Boots on the Ground 05-30-14

 Jay Carney Steps Down As White House Press Secretary

Jay Carney is leaving his post as White House press secretary, President Barack Obama announced on Friday.
Obama delivered the news to reporters in the White House briefing room, after his remarks on Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki's resignation earlier in the day.
"I'm going to miss him a lot," Obama said about Carney.
Obama said Carney "has become one of my closest friends" and is a "great advisor" with a "great heart."
Carney did not specify his last day or plans after the White House, but said that he will be leaving in mid-June. Deputy press secretary Josh Earnest will take his place.
"It's been an amazing experience," Carney said of his time as press secretary. "In mid-life you don't often make a whole new set of friends."

Air Force begins installing modern computer system in B-52 bombers

More than 50 years after they first entered service, the B-52 bombers used by the United States military are finally undergoing a much needed upgrade.
Although the aircraft have been used off and on by the Pentagon since practically the start of the Cold War, its insides have rarely been touched. All that has now changed, however, after the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing, announced that the first of dozens of bombers has been retrofitted through the new Combat Network Communications Technology, or CONECT, program.
In December, the White House approved a spending request intended to allocate around $296 million towards retrofitting 30 of the bombers during the next few years. The Air Force is hoping to receive additional funds for making the CONECT modifications to further bombers, Defense Industry Daily reported, but in the meantime the outlet says the first B-52 to be upgraded with the CONECT system has formally returned to the US Air Force fleet.
Maj. Gen. Scott A. Vander Hamm, the 8th Air Force commander, told the Pentagon earlier this month that upgrading the aircraft would be “a major leap forward” for what those particular models — the B-52H, or Stratofortress — bring to the military.
Although the bombers have been used since the 1960s, upgrading them to the CONECT system for the first time provides pilots with comparably modern technology that replaces antiquated instruments and communication devices with much newer ones.
Sean Gallagher, a journalist for Ars Technica, wrote this week that “CONECT is the first major information technology overhaul for the Air Force’s B-52H fleet since the airplanes started entering service in 1961.”
"Over the past two decades we've seen rapid advancements in technology, and that has really changed way we operate on the battlefield, especially in the information environment," Vander Hamm told Pentagon reporters. "What hasn't changed is the need to advance our capabilities and integrate those technologies with information to provide our aircrew with the most up-to-date information and the ability to act on it."
“CONECT helps the B-52 remain a viable, flexible weapon system supporting the needs of COCOMs [combatant commands] and our nation as we react to a rapidly changing world,” Michael Schenck, B-52 CONECT program manager for the Air Force, added to journalists at Wired.
All told, the CONECT upgrades will put new software, radios and computer servers on board a fleet of Stratofortress bombers, and old control panels and instruments that only worked manually until now will be replaced with digital, more modern equipment.
Modern, however, might not be the right word: although only one Stratofortress has been retrofitted so far, critics say the CONECT system contains technology that seemed cutting edge in the twentieth-century, but not the twenty-first: among the new tech being installed in the bombers are computers that will now use QWERT keyboards and let personnel navigate through screens using trackballs. Additionally, the analog phone system onboard the Stratofortress will be replaced with a digital one, and crew members will no longer be required to input logistics and targets by hand.

Congress Funds Army’s Hypersonic Missile After Chinese Strike Vehicle Test

Congress approved funding last week for the Pentagon’s advanced hypersonic missile program and expressed concerns over China’s recent test of an ultra high-speed strike vehicle designed to deliver nuclear warheads through U.S. missile defenses.
The House fiscal year 2015 defense authorization bill approved $70.7 million for the Army’s hypersonic missile as part of the Pentagon’s conventional prompt strike program.
The Senate, in its version of the fiscal year 2015 defense bill, also authorized $70.7 million for hypersonic weapons.
The prompt strike program is a strategic weapons program aimed at building high-speed arms capable of attacking targets any place on earth within 30 minutes.
A House report on the defense bill provided new details on U.S. hypersonic weapons programs and also stated that the Pentagon appears to be spending too little on U.S. hypersonic weapons programs in light of China’s first hypersonic missile test Jan. 9.
The Chinese hypersonic strike vehicle test, which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon and later confirmed by the Chinese Defense Ministry, marked a major leap in Beijing’s advanced arms program. U.S. officials said the strike vehicle test involved a maneuvering weapon that traveled at up to 10 times the speed of sound.
“The committee is concerned that the People’s Republic of China and other competitor nations pose an increasing challenge to the United States’ technology edge in such emerging areas as hypersonic weapons,” the report said. “On Jan. 9, China successfully conducted the first flight test of a hypersonic glide vehicle.” It also noted that Russia is working on hypersonic weapons, but that its program is said to be less advanced.

Cops Take 1,000 Rounds of Ammo, 7 Guns From UCSB Student's Apartment

At the same time as 20,000 students gathered for a vigil honoring the victims of last week's mass shooting, cops seized 7 guns and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition from a 21-year-old Santa Barbara student who nearly shot a neighbor through the wall of his apartment.

