As your faithful scribe, I welcome you all to another edition of Overnight News Digest.
I am most pleased to share this platform with jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, rfall, JLM9999 and side pocket. Additionally, I wish to recognize our alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb along with annetteboardman as our guest editor.
Neon Vincent is our editor-in-chief.
Special thanks go to Magnifico for starting this venerable series.
Lead Off Story
Ebola outbreak: 'It's Even Worse Than I'd Feared'
"It's even worse than I'd feared," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday of the Ebola outbreak rampaging through West Africa. "Every day this outbreak goes on, it increases the risk for another export to another country.
"The sooner the world comes together to help Liberia and West Africans, the safer we will all be."
Frieden spoke to CNN's Nima Elbagir in Monrovia, Liberia, where fear and anger over the largest Ebola outbreak on record has grown as health officials put up quarantines around some of the capital city's poorest areas.
More than 2,600 people have been infected by Ebola in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since the outbreak began in December, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly 1,500 have died.
cnn
World News
'Paying Vultures Means Passing Debt Problems To Future Governments'
Economy Minister Axel Kicillof spoke before the Budget and Foreign Affairs Committees of the Senate as a new round of talks began today over a government-sponsored bill that if approved would allow for the voluntary payment of the country’s creditors in Buenos Aires.
In the beginning of his address, minister Kicillof described what he called the process of “over- indebtedness” that started with the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, ending with an external debt Argentina was "never" going to be able to serve.
“An unpayable debt,” Kicillof said adding that international credit organisms such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forged a mechanism of “refinancing,” “interests” and “covered capitalization” that ended only with growing liabilities “without the entrance of genuine resources into [the] South American country.”
“Every each of such refinancing (processes) were a show of humilliation for Argentina because the impossibility to pay forced (Argentina) to incurred in new debts (accepting) to have its economic policy conditioned (with) adjustment plans,” Axel Kicillof said arguing Argentina only got to serve its debt with its very own strategic resources – the recently expropriated YPF energy company and the country’s Aerolíneas Argentinas flag carrier – during the 90’s neoliberal decade of "privatizations."
Affirming “over indebtedness” turned also into an “instrument of control” over Argentina’s domestic policies with governments here “copying” the mandates of international credit organisms - both the de facto 1976-1983 junta and the democratic government that came after it -, Kicillof defended this year's agreement with the Paris Club group of creditors, negotiations that were conducted and ended for the first time in the group’s history “without the intervention of the IMF.”
Such process of indebtness, Kicillof added, resulted in the 2001-2002 crisis and historic default. “One of the most perverse instruments in terms of conditioning, sovereignty seizure, the definitive un-industrialization of the country,” he insisted. “That package proved to be unsustainable with huge rates of umemployment; it had unemployment as a requirement.”
buenosariesherald
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Breakthrough Hopes Dented As Ukraine Accuses Russia Of New Incursion
Ukraine accused Russia of launching a new military incursion across its eastern border on Wednesday, as hopes quickly faded that Tuesday's talks between their two presidents might mark a turning point in a five-month-old crisis.
Accusations of direct Russian support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine have prompted Western governments to impose sanctions on Moscow, despite its denials, and fanned tensions with NATO to levels not seen since the Cold War.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said a group of Russian soldiers had crossed the border in armored infantry carriers and a truck and entered the town of Amvrosiyivka, not far from where Ukraine detained 10 Russian soldiers on Monday.
Ukraine's Security Services also said in a statement it had detained another Russian soldier in the east of the country who has confessed his unit provided military support to separatist rebels.
Lysenko said fighting in two other towns, Horlivka and Ilovaysk, had killed about 200 pro-Russian rebels and destroyed tanks and missile systems. Thirteen Ukrainian service personnel had been killed in the past 24 hours and 36 had been wounded.
reuters
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Gaza Truce Holding, Less So Netanyahu's Support At Home
Even in the best-case scenario, the truce agreed to on Tuesday between Israel and Palestinian factions will end the recent Gaza battle, but not the war.
If it holds, the cease-fire agreement caps seven weeks of fighting that killed some 2,142 Palestinians and 69 Israelis, with Israel securing no obvious gains. And while it promises some opening of Gaza, as demanded by Hamas, the truce does not address the organization’s more expansive demand for ending the long-term siege on the territory. Moreover, the deal does not even pretend to address the underlying Israeli-Palestinian conflict of which Gaza is but one symptom. And the persistence of that underlying conflict with no prospect of resolving it through the now-collapsed U.S.-led “peace process” is just one of the reasons why the latest truce is unlikely to be the last.
