Though it may look like it, this is not a still frame from a torture porn movie directed by the sadist Eli Roth. Instead, it's the new synthetic cadaver that medical students are now using to get their learn on. Instead of poking humans or operating on animals, medical students can play doctor with these frighteningly freakish zombie beasts.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/yq8lp29qc6Y/@caseychanWashington (AFP) - The United States has said in some cases its surveillance program has gone too far, an unprecedented admission in its tense row with Europe over US spying against allies.
After 10 days of scandal with key European allies, a statement Thursday by Secretary of State John Kerry was the first to explicitly acknowledge overstepping by US intelligence.
Kerry justified the surveillance in broad terms, citing the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, as well as attacks in London, Madrid and elsewhere to argue that the US and other countries have had to come together to fight "extremism in the world that is hell-bent and determined to try to kill people and blow people up and attack governments."
He said US intelligence has since 2001 averted attacks with intercepts of communications. But he acknowledged, without going into specifics, that at times it has been too much.
Kerry also sought to give assurances that such steps, which have roiled close allies like Germany, would not be repeated.
"I assure you, innocent people are not being abused in this process, but there's an effort to try to gather information," Kerry told a London conference via video link. "And yes, in some cases, it has reached too far inappropriately."
"And the president, our president, is determined to try to clarify and make clear for people, and is now doing a thorough review in order that nobody will have the sense of abuse," he said.
Kerry added that what Washington was trying to do was, in a "random way," find ways of determining if there were threats that needed responding to.
"And in some cases, I acknowledge to you, as has the president, that some of these actions have reached too far, and we are going to make sure that does not happen in the future," he said.
Recent allegations and reports of widespread spying by the US National Security Agency have sparked a major rift in trans-Atlantic ties.
This week German Chancellor Angela Merkel angrily confronted President Barack Obama with allegations that the NSA was snooping on her phone, saying it would amount to a "breach of trust."
A German intelligence delegation and a separate group of EU lawmakers were in the US capital Wednesday to confront their American allies about the alleged bugging.
Kerry's remarks -- released in a State Department transcript -- came in response to a question addressed to both him and British Foreign Secretary William Hague about government surveillance.
Kerry spent a good portion of his answer justifying the collection of data as necessary due to the threat of terrorism and suggested Washington was not alone in doing so.
"Many, many, many parts of the world have been subject to these terrorist attacks," he said.
"And in response to them, the United States and others came together -- others, I emphasize to you -- and realized that we're dealing in a new world where people are willing to blow themselves up."
He added: "We have actually prevented airplanes from going down, buildings from being blown up, and people from being assassinated because we’ve been able to learn ahead of time of the plans."
Kerry also lashed out at some of the reporting about alleged spying, sparked by leaks from fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, wanted by Washington on espionage charges.
"Just the other day... there was news in the papers of 70 million people being listened to. No, they weren't. It didn't happen," Kerry said.
"There's an enormous amount of exaggeration in this reporting from some reporters out there."
US intelligence chiefs have said these reports are based on a misinterpretation of an NSA slide leaked to the media by Snowden.
Rather than siphoning off the records of tens of millions of calls in Europe, as the slide seems to suggest, they argue that the data was in many cases gathered and shared by European agencies.
Still, fresh US spy allegations keep cropping around the world on a near daily basis.
Indonesia summoned the Australian ambassador in Jakarta Friday over a "totally unacceptable" report that his embassy was among diplomatic posts in Asia being used in a vast American surveillance operation.
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, amplifying an earlier report by the German magazine Der Spiegel, said earlier this week that a top-secret map leaked by Snowden showed 90 US surveillance facilities at diplomatic missions worldwide.
The paper also reported that Australian embassies in Asia were being used as part of the US-led spying network.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, a report in the Washington Post alleged that NSA technicians had tapped into Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, winning access to vast amounts of private data.
The report said a program dubbed MUSCULAR, operated with the NSA's British counterpart GCHQ, can intercept data directly from the fiber-optic cables used by the US Internet giants.