Via KNBC in Los Angeles:

On Tuesday, deputies were called about 2:30 p.m. to an apartment in the 6500 block of Pardall Road after a resident reported a bullet being fired into their home, the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office said in a press release. Deputies found that the bullet had been shot through the wall from a connecting apartment, narrowly missing the resident.

Deputies went next door and questioned 21-year-old Kevin Tym, who allegedly admitted that he was playing with his legally-owned Glock 17 and accidentally fired off a 9mm round.

During a search of his apartment, deputies found and seized seven firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, including a high-capacity assault rifle magazine.

The guns were legally owned, but it's remarkable that a 21-year-old—who just became eligible to own handguns and could only own long guns after turning 18—amassed such a collection in such a short time. Much of his trove could have been bought or bestowed by family.

But then again, if he comes from a gun family, it's worth asking how they managed to give him all those guns and failed to teach him better than to "accidentally" load a round, pull the trigger, and nearly lodge a hot slug into a neighbor.

We've said it before, but it's worth repeating: If "guns don't kill people," then there are no "accidental" discharges. Just terrible gun owners.

The MERS Virus Threat: How to protect your family & business

As the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus penetrates the boarders of the United States, many world health professionals as well as international health organizations consider this mysterious and mutated form of coronavirus a cause for concern. The MERS virus is a mutated sister to the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Asian virus. Although MERS is not as easily transmitted person to person, the sound of alarm evokes a current deadly mortality rate of approximately 30 percent worldwide. The SARS virus in comparison inflicted a 10 percent mortality rate in 2003.
    Some infectious disease professionals, including Dr. Margaret Chan Director-General of the World Health Organization believe that MERS is a “threat to the entire world”. She made this claim in her speech to the 66th World Health Assembly in Geneva, stating that more complete risk assessments are required to provide “additional clarity on the incubation period, signs and symptoms of the disease, proper clinical management, and travel advice”. Dr. Chan’s advisement should be enforced since the Haj will take place this October within the Saudi Arabia Kingdom, attracting over 3 million people from around the world. Since the human cellular transmission process of MERS virus is still relatively unknown and not widespread, imagine the world devastation if this virus armed with a 30 percent mortality rate becomes aggressively transmittable.
    When the SARS virus invaded China in 2003, international health organizations and virologists immediately united within three months after the initial outbreak to head off a possible pandemic disease. As a result, there has not been a SARS virus case since. In contrast, the first MERS virus case originated in June 2012 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital. An elderly man was admitted to the hospital with severe viral pneumonia and the attending doctor wanted the hospital virologist Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki to identify the virus. Dr Zaki obtained a sputum culture and sent the sample to the leading international virology lab at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. The Dutch lab confirmed his worst fears. The virus was identified as a coronovirus, like the common cold. However, this virus was a mutated form of the coronovirus never seen before, inflicting severe respiratory pneumonia like symptoms. Dr. Zaki alerted the International Society for Infectious Disease (ISID) through ProMED-mail, an internet reporting system designed to rapidly share details of unknown infectious diseases with world researchers and public health agencies. Since Dr. Zaki did not receive authority by Saudi health officials to release this information internationally, he was terminated as virologist at the hospital.

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: Obama’s New EPA Rule Could Cost $51 Billion And 224,000 Jobs Per Year 

A new study released by the U.S. Chamber Of Commerce has some dire warnings for the Administration’s recent proposals concerning lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
The proposals, which require states to make major cuts in pollution from coal generators, will, by 2030, cost upwards of $51 billion and an average of 224,000 lost jobs per year.
And it’s not just those people working in the energy industry who will be affected:

The impacts of higher energy costs, fewer jobs, and slower economic growth are seen in lower real disposable income per household. … The loss of annual real disposable income over the 2012-30 period will average over $200, with a peak loss of $367 in 2025. This translates into a shortfall in total disposable income for all U.S. households of $586 billion (in real 2012 dollars) over the next 17 year period 2014-30.

The study also found that the standards set forth under the plan are not likely to lower carbon emissions much, while simultaneously producing unintended consequences. The regulations would only reduce emissions by 1.8%, at a time when global emissions are expected to raise by about a third.
The President’s initiative may help him sleep at night, but it won’t end up making a huge difference for the environment. And, more importantly, it won’t do much good for the average American.

China urges U.S. not to send wrong signals
BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday urged the United States to refrain from sending the wrong signals that will embolden risky and and provocative moves by certain countries in Asia.
"The East China Sea and the South China Sea had been generally peaceful and stable. But since the United States began to pursue its pivot to Asia strategy, some countries have taken advantage of this and kept making new troubles on territorial issues," said Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng at a monthly news briefing.
"Who is destroying the status quo? Who is being provocative? I think those who are not biased will have a clear idea on this," said Geng when commenting on U.S. accusations that China has unilaterally destroyed the status quo in South China Sea.
"We urge the U.S. side to take an objective and impartial attitude, be cautious with its words and actions, not to send wrong signals and not to embolden some countries to take risky and provocative actions," Geng said.
When asked whether the Chinese military will protect its companies' oil drilling activities near the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea, Geng said it is the responsibility of the military to protect people's rights to live in peace and the military force will do its job as it is instructed to.
"Our determination and will to safeguard national sovereignty and maritime rights are unswerving," he said. "There is no room for bargaining on the issue."

