16 Aug - RSS SnapShot

Opit's LinkFest! at My Opera

Blacklisted News

• Homeland Security Expands Biometric Security Progr ...

  The Department of Homeland Security is expanding a pilot project that uses fingerprint scanners and kiosks to speed travelers headed overseas through airport security.

• Polio surge in Nigeria after vaccine virus mutates

  Polio, a dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria despite efforts to stamp it out. And health officials say in some cases, it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.

• We Are Change Colorado: Military Confirms States D ...
• Army Test Drones And Robots For Soldiers
• China warns of 'arms race in outer space'

  China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called Wednesday for international diplomacy to avert an "arms race in outer space."

Project Censored

• WALTER CRONKITE: THE END OF AN ERA – JULY 17, 20 ...

  WALTER CRONKITE: THE END OF AN ERA – JULY 17, 2009 The end of an era is a term too often over-used. But it is a term that is properly used when discussing the passing of Walter Cronkite. It is truly the end of an era in journalism. No other journalist could do what Walter did. He could cal ...

• You Can Now Find Our Investigative Research at the ...

  You can now find all of the investigative research that we have done over the years at our new and exciting Media Freedom International Website Please check the website often for news and updates.

• Analysis of Project Censored: Are We a Left-Leanin ...

  By Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” –Frederick Douglass ...

• Infotainment Society: Junk Food News and New ...

  By Mickey Huff and Frances A. Capell We can do the innuendo We can dance and sing When it’s said and done We haven’t told you a thing We all know that crap is king Give us dirty laundry! Don Henley, Dirty Laundry, 1982 The late New York University media scholar Neil Postma ...

• A Black President Doesn’t Mean Racism is gone in ...

  By Peter Phillips Racial inequality remains in the US. People of color continue to experience high rates of poverty, significant unemployment, police profiling and repressive incarceration. School segregation is a continuing concern among race scholars as well. According to a new Civil Rights re ...

Scoop - NZ

• ABC: UK caught up in US health row

  The row over health care in the United States has spilled over the Atlantic to the United Kingdom.US President Barack Obama's plan is to overhaul the American health system so that everyone has access to affordable medical care - similar to the system in the UK.Now Britain has been dragged into the ...

• Dodgy restaurants exposed by mobile app

  A new iPhone app will tell you if a nearby restaurant has been fined for breach of food safety standards.The application, FoodWatch NSW, brings the Food Authority's name-and-shame list to your fingertips by using the iPhone's GPS to show you a list of restaurants near your location that have been ad ...

• Why fur seals cross Southern Ocean

  PUZZLING over what drives a pregnant fur seal to cross the Southern Ocean in winter has led to new evidence of the critical role of krill in Antarctica, just as a fishery in the crustacean looks likely to take off.Australian scientists who put tagged the seals found they made 1300-kilometre journeys ...

• The a4œSecond American Revolutiona4� Has Begun.

  Obama's approval rating has never been lower, and America is falling apart with town hall protests everywhere. The media is down playing it, but it isn't working! » PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews

• Final curtain for Les Paul, guitar hero

  Les Paul, the American jazz musician and inventor whose name adorns one of the world's most famous guitars, has died. He was 94.Les Paul, the American jazz guitarist who died overnight (AEST) aged 94, invented the solid body electric guitar and revolutionised the sound of pop music recordings.Known ...

Independent ( London )

• The book, the thief, his wife and his lover

  The multibillion investment fraudster Bernard Madoff did not stop at financial shenanigans, it seems. This weekend, to the list of those he cheated for decades can be added the name of his wife, Ruth.

• Ex-Senator Edwards 'set to confess to fathering lo ...

  First, he was caught cheating on his cancer-stricken wife. Then, he was forced to make a grovelling apology on national TV. Now John Edwards is set to complete a spectacular fall from grace by confessing that he has fathered an 18-month-old love child.

• Ransom demand for missing cargo ship

  The owners of the missing vessel, the Arctic Sea, received a ransom demand for the safe return of the ship and its 15-man crew yesterday. The development was confirmed by Finnish police, who issued a statement saying that the case had now turned into one of "aggravated extortion and alleged hijackin ...

• Terminator fails to stop exodus from Hollywood

  There is a disaster developing in California, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing his best to stop it. But this one may well be beyond even the powers of the old superhero for, unless something changes very soon, we are heading for the end of Hollywood as we know it.

• Ex-Senator Edwards 'set to confess fathering love- ...

  First, he was caught cheating on his cancer-stricken wife. Then, he was forced to make a grovelling apology on national TV. Now John Edwards is set to complete a spectacular fall from grace by confessing that he has fathered an 18-month-old love child.

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

• Wag The Dog, Again

  Summary: It is curious that in spite of the fact that there is a consensus that Iran is not yet seeking a nuclear weapon and has no capability to accumulate sufficient weapons grade uranium to do so for some time to come, US politicians and media accept without question the Israeli argument that ...

• IRAN: Under Pressure from Hawks, Obama Tacks to th ...

  Summary: But the administration is facing a great deal of pressure to move quickly to sanctions from congressional hawks - backed by hardline organisations within the so-called "Israel lobby" - who have been pushing for a tougher line against Tehran since well before the Jun. 12 elections that t ...

• Iran: Whose War?

  Summary: Huber The logical goal of Iran’s nuclear program is not possession of nuclear bombs but a thriving nuclear energy industry. Having nukes would merely make Iran a target—both Israel and the U.S. would have justification for a massive preemptive strike. We’d know they have them beca ...

• The Ever Present Military Option

  Summary: Last week, retired Air Force Gen. Chuck Wald published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal declaring "There Is a Military Option on Iran." It’s probably not a coincidence that Wald’s piece was hot on the heels of John Bolton’s "While Diplomats Dither, Iran Builds Nukes." source: ...

• Clinton: US Supported Iran Protesters ‘Behind th ...

  Summary: In an interview today on CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that while the US didn’t want to come out too publicly in favor of the protesters in the wake of Iran’s disputed June elections, the State Department was “doing a lot” behind the sc ...

The Daily Galaxy

• Today's Popular Posts

  Storms of Saturn's Moon Titan - A Model of the Early Earth? Is The Digital Era Overriding Our Ability to Forget? Gary McKinnon Case: Extraditing the 'Extraterrestrial' Hacker - Yes or No? A Galaxy Poll NASA's Volcanic Robo-Spiders: Sentinels of...

• The Space Elevator Games -The Next Big Reality TV ...

  It's right out of NOVA or the scifi channel: Microsoft is sponsoring the 2009 Space Elevator Conference, a four-day long event with movies, presentations, and workshops where engineers and entrepreneurs gather to discuss the technical and logistical issues of building...

• Galaxies Orbiting Milky Way Nix Newton

  It turns out that we don't know everything about the universe. Shocking, we know, but you'd be surprised how often science writers, politicians, or intelligent design advocates confuse "non-omniscience" with "everything is WRONG!" Now some are saying that Newton screwed...

• Storms of Saturn's Moon Titan - A Model of the Ear ...

  NASA's Cassini spacecraft buzzed Titan last year, coming close enough to taste the Saturnian moon's atmosphere. The data acquired has implications for our understanding of life throughout the galaxy, as well as Earth's own past. Meanwhile, just this month astronomers...

• MIT Team Says "Global Warming Part of Earth's Natu ...

  A team of MIT scientists recorded a nearly simultaneous world-wide increase in methane levels -the first increase in ten years. What baffles the team is that this data contradicts theories stating humans are the primary source of increase in greenhouse...

Natural News

• Why Are Smart People So Ignorant When it Comes to ...

  (NaturalNews) This is the second part of a three-part article series. To read part one (recommended), visit: http://www.naturalnews.com/026843_health_food_nutrition.html Enforcing nutritional ignorance Powerful corporations, of course, require the services of oppressive government to enforce nutriti ...

• Purple Carrots in High Demand as Natural Food Colo ...

  (NaturalNews) Producers of purple carrots are anticipating a massive surge in demand as consumers and governments become increasingly wary of artificial food colorings. For decades, food producers have used petroleum-based dyes to give their products bright colors, sometimes reminiscent of the flavo ...

• The Rumsfeld Plague: Aspartame Brings Horror (Opin ...

  (NaturalNews) The aspartame horror began in 1981 due to Donald Rumsfeld, as head of the G.D. Searle pharmaceutical company, when he used his political clout to put a known carcinogen on the market to poison a nation all in the name of money. In a Washington Post article of December 12, 2001 about Do ...

• Why Are Smart People So Ignorant When it Comes to ...

  (NaturalNews) A heart disease patient of late Had an IQ of 168. His brain was immense But it lacked common sense And it never engaged when he ate. - by the Health Ranger As an observer of human behavior, one of the most fascinating things I've ever witnessed is really smart people dying of diseases ...

• Specific Pesticide Directly Linked to Parkinson's ...

  (NaturalNews) According to the National Parkinson Foundation, about 1.5. Americans currently have Parkinson's Disease (PD) -- the motor system disorder which afflicts actor Michael J. Fox. Another 60,000 or so people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with PD in 2009. The four main symptoms of this often ...

• TheGallopingBeaver

• He's not sayin', he's just...you know...sayin'

  Sure, he's a block away from where the president is speaking, and he's carrying a sign suggesting the need for violent revolution/assasination and bloodshed while packing heat, but it isn't a threat. He's just a patriotic American exercising his legal second amendment rights. Remember when George B ...

• Where are the mighty Martin Mars?

  As thousands of people in BC are evacuated from their homes ahead of raging forest fires, where are the mighty Martin Mars water bombers? From owners Coulson Flying Tankers in Port Alberni, BC : They can be in the air in ten minutes and, based on historical data, each can make a drop every fifteen ...

• But can they handle Godzilla?

  There a general election at the end of the month here in Japan so the parties are busy running around trying to show how on top of things they are and how they have every possible contingency covered in their little policy books. Naturally, the papers have been full of policy stuff for weeks, much o ...

• The New Know-Nothings

  I often think he's a sexist pig and frequently wish he'd just shut up already about atheism and religion, but Bill Maher is right: Americans are stupid. I don't think all Americans are stupid, but there is a vast swath of dumbness that seem to run through the population like a venereal disease. I ...

• At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning.. ...

  With condolences and respect to the families and friends of Sapper Matthieu Allard and Corporal Christian Bobbitt, 5e Régiment du génie de combat. Killed due to enemy action. Ubique

Media Matters for America

• Fox uses falsehood, cropped video to hype unsolic ...

  Even while asserting that he wasn't suggesting anything "nefarious" on the part of the White House, Fox News' Major Garrett did just that while recounting an exchange he had with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, in which Garrett relayed complaints from people who, according to Garrett, ...

• REPORT: The media have debunked the death panels ...

  Numerous media outlets have now debunked right-wing claims that the House health care reform bill would encourage euthanasia of the elderly, including Sarah Palin's claim -- forwarded by the conservative media -- that the bill would create a "death panel" and the related claim -- initiated by Be ...

• Special Report portrays "death panels" ...

  Fox News' Bret Baier repeated Sarah Palin's false assertion that the end-of-life counseling provided for under the House health care reform bill would, in Baier's words, "not be voluntary as the president says." Baier did not note that the counseling would indeed be voluntary and that Palin's ...

• WSJ misrepresents Obama interview to fea ...

