Undernews

Legal help offered to Megauploaders unfairly targeted by government

2012-01-31T16:33:00.000-05:00

BBC - Users affected by the closure of Megaupload have been offered legal help to retrieve their data.

A website has been set up to assist former members of the site to contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation in order to start co-ordinated action.

The EFF has criticised the US government for acting "without warning" when it closed the site this month.

It is understood that the data, which is shared across many servers globally, will be held for at least two weeks.

The support site - megaretrieval.com - has been set up by storage company Carpathia, which provides hosting services for some of Megaupload's content.

"Although Carpathia does not have, and has never had, access to the content on Megaupload's servers, the hosting provider wants to assist lawful users of the Megaupload service by promoting EFF and its non-profit legal services," Carpathia said in a press release.

Chief marketing officer Brian Winter added: "We support the EFF and their efforts to help those users that stored legitimate, non-infringing files with Megaupload retrieve their data."

Julie Samuels, staff attorney for the EFF, said it was important that Megaupload users' voices were heard.

"EFF is troubled that so many lawful users of Megaupload.com had their property taken from them without warning and that the government has taken no steps to help them," she said.

Norwegian insurance firm times how long employee are in the bathroom

2012-01-31T16:21:00.000-05:00

Huffington Post - Employees at Norwegian insurance company DNB are protesting a new surveillance system that alerts managers if they spend too much time away from their desk, including time spent in the restroom, the Telegraph reports. The computer system was implemented to monitor customer service employees at DNB Liv, the life insurance arm of DNB, Norway's largest financial services group, Norwegian newspaper The Local reports.

Managers are alerted by flashing lights if an employee spends more than eight total minutes per day engaging in personal activities away from their desk. Both unions and watchdog agencies have condemned the policy as a major violation of workers' rights.

Roseanne Barr Will Seek Green Party Presidential Nomination

2012-01-31T16:18:00.002-05:00

Stats

2012-01-31T16:18:00.000-05:00

Percentage of former NFL players who experience financial distress within five years of retirement: 86 -#HarpersIndex

Word

2012-01-31T16:11:00.000-05:00

The GOP race is between a man who wants a colony on the moon and one who thinks God will give him his own planet. - @BorowitzReport

Police blotter

2012-01-31T13:55:00.000-05:00

Lowering the Bar - A man in Pasco County, Florida, called 911 last week at about 1 a.m. after he heard a commotion and then gunshots in his living room. Hiding behind his bed after grabbing his own gun, Alan Benz told dispatchers he could hear men shouting "Trash the place!" during the gun battle. Luckily, deputies arrived quickly, surrounded the house, and then bravely rushed into the living room.

They then turned off the TV.

The report says that Benz had watched a documentary earlier that evening and "had left the television and surround sound on when he went to sleep." Apparently, a drama of some kind came on later and Benz was awakened in his bedroom by the sounds of gunfire.

Taking branding too seriously

2012-01-31T13:48:00.000-05:00

VIA STUFF JOURNALISTS LIKE

Gallery: Rare pictures of Scott's South Pole expedition

2012-01-31T13:41:00.001-05:00

Waste water can be turned drinkable

2012-01-31T13:37:00.000-05:00

National Geographic News - Water filtration technology has advanced to the point where wastewater can be rendered safe for drinking, according to a new report, but legislative and psychological hurdles will need to be overcome before widespread adoption can happen.

Treated wastewater, also known as reclaimed water, is commonly used for irrigation and industry. And many towns already rely on reused water simply because they draw water downstream from other municipalities’ wastewater release pipes.

But getting the public to knowingly drink treated wastewater has been a tough sell.

A new report by the National Research Council that reviewed current wastewater treatment technologies found that the possible health risks associated with exposure to chemical contaminants are minimal.

Action notes

2012-01-31T13:33:00.000-05:00

Ran across a nifty little action device used by Left Action in the wake of the healthcare bill.

Senator DeMint had argued that the GOP would defeat the bill and that it would be President Obama's "Waterloo."

So, after the bill passed, Left Action got its supporters to post the ABBA song "Waterloo" - using direct links to YouTube - over and over again on DeMint's Facebook page.

Obama gets to pick which Americans he wants to murder

2012-01-31T13:20:00.000-05:00

Mother Jones - In an interview with CBS 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta revealed more about the secret process the Obama administration uses to kill American citizens suspected of terrorism without trial. According to Panetta, the president himself approves the decision based on recommendations from top national security officials.

"[The] President of the United States, obviously reviews these cases, reviews the legal justification and in the end says, go or no go," Panetta said.

"So it’s the requirement of the administration under the current legal understanding is that the president has to make that declaration, not you?" Pelley asked. Panetta replied, "That is correct."

