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03 Apr 2011 13:45

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Politics: National Transportation Safety Board weighs in on Flight 812

  • Was the aircraft well maintained and should it have been maintained better? That is exactly why we are here, to look at why this problem occurred… We did find evidence of widespread cracking across this entire fracture surface.
  • NTSB member Robert Sumwalt • Speaking at a press conference regarding the nearly calamitous defect on Southwest Airlines Flight 812 last Friday, which tore open a piece of the overhead fuselage. Some 300 flights have been canceled to free up the Southwest 737s now subject to inspection, “aircraft skin fatigue” being what inspectors consider the most likely culprit (thanks to producermatthew for his great work on this). source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 21:52

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Politics: Americans woefully misinformed, part two

  • 19% of Americans think Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House source
  • » Even more discouraging: That number was at 13% after Republicans won the House in November. That means the percentage of people who incorrectly believe that Pelosi is still Speaker has increased since she handed to gavel over to John Boehner (who, by the way, is only correctly identified as Speaker of the House by 43% of Americans). Sigh.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 21:26

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Politics: Senate Republicans endorse balanced-budget amendment; policy wonks’ heads explode

  • Every single Senate Republican has endorsed a constitutional amendment that would’ve made Ronald Reagan’s fiscal policy unconstitutional. That’s how far to the right the modern GOP has swung.
  • Ezra Klein • Analyzing (demolishing is more like it) the merits of the Balanced Budget Amendment, which all 47 Senate Republicans have endorsed. The amendment would require 2/3 majorities in both chambers of Congress in order to enact any tax increases, and wouldn’t allow total spending per year to exceed 18% of GDP. Bruce Bartlett, former domestic policy advisor to Reagan, has said that the proposed amendment is “quite possibly the stupidest constitutional amendment I think I have ever seen,” and that it “looks like it was drafted by a couple of interns on the back of a napkin.” Ouch. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 21:08

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Politics: Pander to the Birthers, and Fox News will give you gig

  • rhetoric Donald Trump has been stoking the Birther fires lately, repeatedly questioning President Obama’s place of birth (and, by extension, the legitimacy of his presidency).
  • result Fox News has given Trump his own weekly segment, “Monday Mornings With Trump.” We mean “given” in the literal sense; Fox says that Trump isn’t being paid. source
  • » Fun fact: In announcing Trump’s new gig, Fox amusingly referred to the billionaire TV star as “The Donald.” Admittedly, this nickname format rolls off the tongue much better with Trump than with other 2012 contenders (The Mike, The Mitt, The Newt, etc).
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 19:51

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World: Radioactive water continues to leak into ocean from Fukushima

  • NO concrete fails to plug irradiated water leak at Fukushima source
  • » The flow has continued at a seemingly unchanged rate. This is bad news for pretty obvious reasons- the leak, coming through an eight-inch crack in a pit containing power cables, is sending water irradiated at 1000 millisieverts per hour into the ocean. Having tried pumping in concrete and failed to make any progress, TEPCO’s next plan is to employ a similar strategy using a type of polymer. Polymer spraying has already been happening throughout the plant, in an effort to prevent radioactive isotopes from escaping into the environment.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 13:38

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World: Nine people killed in Kandahar amid Koran-burning protest

  • Blood continues to flow over Terry Jones: Yesterday, we mentioned the deaths in Afghanistan that had occurred when a protest against Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones boiled over. Sadly, the violence has spread: 9 more have been killed in Kandahar, ostensibly because Jones burned several Islamic holy texts on March 20th. Not to belabor our earlier point, but it seems worthwhile to balance disdain for Jones’ self-serving and gross bigotry with some basic honesty about what it’s caused- namely, that a danger intrinsic to any religion that takes itself very seriously is that it can cause overreactions to slights against it. The deaths of 20 people in 2 days because somebody on the other side of the planet burned some books is a tragic example. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 12:53

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World: Gbagbo’s forces not done fighting in Abidjan

  • yesterday Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the elected leader of the Ivory Coast, stormed into Abidjan to oust Laurent Gbagbo, who has waged a bloody battle to stay in power. The Ouattara forces were thought to be quite close to ousting Gbagbo.
  • today The Red Cross says that some 800 people have been massacred in the  town of Duekoue, while Gbagbo has gained ground by retaking the state T.V. network, a powerful outlet that has been accused of inciting violence during the conflict.  source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

02 Apr 2011 12:09

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U.S.: Rally at Mississippi Capitol for Scott sisters pardon

  • NO Haley Barbour won’t give the Scott sisters a full pardon source
  • » The Governor won’t have it: A rally was held outside the Mississippi State Capitol building yesterday, urging Governor Haley Barbour to grant a full pardon to the Scott sisters, Gladys and Jamie. It’s been 16 years since the two received double life sentences for armed robbery, a punishment that was absurdly severe even if presuming the sisters’ guilt- check out this great article by The New York Times’ Bob Herbert to brush up on the story. Barbour suspended their sentences indefinitely earlier this year, because Jamie had kidney disease and Gladys was offering a transplant, so they now have their freedom back. Barbour’s response on properly pardoning the two, though? “Tell ’em don’t save any space in the newspaper for that to be announced.”
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Apr 2011 23:53

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U.S.: Cause for hope in cancer rate findings

  • 1% reduction in new cancers each year from 2003 to 2007 source
  • » That’s within the U.S. population: This continues a general trend that’s been observed since the 1990s. The suggested explanation is an increased success in screening and preventive measures, and less prevalence of cancer linked habits like tobacco. The news is not entirely rosy, though- cancer rates have increased in children, forms of leukemia being the most common, though the rate of cancer death in children is still down thanks to improvements in treatment.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Apr 2011 23:30

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Politics: Americans woefully misinformed on government funding of NPR

  • 5% share of the federal budget that Americans believe goes toward funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
  • .01% share of the federal budget that actually goes toward funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting source
  • » That 5% figure represents the median prediction Americans made when asked how much of the US government’s spending goes toward funding NPR’s parent organization. Very off-base, yes–but that’s just the median guess! Insanely, 5% of respondents believed that half of the country’s entire budget is given to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. Relatedly, the average respondent thought foreign aid accounts for 10% of the budget, when it’s really more like 1%.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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