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He said: "This is not, in fact, a case involving the potential for bringing down an airliner.
"The device was never going to achieve that, if it worked at all."
The court heard there was no evidence Muhammad, who had no previous convictions, had a terrorist connection.
James Earl Gardner, respected farmer and rancher, died peacefully on June 26, 2010 after joyfully and enthusiastically living a life filled with faith and family.James was born to Sam and Lilla Gardner on Jan. 21, 1919 in Rising Star, Texas. He had a happy childhood with six brothers and three sisters, many of whom he helped raise after the death of his father. He married Alta Baucum on Dec. 19, 1938, and they shared life to the fullest for 71 years. They farmed in Ropesville, Kress and Edmonson, ranched at Cisco and retired to Wolfforth, Texas. James lived for 91 years seeking to serve God faithfully and raise his family lovingly, setting an example worthy to follow.Survivors include his wife, Alta, and their three children, Stanley and Peni Gardner of Granbury, Texas, Ann and Wayne Holland of Lubbock and Randy and Patty Gardner of San Angelo. James is also survived by ten grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren, as well as a brother, T.D. (Duke) Gardner of Houston; two sisters, Dorothy Adams of Lubbock and Lavanne Emery of Tyler; and numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom he loved with his whole heart. James worked from sunup to dark thirty all his life. Few could match him at horse trading or playing dominos or 42. Whether at his daily witnessing for the Lord or playing in the floor with his grandchildren, his zest for life and his energy seemed endless. He never met a stranger and would be the last man out of a crisis, helping others first. His family rejoices he is finally 'home' at the feet of Jesus. A viewing and visitation will be on Tuesday, June 29th from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Lake Ridge Chapel and Memorial Designers, 6025 82nd St., Lubbock, TX. The memorial service will be Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 1 p.m., also at Lake Ridge Chapel and Memorial Designers. Memorials are encouraged to a charity of your choice. To send your words of encouragement to the family and view the life tribute through words and music, visit www.memorialdesigners.net.
The remains of 22 people, who had been missing since the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia, have been identified and will be handed over to their families shortly, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a press release on April 23.
The identification was carried out within the framework of the coordination mechanism, established with the ICRC support in 2010 for the purpose of identifying the persons missing as a result of the 1992-1993 conflict.
Since 2010, remains of 325 people have been recovered, 148 of which have been identified, including the latest 22.
The ICRC and the Georgian authorities are currently working with the families of 22 identified formerly missing persons regarding the planned official ceremony of transfer of the remains.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, over 2400 people still remain missing in Georgia as a result of the conflicts of the 1990s and the Russian-Georgian War of August 2008.
Spanish lawmakers did something dumb this week. They passed a new law that forces Google to pay news publishers a fee for sending valuable, monetizable content from Google News to their sites.
Lobbied by the Spanish Newspaper Publishers' Association (AEDE), the government determined that the summaries and thumbnail photos that accompany links in Google News constitute an infringement of copyright. Therefore, they argued, Google should pay the copyright holders for it.
Because Google doesn't place advertising on Google News sites, the so-called "Google Tax" would require Google to lose money for the privilege of sending valuable traffic to news sites.
So Google will do the inevitable and rational thing: It'll close Spain's version of Google News.
After Google's announcement, the AEDE freaked out and called for the government to stop Google News from being closed, saying: "AEDE requires the intervention of Spanish and community authorities, and competition authorities, to effectively protect the rights of citizens and companies."
Note that they're not requesting a removal of the law; they're asking the government to force Google News to stay open and also pay the Google Tax.
The Spanish episode is part of a larger trend among regulators and politicians in Europe to strongly reduce the influence of U.S. Internet companies in general -- and to damage Google in particular.
This year, Europe got serious about a privacy concept called the right to be forgotten. In principle, the idea is a good one, and it solves a problem that can arise with search engines.
The idea is that search engine results tend to overemphasize scandalous, negative, dramatic or criminal news about a person, and underemphasize the rest of their lives. The result is that a person can be stigmatized by what comes up in search results, even if those links point to information that's no longer valid, true or representative of someone's current situation.
The rule was established by a court case that originated in Spain between Google and Mario Costeja González. Long story short, the man's debt from many years ago continued to stigmatize him as a debtor. He wanted Google to remove the links to the old information about his long-gone financial woes. Google said no. But the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice said yes.
As a result, search engines were then required to offer a process for citizens to petition them to have links removed from search results when their names are used for the search query. The EU later banned Google from notifying affected websites. First they censored Google Search, then they censored Google, the company -- both clear infringements of free speech.
The right to be forgotten is a weird brand of censorship. It illegalizes links to legal content.
A search engine is not supposed to be an accurate reflection of "the truth." It's supposed to be an accurate reflection of what's on the Internet. Europe's right to be forgotten makes it deliberately less accurate.
Google said more than 174,000 people have already petitioned for the removal of more than 600,000 search results, and it has culled more than a quarter million of them.
That European regulators wanted to damage Google Search in Europe through censorship is bad enough. But now they're aiming for something truly dangerous.
Regulators agreed last month on a new set of guidelines that would require Google to apply the right-to-be-forgotten censorship worldwide.
That would be the first time in history a European government would impose censorship on a company in the United States.
This would obviously set a precedent whereby every censoring government will demand equal treatment. Sliding down this slippery slope, Google would censor the Google.com that you and I use according to the censorhip of China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam. Links to the Dalai Lama or historical events like Tiananmen Square would be erased. Pictures of women with their hair un-covered would be banned. And so on.
Europe is also considering a formal investigation into Android for antitrust issues, based on the idea that Android may be discriminating against apps not made by Google. In late November, the European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution to break up Google into multiple companies. And Google is constantly harassed and penalized in Germany, France, Spain and elsewhere in Europe over numerous tax, privacy and other issues.
So European corporations and the politicians they lobby are out to destroy Google even as the European public loves Google.
To summarize, you have government obsessively and shamelessly pushing unfair protectionism under the guise of various righteous bureaucratic causes and hammering away with censorship, fines, threats, bans and constant harassment.
It should. This is the situation Google found itself in China five years ago.
Back then, the Chinese government kept pressuring Google to censor search results to make them inaccurate. The Chinese Communist Party demanded that Google change the results that would come up from searches for hot-button political topics like the Dalai Lama, Tiananmen Square, the Falun Gong and many others.
Beijing also damaged Google by hacking Gmail to steal information about human rights activists -- essentially demonstrating to users that Google's "product" was flawed because it wasn't secure.
And finally, the Chinese government engaged in the "theft of intellectual property from Google," widely believed to be the most secret of Google's secret sauce -- source code to some of its search algorithms.
What China did to Google is the Chinese way of damaging a foreign company so Chinese firms don't have to compete.
What Europe is doing to Google now is the European way of damaging a foreign company so European firms don't have to compete. European bureaucrats, lawmakers and politicians will keep saddling Google with ridiculous restrictions -- while doing all they can to damage the company's reputation among the Google-loving European public.
And just as Google pulled out of China, it should exit Europe and serve its European users from outside the continent.
The truth is that the Chinese pullout harmed Google economically. But pulling out of Europe would probably benefit Google in the long run.
That's because Europe doesn't have anything like a Great Firewall of China, nor is there anything like Baidu, the "Chinese Google." Global sites are available to Europeans and they'll continue to prefer and use Google.
What Google should do is simply encourage Europeans to use Google.com, then use location information to serve up local content.
If Brussels bans European companies from advertising on Google, I'm sure the rest of the world would love to buy those ads and sell things to European consumers.
Either way, it's clear that European politicians are bent on destroying Google. And it's also clear that they're going to continue to harass and slander and fine and censor the company until they succeed.
That's why it would be better for Google to leave Europe, just as it did China. And for the same reason.
Roland Guillermo Caluya, 69, of Pepeekeo, Hawaii, a field hand at a banana and tomato farm, died in Hilo Medical Center. He was born in Piddig, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. He is survived by wife Felicitas M.; sons Esperdion, Christopher and Elvis; daughters Monaliza Redoble and Noemi Sapetin; brother Wilbert C.; and 10 grandchildren. Visitation: 5 p.m. Sunday at Dodo Mortuary. Services: 6 p.m. Additional visitation: 8 a.m. Monday at the mortuary. Services: 10 a.m. Burial to follow at Alae Cemetery. Casual attire.
A much-publicized article in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that your chance of becoming obese is much higher if you have a close friend who is obese. Obesity appears to be socially “contagious.” The finding is remarkable in that it departs from much standard wisdom about the supposed causes of obesity. Most experts tend to view it as a combination of genetic predisposition and economic choice. If high-fat food is cheap and readily available, people will tend to eat more of it. And if you have an inherited tendency to put on weight, you are more at risk of becoming obese.
Notice that this is an individual-level explanation, not a social one. In fact, many economists and public health experts are uncomfortable with the notion that social norms could strongly influence individual choices about such matters as health and well-being. This is partly due to an academic bias against any explanation that smacks of “irrationality,” and partly due to the difficulty of disentangling social influences from other factors. Using sophisticated statistical methods, the new study goes a long way toward solving the latter problem. But it stops short of asserting that adherence to social norms is the mechanism through which the contagion spreads.
In fact, there is ample evidence from our and others’ research that supports this explanation. A social norm creates an ideal image of behavior that acts as a constraint on what individuals might otherwise do. Psychological surveys have shown that different socio-economic and ethnic groups have markedly different notions of what constitutes an ideal body weight. In the U.S. and Britain, for example, obesity rates are much higher among lower income groups. The presumption is that if you depart from the ideal too much, you will feel badly about yourself and, furthermore, others will make you feel badly.
There is substantial empirical evidence for this ‘stigma effect’. Our research, based on surveys of well-being, finds that in cohorts where obesity rates are high, obese people do not report being more unhappy than others, whereas in cohorts where obesity rates are low, obese people tend to be much unhappier than the mean (controlling for other factors such as age, gender and income). In other words, it makes you less unhappy to be obese if others around you are obese. Our research also finds a negative link between obesity and upward income mobility; if you are obese and work at Walmart, you are less likely to move on to a better job than if you are not. Thus higher obesity norms may be poverty as well as health traps.
One outstanding puzzle is how the current obesity epidemic got started. Why did it suddenly take off more or less simultaneously in different socioeconomic and ethnic groups in the early 1980s? “Junk” food was surely widely available long before then. Was it the result of a change in the cost of food, of marketing campaigns by fast food chains, or attitudes about exercise? And why have such significant differences in levels of obesity and stigma persisted among groups? Whatever the ultimate trigger of the obesity epidemic might have been, it seems very likely that social norms are playing a critical role in the way it continues to spread.
Because social norms and social networks seem to play such an important role, computer simulations of social systems can be a very useful tool for solving the puzzles surrounding the obesity epidemic. These simulations can help us understand how the structure of social networks affects the spread of norms and weight change. For example, the simulations we use in our research suggest that overall social norms about weight can shift dramatically as a result of even small changes by some members of the group. Simulation models can also suggest policies for interrupting the spread, for example by targeting individuals who act as role models in particular communities or by changing the mixture of social messages that reach a network.
The goal of studying obesity is, ultimately, to try to reverse its dramatic rise and to close these gaps in its incidence among groups. To do that, policymakers need to understand the processes that led to the increase and the disparities in the first place — not just what factors matter, but how and why they matter. Much public attention has gone to the role of cheap “junk” food, for example. Much less has gone to explaining why some cohorts consume so much of it and become obese, while others do not and maintain completely different weight norms.
It is becoming clear that social influence matters in obesity. But more research is needed to uncover exactly how it matters. We are using novel techniques — computer simulations and well being surveys — to study the problem and how we might use social networks to help us slow or reverse the alarming increase in obesity. Should policies be targeted at network leaders, for example? Should the links between obesity and lower levels of income mobility be made more explicit as a possible incentive, or will that merely exacerbate low expectations and poverty traps? We do not know at this point. Until we understand the causes at work, we cannot design effective policies to intervene, and we will continue to spend large sums of resources on public health messages that are not reaching the right audience.
To think that somebody can be punished because 2000 years ago he was fighting with the romans against the Germans is fool. Forget and forgive 90 years old people for something they may be did in theirs twenties.
It is interesting that the witness has changed his mind on the key facts since the 1970s.
I just don't see how these young soldiers can be held responsible for things they had no control over. To do anything other than obey would have resulted in imprisonment or death. How many of those who judge, then and now, would have made a different choice under those circumstances? Go after the leaders and policy makers and leave these cogs to live with their ghosts.
There are few subjects that evoke as much emotion as immigration reform, especially since future laws could result in a path to citizenship for over 11 million illegal immigrants.
When analyzed from the vantage point of information derived from reputable, nonpartisan sources (the Pew Research Center, USDA, United States Department of Labor, and leading economists and researchers) then one can obtain a clearer view of this muddled discussion. The truth of the matter is that illegal immigrants are important to the U.S. economy, as well as vital to certain industries like agriculture.
According to the Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, there were 8.4 million unauthorized immigrants employed in the U.S.; representing 5.2 percent of the U.S. labor force (an increase from 3.8 percent in 2000). Their importance was highlighted in a report by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs that stated, “Without the undocumented population, Texas’ work force would decrease by 6.3 percent” and Texas’ gross state product would decrease by 2.1 percent. Furthermore, certain segments of the U.S. economy, like agriculture, are entirely dependent upon illegal immigrants.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that, “about half of the hired workers employed in U.S. crop agriculture were unauthorized, with the overwhelming majority of these workers coming from Mexico.” The USDA has also warned that, “any potential immigration reform could have significant impacts on the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry.” From the perspective of National Milk Producers Federation in 2009, retail milk prices would increase by 61 percent if its immigrant labor force were to be eliminated.
In terms of overall numbers, The Department of Labor reports that of the 2.5 million farm workers in the U.S., over half (53 percent) are illegal immigrants. Growers and labor unions put this figure at 70 percent.
But what about the immense strain on social services and money spent on welfare for these law breakers? The Congressional Budget Office in 2007 answered this question in the following manner: “Over the past two decades, most efforts to estimate the fiscal impact of immigration in the United States have concluded that, in aggregate and over the long term, tax revenues of all types generated by immigrants—both legal and unauthorized—exceed the cost of the services they use.” According to the New York Times, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration claims that undocumented workers have contributed close to 10% ($300 billion) of the Social Security Trust Fund.
Some people claim that illegal immigrants represent an assault on our sovereignty. If this is true, then it might be the first time in world history that a country has employed its invaders. When illegal immigrants cross the border, there’s a citizen waiting to hire them and benefit in some manner from their labor. The sooner our country realizes that immigration reform should be based upon the views of economists and nonpartisan academic researchers, rather than think tanks and radio show hosts, then Congress will finally be able to help solve this national dilemma.
Goodman is an author and journalist.
A federal jury found the former leader of the city jail guard union guilty on charges of taking a $60,000 kickback in 2014 for investing $20 million in members' pension money with a now-defunct hedge fund.
A federal jury in Manhattan on Wednesday convicted former New York City jail-union leader Norman Seabrook of taking a $60,000 payoff to invest $20 million in pension money with Platinum Partners, a now-defunct hedge fund.
Seabrook, 58, was found guilty of conspiracy and bribery-related fraud on the second day of jury deliberations after a two-week-long retrial that featured testimony from star federal corruption informant Jona Rechnitz. A jury deadlocked last year on the same charges.
During a day of complicated courtroom wrangling, the jury first announced its bribery verdict and said it was deadlocked on conspiracy. While the judge and lawyers met in a side room to discuss continuing deliberations, Seabrook sat awkwardly feet away staring at the jurors.
He then told his wife and family members to “stop crying,” turned to a reporter with a grin and declared, “I’m still smiling.” Later, outside court, he shook hands with U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman and pledged an appeal. “I will be vindicated because God is still on his throne,” he said.
Berman, in a statement, linked Seabrook’s case to four other public corruption convictions this year — of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, former State Senate leader Dean Skelos, ex-SUNY official Alain Kaloyeros and Joe Percoco, once a top aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
“As long as there are public servants who put self-interest above the people they are sworn to serve, public corruption will remain a top priority,” he said.
The former head of the 9,000-member Correction Officers Benevolent Association, Seabrook was once one of the city's most influential labor leaders, a man who favored nice cigars and fancy suits, had a powerful voice in city politics and was said to harbor aspirations of some day running for mayor.
Seabrook claimed he was framed by Rechnitz, a rich real estate operator at the center of federal corruption probes of City Hall and the NYPD in 2016 after becoming an informant, pleading guilty to corruption-related crimes and telling prosecutors he gave money and perks to top cops and politicians in return for favors and access.
Attacks on Rechnitz’s credibility — he raised money for two Ponzi schemers and admitted lying dozens of times to impress people, finagle official perks and make money — contributed to the hung jury at Seabrook’s first trial in November. At the retrial, the cross was shorter and he appeared better prepared, lawyers said.
Jurors, who eventually found Seabrook guilty of conspiracy after about an hour of additional deliberation Wednesday afternoon, mostly declined to comment leaving court, and some were crying.
Seabrook, however, complained after the verdict that he had been the victim of a double standard because prosecutors did not charge Mayor Bill de Blasio based on Rechnitz’s claims that he got access to City Hall in return for donations, but relied on Rechnitz to win Wednesday’s convictions.
“Now, all of a sudden his story is true,” he told reporters.
Two rulings by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein may figure in any appeal. The judge allowed prosecutors at the retrial to prove that the union eventually lost $19 million of the $20 million invested, dismissing defense arguments that the outcome didn’t prove Seabrook was bribed.
And during deliberations, he at first refused to take a partial verdict from the jury on one count, and then gave jurors additional legal instructions requested by prosecutors about the bribery charge before reversing himself and agreeing to accept a verdict on only that count.
“I think we have strong grounds for appeal,” Seabrook lawyer Paul Shechtman said.
Seabrook’s sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 30. Huberfeld pleaded guilty after the first trial. Platinum is in bankruptcy.
The team that knows best about Darren Sharper’s medical condition is the one that wound up signing him.
The veteran Pro Bowl safety returned to the New Orleans Saints today with a one-year contract, and one of the reasons it took him two months since the opening of free agency to find work is because he underwent microfracture knee surgery, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Sharper missed two games last season dealing with a knee issue, and it was more serious that what was originally reported after his February surgery. The initial word was that Sharper had undergone arthroscopic knee surgery. Obviously, microfracture surgery is more serious. Sharper made a free-agent visit to Jacksonville and some reports linked him to Dallas.
What kind of timetable there is for Sharper getting back on the field remains to be seen. Obviously, New Orleans believes that Sharper will contribute in a big way this season. He will turn 35 in November and tied for the league lead in interceptions last season.
Let’s start with the name: Cheese Posties is a genius monicker for a subscription service that delivers grilled cheese sandwiches to your door. That cannot be denied. Only an idiot would try.
But, is it not utterly barmy to send sandwiches through the mail? Dave Rotheroe doesn’t think so. He raised nearly $4,200 (€3,809) on Kickstarter – nearly double his original goal – to create the service, which he says will start shipping at the end of August or beginning of September.
Subscribers will be presented with a series of questions including ‘Sweet or savory?’ and ‘Are you vegetarian or gluten free?’ Cheese Posties will then determine which gourmet grilled sandwich to ship to them that week. Note: They’re planning to send sandwiches to the US, UK and Europe.
The actual sandwich will be delivered in a box, inside a vacuum-sealed pack with two slices of bread, cheese and the condiments required to put together that particular creation. The package will also include a Teflon toaster bag.
Rotheroe doesn’t intend to just send out bog standard cheese options. He told PSFK that the company is working with a wide range of bakeries, cheese suppliers and condiment makers to push the… um… envelope.
On the one hand this is dumb, on the other, it’s brilliant. So, I guess you could say it’s drulliant but that neologism is, in itself, totally drulliant.