Tuesday, May 13, 2014

News Clips For The Day


Scientists Debate Killer Robots at U.N. Conference – NBC
By Keith Wagstaff
First published May 12 2014

It’s hard to think about autonomous, lethal machines and not imagine the killer robots from the “Terminator” movies. But could hysteria over the robo-pocalypse hold back technology that could save human lives?

That is the question two prominent robotics experts will debate on Tuesday, at the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva.

Autonomous weapons don’t feel panic or anger, meaning that if they were advanced enough, they could potentially limit civilian casualties during combat. On the other hand, computers don’t always work as planned in messy, real-life situations, not to mention they don’t have the ability to weigh ethical dilemmas in their heads.

While this debate plays out, autonomous robots are only getting more advanced. Noel Sharkey, a robotics professor at the University of Sheffield, committed his career to building them for research purposes. He does not believe they belong on the battlefield.

“My biggest concern is that when every nation has this technology, we will start seeing the full automation of warfare,” Sharkey told NBC News.

“Some people propose that this technology will save our soldiers’ lives because we will send in machines to do our fighting for us,” he said. “But that only works if the other side does not have machines, because they will send them in to kill our soldiers.”

“The 'Terminator' sci-fi vision is a red herring, despite its persistent use by the press.”

If the United States started using something like Northrop Grumman’s X-47B drone to take out targets autonomously, he said, it could start an arms race and pressure other countries into sending their own autonomous robots into battle.

While Prof. Ron Arkin, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, agrees with the need to be cautious, he does not think that autonomous lethal systems should be completely ruled out for future use.

“We are not talking about systems with free will or moral agency — those will not exist anytime in the near future, if ever,” he wrote. “The “Terminator” sci-fi vision is a red herring, despite its persistent use by the press.”

Nations could limit the robots to only certain wartime scenarios and ban others altogether. Those placed in combat could come programmed with strict rules guiding their behavior.

Ultimately, he said, "robots can potentially comply with international humanitarian law as well or better than human war fighters.”

Sharkey disagrees. Even with safeguards, he said, machines do unpredictable things when confronted with other machines, especially if they are not built by the same people.

“Nobody knows really at all how these different systems will interact with each other,” he said.

There is one thing that they both agree on: The U.N. should pass a moratorium, or temporary ban, on using autonomous weapons until the international community can come to a consensus.

Regardless of who "wins" the debate, U.N. delegates will be paying attention.

"The room will be packed tomorrow," Sharkey said, "the most packed it has been for a CCW meeting ever."



Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW or CCWC), concluded at Geneva on October 10, 1980 and entered into force in December 1983, seeks to prohibit or restrict the use of certain conventional weapons which are considered excessively injurious or whose effects are indiscriminate.
The full title is Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects and it is an annex to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949.

The convention has five protocols:
Protocol I restricts weapons with non-detectable fragments
Protocol II restricts landmines, booby traps
Protocol III restricts incendiary weapons
Protocol IV restricts blinding laser weapons (adopted on October 13, 1995, in Vienna)
Protocol V sets out obligations and best practice for the clearance of explosive remnants of war, adopted on November 28, 2003 in Geneva[3]




"The room will be packed tomorrow," Sharkey said, "the most packed it has been for a CCW meeting ever." The information above for the CCW gives there current focus against land mines, incendiary weapons, blinding lasers, incendiary devices and weapons with “non-detectable fragments” but there is no category for robotic weapons. That's because they have been strictly science fiction until now.

The two scientists Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield and Prof. Ron Arkin from the Georgia Institute of Technology argue the issues, with Sharkey voicing more concerns and Arkin being more in favor of their use. There are fears that autonomous weapons could more commonly mistake civilians for soldiers and kill in error, but on the other hand they wouldn't feel fear or anger, so they wouldn't go on killing rampages as human soldiers sometimes do.

Arkin is quoted. “Ultimately, he said, "robots can potentially comply with international humanitarian law as well or better than human war fighters.” Sharkey states, “machines do unpredictable things when confronted with other machines, especially if they are not built by the same people.” On the argument that robots would save the lives of our soldiers, Sharkey says, “But that only works if the other side does not have machines, because they will send them in to kill our soldiers.”

