Global
The Guardian is about to face investigation by the British Government. The London-based newspaper has been at the forefront of the global surveillance controversy since their journalist Glenn Greenwald published in its pages Edward Snowden's revelations last June. Supported by Prime Minister David Cameron, a parliamentary committee is due to launch an inquiry to determine whether the Guardian's publication of Snowden's leaked documents was a threat to national security.
In a functioning democracy it is expected that a free press would come to the defence of a fellow news outlet facing governmental interference for publishing information about a matter of public interest. Britain has prided itself on having some of the oldest and strongest press freedoms in the world. Yet for all that, the powerful media barons in the UK have all fallen in step with the government's line on security: that the Guardian has helped terrorists.
In a functioning democracy it is expected that a free press would come to the defence of a fellow news outlet facing governmental interference for publishing information about a matter of public interest. Britain has prided itself on having some of the oldest and strongest press freedoms in the world. Yet for all that, the powerful media barons in the UK have all fallen in step with the government's line on security: that the Guardian has helped terrorists.
A bunch of crazy-looking bearded freaks have just won the World Series. YEAH!!!!
They’re our beloved 2013 Boston Red Sox, led by the massively good-humored Dominican slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz and a Japanese relief pitcher half his size.
All season they’ve played like a cross between Biblical zealots on fire for their craft and crazed hippies out dancing around the campfire---just like it should be when grown men devote themselves to a kid's game.
They pull each others’ beards, laugh, high five, yell and hit. And they have just now blown organized baseball, with all its slick hype and moneyball millions, back to where it belongs.
So too the Hub, city of my birth.
This spring it was shattered by a senseless bombing at our gorgeous Marathon. For more than a century the town faithful have packed streets once run by the Sons of Liberty, now by Marathon runners from everywhere, conquering Heartbreak Hill to bask in the glories of a hard-win finish and a tank of Sam Adams.
It was hellish to have all that so insanely assaulted. It’s a hurt that will never entirely go away.
Most Americans probably take the right to travel for granted until this right is lost or curtailed. Passports are, of course, required for most international travel. When our group (Jesselyn Radack, Thomas Drake, Ray McGovern and Coleen Rowley) recently traveled to Moscow to meet with Edward Snowden and present him with the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, we depended upon our fundamental right to travel.
The intelligence whistleblower whose integrity we honored, however, has been deprived of that right. Vindictive U.S. officials revoked the passport of Snowden, whose disclosures have informed and educated the people of the United States and the world about secret surveillance and massive data-gathering that the NSA and other government agencies are engaged in within the U.S. and around the world.
If you’ve already signed the RootsAction petition urging that Snowden’s passport be restored, please forward this email to people you know and urge them to do the same. If you haven’t yet signed the petition, you can add your name by clicking here.
The intelligence whistleblower whose integrity we honored, however, has been deprived of that right. Vindictive U.S. officials revoked the passport of Snowden, whose disclosures have informed and educated the people of the United States and the world about secret surveillance and massive data-gathering that the NSA and other government agencies are engaged in within the U.S. and around the world.
If you’ve already signed the RootsAction petition urging that Snowden’s passport be restored, please forward this email to people you know and urge them to do the same. If you haven’t yet signed the petition, you can add your name by clicking here.
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As the leaves change color and the temperature drops (and, here in Columbus, goes back up and drops again), as Pumpkin Spice Everything starts appearing on the menu at every coffee shop in town, writers throughout the world and right here in our hometown start planning. They check out every book on characterization and plotting in the entire region's library system, and then they descend on the book shops to clear out the story crafting shelves there as well. They buy up notebooks and fancy pens. And then, on November 1st, when everyone else is out buying discount Halloween candy, they write the first words of their new novels. That's right, National Novel Writing Month is upon us again!
This year the event, abbreviated as NaNoWriMo, expects to draw in about 500,000 participants from all over the world, with over 4,000 registered in the Central Ohio region on nanowrimo.org. The goal for each participant is to write a 50,000 word novel by 11:59PM on November 30th. The novel can be anything: The Sailor Moon fanfiction you've had on your mental back burner since the 90s is every bit as welcome as an attempt at the next Great American Novel.
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Olentangy Orange High School’s Anna Sanford knew she and her sister Alle only had one shot at making their dream of winning the Division I girls tennis state doubles title a reality. With that shot, the Pioneers doubles team left very little to chance.
The Olentangy Orange High School doubles team defeated Rocky River’s Alex Riegelsberger and Lucy Grierson, Canfield’s Hannah Cianciola and Ashley Kaleel and Toledo Notre Dame Academy’s Alicia Nahhas and Teagan McNamara by identical 6-0, 6-0 scores in the first three rounds of the state tournament, held Oct. 18 at Ohio State’s Outdoor Varsity Tennis Facility and Oct. 19 at the Elysium Tennis Center. The Sanfords then closed out their run with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Cincinnati Sycamore’s Alexa Abele and Maggie Skwara in the title match. The sisters’ run to the title marked the lowest number of games a champion has given up in the Division I state doubles tournament in the 2000s.
“We’ve watched (DeSales’) Kim My Li and My Linh Li (the 2009 Division II state champions) and (New Albany’s) Cristina and Francesca Di Lorenzo (the 2012 Division I state champions) go through this as sisters,” Alle says.
Diebold: the controversial manufacturer of voting and ATM machines, whose name conjures up the demons of Ohio’s 2004 presidential election irregularities, is now finally under indictment for a “worldwide pattern of criminal conduct.” Federal prosecutors filed charges against Diebold, Inc. on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 alleging that the North Canton, Ohio-based security and manufacturing company bribed government officials and falsified documents to obtain business in China, Indonesia and Russia.
Diebold has agreed to pay $50 million to settle the two criminal counts against it.
Diebold has agreed to pay $50 million to settle the two criminal counts against it.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Turkey's first sex shop for devout Muslims has
opened for business online, prompting a debate among Turks, Islamists
and local media about the role their religion should play in the sale
of such items.
The website Bayan describes its aphrodisiacs, creams, condoms, alcohol-free lubricants and other intimate products as safe and "halal" -- which it spells "helal" -- meaning they conform to Islamic traditions.
"Scream Orgasm Cream" sells for 74 Turkish lire (about US $38.00).
"Bella Donna Spanish Fly" is available for 34 lire ($18.00).
"We don't sell vibrators for example, because they are not approved by Islam," said the website's owner, entrepreneur Haluk Murat Demirel, 38, according to Reuters.
"There are also other sections on the website that discuss sexual intercourse in terms of Islam," Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News reported.
Turkey's Muslim majority are Sunni and the government is constitutionally secular.
The website Bayan describes its aphrodisiacs, creams, condoms, alcohol-free lubricants and other intimate products as safe and "halal" -- which it spells "helal" -- meaning they conform to Islamic traditions.
"Scream Orgasm Cream" sells for 74 Turkish lire (about US $38.00).
"Bella Donna Spanish Fly" is available for 34 lire ($18.00).
"We don't sell vibrators for example, because they are not approved by Islam," said the website's owner, entrepreneur Haluk Murat Demirel, 38, according to Reuters.
"There are also other sections on the website that discuss sexual intercourse in terms of Islam," Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News reported.
Turkey's Muslim majority are Sunni and the government is constitutionally secular.
The U.N. and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International recently released a flurry of deeply flawed reports on drone murders. According to the U.N.'s special rapporteur, whose day job is as law partner of Tony Blair's wife, and according to two major human rights groups deeply embedded in U.S. exceptionalism, murdering people with drones is sometimes legal and sometimes not legal, but almost always it's too hard to tell which is which, unless the White House rewrites the law in enough detail and makes its new legal regime public.
When I read these reports I was ignorant of the existence of a human rights organization called Alkarama, and of the fact that it had just released a report titled License to Kill: Why the American Drone War on Yemen Violates International Law. While Human Rights Watch looked at six drone murders in Yemen and found two of them illegal and four of them indeterminate, Alkarama looked in more detail and with better context at the whole campaign of drone war on Yemen, detailing 10 cases. As you may have guessed from the report's title, this group finds the entire practice of murdering people with flying robots to be illegal.
When I read these reports I was ignorant of the existence of a human rights organization called Alkarama, and of the fact that it had just released a report titled License to Kill: Why the American Drone War on Yemen Violates International Law. While Human Rights Watch looked at six drone murders in Yemen and found two of them illegal and four of them indeterminate, Alkarama looked in more detail and with better context at the whole campaign of drone war on Yemen, detailing 10 cases. As you may have guessed from the report's title, this group finds the entire practice of murdering people with flying robots to be illegal.
When you run a well-oiled political machine like Michael Coleman, you don’t expect to hear any squeaks. The Mayor’s commitment to pass Issues 50 and 51, the Columbus School levy issue and the establishment of an independent School auditor, appeared to be a non-controversial landslide.
Imagine his dismay now, with less than two weeks to go before Elect
ion Day, knowing opposition is spreading spontaneously in unexpected places. First, “It’s OK To Vote No on the Columbus City Schools Levy 50 & 51” popped up with a strong internet presence. Then “No Cheaters, No Charters Columbus” began placing “Vote No on 50/51” yard signs around the city. But the Mayor knew he was in for a battle, looking genuinely stunned and agitated when the Columbus Council of PTAs unanimously rejected his levy proposals.
Imagine his dismay now, with less than two weeks to go before Elect
ion Day, knowing opposition is spreading spontaneously in unexpected places. First, “It’s OK To Vote No on the Columbus City Schools Levy 50 & 51” popped up with a strong internet presence. Then “No Cheaters, No Charters Columbus” began placing “Vote No on 50/51” yard signs around the city. But the Mayor knew he was in for a battle, looking genuinely stunned and agitated when the Columbus Council of PTAs unanimously rejected his levy proposals.
We are in desperate need of documentary filmmakers at Fukushima.
The Japanese government is about to pass a national censorship law clearly meant to make it impossible to know what’s going on there.
Massive quantities of radioactive water have been flowing through the site since the 3/11/11 earthquake/tsunami.
At thousand flimsy tanks hold still more thousands of tons of radioactive water which would pour into the Pacific should they collapse.
An earthquake and two typhoons have have just hit there, flushing still more radioactive water into the sea.
The Japanese government is about to pass a national censorship law clearly meant to make it impossible to know what’s going on there.
Massive quantities of radioactive water have been flowing through the site since the 3/11/11 earthquake/tsunami.
At thousand flimsy tanks hold still more thousands of tons of radioactive water which would pour into the Pacific should they collapse.
An earthquake and two typhoons have have just hit there, flushing still more radioactive water into the sea.