Global
David Bird, a reporter who covers energy markets for the Wall Street Journal, has been missing for nine days. Bird, who has worked for the parent of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, for more than 20 years, left his Long Hill, New Jersey home on the afternoon of Saturday, January 11, telling his wife he was going for a walk. Despite a continuous search by hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officials, Bird has not been located.
Bird is 55 years old, approximately 6’1, and was last seen wearing a red jacket with yellow zippers according to officials. He and his wife, Nancy, have two children, ages 12 and 15. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Long Hill Police at (908) 647-1800.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Bird is a liver-transplant recipient and is required to take medication twice a day. He did not take his medication with him when he left for the walk.
Pundits often speculate on the price of American foreign policy. They often wonder what the cost of maintaining the nation's good image abroad might be. Thanks to a recent AP report, there may now be the beginnings of a metric to measure that. On January 5, the AP ran a story about the fraudulent commercial underbelly of the social media industry. Among other things, it detailed information-age sweatshops in Bangladesh – where you can bulk purchase social media clout for half a penny per click. Buried in the article was a snippet about the US State Department discontinuing the practice of paying for Facebook “Likes” after an internal report revealed it had spent $630,000 buying non-existent “Likes” and “Friends.”
“(Chris) Christie is the caricature of a Third World despot,” writes Chris Hedges of the reeling New Jersey governor. “He has a vicious temper, a propensity to bully and belittle those weaker than himself, an insatiable thirst for revenge against real or perceived enemies, and little respect for the law and, as recent events have made clear, for the truth.”
And he still might wind up becoming our next president.
This is our kind of guy — media spectacle, bully, errand boy for the moneyed interests. His presidential aspirations may not survive “bridge-gate,” but in his national prominence he sure defines the abject state of American democracy. We give power to would-be despots, “caricatures” only in the sense that they lack life-and-death control over their subjects and are forced to express their wrath through lane closures and the infliction of mere inconvenience on their political foes.
And he still might wind up becoming our next president.
This is our kind of guy — media spectacle, bully, errand boy for the moneyed interests. His presidential aspirations may not survive “bridge-gate,” but in his national prominence he sure defines the abject state of American democracy. We give power to would-be despots, “caricatures” only in the sense that they lack life-and-death control over their subjects and are forced to express their wrath through lane closures and the infliction of mere inconvenience on their political foes.
The Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) have voted overwhelmingly to present the 2014 Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence to Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning.
A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, U.S. Army Pvt. Manning is the 25 year-old intelligence analyst who in 2010 provided to WikiLeaks the "Collateral Murder" video – gun barrel footage from a U.S. Apache helicopter, exposing the reckless murder of 12 unarmed civilians, including two Reuters journalists, during the “surge” in Iraq. The Pentagon had repeatedly denied the existence of the "Collateral Murder" video and declined to release it despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act by Reuters, which had sought clarity on the circumstances of its journalists' deaths.
Release of this video and other documents sparked a worldwide dialogue about the importance of government accountability for human rights abuses as well as the dangers of excessive secrecy and over-classification of documents.
A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, U.S. Army Pvt. Manning is the 25 year-old intelligence analyst who in 2010 provided to WikiLeaks the "Collateral Murder" video – gun barrel footage from a U.S. Apache helicopter, exposing the reckless murder of 12 unarmed civilians, including two Reuters journalists, during the “surge” in Iraq. The Pentagon had repeatedly denied the existence of the "Collateral Murder" video and declined to release it despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act by Reuters, which had sought clarity on the circumstances of its journalists' deaths.
Release of this video and other documents sparked a worldwide dialogue about the importance of government accountability for human rights abuses as well as the dangers of excessive secrecy and over-classification of documents.
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This week I want to talk about something that’s near and dear to the heart of every geek, something we’ve all been involved with on one or both sides. It’s also something that’s suffering from the mentality of profit-at-the-expense-of-everything that’s plaguing our late-capitalism economy.
I want to talk about tech support.
It’s easy comedy to complain about tech support, and I’m not going to tell those jokes. They’re old and I know too well where they come from. I worked for six years at the IT desk of one of Columbus’s many massive companies, and I know that when a tech support person asks you if your monitor is on it’s because the last couple people she talked to with a similar problem had actually forgotten that step. I also know that when I started at the company the IT service desk was valued, a place that management acknowledged was “where the rubber meets the road.” By the time I left that had been changed to assurances that our jobs would not be outsourced “so long as we remain competitive.” “Competitive” doesn’t exist in a vacuum, folks.
