Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, May 22, 2012.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Weasel Pot Pie by That 1 Guy
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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The Catholic Legal Assault on the Contraception Mandate
By Stephanie Mencimer
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On Monday, 40 Catholic agencies and institutions across the country launched a veritable legal holy war against the Obama administration, filing coordinated lawsuits against the Department of Health and Human Services over the proposed contraception mandate in the new health care reform law. The effort is being spearheaded by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which has been clashing with the Obama administration for months over the mandate and other White House decisions that the bishops view as anti-Catholic.
. . .
The original rule was perfectly constitutional. In fact, more than half the states already require insurance plans to include contraception, several with very narrow exceptions and some with no exception at all. Many of these laws were passed with broad, bi-partisan support. And now, with the modifications proposed by the Administration, any lingering concerns about the rule's constitutionality should be put to rest. Institutions with religious objections won't be required to contribute to birth control coverage for their employees. And in fact, the high courts in California and New York have rejected claims that requiring birth control coverage violates the First Amendment.
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The arguments over the anti-trafficking contract echo the ones the Catholic agencies are currently making in their legal campaign against the contraception mandate. Jennifer Dalven, director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, says that the Catholic groups are likely to lose their lawsuits over the contraception mandate as well. She explains:
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Real religious freedom gives everyone the right to make personal decisions, including whether and when to use birth control, based on our beliefs. It doesn't give one group the right to impose its beliefs on others, or to use religion as an excuse to discriminate by denying employees access to vital services. The fight they are waging isn't about religious liberty at all, but about whether a woman should have insurance coverage for birth control. When you stop and think about it, it's incredible that this is an issue in 2012.
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Check the math: Study touting ‘safer’ fracking reveals Big Oil’s ties to academia
By Sharon Kelly
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What do you call a report that makes major math mistakes, pulls language directly from other publications without citation, and fails to disclose the researchers’ financial conflicts of interest?
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Let’s deconstruct: The study’s key claim is that the rate of major environmental violations in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale declined from 2008 to 2011. But a look at the study’s data shows that, using the researchers’ own methodology, the rate of major environmental accidents actually increased by more than 30 percent.
Large chunks of the report appear to be lifted verbatim from a document previously published by three of the report’s four authors for a conservative think tank called the Manhattan Institute. This matters because the university study fails to cite the think tank. In this case, it’s very relevant: The Manhattan Institute receives financial support from oil and gas companies heavily invested in fracking, like ExxonMobil. Instead, the study released this month is stamped only with the University of Buffalo’s academic imprimatur.
These problems and more are discussed in a detailed assessment by the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI), a nonprofit research and educational organization focused on corporate and government accountability. It highlights the worsening problem of universities getting into bed with industries and compromising research in the process.
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Skin cells turned into healthy heart muscle cells
By Emily Selvadurai
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Scientist say they have managed to turn patients' own skin cells into healthy heart muscle in the lab.
Ultimately they hope this stem cell therapy could be used to treat heart failure patients.
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The cells that they created were identical to healthy heart muscle cells. When these beating cells were transplanted into a rat, they started to make connections with the surrounding heart tissue.
Lead researcher Professor Lior Gepstein, said: "What is new and exciting about our research is that we have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young - the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when just born."
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Some extremely minor news that you should probably ignore, because it’s a “distraction”
By Kay
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Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending. The Supreme Court is being asked to reverse a state court’s decision to uphold the Montana law. Virginia-based American Tradition Partnership is asking the nation’s high court to rule without a hearing because the group says the state law conflicts directly with the Citizens United decision that removed the federal ban on corporate campaign spending.
This is American Tradition Partnership:
American Tradition Partnership (ATP) is a no-compromise grassroots organization dedicated to fighting the radical environmentalist agenda. We support responsible development of natural resources and rational land use and management policies. Only together can we protect access, private property rights, and affordable energy for all Americans!
So, a front group for energy interests. Energy interests, of course, like poor defenseless private equity, have no influence in Congress and no voice in elite opinion (if you don’t count a majority in the US Senate) so can’t be expected to abide by any laws regulating corporate campaign spending, anywhere.
. . .
And here are the states backing Montana:
New York, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Update: It occurs to me, reading the list of states, that this is bipartisan opposition! |
Egypt set for historic presidential race
By (Al Jazeera)
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Egyptians are all set to elect a president for the first time in a wide open democratic contest that pits religious conservative groups against those who served under deposed president Hosni Mubarak.
Wednesday's contest is a novelty for a nation where elections during the 30-year rule of a man some called "Pharaoh" were thinly attended rigmaroles in which the result was a foregone conclusion.
. . .
With none of the 12 candidates expected to secure more than half the votes to win outright in the first round on Wednesday and Thursday, a run-off between the top two is likely in June.
It will be the first time that ordinary Egyptians, ruled down the centuries by pharaohs, sultans, kings and military officers, will have a genuine chance to choose their leader.
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International |
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What can we say about protests in Myanmar?
By Emily Lodish
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As of Tuesday, street protests against power cuts in Myanmar had spread to Yangon, the country's largest city.
. . .
These are the largest protests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution, which was brutally clobbered by the ruling junta, and they are certainly among the most noteworthy acts of dissent since the recent rolling out of reforms — which have culminated in dissident rock star Aung San Suu Kyi holding office and a loosening of sanctions against the once-isolated regime.
. . . The difference now, of course, is that people in Myanmar are able to take to the streets with relative abandon and speak their minds about it. The new government recently said that public demonstrations are allowed, so long as authorities are given five days notice.
. . .
GlobalPost's breaking news editor, Hanna Ingber, who just returned from a trip to Myanmar and is penning a book about her experiences there over the years (stay tuned!), said she was struck by how real the changes feel. People were genuinely hopeful in Yangon, she said, which contrasts with the views of many more cynical analysts who say it's too soon to know whether reforms mean lasting change.
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Zimbabwean senator proposes ending AIDS crisis by mutilating women and preventing them from bathing
By Cory Doctorow
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A Zimbabwean senator named Morgan Femai from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has given a bizarre, misogynist speech at an African HIV/AIDS conference in which he proposes that his county's AIDS health emergency can be solved by mandating that women must be ugly and unbathed, and be subject to genital mutilation. He also gave an interview in which he stated that "Women have got more moisture in their organs as compared to men so there is need to research on how to deal with that moisture because it is conducive for bacteria breeding. There should be a way to suck out that moisture."
“What I propose it that the government should come up with a law that compels women to have their heads clean-shaven like what the Apostolic sects do,” said Femai, when speaking to a parliamentary HIV awareness workshop in the central city of Kadoma on Friday, according to Nehanda Radio.
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Greek hospitals tighten payment rules
By Chloe Hadjimatheou
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Funding shortages appear to be leading Greek hospitals to get tough with patients who are not entitled to free healthcare - but when patients are broke there is no easy solution. One new mother says she was told she wouldn't be allowed to take her baby home after giving birth.
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Like hundreds of thousands of people in Greece, Anna (not her real name) is not eligible for free non-emergency healthcare. The Greek state only provides that for people who are employed and making regular national insurance contributions, or, when people are unemployed, if they are fully up to date with tax payments.
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Greek governments have cut healthcare spending by 13% over the last two years and instructed hospitals to tighten their belts dramatically.
At the same time, public health facilities have seen a 30% increase in demand, as middle class Greeks stop paying for private healthcare.
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Montreal crowds mark 100 days of student protest
By (BBC)
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Tens of thousands of demonstrators have filled the streets of Montreal to mark 100 days since protests began against a planned rise in student tuition fees.
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An emergency bill passed by Quebec's government on Friday was aimed at curbing the protests by requiring marches to follow pre-approved routes.
Rallies since then have turned violent, with 300 arrests on Sunday alone.
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Quebec has the lowest tuition rates in Canada. The government's proposal would raise them by 80%, in increments of $254 per year (£160) for seven years.
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Domestic abuse acute in post-war West Africa, report says
By (BBC)
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The plight of wives who suffer abuse from soldiers returning home from conflict in West Africa has been highlighted in a new aid agency report.
The International Rescue Committee says most of the women who have sought help in Liberia, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone have been assaulted by partners.
It says domestic violence is often not acknowledged in post-conflict settings, and women often choose to stay silent.
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In its agency's report, the IRC recognises that violence against women is a global problem, but it argues that it has become particularly acute in countries that are emerging from conflict.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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Woman Charged In Death Of Fetus Is Out Of Jail
By Julie Rovner
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Shuai, a Chinese immigrant who lives in Indiana, is still facing charges of murder and feticide following a failed suicide attempt in December 2010, when she was 33 weeks pregnant.
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Shuai's case has galvanized women's groups across the country. They say that if she is convicted, it could set a precedent for further prosecutions on pregnant women for behaviors that could potentially endanger their fetuses.
