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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

11 Nov - RSS SnapShot!

At the UN, Colin Powell holds a model vial of ...Image via Wikipedia

 RSS Update from Opit's LinkFest! on My Opera

 

IPS - Inter Press Services

  • BRAZIL: Green Beans to Go, Roast Coffee Grounded
    RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 11 (IPS) - For over a century and a half, Brazil has led the world in green coffee bean production and exports, without ever achieving similar success with processed beans. Some of the internal and external hurdles reflect the dilemma of reliance on agricultural commodities ...

  • Q&A: Inclusive Sex Education Needed in African S ...
    UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11 (IPS) - With the exception of South Africa, most African countries criminalise same-sex relationships with imprisonment, while incidents of violence against gay women and men are poorly investigated and rarely taken to court.

  • WEST AFRICA: Helping Pirates to Plunder the Ocean ...
    PARIS, Nov 11 (IPS) - West Africa is one of the world’s regions most affected by pirate fishers. Illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing has been devastating local livelihoods and ecosystems for decades. National fisheries management authorities are often helpless to protect their maritime ...

  • POLITICS-US: The Healthcare Sausage Factory
    WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (IPS) - Watching healthcare reform legislation pass through the U.S. Congress is like watching sausage get made. It is a gory and lumbering process of alliances and amendments, procedure and pandering.

  • Q&A: It’s Time Students Learned Beyond the ...
    TOKYO, Nov 11 (IPS) - An increasing number of universities and colleges across the Asian region today are running a programme called "service-learning," a teaching and learning strategy that has become synonymous with precisely what its name stands for.

Scoop - NZ

  • AfPak: Welcome to Pashtunistan
    There must be some way out of hereSaid the joker to the thiefThere's too much confusionI can't get no relief - Bob Dylan, All Along the WatchtowerPARIS - Something's happening in AfPak, but you don't know what it is, do you Mr Beltway think-tanker?As Washington mashes up the "Taliban" - be they Afgh ...

  • US property to fall 49% from peak ..
    [Image]Price Trends / WAR OF THE WORLDS (Round # 2): If you use 120 years of data for your time horizon, and assume prices will return to the average, then our residential property bubble will fall 49% from the bubble peak to the long-run average (see above (A) aka "(X) - (Z) / 202" aka "Projected F ...

  • Jamail: Growing US GI antiwar resistance
    Dahr Jamail, author of Beyond the Green Zone, brings us inside the movement of military resistance to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2006, a majority in the United States have opposed the continued occupation of Iraq, and increasing skepticism surrounds the escalation in Afghanistan. ...

  • UTube: Soldiers refusing to fight in Iraq/Afghanis ...
    Interview - Dahr Jamail - Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan  »  PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews

  • The United Nations: An Entertaining Sideshow
    Does the power of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council make the United Nations a hypocritical joke of good intention?  »  PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews

Independent ( London )

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

  • Al Qaeda militant incites Sunnis against Shiites, ...
    Summary: DUBAI — A commander of an Al-Qaeda-linked group warned Islam's majority Sunnis that the Shiites and Iran pose a greater "danger" to their religion than Jews or Christians, a US monitoring group said on Tuesday. source: AFP read more

  • U.S. can give Iran space to accept atom deal: offi ...
    Summary: VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States is willing to give Iran time to decide whether to accept a U.N. draft deal that is meant to defuse nuclear tensions with world powers but has drawn Iranian objections, a U.S. diplomat said on Monday. source: Reuters read more

  • Mullen: ‘Nuclear Iran’ an Existential Threat t ...
    Summary: Speaking today at the National Press Club, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen declared that “it’s very clear to me that a nuclear weapon in Iran is an existential threat to Israel.” source: Antiwar.com read more

  • Iran 'proposes' two-staged uranium exchange
    Summary: Diplomats close to nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West say the country seeks a two-staged, simultaneous exchange of enriched uranium with potential suppliers. source: Press TV read more

  • Hezbollah gears up for new war
    Summary: Hezbollah is rapidly rearming in preparation for a new conflict with Israel, fearing that Benjamin Netanyahu's government will attack Lebanon again prior to any assault on Iran's nuclear facilities. source: The Observer read more

The Daily Galaxy

  • Antimatter Lightning Discovered (On Earth!)
    Antimatter Lightning! We're going to do our best, but nothing we could possibly write will be as awesome as the fact that's real and on Earth. In fact, nothing you ever read for the rest of your life will be...

  • Genesis 2.0 -Creating Artificial Life from Scratch
    The origin of all life on Earth is an endlessly interesting question, at least for those who don't claim "because someone spoke and then it happened." Some scientists are moving beyond discussing the question with the incredibly awesome, and obvious,...

  • Are Black Holes Powering the Most Massive Objects ...
    "Blobs" might sound as scientific as an astrologer at a NASCAR rally, but it's a real astrophysical term - in fact, it's a giant one. Blobs are immense clouds of gas -some stretch for tens of thousands of light years-...

  • Experts Predict Great Barrier Reef Could Be World' ...
    The Great Barrier Reef will be so degraded by warming waters that it will be unrecognizable within 20 years, according Charlie Veron, former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, at a conference in London: “There is no...

