The debate over torture is getting personal for two of cable TV's prime-time hosts. After Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity made a seemingly impromptu offer last week to undergo waterboarding as a benefit for charity, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann leapt at it. He offered $1,000 to the families of U.S. troops for every second Hannity withstood the technique.
Olbermann repeated the offer on Monday's show and said in an interview Tuesday that he's heard no response. He said he'll continue to pursue it.
* * *
[5/28/09] NEW YORK (AP) — Keith Olbermann's offer for a donation if Sean Hannity undergoes waterboarding is off the table, the money gone instead to radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller's charity of choice after Mancow's disquieting experience with the interrogation technique.
Muller said Wednesday he volunteered to be waterboarded last week to prove that the controversial technique isn't torture. Instead, he said the experience showed he was wrong.
"I thought I was going to die," he said.
Waterboarding has been a hot topic on talk TV and radio the last several weeks. The liberal Olbermann of MSNBC contends it's torture; the conservative Hannity of Fox News Channel says it's not. Olbermann leaped on it when Hannity said on the air last month that he'd be waterboarded for charity.
Muller did it in his Chicago studio last Friday. He said it was worse than drowning, something he nearly experienced as a boy before being rescued. Muller went on Olbermann's MSNBC show Tuesday to talk about his experience, after Olbermann pledged $10,000 to Veterans of Valor, an organization formed by Iraq War veteran Klay South to help injured veterans.
"I was laughing about this, that it was a stupid radio thing," Muller told Olbermann. "I thought I could go 30 seconds. I'll hold my breath. Big deal, they'll sprinkle water. It is a big deal. It's torture."
* * *
[5/29/09] Erich "Mancow" Muller, responding to a report he faked being waterboarded on Chicago's WLS-AM 890 a week earlier, said Friday that both his experience and subsequent newfound belief that the controversial interrogation technique is torture were "absolutely real."
Before Muller went on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" for the second time this week on Friday night to discuss the latest developments (above), Muller readily acknowledged in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that the waterboarding stunt was not and never meant to be an exact re-creation of how the technique is administered to detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
swine flu alert
The Geneva-based World Health Organization today raised its alert level for the fast-spreading swine flu to its next-to-highest notch, signaling a global pandemic could be imminent.
The move came after the virus spread to at least 11 U.S. states from coast to coast and swept deeper into Europe.
"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," said WHO Director General Margaret Chan. "We do not have all the answers right now but we will get them."
Raising the alert level to 5, the second jump in three days, means a pandemic, or a global outbreak of a new virus, is imminent. It would be the first global pandemic in 41 years.
[4/30/09] Swine flu shuts down Mexico
The move came after the virus spread to at least 11 U.S. states from coast to coast and swept deeper into Europe.
"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," said WHO Director General Margaret Chan. "We do not have all the answers right now but we will get them."
Raising the alert level to 5, the second jump in three days, means a pandemic, or a global outbreak of a new virus, is imminent. It would be the first global pandemic in 41 years.
[4/30/09] Swine flu shuts down Mexico
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Oahu Cell Phone Ban
[4/23/09] Members of the City Council who were around in 2002, the last time an attempt was made to ban cell-phone use while driving, recall a vastly different atmosphere.
"The lobbyists from the phone companies descended on us and lots of folks came in to voice their disapproval," Councilman Duke Bainum recalled yesterday. "It didn't even get out of committee."
But now, he added, "Many accidents and, unfortunately, lives later, we're at a point where the environment is completely different."
That was evident yesterday as the Council gave final approval to Bill 4, a measure to ban talking on a cell phone while driving unless a hands-free device is used.
[5/7/09] Starting July 1, Honolulu motorists will not be allowed to use hand-held cell phones and other electronic devices while driving, under a bill signed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann today.
[6/26/09, posted 7/7] New rules of the road
[6/29/09] It's about time for such a requirement, inadequate as it might be. More than 40 countries have such a law, along with four states and numerous municipalities. Twelve years have passed since a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that the risk of an accident while the driver is on a cell phone quadruples, about the same risk as driving drunk.
Not that a Bluetooth headset is any safer. Nearly eight years have passed since researchers at the University of Utah completed a study finding that hands-free phones are as distracting for motorists as hand-held cell phones.
[7/19/00] Extensive research shows the dangers of distracted driving. Studies say that drivers using phones are four times as likely to cause a crash as other drivers, and the likelihood that they will crash is equal to that of someone with a .08 percent blood alcohol level, the point at which drivers are generally considered intoxicated. Research also shows that hands-free devices do not eliminate the risks, and may worsen them by suggesting that the behavior is safe.
A 2003 Harvard study estimated that cellphone distractions caused 2,600 traffic deaths every year, and 330,000 accidents that result in moderate or severe injuries.
Yet Americans have largely ignored that research. Instead, they increasingly use phones, navigation devices and even laptops to turn their cars into mobile offices, chat rooms and entertainment centers, making roads more dangerous.
[7/22/09] In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel.
