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Script writer: Vivek Kundra.
Found by Tobiah Marks via Twitter.
I discovered that nothing kills a friendly dinnertime conversation with non-geek folk like revealing Facebook’s shady operations.
And Bernanke can’t stop laughing…
The Federal Reserve has opened this Sunday a program to bailout an unknown number of Europe’s central banks.
Since the Fed is only a quasi-governmental agency, it does not have to disclose nor how much nor to whom the money is going, which means that the Fed’s friends (i.e. international bankers) will get all the dough while hardworking American taxpayers suffer through higher taxes and inflation.
AP has more details:
The move comes after the European Union and International Monetary Fund pledged a nearly $1 trillion defense package for the embattled euro, hoping to calm jittery markets and halt attacks on the eurozone’s weakest members.
- Twitter fixes force-follow bug.
- Android sales growing. Some say they are beating Apple?
- iPad scandal in Europe. Weird.
- Let’s all catch up with WiGig. What is it?
- Twitter Bomber convicted.
- HP Slate coming back in third quarter.
- MSFT Office 2010 to get put on iPad?
- Windows 2000 support disappearing in July for good.
- Cisco getting into set-top box DVR business. Have fun boys!
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Treat prisoners like human beings? Bizarre! You’ll always have a few who don’t want to change, but for the rest, isn’t it better to try to help them rather than warehouse them with the expectation of failure? Or is our current system of retribution and punishment that only leads to more crime when they get out the only way?
Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million) in the making, [Halden prison] is spread over 75 acres (30 hectares) of gently sloping forest in southeastern Norway. The facility boasts amenities like a sound studio, jogging trails and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. Unlike many American prisons, the air isn’t tinged with the smell of sweat and urine. Instead, the scent of orange sorbet emanates from the “kitchen laboratory” where inmates take cooking courses. “In the Norwegian prison system, there’s a focus on human rights and respect,” says Are Hoidal, the prison’s governor. “We don’t see any of this as unusual.”
Halden, Norway’s second largest prison, with a capacity of 252 inmates, opened on April 8. It embodies the guiding principles of the country’s penal system: that repressive prisons do not work and that treating prisoners humanely boosts their chances of reintegrating into society. “When they arrive, many of them are in bad shape,” Hoidal says, noting that Halden houses drug dealers, murderers and rapists, among others. “We want to build them up, give them confidence through education and work and have them leave as better people.” Countries track recidivism rates differently, but even an imperfect comparison suggests the Norwegian model works. Within two years of their release, 20% of Norway’s prisoners end up back in jail. In the U.K. and the U.S., the figure hovers between 50% and 60%.
Science Magazine
We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular. All citizens should understand some basic scientific facts. There is always some uncertainty associated with scientific conclusions; science never absolutely proves anything. When someone says that society should wait until scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action, it is the same as saying society should never take action. For a problem as potentially catastrophic as climate change, taking no action poses a dangerous risk for our planet.
Scientific conclusions derive from an understanding of basic laws supported by laboratory experiments, observations of nature, and mathematical and computer modeling. Like all human beings, scientists make mistakes, but the scientific process is designed to find and correct them. This process is inherently adversarial—scientists build reputations and gain recognition not only for supporting conventional wisdom, but even more so for demonstrating that the scientific consensus is wrong and that there is a better explanation. That’s what Galileo, Pasteur, Darwin, and Einstein did. But when some conclusions have been thoroughly and deeply tested, questioned, and examined, they gain the status of “well-established theories” and are often spoken of as “facts.”
Read the whole letter… it’s only one page. Now get ready… start arguing.
Found by Misanthropic Scott on Cage Match.
The Vancouver Sun
India’s nuclear power regulator has turned to Canada for help after a tragic incident in which a gamma-ray generator purchased 40 years ago from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. was mistakenly sold for scrap by the University of Delhi — killing one recycler and leaving at least six others with severe radiation sickness requiring possible bone-marrow transplants.
An Indian government panel is already investigating how one of that country’s leading universities could have trashed a highly radioactive instrument along with old tables and chairs from a chemistry lab.
Following the Feb. 26 sale of the Canadian-made machine to a scrap dealer in Mayapuri — an industrial suburb of Delhi, the Indian capital — the lead housing around its radioactive components was pried opened and 12 of the 16 cobalt-60 rods or “pencils” were removed, some ending up in the shops of metal dealers around the city.
Read the whole article… very interesting.
Found by Obtuser on Cage Match.
On Thursday, Senators Scott Brown and Joe Lieberman introduced the Terrorist Expatriation Bill, which would strip the citizenship of any American, naturalized or native-born, found to have supported or joined a terrorist group. While the ruling could be appealed in court, the designation itself wouldn’t require any sort of hearing or that the accused be convicted of a crime. The person’s citizenship would simply be removed on the say-so of the State Department.
