Network Archives

‘No frills’ Indian hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

"What if hospitals were run like a mix of Wal-Mart and a low-cost airline? The result might be something like the chain of 'no-frills' Narayana Hrudayalaya clinics. Using pre-fabricated buildings, stripping out air-conditioning and even training visitors to help with post-operative care, the group believes it can cut the cost of heart surgery to an astonishing 800 dollars. Already famous for his 'heart factory' in Bangalore, which does the highest number of cardiac operations in the world, the latest 'Temple of the Heart' projects are ultra low-cost facilities. 'Our target is to build and equip a hospital for six million dollars and build it in six months.'" Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘No frills’ Indian hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

U.S. gives big, secret push to Internet surveillance

"Senior Obama administration officials have secretly authorized the interception of communications carried on portions of networks operated by AT&T and other Internet service providers, a practice that might otherwise be illegal under federal wiretapping laws. The secret legal authorization from the Justice Department originally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project in which the military monitored defense contractors' Internet links. Since then, however, the program has been expanded by President Obama to cover all critical infrastructure sectors including energy, healthcare, and finance starting June 12." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. gives big, secret push to Internet surveillance

Mark Sanford is Better Than 99% of Congress

I would vote for Mark Sanford over 90% of the Republicans currently in Congress. Not because he is necessarily a better man than them. But because I know that he would actually do the job he was elected to do. He already has the record to prove it. I vote for candidates who I believe, [...]

Continue ReadingMark Sanford is Better Than 99% of Congress

Andrew P. Napolitano: More Holes in the Fourth Amendment

"The Obama administration wants legislation enacted that will punish Internet service providers who fail to cooperate with FBI requests and court orders. The FBI has revealed that its agents often 'lack the time' to obtain search warrants, and so they have gotten into the bad habit of asking Internet service providers to let them in without warrants. The second category of punishment sought by the administration is for Internet service providers as to which the FBI has obtained a warrant. A search warrant does not require the custodian of those specific items to find them for the government. This proposed legislation would change all that." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAndrew P. Napolitano: More Holes in the Fourth Amendment

3D-Printed Handgun Prompts Congressman To Propose Impotent Legislation

"After Forbes's Andy Greenberg broke the news that Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed have successfully created a (apparently) working gun with a 3D printer, Rep. Steve Israel, who has been warning of doom, doom!, should this day come, quickly issued a press release calling for new laws to head off the menace of DIY weaponry. Israel's objection is, allegedly, that Wilson's 3D-printed gun is made of ABS plastic, and therefore invisible to metal detectors (Wilson built a hunk of metal into his gun to address this concern, but it could easily be left out)." Continue reading →

Continue Reading3D-Printed Handgun Prompts Congressman To Propose Impotent Legislation

Oregon Teachers Traumatized by Unannounced Shooter Drill

"Panic erupted on Friday at Pine Eagle Charter school in rural Oregon when two masked men carrying handguns burst into a teachers’ lounge and opened fire. After the initial chaos, the terrified teachers realized the guns were firing blanks and that they were the subject of an unannounced shooter drill. The little school in Halfway, Oregon was having an in-service day, so the children were at home at the time of the drill. The terrifying action has drawn criticism from many but Principal Cammie DeCastro has defended it, saying, 'For us not to know how we were going to respond is leaving us open'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOregon Teachers Traumatized by Unannounced Shooter Drill

Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil

"Based on our review of the approximately 2,400 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil contained within the START database, we determined that approximately 60 were carried out by Muslims. In other words, approximately 2.5% of all terrorist attacks on U.S. soil between 1970 and 2012 were carried out by Muslims.* This is a tiny proportion of all attacks. We determined that approximately 118 of the terror attacks – or 4.9% – were carried out by Jewish groups such as Jewish Armed Resistance, the Jewish Defense League, Jewish Action Movement, United Jewish Underground and Thunder of Zion. This is almost twice the percentage of Islamic attacks within the United States." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNon-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil

Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate

"It's been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth and President Barack Obama cited the cost this week as one of many reasons to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which burns through some $900,000 per prisoner annually. The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. By comparison, super-maximum security prisons in the United States spend about $60,000 to $70,000 at most to house their inmates, analysts say. And the average cost across all federal prisons is about $30,000, they say." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGuantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate

Wary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia

"Foreign companies are flocking to Cambodia for a simple reason. They want to limit their overwhelming reliance on factories in China. Problems are multiplying fast for foreign investors in China. Blue-collar wages have surged, quadrupling in the last decade as a factory construction boom has coincided with waning numbers of young people interested in factory jobs. Starting last year, the labor force has actually begun shrinking because of the “one child” policy and an aging population. Foreign investment in China slipped 3.5 percent last year, after rising every year since 1980 except 1999, during the Asian financial crisis, and 2009, during the global financial crisis." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia

Chinese Soldiers March Into Indian Territory, Pitch Tents, Declare Land For China

"An equally plausible explanation is that ambiguity and an unwillingness to retreat was the cause of all the fuss. Troops from both the Chinese and Indian militaries cross the unmarked border on a regular basis, sometimes unaware of having done so. 'This sort of situation happens easily because the two sides have different understandings of the Line of Actual Control,' said Zhang Li, a professor at Sichuan University. Indian politicians disagree, saying that Chinese troops deliberately crossed into Indian territory and have since refused to leave. The government has promised to defend Indian interests, while opposition parties accuse it of cowardice and inaction." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese Soldiers March Into Indian Territory, Pitch Tents, Declare Land For China