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Voortman, the Dutch machine builder for the structural steel fabrication and stockholder market has organized on the 4th and 5th of February 2010, the Voortman Product Introduction Days 2010 in their new showroom and demonstration facility in Rijssen. Voortman is specialized in production solutions for the complete process of structural steel fabrication and steel service centres. Voortman offers a wide range of standard machines for profile and plate drilling, sawing and cambering, angle, flat steel and plate punching and shearing, plate processing, shot blasting and painting systems.

At the event on the 4th and 5th of February, Voortman will present some innovative solutions for the production process, especially in the field of beam coping with robotic plasma, layout-marking, plate processing and fully automatic shot blasting and painting systems. Not only new machines, but also Voortman will demonstrate during the Product Introduction Days 2010, their complete machinery range in their new showroom and demonstration facility. Visitors will also be informed in seminars, about the latest developments and innovations in pre-fabrication, production planning and monitoring, flexibility in connection plate manufacturing and surface treatment systems.

Finally Voortman will surprise all visitors with a tour around our sister production facility of ‘Voortman Staalbouw’ (a Voortman Steel Group company). In this production facility, the complete process is automated to a very high level, which can be seen as one of the most sophisticated examples of production automation in structural steel fabrication.

Voortman invites companies and editors of journals in the field of structural steel fabrication to sign up for this event before the 30th December 2009.

Food industry is a high demanding environment when you are talking about electrical or electronic components which have to withstand high pressure and high temperature wash down processes.

That is why REER is now proposing a special version of its watertight enclosures (WTF / WTFH), made of resistant materials suitable for such an industry.

PACTUR MANUFACTURER OF SHRINK WRAPPING MACHINES. AUTOMATIC L SEALERS. AUTOMATIC PACKAGING MACHINES, PACKAGING MACHINES FOR BREAD. L SEALERS FOR BREAD. SHRINK TUNNEL.
OUR STORY
Pactur, a company in constant increase and development, which was founded ex-novo in 1986. A positive reality, as some others in our industrial field and in our geographic area, based on a strong spirit of innovation and on a good talent in fulfilling the market requirements. In few words, a flourishing company, of middle dimensions, which has managed to obtain a good reputation all over the world. The trade mark itself “Lady Pack” stays for “reliable and high quality machines”, the “Ladies” of the packaging machines.
Shortly, a solid, prosperous, medium size factory, which identifies its policy with the following principles:
Seriousness. Correctness. Reliability. High quality standards.

Every model of the WILD range (CRAZY by LEMAITRE collection) finds its inspiration from the latest fashions in urban sportswear yet is still constructed from the very best materials. Each model of this range is S2 (SRC) rated.

Innovations:
>> LINING: Breathable, soft and abrasion resistant.
>> FOOTBED: Comfortable and anatomic. Hygienic and breathable. Antistatic.
>> CRAZY SOLE IN SEMI COMPACT POLYURETHANE: Light, flexible, slip resistant (SRC) and resistant (abrasion and hydrolysis).
>> ALUMINIUM TOECAP: Light, large and non-magnetic.

LEMAITRE’s footwear exceeds all requirements of the European norm EN ISO 20345: 2007 and is fully compatible with norm EN ISO 20345: 2010

Hello to all! I hope you are all about ready for Christmas! I finished my shopping today and am looking forward to seeing the grandchildren. Time is flying by and Michael is also home from the Navy for a two week visit before moving over to Jacksonville for more training. He is doing well and we are so proud.

One of the things that I needed this year was a new lab coat. I tend to go through several of them because I can’t seem to keep the ink off of them. I recently bought a lab coat from Barry at mynursinguniforms.com and it arrived very quickly. I chose a Cherokee Professional Whites lab coat and I figured I would give his company a try. I was given a coupon in return for writing a review of the process. Barry is also interested in becoming a paid advertiser on my nurse practitioner blogs so make sure that you go over and visit his site from mine so he will agree to help support my site too.

The hubby asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year and I told him not anything too expensive. Since I received the National Student Loan Payback this year, I seem to be focused on getting the rest of that paid down so when I extend it for another year that I may be able to get it taken care of quickly. What a huge relief that there really is an end to the school debt tunnel. Of course, to all who have “supported my site” over the years as I’ve transitioned from a student NP to a practicing one, I thank you and hope that you will let me know to visit your site and return the favor.

