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Apr 27, 2011
Could Your Digital Watch Send You to Guantanamo?

Casio just won itself a whole lot of publicity it probably wishes it could un-leak. The United States military considers this watch to be "an indicator of al-Qaida training in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices (IEDs)" and with it the identifying feature of a potential terrorist. The information included in these documents is lurid, heartbreaking and an additional blot on the Guantanamo experience.The digital watch was found with bags
For instance, some detainees were arrested and held for years in part because they wore a cheap brand of digital watch, the Casio F-91W.S.

One-third of detainees captured while wearing the Casio watch "have known connections to explosives," it said. "The authorities must either try those that remain there - in U.and the New York Times . It is not known how it came to the detainees selecting digital LED watches .
In the field guide, special attention is given to the items a suspect had in his possession at the time of his arrest.
While there is no doubt that the U. To date only five have been convicted by the military commission system and one has been tried by civilian court.
The footnotes of the document explain that the Joint Task Force identifies the watch as "the sign of al-Qaida, (which) uses the watch to make bombs.
What we still lack after so many years is a fully developed legal framework to handle the arrest, detention and trial of terror suspects. Facets of this system have been put in place, such as congressional authorization of military commissions to try the suspects, but the structure remains woefully incomplete. I like my watch because it is durable. government to make public transcripts of U." here, too, the wristwatch will be mentioned in the footnotes as a distinguishing feature of al-qaida.
The documents show most of the 172 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo are deemed to be “high risk,” as were about a third of the 600 detainees already released, the Times says.

One transcript reveals how U.
In a separate story, the New York Times.”

Guantanamo currently holds 172 detainees, although the U. According to the German newspaper Der Spiegel, which republished an excerpt of the transcript, the Kuwaiti man expressed surprise when told that his wristwatch could link him to al-Qaida.html. reports that military analysts sometimes “ignored serious flaws in the evidence-for example, that the information came from other detainees whose mental illness made them unreliable. According to the newspaper, the prisoner, a Kuwaiti engineer, said, "We have two watches in Kuwait: Fossil and Casio. At the very least, this should include an apology, compensation and the punishment of those responsible for this outrageous conduct. I am Muslim and pray five times a day. This is not a logical or reasonable piece of evidence. I'm not stupid."

The man's name wasn't revealed, and it's unclear whether he was released or is still being held. "Among inmates who proved harmless were an 89-year-old Afghan villager, suffering from senile dementia, and a 14-year-old boy who had been an innocent kidnap victim..


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Posted at 07:54 am by adamraburke
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Apr 19, 2011
The Astounding Chronopage.

World famed scientist Albert Einstein proclaimed that time was in fact relative, one thinks exactly what he might think of the Chronophage. This strangetimepiece is undoubtedly more visual wonder compared to a wall clock.
Invented by John Taylor, the Chronophage is designed to be able to show time passing in a strange manner.
In contrast to run of the mill wrist watches, the amazing Chronophage has no hands or conventional digital watch face to be able to show the time.
Hours, minutes and seconds are shown via funky blue LED lights via slits in the gold face. The blue LED lights spin around the display which also moves round
Nestled at the top of the clock is a weird monster that feeds on every minute.
The mechanical monster rocks forward and backward over the ridge of the wonderful disk, edged similar to a lizard’s back. 2 yards in diameter, the clock is made from disks of stainless-steel and plated with 24-carat gold. With every single slackening of the monster’s mouth, as well as , release of it's claws, an additional second is devoured. Every new hour is actually signaled by the shake of a chain upon an undetectable coffin to help emphasize to passers-by of their mortality.
The Corpus Clock is a substantial sculptural clock at path level on the exterior of the Taylor Library in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England on the junction of Bene't Street and Trumpington Street, looking out over King's Parade. The item was initially conceived and also backed by John C. Taylor, a great old fellow member of the institution.
Taylor spent several years as well as £1 million on the Corpus Clock venture, and two hundred men and women, including engineers, sculptors, experts, jewellers, and calligraphers, were involved. The clockwork features half a dozen completely new trademarked inventions. The actual rippling gold-plated dial was built by forceful forming-using an explosive charge to successfully press a very thin sheet of stainless-steel onto a mould underwater located at a "secret military research institute inside Holland." Stewart Huxley ended up being the design engineer. Sculptor Matthew Sanderson modelled the actual Chronophage.[6] The actual graticule, or computing dish, for the Corpus Clock was developed and also created by Alan Meeks of Visitech Design.[11] It was machined in aluminum and silver before being plated with gold and rhodium.
It was formally unveiled to the open public on 19 Sept 2008 by Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking.[1]
The £1 million creation is a tribute to John Harrison, the world’s most excellent clockmaker, who settled the obstacle of longtitude during the 1700s.
The timepiece is totally exact only every 5 minutes. The remainder of the time, the pendulum pauses and after that corrects itself as if by magic. The particular blue lights play optical illusions in the eye, whirring around the actual disk one second, then looking to freeze the next. The particular effect is hypnotic.

Posted at 11:53 am by adamraburke
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