Category: News

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that juvenile criminals cannot be sentenced to life in prison with no chance at parole for crimes other than homicide because it violates their Eighth Amendment right against Cruel and Unusual Punishment.

Justice Anthony Kennedy has the opinion of the Court. In it he writes that “The inadequacy of penological theory to justify life without parole sentences for juvenile nonhomicide offenders, the limited culpability of such offenders, and the severity of these sentences all lead the Court to conclude that the sentencing practice at issue is cruel and unusual.”

Florida is the state with the most juvenile offenders (77) with life/no parole sentences and that is where this case comes from.

Kennedy says a categorical rule making such a sentence unconstitutional is necessary because otherwise “a court or jury will erroneously conclude that a particular juvenile is sufficiently culpable to deserve life without parole for a nonhomicide. It also gives the juvenile offender a chance to demonstrate maturity and reform.”

The Court opinion also makes note of the fact the United States is the only country in the world that had allowed such a sentence. “While the judgments of other nations and the international community are not dispositive as to the meaning of the Eighth Amendment, the Court has looked abroad to support its independent conclusion that a particular punishment is cruel and unusual.”

Justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito are in dissent. Chief Justice John Roberts agreed that the juvenile sentenced in this case, Terrance Graham, was excessive. He disagrees with the ruling that says all life without parole sentences for juveniles are cruel and unusual.

Justice Thomas writes that “Although the text of the Constitution is silent regarding the permissibility of this sentencing practice, and although it would not have offended the standards that prevailed at the founding, the Court insists that the standards of American society have evolved such that the Constitution now requires its prohibition. The news of this evolution will, I think, come as a surprise to the American people.”

BACKGROUNDER

Case: Graham v. Florida

Date: Monday, November 9th 2009

Issue: Whether the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments prohibits the imprisonment of a juvenile for life without the possibility of parole for committing a non-homicide (armed burglary).

Background: This case is a step removed from the high court’s 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons that a death sentence for someone younger than 18 years old is cruel and unusual as defined by the Eighth Amendment. Florida is like most states that allow life without parole sentences for juveniles even when the underlying crime did not result in someone’s death. But Florida is unique in that it appears to be home to the vast majority of prisoners who fit this category.

Terrance Graham was 16-years-old when he pled guilty to armed burglary. He was eventually released from jail and on probation when he busted into a man’s home and robbed him at gunpoint. A judge concluded that Graham violated his probation, wasted his second chance at freedom and was a significant threat to society. The judge sentenced Graham to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Graham’s lawyers argue the reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Roper is the same that should extend to their client. Namely that like the mentally retarded, juveniles are “categorically less culpable than the average criminal” and that when compared to adults juveniles “cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders” when it comes to imposing the harshest of sentences.

Florida argues the severity of Graham’s sentence was “not grossly disproportionate to [the] violent crimes against [his] vulnerable victims.” The state further argues that Graham’s crime was so severe that even he didn’t challenge his treatment as an adult offender. Florida also dismisses attempts to extend Roper’s prohibition to life sentences saying that doing so is “compelled neither by legal logic nor by societal norms.”

There is a significant following in this case from varying interest groups who’ve submitted briefs supporting both sides. Perhaps the most interesting brief is from seven now successful men (including actor Charles Dutton and former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson) who were lawbreaking teenagers and are “living, breathing testaments to the resiliency, adaptability, and rehabilitative potential of juvenile offenders.”

The infamous BitTorrent indexer and search engine the Pirate Bay is currently down after its bandwidth provider was hit with an injunction forbidding it to provide access to the site. The injunction is the latest step in Hollywood’s battle with the site. The ISP, CB3ROB, which operates CyberBunker decided to play i… (read more)

Depois do piloto alemão Michael Schumacher receber uma penalidade de 20 segundos no GP de Mônaco por realizar uma ultrapassagem considerada irregular para o piloto Fernando Alonso, a escuderia Mercedes recorreu da decisão que atrapalhou o resultado do piloto alemão na prova, onde o vencedor foi o australiano Mark Webber.

