Supreme Court appears inclined to rule against funeral protesters - Los Angeles Times

Despite free-speech concerns, Supreme Court justices sounded sympathetic Wednesday to a lawsuit filed by the father of a Marine killed in Iraq whose funeral was picketed by protesters with signs like, "Thank God for IEDs."

The justices appeared inclined to set a limit to freedom of speech when ordinary citizens are targeted with especially personal and hurtful attacks. The 1st Amendment says the government may not restrict free speech, but it is less clear when it shields speakers from private lawsuits.

The Phelps family from Topeka, Kan., has picketed at military funerals across the nation and proclaimed that God is punishing America and its troops because of its tolerance of homosexuality.

In 2006, family members traveled to Maryland, where they held antiwar and anti-gay signs at the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, and they also put on their website a message that accused his father, Albert Snyder, of having raised his son "to defy the creator" and "serve the devil."

A Maryland court awarded Snyder $5 million in damages, but the award was thrown out on free-speech grounds.

Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer, usual defenders of the 1st Amendment, said they thought people could be sued for outrageous personal attacks.

Kennedy said "certain harassing conduct" was not always protected as free speech. "Torts and crimes are committed with words all the time," he said, referring to legal wrongs that result in lawsuits. "The 1st Amendment doesn't stop state tort law in appropriate circumstances," Breyer added.

Though the case is about funeral protests, Breyer said the court's ruling will have an effect on the Internet, because it tests whether vicious personal attacks — often made by bloggers — can lead to lawsuits.

Snyder sued the Phelps family under a common provision of state law that permits claims for an intentional infliction of emotional distress.

On Wednesday, the justices seemed to agree that a general protest sign, such as "Stop the War" or even "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" would be protected as free speech. The Phelps family crossed the line when it targeted the dead Marine's father with their protest, argued Sean E. Summers, a lawyer for Snyder. "We have personal, targeted epithets directed at the Snyder family," he said.

Justice Elena Kagan, the newest member of the court, drew the attention of her colleagues with her opening question to Margie J. Phelps. The Kansas lawyer who was defending her family began by saying that their protests were intended to provoke "public discussion" about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kagan quickly pressed her. Would it be permissible, she asked, for the protesters to pick out "a wounded soldier and follow him around," holding "offensive and outrageous signs" near his home and calling him a "war criminal?" In such a case, "does he have a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress?" Kagan said.

Phelps hesitated, but then answered. "My answer, Justice Kagan, is no, I don't believe that person should have a cause of action."

That answer appeared to turn the argument against Phelps and the funeral protesters. Later, Justice Samuel A. Alito pressed her with another such example.

Suppose protesters stopped a grandmother whose son had been killed in the war, and they "speak to her in the most vile terms" and say they were happy he was killed. Is this protected free speech? Alito asked.

Phelps responded calmly, but avoided a direct answer. It might be illegal "stalking" or "fighting words," she said.

Alito dismissed the "fighting words" defense. "It's an elderly person. She's really not in a position to punch this person in the nose," he said.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took the free-speech side during much of the argument. She noted that protesters were kept well away from the funeral in this case, and they were sued only because of their disturbing message. But she too seemed troubled by the protests.

"This is a case about exploiting a private family's grief," she said. "The question is: Why should the 1st Amendment tolerate exploiting this Marine's family when you have so many other forums for getting across your message?"

Breyer and several others said they were searching for a middle ground that would allow the Snyders to win, but not threaten wide-open public debate. "What I'm trying to accomplish is to allow this tort to exist, but not allow it to interfere with an important public message," he said.

It will be several months before the court makes a ruling in the case.

david.savage@latimes.com

View the original article here

Just a month to go: Democratic, GOP officials predict election success - USA Today

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

O'Donnell's "I'm You" Ad Spurs Opposition Site - CBS News

October 5, 2010 5:17 PM

In her first ad of the general election, Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell has a message for Delaware voters: "I'm you."

Her opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, is responding with his own message to O'Donnell: not so fast.

Coons' campaign launched a webpage today that urges visitors to "tell Christine O'Donnell: you are not me."

