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Undernews: July 1, 2013

Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it

THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW

How the Supreme Court restricted your constitutional rights this session

Obama promises billions to improve Africa's electricty, but not America's

How to handle urinary complications of a filibuster

Journalism: What good old days?

Word: An Australian investigative reporter on Assange

Kindergarten before and after Common Core

Godless commit less crime, have longer marriages and are more highly educated than almost any other group in America

Biking up big time

Bookshelf
Sorry, but psychopaths are running the world

Ex-Stasi boss says NSA's spying efforts 'a dream come true"

Private investigator working for Michael Jackson also worked for Hillary Clinton

Public university privatizes its scientific research

Uh oh, Iran's new president isn't quite behaving the way the American elite want

Der Spiegel: NSA tapped EU offices

New deadly bird flu

How a TV news story is put together

Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone - "Objectivity" is a fairy tale invented purely for the consumption of the credulous public, sort of like the Santa Claus myth. Obviously, journalists can strive to be balanced and objective, but that's all it is, striving.

Climate
Heat wave numbers

Health
America's hospitals are the most expensive part of the world’s most expensive medical system. Health care consumes nearly a fifth of economic output; 31% of that goes towards hospital care alone, some $850 billion in 2011. Considered on a cost per patient per day basis, Americans spend more than four times as much on hospital care as many other countries. Yet the costs are highly variable: 10% of hospital patients paid more than $12,000 a day while 25% pay less than $2,000.

Idea mill
Why we should talk more about suicide

Action
Protests mounting at state capitals

On the other hand...
Immigration laws find a worthy target

29 NFL players arrested since Super Bowl

Quotes
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed & digested. - Francis Bacon

Pocket paradigm
Bill Clinton's change on DOMA is another example of why people like Clinton and Obama aren't leaders but merely the establiishment's guards at the gate deciding when new ideas can enter - Sam Smith

Every immigrant is another saga of cultural insurrection, a tribute to the enduring human capacity for individual choice. - Sam Smith

Ecuador scraps trade deal over threats from U.S.

Ways to suppress the vote now that the Supreme Court says it's okay

How physicians want to die

Gallery

Gitmo's torture chambers
Spygate
Before a dinner of pizza and fried chicken late Sunday in Hong Kong, Edward J. Snowden insisted that a group of lawyers advising him in the Chinese territory "hide their cellphones in the refrigerator of the home where he was staying, to block any eavesdropping," as my colleague Keith Bradsher reported. Why a refrigerator? It is the materials that make up refrigerator walls that could potentially turn them into anti-eavesdropping devices. "What you want to do is block the radio signals which could be used to transmit voice data, and block the audio altogether," Adam Harvey, a designer specializing in countersurveillance products explained.

Infrequently asked questions
On the night of the shooting, George Zimmerman weighed 42 pounds more than the autopsied weight of Trayvon Martin. He also was trained in mixed martial arts. If Zimmerman's claims are correct why was he such a lousy fighter that he had to use a gun?

Cities
Homes in walkable locations sell for 18% more than houses in car-dependant areas

Polls
50% support federal funding of campaigns

Quotes
Deeply versed in books and shallow in himself - John Milton

Pocket paradigm
The more high placed is someone to whom one introduces a new idea, the more likely this individual is to be uncomfortable, dismissive, or suddenly in need of another drink. Unchallenged myopia is one of the most cherished privileges of power. - Sam Smith

Spy gate
How a 30-year-old lawyer exposed NSA mass surveillance of Americans in 1975

Bikes

TWO BICYCLE WONDERS OF THE WORLD
Labor
London orchestra pays musicians less than cleaners

San Francisco transit workers strike

Drugs
Vermont decriminalizes marijuana

Civil liberties
Gay Pennsylvania state legislator barred from speaking on floor about DOMA

ACLU finds police violation of 1st Amendment in 33 states

On the other hand
Teen Mom’ Farrah Abraham Enters Rehab For Alcohol Abuse

Mariah Carey Caught Lip Synching During BET Awards

Twin Sister of Head Of Scientology Busted On Drug Charges

Quotes
When you come before us and tell us that we are about to disturb your business, we say to you that you have made the definition of a businessman too limited in its application. The man who is employed for wages is as much a businessman as his employer; the attorney in a country town is as much a businessman as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis; the merchant at the crossroads store is as much a businessman as the merchant of New York; the farmer who goes forth in the morning and toils all day ... is as much a businessman as the man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price of grain ... We come to speak for this broader class of businessmen. We do not come as aggressors. Our war is not a war of conquest; we are fighting in the defense of our homes, our families, and posterity. We have petitioned, and our petitions have been scorned; we have entreated, and our entreaties have been disregarded; we have begged, and they have mocked when our calamity came. We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them.- William Jennings Bryan

Pocket paradigm
Why do so many of the people who talk about "intellectual property" seem not all that bright? On precisely what date and under what circumstances did an advertising jingle for a new type of tampon become intellectual property? When I was writing one of my books, I had to write for permissions. When I asked for permission to quote Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land," the venerable Ludlow Music Co. took care of the matter in a page and a half. When I wanted to quote from a book, the venerable University of Chicago Press worked its way through the problem in one long page. When I wanted to quote eight words from a Mac Davis song, however, I got a letter from some big LA law firm wanting a synopsis of the book, a copy of the chapter of the book in which it would be quoted, as well as all future earnings of my first-bom son. I decided to write my own intellectual property. - Sam Smith

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