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Youth, Wrongfully Jailed for Years, Kills Self—Who’s Responsible?
By Ralph Lopez
Sixteen-year-old Kalief Browder spent three years in jail without a trial before the charges were dropped—including more than two years in solitary. His experience left him a broken young man. Before he killed himself, he attempted to expose how authorities employed extraordinary pressure to compel confessions of guilt.
WHO
The Pentagon is Bragging About Destroying War Machines the Islamic State Probably Got from the US
On the heels of President Obama’s ISIS strategy re-boot, The Washington Post ran a story touting a “rout” of the Islamic State at the hands off Kurdish fighters and US airstrikes. And the Pentagon is broadcasting its tally of destruction with a snazzy new infographic. But, as Global Post points out, the infographic doesn’t point out that much of the materiel destroyed was probably stuff left behind by the US after the Iraq War.
Someone Just Leaked The Price List for Cyberwar
If you’ve never heard of an Italian company called “Hacking Team,” it’s probably because you’re not in the market for secret cyberweapons. Hacking Team sells its powerful weapons to governments with human rights abuses or, in the case of Sudan, with genocidal tendencies. The FBI is a customer too. It forked over $775,000 to buy an eavesdropping system that snags data from a computer before it can be encrypted.
Eric Holder Returns as Hero to Law Firm That Lobbies for Big Banks
During his tenure atop the Department of Justice, not one executive or decision-maker from Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo was prosecuted for their part in the specious financial games that led to the Crash of 2008. Now he’s heading through the revolving door to Covington & Burling, a corporate law firm that serves Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo. Go figure.
WHAT
Laos After the Bombs
The Vietnam War was bigger than Vietnam. It was even bigger than Cambodia. It was also Laos, and the United States dropped a staggering two million tons of bombs on the still-beleaguered nation over the course of just seven years. And the impact of that relentless bombing is felt on an almost daily basis.
WHY
Researchers Are Trying to Genetically Engineer Cows to Stay Cool
Well, if you can’t stop climate change, why not prepare for the worst? That’s exactly what some scientists want to do with cows. The idea is to make them less likely to collapse from the heat as the planet keeps on getter hotter and hotter. The effort is coming from Climate Adaptive Genetics, a startup intent on capitalizing on humanity’s short-sighted unwillingness to do anything to stop climate change. Yup, profiting from human stupidity is the other oldest profession in the world.
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