World No Tobacco Day; Obamacare, Medicaid, Bill of Health; Bad Medicine, Vax Populi; Psych; Health Issues

World No Tobacco Day

• IRS Sleuths Were on the Right Track: Big Tobacco Created Tea Party in 1994
• Why Calif. Doesn't Want Smokers To Pay More For Health Insurance
• FDA will rule none too soon on e-cigarette regulations
• French Researchers Recommend Stopping E-Cigarette Use in Public
• Apple won't fix your computer if you smoke near it

Obamacare

• Some very good news for Obamacare
• Obamacare Will Be A Debacle — For Republicans Salon
• Why the GOP keeps trying to destroy Obamacare
• Republican Congressmen & Press Caught Lying About Obamacare
• Rubio: The 'Only Answer' To IRS Scandal Is To Repeal Obamacare
• Health Law Critics Seek to Gut It by Attacking Exchanges
• The GOP's dangerous Obamacare strategy

Medicaid

• Health Officials Decry Texas' Snubbing Of Medicaid Billions—Sending uninsured Texans down to Mexico for health care.
• AZ GOP Governor Shuts Down Lawmaking Until Her Party Agrees To Expand Medicaid
• House members say yes to cheap health insurance — for themselves—"Florida House Republicans last month loudly and proudly rejected billions of dollars in federal money that would have provided health insurance to 1 million poor Floridians. Quietly, they kept their own health insurance premiums staggeringly low. House members will pay just $8.34 a month for state-subsidized health care next year, or $30 a month to cover their entire family."

Bill of Health

• Kill Bill: Political techniques may have changed, but lobbyists still deliver a terrific return on investment—"According to statistics United Republic assembled, the prescription drug industry spent $116 million lobbying for legislation to prevent Medicare from bargaining down drug prices — legislation that enabled drug companies to make an additional $90 billion annually." NYT
• Millions can't afford to go to the doctor
• Americans Who Battle Cancer Are Twice As Likely To Go Bankrupt, Even If They Have Health Insurance
• Doctors Denounce Cancer Drug Prices of $100,000 a Year —"More than 100 influential cancer specialists argued in a journal that some drug prices are unsustainable and perhaps even immoral." NYT
• Life-saving drugs' prices set to fall by up to 80 per cent
• One hospital charges $8,000 — another, $38,000
• Two Oregon insurers rethink 2014 premiums as state posts first-ever rate comparison
• Health law is fostering competition, administration says NYT
• South Portland doctor stops accepting insurance, posts prices online
• Hospitals profit when patients develop bloodstream infections—"Johns Hopkins researchers report that hospitals may be reaping enormous income for patients whose hospital stays are complicated by preventable bloodstream infections contracted in their intensive care units."

Bad Medicine

• Dirty medicine—"The epic inside story of long-term criminal fraud at Ranbaxy, the Indian drug company that makes generic Lipitor for millions of Americans."
• New SARS-like virus is a 'threat to the entire world'
• Root of teen's mystery ailment: tiny wire from barbecue brush
• Vegan couple sentenced to life over baby's death—"Malnourished baby was fed soy milk and apple juice, weighed 3 1/2 pounds."
• The Health Toll of Immigration—"A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in the United States, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes."

Vax Populi

• Bioethicist says parents who don't vaccinate should face liability for consequences
• Measles Epidemic in Wales Has Roots in Antivax Movement
• Grieving parents speak out against anti-vaccination extremists
• New Zealand: Preschools may get right to bar unvaccinated children
• NSW: Vaccinate your children or declare why not, parents told
• Taliban renounces war on anti-polio workers

Psych

• Schizophrenic. Killer. My Cousin.—"It's insanity to kill your father with a kitchen knife. It's also insanity to close hospitals, fire therapists, and leave families to face mental illness on their own."
• You Are Less Beautiful Than You Think
• The Lethality of Loneliness—"We now know how it can ravage our body and brain."
• Coding, Fast and Slow: Developers and the Psychology of Overconfidence
• Justice Is in Our Nature—"Social contracts are written into our biology. As is the justice they need."

Health Issues

• Sacramento couple sees their 5-month-old baby after CPS took him following dispute with doctors
• Vermont OKs assisted suicide bill
• L.A. poised to go after Las Vegas hospital in patient-dumping cases—"Multiple agencies, including the Los Angeles city attorney's office, are investigating whether Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada's primary public mental health facility, has been systematically dumping patients across state lines for years."
• UK: Top A&E doctors warn: 'We cannot guarantee safe care for patients anymore'—"Patients at risk from combination of 'toxic overcrowding' and 'institutional exhaustion', say heads of 20 emergency departments."
• Medical Test Uses Fingers To Predict Heart Disease
• Doctors: Sitting is the new smoking
• Avoiding Burnout

Wall Street, Too Big to Jail, Mortgages and Foreclosures, Financial Institutions; Economy, That's Rich, Workers; GOP; Racism; Public-Private Partnerships

Wall Street

• U.S. states, regulator drop objections to $8.5 billion BofA deal
• Defang Dodd-Frank To Protect Wall Street Vampires? A Look At The Proposed Changes
• Krugman: More on the Roots of Bernanke Hatred NYT
• Wall Street is writing its own regulation bill
• See How Citigroup Wrote a Bill So It Could Get a Bailout—"Citigroup lobbyists drafted a bill to allow more risky dealings by taxpayer-backed banks and—what do you know?—the House financial services committee passed nearly identical legislation."

