Topic: Universe - on November 30, 2008 at 1:18:23 PM CET
"78 Billion" -A 'Hubble' Video: Journey to the Beginning of Time
It helps to put things in perspective here on our frenetic little planet with a look at this extraordinarily powerful and moving video of the Hubble Space Telescope mapping of the Universe, whose known size is 78 billion light years across.
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Topic: WAR - on November 30, 2008 at 1:13:47 PM CET
Mumbai photographer: I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera. Armed police would not fire back
Sebastian D'Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus. "I ran into the first carriage of one of the trains on the platform to try and get a shot but couldn't get a good angle, so I moved to the second carriage and waited for the gunmen to walk by," he said. "They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking photographs but theydidn't seem to care."
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Topic: WAR - on November 30, 2008 at 1:12:20 PM CET
Mumbai under attack - The Big Picture
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Topic: War and Peace - on November 30, 2008 at 1:07:32 PM CET
Seven Mumbai gunmen are from 'Leeds and Hartlepool'
Seven of the terrorists who brought carnage to Mumbai are British, Indian government sources claimed yesterday.
They said two British-born Pakistanis are under arrest. And another five suspects are said to have been born and raised here.
Two of the seven are from Leeds, one is from Bradford and one from Hartlepool, the sources claimed. All are aged between 20 and 26.
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Topic: SECURITY - on November 30, 2008 at 1:04:51 PM CET
No scanners to read ID cards
Britain's first ID cards, issued last week with fingerprint and facial details, cannot be read by any official body because the government has not issued a single scanner.
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Topic: Online-Fahndung - on November 30, 2008 at 1:03:18 PM CET
Anti-Piracy Lobby Defeats European Democracy
An amendment designed to protect Internet users from the anti-piracy lobby has been rejected by President Sarkozy of the European Council. The rejection goes against the will of the European Parliament, where 88% of the members already voted in favor of the amendment, which was originally destined to protect file-sharers from Internet disconnection under the ‘3 strikes’ framework.
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 30, 2008 at 12:40:36 PM CET
Fünf Kilo Kokain in Fischamend sichergestellt
Das Suchtgift gelangte versteckt in Großgepäck zum Flughafen Wien in Schwechat. Bei einer Kontrolle seien die Drogen entdeckt worden, diese war aber für den Besitzer, einen 72-jährigen Italiener, nicht wahrnehmbar, so die Angaben der Polizei. Der Mann wurde in der Folge observiert.
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 30, 2008 at 12:37:58 PM CET
Wasting Drug War Resources
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office, commissioned by Sen. Joe Biden, has come to an unsurprising conclusion: After more than $6 billion spent, the controversial drug control operation known as Plan Colombia has failed by large margins to meet its targets.
The goal had been to cut cocaine production in Colombia by 50 percent from 2000 to 2006 through eradication of coca crops and training of anti-narcotics police and military personnel. In fact, cocaine production in Colombia rose 4 percent during that period, the GAO found. With increases in Peru and Bolivia, production of cocaine in South America increased by 12 percent during that period. In 1999 it cost $142 to buy a gram of cocaine on the street in the United States, according to inflation-adjusted figures from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. By 2006 the price had fallen to $94 per gram.
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 30, 2008 at 12:35:16 PM CET
U.S. war on drugs has failed, report says
The United States' war on drugs has failed and will continue to do so as long as it emphasizes law enforcement and neglects the problem of consumption, a Washington think tank says in a report co-chaired by a former president of Mexico.
The former president, Ernesto Zedillo, in an interview, called for a major rethinking of U.S. policy, which he said has been "asymmetrical" in demanding that countries such as Mexico stanch the flow of drugs northward, without successful efforts to stop the flow of guns south. In addition to disrupting drug-smuggling routes, eradicating crops and prosecuting dealers, the U.S. must confront the public health issue that large-scale consumption poses, he said.
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 30, 2008 at 12:33:11 PM CET
Swiss voters decide on heroin and cannabis
Voters in Switzerland are going to the polls in a series of referendum votes to decide the country's policy on illegal drugs.
One ballot asks voters to vote on whether to approve heroin prescription as a permanent Swiss health policy.
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Topic: FUN - on November 29, 2008 at 2:23:32 PM CET
Silly Walks and Creative Ruts
Comic genius John Cleese sat down for an interview a few years ago and had a lot to say about creativity and the creative process. I keep coming back to this passage, where he discusses the importance of whim...
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Topic: SEX - on November 29, 2008 at 2:14:44 PM CET
Woman May Lose Home Over Decade-Old Blowjob
Wendy Whitaker, 29, has been on Georgia’s sex offender list for more than 12 years. Her crime? She performed oral sex on a high school classmate just after turning 17. The boy was just shy of his 16th birthday. Both were sophomores. Whitaker is now suing, claiming that given her crime, her sex offender status is cruel and unusual punishment.
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