18 Million E-Mail Addresses and Passwords Stolen in Germany
This may be of interest to some folks here, and I’ve not yet seen anything on it.On 27 March prosecutors in Verden in northern Germany seized a list of about 18 million stolen e-mail addresses and...
View ArticleMicrosoft Patches IE Security Vulnerability, Also for XP
According The Official Microsoft Blog, a patch for the recently discovered security vulnerability in Internet Explorer, versions 6 through 11, went live at 10 a.m. PDT yesterday, 1 May 2014. Adrienne...
View ArticleParents Identify 77 of the 136 Girls in the Boko Haram Video
At one point there was some question as to whether the 136 young women shown in the video were actually the ones abducted from Chibok. However, Spiegel Onlinereported yesterday that 77 of them have...
View ArticleRestaurant Shows More Skin — Potato Skin
From ThinkProgress:Atomic Grill, a barbecue restaurant in West Virginia, recently got an UrbanSpoon review that owner Daniel McCawley felt went too far: it wanted his staff to “show more skin.”“I’m...
View ArticleMore misogyny
Babulal Gaur, the Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh and therefore the minister responsible for law and order in the state, speaking today on the subject of rape (Reuters):"This is a social crime which...
View ArticleFirst-ever criminal proceedings for gang rape in Egypt
From Al Jazeera:Egypt's prosecution service has referred 13 men to trial for alleged sex attacks on women at Cairo's Tahrir Square, including during inaugural celebrations for new President Abdel...
View ArticleThe Great European Heat Wave and Drought of 1540
In a paper ‘The year-long unprecedented European heat and drought of 1540 – a worst case’ in the journal Climatic Change an international group of 32 scientists shows that in 1540 Western Europe...
View ArticleSuccessful first prosecution for gang rape in Egypt
This is a brief but satisfying follow-up to my diary First-ever criminal proceedings for gang rape in Egypt from last month. In that diary I reported that 13 men had been referred to trial by Egypt’s...
View ArticleThere are now close-ups of the Siberian crater
The Siberian Times has a long article, First pictures from inside the 'crater at the end of the world', on the recently discovered crater in the Siberian Yamal Peninsula that was previously reported on...
View ArticleUPDATED: Israel and Hamas agree to 12-hour ceasefire for Saturday
At 16:30 EDT SPIEGEL ONLINE posted an article whose title translates to Gaza conflict: Israel and Hamas agree to a 12-hour ceasefire. This comes a few hours after Netanyahu rejected John Kerry’s...
View ArticleBREAKING: UN Security Council unanimously calls for a ceasefire in Gaza
At 00:29 EDT SPIEGEL ONLINE published Krieg in Gaza: Uno-Sicherheitsrat fordert einstimmig sofortige Waffenruhe (War in Gaza: UN Security Council unanimously demands ceasefire). According to the...
View ArticleA Sheriff with No Sense of Proportion
This is a little late, bit doesn’t seem to have been noticed here; I saw it only because it found its way into the German news at SPIEGEL ONLINE yesterday. From the 9 April 2015 Tampa Bay Times:A...
View ArticleA Happier Interaction between Florida Police and a Homeless Man
An earlier diary detailed a truly disgusting interaction between Sarasota police and a homeless man. Coincidentally, this came just after I ran across the story of a very different interaction between...
View ArticleJulian Bond Died Last Night
Just received this note from Morris Dees (Southern Poverty Law Center):It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of legendary civil rights activist Julian Bond, SPLC's first president. He...
View ArticleShe’s almost up there with Roy Moore...
Thanks to Right Wing Watch for bringing this to my attention.Rena M. Lindevaldsen is the interim dean of the Liberty University School of Law. She is also the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,...
View ArticleMSF start petition for U.S. consent to independent investigation of the...
This will be short.After the Kunduz hospital bombing of 3 October, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) for an...
View ArticleMore Hospitals Bombed, This Time in Syria
This was posted yesterday to the website of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; Doctors Without Borders):At least 35 Syrian patients and medical staff have been killed, and 72 wounded, in a significant...
View ArticleDallas 1, Roanoke 0
From ThinkProgress:Speaking to MSNBC on Saturday morning, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was asked to discuss the growing anxiety over Syrian refugees entering the United States, purportedly over concerns...
View ArticleMédecins Sans Frontières Petition Update
Most here will probably remember that some time ago Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders; MSF) started a petition at Change.org asking President Obama to consent to an independent...
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Trans Day of Resilience Art Project
Thanks to an e-mail from Equality Ohio, I recently made the acquaintance of Trans Day of Resilience, ‘an art and activism project that recognizes and supports trans women and femmes of color in their...
View ArticleCincinnati Bans Conversion ‘Therapy’
Fix society. Please.That was the close of Leelah Alcorn’s suicide note; she was a Southwest Ohio teen who killed herself a year ago after undergoing conversion ‘therapy’. This past Wednesday the...
