World

DEA: China Announces Scheduling Controls On Two Fentanyl Precursor Chemicals

by

Acting DEA Administrator Robert W. Patterson
 
DEA News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. ― China’s Ministry of Public Security last week announced scheduling controls on two fentanyl precursor chemicals – NPP and 4ANPP, substances that can be used to make illicit drugs.
 
The scheduling controls will take effect Feb. 1, 2018 and is the result of the ongoing collaboration between the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Government of China and their shared commitment to countering illicit fentanyl-class substances.
 
“Fentanyl compounds significantly contribute
Read More

AGU: Arctic Clouds Highly Sensitive To Air Pollution

by

A rare case of forest fire smoke interacting with clouds in the Arctic in July 2012. Contour lines indicate carbon monoxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Courtesy/MODIS/NASA.
 
AGU News:
 
WASHINGTON D.C. — In 1870, explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, trekking across the barren and remote ice cap of Greenland, saw something most people wouldn’t expect in such an empty, inhospitable landscape: haze.
 
Nordenskiöld’s record of the haze was among the first evidence that air pollution around the northern hemisphere can travel toward the pole and degrade air quality
Read More

Science And Technology Highlights At LANL In 2017

by

Los Alamos National Laboratory put its Big Science capabilities to wide, productive use in 2017. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

With a top-story list populated by breakthroughs in supercomputing, accelerator science, space missions, materials science, life science, and more, Los Alamos National Laboratory put its Big Science capabilities to wide, productive use in 2017.

“No discipline left untouched—that’s the story from Los Alamos in 2017,” said Alan Bishop, Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology and Engineering at Los Alamos. “In a remarkably productive year, Laboratory Read More

Communication 5: Unauthorized Access To Information

by

SONYIA WILLIAMS
Los Alamos World Futures Institute
Student Intern

As stated in the last column, with the increased use of technology comes an increased vulnerability of having one’s privacy breached. Computers (including smart phones) have become an integral part of our everyday existence.

Computer networking technologies – intranet, extranet, and internet – have advanced to the point where information can be stored, transmitted, and available to people accessing and conducting their business anytime and from anywhere. Internet-based technologies integrate corporate Read More

Los Alamos Residents Tour Holy Land

by

Roger and Lilly Anaya of Los Alamos and parishioners of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church are on a trip to the Holy Land with 54 pilgrims from all over the country being led by Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio. Courtesy photo

Roger Anaya of Los Alamos makes friends with a donkey shepherd while on his trip to the Holy Land. There are about 20 pilgrims from New Mexico including Roger and his wife Lilly Anaya and John and Connie Russell from Los Alamos. Former IHM Pastor John Carney is leading the New Mexico congregation. The group celebrates Mass every day from a different chapel or church Read More

Communication 4: When Does Security Override Privacy?

by

SONYIA WILLIAMS
Los Alamos World Futures Institute
Student Intern

In today’s age communication has gone from postcards and letters to posts on a virtual wall and letters on a keyboard. Texting and email have become primary forms of communication among Americans and are the two most common forms of non-personal communication. According to a 2014 survey done by Gallup News, 73 percent of Americans say they send or receive texts on a daily basis.

This 73 percent was then broken down into two categories, those who send or receive texts “a lot” on a daily basis and those who only send or receive texts Read More

NSF Awards $5.7 Million To Protect U.S. Cyberspace

by

HSNW News:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently gave the nation’s cybersecurity professionals a boost with the inclusion of four new universities into its CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program.

NSF awarded nearly $5.7 million, with an expected total of almost $16.6 million over the next five years, to universities in Illinois, Maryland, Louisiana and Texas. The schools will use the money to provide scholarships consisting of full tuition and a stipend up to $34,000 to individuals willing to work after graduation in a cybersecurity position for federal, state, local Read More

Three New War Crimes Now Recognized By ICC

by

HSNW News:

The Assembly of State Parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Dec. 14 in New York has added three new war crimes to the Rome Statute.

Belgium had proposed these amendments to the Statute, which is the founding treaty of the ICC, as early as 2009.

The new war crimes added to the Rome Statute:

  • Use of biological and toxin weapons;
  • Use of weapons causing injuries by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays; and
  • Use of laser weapons causing permanent blindness.

Belgium’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that these weapons kill without Read More