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Psyche's Links: 2014 : 15,525 Links

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Wednesday's Morning Email: Possible AirAsia Wreck Found at Bottom of Java Sea
Indonesia says one body from AirAsia plane was wearing life jacket | Reuters

35 killed and 42 injured in stampede at Shanghai’s New Year celebrations | World news | The Guardian - Chinese reports says injuries occurred at riverfront Bund area, which has become overcrowded during big events in the past

Eschaton: Just A Good Old Boy - I really can't believe there's some debate about whether a prominent Lousiana politician really knew just what that nice Mr. David Duke thought about things. (really)
House Republicans move to contain fallout from Scalise, Grimm controversies - The Washington Post - Republican leaders moved forcefully on Tuesday to control the damage from a pair of scandals that have suddenly disrupted the party as it prepares to take full control on Capitol Hill. (crooks and racists? shut up)
How Louisiana Blogger Lamar White, Jr. Landed The Steve Scalise White Supremacist Scoop
David Duke: the former Ku Klux Klan leader at the centre of Scalise scandal | US news | The Guardian - Republican Steve Scalise’s link to the former KKK Grand Wizard and presidential hopeful has proved politically toxic. But over the course of a two-hour conversation with the Guardian, Duke insisted he’s not a racist

It's Official: Obama Won't Renominate Michael Boggs - The news is a major victory for progressives who have fought Boggs' nomination all year (the great triangulator)

Yes, There is a Laffer Curve. No, It Tells Us Nothing About What Tax Rates Should Be | Ten Miles Square | The Washington Monthly - Does anyone at the Washington Post read their Op-Eds before they go up? Like, a quick check for coherence and plausibility? Today we have the Heritage Foundation’s chief economist (really) getting everything about the Laffer Curve wrong. (ho-ho, we screwed you with this piece of bullshit)

When New York City Police Walk Off the Job - NYTimes.com - The list of grievances adds up to very little, unless you look at it through the magnifying lens of resentment fomented by union bosses and right-wing commentators (cops hate voters and the people they elect)

She's not getting any better at this. - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Shorter Phyllis Wise: “I apologize for using the wrong crap excuse for firing Salaita. (No, I won’t be identifying an alternative.) Also, what’s wrong with this guy that he won’t take a payoff to go away?”

7 Big Public Education Stories of 2014 | Alternet - From ed-tech companies that bit the dust to tens of thousands of students opting out of testing, this was a big year for a new kind of education reform.
The Year in Education - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Between the growth in parents opting their students out of stupid standardized testing, the rapid retreat of the technofuturists and their program of replacing professors with MOOCs, a real push back against Teach for America and its union busting program, and stories about the corruption of charter schools (and hopefully someone took the subtle anti-charter school message from True Detective), the year in education policy was unexpectedly someone less terrible than usual.

Four more resign from TNR - POLITICO.com - Managing editor Linda Kinstler, deputy editor Amanda Silverman, assistant literary editor Becca Rothfeld and reporter Yishai Schwartz all submitted their resignations to the TNR leadership. Silverman and Schwartz will leave this week, Kinstler and Rothfeld in January - because of frustrations with TNR's direction under Hughes and Vidra. (iibertariantechnoaspbergerrichdudes gave 1 or 2 thousand dollar bonuses for remaining staff! Hughes broke his toy, for which he will forever be known)
Four More Staff Members Reportedly Resign From The New Republic - Hughes has been called "ham-handed" as well as "callow and incompetent"

Idaho woman shot dead by two-year-old son was successful nuclear scientist | US news | The Guardian - Veronica Rutledge, 29, remembered by friends and family as a ‘beautiful, young, loving mother’ after she was killed in a shooting accident at Idaho Walmart (so she left her little gun in a zippered pocket of her bag with bullet in chamber and safety off) ( Blackfoot mayor Paul Loomis said. “My expectation whenever I meet somebody on the street is they might be packing ... “I think there is an attitude that we’re just a bunch of gunslingers, and that is not the case,”
2-Year-Old Grabs Mom's Concealed Gun, Fatally Shoots Her - A 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother after he reached into her purse at a northern Idaho Wal-Mart and her concealed gun fired, authorities said Tuesday.
The inside story of how an Idaho toddler shot his mom at Wal-Mart - The Washington Post

Is there still a case against Serial's Adnan Syed after Jay Wilds' interview? | Rabia Chaudry | Comment is free | The Guardian

People in Religious, Conservative States Seek Out More Porn
People in Religious and Conservative States Seek Out More Pornography Online : science
Stats Archives – Pornhub Insights

Kiryas Joel, New York - According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Kiryas Joel has by far the youngest median age population of any municipality in the United States,[1] and the youngest, at 13.2 years old, of any population center of over 5,000 residents in the United States.[2] Residents of Kiryas Joel, like those of other Haredi Jewish communities, typically have large families. According to 2008 census figures, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation. More than two-thirds of residents live below the federal poverty line and 40% receive food stamps.
A Not-So-Simple Majority | This American Life
Brazen Voting Fraud Alleged Among Ultra-Orthodox In Williamsburg: Gothamist

OUT2connect - Kiryas Joel: Corruption Hidden Under a Religious Blanket

The Truth Will Set You Free: Hasidic Mobsters running amuck in NY state

What are the best subreddits that you discovered in 2014? : AskReddit
Cool Guides

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First Ebola boy likely infected by playing in bat tree - The Ebola victim who is believed to have triggered the current outbreak - a two-year-old boy called Emile Ouamouno from Guinea - may have been infected by playing in a hollow tree housing a colony of bats, say scientists.
Ebola Crisis Made Worse By IMF Austerity Plans For Africa: Study (austerity can only be failed)

U.S. Flu Numbers At Epidemic Threshold, Say CDC - Flu season is in full swing in the United States, and the proportion of deaths related to flu infections have reached epidemic threshold, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

AirAsia flight QZ8501: families receive brutal confirmation of lost plane’s fate | World news | The Guardian - Grisly footage shown on live TV triggers hysteria at airport after debris spotted six miles from where aircraft vanished
AirAsia flight QZ8501: crews continue grim task of retrieving bodies and wreckage – rolling report | World news | The Guardian - After items spotted from the air led to confirmation of the flight’s fate on Tuesday, authorities begin the recovery effort and search for clues to the cause of the crash

Oil hits five-and-a-half-year low below $57 on supply glut : News : Daily News Now - as a global supply glut outweighed concerns of lost supply from Libya where battling militias have closed ports.
‘Putin is destroying Russia. Why base his regime on corruption?’ asks Navalny | World news | The Guardian - Russia’s opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner, held under house arrest, says president is using war to stay in power
Alexei Navalny Breaks House Arrest To Join Moscow Rally
As oil falls, Russia choked by military, social spending | Reuters

The Afghan war that didn't really end yesterday ended in defeat - CSMonitor.com - None of the claimed long term objectives for the war in Afghanistan, either from the Bush or Obama administrations, have been achieved. (except more dead people)

Sony hack: sacked employees could be to blame, researchers claim | Film | The Guardian - Exchanges in secretive web forums point to former employees with a grudge, researchers claim, and could explain how hackers knew how to navigate Sony’s systems
New Research Blames Insiders, Not North Korea, for Sony Hack | TIME - The latest allegations add to growing skepticism over the FBI’s assertion — reiterated by President Barack Obama — that linked North Korea to the attack, which the country has denied.
Revealed: the young men who ruined Christmas for Xbox and PlayStation gamers
North Korean defector details 'human experiments' | Asia | DW.DE | 30.12.2014 - A former officer in Pyongyang's armed forces says mentally and physically disabled children are used as subjects in chemical weapons experiments in North Korea, a claim denied by the supporters of the communist nation.

Ultra-Orthodox Men Cause Flight Delay By Refusing To Sit By Women, Again - An international Delta Airlines flight was reportedly delayed for roughly half an hour when several ultra-Orthodox Jewish men refused to sit next to female passengers.
Groups of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men keep delaying flights by refusing to sit next to women - World - News - The Independent
Groups of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men keep delaying flights by refusing to sit next to women:A flight from New York to Tel Aviv was delayed by half an hour last week after a group of male ultra-Orthodox Jewish passengers refused to sit next to women, the third such incident in recent months. : news

'Nut rage': Korean Air ex-executive Cho Hyun-ah detained
China businessman jailed for 13 years for buying and eating three tigers - East Asia News & Top Stories - The Straits Times - The wealthy real estate developer, identified only by his surname Xu, has "a special hobby of grilling tiger bones, boning tiger paws, storing tiger penis, eating tiger meat and drinking tiger blood alcohol", the official Xinhua news agency said in June when he went on trial.

Eschaton: Um Because Even Proponents Never Had Any Explanation For How It Would Work? - Nowhere have austerity policies been more aggressively tried — and generally failed to live up to results promised by advocates — than in Greece. After more than four years of belt tightening, patience is wearing thin, and tentative signs of improvement have not yet trickled down into the lives of average Greeks.

Nothing Is Really New, Cont'd - Esquire - the political use to which the murder of two New York police officers is being put by people who have an interest in squashing a serious investigation into the problem of militarized police violence in this country against those whom the police consider to be their expendable fellow citizens. Keep Marching On | JacobinThe recent killing of two New York City police officers can’t be allowed to silence the movement against police brutality.
Police Respect Squandered in Attacks on de Blasio - NYTimes.com
De Blasio and the Men in the N.Y.P.D. Who Turn Their Backs

Newly Elected Republican Senators Sign Pledge to Eliminate Food Stamp Program in 2015 - There is a right way and a wrong to improve our country’s welfare system, and the President’s policies just aren’t working. We need to put poor people first and lower costs,” Senator Gardner said in a statement (lowering costs to nothing will help them a lot)

Revel utility misses bond payment, wants to shut off building - ACR Energy Partners L.L.C., which owns and operates the central utility plant attached to the bankrupt Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, did not have enough money to make a $6.9 million interest payment to bondholders due Dec. 1, according to a regulatory filing.

More adults are using weed in the states that legalized, but teen use is flat - The Washington Post

A brief history of college football coaching salaries in the context of the new Gilded Age - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Harbaugh has signed a contract worth a reported $48 million over six years ... So Jim Harbaugh is going to get paid as much per year as 70 University of Michigan professors, or 250 clerical employees, or a nearly infinite number of adjuncts. This seems . . . disturbing.

Idaho court tosses verdict after prosecutor quotes 'Dixie' in closing | US news | The Guardian - Judges say racism in song’s lyrics may have swayed jury to convict black man in sexual assault of white teenagers
Civil cases against Bloomfield cops move to federal court - Crime and Courts - NorthJersey.com - Of the 137 incidents involving use of force by Bloomfield cops in the last decade, 47 involved Trinidad and nine involved Horn, according to Hinson. The department staffs 125.

The problems with The Times’ flawed QueensWay support :: Second Ave. Sagas (the mind of the NYT)

Who Is Lena Dunham’s Alleged Rapist?

Suspected HIV infection on porn set sparks health alert in California | Society | The Guardian - Public health department says actor tested positive for virus Aids after engaging in unprotected sex in two separate film shoots

drocks27 comments on How do I stop internally vocalizing words as I read them to speed up comprehension of text in books?

The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur - The Atlantic - Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it?

Over 80 Percent of Dark-Web Visits Relate to Pedophilia, Study Finds | WIRED

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Localized climate change contributed to ancient depopulation - WSU News Washington State University - the role of localized climate change in one of the great mysteries of North American archaeology: the depopulation of southwest Colorado by ancestral Pueblo people in the late 1200s.

Ebola case confirmed in Glasgow | World news | The Guardian - Healthcare worker flew from Sierra Leone to Glasgow via Heathrow on Sunday and has been isolated after falling ill

Missing AirAsia Flight: expanded search to start again at first light | World news | The Guardian

Taliban declare 'defeat' of U.S., allies in Afghanistan | Reuters (mission accomplished)

Cyber attack on Angela Merkel aide: Report | News | DW.DE | 29.12.2014 - The German chancellor's office has fallen victim to a hacking attack, according to a German newspaper. The Regin malware in question has been linked to British and US spy agencies. (Obama is obsessed with spying on Merkel)

‘Reopen investigation into Westminster pedophile whistleblower deaths’ – MP — RT UK - A Labour MP has demanded the government reopen an investigation into the suspicious deaths of two whistleblowers he believes were in possession of significant evidence relating to historic child sex abuse, which infiltrated the heart of Westminster.

FBI briefed on alternate Sony hack theory - Tal Kopan - POLITICO - FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack were briefed Monday by a security firm that says its research points to laid-off Sony staff, not North Korea, as the perpetrator — another example of the continuing whodunit blame game around the devastating attack. (the inside attack theory)
'The Interview' Was Pirated Online About As Much As It Was Legally Purchased (SNE)

Google’s Gmail blocked in China | Technology | The Guardian - ‘Great firewall’ blamed as email service reports sharp dropoff in traffic on Friday with services still down on Monday

Ruble Drops 5 Percent As Russian Economy Shrinks

The Tragedy of the American Military - The Atlantic - The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Could Be the Worst Thing Obama Ever Does - Lawyers, Guns & Money (and that's saying a lot)

Charles Koch Wants To Change America's Criminal Justice System

Five Ways Obama Can Mess with Republicans in 2015 - Bloomberg Politics - He's freed from the constraints of another election. If the end of 2014 foreshadows the president's next set of moves, Republicans will not be amused.
The Obama Recovery - NYTimes.com - At this point in the Bush years, government employment was up by 1.2 million, but under Mr. Obama it’s down by 600,000. Sure enough, now that this de facto austerity is easing, the economy is perking up.

Report: senior Republican Steve Scalise spoke at white supremacist meeting in 2002 | US news | The Guardian - Allies of the House majority whip claim he was poorly advised due to a lack of staff at the time

Texas Is Throwing People In Jail For Failing To Pay Back Predatory Loans ("frontier justice")

Bill De Blasio Booed At NYPD Graduation Ceremony
Republicans and Democrats have vastly different views on race and police. But they agree on solutions. - The Washington Post - 86 percent of Americans support requiring patrol officers in their areas to wear small video cameras while on duty - 87 percent -- support having these outsiders handle cases in which unarmed Americans are killed by police.
READ: Police Chief Tells Pro-Cop Critic To Respect Protesters In Powerful Letter
Clark County Court to Patricia Doninger: You’re FIRED | Las Vegas Tribune - Patricia Doninger is no longer employed by Clark County Courts after an alleged investigation into the August 11 incident in her court, during which she turned her back on a disgusting situation to play with the victim’s underage daughter.
Court officer sexually assaults women and judge ignores her as she cries. Woman gets arrested in front of daughter. : videos
Los Angeles police release autopsy report in shooting of Ezell Ford | US news | The Guardian - The autopsy on Ezell Ford, which was first obtained by the Los Angeles Times, officially classifies his death as a homicide. It was released ahead of a Wednesday deadline imposed by the city’s mayor.

Judd Apatow Blasts Bill Cosby, Venues Hosting Stand-Up Shows - Over a series of tweets posted since Friday, Judd Apatow slammed Bill Cosby, his defenders and a pair of venues hosting the 77-year-old comic in 2015.

Exclusive: Jay, Key Witness from 'Serial' Tells His Story for First Time, Part 1 - The Intercept

On “The New Republic” | The Los Angeles Review of Books - by David Bell
Hullabaloo - The revolutionaries of evunthelibrul you-know-what
David Bell Praises "The Old New Republic" as "Not Predictably Reaganite": Live from La Farine (Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality...)
Even the liberal New Republic… | Corey Robin

Massive ancient underground city discovered in Turkey's Nevsehir - Archaeology

Parents of Reddit: what parenting decisions did you make that turned out to be mistakes? : AskReddit

Running Android APK’s on Windows/Mac/Linux using Chrome | Scotho's Corner

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Pope Francis’s edict on climate change will anger deniers and US churches | World news | The Guardian - However, Francis’s environmental radicalism is likely to attract resistance from Vatican conservatives and in rightwing church circles, particularly in the US
Book Review: H.H. Shugart, Foundations of the Earth: Global Ecological Change and the Book of Job - Lawyers, Guns & Money : In the Book of Job, God knows that humans don’t understand the world. Humans have acted upon the world without understanding it, despite their attempts to do so. As Shugart says, “We must find better answers than we have. Our future depends on it (255).”
NPR Reduces Its Environment Team to One Reporter | InsideClimate News - NPR says move to shift reporters off the environment beat was driven by an interest to cover other fields more in depth (case you missed it)
Jeb Bush is no moderate and he won’t fight climate change | Grist - Bush said, “It is not unanimous among scientists that [climate change] is disproportionately manmade. … What I think on the left I get a little tired of is the sanctimonious idea that somehow ‘science’ has decided all this so therefore you can’t have a view.”

Klain warns Ebola still a global threat - Kyle Cheney - POLITICO - White House Ebola czar Ron Klain warned on Sunday that despite promising efforts to contain the disease, it’s still a grave threat to global health.

Search For Missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Resumes
Search for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 halted as darkness falls | World news | The Guardian - Plane lost contact after taking off from Indonesian city of Surabaya for Singapore with 162 people on board
AirAsia Flight From Indonesia To Singapore Loses Contact With Air Traffic Control
AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 to Singapore missing
Air Asia flight loses contact with air traffic control : worldnews
Ferry Carrying More Than 450 Catches Fire Off Greece - trapping passengers on the top decks as gale-force winds and choppy seas hampered the evacuation.

Eschaton: We Will Bring America To Its Knees By Releasing Amy Pascal's Emails - Has seemed to me that a sophisticated understanding of what hollywood gossip would interest people by hackers didn't suggest North Korean involvement...
North Korean demand for 'The Interview' - Business Insider - It says people are willing to pay almost $50 a copy of the movie, which is 10X higher than what a regular South Korean TV show’s DVD would cost in the black market. (so many levels of irony)
Demand For ‘The Interview’ Is Shooting Up In North Korea And Its Government Is Freaking Out : technology
Beware: Fake 'The Interview' App Affects Android Users - Hacker News - Researchers have identified that the malware campaign is targeting Android users in South Korea and is active from the last few days. The campaign is attempting to exploit the popularity of The Interview movie that triggered tension over its release on Christmas.
Lizard Squad attacks Tor network, ignoring warning from Anonymous

Anonymous To 'Lizard Squad': Stop Attacking Tor - Business Insider - This computer programmer says Lizard Squad has claimed nearly half of Tor’s ~8,000 relays. (sounds like you know who ...)

The Mysterious Case of Prisoner 212 - The Intercept

ISIS loses ground to Kurds in Syria’s Kobane - Al Arabiya News
ISIS releases horrifying sex slave pamphlet, justifies child rape — RT News (avoid the comments)

Eschaton: The War Is Over - Gen. John Campbell, commander of ISAF, rolled up and sheathed the green and white ISAF flag and unfurled the flag of the new international mission, called Resolute Support. (how the forever war doesn't end: just gets rebranded)
U.S. and NATO Formally End War in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com

High alert in Delhi after Bengaluru blast - The Times of India - High alert has been sounded in the capital following the IED blast in Bangalore on Sunday evening.
ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES: Treason. That's Erdogan's Opinion on Birth Control. - The president of Turkey has firm opinions about women's proper place and function, the former being at home and the latter producing many children.

Dutch Railways Have Had It With Leaves On Their Tracks, So They're Bringing In Lasers | Co.Exist | ideas + impact - It's perhaps hard to think of leaves as the reason for thousands of hours of transit delays (and probably millions of dollars of economic damage). But that's the reality for train operators the world over.

Critical decisions after 9/11 led to slow, steady decline in quality for Secret Service - The Washington Post - Immediately after the attacks, temporary details were mobilized for Bush’s extended family, including his grown siblings. Later, with the country at war in Afghanistan, the agency provided details for Vice President Dick Cheney’s grandchildren in addition to those for his adult daughters, Liz and Mary.

Hillary Clinton questions Cristina Kirchner's mental health | US news | The Guardian - Hillary Clinton has questioned the mental health of Cristina Kirchner and asked US diplomats to investigate whether the Argentinian president is taking medication to help her "calm down". (she's got the "nerves")

Cuomo, Christie Veto Bill To Reform Port Authority - "It's really just an awful thing for them to do. Neither of them can ever stand up and say they're for effective reform," (fatfuck and the mobster)


GQ Presents: America's 20 Craziest Politicians
Hey GQ, can’t find any crazy Democrats? Here are 16 (that word doesn't mean what you think it does)


The Acquisitive Self, Minus the Self - The Baffler - Rich Kids of Instagram (RKOI for short) curates and tags photos posted on Instagram by the likes of Barron Hilton, Tiffany Trump, and other “funemployed” trust-funders.
How a Woman’s Rape at a Gay Nude Bar Sparked a Battle Over New Orleans’ Libertine Soul

Always Low Wages? Wal-Mart's Other Choices - Bloomberg View - Wal-Mart's low wages have led to full-time employees seeking public assistance. These are not the 47 percent, lazy, unmotivated bums. Rather, these are people working physical, often difficult jobs. They receive $2.66 billion in government help each year (including $1 billion in healthcare assistance). That works out to about $5,815 per worker. And about $420,000 per store. (your taxdollars at work)

From the Likes of the Roosevelts and the Haneses, Family Lessons Gleaned - NYTimes.com (NYT trolls you again with lectures from the super-rich on how to be poor)

All Class, These Guys » Balloon Juice - Last night, a bunch of cops and former cops paid to have the following Yodafied statement of disapproval flown over NYC in an apparent attempt to show their displeasure for the current mayor. All they have really accomplished to date is making themselves look foolish and evil, and now we know they can’t write a simple sentence. (Blas created a "climate of distrust" not them)
Akai Gurley Protest Draws Hundreds In Brooklyn
Cops: Woman Smeared Bacon On Police Station Window, Offered To 'Feed The Pigs' - Police in Massachusetts have arrested a woman who they say smeared uncooked bacon and sausage all over a police station dispatch window offering to "feed the pigs."
Indecent proposition from New London chief was 'chilling' says victim | New Hampshire Crime - Speaking publicly for the first time, Janelle Westfall said state laws failed her after New London's former police chief made her a proposition: If she posed nude for him, the underage alcohol charges against her would be dropped ... Westfall, who was 18 at the time, was arrested by Seastrand, then 50, on March 2, 2013, as she walked home from a party. She was charged with giving a false name and for being in possession of a beer can. (cop walks, natch)

Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer - Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that’s where the suffering begins.

The New ADHD Debate Every Woman Should Know About - ADHD medication use among women is rising rapidly.

A heart-warming twist in the tale of the books industry | Books | The Guardian - New research shows that the book-buying universe – both digital and printed – is expanding, not contracting (well, online, anyway +Who knows what had happened to the Times and Sun behind their paywalls? Those walls take the stock and stow them out of sight.)
Young people are 'lost generation' who can no longer fix gadgets, warns professor - Danielle George, Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering, at the University of Manchester, is giving this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (but they're really good at Flappy Birds)

Innocent boy's jail nightmare | Perth Now - Just before the trial started, the girl admitted lying about her sex life the whole time. She had insisted she was a virgin. DNA tests excluded Patrick from her claims of rape. (which took 7 months to process)
TIL A 15 year old boy was locked up for a year on false rape charges, and the girl received no punishment when she admitted lying a year later. : todayilearned

English Is Seldom at a Loss for Words | David Grambs - perfuncturate, to do halfheartedly
Why “Into the Woods” Matters - The New Yorker - the new movie “Into the Woods,” based on the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical of the same name.

Male Birth Control, Without Condoms, Will Be Here by 2017 - The Daily Beast - Vasalgel, a reversible, non-hormonal polymer that blocks the vas deferens, is about to enter human trials. How will rhetoric change when male bodies become responsible for birth control? Long-term treatments like Vasalgel are much less appealing to potential funders in the pharmaceutical industry who, as they observe, would much rather “sell pills to men’s partners every month.” Why sell a flat-screen television to a man, after all, when you can rent one to a woman for a decade?
Male Birth Control, Without Condoms, Will Be Here by 2017 : news - Gotta love how huffpo spins this topic: Can men be trusted to take birth control?!

Bill Cosby reportely hires private investigators to dig up dirt on accusers | Fox News ('ol wandering eyes)

My Most Retweeted Tweet - "On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642" (at least Isaac was actually born on 12/25)
6,000-Year-Old Temple Unearthed in Ukraine | Archaeology | Sci-News.com - A team of archaeologists led by Dr Mykhailo Videiko of the Kyiv Institute of Archaeology has discovered the remains of a 6,000-year-old temple at a Trypillian culture village near modern-day Nebelivka, Ukraine.

What is the creepiest thing you've found or experienced outside that you can't explain? : AskReddit
What's the most fucked up thing you've seen at a funeral? : AskReddit
[Serious] [NSFW] Redditors who have been on the brink of death/legally dead, can you describe what it felt like? : AskReddit

Editorial: A giant, secretive merger - Times Union - Comcast and Time Warner want to keep key details of their proposed merger secret.

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After Scrutiny, C.I.A. Mandate Is Untouched - NYTimes.com
ACLU accuses NSA of using holiday lull to ‘minimise impact’ of documents | US news | The Guardian - Released on Christmas Eve, the documents are heavily redacted versions of reports by the NSA to the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board

North Korea Blames U.S. For Shutting Down Its Internet, Says Obama Was Behind 'The Interview' Release - "Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,"

Russia's Economy Headed For Even More Trouble - Slumping oil prices have put Russia's economy on course for a sharp recession and double-digit inflation next year,

Twitter user claims Daily Mail story of white British jihadi is a hoax | World news | The Guardian - As @_AbDwd1 has shown, if you wave ‘white English convert’ and ‘scary Muslims’ in the Daily Mail’s face, they’ll run it regardless of facts.”

Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance - The Washington Post (or, Obama backs Republican bill, ignores Democrats)


De Blasio and police at odds as thousands mourn NYPD officer Ramos | US news | The Guardian - Officers from across US attend funeral of Brooklyn shooting victim
Airplane Hauling Anti-De Blasio Banner Flies Above New York City - The officers' deaths followed protests around the country over the deaths of black men at the hands of white officers, and New York police unions have blamed de Blasio for allowing protests they say foster an anti-police sentiment.

Sadism and the Online Mob - Bloomberg View - But I think there’s an important aspect of outrage that the Slate writers mostly left out -- the connection between outrage and sadism.
Zeal for death penalty circumvents advocates' efforts to end executions | World news | The Guardian - Despite botched executions states still exploring old methods as alternatives - Historian: in the US ‘violence is a part of frontier culture’ ("frontier" = sadistic and violent)

Eden Was a Scary Movie About Sex-Trafficking Based on a True Story—Or Was It? by Jen Graves - Seattle Features - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper - What does art that claims to be "based on a true story" owe its audience? When the "true" part gets called into question, and the art-makers go silent, what are we supposed to think?

Hullabaloo - Who's the real Scrooge here? - I'm sure everyone remembers Cokie Roberts kvetching about President Obama having the audacity to take a vacation in his home state of Hawaii (they really can't think and don't want you to, either)

Opting Out of Adulthood Is Becoming More Common - NYTimes.com ("adulthood" defined as having a good job and buy a house)
Eschaton: What If The Kids On My Lawn Are Having More Fun Than Me - I really don't get this media obsession with the idea that The Kids Today aren't living their lives precisely as the olds imagine the lived their lives back in the day. Except for trust fund kids, who the hell can avoid "adult responsibilities" as an adult unless we narrowly define such things as promised lifelong monogamy and home ownership.
Millennials Are Redefining What Adulthood Means - NYTimes.com - Our research shows that millennials who don’t have a college degree are paying a much stiffer penalty in terms of low wages and high unemployment than previous generations did

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Rescued scientists bring back a warning from the Antarctic | Science | The Guardian - The icebound crew of the Akademik Shokalskiy made headlines but, a year on, the fruits of their expedition are revealed
Water Use and the Rio Grande - Lawyers, Guns & Money : But really, the entire structure of post-1945 growth in the American West is completely unsustainable and with each drought, that becomes more and more clear.

NSA Drops Christmas Eve Surprise - The Intercept - The National Security Agency on Christmas Eve day released twelve years of internal oversight reports documenting abusive and improper practices by agency employees (Ho-Ho-Ho)
The Snowden Effect: Seasons Greetings From Your Friends At The NSA - Esquire - There are holiday document dumps and there are holiday document dumps. And then there is holiday document carpet-bombing from 30,000 feet ... And for those who attempt to separate the ACLU's formal request from Edward Snowden's whistleblowing, forget it. You might as well try to separate the Boston Tea Party from the Second Continental Congress. (pow)

Reporter Jürgen Todenhöfer Was Embedded With Islamic State. He Came Back Alive. - On his return, he issued a stark warning. "From my point of view this is the biggest threat to world peace since the cold war," he wrote in a detailed Facebook post. "We now pay the price for the inconceivable folly of George W Bush's attack on Iraq. The West has no concept of the threat it faces."

The Islamic State is failing at being a state - The Washington Post - The Islamic State’s vaunted exercise in state-building appears to be crumbling as living conditions deteriorate across the territories under its control, exposing the shortcomings of a group that devotes most of its energies to fighting battles and enforcing strict rules.
A. Ibrahim on Twitter: "Jihadi tourism; new Muhajireen (migrants) arrived in #Fallujah, #IslamicState
ISIS governor of Mosul killed in airstrikes - CNN.com - The latest ISIS-appointed governor of Mosul was killed in coalition airstrikes on Thursday, according to Iraqi police.
ISIL hit with 31 air strikes in one day | Al Jazeera America - Anti-ISIL forces make 16 strikes in Syria, 15 in Iraq on intense day of fighting
Erdogan says more journalists will see inside the prison - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said more journalists will be taken into custody, brushing off criticisms over media freedom and claiming that nowhere in the world the media is as free as it is in Turkey.
Mauritanian Journalist Sentenced To Death For 'Insulting The Prophet' In Article - Mauritania on Thursday condemned a man to death for "insulting the prophet," a human rights group said, a day after the country opened the trial of an anti-slavery activist ... Mauritania became the last country worldwide to legally abolish slavery in 1981 and still has the highest prevalence worldwide of slavery per head of population
Death toll rises to 81, operations launched against NDFB - The Hindu - Operations were on Friday intensified against NDFB(S) militants along the border with Arunachal Pradesh even as the death toll in the massacre rose to 81.
Pakistan forces kill key planner of Peshawar school massacre - The Economic Times - A senior Taliban commander, believed to be a key planner in the Peshawar school massacre, has been killed by the security forces in Pakistan's troubled Khyber Agency.

Israel's Ultra-Orthodox Mull Bigger Role for Women - ABC News - A struggle for women's rights is brewing within Israel's deeply conservative ultra-Orthodox community, where women, largely shut out of politics, are beginning to demand greater representation in the country's parliament.
Senior UN officials expelled from Sudan | News | DW.DE | 26.12.2014 - Khartoum has been angered at UNAMID's attempts to investigate a report that government troops committed mass rape of women and girls in a Darfur village on October 31. Days ago, it denied peacekeepers permission to pay a second visit to the site of the alleged rapes.

The Interview and the Year That Voters Got Scared of Everything - Bloomberg Politics - Terrorists didn't attack cinemas, and that's important. (terror is the new normal and the genius of "homeland")
New Study May Add to Skepticism Among Security Experts That North Korea Was Behind Sony Hack - NYTimes.com - A number of private security researchers are increasingly voicing doubts that the hack of Sony‘s computer systems was the work of North Korea (but wasn't Obama and the Federal Bureau of Incompetents absolutely sure?)
Audiences 'Let Freedom Ring' At 'The Interview' Screenings In New York City
Xbox live and Playstation attack: Christmas ruined for millions of gamers | Technology | The Guardian - Sony and Microsoft networks suffering outages after an apparent denial of service attack that rendered them useless for millions
Egypt Has Reportedly Banned ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ Movie - NYTimes.com - will not be shown there because it asserts historical falsehoods and spreads a “Zionist view,” the Egyptian culture minister was quoted as saying on Friday. (Jews built the pyramids)
Kim Dotcom Makes Deal with LizardSquad to stop attacks towards Xbox Live and PSN - The Tech Game

Tunisia Wins Again - NYTimes.com - first freely chosen president, Tunisia has taken another important step on its post-Arab Spring transition toward democracy
Oregon woman held in Timor Leste for months without charges is released | World news | The Guardian - the absence of a US ambassador in Timor Leste was hurting the effort to free Addison and called on Senate leaders to end the partisan gridlock and schedule a vote on the long-blocked nomination of Karen Stanton.
Flash - PM under fire as 100,000 flee worst Malaysia floods in decades - France 24 - premier Najib Razak came under fire after photos showed him golfing with US President Barack Obama during the storms.

PressTV - US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 'Nazi crimes': Russia

Brain-dead pregnant woman’s life support can be switched off, Irish court rules | World news | The Guardian - Ireland’s high court grants family wish that she be allowed to die, in landmark judgment that challenges constitution

At least 1,300 migrants saved off Italian coast on Christmas Day | World news | The Guardian - Most of the migrants saved were on boats adrift off Sicily, including a Nigerian woman who gave birth on a rescue vessel

Boxing Day tsunami: 10 years on, the scars are not hard to find in Aceh | World news | The Guardian - The Guardian has tracked the fortunes of Nusa, Indonesia, since the deadly wave. A decade on, the shockwaves are still being felt
Asian Tsunami Anniversary: LIVE REPORT - Yahoo News
Newport Papers 28: Waves of Hope - Waves-of-Hope.aspx - The U.S. Navy ’ s Response to the Tsunami in Northern Indonesia

Guantánamo Dreams - NYTimes.com - Judge Edwards said the circuit’s precedents on how to define a detainable enemy combatant required him to go along with the majority. But with no end in sight to the “war on terror,” he said, the result of the decision could well be to consign Ali to detention for the rest of his life. ("suspicion")

In Oil States, Bracing for a Price Bust’s Ripple Through the Economy - NYTimes.com - The drop in oil prices from June to December has amounted to a loss of $83 million per day in potential revenue for the industry in Texas (drill, baby, drill and bye-bye, Alaska and don't put all your eggs in one basket, LA)

Why Liberals Should Fear the Supreme Court in 2015 - NationalJournal.com - Obamacare, religious freedom, and same-sex marriage equality are all on the judicial agenda.

Ratification of Arms Trade Treaty, Others Blocked by Republicans | The New Republic - Why do they oppose the Arms Trade Treaty? Because the NRA tells them to. (NRA is running foreign policy)

Tidings of Comfort - NYTimes.com - In fact, Year 1 surpassed expectations on every front. Remember claims that more people would lose insurance than gained it? Well, the number of Americans without insurance fell by around 10 million; members of the elite who have never been uninsured have no idea just how much positive difference that makes to people’s lives.

GOP learns lessons from Sam Brownback's tax scare - Rachael Bade - POLITICO - Republicans once idolized the tax-cutting superstar; now they look askance at him. (teaparty disaster, suck it up, Kansas)

The Best Lawyers Money Can Buy - NYTimes.com - The court’s front doors are locked and its vast “public” plaza is off-limits to protesters. Alone among the branches of government, it refuses to televise its proceedings, even though its gallery can seat only 250 members of the public ... And of that already minuscule fraction, a stunning proportion is argued by an extremely small and well-connected group of lawyers


NYPD on alert after spate of anti-police threats in wake of officers' shooting | US news | The Guardian - Six people have been arrested for making threats against officers, as police force warns officers to act with increased vigilance while on- and off-duty (more "terroristic threats")

David Brooks: Chris Hughes 'Callow And Incompetent' - "The country suffered a great loss this year with the destruction of The New Republic at the hands of its callow and incompetent owner, Chris Hughes," Brooks said.
The Sidney Awards, Part I - NYTimes.com - Ta-Nehisi Coates’s blockbuster, “The Case for Reparations”

Baby Jesus replaced with pig's head in Massachusetts church nativity scene | US news | The Guardian - Haverhill mayor James Fiorentini said the desecration had “all the elements of a hate crime”.

How One College Handled a Sexual Assault Complaint - NYTimes.com - As the case illustrates, school disciplinary panels are a world unto themselves, operating in secret with scant accountability and limited protections for the accuser or the accused (frats and football)

To Raise Science Scores, Colleges Look Beyond the Lecture - NYTimes.com - Rather than try to help students who falter in introductory classes, he said, “they have seen it as their job to weed people out and limit access to upper-level courses.” - “Higher education has this assumption that if you know your subject, you can teach it, and it’s not true,” (because "teaching" isn't something you have to "learn")


In Hollywood, It’s a Men’s, Men’s, Men’s World - NYTimes.com (check out Amy's off-the-shoulder look)

[Stories]What is the worst thing any redditor did to another redditor, over something said on Reddit? : AskReddit
What are some psychological life hacks you can do to give you an advantage in situations? : AskReddit
What is a cool Psychology trick you could try on friends/family? Either a perception issue or some associations we automatically make? : AskReddit
Reddit, what is one skill you'd learn if you weren't so fucking stupid? : AskReddit ("You've Been Learned")
What is shockingly LEGAL? : AskReddit
What's everyone on about? - OutOfTheLoop
First World Anarchists
I am a trans man with a functioning penis, balls, and vagina. AMA! : IAmA

Facebook’s Last Taboo: The Unhappy Marriage - NYTimes.com (managing your "maritial brand")
Facebook Is Not the Public Square - NYTimes.com - Facebook’s decision serves as an important reminder that social media companies are under no obligation to support free speech if doing so would harm their business.

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Restored Forests Breathe Life Into Efforts Against Climate Change - NYTimes.com
Australia records biggest emissions drop in a decade as carbon tax kicks in | Environment | The Guardian - Greens and conservation group say significant drop in annual emissions shows the carbon price, which was scrapped by the Abbott government, was effective (Tories at work destroying the planet)
Supertrawlers to be banned permanently from Australian waters | Environment | The Guardian

U.S. Spy Agency Reports Improper Surveillance of Americans - Bloomberg - The National Security Agency today released reports on intelligence collection that may have violated the law or U.S. policy over more than a decade, including unauthorized surveillance of Americans’ overseas communications.
NSA Reports It May Have Broken Laws With Decade of Spying on U.S. Citizens - Businessweek

Saudi to Dig Into Reserves for 2015 Budget - NYTimes.com - due to sliding oil prices, resulting in a nearly $39 billion deficit.

U.S. Strikes Have Killed 1,100 ISIS Fighters And Cost $1 Billion : The Two-Way : NPR

An illegally pirated version of 'The Interview' is on the frontpage of one of reddit's most popular default subreddits. This is why "Simultaneous Digital and Theatrical Release" is a pipedream and nothing more. : movies
ELI5 why does it appear so easy for hackers to shut down multimillion dollar services like PSN and xbox live? : explainlikeimfive

Print Magazine Covers Tell The Most Powerful Stories Of 2014 (Putinazi)
Chinese University Bans Christmas, Calls It 'Kitsch'

U.S. Senate and CIA agree torture program was mismanaged - Al Arabiya News - The Senate report on the CIA's interrogation program and the spy agency's official response clash on almost every aspect of the long-secret operation, including the brutality and effectiveness of its methods and the agency's secret dealings with the Bush White House, Congress and the media.
U.S. prepares to accelerate detainee transfers from Guantanamo Bay prison - The Washington Post

Tunisia: Have the Islamists learnt their lesson? - Al Arabiya News - The situation in Tunisia could have ended up mirroring either the Libyan or the Egyptian scenario if the Ennahda Movement and Islamist groups did not realize that political participation means accepting all democratic conditions and not just counting the voting ballots.
Two women referred to ‘terror’ court for driving in Saudi Arabia | World news | The Guardian - Loujain al-Hathloul, 25, and Maysa al-Amoudi, 33, thought first female drivers to be referred to specialised court in Riyadh (terrifying)

MH17: Russia claims to have airfield witness who blames Ukrainian pilot | World news | The Guardian (comments full of Putin-bots)

Nigerian Girl: My Father Gave Me To Boko Haram

Is Netanyahu Finished? Maybe So - You can be the archest anti-Arab racist, and this reality should be no less clear. Which is to say, you can be Avigdor Lieberman.

What Was Alan Gross Doing in Cuba? - Gross was actually doing work as a subcontractor for a pro-democracy program funded by the U.S. government, work for which Gross was being paid about a half million dollars

Glasgow Crash 'Joke' Tweet Ends In Arrest For Sunderland Man - The tweet said: "So a bin lorry has apparently driven in 100 people in Glasgow eh, probably the most trash it's picked up in one day". (dark humor illegal)


Woman arrested after damaging Satanic display at Florida Capitol | Fox News - Hemeryck, who said she was wearing a shirt that said "Catholic Warrior" when she arrived at the Capitol, told the Associated Press "I was there at the right time and the right moment and I needed to take a stand against Satan."
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | So what colour was Jesus?

St Louis protests after police shooting of black teenager Antonio Martin | US news | The Guardian - Pprotesters held vigils, with some briefly blocking traffic on Interstate 170 but actions were calmer than previous night amid mayor’s call for calm
The NYC police union has a long history of bullying City Hall - Quartz - “I am sick and tired of giving in to minority groups, with their whims and their gripes and shouting,” said John Cassese, then president of the P.B.A. “Any review board with civilians on it is detrimental to the operations of the police department.”
6 New Yorkers Now Arrested For Threatening Cops After Officers Killed - Melville was charged with making terroristic threats, a felony, and aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor.
The Bad Kind of Unionism - When police unions have widened their gaze beyond issues like compensation and working conditions, it’s been almost exclusively to conservative ends.

Could playing Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker' and other music improve kids' brains? -- ScienceDaily
Long-Term Culture of Genome-Stable Bipotent Stem Cells from Adult Human Liver: Cell
1.2-Million-Year-Old Stone Tool Unearthed in Turkey | Archaeology | Sci-News.com - Archaeologists have found a Paleolithic stone flake in the ancient deposits of the Gediz River, revealing that human ancestors passed through the gateway from Asia to Europe much earlier than previously thought.

Comcast and Time Warner Are the Most Hated Companies in America - The Wire

The Best On-Ear Headphones (At Any Price) | The Wirecutter

US Internet to offer higher-speed connections in Minneapolis | Star Tribune - US Internet to roll out a faster, 10-gigabit fiber-optic service in Minneapolis

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Let's leave behind the age of fossil fuel. Welcome to Year One of the climate revolution | Rebecca Solnit | Comment is free | The Guardian - Tiny towns standing up to Big Oil. Gigantic marches taking on the future. Technology that works. We started to save ourselves in 2014, but we must make 2015 worth remembering – before it’s too late
White Christmas? Start worrying about El Niño and its effect on food prices | Business | The Guardian

Did Anyone See 2014's Many Crises Coming?
The 15 artworks that define Christmas – in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian
Today's Document • fdrlibrary: Who wants a Christmas tree? One of...

C.D.C. Head Says Fight on Ebola Will Be Long - NYTimes.com

Official Google Blog: “The Interview” now available on Google Play and YouTube Movies
Is Sony's crackdown a bigger threat to western free speech than North Korea? | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - The Interview may be released after all, but just because a Hollywood studio got hacked doesn’t mean it can censor Twitter, the news media and sites across the web
'The Interview' Gets VOD Release Via YouTube, Google Play - A day after Sony authorized screenings of "The Interview" in a limited number of theaters, the studio announced that the film will also be available via on-demand services.
Schneier on Security: Did North Korea Really Attack Sony? - It's too early to take the U.S. government at its word. (since it lies all the time) - I am deeply skeptical of the FBI's announcement on Friday that North Korea was behind last month's Sony hack. The agency's evidence is tenuous, and I have a hard time believing it ... "Sony was not just hacked, this is a company that was essentially nuked from the inside,"
Was FBI wrong on North Korea? - CBS News - Cybersecurity experts are questioning the FBI's claim that North Korea is responsible for the hack that crippled Sony Pictures. Kurt Stammberger, a senior vice president with cybersecurity firm Norse, told CBS News his company has data that doubts some of the FBI's findings. (would the Federal Bureua of Incompetency get some wrong?)
FBI may have been wrong on NK hack : news
The Case for N. Korea’s Role in Sony Hack — Krebs on Security
Video: Debating North Korea’s involvement in the Sony hack | Watch PBS NewsHour Online | PBS Video
metsuken comments on Sony & "The Interview" -- what's your take? - North Korea is the only Orwellian police state in the world and it has been that way for almost 70 years
North Korea: UN Condemns Crimes Against Humanity | Human Rights Watch - Security Council Should Refer “Unspeakable Crimes” to International Criminal Court

ISIS Captures Jordanian Pilot After Warplane Reportedly Downed In Syria
Exclusive: Senior Kurdish rebel leader warns Iraq must stay united to defeat 'savage' Isis | World news | The Guardian - Cemil Bayik, co-founder of the PKK, hopes cooperation with US-led coalition against Isis would result in group being de-listed as a terrorist organization

Palestinian Sniper Attack on Israeli Patrol at Gaza Border Sets Off Clash - NYTimes.com
Israel police reveal huge political corruption investigation | World news | The Guardian - Police announce ongoing covert operation involving 30 unnamed public figures over suspected nepotism and transfer of funds
Terror attack thwarted: 4 Palestinians carrying pipe bombs arrested - Israel News, Ynetnews - Israeli security personnel stop Jenin residents from committing attack on soldiers; suspects confess at scene.

Death toll among Qatar’s 2022 World Cup workers revealed | Global development | The Guardian - Despite Qatar’s promises to improve conditions, Nepalese migrants have died at a rate of one every two days in 2014

Russia Blames NATO For Ukraine Dropping Nonaligned Status

Protests as Nicaragua starts work on $50bn interoceanic canal | World news | The Guardian - Chinese telecoms magnate launches construction in Rivas - Environmentalists call for release of project’s feasibility studies

Hopping mad: Morning File, Monday, December 22, 2014

Bachmann: Obama Supports The Agenda Of Islamic Jihad "At Every Turn" - BuzzFeed News - “And I have been very surprised, to answer your question, to see the president of the United States, at every turn, cut the legs off of our ally, Israel, and in fact embrace and lift up the agenda of Islamic jihad.”

No, States Cannot Commandeer Docs to Lobby Against Abortions by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - a very prominent conservative judge (Harvie Wilkinson), drew a line where so-called “health” requirements theoretically aimed at informing women seeking an abortion become an effort to commandeer medical personal to talk them out of it
Law and Order Issues, Once G.O.P.’s Strong Suit, Now Divide Party - NYTimes.com (lawnorder for non-whites)

NYPD Shooting: Blue Lives Matter - The Atlantic - Talking about "police reform" obscures the task. Today's policies are, at the very least, the product of democratic will.
'To Protest Is A First Amendment Right': New Yorkers Defy Mayor's Request To Pause Demonstrations
Antonio Martin, Black Teenager, Fatally Shot By Police 2 Miles From Ferguson - The police officer had been assigned a body camera but wasn't wearing it at the time of the incident, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said in a news conference Wednesday morning.
Houston grand jury will not indict police officer over fatal Jordan Baker shooting | US news | The Guardian - After months of testimony, a grand jury has decided not to indict police officer Juventino Castro over the fatal shooting of 26-year-old unarmed black man in January
Milwaukee police reforms proposed after fatal shooting of an unarmed man | US news | The Guardian - after prosecutors declined to charge an officer who shot a man 14 times.
St. Louis Police quick to release security tape in Antonio Martin shooting : news
Tracing the Gun Used to Kill 2 New York City Police Officers - NYTimes.com (from GA, of course)
Federal officials may use little-known civil rights statute in police shooting cases | US news | The Guardian - Department of Justice and FBI have for weeks been examining the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford III and now Dontre Hamilton
LA police investigate song mocking dead black teen at ex-cop's party - Yahoo News - "Michael looked like some old Swiss cheese" ... his brain "splattered on the floor."
Veteran arrested after threatening cops on YouTube | Circa News - The FBI arrested a military veteran on Dec. 22 for allegedly making online threats advocating the killing of active and retired police officers.
Huffington Post gets it wrong in last night’s St. Louis police shooting story - The Washington Post - In its initial story, the Huffington Post quoted a Twitter user named “Jesus Christo” who claimed to have been with the victim, whom he called “Antonio.”
ACLU Asks Court to Halt Punishment of Student who Participated in a Silent Protest - “School administrators cannot punish students for communications they think will bring negative attention to the school,” explained Sarah Rossi, the ACLU of Missouri’s director of advocacy and policy. “The First Amendment does not permit that.”

Eschaton: Innumeracy - Silly Sully is back on his Bell Curve kick because Coates wrote some hurtful things which failed to realize the overall importance of being incredibly civil in the high minded intellectual debate about whether black people are, in fact, stupid, and whether the innumerate editor of a prominent magazine might have some responsibility for catapulting racist pseudoscience he's incapable of understanding into the discourse.

A Backlash Brews Against Low Pay On The Factory Floor : NPR - Forty years ago, a manufacturing job was often a ticket into the middle class. That's not the case today. Wages for manufacturing jobs are plummeting, and some states are questioning whether competing for those jobs is still worth it. (corporate serfdom)

Columbia Journalism School to Scrutinize Rolling Stone Rape Article - NYTimes.com - Rolling Stone magazine said Monday that it had asked the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism to conduct a review of a widely disputed article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia

When Men Try To Draw Vaginas - "America's male elected officials continue to aggressively legislate women's bodies in the year 2014, even though they often seem not to know basic facts about women."

Scientists use skin cells to create artificial sperm and eggs | Science | The Guardian - Early-stage sex cells research in Cambridge has potential to help people with fertility problems
Mysterious Virus That Killed a Farmer in Kansas Is Identified - NYTimes.com - Researchers have identified a previously unknown virus, thought to be transmitted by ticks or mosquitoes, that led to the death of a farmer in Kansas last summer ... the Bourbon virus
5 Prehistoric Mammals That Were Way More Monstrous Than You Probably Thought (VIDEO)
Using weights to target belly fat | Harvard Gazette - Study shows aerobics fights pounds, but weight training trims the waist
Bedtime Technology for a Better Night’s Sleep - NYTimes.com
TIL If an atom were as big as the Solar System, a neutrino would as small as a golf ball. : todayilearned
How do protons and neutrons stick to one another? : askscience

Marriot Petitions FCC to Allow it to Block Guests' WiFi HotSpots. Google and Microsoft Weigh in. FCC Taking Comments. : technology

FCC States It Misplaced Around 600,000 Net Neutrality Comments | DSLReports (you know what you can do with your "comments")

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This Year's International News In 46 Iconic Photos

CIA torture report: rights groups call for criminal investigation – as it happened | US news | The Guardian - Senator Mark Udall blasts CIA on Senate floor (video) - ‘The CIA is lying’

Algerian forces kill leader of militants that beheaded French tourist | World news | The Guardian - Abdelmalek Gouri, also known as Khalid Abu Suleiman, is reported killed in ambush near Boumerdes; he led Soldiers of Caliphate that kidnapped and beheaded Hervé Gourdel

North Korea struggles to stay online
Project Goliath: Inside Hollywood's secret war against Google | The Verge - SOPA was just the beginning
val broeksmit (@BikiniRobotArmy) | Twitter
Sony threatens Twitter with legal action if it doesn't ban users linking to leaks | The Verge
Sony threatens Twitter with legal action if it doesn't ban users linking to leaks : technology - Sony threatens to unfollow Twitter on Twitter.
Sony approves limited US release of The Interview on Christmas Day | Film | The Guardian - Move comes after Obama said Sony had ‘made a mistake’ pulling the movie following a campaign to kill film the White House believes was organised by North Korea (greatest marketing stunt, evar)
North Korea internet service resumes after shutdown | World news | The Guardian - No indication as to whether a cyber-attack caused outage, and if so who might have been behind it
House Democrat seeks full details from Sony on sweeping cyber-attack | US news | The Guardian - Says increasing cyber-attacks pose ‘clear and present danger’ to US security - Sony’s information will be helpful as Congress examines laws, he adds in letter
US may put North Korea back on state terror list after Sony 'cybervandalism' | US news | The Guardian - Obama says North Korea’s Sony Pictures hack was not an act of war - North Korea warns ‘toughest counteraction will be boldly taken’
Cispa cybersecurity bill passed by House of Representatives | Technology | The Guardian - Republican-controlled House defies Obama over legislation to prevent electronic attacks on US - "This is the last bastion of things we need to do to protect this country," Republican Mike Rogers (protect big content, you mean)

Jakarta to ban virginity tests for female civil servants - 9news.com.au

Russia Entering 'Full-Fledged Economic Crisis,' Former Finance Minister Says - Kudrin: Russia to be downgraded to 'junk' status next year

Record 17,000 join 'Pinstripe Nazi' anti-Islam march in Germany | World news | The Guardian - Many in Berlin shocked by emergence of far-right anti-Islamist group Pegida as growing numbers join weekly Dresden protest
Soldiers to be deployed around France after string of attacks on public | World news | The Guardian - Announcement that up to 300 troops will keep the peace follows incidents in Nantes, Dijon and Tours

Saudi Oil Minister Will Not Cut Oil Production - Business Insider
SAUDI OIL MINISTER: I Don't Care If Prices Crash To $20 — We're Not Budging : worldnews

NYPD Union President Patrick Lynch Is Completely Nuts: A History
De Blasio’s nightmare - Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush - politico - New York’s mayor has lost the police — and maybe much more than that (oh, sure)
Eschaton: Convicted Felons Are Always Given Prominent Platforms In Our Media - Why is Bernie Kerik on my teevee? Especially when his crimes were, you know, related to his job from which he supposedly can bring his expertise. I know the answer is "he's Rudy's buddy and the media loves Rudy." But, um, why is Rudy on my teevee? He's a horrible person.
NYPD Union Has Attacked Every Mayor In Recent History
Police Unions 'Standing Down' After Controversial Comments In Wake Of NYPD Shooting - De Blasio also isn't the first mayor to get into an argument with the PBA; the union has gone after at least the last four New York City mayors.
When Officers Die and Protests Get the Blame - NYTimes.com
watch: Protester Confronts Fox Station That Deceptively Edited 'Kill A Cop' Chant

Mitt Romney flips then flops on support for abortion legislation - US politics live | US news | The Guardian - Mitt Romney denies support for anti-abortion legislation – forcing campaign to issue 'pro-life' clarification amid criticism

Study: ‘White’ Southerners have more African ancestry than they know - Vox (s'up, niggas?)

Howie Kurtz mansplains the news: Fox’s media reporter has some advice for lady journalists - Salon.com - Howard Kurtz explains to female reporters how to do their jobs right, with insider tricks like "quote Republicans" ... He’s observing that the questions would have been better if Obama had called on some of the seasoned bros in attendance.

Bucking trend, Overstock.com switches back to controversial lobby group Alec | Business | The Guardian - Top tech companies have cut ties with Alec due to climate change stance - Retailer says it rejoined group to work on internet sales tax issues (boycott overstock) Google chairman Eric Schmidt said his company could no longer be aligned with people who deny climate change. “They are just literally lying,” he said. Alec denied Schmidt’s charges.

Charles Pierce on Terri Schiavo and Jeb Bush - Idiot America Book Excerpt - Esquire - As Jeb Bush emerges as a likely 2016 presidential candidate, we look back at the Terri Schiavo case.

Scientists tallied up all the advice on Dr. Oz's show. Half of it was baseless or wrong. - Vox
The Oz Effect - NYTimes.com - But the thing is, there are a lot of Ozzes out there, including in areas you might not consider the entertainment business.

Why Canada should de-activate Uber - Whimsley
How Much do uberX Drivers Actually Make Per Hour? | BostInno
Fort Worth $30/hr Lies | Uber Drivers Forum
The Uber Driver's Subreddit

North Carolina abortion ultrasound decision: Quotes from Judge Wilkinson on medical ethics and first amendment. - A conservative judge sticks up for medical ethics and the First Amendment - And it is intended to convey not the risks and benefits of the medical procedure to the patient’s own health, but rather the full weight of the state’s moral condemnation.
Why rape is so intrinsic to religion - Salon.com - Stories like the virgin birth lack freely given female consent. It's telling how ready we still are to embrace them ("virgin rape" is foundation of patriarchy)
The Not-So-Virgin Birth of the Christmas Story | ValerieTarico
The Virgin Births - YouTube
Captive Virgins, Polygamy, Sex Slaves: What Marriage Would Look Like if We Actually Followed the Bible | ValerieTarico
Reza Aslan And Theological Scholar Peter Lillback Debate Who Jesus Really Was
Religion’s smart-people problem: The shaky intellectual foundations of absolute faith - Salon.com - Religious belief the world over has a strenuous relationship with intellectualism. But why?

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Twitter: "This @HeerJeet ethering is the last word. "Liking jazz is not enough."https://t.co/aD4NJkeH37"
Sullivan Whitewashes TNR History (with tweets) · JeetHeer1 · Storify

Casey Kasem buried in Norway after protracted family squabble | US news | The Guardian - The decision to bury the body thousands of miles away from Kasem’s home in California has renewed interest in a family feud that was ongoing well before the former radio personality died in June.

“She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.
Joe Cocker Misheard Lyrics with subtitles - YouTube
Maybe I'm Amazed - YouTube
"You Are So Beautiful"... Joe Cocker - YouTube
Joe Cocker - "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" 1970 /w Leon Russell - YouTube
Janis Joplin - Ball And Chain (Amazing Performance at Monterey) - YouTube
George Harrison: Something - YouTube (Sinatra: "Best love song ever written")

Historic discovery: huge electric field occurs spontaneously in laughing gas | ScienceNordic - Scientists have discovered a new, astonishing electric phenomenon = spontelectric phenomenon.
FDA lifts ban on blood donation from homosexuals : news

What is the most bullshit thing you have ever been taught? : AskReddit
What is NEVER funny? : AskReddit

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Global Warming Threshold: What 2 Degrees Celsius (3.6 F) Looks Like | The New Republic
Surging Seas / States / Massachusetts

Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses - NYTimes.com - Since the day President Obama took office, he has failed to bring to justice anyone responsible for the torture of terrorism suspects — an official government program conceived and carried out in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (and why would that be, do you suppose?) “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,” as though the two were incompatible. They are not. (no learning from experience is Obama's specialty)
New York Times calls for Cheney, Bush officials to be investigated and prosecuted for torture
Meet Alfreda Bikowsky, the Senior Officer at the Center of the CIA's Torture Scandals - The Intercept - The person described by both NBC and The New Yorker is senior CIA officer Alfreda Frances Bikowsky. Multiple news outlets have reported that as the result of a long string of significant errors and malfeasance, her competence and integrity are doubted — even by some within the agency.
The Other Torture Report: The Secret CIA Document That Could Unravel The Case For Torture - the Panetta Review reveals that there was doubt within the agency itself about the morality and effectiveness of torture.

If Our Torturers Are Superior To The Political Institutions Of The Government, Self-Government Descends Into Bloody Farce - Esquire - For the past two weeks, on two different fronts, we have been confronted with the unpleasant fact that there are people working in the institutions of our self-government who believe themselves not only beyond the control and sanctions of the civil power, but also beyond the control and sanctions of their direct superiors ... The last thing to go to the waterboard is the tattered remnant of what we thought ourselves to be.

Pakistan to execute 500 terror convicts in coming weeks: officials - Yahoo News

Putin, Neocons and the Great Illusion - NYTimes.com - Vladimir Putin never got the memo. And neither did our own neocons, whose acute case of Putin envy shows that they learned nothing from the Iraq debacle. (learn? what's that?)

North Korea Loses Its Link to the Internet - NYTimes.com - A strange thing happened to North Korea’s already tenuous link to the Internet on Monday: It broke.
North Korea's internet appears to be under mass cyber attack - Vox
A Lot of Smart People Think North Korea Didn't Hack Sony
FAUXTRIBUTION? | Krypt3ia
The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy | WIRED
A Breakdown and Analysis of the December, 2014 Sony Hack
Reaction to the Sony Hack Is 'Beyond the Realm of Stupid' | Motherboard
How Obama Took Sony’s Crisis From Bad to Worse | Variety - But as much as Sony seemed to mishandle its sorry situation in recent days, the severity of the circumstances Sony faced are so extreme that it begs the question of whether anyone could have handled it better. (no, but it certainly raises it; you guys have editors?)
The Interview IMDB Ranking Jumps to 9.9 - Esquire - Never mind the fact that the vast majority of Internet users have not, you know, seen it.

South Korea Nuclear Plant Operator's Computers Hacked, But Officials Say No Risk To Safety Of Reactors - Computer systems at South Korea’s nuclear plant operator have been hacked, but only non-critical data has been lost and there is no risk to the safety of nuclear installations including the country's 23 atomic reactors, the company and the government said on Monday. (what else would they say?)

How Crimea Crashed the Russian Economy - The Daily Beast - “Get used to being at least twice as poor next year as you were before the annexation of Crimea,” says Vladimir Ryzhkov, a prominent Russian politician and professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economy.

The Top 10 Charts of 2014 | Economic Policy Institute (summary: we're screwd and the riches are laughing)

Anti-intellectualism is taking over the US | Comment is free | The Guardian - The rise in academic book bannings and firings is compounded by the US's growing disregard for scholarship itself (hello, Republicans)

Ambition Will Facilitate Ambition By Passing the Buck - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Fuckfurter and the Constitution)


Obama's job approval plummets among US service members | TheHill
AMERICA'S MILITARY: A conservative institution's uneasy cultural evolution - A deeply unpopular commander in chief is forcing profound change inside the ranks.

Appeals court strikes down NC abortion law | CharlotteObserver.com - A North Carolina law requiring abortion providers to show and describe an ultrasound to the pregnant woman is "ideological in intent" and violates doctors' free-speech rights, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

How Vermont's single-payer health care dream fell apart - Vox

The 2016 Senate Race Is Already Shaping Up To Be Tougher For Republicans (but they have a thousand-year majority!)
Tea partier braces for primary challenge from the establishment - Manu Raju - POLITICO - “All I can say is Mike Lee is an embarrassment to the state of Utah,” Huntsman said in an interview, calling Lee “an extremist” for his role in the government shutdown fight
What Kind of Revolutionary, Exactly, Is Bernie Sanders? - Bloomberg Politics - The 2016 hopeful's tour through Iowa provides some clues.

How David Gregory Lost His Job | People & Politics | Washingtonian - Last summer, Gregory was let go from his gig as host of "Meet the Press." Here's an inside look at his fall from the top—and what it says about the state of TV news. - Between 2008, when Gregory took over, and last summer, just before he left, Meet the Press lost 43 percent of its viewers and dropped from first to third place in the ratings. (Comcast took over)
Misinformer Of The Year: George Will | Blog | Media Matters for America

Ocwen CEO William Erbey: Finally a Wall St. Exec Is Forced to Resign | The New Republic - William Erbey, the billionaire chairman of the mortgage servicing giant Ocwen,

If Our Torturers Are Superior To The Political Institutions Of The Government, Self-Government Descends Into Bloody Farce - Esquire (above and way beyond the law)
The NY Police Union’s Vile War with Mayor De Blasio - The Daily Beast - So two decades’ worth of statistics tell us that black men are killed by police at 21 times the rate white men are, and yet half the public has persuaded itself that police treat blacks and whites no differently (white people are stupid)
NYPD Chief Bill Bratton on police tension: 'We're in a change moment' - News - TODAY.com - New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton believes that Mayor Bill de Blasio has lost the trust of "some officers," telling TODAY's Matt Lauer the city finds itself in a "change moment."
Why Cops and Republicans Are Blaming #BlackLivesMatter Protests for a Double Murder - Bloomberg Politics
Bernie Kerik: War Is Being Waged on Our Homeland | TIME - Yet if you have listened to some in the media, purported civil rights leader Al Sharpton, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and others around the country over the last several weeks, you’re forced to believe that nearly all of America’s local and state police are out to kill minorities. It’s a lie! (convicted felon gets a podium at Time for lies)
Slimy Baltimore FOX Affiliate Caught Faking "Kill a Cop" Protest Chant
NYPD Shooting: Blue Lives Matter - The Atlantic - Talking about "police reform" obscures the task. Today's policies are, at the very least, the product of democratic will.
Eschaton: Nice Civilization You Have There - If somebody, somewhere, hurts a cop's feelings, he might just not be up to doing the job that day ...adding, #notallcops, of course, just those who think that people protesting police abuses somehow justify them taking their ball and going home.

Downton Abbey George Clooney Sketch Video - Downton Abbey Comedy Skit - Esquire

Do you speak Uglish? How English has evolved in Uganda | World news | The Guardian - Side dish – somebody’s mistress

So My Sister Is Bringing Her Sex Scandal Fiancé Home for the Holidays
NSFW- What is your SO's best sex trick? : AskReddit - "I run this bedroom, babe."
/r/DeadBedrooms - There's only one Love Language, those other four things are *Like* Languages
Did you high school have an "incident"? What was it? : AskReddit - "No, it didn't happen at Milton Academy."
ELI5: Why are some subreddits private? and How do you gain access to these Subs? : explainlikeimfive
To the children of polyamorous relationships, what was your childhood like? : AskReddit

Busted: The Internet Tax Hoax of 2014 | BillMoyers.com - So phone and cable company claims that Title II threatens broadband investment have imploded. Now we can add their fear-mongering about mythical new taxes to the scrap heap of misinformation.

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"It was an act of cybervandalism," Obama said in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley that aired Sunday on "State of the Union."
Sony hack reveals threat of ‘psychological’ cyber warfare | TheHill - “It’s more than a burglary and home invasion,” said Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at security research firm Trend Micro. “It’s, ‘I want to slaughter your family as well.’” (hyperbole much?)
Sony needed to have basic digital protection. It failed | Comment is free | The Guardian - ‘Guardians of Peace’ hackers took advantage of Sony’s abysmal levels of network security – and obliterated the privacy of the company’s employees (but that would subtract from their executive salaries)
BitTorrent Offers Distribute Sony’s ‘The Interview’ Via Its Bundle Service | Deadline
CSMastermind comments on BitTorrent Offers Distribute Sony’s ‘The Interview’ Via Its Bundle Service
Hollywood Tries to Crush Popcorn Time, Again | TorrentFreak - It was never revealed whether Hollywood forces had threatened the developers, but an MPAA update that surfaced as part of the Sony leaks now reveals that this was indeed the case.
George Clooney Was the Only One Who Saw the Sony Hack Coming - But when the time comes to lay blame, lay it not on George Clooney. For as with everything else in life, George Clooney had the upper hand. His prophecy by email lies below.

Sheikh Abdullah Daoud, Saudi Arabian Cleric Issues Fatwa Calling For Female Babies To Wear Burkas

Peshmerga forces heave Isis away from Mount Sinjar | World news | The Guardian - As many as 300 militants are believed killed as US-led airstrikes assist the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq
Taliban kill seven Afghan police officers in raid on checkpoint | World news | The Guardian - Official says five other policemen injured and five insurgents killed during attack in Qashtepa district of Jawzjan province

Boko Haram Slaughters Mass Of Captives In Horrific New Video - "We have made sure the floor of this hall is turned red with blood, and this is how it is going to be in all future attacks and arrests of infidels," the group leader says in a message. "From now, killing, slaughtering, destructions and bombing will be our religious duty anywhere we invade."