The process by which national security officials determine whether or not American citizens suspected of terrorism can be killed remains opaque. The administration has leaked information about certain targets, but it has never released the legal justification for doing so, nor has it explained the system by which members of the National Security Council reportedly decide to put an American citizen on a so-called "kill list." In October, Reuters' Mark Hosenball wrote that the president doesn't necessarily explicitly approve strikes—instead, the attacks go forward unless the president objects.

Obama admits to illegal war on Pakistan

2012-01-31T11:46:00.000-05:00

BBC - US President Barack Obama has defended the use of unmanned drone aircraft to kill suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.

In unusually candid remarks, Mr Obama said the strikes targeted "people who are on a list of active terrorists".

Pakistan says drone raids violate its sovereignty, although it is believed to have given them its tacit support.

An Amnesty International statement demanded "a detailed explanation of how these strikes are lawful and what is being done to monitor civilian casualties and ensure proper accountability".

Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit responded to Mr Obama's remarks by saying: "Our position on drone strikes is clear and based on principles.

"Drone attacks are unlawful, counterproductive and hence unacceptable. We cannot condone violation of our sovereignty."

Despite Pakistan's public condemnation of drone strikes, however, the country's civilian and military leaders privately support them, according to US diplomatic cables leaked in 2010.

Problems we hadn't started worrying about yet

2012-01-31T11:37:00.000-05:00

Atlantic Wire - According to a new study, the introduction of non-native snakes into southern Florida swamps has devastated the population of small mammals, almost completely wiping out some vulnerable species. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the number raccoon and possums spotted in the Everglades has dropped more than 98%, bobcat sightings are down 87%, and rabbits and foxes have not been seen at all in years. Large snakes, like boa constrictors, anacondas, and pythons, are not native to North America, but are popular among reptile collectors and traders who — inadvertently or not — re-introduced them to the Florida swamps about a decade ago. Since that time they caused a huge disruption to the already fragile ecosystem, threatening wildlife and even some humans.

Romney and his anti-gay pals

2012-01-31T11:27:00.000-05:00

Think Progress -The Romney campaign has released a letter from Christian conservatives touting the former Massachusetts governor’s “solid social conservative credentials,” “leadership on the marriage issue,” and opposition to abortion rights. Romney “helped prevent our nation from being plunged into even worse legal turmoil following the court decision that forced ‘gay marriage’ upon our Commonwealth,” the broad coalition of anti-abortion and anti-gay groups write, dismissing his past support for a woman’s right to choose and gay and lesbian equality:

|||| Governor Romney immediately and strongly condemned the November 18, 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) decision that legalized “same-sex marriage” in our state. More importantly, he followed up on that denunciation with action – action that saved our nation from a constitutional crisis over the definition of marriage. He and his staff identified and enforced a little-known 1913 law that allowed them to order local clerks not to issue marriage licenses to out-of-state couples. Absent this action, homosexual couples would surely have flooded into Massachusetts from other states to get “married” and then demanded that their home states recognize the “marriages,” putting the nation only one court decision away from nationalizing “same-sex marriage.” ||||

Twenty-one religious leaders endorsed the letter, including the Massachusetts Family Institute’s Kristian Mineau, whose organization received donations from Romney’s charitable foundation and promotes discredited ex-gay therapy.

Another signatory, Dr. Roberto Miranda of the COPAHNI Fellowship of Hispanic Pastors of New England, sees marriage equality as the work of the Devil and has drawn a “direct correlation between marriage equality and the September 11th terrorist attacks.” “Is it exaggerated to see prophetic significance in the fact that on September 11, 2001 Boston served as the point of departure for the deadly forces that spread so much destruction and havoc in this nation and all over the world,” he asked. “What took place at the material level is now being carried out at the moral and spiritual level, as the virus of homosexuality and gay marriage begins to spread dramatically all over this nation and perhaps the world.”

Recovered history: Letter from an ex-slave to his ex-master

2012-01-31T11:20:00.000-05:00

Letters of Note - In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdan Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdan — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according to newspapers at the time, he dictated).

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

MORE

DC area labor council backs Occupiers

2012-01-31T11:06:00.000-05:00

News Junkie - In their daily publication, Union City, the Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO, issued a strong statement to their 20,000+ readership in support of Occupy DC, calling on the rank and file to join the protesters in fighting for the rights of the 99%. .. . .

“Occupy DC has been on the frontlines for working people,” said Metro Council President Jos Williams. “They’ve been fearless in standing up and marching in the streets for the 99%, now it’s our turn to stand with them.”

What cruel Republicans are up to today

2012-01-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

Virginian-Pilot - The Virginia Senate, for years a firewall against efforts to restrict abortion, today is poised to pass a bill to require that pregnant women undergo an ultrasound and get a chance to see the image before having an abortion.

It's one of several anti-abortion bills now moving through the General Assembly. ...Unlike past sessions when some of those measures failed in the Senate, social conservatives now sense a chance for long-desired gains.

