News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
For you hipsters out there proclaiming social justice tweet this on your iPad: A riot involving 2,000 persons occurred, Sept 23, at the Chinese Foxconn plant that makes Apple’s flagship products. 
The second mission of X-37B super secret space plane is expected to end this month it is being reported.
Users of Windows operating systems are likely familiar with McAfee, one of the pioneering anti-virus software companies found in 1989 by John McAfee.
Kid Info From Web Photos — Cathy Craddock has submitted this link to a 2010 news report from NBC’s Kansas City affiliate explaining how geotags in smartphone photos can be gleaned from postings on Facebook and such to allow stalkers to get information about where to find their targets.
This link tells you how to disable the geotagging feature, which is a fairly simple process, on common smart phones.
RoboCop Has Arrived — Believe it or not someone has brought to market a black, Kevlar, cotton, Nomex glove designed to protect one from mountain lion attacks and street muggings. The BodyGuard 9XI-HD01 by ArmStar comes in small, medium and large sizes and covers the forearm to above the elbow.
It includes a LED flashlight, a digital camera and, best of all, electrodes that can be used to make a scary loud sparking sound or placed against an aggressor — or mountain lion — to deliver a high voltage shock.
Broadcasting Off Air Nov. 9 2011 — All radio and TV broadcasts will be knocked off the air for about 3 minutes starting at 2 p.m., EST on Nov. 9 for the national test of the Emergency Alert System. The tests with which we are all so familiar with have been local ones.
Yes, the test will include cable, digital television and satellite radio.
“While most messages, such as tsunami or hurricane warnings, are limited
to 2 minutes by the EAS system, the Presidential message capability does
not have a time limit. So to evaluate if the system properly
interprets the Presidential message code in this test, the message
duration must be longer than two minutes in length,” FEMA says.
To it’s credit, FEMA made the announcement in June.
Phone Book Ends == Verizon Pennsylvania’ s white pages — the traditional phone book — will now only be delivered upon request.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Nov. 4, gave unanimous approval to a request by the company to change its tradition of including the listing with the distribution of its 12-million revenue producing yellow pages.
Verizon says they are doing it for the environment and that the move will save 200 tons of paper per year.
Verizon says the listings can be found on its website. It also says it is willing to provide them via a DVD.
The blue pages containing the numbers for government agencies and social services will remain.
Yellowbook, Verizon’s competitor, will continue to distribute white pages along with the paid advertising in its yellow pages.
Those still wanting a Verizon Pa. white pages should call its directory distribution center at 800-888-8448.
The white page listing can be found at http://www.verizon.com/whitepages.
China has moved pass Germany, Denmark, Spain, and the US to become the biggest wind turbine producer in the world. It is expected that China will be the largest producer of solar energy technology in two years. In the meantime, as China has been allowed to take the bull by the ring and take all of the green jobs that were proposed during the presidential race, US leaders are still arguing and posturing about whether the government should support the creation of green jobs with taxpayers money or oil companies should be allowed to lead in the production of green energy. Probably after all the oil is gone.
Privacy Has Ended — Some concerned with the erosion of privacy direct their ire at Google Maps’ “street view “. Others say full-body scanners at airports are the best herald of an Orwellian future.
Well, American Science & Engineering of Billerica, Mass. has combined the best of both fears into a nondescript vehicle called the Z Backscatter Van or ZBV.
A ZBV travels streets and parking lots in anonymity using a narrow stream of x-rays to reveal and record the interiors of cars, containers and buildings.
And yes, they will reveal what’s beneath a person’s clothing.
You won’t find these mobile X-ray Specs in the back of a comic book, though. Their cost is $850,000. Five hundred of them having been sold since 2003, most to the Department of Defense which has used them to foil roadside bomb attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Foreign governments have also bought them, however, as have domestic law enforcement agencies, which has used them for border control and security matters.
The New York City Police Department is among the agencies confirmed to have adopted this technology.
American Science & Engineering Marketing Vice President Joseph Reiss told Forbes magazine that their product is the “largest selling cargo and vehicle inspection system ever.”
Channel 6 Where Are You? — Those using an antenna for television might be wondering whatever happened to WPVI-Channel 6 when broadcasting went digital on June 11, 2009.
WPVI is owned by ABC.
Channel 6 is Philadelphia’s second-oldest station behind the CBS-owned KYW- Channel 3 and has been broadcasting since 1947. The low VHF channels were once the prime real estate for broadcasting. These frequencies, however, require large antennae or antennae with amplifiers for good reception and are susceptible to interference from sources such as FM radio stations.
And the strong FM signals being sent by the WXPN 88.5, WRTI 90.1 and WHYY 90.9 which are co-located on a tower in Roxborough are getting in the way of the WPVI signal.
The FCC gave WPVI permission to boost its power two weeks ago from 7.5 kilowatts to 30.6 kilowatts which is the maximum allowed in the Northeast.
As of today, however, it is still not being received in central Springfield.