Posted by Jason Samenow on April 29, 2013 at 3:56 pm
NASA has obtained first of its kind imagery of a truly gargantuan storm on Saturn with an eye that spans the equivalent distance of about Washington, D.C. to Dallas.

Like hurricanes on Earth, NASA says, the eye is mostly cloud-free.
“Other similar features include high clouds forming an eye wall, other high clouds spiraling around the eye, and a counter-clockwise spin in the northern hemisphere,” NASA writes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/04/29/saturn-hurricane-has-1250-mile-wide-eye/

bvsed-socialist:

Simply one of the greatest people to ever live.

He loves life.

He loves his family.

He loves his country.

He’s a phenomenal legislator.

He’s a fantastic VP and the perfect VP for Obama.

He wrote the Violence Against Women act.

He cares about gay and trans rights.

He wears aviators.

He eats ice cream.

He survived a devastating tragedy and chose to respond by fighting for people in need and living his life with daily joy.

He’s a catholic, but doesn’t let their barbaric social stances tell him what to think.

He laughed in Paul Ryan’s stupid face.

He sometimes says the wrong thing, but he never lets embarrassment or criticism keep him from being himself.

He refused to kiss the punk ass Pope’s punk ass ring because his mother taught him that no man is better than him.

And he rules in about 400 other ways that I didn’t even think of.

http://reagan-was-a-horrible-president.tumblr.com/

—By Adam Serwer and Jaeah Lee | Mon Apr. 29, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

This week, New York City is defending itself against a lawsuit that claims its controversial "stop and frisk" policy is used to illegally detain and search people on the basis of race. The subject of an ongoing trial, the suit also argues that the weak justifications given by NYPD officers for most stop-and-frisks fail to meet the constitutional burden for search and seizure. We put together this explainer and some charts to help you make sense of what's going on.

What is "stop and frisk," exactly, and what does it have to do with the NYPD? Starting in the 1970s, in the hope of curbing street crime, New York City began encouraging its officers to stop people they deem suspicious, to question them, and, if there is adequate reason to suspect illegal activities, to pat them down for things like drugs and weapons. This type of police activity has been upheld in the past: In a landmark 1968 case, Terry v. Ohio, a police officer detained three men without a warrant, suspicious that they were casing a local convenience store for a hold-up. One of the men had a revolver, and the Supreme Court ruled that the warrantless search was constitutional because the cop had reasonable suspicion to believe the men were about to commit a crime.

If it's constitutional, then what's the problem? Well, it's not always constitutional. It's only constitutional when the police have reasonable suspicion to believe someone poses a danger, has committed a crime, or is preparing to commit one. And police cannot use race as a criterion for any search and seizure. But New York City has faced allegations of unconstitutional policing against communities of color for a long time.

In 1999, the state Attorney General's Office found that while blacks and Latinos made up about 50 percent of the city's population, they accounted for 84 percent of the police stops (PDF). The same year, in the aftermath of the slaying of Amadou Diallo, the unarmed Guinean immigrant who was shot 41 times by New York City police, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) sued the city, alleging that stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional. In a settlement, the NYPD promised it would keep close tabs on who it stops and why.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/new-york-nypd-stop-frisk-lawsuit-trial-charts

By Joe Stephens and Justin Jouvenal, Published: April 30

An Army reservist and Iraq veteran who works as a cabdriver says a passenger he picked up early Friday at a Northern Virginia country club accused him of being a terrorist because he is Muslim, then fractured his jaw in an attack being described by Islamic activists as a hate crime.

Mohamed A. Salim says the passenger compared him to the men accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing 11 days earlier and threatened to kill him.

“Because I’m a Muslim, he treated me like a piece of trash,” Salim said. “I love this country. I didn’t deserve this.”

Ed Dahlberg of Clifton, who has been charged with misdemeanor assault, denied hitting Salim in a statement released by his attorney.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/muslim-cabdriver-alleges-assault-by-passenger-who-cited-boston-bombings/2013/04/30/9fa45a7c-b0d2-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19_story.html