The tributes to Steve Jobs have taken on a “quasi-religious tone,” writes Hamilton Nolan, who suggests it’s time to dial things back a notch or two. Jobs’ death is “certainly a devastating loss” to his family, his friends, and his company, writes Nolan at Gawker . As for everyone else, especially…
Continue reading …Friction is growing within NATO over when to end its air campaign in Libya, with some arguing for a quick exit and others, including the US, arguing that the campaign should continue until the last remnants of Moammar Gadhafi’s loyalists are brought to heel. “It’s over,” one Western official tells…
Continue reading …Calling it “clean” fuel would be a bit of a stretch: Japan’s top toilet maker has built a bike that runs on human excrement. TOTO’s Toilet Bike Neo has a seat that looks like a toilet, and it’s powered by bio-gas from the driver’s own poop, TreeHugger reports. Apparently, feces…
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Child facing time in adult prison if convicted of carrying 7g of marijuana, which is treated like heroin under Indonesian law Australia is trying to secure the return of a 14-year-old boy arrested in Indonesia for alleged marijuana possession, the Australian foreign minister has said. The boy has been held at Denpasar police headquarters in Bali since he was arrested on Tuesday accused of buying a small quantity of marijuana from a man on Kuta beach. His lawyer, Muhammad Rifan, said he faced a maximum sentence of six years in an adult prison if convicted of possessing 7g of marijuana, which under Indonesian law is treated the same as heroin or cocaine. Kevin Rudd, the Australian foreign minister, said he had sent Australia’s ambassador to Denpasar. “I’ve indicated to him that his number one priority in the immediate period ahead is how we support this young boy and his family and do everything we can to obtain his early return to Australia,” Rudd told reporters in Sydney. The boy, from Morrisset Park north of Sydney, was on holiday with his parents when he was arrested. Rifan said Julian McMahon, an Australian lawyer representing two Australians on death row in Bali for smuggling heroin in 2005, said the boy might only get a few months’ jail or avoid prison if he could prove he had a drug problem for which he had received counselling. Australian media have reported the boy is the youngest Australian to be arrested under Indonesia’s tough drug laws. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the boy told police he bought the marijuana because he felt sorry for the alleged dealer who said he had not eaten for a day. McMahon said most foreigners were arrested in these circumstances when they bought drugs from police informants. Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws and people convicted of smuggling or possessing drugs can be executed by firing squad. More than 140 prisoners are on death row in Indonesia, including more than 50 foreigners. Australia Bali Indonesia Drugs trade guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Child facing time in adult prison if convicted of carrying 7g of marijuana, which is treated like heroin under Indonesian law Australia is trying to secure the return of a 14-year-old boy arrested in Indonesia for alleged marijuana possession, the Australian foreign minister has said. The boy has been held at Denpasar police headquarters in Bali since he was arrested on Tuesday accused of buying a small quantity of marijuana from a man on Kuta beach. His lawyer, Muhammad Rifan, said he faced a maximum sentence of six years in an adult prison if convicted of possessing 7g of marijuana, which under Indonesian law is treated the same as heroin or cocaine. Kevin Rudd, the Australian foreign minister, said he had sent Australia’s ambassador to Denpasar. “I’ve indicated to him that his number one priority in the immediate period ahead is how we support this young boy and his family and do everything we can to obtain his early return to Australia,” Rudd told reporters in Sydney. The boy, from Morrisset Park north of Sydney, was on holiday with his parents when he was arrested. Rifan said Julian McMahon, an Australian lawyer representing two Australians on death row in Bali for smuggling heroin in 2005, said the boy might only get a few months’ jail or avoid prison if he could prove he had a drug problem for which he had received counselling. Australian media have reported the boy is the youngest Australian to be arrested under Indonesia’s tough drug laws. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the boy told police he bought the marijuana because he felt sorry for the alleged dealer who said he had not eaten for a day. McMahon said most foreigners were arrested in these circumstances when they bought drugs from police informants. Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws and people convicted of smuggling or possessing drugs can be executed by firing squad. More than 140 prisoners are on death row in Indonesia, including more than 50 foreigners. Australia Bali Indonesia Drugs trade guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …For many casual observers and news consumers, the fledgling Occupy Wall Street movement appears to have come out of nowhere–a spontaneous, loosely knit gathering of protesters who feel disaffection and anger over the financial crisis, dismay over the outlook for the American middle class, and a desire to revive traditions of democratic protest. That was,
Continue reading …Silvio Berlusconi thinks he has a branding problem. He wants to rename his People of Freedom party “because people no longer carry it in their hearts,” he told lawmakers from his coalition according to the AFP . He said they’d consider “any suggestions,” but then as a joke added, “I’m told…
Continue reading …This is basically insane: A new UN report says that one in 50 Central American 20-year-old men will be murdered before they turn 31. Unsurprisingly, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says the situation is nearing a “crisis point.” The report places much of the blame on violence between…
Continue reading …If Occupy Wall Street is indeed at a tipping point , will it tip into obscurity or be a genuine political force? Two views today: ‘Losers’: Ann Coulter says this is no political movement, it’s merely a “mob” of “directionless losers” spouting “random liberal cliches lacking any real reason or coherence….
Continue reading …If an international team of neuroscientists, engineers, and physiologists has its way, a quadriplegic will open the 2014 World Cup—by striding out onto the field. The team is working on a “prosthetic exoskeleton,” a full-body device that would allow those who have been paralyzed to walk again. Yesterday a…
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