Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, May 28, 2013.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Sakura Sakura by Jake Shimabukuro
News below Aunt Flossie's hairdo . . .
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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John Kerry’s wishful thinking on climate change
By John Upton
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We did it! Despite never ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, America has surpassed the ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets laid out in the treaty.
Or so claimed Secretary of State John Kerry while visiting Ethiopia on Sunday. “We’re below the Kyoto levels now,” he told a group.
The one problem is that we’ve done no such thing, and we are below no such levels right now. . .
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There doesn’t seem to be much point in trying to cover up — or even apologize for — the country’s historical global warming shortcomings. Tossing misleading data at foreign audiences isn’t just counterproductive — it’s insulting. Everybody has the internet now, John.
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Good for the World, Good for Shareholders: Study Finds Social Responsibility Means Less Risky Stock Prices
By (ScienceDaily)
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Firms that make greater investments in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives see less risk in their stock prices during economic downturns, according to a new study from the University of Iowa.
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CSR has become an increasingly important part of business in recent years, as more customers look to buy from companies with practices that match their own values, especially when it comes to environmental issues. While research has shown that companies like Patagonia and Ben & Jerry's have increased brand loyalty because of their extensive CSR initiatives, Durnev says little research has been done to see how that loyalty affects firms' stock prices.
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The researchers found the level of risk was significantly lower for firms with higher CSR scores, especially during economic downturns, as loyal customers kept sales higher during hard times than firms that did not practice CSR initiatives. That revenue and stock price stability led to lower equity costs, reducing firm risk further and making the stock even more attractive to buyers.
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All Data Packets Are Equal—Some More than Others
By David Talbot
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. . . a consortium of 80 digital rights organizations in Europe this week called for regulators to crack down on ISPs who it said were “using technical measures for their own commercial interests and tampering with citizens’ ability to access the Internet.” The charges came in a statement Wednesday aimed at the European Commission, which is considering non-binding recommendations to telecom regulators in European nations.
More subtle efforts are creating a conundrum. Last year, Comcast said its customers could access its on-demand video using an app on the Xbox 360, explaining that the app is basically the same as another set-top box—in other words, that it’s basically “cable TV”—and therefore isn’t subject to the caps in its Internet service that would apply to competing services such as Netflix.
Meanwhile, a crop of new technologies—especially on the wireless side—are creating priority service and policies that allow preferential treatment of some data to content providers who pay extra (see “Akamai’s Plan for a Wireless Data Fast Lane”).
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Despite the threats to net neutrality, the fact that any FCC regulations exists at all will limit how far ISPs and carriers will push the matter, says Tim Wu, the Columbia Law School professor who coined the term “net neutrality” 10 years ago. “Groups around the world are grinding away at net neutrality regulation, sometimes within reason, sometimes just to weaken or defeat the legal regime,” he says. “But the most important thing about net neutrality is the norm, and how strong it is.”
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For those who think neutrality should be enforced by law, there is some good news. Part of Verizon’s argument is that the FCC simply overstepped its authority in writing the rules at all. Last week, in a separate case involving zoning disputes over cell towers, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed solidly in the FCC’s favor and said the commission could define what its jurisdiction consisted of.
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International |
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How the Rich Got Richer, Global Comparisons Edition
By Kevin Drum
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Dylan Matthews highlights a fascinating little chart today. Roughly speaking, it plots two things for 18 different countries: (a) how much the rich have gotten richer over the past 50 years, and (b) how much tax rates on the rich have gone down during the same period. Guess what? It turns out that in countries where the rich got the richest, they also enjoyed the biggest tax cuts:
How to interpret this is a difficult question to answer.... Lawrence Lindsey and Martin Feldstein have argued that cuts in rates led to increased economic activity among top earners, leading to more growth and income. That's the conventional supply-side story. But you could also tell a story where lower tax rates increased the after-tax income of the rich, and that in turn increased their political power, which produced still lower rates.
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In the United States, the conservative movement has been astonishingly successful at persuading the public that "free market" policies which benefit the rich will trickle down to everyone. In Germany, not so much. As a result, public policies in the U.S. benefit the rich, and the rich also get ever richer. In Germany, they don't.
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Half of EU members 'oppose China solar tariffs'
By (BBC)
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The UK and Germany are among at least 14 European Union members opposed to punitive tariffs on Chinese solar panel imports, according to diplomats.
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The anti-dumping case is the biggest ever undertaken by the Commission, and affects 21bn euros ($27bn; £18bn) worth of Chinese-made solar panels sold in the EU.
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"Commissioner De Gucht ... made it very clear to the Vice-Minister that he was aware of the pressure being exerted by China on a number of EU member states, which explains why they are positioning themselves as they are in their advisory positions towards the European Commission," the Commission said in a statement.
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Italy passes European treaty that tackles violence against women
By Lizzy Davies
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Italy's lower house of parliament has ratified a landmark treaty aimed at combating violence against women.
The new government vowed to prioritise the issue as thousands gathered in a southern town for the funeral of a 16-year-old girl allegedly killed by her boyfriend.
At the end of an impassioned parliamentary debate in Rome, MPs in the chamber of deputies voted unanimously to make Italy the fifth country to ratify the Council of Europe's wide-ranging convention on violence against women – a move activists said would be a key step towards improving society's response to the problem.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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Supreme Court widens opportunity for claims of ineffective counsel
By Michael Doyle
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A badly damaged Texas man who was sentenced to death for his part in a San Antonio-area gang rape and murder will get a second chance at mercy, under a divided Supreme Court ruling Tuesday.
Born to an alcoholic mother and allegedly abused as a child, Carlos Trevino won another opportunity to raise a claim that his first trial attorneys failed him, in part, because they didn’t illuminate his upbringing. The revived case eventually might save the life of the man who once joined a prison gang called Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos, or Brotherhood of Latino Gunmen. It also might help other Texas inmates in similar straits.
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But the Supreme Court’s reasoning likewise might help inmates elsewhere. Twenty-five states – including Kentucky, Kansas, South Carolina and Idaho – declared in a brief that thousands of cases may be affected nationwide and that many states might have to start providing attorneys to inmates for appellate reviews.
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Redskins logo 'derogatory,' Congress members tell owner Dan Snyder
By David Trifunov
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Political pressure in mounting on Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder.
A month after city councilors petitioned the NFL team’s owner about abandoning his “racist” logo and nickname, 10 members of Congress have joined the fray.
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It’s “‘not just a racial slur or a derogatory term,’ but a painful ‘reminder of one of the most gruesome acts of … ethnic cleansing ever committed against the Penobscot people.’ The hunting and killing of Penobscot Indians like animals, as declared by Chief Francis, was ‘a most despicable and disgraceful act of genocide.”’
Snyder, according to the AP, has said he will never change the name.
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Drug Czar's Office Admits to Omitting Alcohol Data From Drug and Crime Report
By Mike Riggs
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In response to two blog posts and several Tweets asking why a recent report on the "link" between crime and drugs omitted data regarding alcohol consumption, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy tonight explained its decision to withhold said data, why it feels the data wasn't significant enough to include, and where interested parties can find said data in the raw (short answer: at the moment, they actually can't).
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Last week, we released the 2012 Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Annual Report (ADAM II), a long running study that reveals the percentage of arrestees in certain U.S. cities/counties testing positive for at least one illegal drug at the time of arrest....Typically, however, the annual ADAM report does not include findings about alcohol use. . .
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The truth is that despite its narrow mandate, the ONDCP talks about alcohol quite a bit. On the same ONDCP blog where Lemaitre responded to my questions, there's a post instructing people to provide non-alcoholic drinks to guests at their Christmas parties; meanwhile, searching the White House site for alcohol and the ONDCP returns more than 16,000 results.
The ONDCP is more than happy to talk about booze when it's talking about recovery and treatment; but including data about alcohol consumption--data the ONDCP requested--in a report linking illicit drug use to crime would have been counter-productive.
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US prosecutes '$6bn money-laundering hub'
By (BBC)
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The Liberty Reserve digital money service that was shut down laundered more than $6bn (£4bn) in criminal cash, US authorities have said.
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The documents allege that seven people involved in running Liberty Reserve set up the digital cash service as a "criminal business venture" designed specifically to "help criminals conduct illegal transactions and launder the proceeds of their crimes".
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The service's operators will face charges of money laundering and operation of an unlicensed money transmission system. Also arrested were many of the principal operators of exchanges that fed cash to Liberty for distribution to members of criminal gangs or as the start of the laundering process.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
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In comparison to a guitar, with six strings and four or five octaves, the ukulele is a four stringed instrument with two octaves, yet Jake manages to manufacture a bold and copious sound from the petite instrument. Oftentimes, it sounds as though two musicians are playing simultaneously due to the incorporation of bass lines and absorbing chords laid over melodies that can be sensitive or full out rock-and-roll.
Throughout the night, he introduced several songs that he said he had written with other instruments in mind. Chris Thile, the mandolin player of Nickel Creek, once said that he does not try and learn other mandolin player’s solos on his instrument. Rather he takes the time to notate a solo from a fiddle or banjo player. In other words, by doing the impossible, he takes his instrument to the next level. Jake clearly is of the same mindset.
This approach was most glaring in the tunes “Pianoforte,” “Let’s Dance,” and perhaps most interestingly in “Sakura, Sakura” wherein his ukulele was transformed into a piano, a conjured up flamenco guitar, and a koto respectively. A koto is a thirteen-stringed instrument of Japanese origin that is close to six feet in length. It sits on the floor and as accorded its massive size, it has colossal range. And yet here was Jake, himself not as tall as a koto, making his tiny instrument with only four strings do all of the work of its distant stringed-instrument cousin.
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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'Drones are changing the face of conservation'
By John Vidal
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Anti-hunting groups in Britain, conservationists on African game reserves and US animal welfare groups have started using drones to combat poaching and to monitor suspected illegal activities.
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"What cost $30,000 a few years ago can be got for $5,000 now," Roest said. "You can get electrically driven, fixed wing and multirotor [machines] that have a range of 20 minutes to an hour, or gas-powered ones that can fly eight to 24 hours and fly up to 500km. They are changing the face of conservation: they can film anything, go anywhere."
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Conservationists say that the technology will allow them to fight back against escalating wildlife crime, deforestation and illegal hunting. WWF has received a Google grant to use drones in Nepal and Africa.
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But some agri-business and hunting groups have started to fight back. Missouri and Idaho states in the US are being pressed by farmers and hunting groups to pass laws to limit drone use to law enforcement agencies that have warrants. Elsewhere, hunters have equipped a drone with thermal imaging cameras to better locate wild pigs.
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Climate change adaptation: So simple, a caveman could do it
By John Upton
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A team of scientists led by researchers from Cardiff University compared studies of Earth’s prehistoric climate record with archaeological discoveries from territorial expansions in South Africa during the Middle Stone Age. Evidence of leaps in technology included caches of jewelry, tools made from bones and stones, and paintings of early symbols (which were the precursors to language).
The scientists reported finding a “striking correspondence” between these archaeological highlights and the known periods of abrupt climate change. That correspondence, the scientists wrote, “suggests that the well-known major progressions in the development of modern humans” can be linked with “intervals of abrupt climate change.” From the Science paper:
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What does that discovery say about us today? It’s hardly apples-to-oranges: The climatic changes identified by the researchers were mostly friendly for the ancient, scattered communities that were studied. As favorable conditions receded, new technologies also faded. But here we are by comparison, 6 billion people and counting, staring down weather that seems more angry and destructive than anything we’ve faced yet. But we have advantages that our ancestors did not enjoy: We are beginning to understand the workings of climate, and we could work together to slow down the rate at which it changes.
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Perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt from this, given the situation in which we find ourselves now. Once more humans face rapid, potentially disastrous climate change. Our ancestors were probably reduced to a fairly small number, but dealt with the situation with communication, collaboration and invention.
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How America's Biggest Bike Share Will Turn NYC into a Cycling City
By Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan
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CitiBike has landed. Yesterday, amid a scrum of politicians and reporters, city officials introduced the system poised to transform New York street life. But keeping track of 6,000 new bikes—not to mention their riders—will be no small chore. And to do it, the city is implementing a handful of smart systems, ranging from modular docking system to self-powered tail lights.
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Every CitiBike docking station has a limited number of parking spaces. And because there’s a strict time cap on each rental, giving cyclists a guaranteed place to return their bikes is an important part of the system. That’s where the CitiBike app comes in. Developed by Publicis Kaplan Thaler, the Manhattan mega-agency, the app sits atop the Google Maps API, showing nearby stations as pin icons. The shading of each pin represents the fullness of each dock—that way, you can skim the map and know, immediately, where you’ll be able to dock your rental. You’re also able to favorite stations, route maps, and check in on your membership.
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A major goal of the Bloomberg administration has been to make the city “smarter,” either through design competitions to retrofit pay phones, by naming a Chief Digital Officer, or by asking developers to parse the city's deep well of data though the annual BigApps competition. CitiBike, though it hasn’t really been couched as such, is the first full-scale implementation of these ideas. Beneath all of the teeth-gnashing and turmoil lies a glimpse at the future of our city's smart urban infrastructure.
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Ethiopia diverts flow of Blue Nile
By (Al Jazeera)
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Ethiopia has started to divert the flow of the Blue Nile river to construct a giant dam to meet its energy needs, according to state media, amid concerns from other Nile-dependent countries downstream.
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Egypt and Sudan have objected to the construction, saying it violates a colonial-era agreement which gives Egypt nearly 70 percent of Nile River waters.
Ethiopia, however, says the dam will not affect Egypt and that the 1959 agreement ignores the needs of five upriver countries.
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Some 84 percent of the water from the world's longest river originates in Ethiopia. The Blue Nile is one of two major tributaries of the river. The White Nile, flowing through Sudan, is the other.
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Science and Health |
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More than 100 studies show link of pesticides and Parkinson's
By (UPI)
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A meta-analysis of more than 100 studies shows pesticide, herbicide and solvent exposure is linked to a higher risk of Parkinson's, researchers in Italy say.
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The research, published in the journal Neurology, found exposure to bug killers, weed killers and solvents increased the risk of developing Parkinson's disease by 33 percent to 80 percent.
In controlled studies, exposure to the weed killer paraquat or the fungicides maneb and mancozeb was associated with two times the risk of developing the disease, Cereda said.
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Surgery 'has growing death risk through the week'
By (BBC)
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People who have surgery towards the end of the week are more likely to die than those who have procedures earlier on, researchers say.
A British Medical Journal report into non-emergency operations in England, suggests the overall risk of death from such planned procedures remains low.
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He says the higher risk of death could be due to fewer doctors, nurses and many non-clinical staff being available on Saturdays and Sundays.
And the study suggests the risk of dying was higher still for surgery conducted over the weekend - 82% greater than on Monday - though the researchers caution only a minority of planned operations currently take place on Saturdays and Sundays.
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Malnutrition hits school performance, warns Save the Children
By (BBC)
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A quarter of the world's children are at risk of underperforming at school because of chronic malnutrition, says UK charity Save the Children.
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Their study suggests that children aged eight who are stunted due to malnutrition were 19% more likely to make mistakes reading a simple sentence like "the sun is hot" or "I like dogs" than those with a balanced diet.
They could earn as much as 20% less in adulthood, and the global economic impact of malnutrition could be up to $125bn (£83bn), Save the Children said.
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Technology |
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Anonymous-linked groups publish EDL supporters' personal information
By Ben Quinn
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Individuals claiming to be part of international hacktivist group Anonymous have published phone numbers and addresses for supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) as part of what they said was the first phase of a campaign to destroy the far-right street protest movement.
An audio statement posted on YouTube on Tuesday in the name of Anonymous UK accused the EDL of using the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby to spread a campaign of hate and bigotry and said that it would begin a "systematic and comprehensive decimation [sic]" of the group.
A list of what were said to be mobile phone numbers for senior named EDL figures were published online on Tuesday evening along with addresses of what were said to be donors to the far-right group.
Twitter accounts also re-published leaked details of hundreds of names and addresses linked to the EDL which were circulated on the web in 2010 after hackers broke in to one of the organisation's websites, prompting it to warn members of the potential for reprisals.
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Obama to confront Chinese president over spate of cyber-attacks on US
By Ewen MacAskill
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Barack Obama will confront Chinese president Xi Jinping next week over a spate of cyber-attacks on the US, including the latest allegation that Chinese hackers gained access to more than two dozen of America's most advanced weapons systems.
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But a classified report by the Defence Science Board, a group of civilian and government specialists who advise the Pentagon on military developments, says advanced weapons systems compromised by hackers include missiles, fighter jets, helicopters and naval ships. A leaked copy was published by the Washington Post on Tuesday.
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The Defence Science Board report comes amid a spate of accusations worldwide claiming Beijing is engaged in a sustained campaign of hacking defence and business secrets. In a separate row, Chinese hackers are alleged to have stolen the blueprints for Australia's new spy headquarters.
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Cultural |
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For Pundits, It's Better to Be Confident Than Correct
By (ScienceDaily)
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It would be nice to think the pundits we see yelling on TV and squawking on Twitter are right all the time. It turns out they're wrong more often than they are right.
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If a professional pundit accurately predicted every game of the baseball playoffs and series, Wooten and Smith estimated his or her Twitter following would increase 3.4 percent. An amateur would get 7.3 percent more followers.
But a professional whose confidence knows no bounds would increase his or her following by nearly 17 percent and an amateur would see a nearly 20 percent rise in followers.
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"There is some psychological literature on the idea that people hate uncertainty," says Smith. "The fact that people don't like uncertainty would suggest that they don't like the idea of a Nate Silver sort of person standing up there and saying, 'I'm only 90 percent sure.'"
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Facebook gives way to campaign against hate speech on its pages
By Rory Carroll
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Facebook has bowed to an outcry over content promoting violence against women after advertisers pulled ads in protest.
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Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, California, initially rebuffed the complaints, citing freedom of speech. A spokesman told Huffington Post UK: "As you may expect in any diverse community of more than a billion people, we occasionally see people post distasteful or disturbing content, or make crude attempts at humour. While it may be vulgar and offensive, distasteful content on its own does not violate our policies."
The campaign gathered momentum, however, when tens of thousands of tweets and emails using the hashtag #Fbrape were sent to the social network's advertisers.
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Facebook promised to review and update guidelines, improve moderators' training, establish more formal lines of communication with advocacy groups and increase accountability of the creators of content which is cruel or insensitive but does not qualify as hate speech. One recent innovation that obliges such creators to supply their authentic identity has already created a "better environment" and will continue to be developed, it said.
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Drug use changing in Europe amid rising unemployment: report
By Kristin Deasy
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The European Union’s drug agency warned Tuesday that unemployment across Europe could add to the bloc's drug problems, noting that while traditional drug use has fallen there, Europeans are finding more creative ways to get high.
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Europe's drug market is being revolutionized by the internet and the growing availability of new synthetic materials, making for "an ever more complex stimulant market," as European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom put it.
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These developments, combined with Europe's stagnating economy, increasingly jobless youth, and budget cuts, have officials concerned.
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Brand Maasai: Why nomads might trademark their name
By Cordelia Hebblethwaite
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Imagine a Maasai warrior, or a Maasai woman adorned with beads - it's one of the most powerful images of tribal Africa. Dozens of companies use it to sell products - but Maasai elders are now considering seeking protection for their "brand".
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The argument is that intellectual property rules offer the potential to provide a valuable source of income for people in developing countries, who tend to get only a small sliver of the profits made on their goods on the international market.
If the Maasai "brand" were owned by a corporation, it would be worth more than $10m (£6.6m) a year - perhaps even "tens of millions", according to Layton. How much of this the Maasai might be able to claim would be up to negotiation.
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It is not yet certain that the Maasai will choose to pursue intellectual property protection - Maasai elders like Isaac ole Tialolo want to be sure that the whole community is on board first.
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |