Current Threat Level

November 13, 2008 - The United States government's national threat level is Elevated, or Yellow.

For all domestic and international flights, the U.S. threat level is High, or Orange. Only small amounts of liquids, aerosols and gels are allowed in carry-on baggage. See the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Web site for up-to-date information on items permitted and prohibited on airlines.

There is no credible, specific intelligence suggesting an imminent threat to the homeland at this time. Still, we are closely assessing potential threats and response planning leading into and following the electoral process in 2008 to 2009. Heightened coordination and planning among intelligence community and law enforcement partners is being undertaken solely out of an abundance of caution, and focuses on preventive and preparedness measures for the transition period between administrations.

Wow... still fear-mongering on the way out I see...

Homeland Security Advisory System: Current Threat Level

Message to Presidential Nominees and Appointees, and Members of the President-elect's Transition Team:

The Presidential Transition Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-293) authorizes the General Services Administration (GSA) to develop a transition directory in consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The Act provides that the transition directory "shall be a compilation of Federal publications and materials with supplementary materials developed by the Administrator that provides information on the officers, organization, and statutory and administrative authorities, functions, duties, responsibilities, and mission of each department and agency." Senate Report 106-348 clarifies that the directory is intended to "assist in navigating the many responsibilities that fall on a new administration" that is "confronted by an overwhelming amount of material."

GSA and NARA hope that this online directory will introduce you to the operation of the Federal government and the resources available to help you begin your service in the new Administration

Everything you should have learned in history class if you would have been paying attention. Someone should forward this to Palin! LOL!

Presidential Transition Team : The Transition Directory

On September 12 2008, Cecilia van Deventer, a safari booking agent living in Zambia, was flown to South Africa in critical condition. She died just two days later. By October 6 2008, three more people had died: the paramedic who accompanied Cecilia to South Africa, the nurse who cared for her in Intensive Care, and the cleaner who cleaned her hospital room after her death. A fifth patient, a nurse who cared for the infected paramedic, is receiving anti-viral treatment. In all cases, people infected were exposed to infected blood and/or body fluids.

South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC) quickly identified the infectious agent as an arenavirus similar to the one that causes Lassa Fever - a disease that affects 500 000 people per year in West Africa. Now, following full sequencing of the viral genome by Professor Ian Lipkin and colleagues at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University, it has been clearly shown that this is an arenavirus that has never been seen before. Google.org's Predict and Prevent initiative recently announced a grant of $2.5 million to support CII's work in pathogen discovery. This identification of a novel arenavirus not only represents an early success, but also demonstrates just why this work is so important. 'There is no doubt we are dealing with a newly emerged virus,' said Dr. Janusz Paweska, head of the special pathology unit at the NICD in Johannesburg. As Professor Robert Swanepoel, also of the NICD, has pointed out, the virus is 'newly-discovered' rather than new, and has probably been around in animal populations for some time before making a recent jump to humans.

Arenaviruses, normally transferred to humans through contact with the urine of their rodent hosts, can be classified into New and Old World viruses depending on whether they originate in the Western or Eastern hemisphere respectively. New World arenaviruses, including Junin, Machupo, Sabia and Guanarito, can cause viral hemorrhagic fever. This particular virus, classified as Old World due to its African origins, began as a flu-like illness, then caused diarrhea, pharyngitis and a rash before rapidly culminating in respiratory distress, neurological symptoms and circulatory collapse over a period of about 9-12 days. The virus has yet to receive a name.

Due to the swift action of the NICD, US-CDC and CII the outbreak is now described as contained. We commend their efforts!

A Deadly New Arenavirus

Hi, I’m Mary Anne Gillespie, vice president of sales for PayPal’s merchant services division. I’m thrilled to report that just in time for the holiday season, walmart.com, the online division of the world’s largest retailer, is now accepting PayPal.

World’s Largest Retailer Now Accepts PayPal

John McCain's Presidential campaign has discovered the remix-unfriendly aspects of American copyright law, after several of the candidate's campaign videos were pulled from YouTube. McCain has now discovered the rights holder friendly nature of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which forces remixers to fight an uphill battle to prove that their work is a 'fair use.' However, instead of calling for an overhaul of the much hated law, McCain is calling for VIP treatment for the remixes made by political campaigns.

McCain seeks special 'fair use' copyright rules for VIPs

McCain bristles when it is suggested that he might lack youthful vigor. Early in the primaries, he faced a blunt question from a New Hampshire teenager. Was he worried he would get Alzheimer's disease or die in office? "I'm very active," McCain shot back. "People will judge by the vigor and enthusiasm associated with our campaign. I've out-campaigned my opponents, every race I've ever been in." He ended with a joke. "Thanks for the question, you little jerk!"

Age, health questions continue for McCain

To constitute depraved indifference, the defendant's conduct must be 'so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime. Depraved indifference focuses on the risk created by the defendant’s conduct, not the injuries actually resulting.

So lets get some forensic accounting going on and charge the people who are not just screwing the American economy, the world really, and take the assets of those people and charge them with depraved indifference....

My father says there is/was no crime committed, but I see the complete opposite! Moral crimes show motive, and the proof (of greed & etc) is all around us....

Depraved Indifference: The crime behind 'American' greed...

Google has taken a public stand against Proposition 8, an anti-gay marriage measure on the November ballot in California.

Co-founder Sergey Brin, who made the announcement in a blog Friday afternoon, acknowledged that it is unusual for his company to take stands on issues outside the tech realm. The company "especially" avoids taking stands on social issues, he said, because of the diversity of its workforce.

However, Brin said, "it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8."

"We should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love," he said.

Brin did not mention whether Google will do anything else to oppose the measure, other than taking a stand.

The official site opposing the proposition includes a long list of backers. No companies are listed there. However, on Thursday, Levi Strauss & Co. and PG&E became co-chairs of the No On Prop 8 Equality Business Council. And in July, PG&E donated $250,000 to the campaign.

Google opposes anti-gay marriage measure....

Like the Large Hadron Collider? Feel like you’ve been reading the same LHC articles or watching the same videos over and over again? Then check out the latest addition to the YouTube pantheon of LHC videos, the Large Hadron Rap.

The rap is the brainchild of Kate McAlpine, a.k.a. alpinekat, a freelance science writer and one of the editors of the ATLAS e-News. Having just produced her first physics rap, McAlpine was already planning an LHC rap when she arrived at CERN in October for a six-month stint in U.S. LHC communications.

“I’d just finished a rap about a neurochip, and my head was filled with information about the LHC and its goals,” said McAlpine. “I had access to experimental halls as well as stock footage. To not rap would have been a wasted opportunity.”

The dancing and rapping segments were filmed on LOCATION at CERN and in the LHC’s underground areas. While actors, musicians and even a dance troupe had visited the LHC, this was the first time it had starred in a rap video.

“The response was dubious when we were trying to get permission to film and intrigued once people found out what we were up to,” she said.

McAlpine’s newest venture has been attracting much more attention than she expected – she’s been interviewed by the BBC, and in the video’s first dozen hours on YouTube it attracted more than 1,300 views.

“You know what the status was eight hours after uploading N3UROCH!P her first rap ? 14 people had seen it,” she added.

While alpinekat hasn’t yet signed with a record label, she’s already planning her next physics rap.

Rapping the LHC

The new Tennessee law (PDF) that taxes "the retail sale, lease, licensing, or use of specified digital products transferred to or accessed by subscribers or consumers" takes effect in January 2009

Including Nebraska and Tennessee, there are 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, that tax digital downloads,Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington...

Tax something that does not physically exist ... how ?

TN TAX : "the retail sale, lease, licensing, or use of specified digital products transferred to or accessed by subscribers or consumers"