  Claiming that it's "[n]o wonder so many seniors rebel" at President Obama's health care proposals, a Wall Street Journal editorial misrepresented a New York Times interview of Obama to claim that Obama seems to believes that end-of-life "medical issues are all justifiably political questions tha ...

• Cavuto ignores reality in claiming "not a one" ec ...

  Neil Cavuto falsely claimed that "not a one, not a one" economist in the Bloomberg survey of economists "credits that stimulus" with helping the economy begin to recover. But in presenting the survey findings, Bloomberg in fact reported that Kenneth Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Boa ...

Global Research.ca

• Video: Say No to the Swine Flu Vaccine

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

• Why Aren't Progressives Disrupting ObamaCare Town ...

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

• I Hate to Bother You: Is Justice Right Side Up?

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

• German health expert's swine flu warning. Does vi ...

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

• H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic: Obama Revives Bush-Era Mi ...

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

TPM Cafe

• Is Max Baucus the New Phil Gramm?

  Is Max Baucus about to do to America's health care system what Phil Gramm already did to the nation's banking system? Let's hope someone stops Baucus before it's too late.... Sponsored Topics: Max Baucus - United States - Senate Finance Committee - Medicare - Health care

• Addicted to The Mall Economy

  As this chart shows, almost every major country is experiencing an upturn in export volume, except the U.S.. The news yesterday that retail back-to-school sales were down spooked investors. Halfway through the back-to-school shopping season, retail professionals are predicting the... Sponsored Top ...

• Obama: Stay Home, Those People Out There Are Nuts

  Check this out from ABC News. Enough with the town meetings already. One of the best things about living in the world today is that you can communicate with the American people without risking your life. The value added from... Sponsored Topics: ABC News - United States - President - Town meeting ...

• Botanist of the Trees of Crazy

  Don't miss Rick Perlstein's WP Outlook piece, "In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition / Birthers, Town Hall Hecklers and the Return of Right-Wing Rage." It's a fine supplement to Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics, published in... Sponsored Topics: Rick Perlstein - ...

• Presented By:

TruthOut

• Afghanistan's Women Yearn for More

  Afghan women are at a crossroads, for some there is hope of a better future, for others there is still suffering and despair. (Photo: Carolyn Cole, The Los Angeles Times) read more

• Obama Says Insurance Companies Holding US Hostage

  Belgrade, Montana - US President Barack Obama, pushing for healthcare reform during a trip to the West, said on Friday the country was "held hostage" by insurance companies that deny coverage to sick people. Obama, on a multi-state swing to tamp down vociferous opposition to his top ...

• Seven Die, Ninety-One Wounded in Blast Near NATO H ...

  Kabul - A suicide car bomb exploded Saturday outside the main gate of NATO's headquarters five days before Afghanistan's presidential election, killing seven and wounding 91 in the biggest attack in the Afghan capital in six months. The bomber evaded several rings of Afghan police a ...

• Friction Among Iran Authorities Heats Up

  With street protests quiet, factional disputes intensify. Hard-line clerics call for opposition leader Karroubi to stand trial, and reformist lawmakers want supreme leader Khamenei investigated. Tehran and Beirut - Rival camps within Iran's corridors of power intensified their threats a ...

• "Sensitive" Oil Industry Memo Lays Out Plan For As ...

  A leaked memo sent by an oil industry group reveals a plan to create astroturf rallies at which industry employees posing as "citizens" will urge Congress to oppose climate change legislation. The memo - sent by the American Petroleum Institute and obtained by Greenpeace, which sent ...

The Heathlander

• Silencing civil society

  Former Israeli military commander Efran Efrati recently testified to the BBC that Palestinian children are ‘routinely ill-treated’ by Israeli soldiers: “You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he’s really shaking… Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the ci ...

• Gaza Freedom March

  For those who don’t know, Norman Finkelstein and others are organising a mass non-violent global march on Gaza to break the siege. Some updates: - Gaza Freedom March website: http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/ - YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/GazaFreedomMarch - A list of peop ...

• The latest anti-Hamas meme: “child brides”

  Last week, Hamas sponsored a mass wedding celebration in Gaza, perhaps in an attempt to reverse its flagging poll ratings: ‘Nearly a thousand Palestinians celebrated marriage on Thursday night in a ceremony organised by Hamas in the north of the Gaza Strip. Hamas dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar ...

• Chomsky on the ‘Responsibility to Protect’

  Earlier this week Noam Chomsky participated, along with Jean Bricmont, Gareth Evans (former Australian FM and long-time President of the International Crisis Group) and Ngugi wa Thiong’o, in a UN panel on the doctrine of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P). You can watch the three hour discussio ...

• How to lose friends and alienate people

  Hiring paid hasbaratchiks to “spew forth bullshit” online, parading out Ehud Olmert to convince Americans that opposing settlement construction is like opposing rainbows and kittens, launching a smear campaign against Human Rights Watch, one of the most conservative human rights organisations ar ...

Water - AlterNet

• Mining's Destructive Legacy on Waterways

  Scientists are now beginning to see that mining's most lasting damage may be the massive amounts of debris dumped into valley streams.

• The CA Legislature Unveiled 5 New Water Bills -- A ...

  I would urge that California's water warriors hold their opinions until they actually read and digest these bills.

• Vitaminwater's Empty Calories Are at the Heart of ...

  Vitaminwater tells its customers to "hydrate responsibly." That means not drinking 125-calorie sugar rushes like ... Vitaminwater.

• Why Corporations, Emerging Powers and Petro-States ...

  In the past six months, big players in the global economy have grabbed 50 million acres of arable land, from Africa to Southeast Asia.

• Goodbye Pools, Lawns and a Whole Lot More: Why Lif ...

  Water in the very near future will be neither cheap nor plentiful, and much of the Southwest is destined for real trouble.

TruthHugger

• Republicans Have Government Insurance, Why Can’t ...

  For weeks I have been listening to all the BS Republicans have spewed about health care reform. Republicans shouted it was socialized medicine and when that didn’t work they came up with other untruths. The fact of the matter is all members of Congress use the public option plan. Republicans are w ...

• Retire Early In Self Defense Could Be A Mistake †...

  /h3> Collect Now, or Later? Timing Your Social Security Benefits With the current state of US and world economy, the alternative to jumping out a window, committing a heinous crime or planting your pup tent under an overpass, is retire early and collect your meager social security check at gene ...

• Texas Progressive Alliance – July 13, 2009

  It’s Monday and it’s time for another version of the Texas Progressive Alliance weekly highlight reel. Off the Kuff suggests that a pro-science PAC could do a lot of good, nationally and in Texas. WCNews at Eye On Williamson reminds us that despite the brouhaha over transportation during the rec ...

• Protect Us From Another Celebrity Death and Networ ...

  The world is reeling from political upheaval, economic meltdown and environmental catastrophe. What does the national media focus on for two weeks? The high drama of a controversial musical artist who has the audacity of dying. News that effects each and every person on this planet is buried un ...

• Texas Progressive Alliance – July 6, 2009

  Now that we’ve celebrated another birthday for America, it’s time for the weekly Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup. Here are your highlights from the holiday week. The loss of Ron Artest from the Rockets to the Lakers (essentially a trade for Trevor Arista) is a bad deal, writes PDiddie a ...

Dandelion Salad - Featured Writers' Posts

• A World of Paradox and Contradiction by Gary Sudbo ...

  by Gary Sudborough Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Aug 15, 2009 When I was a student of chemistry

• 9/11 Mind Swell by Joel S. Hirschhorn

  by Joel S. Hirschhorn Featured Writer Dandelion Salad www.foavc.org August 10, 2009 As we approach

• Nader Was Right: Liberals are Going Nowhere With O ...

  by Chris Hedges Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Truthdig August 10, 2009 by Lorri37 The American

• Lending A Hand To Our State and Local Economies, P ...

  by Michael Sauvante Featured Writer Dandelion Salad For A Green America August 15, 2009 This is Pa

• Warnography by Cindy Sheehan

  By Cindy Sheehan Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog Cindy Sheehan’s Soap

Unexplained Mysteries

• Mona Lisa gets animated

  A team of animators have created an exhibit of animated masterpieces at Beijing's Planning Exhibition Hall. Paintings such as the Mona Lisa can now mo...

• Massive methane storm spotted over Titan

  A huge storm the size of India has been observed over Saturn's moon Titan. Scientists are now working to try and piece together the processes that cau...

• Antarctic glacier 'thinning fast'

  A vast Antarctic glacier is thinning four times faster than it was a decade ago British scientists have revealed, with the surface of the ice dropping...

• NASA's 21st century Moon car

  NASA are currently developing this unusual looking new vehicle for use by astronauts on their upcoming visit to the moon. Unlike the Apollo moon buggi...

• 'Hypnotist' thief hunted in Italy

  Police in Italy are hunting an unusual thief who is characterised by hypnotising supermarket checkout staff in to handing him money from the cash regi...

Grassroots

• Building a Movement, Haitian Style

  pigs.jpg I spent the better part of last week crisscrossing Haiti’s arid Northwest with Grassroots International’s partner the National Congress of the Peasant’s Movement of Papay (MPNKP). MPNKP is best known to our allies and friends fo ...

• Resilient Hondurans Lead The Way To Protect Democr ...

  IMG00292.jpg Today, thousands of people will fill the streets of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. They are students, housekeepers, children and farmers from different parts of country—many of whom walked 10-12 miles a day to get to the ...

• Yes, We Can - But Will We Join Our Neighbors to Re ...

  More than a month after the military coup in the Central American country of Honduras (for which the term “banana republic” was originally coined due to the overwhelming influence of U.S. fruit corporations in that country), the junta is still in power and shows little real sign of budging. re ...

• They Are Afraid of Us, Because We are Not Afraid o ...

  Tom Loudon from our ally the Alliance for Responsible Trade, which is a member of the Hemispheric Social Alliance (a Grassroots International grantee) is currently in Honduras as part of an international human rights monitoring delegation. Today, August 11th, the Global Day of Action for Honduras, h ...

• On the Global Day of Action for Honduras, Donate y ...

  Want to do something simple to help support Honduran democracy and keep the crisis in the public eye? Donate your status! It’s free, easy, and can make a huge impact. Right now, the corporate news media is mostly silent about what’s happening on the ground in Honduras and the role of US polic ...

Climate

• August 15-16, 2009

  China Sets Date for CO2 Cut (Financial Times) China's carbon emissions will start falling by 2050, its top climate change policymaker said, the first time the world's largest emitter has given such a time-frame. Gloomy Negotiators End Bonn Climate Talks (Greenwire) The latest round of talks ...

• August 14, 2009

  China Says Rich Up Pressure on Poor over Climate (Reuters) China has accused rich nations at UN climate talks of increasing pressure on the poor to do more to combat global warming while shirking their own responsibility to lead. India Blames Kyoto Failure for Climate Standoff (AFP) India ...

• August 13, 2009

  U.S. Court Blocks Plan to Curb Mountaintop Mining (Reuters) A federal court in Washington has blocked an attempt by the Obama administration to overturn a Bush-era rule that made it easier for coal mining companies to dump mountaintop debris into valley streams. Australian Parliament Rejects C ...

• August 12, 2009

  Oil Sands Test of Obama's Green Credentials (Financial Times) The Obama administration faces a test of its environmental credentials in deciding whether to approve a pipeline carrying greenhouse gas-intensive oil sands fuel from Canada into the US. Virginia Judge Nixes Permit for Coal Power Pla ...

