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The real roots of the Gaza crisis [Video]

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Nov 182012

By Dana Guthrie (Beaumont Enterprise) A mom who posted a photo of her 18-month-old daughter breastfeeding on Facebook is planning to flood the social media site with similar photos over the next 72 hours. Gina Crosley-Corcoran of TheFeministBreeder.com claims on her website that Facebook deleted her photo and suspended her account for three days after

November 18, 2012 Posted by Jules Siegel at 8:30 am Comments Off

Hollywood browbeats GOP into killing report on copyright reform

Nov 182012

By Mike Masnick (TechDirt) So, late Friday, we reported on how the Republican Study Committee (the conservative caucus of House Republicans) had put out a surprisingly awesome report about copyright reform. The MPAA and RIAA apparently went ballistic and hit the phones hard, demanding that the RSC take down the report. They succeeded. via That Was Fast: [...]

November 18, 2012 Posted by Jules Siegel at 8:11 am Comments Off

Petraeus says U.S. tried to avoid tipping off terrorists

Nov 162012

By Eric Schmitt (NY Times) David H. Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers on Friday that classified intelligence reports revealed that the deadly assault on the American diplomatic mission in Libya was a terrorist attack, but that the administration refrained from saying it suspected that the perpetrators of the attack were [...]

November 16, 2012 Posted by Jules Siegel at 9:19 pm Comments Off

Overly Attached Girlfriend goes commercial for Samsung

Nov 162012

(AdWeek) Laina Morris, who became an overnight sensation with the Overly Attached Girlfriend video she made for Justin Bieber, stares wide-eyed and creepy from your screen and raps as an ‘Overly Attached Computer’ in this Viral Factory ad for Samsung’s SSD 840 drive, designed to encrypt and protect user data. via Samsung Gets Overly Attached [...]

