Yostivanich.com

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"The US space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has returned its first images since reaching the Moon on 23 June." Awesome.

"Current and former top Central Intelligence Agency officers have appeared before a federal grand jury in Virginia as part of an 18-month investigation into the agency’s destruction of 92 videotapes depicting the brutal interrogations of two Qaeda detainees."

"It was a giant middle finger to iPhone developers. And that’s the closing impression that Apple gave us for WWDC. Clearly, they had absolutely no interest in fielding even a single question from the topic that we have the most questions about." That's sums it up.

"Once emboldened by their ability to dodge the government and spread news about their protests to the world, many in the youth-driven protest movement, they say, are now scared of the consequences of getting caught." Iran's crackdown is having an effect.

"
It's true that Borden's father, David Borden Sr., initially wrote a personal e-mail about the visit, according to Master Sgt. Joseph Liptok, the deputy director of the Marine Corps liaison office at the medical center. But, Liptok told us, the chain e-mail now being forwarded and posted on Web sites is an altered version of the original. He also emphasized that the views in the chain e-mail are not those of 1st Lt. Borden. We made several attempts to speak with Borden and his father, but they declined to comment."

"And Bachmann is flat wrong about ACORN going door-to-door and gathering data. Being "partners" with the Census Bureau doesn't entail as close a relationship as one might think. For the most part it involves getting the word out that it's important for everyone to participate in the decennial event that helps determine where federal money goes and how House of Representatives district boundaries are redrawn." So basically ACORN is doing nothing.

"We’re not indexing all of Twitter at this time… just a small set of prominent and prolific Twitterers to start. We picked a few thousand people to start, based primarily on their follower count and volume of tweets. We think this is an interesting first step toward using Twitter’s public API to surface Tweets in people search." Bing now including tweets, I'm interested.

"A press release from NASA: Ulysses, a joint NASA and European Space Agency mission, officially ceased operations today, after receiving commands from ground controllers to do so. The spacecraft, which operated for more than 18 years, charted the unexplored regions of space above the poles of the sun." Sad to see this amazing mission ending.

"This is a classic example of the Gay Panic Defense. In the very recent past all a straight man who brutally murdered a gay man had to say was, "He made a pass at me!", and the jury would ignore the evidence and let the murderer off. The Gay Panic Defense doesn't fly in many courts of law these days but it still has currency in the court of public opinion. And the chief of police in Forth Worth, a major U.S. city, is attempting to use the Gay Panic Defense to convince the citizens of Fort Worth to ignore the evidence—to ignore photographic evidence and credible eyewitness accounts—and let his officers off." Dan Savage on the raid of the Rainbow Lounge.

"A photo ostensibly showing a 15-year-old nude girl has appeared in an iPhone app, highlighting Apple’s inability to safeguard its application store from prohibited content." Oh great, though we all knew it was going to happen.

"Some 20 net users have come forward claiming they have been wrongly accused of illegally sharing video games." This is news?

"The newly installed government in Honduras has rejected international calls to reinstate deposed President Manuel Zelaya. The Organization of American States has given Honduras a 72-hour deadline for reinstatement or warned it could face suspension from the regional group." I'm shocked they didn't undo the coup.

A new site designed essentially as a social networking site for gadget lovers.

"It was in medical school that he conceived the idea of becoming a great sex researcher. Doctors knew nothing of human sexuality except what Alfred Kinsey was recording in the 1940s and early ’50s, about a decade before Masters and Johnson got started. But the Kinsey Report was mainly hearsay — interviews with patients. William Masters didn’t want to talk; he wanted to watch, measure, film, touch. … But I would wager that for every myth they debunked, they introduced another, equally damaging." Interesting.

"Whenever I hear about a “new” novelist, they turn out to be in their 30s. Why is that? It seems like you hear about new musicians and actors and other creative people in when they are in their 20s."

"This rocket is headed for the Moon. Pictured above, a huge Altas V rocket roared off the launch pad last week to start NASA's first missions to Earth's Moon in 10 years. The rocket is carrying two robotic spacecraft. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is scheduled to orbit and better map the Moon, search for buried and hidden ice, and return many high resolution images. Some images will be below one-meter in resolution and include images of historic Apollo landing sites. Exploratory data and images should allow a more informed choice of possible future astronaut landing sites. The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is scheduled to monitor the controlled impact of the rocket's upper stage into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon's south pole. This impact, which should occur in about three months, might be visible on Earth through small telescopes."

