Low Latency No. 47: Thinking outside the box

Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Thursday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels! Want more? Here's every Low Latency comic so far.

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Maya Calendars Actually Predict That Life Goes On

This December, not everyone is concerned with making plans for the New Year—especially not the people who think doomsday will get here first. Instead of planning parties, they're stockpiling food, refining escape routes, and honing survival skills ahead of the alleged date on which the Maya calendar "ends"—December 21, 2012.

So should we all be preparing for imminent apocalypse? According to the scholars, no.

The ancient Maya are usually cited as the predictors of the world coming to an end this month: One of their "great cycles" supposedly ends now. But the Maya were brilliant mathematicians and fantastic record keepers. They didn't have just one calendar. They developed many different kinds, including a cyclical solar calendar and a sacred almanac. They also measured time with something known as the Long Count, which were great cycles of 5,000 years.

Somewhere along the way a rumor spread about the current great cycle, indicating it ends on December 21, 2012. This sparked the belief among some that the last of our days are upon us.

Rebirth

It's not the first time that the possibility of apocalypse has sparked the human imagination. Doomsday prophecies have a rich history, and believers tend to overlook the scientific evidence that disproves them. In this case, the doomsdayers fail to take into account the intricacies of Maya timekeeping.

"There's only one [Maya] monument that even has the 2012 date on it," says Maya scholar Ricardo Agurcia, adding that apocalypse anticipators are ignoring that according to the Maya, when one great cycle ends, another begins. "It's about rebirth, not death." (Read about the rise and fall of the Maya in National Geographic magazine.)

Indeed, the Maya predicted the world would most certainly not end in 2012. Earlier this year, archaeologist and National Geographic Grantee William Saturno discovered a series of numbers painted on the walls at a Maya complex in Guatemala. The calculations included dates that go far into the future. "The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue, that 7,000 years from now, things would be exactly like this," he said in a press release. (See ultra-high-resolution, zoomable pictures from inside a newfound Maya chamber.)

"We keep looking for endings. The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It's an entirely different mindset." (Watch: Mysterious Maya Calendar and Mural Uncovered.)

It Came From Outer Space?

That should be enough to soothe Maya-inspired worries about doomsday scenarios. But what about other potential agents of catastrophe—coronal mass ejections, a "killer planet," polar shifts?

On these possibilities, NASA can shed some light. On his blog Ask an Astrobiologist, NASA space scientist David Morrison has fielded some 5,000 questions about doomsday 2012. People want to know about the existence of Nibiru, or Planet X, and whether it's coming to destroy Earth or not. Others inquire about alignment of the heavenly bodies, shifting of the magnetic poles, and bursting of solar flares. In a YouTube video, Morrison said, "There is no threat to Earth in 2012. Nibiru does not exist. There are no special forces when planets align. Don't worry about 2012, and enjoy 2013 when it comes."

Despite this emphatic professional pushback, anxiety over our impending demise persists. According to an article in the New York Times, a number of Russians have fallen under the apocalypse spell, snatching up essentials as December 21st approaches. The story also cites apprehension in southern France, where certain camps believe Bugarach mountain has the power to protect in a doomsday scenario.

In the United States, doomsday preparers have help from people like Larry Hall, who is building underground luxury "survival condos" in Kansas missile silos leftover from the Cold War era. Careful not to judge anyone's reason for worry, he said, "I'm not saying you're right or you're wrong. I'm just trying to have a one-size-fits-all solution to whatever your threats may be."

Catherine Zuckerman knows her apocalypses. She is author of National Geographic's e-book "Doomsday 2012," which examines the enduring fascination with doomsday predictions.

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Court: CIA Tortured German in Botched Rendition

Nearly a decade after a German man claimed he was snatched off the street, held in secret and tortured as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program -- all due to a case of mistaken identity -- a panel of international judges said today what Khaled El-Masri has been waiting to hear since 2004: We believe you.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) handed down a unanimous verdict siding with El-Masri in his case against the government of Macedonia, which he claimed first played an integral role in his illegal detention and then ignored his pleas to investigate the traumatic ordeal. For his troubles, the ECHR ordered the government of Macedonia to pay El-Masri 60,000 Euros in damages, about $80,000.

"There's no question 60,000 Euros does not begin to provide compensation for the harm he has suffered," James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, which is representing El-Masri, told ABC News today. "That said... for Mr. El-Masri, the most important thing that he was hoping for was to have the European court officially acknowledge what he did and say that what he's been claiming is in fact true and it was in fact a breach of the law... It's an extraordinary ruling."

Felix Kaestle/dapd/AP Photo

El-Masri's dramatic story, as detailed in various court and government documents, began in late 2003 when he was snatched off a bus at a border crossing in Macedonia. Plainclothes Macedonian police officers brought him to a hotel in the capital city of Skopje and held him there under guard for 23 days. In the hotel he was interrogated repeatedly and told to admit he was a member of al Qaeda, according to an account provided by the Open Society Justice Initiative.

