Sure, Pope John Paul II is set to be beatified, but now he’s even on Facebook. The Vatican, continuing its efforts to get hip with the kids, is unveiling a Facebook page to hype the late pope’s May 1 beatification, featuring video highlights of his 27 years as pontiff. The…
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It could be far worse than Chernobyl. Yikes. Via email: AP alert: TOKYO (AP) Japan issues state of emergency at another nuclear power plant after cooling system failure. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy … Continue reading → Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Political Carnival Discovery Date : 12/03/2011 00:00 Number of articles : 4
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An explosion at a nuclear power plant on Japan’s devastated coast destroyed a building Saturday and made leaking radiation, or even outright meltdown, the central threat menacing a nation. (March 13)
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March 18th may seem like an eternity if you expected your Motorola Xoom to come with Adobe Flash on day one. But you know what? If you put your trust in a mysterious file floating about the internet, there’s no need to wait that long. MyDro idWorld obtained possession of a leaked build of Adobe Flash Player 10.2 for the Xoom, which doesn’t need root or even a preliminary update to install — you just need to check the “Unknown sources” box under Settings > Applications, sideload the file or download it from the Xoom’s browser and you’re good to go. The best part? Based on our preliminary testing, Flash performs exceedingly well on the Xoom’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor. While this early build of Flash 10.2 was pretty choppy during HD playback, low-res video content rendered at perfectly viewable speeds, and we were able to play games (like Nanaca Crash and Canabalt ) so long as they didn’t require anything more than single-button control schemes. By contrast, Hulu was a no-go ( it’s still blocked ), and this build has some kinks to work out when it comes to multitasking — while any single Flash site ran well and we could quickly tab between, the more Flash-heavy tabs we had open, the slower each one ran individually. Adobe’s UI also seemed to have some difficulty detecting when we wanted to make a Flash item full-screen. Typically, you double-tap an item to enlarge it, but sometimes that didn’t work, and other times a context-sensitive UI bar would randomly drop from the top of a Flash window to let us know we could focus on it individually. Before you judge the merits of Flash on tablet, however, remember that this is a leaked version of a beta release , and if it’s this good out of the gate, we’re pretty excited about how well it might perform after a few tweaks. Don’t miss our video above, and find the file you need to install Flash yourself at our source link. Update: We managed to get Flash to drop one of those context-sensitive buttons during a session of Canabalt and make the window full screen, which not only enlarged the window but also seriously sped up our little runner — probably by redirecting the tablet’s resources to our game. Photographic proof after the break! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Continue reading Adobe Flash Player leaks for Motorola Xoom, we go hands-on (video) Adobe Flash Player leaks for Motorola Xoom, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Rick Santorum was in New Hampshire yesterday, reports Politico, tacking deliberately to the right. “Jihadism is evil,” he told a Republican crowd. “We need to define it and say what it is. And it is evil. Sharia law is incompatible with American jurisprudence and our Constitution.” Further, most Muslims in…
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Courtesy of Chris Martenson An important caveat: This is a developing situation. We are operating on limited information and we run the very strong risk of getting something wrong here. For those of you living in Japan, this is a very serious incident deserving your close attention. For those living in the Americas, this is not yet a source of serious worry, because even in a worst-case scenario,… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Phil’s Stock World Discovery Date : 12/03/2011 12:44 Number of articles : 5
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Four dead and hundreds wounded in Sana’a and Aden as William Hague expresses concern over ongoing violence Yemeni security forces have killed four people and wounded hundreds more in the second day of a harsh crackdown on anti-government protests, witnesses said. One of the dead was a 15-year-old student. The assault with gunfire and tear gas was the toughest yet by the government in a month of protests aimed at unseating the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years. An ally in the Obama administration’s fight against al-Qaida, Saleh had appeared to be one of the Arab leaders most threatened by the regional unrest inspired by revolts in Egypt and Tunisia. The violence began with a pre-dawn raid on a central square in the capital, Sana’a, where thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been camped out. Eyewitnesses said security troops surrounded the square with police cars and armoured personnel carriers shortly after midnight and began calling on protesters through loudspeakers to go home. At 5am, security forces attacked, firing bullets and tear gas. One protester died from a bullet to the head, which may have come from a sniper on the rooftop of a nearby building, witnesses said. “We were performing dawn prayers when we were surprised by a sudden hail of bullets and tear gas,” said Walid Hassan, a 25-year-old activist. “The protesters began throwing rocks at security … it was total mayhem, a real battlefield.” A few hours later, another protester was shot dead in a nearby street. In the city of Dar Saad in the southern province of Aden, police