Sean Hoare Dead: News Of The World Hacking Whistleblower Found Dead In London
July 18, 2011 No Comment
Sean Hoare, a former reporter for the News of the World who was the first to go on the record about Andy Coulson’s alleged knowledge of the phone hacking there, has been found dead, according to the Guardian. He was found by police at his London home. Hoare was known to have problems with drugs and alcohol, and the police said that they were not treating the death as a suspicious one, though they did not reveal what caused Hoare to pass away. But it still comes as a grim coincidence during a period when the phone hacking scandal is escalating seemingly every day. Hoare first outed himself as a phone-hacker in a September 10 New York Times article. He said that he used to play Coulson—who became the top communications aide to Prime Minister David Cameron, and was later arrested for his alleged role in the hacking operation—recordings of hacked voicemails when the latter was the editor of the News of the World. Coulson, he told the paper, “actively encouraged me to do it.” After the article was published, Hoare was questioned by police. He spoke again to the paper last week, after the scandal had turned into a full-blown crisis.
Continue reading …Sean Hoare Dead: News Of The World Hacking Whistleblower Found Dead In London
July 18, 2011 No CommentSean Hoare, a former reporter for the News of the World who was the first to go on the record about Andy Coulson’s alleged knowledge of the phone hacking there, has been found dead, according to the Guardian. He was found by police at his London home. Hoare was known to have problems with drugs and alcohol, and the police said that they were not treating the death as a suspicious one, though they did not reveal what caused Hoare to pass away. But it still comes as a grim coincidence during a period when the phone hacking scandal is escalating seemingly every day. Hoare first outed himself as a phone-hacker in a September 10 New York Times article. He said that he used to play Coulson—who became the top communications aide to Prime Minister David Cameron, and was later arrested for his alleged role in the hacking operation—recordings of hacked voicemails when the latter was the editor of the News of the World. Coulson, he told the paper, “actively encouraged me to do it.” After the article was published, Hoare was questioned by police. He spoke again to the paper last week, after the scandal had turned into a full-blown crisis.
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Last January, I stopped wearing a bra. I haven’t put one back on since. I don’t remember buying my first bra. I just know that at some point around age 12 I started wearing one — long before I “needed” to. There wasn’t much to support, as friends in my 8th grade dance class informed me, joking that they could cut an apple on my chest. It wasn’t funny then, but I suppose I can laugh about it now since I just bought my first cutting board and I don’t see much of a resemblance. Over the next 10 years, as I graduated from high school and college, I also graduated from a kitchen accessory to a solid A, while clasping a bra around my chest every day in between. Then, seven months ago, I had a brassiere epiphany. After waiting just a little too long to do my laundry, I ran out of bras. I could have forced myself to head to the laundry room right then, or worn the less than fresh Cosabella number I’d worn the day before, but I realized the only visible difference for me between wearing and not wearing a bra was a bulky bra line. So I didn’t wear one. Yes, I went braless. Sure, my boobs had a bit more point to them than before, but that’s how they’re made to look, right? Other than that, nothing terrible happened. No chafing, no slips, no perverted stares directed downwards. In fact, when I confided in my friends that I was bra-free, they admitted they couldn’t tell. I suddenly thought, what if I could be this free all the time? It was as if I had finally opened my eyes. That was that. Since then, it’s just been me and my small boobs, hanging out together. And I’m happy. I wish everybody else could be happy like this too, but today it seems we women are more insecure with our size than ever. Today, large breasts wield tremendous power, and the truth is we — women — are partly to blame for supporting that status quo.. This past year alone, 300,000 women put themselves under the knife for breast augmentation surgery. 300,000 women felt that unhappy with their bodies. For what? Certainly not for ourselves, as one major risk of the surgery is losing the best thing your breasts give you: sexual pleasure. To add insult to injury (literally), last month the FDA issued a new warning. Ladies, while the loss of sensation may be lifelong, your silicone implants may not be. According to a new report, at least one-in-five women will need her implants removed due to serious health complications. These are complications that far exceed the perceived problems of having small(er) breasts: Implant rupture, scar tissue hardening, breast wrinkling, and in the most unfortunate and rare cases, anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Let me repeat, removal due to these complications isn’t a one-in-a-million chance. It’s one in five. Do women not know the risks involved, or do we just not care? I believe it’s the former, not the latter, because you know what else has a one in five risk? Smoking. In the United States, one in five Americans dies each year due to tobacco use. The difference is that while massive nationwide campaigns are shifting our impressions of smoking towards taboo, breast implants haven’t lost their sex appeal… yet. So ladies, this is my appeal to you. Don’t hold yourself to ideals of epic proportions. Let’s just all hang out, together.
