Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent a strong and clear message to Congress on Tuesday: Get rid of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays and lesbians among their ranks, and do it pronto. The reason for his sense of urgency, however, didn’t have so much to do with social justice as it did with avoiding more interventions from the courts on the issue.
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The US military has concluded that allowing openly gay men and women to serve will cause no long-term problems. The study found that a change in current rules, which require gay service members to keep their sexuality a secret, might cause some disruption initially, but would have no lasting impact on the military. The study, which has not been officially released, is expected to bolster campaigners for equal rights for homosexual soldiers, who hope to force a vote in Congress on the issue. It is unclear whether the results of the study will persuade socially conservative Republicans, led by Senator John McCain, himself a former naval officer, to drop opposition to repealing a law which bans…
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We’ve got word from one loyal reader that his HP Slate is en route from Shanghai, and he even provided us PDF proof of that fact, just to quell any doubts. We’re not sure if that’s some little slip on HP and FedEx’s part, or a sign of larger things to come (be sure to let us know in the comments if you’ve received similar notice), but for now all we know is that something enterprisey is scheduled to show up on one Dave P.’s doorstep on December 6th. Godspeed, dear tablet. Godspeed. [Thanks, Dave P.] HP Slate beginning to ship? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Belly fat may be bad for women’s bone health, raising their risk of osteoporosis, researchers report.
Continue reading …Lamenting Tenth Anniversary of Bush vs. Gore, CNN’s Toobin Mangles Media Recount Reality
November 30, 2010 No CommentFrom his perch at the liberal magazine The New Yorker on Tuesday, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin recycled his lament that the Bush-Gore 2000 chad fight should have lasted several more months. (Toobin's 2001 book Too Close to Call also carried Al Gore's water.) Toobin fights against the popular notion that liberals should get over 2000, for it revealed conservative judicial activism, most appalling to Toobin when “equal protection” is applied to white males, as if they're entitled to it. But Toobin simply gets it wrong in finding media recounts were not conclusive: Bush v. Gore would resonate, in any case, because the Court prevented Florida from determining, as best it could, whether Gore or Bush really won. (Recounts of the ballots by media organizations produced ambiguous results; they suggest that Gore would have won a full statewide recount and Bush would have won the limited recount initially sought by the Gore forces.) Wrong. As Brent Baker reminded readers in 2008 , both media recounts, including a statewide recount of undervotes, concluded the Court did not decide the election: read more
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So we were lucky enough to sit down with Sir Richard Branson at this morning’s launch of his iPad-only Project magazine , and just like the last time we hung out , our conversation was both entertaining and illuminating. The highlight? In addition to telling us that Project would eventually hit both Android tablets and other devices, Sir Richard was totally candid in saying that he had “no f**king idea why” Project was only on the iPad and not on the web — although he did say Project was “proper magazine” and not “just thrown together for the web.” (Ouch.) Sir Richard was also excited about the possibilities for advertising, saying that the new medium can “bring advertising alive.” We’ve definitely got our doubts about limiting content to one platform without any robust sharing options — and we obviously think it’s possible to do high-quality content on the web — but there’s no doubt that Sir Richard is an extremely charming pitchman, so make sure to check out the whole interview. The Engadget Interview: Sir Richard Branson on Project and the iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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