Welcome to the Overnight News Digest
The OND is published each night around midnight, Eastern Time.
The originator of OND was Magnifico.
Current Contributers are ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader, Interceptor7, rfall, JML9999 and NeonVincent.
Stories and Headlines
- Antarctica-bound Yellow Submarine
An exotic new unmanned submarine, built to analyze the water and sediments moving at the base of a vast sheet of meltting ice in Antarctica, will make its first science cruise closer to home - in the rocky depths of Lake Tahoe. |
The Chronicle story isn't online until early Tuesday, so also check out these alternatives:
link, link
- Computerized camera lens may be just around corner
Anyone who has witnessed the megapixel one-upmanship in camera ads might think that computer chips run the show in digital photography.
That's not true. In most cameras, lenses still form the basic image. Computers have only a toehold, controlling megapixel detectors and features like the shutter. But in research labs, the new discipline of computational photography is gaining ground, taking over jobs that were once the province of lenses.
In the future, the technology of computational photography may guide rescue robots, or endoscopes that need to peer around artery blockages. In camera phones, the technology can already merge two exposures of the same image. One day, it could even change the focus of a picture you've already taken.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one experimental camera has no lens at all: It uses reflected light, computer processing and other tools to let it see around corners.
link |
- Progressive Caucus Calls for New York Surcharge on Bush-era Tax Breaks for the Wealthy to Restore Services, Address Deficits, Revitalize Economy
New York, NY– On the heels of the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, members of the New York City Council Progressive Caucus today issued a plan for an income tax surcharge on households earning over $250,000. The surcharge would be set at the same amount as the additional income tax break the wealthiest households will receive under the tax cut plan. The Caucus plan would generate $8.1 billion, and use this revenue to restore vital services now proposed for deep cuts, stimulate the New York economy, and address severe deficits facing New York City and State.
The extension of the Bush-era tax breaks for the top 2% of American households comes as New York City and State (like other cities and state around the country) are facing dire cuts and gaping deficits. Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to lay off 4,000 teachers, reduce the NYPD and FDNY through attrition, cut home-care services for seniors and child care for families. Yet despite these proposed cuts, as well as new fees for FDNY emergency service, a large deficit would remain. And the budget gap New York State is facing is even bigger. The Progressive Caucus proposal would narrow these gaps, prevent harmful cuts, and help revitalize New York’s economy.
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- The Long Wait for Sarah Palin's Emails
A group of journalists ... have been trying for two years to win access, under Alaska's open records law, to emails (Sarah) Palin sent and received during her partial stint as governor of Alaska. But the state has postponed releasing the emails, with the office in charge of the request repeatedly asking for and receiving extensions from a series of state attorneys general (including Palin appointees). But the delays could be coming to a halt, with the current AG demanding a "work plan" for turning over the Palin emails.
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It is unknown whether Gov. Palin could see this next story from her front porch:
- Russia and India to sign arms deal
The Russian president is expected to sign nuclear and defence deals worth billions of dollars during a two-day visit to India.
The highlight of Dmitry Medvedev's trip will be a $30bn agreement for the development of a so-called "fifth generation" stealth fighter jet.
Agreement is also expected on the supply of Russian nuclear power generating reactors to India. |
- Strangers in the night: Lunar eclipse, solstice meet again
It's not every lifetime that you get a chance to celebrate a solstice with a total eclipse of the moon.
Weather permitting, a lunar eclipse will be visible from 1:33 to 5:01 a.m. ET Tuesday, with the total eclipse starting at about 2:41 a.m., according to NASA.
The eclipse happens to be on the day of a solstice (first day of winter for the Northern Hemisphere; first day of summer for the Southern Hemisphere). The last time a lunar eclipse happened on a solstice was 372 years ago, in 1638, the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Geoff Chester told NASA.
Why is this significant, besides being so rare that it hasn't happened since Galileo was living out his days under house arrest? For eclipse watchers, it means "that the moon will appear very high in the night sky, as the solstice marks the time when Earth’s axial tilt is farthest away from the sun," according to NASA.
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See also here and here.
- 'Hundreds of protesters arrested' in Belarus
Security forces in Belarus have arrested hundreds of people who protested against the result of Sunday's presidential election.