Continue reading …Last January, I stopped wearing a bra. I haven’t put one back on since. I don’t remember buying my first bra. I just know that at some point around age 12 I started wearing one — long before I “needed” to. There wasn’t much to support, as friends in my 8th grade dance class informed me, joking that they could cut an apple on my chest. It wasn’t funny then, but I suppose I can laugh about it now since I just bought my first cutting board and I don’t see much of a resemblance. Over the next 10 years, as I graduated from high school and college, I also graduated from a kitchen accessory to a solid A, while clasping a bra around my chest every day in between. Then, seven months ago, I had a brassiere epiphany. After waiting just a little too long to do my laundry, I ran out of bras. I could have forced myself to head to the laundry room right then, or worn the less than fresh Cosabella number I’d worn the day before, but I realized the only visible difference for me between wearing and not wearing a bra was a bulky bra line. So I didn’t wear one. Yes, I went braless. Sure, my boobs had a bit more point to them than before, but that’s how they’re made to look, right? Other than that, nothing terrible happened. No chafing, no slips, no perverted stares directed downwards. In fact, when I confided in my friends that I was bra-free, they admitted they couldn’t tell. I suddenly thought, what if I could be this free all the time? It was as if I had finally opened my eyes. That was that. Since then, it’s just been me and my small boobs, hanging out together. And I’m happy. I wish everybody else could be happy like this too, but today it seems we women are more insecure with our size than ever. Today, large breasts wield tremendous power, and the truth is we — women — are partly to blame for supporting that status quo.. This past year alone, 300,000 women put themselves under the knife for breast augmentation surgery. 300,000 women felt that unhappy with their bodies. For what? Certainly not for ourselves, as one major risk of the surgery is losing the best thing your breasts give you: sexual pleasure. To add insult to injury (literally), last month the FDA issued a new warning. Ladies, while the loss of sensation may be lifelong, your silicone implants may not be. According to a new report, at least one-in-five women will need her implants removed due to serious health complications. These are complications that far exceed the perceived problems of having small(er) breasts: Implant rupture, scar tissue hardening, breast wrinkling, and in the most unfortunate and rare cases, anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Let me repeat, removal due to these complications isn’t a one-in-a-million chance. It’s one in five. Do women not know the risks involved, or do we just not care? I believe it’s the former, not the latter, because you know what else has a one in five risk? Smoking. In the United States, one in five Americans dies each year due to tobacco use. The difference is that while massive nationwide campaigns are shifting our impressions of smoking towards taboo, breast implants haven’t lost their sex appeal… yet. So ladies, this is my appeal to you. Don’t hold yourself to ideals of epic proportions. Let’s just all hang out, together.
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On his Saturday show Your Money, CNN host Ali Velshi tried to pin the blame for the debt ceiling standoff on one man – the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist. “Are you the reason that we don't have a debt ceiling increase right now?” he boldly asked his guest. Velshi was referring to Norquist's pledge that entails elected officials who sign it promising to oppose increases in taxes. Velshi termed the pledge one of “remarkable inflexibility.” He questioned outright the viability of the pledge. “Why is preserving the inability to increase taxes more important than the overall health of the economy and the danger that it's putting us into right now?” he asked. [Video below the break.] The host interrupted his guest multiple times, framing the debate around his own terms and even suggesting that certain higher taxes are “fair.” When Norquist tried to argue that the current debt situation is due to President Obama, Velshi abruptly dismissed the point as “an unreasonable position.” “A lot of people are wondering if it's appropriate that you hold so much power in the Republican Party,” the CNN host asked Norquist, throwing a cheap shot his way. He made sure to get another low blow in at the interview's end. “Grover Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a name that doesn't entirely represent what he's doing,” Velshi growled. A transcript of the segment, which aired on July 16 at 1:08 p.m. EDT is as follows: ALI VELSHI: Grover, your lobbying group has gotten more than 230 House Republicans and nearly 40 GOP senators to sign a pledge never to support an increase in taxes. And you warn those who break your pledge will pay a political price. Are you the reason that we don't have a debt ceiling increase right now? (…) GROVER NORQUIST, president, Americans for Tax Reform: Our friend, President Obama, has said he won't try and solve the problem he created with his spending unless people give him more money. VELSHI: Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. He created