Os comissários da FIA discutiram por duas horas a decisão que fez com que Schumacher caísse do 6º para o 12º lugar na classificação final do GP de Mônaco. O recurso da Mercedes será analisado pelo Tribunal Internacional de Apelos da FIA, baseado no novo regulamento das provas que permite ultrapassagens assim que o “safety car” sai da pista.

O problema aconteceu na hora em que o safety car paralisou a corrida logo no final da prova, e assim que o safety car entrou nos boxes faltando poucos metros para a linha de chegada, Schumacer ultrapassou Fernando Alonso, criando toda essa polêmica.

Via | Autoportal

Even a layman could calculate the fearsome product that could come from approximately 5,000 barrels of oil per day in about one month.

During the first day of BP PLC disaster, 1,000 barrels of oil leak per day is projected to the public but when it was closely investigated, the amount is raised to 5,000.

Percentage of oxygen has dropped tremendously in the depth where formation of plumes is stretching not less than a mile. Contingencies from BP and supporting sectors can only do so much in lessening the environmental spoilage.

The Gulf of Mexico, deemed as extension of the Atlantic Ocean is the habitat of several marine species. Oil spill chemicals would certainly harm the food web in the long run including the coral reefs. Worst is expected if the oil wave reaches the harboring shores of Florida and other places surrounding the Gulf of Mexico.

BP PLC, through its CEO has recently agreed to the assumption that better preventive measures could have prohibited or at least lessen the effects of this accident. Financial compensation that may exceed $75 million awaits BP when this is all over but for the meantime the oil industry tycoon has been spending day by day to have experts fix the broken pipe using top scale labs including robotics.

More than being financially indebted, BP PLC will eventually face the global community to expound the causes of the incident and to give the company’s course of action to repair the damage.

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Filed under: Etc.

If you want to draw hot rods and learn the basics of drawing cars, then you’ll want to check out the Hot Rod Art Book for the iPad. A combination of the text-only book and the videos you’ll find at the book’s site and Vimeo, it contains 100 pages of guidance and tips from 13 professional hot rod artists and 1.5 hours of videos. It’s not going to instantly turn you into Hot Wheels designer Dwayne Vance, one of the contributors, but you’ll know how to pen the Powell Motors Homer just like you’ve always wanted.

Follow the jump for a sample of the video tutorials you’ll find in the book.

[Source: Apple iTunes]

Continue reading The Hot Rod Art Book for iPad teaches you how to draw cars [w/video]

The Hot Rod Art Book for iPad teaches you how to draw cars [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 17 May 2010 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON – British energy giant BP, which is battling a gigantic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, also has a record of flagrant safety violations at its U.S. refineries, according to a Washington-based investigative group.

The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, said its analysis showed two refineries owned by BP account for 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the U.S. refining industry by inspectors over the past three years.

Most of BP’s citations were classified as “egregious willful” by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the group said in its release Sunday. It noted that BP has been under scrutiny from the federal worker-safety monitor since its refinery in Texas City, Texas, exploded in March 2005, killing 15 workers.

The report said refinery inspection data obtained by the center under the Freedom of Information Act showed that BP received a total of 862 citations between June 2007 and February 2010 for alleged violations at its refineries in Texas City and Toledo, Ohio.

Of those, 760 were classified as “egregious willful” and 69 were classified as “willful,” according to the report, which said BP accounted for 829 of the 851 willful violations among all refiners cited by OSHA during the period.

OSHA officials told the center in an interview that BP failed to correct the types of problems that led to the 2005 Texas City accident even after OSHA pointed them out.

BP, which operates five U.S. refineries that collectively process about 1.5million barrels of crude oil per day, was hit last year with a proposed $87 million fine from OSHA for violations at the Texas City refinery with another fine of $3 million for violations in Toledo, Ohio, according to the report. BP is contesting both penalties.

Contacted by AFP, BP had no immediate response to the report.

