Eideard

Whew! It could have turned out to be something like this.

Police in Ohio said a high school was locked down for about a half hour due to the sound that resulted when a squirrel caused a transformer malfunction.

Columbus police said Brookhaven High School was locked down shortly after 8 a.m. Monday following the gunshot-like sound but the lockdown was lifted shortly after 8:30 a.m., when investigators discovered the sound was caused by the squirrel, WCMH-TV, Columbus, Ohio, reported Tuesday.

I’d hate to think what happens when some dizzy blond pops her bubble gum in class.

Would you buy a used car from either of these clowns?

Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand formed a three-way tie as the least corrupt countries in the 2010 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, while Somalia was rated the most corrupt and the U.S score declined.

Those three countries were the leaders last year as well, though in 2009 New Zealand was first, with Denmark and Singapore closely behind. The index, developed for at least the last 15 years by the Berlin-based international anti-corruption group, is widely used by business, civil society groups and others when determining corruption risk across the globe.

This year, the index found that three-quarters of the 178 countries scored below 5 on a Zero-to-10 scale, indicating serious corruption problems. A country’s perceived corruption decreases as its score increases. Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand each scored a 9.3, whereas Somalia scored a 1.1 and the U.S. saw its score drop to 7.1 in 2010 from 7.5 a year ago…

“We need to see more enforcement of existing rules and laws. There should be nowhere to hide for the corrupt or their money,” said Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International, in the statement.

Of the hundreds of sources covering the release of this report, I chose the Wall Street Journal – just to peep the conservative moneyboys perception of corruption. The result was predictable – scant mention that the United States continues in decline. BTW, the USA was 14th before George W’s election. Now, we’re 22nd.

Wow. What a wonderful world of choice. Here in New Mexico we have one reasonably courageous senator and one matching congressman [not in my district - so, I don't get to vote for him]. The rest are the same old, lame old story – running against a stereotypical slate of Republicans whose only claim to fame is that they’re presently unemployed in government.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A federal judge has ordered a Mississippi school district to pay about $81,000 in legal fees and expenses in a lawsuit filed by a lesbian student who was told she would be ejected from a prom if she brought her girlfriend.

The decision…by a federal judge may be the final chapter in the well-publicized legal battle between a lesbian teenager and the Mississippi school district.

The lawsuit against the school district in Fulton, Mississippi, was filed by the ACLU on behalf of Constance McMillen. The lawsuit was settled in July, and the school district agreed to pay McMillen $35,000 in damages and adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. The July settlement was not part of the $81,000 payment ordered by the judge Tuesday.

The issue made national news after McMillen, the lesbian teen, was told by Itawamba Agricultural High School officials she and her girlfriend would be barred from attending the school-sponsored prom.

At the time, support poured in for the teen. She served as the grand marshal for New York’s Gay Pride Parade, got a $30,000 college scholarship from an anonymous donor and a Facebook page called “Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to Prom!” attracted more than 400,000 fans.

And the support was more than deserved. Think back to your own high school years. Ever get out of line? Ever get out of line over a principled issue like civil rights?

The settlements? Overdue. Hit these creeps where their hearts live. In their wallets.

Alan Newton served over 21 years in prison for a rape, robbery and assault he didn’t commit, before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2006. Now, he was awarded $18.5 million by a jury for his wrongful imprisonment, one of the largest ever amounts awarded for wrongful imprisonment in NYC. “It hasn’t really sunk in. It’s so emotional. It’s something I’ve been fighting for the last four years, since I came home. I’m just glad things worked out at the end of the day,” he told the Times.

Newton’s cause had been taken up by The Innocence Project, which works on cases “where postconviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence.” The jury ruled that the city had violated Newton’s constitutional rights, and found two police officers liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress for failing to produce Mr. Newton’s evidence when requested. Newton had asked for DNA evidence in 1994, 1997 and 1998; the Innocence Project was only able to get it in 2005.

The Innocence Project has helped exonerate a number of people in NYC in the last decade, including a former postal worker who spent 18 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Since being released from prison, Newton, 49, spent two years as a full-time student at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn completing his degree; now he works as a research associate at the Black Male Initiative of the City University of New York, and plans on applying to law school. “I want to work with people that really need that legal assistance that’s just not there for them. There are so many issues where people need competent counsel, and it’s just not out there. I think I’ll jump into it with both arms.”

When will prosecutor stop being persecutors? When will judges insure equal rights before the law? Do you think we’ll ever run out of stories on injustice like this one?

The chairman of British Airways has said some “completely redundant” airport security checks should be scrapped and the UK should stop “kowtowing” to US security demands.

Practices such as forcing passengers to take off their shoes should be abandoned, Martin Broughton said. And he questioned why laptop computers needed to be screened separately.

He also criticised the US for imposing increased checks on US-bound flights but not on its own domestic services.

The US stepped up security in January in the wake of an alleged bomb plot. It introduced tougher screening rules, including body pat-down searches and carry-on baggage checks, for passengers arriving from 14 nations which the authorities deem to be a security risk. Passengers from any foreign country may also be checked at random…

“America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do,” he was quoted as saying in the FT. “We shouldn’t stand for that.”

“We should say, ‘we’ll only do things which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential’.”

Heavens to Murgatroyd. A British businessman standing up to the United States?

What will we confront next? Ordinary Americans refusing to be bullied by incompetent work-release dunderheads one step above mall cops?

Traveling blind!

Russian forces could return to Afghanistan for the first time since they were forced out by mujahideen fighters in 1989, under a joint initiative with Nato.

A Nato summit next month will be attended by Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, to discuss the plans. Nato officials said Russia had agreed to sell helicopters to Afghanistan and provide training.

Moscow will allow Nato forces to withdraw equipment from Afghanistan overland for the first time, in proposals expected to be agreed in Lisbon.

“The summit can mark a new start in the relationship between Nato and Russia,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato secretary-general…

Everyone can learn to be losers.

While his call has been embraced by Western leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron who set a five-year deadline on the Army’s combat role, Mr Rasmussen said troops would not be withdrawn immediately.

Under a blueprint drawn up by Gen David Petraeus, Nato commander in Afghanistan, foreign troops would “thin out” but not leave disputed territory.

The blind leading the blind is now apparently part of Obama’s “new” strategy in Afghanistan?

The U.S. Army could be streaming surveillance video images from unmanned planes to solders’ cellphones in about two years…

The Army remains committed to the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) as the main means for disseminating video images to the battlefield, a big program that is still under development and should be fielded in 2014, said Tim Owings, deputy program manager for Army unmanned aerial systems.

But technology developments and rapid advances in encryption software mean smaller-scale self-contained 4G networks could also be an option for allowing troops to see video images in about two years, Owings told reporters at the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference…

“We’re probably going to look at that. We’d be somewhat short-sighted not to,” Owings said about streaming to smart phones, although he noted that the Army does not have a formal requirement for such a system.

Owings said new encryption advances mean that such systems would allow “pretty darn secure” transmission of data in a very limited area, and they would be fairly inexpensive since they could be used with commercially available smart phones…

Army equipment often requires extensive training for troops, but most recruits are already familiar with so-called smart phones, cell phones that can receive video images and photographs, which could reduce training costs, Owings said.

Part of such implementation is getting the officer corps to be as technically hip as the incoming grunts. And, I suppose, keeping the bean counters from offering more than 600% markups to their favorite military-industrial supermarkets.

Print your own 2011 Chandra calendar with spectacular images from the past year. Featured objects include supernova remnants, galaxies in various shapes & sizes and star clusters in our very own Milky Way. Available as a 12-page full color PDF in 17×11″ sizes. Individual months may also be downloaded.

New University of Florida research puts to rest the mystery of where old carbon was stored during the last glacial period. It turns out it ended up in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.

The findings have implications for modern-day global warming, said Ellen Martin, a UF geological sciences professor and an author of the paper, which is published in this week’s journal Nature Geoscience.

“It helps us understand how the carbon cycle works, which is important for understanding future global warming scenarios,” she said. “Ultimately, a lot of the carbon dioxide that we’re pumping into the atmosphere is going to end up in the ocean. By understanding where that carbon was stored in the past and the pathways it took, we develop a better understanding of how much atmospheric carbon dioxide the oceans can absorb in the future…”

The implications are that while large amounts of carbon could be stored in the ocean when there was a great deal of sea ice, the opposite is the case in a world that is warming, with less ice, which allows more carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere, Martin said. Thus, in a warming scenario the oceans may not be able to store as much carbon dioxide as they could under glacial conditions

The oceans are a critical part of the carbon dioxide cycle, Martin said. “The oceans have 60 times more carbon dioxide in them than the atmosphere, so when we worry about what’s happening with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we often look to the oceans as a potential source or sink.”

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the glacial periods was about 200 parts per million, compared with 280 parts per million during a typical interglacial period, Martin said. Today that level has soared to about 380 parts per million, she said.

The time period that encompasses the last glacial period to the current interglacial period when carbon dioxide levels went up very quickly is often referred to as the “mystery interval” because scientists hadn’t known where the carbon was stored, Martin said.

“Now we have a better understanding of how the system worked,” she said.

Bravo! Deeper understanding, another avenue opened for investigation for those paleoclimatologists working hard at becoming forecasters.

While the Kentucky Senatorial debate on Monday night was markedly more cordial than usual, a fight that broke out before the event was anything but.

A female MoveOn.org activist was stomped on by a supporter of Kentucky GOP candidate Rand Paul after she attempted to approach him before his final debate with Democrat Jack Conway…

The 24-year-old woman with the liberal group, identified as Lauren Valle by local media, tripped and fell after someone ripped a blond wig off her head. She is then seen on video being wrestled to a curb by one man. After she is placed face down, another man stomps on her shoulder and head with his foot…

Police said Valle was trying to get a photo with the Tea Party favorite holding a sign that said “employee of the month award.” The satirical prize was from Republicorp, a fake business MoveOn created to symbolize what it says is a cozy relationship between corporate America and the GOP…

“She was subsequently stopped and thrown to the ground by a group of individuals who were gathered there for the debate,” police information officer Sherelle Roberts said. “It was caught on video. You can see the woman being thrown to the ground, there was a gentleman who stepped on her head…”

The man who stomped on her has not yet been identified. Police said they are searching for him…

Paul’s campaign released a statement on the melee, calling it “incredibly unfortunate.”

Most “unfortunate” – is that it was recorded. Unlike back in the day – when civil rights activists were often beaten by racist gangs. Nowadays, every group seems to contain a few people with video cameras. Even the lowly cell phone often has video capability.

They willingly joined the generalized fear, cowardice and anger that characterizes the American right wing. Where’s the surprise at violent attacks? Just another debate tactic for teabaggers.

UPDATE: Thanks to the comment from “bubby” identifying the attackers – including an official of the Rand Paul campaign.