[CNN] Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of the murder of Reeva Steenkamp after South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the previous conviction of culpable homicide.
Judge Eric Leach ruled Thursday that the Paralympic gold medalist should have foreseen that his firing of a gun would have killed whoever was behind the door in his bathroom, regardless of whether he thought it was Steenkamp or an intruder.
State prosecutors appealed the verdict of culpable homicide, seeking a conviction on more severe charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hmm. How rational. How American (see: Churchill), having done the right thing after all other avenues have been exhausted (see: OJ).
Where's that Krusty screaming image when you need it? Nothing lasts forever.
[Yahoo] As representatives from 195 nations gather in Paris to hammer out a global agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions, a new study finds that the failure to do so could leave the world gasping for breath.
Marine plants such as phytoplankton are estimated to produce more than half the Earth's atmospheric oxygen, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For the study, Sergei Petrovskii, an applied mathematics professor at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, calculated how unrestrained global warming could affect phytoplankton and thus the ocean's ability to generate breathable air. He ran computer models that looked at what would happen to phytoplankton's ability to photosynthesize at different temperatures.
If the world's oceans warmed by 6 degrees Celsius--a realistic possibility if global emissions continue unabated--the tiny plants would halt oxygen production, according to the study, which was published Tuesday in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology.
By 2100, the earth at sea level could have atmospheric oxygen levels comparable to the top of Mount Everest today. "And as far as I know, people cannot normally stay on Everest without oxygen masks for more than a few minutes," Petrovskii said.
The threat has been "mostly overlooked" by climate scientists, Petrovskii said, noting that such a global disaster would come with little notice.
"A distinct feature of this catastrophe is that there will be few warning signs and little change before it is too late," he said. That's because phytoplankton can continue to produce oxygen and photosynthesize at levels below 6 degrees of temperature rise.
"Under a 2-degree increase, we will probably see no change; the 4-degree increase would already be dangerously close," Petrovskii said, adding that more research is needed to determine what increase in global temperatures would halt phytoplankton's ability to photosynthesize.
More research is needed. To be done by him. With a large, five year, unrestricted grant from NOAA and NSF...
#5
If there hasn't been a justification before to eliminate the oxygen sucking political ruling caste before, they give you one now. Do it for the children!
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/04/2015 11:43 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Details, EC. Don't bother use with details.
Posted by: Mulla Richard ||
12/04/2015 11:47 Comments ||
Top||
#8
We'e all fallen victim to the assertions and studies made by anonymous people. No one questions the sources or motives, we are all guilty of just nodding our heads and saying "that sounds right."
Lemmings.
#11
I think they must have overlooked the fact that with that much CO2, the plants would be growing so fast, and putting out so much O2, there'd be no room left for people. Maybe Petrovskii can do that up for his next "study".
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/04/2015 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
Interesting that they mention coccoliths which are known for their intricate shells make of calcium CARBONate. Along with Inspector Renault, I am shocked to learn that plants are thriving a in warm environment rich in CO2.
#16
Even if the 1 degree in a hundred years screws with the plankton I suspect planketon will start appearing farther from the tropics where the water is suddenly the right temperature and where the seeds couldn't find root before.
#17
Um... considering that 75% of the oxygen is produced by plankton in the oceans... and they thrive on CO2... I think the reasoning should be there will be more oxygen.
#18
The releaseof this "report" at the same time as the hot air conference... Surely a mere coincidence. I mean they wouldnt be wanting media to report dire warnings (tm) to push their agenda? No - unimaginable! Only liars and cheats would do that....
[DAWN] LAHORE: An attorney on Thursday announced that he has filed a petition with the Lahore High Court seeking the return of the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond which Britain forced India to hand over in colonial times.
Once the largest known diamond in the world, the 105-carat Koh-i-Noor is one of the Crown Jewels. It is set in a crown last worn by the late mother of Queen Elizabeth II during her coronation.
Attorney Jawaid Iqbal Jafree filed the court petition naming Queen Elizabeth II as a respondent. The application asks that Britain hand back the diamond, now on display in the Tower of London.