Court Rules Orangutan Held In Argentina Zoo Is 'Non-Human Person' And Can Be Freed

Hillary Clinton Support Dips In New Poll - 61% of likely Democratic voters say they would vote for Clinton. This is down from last month's lead of 63%, and January's 73%. (tanking)

Elizabeth Warren And The Independent Community Bankers of America Are Right: Antonio Weiss Should Not Become Undersecretary for Domestic Finance | The Baseline Scenario - The Obama administration has continually refused to put forward any potential nominee for a senior position who has shown serious backbone with regard to financial reform. There appears to be a litmus test. If you want to be tough on reform – in the sense of confronting Too Big To Fail head-on or even just reducing the reckless risks that big banks take with derivatives – you cannot have a senior administration job. (bankers and CIA own him)

100,000 prisoners are in for low-level drug offenses. Obama just gave relief to 8. - The Washington Post

De Blasio at centre of police storm after two NYPD officers shot dead | US news | The Guardian - Ex-NYPD commissioner says mayor’s comments ‘set off this firestorm’
Two NYPD cops get killed and 'wartime' police blame the protesters. Have we learned nothing? | Steven W Thrasher | Comment is free | The Guardian - “[W]e have, for the first time in a number of years, become a ‘wartime’ police department,” read a statement from the NYPD union. “We will act accordingly.”
NYPD cop killer shot girlfriend in Baltimore first - CBS News - "I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs."
Rudy Giuliani: 2 NYC Cops Were Killed Because Obama Told Everyone To 'Hate The Police' | ThinkProgress - Pat Lynch, the president of the largest police union in New York City, said there was “blood on many hands tonight” including “those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protest” and starting with “the office of the mayor.” (they've always been out of control)
video: NYPD officers turn away from Mayor de Blasio as he enters police presser for murdered cops | New York's PIX11 / WPIX-TV (disrespect)
Ray Kelly: Bill De Blasio Ran 'Anti-Police Campaign' (Ray "Stop and Frist Black People" Kelly)
Here are some awful tweets by conservatives blaming Bill de Blasio for the death of two cops

Police around state gain military firepower; critics see danger | Local News | The Seattle Times - As law-enforcement agencies around the state make use of assault rifles, armored vehicles and a windfall of other surplus tactical equipment from the military, some fear community policing will give way to a “militarized” mindset. (citizens are now "insurgents")

Bing Crosby: the man behind the myth - The Gonzaga Bulletin: News - The Crosby children were beaten constantly because of their attitudes, grades, eating habits, staying up past bedtime, entering the wrong wing of the house and many more infractions. Not only were the whippings frequent, they were severe.
TIL Bing Crosby used to whip his children for being overweight, and two of them committed suicide : todayilearned
Gary Crosby (actor)

Americans aren’t getting married, and researchers think porn is part of the problem - The Washington Post

A Tree Is Known By Its Fruit: Page 2 of 9 | Texas Monthly

If you’re a devoted listener of the actual podcast, you might come away impressed at how pitch-perfect SNL 's SERIAL spoof is : television

Crows Can Understand Analogies | IFLScience
Anti-inflammatory drugs ‘could fight depression’ | Science | The Guardian - Scientists to launch £5m study that explores links between immune disorders and mental illness – and could lead to new treatments
First direct evidence that a mysterious phase of matter competes with high-temperature superconductivity -- ScienceDaily

[Serious] Have you ever saved anyone's life? How did it happen? : AskReddit

Madonna: ‘I’m living in a state of terror’ | Music | The Guardian - In an exclusive interview, the singer defends her description of the leak of demos from her new album as ‘artistic rape’ (good PR)
The Artist Margaret Keane, Vindicated in Tim Burton’s Film - NYTimes.com - The Artist Margaret Keane, Vindicated in Tim Burton’s Film

Pirate Bay Domain Back Online, Waving a Pirate Flag | TorrentFreak

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Eschaton: Who's The Boss - If the CIA will do this, they'll do anything.

The ABC'S Of Jihad In Afghanistan * Courtesy, USA - By Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway - Washington Post, 23 March 2002 (the whole reaping what you sow thing is too complicated)

North Korea denies hacking Sony, U.S. stands by its assertion | Reuters
CEO Says Sony Pictures 'Did Not Capitulate,' Is Exploring Options : The Two-Way : NPR
Sean Penn on Sony Pulling "The Interview": This Sends ISIS an "Invitation" | Mother Jones - In an email to Mother Jones, the actor says if the US, China, Russia, and UN don't react strongly, global culture will be "very different."
Evan Goldberg wonders if the Sony hack was an inside job | Georgia Straight, Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly
"The Interview" Co-Director Evan Goldberg on the Sony hacking scandal. “For two seconds it was the North Koreans, and then the younger guys in our office who know way more about computers were, like, ‘No way. You’d have to know Sony’s network, it has to be somebody on the inside.’" : news
Hustler Video announces porn parody of ‘The Interview’ | www.wsbtv.com (it went viral)

Pakistan: Several Taliban killed after school massacre - CNN.com - At least five militants, including a key commander, were killed Saturday in a battle between security forces and militants in the Mattani area of Peshawar, sources said.
Why Pakistan won't hunt down the terrorists within its borders - The Week - Thanks partly to exaggerated fears about India, Pakistan has built its army and its intelligence arm, the Inter-Intelligence Service (ISI), into all-powerful entities that are scarcely answerable to civilian rulers. (oh gee, sounds like ...)

A Refugee Crisis in Calais is an Example of a World Wide Problem | The New Republic

Sydney siege timeline: how a day and night of terror unfolded at the Lindt cafe | Australia news | The Guardian - Just after the morning rush at the Lindt cafe on Monday, Man Haron Monis held up a gun and began a 16-hour hostage crisis. Here Guardian Australia reporters detail the key moments of the siege that ended in the death of two victims

Castro's Hipster Apologists Want to Keep Cuba ‘Authentically’ Poor - The Daily Beast - The thawing of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba has elicited a lot of patronizing, asinine fretting about the imminent “Americanization” of Cuba.
Presenting Guest Op-Ed Writer Samuel Beckett - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Shorter Fred Hiatt: “China and Vietnam prove that normalization of relations does not necessarily guarantee freedom. Therefore, we should maintain the embargo of Cuba, which has a superb 50-year track record of promoting freedom, with plenty of unnecessary impoverishment as a side benefit.”
Eschaton: Our BFFs, Saudi Arabia - I don't want to litigate just how evil the Castro governments have been in Cuba. But it would be nice if every now and then a journalist would ask people who think it's unpossible to normalize our relationship with Cuba because they are "human rights violators" just why we're so nice to Saudi Arabia. (who knew about 9/11)

North Korea demands joint inquiry with US into Sony Pictures hack | World news | The Guardian - Pyongyang denies responsibility for cyber-attack and threatens grave consequences if Washington continues to blame it
North Korea Threatens Film Studios With Obliteration.. And Other Crazy Warnings - "If the U.S. imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival ... our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon -- the sources of all evil," Hwang Pyong-So said, according to The Telegraph.

Israel Airstrike Hits Hamas Site In Gaza - Israel's military struck a Hamas site in the Gaza Strip early Saturday in its first airstrike on the Palestinian territory since this summer's war.

Backed by U.S. Airstrikes, Kurds Reverse an ISIS Gain - NYTimes.com
IS has executed 100 foreigners trying to quit: report - Yahoo News
Kurdish forces kill dozens of European, African ISIS fighters
Elderly Nigerians, Unable To Flee Boko Haram, Rounded Up And Shot Dead

Russia Dismisses New U.S. Sanctions As Useless (said the gas station)
Muscovites brace for economic winter as rouble plunges | World news | The Guardian - After a week of currency meltdown, traditional Russian fatalism is back in force. Are the good times over for Moscow’s big spending elite?

TIL Alfred Hitchcock pieced together a compilation of videos from Holocaust. Originally filmed by British and american soldiers who liberated the camps. The video was hiden from the public for over 40 years. VERY NSFW/NSFL : todayilearned
Tests confirm Cambodia HIV mass infection - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English - UNAIDS to join Health Ministry to conduct full epidemiological investigation in affected community in Battambang.

US Sends 4 Afghans Home From Guantanamo

Panel to Advise Against Penalty for C.I.A.’s Computer Search - NYTimes.com (of course)
PressTV - CIA experimented on humans in black sites: Report (you know who else ...)

Obama Unbound - NYTimes.com
Obama Ends 2014 With Swagger And A Boatload Of Unanswered Questions - “I’m energized. I’m excited about the prospects for the next couple years,” Obama said Friday. “A new future is ready to be written. We’ve set the stage for this American moment.”
In Case You Missed It, Obama Made History Today: Calls Only on Female Reporters - ABC News
Obama is unpopular. He's also accomplished an incredible amount. - Vox - In his second term, Obama has also managed to get a record number of judges confirmed thanks to Democrats' use of the nuclear option to reduce filibustering. When Obama took office, 10 of the 13 appeals courts had Republican majorities — today only four do.

Why Republicans Admire Putin by Nancy LeTourneau | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - This week Jonathan Chait reminded us of the origins of the neoconservative movement in the Republican Party.
Democratic techies’ divided loyalties - Darren Samuelsohn - POLITICO - Ex-Obama hands split between Clinton, rivals ... more than 300 of Obama’s former campaign staffers, including his chief information officer and senior aides who handled email, online fundraising and field efforts, released a letter begging Warren to jump into the race.

F.B.I. Evidence Is Often Mishandled, an Internal Inquiry Finds - NYTimes.com - mislabeled and lost evidence, according to a highly critical internal investigation that discovered errors with nearly half the pieces of evidence it reviewed. (Feebs totally incompetent and corrupt)

Gay marriages to begin in Florida after supreme court rejects delay | World news | The Guardian - Nuptials legally move forward on 6 January and the state must allow and recognize same-sex marriages performed in and out of state

Why single payer died in Vermont - Sarah Wheaton - POLITICO - Vermont under Shumlin became the most visible trailblazer. Until Wednesday, when the governor admitted what critics had said all along: He couldn’t pay for it.

Gunman kills self after 2 NYPD cops shot dead ‘execution style’ as ‘revenge’ for Garner | New York Post - Two uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead Saturday afternoon as they sat in their marked police car on a Brooklyn street corner — in what investigators believe was a crazed gunman’s execution-style mission to avenge Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
NYPD Plainclothes Cop Appears To Punch Restrained Teen (raw video, updated)
Oklahoma Executions To Use Same Drug As In Botched Execution
NY police officer suspended after new video shows brutality | Reuters - A New York City police officer who appears to punch a black youth during an arrest that was captured on video and widely circulated on the Internet has been suspended from duty, the department said on Friday.
S.F. sheriff’s deputy arrested in assault on hospital patient - SFGate
Cleveland police union defends fired cop, saying others did far worse | cleveland.com
Major Chicago study finds red light cameras not safer, cause more rear-end injuries | Ars Technica - "This entire program is strictly to generate revenue and always has been," Alderman says.
Philadelphia drops civil asset forfeiture case against family | PA Independent - Chris Sourovelis and his family lost their home earlier this year after his son was caught by police selling $40 of heroin.

Alleged Cosby Victim: ‘He's Wicked With Power, Lust And Manipulation' (VIDEO) - After that, I passed out, and I woke up to him [clapping] and saying, ‘Daddy says wake up.’”
Lawmaker Rick Brattin defends controversial abortion bill requiring father’s consent - + KSHB.com - he bill drew national attention after Brattin defended it to Mother Jones magazine and invoked the now infamous phrase “legitimate rape” in discussing the bill’s exemption for victims of rape and incest.
The Personal and the Political | Jacobin - ndividual narratives have their place in progressive struggles, but Rolling Stone’s controversial article shows why they have to be wedded to a wider analysis.
Girl’s discredited story of sex assault cost dad chance at job | Toronto Star - Robert Ireland's foster daughter made allegations of sexual assault against him, never leading to a charge or conviction. His recent application for a transit job ended after the allegations appeared on his police check

The 32 Sixth Boroughs of New York City, According to the 'Times,' in Order from Worst to Best - The Awl

Tina Fey Parodies NPR In Flawless Vintage Improv Sketch

ELI5: The millennial generation appears to be so much poorer than those of their parents. For most, ever owning a house seems unlikely, and even car ownership is much less common. What exactly happened to cause this? : explainlikeimfive

Viking women were most certainly not stay-at-home moms | Ars Technica - The boats weren't just filled with hairy men in helmets.
Stem cell scandal scientist Haruko Obokata resigns
Quantum physics just got less complicated with 'Rosetta Stone' breakthrough - "The connection between uncertainty and wave-particle duality comes out very naturally when you consider them as questions about what information you can gain about a system. Our result highlights the power of thinking about physics from the perspective of information."
Machine learning reveals unexpected genetic roots of cancers, autism and other disorders | U of T News - Researchers from engineering, biology and medicine teach computers to ‘read the human genome’ and rate likelihood of mutations causing disease, opening vast new possibilities for medicine
The Strange Tale of a New Species of Lizard - NYTimes.com - Aspidoscelis neavesi is quite exceptional. The lizard was produced in the laboratory by mating two other species, and its creation defies conventional ideas about how new species evolve ... But parthenogenic female whiptail lizards can duplicate the chromosomes in their offspring without males.
Men Who Like Spicy Food Have Higher Testosterone Levels
Ibuprofen use leads to extended lifespan in several species, study shows : science
What's a grammatical mistake that's so common that people don't even think it's a mistake? : AskReddit
xkcd: Effect an Effect

Staples Data Breach May Have Affected Over 1 Million Payment Cards

Tina Fey Parodies NPR In Flawless Vintage Improv Sketch
Can We Criticize Foucault? | Jacobin - Late in life, Michel Foucault developed a curious sympathy for neoliberalism.

Watching a Chiropractor fix a damaged neck is surprisingly entertaining : videos

The year of outrage 2014: Everything you were angry about on social media this year.
Facebook is dropping in Popularity with Teens Again, Study Shows - EWT News Website
The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed | WIRED
Mississippi attorney general calls 'time out' in legal battle with Google | Technology | The Guardian - shortly after the search giant filed a lawsuit against him ... The company says his request violates the open principles of the internet and was made at the behest of a major film lobbying firm ... asking that the company turn over information about its search engine and sales of illegal drugs, pornography and other materials. (Google major purveyor of drugs and porno)
Google Slams MPAA for Trying to Censor Internet: Project Goliath Reveals Rift : Personal Tech : Tech Times

The 2014 /r/askreddit Best Of Awards are here! : AskReddit
What is the luckiest thing that has ever happened to you? : AskReddit - One stormy day

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Front Yards Turn to Wetlands in Virginia as Climate Change Takes Toll - Bloomberg
Ebay joins Google and others in dumping Alec over climate stance | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian - The online retailer is the latest tech giant to leave the right wing lobbying group over its position on climate change

Ebola kills Sierra Leone's most senior doctor | World news | The Guardian - Victory Willoughby is the 11th of the country’s 120 doctors to die during the outbreak

U.S. Companies Clamor to Do Business in New Cuban Market - NYTimes.com - While some Americans will be itching at the opportunity to obtain the famed Cuban cigars more easily, the country also has a surprisingly robust biotechnology industry that makes a number of vaccines not now available in the United States. Another hot spot for the economy could be mining, as Cuba has one of the largest deposits of nickel in the world.
Obama’s Cuba moves come amid demographic, economic, and political shifts that have weakened US hardliners - Nation - The Boston Globe - Recent polls not only show that a majority of Americans favor normalizing relations but also that a majority of Cuban-Americans in South Florida agree.
Marco Rubio Challenges The Pope On Obama's New Cuba Policy
a Republicans Fight Amongst Themselves Over Restored Cuba Relations - Esquire - Ever since the president announced that it was no longer 1962, and that the United States would demonstrate its belief that Cuba existed by opening an embassy there, the Washington Post Opinion sections -- Fred Hiatt, Official 'Ho-Master -- has been one small comic step away from all-out slapstick on the subject ... Anybody who opposes this deal based on Cuban repression without calling for the trials of the American torturers and their superiors, or the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay is a moral idiot.

Putin’s Bubble Bursts - NYTimes.com - Russia has an economy roughly the same size as Brazil’s. And, as we’re now seeing, it’s highly vulnerable to financial crisis — a vulnerability that has a lot to do with the nature of the Putin regime ... a classic case of locking the barn door after the oligarch is gone.

We May Never Prove Who's Really Behind The Sony Hack - North Korea has denied involvement, and called the hack "a righteous deed."
North Korea was responsible for Sony computer hack, US official says | US news | The Guardian - The official, who said there may be a Chinese link, said the conclusion was to be announced later by federal authorities
Obama: Sony 'Made A Mistake' By Canceling The Release Of 'The Interview' - "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States," Obama said
Sony CEO Says President Obama, Press 'Are Mistaken' About What Happened With 'The Interview'
Hackers To Sony Pictures: You're Safe 'Unless You Make Additional Trouble' (submit to us for approval)
Now Paramount Is Banning The Screening Of Team America, Which Came Out Ten Years Ago - Esquire - The Great Christmas Chickening continues, this time surrounding a movie that's been out for ten years.
News from The Associated Press - The evidence implicating North Korea was previously described as largely circumstantial
Ex-Anonymous hacker questions North Korea's role in Sony hack: "The pipes going in, handling data, they only have one major ISP across their entire nation. That kind of information flowing at one time would have shut down North Korean Internet completely" : technology
Ex-Anonymous hacker questions North Korea's role in Sony hack - CBS News
If you were going to assassinate Kim Jong Un, how would you do it? : AskReddit
Hollywood Cowardice: George Clooney Explains Why Sony Stood Alone In North Korean Cyberterror Attack | Deadline
George Clooney attacks press and Hollywood over Sony hack fallout | Film | The Guardian - "We cannot be told we can’t see something by Kim Jong-un, of all fucking people ... we have allowed North Korea to dictate content, and that is just insane.”

Sony's Top-Secret Password Lists Have Names like Master_Password_Sheet
Sony's IT security is a 'joke,' say former employees - serious questions are being raised about the Hollywood studio’s security procedures—with one former employee describing the “information security team” as a “complete joke.”
Sony Pictures leak shows employees used worst passwords ever

The race to save Peter Kassig | Ali Younes, Shiv Malik, Spencer Ackerman and Mustafa Khalili | News | The Guardian (Feebs fucked it up, as usual)

Pakistani Military Kills Dozens Of Militants In Retaliation For School Massacre
Umar Mansoor: The Man Behind The Brutal School Attack In Pakistan - A video posted on Thursday on a website used by the Taliban shows a man with a luxuriant chest-length beard, holding an admonishing finger aloft as he seeks to justify the Dec. 16 attack. The caption identified him as Umar Mansoor.
Kurdish pershmerga forces prepare escape route for Yazidis trapped on Sinjar | World news | The Guardian - Thousands of people who fled after Isis attacks will be led out of mountains after pathway is secured

Pentagon anti-bomb force 'improperly retained' information on Americans | US news | The Guardian - Group ‘improperly’ held data from Five Eyes: UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada

The Woman the Center of the C.I.A.'s Torture Report - The Unidentified Queen of Torture - By Jane Mayer
Greenwald - The Intercept - Naming Bikowsky allows people to piece together these puzzles and hold American officials accountable. The CIA’s arguments for suppression of her name are vague and unpersuasive, alluding generally to the possibility that she could be the target of retaliation.
Torture, 'Meet the Press' and Cheney's Quest for Revenge - The Intercept - Dick Cheney gave no ground in his “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday, but he did something arguably even better: He bared his twisted soul.
Bush officials gave CIA wide latitude - Yahoo News - In July 2004, despite growing internal concerns about the CIA's brutal interrogation methods, senior members of George W. Bush's national security team gave the agency permission to employ the harsh tactics against an al-Qaida facilitator the agency suspected was linked to a plot to disrupt the upcoming presidential election. (remember the raised terror alerts?)

Judge Who Ruled Against Obama Immigration Action Has Checkered Past - The judge, who has a highly unusual history of being removed from cases due to temperament and charges of bias, was not asked to rule on the issue and instead inserted his opinion into a criminal case.

Klingenschmitt: Americans Should Rely On God For Healthcare | Right Wing Watch - Gordon Klingenschmitt is excited about a recent Fox News poll that claims that 58 percent of Americans want to repeal Obamacare, declaring on his "Pray In Jesus Name" program recently that people ought to be relying on God for their healthcare.

Some witnesses lied to Michael Brown grand jury, McCulloch says. So why have them testify? : News
Ferguson prosecutor says witnesses in Darren Wilson case lied under oath | US news | The Guardian - The Smoking Gun also reported that McElroy came forward as a witness in another high-profile criminal case in 2007 - with a story that authorities later dismissed as “a complete fabrication.”
Witnesses Lied Under Oath In Ferguson Grand Jury, Prosecutor Says - McCulloch talked about at least one witness who he said appeared to have pulled her account of Michael Brown's death from a newspaper report.
NYPD plainclothes officer hits youth as he's cuffed - NY Daily News - “I can’t believe he just did that after everything that’s happened,” she said, an apparent reference to the Eric Garner case and other incidents captured on video.

Carly Fiorina Hiring for Presidential Campaign - NationalJournal.com - Despite her improving political skills, the California businesswoman would be an underdog in a likely all-male GOP field. (loser can't get enough of the spotlight)
Rep. Blake Farenthold Joked Online About Drinking And Hitting On Women - Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), who is being sued by a former employee for sexual harassment, wrote posts about alcohol and female travelers on an online forum geared toward frequent fliers.

Why white evangelicals rule the midterms - The Washington Post - One of the reasons that Republicans won the midterm elections is because white evangelicals turned out, while Democratic-leaning groups stayed home

Laboratory Investigation - Derivation of male germ cells from bone marrow stem cells

Los Angeles Apartment Fire Was Arson: Officials - A fire that reduced an unfinished downtown apartment building to a block-long mountain of blackened wood was an act of arson that caused an estimated $20 million to $30 million in damage, the Fire Department announced Thursday.

Democrats to Colbert: Thanks For Your Help! [Updated] | Power Line - why shouldn’t Stephen Colbert and Comedy Central be prohibited from airing millions of dollars worth of pro-Democratic Party propaganda?

You Probably Just Lost A Bunch Of Instagram Followers (Kardashians' have 3 of the top 100 accounts, Kim just kicked Bieber out of #1) )
A Mother's Struggle. : funny

The FCC ignored hundreds of thousands of net neutrality comments (proof) : technology

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No Torture. No Exceptions
Taking a Stand Against Torture
Hullabaloo - Doctors without Boundaries: Professional Courtesy: In reading the Bybee torture memo, you see that he refers constantly to the "professionals" and the medical personnel who oversaw the interrogations. (Digby: 2009)
Sony Showcases A New Response To Terrorism In Wake Of North Korea Hack - Esquire - Think we've learned anything about how to respond to "terrorism" in the years since we chose to deform the country over an act of terrorism?

U.S. Weighs Response To Sony Hack Blamed On North Korea - The United States said on Thursday a cyber attack on Sony Pictures was a serious national security matter and the Obama administration was considering a proportional response, although the White House stopped short of blaming North Korea. (so now we're defending Japanese corps who underfunded their security)
Jeet Heer on Twitter: "Sure, one side is dystopian hell ruled over by a tiny elite which manipulates population with totalitarian kitsch but North Korea is bad too"

Journey to Reconciliation Visited Worlds of Presidents, Popes and Spies - NYTimes.com
Taking Cuba Off Blacklist Leaves Only North Korea as Cold War Vestige - NYTimes.com
Fred Hiatt, Ladies and Gentlemen - Lawyers, Guns & Money : again proves his acumen at idiocy: I also note how the editorial sort of kind of left China out of this analysis. Gee, I wonder why.
Obama gives the Castro regime in Cuba an undeserved bailout - The Washington Post (Fred Hiatt stamps his feet)
News from The Associated Press - "The 50-year embargo just hasn't worked," Paul said. "If the goal is regime change, it sure doesn't seem to be working, and probably, it punishes the people more than the regime because the regime can blame the embargo for hardship. (and when Rand Paul makes more sense than WaPo)
WASHINGTON: Tortured U.S. history with Castro’s Cuba includes mob ties and assassination plots | Suits & Sentences | McClatchy DC - Senate investigators in 1975 identified “concrete evidence of at least eight plots involving the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro between 1960 and 1965,” according to a report by the so-called Church committee. Nor were these efforts trivial. (why JFK wanted to destroy the CIA)
U.S. TV Provides Ample Platform for American Torturers, But None to Their Victims - The Intercept

Pakistani school attackers ‘were told to kill soldiers’ after massacre of pupils | World news | The Guardian - The suicide attackers who assaulted a Pakistani school on Tuesday were reportedly given orders by phone to await the arrival of soldiers after they had initially slaughtered around 100 children in the school’s hall.
Suspected Boko Haram Gunmen Kidnap Over 100 Women, Children In Nigeria
Officials: Boko Haram kidnaps 185, kills 32 - CNN.com
Three Top Islamic State Leaders Killed In Air Strikes, U.S. Officials Say - Among those killed was Abd al Basit, whom the officials described as the group's military 'emir,' and Haji Mutazz, a deputy to Baghdadi. Those strikes took place between Dec. 3 and Dec. 9, they said.

Westminster paedophile ring linked to murders of THREE young boys by detectives  | Daily Mail Online - Met investigating alleged murders by MPs at flats in Pimlico, London - Boy called Nick says rich and powerful strangled boy, 12, at 'abuse party' - abuse took place in London and Home Counties, including at military bases

Israel Suffers Sharp Rebuffs From Europe - Israel suffered back-to-back diplomatic setbacks in Europe on Wednesday as Palestinians headed to the United Nations to try to set a two-year deadline for an Israeli withdrawal.
Iran unveils monument to Jewish soldiers killed in war with Iraq - Jewish World News Israel News | Haaretz - Jewish community leaders and Iranian clergy attend ceremony honoring Jewish 'martyrs.'

Checkmate, Putin. Russia’s economy is stuck in a catch-22. - The Washington Post - I might be playing chess while you play checkers, but I just got checkmated - That's because Russia never so much had an economy as an oil-exporting business that subsidized everything else. At this rate, Putin will be riding around shirtless, because he can't afford one anymore.
BERLIN: Putin is still Putin as he blasts West in talk on Russia’s economic woes | Europe | McClatchy DC - Economics Minister Alexei Ulyukayev appeared to break from Putin’s narrative on the economy, blaming the crisis entirely on the Russian government, or “delayed reforms and everything we did not do.”

Burma trial begins over ‘Buddha insult’ | World news | The Guardian - New Zealand bar manager and two workers deny charges they insulted religion by posting advertisement with pink Buddha wearing headphones
Chinese passenger opens plane door for fresh air | World news | The Guardian - A Chinese airline passenger pulled open an emergency exit as his plane was about to take off because he “just wanted fresh air”, Chinese media have reported.

Files of more than 40,000 federal workers breached - Yahoo News - the second breach this year at a major firm handling national security background investigations of workers at federal agencies, the government confirmed Thursday.

Obama's Had a Helluva Good Month Since the Midterms | Mother Jones
Morning Plum: Obama, unbound, puts his stamp on 2016 - The Washington Post - For years, progressives have sharply criticized President Obama for shaping major decisions around the idea that scaling back his ambitions would ultimately secure the GOP cooperation he had long sought. But the GOP takeover of Congress has effectively freed Obama from that illusion, leaving him little choice other than to be as aggressive and ambitious as possible in unilaterally pursuing his agenda wherever he can.
'Governor, This Is Barack Obama, Formerly Of Somerville.' | WGBH News

Jeb Bush v. Hillary Clinton: the Perfectly Illustrative Election - The Intercept - That one of those two families exploited its vast wealth to obtain political power, while the other exploited its political power to obtain vast wealth, makes it more illustrative still: of the virtually complete merger between political and economic power, of the fundamentally oligarchical framework that drives American political life.

The War on (Some Classes of People Who Use Some) Drugs Is Also A War on the Fourth Amendment - Lawyers, Guns & Money : in which the Court held that a search of a motorist who was not in fact doing anything illegal was nonetheless “reasonable” under the Fourth Amendment. Sotomayor, alas, was the only dissenter. Her opinion merits quotation on several points:
Cop: My ‘Breathe Easy’ Shirts Aren’t Garner Ref -- NYMag

Koch Group On The EPA: 'At Least The CIA Isn't Torturing Americans' | ThinkProgress (protecting the environment is waterboarding corps: kill two facts with one lie)

786 Abused Kids Died In Plain View Of Authorities: Report - many of them beaten, starved or left alone to drown while agencies had good reason to know they were in danger,

WASHINGTON: Most states unprepared to handle infectious disease outbreaks, health group says | Health Care | McClatchy DC - Maryland, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia led all states, each scoring eight out of 10.

Lawrence Summers' $28 Million Payday, Courtesy of Elizabeth Warren - Bloomberg Politics - Summers went back to teaching at Harvard University, a job that, unlike the Fed, allows him to serve on Lending Club's board (misleading headline)

Eschaton: Teachers Cost Too Much - But there's always money in the banana stand for sports stadiums.

Could cannabis oil reverse the effects of cancer? - Features - Health & Families - The Independent

Watching Colbert Makes People More Conservative | The New Republic - They showed 332 college students clips of “Colbert” and found that the more conservative a student’s personal views, the more likely she was to believe that Colbert wasn’t kidding.
Why Matt Drudge and Lucianne Goldberg still rule the conservative media roost - The Washington Post - Over the course of the year, links from Google to the Post's politics coverage have accounted for 5.5 percent of all incoming links. Drudge accounted for 4.1 percent.

Another Woman Comes Forward With New Allegations In The Bill Cosby Scandal (VIDEO) - She joins more than 20 women who have come forward in the media claiming that the legendary actor drugged and/or sexually assaulted them years ago.
Boston Uber Driver Accused Of Raping Passenger In Back Seat

Vance Deal: $400 Fine for Unlicensed Driver Who Killed Senior in Crosswalk | Streetsblog New York City - An unlicensed driver who fatally struck a senior as she crossed the street with the right of way will pay a $400 fine, pursuant to a plea arrangement with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.

(NSFW) What is the worst thing you've ever seen or heard in a game of "truth or dare?" : AskReddit

Burner phone? There's an app for that, and it's earning millions of dollars | The Verge

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Obama and Castro hail historic breakthrough for US-Cuba relations - as it happened | US news | The Guardian - Officials say US and Cuba will seek to normalise relations - Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro speak to nations
U.S., Cuba Seek To Normalize Relations
Marco Rubio Fires Back On Cuba: Obama Is The 'Worst Negotiator' In My Lifetime - "This Congress is not going to lift the embargo," Rubio declared at the end of his news conference.
Cuba Releases American Alan Gross After 5 Years In Prison
White House Credits Pope Francis For Facilitating Cuba Deal - BuzzFeed News - The pope sent an extraordinary letter to both Obama and Castro over the summer. The letter “gave us greater impetus and momentum for us to move forward,” the administration official said.
Republicans livid over Cuba talks, call it appeasement - Katie Glueck and Seung Min Kim - politico (of Cuban aggression)
Travel Bans For Americans To Cuba To Be Lifted And Diplomacy Re-opened - Esquire - Oh, sweet Jesus H. Christ on a jet-pack, this is going to set them off. It already has begun on the distant shores of the Island Of The Misfit Witless and it will steadily build to a crescendo in the more respectable precincts

As The American Public Buys Into The Idea That Everything The Country Does, Even Brutally, Is For The Purpose Of Moving It Forward - Esquire - Six in 10 Americans say the CIA's treatment of suspected terrorists was justified, more than half think it produced important, unique intelligence - and 52 percent say it was wrong for the Senate Intelligence Committee to issue a report suggesting otherwise. (weep for America, beyond redemption)
When It Comes to Torture, Dick Cheney Speaks for Almost Half of All Americans | Slog
War Criminals Do Not Get A Parade In This Country - Esquire - I don't care how much you want one. We don't give war criminals a parade in this country.

Pakistan’s prime minister promises day of reckoning with militants | World news | The Guardian - As massacre victims are buried, Nawaz Sharif says there will be no more differentiation between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban
Pakistan school attack: funerals and aftermath – in pictures | World news | The Guardian - Three days of mourning have been declared in Pakistan as funerals take place for the 141 victims of the school massacre in Peshawar


Russians Rush To Stores As Country Fears Bank Run - frantically buying a range of big-ticket items to pre-empt the price rises kicked off by the staggering fall in the value of the ruble in recent days.
Rouble collapse hits Finland, Forex stops buying Russian currency | Yle Uutiset | yle.fi
SAS plane 'near miss' fears blamed on weed - The Local - Russia's ambassador to Denmark has made light of Swedish concerns over a Russian military jet's alleged near-miss with a passenger plane, suggesting Swedish authorities may have smoked too much cannabis.

Everything You Need to Know About the Disappearance of 43 Students That's Threatening to Tear Mexico Apart | VICE | United States - According to the report, federal police shot at the students and even collected bullet casings after the fact to cover up their involvement.

The Senate Just Cemented Obama's Judicial Legacy


Bush Made Family Tragedy Into A Family Horror With The Schiavos - Esquire - It was wonderfully predictable, and I hope it gets repeated, over and over again, until The Smart One gets run out of politics.

Proposed Bill Would Require Women To Ask Men's Permission To Have An Abortion - A bill proposed by a Republican state lawmaker in Missouri would require a woman seeking an abortion to obtain notarized consent from the baby's father, even if he is physically abusive toward her. "So you couldn't just go and say, 'Oh yeah, I was raped,' and get an abortion. It has to be a legitimate rape."

Cuomo to Ban Fracking in New York State, Citing Health Risks - NYTimes.com
Gov. Andrew Cuomo To Ban Fracking In New York State - The potential adverse impacts of fracking are “widespread," DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens said at the press conference. He added that the prospects for fracking in New York are "uncertain at best," and the economic benefits are "far lower than originally forecasted."

Seattle’s unbelievable transportation megaproject fustercluck | Grist
Guest Editorial: Seattle, Pull the Plug on the Tunnel Unless You Can Answer These Seven Questions | Slog - it’s worth pointing out that the digging of the tunnel itself—which we’ve always known would be the most difficult part of the viaduct replacement project—is only one-tenth finished. This megaproject is being driven by a clown car of derelicts.
Guest Editorial: We Need to Stop Trying to Rescue This Tunnel Project and Consider Our Options | Slog

Congress Finally Acts to Prevent Police Killings, But Will it Make a Difference? | Ten Miles Square | The Washington Monthly - the Death in Custody Reporting Act. The bill which is slated for a presidential signature, calls for all police departments to report all people killed in custody or during an arrest.
Documenting Police Killings by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Comparatively, a fisherman is 10 times more likely to be killed on the job than a police officer, according to national figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A logging worker is eight times more likely than a police officer to die on the job, and a garbage man is three times more likely to die while working. Most policemen killed on the job die in auto accidents, according to FBI statistics. (their lives are on the line everyday)
Law Enforcement Is the Fattest Profession, Study Finds | TIME - Along with firefighters and security guards (porkers)

Gay-Bashing Suspects Held on All Charges - G Philly - Kevin Harrigan, Kathryn Knott, and Philip Williams
Woman Used Child Porn To Frame Estranged Husband - But when police examined time stamps, they determined the images had been downloaded more than two weeks after Meri Woods had her husband kicked out of their Clymer-area home with a protection-from-abuse order. (not that bright)

Exonerated After Execution: Judge Tosses Teen's Murder Conviction - NBC News.com - Seventy years after South Carolina executed a 14-year-old boy so small he sat on a phone book in the electric chair, a circuit court judge threw out his murder conviction.


U.S. Links North Korea to Sony Hacking - NYTimes.com - American intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean government was “centrally involved” in the recent attacks on Sony Pictures’s computers, a determination reached just as Sony on Wednesday canceled its release of the comedy, which is based on a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.
Top Five Theater Circuits Drop 'The Interview' After Sony Hack - The Hollywood Reporter
Sony Hacking Fallout Explodes As Theaters Cancel 'The Interview' Showings
Reddit bans users for sharing hacked Sony documents | Technology | The Guardian - The social news site has acceded to a DMCA takedown request from Sony and removed a hub for sharing the company’s hacked files - cracking down on discussion of its stolen data on sites such as Reddit. (no "discussion" allowed)
Sony leaks reveal Hollywood is trying to break DNS, the backbone of the internet | The Verge - A leaked legal memo reveals a plan for blacklisting pirate sites at the ISP level
It’s Official: Sony Scraps ‘The Interview’ : movies

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Weak deal at Lima climate talks disappoints climate hawks | Grist
Police asked university for list of attendees at fracking debate | UK news | The Guardian - Canterbury Christ Church University says it refused to hand over list, and Green party councillor criticises police request ("public safety")

2014 Lie of the Year: Exaggerations about Ebola | PolitiFact

Pakistan responds to Peshawar school massacre with strikes on Taliban | World news | The Guardian
Pakistani Taliban Attack on Peshawar School Leaves 145 Dead - NYTimes.com - Heavily armed gunmen stormed into a military-run school in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing scores of teachers and schoolchildren and fighting a gun battle with the security forces
Pakistani officials say siege at school over
'I saw death so close': student recalls Pakistan school carnage - Yahoo News
Taliban Kills More Than 100 Children In Pakistan School Attack - Khorasani said that the attackers had been ordered to shoot the older students but not the young children.

Around 180 Soldiers And Militants Killed In Battle For Syrian Base - The Britain-based group said Islamist insurgents including al Qaeda's Syria wing, the Nusra Front, on Monday took the base next to the country's main north-south highway linking Aleppo with Damascus.

Ex-Mossad chief: Peace will elude us until we treat Palestinians with dignity | The Times of Israel - Efraim Halevy attacks Netanyahu and Bennett for their policies on Jerusalem, says elections offer ‘a choice the likes of which we have never had’

Damning Report Claims Mexican Federal Police Participated In Disappearance Of 43 Students - “We have information that proves the federal government knew what was happening in the moment it was happening, and participated in it,”

Hostages in the Sydney cafe siege: 'We’re not getting out of here' | Australia news | The Guardian

Russia's Ruble Slides To Historic Lows - The Russian ruble faced intense selling pressure Tuesday, falling at one stage by a whopping 20 percent to historic lows despite a massive pre-dawn interest rate hike from the country's central bank.
The Collapse of Putin's Economic System - Bloomberg - The foundations on which Vladimir Putin built his 15 years in charge of Russia are giving way.
Villagers in Kazakhstan Are Falling Asleep En Masse for No Apparent Reason | VICE | United States - Misha Plyukhin saw flying horses and light bulbs, his mother with eight eyes and a trunk, and snakes and worms in his bed, trying to eat his arms (it was Putin)

CIA torture: health professionals 'may have committed war crimes', report says | US news | The Guardian - Physicians for Human Rights called for federal investigation on CIA torture program participation, calling rectal feeding technique ‘form of sexual assault’
Dick Cheney - The Atlantic - "I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective." (which is to make people suffer as much as possible)
Scalia and Cruel and Unusual Interrogation by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - In keeping with his recent habit of defiant ideological gestures, Justice Antonin Scalia has weighed in on the torture debate with an angry defense of “enhanced interrogation” as both constitutional and as within the American moral consensus, as opposed to that of namby-pamby “European liberals.
America Is Built on Torture, Remember? - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society - Slavery was not quaint, nor stunted, nor backwards looking. It was the engine of American success.
Dick Cheney’s 6-Step Torture Denial -- NYMag
"Wherever They's A Fight to Defend the Preposterous Arguments of People Responsible for Arbitrary Detention And Torture, I'll Be There" - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money - It’s sad and outrageous that apologias for gross violations of human rights that really should be confined to eighth-rate webcomics will persuade many people, but we are living in a polity in which Dick Cheney could be part of a winning presidential ticket twice.
The US Is A Country That Tortures - End Of Story - Esquire - There is not a single defense raised by these barbarians that has not been raised in the past by people who wanted to torture people with impunity. They can't even summon up the common humanity to concoct original alibis.

Breaking: Republican Judge Strikes Down Obama's Immigration Order | ThinkProgress
District court declares Obama immigration action unconstitutional (Updated) - The Washington Post - This isn’t the only case challenging the lawfulness of the Obama’s immigration actions. Some two-dozen states have filed suit challenging Obama’s recent immigration policy reforms.

Kevin Yoder MIA After Tucking Wall Street Bailout Into Government Spending Bill - For all the anger among progressives about a Wall Street bailout provision that made its way into the just-passed $1.1 trillion government spending bill, there's been little attention on the person who put it in there - Meet Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas) (way to go, KS)

How prepared is New York City for future superstorms? The question is far from settled | US news | The Guardian - To cap our Stormproofing the City series, Lilah Raptopoulos pinpoints eight takeaways – including that without Sandy, the city would be much less safe today

Report: Darren Wilson's Key Witness Lied About Everything
"Witness 40": Exposing A Fraud In Ferguson | The Smoking Gun - TSG probe unmasks grand jury witness who spun fabricated tale
America just doesn’t get it: Why police killings demand more than a “respectable” response - Salon.com - Cops are getting away with murder, so protesters are taking a stand. And if that makes you uncomfortable? Good.

The Mysterious Rise of the Non-Working Man - The Atlantic - The economy is not leaving men behind. But it is perhaps leaving manliness behind - Machines are replacing the brawn that powered the 20th century economy, clearing way for work that requires a softer human touch. (like a woman's)

Bill Cosby's wife wants to know who the real victim is. There are all too many options | Jessica Valenti | Comment is free | The Guardian
No, we don't literally want to ban men. But 2014 was the year women got even | Jess Zimmerman | Comment is free | The Guardian - At least, that was our year according to the minds of the whiny, brittle men who genuinely believe “misandry” – the institutionalized hatred of men – is a powerful force in the world.

alicublog: Where They're Coming From. - To those of you who worry that mainstream attention to the con artist Charles C. Johnson will damage the reputation and efficacy of journalism, I have to say you're waaaaaay late
Inside The Collapse Of The New Yorker’s Inside The Collapse Of The New Republic | Wonkette - For the densest, most potent crystallization of why nobody but the whiter half of your Twitter feed could care fucking less about what happens to the whiny-ass tittybabies of TNR, we leave you with this heartfelt cri de couer:

Degrees of Danger - The Baffle ("Culture Zones" in Muslim countries constructed by rich American institutions) r

The American Scholar: Habits of Mind - Anthony Grafton and James Grossman - Why college students who do serious historical research become independent, analytical thinkers

EXCLUSIVE: New York Mag’s Boy Genius Investor Made It All Up | New York Observer
Stuyvesant High School Student Now Says He Didn't Make $72 Million on Stocks - NYTimes.com - “At the end of the day these are teenagers who acted dumb.”


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Climate Change Takes A Village <br><small>As The Planet Warms, A Remote Alaskan Town Shows Just How Unprepared We Are</small>
Massive study provides first detailed look at how Greenland's ice is vanishing


Sydney Hostage Siege Ends With Gunman and 2 Captives Dead as Police Storm Cafe - NYTimes.com
Sydney Hostage Crisis Over After Police Storm Cafe
Sydney siege: Tori Johnson's family pays tribute to 'amazing' man – rolling report | Australia news | The Guardian - A producer for the ABC also warned against Man Haron Monis five years ago. Rachael Kohn, who had been targeted by Monis, asked why the Muslim community was not doing more to condemn Monis in a piece for ABC online.
Sydney Hostage Taker Man Haron Monis Dead - "His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness," (sort of like Republicans)
Uber Raises Fares During Sydney Hostage Crisis, Then Offers Free Rides
15,000 join anti-Islam protest in eastern Germany - Yahoo News
GravityGod comments on Armed robbery / hostage situation in Sydney cafe Live Coverage On The Morning Show On 7/PRIME
Cameramen in sydney siege don't know they're being streamed live to thousands. /r/australia captures some of their top notch banter. : bestof

Brennan Draws on Bond With Obama in Backing C.I.A. - NYTimes.com - After six years of partnership, the president was standing by the embattled spy chief even as fellow Democrats called for his resignation.
The media treats Dick Cheney like the royals on vacation. He should be in jail | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - Torture architects have been allowed to explain away rape and detention of innocent people. If we can’t lock him up instead, shouldn’t we at least be able to hold the next Dick Cheney accountable?
The Luxury Homes That Torture and Your Tax Dollars Built - The Daily Beast - The Senate report notes that in addition to the $81 million, the CIA accorded the two a “multi-year indemnification agreement” to shield them, their firm, and its employees from any “legal liability arising out of the program.”
Hullabaloo - A little reminder on Torture Sunday (how Fox mainstreamed fear and torture)
Part Of The Country's Fundamental Nature Did Not Involve Torture - Esquire - Stinneford saw quite clearly that the lack of a specific Bill of Rights inevitably could lead to the federal government's practicing torture on its citizens in order to draw from them confessions. This was not idle speculation from these people
Elizabeth Hasselbeck On The Sydney Cafe Hostage Situation - Esquire - Hasselbeck exclaimed. "And you understand the real war with ISIS that we are in. In stark contrast with accusations [against] the CIA really just trying to do their job and keep America safe for the past 13 years." "It startles you," she added.
Mythology and the Iraq War Debate - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Russian Ruble Crashes to World's Worst-Performing Currency | Business | The Moscow Times

Dodd-Frank Damaged in the Budget Bill - NYTimes.com - The Masters of the Universe, it turns out, are a bunch of whiners. But they’re whiners with war chests, and now they’ve bought themselves a Congress


Eschaton: Supply Side Jesus Is Coming - Tax cuts can only be failed.

Hullabaloo - Jeb Bush Is a Hothead -

Did Salaita Cross the Line of 'Civility'? - NYTimes.com

Authorities warn residents to stay indoors as Pennsylvania shooter still at large | US news | The Guardian - Police in Pennsylvania are searching for a 35-year-old man suspected of killing six family members and seriously wounding one more.

City of South Pittsburg bans negative comments | Local News | Times Free Press - Over the past year, city leaders say their work has been hampered by criticism and lies on social media.

Texas Cop Nathanial Robinson Uses Stun Gun On Elderly Man Over Inspection Sticker - officer Nathanial Robinson, 23, pull over Pete Vasquez, 76, at Adam's Auto Mart in Victoria, Texas, as "Under Ground Kings" by Drake blares from the cruiser's radio. (23 yr old thug cop)
Victoria police officer investigated for tasing driver, 76Victoria Advocate - Victoria, TX - "The cop told me to stand back, but I didn't shut up. I told him he was a g-------- Nazi Stormtrooper."
Victoria, TX cop tackles and tasers 76 year old man for an expired registration sticker. Even worse, turns out the the sticker was unnecessary because it was a new car with dealer tags : news
Witness who shot video of police punching suspect arrested, sent to jail | FOX31 Denver - A bystander who recently stepped forward with a video recording of Denver Police officers punching a drug suspect and then tripping his pregnant girlfriend during a violent arrest last August was in jail himself Thursday night.

Hullabaloo - Abrasive leadership - Abrasive alone was used 17 times to describe 13 different women, but the word never appeared in men’s reviews. In fact, this type of character critique that was absent from men’s reviews showed up in 71 of the 94 critical reviews received by women.

SeaWorld CEO Steps Down Amid Tanking Revenues | News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com - Company announces undisclosed number of layoffs

TIL 82% of black women in the US are overweight with 56.6% being obese : todayilearned
If you could erase one discovery or invention for the benefit of humanity, what would it be and why? : AskReddit
Say you had the ability to fly a spacecraft from one side of the galaxy to the other in a straight line. What are the chances that you run into something? : askscience

The Mumps, a Scourge of Dormitories, Spreads Through the N.H.L. - NYTimes.com

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UN Climate Talks In Lima Reach Agreement - Climate negotiators salvaged a compromise deal in Lima early Sunday that sets the stage for a global pact in Paris next year, but rejected a rigorous review of the greenhouse gas emissions limits they plan.
Earth faces sixth ‘great extinction’ with 41% of amphibians set to go the way of the dodo | Environment | The Guardian - Analysis for prestigious Nature magazine sounds alarm on the way that human activity, from overfishing to agriculture, is forcing a vast number of species to vanish from the wild
At Least 32 Dead, 76 Missing In Central Indonesia Mudslide

U.S. Scuttled Negotiations to Free American Killed in Yemen - The Intercept - But according to several sources in Yemen, Somers was not in immediate danger prior to the first raid launched to free him last month. Two of those sources also claim that the United States thwarted attempts by a mediator to negotiate his release by paying a ransom.
Hostages Held Inside Australian Cafe, Islamic Flag Seen In Window - Hostages were being held inside a central Sydney cafe where a black flag with white Arabic writing could be seen in the window, local television showed on Monday, raising fears of an attack linked to Islamic militants.

Public Official Covers Up For Massive Failure By Approving Torture - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Kindly old Condi Rice: The revelation indicates that Rice, who at the time was national security adviser and went on to be secretary of state, played a greater role than she admitted in written testimony last autumn. - In conclusion, the real villains here are people who object to Rice being given huge checks and ornamental degrees to read platitudes at graduation events.
Congress won’t push prosecutions | TheHill - Capitol Hill appears unlikely to push for prosecutions on current or former CIA officials for their role in brutal interrogation tactics formerly employed by the agency.
Misguided Honor for Condi Rice | Consortiumnews - Some of us predicted when Condi Rice left office that she would become intent on revising history. Faustian bargains don’t end that quickly!
The Great Cycle of Torture and Arbitrary Detention - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Admittedly, the findings that an arbitrary, unaccountable torture regime was a human rights catastrophe that was useless or counterproductive in protecting national security are very, very partisan.
Eschaton: America's Worst Humans - Couldn't bring myself to watch, but I gather Dick Cheney's still down with anal raping innocent prisoners because freedom. Just remembering the reverence with which our great 4th estate treated that man for so long.
Justice Antonin Scalia Constitution Doesn't Prohibit Torture | Mediaite - “Listen, I think it’s very facile for people to say, ‘Oh, torture is terrible,’” Scalia told the Swiss radio network
CIA tortured German it mistook for a terrorist - The Local - A German citizen abducted and tortured by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents in 2004 should never have been detained, a US Senate report published on Tuesday showed.
Ex-CIA interrogation chief warns of betrayal - The Washington Post - The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on coercive tactics betrays intelligence officials and will erode their trust in future presidential administrations, a former CIA official who oversaw the agency’s enhanced interrogation program said Sunday. (it's not trust in their lies and war crimes that's undermined, of course)
Dick Cheney insists 'rectal feeding' was for medical reasons, not torture in defence of CIA | US news | The Guardian - Former US vice-president robustly defends CIA interrogation methods
Cheney says CIA interrogators were heroes - Americas - Al Jazeera English - Ex-US vice-president insists CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques worked and says "I'll do it again".
For CIA, Truth about Torture Was an Existential Threat - The Intercept

British torture inquiry ‘not afraid to embarrass PM’ | US news | The Guardian - Intelligence committee chief Sir Malcolm Rifkind says he will ask US for missing passages revealing any UK involvement in torture and rendition
Romanian ex-spy chief acknowledges CIA had ‘black prisons’ in country | World news | The Guardian - Ioan Talpes, who led SIE agency, says Bucharest cooperated but ‘took no interest’ in sites as country was trying to join Nato ("ignored")

Russia Denies One Of Its Military Planes Nearly Collided With A Passenger Jet - nsisting that the two planes were never less than 70 kilometers (42 miles) apart.

China to Punish Tourists in Thai Air Rage Assault - NYTimes.com - Chinese authorities vowed to severely punish Chinese travelers who threw hot water and noodles on a Thai flight attendant and threatened to blow up the plane after they became enraged over sitting arrangements.
Catholic Church In Australia: 'Obligatory Celibacy May Have Contributed To Abuse' (o rly)

How Congress Secretly Just Legitimized Questionable NSA Mass Surveillance Tool | Techdirt - Here's where those who slipped this bit into the law got sneaky. Recognizing that they might be called on it, they put it in with language noting that such information could only be held on to for five years -- and then claimed what they were really doing was putting a limit on data already collected:
Censorship 2.0: Shadowy forces controlling online conversations | Digital News Asia - More insidious than straight-up censorship because it’s also a ‘mental hack’ - ‘You actually think you’re free, but you’re being manipulated behind the scenes’ (Kochbro and NSA sockpuppets)

Four Christians beheaded by ISIS in Iraq for refusing to convert to Islam | Daily Mail Online - Canon Andrew White tells horrifying story of Islamic State barbarism - 'They chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that?' - Youths, all under 15, refused to convert because they 'loved Jesus' - Another man ordered to follow Muhammad or see his children slaughtered

Turkey Arrests 27 Journalists In Media Crackdown — Clouds Taste Metallic — Medium
Mention of Israel banned at Irish national Holocaust memorial - Jewish World News Israel News | Haaretz - The event's intended host criticized the decree and was fired in response; decision causes uproar among Irish and British Jews.
? Why the Thai army is so powerful - YouTube
Nutgate executive delivers apology to cabin crew chief | World news | The Guardian - Cho Hyun-ah visits homes of two Korean Air staff and leaves notes at their doors saying sorry for her behaviour ("Nutgate")
Spain passes anti-protest bill, to considerable protest - Yahoo News
Spanish Newspaper Publishers' Association Now Asks Government To Help Stop Google News Closure | The Spain Report - The main media lobby behind Spain’s new intellectual property law, which caused Google to announce late on Wednesday night that it was to close Google News in Spain, has now said it wants the Spanish government and European competition authorities to intervene to stop Google shutting down the service.

Operation Socialist: How GCHQ Spies Hacked Belgium’s Largest Telco

Senate Passes Government Funding Bill - The Senate passed the $1.1 trillion government funding bill Saturday night that will keep Uncle Sam in business through next September, while handing lucrative Christmas presents to Wall Street and political parties.
Dodd-Frank Budget Fight Proves Democrats Are Stuffed Suits | Rolling Stone
Ted Cruz Mocks GOP Leaders, Sparks Marathon Weekend Session On Spending Bill
Senate rebukes Cruz’s claims of unconstitutional immigration order | TheHill - A vast majority of the Senate disagreed with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) assertion that President Obama’s executive order on immigration is unconstitutional.
Ted Cruz does it again - Manu Raju and Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan - POLITICO - “I think this is ridiculous,” Ayotte said in an interview.
Obama’s Immigration Move Benefits Democrats Where It Counts - NYTimes.com - This is not because Mr. Obama’s immigration decision has proved to be popular. In fact, it is, over all, unpopular. Polls show that a majority of adults oppose his plan

Elizabeth Warren is catching fire - Katie Glueck - POLITICO - The Massachusetts senator's latest moves inspire liberals hoping for a 2016 challenge to Clinton.

Hyperpartisanship is a symptom of distrust in government, not its cause by David Atkins | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Four in 5 Americans say the country is more politically divided than in the past. Although that is no worse than it was two years ago, it is far gloomier than it used to be. Scroll back to the early days of President Obama’s tenure in the White House, and the differences between then and now are particularly stark. (hope that will destroy your belief in hope)

Another Day Another Religious Gaffe By Scott Walker | Crooks and Liars - Walker (the blogger, not the despot) goes on to point out that Bible actually contradicts what Walker (the despot, not the blogger) is trying to argue.

Smell the Truth » Victory: Congress ends war on medical marijuana - the U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure late Thursday night to de-fund the federal war on medical marijuana.

Video shows John Crawford's girlfriend aggressively questioned after Ohio police shot him dead in Walmart | US news | The Guardian - Video shows Ohio detective accusing her of lying and threatening her with jail - Tasha Thomas only told of Crawford’s death after 90-minute interrogation

Ruled a suicide, black teen’s hanging death in North Carolina raises specter of lynching - The Washington Post
Police brutality protests right now in Washington Square park NYC : pics
More Ferguson Documents Released By St. Louis County Prosecutor - In both his original interview and his Sept. 10 grand jury testimony, which was previously released, Johnson said that Wilson reached out of his vehicle window toward Brown's throat or shirt. During the ensuring struggle, Johnson said he never saw Brown touch Wilson's gun.
Effigies of black men found hanging by nooses at UC Berkeley campus | US news | The Guardian - College: effigies of lynching victims appear connected to nationwide protests - At least one cardboard cutout carried ‘I can’t breathe’ slogan
New York woman wins $1.12m after arrest for snapping military base for website | US news | The Guardian - Deputy sheriff allegedly said he wanted to make an example of ‘right-wingers’ - Jailed for four days and misdemeanor trespass charge was dismissed
Man shot by police officers during traffic stop | News - Home - A man was shot by two officers during a traffic stop after police said he was acting suspiciously. (so shoot him four times)
Fox News edits in ‘dead cops’ chants in protest coverage | theGrio - Today the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends edited a video clip of Rev. Al Sharpton to make it seem that demonstrators had chanted calls to kill police officers during his speech on Saturday, even though the pieces of video were from two different cities.
Ex-judge convicted of planting drugs on woman | www.ajc.com - A former North Georgia judge was convicted Thursday of conspiring to plant methamphetamine on a woman shortly after she publicly accused him of propositioning her in his chambers.
Ferguson to Increase Police Ticketing to Close City’s Budget Gap - Bloomberg - For the current year, the city is budgeting for higher receipts from police-issued tickets.
All The Right People: The Contagious Exercise Of State Violence - Esquire - This is not a plague, not yet, anyway. But it is a contagion, and I wish there were a sign that it would burn itself out, the way they're wrestling the Ebola outbreak to submission in Africa, but I'm not seeing any sign of that. The polling on the police killings, on the torture report, and on the death penalty generally show no indications that the contagion is growing less virulent
Public has no right to details, AZ judge rules - trivalleycentral.com: Arizona News - Court says how police departments use device needs to be kept secret
Nine white Mississippi teenagers plotted race attacks that led to murder | US news | The Guardian - Two women in Mississippi have pleaded guilty to a hate-crime conspiracy to attack black people in Jackson that culminated with the June 2011 murder of James Anderson, who was beaten up and run over with a pickup truck.

America’s Most (and Least) Healthy States - 24/7 Wall St. (usual red state suspects)

Man can't challenge $280K tax bill he probably doesn't really owe, Pa. court says | PennLive.com - The problem is that Lerner didn't follow the right procedural course in challenging it, a Commonwealth Court panel found in a ruling issued this week. And so, the state judges determined, he's stuck with that unfounded tax tab
No Kentucky Tax Credits for “Ark Encounter” by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Kentucky’s Tourism Arts & Heritage Cabinet Secretary Bob Stewart informed representatives of the proposed Ark Encounter tourist attraction today that their project will not be eligible for up to $18 million in tax incentives from the state, due to their refusal to pledge not to discriminate in hiring based on religion people who demand public tax subsidies for private religious activities without compliance with basic public policies binding on everyone else using your and my tax dollars.

California battles whooping cough epidemic - Yahoo News - California officials are battling the worst whooping cough epidemic to hit the state in seven decades as a recent rebound in cases raises questions about the effectiveness of the pertussis vaccine. But California officials say the limited protection of the vaccine introduced in the 1990s has led to the rise in cases. Research has shown it doesn't last as long as the one it replaced, and a new study suggests the vaccine may not prevent the spread of the disease.
Prescription Drug Abuse (kills more people than cars in 29 states, US consumes 80% of painkillers)
I guess I don't understand evolution. It is 100% purely random mutation? : askscience
Why is ATP the molecule that supplies biological energy, instead of any of the other nucleotide triphosphates (i.e. UTP, GTP, CTP, or TTP)? : askscience
Astronomers Measure Distance to Eye of Sauron (NGC 4151) | Astronomy | Sci-News.com - By combining the light from the two 10-m Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea on Hawaii using a method called interferometry, the scientists achieved an effective resolution equivalent to a telescope with a perfect 85-meter diameter mirror
What is space made of? : askscience - Space is nothing, by itself. - With the dimension of time, it become a 4D "fabric"
Physicists solve decade-old quantum mechanics problem | ScienceNordic - Scientists are now able to calculate exactly how atoms will behave in the physical world.
How are photons created? If I am in a dark room and turn on a light, where do the photons come from?
As gay marriage gains voter acceptance, study illuminates a possible reason - a single conversation can go a long way toward building lasting support for a controversial social issue. In addition—nearly as surprisingly—the effect tends to spill over to friends and family members.

? Zeitgeist 2014: Year In Review - YouTube
[Serious] Redditors who have died temporarily and came back to life, what did you see? : AskReddit

ASMR. Sounds that feel good
? Hypnosis: Hands Free Orgasm with Fiona Clearwater - YouTube
? Fiona's Hypnotic Induction - YouTube
? Hypnosis For Women: Hands Free Orgasm - YouTube
Full body energy orgasm with tantric massage - YouTube
Futanari: Dicks aren't Optional!

‘Revolving door’ spins between AT&T, GSA | Ars Technica - Wireless company hires top agency official and scores lucrative contract in 2014.

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Lima climate summit extended as poor countries demand more from rich | Environment | The Guardian - Talks stumble amid rising frustration over ‘ridiculously low’ cash commitments offered by rich nations to help pay for emissions cuts
UN Climate Talks Deadlocked Over Scope Of Pledges
Hill Heat : Paid by Peabody, Laurence Tribe Argues Coal Is 'Bedrock' to Economy
Survivor Series by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Usually, when a House Republican says that he accepts mainstream science, that Republican is forced into early retirement by wingnut primary voters (the anti-science party)

How Countries Around The World Are Coping With Falling Oil Prices - On Friday, the price of benchmark crude oil dropped to new five-year lows.

Amid Details on Torture, Data on 26 Who Were Held in Error - NYTimes.com - Mr. Bashmilah has told them of being tortured in Jordan before he was handed over to the C.I.A., which at times kept him shackled alone in freezing-cold cells in Afghanistan, subjected to loud music 24 hours a day. He attempted suicide at least three times, once by saving pills and swallowing them all at once; once by slashing his wrists; and once by trying to hang himself. Another time he cut himself and used his own blood to write “this is unjust” on the wall

On Torture Report, Colorado’s Udall Leaves Subtlety at Door on the Way Out - NYTimes.com
Fox Catches Dick Cheney Lying About Torture - The Atlantic - The former vice president's defense of brutal CIA interrogations is falling apart under scrutiny ... "There was no effort on our part to keep him from that." (but still, no one thinks about that)
Antonin Scalia's Case for Torture - The Atlantic - It's a surprising statement for a justice to make. After all, the Supreme Court has held torture to be unconstitutional since its ruling in Wilkerson v. Utah in 1878. In that case, the justices wondered what part of the Constitution would forbid such a cruel and unusual punishment:
Documents Shed New Light on Legal Wrangling Over Spying in U.S. - NYTimes.com - Mr. Bush, citing his powers as commander in chief, told the N.S.A. it did not need to obey the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Obama really wanted to cover all this up)
Americans find some tortures more acceptable than others - Most Americans think torture can be justified, but hardly anyone thinks "rectal feeding" is acceptable
Hullabaloo - Who's the whiniest little spook in Washington? - None other than Michael Hayden who's been caught lying repeatedly to congress, to the press and probably everyone he's ever met:
CIA morale 'deeply hurt' following Senate report : news ("One man's laughter is another manslaughter")
Phoenix Program
Let’s not kid ourselves: Most Americans are fine with torture, even when you call it “torture” - The Washington Post
The American Mengeles: Drs. Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell
Imprisoned Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Speaks About Torture, Prison, and the Future | National Security | Washingtonian - A jailhouse interview with the man whose disclosures prompted this week’s damning torture report. (only spook sent to prison was the one who told the truth)

Spy messages could finally solve mystery of UN chief’s death crash | World news | The Guardian - US urged to hand over intercepts to establish truth of 1961 plane accident in Zambia in which Dag Hammarskjöld died

Eric Holder Faces Another Bid for a Journalist to Testify - NYTimes.com

Dozens Killed In Afghanistan Violence As Foreign Troops Prepare To Leave
Islamic State Imposes Strict New Order in Mosul, and Deprivation Is a Result - NYTimes.com - Six months after the Islamic State seized Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, its efforts to overhaul the school system reflect the limits of its progress toward building a self-governing caliphate on the land it controls in Iraq and Syria.
The Teenage Fans of ISIS - The Atlantic - ISIS's online recruitment efforts have attracted the interest of young people far outside the Middle East.

Nats: computer failure behind London airport chaos was unprecedented | UK news | The Guardian - British airspace controller says inability of operators to see all flight plan data prompted restrictions on departures and landings
Sweden: Russian Military Jet Nearly Collides With Passenger Plane - said the aircraft's transponders, which make the plane visible to commercial radar, were shut off. Swedish fighter jets were sent up to identify the aircraft, and Hultqvist later identified it as a Russian intelligence plane.

Germany Reopens Case of Oktoberfest Bombing - NYTimes.com - More than 34 years after a bomb ripped through a festive Friday night crowd at the 1980 Oktoberfest in Munich, federal prosecutors announced that a witness they described as previously unknown had come forward and that they would reopen their investigation of Germany’s deadliest right-wing terrorist attack.

China tests hypersonic strike vehicle that can breach US missile shield - The Hindu
Symphysiotomy – Ireland’s brutal alternative to caesareans | Life and style | The Guardian - They were never asked for their consent – but symphysiotomy caused the Irish mothers subjected to it catastrophic long-term health problems. A compensation scheme has now begun, but the question remains: did religious dogma trump the women’s best interests? (of course not)
Legal Cannabis in the United States is Undercutting Mexican Drug Cartel Competition : worldnews

Why shouldn’t the Left have its own “tea party”? by David Atkins | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - More importantly, the establishment centrists have clearly failed the country. The public has never had less faith in social or government institutions than it does today.

Conde Nast offices at WTC still plagued with rats - NY Daily News - The rodents have pestered the staffs of Vanity Fair and Vogue. Conde told employees that they cannot eat at their desks and that a complaint will be made with the city’s health department. "A bunch ate through the ceiling of a sports editor's office and crawled all over his desk and left poops on his keyboard," said a different source. "They ate through his rug to fit under his door." (some kind of irony there)

The Democrats' Depressing New Reality - The Atlantic - The divisions that were on full display during the debate over a $1 trillion spending bill may become the norm in 2015. (as we move forward with our new Republican Pres)

Former Obama Aides Urging Elizabeth Warren To Run For President In 2016
The Levee Breaks: Democrats Rage Against Obama Over Wall Street Giveaway

Cruz center of Senate meltdown | TheHill
Warren makes her mark | TheHill

March In Washington Draws Thousands Of Protesters Demanding Justice For All
Thousands March On NYPD Headquarters To Protest Police Killings
Marches in S.F. and Oakland as part of national racial injustice protest - SFGate
State Police arrest 23 protesters in Boston - Metro - The Boston Globe

Post-Racial America - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Structural racism is obviously dead in this country: whites 13 times the net worth of blacks. Post-racial America indeed.
Black-White Wealth Gap Has Reached A 24-Year High
Questions That Aren't So Hard to Answer - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Here we have yet another article on the decline of the middle class, by which of course the author actually means the words you can’t say in America–the working class.
Why America’s middle class is lost | The Washington Post
Progress and Poverty - Henry George

Protests in Washington and New York against police killings – live coverage | US news | The Guardian - Thousands expected to march in cities around US including New York - Protests concern deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and others
NY Police Union Doesn't Want De Blasio At Cop Funerals
How far will cop unions go to halt reform? | UTSanDiego.com - The arrest this week of two ex-cop private investigators — charged with felonies related to their alleged attempt to frame a Costa Mesa city councilman for a false DUI — is about more than the disturbing tactics of two hired guns. It offers insight into the way some police unions across California intimidate political opponents into silence.

Scene at botched Oklahoma execution of Clayton Lockett was 'a bloody mess' | World news | The Guardian - Doctor squirted with blood after hitting condemned man’s artery - Court documents describe confusion and distress in execution chamber


Inside the Collapse of The New Republic - The New Yorker
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Canceled Her 'New Republic' Subscription: Report
The Top 40 Hot Takes on "The New Republic," in Order from Worst to Best - The Awl

The Conservation Biology Divide - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Conservation biologists are currently in another civil war over the meaning of the field. In short, should conservation be concerned more with humans or should it be concerned more with biodiversity? I find these conversations frustrating because they are so either/or.
Bridging the Conservation Divide


Bill Nye: Creationism Is 'Raising A Generation Of Young People Who Can't Think' - Nye said he blames an older generation of evangelicals "who have very strong conservative views" and who are "reluctant to let kids learn about evolution." Their presence on school boards leads to debates over curriculum, Nye argued, which further inhibits schools' ability to teach facts. (facts are librul)

Jackie Chan - How to Do Action Comedy - YouTube

Dark Matter Signal May Have Been Found In Mysterious X-Ray Data
Human DNA Shows Traces of 40 Million-Year Battle For Survival Between Primate and Pathogen - “What this study shows us is that over the last 40 million years of primate evolution, this battle for iron between bacteria and primates has been a determining factor in our survival as a species.” The study models an approach for uncovering reservoirs of genetic resistance to bacterial infections, knowledge that could be used to confront antibiotic resistance and emerging diseases.
Does DNA store meta-data about its history? : askscience
The Epigenetics of Maternal Cigarette Smoking During Pregnancy and Effects on Child Development - “fetal programming”


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Court rejects attempt to allow Edward Snowden into Germany | US news | The Guardian - The government has argued that Snowden’s presence in Germany could impair relations with the US and put it under pressure to extradite him.