• August 11, 2009

  Alaska Lawmakers Override Palin Energy Veto (AP) In a final spat with former Gov. Sarah Palin, the Alaska Legislature voted to override her veto of $28.6 million in federal stimulus funds intended for energy efficiency projects. India Says Developing World Not Split in Climate Talks (Reuters) ...

TomDispatch

• Tomgram: Withdrawing by Bike from Iraq

  [ Note for TomDispatch Readers: So it's sayonara for a couple of weeks. I'm taking my usual August break. TomDispatch will return sometime the week of August 24th, but will be on a limited posting schedule through Labor Day. Let me take this opportunity once again to thank those of you who hav ...

• Tomgram: Mark Engler, Protesting at Climate Groun ...

  We're so past the Roman Empire by now that it's probably time to update the phrase "fiddling while Rome burns." What about, for instance, "writing fake letters ostensibly from real non-profit groups to weaken a climate-change bill while the planet burns"? It's true. According to the New York Ti ...

• Tomgram: Jamail and Lazare, Lost in Military Limb ...

  [ Note for TomDispatch Readers: In Chalmers Johnson's recent piece, "Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire," the mission of the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) was mischaracterized. It has now been corrected at the piece. ] It's not exactly a secret that the U.S. Army and the U.S. M ...

• Tomgram: John Feffer, Their Martyrs and Our Heroe ...

  The way you imagine someone engaged in a suicide attack depends, not surprisingly, on which end of the attack you happen to be on -- in cultural, if not literal terms. In American films and pop culture, there were few acts more inexplicable or malevolent in the years of my childhood than those of ...

• Tomgram: Frida Berrigan, 64 Years Too Late and No ...

  As another August 6th approaches, let me tell you a little story about Hiroshima and me: As a young man, I was probably not completely atypical in having the Bomb (the 1950s was a great time for capitalizing what was important) on my brain, and not just while I was ducking under my school desk ...

Smirking Chimp

• British Defend Their Healthcare System

  In America's healthcare reform debate, there is no greater whipping boy than the National Health Service (NHS,) Britain's healthcare system. The NHS is being used as an example of the "failed Socialist" model of healthcare. FOX host Glenn Beck took some shots at the NHS , apparently forgetting his o ...

• Pig in a (trauma) blanket

  If Bill O’Reilly is looking for a new topic to stir up rancor and animosity between the tree-hugging liberals and the patriotic conservatives, he might be delighted if he reads this column. PETA, on Wednesday August 12, 2009, held a protest against the treatment of pigs at Camp Pendleton. The pig ...

• The GOP Chooses Fascism

  After Barack Obama's convincing win over John McCain, it was clear the Republican Party was at a crossroads. The Grand Old Party had to decide what ideology was going to guide it in the post-Bush era: a philosophy rooted in conservative ideas or a credo based upon fear and anger. Unfortunately for ...

• Ending The Culture of Violence Against Women: A Cr ...

  I was walking down the street in Berkeley many years ago when I saw a man with a knife holding a woman by her hair. He would release her, hit her, then grab her again, using the knife to make sure she didn't run. A small crowd was gathering around them. "It's okay," he said to the onlookers. " Sh ...

• Bush Refuses to Read Cheney's Memoir, Calling It ' ...

  On a day when Washington was abuzz with the news that former Vice President Dick Cheney planned to publish a tell-all memoir, former President George W. Bush offered his personal reason for not reading it. 

 "I have no intention of reading Dick Cheney's book," Mr. Bush told reporters, "because ...

Ten Percent

• Help Ezra Nawi

  Ezra Nawi will be sentenced this Sunday. Over 19,000 people have already asked Israel not to jail him. We will bring their signatures to the courtroom–but we need more. His crime? Watch the video and see for yourself. Ezra tried to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinia ...

• Claustrophobia

• Why Jim Webb Was In Burma

  Reagan appointee (and now conservative Dem and occasional screenwriter whose ‘Rules of Engagement’ was described as “probably the most racist film ever made against Arabs by Hollywood“) the former Marine has gotten Yettaw out, but really the US agenda is …democracy…China. He is a critic ...

• Comedy Gold- US Ambassador To Honduras Hugo Lloren ...

  Frankly the best evidence yet the US are saying several things while doing several different things regarding the coup, a truly brilliant piece by Belén Fernández, an excerpt (but do go and read it)- After stressing that “we realize that there is a time constraint here” and that “time is run ...

• CDS- Burning Down The House

  HARRY Markopolos — the whistleblower on Bernie Madoff who proved to be much smarter than the SEC — says there are evildoers out there who will make the Ponzi scum “look like small-time.” Markopolos gave a speech to 400 of the faithful at the Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton and predicted ...

Paul Krugman

• More on deficits and interest rates (wonkish)

  A bit more detail on the reasoning behind my earlier post on deficits and interest rates.

• Perspective on the eurobounce

  Germany is growing, but only after a deep slump.

• Deficits and interest rates

  It turns out that there's a strong correlation between budget deficits and interest rates -- namely, when deficits are high, interest rates are low.

• Isakson's lament

  Giving Sen. Isakson his fig leaf.

• The reality of TV

  The truth about the talking head.

No Quarter

• Why We Won’t Get Bin Laden

  (This must-read head-scratcher has been bumped up from Thursday evening) If we can’t kill hornets on a U.S. military base then we sure as hell can’t whack Osama bin Laden. What the hell am I writing about? I spent part of this week on a U.S. military base that houses an elite Special Operations ...

• Healthcare Followup

  My Congressman held two teleconference townhall meetings this week and I got to listen in but wasn’t able to get to ask a question. That was probably better in the end because I would likely have used bad language and offended a lot of the little old ladies who were also listening. The meeting w ...

• “Obama On Drugs: 98% Cheney?”

  The other day, I saw a post by Greg Palast, one he originally wrote for Huffington Post. When you read it, you will see why that is kind of funny. I wonder how they responded to it over there? I’m not about to go there and give them the traffic to find [...]

• Is Obama Your “Big Brother” ?

  Have you been watching Fox News? Have you caught any of Major Garrett’s stunning reports as well as his exchange with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs? Regardless, be sure to watch this report from Friday’s Special Report with Bret Baier: What do YOU think is really going on here? Next ...

• [hold]Reforming For a More Profitable Health Care

  We must have misunderstood. We thought the whole point of reforming health care was to actually help the american people have better, more affordable health care. We thought the promise was: BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN FOR A HEALTHY AMERICA: Lowering health care costs and ensuring affordable, high-quali ...

Environmental Graffiti

• Tarantulas Aggressively Baring Their Fangs
• Ant Invaders Enslave their Kind and Subject them t ...
• Rare Photo of 1840s American Steam Locomotive
• The Incredible Terraced Chalk Ponds of Pamukkale
• Amsterdam From Above

Foreign Policy in Focus

• Lack of North American Leadership

  The three amigos met in Guadalajara and failed to usher in a new paradigm of North American cooperation.

• Learning from the British in Iraq

  History suggests that the United States won't be leaving Iraq any time soon.

• The Pursuit of True Security

  For all of the money we spend on defense, are we really all that safer?

• The Bully in Baghdad

  Politics has trumped democracy as Iraq just postponed a key vote on the status of U.S. forces in their country.

• Postcard From...Dharamsala

  Dharamsala is where Tibet 2.0 is being created.

Therapy News

• Temp Jobs Harm Mental Health - Study Suggests

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline In the modern economic environment, many people are struggling with job loss or with the fear of losing their sources of income, and some are turning to temp jobs in an effort to stay afloat. While this may be a wise choice financially, a study conducted at McGill Uni ...

• Multi-National Study Links Many Mental Health Conc ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline In the consideration of suicide, it’s a commonly held idea that those with symptoms of depression are most prone to thinking about suicide and exhibiting relevant behaviors. This may not be the case, however, as described by a recent study based on over one hundred ...

• Therapy for Smoking Cessation May Ward Off Dementi ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Update Smoking Cessation Therapies May Ward Off Dementia Cognitive decline is a serious mental health issue affecting a large number of aging people, and tends to strike for a variety of reasons, sometimes without much of any warning. As the progress of medical science marches ...

• Annual Conference for OCD Helps Clients Cope

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline While the effects, for both clients and their families, of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD can have far-reaching consequences that greatly impact elements of everyday life, many who grapple with the mental health concern remain untreated, even during the normal c ...

• Growing Awareness of Nutrition Sets to Foster Happ ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Update Check into a given health-related news portal these days and you’re likely to find a wealth of material about obesity. Calling the increasing number of people who grow up overweight an “epidemic,â€� some medical professionals and reporters have represented the ...

Mountaintop Removal

• Ewing's exhibit focuses on landscape (Knoxville Ne ...

  Contemporary works exploring landscape created by six Tennessee sculptors are on exhibit at the University of Tennessee's Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture this fall.

• Enviro Groups Tread Lightly With Endangered Specie ...

  The Appalachians' 28.5 billion tons of anthracite coal is obtained through mountaintop removal -- dynamiting the tops off the...

• Obama's OSM Pick Dodges Questions on Mountaintop R ...

  by Ken Ward Jr. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- President Obama's choice to be the nation's top strip-mining regulator said Thursday he needs to learn more about mountaintop removal coal mining before he can comment on whether it needs to be more strictly policed. Joseph G. Pizarchik declined to offer his view ...

• Scioto County Ohioans Fighting Pain Pill Abuse (WS ...

  Despite the troubling local Florida connection to Miami area pain pill mills, one local county with a growing pain pill problem is fighting back. Scioto County Health Commissioner Dr. Aaron Adams said a local coroner's study shows a dramatic rise in overdose deaths from prescription painkillers. ...

• Man Purchased Cartons of Cigarettes with Stolen Cr ...

  Kanawha County Sheriff's Deputies are looking for a man accused of purchasing cartons of cigarettes with a stolen credit card.

Memeorandum

• Rick Perlstein's Asinine Take on the Health Care T ...

  Steve Bainbridge / ProfessorBainbridge.com : Rick Perlstein's Asinine Take on the Health Care Town Yells — I kind of like what our friends at RSU call the health care town yells. They're speaking truth to power, while—unlike left-liberal protests—not blocking traffic. — They're a ...

• Party prepares liberals to accept deal (The Politi ...

  The Politico : Party prepares liberals to accept deal — After the toughest week yet for health reform, leading Democrats are warning that the party likely will have to accept major compromises to get a bill passed this year - perhaps even dropping a proposal to create a government-run plan ...

• Emanuel Wields Power Freely, and Faces the Risks ( ...

  New York Times : Emanuel Wields Power Freely, and Faces the Risks — WASHINGTON — As White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel was the one to bring the hammer down on Sidney Blumenthal. — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wanted to hire Mr. Blumenthal, a loyal confidant who ha ...

• Dealers wait for 'cash for clunkers' payments (JSO ...

  JSOnline : Dealers wait for ‘cash for clunkers’ payments — Some consider dropping out of program — By Joe Taschler of the Journal Sentinel — A growing number of auto dealers say the process of getting paid under the government's “cash for clunkers” plan increasingly resem ...

• 54% Say Passing No Healthcare Reform Better Than P ...

  Rasmussen Reports : 54% Say Passing No Healthcare Reform Better Than Passing Congressional Plan — Thirty-five percent (35%) of American voters say passage of the bill currently working its way through Congress would be better than not passing any health care reform legislation this year.

Energy & Environment News

• Economic View: A Missed Opportunity on Climate Cha ...

  If carbon allowances are distributed free instead of auctioned, the tax offset for consumers evaporates and effective tax rates will rise.

• Green Inc. Column: Getting Sports Events to Go Gre ...

  Stakeholders in the wide world of spectator sports are starting to pay at least some attention to the footprint they are leaving on the planet.

• Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

  A growing number of policy makers say that the world’s rising temperatures, surging seas and melting glaciers are a direct threat to the national interest.

• Bronx River Journal: Herring Return to the City, W ...

  An experiment to see if the fish would spawn in the Bronx River, go to sea and return to spawn again has succeeded.

• National Briefing | Charities: More Groups’ ...

  At least two more charities’ names were used in a lobbying campaign that sent out letters falsely purporting to be from nonprofit groups to express opposition to climate change legislation.

5+ quakes - 7 days

• M 5.3, Fiji region

  Saturday, August 15, 2009 23:30:19 UTC Sunday, August 16, 2009 11:30:19 AM at epicenter Depth : 612.00 km (380.28 mi)

• M 5.0, South Sandwich Islands region

  Saturday, August 15, 2009 21:14:18 UTC Saturday, August 15, 2009 07:14:18 PM at epicenter Depth : 72.20 km (44.86 mi)

• M 5.3, Guerrero, Mexico

  Saturday, August 15, 2009 13:22:47 UTC Saturday, August 15, 2009 08:22:47 AM at epicenter Depth : 81.80 km (50.83 mi)

• M 5.3, Minahasa, Sulawesi, Indonesia

  Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:30:12 UTC Saturday, August 15, 2009 08:30:12 PM at epicenter Depth : 154.00 km (95.69 mi)

• M 5.2, Philippine Islands region

  Friday, August 14, 2009 20:56:28 UTC Saturday, August 15, 2009 04:56:28 AM at epicenter Depth : 10.80 km (6.71 mi)

China Dialogue

• Removing chemicals from our food

  Recent studies show that food safety in China still needs improvement. Organic production is the answer, argues Jiang Gaoming. Here he explains how to make the shift. Environmental group Greenpeace recently tested vegetables purchased in supermarkets and markets in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou at ...

• Beginning of the end for oil?

  Greenpeace and others see the industry approaching a tipping point, thanks to price declines, technological advances and climate policies. Controversial investments in Canadian tar sands may be doomed. David Teather reports. A long-term decline in the demand for oil could undermine the huge investme ...

• Solar futures at the foot of Everest

  Passive solar homes could help to improve people’s daily lives and protect the environment on the Tibetan plateau, finds Cai Rupeng. The summer had only just started, but village elder Yuzhen was already looking forward to winter. Standing in front of her home in Tingri , Tibet, one looks up and s ...

• Leading the swine-flu battle

  WHO director Margaret Chan announced in June that a new virus had reached pandemic proportions. She tells Aida Edemariam how H1N1 is being fought and of the personal price she pays. Although she would no doubt point out that swine flu should properly be called H1N1, there is something pleasing in th ...

• “I openly call for emissions cuts” (2)

  In the second section of a two-part interview, Liu Jianqiang and Yi Shui talk to Hu Angang about how China’s climate-change policy is formed, and how it can change. [Produced in association with Rutgers Climate and Social Policy Initiative ] chinadialogue: Many Chinese people who oppose a comm ...

Daily Censored

• Right-Wing Health Care Group Tricked British Women ...

  Earlier this year, Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), an anti-health care reform group led by the disgraced former CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Rick Scott, began running a commercial attacking the British health care system. The TV ad runs through “tragic stories” of British citizens who ...

• Lawmakers Tell ThinkProgress That Angry Town Hall ...

  At Netroots Nation, ThinkProgress spoke with Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Alan Grayson (D-FL) about the contentious health care town hall protests that lawmakers around the country are facing in their districts. These representatives and senators are facing angry crowds, death threats, and distur ...

• Lawmakers Tell ThinkProgress That Angry Town Hall ...

  Read the full story at Think Progress At Netroots Nation, ThinkProgress spoke with Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Alan Grayson (D-FL) about the contentious health care town hall protests that lawmakers around the country are facing in their districts. These representatives and senators are facing a ...

• Fox News’ Democratic Wanker Of The Week: Doug Sc ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Is Doug Schoen really a Democrat? Even Sean Hannity wondered during the “Sleep-In Sunday Panelâ€� segment on last night’s (8/14/09) Hannity show. Schoen, purportedly the lone Democrat among three conservatives, barely had a good word to say for what was s ...

• Fox News’ Democratic Wanker Of The Week: Doug Sc ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Is Doug Schoen really a Democrat? Even Sean Hannity wondered during the “Sleep-In Sunday Panelâ€� segment on last night’s (8/14/09) Hannity show. Schoen, purportedly the lone Democrat among three conservatives, barely had a good word to say for what was s ...

AlterNet's Breaking News

• Iran's Mousavi to lead 'green hope' opposition

• US envoy's security, election talks in Pakistan

• Chavez to visit Russia, Belarus, Libya in Septembe ...

• Taiwan typhoon response boost, US, China offer aid

• Interim Honduran officials to visit to Washington

Institute for Policy Studies

• Their Martyrs and Our Heroes

  Powerful, developed countries have suicide bombers too.

• Taxing Wealth for the Common Good

  Business leaders and wealthy individuals call for a repeal of the Bush-era taxes on high incomes.

• The Destruction of the Black Middle Class

  Left out of the commentary on race and class over the Gates affair has been talk of the increasing impoverishment — or, we should say, re-impoverishment — of African Americans as a group.

• Asia's Axis of Evil?

  Burma and North Korea are the pariahs of Asia. Are these birds of a feather flocking together?

• Obama: Renegotiate NAFTA as You Promised

  Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. leaders should scrap their failed "Security and Prosperity Partnership" and begin overhauling the North American Free Trade agreement at an upcoming Guadalajara meeting.

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• North Korea makes nuclear threat over military dri ...

  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea denounced upcoming joint South Korean and U.S. military drills and said it would "wipe out" the countries with nuclear weapons if they threatened the communist state, its KCNA news agency said on Sunday.

• Obama defends healthcare plans, criticizes insurer ...

  GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama reignited his criticism of health insurance companies on Saturday, promising reforms that would prevent firms from capping coverage or charging "outrageous" fees.

• Storms Ana, Bill race west; hurricane expected

  MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storms Ana and Bill, the first named storms of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, were racing westward with gale force winds, and Bill was expected to develop into a hurricane in the next few days, the National Hurricane Center said.

• Oil trader under scrutiny for phenomenal success

  NEW YORK (Reuters) - An oil trader who has rocked Wall Street and the White House over his nine-figure salary clings to a low profile, quietly making trades from a former dairy farm in Connecticut and emerging occasionally to satisfy his passion for art.

• Russia, Venezuela edge closer to oil deal, talk ar ...

  ST.PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Russia and Venezuela on Saturday moved closer to an oil venture deal and discussed arms trade, forging a partnership that may drag Russia into a row over the U.S. military presence in Colombia.

Godspace

• Unemployment as a Spiritual Practice

  I am now back from Australia and as you can imagine the posts for my series on What is a Spiritual Practice have been mounting up while I have had limited internet access and less time to focus on such things. Â Thanks for your patience and for your prayers during this challenging season. Today’ ...

• Editing your Life: The Spiritual Discipline of Edi ...

  I am sitting in Sydney on a beautiful but crisp winter’s morning watching the rainbow lorikeets out in the trees. Â My Dad’s funeral is over and I will head back to Seattle in 2 days time. Â I have been very aware of prayer and the grace of God in the midst of this. Â Thanks to [...]

• Living in Transition as Spiritual Practice

  I am now in Sydney Australia after what has been one of the easiest long international trips I have made for a long time. Â I even slept for several hours on the flight which makes me very aware of the fact that people have been praying for me. Today’s article comes from Guy Chmieleski who is [. ...

• Recent Additions to the Spiritual Practices series

  Here’s the round-up of the most recent Spiritual Practices posts: The Spiritual Practice of Apologizing by T Freeman Love-making as a Spiritual Practice by Mark Scandrette Smoking the Glory of God by Jason Clark The Spiritual Practice of Getting Honest With Myself by Jonathan Brink Spiritual Disci ...

• Between the Sheets: Sleeping as A Spiritual Practi ...

  I will be heading out to Australia this afternoon but am hoping to continue posting while I travel. Â The submissions continue to arrive which is wonderful and I am enjoying reading them before I post them. This morning’s post is from Teri Peterson a presbyterian pastor who loves her new bed (wh ...

Equality Trust

• Shattering the myth of equality

  An article by Boris Frankel in Melbourne's newspaper 'The Age'.

• Polly Toynbee: This bold equality push is just wha ...

  Polly Toynbee writing about the new Equality Bill today's Guardian. "Harriet Harman's bill is a frank recognition of the role of class in Britain. A decade earlier, it might have had a real impact..."

• Seumas Milne: This naked display of class egotism ...

  "It's more than a week since Alistair Darling's budget, but the howls of protest haven't stopped for a day ever since. That's not been the public sector employees facing a harsh squeeze on jobs and pay who've been squealing, or the million workers expected to join the dole queues in the next year, ...

• Bob Holman on social breakdown

  Bob Holman writes in the Glasgow Herald about the evidence in The Spirit Level.

• Inequality is the root of our unhappiness

  Former director of the Institute of Education Peter Mortimore, writing in today's Education Guardian.

IntelNews

• News you may have missed #0068

  US overt aid to Pakistan revealed. Intolerance of Arabs, Muslims led to torture, says US interrogator. China drops Rio Tinto espionage charges.

• Sri Lankan forces score massive intelligence victo ...

  Not only does the Sri Lankan government appear to be scoring a massive tactical victory in its 25-year military confrontation with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), it is also well on its way to smashing the LTTE’s intelligence infrastructure.

• Ex-FBI translator alleges Turkish intelligence act ...

  A former FBI translator has alleged that agents acting at the behest of the Turkish government have bugged, blackmailed and bribed US politicians.

• News you may have missed #0067

  David Wise on CIA assassinations. These are the architects of torture in 9/11’s wake. Defector recounts torture, terrorism by Uzbek government.

• News you may have missed #0066

  US court upholds conviction of CIA contractor. US ex-Attorney General comes out against CIA probe. A rare Chinese view on the Rio Tinto spy case.

Res'Eau-WaterNet

• Too Many Canadians Without Safe Water: $5.2M to He ...

  For six million Canadians, quenching their thirst isn’t a matter of simply turning on the kitchen faucet.

• Dr. David Wilkinson appointed Director of the Clea ...

  RES'EAU-WaterNET researcher Dr. David Wilkinson was recently appointed Director of the Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC), beginning July 1, 2009.

• Walkerton Clean Water Centre Receives Ontario Mini ...

  The Walkerton Clean Water Centre (WCWC) – a RES’EAU-WaterNET partner – received the 2008 Emerald Award for innovation from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment at an awards ceremony held on March 3, 2009.

• Filling the glass

  Innovation Canada : Showcasing Research Excellence in Canada

PDA AMERICA

• A Progressive Response to Mitch Stewart & OFA

  Dear Mitch Stewart & OFA, I am glad you are still Organizing for America — we need the activated grassroots energy that swept Mr. Obama into office to keep things moving forward. But I have ...