Too Big to Jail

• Elizabeth Warren to Obama Administration: Take the Banks to Court, Already!
• No Arrests on Wall Street, But Over 7,700 Americans Have Been Arrested Protesting Big Banks
• Why Are Homeowners Being Jailed for Demanding Wall Street Prosecutions?—"Bankers go free while cops tase peaceful protesters and the Department of Justice targets journalists."
• Elizabeth Warren Grills Treasury Secretary on Too Big to Fail—And whether he'll allow banks to get even bigger.
• Jon Stewart rips Obama for aggressive investigation of whistle-blowers instead of bankers

Mortages and Foreclosures

• Turns out much-hyped settlement still allows banks to steal homes—"New data reveals mega-banks still illegally foreclosing on thousands. Get this: The housing settlement allows it." Salon
• Wells Fargo Forecloses On Homeowner For Making Early Mortgage Payments
• New York claims more proof of bank mortgage abuses

Financial Institutions

• Bankers Explain How They Cannot Possibly Live On $1 Million Pay
• Zombie corpse of Lehman Brothers sues Intel over bad billion-dollar deal
• JPMorgan Caught in Swirl of Regulatory Woes—"The nation's biggest bank, which faces several federal investigations, was warned by energy regulators about 'manipulative schemes' it used in California and Michigan."

Economy

• Paul Krugman accused of 'spectacularly uncivil' behavior
• Paul Krugman on Debt, but Are Soaring Interest Rates Running Against Him?
• Entitlements in America—"[D]eficit projections are falling fast. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now says it will shrink to 4% of GDP in this fiscal year and 2.1% by 2015. No wonder Republicans would rather talk about the Internal Revenue Service and Benghazi than the budget."
• Why Nobody Cares That The Deficit Is Shrinking
• Stop celebrating our falling deficits—"Our deficits aren’t dropping because we're doing something right. They're dropping because we're doing everything wrong."

That's Rich

• Top U.S. tax breaks to cost $12 trillion over decade, benefit wealthy: CBO
• How Far Did PBS Go to Avoid Offending a Sponsor?—"Public television's attempts to placate David Koch."
• Rich Manhattan moms hire handicapped tour guides so kids can cut lines at Disney World

Workers

• The Financialisation of Labour—"Frances Coppola argues that flexibility in the labour market could be harming the UKs prospects."
• House GOP Votes To End Overtime Pay With 'Working Families Flexibility Act'—How Frank Luntzian.
• The Long Shadow of Bad Credit in a Job Search—"Many companies, especially some retailers, use an applicant's credit report in making hiring decisions." NYT
• 84 Percent of NYC Fast Food Workers Report Wage Theft in a New Survey
• Valley farm-labor shortage boosts wages for workers
• Working past retirement: 75% will do it, most because they want to
• Old Economy Steve Is A New Meme That Will Enrage All Millennials Everywhere

GOP

• Krugman: The Closing of the Conservative Mind—"Is there new flexibility? No." NYT
• Bob Dole: GOP should be 'closed for repairs'—"The Republican Party has changed so drastically in recent years, the current GOP wouldn’t welcome the likes of Ronald Reagan...."
• The Wisdom of Bob Dole—"Old-school Republicans no longer recognize a party full of Tea Party lawmakers that wants to break the government." NYT
• GOP dilemma: draw new voters without irking base—"The Republican Party, having lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, confronts a dilemma that's easier to describe than to solve: How can it broaden its appeal to up-for-grabs voters without alienating its conservative base?"
• Paul Ryan admits GOP can't govern without a hostage crisis
• Tea Party Favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann Leaving Congress—Ding, dong, the witch has fled.
• I was a liberal mole at Fox News: From Bill O'Reilly to Roger Ailes, here's all the inside dope Salon

Racism

• The Long, Sordid History of the American Right and Racism—"Other factors have come and gone for the Right, but racism has always been there."
• Virginia Parents Outraged After Walmart Security Allegedly Suspected Father Of Kidnapping Biracial Daughters—"Well, the customer was concerned because they saw the children with your husband and he didn't think that they fit."
• Ann Coulter Decries "Ethnic Composition" Of Today's US Immigrants
• Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Racially Profiled Latinos, Federal Judge Rules
• Racist opera voicemail on WorldStar gets Papa John's employee fired
• Family: Michael Clarke Duncan's Grave Desecrated By Racists
• Teacher Fired For Using Word 'Negro' During Spanish Class—Hard to determine what really happened.

Public-Private Partnerships

• Does the husband of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein chair a company that brokers sales of USPS facilities?
• Sweet deals are business as usual in Florida government
• Bail bonds dispute surfaces in resignation fracas—"Brawley wrote to Tillis that the legislature had passed 'a bill giving a monopoly to the family of a Republican legislator.'"

Zero Tolerance and Terrorism, Bullying, Gone Social, Think of the Children; Religion; Educamation; Cheating; Kids These Days

Zero Tolerance and Terrorism

• Teenagers, social media, and terrorism: a threat level hard to assess—"Authorities are leaning more toward zero tolerance of teenagers who fling around online threats about acts of violence or terrorism. As a result, what might have once merited a slap on the wrist may today result in criminal charges."
• Warning lands Batavia teacher in hot water—"Dryden, a social studies teacher, told some of his students April 18 that they had a 5th Amendment right to not incriminate themselves by answering questions on the survey, which had each student's name printed on it. [...] School district officials declined to provide a copy of the survey to the Daily Herald, saying the district bought the survey from a private company, Multi-Health Systems Inc., and the contents are proprietary business information."
• So It's Come To This: Seven High School Students Arrested For Throwing... Water Balloons
• Hickman yearbook change leads to arrest—"A Hickman High School student was arrested earlier this month after she allegedly changed a student's last name from Mastain to 'masturbate' in the school yearbook."
• 16-Year-Old Girl Arrested and Charged With a Felony For Science Project Mistake—The charges were dropped and now she's headed to space camp.
• Classmates rally around Princeton student who left gun in car—Johnston County spokesperson shamefully hides behind "the law", but things are looking up for him.
• Toy Gun Causes Disturbance On Palmer Elementary School Bus—Raising a generation of pussies cowering from authority and unable to think for themselves.

