U.S. incarcerates more than any other nation: report

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and for the first time in the nation's history, more than one in every 100 American adults is confined in a prison or jail, according to a report released on Thursday.

The report by the Pew Center on the States said the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults at the start of the year.

The far more populous nation of China ranked second with 1.5 million behind bars, with Russia a distant third with 890,000 inmates.

"Beyond the sheer number of inmates, America also is the global leader in the rate at which it incarcerates its citizenry, outpacing nations like South Africa and Iran," according to the report.

OK, a fun post for a change:
This is one of my latest gunstock projects:
A left-handed benchrest stock for my original T/C Contender.
The blank:    Royal Jacaranda Laminate from Boyds Gunstocks
The Finish:  3 coats Varathane Sanding Sealer  #224741, followed by
14 coats Tru-oil.
Misc.: I'm not a big fan of the original philips head fore-end screws, so I replaced them with stainless allen head cap screws and bored the forend for a snug fit with custom stainless flat washers (epoxied in place) for consistant torque when changing barrels.
The butt cap is generic UHMW  (ugly but *extremely* tough)
The barrel shown in the photo is a 14" .30-30 win. built by Fred Smith & co. at Bullberry Barrel Works.

(Does anyone seriously believe that they ever stopped spying?)

White House says phone wiretaps back on "for now"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Saturday U.S. telecommunications companies have agreed to cooperate "for the time being" with spy agencies' wiretaps, despite an ongoing battle between the White House and Congress over new terrorism surveillance legislation.

The Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement saying wiretaps will resume under the current law "at least for now."

"Although our private partners are cooperating for the time being, they have expressed understandable misgivings about doing so in light of the ongoing uncertainty and have indicated they may well discontinue cooperation if the uncertainty persists," the statement said.

On Friday U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell said telecommunications firms have been reluctant to cooperate with new wiretaps since six-month temporary legislation expired last weekend. As a result, they told Congress, spy agencies have missed intelligence.

Democrats accused the Bush administration of fear-mongering and blamed it for any gaps.

President George W. Bush has said he would not compromise with the Democratic-led Congress on his demand that phone companies be shielded from lawsuits for taking part in his warrantless domestic spying program.

The measure passed by the Senate would provide retroactive lawsuit immunity to firms which cooperated with warrantless wiretaps that Bush authorized after the September 11 attacks. But the House of Representatives has opposed it, and Democratic leaders of both chambers said they would try to find a compromise.

Democratic leaders of congressional intelligence and judiciary committees issued a statement on Friday saying they were committed to passing new legislation and urged Bush to support an extension of the temporary law. Bush has said he would hold out for a permanent overhaul of the 1978 surveillance law.

(Editing by Stuart Grudgings)

Three representatives from the Westboro Baptist Cult who showed up to picket the funeral of Brianna Denison here in Reno recieved a chilly reception in more ways than one. Thanks to everyone who, despite the wind and snow, showed up and *completely* overwhelmed the nutjobs from Kansas.

From the Reno Gazette Journal:


A small group from a Kansas-based church that protests at the funerals of U.S. soldiers faced off Saturday night against more than 150 counter-demonstrators outside a memorial service for a Reno woman killed by a serial rapist.

The tense standoff ended peacefully when three female anti-gay protesters associated with the Wesboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., were escorted away from the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in a police van, Reno police Sgt. police Sgt. Chris Lange said.
“There were a couple of eggs thrown at them and that’s about it,” Lange said.
Counter-demonstrators surrounded the three church members after they waved placards reading, “Pray for More Dead Kids,” “Don’t Worship the Dead” and “God Sent the Killer.”
Counter-demonstrators responded by chanting, “Go Back to Kansas” and “Go Home.”

From Vermont Public Radio:

Thursday February 21, 2008

Removing jail penalties for marijuana

Mitch Wertlieb

A plan to reduce the penalties for possessing marijuana easily passed the Vermont Senate last week, and the House will take up the issue soon. The bill removes jail sentences for most people caught with 2 ounces of marijuana, but stops short of fully decriminalizing marijuana. We talk with Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Sears about his support for the legislation, and Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie who opposes the idea.

Those demented fuckwits are at it again. Not being satisfied with their failed attempt to disrupt the funeral of a fallen soldier (thanks in large part to the Patriot Guard Riders)
they say they're planning a return visit in order to protest the funeral of Brianna Denison.
Looking over their press release, I get the distinct feeling that the Phelps Brigade didn't really enjoy their last visit to the Biggest Little City. Something tells me that they're going to enjoy this visit even less.

• UCL Anatomy & Developmental Biology
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

A team from UCL and Stony Brook University, New York, has discovered a fossil of a giant dinosaur-eating frog in Madagascar, giving weight to the theory that the island off Africa’s east coast was once linked to India and South America.

The 70 million-year-old frog, dubbed Beelzebufo (‘the frog from hell’), is of a kind previously thought only to live in South America. Weighing 4kg and with a body length of up to 40cm, it had a squat body, huge head and wide mouth.

Professor Susan Evans, UCL Anatomy & Developmental Biology, said: “This frog, a relative of today’s Horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and ‘sit-and-wait’ ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it’s not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs.”

The find is also interesting because it sheds new light on a debate about how the earth’s land masses used to be arranged.  

Professor Evans continued: “Our discovery of a frog strikingly different from today’s Madagascan frogs, and akin to the Horned toads previously considered endemic to South America, lends weight to the controversial paleobiogeographical model suggesting that Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and South America were linked well into the Late Cretaceous. It also suggests that the initial spread of such beasts began earlier than that proposed by recent estimates.”

