Admitting a cover-up of shocking breadth, a former New Orleans police supervisor pleaded guilty to a federal obstruction charge on Wednesday, confessing that he participated in a conspiracy to justify the shooting of six unarmed people after Hurricane Katrina that was hatched not long after police stopped firing their weapons.That'd be police officers committing assault, murder, false arrest, conspiracy, lying to federal investigators and planting evidence.
...
It's unclear when Lohman's cooperation with federal authorities began, but he presumably is prepared to testify against the officers he says helped him lie about the circumstances of a shooting he immediately deemed a "bad shoot."
Lohman, who pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to obstruct justice, admits he failed to order the collection of evidence or canvassing of witnesses, helped craft police reports riddled with false information, participated in a plan to plant a gun under the bridge and lied to investigators who questioned police actions.
I generally stay out of the financial issues of spots - mostly because they are so depressing - but there's such a confluence of interests going on here. It's just too hard to ignore.Manchester United—the Premier League’s defending champion and one of the world’s most glittering sports properties—is awash in crippling debt thanks to the Glazer family, a troupe of eerily identical American sports tycoons who bought the club in 2005 with hefty loans from banks and hedge funds, then transferred the debt to United’s books. In the last three years, Man U shelled out over 260 million pounds in interest alone, raised ticket prices, and sold superstar midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo to pay the bills. Via financial jujitsu that frankly induces nausea just to read about, the Glazers appear to be doing just fine on the deal. Similar conditions prevail at Liverpool, a club famous for its raucous working-class fan traditions. American bumblers Tom Hicks and George Gillett pulled a leveraged takeover of the club in 2007; with repayment of 100 million pounds looming, some fear Liverpool will have to liquidate its star players
What's up with the U.S. snowboard team uniforms? It looks like they're wearing jeans—are they?Thanks, Slate!
No. The U.S. Olympic snowboarding team's uniforms are made from lightweight waterproof Gore Tex fabric. The designer, snowboard equipment company Burton, overlaid images of worn denim onto the pants—and red, white, and blue plaid onto the jackets—using a coloring process called sublimation.
...the gist is that JP Morgan took one of its longest-standing clients in Mexico — Grupo Televisa — and tried to hand all of its secrets over to its biggest rival, Carlos Slim. And the way it tried to do that was by selling Slim a loan larded up with covenants which would essentially force Televisa to reveal any and all information to the holder of the debt.To clarify that a bit - JP Morgan loans money to one company, then sells the loan to the company's rival - and refuses to allow their former client to make other arrangements to protect their proprietary information.
In front of a hand-picked audience of about 40 mostly inner-circle people that included his mother, Kultida, but not his wife, Elin, Woods made his most direct statement about admitted infidelities in his marriage.Okay, you're admitting something you were caught red-handed doing, so what?
He did not address a return to the PGA Tour until near the end of his statement, saying: “I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will be this year.”Oh, you want to golf this year... you just want to prepare us for that eventuality. Take the scorn and abuse now, so that later you can be hailed as bravely emerging from scandal - a new man. Determined to prove himself.
...imagine if these were black Jehovah's Witnesses accused of kidnapping white children under similar circumstances right here in the United States. I don't think you'd see any demands from these newly born international human rights advocates for the ACLU to intervene here either.She goes on to describe a childhood epiphany where she put herself in the position of a person suffering an injustice - an experience she credits with broadening her worldview.
I assume that most people have some sort of similar empathetic epiphany as children --- maybe it's just recognizing the hurt you've felt in the eyes of another. But it's fundamental to human development. Why, for some people, it stops at their own family or group, I don't know. But it's clear that among a great many people it does. I hear it every day among some of our most powerful leaders who blithely assert that terrorist suspects don't deserve the same rights as Americans. And yet, they know, that a large number of those terrorist suspects turned out to be innocent. They simply can't extend the horror they would feel if they found themselves in similar circumstances, to these other people. They simply can't accord them basic common humanity.Well said.
Even as a matter of self-preservation, I guess they just rely on the belief that their fellow tribesmen will recognize them and come to their rescue if they should ever find themselves in such circumstances. (Or they are so lacking in imagination that the idea that it could happen to them is unfathomable.) But as these folks down in Haiti are finding, their tribe isn't all powerful and they can't always fix things for them. It turns out that having a rule of law commonly respected the world over really comes in handy at a time like this. And every time the US government chisels away at our system of justice in the name of "protecting ourselves", or some yahoo prattles on about how someone doesn't deserve the same rights as somebody else, that fundamental protection gets weaker and weaker.
Client: “[Indian outsourcer] says he can do this site for $200. Why should I go with you?”
Me: “Has he done any work for you in the past?”
Client: Yeah! He did [Other Site] for me.
[I load the other site]
Me: “The entire site’s done in Flash.”
Client: “Huh?”
Me: “It’s a site for iPhone users.”
Client: “I know. Cool, huh?”
Me: “It’s a site for iPhone users… none of whom can see it…”
Client: “Huh?”
Me: “The iPhone doesn’t support Flash.”
Client: “Well it looks fine on my PC!”
Me: “Do you have an iPhone?”
Client: “No.”
Me: “…”
Client: “Tell you what, I’m just gonna go with [Indian outsourcer]. He seems like he knows what he’s doing and I’m not sure you do.”
Me: “Have fun.”