Why Do Republicans Defend Torture? -- NYMag - Here, finally, was the brutal moral logic of Cheneyism on bright display. The insistence by his fellow partisans on averting their eyes from the horrible truth at least grows out of a human reaction. Cheney does not even understand why somebody would look away. His soul is a cold, black void.
War Criminal's Terrible Arguments Look Even More Terrible - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Look who’s back to defend the indefensible — Mr. John Yoo: (comment: "If a tenured professor can loose his job over a tweet, how can Berkeley justify employing the author of the memo justifying torture?")
Prosecute John Yoo, Says Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky | The Nation - Torture is a crime, a violation of the Federal Torture Act.
CIA agents who tortured are vulnerable to prosecution in ‘any country in the world,’ says U.N. official – Amanpour - CNN.com Blogs
Torture Is Who We Are - The Atlantic - A country, like a person, is what it does.
CIA officials stand their ground and strike back over torture report | US news | The Guardian - Some former directors and advisers call Senate investigation biased while others say interrogations yielded important information
Bush And Members Of His Presidency Act With Ingratitude With CIA Torture Report Release - Esquire - The Iraq War always has been the elephant in the room as the investigations into the crimes of the last administration as regards torture were investigated ("leaks" are happening)
Jonah Goldberg's Absurd Take On The Torture Taboo - Esquire - And, if I were your husband, madam...I mean, Jesus, the Gestapo knew sleep deprivation was torture, as did the Nuremberg tribunal and the Far East Tribunal, the latter which also knew that waterboarding was torture. Every time, even "at first." (Jonah "doughy pantload" Goldberg defending torture)
Eschaton: They Enjoyed It - As with just about everything else that happens in the name of our security state, things aren't usually done for the stated reasons. Money is often the reason, but it isn't the only one. Why torture a bunch of innocent people who you know have no information? For kicks and giggles, of course. (and to appear "tough" on terrorism)
Untrained CIA Agents Were Just Making Up Torture Methods As They Went Along | Mother Jones - The untrained interrogators were quite literally "left to their own devices."
Ex-CIA director defends rectal rehydration | TheHill - Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden on Thursday defended revelations from Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats that the agency used rectal rehydration on detainees. “These were medical procedures,” Hayden said during a tense interview
The ‘24’ Effect - Yahoo News - Did the TV drama convince us that torture really worked?

'The Chechen wars murdered Russian democracy in its cradle' | World news | The Guardian - Twenty years after the fighting began, Dmitry Muratov recalls an extraordinary phone call with the man Boris Yeltsin said was impossible to get on the line

Pope Francis Says All Dogs Go To Heaven - Esquire - I think, in his own sanctified, infallible way, he's just fking with them now.

Three teenagers suffer injuries in shooting outside north Portla - KPTV - FOX 12 - Three teenagers were taken to a hospital after a shooting outside Rosemary Anderson High School in Portland on Friday.

Obama's New Triangulation Strategy Has Democrats On Edge - "I'm enormously disappointed that the White House feels that the only way they can get a bill is to go along with this," she said from the floor. "I feel sad for the American people today," Pelosi said)
Liberals: Obama abandoned us - Edward-Isaac Dovere and Burgess Everett - POLITICO - The left revolts, saying Obama gave up too easily on spending bill.
Congressional Democrats take a stand with spending bill - The Washington Post (and lose, but still ...)
Power Building In The House As Congress Tries To Erase Work of Obama's Presidency - Esquire - And, of course, thanks to some impressive arm-twisting by a Democratic administration hell-bent on helping out a Republican speaker, the Unleash The Hounds derivatives provision sailed through. And the slow, steady and inexorable campaign to render this president a non-person in the long sweep of history continues apace.
Wall Street: Banking Lobbyists Block Transparency Bill, Advocates Say
Democrats who voted for the CRomnibus have received twice as much money from the finance industry as the ‘no’ voters - The Washington Post
Wall Street’s Win on Swaps Rule Shows Washington Resurgence - Bloomberg
Conservatives rage against the machine - Seung Min Kim and Lauren French - POLITICO - A clearly put-out Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) groused: “We call it the crummybus.”
JPMorgan CEO helped whip votes | TheHill
Chances Elizabeth Warren Runs for President Increased This Week | New Republic

What Democrats whine about when they whine about ObamaCare - The Week - Leading members of President Obama's party continue to second-guess his health care law. Here's what they get wrong.


Think your milk and eggs are ‘organic’? These aerial farm photos will make you think again. - The Washington Post (remember when they decided industrial farming could be "organic?")

NYT's Dean Baquet Blasts 'Ham-Handed' New Republic Owner Chris Hughes (accidental richbrolibertariandude innovates his was into the reputation shredder)
Chris Hughes: From savior to villain at the New Republic - The Washington Post - “It was almost Stalinist the way he did not mention Richard’s name once,” said Alec MacGillis, a former New Republic staff writer. “It was like he had been disappeared. .?.?. It should have sent off more of a warning sign.”

What progressives don't want to talk about in the Rolling Stone scandal - The Week - A presumption of truth in every rape accusation is an impossible standard. And it's doing real damage to the cause of fighting sexual assaults.
Sabrina Erdely Was Once Disciplined By Stephen Glass For Fabrication - And you thought this whole story couldn’t get more bizarre
Sabrina Rubin Erdely's Old Stories Sure Read Like Bad Lifetime Movies
The full demise of Rolling Stone’s rape story - The Washington Post
New Questions Raised About Rolling Stone's UVA Rape Story - ABC News - The college students described as friends of the alleged rape victim Jackie in an explosive Rolling Stone article revealed their identities to ABC News today, and said that some of the magazine's story is false.

Leaked Emails Suggest Maureen Dowd Promised To Show Sony Exec's Husband Column Before Publication - BuzzFeed News - The end result: kudos at the studio and an email from Dowd after it published saying, “you’re amazing.” Update: Dowd says she didn’t send an advance copy of the column.

Creed Singer Scott Stapp Threatened To Kill Obama, According To Wife's 911 Call - Stapp said. "I believe that the IRS situation is definitely a result of me expressing my dissatisfaction with President Obama. Absolutely, 100 percent."

Cleveland medical examiners rule death of Tamir Rice a homicide | US news | The Guardian - Officer shot and killed 12-year-old black child on playground as youngster was holding a toy handgun
Cop Shows Up At Penn Student's Room To Question Her About Activist Facebook Post | Crooks and Liars - If only they were this diligent about investigating right-wing domestic terrorists.
Oakland undercover officer who drew gun on protesters 'could have shot anyone' | US news | The Guardian - After their cover was blown, two plainclothes officers found themselves in a melee with demonstrators and a freelance photographer captured the incident on film
Phoenix police officer who shot black man said he mistook bottle of pills for gun | US news | The Guardian - Police department says officer, who is white, believed suspect had a gun during a struggle outside an apartment building in Phoenix
Was my 17-year-old son lynched, in the year 2014? The police still won't tell me | Claudia Lacy | Comment is free | The Guardian
Asthma attack kills man stopped by cops - An asthma attack killed Casey Kressin after police stopped his girlfriend for speeding as she rushed him to the hospital.

Women of Reddit: what are your big dick stories? NSFW : AskReddit - When he first whipped it out, I didn't know whether to suck it or feed it a peanut.

Furious Google Ended MPAA Anti-Piracy Cooperation | TorrentFreak - After delivering a major blow to torrent sites during October, Google must've thought the MPAA would be pleased. Instead, however, the MPAA issued a 'snarky' press release. According to a leaked email, the press release so infuriated Google's top brass that the company ended cooperation with the MPAA.

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U.S. Tells Court That Documents From Torture Investigation Should Remain Secret - NYTimes.com - The Obama administration has urged a court to reject a request to disclose thousands of pages of documents from a Justice Department investigation into the torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency, including summaries of interviews with about 100 witnesses and documents explaining why in the end no charges were filed.
Obama Catches Blame on Tactics of Torture That He Ended - NYTimes.com
U.S. Tells Court That Documents From Torture Investigation Should Remain Secret - NYTimes.com - The Obama administration has urged a court to reject a request to disclose thousands of pages of documents from a Justice Department investigation into the torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency, including summaries of interviews with about 100 witnesses and documents explaining why in the end no charges were filed. (Cover-upperer-in-Chief)
After Report on C.I.A. Torture, No More Disclosure - NYTimes.com (that's all you need to know, and you didn't even need to know that)

C.I.A. First Planned Jails Abiding by U.S. Standards - NYTimes.com - a glimpse of a possible alternative history
Bush Team Approved C.I.A. Tactics, but Was Kept in Dark on Details, Report Says - NYTimes.com

Mark Udall Had Something To Get Off His Chest - Esquire - Udall called on Obama "to purge" his administration of anyone who was engaged in torturing prisoners. "He needs to force a cultural change at the CIA," Udall said. And, Udall said, the institutional problems are far from over. "CIA was knowingly providing inaccurate information to the committee in the present day," he said.
Senator Mark Udall Esquire Interview - CIA Torture Report Release - Esquire - And that this is about America's 'moral challenge,' not effectiveness.

The CIA Is Still Running Amok - Tim Weiner - politico Magazine
Americans Have Become More Accepting of Use of Torture - NYTimes.com - 40 percent of Democrats said torture could be justified sometimes or often. That rose to 55 percent among independents and 61 percent among Republicans. (Republicans love torture)
Panel Faults C.I.A. Over Brutality and Deceit in Terrorism Interrogations - NYTimes.com - routinely misled the White House and Congress about the information it obtained, and failed to provide basic oversight of the secret prisons it established around the world
John Brennan On CIA Torture Program: 'We Simply Failed'
Russia Denounces U.S. Over C.I.A. Torture Report - NYTimes.com - The Russian government, in a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website, said the report provided “confirmation of gross, systemic human rights violations by the American authorities.”

Dick Cheney on torture report: 'Full of crap' - Kendall Breitman - POLITICO - “He knew the techniques; we did discuss the techniques,” Cheney said. “There was no effort on our part to keep him from that.” (you know, that "our")
In the Darkness of Dick Cheney by Mark Danner | The New York Review of Books

Edward Snowden on the CIA's secret torture report – video | US news | The Guardian
Architects of C.I.A. Interrogation Drew on Psychology to Induce ‘Helplessness’ - NYTimes.com - The architects of the C.I.A.'s interrogation program have been identified as James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. (your move, APA and World Court)
It’s Cruel. It’s Useless. It’s the C.I.A. - NYTimes.com - the fact that the waterboarding, ice baths and wall-slamming were conducted under the direction of an outside contractor.
ELI5: Why would the CIA torture if torture "doesn't work"? Wouldn't they want the most effective tool to gather intelligence? : explainlikeimfive

Authorizing Military Force Must Have Limits - NYTimes.com - Authorizing Military Force Must Have Limits

Boko Haram: The Other Islamic State - NYTimes.com - Since the public execution of Boko Haram's founder in 2009 by Nigerian security forces, a hard-line militant, Abubakar Shekau, has led this makeshift army of Islamist fighters through years of escalating attacks on government personnel, religious leaders, young students, crowded mosques and marketplaces.
Hong Kong Police Begin Removing Protesters as Dismantling of Camp Proceeds - NYTimes.com
Drug Trade Transforms an Amazon Outpost - NYTimes.com - With Brazil emerging as the world’s second-largest consumer of cocaine after the United States, the Amazon is gaining importance as a smuggling domain

Isis: the inside story | Martin Chulov | World news | The Guardian - One of the Islamic State’s senior commanders reveals exclusive details of the terror group’s origins inside an Iraqi prison – right under the noses of their American jailers. Report by Martin Chulov (that whole cause and effect thing is very hard to understand)
Guantánamo prisoners released to Uruguay: 'We are so happy to be here' | World news | The Guardian - Six former US detainees who were never charged with a crime, were flown to Uruguay on Sunday to begin new lives as refugees


New Leak Reveals Luxembourg Tax Deals for Disney, Koch Brothers Empire | International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Gun Arrests With 2 Things in Common: The Officers and Unidentified Informers - NYTimes.com - The suspects said the guns were planted by the police
More Americans Support Gun Rights Over Controls, Pew Poll Finds - NYTimes.com - Fifty-two percent of respondents said it was more important to protect gun ownership rights, while 46 percent said the priority should be controlled accesss to death machines)


No, Illinois Did Not Just Pass A Law Making It Illegal To Record Police Officers - State Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D), a lead cosponsor of the bill, admitted the expanded number of circumstances where police may surreptitiously record or otherwise intercept communications was a trade-off for allowing the protections of public recordings to be included, the Associated Press reported. (because the Supreme Court wasn't good enough, so they bargained)

Rolling Stone Ducks Questions As UVA Rape Story Keeps Unraveling - The three students -- identified by Rolling Stone and the Post as “Randall,” “Andy,” and “Cindy” –- gave an account to the Post for Wednesday's story that differed significantly from the one described by contributing editor Sabrina Rubin Erdely in her explosive 9,000-word article about Jackie's ordeal published online Nov. 19.

Harvard Professor Apologizes For Battle With Chinese Restaurant - Associate professor Benjamin Edelman had threatened legal action and demanded the Sichuan Garden in Brookline compensate all other customers who might have been similarly overcharged after he said it charged him $1 more on each of the four items he ordered for takeout last week.
There’s More: Edelman Did This Before, And Worse - Restaurants - Boston.com

The three students -- identified by Rolling Stone and the Post as “Randall,” “Andy,” and “Cindy” –- gave an account to the Post for Wednesday's story that differed significantly from the one described by contributing editor Sabrina Rubin Erdely in her explosive 9,000-word article about Jackie's ordeal published online Nov. 19.
Supermodel Beverly Johnson says Bill Cosby drugged her in 1980s | World news | The Guardian - Pioneering African American model and actress has brought the number of women who have put their name to allegations against Cosby to almost two dozen
FBI Understates Hate-Motivated Attacks on Transgender People - BuzzFeed News

Self-publishing: a revolution for writers, not readers | Books | The Guardian - Apple's iBookstore is the latest to promote self-published authors. But how will this benefit readers?
The 100 greatest non-fiction books | Books | The Guardian

How exactly did comets deliver 326 million trillion gallons of water to Earth? : askscience
Frost line (astrophysics)
Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the associat... - PubMed - NCBI - A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.
Prenatal exposure to common household chemicals linked with substantial drop in child IQ -- ScienceDaily - Children exposed during pregnancy to elevated levels of two common chemicals found in the home -- di-n-butyl phthalate and di-isobutyl phthalate -- had an IQ score, on average, more than six points lower than children exposed at lower levels,

Can We Guess What You're Really Attracted To
What's the most erotic sentence you can make with 5 words? [NSFW] : AskReddit
[Serious] Straight guys who've been with Transgender girls, what were your experiences like? : AskReddit
What's the coolest thing I could reasonably put on my desk at work? : AskReddit
ChokingVictim comments on [WP] Wikipedia is shut down and all copies deleted for lack of funds and loss of net neutrality. This is the founder's "I warned you, jerks" notification.
All men should watch this video. A warning of what a woman can try to do to you. Imagine if this wasn't on camera. : videos
'Atrocious, mobile sucks': Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman on what site has become : technology

Men of Reddit, what is something that has surprisingly turned you on? : AskReddit (orgasmic hypnosis videos)

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Drug-resistant infections to lead to 10 million extra deaths a year – report | Society | The Guardian - Global leaders urged to act on superbugs that could devastate world’s most populous countries such as India and China

CIA report could lead to prosecutions of Americans abroad | US news | The Guardian - Human rights groups say actions on foreign soil could fall under those countries’ legal jurisdictions or the ICC in The Hague
CIA torture report: human rights groups call for prosecutions – live | US news | The Guardian - Amnesty USA director says ‘torture is a crime and those responsible must be brought to justice’ after report details controversial CIA methods
UN Expert Calls For Prosecution Over U.S. Torture
CIA torture report: global reaction roundup | US news | The Guardian - UN calls for prosecution of Bush-era officials who sanctioned CIA torture programme detailed by Senate’s intelligence committee
CIA cites Israeli court ruling to "justify" torture program | The Electronic Intifada

Shock and anal probe: reading between the redactions in the CIA torture report | The panel | Comment is free | The Guardian
Off the Grid: Nine CIA 'Black Sites' Where Detainees Were Tortured - The Intercept

CIA lied to the public and John Brennan must quit, says outgoing senator in fiery speech | US news | The Guardian - Mark Udall, who lost his seat in Colorado last month, said the still-classified portions of the Senate report on CIA torture, represented a ‘smoking gun’
John Brennan Must Go - Esquire - The reason for this is simple. Either Brennan shares the administration's support of the report issued yesterday in the Senate regarding the international horror show the U.S. conducted around the world, or he is utterly insubordinate and deserves to be fired merely for that, and (I believe) Brennan has made that decision a very easy one.

White House under pressure as calls for CIA accountability grow stronger | US news | The Guardian - Democratic senator calls for purge of top officials in the CIA - White House rejects claims agency misled President Bush
Obama's long arc on torture - Josh Gerstein - politico - He promised a ‘reckoning’ … in 2008. What happened?
How Obama Backed Impunity For War Crimes « The Dish - Far from ensuring that these awful crimes never happen again, Obama has all but ensured that they will. That will be part of his legacy: the sounds of a torture victim crying in the dark, and knowing that America is fine with it

Torture Goes Against the Very Soul of Our Country | Sen. Dianne Feinstein
CIA unlikely to lose power in wake of interrogation report - The Washington Post
More Than A Quarter Of The World's Countries Helped The CIA Run Its Torture Program - , the intelligence community has long been concerned that the Senate document would enable readers to identify the many countries that aided the CIA's controversial torture program between 2002 and roughly 2006.
Here Are The Most Horrific Details From The Senate Torture Report
Lawyers for Detainees Press for More Details on CIA Interrogations - Washington Wire - WSJ
What happens after the torture report? How the CIA's victims can still get justice | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - The cowardly Obama administration wants America’s ‘brutal’ history to become just that. But torture is a war crime. Let’s investigate the architects. Let’s make sure this kind of rampant criminality never happens again
Senator calls for 'purge' of officials who violated anti-torture laws – live | US news | The Guardian - Senator Mark Udall blasts CIA on Senate floor - Udall accuses White House of aiding CIA at president’s expense (and he would do that because?)People who violated anti-torture laws sit in high-level positions in the US government right now, Udall said, and they need to be purged.

Hayden’s testimony vs. the Senate report - Washington Post
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden: 'I Didn't Lie' About Torture

Mark Udall Says The CIA Is Still Lying - “It’s bad enough to not prosecute these officials, but to reward and promote them is incomprehensible,” Udall said. “The president needs to purge his administration.”

What The CIA Said It Learned Through Torture, But Didn't
Former CIA leaders go on offensive to deny claim torture was ineffective | US news | The Guardian - Former CIA staff launch new website as former directors and deputy directors insist interrogations produced vital information in al-Qaida fight
What the Torture Report Kept Hidden - The Daily Beast - The descriptions are excruciating in their detail. But other important aspects—from the Obama administration’s stalling to Syria and Libya’s role—are missing from the Senate report.
Senate Report Says Torture Program Was More Gruesome, Widespread Than CIA Claimed - The newly released document tears apart the CIA's past claims that only a small number of detainees were subjected to the harsh interrogation techniques
Michael Hayden Is Not Sorry - Michael Hirsh - POLITICO Magazine - The Senate report rakes Bush’s former CIA director over the coals. He fires back in an exclusive interview.
How the torture report could unravel prosecution of alleged 9/11 masterminds | US news | The Guardian - Lawyers for detainees including Walid bin Attash and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed argue that CIA methods render evidence invalid

Exposing the CIA’s stain on America - The Washington Post
The horrors in America’s ‘dungeon’ should never have happened - The Washington Post

Architects Of CIA Torture Program Raked In $81 Million, Report Reveals - Two psychologists were paid $81 million by the CIA to advise on and help implement its brutal interrogation program targeting detainees in the war on terror, according to the Senate torture report summary released Tuesday - For six years, starting in 2002, the two psychologists operated what amounted to a feedback loop of torture, coming up with new ways to inflict pain on detainees and then convincing CIA brass that the harsh tactics had worked.
One of the two psychologists paid millions for designing the CIA's post-Sept. 11 program of brutal interrogations defends the treatment of al-Qaida detainees and disputes a critical Senate report.
Inspiration - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Worth remembering who influenced Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, the CIA, and all the other architects of American torture:
Republicans Argue Torture Helped America

Sen. Bob Kerrey: Partisan torture report fails America - Intelligence agencies need guidance to do better, Senate Democrats failed to provide it.
Such Is The Wisdom Of The Everyday Has-Been - Esquire - an editorial written by one of the most useless politicians ever, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, who waited in his pumpkin patch all night before the Senate torture report was released, only to be disappointed when the Great Bipartisan Pumpkin failed to rise at midnight.
A Textbook Case of False Equivalency by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Bob Kerrey hasn’t read the Senate Intelligence Committee’s summary of the “Torture Report.” But he’s taken to the op-ed page of USAToday to condemn it. Why? This seems to be the biggie:

Planet Politics: America's Bloody Conscience - It showed that the Bush-era use of “enhanced interrogation methods” had "stained our national honor," he said. And he meant it. (but will all come out in the wash)
Rep. Peter King: Senate Report Not Torture, Just People Having "To Stand In Awkward Positions" - BuzzFeed News - Rep. Peter King says the 525-page Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention techniques does not detail torture, but instead just procedures that create what King described as “tremendous discomfort.”
Fox melts down after torture report: ‘The United States of America is awesome, we are awesome!’ - Fox News National Security Analyst K.T. McFarland insisted that Democrats were going to “do harm” to the country by angering terrorists.
Russell Brand on CIA torture: If rape is used to get info, then we’re already in Hell
Senate staffer tries to scrub 'torture' reference from Wikipedia's CIA torture article - An anonymous Wikipedia user from an IP address that is registered to United States Senate has tried, and failed, to remove a phrase with the word "torture" from the website's article on the Senate Intelligence Committee's blockbuster CIA torture report.
News Outlets Protest Exclusion From Senate Torture Report Briefing - The letter is signed by Huffington Post Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim, senior congressional correspondent Michael McAuliff, BuzzFeed Washington bureau chief John Stanton and Al Jazeera English executive producer Alan Fisher.

Thousands Gather At Hong Kong Protest Camp On Eve Of Shutdown

Bank of America sees $50 oil as Opec dies - "Our biggest worry is the end of the liquidity cycle. The Fed is done. The reach for yield that we have seen since 2009 is going into reverse”, said Bank of America.

Italian police target Mafia suspects in dawn raids in Umbria | World news | The Guardian - Sixty-one people arrested accused of extortion and drug-trafficking as police tackle infiltration of local economy

Pakistan family feud ends in massacre after 28 years | Reuters - A 60-year-old woman, her husband and their three children were axed to death in central Pakistan by the woman's family in revenge for the couple marrying 28 years ago, police said on Wednesday.

Thank You for This Moment by Valérie Trierweiler review – a triumph of self-obsessed raving | Books | The Guardian - “In just a few hours … my life was devastated and my future shattered into a million tiny pieces,” Trierweiler writes, in typically overblown language that would not look out of place in a teenager’s diary.

Alan Rusbridger to stand down as Guardian editor-in-chief | Media | The Guardian - After 20 years at the paper Rusbridger will leave next summer and replaces Liz Forgan as chair of the Scott Trust in 2016

Tears Of Sisyphus: Republicans Resurrect ACORN, Only To Murder It. Again.

Protests continue for fourth night in Berkeley and Oakland | US news | The Guardian - Demonstrators protest against police killings of unarmed black men, in the wake of grand jury decisions not to charge white police officers
Most White People Are Really Confident Their Local Police Treat Races Equally

‘The Power Broker,’ 40 Years Later - NYTimes.com - Robert Moses, near the end of his 44 years of power, had lost most of it, along with most of his popularity — when his name, which had once been a symbol of great achievements, had become a symbol of something quite different. (like a racist asshole)

Selective racial innocence - Lawyers, Guns & Money : America’s racial history has been, and will continue to be, a major impediment to a variety of worthwhile and necessary political projects.

Florida St. communications lecturer resigns after bemoaning ‘Northern fagoot elitism’ on Facebook - Deborah O’Connor - In her resignation letter, she claimed that the incident was “the only black mark” on her employment record. (a little tone-deaf, aren't we?)

Ben Edelman, Harvard Business School Professor, Goes to War Over $4 Worth of Chinese Food - If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a Harvard Business School professor thinks a family-run Chinese restaurant screwed him out of $4, you’re about to find out - Ben Edelman is an associate professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit
College student wins case forcing estranged parents to pay her tuition | Money | The Guardian - Parents find it increasingly difficult to help children pay for college tuition. So where does that leave them?

Science AMA Series: We are a Group of Researchers Exploring Auditory Hallucinations – People Who Hear Voices. Ask us Anything! : science
What Kinds of People Hear Voices? | Psychology Today - Rather than evaluating the evidence for nonclinical hallucinatory experiences, the authors of DSM-5 have simply ignored it.
Mothers Nurture Emotion In Their Daughters Over Their Sons - "Girls may be socialized early into a socioemotional orientation emphasizing emotional expressivity, making them more socially mature than boys," the researchers conclude.

Lena Dunham’s publisher says her alleged rapist “Barry” wasn’t actually named Barry - The Washington Post
Lena Dunham to amend memoir following legal threat over sexual assault details | Books | The Guardian - Future editions of Not That Kind of Girl will be altered to clarify that alleged attacker’s name is a pseudonym after man matching description of ‘Barry’ takes legal action

What quote always gives you chills? : AskReddit
FCKH8's holiday ad stars Sexist Santa and swearing 6-year-olds [video]

Angelina Jolie called 'minimally talented spoiled brat' in hacked Sony emails | Film | The Guardian - Revelations include David Fincher saying Adam Driver being cast in Star Wars was a ‘terrible idea’, while Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin complained about Jolie’s ‘insanity and rampaging ego’ (they really got a lot of juicy stuff)
Microsoft tells US: The world’s servers are not yours for the taking | Ars Technica - Redmond says the US would be aghast if a foreign government behaved as it does.
FBI doubts North Korea link to Sony Pictures hack | Technology | The Guardian - Investigators find no evidence of North Korean involvement in the studio’s crippling hack, but criticise its poor security

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Study finds early warning signals of abrupt climate change

The Food Line at a Syrian Refugee Camp : pics

Read The Senate Torture Report Here
Live Coverage of the Senate Torture Report - The Intercept
CIA torture program: Senate report details abuse of detainees – as it happened | US news | The Guardian - Feinstein: torture ‘far more brutal than people were led to believe’ UN calls for prosecutions - The CIA and White House had tried to block some or all of the report.
Shocking cases in CIA report reveal an American torture program in disarray | US news | The Guardian - Years of leaks about the CIA’s post-9/11 torture efforts failed to reveal a program as brutal, unaccountable and even chaotic as the one portrayed on Tuesday

Senate Torture Report Condemns C.I.A. Interrogation Program - NYTimes.com
The Senate Report on the C.I.A.’s Torture and Lies - NYTimes.com - At one point, the report says, the C.I.A. assured Congress that the behavior of the secret jailers and interrogators was nothing like the horrors the world saw at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. That was the closest the agency seems to have come to the truth — what happened appears to have been worse than what took place at Abu Ghraib.
Senate Torture Report Shows C.I.A. Infighting Over Interrogation Program - NYTimes.com
Senate Report Disputes C.I.A. Claims on Hunt for Osama bin Laden - NYTimes.com - But in page after page of previously classified evidence, the Senate Intelligence Committee report on C.I.A. torture, released on Tuesday, rejects the notion that the agency would not have found Bin Laden if it had not tortured detainees.
C.I.A. Kept Bush Ill Informed on Interrogation Tactics, Torture Report Says - NYTimes.com (but Cheney knew)
C.I.A. Kept Bush Ill Informed on Interrogation Tactics, Torture Report Says : worldnews
Dick Cheney Was Lying About Torture - Mark Fallon - POLITICO Magazine - The Senate report confirms it doesn’t work. As those of us on the inside knew.
For Dianne Feinstein, C.I.A. Torture Report’s Release Is a Signal Moment - NYTimes.com - . But she said history would judge the nation by its commitment to a “just society, a government of law and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say never again.”
The Torture Report Reminds Us of What America Was - NYTimes.com - The Torture Report Reminds Us of What America Was (all in the past)

Senate's CIA torture report: everyone has an opinion except the White House | US news | The Guardian - Obama administration refuses to say whether it endorses scathing findings - Anonymous officials say their main job is to maintain CIA morale (because the morale of liars and torturers is very important)

The Most Gruesome Moments in the CIA ‘Torture Report’ - The Daily Beast - The CIA’s rendition, interrogation, and detention programs were even more nightmarish than you could imagine.
Rectal rehydration and broken limbs: the grisliest findings in the CIA torture report | US news | The Guardian
Senate Report Says Torture Program Was More Gruesome, Widespread Than CIA Claimed

The Torture Report, Part One: What It Says - Esquire
The Torture Report, Part Two: What It Means - Esquire
The Torture Report, Part Three: What Will Happen Now - Esquire

Stop believing the lies: America tortured more than 'some folks' – and covered it up | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - CIA defenders are out in force now that a historic report has exposed a decade of horrific American shame. Torture didn’t work, but why aren’t the architects of torture in jail? ("some folks" Obama at his sleazy best)
The Guardian view on the US torture report: America’s shame and disgrace | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian - Torturing detainees after 9/11 was wrong in principle, ineffective in practice, and has damaged the credibility of democracy, the rule of law and the USA
Senate report on CIA program details brutality, dishonesty - The Washington Post
Today’s CIA critics once urged the agency to do anything to fight al-Qaeda - The Washington Post
Hullabaloo - The president of the ACLU wants Obama to pardon the torturers
Remind Me Who It Is the CIA Works For? by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - But on the fundamental point - was America right to brutalise these terror suspects in an effort to extract information that could prevent the next September 11? - Brennan refuses to give ground.
Obama Responds To CIA Torture Report: Enhanced Interrogation 'Contrary To Our Values'
WATCH Fox Host Lose It Over Senate Torture Report: 'We Are Awesome!'

What US taxpayers paid to build and run the CIA’s torture program - Quartz - the US intelligence community’s $53 billion black budget remains largely secret, despite Edward Snowden’s leaks—we now have evidence of at least $480 million in funding.
The Inside Story Of How The CIA Actually Caught The 9/11 Mastermind, But Nearly Didn't

The myth of the good war | Geoffrey Wheatcroft | News | The Guardian - Our year of remembrance has exaggerated the tragic futility of the first world war and preserved the dangerous idea that the second was noble and heroic
Whitewashing Imperialism | Jacobin

What Bad, Shameful, Dirty Behavior is U.S. Judge Richard Posner Hiding? Demand to Know. - The Intercept - His rationale? “I think privacy is actually overvalued,” the distinguished jurist pronounced. Privacy, he explained, is something people crave in order to prevent others from learning about the shameful and filthy things they do:

Bloomberg Politics Poll: Approval Ratings Hit 5-Year High for GOP - Bloomberg Politics - President Obama's ratings hit bottom in a new Bloomberg Politics poll as he prepares to take on an antagonist Congress.

Concede Nothing: Democrats In The South - Esquire - My friend, Mountaineer Mike Tomasky -- Have fun at the Liberty Bowl, dude! --has raised him some ruckus by opining that the Democratic party basically should tell the Deep South to sod off for about the next 10 election cycles
Do Democrats Need to Hate on the South? by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Like Schaller before him, Tomasky seems to be worried about concessions made by Democrats to appeal to southern white voters: (well, Ed, it's been 8 years and ...)

Rigging The Wheel: More True Tales Of The New Oligarchy_12.9.14 - Esquire - how a relatively small community of lawyers has developed a specialty in getting the NWS to hear cases in defense of their corporate clients, and how that group of attorneys and their firms have found the Roberts court to be a target-rich environment for their appeals.

The Personal and the Political | Jacobin - Individual narratives have their place in progressive struggles, but Rolling Stone’s controversial article shows why they have to be wedded to a wider analysis.

Eschaton: True Genius - With thinkers like this, how can we lose? (Steve Israel and his little bubble)

FBI Files Charges Against President Of Company Behind West Virginia Chemical Spill | ThinkProgress - The former president of the company that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians this past January has been arrested on criminal fraud charges, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation complaint unsealed Monday.

Illinois General Assembly passes bill to ban citizens from recording police : news

Large Study Confirms That Abortion Is Extremely Safe | ThinkProgress - Major complications stemming from abortion are extremely rare, occurring in less than a quarter of a percent of cases, according to one of the nation’s most comprehensive studies to date into the safety of the medical procedure.

The New Republic's Race Problem - The Atlantic - It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that black lives didn't matter much at all to the magazine ... That explains why the family rows at TNR's virtual funeral look like the "Whites Only" section of a Jim Crow-era movie-house. For most of its modern history, TNR has been an entirely white publication, which published stories confirming white people's worst instincts
The Rise and Fall of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge, America’s Worst Gay Power Couple - The Daily Beast
The Real Crisis of Journalism - The New Yorker - I highly doubt that Hughes wanted this debacle. He didn’t plan for a change at the top to expose the emptiness of his commitment to the hard work of journalism. (shallow richbroharvardzuckerdude)

Fox: Obama Seeks Advice on Establishing Monarchy - The New Yorker - President Barack Obama spent several hours on Monday in a closed-door Oval Office meeting seeking advice on how to establish a monarchy, Fox News reports.

The Potential Therapeutic Effects of THC on Alzheimer's Disease - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease - Volume 42, Number 3 / 2014 - IOS Press - These sets of data strongly suggest that THC could be a potential therapeutic treatment option for Alzheimer's disease through multiple functions and pathways
Groundbreaking Idea Of Life's Origin - Business Insider - “You start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get a plant,” England said. (see Into the Cold)
Women With More Male Friends Have More Sex Because Partners Fear ‘Sex Rivals’ : science

This Galaxy Is Belching Gas At 2 Million Miles An Hour
The Accidents of Psychoanalysis - NYTimes.com - Telling the story of her relationship with her mother took her the greater part of a number of years (5x/wk)
Mars Rover Finds Stronger Potential for Life - NYTimes.com

How does a black hole's singularity not violate the Pauli exclusion principle? : askscience

The Surprising Way That Comet Impacts Could Have Kick-Started Life on Earth - Popular Mechanics


The 14 Foods You've Been Storing All Wrong | Caroline Kaufman, RDN

TIL that students who have been in DARE classes are more likely to use drugs than their non-DARE peers : todayilearned (huge waste of money, time and resources fighting the war on drugz)
Men of Reddit, what do you wish your partner would do in bed that they currently don't? : AskReddit

The Pirate Bay Goes Down Worldwide : worldnews
The Rise of AdBlock Reveals A Serious Problem in the Advertising Ecosystem: seeing a threat to their ecosystem, French publishers follow their German colleagues and prepare to sue startup Eyeo GmbH, the creator of anti-advertising software AdBlock Plus : technology

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Mass surveillance exposed by Snowden ‘not justified by fight against terrorism’ | World news | The Guardian - Report by Nils Muižnieks, commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, says ‘secret, massive and indiscriminate’ intelligence work is contrary to rule of law - “Suspicionless mass retention of communications data is fundamentally contrary to the rule of law … and ineffective,”

CIA torture report: spy agency braces for global impact of inquiry as release date nears | US news | The Guardian - Public airing of post-9/11 practices, coming after months of negotiation, is likely to attract attention worldwide and could come as early as Tuesday - Bloomberg first reported that the committee understood Kerry to be arguing for suppressing the report, though the State Department denies it - Yet the White House placed the CIA in charge of censoring a report into its own conduct and discussions have stretched into their 10th month". (who's in charge?)
Sexual threats, other CIA methods detailed in Senate report - Yahoo News

Dismissing Senate Report, Cheney Defends C.I.A. Interrogations - NYTimes.com
Exclusive: Former Spies Launch ‘CIASavedLives.com’ to Combat Torture Report (sendthemtothehague.com)
Bush and C.I.A. Ex-Officials Rebut Torture Report - NYTimes.com - But Mr. Bush and his closest advisers decided that “we’re going to want to stand behind these guys,” as one former official put it. (torture is patriotic)
CIA torture report: US raises security ahead of release - Security has been stepped up at US facilities around the world ahead of the release of a report expected to reveal details of harsh CIA interrogations, the White House says.
5 questions about the CIA detention and interrogation report you wish you didn’t have to ask - The Washington Post - Before the CIA began using these methods, the agency’s top officials were supposed to seek approval from the Justice Department. The department’s lawyers concluded the techniques did not constitute torture.

Pardon Bush and Those Who Tortured - NYTimes.com - My organization and others have spent 13 years arguing for accountability for these crimes. We have called for the appointment of a special prosecutor or the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission, or both. But those calls have gone unheeded. And now, many of those responsible for torture can't be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has run out
The insane narrative you are supposed to believe about the torture report - The Washington Post - I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that if Dianne Feinstein, Lindsey Graham, and the director of Human Rights Watch all think the report is necessary to prevent the United States from committing the same egregious mistakes in the future, then that countermands the magical thinking needed to accept the worst-case scenarios regarding its publication.
The Torture Defenders Fan Out « The Dish - And yet, when a report is imminent outlining acts of torture and abuse far worse than Abu Ghraib, and directly under his own authority, he insists that whatever is detailed in the report, the culprits are heroes and patriots, and “we’re lucky as a nation to have them.”
Bush Officials Step Up To Blast Torture Report Before It's Out

Yemeni man hopes landmark torture report will prompt long-awaited apology | US news | The Guardian - Mohammed Abdullah Saleh al-Asad wants an apology from Djibouti, which is believed to have handed him to the US for CIA rendition (and that word ... torture)

US believed FBI mole passed secrets to IRA in Thatcher murder plot, files reveal | Politics | The Guardian - FBI agents suspected woman in New York bureau of helping IRA - Details made public following freedom of information request - FBI suspected British men of spying at US airports used by Thatcher and Major

Israel Debates Its Religious and Democratic Identity - NYTimes.com

The Democratic Party’s long term problem is worse than you think - The Washington Post - how to regain ground on the state level.

Dems, It’s Time to Dump Dixie - The Daily Beast - With Mary Landrieu’s ignominious exit, the Democrats will have lost their last senator in the Deep South. And that’s a good thing. They should write it off—because they don’t need it.

By the Numbers: Half of the Senators Who Voted for Obamacare Will be Gone in 2015 - Bloomberg Politics

Recovery at Last? - NYTimes.com

Inside the Koch data mine - Mike Allen and Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO
GOP pins hopes of dismantling ObamaCare on the courts | TheHill

The New Republic is dead, thanks to its owner, Chris Hughes - The Washington Post - But the moist-eyed Hughes would, in the coming months, prove himself to be neither an intellectual nor a partner but a dilettante and a fraud. (his toys revolted and now he looks like a dumb shit and a very shallow person)
Chris Hughes Lashes Out At Former 'New Republic' Staffers - "If you really care about an institution and want to make it strong for the ages, you don’t walk out. You roll up your sleeves, you redouble your commitment to those ideals in a changing world, and you fight. This 100-year-old story is worth fighting for." (has nothing to do with how he and his short-attention-span flunky treated them)
Revolt at the New New Republic - NYTimes.com
Crafting a sustainable New Republic - The Washington Post

Tamir Rice's sister handcuffed after shooting, mom says - CNN.com
Mother accuses police of mistreating family after Tamir Rice shooting | US news | The Guardian - Samaria Rice does not believe Cleveland police tried to resuscitate son - Family focused on indicting officer who shot 12-year-old dead
Barack Obama, Ferguson, and the Evidence of Things Unsaid - The Atlantic - Hope is what Barack Obama promised to bring, but he was promising something he could never bring.
Why Eric Garner is the turning point Ferguson never was - The Washington Post (well, why?)

Violence and the racialized failure of the American state [Guest Post By Lisa L. Miller] - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The United States, as a whole, fails to protect its citizenry from the risk of murder to the same degree as other rich democracies. But for Black Americans, this failure is astounding. The risk of being murdered is seven to eight times as high for Black men as white men, and three to four times as high for Black women as white women. More starkly, at the height of murder risk in the 1990s, the lifetime risk for Blacks was one in twenty-three, compared to one in 160 for whites.*

Updated apology digs bigger hole for Rolling Stone - The Washington Post
Former UVA Fraternity Member Hires Lawyer Who Specializes In Sex Assault Cases - BuzzFeed News
UVa Rape Victim's Freshman Roommate Defends Her Story 
UVA Victim’s Roommate Pens Letter Supporting Her -- NYMag
College rape: Campus sexual assault is a serious problem. But the efforts to protect women are infringing on the civil rights of men.
Doxxing Jackie: The vile and dangerous threats of Charles Johnson and other trolls.

Controversial Los Angeles high-rise destroyed by explosive overnight blaze | US news | The Guardian - No deaths after fire engulfs entire city block where Da Vinci complex stood - Blaze melted freeway signs, blew out windows and forced road closures - The Los Angeles Times’ leading columnist, Steve Lopez, has called them “Death Star monstrosities”. Another local architecture critic, Adrian Glick Kubler, dubbed them “vacuums designed to suck the life out of a neighborhood that has worked so hard to become lively in the past decade”.

'Survivalists' make up growing percentage of US holiday shoppers | Money | The Guardian - American retailers face influx of ‘survivalists,’ or low-wage workers, an increasing part of the US buying public with little disposable income - Because even if jobs are being created, wages are stagnant; indeed, median family income has been in decline for the last 14 years.

I am a transgender woman and the government is denying my civil rights | Chelsea E Manning | Comment is free | The Guardian

Jet Reports Near Miss With Drone At London's Heathrow Airport - "The risk of a 10 kilogram object hitting a plane is a real one that pilots are very concerned about," British Airline Pilots Association general secretary Jim McAuslan told the BBC, pointing to a 2009 incident in which US Airways Flight 1549 was forced to land in the Hudson River in New York after striking a bird. (a fleet of birds, actually, and most non-military drones weigh 1-4 lbs, not 22)

The Outsider « Eddie Selover - Veronica Lake

As More Documents Appear, Sony Seeks to Calm Nervous Employees - NYTimes.com - have seen their Social Security numbers, performance reviews, salaries, home addresses and passwords shared with the world

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New Horizons robotic probe awakened, begins exploration of Pluto - Technology & Science - CBC News - Journey of 4.8 billion kilometres took U.S. spacecraft 9 years - The probe is so far away that radio signals travelling at the speed of light take four hours and 25 minutes to reach Earth.

Are We Missing the Big Picture on Climate Change? - NYTimes.com

As Ebola Rages, Poor Planning Thwarts Efforts - NYTimes.com - But one piece is missing: staff. The facility opened recently with a skeleton crew. Now, in an especially hard-hit area where people are dying every day because they cannot get into an Ebola clinic, 60 of the 80 beds at the Kerry Town Ebola clinic are not being used.

Backsliding in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com - They were unable to defeat the Taliban when more than 100,000 American troops were in the country; there is no reason to think that a very limited American force will be more effective now. (always listen to the military)

The C.I.A.’s Power to Purge - NYTimes.com - Not only that, Mr. Aftergood found out the National Archives and Records Administration had already offered tentative approval in August of the plan to — as a spy might put it — disappear the email of every worker but the C.I.A.’s top 22 managers, three years after they left the agency.

U.S. Transfers 6 Guantánamo Detainees to Uruguay - NYTimes.com - Mr. Hagel’s slow pace this year in approving proposed transfers of low-level detainees contributed to larger tensions with the White House before his resignation under pressure last month.

Syria Army Repels Jihadist Advance on Key Air Base — Naharnet
Israel launches airstrikes near Damascus: Syria TV | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR
Clashes between Nusra, ISIL near Lebanon border | Al Bawaba - Clashes erupted between ISIL and Nusra Front fighters near the border with Lebanon Friday, after gunmen rejected an attempt by the latter to unite the opposition in Syria's Qalamoun region under a single leader ... There are around 18 separate groups based in Qalamoun, fighting on separate fronts.
Dubai stabbing suspect inspired by 'terrorist ideology' found on the internet | World news | The Guardian - A spate of attacks on westerners in Saudi Arabia has raised concern there that the assaults may represent the start of a “lone wolf” campaign by jihadi militants.

Former Vatican bank heads accused of embezzlement, accounts seized

Poland counts the cost of losing millions of its workers | Reuters - After 1.2 million of its citizens migrated in the ten years since Poland joined the European Union, the country is counting the economic and social cost. Though its workers may have eased demographic difficulties in ageing countries like Britain and Germany, Poland now has a population crisis of its own.

Remains Of One Of Mexico's Missing Students Identified: Official

Uber Driver In India Arrested For Allegedly Raping Female Passenger - Delhi recorded the highest number of rapes in India in 2013, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data, earning the dubious distinction of being India's "rape capital."

Revealed thirty years on ... the secret role that America's Henry Kissinger played in the Bhopal tragedy | Herald Scotland - Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger put pressure on the Indian Government to agree a legal settlement that let the American chemical company Union Carbide off the hook for the 25,000 people killed by the toxic gas disaster in Bhopal 30 years ago. (so much blood on his hands)

Theresa May’s child sexual abuse inquiry faces new storm | Society | The Guardian - Two members of panel face calls to resign after being accused of sending insulting letters to victims who criticised inquiry

GOP Gains Largest House Majority Since Truman Administration (America goes off the stupid cliff)

The Trouble With Cheap Oil - The New Yorker - High oil prices would force governments, corporations, and consumers to find another way to power the world. It was a nice dream, but it’s over now.
Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General - NYTimes.com - But Mr. Pruitt left out one critical point. The three-page letter was written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon’s chief of lobbying.

The Incredible Shrinking Incomes of Young Americans - The Atlantic - It's repetitive for some to hear, but important for everybody to know: You can't explain Millennial economic behavior without explaining that real wages for young Americans have collapsed. (white boomers screwed everybody)
Tom Harkin Wants To Take Money From College Students To Pay Reviled Loan Contractors - An outgoing Senate Democrat wants to take federal money from low-income college students to pay student loan contractors, whose tactics toward borrowers have been criticized by consumer advocates, federal regulators and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. (Blue Dog on his way out still being a jerk)

Mary Landrieu Is Defeated by Bill Cassidy in Louisiana Senate Runoff - NYTimes.com - For Democrats, Saturday’s outcome was yet another sobering reminder of their party’s declining prospects in the South, a region they dominated for much of the 20th century. (maybe the Dems will try running a Dem)
Mary Landrieu Loses To Bill Cassidy In Louisiana Senate Runoff Election - But a last-ditch effort to distance herself from national Democrats -- with a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline -- failed by one vote last month, undermining Landrieu's longstanding claim to posses more clout than Cassidy would as a freshman senator.

The Rolling Stone Fiasco Is Terrible News for Rape Survivors - The Atlantic - When sexual assault reports turn out to be inaccurate—even slightly so—nobody wins.
JustOneMinute: If You Were An Early Reader Of the WaPo UVA Rape Expose...
Terrence McCoy on Twitter: "Let's be clear about one thing. Fraudulent accusations of rape are extraordinarily rare. This graph proves it. http://t.co/mX7xPHvMkZ"
The rape of men: the darkest secret of war | Society | The Guardian - Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors, and reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world's conflicts

Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are. There’s only one fix. - The Washington Post - The problem is that cops aren’t held accountable for their actions, and they know it. These officers violate rights with impunity. They know there’s a different criminal justice system for civilians and police.
Eric Garner complicit in own death says police union - CBS News - Garner was overweight and in poor health. Police and their supporters argue that if he could repeatedly say, "I can't breathe," as he did several times, it means he could breathe.
Police use tear gas on Berkeley protesters - SFGate
De Blasio: Giuliani 'Fundamentally Misunderstands the Reality' of Race - The Atlantic - New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday admonished former mayor Rudy Giuliani for his repeated recent comments that "responsibility is on the black community" for reducing the necessity of police officers in their communities.
No felony charges for SPD cop’s bone-breaking punch of handcuffed woman | Local News | The Seattle Times - The decision not to charge a Seattle police officer who punched a handcuffed woman reflects a deep divide between King County prosecutors and City Attorney Pete Holmes.
Does an Innocent Man Have the Right to Be Exonerated? - The Atlantic - And yet, when Henry Lee McCollum walked free, Justice Scalia never said a word.

American who helped craft Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ bill to be tried for crimes against humanity | Death and Taxes - The First Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Pastor Scott Lively’s petition to have a crimes against humanity lawsuit against him dropped ... Lively has not backed down. Earlier this week, during an appearance on “Trunews,” he stated that homosexuality was worse than mass murder, because it was to blame for Noah’s flood.

Hunting for the Origins of Symbolic Thought - NYTimes.com - When he first started excavating Blombos in 1991, few researchers believed that symbolism might have emerged before 50,000 years ago. (+Europe didn't invent thinking)

The Case for Drinking as Much Coffee as You Like - The Atlantic - Not only have most of coffee's purported ill effects been disproven -- the most recent review fails to link it the development of hypertension -- but we have so, so much information about its benefits. We believe they extend from preventing Alzheimer's disease to protecting the liver.
Foreskin: Keep or Cut? - The Atlantic - This week, in a report free of references to jails or lunatic asylums, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said research on circumcision points toward a lot of potential benefits and not a lot of risks, beyond "minor bleeding and inflammation."

After Exodus, The New Republic Cancels Its Next Issue - NYTimes.com - The New Republic magazine said on Saturday that it would not publish its next issue, but would return to newsstands in February next year, after dozens of its top editors and contributors resigned in the face of a leadership change ... More than 50 editors and contributing editors have followed Mr. Foer and Mr. Wieseltier in resigning, according to Ryan Lizza, a contributor who was among those that quit. (Chris Hughes is kinda Asbergery)
Staff at The New Republic Follows Editor Out the Door - NYTimes.com - Mr. Hughes seemed hurt by the idea that his staff had turned against him (and his clueless techbro Steve Jobs wannabe)

A Step-by-Step Guide to Berkeley’s Many Quirks - NYTimes.com
Quirky Berkeley | Major Quirky #3: Orange!
In Los Angeles, a Nimby Battle Pits Millionaires vs. Billionaires - NYTimes.com - the house, conceived by Nile Niami, a film producer turned developer, with an estimated sale price “in the $150 million range,” will feature a cantilevered tennis court and five swimming pools. “We’re talking 200 construction trucks a day,
Brooklyn Worst in U.S. for Home Affordability - Bloomberg - Brooklyn, New York, where a resident would need to devote 98 percent of the median income to afford the payment on a median-priced home of $615,000, was the least-affordable market, followed by San Francisco and Manhattan. (hipsters win)
Where to Move If You Want a Job, More Money, or Lots of Single People - The Atlantic (Springfield MA for singles)

You can’t detox your body. It’s a myth. So how do you get healthy? | Life and style | The Guardian - If toxins did build up in a way your body couldn’t excrete, he says, you’d likely be dead or in need of serious medical intervention.
The Couples Therapy Expert Esther Perel Takes On Sex and Sexuality - NYTimes.com - “Not every infidelity is a symptom of a problem in a relationship,” she said. “Sometimes it has to do with other longings that are much more existential. Sometimes you go elsewhere not because you are not liking the one you are with; you are not liking the person you have become.”
How to Win a Breakup on the Internet - The Atlantic - A "winning the breakup" advice column on the site Ask Men—which is seriously the name of a publication, even though that's basically the premise of every publication—does recommend "going cold turkey" at the end of a relationship
William Styron's 'Darkness Visible' Shined a Light on Depression, 25 Years Ago - The Atlantic - Twenty-five years ago, William Styron's autobiography drew attention to the reality of depression.
First Children Are Smarter—but Why? - The Atlantic - "Those born earlier perform better in school"—and according to a new study, it's because of the parents.
PLOS ONE: Excess Success for Psychology Articles in the Journal Science - Eighty-three percent of the Psychology/Education articles with four or more experiments that were published in Science (2005–2012) have an excess of success, which suggests that their results are too good to be true
Tim Harford — Article — Learn from the losers - Kickended is important. It reminds us that the world is biased in systematic ways
Why Save a Language? - NYTimes.com - the looming extinction of most of the world’s 6,000 languages, a great many of which are spoken by small groups of indigenous people.
Mindfulness Short-Circuits Reflexive Racial Bias - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society - New research finds implicit bias can be tamed through the use of time-honored meditation techniques.
Facts? We Don’t Need No Stinking Facts! - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society - When faced with facts that contradict our beliefs, we shift to relying on untestable assertions.
A Trip Into Bipolar Brains - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society - Type I sufferers have somewhat smaller brain volume, researchers report in the Journal of Affective Disorders, while those with Type II appear to have less robust white matter.
Adam Grant and Sheryl Sandberg on Discrimination at Work - NYTimes.com

The California Sunday Magazine - In recent years, this enclave has been ripped apart by a modern holy war, led by a divisive spiritual leader who ended up on the F??BI’s Ten Most Wanted list and is now in prison. The majority of Short Creek residents remain loyal to him and his sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or F??LDS.

The Quartz Chart of the Year™ short-list is here - Quartz
Serial: The Syed family on their pain and the ‘five million detectives trying to work out if Adnan is a psychopath’ | Television & radio | The Guardian
YouTubers with over 100,000 subscribers - what's your story? : AskReddit

Rogue computerised cameras plague BBC news presenters | Media | The Guardian - The robot cameras were designed to do away with camera operators and save money. However computer glitches mean that sometimes they do not do what they are supposed to. (wait 'til they get their robot presenters)

How an eBay bookseller defeated a publishing giant at the Supreme Court | Ars Technica - Supap Kirtsaeng is a rebel without a pause, as the copyright fight isn't over yet.
Here’s some remarkable new data on the power of chat apps like WhatsApp for sharing news stories » Nieman Journalism Lab - So what happens if you only look at mobile shares? - You get this: Facebook 25%, WhatsApp 48%, Twitter 15%, and Google+ 11%. - WhatsApp gets nearly half of the sharing taps on mobile. (in Spain)
Algorithm fatigue: What Evernote’s news-recommending product can tell us about privacy » Nieman Journalism Lab - As you type a note, Evernote not only searches for and provides relevant material from your own and colleague’s work, but also from third-party news organizations.

19 hospitalized, thousands evacuated in gas leak at Rosemont hotel - Chicago Tribune - Several thousand people, some dressed as animal characters, were evacuated from a Hyatt hotel in suburban Rosemont when an “intentional” chlorine gas incident at the Midwest FurFest convention led to 19 people being hospitalized early Sunday morning. (now we're really in comic-book land)

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Typhoon Slams Into Philippines, 1 Million Evacuated
California Drought, High Temperatures Create Worst Conditions In 1,200 Years

Al-Qaida kills two hostages in Yemen as high-stake rescue bid ends in tragedy | World news | The Guardian - British-born photojournalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie die after US-led raid on hideout
Hostages Luke Somers, Pierre Korkie Killed During Rescue Attempt In Yemen

Mark Udall on the CIA Torture Report - Mark Udall Says America Will Be Disgusted at Torture Report - Esquire - And that he'll use every power he still has to declassify it.
The CIA Torture Report May Not Be Released After All » Balloon Juice - The Obama Administration: Despair you can believe in. http://t.co/CfOipLvVp9 — Billmon (@billmon1)

CCC | Chaos Computer Club on the blocking of our website in UK - These internet filters, authorized by Prime Minister David Cameron, are implemented by UK’s major internet service providers (ISPs). Dubbed as the "Great Firewall of Britain", the lists block adult content as well as material related to alcohol, drugs, smoking, and even opinions deemed "extremist". [2] (following China and Russia)
The World Cracks Down on the Internet - The New Yorker - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed in March, “We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. They will see the power of the Turkish Republic.”
Chief constable warns against ‘drift towards police state’ | UK news | The Guardian - Greater Manchester’s Sir Peter Fahy says it is not the police’s job to define what counts as extremism
State sanctions phone and email tapping - Companies that object to order could be brought before private ‘in camera’ court - Irish Times


Vote for same sex marriage would be 'grave injustice': Irish church | Reuters (from the experts on grave injustice)

210 women tortured to death for 'witchcraft' in Chhattisgarh, many await justice - The Times of India - RAIPUR: Even as Chhattisgarh witnessed around 1,500 incidents and 210 deaths of women assaulted for practices witchcraft in last few years, three women wait for justice after suffering assault, paraded naked, tonsured and forced to consume urine over similar accusations 13 years ago at Gariyaband's Lachkhera region.

The Retirement Situation: It's Worse Than You Read In the NYT | Beat the Press - he disappearance of traditional defined benefit pensions. He notes that millions of workers in multi-employer plans are at risk of sharp reductions in benefits. Detroit city workers and retirees have already seen sharp declines in benefits.

South African comedian Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, absolutely kills it : videos (comments, as usual, sort by Best)
The Last Great Stand » How to Survive Martial Law! – detailed guide! - Rule #1: Never Trust The Government Unless They Say They Are Going To Kill You
Anonymous has released a video featuring what appear to be Chicago police radio transmissions revealing police wiretapping of organizers' phones at the protests last night. : news

Senate Forecast: Landrieu Headed Toward Historic Defeat In Louisiana Runoff | FiveThirtyEight

White America’s moral disaster: From Eric Garner to Mike Brown, a destructive view of “justice” - Salon.com - Eric Garner is just one example of black life devalued. Here's how white victimization is tearing the nation apart
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community - White Supremacy is Almost Respectable Again | Booman Tribune ~ comment

Questions over charter school payments to contractor - ASPIRA Inc. of Pennsylvania, the North Philadelphia charter-school operator that manages Olney, paid $163,365 to Lyon Contracting Inc. to paint the school in 2011. But employees who recently learned of the payments say school janitors and building maintenance workers performed the work. (yay free enterprise)

Reckoning with The New Republic's Racial History (with image, tweets) · JeetHeer1 · Storify (storifying the entrails)
The New Democrats at The New Republic Enter the New Economy (with tweets) · billmon1 · Storify - And discover they don't like it any better than U.S. steelworkers did ... 14. Clearly, retraining is the only viable solution. I guess Franklin Foer & Leon Wieselter are just going to have to learn how to code.
Should the Disruptive Silicon Valley Overlords Be Welcomed? - Lawyers, Guns & Money
How #Disruption Broke The New Republic - Bloomberg Politics
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community - I'd also like to point out that Marty Peretz bought the magazine in 1974 when I was 4 or 5 years old. Yet, there are plenty of people roughly my age or only slightly older who are behaving as if The New Republic had the most sterling and honorable reputation when they were growing up and then entering the workplace.
Eschaton: This Venerable Institution - Like BooMan says...exactly when was The New Republic some sort of venerable institution? Not in my lifetime.
Eschaton: A Wank of Writers - TNR was a force for bad for as long as I was aware of it. Peretz, a horrible person, owned it since 1974, before finally selling it to the rich facebook guy.. How far back does one have to go for the supposed good old days when it was some sort of wonderful thing?
The New Republic and the Beltway media's race problem - Vox - But Hughes' predecessor, Marty Peretz, did much worse. In the years of Peretz's ownership, from 1974 to 2007 and then partially until 2012, he gave himself the title of editor-in-chief and regular space in the magazine and on its website, which he frequently used to issue rants that were breathtaking in their overt racism
New Republic Exodus: Dozens Of Editors Resign Over Management Changes

Rolling Stone’s disastrous U-Va. story: A case of real media bias - The Washington Post

New Proposal Would Provide Grand Juries with Eyes - The New Yorker - Some critics of Dorrinson’s proposal say that it does not go far enough, and that in order to process information sent from their eyes grand juries would also need to be fitted with working brains.

The Open-Office Trap - The New Yorker - open offices often fostered a symbolic sense of organizational mission, making employees feel like part of a more laid-back, innovative enterprise, they were damaging to the workers’ attention spans, productivity, creative thinking, and satisfaction.

Artificial intelligence: Hawking's fears stir debate

Lez_Derp comments on So I'm moving to Japan soon. When should I expect my harem?
It's pretty amazing what testosterone replacement therapy can do for anxiety and depression. [Long] : steroids
ignorantwanderer comments on ELI5: Why is there so much clutter and loose wires on the International Space Station? Isn't it dangerous? Why don't they clean it up?

Wikipedia is booming—so why is it still asking you for money? - "The WMF spent almost $684,000 on furniture [last year], he writes. "That's almost $3,200 per employee. Your donations are going on golden chairs."
AT&T throttles unlimited data plans at 5GB, no congestion required : technology

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Sen. Wyden puts forward a bill to ban data “backdoors” | Ars Technica - Bill prevents FBI from meddling with companies that choose to encrypt by default.
Judge rules that banks can sue Target for 2013 credit card hack | Ars Technica - The development paves the way for more banks to sue merchants with poor POS security.

China Arrests Ex-Security Chief Zhou Yongkang For Leaking Secrets, Corruption - Zhou, a former member of the powerful nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, is the most senior figure to be snared in President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption crackdown.

Anyone but Bibi: why Israeli election is unlikely to be easy for Netanyahu | World news | The Guardian - Allies turned foes, economic fears and poll saying 60% of voters would prefer a PM other than him points to a volatile campaign

ICC drops murder and rape charges against Kenyan president | World news | The Guardian - Blow for court’s credibility as key prosecution witness refuses to testify in Uhuru Kenyatta trial and another admits lying

Not meant to be taken seriously: Morning File, Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - The federal government will argue Wednesday that its social covenant to care for injured veterans was just political speech and not meant to be taken seriously. (Republicans the same everywhere)

Kenya arrests 77 Chinese nationals in cybercrime raids | World news | The Guardian - Police find equipment capable of infiltrating bank accounts and cash machines in raids on homes in upmarket area of Nairobi

McCain blocks Obama's pick as No.2 diplomat over Iraq policy - Democratic Underground - U.S. Senator John McCain said on Thursday he is blocking President Barack Obama's nomination of Anthony Blinken as the country's number two diplomat, citing sharp disagreement with the nominee's past statements on Iraq. (because bomb-bomb has been so right)

US jobs report beats forecasts as 321,000 positions added in November | Business | The Guardian - Harsh weather appears not to impact unemployment numbers - Unemployment rate stays at 5.9% and 9 million still out of work

PolicyMinded comments on Why some Republicans want to cancel the State of the Union address "Though it seems like the pettiest of actions, there’s something significant driving it: A fundamental unwillingness to accept that Barack Obama is legitimately the President of the United States." - . And then, October 26th, 1970 there was a crack in our air-tight democracy - The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 opened up the votes of Congress (the committee of the whole). Dubbed a ’sunshine law’, this bill has only ever been considered a good thing.

Eric Garner Protests Spread Across The Country; Police Arrest More Than 200 In NYC
After "Die-In" at White House, Protesters Close Down 14th Street Bridge, 3rd Street Tunnel | NBC4 Washington
Protesters Swarm NYC Over Eric Garner Death For Second Night
Chokehold Cop Is 'Eagle Scout' Blameless In Eric Garner's Death, NYPD Union President Says
Grand Jury In Eric Garner Case Wasn't Asked To Consider 'Reckless Endangerment' Charge: Report - An unnamed source familiar with the case told the station that District Attorney Daniel Donovan only asked jurors to consider charges of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide as they heard evidence.
Protesters Hit Streets, Cause Delays in Cambridge and Somerville - Massachusetts news - Boston.com - Protesters in Somerville and Cambridge shut down the Davis Square MBTA stop and blocked streets on Massachusetts Avenue on Friday afternoon in another demonstration against the lack of indictments for two high-profile police killings in New York and Ferguson, Missouri.
‘I honestly don’t know what to say’; Jon Stewart gets serious on Eric Garner - The Washington Post - But Stewart said that in contrast to the Ferguson case, the Staten Island case appeared to be clear. "Here, there is is none of that [ambiguity]. The coroner called it homicide, the guy's not acting threatening, and we know that because we are (expletive) watching it. Someone taped it."
Texas Grand Jury Clears Cops Caught on Camera Beating a Woman in Jail

Phoenix Police Shoot Unarmed Black Man, Igniting Outcry - by a white Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a gun demonstrates the challenges law enforcement agencies face at a time of unrest over police tactics.
Cop texted union rep as Akai Gurley lay dying - NY Daily News - . What's more, the sources said, the pair of officers weren't supposed to be patrolling the stairways of the Pink Houses that night.
South Carolina secures series of police indictments as protests rage elsewhere | US news | The Guardian - Prosecutors in the southern state have charged three white officers for on-duty shootings of unarmed black men in the past four months
Tommy Wall Loses Job, House, Reputation After Police Wrongly Charge Him With Child Rape - "It was crazy," Webb said. "The detective finally admitted that he was absolutely sure it was not Mr. Wall. Well why didn't he watch it to begin with? You'd think that would be first thing they would do when arresting someone on a charge like that."
White Ex-Police Chief Indicted In Killing Of Unarmed Black Man - A white man who was the police chief in a small South Carolina town has been charged with murder in the 2011 shooting death of an unarmed black man.

We Don’t Just Need Nicer Cops. We Need Fewer Cops. | The Nation - Here’s what we actually know about proposed police reforms.
Today's Lessons On The Events Of Our Time: The Cleveland Report and The Legal History Of The Chokehold - Esquire - According to law professor and dean Erwin Chemerinsky's book The Case Against the Supreme Court, Lyons discovered that sixteen people died after being choked by an LAPD officer, almost all of whom were black men. When police Chief Daryl Gates was asked why almost all of these fatal chokeholds involved African Americans, Gates replied that the "veins or arteries of blacks do not open up as fast as they do in normal people."
Marvin Tramaine Hill II Attacked Pregnant Wife With McChicken Sandwich: Cops - At first, Hill threw the entire sandwich at his wife. Then he picked up some of the bun off the floor and threw that at her.
‘Hypnotist thief’ robs shopkeeper after appearing to put him in a trance | UK news | The Guardian - Man seen removing bundle of cash from London man’s pocket after touching him repeatedly on stomach

Death penalty secrecy imperils integrity of the procedure, US judge warns | US news | The Guardian - Federal judge considers challenge brought by newspapers including the Guardian who say Oklahoma acted unconstitutionally by limiting reporters’ access

Mary Landrieu’s bitter end: Why her complaints about Democrats abandoning her ring so hollow - Salon.com - The Louisiana senator is "disappointed" that the Democratic Party isn't helping her. But it's helped her plenty (bad Republi-Dems lose, whine)

Voting With Your Feet: Aaron Renn’s New Donut | Newgeography.com - The old model of urban poverty and suburban prosperity (the sweet fluffy “donut” with a dead center) has been replaced by what Mr. Renn calls the New Donut with a thriving downtown core, failing older suburbs, and booming new outer ring suburbs. Poverty then reappears out in the rural hinterlands ... both Lancaster and Palmdale were systematically raiding the homes of lower income black and latino citizens with SWAT style teams of heavily armed police looking for minor code violations and instances of fraud ... The most recent “solution” was for the city of Lancaster to propose shutting down its MetroLink rail station in order to prevent lower income people from traveling in from other parts of Los Angeles County

Bill Cosby's fall: How an extra ticket, an iPhone and a six-month-old comedy bit changed how we think about a legend - The turnaround is stunning, in retrospect. Bill Cosby has lost a Netflix special, an NBC sitcom, a spot on Temple’s board of trustees and years of accumulated respect as the sexual assault accusations that followed him for 14 years have finally stuck ... McQuade didn’t expect his post would go viral
Eschaton: Butterfly Wings - This kind of thing is long how I've seen blogging/internet potential. Anyone without a normal massive platform can, occasionally, set something in motion.