Bullying

• Queens girls, 12, hangs herself after writing note about being cyberbullied at school
• Teen Says Girls Lit Her Hair on Fire—"O'Conner said the two eight graders were each given what she said are inadequate penalties of three-day suspensions." And imaginary guns merit worse penalties.
• Olympia teen files civil rights complaint with feds after alleged bullying—"An Olympia High School student who says he's been bullied for years is fighting back. He says constant bullying has caused him to miss months of school and he can't take the abuse any longer."
• 10 years later, 'Star Wars Kid' speaks out
• Mom makes daughter wear horrible thrift store clothes to 'teach her a lesson' for bullying other students

Gone Social

• Facebook challenge after girl's death leap over insults
• High school student faces 20 years in prison for Facebook messages
• Student suspended for tweeting that school sports teams were bad
• Cicero-North Syracuse student suspended after speaking out against failed budget on Twitter
• Perverted Prank: Photo of Naked Sixth-Grader Passed Around At School
  

Think of the Children

• Preschool bans kids from playing superheroes
• Studies found that the Children of Overprotective parents are Usual Bullying Targets
• Over-protective parents are linked to teenage depression
• The Kids Really Are All Right—The facts say children have never been safer. So why can't we loosen the leash? Taking stock of parental anxiety on the 30th anniversary of National Missing Children's Day."
• A Blast from the Past: A Nation of Wimps—"Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, parental hyperconcern has the net effect of making kids more fragile; that may be why they're breaking down in record numbers."

Religion

• Was an Oklahoma teacher fired for praying when a tornado hit her school?
• ACLU Tells High School to Allow Students to Protest ACLU at Football Game
• Oklahoma High School Has Ten Commandments Displays in Every Classroom… and One Atheist Student is Fighting Back—And despite the odds, he won.

Educamation

• At "low performing" charter school, administrator earns $187,000
• CPS approves largest school closure in city's history
• Slain referee risked violence for 'his passion,' heartbroken daughter says
• Father beats son to death over exam results—"He allegedly beat the 12-year-old with a computer cable for not bringing home exam results."
• Flipside: Principal fires security guards to hire art teachers — and transforms elementary school

Cheating

• Chinese cheats rort NZ universities with fakes
• SAT Scandal Shines Harsh Light on South Korean Academics—"The recent cancellation of U.S. college entrance exams in South Korea—the first time SAT tests have been called off nationwide anywhere in the world for suspected cheating—is throwing the spotlight back on the country's hyper-competitive academic environment." WSJ
• Quebec students strip-searched during exam Tenth grade students were strip-searched when a cell phone went missing during a final exam.

Kids These Days

• Why Millennials Will Be The Generation 'To Save Us All'
• Millenials aren't lazy: They're fucked
• I don’t hate millennials anymore!—"So they don't know John Hughes or the Cure or have a generational identity. This Gen Xer now sympathizes with Gen Y." Salon

Fat Tuesday; Men's Health, Holly-wiener, Penis, Circumcision circumspection, Ouch

Fat Tuesday

• Blogger to Abercrombie & Fitch: A&F means 'Attractive & Fat'
• Hunky to chunky: The action men going from fit to fat
• How 'Game of Thrones' Is Making You Fat
• Dear American Consumers: Please don't start eating healthfully. Sincerely, the Food Industry
• Future Doctors Unaware of Their Obesity Bias—"Two out of five medical students have an unconscious bias against obese people...."
• Experts: US Schools Should Make Physical Education A Core Subject
• Japan: Woman dies after heavy-set police officer sits on her

Men's Health

• The Unsafe Sex: Should The World Invest More In Men's Health?
• Male baldness 'indicates heart risk'
• Healthy men who have problems in the bedroom are at risk of hidden heart disease
• "Natural male enhancement" pills pulled for having unnatural ingredient
• Teen dies after hiding embarrassing testicle lump

Holly-wiener

• Hollywood's Most Well-Endowed Men: Size Matters
• Zardoz has spoken, and your penis may never be the same
• Ken Jeong, aka Mr. Chow, On What It's Like Showing His Small Winkie In "The Hangover 3"

Penis

• Qatar returns statues to Greece amid nudity dispute
• Xenografts for Penis Augmentation Show Promise—"Not every man wants a bit of cow grafted to his penis, but hundreds of patients have found the experience satisfying, a new study shows."
• Confirmed: Brothers' Penis Sizes Can Be Very Different
• Man Charged with Using Fake Penis for Drug Test
• NY Man Rubs Pepperoni on His Penis, Puts it Back
• "I have a micro-penis"
• 'Smallest Penis Contest' In Brooklyn: New York Bar To Honor The Small Things

Circumcision circumspection

• S Africa stunned by fatal circumcisions—"Botched circumcisions seen as cause of many deaths during coming-of-age ritual among tribal groups."
• American Secret: The Circumcision Agenda
• A Father's Pain at Overseeing Son's Circumcision—"Ancient ritual isn't easy — even for an Orthodox man."

