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27 May 2011 18:31

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U.S.: Joplin tornado death toll numbers get murky, confusing

  • 156 people reported missing in the Joplin tornado, down from 232
  • 90 people formerly on the list were found alive, which is a relief
  • 22 more, however, were added to the list in the past day source
  • » And this is where the numbers really get confusing: With two different organizations — the state of Missouri and the city of Joplin — reporting two different official death toll figures (126 and 132, respectively), and around 19 of the missing identified as victims on the list of those accounted for, you’d be forgiven for being a bit confused by all these numbers. Let’s simplify it for you: It was a lot of people, and those still alive have a lot to recover from.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 May 2011 13:22

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U.S.: Army’s abandoned weapons programs pretty darn ¢O$tly

Since 1995, the U.S. Army has spent $32 billion on military programs (like the Comanche helicopter, shown) it later abandoned. Why? With defense, supply is expensive and demand is unknown. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 May 2011 09:40

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World: G8 Summit: Arab Spring nations will receive billions in aid

  • what G8 leaders plan to pledge around $20 billion to Arab Spring countries — particularly Egypt and Tunisia, where successful protests led to the ousting of dictators and the possible rise of democracy.
  • why To put it simply, they feel that if they don’t, the countries could face economic hardships that might lead to the rise of extremism. Many G8 nations will also act on their own to help the countries. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 May 2011 09:30

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U.S.: Hundreds still unaccounted for after Joplin tornado: Where are they?

  • Our goal is to get that number to zero. We will dedicate as much state resources as needed around the clock to ensure those family who have loved ones that they cannot find are connected.
  • Missouri Department of Public Safety Deputy Director Andrea Spillars • Describing the group’s goal to whittle down the list of 232 missing people in Joplin — some of whom are amongst the 126 killed in Sunday’s storm, but perhaps haven’t been identified. Others may remain missing, but others still may have skipped town without informing friend and relatives of their departure. Let’s hope it’s the latter. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 May 2011 09:10

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U.S.: Air France Flight 447 crash: Flight recorders reveal new details

  • 3.5 minute freefall before the plane crashed into the ocean source
  • » That’s what the black box recorders say: Details are finally coming to light about Air France Flight 447, which crashed mysteriously two years ago. While officials found debris from the flight weeks after the crash, the flight recorders weren’t found until recently. According to the recently-discovered black box, the plane descended at a speed of 180 feet per second. Evidence shows that the least-experienced of the pilots led the flight until nearly two minutes before the crash. Officials recovered the two flight recorders 12,800 feet beneath the Atlantic.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 May 2011 17:30

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World: Ratko Mladic arrives at war crimes court in Serbia

  • Ratko Mladic arrives in court: Mladic, one of the most sought-after international figures in the world, was caught today and brought before a court in Serbia for war crimes and genocide, making this a very big day in the world of both international and Serbian justice. Mladic eluded capture for sixteen years. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 May 2011 17:09

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U.S.: Report: John Ensign made life harder for John Ensign

  • John Ensign fouls up his legal situation: A report by Reuters today suggests that a decision by John Ensign himself may have paved the way for the charges he could be facing. Throughout the probe, investigators had wanted to get a look at a trove of Ensign’s e-mails, which he and his team claimed were protected by attorney-client confidentiality. The probe could very well have gone nowhere without them. That is, until Ensign himself handed them over as he was preparing to leave the Senate, after having refused for 18 months. Why on earth he did this is unknown, but it seems he may have scored an “own goal” here. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

26 May 2011 16:14

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Politics: Disney abandons plan to trademark “Seal Team 6”

  • then In the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, when most people were either earnestly celebrating, or having thoughtful discussions about why they weren’t, Disney was trying to trademark “Seal Team 6,” the name of the unit that did the deed.
  • now With the Navy applying for trademarks on both “Navy SEAL” (nobody ever tried to trademark “Navy SEAL” before?) and “Team 6,” Disney has scrapped their plans, citing “deference to the Navy.” We think the initial idea sort of discredits that notion. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 May 2011 15:51

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U.S.: Obama Judicial nominee Goodwin Liu asks to withdraw his name

  • Goodwin Liu says goodbye: One of the many contentious battles between the Republican Party and the Obama administration may come to a close, as judicial nominee Goodwin Liu has asked the President to withdraw his name from consideration. Obama nominated Liu on February 24th, 2010, and he’s languished in the Senate approvals process ever since. His nomination was a hit with the President’s liberal base, as Liu is rather liberal himself (and a UC Berkeley professor, to boot), but that made the political strategy for the GOP all too obvious. With the strength of the Senate filibuster still in hand, they decided to wait it out, hoping that Senate gridlock would scuttle his nomination. It seems that they were right. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 May 2011 15:18

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World: Chinese labor camps: Where MMO games stop being fun?

  • World of Warcraft meets the world of forced labor: The Guardian has an interview up today with a 54-year-old prisoner at the Jixi labor camp in China, who makes an extremely bizarre and terrible claim; that prison bosses forced some inmates to play World of Warcraft after finishing the day’s grueling physical labor. The idea is that they’re being forced to grind out high-level characters with choice equipment and lots of gold, which are then sold by the guards to cash-rich, lazy gamers who want all the gain with none of the pain. It’s sort of like the anti-drug argument that your money might be financing terrorism or violence — don’t take the shortcut to World of Warcraft glory, or you might do it on the back of a Chinese prisoner. Bizarre story. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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