U.S. Justice Department spies on millions of cars 

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department has been secretly gathering and storing hundreds of millions of records about motorists in an effort to build a national database that tracks the movement of vehicles across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The newspaper said the main aim of the license plate tracking program run by the Drug Enforcement Administration was to seize automobiles, money and other assets to fight drug trafficking, according to one government document.

But the use of the database had expanded to include hunting for vehicles linked to other possible crimes, including kidnapping, killings and rape suspects, the paper said, citing current and former officials and government documents.

While U.S. officials have said they track vehicles near the Mexican border to combat drug cartels, it had not been previously revealed the DEA had been working to expand the database "throughout the United States," the Journal said, citing an email.

It said many state and local law enforcement agencies were using the database for a variety of investigations, the paper said.

It added it was unclear if any court oversaw or approved the program.

The Journal quoted Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as saying the use of license plate readers "raises significant privacy concerns."

A spokesman for the Justice Department, which oversees the DEA, told the paper the program complied with federal law. "It is not new that the DEA uses the license-plate reader program to arrest criminals and stop the flow of drugs in areas of high trafficking intensity," the spokesman was quoted as saying.

 

SpaceX and Google form joint partnership

SpaceX and Google form joint partnership to bring Internet access to the world

 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Google forge a partnership to bring Internet connectivity to the most remote places on Earth (and Mars) using satellites.
Elon Musk’s company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has raised a billion dollars in a financing round with two new investors, Google and Fidelity (who will now collectively own just less than 10 percent of the company). The deal, which SpaceX confirmed on its website, will bolster SpaceX’s emerging satellite business and could help Google expand Internet access across the globe.
The funding will be used to support continued innovation in the areas of space transport, reusability, and satellite manufacturing.
In its blog post, SpaceX wrote that the funding would “support continued innovation in the areas of space transport, reusability, and satellite manufacturing.” However, Google’s involvement has led many to believe that the funding will primarily back SpaceX’s new satellite venture, which its founder and CEO Elon Musk announced late last week.
Musk and Google aim to connect people on Earth and Mars to the Internet!
At the time, Musk gave some indication as to the epic scope of the project that lies ahead. He seeks to create a network of hundreds of satellites that could not only connect people on Earth to the web, but also people on Mars - if and when people reach the planet. The total cost of such an audacious project has been estimated at a whopping $10 billion.
“Our focus is on creating a global communications system that would be larger than anything that has been talked about to date,” Musk told Businessweek.
That, of course, is something Google - and indeed many tech giants such as Facebook - would very much like to be part of. Over the last few years, companies like Google and Facebook have turned their attention toward connecting the unconnected to the Internet. Both companies have looked to technologies such as drones, satellites, and balloons that could bring connectivity to people living in the most remote places. While benefitting rural peoples and emerging economies this would greatly expand the companies’ already enormous reach.
But recently, Google hit a major roadblock in its efforts to connect the world when Greg Wyler, who was leading its satellite efforts, left Google to launch his own venture, OneWeb. Wyler took with him expertise in the field, but also the rights to some spectrum Google would need for the project. According to sources, Wyler even tried partnering with SpaceX himself, but the deal went sour when he refused to give up a significant portion of OneWeb to Musk.
It stands to reason that Google would be on the lookout for another, well-funded partner to help realize its vision for an expanded Internet.
Of course, just because Google and SpaceX are have delivered on moonshot projects in the past doesn’t guarantee that this endeavor will be successful. Richard Branson - an investor in Wyler’s OneWeb - has publicly doubted whether Musk can pull this off.
“Greg [Wyler] has the rights, and there isn’t space for another network - like there physically is not enough space,” he told Businessweek. “If Elon wants to get into this area, the logical thing for him would be to tie up with us, and if I were a betting man, I would say the chances of us working together rather than separately would be much higher.”

 

 

Rare 'living dinosaur' shark

Rare 'living dinosaur' shark pulled from water by Australian fishermen  

An extremely rare shark species, considered a 'living dinosaur', has been caught off the coast of Victoria to the shock and amazement of local fisherman. 

The species, known as a goblin shark, are rarely seen as they typically reside in waters near the ocean floor at around 1200 metres deep. 

As they dislike sunlight and prefer the darkness of the ocean floor, they are also known as the 'vampire shark'.