• Progressive Democrats take a stand on health care

  From the RNN: The Real News Network Some members of Congress are going to fight for a robust public option and a single-payer amendment VIDEO CAN BE VIEWED BY CLICKING HERE An amendment introduced by representative Anthony ...

• Who Decides About War?

  WhoDecidesAboutWar.org National Conference on War Powers, Law, and Democracy October 2-3, 2009 Washington D.C. Who decides about war and peace? Congress? The President? The Courts? The People? What kind of national defense should the U.S. have? What ...

• Another Scandal Near New Orleans

  By Jayne Lyn Stahl There have been no shortage of news stories about how detainees have been treated at Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib before it. Likewise, there has been a lot of talk about so-called ...

• CDPP Report for August 2009

  CDPP report, August 2009, Mervis Reissig and Anna Givens Two of us have volunteered to continue working with the Congressional District Point Person program for PDA. As CD Point People ourselves and longtime volunteers for ...

Marler Blog

• Why the CDC has it right - It was Nestle Toll Hous ...

  In early June 2009, public health investigators noticed an increase in isolates submitted by multiple state public health laboratories to PulseNet with a two-enzyme pattern combination of EXHX01.0224 and EXHA26.0536. This is a relatively common pattern combination, appearing at least 364 times in t ...

• OK, I made a mistake - FSIS did publish Retail Rec ...

  I blew it. I look at the FSIS site daily and I missed that they had posted the below list of retail outlets that received the Salmonella Newport Beef: I am sorry. The Sterling Pacific Meat products subject to recall include: Fatburger Brand: * 20-pound packages of "8 oz. PUCK (80/20) GROUND BEEF P ...

• A week after FSIS announces a Class I Recall of Sa ...

  On August 6, 2009 Beef Packers, Inc., of Fresno, California recalled approximately 825,769 pounds of ground beef products linked to an outbreak of salmonellosis (disease that can be caused by antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Newport). This was announced on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Sa ...

• Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough E. coli Outbreak, P ...

  There are a lot of things I love about my job, but one is the science behind linking people in dozens of states to food that they consumed that poisoned them. Once that link is scientifically determined, and the outbreak stopped, then the time comes to learn from the mistakes so the next outbreak c ...

• H.R. 2749 - Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 - ...

  Click on above image to see final bill passed from the House, or see my post below.

• IPS - Inter Press Services

• COTE D’IVOIRE: Communities Determined to Pr ...

  ADIAKÉ, Côte d'Ivoire, Aug 15 (IPS) - When a major agribusiness company began clearing the rich reservoir of biodiversity of southeast Côte d'Ivoire's Tanoé Swamps Forest for an oil palm plantation, ecologists and local communities demonstrated in favour of preserving it.

• INDIA: Swine Flu Tests Privatised Health Care

  NEW DELHI, Aug 15 (IPS) - While the swine flu pandemic has not hit India too hard, it has sorely tested the country’s ailing health delivery system and its plans to remedy the situation through ‘private-public partnerships.’

• URUGUAY: Countryside Offers Different Kind of Tou ...

  SAN PEDRO, Uruguay, Aug 15 (IPS) - Uruguayans and tourists from other countries escape the stress of city life and learn about rural living on once prosperous dairy farms and picturesque small farms near the city of Colonia in western Uruguay, where families have found a new livelihood – and w ...

• COLOMBIA: Spying on Human Rights Defenders

  BOGOTÁ, Aug 15 (IPS) - "Coming to Colombia is to enter a world that is always intense, captivating and heart-wrenching at the same time," Susana Villarán, a former member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), wrote in April 2008.

• HEALTH: Why Is Viagra Popular and the Condom Cont ...

  BALI, Aug 14 (TerraViva/IPS) - Why is the popular drug Viagra so praised for its virtues, while the condom is vilified by conservative religious groups among others the world over?

The Intelligence Daily

• Video -- Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century ...

• 9/11 Mind Swell

• Global Depression and Regional Wars - Part I

• Italy, Germany and Japan: Former World War II Axis ...

• Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Econom ...

My AntiWar

• Saturday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 19 Wounded
• How Did a Suicide Bomber Get to Kabul’s NATO ...
• Zelaya May Return to Honduras Even if He Faces Arr ...
• Behind the Scenes: a Refugee Camp for Pakistani Ch ...
• US to Pakistan: Talks With India Only After Action ...

• Rogue Government.com

• Mermaid Sightings Claimed In Israel

• Russian subs move toward Canadian East Coast

  Canadian aircraft that hunted Soviet submarines during the Cold War are now monitoring two Russian attack subs that have migrated north after being spotted last week off the US coast, an official said Wednesday.

• Details of secret CIA prisons released

  Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, a senior CIA officer who is currently in jail for corruption has told The New York Times how he oversaw the construction of three identical prisons from his base in Frankfurt where he ran the spy agency's main European supply base.

• US tests system to beat web censorship in China a ...

  The "feed over email" (FOE) system will deliver news using a technology that evades web-screening technologies employed by restrictive regimes.

• Obama Camp Plants Fake Doctor At Jackson-Lee Foru ...

Innovation Canada

• Ocean view

  The winch at the rear of the ship slowly lowers a 13-tonne steel capsule about the size of three minivans into still water in early July. The shell, painted a garish yellow, is a trawl-resistant frame designed to deflect fishing nets. More important, once settled on the ocean floor, the capsule will ...

• Space reader

  (Article courtesy of the University of Windsor) Bill McConkey probably won’t be around to see the day when humans are finally able to travel tremendous stretches through outer space to distant planets such as Jupiter. When they do make that journey, however, they’ll owe a significant debt of gra ...

• Filling the glass

  Walkerton, Ont., North Battleford, Sask., and the Kashechewan First Nation Reserve, in Northern Ontario, have all become high-profile — and tragic — examples of what can go wrong when a community’s drinking water becomes contaminated. Surprisingly, they are not alone. At any given time, 1,700 ...

• i2eye with Bartha Maria Knoppers

  “Don’t plan your career — be curious.” That’s the credo that Bartha Maria Knoppers, the new director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, espouses — and one she lives by. Knoppers turned her love of books into a master’s in c ...

• Environmental legacy

  (Article courtesy of University of Regina) University of Regina biologist Chris Somers is fascinated by how humans and wildlife interact and how animals respond to human-modified environments. “My research often combines animal ecology in the field, environmental chemistry and genetics,” explain ...

Signs of the times

• "Don't Do This In Front of My Kids" ...Cop Tasers ...

  In January, an Onondaga County sheriff's deputy pulled over Audra Harmon, who had two of her kids with her in her minivan. A routine traffic stop escalated quickly. The deputy, Sean Andrews, accused her of talking on her cell phone. She said she could prove him wrong. He said she was speeding. She ...

• More Steig Disrespect: Common Decency Goes a Long ...

  Here is another tone-deaf incident involving the activist wing of the climate science community that has the effect of making the entire enterprise look corrupt. The short story is that a professor from Ohio State found an error in a paper on Antarctic temperature trends in Nature. He published his ...

• The climate science credit crunch

  Steve McIntyre at Climate Audit has a very interesting discussion on the giving of credit. Update: Roger Pielke Jr. blogs on this in rather frank terms: The short story is that a professor from Ohio State found an error in a paper on Antarctic temperature trends in Nature. He published his anal ...

• Changing Perilous Assumptions to Suit the Analysis

  In 2007 Michael Mann and colleagues published a paper (PDF) critical of work suggesting an undercount in storms from historical records, claiming that it was "perilous" to assume that there is a "fixed" relationship between landfalling and total hurricanes in the Atlantic basin: Of course, estima ...

• COINTELPRO Tactics: The Right's 'Astroturfing' Pr ...

  Faux grassroots firms are exhibiting all the tell-tale signs. Here's a quick test, a sort of free-association game: What do egocentrism, deceitfulness and aggressive criminality have in common? If you guessed that they are characteristics of disturbed behavior, you're half right. They are in fact ...

Threat Level

• Luckless Predator Only Attracted to Undercover Cop ...

  It’s official. There’s nobody in the chat rooms but pedophiles and undercover police. On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of an Indiana man whose online efforts to proposition underage girls led him to not one, not two, but three undercover cops, none of whom apparently kn ...

• Hotel Error Advertises Room Rate in Italy for 1 Ce ...

  Word apparently spread quickly across the internet on Sunday night that a luxury hotel in Venice, Italy, was offering a special 1-cent-a night rate. Visitors to the online registration page of the luxury Crowne Plaza Venice East-Quarto d’Altino hotel discovered it wasn’t just a rumor and that in ...

• Firefox Plug-In Frees Court Records, Threatens Jud ...

  Access to the nation’s federal law proceedings just got a public interest hack, thanks to programmers from Princeton, Harvard and the Internet Archive, who released a Firefox plug-in designed to make millions of pages of legal documents free. Free as in beer and free as in speech. The Problem: Fe ...

• Feds Support $1.92 Million RIAA File Sharing Verdi ...

  The Obama administration told a federal judge Friday the $1.92 million jury verdict against a Minnesota woman for sharing 24 music tracks on Kazaa was constitutionally sound, despite defense claims it was unconstitutionally excessive. After the June verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, defense atto ...

• Top Security Firm RSA Tries to Silence Blog

  RSA security, one of the top security firms in the country, has sent takedown notices to a blogger and his hosting company in an effort to silence his discussion of a vulnerability found on a bank web site that RSA helps monitor, according to the blogger. The firm has accused the blogger of tradema ...

PERRspectives : Blog

• Right-Wing Rage: Recurring Symptom of a Preexistin ...

  There's nothing new under the sun, especially when it comes to the frothing at the mouth right-wing rage over health care reform. But thanks to the 24/7 media's transformation of politics into just another form of entertainment, delusional Birthers, deceitful...

• Health Scare: When Politics is Entertainment

  "When politics is just another form of entertainment," I lamented in a presentation on the 2008 campaign last year, "the first thing that suffers is the truth." And so it is with the incendiary health care debate and so much...

• Smoking Grassley on Health Care Reform

  After his predictable experience with unified Republican obstructionism on the stimulus bill, President Obama must be high if he thinks there's a glimmer of hope for bipartisan cooperation on health care reform. Not because Sarah Palin is doubling-down on her...

• Smoking Grassley on Health Care Reform

  After his predictable experience with unified Republican obstructionism on the stimulus bill, President Obama must be high if he thinks there's a glimmer of hope for bipartisan cooperation on health care reform. Not because Sarah Palin is doubling-down on her...

• Guns and Bitter in Pennsylvania

  During the Democratic primaries last spring, Barack Obama almost derailed his campaign with his unfortunate remark about "bitter" people in small town Pennsylvania who "cling to guns." Now after the second Keystone State shooting rampage in four months, that clumsy...

Blackspot News Feed

• A World of Paradox and Contradiction by Gary Sudbo ...

  by Gary SudboroughFeatured WriterDandelion SaladAug 15, 2009When I was a student of chemistry in college I did a lot of extracurricular reading about politics. I particularly read about the history of the Russian and Chinese revolutions. I read about Narodnaya Volya and their leaders like Sophia Per ...

• Lou Dobbs Tours Single-Payer Systems Abroad and Re ...

  Has CNN's government-out-of-my-face bloviator actually had a change of heart when it comes to Obama's health plan?

• Burning Questions for the Authors of 'Marijuana Is ...

  The authors of a new book on misconceptions about marijuana respond to the torrent of comments on an excerpt published on AlterNet.

