Category: Comment on News | Page 2

April 18, 2014

On Wisconsin! Thanks for Showing the World what needs to be done with adoption laws

Wisconsin Leads US With Law Limiting Private Adoption

Wisconsin, USA, state representative Joel Kleefisch pushed a new law that Governor Scott walker signed into effect yesterday that imposes criminal sanctions for those who advertise or carry out private adoptions. The new law offers the first in the USA of its kind as a strong attack against uncontrolled adoptions. Those adoptions have lead to some disastrous results, including for example, one mother advertising online and then meeting the pedophile (unknown to her, presumably) to whom she gave her nine year old son. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/16/us-wisconsin-adoption-idUSBREA3F1VS20140416

Representative Kleefisch cited numerous “pratfalls” first reported by the Reuters news service. Those pratfalls seem to HFS analysts more like cases of gross or criminal neglect. The rise of social media in every corner of the world facilitates quick, unregulated adoptions, so the new Wisconsin law on adoptions might appeal to many governments both within the USA and abroad. http://time.com/66171/wisconsin-adopted-children-rehoming/

Without federal laws in the USA to control this obvious gap in adoption laws, the time required to press the laws across the nation to every state seems daunting. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/18/wisconsin-becomes-first-state-to-ban-advertising-adopted-kids-online/

HFS analysts urge a close examination of the private adoption process in every place on the planet, perhaps looking to Wisconsin as a model for the rest of the world’s governments. What do you think?

April 15, 2014

Google Everywhere Just Got Real

Titan Atmospheric Satellite & Google Team Up

Google’s purchase of Titan Aerospace will bring Internet to remote locations. At least that’s what some say. http://www.reuters.com/video/2014/04/15/reuters-tv-titan-aerospace-a-sky-high-platform-for?videoId=310012780&videoChannel=118065 Costs of operation of Titan’s high flying drone will offer satellite coverage worldwide at 1/100th the cost of present day satellites.

Titan also offers high flying giant helium balloons as part of its Project Loon, although no one seems quite as enthusiastic in comparison to cheers for the solar powered, forever flying drone airplane, known in Titan circles as an ‘atmospheric satellite’ that will possibly fit in with Google’s plans to bring the net to all. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/04/14/google-buys-drone-maker-titan-aerospace-2

HFS analysts note that Facebook, the lead suitor for Titan until Google swooped in to offer more money last week, might have had similar plans. The competition for the future Internet seems to be unfolding right before the eyes of the world. What do you think?

April 15, 2014

Amazon 3-d Phone, Really?

Glimpse of Amazon 3-D Phone

Exclusive reports by BGR Blog disclose photos of the coming Amazon 3-D phone. http://bgr.com/2014/04/15/amazon-smartphone-photos-specs-kindle-phone-exclusive/

The prototype appears to offer six cameras to generate a 3-dimensional image. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/15/amazon-phone-photos_n_5154196.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

HFS analysts note that no official statements by Amazon have been issued yet, so some question should persist about how legitimate the photos might be. Nonetheless, speculation and anticipation clearly have been sparked by the blog post. What do you think?

April 15, 2014

What Does the Video of Syrian Rebels Say About US TOW Rockets?

US Anti-tank Rockets On Video of Syrian Battle

An undisclosed source released video footage showing US antitank rockets today, possibly the first clear sign of US support through provision of arms for Syrian rebels. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-lister/american-anti-tank-weapon_b_5119255.html

Some speculate that the US ally, Saudi Arabia, leaked the video with US agreement. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/15/us-syria-crisis-arms-usa-idUSBREA3E0RZ20140415

In the unconfirmed video, BGM-71 TOW rockets clearly appear to be used. These rockets, part of the US arsenal and made by the US company Raytheon, might be from any of 15 nations that also include them in their inventory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGM-71_TOW

To HFS analysts, the video raises many questions, but it offers small insight into the US role in the region. The US has declined to offer any comments about the video or rumors of its supplying weapons to Syrian rebels. Due to history of the BGM-71 TOW (tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided) rocket since its inception by Hughes Aircraft in 1970 and the present widespread inclusion of this rocket in many other nations’ arsenals, more information should be considered before jumping to any conclusion about what support the US has provided. The Syrian rebels share Islamic roots with the Syrian government, even if different branches of Islam, so neither the rebels nor the current government offer any significant hopes to Americans of a future democracy or even mere sympathy for western interests. Possibly another party seeks to link the US with the Syrian rebels’ rockets. What do you think?

