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06 Feb 2012 10:33

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Tech, World: Google, Facebook forced to block content by Indian high court

  • last month Facing legal complaints that their sites “create enmity, hatred, and communal violence” and “will corrupt minds,” Facebook and Google told an Indian court that they could not block content, and that it would be difficult to pre-screen. The complaint was filed by a journalist, Vinay Rai, who has been on a crusade over this issue.
  • this month Facing an order from the Delhi High Court to block said content from their services, Google and Facebook say they’ve already removed objectionable content, and Facebook has submitted a compliance report to the court on Monday, but not without joining Yahoo and Microsoft in having misgivings on the case. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2012 10:16

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U.S.: Georgia court strikes down assisted suicide law on free-speech grounds

  • The State has failed to provide any explanation or evidence as to why a public advertisement or offer to assist in an otherwise legal activity is sufficiently problematic to justify an intrusion on protected speech rights.
  • The Georgia Supreme Court • In a unanimous ruling on a 1994 assisted suicide law that said two things — one, it didn’t fully make assisted suicides illegal, and two, it blocked legal forms of free speech, meaning that the law ran smack-first into the First Amendment. As a result of the incident, members of the Final Exit Network, who were facing charges over allegedly helping a cancer-stricken man die, won’t face trial for the incident. The 1994 law, passed in the wake of Jack Kevorkian, made it a felony for anyone who “publicly advertises, offers or holds himself or herself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Feb 2012 11:27

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Politics: Annoyed Paul supporters turned away from Nevada caucus for orthodox Jews

  • situation Yesterday’s Nevada caucus happened at a time that was difficult for some Jewish voters to take advantage of, due to the fact that it was happening during the sabbath. This was a problem for Sheldon Adelson, the major Nevada GOP figure who is Jewish. So, partly to account for him, a special later caucus was held after sundown on Saturday night — at a school named after Adelson.
  • problem However, Ron Paul’s camp told some voters — who weren’t Jewish, by the way — that the caucus was a “second chance” for them to vote if they missed earlier caucuses. However, this didn’t happen. Volunteers there would only let people take part if they had religious reasons to be there — a claim subject to perjury laws. “It’s discrimination,” one annoyed 23-year-old voter said. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Feb 2012 11:01

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U.S.: Missing mushroom pickers found alive after six-day ordeal

  • They just got turned around. They sought some shelter in a hollowed-out tree and basically they stayed in the same place. But it was heavy vegetation where they were.
  • Curry County, Ore. Sheriff John Bishop • Discussing the disappearance and later recovery of a family of mushroom pickers who spent six days lost in an an Oregon forest. Considering their situation — lost in a forest in freezing temperatures for roughly six days — the three family members (husband and wife Belinda and Daniel Conne and son Michael) came out of the situation relatively unscathed, with the three suffering only minor injuries. It helped that they largely stayed in the same spot. While the trio could see the helicopters circling them overhead, they had no way of sending them a signal informing them of their presence, slowing things down. The trio were lucky — former CNet editor James Kim died under similar circumstances five years ago. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Feb 2012 13:29

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World: Syria: Hillary Clinton says Russia was unwilling to budge on UN resolution

“I thought that there might be some ways to bridge, even at this last moment, a few of the concerns that the Russians had,” she told the Munich Security Conference. “I offered to work in a constructive manner to do so. That has not been possible.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2012 17:04

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Biz: Mark Zuckerberg won’t enjoy his tax bill after Facebook goes public

  • $1.5 billion in taxes for the Zuck after Facebook’s IPO source
  • » Why? Zuck plans to sell some of his shares: Back in 2005, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg received a set of new stock options for his company. With said company looking to  go public, Zuckerberg will exercise those shares before the IPO, effectively buying them at the price they were worth back then, and sell them after the IPO, effectively setting himself up for a windfall of nearly $5 billion … and one of the largest tax bills in history. It’s not like he’s gonna be broke, though — in fact, he’ll still be worth $24 billion by the end of it, much of that invested in his company. So hard for him, gotta tell you guys.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2012 16:31

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U.S.: Second teacher accused of molestation at Los Angeles-area school

  • Monday Los Angeles’ Miramonte Elementary School was cast under a pall after unspeakable allegations against one of its third-grade teachers, Mark Berndt, surfaced. We covered the allegations over here. (Note: Trigger warning.) Let’s just say it’s not pretty, and was so bad that his $2.3 million bail was increased tenfold later in the week.
  • Thursday Another student, inspired by the arrest of Berndt, came forward in regards to another teacher at the school. The teacher has been removed from their duties while the investigation continues. Also, word that Berdnt was investigated for molestation in 1994 has surfaced, leading to much anger at the school district. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Feb 2012 15:12

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Tech: Fun guy chillin’ in South American rainforest finds plastic-eating fungi

  • Seriously, though this is kind of a big deal. Know that big problem we have? You know, the one involving a crapload of used plastic hanging around in landfills with nowhere to biodegrade for a couple million years? Well, Jonathan Russell might’ve solved that problem. See, Russell and his fellow Yale students went to Ecuador, where they found a new kind of fungus they’re calling Pestalotiopsis microspora. Big deal, you’re thinking. Anyone can find fungus anywhere! Well, something his fellow students found out after the fact is that this fungus can live on a diet of polyurethane alone — and even crazier, it doesn’t even need air to do so! In other words, we could potentially put it at the bottom of a landfill and cover it with plastic, and it would do the rest of the work. This might be game-changing if it works as advertised. (photo via Flickr user dbutt; EDIT: Updated with link to research abstract) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2012 14:22

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U.S.: Anonymous records FBI call with Scotland Yard, posts it on the internet

  • The FBI might be curious how we’re able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now.
  • A tweet from an Anonymous member • Discussing how the group managed to listen in on a phone call between the FBI and Scotland Yard, discussing Ryan Cleary, a reported member of Anonymous. The group managed to listen on the call by having access to their internal e-mails, and using a password for the call distributed in one of the e-mails You can watch the video featuring the call’s audio over here, and our boy Matthew Keys has a pretty good wrap-up of the issues involved in the story. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2012 08:43

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Biz: Jobs report: Economy knocks down unemployment expectations big time

  • 243,000 number of jobs added in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly report
  • 8.3% the current unemployment rate, which is like, way lower than it’s been in a long time source
  • » Beating expectations handily: Many experts were expecting an increase in jobs, but not one this high. This is not to say we don’t have a long way to go, just that this is a very good number, especially for the time of year, when the assumption is that seasonal jobs are ending. Even better: The economy added 200,000 more jobs last year than first thought. Sounds to us like things are starting to look up. Read the full report here.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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