This artist’s sketch shows Edison Chen at the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Chinese-Canadian film star in a racy scandal over photos that showed him in bed with eight of China’s best-known actresses and singers testified against the person accused of accessing his private laptop, which held the images. [...]
Archive for February, 2009
1000-plus leaked nude celeb pics case goes to court
Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Law, tagged Edison Chen on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Banning books
Posted in Law, Weird cases on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Legal attempts to suppress literature have rarely been successful and often have the opposite effect JoAn Karkos from Maine, America, was recently taken to court for failing to return a library book. She had borrowed a sex education book from her local public library but, having decided the contents were “dangerous” for children and subsequently [...]
Internet may change name of a town that became a dirty word
Posted in Language, Strange but true on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
__________ With a 1,000-year history, a Croix de Guerre and a gallery of famous visitors including William the Conqueror and Richard the Lionheart, the small Normandy town of Eu has much to be proud of. The trouble is that tourists are passing it by – and it is all the fault of the internet. Type [...]
Iraq Cabinet minutes: ‘Jack Straw should not be his own judge’
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Law on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Jack Straw, in ruling against the release of cabinet minutes relating to the UK’s going to war in Iraq, has violated a key principle of the British constitution. That principle is nemo judex in sua causa: no-one should be a judge in his own case. Mr Straw stands personally to gain by the continuing secrecy [...]
If I Could Tell You
Posted in Poetry on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
TIme will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know. If we should weep when clowns put on their show, If we should stumble when musicians play, Time will say nothing but I told you so. There [...]
Citing Cost, States Consider Halting Death Penalty
Posted in Law, tagged Death penalty on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
A county jail in Lawrenceville, Va., was designed for half as many inmates as it houses. Many states are trying to cut prison costs. When Gov. Martin O’Malley appeared before the Maryland Senate last week, he made an unconventional argument that is becoming increasingly popular in cash-strapped states: abolish the death penalty to cut costs. [...]
In Obama We Trust
Posted in Economy and business, Editorials and opinion, Politics on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
The president doesn’t lack self-confidence. In ordinary times, the triumphalism with which Barack Obama surrounds himself — the faux presidential seals, the classical Greek temple built for him to receive the Democratic nomination, the self-allusions to Lincoln — might be of little public consequence. These are not ordinary times. In an interview last Thursday, Bill [...]
Obama Needs a ‘Not To Do’ List
Posted in Economy and business, Editorials and opinion, Politics on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
The global economic crisis is exposing the president’s preoccupations as the soppy indulgences they always were. Put away childish things, President Obama said during his inauguration. He couldn’t have found a theme more suited to the moment. The preoccupations that he and most politicians are used to running on, and that still characterize too many [...]
China’s answer to a crime includes amateur sleuths
Posted in Law, tagged China on February 25, 2009 | Comments Off
The detention center in Puning County, Yunnan Province where Li sustained his fatal head injury. __________ As they awaited their fates in holding cell No. 9 of the Puning County jail, Li Qiaoming and a half-dozen fellow inmates played “elude the cat,” a Chinese hide-and-seek that might be better described as Marco Polo without the [...]
Just a little alcohol a day boosts cancer risk for women
Posted in Health on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
The old motto may be everything in moderation, but middle-aged women who enjoy a daily glass of alcohol should try on a new mantra if they want to lower their cancer risk, new research suggests. In a study of nearly 1.2 million women, British researchers found that even low to moderate alcohol consumption can boost [...]
Controller: Flight 1549 A “Death Sentence”
Posted in Living, tagged Flight 1549, Sullenberger on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane in the Hudson River in New York, in this January 15, 2009 file photo. The crew of the US Airways jetliner disabled by birds that knocked out both its engines over New York calmly told air controllers: ‘We’re gonna be in the Hudson’ before splash [...]
A little piece of the afterlife
Posted in History on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
The fragile papyrus scroll remained in the museum’s vault for almost 100 years. The scroll of spells a rich Egyptian took to his grave to guide him through the afterlife remained tightly wound, hidden from prying eyes for 2,300 years. Until now. The Book of the Dead of Amen-em-hat, a newly unveiled treasure belonging to [...]
Does Cloud Computing Mean More Risks to Privacy?
Posted in Computers on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Last week, we had a wave of panic roll through Facebook users as many realized that the site had changed its terms of service in a way that implied it might soon broadcast their most embarrassing On Monday, the World Privacy Forum released a report that says those fears are just the tip of the [...]
The 3 R’s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too: Recess
Posted in Other on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
__________ The best way to improve children’s performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it. New research suggests that play and down time may be as important to a child’s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior, concentration and [...]
Jazz Fantasia
Posted in Poetry on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Drum on your drums, batter on your banjoes, sob on the long cool winding saxophones. Go to it, O jazzmen. Sling your knuckles on the bottoms of the happy tin pans, let your trombones ooze, and go hushahusha-hush with the slippery sand-paper. Moan like an autumn wind high in the lonesome tree-tops, moan [...]