Arkin says, “Nations could limit the robots to only certain wartime scenarios and ban others altogether. Those placed in combat could come programmed with strict rules guiding their behavior.” Bvoth Arkin and Sharkey agree that for now the UN should place a ban on robotic weapons use “until the international community can come to a consensus.”

Personally, I think that no matter how highly programmed a computer brain is it's “intelligence” will not include compassion, very fine judgments of differing situations, self-discipline and some other “human” characteristics that make human soldiers superior to machines. I, like “Bones” on Star Trek, value the presence of “emotion” in our reasoning. There is nothing to stop a “killing machine” unless it is very highly programmed indeed. A mother with her baby might look like a soldier to a machine.






Social-Networking Technology Unlocks Mystery of Chimp Civil War – NBC
By Keith Wagstaff
First published May 12 2014


In the upcoming “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” chimps and other primates rise up in an epic war against humans.

Back in 1971, it was chimp-on-chimp violence that surprised primatologist Jane Goodall, who watched as a civil war erupted between two factions of a group of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park.

This is how a chimp attack usually goes down: A group of males will go on patrol, listening quietly near the border of their territory. They discover something. If it’s a similarly large group, there is often a loud screaming match, but little violence. Think of extremely hairy frat guys acting tough at a party.

Occasionally, however, there will be a smaller group or a lone chimpanzee. The males will often rush in, hold the chimp down, and the group will bite, hit, kick and drag its body.

“It’s really horrible and violent,” Joseph Feldblum, a Ph.D. student in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, told NBC News. He compared it to “behavior you would associate with angry toddlers trying to destroy a toy.”

It does not happen every day, but it’s not exactly rare either. What is unusual is an entire group of chimpanzees splitting in two, and then one group eliminating the other over a four-year period of violence.

Scientists have long debated the catalyst of the civil war. Maybe the group Goodall was observing was really two groups all along, which would make the violence less strange. Or maybe the conflict was prompted by a power vacuum, like when a dictator dies in a hierarchal society.

Hoping to clarify what happened, Feldblum and his team, consisting of Sofia Manfredi, Ian C. Gilby and Anne E. Pusey, used several programs to analyze the data from Goodall’s copious notes.

One piece of software, called UCINET, is used to analyze social networks. No, the chimps were not on Facebook. But they did leave and enter the feeding station with certain other chimps from certain directions. Goodall recorded this data for years. Feldblum’s team was able to use the software to figure out who played a central role in the network and where they were coming from.

So how did the great chimp civil war of 1971 start?

Most likely with the death of an alpha male named Leakey. After his death, some of the chimps followed a male named Humphrey, in the north. Others followed two brothers, Hugh and Charlie, in the south.

Most of them ran away and abandoned one chimp to its fate.
These subgroups probably formed even before Leakey’s death. Female chimps often have “core areas” where they congregate to forage. Some recent research shows that males do the same thing, but less often.

Regardless, chimpanzees, like humans, often form bonds with individuals they regularly interact with, which could explain why the chimps in the north stuck with each other after the split, and the same happened with the chimps in the south.

The northern chimps gradually picked off the southern chimps, often by attacking smaller groups and watching as “most of them ran away and abandoned one chimp to its fate.”

Eventually, all seven chimpanzees in the southern group disappeared, most likely killed by those in the north.

It might be fascinating drama — like the chimp version of “Game of Thrones” — but it’s something that is hard for other chimpanzee researchers to draw lessons from.
“The problem with this, while it’s interesting, is that it’s essentially an anecdote because it’s a one-off event,” Feldblum said. “It’s difficult to make predictions off that.”





I must say, the original movie “Planet Of The Apes,” is one of the best Sci-Fi movies I've ever seen. Of course chimpanzees, while much brighter than humans used to consider them to be, – read up on the scientific literature about this – could not have constructed a highly developed society of their own as depicted in the movie.

On Goodall's television programs showing her in the wild with the group of chimps who were acquainted with her and accepted her, even sitting with her and “grooming” her hair or snuggling happily, the whole span of their behavior with each other was very much like humans. The fact that they were eating meat when they could catch a monkey or other prey was an eye-opener. They had been thought to be vegetarian.

They organized themselves into hunting parties and went off to find prey or rival chimpanzees and in those cases, conducted “wars.” Unfortunately, they even ate chimps that they killed on at least two occasions as well as infants in some cases, so cannibalism is a part of their behavior in the wild. I just looked that up on the Net and found that bonobos and orangutans have also been known to kill and eat newborn babies of their own species.