"In her new television ad, Christine O'Donnell says she is you," the Coons webpage says. "But unless you think the retirement age for Social Security should be raised, want to further de-regulate Wall Street, are against a woman's right to choose, think public schools should teach Creationism, and think homosexuality is an 'identity disorder,' she is not you."

O'Donnell's ad is embedded on the page, so Coons supporters can watch it for themselves. Visitors can also download an icon image of Christine O'Donnell with the words "Not Me" underneath.

Today on CBSNews.com's "Washington Unplugged," the National Journal's Ron Brownstein said that O'Donnell's unique ad was intended to portray her as "the voice of the people coming to bring common sense to Washington."

CBSNews.com Special Report: Campaign 2010

Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com. You can read more of her posts here. Follow Hotsheet on Facebook and Twitter. Tags:Christine O'Donnell ,Chris Coons ,Delaware Senate Topics:Campaign 2010

View the original article here

Nobel Prize honors super-strong, super-thin carbon - BusinessWeek

By MALCOLM RITTER and KARL RITTER

NEW YORK

It is the thinnest and strongest material known to mankind -- no thicker than a single atom and 100 times tougher than steel. Could graphene be the next plastic? Maybe so, says one of two scientists who won a Nobel Prize on Tuesday for isolating and studying it.

Faster computers, lighter airplanes, transparent touch screens -- the list of potential uses runs on. Some scientists say we can't even imagine what kinds of products might be possible with the substance, which hides in ordinary pencil lead and first was extracted using a piece of Scotch tape.

Two Russian-born researchers shared the physics Nobel for their groundbreaking experiments with graphene, which is a sheet of carbon atoms joined together in a pattern that resembles chicken wire.

Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester in England used Scotch tape to rip off flakes of graphene from a chunk of graphite, the stuff of pencil leads. That achievement, reported just six years ago, opened the door to studying what scientists say should be a versatile building block for electronics and strong materials.

"It has all the potential to change your life in the same way that plastics did," Geim, 51, a Dutch citizen, told The Associated Press. "It is really exciting."

Michael Strano, a chemist at MIT, said trying to predict its uses would be "folly ... We can't even imagine the uses we're going to find."

But he and others have some ideas. Graphene's electrical properties mean it might make for faster transistors, key components of electronic circuits, and so lead to better computers, the Nobel committee says. As a single layer of carbon atoms it's tiny, which could pay off in more powerful cell phones, several scientists said.

And since it's practically transparent, it could lead to see-through touch screens and maybe solar cells, the committee says. It might also pay off for big TV screens.

Its tremendous strength could produce new composite materials that are super-strong and lightweight, for use in building airplanes, cars and satellites, the committee says.

So why aren't pencil leads super strong, if they contain graphene? Breaking a lead generally involves a shearing off between graphene sheets rather than breaking the sheets themselves, explained James Tour of Rice University. And while a person can tear up a single sheet of graphene, it's still stronger than a one-atom-thick sheet of anything else.

"There's nothing stronger," Tour said.

Graphene has not made its mark in ordinary consumer products yet, although some prototype electronic display screens and composite materials have been created, Strano said.

Lots of scientists are studying it, in some cases to learn about basic physics, Strano said. Researchers are still trying to find a practical way to make large quantities of pure graphene, something more amenable to large-scale use than the Scotch-tape approach, he said.

"The field is still very new," he said, and the awarding of the $1.5 million prize to Geim and Novoselov is "absolutely marvelous."

Joseph Stroscio, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said he had thought it would take a few more years of scientific appraisal before graphene would win a Nobel. But its potential applications and the brand-new behavior it presents for basic physics have drawn strong interest since the 2004 breakthrough, and the prize is well-deserved, he said.

It might take five or 10 years before graphene shows up in products like cell phones, he said.

Novoselov, 36, is the youngest Nobel winner since 1973 of a prize that normally goes to scientists with decades of experience. He holds both British and Russian citizenship.

Paolo Radaelli, a physics professor at the University of Oxford, marveled at the simple methods the winners used.

"In this age of complexity, with machines like the super collider, they managed to get the Nobel using Scotch tape," Radaelli said.

The 2010 Nobel Prize announcements began Monday with the medicine award going to British researcher Robert Edwards, 85, for in vitro fertilization. Unlike the physics prize, which came just six years after the graphene breakthrough, the medicine award came more than 30 years after the birth of the first test tube baby. The prize committee ignores the provision in Alfred Nobel's will that the award honor discoveries made the preceding year because it takes time to measure the benefits.

The chemistry prize will be announced Wednesday, followed by literature on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday and economics on Monday, Oct. 11.

The awards were created by Nobel, a Swedish industrialist, and first given in 1901. The prizes are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

There have been no Americans among this year's Nobel laureates so far, but that could change Wednesday with chemistry, a prize that has been dominated by U.S. scientists. Only once in the past decade, in 2007, did the prize not include a U.S. citizen.

Harvard researchers George Whitesides and Charles Lieber frequently figure in Nobel speculation. So do Scottish chemist Sir Fraser Stoddart at Northwestern University and Japan's Sumio Iijima, who discovered carbon nanotubes in 1991.

Thomson Reuters, which analyzes high-impact scientific papers to make predictions, suggested Stanford University biochemistry professor Patrick Brown for his work on DNA microarrays. It said Japan's Susumu Kitagawa and American Omar Yaghi could also share the award for designing porous metal-organic frameworks.

------

Karl Ritter reported from Stockholm. Associated Press writers Malin Rising and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

------

Online:

http://www.nobelprize.org

View the original article here

Analyst says iPad is fastest adopted consumer electronic device ever - BetaNews

Derided by some at its launch as a device with no market, Apple's iPad has now proven to be one of the most successful consumer electronic device launches ever, according to Bernstein Research retail analyst Colin McGranahan. He expects the device to have a sell through rate to be about 4.5 million units per quarter.

This is far faster than the iPhone, which sold one million units in its initial launch quarter, and far ahead of the 350,000 DVD players sold in its first year, CNBC reported Tuesday. Repeating the statements of some analysts that the iPad would not be a runaway hit, he mused "by any account, the iPad is a runaway success of unprecedented proportion."

Bernstein is extremely bullish on the device, saying in 2011 it should become the fourth biggest consumer electronics category with sales of $9 billion in the US next year. This would put it ahead of the game console and cellular phones, a stunning number considering the initial uncertainty.

McGranahan went further to say that the iPad is not only hurting PC sales -- notebooks notably have taken a hit according to most analysts -- but the TV and digital camera sectors may also be affected. Essentially, it's all an issue of disposable income.

"It is the rare American household that would spend $600-plus dollars on an iPad and buy a TV or a PC or a digital camera in the same month, or the same quarter, or maybe even the same year," he wrote in a research note to clients.

Seeing that Apple has been so successful, it should not be a surprise that Microsoft is eager to compete. CEO Steve Ballmer told attendees of a talk at the London School of Electronics that its partners would have slate PCs available by the holidays.

That's the question we ask Betanews readers to answer. But, please, be specific about what you want, or don't, from Windows Phone.

A new set-top-box designed for film industry professionals predicts streaming at all points of a movie's life.

David Fincher's Facebook movie is must-see for geeks and non-geeks alike. It's Oscar worthy -- oh, and a well-told story, too.

Microsoft has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Western District of Washington against Motorola, Inc, a statement from Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's deputy general of IP and Licensing said today.

Apple's iPad has now proven to be one of the most successful consumer electronic device launches ever, according to Bernstein Research retail analyst Colin McGranahan.

Though AT&T hasn't launched its next generation HSPA+ or LTE networks yet, the carrier Tuesday introduced the first LaptopConnect devices that will support the technologies.

Android grabbed the top spot in market share among smart phones sold in the past six months ending in August.

hile Skype is one of the most popular VoIP clients, bringing it to the Android platform has been quite problematic. With this release, we see those problems have persisted.

Today, HLDS (the joint venture between Hitachi and LG) unveiled its second generation of hybrid optical/solid state drives

Evan Williams is stepping down as the Twitter's CEO, handing the company over to current COO Dick Costolo.

A Tyler County, Texas court slapped Apple with the fourth largest patent judgement in history on Friday, saying its use of Cover Flow infringed on patents held by Mirror Worlds LLC.

View the original article here