What's in the news?

Started by Beorning, September 21, 2014, 07:02:11 AM

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Beorning

And now for something completely different - gravitational waves detected!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/science/ligo-gravitational-waves-black-holes-einstein.html

Now we only need to harness them and FTL travel will become reality :)

Kythia

Story that's been brewing a while but I've just been talking about it and it reminded me.

Leicester, a solid mid table team, are currently 5 points clear (three for a win, one for a draw, so at least two games) at the top of the league. It's...weird. My friend was just saying that with any other team you'd be like "well, that's all wrapped up then, they're off to Europe (because the winner of the league plays in a European league next season. Though he didn't add this parenthetical comment, I already knew this bit and brackets are hard to pronounce)." But it's not any other team, it's Leicester and people are kind of frowning in confusion and saying "is it maybe...I mean...Should we be taking Leicester seriously. Surely not, but you know..."
242037

Derwaysh

Quote from: Beorning on February 11, 2016, 01:51:10 PM
And now for something completely different - gravitational waves detected!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/science/ligo-gravitational-waves-black-holes-einstein.html

Now we only need to harness them and FTL travel will become reality :)

I have been marveling at this all day at school. Granted not a lot of folks share me enthusiasm in the Poli Sci department but its an amazing piece of news.

Quote from: Kythia on February 11, 2016, 02:14:10 PM
Story that's been brewing a while but I've just been talking about it and it reminded me.

Leicester, a solid mid table team, are currently 5 points clear (three for a win, one for a draw, so at least two games) at the top of the league. It's...weird. My friend was just saying that with any other team you'd be like "well, that's all wrapped up then, they're off to Europe (because the winner of the league plays in a European league next season. Though he didn't add this parenthetical comment, I already knew this bit and brackets are hard to pronounce)." But it's not any other team, it's Leicester and people are kind of frowning in confusion and saying "is it maybe...I mean...Should we be taking Leicester seriously. Surely not, but you know..."

Even as one avid Man U fan I believe we should absolutely be taking Leicester seriously. Granted a lot can happen and they may not be able to continue with their form in UEFA next year and beyond, but I confess to enjoying their performances even at the expense of my Northwest allegiances.
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Kythia

Yeah, this is it. Been fun to watch, even though they gave us a three nil hammering. Difficult to hold a grudge though when they're on form like this and frankly we lurch from relegation panic to relegation panic and our lucks gonna run out soon.
242037

Lustful Bride

#2529
Didarul Sarder , a Concealed Carry owner steps in and saves woman who was being stabbed repeatedly by her own daughter. Was then fired by his employers at GM but the decision was later reversed. (You damn right it better be!)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/%e2%80%98i-would-do-it-all-over-again%e2%80%99-says-hero-fired-for-using-concealed-handgun-to-save-woman%e2%80%99s-life/ar-BBpp9l8?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp

Give this man a medal or something, seriously. And my god I can understand hating your mother and maybe being so blinded by hate you want them dead ...but..stabbing!? That takes some serious hate. That's like murdering someone with an axe! That takes multiple hits to fully kill someone that just...ugh makes me shiver thinking about it.

-Another report I found says she had a steak knife in her purse that she pulled out to stab her mother, so that says to me this was more premeditated and not a spur of the moment, murder in the heat of passion.

consortium11

Nigerian bread seller accidentally photobombs a pop stars shoot and ends up with a modelling contract.



More details here.

In brief Tinie Tempah, an English rapper who's had a fair amount of success with songs like Pass Out and Written in the Stars, went to his parent's home country of Nigerea to do a photoshoot and as he was doing it Olajumoke Orisaguna, a local bread seller, wandered into shot, leading to the picture above (for the record everyone involved admits a lot of photoshopping went in to making the above image look as good as it does). The photographer tracks down Olajumoke (who has a pretty interesting story; formerly a hair stylist but between her and her husband couldn't make enough money to support both their children where they were and so she moved to Lagos with her 14 month old daughter to sell bread for a distant relative), has a photoshoot with her and now she has a modelling contract.

Blythe


consortium11

Quote from: Blythe on February 13, 2016, 07:34:30 PM
US Supreme Court Justice Scalia has died.

