Innocent Mom or Would-Be Terrorist? Trial for Neuroscientist Nea. NEW YORK – Jurors heard a U.S. -trained Pakistani scientist portrayed Monday in closing arguments at her attempted murder trial as both a would-be terrorist determined to kill Americans and a fearful woman framed by the government. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher La Vigne cited testimony that Aafia Siddiqui had bomb-making instructions, documents referencing a "mass casualty attack" and a list of New York City landmarks including the Statue of Liberty when she was detained in Afghanistan in 2008. Siddqui was carrying "a road map for destruction — documents about attacking the United States," he said in federal court in Manhattan.
During the two-week trial, FBI agents and U.S. soldiers testified that when they went to interrogate Siddiqui at an Afghan police station, she snatched up an unattended assault rifle and shot at them while yelling, "Death to Americans. " "She saw a chance to kill Americans and took it," the prosecutor said. "This is crazy," she said about the accusations. Older Adults Need Less Sleep - Neurology | Alzheimer's Disease | How much sleep we need is largely a mystery, and sleep seems tougher to come by as we age. Many studies — often funded by the pharmaceutical industry — have suggested that we're all sleep-deprived zombies, risking our health for lack of shut-eye. But new research in the U.K. confirms previous indications that older people need less sleep. It also suggests that variations in sleep hours needed are normal and healthy — so long as one is not overly sleepy during the day. "Healthy aging appears to be associated with reductions in the sleep duration and depth required to maintain daytime alertness," the scientists said in a statement.
Still, researchers warn that many people in modern society suffer from sleep deprivation, and that it can lead to plenty of woes from accidents on the job to higher risk of falls and even death in elderly people. The study, announced today, involved 110 healthy adults who did not have any sleep disorders and didn't complain about lack of sleep. Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells | Science & Nature | Smithsoni.
The Top Ten VC Blogs (New And Improved) PlayStation 3 'hacked' by iPhone cracker. A US hacker who gained notoriety for unlocking Apple's iPhone as a teenager has told BBC News that he has now hacked Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3). George Hotz said the hack, which could allow people to run pirated games or homemade software, took him five weeks. He said he was still refining the technique but intended to post full details online soon. The PS3 is the only games console that has not been hacked, despite being on the market for three years. "It's supposed to be unhackable - but nothing is unhackable," Mr Hotz told BBC News.
"I can now do whatever I want with the system. It's like I've got an awesome new power - I'm just not sure how to wield it. " Sony said it was "investigating the report" and would "clarify the situation" when it had more information. 'Open curiosity' Mr Hotz said that he had begun the hack last summer when he had spent three weeks analysing the hardware.
"You can use hardware to inject an insecurity and then you can build on that," he said. 100-year-old child molester back in jail - Crime & courts- msnbc. BUFFALO, N.Y. — A 100-year-old pedophile is been jailed again after failing to comply with terms of his parole, a newspaper reported Tuesday. It's the second time that Theodore A. Sypnier, who has a more than 60-year history of sexually molesting children, has been declared in violation of parole for his conviction involving attacks on two sisters in the late 1990s, the Buffalo News reported on its Web site.
New York's oldest registered sex offender had moved out of a Buffalo halfway house for released inmates and into a place of his own in December, after completing his latest term in state prison for molesting little girls. But authorities on Monday said Sypnier had been detained for failure to participate in sex offender counseling. Sypnier's youngest daughter, an out-of-state resident who has told investigators she and another girl were raped by him as children, expressed relief Monday afternoon.
The daughter requested her name be withheld. Taxpayers pay $101,000 for Pelosi's in-flight 'food, booze' Text smaller Text bigger It reads like a dream order for a wild frat party: Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey … and Corona beer. But that single receipt makes up just part of the more than $101,000 taxpayers paid for “in-flight services” – including food and liquor, for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trips on Air Force jets over the last two years.
That’s almost $1,000 per week. Fed up with the condescending clowns in Congress? Send them a “pink slip!” Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch, which investigates and prosecutes government corruption, show Pelosi incurred expenses of some $2.1 million for her use of Air Force jets for travel over that time.
“Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Do the tone-deaf lawmakers in D.C. make your blood boil? Obama plans $33 billion tax credit for jobs and wages - Jan. 28, Obama hopes tax credits will motivate small companies to hire, but business owners like Jimmie Hughes say the approach is backward: to hire, Hughes needs sales and cash, not tax cuts.By Catherine Clifford, staff reporterJanuary 29, 2010: 2:02 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- When President Obama called last month for a new tax break to spur job creation, critics blasted him for offering no specifics. On Friday, Obama filled in the details: He wants to give businesses a $5,000 tax credit for each net new employee they hire this year.
Job creation "must be our No. 1 focus in 2010," Obama said Wednesday night in his State of the Union address. "We should start where most new jobs do -- in small businesses. " Obama traveled Friday to Baltimore, where the local unemployment rate is nearly 11%, to unveil his tax-cut road map. "The good news is, today's report means that we're increasing GDP -- we're increasing economic growth," said Obama from Baltimore. Share thisShare this. Film features: 14 Most Depressing Movies Ever. Sign In. Top Tech Acquisitions Of 2009. We track a lot of acquisitions on CrunchBase. At the beginning of 2009, acquisitions were at a standstill. But as the economy begrudgingly roused itself from recession, the deal flow started to pick up in the summer, and then rebounded more in the third quarter.