Ouch

• Penis Stealing 'On The Rise' In African Countryside: Report
• Catherine Kieu Guilty: Jury Convicts Woman Accused Of Severing Husband's Penis
• Christina Salinas Allegedly Bit Husband's Penis After He Made Her Leave Rodeo Early: Report
• Teen girl arrested for biting penis of her boyfriend after he refused to have sex
• Man Cuts Off Own Penis During Fight With Girlfriend In Taiwan: Report
• Drunk Man Cuts Off His Penis, Flushes It Down The Toilet
• 17,616 Men Went to the ER for Zipper-Related Penis Injuries Between 2002 and 2010 [H/T Hector]

Your Rights Online, Privacy and Surveillance, Google Glass, Bloomberg; Copyfight, Piracy, DMCA, e-Books; Prenda, Pr0n

Your Rights Online

• 'The future of freedom on the internet is at stake'
• U.N.'s ITU pursues Internet control -- again
• Interpol filter scope creep: ASIC ordering unilateral website blocks

Privacy and Surveillance

• Eric Schmidt: we have to fight for privacy, or we're going to lose it
• Your digital identity and why you cannot escape it
• Fears of U.S. Mass Surveillance Spur Data Protection Proposals in Europe
• The Government Wants A Backdoor Into Your Online Communications
• Kiwis Want To Spy On All Communications, VPNs, And Be Able To Use Secret Evidence Against You
• How the FBI's online wiretapping plan could get your computer hacked
• Dear hacker: Please help us eavesdrop on our customers—"Saudi telecom seeks help monitoring encrypted Twitter data according to e-mails."
• Skype with care – Microsoft is reading everything you write—Are they really doing that? The evidence seems to say yes.
• So This Is How It Begins: Guy Refuses to Stop Drone-Spying on Seattle Woman
• How to permanently delete Snapchat photos

Google Glass

• Glass questions
• Lambda Labs Is Launching A Facial Recognition API For Google Glass
• At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom NYT

Bloomberg

• Privacy Breach on Bloomberg's Data Terminals NYT
• Bloomberg reporters allegedly used financial terminals to spy on Wall Street
• Bloomberg chief apologizes for data snooping

Copyfight

• Goods from kiosks at two malls seized—"Jim Spero, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Buffalo office of Homeland Security, says the sale of counterfeit goods - in Buffalo and beyond - poses a major security threat." Emphasis mine.
• Obama Stops Championing Treaty That Gives the Blind Better Access to E-Books
• 'Mockingbird' Writer Harper Lee Sues To Regain Pulitzer-Winning Novel's Copyright
• Day of the Dead trademark request draws backlash for Disney—No Dia de los Muertos for Mickey.
• Jail Terms For Unlocking Cellphones Shows The True Black Heart Of The Copyright Monopoly
• Defeat for EA over faces of sports stars—"A former college football player has won the right to sue Electronic Arts for using his likeness without permission."
• A YouTube Piano Teacher Took Down His Competition With Phony Copyright Claims

Piracy

• Hollywood should not decide our copyright laws
• US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates!
• RIAA stamps its feet again, demands Google improve anti-piracy efforts
• Banking Privacy More Important than Copyright Enforcement, Dutch Court Rules
• Megaupload Launches Frontal Attack on White House Corruption

DMCA

• Judge Tosses DMCA Defenses, Creating Unexpected Copyright Liability For Web Services In New York
• Hollywood Studios Censor Pirate Bay Documentary—"Viacom, Paramount, Fox and Lionsgate have all asked Google to take down links pointing to the Pirate Bay documentary TPB-AFK."
• Blogger Issues DMCA Notice To Take Down Posts Infringing His 'How To Infringe' Post

e-Books

• Apple denies DoJ accusations, says eBook publishers were fixing prices before iBooks
• Penguin will pay $75M back to e-book buyers over alleged price fixing
• The Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a hard-nosed negotiation
• Judge says leaning toward U.S. in Apple e-books case
• Amazon: Victim or Aggressor? Issue Will Frame Apple E-book Trial

Prenda

• New Prenda letter threatens to tell neighbors about porn accusations—"Sprawling case may be porn troll's 'last stand,' but it looks massive."
• Prenda lawyer gets kicked off 9th Circuit case—"Paul Hansmeier's motion to delay an $81,000 sanctions order was also denied."
• Prenda blows sanctions deadline, ordered to pay an extra $1,000 per day

Pr0n

• Yahoo won't restrict porn on Tumblr
• EU votes to reject 'porn ban' proposals
• Does Bible Belt love porn as much as the godless do?
• "Revenge porn" suit targets generic porn sites, Web hosts
• Chinese "spy" caught with NASA laptop full of porn, not secrets

Google Search, Everywhere, Hangouts, Ogooglebar; Facebook; Adobe; Patent Trolls; Tech Death; Passwords, Hacking and Malware

Google Search

• Google announces 'the end of search as we know it'
• Google Search scratches its brain 500 million times a day—"On a daily basis, 15 percent of queries submitted have never been seen before by Google's search engine."
• Google's cool new conversational search quietly hits Chrome

Everywhere

• Google unifies Gmail, Drive, and photo storage: all users now get 15GB of shared space
• Google Buys a Quantum Computer—"Google and a corporation associated with NASA are forming a laboratory to study artificial intelligence by means of computers that use the unusual properties of quantum physics." NYT
• The App That Puts Google's Music Subscription Service on Your iPhone
• Google+'s Best New Unadvertised Feature: Photo Search With Visual Recognition
• Why Google Will Crush Nielsen

Hangouts

• Thank you Google for the new homework assignment: Hangouts vs. Chat
• Hangouts Won't Hangout With Other Messaging Vendors: Google's New Unified Messaging Drops Open XMPP/Jabber Interop
• Google defends its use of proprietary tech in Hangouts

Ogooglebar

• Google takes the 'last step' to shut down its failed social network Buzz
• Don't expect Google Fiber to come to your town anytime soon
• Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads—Microsoft contends that "Google refused to work with us...." but ends up yanking the app anyway.
• Google Admits Defeat In Its 7-Year Battle With Amazon And PayPal
• Dumped! by Google—One moral from this story: don't put all your digital eggs in one basket.

Facebook

• Facebook loses millions of users as biggest markets peak—"Facebook's dominance in the social media world has come under threat from newer services such as Instagram and Path."
• Facebook's stock has lost 31% of its value since it went public one year ago
• Teens Are Turning Away from Facebook Because Tumblr Is Real, and Parent-Free—And though they're getting tired of the drama, some are sticking around.
• Rupert Murdoch warns Facebook faces same fate as MySpace
• Facebook Home and Dogfooding
• Another reason for Facebook Home’s rough start: The team behind it didn't fully understand Android
• Facebook teens' kimonos - basically never closed—Do teens really overshare or not (Salon)?

Adobe

• Adobe Goes All-In With Subscription-Based Creative Cloud, Will Still Sell CS6 For Now But Will Stop Developing I
• Unhappy Customers Want to Parachute From Adobe's Creative Cloud
• xkcd: All Adobe Updates

Patent Trolls

• Newegg, Overstock win patent fight with Alcatel-Lucent
• Nintendo Joins Firms Beating Patent 'Bullies' in Court
• Lodsys patent rampage continues as Activision and Capcom get sued
• Patent troll that wants $1,000 per worker gets sued by Vermont A-G
• Bad news for patent trolls, in one chart

Tech Death

• BlackBerry is the phone people want least, survey says
• The Netbook Is on Its Last Legs
• HTC in disarray: staff departures, 'disastrous' First, and production problems cloud company's future
• Windows 8 Causes the Biggest Drop in Customer Satisfaction Since the Vista Disaster
• Feds crack down on bitcoin exchange

Passwords

• Why your password can't have symbols—or be longer than 16 characters
• It's official: Password strength meters aren't security theater
• Password Minder: The blank notebook that got laughed out of production

Hacking and Malware

• Cyber security expert answers readers' questions
• Mac malware signed with Apple ID infects activist's laptop
• Reporters use Google, find breach, get branded as "hackers"—"Scripps reporters uncover mishandling of customer data; companies threaten to sue."
• LulzSec Hackers Sentenced to Prison by London Court
• The true cost of the 'Microsoft support' scam call
• Feds Drop Hacking Charges in Video-Poker Glitching Case
• xkcd: Authorization

Towel Day, Star Trek; Space; Science Under Siege, Canada, Saving Science; Misconceptions

Towel Day

• Steven Moffat: how fans saved the Doctor Who finale
• Star Wars and Doctor Who fans clash at Norwich convention
• Star Wars Filibuster—Patton Oswalt's 8-minute take from Parks & Recreation animated
• Here Is a Lobster that Looks Like Darth Maul
• Isaac Asimov - The Last Question

Star Trek

• How Critics Handled Star Trek's Bad-Guy Secret
• Benedict Cumberbatch: Shirtless Shower Scene for 'Star Trek'!—He looked bigger than he did in Sherlock, but I had no idea how much he's beefed up.
• The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Space

• The real Star Man: David Bowie champions Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's 'Space Oddity' cover—First music video shot in space.
• Bright explosion on moon visible from Earth, NASA says
• Blast from the Past (no pun intended): Once Upon a Time, the Universe Was Really Weird

Science Under Siege

• Radio host Papantonio: Anti-intellectualism 'has become almost epidemic in America'
• Congress tries to reset science grants, wants every one to be "groundbreaking"—"If lawmakers get their way, research like recent Higgs findings could disappear."
• Republican Congressman Introduces Bill To Require Political Approval Of Scientific Papers
• Republicans Attack Science To Advance Religion and Oil Industry Profits
• Corporations are manufacturing uncertainty about scientific findings. Now scientists are fighting back
• Why is Our Government Attacking Science?
• Obama: Science funding shouldn't be 'subject to politics'
• Portland, Ore., rejecting water fluoridation
• From global warming to fluoride: Why do people deny science?—"The potent combination of our powerful intelligence with our massive reality denial has led to a dangerous world." Salon
• Why is Science Behind a Paywall?—"Scientists' work follows a consistent pattern. They apply for grants, perform their research, and publish the results in a journal. The process is so routine it almost seems inevitable. But what if it's not the best way to do science?"
• Ridiculous Fox News Claim of the Day: Reason Caused the Holocaust
• On the Flipside: England's libel laws reformed in a victory for science campaigners—"Concerns remain over 'chilling effect' of potential legal costs on defendants."

Canada

• Muzzling Science in Canada: How Tories Control The Message
• Canada Sells Out Science—John MacDougal, Presidient of the National Research Council, decrees, "Scientific discovery is not valuable unless it has commercial value."
• The Canadian War on Science: A long, unexaggerated, devastating chronological indictment

Saving Science

• Tesla Museum Saved
• A New Way to Promote Science?—"Members of Congress have suggested that the President should be able to pick a US Science Laureate."
• Science in schools—"The US National Center for Science Education teaches researchers how to fight for their cause."
• Egypt: Promoting science, promoting democracy
• Saudi Arabia maps genome and educational future

Misconceptions

• xkcd: Misconceptions
• 10 Misconceptions Debunked
• Because I Said So! The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids

Twisted; Press Freedom, Transparency, News You Can Lose, Wikileaks; Scandals; IRS; Vote Machinations; Economy, Obstructionism

Twisted

• $40 for a Case of Bottled Water? 'Preying' on Oklahoma Tornado Victims
• Beware of fraud after Oklahoma tornadoes, feds warn
• Oklahoma Senate Votes To Defund Planned Parenthood Two Days After Tornado
• "The Jester" trolls Westboro Baptist Church with hilarious hack
• Alex Jones Explains How Government "Weather Weapon" Could Have Been Behind Oklahoma Tornado

Press Freedom

• Gov't obtains wide AP phone records in probe—"The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a 'massive and unprecedented intrusion' into how news organizations gather the news."
• Here's Why the Government Went Ballistic Over the AP Leak
• Obama DOJ formally accuses journalist in leak case of committing crimes—"Yet another serious escalation of the Obama administration's attacks on press freedoms emerges."
• Obama's media shield law makes prosecuting journalists even easier
• Are Justice Department leak probes causing a chill?
• The New Yorker: Strongbox—"A new way to share information with The New Yorker's writers and editors, designed to provide a greater degree of anonymity and security than conventional email."
• UK: Police to be forced to declare friendships with journalists

Transparency

• AP Probe: Our Government is Becoming Less Transparent Than Ever, But We Can Fix It
• Most Transparent Administration in History Releases Completely Redacted Document About Text Snooping—Morbidly funny.
• Blast from the Past: Judge rules FBI can't keep Cheney interview buried

News you the lose

• ABC News And CBS News Officially Normalize Fabricated Reporting—ABC's Jonathan Karl stands by the lies he was fed.
• Jon Stewart destroys what's left of Peggy Noonan's credibility
• Fox and Furious Friends Wanted DOJ to Prosecute the New York Times—"Throughout the tenure of George W. Bush, many of us to the left of center warned that unchecked presidential power was putting Americans' civil liberties in jeopardy."

Wikileaks

• 'We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks': movie review
• Supreme Court of Iceland rules firm must process donations for WikiLeaks—"Assange warns other companies involved in so-called blockade: 'you're next.'"
• WikiLeaks Donations Down to a Trickle

Scandals

• Poll: Obama at 53 percent approval after week of controversies
• Meanwhile, The GOP's Favorability Ratings Have Tanked To Their Lowest Point Ever—Unless something major happens, they're safely gerrymandered away.
• President Obama’s Burgeoning Scandals—Benghazi, IRS, and AP’s Telephone Logs—Are All Smoke and No Fire

IRS

• IRS Official Lois Lerner Will Plead The 5th Amendment—And gets kicked off the job.
• Profiling Is Great ... Except When You Do It to Me—"Will the IRS's scrutiny of Tea Party groups convince conservatives that all kinds of profiling are wrong?"
• Scandal Within A Scandal: IRS Misconduct Unfolded In Murky World Of Election Spending

Vote Machinations

• This Is Important. Give It a Read—"[I]f you care about the integrity of elections and people actually being able to vote, the supposed cures for vote fraud are vastly more destructive than the problem."
• Ohio GOP: Oops on bill to curb student voting
• Against the odds: Could Democrats regain the House?—"Could Democrats regain the House in 2014? History says no, but DCCC chairman Steve Israel says it's possible — if the economy improves and the GOP ignores the lessons of 1998. Oh, and Obamacare goes well, too."

Economy

• The Bush Tax Cuts Didn't Work
• Bernanke to Congress: Seriously, guys, what are you doing?—"Ben Bernanke testifies before Congress today for the first time in three months, and the Federal Reserve chairman has a message for lawmakers: You're the reason the economy isn't taking off more."
• I-5 bridge collapses over Skagit River; possibly triggered by truck—"Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state's bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington's 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient of functionally obsolete."

Obstructionism

• Obstruction will ruin GOP Salon
• Hatred of Obama could lead to GOP overreach
• Reid To McConnell: Yes, You Are Abusing The Filibuster
• McCain Responds To 'Nuclear Threat,' Criticizes Tea Party Senators
• Lock Up Washington—"So where are we today in Washington? What will people hundreds of years from now think of our national governance with all its blaming, nastiness and negativity? It looks as if our country is being run by thugs and liars motivated by revenge and pettiness beyond description."

Cable Bundling; Netflix; Trouble with Telcos; Net Neutrality; Broadband; Google Fiber

Cable Bundling

• Keep dreaming, cord cutters: Time Warner chief says no streaming-only option for HBO GO
• Top cable lobbyist: No 'a la carte' needed, cable companies already provide 'unparalleled choice'
• ABC Declares War on Cord Cutters with Live TV App — Delayed Streaming to Follow
• Time Warner Cable eyes Aereo-like service as way to ditch expensive bundles
• John McCain Introduces Cable A La Carte Legislation To Stop Bundling & Broadcasters Moving To Pay TV

Netflix

• Netflix, Reed Hastings Survive Missteps to Join Silicon Valley's Elite
• Netflix's Ted Sarandos talks Arrested Development, 4K and reviving old shows—"[W]hen we launch in a territory the Bittorrent traffic drops as the Netflix traffic grows." Amazing how offering a product at an affordable rate works.
• AOL vs. Netflix: The Entire Internet In One Simple Chart
• Warner Bros., MGM, Universal Collectively Pull Nearly 2,000 Films From Netflix To Further Fragment The Online Movie Market—"You may recall that Warner recently launched this archive, which is an incredibly overpriced and ridiculously limited offering."
• Netflix Canada Could Be Bundled With Cable TV; Competition Could Soon Be On The Scene

Trouble with Telcos

• Telecoms' monopoly holding back U.S. innovation—"A law school professor is on a permanent campaign to argue that the telecom and cable industry has been overtaken by monopolists who resist innovation and overcharge consumers." NYT
• New FCC chairman is "former lobbyist for cable and wireless industries"
• Outgoing FCC chair says Verizon, AT&T duopoly would be a 'very bad thing'
• America's Carriers Are Terrible. It's Probably Your Fault.
• Dumb Attorney General Gets T-Mobile Plans Wrong

Net Neutrality

• A Ruling Could Support F.C.C.'s Net Neutrality Defense
• AT&T Continues To Mock The Concept Of Net Neutrality; This Time With Google Hangouts Block—They said sometime later that they will roll out the service.
• Deutsche Telekom Dumps Net Neutrality; Will Limit Bandwidth For Competing Video & Voice Products

Broadband

• American ISPs are now hated even more than airlines—This just gives Google Fiber a better chance of succeeding.
• US moves to free up spectrum for passengers
• Legislation would provide subsidies for low-income broadband access
• Japanese provider launches 'world's fastest home broadband'—"So-net - the Sony-backed provider - is now offering Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband deals with headline speeds of 2Gb."
• Vermont telephone company offering $35-per-month gigabit internet service

Google Fiber

• The Genius Of Google Fiber
• That Was Fast: Google Fiber Puts More Pressure on the Cable Guys
• The force of Fiber: Google Fiber is pressuring rivals to up their game
• Google Fiber spreads again, confirmed for Gladstone, MO
• Time Warner Cable in Austin sees new Google Fiber, raises with free Wi-Fi?—"Austin tech journo says TWC offer is laughable: 'It won't even make me pause.'"
• CenturyLink Whines About Google Fiber in Utah—"Uses sleazy tactics for a decade, cries about fairness."
• Good news for Google Fiber: Broadcast TV audiences are cratering faster than ever

International Day for Biological Diversity; Oklahoma Tornado; Climate Change; Environment; Pollution; Animal Cruelty; Food Insecurity

International Day for Biological Diversity

• Last rhinos in Mozambique killed by poachers—"The last known rhinoceroses in Mozambique have been wiped out by poachers apparently working in cahoots with the game rangers responsible for protecting them, it has emerged."
• There's a country that will pay $300,000 per rhino horn to cure cancer and hangovers, and it's wiping out rhinos
• Elephant 'tramples to death suspected poacher'
• Gabon steps in to help protect elephants from ivory poaching at Central African Republic site
• China is plundering the planet's seas—and it's doing it 12.5 times more than it's telling anybody
• 'Victory for bees' as European Union bans neonicotinoid pesticides blamed for destroying bee population
• DiCaprio's Movie Pals Aid Tiger in $39 Million Auction
• Indonesia's tropical forests set to benefit from further clearing ban—"Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expected to sign extended deal to help restore habitat of tigers and orangutans." Related: Can Ecotourism Save Indonesia's Disappearing Forests?
• Study links insecticide use to invertebrate die-offs—"Dutch research reveals correlation between water polluted with imidacloprid and low numbers of aquatic insects."
• Lion tacos spark outrage in Florida but will remain on menu—" Serving lion meat is legal in the US because lions are 'threatened,' but not 'endangered.'"

Oklahoma Tornado

• Don't cry climate-change wolf—"For now, blaming the Moore, Okla., tornado on global warming is bad science and bad politics." Salon
• Oklahoma Senators Jim Inhofe, Tom Coburn, Face Difficult Options On Disaster Relief—Inhofe claims it's "totally different." (Maybe because it happened in his state.)
• Tornado had winds over 200 mph
• How could so many have survived Okla. monster tornado?—Bill Nye says that "it's going to happen again."
• Wolf Blitzer Asks Tornado Survivor If She Thanked the Lord; Tells Him She's an Atheist

Climate Change

• Alaskan villages try "climigration" in the face of climate change
• Belief in biblical end-times stifling climate change action in U.S.: study
• Zombie climate sceptic theories survive only in newspapers and on TV

Environment

• Tribes vow to fight-to-the-death to save Amazon rainforest
• Peru spares Amazon rainforest from oil and gas push
• DENR's new mission takes wrong course—"DENR, prior to Gov. Pat McCrory, had a straightforward mission to conserve and protect North Carolina's natural resources. When McCrory became governor, the DENR revised its mission statement to fundamentally change its role."
• The GOP Walkout on Obama's EPA Pick Shows Senate Is as Polluted as Earth
• Carbon dioxide passes symbolic mark—"Daily measurements of CO2 at a US government agency lab on Hawaii have topped 400 parts per million for the first time."
• China agrees to impose carbon targets by 2016
• Texas to take BP and Halliburton to court—"Texas, alleges the companies and others 'engaged in wilful and wanton misconduct' in the 2010 Deep Horizon oil spill."

Pollution

• AR to Residents Sick From Exxon Oil Spill: You're On Your Own
• A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit—"Refining Canada’s petroleum-soaked oil sands produces petroleum coke, and the question of what to do with it has found at least one answer in Detroit, where a large coke pile covers an entire city block."
• Greenpeace blames Coke for Channel 9 'choke'
• China wrestles with stubborn air polluters
• 19-Year-Old Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World's Oceans

Animal Cruelty

• Amy Meyer's Ag-Gag Charges Have Been Dropped!—She was filming on public property.
• TN Governor to veto 'Ag-Gag' bill—"The governor released a statement saying his decision is based, in part, on the state attorney general’s opinion that the law would be constitutionally suspect. It also appears that it could repeal portions of Tennessee’s Shield Law, which protects news reporters from incursions by law enforcement."
• Opinion: The terrible price of ag-gag laws—"Rather than shutting observers out of slaughterhouses, we should open the doors even wider."
• Ag-Gag Laws Could Make America Sick
• How undercover animal rights activists are winning the Ag-Gag war
• State official pleads guilty in Butterball farm raid leak—"The state's top poultry veterinarian pleaded guilty Wednesday to tipping off officials at Butterball before a December raid on one of its turkey operations in Hoke County."
• Australia halts cattle exports to Egypt over 'cruelty'

Food Insecurity

• Rat meat sold as lamb in Shanghai, police say
• China arrests 900 in fake meat scandal—"Chinese authorities seize 20,000 tonnes of illegal meat products and detains gang passing off fox, mink and rat as mutton."
• Potato price-fixing costs consumers millions

