5 things you absolutely must know today

Scott Weiland found dead at 48

Scott Weiland, 48, Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman, was found dead in his tour bus Thursday night, TMZ reported. He was in Bloomington, Minnesota touring with his current band The Wildabouts. It’s sad. Death always is. We weren’t yet fully formed in the ‘90s. Moments belting out “Flies in the Vaseline, we are. Sometimes it blows my mind,” were formative ones. I won’t go on. It’s too difficult to turn what are genuine feelings towards the loss into something that reads as earnest and raw. The details surrounding his death will be released sometime today. [Source: Rolling Stone]

Nigerian Senate debates controversial social media law

A draft bill being debated in the Nigerian Senate aims to punish anyone spreading “false information” on electronic media with up to a seven-year prison sentence or fines up to USD$25,000. Nigerians are ticked. Human rights groups are as well, calling the move an attempt to muzzle free speech. The bill takes aim at “anyone who intentionally propagates false information that could threaten the security of the country or that is capable of inciting the general public against the government through electronic message,” and also includes messages that “set the public against any person and group of persons, an institution of government or such other bodies established by law.” Nigerian MPs have been the target of social media criticism for the large sums of money they earn, reports the BBC. Senator Bala Ibn Na’allah, the sponsor of the bill, said the publication of false stories has been mounting. A public hearing will take place before the bill passes. Nigeria has the largest number of cellphone users in Africa. [Source: BBC]

Cairo firebombing kills 16

Sixteen people were killed after a restaurant in Cairo, Egypt’s city centre was firebombed. According to news reports, the attacks followed a disagreement between workers and those in the building, which also housed a nightclub. Three men wearing masks were seeing throwing the incendiary devices into the basement restaurant. [Source: BBC]

Scientist, bioethicists meet over human genome editing

After three days of high-level debate and presentations, the scientist and bioethicists who organized the International Summit of Human Gene Editing concluded that making improvements to the human genome should continue, albeit with a caveat. The more controversial manifestations of this process such as tampering with eggs, sperm, and embryos will continue, but only in a lab. “If, in the process of research, early human embryos or germ line cells undergo gene editing, the modified cells should not be used to establish a pregnancy,” said a statement released by the group. The less controversial research such as editing genes to prevent diseases like cancer will also continue, but with the end goal being real-life application. The group of scientists and ethicists also agreed that the issues surrounding what they do should be discussed and revisited regularly. [Source: Scientific American]

And here’s a bluegrass version of “You Shook Me All Night Long”