November 16, 2012 Posted by Jules Siegel at 11:34 am Comments Off

Older Entries

Sensible & Inspiring

By Dana Guthrie (Beaumont Enterprise) A mom who posted a photo of her 18-month-old daughter breastfeeding on Facebook is planning to flood the social media site with similar photos over the next 72 hours. Gina Crosley-Corcoran of TheFeministBreeder.com claims on her website that Facebook deleted her photo and suspended her account for three days after she posted the photo. “The photo broke NONE of the facebook rules for photo-sharing, yet it was deleted and I was punished anyay,” she said in her blog. “This happens all the time.” Michele Zipp of The Stir highlighted Crosley-Corcoran’s blog, encouraging other women to post their own breastfeeding photos on Facebook starting at 10 a.m. Friday. This is just wrong,” she said. “Let’s roar loudly so Facebook hears and makes some very needed changes and not just removes a photo because someone reported it…for no good reason, and that doesn’t even violate any rules.” via You’re about to see a lot of breastfeeding photos on Facebook – Beaumont Enterprise.
Security cameras also capture people at their best
Thanks to Madalyn Aslan for this heartwarming find.
Mexican lawmaker introduces bill to legalize pot
By Noe Torres (Reuters) A leftist Mexican lawmaker on Thursday presented a bill to legalize the production, sale and use of marijuana, adding to a growing chorus of Latin American politicians who are rejecting the prohibitionist policies of the United States. The bill is unlikely to win much support in Congress since a strong majority of Mexicans are firmly against legalizing drugs, but may spur a broader debate in Mexico after two U.S. states voted to allow recreational use of marijuana last week. U.S. officials have said it remains illegal and that they are reviewing the state actions. “The prohibitionist paradigm is a complete failure,” said Fernando Belaunzaran, the author of the bill from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), who presented the proposal in Mexico’s lower house of Congress. via Mexico lawmaker introduces bill to legalize marijuana | Reuters.
German high court rules parents can’t be sued for children’s piracy
(TorrentFreak) A ruling handed down yesterday by Germany’s highest court represents a blow to rightsholders in their quest to clamp down on illicit file-sharing. The court ruled that the parents of a teenager who had made available more than 1,100 songs on file-sharing networks can not be held responsible for their son’s infringements, nor be required to monitor or hinder his online activities. via Parents Not Responsible For Their Teenager’s Music Piracy | TorrentFreak.
Leftist coca farmer presides over economic upswing in Bolivia
By Helen Popper (Reuters) To the surprise of his detractors, Evo Morales — an ally of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez who shares his penchant for fiery leftist rhetoric — has proved a fiscal conservative. The country is expected to register its seventh-straight annual fiscal surplus in 2012. Morales, 53, has nationalized areas of the economy from the vital natural gas industry to telecommunications companies and tin smelters, but he has also let the central bank’s foreign reserves swell to record levels and warded off the scourge of high inflation that battered Bolivia in the 1980s. The economy is expected to grow more quickly than many of its wealthier neighbours this year and should maintain a healthy 5 percent expansion in 2013, according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates. “Bolivia is no longer a country with a weak economy,” Economy Minister Luis Arce said last month after the nation sold its first global bonds in almost a century. via NewsWires : euronews : the latest international news as video on demand.
Kenyan information minister leads ‘Silicon Savannah’ IT revolution
By Robyn Dixon (La Times) Along Nairobi’s dusty Ngong Road, so many start-up incubators and IT labs have popped up that the busy neighborhood has been nicknamed “Silicon Savannah.” Techies, geeks and innovators race one another to come up with the next big thing. The result is a surge in innovative Kenyan apps, most designed to work with the not-so-smart phones most Kenyans can afford. There’s iCow, a virtual veterinary advice service that coaches small farmers on how to tend their dairy herds. And mFarm, which helps small farmers determine the right price for their produce, find buyers and sell it. And Huduma, which allows people to report and map government service failures. Why is this happening in Kenya? People here have two words: Bitange Ndemo, the 52-year-old head of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology at the heart of Kenya’s startling IT revolution. via Kenyan information minister leads an IT revolution – chicagotribune.com.
LazyTruth Gmail plugin fact checks false claims in email chain letters
(Nieman Journalism Lab) We just went through a highly fact-checked election, but it’s unclear what the final score was between truth and fiction. One reason why myths persist is that fact-checking is often out-of-reach at the moment it would be most useful — like the moment where you open your inbox. Forwarding an email is a lot easier than hunting for evidence. So Matt Stempeck, a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, is tackling the problem closer to its source. Stempeck and developers Justin Nowell, Evan Moore, and David Kim have written a Gmail plugin called LazyTruth that quietly scans your email for chain letters, urban legends, and phishing scams. When you open a forwarded email, an “Ask LazyTruth” button invites you to investigate. The software checks the email against data pulled from PolitiFact and FactCheck.org, and, if needed, offers a correction and a link to find out more. via FW: FW: Fw: FW: Fwd: fwd: fw: LazyTruth tackles false claims in email chain letters » Nieman Journalism Lab.
Want a Better Economy? Vote Democrat!