The discovery, published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’, adds a new species to Madagascar’s colourful evolutionary history, which includes meat-eating dinosaurs, plant-eating crocodiles and giant snakes.

To find out more, follow the links at the top of this article.

From The Union of Concerned Scientists:

"The pursuit of science in an open society has played a large role in the policies that keep us safe and healthy and protect our environment. In recent years, however, the manipulation, suppression, and distortion of federal government science has misinformed the public and led to poor policy decisions.
On February 14, 2008, a group of prominent scientists called on the U.S. government to establish conditions that would enable federal scientists to produce the scientific knowledge that is needed by a government dedicated to the public good.  In an accompanying report, UCS details specific steps that Congress and the administration can take to restore scientific integrity to federal policy making. The report also explores how science has been misused, with a special focus on systemic changes that hamper federal scientific capacity and make it more difficult for federal agencies like the EPA, FDA, and CDC to fulfill their missions.
The next president and Congress will face increasingly complex scientific and technical challenges. They have an historic opportunity codify the scientific freedoms needed for federal science to flourish. We are working to give them the tools to make this a reality."
_______________________________________________________________________

---

Scientific Freedom and the Public Good
February 14, 2008

Scientific knowledge and its successful applications have played a large role in making the United States of America a powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy. The challenges that face the United States in the twenty-first century can only be met if this tradition is honored and sustained.

To that end, the U.S. government must adhere to high standards of scientific integrity in forming and implementing its policies. Breaches of this principle have damaged the public good and the international leadership of the United States. To meet its obligation to serve the public interest, the government must have reliable scientific work and advice at its disposal, and provide the public with reliable scientific information. This requires the government to provide federal scientists with the resources and the professional environment necessary to carry out their missions effectively and honestly. The government should also draw on the knowledge of federal scientists and of the larger scientific community to formulate public policy in an objective and transparent manner.

Scientists employed by government institutions commit themselves to serve the public good free from undisclosed conflicts of interest and to carry out science that is reliable and useful, while respecting statutory limitations such as national security laws. Therefore, government scientists should, without fear of reprisal or retaliation, have the freedom:

• to conduct their work without political or private-sector interference;
• to candidly communicate their findings to Congress, the public, and their scientific peers;
• to publish their work and to participate fully in the scientific community;
• to disclose misrepresentation, censorship, and other abuses of science; and
• to have their technical work evaluated by scientific peers.

We call on Congress and the executive branch to codify these freedoms, to establish stronger means for gathering scientific advice, and to take concrete steps to enhance transparency, so as to create conditions conducive to a thriving scientific enterprise that will serve our democracy with integrity and bring the full fruits of science to all Americans and to the world.

---

Union of Concerned Scientists web site

Those nutjob disciples of repressed homosexual Fred Phelps over at the Westboro Baptist Cult have announced that they intend to protest at the funerals of the NIU victims.  Life truly is stranger than fiction.

<>

Interesting.
via The Consumerist:

A law professor and associate professor of geography set out to create the most comprehensive ...   more »

Radley posted another Jackboot Roundup this morning. This crap has gotten way out of hand.

One of my favorite bloggers pontificates on one of my favorite subjects. Now, if only I was a hot 20 something lesbian instead of a 40 something male nerd.... I know, it may seem a bit weird for an unrepentant atheist to be plugging a blog written by a self-proclaimed Catholic... ah, hell, just click on the link.

Yet another disturbing tale of jackboooted thuggery.   more »

Saw this a couple of days ago. Having just finished off 2 large bowls of black bean venison chili and a couple of bottles of my favorite brew, I'm in the mood to stir up the doo-doo before this awesome meal begins to wreak havoc on my digestive tract:

NASA to launch Beatles song across the galaxy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Beatles are about to become radio stars in a whole new way.

On Monday, NASA will broadcast the Beatles’ song “Across the Universe” across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star.

This first-ever beaming of a radio song by the space agency directly into deep space is nostalgia-driven. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th anniversary of NASA’s Deep Space Network, which communicates with its distant probes, and the 50th anniversary of NASA.

“Send my love to the aliens,” Paul McCartney told NASA through a Beatles historian. “All the best, Paul.”

The song, written by McCartney and John Lennon, may have a ticket to ride and will be flying at the speed of light. But it will take 431 years along a long and winding road to reach its final destination. That’s because Polaris is more than four quadrillion kilometres away.

NASA loaded an MP3 of the song, just under four minutes in its original version, and will transmit it digitally at 7 p.m. EST Monday from its giant antenna in Madrid, Spain. But if you wanted to hear it on Polaris, you would need an antenna and a receiver to convert it back to music, the same way people receive satellite television.

The idea came from Martin Lewis, a Los Angeles-based Beatles historian, who then got permission from McCartney, Yoko Ono and the two companies that own the rights to Beatles’ music. One of those companies, Apple, was happy to approve the idea because is “always looking for new markets,” Lewis said.

Perhaps coincidentally, the song’s trip through space begins a day before the release of the DVD of the Julie Taymor movie also named after the same Beatles hit. It’s a romance, featuring songs by the Beatles, set against the social upheaval of the 1960s and the Vietnam War and starring Evan Rachel Wood.

The freakin' Beatles? Ya, I know I'll probably get a bit of hate mail for this one, but seriously: the Beatles?? C'mon, if we really want to 'send a message' to the little gray fellers with the legendary anal probes, why can't we be honest and tell them the truth?