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Security check now starts long before you fly

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© Michael Stravato for The New York TimesAbdulla Darrat, an urban planner from Queens, said he has been singled out for repeated searches by airport security.
The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases that can include records like car registrations and employment information.

While the agency says that the goal is to streamline the security procedures for millions of passengers who pose no risk, the new measures give the government greater authority to use travelers' data for domestic airport screenings. Previously that level of scrutiny applied only to individuals entering the United States.

The prescreening, some of which is already taking place, is described in documents the T.S.A. released to comply with government regulations about the collection and use of individuals' data, but the details of the program have not been publicly announced.

Stormtrooper

5 new ways the T.S.A. searches you before a flight

The blue glove of the T.S.A. may start to reach much further than your carry-on.
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© Getty Images
If you have an upcoming flight, you've probably already been through security -- even if you are nowhere near the airport. The Transportation Security Administration (T.S.A.) will now inspect passengers much more closely, for both domestic and international flights, by surveying a host of different databases.

Here are five new stealthy scans you might unwittingly undergo (well) before boarding your next flight:

Red Flag

Human remains found in Los Angeles water treatment plants

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© Screenshot via CBS Los Angeles
The upper torso of a woman found Monday at a waste treatment plant is believed to be related to the human remains found this weekend at a similar facility in Carson.

The human remains of the woman, who was possibly Hispanic, were found by maintenance workers at a facility operated by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County in the 1900 block of Workman Mill Road in Bassett, near the 60 and 605 freeways.

The remains were discovered in one of the facility's water reclamation plant pools.

"During a check for a plug in a line, they discovered a human torso," sheriff's Lt. Mike Rosson said. "That human torso appears to be related to...remains that were found in Carson on Saturday morning."


Che Guevara

Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt

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© Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto/ FlowersWaste land: large-scale irrigation strips nutrients from the soil, scars the landscape and could alter climactic conditions beyond repair.
Is our relentless quest for economic growth killing the planet? Climate scientists have seen the data - and they are coming to some incendiary conclusions.

In December 2012, a pink-haired complex systems researcher named Brad Werner made his way through the throng of 24,000 earth and space scientists at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, held annually in San Francisco. This year's conference had some big-name participants, from Ed Stone of Nasa's Voyager project, explaining a new milestone on the path to interstellar space, to the film-maker James Cameron, discussing his adventures in deep-sea submersibles.

But it was Werner's own session that was attracting much of the buzz. It was titled "Is Earth F**ked?" (full title: "Is Earth F**ked? Dynamical Futility of Global Environmental Management and Possibilities for Sustainability via Direct Action Activism").

Standing at the front of the conference room, the geophysicist from the University of California, San Diego walked the crowd through the advanced computer model he was using to answer that question. He talked about system boundaries, perturbations, dissipation, attractors, bifurcations and a whole bunch of other stuff largely incomprehensible to those of us uninitiated in complex systems theory. But the bottom line was clear enough: global capitalism has made the depletion of resources so rapid, convenient and barrier-free that "earth-human systems" are becoming dangerously unstable in response. When pressed by a journalist for a clear answer on the "are we f**ked" question, Werner set the jargon aside and replied, "More or less."

Eye 2

FBI arrests mother who ripped off boy's genitals, superglued them and sent him to bed

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The FBI arrested Jennifer Marie Vargas, 34, at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston for ripping and partially pulling off her 6-year-old son's genitals. Her reason? Because she was angry with him.

Releasing that she had "gone too far," she then used superglue to try to repair the serious injury, according to court records.

The FBI charged Vargas with "assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction resulting in serious bodily injury."

Strangely, even with such an outrageous offense, she faces only up to 10 years in prison.

The child father who worked on the Army base, returned home from work September 27 and found the boy crying in an upstairs bedroom.

He saw bloody tissue in his son's underwear and the severe ripping to his genitals. He rushed the boy to the San Antonio Military Medical Center, according to the court affidavit.

Sheriff

Florida cop tasers cuffed girl who became braindead as a result

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A Florida police officer, 267-pound Trooper Daniel Cole, was recently cleared of any wrongdoing by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Questions were raised when he tasered a 20 year old handcuffed girl in the back as she fled. The tasering was caught on video showing officer Cole firing the taser at the handcuffed Danielle Maudsley. Maudsley was a mere 100 pound, while Cole outweighed her at two and a half times her weight. She was clearly no threat to him, unless he expected to die from exhaustion chasing her a few yards.