Related Links:

The real trouble from the oil spill is brewing deep under the sea

MMS goes under the spotlight

Oil now threatening Gulf’s cradles of biodiversity, its reefs

The sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church has triggered an interesting legal question: can you put the Vatican on trial in the United States?

Lawyers for victims in Louisville, Kentucky are trying to do just that. But the Vatican is shooting right back, filing defense motions today arguing that bishops based in the U.S. – who have direct responsibility for their priests – are not “employees” of the Vatican.

I spoke Judge Andrew Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst for Fox News Channel, and he told me there’s no evidence that American bishops are agents of the Vatican with respect to personnel matters.

More importantly, Judge Napolitano said, the Vatican is a sovereign state, which means it’s protected.

“International law and American federal law insulate sovereign countries from lawsuits anywhere, except where the sovereign countries have consented to be sued,” Napolitano said. The only countries to which the Vatican has given that consent are Italy and Vatican City itself.

Lawyers for plaintiffs have collected nearly $3 billion from Catholic dioceses in sex abuse cases across the country. The Catholic Church has what lawyers like to dig into: deep pockets.

So why try to put the Vatican in the dock? Maybe the lawyers try to do it for the deep pockets, but it also gets a lot of press. It hasn’t happened yet, so every attempt keeps people talking.

Holly Robinson Peete and Bret Michaels are the final two contestants battling for the title of Celebrity Apprentice 2010. The Seasons Finale will be held on the 23^rd of May in New York. The final challenge for them is to create a new Snapple or also known as a famous brand of softdrink flavor. After creating one, they will have to market their product for real money, as everything in the Apprentice is about money.

Bret Michaels is also known for his Type 1 Diabetes created together with his two teammates a Daryl Strawberry Drink that absolutly contains no sugar. Competitiors Curtis Stone, Holly Robinson and Maria Kanellis had put into action a Passion Fruit Drink despite of the fact that this particular drink is not so famous during these times.

The last thing we saw on The Celebrity Apprentice 2010 was Holly Robinson editing the commercial for her team and Bret Michaels doing nothing.

So, who do you think will become The Celebrity Apprentice 2010?

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Via Prison Planet.com » Sci Tech

Owen Bowcott and Rob Evans
London Guardian
May 17, 2010

British scientists experimented with ways of spreading foot-and-mouth disease, and lethal infections such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid in secret biological warfare trials during the second world war.

An extensive list of the contagious agents and plagues that could be turned into weapons of mass destruction is revealed in files from a War Cabinet committee released to the National Archives.

The government was known to have produced 5m anthrax-filled cakes to infect cattle in Germany during the war, but the latest documents show research was carried out into a far larger variety of diseases, mostly in Porton Down, near Salisbury, and Pirbright in Surrey.

Experts reported to the War Cabinet’s Porton experiments sub-committee, which acknowledged that “bacteriological warfare” was outlawed by the 1925 Geneva protocol. The minutes, only now released, are labelled “secret” and “to be kept under lock and key”. One session on “Toxin X” – thought to be botulinum – was so sensitive the minute records: “Not circulated.”

An interim report in January 1941 said: “The diseases considered most likely to be effective in bacteriological warfare are:

• Human diseases: enteric group (typhoid and para-typhoid), dysentery and cholera.

• Animal diseases: anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, glanders, and swine fever. (Anthrax and glanders also affect human beings under conditions favourable for infection).”

Full article here

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

Reuters
May 17, 2010

Iran will continue its uranium enrichment activities, including production of 20 percent enriched uranium, even after signing a nuclear fuel swap deal with Turkey and Brazil on Monday, a senior official told Reuters.

“There is no relation between the swap deal and our enrichment activities … We will continue our 20 percent uranium enrichment work,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation.

Paul Krugman is a fan of behavioral economics. He’s also fabulously well read, he must have read some anthropology, history, and political science at some point in his life. At heart though, Krugman is an economist. It’s hard for an economist to escape the prejudice that humans are fundamentally rational self-interest optimizers. It’s baked into their culture.

Alas, humans are only partly rational part of the time*. Obama, like every politician, knows this in a deep way. That’s why he ignores Krugman’s political advice.