with his spending? You didn't just suggest that our budget problem is because of President Obama, did you, Grover? (…) VELSHI: Let's – let's have a real conversation here, Grover. (…) VELSHI: Are we in this debt situation – (Crosstalk) – because of the Obama administration, Grover? NORQUIST: Yes. VELSHI: OK. We're going to pass by that question, because that's an unreasonable position. (…) VELSHI: Why is preserving the inability to increase taxes more important than the overall health of the economy and the danger that it's putting us into right now? (…) VELSHI: OK, Grover, hold on right there because I want to ask you whether or not there are any taxes in this country that you need to see increased to make things a little more fair. (…) VELSHI: Grover, you've gotten so many Republicans in Congress to sign a pledge to never raise taxes. A lot of people are wondering if it's appropriate that you hold so much power in the Republican Party. You've never been elected to public office. But you certainly are influential. What's the consequence, if somebody who has signed one of those pledges, one of those pledges of remarkable inflexibility that you forced them to sign, goes against you? (…) VELSHI: Is it not more important, Grover, that people can trust their elected officials to make the right decisions in their interest than to be loyal to Grover Norquist so that they get reelected again? NORQUIST: OK, are you not listening? VELSHI: I'm listening very clearly. NORQUIST: The pledge is not to me. The pledge is to their constituents. VELSHI: I'm waiting for you to tell me why what you do makes America better. (…) VELSHI: I'll give you this, Grover. You were into this long before it was majority opinion. But right now, you've seen the Quinnipiac poll. You've seen the Gallup poll that says most Republicans – not most Americans – most Republicans agree with the fact that there need to be spending cuts and some corresponding tax increases. Do you think that there is not a tax in America on the wealthy or on corporations that needs to be increased? There's just no tax anywhere that you think needs to be increased? (…) VELSHI: And I'll save — I'll save the viewers, by the way, from going to your Web site. The pledge reads this, “I, the undersigned, pledge to the taxpayers of the state of undersigned and all the people of this state that I will oppose and vote against all efforts to increase taxes.” (…) VELSHI: And are you OK with the fact that the pledge may cost Americans when this debt ceiling is not increased? It will cost Americans a lot of money when it's not increased. NORQUIST: I hope that President Obama will not stick to his ideological left-wing guns and demand more spending and tax increases, that he will come to the table and actually put something in writing, which he hasn't done yet. There is no Obama plan in writing – VELSHI: Wow. NORQUIST: – that he's negotiating from. VELSHI: Grover, it is remarkable – remarkable to hear you suggesting that President Obama does not stick to his ideological guns when your entire – NORQUIST: I hope he won't. VELSHI: – existence is about sticking to your ideological guns. Grover Norquist, thanks for coming on the show. Grover Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a name that doesn't entirely represent what he's doing.
Continue reading …On his Saturday show Your Money, CNN host Ali Velshi tried to pin the blame for the debt ceiling standoff on one man – the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist. “Are you the reason that we don't have a debt ceiling increase right now?” he boldly asked his guest. Velshi was referring to Norquist's pledge that entails elected officials who sign it promising to oppose increases in taxes. Velshi termed the pledge one of “remarkable inflexibility.” He questioned outright the viability of the pledge. “Why is preserving the inability to increase taxes more important than the overall health of the economy and the danger that it's putting us into right now?” he asked. [Video below the break.] The host interrupted his guest multiple times, framing the debate around his own terms and even suggesting that certain higher taxes are “fair.” When Norquist tried to argue that the current debt situation is due to President Obama, Velshi abruptly dismissed the point as “an unreasonable position.” “A lot of people are wondering if it's appropriate that you hold so much power in the Republican Party,” the CNN host asked Norquist, throwing a cheap shot his way. He made sure to get another low blow in at the interview's end. “Grover Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a name that doesn't entirely represent what he's doing,” Velshi growled. A transcript of the segment, which aired on July 16 at 1:08 p.m. EDT is as follows: ALI VELSHI: Grover, your lobbying group has gotten more than 230 House Republicans and nearly 40 GOP senators to sign a pledge never to support an increase in taxes. And you warn those who break your pledge will pay a political price. Are you the reason that we don't have a debt ceiling increase right now? (…) GROVER NORQUIST, president, Americans for Tax Reform: Our friend, President Obama, has said he won't try and solve the problem he created with his spending unless people give him more money. VELSHI: Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. He created with his spending? You