Merry Christmas to all who stop by and I hope that your 2010 will be a great as you want it to be!!

Ah, yet another lawsuit over Google ads. These just never seem to stop. The latest, found via Michael Scott, has a few interesting elements, however. In this case, a small online retailer of used cameras and electronics, Sellify, is suing Amazon, not over its own ads, but ads of Amazon affiliates. The two main complaints are over trademark violations of buying keywords, and then defamation. Defamation? Yes, because apparently when people do searches on Sellify or some of its related trademarked names, like OneQuality, some of the ads that come up say things like:

Beware of the SCAM Artist
Camcorders at the Best Price
From the Trusted Source
amazon.com

So that’s a bit different than the usual keyword advertising claim. The only problem, of course, is that these ads are placed by Amazon affiliates, and any defamation claim almost certainly should fall under a Section 230 safe harbor that protects Amazon. The claims in the lawsuit that Sellify notified Amazon are meaningless. Basically, Sellify is suing the wrong party. They might have an argument if they sued the affiliates in question, but they appear to have chosen to focus instead on the big, easy target. But, the whole purpose of Section 230 is so that you can’t just focus on the big, easy target, but have to sue those actually responsible.

Now, trademark claims, however, are not covered by Section 230, so we’re back to the standard legal questions in these sorts of competitive keyword advertising claims. But this has been covered a lot, and many courts have found that there is no trademark violation in competitive ads on trademarked keywords, so it’s hard to see that one getting very far either. It seems like the only argument the company might have is a potential defamation claim if it were filed against the affiliates. But the lawsuit against Amazon seems like a long shot.

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Two weeks ago, the Center for Media Justice brought together a coalition of national media groups working on racial justice issues including the Media Action Grassroots Network, Color of Change, the Media Democracy Coalition, Presente.org, Unity Journalists of Color, the National Hispanic Journalists Association, Center of Community Change, and with tremendous support from Joe Torres of Free Press, to meet with DC beltway civil rights groups One Economy, the Urban League, and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) –all members of the Broadband Opportunity Coalition– to discuss the issue of open and neutral online networks and the network neutrality rules being considered by Congress right now.

News stories and blogs were saying that the civil rights community opposed network neutrality, which I found hard to believe.  But there the telecom companies were, touting these open letters to Congress and the FCC from civil rights groups claiming that network neutrality was just a set of  “burdensome regulations” that would distract from the “real issue” of closing the digital divide.  Telecom companies threatened to disinvest in poor communities if they were held to any regulatory standards.  There were the 72 members of the Democratic Party who signed on to these letters.  Members of the media reform community shot back that the civil rights groups were bought out by big media.  It was, as my cousins would call it, a hot mess.  Since the whole point of network neutrality rules is to ensure open communication and self-representation with no corporate gatekeepers, I decided it was time to stop listening to the Telcos’ version and initiate face-to-face communication between the beltway and national civil rights communities. In the meetings, our coalition was delighted to discover that the beltway civil rights groups were NOT opposed network neutrality, and that they were as surprised and disturbed as we were to find that their position had been so incorrectly portrayed.  The leaders we met with appeared inspired to hear that there were hundreds of local and national civil rights groups in adamant support of strong network neutrality rules, and asked us to hold them to their highest standard and represent the communities they serve.

In each meeting, the representatives we spoke to said they never intended to portray the issue as one they were against, and one shared that it was absurd for anyone in the civil rights community to oppose network neutrality.  They also made it clear that in the wake of a conservative agenda to shrink government and decrease public investment in our communities, there is a long history of investment by Telecommunications companies in national civil rights groups and in communities of color.  So when companies like Verizon or ATT frame an issue, they are trusted and believed.

Now, that made sense to me.  In a society marked by media systems that maintain and echo the interests of the dominant group, it’s sound business and political strategy for telecommunications companies to invest in subordinated communities.  While communities of color have always had a dog in the media reform fight, there are competing interests and real challenges to corporate investment in our communities. Think on that for a good long while.  In the meantime, I mean, has democracy been working well for you recently?  Feel like you have a real say in the policy debates on universal health care, climate change, comprehensive immigration reform, public education, or juvenile and criminal justice?  Is your community adequately and fairly represented on broadcast and print news? Big companies making easy for you to share and sell your independent art and music? If you’re poor, a person of color, a woman, a member of the queer community, a progressive, a journalist, an independent artist, or simply not one of the few large telecommunications companies lobbying Congress to limit or eliminate network neutrality rules- your answer is probably, and emphatically NO.

