India's Ambassador to the U.S. Outraged After Being Subjected to a Security Pat-down By TSA

Amplify’d from www.hapblog.com

India's Ambassador to the U.S. Outraged After Being Subjected to a Security Pat-down By TSA at Mississippi Airport

From WAPT news

wapt 16 State officials are issuing an apology and calling for an investigation after an Indian ambassador to the U.S. was patted down at the Jackson-Evers International Airport. Ambassador Meera Shankar was in Mississippi last weekend to talk business trade. Janos Radvanyi, chair of Mississippi State University's international studies department, said Meera Shankar, 60, spoke at a university program last Friday. Radvanyi said a Jackson police officer escorted Shankar to the airport on Saturday for her flight to Baltimore. The officer informed airport police that Shankar was an ambassador, but she was later pulled from a security line and patted down by a female TSA agent, the officer said. Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant said the state has asked for an investigation. He said this wasn't just a random search of a passenger Read more at www.hapblog.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i56i

Amplify’d from gawker.com

Study: Does Denying Aid to Desperate Poor People Really Screw Them, or What?

In the name of getting good statistical data, New York City is randomly denying poor people access to a program designed to stave off homelessness. If those unlucky people become homeless, you know it works! Oh... is that frowned upon?

The program in question is called Homebase. It gives rental assistance, job training, and other benefits to people facing "immediate housing problems that could result in becoming homeless." People in imminent danger of being on the street. The poorest of the poor, next to actual homeless people.

To find out whether or not Homebase really works, the city is conducting a study. As the NYT puts it, "Half of the test subjects - people who are behind on rent and in danger of being evicted - are being denied assistance from the program for two years, with researchers tracking them to see if they end up homeless." Which, in the name of science, results in things like this:

Angie Almodovar, 27, a single mother who is pregnant with her third child, ended up in the study group denied Homebase assistance. "I wanted to cry, honestly speaking," Ms. Almodovar said. "Homebase at the time was my only hope."

Yes, there are other assistance programs that people can apply for, and yes, data is good. But, you know, "Does emergency assistance help people in crisis not become homeless?" I'm gonna say you don't actually need to watch people become homeless in order to figure out the answer to that. Now, "Do million-dollar salaries help bloggers write better blogs?" There's some intriguing science for you.

[NYT. Pic: FaceMePls]

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i56h

Amplify’d from gawker.com

Worst Church in America to Protest Elizabeth Edwards' Funeral

Westboro Baptist Church, the always charming demagoguery that regularly protests military funerals and "whorish" starlets, plans to picket Elizabeth Edwards' funeral. Jesus wept. [via]

Send an email to Maureen O'Connor, the author of this post, at maureen@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i569

Amplify’d from gawker.com

Brits Can't Stop Selling Children Pervy Stuff

We naturally assumed that the United States of America took a backseat to no one when it comes to sexualizing our children at inappropriately young ages for the sake of commerce. Turns out, no: the UK is even pervier.

Ad Age reports that the UK has had to have an entire government inquiry, for chrissake, to see about passing some laws to get this perv marketing in check, what with the rampant sales of "'porn star' T-shirts, pole-dancing kits, Playboy pencil cases and padded bras to pre-teens."

British Prime Minister David Cameron recently labeled marketers "irresponsible" and said he was shocked to find models of beds named "Lolita" targeted at 6-year-olds.

Nice, real nice. You Brits are officially bigger sickos than us. And we love pedophilia 101,000%.

[Ad Age. Photo via]

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i567

Amplify’d from gawker.com

Is Twitter Playing Whack-a-Mole With Pro-Wikileaks Hacktivist Accounts?

Distributed denial of service attacks, of the kind pro-Wikileaks hacktivists have been aiming at PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard, are not particularly complex to pull off.

You need a lot of individual computers sending server requests to the site in question, enough to overload the site. The hacktivists have been using Twitter to coordinate those attacks. And Twitter, it seems, may have been trying to shut them down.

According to tweets, accounts named @Anon_Operation and @AnonOperation went down yesterday. ("Anonymous" is the name of the underground organization leading the DDoS attacks.) They currently appear to be back up. Either way, new accounts have emerged to take their place, such as @Op_Payback and @AnonOpsNet.

The accounts are letting the thousands of hactivists around the world know which site is the target of choice at the moment. Since the server requests have to happen all at the same time, real-time communication is paramount. Yesterday's target was Visa. Midday Thursday, east coast time, the target of choice was PayPal. Both companies have cut Wikileaks off.

Twitter declined to comment, telling Fast Company via email: "We don't comment on actions we take against individual user accounts." But its Terms of Service say users have to abide by "local, state, national, and international laws, rules and regulations." Denial of service attacks violate those laws. Indeed, on Thursday, Dutch police arrested a 16-year-old boy for participating in the attacks.

