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Syria
January 12, 2016 isis has a new Android app for exchanging secure messages, joining another app that distributes propaganda and recruiting material, according to a counterterrorism network called the Ghost Security Group. Last month, Ghost Security and others, observed isis members using private messages on the Telegram app and direct messages on Twitter to send followers to a site (since vanished) to download the Amaq Agency app. “The application’s primary purpose is for propaganda distribution. Using the app you are able to follow the most recent news and video clips.” Shortly after, Ghost Security discovered a separate app called Alrawi.apk, or just “the Alrawi app,” Initially, they believed it to resemble the Amaq Agency app. But on Jan. 11, they discovered “encrypted communications features although rudimentary to Telegram or other more-company created ones.” The app joins isis’ other known methods of communication to individuals and groups. Among their favorite is Telegram, the messaging app created by Durov, a Russian entrepreneur residing in Germany. Telegram allows encrypted communication to individuals, similar to Facebook’s WhatsApp; as well as a public broadcasting capability. (Source: DefenseOne): http://tinyurl.com/hd7ha32 (A commentary: "Gremany knows that code breaking")
Törökország Turkey
2016. I. 13. Három orosz állampolgárt vettek őrizetbe a törökországi Antalyában az előző napi isztambuli merénylettel összefüggésben. Orosz hivatalos adatok szerint az országból 2719 állampolgár csatlakozott az iszlám állam dzsihadistáihoz Szíriában, közülük 160-an meghaltak, 73 hazatérőt vizsgálnak, s 36-an vannak letartóztatásban. (Forrás: MTI)
Jan 12, 2016 Suicide bomber kills 10 people, mainly Germans, in Istanbul. Turkey has become a target for islamic state, with two bombings last year blamed on the radical Sunni Muslim group, in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara, the latter killing more than 100 people. The attack raised fears of further damage to Turkey's vital tourism industry, already hit by a diplomatic row with Moscow which has seen Russian tour operators cancel trips. (Source: Reuters): http://tinyurl.com/j4mt6ba
Turkey
January 12, 2016 A powerful explosion went off in Istanbul near the city's most prominent tourist attractions on Jan. 12, killing at least 10 people and injuring six foreign tourists. Though the Turkish government is currently in conflict with numerous terrorist and non-state militant groups, the location, target and method of attack point to the islamic state as the primary suspect behind the operation. (Source: Stratfor): https://tinyurl.com/yb8rzgzl
United States
January 19, 2016 The US military wants a chip to translate your brain activity into binary code. A new DARPA program aims to develop an implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world. The interface would serve as a translator, converting between the electrochemical language used by neurons in the brain and the ones and zeros that constitute the language of information technology. So DARPA wants to turn neural language into digital code, potentially opening up scenarios wherein the human brain can mainline data and people can talk to machines simply by thinking. Like having the internet inside your head. (Source: Gizmodo): http://tinyurl.com/jej34wq
January 17, 2016 Scientists are now breathing life into the concept of chimeras by creating organisms containing the cells of humans and animals. Several teams in the US are inserting human tissue into early pig and sheep embryos. The journal MIT Technology Review estimates that 20 such hybrid embryos have been produced, an early proof-of-principle step towards growing human organs inside animal tissue. The hybrid embryos have been observed in early development but, crucially, are never brought to term. The Salk Institute in California, together with the universities of Stanford and Minnesota, are among the institutions pioneering. The Chimera was a zoological monstrosity of Greek myth: a fire-breathing beast with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and a serpent for a tail. Mixing animal and human tissue is controversial — so much so that the US’s National Institutes of Health, which controls federal spending on medical research, has refused to fund it, citing concerns that those human cells could flower into neurons and reproductive tissue. NIH’s stance has been labelled a “threat to progress”. Nurturing human organs inside pigs and sheep is one possible solution to the worldwide shortage of organs available for transplantation. Private funds have enabled American research to continue legally (chimera research is also legal in the UK, provided labs have a licence and embryos are destroyed after 14 days). One source is the private California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, set up by the state to enable controversial biological research to continue whatever the political climate. Fusing human and animal cells to make human organs may be seen by some on the religious right as an affront to human dignity. There are also animal welfare considerations. (Source: FinancialTimes): http://tinyurl.com/js9tgjt
(Pro Domo: Egy kommentárból: "It is not a far step to create higher life forms that can be enslaved to perform certain labors that a human is not strong enough. For example, soldiers - as strong as chimpanzees, and and IQ of a low grade moron would be a formidable soldier. And what happens when these Chimeras contract viruses."
