SoylentNews

Tom Secker's ClandesTime 078 – Chase Brandon: The CIA's Man in Hollywood

Chase Brandon was the CIA's first Entertainment Industry Liaison. From 1996 to early 2007 he was the CIA's man in Hollywood, working on a dozen major movies and numerous high-profile TV shows. In this episode we examine the background of the CIA in the entertainment industry and how they founded their Entertainment Liaison Office and appointed Brandon in charge of it. We also discuss Brandon's career, especially his attempts to downplay and disguise his influence on entertainment including ghost-writing The Recruit. We finish up talking about how he helped TV series The Agency to predict the future, and the links between Brandon and the film Wag the Dog.

[Ed: Story continues, it's a long one. You have been warned. ]

MostCynical writes:

Since major gun law reforms were introduced in Australia, mass shootings have not only stopped, but there has also been an accelerating reduction in rates of firearm-related homicide and suicides, a landmark study has found.

It has been two decades since rapid-fire long guns were banned in Australia, including those already in private ownership, and 19 years since the mandatory buyback of prohibited firearms by government at market price was introduced. A handgun buyback program was later introduced, in 2003.

Researchers from the University of Sydney and Macquarie University analysed data on intentional suicide and homicide deaths caused by firearms from the National Injury Surveillance Unit, and intentional firearm death rates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. For the period after the 1996 reforms, rates of total homicides and suicides from all causes were also examined to consider whether people may have substituted guns for alternative means.

Source: The Guardian

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

On Tuesday, we reported security experts' surprise that Apple had opened up some code at the heart of a forthcoming version of the mobile operating system that powers iPhones and iPads.

Security researchers told MIT Technology Review that the company might have decided not to obscure a component called the kernel as it usually did to encourage more people to report bugs in its software -- or it had perhaps made an embarrassing mistake.

Apple declined to explain the change when contacted on Tuesday. But after the issue gained wider attention, the company released a statement Wednesday saying it had intentionally left the kernel unencrypted -- but not for security reasons.

"By unencrypting it we're able to optimize the operating system's performance without compromising security," an Apple spokesman said. He declined to elaborate on how exactly the performance of iOS would be improved.

Original Submission

JeanCroix writes:

Amidst an ongoing copyright-infringement case between CBS, Paramount and the crowdfunded fan film "Star Trek: Axanar," the two media companies outlined several guidelines for any future Star Trek fan productions.

In an open letter to fans, CBS and Paramount wrote that they want to support and encourage fan creativity. The guidelines also state that the companies "will not object to, or take legal action against, Star Trek fan productions that are nonprofessional and amateur and meet the following guidelines."

Sounds like Justin Lin and J.J. Abrams didn't have enough clout to make the lawsuit "go away" after all...

Original Submission

SeaDachshund writes:

Ars Technica Reports that U.S. Automotive Stalwart General Motors has teamed up with the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Naval Laboratory to incorporate hydrogen fuel-cells into a next generation of Navy unmanned undersea vehicles.

Paraphrasing from the source article, the U.S. Navy has turned to hydrogen fuel cells in lieu of batteries as a result of fuel cells being quicker to refuel. However, fuel cells pose some challenges as well -- underwater, it's not about weight or volume, but buoyancy as well. [ Submitter's Note: this statement may seem redundant from a physical standpoint, but implies the importance of the environmental aspects of the physical calculations ]

Although GM is not expected to receive feedback from the Navy's findings for national security reasons, the funding GM receives from the Navy could stimulate additional research of hydrogen fuel-cell technology.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Hackaday reports

[June 23] marks the opening of the Supplyframe Design Lab[1] in Pasadena, California. The Design Lab bills itself as the "leading edge creative center built to foster new ideas in technology and design". Supplyframe had the vision to acquire Hackaday a few years ago, launched the Hackaday.io Community site which now has more than 150,000 members, and established The Hackaday Prize to spark engineering projects that benefit humanity.

[...] Name your material, and there are tools to work with it. [...] Need design software and beefy boxes to run it on? They have that too. [...] It's a wonderland for making the imaginable real. If there ever was a time to quit your job and spend three months launching that dream product, this is it. The Design Lab has a residency program.

