Morning Media Summary

Tech:

Earth project aims to ‘simulate everything’:
“An international group of scientists are aiming to create a simulator that can replicate everything happening on Earth – from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on Milton Keynes’ roads.”

4Chan.org Down Amid DDOS Attack:
“Popular anonymous photo-sharing message board 4Chan.org is experiencing downtime at this very moment. The cause of the outage? A DDOS, or distributed denial of service attack — something 4Channers are all to familiar with — but not in the way you would think.”

Clooney, Google, UN Team Up to Watch Sudan Border:
“A group founded by American actor George Clooney said Tuesday it has teamed up with Google, a U.N. agency and anti-genocide organizations to launch satellite surveillance of the border between north and south Sudan to try to prevent a new civil war after the south votes in a secession referendum next month.”

Global Warming / Environment / Energy:

Paris To Test Banning Gas-Guzzlers (Yes, SUVs!) In City Core:
“Why are many European carmakers now planning to build electric vehicles? Because many European cities are widely expected to ban high-emissions vehicles from their city cores over the next decade–perhaps even vehicles with any emissions at all.”

TheDC analysis: EPA global warming regulations no ‘end run’ around Congress:
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s pending global warming regulations are no “end run” around Congress, as many conservatives are charging. This time, Congress is being held hostage by its own laws.”

White House Plans to Push Global Warming Policy, GOP Vows Fight:
“After failing to get climate-change legislation through Congress, the Obama administration plans on pushing through its environmental policies through other means, and Republicans are ready to put up a fight.”

Forecasters keep eye on looming ‘Solar Max’:
“The coming year will be an important one for space weather as the Sun pulls out of a trough of low activity and heads into a long-awaited and possibly destructive period of turbulence.”

Insurance / Gambling:

Bwin To Maintain Majority Ownership in PartyGaming Merger:
“The merger between Bwin Entertainment and PartyGaming will be finalized in the next couple of months, and when the deal is complete, Bwin shareholders will hold a slight majority stake in the newly formed company. PartyGaming shareholders, however, will have plenty of stake in the new brand.”

Health / Safety:

S’more, Please:
“Obesity is, in truth, among our least tractable public-health problems.”

Death Panels Revisited:
“At a stroke, Medicare chief Donald Berwick has revived the “death panel” debate from two summers ago. Allow us to referee, because this topic has been badly distorted by the political process—and in a rational world, it wouldn’t be a political question at all.”

Economics:

Spain cuts debt issuance plans in 2011:
“The Treasury will issue net medium- and long-term debt of 47.2 billion euros ($62.04 billion) in 2011, down from 62.1 billion in 2010, the Economy Ministry said on Wednesday.”

Legal:

Chris Liu: I am the YouTube airline pilot:
“The airline pilot who lost his federally-issued gun and badge for posting video on YouTube critical of airport security has chosen to go public with his identity.”

Why the Medicaid Mandates on States Violate the General Welfare Clause:
“My new op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street Journal with Mercer law professor David Oedel, ObamaCare and the General Welfare Clause, explains why the new Medicaid mandates imposed on the states suffer from the same General Welfare Clause problem as did the Cornhusker Kickback:”

Labor:

Sanitation Union Fires Back At Accusations Of Slow-Down:
“The chairman of the Municipal Labor Committee, Local 831, which represents men and women of the New York City Sanitation Department says there is no truth behind a rumor that his members worked slower during the blizzard of 2010.”

Capital Rivals: U.S. Chamber of Commerce vs. SEIU:
“In the never-ending political showdown between business and labor, there certainly is no shortage of business associations and labor unions doing their part to keep their respective sides competitive.”

Transportation/ Land Use:

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Focuses on High-Speed Rail in Florida:
“With Wisconsin and Ohio forfeiting their high-speed rail funding and Florida getting awarded a decent amount more ($342.3 million) for its proposed high-speed rail network, you would think all is going smoothly with regards to this matter in the highly-congested Sunshine State.”