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She is being prosecuted under laws originally intended to punish third parties who attack pregnant women and injure or kill fetuses.
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Obama dominates global summits, but do U.S. voters care?
By Lesley Clark
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President Barack Obama dominated the world stage over the weekend, convincing European leaders to embrace growth-stimulating economic policies along with austerity and securing NATO commitments for his exit strategy from Afghanistan.
. . .
Heather Conley, the director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research center, suggested that the president’s performance showed “a dedicated multilateralist that works through all the messiness of multilateral diplomacy to achieve U.S. objectives.”
But, she noted, “unless there’s an action-forcing event – something with Iran, North Korea, this (election) is not going to be about foreign policy. It’s going to be on the economy.”
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
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And then there’s That 1 Guy…No really, his stage name is That 1 Guy, and not because you’ll have a hard time remembering his name, but because he puts on perhaps the most dynamic one-man show you’ll ever have the pleasure of experiencing. Dynamic is quite an understatement, I might add, considering That 1 Guy brings to the stage a sound, style, and instrument even more bewildering than Buckethead’s wardrobe. I’m talking, of course, about his legendary “Magic Pipe”, a 7-foot-tall collection of steel plumbing pipes and joints, orchestral bass strings, and electronic thingamajigs. On top of that, his vocals and lyrics are just as, for lack of a better term, out there. But That 1 Guy isn’t just some random Shmoe noodling around on stage banging metal fixtures and flapping his gums. That 1 Guy (a.k.a. Mike Silverman) is a classically trained double bass player who attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and prior to coming into his current artistic identity was a well-established figure in the progressive jazz scene during the 1990s. Legend has it that Silverman, feeling restrained by both the limited dimensionality of his double bass and the restrictive creativity that comes with playing and recording for other people, set out to devise a new instrument that would allow him to produce a wholly different sound, free of silly boundaries and arbitrary musical constraints. . .
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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Severe Nuclear Reactor Accidents Likely Every 10 to 20 Years, European Study Suggests
By (ScienceDaily)
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Western Europe has the worldwide highest risk of radioactive contamination caused by major reactor accidents.
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The reactor accident in Fukushima has fuelled the discussion about nuclear energy and triggered Germany's exit from their nuclear power program. It appears that the global risk of such a catastrophe is higher than previously thought, a result of a study carried out by a research team led by Jos Lelieveld, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz: "After Fukushima, the prospect of such an incident occurring again came into question, and whether we can actually calculate the radioactive fallout using our atmospheric models." According to the results of the study, a nuclear meltdown in one of the reactors in operation worldwide is likely to occur once in 10 to 20 years. Currently, there are 440 nuclear reactors in operation, and 60 more are planned.
. . .
The results of the dispersion calculations were combined with the likelihood of a nuclear meltdown and the actual density of reactors worldwide to calculate the current risk of radioactive contamination around the world. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an area with more than 40 kilobecquerels of radioactivity per square meter is defined as contaminated.
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Mongolia's Dilemma: Who Gets The Water?
By Frank Langfitt
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The Central Asian nation of Mongolia has untold riches in copper, coal and gold, which could help many of its nearly 3 million people — more than one-third of whom live in poverty.
But mining is also reshaping Mongolia's landscape and nomadic culture. Camel and goat herders worry that new mega-mines will siphon off precious water in an area that's already suffering from the effects of climate change.
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They have already felt mining's impact. Herders say mine trucks hit their animals and kick up dust that chokes pastureland. Indeed, almost all the roads in the area are dirt, and trucks trail plumes of dust so huge they look like they're on fire.
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French ban of Monsanto GM maize rejected by EU
By Adam Vaughan
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France's attempt to ban the planting of a Monsanto strain of genetically modified maize was rejected by the EU's food safety body on Monday.
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The Monsanto-owned strain, marketed as YieldGard by the US company, is an insect-resistant strain of maize that was introduced in 1997.
In its verdict on Monday, Efsa said that much of the scientific evidence in France's new submission in January had already been included in a previous 2008 submission to the agency, which concluded at the time "that no specific scientific evidence, in terms of risk to human and animal health or the environment, was provided that would justify the invocation of a safeguard clause [ban]". It added that no new scientific work had been submitted that suggested there was risk to the environment, either.