used live fire and tear gas to disperse a crowd of several thousand, killing one demonstrator. . Saturday’s raid on the Sana’a square came after Yemen’s largest demonstrations in a month the day before were met by police gunfire that injured at least six protesters. Foreign secretary William Hague described the violence used against protesters in Yemen as unacceptable. In a statement from the Foreign Office, he said “I was shocked by the unacceptable violence seen in Sana’a today. The United Kingdom remains seriously concerned over repeated clashes with protesters and reports of intimidation of journalists in recent days. This is in direct contradiction to the President’s recent announcement on constitutional reform and fresh elections, which we have welcomed. We urge the Yemeni authorities to demonstrate their commitment to an orderly and peaceful transition by respecting the right of peaceful protest and free speech.” The Foreign Office is now advising British nationals to leave Yemen as soon as they can in light of the intensity of the violence. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East protests Protest Alan Evans guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …French police have recovered a cache of stolen Harry Winston gems hidden in a rain sewer. The loot, spoils from a brazen 2008 heist, was found in a plastic container set in a cement mold, inside a drain at a house in Seine-Saint-Denis, according to police statements. Nineteen rings—including one valued at $8.3 million—and 3 sets of earrings were found, part of a $111 million lift taken from a Harry Winston boutique two years ago. As many as four armed thieves, some dressed as women in wigs, stormed the luxury jewelry store in December 2008. Police reports say the robbery was carried out near the Champs-Elysee in broad daylight and lasted a mere 15 minutes. Authorities previously recovered some of the stolen valuables when 25 people were detained and questioned in June 2009. Nine people were charged, including the alleged mastermind, who had already been sentenced to 15 years in prison in an unrelated drug trafficking case. Source : Forbes
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The NFL confirmed on Saturday that it has locked out its players. The move came a day after the NFL Players Association decertified. (March 12)
Continue reading …Iowa House GOP Leader Caught on Hot Mic Joking About ‘Give-a-Handgun-to-a-Schizophrenic Bill’
March 12, 2011 No CommentAs Steve Benen noted , when politicians get caught accidentally telling the truth the “unexpected candor can be revealing.” I’d say that’s putting it lightly in this case. Here’s more from Blue Girl that sent him the tip on this. They are setting up tragedies and they know it, but they Just. Don’t. Care. : I can not, for the life of me, figure out why any lawmaker gleefully pursues legislation that will, if enacted, most certainly result in suffering, death and heartache for someone who lives in their district — unless they are just so craven and venal that human life is expendable if it is lost in the service of pissing off liberals. I am honestly starting to believe that today’s republicans have devolved that far, to the point that “pissing off liberals” is the only stimulus to which they can muster a response. Go read the rest but here’s more from the Des Moines Register — House Republican, caught on tape, jokes of ‘give a handgun to a schizophrenic bill’ : A snafu during a legislative debate where a microphone was turned on captured banter between two Iowa GOP leaders, who also joked about a “give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic bill.” Republicans this week revived a proposal that would allow Iowans to carry weapons in public without permission from a sheriff, without background checks and without training requirements. The legislation, House Study bill 219, is known as “Alaska carry,” which is law in Alaska, Arizona, Vermont and Wyoming. Rep. Erik Helland, R-Johnston, is listed as one of the three legislators on a subcommittee assigned the bill. Helland is the House majority whip. Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who made the schizophrenic remark, is the speaker pro tem. Also in the conversation is Rep. Steve Lukan, R-New Vienna who is also an assistant majority leader. The conversation begins with jokes between the members that they’re going to pull Rep. Ron Jorgenson, R-Sioux City, from leading debate on House File 525, a controversial union collective bargaining bill. Debate halted for more than two hours because of a technical issue that the representatives joked was Jorgenson’s fault. Here’s the conversation: The audio can be found here at around the 1 hour and 1 minute mark: Rep. Dave Deyoe, R-Nevada, explains the problem. Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, R-Wilton: I bet nobody’s told poor Jorgenson. Rep. Steve Lukan, R-New Vienna : I told him this is all his own fault. Kaufmann : Tell him it’s his fault and we don’t appreciate anything that he’s done up to this point. Lukan : Damnit, Ron, we’re going to yank you off this bill. Kaufmann : Ya, the hell with you. You haven’t been doing jack s—. Rep. Erik Helland , R-Johnston: What? Kaufmann : Jorgenson, we’re yanking him off the bill. The hell with him. He hasn’t been doing anything. Lukan : He should have seen this coming. Helland : You know what that means? It means I’m going to end up stuck with the bill? Kaufmann : Sounds like you’re getting out of the Alaska bill. Helland : Oh yeah, I’m getting out of it after I end up on a blog. Lukan : The Alaska bill – what’s the Alaska bill? Helland . I’m the dirty hatchet man for the caucus. Something nobody wants to do. Some dirty, nasty job. I’m the one who gets dropped in you know why, ’cause I’m expendable. Kaufmann : The crazy, give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic bill. Off camera: His microphone is on. Microphone goes dead.
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