Saturday, May 31, 2014

'Allah' handle gets Turkish Twitter a 15 months prison sentence

More from the religion of peace and tolerance ...

A Turkish Twitter user learned the hard way that Muslim hardliners mean business when they preach against disrespecting their god’s name: He was sentenced to prison for using a social media handle that included the word “Allah.”

The man, named in press only as Ertan P., adopted the Twitter handle “@CenabiAllah,” the website Mashable reported. For that, he was arrested and charged with “humiliating the religious values accepted by a part of the people,” the Turkish news website Hurriyet Daily News reported. A

Authorities in the Mus province also alleged that he tweeted anti-government messages, acting as if he were the voice of Allah.

For instance, he wrote in June 2013 that “Here [Heaven] is very safe because there is no police,” Yahoo News reported. Ertan P. offered a defense that his account had been hacked, but the court didn’t believe him, Mashable said.

He was ultimately sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/30/allah-handle-gets-turkish-twitterer-sentenced-to-1/#ixzz33IcDMwUv Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Calif. cops may get to pull gun rights 'like we might yank somebody's driver's license'




Police allowed to yank guns like they do driver's licenses? That's an ominous scenario ...

Lawmakers in California trying to act in the face of the Isla Vista shooting and stabbing spree that left seven dead, including the suspect, have brought forward a bill to delay gun permits for those whose family and friends call and complain to police about a possible mental disorder.

Democrat state Assemblyman Das Williams said the bill is aimed at stopping another rampage like the one near the University of California at Santa Barbara campus last weekend, committed reportedly by a man, 22, with known mental health issues, CNN reported.

Under the proposal, family members, friends and other intimates would be given the ability to call police and ask for intervention with their loved ones suffering from mental health issues. Police would then be given a wider berth than present law gives to investigate and draw conclusions from their investigations -- including the ability to ask a judge to issue an order that would prevent that loved one from buying or possessing any types of firearms, CNN reported.

Williams said the subject of this court order would have an opportunity to plead his case for gun ownership rights at a hearing. He also said he sees a good chance for this measure to pass.

"If I was in Congress, I would be much more daunted about getting this passed," Mr. Williams said, to CNN. "I think here in California, people have determined that enough is enough. We're sick and tired of people dying in mass killings."

Current California law allows family members to ask police to intervene, but after that, police can't take action unless a crime's been committed or unless the subject of the complaint displays outlandishly erratic behavior in the presence of the officer. In those instances, the officer might pursue an involuntary civil commitment to a mental institution, CNN reported.

One legal mind likened the proposal as giving the police only the same power they have with driving law violators. 

"There's no mechanism for the police or for the public or for a mental health professional to basically say, 'we need to take a look at this individual,' just like we might yank somebody's driver's license for acting recklessly," said CNN legal analyst Mel Robbins, who was a public defender.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Pentagon spending $30 million for brain implants for combat-worn veterans



Really, what could go wrong ...?

Boston researchers are set to launch a five-year, $30 million brain implant project based on President Obama’s “BRAIN” initiative — an ambitious Department of Defense project that is aimed at helping combat veterans deal with the mental injuries and stresses of battlefield deployments.

The “BRAIN” project was unveiled last year with hope of it sparking a neuroscience revolution — just like the one that happened when the human genome was sequenced more than 10 years ago, the Boston Globe reported.

The implant research will take technology already being used to help treat Parkinson disease patients and advance it to the point where implanted sensors will be able to detect and react to abnormal brain activity, the newspaper reported.

“Which areas are either not working property, are overactive, underactive, having an abnormal rhythm, or abnormal connectivity? By using an approach like this, you can actually focus in on the actual problematic area,” Emad Eskandar, a Massachusetts General Hospital neurosurgeon who’s set to co-lead the Boston research group, told the Globe.

A second team of researchers with the University of California San Francisco is poised to receive a separate federal grant of $26 million to conduct similar studies.

