Australian couple killed by Syrian rebels: family says

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

An Australian man and his wife are being mourned by Sydney's Muslim community, as their reported deaths bring the number of Australians believed killed in the Syrian conflict to seven.

Yusuf Ali and his wife, Amira, of Queensland and formerly Granville were ''in their house in Syria and the FSA [Free Syrian Army] attacked and killed them'', Amira's sister Rose posted on Facebook on Saturday.

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According to the Australian Federal Police, up to 200 Australians had travelled to Syria since the fighting started in 2011. Up to 100 were believed to be fighting in the conflict and up to six had died ''while fighting with al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups'' in the conflict, including one in Lebanon''.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/australian-couple-killed-by-syrian-rebels-family-says-20140112-30os9.html

1850s San Francisco rallied to free a slave

On the morning of March 5, 1858, San Francisco's black community was on high alert.

For days, organized groups had been patrolling the waterfront. On March 5, word went out that the two men they were looking for - a white man and his slave who desperately wanted to be free - were about to leave town.

Many of the city's 1,000 or so African Americans - merchants, cooks, barbers, deckhands and laborers - headed down to the Market Street and Vallejo Street piers, where two steamers were ready to weigh anchor. What happened next was one of the most dramatic racial incidents in the pre-Civil War West.

The story began a year earlier, when a young Mississippian named Charles Stovall traveled to California with his 19-year-old slave, Archy Lee. As Rudolph Lapp notes in "Archy Lee: A California Fugitive Slave Case," during the Gold Rush it was common for whites from the South to bring their slaves to California. Although California was a free state, white visitors could bring slaves here as long as their stay was temporary.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1850s-San-Francisco-rallied-to-free-a-slave-5132669.php

'You varmints! We'll see whether free people are to be kidnapped in this way!' "

1850s San Francisco rallied to free a slave

On the morning of March 5, 1858, San Francisco's black community was on high alert.

For days, organized groups had been patrolling the waterfront. On March 5, word went out that the two men they were looking for - a white man and his slave who desperately wanted to be free - were about to leave town.

Many of the city's 1,000 or so African Americans - merchants, cooks, barbers, deckhands and laborers - headed down to the Market Street and Vallejo Street piers, where two steamers were ready to weigh anchor. What happened next was one of the most dramatic racial incidents in the pre-Civil War West.

The story began a year earlier, when a young Mississippian named Charles Stovall traveled to California with his 19-year-old slave, Archy Lee. As Rudolph Lapp notes in "Archy Lee: A California Fugitive Slave Case," during the Gold Rush it was common for whites from the South to bring their slaves to California. Although California was a free state, white visitors could bring slaves here as long as their stay was temporary.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1850s-San-Francisco-rallied-to-free-a-slave-5132669.php

'You varmints! We'll see whether free people are to be kidnapped in this way!' "

Virginia Republican Wants to Outlaw Oral Sex Between Teenagers

The Republicans of Virginia physically cannot stop thinking about what their constituents do with their genitals. You'd think that, after Ken Cuccinelli and his batshit insane "outlaw oral and anal sex" platform lost the governor's race, conservatives would have realized that any enemy of BJs, etc. is an enemy of freedom. But, sigh, no — Virginia state legislator Thomas Garrett — a self-described "Cuccinelli conservative" — has just proposed yet another horrid bill. Just how bad is it? Well, um, pretty patently horrible: Garrett's Senate Bill 14 would, among other things, make it a felony for two 15-to-17-year-olds to engage in oral or anal sex. Seriously, get a fucking grip, Virginia.

According to Think Progress, Senate Bill 14 would "amend and reenact" that awful so-called "Crimes Against Nature" statute that Cuccinelli was such a fan of. The bill uses the old statue's rhetoric, once again making consensual sodomy a felony — except, this time, the law will no longer apply against "consenting adults who are not in a public place and who are not committing, attempting to commit, conspiring to commit, aiding, or abetting any act in furtherance of prostitution." Okay, so anal and oral sex would remain legal, in private, as long as you're not underage or paying anyone for it. Hm.

Garrett insists that the bill is meant to protect children, but that's not what it does at all — by criminalizing all "sodomy" under the age of 18, Garrett actually puts teens at risk. This is because the age of consent in Virginia is 15, and it's a misdemeanor (not a felony) for an adult to have sex with someone aged 15-18. Thus, by declaring all oral and anal sex under the age of 18 a felony, this bill would 1) make it illegal for two consenting teenagers to engage in oral or anal sex, and 2) make it more illegal for an adult and a teenager to engage in oral or anal sex than vaginal sex.

