21 Aug - RSS SnapShot

RSS Updates from Opit's LinkFest! at My Opera

Blacklisted News

• IMF: Countries need to raise taxes to pay off tril ...

  The International Monetary Fund says most countries will need to raise taxes to pay off the trillions of dollars they spent fighting the global recession.

• C.I.A. Said to Use Blackwater to Put Bombs on Dron ...

  From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, the company formerly known as Blackwater has assumed a role in Washington’s most important counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda ’s leaders, according to government officials and current and former ...

• Autonomous Scout Vehicles Prowl The Mean Streets

  The U.S. Army's decades long effort to develop a practical autonomous UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) has succeeded. Earlier this month, two T2 vehicles equipped with sensors and control equipment, successfully passed realistic tests.

• Buffett: Debt Mountain Could Turn America Into A B ...

  Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, a supporter of Barack Obama and an indirect beneficiary of the bailouts, writes in a NYT op-ed to warn about the crushing mountain of debt the US government is now building up.

• Arms trade: UK dealers accused of selling Soviet w ...

  Britain has launched an urgent investigation into allegations that UK arms dealers have been buying up old Soviet weapons and selling them on to blacklisted countries.

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

• Why did Nick Smith hide the facts on forestry?

  Climate change minister Nick Smith's failure to front with the facts on forestry offsets amounts to a clear attempt to manipulate public perception of the difficulty of meeting steep targets, and raises serious questions about the agenda driving government policy. » PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews

• Manhattan commercial RE plunges 91% ..

  Only three Manhattan office buildings worth more than $30 million were sold in the first half of year, as buyer and sellers failed to agree on pricing and credit stayed tight, according to a report by real estate services company CB Richard Ellis Group Inc(CBG.N)."Buyers are seeking distressed prici ...

• Deposit Insurance Increases for US Banks

  The manner in which five banks collapsed on Friday, costing the resource-stretched Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. roughly $3.7 billion, is raising concerns about the agency's depleted insurance fund used to protect depositors.That's driving expectations the agency will look in the short-term to cov ...

• China cuts holding of U.S. Treasuries

  The conventional wisdom is that the US is beholden to foreign agents as they hold much of the US government debt. In this view, if these agents sell their securities, interest rates in America should increase as demand for US public debt evaporates.Now comes evidence that China is indeed selling. ...

• MorganStanley alert after explosive rally

  Andrew Sheets, the bank's European credit strategist, has advised clients to beware signs of creeping angst in the credit options markets, where volatility has been flashing an early warning signal for some weeks."The pace of the recent rally has, for the first time, begun to show signs of overexten ...

Independent ( London )

• Opposing teams claim wins in Afghan vote

  President Hamid Karzai and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah positioned themselves today as the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election, one day after millions of Afghans braved dozens of militant attacks to cast ballots.

• Real IRA chief's brother denied bail over arms smu ...

  A brother of one of the men blamed for the Omagh bomb was refused bail today over a foiled Real IRA arms smuggling plot in Lithuania.

• Dead soldier had only been in Afghanistan three we ...

  One of two soldiers killed as the Afghan people went to the polls was part of reinforcements sent to the country three weeks ago to boost numbers after a wave of casualties.

• Two British soldiers killed as Afghans vote

  Two soldiers were killed in an explosion in north Helmand as the Afghan people went to the polls, the Ministry of Defence said today.

• Andrew Buncombe: Imran and Benazir - a love story ...

  It had all the ingredients of the perfect romantic tale; two good-looking, intelligent and gifted students from Pakistan finding love amid the gleaming spires of Oxford. The only trouble, it seems, is that the story is not true.

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

• Iran Gives UN Inspectors Wider Access, Official Sa ...

  Summary: Salehi Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iran gave United Nations inspectors access last week to its Arak heavy-water reactor for the first time in a year and allowed increased monitoring of the Natanz uranium enrichment site, a UN official said. source: Bloomberg read more

• War? Israeli ambassador to US: Obama’s end-of-th ...

  Summary: Michael Oren 1) Israeli ambassador to US: Obama’s end-of-the-year deadline to Iran has been moved up to September (16 August 2009) 2) Israeli ambassador to US: Iranian nuke could wipe off Israel in seconds (4 July 2009) 3) Israeli army to train overseas for Iran strike operation (5 ...

• 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 Daily Galaxy

• The Cosmos in a Lab?

  A "universe in a test tube" that could be used to prove theories of everything was created by physicists using liquid helium and a magnetic field to build a finger-sized representation of the early cosmos. "In effect, we have made...

• The Spaser -New Nano Laser Smallest Ever

  Scientists have just unveiled the spaser, a device smaller than a human hair which emits laser light in all directions. No, it's not Q-branch preparing James to escape from extremely specific otherwise-inescapable conditions, it's real science. This is a brand...

• Image of the Day: Bode's Galaxy & Its Central Blac ...

  Bode's Galaxy is one of the brightest galaxies that can be seen from the Earth. It is high in the northern sky in the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. At an apparent magnitude of 6.8 it is just at...

• Zooming In On Sweet Spot for ET Contact

  "If those civilizations are out there – and we don't know that they are – those that inhabit star systems that lie close to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun will be the most motivated to send...

• "Future Present" - Is Science Fiction a Religious ...

  Is science fiction a prelude to science fact? Can you "sense" the future in the present? With District 9 zooming to #1 at the box office this week, we thought it was a great question to poll. No one has...

Natural News

• Suicide Prevention Drug Pushing Racket - Part II

  (NaturalNews) This is part two of an article series by Evelyn Pringle. You can read part one here: http://www.naturalnews.com/026789_suicide_suicide_prevention_Eli_Lilly.html A recent study in the April 2009, Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety journal found no change in the suicide rate in teens a ...

• Warning: Imaging Tests Can Damage Kidneys, Increas ...

  (NaturalNews) No matter what your health complaint is, if you go see your doctor you might end up undergoing some kind of high tech imaging procedure such as cardiac angiography, CT (computed tomography) or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). According to a study published last fall in the journal Hea ...

• If You Have Chronic Fatigue, You Might Just Need L ...

  (NaturalNews) Nearly everyone experiences fatigue at one time or another, but when that fatigue goes on for long periods of time or when it accompanies another health problem, it can be devastating. While there ARE many medical reasons for it, often those with persistent fatigue are left without a d ...

• Ten Things That Are Missing from Obama's Health Ca ...

  (NaturalNews) You can't fix one broken system by replacing it with another broken system. Sure, the current health care system of "that's a pre-existing condition" insurance companies, employer-funded health insurance and miserable Medicaid is a public health disaster, but if we're going to fix the ...

• Farmed Fish Could Give Humans Mad Cow Disease

  (NaturalNews) There is probably no illness that has more terrifying symptoms, or a more ghastly outcome, than variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) -- best known as mad cow disease. Abnormal proteins called prions found in brain tissue of cows suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) ...

• TheGallopingBeaver

• Passport photos?

  Given the case of Suaad Hagi Mohamud and Abdihakim Mohamed, and perhaps others, mistakenly imprisoned over apparently suspect passport photos, I wonder if part of the issue is legitimately related to the photos themselves. I've held three Canadian passports, the first two of which were the type whe ...

• Khadr ruling upheld

  CBC this morning: The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld a judge’s ruling that ordered the federal government to press for the return of Omar Khadr from a U.S. military detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Naturally this has brought out the frothing lunatics in the comments to the CBC item. I ...

• Conservatives getting things done for some Canadia ...

  The Toronto Star's Haroon Siddiqui has it exactly right, Stephen Harper is an embarrassment. Part of the problem in the case of Suaad Hagi Mohamud lies with the Canada Border Services Agency, who have done stupid and embarassing things before , but for Harper to say that it is now his top priority t ...

• Making a killing in Afghanistan

  LA Times : Four men with the U.S. firm once known as Blackwater are said to be under investigation in the deaths of two Afghans. A U.S. report found serious fault with private security firms in Afghanistan. Kabul : Residents say the U.S. contractors opened fire without provocation after one of thei ...

• Hey, Smart Shopper

  ALTERNET.ORG has a very interesting article, just in time for the back-to-school shopping blitz, written by Ellen Rupel Shell of the Penguin Press, titled " How Outlet Malls Have Convinced Shoppers into Thinking They're Getting a Sweet Deal ". Worth the read. It's not just a North American phenomeno ...

Media Matters for America

• Another Hannity reading FAIL: misstates "choice" ...

  Sean Hannity again undermined his claim that he has "read this bill from start to finish," this time asserting that the bill contains "provisions about ... not being able to choose care on Page 16." In fact, the provision Hannity said is on "Page 16" allows individuals to choose to keep their e ...

• Hannity demonstrates "bearing false witness" in sm ...

  On August 20, Sean Hannity misrepresented a statement that President Obama made during a conference call with religious leaders, claiming that Obama "talked about those of us that oppose ObamaCare as, quote, 'bearing false witness.' " In fact, Obama was not calling out opponents of health insurance ...

• Media seek to impugn both sides for ugliness in h ...

  In commenting on the tenor of the debate surrounding health care reform, several media figures have suggested that its supporters and opponents are equally detracting from the "seriousness" of the issue or that its supporters are failing to take seriously the critics of health care reform. Th ...

• GOP repeats dubious claim about Mohammed interrog ...

  The Hill newspaper uncritically reported that in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, several Republican senators claimed that the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed "produced information that 'was absolutely vital' to capturing other terrorists and preventing other attacks on the Un ...

• Media: When Dems use budget process to pa ...

  In recent days, media figures repeatedly referred to the Senate Democrats' possible use of reconciliation to pass health care reform with a simple majority as the "nuclear option," with Fox News going so far as to run graphics defining "nuclear option" as "[f]orcing government-run insurance thr ...

Global Research.ca

• Global War and Dying Democracy: The Revolution of ...

