Given the outrageous failure to alert police to child sexual abuse occurring on the Penn State campus, will the NCAA launch an investigation into the football program? The inaction by Penn State officials would seem to be highly damaging to college football’s reputation.
I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.
That’s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can. This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.
My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this University.
– former Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno a few hours before he was fired by the Board of Trustees.
What could he have been thinking? That he was entitled to choose his own departure date (and cut off discussion by the Board of Trustees) after it became known that he did not report child abuse occurring on Penn State’s campus 10 years ago? If he grieves for the victims, perhaps he should have taken real action to protect children before they were victimized. And did he think that he could actually appear with the Penn State team on the sidelines at their game with Nebraska this weekend? And why did he need “hindsight” to decide that more should have been done.
If you care about animal welfare, do not EVER attend a Ringling Brothers circus or anything produced by Feld Entertainment, the company that owns Ringling brothers.
I am so sad. He was a great man who lead a great company. But he was also a very private man. My heart goes out to his family.
Go to apple.com for the official reaction.
And if you haven’t ever seen it before, take a look at his commencement address at Stanford in 2005:
According to Om Malik, Tim Cook sent this email to Apple employees shortly before 5 pm today:
Team,
I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.
No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.
A flavor of the man:
And what is happening online (a world he was instrumental in creating) right now:
A statement from Bill Gates:
I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.
Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.
The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.
For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.
And I like this video montage put together by Wired:
Other media coverage:
Note: Check my Twitter feed for more links. Look on the right side of this page or follow @b_freer on Twitter.
Everything has gotten worse since 9/11, as reported by the best news source in the country. Excerpt:
As media coverage of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 ramps up this week, citizens across the United States collectively realized they would rather think about the terrorist attacks of 2001 than about anything else that has transpired in the subsequent decade.
A group of chimpanzees who were used for years of medical testing indoors without ever seeing the sun have been released into a preserve. Watch this very emotional video of the event.
More details (in English) here.
360Cities has posted a collection of 360-degree panoramas of Hiroshima following the atomic bombing of the City. They show amazing detail and are powerful argument against future use of these horrible weapons against civilian non-combatants. Click the full screen button for the full view closeup. (via Boing Boing)
Watch all these clips about the suffering that is still plaguing Americans and largely caused by mortgage lenders. It makes so sad and so angry as well. Besides the terrible suffering for the homeowners involved, this type of behavior continues the decline in real estate values for everyone. Over 5 million foreclosures and counting. Where is the outrage? Why is all the governmental support going to the banks and not to people?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The text version of this story is available here.
The first pictures from inside the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been released. They show the members of the heroic Fukushima Fifty, the workers and managers who have continued to fight to regain some control of the plant. The darkness inside shows how terrifying this effort must be.
Inside the control room of units 1 and 2
Update: The Wall Street Journal describes the larger number of low level workers who are being asked to report to the plant voluntarily, and at standard pay, to help out.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, and other companies that are sending employees to the Fukushima Daiichi plant say they aren’t paying the workers extra or providing benefits beyond existing accident and sickness insurance. The companies say they have been too busy dealing with the emergency to consider such things. Workers haven’t raised the issue either, they say, in a country where pushing for more cash in such a time of crisis is seen as crass.
“There isn’t a single person who’s been doing this because of money,” says Tadashi Ikeda, senior managing director of Tokai Toso. Plenty of workers are locals who have been forced out of their homes by the radiation levels and are eager to help get things back to normal, he adds.
Mr. Tada says he typically earns about ¥200,000 ($2,470) a month, well below Japan’s average monthly salary of ¥291,000. “It can’t be helped,” he says, adding his mother doesn’t want him to go. “Someone has to do it.”
The most recent census figures have been released. The City of Detroit lost 25% of its population from 2000 to 2010, and now has a total population of only 713,000.
It was the largest percentage drop in history for any American city with more than 100,000 residents, apart from the unique situation of New Orleans, where the population dropped by 29 percent after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College.
[via Balloon Juice]
Apparently The Beast has published their definitive list of the 50 most loathsome Americans of 2010.
I am not sure I can disagree with any list that begins with Paula Deen and moves on to Rick Sanchez. That alone drove me on. This is a true must read.
50) Paula Deen
Charges: The A.Q. Khan of the culinary world, her secret recipes are demonstrably more dangerous to America than a nuclear armed North Korea. When not delighting delusional hicks on “Huckabee,” she’s cooking up coronary-clogging treats like the “Luther”—a bacon-topped cheeseburger served between two glazed donuts—whose purported inventor Luther Vandross suffered from diabetes and died of a massive heart explosion. Make no mistake, this insane, evangelical pumpkin-face is trying to send you into the arms of Jesus.
Aggravating factor: “I’m gonna start with my normal ingredient, y’all: one stick of butter.”Sentence: Steamed and served over a healthy bed of greens.
By the way, if you want to see Sanchez get his, check this out. No one died.
Gabrielle Gifford’s opponent in last November’s Congressional race was a man named Jesse Kelly. Here is an announcement of one of his campaign events:
And the one below is pretty awful too. Click the image for full size. Click here for the referenced news article.
(via TalkingPointsMemo)
In last week’s Congressional reading of the Constitution, Gabrielle Giffords read the first amendment including is establishment of the right of peaceable assembly.
If it turns out that the attacker of Gabrielle Giffords and the killer of US District Court Judge John Roll (and others) is a right wing domestic terrorist, as appears to be the case, watch the GOP and especially the Tea Party, try to distance themselves from their steady spewing of violence-inducing rhetoric over the past two years. Representative Giffords herself noted the implicit threats of the right in March of last year:
And here is a copy of the campaign literature of the paragon of the Tea Party Right Sarah Palin. Note the fourth gunsight target in Palin’s list from March, 2010:
