h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

French WWII resistance hero Raymond Aubrac dies aged 97
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17674554

"Rare photo of lynx using Banff highway overpass delights wildlife experts . . .

wildlife mitigation measures are estimated to account for nearly one-third of the $310-million cost of the Trans-Canada Highway twinning project from Castle Junction to the B.C. border alone . . ."

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/alberta/Rare+photo+lynx+using+Banff+highway+overpass+delights+wildlife/6443899/story.html

I just earlier today joined some kind of group for giving cats equal status with dogs, so I am glad it is lynx and not wolf.

Death Penalty Repeal Goes to Connecticut Governor

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/nyregion/connecticut-house-votes-to-repeal-death-penalty.html

\o/

George Zimmerman Arrested for 2nd Degree Murder


http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/12/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-blotter-idUS371331303320120412

Is this a case of abhorrent trial-by-media, or a laudable triumph of the people? Or both?

>> trial-by-media <<

Indeed! It seems that when NBC got hold of the 911
tapes they edited out the 911 operator's question
"Is he white, latino or black?"

Only Zimmerman's reply is heard when he says the
suspect is black. Taken out of context that way
it appears that Zimmerman is putting some special
racial significance on this fact. It now seems he
was really just answering the operator's questions
as to the suspect's description. NBC has recently
apologised but the damage has already been done.


~jwf~

...the damage has already been done

yes, a probably innocent child is dead

Squiggles:

Zimmerman used a racial epithet that is so racist that I cannot post it here.

How are we not to attach racial significance to it?

Normally I think you're merely on another planet.

Oh fergawdsake Monkeyman, read what I posted.

NBC has admitted they edited the 911 call to make
it sound like Zimmerman was racially motivated.

He said 'black' in response to the question "white,
latino or black' a fact which was suppressed for
more than a month.

If he used "a racial epithet that is so racist that
I cannot post it here" then I'd like to hear about it.

But I fear you are merely extrapolating, as many have,
based soley on the NBC edited report. Tell a lie, even
a lie of omission, often enough and it not only becomes
true, it gets exaggerated.

~jwf~

>>If he used "a racial epithet that is so racist that
I cannot post it here" then I'd like to hear about it.

lmgtfy:

http://tinyurl.com/ForSquiggles

Now I'll admit that some are insisting that if you play his 911 call backwards he's saying 'Paul is dead' or some such...but really.

However, if the really issue here is a CNN broadcast...fair enough.

However, if the really issue here is a CNN broadcast...fair enough.

-->

However, if the real issue here is an NBC broadcast...fair enough.

I know *nothing* about this incident so I listened to one of the recordings Ed linked to - this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hUgAfuYcg8

The strange thing is, listening to it and reading the subtitles it's as clear as day he says something resembling "clucking spoons".

However, play it again with your eyes shut and listening carefully it really does sound like something different. The power of auto suggestion at work?


Incidentally, I neither know nor care about the case as a whole. I just thought that recording was interesting.

'Auto-suggestion' is not an unreasonable description...except that this is how we interpret speech anyway. We rely an awful lot on context and expectation. This is why computers are so poor at natural language processing. Perhaps, then, auto-suggestion is too loaded a term, implying that people might be trying to hard to her something that is quite likely to have been said.

Still - if Treyon Martin was walking like a spoon and clucking like a spoon, then maybe Zimmermann was talking about spoons.

At the end of the day we have a young man minding his own business with a packet of Skittles and a can of soda stalked and gunned down on the street. Arguably any racial element is less important than whether the law should a justification of 'I thought he looked like the kind of person who might cause trouble.' (Even leaving aside the killer's remarks I'd argue that a racial element is inescapable - but that's perhaps a separate debate).

In all this, drawing particular attention to the fringe issue of an NBC broadcast seems trivial, bordering on shameful. But that's just me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17697328

"MoD inquiry into mysterious bang"

Technically it was the noise itself that caught my attention... wondering if anyone else heard it.

MoD say it was a Typhoon jet flying over the Midlands.

Yeah. Because that'd make a bang big enough to rattle windows in Swindon.

The IMF asks Spain to go on making efforts to get out of the crisis.

http://www.publico.es/dinero/429272/el-fmi-pide-a-espana-que-siga-esforzandose-para-salir-de-la-crisis


What Spain needs is a kind of New Deal, it needs growth, employment...

Austerity is not the solution, although it would be great to cut the privilegies of politicians, why don´t you ask for that?

I´ll tell you what would help: consider why the US is getting out of the crisis and Europe is getting on it deeper.
The American Federal bank is helping each state redistributing taxes benefits. In Europe, its twin institution, the ECB, instead of buying bonds of each country, let the money to banks at 1% of interest and banks buy the bonds according to the interest that rating agencies determine. The decisions are based on something so objective as trust, confidence... The ranting agencies have those banks as clients, and you know, you have to keep your clients happy.

Germany or Britain have a higher public debt than Spain, but they are not attacked by the rating agencies, can you guess why?

Dear Mrs Lagarde, I doubt very much that there´s intelligent life in Brussels, the IMF or the ECB. You all belong to that group of privileged unelected Bruss-elite courtisans that serve faithfully that 1% that accumulate wealth obscenely, particularly since the Reagan and Thatcher era.

Europe needs a New Deal a la Roosvelt, not more Mafia.

Anti-gay adverts on London buses blocked by Boris Johnson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/12/anti-gay-adverts-boris-johnson#start-of-comments

The silence from Ken "Tory party is riddled with gays" Livingstone is deafening.

This is turning into a good election for Boris. Can't convince myself that's a good thing even if it does spell almost certain doom for Cameron and Osborne.