Shuff's General Chat Thread ... #73 - Talk about anything and everything...  

US police kill more than two people a day: report

Washington (AFP) - US police have killed people at a rate of more than two a day this year, The Washington Post reported Sunday, using its own tally for lack of complete federal statistics.

The federal government must rely on partial data because the country's 17,000 or so state and local police agencies are not required to report such killings.

The newspaper is tracking the deaths as a national debate rages over police use of deadly force, especially in black and other minority communities.

The Post found that relative to the overall population, blacks were killed at three times the rate of other minorities or whites in the police killings it analyzed this year.

The report noted that most of the people killed were armed with potentially lethal objects -- mainly guns, but also knives and other items. Sixteen percent were carrying a toy or were unarmed.

The Post found that so far this year, at least 385 people have been shot and killed by police across the United States -- a rate of more than two a day.

These shootings are grossly under ­reported, former police chief Jim Bueermann, head of a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving law enforcement, told The Post. We are never going to reduce the number of police shootings if we don't begin to accurately track this information.

One of the most prominent recent cases to fuel the ongoing debate about police violence is that of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old who was fatally shot last year in Ferguson, Missouri.

The death and subsequent lack of legal action against the police officer who shot him prompted widespread riots in the St Louis suburb.

In Baltimore last month, riots broke out following protests over the death of Freddie Gray, 25, who died from injuries sustained in the back of a police van.

The Post found that many of the killings stemmed from minor interactions between police and community members that escalated into sudden violence.

In one case, for instance, police in the Florida city of Miami Gardens killed a schizophrenic man who was waving a broomstick. His mother had called police because she couldn't persuade him to come in from the cold.

Doc, race report?

Jlo made it 3 wins in a row. Lead from start to finish again. No one seems to be able to catch him. Iannone 2nd and Rossi 3rd. Started from 8th again.

He really needs to qualify better. Marquez started from 13th, worked his way up to 2nd then crashed out again.

Yer Rossi leads on 118. Jlo on 112.

Forensic report: Russia faked MH17 satellite photos

It's the "farmer's field" that best illustrates the first of the two methods the Bellingcat team used to detect the satellite forgeries.

First, in the image below, note the "rows" in the field in the frames marked July 2nd and July 21st.

These rows are "absent" in the May frame - and they also appear to be absent in the satellite images released by Russia's ministry of defense (upper left and bottom).

The problem: Russia's defense ministry said its satellite pictures were taken on 17 July - the day Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukrainian territory, killing all 298 on board.

According to Russia's defense ministry, what "Picture 4" shows - and the above images are just snippets of the full satellite image - is one of the three Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile battalions in Avdeevka, north of Donetsk. In other words: The Ukrainian army had anti-aircraft weapons in place that could have shot down flight MH17.

The Bellingcat investigative team, basing its research on the Google Earth Pro historical images shown above, came to a very different conclusion, however:

"Picture 4 was taken between 1 June 2014 and 18 June 2014," writes lead author and Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgons.

In other words, the missiles were there - but at least one month prior to the downing of the flight.

Photoshopped

Zooming out from the farmer's fields, the team found another problem with Picture 4.

Photoshopping an image leaves behind a kind of visual white noise, or "error levels." While these are to be expected in areas of the image that have been intentionally modified - banners and explanatory text, for instance - cloud cover should not affect the compression of the image itself.

"It is highly probable that clouds were digitally added on the left and right sides of the image, which obscured details that could have been used for additional comparisons with historical imagery."

The difference in the error levels betweenareas D and C, the team argues, cannot be explained by the image's content - i.e. clouds.

'Picture 5'

The same two problems occurred in the second picture the team analyzed, "Picture 5."

Russia's defense ministry says this image shows a Ukrainian air defense brigade with two self-propelled Buk missile launchers stationed south of the village of Zaroschinskoe in eastern Ukraine.

The forensic analysis of Picture 5's error levels led the Bellingcat team to conclude "with a high degree of probability" that certain areas of that image had also been digitally modified.

This is most readily visible in the case of a few Ukrainian army vehicles.

In the top two images below, the vehicles are really there; there is no "white noise" in the analysis of the image's metadata.

But in the bottom two images, there is sign of digital manipulation.

Just as with Picture 4, the Bellingcat team has also contested the date of Picture 5.

By comparing soil structures and vegetation, they conclude: "The comparison of Picture 5 with historical satellite pictures from Google Earth conclusively demonstrates that Picture 5 was taken prior to 15 July 2014."

Russia's ministry of defense dates that picture, as well, to July 17, 2014.

great save.kinda like MM. But The front went on him, he tried to save it but no go.

Honda are having a shit season after dominating the Past 2. But in saying that Yamaha have improved their bike. So has Ducati.

