:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 2.14.2008 ::
:: "Surveillance satellite might burn up on re-entry -- or not" ::
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
No need to worry about a U.S. spy satellite that's the size of a school bus and falling from outer space crashing down on your head.
"It's only about 7,000 pounds. It's more like a minivan," said Carnegie Mellon University professor Paul Fischbeck, who studies risk management.
NASA said the satellite it launched last year never functioned properly and will re-enter the atmosphere later this month or early next month.
Logic would hold that the satellite would burn up upon re-entry, but that's not necessarily the case.
On average, one nonfunctioning spacecraft or other piece of debris has fallen back to Earth every day for more than 40 years, according to NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office.
Because the latest object is a spy satellite, few details about it are known.
Read more here.
A L S O
US: Broken Satellite Will Be Shot Down
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, The Associated Press has learned.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the options will not be publicly discussed until a later Pentagon briefing.
posted by me
:: 12:26:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Senate limits CIA interrogation :::: 2.12.2008 ::
BBC News
The US Senate has voted to bar the CIA from using harsh interrogation techniques such as simulated drowning, widely known as waterboarding.
posted by me
:: 12:22:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Senate OKs Immunity for Telecoms :::: 2.01.2008 ::
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has approved new rules governing how the government eavesdrops on phone calls and e-mails.
The vote in the Senate on Tuesday also grants legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on customers without court permission following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. President Bush had insisted on that retroactive protection.
The House passed its own version of the bill last year, but it didn't include the immunity provision. Republican lawmakers now want the House to adopt the Senate bill to avoid any contentious negotiations that might arise if lawmakers had to work out the differences between the competing legislation.
A L S O
Senate passes spy bill, phone immunity
Reuters
US Senate Votes Immunity For Telecoms
Slashdot
posted by me
:: 9:38:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Fairly Imbalanced ::
U.S. Senator Wants to Revoke Funding From City of Berkeley, Calif., for Vote to Boot Marines
Fox News
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., says the City of Berkeley, Calif., no longer deserves federal money.
DeMint was angered after learning that the Berkeley City Council voted this week to tell the U.S. Marine Corps to remove its recruiting station from the city's downtown.
"This is a slap in the face to all brave service men and women and their families," DeMint said in a prepared statement. "The First Amendment gives the City of Berkeley the right to be idiotic, but from now on they should do it with their own money."
You can read the rest of the piece here. The sources used in this story? A statement by DeMint and "a senior Marine official." There is no comment from anyone with the City of Berkeley, or even mention that anyone representing their perspective was contacted. Fair and balanced, eh?
Try The New York Times for a take that more closely resembles journalism.
posted by me
:: 11:14:00 AM [+] ::
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