UX designer Dustin Curtis: Dear American AirlinesI have to say, my sympathies lie with Mr. X on this one. I’m not sure Mr. Curtis picks up what Mr. X is putting down, and that is a great shame.
and a response by
American Airlines designer, Mr. X: Dear Dustin Curtis
Hamas leader killedYou gotta love how Dubai is laying this all out there. Naming names and showing photos. You wonder if whoever did this was prepared for public disclosure. They obviously knew they were under surveillance - but there's a bit of a gap between that and front page mugshots.
The men followed their target to his room, saw its number - 230 - and the one across the hall - 237. A call was then made and one of the men - using the name Peter Elvinger - booked room 237 from the business suite of another hotel. Five hours later al-Mabhouh was dead
There was no security camera covering the door to al-Mabhouh’s room and no footage of how the team gained entry. The woman in the squad known as Gail Folliard patrolled the corridor outside. She was seen to distract a hotel guest who appeared at the second floor lift for a few vital seconds to give the killers time to gain access to the room
[The underwater homeowner applies] for a modification.In other words, while a simple interest rate drop can giveth- mods to the principle can more than taketh away.
There’s two ways this can go to get the mortgage payment down to around 31% of your income. The first is to simply reduce the interest rate to 2%. That looks like this:
Not bad. It decreases the time underwater.
But there’s another way to do the modification. Let’s say the servicer simply reduces the interest rate to 3%. They also add 5% to the principal through fees, taxes, etc. Then, in order to make the mortgage payment fit your budget, they add 8 years to the term of the mortgage, putting you from 27 out of 30 years to 35 out of 35 years. (I think that is how it is done with term extensions, from the Treasury documents I’ve seen).
Your mortgage payment is still the same as in the first example. But that looks like this in this model:
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.-Carl Sagan
Steak Recipe: Massively salt your steaks 15 min – 1 hour before grilling.
Notice that I didn’t say, “sprinkle liberally” or even “season generously.” I’m talking about literally coating your meat until you can’t see red. It should resemble a salt lick.
Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly ChordWhy does it happen?
Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.”
“I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”
The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”
...most of the “My Way” killings have reportedly occurred after the singer sang out of tune, causing other patrons to laugh or jeer.
“The trouble with ‘My Way,’ ” said Mr. Gregorio, “is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion.”
Five crates of Scotch whisky and brandy belonging to the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton have been recovered after more than 100 years in the ice.
They were buried beneath Shackleton's Antarctic hut, built in 1908 for a failed expedition to the South Pole.
...
The master blender at whisky company Whyte and Mackay said the find was a "gift from the heavens" for whisky lovers.
Richard Paterson, whose firm supplied the Mackinlay's whisky for Shackleton, said: "If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analysed, the original blend may be able to be replicated.
"Given the original recipe no longer exists, this may open a door into history.
Last year, President Obama and his administration ruled out sending U.S. ground forces into Pakistan. Instead, the White House said, America’s clandestine operations there would be waged solely by remote-control — with Predator and Reaper drones. “There is a red line,” said special envoy Richard Holbrooke. “And the red line is unambiguous and stated publicly by the Pakistani government over and over again: No foreign troops on our soil.”
Yet today, three U.S. soldiers were killed and two more were wounded by an improvised bomb in Pakistan. The area was known “as a Taliban stronghold,” the New York Times notes. But the “Pakistani military had declared cleared of the militants.”
It’s another sign that America’s once-small, once-secret war in Pakistan is growing bigger, more conventional, and busting out into the open.
"A good candidate for the CT Tea Party isn't someobody who has money, isn't somebody who has political power and isn't somebody that will be corrupted by the major party tradewinds,'' [Tea Party Chairman, Dan] Gaita said. "We're looking for outsiders, for people who are living in the trenches, who are going through everyday struggles.''It's early days - but they're showing every bit as much political acumen as the party of Nader:
Tanya Bachand, leader of the Connecticut Tea Party Patriots, said she had no idea that Gaita's group was planning to register the name as a political party and learned of it only after the fact. Initially, Bachand was concerned: In Florida and elsewhere around the nation, activists have clashed over the right to use the tea party name.Oh joy.
One of the Blackwater shooters was on top of an armored vehicle firing an automatic weapon, he says. "Every time he would finish his clip, he would throw it on the ground and would load another one in and would start shooting again, and finish the new one and replace it with another." One young Iraqi man got out of his car to run, and as he fled, the Blackwater shooter gunned him down and continued firing into his body as it lay on the pavement, Mohammed says. "He was on the ground bleeding, and they're shooting nonstop, and it wasn't single bullets."That would be the Nisour square massacre, where a Blackwater unit called Raven-23 went all kinds of crazy on Iraqi commuters. It didn't make sense then - and it still doesn't.
The Blackwater shooter, he says, would fire at other Iraqis and cars and then return to pump more bullets into the dead man on the ground. "He sank in his own blood, and every minute the [Blackwater shooter] would shoot left and right and then go back to shoot the dead man, and I could see that his body would shake with every bullet. He was already dead, but his body was still reacting to the bullets. [The shooter] would fire at someone else and then go back to shoot at this dead man." Shaking his head slowly, Mohammed says somberly, "The guy is dead in a pool of blood. Why would you continue shooting him?"
"We want to give you $20,000," Mohammed recalls the Blackwater manager saying.I cannot believe the odds are with this man - or that he will ever get even a breath of what he is asking for.
"I'm not taking a penny from you," Mohammed told him. "I want no money."
Mohammed asked for a blank piece of paper and a pen. "Look I have the paper and I can sign and waive all my [legal] rights. All my rights, I will sign away now, but under one condition: I want the owner of Blackwater to apologize to me publicly in America and say, 'We killed your son, and we're sorry.' That's all I want."
