Eideard

German data watchdogs on Friday ordered state agencies to shut down their Facebook pages and remove “like” buttons from their Web sites, suggesting that anyone who uses Facebook will have their online activity tracked.

“All institutions in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany [must] shut down their fan pages on Facebook and remove social plug-ins such as the ‘like’-button from their Web sites,” the German Data Protection Commissioner’s Office said in a statement. “Whoever visits facebook.com or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years.”

After “thorough and legal analysis,” the commission said it concluded that Facebook and its “like” button violates Germany’s Telemedia Act and its Federal Data Protection Act because data is transferred to the U.S. and Web analytics are sent to Web site owners…

German agencies have until the end of September to stop using Facebook for official business. Failure to do so could result in fines. Commissioner Thilo Weichert said in a statement that those agencies “cannot shift their responsibility for data privacy” to Facebook or the user.

Facebook, however, denied that its activity was in violation of any EU laws…

The commission said today’s ban is “only the beginning of a continuing privacy impact analysis of Facebook applications.” It also advised people to “keep their fingers from clicking on social plug-ins such as the ‘like’-button and not to set up a Facebook account if they wish to avoid a comprehensive profiling by this company.”

There are solid historic reasons for Germans to prefer to have a nanny state protect their rights to privacy. There also are pretty good reasons to classify the heavy-handed approach as total crap equally reminiscent of a totalitarian past.

Not especially different from conservatives who blather against political correctness – unless the topic is one of their ongoing campaigns to legislate morality, sex, music and thought that might displease someone with their brain still stuck into the 19th Century. Or the 14th Century.

Members of a Scarborough mosque have expressed shock and disbelief that their “nice” and “humble” religious leader has been charged with a string of sexual assaults. Mohammad Masroor, the imam at the Baitul Mukarram Islamic Society…faces 13 charges involving sexual offences and death threats relating to five alleged victims…

Det. Const. Karen Armstrong said Masroor used his position of leadership “to his advantage.” She said Masroor, who teaches in the mosque as well as in private homes, knew the alleged victims…

“The victims are both male and female,” Armstrong said. “We believe there are other victims as (the accused) has lived and worked worldwide.”

Masroor taught in Florida, Michigan and Bangladesh before coming to Canada, according to police. He has also lived and taught in Germany, France, Hungary, Singapore and Sri Lanka but police said the investigation is not limited to those areas…

Members of the mosque were especially upset that the allegations come during the holy month of Ramadan…

Yes, I think he’s actually a Romulan pretending to be a Vulcan.

Thanks, James

When it comes to improving bone health in postmenopausal women — and people of all ages, actually — a Florida State University researcher has found a simple, proactive solution to help prevent fractures and osteoporosis: eating dried plums.

“Over my career, I have tested numerous fruits, including figs, dates, strawberries and raisins, and none of them come anywhere close to having the effect on bone density that dried plums, or prunes, have,” said Bahram H. Arjmandi…”All fruits and vegetables have a positive effect on nutrition, but in terms of bone health, this particular food is exceptional.”

Arjmandi and a group of researchers from Florida State and Oklahoma State University tested two groups of postmenopausal women. Over a 12-month period, the first group, consisting of 55 women, was instructed to consume 100 grams of dried plums (about 10 prunes) each day, while the second — a comparative control group of 45 women — was told to consume 100 grams of dried apples. All of the study’s participants also received daily doses of calcium (500 milligrams) and vitamin D (400 international units).

The group that consumed dried plums had significantly higher bone mineral density in the ulna (one of two long bones in the forearm) and spine, in comparison with the group that ate dried apples. This, according to Arjmandi, was due in part to the ability of dried plums to suppress the rate of bone resorption, or the breakdown of bone, which tends to exceed the rate of new bone growth as people age…

In the United States, about 8 million women have osteoporosis because of the sudden cessation of ovarian hormone production at the onset of menopause. What’s more, about 2 million men also have osteoporosis.

Arjmandi encourages people who are interested in maintaining or improving their bone health to take note of the extraordinarily positive effect that dried plums have on bone density.