People will obviously make this a fairly major part of the election (especially as Obama is likely to have whoever he nominates blocked by the Republicans... likely to set a record for the longest delay in appointing a new justice) but it's worth keeping in mind that a man just died here and it would be a shame to view that entirely in the context of an upcoming election.

I've always found Scalia an exceptional legal mind and his opinions were some of the most entertaining and accessible for anyone reading them. While people may well disagree with him politically it's generally always been extremely difficult to disagree with him legally and he's been remarkably consistent across cases. For me that's important as it promotes legal certainty and demonstrates that it's his view on legal matters taking prominence rather than political considerations. That's not to say that I agreed with all his opinions but I could always see why he held as he did and what his legal reasons were. It's worth noting that on issues that didn't have a political edge to them and were thus focused almost entirely on the legal matters themselves Scalia was often given pride of place by his fellows, a sign of how deeply they respected his legal mind.

Legally his legacy will largely be two things. The first is a dismissal of statutory intent; prior to Scalia joining the Supreme Court statutory interpretation often relied on looking what the intent of those behind a statute was when they made it. Scalia drew a truck through that; to him what mattered was the words of the statue and the words alone. To him if a statue was badly drafted and so didn't reflect the intentions of those who passed it then it was not the role of the Supreme Court to correct their mistake; they would have to draft and pass another law which more accurately reflected their views. These days statutory intent is raised much less before the Court and it is very rarely decisive.

The second part of his legacy will be his take on the constitution. Prior to his appearance it was basically taken as read that the constitution was a living document and had to be read in that context with the meaning of words and ideas changing over time. Scalia objected to that and while his position may not have won outright (as it largely has when it comes to statutory interpretation) it is now an established one. He viewed the constitution as a "dead" document; the words have the same meaning that they always have and, as such, if people wish to update it then they need to do so through the use of amendments. He's sometimes been accused of hypocrisy for this view; while when it comes to other statutes his dismisses intent and supporting documents/speeches almost entirely on the constitution he's always focused heavily on what the founders meant and what they said around it. For me that's a weak argument. He views the constitution and statutes the same way; as being nothing more than the words on the page and the words have a given meaning. His study of what was said around the constitution was to find what the given meaning of those words were.

somanycharacters

So, asking as a Canadian who has a vested interest in what the US government is doing by virtue of living next door, how long can that position, realistically, remain vacant?

Lustful Bride

#2534
In Mexico the Pope is leading people in song and prayer today.

I'm watching it live on tv right now, its very lovely seeing all these people holding hands and singing, especially after all the chaos, hardship, and pain they have been through lately. At the very least they can have this moment of peace and solace together.


QuoteSo, asking as a Canadian who has a vested interest in what the US government is doing by virtue of living next door, how long can that position, realistically, remain vacant?

Pfftt, with how incompetent all of the people on Capitol Hill have been, take your pick to be honest. They cant even handle the water problems in flint without having a committee made just to decide what kind of cheese to have for their meeting or where to park their limos.

Oniya

Quote from: somanycharacters on February 14, 2016, 11:16:14 AM
So, asking as a Canadian who has a vested interest in what the US government is doing by virtue of living next door, how long can that position, realistically, remain vacant?

The longest that the Supreme Court has been short-staffed was 391 days back in 1970 (and part of 1969).  The Senate has said that they will not confirm an appointee until the next administration, and Obama has 340 (or so) days left in office.
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Sara Nilsson

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/14/academics-defend-historian-over-polish-jew-killings-claims

Some more troubling news from Poland, to quote from the article:

"Academics have rallied to the defence of one of the world’s leading Holocaust historians after reports that Poland intends to strip him of a national honour because he claimed that Poles were complicit in Nazi war crimes."

Basically the government claims he is guilty of speaking badly of the country, and I personally find it troubling when a country does that kind of stuff. If you want what is best for your country you must admit when you are doing something wrong as well, you cant just sweep it under the rug


ererruz

#2537
Quote from: Sara Nilsson on February 14, 2016, 04:58:23 PM
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/14/academics-defend-historian-over-polish-jew-killings-claims

Some more troubling news from Poland, to quote from the article:

"Academics have rallied to the defence of one of the world’s leading Holocaust historians after reports that Poland intends to strip him of a national honour because he claimed that Poles were complicit in Nazi war crimes."