January 14, 2016 Dangerous strain of dog flu spreads concern across U.S. Cases first showed up last March in Chicago and spread quickly. Around 2,000 dogs in 24 states have been infected. A vaccine was made available in November. Humans can't contract the virus, but they could spread it to healthy dogs after close contact with an infected dog. (Source: CBSNEws)
Jan 13, 2016 The Obama administration is planning to expand a program to let would-be migrants from Central America apply for refugee status before they attempt to come to the U.S. - Secretary of State John Kerry said. During the 2014 budget year, more than 67,000 children were apprehended, along with more than 68,000 people traveling as families. The majority of immigrants in both groups were from Central America. Annually the U.S. admits about 70,000 refugees from around the world. Obama has called for relocating about 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. this year. (Source: AP): http://tinyurl.com/zan8wax
January 12, 2016 President Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address - complete transcript. (Source: DefenseOne): http://tinyurl.com/golhj6u
January 12, 2016 The CIA-backed start-up that's taking over Palo Alto. Palantir is notorious for its secrecy, and for good reason. Its software allows customers to make sense of massive amounts of sensitive data to enable fraud detection, data security, rapid health care delivery and catastrophe response. Government agencies are big buyers of the technology. The FBI, CIA, Department of Defense and IRS have all been customers. Between 30 and 50 percent of Palantir's business is tied to the public sector, according to people familiar with its finances. In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture arm, was an early investor. Annual revenue topped $1.5 billion in 2015, sources say, meaning Palantir is bigger than top publicly traded cloud software companies like Workday and ServiceNow. It has about 1,800 employees and is growing headcount 30 percent annually, According to data from LinkedIn, Palantir is the most popular destination among private companies for Stanford computer science students. The company has five other North American locations as well as operations in nine cities in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. (Source: CNBC): http://tinyurl.com/jqxqygd
January 11, 2016 Half of US shale drillers may go bankrupt before the crude market reaches equilibrium: Oppenheimer's Gheit. The "new normal oil price" could be 50 to 100 percent above current levels. He ultimately sees crude prices stabilizing near $60, but it could be more than two years before that happens. Oil prices have fallen about 70 percent from their highs in the summer of 2014. The rout accelerated after OPEC, led by top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, declined to enforce production cuts among members of the cartel, a strategy that has supported crude prices in the past. Gheit said he believes the Saudis will not allow prices to recover until they "take care" of U.S. shale producers, who have contributed to global oversupply as American production has more than doubled since 2008. The Saudis are also looking to settle the score with Russia and Iran, both of whom are on opposite sides of regional conflicts and are dependent on oil revenues. (Source: CNBC): http://tinyurl.com/j7e2elo
Overview: Army; Navy; Air Force; Marines Special report: State of Defense 2016. Spend big, fight small. Be ready to roll everywhere, but stay out of a big war anywhere. Destroy the islamic state, check down Russia and China, prepare for nuclear war, buy long-range bombers, defend cyber networks and satellites, patrol the seas, and expand covert special ops missions to capture and kill islamic state leaders. And while you’re at it, modernize the workforce, open up to women, honor commitments to families, and do a better job connecting with the American public. Overview: The state of defense, from top to bottom, is everywhere. It’s a time of changes, to the force and its mission. But there is clear priority at the Pentagon: the war against isis. (Source: DefenseOne): http://tinyurl.com/hpqyjxd
Globalization
January 11, 2016 After Ebola, two other tropical diseases pose new threats. A little-known bacterial disease may be killing as many people worldwide as measles, while a mosquito-borne virus known as Zika is also raising global alarm. Researchers in the journal Nature Microbiology called for a bacterial infection called meliodosis, which is resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, to be given a higher priority by international health organizations and policy makers. At the same time, scientists at Britain's Oxford University warned that a virus known as Zika, which is carried by mosquitoes and has caused a major outbreak in Brazil, has "the potential of rapid spread to new areas". Zika was first detected in Africa in the 1940s and was unknown in the Americas until last year. It is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which thrives in tropical climates and can also carry other diseases such as yellow fever, dengue fever and chikungunya. health authorities there last year linked it to a surge in babies born with microcephaly, restricted head growth that seriously limits a child's mental and physical abilities. There are currently no known treatments. Melioidosis: bacteria that causes it, Burkholderia pseudomallei, is commonly found in soils in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, but can be spread to non-endemic areas via imports of infected animals. "Melioidosis is a great mimicker of other diseases and you need a good microbiology laboratory for bacterial culture and identification to make an accurate diagnosis. The researchers estimate there are 165,000 melioidosis cases a year in people, of which 89,000 will be fatal. The highest melioidosis risk zones are in South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, including all countries in Southeast Asia and tropical Australia, sub-Saharan Africa and South America. There are also risk zones of varying sizes in Central America, southern Africa and the Middle East. (Source: Yahoo): http://tinyurl.com/z5gc7du ((Pro Domo: lásd még kommentárjait - például 'Jonas'-ét 1 11-12-én)).
World Press Freedom Index 2015: decline on all fronts. The Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index ranks the performance of every country in 2015 according to the Reporters Without Borders index. (Source: ReportersWithoutBorders): http://tinyurl.com/pu8kzsl
Earth
January 20, 2016 Earth's 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880, continuing a long-term warming trend. Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 15 of the 16 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. Last year was the first time the global average temperatures were more than 1 degree Celsius above the 1880-1899 average, a change largely driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. (Source: NASA): http://tinyurl.com/ydz3rru9
Space
Jan 18, 2016 For the first time since 2005 Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn to align in night sky before dawn on January 20, 2016 and each day before dawn through February 20, 2016. (Source:ABC15): http://tinyurl.com/gs8nkca
Jan 18, 2016 Astronomers have witnessed a stunningly powerful cosmic explosion, a supernova that shatters the records of all previous supernovae. Described on January 14, 2016 in the journal Science, the event was about 200 times more powerful than a typical supernova; more than twice as luminous as the previous record-holding supernova; as bright as 570 billion of our sun; some 20 times as luminous as the entire output of the 100 billion stars of our Milky Way galaxy. It has been labeled ASASSN-15lh. Telescopes at Cerro Tololo, Chile were the first on Earth to spot it in June, 2015. ASASSN-15lh is the most powerful supernova discovered in human history. (Source: EarthSky): http://tinyurl.com/hpzszhq
January 17, 2016 For the first time ever, a Zinnia flower has bloomed in space, aboard the International Space Station. This brings cosmic explorers one step closer to growing other flowering plants in space, like tomatoes, which NASA says it hopes to do in 2018. Astronauts are planning to try growing tomatoes in 2018. (Source: The Christian Science Monitor): http://tinyurl.com/gl37y32
16 Jan 2016 Village suffers 'biblical' non stop rain for 81 days and even the livestock are 'depressed' (Source: Mirror): http://tinyurl.com/gthh3fk
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