That's really, really bad for a whole slew of reasons. Firstly, as Eurgene Volokh points out on his blog, "if two 17-year-olds are choosing whether to have oral sex or genital sex, the law would push them towards the form of sex that is more likely to transmit disease, and more likely to cause unwanted pregnancy." There's absolutely no logical or moral justification for this. Even worse, the law is blatantly homophobic. Because gay couples don't participate in vaginal intercourse, to criminalize oral or anal sex under the age of 18 is to forbid gay teens from having sex at all. And, furthermore, to engage in "sodomy" in public is still a felony, whereas having public vaginal sex remains a misdemeanor, as Josh Israel points out at Think Progress. Were this bill to get signed into law, having sex in public as a straight couple — as long as you stick to trusty P-in-V! — would be automatically less criminal than having public sex while gay.

http://jezebel.com/virginia-republican-wants-to-outlaw-oral-sex-between-te-1498827217

Sharon 'believed in his own commitments' - Dennis Ross

Tel Aviv unveils first memorial to gay Holocaust victims

Tel Aviv has become the first Israeli city to unveil a memorial in honour of gay and lesbian victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

The monument in the centre of the city is designed around a pink triangle - the symbol gay prisoners were forced to wear in the concentration camps.

As many as 15,000 homosexuals were killed in the Nazi camps.

Similar monuments in their memory have been erected in Amsterdam, Berlin, San Francisco and Sydney.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25687190

Police find treasure trove in teen’s bum

Pennsylvania police found something else when they took a suspected teenaged drunk driver into custody: buried treasure.

Back in December, Christopher Scheller, 18, appeared intoxicated after he crashed into a tree in southern York County, Harrisburg’s WHTM-TV reports.

After being taken to a hospital, X-rays discovered something odd in Scheller’s rectum. A closer look uncovered the following:

– Four bracelets
– Four necklaces
– 11 ladies rings
– A socket wrench
– A bag of synthetic marijuana

http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2014/01/10/police-find-treasure-trove-in-teens-bum/

Children who watch too much TV may have 'damaged brain structures'

Watching too much television can change the structure of a child's brain in a damaging way, according to a new study.

Researchers found that the more time a child spent viewing TV, the more profound the brain alterations appeared to be.

The Japanese study looked at 276 children aged between five and 18, who watched between zero and four hours TV per day, with the average being about two hours.

MRI brain scans showed children who spent the most hours in front of the box had greater amounts of grey matter in regions around the frontopolar cortex - the area at the front of the frontal lobe.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2537240/Children-watch-TV-damaged-brain-structures.html

Will robots spawn lawsuits? Legal expert says yes

Robots are the “it” technology going into 2014. Amazon Inc. is toying with the idea of using drones to get goods delivered to customers in as little as 30 minutes. Google Inc. is buying up every robotics firm it can get its hands on. But look beyond the cool factor of robotics and artificial intelligence technologies and you’ll find a problem that many are overlooking — these technologies represent a scale of change that hasn't been experienced since the Industrial Revolution, and our existing social and legal framework may not be ready to cope.

To get a better idea of the legal issues facing robotics technology, I spoke with Garry Mathiason, chairman of the board of Littler Mendelson and co-chair of the law firm’s new robotics and corporate compliance practice, which hopes to carve out a niche helping companies cope with the legal issues raised by robots.

Mathiason has been following the robotics industry for a long time — he published his first paper about robots and the law in 1965. In the following interview, he talks a bit about why he thinks this is poised to be one of the most important legal issues of the next 10 years, and what companies need to start doing now to prepare for it.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2014/01/09/littler-mendelsons-garry-mathiason-on.html?ana=e_sjo_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2014-01-10&page=all

And Sophie "the cutest robot you’ll ever see"



Interviewed for a job by Sophie the robot

Marijuana Legalization May Win the West (and D.C.) in 2014

One week after the nation's first recreational marijuana stores opened in Colorado, Alaska activists submitted what appear to be enough signatures to put marijuana legalization before voters. The measure – which would go up for a vote Aug. 19 – is one of several 2014 efforts that could yield a good year for pot supporters, particularly in the West.

So far, voters have been at the vanguard of legalization, blowing past state legislatures. In November 2012, more than 55 percent of Colorado and Washington voters approved initiatives to legalize the drug and open state-licensed stores – and polls suggest those successes may be replicated elsewhere.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday found 55 percent of Americans believe marijuana should be legal, compared to 44 percent who do not. Support was highest in the West – where voter-driven initiatives often become law – and in the Northeast. An October poll released by Gallup put nationwide support for legalization at 58 percent.

Here's a rundown of the states where smoking weed may become legal in 2014:



http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/10/marijuana-legalization-may-win-the-west-and-dc-in-2014