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Johann Hari calls for the arrest of the Pope
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Johann Hari calls for the arrest of the Pope
Labs grow human-animal hybrids
Amplify’d from www.heraldsun.com.au
Labs grow human-animal hybrids
Daily Mail
UK SCIENTISTS have created more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos in British laboratories.
The hybrids have been produced in secret over the past three years by researchers looking into possible cures for a wide range of diseases.
The revelation comes a day after a committee of scientists warned of a nightmare Planet of the Apes scenario in which work on human-animal creations goes too far.
Last night a campaigner against the excesses of medical research said he was disgusted that scientists were "dabbling in the grotesque".
Figures seen by the Daily Mail show that 155 "admixed" embryos, containing both human and animal genetic material, have been created since the introduction of the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act.
Scientists say the techniques can be used to develop embryonic stem cells which can be used to treat a range of incurable illnesses.
Three labs in the UK – at King’s College London, Newcastle University and Warwick University – were granted licences to carry out the research after the Act came into force.
All have now stopped creating hybrid embryos due to a lack of funding but scientists believe that there will be more such work in the future.
The figure was revealed to crossbench peer Lord Alton following a Parliamentary question.
Last night he said: "I argued in Parliament against the creation of human-animal hybrids as a matter of principle. None of the scientists who appeared before us could give us any justification in terms of treatment.
"Ethically it can never be justifiable – it discredits us as a country. It is dabbling in the grotesque.
"At every stage the justification from scientists has been: if only you allow us to do this, we will find cures for every illness known to mankind. This is emotional blackmail.
"Of the 80 treatments and cures which have come about from stem cells, all have come from adult stem cells – not embryonic ones."On moral and ethical grounds this fails; and on scientific and medical ones too."
Josephine Quintavalle, of pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "I am aghast that this is going on and we didn’t know anything about it.
"Why have they kept this a secret? If they are proud of what they are doing, why do we need to ask Parliamentary questions for this to come to light?
"The problem with many scientists is that they want to do things because they want to experiment. That is not a good enough rationale."
Earlier this week, a group of scientists warned about Planet of the Apes experiments. They called for new rules to prevent lab animals being given human attributes, for example by injecting human stem cells into the brains of primates.
But the lead author of their report, Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Medical Research Council’ s National Institute for Medical Research, said the scientists were not concerned about human-animal hybrid embryos because by law these have to be destroyed within 14 days."The reason for doing these experiments is to understand more about early human development and come up with ways of curing serious diseases, and as a scientist I feel there is a moral imperative to pursue this research," Prof Lovell-Badge said.
"As long as we have sufficient controls – as we do in this country – we should be proud of the research."
However, he called for stricter controls on another type of embryo research, in which animal embryos are implanted with a small amount of human genetic material.
Human-animal hybrids are also created in other countries, many of which have little or no regulation.
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Woman guilty after refusing TSA patdown
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Woman guilty after refusing TSA patdown
Second case of its kind in Travis County
- John Bumgardner
ABIA ticket counter (Kate Weidaw/KXAN)
AUSTIN (KXAN) - A woman who refused a full body patdown from TSA agents at Austin-Berstrom International Airport in December has been found guilty.
Claire Hirschkind was being screened in the security area of ABIA when a TSA agent asked her permission for a full-body patdown.
According to her attorney, Sam Bassett, Hirschkind consented to the patdown but said she did not want screeners to touch her breasts or crotch area.
Bassett said the central argument in his clients case was determining If the order given by the TSA agent was lawful.
A TSA agent who testified in Thursdays court hearing said Hirschkind did not agree and refused to any kind of patdown.
Airport police and the TSA agent testified Hirschkind was asked to leave the area and she refused. Bassett said his client did agree to a llmited patdown.
Hirschkind refused to leave the area and was placed under arrest for the December 22, 2010 incident around 6:30 a.m.
A judge found Hirschkind guilty for “knowingly failing to obey a lawful order from airport security.”
Hirschkind was also ordered to pay a $50 fine during Thursday’s ruling.
According to the city of Austin prosecutor only one other case of this kind has been tried in Travis County. That case involved a man who claimed to be a citizen of the Republic of Texas. The man represented himself in that case.
