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The latest news, from the people who make it happen.
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Speculation on the unreleased Abu Ghraib photographs (News)
By claudius Tue Aug 16th, 2005 at 05:43:47 AM EST
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In defiance of court orders [1], the current U.S. administration refuses to release additional torture pictures and videos. The justification proffered is that the material on the photographs is so graphic that it would fuel additional hatred for the United States and put U.S. troops in harm's way. However, one is inclined to suspect a larger political motive for their actions.
[1] Kate Zernike, "Government defies an order to give up Iraq abuse photos," New York Times, July 23, 2005.
Full Story (96 comments, 631 words in story)
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John G. Roberts, Jr. Nominated to Succeed Sandra Day O'Connor (News)
By TheNoxx Fri Jul 22nd, 2005 at 10:46:38 PM EST
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As reported by several sources, Bush has nominated John G. Roberts, Jr. to replace Sandra Day O'Connor as Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, the highest federal court in the United States.
While he's not as ardently conservative as some of Bush's previous judiciary nominees have been, his short case history leaves him cast in a slightly unpredictable light. He led the anti-trust case against Microsoft and supported the law criminalizing flag burning. He argued against Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that incepted the legality of abortion, but has publicly stated that the ruling is "the settled law of the land", and he won't try to change it because of his personal viewpoint. Other instances prove fairly odd, ranging from civil rights of 12-year-old girls with french fries in the subway to clergy-led prayer at public school graduations.
Full Story (254 comments, 587 words in story)
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Extracting Video from Cat Brains (News)
By mindpixel Wed Jun 22nd, 2005 at 12:37:08 AM EST
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`The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games,' said the voice-over, `in early graphics programs and military experimentation with cranial jacks.'
William Gibson, Neuromancer - 1984
It was still very much a 300 baud universe when I jacked into Gibson's future for the first time. In 1984 there were very few systems I could connect to with the surplus CAE acoustic modem I had access to, and almost all of them were a forbidden long distance telephone call away. My borrowed deck suffered from sensory deprivation and just like a person, it hallucinated. It hallucinated games.
Full Story (121 comments, 663 words in story)
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Gay marriage legal under NY constitution (News)
By aphrael Sun Feb 6th, 2005 at 12:14:22 PM EST
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The Supreme Court of the State of New York of New York County1 ruled yesterday that
under the New York state constitution, [same-sex couples] are entitled to treatment equal to that of opposite-sex couples with regard to the issuance of marriage licenses and access to civil marriage.
Full Story (294 comments, 1043 words in story)
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No Confidence Vote Passes Against UN Top Leadership (News)
By On Lawn Sun Nov 21st, 2004 at 06:21:38 AM EST
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Already embattled with his ties to the Iraqi Oil for Food scandal, and what some term as the 'Food for Sex' scandal, Kofi Annan has dodged the latest bullet. Well, dodged only in the sense that specific allegations against him was removed at the last minute before passing.
The UN staff union passed a resolution sharply critical of the world body's senior management but expressed support for beleaguered Secretary General Kofi Annan.
An earlier draft of the resolution had strongly worded language about no confidence in senior staff of the United Nations, which has been buffeted by scandals over the past few months.
Full Story (83 comments, 580 words in story)
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Antarctic Response to Climate Change - Not Pragmatic (News)
By imrdkl Thu Sep 23rd, 2004 at 04:32:34 PM EST
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Early in 2002, this website published an
excellent article
which documented the activity among the various ice shelves on the perimeter of the Antarctic. At that time, there had recently been several significant calving events, rendering vast, floating islands of ice. Also discussed was the complete collapse, in 1999, of an ice shelf known as
Larsen B,
which was formerly the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula - the northernmost and warmest part of the continent. The disintegration of the Larsen B shelf was called a "profound event", because it was thought to be stable. Fortunately, when massive icebergs are calved from ice-shelves, and even when they collapse and disintegrate completely, there is no resulting rise in sea level. It turns out though, that these same ice shelves serve a surprisingly important role in "holding back" the glaciers and land-locked ice on Antarctica which, if released into the ocean, would raise the world's sea level an estimated 20 feet (7m).
Now it's
much clearer just how important that role is.
Full Story (233 comments, 640 words in story)
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Kyoto is Dead - Long Live Pragmatism (News)
By imrdkl Sun Sep 19th, 2004 at 08:48:05 AM EST
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There's
troubling news (FT subscription reqd, alternate copy here)
coming from Japan, where the Kyoto protocol on Greenhouse Emissions was born in 1997. It seems that the Japanese aren't going to be able to meet their emissions targets specified in the agreement in time. Indeed, unless they buy a "large quantity" of emissions credits from other countries, they're not going to be able to meet their commitment at all.
Taishi Sugiyama, a climate expert at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry in Japan, said emissions were rising 1 per cent a year due to a larger-than-expected impact from vehicles and households. That made it impossible to cut real domestic emissions by the required 16 per cent within a few years, he said.
Is this the last nail in the coffin for the Kyoto protocol? And if so, which way do we go when it's buried? Was GWB right to pull out, and where would John Kerry take us, in either case?
Full Story (91 comments, 542 words in story)
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