Krugman can learn though. I’ve read him religiously since he became a byte-stained wretch, and he’s changing. He’s learning politics (emphases mine) …

Krugman – The G.O.P. – Going to Extreme – NYTimes.com

… Right-wing extremism may be the same as it ever was, but it clearly has more adherents now than it did a couple of years ago. Why? It may have a lot to do with a troubled economy.

True, that’s not how it was supposed to work. When the economy plunged into crisis, many observers — myself included — expected a political shift to the left. After all, the crisis made nonsense of the right’s markets-know-best, regulation-is-always-bad dogma. In retrospect, however, this was naïve: voters tend to react with their guts, not in response to analytical arguments — and in bad times, the gut reaction of many voters is to move right.

That’s the message of a recent paper by the economists Markus Brückner and Hans Peter Grüner, who find a striking correlation between economic performance and political extremism in advanced nations: in both America and Europe, periods of low economic growth tend to be associated with a rising vote for right-wing and nationalist political parties. The rise of the Tea Party, in other words, was exactly what we should have expected in the wake of the economic crisis…

Better late than never. The new Krugman will be even more interesting than the old one was.

* I suspect on average, over time, the system in which we are embedded is more rational than it seems, but that’s another post. (Yes, sounds like “psychohistory”, and, yes, Krugman, like me, grew up on Asimov.)

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

Dan Williams
Reuters
May 17, 2010

A nuclear-armed Iran would blunt Israel’s military autonomy, a wargame involving former Israeli generals and diplomats has concluded, though some players predicted Tehran would also exercise restraint.

Sunday’s event at a campus north of Tel Aviv followed other high-profile Iran simulations in Israel and the United States in recent months. But it broke new ground by assuming the existence of what both countries have pledged to prevent: an Iranian bomb.

“Iranian deterrence proved dizzyingly effective,” Eitan Ben-Eliahu, a retired air force commander who played the Israeli defence minister, said in his summary of the 20-team meeting.

Though the wargame saw Iran declaring itself a nuclear power in 2011, the ensuing confrontations were by proxy, in Lebanon. In one, emboldened Hezbollah guerrillas fired missiles at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv. That was followed by U.S. and Israeli intelligence findings that Iran had slipped radioactive materials to its Lebanese cohort, to assemble a crude device.

Neither move drew Israeli attacks, though Ben-Eliahu said his delegation had received discreet encouragement from Arab rivals of Iran to “go all the way” in retaliating.

Full article here

(Note: the following is an excerpt from my new OPRAH article – which you can read in its entirety by clicking here!)

The word shiva has two different meanings—in two entirely different cultures—yet the meanings share the same underlying message. In Hinduism, Shiva is a deity who represents transformation. Through destruction and restoration, Shiva reminds us that endings are beginnings, and that our world is constantly undergoing a cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

In Judaism, shiva is the post-funeral ceremony when family and friends gather to share happy memories of the departed. Shiva is an uplifting time, reminding the living to appreciate the abundance in this world, and to seize the day (and kugel!) while you can.

I appreciate how both versions of shiva remind us there’s a beneficial—even beautiful—alchemy of emotions that occur when you’re faced with an ending. A healthful shiva perspective can help you view what seems like the worst of times as an opportunity for better times. For example, the death of an unsatisfying love relationship can be viewed as a chance to begin a highly fulfilling love relationship—one that will thrive, thanks to all your freshly gained wisdom.

Keeping both these shiva perspectives in mind, how about celebrating the death of a marriage or any relationship breakup by holding a ritualistic breakup ceremony!

Click here to find out how people all around the world are presently throwing themselves divorce parties to bounce back happier than ever  – in my new OPRAH article!

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Damian Paletta at The Wall Street Journal reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is “likely” to file cloture on Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill today. That means the Senate could vote on the bill as soon as Wednesday.