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Pakistan Taliban releases video of mass execution
The Pakistan Taliban releases a video, posted on Liveleak.com, showing masked militants savagely shooting more than a dozen Pakistani security personnel in firing-squad style in the northwest part of the country last month. WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
A MILITANT WALKING IN FRONT OF THE LINE-UP, SAYS: "They are enemies of Allah's religion. They are apostates. They are from Pakistan (paramilitary) levies, police and army. They have been arrested in our operations. In Swat, they made six small children stand in a row and martyred them. They are the enemies of Allah's religion. Allah says: 'Kill them when they come into your hands.' Allah says: 'I will punish them through your hands'. They are enemies of Allah." PAN TO MORE GUNMEN JOINING/A GUNMAN, SHOUTING: "Stand in a line. I say stand in a line!" A GUNMAN SHOOTING AT FALLEN SOLDIERS' HEADS, SAYING: "Shoot these enemies of Allah's .These are the enemies of Allah's religion." MILITANT SHOOTING AT FALLEN SOLDIERS AS OTHERS SAY: "This one here, this one here."
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Flying sphere goes where man fears to tread
Researchers from Japan's Ministry of Defense have developed an unmanned aerial vehicle with a difference. It's a radio-controlled sphere about twice the size of a basketball, designed to land in hazardous environments without breaking. Rob Muir reports.
It's developers call it the "Futuristic Circular Flying Object" and it's designed to go where humans can't. The unmanned aerial vehicle has been built for search and rescue operations; to fly in and out of buildings weakened by earthquakes or other natural disasters, using its onboard camera to transmit live images of whatever it sees. It can hover for up to eight minutes and fly at 60 kilometres per hour...although it does slow down for open windows. Stair cases are easily negiotiated by a skilled operator and if the airrcraft's lithium polymer batteries lose power, the sphere has been designed to simply roll to a stop, minimising the risk of breakage SOUNDBITE: FUMIYUKI SATO - TECHNICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE, JAPANESE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, SAYING: "Because of the spherical shape of the object, it can land in various positions and tumble to move around on the ground.." Fumiyuko Sato, a researcher from Japan's Ministry of Defense invented and built the unmanned aerial vehicle from parts purchased off the shelf at consumer electronics stores. It boasts eight manoeuverable rudders and three gyro sensors to keep it upright. And it's extremely lightweight, thanks to its carbon fiber and styrene components. Sato's invention is a proto-type, but he believes it has a big future. SOUNDBITE: FUMIYUKI SATO - TECHNICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE, JAPANESE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, SAYING: "When fully developed, it can be used at disaster sites or anti-terrorism operations or urban warfare," And in the meantime Sato says, there's the pure fun of testing it. Rob Muir, Reuters
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Police to begin iPhone iris scans amid privacy concerns
Amplify’d from www.reuters.com
Police to begin iPhone iris scans amid privacy concerns
By Zach Howard
CONWAY, Mass (Reuters) - Dozens of police departments nationwide are gearing up to use a tech company's already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device that slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person or track criminal suspects.
The so-called "biometric" technology, which seems to take a page from TV shows like "MI-5" or "CSI," could improve speed and accuracy in some routine police work in the field. However, its use has set off alarms with some who are concerned about possible civil liberties and privacy issues.
The smartphone-based scanner, named Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, or MORIS, is made by BI2 Technologies in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and can be deployed by officers out on the beat or back at the station.
An iris scan, which detects unique patterns in a person's eyes, can reduce to seconds the time it takes to identify a suspect in custody. This technique also is significantly more accurate than results from other fingerprinting technology long in use by police, BI2 says.
When attached to an iPhone, MORIS can photograph a person's face and run the image through software that hunts for a match in a BI2-managed database of U.S. criminal records. Each unit costs about $3,000.
Some experts fret police may be randomly scanning the population, using potentially intrusive techniques to search for criminals, sex offenders, and illegal aliens, but the manufacturer says that would be a difficult task for officers to carry out.
Sean Mullin, BI2's CEO, says it is difficult, if not impossible, to covertly photograph someone and obtain a clear, usable image without that person knowing about it, because the MORIS should be used close up.
"It requires a level of cooperation that makes it very overt -- a person knows that you're taking a picture for this purpose," Mullin said.
CONCERNS
But constitutional rights advocates are concerned, in part because the device can accurately scan an individual's face from up to four feet away, potentially without a person's being aware of it.
Experts also say that before police administer an iris scan, they should have probable cause a crime has been committed.
"What we don't want is for them to become a general surveillance tool, where the police start using them routinely on the general public, collecting biometric information on innocent people," said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the national ACLU in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, advocates see the MORIS as a way to make tools already in use on police cruiser terminals more mobile for cops on the job.
"This is (the technology) stepping out of the cruiser and riding on the officer's belt, along with his flashlight, his handcuffs, his sidearm or the other myriad tools," said John Birtwell, spokesman for the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department in southeastern Massachusetts, one of the first departments to use the devices.
The technology is also employed to maintain security at Plymouth's 1,650 inmate jail, where it is used to prevent the wrong prisoner from being released.
"There, we have everybody in orange jumpsuits, so everyone looks the same. So, quite literally, the last thing we do before you leave our facility is we compare your iris to our database," said Birtwell.