  We are entering into an era in which the institutions and image of democracy are in retreat. The slide into totalitarianism seems inevitable.

• McCain calls for more US troops in Afghanistan

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

• US Turns Blind Eye to Israel's New Separation Poli ...

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

• America's "War on Terrorism"

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

• Award Winning Movie: "SUPERPOWER":

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

TPM Cafe

• Modelling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – Part VII

  In Part VI of this series I came to the (non-consensus) conclusion that both Fannie and Freddie were long-term solvent and that the cost to the government of their conservatorship would be zero. I also suggested that the common stock... Sponsored Topics: Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac - Foreclo ...

• Obama, Afghanistan-- and St. Augustine

  Pres. Obama gave a speech to the veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention on Monday in which he spelled out his view of the US's now-declining strategic stakes in Iraq and its continuing strategic stake in Afghanistan. His words were... Sponsored Topics: Iraq - US - Afghanistan - United States ...

• The Birthers and the 14th Amendment

  Taking umbrage at the attention that the Doonesbury comic strip has drawn to a "Birther Bill" sitting in a House committee, Texas congressman Louie Gohmert (Republican) recently told Washington Post blogger Mary Ann Akers that the bill, H.R. 1503, has... Sponsored Topics: Washington Post - Mary A ...

• Health Care Reform and single payer – an Austral ...

  I write a financial blog which is republished on the largely political Talking Points Memo. I thought I better write something for both my audiences sometime – so I am jotting down my thoughts – from an Australian perspective –... Sponsored Topics: Healthcare reform - Health insuran ...

• America's Neo_Fascism

  I had an epiphany this afternoon. I was watching Chris Matthews and this spokesperson for the Gun Owners of America was on. He defended all the people bringing Semi Automatic rifles to Obama events. So Matthews asked him, "Do... Sponsored Topics: Chris Matthews - Gun Owners of America - United St ...

TruthOut

• Karzai and Abdullah Both Claim Victory in Afghan E ...

  An Afghani election worker with a ballot box. (Photo: Telegraph UK) read more

• Conyers May Call Rove, Miers to Testify Publicly ...

  Back in March, when House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers announced that he and his staff had reached an agreement to have Karl Rove and ex-White House counsel Harriet Miers testify privately about their roles in the firings of nine US attorneys, he said his panel also reserved the r ...

• Ridge: I Was Pressured to Raise Terror Alert Level ...

  Washington - Former US homeland security chief Tom Ridge charges in a new book that top aides to then-president George W. Bush pressured him to raise the "terror alert" level to sway the November 2004 US election. Then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and attorney general John Ashcroft pus ...

• Afghan Voters Go to the Polls Despite Violence

  Threats and attacks discourage some from voting in the presidential election, but many say nothing can keep them from exercising their right. Turnout appears to surge late in the day. Kabul, Afghanistan - The concrete floor was cracked and the windows caked with grime, but the sense of pri ...

• Obama's Enforcer: Not Really Tough Enough

  If the Democrats fail to pass real changes in the health care system this year - rather than a sham that mimics and mocks reform - they will have nobody to blame but themselves. Or at least nobody to blame but other Democrats, notably those in the White House who have never been committed to thi ...

The Heathlander

• A culture of fear

  Pankaj Mishra dissects the ‘culture of fear’ being manufactured by a recent spate of books and articles warning of an impending ‘Eurabia’: ‘Ordinary Muslims in Europe, who suffer from the demoralisation caused by living as perennial objects of suspicion and contempt, are far from thinking ...

• Fighting the fash

  Anti-fascist activists successfully confronted the BNP’s ‘Red, White and Blue’ hatefest [.pdf] (see also this Channel 4 report) in Codnor yesterday: One of the favourite chants of the day was reportedly: “We are black, white, Asian and we’re Jew / And they’re many, many more of us than ...

• 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 ...

Water - AlterNet

• The U.S. Is Years Behind the Rest of the World on ...

  While remarkable and innovative efforts at sustainable water management are still being pursued here, these efforts are no longer either unusual or groundbreaking.

• Are Fish from U.S. Streams and Rivers Safe to Eat? ...

  The USGS found methylmercury in every fish that it sampled -- an extraordinary indictment of the health of our nation's waters.

• Millions of Tons of Plastic Debris Floating in Oce ...

  As plastics break down in the sea they release chemicals toxic to humans and animals.

• When it Comes to Water, Can Corporations and Commu ...

  The latest fight between activists and companies such as Coke and Nestle is about who really owns water -- corporations or communities.

• The Fiji Phenomenon: It's a Human Rights and Envir ...

  How did a plastic water bottle, imported from a military dictatorship thousands of miles away, become the epitome of cool?

TruthHugger

• Texas Progressive Alliance – August 17, 2009

  It’s time for preseason football games, but the Texas Progressive Alliance is always in midseason form. Here are this week’s blog highlights. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why we put up with temper tantrums and intimidation from the far right? Everyone should have their say in our d ...

• Without Health Options – Where Is Your Voice? Op ...

  Who needs health care

• 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 ...

Dandelion Salad - Featured Writers' Posts

• Women Warriors. Sharing The Danger. by Eileen Cole ...

  by Eileen Coles Featured Writer Dandelion Salad crossposted at www.docudharma.com/diary August 17,

• Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox: Cynthia McKinney + Shee ...

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

• Labor Day, socialist holiday, approaches! By Jerry ...

  By Jerry Mazza Featured Writer Dandelion Salad crossposted at Online Journal www.jerrymazza.com Ma

• "Enough Already" by Cindy Sheehan

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

• Blame the Democrats! (My Republican Townhall Meeti ...

  By Timothy V. Gatto Featured Writer Dandelion Salad liberalpro.blogspot.com August 20, 2009 I atte

Unexplained Mysteries

• Prehistoric ‘runway’ discovered

  Scientists have uncovered a prehistoric "runway" in the limestone deposits of an ancient lagoon that would have been used by a flying pterosaur over 1...

• Hobbits walked out of Africa

  A new study has revealed that the hobbit-like Homo floresiensis may have not only been a genuine ancestor to modern humans but would have been the fir...

• Goldfish survives being flushed down loo

  An unfortunate goldfish who was flushed down the toilet after its owner decided that it was on its last legs miraculously survived the trip through th...

• Cave complex beneath Giza Pyramids ?

  British explorer Andrew Collins has claimed to have discovered an extensive series of chambers and tunnels underneath the Pyramids of Giza that is bei...

• Are UFO sightings linked to sci-fi films ?

  Recently released documents in the UK have shown that UFO sightings over the country increased five-fold in the same year that the movie Independence ...

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 21, 2009

  'Clunkers' to Close Monday After Fueling Sales, Dealer Anger (Bloomberg) The U.S. "cash for clunkers" program will stop accepting applications on Aug. 24, bringing to a close an effort that helped revive auto sales and drew the ire of dealers for slow repayments. Bus Tour Crosses Coal States t ...

• August 20, 2009

  Australian Parliament Sets Renewable Energy Target (AP) Australia's Parliament passed a law today to require that 20% of the country's electricity come from renewable sources by 2020, matching European standards and up from about 8% now. Another Record for U.S. Renewable Electricity (Renewable ...

• August 19, 2009

  Lobbyists Sent 13 Fake Letters to Hill (The Politico) A lobbying firm working for a coal industry group sent lawmakers 13 fraudulent letters opposing the House climate bill — five more than initially believed, a House committee has revealed. US Unions, Green Groups to Stump for Climate Chang ...

• August 18, 2009

  Young Activists from 110 Countries Want Climate Action (AFP) More than 800 young environmental activists from 110 countries on Monday began a UN-organized meeting described as the biggest-ever youth gathering on climate change. U.S. Wind Capacity Targets to be Missed Amid Slowdown (Financial ...

• August 18, 2009

  Young Activists from 110 Countries Want Climate Action (AFP) More than 800 young environmental activists from 110 countries on Monday began a UN-organized meeting described as the biggest-ever youth gathering on climate change. U.S. Wind Capacity Targets to be Missed Amid Slowdown (Financial ...

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

• American Justice Is Not Blind, But It Is Truly Sic ...

  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Federal District Court Judge Fernando Gaitan of the Missouri Western District Court have at least two things in common: they are both appointees of President Ronald Reagan, and they both think it's just fine for the US to execute innocent people. The same can ...

• Searching for the Depression - And Finding It!

  Economic Stress Is Hidden, But It's There in a Recovery That Isn't. Last week I was telling a visiting filmmaker from overseas about the financial crisis and how it was getting worse. He looked at me askance. The market had just gone up, he said, and the White House was talking about an emerging rec ...

• Tom DeLay and the Woodstock Nation

  A sorry state of affairs. If it wasn't for all the 40th anniversary celebrations of Woodstock, the primary cultural contribution of the month would be the announcement that Tom DeLay of Texas -- birther, born again and former Republican House Majority Leader -- will be a contestant in the next round ...

• The Obama Double Standard

  As the White House continues to move toward dropping the public option, I wanted to dispel two important myths - the ones about the administration's legislative leverage and ideological outlook. Specifically, just in case you were under the illusion that the Obama White House has no ability to play ...

• Solidarity Forever

  Whataya know! A labor leader peeped out from under a rock where he'd been hiding and appeared on television! It was Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFl-CIO and he pledged his support for the public option in the health care reform proposals currently being debated in Congress. He said ...

Ten Percent

• Afghan MP Malalai Joya on the Elections

  BBC Radio 4 from last week- And a short interview- Were you prepared for the consequences of the speeches you made against the government? In parliament, they couldn’t tolerate me because I told the truth. They turned off my microphone so I couldn’t talk, they insulted and threatened me. There ...

• Afghan Elections

  Gareth Porter for IPS reports- Afghanistan’s presidential election has long been viewed by U.S. officials as a key to conferring legitimacy on the Afghan government, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his powerful warlord allies have planned to commit large-scale electoral fraud that could have ...