Hacktivists don't seem to be as put out by Twitter potentially shutting down their accounts as they were earlier this week, back when they thought Twitter was censoring #Wikileaks and related hashtags from its Trending Topics lists. Twitter replied to those concerns with a post on its blog today, explaining that the lists are based on what's "emerging", not what's most popular at any given time.

Republished with permission from FastCompany.com. Authored by E.B. Boyd.

See more at gawker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i564

Wesley Snipes Surrenders Himself to Prison

URL:  http://gawker.com/5710428/wesley-snipes-surrenders-hims...

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i563

Amplify’d from gawker.com

Women Are Getting Unhealthier Every Year

Ladies, ladies: we have your health report card, and it's not good. According to this, you've been getting drunker, fatter, and sluttier. It's like every woman in America is a freshman in college again. What's your excuse?

Your grade, ladies: "Unsatisfactory." That's official. Over the past three years, more of you started binge drinking, fewer of you are getting regular Pap smears, more of you have chlamydia, more of you are obese, and you're eating fewer fruits and vegetables.

Why do you treat yourselves like this? Ladies?

On Long Island, they're going to ban teens from buying Red Bull. Is that how you want to be treated? Like children? The surgeon general says that just one—one!—single cigarette "causes immediate harm to the body...in ways that can lead to serious illness and death." Is that how you want to be treated? Like smokers? Ostracized more and more every year as the full depth of your depravity becomes clearer and clearer to the rest of the population?

Don't take it as a threat ladies. Take it as a chilling vision of your future, should you choose to continue down your current path, health-wise. Take it from men, who know: drunk and sedentary is no way to go through life. We can't offer you much in the way of assistance. We can give you no medical expertise, or emotional support, or innovative strategies. We can only give you this:

Photo: Shutterstock

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i560

Amplify’d from gawker.com

Megachurch Launches Website for Public Flogging of 'Grinches'

First Baptist Church—a Dallas megachurch with a pastor who calls Islam an "evil, evil religion"—want everyone to have a Merry Christmas. They want it so badly, they're public shaming businesses that don't say "Merry Christmas" to customers.

It all started when a local Christian radio station heard about a Southlake, TX bank that had "fallen into the trap of political correctness" and elected not to display a Christmas tree this year. They took this as a personal affront. (Martyrdom complex?) They did a broadcast shaming that bank, which relented and put a tree in its lobby.

Heartened by this success, First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress launched GrinchAlert.com, a catch-all message board for publicly shaming those who fail to "show outward signs of supporting Christmas." If you're not a Christian, GTFO. And if you are a Christian, know that it's not enough to have Jesus in your heart—you must also wear him on your sleeve. Here are some sample floggings from Grinch Alert's "Naughty" list:

Crowley City Hall - Crowley Texas "The city hall at Crowley has GIANT letters in front of the city buildings that say "HAPPY HOLIDAYS"......I say "booooooooo"!!! Merry Christmas is the true REASON for the SEASON!!!"

Target - Probably all "I was looking for an ornament that reflected the reason for the season, and I could not find anything that said Merry Christmas. I'm tired of seeing ONLY snowmen, Santa Clauses, snowflakes, birds, glitter, ect. I could not find a gift bag, an ornament, or a gift box with a manger or the Holy Family on it. My husband & I will make a conscious effort to support stores like Mardel's, Hobby Lobby, Life Way, or church bookstores that support Christmas wholeheartedly."

...and some sample kudos from the "Nice" list:

City of Marshall - Marshall, Michigan "I am very thankful to live in a city that displays a life-size Nativity in the middle of town."

PARK CENTRAL OB/GYN ASSOCIATES - DALLAS, TEXAS "I don't want to offend anybody, but here at Park Central OB/GYN Associates, we say "Merry Christmas!" After all, Jesus is the reason for the season!!!"

Kincaid's Hamburgers - Southlake, TX "After checking out, the clerk told me Merry Christmas, to which i responded with a Merry Christmas. Glad to see that many people still arent conforming to the over jealous minority. More than 85% of Americans celebrate Christmas, including many non christians. I dont understand why the minority is offended if they recieve a Merry Christmas greeting. I would not take offense to someone wishing me a happy Hanukkah. I would understnad they take pride in what they celebrate and gladly want to spread their holiday. Its "happy holidays" that offends me. It is just a way of saying, "although there is well over an 85% chance you celebrate Christmas, i am afraid of offending the other 15%, so happy holidays".

Anyone can submit a Grinch Alert, but after a few dust-ups in the "Naughty" list (someone put First Baptist Church there) the alerts are now moderated. Hopefully this one gets through!

Click to enlarge.

[GrinchAlert, Dallas Observer, Christian News Weekly]

Send an email to Maureen O'Connor, the author of this post, at maureen@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i55v

'End the Fed' Author Will Oversee Federal Reserve

URL:  http://gawker.com/5710509/end-the-fed-author-will-overs...

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i55t

Religious lobby is running riot in Pakistan | Mustafa Qadri | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

URL:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/dec...

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i55r