Killing is something that is a product of our genes rather than a lack of philosophical wisdom, it seems. Anybody who has ever experienced a moment of pure rage can identify with this. That may explain the fact that some people who are well-educated and apparently sane have been known to commit murder. Of course, in many cases it may be a matter of self-defense and survival.

The news article gives the case of a leader dying, thus probably leaving a power vacuum after which two groups split off together, probably from already developed relationships. Joseph Feldblum didn't draw solid conclusions from the Goodall data. “'The problem with this, while it’s interesting, is that it’s essentially an anecdote because it’s a one-off event,' Feldblum said. 'It’s difficult to make predictions off that.'”





Ukraine Separatists Slap Travel Ban on President Barack Obama – NBC
First published May 13 2014

If Barack Obama was thinking of traveling to eastern Ukraine anytime soon, he may want to take another look at his plans.

The president was on Tuesday slapped with sanctions banning him from traveling to the region by Ukrainian separatists who want to come under Russia's rule.

The separatist splinter state, which calls itself the Donetsk People's Republic, also declared sanctions against German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The republic announced its borders and airspace were closed to Obama and Merkel for "conniving with so-called acting 'President' of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchinov."

It also criticized the leaders for using the term "anti-terrorist" when referring to an operation by Ukraine's government to dislodge separatists from strongholds in cities across the east.

The statement came after the group asked to be annexed by Russia, following a controversial referendum backing the move and mirroring the path of the southern peninsula of Crimea in March.

Ashton was accused in the statement of failing to perform her diplomatic duties and giving freedom to "neo-Nazi" groups to act with "impunity." The statement said this failure led to violence in the southwestern port city of Odessa, in which dozens died in a fire in the local trade union building.

Cameron was included on the sanctions list on a provisional basis, the statement added. The British prime minister was urged to "think about his attitude towards Kiev junta, especially in the light of traditionally good relations between the Great Britain and Donbass."

The mention of good relations was a reference to an agreement from 1870 between the Russian Empire and British businessman John Hughes, who started a metal works in the area and founded the city of Donetsk.

The U.S. and European Union themselves have imposed several rounds of sanctions in an attempt to influence what they see as Russia’s belligerent actions during the crisis. These have amounted to travel bans and asset freezes on government officials in Moscow and Crimea, as well as on oligarchs in Vladimir Putin’s so-called “inner circle.”




The Donetsk People's Republic, has sanctioned President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, and British Prime Minister David Cameron for their help in regard to Kiev, and criticized them for calling Kiev's action by the term “"anti-terrorist.” Ashton in particular was blamed for a failure to “perform her diplomatic duties and giving freedom to 'neo-Nazi' groups to act with 'impunity.'” The British Prime Minister was told to “think about his attitude” in regard to the former good relations with Britain. “The mention of good relations was a reference to an agreement from 1870 between the Russian Empire and British businessman John Hughes, who started a metal works in the area and founded the city of Donetsk.” So it goes today.






Karl Rove publicly questions Hillary Clinton's health
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS May 13, 2014

Karl Rove, former President George W. Bush's former political strategist, said at a conference last week that the American people should know more about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's health - including exactly what the damage was after she suffered a fall in December 2012.

The official diagnosis was a blood clot in her head caused by a concussion. But Rove suggested there might be something more insidious.

"Thirty days in the hospital? And when she reappears, she's wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what's up with that," Rove said, according to the New York Post's Page Six.

A Clinton representative told the paper, "Please assure Dr. Rove she's 100 percent." They added, ""Karl Rove has deceived the country for years, but there are no words for this level of lying."

Rove later objected to characterizations of his comments as a suggestion that Clinton had brain damage. In an appearance on Fox News Tuesday, he said, "I didn't say she had brain damage. My point was, is that Hillary Clinton wants to run for president, but she would not be human if this didn't enter in as a consideration. And my other point is, this will be an issue in the 2016 race, whether she likes it or not."

According to aides, Clinton contracted a stomach virus in early December 2012 and became dehydrated, leading her to fall and hit her head. She was diagnosed with a concussion on Dec. 13 and then spent several weeks out of the public eye. She was eventually admitted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Dec. 31 when doctors discovered the blood clot, located behind the right ear, during a follow-up exam stemming from the concussion. Doctors treated her with anti-coagulants to dissolve the clot.