• Put Down That Coors: Why We Should Be Boycoting Bi ...

  One reason to boycott large breweries is the union busting, right wing culture that dominates some of the biggest breweries in America.

• Why the Right's 'Astroturfing' Propaganda Is Textb ...

  Faux grassroots firms are exhibiting all the tell-tale signs.

Consortium News

• A Gorilla Dust-up Over Health Care

  The clash over health care has become an excuse to refight unresolved U.S. political battles, writes Michael Winship. August 15, 2009

• Cheney's New Gambit

  Dick Cheney's anger at George Bush for not using his pardoning power may reflect personal self-interest, says Ray McGovern. August 14, 2009

• The Truth Will Not Out, on Its Own

  The hysterias over the Iraq War and now health-care reform suggest truth is a fragile U.S. commodity, writes Robert Parry. August 13, 2009

• Rove Implicated in Prosecutor Firings

  Political adviser Karl Rove pressed for the firing of a key U.S. Attorney who balked at prosecuting Democrats, reports Jason Leopold. August 12, 2009

• Palin's 'Death Panel' and GOP Lying

  Sarah Palin's rant about Barack Obama's "death panel" fits with a 30-year-old Republican strategy to deceive, says Robert Parry. August 11, 2009

CounterPunch

• Alexander Cockburn : Health Plans and Death Plans
• Ron Jacobs : Unconditional Negotiations, Now!
• Charles R. Larson : Egyptian Economics 101
• Poets' Basement : Reiss, Ford and Moser
• Jeffrey St. Clair : The Fall of the House of Stanf ...

Institute for Middle East Understanding

• New Israeli rules curb travel from West Bank (Jon ...

  Human rights groups are also concerned by the wording of new restriction, confining foreign citizens to "Palestinian Authority territories". The PA rules over only about 40 per cent of the West Bank. The gro ...

• Israeli peace activist highlights Bedouin's plight ...
• Obama's America is not delivering the goods (Gide ...

  With great sorrow and deep consternation, we hereby declare the death of the latest hope. Perhaps rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase the famous quote by Mark Twain, but the fears are ...

• Invincible: 'You can't disconnect a people from t ...
• Rights group accuses Israeli government of waging ...

  Human Rights Watch on Friday accused the Israeli government of waging a propaganda war after authorities questioned the credibility of its latest report on civilian deaths in the Gaza war. "Instead of respo ...

Planetsave

• Growing Acid in our Oceans: A Looming Threat to Se ...

  This picture is a picture of the beautiful Monterey, California coastline. This is where I grew up. It is famous for it’s beautiful sea life. Sea otters, jelly fish, sea lions, kelp forests all populate the Monterey coast. The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world. Yet, with all th ...

• Great Lakes Offshore Wind Aesthetics

  [social buttons] While public opinion remains divided about the risks and benefits of installing wind farms in the Great Lakes, several of the eight states with Great Lakes water are racing to be first to approve projects capturing energy from frequently strong offshore winds. It remains to be seen ...

• ET Text Home? Send your own Texts Into Space

  Gliese 581 d. Such a catchy name eh? You probably have never heard of it. It is 20 light years away, but in late April 2009 new observations by the original discovery team concluded that the planet is within the habitable zone where liquid water, and therefore, life, could exist. Some of you may h ...

• Australia Plans Airstrikes to Kill 650K Camels in ...

  Australia’s wild camel population is out of control. An estimated 1 million roam the outback, destroying fragile ecosystems, fouling water holes, and causing a threat to endangered wildlife. They are Australia’s largest invasive species, and the government is spending $19 million AUD to deal wi ...

• Dancing Rabbit Eco Village: The Inside Scoop

  Unless you live in an eco village or other form of intentional community, you’re probably curious about the lifestyle. You’ve probably already got some images stuck in your head (I know the commune from Easy Rider always comes to my mind). You may even cling to a few stereotypes. But, as you’v ...

Water Quality - WordPress

• Images of Proposal for Studio City Golf and Tennis ...

  Studio City River Park Proposal In October 2009, L.A. Creek Freak reported details about a proposed

• Eutrophication : Sources and Drivers of Nutrient P ...

  World Resources Institute / by Mindy Selman and Suzie Greenhalgh http://www.wri.org/publication/eutr

• A Water Quality Report

  The 2009 Drinking Water Quality Report from the Portland Water Bureau arrived in the mail today. I r

• What's the difference between PondClear and MuckAw ...

  Pond clarity results with MuckAway and PondClear Pond & Lake Q & A Q: What’s the diffe

• Santa Monica's Green Street Explored

  Santa Monica's Bicknell Avenue Green Street, looking southwest toward the Santa Monica Bay Los A

Public Citizen in Texas

• Grassroots vs Astroturf- the difference in citizen ...

  Most people have a good general conception of what a real grassroots movement looks like: citizens get outraged over some injustice or inequity and get organized and get active. These campaigns are built from the bottom up. And what happens when you don’t have a grassroots movement but want to ...

• Boerne Makes Move on Local Renewable Power

  I came across this article recently in the Express-News’ Northwest Daily and had to share. Boerne, population c. 9,400, located about 30 miles northwest of San Antonio, will soon establish a framework for the development of distributed generation. Under the terms of an ordinance that passed a fir ...

• Texans care about climate change too

  Being an environmentalist in Texas, sometimes it feels like the whole world is against you. Â There’s a common assumption that folks around here just don’t care as much about the environment as elsewhere, and that people don’t see climate change as all that much of a threat. Â When I tell ...

• San Antonio Mayor’s Nuclear Town Hall Tonight

  Tonight, August 10, is Mayor Castro’s Town Hall Meeting, where he wants to allow the community to tell city council and himself what they think about going the nuclear route. This is so important to attend. It will be at the City Council Chambers downtown where Flores and Commerce meet (map belo ...

• Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up

  The Congress may be in recess, but the Texas Progressive Alliance is always in session. Here’s the weekly roundup of blog highlights. Off the Kuff takes a closer look at the crimefighting plan of Houston Mayoral candidate Annise Parker. WCNews at Eye On Williamson encourages everyone to get involv ...

Press TV

• Swine flu puts Chinese schools under strict rules

  China has applied strict rules to its schools in a move to curb the spread of swine flu, urging the educational establishments to downsize classes.

• US 'involved in Honduras military coup'

  The United States was involved in a military coup in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, a top aide to Zelaya says.

• Moscow: Chavez adamant on Russian warfare gear

  Russia says Venezuela is determined to pursue its plans to acquire large volumes of Russian military vehicles and hardware.

• IRGC resolute to counter threats against Iran

  Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the foremost priority of the force is to formulate comprehensive efforts to confront possible threats against the country.

• Wedding turns into funeral in Kuwait; 41 dead

  A tent hosting a wedding ceremony in Kuwait has burst into flames leaving at least 41 people incinerated, says fire department Chief Jassem Mansuri.

Axis of Logic

• Money is God, Greed is King and Corruption Runs th ...

• Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Econom ...

• The 'Anti-Starbucks' Starbucks

• Exclusive: Kill Them All and Cover Them with Bulls ...

• One State, Two States - Resolving the Israel/Pales ...

They Gave Us a Republic

• "All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelp ...

  But that isn't happening this time back east. That was the plan, but plans change. My traveling companion had difficulties managing to be in two places at once, and I need to get back home and sign something important in person, and I'm really not that thrilled about traveling alone anyway, and be ...

• Forty Years Ago Tonight

  I wasn't there, but I will forever regret not witnessing this. This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, and we're celebrating with Hendrix's rendering of the national anthem. We keep the LNMC apolitical, but I want to at least squeak a shout-out to this as clear evidence that symbols of ...

• The Wages of Assassination

  It's not a question of giving people ideas any more - the idea is widespread among the townhall hooligan racists, and manifesting itself in loaded weapons carried to presidential events. I have great faith in the Secret Service, not least because they know Barack Obama is the ultimate test for them: ...

• Negotiating with Terrorists

  It's awfully hard to take President Obama seriously about anything when he insists on negotiating the terms of health care reform with people who announce publicly their determination to destroy any form of health care reform at all. Nonetheless, here's the money quote from President Obama's Weekly ...

• Economic Recovery? Whose Economic Recovery?

  Crossposted from Antemedius Bloomberg August 14, 2009 :Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Instead of a so-called New Normal of subdued growth, the U.S. may be heading for a robust recovery . [snip] Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his Federal Open Market Committee colleagues two days ago said the economy is "leveli ...

Care 2

• Help stop a costly and counterproductive bill for ...

  In August, the California Assembly Committee on Appropriations will vote on S.B. 250. This action is for residents of California only. Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• PAY OR DIE! - Ralph Nader on Secret White House Ag ...

  The Obama administration secretly made concessions to the healthcare industry and drug companies... You do NOT cut deals with the system that has to be replaced...Unless, of course, you have shares in the drug industry? To hell with U and single-payer! Submitted by David Buchan to US Politics & Go ...

• I Hate to Bother You: Is Justice Right Side Up? - ...

  Who are the righteous and who are the villains? If international justice really exists, why are the powerful never judged? The masterminds of the worst butcheries are never sent to prison. Is it because these butchers themselves hold the prison keys? Etc. Submitted by David Buchan to World | Not ...

• Alley Cat Allies Urges Opposition to Harmful Chica ...

  Thanks in part to opposition from Alley Cat Allies and its advocates, the vote on a proposed mandatory spay/neuter ordinance in Chicago was postponed. This action is for residents of Chicago, IL only. Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• Eunice Kennedy and the death of the great American ...

  . Submitted by Mick Cave to Offbeat | Note-it! | Add a Comment

GreenBiz

• PepsiCo Opens Green Beverage Plant in China

  The company expects the plant, located in western China in the city of Chongqing, will use 22 percent less water and 23 percent less energy than other PepsiCo plants in the country.

• IBM Sets Its Big Green Sights on S.F. Bay Water Qu ...

  Big Blue is teaming up with San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission to monitor and reduce pollution in the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay.

• IBM Sharpens Focus on Business and Battery Efficie ...

  The company announced today the creation of the Green Sigma Coalition to integrate IBM’s Green Sigma consulting service with the products and services of several big-name partners. A second project will take aim at the development of tomorrow’s lithium-ion batteries.

• Starbucks Coffee: Green or Greenwashed?

  Starbucks is given credit by many for revolutionizing the American coffee drinking experience. The company, however, is both praised and criticized by environmentalists. Is Starbucks a leader of sustainability or a greenwasher?

• Kodak's New Green Goals: More Energy Star, Less Wa ...

  Kodak today released its latest set of three-year sustainability goals, which include making 100 percent of its eligible products Energy Star-certified and tracking and reducing its global water use.

Reuters Global

• North Korea’s “Dear Leader” open ...

  A North Korean traffic officers directs cars on the streets of Pyongyang under a new umbrella. Photo provided by North Korea's official KCNA news agency on August 13, 2009.

• Pakistan’s Enemy No.1

  An overwhelming majority of Pakistanis consider the United States to be the greatest threat to the nation, far more than traditional rival India, and the Taliban, according to a new poll.

• Who is funding the Afghan Taliban? You don’t ...

  It is the open secret no one wants to talk about. In Afghanistan, one of the richest sources of Taliban funding is the foreign assistance coming into the country. International donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy.

• Targeted killings inside Pakistan;are they working ...