  • 2.5 Billion-Year-Old Event Triggered Greatest Envi ...
    Humans might not be walking the face of the Earth were it not for the ancient fusing of two prokaryotes — tiny life forms that do not have a cellular nucleus. Endosymbiosis refers to a cell living within another cell....

Natural News

  • Reconsider screenings for breast and prostate canc ...
    (NaturalNews) According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, affecting over 200,000 women in the U.S. each year and killing more than 40,000. For American men, cancer of the prostate is the type of malignancy that strikes with the greatest frequency ...

  • Statin Drugs Cause Muscle Damage Even After You St ...
    (NaturalNews) Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may cause serious and long-term muscle damage that persists even after the drugs are halted, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Tufts Medical Center and the University of Bern, and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journ ...

  • Probiotics found to reduce eczema and skin allergi ...
    (Natural News) Most health conscious people know of the positive effects on digestion from using probiotic supplements. Many take probiotic supplements after using antibiotics to replace the good intestinal flora bacteria indiscriminately killed during antibiotic use. This practice is so well known ...

  • Conflicts of interest? Dr. Mehmet Oz owns 150,000 ...
    (NaturalNews) Dr. Mehmet Oz is a huge promoter of vaccines. He's been on television reinforcing fear about H1N1 swine flu and telling everyone to get vaccinated. But what he didn't tell his viewing audience is that he holds 150,000 option shares in a vaccine company that could earn him millions of d ...

  • Dean Foods pulls bait-and-switch on "organic" Silk ...
    (NaturalNews) Until early 2009, Silk brand soy milk was made using organic soybeans. But earlier this year, Dean Foods (owner of the Silk brand) quietly switched to conventional soybeans, which are often grown with pesticides. But they kept the same UPC barcodes on their products, and they kept the ...

    TheGallopingBeaver


  • 'Lympic loudspeakers and wars coming home
    This morning's bullshi t (emphasis mine): Vancouver police have a new crowd control device capable of emitting painfully loud blasts of sound, just in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, CBC News has learned. The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) can use sound as a weapon, emitting tones that cross ...

  • Darwin Award nominee
    This young fellow should have stayed home and watched The Witches of Eastwick.

  • BC MLA Harry Bloy. Coward.
    Gee whiz Mr. Bloy, you're really brave when you're yapping it up from within the legal protection of the legislative chamber. You know, there was a disappointing factor about the Olympics, and it was that 200-odd group of terrorists who came to Victoria from across Canada to interrupt the games. A ...

  • Jalopnik would like to know . . . .
    JALOPNIK WOULD LIKE TO KNOW — and so would I — just what is that woman doing in the back seat of her $524,000 (US) Maybach Zeppelin? Sorry to be a fountain of ignorance, but I haven't the faintest idea. What do you think? Coke? Crank? Crack?

  • Finding "Truth" a challenge, VANOC opts for fantas ...
    When I read the headline on Dave Obee's column I was a little confused. Ditch the cynicism and enjoy the Games Yeah, well... I don't have it in me to drop the cynicism. Obee makes a valid point in his column with respect to protesters. I would agree that those who feel the need to make a loud and d ...

Media Matters for America

  • Investor's Business Daily misleads to cla ...
    In a November 11 editorial, Investor's Business Daily claimed that Judge David Hamilton, nominee for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, is a "radical" judge. In addition to invoking Hamilton's views on "empathy" -- a favorite conservative attack -- the editorial misleadingly suggested that Hami ...

  • Quick fact: Hannity cites Morris' false claim that ...
    Sean Hannity falsely claimed that Americans face jail time as a penalty for failure to buy insurance under the House health care bill. From the provides that an individual must be "covered by acceptable coverage at all times." "Acceptable coverage" includes "qualified health benefits plan coverage ...

  • Fox News lets Breaux discuss health care reform w ...
    Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron failed to disclose that former Sen. John Breaux (D-LA), who Cameron said "warns Democratic leaders now that trying too much too fast could backfire and undermine achievable [health care] reforms," has lobbied Congress this year about health reform for the tr ...

  • Quick fact: On Dobbs, Politico's ...
    Politico 's Craig Gordon falsely claimed that Anita Dunn said she looked to Mao's "words for guidance." From the November 10 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight : GORDON:  Obviously, probably, [Mao Zedong is] the most famous Communist leader ever and here's a person inside the Obama Administration sayi ...

  • Quick fact: FNC senior judicial analyst Judge Napo ...
    While discussing the current economic situation on Glenn Beck and referencing the House health care bill, Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano claimed that "the government wants to add...another trillion in healthcare, unfunded healthcare." From the November 10 edition of Fox N ...

Global Research.ca

TPM Cafe

  • Veteran's Week 2009: We've Got Your Back
    Somewhere, high atop the mountains of Afghanistan, Marine Staff Sergeant Todd Bowers is smiling. He's not thinking about Cameron Diaz or all the Jack Daniels he'll consume when he comes home. Or at least not this minute. He's reflecting on... Veterans Day - United States - Military - Afghanista ...

  • Neocon-Realist Collaboration on Ending Cuba Embarg ...
    Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw "Radek" Sikorski, husband of Washington Post editorial writer (and Polish cuisine expert) Anne Applebaum, is a compelling, brilliant, eclectic political intellectual who I admire a great deal. In part, I admire Sikorski because while tenacious and... Washingto ...