"Fifty-three percent of women and nearly half of all men report having used a vibrator, according to two new national surveys from Indiana University recently published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine."

Basically real time search is a hard problem because it's hard to verify and create authority.

"Israeli drones unlawfully killed at least 29 Palestinian civilians during the Gaza conflict six months ago, the rights group Human Rights Watch says."

"The US has imposed sanctions on an Iranian firm accused of helping North Korea with its nuclear programme. The US Treasury says Hong Kong Electronics moved millions of dollars to two North Korean companies linked to Pyongyang's nuclear programme."

"The US Justice Department is seeking the names of more than 50,000 US customers with Swiss accounts as part of a lawsuit against UBS." No longer will the Swiss bank account be known as the refugee of those cheating on their taxes.

"Does Twitter dumb us down or simply reveal our innate goofiness?" I say the latter.

"Used in yards, farms and parks throughout the world, Roundup has long been a top-selling weed killer. But now researchers have found that one of Roundup’s inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells." Oops?

"A remarkably well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur has been analysed by scientists writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. They describe how the fossil's soft tissues were spared from decay by fine sediments that formed a mineral cast. Tests have shown that the fossil still holds cell-like structures – but their constituent proteins have decayed. The team says the cellular structure of the dinosaur's skin was similar to that of dinosaurs' modern-day descendants. "

"That would challenge the most efficient facilities built by Google (GOOG), which has an average PUE of 1.16 for its six company-built data centers, with one facility currently running at a PUE of 1.12." Yahoo's new center will run at PUE 1.1, pretty impressive.

"A federal advisory panel voted narrowly on Tuesday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world, because of their effects on the liver. The two drugs combine a narcotic with acetaminophen, the ingredient found in popular over-the-counter products like Tylenol and Excedrin. High doses of acetaminophen are a leading cause of liver damage, and the panel noted that patients who take Percocet and Vicodin for long periods often need higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect." But what will House pop?

"Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured. And so, even as Washington tries to cover the tens of millions of Americans without medical insurance, many health policy experts say simply giving everyone an insurance card will not be enough to fix what is wrong with the system. Too many other people already have coverage so meager that a medical crisis means financial calamity.

One of them is Lawrence Yurdin, a 64-year-old computer security specialist. Although the brochure on his Aetna policy seemed to indicate it covered up to $150,000 a year in hospital care, the fine print excluded nearly all of the treatment he received at an Austin, Tex., hospital."

"The move reverses a 2008 ruling by the Bush administration and effectively ends a seesaw political battle between automakers and environmental regulators that began in Sacramento eight years ago when the California Legislature first took up the issue." California can set it's own standards for cars and light trucks.

"A United Nations inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is to begin. It is headed by Chile's ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, and includes a former Indonesian attorney general and a former senior Irish police officer. " Hopefully something good will come from this.

"Same-sex behavior is a nearly universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, common across species, from worms to frogs to birds, concludes a new review of existing research." Just saying.

"The official, Paul Gammill, said the Department of Education was taking a closer look at how universities carried out the privacy law, known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (Ferpa), in the wake of a series of articles published recently in The Columbus Dispatch that found the law was often misused by college athletic departments seeking to withhold documents from public scrutiny that could be damaging or embarrassing. The reports also found wide disparities in the types of information that universities released."

Texas public sex offender search.

"German unemployment rose in June, official figures have shown, but the increase was smaller than expected. The number of people out of work reached 3.495 million on a seasonally adjusted basis, a rise of 31,000 on May's number, official figures showed."

"The most complete terrain map of the Earth's surface has been published. The data, comprising 1.3 million images, come from a collaboration between the US space agency Nasa and the Japanese trade ministry." So cool.

"A plague of tree-killing beetles which swept across British Columbia is threatening to spread east, to the US. The mountain pine beetle has killed more than half of all lodge pole pine in the province and is now active in neighbouring Alberta." It could next kill jack pines in the US.