They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.
But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.
On Tuesday, the full body of research is being made public for the first time by two consumer advocacy groups, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents. The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen provided a copy to The New York Times, which is publishing the documents on its Web site.
In interviews, the officials who withheld the research offered their fullest explanation to date.
The former head of the highway safety agency said he was urged to withhold the research to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states.
Critics say that rationale and the failure of the Transportation Department, which oversees the highway agency, to more vigorously pursue distracted driving has cost lives and allowed to blossom a culture of behind-the-wheel multitasking.
“We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety.
The group petitioned for the information after The Los Angeles Times wrote about the research last year. Mother Jones later published additional details.
The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.
The researchers also shelved a draft letter they had prepared for Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to send, warning states that hands-free laws might not solve the problem.
That letter said that hands-free headsets did not eliminate the serious accident risk. The reason: a cellphone conversation itself, not just holding the phone, takes drivers’ focus off the road, studies showed.
The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.
"The lobbyists from the phone companies descended on us and lots of folks came in to voice their disapproval," Councilman Duke Bainum recalled yesterday. "It didn't even get out of committee."
But now, he added, "Many accidents and, unfortunately, lives later, we're at a point where the environment is completely different."
That was evident yesterday as the Council gave final approval to Bill 4, a measure to ban talking on a cell phone while driving unless a hands-free device is used.
[5/7/09] Starting July 1, Honolulu motorists will not be allowed to use hand-held cell phones and other electronic devices while driving, under a bill signed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann today.
[6/26/09, posted 7/7] New rules of the road
[6/29/09] It's about time for such a requirement, inadequate as it might be. More than 40 countries have such a law, along with four states and numerous municipalities. Twelve years have passed since a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that the risk of an accident while the driver is on a cell phone quadruples, about the same risk as driving drunk.
Not that a Bluetooth headset is any safer. Nearly eight years have passed since researchers at the University of Utah completed a study finding that hands-free phones are as distracting for motorists as hand-held cell phones.
[7/19/00] Extensive research shows the dangers of distracted driving. Studies say that drivers using phones are four times as likely to cause a crash as other drivers, and the likelihood that they will crash is equal to that of someone with a .08 percent blood alcohol level, the point at which drivers are generally considered intoxicated. Research also shows that hands-free devices do not eliminate the risks, and may worsen them by suggesting that the behavior is safe.
A 2003 Harvard study estimated that cellphone distractions caused 2,600 traffic deaths every year, and 330,000 accidents that result in moderate or severe injuries.
Yet Americans have largely ignored that research. Instead, they increasingly use phones, navigation devices and even laptops to turn their cars into mobile offices, chat rooms and entertainment centers, making roads more dangerous.
[7/22/09] In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel.
They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.
But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.
On Tuesday, the full body of research is being made public for the first time by two consumer advocacy groups, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents. The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen provided a copy to The New York Times, which is publishing the documents on its Web site.
In interviews, the officials who withheld the research offered their fullest explanation to date.
The former head of the highway safety agency said he was urged to withhold the research to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states.
Critics say that rationale and the failure of the Transportation Department, which oversees the highway agency, to more vigorously pursue distracted driving has cost lives and allowed to blossom a culture of behind-the-wheel multitasking.
“We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety.
The group petitioned for the information after The Los Angeles Times wrote about the research last year. Mother Jones later published additional details.
The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.
The researchers also shelved a draft letter they had prepared for Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to send, warning states that hands-free laws might not solve the problem.
That letter said that hands-free headsets did not eliminate the serious accident risk. The reason: a cellphone conversation itself, not just holding the phone, takes drivers’ focus off the road, studies showed.
The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
the last afternoon Star Bulletin
After more than 150 years, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin printed its final afternoon newspaper on Thursday.
The paper never missed an afternoon print in all of its years despite power outages, hurricanes and earthquakes.
Starting on Monday, the paper will convert from a standard "broadsheet" newspaper to a tabloid size, similar to the size of MidWeek.
The job cuts and suspension of the afternoon edition mirrors the newspaper troubles happening around the country. Many big-name newspapers such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Rocky Mountain News, Chicago Tribune and Philadelphia Inquirer are in bankruptcy, closed or transformed to an online entity.
* * *
Funny, I don't see the story on this at starbulletin.com, though it's on the front page of the printed edition.
* * *
[4/13/09] The new Star Bulletin
The paper never missed an afternoon print in all of its years despite power outages, hurricanes and earthquakes.
Starting on Monday, the paper will convert from a standard "broadsheet" newspaper to a tabloid size, similar to the size of MidWeek.
The job cuts and suspension of the afternoon edition mirrors the newspaper troubles happening around the country. Many big-name newspapers such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Rocky Mountain News, Chicago Tribune and Philadelphia Inquirer are in bankruptcy, closed or transformed to an online entity.
* * *
Funny, I don't see the story on this at starbulletin.com, though it's on the front page of the printed edition.
* * *
[4/13/09] The new Star Bulletin
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