That GP15 has so much grunt. Blows past everyone on the straights even without slipstream.

i got a notification on my pc for a free Windows 10 upgrade when its available.. hmm dont know if i want it yet.
might reserve the copy as its for limited time for the full version..
ill have to look at some youtube vids on how 10 works seeing as its alot different to 7

That is why the man is a legend


So good to see it in Slo-mo,you wouldn't think it possible to have a bike in that attitude,and still be going places



Keep us posted Doc,I almost clicked the reserve button,and balked,I have Windows 8.1,and am pretty happy with it

A Canadian Highway Accident between a Grader & Transport Truck. A fire started and was soon engulfed the entire cab, lucky the driver did get out & survived.

That is why the man is a legend :thumbsup:
So good to see it in Slo-mo,you wouldn't think it possible to have a bike in that attitude,and still be going places



Keep us posted Doc,I almost clicked the reserve button,and balked,I have Windows 8.1,and am pretty happy with it

Hey guys, how's the boost OT peeps going?

Its amazing what a good set of tyres can do to a car. Car now corners like a race car now....well not quite

Chief engineer Zack Eakin stops by with Nissan’s daring new front-engined LM P1 car. Watch Jann Mardenborough, Nissan GT Academy’s Season 3 winner, take it around the track, just like he’s gonna do at LeMans! Watch more video on NISMO TV’s YouTube channel.

he threw that knee slider into the crowd to.

Was reading comments from MM and why he crashed. He said he was on the limit on every corner. I don't see why he would need to be on the limit. He went from 13th to 2nd in a matter of 3 laps. To me he has the attitude that it's all or nothing. That wouldn't sit well with Honda bosses. Instead of settling for valuable points which is what he needs atm coz he's currently 5th in the standings, he would rather maximum points or none at all.
Even Ducati is beating Honda in the constructors points standings.

Once it's downloaded you have the choice to install or not. I figured while it's free I'll reserve it and decide info want it or not after I see how it works. Upgrades aren't always the best option.

Microsoft announced today that it will be launching Windows 10 on July 29th, encouraging Windows 7 and 8.1 users to reserve their free upgrade with a notification in their task bar. However, while the company has been busy highlighting all the shiny new features in the upcoming OS, it's been a bit quieter when it comes to spelling out the limitations — including making updates automatic for Windows 10 Home users.
Firstly there are the software losses. Most of these will only affect a small number of users, but upgrading will mean saying goodbye to Windows Media Center, the card game Hearts, and Windows 7's desktop gadgets. Anyone in the habit of using floppy disks on Windows will also have to install new drivers, and Microsoft warns that watching DVDs will also require "separate playback software." Microsoft manager Gabriel Aul has said on Twitter that a DVD option for Windows 10 is coming "later this year," but early upgraders can always download VLC instead.

In addition to the software losses, there are also a number of limitations for some of Windows 10's most exciting features. Cortana will only be available in the US, UK, China, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain at launch, while Windows Hello (which offers support for various biometric passwords) will need an infrared camera for facial recognition, or a supported fingerprint reader. The Xbox Music and Xbox Video streaming apps will also be constrained by the usual, complex web of region-based licenses.

More annoyingly, perhaps, Microsoft has also changed how updates will work with Windows 10. Although the Pro and Enterprise editions will both be able to defer updates, Windows 10 Home users will not have the option. Updates will instead be downloaded and installed automatically as soon as they're available. System requirements for the new OS have also been detailed, with PCs and tablets needing to pass a fairly low bar: a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a display resolution of at least 1,024 x 600 are required. These specs are a bit higher for the 64-bit version of Windows 10 but for these details and more, you can check out Microsoft's full specs page.

An unlucky Queensland man has been fined A$151 for driving not too fast, not too slow, but just right.
24-year-old Zac Murray was driving the Sunshine Motorway in Mooloolaba on May 14 when the entirely legal incident occurred. After he received a fine in the mail for driving exactly 100 kilometres per hour in a 100 kilometre zone, he took his bemusement to Facebook."Can someone please clarify if I just got one for going the speed limit? Or is my understanding of the word 'alleged' seriously wanting?" he wrote on Monday. "I'm fairly certain I've been caught red handed being a law abiding citizen.
Seriously the definition of alleged hasn't changed in 600 years. I'm fairly certain I've been caught red-handed being a law abiding citizen," he wrote.
The post has since gone viral, and the speeding fine withdrawn by the Queensland Police Service this afternoon.
"Essentially I saw the fine, the alleged speed and amusingly wondered what those cheeky jabronis [sic] are up to.
Mr Murray said it was his first speeding fine in seven years on the road, until police called him today to withdraw the fine.
"I straight-flatly denied I was speeding because the alleged speed was 100kph in a 100kph zone so I thought there was no way I was paying this," he said.A Queensland Police Service media spokesman said Mr Murray's fine was one of two issued in an "administrative error".
"The analogue mobile camera recorded the details of two vehicles travelling at the legal speed limit while it was being tested by the operator," a spokesman said.
"There was no accuracy issue with the camera.
"An error occurred during the manual adjudication processes, where these records were not identified and rejected as per standard practice and subsequently two notices were issued to the registered owners of the vehicles.
"The notices have since been withdrawn and police have made direct contact with the registered owners to apologise for the error."

Think I'll stick with win7 after reading that.Maybe. Thanks shuffs

Do want to see that