TNR at the Crossroads by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - I’m guessing The New Republic’s “transition” is making news in part because the magazine just celebrated its 100th anniversary, and in part because one of those very rare fixtures in American magazine journalism, Leon Wieseltier, is leaving TNR (where among other things he edited the “back of the book,” the arts and culture section, forever) along with editor Franklin Foer, who’s getting the boot for the second time in recent years.
Facebook Prince Purges The New Republic: Inside the Destruction of a 100-Year-Old Magazine - The Daily Beast - Facebook billionaire Chris Hughes and his lieutenant from Yahoo gut one of journalism's great publications, setting off waves of resignations and tears - The irony is that the end of TNR as we know it comes less than three weeks after the 30-year-old Hughes--who had the good fortune to have been Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard roommate, and helped Zuckerberg launch the social networking behemoth ... The friction escalated with the arrival of Vidra, who is said to have complained to Foer that the magazine was boring and that he couldn’t bring himself to read past the first 500 words of an article (no cat pics +what a dick)
Eschaton: So Long, And Thanks For All The Shit - Apparently TNR is getting rid of its current editor, Foer, and moving the operation to New York. This has caused various journalist twitterati to huff and puff their outrage, because nobody is supposed to ever lose their job in that world. Or Something.
New Republic Exodus: Dozens Of Editors Resign Over Management Changes ... New Republic owner Chris Hughes and newly installed CEO Guy Vidra announced Thursday they were repositioning the 100-year-old magazine to become a "vertically integrated digital media company." (whoa, everyone left; Libertarian dudebro at work)
The Lingering Death Of The New Republic - Esquire - out les Twittersphere went izonkospheric when it was announced that Chris Hughes, the Silicon Valley bozillionnaire who bought The New Republic in order to let his dog play with it out in the backyard, had a parting of the ways with his editor, and his literary editor, because Hughes apparently plans to move TNR, as it is adorably referred to by its many acolytes, to New York and turn it into a clickbait machine with upcoming features like "The Ten Hottest Secretaries Of Agriculture."
Even The “Liberal” New Republic » Balloon Juice - Seems Chris Hughes broke his toy to the point where Frank Foer is out as editor at The New Republic and everyone else is jumping ship in protest. People are resigning by Twitter. It’s freaking AWESOME. - The thing survived two world wars, the Great Depression, Watergate, the fall of the Soviet Union, 9/11, New Coke, and 74,927 episodes of Law and Order, but couldn’t handle one Silicon Valley douchebag with a giant checkbook in possession of all the common sense of a chunk of asphalt. Also, anybody else notice that Techbros Turning Journalism Outlets Into Huge Piles Of Shit(tm) seems to be a recurring theme of 2014? There’s an awful lot of that going around.
The End of TNR As We Know It » Balloon Juice
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Twitter: "When you run cover stories questioning the intelligence of 40 million people, because of their skin color, some among them tend to remember."
TNR RIP « The Dish - Well, one thing you could always say about TNR. It has always done drama really well – and this morning’s editorial meeting could probably have been written by Aaron Sorkin. The mass resignations – nine of the twelve editors are out – are effectively the end of TNR ... the danger “of being at a publication which is little more than a rich person’s hood ornament”:
Julia Ioffe - Today, I did something I thought I'd never... Also, TNR's digital media editor Hillary Kelly resigned today. From her honeymoon. In Africa. Consider that.
Goodbye to All That: Has former New Republic starlet Ruth Shalit left Washington in the dust—or is it the other way around? - Washington City Paper - Has former New Republic starlet Ruth Shalit left Washington in the dust—or is it the other way around? (for the memories)
Truth or Dare - The strange case of Ruth Shalit and the Washington Post - by Dan Kennedy

Columbia football coach quits following allegations of abuse | Sport | The Guardian - Letter claims players forced to play concussed - Team currently on run of 21 losses

Good Students Don’t Really Have Any Trouble Getting in at Elite Colleges by Daniel Luzer | College Guide | The Washington Monthly - What this really looks like, indeed, is a story about social class. Sure, rich kids worry about getting into really fancy colleges, but in a larger sense they have no trouble at all getting into a pretty good college somewhere.

The Top 100 Unusual And Surprising Baby Names Of 2014 (Audi and Darko ... and Tymber!)

Smoking erases Y chromosomes | Science/AAAS | News - Researchers have found that smokers are up to four times more likely to have blood cells with no Y chromosome than nonsmokers. That’s worrisome, they say, because a recent study found an association between Y chromosome loss and a shorter life span, as well as a higher risk of multiple cancers.

That annoying coworker - what does he/she keep doing? : AskReddit

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Klein and Kolbert - Lawyers, Guns & Money : So in the nature of fairness, it’s worth noting that Klein is pushing back hard against that review, discussing the many concrete ideas she posits:
‘Can Climate Change Cure Capitalism?’: An Exchange by Naomi Klein | The New York Review of Books
The Ethics of Climate Hope: A Response to Elizabeth Kolbert | This Changes Everything
The Climate Conundrum - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Sustainable Energy – without the hot air

C.D.C. Warns That Flu Season May Be More Deadly Than Usual - NYTimes.com - This year’s flu season may be more deadly than usual and this year’s flu vaccine is a relatively poor match to the viruses that are now circulating, federal health officials warned on Thursday.

Inside the Battle Over the CIA Torture Report - Bloomberg View - Although the summary report is said to not use the word “torture,” officials said it would describe practices that any layman would understand as torture. (yeah, "torture" not in "torture" report)

ISIS: What the US Doesn’t Understand by Ahmed Rashid | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books - Accepting that ISIS is primarily waging a war within Islam requires a different kind of strategy than the US is pursuing.
Islamic Militants Wage Fierce Attack on Grozny, Chechnya’s Capital - NYTimes.com - GROZNY, Chechnya — A fierce gun battle between Islamist militants and government security forces paralyzed the center of the Chechen capital, Grozny, overnight Thursday, leaving some 19 people dead and embarrassing President Vladimir V. Putin just hours before he delivered his state-of-the-nation speech in Moscow. - “When this all started,” Mr. Kadyrov told reporters at the Kremlin, “I flew home, organized a special operation, killed the devils, held a meeting, gathered the staff needed to restore the damaged building and made it back in time to listen to the address of our national leader.

Kerry: Russia could rebuild trust with west by easing tensions with Ukraine | US news | The Guardian - Kerry speaks at meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which includes both the United States and Russia as partners

Abu Dhabi stabbing: suspect arrested in murder of American schoolteacher | World news | The Guardian - Interior minister says suspect also planted makeshift bomb outside house of a US doctor, but did not confirm whether events were considered terrorist attack
Vatican finds hundreds of millions of euros 'tucked away': cardinal | Reuters

Operation AURORAGOLD: How the NSA Hacks Cellphone Networks Worldwide

The Snowden Effect: The Movie - Esquire - The surveillance state does what it does because it can do it, period. After the events of September 11, 2001, the country stepped into a universe entirely made of shadows and gray, concealing mist.

Booyah! Activist Investor Hurls Purple Prose at Jim Cramer - NYTimes.com - “enjoyed considerable nonpecuniary compensation such as perfumed sedan driver(s) and assorted assistants who spray ionized lavender water on your barren cranium.”

NY Daily News Makes Huge Statement With Front Page On Eric Garner Decision
A Search for Justice in the Eric Garner Case - NYTimes.com
Mayor de Blasio Announces Retraining of New York Police - NYTimes.com
What Comes Next in the Eric Garner Case - NYTimes.com
The Eric Garner case’s sickening outcome - The Washington Post - This time, there were literally millions of eyewitnesses. Somebody tell me, just theoretically, how many does it take? Is there any number that would suffice? Or is this whole “equal justice before the law” thing just a cruel joke?
The Eric Garner case’s sickening outcome - The Washington Post
The long, halting, unfinished fight to end racial profiling in America - The Washington Post - George W. Bush promised to end racial profiling a decade ago. Now Eric Holder is still trying.
#Crimingwhilewhite: White people are confessing on Twitter to crimes they got away with - The Washington Post - Most white Americans think bias against them is worse than bias against blacks, while just 37 percent of whites said the Michael Brown case raised important questions about race. Eighty percent of blacks did. (talk about out-of-touch)
Justice Department finds use of force problems in Cleveland Police Department - The Washington Post
Timothy Loehmann, Cop Who Shot Tamir Rice, Deemed Unfit For Policing 2 Years Ago - "He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,"
Tears at Funeral for Cleveland Boy Tamir Rice Shot by Cop - NBC News.com
No indictments after police shoot and kill man at an Ohio Wal-Mart; Justice Dept. launches investigation - The Washington Post
'Chaotic and dangerous' Cleveland police shamed in withering government report | US news | The Guardian - Cleveland force accused of using excessive and unreasonable force in hundreds of cases as DoJ appoint independent monitor to oversee reforms
The American Justice System Is Not Broken - That is what America does. It is not broken. That is exactly what is wrong with it. (killing black people a feature, not a bug)
The Will of the People - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Albert Burneko is speaking some truth. Because the American justice system is not broken. It’s working just as intended, to use violence against people of color. This is a system that goes back to slavery and has routinely both used violence as part of a state mechanism to ensure racial inequality and covered up for those using violence against people of color for any number of reasons, from slavery to lynching to cops wantonly killing red, brown, and black people.
Grand Jury Clears Jasper Police in Beating Caught on Tape - Diggles settled a civil rights lawsuit against the city and the officers last December for $75,000. And less than a month after the incident, Jasper’s city council voted to fire Cunningham and Grissom. (Grand Juries are a joke)

String of Sexual Assault Cases May Lead to Tipping Point - NYTimes.com
Lawyer urges Bill Cosby to let claims go to trial as new allegations emerge | World news | The Guardian - Gloria Allred challenges comedian to waive statute of limitations as new victims of his alleged sexual abuse emerge

'Unprecedented': Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spine - NBC News.com - The drug works on nerve cells that are cut, sending connections across the break, and it helped injured rats move their back legs again and also gave them back control of their bladders.
the engraving had taken place after the shells were buried
Hominids adapted to metabolize ethanol long before human-directed fermentation
Study: Contraception may change how happy women are with their husbands / More FSU News - Florida State 24/7 - The results showed that women who were using hormonal contraceptives when they met their husband experienced a drop in marital satisfaction after they discontinued a hormone-based birth control. But, what’s interesting is that how their satisfaction changed depended on their husbands’ facial attractiveness ... In contrast, beginning a hormonal contraceptive after marriage did not appear to have negative or positive impacts on a woman’s satisfaction, regardless of her husband’s looks.
84% of Vegetarians and Vegans Return to Meat. Why? | Psychology Today - Hence, the authors of the report argue that animal protectionists would be better off concentrating their efforts to persuade “the many” to reduce their consumption of flesh than trying to convince “the few” to take the absolutist route and give up meat completely.
PLOS ONE: Subclinical Primary Psychopathy, but Not Physical Formidability or Attractiveness, Predicts Conversational Dominance in a Zero-Acquaintance Situation
Psychopathy
What Is a Psychopath? | Psychology Today

Shakeup at The New Republic: Foer, Wieseltier out; mag moves to N.Y. - politico.com

A Weapon for Readers by Tim Parks | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books - Better to read a poor book with alert resistance, than devour a good one in mindless adoration.

Florida Agrees That Satanists Must Have Equal Representation In Capitol
Jenna Bush Admits to "Hanky Panky" on the White House Roof

Zoe Quinn: 'All Gamergate has done is ruin people's lives' | Technology | The Guardian

What was the biggest lie you got away with? : AskReddit
Reddit, what is your favorite "dead" website? : AskReddit

Apple Deleted Rivals’ Songs from Users’ iPods - Digits - WSJ - Apple deleted music that some iPod owners had downloaded from competing music services from 2007 to 2009 without telling users, attorneys for consumers told jurors in a class-action antitrust suit against Apple Wednesday. (another great idea from the Jobs)

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2014 Headed Toward Hottest Year On Record -- Here's Why That's Remarkable | ThinkProgress
West Antarctic melt rate has tripled - A comprehensive, 21-year analysis of the fastest-melting region of Antarctica has found that the melt rate of glaciers there has tripled during the last decade.
The melt rate of the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica has tripled in the last decade.

NASA's Orion Test Flight Gets Us Closer to Mars - Businessweek

12 Things to Keep in Mind When You Read the Torture Report - The Intercept - @froomkin (non-accountable accountability by Obama)

Ukraine nuclear accident 'no threat': Minister (nothing to worry about)
Remember When Putin Was a Colossus Astride the Planet & Laughing Haughtily at Obama? by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly

ISIS claims constructing dirty bomb after stealing 40kg of uranium - Iraqi News
US: attacks are slowing Isis but defeating jihadis could take years | World news | The Guardian - John Kerry insists international coalition’s strategy is working as Iran joins air strikes against Islamic State fighters (endless war extended)
Iran's air force bombs Isis in Iraq, says Pentagon | World news | The Guardian - Washington and Tehran deny coordination as part of US-led coalition against Islamic State

Hong Kong Democracy Protest Leaders Surrender To Police
India Ranked Less Corrupt Than China for the First Time in 18 Years - India Real Time - WSJ

Japanese vagina kayak artist arrested again for obscenity | World news | The Guardian - But on Wednesday, Igarashi was re-arrested on suspicion of sending a link “that shows her plan to create a boat using three-dimensional obscene data to a large number of people”, a Tokyo police spokeswoman told AFP. (a big no-no)

UN Resolution: Israel Must Renounce Nuclear Arms - ABC News

American couple cleared of charges in Qatar leave country after two-year saga | US news | The Guardian - US ambassador tweets that Matthew and Grace Huang, acquitted on charges related to death of their daughter, have left Gulf Arab nation

Soldier jailed for making nailbomb avoids terror charge | UK news | The Guardian - Ryan McGee told police he made the bomb when he was bored and because he did not like mass immigration (well, not that kind of terror)
No wonder landowners are scared. We are starting to learn who owns Britain | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian - The land reform programme announced last week by the Scottish government is the end of civilised life on Earth, if you believe the corporate press. In a country where 432 people own half the private rural land, all change is Stalinism. (riches sold the country to foreign riches)

Hagel refused to hold off resignation - CNN.com - CNN has learned the White House wanted Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to wait until this week to resign, so it would have a new nominee in place by then. But Hagel refused to wait, deciding if the White House was going to push him out, he wanted to make his resignation known as quickly as possible.

Is Obamacare Destroying the Democratic Party? - NYTimes.com - “Shorter Chuck Schumer — I wish Obama cared more about helping Democrats than sick people.”
Return of Focus Hocus Pocus - NYTimes.com - ’ve been getting correspondence from people saying that I need to respond to Tom Edsall channeling Chuck Schumer on how health reform was a mistake, Obama should have focused on the economy. The thing is, I responded to this argument four years ago, and everything I said then still applies
U.S. Experiences Unprecedented Slowdown In Health Care Spending - The amount the United States spent on health care went up last year by the smallest amount since federal scorekeepers started tracking these dollars half a century ago

What Might Persuade Hillary Clinton Not To Run In 2016 | FiveThirtyEight - Clinton was quite popular during her days as secretary of state. But since leaving that nonpartisan post in 2013, her net favorable rating has been falling. The most recent YouGov poll put her at an all-time low.

No Charges in Eric Garner Chokehold Case for N.Y.P.D. Officer - NYTimes.com
Grand Jury Declines To Indict NYPD Officer In Chokehold Death Of Eric Garner
The NYPD Has A Long History Of Killing Unarmed Black Men - Cops say they saw Garner selling cigarettes outside the store. Other witnesses, however, said he'd just finished breaking up a fight. He had no cigarettes on him, nor in his car, his family told the Daily News.
Hands Up, Don't Choke: Eric Garner Was Killed By Police For No Reason - No, his apparent crime was selling cigarettes without paying taxes on them. And for that, he was killed.
Cop cleared in Eric Garner chokehold death : news
Cuomo's share of the blame - Lawyers, Guns & Money : As New York’s cretinous governor scrambles to appear to be troubled by today’s outcome, let’s not forget the role he played in today’s miscarriage of justice
Judge Andrew Napolitano Says Eric Garner's Death Was 'Criminally Negligent Homicide'
Conservatives Join Outrage Over Grand Jury Decision In Eric Garner's Death
New York City Protests Eric Garner Decision (PHOTOS)
From Daniel Pantaleo To Darren Wilson, Police Are Almost Never Indicted - “You'd have to be blind or prejudiced to say there's no probable cause,” Garner’s mother said before the grand jury's decision came out.
A Grand Jury Did Indict One Person Involved In Eric Garner's Killing -- The Man Who Filmed It - In August, less than a month after filming the fatal July 17 encounter in which Daniel Pantaleo and other police officers confronted Garner for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes, a grand jury indicted Orta on weapons charges stemming from an arrest by undercover officers earlier that month. (all lies, they tracked him down and retaliated)

Hullabaloo - "Just the facts" don't answer the main question
Hundreds of Police Killings Are Uncounted in Federal Statistics - WSJ - FBI Data Differs from Local Counts on Justifiable Homicides (paywalled)
Eric Garner’s Death Won’t Even Show Up in FBI Stats on Police Homicides - Hit & Run : Reason.com - “it’s nearly impossible to determine how many people are killed by the police each year” (summary)
BREAKING! Benefits of Arbitrary Police Power Greatly Exaggerated - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Would a vast decline in the number of recorded stop-and-frisk encounters create an opening for violence to return? So far, Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Bratton said, the answer has been no.
Stop-and-Frisk Fades Away Under New Mayor, Crime Goes Down Anyway | Mother Jones (Guiliani and Bloomberg were racists)
'The Daily Show' Tackles 'Sh*tty White People' In Ferguson Race Debate - “I have a dream, Jon,” Wilmore said to clips of Goldman Sachs, Bill O'Reilly and Nickelback. “That one day, the actions of a few shitty white people will be seen as discrediting their entire race.”
Megyn Kelly Goes At It With Congressman Who Made ‘Hands Up, Don't Shoot' Gesture - “On this show, on this channel, unlike any other," said Kelly, "you get both sides!” (they really believe their own shit)
Denver Police Attempt To Erase Video Of Cop Beating Drug Suspect | Global Grind

Florida judge lifts restrictions on public feeding of homeless – for now | US news | The Guardian - Fort Lauderdale hit by protests and cyber attack over park feeding law - Judge suspends ordinance for 30 days and orders mediation

Georgia Town Votes to Ban Muslim Mosque, Residents Hate Islam (Video)

UPS pregnancy discrimination case weighed by US supreme court | Law | The Guardian - Justices begin hearing case of UPS employee Peggy Young with potential to affect many American women who continue to work throughout pregnancies
New court filing shows stunning new evidence of wage-fixing by major Hollywood animation studios | PandoDaily (bros takin care of bros and screwing women)

Gloria Allred Suggests Bill Cosby Waive Statute Of Limitations As Two More Women Step Forward - The three women who joined Allred were Beth Ferrier, who was first publicly identified in 2005 as Jane Doe #5 in Andrea Constand's suit against Cosby, and Helen Hayes and Chelan (who is currently being identified by her first name only), who previously had not made their allegations about Cosby public.
Former Democratic congressional aide pleads guilty to sexual assault - The Washington Post - At the house, prosecutors said, Williams spiked a drink with Ambien. The woman, according to court documents, fell into a “deep sleep,” at which point Williams raped her.
Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture" - Ms. Kremer's male supervisors ranked her according to her breast size, sent pictures of their penis to her, and demanded sexual gratification and obedience by Ms. Kremer to continue her employment (dubebros everywhere)

Building a safer Twitter | Twitter Blogs
Can Twitter Stop Harassment? - NYTimes.com
Twitter makes it easier to report abuse | Poynter. - Young women are “significantly more likely to say they have been stalked or sexually harassed than men,” Pew reports about a recent survey.
Twitter is making it easier to report harassment and block users

What Grown-Ups Are Missing About Boys - NYTimes.com - “People say, ‘well, boys are physically aggressive, but girls are aggressive in their relationships,’” said Dr. Orpinas, “and it just does seem to be a myth.” (mean boys)

The Divorce Surge Is Over, but the Myth Lives On - NYTimes.com - It is no longer true that the divorce rate is rising, or that half of all marriages end in divorce. It has not been for some time. Even though social scientists have tried to debunk those myths, somehow the conventional wisdom has held ... “Two-thirds of divorces are initiated by women,” said William Doherty, a marriage therapist and professor of family social science at University of Minnesota, “so when you’re talking about changes in divorce rates, in many ways you’re talking about changes in women’s expectations.” (+"love marriages" -"shotgun weddings")
Declining divorce - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Now, marriages are more likely to constructed in such a way that women get something closer to as much value out of them as men do, so divorce goes down. Feminism made marriage stronger, by creating the conditions under which women are more likely be in a position to marry, and construct their marriage, on their own terms.

Star Tribune publishes second anti-transgender ad | Twin Cities Daily Planet
Minnesota Newspaper Prints Another Ad Condemning Inclusive Policies For Transgender Students ... When asked for comment on the source of the image used in the ad, which was apparently also used on the cover of a novel targeted to young lesbian readers ...

Why Angie’s List Keeps Getting Mixed Reviews | Money.com - “Almost 70 percent of the company’s revenues come from advertising purchased by the service providers being rated,” a 2013 Consumer Reports investigation explained.

Kaling Ward leaves husband's body decomposing in bedroom for SIX MONTHS | Daily Mail Online - He had refused to go to the hospital to treat an infected left foot, deciding God would cure him, and died at 51 after slipping into a coma

New Marijuana Study Says Everyone Knows You're High And You'll Likely Be Stoned Forever : videos (full list below +"you were once a baby, now you're a criminal")

[NSFW] What is something that the opposite gender will never understand? : AskReddit
Redditers, what red flags in your last relationship did you miss until it was too late? : AskReddit
[NSFW] at what age did you lose your virginity? If you could go back to that time would you take it back ? : AskReddit
What is a personality trait that most people see as a positive characteristic that you personally can't stand? Why do you feel this way? : AskReddit

AT&T vs. municipal fiber | BGR
The Sony Pictures Hack Was Even Worse Than Everyone Thought - That saddest part about all of this is that the very worst is probably still to come. Hackers say they stole 100 terabytes of data in total. If only 40 gigabytes contained all of this damning information, just imagine what 100 terabytes contains
Sony hack is potentially the worst in history. 100 TB stolen, including unreleased movies & scripts, medical records, 3800 SSNs, etc. : technology
Billion-dollar Apple iPod antitrust lawsuit gets under way in US court | Technology | The Guardian - Statements by the late Steve Jobs central to trial, which sees Apple accused of unfair tactics for digital music dominance (Stevo has above the law)
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Review: Photography and Writing

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Wife and child of Islamic State leader Baghdadi held in Lebanon | World news | The Guardian - Arrest is described as ‘high-value catch’ and reportedly follows information provided by western intelligence agencies
Eschaton: If Only There Was Something We Could Do To Help The Syrian People - I guess we could bomb them? - SIXTY-FOUR MILLION DOLLAR SHORTFALL. We could've built 10 Steve Austins for that. In 1973. (bombs always get the money)
‘Hell is never far away’ - female medic risking her life for Aleppo | World news | The Guardian - Umm Abdu has lost her husband and a son to the war in Syria, but the pistol-wearing woman refuses to abandon her embattled city

Gunmen Attack Kenya Quarry Near Somali Border, Kill Dozens Of Workers - Somali al Shabaab Islamist militants killed 36 non-Muslim workers at a quarry in northeast Kenya on Tuesday, prompting the president to change his top security officials to tackle a relentless wave of violence.

Russia Warns Of Recession In 2015 Amid Sanctions And Low Oil Prices

Ireland to clash with UK at human rights court over hooded men judgment | World news | The Guardian - The techniques inflicted on the detainees included hooding suspects, putting them into stress positions, sleep deprivation, food and water deprivation and the use of white noise. They were arrested as a result of the British policy of internment without trial in 1971 when thousands of suspects, mainly from Ireland’s nationalist-republican community, were rounded up. (just a little Obama-style enhanced interrogation)

A long list of sex acts just got banned in UK porn - UK - News - The Independent - Regulations branded 'simply a set of moral judgements'
A long list of sex acts just got banned in UK porn : worldnews

Symbolic Vote in France Backs Palestinian State - NYTimes.com

Ferguson grand jury decision draws sharp racial, partisan reactions - The Washington Post (split, except for hating Obama)
White police officers involved in black couple's death sue Cleveland for racial discrimination | US news | The Guardian - The November 2012 chase, which left two people dead after police fired 137 shots, prompted considerable scrutiny of the Cleveland police department’s use of force
Sheriff Defends Stopping Black Man For Walking With Hands In His Pockets - "You were walking by … well you were making people nervous," the deputy says in the video McKean recorded, above. "They said you had your hands in your pockets."
Albuquerque policeman who shot woman fired over camera lapse - Yahoo News - An Albuquerque police officer who shot and killed a 19-year-old woman in April was fired from the police force on Monday for failing to follow an order to turn on his uniform camera during all citizen contacts, police said.

Bill Cosby sued in underage sex lawsuit | World news | The Guardian - Judith Huth says she was 15 when comedian took her to Playboy Mansion in 1974 and made her perform sex act
California man first to be convicted under state's revenge porn law | US news | The Guardian - Noe Iniguez sentenced to one year in jail after he was found guilty of posting topless photos of his ex-girlfriend on her employer’s Facebook page
Jian Ghomeshi harassed me on the job. Why did our radio station look the other way? | Kathryn Borel | Comment is free | The Guardian - the maddening part is that his celebrity was a creation of the CBC – Canada’s folksy, sweater-wearing public broadcaster and one of the most family-friendly brands in the nation’s history. Ghomeshi – and, by extension, his sleaze – was endorsed, promoted and held up as an example to all by a beloved institution.
ELI5: Why is a rape on a college campus handled as an administrative problem by the school, rather than as a criminal matter, handled by the police? : explainlikeimfive

Widespread Power Outage Strikes Detroit, Disrupts School, Trial And More - The entire Detroit Public Lighting system went down Tuesday morning, causing power disruptions in about 100 buildings, including fire stations, schools, several Wayne State University buildings, government offices, courthouses, the art museum and the hockey arena, according to various reports.

Scientists Confirm These Really Are the Bones of Richard III - Popular Mechanics - Genetic evidence from his skeletal remains proves Richard III is the oldest known individual ever identified through DNA ... somewhere in the line of the family tree that extends up from Duke Henry Somerset to Edward III and down to Richard III, a queen or heiress became pregnant through adultery and then lied about it without anybody ever knowing.
Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind (the non-artifical kind is doing quite well thank you)

A Look Inside The Insidious And Adulterous World Of Sexting - Weiss also said that once a person is caught sexting, their partner is entitled to ask to see their phone or online messages on a regular basis

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tired_of_nonsense comments on Two of the world’s most prestigious science academies say there’s clear evidence that humans are causing the climate to change. The time for talk is over, says the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, the national science academy of the UK.
The misunderstood limits of folk science: an illusion of explanatory depth - Rozenblit - 2010 - Cognitive Science - Wiley Online Library
Quote Details: John F. Kennedy: The great enemy of... - The Quotations Page
Drought-hit Sao Paulo may 'get water from mud': TRFN | Reuters - São Paulo, Brazil’s drought-hit megacity of 20 million, has about two months of guaranteed water supply remaining as it taps into the second of three emergency reserves, officials say.

NY Fed's $40 Billion Iraqi Money Trail - It has been called the largest airborne transfer of currency in the history of the world. But finding out what happened to all the money involved has become one of the biggest financial mysteries of all time. (look in Cheney's safe)

Video Feature: Targeting ISIS’ Black-Market Oil Trade - NYTimes.com
ISIS may possesss nuclear material stolen from Iraq, report says - The Times of India
Iraqi army 'had 50,000 ghost troops' on payroll - Correspondents say rampant corruption in the Iraqi army is seen as one of the reasons why it has struggled to contain Islamic State militants.
Waterborne Disease Plagues I.S.-Held Mosul ‹ Newsweek Pakistan - But “the hardships of the locals certainly undermine I.S. claims to be a state meeting the needs of the people and offering them real security,” he added.
Why Young Germany Are Answering Call to War in Syria - Spiegel Online - Hundreds of young German Islamists have traveled to Syria to fight with the terrorist group Islamic State - Jihad is a lot of fun!

Snowden calls on UN to protect privacy, rights
Edward Snowden wins Swedish human rights award for NSA revelations | US news | The Guardian - Whistleblower receives several standing ovations in Swedish parliament as he wins Right Livelihood award

Being Bad Europeans - NYTimes.com (Germany worst)
George Osborne likely to miss deficit reduction target as UK borrowing rises | Business | The Guardian - Increase fuelled by weak tax receipts means chancellor may have to unveil further cuts or raise taxes to meet targets in time for 2015 election (austerity failed for everyone but the riches, so more austerity)

What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel - The Atlantic - The news tells us less about Israel than about the people writing the news, a former AP reporter says.
Palestinian woman shot after Israeli citizen is stabbed in the West Bank | World news | The Guardian - A Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli civilian in the occupied West Bank and was then shot and wounded by security forces, according to the Israeli military and police.

5 mutilated bodies found in southern Mexico - Five mutilated bodies were found in a region of southern Mexico where 11 decapitated corpses were discovered just three days ago, authorities said Sunday.
Mexican president's ratings slump as outrage grows over missing student teachers | World news | The Guardian - Embattled Enrique Peña Nieto facing growing pressure over violence and corruption, with more protests planned across Mexico for Monday night

Up to 35 inmates dead, 20 comatose, after apparent mass suicide in Venezuelan prison | Fox News Latino - Pressure is building on Venezuela's government to fully investigate a rising number of deaths at an overcrowded prison, with human rights activists questioning authorities' claim of a mass drug overdose by dozens of inmates who stormed an infirmary.

Italian man arrested after ‘boasting of his ex-wife’s murder’ on Facebook | World news | The Guardian - One possible scenario being investigated is that Pagnani, bleeding profusely, stumbled out of a side door of the house after the murder and posted the Facebook update from his mobile phone.

Stanley Kutler: Pentagon unwilling to face the Vietnam truth: We lost : Ct - The Pentagon has hijacked the history of the Vietnam War, magically transforming it into a memory to honor and cherish. George Orwell never imagined better.

With executive action, Obama risks losing Chief Justice John Roberts - LA Times

The Hunger Games Economy - The Daily Beast - The popularity of Suzanne Collins’s series suggests it has caught something many Americans sense: This is not the best we can do.
GOP staffer to resign after slamming Obama girls | MSNBC - She had previously been responsible for a gaffe this summer when she accidentally tweeted about “shagging” on Fincher’s official Twitter account. Now, her resignation is “in the works.”
GOP Staffer Elizabeth Lauten Resigns Following Comments About Sasha, Malia Obama - Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. "After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents and re-reading my words online, I can see more clearly how hurtful my words were. (slow on the uptake)
GOP Staffer Who Attacked Obama Girls Was Arrested During Her Own "Awful Teen Years" | The Smoking Gun - Lauten, then 17, was collared for stealing from a Belk department store in her North Carolina hometown

109 women prosecuted for false rape claims in five years, say campaigners | Law | The Guardian

The Science of Why Cops Shoot Young Black Men | Mother Jones - And how to reform our bigoted brains.
Crime and Punishment - NYTimes.com - “white Americans overestimate the proportion of crime committed by people of color, and associate people of color with criminality.”
Armies Of Occupation - Esquire - For far too long, the local police forces in this country have been allowed to cultivate in their membership the attitudes usually found in armies of occupation. For far too long, the local police forces in this country have been allowed to weaponize those attitudes with the kind of firepower usually used by armies of occupation
Bad Memories Down South by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - The polling we’ve all seen about divergent perceptions of Ferguson doesn’t even begin to reflect the intensity of the hostility I heard towards “the blacks” (an inhibition against free use of the n-word, at least in semi-public, seems to be the only post-civil-rights taboo left), who have the outrageous temerity to protest an obvious act of self-defense by a police officer.
Obama calls for more police body cameras as part of $263m reform package | US news | The Guardian - President asks for extra federal funds to reform police departments across the country, in the wake of protests that followed the death of Michael Brown
Missouri police union condemns 'tasteless' NFL players' 'hands up' gesture | US news | The Guardian - Officers’ union calls for St Louis players to be disciplined over ‘hands-up’ gesture and threaten boycott of NFL advertisers (the cops will stop buying Bud Light, ha ha)
Police shut down mysterious 'Oath Keepers' guarding rooftops in downtown Ferguson : News
Charges Dropped For Cop Who Fatally Shot Sleeping 7-Year-Old Girl - The prosecution noted that even having his finger on the trigger of his submachine gun was improper. “He could have avoided injury if he had followed his training,” Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Moran explained.
Charges Dropped For Cop Who Fatally Shot Sleeping 7-Year-Old Girl : news - By the way, they were in the wrong apartment.
Category:White American riots in the United States

2013 homicide rate in Canada lowest since 1966 - Politics - CBC News - Police reported 505 homicides in 2013, down 38 from the previous year, StatsCan says

Freed Texas day care owners still want exoneration - Yahoo News - Former day care owners who spent 21 years in prison before being freed amid questions over their convictions for child abuse involving satanic rituals are struggling to convince prosecutors that they should be fully exonerated. They had been convicted in 1992 after therapists testified that they helped three children recover memories of satanic rituals and sexual abuse at an Austin preschool the Kellers operated. The court will be guided by the recommendations of Senior District Judge Wilford Flowers, who presided over the Kellers' 1992 trial and their recent appeals — and who has already twice ruled that they had failed to prove their innocence. (the TX version of McMartin with their own Coakley)
Tampa homeless program uses unpaid, destitute residents as steady labor force, revenue source | Tampa Bay Times - But not for the workers. They leave the game sweat-soaked and as penniless as they arrived. The money for their labor goes to New Beginnings. The men receive only shelter and food.

AIDS campaigners say pandemic has finally reached tipping point | Reuters - The number of people newly infected with HIV over the last year was lower than the number of HIV-positive people who joined those getting access to the medicines they need to take for life to keep AIDS at bay.

British BDSM Enthusiasts, Say Goodbye to Your Favourite Homegrown Porn | VICE | United Kingdom - ?This morning, the laws governing online porn changed. Somewhere in the UK, stooped over a keyboard, teeth bared, the men and women charged with shielding our eyes from anything deemed legally a-bit-off are working to a new set of guidelines: There appear to be no rational explanations for most of the R18 rules – they're simply a set of moral judgements designed by people who have struggled endlessly to stop the British people from watching pornography
Cocaine, Parties and Prostitution: the Lives of Hong Kong's Young, Wealthy British Expats | VICE | United Kingdom - ? "He wasn't mean or aggressive. He was nice, well-educated and OK."
Janay Rice Says Ravens Pushed Her To Apologize After Husband's Domestic Violence
AARP Magazine Prints Two Very Different Bill Cosby Covers - Oops. This month's AARP magazine celebrates "Bill Cosby, A Life of Laughter" #Cosby pic.twitter.com/vApIvJXtDC
U-Va.’s entrenched fraternity culture at tipping point - The Washington Post - “I think the fraternity system probably has one chance to fix itself,” Wright said. “If we don’t get this right, people are going to ask for fraternities to be banned, and they are going to have a point.”
Libertarian Magazine Wonders If UVA Rolling Stone Rape Was A 'Hoax' - The libertarian-leaning Reason magazine published a blog post on Monday asking whether Rolling Stone's recent story about rape culture at the University of Virginia, which depicted a horrific gang rape at a fraternity there, was actually "a gigantic hoax." (ha ha Reason, you so stupid)

US Efforts to Jail Dotcom Fail as Kim Walks Free | TorrentFreak - Efforts by the United States government to have Kim Dotcom put back behind bars have failed. claims from United States authorities who want to extradite Dotcom to face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.

HIV evolving 'into milder form' - HIV is evolving to become less deadly and less infectious, according to a major scientific study.
Earth's Invisible 'Star Trek' Force Field Protects You From Killer Electrons - "If the sun really blasts the Earth’s magnetosphere with a coronal mass ejection, I suspect it will breach the shield for a period of time."
He may have unravelled DNA, but James Watson deserves to be shunned | Adam Rutherford | Comment is free | The Guardian - Franklin’s skill at the technique known as X-ray crystallography was profound, and was indubitably essential to the discovery. Crick and Watson acquired the photo without her knowledge. (racist, sexist old fuck)
James Watson selling Nobel Prize: DNA structure discoverer’s history of racism and sexism. - The disgraced co-discoverer of DNA is selling his Nobel Prize.
How Sociologists Made Themselves Irrelevant - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education - Sadly, this situation is typical because sociologists have become distant spectators rather than shapers of policy. In the effort to keep ourselves academically pure, we’ve also become largely irrelevant in molding the most important social enterprises of our era.
Why Is American Teaching So Bad? by Jonathan Zimmerman | The New York Review of Books
Psychological comments: Are girls too normal? Sex differences in intelligence - This shows that girls predominate over boys at the centre of the intelligence range, but there are fewer at the extremes, which is where boys are slightly more likely to be found. (boys both dumber and smarter, and have bigger heads and 10x more violent)
Price of intelligence: Mental illness - A chance event in the genome of a marine creature about 550 million years ago triggered the evolution of intelligence and brain disorders, from autism to mental retardation to schizophrenia, new research suggests.
Faster cognitive decline may be among the effects of diabetes - The Washington Post
Midlife type 2 diabetes and poor glycaemic control as risk factors for cognitive decline in early old age: a post-hoc analysis of the Whitehall II cohort study : The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology - those with known diabetes had a 45% faster decline in memory (10 year difference in decline -0·13 SD, 95% CI -0·26 to -0·00; p=0·046), a 29% faster decline in reasoning (-0·10 SD, -0·19 to -0·01; p=0·026), and a 24% faster decline in the global cognitive score (-0·11 SD, -0·21 to -0·02; p=0·014).

Is Atheism a Specifically Western Phenomenon? - The American Interest - We know atheism in its Jewish or Christian context, as a rejection of the Biblical God. What would atheism mean in a Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist context? (it's all about monotheism, so no)
HBO's Pending Scientology Documentary Investigates Church's Hold On Hollywood Stars - The film is expected to feature new revelations about the controversial church and its famous followers, such as Cruise and John Travolta. If it’s finished in time, it will be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in January.
North Dakota May Require High School Students To Pass Citizenship Test - The state's first lady joined educators and lawmakers Monday to unveil legislation that would require high school students to pass a 100-question civics test starting in 2016 (F gets you deported to Mexico or Canada)

The original Squatty Potty toilet stool
ELI5: Why capitalize Alpha Centauri, Mars, Venus, Earth, and Europa (a moon of Jupiter) but not moon and sun as in: “The Earth and moon are warmed by the sun.”? : explainlikeimfive

Vox Media Valued at Nearly $400 Million After Investment - NYTimes.com

AT&T’s good cop, bad cop routine with the FCC - The Washington Post - When AT&T said this month it was halting a plan to give 100 cities ultra-fast Internet, it apparently didn't really mean that.
7 Colorado communities just secured the right to build their own broadband - The Washington Post
ELI5: Why did Reddit shut down r/TheFappening but leaves some truly disgusting subs up? : explainlikeimfive
Whats the biggest thing you hide from your family?. : AskReddit

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Obama to Introduce Sweeping New Controls on Ozone Emissions - NYTimes.com
Scientists: Climate change means sicker world for sea life | Local News | The Seattle Times - It’s not clear if a virus wiping out millions of sea stars is being influenced by climate change. But scientists say rising temperatures likely will make ocean disease outbreaks more problematic in the future. (Repubican death-cult killing the planet)
Grim Reality Amid Optimism Ahead of Climate Talks - NYTimes.com
Canada's process to protect endangered species is failing, study finds - Technology & Science - CBC News - 86% of country's at risk species stay at same risk level or have deteriorated over time
World's Most Polluted City Urged To Close Schools On Bad Air Days | ThinkProgress - A blanket of dust and smog covers the city landscape in New Delhi, India.
Heed the Warnings: Why We’re on the Brink of Mass Extinction - The Daily Beast (don't worry, the stupid will live on)
Next battle in the war on science - Maggie Severns - POLITICO - The GOP Congress is ready to attack science agency funding in 2015.

Flawed 1 World Trade Center Is a Cautionary Tale

Activists: ISIS Is Now Launching Attacks From Inside Turkey - The Atlantic - But the country denies that the terrorist group is operating from its side of the border
US-led coalition bombards Isis at Raqqa with up to 30 air strikes | World news | The Guardian - The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted Isis positions in the city of Raqqa as well as the Division 17 air base, which the militants seized earlier this year from government forces.
Inside the Islamic State’s capital: Red Bull-drinking jihadists, hungry civilians, crucifixions and air strikes | World news | The Guardian - Activists tell of the Isis elite living in relative luxury as civilians face poverty, hunger, inflation and power shortages
Egypt court declares ISIS a terror group | News , Middle East | the daily star
Mubarak verdict fuels protests, mockery in Egypt | Reuters

Boko Haram Kano attack: Loss of life on staggering scale - The tension is palpable in Kano, after bombers and gunmen struck killing more than 100 people at the central mosque.

WASHINGTON: Former al Qaida hostage recounts nightmare – of dealing with FBI | National Security & Defense | McClatchy DC - The only thing as bad as being tortured for months as a captive of jihadists in Syria was dealing with the U.S. government afterward, according to one former American hostage. (your government, particularly the security apparatus, is insane)

UK Government Brings In Yet More Counter-Terrorism Measures -- Including Internal Exile | Techdirt - Yes, you read that correctly: the new bill will introduce internal exile for the UK. The parallels between the UK and Soviet Russia become more painfully apparent by the day. (gulag in Scotland)

Abbas accuses U.S. of blocking creation of Palestinian state - Middle East Israel News | Haaretz - PA president 'regrets' U.S. lawmakers' recommendaton to cut aid; also says Egyptian help will be essential for security in future Palestinian state
Politicians roundly condemn attack on bilingual school | The Times of Israel - Justice minister promises punishment for perpetrators of suspected arson incident in Jerusalem Hebrew-Arabic institution Saturday night

Finance Minister's Family Purchase State Assets Behind Closed Doors - The Reykjavik Grapevine - Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson’s family was granted early access to an unadvertised share sale that allowed them to purchase a stake in Landsbankinn asset Borgun, reports Kjarninn. (Iceland still very corrupt)
Ecopop referendum: Swiss reject immigration curbs - Voters in Switzerland have decisively rejected a proposal to cut net immigration to no more than 0.2% of the population.
Hong Kong Protesters Clash With Police for Street Control - Bloomberg - Hundreds of protesters faced off against police officers at key junctions around the offices in the Admiralty district.

UN anti-torture panel urges US to cease indefinite detention without charge - The Committee urged the United States to ensure that no one is held in secret detention under its effective control and take all necessary measures to ensure that their legislative, administrative and other anti-terrorism measures are compatible with the provisions of the Convention.

Russia Arctic Expansion - Business Insider
Large, unauthorized convoy enters east Ukraine from Russia: Ukrainian military - Yahoo News
Hi-tech equipment missing from warship France is building for Russia | World news | The Guardian - Hard drives among material reported missing on day president suspended delivery of the Vladivostok due to Ukraine concerns

German loophole allows BND spy agency to snoop on own people | World news | The Guardian - Intelligence agency can legally intercept calls and emails from Germans working abroad for foreign firms, MPs discover
U.K. police force accidentally admits it spied on journalists - and asked the publication to delete the documents when they realized what they had done. Press Gazette has refused to do so, arguing that “there is a strong public interest in disclosing it.”
Facebook can gain direct access to your mobile and take pictures or make videos at any time, MPs warn - warning that laws will be needed if companies fail to comply.

Justices weigh limits of free speech over Internet


Where Do We Go After Ferguson? - NYTimes.com
No Benefits for Ferguson Police Officer Who Resigned - NYTimes.com
Attorney: Ferguson officer Darren Wilson resigns in wake of fatal shooting of Michael Brown -
Deep South justice in Ferguson - The Washington Post
'Morning Joe' Panel: Michael Brown Was A 'Thug,' Protests Are Based On 'Lies'
Police killing, beating of civilians raise issue of reasonable force - LA Times - Samantha Ramsey, 19, was buried next to her father in Hebron, Ky., after being shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy who said he feared for his life as he tried to stop the car she was driving. A grand jury took one day to review evidence — including the deputy's testimony ... before declaring the shooting justified. (after he jumped on the hood)
Crime law enforcement technology | Homeland Security News Wire - ignificant increase in public requests for video footage under the state’s Public Records Act, which puts no limit on the number of records which may be requested nor requires that the person requesting records have any connection to the information being requested.

Ibuprofen Relieves Women’s Hurt Feelings, Not Men’s | News - People have long been conditioned to believe that hurt feelings and physical injury are separate phenomena. Recent research finds that both kinds of pain activate similar regions of the brain — and that differences in sex reveal opposing ways to mitigate the sting of social pain through over-the-counter pain relievers.
Minocycline supplementation for treatment of negative symptoms in e... - PubMed - NCBI - he addition of minocycline to atypical antipsychotic drugs in early schizophrenia had significant efficacy on negative symptoms but had a slight effect on the attention domains of patients with schizophrenia. It may be considered as a new adjunct treatment for negative symptoms of schizophrenia
Which is faster gravity or light? : askscience
Effect of raw milk on lactose intolerance: a randomized controlled ... - PubMed - NCBI - Raw milk failed to reduce lactose malabsorption or lactose intolerance symptoms compared with pasteurized milk among adults positive for lactose malabsorption. These results do not support widespread anecdotal claims that raw milk reduces the symptoms of lactose intolerance.
Lack of exposure to natural light in the workspace is associated wi... - PubMed - NCBI - Our study demonstrated that not only may light pollution affect human physiology but also lack of exposure to natural light is related to high levels of cortisol and lower levels of melatonin at night, and these, in turn, are related to depressive symptoms and poor quality of sleep.
El Sidron - Neanderthal Site in Spain - Although there are not carnivore tooth marks on the bone, the bones are heavily fragmented and show cutmarks made by stone tools, indicating that they were almost certainly killed and cannibalized ... lead researchers to believe this family was a victim of survival cannibalism by another group ... between 42,000 and 44,000 years ago,
New Class of Polymers Discovered By Accident - Scientific American - Eco-friendly polymers strong enough to use in cars and airplanes

The Downside of Resilience - NYTimes.com - Others are more like dandelions; they prove resilient to the negative effects of adversity, but at the same time do not particularly benefit from positive experiences. In this sense, resilience, long thought to be an exclusively beneficial characteristic, is actually a double-edged sword ... genetics seems to play a role.

A letter to … the girl who accused me of rape when I was 15 | Life and style | The Guardian
From the Gaurdian: A letter to … the girl who accused me of rape when I was 15 : news

What do you think is the best guitar riff of all time? : AskReddit

Fiber fight: Broadening broadband Gig City touted as model in broadband debate | Times Free Press (coulda been Cambridge, but they spent all their money on traffic-calming and removing parking spaces)


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Pollution and Politics - NYTimes.com - Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed regulations to curb emissions of ozone, which causes smog, not to mention asthma, heart disease and premature death. And you know what happened: Republicans went on the attack, claiming that the new rules would impose enormous costs.

Despite Aid Push, Ebola Is Raging in Sierra Leone - NYTimes.com

Conflicting Policies on Syria and Islamic State Erode U.S. Standing in Mideast - NYTimes.com
US launches 15 air strikes against Isis | World news | The Guardian - Series of US military air strikes hit Isis fighting positions and staging areas in Iraq and Syria earlier this week
Inside The Fight Against ISIS In Kobani
Eschaton: We'll Serve Them Lean Cuisine To Make Them Lean And Mean - We'll Serve Them Lean Cuisine To Make Them Lean And Mean - Well this will work for sure: “The idea is, at least in the first instance, to try and build a kind of leaner, meaner Iraqi army,” said a senior U.S. official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning.
U.S. seeks to build lean Iraqi force to fight the Islamic State - The Washington Post (never learn from experience)
Taliban Press Attacks Against Afghan Targets - NYTimes.com - Taliban Press Attacks Against Afghan Targets

Mexico's President Vows To Reform Police In Wake Of Students' Disappearance (that will surely work)
Turning Mexico’s kingpins into cartelitos | Al Jazeera America - Drug trafficking organizations are rapidly splintering, but there?’s no end in sight to the violence

Wasted investment: China's $6.8-trillion hole? | The Economist - HAS CHINA really blown $6.8 trillion on worthless investments over the past five years? (probably not)

Japanese Newspaper Prints Apology for Using the Term ‘Sex Slaves’ - NYTimes.com - , the newspaper said it was “inappropriate” to suggest that the women — of many nationalities and known euphemistically as “comfort women” — had been recruited against their will.
Choosing to Look at 'War Porn' - NYTimes.com - Most of these pictures weren’t published because they are gruesome. They show very horrific things and the publications I worked for decided not to run them.

Oops: After Threatening Hacker With 440 Years, Prosecutors Settle for a Misdemeanor | WIRED - 28-year-old hacker Fidel Salinas faced 44 felony computer fraud and cyberstalking counts just months ago.

Another look at how U.S. workers have been screwed over the past 50 years - the so-called supply side economics popularized during the Reagan administration (aka "trickle-down" economics), wasn't very friendly to production and nonsupervisory employees.
The right’s Black Friday con: Who’s really behind the war on low-wage protests - Salon.com - With activists mobilizing to protest low wages at retail stores this week, corporate toads are seeking payback

Learning from my 2014 mistakes: A year of reckoning for Democrats - Salon.com - No, red state women didn't save the party. But Ebola was a phony GOP-made crisis and Dems shouldn't have cowered - Michelle Nunn lost white women to David Perdue 69-27; Wendy Davis lost them 66-31; Alison Grimes lost them 55-41

Do Online Death Threats Count as Free Speech? - NYTimes.com


Current drug-patent system is bad medicine | Al Jazeera America - The $2.6 billion figure, which will undoubtedly be used to justify high drug prices, led many health care experts and advocates to raise questions about the study’s methodology. Part of the concern stems from the fact that the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, which DiMasi directs, receives funding from the pharmaceutical industry.

The coming wave of anti-abortion laws - Paige Winfield Cunningham - POLITICO - New GOP state legislatures will make access to abortion harder than ever.

Ferguson: what the witnesses said
Dehumanizing Ferguson - The Washington Post - The name Ferguson should become shorthand for dehumanization.
Hullabaloo - The #Ferguson #fail
Lawrence O’Donnell: Why did McCulloch pin so much on unreliable ‘Witness #10'?
Protests in Houston after police shoot unarmed man in wheelchair | US news | The Guardian - He "waved a shiny object in his hand in their direction" and attempted to stab one of the officers, at which point the other officer, Matthew Marin, shot Claunch. The shiny object proved to be a ballpoint pen. (from his wheelchair)

Bill Cosby resigns from fundraising post at alma mater | World news | The Guardian - News that comedian agreed to resign from UMass Amherst comes as university in Tennessee cancelled appearance by the comedian at its annual benefit dinner

Christian ‘branding agency’ seeks $1 million for ‘McMass’ project to put McDonald’s in churches - A design firm committed to using “cutting edge communication technology to empower the 21st century church” started a new project, “McMass,” in which it aims to reinvigorate the flock by opening McDonald’s franchises in churches. (two dying industries) does the McEucharist come with BBQ dipping blood of Jesus sauce?




Saudi Arabia is freaking out about digital drugs | Dazed - Saudi Arabia is taking a typically hard stance on any potential dangers of digital drugs. The country has some of the harshest drug laws in the world, with the sale of narcotics almost always resulting in the death penalty. . Binaural beats have been around in the West for a while, but with mixed reports on whether or not you can catch a legitimate buzz. However, Al-Sharif clearly believes in the strength of digital drugs and is doing everything within his power to prevent his country becoming an addled mess zombified by sound.
The Hypnosis Videos That Promise Sweet Dreams and Hands-Free Orgasms | Motherboard
Yes, You Can Really Make DMT From Tryptophan | Motherboard - "Many psychoactive substances are closely related to amino acids." It's definitely possible to perform this sort of route, then, though Morris adds that it would be plain impractical and unnecessary. Tryptamine is cheap and readily available, for one.
Pharmacology - L-tryptophan to tryptamine to DMT in vivo! - Drugs Forum

The Secret Life of Passwords - NYTimes.com


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Yes, the U.S. can reduce emissions 80% by 2050 — in 6 graphs | Grist
New superconductor-powered wind turbines could hit Australian shores in five years - ScienceAlert - Australian scientists are developing wind turbines that are one-third the price and 1,000 times more efficient than anything currently on the market to install along the country's windy and abundant coast.

Germany Warns Wrecking Russian Economy Would Be Perilous - Bloomberg - Germany wants to avoid wrecking Russia’s economy with sanctions imposed in the conflict over Ukraine, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Dutch move 122 tons of gold out of US

How to Defeat the Islamic State — Medium - When the Bush administration decided to disband Iraq’s mostly Sunni military and then to impose a de facto ban on Sunni Arab participation in the new Iraqi government through de-Baathification, America effectively provided no incentive for Iraq’s Sunnis to participate in the new Iraq. We humiliated them. (reaping what Bush sowed)

Mexico's missing students draw attention to 20,000 'vanished' others | World news | The Guardian - The shocking disappearance of 43 student teachers lifted the lid on the open secret of Mexico’s many others who’ve disappeared amid drug-fuelled violence (another failed war with disasterous consequences)

Veena Malik sentenced to 26 years in jail for blasphemy after appearing in mock TV wedding scene - People - News - The Independent - Her crime? Appearing in a pretend wedding scene, staged on a daytime show broadcast by Geo TV and based on the marriage of the Prophet Mohamed’s daughter.

Panel Details Plan to Give Scotland More Powers - NYTimes.com
Former UKIP deputy: gays sleep with up to 20,000 people | Dazed - Lord Christopher Monckton writes: ‘One wonders how they found time for anything else.’

Siggi "The Hacker" admits guilty to all charges - mbl.is - The case against Siggi "The Hacker" has un­der­gone a sharp turn-around. Siggi has de­cided to change his plea to "Guilty". Charges against him amount to thirty pages of em­bez­zle­ment and fraud amount­ing to thirty mil­lion kro­nas.

Saudis block OPEC output cut, sending oil price plunging | Reuters

How Robert McCulloch Hoodwinked The Ferguson Grand Jury | Crooks and Liars - A shocking deception on the part of the St. Louis County Prosecutor taints the entire Grand Jury verdict.
Ferguson grand jury’s huge mistake: What the transcripts reveal about eyewitness testimony - Salon.com - A look at the investigation transcript illuminates a hugely problematic fact: This testimony cannot be trusted
Unorthodox police procedures emerge in grand jury documents - The Washington Post
Prosecutors grossly mishandled the Darren Wilson investigation - Vox
What do the newly released witness statements tell us about the Michael Brown shooting? | PBS NewsHour (cops and law lie)
Experts Weigh Officer’s Decisions Leading to Fatal Shooting of Michael Brown - NYTimes.com

Ferguson: hundreds arrested in California protests despite relative calm in Missouri | US news | The Guardian - In Los Angeles and Oakland, demonstrators took to the streets for a third night to show solidarity with the family of Michael Brown
Bankers, Immigrants, Darren Wilson and the Injustices of Prosecutorial Discretion by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - All of this is happening against the backdrop of one of the largest and most controversial programs of deliberate non-prosecution in U.S. history: the decision not to pursue criminal sanctions against those in the financial sector who not only violated various laws but wrecked much of the economy and damaged the lives of many millions of people. (Obama had the banksters backs)
Justice Scalia Explains What Was Wrong With The Ferguson Grand Jury | ThinkProgress - . As a consequence, neither in this country nor in England has the suspect under investigation by the grand jury ever been thought to have a right to testify or to have exculpatory evidence presented.
Ferguson’s lawlessness is not a big surprise - The Washington Post - Lawlessness happens when the law breaks down. That sounds like a tautology. It’s not.
Race in America: Ferguson surfaces divisions in views of blacks and whites | Pew Research Center - When asked specifically about confidence in police to not use excessive force on suspects, 36% of whites express a great deal of confidence compared with 18% of blacks
The five leaders who failed Ferguson | US news | The Guardian
Ferguson Grand Jury Testimony Full Of Inconsistencies

Armed and Dangerous · thewalrus.ca - How mission creep is turning our cops into warriors
Wisc. Police Come To Man's Home, Arrest Him For Calling Them Racists On Facebook | Crooks and Liars - A federal lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin man alleges that Arena police violated his civil rights by charging him for calling officers racists on Facebook.
Man Faces Felony Charge Over Aiming Banana At Deputies - He wrote that Love was drawing his service weapon when Channing yelled, "It's a banana!"
Richland Responds to Questions Over Vehicle with Rims - Wilson says a sound system has been added to the car as well as the rims, but he says those things get the attention of children so deputies can teach them about the dangers of drugs and other risky behaviors.

Ohio Could Pass the Country's Most Extreme "Secret Executions" Bill | Mother Jones - A new law could make it almost impossible to know what really happens in the death chamber.

2015 Republican Congress Will Shake Up America's Boring Politics | New Republic - 2. Republicans Are Drunk With Power and Wildly Irresponsible

Krugman's CUNY Salary Doesn't Make Him a Hypocrite on Inequality | New Republic - New York Times op-ed columnist and Princeton economics professor Paul Krugman will receive $250,000 in his first year teaching at the City University of New York (people are stupid)

Drug Maker Gave Large Payments to Doctors With Troubled Track Records - NYTimes.com

Pew Study Makes More Conservative Voters: Ross Douthat Column | New Republic - Pew recently released a study saying that having a daughter makes men more conservative. It followed the release of another Pew study that shows a sister has the same effect on men. Why, you ask? - In short, we are back to sex, and the need to protect women from it
Tennessee university cancels Bill Cosby appearance | World news | The Guardian - Freed-Hardeman University decision comes as numerous dates on Cosby’s tour have been cancelled despite refutations by the comedian’s lawyer

The Teen Brain “Shuts Down” When It Hears Mom’s Criticism | WIRED - in response to maternal criticism: “youth shut down social processing [and] possibly do not think about their parents’ mental states.” They add: “… the decrement in brain activity in regions involved in mentalizing or perspective taking could help to explain the high frequency of maladaptive conflict resolution in parent-adolescent dyads.”

DNA survives critical entry into Earth's atmosphere -- ScienceDaily - The genetic material DNA can survive a flight through space and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere -- and still pass on genetic information. Scientists obtained these astonishing results during an experiment on the TEXUS-49 research rocket mission.
Light is generally described as having a sinusoidal waveform. Is it possible to have light as other waveforms, such as a square wave, saw-tooth wave or triangle wave? If so, how differently would such light behave in relation to "classic" sinusoidal light? : askscience

The Identity Crisis Under the Ink - The Atlantic (you are your tattoo)
God's Lonely Programmer | Motherboard

BBC - Future - :-o: The surprising power of emoticons

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Under Pressure, Obama Administration Seeks Tighter Ozone Standards

Angela Merkel uses strongest language yet about Putin - German chancellor signals she is ready for long confrontation over Ukraine

Israeli president opposes proposed law to give ‘national rights’ to Jews only | World news | The Guardian - Critics say ‘Jewish nation-state’ bill would diminish freedoms of minorities and give ammunition to enemies abroad
Herzog: Netanyahu focusing on 'Jewish state bill' because he can't lower housing prices - "You talk more and more and more about nationality in order to avoid addressing the inability of the public to afford buying a house."
ISIS says its flag will wave over Jerusalem, even if the Jews don't like it - "While the eyes of the world were all blinded and spellbound by the sorcerous media 'covering' the battle for ‘Ayn al-Islam (Kobani), the eyes of the Islamic State were scanning East and West, preparing for the expansion that – by Allah’s permission – would put an end to the Jewish State, Al Salul, and the rest of the apostate tawaghit, the allies of the cross," the article says.

'Kidnapped boy may have been abused and murdered by VIP paedophile ring,' say police - The Independent

Schneier on Security: FBI Agents Pose as Repairmen to Bypass Warrant Process

John Cook Leaving The Intercept To Return To Gawker (the unraveling of Pierre's dream)
Talking to James Risen About Pay Any Price, the War on Terror and Press Freedoms - The Intercept - To me it was wild to hear all of these people inside the intelligence community, especially in 2003, 2004, who were just going nuts. They couldn’t believe the radical change the United States was going through, and that nobody was opposed to it (then Obama came along to cement it)

Hong Kong Riot Police Clear Protest Site, Arrest Student Leaders

Obamacare Sign-Ups Near 500,000 After First Week

What's Next for the Democrats? - The Atlantic - The party is still trying to cope with this month's brutal electoral losses.

U.S. judges overturn gay marriage bans in Arkansas, Mississippi | Reuters

The Long Autumn Of John McCain - Esquire

"Down Outright Murder": A Complete Guide to the Shooting of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson - The Intercept
Officer Darren Wilson's story is unbelievable. Literally. - Vox - Every bullshit detector in me went off when I read that passage. Which doesn't mean that it didn't happen exactly the way Wilson describes
‘Fanciful and not credible’: CNN legal analyst destroys Darren Wilson’s testimony - “Their questions were all softballs, he wasn’t challenged, he wasn’t pressed,” she continued. “It was just unbelievable to me the way they treated him in front of that grand jury.”
Michael Brown spent his last day with his friend Dorian Johnson. Here's what Johnson saw. - Vox
The Meaning of the Ferguson Riots - NYTimes.com
The National Bar Association is questioning how the Grand Jury, considering the evidence before them, could reach the conclusion that Darren Wilson should not be indicted and tried for the shooting death of Michael Brown
Allegations Of Police Misconduct Rarely Result In Charges | FiveThirtyEight (law is above the law)
Unorthodox police procedures emerge in grand jury documents - The Washington Post - When Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson left the scene of the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, the officer returned to the police station unescorted, washed blood off his hands and placed his recently fired pistol into an evidence bag himself.
The Case for Police Reform Is Much Bigger Than Michael Brown - The Atlantic - There are clearer, more persuasive illustrations of law-enforcement misbehavior and the need to rein it in.
Ferguson Grand Jury Evidence Reveals Mistakes, Holes In Investigation
What Ferguson Means: The View From Abroad - “Officers in Ferguson are also not alone in shooting unarmed black men,” the Economist writes, looking at similar cases across the U.S. “Systemic racism is still a problem, and so-called ‘justifiable homicides” are on the rise,’ the magazine reports.
Why does Ferguson still look like Iraq? Congress can stop the military police | Rep Hank Johnson | Comment is free | The Guardian
Ferguson violence broke the mold in three ways — one of which is just unfolding now - The Washington Post
'They're Murdering Our Kids And Getting Away With It'
Tamir Rice Video Shows Cop Opening Fire On 12-Year-Old

Ex-CBC Host Jian Ghomeshi Charged With Sexual Assault - Former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi has been charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of "overcome resistance -- choking,"
We Let Bill Cosby Into Our Homes, So He Owes Us an Explanation - America's once-favorite TV dad needs to take his own advice.

Jorge Ramos Delivers Riveting Acceptance Speech At CPJ Press Freedom Awards: 'We Have To Take A Stand' - "The best of journalism happens when we take a stand: when we question those who are in power, when we confront the politicians who abuse their authority, when we denounce an injustice,"

The real JFK mystery, 50 years later: Why the infamous murder must be reinvestigated - Salon.com - On the 50th anniversary, so many questions remain. Here's why every piece of evidence must be viewed in a new light (your dark state)

Echidne Of The Snakes: Uber. On "New" Alternatives To Traditional Worker-Employer Arrangements - Its main task is to match buyers of driving services with the sellers of driving services, and that sounds more like a market than a firm, though the Uber app itself is also a form of capital which belongs to the firm. (sold your soul to the company store and they made an app for it)
Uber Said to Be Raising Funds at $40 Billion Valuation - Bloomberg

HBO to make film of Scientology book, hires 160 lawyers - CNN.com - Among Tinseltown's famous Scientologists are John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

12 board games to make you a better person | Technology | The Guardian

'Serial' Is Renewed For Season 2
Prince quits the internet | Music | The Guardian - Prince has had an inconsistent relationship with the online realm. “The internet is completely over,” he declared in 2010, and once threatened to sue eBay, YouTube and torrent sites for illegally distributing his music.

Girls of Reddit, what are signs that you give off to let a guy know that you're interested? : AskReddit
Male Redditors: What hints have girls given you that flew over your head and you now deeply regret? What's your worst "Oh, she wasn't actually inviting me over for coffee at 2am" moment? : AskReddit
Today I wrote a really nice 7 : oddlysatisfying

Why You Shouldn't Trust Your Cat - The Atlantic - Unlike dogs, cats are at best semi-domesticated—and we love them for that.

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Dangerous Levels of Global Warming are Unavoidable, Says the World Bank | VICE News - A two degree increase could wipe out 90 percent of coral reefs, devastating coastal ecosystems and the economies and fisheries that depend on them. (developing countries already screwed)
Wednesday’s East Coast winter storm shaping up to be a travel nightmare — timing and impacts - The Washington Post (travelpocalypse)
House Republicans just passed a bill forbidding scientists from advising the EPA on their own research - Salon.com - The "reform" measure makes room for industry-funded experts on the EPA's advisory board
Do Democrats and Republicans actually experience the weather differently? - The Washington Post (Republicans have cold hearts, duh)

Feeling — Not Being — Wealthy Drives Opposition to Wealth Redistribution - Association for Psychological Science - People’s views on income inequality and wealth distribution may have little to do with how much money they have in the bank and a lot to do with how wealthy they feel in comparison to their friends and neighbors, according to new findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The strange case of the air marshal who was stabbed by a needle during the Ebola outbreak - The Washington Post - Someone jabbed him with a needle in an airport in Nigeria. Was it the beginning of a new type of terrorism?

Kremlin Whistle-Blower: 'Putin Has No Option But To Stay In Power'

Benghazi: A Poster Child for Covert Ops Blowback | emptywheel - The short version, however, is that the report reveals (but does not dwell on) a number of failures on the part of the CIA that should raise real concerns about Syria.

Afghan woman kills 25 Taliban rebels to avenge her son’s murder - Khaama Press (KP) | Afghan News Agency - Sediq Sediq, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said the armed campaign by women against the Taliban militants is a symbol of a major revolution and public uprising against the group.

Blazing the terrorism trail: The US war industry | Middle East Eye - New York Times investigative reporter, James Risen, has released his latest investigation into the hidden costs of the war on terror: Pay Any Price (bottom line: Obama loves war and assassinations which makes people hate us but is enormuosly profitable for his military/corporate pals)

Secret Malware in European Union Attack Linked to U.S. and British Intelligence - The Intercept

Following Taibbi's Departure, eBay Founder Shutters Planned Site - Following a month of turmoil and uncertainty, First Look Media announced Tuesday that it's pulling the plug on a project that was originally going to be led by the journalist Matt Taibbi.
First Look Media Shuts Down 'Racket,' Matt Taibbi's Satirical Project
The Inside Story Of Matt Taibbi's Departure From First Look Media - The Intercept

David Roberts explains postmodern conservatism in 36 tweets | Grist (the conservative mind and its problem with reality)

Schumer: Democrats ‘blew’ opportunity by focusing on ‘wrong problem’ — health care - The Washington Post - Democrats hurt themselves politically by not focusing instead on policies aimed at helping a "broader swath" of middle-class Americans.
Republicans love this new health care plan. Too bad it's basically a tax cut for the rich. - The Week - True to form, conservatives are praising a policy proposal that will deprive millions of Americans of insurance
Washington Post's Glenn Kessler Stands By Discredited Immigration Fact Check | Blog | Media Matters for America - Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler is standing by his blog claiming that the White House had erred in citing President George H.W. Bush's immigration data -- despite evidence discrediting his conclusions. (fact-fucker)

Chuck Hagel: Muddle Accomplished | New Republic - nd after all of that, the impression I got of him, as a person or as a leader, might be summarized as “smudgey.” Looking back on it, there was a pall of futility, maybe even mismatch, that hung over those two weeks, as Hagel, the stage to himself, failed to project any kind of personal force.

Ferguson Grand Jury Faced Mass of Evidence in Decision, Much of It Conflicting - NYTimes.com
Darren Wilson was never going to be indicted for killing Michael Brown: Our courts don’t hold police accountable for using deadly force. - Why Darren Wilson was never going to be indicted for killing Michael Brown.
Ferguson ruling: the key documents from the grand jury's report | US news | The Guardian - After the decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson over the death of Michael Brown, the St Louis County prosecutor released 76 documents related to the case, including a transcript of Wilson’s own police interview the day after the shooting
Ferguson Grand Jury: No Indictment for Darren Wilson in Brown's Death | New Republic - The Ferguson grand jury's decision not to indict was no surprise. "A grand jury will indict a ham sandwich," the saying goes, but that never applied to police
Legal Experts Explain Why The Ferguson Grand Jury Was Set Up For Failure | ThinkProgress
PHOTOS: Ferguson on fire - The Washington Post
We should get rid of local policing. Ferguson shows why the system just doesn’t work. - The Washington Post - The old, fragmented approach to law enforcement doesn’t work.
Witness: Michael Brown Said 'I Give Up' Before Being Shot - When he reached a nearby telephone pole, Brown stopped running. "And that's when his arms went up and he turnt around, and he was walkin' back towards the police," she says. "But ... I heard him say, 'I give up.' I know I heard him say that ... 'I give up.'" (so the cop shot him 10 more times)
Michael Brown Family Attorneys Address Prosecutors' Failings - "a first-year law student would have done a better job" than the prosecutor's office of cross-examining Wilson. Crump also characterized the prosecution as having "a symbiotic relationship with the local police."
Ferguson Smolders After Night Of Fires, Unrest Following Grand Jury Decision
Ferguson Police: 61 Arrested Following Grand Jury's Decision
Thousands Protest Nationwide After Ferguson Grand Jury Decision
Darren Wilson Testimony: Michael Brown Looked Like 'A Demon' - Wilson himself is nearly 6 feet, 4 inches and weighs 210 pounds,
Michael Brown Shooting Witness Admitted Racism In Journal Entry
How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty - The Washington Post - By Radley Balko
Witness #40 » Balloon Juice - The oddest thing I’ve seen so far is the account of Witness #40, who just happened to set out on a journey of racial self-discovery on the very morning of August 9, 2014, the day Mike Brown was killed.
Don Lemon Sparks Outrage With Marijuana Comment In Ferguson - And then he said: "Obviously, there is the smell of marijuana in the air."
KKK Leader Meets With Anonymous After Group Hijacks Twitter Account (VIDEO) - Anonymous hacked the account @KuKluxKlanUSA, initiating what it called #OpKKK, after the state KKK chapter sent out fliers threatening "lethal force" against protestors in Ferguson, Mo. - Meanwhile, another Anonymous account, under the hashtag #HoodsOff, began to publish what it claimed were the identities of KKK members in Missouri.

Cleveland police: Video of officer shooting boy is 'clear' | US news | The Guardian - A Cleveland officer was less than 10 feet away when he fatally shot a 12-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun near a playground, and video of the shooting is clear about what happened, police said on Monday.

The Bill Cosby sexual abuse claims – accusation by accusation | World news | The Guardian - A total of 17 women have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of the popular comedian – allegations that Cosby denies
A Timeline Of How Women's Allegations Against Bill Cosby Have Unfolded


Karen Armstrong on Sam Harris and Bill Maher: “It fills me with despair, because this is the sort of talk that led to the concentration camps” - Salon.com - . Blaming religion, Armstrong argues, allows Westerners to ignore the essential role that violence has played in the formation of our own societies — and the essential role that our societies have played in seeding violence abroad.

Complex life may be possible in only 10% of all galaxies | Science/AAAS | News - Of the estimated 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, only one in 10 can support complex life like that on Earth, a pair of astrophysicists argues. Everywhere else, stellar explosions known as gamma ray bursts would regularly wipe out any life forms more elaborate than microbes
Stunning New Photo Of Europa Shows Jupiter's Icy Moon Just As The Human Eye Would See It
Without self-referencing, is it possible to explain why 1+1=2? : askscience
Homosexuality may help us bond | UoP News - Homosexual behaviour may have evolved to promote social bonding in humans, according to new research. - The hormone progesterone is known to contribute to the formation of social bonds, which have many adaptive benefits for humans
Homosexual behaviour may have evolved to promote social bonding in humans, according to new research. The results of a preliminary study provide the first evidence that our need to bond with others increases our openness to engaging in homosexual behaviour. : science

Reza Aslan: Sam Harris and “New Atheists” aren’t new, aren’t even atheists - Salon.com - In fact, not only is the New Atheism not representative of atheism. It isn’t even mere atheism (and it certainly is not “new”). What Harris, Dawkins and their ilk are preaching is a polemic that has been around since the 18th century – one properly termed, anti-theism. (jihadi atheism)
Right-wing atheism dismantled - Glenn Greenwald has a great long piece tearing Sam Harris’s ideas apart. It was so satisfying to see my own opinions reflected with such clarity and reason — I have to agree with it all. Read it. It is a thing of beauty. (PZ & commenters ignorant of Saudi, let alone Israeli involvment in 9/11)

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Climate Change Threatens to Strip the Identity of Glacier National Park - NYTimes.com
Cuomo abstains from global warming 'debate' | Capital New York - It is itself something of a stance for Cuomo to cite the "political debate" over the causes of warming even though most climatologists say the science is clear and that the rise in the planet's temperature and extreme weather patterns are the result of human activity. (what is wrong with him?)
A big reason climate change isn’t a priority: The apocalypse - The Washington Post
Where Oil and Politics Mix - NYTimes.com - After an unusual land deal, a giant spill and a tanker-train explosion, anxiety began to ripple across the North Dakota prairie.

US air strikes in Syria driving anti-Assad groups to support Isis | World news | The Guardian - Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and several Islamic military groups say Isis is gaining allies or truces due to US bombings
The Syrian War is a Sectarian Conflict by Martin Longman | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - I kind of doubt that Jim Webb will be Hillary Clinton’s “worst nightmare,” but his admonition that our nation should “never get involved in a five-sided argument” is looking more and more sound in Syria.

Corrupt Chinese general: It took 12 trucks to haul away all the cash he hid in his home.

HRW calls on Indonesia to scrap 'virginity tests' for female police | Asia | DW.DE | 24.11.2014 - Human Rights Watch has condemned Indonesia's use of "virginity tests" to filter female police applicants. The group's Andreas Harsono says some officials claim they want to get rid of "prostitutes" among the applicants.

41 men targeted but 1,147 people killed: US drone strikes – the facts on the ground | US news | The Guardian - New analysis of data conducted by human rights group Reprieve shared with the Guardian, raises questions about accuracy of intelligence guiding ‘precise’ strikes (but Obama said he never killed any civilians?)
Highest-value terror detainees excluded from Senate investigation of CIA torture | Law | The Guardian - our suspected al-Qaida members not interviewed received brutal treatment - US denied Polish investigators access to two of the detainees this summer (when will Barry face the World Court?)
Obama Administration Preaches 'Human Dignity' While Covering Up Torture - By Thursday, negotiations over the report had broken down into chaos. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) openly accused Obama officials of negotiating in bad faith: “It’s being slow-walked to death. They’re doing everything they can not to release it," Rockefeller told HuffPost last week.

UK, US behind Regin malware, attacked European Union networks | ZDNet - Two governments working together are said to have developed the state-sponsored malware that attacked the European Union. Guess what? One of the makers was an EU country.

Nuclear Deal Again Eludes U.S. and Iran - NYTimes.com

Hagel Resigns Under Pressure as Global Crises Test Pentagon - NYTimes.com
With Chuck Hagel’s departure, Obama is turning into George W. Bush - The Washington Post - In a cruel echo of history, Obama is morphing into the president whose foreign policy he campaigned to overturn. Obama on Monday morning sacked his Pentagon secretary, Chuck Hagel, after huge midterm election losses in the sixth year of his presidency — just as Bush did in sacking Donald Rumsfeld after midterm losses in the sixth year of his presidency. (they aren't the same, Dana)
Eschaton: Hagel's Out - And it seems like the administration is really pissing on him as he goes out the door. Weird.
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community - If I remember correctly, the Obama administration waited about seven nanoseconds after the 2012 exit polls were released on Election Day to announce the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus. Once they knew they had won, they threw Petraeus under the bus immediately. Now, with no more election days to worry about, the administration was only modestly more deliberative in cashiering Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. They also made sure to shovel plenty of dirt on top of him while they were at it. (Hagel was right, Obama was wrong, so Hagel must go)
Chuck Hagel forced to step down as US defense secretary | US news | The Guardian - Obama confirms defense secretary’s departure and pays tribute to Hagel’s work in awkward ceremony at the White House
Obama's new leader at the Pentagon will mean more war – not less | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - Chuck Hagel is out, and no matter who replaces him, we know this much about the state of Obama’s administration: it’s still addicted to secret war
The Defenestration Of Chuck Hagel - Esquire - There is evidence that the reservoir may be at a very low level these days, judging by the way that the always-reliable, and nearly always-anonymous, Senior Administration Officials chose to dump their chamber pots on Chuck Hagel's head as he left the Pentagon on Monday, his last day as Secretary of Defense.

Uruguay president Jose Mujica apologises for calling Mexico a 'failed state' | World news | The Guardian - Earlier said disappearance of 43 students suggests authorities have lost control; Mexico ‘categorically’ rejected comments and demanded explanation from Uruguayan ambassador (truth hurts)
Teeth and Bones: Law Enforcement's Weakest Link - spiegel online (one might say, "failed")

Recep Tayyip Erdogan: ‘women not equal to men’ | World news | The Guardian - Turkish president also accuses feminists of not understanding special status attributed to mothers by Islam ... adding that manual work was unsuitable for the “delicate nature” of women.

'Mumbai is on the verge of imploding' | Cities | The Guardian - Residents of this overburdened and polluted megacity are held hostage by a politician-builder nexus that allows rampant ‘development’ to fuel its descent into urban hell

Grand Jury Does Not Charge Darren Wilson in Ferguson Case - NYTimes.com - Grand Jury Does Not Charge Darren Wilson in Ferguson Case (shot 12 times "resisting arrest")
Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson Not Indicted In Michael Brown Shooting
It’s Incredibly Rare For A Grand Jury To Do What Ferguson’s Just Did | FiveThirtyEight - U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases in 2010, the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.
No indictment in Ferguson case : news
Live Updates: Governor Urges Calm as Grand Jury Announces Decision in the Michael Brown Shooting in Ferguson - NYTimes.com
What else are we waiting for the Ferguson grand jury to tell us? | US news | The Guardian - Prosecutor asks judge to release a slew of evidence if Darren Wilson is not charged – which may offer resolutions to some of the cases’s biggest mysteries
Police: Woman Saying She's 'Ready For Ferguson' Shoots, Kills Self By Accident
Why It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop | The Nation - It’s not just Ferguson—here’s how the system protects police.

Killings by Utah police outpacing gang, drug, child-abuse homicides | The Salt Lake Tribune - Over a five-year period, data show that fatal shootings by police officers in Utah ranked second only to homicides of intimate partners.
Teaching our sons to be afraid is not the answer to cops who shoot children | Latoya Peterson | Comment is free | The Guardian - Tamir Rice’s mother will have to bury her 12-year-old son. Do I have to tell my son to accept being treated as less than human to preserve his life?

Supreme Court case tests the limits of free speech on Facebook and other social media - The Washington Post - The issue is whether Elonis should be prosecuted for what he says was simply blowing off steam — “therapeutic efforts to address traumatic events,” as his brief to the court says — because what matters is not his intent but whether any reasonable person targeted in the rants would regard them as menacing warnings.

The Gospel of Rudy Giuliani - The Atlantic - Why is no one talking about American-on-American crime? It's almost as if killers tend to murder people who live near them. Moreover, it seems that people actually hold officers operating under the color of law to a different standard. This is an incredible set of insights ...

18 Moments That Led To Bill Cosby's Stunning Downfall - “Basically nobody wanted to live in a world where Bill Cosby was a sexual predator. It was too much to handle.”
Bill Cosby show in Washington state cancelled amid sex assault claims | World news | The Guardian - anuary show in Connecticut also postponed indefinitely - Embattled comedian still has 30 performances scheduled
The Wrap's Stunningly Stupid Op-Ed Was Called 'The Rape of Bill Cosby'
Cosby Today: Ex-NBC Employee Says He Helped Cosby Pay Women Off - Celebrity news - Boston.com - · The interview with Scotti also revealed an alleged arrangement between Cosby and a Manhattan modeling agency, whereby the agency’s owner would deliver models, some “as young as 16,” to Cosby’s dressing room. Scotti claimed Cosby would pick a model to be brought to his dressing room, dismiss the agency’s owner and the other models, and then ask Scotti to “stand outside the door and don’t let anyone in.”
Bill Cosby accuser wants himto admit to sex assaults - NY Daily News - . ‘He must apologize. He has not accepted one single thing,’ Moritz told the Daily News on Monday. She contends the comedian assaulted her before a 1971 appearance on ‘The Tonight Show.’
Calling Out Bill Cosby’s Media Enablers, Including Myself - NYTimes.com - David Carr
Bill Cosby Asks for Memes; Twitter Focus on Rape -- Vulture

University’s Image Suffers After Campus Rape Report - NYTimes.com - after a reported frat house gang rape rocked the university’s vaunted reputation and genteel self-image, and unleashed complaints that it had mishandled and concealed sexual assaults for years.

Men by Laura Kipnis review – witty dispatch from the frontline of sexual politics | Books | The Guardian - From Gropers to Men Who Hate Hillary, in a series of essays Kipnis explores a diverse array of males with humour, insight and a contrarian’s point of view
Jennifer Gable, Transgender Woman, Presented As Man At Her Funeral - Additionally, the late Gable's family cut her hair short and presented her wearing a suit and her obituary reportedly skipped the decade of her life she spent transitioning to live authentically as Jennifer.

Hero Dads Who Are Heroes Cook Dinner Sometimes Like Total F*cking Heroes | Wonkette - Working dads who cook! It’s a growing trend — because there are a least three of them — and they’re a little tired of being taken for granted, what with the New York Times failing to write about their heroic measures every single day.

Protein that rouses the brain from sleep may be target for Alzheimer's prevention : News : Daily News Now - The new research, in mice, demonstrates that eliminating that protein - called orexin - made mice sleep for longer periods of time and strongly slowed the production of brain plaques.
Misunderstood Medicine: 'I feel like a normal boy' | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Breaking News - Portland, Oregon - "Oil infused with CBD, medical marijuana," she said as she held a jar of medical cannabis pills from TJ's Organic Gardens, a Eugene-based medical marijuana farm with indoor operations in Oregon and Washington.

White Suburbs Are More and More a Thing of the Past | New Republic - The new racial dynamics of the American dream, in three eye-opening graphics

Marshmallows On Sweet Potatoes? Thanksgiving's Traditions Exposed : NPR
Bringing Sous Vide to the Home Cook - NYTimes.com - My favorite of the new crop is the Anova Precision Cooker,

‘Serial,’ Podcasting’s First Breakout Hit, Sets Stage for More - NYTimes.com
Sony Comes To A Screeching Halt Targeted By Massive Ransomware Hack - The source, according to the website, is an ex-employee of Sony Pictures who has a friend that still works for the company. According to the source’s friend, allegedly, every computer in Sony’s New York Office, and every Sony Pictures’ office across the nation, bears an image from the hacker with the headline “Hacked By #GOP” which is then followed by a warning.

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More on Christie's Ditched Ebola Policy - But not before finding an abandoned psychiatric hospital, Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital, in Hunterdon Country where asymptomatic health care workers returning from West Africa would be confined - and not before racking up 500 hours of police overtime hours to guard the abandoned facility even though no one was there.

Iraqi forces say retake two towns from Islamic State | Reuters - Iraqi forces said on Sunday they retook two towns north of Baghdad from Islamic State fighters, driving them from strongholds they had held for months and clearing a main road from the capital to Iran.
What's Wrong With This Picture? For U.S. Fight Against ISIS, Everything - In a surreal turn of events for two countries that have not had diplomatic relations since 1979, the U.S. and Iran are seeing their interests align: Both support the central Iraqi government and the Kurds in the north, and both hope to eradicate ISIS.

Afghan Officials Say Suicide Bomber Kills 'At Least 45' At Volleyball Tournament
Kenya bus attack survivor tells how gunmen selected their victims | World news | The Guardian - Al-Shabaab extremists singled out and killed 28 passengers who could not recite Islamic creed, Kenyan police say

MH17: Dutch complete recovery of Malaysia Airlines wreckage in eastern Ukraine - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - Dutch experts have completed the recovery of wreckage from the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine.

Iran nuclear deal by deadline 'impossible' say negotiating team | World news | The Guardian - Unnamed member of Tehran’s negotiating team says final and comprehensive deal will not be reached by November 24, Iranian news agency reports
Israel Hayom | Iran: We gave Hezbollah missiles that can reach southern Israel - Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force Brig. Gen. Seyed Majid Moussavi says the Iranian goal is to provide "Hezbollah and Hamas with advanced, modern weapons in order to allow the resistance groups to deal with the bloodthirsty Zionist regime."

The Failed NSA Reform Bill Was a Sham Anyway - "Data handshakes," call records, and the NSA's back door into telecom companies reveal that the Senate's plan to protect Americans' privacy would have done no such thing. (well, DiFi was involved) w
The FBI’s Dangerous Misrepresentation of Encryption Law - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society - The FBI no more deserves a direct line to your data than it deserves to intercept your mail at the post office. But it doesn’t want you to know that.

Fired Nuke Commander Linked To Counterfeit Poker Chips - WASHINGTON (AP) — The admiral fired last year as No. 2 commander of U.S. nuclear forces may have made his own counterfeit $500 poker chips with paint and stickers to feed a gambling habit that eventually saw him banned from an entire network of casinos, according to a criminal investigative report obtained by The Associated Press.

We Don’t Learn From Our Mistakes by Martin Longman | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - . I know that 9/11 was a hell of a provocation and that it made us scared and crazy, but we did not rise to the occasion. We made a momentous decision without any thought and we just keep paying and paying and paying for it.


Tamara Green on Cosby assault: 'He was like a spider, sitting there waiting' | World news | The Guardian (comment)
Bill Cosby Controversy: A Decade In The Making
Bill Cosby Defends Silence Amid Sex Scandal: “People Shouldn’t Answer To Innuendos” : television
Women charged with false rape accusations at Keene State College : news

Former leader of 'gay cure' group marries male partner Larry McQueen | Metro News - The former head of a group that claimed it could stop people being attracted to those of the same sex has married his male partner.

ELI5: How did adding "Le-" or "De-" to the beginning of a more traditional name become prominent in Black American culture? : explainlikeimfive
Woman dies after metal detector causes pacemaker to malfunction : news

St. Louis County Police Violate Court Order By Arresting Journalist Standing on Sidewalk - Reason.com - And nobody seems to be in charge as grand jury decision looms
Baltimore residents demand tougher laws on police officers at hearing - Baltimore Sun - "Litigation in some ways is the only way to weed out bad officers," attorney Dwight Pettit, who has sued dozens of officers in 40 years, told the panel of lawmakers. "That $200,000 limit isn't enough incentive to make them stop the behavior."

How to Nail Your Enemies: Ancient Egyptian Spells Deciphered - NBC News.com - The opening of the codex refers to a divine figure named "Baktiotha" whose identity is a mystery, researchers say. The lines read, "I give thanks to you and I call upon you, the Baktiotha: The great one, who is very trustworthy; the one who is lord over the forty and the nine kinds of serpents," according to the translation.
Spice up your memory, Monash University - Adding just one gram of turmeric to breakfast could help improve the memory of people who are in the very early stages of diabetes and at risk of cognitive impairment.
LSD, de-patterning, and death: Terminally ill patients reenvision the end after psychedelic therapy - PsyPost - The double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial of twelve participants found that LSD-assisted psychotherapy can generate lasting psychological benefits in patients with a life-threatening illness ... “Dying is as usual or unusual as life itself. You cannot separate it"

Malware’s new target: your password manager’s password | Ars Technica - Citadel trojan attempts to grab your master key.
Computer spying malware uncovered with 'stealth' features - Symantec - Yahoo News UK - The Mountain View, California-based maker of Norton antivirus products said its research showed that a "nation state" was likely the developer of the malware called Regin, or Backdoor.Regin, but Symantec did not identify any countries or victims.
Non-Profit Wants To Make Encrypting Web Traffic Easy And Free | Popular Science - But shouldn't secure browsing be the rule, rather than the exception? A project called Let's Encrypt wants to encourage just that, starting in mid-2015.

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Somalia's Al-Shabab Says It Killed 28 In Kenya (distributed hordes)
Obama Quietly Broadens Mission In Afghanistan - President Barack Obama has quietly approved guidelines in recent weeks to allow the Pentagon to target Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, broadening previous plans that had limited the military to counterterrorism missions against al-Qaida after this year, U.S. officials said late Friday. (because the Taliban were taking over the country again, sound familiar?)

The Disappearance Of 43 Mexican Students Is An Atrocity. But It's No Isolated Incident (part of the terrible cost of Conservatives' War on Drugs)
Top local cop arrested in 43 students' disappearance - CNN.com - Investigators apprehended Cesar Nava Gonzalez, the former deputy director of the Cocula police department who had been on the run since the September disappearance of the students, the federal prosecutor's office said.

Flash - Germany to drop probe into US spying on Merkel: report - France 24 - due to a lack of evidence, magazine Focus said Saturday. (NSA wouldn't give them the evidence)

Media ‘gagged over bid to report MP child sex cases’ | Society | The Guardian - The security services are facing questions over the cover-up of a Westminster paedophile ring as it emerged that files relating to official requests for media blackouts in the early 1980s were destroyed. (National Security for the riches and powerfuls)
UK Security Enforced Media Blackout of Government Child Abuse | News | teleSUR - Two publishing executives were prevented from printing damning details enclosed in a dossier on the child sex abuse scandal.
Vatican arrests former ambassador on child sex abuse charges | World news | The Guardian - The Polish-born cleric was recalled from the Dominican Republic in August 2013 after the archbishop of Santo Domingo told Pope Francis about rumours that Wesolowski had sexually abused teenage boys in the Caribbean country. Prosecutors there say he allegedly paid boys as young as 13 to masturbate.

Anonymous on Twitter: "FCC Commissioner @MClyburnFCC did entire redditAMA without giving any meaningful answers. reddit reacted predictably https://t.co/1gi3ihRcZr" (bureaucratic babble-speak)

Want to know just how much Obama overreached on executive power? Wait for America's next 'king' | Scott Lemieux | Comment is free | The Guardian - The president’s actions on immigration are perfectly legal – probably. And he’s setting precedents for a conservative – definitely (well, there you go)
Here Are Those Immigration Riots Tom Coburn Warned Us About
G.O.P. Accuses Obama of Treating Immigrants Like Humans
On immigration, a tale of two presidents - CNN.com (good mash-up of Bushbama)

On Keystone and the N.S.A., Hillary Clinton Remains Quiet (the nothing candidate)

House Intelligence Committee's Benghazi Report Torches Conspiracy Theories - But perhaps the most significant conclusion is its finding that Rice's talking points -- a key focus of the Benghazi Select Committee empaneled by House Speaker John Boehner -- were not part of an attempt to conceal the severity of the incident.

Understanding the Threat of a Confederate Insurgency by Nancy LeTourneau | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Rev. William Barber captured the moment we are living in by talking about a Third Reconstruction. - Change to our “social order” is coming, whether we like it or not. The traditions, economics, religion that mask our entitlement are being stripped away and the hate is becoming more perceptible. As a result, the confederate insurgency is threatening to explode.
Not a Tea Party, a Confederate Party | The Weekly Sift - So Lincoln and Grant may have had their mission-accomplished moment, but ultimately the Confederates won. The real Civil War — the one that stretched from 1861 to 1877 — was the first war the United States lost (really, must read)

Indianapolis Star Alters Racist Thanksgiving Cartoon, Then Deletes It And Apologizes

Judge Issues Court Orders To Uphold Right To Record Police In Ferguson (they never got the thousand memos)

Bill Cosby’s legacy, recast: Accusers speak in detail about sexual-assault allegations - The Washington Post - Sixteen women have publicly stated that Cosby, now 77, sexually assaulted them, with 12 saying he drugged them first and another saying he tried to drug her.
Timeline: Bill Cosby's life - Washington Post
Carla Ferrigno, Angela Leslie And Louisa Moritz Come Forward With Allegations Against Bill Cosby - I thought that odd, how would he know that? I always thought it was odd that after I had this drink I would end up in my bed the next morning and I wouldn’t remember anything.” (comment section enters a new phase: reputation-management sock-puppets get buried in derision, see Lily Aijala)
Bill Cosby -- New Allegation ... He Slipped Me A Quaalude and I Woke Up with His Friend | TMZ.com - She says although she never saw Bill drink or do drugs, he often had "a drawer full of drugs," including Quaaludes, in his hotel room. She says women were frequently around Bill and would often take the drug knowingly and voluntarily. She also says men partied with the drugs as well.
Rosemary Williams Of 'My Five Wives' Says Father Sexually Abused Her - A woman featured in a reality TV show about a polygamous family is going public about sex abuse she claims she suffered as a child in hopes of changing a culture of secrecy plaguing plural families in Utah.
OA
Americans could save a fortune this winter — if they only understood their thermostats - The Washington Post - only about 30 percent of homes actually have thermostats that can be programmed ... just 47 percent of programmable thermostats were actually in the "program" mode -- in which, you know, they can actually be programmed.

'I felt as if I had become fear itself': life after a stroke at 34 | Society | The Guardian
Behind the scenes of a 'shocking' new study on human altruism | Molly Crockett | Science | The Guardian - A recent study suggests most people would rather harm themselves than a stranger for profit. Lead author Molly Crockett takes us behind the scenes of the research
Lost languages leave traces on the brain | Ars Technica - Babies' brains adjust to listening to a language, even if they never learn it.

ESPN Suspends Keith Law From Twitter For Defending Evolution [UPDATE] (Curt Schilling doesn't believe in science)

Startup bros trying to bio-hack vaginas is the problem with Silicon Valley | Arwa Mahdawi | Comment is free | The Guardian - When a man introduces a project to make lady-parts smell like peaches, it’s no surprise that the funders are largely straight, white men - She used Cambrian’s technology to print a virus to kills off the microbes that cause things like yeast infections – and, though Gome told reporters that the fruity smell is an added bonus that lets women know it’s working, the name is reportedly only a reference to the fruit’s long history as reference to vagina. (wait, what?)

Man tells it like it is regarding Shanesha Taylor, the woman who left her child in a hot car to go to a job interview, raised 100K in donations, then blew it on designer clothing and a rap studio for her boyfriend. : videos (wait for it ...)

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Plague kills 40 people in Madagascar | World news | The Guardian - World Health Organisation is concerned about risk of disease spreading in the capital where two cases have been recorded

Flight MH370: Emirates chief Sir Tim Clark believes information is being concealed - The head of the world's largest international airline believes information about missing flight MH370 is being concealed, calling into question who was in control of the doomed aircraft and the role of the Malaysian military.

The CIA’s Review Of Glenn Greenwald’s Snowden Book Is Hilarious | TechCrunch - "Greenwald sums up the common themes of these three books: Snowden’s acts were justified because he chose to seek “reform of the surveillance state,” (248) and journalists have the absolute right to be the final arbiters of what to publish. Greenwald’s often bitter ad hominem rationale for this is unlikely to be the last word on the subject." (and the last word would be ...?)
DOJ Tells Apple Kids Will Die Because of Their Encryption Stand | DSLReports, ISP Information - A child would die, he said, because police wouldn’t be able to scour a suspect’s phone, according to people who attended the meeting.

Police face legal action for snooping on journalists | UK news | The Guardian - ‘Domestic extremists’ unit kept a secret database of details on journalists including medical history of family members
Largest Cyber-Attack in History Hits Pro-Hong Kong Protest Websites

Lithuania President calls Russia ’terrorist state’ - Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite has called Russia a 'terrorist state' and warns that the current conflict in Ukraine could spread further if not stopped.
Peskov Says Ethnic Russians In Latvia Would Revolt If Radical Nationalists Came to Power | The Interpreter
Mikhail Gorbachev says Vladimir Putin views himself as 'second only to God' - Former Soviet leader warns Russian president not to be a 'bighead' because 'that is what ruined me'

EUobserver / EU parliament to vote on Palestine statehood
Israel held 10,000 Palestinian minors since 2000: Official Anadolu Agency - "Israel does not provide any immunity for children and regularly violates international agreements on children's rights by humiliating and torturing them and denying them fair trials,"

US Warns Citizens to Avoid Resort of Acapulco - NYTimes.com

Barack Obama defends immigration plan at Las Vegas rally | US news | The Guardian - President speaks to around 1,600 at Del Sol high school - Says: ‘We’re not a nation that kicks out strivers and dreamers’
GOP Reaction to Obama Immigration Order is Deadly | New Republic

House G.O.P. Files Lawsuit In Battling Health Law - NYTimes.com (most American don't want you to have health care unlike every other developed country)

White House: Republicans Won The Election, We Won The After-Election - Senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer: “We feel very good about how the last two and half weeks have gone.”

Stung by criticism, Fed will review how it supervises large banks

The Day After President Obama's Executive Action - Esquire - I hate to draw comparisons between this president and the late Mr. Lincoln, but popular legend has it that John Wilkes Booth, who did more damage to American government than any other American actor until Ronald Reagan got elected twice,

Uber’s Michael Keeps Supporters Amid Controversial Remarks - Bloomberg - Emil Michael, the Uber Technologies Inc. executive whose criticisms of journalists led to calls for his firing this week, is so far withstanding that pressure. (ubertechnosexistdudebro)

Myron May Was Florida State Gunman: Official - A Florida State University alumnus and attorney shot three people at the school's library early Thursday before being killed by police, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
Principal Suspended Over Unannounced School Shooting 'Drill' - The principal of a middle school in Winter Haven, Florida was suspended for staging an unannounced active shooter “drill” that involved police officers entering classrooms with guns drawn.

Actress Angela Leslie accuses Bill Cosby of sex assault - NY Daily News - Model-actress Angela Leslie is the eighth woman to come forward accusing Cosby of sexual harassment or worse. She tells the Daily News he plied her with alcohol, may have tried to drug her and forced her to fondle him in the freaky scene in a luxury suite in 1992. (wall-eyed)
Cosby lawyers strong-armed tabloid into dropping story about rape claims | World news | The Guardian - Lawyers acting for Bill Cosby cajoled the tabloid magazine the National Enquirer into ditching a groundbreaking investigation it had conducted into his alleged sexual misconduct and replacing it with a celebrity interview in which the comic dismissed the claims as money-motivated “misinterpretations”, the Guardian has learned (2005)
Eschaton: Major League - But what has struck me in the wake of the Cosby rape allegations it that it's increasingly being revealed that the guy is a total asshole generally in ways which there aren't really any excuses for not reporting about.
Bill Cosby Once Publicly Bullied A Notre Dame Football Player To Tears (+comment: "As each new victim comes forward, it's just further confirmation of what a terrible, terrible person Cosby really is."
Bill Cosby and the rape accusers: stop looking away and start believing women | Roxane Gay | Comment is free | The Guardian

Newtown school shooting: Report On Adam Lanza Details Deep Denials, Missed Chances At Treatment - Hartford Courant

Ferguson officer Darren Wilson in talks to resign - CNN.com

'Totally innocent' unarmed man shot dead by New York police | US news | The Guardian - Commissioner Bill Bratton describes death of Akai Gurley, 28, who was shot and killed in a housing block in Brooklyn, as ‘a very unfortunate tragedy’
Eschaton: To Protect And Serve - Ramsey booted Cujdik from the force in May, following a long-running Internal Affairs investigation into allegations that the veteran cop lied on search warrants and had an inappropriate relationship with an informant - and then lied about both to investigators. The allegations were first unearthed in the 2009 Daily News series "Tainted Justice."
America's longest-serving solitary confinement prisoner has conviction quashed | US news | The Guardian - Albert Woodfox, a member of the ‘Angola Three’ who were convicted of killing a prison guard in 1972, sees best hope of release after court rules for racial bias
LA school district settles classroom sexual abuse cases for $139m | US news | The Guardian - The Los Angeles Unified School District will pay $139mto end all remaining litigation involving an elementary school teacher convicted of committing numerous counts of lewd conduct against his students, according to the settlement announced Friday.

Federal Housing Administration Still Tips the Scales Toward Sprawl | Streetsblog.net
Here’s Who’s Parking on City Hall’s Doorstep | News | Philadelphia Magazine - The entitled, ugly backside of $55 million Dilworth Park.

'Little Things Matter' Exposes Big Threat To Children's Brains - Tiny amounts of lead, chemical flame retardants and organophosphate pesticides, among other toxins, course through the blood of nearly every American. But just how much worry is a little poison worth?

Imagination, reality flow in opposite directions in the brain -- ScienceDaily - "There seems to be a lot in our brains and animal brains that is directional, that neural signals move in a particular direction, then stop, and start somewhere else," says. "I think this is really a new theme that had not been explored."
Scientists have finally found the neurological difference between fantasy and reality - it turns out that information flows through our brains in opposite directions when we’re imagining something compared to really doing it. : science

Most adults who drink too much are not alcoholics, CDC study finds | US news | The Guardian - Study finds that 90% of heavy drinkers fell short of criteria for alcoholism, finding which could have implications for reducing consumption of beer, wine and liquor
Now e-cigarettes can give you malware | Technology | The Guardian - “The made in China e-cigarette had malware hardcoded into the charger, and when plugged into a computer’s USB port the malware phoned home and infected the system.”

luker_man comments on What is something about the male perspective on dating that your female friends don't understand? - f we don't do anything we'll die alone. If we don't take that first step, send that first message, or say that first "Hi, My name is..." we'll end up in a one bedroom apartment choking on a dinner for one in front of a TV reaching for a life alert button.
Insane Japanese Animation Team Holy Shit : videos
TIL that the male urethra produces a spiral stream of urine that has the effect of cleaning the external urethral meatus (Where the urine exits the body). The lack of an equivalent mechanism in the female urethra partly explains why urinary tract infections occur so much more frequently in females : todayilearned

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Western New York Residents Call Snow Worst In Memory - Thursday as another storm brought the Buffalo area's three-day snowfall total to an epic 7 feet or more.
NOAA: Globe sets 5th hottest-month record of 2014
I’m Naomi Klein, author of THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: Capitalism vs the Climate. Ask me anything! : IAmA

Obama Moves To Protect Millions From Deportation

White House Putting Up 'Fierce' Fight to Conceal Torture Report - The White House is fiercely resisting the release of an executive summary of a 6,300-page Senate report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program, Senate aides tell Foreign Policy, raising fears that the public will never receive a full accounting of the Bush administration's post-9/11 torture practices.
Torture Report Fight Erupts In Chaos - The talk may not have been necessary. The White House's briefing to Democrats on immigration Thursday erupted instead into a confrontation over the Senate's classified torture report, Senate sources told The Huffington Post.

CIA Director John Brennan considering sweeping organizational changes - The Washington Post
Making the Perfect the Enemy of the Good » Balloon Juice - I’m usually with Glenn Greenwald on a variety of issues, but this latest post about the failure of the USA Freedom Act to pas makes absolutely no sense to me:
American Rand Stand, Con’t » Balloon Juice - Team WIN THE MORNING discovers Rand Paul is a self-serving Republican Glibertarian douchebag, and finds that civil liberties groups like the ACLU are 1) mad at Rand darnit and 2) staffed by people with the common sense of a three-week old bowl of German potato salad.

Radwan Taleb Al-Hamdouni Dead: Senior Islamic State Figure Reportedly Killed In Mosul - They said Radwan Taleb al-Hamdouni, who they described as the radical militant group's leader in Mosul, was killed with his driver when their car was hit in a western district of the city on Wednesday afternoon.
Eschaton: Let's Not Think About What We've Wrought - Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, warned the American public against a kind of intervention fatigue, emphasizing that U.S. leadership is needed now more than ever amid global threats from Ebola to the Islamic State.

Julian Assange: Swedish court rejects appeal to lift arrest warrant | Media | The Guardian - Ruling means WikiLeaks founder still faces extradition to Sweden if he leaves Ecuador embassy in London

Mexico on the brink: thousands to protest over widespread corruption and student massacre | World news | The Guardian - Mexico is facing an escalating political crisis amid growing fury over a mansion built for the presidential family and the disappearance and probable massacre of 43 student teachers.

PM: No room for discrimination against Israeli Arabs - Israel News, Ynetnews - Netanyahu, Livni, Lapid and Erdan lash out at Ashkelon mayor for banning Arab construction workers from vicinity of kindergartens in southern Israeli city.

Obamacare FAQ: Everything you need to know about why conservatives want to repeal the president’s health care law. - Everything you need to know about why conservatives want to repeal the president’s health care law.
Majority Say Not Gov't Duty to Provide Healthcare for All - For the third consecutive year, a majority of Americans (52%) agree with the position that it is not the federal government's responsibility to ensure that all Americans have healthcare coverage. Prior to the start of Barack Obama's presidency in 2009, a majority of Americans consistently took the opposite view.
Obamacare Sign-Ups Were Inflated With Dental Plans - Bloomberg

Hullabaloo - What does "poisoning the well" really mean? - Live by the crazy, die by the crazy. That well is already long since poisoned
The Solid South Will Rise Again - NYTimes.com - Maybe Democrats are simply giving up on Landrieu. Or maybe it’s something bigger: They’re giving up on the South, at least in the short term. (Southistan)
Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks says Obama’s executive action over immigration could prompt impeachment or prison time.

Florida State University gunman killed by police after shooting wounds three | US news | The Guardian
thejasond123 comments on Dangerous Situation" Reported at FSU
FSU student found this bullet in his backpack after leaving the scene of the shooting - @AlexSmithNBC : pics
Scary video footage from the Florida State Library earlier tonight/morning... : videos

The National Organization for Marriage has collapsed into debt. - NOM’s higher-ups will release that they’re on the brink of officially folding. At that point, they’ll give the piggy bank one last shake, then jump ship for good. The resulting collapse will be pitiable, painful, and pathetic—a finale befitting an organization built on a platform of nothing but hate.

Calling Nevada's Incoming Speaker Racist And Sexist Would Be A Huge Understatement
Incoming Nevada Speaker Said Democrats Have 'Master-Slave' Relationship With 'Simple Minded Darkies' | ThinkProgress
Post-Racial America Update, Simple Minds Edition » Balloon Juice - I mean this guy is a walking caricature of Republican Racist Asshole, and the guy still ends up Speaker of Nevada’s Assembly. The dean of Nevada politics, Jon Ralston, has more on how Hansen ended up winning that position.

Hullabaloo - That time when Lynn Cheney said Jim Webb was full of baloney (wow.just.wow)

Huffington Post Is Said to Be in Talks to Host a Jill Abramson Journalism Start-Up - NYTimes.com - Jill Abramson, a former executive editor of The New York Times, and the journalist Steven Brill are in talks with The Huffington Post to host a new journalism site that would run long articles monthly and pay writers advances of up to $100,000, according to people briefed on the discussions.

Reaction to Uber Tactics Highlights Tech Journalists’ Fine Line Between Critic and Booster - NYTimes.com

Therese Serignese, Florida Nurse, Says Bill Cosby Drugged And Raped Her In 1976 (dude had a consistent M.0.)
BIll Cosby Rape Allegations: Why America Took So Long to Wake Up | New Republic
Bill Cosby accused of sexual assault by seventh named woman | World news | The Guardian - Latest allegations add to snowballing public anger surrounding Cosby as woman comes forward to say she was drugged and raped by the comedian in 1976 (how many will it take? +Guardian neutron-bombed their BTL)
How Bill Cosby’s image shielded him from claims of rape | Comment is free | The Guardian - Richard Pryor initially copied him and then reacted against Cosby’s cosy persona, rejecting it as phoney and safe. Eddie Murphy famously ridiculed Cosby in his legendary 1989 live show Raw.

Peter Sellars: ‘The United States is coming close to censorship’ | Music | The Guardian - Their voices are almost completely missing from the Bible, yet it was women who were closest to Jesus in his final days

'Darwin's Dilemma' May Finally Have Been Solved - : a major shift in the continents, which created ideal conditions for complex new life forms to evolvE ... opened up a gateway between the ancient continents of Laurentia (modern-day North America) and Gondwanaland

What's the most mindblowing fact you've ever heard? : AskReddit (many but here's one: Africa is as big as the United States, China, Europe, Japan, and Mexico combined.)
AskReddit - epi + 1 = 0

Women of Reddit, what is the female equivalent of being a "Tit man" or an "Ass man?" : AskReddit (sample size: 10,000+ comments :: %: shoulders: 42, ass: 10, hands: 9, strong back: 8, forarms: 6 ... eyes: .28 :: women objectify men and are turned on by lumberjacks. or: "TIL Men analysis: Tits or Ass Women analysis: 50913 different variables)
iwantahouse comments on Women of Reddit, what is the female equivalent of being a "Tit man" or an "Ass man?" - Asses are the best...

Comedian Impersonates Celebrities Stuck In Traffic, Is Spot-On Awesome

The public is being warned about a website containing thousands of live feeds to baby monitors, stand-alone webcams and CCTV systems : worldnews
What XFINITY Internet Data Usage Plans will Comcast be Launching? - XFINITY Internet tiers would increase from 250 GB to 300 GB. (see, they're giving you more!)
Comcast to begin charging for data usage on home internet the same way cell phone companies are charging for data : technology

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Buffalo area braces for more snow - CNN.com - About 50% of the United States had snow on the ground Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. (in fucking November)
There’s a global warming generation gap in the GOP, like on the issue of gay marriage - The Washington Post

Man tests positive for Ebola in Delhi, quarantined - The body fluid of a 26-year-old Indian man, who landed in Delhi from Liberia, has tested positive for Ebola virus, even as another man in Rajasthan showed Ebola-like symptoms. (round two)

NSA Bill Killed By Fillibuster - Lawyers, Guns & Money : This was probably unsurprising. Also unsurprising to anyone paying attention is that 41 of the 42 no votes were Republican. Including, natch, America’s foremost champion of civil liberties and the true progressive alternative in 2016, Mr. Rand Paul.
The good news about the 'death' of NSA reform: surveillance supporters may have dug their own grave | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - Snowden haters may have blocked the USA Freedom Act, but the clock is ticking before the law that justifies vacuuming your phone records blows up in the face of newly conservative Washington
CITIZEN FOUR | Movieguide | The Family Guide to Movie Reviews - Also, MOVIEGUIDE® has discovered that both the main journalist and the filmmakers in CITIZENFOUR have an Anti-American, anti-capitalist leftist agenda.

Dianne Feinstein Says Torture Report Almost Ready For Release After Months Of Delay

Jerusalem synagogue attack: protests and clashes flare after day of mourning – as it happened | World news | The Guardian
After the Israel Synagogue Massacre: A New Intifada? - The Daily Beast - As Israeli PM Netanyahu reacts to the murder of four rabbis in Jerusalem, he lashes out at supposed enemies around the world—and a new Arab uprising takes shape.

Extremists are hijacking identity of Arab world, says Queen Rania at Abu Dhabi Media Summit - “Education reform doesn’t come cheap. But the price of ignorance is far, far greater.”


Eschaton: Everything Is Horrible - Let's Stay The Course - Politically, Conservatives believe an emphasis on the risks still facing the UK will make anxious voters recoil from handing stewardship of a fragile economy to a relatively untried Labour team. (they couldn't be as good as us at totally fucking things up)

Number Of People Killed In Militant Attacks Jumps More Than 60 Percent
UAE Designates Two American Muslim Groups As Terrorist Orgs | The Daily Caller - The United Arab Emirates has officially designated 83 groups as terrorist organizations, including two based in the U.S., the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society.
Female Indonesian police recruits forced to undergo ‘virginity tests’ | World news | The Guardian - Two-finger examination that leaves women traumatised, humiliated and in pain is listed as requirement to join force

Iceland jails former Landsbanki CEO - fastFT: Market-moving news and views, 24 hours a day - FT.com - Iceland has secured a conviction against the last of the former chief executives of its three largest banks, as the Nordic island continues to plough a lone furrow in its attempts to prosecute the misdeeds of the financial crisis. Sigurjon Arnason, former chief executive of Landsbanki, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for market manipulation, but nine months were suspended. (tap)

Federal Judge Strikes Down Montana Gay Marriage Ban

Rep. Steve Israel thinks DOOOOM! was an appropriate way to cheerlead for Democrats (they will study their leadership and decide they did a great job, but you sucked)

For the First Time Ever, a Prosecutor Will Go to Jail for Wrongfully Convicting an Innocent Man | Mark Godsey - 500 hours of community service, and spend 10 days in jail
Chief Flynn of Milwaukee PD speaks a harsh truth about African American crime in his community during a press conference. : videos

Page 4 of A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA | Rolling Stone - Jackie was just starting her freshman year at the University of Virginia when she was brutally assaulted by seven men at a frat party. When she tried to hold them accountable, a whole new kind of abuse began

Bill Cosby’s “Moment” by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - But by far the most fascinating look at him in this new light is from Ta-Nehisi Coates, who writes an apology for failing to think and write enough about those allegations when he was focusing on Cosby in a big Atlantic piece back in 2008. Putting aside the rape allegations (as he did then), this could be Bill Cosby’s big moment:
An awkward kind of justice - Lawyers, Guns & Money : If anything, this suggests that the role racism played in this story was to keep accusations against a “beloved” –i.e., acceptable to white people — black man from getting the attention they otherwise would have gotten.)
CNN's Don Lemon To Cosby Rape Accuser: "You Know, There Are Ways Not To Perform Oral Sex If You Didn't Want To Do It" | Video | Media Matters for America - CNN Host Tells Joan Tarshis How She Could Avoid Being Raped
Janice Dickinson Alleges That She Was 'Sexually Assaulted' By Bill Cosby
Don Lemon Asks Bill Cosby Accuser Why She Didn't Bite His Penis To Stop Her Rape
Bill Cosby's New NBC Show Is No Longer In Development

The moment I learned just how far Uber will go to silence journalists and attack women | PandoDaily - No, these new attacks threatened to hit at my only vulnerability. The only part of my life that I’d do anything to protect: My family and my children. (dudebrotechsexistbulliesslime)
Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists - Senior vice president Emil Michael floated making critics’ personal lives fair game. Michael apologized Monday for the remarks.
San Francisco Magazine | Modern Luxury | Uber Employees Warned a San Francisco Magazine Writer That Executives Might Snoop on Her - While I was reporting my recent cover story on Uber and its CEO Travis Kalanick, several current and former Uber employees warned me that company higher-ups might access my rider logs.
Fellow Uber Dinner Attendee Suggests Buzzfeed Is Shilling For Competitor
"God View": Uber Investigates Its Top New York Executive For Privacy Violations - In the wake of a BuzzFeed News story, the transit company is looking into the official’s tracking of a journalist’s location.

New subatomic particles predicted by Canadians found at CERN - Technology & Science - CBC News - New baryons found at Large Hadron Collider are 6 times more massive than protons
d Marijuana Drastically Shrinks Aggressive Form Of Brain Cancer, New Study Finds
Cannabis extract can have dramatic effect on brain cancer, says new research — St George's, University of London - Cannabis extract can have dramatic effect on brain cancer, says new research
? Grandmas Smoking Weed for the First Time (Extended Cut) - YouTube
Grandmas Smoking Weed for the First Time : videos

E-cigarettes significantly reduce tobacco cravings – KU Leuven - Electronic cigarettes offer smokers a realistic way to kick their tobacco smoking addiction. In a new study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, scientists at KU Leuven report that e-cigarettes successfully reduced cravings for tobacco cigarettes, with only minimal side effects.
Electronic cigarettes offer smokers a realistic way to kick their tobacco smoking addiction. In a new study scientists report that e-cigarettes successfully reduced cravings for tobacco cigarettes, with only minimal side effects. : science
e-cigs
5 Facts That Everyone Gets Wrong About Vaping
List of e cigs studies & vaping research | Vapeorama - vapeorama
E Cigarette | Buy Electronic Cigarettes Online | E Juice - Mt Baker Vapor

"U2 Week" on Jimmy Fallon got cancelled, so Jimmy (and The Roots) covered U2 themselves.. The result is ridiculously amazing! : television
Tiny Flip Books Filled with Secret Slots & Negative Spaces | Urbanist
Syllepsis - Rhetorical Definition and Examples - "She tracks sand in as well as ideas, and I have to sweep up after her two or three times a day." (E.B. White, "On a Florida Key")
Zeugma

John Hodgman: ‘The government should be laying down broadband like Eisenhower laid down interstates’ - The Washington Post
Tales From the Dark Ages of the Internets - Lawyers, Guns & Money : People with long memories for trivia may remember beloved HIV troofer and advocate for executing journalists insufficiently deferential to George W. Bush, Mr. Dean Esmay. He’s apparently found a new gig as a men’s rights crank. Hopefully he’s thrown some work to Kim Du Toit and Stephen Den Beste!

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Meet the Republicans in Congress who don't believe climate change is real | Environment | The Guardian - here’s a round-up of some of the most prominent climate sceptics (and deniers) in the GOP - “We believe Al Gore deserves an ‘F’ in science and an ‘A’ in creative writing.” (they're not scientists)

Martin Salia, Nebraska Ebola Patient, Dies

Peter Kassig murder: experts try to identify foreign jihadis in Isis video | World news | The Guardian - UK medical student is suspected of being in an Isis killing squad that murdered 17 hostages including US aid worker
Frenchman, Brit Thought To Be Among Killers In ISIS Beheadings - The disclosure came hours after a father in Britain said he believed his son, a British medical student, was in the Islamic State squad filmed beheading the soldiers.

Putin claims west is provoking Russia into new cold war as ‘spies’ deported | World news | The Guardian - Russian president denies fanning tensions and says Nato ‘expansion’ in Europe had been ‘geopolitical game changer’

Haaretz obtains full document of EU-proposed sanctions against Israel - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz - Sanctions could apply to Israeli politicians opposed to the two-state solution, which could include Bennett and Rivlin; steps against European companies working in settlements; punitive measures against Palestinians over 'negative measures.'

A Void in the History of September 11th
Zacharias Moussaoui Gives It Up - Esquire - apparently, he's willing to sing, and he has so informed the lawyers who are pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of the families of some of the 9/11 victims. And some of his proferred testimony has the potential to make some people very, very nervous ... those 28 pages are being held back not because they cast a shadow on the House of Saud, but because they cast a shadow on the House of Bush, one member of which is said to be considering a run for the presidency in 2016.

Remembering U.S. Complicity in Salvadoran Military Crimes - Lawyers, Guns & Money : 25 years ago yesterday, the Salvadoran military massacred six Jesuit priests and two women who worked for them. The National Security Archive has collected documents showing how the Bush administration refused to acknowledge that its client state’s military could have committed such an atrocity, when in fact it committed human rights violations all the time.
Mark Danner The Massacre at El Mozote - In December 1981 soldiers of the Salvadoran Army's select, American-trained Atlacatl Battalion entered the village of El Mozote, where they murdered hundreds of men, women, and children, often by decapitation.


One in 30 US children are homeless as rates rise in 31 states, report finds | US news | The Guardian - State-by-state report links racial disparities, increasing poverty and domestic violence to rising rates as southern states rank particularly poorly (whites hate "welfare" for non-riches)

Missouri governor declares state of emergency as national guard brought in to Ferguson | US news | The Guardian - Jay Nixon signs executive order activating national guard to help police ‘maintain peace and protect those exercising their right to free speech’
St Louis police chief says only criminals were teargassed at Ferguson protests | US news | The Guardian - described Belmar’s comments as “disingenuous at best, and downright dishonest at worst”. He said: “We saw projectiles that were rubber. It is clear that Chief Belmar is attempting to revise history. A lie continuously repeated is not the truth.”
Misuse of a Grand Jury | Rev. Al Sharpton (HuffPo commenters pretty pro killing black people)
Missouri Governor Declares State of Emergency - Esquire - whatever the reaction within the community at large is, that it will collide with the full force of state power, more than likely aimed at those people who take exception to the rule that police officers get to shoot down teenagers for walking in the street -- or, more precisely, for not knowing their place.
KKK Warns They Will Use ‘Lethal Force’ Against Violent Ferguson Protesters « CBS St. Louis

Another Cosby Victim Comes Out - Hollywood Elsewhere (more wandering eye)
Another Woman Comes Forward To Accuse Bill Cosby Of Rape - In an essay on Hollywood Elsewhere, music industry publicist and journalist Joan Tarshis claims that Cosby sexually assaulted her twice in 1969 when she was 19. The former actress and Cosby were both working at Universal Studios, and she said he took an interest in her. (commenters still believing Cosby after 14 victims)
If you can't talk about rape without blaming victims, don't talk about rape | Jessica Valenti | Comment is free | The Guardian - The truth? According to data from the Department of Justice, a whopping 97% of rapists receive no punishment, while false accusations only account for an estimated 2 - 6% of rape cases (around the same number as false reports for any other crime).
WATCH: 'The View' Hosts Awkwardly Grapple With Cosby Rape Allegations (Whoopie has questions, not for Cosby, but for his victims)

More guns, more crime: Stanford research undermines the NRA’s favorite study - contrary to the political commonplace that right-to-carry (RTC) or concealed-carry laws decrease violent crime, such laws have actually increased the number of violent crimes in the states that have passed them since 1999.


Huge twin study homes in on 'gay genes' - life - 17 November 2014 - New Scientist - A genetic analysis of 409 pairs of gay twins has provided the strongest evidence yet that gay people are born gay. The study clearly links sexual orientation in men with two regions of the human genome that have been implicated before, one on the X chromosome and one on chromosome 8.
Massive study of gay twins (409 pairs!) gives strongest indication yet that being gay is genetic : science


New York City is building 10,000 internet pylons for free public Wi-Fi | The Verge - "LinkNYC will be the fastest and largest free municipal Wi-Fi deployment in the world."
Ted Cruz Doubles Down On Misunderstanding The Internet & Net Neutrality, As Republican Engineers Call Him Out For Ignorance | Techdirt

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Can Climate Change Cure Capitalism? by Elizabeth Kolbert | The New York Review of Books - This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein

Islamic State Claims It Has Beheaded American Hostage Peter Kassig - The 16-minute video also appears to show a mass beheading of men alleged to be Syrian soldiers. "To Obama, the dog of Rome, today we are slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar and tomorrow we will be slaughtering your soldiers," a masked ISIS militant said.
Obama Calls Kassig Murder 'Pure Evil' (so was invading them in the first place)
Peter Kassig Worked Tirelessly For Syrians. This Is How He Helped The Country's Refugees.
Britain Investigating Reports That Suspect In Islamic State Beheadings Was Wounded In U.S.-Led Airstrike - The man, dubbed "Jihadi John"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: 'Iran Is Your Enemy' (you are our enemy)
moopoint comments on Doctor from Israel joined Islamic State, hospital confirms (why Muslims join IsIS)
How correct is this map "Palestinian Loss of Land from 1947 to Present"? : AskHistorians

Death and corruption prove that the idea of a new Mexico was a mirage | Anabel Hernandez | Comment is free | The Guardian - The fate of 43 missing students and a property scandal reveal the emptiness of the president’s rhetoric on reform

The Comfort Women and Japan’s War on Truth - NYTimes.com
First passengers on Japanese maglev train travel at speeds of 311 mph - Asia - World - The Independent

'I watched Tory MP MURDER a boy during depraved Westminster VIP paedophile party' - Mirror Online - The abuse victim's claims are being treated as credible by detectives now investigating THREE murders allegedly linked to a network of VIP perverts.

State Department shuts down email system after suspected hacker attack | US news | The Guardian - ctivity of concern’ occurred at same time as attack on White House - Entire unclassified email system closed to repair possible damage

Google’s secret NSA alliance: The terrifying deals between Silicon Valley and the security state - Salon.com - Inside the high-level, complicated deals -- and the rise of a virtually unchecked surveillance power
First Snowden. Then tracking you on wheels. Now spies on a plane. Yes, surveillance is everywhere | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - The US government’s secret airborne dragnet is just the latest tool to snoop on your phone. Why aren’t we stopping this?

Eschaton: The Heartland - This bit from Catch-22 can't be re-run often enough.
The So-So Society: Democrats Have Forgotten What Made Them Great | The Fiscal Times - Democrats have given sway to more business-friendly interests - Meanwhile, wages have lagged behind productivity gains since 1973 - It’s time for new thinking on economic security and prosperity
David Axelrod Slams Jonathan Gruber Over Obamacare Comments - As one who worked hard to make ACA and its benefits clear, let me say: if you looked up "stupid" in dictionary, you'd find Gruber's picture.
Arkansas’s Blue Collar Social Conservatives Don’t Know What’s Coming - The Daily Beast - Around 200,000 people have gained coverage under Arkansas’s hybrid Obamacare program. After the election, they may be about to lose it. (they still won't connect the dots)

Chesapeake Energy Faces Subpoena on Royalty Payment Practices - ProPublica - The Justice Department’s inquiry comes after a ProPublica investigation and years of complaints from landowners who say they have been underpaid for leasing land to the energy giant for drilling - landowners in Pennsylvania who had leased their gas rights to Chesapeake saw the payments they were receiving abruptly slashed by as much as 97 percent. In some cases checks for thousands of dollars a month were replaced with payments for less than a dollar ... using the fees it had been been paying those landowners to repay billions of dollars of hidden corporate debt instead. (they were fracker-fucked)

Thalidomide: how men who blighted lives of thousands evaded justice | Society | The Guardian - Newly exposed files show how victims were betrayed by political interference in trial – and how the pill has remained on sale - And more than half a century since the pill’s threat to an embryo was proven, the company that produced the first disaster has continued to sell the drug in parts of Latin America, on prescription only, where babies continued to be born with malformations similar to the survivors from the 1960s.

Ferguson: video shows Darren Wilson arresting man for recording him | US news | The Guardian - Officer who shot and killed Michael Brown is seen telling Mike Arman ‘I’m gonna lock your ass up’ if he does not stop
Comparing Two Hit and Run Cases - NYTimes.com - A starting cornerback for the Florida State University football team left the scene of a collision on Oct. 5 but was not charged with a hit and run, an examination by The New York Times found. That contrasts with another case in the same area in the same month.
D.C. police plan for future seizure proceeds years in advance in city budget documents - The Washington Post - D.C. police have made plans for millions of dollars in anticipated proceeds from future civil seizures of cash and property, even though federal guidelines say “agencies may not commit” to such spending in advance, documents show.
St. Louis woman sentenced 78 years in prison for waterboarding her children : News - A St. Louis woman was sentenced Friday to 78 years in prison after admitting to beating, whipping and waterboarding her children in a prolonged pattern of abuse that prosecutors described as "systematic torture."

Lawyer says Bill Cosby 'will not dignify' sexual abuse allegations with comment | US news | The Guardian - Attorney refers to ‘decade-old, discredited’ allegations - ‘No further statement’ from Cosby or representatives
Leonard Part 7 by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Isn’t damage control supposed to, you know, control damage? Apparently, it’s not working out for Bill Cosby.
Bill Cosby refuses to address sexual assault allegations on NPR interview, will no longer appear on David Letterman’s show : television

The new strain of cannabis that could help treat psychosis | Society | The Guardian - Purified CBD has been shown to have antipsychotic and anti-anxiety effects, and can lessen the psychotic symptoms normally experienced by people given high doses of THC.
How Berkeley took on the might of Big Soda and won | US news | The Guardian - Almost lost in the Republican sweep in this month’s midterm elections was a referendum in Berkeley in which a proposed tax of one cent for every ounce of soda won 75% voter approval.

District meets as group wants to pass out Satanic material at... | www.wftv.com - The issue is now being driven by The Satanic Temple, which wants to pass out religious material like "The Satanic Children's Big Book of Activities."

[Serious] Those who oppose the idea of legalising drugs like Cannabis, or Psilocybin, why? : AskReddit
ELI5: Why do Jews not try to convert people like other Abrahamic religions? (Christianity, Islam) : explainlikeimfive

Al Franken Explains Net Neutrality To Ted Cruz - “When [Cruz] says this is the Obamacare, Obamacare was a government program that fixed something, that changed things,” Franken said. “This is about reclassifying something so it stays the same. This would keep things exactly the same that they've been.” (stupid or evil? both, but mostly evil)

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Barack Obama tells G20 a global climate change deal is possible and vital | World news | The Guardian - US president says every nation has a responsibility to do its part and ‘overcome old divides, look squarely at the science and reach a strong global climate agreement next year’

Eschaton: What Could Go Wrong - Nothing of course - Arming and training. That will fix everything. It always does.

Indian sterilisation patient: ‘I was slapped and told to calm down’ | World news | The Guardian - Woman recounts treatment at camp where 15 women have died after taking antibiotics possibly tainted by rat poison chemical

askur comments on Iceland - Minister of the Interior imposes a media blackout as her political attaché is found guilty of leaking fabricated criminal charges against an asylum seeker. Minister refuses to step down. (dirty laundry +a lot of dysfunction and conflict under the surface of the "recovery")


More Federal Agencies Are Using Undercover Operations - NYTimes.com - The federal government has significantly expanded undercover operations in recent years, with officers from at least 40 agencies posing as business people, welfare recipients, political protesters and even doctors or ministers to ferret out wrongdoing, records and interviews show.

Health Insurance Marketplace: Enroll for 2015 Healthcare Coverage | HealthCare.gov
Obamacare Train Not Wrecking As Sign-Up Period Kicks Off - The website hasn't crashed, government officials aren't scrambling, and Americans are actually using the Obamacare exchanges to shop for health insurance. What a difference a year makes.
Cost of Coverage Under Affordable Care Act to Increase in 2015 - NYTimes.com - — in some cases as much as 20 percent — unless they switch plans.
Shocker: Obamacare customers are happy with their coverage

Misery Index: Part I by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Much like Prince’s parents, Tea Party Republicans are too bold and never satisfied. Massachusetts Governor-Elect Charles Baker is learning that lesson the hard way.
Misery Index: Part II by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Resolved: Democrats should just write off working-class whites and be done with it. (who are stupid and hate the welfare moochers so they vote for their billionaire overlords)
Indiana to Start Requiring Food Stamp Recipients Work, Be in Job Training, or Job Hunting

Howie Carr Question: Where Will The Talk Jock Land? | WGBH News - For years, local talk jock Howie Carr has had a rocky relationship with WRKO, the station that broadcast his show. But no longer, as the station declined to renew Carr’s contract, which expired last week. (don't let the door ...)

Right-To-Carry Gun Laws Linked To Rise In Violent Crimes: Study - Laws in all 50 states permitting people to carry concealed firearms in public have been connected to a rise in violent crimes, according to a new report from researchers at Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities.
Police Officers Draw Guns During Unannounced ‘Active Shooter Drill’ At Elementary School « CBS Tampa - Students at Jewett Middle Academy said they were terrified when police officers burst in the doors for a planned active shooter drill – but students and teachers are irked they were not told ahead of time.

IASC: The Hedgehog Review - Volume 16, No. 3 (Fall 2014) - Falling - - it embarrasses me—and a lot of other things as well. It’s humiliating to be poor, to be dependent on the kindness of family and friends and government subsidies. But it sure is an education. (retiring poor; the riches took all the money)

But, there's one thing the 77-year-old actor would not comment on: accusations of sexual assault that have been leveled against him. (his eyes tell the story)
Head Of Elite L.A. School Resigns After Sex Misconduct Scandal - The longstanding head of Los Angeles’s prestigious Marlborough School will resign next June, following a public scandal over how she handled multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by a teacher who taught at the private all-girls secondary school for over a decade. Wagner spent 25 years at Marlborough, 24 as head of school. In 2007, the Wall Street Journal named her one of the country’s most highly compensated heads of school (She made $475,000 from 2004-2005).

Women who have sex before marriage are like ‘filthy dishrags,’ California pastor roars - Paul Chappell, founder and president of West Coast Baptist College and pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church, lamented what he perceives to be a lack of purity and modesty among women.

Echidne Of The Snakes - Got that? Some people made a giant mountain out of a molehill and then tried to suffocate a well-meaning but socially inept scientist under that mountain.
Akrotiri Minoan Site in Santorini island - Greeka.com

Can moons have moons? : askscience
Girls of Reddit, what are some NSFW tips you wish every guy knew? : AskReddit
Reddit, what's a fairly unknown yet super interesting subreddit that will pass the time? : AskReddit
When you see the same /r/AskReddit threads as yesterday, who you gonna call?
The Daily Dot | Daily Reddit digests, weekly Reddit news summaries
DepthHub: A jumping-off point for deeply-involved subreddits


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Obama's $3bn for climate fund could kickstart action on global warming | Environment | The Guardian - reen Climate Fund pledge broadly welcomed by campaigners - Move may help erode divisions between developed and developing states

New Details About Ebola In Dallas Revealed In CDC Report - One of the new details is that 12 people who had contact with one or more of the Ebola patients were tested for the virus during their 21-day monitoring periods, because these 12 individuals developed a fever or other symptoms that can occur with the disease (1/12 of 147 developed Ebola-like-but-not-Ebola symptoms in 21 days?)

Rat poison linked to India sterilisation deaths, with death toll expected to rise - Antibiotics bought from Mahawar Pharmaceuticals withdrawn, after quantities of zinc phosphide discovered at its factory (and how did rat poison get into the Cipro?)

'Killer robots' should be strictly monitored, nations demand at UN | World news | The Guardian - Countries warn of potential dangers of autonomous weapons systems they say are at risk of violating international and humanitarian law (programmed to ignore Asimov's three laws of robotics)

U.N.: Obama Takes Torture Seriously? Give Us A Break - The government has released documents, attempting to demonstrate accountability. There’s a 6,300-page Senate report that has been given to the White House and even a Justice Department investigation into abuses of the Bush years. The United Nations doesn’t buy it ... One member of the U.N. committee suggested the investigation was a whitewash ... “Well ... you won’t find what you’re not looking for.”

Libya is on the verge of collapse | World | DW.DE | 14.11.2014 - Three years after the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Libya is being torn apart by power struggles. The security situation is catastrophic and the country is sliding into civil war.

John Doar, 1921-2014 - Esquire - The second monotone appeared in July of 1974. It belonged to a lawyer named John Doar. It cut out Richard Nixon's heart and ate it in the marketplace.

Shocking secret emails reveal that political operatives can be dorky - Salon.com - Democratic operatives jockeying for position on Hillary's campaign are making lame jokes -- and the media is on it!

How misinformation goes viral: a Truthy story : Columbia Journalism Review - On August 26, Fox’s Megyn Kelly aired a four-minute segment on an Indiana University project called Truthy, declaring sarcastically, “Some bureaucrat deciding whether you are being hateful or misinforming people — what could possibly go wrong?” Fox & Friends jumped onto the bandwagon two days later (Republicans, spawn of Satan, hate the truth)

Democratic Turncoats In The Senate - Esquire - Today saw yet another proud chapter in the seemingly endless saga of Snakes In A Party. Harry Reid was elected to be the leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate when the next Congress convenes. There were at least three dissenting votes. Guess who they were. (McCaskill, Manchin, Heitkamp)

Congressional Republicans consider using short-term funding bill to pressure Obama - The Washington Post

US to offer refugee status to some undocumented child migrants | US news | The Guardian - Children under 21 in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras with parents who are legal US residents could start applying next month under the plan

Newly Insured Through Exchanges Give Coverage Good Marks
In U.S., 55% of Uninsured Plan to Get Health Coverage
The Latest #Grubergate Video Could Rattle Vermont's Single-Payer Health Care Experiment - Bloomberg Politics - Another day, another Gruber video.
Did Jonathan Gruber earn ‘almost $400,000' from the Obama administration? - The Washington Post

3rd Arrest for 90-Year-Old Man Who Feeds Homeless | Sarasota, FL Patch - The city of Fort Lauderdale has issued three criminal citations against him, but he says he has no fear of spending time in jail.

English Composition 101 - Esquire - the importance of The Topic Sentence (CPP devastating Bobo)

The Drugging of the American Boy - Esquire - By the time they reach high school, nearly 20 percent of all American boys will be diagnosed with ADHD. Millions of those boys will be prescribed a powerful stimulant to "normalize" them

Fox News, Where Conservative Senior Citizens Get to Look At Half-Naked 'Girls' - Give it a thin veneer of moral condemnation, and it's all good.

Bill Cosby Accuser Details Alleged Rape: 'I Wonder How He Sleeps At Night' - Barbara Bowman, who penned an op-ed in the Washington Post this week recounting her history of alleged sexual assault by Bill Cosby, joined HuffPost Live Friday morning to discuss her allegations against the famed comedian.
Bill Cosby's 'Late Show With David Letterman' Appearance Canceled - According to Newsday, Bill Cosby's Nov. 19 appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" has been canceled. No reason was given for the schedule change, but Regis Philbin will replace Cosby on the broadcast.
New Orleans police routinely ignored rape cases, scathing report finds | US news | The Guardian - Police chief ‘deeply disturbed’ by allegations that five detectives failed to investigate properly more than 1,000 cases of sex crimes and child abuse
Utah protesters wear bull's-eyes, decry officer-involved shooting of Darrien Hunt | The Salt Lake Tribune - Taylor clarified on Friday that investigators knew Judson was wearing a camera that day, and they knew the officer didn’t turn it on.

Analysis shows widespread discrepancies in staffing levels reported by nursing homes | Center for Public Integrity - Data compiled for Medicare shows lower levels of care than website for consumers

ALL THE YOUNG JEWS | Village Voice - In the Village of Kiryas Joel, New York, the Median Age Is 13

Mystery Big Cat Evades French Police And Military Forces - A two-day search by some 200 French police and members of the armed forces for a wild cat roaming through towns and across a major highway came to one conclusion Friday: It isn't a tiger.
Tiger schmiger – big cat sightings simply play on our will to believe | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian - A tiger, at least, was original. In Britain, most of the big cats reported (three-quarters according to a survey by the author Merrily Harpur) are black, and generally, according to the 2,000 or more people who claim to have seen them
The AskHistorians Master Book List : AskHistorians
What's the Most Niche NSFW Subreddit? : AskReddit

After Losing 160 Pounds, Man Strips Down To Show Excess Skin, His Biggest Insecurity

AT&T Stops Using Undeletable Phone Tracking IDs - A Verizon spokeswoman says its tracking program is still continuing, but added "as with any program, we're constantly evaluating."
FCC calls AT&T’s fiber bluff, demands detailed construction plans | Ars Technica - AT&T claims net neutrality forced it to "pause" fiber builds it never started.