The German was then blindfolded and taken to an airport where he said he was met by men he believed to be a secret CIA rendition team. In its ruling today, the EHRC recounted how the CIA men allegedly beat and sodomized El-Masri in an airport facility, treatment that the court said "amounted to torture." The CIA declined to comment for this report.

El-Masri was then put on a plane and claims that the next thing he knew, he was in Afghanistan, where he would stay for four months under what his lawyers called "inhuman and degrading" conditions.

According to the Initiative, it wasn't until May 28, 2004 that El-Masri was suddenly removed from his cell, put on another plane and flown to a military base in Albania. "On arrival he was driven in a car for several hours and then let out and told not to look back," the group says on its website. Albanian authorities soon picked El-Masri up and took him to an airport where he flew back to Frankfurt, Germany.

According to El-Masri's lawyers, the CIA had finally realized they accidentally picked up the wrong man.

In their decision today, the ECHR said El-Masri's account was established "beyond reasonable doubt," in part based on the findings of previous investigations into flight logs and forensic evidence.

Before the EHRC, El-Masri and his supporters had tried to bring his case to trial in several courts, including in the U.S. in 2005. There, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit on behalf of El-Masri against George Tenet, then director of the CIA, but the case was dismissed in 2006 after the U.S. government claimed hearing it would jeopardize "state secrets." The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case in 2007.

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UK government urged to consider relaxing drug rules

JUST say yes to considering relaxed drug controls, urged a panel of UK parliamentarians this week - but Prime Minister David Cameron has rejected the calls.

Many countries have loosened their penalties for drug use, including the Czech Republic and Portugal, which introduced a "de-penalisation" strategy in 2000. Citizens caught in possession avoid criminal records but must attend drug advice sessions. Last month, the US states of Colorado and Washington voted to legalise the recreational use of cannabis.

The UK report calls for the effects of these legal moves to be monitored. "Drugs policy ought to be evidence-based as much as possible," it concludes. "We recommend that the government fund a detailed research project to monitor the effects of each legalisation system."

The report notes that 21 countries have now introduced some form of decriminalisation. But the government's response has been lukewarm. "I don't support decriminalisation," said Cameron. "We have a policy which actually is working in Britain. Drugs use is coming down."

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"Serious differences" in US fiscal stand-off

WASHINGTON: The United States economy was cruising towards the disaster of the looming "fiscal cliff" on Wednesday as President Barack Obama's Republican opponents warned a budget deal was still far off.

The newly re-elected White House chief is locked in a stand-off with lawmakers over a budget deal that would prevent the onset of a toxic package of tax hikes and deep spending cuts kicking in at the end of the year.

"We don't have an agreement today," the top Republican in Congress, House Speaker John Boehner, told reporters a day after his latest meeting with Obama to exchange compromise offers.

"I remain the most optimistic person in this town, but we've got some serious differences," he said.

Boehner acknowledged that Obama lowered his opening gambit of $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over 10 years to $1.4 trillion, but said the White House was not putting forward enough spending cuts to make the deal palatable.

"The longer the White House slow-walks this discussion, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff, and the more American jobs are placed in jeopardy," he warned.

While the White House's lower tax revenue offer is now public, Boehner's office declined to provide any new details on the Republican counter-offer.

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor warned lawmakers to expect a shortened end-of-year holiday that could see them huddled in Washington between Christmas and New Year in order to pass fiscal legislation.

"We are going to stay here right up until Christmas Eve, throughout the time and period before the New Year, because we want to make sure that we resolve this in an acceptable way for the American people," Cantor said.

The White House and Republicans are up against the clock when it comes to averting a crisis that economists say could tip the US economy back into recession.

If no deal is agreed before the end of the year, taxes will go up on all Americans and automatic and savage cuts to government spending will begin.

Obama has demanded that Republicans agree to raise taxes on the rich as part of any deal, while Boehner has offered more revenue, but only by closing loopholes and capping deductions -- a plan the president says falls short.

After recent signs that the differences might be narrowing, with a face-to-face meeting Sunday and two Obama-Boehner phone calls this week, the speaker said the two sides remain far apart.

"His plan does not begin to solve our debt crisis. It actually increases spending," Boehner said.

Democrats say Republicans must step forward with a clearer outline of the spending cuts they would like to see.

"Spending cuts are their suggestion -- put them on the table," senior House Democrat Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. "We're not going to fill in the details of their proposal."

It is increasingly unlikely that a grand bargain addressing tax revenue, spending cuts, a deal on raising the debt ceiling, as well as reform of the tax code and the country's entitlement programs can be completed by year-end.

