Thursday, May 22, 2008

Two Swedish men that were arrested for being suspected of sabotaging the Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden, have been released from police custody. Both men were arrested on Wednesday after traces of Acetone Peroxide, or TATP, were found on a plastic bag. TATP is also an organic peroxide which is sometimes used in making household cleaning chemicals.

“Both men have been cooperative but they deny any wrongdoing and waived the right to legal counsel. There was no legal ground to hold them any longer,” said Swedish police in a statement to the press. The police also noted that an investigation is ongoing.

The unnamed men, in their 40’s and 50’s, were arrested after security officials at the plant discovered traces of the explosive substance on a plastic bag inside a bag one of the men was carrying. Both men were contractors hired to do welding work in the plant which is owned and operated by Oskarshamnsverkets Kraftgrupp OKG.

Security detected the material on Wednesday during what was described by CNN as a “routine” security check. Authorities were called to the plant along with the bomb squad, who sealed off parts of the plant. Police believe it was on one of the man’s hands when it rubbed off onto the bag, but no bomb was found on the premises after an extensive search.

TATP is “very unstable, very sensitive to both friction and shocks,” said Swedish Defense Research Agency expert, Svante Karlsson. A small amount could cause serious damage to someone handling the material which is described as ‘Mother of Satan’. Would-be ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid used the substance in an attempt to blow up American Airlines flight 63 from Paris, France to Miami, Florida in 2001. The same substance was also used in the July 2005 bombings in London, England.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Wikileaks today announced via twitter that its website has crashed under an apparent cyber-attack; this following the recent release of tens of thousands of US State Department cables. Sources in the US say the mass-disclosure of cables is causing diplomatic setbacks, and embarrassment, for the administration of Barack Obama.

These previously unreleased cables are said to contain the names of sensitive sources that the authors asked higher bodies to “strictly protect”. The authenticity of the latest documents has not been confirmed but, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “the United States strongly condemns any illegal disclosure of classified information”.

After more than 2,000 cables were reviewed by the Associated Press, they were found to contain dozens of sources who had sought identity protection. 125,000 sensitive documents have been disclosed in the past week, and their rapid release is said to be causing complications and endangering US foreign policy goals.

“In addition to damaging our diplomatic efforts, it puts individuals’ security at risk, threatens our national security and undermines our effort to work with countries to solve shared problems. We remain concerned about these illegal disclosures and about concerns and risks to individuals”, Nuland said.

The first series of leaks began last November. With each release, officials from the State Department crisis management team went through the leaked documents, informing sources that had been named, and – where possible – warning those in authoritarian countries their identities may have been exposed.

Wikileaks responded via twitter to the criticism as the cyber attack occurred, “Dear governments, if you don’t want your filth exposed, then stop acting like pigs. Simple”.

News organisations were previously cooperating with Wikileaks in exchange for copies of documents, including uncensored State Department messages; the new flood of publishing in recent weeks reflects the collapse of those relationships between Wikileaks and the mainstream media.

“We continue to carefully monitor what becomes public and to take steps to mitigate the damage to national security and to assist those who may be harmed by these illegal disclosures to the extent that we can”, said Nuland.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

The American state of Georgia faces a new problem as wildlife officials discovered the South American channeled apple snail along the Alabaha River in Pierce County last month. Similar snails have been seen in four American states, including at least nine Florida counties, and Indonesia.

Apple snails (those of the ampullariidae family) are tropical and sub-tropical freshwater snails. They are named for their round shell, which is apple shaped. The channeled apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) has a yellow-to-brown shell that may grow to the size of a baseball. Unlike many other freshwater gastropods, Apple Snails have both a lung and a gill. This allows them to live even in oxygen-poor waters. Outside of their natural habitat of South America, the snails have no natural enemies. As they reproduce quickly and feed on aquatic plants, which provide food and shelter for native species, they can be devastating to their new environment.

“This discovery is one of particular interest because of the invasive nature of the species,” assistant chief of DNR’s Non-game Wildlife and Natural Heritage Section Jon Ambrose told the AP. “Because of the array of problems that can arise from releasing non-native species into Georgia’s waters, we want to stress that this is not a responsible practice for pet owners.”

DNR biologists searched the site of the discovery again last weekend. Although no more channeled apple snails were found, they may return for a more elaborate search. The Georgia winter, more severe than Florida´s, may put a stop to the threat.

[edit]

Friday, June 26, 2015

Annabel Goldie, Scottish Conservative Party leader from 2005 to 2011, has announced she will stand down as an MSP at the next elections in 2016. Goldie, who has been an MSP for the West Scotland (previously West of Scotland) electoral region since the Scottish Parliament’s formation in 1999, said she intends to focus on her role in the House of Lords, where she has been a peer since 2013.File:Annabel Goldie.jpg

In a statement today, Goldie said leading the party was an “enormous honour” for her. She also said: “It has afforded me both satisfaction and pleasure to serve my constituents and to serve the parliament and I will look back with great happiness at my time as an MSP. I am grateful to friends and colleagues from all parties for their support. Sometimes we found common ground, sometimes we disagreed but never I hope with rancour nor disrespect. Politics is a rough trade but we have built a strong parliament in Scotland of which we can all be rightly proud.” She said because of Ruth Davidson, her successor as Scottish Conservative leader, the party is now “in fine fettle and stands a great chance of making real progress in the years ahead,” concluding by saying: “I look forward to continuing to work as part of that effort in the House of Lords in the years to come.”

Davidson responded to the news by calling Goldie an “unstoppable force”, adding: “She has been an inspiration to a whole generation of Scottish Conservatives, and she has been a tremendous mentor, support and friend to me. In Holyrood, she has fostered both affection and respect from all members – regardless of their political affiliation – and her retirement from the Scottish Parliament will leave an Annabel-sized hole which won’t ever quite be filled. She is unique.” Meanwhile, David Cameron, UK Conservative leader and UK Prime Minister, said: “Annabel is one of those rare breeds in Scottish politics, somebody known by her first name alone. When she was Scottish Conservative leader, I valued her sage advice. She has been a towering strength to our party in Scotland, a doughty debater in the TV studios and Scottish Parliament and has one of the sharpest wits around. I wish her a long and happy retirement after 17 years unstinting service at Holyrood – but look forward to seeing her on the red benches of the Lords for years to come.”

Goldie, the Scottish Conservatives’ first ever female leader, was elected unopposed. She took up the role in the aftermath of David McLetchie’s resignation from the role in an expenses usage controversy and subsequent resignation of Brian Monteith from his Conservative whip role in the Scottish Parliament for briefing the media against him. Meanwhile, as Scottish Conservatives won 18 seats in the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and 2003, the party had been less successful in UK general elections in Scotland; Conservatives went up from zero out of a possible 72 UK MPs in Scotland in 1997 to one in 2001. This led to Goldie remarking in her inaugural speech in 2005 that: “The wheels are back on the wagon – and I’m the nag hitched up to tow it.” She also said: “The party is still way ahead of where it was in 1997. And my first task is to take it forward to 2007.” However, under Goldie’s leadership, the number of seats the Scottish Conservatives won in the Scottish Parliament slightly decreased from 18 in 2003 to 17 in 2007 and to 15 in 2011. At the same time, the number of Conservative MPs stood at one out of a possible 59 after the 2010 UK general election.

In the aforementioned 2005 speech, she also said the party could be trusted with devolution in Scotland, adding: “making devolution work better means real devolution: not the lumbering and cripplingly expensive array of government departments, government advisers, consultants, quangos, quasi-quangos and agencies with all their expensive appendages, but devolving down to people and their communities, their right to make their own decisions about their lives, how for example they procure healthcare and how they educate their children.” Goldie would go on to sit on the advisory board for the Smith Commission, which was set up to examine which further political powers should be devolved to Scotland following the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. More recently, Goldie supported a reduction in the voting age for Scottish Parliament elections from 18 to 16 in a vote earlier this month, commenting: “I think it is an opportunity for them to continue their high level of engagement in topical affairs that we saw with the independence referendum.”

Goldie, a member of the Salvation Army’s West of Scotland Advisory Board and a Church of Scotland elder, is not the only Scottish Conservative MSP intending to stand down in 2016. Mary Scanlon, Gavin Brown, Alex Fergusson and Nanette Milne all reportedly intend to leave the Scottish Parliament next year.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Computer hacking group Lulz Security has attacked a server of one of the United States affiliates of Nintendo, a Japanese-based video gaming company. Nintendo themselves confirmed the news on Sunday, with a statement from the corporation reporting that the unit was illegally accessed “a few weeks ago”.

Speaking on behalf of the corporation, Ken Toyoda had claimed that “[t]here were no third-party victims” but acknowledged “there was some kind of possible hacking attack”. According to Tomokazu Nakaura, Nintendo in Japan considers “protection of our customer information” to be the “utmost priority”. To adhere to this claim, the corporation does “constantly monitor our security”.

In this instance, the hackers were not able to gain consumer details as the attacked server did not have any on it, according to Nintendo. On social networking website Twitter LulzSec defended their actions, tweeting: “We’re not targeting Nintendo. We like the N64 too much – we sincerely hope Nintendo plugs the gap. This is just for lulz. <3”

Nintendo has reported that the issue has now been rectified and that the incident will have no effect on their intentions to launch an e-shop in association with one of their products, the Nintendo 3DS, a games console which allows users to play games in a three-dimensional space without the requirement of glasses.

Recently, LulzSec has claimed responsibility for a number of Internet attacks that have occurred during 2011. Amongst those were three aimed at the Sony online network. The first attack occurred in April, when the group hacked the PlayStation Network, placing the personal details of 77 million users at risk. This prompted Sony Pictures Entertainment to remove access to the network for in excess of one month.

The second attack occurred on May 23, when LulzSec unlawfully gained access to the details 52,000 Sony Pictures Entertainment consumers, as well as illegally taking them. In a third incident, LulzSec accepted responsibility for an alleged database hacking on the website for Sony Music in Japan on May 23.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Australian researchers say they have scientifically proven that stress causes sickness. The Garvan Institute in Sydney has discovered that a hormone, known as neuropeptide Y (NPY) is released into the body during times of stress. Their findings show the hormone can stop the immune system from functioning properly.

“Neuropeptide Y is one of those hormones that gets unregulated or released from neurones when stressful situations occur…it’s known for example that it regulates blood pressure and heart rates so your heart rate goes up but it hasn’t been known that it actually can affect immune cells as well,” said Professor Herbert Herzog, one of the researchers.

Herzog feels it is good to finally have proof of something people have suspected for so long.

“Now we have proven without doubt that there is a direct link and that stress can weaken the immune system and that makes you more vulnerable when you for example have a cold or flu and even in the more serious situations such as cancer can be enhanced in these situations,” said Herzog.

The Garvan Institute study centres on two key events that enable the human body to recognise foreign substances and control invaders. When our body encounters a pathogen (bacteria and viruses), the immune cells retain and interrogate suspects. Their activation is made possible by NPY. These cells then return to the lymph nodes, which are found all over the body, with information about the foreign invaders. The lymph nodes are where decisions about defence are made.

“Most of us expect to come down with a cold or other illness when we are under pressure, but until now we have mostly had circumstantial evidence for a link between the brain and the immune system,” said lead Garvan researcher, associate Professor Fabienne Mackay. “During periods of stress, nerves release a lot of NPY and it gets into the bloodstream, where it directly impacts on the cells in the immune system that look out for and destroy pathogens (bacteria and viruses) in the body.”

In the case of bacteria and viruses, TH1 cells are part of the attack team that is sent out on the ‘search and destroy’ mission. But when their job is done they need to be turned ‘off’ and the immune system reset. The same hormone, NPY, that activates the sentry cells now prompts the TH1 cells to slow down and die.

“Under normal conditions, circulating immune cells produce small amounts of NPY, which enables the immune cells on sentry duty and the TH1 immune cells to operate – it’s a yin and yang kind of situation. But too much NPY means that the TH1 attack is prevented despite the foreign invaders being identified – and this is what happens during stress,” added McKay.

The impact of stress on the body has been observed in athletes. Ph. D researcher at the University of Queensland, Luke Spence, together with the Australian Institute of Sport, studied elite and recreational athletes over five months.

They found elite athletes were more susceptible to respiratory diseases under stress.

“A lot of elite athletes put themselves through vast amounts of physical stress in their training, but also their emotional, psychological stress of feeling the pressure of Australia on their shoulders, wanting to compete and wanting to do their best,” said Spence.

It’s not just athletes who are prone to stress. Pressures at work and at home may cause emotional and mental stress that can be equally damaging. Almost a third of all work absenteeism in Australia is due to illness, costing employers over $10 billion a year.

“I think it has a huge impact for the work force and also for employers – if their employees are constantly stressed, constantly under pressure, they are more likely to get sick,” Spence said.

Further research could lead to the development of new drugs which may inhibit the action of the neuropeptide Y hormone.

Herzog warns people to minimise stress before it becomes a problem.

“Relaxation methods like yoga will help you to prevent that but there will still be people out there that are not responding to that and treatment by interfering with the system will be important,” he said. “There’s obviously some time until such a treatment will be available but this is something we will definitely work towards.”

The Garvan research will be published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 202, No. 11.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

The following is the fifth edition of a monthly series chronicling the 2020 United States presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

This month’s spotlight on the campaign trail: the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee secures ballot access in all 50 U.S. states, the Unity Party of America presidential nominee proposes a novel solution to the issue of “packing” the U.S. Supreme Court, and three candidates give their thoughts on the latest military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.