"Breaking Camorra's 'silence code'
More and more Italians now seem to be willing to brave death threats and testify against the powerful Neapolitan-based mafia, the Camorra, the BBC's Pascale Harter says.
Fifty-eight-year-old Silvana Fucito was terrified the first time a member of the Camorra came into her shop, put a gun on the counter and said "either you pay up or we'll kill you".
Yet this tiny woman, with her manicured nails and diamante hair clips, told her husband to step aside. She would deal with the Camorra." - Richard Walker
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"Because it's tragic when anyone loses a job, I would sure like to see Harvey and/or Bob start taking responsibility for their company's abject failure by at least admitting it instead of fighting the media tooth-and-nail to protect what little is left of their once enviable success. This is especially galling because of all the pain they're causing other people, whether firing staff, or convincing people to leave secure jobs and work for TWC without giving them all the facts about how much trouble the company is really in, or forcing filmmakers to pay for reshoots out of their own wallets. Geez, I could go on and on... But then I realize that all those millions of dollars the brothers are wasting on pitbull lawyers to prevent the media from telling the truth are just everyday business expenses to the Weinsteins. Disgusting." - Richard Walker
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"Don't trust what you read on the internet? That's no longer the dominant sentiment in the US, according to a new poll by Zogby International. A survey of more than 3000 people performed in the two days after the US Presidential Election found that 37.6% of respondents considered the Internet the most reliable source of news, 20.3% consider national TV news most reliable and 16% said that radio is the most reliable source." - Richard Walker
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"Aquarium Drunkard posted MP3s of the terrific recordings that two of my favorite songwriters, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, made together during three 1969 sessions. Several tracks were are even quadraphonic mixes. The Dylan/Cash Sessions (Thanks, Mark!)" - Richard Walker
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"According to the BBC, “Pirates have anchored a hijacked Saudi oil tanker off the Somali coast, as the spate of hijackings gathered pace with two more ships seized on Tuesday… The vessel is carrying a cargo of 2m barrels - a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output - worth more than $100m. A cargo ship and a fishing vessel were the latest to join more than 90 vessels attacked by the pirates this year.”" - Richard Walker
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"We're gonna need a bigger canoe...
This is not a hoax. This monstrous Chinook Salmon was found dead in a shallow stream by the California Department of Fish and Game." - Richard Walker
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"Birdsong is the primary model system that helps scientists understand how the brain produces complex sequences of learned behavior, such as playing the piano. In songbirds, there are many interconnected brain regions that play specific and important role in the production of song. These brain regions are known as "song control nuclei." Two song control nuclei, the High Vocal Center (HVC) and the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA), are especially important for birdsong because damage to either prevents the bird from singing altogether. It was hypothesized that either HVC or RA could orchestrate the rhythm of the bird's song, acting like a sort of biological metronome, but the technology did not exist to identify which song control nucleus might play this role -- until now. In an elegant combination of physics and biology, two researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge invented a tiny new device that allowed them to identify HVC as regulating the rhythm of birdsong." - Richard Walker
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"Hospital cases of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have risen 33-fold during the past ten years in Washington state, yet our hospitals fail to identify or track cases in a systemic fashion (Seattle Times).
The Seattle Times began a three-part investigative report today describing the rise in MRSA incidence, the consequences for patients, and the failure on the part of our hospitals to take measures to address the problem." - Richard Walker
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This is not about the music or the musicians. It is about a fetish for dead, perfect things reproduced with ultimate fidelity for your greedy, selfish pleasure. Making music is a thing of the past, and your music needs are fulfilled by corporations who pander to this fetish for profit. You faithfully purchase the regurgitated masterworks, and listen to them on your hi-fidelity entertainment system. - Richard Walker
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