While Republicans want cuts to entitlements as part of a fiscal deal, top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that Obama has already agreed to more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicare and other health care spending.

Such savings should be considered a "down payment" for broader negotiations next year, she said.

"Let's do something significant now and then in the next stage we can address further entitlement reform as well as reform of the tax code," Pelosi told CBS News.

"Just get it done and make corrections and expansions on it next year."

-AFP/ac

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Police: Google Maps giving dangerous directions, too

Colac, Victoria, Australia in Google Maps.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Casey Newton/CNET)

Days after Australian police warned motorists not to rely on Apple Maps, lest they end up stranded in punishing heat, authorities issued a similar warning about Google Maps.

Police in Colac, a town west of Melbourne, say Google Maps has created "a significant safety issue for tourists [and] locals" along the Great Ocean Road by suggesting they drive down a one-way road not built for heavy traffic, according to a police sergeant quoted by ABC News.

Tour buses using Wild Dog Road are in danger of being driven off the road, Sgt. Nick Buenen told ABC.

The warning comes days after police in the Australian province of Victoria warned that Apple Maps incorrectly said the town of Mildura was located in the middle of Murray Sunset National Park, 70 kilometers from its actual location. Several motorists had become stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water after using Apple's directions, according to reports.

CNET has contacted Google for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

(via Daring Fireball)

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Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal Observatory

This image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light was recognized in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich.

To get the shot, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon and evening planets, then take in the Perseids meteor shower.

"We live in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, so when we gaze through the thickness of our galaxy, we see it as a band of dense star fields encircling the sky," said Marek Kukula, the Royal Observatory's public astronomer and a contest judge.

Full story>>

Why We Love It

"I like the way this view of the Milky Way also shows us a compelling foreground landscape. It also hints at the astronomy problems caused by light pollution."—Chris Combs, news photo editor

Published December 11, 2012

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Mall Gunman Identified as Jacob Tyler Roberts

The masked gunman who killed two people in the crowded Clackamas Town Center mall in suburban Portland, Ore., was identified today as Jacob Tyler Roberts.

Roberts, 22, was armed with a stolen AR-15 semi-automatic weapon, Sheriff Craig Roberts told a news conference today. He was not wearing a bullet-proof vest as previously reported.

Earlier today the sheriff told "Good Morning America" the gunman was intent on killing "as many people as possible."

The shooter, wearing a white hockey mask, black clothing and a bullet proof vest, tore through the mall just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, entering through a Macy's store and heading to the food court and public areas spraying bullets, according to witness reports.

"We have been able to identify the shooter over this last night," Roberts said. "I believe, at least from the information that's been provided to me at this point in time, it really was a killing of total strangers. To my knowledge at this point in time he was really trying, I think, to kill as many people as possible."

Police said today that Roberts had stolen the gun from someone he knew, and was equipped with a load bearing vest and "several" fully loaded magazines. Police are still trying to determine how many shots were fired.

The shooting victims were identified as Cindy Ann Yuille, 54, and Steven Mathew Forsyth, 45.

Yuille's family released a statement today calling Yuille a "wonderful person."

"Cindy was everybody's friend, she was a wonderful person, she was very caring and put others first," the family said, noting that they needed time to grieve their loss.

Forsyth, who owned a business at the mall, was described as a married father of two who an active member of his community.

"Steven Matthew Forsyth was a loving husband, a father of two children, a son, a brother, an uncle, a longtime youth sports coach and friend to the many people that had the privilege to meet him," the family said in a statement.
"Steve was one of most passionate people, with an entrepenurial spirit that led him to start his business," they said, noting he had a "zest for life, a vision and belief in others that brought great joy.."

"He will be sorely missed by those that knew him," they said.

The injured victim, identified by hospital officials as Kristina Shevchenko, 15, was taken to a hospital and has undergone an initial surgery, according to a Facebook page set up by her family members. Family members said a bullet bruised her lung but avoided piercing any major organs.

Craig Mitchelldyer/Getty Images

Oregon Mall Shooting: 'Killing of Total Strangers' Watch Video

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PHOTOS: Oregon Mall Shooting

Police said today that Roberts parked his car outside of the Macy's department store at the mall, entered the mall on the second floor, and then "moved quickly" toward the food court, firing shots. Both victims were hit by bullets near the food court, police said. Other shoppers provided medical aid to the victims.

Roberts' gun jammed briefly while shooting at the food court, but he was able to continue shooting after it resumed working, police said.

Roberts then ran down a hallway and a flight of stairs to the first floor of the mall, near an REI store, where he apparently shot himself, police said.

Shevchenko was hit on the second floor but made it outside to the first floor, where she met police and was transproted to the hospital, police said.

Police searched Roberts' home and car in the wake of the shooting, but did not disclose what they found. They confirmed that his fingerprints matched prints in a law enforcement database, though they did not find any crimes he was convicted of.

