Eideard

Circulation declines and falling revenue for newspapers and magazines have fueled concern that Americans are replacing traditional offline news sources with online sources. However, a new study by the Pew Center for People and the Press that looked at time spent with different sources of news found that growth in online news consumption hasn’t come at the expense of traditional media such as newspapers and television, but rather has added to it. In fact, people are spending more time with the news than they have at almost any point over the last 15 years, according to the Center’s research.

While it’s true there’s been a gradual decline in the number of people who say they get their daily news from newspapers, magazines and television (with newspapers suffering the biggest decline in consumption), the Pew study found that some of this decline was being compensated for by the increase in numbers of people who were finding their news online, and many people were also adding online consumption to their existing news habits. This has caused the amount of time spent on news to actually increase over the past few years, the center’s research shows, to the point where overall time spent is as high as it was 15 years ago…

More than a third of those surveyed said that they got news from both digital and traditional sources, which the Pew Center said suggests that “instead of replacing traditional news platforms, Americans are increasingly integrating new technologies into their news consumption habits.”

I’d call this good news.

Wonder what sort of ideologue, pundit or pipsqueak would say otherwise?

Satellite photo of deforestation and fires in Matto Grosso, Brasil

Brazil took a step forward in protecting the Amazon rainforest this week, starting satellite surveillance of the cattle ranches that are among the chief culprits in the forest’s destruction.

The agriculture ministry will monitor more than 15,000 cattle ranches, many of which were established by clearing forested land, and stop ranchers from selling their cattle if they expand farms further by encroaching upon the rainforest.

“We can now say that Brazil is doing its part,” said Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes at the launch of the plan in Para, one of several states in the north of Brazil over which the world’s largest rainforest sprawls…

The scheme is one of the few measures taken to date by the farming ministry to control ranchers, showing heightened awareness of the link between success in exporting and the foreign consumers’ desire for more ecologically sound produce…

Ranchers who have been identified via the satellite images as illegally claiming forested land to expand their pastures will be unable to obtain a permit enabling them to transport their cattle to slaughterhouses.

Overdue.

Spain’s socialist government has formally unveiled plans to liberalise the country’s abortion law. Under the proposal approved by the cabinet, abortion would be made available on demand for the first time.

Girls as young as 16 would be allowed to terminate a pregnancy without parental consent.

Ministers say it is about rights and respect for women.

The government’s proposal is that abortion should be made available on demand during the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy.

This is the latest ideological clash between Spain’s Catholic right and a left-wing government, which has already legalised gay marriage and made it easier to get divorced.

In my neck of the global prairie the whole confrontation is shifted further to the Right. Religious opposition is larger than just the Catholic Church, including every flavor of True Believer. The Left has no real voice in government outside of lip service from the Democrats.

The police are to expand a car surveillance operation that will allow them to record and store details of millions of daily journeys for up to five years. A national network of roadside cameras will be able to “read” 50 million license plates a day, enabling officers to reconstruct the journeys of motorists.

Police have been encouraged to “fully and strategically exploit” the database, which is already recording the whereabouts of 10 million drivers a day, during investigations ranging from counter-terrorism to low-level crime.

But it has raised concerns from civil rights campaigners, who question whether the details should be kept for so long, and want clearer guidance on who might have access to the material.

The project relies on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to pinpoint the precise time and location of all vehicles on the road. Senior officers had promised the data would be stored for two years. But responding to inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act, the Home Office has admitted the data is now being kept for five years.

Police helicopters have been equipped with infrared cameras that can read licence plates from 610 metres (2,000ft).

It’s difficult not to make a snap comparison with Herr Himmler – the joy he would have had with such a thorough system of spying on the citizens of a nation. As much as Americans have fought tooth and nail to keep what civil liberties we have remaining – from the onslaught of so-called patriots and other cowards – the Brits apparently have fewer defenders and less courage.

Certainly, they’re on their way to less freedom.