Video Games to Help Investigators Solve Crime

Interface will allow CSIs and other investigators to link locations in the crime scene to external sources of data:

‘The real-life counterparts of forensics experts on all those CSI shows will soon be getting a helping hand from the world of video games. A team at North Carolina State University is adapting the platform behind games like FusionFall and VooDude to recreate crime scenes, allowing investigators to play out various “what-if” scenarios.

‘”We’ll be building an easy-to-use interface on top of the game environment that will allow CSIs and other investigators to link locations in the crime scene to external sources of data, such as hair and fiber databases, fingerprint images, and investigator notes,” one professor tells Reuters. The team hopes the technology will allow experts from around the country and the world to collaborate without losing time traveling.’ -Reuters

Russian Train Incident Possibly Terrorism

‘If terrorism is confirmed, the train derailment would be Russia’s deadliest terrorist strike outside the volatile North Caucasus region in years. ‘:

‘Russian officials opened a terror investigation today, saying that a homemade bomb planted on the tracks of the high-speed Moscow-to-St. Petersburg route caused a derailment that killed at least 26 and injured dozens. The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, Alexander Borotnikov, was quoted by Interfax and RIA Novosti as saying that an improvised explosive device equivalent to 15 pounds of TNT had detonated when the train passed over it last night. Remains of the device were found at the crash site, Borotnikov said.

‘If terrorism is confirmed, the train derailment would be Russia’s deadliest terrorist strike outside the volatile North Caucasus region in years. Witness accounts appeared to back up reports of a bomb blast. “It was immensely scary. I think it was an act of terrorism because there was a bang,” passenger Vitaly Rafikov told Channel One state television. The last three carriages of the 14-car Nevsky Express careered off the tracks last night as the train approached speeds of 130mph, officials said.’ -AP

Dubai Crisis Foreshadows Other ‘Debt Bombs’

It seems that even countries are overusing their credit accounts; then suffer from interest rates bringing other debtors down with them:

‘Dubai’s financial implosion could be the beginning of a fresh financial crisis as investors lose faith in the ability of heavily indebted countries to pay their bills. Analysts warn that in the worst-case scenario, the Dubai crisis could lead to mass defaults in emerging markets and even in heavily leveraged Western economies like Ireland and Greece.

‘The amounts involved in Dubai aren’t big enough to destabilize the world economy by themselves, but some investors fear the crisis there foreshadows other “debt bombs” in countries that borrowed heavily to weather the recession. “Whether you are Dubai, Greece, Spain, Ireland, or the UK, you can print as much money as you want, but at the end of the day you have to pay the interest on your debt,” one analyst tells the New York Times.’

Bulgarian Academy Claims Contact with Aliens

But the Bulgarian government has been hotly debating instituting some reforms at the academy.:

‘Aliens are here and they’ve chosen to make contact with the Bulgarians first, according to researchers at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The deputy director of the academy’s Space Research Institute says researchers are analyzing crop circles for the answers to 50 questions they posed to the extra-terrestrials, the Telegraph reports.’
‘”Aliens are currently all around us, and are watching us all the time,” said the official. “They are not hostile toward us. They want to help us, but we have not grown enough in order to establish direct contact with them.” The aliens are very critical of humanity’s immoral and unnatural behavior, including the use of cosmetics, he added. The Bulgarian government has been hotly debating instituting some reforms at the academy.’ -Daily Telegraph

Most Compelling Evidence of Life from Mars

‘It showed that microscopic worm-like structures found in a Martian meteorite that hit the Earth 13,000 years ago are almost certainly fossilised bacteria. The so-called bio-morphs are embedded beneath the surface layers of the rock, suggesting that they were already present when the meteorite arrived, rather than being the result of subsequent contamination by Earthly bacteria.

“This is very strong evidence of life on Mars,” said David Mackay, a senior scientist at the Nasa Johnson Space Centre , who was part of the team of scientists that originally investigated the meteorite when it was discovered in 1984. -Times Online

Obama Failures According to Barnes

In these mentioned (four) Obama failures, Barnes might be correct in at least one:

‘It’s polarized, lobbyist-laden business as usual in Washington, and President Obama is largely to blame despite his campaign pledges to change the way business is done in the capital, writes Fred Barnes. Obama mistook his personal election victory for a victory for liberalism and failed to try hard enough for bipartisan compromise when he had the chance, Barnes writes in the Wall Street Journal.’

‘Obama has failed to move congressional Democrats onto the center ground and has been pushing through one liberal initiative after another despite polls showing this is is still a center-right country, Barnes writes. The president has grown government, which has caused an increase in lobbyists, despite his promise to reduce their role. “Nothing has changed, except maybe that Washington is now more acrimonious than it has been,” Barnes concludes.’ -WSJ

More Cel Phone Usage=Less sperm Cells

‘As cell phone minutes increase, sperm count decreases. So says research from the journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Compared to other men, those who chat on their phones for more than four hours a day had lower average sperm count and fewer viable sperm.
Though there may be a connection, the same researchers continue to investigate whether electromagnetic radiation is the cause of the dip in sperm production or if lifestyle and occupational factors may affect men’s output…’ -full article at Yahoo Lifestyle

Thanksgiving in Manhattan

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
What did you give thanks for?

Staffordshire Treasure Worth About $5.4M

‘An amateur British treasure hunter and the owner of the field where he struck gold are in for a big payday: His find turns out to be a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon cache of the precious metal. The collection is worth about $5.4 million, British Museum tells the AP.
The treasure—all 1,500 pieces of it—was found this summer in Staffordshire and generated much excitement among British archaeologists. Two central England museums hope to acquire it jointly. -AP

46 Dublin Priests Guilty of Child Sex

A cardinal even used an insurance scheme to pay off abuse victims:

‘Catholic authorities in Ireland covered up sexual abuse by priests for decades in an effort to protect the church, according to a damning government report. The report, which looks into allegations of child sex abuse against 46 Dublin-area priests over a 30-year period, will “shock us all,” said Dublin’s archbishop.

‘The report details a pattern of abusive priests being moved from parish to parish, the Telegraph reports. The report names ten of the 46 priests, those who are dead or imprisoned. Four archbishops are believed to be implicated in the cover-up, including a cardinal who used an insurance scheme to pay off abuse victims.’ -Daily Telegraph