April 14, 2014

Major Tipping Point Reached In Cattle Protest

Cow Tipping Point Reached?

Yesterday afternoon, David Livingston, a member of the Arizona legislature, said we have reached a major tipping point. He was talking about range cattle owned by Clive Bundy. Clive grazes his 900+ herd near his ranch located roughly 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, but since 1993 he declines to pay the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) fee of about $1.35 US per cow-calf pair to feed on the 600+ acre range near Clive which was taken over by the BLM years ago. http://www.infowars.com/bundy-demands-sheriff-disarm-blm-as-showdown-looms/

In Nevada and other western states, the BLM claims it owns 158,000,000+ acres of range land, and it manages 18,000 permits for leases of that land. However, numerous law suits have been filed by BLM against ranchers who refuse to pay the federal range fees, leaving the matter to the courts. Clive Bundy’s range fees plus penalties and costs amount to more than $1,000,000.00 US. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/10/us-usa-ranchers-conflict-idUSBREA390QI20140410

To press its claims, the BLM used helicopters and range riders to confiscate Clive’s cattle, based on a court order. Clive and about 1000 armed supporters from the area road in on horseback and land rovers to re-take the cattle, starting last Friday. By Saturday the BLM workers blinked, and by Sunday the cattle were re-taken without a shot being fired. BLM says it feared for the safety of its workers, so it gave in to the rebels. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/14/us-usa-ranchers-nevada-idUSBREA3B03Q20140414

HFS analysts note that the ‘Sagebrush Rebellion’ began around 1970 and has been continuing in the western US for the past 45 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagebrush_rebels Some rebellious tax refuseniks in the wild west of the US have fomented a growing protest, even baring arms to emphasize their sincerity, over cattle grazing and wild horses, for several generations justified under the concept of states’ rights. The US federal government disagrees. So do environmentalists striving to protect endangered turtles on the land. Sunday’s small victory for Clive and his supporters constitutes a tiny tactical turn in a primarily peaceful protest. HFS analysts expect that with legislators from 11 states persistently pushing, the case seems set on US Supreme Court cert. What do you think?

April 11, 2014

NSA Knew And Used It Against All of Us

Who’s Worst Hacker?

Most would agree that unknown shadowy figures intent on malicious attacks in cyber space would be first on the list of worst hackers, meaning those the rest of us likely want closed down. But who knew that the US National Security Agency should be near the top of the list?

Why, one may ask? NSA knew from the beginning of the OpenSSL encryption vulnerability now called ‘Heartbleed,’ and instead of alerting at least the citizens of its own nation it kept the weakness secret to exploit for its own illegal surveillance agenda. https://www.yahoo.com/tech/report-the-nsa-knew-about-heartbleed-vulnerability-for-82407088205.html and http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/11/heartbleed-cisco-juniper/7589759/

HFS analysts point out that NSA’s mission does not include looking out for ordinary American citizens. Yet, still NSA says in its mission statement that NSA “…enables Computer Network Operations (CNO) in order to gain a decision advantage for the Nation ….” So shouldn’t that mission include network operations of the citizens? Maybe a change to the NSA charter should include a mission or policy to disclose known cyber threats to the public, making NSA a service organization in a fuller sense.

Some in the HFS stable openly support everything NSA does in the name of national security. In contrast, most argue that the concept of a nation, any nation, must include its citizens. So when action by a government agency – particularly in a government of, for, and by the people, as in a democracy – jeopardizes the economic, political, and social stability of that nation, then the agency must either be re-tooled in some major way or it must be shut down. In the case of the heartbleed flaw, apparently NSA depended heavily on it to carry out its mission. So to HFS generally, NSA needs serious re-tooling for the purpose of maintaining national security and at the same time doing nothing that harms the society of the nation. While a minority of voices yells loudly how national security demands the sacrifice of some historic freedoms, the majority insist that any grand sacrifice of freedom must be the product of open, democratic decisions, at least in the USA where democracy should remain the foundation. What do you think?

