Former Reagan, Bush official killed, police say

Police in Delaware searched for clues Monday in the death of John Wheeler III, a veteran of Republican administrations who also helped led efforts to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington.

The body of Wheeler, 66, was discovered on New Year’s Eve as a garbage truck emptied its contents at the Cherry Island landfill. His death has been ruled a homicide.

Wheeler retired from the military in 1971 and lived in New Castle. The former Army officer reportedly was last seen Dec. 28, riding an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington.

Police have determined that all the stops made Friday by the garbage truck before it arrived at the landfill involved large commercial disposal bins in Newark, several miles from Wheeler’s home.

“He was just not the sort of person who would wind up in a landfill,” said Bayard Marin, an attorney who was representing Wheeler in a dispute over a couple’s plans to build a new home in the historic district of Old New Castle where Wheeler lived.

Wheeler, the son of a decorated Army officer, was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and a veteran of the Vietnam war. …

via Former Reagan, Bush official killed, police say – U.S. news – Crime & courts – msnbc.com.

The defense consultant, who worked in Washington, had a long career as a public in the past three Republic administrations.

Wheeler was last traced riding an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington on Tuesday, said Newark police Lt. Mark Farrall. His body was found on New Year’s Eve. (Posted by Doug Stanglin)

- usatoday

… Tracing the truck’s route, police determined Wheeler’s body had been left in a large trash bin in one of 10 locations on the east side of Newark, including the College Square shopping center. Newark police did not release the cause of death Sunday, and wouldn’t say whether they’re treating Wheeler’s home as the crime scene. …

- delawareonline

John Wheeler is a defense consultant. He served as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. from 2005-2008, when he became the Special Assistant to the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Logistics and Environment. His mission was to carry out tasks and monitor programs in support of goals as directed, and support the Air Force Secretariat with data gathering, team organization, liaison, analysis and/or options for action. Principal tasks included standing up Cyberspace Forces and placing Precision Strike technology and Real Time Streaming Video targeting links into the hands of groundfighters in combat. …

… Grasping the growing vulnerability of our weapon systems to Cyber intrusions, he worked tirelessly to drive the activation of Air Force Cyber Command. His visionary efforts were instrumental in the creation of the Cyber Research Center at the Air Force Institute of Technology …

… these clicks illustrate the main work undertaken by Mr. Wheeler since 2005 :
1. Precision Strike and Video Links for Groundfighters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiB3vrhPDNs
2. Establishing Cyber Warfighting Capability: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t849CYRd2Ak
3. Joint Warfighting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lxJSZQ93gI&feature=related

-  cryptogon

Coma and general anesthesia demonstrate important similarities

The brain under general anesthesia isn’t “asleep” as surgery patients are often told — it is placed into a state that is a reversible coma, according to three neuroscientists who have published an extensive review of general anesthesia, sleep and coma, in the Dec. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. This insight and others reported in their review article could eventually lead to new approaches to general anesthesia and improved diagnosis and treatment for sleep abnormalities and emergence from coma.

The researchers explain that a fully anesthetized brain is much closer to the deeply unconscious low-brain activity seen in coma patients, than to a person asleep. Essentially, general anesthesia is a coma that is drug-induced, and, as a consequence, reversible. The states operate on different time scales — general anesthesia in minutes to hours, and recovery from coma in hours to months to years, if ever. The study of emergence from general anesthesia and recovery from coma could help to better understand how both processes occur.

Understanding that these states have more in common with each other than differences — that they represent a continuum of activity with common circuit mechanisms being engaged across the different processes of awakening from sleep or emerging from coma or general anesthesia — “is very exciting, because it gives us new ways to understand each of these states,” says study co-author, Dr. Nicholas D. Schiff, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and a neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. …

via Coma and general anesthesia demonstrate important similarities.

Large-scale analysis identifies new genetic alterations associated with height

Elisabeth LyonsA large collaborative study has added to the growing list of genetic variants that determine how tall a person will be. The research, published by Cell Press on December 30 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, identifies uncommon and previously unknown variants associated with height and might provide insight into the genetic architecture of other complex traits.

Although environmental variables can impact attained adult height, it is clear that height is primarily determined by specific alleles that an individual inherits. Height is thought to be influenced by variants in a large number of genes, and each variant is thought to have only a small impact on height. However, the genetics of height are still not completely understood. “All of the variants needed to explain height have not yet been identified, and it is likely that the additional genetic variants are uncommon in the population or of very small effect, requiring extremely large samples to be confidently identified,” explains Dr. Hakon Hakonarson from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

To search for genetic variants associated with adult height, researchers performed a complex genetic analysis of more than 100,000 individuals. “We set out to replicate previous genetic associations with height and to find relevant genomic locations not previously thought to underpin this complex trait” explains Dr. Brendan Keating, also from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The authors report that they identified 64 height-associated variants, two of which would not have been observed without such a large sample size and the inclusion of direct genotyping of uncommon single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A SNP is a variation in just one nucleotide of a genetic sequence; think of it as a spelling change affecting just one letter in an uncommonly long word.

