New York Times to start charging for access to web news

Friday, March 18, 2011

The New York Times announced on Thursday that it will start charging for full access to NYTimes.com, its online version. Beginning March 28, U.S. visitors who do not subscribe to the print edition will be allowed access to 20 articles a month. A digital subscription to the website will be required to read additional content.

The fee plan for Canadians is already in effect, allowing the NYT to “fine-tune the customer experience”, according to the announcement.

Unlimited access to articles will continue to be free for those users reaching the Times through links from search engines, blogs, and social media like Facebook and Twitter. The NYTimes.com home page and individual section front pages will continue be freely accessible.

The NYT unsuccessfully tried a pay wall six years ago. Due to declining profits and readership of its print edition, it is ready to try again.

According to comScore, a marketing research company that measures online traffic, NYTimes.com had 31.4 million individual visitors in February. It is the most-read newspaper site in the world, reported The Guardian.

“The challenge now is to put a price on our work without walling ourselves off from the global network, to make sure we continue to engage with the widest possible audience”, wrote Arthur Sulzberger Jr., NYT company chairman.

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Saturday, July 14, 2007

Two Long Island, New York teenagers, aged 15 and 17, have been charged for their alleged involvement in a suspected plot to attack their school next April, on the ninth anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting massacre.

The plot was uncovered when the 15-year-old suspect lost his journal at the McDonalds restaurant where he worked. The journal was found by a fellow classmate of the teenagers’ school, who quickly turned it over to school officials.

The journal is alleged to have outlined the teenagers’ plan to attack the school with guns and home-made bombs. The 15-year-old suspect’s home and computers were searched and evidence was collected, which revealed that he allegedly tried to purchase black powder explosives and machine guns over the Internet.

A video was also found in which the same teenager allegedly names some students and staff he would like to attack at the school. The 17-year-old was allegedly planning to aid in the attack on the school.

The two teens were arrested and held in Long Island jail on misdemeanor conspiracy, which is punishable by up to one year in prison. The 15-year-old will appear in juvenile court on Friday and the 17-year-old suspect is expected to plead not guilty at a hearing.

Friday, October 7, 2005

On Tuesday, Google and Sun Microsystems announced that they are working to get software such as Google Toolbar and OpenOffice.org (both products of Google and Sun Microsystems, respectively) more widely available. The companies stated that this collaboration will make software by each respective company more enhanced. The New York Times reports that this event is to help compete with Microsoft, although they were not explicitly mentioned at a press conference.

Sun and Google agreed to explore opportunities to promote and develop Sun technologies. Despite being a clear announcement, the exact effects of this deal are not yet known. It is known, however, that Java programming software will be equipped with Google Toolbar, and that Google will purchase more from Sun.

A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, May 7, 2007.

A 30 meter section of a gas pipeline in Luka (near Kiev) in Ukraine has been destroyed by an explosion. Although supplies to Europe via this pipeline have stopped, Ukrainian Energy Minister Georgi E. Boyko said that supplies to Europe would not be affected.

“There are no changes in volumes of gas being transported,” Yuri Korolchuk said. “Volumes due to pass through the damaged section are being redirected through the Soyuz pipeline.”

Normal flows are reported in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

Sources

• “Blast damages pipeline in Ukraine” — Russia Today, May 8, 2007
• Natalya Zinets, Reuters. “Blast hits Ukraine gas pipeline” — The Scotsman, May 7, 2007

Copper prices are rising. Between record copper imports from China, and a mining strike in Peru, the prices have climbed to over $8100 (United States dollars) a tonne, for a gain of $575 dollars over the last week. However the upward trend is not new, it has been climbing for quite some time. In April 2003, the price of copper was under $2000 a tonne.

The metal market has been tending up due to growth in the Chinese industrial production. This trickles down to the local level, where the buying price at scrap yards is ever climbing, making scrap metal collection a more profitable endeavour for individual people using pick up trucks or other such vehicles to collect and cash in the scrap metal at metal buying yards. It can be collected via agreements with businesses, from the garbage, or, sometimes, by theft.

Copper prices fell today on the NYMEX commodity exchange from US$3.7545 per pound to US$3.7125 based on the July futures contract.