As articulated in CMJ’s new one pager on network neutrality and racial justice, open and neutral online networks are a partial antidote to the exclusion and misrepresentation these communities face in traditional media.  The fight to secure open and neutral online networks is a fight for self-representation.  It’s a racial and economic justice fight. It’s a strategy for economic independence. With open and neutral online networks, communities pushed furthest to the margins by traditional media have a chance to speak powerfully for themselves.  Finally.  So it makes no sense that anyone from these communities would oppose making network neutrality principles law.  These principles are the reason the Internet has become such a serious force for communication, connection, and change for us all in the last two decades.  When you strip away all the technological mumbo jumbo, all network neutrality is, are a set of rules that forbid Internet service providers (ISPs) to block, discriminate against, or deter Internet users from accessing online content and applications of their choice—such as e-newsletters, blogs, social networking sites, online videos, podcasts and smart-phone apps.  It’s strange that anyone who wants their community to have the right to represent themselves online would advocate for anything but the strongest possible protections.

Still, telecommunications companies like Verizon, ATT, and others claimed that open and neutral networks would threaten digital inclusion, decrease their ability to invest in communities of color and poor communities, and violate their right to manage their networks as they saw fit.  They said the civil rights community and the Democratic Party agreed with that.  Conspiracy plot? I think not.

It is the rational outcome of big business to attempt to make as much money as possible.  The mega-merger between NBC and Comcast is an example of that.  If these telecom giants can control the online video market, as well as cable, we’re talking BIG MONEY and serious threats to free speech and representation.  Comcast already makes an 80% profit.  “It’s not that network owners are secretly plotting to stifle free speech. But they have an undeniable, rational interest in creating a pay-for-play model for the treatment of communication on the Internet. Commercial Web sites that pay will get speed and quality, and the noncommercial uses of the Net [like skype, public access media, your favorite movie site] will be collateral damage—relegated to the slow lane. It’s not necessarily that they want to block our speech for political reasons. It’s that our speech is not important to them because it’s not going to make them money.” It’s a proven fact that ISP’s CAN manage complicated networks with different and competing technological needs without discriminating or blocking content- but they might not make as much money.  It is a historical fact that if they can make big profits from a discriminatory pay-for-play model- they might do it, and we’d be faced with the same media problems we see in broadcast and print.  Can anyone say Fox News? Radio Payola? Cable?  That’s why we need the strongest rules possible.

Network neutrality rules threaten big media profits, because they put people and the public interest over corporate interests.  It’s that simple. Thank goodness our national civil rights community didn’t fall for the okey doke. Unfortunately, the media framed the fight as one with white media reform groups who don’t understand communities of color on one side, and civil rights organizations who don’t understand media policy on the other.  See… this is why we need communication without corporate gatekeepers, because, as per usual, they got the story wrong.

The meetings showed me that the civil rights community understands and wants open networks.  The groups we met with were happy to meet, inspired by the connection, and committed to being clear that they did NOT oppose network neutrality.  We should support them as they clarify their position.  We all have real questions about “reasonable network management” and the legal definition for “non-discrimination” online, and we deserve real answers.  Media reform groups whose purpose is to protect the public interest have real expertise on these issues, and they should provide answers to those questions in the clearest way possible. What’s true is that the media reform community needs to build deep alliances with the civil rights and racial justice community that is not only short-term and tactical but long-term and strategic.  It will take trusted national partners in the field like the Center for Media Justice, the Applied Research Center, the Praxis Project, the Center for Rural Strategies, Native Public Media, the Media Democracy Coalition, and others to build a powerful media justice agenda and practices in policy advocacy that support bridge building.  Through these initial meetings with the civil rights community, we built new alliances, expanded the base of people who care about and engage with media policy change, and forged a new vision together for what that change should look like.