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Science and Health |
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Uproar Over Prostate-Cancer Screenings Explained
By (ScienceDaily)
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The uproar that began last year when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force stated that doctors should no longer offer regular prostate-cancer tests to healthy men continued this week when the task force released their final report. Overall, they stuck to their guns, stating that a blood test commonly used to screen for prostate cancer, the PSA test, causes more harm than good -- it leads men to receive unnecessary, and sometimes even dangerous, treatments.
But many people simply don't believe that the test is ineffective. Even faced with overwhelming evidence, such as a ten-year study of around 250,000 men that showed the test didn't save lives, many activists and medical professionals are clamoring for men to continue receiving their annual PSA test. Why the disconnect?
. . .
They suggest several factors that may have contributed to the public's condemnation of the report. Many studies have shown that anecdotes have power over a person's perceptions of medical treatments. For example, a person can be shown statistics that Treatment A works less frequently than Treatment B, but if they read anecdotes (such as comments on a website) by other patients who had success with Treatment B, they'll be more likely to pick Treatment B. The source of the anecdotes matters too. If a friend, a close relative, or any trusted source received successful treatment, they would be more likely to recommend that treatment to others, even if there was evidence showing the treatment only works for a minority of people.
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Fresh hockey sticks from the Southern Hemisphere
By eric
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In the Northern Hemisphere, the late 20th / early 21st century has been the hottest time period in the last 400 years at very high confidence, and likely in the last 1000 – 2000 years (or more). It has been unclear whether this is also true in the Southern Hemisphere. Three studies out this week shed considerable new light on this question. This post provides just brief summaries; we’ll have more to say about these studies in the coming weeks.
. . . we have previously noted the incompatibility of O’Donnell et al. with independent data. What is surprising, however, is that Orsi et al. find that warming in central West Antarctica has actually accelerated in the last 20 years, to about 0.8°C/decade. This is considerably greater than reported in most previous work (though it does agree well with the reconstruction for Byrd, which is based entirely on weather station data). Although twenty years is a short time period, the 1987-2007 trend is statistically significant (at p<.1), putting West Antarctica definitively among the fastest-warming areas of the Southern Hemisphere -- more rapid than the Antarctic Peninsula over the same time period.
We and others have shown (e.g. Ding et al., 2011), that the rapid warming of West Antarctica is intimately tied to the remarkable changes that have also occurred in the tropics in the last two decades. Note that the Orsi et al. paper actually focuses very little on the recent temperature rise; it is mostly about the "Little-ice-age-like" signal of temperature in West Antarctica. Also, these results cannot address the question of whether the recent warming is exceptional over the long term . . .
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Technology |
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Facebook IPO: banks investigated for allegedly keeping negative news secret
By Tom McCarthy
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Financial regulators are to investigate whether the banks in charge of Facebook's initial stock offering broke the rules by selectively releasing negative news about the company before shares went on sale.
The financial industry regulatory authority (Finra) is looking into allegations that Morgan Stanley and other banks released reduced revenue forecasts for Facebook to big investors – but not the general public – before Friday's IPO. Such activity could constitute a violation of securities law.
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It is the second regulatory investigation tied to the Facebook IPO. The SEC announced Friday that it was looking into reports of breakdowns in trading mechanisms at the Nasdaq exchange as the stock went on sale.
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New York Legislation Would Ban Anonymous Online Speech
By David Kravets
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Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites, such as blogs and newspapers, to "remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post."
. . .
"This statute would essentially destroy the ability to speak anonymously online on sites in New York," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney with the Center for Democracy and Technology. He added that the legislation provides a "heckler's veto to anybody who disagrees with or doesn't like what an anonymous poster said."
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The Senate and Assembly measures, which are identical, cover messages on social networks, blogs, message boards or "any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages."
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Better Cell Phone Towers Kill People
By Sam Biddle
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A joint investigation by ProPublica and PBS' Frontline dug up a corporate culture of rampant neglect, workplace recklessness, shoddy planning, and, well, death. Death and the subsequent rug-sweeping of that death: major carriers like AT&T and Verizon spend extra money to have subcontractors subcontract tower work, so that if someone plummets to his death, the branching inefficiency serves as a buffer. And this is a deliberate strategy:
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In three-year contracts issued in 2008 that were examined by ProPublica and PBS "Frontline," the matrices were blank for safety-related items, such as ensuring that OSHA standards were met. Contractors told us they understood this to mean the carrier wanted no involvement with them at all. AT&T declined to answer questions about the matrix.