At least seven presidential candidates were among those detained. Some of them were reportedly also beaten by police.
The OSCE called the poll "flawed" while the US and EU condemned the crackdown.
But President Alexander Lukashenko, who was re-elected for a fourth term with almost 80% of the vote, accused opposition supporters of "banditry". |
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- U.S. Military Seeks to Expand Raids in Pakistan
(NYT) Senior commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground raids across the border into Pakistan, a risky strategy. |
- Prospect of WikiLeaks Dump Poses Problems for Regulators
(NYT) [A] bank — perhaps Bank of America — may be the next target of the inscrutable "high-tech terrorist." (Such was Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s description of Mr. Assange over the weekend.)
And just Monday, Mr. Assange told a reporter from The Times of London that he had enough material to make bosses of a major bank resign. ...
[T]he prospect of gigabytes of e-mail and other documents from financial institutions can be viewed one of two ways: as a treasure trove for regulators to scrutinize — or as an embarrassment for the United States government, which has spent millions of dollars investigating Wall Street in the last two years without a scalp to show for it.
Inside the Securities and Exchange Commission, the organization is bracing for a public outcry, according to people who have recently spoken with some high-ranking officials about the prospect of a WikiLeaks release of bank documents. |
- Senate passes shark protection bill
The Senate passed a landmark shark conservation bill Monday that would close loopholes that had allowed the lucrative shark fin trade to continue operations off the West Coast.
The measure would require all vessels to land sharks with fins attached and would prevent nonfishing vessels from transporting fins without their carcasses. Cutting off a shark's fins and then dumping its body overboard, which is now banned off the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico but not in the Pacific, has expanded worldwide because of a rising demand for shark's fin soup in Asia. |
- Can gay soldiers who were discharged under the old rules re-enlist?
The Senate voted to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on Saturday after weeks of wrangling. More than 13,000 service members have been fired since that rule came into effect in 1993. Can those people re-enlist?
Brian Palmer at Slate.com |
- Net Neutrality: Leaked Presentation Shows How Carriers Can Deliver Tiered Internet Services
As all eyes turn to the Federal Communications Commission as they prepare to vote on the net neutrality proposal, a leaked presentation outlines how cellular carriers can roll out a fee-based tiered Internet.
In a leaked presentation, two companies that sell their services to cellular carriers showed off a wireless product that appears to achieve the opposite of the net neutrality rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission.
In the PowerPoint presentation, available on Wired, Allot Communications and Openet proposed a tiered, fee-based access to Web services. Under this model, carriers can monitor users’ online activity and charge extra for using certain applications, such as YouTube and Skype.
In one slide, the companies proposed charging a Vodafone customer $0.02 per MB for using Facebook, three Euros to use Skype, and $0.50 monthly for a speed-limited version of YouTube. For the same customer, access to Vodafone servers would be free, allowing the company to create products that undercut the competition, as users shift towards the free-to-access services. (link) |
- Thousands Flee California Flooding
A relentless weather system continued to pound California on Monday, forcing the evacuation of several thousand residents in a Kern County farming community.
The evacuations were ordered after major flooding was reported in McFarland, a community of 12,000 residents. Kern County Fire Department spokesman Sean Collins said as many as 2,000 people needed to seek shelter.
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- Kidnapped Mexican politician released after seven months
Onetime Mexican presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos was freed Monday, seven months after being kidnapped from his ranch in a stunning strike at an icon of the country's rich and powerful.
Fernandez de Cevallos, 69, wearing a hooded track suit and white beard grown bushy, appeared in good health. But in comments outside one of his residences in Mexico City, he provided no details on the months of captivity. |
- Drug group may have set off oil blast that killed 28 in central Mexico
A powerful pre-dawn pipeline explosion in a central Mexican state left at least 28 people dead on Sunday. The chief suspected cause of the blast is an illegal tap, possibly by the drug group the Zetas, as cartels increasingly attempt to steal crude and gas from state-owned oil lines.
Dozens were injured and 115 homes were damaged in what was described as a series of blasts at a pumping station in San Martin Texmelucan, a town on the main road between Mexico City and the city of Puebla, capital of Puebla state. The smoke plume that rose after the destruction was visible for much of Sunday from neighboring communities as well as in other states. |
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