Culture Clash, Politics, Sexism, Rape, Abortion and Birth Control

Culture Clash

• Lebanese Man Impregnates His Sister, Kills Her in 'Honor Crime'
• Man goes undercover as a woman to investigate sexual harassment in Egypt
• Gruesome Attacks on Egyptian Women Spawn Helmeted, Volunteer Protectors
• Tunisia topless Femen activist arrested for 'immoral gestures'
• Women's Prison in Gaza Swells With 'Moral' Criminals
• Saudi passenger demands air hostess be removed from flight
• Police take 16 year-old girl into custody for "dressing inappropriately"

Politics

• Women banned from Iranian election
• Conservative Afghan lawmakers block legislation protecting women's rights
• Pakistan politician Zahra Shahid Hussain killed in Karachi

Sexism

• Merida From 'Brave' Gets An Unnecessary Makeover, Sparks Change.org Petition—Successfully getting Disney to back down.
• Mother shuns Disney Princess ideal and dresses daughter up as five REAL heroines from history to commemorate fifth birthday
• Lego Apologizes for Cat-Calling Sticker

Rape

• UAE Rape Victim Jailed—"Gali was using her laptop in the hotel's staff bar when her drink was spiked. She awoke to a nightmare beyond belief: she had been savagely raped by three of her colleagues. Alone and frightened, she took herself to hospital. What Alicia didn't know is that under the UAE's strict sharia laws, if the perpetrator does not confess, a rape cannot be convicted without four adult Muslim male witnesses. She was charged with having illicit sex outside marriage, and thrown in a filthy jail cell for eight months."
• Japan WWII 'comfort women' were 'necessary' - Hashimoto
• Muslim Imam Claims Women Who Don't Wear Hijabs are "Asking to be Raped", Arrested for Trying to Rape Woman
• If women don't want to be raped they shouldn't drink too much, says Hong Kong official
• Focus On Women, Families Propels New York's Sen. Gillibrand—"Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand is introducing legislation with other lawmakers Thursday that would change the way the military prosecutes sexual assault cases."

Abortion and Birth Control

• Ireland: Pro-life activists threaten to slit throat of TD—"I have a number of people at the moment who are going to burn my house down with my children in it, they are going to spit at me when I walk inside my church grounds at Sunday morning at Mass."
• GOP attorney general candidate tried to force women to report miscarriages to police—"Virginia Sen. Mark Obenshain wanted to send women to jail who failed to report their miscarriages to the police." Salon
• Judge Mocks Obama Administration's Attempt To Restrict Morning After Pill As 'A Charade'
• OB-GYNs Are Confused By The Political Fight To Restrict Emergency Contraception
• No Exit: Life begins at erection

And Justice for Some; Ohio Abductions; Poison; War on Drugs, 420, Bad Cops, Law and Disorder

And Justice for Some

• And Justice for Some—"Fifty years after a landmark decision to give the poor their day in court, Bill explores why they still can't afford justice -- with insight from Bryan Stevenson, Martin Clancy and Tim O'Brien."
• Some Public Defenders Warn: 'We Have Nothing Left To Cut'
• Sen. John Cornyn Surprised to Learn Judge-Blocking May Be Cause of Judge Shortages

Ohio Abductions

• Police Apparently Missed Multiple Calls About Women on Dog Leashes in the Castros' Yard
• Why the Web loves Cleveland hero Charles Ramsey
• Sylvia Browne: fans lash out at 'psychic' over false Ohio abduction prediction—"'Psychic' incorrectly predicted the death of Amanda Berry in 2004 – not the first time she's been wrong about a missing person."

Poison

• San Jose: Starbucks poison suspect booked on attempted murder rap
• Ann Marie Haines poisons burritos, feeds them to husband, daughter—"Woman was upset over not being invited on car shopping trip, police say."
• Two Chinese kindergarten students die after rival school poisons yogurt
• Old poisoning case grips Chinese netizens worldwide
• Backpacker Dies After Drinking 'Poison Gin'

War on Drugs

• OAS Drug Report Envisions Growing Legalization In Western Hemisphere
• Blow Back—"Sorry, Washington. If, after 30 years, Colombia can't win the war on drugs, no one can."
• Which Drugs Actually Kill Americans—"Hint: not pot."
• Blog del Narco: Author Who Chronicled Mexico’s Drugs War Forced to Flee
• Man arrested for having big muscles

420

• Obama Says No To Legalizing Marijuana—"In a speech in Mexico City on Friday, President Obama shut the door on any possibility that he'll support efforts in his second term to legalize certain recreational drugs."
• Vermont decriminalizes possession of marijuana
• Congressman Tears Into AG Holder Over Marijuana: 'This Is The Time To Remedy Prohibition'
• A GOP Bill To End the War on Pot
• Oregon Senate OKs bill to allow medical pot for PTSD
• Marijuana Repeal Considered In Colorado
• Washington lawmakers quietly approve bill to re-criminalize some marijuana possession

Bad Cops

• Federal Suit Claims Police Distort Marijuana Searches to Create Misdemeanors—"A lawsuit says that New York City police officers routinely stop black and Latino men without cause and then charge them with low-level misdemeanors when small amounts of marijuana are found." In other words, that's racist. NYT
• Wash. judge tells police to return marijuana—"The department could be found in contempt if they continue to refuse to return a small amount of marijuana seized from a man after a traffic stop."
• Police Forced to Return Over 60 Pounds of Marijuana to California Dispensaries

Law and Disorder

• Medical Marijuana-Hating Assemblyman Caught With Marijuana Gets Charges Dismissed
• Officials: Legal marijuana law jeopardizes all pot prosecutions
• Justices say marijuana possession not a deportable offense
• Woman claims she was fired for inhaling second-hand pot smoke
• Colorado appeals court OKs firing for off-duty marijuana use —"Coloradans who use medical marijuana off the clock can be fired from their jobs for doing so even if they aren't impaired on the job, an appeals court ruled Thursday in a major decision." State laws supposedly superceded by federal laws on marijuana.