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In total, 50 contractors died between 2003 and 2011 while trying to boost your cell signal, usually at a wage of $10 an hour. Their equipment and training was often piss poor if there was any at all, all compounded by an aggressive scramble to quash reputations of shitty cell coverage. The full report is grim, damning, and disquietingly illustrative of a part of our phones that's remained invisible. And our coverage usually still sucks.
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Google Completes Acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Layoffs Likely
By Tiffany Kaiser
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Motorola is in a pretty tough spot right now. Earlier this month, the company reported a fifth straight quarter of losses, which included a net loss of $86 million USD for Q1 2012. In previous consecutive quarters, Motorola reported net losses in the low $80 million area. Motorola is having a hard time likely because of its inability to keep up with other Android-powered phonemakers like Samsung and HTC.
"I'm excited to announce today that our Motorola Mobility deal has closed," said Larry Page, Google CEO. "Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone. We all remember Motorola's StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. As the company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google."
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However, the deal closing may also mean layoffs for other Motorola Mobility employees in the near future. According to Tech Crunch, layoffs could be on the list of things to do after the deal closes.
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Cultural |
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I Vs. We: The 'Heart' Of Our Political Differences
By NPR Staff
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For years now, the Tea Party has held individualism up as the great American value. But Washington Post columnist and Georgetown University professor E.J. Dionne Jr. says that while Americans have always prized individualism, they've prized community just as much.
. . .
"If you believe that government had nothing to do with developing our country, you'd have to read Alexander Hamilton out of our story; you'd have to read Henry Clay out; you'd have to read Abraham Lincoln out. Alexander Hamilton envisioned a manufacturing future for America — he was right about that. He thought government had an important role to play in bringing that about. Henry Clay called his program — which included internal improvements, a lot nicer word than 'infrastructure' and 'federal spending' on these things — he called it the American System to distinguish it from the British System, which he said was pure laissez faire. So, ironically, the American system stood as an alternative to pure laissez faire even though all of these people honored the market as having an important role in our story. ...
. . .
"I see the radically individualistic period of the Gilded Age as a 35-year exception — in the late 19th century — to our 235-year history. ...
"You needed private enterprise; you needed entrepreneurs. But this was not enough; it's not just that that made us a great nation. The American century only began when we began to balance this off with government that ... [checked] the power of the powerful in this private sphere. I think Americans have always been very shrewd that you need to check government power, but you [also] need to check concentrations of private power. And so, yes, capitalism does produce wonders, but capitalism doesn't do it all by itself and it sometimes needs corrections, as we learned rather recently in our downturn. And a lot of what you're hearing now, by the way, including the things you heard from Occupy Wall Street, were things that Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson said back in the first decade of the last century when they were talking about checking excesses of private power."
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With SpaceX launch, remains of James Doohan (Star Trek's "Scotty") finally rest in peace, in space
By Xeni Jardin
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The late actor James Doohan, best known for his role as "Scotty" on the original Star Trek series, left instructions in his will that he wished to be buried in space. His family worked hard to fulfill that wish, and made arrangements with Celestis, Inc., a subdivision of the Houston-based company Space Services that offers "post-cremation memorial spaceflights."
Those remains became part of the payload for a 2008 SpaceX Falcon 1 launch attempt that didn't reach orbit because of technical problems. Each failed attempt was newly agonizing for family members, prolonging their grief and lack of closure.
But today, seven years after "Scotty's" death, SpaceX successfully launched his ashes into space. . .
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North Korea's 'organizational life' in decline
By Andrei Lankov
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In the early 1980s, when the present author was a student at the Soviet University, my teacher often described North Korea as a "country where meetings never end". Having grown up in Stalin's Russia, he knew a thing or two about meetings and indoctrination, but the North Korean standards appeared excessive even to him.
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During a criticism session, every member of an organization - in other words, every adult North Korean - is supposed to deliver something akin to public penitence and confession. He or she must admit some improper acts that he or she committed in the previous week.
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The slow but unstoppable disintegration of Kim Il-sung's "national Stalinism" in the past two decades seriously undermined the foundations of organizational life. Nowadays, a majority of North Koreans make a living outside the official state economy and they have now become much less dependent on their workplaces and supervisors.
Increasingly, they see organizational life as a troublesome and time-consuming formality. They can nowadays negotiate a deal with their supervisors, getting permission to be absent from the workplace, if they pay a contribution to the factory's budget - this is known as an "August 3 contribution" (after the date of a government decree that allowed such practice).
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |