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L33t Links: Big Stories, Unrelated Topics
Apr. 29th, 2010 01:27 pmA massive oil-slick is still spreading from a April 21 oil-rig explosion that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon platform and left 11 missing, presumed dead. Early attempts to seal the well failed, as did early attempts to contain the spill within a reasonable area. The next step is to try to burn off the oil before it makes landfall, which would be even more of an ecological disaster. I assume all the other oil infrastructure in the spill area further complicates that process. There may also be some interesting political implications for this disaster, with regard to proposed expansions of offshore drilling.
In somewhat more optimistic (and local!) offshore energy news, Cape Wind has finally been approved. Awesome!
Tech-blog Gizmodo has found themselves in hot water since they leaked info about Apple's new iPhone prototype, which they acquired for $5k from a guy who picked up the phone in a bar, where it was lost by an Apple employee. Gizmodo probably crossed the line on that one, they almost certainly violated CA's trade secrets law. The finder of the phone is probably guilty of misappropriating lost property for selling the phone instead of turning it over to police after efforts to return it to its rightful owner. If the finder didn't make a reasonable effort to return it, that upgrades the charge to theft and puts Gizmodo on the hook for receiving stolen property (again, attempts to plead ignorance will probably fall flat given Gizmodo's other actions). It's those latter criminal charges that got the police involved, raiding a Gizmodo editor's house and tracking down the suspected phone thief. Gizmodo complains that this violates shield laws protecting journalist sources, legal opinions are divided.
In world poverty news: Haiti has returned to a state of desperation as the post-quake aid fades out (especially for those in villages too small for NGO notice). And Niger is experiencing famine due to drought, with total crop failure in some regions.
In Arizona, a new anti-illegal-immigrant law requires the police to enforce federal immigration law and requires them to verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect might be an illegal immigrant. If such a person can't immediately present papers, the law requires that they be detained and fined. That is, aside from basically mandating racial profiling, the law requires citizens to carry proof of citizenship... but only if their skin is of middling hue. Even Karl Rove thinks the law is dumb, and it's not hard to see why, the Republicans will have a hard time appealing to otherwise conservative Hispanic voters with an immigration policy of "papers, please".
In somewhat more optimistic (and local!) offshore energy news, Cape Wind has finally been approved. Awesome!
Tech-blog Gizmodo has found themselves in hot water since they leaked info about Apple's new iPhone prototype, which they acquired for $5k from a guy who picked up the phone in a bar, where it was lost by an Apple employee. Gizmodo probably crossed the line on that one, they almost certainly violated CA's trade secrets law. The finder of the phone is probably guilty of misappropriating lost property for selling the phone instead of turning it over to police after efforts to return it to its rightful owner. If the finder didn't make a reasonable effort to return it, that upgrades the charge to theft and puts Gizmodo on the hook for receiving stolen property (again, attempts to plead ignorance will probably fall flat given Gizmodo's other actions). It's those latter criminal charges that got the police involved, raiding a Gizmodo editor's house and tracking down the suspected phone thief. Gizmodo complains that this violates shield laws protecting journalist sources, legal opinions are divided.
In world poverty news: Haiti has returned to a state of desperation as the post-quake aid fades out (especially for those in villages too small for NGO notice). And Niger is experiencing famine due to drought, with total crop failure in some regions.
In Arizona, a new anti-illegal-immigrant law requires the police to enforce federal immigration law and requires them to verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect might be an illegal immigrant. If such a person can't immediately present papers, the law requires that they be detained and fined. That is, aside from basically mandating racial profiling, the law requires citizens to carry proof of citizenship... but only if their skin is of middling hue. Even Karl Rove thinks the law is dumb, and it's not hard to see why, the Republicans will have a hard time appealing to otherwise conservative Hispanic voters with an immigration policy of "papers, please".
