Two Boston men who spent 30 years in prison for an underworld slaying they did not commit are suing the federal government after the FBI withheld evidence that would have cleared them to protect an informant.

They were sentenced to death.

Boston Men Cleared in Slayings Sue Gov't - New York Times

If it can be established increased troop levels have been producing a positive effect on the security situation, that not only means that there is some hope for future stabilization through a troop increase, but that American forces have had and are having a net positive effect on Iraqi security levels now. If, on the other hand, no correlation between troop levels and violence levels can be established, the logical conclusion is American troops have been contributing very little to stabilizing the Iraqi situation, in any numbers. Regrettably for supporters of the Stuntz argument, given the statistical data to date, the latter seems the stronger conclusion.

This is worth a look, but I think he needs to look at the whole security picture and not just US fatalities.

Data on the relationship between troop levels and coallition fatalities in Iraq

Milton Friedman, the Nobel-prize winning economist who helped shape and define free-market economic theory, died Thursday at the age of 94 in San Francisco.

We owe much to Friedman. Time sucks.

Nobel economist Milton Friedman dead at 94 - Nov. 16, 2006

Curling also said that society needed to learn to be more forgiving of past mistakes that come to light through background checks, but said that companies are afraid of hiring people with any spot on their record due to the threat of civil litigation.

That's a fine sentiment, and ChoicePoint is clearly hoping that the first one that gets to be forgiven for its past mistakes is itself. As for the Joes and Janes of the world who might have shoplifted or passed a bad check and can't get a job now, Curling suggested Tuesday that their forgiveness will have to wait for either litigation reform or a really tight job market.

This is so fucked up. I don't know what else to say.

Companies that buy this data and refuse to employ or do business with people who have some poc mark in their past claim they have to do this in order to avoid liability. Of course, liability can only exist because the data is available and so failure to access it could be considered negligent. The data is available because Choicepoint makes it available. Choicepoint could refuse to sell data that is more than 5 or 10 years old, because unethical, but they don't, because its profitable, because of the liability, which is created by the fact that they sell it. Now they claim that they wish people were more forgiving, in the same breath that they ask forgivness for their own fuckups. How these people sleep with this tangle of contradictions is extremely hard for me to understand.

Litigation reform? Actual litigation is not required before lawyers will act skitish. Why don't we just make it illegal to traffic in this information? Oh, I forgot, they're funding Senators.

27B Stroke 6 | ChoicePoint's Comeback Tour

The Ukrainian government offered to lau­nch DSCOVR free of charge, France made a similar offer. But NASA's response so far has been "no thanks."

LAUNCH IT!

Seed: Free DSCOVR!

Park said sending DSCOVR to the L1 gravitational balance point is "the most important thing we could be doing in space right now."

Park pressed for the mission to proceed in a New York Times op-ed piece earlier this year, and several other articles have bemoaned DSCOVR's descent into limbo.

LAUNCH IT!

Cosmic Log : 'Lost in Space' missions

NASA has spent almost $100 million in taxpayer money to build a satellite that is headed for a storage bin in Maryland.

Triana was scheduled for a November flight into space, where it would measure ozone in the Earth's atmosphere while also beaming round-the-clock photos of Earth to the Internet.

But now, some fear it may never fly.

The cause of the costly hibernation: presidential politics and conflicting views -- many of them partisan...

LAUNCH IT!

POLITICS PUTS $100 MILLION SATELLITE ON ICE

I wonder if you could make money with a cable channel that just showed pictures from a low-earth-orbit satellite in HD?

It turns out Glenn Reylonds and I agree about something. Apparently so does Al Gore. (I like the LEO version a bit better, but what I mostly want to do is know how I can help make this happen...) Does anyone here have an understanding of the economics of this?

Instapundit.com - Space Web Cam

NICE LADY: I'm a Mom, and I'm voting "yes" on Prop. 111. Prop. 111 provides free candy for every child in our state.

KID: I heart candy!

This is kind of funny...

Marketplace: Free candy in every pot

A confidential analysis of Internet search queries and a random sample of Web pages taken from Google and Micrsoft's giant Internet indexes showed that only about 1 percent of all Web pages contain sexually explicit material.

No. That's not true. That's impossible!

MercuryNews.com | 11/14/2006 | Study finds Web isn't teeming with sex