I think this assessment is slightly rosy, though the final vote should come soon. If Reid files for cloture today, my guess is that he might not have 60 votes to end debate, as too many amendments are pending and too many senators have pet issues they want to see resolved. Additionally, if Reid files for cloture and the motion does pass, the Senate can debate the bill for only 30 hours more and no new amendments can be filed. That means no new compromise amendments on issues such as the Volcker rule, possibly meaning Reid might delay for another day or two.

A number of major amendments remain pending and should come up for a vote today or tomorrow. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) expect a vote on their amendment reinstating parts of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, a law rescinded in 1999 that barred financial firms from offering commercial and investment banking under the same roof. (If passed, Cantwell and McCain’s amendment would require banks like J.P. Morgan Chase to break up.)

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) expects a vote on his contentious amendment barring the Consumer Financial Protection Agency from enforcing rules against auto dealers. And Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) have an important amendment to ban proprietary trading at federally insured banks.

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

CNN
May 17, 2010

About 5,000 protesters remained on the streets in downtown Bangkok in defiance of a government deadline to evacuate the area on another day of violent unrest in the Thai capital.

At least 35 people have died since Thursday, including a key anti-government leader who was critically wounded by a sniper’s bullet last week.

Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol — a renegade general better known as Seh Daeng, which means Red Commander — died at 9:20 a.m. Monday (10:20 p.m. Sunday ET), Vachira Hospital officials told CNN.

An airplane circling the demonstration area and a televised warning broadcast multiple times Monday ordered protesters to vacate the streets immediately.

The announcement said those who did not leave by 3 p.m. (4 a.m. ET) would face a maximum sentence of two year’s imprisonment for violating the order. But government officials have not said what they plan to do now that the deadline has passed.

Full article here

Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

Jacob Hornberger
Campaign For Liberty
May 17, 2010

If you’re an American taxpayer, you should expect to receive a thank-you note from dole recipients in Greece fairly soon. The reason is that Barack Obama, working with his cohorts at the Federal Reserve, is using your money to bail out the Greek welfare state, thereby enabling dole recipients in Greece to continue receiving their dole.

The problem is that for decades the Greek government has been doing what the U.S. government and many other regimes have been doing: borrowing to the hilt to fund dole payments to welfare recipients. In the hope that Euro officials would not discover how bad things were in Greece, Greek officials were falsifying their financial reports. Unlike the U.S. government which has a Federal Reserve central bank, the Greek government couldn’t simply print up the money to pay off its debts. That’s because it’s part of the Euro zone, where German officials have traditionally opposed such a policy.

But finally, the welfare-state chickens came home to roost. The Greek government lacked the money to pay its ever-growing debts. Euro officials discovered that Greek officials had been lying about their financial condition. Fearing a default, investors were refusing to invest in Greek debt instruments.

So, the most likely scenario would have been a default, one in which investors in Greek bonds took a “haircut” ‘ that is, in which they got paid, say, 10 percent of their debt.

But that’s not what’s happened, thanks, in part, to the intervention of the U.S. government, which has promised to help guarantee, at least indirectly, not only the welfare-state debts of Greece but also those of Spain, Portugal, and others.

First of all, the European central banks are now going to be purchasing Greek debt instruments, thereby getting the Greek government off the hook. That effectively means that they’re printing the money to pay off the debts. In other words, inflation of the Euro money supply, which means rising prices across the board for Europeans.

To ease strains on the European central banks, the Federal Reserve has opened up a line of credit by which European central banks can borrow money from the United States. It’s not clear how much money is involved but it will surely be in the billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the IMF is playing a role in the one-trillion dollar European bailout, agreeing to lend billions of dollars to Greece on top of already-exiting IMF conditions. As this article from the Wall Street Journal points out, it is impossible to calculate the exact amount that American taxpayers will be on the hook for, owing to the complexities of how the IMF operates in conjunction with its member partners. But one thing is clear: U.S. taxpayers are now on the hook to help bail out European welfare states, and the bill is certain to be in the billions of dollars.

Did you see Congress debating whether the American people should be bailing out the welfare states of Europe? Did you see congressional debates over whether to extend the infamous TARP program to that part of the world? Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to secure permission of the German parliament before she could commit German taxpayers to the deal.