Sheriff Craig Roberts said that he believed that the gun jamming, in addition to the quick response of mall employees to enact lockdown procedures, prevented more individuals from being shot and killed during the spree.

The sheriff said that the first calls of gunshots came in at 3:29 p.m. and the first police officers to respond arrived at the mall at 3:30 p.m.

"Officers initiated an active shooter protocol, a technique we train with, and equipped each of our officers to move to immediately engage the threat wherever it might be. We were well prepared for this incident. We had practiced active shooter techniques at Clackamas Town Center earlier this year, we had practiced for just this type of situation," Sheriff Roberts said.

Witnesses from the shooting rampage said that a young man who appeared to be a teenager, ran through the upper level of Macy's to the mall food court, firing multiple shots, one right after the other, with what is believed to be a black, semi-automatic rifle.

By 4:40 p.m., police reported finding a group of people hiding in a storeroom. In a surreal moment, even the mall Santa was seen running for his life.

"I didn't know where the gunman was, so I decided to kind of eased my way out," said the mall Santa, who the AP identified as 68-year-old Brance Wilson.

More than 10,000 shoppers were at the mall during the day, according to police. Roberts said that officers responded to the scene of the shooting within minutes, and four SWAT teams swept the 1.4 million-square-foot building searching for the shooter. He was eventually found dead, an apparent suicide.

"I can confirm the shooter is dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," Rhodes said. "By all accounts there were no rounds fired by law enforcement today in the mall."

Roberts said more than 100 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting, and the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are working with local agencies to trace the shooter's weapon.

Cell phone video shot at the scene shows the chaos soon after the shooting. When police arrived they were met head on by terrified shoppers, children and employees streaming out. Customers, even a little girl, were being lead out with their hands up.

"I think a variety of things happened that I think this could have been much, much worse," Roberts told "GMA." "And to give you some ideas, we got the call at 3:29, we had someone on scene within a minute, 30 seconds.

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Today on New Scientist: 11 December 2012

Out-of-season's greetings from the Arctic frost flowers

Season's regards from an icy meadow in the Arctic, but it's no winter wonderland and please don't dash out into it

How hacking a mosquito's heart could eradicate malaria

Watch how a double-pronged trick helps mosquitoes remain healthy while carrying disease, a process that could be exploited to eliminate malaria

New drug lifts hard-to-treat depression in hours

A new class of drugs that changes the way neurons interact in the brain can rapidly lift people out of depression

E. O. Wilson and poet laureate on altruism and mystery

Leading evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson and former US poet laureate Robert Hass discuss free will, wilderness and the mysterious origin of the arts

Souped-up immune cells force leukaemia into remission

Genetically engineered white blood cells have been shown to have a strong impact on leukaemia after just three months

War of words: The language paradox explained

If language evolved for communication, how come most people can't understand what most other people are saying?

AC/DC's Highway to Hell sent via a drone's laser beam

A dose of rock music proves that a drone's reconnaisance data can be sent via reflected laser beam instead of radio

'Biology is a manufacturing capability'

Soon we'll be able to engineer living things with mechanical precision, says Tom Knight, father of synthetic biology

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UN Security Council condemns Mali PM arrest

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Tuesday condemned the arrest of Mali's prime minister by the armed forces and renewed a threat to impose sanctions on those who threaten the country's "constitutional order."

UN leader Ban Ki-moon is also "troubled" by the new turmoil in the African nation, where Islamist militants and rebels have taken over half the country, his spokesman said.

"The members of the Security Council condemn the arrest, on December 10, 2012, of the prime minister of Mali, Mr Cheick Modibo Diarra, by members of the Malian Armed Forces," said a council statement.

The 15-nation body said the action contravenes repeated UN calls for the Malian military to stop interfering in the west African nation's transition.

"The members of the Security Council express their readiness to consider appropriate measures, including targeted sanctions, against those who prevent the restoration of the constitutional order and take actions that undermine stability in Mali," added the statement.

The UN council called on interim president Dioncounda Traore to "swiftly reappoint an inclusive government of national unity."

Islamists and rebels took over the northern half of Mali in March, taking advantage of a military coup in Bamako. Despite the appointment of an interim government the army has been accused of continually holding on to power.

Cheick Modibo Diarra quit Tuesday under pressure from the coup leaders, who oppose a foreign-aided military intervention to drive out Islamists.

The UN council stressed its "commitment to authorizing as soon as possible the deployment of an African-led international support mission in Mali."

France is drawing up a resolution giving a mandate to an international force. But negotiations have been prolonged by United States opposition to sending just an African-led force to Mali.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said UN leader Ban Ki-moon was also "troubled by what happened in Mali." The spokesman said the arrest "underscores the need for political stability" in the country.

-AFP/ac

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