Our Secret House

Telegraph- New technology could allow people to dictate letters and search the internet simply by thinking, according to researchers at Intel who are behind the project.

Unlike current brain-controlled computers, which require users to imagine making physical movements to control a cursor on a screen, the new technology will be capable of directly interpreting words as they are thought.

Intel’s scientists are creating detailed maps of the activity in the brain for individual words which can then be matched against the brain activity of someone using the computer, allowing the machine to determine the word they are thinking.

Preliminary tests of the system have shown that the computer can work out words by looking at similar brain patterns and looking for key differences that suggest what the word might be.

Dean Pomerleau, a senior researcher at Intel Laboratories, said that currently, the devices required to get sufficient detail of brain activity were bulky, expensive magnetic resonance scanners, like those used in hospitals.

But he said work was under way to produce smaller pieces of equipment that can be worn as headsets and that can produce the same level of detail.

He said: “The computer uses a form of 20 questions to narrow down what the word is.

“So a noun with a physical property such as spade, which you dig with, produces activity in the motor cortex of the brain, as this is the area that controls physical movements.

“A food related word like apple, however, produces activity in those parts of the brain related to hunger. So the computer can infer attributes to each word being thought about and this lets the computer zero down on what the word is pretty quickly.

“We are currently mapping out the activity that an average brain produces when thinking about different words. It means you’ll be able to write letters, open emails or do Google searches just by thinking”.

Intel already have a working prototype that can detect words such as “screwdriver”, “house” and “barn”, by measuring around 20,000 points in the brain.

But as brain scanning technology becomes more sophisticated the computer’s ability to distinguish thoughts will improve.

Justin Ratner, director of Intel Laboratories and the company’s chief technology officer, said: “Mind reading is the ultimate user interface. There will be concerns about privacy with this sort of thing and we will have to overcome them.

“What is clear though is that humans are not restricted any more to just using keyboards and mice”.

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*Just seen these amazing pictures of earth so id figure id throw em up for everyone to see.

A bright bolt of lightning crackles within the ash cloud from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland in April 2010. Volcanic lightning occurs when roiling ash particles rub against each other and become electrically charged

Mount Semeru, seen with an ash plume, is the highest volcano on the Indonesian island of Java and has been in a constant eruption since 1967. It lies at the southern end of the Tengger caldera, which contains smaller volcanoes Mount Bromo and Mount Batok (both seen in the foreground), and several others.

Perched above the lighted city of Catania, Italy, Mount Etna hurls a fountain of fire skyward as rivers of lava spill down its flanks. In spite of its dazzling displays, Mount Etna is a relatively safe volcano with rare, compact eruptions and slow-flowing lava that gives people a chance to escape.

A dramatic cloudburst releases jagged bolts of lightning deep into the Grand Canyon near Point Sublime.

AOL News- Shepherds in Mexico are up in arms — or heads, as the case may be — over a rash of beheadings inflicted on their goats, and many people are blaming the legendary predator known as the chupacabra.

Over the past two months, more than 300 goats owned by shepherds in Mexico’s Puebla state have been decapitated by someone, or something, that hasn’t yet been tracked down.

According to various reports, Felix Martinez, president of Colonia San Martin, recently stated that nearly 40 goats were killed near his municipality. Strangely, there was reportedly very little evidence of blood in the area where the goat bodies were found — throwing suspicion on an unknown animal or chupacabra.

The chupacabra falls into the cryptozoological category of cryptids, a term used to describe animals that haven’t yet been confirmed by science, like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot.

Chupacabra sightings often emanate from the Southwest U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America and Mexico, and the animal is thought to attack livestock, leaving behind puncture wounds after it drains their blood.

AOL News reported in July that a bizarre-looking animal, allegedly a goat-blood-sucking chupacabra, was shot and killed by Texas Animal Control officer Frank Hackett.

“All I know is, it wasn’t normal. It was ugly, real ugly. I’m not going to tell no lie on that one,” Hackett told NBC DFW.

Medical researchers have speculated that the purported chupacabras of Texas and Mexico may actually be coyote hybrids, something DNA tests could determine.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, groups of peasants have formed watch groups to monitor any possible chupacabra activity in their communities.