"He applied for a personalized license plate reading NO GODS. Take a wild guess what happened… Rejected. Why? It was deemed inappropriate." I totally want one.

I love where he goes against what he said within a sentence of himself.

I totally agree it doesn't make any sense.

"In an interview with Alan Carlin, co-author of an internal EPA document that the agency allegedly — in Steve Doocy's words — "hushed up," Fox & Friends advanced the document's false claim that, as Doocy put it, "for the last 11 years, temperatures had been dropping."" Oh Fox and Friends logic is so hard.

I know business that are using Win98 and 95.

"You're still not satisfied with this arrangement? I thought you were the one who wanted school prayer in the first place! Oh, I see… you only want school prayer in the manner of your religion. Well, I'm sorry to say that not everyone believes in your religion, and we can't have school prayers for every possible religion! That would be ridiculous! Why don't you just pray silently to your own god while everyone else is reciting the school prayer?"

"On Tuesday, Mr. Zelaya’s newfound relevance took him to one of the world’s biggest stages, at the lectern of the United Nations General Assembly, where he portrayed himself as the victim of a vicious, power-hungry elite that refused to share power with his country’s many poor. A one-page resolution — sponsored by countries often at loggerheads, including the United States and Venezuela — passed by acclamation after sustained applause in the 192-member body."

"It had planned — and put money aside — for a steady march of retirees over time. But instead, tens of thousands of blue-collar workers, most in their 40s and 50s, are all becoming eligible for retirement benefits now, as the company rapidly downsizes." GM's pension fund is being used to pay early retired workers, and they aren't able to put money back.

"So while Washington's reaction has been strong and swift, when it comes to statements, its actions have so far been measured. This is a signal that Washington is not keen to use its clout to help Mr Zelaya return to power, shying away from any action that could be seen as interventionism in a region where the US has a long, complex history. The reaction is also in line with the promise President Obama made to Latin America at the Organization of American States summit in April, not to dictate US policy on the continent anymore but to be an equal partner. "

"The Obama administration introduced online tools on Tuesday that will track and analyze the more than $70 billion a year that the federal government spends on information technology." Cool, now roll this out to all other money spent by the government.

"The eurozone's annual rate of inflation turned negative in June for the first time since the single currency was introduced in 1999."

"China has agreed to give Zimbabwe a loan of $950m (£573m) to help it revive its battered economy, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said."

"In which countries – apart from the United States – do terrestrial radio stations NOT pay performers for their songs? Iran, China, North Korea and Rwanda. Artists and their record labels are calling on members of Congress to bring the US into line with the rest of the world – and with satellite, internet and cable radio stations – by passing the Performance Rights Act."

"Do you have eyes behind your back? If not get some."

"Twitter is a top 30 site overall in the US for the first time per data for last week. The site was #31 in the UK last week & #43 in Canada." Super impressive Twitter.

"A former C.I.A. station chief has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman in Algeria and could face up to life in prison if convicted, the Justice Department said on Tuesday."

"IE users can suck it." I must agree.

"The PHP development team is proud to announce the immediate release of PHP 5.3.0. This release is a major improvement in the 5.X series, which includes a large number of new features and bug fixes."

What Gruber said.

"Conservatives in the media have criticized President Obama's condemnation of the Honduran president's ouster, asserting that Obama is taking the same side as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the leadership in Cuba. However, the European Union has also condemned the ouster." And the UN and well every other country on the face of the earth.

"President Barack Obama's party secured a critical 60-member majority in the US Senate, after the last undecided seat was awarded to a Democrat. The Minnesota Supreme Court confirmed that Al Franken had narrowly won November's poll in the state. "

Email directly to flickr and twitter or send from a photo to twitter.

"A truly limited government—a government strictly limited to the protection of the individual rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church." My issue is that there has not ever been such a true capitalistic state as it's a scary prospect with good reasons. Also the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" can mean whatever the government want them to mean. Last point "pursuit of happiness" originally meant economic well being not whatever you may think.

UA Profiler is a community-driven project for gathering browser performance characteristics (parallel connections, caching, etc.).