• Malalai Joya- Raising My Voice (Review Part 3)

  ‘Most of the Taliban were long gone before the first bombs fell…And so, in Farah as with the rest of my country, many lives were needlessly lost.’ Glued to the radio Malalai and her family experienced the invasion first through global media reports then as terrifying air strikes rained ...

• Malalai Joya- Raising My Voice (Review Part 2)

  ‘the same donkey, only with a new saddle.’ Malalai and her family returned to Afghanistan in 1992, she was just fourteen and remembers Farah as a terrifying place as the civil war raged. Young girls would be abducted off the street, raped and killed by roaming gangs, Mujahideen troops would ...

• Malalai Joya- Raising My Voice (Review Part 1)

  ‘The truth is like the sun: when it comes up nobody can block it out or hide it’ Malalai Joya is an Afghan woman, the youngest MP in the Loya Jirga and barred from it since 2007 because a woman telling the truth is still forbidden in Afghanistan. In her book Raising My Voice she attempts [.. ...

Paul Krugman

• Short(s) notes

  I'm traveling, so posting will be light to nonexistent for the next few days. Herewith a few notes.

• Nick Beaudrot explains it all

  Going with the flow (chart).

• Black cats

  Choking on one's own snark.

• The other Bush bubble

  All about Jeb.

• The public option as a signal

  The public option has become not so much a symbol as a signal, a test of whether Obama is really the progressive activists thought they were backing.

No Quarter

• Hey Dude, You’re Fired!

  Should people who are overweight or who smoke (even if they never do it at work) be fired? Or never hired in the first place? As health care reform heats up, some are saying that those who choose unhealthy lifestyles should be barred from the workplace and also charged more for their health [...]

• Leon Panetta, Frigging Moron

  My Agency brother, who writes under the name, “Retired” was right. Panetta is a boob. I was wrong. I sincerely thought Panetta had the experience to be smart CIA Director. Nope. The clown is a complete, incompetent tool. The Daily Beast’s Joseph Finder has the story: CIA Director Leon Pan ...

• daily show: heal or no heal ~ open thread

  The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

• Remembrance of Things Past - Part 2

  Crud Layer 2 The intention of it all. What a catastrophe, they cried. What a horrific financial debacle, the sky is truly falling and we must have all your money right this instant lest even more dire events come to pass… how could this have happened? Who could have foreseen this… Whoa!, wait j ...

• Obama’s Desperation

  Look where hurricane Bill is heading! Isn’t Obama heading to Martha’s Vineyard this weekend for his umpteenth vacation? I think he is the kind of guy who would be upset if it rained on his parade. On the other hand, he must be used to that by now, especially the rain on his [...]

Environmental Graffiti

• The Chapel that Rises 280ft from a Massive Lava Pl ...
• Chernobyl 1984-2009: Then and Now
• Caught with a Cobra in your Pants
• 15 Spectacular Shots of Comet McNaught
• The Insane Bull Riders of Tamil Nadu

Foreign Policy in Focus

• Iran Gas Ban: Step toward War with Iran?

  The proposed U.S. ban on gasoline sales to Iran is better than bombing the country. But, columnist Michael Klare asks, could such a ban lead to war anyway?

• Book Review: 'The Future of Global Relations'

  America is on the way out. Are regions on the way in?

• Global Spin Doctors

  FPIF's weekly update.

• Kosovo, East Timor, R2P, and Ian Williams

  Noam Chomsky refutes Ian Williams' claim that NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999 did not precipitate atrocities in Kosovo.

• Lack of North American Leadership

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

Therapy News

• Therapy Help for Gang Members Takes a Hit

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline As the economic crisis tightens its grip on many national and international organizations, the need to recognize, understand, and help support suffering services in an effort to preserve the mental health initiatives of the past few decades is clear. Among the most re ...

• Meet Your Shadow

  Alissa Sige Weisman, MFTi There is someone I would like to introduce to you. Meet Your Shadow. Your Shadow is all the parts of yourself that you don’t like. It is the darker, repressed, and denied aspects of your being as well as the light. Your Shadow was formed when you banished these parts of y ...

• Personality Type May Influence Physical Health Dif ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline To some, the idea that an individual’s personality type can play a major role in their physical health may not come as a surprise. But for those with peripheral arterial disease, or PAD, having a certain type of personality may be an indication for a greater risk of ...

• Anti-Depressants Have Little Effect on Suicide Rat ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline Anti-depressant medications, which have experienced a sharp rise in popularity in recent years, often fall short of providing a truly meaningful or long-term solution to those experiencing difficult mental health concerns. While many may take anti-depressant medicatio ...

• Rare Gene Translates Social Rejection into Physica ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline Basic responses to social rejection are experience throughout life, and may contribute to a negative self-image or feelings of depression in some people. But in others, such responses may be secondary to a physically manifested hurt. A study recently performed at the ...

Mountaintop Removal

• Prosecutor: Charges Dropped Against Ken Hechler (W ...

  A Raleigh County magistrate has dismissed two charges against former Rep. Ken Hechler stemming from his arrest in June at a protest against mountaintop removal mining.

• Prosecutor: charges dropped against Hechler (Charl ...

  CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A Raleigh County magistrate has dismissed two charges against former Rep. Ken Hechler stemming from his arrest in June at a protest against mountaintop removal mining.Hechler was arrested June 23 with 30 other people outside a Mas...

• Protest charges dismissed against Hechler (The Cha ...

  CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Raleigh County magistrate dismissed two charges against former congressman and secretary of state Ken Hechler on Thursday from his arrest during a protest against mountaintop removal mines. State Police arrested Hechler and about 30...

• 25,000 sign up for Labor Day rally so far; more ex ...

  About 25,000 people have gone online to request free tickets for a Labor Day rally organized by Massey Energy Co., a spokesman said.

• Bruce Nilles: The Clock has Started Ticking on Mou ...

  This blog post co-written by Bruce Nilles and Mary Anne Hitt, Director and Deputy Director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. We've just learned that...

Memeorandum

• Lawyers Showed Photos of Covert CIA Officers to Gu ...

  Peter Finn / Washington Post : Lawyers Showed Photos of Covert CIA Officers to Guantanamo Bay Detainees — Justice Dept. Looking Into Whether Attorneys Broke Law at Guantanamo — By Peter Finn, Page A01 — The Justice Department recently questioned military defense attorneys at Guan ...

• Inside Cover - Zogby: Obama Hits Record Low in Pol ...

  David A. Patten / NewsMax.com : Inside Cover — Zogby: Obama Hits Record Low in Poll — President Barack Obama's popularity has plummeted to a record low, with just 45 percent of voters now approving of his performance, according to the latest Zogby International poll. — Asked whet ...

• Pelosi Says She Can't Pass Bill Without Public Opt ...

  Bloomberg : Pelosi Says She Can't Pass Bill Without Public Option — Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won't be able to pass health-care legislation in her chamber if the measure doesn't include a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.

• Bush Official, in Book, Tells of Pressure on '04 V ...

  Peter Baker / New York Times : Bush Official, in Book, Tells of Pressure on '04 Vote — WASHINGTON — Tom Ridge, the first secretary of homeland security, asserts in a new book that he was pressured by top advisers to President George W. Bush to raise the national threat level just before th ...

• Liberals And Gut Hatred, Or, Why I'm Sorry I Wrote ...

  Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel : Liberals And Gut Hatred, Or, Why I'm Sorry I Wrote What I Wrote — Both Glenn Greenwald and Marcy Wheeler have written posts eviscerating me for contending that Bush-hatred, not anything else, drove skepticism among liberals about the terrorist ...

Energy & Environment News

• Natural Gas Prices Plummet to a Seven-Year Low

  The sharp price decline of natural gas was attributed to declining demand and a big expansion of domestic production.

• Drilling Ordeals Are Said to Set Back a Big Geothe ...

  A major test of geothermal energy, already under review because it could induce earthquakes, has fallen behind schedule over other problems, federal scientists said.

• Continuing Education: Sustainability Field Booms o ...

  Universities and community colleges are responding to a demand from the public for degrees or ad hoc courses on sustainability.

• Toyota Falling Behind Rivals in Race to Go Electri ...

  Mitsubishi and Nissan hope to leapfrog Toyota and G.M. by focusing on battery-powered cars rather than hybrids like the Prius and the Volt.

• Oil Industry Backs Protests of Emissions Bill

  Companies say new policies from Washington could cost them billions of dollars and raise prices for consumers at the pump.

5+ quakes - 7 days

• M 5.4, southeast of the Loyalty Islands

  Friday, August 21, 2009 11:15:46 UTC Friday, August 21, 2009 10:15:46 PM at epicenter Depth : 61.30 km (38.09 mi)

• M 5.3, southwestern Ryukyu Islands, Japan

  Thursday, August 20, 2009 14:18:13 UTC Thursday, August 20, 2009 11:18:13 PM at epicenter Depth : 35.40 km (22.00 mi)

• M 6.0, Norwegian Sea

  Thursday, August 20, 2009 06:35:05 UTC Thursday, August 20, 2009 06:35:05 AM at epicenter Depth : 10.00 km (6.21 mi)

• M 5.1, Tonga

  Wednesday, August 19, 2009 13:07:21 UTC Thursday, August 20, 2009 02:07:21 AM at epicenter Depth : 10.00 km (6.21 mi)

• M 5.7, Kepulauan Mentawai region, Indonesia

  Sunday, August 16, 2009 12:49:00 UTC Sunday, August 16, 2009 07:49:00 PM at epicenter Depth : 21.00 km (13.05 mi)

China Dialogue

• Biofuels: learning from Obama

  The US president’s directive on advanced biofuels – and its implementation by government departments – sends an important message to China’s energy planners, write Zhang Jinyuan and Xu Dingming. [Produced in association with Rutgers Climate and Social Policy Initiative ] On May 5, 2009, ...