Quantum phenomenon shown in $15m D-Wave computer

Scientists says they have obtained the best evidence yet for an important quantum physics phenomenon inside a $15m computer built by a Canadian firm.

D-Wave claims it has built the first practical quantum computer, a type of machine that could solve complex problems faster than is possible today.
Scientists say they have shown that an effect called "entanglement" is present in eight units of quantum information.
Entanglement is a key step towards building a practical platform.
The results have just been published in the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review X.
D-Wave, based in Burnaby, outside Vancouver, has courted controversy with its claim to have built a practical quantum computer, a feat that was thought to be decades away.
In a tangle Quantum computing exploits the strange physics of quantum mechanics, which takes hold at tiny (atomic or sub-atomic) scales.
The basic units of information in classical computers are called "bits" and are stored as a string of 1s and 0s, but their equivalents in a quantum system - qubits - can be both 1s and 0s at the same time.

Skype Translator Means Never Having To Learn Another Language Again

Language barriers are about to be broken way down.
Microsoft showed off its Skype Translator feature at the inaugural Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Tuesday.
Skype Translator allows users speak to into the video chatting service in their language of choice. The words are then translated into the recipient's preferred language. The system will hear users' words and do its best to translate them in real time. The display will show a text translation of what was just spoken in case the automated voice isn't able to handle a pronunciation or moves too fast.
When Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Skype and Lync, Gurdeep Pall, took to the stage to demonstrate the technology, he was able to have a conversation in English with a woman who only spoke German.
“Skype Translator results from decades of work by the industry, years of work by our researchers, and now is being developed jointly by the Skype and Microsoft Translator teams,” Pall wrote in a blog post following the demonstration. “Skype Translator is a great example of why Microsoft invests in basic research. We’ve invested in speech recognition, automatic translation and machine learning technologies for more than a decade, and now they’re emerging as important components in this more personal computing era.”
Pall says Skype Translator will be available as a beta app for Windows 8 users sometime before the end of 2014. Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011.

Rosetta comet-chaser completes 'big burn'

Europe's comet-chaser Rosetta has taken a big step towards making its historic rendezvous with a 4km-wide ball of ice and rock in early August.

Controllers confirm the spacecraft conducted a major orbit manoeuvre on Wednesday without incident.
The near-eight-hour thruster burn was designed to slow the satellite's speed relative to Comet 67P/C-G.
More adjustments are required, but the operation was a significant event in ensuring Rosetta meets its target.
The pair are roughly 500 million km from Earth and separated by about a million km, and closing.

Report: Kenyan Authorities Allegedly Released Docs Stating That Obama was born March 7, 1960 in Laimu, Kenya, more than a year before his…

Israeli Newspaper Claim: Kenyan Authorities 

Release Obama Birth Records; Born In 1960

World News Daily Report claims: KENYA: AUTHORITIES RELEASE BARACK OBAMA’S “REAL” BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Nairobi| The Office of the Principal Register of the Nyanza Province, in Kenya, has finally released 11 exclusive documents concerning Barack Obama’s alleged birth and early childhood in the country. These official papers had been requested for years by the Tea Party Patriots, an American conservative organization, to no avail, but the Kenyan Supreme Court recently ordered authorities to release the documents, based on a law on “access to information. These files, if they turn out to be verifiable, could mean that Mr. Obama had no legal right to become the American president under the country’s law.
The papers released today suggest that Barack Obama was actually born on March 7 1960, in Lamu, Kenya, more than a year before his father moved to Hawaii, where he allegedly met his mother. This contradicts most of the documents presented by the presidential office over the last years, suggesting that either the American or the Kenyan papers are actually fakes.
The official version of Barack Obama’s birth presented by the White House in the past, was that he was born on August 4, 1961, at the Kapi’olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now called the Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents were Ann Dunham, from Wichita, Kansas, and Barack Obama, Sr., a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo in the Nyanza Province, in what was then the “Colony and Protectorate of Kenya”. Mr. Obama Senior was attending the University of Hawaii at the time, where he supposedly met Ms. Dunham.
A Kenyan publication, The Standard, had reported in 2004 that Obama was “Kenyan-Born”, but the lack of proof presented had led the rest of the mediatic world to dismiss the article has fake or unfounded. Jim Geraghty of the conservative website National Review Online may have sparked further speculation on June 9, 2008, when he asked Obama to release his birth certificate. Geraghty wrote that doing so could debunk several false rumors circulating on the Internet. [...] – Continued @ World News Daily Report. Where are the records?
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