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Aftermath of a 4-hour long battle between rival drug cartels fighting for the right to ship cocaine to the USA left a mexican town scorched and riddled with bullets. Dozens of men took part in the battle according to witnesses.

MSNBC- A volcano in western Indonesia spewed hot lava and sand high into the sky early Sunday in its first eruption in 400 years.

Government volcanologist Surono, who uses only one name, said Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province started rumbling a few days ago and the minor morning eruption has mostly stopped.

It sent sand and ash up to 1.5 kilometers high but lava only moved near the crater. It caused no major damage “but only dust covered plants and trees,” he said.

He said Mount Sinabung last erupted in 1600, so observers don’t know the volcano’s eruption pattern and are monitoring it closely for more activity.

Evacuations on the volcano’s slopes started Friday at the first signs of activity. Up to 10,000 people who fled are staying in government buildings, houses of worship and other evacuation centers in two nearby towns.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is on the so-called “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

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“The government, which was designed for the people, has got into
the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests.
An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”

-Woodrow Wilson (28th President of the United States)

Jamaica Observer- Fidel Castro says al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA agent who always popped up when former President George W Bush needed to scare the world, arguing that documents recently posted on the Internet prove it.

“Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do,” Castro told state media during a meeting with a Lithuanian-born writer known for advancing conspiracy theories about world domination. “Bush never lacked for bin Laden’s support. He was a subordinate.”

Castro said documents posted on WikiLeaks.org — a website that recently released thousands of pages of classified documents from the Afghan war — “effectively proved he was a CIA agent.” He did not elaborate.

The comments, published in the Communist Party daily Granma today, were the latest in a series of provocative statements by the 84-year-old revolutionary, who has emerged from seclusion to warn that the planet is on the brink of nuclear war.

Castro even predicted the global conflict would mean cancellation of the final rounds of the World Cup last month in South Africa. He later apologised for jumping the gun. Last week, he began highlighting the work of Daniel Estulin, who wrote a trilogy of books highlighting the Bilderberg Club, whose prominent members meet once a year behind closed doors.

The secretive nature of the meetings and prominence of some members — including former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, senior US and European officials, and major international business and media executives — have led some to speculate that it operates as a kind of global government, controlling not only international politics and economics, but even culture.

During the meeting, Estulin told Castro that the real voice of bin Laden was last heard in late 2001, not long after the September 11 attacks. He said the person heard making warnings about terror attacks after that was a “bad actor.”

Castro stepped down due to ill health in 2006 — first temporarily, then permanently — and handed power over to his younger brother Raul. He has remained head of the Cuban Communist party but stayed out of view for four years after falling sick before returning to the spotlight in July.

Castro did take exception with one of Estulin’s major theses: that the human race must move to another habitable planet or face extinction.

Castro said it would be better to fix things on Earth then abandon the planet altogether.

“Humanity ought to take care of itself if it wants to live thousands more years,” Castro told the writer.

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Yahoo- Astronomers are predicting that a massive solar storm, much bigger in potential than the one that caused spectacular light shows on Earth earlier this month, is to strike our planet in 2012 with a force of 100 million hydrogen bombs.

Several US media outlets have reported that NASA was warning the massive flare this month was just a precursor to a massive solar storm building that had the potential to wipe out the entire planet’s power grid.

Despite its rebuttal, NASA’s been watching out for this storm since 2006 and reports from the US this week claim the storms could hit on that most Hollywood of disaster dates – 2012.

Similar storms back in 1859 and 1921 caused worldwide chaos, wiping out telegraph wires on a massive scale. The 2012 storm has the potential to be even more disruptive.

“The general consensus among general astronomers (and certainly solar astronomers) is that this coming Solar maximum (2012 but possibly later into 2013) will be the most violent in 100 years,” News.com.au quoted astronomy lecturer and columnist Dave Reneke as saying.

“A bold statement and one taken seriously by those it will affect most, namely airline companies, communications companies and anyone working with modern GPS systems.

“They can even trip circuit breakers and knock out orbiting satellites, as has already been done this year,” added Reneke.

No one really knows what effect the 2012-2013 Solar Max will have on today’s digital-reliant society.

Dr Richard Fisher, director of NASA’s Heliophysics division, told Reneke the super storm would hit like “a bolt of lightning”, causing catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.