India also has made regular requests for the jewel's return, saying the diamond is an integral part of the country's history and culture.
Get a chisel and a hammer. I think I can solve this problem...
Britain's then colonial governor-general of India arranged for the huge diamond to be presented to Queen Victoria in 1850, during British colonial rule.
Jafree said that the Koh-i-Noor rightly belonged to Punjab province and was “forcibly and under duress” taken by the British from the local ruler at the time. “Now it should be returned to Pakistan,” he said.
“Her Majesty the Queen will rise in the highest public interest with facilitating honest disposal and transferring the possession of the Koh-i-Noor diamond which was illegally taken,” Jafree said in his petition, which the court has not yet admitted for hearing.
“Koh-i-Noor was not legitimately acquired. Grabbing and snatching it was a private, illegal act which is justified by no law.”
If Kate Middleton, the wife of Prince William, who is second in line to the throne, eventually becomes queen consort, she will don the crown holding the diamond on official occasions.
In the last half century, Jafree has written over 786 letters to Queen Elizabeth and various Pakistani officials asking for the diamond's return. His latest high court petition notes that his letters have never been acknowledged, except once by Queen Elizabeth through her principal private secretary.
Did they ever return the Elgin marbles to Greece or the Obelisk to Egypt? Perhaps the motto of Britain should be "What's mine I hold fast."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[TheAmericanInterest] In international comparisons of electoral integrity, the United States does not score high—but most Americans appear to neither know nor care about it.
The entire small police force of North, South Carolina, including police chief Mark Fallaw, has resigned, prompted by the city's new mayor issuing a gag order for the department.
Fallaw, along with fellow officer Anthony Blanchard, submitted his resignation on November 17, giving two weeks notice. Fallaw, who served on the force for 14 years, asserted that Mayor Patty Carson told the department all requests from media would have to be handled by her; she wanted to monitor the department's incoming and outgoing emails, and she demanded that members of the department give her two weeks notice before they made any public appearances. He also claimed she wanted him to write three times as many tickets and would only permit him to buy gas or tires with her approval. And you should have seen the form we had to fill out to take a piss! Three pages - in triplicate!
Fallaw told WLTX 19, "For her to be directing procedures that were contrary to national standards, that was going to cause a problem. So I just said it was best for me probably to step down."
One officer left just before Carson's election, and another regular officer and a reserve officer followed Fallaw when he left. Two other officers resigned earlier in 2015, finding jobs at other agencies.
The county's law enforcement has had to step up and substitute for the police;
When contacted by WLTX 19, Carson refused to comment, arguing that personnel issues should not be discussed publicly.
He noted that replacing the officers may be difficult, because similar jobs in other towns offer more pay. Not to mention not having a micromanaging mayor...
#1
Wonder why she bothered. Could it be that the cops were abusing the city credit cards? Writing practically no tickets? Got to be another side if the mayor wanted to take on those additional problems.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/04/2015 8:20 Comments ||
Top||
Fallaw admits he and Carson have “history.” It started after she was first elected to council in 2010. She wanted to see the cellphone records for the police, but not other departments, Fallaw said. When she insisted under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act, Fallaw said he told her it would cost an estimated $700 for him to go through the records and weed out the numbers of confidential informants, victims and others. She no longer sought the information.
“Some of this seems a little vindictive if I had to guess,” he said.
For instance, he resigned on a Tuesday, Nov. 17. She had him clean out his office by the next Friday, not waiting until he left, Fallaw said.
“She also kicked the sergeant out of his office. She now occupies that office,” Fallaw said.
Also, she is holding the officers’ last checks to ensure nothing was compromised, even though she signed receipts saying all the town’s property was returned by the officers, Fallaw said.
But he notes the people of North voted for Carson over the other candidates.
“They elected Ms. Carson, and we can’t deny that,” he said.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] LAHORE: An attorney on Thursday announced that he has filed a petition with the Lahore High Court seeking the return of the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond which Britain forced India to hand over in colonial times.