Practically speaking, the researchers are trying to find ways to offset, control and treat combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and depression. But their findings could also help those in the civilian sector suffering from various mental illnesses.

“We’re entering in neuroscience a perfect storm of opportunity, because the technologies are really advancing very, very rapidly,” said Arthur Toga, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California who is not involved in the project, told the Globe. “Having this kind of information, were it to be obtained, might open up windows for therapies, because it fills in gaps in knowledge.”

Researchers hope to have an implantable device ready for clinical trials within five years. They still have to decide which specific ailment to try and treat first.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/05/26/mass-general-researchers-build-next-generation-brain-implants/A3uGYuNJkRYPN1sECgJERM/story.html

Monday, May 26, 2014

Glenn Greenwald to publish list of Americans that NSA spied on

This should be interesting, to say the least ...

Glenn Greenwald, one of the reporters at the heart of chronicling the document dump of Edward Snowden of National Security Agency via U.K. press, now says he's set to publish his most dramatic piece yet: The names of those in the United States targeted by the NSA.

"One of the big questions when is comes to domestic spying is, 'Who have been the NSA's specific targets?' Are they political critics and dissidents and activists? Are they genuinely people we'd regard as terrorists? What are the metrics and calculations that go into choosing those targets and what is done with the surveillance that is conducted? Those are the kinds of questions that I want to still answer," Greenwald said, to The Sunday Times of London.

Greenwald also pointed to the failures of the NSA to catch Mr. Snowden during his download and theft of 1.7 million documents, and said that's further evidence of the government's inability to guarantee data security.

"There is this genuinely menacing [spy] system and at the same time, [they] are really inept about how they operate it," he said, Newsmax reported. "Not only was he out there under their noses downloading huge amounts of documents without being detracted, but to this day, they're incapable of finding out what he took."

Greenwald, who's promoting his new book, "No Place to Hide," said the list will be published on The Intercept, the website he established after leaving The Guardian.


Saturday, May 24, 2014

Mark Cuban says sorry to Trayvon Martin family for 'hoodie' remark -- but stands by view

Political correctness trumps common sense for some ... Cuban's comments are hardly racist.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban apologized to Trayvon Martin’s family for comments he made about racism — specifically when he remarked that in certain circumstances, if he saw a black man in a hoodie while walking the street, he would cross the road.

At the same time, he didn’t backtrack on his view.

“In hindsight, I should have used different examples,” Cuban wrote, in a few Twitter posts, as reported by the Daily Mail. “I didn’t consider the Trayvon Martin family and I apologize to them for that. Beyond apologizing to the Martin family, I stand by the words and the substance of the interview.”

Trayvon, a Florida teen, was wearing a hoodie when he was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of murder charges. The shooting ratcheted up racial tensions: Trayvon was black; Zimmerman part Hispanic, part white.

Cuban's initial comments sparked a widespread outcry, especially in the face of the ongoing Donald Sterling fiasco, in which the Clippers’ owner faces a lifetime ban from the NBA and a $2.5 million fine for racial comments he made to his female companion about blacks that were captured on audio.

The Mavericks owner said this earlier this week: “I know I’m prejudiced, and I know I’m bigoted in a lot of different ways. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face — white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere — I’m walking to the other side of the street. The list goes on — of stereotypes that we all live up to and that we’re fearful of.”

Cuban faced immediate backlash.

Twitter users posted this: “Mark Cuban is racist. If I see him walking down the street I’m walking on the other side [because] I’m scared of him.”

But some tweeted messages in his defense: “What Donald Sterling did was racist. What Mark Cuban did was acknowledge that everyone has prejudices of some kind. Put down the pitchforks.”

Cuban himself followed up with more tweets, saying that “the point was that before we can help others deal with racism we have to be honest about ourselves. You’re trying to make this about a Hoodie. You know damn well its not. It’s about whatever makes you feel threatened,” the Daily Mail reported.