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Rosetta: Philae tight spot on comet prompts tough decisions for Esa | Science | The Guardian - Rosetta mission controllers must decide whether to risk making lander hop from shadow of cliff blocking sunlight to its solar panels

The China Deal Over Global Climate Change - Esquire - But it is only recently, as the prion disease acquired by the Republican party when it first ate the monkeybrains back in 1980 has come to eat away fully the party's reasoning faculties, that the fights over treaties became unmoored from reality, and drifted off into the skies over Crazytown.
Projected increase in lightning strikes in the United States due to global warming

Liberia Will End Its Ebola State Of Emergency, Says President - Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Thursday she would not seek an extension to a state of emergency imposed in August over Ebola, which has hit the country harder than any other this year.

US military considers sending combat troops to battle Isis forces in Iraq | US news | The Guardian - General Martin Dempsey tells House committee that he would consider abandoning Obama’s pledge and send troops to fight Isis in Iraq (who's the boss?)
Opposition Figures Claim ISIS, Nusra Front Agree To Cooperate In Syria - Militant leaders from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida gathered at a farm house in northern Syria last week and agreed on a plan to stop fighting each other and work together against their opponents, a high-level Syrian opposition official and a rebel commander have told The Associated Press.

Ukraine Warns Of A Worsening Security Situation - The Interfax-Ukraine news agency cited Zoryan Shkiryak, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister, as saying Thursday that he anticipated an imminent attack by Russian forces.

U.S. Tells U.N. Panel of Steps to Revise Interrogation Policy - NYTimes.com - the United States had tortured terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks but that it had since taken steps to prevent any future use of unlawful, coercive interrogation techniques. (with loopholes)
Doubt cast over US torture investigation as more CIA detainees come forward | US news | The Guardian - Lawyers for men allegedly tortured by the CIA say their clients were never interviewed as part of a major criminal investigation concluded in 2012
Mark Udall to consider all options to reveal CIA torture report - The Denver Post

What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals - NYTimes.com

The troubling truth behind these anti-net neutrality op-ed writers - Time and the Wall Street Journal both published opinion stories this week from people who oppose strong net neutrality protections—without disclosing that each of them did or do receive money from Internet service providers.

Government planes mimic cellphone towers to collect user data – report | World news | The Guardian - US Marshals Service reportedly fitting aircraft with ‘dirtboxes’ that interrogate phones on ground for identity and location

Israeli Police Officer Held in Deaths of 2 Teenagers - NYTimes.com - An Israeli border police officer has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the fatal shooting of two Palestinian teenagers in the West Bank during a protest in May, officials said on Wednesday.

The Republican Obsession With 'Restoring' America - The Atlantic - Why so many conservatives have nostalgia for an era that wasn't all that golden

Law in the Raw - NYTimes.com - Nearly a week has gone by since the Supreme Court’s unexpected decision to enlist in the latest effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act, and the shock remains unabated. “This is Bush v. Gore all over again,” one friend said as we struggled to absorb the news last Friday afternoon. “No,” I replied. “It’s worse.” (completely corrupt)

because of a succession of “performance, organizational, technical” and other failures by the Secret Service, according to a damning review of the incident by the Department of Homeland Security.
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball » 14 from ’14: Quick Takes on the Midterm - 2. Republicans still ride roughshod in Appalachia
Axelrod Calls Martha Coakley ‘A Demonstrably Bad Candidate’ - Washington Wire - WSJ

The Charleston Gazette | Longtime Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship indicted - Don Blankenship, the longtime chief executive of Massey Energy, was indicted today on charges that he violated federal mine safety laws at the company’s Upper Big Branch Mine prior to an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners.

Elizabeth Warren Gets Senate Democratic Leadership Spot - Warren's new role, which was created specifically for her, will be strategic policy adviser to the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, helping to craft the party's policy positions and priorities. (HuffPo: "the left is clearly controlling the Democratic party")

Debts Canceled by Bankruptcy Still Mar Consumer Credit Scores - NYTimes.com - In the netherworld of consumer debt, there are zombies: bills that cannot be killed even by declaring personal bankruptcy ... Paying no heed to the courts, the banks keep the debts alive on credit reports, essentially forcing borrowers to make payments on bills that they do not legally owe)

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community - During the protest, Simms got caught on video berating the students, who alleged that the commissioner screamed "I'll bet y'all go to failing schools. Y'all ought to be locked up!" The video went viral, and she wound up as Atrios's Worst person in the World ... Well. Yesterday, new video surfaced:
Eschaton: We Do Love Our Children - We put hideous people in charge of our schools, let the grifters steal all the money, and then put on our sadfaces and talk about our failing urban schools. Because this is America, where we believe that children are the future. And we love them so much

Malcolm Gladwell: 'Football Is a Moral Abomination' - Bloomberg - The NFL recently revealed that nearly a third of retired players develop long-term cognitive issues much earlier than the general population. "We're not just talking about people limping at the age of 50. We're talking about brain injuries that are causing horrible, protracted, premature death,”

JFK's Sister's Lobotomy Was 'Tragic Choice,' New Book About Disabilities Reveals - But, at 23, when Rosemary started displaying aggressive mood swings and grew increasingly difficult, her father secretly scheduled her a lobotomy, a relatively new procedure at the time that he was told would calm down his daughter, according to People.

Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story? - The Washington Post - Only when a male comedian called Cosby a rapist did the accusation take hold.
Watch Men Explain Why They Harass Women On The Street - Apparently, this is a real justification for catcalling: "If you have a beautiful body, why can't I say something?"

Polygamy wasn’t a theological debate for early Mormon women. It was part of their lives | David Ebershoff | Comment is free | The Guardian - By acknowleding that founder Joseph Smith had multiple wives, the Mormon church is finally offering those – and many other – women dignity

The Cable Industry Thinks Mindlessly Raising Rates Is A Good Idea In The Face Of Fleeing Subscribers | Techdirt - from the that'll-work dept

Roosh’s Reaxxion: Douchebag Non-Gamer Starts Gaming Website for Douchebags | we hunted the mammoth ("neoreactionaries")

Evangelicals increasingly putting faith in medicine to treat mental health issues | World news | The Guardian - Evangelical writer and musician Carlos Whittaker faced a negative response when he went public about his psychological issues, but attitudes are changing - Carlos Whittaker found that prayer and Bible study were insufficient to tackle his mental health problems. ‘This has nothing to do with whether I believe in Jesus,’ he say

'Quantum reporters' measure magnetic resonance of one proton - physicsworld.com - The positions of individual protons on a surface can be pinned down to within 0.1 nm, thanks to a new quantum technique based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) developed by researchers in the US

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Rosetta: Waiting game after comet lander glitch
Philae Lands on a Comet After 10-Year, 4-Billion-Mile Chase - Popular Mechanics
The Philae lander has successfully landed on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. AskScience Megathread. : askscience
The coming climate onslaught - Andrew Restuccia and Erica Martinson - POLITICO - President Obama readies a sweeping list of executive actions.
Where Obama's potential successors stand on climate change | Environment | The Guardian (elect Republicans and drown your grand-kids)

John Kerry: Our Historic Agreement With China on Climate Change - NYTimes.com - John Kerry: Our Historic Agreement With China on Climate Change
BREAKING: The US and China Just Announced a Huge Deal on Climate—and It's a Game Changer | Mother Jones - The surprise agreement aims to double the pace of carbon pollution reduction in the United States.

Mali Reports 2 New Ebola Deaths In Bamako - Malian authorities on Wednesday reported two new deaths from Ebola that are not believed to be linked to the nation's only other known case, an alarming setback as Mali tries to limit the epidemic ravaging other countries in the region.

$300,000 an Hour: The Cost of Fighting ISIS - The Atlantic - What price will the U.S. ultimately pay to neutralize the Islamic State?
Afghanistan sees rise in poppy cultivation - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English - UN report says opium production has increased by seven percent over last year despite counter-anti-narcotics programmes.

Ukraine crisis: Russian troops crossed border, Nato says

Sailors attacked, have bags placed over heads in Turkey - CNN.com

India mass sterilisation: women were ‘forced’ into camps, say relatives | World news | The Guardian - The exact cause of the deaths was not yet clear but officials said they suspected blood loss and infection caused by unclean surgical equipment. Government guidelines recommending that a surgeon should not use a single instrument for more than 10 operations appear to have been ignored.

Obama’s call for an open Internet puts him at odds with regulators - The Washington Post (who he appointed +Wheeler: “What I’ve got to figure out is how to split the baby.”)
Watch out: the US government wants to pass new spying laws behind your back | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - . The vague and ambiguous law would essentially allow companies like Google and Facebook to hand over even more of your personal information to the US government, all of which could ultimately end up in the hands of the NSA and the FBI.
Obama’s call for an open Internet puts him at odds with regulators - The Washington Post

Fight for Big Ideas: Expand Social Security | Nancy Altman - Why did Democrats lose on election night? Because not enough of them were fighting for big ideas. As Sen. Bernie Sanders says in the video at the top of the post, the American people are united in support of expanding Social Security, but too few candidates were talking about that big idea.
U.S. Companies Now Stashing $2 Trillion Overseas - NBC News.com - That total, while daunting in its own right, is now greater than the amount held on U.S. shores, which totals just under $1.9 trillion, according to the latest Federal Reserve flow of funds tally.

Without Obamacare, I would have died. I’m scared the Supreme Court is going to gut the part that saved me. - The Washington Post

South Carolina's gay marriage ban struck down in federal court | US news | The Guardian - Judge cites fourth circuit decision in Virginia in ruling knocking down same-sex marriage ban, but gives time for state to appeal
Maryland schools avoid recognising Muslim holiday by renaming others | US news | The Guardian - Maryland’s largest school district has voted to strip religious labels from holidays on next year’s school calendar after Muslims sought recognition of a holy day.

Officials: Kansas Faces $279M Budget Gap By July - The state will also be required to close an even bigger additional gap — $436 million — during the following 12 months, according to the new forecast. (cut taxes! go bankrupt! get re-elected! dismantle schools!)

There Is No Rise of Republican Pragmatists | Ten Miles Square | The Washington Monthly - Maybe the definition of insanity isn’t doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result but watching the same thing over and over again and expecting the Republicans to become practical or moderate.

Don't Soul-Search. Stiffen Your Backbone. | Bill de Blasio - As a Democrat, I'm disappointed in last Tuesday's results. But as a progressive, I know my party need not search for its soul -- but rather, its backbone.

Police Use Department Wish List When Deciding Which Assets to Seize - NYTimes.com - “little goodies.” (cops are the new organized crime)
Police killings highest in two decades - The number of felony suspects fatally shot by police last year — 461— was the most in two decades, according to a new FBI report.
Study: Brazilian cops killed more than 11,000 people in 5 years | CTV News

Palmer school officials cited Fifth Amendment in charter revocation hearing - 77 times - Even in a school district with more than its share of charter-school controversies, the answers stood out. Questioned about billing practices, two officials of an embattled Philadelphia charter school cited their Fifth Amendment right to silence - 77 times. (for-profit education! profit! from your local charter school grifters)
How baby boomers ruined parenting forever - Quartz - A “helicopter parent” micromanages every aspect of his child’s routine and behavior.

Terry Eagleton reviews Trouble in Paradise and Absolute Recoil by Slavoj Žižek | Books | The Guardian - Every emergence of fascism, Walter Benjamin wrote, bears witness to a failed revolution. In the Muslim world, the west has played a major role in stamping on such movements, creating a political vacuum into which fundamentalism was then able to move. It cannot now feign innocence of its predatory past in the face of the Islamist backlash it has helped to unleash.
Gentrification as Total War or "Triumph of the Williamsburg" - Social Matter - The essay that follows is a very brief history of the conquest of many American cities by a predominantly black underclass, the nascent Reconquista, and an examination of the strategies and tactics in use. I choose to look at gentrification through the lens of total war.

How To Eradicate A Disease | More Intelligent Life - A generation ago, guinea-worm disease was bringing misery to millions; now it is down to two cases a week. Tom Whipple talks to its nemesis, Donald Hopkins, who has already helped to see off smallpox
New Statesman | Genes are not as important as you might think - According to a growing number of researchers, the standard story of the influence of genes is overblown. So many other factors influence how we turn out as individuals and how we evolve as a species that the fundamentals of biology need a rewrite. “This is no storm in an academic tearoom,” a group of biologists wrote in the journal Nature in October. “It is a struggle for the very soul of the discipline.”

Gut–brain link grabs neuroscientists : Nature News & Comment - Although correlations have been noted between the composition of the gut microbiome and behavioural conditions, especially autism1, neuroscientists are only now starting to understand how gut bacteria may influence the brain

What website had the greatest fall from grace? : AskReddit

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Craig Spencer, declared free of Ebola, says he is 'living example' of how virus protocols worked | US news | The Guardian - Spencer, 33, says ‘I am healthy and no longer infectious’ and leaves hospital in New York to rapturous applause
There Are Now Zero Cases Of Ebola In The United States | ThinkProgress

China Turns Up the Rhetoric Against the West - NYTimes.com - He compared unfavorable American news coverage of China to Hitler’s treatment of the Jews

Indian women die after state-run mass sterilisation campaign goes wrong | World news | The Guardian - Eight women have died and dozens more are in hospital after doctor reportedly carried out 80 operations in five hours

My Best Hacker Source Was Snitching for the Feds — Backchannel — Medium

HUFFPOLLSTER: What Last Week's Election Tells Us About Latino And Asian Voters
The secret to raising the minimum wage may be to stop trusting Democrats | Sarah Jaffe | Comment is free | The Guardian

Republicans Vow to Fight E.P.A. and Approve Keystone Pipeline - NYTimes.com

Highway seizure in Iowa fuels debate about asset-forfeiture laws - The Washington Post - By the time the encounter was over, the gamblers had been detained for more than two hours. Their car was searched without a warrant. And their cellphones, a computer and $100,020 of their gambling “bankroll” were seized under state civil asset-forfeiture laws.

Cancer's 'Frankenstein' DNA mystery solved › News in Science (ABC Science) - The creation of a 'Frankenstein' chromosome that steals the DNA it needs to grow and survive has been detailed for the first time in research led by Australian scientists ... However, neochromosomes are much bigger than normal chromosomes, in some cases containing over 700 million base pairs
Scientists Discover Genes That Helped Turn Fearsome Wildcats Into House Cats | WIRED

It’s Official: Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives - NYTimes.com - some already married and one only 14 years old.

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‘Nobody Is Truly Ready' For Rise Of Seas - The report warns that coastal property and infrastructure could be a foot lower in just a few decades than is the case today, portending an unprecedented crisis for which the nation appears to be frightfully ill-prepared. U.S. coastal cities, established in centuries past when seas were 8 inches lower than they are today, are now flooding regularly during high tides

Syrian rebel leader: US-led attacks on Isis are undermining anti-Assad forces | World news | The Guardian - Hadi al-Bahra claims Syrians see US-led coalition turning a blind eye to Assad’s forces while failing to liaise with Free Syrian Army

Mexican police injured in Acapulco during protests over student massacre | World news | The Guardian - Fury at the disappearance of 43 student teachers continues to spread as masked protesters clash with riot police
Catalonia’s independence vote – illegal, and hopefully irresistible | Matthew Tree | Comment is free | The Guardian - Within months Catalonia could be the latest of Europe’s new countries: an example to the world of how to resolve border disputes
Geologists Who Didn't Predict an Earthquake Aren't Killers, Italian Court Rules | Motherboard
Suicide bomber in school uniform kills 47 in Nigeria - Yahoo News

Everything you need to know about the Trans Pacific Partnership - The Washington Post
Obama Urges World Leaders To Approve Elusive, Potentially 'Historic' Trans-Pacific Trade Deal - Disputes between the U.S. and Japan on market access for their major industries have been at the heart of the stalemate over the trade deal. China is not a party to the trade talks.

The Latest Frivolous Attack on Obamacare - NYTimes.com - What they are, instead, is corrupt, willing to pervert the law to serve political masters. And what we’ll find out in the months ahead is how deep the corruption goes.

GOP-Obama Compromise Would Mean a Scary Win for Big Business | The Fiscal Times

Cable companies 'stunned' by Obama's 'extreme' net neutrality proposals | Technology | The Guardian - Major telecoms, lobbyist groups and politicians sharply respond to president’s call for greater regulation of internet as utility
Ted Cruz Lashes Out Against Net Neutrality, Calls It 'Obamacare For The Internet' - "Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.
Dear Senator Ted Cruz, I'm going to explain to you how Net Neutrality ACTUALLY works - The Oatmeal
All I can think of when I hear that Obama has weighed in on Net Neutrality. His actions speak much louder than words. : AdviceAnimals

Six Points on the Midterm Elections | Jacobin - It’s not the 1930s anymore — white people in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Arkansas despise anything that reminds them of the national Democratic party, which they already think is socialist as it is. They don’t want it to move left, they think it’s grotesquely left enough.

Valerie Jarrett, The Obama Whisperer | New Republic - When I asked a longtime source who left the Obama White House years ago for his impressions of Jarrett, he confessed that he was too fearful to speak with me, even off the record. (she opposed Larry Summers at Treasury and was among the first Obama aides to come around on Hillary Clinton at State)
The knives are out for Valerie Jarrett, the close adviser who 'gets' Obama | US news | The Guardian - with The Obama Whisperer, a piece by Noam Scheiber of the New Republic that captures an unusual number of gripes – anonymously reported, of course – about the Obamas’ vacation companion and closest confidant.

States Listen as Parents Give Rampant Testing an F - NYTimes.com - Because schools do not have computers for every student, tests are staggered throughout the day, which translates to more hours spent administering tests and less time teaching. Students who are not taking tests often occupy their time watching movies. The staggered test times also mean computer labs are not available for other students.
Eschaton: Did The Grifters Go Too Far - The testing is there to make testing companies get rich and to provide an excuse to turn schools in to for profit charters.

Detroit bankruptcy exit plan approved by US judge - The plan includes a 4.5% cut to the pension plans of general retirees

Police Can Seize And Sell Assets Even When The Owner Broke No Law : The Two-Way : NPR (all your stuff are belong to them)
More Than Six in 10 Americans Say Guns Make Homes Safer - The percentage of Americans who believe having a gun in the house makes it a safer place to be (63%) has nearly doubled since 2000, when about one in three agreed with this. Three in 10 Americans say having a gun in the house makes it a more dangerous place.

This Is What It's Like To Fly Above Manhattan



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Remains of Typhoon Nuri beat north Pacific records and Sandy - NY Daily News - The record-breaking storm was stronger than anything that ever whipped through the north Pacific Ocean in recent recorded history and even Hurricane Sandy that slammed the East Coast in 2012.

Kaci Hickox, Nurse Who Fought Ebola Quarantine, To Leave Maine: Report - Tom Pelletier, Fort Kent's chief of police, said he had received calls from people who wanted him to arrest Hickox, local media reported. - Wilbur told the Press Herald he has withdrawn from his nursing program at the University of Maine at Fort Kent because university officials were not doing enough to stop threats against him. (they were all listening to Fox and voting for LePage)

Fall Of The Berlin Wall 25 Years Ago Marked In Germany
It's Been 25 Years Since The Fall Of The Berlin Wall. These 16 Photos Tell The Story.

Pentagon: leaked special forces mission details could endanger national security | US news | The Guardian - Statement comes after identification of two members of the team that killed Osama bin Laden (National Security is a wimp)

ISIS Leader Wounded In Airstrike, Report Iraqi Officials - Neither knew the extent of al-Baghdadi's apparent injuries. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential material. State television later also reported that al-Baghdadi had been wounded.
Obama confident US troop surge in Iraq will put coalition on offensive | World news | The Guardian - Comments draw emerging parallel to past US military strategy in Iraq
Times of Iraq: Iraqi troops takes back control of Iraq's biggest oil refinery from ISIS
How A Libyan City Joined The Islamic State Group - Darna, a Mediterranean coastal city long notorious as Libya's center for jihadi radicals

Protesters set fire to Mexican palace as anger over missing students grows | World news | The Guardian - Attack on building in Mexico City caps day of protest at the apparent massacre of 43 students
'I've had enough,' says Mexican attorney general in missing students gaffe | World news | The Guardian - ‘Ya me canse’ becomes a rallying call for anger over the government’s handling of the apparent killing of 43 students
Mexican gang members admit to burning alive 43 students found massacred | Daily Mail Online - Gang members waded into the ashes to remove remaining teeth and bone

Violence spreads across Israel after shooting in Galilee | World news | The Guardian - Video evidence shows police firing at Kheir Hamdan, 22, as he was running away from them – contradicting the police story
Iran's Khamenei proposes plan for Israel's elimination - on Twitter - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz - The plan does not condone throwing Jews into the sea, but does call for arming the West Bank.
Israel recognises "Aramaics" as separate ethnic group - But critics call it an attempt by the government to encourage splits within its Arab population, which largely defines itself as Palestinian and makes up about a fifth of the country's 8.2 million citizens.

Marking fall of the Berlin Wall, Mikhail Gorbachev warns the West - LA Times - “Instead of building new mechanisms and institutions of European security and pursuing a major demilitarization of European politics, the West, and particularly the United States, declared victory in the Cold War.” As a result, he said, “a blister has now turned into a bloody, festering wound.”
Winston Churchill's 'bid to nuke Russia' to win Cold War - uncovered in secret FBI files | Daily Mail Online - Britain's war-time leader urged the US to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union to win the Cold War (guy with a hammer)

Ukraine crisis: Heavy bombardment in rebel-held Donetsk
Ukraine crisis: Intense fighting in rebel bastion Donetsk; monitoring group OSCE 'very concerned' by military convoys - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - Intense artillery fighting has broken out in the separatist bastion of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to AFP journalists in the area.

?Putin, Xi Jinping sign mega gas deal on second gas supply route — RT Business
China's Corruption Crackdown Pummels Macau Casinos : Parallels : NPR - Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal. It's also a giant pipeline for moving money out of the mainland and beating the government's strict currency controls.

Waning Power for Blacks and Democrats by Martin Longman | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - With the defeat of Rep. John Barrow of Georgia, there are no longer any white Democrats from the Deep South in the U.S. House of Representatives. We’re excluding Florida here, which I think is justified in this day and age, and if Mary Landrieu loses her runoff election next month, there will no longer be any white Democrats from the Deep South in the U.S. Senate, either. There’s no point in sugar-coating this. In the Deep South, the Democratic Party is now the non-white party
The GOP Won’t Stop Suppressing Our Votes by Martin Longman | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Nearly five times as many voters in 2010 used the voting reforms eliminated by the North Carolina GOP—200,000 voted during the now-eliminated first week of early voting, 20,000 used same-day registration and 7,000 cast out-of-precinct ballots.

Big Review Set By Democrats After Election Losses - A party committee will conduct a "top-to-bottom assessment" of the Democrats' performance in recent midterm elections and try to determine why they have struggled to turn out its core voters in nonpresidential elections. (Debbie and Steve will investigate themselves, which will really work)
GOP-Obama Compromise Would Mean a Scary Win for Big Business | The Fiscal Times (some compromise, eh?)
Current And Incoming Republican Senators Set Out Pro-Corporate Agenda For 114th Congress (because Obama wasn't pro=coporate enough)

Eschaton: The Audience - Or is it plumping the Hungarian goose-down pillows of the already quite cozy? -- (Ombud:) I asked the executive editor, Dean Baquet, whom he has in mind when he directs coverage and priorities. “I think of The Times reader as very well-educated, worldly and likely affluent,” he said. “But I think we have as many college professors as Wall Street bankers.” - (Atrios:) The college professor poors reader our paper too! - There just aren't that many rich people.

Elizabeth Warren: It’s time to work on America’s agenda - The Washington Post
Bernie Gets it Right » Balloon Juice - Bernie Sanders got it right (around 2:30): “The vast majority of people are giving up on the political system.” If you believe that, and if you couple it with Bernie’s other observation near the end of the video, which is that Democrats are afraid of taking positions that will anger the big money donors financing their campaigns, then how are we going to get the people who have given up to engage? (Barry destroyed the Democratic Party for 100 years)

George W. Bush: ‘You have to earn your way into politics,’ nothing ‘is ever given to you’ (the "flotsam" is in his head)

Lessons from the Rabbit Hole by Martin Longman | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Pamela Harriman - it seems fitting to think about Harriman’s role as kingmaker for the Democrats. The mother of Winston Churchill’s grandson and economic populism don’t necessarily go together, and that could be a metaphor for problems that still bedevil us.

Breitbart's Attack On Obama Attorney General Nominee Goes After The Wrong Loretta Lynch | Blog | Media Matters for America - UPDATE: Breitbart.com posted corrections to the articles that confused the two attorneys, noting at bottom that "[t]he Loretta Lynch identified earlier as the Whitewater attorney was, in fact, a different attorney." (idiots)
Same old Clinton attacks again | Gene Lyons | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art - However, a journalist who chooses to question a presidential candidate's character by dragging up 20-year-old controversies owes it to readers to know two or three things about them. (more idiots)

Mormon Bishop Under Fire For Barring Reid From Temple - A Mormon bishop in Los Angeles is under fire for his assertion that Sen. Harry Reid is unworthy to enter the faith's temples because of his support of Democratic Party positions.
Top GOP Senator Complains Obama Doesn't Seem Ready To Compromise - Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 4 Senate Republican, on Sunday said President Obama has not shown that he's willing to work with Republicans. (they have no irony sensors)

WATCH: Deputy suspended for hitting, threatening man who declined to be searched | FOX31 Denver
A New York sheriff’s deputy was suspended late this week after a viral video surfaced that appeared to show him slapping and threatening a man who declined to let him search his car without a warrant : news
Deputy Who Killed 19-Year-Old Samantha Ramsey Won't Be Indicted - A Kentucky deputy who witnesses say jumped onto the roof of a 19-year-old girl's car and opened fire on her will not be indicted in the girl's death. ("self-defense")

Scientists Achieve Direct Brain-To-Brain Communication Between Humans - The accuracy among the pairs ranged from 25 to 83 percent, with errors attributed primarily to the sender's failure to "accurately execute" the fire-command thought rather than the hardware.
Higher antioxidant and lower cadmium concentrations and lower incidence of pesticide residues in organically grown crops: a systematic literature review and meta-analyses
Synthetic Platelet Super-Mimics Halt Bleeding Three Times Faster | Neomatica
Silicon Nitride Microtubes Direct Neuron Growth | Chemical & Engineering News - Bioengineering: Arrays of silicon nitride microtubes could be used to design synthetic neural circuits for studying the brain and developing new medical devices


Crypto attack that hijacked Windows Update goes mainstream in Amazon Cloud | Ars Technica - Collision attack against widely used MD5 algorithm took 10 hours, cost just 65 cents.


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News from The Associated Press - Tensions between the major powers have pushed the world closer to a new Cold War, former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Saturday.

North Korea releases US citizens Bae and Miller as Clapper flies in | World news | The Guardian - Director of national intelligence brings Americans home - Officials: release not related to nuclear question, no quid pro quo

Pope demotes outspoken American conservative cardinal | Reuters - Cardinal Raymond Burke, 66, was removed as head of the Vatican's highest court and appointed to the ceremonial post of chaplain of the charity group Knights of Malta. (Francis continues his purge of the Cult of the Red Beanie Assholes)

ISIS chief ‘critically wounded’ in air raid: reports - Al Arabiya News
US air strikes destroy Isis convoy but reports leader targeted are unconfirmed | World news | The Guardian - US says unclear if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi present at time of strike - Iraq hit by suicide bombings on Friday and Saturday

If America is going to reveal the truth about torture, Obama must end Gitmo’s cover-up court | Anthony D Romero | Comment is free | The Guardian - At last, the report on Bush-era secrets is coming – and it’s the perfect chance for Obama to finally keep his promise about justice at Guantánamo Bay
War. Torture. The NSA. And Jerusalem? The American president's addiction to king-like power must end | Erwin Chemerinsky | Comment is free | The Guardian - On Monday, the US supreme court will argue Zivotofsky v Kerry in the context of a decades-long dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, and in a moment when the symbolism of statehood matters as much as ever ... but if anything in the Constitution remains clear it is that the framers rejected unchecked executive power
Fascism, American-Style » CounterPunch: Unbeknownst to most Americans the United States is presently under thirty presidential declared states of emergency. They confer vast powers on the Executive Branch including:
US government sees off legal challenge over Guantánamo force-feeding | US news | The Guardian - Federal udge denies inmate’s request to change treatment Criticises administration’s lack of ‘common sense and compassion’ (so Obama seems to be torturing people)
Imprisoned terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui wants to testify in Oklahoma City federal court | News OK - Zacarias Moussaoui also is claiming a Saudi prince assisted him in Norman in “my Islamic Terrorist activities” there in 2001. Moussaoui took flight lessons at a Norman flight school in 2001 as part of his plan to pilot a plane into a building. (another piece of Obama's continuing coverup)

Destroying online freedom in the name of counter-terrorism will make the world a more dangerous place - It is not terrorists who threaten that future of the internet, but our intelligence and security services

Emails Show Holder’s Anger During ‘Fast and Furious’ Probe - Washington Wire - WSJ - Newly revealed emails show Attorney General Eric Holder trying and failing to contain his temper over the botched Fast and Furious probe, at one point saying “some people can kiss my a—‘’ if they think he was too hard on a U.S. Attorney pushed out over the scandal.
Because Shut Up, That’s Why » Balloon Juice - Basically, Caroline Felsenthal has a fact free piece up at Politico demanding that President Obama fire Valerie Jarrett because. And no, that is not a typo, that is her entire argument (+politico disappeared lines that "didn't fit the narrative")
A Politico Hit Job on Valerie Jarrett by Martin Longman | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Carol Felsenthal

Why many aren't celebrating low U.S. unemployment | CTV News - "People aren't looking at the statistical aggregates," said Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "They care about their standard of living, and most Americans think their standard of living has declined."
CBRE report warns 50 per cent of occupations will be redundant in 20 years time | Daily Mail Online - Artificial intelligence will mean that many jobs will be done by computers - Customer work, process work and middle management will 'disappear'

Supreme Court Obamacare Decision in King v Burwell Is Life or Death | New Republic - The Supreme Court Is Now a Death Panel (they were always obsessed with it)
Health Care Reform Imperiled - NYTimes.com - Will five Supreme Court justices eliminate essential health care subsidies for more than four million lower-income Americans, based on a contorted reading of four words?

More homeless-feeding arrests in Ft. Lauderdale amid national backlash | News - Home - Police break up homeless feeding at Stranahan Park


Our addiction to criminalising human behaviour makes a mockery of private responsibility | Simon Jenkins | Comment is free | The Guardian - From drinking while pregnant to urinating on a war memorial, the law’s ambition has no limits- If poisoning your foetus with alcohol is a crime, why is it not a crime to abort it?


PLOS ONE: Interaction between Neuroanatomical and Psychological Changes after Mindfulness-Based Training - Taken together, these findings documented the significant impact of a brief MBSR training on brain structures, as well as stressing the idea of MBSR as a valuable tool for alexithymia modulation, also originally providing a plausible neurobiological evidence of a major role of right insula into mediating the observed psychological changes.
Why Scientists Think Completely Unclassifiable and Undiscovered Life Forms Exist | Motherboard
DNA Sequencing Led Researchers to Discover "Microbial Dark Matter" | Motherboard - "This is what we call 'microbial dark matter,'" Tanja Woyke, a researcher at the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said. "They are branches in the tree of life that have no representatives."

Police: 4 teens accused of videotaping sex with intoxicated... | www.wsoctv.com - “It's not just calls. It's pictures, texts, Facebook all of them,” said mother Cathy Davis.

Update to "I found out my 13 y/o son is gay... He hasn't told me, but I want to support him. What can I do?" : askgaybros

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Intense Storm Headed To Alaska's Aleutian Islands Will Also Bring Cold Temps To Much Of U.S. - hurricane-force winds and waves 50 feet high
Climate Diplomacy as Partisan Fun | Ten Miles Square | The Washington Monthly - President Obama’s political situation after the mid-term election defeat of the Democrats is the same as it was before

Mark Udall: What He Should Do And Why He Won't - Esquire - I wish Mark Udall would do what the Guardian suggests, but I do not propose he martyr himself in the process. It is long past time for the country to know the horrors perpetrated in its name, and the people who committed them on the country's dime. (because Obama won't because the CIA won't let him)

Obama doubles US troop levels in Iraq for war against Isis | US news | The Guardian - Pledge to avoid ‘boots on the ground’ strained as 1,500 additional US troops ordered to Iraq to bolster Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State
Purely in an Advisory Capacity » Balloon Juice - #POTUS has authorized #SecDef Hagel to deploy up to 1,500 additional U.S. personnel over the coming months, in a non-combat role to #Iraq. - Haven’t we been training the Iraqi military for 10 years now, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars? They’ve got to be the most trained motherfuckers in the world by now.

Bin Laden ‘Shooter’ Story Is FUBAR, Special Ops Sources Say - The Daily Beast - One man says he killed the world’s most wanted terrorist. His former colleagues say that’s a stretch—at best.

Mexico: ‘We Are Not Sheep to Be Killed’ by Alma Guillermoprieto | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books
Mexico: Gang Members Confess To Mass Killing In Missing Students Probe - Members of a gang arrested in a probe into the disappearance of a group of 43 trainee teachers feared massacred have admitted to killing a large group of people, Mexico's attorney general said on Friday - 30 years of drug war by the U.S., and this is the result: our southern neighbor is a narco state. Didn't anybody see what happened during Prohibition?

Ukraine Says Tank Column, Artillery Systems And Trucks Have Crossed Into Eastern Ukraine From Russia
The Advocate Names Vladimir Putin 'Person of the Year' - "Driving the governmental, religious, and popular disdain for gays and lesbians," writes the magazine's Jeremy Lybarger, "the Russian president became the single greatest threat to LGBTs in the world in 2014."

Matt Taibbi On Leaving First Look Media: ‘I Am Sad That It Didn't Work Out' ("I really can't talk about it")
Matt Taibbi and JPMorgan whistleblower rip Justice Dept.’s coddling of Wall Street offenders

FBI Admits Agent Impersonated Reporter During Criminal Investigation - FBI Director James Comey says an agent impersonated an Associated Press reporter during a 2007 criminal investigation, a ruse the news organization says could undermine its credibility.

Supreme Court To Almost Certainly Deny Millions of People Health Insurance - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Supreme Court Accepts New Challenge to Health Law - NYTimes.com - potentially imperiling President Obama’s signature legislative achievement two years after it survived a different challenge in the court by a single vote. (fuck off and die, non-rich)
Supreme Court Grants Cert in Obamacare Challenge, King v. Burwell | New Republic - The latest legal challenge to Obamacare just became very credible—and very dangerous.
Newest, Craziest Legal Challenge to Obamacare -- NYMag - This is a mind-blowing development, given that the challenge was dismissed as frivolous outside of the right-wing activists who initially devised it ... King v. Burwell is not so much a radical legal doctrine as it is a Monty Python-esque exercise in extreme tendentiousness.
Steven Dennis on Twitter: "By this time next year, CBO expects net +20M people will have health insurance due to ACA. By end of 2016: +25M." (Supremes: "well, screw them")

Triumph of the Wrong - NYTimes.com - obstructionism bordering on sabotage is a winning political strategy. (and in 2010, President Obama said "After all, small businesses and families are tightening their belts. Their government should, too" as he announced a two-year pay freeze on federal government workers)
Midterms Rewarded Personal Irresponsibility by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - You’d better believe that if Republicans are ever in the position Democrats were in when McConnell and company decided on this scorched-earth strategy, this lesson of 2014 will be remembered—because after all, personal irresponsibility was rewarded.

Are you reflected in the new Congress? | US news | The Guardian
AmericanStudies: November 7, 2014: Exemplary Elections: 1994 - November 7, 2014: Exemplary Elections: 1994

Unemployment Is Down, But Wages Aren't Up (only shit jobs left, no point in voting Dem)
Bringing the Financial Sector To Heel by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - And despite the heavy responsibility of the financial sector for the disaster of 2008, its fundamental problems have by no means gone away.

Consumers to Get Peek at 2015 Obamacare Premiums - DailyFinance
Public Opinion Strategies » Blog Archive » Poll shows that the ACA was not as much of a vote factor in 2014 as it was in 2010.

Federal Court Clears Way For Gay Marriage In Kansas

Mpls. Mayor Flashes Gang Sign with Convicted Felon; Law Enforcement Outraged | KSTP TV - Minneapolis and St. Paul (their own commenters destroy them)
#pointergate may be the most racist news story of 2014

This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy_11.7.14 - Esquire - t was a very big week out in the Wild Kingdom, and what can we say, but...Gordon Klingenschmitt.
Gordon Klingenschmitt of Colorado is the craziest anti-gay legislator in America.
Meet 'Dr. Chaps' Gordon Klingenschmitt: Colorado's New Anti-Gay, Demon Hunting State Legislator | Right Wing Watch - Klingenschmitt is a viciously anti-gay theocrat who believes that gay people "want your soul" and may sexually abuse their own children, which is why he says they should face government discrimination since only people who are going to heaven are entitled to equal treatment by the government:

You’ll Never Guess Why This Woman Was Arrested -- NYMag - This woman was arrested in Kentucky on Tuesday, but you will literally never guess what for. It's a complete and utter mystery.

Starbucks enforces new dress code for employees - AOL.com - Can't believe @Starbucks won't let women wear engagement rings but facial piercings are okay. THAT is NOT OKAY.

Swiss robot tricks brain into hallucinating ‘ghostly presences’ in empty rooms - “You really need a sensorimotor mismatch for Feeling of Presence,” EPFL scientist Giulio Rognini said.

The American Shakespeare Center's Education Department Blog: "Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds, but Harry Harry": Political Rhetoric in Inaugural Speeches - I began with a rhetorical analysis of President Obama's 2009 and 2013 inaugural addresses (and Shakespeare, interesting)

Inside America's Number 1 Party School: The University of Pennsylvania | New Republic - The University of Pennsylvania has the least distinctive identity of any prestigious college in America. In September, Playboy conferred on Penn a surprising new title: Number One Party School in America.

? Hey Joe - Johnny Rivers - YouTube

Serial: listeners of podcast phenomenon turn detectives – with troubling results | Television & radio | The Guardian - Based on a real-life murder, Serial has captivated listeners around the world. But when the show’s fans started doing their own investigations on Reddit, it took the phenomenon into uncharted waters

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Climate change denier Jim Inhofe in line for Senate's top environmental job | Environment | The Guardian - Obama faces a fight to protect his climate change agenda after midterm results suggest Senate’s top environmental post will fall to Republican stalwart of climate denial

Brussels Airlines CEO issues stern warning to Ebola affected States | Sierra Express Media - “any passenger tested Ebola positive on board Brussels Airlines will provoke an automatic suspension of flights to the three countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea”.

Khorasan group back in US crosshairs as air strikes hit non-Isis targets in Syria | US news | The Guardian - Air strikes on little-known group alleged to be al-Qaida affiliate raise questions about expansion of US air war in Syria and Iraq

Obama pens secret letter to Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei as nuclear deadline looms | US news | The Guardian - Letter, written in October, reportedly referenced shared interest between the US and Iran in combatting Isis militants in Iraq and Syria (that was some "secret")

Law enforcement lost public's trust after NSA leaks, says UK police chief | World news | The Guardian - Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Metropolitan police commissioner, says law enforcement must strike balance between security and privacy in wake of Snowden revelations
Intelligence agencies spying on lawyers in sensitive security cases | World news | The Guardian - Internal MI5, MI6 and GCHQ documents reveal routine interception of legally privileged communications

The Dickens Dossier: Secret file on establishment paedophiles may be opened - Crime - UK - The Independent - A secret file which is said to contain the names of paedophiles with links to the British establishment and which is rumoured to be locked away in archives at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, could be made public as part of the Government’s child abuse inquiry.
FBI Arrests SpaceX Employee, Alleging He Ran The 'Deep Web' Drug Marketplace Silk Road 2.0 | Business Insider - FBI Arrests SpaceX Employee, Alleging He Ran The 'Deep Web' Drug Marketplace Silk Road 2.0

The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare | Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi | November 6, 2014
Taibbi Returns To Rolling Stone With Piece That Was 'Supposed To Launch' New Site

Anger Over Executive Action On Immigration Is No Excuse For GOP Stalling, Politicians Say (another brilliant strategy from the Deporter-in-Chief who lost the Latino vote and further screwed the country with more Repubicans by not being a Democrat)
Boehner warns of 'big trouble' if Obama forces through immigration reform | US news | The Guardian - Republican House speaker sets confrontational tone in first post-midterms comment, saying the president will ‘burn himself’ if he uses executive action to overcome congressional deadlock

Republicans Crush Democrats At State Level, Control Two-Thirds Of Legislatures Now
Democrats Have Great Exciting New Idea: Being Democrats | Wonkette
Eschaton: Let's Keep Chasing The People Who Don't Vote For Us - Instead of the people who might. The Dem midterm strategy is just wrong. The consultants can get rich and everyone can blame The Left, but whatever. It isn't working
On his way to a slim victory in a changing Va., Warner may have wooed wrong voters - The Washington Post (the 'ol DSCC brilliant strategy of wooing Republicans)
Climate Denier Ted Cruz May Lead Senate Science Subcommittee | New Republic (that'll work)
5 New GOP Governors Could Undercut Medicaid Expansion (just die, poors)
Mark Warner, Loyal to (Nearly) the End by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Sometimes very smart people have a hard time abandoning the monuments of their brilliance. And it nearly cost Warner—and the Democratic Party—a slam-dunk Senate race.
Unhappy With The Election Results? Just Look At The People Your Neighbors Voted Into Office
Democrats Have Two Choices: Gridlock or Disaster -- NYMag
Racism and Republican Victory - Lawyers, Guns & Money : It’s pretty difficult to argue that racists are not a huge part of the Republican coalition. Every since the moment Obama won the presidency, white racial resentment has been flowing out of American conservatives and that is a hate well that remains uncapped.

Here's Some Stupid For Lunch - Esquire - Reached in the Beyond, St. Thomas More shook his head. Then he put it back down on the table and resumed drinking heavily. (classic CPP)

US appeals court upholds gay marriage bans in four states

Wal-Mart cuts health benefits for 30,000 part-timers - Oct. 7, 2014 - The cut applies to part-timers who work fewer than 30 hours a week -- about 2% of the company's U.S. workforce.
Wal-Mart cuts health benefits for 30,000 part-timers : news

Arnold Abbott arrested for feeding the homeless is arrested again | Daily Mail Online - Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler is speaking out against Abbott, saying homeless people should have to interact with the government to get food

A Japanese court ordered a restaurant to pay more than half a million dollars damages to the family of a man who killed himself after being forced to work nearly 200 hours overtime a month. : worldnews
Texas Girl Was Taken Away From Parents Because They Smoked Pot, Only To Be Killed in Foster Care : news
TIL that in 1963, some Barbie dolls came with a book entitled "How to Lose Weight" which advised "Don't eat!" and a bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs. : todayilearned

Harvard Under Fire For Secret Classroom Photos (after they caught flack for spying on everyones email)

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Climate Change? An Issue for Losers | Power Line - And nobody, but nobody, cared how many millions liberal billionaires spent trying to make climate change an issue.

WHO Lowers Ebola Death Toll, Virus Slowing In Liberia - The three countries have reported 1,828 Ebola cases of the disease over the past 21 days, the maximum incubation period of the virus, and 64 percent of those new cases were in Sierra Leone, 22 percent were in Liberia and 14 percent in Guinea.

Erdogan Decorates $615 Million Palace as Presidency Cost Surges - Bloomberg - A palace four times the size of Versailles. A custom-built Airbus jet. Dozens of servants.

What The Hell Happened To The Democratic Vote? - What did change is that Republicans boosted their percentage among African-Americans from 6 percent won by Romney to 10 percent yesterday; from 27 percent to 35 percent among Latinos; and from 26 percent to 49 percent among Asians.
Postmortem - Lawyers, Guns & Money : A few thoughts, loosely tied together, on last night’s disaster.
Breaking! Working Poor In Florida Freed From Neoliberal Shackles of the Affordable Care Act - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Shorter newly-reelected Gov. Lex Luthor to Florida citizens being offered Medicaid at little cost to the state: “Drop dead, literally.”
9 takeaways from the 2014 election - Vox
Democrats sift through the debris | TheHill
What really went wrong for Democrats - The Washington Post - The failure of the Democrats’ economic message to win over persuadable voters, ones outside the ascendant Democratic coalition, in the numbers needed to offset the structural disadvantages Democratic incumbents and candidates faced.

2014 Election Results: Here's Why Democrats Lost the Senate to GOP | New Republic
Negativity Wins the Senate - NYTimes.com - “If you’re not a voter, you can’t stop Obama.”
The Democrats’ Southern Problem Reaches a New Depth - NYTimes.com - The inability of Southern Democrats to run well ahead of a deeply unpopular Mr. Obama raises questions about how an increasingly urban and culturally liberal national Democratic Party can compete in the staunchly conservative South.
The Polls Were Skewed Toward Democrats | FiveThirtyEight
Harry Reid Should Use Filibuster in Republican-Majority Senate | New Republic
Hullabaloo - And as Howie points out, all those Republicans in Democratic clothing the Party recruited lost as did all the Blue Dogs who've been very reliable GOP votes. It just doesn't pay to be a conservative Democrat these days.
DownWithTyranny!: Why Did The Democrats Do So Badly Last Night? It Goes Beyond Gerrymandering And Obama's Poor Ratings - DSCC Executive Director Guy Cecil will reap big rewards for his incredible string of abject failures yesterday
DownWithTyranny!: Steve Israel Failed Miserably This Cycle-- Here's A Taste Of The Next Week Of Posts - There are 21 seats like this in the House, winnable seats Steve Israel willfully ignored, even if they were much easier than impossible targets in deep red districts where he ran his handpicked Blue Dogs and New Dems.
Even In Deep Red States, Voters Reject Radical 'Personhood' Measures | ThinkProgress - The radical “personhood” movement was dealt a significant blow on Tuesday night, when voters in North Dakota and Colorado resoundingly defeated two ballot initiatives that would have redefined life to extend legal protections to fertilized eggs.

Kansas Stays Kansas - Esquire - The sun is up, and it's Kansas again. All that stuff about competitive independents and reliable polling and there'll be hell to pay for ideological excess? All that was just a dream.
Newly Minted Republican House Of Cranks - Esquire
Gray power and death bets » Balloon Juice - Old people want their Medicare and Social Security untouched or enriched, and don’t give a fuck about birth control as they are no longer in the childbearing cohort, and have minimal direct stakes in costs that are only incurred in fifteen or twenty years from now. They are making a death bet that the costs of their good times today won’t be borne by them as they’ll be dead when the bill comes due. It is a rational bet.
Meet your new craziest Republicans - Rep. Jody Hice, the face of New Republicanism. He'll be defending his Georgia district from the Gays, Muslims, and women who enter politics without their husbands' permission.

Your Weekly Van Loon - Esquire - "On the other hand, when you grow up you will discover that some of the people in this world never passed beyond the stage of the cave-man."

Most States Will Now Have A Higher Minimum Wage Than The One Set By Congress - But after Tuesday's referendums, and after legislation recently passed in Maryland, Hawaii and West Virginia, 29 states and the District of Columbia will soon have minimum wages higher than the federal level.
Poloz’s prescription for unemployed youth: Work for free - The Globe and Mail
Bank of Canada Governor asks unemployed youth if they’ve considered serfdom - The Beaverton - North America's Trusted Source of News
On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs - David Graeber - Hell is a collection of individuals who are spending the bulk of their time working on a task they don’t like and are not especially good at.

Judge overturns Missouri ban on gay marriage - A state judge overturned Missouri's constitutional ban on gay marriage Wednesday in a ruling that immediately set off a rush among some same-sex couples to apply for marriage licenses.

An Unprecedented Look at Stuxnet, the World's First Digital Weapon | WIRED
President Obama: Stop the next unacceptable net neutrality propose from FCC Chair Wheeler - Thomas Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has come up with yet another proposal for net neutrality that is not about net neutrality, but a gift to big telecom (always triangulating with himself)
To Nobody's Surprise, Australian “Terrorism” Law May Be Used for Copyright Enforcement | Electronic Frontier Foundation

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Eschaton: The Ebola Panic Epidemic And Need to Vote - A teacher in Lousville, Kentucky, resigned because of the Ebola panic in the US: How close did Susan Sherman go to the areas of Ebola? This map gives you an idea if you remember that Kenya is on the right edge of the African continent: (they don't teach geography in Catholic schools) can you even imagine what would happen if the party in power during a real Ebola epidemic in the US were the one which wants to choke the public health care system to almost-death and save lots of money through privatizations?
New Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone raises fears of new infection chain | World news | The Guardian - Koinadugu had prided itself on being the only area to have kept Ebola at bay by operating self-imposed quarantine system

ISIS Tortured Kurdish Children Captured In Kobani: Group - Islamic State militants tortured and abused Kurdish children captured earlier this year near the northern Syrian town of Kobani, beating them with hoses and electric cables, an international rights group said Tuesday. (which they learned from Obama's black sites)

Christians beaten to death for allegedly desecrating Qur’an in Pakistan | World news | The Guardian - Bodies of couple burned in a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan, in latest case of violence against minorities accused of blasphemy (Islam is going all Republican)

Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government | Technology | The Guardian - Stewart Baker said that Apple and Google could be restricting their business in markets like China and Russia by encrypting user data

Senate Control Is The Top Prize In The Midterm Election
Senate Election Results 2014 | The Huffington Post - 36 out of the Senate's 100 seats are up for election.
READ IN: Election Day Edition - The Washington Post
Where 25 of Tuesday’s most important state ballot measures stand - The Washington Post
Even Without Voter ID Laws, Minority Voters Face More Hurdles to Casting Ballots | Mother Jones - Heavily black and Latino precincts often have long lines and fewer voting machines on Election Day. Why?
Here Are The Governor Races Still Too Close To Call

Hullabaloo - Pearl clutching strategists run screaming to the press - If the Democratic Party wants to know what's wrong with the Democratic Party it isn't the "professional left" or the "emoprogs" it's the institutional Democrats who run to press and whine like infants every time the Party looks like it's about to an election --- even if it was entirely predictable and is completely reversible 2 years later:
Rachel Maddow Calls Out Conservative Right For Plotting Obama Impeachment

E-mail points to White House involvement in USDA’s firing of Shirley Sherrod - The Washington Post - A 2010 e-mail from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says his department was “waiting for the go-ahead” from the White House before accepting the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, according to newly released documents, despite Obama administration assertions that her ouster was Vilsack’s decision alone. (Obama lied to hide his utterly stupid descision which was an early sign being a Republican at heart)

Mexican mayor arrested over students’ abduction | World news | The Guardian - José Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were arrested in Mexico City without resisting, according to two security officials. They provided no other details. (she thought they might mess up her self-celebration, so she had them all murdered)

The Economic Case for a National Per-Mile Driving Fee - CityLab - It could generate more revenue than we know what to do with—not a bad problem to have. (just raise the damn gas tax)

Do You Decarboxylate Your Weed Before You Cook With It? It Is Highly Recommended | Food Republic
Wake And Brew And Bake: A Morning 'Pot' Of Coffee Takes On An Entirely New Meaning | Food Republic

Two photons interact for the first time in fiber optic experiment : FUTURE TECH : Tech Times
Two photons interact for the first time in fiber optic experiment : science

Danish soldiers get ambushed and surrounded by Taliban fighters. Really intense shit. (12:42) : videos
What are some ugly truths of having sex? : AskReddit

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What next for Burkina Faso? » Africa Is A Country

So Much For That: Obama Syria Strategy In Tatters As U.S.-Backed Rebels Lose To Al Qaeda

Two teenage siblings were arrested with would-be Isis recruit at Chicago airport | World news | The Guardian - Siblings aged 16 and 17 not charged despite sharing ‘barbaric rhetoric’ US citizen Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, could face 15 years in jail
FBI warns against homegrown terror threat - Yahoo News - The United States faces an increasing number of homegrown violent extremists radicalized online and inspired by jihadists in Syria to carry out acts of violence, the FBI warned Monday. (it's all going exactly as planned)

GCHQ chief accuses US tech giants of becoming terrorists' 'networks of choice' | UK news | The Guardian - New director of UK eavesdropping agency accuses US tech firms of becoming ‘networks of choice’ for terrorists (privacy=terrorism)
Glenn Greenwald and Snowden: ‘Nobody Should Use Facebook’ | Mediaite - “He doesn’t use Facebook because he hates Facebook,” he said. “They’re one of the worst violators of privacy in history. Nobody should use Facebook.”

Congressman warns of 'civil war' among Democrats unless Obama acts on immigration | US news | The Guardian - Luis Gutiérrez, a key figure in the push for immigration reform, said president’s decision to delay action has sapped enthusiasm among Hispanic voters (Deporter-in-Chief chased Republicans for six years, reaping what he sowed)
White House insists: we won't fire top advisers if Democrats crash in midterms | US news | The Guardian - Spokesman Josh Earnest downplays suggestion of major cull of president’s team – despite polls showing Republicans on course to claim Senate (nothing succeeds like total failure)
Birthers Hope GOP Congress Will Launch Obama Birth Certificate Probe | Right Wing Watch (get ready for the insanopocalypse)

Two Bad Tastes That Taste Worse Together - Lawyers, Guns & Money : An elected judiciary is a bad idea. An elected judiciary with virtually no campaign finance restrictions is an even worse idea. Charles does an excellent job of explaining why. Let me add this:

What My Book Got Wrong About Obama, Summers, Geithner, Recovery | New Republic - All the other mistakes Obama and his economic team made were painful, but essentially second-order and forgivable. In any case, it’s only fair to grade on a curve in a situation as challenging as the one Obama faced. Financial reform is the one exception. It’s the mistake we’ll be ruing for years.

HUFFPOLLSTER: Odds of GOP Senate Takeover Grow

What Are The Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire - Before we begin, let's stop and pay homage to ol' Panchito himself, Frank Bruni, of The New York Times, who may have written the beau ideal of what Jay Rosen calls journalism's "View From Nowhere," something I was taught against my better judgment in journalism school and which now, confronted with a party gone mad from three decades of a prion disease, is something that is worse than inadequate
Mornings With Joni - Esquire - It was the second stop on Joni Ernst's Just One Thing, 24-hour, Wingnuts Over Iowa Tour. It had begun that morning in Ankeny, at a bagel shop, and it had wound itself up through the sprawling, autumn-browned landscape up to the Newton Manufacturing Company, a century-old firm specializing in the production of promotional detritus for other businesses, large and small.
Former pig castrator Joni Ernst poised to win Iowa Senate seat for Republicans | US news | The Guardian - Republican once considered an obscure one-term state senator has the momentum in Iowa despite suffering the ridicule of her rivals

Chris Quinn, vice president for content at the Northeast Ohio Media Group… What’s up? » Pressthink - The leading news organization in the state sponsors the only event of the campaign when the two major candidates for governor meet face-to-face to discuss the issues. The candidate it endorses behaves contemptuously toward his opponent and tries not to acknowledge his existence. These events are captured on video. The video is posted at the news organization’s own site, then abruptly removed without explanation. Lawsuits are threatened if others post clips. Calls to explain these actions are ignored. National media attention is given to the missing video. The readers representative is prevented from commenting. The editor in charge of the debate goes silent. The election is three days away. (elites always rig elections)

Sex Trafficking Isn't An 'Over There' Issue, 100,000 U.S. Kids Are Sold Into It Every Year (Kristof's meme take off; 300,000 kids are "at risk") "Many of the organizations that received grants didn't really have to do anything," said Wagner, former head of HHS's anti-trafficking program. "They were available to help victims. There weren't any victims."

Cop charged with stealing nude photos from suspect's iPhone - CNET - A California police officer accused of sending nude photos from DUI suspect's phone to his own and sharing them with other officers has been charged with two felonies.

Dark matter: Out with the WIMPs, in with the SIMPs? | Science/AAAS | News - Hypothetical strongly interacting massive particles—or SIMPs—would also better account for some astrophysical observations, they argue.
SIMP or WIMP as Dark Matter | George Rajna - Academia.edu
science.v2.pdf - A Dearth of Dark Matter in Ordinary Elliptical Galaxies
Mirror image RNA enzymes may hold clues to origin of life | Science/AAAS | News - using a technique called test-tube evolution they were able to generate ribozymes capable of assembling RNA strands of the opposite handedness in the presence of a mixture of D- and L-RNA nucleotides.
Scientists Have Discovered How Common Different Sexual Fantasies Are - Business Insider
The Most Common Problems People Have In Bed, According To Sex Experts

Tom Magliozzi, Popular Co-Host Of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies At 77 : NPR
Tom Magliozzi, Co-Host Of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies At 77 - due to complications of Alzheimer's Disease.
Farewell: Car Talk's Tom Magliozzi left laughing
Tom Magliozzi, Popular Co-Host Of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies At 77 : news
How Does Alzheimer's Kill?
? Dawggy Mountain Breakdown - YouTube - The David Grisman Quintet's Dawggy Mountain Breakdown. This is also the theme to the popular radio show Car Talk. This song is the intellectual property of the David Grisman Quintet.

Varieties of Exploitation - Lawyers, Guns & Money : This account of Jian Ghomeshi’s dismissal from the CBC is fascinating and chilling reading. It’s not just that he apparently thought he could bully his CBC superiors like they were 21-year-old journalism students. What’s worse is that I suspect that in his infamous Facebook non-apology he was lying to himself but not to others — that he very sincerely believes he did nothing wrong.
Behind the CBC’s decision to fire Jian Ghomeshi - The Globe and Mail - But the CBC managers were taken aback, and their views on Mr. Ghomeshi’s conduct changed instantly. What they saw, in their opinions, was far more aggressive and physical than anything they had been led to believe during months of discussions.
My Jian Ghomeshi Internship | Bloughts - My first week as an intern included getting a key to his apartment and my duties never went beyond housekeeping or running personal errands. I spent a lot of time in his home, either with others, by myself, or just with him. I never stepped foot in the CBC. My biggest task was probably purchasing his hair wax.
Students were warned away from Q internships: professor | Toronto Star - University of Western Ontario journalism students heard interning at Q was “off limits” over concerns about host Jian Ghomeshi’s “inappropriate” behaviour.
Q producer taking time off as CBC seeks ‘clarity’ around Jian Ghomeshi allegations | Toronto Star - CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson confirmed Arif Noorani has “decided to take a few days off.”
Andrew O’Hagan · Light Entertainment: Our Paedophile Culture · LRB 8 November 2012

Lena Dunham cancels tour dates following bloggers' accusations that she sexually abused her younger sister - CSMonitor.com - Writers for the websites the National Review and Truth Revolt say that passages in Dunham's book 'Not That Kind of Girl' describe Dunham sexually abusing her younger sister. Dunham tweeted, 'Don't twist my words.... I told a story about being a weird 7-year-old.'
Lena Dunham Slams 'Disgusting' Allegations She Molested Her Little Sister
Lena Dunham cancels tour dates following bloggers' accusations that she sexually abused her younger sister : books
Carroll Dunham - Paintings
6-Year-Old Boy Charged With Felony Sexual Assault | TakePart - Kids playing doctor unleash grown-up consequences in Wisconsin.
ApplicableSongLyric comments on FBI 'rescues' more than 100 children forced into prostituion...now many of the children could face criminal prostitution charges. - I'm a 15 year old girl who was charged with Sexual Exploitation of a Minor in my home state and faced 5 years in prison.
When Kids Are Sex Offenders | Boston Review


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U.N. Panel Warns of Dire Effects From Lack of Action Over Global Warming - NYTimes.com
IPCC: rapid carbon emission cuts vital to stop severe impact of climate change | Environment | The Guardian - Most important assessment of global warming yet warns carbon emissions must be cut sharply and soon, but UN’s IPCC says solutions are available and affordable
UN Climate Change Report Delivers Stark Warnings
The Climate-Change Solution No One Will Talk About - The Atlantic - Studies have shown that improved access to birth control can be a valuable tool in slowing global warming, but many politicians are afraid to broach the subject. (personhood)
Richard Berman Energy Industry Talk Secretly Taped - NYTimes.com - Richard Berman Energy Industry Talk Secretly Taped (behold, a minion of Satan)
Fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 says IPCC - The unrestricted use of fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change, a UN-backed expert panel says.

Nurse Apologizes And Promises To Stay Out Of Maine Town Center - "I didn’t mean to bring this media storm onto this community, either, but I think unfortunately sometimes, especially when up against governors, you don’t always have an option," she said Sunday, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Days of Infamy, Days of Hope: Part V by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - On October 27, 2010, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann warned America of the chaos and mayhem that would be inflicted upon this country if Tea Party radicals seized control of Congress: Every word Olbermann said in this commentary has been proven true

FBI Seeking New Invasive Global Hacking Powers - The proposed amendment would allow judges to issue warrants allowing the FBI to hack into any computer, regardless of location. The FBI claims the rule change would help federal investigators conduct surveillance of “anonymized” computers, whose locations have been concealed using tools such as the Internet anonymity networkTor.
The Guantánamo Tapes - NYTimes.com
Microsoft OneDrive in NSA PRISM - ) Bitlocker keys are uploaded to OneDrive by 'device encryption'.

Uprising could trigger Isis undoing, says study | World news | The Guardian - Former counter-terror head at MI6 says Islamic State’s biggest challenge will be controlling dissent
ISIS militants kill 50 tribesmen, women and children, officials say | Fox News
ISIS Militants Kill Over 300 Members Of Defiant Iraqi Tribe - Islamic State militants have killed 322 members of an Iraqi tribe in western Anbar province, including dozens of women and children whose bodies were dumped in a well, the government said in the first official confirmation of the scale of the massacre.
Patrick Cockburn · Whose side is Turkey on?: The Battle for Kobani · LRB 6 November 2014 - Whatever happens at Kobani, Isis is not going to implode. Foreign intervention will only increase the level of violence and the Sunni-Shia civil war will gather force, with no end in sight.
Suicide Bomber in Pakistan Kills More Than 50 People - NYTimes.com - At least 55 people were killed and at least 120 more were wounded Sunday evening after a suicide bomber set off explosives at a border post in eastern Pakistan, police officials said.

Even Israel's Best Friends Understand That It Is Disconnecting From Reality - The Atlantic - An editorial in the leading American Jewish newspaper should be read by Prime Minister Netanyahu as a serious warning.
Snowden Leak: NSA Flagged Israel as Leading Espionage Threat

Kiev claims 'intensive' movements of troops crossing from Russia - Yahoo News
Pro-Russian Separatists Vote For Leaders In War-Torn East Ukraine - Pro-Russian rebels voted in an election to set up a separatist leadership in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, taking the war-torn region closer to Russia and defying Kiev and the West, as shelling continued across the territory.
US Air Force officers: Russian bombers are flying nuclear drills | Metro News

Government blatantly Photoshopped U.S. images of the iconic Canadarm to include ‘Canada’ logo | National Post - Canada blatantly Photoshopped U.S. photos in order to slap a non-existent Canadian logo on the International Space Station, a blog post by the Economist revealed Friday. (Canaduh)

Branson spaceship explosion: The 'missed' warnings - Sir Richard Branson’s company and US authorities were repeatedly warned about safety issues surrounding Virgin Galactic’s rocket engine system

Governor Forecast 2014 | The Huffington Post
When Conspiracy Theories Don't Fit the Media Narrative - The Atlantic - Why haven't Joni Ernst's flirtation with Agenda 21 or Tom Cotton's ideas about ISIS gotten more attention? (media)
Five things that would change in a Republican-led Senate | TheHill - Senate confirmations: The battlefield tilts
Why 2014 Isn’t as Good as It Seems for the Republicans - NYTimes.com - They are favored to win the Senate, and they could pick up enough House seats to finish with their largest margin since 1928.
Ben Stein On Fox: Obama Is "The Most Racist President There Has Ever Been In America" | Video | Media Matters for America

St. Louis Archbishop Carlson claims to be uncertain if he knew sexual abuse was a crime : Lifestyles - “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Carlson replied. “I understand today it’s a crime.”

Maine could elect the country's first gay governor – but LGBT activists are split | US news | The Guardian - He made 18 similar votes against it during his 22 years in Maine’s legislature, and was among just five state senators to oppose it even up to its long-awaited passage in 1997. (Michaud is anti-gay gay guy)

From Michael Brown to Assata Shakur, the racist state of America persists | Angela Davis | Comment is free | The Guardian - what interest would the FBI have in designating a 66-year-old black woman, who has lived quietly in Cuba for the last three and a half decades, as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world – sharing space on the list with individuals whose alleged actions have provoked military assaults on Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria?
Huntsville schools paid $157,000 to former FBI agent, social media monitoring led to 14 expulsions | AL.com - Madison County Commissioner Bob Harrison said the numbers suggest the system is targeting social media activities of black children. "That is effectively targeting or profiling black children in terms of behavior and behavioral issues," said Harrison.

Ferguson No-Fly Zone Was Aimed At Media, Recordings Show - The U.S. government agreed to a police request to restrict more than 37 square miles of airspace surrounding Ferguson, Missouri, for 12 days in August for safety, but audio recordings show that local authorities privately acknowledged the purpose was to keep away news helicopters during violent street protests.

Nic Kristof: The King of the 21st Century White Slavery Scare - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Even though Nic Kristof has been shown to be incredibly gullible about child prostitution, that hasn’t stopped the Times from letting him promote his insane horror rhetoric: "IF prostitution of children is illegal, why is it that we allow an estimated 100,000 underage girls and boys to be sold for sex in America each year — many on a single American website, Backpage.com?" (might be 2.4 million or 1 in 10 kids in America are sex slaves!)
CWA_Decriminalization-of-Prostitution-for-Minors2012.pdf
Concerned Women for America | Right Wing Watch - Concerned Women for America (CWA) describes itself as "the nation's largest public policy women's organization." CWA opposes gay rights, comprehensive sex education, drug and alcohol education, and feminism, while advocating what it calls "pro-life" and "pro-family" values.
Concerned Women for America - The group was launched in the late 1970s by Beverly LaHaye, who still serves as chair, as a counter to Betty Friedan’s National Organization for Women. CWA created “Prayer/Action Chapters” and opposed the Equal Rights Amendment both with television ads and weekly prayer and fasting groups.

Brothers in arms over man hugs | Life and style | The Guardian - Professor Eric Anderson, professor of masculinities, sexualities and sport at the University of Winchester (professor of dude-broism)

Alabama teen's disappearance helps unravel large-scale, incestuo - ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, Sports

Handling of Sexual Harassment Case Poses Larger Questions at Yale - NYTimes.com - A sexual harassment case that has been unfolding without public notice for nearly five years within the Yale School of Medicine has roiled the institution and led to new allegations that the university is insensitive to instances of harassment against women.
Outing sexism is a growing sport – and a big step for equality | Lauren Laverne | Life and style | The Guardian - 2014 is a terrible year to be a sexist arsehole.

The New Heroin Epidemic - The Atlantic - “The distribution to health care professionals of branded promotional items such as OxyContin fishing hats, stuffed plush toys, and music compact discs was unprecedented.”

