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News & ArtsSaturday, September 29, 2012
News Morning News: Privatizing Public Airwaves, Campaign Money, and Free State Parks
Posted by Unpaid Intern on Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 8:55 AM
Posted by news intern Al Jacobs.
FCC Set to Auction Airwaves: The FCC is going to auction public airwaves, probably for lots of money. Turns out the airwaves now occupied by television would be better used as high-speed Internet for sharing cat memes on "devices that have not even been thought of yet."
Surprise for Rob McKenna: The environmental group Washington Conservation Voters will spend $750,000 on ads to help Jay Inslee in his gubernatorial bid against McKenna. The group's director thinks the ads are "going to surprise Rob McKenna in a big way." It's not the good kind of surprise, like one of those ice cream cookie sandwiches. But it's good for Inslee.
New Virus Not Spread Easily: A new respiratory virus belonging to the same family as SARS isn't that contagious, according to the World Health Organization. But it can still kill you.
State May Restore Workers' Pay: Unions representing 60,000 state employees are in contract negotiations with state officials to restore workers' pay that was cut the past two years due to the reduced budget.
Firefighter Dead in Japanese Chemical Fire: One firefighter is dead and around 30 others are injured at the Nippon Shokubai Co. chemical plant after an acrylic acid residue storage tank exploded around 2:30 p.m.
Iranian Press Fooled By Onion Poll: The Iranian FARS news agency fell for it. It used unattributed polling data from the Onion that said rural Caucasians prefer Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Obama in part because "he doesn't try to hide the fact that he's Muslim." Someone at the agency has probably been fired. Or promoted.
Visit a State Park for Free Today: Because it's National Public Lands Day, state parks are free of charge. So go find a good state park and enjoy your smartphone in nature.
No More Canadians at Guantanamo: The last one was flown back today. Former Al-Qaeda teenage soldier Omar Kadhr has been detained in Cuba since 2002. The Toronto native pled guilty to five war crimes and will remain incarcerated in Canada. Guantanamo is now only populated by terrorist suspects from the Eastern hemisphere.
And here's a dramatization of Obama partying in college, courtesy of Key & Peele.
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Go see that vile glass-and-crap museum and not have to shell out two sawbucks of your own hard-earned money!
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/
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This Machine Kills Secrets, by Andy Greenberg
-----Unauthorized Book Review-----
Privacy on the Internet can easily be a life or death proposition: whether it was Yahoo and Jerry Yang outing a Chinese pro-democracy activist to the Chinese government, the secret police of Bahrain disappearing protesters, or the extraordinarily long incarceration and sleep-deprivation torture of Bradley Manning, the outcomes can be enormous!
When events work positively, lives are saved and movements flourish in Myanmar, Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
Andy Greenberg's monumental book, This Machine Kills Secrets, delivers mightily. Greenberg has exhaustively researched the story --- and the back story --- providing the reader with the ultimate bird's eye view of the unfolding story of WikiLeaks, Internet privacy and the corporate and governmental battles waged against them --- this is one kick ass book --- and Greenberg gets everything right!
This is no David Wise or Eamon Javers misinformation trope, this is the real deal, my Wolfen friends.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0525953205
For those who wish to stay current, the sites below may be of interest.
I-Sites:
http://www.privacysos.org/blog
http://cryptogon.com/
http://www.narconews.com/
http://www.globaleaks.org/
http://www.cryptome.org/
http://www.whistleblower.org/
http://www.exxonsecrets.org
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Go spam your dippy shit somewhere else, you galloping twatwaffle.
Yes, i just insulted you. You deserve it.
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I agree with you. It's like what Rick Steves' says, consider the value of your time and money well spent versus always looking to save a few dollars. Of course, he's talking about making the most of your vacation, but it certainly applies here too.
It's worth it to me to pay and support museums so that they can have free days for all to enjoy.
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Just visited Flaming Geyser for free...I think that Discovery Pass has had the effect of reducing down to 1/20th of what they would normally be.
The sad truth is that there are two types of WA state parks. Some of them are smaller versions of national parks, with manicured trails and nice facilities. However. many of them are just glorified K.O.A. campgrounds for RVs and and trailers.
I say make day parks free, and at the hookup parks they pay market rate.
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No way would I cough up any amount of money for Chihuly's glass "museum".
And yes, most museums do cost upwards of $20. I'm only saying that I am fortunate enough to be able to afford that, and I encourage others who can to do so as well.
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