  • Brave Rep. Brian Baird Compares Own Twin Grandkids ...
    United States - Minnesota - Twin Cities - Home - Family

  • Breaking up the Banks, Like Renegotiating NAFTA?
    Remember way back in 2008 when the three leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination all argued in favor of renegotiating NAFTA? We don't hear much talk about renegotiating NAFTA these days, even though one of the three leading contenders... Democratic - Business - Financial S ...

  • VIDEO House Blocks Access To Goldstone Report
    On November 4, the House of Representatives voted 344-36 (22 voted present) in favor of a resolution condemning the Goldstone Report, which chronicled the war crimes committed during last year's Gaza war. Not only that, in a break with normal... War crime - Gaza War - Goldstone Report - United ...

TruthOut

  • Veterans Day or Rulers Day?
    How is it that Veterans Day gets turned around into US Military Hegemony Day? The airwaves were buried under an avalanche of lip service about veterans, but the moving lips were all about the myth that the warfare decisions this country's rulers make have something to do with anyone's freed ...

  • Cash for Clunkers Program Nets 700,000 More Fuel-E ...
    During the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS program), better known as the Cash for Clunkers program, consumers turned in gas guzzlers and bought nearly 700,000 more fuel efficient vehicles in less than 30 days, according to newly released government documents . Participating dealers for the 677,081 ...

  • Revisiting the Rehabilitation of Defense Secretary ...
    Michael Crowley of the New Republic is the latest journalist to give absolution to Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates for his long record of politicizing intelligence and undercutting conciliatory policy initiatives. In the current issue of the magazine, Crowley refers to Gates as "one ...

  • Military Commissions Create "Second-Class" Justice ...
    Critics of President Obama's changes to the regulations governing military commissions are characterizing these changes as "cosmetic improvements," amid a growing consensus among human rights organizations that these tribunals are designed to produce convictions, while trials in civilian co ...

  • What the CBO Isn't Telling Congress: Climate Chang ...
    While fewer and fewer people are willing to publicly deny the validity of global warming science, those who oppose action to protect the climate have taken up a new strategy: Denying that climate change will have a major impact on the US economy. This denial is rejected by most economists w ...

Planetsave

  • Green Books Campaign: The Lazy Environmentalist on ...
    This review is part of the Green Books campaign . Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized b ...

  • Environmentalist, Conservationist, Or Neither?
    Darby Nelson, a member of a Minnesota state panel that advises the Legislature on fish, game and wildlife habitat spending, is a classic conservationist. Almost 40 years after the first Earth Day, the term environmentalist is in some disrepute. Once a badge of honor for public-spirited citizens se ...

  • NASA to Irradiate Monkeys. Horrible Animal Experim ...
    When I first read the news that NASA was going to start experimenting on monkeys with radiation to study the effects of deep space travel, my heart sunk. As an anthropologist who has studied non-human primates I have seen up close the emotions, the feelings, and the physical qualities we share wit ...

  • Great Lakes Get $475 Million in New Money, Questio ...
    Pollution from industrial facilities like this one at East Harbor in Indiana up to the 1970s left a legacy of contamination still in need of cleanup from new Great Lakes restoration funding. Giving President Obama a major victory, Congress on Thursday sent him a spending bill containing $475 milli ...

  • Study Suggests Insecticide Causes Lupus and Arthri ...
    New research out of Philadelphia suggests a link between women’s exposure to household insecticides (including roach and mosquito killers) and the autoimmune disorders rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Previous research has shown a link of agricultural pesticides to higher risk of rheumatoid arthr ...

Water Quality - WordPress

Public Citizen in Texas

  • Fast Food Nation Frustration
    For years fast food restaurants have been our nation’s go-to source for cheap, quick food we can eat on the run or take home to the family to avoid cooking dinner for the night.  I am betting that almost every person reading this blog has or will eat a product of the fast food faction [...]

  • King Williams Parade Pics 051 [Flickr]
    Public Citizen Texas posted a photo:

  • Green-up your life! Teach your children well.
    By Kirsten Bokenkamp Ask any kid what they do in their free time and the answer will likely include watching TV and playing video games. Indeed, children ages 8-18 watch an average of almost 4 hours of TV or movies a day – with an additional 2 hours playing video games! Don’t get me wrong [...]

  • Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up
    The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone had a happy Election Day last week, and is already looking forward to the next one. Here are this week’s highlights. TXsharon continues to report from a backyard in the Barnett Shale. Despite all the local and national press on drilling related toxins, ...

  • King Williams Parade Pics 062 [Flickr]
    Public Citizen Texas posted a photo:

Press TV

Axis of Logic

They Gave Us a Republic

  • The Nightowl Newswrap


  • The Nightowl Newswrap
    It's their Tea Party but we'll laugh 'til we cry if we want to Get your broker on the phone and buy popcorn futures now. A Florida attorney named Frederic O'Neal has filed the paperwork with the state to form the Tea Party. "The current system has become mired in the sludge of special interest money ...

  • "A Gentleman's Agreement"?: there ought to be a la ...
    This is the twenty-sixth post in an ongoing series as we file Missouri Sunshine Law (RSMo 610) requests and investigate the non-renewal of the contract of University of Central Missouri President Aaron Podolefsky. Links to previous coverage are below the fold. BG and MB We were curious about who rec ...