I learned that in order to protect democracy, transform racism, and represent ourselves in the media- national progressive civil rights organizations have a significant role to play in media policy change because they have the scale to make significant change, while media reform groups have incisive expertise on the policy issues.  Civil rights groups and media reform groups need to move a media policy agenda for racial and economic justice TOGETHER, as defined fundamentally by regional grassroots organizations like the member organizations of the Media Action Grassroots Network– who represent and work most closely with those pushed furthest to the margins.  That’s my two cents.  What do you think?

HALLS Refresh is providing one lucky blisstree reader with warmth and relief this holiday season. You have a chance to win a comfortable robe and slipper set, plus a $100 AMEX gift card!

When’s the last time a candy gave you anything?

Refresh is a new mouth moistening candy with advanced moisture action. It’s specially formulated to help moisten your mouth. In addition to relieving a dry mouth, HALLS Refresh is nice to your teeth as well. It’s sugar-free! HALLS Refresh is available in all the same stores where you usually find HALLS.

The new mouth moistening candy has only 6 calories and 3 grams of carbohydrates per drop. Refresh can be incorporated into the diet of diabetics, but you should consult with your doctor if you have concerns.

To enter, you must have a US mailing address. Leave a comment on this post telling me which flavor of Halls Refresh you would choose! I’m a strawberry gal myself. The three available flavors of HALLS Refresh include Juicy Strawberry, Tropical Wave and Refreshing Mint. Deadline to enter is 11 pm CST on January 4, 2010.

How to Enter More Than Once
Tweet this contest and let me know by commenting again for a second chance to win this great holiday giveaway. You may also become a fan of HALLS on Facebook for a third entry.

The randomly chosen winner will have five days to respond to my request for a mailing address. That means you should check your spam filter on January 5 if you don’t want to lose your prize.

Good luck and happy holidays!

(Images courtesy HALLS)

Post from: Blisstree

Win a $100 AMEX from HALLS Refresh!

The old switcheroo

Editor, The Times:

Let Big Brother watch me use my ORCA card [“ORCA card worry: Boss could track your travel,” page one, Dec. 18].

I don’t care.

By the time he starts to watch me, my card will be in the hands of someone else. I already have a pretty big group of like-minded friends who plan on having an ORCA card trading party as soon as our employers give them out.

So when my boss wants to see where I have been, all he is going to find out is where my neighbor went.

A simple plan to thwart a stupid idea.

— Mike Crowley, Seattle

I’m not exposing my child to this

In “ORCA card worry: Boss could track your travel,” it mentioned people could assure privacy by purchasing a nonsubsidized card and not registering it.

Actually, this is not true if the purchaser is under 18 years old. I went to purchase my 6-year-old son an ORCA card. I was told I would not be permitted to get him a youth pass unless I was willing to give his name, birth date and full address.

I am deeply upset. I do not want all of my children’s personal information and movement patterns a matter of public record. This is not only an invasion of privacy, it’s a major safety concern. My current solution is to get a number of youth ORCA passes, register them to fictitious names, addresses and birth dates, and rotate them randomly.

The ORCA card needs to record whether it is loaded with a current pass, what kind of pass it is loaded with, and any current balance in the e-purse. All other information regarding ridership can be gathered from simple counters on the busses, the same way ridership is counted when cash is used.

If ORCA wants to allow people to register their cards and protect their balances, lovely. I think it’s a service many would appreciate. But requiring it? No way.

ORCA not only allows employers to monitor their employees, ORCA also forbids parents from protecting their own children’s privacy. That is outrageous.

— Karen Crisalli Winter, Seattle

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, UK, Celebrities

A month ago, Jay Leno got a glimpse behind the scenes at McLaren, where the late-night talk show host and car nut got a tour of the facility and had a chance to sit in an early version of the company’s newest roadcar in the studio. While Jay was on the other side of the pond he even stopped in at Top Gear to do a lap in the Lacetti. Well, apparently he ran a couple of laps in another car while he was at the Top Gear Test Track too. One camo-covered McLaren MP4-12C prototype.

After the jump you can view a video of Leno ride along in the new McLaren supercar, wax poetic about the 12C’s power, its handling and its totally bespoke construction. Jay even wrote up an article for The Times recalling his experience. Read here and watch here.

[Source: Times Online]

Continue reading VIDEO: Leno gets a ride in the new McLaren MP4-12C

VIDEO: Leno gets a ride in the new McLaren MP4-12C originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Potential success only skin deep

Measuring and monitoring children’s body mass index (BMI) is a convenient check box for the Seattle school district to show they are addressing the obesity epidemic [“Tread carefully with body-mass assessments,” Opinion, editorial, Dec. 17], but they have not done their homework.