"Minnesota's Supreme Court unanimously denied Republican Senator Norm Coleman's appeal today, ruling that Democrat Al Franken is the winner of November's Senate race. This ruling (see PDF) upholds the decision of lower courts in Minnesota, and states that Franken officially won the race by 312 votes – 0.011%."

"In other words, you could say that Bit.ly knows what will be on the Digg home page tomorrow." Bit.ly Now is interesting but as of right now I haven't seen it produce super impressive results.

"Since 2004, 18 states and New York City have approved laws that make manufacturers responsible for recycling electronics, and similar statutes were introduced in 13 other states this year. The laws are intended to prevent a torrent of toxic and outdated electronic equipment — television sets, computers, monitors, printers, fax machines — from ending up in landfills where they can leach chemicals into groundwater and potentially pose a danger to public health." Texas of course does not.

"The 5-to-4 ruling applies largely to public-sector hiring and to civil service exams, but could also affect private employers that use tests or other screening methods. The court said that if an employer used a hiring or promotion test, it generally had to accept the test’s results — unless the employer had strong evidence the test was flawed and improperly favored a particular group. With the court’s ruling making it harder for cities and other employers to throw out tests they conclude are unfair, employers are expected to work harder to make sure their written tests — indeed their entire selection process — are fair."

Ahh xkcd taking on society.

Bad news for Pandora.

"Burma's highest court has rejected an appeal by lawyers for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to allow two prominent dissidents to testify in her defence. Ms Suu Kyi is on trial for allowing a US man to stay in her home last month, after he swam there across a lake. Her lawyers wanted four witnesses but have been allowed only two. The trial has been widely condemned as a ploy to keep Ms Suu Kyi locked up until after next year's elections, the first in 20 years."

"The Stonewall uprisings 40 years ago brought the gay rights movement to the forefront of American culture. Writer and historian David Carter assesses what progress has been made since that pivotal moment and how far the quest for equal rights has to go."

"Vice President Biden announced the appointment of Lynn Rosenthal as the first-ever White House Advisor on Violence Against Women on Friday."

"Fort Worth police officers and Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission agents arrested seven patrons at the Rainbow Lounge early Sunday while conducting an alcoholic beverage code inspection of the bar. Witnesses to the event say the officers used excessive force – in some cases slamming patrons to the ground." Fort Worth police raided another gay friendly bar on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall.

"Iran's top electoral body, the Guardian Council, has confirmed the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the presidential election after a partial recount." That's was a fast decision.

"US President Barack Obama has described the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as illegal. His remarks came after left-wing Latin American leaders declared their support for the deposed leader, who was expelled by the military on Sunday."

"Today we're releasing the Sputnik JavaScript test suite. Sputnik is a comprehensive set of more than 5000 tests that touch all aspects of the JavaScript language as defined in the ECMA-262 standard." Once again Google pushes the Internet forward.

"As turmoil over the disputed election in Iran continues, many techs are trying to find ways to help Iranian citizens safely communicate and receive information despite the barriers being established by Iranian authorities. One tactic that even moderately tech-savvy Internet users can employ is to set up a Tor relay or a Tor bridge." EFF is asking for your help.

"In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services. The Chinese government estimates that trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is currently equal to about $146 million. The government justifies its ban on virtual currency trading as a way to curtail gambling and other illegal online activities." China every once in awhile winds up sounding more moral that most Christian Conservative politicians.

"The new rule , scheduled to take effect in 2012, will cut the amount of electricity used by affected lamps by 15 to 25 percent and save $1 billion to $4 billion a year for consumers, the White House said. The Energy Department has not updated the efficiency requirements for these lighting types since they were established by Congress in 1992. The department was supposed to update the requirement in 1997, according to Mr. Nadel, but it fell well behind on this and other appliance standards. In 2006 a federal court settlement required the department to move expeditiously to clear its backlog." I'm sure this will be cast as causing the downfall of the light bulb industry.

"Five out of nine local staff from the UK embassy detained in Tehran have been released, Iranian officials say. Iran's media earlier said local employees at the UK mission were held over their role in protests against June's disputed presidential election." And the other four?

This would not be the right way to handle negative comments.