Just five days after UFC president Dana White announced a light heavyweight bout between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Alexander Gustafsson for the promotion's return to London, England on March 8, the UFC has been forced to change its plans.
"Minotouro" has withdrawn from the fight due to a lingering back injury, sources close to the situation confirmed with MMAFighting.com before White also confirmed the news with Ariel Helwani.
White added that there are no plans for Gustafsson's next fight yet. Gustafsson's team also said it heard the news but didn't know who the Swedish fighter will draw next.
Nogueira, who is expected to be ready to fight again in May, hasn't fought since his unanimous decision victory over Rashad Evans at UFC 156 in February. During his UFC career, the Brazilian light heavyweight has pulled out of multiple bouts due to injury, cancelling matches against Rich Franklin, Mauricio Rua, as well as Gustafsson back in April 2012. The same back injury forced him out of his UFC 161 rematch against Rua.
Gustafsson vs. Nogueira was scheduled to headline the first of six events in Europe next year. The card will take place at the O2 Arena in London.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California woman cited for wearing Internet-connected eyeglasses while driving plans to contest the citation.
Cecilia Abadie was pulled over for speeding Tuesday evening in San Diego, when a California Highway Patrol officer noticed she was wearing Google Glass and tacked on a citation usually given to drivers who may be distracted by a video or TV screen.
The lightweight eyeglasses, which are not yet widely available to the public, feature a hidden computer and a thumbnail-size transparent display screen above the right eye. Users can scan maps for directions — as well as receive web search results, read email and engage in video chats — without reaching for a smartphone.
Abadie, a software developer, said in an interview that she was not using her Google Glass when she was pulled over for allegedly going about 80 mph in a 65 mph zone on the drive home to Temecula after visiting a friend.
"The Glass was on, but I wasn't actively using it" to conserve the battery, she said.
Abadie expressed surprise that wearing the glasses while driving would be illegal and said she's "pretty sure" she will fight the ticket. First, she said, she needs to seek legal counsel. In the flurry of online commentary her traffic stop has generated, several people saying they are attorneys offered their services.
"The law is not clear, the laws are very outdated," Abadie said, suggesting that navigating with the device could be less distracting than with a GPS unit or phone.
"Maybe Glass is more a solution to the cellphone problem than a problem," she said.
It's unclear whether a citation for Google Glass has been issued before. The CHP said it is not sure whether an officer within its own ranks has written one, and an agency spokesman pointed out hundreds of law enforcement agencies in California alone can write traffic tickets.
Legislators in at least two states, Delaware and West Virginia, have introduced bills that would specifically ban driving with Google Glass. Authorities in the United Kingdom are mulling a similar ban.
About 10,000 units have been distributed so far in the United States to "pioneers," and this week Google announced another 30,000 would be available for $1,500 apiece. Abadie said she got hers in May and has become an "evangelist" for the technology.
A spokesman for Google did not reply to a request for comment. On its website, Google says this about using the headgear while driving: "Read up and follow the law. Above all, even when you're following the law, don't hurt yourself or others by failing to pay attention to the road."
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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
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Follow Justin Pritchard at https://twitter.com/lalanewsman
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-31-Google%20Glass%20Ticket/id-7025da1bebf1422d80e8b7854adec5b2With supertall towers popping up along Central Park's southern edge like wildly expensive luxury mushrooms, Manhattan's largest park is about to be cast into shadow—some as long as half a mile. The real estate boom is stirring up a debate: Do we have a "right to light"?
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/yQ8FN_dI3Gg/do-we-have-a-legal-right-to-light-1455302177Beijing (AFP) - The East Turkestan Islamic Movement was a "behind-the-scenes" supporter of this week's attack on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, China's top security official Meng Jianzhu said.
"Its behind-the-scenes supporters were the terrorist group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) based in central and west Asia," Meng said when asked about the Tiananmen incident on a visit to Tashkent in Uzbekistan, video posted online Thursday showed.