The district’s response to community concerns regarding BMI measurement should be: Are there outcomes to show the BMI measurement leads to fitter, healthier children? Is BMI a good measure for obesity? Does school-based BMI measurement set some children up for teasing or exacerbate unhealthy weight-loss strategies?

District officials are ignoring these hard questions in their zeal to embrace the war on obesity. We risk harming our children for questionable benefit of an intervention that looks good on the surface, but is really a minefield.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against BMI measurement, it clearly recommends that parental consent be obtained before obtaining these measurements —opting in versus the current program of opting out.

At a minimum, the Seattle school district should be following these guidelines.

— Carol Achtmeyer, Seattle

Response to letter on Olympia’s means

In letter writer Jerry Oaksmith’s response to state Sen. Rosa Franklin’s thoughts on a state income tax [“Make more, spend more,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Dec. 16], he ends by saying, “we need Olympia to live within the means we vote to give them.”

As a matter of act, Olympia is living within its means, which is why so many things are being slashed from the budget. Revenue from our state tax on retail sales — the topic of this discussion — has fallen significantly in the past fiscal year.

In the 2007 fiscal year it was $7.4 billion, in 2008 it was $7.7 billion, but for 2009 it had dropped to $6.9 billion, a 9-percent decrease.

This drop is a result of a failing economy, and with that economic change comes a significant increase in the need for state services, services we voted the state provide.

— Duane Wright, Seattle

Reinstating the car-tab tax

In “Washington state’s regressive tax system needs an overhaul” [Opinion, guest commentary, Dec. 14], state Sen. Rosa Franklin has it right.

Unfortunately, however, to many of Washington’s elected officials and many of our state’s voters, even discussion of a state income tax is anathema, though for different reasons: elected officials because they fear facing angry voters in their next election campaign, and for taxpaying voters because of fear that a state income tax will be an additional, and not a phased-in, replacement tax.

I would like to suggest a simple, quick-fix solution to the additional $2.8 billion shortfall in the state’s budget: reinstituting the car-tab tax based on the value of one’s car, historically one of the state’s most progressive taxes.

As Times readers may recall, Initiative 695’s elimination of the car-tab tax in 1999 immediately blew a yearly $2 billion hole in the state’s budget, a now $20 billion hole one could argue we are still struggling to fill.

At the time, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled Initiative 695 unconstitutional on a technicality, and yet then-Gov. Gary Locke decided to follow the will of the people and did not reinstitute the car-tab tax.

Yet people continue to want government to provide services the state does not have the resources to pay for.

People lived with the car-tab tax, and will get used to living with it again. The state desperately needs the revenue to pay for education, basic health insurance, infrastructure and so much more.

— Marvin Stern, Seattle

Hip hip, hurrah for state Sen. Rosa Franklin

Three cheers for state Sen. Rosa Franklin’s commentary arguing for a state income tax, with reductions to sales and property taxes.

It’s a disgrace that we have the most regressive system in the U.S., with the poorest paying much more of their income than the rich, who pay a pittance. Franklin deserves kudos for continuing to submit this bill to the Legislature.

Additionally, such a tax should be steeply graduated. The rich can afford to pay a high percentage of their income in taxes like they did in the 1960s, and they have a social responsibility to support the services many others so desperately need.

The cynical argument that income taxes on the wealthy and corporate taxes kill jobs is hogwash. While the fat cats amass more money than they can figure out profitable places to invest, any extra funds working and poor people get to keep, go right back into the goods and services that grow the economy.

The legislative majority’s decisions to cut essential services like the Basic Health Plan and slash state employee jobs hurt not only real people in need, but public health, welfare and the economy.

— Megan Cornish, Seattle

Thanks, but no thanks

Thanks, but no thanks, Sen. Rosa Franklin. We already have a state sales tax that is too high. The addition of a state income tax will only mean that there will be a huge increase in income to the state, for them to spend as they wish.

If a state income tax were to be proposed, it would have to be an amendment to the state constitution. Does anyone think that those in power will fix the income tax percentage in the amendment?

I think not.

To do so would fix their hands, and bar future increases in the percentages, without the consent of the people.