There are still a couple weeks left in the year, and a lot can still happen, such as Google buying Yelp for more than $500 million. But with the year wrapping up, we put together an initial list of the top technology acquisitions of 2009. We’ll update the list if necessary at the end of the year (for instance, we don’t include Yelp in our list because it is not yet final), but it is not likely to change by much. The largest announced deal, Oracle’s $7.4 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems, is still awaiting regulatory approval.
The top 30 tech M&A deals are below: The Dial Brings a Fashion Edge to Cell Phone Technology. While Google and Apple are racing to create phones with the most apps and fastest internet speeds, none of the technology giants are thinking outside the design box when it comes to the form of a phone. Luckily, there are designer slike Jung Dae Hoon to fill the void. Hoon, a young designer with ties to Samsung and LG, has designed The Dial - a cell phone worn like a stylish bangle. You probably can’t buy songs on iTunes or trade stocks on this design, but you can still wow your peers with something brand new and stylish. While being futuristically chic, the phone also has some retro elements in it’s rotary style dialing. To operate the phone you place the bracelet on a flat surface or your palm.
The device beams a circle of numbers on to the surface it rests on and the user dials the phone by touching corresponding sensors. The bracelet has changeable skins, which can take the look of the device from sporty to formal or even luxury. Share + - url: Ron Paul Warns Of Coming “Social And Political Chaos” Steve WatsonInfowars.net Friday, Jan 22, 2010 Texas Congressman Ron Paul has delivered a riveting “State of The Republic” address on his Campaign for Liberty website, orating his thoughts on where the U.S. stands as a nation and what the future holds. Paul warns that if the country continues along the course it is on, we will witness a three stage slide into social and political chaos, beginning with the current financial crisis, a coming dollar crisis, and culminating in mass unrest. “Reality is setting in,” the Congressman urges, adding that the only way to prevent social breakdown is to embrace liberty and self reliance and reject the nanny state and government dependency.
“We are rapidly moving toward a dangerous time in our history. “Dangerous times indeed.” “The only way that we can prevent blood from running in the streets is to offer a better idea of the proper role of government in a society that desires, first and foremost, liberty.” Print this page. BUSTED! Breaking! Former U.S. Obama's proposed budget for NASA starts moon war on earth - wash. The Obama administration is killing Constellation, NASA's ambitious back-to-the moon program. The decision represents a thunderous demolition of the Bush-era strategy at the space agency, which had already poured $9 billion into a new rocket, the Ares 1, and a new crew capsule, Orion. Both were years from completion. And now both have been spiked by the administration's 2011 budget, released Monday. The budget includes $2.5 billion over the next two years to shut down Constellation. Instead of continuing to develop the Ares 1 and Orion, the administration wants to invest $6 billion over five years in a commercial space taxi to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit.
The budget would also funnel billions of dollars into developing new space technologies, such as the ability to refuel spacecraft in orbit. Change does not come easily in the complex and highly political enterprise that is space travel. Rep. But Sen. The change in course is hardly shocking given the events of the past year. Nasa photographs 'trees' on Mars. 'Transformers,' 'Land of the Lost' lead Razzies - MSN Movies New. Dem. senators spent weekend with bank, energy, tobacco lobbyists. February 01, 2010 Twelve Democratic Senators spent last weekend in Miami Beach raising money from top lobbyists for oil, drug, and other corporate interests that they often decry, according to a guest list for the event obtained by POLITICO. The guest list for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's "winter retreat" at the Ritz Carlton South Beach Resort doesn't include the price tag for attendance, but the maximum contribution to the committee, typical for such events, is $30,000.
There, to participate in "informal conversations" and other meetings Saturday, were senators including DSCC Chairman Robert Menendez; Michigan's Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow; Bob Casey of Pennsylvania; Claire McCaskill of Missouri; freshmen Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Begich of Alaska; and even left-leaning Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The retreat's guest list is a marked contrast to Menendez's recent rhetoric, which has echoed the White House denunciation of "special interests" and "fat cats.
" US raises stakes on Iran by sending in ships and missiles | Worl. Tension between the US and Iran heightened dramatically today with the disclosure that Barack Obama is deploying a missile shield to protect American allies in the Gulf from attack by Tehran. The US is dispatching Patriot defensive missiles to four countries – Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait – and keeping two ships in the Gulf capable of shooting down Iranian missiles. Washington is also helping Saudi Arabia develop a force to protect its oil installations. American officials said the move is aimed at deterring an attack by Iran and reassuring Gulf states fearful that Tehran might react to sanctions by striking at US allies in the region.
Washington is also seeking to discourage Israel from a strike against Iran by demonstrating that the US is prepared to contain any threat. The administration is deploying two Patriot batteries, capable of shooting down incoming missiles, in each of the four Gulf countries. The 12 Most Insane Things You Can Buy on the Internet | Cracked. Many people feel compelled to waste their money on lame things like clothing, food and baby formula.
Fortunately, besides allowing us to download porn at the speed of masturbation, the Internet has made it possible for us to buy virtually anything we can imagine, regardless of how ludicrous it may be. We've always been under the impression that world domination was one of those things, like family and good health, that you can't put a price tag on. Well, a Japanese company called Sakakibara-Kikai has developed a commercial battle-mech called the Land Walker, which you can buy from their website for a paltry $350,000. So quit your praying: For less than you'd pay for a shitty Studio Apartment in New York City, that global reign of terror can be yours. There is literally no other possible application for this machine.
"Bed Bath and Beyond? Sadly it only moves about a mile an hour, so don't take the Land Walker if you need to get where you're going in less than two weeks. "We checked, sir. What’s New in ScribeFire 3.5? - Scribefire: Fire up your bloggin. Hundreds of Mostly Tiny Quakes Are Rattling Yellowstone Park - N.