didn't just suggest that our budget problem is because of President Obama, did you, Grover? (…) VELSHI: Let's – let's have a real conversation here, Grover. (…) VELSHI: Are we in this debt situation – (Crosstalk) – because of the Obama administration, Grover? NORQUIST: Yes. VELSHI: OK. We're going to pass by that question, because that's an unreasonable position. (…) VELSHI: Why is preserving the inability to increase taxes more important than the overall health of the economy and the danger that it's putting us into right now? (…) VELSHI: OK, Grover, hold on right there because I want to ask you whether or not there are any taxes in this country that you need to see increased to make things a little more fair. (…) VELSHI: Grover, you've gotten so many Republicans in Congress to sign a pledge to never raise taxes. A lot of people are wondering if it's appropriate that you hold so much power in the Republican Party. You've never been elected to public office. But you certainly are influential. What's the consequence, if somebody who has signed one of those pledges, one of those pledges of remarkable inflexibility that you forced them to sign, goes against you? (…) VELSHI: Is it not more important, Grover, that people can trust their elected officials to make the right decisions in their interest than to be loyal to Grover Norquist so that they get reelected again? NORQUIST: OK, are you not listening? VELSHI: I'm listening very clearly. NORQUIST: The pledge is not to me. The pledge is to their constituents. VELSHI: I'm waiting for you to tell me why what you do makes America better. (…) VELSHI: I'll give you this, Grover. You were into this long before it was majority opinion. But right now, you've seen the Quinnipiac poll. You've seen the Gallup poll that says most Republicans – not most Americans – most Republicans agree with the fact that there need to be spending cuts and some corresponding tax increases. Do you think that there is not a tax in America on the wealthy or on corporations that needs to be increased? There's just no tax anywhere that you think needs to be increased? (…) VELSHI: And I'll save — I'll save the viewers, by the way, from going to your Web site. The pledge reads this, “I, the undersigned, pledge to the taxpayers of the state of undersigned and all the people of this state that I will oppose and vote against all efforts to increase taxes.” (…) VELSHI: And are you OK with the fact that the pledge may cost Americans when this debt ceiling is not increased? It will cost Americans a lot of money when it's not increased. NORQUIST: I hope that President Obama will not stick to his ideological left-wing guns and demand more spending and tax increases, that he will come to the table and actually put something in writing, which he hasn't done yet. There is no Obama plan in writing – VELSHI: Wow. NORQUIST: – that he's negotiating from. VELSHI: Grover, it is remarkable – remarkable to hear you suggesting that President Obama does not stick to his ideological guns when your entire – NORQUIST: I hope he won't. VELSHI: – existence is about sticking to your ideological guns. Grover Norquist, thanks for coming on the show. Grover Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a name that doesn't entirely represent what he's doing.
Continue reading …Ladies, does Vladimir Putin make you want to take your clothes off? Because if so ( and who could blame you? ), you should join “Putin’s Army,” an online campaign urging Russian women to strip to show their support of their once-and-possible-future president. The campaign launched with a video of…
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What’s the difference between a case and a cover? The Korean company Anymode is provoking just that question with a Galaxy Tab 10.1 case (cover?) that looks awfully familiar. The Smart Case, as it’s known, comes in multiple colors, protects the tablet’s front, and folds into a triangular stand. You might be thinking that sounds remarkably like Apple’s Smart Cover , and if so, you’re not the only one. Ah, but the plot thickens: 9to5mac reports that the maker of this blatant knock-off has strong ties to Samsung . Family ties, even, as their tipster claims Sang-yong Kim, the Anymode CEO, is the nephew of Kun-Hee Lee, Sammy’s chairman. We couldn’t confirm any blood relation, which could mean we’re dealing with a cover-clone conspiracy theory. Either way, we suspect this’ll lead to more billable hours for Cupertino’s lawyers . Anymode’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 case cops Apple’s fashion sense originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Forget drug-sniffing dogs: Sweden has its very own sperm-sniffing dog named Rapports Opus, and he recently helped police catch an alleged rapist. Rapports Opus trained for a year to become the only sperm-sniffing dog in southern Sweden, and he was brought to a park where a man had been accused…
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Today’s links feature outrageous sports, outrageous amounts of money, and outrageous vacation destinations. Busy Bees: Two beekeepers in China, wearing only shorts, competed to see how many bees they could get to stick to their bodies. The winner attracted 57 pounds of bees in an hour. (BBC) For The Love of Money: See which banks
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