But you didn’t see Obama and his Federal Reserve doing that. They have made that call entirely on their own, without any congressional vote on the matter.

When officials in the executive branch of the federal government have so rigged the system that they’re able to commit vast sums of U.S. taxpayer money, either directly in funds or indirectly in the form of loan guarantees, to subsidize foreign welfare states without going to Congress for specific permission to do so, that’s the time Americans should be questioning what type of political-economic system under which they live. After all, what other label can one put on such action than dictatorship?

Of course, what is also so amazing about all this is that the U.S. government is doing all this donating and lending when its financial situation is no different, in principle, than that of Greece. Everybody knows that U.S. federal spending continues to soar out of control, along with federal debt, and that the Federal Reserve is now cranking up the inflation printing presses to monetize its debt. Not only does the U.S. government have the same type of welfare-state commitments that Greece does (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, education grants, corporate subsides, bank bailouts, mortgage guarantees, etc.), it also has its vast warfare-state empire to fund, including the occupations of two foreign countries and the operation of imperial bases all over the world. Notwithstanding all that, the U.S. government is now committing our country to underwrite the welfare states of Europe.

Thanks to Obama and his merry band of foreign-aid grantors at the Federal Reserve, American taxpayers are now bailing out European welfare recipients. The question is: When our day of reckoning arrives, who will bail out American taxpayers when the U.S. government is faced with default on its bonds?

Looks like this ‘Berry couldn’t wait to get out of the gate, as it’s live on Sprint’s website, a week earlier than the scheduled May 23rd launch.  Features include OS 5.0, RIM’s new trackpad, a slightly revamped keyboard, and Wi-Fi, all wrapped in Bold branding.  If you remember back to the good ol’ Tour days, Sprint and Verizon launched the device at the exact same time.  Looks like Sprint will be getting the initial glory this time around.

The $199.99 (after mail-in rebate) pricing is exactly the same as the upcoming HTC EVO 4G, which (in my mind, at least) casts a bit of doubt on high sales numbers.  Then again, maybe that’s why Sprint decided to jump the gun and throw it up on the website a week early.  Anyone planning on picking up the 9650 today?

Via Engadget

Not many meeting rooms are as cool as Saatchi & Saatchi‘s meeting room in their Beijing office. Not only the desk is a giant heart surrounded by Eero Saarinen tulip chairs, but the huge half dome covering it rotates: More »










Saatchis – Business and Economy – Travel and Tourism – Advertising agency – New Zealand

Here’s an exclusive video from NASA, which reveals the darkest secret of the space program, one that involves docking and alignment: How do you poop in space? Truly fascinating, but some of the comments in the movie shrivels my testis. More »










NASA – Technology – Space – Education – Space Shuttle Atlantis

Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
London Telegraph
May 17, 2010

Jean-Claude Trichet tells us the world faced a second Lehman crash in the days and hours before EU leaders launched their €720bn (£612bn) defence fund. If the European Central Bank’s president is correct, we are in trouble. The EU-IMF package is already unravelling. What will the West do for its next trick?

Mr Trichet was ash-white at the Brussels summit a week ago. He distributed charts of credit stress to every eurozone leader. By the time he had finished his hair-raising discourse, everybody round the table finally understood what they faced.

“The markets had ceased to function,” he told Der Spiegel. “There is still a risk of contagion. It can happen extremely fast, sometimes within hours.”

The spreads on Greek, Iberian, and Irish bonds have, of course, dropped since the ECB stepped in with direct purchases. But the euro rally fizzled fast, to be followed by a fresh plunge to a 18-month low of $1.24 against the dollar. European bank stocks have buckled again. Spain’s IBEX index fell 6.6pc in capitulation fever on Friday.

Geneva professor Charles Wyplosz said EU leaders made the error of overselling up their “shock and awe” package before establishing any political mechanism to mobilise such sums. “The fund is an empty shell,” he wrote at Vox EU. “Worse still, crucial principles have been sacrificed for the sake of unconvincing announcements.”

Full article here