Although the comments have sparked a backlash, former Bush communications director Nicole Wallace defended Rove's remarks in an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Tuesday.

"This, I think, is a strategy," Wallace said. "He may have been trying it out on behalf of the party, on behalf of the eventual nominee. While his comments may have been off, her health -- regardless of why she was in the hospital or whether she was in the hospital -- questions about a candidate's health are not only legitimate, they are always part of a presidential campaign."

Wallace continued, saying that voters are, "smart enough to cancel out" comments that are wrong or have crossed a line, and will correct for that.

"But the notion that she isn't going to have to answer questions, even in a Democratic primary about what she went through, is ludicrous. Of course she will," Wallace said.




“A Clinton representative told the paper, 'Please assure Dr. Rove she's 100 percent.' They added, 'Karl Rove has deceived the country for years, but there are no words for this level of lying.'" Rove says that the media has misconstrued his comments (though they were very clear), and goes on to make it even more clear, “'My point was, is that Hillary Clinton wants to run for president, but she would not be human if this didn't enter in as a consideration. And my other point is, this will be an issue in the 2016 race, whether she likes it or not.'” In other words it will be a “talking point” for Republicans. I'm sure we'll see endless commercials depicting her as mentally unfit to be president. Nicole Wallace, another Bush Republican, “defended Rove,” saying that his statement may be “a strategy,” and that intelligent readers can “cancel out" comments that are wrong or have crossed a line, and will “correct for that.” Wallace says it may even come up between Hillary and any Democratic candidate whom she runs against. According to this article, though, the problem was clear-cut – a blood clot, and it was resolved through medication. I say, Go, Hillary!




MERS Search: Disease Detectives Beat Bushes for Virus – NBC
BY MAGGIE FOX
First published May 12th 2014

Disease detectives are going through the painstaking task of tracking down people who conceivably could have been infected by a health care worker who came down with the mysterious MERS virus while traveling from Saudi Arabia to the United States.

The 44-year-old man, who is not being identified, is the second known case of MERS in the United States. Health officials say they are looking up everyone who traveled with the passenger on four separate flights, as well as family members and everyone he may have been in close contact with in the U.S.

Is it worthwhile? It probably won't turn up any cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But it’s the best way to be sure the virus doesn’t spread quietly, and the agency has to do it.

“The risk to the general public remains very low,” CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters. “It’s out of an abundance of caution that we want to contact everybody on the flights.”

It’s going to be a big job. “On May 1 this person departed Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and traveled by airplane to London, England,” Schuchat said.

He flew from London to Boston, then to Atlanta, and finally to Orlando. That’s a lot of flights, and even though the CDC only checks people who may have sat close to the patient for a long time, it’s still hundreds of people.

"We're dealing with over 500 passengers just on the last three flights," says Dr. Marty Cetron of CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine. The flights were full, he said.

Cetron, who has led investigations into disease outbreaks from measles to tuberculosis, bird flu to Lassa fever, says it's better to be safe than sorry with a new virus that people don't fully understand.

Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, was only identified in 2012. But it’s deadly, killing a quarter of the more than 500 patients it’s infected so far. That gets the attention of health officials.

And it’s a distant cousin of severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS, which flashed around the world in 2003 after starting in China. SARS killed 774 people and infected 8,000 before it was stopped using painstaking methods such as tracking down anyone who might be infected before they could infect anyone else and using extreme hygiene.

"There was well-documented airplane transmission of SARS coronavirus among air passengers," Cetron told NBC News.

CDC officials agree it’s very unlikely the Florida patient actually infected anyone else. Even though he started feeling sick on the first flight, he didn’t feel terrible.
He had fever, chills and a slight cough.

“By the time the person arrived at their destination they were not ill enough to seek care until later on,” Schuchat said. He didn’t show up at the hospital in Florida until May 8.

“Our basic strategy is to try and personally reach every individual."

There’s no documented case of anyone having been infected with MERS via what health experts call casual contact — sitting next to someone on an airplane, for instance.

