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28 Oct 2009 11:17

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World: The UN’s trying to look into Zimbabwe torture allegations. It can’t.

  • Recent allegations that MDC supporters and human rights defenders have been arrested, harassed and intimidated during the past few days, highlight the urgency of objective fact-finding by an independent UN expert.
  • The United Nations • In a statement on the inability of its investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, to enter the country. This is bad for multiple reasons, but worst of all is that the power-sharing government that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party was to have with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party has failed. Word on the street is that Mugabe’s party may be engaged in violence. If this is true, it’s sad for Tsvangirai, who has fought tooth and nail for Zimbabwe’s people despite Mugabe’s resistance. • source

28 Oct 2009 11:09

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Tech: Ares I-X: A look into the next generation of NASA

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  • 48 years ago today, NASA launched its first Saturn I “space launcher,” an important development in the history of space exploration. In a big way, the Ares I-X test flight, in the midst of launching, has a similar historic impact. It’s the first shot in the space agency’s next generation of spacecraft. Nerds are aflutter for this reason.source

28 Oct 2009 10:57

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28 Oct 2009 10:48

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Biz, Tech: Messing with GPS: Google is no longer friends with TomTom

  • There’s no doubt that those guys are going to be disrupted.
  • Opus Research analyst Greg Sterling • On Google’s decision to offer free navigation software for mobile phones, essentially taking the GPS navigation abilities of TomTom and Garmin and making them look expensive and useless. Google does this a lot, and it has the effect of creating animosity in certain industries. For his part, Google CEO Eric Schmidt says he doesn’t see it as disruption, just helping consumers: “Obviously we like the price of free because consumers like that as well.” • source

28 Oct 2009 10:38

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Offbeat: Baseballs using “magic mud”: Surprisingly, not a dirty joke

Apparently, the Delaware River has just the right mud to make baseballs awesome. It’s been gathered from the area for 44 years. source

28 Oct 2009 10:31

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Politics: Sarah Palin’s plan of a big post-gubernatorial payday working

  • $1.25 million the amount Sarah Palin admitted she got advanced for writing “Going Rogue,” according to financial disclosure statements source

28 Oct 2009 10:23

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Biz: Everyone sucks in newspapers except the Wall Street Journal

The Awl recently put together a graph showing how crappy the newspaper industry was doing. It wasn’t pretty. Not at all. source
 

28 Oct 2009 10:16

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World: Also suffering from a major attack today: Northwest Pakistan

  • 86 dead and 100 injured in yet another car bombing source

28 Oct 2009 10:06

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World: Afghan attack: UN workers don’t feel safe right now

  • I’m in another guesthouse maybe 200 metres as the crow flies from the Bekhtar, and believe me right now I feel vulnerable. I would like the UN to consider our security very seriously indeed as the current operational standards are patently ineffective.
  • An anonymous United Nations worker • Describing their feelings on the attack on a UN guest house in Kabul, Afghanistan. As the UN is needed in the war-torn country right now, the organization should probably heed this concern. It’s one thing when civilians are getting attacked. It’s another thing entirely when impartial humanitarian workers are. • source

28 Oct 2009 10:03

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World: An attack on UN workers in Afghanistan leaves the world in shock

  • six United Nations workers were killed in the attack in Kabul today source