Verizon to Acquire AOL. Last Time They Owned a Media Company, Their Reporters Were Banned From Writing About Certain Subjects

Verizon is acquiring AOL for $4.4 billion in cash and will acquire its media companies, including Huffington Post, Engadget, and TechCrunch. The last time Verizon owned a media company, they allegedly banned their own reporters from writing about net neutrality and government surveillance.

View Link: Verizon to Acquire AOL. Last Time They Owned a Media Company, Their Reporters Were Banned From Writing About Certain Subjects

Corruption is Legal in America

“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

The GOP Attack on Climate Change Science Takes a Big Step Forward

“… the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology voted Thursday to cut deeply into NASA’s budget for Earth science, in a clear swipe at the study of climate change.”

“… The American Geophysical Union observed just before the vote that NASA’s Earth science programs involve more than the study of climate change as such, but ‘provide a basis for knowledge and understanding of natural hazards, weather forecasting, air quality, and water availability.’”

“The Earth Science division … helped monitor the movement of oil into Gulf of Mexico coastal waters after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, track severe storms and tornadoes, and assisted with flood predictions and earthquake response.”

A Reddit user, FlexoPXP, has an idea that President Obama should seriously consider, if legally possible.

“Since climate change has been identified [by the Pentagon] as a security threat, Obama should direct money from the Defense Department to NASA to make up for this shortfall. …” (read full comment)

View Link: The GOP Attack on Climate Change Science Takes a Big Step Forward

Farmers Unable to Repair Tractors Because Copyright: Never a Side Effect, But Core Intention of Law

“John Deere claiming that farmers aren’t allowed to tinker with their tractors and other farming equipment is not an “unfortunate side effect” of copyright monopoly legislation. It was the core idea, all the time, to prevent owners of property to exercise their normal property rights. That was the only possible way the copyright monopoly was even slightly maintainable into a digital environment.”

This is exactly what the opponents of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) warned legislators about almost twenty years ago. Back then, the music and film industries claimed that they were complaining about nothing. Now, as software is included in more products that we use every day, the warnings appear to have been valid.

We told you so.

View Link: Farmers Unable to Repair Tractors Because Copyright: Never a Side Effect, But Core Intention of Law

iPhone Photo of Hurricane Sandy Makes the Cover of Time “ When superstorm Sandy was approaching, New York photojournalist Ben Lowy, 33, didn’t grab his high-end camera equipment. He grabbed his iPhone 4S, put it in his pocket, and headed out on...

iPhone Photo of Hurricane Sandy Makes the Cover of Time

When superstorm Sandy was approaching, New York photojournalist Ben Lowy, 33, didn’t grab his high-end camera equipment. He grabbed his iPhone 4S, put it in his pocket, and headed out on assignment for Time magazine. (read more)

abcnews.go.com

Republican SuperPACs Were the Real Losers of the 2012 Election

The big losers on Tuesday were the Republican SuperPACs. They poured a billion dollars into this race, and they lost House and Senate seats, as well as the race for the White House.

This tells me that the law of diminishing returns applies to money in politics. Eventually, you get to a point where it doesn’t matter how many more ads you run against your opponent. The voters have heard it all and made up their minds, and you’re just wasting money.

All that wasted money could have been spent helping others. That’s the real tragedy here. How many schools or hospitals could it have funded?

…and the “Hillary 2016” memes begin. Three thoughts: • I’ve always loved this photo of her. • I get to start using the election2016 tag. • I’m betting that Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden will work out, behind closed doors, which of them is going to...

…and the “Hillary 2016” memes begin.

Three thoughts:

  1. I’ve always loved this photo of her.

  2. I get to start using the election2016 tag.

  3. I’m betting that Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden will work out, behind closed doors, which of them is going to run for president in 2016. The other one won’t run, because neither wants their last political race to be a loss to the other.

current:

#Hillary2016 is trending on our Social Dashboard, and we think we know why…

My Election Night Tweets

Below is just a listing of all my tweets from last night. It does not include tweets from others that I reposted. To see those, view my entire Twitter stream.

twitter.com

Obama Defeats Romney to Win Second Term (I snapped this photo of my TV screen to mark the occasion.)
Obama Defeats Romney to Win Second Term

(I snapped this photo of my TV screen to mark the occasion.)

Negotiating with Iran is perceived as a sign of beginning to forsake Israel. That is where I think the basic difference is between Romney and Obama. What Romney is doing is mortally destroying any chance of a resolution without war. Therefore when [he recently] said, he doesn’t think there should be a war with Iran, this does not ring true. It is not consistent with other things he has said. […] Obama does think there is still room for negotiations. It’s a very courageous thing to say in this atmosphere. In the end, this is what I think: Making foreign policy on Iran a serious issue in the US elections — what Romney has done, in itself — is a heavy blow to the ultimate interests of the United States and Israel.
Former Israeli Spymaster: We Need To Talk to Iran (via azspot)

al-monitor.com