Showing posts with label Expert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expert. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Apparently Now a Tax Expert, ESPN"s Kenny Mayne Helps Mustache-Clad Hipsters with IRS Challenges

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Apparently Now a Tax Expert, ESPN"s Kenny Mayne Helps Mustache-Clad Hipsters with IRS Challenges

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

School Shooting Expert Threatened Over Sandy Hook Investigation


Was told if he didn’t comply “bad things are going to happen”


Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
February 18, 2014


The Sandy Hook school shooting was a giant, elaborate hoax and no one really died; that’s the conclusion Wolgang Halbig, a former educator, US Customs agent and Florida state trooper, has reached after ten months of investigation and multiple disputes with federal, state and school authorities.


Halbig is convinced a deluge of discrepancies prove that the whole scenario was a scripted event.


“..I suspect, in my professional opinion as a consultant and doing this a long, long time, I think it’s a scripted event that took place. I think it was in planning for maybe two, two and a half years,” Halbig said recently in an explosive interview with American Free Press.


Halbig is not your average conspiracy theorist. In fact he’s not one at all.


He’s a former educator and law enforcement officer who now contracts out as a national school safety consultant.


His job is to help schools prevent incidents like the one that unfolded in Newtown. In order to do that, he needs to know exactly what happened at Sandy Hook.


“How do I tell people how to make their school safer when we don’t even have the truth about Sandy Hook?” asked a frustrated Halbig. “See, there is a nexus, I do this for a living.”


But school, state and federal officials aren’t making his job easy, and the state’s even threatened him for meddling in their affairs.


“They were in plain clothes,” Halbig recalled, describing a visit from Lake County homicide investigators. “They introduced themselves, they showed me their identification, their badges, and they basically said, ‘We need to have a conversation,’ and I said, ‘Well come on in, sit down, make yourselves comfortable,’ and then they read off my resumé. I mean, somehow, they did a lot of homework.. Basically the next thing they said was if I don’t stop, the Connecticut state police were gonna file charges and they recommended that I hire an attorney.”


The retired school principal, however, affirmed he’s in the right. “I said there is no way in the world that I’m gonna hire an attorney, because I’m following the procedures of the Connecticut state Freedom of Information Act. I mean, if anybody ought to be arrested, I said you tell those guys they ought to be arrested for failing to comply by the law of Connecticut.”


He says they also treated him in a threatening manner, stating “if I don’t comply that bad things are going to happen to me.”


Nevertheless, Halbig says, like any homicide investigation, Sandy Hook is a giant puzzle, but one which the public hasn’t been provided all the pieces to solve.


“..[T]his crime that was committed is a puzzle and no one can show me the pieces to put together to finish this puzzle. They don’t fit no matter how hard you try.. you and your listeners will not be able to put this puzzle together,” Halbig attested to host Dave Gahary.


Unanswered Questions


National school safety consultant Wolgang Halbig.

National school safety consultant Wolgang Halbig.



For Halbig, there are unanswered questions, lots of them.

For instance, why in the immediate aftermath of the shooting were no medical helicopters summoned?


“Think about it: you have 20 children, 6 staff members who were supposed to have been shot. They’re seriously injured. Where’s the trauma helicopters? Those are the quickest and the best medical services that any child or any school staff member can receive, and no trauma helicopters were ever requested?”


Halbig also called Life Star emergency services, who confirmed they were never summoned that morning. “[T]hey said, ‘Mr. Halbig we were never requested on that morning. We were shocked and surprised, we were ready, we thought we were going to go to Sandy Hook.’ They had helicopters ready to go, but they were never asked.. Here’s my premise.. there wasn’t anybody there to be treated.”


Halbig also questions why EMT and firefighters, who were mere minutes away from the scene, were prevented from entering the school and possibly saving lives, and additionally, he wants to know how, within the first 11 minutes, America was already presented with a death toll.


“Who declared all those 26 people dead within the first 11 minutes? Connecticut law states that only a doctor can declare them dead, legally dead.”


Moreover, Halbig says the FBI’s classification of the school shooting report is something he’s never witnessed in his entire career. “I can tell you [out of] all the shootings, never has an FBI agency ever classified an investigative report on a school shooting.”


