Archive for June, 2011
School Surveillance: How Big Brother Spies On Pupils
June 11th, 2011Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse by Annette Fuentes Via: Guardian: ‘Every day in communities across the United States, children and adolescents spend the majority of their waking hours in schools that increasingly have come to resemble places of detention more than places of learning. From metal detectors to drug tests, from increased […]
Tennessee Law Bans Posting Images that ‘Cause Emotional Distress’
June 10th, 2011Via: Ars Technica: A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to “transmit or display an image” online that is likely to “frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress” to someone who sees it. Violations can get you almost a year in jail time or up to $2500 in fines. The Tennessee legislature has been busy […]
The New, NEW Transparency: NSA Declassifies 200 Year-Old Book
June 10th, 2011Via: Wired: A cryptology instruction book… 202 years old. A photograph of the U.S. Army’s cypher bureau… from 1919. A breakdown of Russian electoral districts… circa 1948. Schematics for a magnetic tape memory system… nearly half a century old. These are just some of the items that, had you seen them, would have irreparably damaged […]
Drake Strikes Plea Bargain
June 10th, 2011Related: The Secret Sharer Via: AP: A federal judge in Baltimore dismissed Espionage Act charges against a former official with the National Security Agency accused of leaking classified documents, accepting his guilty plea to a single misdemeanor. Thomas Drake’s plea deal pleased civil-liberties advocates but is a setback for the Obama administration’s effort to crack […]
Hillary Clinton to Run World Bank?
June 10th, 2011Via: Telegraph: Hillary Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about stepping down from her job as Secretary of State to become head of the World Bank, according to reports. Mrs Clinton, the former First Lady, Senator for New York and rival to President Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary race, is […]
Argentine Lab Clones Cow to Produce Human-Like Milk
June 10th, 2011Via: AFP: An Argentine laboratory announced that it had created the world’s first transgenic cow, using human genes that will allow the animal to produce the equivalent of mothers’ milk. “The cloned cow, named Rosita ISA, is the first bovine born in the world that incorporates human genes that contain the proteins present in human […]
Russia Halves Belarus Power Supply Over Unpaid Bills
June 10th, 2011Via: BBC: Moscow has halved electricity supplies to Belarus over unpaid bills, piling on pressure for it to privatise lucrative assets. A source at Russia’s energy export monopoly said supplies – which account for 10% of the country’s needs – might stop completely on 19 June. Confirming the cut, Belarus said it owed $54m (£33m). […]
Americans’ Equity in Their Homes Near Record Low
June 9th, 2011Via: AP: Falling real estate prices are eating away at home equity. The percentage of their homes that Americans own is near its lowest point since World War II, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. The average homeowner now has 38 percent equity, down from 61 percent a decade ago. The latest bleak snapshot of the […]
Farmageddon
June 9th, 2011Via: Farmageddon: Farmageddon Trailer from Kristin Canty on Vimeo. Research Credit: R
Surprise: Cost of War in Libya Exceeding Estimates
June 9th, 2011Via: Financial Times: US military operations in Libya are on course to cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than the Pentagon estimated, according to figures obtained by the Financial Times. Robert Gates, the outgoing secretary of defence, said last month that the Pentagon expected to spend “somewhere in the ball park of $750m” in […]