Pro-abortion rights advocates consider the ultrasound provision a tactic to add cost and inconvenience to the process with the goal of getting women to change their minds.

Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax County, was dismayed enough by the bill's progress that she tried to amend it so men seeking prescriptions for erectile dysfunction medication such as Viagra would be required to undergo a rectal exam and cardiac stress test.

She said that's "only fair, that if we're going to subject women to unnecessary procedures, and we're going to subject doctors to having to do things that they don't think is medically advisory."

Her proposed amendment failed Monday, leaving Vogel's bill on the verge of Senate approval.

Similar bills have been filed in the Republican-run House of Delegates, and Gov. Bob McDonnell has indicated he'll sign ultrasound legislation if it reaches his desk.

After taking power, Republican lawmakers reshaped the Senate Education and Health Committee, which recently cleared Vogel's bill on an 8-7 party line vote. That panel will likely be the venue for several other abortion-control bills this winter.

One now in the House would end state subsidies for needy women to terminate a gravely troubled pregnancy.

The bill, from Del. Mark Cole, would eliminate that financial support even when a doctor believes an unborn child "would be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency."

Less than $2,800 in public funds was spent last year on 10 abortions that qualified for subsidies.

Cole, R-Spotsylvania County, said the bill would make Virginia law consistent with federal code.

The bill would force low-income women to choose between carrying a doomed pregnancy "or pay out of pocket for abortion care she and her doctor may determine she needs at a difficult time," argued Jessica Honke, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood.

Stats

2012-01-31T10:47:00.000-05:00

During your lifetime, you will make approximately 10,000 gallons of urine.

Wonder where Romney learned it

2012-01-30T22:57:00.003-05:00

"What a pathetic situation to be running for the President of the United States with nothing positive to say. All you got to do is try to tear your opponent down to where they get smaller than you are, that's the Romney model." - Newt Gingrich

U.S. most prison obsessed country

2012-01-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

From Wikipedia: In addition, according to Michelle Alexander, the United States "imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid".

Homeland police jail, deport couple for twitter entry

2012-01-30T14:51:00.000-05:00

Daily Mail, UK - Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe'. Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.

The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: 'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?'

Despite telling officials the term 'destroy' was British slang for 'party', they were held on suspicion of planning to 'commit crimes' and had their passports confiscated.

Leigh was also quizzed about another tweet which quoted hit US comedy Family Guy which read: '3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p****** people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!

The Department of Homeland Security was recently criticised over false accounts it set up on Twitter.

Federal agents even searched his suitcase looking for spades and shovels, claiming Emily was planning to act as Leigh's 'look out' while he raided Marilyn's tomb.

Bar manager Leigh, from Coventry, and Emily, 24, from Birmingham, were then quizzed for five hours at LAX before they were handcuffed and put into a van with illegal immigrants and locked up overnight.

They spent 12 hours in separate holding cells before being driven back to the airport where they were put on a plane home via Paris.

The scary role of religion in Mitt Romney's life and ambitions

2012-01-30T12:29:00.000-05:00

Sally Denton, Salon - [In 1970] the Cougar Club — the all male, all white social club at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City (blacks were excluded from full membership in the Mormon church until 1978) — was humming with talk that its president, Mitt Romney, would become the first Mormon president of the United States. “If not Mitt, then who?” was the ubiquitous slogan within the elite organization. The pious world of BYU was expected to spawn the man who would lead the Mormons into the White House and fulfill the prophecies of the church’s founder, Joseph Smith Jr., which Romney has avidly sought to realize.

Romney avoids mentioning it, but Smith ran for president in 1844 as an independent commander in chief of an “army of God” advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government in favor of a Mormon-ruled theocracy. Challenging Democrat James Polk and Whig Henry Clay, Smith prophesied that if the U.S. Congress did not accede to his demands that “they shall be broken up as a government and God shall damn them.” Smith viewed capturing the presidency as part of the mission of the church. He had predicted the emergence of “the one Mighty and Strong” — a leader who would “set in order the house of God” — and became the first of many prominent Mormon men to claim the mantle.

Smith’s insertion of religion into politics and his call for a “theodemocracy where God and people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteous matters” created a sensation and drew hostility from the outside world. But his candidacy was cut short when he was shot to death by an anti-Mormon vigilante mob. Out of Smith’s national political ambitions grew what would become known in Mormon circles as the “White Horse Prophecy” — a belief ingrained in Mormon culture and passed down through generations by church leaders that the day would come when the U.S. Constitution would “hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber” and the Mormon priesthood would save it. . .

Michael Moody says political success was an institutional value of the LDS church.