• The dangers of boosting consumption

  China’s government and the domestic market are calling for greater spending. Economic growth may be maintained, writes Huo Weiya, but US-style living may mean we need another two Earths. To maintain an 8% economic-growth target through the current global financial crisis, the Chinese government ha ...

• The Ilisu Dam’s uncertain future

  A controversial project in south-eastern Turkey hangs in the balance, writes Elizabeth Angell. The government sees it as necessary, but opponents say it will incur great social and ecological costs. Since a group of European backers withdrew funding in July, the fate of the controversial Ilisu dam â ...

• Africa looks to the sun and wind

  Amid surging demand for electricity -- and frequent blackouts – the continent is embracing renewable energy sources. Kenya is set to host the biggest African wind farm, Xan Rice reports. One of the hottest places in the world is set to become the site of Africa’s most ambitious venture in the ba ...

• Geoengineering: plastic forests

  Could synthetic trees help to cool the planet? chinadialogue continues its series that examines geoengineering proposals from scientists around the world. What’s the big idea? Forests of synthetic “trees”, designed to capture and store carbon dioxide, could be used to effectively offset cl ...

AlterNet Top Stories

• How Viagra Promised a Sexual Revolution But Delive ...

  The little blue pill was supposed to transform our attitudes towards aging and sexuality. It merely reinforced bad cultural stereotypes about older men.

• Whoa, 'District 9' Is a Really Good Sci-Fi Action ...

  There are a couple of strokes of genius in District 9 that renew hopes for the future of genre film.

• Anti-Choice Zealots Make Bank Promoting the " ...

  The 'egg-as-person' crusade is driving big money to anti-choice groups.

• How Yawning Got One Court Spectator Six Months in ...

  When judges take on airs and lash out in fits of whimsical bullying, innocent people can end up paying the price with jail time -- or their lives.

• How Pharma Giants Are Getting Rich By Calling Our ...

  Pharma companies have waded into helping us with life problems far beyond the biological -- they claim to cure our social maladies.

Threat Level

• In Gonzalez Hacking Case, a High-Stakes Fight Over ...

  When Turkish police arrested Maksym “Maksik” Yastremskiy — a Ukrainian wholesaler of stolen identity data — in July 2007, they didn’t just collar one of the most-wanted cybercriminals in the world. They also got a trove of evidence about Yastremskiy’s buyers and suppliers, all locke ...

• TJX Suspect Was Near Plea Agreement Until New Char ...

  Accused TJX hacker Albert Gonzalez, who is set to go to trial next month in New York, was close to reaching a comprehensive settlement with federal prosecutors when new charges were levied against him this week in New Jersey, according to his lawyer. Rene Palomino, Jr., told the New York Times that ...

• Lawyer: FBI Paid Right-Wing Blogger Charged With T ...

  A notorious New Jersey hate blogger charged in June with threatening to kill judges and lawmakers was secretly an FBI “agent provocateur” paid to disseminate right-wing rhetoric, his attorney said Wednesday. Hal Turner, the blogger and radio personality, remains jailed pending charges over his r ...

• BSA Softens Anti-Piracy Message

  The Business Software Alliance has a new anti-piracy video that for the first time uses humor instead of scare tactics to get out its message. The alliance, consisting of about 80 companies — including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe — is the counterpart to the Recording Industry Association of Amer ...

• Outspoken Privacy Advocate Joins FTC

  Christopher Soghoian, an outspoken privacy advocate who drew the ire of a congressman two years ago when he published information about a serious breach in airline security, has been hired by the Federal Trade Commission to work in the division of privacy and identity protection in its Bureau of Co ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• Holiday unlikely to be restful for President Obama

  * Obama takes a break, but can his agenda wait? * Critics assail choice of elite holiday resort By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - His healthcare reform plan is stumbling, the economy is still sputtering and violence is up in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who wouldn't want a break? Presiden ...

• Honey, I cheated, and blah blah blah...

  LONDON (Reuters) - Never again honey -- and here's a diamond to say sorry.

• Europe Factors-Shares set to dip; automakers in fo ...

  PARIS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - European equities were seen dipping on Friday, trimming the previous session's gains and mirroring losses in Tokyo, with shares of resource-related stocks set to feel the pinch of retreating commodity prices.

• Microsoft, Sony slug it out over living-room "hub"

  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 are locked in a battle to control entertainment in the living room beyond video games, a competition that is only growing more intense with the increasing popularity of digital distribution.

• Half of swine flu deaths in high-risk people -stud ...

  * Pregnancy, obesity big risk factors for flu death * Elderly patients also more likely to die By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - About half of people who have died from swine flu have been pregnant or had other health conditions, especially diabetes and conditio ...

Godspace

• How To Exercise Caution When Getting Back to Exerc ...

  Today’s post in the What is a Spiritual Practice series was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of online bible college . Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson1@gmail.com I took to jogging a year ago and discovered that I lo ...

• Celtic Prayer Retreat is Over

  MSA’s 18th Annual Prayer retreat is over. Â We had a great time up on Camano Island and I thought that those of you who cannot make it to the Pacific Northwest would be interested in some of the prayers and photos from the event. Â Maybe you would like to conduct your own mini retreat based [. ...

• Playing Children’s Games As Spiritual Practi ...

  It is a bright and sunny morning in Seattle with the promise of a hot day ahead. For most of us it is a work day but I think that if we were honest with ourselves we would rather be out playing with the kids so this post below by Julie Clawson seemed appropriate. Julie describes [...]

• Intergenerational Friendships as Spiritual Practic ...

  I am back from the MSA Celtic retreat on Camano Island (more on that later) and realizing that my expectations of what I could accomplish were a little unrealistic. And then our internet was down all morning and I was just about pulling my hair out trying to get caught up. What ever happened to ...

• 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’ ...

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 #0074

  Captured Real IRA operative tried to buy weapons in Lithuania. CIA lawyers accused of "deception" in contract dispute. Western spy agencies develop "terrorist Facebook".

• Australian diplomats targeted by fake email

  The Australian government has issued a warning to its diplomats around the world about a fake email, which it says could be part of an organized cyberespionage campaign.

• Israel, Azerbaijan, tight-lipped on rumored reconn ...

  The Israeli and Azerbaijani governments are keeping quiet about rumored plans to jointly manufacture unmanned drone aircraft and spy satellites.

• News you may have missed #0073

  Homeland Security denies involvement in domestic spying case. Sudan's new spy chief speaks to the press. US special operations forces can't exploit intelligence.

• News you may have missed #0072

  Emirates to go after former French spy. Analysis: Government secrecy alive and well under Obama. Was US man caught in FSB honey trap operation a CIA agent?

PsyBlog

• Brainstorming Reloaded

  · Why brainstorming is ineffective and how to fix it. Brainstorming was once thought a fantastic way for groups to generate new ideas. Although not as fashionable as it once was, brainstorming is still frequently used in business and, often inadvertently, for all sorts of personal decisions; peop ...

• 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 ...

After Downing Street.org

• The Ed Show - Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) - Single ...

• "Enough Already"

  By Cindy Sheehan "And you look at somebody like that (note: me) and you think here's somebody who's just trying to find some meaning in her son's death. And you have to be sympathetic to her. Anybody who has given a son to this country has made an enormous sacrifice, and you have to be sympathetic. ...

• The Treason of Eric Cantor

  By Chris Dorsey I could not help laughing at the irony when I received an invitation to a job fair put on by Eric Cantor whose policies have destroyed American jobs to benefit multi-national corporations. I was not surprised. Cantor showed no shame when he exchanged money with known child predator ...

• Announcing A New Informational Website on U.S. Mil ...

  http://www.usmvaw.com Providing information, analysis, and news about the history of U.S. military violence against girls and women in Okinawa and Japan, and in numerous other locations around the world. Other related concerns include: * Sexual assault and violence against women within the U.S. ar ...

• Keith Olbermann with John Dean: Ridge Admits Bush ...

  read more

Grist - News

• Let’s (re)do school lunch

  It’s time to get active in the campaign to improve school lunches, says Kurt Michael Friese.

• 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.

Popular Bookmarks on Del.icio.us

• 30 Classic Games for Simple Outdoor Play | GeekDad ...
• 5 Terrific Ted Talks on Future Technologies
• 27 Firefox Addons For Power Blogging - slodive
• ホントに助かるフリーのcssジェネレム...
• Viral Marketing Campaign Checklist | Dan Zarrella

• IPS - Inter Press Services

• TRADE: France Conned EU’s Controversial Sub ...

  PARIS, Aug 21 (IPS) - The European Commission is demanding that the French government pays back 500 million euros spent on aid to French farmers. The scheme is in breach of European competition law as it financed competition with France’s neighbours by providing vegetable and fruit producers ...

• HEALTH-THAILAND: Threats to Generic Drugs Policy ...

  BANGKOK, Aug 21 (IPS) - A behind-the-scenes tussle between the pro-business, free trade wing of the Thai government and the country’s public health activists is raging over the fate of a national programme to supply cheaper generic drugs.

• EGYPT: Differences 'Narrowing' Over Nile Waters

  CAIRO, Aug 21 (IPS) - Signs are emerging of some narrowing of differences over the sharing of Nile waters.

• VIETNAM: Sex Selection Skews Sex Ratio

  HO CHI MINH CITY, Aug 21 (IPS) - Vietnam is something of a regional leader when it comes to gender equality. There are laws against domestic violence and discrimination, and very high female literacy.

• RIGHTS-NAMIBIA: Updating Child Protection

  WINDHOEK, Aug 20 (IPS) - A mammoth draft bill on child care and protection is nearing completion in Namibia. A gaggle of experts has made recommendations; a muster of officials will decide what goes in and what stays out. And all worry what the politicians will say.

The Intelligence Daily

• Showdown with Russia and China: U.S. Advances Firs ...

