Hot off the Press: 'Bought and paid for' edition

A battle for net neutrality at the FCC has been set for later this month: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11892142.

Newly released documents reveal that the Fed (the wonderful private institution we rely on for our money, keeping us in perpetual debt) used tax payer money to bailout many more companies and banks, some foreign, than was previously known: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/business/economy/02fed.html?ref=us.

The Illinois legislature has approved a measure allowing civil unions, which will grant "same-sex couples a broad array of legal rights and responsibilities similar to those of marriage": http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/us/02illinois.html?ref=us.

Sabbaticals may be on the chopping block at Iowa's three state universities: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20101202/NEWS01/12020337/1079. There is debate about how much money this would actually save — the figures range from $250,000 to $6 million — but this will no doubt tarnish the draw and appeal of Iowa's public uni's in attracting topnotch academics. Though time and care need to be taken in crafting excellent curriculum, scholarship, and research, the larger question is whether academics need to be so coddled. Zee German always told me things were very different in Europe, so maybe Iowa and US professors and researchers need to learn by example.

Very cool BBC slide show (with audio) of the snow that blanketed the UK last week and its affects, good and bad: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11900122.

As US troops withdraw (totally?) from Iraq, they leave behind thousands of unemployed Iraqis who had found work inside the military's economic bubble: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/middleeast/06withdraw.html?_r=1&hp.

The lead for this NYT article: "Facing a rising tide of joblessness, the governor of Kentucky has found one solution: build an ark": http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/us/06ark.html?ref=us. Here's my big question: would they build an Islamic equivalent (I have no clue what that would be) for jobs, too?

A suburban home in Escondido, CA is going to be burned by authorities because it contains so many explosives and bomb making chemicals: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/902121--how-to-destroy-a-home-packed-with-explosives?bn=1.

Bolstered by a dismissed lawsuit, companies are now hiring private detectives to spy on employees suspected of playing "hooky": http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/06/BUK81GLNK1.DTL.

The number of divorces in Iran has tripled in the last decade, prompting conservative officials to call it a national threat: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/world/middleeast/07divorce.html?_r=1&hp.