“This virus has not shown the ability to spread easily from person to person,” Schuchat said. It’s not nearly as infectious as a virus like measles, which can spread through the air, or even as infectious as flu, which is transmitted before people begin getting sick and which can infect hundreds before doctors are even aware it’s circulating.

A full one-fifth of the 538 reported MERS cases have been health care workers, most of whom were intensively caring for MERS patients. Others were family members who were tending to patients.

That said, the patient in Indiana told officials he did not remember having been in contact with any MERS patients at the hospital where he worked in Riyadh, although MERS was being treated in that hospital.

That leaves open the possibility of some unknown means of transmission — bits of virus on a surface, perhaps, or transmission by people not showing symptoms. So CDC is tracking down people on the flights to Boston, Atlanta and Orlando, while other health experts are working to find people on the flight from Jeddah to London.

On a case like this, Cetron says, that means going to surge capacity. People are pulled in from other divisions and public health students who are working at CDC are drafted to volunteer.

"Our basic strategy is to try and personally reach every individual, either from the CDC operations center, or sometimes we can get the state or local health departments to help."
Volunteers usually have a script to read that aims to get information without alarming the passenger. They're then told what symptoms to be on the alert for and told what to do if they do get sick.

This time, it's an exceptionally complicated case. CDC and international health officials are tracking down residents of six countries. "Some are still gone," Cetron said. "They may still be traveling. They may be in hotels. They may be on vacation."

Surprisingly, it's easier to find people from international flights, because they must show their passports and the numbers are recorded. U.S. domestic travelers give far less personal information.

At the end of the process, Cetron says, CDC often tries to contact everyone once more to ensure they are all right.

“They are being notified right now, so there are teams making calls as we speak,” Schuchat added. “The flight was on May 1. Today is May 12. The incubation period for MERS, we believe, is often around five days with an outer limit of 14 days. It is likely that if you already haven’t developed symptoms you probably aren’t going to.”

A few people will also be asked for blood specimens to see if they may have been infected by MERS without getting sick. That kind of information is very important for understanding how the virus spreads and how dangerous it is.

CDC has already logged more than 1,000 staff hours on this, Cetron says. "We try to get people a day off every seven or so because it is really hard to sustain this kind of pace," he said. "You never know how long a situation can last."

There's the on-the-ground checking, also. "This gets replicated in state and local settings," Cetron said. Relatives and other close contacts must also be found. "Hospitals have to do a reconstruction of the patient’s exposures to other patients and visitors until he got into isolation."

In the Indiana case, officials said surveillance cameras and other tracking devices helped.
"Staff have an ID that tells us where they are on the floor at all times," said Dr. Alan Kumar of Munster Community Hospital, which treated the first US MERS patient. "It tells us when they entered a room, how long they were in the room," he added. It gives the CDC a wealth of surveillance data."

Even though he sought care, the patient in Florida is in good condition and improving, said Dr. Antonio Crespo, infectious disease specialist and chief quality officer for Dr. P. Phillips Hospital in Orlando. "We are taking every precaution, but believe the risk of transmission from this patient is very low since his symptoms were mild and he was not coughing when he arrived at the hospital."

The first U.S. patient, who has been released from the Munster hospital, also does not appear to have infected anybody else.

Very close contacts, such as family members, will stay home voluntarily until the end of the longest potential incubation period. And as was the case in Indiana, 16 health workers who treated the patient before they took full MERS precautions will be tested and will also stay home until the end of the 14 days.




A 44 year old health worker from the US apparently contracted MERS in Saudi Arabia and brought it here. CDC is looking into every contact he has made in the US for other cases. “It probably won't turn up any cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But it’s the best way to be sure the virus doesn’t spread quietly, and the agency has to do it.” The CDC said that there is no “documented case” of anyone contracting MERS from casual contact, such as sitting beside the patient on an airplane. Measles and flu are far more infectious than MERS, or apparently, SARS which this virus is compared to in the news article. One other health care worker who contracted MERS said that he did not remember coming into contact with a MERS patient, so the virus may be spread by contact with surfaces as the common cold is.

Due to the large number of people they have to canvass, they are “going to surge capacity” Dr. Marty Cetron of CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine says, pulling in people from other departments and even asking for volunteers. “The incubation period for MERS, we believe, is often around five days with an outer limit of 14 days. It is likely that if you already haven’t developed symptoms you probably aren’t going to.” Dr. Antonio Crespo an Orlando doctor said that he doesn't think this patient will have transmitted the disease since his symptoms were mild and he was not coughing when he entered the hospital there.

This article is interesting in that it shows the kind of dragnet involved in these cases. I must say, the CDC has been in a number of new articles I have read, and they are thorough in their attempts to protect the American public. As more and more bacteria are becoming immune to common antibiotics and more people are failing to be vaccinated due to their fears of vaccine side effects, we need a group like that to help prevent severe disease outbreaks here.





EU court rules Google must tweak search results in test of "right to be forgotten"
AP May 13, 2014

AMSTERDAM -- People should have some say over the results that pop up when they conduct a search of their own name online, Europe's highest court said Tuesday.

In a landmark decision, The Court of Justice of the European Union said Google must listen and sometimes comply when individuals ask the Internet search giant to remove links to newspaper articles or websites containing personal information.

Campaigners say the ruling effectively backs individual privacy rights over the freedom of information.

In an advisory judgment stemming from a lawsuit against Google that will impact on all search engines, including Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing, the court said a search on a person's name yields a results page that amounts to an individual profile, one that a person has some right to control over under European privacy laws. As such, the court said people should be able to ask to have links to private information removed. That's true even when a non-Google website is still hosting the information.

In the ruling, the court said people "may address such a request directly to the operator of the search engine ... which must then duly examine its merits." In addition, it said search engines must weigh "the legitimate interest of Internet users potentially interested in having access to that information" against the right to privacy and protection of personal data.

When an agreement can't be reached, the Luxembourg-based court said the matter can be referred to a local judge or regulator.

The decision came as a surprise since it went counter to the advice the court received from its own top lawyer last year. The European court became involved after a Spanish appeals court asked for its opinion in 200 pending cases. Initially billed as a test of the "right to be forgotten," the impact of Tuesday's wider ruling could be far and wide.

Alejandro Tourino, a Spanish lawyer who specializes in mass media issues, said the ruling was a first of its kind and "quite a blow for Google."

"This serves as a basis for all members of the European Union, it is (a) most important ruling and the first time European authorities have ruled on the 'right to be forgotten,'" said Tourino, who has worked for The Associated Press in several legal cases and is the author of "The Right to be Forgotten and Privacy on the Internet."

The "right to be forgotten" is based on the premise that outdated information about people should be removed from the Internet after a certain time. A law that would establish that right is still under debate in European Parliament.

Google spokesman Al Verney said Tuesday's ruling was "disappointing ... for search engines and online publishers in general." The company, he said, will "now need to take time to analyze the implications."

The referral to the European Court came after Spaniard Mario Costeja searched his name on Google and found links to a notice that his property was due to be auctioned because of an unpaid welfare debt. The notice had been published in a Spanish newspaper years before, and was tracked by Google's robots when the newspaper digitalized its archive.

Costeja argued that the debt had long since been settled, and he sued to have the reference removed. Though his case will now be sent back to Spanish courts for further review, the European decision strongly implies requests like Costeja's should be granted.
However it is not clear how it will impact other cases also in the Spanish docks, such as that of a plastic surgeon who wants mentions of a botched surgery removed.

Or cases in other countries for that matter.

Debates over the "right to be forgotten" have surfaced across the world as tech users struggle to reconcile the forgive-and-forget nature of human relations with the unforgiving permanence of the electronic record. But while such proposals have generally been well-received in Europe, many in the U.S. have critiqued the 'right' as a disguised form of censorship that could allow convicts to delete references to past crimes or politicians to airbrush their records.

That said, limited forms of the "right" exist in the United States and elsewhere - including in relation to crimes committed by minors or bankruptcy regulations, both of which usually require that records be expunged in some way.

"We need to take into account individuals' right to privacy but if search engines are forced to remove links to legitimate content that is already in the public domain but not the content itself, it could lead to online censorship," said Javier Ruiz, Policy Director at Open Rights Group.

"This case has major implications for all kind of internet intermediaries, not just search engines.

Google's Verney noted that the ruling differed "dramatically" from the advice of the court's own top adviser "and the warnings and consequences that he spelled out."

According to the lawyer, Niilo Jaaskinen, Google was merely offering links to information already available. Tuesday's ruling explicitly rejected that.