Basically the government claims he is guilty of speaking badly of the country, and I personally find it troubling when a country does that kind of stuff. If you want what is best for your country you must admit when you are doing something wrong as well, you cant just sweep it under the rug



Sadly that's exactly what this government has been doing ever since they came to power. Dictating what's right and what's wrong. Changing the law to suit them. And if anyone doesn't agree with them, they try to discredit those people, calling them traitors, "agents of foreign powers" etc. So this event sickens me, but does not surprise me in the slightest unfortunately.

Beorning

Personally, I don't think this will come to pass... PiS would be insane to do something like this. Although it's true that they aren't keen on discussing the dark side of Polish - Jewish relations. Every time the subject of antisemitism comes up, they react with "What antisemitism? We were saving Jews during WW2! Don't smear our good name!".  ::) Back when the Jedwabne massacre came to light, PiS politicians kept claiming that it was surely Germans who murdered these people...

Still, stripping Gross of his Order of Merit? Not even PiS would do it. I just don't see it...

Dice

I remember watching a doco on Poland and it's reaction to WW2. From what I remember the national government liked to tell the story that they where Germany's first victims and thus could do no wrong. It was not until some time in the last 20 years or so that they started to face the reality that not everyone in Poland was unhappy to help the Nazis.

Lustful Bride


Oniya

Quote from: Lustful Bride on February 15, 2016, 11:37:44 AM
Apparently several tests and groups have confirmed that IS has created and used Mustard Gas in Iraq.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/samples-confirm-islamic-state-used-mustard-gas-in-iraq-diplomat/ar-BBpwML8?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp

The fact that they're using it is horrifying (and against at least one international treaty, unless I'm mistaken), but both mustard gas and chlorine gas can be made almost by dumb luck.  Making it without killing yourself requires a bit more planning.
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Lustful Bride

Quote from: Oniya on February 15, 2016, 11:41:31 AM
The fact that they're using it is horrifying (and against at least one international treaty, unless I'm mistaken), but both mustard gas and chlorine gas can be made almost by dumb luck.  Making it without killing yourself requires a bit more planning.

*Actually looks up what it can do and is left feeling unclean*

Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: Oniya on February 15, 2016, 11:41:31 AM
The fact that they're using it is horrifying (and against at least one international treaty, unless I'm mistaken), but both mustard gas and chlorine gas can be made almost by dumb luck.  Making it without killing yourself requires a bit more planning.
The treaty you may be thinking of could be the Geneva Protocol, perhaps?
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Oniya

#2544
That would be the 'at least'. 

Heck, I've seen well-intentioned college kids make chlorine gas.  Pro-tip, never dump bleach into a porta-potty. 
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
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Tairis

Quote from: Oniya on February 15, 2016, 11:41:31 AM
The fact that they're using it is horrifying (and against at least one international treaty, unless I'm mistaken), but both mustard gas and chlorine gas can be made almost by dumb luck.  Making it without killing yourself requires a bit more planning.

Not sure why anyone is really surprised by this, though. They're neck deep in various atrocities. What is surprising about such a group using an easily made chemical weapon?
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Oniya

I don't know if it's so much 'surprise' as it is 'this is newsworthy because it's more crap that people in the combat area have to deal with'.  Much the same as it was when Aum/Aleph used ricin in the Tokyo subway.  (Ricin is another 'easily obtainable' toxin.)
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
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HannibalBarca

It is amazing to realize that Hitler did not use chemical weapons on the battlefield during World War 2 because he personally experienced them as a soldier.  This didn't stop him from using Zyklon-B on civilians, but it is sobering to think there were things a genocidal monster wouldn't do because he thought them too horrific.
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TheGlyphstone

The difference between 'genocidal' and 'omnicidal'. He didn't want to kill everyone, just specific groups of people. For the latter, nothing was too horrific, but the former were still humans in his eyes, if inferior ones. Not so much a point 'for' Hitler, or 'against' chemical weapons, as a nuance in his particular brand of murderous insanity.

For that matter, it's worth noting (and a bit scary) how similar chemical warfare agents like mustard gas are to modern-day riot control agents like CS gas. Shuffle around a few hydrocarbons, swap some sulfur molecules for nitrogen, and you turn a weapon banned by international law into a peacekeeping tool used around the globe today.

Oniya

Eh, I wouldn't put too much on that level of chemical similarity.  There's even less difference between CO and CO2.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
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