NASA said that a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause “1 to 2 trillion dollars in damages to society’s high-tech infrastructure and require four to 10 years for complete recovery”.

The reason for the concern comes as the sun enters a phase known as Solar Cycle 24.

Most experts agree, although those who put the date of Solar Max in 2012 are getting the most press.

They claim satellites will be aged by 50 years, rendering GPS even more useless than ever, and the blast will have the equivalent energy of 100 million hydrogen bombs.

“We know it is coming but we don’t know how bad it is going to be,” Fisher told Reneke.

“Systems will just not work. The flares change the magnetic field on the Earth and it’s rapid, just like a lightning bolt. That’s the solar effect,” he added.

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FOX- A retired FBI Agent from Summit County is making claims regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that go beyond conspiracy theories.

Don Adams speaks clearly and concisely when describing the events of November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was killed, and he doesn’t waiver from his position that Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

“It is a fact,” says Adams, and he says he has the FBI documents to prove it.

At his home in Akron, Ohio, Adams is surrounded by thousands of reports and records from the National Archives and Records Administration. His name appears on many of the papers, but he says other reports have been doctored, or are missing, “Everything I had done is gone. It’s all gone,” Adams said.

The Army veteran joined the FBI after serving in the Korean war. He trained in Washington, D.C., and Quantico, Virginia, and was assigned to an FBI field office in Thomasville, Georgia.

One of Adams first assignments was investigating an extreme right radical, with connections to the States Rights Party and KKK named Joseph Adams Milteer. “He was reportedly one of most violent men in the country,” said Adams.

One week after completing the investigation, President Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas.

Agent Adams located Milteer in Quintan, Georgia on November 27, 1963, but according to Adams, the Senior Agent in charge would not allow a proper interrogation.

“I said, ‘Boss wait a minute, we have an opportunity to elicit tremendous information from him’ and he replied ‘5 questions and nothing more’.”

Years later, while searching the archives Adams learned that Milteer had threatened to kill President Kennedy November 9, 1963, just weeks before the assassination, and that FBI agents had allegedly lied about his whereabouts immediately following threat.

In a tape recording Adams played for Fox 8 News, Milteer tells an informant the best way to get the president, “is from an office building with a high powered rifle.”

The informant asks if they are really going to kill President Kennedy and on the tape recording Milteer responds, “Oh yes. It’s in the works.”

Adams wonders why the FBI and Secret Service permitted the President to travel to Dallas with that knowledge.

“[They] should have stopped the President from traveling instantly.” said Adams.

And an FBI record states that after the assassination, “a jubilant” Milteer bragged to the informant, “You thought I was kidding when I said he would be killed from a window with a high powered rifle.”

Adams questions why Milteer appears in a photograph near President Kennedy’s limousine before the shooting, but was never mentioned in the Warren Commission Report.

Adams suspects Milteer was definitely involved in President Kennedy’s death, but he says Oswald absolutely was not.

In 1964 Adams was transferred to Dallas, Texas. He watched the now famous Zapruder film and chased leads connected to Kennedy’s death.

The Warren Commission report said three bullets were fired from behind the president, but Adams claims there were clearly 11 shots fired, including a frontal shot that struck President Kennedy’s neck.

Adams claims that he mentioned his findings to Senior FBI Agents, and was told by one unnamed agent, “Don be careful what you say and how you say it.”

Adams says witnesses at the Book Depository saw Oswald in the break room drinking a Coke at the exact time of the shooting.

According to Adams, even if Oswald was on the building’s sixth floor, Adams informed Senior FBI Agents that Oswald could not have possibly fired three shots in seven-and-a-half seconds, from a bolt action rifle so precisely while looking through a scope. Adams alleges he was again warned to keep quiet.

“I said, ‘I’m gonna tell you right now guys, no way in the world he fire those shots’ and boy I was really cautioned then.” said Adams.

Adams has hundreds of other facts and papers that he says prove the Warren Commission’s report was erronious.

The 80-year-old is currently putting the papers into a book and he has also produced a documentary style DVD, which is being sold on his website.

Adams says he is not seeking fame and fortune, rather truth and justice. He wants another commission established to re-investigate what really happened in Dallas before all of the agents and witnesses are gone.

“When we die off, no one will talk about these things.” said Adams, “I hope the truth gets told whatever it is.”

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