The combatants have agreed to halt attacks on one another, and for Israel to open Gaza’s crossings to humanitarian aid and building materials. The crossings and the reconstruction of Gaza will be under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority (PA) rather than Hamas, while the waters in which Palestinian trawlers will be allowed to fish will be extended. Palestinian demands for the construction of air and sea ports, and Israeli demands for Gaza’s disarmament, were deferred to another round of talks to begin in Cairo next month.
While there’s no clear victor in the inconclusive outcome, Hamas appears to have fared better politically.
“[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu looks much more shaky today than he did 50 days ago,” said former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy, now at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Hamas looks stronger today than it did 50 days ago. Hamas may have been hit harder physically, but Israel has been hit harder strategically.”
aljazeera
U.S. News
Labor Day Weekend Gas Prices Cheapest Since 2010
Analysts say motorists can expect a break this Labor Day weekend, with prices at a four-year low.
A gallon of regular unleaded averaged $3.332 on Wednesday in the Missouri portion of the St. Louis area, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. That compared favorably to an average of $3.47 a year ago. In the Metro East, gas was priced at an average of $3.558, down from $3.689 a year ago.
The price of gas has been kept low by a relatively calm hurricane season, a lack of maintenance issues at oil refineries, and high rates of oil production in the United States, said Patrick DeHaan, the senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com.
Analysts say prices are likely to drop further as kids go back to school and the summer driving season ends.
stltoday
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Chicago Police Commander Charged With Aggravated Battery, Misconduct
Chicago police commander frequently praised by Supt. Garry McCarthy for his no-nonsense approach to fighting crime in some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods was charged Wednesday with placing the barrel of his gun into a suspect’s mouth..
Cmdr. Glenn Evans, who headed the West Side’s Harrison patrol district until he was relieved of his police powers, faces one count of aggravated battery and one count of official misconduct, according to Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
As recently as Monday, McCarthy offered a vigorous defense of Evans, whose case represents a new scandal for a department with a long history of abuse allegations. But after the charges were announced, the superintendent released a statement:
“The alleged actions, if true, are unacceptable to the both the residents we serve and to the men and women of this department. As soon as we were made aware of the charges Commander Evans was relieved of his police powers, pending the outcome of this matter. Like any private citizen, the commander is innocent until proven guilty and we need to allow this case to proceed like any other. We will cooperate fully with prosecutors.”
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Evans is among 662 officers with 11 or more complaints during a five-year period in the 2000s, newly released police records show. He had 14 complaints between 2001 and 2006 and faced no discipline for any of them, the records show.
chitrib
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U.S. Government To Grow 30 Times More Marijuana This Year
he U.S. government has upped the quantity of marijuana it’s growing this year, to more than 1,400 pounds from the originally planned 46..
The federal government classifies marijuana as a substance that has no medical use and is more dangerous than cocaine. But it’s willing to let researchers have access — under a few conditions.
One condition is that each project needs approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Another is that researchers get the substance from a particular source: the federal government.
The marijuana is grown at the University of Mississippi, which has the federal contract to do so for research purposes, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said, and the quotas exist “so we don’t have too much of something that could get diverted” to non-sanctioned purposes.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse, which “oversees the cultivation, production and distribution of research-grade marijuana on behalf of the United States government,” said it would need 30 times more marijuana this year than in the last several years, the DEA said. But for a while, quotas were even higher: nearly 10,000 pounds a year in 2005 through 2009.
latimes
Science and Technology
Is Atlantic Holding Earth's Missing Heat?
Armchair detectives might call it the case of Earth's missing heat: Why have average global surface air temperatures remained essentially steady since 2000, even as greenhouse gases have continued to accumulate in the atmosphere? The suspects include changes in atmospheric water vapor, a strong greenhouse gas, or the noxious sunshade of haze emanating from factories. Others believe the culprit is the mighty Pacific Ocean, which has been sending vast slugs of cold bottom water to the surface. But two fresh investigations finger a new suspect: the Atlantic Ocean. One study, in this issue of Science, presents sea temperature data implying that most of the missing heat has been stored deep in the Atlantic. The other, published online in Nature Climate Change, suggests a warming Atlantic is abetting the Pacific by driving wind patterns that help that ocean cool the atmosphere. But some climate specialists remain skeptical. In a third recent paper, also published online in Nature Climate Change, other researchers argue that the Pacific remains the kingpin. One reason some scientists remain convinced the Pacific is behind the hiatus is a measured speedup in trade winds that drive a massive upwelling of cold water in the eastern Pacific. But there, too, the Atlantic may be responsible, modeling experiments suggest. A consensus about what has put global warming on pause may be years away, but one scientist says the recent papers confirm that Earth's warming has continued during the hiatus, at least in the ocean depths, if not in the air.
sciencemag
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Natural Methane Seepage On U.S. Atlantic Ocean Margin Widespread
Natural methane leakage from the seafloor is far more widespread on the U.S. Atlantic margin than previously thought, according to a study by researchers from Mississippi State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other institutions.
Methane plumes identified in the water column between Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and Georges Bank, Massachusetts, are emanating from at least 570 seafloor cold seeps on the outer continental shelf and the continental slope. Taken together, these areas, which lie between the coastline and the deep ocean, constitute the continental margin. Prior to this study, only three seep areas had been identified beyond the edge of the continental shelf, which occurs at approximately 180 meters (590 feet) water depth between Florida and Maine on the U.S. Atlantic seafloor.
Cold seeps are areas where gases and fluids leak into the overlying water from the sediments. They are designated as cold to distinguish them from hydrothermal vents, which are sites where new oceanic crust is being formed and hot fluids are being emitted at the seafloor. Cold seeps can occur in a much broader range of environments than hydrothermal vents.
"Widespread seepage had not been expected on the Atlantic margin. It is not near a plate tectonic boundary like the U.S. Pacific coast, nor associated with a petroleum basin like the northern Gulf of Mexico," said Adam Skarke, the study's lead author and a professor at Mississippi State University.
The gas being emitted by the seeps has not yet been sampled, but researchers believe that most of the leaking methane is produced by microbial processes in shallow sediments. This interpretation is based primarily on the locations of the seeps and knowledge of the underlying geology. Microbial methane is not the type found in deep-seated reservoirs and often tapped as a natural gas resource.
sciencedaily
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U.S. Copyright Office Denies Monkeys Rights To Their Selfies
In 2011, British wildlife photographer David Slater was traveling through the jungle in Indonesian when a crested black macaque grabbed his camera and started snapping selfies. Somebody posted the images in Wikipedia Commons, meaning anybody could use them for free. A legal battle ensued, with Slater claiming the images belong to him, and Wikipedia countering that the images belong to the public since they weren't created by a human.
The U.S. Copyright Office addresses the dispute in the latest draft of its “Compendium Of U.S. Copyright Office Practices”, which was published on August 19. The previous compendium stated clearly that “Materials produced solely by nature, by plants, or by animals are not copyrightable.” The new 1,222-page report makes their stance on animal artwork abundantly more clear by referring specifically to photographs taken monkeys. “[T]he Office will refuse to register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work.”
Other fun and somewhat-related highlights from the new report:
•[T]he Office cannot register a work purportedly created by divine or supernatural beings.
•To be copyrightable, musical works, like all works of authorship, must be of human origin. A musical work created by solely by an animal would not be registrable, such as a bird song or whale song. Likewise, music generated entirely by a mechanical or an automated process is not copyrightable. For example, the automated transposition of a musical work from one key to another is not registrable. Nor could a musical composition created solely by a computer algorithm be registered.
•To qualify as a work of authorship a choreographic work must be created by a human being and it must be intended for execution by humans. Dances performed or intended to be performed by animals, machines, or other animate or inanimate objects are not copyrightable and cannot be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
•To qualify as a work of authorship, a pantomime must involve “the real pantomime of real men.” Kalem, 222 U.S. at 61-62. Pantomimes performed by animals, robots, machines, or any other animate or inanimate object are not copyrightable and cannot be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Not everyone is smiling over the new rules. Circa reports that the photographer is facing some $17,000 in legal fees, and they quote Slater: "Photography is an expensive profession that's being encroached upon. They're taking our livelihoods away… For every 100000 images I take, one makes money that keeps me going. And that was one of those images. It was like a year of work, really."
popsci
[If you have not seen the macaque photo, I recommend clicking through. --Editor]
Well, that's different...
The New Normal
One of the emerging occupational skills for Emergency Medical Technicians, according to first responders interviewed in a June Wall Street Journal feature, is merely holding up blankets at accident scenes -- to block onlookers from their apparently uncontrollable urge to take gruesome photos to send to their friends.
newsoftheweird
Bill Moyers and Company:
Encore: Joseph E. Stiglitz Calls for Fair Taxes for All
The Nobel Prize-winning economist explains why America’s future prosperity depends on tax reform today.