More Unanswered Questions


There are also a whole host of peculiarities Halbig is still baffled by.


For example, why was Sandy Hook elementary torn down? Even in the Columbine tragedy, whose crime scene Halbig assisted with and in which he testified as a key witness, the school was cleaned up, but was never torn down.


According to Halbig, no one could tell him which environmental company cleaned up the bloody mess, or who installed the school’s security system, all things his job would require him to know.


He has other pressing questions, such as: Why was there a registered nurse found in the building four hours after the shooting? Why was there a sign flashing “Everyone must sign in?” Why were there port-a-potties on site within three hours? Why were children turned around by officers and sent back into rooms supposedly littered with dead bodies? How did someone with Asperger’s have the physical coordination to carry the large amount of munitions Adam Lanza supposedly carried? Why did no parents file a lawsuit against the school, when in every other school shooting suits have been filed? And ultimately, why would the state threaten Halbig?


“The things [we"re] talking about.. they should never offend any parent…These are simple questions that we as homicide investigators, we need to know and we should know.”


Sandy Hook elementary / Image: Wikimedia Commons

Sandy Hook elementary / Image: Wikimedia Commons



Truth Seeking Won’t Stop


Altogether, from the puzzle pieces he’s collected and analyzed, Halbig concludes there is a massive cover up.


“Absolutely… It is.. when you refuse to respond to simple requests, something is not right.”


The next step legally, Halbig says, would be to hire attorneys and depose the key players of the investigation, because, “The only way you’re ever gonna get the truth is by getting them to raise their right hands..” “..[I]f you lie in a deposition and if you’re caught in that lie, there’s a lot of things that you can lose, you can go to jail and you can lose your retirement..” warns the safety consultant.


When asked if he feels his life could be in danger if the cover-up goes all the way up to the White House, Halbig answered he is not fearful because he’s led a rich life, but that for him, people showing up and knocking on his door was the final straw.


“Here’s the problem and this is what got me fired up even more, is when they start bringing people to my house.”


Halbig says next he’s traveling to Newtown, Conn. and scoping out the crime scene, and that he’s possibly planning a Sandy Hook event in Orlando, Florida sometime in the near future.


He says he won’t stop until he gets some answers.


Below, check out Infowars’ report on why so many people think the Sandy Hook school shooting was a staged event.


This article was posted: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 1:32 pm










Infowars



School Shooting Expert Threatened Over Sandy Hook Investigation

Friday, February 14, 2014

CBS Featured ‘futurist’ as Climate Expert Blaming Record Cold on ‘global warming’


Physicist promotes paranormal phenomena of ‘Telepathy, Telekinesis, & Mind reading’


Marc Morano
Climate Depot
February 14, 2014


Physicist Michio Kaku

Physicist Michio Kaku / Image: Wikimedia Commons



CBS This Morning featured a futurist who promotes paranormal phenomena like ‘telepathy, telekinesis and mind reading’ as climate expert during its February 13 broadcast. CBS only identified physicist Michio Kaku (mkaku@aol.com) as a New York City College professor, with no mention of his special abilities. See: CBS Blames Global Warming for Harsh Winter Weather: Prof. Michio Kaku: ‘Excess heat generated by all this warm water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air….So that’s the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions

Kaku’s website (http://mkaku.org/home/) promotes his book: “THE FUTURE OF THE MIND: The scientific quest to understand, enhance, and empower the mind.” And his quest to promote: “Telepathy. Telekinesis. Mind reading. Photographing a dream. Uploading memories. Mentally controlled robots.”



Kaku claims all of “these feats” have already been acheieved. “These feats, once considered science fiction, have now been achieved in the laboratory, as documented in THE FUTURE OF THE MIND,” Kaku’s website declares.


Kaku notes that his “book goes even further, analyzing when one day we might have a complete map of the brain, or a back up Brain 2.0, which may allow scientists to send consciousness throughout the universe.”


Kaku’s global warming comments were not well received by the scientific community:


‘No effing clue what he is talking about’: Meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue Calls Warmist Physics Prof. Michio Kaku of NY City College ‘a festering wound on field of meteorology’ for Kaku’s blaming ‘excess heat’ on record cold and snow


Meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue of Weather Bell tweeted on Kaku: He’s ‘like a festering wound on field of meteorology, Michio Kaku says ‘we think’ harsh winter is due to global warming,” Maue wrote.


