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POPSDisabled woman victorious in UK assisted suicide case More: Although the judgment does not guarantee Puente or anyone else immunity if they help someone end another person's life, opponents of the practice say the ruling effectively invites authorities to say there are some instances in which they will not prosecute those who help others kill themselves. While dozens of people from Britain have reportedly traveled to Switzerland to end their lives, no one has been prosecuted for helping them travel there. In one recent high-profile case, the parents of a 23-year-old partially paralyzed rugby player was spared prosecution — even though Starmer said there was enough evidence to charge them with taking their son abroad to help him kill himself. Aiding or abetting suicide carries a maximum jail term of 14 years but the law is rarely enforced. Prosecutors have previously said that they will file charges only when it is in the public interest without going into details.
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POPSRestaurant review: Burma Superstar's new location in Oakland's Temescal District I so want to try the tea-leaf salad: Left to my own devices, I went for the obvious - starting with the tea leaf salad ($9). The pile of pungent, soft, fermented tea leaves is so alluring I might follow it into a dark alley some night. Arrayed around the tea leaves are small heaps of ingredients of all different textures and flavors - potent dried shrimp and fried garlic slices (too many, really), crunchy split peas, nutty sesame seeds and peanuts, tomatoes, lemons, and on and on, all over a bed of chopped romaine. Tossed tableside, it's a three-ring circus in your mouth.
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POPS9 reasons to REworry about H1N1 flu – and 7 things to do about it More: This virus doesn't like to grow in a dish…defies our attempts to mass-produce…we're not likely to have the kind of dead-virus amounts we usually have for both research and vaccine development… The H1N1 threat has made nations aware of the perils of having all vaccine development centered in only a few countries… H1N1 covered the globe in a record pace… containment of H1N1 is only a dim fantasy. It has so saturated our population that 6-8% of Americans are believed to be already infected. This flu season, somewhere between one-in-ten and one-in-four Americans are expected to get it. Although the numbers are controversial - both in terms of being both too high and too low, current estimates predict that 5 out of every 1,000 infected people will die from it… The numbers are going up, here and abroad. Click through for the "what to do".
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POPSUS government: The Three Branches of Government More: The legislative branch is made up of the Congress which is the House of Representatives and the Senate. Its job is to make the laws. Congress also decides on who and what to tax and how to use tax money. Each house of Congress meets separately. However, they can come together for joint sessions. The executive branch includes the president of the United States, the vice president, and the major departments of the government such as the Labor Department, Department of Defense, State Department, Treasury Department, etc. Each department has a leader, appointed by the president. Together, all the leaders, along with the president, vice president, and a few other people, make up the cabinet. The job of the executive branch is to enforce the laws. The judicial branch branch is made up of the Supreme Court and other courts, and its job is to interpret the laws.
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POPSUS government: the Constitution "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." — Preamble to the Constitution
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POPSThe three branches of US government More: The executive branch of government makes sure that the laws of the United States are obeyed. Article II, section 1, of the Constitution vests the President of the United States the head of the executive branch.… The role of the judicial branch is to interpret the nation's laws. It consists of two separate levels of courts: state courts and federal courts. The type of court that a case is tried in depends on the law that was allegedly violated.
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POPSSchoolhouse Rock - Three-Ring Government More: Well, everybody's act is part of the show. And no one's job is more important. The audience is kinda like the country you know, Keeping and eye on their performance. Ring one, Executive, Two is Legislative, that's Congress. Ring three, Judiciary. See it's kind of like my circus, circus. Gonna have a three-ring circus someday. People will say it's a fine one son, But until I get it, I'll do my thing With government. It's got three rings.
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POPSFiending for tacos in O-town! Now I'm hungry. Tacos Sinaloa – best taco truck around, IMO. (That last photo isn't from Tacos Sinaloa, though. I dunno what all that foo-foo fancy stuff on top is. It looks like pureed salsa. Weird. :-D)
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POPSWhy Oakland's increased parking rates are beneficial
Much more in the original. More: Given how hard it is for people (all of us, not just automobile drivers) to imagine that a change in lifestyle might actually improve our lives, I can’t help but wonder how many of the people who are outraged about having to pay more for parking in Oakland live within walking distance of the destinations that they currently drive to, and whether they might discover that spending 20 minutes strolling to the Grand Lake Theatre for a movie, or to Arizmendi for coffee and pastry, or to Walden Pond Books for a used paperback is actually a much more pleasurable experience than driving there and looking for parking (even free parking)… if some significant number of people start walking and biking to those Oakland neighborhoods instead of driving because they don’t want to pay $2/hour for a meter, or because they fear getting a parking ticket from an overzealous parking enforcement officer, then I would consider that a feature, not a bug.
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POPSBrad Warner: "Enlightenment experiences are crap." More: I have no problem with people making money, even if they're Buddhist teachers and even if they're earning their money by being Buddhist teachers. What I have a problem with is the way Buddhism is being turned into a commodity. Enlightenment is being sold like mouth wash. The girls aren't running after you? Try Enlightenment and you'll never be without a date on Saturday night! …It's not that hard to induce a whizz-bang experience through hypnotism or other means. If you mesmerize someone and feed their ego with the notion that they are Enlightened and that they can speak with the voice of God Himself, that person will have a pretty amazing time. If a genuine Zen Master certifies that experience as Kensho that seals the deal. Also having paid lots of money for the experience makes the person far less likely to want to admit it might not have been all it was supposed to be. This is so fucking obvious I don't even know why anyone has to point it out.
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