  • Icewater Mansions
    Today is the 34th anniversary of the most famous of the Great Lakes' thousands of shipwrecks:   The Edmund Fitzgerald.

  • Best. Speech. Ever.
    Wow. This one will go down in history as one of the best speeches ever by any President. Ever. What a tribute he gave to the thirteen dead in last weeks terrible attack at the processing center at Fort Hood. He pulled off the nearly impossible task of walking the line between Commander in Chief and ...

Care 2

  • Different Sources for Grants for Online College
    Grants for online college courses are relatively easy to acquire for students who put an effort into their scholarships search. Submitted by Nancy Bridget to World  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Warm-blooded Dinosaurs Worked Up A Sweat
    Were dinosaurs "warm-blooded" like present-day mammals and birds, or "cold-blooded" like present day lizards? The implications of this simple-sounding question go beyond deciding whether or not you'd snuggle up to a dinosaur on a cold winter's evening. Submitted by Nancy Bridget to Animals  |   Not ...

  • 300-Pound Gorilla Voluntarily Monitors His Blood P ...
    Imagine trying to monitor the blood pressure of a 300-pound gorilla. A new device, described in the following release from Georgia Institute of Technology Research News, makes that job a lot easier Submitted by Katie Miller to Animals  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Memphis Animal Shelter, Two Weeks Later – VIDEO
    It’s been about two weeks since the Memphis Animal Shelter was raided after horrific animal cruelty was discovered there, what’s happened in the interim? We know the Mayor AC Wharton formed a task force to oversee the shelter and that video cameras were Submitted by Simone D. to Animals  |   Not ...

  • Top 10 Reasons Why the World Won't End in 2012
    I'm getting e-mail about this weekly and I expect the nonsense to ratchet up. Submitted by Nancy Bridget to World  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

GreenBiz

  • Perkins+Will Launches First Chemical Blacklist for ...
    Architectural firm Perkins+Will has unveiled its Precautionary List, which includes 25 chemicals commonly used in buildings, explains why they are a threat to humans and the environment, and lists safer alternatives.

  • How Second Place (or Third) Can Mean a Win for Des ...
    The Cooper Hewitt People's Choice Award was the only category in the Smithsonian Institution's recent National Design Awards to be opened to public voting, and over 6,000 designers, consumers, and interested citizens spoke up. Some of the biggest design names in the country were nominated. But it wa ...

  • Companies More Likely Than Ever to Invest in Effic ...
    Seventy-four percent of corporate real estate executives now say they would be willing to pay a premium to retrofit office space they own to achieve sustainability goals, according to results of a new survey by CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle.

  • Sustainable Value in Automobile Manufacturing
    The study looks at the sustainability performance of 17 leading car manufacturers worldwide between 1999 and 2007, providing a full account of the societal impacts of car production, including issues such as the volume of greenhouse gas emissions from production facilities and the number of work ac ...

  • Kraft to Increase Purchases of Rainforest Alliance ...
    Kraft Foods vowed to increase the amount of Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa beans ten-fold to 30,000 tons by late 2012, to be used in two premium chocolate brands sold in the European and North American markets.

Reuters Global

  • APEC SUMMIT IN SINGAPORE: LIVE BLOG
    The 21 leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meet in Singapore at the weekend with the focus on sustaining a fragile global economic recovery. APEC ministers this week warned the current upturn was a respite rather than A recovery and currency exchange rates are shaping up as a batt ...

  • APEC SUMMIT IN SINGAPORE: LIVE BLOG
    Singapore plays host to leaders of 21 leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum this weekend with the focus on the global financial recovery. Asia-Pacific ministers have warned the global economic crisis was far from over and a current upturn was a respite rather than recovery with curr ...

  • Testing the limits of animal lab experiments
    Should scientists be able to create a mouse that speaks or a dog with human hands in the interests of medical research?

  • North Korean leader Kim Jong-il likes to collect t ...
    North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visits the newly built Kumjinggang Guchang Juvenile power plant in North Korea during one of his field guidance visits in an undated photo provided by the North's KCNA news agency on Nov. 8, 2009

  • Getting to grips with the post-Cold War security t ...
    In the 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell, there are far more sources of insecurity than there were during the Cold War. The uncertainty this generates means that crises are more recurrent and the nature of the potential crises we face is constantly evolving. Are we prepared?

Ezra Klein

  • A future of financial crises
    Felix Salmon recaps an interesting argument he had with Robert Pozen, author of the new book Too Big to Save : I’m also not fully convinced by one of Pozen's big ideas, which is that banks should have small and professional super-boards which, rather than simply rubber-stamping the decisions of t ...

  • Fair and balanced and weird
    This is some uncommonly smart, measured health-care reform commentary from Fox News. What's weird, however, is that it's coming from Mick Foley, better known as the professional wrestler " Mankind ."

  • Will Olympia Snowe switch parties?
    Commenter Andrew Long pushes back against the idea that Olympia Snowe will switch parties: Given her policy positions, the only issues she'll ever have a chance of "nailing" Obama on are the budget and taxes. The budget is deeply unsexy, she voted against it this year and got nothing out of it, and ...

  • Chris Dodd's financial regulation bill
    Felix Salmon likes it . Kevin Drum likes the parts that Felix doesn't like (namely, a systemic risk regulator that isn't the Federal Reserve). And Mike Konczal offers more in the way of details . I haven't had the time to sit down with it yet. But my snap reaction is that Chris Dodd is doing the ...

  • Tab dump
    1) Why employment might not recover until 2013. 2) Chris Dodd looks to strip the Federal Reserve of some of its power. 3) Michael Tomasky makes a bunch of Olympia Snowe puns. 4) There is a connection between "political correctness" and national security, argues Marc Lynch , but the critics have i ...

Booman Tribune

  • Quote of the Day
    It's from Fox News Host Bill O'Reilly speaking to Ralph Peters (a man who never shirked his duty of demanding that others sacrifice their lives and souls to satisfy his lust for blood): "Let me play devil's advocate here. Barack Obama wants to win hearts and minds in the Middle East, in the Musli ...

  • Casual Observation
    As a purely political matter, jobs before climate change is a no-brainer.

  • Dodd Releases Plan for Financial Overhaul
    As politicians go, I have a relatively high opinion of both House Financial Services chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking chair Chris Dodd. If I were to go looking for two people to oversee the regulation of Wall Street, I'd be hard-pressed to find too many people I trust more to do the job. T ...

  • Obama's Speaks; Wingnuts Attack
    After listening to the speech President Obama gave at Ft. Hood on on You Tube (part 1, part 2 and part 3) I was impressed by his dignity and grace. The speech was a good one, not great, but his demeanor was all you could expect from a Commander-in-Chief addressing the troops and the Nation after su ...

  • Serious Questions
    President Obama is headed for the Far East. I've never been there. If I went, I think I'd go to Cambodia, Vietnam, and the beaches in Thailand. Have you been? Where would you go?

European Tribune

Futurismic

  • Under the dome: the Winooski that wasn’t
    Score one for internet serendipity, and another for news organisations republishing archive articles. Both SlashDot and architecture/design webzine Inhabitat.com ended up pointing toward the story of Winooski, Vermont, and the flirtation that city had during the last gasp of the seventies with the i ...

  • White faces in the day labour queue
    I clearly remember my first day travelling in Mexico, walking out from my hostel to check out the zocalo at the centre of El D.F. and catching sight of long rows of men stood by their open toolboxes, with little signs explaining what sort of work they’d do, and for how much money. I’d never [... ...

  • The other sort of hacking: Baltimore’s ghost tax ...
    Dovetailing neatly with yesterday’s article about innovative low-budget urban living in Detroit comes a piece on Baltimore’s “hacks”- illegal and unlicensed taxi services provided by anyone with a car to anyone in need of a budget ride across town [via MetaFilter; image by Marcin Wichary]. â ...

  • Microfluidic diagnostic chips are (almost) child†...
    Pity us poor Brits and our ox-bow lake of eighties pop-culture – until today I had no idea what Shrinky Dinks were. But now I know… and I also know that code 6 polystyrene sheets (which is what Shrinky Dinks are made of) can be used to make single-run prototypes of microfluidic diagnostic chips, ...

  • Now that’s minimalism: Art with microbes
    The Microbial Art site features graphics created with fungi and bacteria. The dozen or so artists on display include Alexander Fleming, and the styles range from homey-sampler to fractal-abstract.  A set of aesthetic criteria hasn’t emerged yet, but I particularly like the pictured work: Artist ...

Therapy News

  • Childhood Abuse may Impact Osteoarthritis Later in ...
    A GoodTherapy.org News Summary There are numerous effects on both physical and emotional health linked to occurrences of childhood abuse. From psychological trauma and stress to physical symptoms that can be quite complex, children often experience difficulties arising from abuse that can have an im ...

  • “Healthy at Every Size” Initiative Shows Promi ...
    A GoodTherapy.org News Headline Weight loss is something that scores of people attempt to achieve each year, and some approach the topic with a more positive outlook than others. Though there are options available for rational weight loss, many programs focus on treating non-idealized bodies as wron ...

  • Paying Attention: ADHD and our Children, Inside an ...
    By Matthew Carter, MFT Click here to contact Matthew and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile The American Psychiatric Association defines attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a “persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that is more frequently displayed and mo ...

  • Spirituality and Legacy
    By Kalila Borghini, LCSW and Ordained Yoruba Priest, Spirituality Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Kalila and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile Most cultures and religions perform rituals honoring their dead both when the person has just died and in subsequent acts of veneration. It i ...

  • Trauma: Why Can’t I Just Forget About It?
    By Susanne M. Dillmann, Psy.D., Post Traumatic Stress / Trauma Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Susanne and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile Many individuals who have survived a traumatic life event wish to simply forget about the experience and hope that forgetting will be synonymou ...

Mountaintop Removal

  • Gibson will carry powerful message about mountaint ...
    More than 14,000 people have visited Larry Gibson on Kayford Mountain to see the tragic moonscape surrounding what is left of his ancestral home. Coal companies have blasted away more than 12,000 acres of Kayford Mountain by the most destructive form of surface mining - mountaintop removal.

  • Mike Roselle and 'Tree Spiker' (Los Angeles Times)
    In his book, Roselle details his work with Earth First! and other direct-action environmental groups. Mike Roselle is in his element -- fighting a controversial coal industry practice called mountaintop removal mining in the town of Rock Creek, W. Va. "I had to bail some people out of jail," the 55- ...

  • Jeff Biggers: Cowed Interior to Consider Mountaint ...
    It's funny how these embarrassing announcements always come on late Friday afternoon. While anti-mountaintop removal protests spread across the nation and at the EPA headquarters...

  • Interior Department Spins its Wheels on Mountainto ...
    Washington, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of the Interior intends to delay issuing a rule that would protect Appalachian streams and communities from mountaintop removal coal mining, giving even more urgency to the need for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take action to address this destr ...

  • Mountaintop Removal Mining Protests Going National ...
    by Vicki Smith MORGANTOWN, W.Va . - Activists with Mountain Justice, Rainforest Action Network and other groups planned protests at Environmental Protection Agency headquarters and across the country Friday to demand the end of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. An online map showed more than ...

Memeorandum

  • Even Fox News Fact-Checks Palin's Claims About Dol ...
    Eric Kleefeld / TPM LiveWire : Even Fox News Fact-Checks Palin's Claims About Dollar Coin   —  Sarah Palin's public pronouncements have now reached an amazing point — where even Fox News is fact-checking her.  —  As Fox News anchor Bret Baier noted this evening, picking up on a Politico r ...

  • Stimulus job boost in state exaggerated, review fi ...
    Boston Globe : Stimulus job boost in state exaggerated, review finds   —  Errors, incomplete data, estimated positions go into federal report  —  Revere spent $485,500 in stimulus funds to install solar panels on the roof of the Beachmont School and claimed to have created 64 jobs on the p ...

  • Sen. Reid tees up 2010 jobs bill (Walter Alarkon/T ...
    Walter Alarkon / The Hill : Sen. Reid tees up 2010 jobs bill   —  Senate Democrats will take up a new job-creation bill in the wake of the 10.2 percent unemployment rate, Majority Leader Harry Reid told his colleagues Tuesday.  —  Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) told The Hill that Reid (D-Nev.) mad ...

  • Pelosi's victory for women (Camille Paglia/Salon)
    Camille Paglia / Salon : Pelosi's victory for women   —  Sure, her healthcare bill is a mess, but her gritty maneuvering shows her mettle.  Plus: Gainsbourg and Gaga  —  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi scored a giant gain for feminism last weekend.  In shoving her controversy-plagued h ...

  • Democrat Ben Nelson Draws a Line in the Sand on He ...
    Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS : Democrat Ben Nelson Draws a Line in the Sand on Health Care   —  Nelson Won't Vote for Health Care Bill That Looks Like the House Version  —  In a warning sign for the White House, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska tells ABC News that he'll vote to block any h ...

Energy & Environment News

5+ quakes - 7 days

  • M 5.5, Mindanao, Philippines
    Wednesday, November 11, 2009 13:48:23 UTC Wednesday, November 11, 2009 09:48:23 PM at epicenter Depth : 59.40 km (36.91 mi)

  • M 5.1, Ionian Sea
    Wednesday, November 11, 2009 09:51:07 UTC Wednesday, November 11, 2009 11:51:07 AM at epicenter Depth : 10.00 km (6.21 mi)

  • M 5.2, Kepulauan Babar, Indonesia
    Monday, November 9, 2009 19:41:26 UTC Tuesday, November 10, 2009 04:41:26 AM at epicenter Depth : 157.40 km (97.80 mi)

  • M 5.5, Vanuatu
    Sunday, November 8, 2009 15:46:09 UTC Monday, November 9, 2009 02:46:09 AM at epicenter Depth : 179.30 km (111.41 mi)

  • M 5.1, Carlsberg Ridge
    Friday, November 6, 2009 03:27:00 UTC Friday, November 6, 2009 08:27:00 AM at epicenter Depth : 10.00 km (6.21 mi)

China Dialogue

  • The future of oil
    New market dynamics created by climate change, geological and geopolitical pressures will transform our hydrocarbon economies, write John Elkington and Gary Kendall. The race for the world’s remaining oil reserves could get very nasty. Recently, Nigerian militants announced their determination to ...

  • Carbon trading isn’t working
    Last week, Graciela Chichilnisky wrote that carbon trading can save a climate-change agreement. Here, Kevin Smith responds that such markets haven’t worked – and won’t in future. Carbon trading isn’t working, and doesn’t show any signs of improving either. The biggest experiment in carbon ...

  • “China needs time”
    On Thursday, Graciela Chichilnisky proposed that the carbon market is used to avoid a stand-off between the US and China at Copenhagen. Here, Simon Zadek responds. Graciela Chichilnisky’s proposal (see “ Saving Kyoto ”) offers food for thought, and an innovative mechanism of moving money elega ...

  • Saving Kyoto
    The carbon market can be used to avoid a stand-off between the major emitters at Copenhagen and forge a consensus among nations. Graciela Chichilnisky sets out her proposal. As nations get ready for the climate-change showdown at Copenhagen in December, the pieces are falling into place for a major ...

  • Corporate values, green governance
    The failure of companies to report environmental pollution in China exposes challenges for governments in the developed and the developing world, writes Tang Hao. Eighteen multinational and Chinese companies, all of them listed in last year's Fortune Global 500 or Fortune China 100 – including She ...

AlterNet Top Stories

Threat Level

  • Government Will Pay $3 Million in Coffee Table Spy ...
    The U.S. has agreed to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a bugged coffee table. Rather than comply with a court order to provide lawyers in the case with what the U.S. government says is classified information, ...

  • Feds Charge $522K for FOIA Request
    The Treasury Department wants more than $500,000 to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, a fee an attorney on the case suggested Tuesday might be one of the largest bills of its kind. “I have not seen one that has been larger,” said Noah Wood, a Missouri attorney suing the governme ...

  • 4 Hackers Indicted in $9.5 Million Bank Card Attac ...
    Four men have been indicted in Georgia on charges that they hacked into the Atlanta-based bank card processing company RBS WorldPay. They allegedly used an army of flunkies to steal $9.5 million in cash from ATM machines around the world in a span of hours. Sergei Tsurikov, 25, of Tallinn, Estonia; ...

  • Brazilian Blackout Traced to Sooty Insulators, Not ...
    SAO PAULO, Brazil — A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil has been newly blamed on computer hackers, but was actually the result of a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines. That’s according to reports from government regulators and ...

  • First Ever iPhone Worm Rick Rolls Australia
    The Rick Astley plan to take over the world has entered phase two. iPhone users in Australia were invaded in the last few days by a photo of the 1980s crooner and the words “ikee is never going to give you up,” a reference to Astley’s greatest hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The image, ins ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

  • EXCLUSIVE: AIG CEO defends holiday, slams "lynch m ...
    DUBROVNIK, Croatia (Reuters) - Wearing flip-flops, khaki shorts and a green polo shirt, the new chief executive of bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc says he's getting a lot of work done from his massive villa overlooking the Adriatic.

  • Apple tops phone chart as Nokia, Samsung step up
    HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's two largest cellphone makers, Nokia and Samsung Electronics, unveiled on Tuesday their latest rivals to the iPhone as Apple became the top profit generator in the handset industry.

  • Mini-dress student readmitted to university
    SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A female Brazilian student who was expelled from a Sao Paulo university after her short dress sparked student protests has been allowed back after federal prosecutors opened an investigation into the case.

  • Eager fans greet "Call of Duty" video game launch
    SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activision Blizzard Inc's hugely anticipated "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" video game went on sale on Tuesday, welcomed by eager fans who lined up hours in advance of the release.

  • Upbeat Cotto exudes confidence for Pacquiao challe ...
    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Miguel Cotto oozed self-belief and poise on Tuesday after making his official arrival at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino where he will defend his WBO welterweight title against Filipino Manny Pacquiao.

Pine River World News

  • Clinton says U.S. has some responsibility in milit ...
    The following article is from Pakistan's Geo television network. Clinton says U.S. has some responsibility in militant creation ©   Geo TV Pakistan November 11, 2009 WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged continued pressure on militants along Pakistan Afghanistan border and no ...

  • Ramzy Baroud: This Round for Israel
    The following column is reprinted with permission from Ramzy Baroud. This Round for Israel ©  Ramzy Baroud November 11, 2009 When British Foreign Secretary David Miliband uttered a few words regarding the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, many wanted to believe that ...

  • Pentagon chiefs buy net-security early warning sys ...
    IntelTrends - The following article is from The Register, UK. Pentagon chiefs buy net-security early warning system 'Arming the cyber warrior' ©   The Register By Lewis Page November 10, 2009 U.S. weapons megacorp Raytheon is chuffed to announce that it and allied firms have landed a $28m deal ...

  • Russian Intelligence: Georgia May Attack South Oss ...
    IntelTrends - The following article is reprinted with permission from Pravda.ru, Moscow. Russian Intelligence:  Georgia May Attack South Ossetia Again ©   Pravda.ru By Vadim Trukhachev November 10, 2009 The situation in the Caucasus can soon get escalated. According to the statement made by Alexa ...

  • Tendai Chambati: West should leave Zimbabwe alone
    [ Blogmaster note :  The following opinion was published in today's Herald, Harare, Zimbabwe. The reference 'MDC-T' refers to the political party "Movement for Democratic Change" - with the letter "T" designating the branch of pro-Western stooge, Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai, who refused to partici ...

PDA AMERICA

  • How to End Wars
    By David Swanson Around the United States, peace groups are engaged in effective campaigns against proposed new military installations, local funding of weapons companies, and the routine destruction of the environment and of workers’ health by ...

  • The Beginning of An Alliance
    by Michael Meo | Portland Metro Pacific Greens One result of State Senator Rod Monroe’s appearance as a speaker at last night’s weekly meeting of the Portland Metro Chapter was his pledge to help our party ...

  • Diagnostic tools for Maine’s controversial g ...
    This week, Maine rolled back gay marriage rights, just as California did last year with Prop 8. Many of our members have contacted us to request information on how to investigate the Maine election. Here ...

  • REP. WEINER WITHDRAWS SINGLE PAYER AMENDMENT FROM ...
    Washington, DC – Today, Representative Anthony Weiner (D – Brooklyn and Queens), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, released the following statement on his decision to withdraw his single payer amendment ...

