Article by WorldNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. Just in time for the midterm elections packages containing explosives were found at British and Dubai airports bound for the US. President Barack Obama said the packages from Yemen represented a “credible terrorist threat.” President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser John Brennan speculated that the packages were the work of al-Qaeda in Yemen. After the failed Christmas Day bombing to blow up a passenger jet as it landed in Detroit, earlier this year the U.S. bombed and attacked several suspected Yemeni villages where they suspected al-Qaeda agents were hiding. The deaths and carnage from the bombings have caused civil and social unrest…
Continue reading …One of two powerful bombs mailed from Yemen to Chicago-area synagogues traveled on two passenger flights within the Middle East. The US said the plot bears the hallmarks of al-Qaida’s offshoot in Yemen and has vowed to destroy the group. (Oct. 31)
Continue reading …An investigation by National Public Radio has brought to light the fact that Arizona’s controversial immigration law SB 1070 was drafted by prison companies that were set to make significant gains from the criminalization of immigrants in the state. The NPR report claims that “[w]hat they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.” Check out the NPR story here . The Orange County Register: Prison companies helped draft and pass controversial Arizona’s immigration law SB1070, a National Public Radio investigation shows. The law is currently tied up in the courts after a judge blocked some of the most contentious provisions of the bill from taking effect. It would allow police to ask people to prove they are in the country legally during a lawful stop. If the law is upheld, it could mean a windfall for the prison industry, according to a National Public Radio investigation. Read more Related Entries October 30, 2010 SB 1070’s Day in Court October 23, 2010 Arizona Lawmaker Fights Boycott Backlash
Continue reading …From earthquakes to cholera, Haiti can’t seem to get a break. Geologists have now reported that the decimated country may be in serious risk of additional devastation. Scientists posit that “not all the geological strain that triggered the original quake” last Jan. 12 has been released. —JCL The Guardian: Haiti is at serious risk of further devastation from earthquakes in the near future, geologists have warned. Their research, to be published in next month’s issue of Nature Geoscience, indicates that not all the geological strain that triggered the original quake in January has been released as had been thought. More than 230,000 people died in the magnitude 7.0 quake on 12 January and more than one million were left homeless. Now geologists are warning that Haiti faces the prospect of further devastation. “The January earthquake only unloaded a fraction of the seismic energy that has built up over time in Haiti,” Eric Calais, a geologist at Purdue University, Indiana, who is also a science adviser for the UN development programme in Haiti, told Nature. “Other earthquakes are therefore inevitable.” Read more Related Entries October 30, 2010 SB 1070’s Day in Court October 23, 2010 Arizona Lawmaker Fights Boycott Backlash
Continue reading …People from a dozen countries who were raped and molested by priests as children are gathering in Rome for a candlelit march on the Vatican intended to let survivors know they’re not alone. (Oct. 31)
Continue reading …Perhaps we were being unfair with Oakley’s $150 3D shades — that company, in fact, just didn’t go far enough. Cut to Gucci with “optically correct” Real D frames of its own. No wraparounds, it’s all glass forward, and like we said last time, you’ll be the absolute most fashionable person in a crowded room full of people decidedly not looking in your direction for the entire duration of the glasses’ applicable use. Look for these to hit your local US Gucci boutique — if you have to ask where, it probably wasn’t on your purchase list anyway — for $225. Your move, Louis Vuitton. Gucci’s 3D glasses up the ante with $225 fashion tag originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Oct 2010 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …As a lifelong Peanuts fan when I saw this on Facebook I laughed out loud: I still have my collection of Peanuts books that I got as a kid for birthdays, Christmas, and some I bought myself. You can see them here .
Continue reading …Our friends from ZatzNotFunny and Liliputing spotted Roku at a recent event showing off the next version of software for its media streamers: version 2.8, which should add several UI improvements including the updated Channel Store seen above. Also spotted was a special fall-themed skin and placeholder for the soon-to-arrive Hulu Plus access. The DLNA we’ve been expecting since our Roku XDS review still hasn’t made an official appearance but we’ll keep our fingers crossed until the update is offical and we have a changelog in our hands. Roku previews UI tweaks on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Real politically savvy bunch they had there in Washington yesterday (from The Daily Caller ): Most attendees The Daily Caller interviewed at Comedy Central political pundits Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s rally to “Restore Sanity and/or Fear” didn’t know for whom they are voting on November 2. They did, however, know they’re voting Democrat, down the line, because, they said, Republicans don’t fit their mold of “moving forward” in the country. For instance, Liz Pifer, a student at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pa., told TheDC that though she plans to vote in the midterm elections on Tuesday, she didn’t know who was running for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. She later said that she thought Joe Sestak was running, and that she’ll probably vote for him because he’s a Democrat. As for House candidates, she said, “I don’t know who’s running.” Tara Formica, a junior in college in New Jersey, told TheDC she’s not sure if she’ll vote on Tuesday, and that “it kind of just depends.” She said she came to the rally Saturday “just to come,” and that she didn’t know who was running in her district. Jared Young, a California resident who attended the rally with fellow William and Mary student Chris McIntosh, told TheDC he already voted via absentee ballot in California’s heated Senate and Governor races – but not for Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Barbara Boxer or Jerry Brown. He said he wrote himself in on the ballot for the Senator seat and voted for the Green Party candidate in the governor race – even though he had no idea who the candidate was. “I’m not kidding,” Young said. “I really did that.” McIntosh, who is registered in Virginia, said he plans vote Tuesday for Democratic candidates down the line, even though he doesn’t know who they are. Melissa Miller, who came to rally from Texas with her husband Tom, said, told TheDC she’s voting for the Democrat House candidate, but couldn’t name the candidate from her district. “I was mostly paying attention to the governor’s race,” Miller said. And then there’s this: Anti-Tea-Party-ness and anger toward Fox News dominated most signs at the rally on the National Mall, a clear fit for comedian Stewart’s jabs at what he calls extremism. Shoshana Senn, 15, of Arlington, Va., thinks Tea Partiers are “dumb.” I’ll bet most Tea Partiers could have named who they were voting for.
Continue reading …Apple’s iPod touch can’t make cellular calls — at least, not without a special case — but it did look enough like the similar iPhone to foil one would-be predator. A Delaware suspect asked a 12-year-old girl to get into his van in front of her middle school, but quickly fled the scene, when the girl reportedly put her iPod against her ear and told him she was dialing police. The local authorities did eventually get called and are still looking for the suspect. If you see a “white male, 35-45 years of age, with a dark crew cut styled hair” suspiciously eying the headphone jack placement on devices in your local Apple Store, perhaps you’d best stay away. iPod foils potential kidnapping attempt in the hands of quick-thinking child originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Oct 2010 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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