By Adam Hartung (Forbes) The common viewpoint is that Republicans are good for business, which is good for the economy. Republican policies — and the more Adam Smith, invisible hand, limited regulation, lassaiz faire the better— are expected to create a robust, healthy, growing economy. Meanwhile, the common view of Democrat policies is that they too heavily favor regulation and higher taxes which are economy killers. Well, for those who feel this way it may be time to review the last 80 years of economic history, Bob Deitrick and Lew Godlfarb have done it in a great, easy to read book; “Bulls, Bears and the Ballot Box” (available at Amazon.com) Their heavily researched, and footnoted, text brings forth some serious inconsistency between the common viewpoint of America’s dominant parties, and the reality of how America has performed since the start of the Great Depression. The authors looked at a range of economic metrics including inflation, unemployment, corporate profit growth, stock market performance, household income growth, economy (GDP) growth, months in recession and others. To their surprise (I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Goldfarb) they discovered that laissez faire policies had far less benefits than expected, and in fact produced almost [...]
Juan Cole: Department of Justice should attack vote suppression not medical marijuana
By Juan Cole (Informed Comment) Progressives will have to push Obama to the left if we are to get what we want. As for positive accomplishments, here are a few we should pressure him and Congress on: 5. He needs to have the Department of Justice look into the Koch Brother-backed legislation in two dozen states restricting the franchise by requiring a paid-for state i.d., which is a kind of poll tax. In many states, this legislation violates the 1965 Voting Rights act. We can’t let a couple of sour billionaires undo the achievements of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., achievements for which he gave his life. 6. That use of the Department of Justice would perhaps make its workers and its head, Eric Holder, too busy to go around kicking down the doors of medical marijuana clinics and confiscating their computers, records and cash, in states where the state has legalized marijuana. Obama was elected the first time by the youth, and had promised to cease Federal harassment of pot clinics, but reneged and proved much worse than Bush on this issue. Holder should stop denying the clear medical uses and benefits of pot. In Colorado and Washington states, [...]
The questions that reporters should ask about four years ago vs. today
By Dean Baker (CEPR) Suppose your house is on fire and the firefighters race to the scene. They set up their hoses and start spraying water on the blaze as quickly as possible. After the fire is put out, the courageous news reporter on the scene asks the chief firefighter, “is the house in better shape than when you got here?” Yes, that would be a really ridiculous question. Hence George Stephanopoulos was being absurd when he posed this question to David Plouffe, a top political adviser to President Obama on ABCs This Week. Bob Schieffer was being equally silly when he asked Martin O’Malley, the Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, the same question on CBSs Face the Nation. A serious reporter asks the fire chief if he had brought a large enough crew, if they enough hoses, if the water pressure was sufficient. That might require some minimal knowledge of how to put out fires. Similarly, serious reporters would ask whether the stimulus was large enough, was it well-designed, and were there other measures that could have been taken like promoting shorter work weeks, as Germany has done. That would of course require some knowledge of economics, but it [...]
Christian publisher kills pseudo-historian David Barton's 'The Jefferson Lies' because it's a fraud
Citing a loss of confidence in the book’s details, Christian publisher Thomas Nelson is ending the publication and distribution of the bestseller, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson. The controversial book was written by Texas evangelical David Barton, who NPR’s Barbara Bradley Hagerty profiled on All Things Considered Wednesday. The publishing company says it’s ceasing publication because it found that “basic truths just were not there.” “When the concerns came in, from multiple people, and that had weight too, we were trying to sort things out,” said Thomas Nelson Senior Vice President and Publisher Brian Hampton. “Were these matters of opinion? Were they differences of interpretation? But as we got into it, our conclusion was that the criticisms were correct. There were historical details — matters of fact, not matters of opinion, that were not supported at all.” via Publisher Pulls Controversial Thomas Jefferson Book, Citing Loss Of Confidence : The Two-Way : NPR.
What Steve Jobs told the Obama campaign before he died
By Joshua Green (BusinessWeek) The day after Jim Messina quit his job as White House deputy chief of staff last January, he caught a plane to Los Angeles, paid a brief visit to his girlfriend, and then commenced what may be the highest-wattage crash course in executive management ever undertaken. He was about to begin a new job as Barack Obama’s campaign manager, and being a diligent student with access to some very smart people, he arranged a rolling series of personal seminars with the CEOs and senior executives of companies that included Apple AAPL, Facebook FB, Zynga ZNGA, Google GOOG, Microsoft MSFT, Salesforce CRM, and DreamWorks DWA. “I went around the country for literally a month of my life interviewing these companies and just talking about organizational growth, emerging technologies, marketing,” he says at Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago. In two long, private conversations, Steve Jobs tore into Messina for all the White House was doing wrong and what it ought to be doing differently, before going on to explain how the campaign could exploit technology in ways that hadn’t been possible before. “Last time you were programming to only a couple of channels,” Jobs told him, meaning the Web [...]
Despite false headlines, study confirms that old people smell less, not more
All over the Internet today, you’ll see headlines confirming that old people smell different. Why, yes, they do, but not the way the headlines imply. From the actual study ”Old-age group were rated as less intense and less unpleasant than body odors originating from Young and Middle-age donors.” So it’s not that smell more, but that they smell less that makes it possible to distinguish them from younger folk. PLoS ONE: The Smell of Age: Perception and Discrimination of Body Odors of Different Ages
Extract of Chinese herb kudzu reduces alcohol consumption