• Global Depression and Regional Wars - Part II

• Running Out Fossil Fuels: A Cause For Glee?

• GOP Senators: US Faces Terrorist Attack If Holder ...

• Things Falling Off the Table - Economy

My AntiWar

• Obama Murders Nine More Pakistanis

  At least nine people are reported to have been killed in north-west Pakistan in a suspected US missile strike. One or two missiles targeted a compound in the village of Dande Darpa Khel in the tribal region of North Waziristan, Pakistani officials said. (Source: BBC News) Another day, another terror ...

• Iran Gives UN Inspectors Wider Access, Official Sa ...

  Summary: SalehiAug. 20 (Bloomberg)—Iran gave United Nations inspectors access last week to its Arak heavy-water reactor for the first time in a year and allowed increased monitoring of the Natanz uranium enrichment site, a UN official said. source: Bloombergread more

• Arms Expert Warns New Mind Drugs Eyed by Military
• Pakistan’s Lawyers Above Law?
• Iran Parliament to Reject Ahmadinejad Ministers: M

• Rogue Government.com

• 700 Of 796 Stimulus Jobs In New Hampshire Are Gov ...

  Nashua got the fourth most cash of any New Hampshire community from the first phase of federal stimulus money, falling behind Manchester, Windham and Concord.

• Mexico Decriminalizes Small Amounts Of Drugs

  Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday — a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government's grueling battle against drug traffickers.

• U.S. Deficit Estimate To Be Trimmed To $1.58 Tril ...

• Arms Expert Warns New Mind Drugs Eyed by Military ...

  A leading expert on chemical and biological arms control called Wednesday for urgent efforts to stop new mind-altering drugs developed for medical purposes from being adopted by the military for use in warfare.

• Alex Jones Gives Credibility To Alan Keyes Anothe ...

  According to Craig Unger’s book which was originally published under the title “ The Fall of the House of Bush” on page 171, Keyes is listed as a CNP member according to a 1996 telephone directory of the group’s members .

Innovation Canada

• Testing ground

  Think of it as a case of lab life trying to imitate real life. From behind a two-way mirror, researchers observe and record medical staff trying to use intravenous drug pumps and other devices while being continuously interrupted by a Code Blue or other emergencies that could cause them to make mist ...

• 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 ...

Signs of the times

• Lebanon riddled with spies: another ex-officer con ...

  A retired Lebanese police officer has confessed to spying for the Israeli government and also admitted his involvement in a deadly 2006 car bombing. According to AFP, the 62-year-old Internal Security Forces official, confessed before a military court to having "collaborated with Israeli intelligen ...

• Palestinians' Neverending Kristallnacht

  Israeli soldiers brutally attack a number of peace activists, who were documenting an overnight raid on a Palestinian house in the West Bank town of Bil'in. The incident happened in the early hours of Thursday as 25 Israeli soldiers, with their faces painted black, were raiding the house of Mohamma ...

• Repayment crisis threatens millions of homeowners

  Many of the four million homeowners who took out interest-only mortgages are facing a crisis because they have no way of repaying their home loans. Figures from the Financial Services Authority, which has regulated mortgages since 2004, show that 38 per cent of Britain's 11.1 million mortgage borro ...

• Half of swine flu deaths in high-risk people -stud ...

  About half of people who have died from swine flu have been pregnant or had other health conditions, especially diabetes and conditions linked with obesity, French researchers reported on Thursday. And although older people seem to be less likely than others to get infected, if they do get the new ...

• Artificial life is only months away, says biologis ...

  Artificial life will be created within four months, a controversial scientist has predicted. Craig Venter, who led a private project to sequence the human genome, told The Times that his team had cleared a critical hurdle to creating man-made organisms in a laboratory. "Assuming we don't make any e ...

Threat Level

• In Gonzalez Hacking Case, a High-Stakes Fight Over ...

  When Turkish police arrested Maksym “Maksik” Yastremskiy — a Ukrainian wholesaler of stolen identity data — in July 2007, they didn’t just collar one of the most-wanted cybercriminals in the world. They also got a trove of evidence about Yastremskiy’s buyers and suppliers, all locke ...

• TJX Suspect Was Near Plea Agreement Until New Char ...

  Accused TJX hacker Albert Gonzalez, who is set to go to trial next month in New York, was close to reaching a comprehensive settlement with federal prosecutors when new charges were levied against him this week in New Jersey, according to his lawyer. Rene Palomino, Jr., told the New York Times that ...

• Lawyer: FBI Paid Right-Wing Blogger Charged With T ...

  A notorious New Jersey hate blogger charged in June with threatening to kill judges and lawmakers was secretly an FBI “agent provocateur” paid to disseminate right-wing rhetoric, his attorney said Wednesday. Hal Turner, the blogger and radio personality, remains jailed pending charges over his r ...

• BSA Softens Anti-Piracy Message

  The Business Software Alliance has a new anti-piracy video that for the first time uses humor instead of scare tactics to get out its message. The alliance, consisting of about 80 companies — including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe — is the counterpart to the Recording Industry Association of Amer ...

• Outspoken Privacy Advocate Joins FTC

  Christopher Soghoian, an outspoken privacy advocate who drew the ire of a congressman two years ago when he published information about a serious breach in airline security, has been hired by the Federal Trade Commission to work in the division of privacy and identity protection in its Bureau of Co ...

PERRspectives : Blog

• In New Book, Tom Ridge Decries His Politicized Ter ...

  In his new book, former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge confirms what most long suspected: the Bush administration manipulated the terror threat level for the President's political advantage. But while his long overdue admission is welcome, his suggestion that he...

• The 5 Symptoms of Incurable Republican Schizophren ...

  The Mayo Clinic, the world famous institution cited by all sides in the contentious health care debate, defines schizophrenia as a serious brain disorder "in which reality is interpreted abnormally" resulting in "hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking and behavior." Apparently,...

• Tom Delay and Fred Thompson, Death Panelists

  Slowly but surely, the mainstream media and even some Republican politicians are starting to roll back the GOP's vicious lies and fear-mongering over what Sarah Palin deemed Obama's "death panels." Ironically, many of the same conservatives who demanded the federal...

• What's the Matter with Oklahoma?

  As the ever more combustible health care debate rages across America, the state of Oklahoma has become the poster child for the conflict and its contradictions. A 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund ranked Oklahoma dead last in state health...

• Town Halls, Teabaggers, Obama Birthers and Nixonla ...

  Once in a rare while, a book captures the spirit of its age. So it is with Nixonland, Rick Perlstein's stunning chronicle of the rise and fall of Tricky Dick. But his story of the "fracturing of America" isn't simply...

Blackspot News Feed

• FREAKANGELS: NOTICE 008

  Skip week, because Paul’s sick, but we have stuff to show you nonetheless .

• Black Conservatives in the Age of Obama

  The most prominent voices for conservatism in African American communities continue to be those of Christian church leaders.

• How Pharma Giants Are Getting Rich By Calling Our ...

  Pharma companies have waded into helping us with life problems far beyond the biological -- they claim to cure our social maladies.

• How Yawning Got One Court Spectator Six Months in ...

  When judges take on airs and lash out in fits of whimsical bullying, innocent people can end up paying the price with jail time -- or their lives.

• Sculpting Metal with High Explosives

  In 1985, American artist Evelyn Rosenberg developed a technique for embossing thick metal plates by blasting them onto a mold with sheets of plastic explosive. “Detonography,” as she calls it, can impress very delicate images into metal surfaces, and can weld dissimilar metals together into sing ...

Consortium News

• Blackwater's Unwritten Death Contract

  President Bush's CIA farmed out assassination work to Blackwater mercs without regard to legal constraints, says Ray McGovern. August 20, 2009

• Tom DeLay Stomps Woodstock Nation

  Peaceful dreams of Woodstock lost out to the likes of GOP leader (and dance contestant) Tom DeLay, writes Michael Winship. August 20, 2009

• The Republican Ayatollahs

  Nine GOP senators protest an investigation of CIA torture with arguments like those of Iran's ayatollahs, says David Swanson. August 20, 2009

• Robert Novak Was a Liar

  Washington pundits are eulogizing right-wing columnist Robert Novak, but are leaving out that he was a liar, says Robert Parry. August 19, 2009

• Why the Right's Propaganda Works

  The Right's success in selling lies about President Obama's health reform derives from its media clout, writes Robert Parry. August 19, 2009

CounterPunch

• Alexander Cockburn : The Right Wing's Prince of Go ...
• Carl Ginsburg : Paycheck President
• Dave Lindorff : American Justice is Not Blind, But ...
• M. Shahid Alam : An "Abnormal" Nationalism
• Ron Jacobs : The Continuing Story of Camp Ashraf

Institute for Middle East Understanding

• Boycott Israel (Neve Gordon, The Los Angeles Time ...

  It is clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have y ...

• Preparing for the Holy month (IMEU)
• Jerusalem's Israeli mayor rekindles Ramadan cannon ...

  The Israeli mayor of Jerusalem drew criticism on Thursday with an announcement that he will personally fire the traditional Ramadan cannon early in the Muslim holy month. Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fas ...

• A serial thorn in the side of the Israeli state ( ...

  If a single person deserves the title of serial thorn in the side of the Israeli state, Uri Davis, a professor of critical Israel studies at al Quds University on the outskirts of East Jerusalem, might be th ...

• Settlers taped attacking Palestinians evade arrest ...

  Despite the video footage and the international public outcry it generated, the Judea and Samaria police are closing the case of a severe beating of three Palestinians by masked settlers, without having mana ...

Planetsave

• Minnesota Moose on the Run from Climate Change

  An expert advisory committee this week released recommendations on restoring Minnesota’s dwindling moose population, whose decline one expert said is related to gradual warming of the state’s climate. “The moose, of course, is not an animal that deals very well with heat,’’ pane ...

• Greenpeace Exposes Oil Industry’s Really Dirty F ...