April 10, 2014

Papyrus Vaguely Mentions Jesus’ Wife

Papyrus Suggests Gospel of Jesus’ Wife

According to the Harvard Theological Review, scientists testing an allegedly ancient Egyptian papyrus have reported that no evidence can be found by them to conclude that the document is forged. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/10/new-tests-show-evidence-forgery-gospel-jesus-wife/IusII8b4eI86HgDTKipLhN/story.html

To HFS analysts, that’s a convoluted way to say: Looks real to us. When discovery of the papyrus was first reported, the Vatican promptly opined that is was fake. So today’s Harvard announcement flies in the face of Vatican opinions. http://harvardmagazine.com/2014/04/jesus-wife-fragment-appears-real

Why does it matter? The passionate crowd urging Catholic and Mormon priesthood for women want the document to prove that Jesus had a wife and considered her a disciple, meaning in today’s terms, He considered her a worthy holder of the priesthood. http://gospelofjesusswife.hds.harvard.edu

Not so fast, say theological academics looking closely at the text. First, the text came from a time at least several hundred years after the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The document offers no insight directly into times contemporaneous with teaching and service of Jesus. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/science/scrap-of-papyrus-referring-to-jesus-wife-is-likely-to-be-ancient-scientists-say.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0

Also, and more significantly, in the time when the document appears to have been written, somewhere between the sixth and ninth centuries of the common era, many arguments about marriage, sex, and the status of women were presented in thousands of records. The translated text of this particular document includes Jesus’ reported use of the phrase, “My wife…” and it also says “…she will be able to be my disciple….” No context for these expressions comes out, leaving open obvious alternative meanings. http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/10/5600450/papyrus-gospel-of-jesus-wife-likely-wasnt-forged-scientists-claim

Distilling the big news down to street level, HFS analysts conclude that no one knows what the document means even if it really is what it appears to be, a sixth/seventh/eighth/ninth century letter arguing about some of the same things people argue about today. So your guess is as good as ours. What do you think?

April 10, 2014

Water Play

Bid Twelve: Water Play

This 18-inch-by-24-inch oil painting on canvas entitled Water Play by Jerome Hamilton provides a glimpse into Jerome’s own boyhood in southern Wisconsin. He painted it in 1971 just before enlisting in the US Marine Corps, where he became an analyst and additionally a drug & alcohol addiction counselor. During the time of its painting, Jerome made a living by hustling pool at the local pool halls in Madison, Wisconsin, and he learned for the first time in his young life how susceptible he was to major bouts of depression. He recorded in his journal in 1971 that he used painting as a way to escape his surroundings as he seriously contemplated taking his own life, and he broke into uncontrollable crying spells as he painted this painting, partly out of realization that he might never again play with such a carefree spirit. When he volunteered to become a US Marine in late 1971, he fully expected to die in the Viet Nam conflict, and he was surprised to have survived that war by the time his tour of duty ended in 1975. He placed this and 23 other paintings from his Wisconsin Nostalgia into storage while in the Marine Corps, thinking that perhaps his days of painting were behind him. With GI Bill money, he returned to college to finish several degrees by 1981, when he returned to military service as a US Air Force judge advocate. Fortunately, in the Air Force he found time to paint again. His depression grew steadily more intense nonetheless. As with all of the Wisconsin Nostalgia collection in Jerome’s control by 2003, he donated it as one in a group of 10 to a private collector in Illinois. At the time of the donation he mentioned that his nostalgia never brought him joy, wealth or fame. Nonetheless, Jerome retained all rights to produce and sell archival quality prints.

The minimum opening bid: 2.0000 Bitcoins per giclee print of any size. The largest print is roughly 24-inches-by-36-inches, and smaller sizes can be ordered although the price remains the same.

An overview of the bid process is provided on the page named Art of Jerome Hamilton.

Instructions to bid:

1) Submit bids as micro increments of Bitcoin or equivalent other currencies based on the exchange rate at the time of bid. Bitcoin will serve as the base currency for all transactions.

2) Bids submitted implicitly carry a guarantee to remain a firm offer to purchase until the close of bidding, which shall be 10 days after submission of the first qualifying bid.

3) Submission of a bid shall be accomplished by a registered member with a valid email address listed in his or her profile who posts the bid as a comment on the http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com page associated with the particular art work.

4) Bids may be increased or withdrawn by similar posting.