View ArticleThe 2015 Arab Opinion Index — Perhaps Some Surprises
From the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies:Results from the 2015 Arab Opinion Index, the largest public opinion poll of its kind in the Arab region, were officially released as part of a press...
View ArticleWhat Happened in Köln (Cologne) on New Year’s Eve – and in Hamburg (Update)
This has been the top story in online German news for a couple of days now. The first two sections below are summarized from ZEIT ONLINE; the last is based on a chronology and another article from...
View ArticleAn Update on the New Year’s Eve Assaults in Köln and Hamburg
This is a short update to the diary What Happened in Köln (Cologne) on New Year’s Eve – and in Hamburg that I posted last night; if you’re not familiar with the events, that’s a place to start. This...
View ArticleThe Prehistory of English: The Case of the Hidden Suffix
This is the first in what I hope will be a (very sporadic) series on the roots of English. It may also be the last; I’ll have to see how it goes. It’s very difficult to write at all accurately on this...
View ArticleACLU and others file federal lawsuit to secure safe drinking water in Flint
I just got an email from the ACLU with this link: A coalition of local citizens and national groups filed suit today to ask a federal court to step in and secure access to safe drinking water for the...
View ArticlePretty Curious Indeed!
From TakePart: Boy Takes Home Top Prize in Competition for Girls in STEM Pretty Curious, a U.K. program aimed at getting girls interested in STEM careers, asks on its website, “why aren’t more girls...
View ArticleAlternative für Deutschland, the new boy on the German political block
Last night johnnygunn published the diary Sobering Election News from Germany about the success of the right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) in this past...
View ArticleEuropean Council President lists new American administration among threats to...
On the eve of the informal Malta summit, Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, just released the text of his letter United We Stand, Divided We Fall to the 27 EU heads of state or heads of...
View ArticleSweden’s government takes a subtle swipe
Today Isabella Lövin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate, posted this photo on Twitter and on her Facebook page:xJust signed referral of Swedish...
View ArticleCrackdown on LGBT in Chechnya – Updated with Additional Background
From SPIEGEL ONLINE today [my translation]:More than a hundred arrests and at least three dead: according to a report by the investigative journalist Elena Milashina of the Russian Novaya Gazeta, the...
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More German Trump-Trashing
Martin Schulz, the SPD (centre-left) candidate running against Angela Merkel for the German Chancellorship, isn’t the only senior German politician with harsh words for Trump.SPIEGEL ONLINE reports...
View ArticleThe Prehistory of English: Another Hidden Suffix
I don’t know whether this will get lost amidst the insanity or provide a bit of dry, stodgy relief, but it’s finally ready to go, so I’ll take my chances.Far too long ago I wrote a diary, The...
View ArticleThe Eighth Emissions Gap Report by the UN Environment Programme
The UN Environment Programme’s eighth Emissions Gap Report came out yesterday. At 116 pages it’s impressively hefty; even the executive summary runs to ten pages. The first paragraph of that summary...
View ArticleMissing Kiwis? #GetNZontheMap
And now for something on the lighter side.New Zealand is three-quarters the size of Germany and bigger than Great Britain, but it can be very hard to find on some maps — because it isn’t there!From the...
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PWB Peeps: You've Got Mail!
Despite what it says at the top, this diary was written by twingrace, who is the me of the diary.Tonight’s diary is a collaboration amongst BMScott, who edited photographs, twingrace, who wrote a bit,...
View ArticleGreta Thunberg’s speech upon accepting the Amnesty International Ambassador...
Back in June Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement received Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2019. “The Ambassador of Conscience Award is Amnesty International’s...
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PWB Peeps’ Emergency Watering Hole
These diaries are especially important when so many folks are stuck at home, so I’ve thrown together a quick emergency diary where the Peeps can congregate.Yes, I’ve been sitting here twiddling my...
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Moondai Furkids: It's Looking A Lot Like Catmas
It’s Catmas week! Not long to go now — just a sleigh ride from Moondai to Friedai and we’re there! What better time for a Catmas song and the Furkids team know exactly which one they want! They chose...
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Moondai Furkids: Our Prayer
Please Note: This diary was written by Mopshell.As this time in our history of trials and tribulations comes to a close, the Moondai Furkids team farewell the old year with a prayer for the new year....
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Moondai Furkids: So You Wanna a New Year's Resolution
Please Note: This diary was written by Mopshell.The Moondai Furkids team have some very — how shall I put this? — unorthodox ideas about New Year’s resolutions. Most of them focus on what they thought...
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PWB Peeps: Cats in (and out of) Hats
Since we don’t have a Tuesday evening diarist, I’ve lightly edited one of twingrace’s old diaries for tonight.Ruah is a huge fan of shoes, especially those belonging to visitors. Oh, not that kind of...
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PWB: A Place to Be in the Evening
twingrace and I are a bit concerned: Dixiecollie apparently hasn’t been around since Saturday afternoon, and we hope that nothing serious is wrong. For tonight we’re republishing twingrace’s first PWB...
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