One of the technology's earliest uses at BI2, starting in 2005, was to help various agencies identify missing children or at-risk adults, like Alzheimer's patients.
Since then, it has been used to combat identity fraud, and could potentially be used in traffic stops when a driver is without a license, or when people are stopped for questioning at U.S. borders.
Facial recognition technology is not without its problems, however. For example, some U.S. individuals mistakenly have had their driver's license revoked as a potential fraud. The problem, it turns out, is that they look like another driver and so the technology mistakenly flags them as having fake identification.
Roughly 40 law enforcement units nationwide will soon be using the MORIS, including Arizona's Pinal County Sheriff's Office, as well as officers in Hampton City in Virginia and Calhoun County in Alabama.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)
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Rare 'Double Eagle' Gold Coins Ruled Property of U.S., Not Collector's Family
Amplify’d from abcnews.go.com
Rare 'Double Eagle' Gold Coins Ruled Property of U.S., Not Collector's Family
A US mint gold coin is pictured in this undated file photo. (Tim Hawley/Getty Images)
By ELLEN TUMPOSKY
Ten rare $20 gold coins that could have been worth more than $40 million to a Philadelphia family are the rightful property of the U.S. Treasury, a Philadelphia jury has ruled.
The "Double Eagles"—currently at Fort Knox-- had glistened for years in a safe deposit box belonging to Joan Langbord, 81, the daughter of jeweler Israel Switt, who the government contends illegally obtained the coins in the 1930s.
The coins were among 445,000 Double Eagles made in 1933 when they were worth their face value of $20 each. They have an eagle on one side and a goddess of Liberty on the other side and are made from designs by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
In that Depression year, panicked citizens who didn't trust banks were hoarding gold, so President Franklin Roosevelt acted to save the banking system and ordered that gold coins be turned in for cash. He decreed that the newly minted Double Eagles coins should be melted down into gold bullion.
"Those coins were all in a vault and were supposed to be melted. They were never issued," says Jacqueline Romero, assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia.
She says that the 10 Double Eagles were stolen property, taken from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in the 1930s in an inside job, probably by a crooked cashier.
"They didn't go out through the front door," says Romero. "This was clearly a crime. The people of the United States were robbed." The U.S. Secret Service probed the case in the 1940s, she says, and every coin they found in circulation traces back to Switt.
But the criminal case was never prosecuted because the statute of limitations had run out by the time the Secret Service got involved, she says. The government did recover at least nine coins and melted them down.
But somehow, 11 survived — the 10 that were in Langbord's deposit box and one that was the subject of litigation in the late 1990s. It is believed to be the Double Eagle purchased by King Farouk of Egypt in the 1940s.
Because the U.S. government issued an export license for the Farouk coin in the 1940s, it lost the court fight to recover that Double Eagle.
The coin was sold to an anonymous buyer at a Sotheby's auction in 2002 for $7.5 million, the most ever paid for a coin, according to Robert Hoge, curator of North American coins and currency at the American Numismatic Society.
Hoge says that the "very desirable" 10 Double Eagles that were the subject of the Philadelphia case would have fetched millions each at auction. Romero estimated the coins would go for more than $4 million each. Both agree that they would sell for less than the King Farouk coin because had 10 coins come on the market, the rarity of the pieces would be reduced.
"Gold coins are beautiful. Gold as a substance has a lot of interesting and provocative qualities," Hoge says. "People are always struck by the weight and density of gold."
Romero acknowledges that the government case on the coins was totally circumstantial, but says: "The circumstantial evidence was overwhelming that Mr. Switt was involved in the theft."
The Langbord family's lawyer, Barry Berke, argued in court that the coins could have been obtained legally during a window of opportunity in 1933, and that the government was obliged to prove otherwise to win its case.
Nonetheless, the jury found in favor of the government after five hours of deliberation Wednesday. "The jury got it," says Romero.
Family Loses Fight Over Rare Double Eagle Gold Coins
Berke would not comment on the case, and Joan Langbord — who has said she discovered the coins in her safe deposit box in 2003 -- and her two sons are not commenting either. An appeal is likely and may focus on the contentious issue of the admissibility of the Secret Service records from the 1940s probe.
If the government sustains its case, the coins are likely to survive in their present form, says Romero. "I believe that they're going to put them on display for the benefit of the people of the United States," she said. "They're truly national treasures."
In the meantime, Hoge says, coin-lovers can see the "Farouk Double Eagle" at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, where it is on display in a custom-made, bulletproof case. It was given on loan by the unidentified buyer who paid $7.5 million at Sotheby's.
"We don't know who it is, but we certainly appreciate the thoughtfulness of the buyer," says Hoge. "It's very mysterious."
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