However this small specimen was captured in a net by fishermen, Lochlainn Kelly and his father Mike, just 609 metres below the water's surface.

The critter was found south east of Green Cape off the coast of Victoria, and was excitedly brought to shore at Merimbula on the far South Coast of New South Wales. 

The creepy-looking creature has a bloated pink belly, grey fins, a pointy nose and row of short, sharp teeth. 

'I wasn't freaked out, if anything I was pretty excited. I've seen photos of them before but I've never seen one before,' 22-year-old Lochlainn told SMH.

n Merimbula, the Wharf Aquarium curator Michael McMaster and Alan Scrymgeour from the Sapphire Coast Marine Discovery Centre studied the creature and were stunned by the discovery.

The goblin shark is the last known species of Mitsukurinidae, a family of sharks from 125 million years ago.

They ruled that the specimen was two to three years old as it is relatively small at just 1.2 metres in length. 

A fully grown goblin shark is between three and four metres long. 

'Their teeth are often found in underwater electrical cables,' Mr McMaster told SMH.

'A lot of fishermen have been saying that the currents are very different this year,' he added, which might have something to do with how this shark found its way into the net.

The shark is set to be sent from Wharf Aquarium to the Australian Museum in Sydney for display. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2936401/Incredible-photos-extremely-rare-shark-known-living-dinosaur-pulled-water-stunned-fishermen.html#ixzz3QcBoL6Mz
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Browns QB Johnny Manziel enters rehab

Cleveland Browns Quarterback Johnny Manziel, 22, enters rehab after being slapped with a fine for his hard-partying antics

 

Browns Quarterback Johnny Manziel has entered a rehabilitation facility, it was revealed today. 

Brad Beckworth, a Manziel family adviser, confirmed Monday that that the 22-year-old NFL star entered an unspecified rehab facility Wednesday.

'Johnny knows there are areas in which he needs to improve in order to be a better family member, friend and teammate and he thought the off-season was the right time to take this step,' said Beckworth. 

On behalf of Johnny and his family, we’re asking for privacy until he rejoins the team in Cleveland.'

Browns general manager Ray Farmer also spoke out Monday about Manziel's decision to seek treatment:

'We respect Johnny's initiative in this decision and will fully support him throughout this process. Our players' health and well-being will always be of the utmost importance to the Cleveland Browns. 

'We continually strive to create a supportive environment and provide the appropriate resources, with our foremost focus being on the individual and not just the football player. 

'Johnny's privacy will be respected by us during this very important period and we hope that others will do the same. 

ESPN reported that according to a source close to Manziel, the athlete is expected to be in treatment for at least a few weeks. 

The incident came just days after Manziel, who was nursing a hamstring injury at the time, was fined for skipping out on a treatment session and walk-through for the last game of the season because he overslept after throwing a massive party in his mansion the night before.

A source told ESPN that player was found at home 'drunk off his a**.'  

Manziel has denied organizing a party but was quick to apologize to the team for his antics, saying; 'It’s about being accountable and doing what I'm gonna say instead of looking like a jackass.'

He added: 'Either I’m going to learn or I’m going to be finding something else to do.' 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2936685/Cleveland-Browns-Quarterback-Johnny-Manziel-enters-rehab-slapped-fine-hard-partying-ways.html#ixzz3Qc8wY9SP
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Space Walk of Fame Museum launching new program

The Titusville-based U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum is using a $100,000 donation to help launch a new science education program.

Benefactor Joseph Williams worked as a contractor on early manned space programs and hopes his donation will raise the museum's profile and further its education goals.

Williams, who owned Titusville-area bars and restaurants after his space-industry career, has also offered to match up to $100,000 in additional donations.

Museum President Charlie Mars said Williams' generosity will benefit children throughout the area by allowing the museum to expand its education programs.
The museum is run by the U.S. Space Walk of Fame Foundation, which the city of Titusville created in 1992.

Organ donors gave more than 2 million years of life to sick patients

 

Hearts, kidneys and other donated organs have added more than 2 million years to the lives of the American patients who received them, according to a new analysis.

That tally, published this week by the journal JAMA Surgery, covers 25 years of organ donation in the U.S. Researchers started with 1987, the year when the United Network for Organ Sharing began keeping track of all organ transplants in the U.S.

Between Sept. 1, 1987, and Dec. 31, 2012, 533,329 patients received a donated organ (or perhaps two). Another 579,506 patients were put on the UNOS waiting list but didn’t get an organ. By comparing the outcomes for patients in both groups, the researchers were able to calculate how much longer the transplant recipients lived as a result of their new organs.

So far, that number adds up to 2,270,859 years – a “stellar accomplishment,” according to the study authors. And that number will keep on getting bigger as long as any of the transplant recipients are still alive.

More than half of those extra years – 1,372,969 of them – have been lived by people who had kidney transplants, the researchers calculated. Another 465,296 extra years have been lived by recipients of new livers, and 269,715 years have been lived by people who got new hearts. The other beneficiaries included people who received new lungs (64,575 extra years), a new pancreas (14,903 extra years), a pancreas and a kidney (79,198 extra years) and intestines (4,402 extra years).

The analysis does not include patients who had rare kinds of transplants, such as heart-pancreas transplants and liver-lung transplants, because there were too few of these procedures to be able to make good comparisons with patients who needed such transplants but didn’t get them.

The researchers also calculated the number of years gained per patient, based on the type of transplant they received. By this measure, heart transplants were the most successful, giving patients an extra 4.9 years, on average. Patients who had a combined pancreas-kidney transplant (to treat kidney failure due to type 1 diabetes) lived an average of 4.6 years longer than their counterparts who went on the wait list but didn’t get new organs. Kidney recipients averaged 4.4 extra years, liver recipients averaged 4.3 extra years, intestine recipients averaged 2.8 extra years and pancreas recipients averaged 2.6 extra years, according to the study.

These results may cause some people to rethink the benefits of organ transplants, the researchers wrote. For instance, a kidney transplant is often viewed as “merely a life-enhancing” surgery, since someone who doesn’t get a new kidney can make do on dialysis. But with a typical kidney transplant patient benefiting more than a typical liver transplant patient, the operation should be considered “a lifesaving procedure,” they wrote.

The same argument can be made for transplants involving a pancreas, which are sometimes viewed as “simply a convenient insulin replacement therapy,” they added.

All of this good news was tempered by one statistic, however: only 48% of patients sick enough to be put on the UNOS waiting list are able to get new organs, according to the study. That means more people need to be willing to donate their organs.

“The critical shortage of donors continues to hamper this field,” the researchers wrote. If more donors come forward and more transplants are performed, Americans can make good on the “tremendous potential to do even more good for humankind in the future.”

For more medical news, follow me on Twitter @LATkarenkaplan and "like" Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

 

 

Power Ranger arrested for murder

Ex-‘Power Rangers’ Actor Ricardo Medina Jr. Arrested on Suspicion of Murder

 

 Ricardo Medina, Jr., an actor who appeared on the “Power Rangers Samurai” TV show, was being held on $1 million bail Sunday after being arrested for allegedly killing a man with a sword Saturday in Palmdale, Calif.

The victm was Medina’s roommate, 36-year-old Joshua Sutter, a spokeman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department told TheWrap. The incident took place around 3:45 p.m. Saturday, at a residence in the 38000 block of San Francisquito Canyon Road, an isolated section of the Los Angeles-area mountains, about 45 miles north of the Civic Center.

Medina, 36, entered his bedroom with his girlfriend and closed the door, according to deputies, and when Sutter forced his way into the room, Medina stabbed him once in the abdomen with a sword that he kept behind the bedroom door.

Medina dialed 911 at around 4 p.m. Saturday and later spoke to detectives at the scene before he was arrested, deputies said. He was booked for suspicion of murder at the sheriff’s Palmdale station, and held in lieu of $1 million bail.

The actor appeared on the “Power Rangers Samurai” series from 2011 to 2012. The series, featuring Japanese cartoon-like action, was roundly criticized for its on-screen violence when it debuted on U.S. television.

A call to Saban Capital, the firm owned by producer Haim Saban, was not immediately returned Sunday afternoon. Saban repurchased rights to the “Power Rangers” franchise in 2011, after selling the lucrative property in the 1990s. Plans for a feature film were announced last year.

Source:https://tv.yahoo.com/news/ex-power-rangers-actor-ricardo-medina-jr-arrested-223930258.html