Google, which had argued that it should not be forced to play the role of censor, currently advises users to approach websites that have published information about them as a first step in having it cleared from the Internet: once a site removes the content, Google's result links to the material will disappear soon after.

The Mountain View, California-based company also offers a guide to users on how best to approach having personal information removed from the web.




The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled against Google. It said “people should be able to ask to have links to private information removed. That's true even when a non-Google website is still hosting the information.” This comes in connection with a law suit, and will affect Yahoo and Bing as well. In each new case to come, the person can petition the search engine and it must “duly examine” the merits of the case and “'weigh the legitimate interest of Internet users potentially interested in having access to that information' against the right to privacy and protection of personal data.” If the plaintiff's situation isn't rectified he may petition a local court or “regulator'” citing the “right to be forgotten.” It establishes a rule that outdated information must be removed after a certain period of time. Since this is an EU ruling,

At present it has no effect on Google, etc., in the US, and “while such proposals have generally been well-received in Europe, many in the U.S. have critiqued the 'right' as a disguised form of censorship that could allow convicts to delete references to past crimes or politicians to airbrush their records.” “Google, which had argued that it should not be forced to play the role of censor, currently advises users to approach websites that have published information about them as a first step in having it cleared from the Internet: once a site removes the content, Google's result links to the material will disappear soon after.”

There will be more about this in the news, I'm sure, as US cases emerge. The case that produced the court ruling was of a man who had paid an old debt, but the Internet still carried articles about him, presumably affecting his ability to conduct his life and business in the present. While the Internet is great for tracking down information, it can be merciless to some people. If I see other articles about this I will clip them.





Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's friends to be tried separately
CBS/AP May 13, 2014

BOSTON - A federal judge has ruled that three friends of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect will be tried separately.

But the judge also says it is unnecessary to move the trials out of Massachusetts.

The judge ruled Tuesday that Azamat Tazhayakov will stand trial on June 30, followed by Dias Kadyrbayev on Sept. 8, and Robel Phillipos on Sept. 29.

Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev are both from Kazakhstan and are in the U.S. on student visas.They face charges of tampering with evidence for removing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's laptop and a backpack of fireworks from his University of Massachusetts Dartmouth dorm room.

Phillipos is charged with lying to investigators.

They have pleaded not guilty.

The April 2013 marathon attack killed three and injured more than 260.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov, both 19, shared an apartment in New Bedford, and have been detained since they were charged in May. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison. Both face the possibility of being deported, the Justice Department said.

On April 18, the FBI posted pictures of Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, an alleged co-conspirator who died the next day during the manhunt. According to the indictment against them, Kadyrbayev later received a text message from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suggesting that he go to Tsarnaev's "room and take what's there."

The indictment alleges that Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov, and Phillipos went to Tsarnaev's dorm room and removed several items, including Tsarnaev's laptop computer and a backpack containing fireworks. The indictment says they brought the items to Kadyrbayev's and Tazhayakov's apartment and later put some of them in a trash dumpster.



Kazakhstan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic tribes. This changed in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan occupied the country. When his ruling family fought for power, power generally switched back to the nomads. By the 16th century, the Kazakhs emerged as a distinct group, divided into three jüz (ancestor branches occupying specific territories).

TheRussians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century all of Kazakhstan was part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganized several times before becoming the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936, a part of the Soviet Union.

Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991; the current President,Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been leader of the country since 1991. Nazarbayev maintains strict[citation needed] control over the country's politics. Since independence, Kazakhstan has pursued a balanced foreign policy and worked to develop its economy, especially its hydrocarbon industry.[8]

Kazakhstan is ethnically and culturally diverse, in part due[clarification needed]to mass deportations of many ethnic groups to the country during Joseph Stalin's rule. Kazakhstan has a population of 17.7 million, with 131 ethnicities, including Kazakh, Russian, Ukrainian, German, Uzbek, Tatar, and Uyghur. Around 63% of the population are Kazakhs.[9] Kazakhstan allows freedom of religion. Kazakhstan has been quite a religiously tolerant nation, but has lately come under international criticism for lack of religious freedom. Robert George, the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated in 2013: "the harsh application of highly restrictive laws that were adopted two years ago, have [sic] damaged Kazakhstan's international standing and resulted in many Kazakh citizens' religious freedoms being violated." 

