Day: May 27, 2014

This Wednesday evening, the 28th, NBC interview with Edward Snowden — UPDATED with my feelings after the interview

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Snowden and Williams

After months of preparation and negotiation, “Nightly News” anchor and managing editor Brian Williams met former NSA contractor Edward Snowden last week in Moscow for his first interview with a U.S. television network…

The exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Snowden, who received asylum in Russia after leaking classified documents from NSA servers, will air in a one-hour NBC News primetime special on Wednesday at 10 p.m. Eastern/9 p.m. Central.

“The interview was months in the making and cloaked in the secrecy of his life as a fugitive living in exile overseas,” said Williams. “As you will see and hear, Edward Snowden has a lot more to say.”

Snowden, now 30, is a former systems administrator for the CIA who later went to work for the private intelligence contractor Dell inside a National Security Agency outpost in Japan. In early 2013, he went to work for Booz Allen Hamilton inside the NSA center in Hawaii.

While working for the contractors, Snowden downloaded secret documents related to U.S. intelligence activities and partnerships with foreign allies, including some that revealed the extent of data collection from U.S. telephone records and Internet activity…

U.S. officials have asserted that Snowden may have taken as many as 1.7 million documents. Among the revelations from documents in the Snowden trove are the NSA’s bulk collection of phone and internet metadata from U.S. users, spying on the personal communications of foreign leaders, including U.S. allies, and the NSA’s ability to tap undersea fiber optic cables and siphon off data.

Look at the videos in the article as a preview. I hold about as much hope for unedited courage on the part of NBC as you might expect – or not. But, my DVR is set for 9PM, local MDT.

For example, the last paragraph in the article says, “This week, the House passed a bill to end the NSA’s bulk domestic metadata collection.” Well, No. The bill was so watered down that some of those who wrote the original bill voted against it. Just one more smoke-and-mirrors-act from Congress.

EMT report: Gunshot wound in buttock contaminated with squirrel tissue

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…Until now “gross contamination of an open wound with squirrel flesh [was] an unreported event,” as Porter W. Maerz, MD…and colleagues write in a recent case study appearing in Case Reports in Emergency Medicine.

But no more, thanks to a Florida teenager.

When EMTs arrived on the scene of the boy’s injury, they reported visible “squirrel parts” in the margin of a buckshot wound. Such wounds are not unusual, but how did the squirrel get in there?

Turns out that that the young man was attempting to dislodge a dead squirrel from an overhead branch with the butt of a loaded 12-gauge shotgun.

He apparently learned that was a nutty idea.

You may not recall that the recommended technique for catching a squirrel is — to climb a tree and make a noise like a nut! In this case, a nut with a gun.

Peat bog the size of England discovered in Congo-Brazzaville

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A vast peatland has been discovered in a remote part of Congo-Brazzaville…The bog covers an area the size of England and is thought to contain billions of tonnes of peat.

Scientists say investigating the carbon-rich material could shed light on 10,000 years of environmental change in this little-studied region.

Dr Simon Lewis, from the University of Leeds, said: “It’s remarkable that there are parts of the planet that are still uncharted territory.”

He added: “Few people venture into these swamps as they are quite difficult places to move around in and work in…”

Satellite images initially hinted at the presence of the enormous tropical peatland, but an expedition, starting from Itanga village in April, confirmed it was there.

The discovery team, from the University of Leeds, the Wildlife Conservation Society-Congo and Congo-Brazzaville’s Marien Ngouabi University, had to contend with dwarf crocodiles, gorillas and elephants as they explored the area. But they said the biggest challenge was soggy feet.

Dr Lewis, who was working with PhD student Greta Dargie, added: “You can only walk on these areas for a couple of months a year, right at the end of the dry season, so you have to time it right. Even then it is still wet every day…

Continue reading →

Oregon driver caused three-car crash — he was holding his breath while driving through tunnel — till he passed out!

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Police say a 19-year-old man caused a three-car crash when he fainted while holding his breath as he drove through a tunnel in Oregon.

Daniel J Calhon told investigators he fainted on Sunday afternoon while holding his breath in the Highway 26 tunnel near the community of Manning. His car, a 1990 Toyota Camry, drifted across the centreline and crashed head-on with a Ford Explorer.

Both vehicles struck the tunnel walls before a pickup hit the Camry. Four people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say Calhon has been cited for reckless driving, three counts of reckless endangerment and fourth-degree assault.

Coppers said some people hold their breaths in tunnels as part of a game – sometimes because of superstition. No statement released as to whether either stupid practice contributed to this particular accident.