(McLean Hospital) An extract of the Chinese herb kudzu dramatically reduces drinking and may be useful in the treatment of alcoholism and curbing binge drinking, according to a new study by McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers. “Our study is further evidence that components found in kudzu root can reduce alcohol consumption and do so without adverse side effects,” said David Penetar, PhD, of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital, and the lead author of the study. “Further research is needed, but this botanical medication may lead to additional methods to treat alcohol abuse and dependence.”
California school food standards change teens eating habits for the better
By Sarah Kliff (Washington Post) California’s strict school nutrition standards — soda bans, low calorie foods in cafeterias and limits on fat content — appear to have had a significant impact on what teens there eat. A study of about 700 teenagers, published this week in the Archives of Pediatric Medicine, found California teens to be consuming 158 fewer, daily calories than comparable high school students in other states. Keep in mind, that counts all the food eaten outside of school, indicating that California teens aren’t loading up on junk food after heading home. via Have California schools cracked the code on obesity? – The Washington Post.
New male birth control procedure said to be 100% effective, completely reversible
By Dave Smith (International Business Times) A promising new birth control treatment — for men, not women — looks to be the future of contraception. It’s safe, relatively uninvasive, 100 percent effective, and completely reversible. Developed by Prof. Sujoy K. Guha of the Indian Institute of Technology, the procedure called “Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance,” or RISUG, is currently in advanced clinical trials in India. Researchers hope to get Vasalgel (or “RISUG” in the Indian trials) on the market as a common alternative to vasectomy as early as 2015. In this new procedure, a doctor would inject a polymer gel called “Vasalgel” directly into the vas deferens instead of cutting it, which coats the walls of the duct and kills sperm as they go by. Should the man want to reverse the treatment for any reason at all, the procedure can be reversed simply by flushing out the Vasalgel with another injection of DMSO, a compound that is used in the medical treatment of many conditions and that is bioacceptable in the small quantities necessary. via New Male Birth Control Procedure Is 100 Percent Effective, Completely Reversible [STUDY] – International Business Times.
Plants use perfume to attract beneficial bacteria to their roots
(Sheffield University) Scientists have discovered maize crops emit chemical signals to attract growth promoting microbes to their roots, which boosts performance and could combat world food shortages. The groundbreaking research – the first chemical signal that has been shown to attract the beneficial bacteria – could reduce agricultural reliance on fertilisers and pesticides across the globe. Researchers from the University of Sheffield and Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, who collaborated on the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded project, discovered that maize crops emit chemical signals which attract growth-promoting microbes to live amongst their roots. Dr Andrew Neal, who co-led the research, said: “We have known for a while that certain plants exude chemicals from their roots that attract other organisms to the area. In fact, the environment around a plant´s roots teems with microorganisms and populations of bacterial cells can be up to 100 times denser around roots than elsewhere.
There is no invisible hand
By Jonathan Schlefer (Harvard Review) Adam Smith suggested the invisible hand in an otherwise obscure passage in his Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776. He mentioned it only once in the book, while he repeatedly noted situations where “natural liberty” does not work. Let banks charge much more than 5% interest, and they will lend to “prodigals and projectors,” precipitating bubbles and crashes. Let “people of the same trade” meet, and their conversation turns to “some contrivance to raise prices.” Let market competition continue to drive the division of labor, and it produces workers as “stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.” via There Is No Invisible Hand – Jonathan Schlefer – Harvard Business Review.
MPAA's former tech policy chief condemns Stop Online Piracy Act
By Declan McCullagh (CNET) Paul Brigner, until last month a senior vice president at the Motion Picture Association of America, now opposes SOPA and Protect IP. A senior executive that Hollywood hired last year to be its chief technology policy officer has undergone a remarkable about-face: he now opposes the Stop Online Piracy Act. Paul Brigner, who was until last month a senior vice president at the Motion Picture Association of America, has emerged as SOPA’s latest critic. “I firmly believe that we should not be legislating technological mandates to protect copyright — including SOPA and Protect IP,” he says. via MPAA’s former tech policy chief turns SOPA foe | Privacy Inc. – CNET News.
Antibody treatment that shrinks human tumors in mice could lead to cancer cure
By Krista Conger (Inside Standford Medicine) Human tumors transplanted into laboratory mice disappeared or shrank when scientists treated the animals with a single antibody, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The antibody works by masking a protein flag on cancer cells that protects them from macrophages and other cells in the immune system. The scientists achieved the findings with human breast, ovarian, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate cancer samples. It is the first antibody treatment shown to be broadly effective against a variety of human solid tumors, and the dramatic response — including some overt cures in the laboratory animals — has the investigators eager to begin phase-1 and –2 human clinical trials within the next two years. “Blocking this ‘don’t-eat-me’ signal inhibits the growth in mice of nearly every human cancer we tested, with minimal toxicity,” said professor of pathology Irving Weissman, MD, who directs Stanford’s Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research and Medicine at Stanford. “This shows conclusively that this protein, CD47, is a legitimate and promising target for human cancer therapy.” The antibody treatment also significantly inhibited the ability of the tumors to metastasize throughout [...]

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