“Don’t wait until you get a fracture or you are diagnosed with osteoporosis and have to have prescribed medicine,” Arjmandi said. “Do something meaningful and practical beforehand. People could start eating two to three dried plums per day and increase gradually to perhaps six to 10 per day. Prunes can be eaten in all forms and can be included in a variety of recipes.”

Proactive – as always – is better than sitting and waiting for an accident to happen. The FSU department chaired by Dr. Arjmandi – Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences – is pretty interesting btw. One of the 72 major schools I’d consider attending if I was a kid starting out all over again.

The FBI suspects an Idaho woman jailed over a California heist is the “Bad Hair Bandit” wanted for 20 bank robberies and a judge set her bail on Thursday at $500,000 following her recent arrest.

A robber dubbed the “Bad Hair Bandit” — named for her habit of wearing cheap, ill-fitting wigs — is believed to be behind 20 robberies in four states since December…

They said Cynthia Van Holland, 47, was believed to be that person, although witnesses say she was not wearing a wig in the heist that led to her arrest.

Van Holland and her husband, Christopher Alonzo, 26, were arrested on Monday after Van Holland was accused of robbing the Bank of the West in Auburn, 30 miles northeast of Sacramento, before fleeing in a car driven by Alonzo…

Placer County sheriff’s deputies nabbed Van Holland and her husband a dozen miles from the Bank of the West after a witness gave the license plate and model of their car, said Ayn Sandalo Dietrich, spokeswoman for the FBI office in Seattle…

Agents investigating a string of bank robberies in Washington state and one robbery each in Montana, Oregon and California, believe Van Holland is the robber with the fake hair, Dietrich said.

“The wigs are really what stand out,” she said.

Twenty robberies in four states in eight months. Dumb enough to be a small-time crook – I guess you’re dumb enough to think you’re never going to be caught.

Two men pleaded guilty on Thursday to a racially motivated attack on a developmentally disabled Navajo Indian man in which they branded him with a swastika…A third assailant had already pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy charges related to torturing the 22-year-old man in New Mexico in 2010. The victim’s name was not released.

“No one anywhere, but especially in a state like New Mexico that prides itself on its ethnic, racial and cultural diversity, should be victimized because of what he or she happens to be,” U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Kenneth J. Gonzales said.

“The young victim in this case was assaulted, branded and scarred because he happens to be a Native American – that simply is inexcusable and criminal.”

The three men – Paul Beebe and Jesse Sanford of Farmington, N.M., and William Hatch of Fruitland, N.M., – are the first defendants to be charged under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009…

The defendants in this case admitted covering the victim’s body with white supremacist and anti-Native American symbols, including shaving a swastika in the back of his head and using markers to write the words “KKK” and “White Power” on his skin, a Justice Department statement said…

The men, who recorded the entire incident on cell phones including a recording of them coercing the man into saying he wanted to be branded, were indicted in November 2010 on charges of conspiracy and violating the hate-crime statute.

The statute is named after Shepard, a young gay man murdered in 1998 in Wyoming and Byrd, an African-American man who was decapitated in Texas in 1998 after he was dragged behind a truck by two white supremacists.

“Deplorable, hate-filled incidents like this one have no place in a civilized society,” Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas Perez said.

A local example of the kind of hate crime that persists into the 21st Century – in the Land of Liberty.

I can still walk into any American town I’ve never been in – look around and pick out a popular successful bar to visit on a Friday night and have an in-depth conversation with as many white/male/ethnic supremacists as you’d ever want to record and quote. And puke in the gutter afterwards.

Last year we reported in the development of a cancer-detecting electronic nose inspired by dogs’ ability to literally sniff out different types of ovarian cancer. Now a new study has found that sniffer dogs’ abilities extend to reliably detecting lung cancer. The researchers say the results of the study confirm that there is a stable marker for lung cancer, which offers the possibility that a “breath test” for the early detection of lung cancer could be developed…

To provide a simple way to detect lung cancer in its early stages, researchers have been working to identify volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are linked to the presence of cancer. In an attempt to confirm the presence of such identifying compounds, researchers from Schillerhoehe Hospital in Germany conducted tests using exhaled breath specimens provided by 220 volunteers, including lung cancer patients, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and healthy patients.