These results suggest that genotyping arrays with SNPs that are relatively rare and occur in less than 5% of the population have the ability to capture new signals and disease variants that the common SNP arrays missed (i.e., 30 new signals in this study), as long as sample sizes are large enough. These low-frequency variants also confer greater effect sizes and, when associated with a disease, could be a lot closer to causative than more common variants. “The increased power to identify variants of small effect afforded by large sample size and dense genetic coverage including low-frequency SNPs within loci of interest has resulted in the identification of association between previously unreported genetic variants and height,” concludes Dr. Keating.

via Large-scale analysis identifies new genetic alterations associated with height.

Hair color of unknown offenders is no longer a secret

The hair color of an unknown perpetrator who has committed a crime will soon no longer be a secret for forensic investigators. Erasmus MC scientists, in collaboration with their Polish colleagues, have discovered that DNA can be used to predict people’s probable hair color. Their findings¹ will be published today in the Springer journal Human Genetics.

The research findings demonstrate that on the basis of DNA information it is possible to determine with an accuracy of more than 90 percent whether a person has red hair, with a similarly high accuracy whether a person has black hair, and with an accuracy of more than 80 percent whether a person’s hair color is blond or brown. This new DNA approach even allows differentiating hair colors that are similar, for example, between red and reddish blond, or between blond and dark blond hair. The necessary DNA can be taken from blood, sperm, saliva or other biological materials relevant in forensic case work.

Prof. Manfred Kayser, Chair of the Department of Forensic Molecular Biology at Erasmus MC, who led the study, said, “That we are now making it possible to predict different hair colors from DNA represents a major breakthrough because, so far, only red hair color, which is rare, could be estimated from DNA. For our research we made use of the DNA and hair color information of hundreds of Europeans and investigated genes previously known to influence the differences in hair color. We identified 13 ‘DNA markers’ from 11 genes that are informative to predict a person’s hair color.”

Prof. Ate Kloosterman of the Department of Human Biological Traces at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) said: “This research lays the scientific basis for the development of a DNA test for hair color prediction. A validated DNA test system for hair color shall become available for forensic research in the not too distant future. These researchers have previously published articles on predicting eye color and estimating age on the basis of DNA material.

via Springer Select.

Dutch scientists have come up with a DNA test that can determine a person’s natural hair color, using no more than a drop of blood or saliva. They say their method can predict hair color with up to 90 percent accuracy, helping forensic investigators identify an unknown person’s characteristics.

Apparently these guys are unfamiliar with hair dye. …

via Pop Sci

Coded American Civil War message in bottle deciphered

A message in a bottle delivered to a Confederate general during the American Civil War has been deciphered, 147 years after it was written.

In the encrypted message, a commander tells Gen John Pemberton that no reinforcements are available to help him defend Vicksburg, Mississippi.

“You can expect no help from this side of the river,” says the message, which was deciphered by codebreakers.

The text is dated 4 July 1863 – the day Vicksburg fell to Union forces.

The small bottle was given to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, by a former Confederate soldier in 1896.

Earlier this year the museum’s collections manager, Catherine Wright, decided to investigate the wrapped note it contained.

It was “just sort of a curiosity thing”, she told the Associated Press news agency.

When Ms Wright found that the message was coded, she asked retired CIA codebreaker David Gaddy to crack it – which he did in several weeks. A Navy cryptologist later confirmed the interpretation.

Historians regard the fall of Vicksburg as an important victory for Union forces. The Confederates were finally defeated in 1865.

via BBC News – Coded American Civil War message in bottle deciphered.

Shuttle Discovery’s Crack Woes Deepen

Discovery’s woes deepened this week with NASA engineers finding even more cracks in the orbiter’s external tank. The first crack was noted shortly after a leak was discovered on the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP) Nov. 5. After the first crack was found, technicians found a second and then a third. NASA found the crack on support beams dubbed ‘stringers’ around the intertank region of the tank. They applied what is known in the business as a doubler, a section of metal that is twice as thick as the original – this is done to strengthen the affected area.

On Dec. 17, a tanking test was conducted on the tank. Some 89 instruments were attached to the outside to monitor the tank as it was filled with super-cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen. The external tank can shrink by as much as an inch when these extremely cold liquids enter the tank. As one might imagine, this creates great stress on the tank, as such mission managers had the orbiter rolled back into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for X-Ray scans and other tests.

These tests are considered to be ‘non-destructive’ but NASA is not able to conduct them out at launch complex 39A. Testing started as soon as the full stack consisting of the orbiter, ET and twin solid rocket boosters were in the VAB.

However, once these scans were completed – NASA had more problems, more cracks were found. Four cracks were found hiding beneath the foam on the side of the ET that faces away from Discovery. Mission managers will now weigh whether-or-not they will go ahead with repairing the damaged section of the ET. They are scheduled to make a final determination on Monday, Jan. 3. If they elect to do so, the repairs will be conducted inside of the VAB and not out at the pad.

STS-133 is a resupply flight to the International Space Station (ISS). When it does launch, it will carry the modified Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) to the orbiting outpost. Contained within that is the first human-like robot to fly into space – Robonaut-2 (R2). Currently, Discovery is scheduled to launch no-earlier-than Feb. 3 at 1:37 EDT. This mission will mark the 39th time that Discovery has taken to the Florida skies and will be the final scheduled mission in the orbiter’s career. …

via Shuttle Discovery’s Crack Woes Deepen.

More than 1,000 blackbirds fall out of Arkansas sky

Officials are investigating why more than 1,000 birds – most of them dead – fell out of the sky in the US state of Arkansas on New Year’s Eve.

The Arkansas Fish and Game Commission (AFGC) said it began receiving reports of the falling birds at about 2330.

By midnight, more than 1,000 red-winged blackbirds had fallen in one area of the city of Beebe.

The birds could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail, said AFGC ornithologist Karen Rowe.

About 65 dead birds have been sent off for scientific analysis to determine the cause of death.

It does not appear as though the birds were poisoned, Ms Rowe said.

“Since it only involved a flock of blackbirds and only involved them falling out of the sky, it is unlikely they were poisoned, but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin,” she said.

Tornadoes swept through Arkansas and neighbouring states on 31 December, killing seven people.

However, the AFGC did not say whether the blackbird deaths could also be attributed to the storms. …

via BBC News – More than 1,000 blackbirds fall out of Arkansas sky.

Autopsies will begin Monday in laboratories in Arkansas, Georgia and Wisconsin, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which is heading up the investigation.

It may take a week for results to come in.

For now, investigators are scratching their heads at the strange phenomenon. Between 11:30 p.m. and midnight on New Year’s Eve, about 1,000 birds fell from the sky in Beebe, Ark.

Karen Rowe, an ornithologist with the AGFC, suggested lightning, high-altitude hail or celebratory fireworks may have played a role.

Horace Taylor, an animal control officer in Beebe, told CTV’s Canada AM he believes the birds were scared into flight by fireworks. Because they have limited night vision, the birds then simply started to fly into objects and each other.

“We’re pretty sure it’s fireworks that caused it,” Taylor said.

“The birds were frightened, they started flying and flying into one another, running into trees, houses, cars and everything they could hit, and it killed them, that’s what I think happened.”

The dead birds — which have all been collected — fell in an area about 1.5 kilometres long by 800 metres wide…

- ctv.ca

Wikipedia meets $16M fundraising goal … the hard way

Paul McNamara- Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced over the weekend that his organization has reached its $16 million annual fundraising goal.

The good news, according to Wales, is that the donations will enable Wikipedia to remain free of advertising. …

More than 500,000 donations averaging $22 apiece were made to the Wikimedia Foundation, while local Wikipedia chapters generated another 130,000 gifts worldwide. Impressive by any measure, but a shaky foundation on which to place what has become a priceless Internet showcase (and, yes, I’m well aware of Wikipedia’s shortcomings; they’re minor compared to its overall value). …

In an earlier post pleading for donations Wales wrote:

Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn’t belong here. Not

Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn’t belong here. Not in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. …

via Buzzblog: Wikipedia meets $16M fundraising goal … the hard way | Network World.

One Tip Enough To Put Name On Terrorist Watch List

“As a result of the US Government’s complete failure to investigate credible warnings about ‘Underwear Bomber’ Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from none other than Abdulmutallab’s father, senior American counterterrorism officials say they have altered their criteria so that a single-source tip can lead to a name being placed on the watch list. Civil liberties groups warn that it is now even more likely that individuals who pose no threat will be swept up in America’s security apparatus, leading to potential violations of their privacy and making it difficult for them to travel. ‘They are secret lists with no way for people to petition to get off or even to know if they’re on,’ said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.”

via One Tip Enough To Put Name On Terrorist Watch List – Slashdot.

A year after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials say they have made it easier to add individuals’ names to a terrorist watch list and improved the government’s ability to thwart an attack in the United States.

The failure to put Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on the watch list last year renewed concerns that the government’s system to screen out potential terrorists was flawed. Even though Abdulmutallab’s father had told U.S. officials of his son’s radicalization in Yemen, government rules dictated that a single-source tip was insufficient to include a person’s name on the watch list.

Since then, senior counterterrorism officials say they have altered their criteria so that a single-source tip, as long as it is deemed credible, can lead to a name being placed on the watch list.

The government’s master watch list is one of roughly a dozen lists, or databases, used by counterterrorism officials. Officials have periodically adjusted the criteria used to maintain it.

But civil liberties groups argue that the government’s new criteria, which went into effect over the summer, have made it even more likely that individuals who pose no threat will be swept up in the nation’s security apparatus, leading to potential violations of their privacy and making it difficult for them to travel.

“They are secret lists with no way for people to petition to get off or even to know if they’re on,” said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Officials insist they have been vigilant about keeping law-abiding people off the master list. The new criteria have led to only modest growth in the list, which stands at 440,000 people, about 5 percent larger than last year. The vast majority are non-U.S. citizens.

- wash post