MEXICO CITY, July 3 (Reuters) – Authorities have found seven severed heads stuffed in plastic bags on the edge of a highway near the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco state prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The gruesome discovery about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the country’s second-biggest city is a reminder of the criminal violence still plaguing Mexico, despite assurances from the government that the murder rate is falling.
More than 60,000 people died in violence linked to warring drug cartels during the 2006-2012 presidency of Felipe Calderon. An average of 1,000 people per month have been killed under his successor, Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office December.
Jalisco, the home of tequila and mariachi music, has been hard hit by the ongoing violence. Murders were up more than 5 percent during the first five months of this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to Mexican police.
The bodies of two schoolboys suspected of bullying the son of a powerful drug trafficker were found in Jalisco this week.
In March Jalisco’s tourism minister was shot dead in Guadalajara just a week after taking office. (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Xavier Briand)
More than ever, people are traveling with their dogs and when they take a family vacation, they want to include their four-legged furry kid, too.
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For last-minute or budget-conscious travelers who want a vacation-like experience without the associated stress or travel costs, staycations are an ideal alternative.
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The fingerprint on the left was prepared using an older development technique; the image on the right, revealing more ridge detail, is the right half of the same fingerprint and was prepared using the new technique.
(Credit: Akhlesh Lakhtakia/Penn State)
When it comes to evaluating fingerprints, not everyone has the keen eye of Sherlock Holmes. In fact, the human eye has proven to be subjective — and thus not fully reliable — when it comes to determining the mere quality of the print.
So researchers at Penn State are hoping to remove that subjectivity with the merging of three inexpensive computer programs that grade that quality — which can be affected by all sorts of environmental weathering and smudging — on a scale of 0 to 100.
“Humans can’t grade finer than the zero to three scale, but computers can,” Akhlesh Lakhtakia, a professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State, said in a school news release. “2.3 percent is worse than 15 percent, but both could be graded as a zero by the naked eye.”
Reporting in the current issue of the journal Forensic Science International, Lakhtakia and his team describe… [Read more]
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Sony’s Crackle arrives on BlackBerry 10, reminds us to not watch Bad Boys II
Posted in: Today's Chili
Slowly, but steadily, BlackBerry’s building its BB10 app catalog with some major gets. Today, that burgeoning list grows by a very important one with the addition of Sony’s Crackle. The free, ad-based streaming video service, which culls together content from Sony’s various TV and film studios, is available to download now from BlackBerry World. It’s also compatible with the Q10’s teeny, 3.1-inch screen, so if you hate your good eyesight, you can devote an hour or two to reliving the opus that is Bad Boys II. Sure, popular apps like Instagram, Hulu Plus and Netflix have yet to make their way over to BB10, but you can’t fault the Waterloo-based outfit for getting users what it can. Even if that means bringing them Bad Boys II.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Sony, Blackberry
Not to be outdone by his less famous mirror image Robin Thicke
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Google receives letter from state AGs demanding halt to ads on illegal activity videos
Posted in: Today's ChiliYouTube is packed full of videos of all sorts, ranging from compilations of other videos to music videos and funny cat clips. On the far side of the spectrum are videos depicting illegal activity and advertisement for illegal substances, such as promotional videos for online pharmacies that sell regulated medication. Advertisements show up alongside these videos, earning Google revenue, and three states have taken issue with this.
Mississippi was the first state to take issue with the advertisements displayed alongside videos depicting illegal activity, and today both Oklahoma and Nebraska joined it, with the attorneys-general – Scott Pruitt and Jon Bruning, respectively – from both states sending Google a letter complaining about this practice, calling for it to be put to an end.
In the letter, the attorneys-general said: “Not only are the activities depicted or promoted in the above-described videos illegal in and of themselves, but in the case of document forgery, the how-to guide could be instrumental in the commission of other crimes ranging from under-age drinking to acts of terrorism.”
One example given was videos displaying instructions on how to forge passports and similar identification, next to which advertisements were displayed. Said Mississippi’s attorney general Jim Hood, if such advertisements are not stopped, Google could receive a subpoena as part of an investigation into whether it has facilitated illegal drug sales, as well as other illegal activities, via the content. The state is currently running a probe in the matter, and it seems Nebraska and Oklahoma could end up following suit.
Google responded to the letter today, saying that it is working “to prevent ads appearing against any video, channel or page once we determine that the content is not appropriate for our advertising partners.” This follows a statement last month that it has been working against rogue online pharmacies, as well as stopping advertisements for drugs that appear for legit users.
SOURCE: Yahoo! News
Google receives letter from state AGs demanding halt to ads on illegal activity videos is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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