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30 Sep 2011 22:12

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World: Anwar al-Awlaki killing approved in secret Justice Department memo

  • As a general matter, it would be entirely lawful for the United States to target high-level leaders of enemy forces, regardless of their nationality, who are plotting to kill Americans both under the authority provided by Congress in its use of military force in the armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces as well as established international law that recognizes our right of self-defense.
  • A vague, anonymous U.S. official • Discussing and defending the American role in killing key al-Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki, whose killing was sanctioned in a secret memo put together by the Justice Department. As we pointed out earlier, al-Awlaki was a U.S. citizen, making his assassination very controversial for some, most notably Glenn Greenwald. Does the explanation above hold water? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2011 19:45

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World: Follow-up: More on the videos YouTube blocked in the UK

  • Due to the source of the content, we wanted to do some fact-checking on the banned videos we noted in our post earlier today. Nothing against Infowars.com, the authors of the original article, but we felt it was worth a double-check. So, here we go. Above is a clip of a bizarre protest that took place in March, which involved members of a nationalist anti-authority British organization called the British Constitution Group. The protests, which were covered by both BBC and The Daily Mail (which has significantly more detail and photos), showed a group of people claiming that a bankruptcy proceeding around one of the group’s members was illegal. They attempted to make a citizen’s arrest of the judge; the Magna Carta was cited as the reason they were allowed to make the citizens’ arrest. (We told you it was weird.) Above is video of what happened. If you’re in the UK, you will not be able to watch this video; If you’re in the U.S. and want to see what a blocked video looks like, click through to this proxy. Granted, the video is months old, and its blocking is also months old, but there we go. After some fact checking, we can prove that this video was in fact blocked. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2011 16:55

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Politics: “Muffingate”: Quick on the rage, slow on the follow-through (even um, us.)

  • Muffingate still provides a telling illustration of how relatively minor revelations can be turned into blood-curdling controversies. It also shows how the political and media communities move much faster to trumpet an outrage-inducing story than to set the record straight.
  • The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein • Offering a sobering take on the issue of $16 muffins from a story from a couple of weeks ago. Stein’s point: Despite the early coverage of the initial story, based on an infuriating Justice Department report, the follow-up coverage (where Hilton pointed out that the $16 wasn’t for “muffins” but a continental breakfast, written as shorthand on receipts), was a bit lacking. As a site, we admit that we didn’t even see the follow-ups ourselves (Editor’s note: I intended to do more with the story, but never got to it. Total fail on my part. — ES), but as this was a key fact, it throws the whole study into question. In retrospect, it feels more like a political hit piece — one that might have some truth to it, but blew its most important factoid. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2011 16:52

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Biz: Stock market suckage: A crappy quarter, put to bed by a crappy day

  • bad Today was not a good day for the stock market in general, with all three major indexes down more than two percent amid negative economic data from China, which raised fears that another economic slowdown was coming.
  • worse This is the final day of the quarter on Wall Street, and the results aren’t very good. The S&P, for example, lost more than 14 percent this quarter. Fears of an economic slowdown weighed on investors’ minds after the 2008 crisis. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2011 16:11

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World: YouTube removes protest videos at request of UK government

  • When viewers in the UK attempt to watch videos of the protest, they are met with the message, ‘This content is not available in your country due to a government removal request.’
  • Paul Watson on YouTube’s new partnership with the UK government over protest videos • The British government is hoping the removal of certain protest images from the popular video sharing website will prevent copycat demonstrations from forming in the future. The British government isn’t the only one requesting YouTube pull demonstration videos: A geographic search reveals the US government has also requested YouTube remove certain videos along with keyword searches. (EDIT: Due to the source of the article, we did a fact-check and confirmed that videos were in fact banned by YouTube due to a UK government request.) source
Posted by Matthew Keys • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2011 15:26

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Politics: Scott Walker’s chief of staff resigns at a somewhat suspect time

  • what Scott Walker’s chief of staff, Keith Gilkes, just decided to resign from his post. The timing is suspect due to an investigation over Walker staffers possibly doing political activities on the taxpayer’s dime.
  • why Gilkes, who says he’s not involved in the “John Doe” investigation, claims that he’s returning to his being a political consultant, but will come in from the bullpen if Walker gets recalled next year. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2011 14:58

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Tech: Report: Amazon’s Kindle Fire losing money with every single device

  • $199 the amount the Amazon Kindle Fire, launched earlier this week, costs
  • $209.63 the amount the Amazon Kindle Fire’s parts are estimated to cost source
  • » Loss leader vs. straight-up leader: Amazon knows that the thing that was going to get the Kindle Fire to sell was the price, and it appears that even though the device is going to sell at a $10 loss per unit, they’ll make that back quickly through the sale of music and other stuff. This is a situation unlike that of Apple, which sells its devices at a profit and makes money through the sale of content. But that said, Jeff Bezos is looking particularly Jobsian these days.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

30 Sep 2011 11:05

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Culture: Michelle Obama shops at Target: Today in things that suprise nobody

  • It is not uncommon for the First Lady to slip out to run an errand, eat at a local restaurant or otherwise enjoy the city outside the White House gates.
  • Michelle Obama’s communications director, Kristina Schake • Stating the obvious in the wake of the AP getting a photo of her shopping at Target. To which we say: Duh. Do you think she spends all of her time just hanging out at the White House all day? She’d go crazy. Heh. Most people don’t, however, need plainclothes Secret Service agents to enter the Target half an hour ahead of them just so they can go shopping. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2011 10:44

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World: Three reasons Anwar al-Awlaki’s assassination is a major development

  • We could say all sorts of things about Anwar al-Awlaki, but we’ll let this Yemeni official say them for us: “He’s the most dangerous man in Yemen. He’s intelligent, sophisticated, Internet-savvy, and very charismatic. He can sell anything to anyone, and right now he’s selling jihad.” A high-profile get for the United States, the al-Qaeda recruiter was killed during an ongoing bombing campaign coordinated with Yemen. Obama is expected to speak on al-Awlaki’s death soon. Why is this such a big deal? Here’s a breakdown:
  • one Anwar al-Awlaki was considered one of al-Qaeda’s top recruiters and had been highly sought after by both American and Yemeni officials for years.
  • two Al-Awlaki was also internet-savvy, using his fluent English and Web presence to draw recruits. Experts say this is a future model for terror recruitment.
  • three Despite his pedigree as a internet-savvy spiritual leader, al-Awlaki was also a U.S. citizen, meaning some see civil rights issues in this situation. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Sep 2011 23:15

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Offbeat: Ig Nobel prize: From bladders to wasabi, dubious science celebrated

  • When people reach a point when they are in so much pain they just can’t stand it anymore, it was like being drunk. The ability to hold information was really impaired.
  • Ig Nobel Prize-winning scientist Peter Snyder • Describing his team’s findings — that really having to use the bathroom creates an effect on drivers similar to driving drunk or on limited sleep — at the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize awards ceremony Thursday. Snyder’s bladder-busting team (who won for medicine) was only one of many to get awarded for their weird or dubious honors, including that crazy Lithuanian mayor who used a tank to prove his point about illegal parking (he won the Ig Nobel Peace Prize), a Norwegian group that produced a useless study on sighing (psychology), and a group of Japanese researchers who created a fire alarm that uses the smell of wasabi as its key alarm agent (chemistry). All in all, a pretty Ig Nobel night. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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