"The world's most high-profile file-sharing website, The Pirate Bay (TPB), has lifted the lid on its new video sharing website, The Video Bay." Cool.

" I think this illusion element of design is something to think about when designing our products. Is there a way we can shape the design so that it emphasizes the key features we’re trying to promote — whether that be thinness of the case or the size of the screen, or whatever else."

"Now, research involving invasive and native salamanders in the Salinas Valley of California shows how devastating this can be: the hybrids have voracious appetites and can practically wipe out other species."

"US troops are withdrawing from towns and cities in Iraq, six years after the invasion, having formally handed over security duties to new Iraqi forces. A public holiday – National Sovereignty Day – has been declared, and the capital, Baghdad, threw a giant party to mark the eve of the changeover. US-led combat operations are due to end by September 2010, with all troops gone from Iraq by the end of 2011."

"Writing in The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, researchers said that binge drinking among 18- to 20-year-old men who did not attend college had declined more than 30 percent. But the rate remained steady — and significant — among male college students. And it went up among female students. In 1984, the federal government decided to withhold highway money from any state that did not have a minimum drinking age of 21, and over time all the states fell into line. As a result, public health experts say, highway fatalities have gone down, among other health benefits. Over all, the researchers, led by Richard A. Grucza of the Washington University medical school, found that binge drinking had gone down — a change they attributed at least in part to the increased drinking age"

"As Pakistan escalates military operations against a top Taliban leader, the United States has resumed secret military surveillance drone flights over the country’s tribal areas to provide Pakistani commanders with a wide array of videos and other information on militants, according to American and Pakistani officials."

"Graphics and multiple patterns can be meshed together by the browser creating new life in a design." Very cool demo.

Easily one of the funnier videos I've seen in awhile.

"An Indian soldier has been killed in cross-border firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed territory of Kashmir, officials say. Indian army officials said the firing occurred as they foiled an attempt by a group of militants to infiltrate Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday."

"Thousands of textile workers in Bangladesh have clashed with police for a third consecutive day in a protest over pay and conditions. Police fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who have set fire to at least one factory and forced the closure of many more. Two people were killed during fierce confrontations with police over the weekend around the capital, Dhaka"

"Bernard Madoff has been given the maximum prison sentence of 150 years for masterminding a massive fraud that robbed investors of $65bn (£40bn)."

"Information is spreading with less friction than ever. Have you ever wondered how much faster can it get? … hold on, I just got a text message– maybe it’s someone else telling me yesterday’s news. " Awesome point.

"Apple boss Steve Jobs is back at work following six months of medical leave, although he will work from home for part of the week, the company says." As the share price of Apple goes up.

"Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment." That will be nice.

Cheaper gas than walmart by 2 cents …

"It appears that the doubt surrounding Google’s new guide is not unfounded. Several errors and half-truths were found. Google’s use of optional HTML tags could save some bandwidth, but for pages like google.com it doesn’t save that much compared to what could have been saved with the headers." Google wrong, what??

"Sounds to me like I got duped, and I apologize to everyone for forwarding this story. Hopefully more info will come out soon, and I’ll update as I hear it." Man so close.

"While Microsoft is struggling to separately hone performance for each and every application, Google can uniformly juice speed across its entire portfolio. The secret to Google's success, Gill said, is not in the company's mystery data centers, but in its software infrastructure, including GFS, its distributed file system; BigTable, its distributed database; and MapReduce, its distributed number-crunching platform." Google can always one up Microsoft and I agree.

"Many mainstream media sources, which have in the past been critical of the undifferentiated sources of information on the Web, had little choice but to throw open their doors in this case. As the protests against Mr. Ahmadinejad grew, the government sharply curtailed the foreign press. As visas expired, many journalists packed up, and the ones who stayed were barred from reporting on the streets." Every rule has an exception.

"The sanitizing was a team effort, led by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, along with Wikipedia administrators and people at The Times. In an interview, Mr. Wales said that Wikipedia’s cooperation was not a given." I'm of the opinion that the information should have been allowed to be publicized.

Recreate CoverFlow with MooTools.