In the Open at Last, a Secret All Women Share
Posted in Health, Living on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
COMMON GROUND Rachel Kauder Nalebuff has collected first-period stories. Seldom can a book stretch to accommodate both its author’s and its publisher’s fondest hopes: that it be original yet universal, artistic yet practical, and likely to sell briskly for centuries to come. To understand why Rachel Kauder Nalebuff’s “My Little Red Book” manages all of [...]
Transparency at the Pentagon
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has the emphasis right when he says it’s time to review the ban on press photographs of flag-draped coffins of soldiers returning to Dover Air Force Base and other military facilities. “The more honor we can accord these fallen heroes, the better,” he said. Reversing the ban would also restore honor [...]
Today in history, on February 24, 1848, Marx and Engels published their Communist Manifesto
Posted in History, Politics, This day in history, tagged Communist Manifesto, Engels, Marx on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Marx and Engels __________ On just 60 pages, Marx and Engels had written down a philosophy of life, which would become dogmatic reality for half the world. The manifesto had little influence in its own day. Only after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ other writings had made their views on socialism widely known did it [...]
‘Your crime is infamous: it has no name’
Posted in Law on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
To USAAF as 41-18456 July 13, 1942, to civil register as CF-CUA August 31, 1946. Destroyed September 9, 1949. Photographed at Bagotville, Quebec, Canada, August 1947. __________ CP Airlines Flight 108 was downed with a bomb almost 60 years ago. At the time, such an event was almost unthinkable. For his wife’s funeral, Albert Guay [...]
Obama finds the Bush center
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
So far as president, Obama is startlingly like his predecessor on a number of issues. Here’s something President Obama’s biggest fans may need to hear: He’s just not that into you. Recall that during the primaries, Obama was probably second only to Dennis Kucinich as an anti-Iraq war and anti-Bush candidate. But he has kept [...]
A handful of biotech companies are racing to market a new generation of tests for Down syndrome, a development that promises a safer way to spot the most common genetic cause of mental retardation early in pregnancy even as it weaves a thicket of moral, medical, political and regulatory concerns. Doctors recommend that all pregnant [...]
Images that changed the world
Posted in History, Photo galleries on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Iconic images, such as photographs of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, have transformed the way scientists ‘do’ science. __________ In the second half of the Seventies, a remarkable revolution occurred in science and mathematics. It was not one that philosophers of science ever had in mind, not an overthrow of an old paradigm [...]
I Eat My Peas with Honey
Posted in Poetry on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
I eat my peas with honey; I’ve done it all my life. It makes the peas taste funny, But it keeps them on the knife. __________ Anonymous ( The Random House Book of Poetry for Children)
Sarkozy takes up stamp collecting with help from the Queen
Posted in Popular culture on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Queen Elizabeth and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a state banquet at Windsor Castle __________ In the latest bizarre insight into the 54-year-old’s private life, it was revealed fellow heads of state including the Queen have helped him fill his albums. Mr Sarkozy even sponsors the newly formed Elysée Philatelist Club, named after the Paris [...]
Want to live longer? You need this nutrient
Posted in Health on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
A higher intake of omega-3 fatty acids found in oily fish such as salmon has been shown to positively affect ailments as diverse as stroke, allergies, dementia, and dyslexia. At the end of a residential cul-de-sac in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, a driveway winds up a hill to the headquarters of Ocean Nutrition, a complex of [...]
Politics in the guise of pure science
Posted in Energy and Environment, Politics on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
__________ Why, since President Barack Obama promised to “restore science to its rightful place” in Washington, do some things feel not quite right? First there was Steven Chu, the physicist and new energy secretary, warning The Los Angeles Times that climate change could make water so scarce by century’s end that “there’s no more agriculture [...]
Existential damage
Posted in Law, Weird cases on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
An Italian football fan wins €1,500 after being abused by rival fans Fans of Napoli football club, in Italy, do not expect to beat champions Inter Milan. But that is just on the pitch. In a law court victory can more easily be achieved. A court in Naples recently ordered Inter to pay a Napoli [...]
Spotted: rare pictures of desert cheetah
Posted in Animals, Natural sciences, tagged Desert cheetah on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
There are thought to be fewer than 250 adult Saharan or Northwest African cheetahs remaining. Scientists at the Zoological Society of London say pictures of a rare and elusive cheetah taken using camera traps in the Algerian Sahara are hugely significant in the attempt to save the animal from extinction. There are thought to be [...]
Gene could allow lab-grown teeth
Posted in Health on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Teeth could be repaired or regrown Scientists believe they have found a way to grow teeth in the laboratory, a discovery that could put an end to fillings and dentures. The US team from Oregon have located the gene responsible for the growth of enamel, the hard outer layer of teeth which cannot grow [...]
Failure hits Nasa’s ‘CO2 hunter’
Posted in Space on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Some hoped the Orbiting Carbon Observatory would smooth the way for future emissions agreements after Kyoto. __________ Nasa’s first mission to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) from space appears to have failed after a rocket malfunction. Officials said the fairing – the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher – [...]