The encounter took place last September at the FHP Pinellas Park Substation. As Maudsley fled, the tasering prevented her from catching herself as her muscles involuntarily seized up. As a result, she fell to the concrete, and bashed her head. She suffered severe brain damage and has been in a persistent vegetative state ever since.

The video below shows Maudsley fleeing a back door of the substation with officer Cole following closely behind, with absolutely no need to taser her. It is clear that he only did this to inflict physical punishment on the small 20 year old.

Blackbox

Mystery surrounds twin barges linked to Google in San Francisco Bay and Maine harbor

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© KPIX video screenshotA mysterious barge thought to be owned by Google has set up shop in the San Francisco Bay and Portland Harbor in Maine.
Sitting in the San Francisco Bay is a large, unmarked barge, thought to be owned by Google. But no one knows what it's doing there.

What makes things even more interesting is on the opposite side of the country in a Maine sits another uncannily similar vessel.

Floating near Treasure Island between San Francisco and Oakland, the barge, according to CNET, is called a secret project by locals. People not involved don't know what going on inside or if/when it could be revealed.

CNET, which was first to speculate on the structure, has tracked down what little is known of the barge and is pointing a finger at Google, although the company has not responded to the tech site's request for comment.

Showing the images taken by James Martin for CNET to an expert, some believe it to be a floating data center. Supporting this idea, CNET noted a patent for a "water-based data center" filed by Google in 2009.

Eye 1

Bus driver boots praying Muslim boy: suit

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© G.N. MillerA driver booted a 10-year-old boy from an MTA bus like this one because the kid prayed in Arabic, according to a lawsuit.
His only sin was praying.

A 10-year-old Brooklyn boy recited a Muslim prayer in Arabic to help him find his MetroCard on a city bus - prompting the hellish driver to call him a "terrorist" and toss him off, a new lawsuit charges.

The prayer is a common Muslim phrase used sometimes in the face of a challenge.

"[The child] said it as he was trying to find his card so he could get" home, said Hyder Naqvi, lawyer for the boy and his family.

'He's a young boy, but he's old enough to know what discrimination is."

Bizarro Earth

Student Clayton Pettet to lose virginity In live gay sex show for art project

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© SWNS
A student has sparked outrage over plans to lose his virginity in front of a crowd - in the name of ART.

Clayton Pettet, 19, is set to have gay sex for the first time in a gallery full of spectators for a project entitled "Art School Stole My Virginity". He reckons his 'performance art project' will earn him rave reviews for challenging the idea of sexuality.

The deflowering is set to take place before an audience of between 50 and 100 in a space in Hackney, London.

Clayton and his friend will engage in safe sex until completion before asking the audience what they thought of the performance.

Blackbox

Just in case we come a cropper: The doomsday vault that keeps seeds for every type of agriculture mankind relies upon should a disaster ever wipe them out - but keeps them for whom?

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Food ark: Entrance to the Global Seed Vault in Norway which is home to more than two billion of the world's seeds
These incredible images give a rare glimpse inside the 'Doomsday' seed vault which protects the world's food supply. On an Arctic island off the coast of Norway lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which is home to more than two billion seeds. The secure seed bank which can withstand a nuclear strike, aims to preserve crops in the face of climate change, war and natural disasters.

These rare images taken by photographer Jim Richardson offer a visual tour of the food ark, which safely homes up to 4.5 million varieties of seeds from almost every country in the world. It preserves duplicate collections of seeds for everything from peas to wheat on behalf of the world's genebanks.

The seeds in the vault can only be accessed when the original seed collections have been lost. The seeds are stored inside sealed envelopes, then placed into plastic tote containers on metal shelving racks and kept at a temperature of -18C.

The low temperature and limited supply of oxygen inside the vault prevents the seeds from ageing. The permafrost surrounding the facility helps maintain the low temperature of the seeds should the electricity supply fail. The vault was started by conservationist Cary Fowler from the Global Crop Diversity Trust. It cost £4 million to construct and since it's opening in 2006 it has accepted deposits of seeds from all over the world.


Comment: In a world that isn't run by psychopaths the concept of having a 'back-up supply' of a 'food ark' would make sense, though we know who they are really concerned about - he who owns the food supply owns the people.

"Doomsday Seed Vault" - Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don't?