“Kaku has no effing clue what he is talking about – ‘unstable jet stream’ — huh? How could someone supposedly so learned sound so doltish?,” Maue asked on Feburary 13, 2014.


“Must apologize to Bill Nye — he is now number 2 most egregious butcher of meteorology and climate science. New rankings come out weekly,” Maue quipped.


Houston Chronicle climate reporter Eric Berger joined in the Kaku bashing, noting Kaku is “a physicist (and not a well-regarded one among his peers) not an atmospheric scientist.”


Related Link:


CBS BLAMES GLOBAL WARMING FOR BAD WINTER -  Guest Michio Kaku, a physics professor from New York City College–not a climatologist, but a physicist–claimed that the “wacky weather” could get “even wackier” and its all because of global warming. “What we’re seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming unstable. Instability of historic proportions. We think it’s because of the gradual heating up of the North Pole. The North Pole is melting,” professor Kaku said. “That excess heat generated by all this warm water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air… So that’s the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions,” the prof explained.


This article was posted: Friday, February 14, 2014 at 12:14 pm










Infowars



CBS Featured ‘futurist’ as Climate Expert Blaming Record Cold on ‘global warming’

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Al-Qaeda calls to its Syrian affiliate to fight Assad only remained unanswered - expert


Hello, Sir. Thank you for joining us. First of all, why al-Qaeda decide to publicly announce the break just to feel exposed or is there any other reason behind this statement for the Western press? What is your impression?


Well, animosity has been growing between the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS and other rebel groups, and that has fueled deadly infighting. That has also harmed the movement against President Assad, the infighting has trapped their ability to launch an effective campaign against the Syrian regime. Now al-Qaeda Central lead by Ayman al-Zawahiri has spoken in the past of the fact that the al-Qaeda affiliate needs to focus its aims more against the Assad regime rather than fight other Syrian rebel groups. And the fact is that those calls have fallen unanswered which is party why now Al-Qaeda Central is taken this move against its affiliate.


Now, in related issue, many say al-Qaeda is gradually loosing its control over the territory mid arising in fighting in Syria? Is that really so?


The main area of concern internationally has been that the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria have been very actively engaging in recruiting British, German and French nationals to fight for their cause. And that has been of major concern for Western governments because of the potential blowback where their citizens could become radicalized ideologically as well as be equipped militarily. And with those skills they would return home, to their countries of origin, and in a position to plot and plan deadly mass casualty attacks, very similar to what we saw in the aftermath of 9/11 right up till 2006, where British nationals were trained in Pakistan by al-Qaeda and then come home to plan major mass casualty plot. Al-Qaeda’s ability to recruit in Syria has not diminished or shown any sign of weakening, it actually has been quite consistently active and that itself is another concern.


Now, Sir, let’s talk a little bit about ISIL. Initially, ISIL was the al-Qaeda branch in Iraq. Then why did it expand its operations into Syria. What is it fighting there for? What are their interests in Syria?


Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been a group that grew in the aftermath of the US led operations in Iraq from 2003, led by individuals like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi although he was killed, the group itself still conducted a number of attacks against the US soldiers as well as carrying the attacks against Iraqis but most importantly developing sectarian conflict inside Iraq itself. It was inevitable once the battle against the Assad regime began, that those elements in Iraq would align themselves with individuals of a similar ideological lining in Syria. Iraq and Syria are very closely intertwined in many ways. At one point both countries had Ba’ath Party president. There is often been people transferring from either country for jobs or economic reasons. Historically, the connections between Syria and Iraq are very strong. So it was inevitable that even that terrorists and extremists would use e connections to align themselves. It illustrates the fact that the al-Qaeda franchise continue to expand and to proliferate and the group itself is very much following the same ideological pattern as other al-Qaeda factions, which is to create an Islamic state based on Sharia law opposed to manmade laws, opposed to any type of form of democracy, a very stringent rigid doctrine.


The views expressed here are solely those of the interviewee and may not represent the views of the Voice of Russia editorial team




The Voice of Russia, News



Al-Qaeda calls to its Syrian affiliate to fight Assad only remained unanswered - expert

Monday, January 20, 2014

Hacking expert David Kennedy says he cracked HealthCare.gov in 4 minutes


Jessica Chasmer
The Washington Times
January 20, 2014


hackhealthThe man who appeared before Congress last week to explain the security pitfalls of HealthCare.gov took to Fox News on Sunday to explain just how easy it was to penetrate the website.


Hacking expert David Kennedy told Fox’s Chris Wallace that gaining access to 70,000 personal records of Obamacare enrollees via HealthCare.gov took about 4 minutes and required nothing more than a standard browser, the Daily Caller reported.


“And 70,000 was just one of the numbers that I was able to go up to and I stopped after that,” he said. “You know, I’m sure it’s hundreds of thousands, if not more, and it was done within about a 4 minute timeframe. So, it’s just wide open.”


“You can literally just open up your browser, go to this, and extract all this information without actually having to hack the website itself,” he said.


Read more


This article was posted: Monday, January 20, 2014 at 1:25 pm










Infowars



Hacking expert David Kennedy says he cracked HealthCare.gov in 4 minutes

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Expert: Big Fault-Line Earthquake Would Nearly Destroy LA

Southern California, particularly Los Angeles, is not ready for the major impact of a high-magnitude earthquake shifting the San Andreas fault, a leading earthquake expert warns.

“Loss of shelter, loss of schools, loss of jobs and emotional hardship,” Dr Lucy Jones, a science adviser for risk reduction for the U.S. Geology Service, said this week. “We are risking the ends of our cities.”


Jones’ remarks came during a lecture to the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, during which her lecture, “Imagine America Without Los Angeles,” painted a horrifying picture of the state’s future, reports CBS affiliate KCAL9. h


Jones, pointing to a USGS study called said a major earthquake does far more damage than just collapsing buildings and freeways like earthquakes in the past.


Modern life and conveniences are creating new vulnerabilities for California’s population that could be devastating if the “big one” hits, Jones explained.


Los Angeles’ supermarkets don’t even warehouse their own food, said Jones, as the Internet and quick shipping allows them to store supplies on the other side of the San Andreas Fault.


Fiber optics would also be disconnected if there is a large earthquake, said Jones, meaning Los Angeles would be completely cut off from the rest of the world.


“Two-thirds of the connectivity from Los Angeles to the rest of the world go through fiber-optic cables crossing the San Andreas fault,” Jones said. “So we expect at the time of the earthquake when the fault moves, we will break these fiber-optic cables and two-thirds of the data capacity between L.A. and everyone else will disappear.”


Natural gas and water would also be in short supply, said Jones. Natural gas pipelines cross the fault, and L.A.’s aging water lines, which already break frequently, likely would not stand up to a major earthquake, she said.


Water lines could take at least six months to be replaced, the USGS report says. “The ShakeOut Scenario” from the USGS estimates it could take six months for the broken water pipes to be replaced across Southern California after the earthquake.


Damage to the area’s high-tech capabilities could also hinder recovery efforts in Southern California, Jones said.


“The World Wide Web wasn’t in existence at the time of the Northridge earthquake,” she said, speaking of the region’s last major quake, which hit back in 1994. “Right now, think of how much both your personal life, but also our economic system, depends on having cellphone communications and Internet connectivity.”


The Northridge quake affected about a half-million people, Jones said, but a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault would hit about 10 million Californians.


Related Stories:


© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.




Newsmax – America



Expert: Big Fault-Line Earthquake Would Nearly Destroy LA

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Expert: “There may be an accident of criticality” during fuel removal at Fukushima Unit 4 — TV: Rods could crumble, frightening that Tepco is in charge of potential catastrophe (VIDEOS)





Published: November 9th, 2013 at 12:10 pm ET
By ENENews
Email Article Email Article
3 comments



AFP, Nov. 7, 2013: Experts warn that any slip-ups could quickly cause the situation to deteriorate. Even minor mishaps will create considerable delays to the already long and complicated decommissioning. If the rods are exposed to the air they would release radiation and could heat up, a process that if left unchecked could lead to a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. TEPCO says that is unlikely, but sceptics say that with so many unknowns in the novel operation, there is potential for a catastrophe. [...] “Any trouble in this operation will considerably affect the timetable for the entire project,” he said. “This is an operation TEPCO cannot afford to bungle.” Hiroaki Koide, assistant professor at Kyoto University Reactor Research Institute in Kyoto, said success was far from guaranteed. “It is not easy work,” he said. The comments reflect an increasingly widespread view that the giant utility is not capable of dealing with the mess its nuclear plant has created.


