Challenger disaster remembered – 26 yrs

Challenger disaster: remembered (Boston.com)

STS-51L

Mission: TDRS-2; SPARTAN-203 Satellites
Space Shuttle: Challenger
Launch Pad: 39B
Launch Weight: 268,829 pounds
Launched: Jan. 28, 1986, 11:38:00 a.m. EST
Revolution: 0
Mission Duration: 1 minute, 13 seconds
Orbit Altitude: 150 nautical miles (planned)
Orbit Inclination: 28.5 degrees (planned)
Miles Traveled: 18 miles

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger. From left: Ellison Onizuka, Mike Smith, Christa McAuliffe, Dick Scobee, Greg Jarvis, Ron McNair and Judith Resnik. (NASA/1986)

We remember…

SOPA protest swells as Google, Scribd and WordPress join

SOPA protest swells as Google, Scribd, and WordPress join – Arstechnica

“Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” a Google spokesman told Ars. “So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our US home page.”

List of those big sites that are protesting: sopastrike.com

More information at http://americancensorship.org/

ACLU statement on Obama’s signing of NDAA

ACLU statement on Obama’s signing of NDAA – President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law

President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law today. The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision.  While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations.  The White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill.

“President Obama’s action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.  The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally.”

Happy New Year….