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How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz–and Us – Tim Wu

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Earlier today…

Defenders of the prosecution seem to think that anyone charged with a felony must somehow deserve punishment. That idea can only be sustained without actual exposure to the legal system. Yes, most of the time prosecutors do chase actual wrongdoers, but today our criminal laws are so expansive that most people of any vigor and spirit can be found to violate them in some way. Basically, under American law, anyone interesting is a felon. The prosecutors, not the law, decide who deserves punishment.

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How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz–and Us – Tim Wu
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West Loop II? Ambitious plan would cover Kennedy, create office hub

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Earlier today…

Preliminary plans call for eight to 12 acres of public park that would be built over the expressway, bridging the gap between the West Loop and the central business district, said Steven Fifield, president of Chicago-based Fifield. The recreational space would then serve as a catalyst for bringing new office towers, and tenants to fill them, to the neighborhood, he said.
The capping project would cost around $45 million if it were to span the three blocks between Washington Boulevard and Adams Street, and its first phase could be funded with tax-increment financing from the city, Mr. Fifield said. As more tenants move to the area, boosting tax revenue, the project would likely end up paying for itself, he said

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West Loop II? Ambitious plan would cover Kennedy, create office hub
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Graphic Design Criticism as a Spectator Sport: Observatory: Design Observer

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Earlier today…

But all the UC logo dissenters remind us of how different designers are from regular people. Designers tend to overvalue differentiation and originality. We are taught this in design school. The best solutions are created ex nihilo, break new ground, resemble nothing else in the world. Everyone wants to stand out, or else what’s the point? But this isn’t true. Most people don’t want to stand out. They want to fit in. More precisely, they want to fit in with the people they like, or want to be like. At one point in the debate, Armin Vit linked to a Google image search result of university seals. Did anyone wonder why they all look the same?

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Graphic Design Criticism as a Spectator Sport: Observatory: Design Observer
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Beer Baron Seized – 75 Years Ago – NYTimes.com

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Earlier today…

1938 Beer Baron Seized

BARCELONA — “Kid Tiger” Sikowsky, fugitive American beer baron, who has sought in vain to find refuge in most European countries, was arrested here yesterday [Jan. 11]. Sikowsky says he not only was a member of Al Capone’s gang, but that Capone, Chicago hoodlum and vice racketeer, was under his orders. Undesirable because of his criminal activities in America, and wanted there for income-tax invasion, Sikowsky has been ordered out of one country after another. The arrested man was allegedly invited to Spain, where he attracted the attention of the police by the way he squandered money. He is expected to be expelled from Spain as he was from Andorra. “I’m no criminal. I only owe some income taxes, that’s all. And say — tell me anybody who doesn’t try to dodge his taxes, anyway.”

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Beer Baron Seized – 75 Years Ago – NYTimes.com
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Why 64.8 percent of Americans didn’t get a flu shot

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Earlier today…

Why are flu vaccination rates so low? Lori Uscher-Pines, a policy researcher at the RAND Corp., estimates that part of the issue has to do with no consequences for not getting vaccinated (well, except for coming down with the flu). Unlike childhood vaccines, which are generally required to start a school year, employers don’t stop their workers’ from coming to work if they cannot prove flu immunization.
“Children have regular encounters like well child visits where they get vaccinated,” she said. “There’s a constant contact with the health-care system.”
Americans also tend to have negative perceptions about the flu vaccine. A study Uscher-Pines did in 2011 found that about half of those who did not get vaccinated agreed with statements such as “I don’t need it” or “I don’t believe in flu vaccines.”
…

This year’s flu vaccine is 62 percent effective, meaning that those who receive the vaccination are 62 percent less likely to develop the flu than those who don’t. That does leave space for someone who receives the vaccine to become sick but, as public health officials would argue, gives them better odds than an individual without any protection at all.

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Why 64.8 percent of Americans didn’t get a flu shot
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ArchitectureChicago PLUS: At Marina City – Bertrand Goldberg: Screwed Again?

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Earlier today…

It’s one of favorite talking points of the good-‘ol-boys power network that plotted beyond closed doors to destroy Bertrand Goldberg’s landmark Prentice Hospital: We don’t need Prentice because we’ll still have Marina City – if you two world-renowned masterpieces, why wouldn’t anyone not want to make it just one? (The next court hearing on the lawsuit to save Prentice is tomorrow, January 11th. Stay tuned.)

The irony of all this, of course, is none of these bulldozing power brokers who profess such love for Marina City have lifted a finger to give it landmark protection, allowing the indignities foisted upon this global symbol of the greatness of Chicago to continue unabated.

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ArchitectureChicago PLUS: At Marina City – Bertrand Goldberg: Screwed Again?
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The Myth Of Hitler’s Gun Ban « The Propaganda Professor

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Earlier today…

Trouble is, Hitler never made such a speech in 1935. Nor is there any record that he ever spoke these particular words at all.  This little “speech” was obviously written for him, many years after his death, by someone who wanted you to believe that gun registration is Hitler-evil.

What he did say, 7 years later, was this: “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.” So it’s fair to conclude that he believed “gun control” had its uses. But that’s quite a different thing from claiming that “gun control” was instrumental in the NAZI rise to power.

And the truth is that no gun law was passed in Germany in 1935. There was no need for one, since a gun registration program was already in effect in Germany; it was enacted in 1928, five years before Hitler’s ascendancy.  But that law did not

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The Myth Of Hitler’s Gun Ban « The Propaganda Professor
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Malcolm Gladwell – S.H.A.M.E. Profile

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Earlier today…

A confidential Philip Morris document from the mid-1990s named Malcolm Gladwell as one of the tobacco industry’s top covert media assets. This roster of “Third Party Advocates” was a who’s who list of known corporate shills, including Bush press secretary/Fox News anchor Tony Snow, Grover Norquist, Milton Friedman and Ed Feulner, head of the Heritage Foundation. In journalism terms, a “Third Party Advocate” means “fraud.”

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Malcolm Gladwell – S.H.A.M.E. Profile
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Republished at Columbus Requires Life Vests On Chattahoochee

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Life Preservers

My photo was used to illustrate this post

The city of Columbus is tightening the rules for people out on the Chattahoochee River near the city. Starting this week the city is requiring life vests for anyone on the river between the North Highlands Dam and the Columbus Trade Center. (Photo Courtesy of Seth Anderson via Flickr.)

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Columbus Requires Life Vests On Chattahoochee

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Republicans’ tax insanity

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Ben Sargent - Tax Cuts for the Rich

Ben Sargent – Tax Cuts for the Rich

Earlier today…

Norquist’s actual power in Washington and within the GOP is illusory. In terms of stature and public prominence, he’s been a major beneficiary of the party’s opposition to tax increases – but he hasn’t been the driving force behind it. The real story of the GOP’s modern evolution on taxes played out in several stages, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

The first key moment was the advent of supply-side economics in the late ‘70s, the theory that minimizing income, corporate and investment taxes would result in perpetual economic growth that would benefit everyone. It was a fringe idea at first, championed by economist Arthur Laffer and a handful of Republican members of Congress, most notably Jack Kemp.

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Republicans’ tax insanity – Salon.com
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Boehner Counters Obama’s Proposal on Deficit Cuts

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Racketeer Nickel

Racketeer Nickel

Earlier today…

Under the Republican offer, tax revenue would rise by $800 billion over 10 years, through closing loopholes and ending or curtailing deductions and tax credits. Mr. Boehner did not specify on Monday which tax breaks would be curtailed.

Another $600 billion in deficit reduction would come from changes to federal health care programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the president’s health care law. Cuts to other programs that are not under the purview of annual Congressional spending bills — so-called mandatory programs — would total $300 billion. And discretionary programs, already cut by nearly $1 trillion through last year’s Budget Control Act, would be reduced by another $300 billion.

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Boehner Counters Obama’s Proposal on Deficit Cuts – NYTimes.com
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Mustache Transplants on the Rise in the Middle East

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Earlier today…

Turkish plastic surgeon Selahattin Tulunay says the number of mustache implants he performs has boomed in the last few years. He now performs 50-60 of the procedures a month, on patients who hail mostly from the Middle East and travel to Turkey as medical tourists.
He said his patients generally want thick mustaches as they felt they would make them look mature and dignified.

“For some men who look young and junior, they think (a mustache) is a must to look senior … more professional and wise,” he said. “They think it is prestigious.”

Pierre Bouhanna is a Paris-based surgeon who, for the past five years, has been performing increasing numbers of mustache implants. He says the majority of his patients come from the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Lebanon and Turkey, with men traveling to France to have the surgery performed.

“My impression is more and more they want to establish their male aspect,” he said. “They want a strong mustache.”

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Mustache Transplants on the Rise in the Middle East – ktla.com
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Rick Santorum Lashes Out At Disability Treaty

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God Wills It

God Wills It

Earlier today…

But these aren’t reasonable times. Some right-wingers are urging the Senate to reject the treaty, saying it’s a plot by one-world-government bureaucrats to undermine American independence. Rick Santorum, the former senator and Republican presidential candidate, called it a “Pandora’s box” that could lead to the United Nations making medical decisions for disabled children like his daughter Bella, whom he brought into a Senate hearing room last week while he made his point.
Mr. Santorum, having fallen far from his moment in the electoral sun, has found a new platform at the conspiracy-mongering right-wing Web site WorldNetDaily. That was where he wrote a column condemning language in the treaty requiring that actions concerning disabled children be taken in the “best interests of the child.”

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Rick Santorum Lashes Out At Disability Treaty – NYTimes.com
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The Morning Plum: No more false equivalence. Both sides are not equally to blame

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tapeworm diet

Earlier today…

There is an actual set of facts here (re fiscal cliff). They are central to understanding the current situation, and belong in every account of what is going wrong:
1) Democrats have offered a comprehensive proposal that meaningfully details the tax hikes they would like to see and contains substantial deficit reduction, but Republican leaders have not offered a comprehensive proposal that meaningfully details the spending cuts they would like to see. And what Republicans have proposed — such as it is — doesn’t contain nearly as much in deficit reduction as the Dem plan does.

2) Many experts believe that substantial deficit reduction simply requires Republicans to drop their opposition to raising tax rates on the rich.

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The Morning Plum: No more false equivalence. Both sides are not equally to blame. – The Plum Line – The Washington Post
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Republished at Mail Fail-Jet Van Lines

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We Deliver For You, Eventually - Ilford HP5+400

My photo was used to illustrate this post

The U.S. Postal Service may be undergoing some serious changes in the face of a rather large deficit. While many take for granted that mail is delivered on time, and can usually complain about the cost of stamps, the Postal Service has been suffering. Just this year the agency posted a $15.9 billion dollar loss. While trying to salvage health care coverage for their many employees the U.S. Postal Service also failed to meet the deadline for reserving $5 billion dollars for this purpose for retired postal workers. Basically, without drastic changes there could be a very real possibility of no Postal Service without a huge helping hand from the government. …Photo credit: swanksalot / Foter / CC BY-SA

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Mail Fail? « Jet Van Lines

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