Threat Assessment: October 17-21
WITH US
Upside to Blackberry outage: fewer crashes
With Blackberry service disrupted for three days last week, traffic accidents in Abu Dhabi fell significantly, by 40 percent, with no fatalities; in Dubai, accidents were down 20 percent. [The National]
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AGAINST US
Vets' unemployment greater than civilian rate
Military veterans who have returned to the working world in the past decade have a jobless rate of 11.7 percent, outpacing the civilian rate of 9.1 percent. [Washington Post]
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WITH US
100-year-old man completes marathon
Fauja Singh, nicknamed the "Turbaned Tornado," finished the Toronto marathon Sunday in 8 hours, 11 minutes, making the Briton the oldest person to accomplish the feat. [CBC News]
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AGAINST US
Cloud computing opens up worlds of criminal possibilities
More centralized data centralized and easily cracked encryption codes may be a boon to hackers and cyber-criminals. [Technology Review]
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WITH US
BAD LIP READING: MITT ROMNEY
"I'm a gremlin; I'm leaving the party; and I want everyone to stuff the ice chest. Thank you." And so much more. [Bad Lip Reading]
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AGAINST US
Herman Cain and the Kochs
The GOP presidential frontrunner’s campaign has close ties to the ultraconservative Koch brothers, whose advocacy group Americans for Prosperity has previously employed many of Cain's advisors and staffers. [Washington Post]
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WITH US
Occupy Wall Street definitely not getting ignored
Coverage increased to 10 percent of all news, compared with 7 percent the previous week and 2 percent the week before that.[Pew ]
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AGAINST US
Alcohol Abuse Costs U.S. $224 Billion a Year
Governments pay more than 60 percent of their health care costs for people who drink too much, says the CDC. Also: Alcohol abuse kills 79,000 people a year. [National Journal]
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WITH US
NYPD disciplines OWS pepper spray copy
Internal review finds Anthony Bologna violated department guidelines when he maced protesters last month. [AP ]
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AGAINST US
National Book Award nominates wrong book
Judges picked a book called Shine when they really meant to pick one called Chime; then asked Shine author to drop out. [TIME ]
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WITH US
Record-High 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Pot
The record high is up from 46 percent last year. (In 1969, 12 percent were for legalization, 84 percent against.) [Gallup ]
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AGAINST US
Unpaid student loans top a record $1 trillion
[Americans now owe more on student loans than on their credit cards [Politico ]