"But many violence and public-health experts agree that at least one major issue was, and has for too long remained, missing from that conversation. For girls like Janey, as you can see, partner violence doesn't show up in police photos as swollen bruises. Instead, the evidence might be their swollen, pregnant bellies." Another reason to provide cheap controncitive and safe and legal abortion, and to push for more resources eliminitating domestic violence.

"The Internet has proven to be a frighteningly efficient tool to create virtual mobs. But we note two trends that suggest a bleak future: the increase in non-anonymous mob participation and the evolution of online services towards ever more efficient and real time communication platforms that facilitate mob creation and growth like never before. Things are changing online way too fast for society and culture to adapt. Something will eventually break." Are we having problems online?

"As these apps grow in sophistication and sync with the web they better tell us just what they are collecting and how. Now I imagine all three of these apps mean well. But the lack of a privacy policy on their web sites seems like a mistake – one they can easily correct."

"A practical hydrogen car has been elusive for decades. Before the announcement this week by University of Delaware engineers, a nonstop trip from Portland to Eugene in a hydrogen car would need a tank bigger than 100 gallons to store liquid or gaseous fuel, even under high pressure. Treated chicken feathers work like a sponge. They soak up large amounts of hydrogen and hold it in a small space so the tank can be a conventional size and the fuel won't need to held under dangerously high pressures." Science works.

"The first scientific tests on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul, the Roman Catholic saint, “seem to conclude” that they belong to him, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday. Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century." So is carbon dating valid today and not valid when seeing how old the earth is?

Tons of really good wallpapers.

"DARPA has hired a company to develop a reading machine to reduce the gap between the ever increasing mountain of digitized text and the intelligence community's insatiable appetite for data input. However, BBN also expects the program to enable a plethora of new civilian applications, everything from intelligent bots to personal tutors. The system could provide unprecedented access and automated analysis of the world's libraries, allowing for vastly expanded cultural awareness and historical research, according to the Cambridge, Mass.-based company." Interesting.

"A new method of attacking cancer cells, developed by researchers in Australia, has proved surprisingly effective in animal tests. The method is intended to sidestep two major drawbacks of standard chemotherapy: the treatment’s lack of specificity and the fact that cancer cells often develop resistance. In one striking use of the method, reported online Sunday in Nature Biotechnology, mice were implanted with a human uterine tumor that was highly aggressive and resistant to many drugs. All of the treated animals were free of tumor cells after 70 days of treatment; the untreated mice were dead after a month." Wow that's some amazing research.

"The government is shutting down every last legal casino and slot-machine parlor across the land, under an antivice plan promoted by Vladimir V. Putin that as recently as a few months ago was widely perceived as far-fetched. But the result will be hundreds of thousands of people thrown out of work.

And in a move that at times seems to have taken on almost farcical overtones, the Kremlin has offered the gambling industry only one option for survival: relocate to four regions in remote areas of Russia, as many as 4,000 miles from the capital. All the same, none of the four regions are prepared for the transfer, and no casino is expected to reopen for several years. As of July 1, not even two decades after casinos began proliferating here in the free-for-all post-Soviet era, the industry’s workers will be out on the street." Wow that seems like a very unintelligent and non-politically smart move.

"None of the investigations take aim at Google’s core advertising business. And unlike other technology giants in years past, Google has not been accused of anticompetitive tactics. But the investigations and carping from competitors and critics have Google fighting to dispel the notion that it has a lock on its market, even as it increases its share of search and online advertising."

"Britain's energy systems are no longer fit for purpose, according to leading members of the UK's best-known scientific academy, the Royal Society. A meeting of experts at the society said the government must invest hugely to create a new low-carbon economy. And it must take on the big generating companies who dominate energy policy, participants said." The UK scientific community on energy.

"The Washington State Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday over whether an Internet filter at the North Central Regional Library System violates freedom of speech rights. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the regional library system in 2006 on behalf of three North Central Washington residents and a pro-gun organization who say the library’s Internet filter policy violated their state and federal freedom of speech rights." I'm with the ACLU, legal adults should be able to request the filter to be removed, though personally I would like there to not be any filtering in place.

Get meta at meta.stackoverflow.com.

A bunch of different sets of social icons.