The Real News, Nov. 8, 2013 — Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Ph.D. in engineering (specialization: nuclear fusion) from the University of California at Berkeley (at 2:30 in): The spent fuel may be difficult to dislodge because it’s no longer in its proper original position. The fuel rods may break, and the fuel may wind up at the bottom of the reactor in the spent fuel pool. There may be an accident of criticality. I haven’t examined their plans in detail, but I do think it is very essential to remove this spent fuel, because in my judgment, the bigger danger is leaving it there and waiting for the earthquake to happen.


Watch the extended interview with Arjun Makhijani here

RT, Nov.7, 2013 — Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear: The fuel itself could be bent, it could be damaged, it could be corroded. They used salt water at one point to cool the nuclear waste in this pool, which could have corroded the assemblies. They could break apart; they could crumble when they go to try to remove them. Even the director of the nuclear regulation authority of Japan has warned that this process should not be rushed; they should not try to force these assemblies out of their storage channels. But they have to get them out before a bigger earthquake takes the building down, the cooling water would drain away, and the waste with them will catch on fire. There is no radiological containment around the pool and if this waste would catch fire it could be 10 times worse than Chernobyl. That’s how much radioactivity is stored in that pool. Just in terms of the radioactive cesium content. [...]  It’s absurd that Tokyo Electric is in charge of this globally significant extracting of the fuel from the pool. If something goes wrong, this could be a global catastrophe that dwarfs what has happened on Fukushima Daiichi thus far. Tokyo Electric has shown its true colors time and time again, its incompetence and its dishonesty, so it’s very frightening that Tokyo Electric is in charge of this.


Watch the interview with Kevin Kamps here





Published: November 9th, 2013 at 12:10 pm ET
By ENENews
Email Article Email Article
3 comments




WHAT REALLY HAPPENED



Expert: “There may be an accident of criticality” during fuel removal at Fukushima Unit 4 — TV: Rods could crumble, frightening that Tepco is in charge of potential catastrophe (VIDEOS)

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Chemical Weapon Expert Opinion on the UN Report on Syria


chemical_weapon1


While investigating the UN Report on chemical weapons (CW) use in Ghouta, Syria, we sought a multitude of opinions from experts and others who offered insightful observations. We published our findings in an article entitled: Questions Plague UN Report on Syria.


To learn more about Sarin and other nerve gases used in warfare, you would be hard pressed to find any better hands-on experience than in Iran, a country that suffered directly – and repeatedly – from Iraq’s use of CWs during the 1980-88 war between the two countries.


In Iran itself, there are few as qualified to speak about Sarin and other nerve gases as Dr. Abbas Foroutan, whose 2004 articles were reviewed in Neurology by Col. Jonathan Newmark of the Chemical Casualty Care Division, US Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense.


The reviewer refers to Dr. Foroutan’s work as “the only firsthand clinical descriptions of battlefield nerve agent casualties in the world literature” and is viewed as a valuable contribution to the US and NATO understanding of the treatment of casualties in chemical warfare:


“Foroutan’s lessons learned reassure us that a robust medical evacuation system, coupled with timely and appropriate medical care of nerve agent poisoning, will save many more lives on future battlefields.”


Upon our request, Dr. Foroutan reviewed the UN Report on Syria and provided us with some critical insights, addressing the issues of environmental and human sampling conducted by the UN investigators in Ghouta.


Based on his unique experience with casualties of nerve gas, Dr. Foroutan pointed out stark symptom irregularities displayed by Ghouta patients:


1. Sarin gas does not cause inflammation in the eye. We have observed many cases during Iraq’s war against Iran and victims presented with only brief and temporary redness in the eye. Here, 22% of cases still displayed inflammation after 5-7 days.


