Daily Archives: October 24, 2016
Solved: Missing Head of Baby Jesus Is Back
(Newser) – The caper of the missing baby Jesus head has been solved. A woman who snatched the head from the statue in a churchyard in Canada returned it after the story became international news, the CBC reports. That happened after a local artist sculpted a new noggin in red terra cotta with lizard-like eyes and spiky hair a la Maggie Simpson—and drew global scorn for her trouble. The head of baby Jesus, cradled in the arms of a sedate Virgin Mary, has been a frequent target of vandals at the Sainte-Anne-des-Pins Catholic church in Sudbury, Ontario. After the latest theft, the pastor said he would forgo ordering a replacement that could cost as much as $10,000.
continue http://www.newser.com/story/232985/solved-missing-head-of-baby-jesus-is-back.html
Ex-attorney general sentenced to jail, then cuffed in court
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Former Attorney General Kathleen Kane was sentenced Monday to 10 to 23 months in jail for illegally disclosing details from a grand jury investigation to embarrass a rival and lying about it under oath.
Kane was also sentenced to eight years of probation by a Montgomery County judge who said Kane’s ego drove her to take down enemies and break the law.
Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said Kane assumed an “off with your heads” mentality as she ran the state’s top law enforcement agency. The judge called Kane a political “neophyte” who failed to make the transition from campaigner to public servant after she took office.
“This case is about ego — the ego of a politician consumed with her image from Day One,” Demchick-Alloy said. “This case is about retaliation and revenge against perceived enemies who this defendant … felt had embarrassed her in the press.”
Kane, the first woman and first Democrat elected as the state’s top prosecutor, was handcuffed in court and led out a side door. She will remain in custody until she posts $75,000 cash bail, higher than she had previously posted.
After she posts bond, she will remain free while she appeals her conviction.
She had been a stay-at-home mother, and former assistant county prosecutor, before using her husband’s trucking fortune to run for statewide office in 2012. She quickly became a rising star in the state Democratic Party before her office devolved into turmoil as career prosecutors came and went.
continue http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Former-Pennsylvania-attorney-general-seeks-to-10155076.php
Technology Scientists Create Quantum Camera For Capturing Ghosts
Now, a process Einstein famously referred to as “spooky” is allowing scientists to catch “ghosts” on film for the first time thanks to the use of quantum cameras. But let’s be clear: These figures aren’t wandering souls or lingering ancestors. Rather, they are the images of objects from photons that never even experienced the objects pictured.
A normal digital camera is capable of capturing objects that aren’t immediately visible to its lens. But the ghost imaging technique, which shoots an image of an object from light without light ever bouncing off the object, is the result of quantum entanglement.
Quantum entanglement refers to the quantum states of two or more objects having an instantaneous link regardless of how far separated they are.
“For example, it is possible to prepare two particles in a single quantum state such that when one is observed to be spin-up, the other one will always be observed to be spin-down and vice versa, this despite the fact that it is impossible to predict, according to quantum mechanics, which set of measurements will be observed,” notes Science Daily.
In other words, measurements executed on the same system seem to be directly influencing other systems entangled with it. The problem is, no one seems to know exactly how it works.
continue http://www.topinfopost.com/2016/10/24/scientists-create-quantum-camera-for-capturing-ghosts
US Slaps On The Wardriver-busting Paint
Security-minded US decorators’ supply outfit Force Field Wireless claims to have developed a DIY solution to the international menace of marauding geek wardrivers – DefendAir paint “laced with copper and aluminum fibers that form an electromagnetic shield, blocking most radio waves and protecting wireless networks”.
According to a South Florida Sun Sentinel report, one coat of the water-based paint “shields Wi-Fi, WiMax and Bluetooth networks operating at frequencies from 100 megahertz to 2.4 gigahertz”, while two or three applications are “good for networks operating at up to five gigahertz”.
Simple as that. Of course, there are a few downsides to this miracle product. First up, you must be careful how you slap it on. Force Field Wireless rep Harold Wray admits that “radio waves find leaks”, while the company asks users to be aware that the product “must be applied selectively” otherwise it “might hinder the performance of radios, televisions and cell phones”.
Reg readers can make of this apparent contradiction what they will, and are asked to direct any technically-based sceptisicm to Force Field Wireless, and not to Vulture Central. Thankyou.
Another snagette is that DefendAir is available only in grey – a fact sufficient to provoke what is known in the UK as “interior designers’ wobbly”. Mercifully, it can be used as a primer, so those who require wireless peace of mind plus bold fashion statement can rest assured that coat of “Wardriver Crimson” will cover it up quite nicely.
It only remains for us to say that DefendAir costs a cool $69 per gallon (US gallon, presumably). Still, that’s a small price to pay for the absolute certainty that High School students are not right now sitting across the street recording your credit card details for later deployment in the online purchase of pornography, drugs and semi-automatic weapons.
absenteereality 