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After being part of the Otterbein University’s athletic department for over 40 years, women’s track & field coach Dave Lehman announced in December that he’s stepping down at the end of the track & field season this year.
But don’t expect the veteran coach to go very far away from the Cardinals.
“When people ask me ‘What are you going to do now that you’ve retired?’ my wife (Claudia) likes to say ‘Probably the same thing he does now but he won’t have the responsibility,’” says Lehman who coached the men’s and women’s cross country team from 1970-2000 and the women’s team for the 2011-12 season and was the head coach of track program from 2009-14. “I’d love to continue to be involved in some way and help out with events here. If they want some volunteer help, I’ll be around.”
“Dave has coached decades of athletes at Otterbein,” Otterbein athletic director Dawn Stewart adds. “In a lot of ways his retirement is an end of an era.”
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Whoever the university hires as the new track & field coach won’t have to look very far to find Lehman for advice.
American journalism has entered highly dangerous terrain.
A tip-off is that the Washington Post refuses to face up to a conflict of interest involving Jeff Bezos -- who’s now the sole owner of the powerful newspaper at the same time he remains Amazon’s CEO and main stakeholder.
The Post is supposed to expose CIA secrets. But Amazon is under contract to keep them. Amazon has a new $600 million “cloud” computing deal with the CIA.
The situation is unprecedented. But in an email exchange early this month, Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron told me that the newspaper doesn’t need to routinely inform readers of the CIA-Amazon-Bezos ties when reporting on the CIA. He wrote that such in-story acknowledgment would be “far outside the norm of disclosures about potential conflicts of interest at media organizations.”
But there isn’t anything normal about the new situation. As I wrote to Baron, “few journalists could have anticipated ownership of the paper by a multibillionaire whose outside company would be so closely tied to the CIA.”
A tip-off is that the Washington Post refuses to face up to a conflict of interest involving Jeff Bezos -- who’s now the sole owner of the powerful newspaper at the same time he remains Amazon’s CEO and main stakeholder.
The Post is supposed to expose CIA secrets. But Amazon is under contract to keep them. Amazon has a new $600 million “cloud” computing deal with the CIA.
The situation is unprecedented. But in an email exchange early this month, Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron told me that the newspaper doesn’t need to routinely inform readers of the CIA-Amazon-Bezos ties when reporting on the CIA. He wrote that such in-story acknowledgment would be “far outside the norm of disclosures about potential conflicts of interest at media organizations.”
But there isn’t anything normal about the new situation. As I wrote to Baron, “few journalists could have anticipated ownership of the paper by a multibillionaire whose outside company would be so closely tied to the CIA.”
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Security forces and six million residents are
worriedly preparing to survive a 19-day "shutdown Bangkok" protest
beginning on Monday (Jan. 13), designed to topple the elected
government amid fears that the military may help the urban
insurrection by staging a coup.
Street clashes have killed at least eight people during the past two months of protests leading to the shutdown which plans to cripple Thailand's government and economy until the end of January.
Tens of thousands of anti-election protesters plan to erect huge stages and makeshift defensive structures at several key intersections, congesting the heart of Bangkok.
"Even demonstrations that are meant to be peaceful can turn confrontational, and can escalate into violence without warning," the American Embassy said on Tuesday (Jan. 7) in an e-mailed "security message for U.S. citizens" describing the upcoming shutdown.
Thousands of people staged a "practice" march in Bangkok on Tuesday (Jan. 7), cheering the stocky protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, thrusting cash into his hands, and begging for his autograph.
Street clashes have killed at least eight people during the past two months of protests leading to the shutdown which plans to cripple Thailand's government and economy until the end of January.
Tens of thousands of anti-election protesters plan to erect huge stages and makeshift defensive structures at several key intersections, congesting the heart of Bangkok.
"Even demonstrations that are meant to be peaceful can turn confrontational, and can escalate into violence without warning," the American Embassy said on Tuesday (Jan. 7) in an e-mailed "security message for U.S. citizens" describing the upcoming shutdown.
Thousands of people staged a "practice" march in Bangkok on Tuesday (Jan. 7), cheering the stocky protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, thrusting cash into his hands, and begging for his autograph.