2. Miosis [constricted pupils] has been observed in 14% of cases while disorientation has been seen in 39% of the cases. This ratio is not logical. It is obligatory that complete raw data charts of the patients be published so that the correlation index between signs and symptoms of this case and other cases be calculated.


3. Regarding the 19% convulsion report: the reports from the victims themselves are not acceptable as they would have been unconscious at the time of convulsion. Unless others report the convulsion in the victim, these reports are otherwise unreliable.


4. The prescription of Atropine: this medicine is the most essential antidote for Sarin exposures and if a large amount of it is taken quickly and intravenously, it will save the patient . Rapid recovery of a severe case with high dose of atropine suggest the patient was exposed to a substance similar to nerve gas[sarin]. Unfortunately the information given is very incomplete and it has not been noted how exactly the patients have reacted to this cure.


5. Mentioning the vital signs like the pulse rate and blood pressure, which because of sarin classically become slow and low and subsequently atropine raises it up, is also an important diagnostic sign which unfortunately has not been recorded in the patients documents. Another important sign is auscultation of “wheezing” in the victims lungs, similar to the noise coming from an asthmatic patient, has not been mentioned. This neglection is abnormal.


6. Activity of an enzyme called “acetylcholinesterase” in the plasma and red blood cells will reduced immensely with nerve gases like sarin; and will reactivate (re-synthesize) after weeks until it becomes normal. Sarin is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor substance. Experts across the world are well informed of the importance of this lab data[reporting enzyme activity]. During the holy defense (Iran Iraq war) we would measure it in the frontline emergency center as a routine diagnostic test. The importance is that in moderate to severe cases, it decreases heavily without exception. Why has this examination not been done?


7. The claim of the identification of sarin molecules a week later in the biological samples needs an exact report of methodology of measurement for other experts of the world because of the high chance of technical error.


8. Regarding the environmental samples: according to the pictures, a lot of the places have been under the sunlight and due to the fact that sarin is very volatile, the claim of sarin detection should be accompanied with more description by the experts.


Overall in my view this report should be received/accepted medically with great caution and should be observed again by a team of international expert clinicians. My intention is not the denial of sarin but at least from the clinical point of view, the evidences of this report are not enough to prove the existence of a nerve gas [sarin] in this incident.



Dr. Foroutan also brought up a very important point about the UN’s assumption of Sarin in its testing, which can lead to false positives. In Appendix 7 of the UN Report, a notable number of the samples tested by two separate labs register different results:


“There is a possibility of a false positive recognition/diagnosis of sarin and by-products caused by natural decomposition and impurities with the primary gas.


An important point is that it seems the team has set up its experiment methods according to the pre-assumption that sarin had been used.


That is why it should be requested that all of the experiment/lab measurements should be published with the details of sample preparation and analysis methods and also even the pictures and files of the curve from the analysis devices.


During the imposed war (Iran Iraq war) a case of poisoning of the Iranian soldiers by Mycotoxins was reported by a credible lab in Belgium. They were definitely found in the urine and plasma samples but later we were informed that it was a false positive. In the UN study after the war it was proven that Iraq had no activity regarding the production of mycotoxins.”



I was informed that the above observations “were discussed in a medical gathering at the Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences led by Professor Abbas Foroutan.”


While we were fortunate to reach Dr. Foroutan for his insights on the UN Report, I am publishing this information now because he took the trouble of writing it out and sending it to me via an academic colleague who translated his comments in their entirety.




Global Research



Chemical Weapon Expert Opinion on the UN Report on Syria

Sunday, June 9, 2013

IRS conference featured "happiness expert"



Report finds that the agency spent millions on training videos and employee conferences between 2010 and 2012. NBC News’ Steve Handelsman reports.



By Kelly O’Donnell and Andrew Rafferty, NBC News


The now infamous 2010 Internal Revenue Service conference in California — where goofy, expensive video parodies were shown — also featured $ 135,000 in spending on outside speakers like a “happiness expert” and a session titled “Leadership Through Art,” congressional sources briefed on an upcoming inspector general’s report told NBC News Monday night.


The IRS hired 15 speakers to present at the conference in Anaheim, Calif., including $ 11,430 for positive psychology guru Shawn Achor — referred to as a “happiness expert” by the sources — to lead a 90-minute workshop and $ 17,000 for artist Erik Wahl to hold a session that used painting as a learning tool, said those familiar with the report.


During his presentation, Wahl painted a portraits of Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln, Bono, and the Statue of Liberty, according to the sources. Wahl also lists the National Security Agency and U.S. Chamber of Commerce as clients on his website.


Two of these paintings were given away to conference attendees, at least one of the paintings was auctioned to benefit the Combined Federal Campaign, and one was lost, according the report by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the sources said.


In addition to that, tens of thousands of dollars were spent so that IRS employees could also hear from an “innovation expert” and a “diversity and inclusion expert.” 


One of the speakers received a $ 25,000 fee in addition to a $ 2,500 first-class airline ticket to fly the speaker to the conference, according to the report. 


The contracts for the presenters were awarded as sole source contracts, meaning no competition occurred, and taxpayers cannot be assured to have received the best price for the speakers.


Sources told NBC News that the conference was approved by two of the agency’s deputy commissioners: Mark Ernst, who left the IRS in 2010, and Steve Miller, now the resigned former acting commissioner.


The revelations were made as part of the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s report on IRS spending for travel and conference that will be released Tuesday afternoon.


According to the report, the IRS spent nearly $ 50 million on at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012. 


A particular focus of the investigation was the Anaheim conference, which cost taxpayers $ 4 million, a statement by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said.


The IRS failed to adhere to the standard government practice of negotiating lower room rates, and gave the 2,600 attendees perks like baseball tickets and stays in presidential suites, according to the congressional committee. 


On Friday, another video was released showing about a dozen IRS employees practicing the “Cupid Shuffle” dance. That recording was produced to be shown at the end of the 2010 conference, and comes on the heels of two other wacky training videos that surfaced  in March, parodying “Gilligan’s Island” and “Star Trek.” 


Combined, the total cost of the video parodies was more $ 60,000, the agency said.


The forthcoming report will outline lavish spending comes at the same time the IRS is being scrutinized for targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status and as government agencies, and as other government agencies struggle to cut spending in the wake of Washington budget battles. 


Danny Werfel, the new acting commissioner of the IRS, released a statement Friday calling the conference “an unfortunate vestige from a prior era.” 


Werfel made his first appearance in front of Congress on Monday to address the agency’s targeting of conservative groups. He told lawmakers, “My primary mission is to restore that trust.”


Related: New IRS chief says restoring trust is his ‘primary mission’




NBCNews.com: First Read



IRS conference featured "happiness expert"

IRS conference featured "happiness expert"



Report finds that the agency spent millions on training videos and employee conferences between 2010 and 2012. NBC News’ Steve Handelsman reports.



By Kelly O’Donnell and Andrew Rafferty, NBC News


The now infamous 2010 Internal Revenue Service conference in California — where goofy, expensive video parodies were shown — also featured $ 135,000 in spending on outside speakers like a “happiness expert” and a session titled “Leadership Through Art,” congressional sources briefed on an upcoming inspector general’s report told NBC News Monday night.


The IRS hired 15 speakers to present at the conference in Anaheim, Calif., including $ 11,430 for positive psychology guru Shawn Achor — referred to as a “happiness expert” by the sources — to lead a 90-minute workshop and $ 17,000 for artist Erik Wahl to hold a session that used painting as a learning tool, said those familiar with the report.


During his presentation, Wahl painted a portraits of Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln, Bono, and the Statue of Liberty, according to the sources. Wahl also lists the National Security Agency and U.S. Chamber of Commerce as clients on his website.


Two of these paintings were given away to conference attendees, at least one of the paintings was auctioned to benefit the Combined Federal Campaign, and one was lost, according the report by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the sources said.


In addition to that, tens of thousands of dollars were spent so that IRS employees could also hear from an “innovation expert” and a “diversity and inclusion expert.” 


One of the speakers received a $ 25,000 fee in addition to a $ 2,500 first-class airline ticket to fly the speaker to the conference, according to the report. 