Former Gov. Mike Lowry became a one-term governor over his promise of “give me a 4 percent income tax and I’ll reduce the sales tax to 4 percent.” The people of Washington aren’t that stupid.

The promise of one person in government is meaningless. Yeah, reduce the sales tax to 4 percent. When the overall revenue generated by the sales tax drops even one penny, a crisis will force the rate back up to where it was before, or higher.

The people have to live within their individual means, why can’t the state. No one that I know gets 10-percent pay raises each year, so why should the state be allowed to spend as much as they want?

— Charles Lund, Shoreline

Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 12.21.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the competitive world of tech journalism and blogging, quality can sometimes take a backseat to speed. While most bloggers double check their drafts before having their work scrutinized by editors and audience members, mistakes do slip through the cracks. With text-to-speech programs, errors become glaringly apparent.

Sponsor

Eight Interactive just launched its FeedMe Tech iPhone app. The service lets us listen to top tech news while running errands, walking the dog or cooking our holiday feasts. It’s a free application with feeds from 10 popular tech sites including Lifehacker, TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb. At the moment users cannot add additional feeds; however, the application does record what you’ve read, where you’ve stopped reading and the posts you’d like to save. For now it’s a barebones application that displays how online content providers can better reach their audiences. However, because it transcribes every character, the service can sometimes offer comedic results.

iPhone app demo for FeedMe Tech. from 8Interactive on Vimeo.

Bloggers should take note that FeedMe Tech reveals every grammatical error and misplaced comma. Couple this with the fact that the program’s default voice is set to depressed British robot and you’ll realize that a poorly written article offers an experience a bit like being in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In the spirit of spending more time with family members, I, for one, welcome our depressed robot overlords.

To create a custom-branded FeedMe application contact Eight Interactive. To try FeedMe Tech download it here.

Discuss

Sidewalks are wonderful things to have when you’re strolling around the block. When you’re faced with a long, snow covered expanse that you need to shovel, not so much. Unless your town or city decides to tear it up to widen roads or install pipes, all sidewalk maintenance is usually the responsibility of the home owner.

To make sure you don’t end up with an expensive sidewalk replacement job, keep a close eye on the concrete. If you see any small cracks or chips, you should repair them right away. The easiest way to do this is to clean any debris out of the crack and refill it with concrete repair epoxy. The epoxy mixes up fairly easily and sets quickly.

For larger repairs, plan to spend more time and energy. Bigger cracks need to be enlarged a bit and moistened so that the old and new concrete will make a sturdy bond. (Kind of like the way you put handles on the clay coil pots everyone seems to make in elementary school art classes.) Make sure you completely fill the crack with the concrete repair product you chose. If you used a premixed concrete patch product or just mixed up a small batch of concrete on your own, let it sit a bit before smoothing it out. Depending on the size of the crack, you may also need to follow regular concrete curing instructions, which means covering the repaired area with plastic for a few days. (I didn’t do that the first time around and ended up with another crack in my repaired sidewalk.)

Have you ever tried repairing your sidewalk?

Photo: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Home Safety – Sidewalk Maintenance

Tommy Silverstein isn’t fighting to convince anyone that he’s an innocent man who should be set free. He’s admitted to the murder of two fellow inmates and a guard, and knows his sentence will keep him in prison until 2095 — that is, if he lives to be well past 100. He did the crime, and he’s doing the time. All he wants is a little human contact.

No, I’m not talking conjugal visits. Silverstein has spent more than the last two decades under a “no human contact” order, completely isolated from other inmates and given the silent treatment by the rare guards he does see. That’s why he’s suing the Bureau of Prisons under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of the use of cruel and unusual punishment.

The United States has used solitary confinement to attempt to mentally break down prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Waterboarding might be flashier, but American POWs insist that extended isolation is just as, well, torturous. Senator John McCain, himself a former POW subjected to torture, said in a New Yorker piece, “It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.” Human beings aren’t made to survive without any social contact. The weight of separation destroys the mind, and I mean that literally — studies have found that solitary confinement does the same damage to the brain as a serious head injury.

(more…)

On December 18, 2009, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed David Riley’s capital murder conviction and remanded his case for a new trial because the trial court allowed his jury to consider highly prejudicial evidence in an illegal manner.

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