Posts tagged news
Posts tagged news
Anne M Stark for Phys.Org:
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) today officially approved new names for elements 114 and 116, the latest heavy elements to be added to the periodic table.
Scientists of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)-Dubna collaboration proposed the names as Flerovium for element 114, with the symbol Fl, and Livermorium for element 116, with the symbol Lv, late last year.
Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 are still nameless.
Colin: So can we call them all Eastwoodium for the time being?
Thrilling and terrifying report by David E. Sanger in the New York Times. I’m not even gonna quote anything. Just read it all.
The Associated Press:
Texas-based oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. stockholders will vote Wednesday on a proposed company policy to ban discrimination against gay or transgender workers, a shareholder resolution pushed by New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Using the $150 billion state pension fund’s stock portfolio as influence, the comptroller’s office said it has helped persuade 27 other big corporations to agree to new nondiscrimination policies, though several previous attempts at Exxon Mobil have failed.
Blah blah free market, blah blah already sufficient antidiscrimination policy, blah blah. Good on DiNapoli for throwing some weight around for the cause of treating people like people.
Steven DuBois for the Associated Press:
David Pickup, a Los Angeles-area counselor who specializes in reparative therapy, said he has helped many clients “maximize their heterosexual potential,” when they have come to him because they believe there is a cause-and-effect reason, such as sexual abuse, for their same-sex attraction.
“It’s a very tough, very emotional journey,” he said.
Emphasis added by myself to highlight an exceptionally reprehensible quote by Mr. Pickup. I gagged when I read those four words in the paper.
Bill Mears, CNN:
The Supreme Court confirms the 73-year-old justice’s Washington home was burglarized earlier this month. It follows a February incident in which Breyer, his wife and a guest were robbed in his Caribbean vacation home by a machete-wielding intruder.
I hadn’t heard about the machete incident until now. Poor guy.
The AP and the Daily News of New York:
Rob Nuckols, 51, was working on the ground floor Monday morning at Swepco Tube LLC when his colleague Martin Davis plunged through a roof and into the vat of diluted acid and became fully submerged, officials said.
He jumped into the vat and was waist-high while he and three others pulled Davis out, Clifton Fire Chief Vince Colavitti told The Record of Woodland Park. The vat contained a 40 to 70 percent nitric acid solution used for cleaning metal tubing.
What a supremely awesome dude.
Tom McCarthy for The Guardian:
After building a political campaign that was long on passion and grassroots support, if ultimately short of votes, Texas congressman Paul announced today that he is suspending his hunt for the presidency.
The candidate urged supporters to continue their efforts to amass delegates at state conventions, however, as part of a strategy to gain a voice at the Republican National Convention – and influence over the direction of the party.
“We will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted,” the Paul campaign said in a statement sent to reporters. “Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.”
Ron Paul’s “BIG DOG” ad is pretty easily my favorite ad from this election season, and I’ve been waiting for something like this to post it. My tribute to Ron Paul now devoting all his time to his shadow campaign.
The Associated Press:
Government critics, and even some supporters, are ridiculing a state TV host’s allegation that a newspaper crossword puzzle may have had a hidden call for a plot to kill President Hugo Chavez’s elder brother.
Intelligence agents questioned the author of the puzzle after state TV presenter Miguel Perez Pirela pointed out that Wednesday’s crossword contained the word “ASESINEN,” or kill, intersecting with the name of Chavez’s brother, “ADAN.” He noted they were below the word “RAFAGAS,” meaning either gusts of wind or bursts of gunfire.
I’m assuming the people who believed this are the same people who believed “NYC” in Wingdings was anti-Semitic code.
Kantele Franko, Associated Press:
A northeast Ohio sheriff fired a deputy for ordering five jail inmates to dance to a song by Usher in exchange for privileges such as using a phone or microwave, the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
AAAAAARGH
Nice to see the Obama camp coming out swinging like this. My hope is that this is to draw a strong contrast between Obama and Romney — basically campaign on social issues and not let Romney make the election a referendum on the economy.