[...] Residencies will start on July 1st. Each runs for three months in which residents have unfettered access to the space and its tools, as well as financial support of $2000 per month. Each resident will self-identify into the product-track (you're on your way to market with new hardware) or the art-track (you have a calling for an ambitious project and need to make it a reality). [...] The Design Lab is still accepting applications for new residencies this summer and beyond.

In the comments, the author, Mike Szczys, says

The only commitment expected from the residents is that they will work at the Design Lab during the residency and be open to showing off what they're up to.

and

I don't believe residents give up ownership or equity. The point of the residency program is to break down the barriers for creating hardware and to show some of what it takes to see a product or art installation through to completion.

[1] I don't think I'll be advising anyone to take lessons in HTML from their web guy.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

U.S. senators have reached a deal that would require food companies to disclose which products contain genetically modified ingredients, although not necessarily directly. The plan would allow a variety of different ways to make the disclosure, including a text statement, QR code, phone number, or URL:

Just a week before a Vermont law kicks in requiring labels on food containing genetically modified ingredients, U.S. Senate agriculture leaders announced a deal Thursday that takes the power out of states' hands — and sets a mandatory national system for GM disclosures on food products.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, unveiled the plan that had been negotiated for weeks with U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan. Senate Democrats from farm country called it a win for consumers and families, while Roberts said it would end "denigrating biotechnology and causing confusion in the marketplace" brought on by Vermont's state law.

But it was clearly an uneasy compromise, with critics of the plan making for strange bedfellows on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Both Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Democrat who supports his state's mandatory law, and the American Farm Bureau Federation, which wants a voluntary GMO labeling standard, announced their opposition to the Roberts-Stabenow deal.

For those who may not already be aware, a GMO is a Genetically Modified Organism.

Original Submission

Anne Nonymous writes:

A second, parallel, Panama Canal opened for traffic earlier this month. It allows for the passage of today's larger ships, but there are problems with its design and engineering. The New York Times highlights some of the issues (no login required, but warning for animated graphics), including cracking and leaking concrete, poor operational design, heavy water usage, and new tugboats that work better backward than forward:

Last summer, water began gushing through concrete that was supposed to last 100 years but could not make it to the first ship. The Hill analysts had warned that the consortium's budget for concrete was 71 percent smaller than that of the next lowest bidder. The budget also allotted roughly 25 percent less for steel to reinforce that concrete.

Then there is the lock design. Tugboat captains say they cannot safely escort the larger ships because the locks are too small with too little margin for error, especially in windy conditions and tricky currents. In fact, in a feasibility study obtained by The Times, the Panama Canal Authority had earlier concluded that the tugs needed significantly more room.

Original Submission

bzipitidoo writes:

An old thought that received some new attention in a recent opinion piece by Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research is that Microsoft and Bill Gates owe their great wealth to excessive patent and copyright law. Bill Gates is of course not the only beneficiary. The larger problem is that these legal excesses have greatly contributed to wealth inequality.

Baker's solution? Reduce or abolish copyrights and patents.

The Secret to the Incredible Wealth of Bill Gates

Original Submission

n1 writes:

State Department staffers wrestled for weeks in December 2010 over a serious technical problem that affected emails from then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's home email server, causing them to temporarily disable security features on the government's own systems, according to emails released Wednesday.

The emails were released under court order Wednesday to the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, which has sued the State Department over access to public records related to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's service as the nation's top diplomat between 2009 and 2013.

The emails, reviewed by The Associated Press, show that State Department technical staff disabled software on their systems intended to block phishing emails that could deliver dangerous viruses. They were trying urgently to resolve delivery problems with emails sent from Clinton's private server.

Source: Associated Press

Original Submission

Gaaark writes:

In the Victorian era, billiard balls were made of ivory, from elephant tusks. But the fear was that with the rising popularity of billiards would come a real shortage of ivory.

Phelan and Collender, a major billiard table manufacturer, offered a $10,000 reward to any person who could make a non-ivory billiard ball. In 1869, an inventor named John Wesley Hyatt came up with a solution. He mixed nitrocellulose with alcohol and a waxy resin called camphor, and molded it into a ball that looked and felt a lot like ivory.

Unfortunately, nitrocellulose is also called guncotton, and it’s combustible.

I first learned about this from the BBC show 'Connections': it is here also: http://mentalfloss.com/article/64247/first-plastic-billiard-balls-routinely-exploded

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Full results and EU referendum portal at BBC.

Results are pouring in, and it looks like the United Kingdom will leave the European Union:

Unlike at a general election the results in individual areas do not count - it is the overall number of votes cast for one side or the other across the country that will determine whether the UK leaves the European Union. Polling expert Prof John Curtice said there was still a while to go but at this stage Leave were "undoubtedly the favourites" to win the referendum. He estimates that the finishing post for one side to win is 16,813,000 votes.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who at the start of the night predicted that Remain might "edge" a win, told supporters: "Dare to dream that the dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom." At a Brexit party, he told supporters: "If the predictions are right, this will be a victory for real people, a victory for ordinary people, and a victory for decent people." "Let June 23 go down in our history as our independence day." He also suggested the prime minister should resign "immediately" if the UK votes to leave the EU.

BBC now calling it for "Leave":

The UK has voted by 52% to 48% to leave the European Union after 43 years in an historic referendum, a BBC forecast suggests. London and Scotland voted strongly to stay in the EU but the remain vote has been undermined by poor results in the north of England. Voters in Wales and the English shires have backed Brexit in large numbers.

[...] Labour's Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the Bank of England may have to intervene to shore up the pound, which lost 3% within moments of the first result showing a strong result for Leave in Sunderland and fell as much as 6.5% against the euro.

Alternate coverage at The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent.

Update: Prime Minister David Cameron will address the nation at 8:15 AM local time (3:15 AM EDT).

Update: David Cameron will step down as PM before the Conservative Party Conference in October. (08:00 UTC)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Several startups are trying to take plant-based meat alternatives to a new level. They include Impossible Foods, which has created a meatless burger that contains heme, a molecule that contributes color, taste, and texture to meat:

This summer, diners in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles will get their hands on a hamburger that's been five years in the making. The burger looks, tastes and smells just like beef — except it's made entirely from plants. It sizzles on the grill and even browns and oozes fat when it cooks. It's the brainchild of former Stanford biochemist Patrick Brown and his research team at Northern California-based Impossible Foods.

[...] It's not the only faux meat company selling bloody plant patties. Last month, Los Angeles-based Beyond Meat made headlines when it released the Beyond Burger, its pea protein burger that sizzles like real meat and "bleeds" beet juice. The burgers quickly sold out after debuting at a Whole Foods in Boulder, Colo. Beyond Meat's investors include Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Gates is also backing Impossible Foods. So is billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Google Ventures. All told, the company has raised some $182 million in seed funding. Last year, Impossible Foods turned down Google's offer to buy the company for $200 to $300 million.

The Impossible Burger is more than just peas and carrots smashed together: It's the result of some pretty high-tech research. Brown's team analyzes meat at a molecular level to determine what makes a burger taste, smell and cook the way it does. He wants his burgers to be squishy while raw, then firm up and brown on the grill. He believes everything from an animal's fat tissue to muscle cells can be replicated using plant compounds.

The true test? Making the plant-based substance carcinogenic.

Original Submission

frojack writes:

Today the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that police need to get a warrant before forcing "drunk" drivers to take a blood test. The ruling Reported by the AP let stand breath tests.

You might still lose your license:

This hardly represents an impediment to police. Getting a warrant these days is pretty easy. Call the on-call Judge of the day, receive a emailed PDF "electronic" warrant in two minutes. The hard copy arrives in the mail in 2 days.

But at least the police will have to get a warrant to take (and keep) your DNA from a blood sample.

This mostly affects drivers in states that have criminalized a driver's refusal to take alcohol blood or breath tests: Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and of course Minnesota where this case originated.

Original Submission

frojack writes:

CNBC and others report Led Zeppelin prevailed in the great Riff Robbery case:

Original Submission