Tuesday, January 31, 2012

U.S. Navy repairs Iranian fishing dhow stranded in Gulf (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? U.S. Navy personnel helped repair a stranded Iranian fishing boat on Tuesday, the Navy said, even as the two countries trade accusations about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

A U.S. military helicopter stationed on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, positioned in the Gulf, caught sight of the small Iranian fishing vessel, which was carrying nine crew members, the Navy said in a statement.

The crew of the traditional fishing vessel, or dhow, sent out a distress call after its engine overheated. Its crew were waving a cloth, the statement said.

With the Iranian crew's permission, personnel from a U.S. destroyer boarded the Iranian ship, and repaired the vessel's engine. U.S. personnel also freed a fouled propeller, the statement said.

"After ensuring the dhow was operational, and the crew was safe with sufficient amounts of food, water and fuel to continue its transit, the (U.S.) teams departed the scene and returned to their ships," the Navy statement said.

While U.S. officials say such encounters are not unusual, Tuesday's exchange occurred amid sharp tensions between Iran and the United States.

The West suspects that Iran's uranium enrichment activities are putting it closer to producing a nuclear weapon, a charge that Tehran denies.

Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping lane, if Western sanctions aimed at starving Iran's nuclear program of funds stop it from selling oil.

(Reporting By Missy Ryan; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/pl_nm/us_usa_iran_boat

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Your Passwords Suck [Giz Explains]

The only person you can rely on to keep your password secure is yourself. And let me tell you, you're probably not doing enough to keep number one safe. The reason: Your special lump of letters, numbers, and symbols are likely spread over too many sites, are not long enough, and are probably too personal. Most of our passwords suck. And it's kind of a big problem. More »


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Monday, January 30, 2012

Newt: No Journos in Fall Debates (TIME)

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Rawr's art :3

Hmm... hopefully this one actually works. I'd feel terrible if something was happening and it was just because I was so new. I've already posted here before, but. It disappeared. Dundun- no. Anyways.

Hey! I'm Rawr, or shadefeather413 on deviantART (Yeah I know.. I wish so terribly I could change my username.)

I'm an animal artist and tend to draw wolves. (Yes, I know they're popular. Everyone draws them. But why practice crocodiles if I don't like drawing crocodiles? Anyways. Here. [url]shadefeather413.deviantart.com/[/url]

I do lot's of requests on iScribble, my favorite drawing site. I've used the tools for so long, my drawings are at it's best on there. Unfortunately, the canvas is a 373x700. That's too small, shaped weird, and the resolution is terrible. But I don't care! It's fun, and I know it. I've drawn on that site for 3 years so... hard to get used to SAI.

As I said, I do alot of requests. I'm going through some artist phase where nothing is actually original, so to avoid that I do other people's characters rather than looking like a poser and drawing unoriginal characters.

The one in the middle doesn't belong to me, but it is my character.
Image
Image
Image

This I would like feedback on and constructive criticism so I can improve. Compared to my last human picture, this is amazing. But I still must improve. must must must, cause that picture is sort of... yeah. http://shadefeather413.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4mmlu4 (Yes, I know the collar bone looks freaky, It was just a quick one. I know they don't jut out like that x3. )

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

3 killed in Sacramento SUV-light rail train crash

The driver of an SUV veered around a crossing arm and ignored flashing warning lights before the vehicle was struck by a light-rail train in Sacramento on Saturday, killing an 18-month-old boy and two adults, authorities said.

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The other person inside the Nissan Pathfinder, a woman in her 30s, was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, said Niko King, assistant chief with the Sacramento Fire Department. Six of the roughly 50 passengers on the light rail train suffered minor injuries and were taken to a hospital, he said.

King and a spokeswoman for the transit line said video from a camera at the crossing clearly shows the SUV driving around the crossing arm. The light rail followed two Union Pacific freight trains, which use separate tracks, and the arms had remained down during the interval, said Alane Masui, spokeswoman for the Sacramento Regional Transit District.

"They were down after the UP trains and before the (light rail) train approached, so the crossing arms were properly working," she said.

She said the length of time between the freight trains clearing the intersection and the light rail train crossing it had not yet been determined and would be part of the investigation. Investigators also were reviewing video from a camera mounted on the light rail train.

The collision, in a working class neighborhood south of downtown, occurred shortly after 4 p.m. and pushed the Pathfinder about 30 yards from the point of impact.

"All I heard was a big bang, and I saw a light-rail train heading south with a big truck smashed on it," said Ravin Pratab, 42, of Davis, whose car was among those waiting for the train at the rail crossing, on the opposite side of the tracks from the Pathfinder.

The train was going about 55 mph at the time, a typical speed for that location.

Authorities did not release the identities of those in the Pathfinder or their relationship. A man and woman in the vehicle, both in their 40s, died at the scene while the baby boy was pronounced dead at a hospital. Firefighters said one had been ejected.

The University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento would say only that the woman remained in serious condition late Saturday.

The light rail system carries an average of 50,000 passengers a day, with lines stretching from the state capital to its suburbs in the north, south and east.

Masui said there are four sets of tracks at the crossing ? two for freight and two for light rail so trains from both systems can run in either direction.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46177792/ns/us_news/

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Romney Opens Up Big Lead (talking-points-memo)

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Twitter now lets governments decide what content is suitable for their citizens (Yahoo! News)

Error 404: Freedom not found

Twitter announced a major change to its censorship policy Thursday to allow the?social media service to choose which tweets are seen in which countries. Though it has yet to use the ability, Twitter says it can now?"reactively withhold content from users in a specific country ? while keeping it available in the rest of the world."

In an?entry on Twitter's own blog, the company cited the countries of France and Germany, which specifically ban pro-Nazi content. This announcement would presumably mean that users in the United States are finally allowed to send pro-Nazi tweets ? a dubious honor, but one that's important on?First Amendment grounds.

Freedom of Speech is one of the United States' most cherished rights, which makes it easy to forget that not all people around the world are free to say whatever is on their mind.?Twitter was blocked in Egypt during the 2011 Egyptian Protests in the country, and the country of China forbids its citizens from using the?social networking service.

Twitter says it remains opposed to censorship, but that censorship is a cost of doing business in certain countries. The company promises full transparency with the new policy, keeping a list of all takedown requests on a new page.

[Image source:?WordRidden]

(Source)

This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

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Friday, January 27, 2012

US, Philippines eye more war drills, but no bases (AP)

MANILA, Philippines ? Officials say Manila and Washington are discussing how to intensify joint military exercises in the Philippines as America tries to reassert its presence in Asia.

Filipino officials say the defense talks in Washington from Thursday to Friday will not include the possibility of U.S. troops re-establishing permanent military bases in the country. That is forbidden by the 1987 Philippine constitution.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Thursday that Washington intends to station troops in Australia, dock military ships in Singapore and intensify military exercises in the Philippines.

Filipino senators in 1991 voted to close U.S. military bases in the country. The allies later signed an accord allowing U.S. troops to join war drills in the country.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_us_military

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Kenny Chesney leads ACM Awards nominations with 9 (AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. ? Kenny Chesney's steamy duet, "You and Tequila" with Grace Potter, continues to radiate heat.

The song helped Chesney to nine Academy of Country Music Awards nominations Thursday morning, including the top honor of entertainer of the year.

In a phone interview from Key West, where he was about to step on his boat for a few days of fishing and fun, Chesney called the success of "You and Tequila," written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter, one of the highlights of his career.

"That song's been around for a while," Chesney said. "To me it just goes to show you a great song just has to some extent an infinite life and good songs never go out of style, and this one surely hasn't, thank God."

Jason Aldean, next with six nominations, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and 2011 winner Taylor Swift round out the fan-voted entertainer of the year category.

Lady Antebellum had five nominations, Paisley had four and several were deadlocked at three, including Swift.

Nominees were announced via social media with the help of stars like Reba McEntire and Lionel Richie. Fans were chosen to announce the entertainer of the year candidates. They'll have a chance to pick the winner in that category and new artist of the year for the 47th annual ACM Awards, which will air live April 1 from Las Vegas on CBS with McEntire and Shelton hosting.

Chesney is a four-time entertainer of the year winner and was the first victor under the academy's current fan-voted format. He's nominated for a 10th time in the male vocalist category and received double nominations as artist and producer for album of the year for "Hemingway's Whiskey" and single record of the year and vocal event of the year for "You and Tequila." He also receives a song of the year nomination as performer on "You and Tequila."

Potter, best known as an indie rock performer with her band The Nocturnals, received three nominations for the collaboration.

The nominations were in some sense a validation of Chesney's choice to take a year off the road in 2010. He used that time to focus on the music of "Hemingway's Whiskey," work on film projects, re-energize and even to give the fans a little break.

He returned to the road last year and again broke the million-mark in attendance.

"I feel like I did the right thing," Chesney said. "I know that this past summer was one of the most intense summers in a lot of great summers that we've had. The connection with the fans felt stronger than ever and I felt like the music we made because we took the year off was equally as strong. And the fact that the cycle's starting where people are recognizing that makes me excited and makes me feel great."

Aldean also is up for male vocalist, album of the year for "My Kinda Party," single record and vocal event of the year for the duet "Don't You Wanna Stay" with Kelly Clarkson, and video of the year for "Tattoos on This Town."

Lady Antebellum will compete for its third straight vocal group of the year win. The trio of Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley also is up for album of the year for "Own the Night" as artist and producer, and both song and video of the year for "Just a Kiss."

Along with his fifth straight entertainer nomination, Paisley will be going for another win in the male vocalist category. He's won it five times in a row. He also scored a double nomination in the vocal event category for "Old Alabama" with Alabama and "Remind Me" with Carrie Underwood.

Eric Church's "CHIEF" and Miranda Lambert's "Four the Record" round out the album of the year category. Lady A won last year for its breakthrough "Need You Now."

Nominees for the new artist of the year will be announced after the close of online voting Jan. 30. Fans are currently picking the nominees in that category from a list of eight semifinalists.

Fans can begin voting at the ACM website for entertainer and new artist nominees on March 19. The other award winners are picked by the academy's membership.

It's Shelton's first nomination for the academy's top award. The news comes the week after Shelton's father, Dick, passed away.

"The support I have felt this week is overwhelming," Shelton said in a statement. "Thank you everyone for this honor."

"The Voice" coach isn't the only rising star reaching new heights at the ACMs. Chris Young took a large step into the spotlight, earning nominations in the male vocalist and single record of the year categories.

He said during a call from his stop in Baltimore on the Miranda Lambert tour that 2011 was a whirlwind of highlights. He was recently talking with friends about all the great things that happened, from the success of his album, his tour with Aldean to the response to his nominated song "Tomorrow."

"We were sitting there going, `I don't know how you can top this,'" Young said. "And it looks just into January we've at least got a good shot at trying."

___

Online:

http://www.acmcountry.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_mu/us_music_acm_awards_nominations

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

NAMCO Arcade now available for iPhone and iPad: Free-to-Play classic arcade titles

Namco Bandai have released Namco Arcade to the iTunes App Store for iOS devices with a free-to-play model in effect. If you’re a fan of retro gaming, this is


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Sullinger leads No. 4 Ohio St past Penn St 78-54 (AP)

COLUMBUS, Ohio ? Jared Sullinger had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and No. 4 Ohio State took advantage of Penn State's slow start to roll to a 78-54 victory on Wednesday night.

The Buckeyes (18-3, 6-2 Big Ten) won their third in a row and fifth in six games while tuning up for Sunday's big home showdown with No. 20 Michigan. The Wolverines, Ohio State and Michigan State came into the week tied for the top spot in the Big Ten.

The Nittany Lions paid tribute to Joe Paterno by wearing black bands on their jerseys. Paterno, Penn State's football coach for 46 years and the winner of a major-college record 409 games, died Sunday at age 85. A public viewing and funeral was held earlier on Wednesday.

William Buford added 15 points and Aaron Craft had 11 ? all in the first half ? as the Buckeyes built a lopsided lead.

Big Ten scoring leader Tim Frazier had 16 points and Jermaine Marshall 14 for Penn State (10-12, 2-7), which has lost its last 17 meetings with Ohio State.

In the waning moments, Ohio State's student section prepped for the game against the Buckeyes' chief rival by singing "We Don't Give A Damn For the Whole State of Michigan."

The Buckeyes improved to 15-0 at home this season while running their home winning streak to 37 in a row ? the second-longest streak in the country behind Kentucky's 47 straight.

Already ahead 38-18 at halftime, Ohio State benefited from a flagrant foul and a technical foul against the Nittany Lions in the opening 2 minutes of the second half.

Frazier was called for the flagrant foul when he swung an elbow that caught Craft in the jaw. Moments later, first-year coach Patrick Chambers was whistled for yelling at the officials.

Sullinger had a layup and a dunk ? both off assists from swingman Sam Thompson ? in a 7-0 run that swelled the Buckeyes' lead to 56-29. From then on, a crowd of 16,907 was just biding its time before heading for the parking lots.

Penn State endured a miserable first half, shooting just 22 percent (7 of 32) and falling behind by as many as 23 points.

The Nittany Lions had just one field goal and two points over the first 8 minutes and were outscored 15-2. They came in shooting 39 percent from the field for the season but made only one of their first 14 field goals.

Frazier was dogged wherever he went by Buckeyes defenders. He was 2 of 9 from the field at halftime.

Craft opened the scoring with a spinning reverse layup off an assist from Sullinger, who made it 4-0 with a baby hook. After Buford hit a pair of foul shots, Deshaun Thomas added a short jumper for an 8-0 lead.

Marshall, who had half of the Nittany Lions' points at the break, hit a perimeter jumper to finally break the ice at the 15:02 mark. After the Buckeyes coasted to a 24-6 lead, he hit back-to-back outside jumpers.

But the Buckeyes were the story of the opening half. Craft, who hit his career high of 19 against Penn State last January, had 11 at the break on 4-of-4 shooting from the field. Buford chipped in with eight points and five rebounds, while Sullinger had seven points and eight boards and Thomas had six and six.

Penn State is in the midst of a stretch of three straight games vs. Top 25 teams, two on the road. The Nittany Lions lost at No. 11 Indiana 73-54 on Sunday and play No. 25 Wisconsin on Tuesday.

The Buckeyes finished up hitting half of their 50 shots from the field. Penn State mustered just 31.3 percent (20 of 64).

___

Follow Rusty Miller on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rustymillerap.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/bkc_t25_penn_st_ohio_st

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Memo scandal witness refuses to travel to Pakistan

Akram Sheikh, lawyer of Mansoor Ijaz addressing a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. The chief witness in a secret memo scandal Mansoor Ijaz threatens to bring down the president will not travel to Pakistan to testify, claiming the government has set a trap to prevent him from leaving, his lawyer said Monday. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

Akram Sheikh, lawyer of Mansoor Ijaz addressing a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. The chief witness in a secret memo scandal Mansoor Ijaz threatens to bring down the president will not travel to Pakistan to testify, claiming the government has set a trap to prevent him from leaving, his lawyer said Monday. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

Akram Sheikh, lawyer of Mansoor Ijaz addresses a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. The chief witness in a secret memo scandal Mansoor Ijaz threatens to bring down the president will not travel to Pakistan to testify, claiming the government has set a trap to prevent him from leaving, his lawyer said Monday. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

(AP) ? The chief witness in a secret memo scandal that threatens to bring down the president will not travel to Pakistan to testify, claiming the government has set a trap to prevent him from leaving, his lawyer said Monday.

Mansoor Ijaz offered to record his testimony and submit it to a Supreme Court commission that is investigating the scandal, said lawyer Akram Sheikh. Ijaz, a U.S. businessman of Pakistani origin, was scheduled to travel to Pakistan to appear before the commission on Tuesday but had bickered with the government over who would guarantee his safety.

Ijaz has accused the Pakistani government of orchestrating a memo, which he delivered to the U.S. last year, asking Washington to help stop a supposed military coup following the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Pakistani government has denied any involvement.

The army was outraged by the memo and denied it ever intended to carry out a coup. It successfully pushed the Supreme Court to investigate against the wishes of the government, which said the matter was already being probed by the parliament.

Ijaz has claimed the Supreme Court commission ordered the military to guarantee his security while in Pakistan, but the government has said the job was the responsibility of the Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has warned Ijaz could be prevented from leaving the country if requested by the parliamentary committee probing the scandal.

"It seems like a well-orchestrated trap to hold Mansoor Ijaz indefinitely in Pakistan," said Sheikh, his lawyer.

Ijaz has accused the former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, of crafting the memo with the support of President Asif Ali Zardari. Both men have denied any connection to the memo, although Haqqani resigned in the wake of the scandal. The Supreme Court has prevented the former envoy from leaving the country while it is investigating the scandal.

Some observers have questioned Ijaz's credibility. Those questions increased last week after a music video surfaced in which Ijaz acted as a commentator for a female wrestling match in which both women eventually ripped off their bikinis. Ijaz claimed he didn't know there would be nudity in the video.

One of the reasons the memo scandal has generated so much controversy is the rampant anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. The memo offered to replace Pakistan's national security leadership with people favorable to the U.S. in return for help from Washington in stopping the supposed coup.

The U.S. has provided Pakistan with billions of dollars over the past decade to help fight the Taliban and al-Qaida, but relations have always been defined by a lack of trust.

The raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistani garrison town heightened mistrust between the two countries. Pakistan was outraged it was not told about the operation beforehand, and U.S. officials questioned how bin Laden was able to live near Pakistan's equivalent of West Point for years.

The relationship deteriorated further at the end of last year when American airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two posts along the Afghan border. Pakistan retaliated by closing its border crossings to supplies meant for NATO troops in Afghanistan and kicking the U.S. out of a base used by American drones.

Drone strikes have been a source of tension between the two countries because they are widely perceived in Pakistan as mostly killing civilians, a claim denied by the U.S. The U.S. held off on carrying out drone attacks in Pakistan for over six weeks after the 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed on Nov. 26.

But the strikes have since resumed. A U.S. drone fired missiles at a house and a vehicle in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing four alleged militants in an attack that could signal the program is again picking up steam.

The U.S. had recommenced strikes on Jan. 10, when missiles hit a house in the North Waziristan tribal area in an attack that American officials said killed a key al-Qaida operations planner, Aslam Awan. The U.S. carried out another attack two days later.

Monday's strike in North Waziristan's Deegan village was the third since the attacks resumed. Initial reports indicated the alleged militants killed were foreigners, said Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The U.S. refuses to speak publicly about the CIA-run drone program in Pakistan, but American officials have said privately that the strikes have killed many senior Taliban and al-Qaida commanders.

Although Pakistan is widely believed to have supported the strikes in the past, that cooperation has become strained as the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated.

____

Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-23-AS-Pakistan/id-b9976ff9a57449628767080c6ab9d192

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Posthumous US asylum bid highlights gang debate

Josue Rafael Orellana Garcia fled his impoverished neighborhood in Honduras for the United States as a teenager, to escape what began as teasing over his disabilities and escalated into what his mother said were threats to kill him if he did not join a gang.

Making his way illegally to New Jersey to be with his mother, he applied for asylum in 2008, claiming he'd be killed by gangs if forced to return to the small but violence-plagued nation. He lost his case, was deported in 2010, and last year was found dead, his body riddled with bullets. He was 20.

Now his family has taken the unusual step of trying to win him asylum posthumously. His attorney, Joshua Bardavid, said it's an effort to get the U.S. government to acknowledge the "entire system let him down" and to call attention to the plight of thousands of Central American teenagers.

But the case also highlights a growing debate among immigration experts over whether the grounds for asylum in the United States should be expanded to include more modern forms of conflict, such as gang violence.

To be granted asylum in the U.S., applicants must prove a well-founded and documented fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. They must also show that the government or ruling authority in their home country is unwilling or incapable of adequately protecting them.

U.S. Immigration Judge Frederic Leeds in Newark found Orellana's claims credible but said the young man had not sufficiently documented that he and his family had been targeted by gangs. Even if he had, there is no legal precedent for extending "the concept of family group to the concept of joining gangs," wrote the judge, while expressing appreciation for what he said were creative arguments on the young man's behalf.

Though the law does not consider the threat of gang recruitment as meeting the definition of a protected social group, some believe it should, said Dana Leigh Marks, the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

"There are those who would argue the asylum law is old-fashioned and needs to be modernized, while others would argue it is a limited remedy that is not supposed to resolve all problems and allow everyone to qualify," Marks said.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the international body responsible for the protection of refugees and asylum seekers worldwide, issued a memo in 2010 urging courts to expand existing asylum law interpretations to consider victims of organized gangs as warranting protection, if their cases satisfy all other legal requirements.

But those who oppose expanding the class of potential asylum seekers say it could undermine an already overburdened U.S. immigration system with a flood of new applicants.

"There's no limit to the categories you could add by our (U.S.) standards. There is a lot of oppression in the world," said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, an organization which advocates stricter immigration rules and believes asylum and all other aspects of immigration law should be decided by the U.S. Congress, not the courts.

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"We may find the treatment of women in some countries poor, compared to our standards, but would you say if they're treated poorly, they're a member of a particular social group?" Camarota said.

Ricardo Estrada, a minister of migratory affairs with the Honduran embassy in Washington, said he was not familiar with Orellana's case but that "it's likely that his story could be true, because conditions point to it."

"Lamentably, our country is going through a crisis of violence," Estrada told The Associated Press, in an interview conducted in Spanish. "The problem is enormous, and security is an issue the government is really trying to tackle, but it's very challenging with a government that has little resources in comparison to the narco-cartels, who often have better arms than the police."

Investigators face a huge backlog of homicide investigations, but have few resources, he said.

Honduras has the highest homicide rate in the world, according to a 2011 United Nations report which cited 6,200 killings, or 82.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, in 2010. Earlier this month, the Peace Corps withdrew all volunteers from the country, citing safety and security concerns. The U.S. agreed this past week to send a team of experts to help the Honduras government with "citizen security issues."

In a motion filed in December with the Board of Immigration Appeals, Bardavid argued that Orellana, as a result of being shot dead after being deported, now meets the burden of proof required of asylum applicants to show they would suffer irreparable harm if sent back to their country.

"I think it's something that needs to be acknowledged: that we failed him; that he came here seeking safety, and the entire system let him down," Bardavid said.

Spokeswoman Kathryn Mattingly of The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the BIA, said the agency does not comment on pending cases or prior decisions.

Orellana's mother, Josefa Rafaela Garcia Mejia, lives legally in the United States under a program that allows immigrants from qualifying countries to live and work in the U.S. on a restricted visa. She said gangs killed her son, the youngest of her four children.

Orellana had been picked on from a young age after losing one eye and much of his hearing from being struck by a tree during Hurricane Mitch, which devastated much of Honduras in 1998, Garcia said. She sent money home, working as a home health aide in New Jersey, to support Orellana and his three siblings, and to buy him a glass eye.

As he got older, his mother said, Orellana told her in frequent phone calls that he was being pursued and threatened by gangs that controlled their San Pedro Sula neighborhood, trying to recruit young people. The threats got so bad, she said, her son fled, against her advice. He was alone at the age of 17 when he crossed illegally into the U.S. to join her in New Jersey.

In a court hearing in July 2009, the judge asked Orellana why, if he had been attacked several times by notorious Central American gangs, he had never gone to the police to file a report.

"Like I mentioned, we would call the police but the police were afraid to come where we lived," Orellana replied.

After Leeds' decision was upheld on appeal, the young man was deported to Honduras in March 2010. He disappeared on July 23, 2011, after telling his grandmother he was running to the store, his mother said. His body was discovered three days later in a nearby wooded area, according to a story in the Honduran newspaper La Tribuna.

"I say as a mother, as a Christian woman, my son was not involved with gangs; he never carried so much as a nail clipper," Garcia said, crying as she clutched a photograph of him. "If they had not deported my boy, he would not be dead."

___

Follow Samantha Henry at http://www.twitter.com/SamanthaHenry

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46092033/ns/us_news/

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Italian officials: 2 more bodies found (AP)

GIGLIO, Italy ? Italian officials say two more bodies have been pulled from the wreckage of a cruise liner capsized off the Tuscan coast, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 15.

The national civil protection agency official in charge of the search said Monday that divers recovered the bodies of two women from the ship's internet cafe.

The recovery of the two brings to 17 the number of known missing. However, officials over the weekend said it appeared unregistered guests were on board at the time of the accident, meaning the number of officially missing could increase.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_cruise_aground

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Italian divers find body in cruise ship corridor

An Italian fireman descends from an helicopter to the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

An Italian fireman descends from an helicopter to the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

A woman checks if her clothes are dry as the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen in background, off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain, Capt. Francesco Schettino, who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

The grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia lays off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

An Italian Coast Guard boat patrols the area around the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Fuel spilling experts work on the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

(AP) ? The body of a woman wearing a life vest was recovered by Italian coast guard divers Saturday from a narrow underwater corridor of the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia, raising the death toll to 12 in the week-old accident that has sent some light fuel spilling into the Mediterranean off Tuscany.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro told The Associated Press that the victim was found during a particularly risky inspection of an evacuation staging point at the ship's rear.

"The corridor was very narrow, and the divers' lines risked snagging" on objects in the passageway, Nicastro said. To permit the coast guard divers to get into the area, Italian navy divers had preceded them, setting off charges to blast holes for easier entrance and exit, he said.

The woman's nationality and identity were not immediately known.

Before the corpse was found, 21 people were listed as missing. One of the women on the list is a Peruvian crew member, the others are passengers.

Three bodies were found in the waters near the ship in the first hours after the accident' since then the rest of the victims have all been found inside the Concordia, apparently unable to get off the ship during a chaotic evacuation via lifeboats and later by helicopters. Some survivors jumped off and swam to safety.

The Concordia hit a reef and ran aground on Jan. 14, while passengers dined, about two hours after the ship had set sail from the port of Civitavecchia on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Costa Crociere has said the captain had deviated without permission from the vessels in an apparent maneuver to sail close to Giglio, a Tuscan island, to impress passengers aboard.

Search and rescue efforts for survivors and bodies have meant that an operation to remove heavy fuel in the Concordia's tanks hasn't yet begun, although specialized equipment has been standing by for days.

On Saturday, light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized Costa Concordia, was detected near the ship.

But Nicastro said there was no indication that any of the nearly 500,000 gallons (2,200 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship's double-bottomed tanks. He said the leaked substance appears to be diesel, which is used to fuel rescue boats and dinghies and as a lubricant for ship machinery.

There are 185 tons of diesel and lubricants on board the crippled vessel, which is lying on its side just outside Giglio's port. Nicastro described the light fuel's presence in the sea as "very light, very superficial" and appearing to be under control.

Although attention has been concentrated on the heavy fuel oil in the tanks, "we must not forget that on that ship there are oils, solvents, detergents, everything that a city of 4,000 people needs," Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, told reporters in Giglio.

Gabrielli, who is leading rescue, search and anti-pollution efforts for the Concordia, was referring to the roughly 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew who were aboard the cruise liner when it ran into the reef, and then, with sea water rushing into a 70-meter (230-foot) gash in its hull, listed and finally fell onto its side.

Considering all the substances aboard the Concordia, "contamination of the environment, ladies and gentlemen, already occurred" when the cruise liner capsized, Gabrielli told a news conference.

Vessels equipped with machinery to suck out the light fuel oil were in the area, officials told Italian TV.

Earlier on Saturday, crews removed oil-absorbing booms used to prevent environmental damage in case of a leak. Originally white, the booms were grayish.

Divers resumed their search of the wreckage Saturday after data indicated the cruise ship had stabilized in the sea off Tuscany. Italian news reports said that the divers were also trying to locate the captain's safe, in case it might contain documentation useful to the criminal probe.

The Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest for investigation of alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all were evacuated. Schettino insists he helped coordinate the evacuation from Giglio's docks after leaving the ship when the Concordia lurched to one side.

The search had been suspended Friday after the Concordia shifted, prompting fears the ship could roll off a rocky ledge of sea bed and plunge deeper into the sea. An abrupt shift could also cause a leak in the Concordia's fuel tanks, polluting the pristine waters around Giglio, part of a seven-island Tuscan archipelago.

___

Colleen Barry reported from Milan. Andrea Foa contributed from Giglio.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-21-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-991415847f9941c9a972054197cb22bc

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

How to Get Out of an Awkward or Uncomfortable Situation (Without Being an Asshole) [Video]

How to Get Out of an Awkward or Uncomfortable Situation (Without Being an Asshole)How to Get Out of an Awkward or Uncomfortable Situation (Without Being an Asshole) You've likely found yourself in an uncomfortable conversation at a party, taken a business meeting from which you'd like to escape, gone on an awkward date, or found yourself in any situation where you wanted to get out without hurting anyone's feelings. While most people believe either honesty or deception is the solution to this problem, you actually need both. Here's why.

Be Honest?Just Not Too Honest

How to Get Out of an Awkward or Uncomfortable Situation (Without Being an Asshole)I went to Twitter and Facebook to ask, "How do you get out of an awkward conversation? Or a date? Or meeting? Or any awkward situation, for that matter?" The answers oscillated between using truth and resorting to lies. Some people suggested faking a heart attack, a phone call, or the need to use the bathroom. Others suggested bluntness and honesty, even when it hurts. While in reality, both truth and lies are likely to get you out of an awkward situation most of the time, neither are always effective and both run the risk of hurting the other party's feelings. Some people can be so inappropriate and rude that a little blunt truth is necessary, but many uncomfortable situations arise because of social anxieties or the lack of any significant chemistry. That really isn't anybody's fault, so the blunt truth can seem a little harsh and lies a little damaging. The trick is finding a happy medium between the two approaches. You can get there by doing two simple things, and through the process you may turn an awkward conversation into one you'll actually enjoy.

Get to the Root of the Truth

How to Get Out of an Awkward or Uncomfortable Situation (Without Being an Asshole)First, find the most specific version of the truth. You've realized you don't want to continue interacting with this person, but why? Is it because of boredom? Are they bringing up a subject that makes you uncomfortable? Do you disagree with something they're saying? The first thing you need to do is discover the root cause and be specific.

How to Get Out of an Awkward or Uncomfortable Situation (Without Being an Asshole)Second, listen to how your truth sounds and adjust it to better the situation. "You're boring me so I want to leave" and "this subject is making me uncomfortable" are a bit different. The former is unnecessarily harsh and the latter is pretty reasonable. If your truth is already pretty reasonable, you should go ahead and say it tempered with a little kindness: "This subject is actually making me a little uncomfortable. Would you mind if we talked about something else?" If your truth is too harsh, you can approach the problem similarly: "I have to be honest?the feeding process of the remora is not that interesting to me. Would you mind if we talked about something else?" (For the record, though, the remora?also known as the "sharksucker"?is a fascinating fish. Keep it in the back of your mind for your next conversation with a sea creature enthusiast or when you need an awesome, intellectual metaphor.)

You may have noticed that both of these responses put the responsibility of the decision on the other person, and this is very important. When you tell someone they're dull or making you uncomfortable, you're putting them on the defensive. When you request a new topic of conversation, you do two things: you've been vulnerable enough to share your honest feelings, and you give them an opportunity to correct a situation that isn't working. Some people will turn the question back on you and ask you what you want to talk about. In that case, you can bring up whatever you want.

Excuse Yourself Without Making Excuses

How to Get Out of an Awkward or Uncomfortable Situation (Without Being an Asshole)If you find that you just want to leave, there's only one thing you have to say: "Well, it has been nice talking to/meeting you." Sometimes you may want to add, "but I have to get going" (if you're planning to leave). This is a lie, because if you'd truly had a nice time with this person you wouldn't be looking for a way out. Nonetheless, it's a clear end to the conversation that is polite without suggesting any future communication.

Finally, delivery can be important. If you sound genuine and kind, your expression can make most anything you say sound completely reasonable and harmless. As text can only go so far in this department, check out the video up top for a demonstration.

(And for some fun solutions, Hyperbole and a Half has plenty.)

Special thanks to Ali Dachis and Anne Dachis for their help with this video. The music featured in the background is Gypsy Jazz, a Super Mario Bros. 2 remix by Adrian Holovaty. This post was illustrated by me. We're giving Dana a break this week.


You've likely been in an awkward or uncomfortable situation at some point in your life. What happened, and how did you deal with it in a good, positive way?

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/cWhecNq1-a8/how-to-get-out-of-an-awkward-or-uncomfortable-situation-without-being-an-asshole

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Friday, January 20, 2012

ktcmex: @jgdealba B-Sides: A Social Media Story #bsides Feb. 23th, 2012 - Mexico City http://t.co/yHmEE7YI Are You In?

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@jgdealba B-Sides: A Social Media Story #bsides Feb. 23th, 2012 - Mexico City bsides.mx/index.html Are You In? ktcmex

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Source: http://twitter.com/ktcmex/statuses/159691464635461632

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Costa Concordia vs. Titanic: Do They Compare? (LiveScience.com)

The hectic evacuation of the sinking cruise liner Costa Concordia has been compared with the likes of the disastrous Titanic disaster. In fact, Swiss survivors even told the newspaper La Tribune de Gen?ve that Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," the theme song to the 1997 film "Titanic," was playing in their dining room as the ship hit the rocks.

So how do the two shipwrecks match up? While the loss of life on the Titanic was much worse than on the Costa Concordia, even the Titanic's poorly planned evacuation may have been less chaotic than the one off the Tuscan coast. By the numbers, here's a side-by-side look at the two cruise ship disasters:

Date of wrecks: The Titanic went down on April 15, 1912. The Costa Concordia capsized on Jan.13, 2012.

Size of ships: The Titanic was 882 feet and 8 inches long (268 meters) and had a tonnage of 46,000. The Costa Concordia was larger, with a tonnage of 114,500 and a length of 951 feet and 5 inches (290 m). The width of the Titanic was 92.5 feet (28 m), compared with 118 feet (36 m) for the Costa Concordia.

Bragging rights: The Titanic was the largest ship of her day. The Costa Concordia had the largest spa center ever built on a cruise ship.

People on board: 2,201 people were aboard the Titanic when it sunk, and 4,200 were aboard the Costa Concordia.

Cause of wreck: The Titanic famously hit an iceberg on its starboard side in the middle of the North Atlantic, while the Costa Concordia struck a rock on its port side when the captain brought the ship in close to the Tuscan island of Giglio in the Mediterranean Sea.

Lifeboat capacity: The Titanic's lifeboats could have carried no more than 1,178 people. Nowadays, according to the International Maritime Organization, ships are required to have plenty of lifeboat space, with enough lifeboats hanging off the port side to accommodate half of the passengers, enough on the starboard side to accommodate the other half, and room for 25 percent more of the ship's passengers in inflatable rafts stored onboard. [Titanic Quiz: Fact or Fiction?]

"The Costa Concordia had sufficient lifeboat space, as far as we know, by the regulations she operates under," said Charles Weeks, an emeritus professor of marine transportation at the Maine Maritime Academy, and a member of the Titanic International Society. Unlike the Titanic, which lacked sufficient staff at lifeboat muster points, the Costa Concordia seemed to have crew supervision at the lifeboat stations, he said. The delay in lowering the lifeboats, which occurred about 45 minutes to an hour after the ship hit the rocks, may have been the captain's call, he said.

"There may have been a perfectly valid reason why he waited so long," Weeks told LiveScience. "You don't want to put lifeboats in the water while the ship is still making way. That can be very hazardous."

Time it took to sink: The Titanic went down over a period of two hours and 40 minutes. The Costa Concordia began listing about 20 minutes after it hit a rock near Giglio Island and was completely on its side within about three hours.

Depth of the wreck: The Titanic lay on the seafloor 12,460 feet (3,798 m) below the surface. The Costa Concordia essentially ran aground and is now half-submerged ? the ship is unable to float in water less than 26 feet (8 m) deep.

Temperature of water: The passengers of the Titanic unlucky enough to end up in the water likely perished in a few short minutes, as the water temperature was just 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 degrees Celsius).

According to Accuweather, the air temperature when the Costa Concordia crashed was in the mid-to-low 40s Fahrenheit. The water temperature was in the mid- to upper-50s. In 50-degree water, hypothermia sets in quickly; boating guides put the time at about 60 minutes until exhaustion or unconsciousness, with death following within three hours.??

Loss of life: Only 711 of the passengers aboard the Titanic were rescued, resulting in a death toll of 1,514, according to the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry. As of today (Jan. 18), an estimated 11 Costa Concordia passengers were confirmed dead, with 23 still missing.

Fate of the captain: Edward J. Smith, the captain of the Titanic, went down with his ship. His body was never found.

The Costa Concordia captain, Francesco Schettino, was one of the first people off the ailing cruise liner. He claims he tripped and fell into a lifeboat while coordinating the evacuation and could not get back on the ship. A transcript of a phone conversation between Schettino and a coast guard officer reveals the officer insisting Schettino return to the ship, and the captain refusing. Schettino is now under house arrest and is being investigated for manslaughter.

The standard of the captain being the last person to leave a crippled ship serves two purposes, Weeks said. First, it's the captain's job to take care of everyone else on the boat. Second, if a captain stays with a damaged ship, he can protect the ship owner's interests. If the captain is still on the boat, the owners can arrange a towing contract to get the vessel back to port, Weeks said. If the ship is abandoned, it must be salvaged, which can be a more complicated and costly process for the owners.

Big evacuation foul-ups:

Hundreds of Titanic passengers never had a chance at survival, given the lack of lifeboat space available. Not only that, but a U.S. inquiry into the disaster found that the evacuation process was a mess: There was no system for loading the boats, and many of the boats went down partially filled (though there was space for 1,176 people on the boats, only about 700 made it onto one). Additionally, the loss of life would have been much worse had the weather have been rough, the panel found. With the lifeboats suspended 70 feet (21 m) above the ocean, rough waters would have made lowering them without smashing them against the ship impossible.

On the other hand, all reports indicate very little panic during the Titanic evacuation, at least not until the very end. This is likely because most passengers didn't realize the seriousness of the situation, Weeks said. There are reports of passengers refusing to get on the lifeboats, choosing instead to stay in the warmth and light of the doomed ship.

The same cannot be said of the Costa Concordia evacuation, which survivors describe as chaotic. "It was every man for himself," one survivor told French News outlet France 24. Crew members reportedly panicked and jumped aboard lifeboats before passengers.

The Costa Concordia listed to one side, in contrast with the Titanic, which tilted forward, her bow in the water. That may have made the Concordia sinking seem more dramatic than the sinking of the Titanic, at least from the perspective of those onboard.

"A ship that lists to one side is far more dramatic than a ship that trims down by the head," Weeks said.

The evacuation of the Costa Concordia was delayed, with passengers initially informed that the ship was having a minor electrical problem. There had been no evacuation drill onboard ? it was scheduled for Saturday ? so passengers were confused. Many of the crew did not speak Italian and could not communicate with their charges. Some cruise-goers reported being on lifeboats captained by waiters and other support staff.

Weeks said reports of the crew's behavior still needed confirmation, but said that such a situation is not without precedent. The cruise ship Oceanus, for example, sank off the South African Coast in 1991.

"The social director wound up overseeing the evacuation of the passengers," Weeks said. "The captain and certain members of the crew went off in the first lifeboat."

You can follow LiveScience?senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience?and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120118/sc_livescience/costaconcordiavstitanicdotheycompare

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Is Climate Change the New Evolution?

The problem is that people seem to conflate the science, facts, and the politics of climate change. They think if you disagree with any part, you are a "denialist". So what do I mean?

Well first take the fact of climate change: That the average global temperature is changing outside of known cycles. Provided the data on which this is being based, this is true. It is a fact, a simple observation about the world.

Then there's the theory of climate change: That this change is being cause either primarily or exclusively by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as a result of human emissions. This is a theory, it provides a logical proposal to explain the facts. Like any theory it could be subject to revision or dismissal later should more information come to light. Doesn't mean it will be, but it can (if it isn't falsifiable, it isn't a scientific theory).

Now after that you get some additional theories like the theory that this will be a net bad thing for humanity. Remember that this is not a fact, it is a theory, and that the overall theory of CO2 causing climate change could be right, and this could be wrong. As such one could reasonably examine the evidence and accept the first theory and reject the second.

Then you get in to politics or policies: That the only thing to do about it is to massively reduce CO2 output, institute carbon taxes, etc, etc. That isn't a scientific theory there, it is politics. There are other solutions that would work. One example would simply be to prepare for the chance and deal with it. You could argue that even if this particular change is human caused, in the future a change will happen that isn't, so better to spend resources on becoming resilient to change than trying to avoid this one. Geoengineering would be another approach to dealing with it. Different policies can be debated, the costs, the benefits, and so on, there is no one right answer here, there are options.

However if you disagree with any part, you get labeled a denalist. So you can say "I think the Earth is getting warmer, and I think manmade CO2 is the cause. However my examination of the evidence leads me to believe it is not a bad thing, in fact it'll be just fine so we shouldn't do anything," and you get shouted down as "denying climate change." Or you can say "I think it is happening, manmade, and a bad thing. However I think reducing CO2 production is the wrong approach. I think we should do geoengineering because it is cheaper/more effective/etc," and you get shouted down as a "denialist."

That's my real problem, is people confuse the levels of it. There are facts (all scientific theories have to start with facts, observations), theories, and then policy suggestions as a result. Calling it all bullshit can be accurately called denying it. However being skeptical or disagreeing with parts cannot.

Also there's way too much stock put in computer models. Not that they are used, but that people think they "prove" something. No, a computer model proves nothing, it is a model. It makes predictions. If the predictions are repeatedly accurate, it is probably a good model of reality and can be counted on to produce accurate predictions in the future. If they are inaccurate, it needs to be revised. However it doesn't "prove" shit. It models.

So while models should (and must) be used in climate research, people need to stop saying things like "This model proves that X will happen in Y years!" No, it predicts it. Well and good, that's very different from proving it.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/fdOYV0WSGJ8/is-climate-change-the-new-evolution

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