The contracts for the presenters were awarded as sole source contracts, meaning no competition occurred, and taxpayers cannot be assured to have received the best price for the speakers.


Sources told NBC News that the conference was approved by two of the agency’s deputy commissioners: Mark Ernst, who left the IRS in 2010, and Steve Miller, now the resigned former acting commissioner.


The revelations were made as part of the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s report on IRS spending for travel and conference that will be released Tuesday afternoon.


According to the report, the IRS spent nearly $ 50 million on at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012. 


A particular focus of the investigation was the Anaheim conference, which cost taxpayers $ 4 million, a statement by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said.


The IRS failed to adhere to the standard government practice of negotiating lower room rates, and gave the 2,600 attendees perks like baseball tickets and stays in presidential suites, according to the congressional committee. 


On Friday, another video was released showing about a dozen IRS employees practicing the “Cupid Shuffle” dance. That recording was produced to be shown at the end of the 2010 conference, and comes on the heels of two other wacky training videos that surfaced  in March, parodying “Gilligan’s Island” and “Star Trek.” 


Combined, the total cost of the video parodies was more $ 60,000, the agency said.


The forthcoming report will outline lavish spending comes at the same time the IRS is being scrutinized for targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status and as government agencies, and as other government agencies struggle to cut spending in the wake of Washington budget battles. 


Danny Werfel, the new acting commissioner of the IRS, released a statement Friday calling the conference “an unfortunate vestige from a prior era.” 


Werfel made his first appearance in front of Congress on Monday to address the agency’s targeting of conservative groups. He told lawmakers, “My primary mission is to restore that trust.”


Related: New IRS chief says restoring trust is his ‘primary mission’




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IRS conference featured "happiness expert"

Sunday, June 2, 2013

UN Expert Worries About Killer Robots, Ignores The Ones That Already Exist


Autonomous war robots are coming. Panicking about them will only make things worse.



Fictional F/A-37

Fictional F/A-37 A fictional autonomous robot fighter plane from the 2005 movie “Stealth.” Wikimedia Commons



Yesterday, a United Nations expert called for a halt and moratorium on developing “lethal autonomous robotics,” or, in layman’s terms, “killer robots.”


His argument: once killer robots take part in war, there will be no going back. Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told the Human Rights Council that now is the time to regulate and stop killer robots, arguing that “decisions over life and death in armed conflict may require compassion and intuition.” He also urged the council to form a panel that would study whether international laws in place today adequately address the use of killer robots.


Thing is, killer robots already exist. And they’re about the least compassionate machines we could imagine.


Actual killer robots

Actual Killer Robots: a pile of landmines in Cambodia.  Neil Rickards, via Wikimedia Commons



I’m talking about land mines, those notorious explosives that explode when walked over. Land mines are programmed to kill when certain conditions are met. That is the same principle guiding a killer robot.


But there are some key differences: A killer robot might make a decision based on algorithms and inputs, internal coding and pre-programmed combat behaviors. It might be programmed to understand the laws of war, and it might use surveillance technologies to make distinctions between unarmed civilians and armed combatants. The same principles that power facial recognition software could apply to robots targeting their weapons at other weapons, so they fire to disable guns and not to kill people.


Land mines, on the other hand, fail to distinguish between civilians and soldiers, between soldiers of different nations, and between animals or large children or small soldiers. Land-mine triggers cannot be easily shut off and are designed for durability not intelligence. At their worst, killer robots could be as deadly and as indiscriminate as landmines. Chances are, though, they will be much more sophisticated.


The task before lawmakers is not to ban a technology out of fear but to adapt the law to the technology once it exists. Making legislative decisions about new technology is tricky business. In the United States, electronic communication is governed by a law passed well before email was a regular fixture of life. Provisions that made sense to congressmen in 1986 trying to imagine email led to great weaknesses in privacy and personal security, all because the technology wasn’t understood when the law was written. The stakes are much lower in governing electronic communications than in authorizing robots to kill.


Killer robots are coming. Efforts to halt their introduction or ban their development are not only likely to fail, but they’ll drown out legitimate concerns about the safest way to implement the technology with Luddite fear-mongering.




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UN Expert Worries About Killer Robots, Ignores The Ones That Already Exist