Sources

• “Copper up but crude oil down” — Financial Express, May 6, 2007
• Millie Munshi. “Metals Bubble Poised to Burst on Increasing Supplies” — Bloomberg L.P., May 7, 2007
• “Commodity Futures” — Bloomberg L.P., accessed May 7, 2007

One man was killed and another injured by an exploding backpack in the parking lot of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The explosion happened at 4 a.m. PDT when the victim tried to remove a the object left on top of his car.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are on the scene. Aerial images did not show any apparent damage.

“We believe the victim was the intended target of this,” Bill Cassell said, spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. “This is being treated as a homicide in which the weapon used to cause death is a non-traditional weapon.”

Both of the victims worked at the Luxor.

Sources

• Associated Press. “1 dead, 1 hurt in Las Vegas parking lot blast” — MSNBC, May 7, 2007
• “Explosion kills man in Vegas outside Luxor hotel” — Reuters, May 7, 2007

Sunday, October 12, 2008

United States President George W. Bush deployed the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to a new role on United States soil last Wednesday, training for dealing with national crises. Critics claim that act of the Executive Branch violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits military participation in domestic matters.

In 2007, the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act was introduced; it overturned the Posse Comitatus Act by allowing the Commander in Chief to suppress ‘insurrection’ and ‘restore order’. When it was repealed in 2008, Bush stated that he did not respect the later repeal.

The combat team, renamed CCMRF (C-hemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive C-onsequence M-anagement R-esponse F-orces), has been assigned for year-long duty and training at Fort Stewart to prepare them for “civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios” such as security or natural disasters. After a year, a new unit will take its place.

CCMRF will be under the control of the Northern Command (NORTHCOM), and now has the same legal authority as a unit deployed to Iraq under the direct control of the Executive Branch. The unit will have use of engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, and a Navy weather team, as well as members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. A spokeswoman for NORTHCOM added that both wheeled and tank vehicles would be available for the CCMRF.

In July the unit was assigned a new commander, Col. Roger Cloutier. “If we go in,” he said proudly of the deployment, “we’re going in to help American citizens on American soil”. CCMRF will be training in both traffic and riot control equipment, and will be the first to use the Army’s new nonlethal package, which is intended for war-zone and not domestic use.

NORTHCOM’s September 30th statement includes a quote attributed to “future operations division chief” Colonel Michael Boatner saying, “This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance or crowd control, but will be used to support lead agencies involved in saving lives, relieving suffering and meeting the needs of communities affected by weapons of mass destruction attacks, accidents or even natural disasters.”

The action has raised concerns for some citizens like journalist Naomi Wolf, an author critical of the Bush administration, who referred to the deployment as a ‘coup’ in a well-circulated viral video and issued Americans a call to action.

NORTHCOM is a joint command established post-9/11 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities. When Hurricane Katrina damaged Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas, but were not assigned to NORTHCOM, but instead individual commands under provisional authorities.

Military officials have not yet responded to a request for comment.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

The New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado has reached a financial settlement with its founder (and former head of National Association of Evangelicals) pastor Ted Haggard. Haggard stepped aside as senior pastor in the Church in November 2006, when a male prostitute claimed that he had engaged in a three year relationship with Haggard and that the two used methamphetamine.

Haggard, who was publicly critical of homosexuality, has agreed to leave the church he founded and led for two decades with a promise that he will not discuss the scandal, will move out of Colorado Springs, and will not reveal how much his financial settlement is.

On February 4th, Haggard sent an e-mail to New Life members stating, “We all wanted to know why I developed such incongruity in my life. Thankfully, with the tools we gained there, along with the powerful way God has been illuminating his Word and the Holy Spirit has been convicting me and healing me, we now have growing understanding which is giving me some hope for the future.”

Rev. Tim Ralph said, after Haggard completed a three-week counseling program, “He [Haggard] is completely heterosexual.”

However, Mike Jones, the man who had allegedly had a 3 year relationship with Haggard publicly replied, “Give me a break.” Adding, “He’s been performing oral sex on me for three years. You don’t change that in three weeks.” And “Until he’s honest with himself, he’ll never be happy.” Jones is currently writing a book detailing his relationship with Haggard due out in summer 2007.

According to interim senior pastor Ross Parsley, at services on Sunday February 18 the panel will “provide any necessary clarification of (Haggard’s) restoration process and give us a report on the New Life staff.”