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What will they think of next!
No if they’d only rule against the Patriot Act and other invasions of privacy and police state activities.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must obtain a search warrant before using a GPS device to track criminal suspects. But the justices left for another day larger questions about how technology has altered a person’s expectation of privacy.
[…]
“We hold that the government’s installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ‘search’ ” under the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, Scalia wrote.
[…]
It was that question — society’s expectation of privacy in a modern world — that had animated the court’s consideration of the case. In an intense hour-long oral argument last November, the Big Brother of George Orwell’s novel “1984” was referenced six times. The justices pondered a world in which satellites can zero in on an individual’s house, cameras can record the faces at a crowded intersection and individuals can instantly announce their every movement to the world on Facebook. They wondered about the government placing tracking devices in overcoats or on license plates.Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the decision also should have settled some of those questions instead of deciding a case about a “21st-century surveillance technique” by using “18th-century tort law.”
The publisher of a Jewish newspaper who suggested that Israel assassinate Barack Obama in a weekly column, has apologized. Andrew Adler made the controversial statement in the Atlanta Jewish Times, a paper which serves the Jewish community in Atlanta, U.S. He claimed ordering an assassination of President Obama could be one of three ways to protect the people of Israel.
‘Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don’t you think that this is almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel’s most inner circles? ‘Another way of putting “three” in perspective goes something like this: How far would you go to save a nation comprised of seven million lives…Jews, Christians and Arabs alike? ‘You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table.’
‘I very much regret it, I wish I hadn’t made reference to it at all,’ he said to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.’ Mr Adler admitted that he had been an ‘idiot’ for writing it and said he had put his ‘pen in my mouth’, according to ABC.
The secret service has said that Adler’s comments would be followed up but would not say if a formal investigation had been launched.
I guess this guy hasn’t heard of the National Defense Authorization Act.
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U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will step down from Congress this week to continue her recovery from a gunshot wound inflicted a year ago this month.
“I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week,” the congresswoman said in a video message released today to her constituents.
One British survivor of the disaster, which claimed 12 lives with 20 people still missing, branded the offer as “insulting”. It was disclosed that in an attempt to help survivors the ship’s parent company, Carnival, has been telephoning passengers daily asking if they are suffering nightmares or sleepless nights. But that move also appeared to backfire when a psychologist said such questioning could trigger post traumatic stress rather than relieve it. A little over a week after the ship capsized off the coast of Tuscany, it also emerged that:
• An emergency services log showed that the Concordia’s captain, Francisco Schettino, abandoned ship more than four hours before the last passenger.
• A separate voice recording showed Capt Schettino pledging to be the last man on the ship, suggesting erratic behaviour and that he lied to the authorities.
• Divers recovered the ship’s safe from the captain’s cabin along with the body of a woman they found in a submerged corridor
The offer for future discounts is being made by Costa Cruises, which operated the Concordia and whose parent company is Carnival, the world’s largest cruise operator.
“The company is not only going to refund everybody but they will offer a 30 per cent discount on future cruises if they want to stay loyal to the company.”
I can only imagine the meeting where some PR idiot comes up with this idea…. “OK, this is what we’re going to do.”
Researchers have used surveys, imaging scans and biopsies of women, all trying to locate and define the presumably orgasmic area on the vaginal wall known as the G-spot. Based on a review of 96 published studies, an Israeli and American research team came to one conclusion.
“Without a doubt, a discreet anatomic entity called the G-spot does not exist,” said Dr. Amichai Kilchevsky, a urology resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, and lead author of the review, published Jan. 12 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
[…]
“I think that the bulk of the evidence shows that the G-spot is not a particular thing. It’s not like saying, ‘What is the thyroid gland?'” Komisaruk said. “The G-spot is more of a thing like New York City is a thing. It’s a region, it’s a convergence of many different structures.”
[…]
“We don’t even have orgasm all figured out yet, I don’t why we would expect to have the G-spot figured out,” Herbenick said.
There you have it, men. Tell her the G-spot is like New York City and you’re a cab driver who can’t speak English well enough to know how to get her to her desired destination. Or learn how to ride a unicycle. Uh… No idea where I’m going with this…
MPAA & RIAA would love this.
Congress may take books, musical compositions and other works out of the public domain, where they can be freely used and adapted, and grant them copyright status again, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
In a 6-2 ruling, the court said that, just because material enters the public domain, it is not “territory that works may never exit.” (.pdf)
[…]
Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Ginsburg said “some restriction on expression is the inherent and intended effect of every grant of copyright.” But the top court, with Justice Elena Kagan recused, said Congress’ move to re-copyright the works to comport with an international treaty was more important.
[…]
In dissent, Justices Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito said the legislation goes against the theory of copyright and “does not encourage anyone to produce a single new work.” Copyright, they noted, was part of the Constitution to promote the arts and sciences.
Leaked Pentagon documents claim a design flaw in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has caused eight simulated landings to fail. The “F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Concurrency Quick Look Review” claimed the flaw meant that the “arrestor” hook, used to stop the plane during landing, was too close to the plane’s wheels.
When a fighter lands on an aircraft carrier an arrestor cable catches the hook on the back of the aircraft, preventing it from overshooting and ditching into the sea. The documents warn of “major consequences” to the aircraft’s structure and cast doubt on the readiness of the JSF to provide close-air support, which is seen as critical to a carrier’s role in providing amphibious landings.
The review further suggests the planes will be unable to fire the British Asraam air-to-air missile.
This could be an amazing disaster and a huge fiasco. The story should break in the coming weeks.
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This argument is too practical and realistic to get any traction.
From the you-can’t-make-this-up file:
Two years ago, fugitive murder suspect Jesse Dimmick kidnapped newlyweds Jared and Lindsay Rowley after bursting into their home on a Saturday morning.
Now, he’s suing them for $235,000.
Dimmick contends in the breach of contract suit that after he entered the couple’s home in September 2009, they reached a legally binding, oral contract that they would hide him for an unspecified amount of money.
“Later, the Rowleys reneged on said oral contract, resulting in my being shot in the back by authorities.”
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