  The U.S. strategy of targeted killings inside Pakistan would seem to be working if the death of Baitullah Mehsud the leader of the Pakistani Taliban turns out to be true, as seems increasingly likely. But the jury is out over whether such strikes are effective over the longer term.

• Is a moral instinct the source of our noble though ...

  A growing number of psychologists, biologists and philosophers see the brain as the base of our moral views. Noble ideas such as compassion, altruism, empathy and trust, they say, are really evolutionary adaptations that are now instinctive responses fixed in our brains.

Ezra Klein

• Tab Dump

  • The economy: Now with more gild! • The myth of management consultants. • The New York Times calls a lie a lie. • End-of-life care: Where ethics meet economics. • Arlen Specter and Chuck Grassley, both septuagenarian senators, have a spat on twitter. Rarely has America been so terrib ...

• The New Message

  Barack Obama was in Montana today for a town hall on health care. I've pasted his remarks below the fold. They're most interesting for what's not in them. The word "cost" never appears. Nor does "curve." The word "insurance" appears 36 times, as in "insurance companies will no longer be able to ca ...

• The Michael Jackson Moment

  "We're in the Michael Jackson moment for health-care reform," says Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union. "These town halls are stages that have been set for a show. There's no way any congressman can think this is representative." At least, Stern hopes not. Before the town ...

• A Chat With the Head of the Health Insurance Indus ...

  Turns out the C-SPAN folks lied. The video of my interview with insurance industry poo-bah Karen Ignagni is not embeddable. But it is watchable online. You just have to go here .

• An Interview With Ezekiel Emanuel

  Before Ezekiel Emanuel joined his brother Rahm in the White House, he was director of the National Institute of Health's clinical bioethics programs and an oncologist specializing in breast cancer. Since he began advising President Obama's budget chief, Peter Orszag, on health care, however, he's be ...

Booman Tribune

• Reflections

  I'll have more to say on this soon, but one notable thing about Netroots Nation was the split between people who are trying to get the Progressives to stand firm and torpedo any health care bill that isn't good enough and the people who are arguing that we need to get a foot in the door and pass som ...

• Don't Trust Rasmussen Polls

  I really want to urge Democrats not to believe any Rasmussen poll that can't be tested by an actual election. Every opinion poll that they put out seems unhelpful and demoralizing to Democrats, and they rarely agree with other polling (when other polling is available). It has gotten to the point t ...

• Casual Observation

  I find Rick Perlstein's column comforting because it reminds me that right-wingers have been crazy for pretty much ever, and that the current display of irrational hatred wrapped in delusional conspiracy is their standard response to losing an argument (i.e., power). One of the nice things about be ...

• People Love Jimmy Carter

  My working theory is that Rasmussen only does real polls at election time so that they can do phony polls the rest of the time. Elections, after all, are the true fact-checker of polls. A polling company that continually underperforms as a predictor of election outcomes will quickly lose all credi ...

• Netroots Nation

  This conference sucks:

European Tribune

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 16 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1876 – Birth of...

• Lazy Saturday Open Thread

  another picture of the Cervin...

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 15 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1875 – Birth of...

• Friday Open Thread

  Keep up the fight...

• "2007 was an incredibly good year for the super ri ...

  The top .01% (top 14,988 US families, making at least $11.5m in 2007) share increased...

Futurismic

• Scriths and legends: hidden portals a possibility

  Researchers in Hong Kong are developing technologies that could one day lead to hidden portals [1]: In the research paper, the researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in Shanghai describe the concept of a “a gateway that can block electromagnetic wa ...

• Scriths and legends: hidden legends a possibility

  Researchers in Hong Kong are developing technologies that could one day lead to hidden portals [1]: In the research paper, the researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in Shanghai describe the concept of a “a gateway that can block electromagnetic wa ...

• They’ve got a TV eye on you

  Much as we all bemoan the relentless increase of surveillance technologies in our countries, it appears that the cable TV companies are confident that we’ll just invite it in to our homes if there’s enough of an incentive. After all, who wouldn’t want a set-top DVR unit with a camera so it cou ...

• Universal robot operating system: well, they’re ...

  As evidenced by the number of posts we end up doing about them, robots are a real growth industry. Which is all well and good, but the folks in R&D departments everywhere have a problem. In a nutshell, it’s interoperability: each robot is developed in isolation, meaning valuable resources are exp ...

• They’ve got a TV eye on you

  Much as we all bemoan the relentless increase of surveillance technologies in our countries, it appears that the cable TV companies are confident that we’ll just invite it in to our homes if there’s enough of an incentive. After all, who wouldn’t want a set-top DVR unit with a camera so it cou ...

Yahoo! Canada News

• YahooCanadaNews: Obama's team shares winning strat ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Obama's team shares winning strategies with NDP http://tr.im/wsSV

• YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Volkswage ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Volkswagen threat 'tantamount to blackmail': Opel union leader http://tr.im/wsuW

• YahooCanadaNews: NDP name change may prove awfully ...

  YahooCanadaNews: NDP name change may prove awfully embarrassing in Quebec http://tr.im/wqGT

• YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Federal N ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Federal NDP to mull name change at N.S. convention http://tr.im/wmRD

• YahooCanadaNews: MK for Y! CA News. Small Canadian ...

  YahooCanadaNews: MK for Y! CA News. Small Canadian firm wins battle against Microsoft. http://bit.ly/FV0lE

Global Elite

• President European Commission Advocated World Gove ...

  Jurriaan Maessen. Infowars. July 24th, 2009 On September 7, 1992, two term President of the European Commission Jacques Delors gave a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affa ...

• Billions of People Expected to Die Under Current C ...

  Barbara Minton, Natural News, July 21st, 2009 Your right to eat healthy food and use supplements of your choice is rapidly vanishing, but every effort has been made to keep you in the d ...

• Bioweapons, Dangerous Vaccines, and Threats of a G ...

  Stephen Lendman, Global Research, July 7th, 2009 Although international law prohibits the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons, America has had an active biological warfare progr ...

• Today we’re all prisoners in the USA

  Papers, Please! June 2, 2009 As of today, June 1, 2009, even U.S. citizens are officially prisoners in the USA, or exiles barred from entering our own country without the government’s ...

• Biopiracy, GM Seeds and Rural India "Over 100,000 ...

  Priya Kumar, Global Research, June 2, 2009 The reality for the average Indian remains the same: agricultural cultivation and the ability to farm is the bedrock of rural living. With its historical practices, values, and communal sentiments of ...

Al Jazeera

• Jew elected to Fatah governing body

  The election is the first in the movement's half-century history.

• Scores die in Kuwait wedding fire

  Blaze in a women's wedding tent kills dozens of women and children and injures many more.

• Yemen expands assault on rebels

  Several dead in attacks on Houthi fighters, accused of attempted regime change.

• French minister calls for burka ban

  The comments come as French legislators conduct hearings on whether to ban the burka.

• Bollywood star held at US airport

  Interrogation of Shah Rukh Khan prompts angry response in India.

Green Inc. - NYT

• In Case You Missed It . . .

  The green-collar economy, the environmental challenges of solar power, and other energy and environment stories from around the globe.

• High Carbon Cost for 'Clunkers' Program

  The popular "cash for clunkers" program may be costing the government several hundred dollars for each ton of carbon dioxide that it destroys, according to conclusions reached separately by two California academics.

• Energy Leapfrogging: A View from Togo

  (Credit: Themba Hadebe/The Associated Press) Solar panels sit atop rental rooms in Johannesburg, South Africa. As renewable energy systems become more efficient and less expensive, many environmentalists hope to incorporate the technologies into development models around the world. Just as millions ...

• As Prices Slump, Solar Industry Suffers

  A run of bad earnings has dampened confidence in once-booming solar companies.

• Exxon Fined for Causing Bird Deaths

  Exxon Mobil has pleaded guilty to causing the deaths of 85 protected birds -- and agreed to pay penalties amounting to $7,000 per bird.

Dot Earth News

• Energy Frontiers: Space Solar, Hot Lots

  A closer look at potentially transformational energy ideas.

• Data Gap on Atlantic Storms and Warming

  More questions raised about recent hurricane trends.

• A Billion Teenagers, for Better or Worse

  Some of the world's poorest and most turbulent regions are witnessing explosive population growth, meaning enormous numbers of teenagers and children.

• Landslide Losses Not Inevitable

  With planning, the risks from landslides like those in Taiwan can be reduced.

• In Praise of Activism

  Human progress on a finite planet will require lots of vigilant activists.

Doug Feith : Hong Pong

• Thanks to Rose for finding my phone! Plus: I'm sta ...

  I nearly had a horrible day today, leaving my trusty old Helio phone on a bench at the University of Minnesota mall. A good samaritan named Rose picked it up and called the Boiler Room coffee shop back after I tried the phone. I got it back! Thanks a ton, Rose, you saved yet another messy situation ...

• Hat tip for Joaquin Phoenix conspiracy

  Not a bad idea! Which makes this potentially one of the greatest performances any modern actor has ever given -- or at least one of the most baldly courageous. The closest comparison would have to be Andy Kaufman's utter commitment to his obnoxious Tony Clifton persona, but Phoenix is going Kaufman ...

• Tough times south of the border

  Duly noted: Mexican TV reporter ducking stray bullets: Hat tip to the thoughtful Texas farmer Don , who knows what you ought to know about the War On Drugs. This video was recently the #1 most discussed from Mexico on YooToob... Plus, don't miss the five stages of complete social collapse! http://c ...

• Pirate Bay Trial and Kopimi: The Kopimi Manifesto

  I can't say I get it. But I like it. In these apocalyptic and bitchy times, it is high time to get some sarcastic Swedish hacker philsophy out there. Now is the time. The spectrial is apparently the place. How could we forget the Pirate Bay Spectrial?! They released a Pirate Bay Manifesto - POwr, Br ...

• Some notes from the Abyss; Fusion Centers going to ...

  We're on the brink of disaster | Salon! As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including government officials, plant managers, landl ...

• AlterNet Top Stories

• Why the Right's 'Astroturfing' Propaganda Is Textb ...

  Faux grassroots firms are exhibiting all the tell-tale signs.

• Put Down That Coors: Why We Should Be Boycoting Bi ...

  One reason to boycott large breweries is the union busting, right wing culture that dominates some of the biggest breweries in America.

• Lou Dobbs Tours Single-Payer Systems Abroad and Re ...

  Has CNN's government-out-of-my-face bloviator actually had a change of heart when it comes to Obama's health plan?

• No Matter What Lies the Right Wing Screams, the Br ...

  Republicans and right-wing pundits in the US have tried to scare us about Britain's public health system -- because it works.

• Let The Sun Shine In: Marriage Equality Comes to B ...

  The classic protest musical, Hair, is back to tackle what many consider to be the biggest civil rights issue of our era: marriage equality.

Threat Level

• Luckless Predator Only Attracted to Undercover Cop ...

  It’s official. There’s nobody in the chat rooms but pedophiles and undercover police. On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of an Indiana man whose online efforts to proposition underage girls led him to not one, not two, but three undercover cops, none of whom apparently kn ...

• Hotel Error Advertises Room Rate in Italy for 1 Ce ...

  Word apparently spread quickly across the internet on Sunday night that a luxury hotel in Venice, Italy, was offering a special 1-cent-a night rate. Visitors to the online registration page of the luxury Crowne Plaza Venice East-Quarto d’Altino hotel discovered it wasn’t just a rumor and that in ...