5) A qualifying bid shall remain a legal offer until withdrawn, and that offer shall be conditionally accepted if after the bidding closes it is the highest bid price. ‘Conditional acceptance’ includes verification by Jerome Hamilton or his agent that the bidder is a registered HFS user with a valid email who personally represents his or her financial ability to cover the bid and who has returned a signed conditional contract. Usually this involves email correspondence directly between Jerome and the bidder.

6) The winning bid will be obvious to the world based on bid-comments published at the http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com page associated with the art work. Also, the conditional contract will be counter-signed by Jerome Hamilton and a copy sent via email promptly after closing of the bid period. At the specific date and time of that email with the attached, signed contract, the bid will become a binding contract and the transaction will proceed privately.

7) If a bidder fails to return the signed conditional contract, his or her bid shall be removed and disqualified.

8) If a bidder fails to honor his or her contractual obligations, arbitration under the contract will be pursued. The standard arbitration clause will be published and revised from time to time to let the world know how arbitration works for a transaction at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com. The most recent revision of the arbitration clause is found at http://hamiltonfinanceservices.com/?p=2265.

9) If a bid is disqualified or a contract dishonored, the status of that bid or contract will be published in relation to the auction of the piece of art contemplated in that transaction with the user name, not the personal name (unless those names are the same), of the defaulting bidder/buyer.

April 9, 2014

Heartbleed Busts Into 500+ servers worldwide

“Heartbleed” Wounds 500 Servers

The latest serious Internet threat named ‘Heartbleed’ has hit over 500 servers, all using OpenSSL web encryption tech. The chief research officer, Mikko Hypponen, at software security maker F-Secure located in Helsinki, Finland, says users can do virtually nothing about it. Instead, server administrators must fix the problem that spreads through cookies. So anyone who has used Yahoo over the past several days, for example, has probably had their passwords and perhaps their credit card and banking information, scrapped into the coffers of some hacks in cyber space. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/09/us-cybersecurity-internet-bug-idUSBREA3804U20140409

What should you do? According to CNET security experts, several steps are required to ensure password and financial security, in light of Heartbleed attacks worldwide. First, don’t log in to any service that has been attacked. http://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-protect-yourself-from-the-heartbleed-bug/

HFS analysts ask: So, who or what has been attacked? HFS answer: No one really knows for sure, although some services like Yahoo admit they were infested and have taken steps to fix the problem. Yahoo apparently is still fixing things, so log in today might need to be reconsidered. But how about all those other services? Google insists it was ahead of the Heartbleed problem from the start. Along with Facebook and Twitter. Do you believe them?

Other steps can be taken once the server of your email or social net has made some changes known mostly by IT administrators. For example, create new passwords for important accounts like banks and highly used email. Also, when unsure of what precautions your local IT administrator might have take, make inquiries through their customer complaint process. http://www.businessinsider.com/heartbleed-bug-explainer-2014-4

Maybe Heartbleed will be put down soon enough. HFS wonders about the larger issue: Can Internet activity ever be truly safe? Should all of us rethink the worldwide dependency on digital reality? Is the primitive lifestyle returning for more than a few? What do you think?

April 9, 2014

New Noses For Sale?

New Nose, Tear Duct or Ears, Anyone?

According to scientist Alexander Seifalian of the University College London, fabricating new noses, tear ducts or ears resembles the process of making a cake but using a different sort of oven to bake it. It takes only a little salt and sugar, then, viola, the patient’s new nose is ready for attachment. That’s just what they did last year for a patient who had lost his nose to cancer. With a polymer mix, salt, sugar…any vanilla with that?..the scientists baked it up after adding their secret ingredient. That ingredient? Stem cells. https://in.news.yahoo.com/scientists-growing-human-body-parts-lab-using-stem-062138783.html

To most of us now, the procedure sounds revolutionary! Of course, ears are harder than noses, so perhaps there’s an extra charge for more cartilage. One must harvest that cartilage from the patient’s own ribs, says Dr. Michelle Griffin, a plastic surgeon on Seifalian’s team. http://www.medicaldaily.com/scientists-use-stem-cells-grow-body-parts-their-lab-including-noses-ears-and-tear-ducts-275122

At HFS, the ramifications for economic impacts on general organ harvesting seem unclear, but organ manufacturing appears set to launch a disruptive technology in the medical field. What do you think?