It’s understandable, after the recent Times Square incident involving a naturalized Pakistani, that Brown and Lieberman would seek to beef up anti-terrorism laws. But this bill is a misguided, opportunistic attempt to do so — and one that represents the most damaging, retrograde anti-terror legal ideas.
[…]
It may be an effective campaign slogan to proclaim that terrorists should have no rights, but it leads to a deeply problematic set of policies. American citizens have legal rights to protect them against false government accusations; bills like the one that Lieberman and Brown are pushing effectively make people guilty until proven innocent. It’s a travesty of justice that’s offensive to basic American liberties.
In one experiment involving puppets, babies aged six months old showed a strong preference to ‘good’ helpful characters – and rejected unhelpful, ‘naughty’ ones.
In another, they even acted as judge and jury. When asked to take away treats from a ‘naughty’ puppet, some babies went further – and dished out their own punishment with a smack on its head.
They suggest that the difference between good and bad may be hardwired into the brain at birth.
More photos here. He has his own Facebook page.
A dog that has been seen at nearly every demonstration in Athens over the last two years has turned up again during the recent protests against new austerity measures
I wonder what kind of animal mascot the US will have at its riots when the mess in Greece cascades through Europe and comes to America?
“That’s a lot of TJ Hooker impersonators! What? Oh…”
Arguably, the soccer World Cup is to the sex industry what the holiday season is to candy shops. A temporary surge of excited people feeling collectively festive, willing to pay for a bit of extra indulgence.
South Africa’s Drug Central Authority estimates 40,000 sex workers will trickle in for the event from as far as Russia, the Congo and Nigeria to cater to the wide taste spectrum of some 400,000, mostly male, visitors and their apres-soccer needs.
Henry Africa, 49, drives a taxi in Cape Town and, aside from the usual airport pickups and winery tours, he also operates the “Bright Red Tour,” which he expects to be a hit among soccer fans. For the equivalent of 500 dollars, he’ll shuttle customers from strip bar to strip bar all night and even bring them over to a safe-sex practicing prostitute, a relevant selling point in a country where one in five adults are estimated to be HIV positive.
[…]
Even President Jacob Zuma — himself a polygamist, father of at least 20 children and an infamous condom skeptic — isn’t taking any frivolous chances with the World Cup. During his official visit to the United Kingdom in March, he asked the government to supply 1 billion extra condoms to South Africa before the upcoming tournament.
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This Episode’s Executive Producers: Howard G. Hill, Kent Zieser
Associate Executive Producer: Noah Kuttler Artwork by: Randy Asher Knighthood: Howard G. Hill Listen to show by clicking ► Direct link to show. |
LAST EPISODE COMING BEFORE THE 200th Show. Celebrate with us with a Deuce Club Membership here.
Most are casting this as outing an incumbent during a time when there is much hatred of the way Congress works.
Three-term Sen. Bob Bennett became the first victim this year of a wave of voter anger toward Washington in a defeat that will likely send a jolt through incumbents everywhere.
[…]
When it was announced that Bennett had been eliminated from the race, a huge ovation swept through the convention hall and there were hoots and shouts of “He’s gone! He’s gone!” Other delegates hugged and tea party members waved their yellow “Do Not Tread On Me” flags.
[…]
Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University, said that while Bennett’s defeat may have been an anomaly attributable to Utah’s unique convention system, any time a long-serving incumbent is beaten it sends shock waves.“I think all incumbents are nervous right now. The polls are just showing that voters are unhappy with Democrats or Republicans,” he said.
Some, however, see Bennett, considered one of the Senate’s most conservative members, as not being conservative enough in that he voted for TARP and worked on healthcare with a Democrat.
Bennett, 76, initially faced seven Republican opponents who said he wasn’t conservative enough for ultraconservative Utah. Lee, 38, and Bridgewater, 49, campaigned largely by saying they’re better suited to rein in government spending than Bennett.
“I will fight every day as your U.S. senator for limited government, to end the cradle-to-grave entitlement mentality, for a balanced budget, to protect our flag, our borders and our national security and for bills that can be read before they receive a final vote in congress,” Lee said in his convention speech.
On the other hand, there’s this:
Utah’s quirky candidate selection process too often disenfranchises the rank and file. Electoral decisions are made by a few on behalf of the many thanks to a party caucus and convention system that concentrates the power in the hands of party elites.
For example, all it will take at Saturday’s Republican state convention is 2,100 votes — 60 percent of the delegates — for a U.S. Senate candidate to advance directly to the general election against a token Democrat. In other words, 2,100 people may speak for nearly 3 million. As a result, Utah voting rates are among the worst in the nation.
So, where does this leave other Republicans up for reelection this year? What about Democrats?
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