Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

25 Mar 2011 17:35

tags

World: Japan Prime Minister on Fukushima: We’re not out of the woods yet

  • Don’t consider the situation at Fukushima settled just yet. That’s the message that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in his first statements on the matter in over a week, would like to make clear. “We are making efforts to prevent it from getting worse, but I feel we cannot become complacent,” he said. “We must continue to be on our guard.” Kan’s comments come in the wake of high instability at some of the plants — yesterday, two workers got radiation burns on their feet while working on Fukushima’s No. 3 unit, which is the most dangerous of the bunch due to its use of a mixture of uranium and plutonium. The situation led to fresh concerns about whether there might be a leak in that reactor. TEPCO officials are still looking for the cause of the high radiation levels. source

25 Mar 2011 16:40

tags

Politics: Obama sure looks like he’s not really handling this Libya thing

  • I’m not going to give you a time or a day.
  • White House Press Secretary Jay Carney • Reminding us why we miss Robert Gibbs so much. Carney, offering a pretty weak answer on when Obama would directly address Libya, made the administration look the fool with an answer like this. While Carney said Obama would have an address on this issue in the “very near future,” details were lacking. It’s starting to look like Obama is not top-of-mind on this issue. This is bad. Gibbs would’ve been more direct than this. Obama looks like he’s got terrible PR. source

25 Mar 2011 13:09

tags

Biz: Once-powerful Kodak now raising money by patent trolling

  • $1 billion — the amount Kodak wants to shake out of RIM & Apple source
  • » Wait wait, how sad is this? Kodak, one of the great companies of the 20th century — and probably the one most deserving of a Paul Simon tune — has been relegated to patent troll status. Kodak claims that they hold the patent to an image-preview feature commonly used in cameraphones. The company has lost half of its market value in the past year.

25 Mar 2011 12:50

tags

Music: Watch this video! It’s for a song called “Gravy Rainbow.” Really.

  • It takes a brave human being to name a song “Gravy Rainbow,” but that’s what Disasteradio just did. It’s like Dan Deacon with fewer musical chops and more weirdness. That’s a compliment. The album, “Charisma,” is available for free, too. (thanks TNW) source

25 Mar 2011 12:33

tags

U.S.: Yikes: This billionaire dude is facing child sexual assault charges

  • Meet Samuel Curtis Johnson, right. Do us a favor and initialize his first and middle name, and then add the word “Wax” after Johnson. As you might have noticed, he’s a billionaire heir to a family that founded a major cleaning-supplies company. For a while, he was the Chairman of a spinoff company, Diversey Inc. (He hasn’t had a formal relationship with his namesake company in years.) Now, the 55-year-old man is in a lot of trouble – charged with having repeatedly sexually assaulted a child, now 15. He could face 40 years in prison if convicted. A terrible, awful story — that it involves a billionaire is the least of the problems here. source

25 Mar 2011 11:49

tags

World: Yesterday’s Myanmar earthquake: By the numbers

  • 6.8 the magnitude of the quake that hit Myanmar about a day ago
  • 74+ people have been killed by the quake, which was just over 6 miles deep
  • 111+ people have been injured … landslides are still a major risk source

24 Mar 2011 20:52

tags

World: Syrian violence: Huge protests in Deraa, but a very bloody day

  • In the blog entry we’re linking at the end of this post, Andrew Sullivan threw up two videos from Syria. This one shows a wounded man lying on the ground, and another person taking his belt and using it as a tourniquet for his wound. While harrowing, it shows nothing particularly violent. The other clip, however, is bloody. And scary. The crowds today were very large — with some putting the numbers at around 20,000 — but the scene was also very bloody. Dozens have died this week, but the Jerusalem Post says the number could be much higher. source
 

24 Mar 2011 20:32

tags

World: NATO: You want us to take over in Libya? Let us sleep on it.

  • What we have decided today is that NATO will enforce the no-fly zone. We are considering whether NATO should take on overall responsibility. That decision has not been made yet.
  • NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen • Speaking about NATO’s plan to help enforce the no-fly zone in Libya. However, Obama wanted more than this from NATO.  He wanted them to take over the whole UN-backed operation — including the airstrikes bit. From what it sounds like, something’s holding them back from doing something like that. Hm. We wonder what. source

24 Mar 2011 15:15

tags

World: Want to hear the most depressing thing ever? Us neither!

  • before Thousands upon thousands of Egyptians rallied at Tahrir Square, engineering an overthrow of Hosni Mubarak by peaceful protest. It was a grandly inspirational moment, one that we all watched with exhilaration.
  • now The military-led Egyptian government just approved a law imposing an enormous fine or prison time for inciting protests that interfere with “public or private work.” Well, it was certainly nice while it lasted. source

24 Mar 2011 15:02

tags

Politics: Prop. 8: Plea to lift stay on California gay marriage rejected

  • It is decidedly unjust and unreasonable to expect California’s gay and lesbian couples to put their lives on hold and suffer daily discrimination as second-class citizens while their U.S. District Court victory comes to its final conclusion.
  • Chad Griffin, chairman of The American Foundation For Civil Rights • Speaking on the rejected plea to lift the stay on the Proposition 8 ruling. The proposition, which was approved by voters in the 2008 election, was ruled unconstitutional by Judge Vaughn Walker last year, but a stay was put on his ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This was broadly thought to be a delay on the resumption of gay marriage in the state so that if/when a higher court examined the issue, the marriages wouldn’t again have to be halted if Walker’s verdict was overturned. Gay rights advocates are understandably unhappy, as the stay could conceivably last a year, and if civil rights are infringed, we suspect that’s not the expedient remedy most people would feel entitled to. source