government – Page 46

Crazy Stuff, Culture, Food, government, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues

The Amish Raw Milk Black Market

February 4, 2011

Raw Milk Is A Hot Commodity

Two people have died in the last 10 years from drinking unpasteurized milk. Twelve states have banned it. (By comparison, between two and twelve children die every year playing high school football. When will high school football be banned?)

In today’s edition of The Daily, Jordan Heller writes about the Amish and Mennonite dairy farmers who smuggle unpasteurized milk into New York to serve a market of raw milk devotees…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, government, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Human Behavior

Guns, Guns For Everyone: Bill Would Require All Citizens to Buy a Gun

February 3, 2011

Guns are good, unless you don’t have one, right?

Five South Dakota lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require any adult 21 or older to buy a firearm “sufficient to provide for their ordinary self-defence.”

The bill, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2012, would give people six months to acquire a firearm after turning 21. The provision does not apply to people who are barred from owning a firearm. Nor does the measure specify what type of firearm. Instead, residents would pick one “suitable to their temperament, physical capacity, and preference.”

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Business, government, Science & Technology News

San Francisco Could Become 1st U.S. City to Ban Unsolicited Phone Books

February 3, 2011

Yellow Pages distributors will be required to ask businesses and residents if they would like a copy.

San Francisco could become the first city in the country to require distributors of the Yellow Pages to ask businesses and residents if they would like a copy of the hefty tome before leaving it on the doorstep, under new legislation introduced today.

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government, Internet

China Blocks the Word ‘Egypt’ From Internet Searches

February 2, 2011

Protesters react in Tahrir Square to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s televised speech in Cairo February 1, 2011.

Chinese authorities have blocked the word “Egypt” from searches on Twitter-like microblogging sites in an indication of concern among Communist Party leaders that the unrest there could encourage similar calls for political reform in China.

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Big Problems, Globalism, government, Latest Trend, Weapons

Pakistan’s Nuclear Arsenal Estimated at Over 100

January 31, 2011

A nuclear missile in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal now totals more than 100 deployed weapons, a doubling of its stockpile over the past several years in one of the world’s most unstable regions, according to estimates by nongovernment analysts.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Culture, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News, New Discoveries

EFF: FBI May Have Committed More Than 40K Intelligence Violations Since 9/11

January 30, 2011

The FBI committed massive civil liberties violations since 9/11. Are you surprised?

A new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation analyzes more than 2,500 pages’ worth of FBI documents extracted using Freedom of Information Act litigation and finds disturbing, system-wide violations of civil liberties on a scale that is far beyond anything reported to date…

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Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Current Events, Entertainment, facebook, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Internet, Latest News, New Viewpoints

Egypt Turns Off Internet, Lieberman Wants Same Option For US

January 28, 2011

Should the government here have this kind of power?

On Thursday Jan 27th at 22:34 UTC the Egyptian Government effectively removed Egypt from the internet. Nearly all inbound and outbound connections to the web were shut down. The internet intelligence authority Renesys explains it here and confirms that “virtually all of Egypt’s Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide.” This has never happened before in the entire history of the internet, with a nation of this size. A block of this scale is completely unheard of, and Senator Joe Lieberman wants to be able to do the same thing in the US…

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Animals, Art, Culture, Current Events, Entertainment, government, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues

China Bans Satirical Bunnies

January 28, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnw5BvxSDmM[/youtube]

As China gears up for the Year of the Rabbit, the nation’s Communist authorities have censored a bunny cartoon with political overtones. The Chinese New Year – which falls this year on February 3 – is the country’s biggest holiday. Families come together for several days of feasting and gift-giving. But, this year, a New Year-themed cartoon posted on a popular Chinese website seems to have rankled officials. Censors have deleted the video, in an apparent reaction to its biting political satire.

The three-minute animation begins with rabbit babies being poisoned, a blatant reference to a recent toxic milk scandal that left six children dead…

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Economy, Globalism, government, Science & Technology News

China Planning World’s Largest Mega-City with 42 Million People

January 24, 2011

China planning to merge nine cities to create the world’s largest mega city.

China is planning to create the world’s biggest mega city by merging nine cities to create a metropolis twice the size of Wales with a population of 42 million. City planners in south China have laid out an ambitious plan to merge together the nine cities that lie around the Pearl River Delta.

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Business, Food, government, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

New Traceability Rule Represents Major Adjustment for U.S. Food Industry

January 24, 2011

Where does your food come from?

In response to a new federal food safety law and growing consumer interest, vast amounts of new data are being generated about the complicated path that food takes from field to supermarket shelf.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Current Events, government, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News, New Discoveries

Portugal: 10 Years of Decriminalized Drugs

January 22, 2011

Here’s a good Boston Globe report on the first decade of Portugal’s bold experiment with drug decriminalization and increased treatment. Ten years ago, Portugal — whose drug problem had been spiraling out of control — decided to treat drug addiction as a public health matter, not as a criminal matter. They decriminalized possession of drugs, and increased treatment available to addicts, and experienced an immediate, dramatic and sustained drop in negative effects from drug use — though the use of some drugs went up…

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government, Science & Technology News

U.S. Air Force Giant Spy Blimp Could be Afghanistan’s Biggest Brain

January 19, 2011

“Blue Devil”

Come this fall, there will be a new and extremely powerful supercomputer in Afghanistan. But it won’t be in Dave Petraeus’ headquarters in Kabul or at some three-letter agency’s operations center in Kandahar. It’ll be floating 20,000 feet above the warzone, aboard a giant spy blimp that watches and listens to everything for miles around.

Continue reading… “U.S. Air Force Giant Spy Blimp Could be Afghanistan’s Biggest Brain”