Specially trained sniffer dogs successfully identified 71 samples of lung cancer out of a possible 100 and correctly detected 372 samples that didn’t have lung cancer out of a possible 400. Although it isn’t known which specific chemical the dogs are responding to, the researchers say the results confirm there is indeed a stable marker for lung cancer that is independent of COPD and is detectable in the presence of tobacco smoke, food odors and drugs.

“In the breath of patients with lung cancer, there are likely to be different chemicals to normal breath samples and the dogs’ keen sense of smell can detect this difference at an early stage of the disease,” says author of the study, Thorsten Walles. “Our results confirm the presence of a stable marker for lung cancer. This is a big step forward in the diagnosis of lung cancer, but we still need to precisely identify the compounds observed in the exhaled breath of patients…

While it isn’t feasible to use sniffer dogs in clinics, the results of the study offer hope that once the chemical the dogs are responding to is identified, an electronic nose could be developed to literally sniff out lung cancer in a patient’s breath.

Bravo. Learning from the leadership of our companion animal’s native talents ain’t a half-bad idea. Ever.

Chip maker Intel has commissioned leading science fiction authors to pen short stories that imagine future uses for the firm’s technology. The collection, called “The Tomorrow Project”, aims to capture the public’s imagination regarding the company’s current research.

The anthology has been made available online as a free download.

The Tomorrow Project is led by Intel futurist Brian David Johnson, who regards the scheme as an important way to assess future technology trends.

“When we design chips to go into your television, your computers, your phones – we need to do it about five or ten years in advance. We need to have an understanding of what people will want to do with those devices,” said Mr Johnson.

“What science fiction does is give us a way to think about the implications of the technologies that we’re building, for the people who will actually be using them.”

The concept is called “future casting” – and aims to drive future technology uses, rather than simply responding to market forces…

The initiative suggests a cultural shift by the chip giant, which has had to adjust to sharp changes in the consumer tech landscape.

In previous decades, Intel was able to drive progress and profits through steady increments in processor speed. Yet in a post-PC world, firms like Apple have successfully used lifestyle innovations to frame future market appetites.

Best price in the marketplace.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
No, that’s not Cooperman and Schwartz

Click on photo for Leon Cooperman, Marvin Schwartz on topic
[The real conversation starts at 2 minutes into the video]

The best thing to be said of the recent stomach-churning turmoil on Wall Street is that it’s taking place in August, a time of year when many people are lounging at the beach or camping in the woods and not paying attention to stocks…

“Everyone felt this was idiotic,” says Susan Kaplan, president of Kaplan Financial Services, referring to last week’s volatility. “Most clients didn’t want to deal with the markets anymore and went back to their summer vacations,” said Kaplan, whose firm manages about $1.3 billion in customer money…

Thursday brought another August storm. The S&P500 plunged 4.46 percent and the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield fell below 2 percent for the first time in 70 years. And the trouble is this turmoil may not be some temporary anomaly.

Experts say investors should expect even more volatility in stocks, as herd trading by hedge funds, knee-jerk trader reaction to news and lightning fast computer programs combine to make for a new and uncomfortable normal on Wall Street.

This new trading frontier even has its own signature milepost, something called “a liquidity black hole.” It’s a trading phenomenon in which there’s so much intense selling pressure in big-cap stocks that it sucks all the oxygen out of the market and stocks plunge precipitously – as on August 8 when every single stock in the S&P500 ended the day in the red…

There’s a concern that frenzied trading could drive people further away from stocks at a time when, other than gold, there are few assets generating any kind of substantial return.

And that’s something that could have long-term ramifications for the ability of investors to build retirement nest-eggs, especially given the historic poor ability of retail investors to time market swoons and surges…

Also if investors flee stocks it could make it harder for small, niche companies, such as ones in the biotech or clean energy sectors, to tap the public markets for capital. Or more of those companies might take their capital-raising business overseas to places like Hong Kong, which would be another blow to Wall Street.

I’m fed up for the same reasons Messrs Cooperman and Schwartz declare. High frequency trading adds nothing to the stock market except no sense of direction and qualitatively dangerous volatility. It’s the ultimate in day trading with no one investing in the companies traded and adding value.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulatory body for these shenanigans is doing what they did to prevent the subprime meltdown that gave us the Great Recession. Nothing, nada, nuttin’ honey! They’d rather not risk offending the moneyboys invested in platforms profiting profit for the trading corporations – not investors. But, that’s not what a stock market is for.

Elkhorn coral infected with the human pathogen, Serratia marcescens

A strange new menace has joined the long list of threats to corals, the tiny reef-building animals that create important habitat in our oceans.

A bacterium that attacks humans is also killing off a species of coral in the Caribbean, elkhorn coral, according to researchers who proved the link by infecting fragments of the coral with bacteria from human sewage.

“This is quite an unusual discovery. It is the first time ever that a human disease has been shown to kill an invertebrate,” said University of Georgia professor James Porter, one of the study researchers. “This is unusual because we humans usually get disease from wildlife, and this is the other way around.”

In humans, the pathogen Serratia marcescens is opportunistic, causing respiratory, wound and urinary tract infections. In coral, it causes a disease Porter and colleagues have dubbed “white pox” for the white scars that appear on infected elkhorn coral. These scars appear where the coral’s living tissue has disappeared, leaving only its skeleton…

The coral cover in the Caribbean has declined 50 percent over the past 15 years, and elkhorn coral has declined by almost 90 percent during the same time period, according to Porter…

In the Keys, most wastewater is not treated but disposed of in septic systems on land. Ideally, such systems use soil to filter out contaminants, but the porous limestone bedrock of the Keys allows contaminants to leak into the ocean. Sutherland said wastewater treatment also is a problem in the Caribbean, which is south of the Keys.

Of course, the professional ignoranuses who infest American politics, who will jump through flaming sphincters to “prove” human beings need take no responsibility for any foul act – will find a rationale which explains this away to the satisfaction of the average Kool Aid Party acolyte. No doubt.

Meanwhile, responsible adults are working at putting better systems of waste treatment in place in the Florida Keys and elsewhere in the Caribbean. Hopefully, functional before elkhorn coral are wiped out.

This surely ain’t the Ivy League

A free online course at Stanford University on artificial intelligence, to be taught this fall by two leading experts from Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the globe — a class nearly four times the size of Stanford’s entire student body.

The course is one of three being offered experimentally by the Stanford computer science department to extend technology knowledge and skills beyond this elite campus to the entire world, the university is announced.

The online students will not get Stanford grades or credit, but they will be ranked in comparison to the work of other online students and will receive a “statement of accomplishment.”

For the artificial intelligence course, students may need some higher math, like linear algebra and probability theory, but there are no restrictions to online participation. So far, the age range is from high school to retirees, and the course has attracted interest from more than 175 countries.

The instructors are Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, two of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence experts. In 2005 Dr. Thrun led a team of Stanford students and professors in building a robotic car that won a Pentagon-sponsored challenge by driving 132 miles over unpaved roads in a California desert. More recently he has led a secret Google project to develop autonomous vehicles that have driven more than 100,000 miles on California public roads.

Dr. Norvig is a former NASA scientist who is now Google’s director of research and the author of a leading textbook on artificial intelligence…

The two scientists said they had been inspired by the recent work of Salman Khan, an M.I.T.-educated electrical engineer who in 2006 established a nonprofit organization to provide video tutorials to students around the world on a variety of subjects via YouTube.

“The vision is: change the world by bringing education to places that can’t be reached today,” said Dr. Thrun…

Hal Abelson, a computer scientist at M.I.T. who helped develop an earlier generation of educational offerings that began in 2002, said the Stanford course showed how rapidly the online world was evolving.

“The idea that you could put up open content at all was risky 10 years ago, and we decided to be very conservative,” he said. “Now the question is how do you move into something that is more interactive and collaborative, and we will see lots and lots of models over the next four or five years.”

Bravo! I set this article aside a few days ago to post at the blog. I got an email from one of our regulars – Ursarodinia – who just signed up for the course and they’re now up over 83,000.

UPDATE: Over 129,000 signed up, now – and more info at their website.