Since operations began, 700 terrorists have been killed and 1,500 have been detained in Anbar, said Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. Also, 243 weapons caches have been found and 440 mines and improvised explosive devices have been found and cleared, he said. The U.S. and Iraqi militaries have left behind a persistent presence in...

------------------------------------------------------------------------ MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH Media 'getting it wrong' on Terri Schiavo story Press erroneously report she's 'comatose,' doctors also dispute vegetative-state ruling ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Posted: October 25, 2003 6:36 p.m. Eastern By Diana Lynne © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Network news outlets across the board and national newspapers – from the New York Times and the Washington Post to the Miami Herald and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution – are misreporting the medical facts of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo story, say her family, doctors and the pro-family organization Focus on the Family. "The media's killing us, and they're killing her, frankly," said Terri's father, Robert Schindler,...