What's in the news?

[Beguile's Mistress]

Actually this applies to the juries empaneled to try cases presented to them.  Once closing arguments are made and the judge instructs the jurors as to the rules of law regarding the case they are hearing their deliberations are held in secret.  However, if a juror or a bailiff reports anything to the judge regarding inappropriate remarks this opens things up and does away with the issue of confidentiality.

[Vekseid]

Teens in Sweden report that Russian camera crews tried to bribe them to riot on camera.

[Anteros]

Jury Secrecy Doesn’t Apply if Bias Taints Deliberations, Justices Rule: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/supreme-court-jury-bias-secrecy.html?emc=edit_na_20170306&nl=breaking-news&nlid=72754896&ref=cta&_r=1

[gaggedLouise]

Teens in Sweden report that Russian camera crews tried to bribe them to riot on camera.

Wow, I missed that one.  Maybe they were paid by Trump? 


(In all fairness, there have been some substantial riots in the suburbs of Stockholm, but they're not particularly "islamist riots")

[Vekseid]

30 people, with some up-close shots of trash cans an cars on fire, is difficult to classify as 'substantial'.

[gaggedLouise]

30 people, with some up-close shots of trash cans an cars on fire, is difficult to classify as 'substantial'.

I was thinking: over the last few years. This breakout in 2013 was fairly serious (thirty cars set on fire, a school set on fire, stone-throwing at firefighters and cops etc), it reached across several suburbs, and there have been occasional flare-ups since: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Stockholm_riots

Cars getting tiorched may be everyday stuff and as much news as "dog bites man" in some places in the US, but it's not a random everyday thing around here.

[Trigon]

Wikileaks strikes again; a gigantic cache of CIA hacking documents have been released, and tensions between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies flare once again: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/technology/wikileaks-silicon-valley-spy-agencies.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FWikiLeaks&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection&referer=https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/wikileaks?inline=nyt-org

[Beorning]

One of the biggest idiots in Polish politics makes some waves again:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/08/piers-morgan-argues-polish-mep-thinks-women-should-paid-less/

The sad thing is that there's not insignificant amount of people here who agree with this guy's views...

Speaking of political idiots: it was revealed today that our Minister of Enviroment (a guy who is in favour of coal power and forests being cut down) took part in a big-scale pheasant hunt. The hunt involved *hudreds* of specially bred pheasants being released into the air - so that the hunters could shoot them down.

And this guy is a person who's supposed to be taking care of enviromental protection here. I feel ill.

[Kythia]

Michael Heseltine has been fined.  Heseltine is an elder statesman of the Conservative party and was serving as a government advisor (unelected).  May fired him over Brexit - specifically his support for remaining in the EU and a recent House of Lords bill that made that - without going in to massive detail - marginally more likely.

The sacking was probably a mistake.  Heseltine is a respected figure and this is just going to exacerbate problems within the party. It was likely done to scare other MPs who were thinking about rebelling by showing them there were no sacred cows, but still.

[Trigon]

A summary of the women's strikes and protests around the world during International Women's Day: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-39208516

On a related note, Trump has been called out for his hypocrisy regarding his "respect" for women in a recent tweet of his:
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/08/psy-grabber-tweets-respect-for-women/

[AmberStarfire]

No offense to any Americans here, but is it true you don't own electric kettles?

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/wtf/common-kitchen-item-americans-dont-have/news-story/5dc53815b30d210b122f614f92011be6

[Trigon]

No offense to any Americans here, but is it true you don't own electric kettles?

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/wtf/common-kitchen-item-americans-dont-have/news-story/5dc53815b30d210b122f614f92011be6

Some of us do, but many of us don't. Most Americans do prefer coffee, and so will often have a coffee maker in place of a kettle...

[AmberStarfire]

Okay. :) I'm used to kettles being used for adding water to lots of things. Coffee, tea, some hot chocolate mixes, those quick soups and noodles, gravy mix, and anything else that needs boiling water tipped into it (or even cold water). I use mine like a jug sometimes. I make all sorts of hot drinks, and kind of alternate the amount of coffee, and cappuccino mix, and stuff like that sometimes. I guess it's a different approach to coffee.

[Oniya]

We have a standard stove-top whistler.  Had an electric at one point, but someone burnt it out at a LARP.

[Missy]

well that's a funny story to tell my therapist next time around. She's the only person I know who owns one.

[Vekseid]

...what gets me is the "How do Americans heat water normally?"

As if, irrespective of using the microwave or some stovetop item, we can't just make a pot of coffee sans grounds, for some reason.

[Tamhansen]

...what gets me is the "How do Americans heat water normally?"

As if, irrespective of using the microwave or some stovetop item, we can't just make a pot of coffee sans grounds, for some reason.

Americans make coffee? I thought you all just got filled up at starbucks & co.


Seriously though, it's kind of funny to see the americans being the subject of these kind of idiotic questions instead of the originators.

[Aiden]

We use a standard pot and stove, at least in this house.

[TheGlyphstone]

Teakettle and gas stove here.

[Oniya]

Coffee maker for coffee, usually the microwave for tea (faster), but if you want it really hot - or to annoy the cat - it's the whistler.

[Beorning]

Polish ex-Prime Minister Donald Tusk re-elected as the head of the European Council:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/09/donald-tusk-re-elected-as-european-council-president-despite-polish-opposition

That wouldn't be that big news, as there was no opposition for Tusk among the EU governments... aside from Poland. In these last few months, the PiS-controlled government launched a massive dyplomatic campaign against Tusk. The campaign included everything from presenting a counter-candidate (a MEP named Saryusz-Wolski), to blaiming Tusk for Brexit, the refugee crisis and the terrorist attacks, to making suggestions to European leaders that Tusk might get arrested soon (even though there are no investigations against him going on). Here in Poland, PiS politicians actually claimed that Tusk is a "German" candidate - because, you know, WW2 ended over 70 years ago, but the Germans are still shady and hostile according to PiS and no true Pole would ever be working with them...   

Some people in Poland are saying that the last time the Polish state campaigned so hardly against a Polish citizen was in the Communist times, when the Communist tried everything they could to stop Lech Wałęsa from being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize... And why was all of this happening? Because Tusk is a longtime rival of the PiS leader, Jarosław Kaczyński... It's all about revenge, people.

Alas, Tusk *got* elected. And Poland once again ended up looking like idiots showing the middle finger to the rest of the EU. Some commentators say it's another sign that the PiS government is trying to execute a covert Polexit... 

[Lustful Bride]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/wikileaks-will-give-tech-firms-access-to-cia-hacking-tools-assange/ar-AAo4msg?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

This seems like a recipe for a lot more advanced Industrial Espionage. And for Cyberterrorism and attacks to become more of a thing now.

[Lilias]

Richard Herring replies to every single person asking 'So when's it International Men's Day?'

Check the actual Twitter feed as well (link in article) - it's hilarious.

[Trigon]

Congress has now taken to warning Trump to not delete his tweets: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58c1a8d3e4b0d1078ca51126?


That means even the ones with lots of spelling errors...

[Lustful Bride]

Another Axe Attack in Germany. 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/axe-attack-at-duesseldorf-station-at-least-five-injured-police/ar-AAo4QMA?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15