  We can’t expect much from the oil industry, but Greenpeace’s newest finding is as ugly as it gets. Read more of this story »

• Freshwater Dreams and Schemes

  The North American Great Lakes contain 6 quadrillion gallons of freshwater, about one-fifth of the world’s available freshwater supply. For more than 25 years, residents of the Great Lakes region have feared large-scale public works projects to take freshwater from the Lakes to thirsty, faster- ...

• Coal Strip Mine Would Destroy Salmon Streams in Co ...

  PacRim Coal’s plan to strip mine coal right through 11 miles of salmon-bearing streams in Alaska would destroy critical wetlands and headwater streams beyond the point of restoration, according to three new studies by scientists. The salmon fisheries along the Chuit River would be severely damaged ...

• Tourist Mosquitoes Threaten the Galapagos

  If you could declare a home town of evolution it would be the Galapagos Islands. Back in 1835 a sea sick young naturalist, Charles Darwin, landed on the Galapagos to conduct a little research. That research was the genesis of Darwin’s seminal work “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural ...

Water Quality - WordPress

• Why is it important to aerate my lake during the s ...

  Airmax® Aeration Pond & Lake Q & A Q: Why is it important to aerate my lake during the summe

• Home Pesticide Use Is A Significant Contributor to ...

  Home Pesticide Use Is A Significant Contributor to Water Pollution

• NRDC rates beaches by water quality - how clean is ...

  Sweltering heat is still sweeping much of the south/west and peaking through the storms in the rest

• Starting to Gather

  Today I started searching out other folks in my community who have contact information for others w

• Chengdu / Conclusion

  Water I get so fed-up with Chengdu sometimes. Like today, when I realized that anything less than im

Public Citizen in Texas

• Good Day, (for Texas) Sunshine [Flickr]

  Public Citizen Texas posted a photo: This morning marks a good day for Texas sunshine! Public Citizen Texas gives you the early morning scoop -- late last night the Texas Senate passed through HB 1423, a net metering bill to provide owners of solar installations with fair buy-back rates for the ex ...

• Energy Citizens (Corporate Employees) Say the Darn ...

  Even though we were denied access, our intrepid Citizen Sarah was able to blend in with a crowd walking in and starting talking to energy company employees about climate change legislation. You know, Energy Company Employees Can Say the Darndest Things: Look for: Global Warming Deniers! People W ...

• Real Anti-Cap and Trade Grassroots blocked from En ...

  The Energy Citizens’ rallies company picnics, such as the one we crashed yesterday in Houston, have been getting a lot of attention through the Netroots, in national publications, and even last night on Rachel Maddow (where one of our videos was featured, even if credit was not given — no worrie ...

• Andy Wilson talks about Energy Citizen Corporate P ...

  Posted in Global Warming Tagged: ACES, API, astroturf, Big Oil, cap and tax, cap and trade, climate change, crap and trade, Energy Citizens, energy rally, Global Warming, houston, Public Citizen, waxman-markey

• Why Does Big Oil Hate Our Freedom?

  As you may have read elsewhere on our blog, we tried to attend the “Energy Citizens” rally in Houston yesterday but were turned away. Even far-right teabaggers, brought out to the event by FreedomWorks and a promise of a free meal, weren’t allowed in, despite actually being sympatico with Big ...

Press TV

• Insurgents killed in Pakistan military attack

  Pakistani security forces have killed 12 militants and destroyed several of their hideouts in an operation in a restive tribal region near the Afghan border.

• North Korea delegation mourns Kim Dae-jung

  Senior North Korean officials have attended a memorial to pay respects to late former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung.

• Saudi Arabia eying first nuclear power plant

  The world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, is planning to build nuclear power plants to cut down on frequent power outages in its industrial zone.

• UK troops, election worker killed in Afghanistan

  Taliban militants have killed an election worker in the relatively calm northern Afghanistan, while two more British troops died in the violent south.

• Chechen rebels claim attack on Russia's dam

  Chechen guerrillas have claimed responsibility for a recent attack on Russia's largest hydropower dam in Siberia in which 26 died and scores are still missing.

Axis of Logic

• The US War against Iraq: The Destruction of a Civi ...

• Pakistan: Interviewing Relief Workers Inside the I ...

• U.S.: Troy Davis must "prove his innocence" after ...

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

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

They Gave Us a Republic

• 39 year-old African American Alonzo Heyward & TN P ...

  The AP is reporting that Tennessee police took 59 .45 slugs to kill him. Wounds were found all over his body. He never fired a shot and was apparently seeking suicide-by-cop when Tennessee's finest proved that they could shoot a man nearly 60 times without a clean kill. There are no excuses for th ...

• The Nightowl Newswrap

  Cassidy has it exactly backwards Louisiana congressman Bill Cassidy whined today to on a talk-radio hate fest that if Democrats enact healthcare legislation without republicans, it would be like going it alone "without the American people." Would that be the same American people who gave Democrats ...

• This Common Story

  Eve (nyceve) Gittelson at Firedoglake has a timely reminder of what the reform fight is really all about. Susie Madrack at Suburban Guerilla received the following email about a Facebook death announcement. It arrived via an old friend. My commentary. This is Murder by Spreadsheet writ large. Late t ...

• Please Not Yet

  Last summer, I wanted Ted Kennedy to survive brain cancer long enough to see Barack Obama elected President. By Christmas, I wanted Ted Kennedy to survive long enough to see Barack Obama inaugurated President. Now, I won't be grateful for those unless Ted Kennedy survives to witness President Barack ...

• Just as we suspected

  In a book that will hit the shelves on September 1st, Tom Ridge confirms what we already knew - the color-coded 'terrorism warning system' was manipulated by the Bush administration for political gain. Paul Bedard has the scoop from former DHS director Tom Ridge's forthcoming book: Tom Ridge , the f ...

Care 2

• Human overpopulation is the #1 threat to animals w ...

  Human overpopulation is an animal rights issue as well as an environmental issue and a human rights issue. Human activities, including mining, transportation, pollution, agriculture, development, and logging, take habitat away from wild animals as well Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Note-it! ...

• Loving Life in Vermont!

  For the chickens and ducks, it has meant new ground to explore, new plants, a new feeling to the rhythms of the day, new lighting filtering through new trees; you get the idea. At this point, they seem pretty settled into their new routines, and are Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Note-it! | ...

• Replace Animal Testing in Europe ! TAKE ACTION !

  More than 12 million animals are used in experiments in European laboratories annually. The legislation regulating these experiments is over 20 years old and is being revised. We need your support for our call for progressive measures to protect animals Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Note-it! ...

• Neighbor’s Dog Saves Wheelchair Bound Man from Fi ...

  The Huntsville, AL home of a wheelchair bound man, Ray Worilow, burned to the ground recently, and he says he would have gone with it if it wasn’t for one uncommon hero, the neighbor’s five-year-old German Shepherd, Deja! Gotta love these canine heroes!! Submitted by Simone D. to Animals | Not ...

• More Sunshine Falling than Rain on the Parade of P ...

  There’s been a lot of negativity around the solar space in recent weeks because it has been hard going for some companies. And I don’t want to belittle their pain – manufacturers have big stockpiles and if they’re publically listed their share price is Submitted by Cher C. to Environment | N ...

GreenBiz

• U.S. Colleges Set a Green Course

  The number of colleges and universities going green is growing at an incredible pace as many students will soon learn in returning to campus for the upcoming school year.

• Cash for (Electronic) Clunkers

  The Cash for Clunkers program has inspired a range of imitators, offering incentives for outdated, inefficient products ranging from refrigerators to servers. A company named Gazelle wonders why the same can't be done for unwanted electronic gadgets.

• IT's Critical Role in a Low-Carbon Economy

  IT is the bridge that connects virtually all our efforts to measure, manage and reduce our environmental footprint. IT also presents significant opportunities to increase energy efficiency in operations and the environmental responsibility of products manufactured by the industry. Bonnie Nixon of HP ...

• The Bottled Water Business Takes Another Licking

  In another sign that the worm has turned on the bottled water industry, Mother Jones magazine has an in-depth look at the impacts of FIJI Water on the planet and the island nation itself.

• Climate Corps: How to Harvest Savings by Greening ...

  Green leasing is becoming more popular in real estate these days as building owners and tenants find themselves codependent when it comes to reducing consumption.

Reuters Global

• Read the Lockerbie bombing verdict

  A former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people flew home on Thursday after Scottish authorities released him on compassionate grounds because he is dying of cancer. Read the original verdict against Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, from FindLaw.com

• Where will Nigerian bank crisis lead?

  A list of the biggest debtors to bailed-out Nigerian banks includes a swathe of the business elite and politically connected figures, making this much more than just a banking crisis.

• India, Pakistan : re-opening the wounds of Partiti ...

  A new book by former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh challenges the conventional belief in India that Mohammad Ali Jinnah's insistence on a separate Muslim homeland forced the Partition of the subcontinent in 1947.

• All change for Nigeria?

  All looks set to change for corporate Nigeria after the central bank's bailout of five troubled banks and the removal of bosses who were at the top of the business elite.

• It’s all the fault of those people who work ...

  PHOTO CREDITS: Tango REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci Bubbles REUTERS/Claro Cortes Grasshoppers REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci Ants REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate

Ezra Klein

• Tab Dump

  • Time has a cover story on America's food crisis -- and how to fix it. • Michelle Goldberg reviews Christopher Caldwell's new book, "Reflections on the Revolution in Europe." • The Other Klein wonders: " How can you sustain a democracy if one of the two major political parties has been over ...

• The Best Paper You'll Read Today

  Elizabeth Docteur and Bob Berenson offer whether American health care really is the "best in the world." The two Urban Institute researchers take a comprehensive look at the evidence -- including the difficulties in gathering that evidence and the inadequacies in the current studies -- and conclude: ...

• Obama and Smerconish

  On Thursday, Barack Obama went on Michael Smerconish's radio show to defend his health-care reform effort before a more skeptical audience. Smerconish is a right-wing radio host, but he can conduct a very good interview, as this transcript shows: SMERCONISH: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the prog ...

• What Are Readers Worth?

  Paul Farhi, a reporter who covers the media for The Washington Post, has an article in the American Journalism Review arguing that papers should basically kill off their online editions and retreat to a print-only model. Obviously, I'm not a big fan of that conclusion, given the fact that I'm a paid ...

• Chuck Grassley Gives Up The Game

  In an interview with The Washington Post, Chuck Grassley said that the town hall meetings have convinced him to revisit the breadth and scope of what the Gang of Six is considering. The calls for reform are "not quite as loud as people that say we ought to slow down or don't do anything," Grassley s ...

Booman Tribune

• We Were Justified

  When it comes to the history of Bush Wars, I am not going to call out Mark Ambinder for special condemnation. I didn't even know who he was until about 2007, so I am no expert on his failings as a journalist during the peak years of deceit. What I do know is that from 2005 until the end of the Bu ...

• YouTube Thread

  These guys probably didn't even think it was a big deal to have Bob Dylan show up at their get together.

• A Note on Messaging

  Here's something I think you can give Jane Hamsher some credit for: “There’s no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option,” Pelosi said during a press conference Thursday in San Francisco, according to Bloomberg News. On the other hand, I think Harry Rei ...

• Booman Tribune Fantasy Football

  It's that time again. If you'd like to join us for our fourth year of Frog Marcher's fantasy football at Booman Tribune, go to this LINK at Yahoo Fantasy Sports and sign up by clicking on the yellow "Join a League" tab. If you are not registered with Yahoo you will need to do so, but registration ...

• Facts That May Interest Only Me

  Look at the results of the new Washington Post/ABC News poll on support for the war. Not the war on Terror, not the War in Iraq. The War in Afghanistan. For the first time a majority of Americans, 51% to 47% now feel that war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting. Oh, and by the way, the Pentagon ...

European Tribune

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 21 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1936 – Birth of...

• Thursday Open Thread

  Inching towards the end of the Summer....

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 20 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1901 – Birth of...

• Wednesday Open Thread

  Wednesday!...

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 19 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1881 – George Enescu,...

Futurismic

• Keep your doctor close to your heart: the wi-fi pa ...

  Earlier this year I mentioned round-the-clock in-body medical monitoring as an imminent transhuman reality, but I didn’t think it’d be quite so fast. OK, so it’s not a full suite of biomonitors, but a new design of pacemaker talks wirelessly to an internet-connected basestation in the home, se ...

• UFO sightings coincide with UFO movies

  Via Futurismic’s long-term good buddy Mac Tonnies come the results of an analysis of the UK MoD’s “x-files” documents, recently released to public scrutiny; apparently UFO sightings were more common around the times at which popular films or television shows featuring alien races or spacecra ...

• The ethics of autonomous devices

  The Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK says that the imminent rise of autonomous and semi-autonomous cars, robotic surgeons, planes, war machines, software agents, and public transport systems raises important ethical and legal questions: Professor Stewart and report co-author Chris Elliott rema ...

• The ethics of autonomous devices

  The Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK says that the imminent rise of autonomous and semi-autonomous cars, robotic surgeons, planes, war machines, software agents, and public transport systems raises important ethical and legal questions: Professor Stewart and report co-author Chris Elliott rema ...

• The perpetual aircraft carrier: turning seawater i ...

  If you’re getting twitchy about the uptick in petrol prices, spare a thought for the US Navy: fighter jets don’t just fuel themselves while parked on those aircraft carriers, y’know. But what if those same aircraft carriers could suck up seawater and catalyse it into aviation fuel? Navy chemis ...

Yahoo! Canada News

• YahooCanadaNews: One dead as possible tornado rips ...

  YahooCanadaNews: One dead as possible tornado rips across Ont.: report http://tr.im/wNu2

• YahooCanadaNews: Hunt on for Cdn reality TV contes ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Hunt on for Cdn reality TV contestant after wife's death http://tr.im/wNdg

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

  YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Stripper dances to big win over Canada Revenue http://tr.im/wNdb

• YahooCanadaNews: Now that's love: New Zealand man ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Now that's love: New Zealand man searches for wedding ring lost on sea floor for over a year. http://bit.ly/12HQsg

• YahooCanadaNews: MK here for Y! CA News. Montreal ...

  YahooCanadaNews: MK here for Y! CA News. Montreal stripper keeps $2 million in legal saga over untaxed gifts. http://bit.ly/3MmvU

Global Elite

• Fear, Intimidation & Media Disinformation: U.K Gov ...

  Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, August 20, 2009 An official UK government report –quoted extensively in Britain’s tabloid media– is warning the British public that there wil ...

• 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 ...

Al Jazeera

• Afghans await election results

  Rivals claim to be leading presidential race after vote counting is completed.

• Al-Megrahi return to Libya riles UK

  Britain "deeply upset" over celebrations for Lockerbie bomber's return to Libya.

• Dozens killed in Mogadishu fighting

  Fighting between al-Shabab, Somali and African Union troops enters second day.

• 'Suicide bombings' rock Chechnya

  At least four people killed in series of blasts in Russia's Caucasus region.

• Arms seized on ship in Philippines

  Israeli-made rifles found by Philippine enforcers on vessel docked near Manila.

Green Inc. - NYT

• Author's Climate Remark Ruffles Feathers

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a former financial trader and now bestselling author has ruffled feathers with remarks appearing to cast doubt on the origins of global warming.

• Will Philadelphia Become Orlando by 2050?

  A Princeton study looks at how how various American cities will feel increasingly equatorial due to global warming.

• A New, More CO2-Absorbent Algae Strain?

  A California startup says it has cultivated a strain of algae that doubles production of biodiesel by absorbing more than twice as much carbon dioxide as conventional strains.

• Carbon Traders Arrested for Tax Fraud

  British customs officials vowed "to pursue relentlessly" those who used carbon trading to deprive the state of tax revenues.

• Should Renewables Be 'Made in the U.S.A.'?

  Does it make sense for the United States to manufacture solar panels, wind turbines and electric cars, or will renewable-energy manufacturing - like the electronics, semiconductor and car industries - only end up migrating to China?

Dot Earth News

• A New View of Humanity's Planet

  An artist with a penchant for detail and vast scale explores the human imprint on Earth.

• Coming of Age as a Person and Species

  Does a film on sex and insecurity offers lessons on humanity's global growth spurt?

• 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.

Doug Feith : Hong Pong

• Introducing Feidt Design LLC - yr handy electronic ...

  You better believe it! I filed for Feidt Design LLC with the Secretary of State a week ago, and got the certificate on Friday! Here's the intro message. (And there was much rejoicing!!) It's a lot of fun to set up a new biz :-) Thanks for visiting Feidt Design! Hey all, Thanks for stopping by the ...

• 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 ...

Daily Censored

• O’Reilly Can’t Hide His Peevishness that Jon S ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds On last night’s O’Reilly Factor (8/20/09), in the Personal Story Segment, Bill O’Reilly was super dooper peeved, and began by saying without fanfare, “I like Jon Stewart, he’s a clever guy, usually not mean-spirited, and puts on an entertaining program. ...

• O’Reilly Can’t Hide His Peevishness that Jon S ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds On last night’s O’Reilly Factor (8/20/09), in the Personal Story Segment, Bill O’Reilly was super dooper peeved, and began by saying without fanfare, “I like Jon Stewart, he’s a clever guy, usually not mean-spirited, and puts on an entertaining program. ...

• In Katine, a Coke Is Easy to Buy. Medicine Isn’t

  Read the full story at Byline Portal by Sarah Boseley, Guardian, UK – Poverty and the inadequacies of public sector drug supply in Africa threaten us all. …

• Coup Catalyzes Honduran Women’s Movement

  Read the full story at Byline Portal by Laura Carlsen, Americas Program, USA – On the morning of June 28, women’s organizations throughout Honduras were preparing to promote a yes vote on the national survey to hold a Constitutional Assembly. Then the phone lines started buzzing. …

• Hannity Gets His Facts Wrong Again: Mixes Up Senat ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Sean Hannity really, really, really needs a new assistant to help him keep his facts straight. The latest boo-boo from the Misinformer of 2008? He mixed up Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus with Republican Congressman Spencer Bachus and then ...

AlterNet's Breaking News

• Four dead in multiple Chechnya bicycle bombings
• Search in Mediterranean for 73 migrants feared dea ...
• Suicide bombings 'kill four police in Chechnya'
• Counter-claims erupt as Afghan vote count ends
• Two more ETA arms caches found in France

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

• Holiday unlikely to be restful for President Obama

  * Obama takes a break, but can his agenda wait? * Critics assail choice of elite holiday resort By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - His healthcare reform plan is stumbling, the economy is still sputtering and violence is up in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who wouldn't want a break? Presiden ...

• Honey, I cheated, and blah blah blah...

  LONDON (Reuters) - Never again honey -- and here's a diamond to say sorry.

• Europe Factors-Shares set to dip; automakers in fo ...

  PARIS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - European equities were seen dipping on Friday, trimming the previous session's gains and mirroring losses in Tokyo, with shares of resource-related stocks set to feel the pinch of retreating commodity prices.

• Microsoft, Sony slug it out over living-room "hub"

  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 are locked in a battle to control entertainment in the living room beyond video games, a competition that is only growing more intense with the increasing popularity of digital distribution.

• Half of swine flu deaths in high-risk people -stud ...

  * Pregnancy, obesity big risk factors for flu death * Elderly patients also more likely to die By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - About half of people who have died from swine flu have been pregnant or had other health conditions, especially diabetes and conditio ...

Pine River World News

• Afghanistan election: Both Karzai and Abdullah cla ...

  Pine River World News August 21, 2009 IRIB News Agency, Tehran, is reporting that incumbent president Hamid Karzai and opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah are both claiming victory is yesterday's Afghanistan election. Official results have yet to be released. Voter turnout was estimated as low ...

• Ramadan Starts Friday, Saturday

  Pine River World News wishes its many readers in the Middle East, Central and South Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa and elsewhere a blessed Ramadan. __________ The following article is from Islam Online. Ramadan begins either Friday or Saturday depending on your location. Ramadan Starts Friday, S ...

• Fear, Intimidation & Media Disinformation: U.K Gov ...

  The following commentary is reprinted with permission from Global Research. Fear, Intimidation & Media Disinformation: U.K Government is Planning Mass Graves in Case of H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic © Global Research By Michel Chossudovsky August 19, 2009 An official UK government report - quoted ext ...

• Paul Craig Roberts: Americans: Serfs Ruled by Olig ...

  The following column is reprinted with permission from Paul Craig Roberts. Americans: Serfs Ruled by Oligarchs © Paul Craig Roberts August 19, 2009 Americans think that they have "freedom and democracy" and that politicians are held accountable by elections. The fact of the matter is that the U. ...

• It's official: Healthcare Reform is Dead

  The following commentary is reprinted with permission from Global Research. It's Official: Healthcare Reform is Dead © Global Research By Shamus Cooke August 18, 2009 The "transparent government" that President Obama guaranteed during his electoral campaign has become yet another broken promise ...

• Res'Eau-WaterNet

• Knowledge Transfer Workshop: Preliminary program p ...

  Join us for our inaugural two-day network event as we gather Canadian experts to discuss the scientific and technological challenges of delivering safe drinking water in small, rural and First Nations communities.

• 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

• End the War in Afghanistan and Pakistan! Change do ...

  President Barack Obama was elected on a platform of CHANGE and with hopes for diplomacy, not war! As the war in Iraq winds down, more troops have been sent to Afghanistan. Some in the Pentagon ...

• Western & Southern U.S. Region Conference Call - A ...

  On this months call we discussed national news, IOT reports and state reports.

• IOT: Health Care Call 8-18-2009

  Our Healthcare NOT Warfare Co-Chair, Donna Smith, gave us an update on Single Payer from the Hill and also answered member's questions.

• 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 ...

Marler Blog

• Obama Administration fails Salmonella test - At le ...

  California, Colorado and Wyoming health officials said this afternoon that at least 27 people have reported illnesses tied to recalled ground beef tainted with antibiotic resistant Salmonella Newport . On Thursday, Fresno-based Beef Packers Inc. (Cargill) recalled 825,769 pounds of ground beef prod ...

• So, what's up with Wisconsin Pic n' Saves and E. c ...

  As of July 1, 2009, the CDC reported twenty-three persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular "DNA fingerprint" have been reported from 9 states – Wisconsin included. Of these, 17 (likely more now) have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test (MLVA) as having the outbreak s ...

• Food Safety - Now on to the Senate - S 510

  I am in the process of reading S 510 - FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. Click below to download and read. This was introduced in March 2009 by Senator Durbin. The bill is presently in the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

• So, why is E. coli O157:H7 considered an adulteran ...

  Personally, as I said to the Los Angeles Times a few days ago, “I think that anything that can poison or kill a person should be listed as an adulterant” [in food]. According to the CDC, E. coli O157:H7 is the source of an estimated 73,000 illnesses, 2,000 hospitalizations, and 60 deaths in the ...

• So, Beef Packers Inc. (a.k.a. Cargill) Recalls Sal ...

  When we hear that there has been a recall of hamburger tainted with Salmonella Newport, how many of us would know which company slaughtered the cow and ground the meat? Would we know that the meat came from Beef Packers Inc. (a.k.a. Cargill), or would we only know the store we bought the meat from ...

AutoblogGreen

• AutoblogGreen for 08.21.09

  Greenlings: Why choose a fuel cell or an internal combustion engine when using hydrogen? You've got questions, we've got answers. Pics Aplenty: Tesla unloads new set of Model S driving shots ...

• Bill Ford, AdAge chide GM over 230 MPG Chevrolet V ...

  Filed under: Etc. , Marketing/Advertising , Chevrolet , Ford , GM The Chevrolet Volt's 230 mpg number continues to be questioned. The latest to criticize is Bill Ford, who takes issue not only with the General Motors-approved 230 figure, but also Nissan's claim that its Leaf EV will get 367 mpg . ...

• AutoblogGreen for 08.20.09

  Chevy Volt's 230 mpg rating, ad campaign comes under fire from Bill Ford, AdAge Ford says the number is "meaningless" to consumers. REPORT: Eberhard drops lawsuit against Tesla No official co ...

• Toyota's "Harmony Floralscapes" bloom along LA, SF ...

  Filed under: Hybrid , Etc. , Marketing/Advertising , Toyota Toyota's "Harmony Floralscape" - Click above for high-res image gallery Toyota's TV ads for the 2010 Prius feature a world of flowers blooming whenever the iconic hybrid drives by. This visual message is now available in the physical wo ...

• AutoblogGreen for 08.19.09

  Bill Nye the Science Guy luvs electric cars And he's not shy about it. EV club members get first rides in Coda Automotive electric sedan Could the vanilla style actually work in the EV's favo ...

Rafe's Radar

• Mashups pit search engines against each other

  Can't decide which search engine to use? Use several. At once. After I covered Google's "Caffeine" beta search engine I got a link, in the story's comments, to a clever hack that puts old Google and new Google results side by side, so you can use both: ...

• Pixorial collects your video, sells it back to you

  The family video site Pixorial opens up to the public Wednesday. It solves two problems most people will probably relate to. First, it's a nice little video editor for piecing together clips from digital cameras and the like. Second, if you send Pixorial your old analog media (VHS tapes, ...

• Gnip, Betaworks create short URL seed bank

  In light of the near-shutdown of Tr.im --and the actual closing of URL shortening services like URLTea, Shurl.net, and Qurl.net--users of the URL shorteners still standing may wonder what's going to happen to their favorite services if they, too, go belly-up. On Friday, Gnip is announcing ...

• Get it while it's cheap: Pinboard's revenue model

  Pinboard is Maciej Ceglowski's Delicious competitor. Sort of. It's a one-man show, a feature-light but fast site for saving bookmarks and seeing what other people are saving, too, if you wish. It's easy to use, thanks to a collection of functional bookmarklets that do various things (I ...

• Starbucks: Stay as long as you want

  Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that some New York coffee shops were pulling the plug on customers that park themselves at tables, open their laptops, and hang out for hours, buying perhaps only a single latte as their cafe rental fee. While independent coffee shops that are strugg ...

• Sidebar Search
  

• Human Habitat

  ecology water energy

  Ecology Coatings Hosts Conference Call to Discuss Third Quarter ...

  PR Newswire (press release)

  - Aug 21, 2009

  - 58 minutes ago

  In addition to providing a corporate update, Ecology Coatings' management team will review financial results for the third quarter, ended June 30, 2009. ...

  clipped from Google - 8/2009

  'Earth Days' looks a the fathers and mothers of environmentalism

  Los Angeles Times

  - Aug 20, 2009

  - 12 hours ago

  The thoughtful documentary features a mix of archival footage with interviews with people who spearheaded the ecology movement. ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 8/2009

  Port Angeles to receive Ecology funds for harbor development

  Peninsula Daily

  - Aug 20, 2009

  - Aug 20, 2009

  By Tom Callis PORT ANGELES -- The city will receive up to $230000 through 2010 from the state Department of Ecology to plan for development of Port Angeles ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 8/2009

  Ecology seeks public input on wastewater permit fee changes

  Access Washington

  - Aug 20, 2009

  - 16 hours ago

  OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) seeks public comments about a rule making proposal to increase fees for wastewater discharge ...

  clipped from Google - 8/2009
• Fuel spill contained in Seattle rail derailment
  Seattle Post Intelligencer
  - Aug 20, 2009
  - 17 hours ago
  The state Ecology Department says the spill was contained at the scene and did not reach drains or nearby Elliott Bay. BNSF hired a contractor to help with ...
  Related Articles »

• powered by

  

  Water Power

  water floods pollution
  California moves toward stringent chromium 6 standard for drinking ...

  Los Angeles Times

  - Aug 21, 2009

  - 6 hours ago

  Proposed goal of 0.06 part per billion could force costly treatment on providers that get water from the heavy-metal-contaminated San Fernando Valley ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 8/2009
  Vegas water planners say keep working on pipeline

  San Jose Mercury News

  - Aug 20, 2009

  - 16 hours ago

  AP LAS VEGAS—Southern Nevada water officials endorsed continuing a massive water project to tap groundwater in eastern Nevada and pipe it to Las Vegas. ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 8/2009
  Stimulus act gives $5M for water meters

  Bizjournals.com

  - Aug 20, 2009

  - 16 hours ago

  An aggressive effort to conserve water with the installation of water meters got a $5 million boost Thursday. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 8/2009
  Nestle wins approval to tap Colorado ground water
  Los Angeles Times
  - Aug 20, 2009
  - 16 hours ago
  The world's largest beverage company has won approval from officials in Colorado to extract and bottle spring water from the mountains of south central ...
  Related Articles »

Related articles by Zemanta

• Afghanistan's Karzai seeks warlord edge (msnbc.msn.com)
• Lorne Gunter: What's good for the Bushies ... (network.nationalpost.com)
• US outlines anti-terror strategy (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Petraeus: Detainee photos could hurt Pakistan (cnn.com)
• CIA Report Delayed Two More Months For Obama Administration (huffingtonpost.com)
• Obama, Karzai: Not so chummy (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• The Secret History of the National Security Agency (usnews.com)
• TWITTER LOCAL: Twitter to Attach Locations to Your Tweets (mashable.com)