Well it may be difficult to access Wikipedia today, but it's not impossible. Here with some Wikipedia workarounds is Brian Cooley, the editor at CNET. Welcome back, Brian.
BRIAN COOLEY: Thank you, Robert.
SIEGEL: And first, I want you tell us some different ways to get around the Wikipedia blackout today.
The U.S. Supreme Court has given an Alabama death row inmate another chance to fight his execution. By a 7-to-2 vote, the court ruled Wednesday that convicted murderer Cory Maples, "through no fault of his own," was denied the right to appeal because he was abandoned by his lawyers.
Maples was convicted in 1997 of murdering two friends and was sentenced to death. There is no doubt that he committed the crime; the doubt is whether he could have avoided the death penalty if he had been properly represented at trial.
The Transportation Security Administration now says security screeners at Kennedy Airport in New York were wrong when they asked two elderly women to show them medical devices that were under their clothing.
In a letter sent to state Sen. Michael Gianaris and acquired by the New York Daily News, the Department of Homeland Security said that there was no evidence the two women were strip-searched, as they claimed, but that their agents did go further than they should have.
Advocates for the mandatory use of condoms in the production of porn films moved a step closer to victory in Los Angeles.
The city council there voted 9-1 in favor of an ordinance that would require use of condoms to protect performers from sexually transmitted diseases.
Under the new rule, filmmakers wouldn't get a permit to make a movie unless they comply with the condom requirement. The measure is expected to be signed into law, the Los Angeles Timesreports.
Originally published on Wed January 18, 2012 10:11 pm
Update at 9:45 p.m. ET. Wahlberg apologizes:
Saying his comments were "ridiculous ... irresponsible ... [and] insensitive," actor Mark Wahlberg has now apologized for saying he would have stopped 9/11 hijackers if he had been on one of the planes, Reuters reports.
Read what he's apologizing for in our original post:
The U.S. House of Representatives will likely vote today to disapprove of raising the debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion. If you remember, the last time a vote of this kind went down, it was a dramatic showdown that rattled markets and was cited as one of the prime reasons S&P downgraded the United States' debt rating.
Today's vote however will be symbolic. The debt ceiling will likely be raised no matter how Congress votes.
Our Newscast desk spoke to NPR's Andrea Seabrook, who explained the vote like this:
Just a few seats could determine which party controls the Senate in 2013. The races in Massachusetts, Virginia and Montana — all considered tossups — are drawing particular national attention. NPR's Ken Rudin previews those races with reporters from each state.
Italian coast guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco (center) has become a national hero for ordering the captain of a sinking cruise liner to get back onboard and oversee the ship's evacuation. Here, De Falco arrives in court for a hearing on Tuesday.
Five days after a cruise liner slammed into rocks off Italy's Tuscan coast, the country is gripped by the contrasting profiles of two key figures in the drama — the captain charged with abandoning ship and the captain who demanded he get back onboard.
For many Italians, the accident has become a metaphor for a country that sees itself mired in economic and moral decline.
Francesco Schettino, the disgraced captain of the 1,000-foot-long floating palace known as the Costa Concordia, is under house arrest on suspicion of multiple manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship.
We saw stories earlier this week about a man who was lost for two nights in Mount Rainier National Park over the weekend, but survived in part because he burned the money he was carrying to keep warm as a blizzard blew through the area.
But a critical question wasn't answered until today. — how much money went up in flames?
Countering Mitt Romney's announcement that he paid 15 percent in taxes, Newt Gingrich said his bill came to 31 percent, more than most Americans pay and closer to the top rate of 35 percent.
The AP reports that Gingrich was careful not to criticize Romney for paying a lower tax rate than most Americans.
"My goal is not to raise Mitt Romney's taxes, but to let everyone pay Romney's rate," he said according to the AP.
Emotions can be hard to gauge in the beginning of any romantic relationship. But for people with autism, who often struggle to interpret social cues, romance can be particularly challenging to navigate. And for some, the prospect of loving and being loved seems out of reach.
In 1994, three teens were convicted of the murder of three boys in West Memphis, Ark. The trial drew national attention, due in part to the documentary series Paradise Lost. The "West Memphis Three" appealed their convictions and were released from prison in August 2011.
Alexandra Ziegler, age 9, leafletting for Gingrich in Greenville, S.C.
Credit Melissa Block / NPR
The family poses for a snapshot at Newt Gingrich's campaign headquarters in Greenville, S.C. Back row, left to right: grandmother Carolyn Ball with her daughter, Sondra Ziegler; Ziegler's 5-year-old son, Sam. Front row, left to right: 9-year-old Alexandra and 10-year-old Abigail Ziegler.
Credit Melissa Block / NPR
Abigail Ziegler, age 10, knocks on doors for Gingrich in Greenville, S.C.
Sometimes it takes a family to campaign for a presidential candidate, and that's just what Melissa Block, co-host of NPR's All Things Considered, discovered while in South Carolina this week ahead of the state's Saturday primary.
Sondra Ziegler, a volunteer for GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's campaign, is making herself useful any way she can — along with her three children and her mother.
A document that purportedly represents opposition research targeting Mitt Romney from Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign was posted online by Buzzfeed reporter Andy Kaczynski.
Immediately noticeable is how many of criticisms of Romney by his rivals during the current race for the Republican presidential nomination could just have easily come from McCain's opposition research of four years ago.
Atkinson, Neb., rancher Bruce Boettcher, who opposes the Keystone XL pipeline, kicks up sand on his land, to demonstrate the fragility of the sandhills near the planned route of the pipeline.
Originally published on Wed January 18, 2012 4:20 pm
Saying it did not have sufficient time to properly vet the proposal, the State Department said it would recommend rejecting a proposal by TransCanada to build a 1,700 mile pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas.
The Shroom With A View: Mushrooms are fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting bodies found all over the world. They can grow in practically any environment with moisture.
Credit Jorg Hempel/Wikipedia
The Phallus impudicus is also called the common stinkhorn. It smells like a dead animal, but is not poisonous.
In the past year, actor Michael Fassbender has played a mutant villain in X-Men: First Class, psychoanalyst Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method, Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre and a sex addict in Shame.
It was his role in Shame that recently earned Fassbender a string of accolades, including Best Actor nominations at the Golden Globes and a variety of critics associations.
Food can be transformative, especially if you're a character in a video game. When Mario ate mushrooms, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ate pizza and CJ from Grand Theft Auto ate fast food, they became better, stronger, sometimes even bigger.
But now one gamer has made that food even more enticing by putting the virtual food of video games onto her very real dinner table. That's right: Daniella Zelli, a 23-year-old gamer in Edinburgh, Scotland, cooks up dishes inspired by games and shares them on her blog.
FBI agents arrested three hedge fund executives early Wednesday in connection with a massive ongoing insider trading investigation that has involved some of Wall Street's most prominent money managers.
Todd Newman, who formerly oversaw technology investments at Diamondback Capital Management, was arrested at about 6 a.m. in the Boston suburb of Needham on charges "related to stock fraud," according to a spokesman for the FBI's Boston office.