Led Zeppelin Loses First Round in ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Lawsuit | TIME

Earth’s water has been present since the planet’s earliest days | The Space Reporter - Studies of meteorite samples known to have come from the protoplanet Vesta indicate Earth’s surface had water much earlier than scientists previously believed. Oceans, which now cover 70 percent of the planet, were here as early as 14 million years after the solar system formed.
There Is No ‘Healthy’ Microbiome - NYTimes.com
The Flaw Lurking In Every Deep Neural Net - Rather than patch things up with adversarial training cases, research is needed to explore and eliminate the problem. Until this happens you cannot rely on a neural network in any safety critical system..
A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D. - NYTimes.com - Recent neuroscience research shows that people with A.D.H.D. are actually hard-wired for novelty-seeking — a trait that had, until relatively recently, a distinct evolutionary advantage.
Measuring America’s drinking habit is tricky – here’s how to do it - The Washington Post

LIFT - Upgrade Your Desk to a Sit-to-Stand Smart-Desk by iSkelter — Kickstarter

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Parts Of South Carolina See Earliest Snowfall On Record - Winter arrived early for South Carolina this weekend, as parts of the state received their earliest snowfalls on record. (see, AGW is a hoax)

Scientists Try To Predict Number Of US Ebola Cases - This week, several top infectious disease experts ran simulations for The Associated Press that predicted as few as one or two additional infections by the end of 2014 to a worst-case scenario of 130.
S.Leone Ebola outbreak 'catastrophic': aid group MSF - Yahoo News - Ebola has wiped out whole villages in Sierra Leone and may have caused many more deaths than the nearly 5,000 official global toll, a senior coordinator of the medical aid group MSF said Friday.
Ebola-- Failures of Imagination (Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman article) - The two of us are far less worried about sparks landing in Chicago or London than in Mumbai or Karachi. We wish Dallas had served as a teachable moment for what may be looming elsewhere in the world, instead of inspiring knee-jerk over-reassurance theater about our domestic ability to extinguish whatever Ebola sparks come our way
Heroes of the day - Lawyers, Guns & Money : know that after decades of the wars on terror and (some people who use some) drugs, the notion that the evidence used to justify restricting basic rights should actually have to meet some kind of quality standards might seem rather quaint. But it’s not quite dead yet, despite the mendacious, lazy, and casually racist stupidity of ebolanoia and those who pander to it.
Craig Spencer, American Doctor With Ebola, In 'Stable' Condition At Bellevue Hospital
Happy reunion for Dallas Ebola nurse and dog after both complete quarantine | World news | The Guardian - Nina Pham greets Bentley after his 21 days in isolation
ME-Gov LePage Says 13% Of Ebola Victims Die Without Showing Any Symptoms | Crooks and Liars (he's a scientist)

US bombs Isis positions in Syria and Iraq | World news | The Guardian - Five targets hit near Syrian town of Kobani and five in Iraq - Isis executes hundreds of tribesmen in western Iraq

Magna Carta 800 years on: recognition at last for ‘England’s greatest export’ | Culture | The Guardian - For centuries the importance of King John’s surrender in 1215 has been underplayed. Next year’s anniversary will be different

Boko Haram: Kidnapped Girls Have Been Married Off, Truce Never Happened - Abubakar Shekau says in a new video released late Friday that Boko Haram is still holding the unidentified German who he says is "always crying." He says they could "hack him or slaughter him or shoot him." (married off 7 yr old girls and Jonathan Goodluck is a scam)

Iran poised to choose poverty over nuclear disarmament - The Washington Post (sez WaPo)

Israeli Cartoonist Compares Netanyahu to 9/11 Hijackers - NYTimes.com
Israeli Cartoonist Criticized For Comparing Benjamin Netanyahu To 9/11 Hijackers - The cartoon, by Amos Biderman of Haaretz, shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the controls of an aircraft headed for a building topped by an American flag. The plane says "ISRAEL" on the side: (they've totally lost control of their image machine)

You'll Probably Never Know Why The CIA Spied On The Senate (it's a secret and the CIA is running Obama)
Does the CIA want Republicans to win the midterms? | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian - If it’s hard to imagine an intelligence committee chair less inclined to provide the spy agency with any oversight, just Google ‘Richard Burr’
BTAgent - CPE backdoor - The CPE with that particular backdoor, are the ADSL2 and VDSL2 modem/routers supplied by the "Openreach" division of the incumbent British Telecom. Around ten million of these CPE have to date been supplied to households and businesses. (little spy boxes installed in all your houses)

The First Look Mess - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I never really understood what Pierre Omidyar was doing with his non-Intercept project, which seemed to involve hiring interesting writers and not letting them write anything. Now we know:
From Russia With Lust | New York Observer - In between snorting lines, Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi discuss the new book version of eXile, their raucous biweekly tabloid in Moscow (he did have quite a time in Russia)

Apologizing to Japan - NYTimes.com - The point, however, is that the West has, in fact, fallen into a slump similar to Japan’s — but worse. And that wasn’t supposed to happen.
This Map Depicts The Staggering Highs And Lows Of The U.S. Economy Since 1999 (a stable economy)

Richard Branson Casts Doubt On Future Of Private Space Tourism After Virgin Galactic Crash

Jim Crow returns | Al Jazeera America - by

The Party of Nonvoters | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press - Younger, More Racially Diverse, More Financially Strapped (and part of the 60% non-voters)
Forecast: Right Turn Ahead - NationalJournal.com - The newest Senate Republicans will cement the party's conservative consensus. (if conservative = insane, then yes)
Harry Reid: Joni Ernst May Be Too Extreme Even For GOP (nah)
The Rude Pundit: Mary Landrieu's "No Shit, Sherlock" Moment: Obama Unpopular in the South Because of Racism (Updated) - Update: When asked if she would apologize, Landrieu more or less told Republicans, "Go fuck yourselves, you racist, sexist piglets."

People’s Champ: The Case for Coakley by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Ask yourself: why do the media and political elites want Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley to lose? (someone who has served the public interest for years, or the hedge-fund rich guy?)

Report: Armed Guard Who Rode Elevator With Obama Was Not A Convicted Felon - An armed guard who rode on an elevator with President Barack Obama and his aides at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was not a convicted felon, as previously reported by the Washington Post (oh, they made shit up)

We must still hate our kids: Philadelphia and “education reformers” fight demented war on elementary schools - Salon.com - No nurses, few textbooks, closed libraries: Money to urban schools is being starved, intentionally. It's just wrong (reform!)

Missouri advances towards goal of ending all abortions, one law at a time | World news | The Guardian - After a series of legal restrictions, only one clinic remains in the state – ‘I don’t view abortion as a choice that should be out there,’ legislator explains

Probe of FBI agent leads to release of convicted drug dealers from prison - The Washington Post - Said another defense lawyer, Gregory English, whose client was released as he awaits trial: “This is stunning.” (oh, crooked Feebs?)

Austin Police Department Apologizes For Officers' Rape Joke, Launches Investigation
Police Investgating Ex-CBC Host Jian Ghomeshi In Sex Assault Case
Ask A Canadian: Explaining The Jian Ghomeshi Scandal To Americans - And now, new details and revelations seem to be coming in every hour, a rolling nightmare unfolding live on Twitter and Facebook ... In one startling Facebook post, his friend Owen Pallett wrote things like: "Just ten days ago, I helped him find musicians for his father's funeral. Three women have said that Jian beat them without their consent." Jesse Brown sent this message: "Stay tuned. We've only just begun."
Amanda Palmer Stands By Jian Ghomeshi, Still Guest At 'The Art Of Asking' Book Tour Stop (UPDATE) - UPDATE II: Amanda Palmer has officially cancelled Gian Ghomeshi's planned appearance
Image for Lights Drops Ghomeshi As Manager
These Are The Women Who've Come Forward With Accusations Against Jian Ghomeshi
Reva Seth Says She Was Assaulted By Jian Ghomeshi - Another woman is going public with allegations of abuse against Jian Ghomeshi. Author and lawyer Reva Seth has detailed her experience with Ghomeshi in a blog published by The Huffington Post Canada.
Big Ears Teddy, Jian Ghomeshi's Stuffed Bear, Treated 'Anxiety Disorder' - According to the Toronto Star, two women recall Ghomeshi introducing them to his teddy bear. They then told the Star that Ghomeshi said "Big Ears Teddy shouldn't see this" and turned the bear around before allegedly slapping or choking them.
Jian Ghomeshi Biography Charts A Long Rise Before Recent Scandal (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Hannibal Rising by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - I never realized just how much Cosby’s 2004 speech ticked people off: “Bill Cosby has the (expletive) smuggest old black man public persona that I hate,” Buress said in his set. “‘Pull your pants up, black people. I was on TV in the ’80s. I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom.’ Yeah, but you [allegedly] raped women, Bill Cosby. So, brings you down a couple notches.”
We must abandon Bill Cosby: A broken trust with women, black America - Salon.com - He asked us to invest in the lie of his own life, and the lie of "respectability." We can't laugh with him anymore (the narcissistic sexist pigs are having a hard time lately)

Mini-D.C.’s: A small-city boom revitalizes downtowns once left for dead - The Washington Post (WaPo thinks DC invented the "city")

Only 8.2 % of Human DNA is Functional, Say Genetic Researchers | Genetics | Sci-News.com - According to a group of genetic scientists led by Dr Gerton Lunter of the University of Oxford’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, only 8.2 percent of human genome is likely to be doing something important ... A little over 1 percent of human DNA accounts for the proteins that carry out almost all of the critical biological processes in the body.”

View From Nowhere – The New Inquiry - On the cultural ideology of Big Data ... The view from nowhere that informs books like Dataclysm and much of the corporate and commercialized data science must be unmasked as a view from a very specific and familiar somewhere. ("abstracted empiricism" - CW Mills)
The OKCupid data blog is back, in book form | The Verge - The dating site founder's new book is a love letter to big data ... "If Dataclysm has a central idea, it’s that it’s okay for the tech industry to scrape your data off every surface you touch"

Politically Incorrect by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Be the bigger man, Bill. End this controversy in real time. UPDATE: Oh, for crissakes, Bill…

[Serious] Have you ever been tortured ? tell us your story : AskReddit

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New research quantifies what's causing sea level to rise | John Abraham | Environment | The Guardian - Sea level rise is half due to melting ice and half due to ocean warming, including 13% from the deepest oceans, a new paper has found (and the whole country is apparently about to vote Republican)
Global groundwater crisis may get worse as the world warms - From India to Texas, people are rapidly depleting their valuable stores of groundwater — leading to the possibility that aquifers may be emptied within decades, a NASA researcher has warned.
Ozone hole layer remains size of North America, Nasa data shows | Environment | The Guardian - Antarctic hole in protective layer of gas stands around same level as 2010, 2012 and 2013, but scientists say recovery is on track

Victory for Maine nurse as judge makes U-turn on Ebola monitoring order | US news | The Guardian - Judge says ‘Maine has not met its burden’ and lifts earlier order that ruled she must stay away from public gatherings and maintain a 3ft distance from others
After Nurse Defied Voluntary Ebola Quarantine, Maine Asks Court To Restrict Her Movements - A Maine judge has rejected a bid by state health officials to restrict the movement of nurse Kaci Hickox, who defied a quarantine for medical workers who have treated Ebola patients. "These kinds of restrictions could dissuade hundreds, if not thousands, of skilled volunteers from helping stop Ebola's spread, which is in the national interest of every one of our countries," Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday in Brussels.
White House 'does not support' Kaci Hickox's flouting of Ebola quarantine | World news | The Guardian ("does not support" does not appear in article; in fact:) “The president believes the state can and should be responsible for the policy, they should be guided by the science but ultimately it is their decision,” (it kinda of sez the opposite)
Your Daily Ebola - Esquire - And when you think of wanking, you think of the strong and steady hand of "Bobby" Jindal, the governor of Louisiana who, on Thursday, managed to dig up Irony and kill it again by warning people who have worked with Ebola overseas not to come to his state to attend...wait for it...a conference on infectious tropical diseases.
From Governors, a Mix of Hard-Line Acts and Conciliation Over Ebola - NYTimes.com - From Governors, a Mix of Hard-Line Acts and Conciliation Over Ebola
In New York, Protections Offered for Medical Workers Joining Ebola Fight - NYTimes.com
Your Daily Ebola - Esquire - I can't be the only one who thinks that the conservative nattering about Ebola is starting to reek of the same reckless pot-stirring that made the Terri Schiavo episode such a highlight of conservative intellectual activism
Genetic factors behind surviving or dying from Ebola shown in mouse study -- ScienceDaily - genetic factors are behind the mild-to-deadly range of responses to the Ebola virus.

Matt Taibbi returning to Rolling Stone after split from First Look Media | Media | The Guardian - Journalist who controversially left eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s organisation just days ago will have story in forthcoming Rolling Stone (yo, business guys, calculate the loss to Pierre's reputation; if Glenn walks, First Look is toast)
Matt Taibbi Left First Look Media After Female Staffer’s Complaint - These simmering problems came to a head this month when a Racket staffer complained to senior management that Taibbi had been verbally abusive and unprofessionally hostile, and that she felt the conduct may have been motivated, at least in part, by her gender (see Freddie DeBoer's comment on Taibbi/Ames book The Exile)

Obama Officials Pin Blame For ISIS On Iraqi Government - he United States finally seems to have identified the party responsible for failing to halt the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq: the Iraqi government.
UN: Foreign Fighters Joining Terror Groups On 'Unprecedented Scale' - The panel says fighters from more than 80 countries working with al-Qaida associates in Syria and Iraq "form the core of a new diaspora that may seed the threat for years to come," and that domestic terrorism could rise as fighters return to their home countries. (mission really accomplished)
Naming The Dead: One Group's Struggle To Record Deaths From U.S. Drone Strikes In Pakistan - Last year, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London embarked upon an ambitious effort to record the names of people reportedly killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. The project, called Naming the Dead, aims to acknowledge those who have lost their lives in the strikes and to create more transparency about a counterterrorism program shrouded in secrecy.

Israeli policy on Iran is the biggest threat to its 'special relationship' with America | Ali Gharib | Comment is free | The Guardian - ‘The crisis in US-Israel relations’ isn’t that someone called Netanyahu ‘chickenshit’. It’s the growing distance over policy on Iran

Hungary internet tax cancelled after mass protests - Hungary has decided to shelve a proposed tax on internet data traffic after mass protests against the plan.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Crashes During Test Flight Over Mojave Desert

FBI Holds Secret Meeting To Scare Congress Into Backdooring Phone Encryption | Techdirt - from the just-in-time-for--halloween dept
The Switchboard: Judge rules police can compel a defendant to give up a fingerprint, but not a passcode - The Washington Post (just get a iPhone, problem solved)
Nato frontline in life-or-death war on cyber-terrorists | World news | The Guardian - From attackers trying to bring down planes to criminals targeting banks, the danger is growing
Ray McGovern describes brutal arrest at Petraeus event (VIDEO) — RT USA

Senate Update: With 4 Days Left, Here’s The State Of The Races | FiveThirtyEight - The GOP’s chances of winning the Senate are 68.5 percent, according to the FiveThirtyEight forecast, its highest figure of the year.
Republican surge could deliver historic House majority after midterms | US news | The Guardian - GOP needs 13 seats for its largest House majority since 1928 - Net swing of three seats would deliver Senate majority
There’s One Thing at Stake in the Senate Race -- NYMag - The contest to control the Senate is about one thing: whether Obama can confirm judges and staff his administration.

Baker remains ahead of Coakley - Politics - The Boston Globe - Charlie Baker maintains a 7 percentage point lead in the race for governor in the final Boston Globe poll
Lost At Sea - Esquire - The problem now is that nobody can find Charlie's fisherman. (they believe their own lies)

Women Voters Haunted by the GOP's Tricks - The Daily Beast - Single women and women of color don’t typically turn out big for midterm elections. But the stakes are too high this Tuesday for any woman to stay home.


Washington Supreme Court shifts burden in rape cases | Local News | The Seattle Times - The Washington Supreme Court says the state cannot require rape defendants to prove, to escape conviction, that an alleged victim consented. In a 6-3 decision, the justices reversed what they described as the court’s “incorrect and harmful” earlier rulings.
Washington Supreme Court says the state cannot require rape defendants to prove that an alleged victim consented : news

Sharyl Attkisson Blames Broken Laptop on Benghazi - A stuck backspace key is, unfortunately, a less dramatic explanation than a hidden government conspiracy to surveil reporters who write unflattering things about the President. It is also the more likely one.

Report: DHS employees put $30,000 worth of Starbucks on government credit card - The Washington Post

Eric Frein appears in court after US marshals capture 'survivalist' sniper | US news | The Guardian - Swat teams escorted suspected police killer, where he was charged with 11 counts including murder and possession of weapons of mass destruction
Detention Center Forced Immigrants To Work For $1 Per Day Or Face Solitary Confinement, Lawsuit Says - A group of former immigrant detainees is suing the owner of a Colorado detention center, alleging that it forced them to work for $1 per day and coerced them using the threat of solitary confinement if they refused to comply.
Justice Department, City Of Albuquerque Reach Deal On Police Reform
The awful police execution of Milton Hall - a homeless, mentally ill, African American man

No, It Really Isn’t Heartbreaking » Balloon Juice - Many of those sell-by dates are just recommendations, and usually bad ones:

Bill Cosby Runs And Hides After Renewed Public Interest In All Those Rape Allegations | Wonkette - Looks like Bill Cosby has decided to keep a low profile after comedian Hannibal Buress made headlines by including Cosby’s long string of alleged sexual assaults in his standup routine ... accusations of sexual assault by Cosby against 13 women ... Cosby still has a sitcom deal with NBC for a show expected next year. We’ll see how long that lasts now that a man has spoken.

The Dangers of Eating Late at Night - NYTimes.com
Archaeologists Make Incredible Discoveries In Tunnel Sealed 2,000 Years Ago - A large offering found near the entrance to the chambers, some 59 feet (18 meters) below the Temple of the Plumed Serpent, suggests they could be the tombs of the city's elite.
What Tripping On Mushrooms Looks Like In The Brain - "We find that the psychedelic state is associated with a less constrained and more intercommunicative mode of brain function, which is consistent with descriptions of the nature of consciousness in the psychedelic state,"
Homological scaffolds of brain functional networks

alicublog: BOO. - A big Count Floyd ah-woooo for Daniel J. Flynn of the American Spectator, who has given us the culture-war Halloween essay of the year and perhaps all time.
Forget the Pakistani girl getting the medal for bravery, what about the rich blond girl whose patrioti-pop song got cut from the ceremony? :: Blogs :: The Naked City :: Philadelphia City Paper - OK, so if you couldn't make it through the whole thing, the key theme running through it is "I." (She says "I," "me" or "my" more than 30 times.)
Vocal Fry, Made Famous By Kim Kardashian, Is Making Young Women 'Less Hirable'
Crunchyroll - Watch GIRLS und PANZER Episode 10.5 - Introductions 2!
? Gunsmith Cats: Bulletproof - Episode 1 - "Neutral Zone" - YouTube

[Serious] Have you ever watched as someone close to you hit "rock bottom?" Ultimately, where are they now? : AskReddit
What's the creepiest, weirdest, or most super-naturally frightening thing to happen in history? : AskReddit
Japan's The Bikini Game : videos
This guy has taken sign spinning to whole new level. : videos
nothing out of the ordinary here : funny
Frozen was popular this year. : funny (little girls in blue costumes)

Consumers wasted at least $300 million paying for AT&T’s ‘unlimited’ data - The Washington Post
The trouble with modern friendship | Life and style | The Guardian - ‘Panic-merchants worry that online social networks will replace offline friendships, turning users into basement-dwelling zombies, unable to converse face-to-face’
Hello Kitty conference brings Japanese kitsch to Los Angeles | Culture | The Guardian - Timed to celebrate the brand’s 40th birthday, a conference and exhibition has brought fans of the self-consciously cute brand out in their thousands

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Lake Mission Viejo isn't feeling California drought — yet - LA Times - "We love coming down here where there aren't too many people," said Carlos Lopez, an association member whose 4-year-old daughter, Dayleen, splashed in the water. "She's a fish. I'd have to take her down to the beach, and that's a pain."

Why Ebola Aid Workers Are Quarantining Themselves When Scientists Say They Don't Need To - “Some people commented in a lynch mob mentality, like, ‘Oh, we should torch his house’ and things like that,” said Mann (Fox New watchers)
Nurse Kaci Hickox Defies Ebola Quarantine In Maine, Goes For Bike Ride
Scott Brown Worries That Ebola and Polio May Come Across the Border - Bloomberg Politics - New Hampshire's great GOP hope ups the ante on his claims of border diseases.

Nato jets intercept Russian warplanes following 'unusual level of air activity' | World news | The Guardian - Bombers and fighters shadowed during unusual burst of flights over Atlantic, North Sea, Baltic and Black Sea, says alliance

Bodies Of Hundreds Of Iraqi Tribesmen Fighting Against ISIS Found In Mass Grave

Israel Minister Makes IKEA Dig After Sweden Recognizes Palestine - NBC News.com - Israel’s foreign minister slapped down Sweden’s decision to recognize the state of Palestine Thursday, saying the Middle East was “more complicated than self-assembly furniture at IKEA.”
Drones spotted over seven French nuclear sites, says EDF | Environment | The Guardian - Unidentified drones had flown over seven plants this month by mystery operator as Greenpeace denies involvement

Eleven countries studied, one inescapable conclusion – the drug laws don’t work | Society | The Guardian - Nevertheless, it firmly rejects claims that decriminalisation in Portugal has led to a spike in drug use. It goes on to contrast Portugal with the Czech Republic, where an evaluation found that there was no significant decline in the availability of drugs following the implementation of stricter laws in 2010.
Surprise! Controversial Patriot Act power now overwhelmingly used in drug investigations - The Washington Post - One of the more controversial provisions of the Patriot Act was to broaden the “sneak-and-peek” power for federal law enforcement officials. The provision allows investigators to conduct searches without informing the target of the search.
Next round of Federal Government counter-terror laws target phones, emails and illegal downloads | The Courier-Mail

Report: Child sexual exploitation now a 'social norm' in parts of Greater Manchester - Crime - UK - The Independent - Sexual exploitation of children has become “normal” in parts of Greater Manchester, according to a report described as “alarming” by Home Secretary Theresa May.

The Inside Story Of Matt Taibbi's Departure From First Look Media - The Intercept - By Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill, and John Cook - “the management of First Look Media repeatedly took incidents that should’ve been minor hiccups of the sort experienced at any media company or startup and, through incompetence, escalated them into full-blown crises.” (Omidyar and his team of micromanagers killed half the project and slandered Taibbi)
‘When Google Met WikiLeaks’: An Exclusive Excerpt - Book Excerpt - Truthdig

A Supreme Court Misstep On Voting Rights - NYTimes.com - A Supreme Court Misstep On Voting Rights - Linda Greenhouse
Messing With Texas Again: Putting It Back Under Federal Supervision

Republicans confident of midterm success as apathetic America switches off | US news | The Guardian - GOP on course to retain the House and possibly snatch the Senate – but will the outcome really make any difference to Obama?

If Not Hillary Who? - Esquire - To elect a president, we probably ought to have some candidates. Candidates, after all, are choices. So where the hell are our choices? An argument against coronations, cleared fields, and conventional wisdom.

Thomas Menino, RIP - Esquire - Menino was a puzzlement only to those delicate souls who mistake syntax for intelligence.

Changing Priorities: State Criminal Justice Reforms and Investments in Education — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Even as states spend more on corrections, they are underinvesting in educating children and young adults, especially those in high-poverty neighborhoods

Jian Ghomeshi: 8 women accuse former CBC host of violence, sexual abuse or harassment | Toronto Star - One woman, actor Lucy DeCoutere, alleges she was slapped and choked without her consent.
Toronto Star On Jian Ghomeshi Allegations: 'Trailer Park Boys' Lucy DeCoutere Says She Was Beaten
do you know about jian | nothing in winnipeg - No, I wouldn’t make my name public, and I wouldn’t go to police. I would never want to watch those prying eyes turn on me, inventing for themselves a fiction of the “jilted,” vindictive woman that Jian Ghomeshi pre-emptively declared at least three of his ex-partners to be.
“Do you know about Jian?” - Lawyers, Guns & Money
The BDSM Red Herring - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Interviews With Two Women Who Dated Jian Ghomeshi | Slog
IT HAPPENED TO ME: I Accidentally Went On A Date With A Presumed-Gay Canadian C-List Celebrity Who Creepily Proved He Isn't Gay - xoJane - When I walked in, I was greeted by both the overwhelming stench of his cologne and the sinking feeling that he was not, as I had assumed, gay.
Why women stay silent about sex attacks: Mallick | Toronto Star - When it comes to redress for suffering a sexual attack, Canadian women might as well be in Saudi Arabia. We whisper among friends and quietly trade stories, or we shut up for our entire careers.
Jian Ghomeshi Accusations Aren’t About BDSM – Flavorwire
Jian Ghomeshi: Accusations against the Q host are not about BDSM, but about consent.
Why the Jian Ghomeshi “Rough Sex” Scandal Isn’t About Rough Sex

The woman who made a video about catcalling is already getting rape threats - Vox
Catcalling video: Hollaback's look at street harassment in NYC edited out the white guys. - As Roxane Gay tweeted, “The racial politics of the video are fucked up. Like, she didn’t walk through any white neighborhoods?”
Jessica's Feminized Atmosphere - The Daily Show - Video Clip | Comedy Central
Woman catcalled 100 times in viral video tells CNN: ‘I was reliving past memories of sexual assault’
Fox News Host Catcalls Woman In Viral Video: 'Damn, Baby, You're A Piece Of Woman' (you can see the problem)
This Is What 10 Hours Of Walking In NYC As A White Man Looks Like, According To Funny Or Die (the rapeydudebro reaction: see, what's your problem?)

New solar power material converts 90 percent of captured light into heat -- ScienceDaily
Algae Virus May Be Changing Cognitive Ability - Business Insider - The virus itself is called ATCV-1 and it's a chlorovirus, a family of viruses that infect plants. This one affects algae — that green stuff that grows on water — in lakes all over the world. But as far as researchers knew before this, viruses like this very rarely cross from one kingdom like plants to another, such as animals. And even when they do, it's more likely that they'd go from plants to some type of invertebrate, not all the way to a complex animal like a human. people with the virus living in their throats processed visual information about 10% slower than people without the virus

Stephen Colbert butchers the NRA for killing bill that banned the eating of puppies and kittens - “The kitten-coddlers out there don’t want you to eat your pets,” he began. “‘That’s illegal,’ they say. But not everywhere — you can have a dog for dinner in Pennsylvania thanks to the NRA.”

TIL that since the 12th century, Judaism believes that if the truths derived through science or philosophy contradict religious beliefs, the religious beliefs are incorrect. : todayilearned
The Creeping Jewish Fundamentalism in Our Midst – Forward.com (+comments)
Yeshivish vs hasidic hareidim - Judaism - iShtetl

? Man Fights Bear for Salmon - YouTube

China will upgrade all PCs to Linux by 2020 - The Mukt
Why the U.S. Has Fallen Behind in Internet Speed and Affordability - NYTimes.com (underregulation and no competition)
AT&T: We Told Our Customers 'Unlimited' Doesn't Mean 'Unlimited' | Tech Law | TechNewsWorld - Instead of renaming its "unlimited" data plan something more accurate, AT&T just decided to start throttling its unlimited customers.
Jammed — Backchannel — Medium - The proof is in: Detailed report shows how U.S. Internet access monopolies punish rivals and catch innocent bystanders in the crossfire—legally. (how Comcast strangled Netflix)

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Obama Touts Heroism Of Ebola Health Care Workers
Obama Has Been Fighting Doctors Without Borders For Years - But the recent executive branch acclaim for Doctors Without Borders obscures a long-running struggle between the humanitarian group and the White House over global drug prices.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage Sends State Police To Enforce Ebola Quarantine
CDC Rejects Mandatory Ebola Quarantines - WSJ - WSJ - Federal Officials Push for Voluntary Isolation of Those at High Risk
After a Family Trip to Africa, a Connecticut Girl, 7, Is Unwelcome at School - NYTimes.com - The third-grader was not feeling sick. She did not have a fever or any other symptoms of Ebola. Having just completed a 10-day trip to Nigeria, where she was the flower girl at a family wedding, she was eager to get back to class. But officials at her Connecticut elementary school told her she could not come back. (she went to the dark continent) local officials insisted that barring the girl from school was necessary — not to contain any possible illness, but to contain the fears of people at the school. (who were all watching Fox News)

The Red Cross’ Secret Disaster - ProPublica - The Red Cross botched key elements of its mission after Sandy and Isaac, leaving behind a trail of unmet needs and acrimony, according to an investigation by ProPublica and NPR ... “We were sent way down on the Gulf with nothing to give,” Dunham says. The Red Cross’ relief effort was “worse than the storm.”

FBI demands new powers to hack into computers and carry out surveillance | US news | The Guardian - Agency requests rule change but civil liberties groups say ‘extremely invasive’ technique amounts to unconstitutional power grab (no limits, ever +Graun changes layout to look like Daily Beast)

The Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations Is Officially Here - The Atlantic - The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat. He’s not [Yitzhak] Rabin, he’s not [Ariel] Sharon, he’s certainly no [Menachem] Begin. He’s got no guts.”
Netanyahu insists he is 'under attack for defending Israel' after remarks from US official | World news | The Guardian - Quotes from senior Obama administration figures damn Israeli prime minister as ‘chickenshit’ over stance on settlements and peace with Palestinians

Enough! Mexico Is Ready to Explode | Homero Aridjis - Mexico has been profoundly shaken by atrocities and high-level corruption in Guerrero. The earthquake's epicenter is Iguala, the state's third largest city.
Mexico’s First Lady of Murder Is on the Lam - The Daily Beast - In a city where murderers tortured and killed with seeming impunity, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa was ‘the key operator’—and allegedly sealed the fate of 43 student teachers ... said to have given the Iguala police chief a fateful order when she mistakenly imagined the students might disrupt a party she was throwing in honor of herself: “Teach them a lesson.”

Did Russia Just Hack the White House? - The Atlantic - A successful breach of unclassified computer networks led to disruptions at the executive mansion in recent weeks.
FBI cut hotel Internet access, sent agents to “fix” it without warrants | Ars Technica - Alleged online gambling ring broken up after agents posed as the cable guy.

5 products you probably buy that are quietly driving human rights abuses - Vox

Prosecutors See Repeat Offenses on Wall Street - NYTimes.com

DEA, Denver Police Raid Multiple Marijuana Grow Operations (there you go)

We Found You That Double Supersecret Video Of John Kasich Being An Asshat | Wonkette - According to Ohio political blog Plunderbund, Kasich was quite the pissy little douchecanoe at the meeting, refusing to acknowledge the existence of Democratic candidate Ed FitzGerald. Kasich slumped in his seat like a bored student and repeatedly talked around questions instead of answering them. And yet the Plain Dealer endorsed Kasich anyway, because he reminds them of Reagan or something. (why newspapers are dying)
In Campaign Ads, A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - The great cynic Mark Liebovich meditated a fair amount on Our Joni in a piece entitled “The Bumpkinification of the Midterm Elections.” (rise of teh stupid)
Jebmentum! - Esquire - On the heels of The New York Times front-pager that, up until only a few years ago, would have been considered an illegal sex act in several states, we find ourselves confronted with the possibility that Jeb Bush may well take out for a spin a family name that ought to be considered an obscenity in any respectable dictionary of American democracy.

Keith Ablow, Fox News Doctor, Calls For 'American Jihad' - Keith Ablow, a doctor and Fox News analyst, thinks that the United States should aggressively export its system of government to every single country on earth. What could go wrong? (you're first, Canada)

Wage disclosures for public officials lead to salary cuts, high turnover rates

Is the Master’s Degree an Expensive Anachronism? by Kevin Carey | The Washington Monthly - For legions of new college graduates struggling to find good jobs in a weak labor market, “boot camps” are a faster and cheaper alternative to traditional grad school.

Your Guide To Absurdist 'Sexy' Halloween Costumes

Woman receives rape threats after recording 10 hours of harassment in New York | Life and style | The Guardian - Actor Shoshana B Roberts recorded all the catcalls and remarks she got from passersby as she walked for 10 hours through New York

Oral Hygiene Brother [Last Updated Sat Aug 10, 2013] - Pastebin.com


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Weather Channel Co-Founder Tells Fox News Host Global Warming Is A Myth - Meteorologist and Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman (TV weatherman doesn't believe in science)
Where Did All the Oil Go? | The UCSB Current - A UCSB professor’s analysis traces oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon event to its resting place on the Gulf of Mexico’s deep floor

Elizabeth Warren To Chris Christie: Show 'Science, Not Politics' On Ebola Quarantine - "He should bring out his scientists who are advising him on that because we know that we want to be led by the science," Warren said. "That's what's going to keep people safe. Science, not politics."
2016 hopefuls catch Ebola flak | TheHill - "This is a governor who has largely checked out in his pursuit of the presidency and has attempted to govern the state on auto pilot," Wisniewski said.
Cuomo’s and Christie’s Shifts on Ebola Are Criticized as Politics, Not Science - NYTimes.com
Nurse on her way to Fort Kent quarantined over Ebola, calls treatment ‘frenzy of disorganization’ — Nation — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine
Dude, Please - So Christie is not only lying about the specifics of Hickox case he's also claiming the policy says something different from what he said it was when he announced it.
Barack Obama hugs nurse who recovered from Ebola: Ronald Reagan was silent on AIDS. - In embracing an Ebola victim, Barack Obama succeeded where Ronald Reagan failed.


Missing Mexico students: New 'mass grave' probed - Mexican authorities searching for 43 students who disappeared after clashing with police last month are investigating a suspected mass grave. (failed narco-state)

Matt Taibbi Disappears From Omidyar’s First Look -- NYMag - is on a leave of absence from the company after disagreements with higher-ups inside Omidyar's organization
Report Reveals Wider Tracking of Mail in U.S. - NYTimes.com - In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the United States Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations. (spy-state)
Seattle Times 'Outraged' Over FBI's Fake News Story To Catch Bomb-Threat Suspect
USA Today's Susan Page Says Obama Administration Most 'Dangerous' To Press In U.S. History

Child poverty up in more than half of developed world since 2008 | Society | The Guardian - Unicef report finds number of children entering poverty during global recession is 2.6 million greater than number lifted out of it
U.S. Child Poverty Rate Hit A 20-Year High 4 Years Ago And It's Not Budging: Report

Real, Hard-Headed Political Analysis Pretends That the United States Congress Doesn't Exist - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Shorter Thomas Frank: Haha, silly Democrats, dreaming about post-ideological blank slates. Look at Obama — if you completely ignore every accomplishment of his tenure in office, including signing the comprehensive health care reform Truman, LBJ, and Clinton failed to get passed, he’s exactly like Carter.
No, He's Not Jimmy Carter, Either - Esquire - . But now, after six years of the president's letting down Thomas Frank, the scales have fallen from the latter's eyes, and he sees the president and former president Carter as two sides of the same "post-ideological" coin.

Republican Excitement Over Hillary Clinton Jobs Gaffe Will Backfire | New Republic - As a demonstration of that faith, Republicans are leaning heavily into 15 words Hillary Clinton uttered late last week while stumping for Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race. (bow down to your trickle-down galtian overlords)
Scott Walker Runs Ad Supporting Equal Pay After Repealing Wisconsin's Equal Pay Law

flantabulous comments on Just a reminder of what the Senate was doing the last time it was controlled by the GOP. (here we go again with the insanity)

BREAKING: Court Refuses To Intervene In Case of 40,000 Missing Voters In Georgia | ThinkProgress - On Tuesday, Judge Christopher Brasher of the Fulton County Superior Court denied a petition from civil rights advocates to force Georgia’s Secretary of State to process an estimated 40,000 voter registrations that have gone missing from the public database. ("gone missing" = "deleted")

Tsarnaev friend convicted of lying to FBI after Boston Marathon bombing | US news | theguardian.com - Robel Phillipos found guilty of lying to authorities about being in suspect’s dorm room while other friends removed evidence

Miguel Paredes set to be 10th and last Texas prisoner executed in 2014 | US news | theguardian.com - State has sourced new supply of lethal drugs but this year is likely to see fewest number of executions in state since 1996

Ferguson police brace for new protests by spending thousands on riot gear | US news | theguardian.com - St Louis County police has spent $172,669 since August on teargas, grenades, pepper balls and other civil disobedience equipment

Champion Lover: 28-Yr-Old Man Arrested for Having 4 Wives,7 Fiances & 5 Girlfriends | General News | Peacefmonline.com - The seducer had picked up women all across the country, using them for room and board whenever he was nearby and borrowing money from them which he never returned.

What’s So Bad About Gluten?

What's a creepy or disturbing memory that you have that nobody else inexplicably seems to remember? : AskReddit
? OK Go - I Won't Let You Down - Official Video - YouTube

Honey Boo Boo Molestation Police Report Was Too Horrible to Publish - Radar has made the editorial decision "not to publish the exact nature of the assaults," which — considering the horrible details that they did publish — only goes to prove what a nightmare Cardwell's situation really is
Jian Ghomeshi Responds to Sex Abuse Allegations Like a Real Creep
Hey, Jian Ghomeshi, I Call B.S.! | Dame Magazine - A brief history of ridiculous things we've been asked to believe after famous men were accused of rape.
poor persecuted pervert? | Sex Geek - There’s a scandal breaking in Canada. It’s about BDSM. Or is it? I’m not so sure.
? 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman - YouTube
Hidden GoPro camera reveals what it's like to walk through NYC as a woman. WTF? : TwoXChromosomes
Ten Short Rants About #GamerGate | Popehat
Quinnspiracy | Know Your Meme
Ten Short Rants About #GamerGate | Popehat

#GamerGate: You Have A Smoking Gun, Use It | One Angry Gamer

AT&T charged with misleading customers over 'unlimited' data plans | Technology | theguardian.com - FTC says company’s ‘throttling’ cut data speeds by up to 90% - AT&T: ‘We have been completely transparent’ (unlimited data if you have unlimited time)

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Dead babies near oil drilling sites raise questions for researchers - The Denver Post

al experts to a strict new mandatory quarantine policy
Report: 5 Year Old Hospitalized In NYC With Possible Ebola Symptoms - A 5-year-old boy who arrived from Guinea was being observed in isolation at Bellevue Hospital in New York City for possible Ebola symptoms, media reports said on Monday.
Army major general, troops quarantined - CNN.com
New federal Ebola guidelines issued in US after criticism from UN | World news | theguardian.com - UN secretary general praises ‘exceptional’ health workers and says ‘those who develop infections should not be stigmatised’
ER nurse: Duncan lied about exposure to Ebola | TheHill - Sidia Rose told “60 Minutes” that Duncan said during his second trip to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas that he had not been in contact with anyone who had been sick.
African Boys Attacked at Bronx School, Called "Ebola": Advocacy Group | NBC Southern California - A group that advocates for Africans in the Bronx is calling for action after it says two brothers who had recently immigrated to the borough from Senegal were beaten and badly injured by several people who called them “Ebola” in school.
MSNBC Personality: We're A 'Nation Of Cowards' (and bed-wetting babies)
Unapologetic, Christie Frees Nurse From Ebola Quarantine - NYTimes.com
Rush Limbaugh: The GOP Ought To Quarantine Chris Christie (because he let Kaci Hickox go home)

Nobel Peace Prize Winners Urge Obama To Release CIA Torture Report (getting pretty ridiculous)
Connecting the Dots on the CIA Torture Report | emptywheel - One side — explicitly relying on the CIA Inspector General’s own report — say the CIA impersonated staffers, and possibly worse. (they are their own government)

Taliban return to Afghan town that rose up and drove out its leaders | World news | The Guardian - Insurgents now control about 80% of Gizab district in Uruzgan province four years after successful revolt, sources say
Heroin use is so high in Myanmar that syringes now serve as currency | GlobalPost - Shopkeepers dispense needles as small change. Addicts prefer them to dirty, worn bills.

China Began Push Against Hong Kong Elections in ’50s - NYTimes.com - The documents, part of a batch of typewritten diplomatic dispatches requested by reporters from two Hong Kong newspapers, reveal that Chinese leaders were so opposed to the prospect of a democratic Hong Kong that they threatened to invade should London attempt to change the status quo

In Cold War, U.S. Spy Agencies Used 1,000 Nazis - NYTimes.com - In the decades after World War II, the C.I.A. and other United States agencies employed at least a thousand Nazis as Cold War spies and informants and, as recently as the 1990s, concealed the government’s ties to some still living in America, newly disclosed records and interviews show.
The CIA, Nazi Recruitment & National Review (with tweets) · JeetHeer1 · Storify

Feds identify suspected 'second leaker' for Snowden reporters - Yahoo News - The FBI recently searched a government contractor's home, but some officials worry the Justice Department has lost its 'appetite' for leak cases
T-Mobile quietly hardens part of its U.S. cellular network against snooping - The Washington Post

How bad a candidate is Martha Coakley? Boston Globe endorses Republican for Gov - May a thousand Martha Coakleys bloom in the Democratic Party.
Two Cheers For Martha - Esquire - Which brings us to the Globe's endorsement of Baker, which is calm and reasoned, but which seems to be more than a little curious, since it doesn't make a very compelling case for Baker over Coakley on any grounds save for the fact that he's not her ... Otherwise, the whole endorsement can be fairly summed up as, "It's time for a Republican governor again."
Blue Mass Group | Did anyone think the Globe would *not* endorse Charlie Baker?
Endorsement: Bruce Braley is better choice - The campaign between Bruce Braley and Joni Ernst for the U.S. Senate has been an exhibition of American politics at its worst. It has been a $28 million parade of dismal attack ads that have reduced the candidates to evil caricatures.
Weiland accuses own party of sabotaging his campaign - Weiland said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's ads attacking Republican incumbent Mike Rounds have backfired and hurt him.

Seamus McCaffery retiring from PA Supreme Court - McCaffery was snared in the porn scandal that has been blossoming at the state Attorney General's Office, leading to the resignations of four former top deputies to Gov. Corbett.

Yes, BP Did Damage the Gulf - Kara Lankford - politico Magazine - 1. 210 million gallons of oil did not just disappear

"Trickle Up" ~ Major Corporations Losing Money Out the Wazoo - American consumers are not buying their cheap crap and poison, not because there is no demand, but because Americans have no money. The 1% has sucked the well dry. (Amazon, Wal-mart, McD's and Coke)

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Hampshire | Last tenant 'found decapitated' - A man who was found with his head severed by a chainsaw was fighting to stay in a block of 70 flats in Hampshire cleared for redevelopment. A Hampshire Constabulary spokeswoman confirmed his death was not suspicious.

To Improve a Memory, Consider Chocolate - NYTimes.com - Science edged closer on Sunday to showing that an antioxidant in chocolate appears to improve some memory skills that people lose with age.
Compound in cocoa found to reverse age-related memory loss - The Washington Post - The findings suggest that the compound increases connectivity and, subsequently, blood flow in a region of the brain critical to memory, the researchers said.
Dark Chocolate Could Improve Memory By 25%, But You'd Have to Eat Seven Bars a Day — NOVA Next | PBS

CBC fires Jian Ghomeshi over sex allegations | Toronto Star - Ousted host of Q denies claims by three women of unwanted sexual violence and threatens to sue broadcaster for $50 million.
The big-eyed children: the extraordinary story of an epic art fraud | Art and design | The Guardian - In the 1960s, Walter Keane was feted for his sentimental portraits that sold by the million. But in fact, his wife Margaret was the artist, working in virtual slavery to maintain his success. She tells her story, now the subject of a Tim Burton biopic

Washington high school gunman invited victims to lunch by text message | US news | theguardian.com - Investigators say five students were all at a lunch table when they were shot by Jaylen Fryberg in attack that killed two

Apple Pay Is Disabled by Rite Aid and CVS as a Rival Makes Plans - NYTimes.com - Analysts said disabling acceptance of Apple Pay was a way to favor a rival system that is not yet available but is being developed by a consortium of merchants known as Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX.
Twitter reports soaring revenues but struggles to recruit new users | Technology | theguardian.com - Share price drops 10% on third-quarter results that show Twitter added only 13 million new users and remains unprofitable

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Climate Change May Cause 'Serious, Pervasive And Irreversible' Damage: Report
After Hurricane Sandy, New York Rebuilds for the Future - NYTimes.com - After Hurricane Sandy, New York Rebuilds for the Future

White House Presses States to Reconsider Mandatory Ebola Quarantine Orders - NYTimes.com
Quarantined Nurse Kaci Hickox Calls Her Treatment 'Inhumane', Criticizes Chris Christie
Nurse Under Ebola Quarantine Hires Civil Rights Lawyer
Quarantined nurse slams state Ebola policy - CNN.com
White House warns Christie and Cuomo over Ebola quarantine rules | World news | theguardian.com - On Sunday evening Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, hit out strongly against her treatment. “The problem is this hero, having come back from the front, having done the right thing, was treated with disrespect, was treated with a sense that she had done something wrong when she hadn’t,” he said.
Experts: Quarantines may dissuade Ebola volunteers
Obama sends Power to west Africa on Ebola fact-finding mission | World news | theguardian.com - UN ambassador in Guinea, will go to Sierra Leone, Liberia Says: ‘We are not on track right now to bend the curve’
Top U.S. Health Official: Ebola Quarantines May Have Unintended Consequences - Mandatory 21-day quarantines on health care workers returning from Ebola-ravaged West Africa, like those put in place by three states, can have the unintended consequence of discouraging them from volunteering, a top federal health official said Sunday.
Christie predicts quarantine will be 'national policy' - politico.com - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he has no second thoughts about enacting a 21-day medical quarantine on medical workers returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa. (oh, and Rahmbo is on board, of course)
Top NIH Ebola Specialist Says Quarantines Will Jeopardize Americans - aggressive protocols targeting all health workers who fight the disease are not backed up by good science and could ultimately threaten public health in the United States.
Will the War on Terror Be the Template for the Ebola Crisis? | Karen J. Greenberg - While any of these steps individually may prove sensible, the ease with which non-medical authorities seem to be falling into a familiar war on terror-style response to the disease should be examined -- and quickly (bed-wetting babies are very afraid)
U.S. Journalist Ashoka Mukpo Says His Body Was 'At War' With Ebola
Inside the Ebola Wars - How genomics research can help contain the outbreak.

ISIS Hostages Endured Torture and Dashed Hopes, Freed Cellmates Say - NYTimes.com - ISIS Hostages Endured Torture and Dashed Hopes, Freed Cellmates Say
Air strikes hit near Kobani and Mosul dam as US-led coalition targets Isis | US news | theguardian.com - US and European and Middle East allies launch 17 air strikes in Syria and Iraq as Kurdish forces report gains against jihadists
ISIS Launches New Attack On Syria's Kobani - Fighters from the Islamic State group launched Saturday a new offensive on the northern Syrian town of Kobani after shelling the area from their positions nearby, activists and a Kurdish official said.
What's the appeal of a caliphate? - "Many people will say that IS begins with al-Sisi's coup,"
Football fans and neo-Nazis clash with police in Cologne | World news | The Guardian - Police in riot gear tackle protesters marching under the ‘Hooligans against Salafists’ banner

Whether Lies or B.S., Netanyahu's Interviews Pose Special Challenges for Journalists - The storyline and most of the details of a tale told by the Israeli prime minister on American television were deliberately untrue.
Max Blumenthal on Aftermath of Israel’s Assault on Gaza, Plus Protesters Invoking Holocaust Imagery at the Opera | The Dissenter - Winter regarded the people of Gaza “not as enemy combatants or civilian enemies, which is bad enough,” but called them “blasphemers of God.” This religious fanatic led a top Israeli infantry division into Gaza during the summer. He embodies the “religious messianism that is overwhelming Israeli society and the genocidal approach to a Palestinian population that is ghettoized and unknown to most Israelis.”

U.S. Marines End Afghan Operations, Prepare Withdrawal

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Re-Elected

Crisis in Mexico: The Disappearance of the Forty-Three - The New Yorker - the governor of Guerrero state, Ángel Aguirre Rivero, had finally resigned after weeks of outrage over the violence and lawlessness that marked his tenure. (the ongoing tragedy of your war on some drugz)
France - Panic as clown terror spreads to southern France - France 24 - "Symptomatic of the impact of the internet, this phenomenon can lead to damaging individual acts and disturbances to public order."


Eschaton: We Love America So Much We Need To Destroy It - We're all welcome to our illusions and delusions, but it is the case that our mainstream Both Sides press generally lets The Right get away with this contradiction in ways they don't let The Left get away with, because The Right are, by definition, patriotic even when they're advocating treason and secession.

Hullabaloo - When the 2nd Amendment nullifies the 1st - The problem with the kind of Second Amendment absolutism stoked by the NRA and made into law by legislators and judges is that gun rights taken to extremes inherently imperil other rights (yeah, give bullies guns)

Law Lets I.R.S. Seize Accounts on Suspicion, No Crime Required - NYTimes.com - the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report. (only make deposits of 10,000+ or they will steal your money)

The Making of Ferguson: How Decades of Hostile Policy Created a Powder Keg - A century of evidence demonstrates that St. Louis was segregated by interlocking and racially explicit public policies of zoning, public housing, and suburban finance, and by publicly endorsed segregation policies of realty, banking, and insurance industries

Will we ever know if this widely-used contraceptive increases the risk of HIV infection? | The Verge - Depo-Provera might contribute between 27,000 to 130,000 new cases of HIV each year
Skeptic » Insight » More On Why Smart People Are Not Always Rational - To summarize so far, we are sometimes irrational because we are stupid (unintelligent) and we are sometimes irrational because we are ignorant (lack knowledge), but we are often irrational because we are lazy (lack intellectual curiosity) or arrogant.
The Return of Moral Panic - Reason.com

Man Who Smashed Oklahoma 10 Commandments Monument Says Devil Made Him Do It - The man told agents he urinated on the monument and ran it over with a car

Therapists Missed Adam Lanza's Rage As A Teenager - Adam Lanza's growing rage, isolation and delusions when he was a teenager were apparently overlooked by his mother, psychiatrists and counselors, according to a report expected to be issued next month.

The truth behind America’s most famous gay-hate murder | World news | The Observer - Matthew Shepard’s horrific death at the hands of redneck homophobes shocked America and changed its laws. Now a different truth is emerging, but does it matter?
Debunking Stephen Jimenez's Effort To De-Gay Matthew Shepard's Murder | Blog | Media Matters for America

America’s Worst Colleges by Ben Miller | The Washington Monthly (#1: New England Institute of Art [MA])
Counter reproductive: more men had vasectomies during the US recession | Money | theguardian.com - the cost of raising a single child born to an average middle-income family to the age of 18 now hovers around $245,000. Even a low-income family in rural America can expect to pay $145,500 over those 18 years on the road to adulthood.

The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands - Everything2.com (with Alzheimers)
sundowning - Everything2.com

Ikea hopes its new motorized standing desk will get you out of your chair | The Verge

Crossing the Street - Felicia Day
Gamergate can't stop being about harassment | The Verge
Gamer Gate Harassment

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Ebola cases hit 10,000 mark | World news | theguardian.com - World Health Organisation releases new figures, with practially all victims of virus within west African countries worst hit
Passenger quarantined at Newark Airport after treating Ebola patients in Africa tests negative | 7online.com
UTA grad isolated at New Jersey hospital as part of Ebola quarantine | Kaci Hickox, a nurse with degrees from the University of Texas at Arlington and the Johns Hopkins University, has been caring for Ebola patients while on assignment with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone

Hullabaloo - Great. Let's treat the doctors and nurses caring for Ebola patients like criminals ... What in the hell is wrong with us? They couldn't have handled that situation with a little human decency? They had to treat her like a criminal and make her sit there as if she'd done something horrible by volunteering to go to Africa to help with an epidemic? An epidemic that really will go global in a big way if trained people don't go there to try to stop it? (Cuomo puts his foot in it, again)

Nurse Under Ebola Quarantine Criticizes Her Treatment - Kaci Hickox, the first nurse to be quarantined under a strict new policy on her return from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, criticized her treatment in a Dallas Morning News op-ed on Saturday. She said she was treated with hostility and was not given an explanation of what was happening or when she might be able to leave:
Tested Negative for Ebola, Nurse Criticizes Her Quarantine - NYTimes.com
First Patient Quarantined Under Strict New Policy Tests Negative for Ebola - NYTimes.com
New York and New Jersey Will Quarantine Ebola Doctors - NBC News.com
Ebola: The Real Reason Everyone Should Panic — The Message — Medium - We should panic at the lack of care and concern we are showing about the epidemic where it is truly ravaging; we should panic at the lack of global foresight in not containing this epidemic, now, the only time it can be fully contained; and we should panic about what this reveals about how ineffective our global decision-making infrastructure has become.

Washington shooting: police confirm intervention by cafeteria worker | World news | theguardian.com - Police say 40-caliber handgun recovered from scene Jaylen Fryberg may have acted after romantic dispute
Teacher hailed for intervening in Washington high school shooting | US news | theguardian.com - Megan Silberberger intervened in cafeteria attack
Suspects jailed following the shooting deaths of two California police officers | US news | theguardian.com - Man and woman held without bail on suspicion of several charges with court appearances scheduled for Tuesday

Israeli finance minister: 'there is a crisis with the United States' | World news | theguardian.com - Comments follow the Obama administration’s refusal to allow Israeli defense minister to meet with top national security aides

Attack on Egyptian military checkpoint kills dozens | World news | The Guardian - Death toll expected to rise after incident in northern Sinai peninsula, where jihadi fighters have waged an insurgency

Iran executes Reyhaneh Jabbari despite global appeals for retrial | World news | theguardian.com - Activists say designer killed man in self defence after he tried to sexually assault her, and confession came under duress (because Israel is their boss, no?)
India spurns US offer and purchases guided missiles from Israel for $525m | World news | theguardian.com - Deal for at least 8,000 missiles and 300 launchers comes amid border tensions with China and exchanges of fire with Pakistan (with US taxpayer dollars)
Palestinian-American teenager killed during West Bank clashes with Israeli military | World news | The Guardian - Israeli military say soldiers ‘prevented an attack’ by opening fire on a Palestinian who was throwing firebombs at traffic

Vladimir Putin blames US for Islamist terrorism and Ukraine conflict | World news | The Guardian - President denies Russia has been aggressive in Ukraine and has encroached on the sovereignty of its neighbours

Report: CIA Deleted Computer Records About Senate Spying | Watch the video - Yahoo News - An investigation by the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms into CIA spying of Senate Intelligence Committee computers wrapped up this week without drawing any significant conclusions as a result of lost computer records reportedly deleted by the agency.
New Evidence of the NSA Deliberately Weakening Encryption | The n-Category Café - There is less hyperbole than there might seem when people say that the NSA’s goal is the wholesale elimination of privacy. (they really are the fourth branch)

Texas woman threatened with jail after applying for voter ID | MSNBC - An Austin, Texas woman told msnbc she was threatened with jail time for having an out-of-state driver’s license when she went to apply for a voter identification card so she could vote under the state’s controversial ID law. She said she was so intimidated she left without getting the ID she needed — and which she’d been trying to get for a year.
Should the Poor Be Allowed to Vote? - The Atlantic - Voter-ID laws are part of a hoary American tradition holding that people who aren't economically independent can't make reasoned political choices.

U.S. To Recognize Same-Sex Marriage In 6 New States - Gay marriage recently became legal in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Hullabaloo - A short history of the Grand Bargain and why it's still biting us in the ass #2014 #ads - It was always bizarre that a Democratic president would believe that an epic economic downturn was a good time to worry about deficits and try to strike a bargain to cut the Party's signature domestic economic achievement --- an achievement which had lifted massive numbers of people out of poverty ... There have been few more misguided initiatives than the relentless pursuit of a Grand Bargain during the president's first term. And the Party continues to pay a price for that mistake

Echidne Of The Snakes: That Pew Online Harassment Survey - Forty percent of American adult Internet users say they’ve been harassed online, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, which found the harassment is often by strangers on social-networking sites.

An updated map: The devastating toll of the anti-vaccination movement - LA Times - As one would expect, diseases such as polio are still rife in Africa and other parts of the Third World. But the United States and Great Britain deserve badges of shame for the resurgence of measles and whooping cough, which are almost entirely due to the ignorance and fear spread by the anti-vaccine movements in those countries.
Cancer-killing stem cells engineered in lab - In experiments on mice, the stem cells were genetically engineered to produce and secrete toxins which kill brain tumours, without killing normal cells or themselves.


TLC Producer Wants List Of 100 Fucked-Up Families On Desk By End Of Day | The Onion - America's Finest News Source - “We’re up shit creek right now, so I need each one of you assholes rooting through every gutter in the goddamn Ozarks to find me a household of inbreds, addicts, or fat-as-fuck morons that we can put in primetime,”

Rock On! How to Throw a Punk Rock-Inspired Party | Martha Stewart (the comments!)

Whisper CEO suspends staff pending inquiry into 'anonymity' revelations | World news | theguardian.com - Editor-in-chief reported to be placed on leave - Heyward: Guardian reporting ‘just plain wrong’
How Verizon’s Advertising Header Works | Web Policy - Over the past couple of days, there’s been an outpouring of concern about Verizon’s advertising practices. Verizon Wireless is injecting a unique identifier into web requests, as data transits the network.
Gamer Gate: Three Stages to Obit | Popehat
Neoreactionary movement - RationalWiki - The neoreactionary movement (or just neoreaction; apparently abbreviated NRx), or the dark enlightenment, is a loosely defined cluster of Internet-based political thinkers who wish to return human society to forms of government older than liberal democracy.[1] They generally present their views as a revival of the traditions of Western civilization, or a return to a natural order of things.
Harassment, Abuse, and Apologism: Sanitizing Abuse in Social Justice Spheres - The Flounce - by Philip Wythe - Zoe Quinn
Pew: Women Suffering Online Harassment Worse Than Men | Mediashift | PBS

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Shooter Dead At Marysville Pilchuck High School: Report (UPDATED) - The identity of the shooter has been confirmed as Jaylen Fryburg, law enforcement sources told Fox affiliate Q13. Fryburg was a freshman at the school.
School shooting at Marysville - Pilchuck high school WA : news
When Misogyny and American Gun Culture Meet - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The results can be horrible:
Our Moloch by Garry Wills | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

New York and New Jersey issue tough new Ebola quarantine measure | US news | theguardian.com - Aid workers flying in from west Africa to be held for 21 days
WHO: Mali case put many at risk for Ebola - The Washington Post - Many people in Mali are at high risk of catching Ebola because the toddler who brought the disease to the country was bleeding from her nose as she traveled on a bus from Guinea, the World Health Organization warned Friday.
Ebola patient doctor tracked to New York trains, taxis and the High Line | World news | theguardian.com - Epidemiologists use Craig Spencer’s Metrocard and credit card to trace his movements around the city
Patient in NYC Tests Positive for Ebola : news
Ebola in New York City: Craig Spencer, Doctor, Bowled and Took Subway | New Republic - A fourth person has been diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. This time it’s in New York City and the patient is a 33-year-old physician who recently returned from West Africa, where he was taking care of Ebola patients for Doctors Without Borders.
Doctor in New York City Is Sick With Ebola - NYTimes.com - setting off a search for anyone who might have come into contact with him.
Craig Spencer Tests Positive For Ebola In New York City - Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, reported a fever of 100.3 degrees and gastrointestinal problems Thursday morning, both symptoms of Ebola.
New York begins cleanup at Ebola patient's home as officials urge calm | US news | theguardian.com - Hazardous materials team clean Craig Spencer’s apartment - Officials monitor four people who may have had contact
Republican Congressman Is Unaware There Is No Surgeon General To Head Ebola Response (know-nothings know nothing)
Police Spotted Dumping Gloves, Masks From NYC Ebola Scene Into Street Corner Garbage Can
Texas nurse Nina Pham 'cured of Ebola' and set to meet Obama | World news | theguardian.com - National Institutes of Health says Pham is free of Ebola virus and will be released from Maryland hospital on Friday
Ask Well: How Does Ebola Spread? How Long Can the Virus Survive? - NYTimes.com - Can I get Ebola from public transportation? As in, if a passenger coughed into their hand and then held onto the pole, and then another passenger held onto that pole and inadvertently wiped their eye? (maybe, but probably not)
ELI5: If Ebola is so difficult to transmit (direct contact with bodily fluids), how do trained medical professionals with modern safety equipment contract the disease? : explainlikeimfive

Ottawa attack: MPs fashioned spears while Harper whisked into closet - The Globe and Mail - Stephen Harper spent about 15 minutes hidden in a Parliament Hill closet after a gunman stormed Centre Block where he and the rest of the Conservative caucus were guarded by MPs who’d fashioned sharp spears from flagpoles, sources say.

Iraqi forces 'months away' from sustained offensive against Isis | World news | theguardian.com - US military officials say strong ground-force counter-offensive is ‘not imminent’
Muslim Extremists Kill 31 Christians in Taraba State, Nigeria - Boko Haram insurgents collaborate with Fulani herdsmen, church leader says.
Egypt: 29 killed as Sinai attacks target security forces - A suspected jihadist car bomb has killed at least 26 Egyptian soldiers at a checkpoint in Sinai, officials say.

Lebanon MP Fattoush punches woman in the neck | News , Lebanon News | The Daily Star - MP Nicolas Fattoush Monday punched an office worker in the neck after she refused to prioritize his file at the Baabda Judicial Palace, a source inside the courthouse told The Daily Star.
Pakistan Islamic Council Proposes Laws on Polygamy, Child Wives | New Republic

US decides against military tribunals for non-Guantánamo detainees | US news | theguardian.com - Russian held at Bagram airfield in Afghanistan will face charges in US federal court as Obama administration decides against controversial commissions

Eschaton: And They Were Heroes - The report also lays out the encounter in detail, suggesting that it quickly spun out of control as a shocked and hysterical Lewinsky asked to consult a lawyer or a parent — even as prosecutors grew increasingly determined to persuade her to agree on the spot to cooperate against the president. (crazier and more evil than you even thought)

Plutocrats Against Democracy - NYTimes.com - So Mr. Leung is worried about the 50 percent of Hong Kong’s population that, he believes, would vote for bad policies because they don’t make enough money. This may sound like the 47 percent of Americans who Mitt Romney said would vote against him because they don’t pay income taxes and, therefore, don’t take responsibility for themselves, or the 60 percent that Representative Paul Ryan argued pose a danger because they are “takers,” getting more from the government than they pay in. Indeed, these are all basically the same thing.

Another Striking Picture From America - British Pathé - Full title reads: "Another striking picture from America. Police have to use tear-gas bombs to quell riotous striking mill-workers." Manchester, United States of America (USA).

Obama isn't post-partisan or naive. He's a Progressive. | The Mischiefs of Faction

The Spectacular Implosion Of The GOP's Senate Hopes In Oregon - It started with a May 16 report that she had been accused of "stalking" her ex-boyfriend last year and trying to enter his house without permission
The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster | Rolling Stone - Extremist Republicans turned their government into a lab experiment of tax cuts and privatization. And now they may be losing control of one of the reddest states in the nation
Republican Governors Might Save the Democrats -- NYMag - And as Sam Wang shows, governor’s races in many states have lurched decisively toward Democrats:
Maine Governor's Race Still Tied - Public Policy Polling - still a very tight contest between incumbent Paul LePage and Democrat Mike Michaud. LePage and Michaud each have 40%, with Eliot Cutler trailing at 17%.

GOP changes tune on cutting Social Security with elections on the line - The Washington Post - Cutting federal health and retirement spending has long been at the top of the GOP agenda. But with Republicans in striking distance of winning the Senate, they are suddenly blasting the idea of trimming Social Security benefits (well, yeah, they are lying, duh)

Bruce Braley Is Pretty Sure You Haven't Heard Of A Potluck Dinner - "And for those of you not from the Midwest, a potluck is where you go to somebody's house and you bring a dish and you share it with everybody," he said
One-Fifth of Detroit's Population Could Lose Their Homes - The Atlantic - Many families could stay put for just a few hundred dollars, if only they knew how to work the system.

Hullabaloo - This is why people have no respect for rich people - families with famous last names, media moguls, etc.) I have noticed that on Halloween, what seems like 75 percent of the trick-or-treaters are clearly not from this neighborhood. Kids arrive in overflowing cars from less fortunate areas. I feel this is inappropriate. Halloween isn’t a social service or a charity in which I have to buy candy for less fortunate children.

The Police Are Still Out of Control - Frank Serpico - politico magazine
The DEA Once Turned A 14-Year-Old Into A Drug Kingpin. Welcome To The War On Drugs - The DEA has been spying on U.S. citizens with a surveillance program more expansive than the NSA's. (it was just an excuse)
Miami sex offenders forced to sleep in squalid railway camp, suit claims | US news | theguardian.com - ACLU files suit challenging rule that it says forces offenders to sleep alongside railway tracks in shocking conditions

Friday Cancer Blogging - 24 October 2014 | Mother Jones - The obvious cause of widespread lytic lesions is multiple myeloma, a cancer of blood plasma cells, and further tests have confirmed this (sad)

Anthony Weiner Still Doesn't Understand How to Use Twitter

'Sunshine can slow weight gain and diabetes symptoms' - Exposure to sunshine could slow down weight gain and the development of type 2 diabetes, research on mice suggests ... But vitamin D, produced by the body in response to sunlight, did not appear to play a role, the study said. These effects of the UV treatment were linked to nitric oxide, which is released by the skin after exposure to sunlight.
Research Updates: Do you have an explanation for human-perceived chronostasis ?
Prostate cancer's penchant for copper may be a fatal flaw -- ScienceDaily - Researchers have found a way to kill prostate cancer cells by delivering a trove of copper along with a drug that selectively destroys the diseased cells brimming with the mineral, leaving non-cancer cells healthy.
Largest sunspot in more than 20 years facing Earth
Chemists/physicists of reddit, what is the difference between dark, anti, and normal matter? : askscience - all observational evidence indicates that there is more matter than antimatter. This is known as the baryon asymmetry
Weeks after winning a Nobel Prize for his microscope, Eric Betzig just revolutionized microscopy again - The Washington Post - Thursday in Science, he and a team of his colleagues reported on a new microscopy technique that allows them to observe living cellular processes at groundbreaking resolution and speed.
Powerful New Microscope Allows Scientists To View The World Like Never Before
All the planets in the Solar System fit between the Earth and the Moon : woahdude

'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo' Canceled By TLC After Allegations Star Is Dating Child Molester Come Out
TLC cancels "Here comes Honey Boo Boo" after the mother "Mama June" is discovered to allegedly be in a relationship with convicted child molester. : news (comment: "What dumpster fire of a childhood yields a guy who is a pedophile AND into Mama June?!" - and - ""The things I do to fuck children..." and permalink below:)
AWildSketchAppeared comments on TLC cancels "Here comes Honey Boo Boo" after the mother "Mama June" is discovered to allegedly be in a relationship with convicted child molester. ("Split your Lungs with Blood and Thunder" +whalecore)
We had the cumbox dude, Colby, the Icesoap guy and many more. Who are the biggest reddit Legends in your opinion? : AskReddit
What's the TL;DR of your best story? : AskReddit
I made a GIF of how things breathe :) : gifs
Is 1 closer to infinity than 0? : askscience

Andrew Sullivan: Team GamerGate - Lawyers, Guns & Money (for the record)

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Sao Paulo drought might cause ‘collapse like we’ve never seen’ | The Columbus Dispatch - Sao Paulo residents, half of whom are already complaining of hours-long water shortages, were warned yesterday by a top water regulator to brace for more-severe cutoffs. (test case for California)

Doctor who treated Ebola patients in Guinea rushed to hospital in New York | US news | theguardian.com - Physician, believed to be a 33-year-old man who was working in west Africa, treated for fever and ‘gastrointestinal symptoms’

We Await Further Developments - Esquire - A lot has been made of the contrast between how the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation handled the events yesterday in Ottawa, and how our own cable news networks handle practically everything. In brief, the difference was roughly the difference between the morning edition of The Times Of London and a tornado siren
Ottawa shooting: police confirm only one gunman as parliament re-opens | World news | The Guardian - Shooting suspect’s mother says she is ‘crying for victims’, as Queen sends condolences
Canada considers 'preventative detention' in wake of Ottawa attack | World news | theguardian.com - Prime minister Stephen Harper says he plans to strengthen counter-terrorism efforts as parliament returns day after shooting
? Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers receives standing ovation - YouTube
Halifax police arrest man, recover firearm on city bus | CBCNews.ca Mobile - Chief Jean-Michel Blais told CBC News the report of a man with a rifle caused the significant police presence downtown. A man was later arrested after reports of a firearm on a city bus. (meanwhile, in America ...)

US-led air strikes on Syria have killed more than 500 Isis and al-Nusra fighters | World news | The Guardian - More than thirty civilians along with over 500 militants killed in strikes over past month, says Syrian Observatory
Iraqis react to Blackwater verdict: 'I'm surprised they were convicted at all' | World news | theguardian.com - Sense of justice served mingles with anger and surprise in Iraqis’ reactions to conviction of guards in Nissour Square incident

Sixty more women and girls reported kidnapped in Nigeria | World news | The Guardian - Doubts grow about government ‘truce’ with Boko Haram after dozens are reportedly abducted and bombing kills five people (Goodluck Jonathan)

Republicans in tight midterm races use election rules changes to increase odds | US news | theguardian.com - Legislatures across US have placed hurdles to many would-be voters who would tend to cast their ballot for Democrats
Author Wants Southern States To Secede Over Gay Rights, Name New Country 'Reagan' | Right Wing Watch - Conservative columnist and former Reagan administration aide Douglas MacKinnon is out with a new book calling for Southern states to secede…again. (Reaganistan)

The bottom 90 percent are poorer today than they were in 1987 - The Washington Post
Peter Thiel On Progress - Business Insider (billionaire hippie-punching)
Americans taking fewest vacation days in four decades : news

Here's Some Stupid For Lunch - Esquire - "The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards." (Louis Gumball)

Those Who Fail To Learn From the Results of Nominating Shitty Candidates Are Doomed To Keep Losing - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money - The Titantic, the Hindenberg, the 2007 New York Mets, Martha Coakley: it’s ridiculous that the Massachusetts bench is so shallow that someone who ran one of the worst campaigns in known human history — a bad campaign with very substantial consequences for the country, yet — could get nominated for a competitive race again.
Oops: Scott Brown lists self as Mass. state senator in recent campaign filing | Political Scoop - WMUR Home

Darren Wilson’s lawyer speaks out on leaked Brown autopsy | MSNBC - saying “we were not responsible for any leaks to any media including those published in the NY Times and the St. Louis Post Dispatch.”