• Firefox Plug-In Frees Court Records, Threatens Jud ...

  Access to the nation’s federal law proceedings just got a public interest hack, thanks to programmers from Princeton, Harvard and the Internet Archive, who released a Firefox plug-in designed to make millions of pages of legal documents free. Free as in beer and free as in speech. The Problem: Fe ...

• Feds Support $1.92 Million RIAA File Sharing Verdi ...

  The Obama administration told a federal judge Friday the $1.92 million jury verdict against a Minnesota woman for sharing 24 music tracks on Kazaa was constitutionally sound, despite defense claims it was unconstitutionally excessive. After the June verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, defense atto ...

• Top Security Firm RSA Tries to Silence Blog

  RSA security, one of the top security firms in the country, has sent takedown notices to a blogger and his hosting company in an effort to silence his discussion of a vulnerability found on a bank web site that RSA helps monitor, according to the blogger. The firm has accused the blogger of tradema ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• North Korea makes nuclear threat over military dri ...

  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea denounced upcoming joint South Korean and U.S. military drills and said it would "wipe out" the countries with nuclear weapons if they threatened the communist state, its KCNA news agency said on Sunday.

• Obama defends healthcare plans, criticizes insurer ...

  GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama reignited his criticism of health insurance companies on Saturday, promising reforms that would prevent firms from capping coverage or charging "outrageous" fees.

• Storms Ana, Bill race west; hurricane expected

  MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storms Ana and Bill, the first named storms of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, were racing westward with gale force winds, and Bill was expected to develop into a hurricane in the next few days, the National Hurricane Center said.

• Oil trader under scrutiny for phenomenal success

  NEW YORK (Reuters) - An oil trader who has rocked Wall Street and the White House over his nine-figure salary clings to a low profile, quietly making trades from a former dairy farm in Connecticut and emerging occasionally to satisfy his passion for art.

• Russia, Venezuela edge closer to oil deal, talk ar ...

  ST.PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Russia and Venezuela on Saturday moved closer to an oil venture deal and discussed arms trade, forging a partnership that may drag Russia into a row over the U.S. military presence in Colombia.

Godspace

• Unemployment as a Spiritual Practice

  I am now back from Australia and as you can imagine the posts for my series on What is a Spiritual Practice have been mounting up while I have had limited internet access and less time to focus on such things. Â Thanks for your patience and for your prayers during this challenging season. Today’ ...

• Editing your Life: The Spiritual Discipline of Edi ...

  I am sitting in Sydney on a beautiful but crisp winter’s morning watching the rainbow lorikeets out in the trees. Â My Dad’s funeral is over and I will head back to Seattle in 2 days time. Â I have been very aware of prayer and the grace of God in the midst of this. Â Thanks to [...]

• Living in Transition as Spiritual Practice

  I am now in Sydney Australia after what has been one of the easiest long international trips I have made for a long time. Â I even slept for several hours on the flight which makes me very aware of the fact that people have been praying for me. Today’s article comes from Guy Chmieleski who is [. ...

• Recent Additions to the Spiritual Practices series

  Here’s the round-up of the most recent Spiritual Practices posts: The Spiritual Practice of Apologizing by T Freeman Love-making as a Spiritual Practice by Mark Scandrette Smoking the Glory of God by Jason Clark The Spiritual Practice of Getting Honest With Myself by Jonathan Brink Spiritual Disci ...

• Between the Sheets: Sleeping as A Spiritual Practi ...

  I will be heading out to Australia this afternoon but am hoping to continue posting while I travel. Â The submissions continue to arrive which is wonderful and I am enjoying reading them before I post them. This morning’s post is from Teri Peterson a presbyterian pastor who loves her new bed (wh ...

Pine River World News

• JIHAD IN NIGERIA: Boko Haram sect threatens Nigeri ...

  Pine River World News / IntelTrends August 15, 2009 If you thought that Boko Haram, the Islamic sect at the center of recent clashes in northern Nigeria, would simply go away after their leader was executed by police you may well be mistaken. Mohammed Yusuf's death certainly dealt a blow to the mov ...

• Islamic Emirate of Baytul-Maqdes declared in Gaza: ...

  IntelTrends - [ Blogmaster note : The Islamic Emirate of Baytul-Maqdes has been declared in Gaza under the leadership of Sheikh Abunnur al-Maqdesy. The Unjust Media (mujahideen and Islamic news) is carrying a declaration this date.] August 15, 2009 JUND ANSAR ALLAH: A Declaration of the ISLAMI ...

• BURMA: Junta's ploy: Push Kokang to shoot first

  IntelTrends - The following article is reprinted with permission from Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.), Thailand. Junta's ploy: Push Kokang to shoot first © S.H.A.N. August 14, 2009 Knowing the ceasefire groups' major concern is the border closure imposed by China, Burma's military leade ...

• Alan Philps: The Muslim scare story that just does ...

  The following opinion is from The National, Abu Dhabi. The Muslim scare story that just doesn't add up © The National By Alan Philps August 14. 2009 One of the most popular items on YouTube, the video-sharing website, is a slickly produced clip called Muslim Demographics. Since it was posted in ...

• Case study: U.S. healthcare is fine until you need ...

  [ Blogmaster note : The current health care system in the United States is a "for profit" industry which is an insult to the American people. The U.S. government can find unlimited funds to wage war but not to care for its citizens . As a retired government employee (deputy sheriff) who lacks Medic ...

• PsyBlog

• Consumer Psychology

  · How and why we consume and how our beliefs, ideas and senses influence consumption. Peter Drucker, the management consultant, famously argued that about 80% of all products and services fail or fall well short of targets within six months of launching. Clearly markets have little understanding ...

• Why Left to Right Punches Are More Aggressive, Pow ...

  Reading and writing from left to right is a skill so well-practised, so ingrained in language, that it's easy to ignore. Yet, according to some research, the direction in which language flows could have implications that spread into many other areas of our experience. Consider that people are often ...

• Persuasion: The Right-Ear Advantage

  If you want someone to comply with a random request for a cigarette, you should speak into their right ear, according to a new study by researchers in Italy. Marzoli & Tommasi (2009) had a female confederate visit a disco and approach 176 random people asking for a smoke. Clubbers were about twice ...

• 10 Rules That Govern Groups

  Much of our lives are spent in groups with other people: we form groups to socialise, earn money, play sport, make music, even to change the world. But although groups are diverse, many of the psychological processes involved are remarkably similar. Here are 10 insightful studies that give a flavou ...

• Are Your Initials Holding You Back?

  "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." ~Romeo and Juliet In these lines from Shakespeare's famous play, Juliet is trying to persuade Romeo that the bitter feud between their respective families doesn't matter, that he and his surname are easily divisib ...

After Downing Street.org

• Advantages of HR 676 & S 703 - The Single Payer, E ...

  Dale Larson, KatyAnn, and jLong over at Huffington Post compiled a list of advantages of the single-payer, enhanced Medicare for All alternative to the legislation being proposed now. What would you add? Slashes at least 30% of costs off the top by removing private insurance overhead. Companies tak ...

• In Rural Virginia, Relief is Rare for Uninsured

• CNN Interviews Health Insurance Whistleblower

• An Economic Time-Bomb Being Mishandled by the Obam ...

  An Economic Time-Bomb Being Mishandled by the Obama Administration? By David Corn | Politics Daily Is there a ticking time-bomb for the US economy? And is the Obama administration, Congress, and the media not paying it sufficient attention? That seems to be the message of a government report releas ...

• US Economic Myths Bite the Dust

  US Economic Myths Bite the Dust by Mark Weisbrot | UK Guardian The Great Recession is allowing some widely held beliefs about the US economy – which were the source of much evangelism over the last few decades – to run up against a reality check. This is to be expected, since the United States ...

Grist - News

• Ruminations on the Obama era, with a side of spicy ...

• Cheap-chicken ad from KFC hides true cost of food; ...

• For a quick fix to school-lunch woes, pack an appe ...

• Stalking the wild leeks of spring

  What could improve a forest walk in early spring? Spotting a bunch of that delicious wild relative of the leek known as the ramp.

• From a zingy spring herb, a soup for sipping on th ...

  Gardeners and gastronomes fawn over sorrel—and almost everyone else ignores it. That’s a shame; it’s is a powerful addition to soups and sauces, and tasty in salads when picked young.

Sidebar Search

To Do

renewable recycling conservation

Australia Govt Moves To Pass Renewable-Energy Bill

Wall Street Journal

- Aug 16, 2009

- 34 minutes ago

The move also jeopardized plans to require that 20% of Australia's electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2020, from less than 5% now - even ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Treasury & DOE To Release $2B for Renewables Manufacturers

Reuters

- Aug 14, 2009

- Aug 14, 2009

By Renewable Energy World - Renewable Energy World The US Department of the Treasury and the US Department of Energy (DOE) have released guidelines for the ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Plotting the path of renewable power lines

San Francisco Chronicle

- Aug 14, 2009

- Aug 14, 2009

(08-13) 18:12 PDT -- A new state report tries to tackle one of the touchiest issues in California's effort to expand renewable power, suggesting possible ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

New Jersey reaches renewable energy milestone

newjerseynewsroom.com

- Aug 14, 2009

- Aug 14, 2009

BY AARTI NAILINI MAHARAJ Ranking as second in the nation for "solar, renewable energy advancement," New Jersey celebrates a major achievement this summer ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

powered by

Human Habitat

ecology water energy

Eastern Michigan University wins grant to help children learn ...

Examiner.com

- Aug 15, 2009

- 8 hours ago

The initiative's goal is to increase awareness and understanding of the ecology of the Great Lakes so that Michigan's students become active stewards of the ...

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Anatomy of a deal: How local bidders landed former Sentinel building

San Jose Mercury News

- Aug 12, 2009

- Aug 12, 2009

A local consortium submitted the winning bid for the downtown building SANTA CRUZ -- Once a small nonprofit, Ecology Action has grown into a major force, ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Ecology and Crowley Maritime reach cleanup agreement

Access Washington

- Aug 11, 2009

- Aug 11, 2009

(Crowley) subsidiary and the Department of Ecology (Ecology) have signed an agreement to test soil, groundwater, and adjacent sediments for contamination at ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Ecology provides $11 million to boost stream flows, protect ...

Nisqually Valley News

- Aug 12, 2009

- Aug 12, 2009

In the past two years, Ecology provided $8.6 million for 32 stream-flow improvement projects and $11.2 million to 33 local watershed-planning groups, ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

powered by

Water Power

water floods pollution

Snake Valley water

Salt Lake Tribune

- Aug 15, 2009

- 7 hours ago

The conflict over the water beneath the 100-mile-long Snake Valley, which straddles the Utah-Nevada state line, stems from a water scheme by the thirsty ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Legislators return to discord and a full agenda

Los Angeles Times

- Aug 15, 2009

- 5 hours ago

In addition to lingering budget issues, they must deal with water and energy matters and prison crowding. By Patrick McGreevy Reporting from Sacramento ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Chicago enjoys Air and Water Show

ABC7Chicago.com

- Aug 15, 2009

- 9 hours ago

August 15, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Skill, technique, precision were all on display Saturday along Chicago's lakefront at the 51st annual Air and Water Show. ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Global, US drought anticipated

Detroit Free Press

- Aug 16, 2009

- 53 minutes ago

... levels in northern India to drop dramatically, a problem that could lead to severe water shortages in a country of more than 1 billion people. ...

Related Articles »