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POPSU.S. military pushed back against torture regime Then-Captain and now-Rear Admiral Jane Dalton told the (Senate Armed Services) committee that her staff discussed the military's concerns with DoD General Counsel Jim Haynes, one of the architects of the program, and that he was aware of the military's objections. Haynes, meanwhile, testified that he didn't know that the military was opposed and had written memos to that effect. He later qualified that denial to say he wasn't "sure" that he hadn't been made aware. His deputy, Eliana Davidson, also told him his torture project "needed further assessment," but Haynes, again, said he didn't recall Davidson telling him that. (Joint Chiefs of Staff) Chairman Richard Myers met with Haynes, Dalton told the committee, and returned to tell her to kill her review on Haynes' order. It was the only time Dalton had ever been told to cut short a review, she told the committee.
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POPSAcorn Embezzlement 5M NOT 1M
Caldwell issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to ACORN International then-President Wade Rathke and his brother, Dale Rathke, who kept the group's books. Those subpoenas targeted possible violations of state employee tax law, obstruction of justice and violations of the Employee Retirement Security Act. The attorney general made inquiries in June into alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. Rathke's brother and a donor repaid the money. But Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations prevented prosecutors from taking action on the alleged embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue. The subpoena issued Monday puts a new emphasis on the embezzlement issue. It appears to be in reaction to documents gathered from ACORN's board as
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POPSAnother nice review of Amplify We haven't been seeking out the reviews, but nice to see Amplify getting noticed. I clipped this paragraph because it speaks to one of the reasons we created Amplify as a separate service from Clipmarks. We really didn't want to disturb the user experience or community on Clipmarks.com, but we wanted a way to better support Twitter and Facebook users as well as groups. We felt the best way to do this would be to create Amplify as a separate service from Clipmarks, but giving Clipmarks users the option to sync the two.
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POPSOpen source gets its first legal journal: "International Free and Open Source Software Law Review" Quoted from the first article: Free and Open Source software, though now a robust business proposition, evokes for many, memories of the days when it was seen as crusade. Its proponents as well as its opponents still occasionally address the subject as though they were engaging in a philosophical debate. There are also differences of emphasis, and a whiff of sectarianism amongst the proponents of the various standard licences. It is for others to address these theological disputes. It is, rather, the purpose of this Review to take one step back and look behind the rhetoric in a rigorous and objective fashion, to probe, to analyse, to question received wisdom, and to bring proper academic discipline to the study of Free and Open Source software in its legal and wider context. Free and Open Source Software has become a serious player. It deserves serious analysis.
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POPSAugmented Reality This is amazing. A real Sci-fi wet dreams... :) one day a good HD image will transcend the so called "real" one.
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POPSBill Would Give President Emergency Control of Internet
The White House is supposed to engage in "periodic mapping" of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies "shall share" requested information with the federal government. ("Cyber" is defined as anything having to do with the Internet, telecommunications, computers, or computer networks.) "The language has changed but it doesn't contain any real additional limits," EFF's (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Tien says. "It simply switches the more direct and obvious language they had originally to the more ambiguous (version)...The designation of what is a critical infrastructure system or network as far as I can tell has no specific process. There's no provision for any administrative process or review. That's where the problems seem to start. And then you have the amorphous powers that go along with it." Translation: If your company is deemed "critical," a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, . . .
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POPSIranian Court To Review U.S. Journalist, Roxana Saberi's Conviction Although Jamshidi did not announce a specific date, Reza Saberi said he thinks the hearing will be May 12. "We hope for a lenient verdict," he said. According to Saberi's family, she was briefly taken to a hospital Monday after a 15-day hunger strike. "She probably had fainted," her father said. Another group of lawyers, headed by Ebadi, tried five times to contact Saberi in prison so she could sign papers allowing them to defend her during the appeal. But they never received permission from prison authorities to meet with her. "It's clear they are afraid that we will make details of the charges public," said one of the lawyers, Abdolfattah Soltani. "There must be serious irregularities in her file."
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POPSWomen 'getting raw deal' from peer review There is the single blind review where the researcher is known the reviewer anonymous. Then Double blind where both are unknown. Women are said to do worse when their names are revealed. The way I see it the name isn't important. It's the information, and research that is being reviewed, The name of the author of a paper isn't needed for a review the review should be strictly on the contents of the paper, with the credit being given after the review has finished. Scientists, like the average person, despite all attempts to be objective, have just as much chance of having this objectivity swayed as anyone else Then there's the Double open where if the author is known, so must the reviewer. They say anonymity can lead to some biases going unchecked. This sounds better. I get the idea a reviewer is more likely to be objective if they know their review will also be subject to criticism by the wider community.
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POPSMilitary applications of neuroscience Also check out the second clipped web page "charlesj's bookmarks matching tag "Mind Wars"", which contains a list with bookmarks linking to more in depth articles/papers/reviews/...
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POPSExercise Not Proved to Help Dementia Both of the remaining studies were small and only included Alzheimer disease patients. One looked at 11 patients; the other examined 134 but many of those didn't complete the exercise regimens. However, the researchers in the latter study found that those who did exercise seemed to do better at handling the tasks of daily living.
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POPSObama DOJ Blocks 'Extraordinary Rendition," Lawsuit
As a supporter of President Barack Obama it was extremely annoying to hear him trashed based on what people guessed he might do when he took office. Then it was annoying to hear him trashed with criticisms that were nothing more than gossip, ill-will, or deliberately misconstrued versions of events. Her, as far as I'm concerned is the first specific action that many Obama supporters would probably not like. ObamaScore thus far: Obama 10; Media 1; Republicans 0; and Valid Criticism, 1 (this story). But there is a hook to this report. It says that the new Attorney General in the Obama Administration has started a review of all cases like this, cases where claims of national security may have been wrongly used to block the truth. Perhaps that's the story. But if the government opposition to this case going forward does not change as a result of this review then Bush and his neocon cohorts get away with more crimes. This clip & comment posted on the Obama web site. W
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