March 29, 2013

Is this too good to be true?

How could it be so much cheaper than other cell phone providers? (I pay $120.00 a month.)

Republic Wireless equals bargain wireless

By Edward C. Baig
USA TODAY
Feb 20, 2013

Have a look at your smartphone bill. You're paying what, 75, 80 bucks a month?

So you'd figure I was peddling snake oil if I told you that you could pay as little as $19 a month (plus tax) for an Android smartphone that provides unlimited voice, data and text —without having to sign the customary wireless contract.

Due in large part to the use of Wi-Fi, $19 is the remarkably low amount that Raleigh, N.C.-based Republic Wireless is charging to tap into its basic wireless service network.

I know what you must be thinking. Republic has to be giving you one really crappy cellphone at that monthly rate. Or you'll have to stand on one foot and tie the phone to a kite to get any kind of decent coverage.

You won't have to go through such hoops.

The phone is the Motorola Defy XT, for sure not the sexiest or most feature-rich device you can buy today, but a fully capable midtier Android handset just the same. The dust-proof and water-resistant device runs the older Gingerbread version of Android, not the newer Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean iterations. But I was able to run several Android apps, including Angry Birds, Slacker, Quickoffice and YouTube, and fetch apps from the Google Play store.

More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2013/02/19/republic-wireless-19-dollar-unlimited-service/1928437/

March 29, 2013

Former US soldier accused of fighting with al Qaeda group in Syria

Source: NBC News

A former U.S. soldier has been charged with fighting with an al Qaeda group in Syria after allegedly posting photographs of himself posing with military hardware on the internet, officials said in a statement.

Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, Ariz., was accused of using a rocket-propelled grenade while fighting with the al-Nusrah Front, an alias of al Qaeda in Iraq, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia.

“Harroun, a U.S. citizen who served with the U. S. Army from 2000 to 2003, was charged by criminal complaint with conspiring to use a destructive device outside of the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, if convicted,” the statement said.

“According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Harroun allegedly crossed into Syria in January 2013 and fought with members of the al-Nusrah Front against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria,” it added. “The affidavit alleges that Harroun was trained to use an RPG by members of the terrorist organization and that he fired an RPG and posted online multiple photographs of himself carrying or posing with RPGs and other military weapons.”

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/29/17512634-former-us-soldier-accused-of-fighting-with-al-qaeda-group-in-syria?lite

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Video of US Army veteran Eric Harroun filming militants celebrating a crashed helicopter was cited in the FBI affadavit. This clip has not been edited or verified by NBC.

March 29, 2013

Malala Yousafzai sells life story for a reported £2m

By Conal Urquhart
The Guardian
March 28, 2013

The life story of a 15-year Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban will be published later this year, in a deal reported to be worth around £2m.

"I am Malala" will be published in the autumn and will tell the story of Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by Taliban gunmen after she became an advocate for woman's education in the Swat Valley. She now attends a school in Birmingham.

Yousafzai said: "I hope this book will reach people around the world, so they realise how difficult it is for some children to get access to education.

"I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61m children who can't get education. I want it to be part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school. It is their basic right."

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/27/malala-yousafzai-life-story-2m

March 28, 2013

Well there's this... Monsanto petition tells Obama: ‘Cease FDA ties to Monsanto’

In 2009, President Obama appointed Michael Taylor as a senior adviser for the FDA. Consumer groups protested the appointment because Taylor had formerly served as a vice president for Monsanto, the controversial agricultural multinational at the forefront of genetically modified food.

-snip-

Taylor’s position, which is currently deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA, includes ensuring that food labels contain clear and accurate information, overseeing strategy for food safety and planning new food safety legislation. He is the first individual to hold the position.

Before he joined the FDA, Taylor was the vice president for Public Policy at Monsanto from 1998 to 2001. He has since worked for the FDA in a number of capacities, most recently returning to the administration as senior adviser to the commissioner in July 2009.

-snip-

Smith cited as problematic Taylor’s prior involvement in overseeing the policy of Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST). Milk from injected cows has been a controversial topic, Smith points out, with many medical organizations and hospitals speaking out against it.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/monsanto-petition-tells-obama-cease-fda-ties-to-monsanto/2012/01/30/gIQAA9dZcQ_blog.html

March 28, 2013

Edie Windsor's remarks on the DOMA case at the Supreme Court

March 28, 2013

Marriage equality case's Edie Windsor: marriage 'magic'

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Edith Windsor got engaged in the 1960s to the woman who eventually became her wife, she asked for a pin instead of a ring. A ring would have meant awkward questions, she said: Who is he? Where is he? And when do we meet him?

On Wednesday, the 83-year-old stood on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, the face of a case that could change how the U.S. government treats married gay couples. She wore a grey pants suit, a pink and orange scarf and her engagement pin, a circle of diamonds.

Windsor, whose wife, Thea Spyer, died in 2009, sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill she got after Spyer's death. The pair married in Canada in 2007. Had Windsor been married to a man, she would not have paid any estate tax.

Windsor said the spirit of her partner of 44 years was watching and listening Wednesday, and she called marriage a "magic word."

"For anybody who doesn't understand why we want it and why we need it, OK, it is magic," she told reporters.

More: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=175505005

March 27, 2013

This Is The Obama Administration's Proposal To Help Wildlife Deal With Inevitable Climate Change

It's vague, and carries no actual weight, but we're sure this arctic fox is pleased to know that there's a 7-point scheme to save it when its habitat melts.

This week the Obama administration showed off its new strategy for protecting America's flora and fauna from climate change. Said David Hayes, Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior:

Fish and wildlife or plants, our land, our habitat, is not just something we feel good about because we like nature, but in fact they're providing a lot of services to us - jobs, recreational opportunities, we're seeing that they provide wonderful protection from storm surges, that the wetlands are filtering our water, providing clean water.

The plan is called "The National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy." It incorporates seven key ideas, and it is incredibly vague. To be fair, it's not exactly a to-do list; it's more a learned set of general recommendations for the future. For example! Goal number six is to "Increase awareness and motivate action to safeguard fish, wildlife, and plants in a changing climate." But the plan has no authority to actually do those things; it just suggests that they'd be a good idea.

Other items on the agenda include "Conserve habitat to support healthy fish, wildlife, and plant populations and ecosystem functions in a changing climate," which, okay, that means very little, and "Increase knowledge and information on impacts and responses of fish, wildlife, and plants to a changing climate," which means about the same amount. But, this is important; we're just guessing at how climate change will affect our wildlife, but as we learned from the story of America's rarest turtle, it's vital that we do figure it out, and quickly.

More: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-03/obama-administrations-plan-save-wildlife-climate-change

March 27, 2013

Pond Circles in New York has People Talking about Aliens

Mysterious pond circles appearing in Eden, New York and has started a viral buzz about aliens.

Local resident Peggy Gervase first saw the pond circles from the deck of her home on Friday evening.

“I took a couple pictures of the pond and I put it on Facebook because I’d never seen this before in our pond,” Gervase told Buffalo NBC TV affiliate WGRZ. “It’s eerie, in a way, and cool in a way. It’s crop circles, crop, pond, water, ice circles — just circles.”

The WGRZ Facebook page, had nearly 40,000 views with more than 200 comments. Some contained explanations of what may have caused it. They included everything from underground springs to melting ice, meteors, methane gas, gas expelled by fish and of course aliens.

More: http://z6mag.com/offbeat/pond-circles-in-new-york-has-people-talking-about-aliens-1620087.html

March 27, 2013

Supreme Court Proposition 8 oral arguments audio

If you want to hear the Supreme Court oral arguments for Proposition 8 you can listen to it here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-prop-8-arguments-audio-transcript-dto,0,7565825.story

March 26, 2013

Supreme Court appears split on Prop. 8, broad gay marriage ruling

Source: The Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices sounded closely split on gay marriage Tuesday, but Justice Anthony M. Kennedy suggested the court should strike down California’s ban on same-sex marriage without ruling broadly on the issue.

Twice during the oral argument, Kennedy questioned why the court had voted to hear the California case. “I wonder if this case was properly granted,” Kennedy said at one point.

His comments suggested that the court’s four most conservative justices voted to hear the California case. Had the justices turned down the appeal, as Kennedy suggested, Proposition 8 would have been struck down on the grounds of a narrow ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Kennedy is likely to have the support of the court’s four liberal justices when they meet later this week to decide the California case. They could decide to write an opinion that strikes down the California ballot measure on the grounds that it denies same-sex couples a right to marry. Or they could vote to dismiss the appeal, which also would have the effect of voiding Prop. 8.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-supreme-court-gay-marriage-ruling-20130326,0,1511924.story