September 2015

There were 18 posts published in September 2015 (this is page 2 of 2).

Trying to follow what is going on in Syria and why? This comic will get you there in 5 minutes.

I was not aware until now of the role climate change has played in the Syrian crisis. Pentagon studies have long argued the destabilizing nature of climate change will lead to increased conflict as people fight over diminishing natural resources. We can expect more of this as our environment continues its collapse.

Wars are complex. They come out of nowhere and all of a sudden, people you’ve never heard of are killing each other on the evening news. Here’s what you need to know about the war in Syria — and it’s not oil or religion. It’s something that we’re all creating together.

Source: Trying to follow what is going on in Syria and why? This comic will get you there in 5 minutes.

10 Military Habits That Make Service Members Stand Out

We all know the tell-tale signs of a military service member: high-and-tight haircut, camo backpack, polo shirt and cargo shorts combination, unit t-shirts or hats, decals on cars, and of course, “Affliction” t-shirts. These are all easy ways to spot military folks in public places. And while many of us try not to stand out, there are still subtle indicators. Most civilians would never notice these things, but they are dead giveaways to those who have served. Here are the top ten.

Source: 10 Military Habits That Make Service Members Stand Out

The Preeclampsia Puzzle – The New Yorker

A good article about preeclampsia.

In June, 2000, Ananth Karumanchi, a thirty-one-year-old kidney specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston, read an article in Nature about preeclampsia, a poorly understood disorder that affects about five per cent of pregnant women. In the developing world, preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal death; it is thought to kill more than seventy-five thousand women each year. In the United States, where treatment is more readily available, few women die of the disease, but complications—including rupture of the liver, kidney failure, hemorrhage, and stroke—can cause lasting health problems. (In rare cases, patients with preeclampsia develop seizures or lapse into a coma; this is called eclampsia.) The only cure is delivery. “If a woman develops preeclampsia near term, then she is induced to have a delivery or undergoes a Cesarean section,” Benjamin Sachs, the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess, told me. “In most cases, as soon as she is delivered we know she will get better. But, if preeclampsia develops early in the pregnancy, then we have a huge challenge, because we have two patients: the mother and the baby. If you deliver the baby early to spare the mother, then you put the baby at risk for the complications of prematurity; if you wait, then the mother can have severe complications and go on to eclampsia.”

Source: The Preeclampsia Puzzle – The New Yorker

100 Men Of Color Greeted Kids On Their First Day Of School To Make Incredibly Powerful Point

Inspiring.

There’s a certain stereotype that follows men of color collectively, wherever they go, no matter what they do. It’s the notion that they’re deadbeats, thugs or just simply not that involved in their community.

DeVaughn Ward and Pastor AJ Johnson know these stereotypes all too well, so they planned an event that puts those notions to shame — just in time for the first day of school. After seeing a group of men in Georgia greet kids on their first day, Ward and Johnson knew they had to bring the idea to their hometown of Hartford, Conn.

The men created a call-out group on their social media pages called “Calling All Brothers” and asked the men of color they knew to tag others. Their goal? Form a group large enough to greet the children of Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School on their first day. And do it wearing suits.

Source: 100 Men Of Color Greeted Kids On Their First Day Of School To Make Incredibly Powerful Point

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Open Letters: An Open Letter to 17-Year-Old Boys Who Just Discovered The Doors.

Dear 17-year-old Doors discoverers,

Well, this was probably unavoidable. You are about to think some very dumb stuff about poetry, women, and dead Native Americans. This is a tradition, or affliction, that has been passed down to at least three generations of 17-year-old white boys and then foisted upon 15-year-old-white girls for just as many decades— girls your own age are way past this shit, stick with the sophomores. You are going to abuse the word “shaman” in ways that will violate international torture conventions. You’re going to think that something important and meaningful is happening to you, even though you haven’t left your room for three days. You are going to sit at the feet of the master of total self-regard, one James Douglass Morrison, the “Lizard King,” and think yourself the Prince of Salamanders and heir to a throne carved from your own bullshit.

Source: McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Open Letters: An Open Letter to 17-Year-Old Boys Who Just Discovered The Doors.

Aphantasia: A life without mental images – BBC News

Interesting.

Close your eyes and imagine walking along a sandy beach and then gazing over the horizon as the Sun rises. How clear is the image that springs to mind?

Most people can readily conjure images inside their head – known as their mind’s eye.

But this year scientists have described a condition, aphantasia, in which some people are unable to visualise mental images.Niel Kenmuir, from Lancaster, has always had a blind mind’s eye.

He knew he was different even in childhood. “My stepfather, when I couldn’t sleep, told me to count sheep, and he explained what he meant, I tried to do it and I couldn’t,” he says.

Source: Aphantasia: A life without mental images – BBC News

Alexander: Do those new chip-based credit and debit cards need protection? – StarTribune.com

I was chatting with the cashier supervisor at the local Large Mart, asking if Large Mart would be going to the new, chip-based credit cards.

“Yeah, we’re going to get those within the next few weeks,” he said.

I nodded. “Well, I’ve been the victim of credit card fraud so many times that I welcome the extra security.”

“The new cards also have security problems,” the supervisor answered. “With the chip cards, thieves can read your cards while they’re in your wallet.”

That was news to me. The chip on my card is definitely a contact card, and any RFID-based credit card would be wide open to the world and truly offer zero security. Fortunately, banks aren’t using RFID, but Near-Field Communication (NFC), and only in some chips (i.e., not in the U.S. at this time). NFC has a range of 2-4 inches, which is about 1/12th the range of an RFID tag. Also, an NFC-capable device does encryption, while an RFID tag would only stupidly transmit static numbers.

So, tl;dr: current chip cards in the U.S. are contact-only, and NFC chips won’t be readable outside of your wallet. Bring on the chipped-card revolution, I say!

Q: Do the new EMV chip credit cards (named after the developers, Europay, MasterCard and Visa) require a protective cover so that they can’t be scanned by nearby thieves, just as RFID (radio frequency identification) cards do? Do other radio frequency ID cards, such as hotel key cards, pose a risk of identity theft?
Jan Sartee,
San Rafael, Calif.

A: There are two types of credit cards using EMV chip technology. One is read by a slot in a point-of-sale ­terminal; the other is read by holding the card near the sales terminal.

If your EMV card requires physical contact inside a reader, its transactions and account information can’t be scanned remotely by thieves. If it is a contactless card, there’s a chance it could be read by nearby spying equipment, although the credit card ­industry says that’s unlikely.

Source: Alexander: Do those new chip-based credit and debit cards need protection? – StarTribune.com

The Strange Saga of the MH370 Plane Part — NYMag

Speaking of MH-370, remember that Boeing 777 wing flapiron that washed ashore last month on Reunion Island? It turns out the ID plate on it is curiously missing, and the wing part appears to have been marinated somehow to artificially boost its barnacle growth.

This mystery gets stranger and stranger.

Tomorrow marks one month since a piece of a Boeing 777 washed up on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion, but French investigators are no closer to confirming that the part came from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. In fact, leaks from within the investigation suggest that the part might not have come from the plane at all.

Source: The Strange Saga of the MH370 Plane Part — NYMag