Islam is the religion of about 70% and Christianity is practiced by 26% of the population.[11] The Kazakh language is the state language, while Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes.




Tsarnaev's friends in college, two of whom are from the same country and are in the US on student visas, are to be tried separately for complicity in the Boston Marathon bombing. Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos aided Tsarnaev by removing his laptop and a backpack of fireworks from his dorm room after receiving a text message from the bomber. Phillipos will be tried for lying to the investigators and aiding the other two. If convicted, they could get 20 years in prison and/or be deported.

Maybe US colleges should be more selective when choosing students from foreign countries, and the US on the issue of allowing them in on a long-term visa of any kind, especially if they are from Muslim countries. In this case, it is also a former member of the Soviet Union, so on those grounds many there may harbor hostility against the US. I haven't forgotten, however, that President Putin personally warned our government about the Tsarnaev brothers as being dangerous. For whatever reason, the CIA didn't keep track of them when they came to this country. We do owe Putin some credit for that.





Implantable device to control sleep apnea wins FDA approval
By JESSICA FIRGER CBS NEWS May 13, 2014

The concept of even a single night of restful and uninterrupted shuteye is the stuff of dreams for people with sleep apnea. The disorder is defined by the interruption of regular breathing or obstruction of the airway during sleep, often associated with loud gasping breaths or snoring. Doctors say it can lead to an array of serious health complications.

Now the Food and Drug Administration has taken a step to help the snoring and chronically weary get a better night's sleep. The FDA has just approved the Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation, a neurostimulator device that's similar to a pacemaker. Inspire, which is implanted in the chest, has a small generator, a sensing lead and a stimulator. A patient also receives a remote control to turn the therapy on before bedtime and off in the morning. When the device is activated it senses the person's breathing patterns.

"We actually stimulate one of the nerves that goes to the upper airway by an implantable device, and this helps hold the airway open during sleep," Dr. B. Tucker Woodson of the Medical College of Wisconsin, told CBS News' Danielle Nottingham.

In clinical trial of the device on 126 patients, 68 percent experienced less sleep apnea and 70 percent had a reduction in oxygen desaturation as well as improved function in the daytime, according to the paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine in January.

Inspire has been approved for individuals with moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea who are not able to use a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device, the external mask that's often recommended for patients with the disorder. Many patients find the CPAP uncomfortable and don't use it consistently.

The company says that while the Inspire device is internal it's actually less invasive than other possible treatments, such as surgery.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 18 million American adults have sleep apnea. The condition has a higher prevalence among men than women, and is most common with African American and Hispanic individuals.

Sleep apnea can increase a person's risk for a number of serious health conditions, such stroke, dementia, cardiac arrest and obesity.

Daniel McKee, who is enrolled in the Inspire study at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has struggled with sleep apnea for a number of years. "I complained to my doctor of daytime tiredness, I was just extremely exhausted throughout the day," he told CBS News. "I would wake up in the middle of the night, and couldn't tolerate it any longer."

McKee says the device has improved his quality of life - both in his dreams and when he's wide awake. "I sleep better at night, I wake up more refreshed. I don't snore anymore," he said.





The FDA has approved a new device which I'm sure is a real improvement over the scary face mask that is in common use now. My sister has to use the mask, and I don't think I could sleep with that on my nose and mouth. I have enough insomnia without having air blown into my face while I'm trying to relax. This device, called the Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation is a neurostimulator like the Pacemaker which is implanted in the chest and controlled by a remote control device. The patient turns it on at night and off in the morning. The implanted device stimulates a nerve that goes to the airway and holds it open.

A total of 126 patients were in the clinical trial, and “68 percent experienced less sleep apnea and 70 percent had a reduction in oxygen desaturation as well as improved function in the daytime,” Apparently people with sleep apnea also have problems in the daytime. According to the National Sleep Foundation, “more than 18 million American adults have sleep apnea. The condition has a higher prevalence among men than women, and is most common with African American and Hispanic individuals.” A few years ago I saw an article that said it is often caused by obesity. Not all snoring is caused by sleep apnea, however, according to another article on the Net. That is called “simple snoring.” I have noticed that if I sleep on my back I have a tendency to snore, but if I sleep on my stomach or either side I don't. That's my solution to the problem. However, it's really good to see this device on the market for those who need it.