“The instructions in my [patriarchal] blessing, which I believed came directly from Jesus, motivated me to seek a career in government and politics,” he wrote in his 2008 book. Moody recently said that he ran for governor of Nevada in 1982 because he felt he had been divinely directed to “expand our kingdom” and help Romney “lead the world into the Millennium. Once a firm believer but now a church critic, Moody was indoctrinated with the White Horse Prophecy. Like Romney, Moody is a seventh-generation Mormon, steeped in the same intellectual and theological milieu.

“We were taught that America is the Promised Land,” he said in an interview.”The Mormons are the Chosen People. And the time is now for a Mormon leader to usher in the second coming of Christ and install the political Kingdom of God in Washington, D.C.”

In this scenario, Romney’s candidacy is part of the eternal plan and the candidate himself is fulfilling the destiny begun in what the church calls the “pre-existence.”

MUCH MORE

Amazing music archive

2012-01-30T12:14:00.000-05:00

Vernacular Music Research - The archive consists of about 125,000 items of printed music, 75,000 items of recorded music, 5,500 books and 2,000 periodicals on New World vernacular music, dance, and related topics. The occupied shelf space is about 1390 linear feet.

The Archive tracks developments in new world vernacular music and dance over a span of 130 years, displaying changes in form, tonality, rhythm, variation, and performance practice, including changes occurring outside the dominant commercial centers.

The archive is particularly strong on African-American composed and performed music and dance from the early 1800s through the 1900s and its commercially marketable corollaries – minstrel, spiritual, gospel, cakewalk, ragtime, blues, jazz, bop, etc.

Regional, cowboy, old-time country, ethnic, and Hawaiian music and dance are covered, and there are many Canadian, Caribbean, Mexican and Latin American items as well. Writers and performers for the musical stage and screen are well represented, ranging from genteel to rough-house. Vocal music includes songs and choral arrangements, both secular
and sacred.

What DC's Metro can teach us about transportation

2012-01-30T12:06:00.000-05:00

Sam Smith - One of the reasons I have been skeptical of spending a lot of money on high speed rail is that I covered the story of Washington's Metro from the time it was just an idea. It helped to establish a quirky reputation for questioning the project for a variety of reasons:

- It was too expensive. At the time, you could have provided 1000 miles of light rail for the cost of 100 miles of subway.

- It was not really a transportation system but a real estate development system.

- Only a minority of people coming to the new development would come by subway; most would come by car. Hence the subway would actually increase street traffic.

- It didn't really compete with the automobile but with existing bus lines.

- It would make it easier to for people, businesses and tourists to move out of the city and into the suburbs.

I argued instead for light rail and exclusive bus lanes - novelties in those days - in part because they they strengthened urban neighborhoods, didn't require a mile trip to the nearest station, and actually took space away from the automobile.

My views were unacceptable to say the least. The Metro was the most romantic and thrilling thing that had happened to DC in years and no one was meant to criticize it. Yet not only did my arguments prove accurate, the Metro experience soon became a lesson to other cities to try other approaches. Hence the rise of light rail and exclusive bus lanes.

There are similar emotions driving high speed rail; it sounds great but does nothing to aid the average person - as opposed to a business class passenger - or the average pound of goods get from point A to point B.

Here's the most recent update on DC's dream system:

Washington Examiner - Metro General Manager Richard Sarles observed his first anniversary as official head of the transit system last week with a cracked rail, a complete meltdown of the communications systems and thousands of angry riders berating the system.

That came after a bad string of weeks in which brake parts broke off two separate trains, two other rails cracked and two of his workers were busted on accusations of stealing tens of thousands of fare dollars to buy lottery tickets...

Now he is asking more money from the Washington area's shell-shocked commuters and taxpayers to fill a $116 million hole in next year's $2.6 billion budget, while acknowledging that service won't be improving anytime soon. Instead riders can expect more weekend shutdowns, more trains squeezed onto a single track and more stalled escalators.

Starting Wednesday, riders will face a new challenge when the south entrance of Dupont Circle will close for more than eight months as the agency replaces all the escalators, forcing the thousands of riders who pass through the system's fifth busiest station to funnel into one exit every day.

Rail system ridership, meanwhile, has been faltering and is expected to get worse, even before an expected fare increase takes effect.

Obama's chief of staff is a union buster

2012-01-30T10:48:00.001-05:00

Bookshelf: The End of War

2012-01-30T10:40:00.001-05:00

Word

2012-01-30T10:26:00.001-05:00

A union worker, a Teabagger and a corporate CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the Tea Partier and says: 'Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie.'- BartCop

Study: Republicans in office increase suicides and murders

2012-01-30T09:58:00.001-05:00

Word

2012-01-30T09:54:00.000-05:00

Newt's worst nightmare has happened: everyone knows Mitt is a rich soulless asshole and they're voting for him anyway. - @BorowitzReport

Washington state debates having its own bank

2012-01-30T09:33:00.001-05:00