Host: Andy Cowen.
Music: "Rocket and Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod (www.incompetech.com)
Youtube: http://youtu.be/KQlVFXdeslM
Errata From Last Week: The High Court has ruled that doctors can switch off life support to a brain dead mother of two who is 18 weeks pregnant.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/my-daughter-is-dead-i-just-want-her-to-be-put-to-rest-30860624.html
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/doctors-told-they-can-withdraw-life-support-for-clinically-dead-pregnant-woman-30863340.html
Science / Technology / Politics
Item: Today a group claiming affiliation with the loose hacker collective Anonymous released a document containing approximately 13,000 username-and-password combinations along with credit card numbers and expiration dates. Xbox Live, the Sony Playstation Network, Origin, Dell, Twitch.tv, Walmart, Amazon, Shutterstock, and Hulu Plus accounts Should all be wary and lots of porn sites. URLs: http://www.dailydot.com/politics/anonymous-lulzxmas-passwords-credit-cards/
Item: We Found a New and Cheaper Way to Get to Mars - Mathematicians Francesco Topputo and Edward Belbruno have calculated a path that actually takes advantage of the Mars' own motion. The strategy is called ballistic capture, as opposed to what we now use, the Hohmann transfer. Downside: The journey will take longer, adding several months to the already six-month haul. For human space travelers, that would take a toll
URLs: http://gizmodo.com/we-found-a-new-and-cheaper-way-to-get-to-mars-1674591160
Humanities / Religion/ Politics
Item: “Put Wings On Pigs” Facebook quote lands Massachusetts’ Charlie Dirosa in jail after two NYPD officers were killed Saturday afternoon. Chicopee police is comparing the post to yelling fire in a crowded theater and claiming the post “scared a lot of the guys.” The police have filed a criminal complaint and Dirosa will have to appear in court for “threatening to commit a crime.”
URLs: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/begins-massachusetts-man-charged-word-facebook-post/
Item: Court Rules Orangutan “Sandra” Held In Argentina Zoo Is 'Non-Human Person' And Can Be Freed Interesting note, Orangutan is a word from the Malay and Indonesian languages that means "forest man."
URLs:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/21/orangutan-argentina_n_6363582.html
Politics / Humanities / Politics
Item: A white man who pleaded guilty to six robberies in Ohio used a black mask so lifelike that police initially arrested a black man for one of the crimes. He faces up to 35 years in prison at his January 7 sentencing. He was turned in by his girlfriend.
URLs: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334726/Conrad-Zdzierak-white-man-pleads-guilty-wearing-black-man-disguise-robberies.html
Item: The United States helped a Cuban spy imprisoned in California artificially inseminate his wife back in Cuba, a goodwill gesture while Washington and Havana were engaged in secret talks on restoring diplomatic ties, U.S. officials said on Monday. Now Gerardo Hernandez and his wife, Adriana Perez, are expecting his baby in two weeks, even though he was locked up for 16 years without conjugal visits. It will be a girl called Gema, Cuban official media said.
URLs:https://www.tytnetwork.com/2014/12/23/imprisoned-cuban-spy-impregnates-his-wife-with-u-s-help/
Potpourri / Politics / Flotsam & Jetsam
Item: Couple near death after being trapped in keyless car, didn't think to open it manually.
New Zealand couple Mollieanne and Brian Smith, who nearly fell prey to their cold, unfeeling Mazda 3 hatchback.
The couple found themselves inside their new "keyless" car in their garage on November 5th, and without their transponder, believed there was no way to get themselves out. the car's victims were discovered by neighbors at 7:45 am, 13 hours since they first were trapped, Mrs. Smith had become unconscious, and Mr. Smith was struggling for air. The wife spent three days in a hospital recovering from her robotic attack. Doctors said if they had spent even another 30 minutes inside that car, they would have died.
They are both fine now, though definitely changed from the experience. And they have learned that "the manual lock was the same as the inside door handle on many other vehicles."
URLs: http://happyplace.someecards.com/trapped/couple-near-death-after-being-trapped-in-keyless-car-didnt-think-to-open-it-manually/
Item: Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled in an Oakland, California court on Tuesday that Facebook must face a class action lawsuit for violating its users’ privacy by scanning private messages so that it could gather data for targeted advertising. The suit seeks damages of up to $10,000 to be paid out per user, and also for Facebook to stop scanning messages from here on out.
URLs: http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/12/26/facebook-hit-class-action-lawsuit-private-message-scanning/