A high-profile car crash on Monday killed two tourists and injured dozens at the popular tourist site and symbolic heart of the Chinese state, with the three people in the car -- a man, his wife and his mother -- all dying, police say.
They said the vehicle had a licence plate from Xinjiang, the far western region where China's mostly Muslim Uighur minority is concentrated, while the names released of the three people inside and five other arrested suspects sounded potentially Uighur.
ETIM is known as a militant Islamic separatist group that that seeks an independent state in Xinjiang.
The United States and the United Nations both classified ETIM as a terrorist organisation in 2002, during a period of increased US-Chinese cooperation following the 9/11 attacks.
Meng made his comments, a video of which was posted on the Chinese web portal Tencent, while visiting an anti-terrorism office of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional security group which links China, Russia and a number of central Asian countries.
But ETIM's strength and links to global terrorism are murky, and some experts say China exaggerates its threat to justify tough security measures in Xinjiang, which has seen sporadic ethnic clashes and anti-government sentiment.
ETIM might have ties in Pakistan and Central Asian countries but it is unclear how close they might be, said Michael Clarke, a professor at Griffith University in Sydney who has authored a book on China's policy of integration in Xinjiang.
"It's not that China shouldn't be concerned about those (ties), but the core issue is that the linkages have been exaggerated by the Chinese government," he said, adding that he was "sceptical on the exact nature" of ETIM.
Chinese state-run media have reported periodic bouts of violence in Xinjiang which Beijing often describes as "terrorist attacks".
One such incident in June left 35 people dead, and 139 people have been arrested in recent months for spreading jihadist ideology.
But Uighur organisations dismiss claims of terrorism and separatism as an excuse by Beijing to justify religious and security restrictions. Information in the area is difficult to independently verify.
Alim Seytoff, a spokesman for the overseas-based World Uyghur Congress, said Uighurs face close security scrutiny in Xinjiang and he does not believe an organised resistance movement exists there.
Beijing says its policies and investment in Xinjiang have brought tremendous development.
The region's economy grew 10.8 percent to 570 billion yuan ($94 billion) in the first nine months of 2013 -- 3.1 percentage points above the national rate and the ninth-highest increase in the country, according to the Xinjiang government news portal Tianshan.
Critics counter that the economic growth mostly benefits an influx of ethnic majority Han Chinese, millions of whom have moved to the resource-rich region.
Ethnic frictions have risen in Xinjiang as a result, and rioting in the capital Urumqi involving both ethnic groups in 2009 left 200 people dead.
In less than 24 hours, the first UK iPad Air customers will be walking out of stores across the land with their new hotness, but for those looking for something a little more subsidized, Three might have you covered. Leaving it almost as late as possible, the carrier has announced pricing for the iPad Air and associated data plans. If you're going subsidized, then you're looking at dropping at least £119 up front.
For that, you'll get a 16GB WiFi + Cellular iPad Air with 15GB of data per month for two-years, at a monthly rate of £29. Pay £179 up front for the same iPad Air and you'll drop the monthly cost down to £25. Prices monthly remain the same and with 15GB of data for the 32GB and 64GB models, but prices up front then start from £219 and £289 respectively. And of course, these prices will include 4G LTE when Three launches it sometime in December.
If you're OK with buying your iPad Air outright – either from Apple or from Three – then you're open to a pretty good 10GB 1-month rolling contract for just £15 per month. The iPad Air will go on sale both online and in-stores at Three tomorrow, November 1. The iPad mini with Retina Display will follow later in November, though when is still anybodies guess. We'll update with pricing as and when we learn more. So, anyone buying this way?
Source: Three
iPad Air
Apple's full-sized iPad gets slimmed down. Features include:
Released
November, 2013
Alternatives
Retina iPad mini, iPad 2
Replacements
iPad Air 2 (iPad 6)
Fall, 2014
Resources
Buyers guide
Help forum
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/-AaTjcnNvLY/story01.htm