The Intelligent Life of the City Raccoon - Issue 18: Genius - Nautilus

Scientists have opened the blood-brain barrier for the first time - For the first time in humans, researchers have managed to penetrate the brain’s protector, meaning that doctors will be able to deliver drugs to previously inaccessible parts of the brain.
Mystery of dinosaur with giant arms solved - A dinosaur mystery that has baffled palaeontologists for 50 years has finally been solved. Its name Deinocheirus mirificus means unusual, horrible hands.
BBC - Future - Ageing: The girls who never grow older - “Syndrome X”. He has identified four girls with this condition, marked by what seems to be a permanent state of infancy, a dramatic developmental arrest
New evidence on Neanderthal mixing | Harvard Gazette - New research on a 45,000-year-old Siberian thighbone has narrowed the window of time when humans and Neanderthals interbred to between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, and has shown that modern humans reached northern Eurasia substantially earlier than some scientists thought.
This Is the Average Man's Body - The Atlantic - Now the average American man is three inches shorter than the Dutch man, who averages six feet
The Introverted Face - The Atlantic - in conservative-leaning states, finding that the more "traditionally Republican" a person's face is deemed to look, the more votes he/she gets.

New generation of archaeologists takes ancient Egypt into 21st century | World news | The Guardian - Young experts bring fresh ideas to help reform institutions in charge of likes of Tutankhamun’s tomb and Giza pyramids
Vatican Library digitizes ancient manuscripts, makes them available for free | The Rundown | PBS NewsHour
Turin shroud was made for medieval Easter ritual, historian says | World news | The Guardian - Charles Freeman believes relic venerated as Jesus Christ’s burial cloth dates from 14th century and was used as a prop - None predates 1355, the year of its first documented appearance in a chapel in Lirey near Troyes in France, before it was acquired by the House of Savoy in 1453 and “converted into a high-prestige relic” to shore up the power base of the insecure Alpine dukedom.

Dory Previn - A Stone For Bessie Smith - YouTube
Janis Joplin - The day she was to record the song, "Buried Alive in the Blues," she was found dead in her hotel room, apparently of a drug overdose, on October 4, 1970. She was 27.

Top senator demands explanation from Whisper after user tracking revelations | Technology | theguardian.com - Senator Jay Rockefeller emphasises concern over location tracking and says Guardian revelations raise ‘serious questions’
Avast Antivirus Was Spying On You with Adware (Until This Week)

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Was Genghis Khan history's greenest conqueror? - Interesting Science Articles and Facts - Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and an estimated 40 million people were slaughtered by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests.

Amber Vinson, Dallas Nurse Infected With Ebola, Is Free Of Virus: Family
Ebola patients could get transfusions from survivors ‘within weeks’ | World news | The Guardian - Work has commenced to make it possible to use blood in epidemic-hit countries, says World Health Organisation
Texas nurse's dog tests negative for Ebola | World news | theguardian.com - Dog belongs to Nina Pham who was infected with the virus - King charles spaniel’s quarantine ends on 1 November
Control Eluded State Leaders in Ebola Crisis | The Texas Tribune - When the Ebola virus first arrived in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry greeted the grave news with trademark swagger.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry's Response To Ebola Under Scrutiny - "Had the state used its public health powers more robustly, health care workers who treated Duncan might not have been circulating in public, and much of the ensuing panic could have been stilled," the Texas Tribune wrote on Wednesday.

Ottawa Gunman Identified As Michael Zehaf-Bibeau - Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, was from Quebec and had recently converted to Islam, U.S. sources told Reuters. According to the Globe and Mail, he had been designated a "high-risk traveler" by Canadian officials and was barred from traveling outside the country.
Canadian soldier killed as Ottawa thrown into turmoil by shooting | World news | theguardian.com - MPs barricade themselves for safety after gunman, who was shot dead, stormed into parliament and began shooting
Ottawa shooting: Cpl. Nathan Cirillo dies of wounds, gunman also shot dead - Politics - CBC News - Downtown Ottawa remains in lockdown as police conduct searches around parliamentary precinct

Iraqi Kurds Approved To Join Fight Against ISIS In Kobani
Iraqi Forces Clash With ISIS Fighters West of Baghdad

Baby killed and eight wounded in suspected terror attack in Jerusalem | World news | The Guardian - According to a tweet from an Israeli government spokesman for the Arab media, the driver – a former Palestinian prisoner – “is a member of Hamas”.
Mexican military tried to cover up murders of up to 15 people, report says | World news | The Guardian - National human rights commission calls for investigation into deaths of suspected gang members last summer
Mexico Mayor And Wife Were 'Probable Masterminds' Behind Missing Students - "We have issued warrants for the arrest of Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca, his wife Mrs Pineda Villa and police chief Felipe Flores Velazquez, as probable masterminds of the events that occurred in Iguala on Sept. 26," Murillo said at a press conference.

US jury convicts Blackwater guards in 2007 killing of Iraqi civilians | US news | theguardian.com - Security guards for private US contractor guilty of manslaughter for notorious 2007 incident that left 17 dead in Baghdad

Ron Wyden Blasts CIA For Censoring Torture Report - "The intelligence leadership doing everything they can to bury the facts," said Wyden, D-Ore., a Senate Intelligence Committee member who has been a frequent critic of the spy agency.
US ordered to explain withholding of Iraq and Afghanistan torture photos | US news | theguardian.com - Obama admistration must justify suppression of never-before-seen photographs depicting US military torture of detainees
U.S. Congress examining deal between NSA official, ex-agency chief | Reuters - The arrangement, which current and former officials said was approved by top NSA managers, has raised questions about the blurring of lines between government and business.
Edward Snowden Should Be Charged With Murder, Says Congressman Mike Rogers - "The [US] government has pressed charges on Mr Snowden," he said. "We are treating him, as I would argue, the traitor that he is." Rogers added: "And by the way, and this is important, I would charge him for murder."

Officials warn 500 million financial records hacked - Federal officials warned companies Monday that hackers have stolen more than 500 million financial records over the past 12 months, essentially breaking into banks without ever entering a building.

How voter-friendly is your state? | US news | The Guardian

BP Oil Spill 'Didn't Ruin The Gulf,' Says Politico Article Written By BP | ThinkProgress

Paul Krugman: 'Soak The Rich' - Paul Krugman is on board with some other top economists who say that the U.S. should tax top earners up to 90 percent.
Economists Say We Should Tax The Rich At 90 Percent - All Americans, including the rich, would be better off if top tax rates went back to Eisenhower-era levels when the top federal income tax rate was 91 percent
How The Fed Blew Its Most Important Job For Over Three Years - But the implications of the IG report reach well beyond the Whale debacle, highlighting how much power the Fed's New York branch wields and how little influence the public interest has within that branch.
Next Time Someone Says 'White Privilege Isn't Real,' Show Them This - But for black Americans, escaping poverty is far more difficult:
All The Wealth The Middle Class Accumulated After 1940 Is Gone - And who has been the beneficiary of this middle-class misery? The top 0.1 percent of Americans, whose incomes have just kept rising, and whose share of wealth has soared to levels not seen since Jay Gatsby was still staring at the blinking green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan's dock:

Election to Cost Nearly $4 Billion, CRP Projects, Topping Previous Midterms | OpenSecrets Blog
Is Martha Coakley About To Blow Another Major Race In Massachusetts?
Exclusive: DSCC going back up with ads for Alison Lundergan Grimes in Ky. - Manu Raju - politico.com


UNC Officials Failed To Stop 18-Year Long Student Athlete Academic Fraud: Report - More than 3,100 students — nearly half of them athletes — enrolled in classes they didn't have to show up for and received artificially inflated grades in what an investigator called a "shadow curriculum" that lasted nearly two decades at the University of North Carolina.

New Michael Brown autopsy supports account of struggle with police officer | US news | theguardian.com - Government autopsy discovers gunshot wound in 18-year-old’s hand that supports ‘significant altercation’ in officer’s car
Well, I’m Glad That’s Settled » Balloon Juice - The Washington Post just cleared Darren Wilson:
Justice Department condemns Ferguson leaks as effort to influence opinion - LA Times

No, marijuana use doesn’t lower your IQ - The Washington Post - Duke study flawed - "Although it would be too strong to say that the results have been discredited, the methodology is flawed and the causal inference drawn from the results premature," it concluded ... "In particular alcohol use was found to be strongly associated with IQ decline," the authors write. "No other factors were found to be predictive of IQ change."
The State Of Drug Use In America, In 9 Maps

FCC suspends review of Comcast/TWC and AT&T/DirecTV mergers | Ars Technica - Content companies refused to grant access to confidential programming contracts.

A Summary Of The Gamergate Movement That We Will ... | ClickHole
Why #Gamergaters Piss Me The F*** Off — The Cauldron — Medium - Chris Kluwe played in the NFL for eight years, but he’s been a gamer for 26?—?and he’s sick and tired of the misogynistic culture in today’s gaming community. ("slackjawed pickletits" +good invective)

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Five Conflicts and Collapses That May Have Been Spurred by Climate Change | History | Smithsonian - Earth's changing climate has been a spectre in centuries of civil conflict and, at times, the collapse of whole civilizations

Statement by Secretary Johnson on Travel Restrictions and Protective Measures to Prevent the Spread of Ebola to the United States | Homeland Security - New York’s JFK, Newark, Dulles, Atlanta and Chicago.
Rwanda To Screen U.S. And Spanish Visitors To Keep Out Ebola
Ebola health workers must be covered head to toe, say new US guidelines | World news | theguardian.com - Nurses’ groups and others had called for revised advice Stricter CDC guidance provides ‘extra margin of safety’
BERLIN: Ebola cases in Germany test plans made long ago for other diseases | Europe | McClatchy DC

U.S. accidentally delivered weapons to the Islamic State by airdrop, militants say - The Washington Post (close enough)
Before And After Photos Show The Devastating Toll Of The Battle For Kobani
Turkey to allow Kurdish peshmerga across its territory to fight in Kobani | World news | The Guardian - “The events from two weeks ago clearly showed that if Kobani should fall, the peace process would end. The Turkish government wanted to test how people would react, and they saw what would have happened. Turkey can no longer be seen as watching the drama in Kobani unfold without doing anything.”

Shlomo Sand: ‘I wish to resign and cease considering myself a Jew’ | World news | The Guardian - His past was Jewish, but today he sees Israel as one of the most racist societies in the western world. Historian Shlomo Sand explains why he doesn’t want to be Jewish anymore

Sweden ready to use force to surface sub - The Local - Sweden's military has announced that if it finds a suspect foreign vessel in the Stockholm archipelago, it is prepared to force it to the surface "with weapons if necessary"
Cluster bombs used in eastern Ukraine, says human rights group | World news | The Guardian - Human Rights Watch evidence suggests use by Ukrainian government forces – and possibly rebels – in Donetsk attacks
Augusto Pinochet’s former bodyguard detained at Santiago military base | World news | The Guardian - Cristián Labbé, outspoken defender of Chilean dictator, charged with conspiracy in kidnapping and homicide of 13 prisoners

Total CEO Christophe De Margerie Killed In Moscow Plane Collision - when his private jet collided with a snowplow whose driver was drunk, Russian investigators said Tuesday.
Spice – the synthetic drug gaining a grip on Russia | World news | The Guardian - “The consequences are quick addiction, fast-paced decline, and as far as I can see, irreversible consequences which cannot be cured. Heroin in Russia is yesterday’s problem.”
Freya Newman To Be Sentenced This Week Over Secret Abbott Scholarship | newmatilda.com - A 21-year-old journalism student at the University of Technology, Sydney will face a Sydney Court this week to be sentenced for accessing student records that showed the Prime Minister’s daughter received a secret scholarship from the Whitehouse Institute of Design.

White House Chief Of Staff Negotiating Redaction Of CIA Torture Report - The report itself, meanwhile, sidesteps the role of Bush administration officials in ordering or approving torture, focusing instead only on the agency,
WASHINGTON: Senate’s inquiry into CIA torture sidesteps blaming Bush, aides | National Security & Defense | McClatchy DC

In Raising Immigration, G.O.P. Risks Backlash After Election - NYTimes.com

Soon to become a minority in the US, whites express declining support for diversity - PsyPost - White Americans may view diversity and multiculturalism more negatively as the U.S. moves toward becoming a minority-majority nation, UCLA psychologists report.

Political Polarization & Media Habits | Pew Research Center's Journalism Project
Rush Limbaugh is America’s least-trusted news source - The Washington Post - 47 percent of conservatives name Fox News as their main news source. No single news outlet holds similar sway over liberal Americans.
Pew Study: Americans Are Self-Segregating Amid Proliferating Partisan Media - The Daily Beast - We may have unprecedented access to information, but our fellow citizens are corralling themselves off from opposing viewpoints in their media consumption, according to a new study. (if "citizens" = tribal paranoid Republicans worshipping at the alter of Murdoch)

A New York Times Columnist Spoke At A Fundraiser For A Group Working To Criminalize Gay Sex | Blog | Media Matters for America - Ross Douthat spoke at a fundraising event for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a right-wing legal group that works to defend anti-LGBT discrimination and supported the criminalization of homosexuality.

The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education “reform” phonies - Salon.com - Fraud, financial mismanagement, lousy results: Reports highlight awful charter schools and people are catching on (you've been Rhee'd)

The Palin Brawl Police Tapes - Annotated Edition

Stone Discovered In Jerusalem May Answer A Nearly 2,000 Year-Old Question - Israeli archaeologists said Tuesday they have discovered a large stone with Latin engravings that lends credence to the theory that the reason Jews revolted against Roman rule nearly 2,000 ago was because of their harsh treatment. (Hadrian and Bar Kochba)

Smell the Truth » War on marijuana unconstitutional, doctors testify in federal court Monday - The U.S. government claims marijuana is a dangerous, addictive drug with no medical benefits. But that claim will be up for debate Monday in California when a federal judge is scheduled to hear testimony from doctors that conclude the opposite.
Coffee May Protect the Liver - NYTimes.com - Drinking coffee — even decaffeinated coffee — may protect your liver, a large new study has found.
Study Suggests Vegetarian Men May Have Lower Sperm Counts | eCanadaNow - . In addition to the lower sperm counts, the percentage of sperm actively mobile in the samples taken from vegetarian men were significantly lower at 30%. Meat eaters had an average sperm mobility of 60%. (but lived 10 yrs less)
Vegetarians have much lower sperm counts and only 30% of their sperm are active compared to 60% for non-vegetarian men : news

Amazon Kindle Voyage review: The best e-reader is also the priciest


Demos - An analysis of 2 million tweets by the think tank Demos reveals that male public figures are several times more likely than women to receive abuse on Twitter.
The D-List Right-Wingers Who've Turned Gamergate Into Their Loser Army
When the #GamerGate mob targeted Anil Dash for no reason (with images, tweets) · x_glitch · Storify - #GamerGate proponents claim they are only concerned about games journalism and its ethics. How, then, does someone who isn't even a journalist, let alone a games journalist, get involved?

What is your best your mom joke? NSFW : AskReddit

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If you want a real answer from conservatives on science, then change the question by David Atkins | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - the latest conservative cool kid response to questions about climate change or evolution is “I’m not a scientist.” It displays a certain humility and folksy ignorance while avoiding tough questions about destructive GOP policy. ("do you believe in science?" "how about statistics?")
Amateur footage shows ferocity of blizzard in Himalayas - video | World news | The Guardian

WHO Declares Nigeria Ebola-Free After 42 Days With No Cases - NBC News.com
Relief in Dallas as dozens declared Ebola-free after three weeks in isolation | World news | theguardian.com - Forty-three of 48 people no longer at risk of developing virus
Ashoka Mukpo, NBC News Freelancer, Doing 'Quite Well' And Could Be Released Very Soon
Ebola hysteria: An epic, epidemic overreaction - CNN.com - While the threat of Ebola is very real in Africa, the paranoia it's generated in the United States is unreal.
Chicken Little Politics by Ed Kilgore | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - Alice Robb reports on “A growing body of literature in psychology suggests that feelings of fear make people’s political outlook more conservative.” (fear!)
Cuba’s Impressive Role on Ebola - NYTimes.com - having pledged to deploy hundreds of medical professionals to the front lines of the pandemic, Cuba stands to play the most robust role among the nations seeking to contain the virus.
The Embarrassment Of Being American Today - Esquire - Case in point: this morning's front page, which pairs up two stories about the Ebola outbreak, one from Liberia, where the disease is killing hundreds of people a week, and one from the United States of America, where it has killed one person. Can I just say that the World's Greatest Democracy doesn't profit from the comparison? (Americans are bed-wetting babies)

Turkey to allow Kurdish peshmerga across its territory to fight in Kobani | World news | The Guardian - Dramatic shift in the Turkish position due to internal protests on government inaction and support for regional fight against Isis
Officials: ISIS forces launch multiple attacks in Iraq - CNN.com
The Reign of 'Terror' - NYTimes.com

Three-quarters of Israeli Jews oppose detail of Palestinian state, poll shows | World news | The Guardian - Rightwing thinktank’s poll confirms argument that Israelis who support theory of two-state solution recoil from concrete details (someone tell the Boston Globe)

Gay couple ‘thrown off London bus for kissing’ | World news | The Guardian - Transport chiefs investigating incident where driver reportedly shouted: ‘It’s disgusting. Get off the bus’ at kissing couple

Killing The Message - Esquire - The kickback against Kill The Messenger, the new film about the late Gary Webb's pursuit of the story of how the CIA ran cocaine to help finance its wars in Central America and how his pursuit of that story came to destroy him, has been fascinating, with many of the same institutions who helped run Webb out of journalism now back to contend that, by doing so, they did the craft a great service

Here Are 5 Takeaways From The Harper's Anti-Clinton Story (a non-idealistic ambitious hawk who represents the rich and didn't do much as Senator)
How Obama Transformed the Federal Judiciary - The President considers his judicial legacy - “The majority of Obama’s appointments are women and nonwhite males.” Forty-two per cent of his judgeships have gone to women. Twenty-two per cent of George W. Bush’s judges and twenty-nine per cent of Bill Clinton’s were women. Thirty-six per cent of President Obama’s judges have been minorities, compared with eighteen per cent for Bush and twenty-four per cent for Clinton.

Why the Supreme Court is allowing Texas to hold an unconstitutional election - The Week - Once again, the high court has joined with conservative state lawmakers to restrict minority voting

SC GOP candidate: Don’t be deceived — ‘cute’ same-sex ‘gremlins’ will destroy US - same-sex marriage is “a pestilence that has descended on our society, against our will, by those in the courts and government that do not value the traditional family.”

UN human rights officials visit Detroit to assess impact of water shutoffs | US news | theguardian.com - Human rights experts, who call situation ‘a man-made perfect storm’, travel to bankrupt city withholding water from late payers

Poor kids who do everything right don’t do better than rich kids who do everything wrong - The Washington Post - America is the land of opportunity, just for some more than others.

This is what the legacy of ‘white privilege’ looks like in Bill O’Reilly’s hometown - The Washington Post - Levittown, the Long Island community where Bill O'Reilly grew up, holds a unique place in history for two reasons: It was the original subdivision, a mass-produced town of neatly uniform, affordable Cape Cod homes that would serve as a model for postwar suburbs for decades to come. And it was available only to whites.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard Arrested - Hubbard, who is also the chair of the Alabama Republican Party, faces charges that include using his office for personal gain and voting for legislation with a conflict of interest, Al.com reported.

The Missing Menino by D.R. Tucker | Political Animal | The Washington Monthly - He should have given himself some credit for not knuckling under to the right-wing forces that regard diversity as just so much political correctness. By fighting for diversity, he indeed showed that he was the mayor for a new America. (well, he sucked at making Boston the new Charlottsville)

Are Women Better Decision Makers? - NYTimes.com - Men took more risks when they were stressed. They became more focused on big wins, even when they were costly and less likely.

When Women Become Men at Wellesley - NYTimes.com
US seeks to learn from allies' experience about transgender troops | World news | theguardian.com - Washington event follows Hagel’s call for ‘continuous review’ 18 countries allow transgender personnel to serve openly
For Starters, 'Unsex' the Birth Certificate - NYTimes.com

For battered NFL wives, a message from the cops and the league: Keep quiet - The Washington Post - Two women narrate their ordeals. “You will hear of a wife murdered before you hear another one come forward.”

Research shows Portal 2 is better for you than 'Brain training' software (like Lumosity)

Indiana police hint at more victims after seven bodies discovered | US news | theguardian.com - Three female victims found in abandoned house in Gary Man, 43, allegedly confessed to woman’s murder on Saturday

Voyeur Case Spurs Rabbis To Add Post For Women - NYTimes.com - A week after a Washington rabbi was charged with videotaping women disrobing for ritual baths as they converted to Judaism,

Brianna Wu and the human cost of Gamergate: 'every woman I know in the industry is scared' | Technology | theguardian.com - We speak to game developer Brianna Wu about the threats that drove her from her home in another explosive week for Gamergate - and reflect on its damaging impact
Amazon’s Monopsony Is Not O.K. - NYTimes.com - Amazon.com, the giant online retailer, has too much power, and it uses that power in ways that hurt America.

What's the most important thing in a woman? [0:28] : videos (great multilingual "soul" riff)

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'Beijing is like a bonfire' as runners forced to complete marathon in gas masks - An estimated 30,000 runners take part in Beijing’s ‘airpocalypse’ annual marathon despite “hazardous” levels of smog
China to punish carmakers who fail to meet fuel targets in 2015 | Reuters
TSA agent at Hopkins Airport patted down Ebola patient Amber Vin - 19 Action News|Cleveland, OH|News, Weather, Sports - The TSA does confirm a routine pat-down by one of its agents on Amber Vinson at Hopkins Airport on Oct. 13, the day she traveled back to Dallas from Cleveland.
Dallas Hospital Waited Three Days to Use Hazmat Suits
CNN Host Grills Cruz About Ebola And GOP Opposition To Surgeon General ... "And we don’t have one because President Obama, instead of nominating a health professional, he nominated someone who is an anti-gun activist." (he noticed that bullets put holes in people)
Congressional Hearing On Ebola Was ‘Shameful,' Janet Napolitano Says - “It was outrageous to drag the head of the CDC so that they can make very partisan comments and tell him to do something that makes no sense," said Napolitano, referring to congressional calls to ban travel from Ebola-affected countries.

Ebola: Liberia deaths ‘far higher than reported’ as officials downplay epidemic | World news | The Observer - Ebola is still not under control, with cultural practices and data problems masking the true extent of the epidemic - Liberian authorities appeared to be deliberately downplaying the true number of cases, for fear of increasing alarm in the west African country.
Cruise ship carrying woman monitored for Ebola returns to Texas | World news | The Guardian - Carnival Magic liner was turned away from Mexico and Belize - Monitored passenger disembarks, drives home with husband
Liberian Leader Warns Ebola Risks Causing A 'Lost Generation'
The nasty politicization of Ebola - The Washington Post

Sweden Claims 3 Credible Sightings In Submarine Hunt - The Swedish military said Sunday it had made three credible sightings of foreign undersea activity in its waters during the past few days amid reports of a suspected Russian intrusion in the area.
German Intelligence Blames Pro Russian Separatists for MH17 Downing - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Germany's foreign intelligence agency says its review of the crash of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 in Ukrainian has concluded it was brought down by a missile fired by pro-Russian separatists near Donetsk. (in the obvious dept.)

Kobani Sees Fiercest Fighting In Days Between Kurds And ISIS

Mexico Finds Many Corpses, but Not Lost 43 - NYTimes.com
Blunt U.S. Appeal Encourages Huangs, Couple Held in Qatar - NYTimes.com - a prosecution regarded as rife with racial prejudices and cultural misunderstandings

Obama Could Reaffirm a Bush-Era Reading of a Treaty on Torture - NYTimes.com - When the Bush administration revealed in 2005 that it was secretly interpreting a treaty ban on “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” as not applying to C.I.A. and military prisons overseas, Barack Obama, then a newly elected Democratic senator from Illinois, joined in a bipartisan protest.
WPost’s Slimy Assault on Gary Webb | Consortiumnews - Jeff Leen, the Washington Post’s assistant managing editor for investigations, begins his renewed attack on the late Gary Webb’s Contra-cocaine reporting with a falsehood. (the government must always be presumed to be telling the truth)
In Context of Accusations of CIA Drug Smuggling, WaPo Calls Million a Week "Relatively Small" | Beat the Press - I will give some additional context for the "relatively small" drug trade. relative to today's economy, the cocaine would be worth between $4.0-$6 billion a year at the retail level. It is also enough to supply 100,000 users with a gram of cocaine a week. (more on why Jeff Leen is playing a very dirty game)

Warren in Minnesota: ‘The game is rigged’ - The Washington Post - "The game is rigged, and the Republicans rigged it," Warren said to loud cheers.
Black Vote Seen as Last Hope for Democrats to Hold Senate - NYTimes.com - predicted “crushing Democratic losses across the country” if the party did not do more to get black voters to the polls (black voters disenchanted with Obama)
Obama’s standing with women hurts Senate Dems - Manu Raju - politico.com

RealClearPolitics - Election 2014 - Massachusetts Governor - Baker vs. Coakley (Chawley surges past Chokely)


Virginia Tops 2013 List Of The Best States For Business - Maine ranks last for the fourth straight year. Not much has changed. It is still burdened with an aging population and a weak economic forecast (and a dipshit teaparty governor)

Mental Health Issues Put 34,500 on New York’s No-Guns List - NYTimes.com

Whites riot over pumpkins in NH and Twitter turns it into epic lesson about Ferguson - How many of the defiant white youth causing mayhem & destruction come from fatherless families? #PumpkinRiot
Riot Police Deploy Tear Gas, Pepper Spray Against Keene State Partiers - New Hampshire news - Boston.com

Charlotte police investigators secretly track cellphones | CharlotteObserver.com - Charlotte-Mecklenburg police use a secretive surveillance system that collects information from cellphones and wireless devices to locate crime suspects but also gathers data from innocent people.

How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world a better place - The Washington Post - one of the main obstacles to meaningful reform is layers of entrenched drug control bureaucracies at the international and national levels

Netflix Is Taking The Movie Theatre Industry Head On, And It Will Win
2014 is first year ever with ZERO platinum-certified records | Death and Taxes - The award is given by the RIAA to mark one million units sold, and with only a few weeks remaining in the year, no album is even remotely close to making the threshold. With the reality that songs can get millions of streams and video views, yet only sell tens of thousands of copies, the old model is no longer relevant, and when the big labels collapse, they’ll only have their arrogance and ignorance to blame.

Reading To Children: The Key Benefits Of Reading Aloud To Children And How To Develop Effective Communication Skills - WhytoRead - How To Make Reading Aloud More Effective

Telomerase reverses ageing process : Nature News - Dramatic rejuvenation of prematurely aged mice hints at potential therapy.
New test scans all genes simultaneously to identify single mutation causing child's rare genetic disease -- ScienceDaily - Sequencing the DNA of children with mystery genetic disorders produced a definitive diagnosis in 40 percent of one hospital’s most complex cases -- a quantum leap from the field’s 5-percent success rate 20 years ago.
What Is Jupiter? | NASA - Europa is the smallest of the Galilean satellites. Europa's surface is mostly water ice. Beneath the ice may be an ocean of water or slushy ice. Europa is thought to have twice as much water as Earth.

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Hurricane Gonzalo pounds Bermuda with 110mph winds | World news | theguardian.com - Tempest scores direct hit on British territory, knocking out the majority of the island’s electricity but causing no fatalities

More Than 100 Monitored For Ebola Symptoms In Ohio
Life in Quarantine for Ebola Exposure: 21 Days of Fear and Loathing - NYTimes.com
Texas hospital mounts '#PresbyProud' fightback as Ebola criticism mounts | World news | theguardian.com - Dallas hospital where nurses were infected engages PR firm Union chief says: ‘There has been no leadership’
The Ebola Conspiracy Theories - NYTimes.com
Why An Ebola Flight Ban Wouldn’t Work | FiveThirtyEight - It seems unlikely that travel from Europe or the Middle East will be halted. But the next Ebola patient may be on a flight from London, not Liberia.

Militants Attack Nigerian Villages Despite Reported Boko Haram Cease-Fire - Suspected Boko Haram militants have killed dozens of people in five attacks on Nigerian villages that occurred after the government announced a ceasefire to enable 200 abducted girls to be freed, security sources and witnesses said on Saturday.

United States accused of misleading British minister over treatment of Shaker Aamer in Guantánamo Bay | World news | The Observer - Charity claims British resident cleared for release is being beaten by guards before force-feeding

Catholic Bishops Scrap Welcome To Gays - Catholic bishops scrapped their landmark welcome to gays Saturday, showing deep divisions at the end of a two-week meeting sought by Pope Francis to chart a more merciful approach to ministering to Catholic families.
Conservative Cardinal Who Clashed With Pope Francis Confirms He Has Been Ousted - Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American who heads the Vatican’s highest court of canon law (purge of the Cult of the Red Beanie)

Supreme Court Allows Texas to Use Strict Voter ID Law in Coming Election - NYTimes.com
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Pens Scathing Dissent On Texas Voter ID Law - "The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters," Ginsburg wrote. (conservative Supremes dismantling your democracy)

Probe of silencers leads to web of Pentagon secrets - The Washington Post - The mysterious workings of a Pentagon office that oversees clandestine operations are unraveling in federal court, where a criminal investigation has exposed a secret weapons program entwined with allegations of a sweetheart contract, fake badges and trails of destroyed evidence.

Secret space plane lands at US air force base after unknown two-year mission | US news | theguardian.com - Resembling a small space shuttle, the X-37B landed in southern California after a 674 days in orbit on a secret mission

Hullabaloo - Gird your loins ladies, George Will is wading into women's issues again:

Officer who shot Michael Brown says he feared for his life | US news | theguardian.com (they always do)

When Planning for Retirement, Consider Transportation - NYTimes.com - From their home, the nearest bus stop is a mile walk. “I can still do it,” Mr. Dion said. But his wife cannot

Quality of Words, Not Quantity, Is Crucial to Language Skills, Study Finds - NYTimes.com - increased calls for publicly funded prekindergarten programs and dozens of campaigns urging parents to get chatty with their children
Does Everything Happen for a Reason? - NYTimes.com - If there is such a thing as divine justice or karmic retribution, the world we live in is not the place to find it. Instead, the events of human life unfold in a fair and just manner only when individuals and society work hard to make this happen.

Peter Beinart: Do American Jews Live in Cocoon? Answer: No. | New Republic - Peter Beinart thinks so. He's wrong.
Hasidic Jews Becoming Unorthodox Lynn Davidman Interview | New Republic

Margo Howard: Amazon "Vine" Reviewers Sabotaged My Book | New Republic | Eat, Drink and Remarry: Confessions of a Serial Wife | Dear Prudence | child of Ann Landers | third memoir! (and I whined because they shouldn't be allowed not to like my book so I wrote this article and made it worse and the internets are mean +she "objects" to people being able to read reviews on Amazon +comments, of course)
Book review: ‘Eat, Drink & Remarry’ By Margo Howard - Books - The Boston Globe - She is also author of two previous book-sploitations of her greatest asset: her pedigree. The only child of Eppie Lederer, a.k.a. Ann Landers, and Budget Rent a Car cofounder Julius Lederer, Howard grew up with such a mouthful of silver spoons, it’s a wonder she learned to talk.
Eat, Drink and Remarry: Confessions of a Serial Wife: Margo Howard: 9780373893041: Amazon.com: Books (for the reviews)
'Am I being catfished?' An author confronts her number one online critic | Books | The Guardian - When a bad review of her first novel appeared online, Kathleen Hale was warned not to respond. But she soon found herself wading in

Google And Microsoft Battle For Market Cap Supremacy | TechCrunch - Apple and Exxon Mobil will still be worth more than the dueling technology giants. The four firms have a combined market cap of more than $1.5 trillion.
Privacy experts call for Whisper to be investigated over tracking of some users | World news | theguardian.com - Federal Trade Commission could examine issue of ‘anonymous’ app tracking users who have asked not to be followed
? The Beatles - Do You Want To Know A Secret - YouTube

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The Montecito, California drought has wealthy residents paying water usage fines - CBS News - One area running out of water is Montecito, an upscale community home to celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise and Ellen DeGeneres.
India to build the world's largest Floating Solar Farm. | LIKESWAGON: India to build the world's largest Floating Solar Farm. - the power requirements for about 50000 homes - 5 acres of land are required to produce 1 megawatt of solar power
Experts Skeptical Of Lockheed Martin's 'Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough' - "Getting net energy from fusion is such a goddamn difficult undertaking," he told Mother Jones. "We know of no materials that would be able to handle anywhere near that amount of heat."
Search widens for Nepal snowstorm survivors | World news | The Guardian - Forty-six trekkers rescued 700m below top of Himalayan pass, and smaller groups elsewhere reached by helicopter

World Health Organisation admits botching response to Ebola outbreak | World news | The Guardian - UN health agency acknowledged ‘nearly everyone involved in the response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall’
New Study Suggests 21-Day Ebola Quarantine Is Dangerously Short - "the risk is certainly not zero of anyone beyond 21 days converting to symptomatic."
Texas hospital worker quarantined on cruise ship in Caribbean - The Washington Post - A Texas health-care worker who “may have” handled lab specimens from Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan has been isolated on board a Carnival cruise ship in the Caribbean.
All four suspected Ebola cases in Spain test negative for the disease | World news | The Guardian - Air France traveller and a patient who had been in the same ambulance as nurse Teresa Romero Ramos remain in isolation
Ebola: Obama not ruling out travel bans as experts watch for more cases | World news | theguardian.com - President considers further interventions and appointing crisis leader, while concern grows over infected woman’s air travel
T&T orders Ebola travel ban | Trinidad Express Newspaper | News - Trinidad and Tobago today took the decision to ban entry to travelers coming from the African countries which have been stricken with Ebola.
Colombia reserves the right to deny entry to people from West Africa | Voxxi - despite the fact no Colombian Ebola cases have been reported.
Obama To Appoint Ron Klain As Ebola Czar - President Barack Obama is naming Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and a trusted adviser at the Obama White House, as the point man on the U.S. government's response to the Ebola crisis.
Ebola Outbreak In Senegal Over: WHO
w The Tangled Story Of Why Ebola Vaccine Research Came Up Short - The role that money plays in finding vaccines has come under sharp dispute in recent days after the NIH director, Dr. Francis Collins, told The Huffington Post that the country "probably would have had a vaccine in time" for the current Ebola epidemic if not for a “10-year-slide in research support.”
Syracuse Disinvites WashPost Pulitzer Photographer Due To Ebola Fears | NPPA - Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Michel du Cille of The Washington Post, who returned from covering the Ebola crisis in Liberia 21 days ago and who is symptom free, was asked by Syracuse University officials today not to come to campus where he was scheduled to participate in a journalism program.
Ebola Quarantine Makes Sense, Says Infectious Disease Doctor | New Republic - An infectious-disease specialist says the time for half-measures is over
Ron Klain is a great choice for Ebola czar - Vox
WHO | Diarrhoeal disease - Each year diarrhoea kills around 760 000 children under five. (time to panic, somebody call Fox News)
GOP Senator: ISIS Using Ebola Is A "Real And Present Danger" - Asked whether the U.S. should be concerned about ISIS militants bringing Ebola into the country, Sen. Ron Johnson said we should do everything possible to prevent such a thing. (viral suicide bombers will poop in Times Sq)

IamA Journalist whose latest investigation found that only 4% of those named as killed by drones in Pakistan were members of al Qaeda. AMA. : IAmA

Military alert over 'foreign subs' off Stockholm - The Local - Sweden's military has deployed planes and ships in the Stockholm Archipelago against what it says is a threat from foreign submarines in the Stockholm Archipelago. (Putin getting ready to invade Sweden)

UN confirms 5,000 Yazidis men were executed and 7,000 women are now sex slaves | Daily Mail Online - Yazidi refugees were lined up, shot dead, then bulldozed into mass graves At least ten men at the village of Hardan were beheaded Jihadists came into villages and selected women at will to make slaves
Why Saudi women languish in jail | Kingdom | Saudi Gazette - Having a guardian’s consent is a prerequisite for the release of female prisoners who have completed their jail terms. Current prison and detention regulations forbid keeping anyone in jail after they have served their sentences but nearly 35 percent of female prisoners remain incarcerated after finishing their jail terms because they are rejected by their families, Al-Sharq newspaper reported Friday.
Hong Kong riot police in new clashes with protesters at cleared site | World news | The Guardian - Chaos in Mong Kok unfolds hours after police had dismantled tents, canopies and barricades in the small protest zone
New Zealand Cops Raided Home of Reporter Working on Snowden Documents - The Intercept

Citizenfour Official Trailer #1 (2014) - Edward Snowden Documentary HD - YouTube
Home | CITIZENFOUR - A film by Laura Poitras
Citizenfour review – gripping Snowden documentary offers portrait of power, paranoia and one remarkable man | Film | The Guardian
Citizenfour review: Laura Poitras’ Edward Snowden documentary. - Citizenfour is a fine documentary. Too bad the director glossed over some important details—and Edward Snowden didn’t gloss over more. (#slatepitch)

FBI director to citizens: Let us spy on you | Ars Technica - Encryption will “lead all of us to a very dark place,” FBI director says ... In a post-Snowden plea for a policy more permissive of spying (you caught us spying on you so moar spying!)
James Comey, F.B.I. Director, Hints at Action as Cellphone Data Is Locked - NYTimes.com - The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, said on Thursday that the “post-Snowden pendulum” that has driven Apple and Google to offer fully encrypted cellphones had “gone too far.”
ACLU Comment on FBI Director Comey’s Encryption Speech | American Civil Liberties Union - “Director Comey is wrong in asserting that law enforcement cannot do its job while respecting Americans’ privacy rights. In fact, federal law explicitly protects the right of companies to add encryption with no backdoors.
Apple defies FBI and offers encryption by default on new operating system | Technology | theguardian.com - New version of Mac OS X will encrypt users’ hard drives unless they explicitly decline, in spite of pleas by the FBI not to
Senior NSA official moonlighting for private cybersecurity firm | US news | theguardian.com - Patrick Dowd recruited by former NSA director Keith Alexander - Unusual for US official to work for private, for-profit company
Eschaton: New Math - I'm not one who has the knowledge to re-litigate the Gary Webb controversy, but his opponents always seem to have strange arguments.

Leaked draft confirms TPP will censor Internet and stifle Free Expression worldwide | OpenMedia.ca - This morning Wikileaks published a second leaked draft of the Intellectual Property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The draft confirms people’s worst fears about Internet censorship. That’s according to community-based organization OpenMedia, which is leading a large international Fair Deal Coalition aimed at securing balanced copyright rules for the 21st Century. (Obama's sooper-secrit corporate deal)

Biden’s son discharged from Navy after positive cocaine test - The Washington Post
Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton: It's Complicated - The Atlantic - Reporters have focused on how the former defense secretary's memoir praises her and criticizes the president. The book itself tells a different story ... As budget director and then White House chief of staff, Panetta was among the Clinton administration’s staunchest deficit hawks. (so he was wrong about everything)

Senate Forecast 2014 | The Huffington Post - 65% chance that Republicans will take control of the Senate. (America is really stupid)
Fate Of Obama's Judicial Nominees Unclear Under GOP-Controlled Senate
How Old People Will Decide Your Future - The Daily Beast - Older voters are the electorate’s fastest-growing demographic—and a major reason Republicans can win big in 2016.
Courting Corruption: The Auctioning of the Judicial System - The Atlantic - Don't believe the Citizens United pollyannas. Watching money flooding into elections for judges' seat shows how dangerous unregulated campaigns can be.
Another Winner From Late-Period Posner - As there is no evidence that voter impersonation fraud is a problem, how can the fact that a legislature says it’s a problem turn it into one? If the Wisconsin legislature says witches are a problem, shall Wisconsin courts be permitted to conduct witch trials


Arizona Same-Sex Marriage Ban Declared Unconstitutional
Wyoming's Gay Marriage Ban Struck Down As Unconstitutional

Colleges Are Already Screwing Up New Campus Safety Law That Includes Domestic Violence - At least 23 institutions (listed below) failed to include them, though the Education Department will not say whether colleges will face fines for not complying with those new rules that were already in place.

Southern Evangelicals: Dwindling—and Taking the GOP Edge With Them - The Atlantic - Why are Democrats keeping it close in five key Senate races? Look at changing demographics.
Joni Ernst’s hog-castrating ideology, revealed! - The Washington Post - In it, Ernst claims that we have created “a generation of people that rely on the government to provide absolutely everything for them,” and that wrenching them away from their dependence “is going to be very painful.”
Whistling Past the Graveyard » Balloon Juice - To put it bluntly: we’ve entrusted our national medical system to the managerial competence and goodwill of the Rick Scotts of the world, and that is much scarier than a podium fan.
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community - A prohibition against using electronic devices during a political debate makes some sense, but no one in their right mind would think that such a prohibition was aimed at electronic devices that circulate air.

Small town's future uncertain after 'astronomical' jury verdict - Post and Courier - Mayor Tim Grimsley, a white-bearded Santa Claus figure who drives an old VW van, said business was normal in the wake of a $97.5 million award by a federal jury to the family of a town leader fatally shot by a Cottageville police officer three years ago. (bankrupt a few more towns, maybe they'll stop killing people)
St. Louis police officer under investigation following call to protester's employer : News - Within hours of the posting of the video, other Twitter users posted Novara’s cell number, photo and email address.

Tesla Faces Possible Prohibition of Sales in Michigan - Bloomberg - Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) would be blocked from selling its electric cars in Michigan under legislation that cleared the state’s legislature and now awaits Governor Rick Snyder’s signature to become law.

Scientists have found “hidden” brain activity that can indicate if a vegetative patient is aware - The new research could help doctors to quickly identify patients who are aware despite appearing unresponsive and unable to communicate.
JPL | News | Saturn Moon May Hide a 'Fossil' Core or an Ocean - A new study focused on the interior of Saturn's icy moon Mimas suggests its cratered surface hides one of two intriguing possibilities: Either the moon's frozen core is shaped something like a football, or the satellite contains a liquid water ocean.
xs
The Principle: A documentary about geocentrism. (no crazy too far)
The Principle | Not Even Wrong - The person behind this is Robert Sungenis, a bizarre figure with extreme religious views. He holds a Ph.D from an institution located in Vanuatu, and is an advocate of the idea of “geocentrism”, the idea that the Catholic church was right, and scientists since Galileo have got it all wrong
Welcome to GeocentrismDebunked.org - Debunking geocentrism, the idea that the entire universe revolves around a motionless Earth.Welcome to GeocentrismDebunked.org | Debunking geocentrism, the idea that the entire universe revolves around a motionless Earth. - “In fact, geocentrism is neither good science, nor is it supported by scriptural exegesis or patristics, nor is it Catholic doctrine. Rather, it is a dated scientific theory which no longer fits the appearances and which has no direct bearing upon Catholicism.”

Family in Anne Arundel pastry gun case loses school board appeal - The Washington Post - School officials in Anne Arundel County rejected an appeal filed by the family of a boy suspended after he chewed his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun, according to a decision the family’s lawyer received Wednesday. the so-called “Pop-Tart case.”

Christian Talk radio host accused of sex crime against 3-year-old | Local News - WYFF Home - Josh Kimbrell, who is the host of Common Cents on Christian Talk 660AM/92.9FM, is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor under 11.
Lizzipp comments on On my grandmothers death bed, she asked me "Do you know who your real mother is?". What major "plot twist" moment have you had in your life?

Thousands of Macbook GPUs Failing - 18K signatures, a lawsuit, a Twitter campaign and a 600-page thread on their forum have yet to provoke any response from Apple : technology


Reddit, What are some of the most mysterious posts ever put on this site? : AskReddit
bigpandamonium comments on Redditors who have been in a coma, what is it like? Did you dream? What was it like waking up?


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Anthropocene: is this the new epoch of humans? | Science | The Guardian - Humanity’s terrifying impact on Earth justifies new Anthropocene epoch
Wind blows away fossil power in the Nordics, the Baltics next | Reuters - Rising wind power output pushes Nordic prices down

Ebola epidemic may not end without developing vaccine, scientist warns | World news | The Guardian - Professor Peter Piot, one of the scientists who discovered Ebola, claims scale of outbreak has got ‘completely out of hand’ (but Republicans will cut all their funding so they can scream some more)
Airline: CDC Warned Patient 'May Have Been Symptomatic' On Board
Amber Vinson, Nurse Infected With Ebola, May Have Felt Ill As Early As Friday
Texas healthcare workers at risk of Ebola asked to stay out of public | World news | theguardian.com - Seventy-five staff members of Dallas hospital asked to sign ‘binding legal order’ that states they will avoid public spaces
Amber Vinson, Dallas Ebola Patient, Says CDC Gave Her Green Light To Fly - Vinson told CBS Dallas Fort Worth that she was feeling ill before boarding her flight. She had a low grade fever, but she said that officials told her it was okay to get on the plane. Vinson told CBS that she called the CDC several times with concerns.
Experts Offer Steps for Avoiding Public Hysteria, a Different Contagious Threat - NYTimes.com
Downfall for Hospital Where Ebola Spread - NYTimes.com - Long regarded as one of the finest hospitals in Texas, Presbyterian has faced continuing criticism
Ebola crisis: Texas hospital ‘deeply sorry’ for case errors | World news | The Guardian - Official at the hospital where two nurses were infected while treating an Ebola patient has apologised for handling of outbreak
The Ebola outbreak this year that you won’t have heard about | David Heymann | Comment is free | The Guardian - another unrelated Ebola outbreak has taken place in the Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of Congo
Long Quest for Ebola Vaccine Slowed by Science, Ethics, Politics - There are no approved vaccines or treatments, but some in development look promising.
The Real Contagion - Esquire - In case you joined American democracy already in progress, this is the way it is going to work. The private, for-profit hospital in Texas completely screws the pooch. (They sent the tubes containing blood from the late Thomas Duncan through the hospital's general delivery system? This is moronic.) ... Fear will be mongered. Distrust will be sown. And the statistics will tell us that, throughout last year, we lost 30 people a day. No, wait. That was due to firearms. My bad.
The Partisan Divide on Ebola Preparedness - NYTimes.com - According to a new ABC News/Washington Post survey, only 54 percent of Republicans are confident in the federal government’s ability to respond effectively to Ebola — far fewer than the 76 percent of Democrats who expressed confidence (cut health funding, defund everything except rich people, can't connect any dots and neither can the NYT)
Republicans Are Responsible for the Ebola Crisis | Slog - . "Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support," Dr. Collins said, "we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready." Our public health infrastructure is crumbling, and that's because of Republican-led budget cuts.

White House says expired War Powers timetable irrelevant to Isis campaign | US news | theguardian.com - Resolution holds that presidents have 60-day window to conduct hostilities without an act of Congress blessing the conflict
Isis targets Baghdad with wave of car bombs and mortar attacks killing 150 | World news | The Guardian - Islamic State car bombs hit Shia districts of Iraqi capital, with one attack killing 36 and wounding 98 within two hours
The Good, the Bad and the Messy: The Legacy of the First Gulf War | The National Interest - In short, the Gulf War seemed to suggest that international institutions, underwritten by revolutionary advances in American military power, could finally solve real military security problems. The political and technological foundations for a transformation in the functioning of global politics were in place. The intervening twenty-three years have given us time to reconsider this conclusion.

Don't Threaten Us, Says India After China Objects to Arunachal Road - Nobody should "threaten or warn India," said Home Minister Rajnath Singh after China objected to reported plans by India to build a 2,000-km long road along the border in Arunachal Pradesh.
Hong Kong chief executive calls for talks with student protesters | World news | The Guardian - Move comes as police use pepper spray to break up pro-democracy activists after video of beating reignites protests
Nearly 500 new FGM cases identified - NHS figures show 467 newly identified cases of girls and women needing treatment after female genital mutilation in England last month.

FBI director attacks tech companies for embracing new modes of encryption | US news | theguardian.com - James Comey says data encryption could deprive police and intelligence companies of potentially live-saving information (they couldn't save any lives before)
New York Times Reporter James Risen Shares The Terrorism Statistic You Won't Hear On Network News - The fear of terrorism has hung over the United States like a dark cloud in the 13 years since 9/11, but New York Times reporter James Risen says the tone of panic that often pervades the news media and the speeches of politicians is not in line with reality.
Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War: James Risen, Christopher Lane: 9781491546536: Amazon.com: Books

Republicans Are People Too, Just Awful Ones Who Have No Decent Ideas and Cut Vital Health Funding To Prove It | Common Dreams

Insiders Blame Rove for Covering Up Iraq’s Real WMD - The Daily Beast - There’s one man, some Republicans say, who kept the public from learning about the chemical shells littered around the Iraqi battlefield. He was Bush's most important political adviser. (none of that makes sense)

Arkansas Supreme Court Strikes Down Voter ID Law - Arkansas' highest court on Wednesday struck down a state law that requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot,

Idaho begins issuing same-sex marriage licenses as ban dissolved | US news | theguardian.com - More than 100 people gathered at Boise courthouse as Idaho became the latest state to begin recognizing gay marriage

Texas abortion providers open and close on whims of recent rulings | US news | theguardian.com - In the two weeks before the US supreme court barred parts of Texas’ strict abortion law, abortion providers had to fire staff and lose leases

Milwaukee Police Fire Officer Who Shot Man in Park - ABC News - Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has fired an officer who he said instigated a fight with a mentally ill man that eventually led the officer to shoot the man 14 times, killing him.


Cory Gardner Absolutely Nailed By Debate Moderators For Personhood Stance | Crooks and Liars - He then tells Gardner that they are instead looking at what "this entire episode may say about your judgement more broadly. "A favorable interpretation would be that you have a difficult time admitting when you're wrong." "A less charitable interpretation is that you're not telling us the truth," he concluded.

The age of loneliness is killing us | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian - ‘Social isolation is as potent a cause of early death as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Loneliness is twice as deadly as obesity.

Dogged by troubled iPad scheme, Los Angeles schools chief resigns | US news | theguardian.com - John Deasy had clashed with union and lost allies on board - a $1bn plan to give each student an iPad was fraught with problems (Android much cheaper, for one)
iFail: Why John Deasy's Risky iPad Gambit Crashed and Burned at LAUSD | The Informer | Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly - everything from LAUSD students "hacking" devices to the incomplete iPAD-friendly software to an allegedly chummy bidding process in which Deasy gave Apple and Pearson, the software company, a leg up ... even though older students — high schoolers in particular — clearly needed keyboards to write their reports and papers (iPad least suited to task)
#PhlEd: SRC Member to Students: “You Must Go to Failing Schools” | Raging Chicken Press - It looks like Sylvia Simms yelled “You must go to failing schools…you all belong in jail” at a screening of Won’t Back Down, the movie that promotes right-wing stereotypes of public school teachers and attacks teachers unions. (worst person of the day)

Revealed: how Whisper app tracks ‘anonymous’ users | Technology | The Guardian ("privacy" apps sends data to NSA and Israel, probably
How the 'safest place on the internet' tracks its users | World news | The Guardian - Whisper app that was intended to be a safe haven for anonymity is exploiting a vast library of texts, photographs and, in many cases, the location of their authors – from Guantánamo to the White House

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Lockheed announces breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy | Environment | theguardian.com - 100MW reactor small enough to fit on back of a truck Cleaner energy source could be in use within 10 years

Second Texas nurse with Ebola to be transferred to special facility | World news | theguardian.com - CDC admits failings as director says nurse should not have been allowed on commercial flight in days before diagnosis (exposed to Ebola, get on a plane)
Second Ebola-Infected Nurse Identified, Was Symptomatic With 99.5 Degree Fever While Flying | Zero Hedge
2nd Dallas nurse with Ebola flew with 132 passengers day before showing symptoms — RT USA
Texas dept.: 2nd person tests positive for Ebola - WFLA News Channel 8 - A second health care worker at a Dallas hospital who provided care for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. has tested positive for the diseas
Second Health Care Worker With Ebola Was In Isolation Within 90 Minutes: Official
Ebola Strikes Second Texas Hospital Worker and More Cases a 'Possibility' - ABC News
Dallas Nurses Cite Sloppy Conditions In Ebola Care - Nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments, worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for a patient with explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting
OSHA provides guidance on cleaning surfaces that may be contaminated with Ebola - Transportation, Safety, Human Resources Compliance - J. J. Keller & Associates
Megyn Kelly's Fiery Interview With CDC Director Over Ebola - She accused the CDC of presenting some "misplaced" and "wrong" information on how the Dallas health care worker who treated a patient with Ebola managed to contract the disease despite allegedly taking safety precautions.
Jon Stewart Finds Sanity-Resistant Strain Of Ebola Fear In Congress
NYC rats are infected with at least 18 new viruses, according to scientists | The Verge - Fortunately bubonic plague was not found

Islamic State Militants And Kurdish Fighters Battle In The Streets Of Syria's Kobani
IRBIL, Iraq: Iraqis desperate for air cover as U.S. moves warplanes to Kobani | Iraq | McClatchy DC
C.I.A. Study of Covert Aid Fueled Skepticism About Helping Syrian Rebels - NYTimes.com - many past attempts by the agency to arm foreign forces covertly had a minimal impact on the long-term outcome of a conflict. They were even less effective, the report found, when the militias fought without any direct American support on the ground.
CIA Report: The CIA Is Fucking Useless - The latest findings from our nation's top intelligence and black ops agency: our black ops have historically been pretty fucking worthless.
The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons - NYTimes.com - From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Cairo rocked by bomb blast after Islamic militants sentenced to death | World news | The Guardian - Twelve people injured in explosion in centre of city following sentencing of seven militants over killing of soldiers last year

David Greenglass, spy who sent sister Ethel Rosenberg to electric chair, dies | World news | theguardian.com - Sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed for passing atomic secrets to Russia, announce death of estranged uncle

No, Bush was not right about Iraq: How conservatives misread new Times bombshell - Salon.com - The right says a new NY Times report on chemical weapons in Iraq vindicates Bush. Even Team Bush disagrees!

Tennessee anti-abortion Amendment 1: Voters will decide whether legislature regulates women’s health. - That’s right. Tennessee is trying to amend its constitution to never protect abortion, ever, under any circumstance.
Lacey Weld case: Tennessee woman gets six extra years in prison for being pregnant when arrested.
What Stand Your Ground Really Means - Lawyers, Guns & Money : In other words, a woman using armed force to defend herself against a home invading man she had a relationship with doesn’t apply because, again, these laws are about white dudes. And South Carolina refuses to take domestic violence seriously even thought it is an epidemic:

Orphaned by deportation: the crisis of American children left behind | US news | theguardian.com - Andrés Jiménez, under the guardianship of a Florida ‘fairy godmother’ after his father’s deportation, is one of hundreds of children whose families are broken by a fickle system

The Report - How to Fix Congress Now - Esquire - Senator Tom Daschle, Representative Barney Frank, Representative Bob Livingston, Senator Trent Lott, and Lawrence O’Donnell convened in Washington, D. C., and came to unanimous consensus on the following recommendations to reform Congress for the Twenty-First century

Look, Decent Pensions Are Possible - I'll tell you what is really exciting: the cold hard fiscal facts about how this nation is screwing its retirees and what we might learn from a friendly nation by the name of "THE NETHERLANDS," when it comes to proper accounting practices that can assure pension stability. That is "exciting." Because you don't want to be old and broke!

Party Of Ideas - Esquire - wonderful tale of Ron Beaty, Jr., the official, anointed-by-primary Republican candidate for the state legislature down on Cape Cod, the bicep of the Commonwealth (God save it!).

New York police unions push to continue appeal of stop-and-frisk ruling | US news | theguardian.com - Federal judge branded policy discriminatory in 2013 ruling Six-judge panel to hear union case on Wednesday
New York man wrongfully convicted of murder freed after 29 years in prison | US news | theguardian.com - David McCallum calls release a ‘bittersweet moment’ after proseecutors concluded he falsely confessed when he was 16
High School Football Players Secretly Record Girls In Locker Room: Cops - New Mexico state police are investigating allegations that members of a high school football team secretly videotaped the girls' volleyball team as they changed in an adjacent locker room, authorities said on Wednesday.
Teen Arrested For Tipping Waitress With Feces-covered Money - The incident happened Sunday afternoon after the Brothers Bar & Grill waitress left the bill at a table where the unnamed teen sat with three members of the Ball State football team.

Ivory Tower Phony? Sex, Lies and Fraud Alleged in W. Va. University Case - NBC News.com - But there was a problem: Shankar isn’t a Ph.D. He didn’t graduate from the Harvard of India. He didn’t write dozens of the scholarly publications on his resume, and as for the Royal College of Physicians, they’ve never heard of him.

Powerful quantum computers move a step closer to reality | Technology | theguardian.com - A research team from Australia has pushed quantum computers closer to fruition, but a former NSA director warns that the technology could break encryption

Consent Is Not A Particularly Mysterious Concept - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Feminist games critic cancels talk after terror threat | Technology | theguardian.com - Anita Sarkeesian cancels talk at Utah State University over threats of ‘the deadliest school shooting’ in US history
Hip Alt-Lit Editor Quits Public Writing Career After Rape Accusations - other writers have said that Katz was writing about Stephen Tully Dierks, the 29-year-old editor of the alt-lit mag Pop Serial. Pop Serial is influential in the close-knit alt-lit scene
What Counts? Elizabeth Ellen and What Makes A Victim - , writer Sophia Katz published an essay about her rape by a literary magazine editor later identified as Stephen Tully Dierks. In the second, the ex of novelist Tao Lin, E.R. Kennedy, accused him of statutory rape and abusive behavior during their relationship several years ago ... Elizabeth Ellen’s sister did not consent to being molested and did not consent to being publicly outed as a victim of abuse in a magazine article questioning the validity of another woman’s rape. It is profoundly troubling that Ellen did not take this into consideration before deciding to share her essay with the world. (E. Ellen just make a big mistake)
Alt-Lit Icon Tao Lin Accused of Statutory Rape and Abuse [Updated] ("His father invented Lasik. That is a true fact.")

Obama is siding with Amazon at the Supreme Court. It's both illogical and inhumane. - The Week - The administration is indirectly backing the giant e-retailer in a dispute with warehouse workers - The workers allege that they were required to undergo a security process that took as long as 25 minutes after an exhausting 12-hour shift. Although the checks are mandatory, the temp agency refused to compensate the workers for their time.

The Verge - All Posts (fulltextrssfeed.com)

Active Perception in the History of Philosophy: From Plato to Modern Philosophy // Reviews // Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // University of Notre Dame - The fifteen papers in this collection focus on the basic idea that perception is an activity -- something we do rather than something we undergo.

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Paul Ryan Thinks Humans Might Not Be The Cause Of Climate Change - "I don't know the answer to that question," Ryan said. "I don't think science does, either."

Sixty Days To Beat Ebola, United Nations Warns - If the deadly outbreak cannot be reined in by Christmas then the UN says there is no plan in place and it could be overwhelmed.
Ebola crisis: Outbreak death toll rises to 4,447 says WHO
New Ebola Cases May Soon Reach 10,000 a Week, Health Officials Predict - NYTimes.com
Health Officials Monitoring 125 For Ebola Symptoms - Health officials are now monitoring 125 people who had either definite or possible exposure to the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
WHO: New Ebola Cases Could Be Up To 10,000 Per Week In 2 Months
Cases of Ebola Diagnosed in the United States | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | CDC
Spain Exposes Holes in Plans To Treat Ebola - NYTimes.com - The city’s infectious disease center had been mostly dismantled as part of a government cost-cutting plan, and a temporary Ebola ward would have to constructed (Merkel told them to do austerity)
US nurse with Ebola 'doing well' in isolation as hospital monitors others | World news | theguardian.com - Nina Pham, the first person to contract Ebola in the US, was one of 70 who treated the country’s patient zero of the virus
2014 Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | CDC - As of October 5, 2014, there have been 70 cases of Ebola virus disease reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In total, 43 deaths have been reported. This outbreak is unrelated to the current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.
Sierra Leone soldier with Ebola is not peacekeeper - WTOP.com - The country's chief medical officer put herself under quarantine about two weeks ago, after her office assistant died of Ebola.

Our failing war against the Islamic State - The Washington Post - It’s not too soon to state the obvious: At this point, the war against the Islamic State can be seen only as failing.
White House insists anti-Isis strategy is on track despite setbacks on the ground | World news | The Guardian - Isis advances on Baghdad and Kobani despite 21 air strikes Turkey bombs Kurdish targets in south-east of country (musical bombs)
US security contractor shot dead in Saudi Arabian capital | World news | theguardian.com - One American killed and another wounded in gun attack at petrol station in eastern district of Riyadh
Ultra-secret 'White Shroud' group striking terror in ISIS militants | Zee News - 'White Shroud' - a group that claims to have killed more than 100 militant fighters in in attacks in Deir al-Zor province - is reference to the death shroud that awaits the Islamic State militants for their crimes against the innocent Syrian people, said the group leader who gave his name as Abu Aboud.

Jewish settlers set fire to mosque in Palestinian city | Business Standard News - A group of radical Jewish settlers Tuesday torched a mosque south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, officials said.
A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State - NYTimes.com
Israel Blasts British Over 274-12 Vote for 'Palestine' – Forward.com
Israel Blasts British Over 274-12 Vote for 'Palestine' : worldnews - Everybody has to move, run and grab as many [Palestinian] hilltops as they can to enlarge the [Jewish] settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them.[1]

Ireland closing a tax loophole that saved billions for Apple, Google, and Facebook | The Verge - . "I am abolishing the ability of companies to use the ‘double Irish’ by changing our residency rules to require all companies registered in Ireland to also be tax resident[s]."

?How an FBI Informant Ordered the Hack of British Tabloid 'The Sun' | Motherboard
Data of 850,000 job seekers of Oregon potentially compromised. - News emerge of another hack taking place, this time in Oregon, USA. The system in question is Oregon Employment Department’s WorkSource Oregon Management Information System (WOMIS).

Nobody Understands the Liquidity Trap, Cliff Asness Edition - NYTimes.com - But if you’re one of those people who don’t have time to understand the monetary debate, I have a simple piece of advice: Don’t lecture the chairman of the Fed on monetary policy.

The DSCC is no longer running ads against Mitch McConnell - The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has gone dark in Kentucky, where the party is targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Eschaton: Run Mittens Run - Political reporters love Republicans so much that there are about 20 of them who are unstoppable 2016 juggernauts and also, too, apparently Mitt's the boss ... Just how Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry were treated...
South Dakota Senate Candidate Larry Pressler Would Work with Obama | New Republic - He wants to means test Medicare and raise the retirement age for Social Security. He also would consider overturning Roe vs. Wade and is a big proponent of tort reform.
Jefferson County official says she meant 'no ill intent' to Obama in Facebook post : News - having not put on a uniform nor taken any type military oath, there has to be something that I am just not aware of. But I cannot and do not understand why no action is being taken against our domestic enemy. I know he is supposedly the commander in chief, but the constitution gives you the authority. What am I missing? (treason?)

Texas Voter ID Law Deemed 'Poll Tax' Reinstated by Appeals Court
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Doesn't Think The Minimum Wage 'Serves A Purpose'

Supreme Court Stops Parts Of Texas Abortion Law
Abortion Rights Without Apology - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Katha Pollitt has a fantastic looking new book about abortion rights coming out. This, in turn, has led to some excellent writing from Laurie Abraham, Hanna Rosin, Lindsay Beyerstein, and Jill Filipovic. I liked Rosin’s open in particular:
Eschaton: Miniature American Flags For Others - What was especially maddening about Saletan-esque arguments over the years, aside from their clear wrongness, was that he seemed to truly believe that if only pro-choice people would admit it was all so icky and horrible then anti-abortion people would just surrender and go home. It was the position that only a High Priest Of Punditry could take, that the discourse was more important than the policy.

The many reasons millennials are shunning cars - The Washington Post - Whatever millennials do right now, it's highly likely that they'll drive more as they age into their 30s and 40s. The question is whether they'll continue to drive less than their parents did at each stage of life — and whether future generations will replicate their patterns.

Yes, It's Legal To Film The Cops -- And What's Been Filmed In Recent Months Is Appalling

Doctor involved in botched execution 'experimented' on inmate, suit claims | World news | theguardian.com - Family of Clayton Lockett, who was killed in prolonged execution, names doctor and says he violated rule established at Nuremberg trials

This Video Shows An Arizona Police Officer Telling An Immigrant He'll Kill Him If He Moves

A Cure for Hyper-Parenting - NYTimes.com - PARIS — I recently spent the afternoon with some Norwegians who are making a documentary about French child-rearing. Why would people in one of the world’s most successful countries care how anyone else raises kids?

Debating God: Notes on an Unanswered Question - NYTimes.com - the first interview: 73 percent of philosophers said they accepted or were inclined to atheism, while 15 percent accepted or inclined to theism.

There's half as much dark matter in the Milky Way as we thought, new research suggests - Australian astronomers have calculated the weight of mysterious dark matter in our galaxy, and discovered it's far less than previously predicted.
Real happenings and Facts: Scientists have confirmed today that Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, has a watery ocean - Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn, with a mean radius of 252 km (156 miles). In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft spotted what appeared to be plumes of water shooting into space from cracks in the icy surface of Enceladus. The only reasonable explanation would be that the moon has an ocean of liquid water under the ice. Now, a team led by Luciano Iess of theUniversity of Rome confirmed that the ocean exists, and also showed that, like Earth’s, it doesn’t cover the entire surface.
Oh brother! Having a sibling makes boys selfless - A new study brings good news to all the brothers out there: Having a sibling is just as good for you as it is for your sister. That’s surprising to family scholars because boys typically report that they benefit less than girls from peer relationships.
Memory researchers publish a failure to replicate their own work. : science

The Future Of The Culture Wars Is Here, And It's Gamergate
Russian Programmer Linked to Mass Celebrity Nude Photos Leak | News | The Moscow Times - A Russian computer programmer who uploaded thousands of naked Hollywood celebrities' photos to a U.S.-based website has denied hacking the pictures from Apple's iCloud storage system, saying the images were already available online.

What is your favorite pickup line? : AskReddit
Router that anonymises internet activity raises $300,000 on Kickstarter | Technology | theguardian.com - Anonabox, a device that re-routes data through the cloaking Tor network, is tool for freedom of information, developer says

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NASA now says vast methane cloud over U.S. southwest is for real - A cloud of methane gas about the size of Delaware was detected over the Four Corners area of the American southwest years ago. The readings were so unusually high that NASA scientists dismissed them. A new study confirms the methane hotspot is real. (coal and gas fracking; karma gets local)
The Planet Just Had Its Hottest September On Record | ThinkProgress
Sea level rise over past century unmatched in 6,000 years, says study | Environment | theguardian.com - Research finds 20cm rise since start of 20th century, caused by global warming and the melting of polar ice, is unprecedented ("polar" and "ice" added to Republican anti-dictionary)
Pentagon: global warming will change how US military trains and goes to war | Environment | theguardian.com - Climate change to become immediate factor for all strategic, operational and planning decisions

Typhoon Vongfong hits Japan | World news | theguardian.com - At least one person missing, dozens injured and flights grounded as typhoon makes landfall in Makurazaki

WHO: Ebola Is Modern Era's Worst Health Emergency - WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, citing World Bank figures, said 90 percent of economic costs of any outbreak "come from irrational and disorganized efforts of the public to avoid infection."
Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director (Repubicans destroying the planet and the dots are so are to connect)
Brutal New Ad Blames GOP Spending Cuts For Ebola Deaths - "Republican cuts kill"
CHART: Public Health Emergency Funding Has Taken Major Hit
Canadian-made Ebola vaccine begins human trials in US | World news | theguardian.com - Experimental vaccine has shown to be ‘100% effective’ in preventing spread of Ebola when tested on animals
CDC chief urges US 'rethink' of Ebola strategy after second diagnosis | World news | theguardian.com - CDC chief says hospitals need to be prepared to diagnose patients after officials confirm first case contracted in the US
CDC Director Criticized For Blaming 'Protocol Breach' As Nurse Gets Ebola