  • Chairman Waxman’s Statement on Rep. Weiner’s S ...
    WASHINGTON, DC — Today Chairman Henry A. Waxman released the following statement in response to Rep. Anthony Weiner’s decision not to offer a single-payer amendment to the House Democratic health care legislation: “Rep. Anthony Weiner has ...

Marler Blog

  • Speech at China Agricultural University School of ...
    Perhaps not quite on par with the Great Wall or the Forbidden City, yet meeting the about 150 law students was pretty exciting - even for my 10-year-old daughter, Sydney (she took the photo).  Think of China Agricultural University as a Davis/WSU/Cornell with a Law School. I had been invited to spea ...

  • Food Safety News Supported Third China Food Safety ...
    Despite postponing the Conference from late September until this week for the 60th anniversary of the Revolution, CIFSQ once again put on a quality Conference with several hundred in attendance for dozens of countries. Food Safety News – www.foodsafetynews.com was a presence – sponsoring the sp ...

  • Comparing the Food Safety Record of Pasteurized an ...
    Part 1 and Part 2 of this series examined the historical context of the debate surrounding dairy product food safety, and the mechanisms by which pasteurized or raw dairy products may become contaminated with foodborne pathogens. Part 3 compared foodborne illnesses and disease outbreaks linked to ra ...

  • Food Poisoning is Serious - Read Mari's Story of a ...
    I am in Beijing at yet another food safety conference.  It is odd really that at each of these conferences - regardless the continent - all tend to talk about the victims of food safety failures in the abstract.  Mari's story is jarringly real.  Click on the below and read the three part story of a ...

  • Lawsuits Filed in Multistate Outbreaks of E. coli ...
    I am heading to a food safety conference here in Beijing sponsored by the Chinese Government.  However, we still had time to keep on top the food safety situation in the United States. The parents of Andrea Munro, 12, of Marshfield, say their daughter became infected with E. coli after eating Fairb ...

AutoblogGreen

  • First Drive: 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid is technolog ...
    Filed under: Hybrid , Crossover , BMW , First Drive , Luxury 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid - Click above for high-res image gallery BMW's pitch on how great the X6 ActiveHybrid is goes like this: it's the world's most powerful hybrid vehicle, fuel consumption is reduced about 20 percent compared to a s ...

  • AutoblogGreen for 11.11.09
    Lutz: High-performance Chevy Volt SS a "possibility" Could the Volt become a high-performance vehicle? Brammo cuts Enertia price to $7,995 2k down, $249 a month and you're good to go. ...

  • AutoblogGreen for 11.10.09
    At Witz' End: Notes from "The Business of Plugging In" A sampling of thoughts from PEV 2009. SEMA 2009: eVARO plug-in hybrid three-wheeler debuts, returns The golden squid is back. ...

  • AutoblogGreen for 11.09.09
    REPORT: Chrysler disbands ENVI group, EV development will continue Electric vehicle R&D will be integrated into Chrysler's overall organization. REPORT: Elon Musk says Fisker is "very far" from overcomin ...

  • AutoblogGreen for 11.06.09
    LA Auto Show Design Challenge entrants reveal Youthmobile 2030 designs And you thought the Aptera looks futuristic... CAFE credits for EVs - will we repeat the E85 system? It's not a rule yet ...

Rafe's Radar

  • Two new remote Webcams: Mole and Vue
    One is small and simple but fails as a security camera; the other is big and ugly but does it all.

  • Reporters' Roundtable 9: The business of app store ...
    This week on the Roundtable: the App Store revolution. Something funny has happened to software. While the model we all grew up with for the distribution of software was mostly to buy it through retail channels or other resellers, or maybe direct from manufacturers, another model emerged and has ...

  • Personal services get business flavor: Xobni and S ...
    IT pros will often tell you that a lot of consumer technology isn't ready for the enterprise. It's not secure, it's not priced correctly, it can't be administered, yada yada. That doesn't stop businesspeople from using consumer tools in their jobs, though. It just stops ...

  • BT's Ribbit releasing Google Voice competitor
    Sure, Google Voice is cool, but it's not necessarily the best Web-meets-phone service one can imagine, is it? The field is still open, and switchboard-in-the-cloud company Ribbit (a division of BT ) will stir things up when users get their hands on Ribbit Mobile, a new telephony service for c ...

  • Reporters' Roundtable: Future of the book
    This week: Books, future of . With the success of the Kindle and its store, and the announced upcoming release of the Barnes & Noble Nook, there are very interesting question for consumers and publishers: What is the future of the book? To discuss this on the Roundtable I have two experts on dig ...

Camera Obscura

  • Pathos and pathology: the cinema of Todd Haynes.
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935025/pathos-and-pathology-cinema.html September 1, 2004... Because infinity--for the eye--begins just a few meters away from the retina.... --Roger Caillois, "The Image" There are at least two shots in Todd Haynes's work that recur so frequ ...

  • The incredible shrinking star: Todd Haynes and the ...
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935026/incredible-shrinking-star-todd.html September 1, 2004... Critics have consistently characterized the films of Todd Haynes within the terms of what B. Ruby Rich described in 1992 as the "new queer cinema"--films whose style displayed traces of ...

  • Written on the screen: mediation and immersion in ...
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935031/written-screen-mediation-and.html September 1, 2004... Recently, while engaging in one of my favorite forms of procrastination--using my computer to search for mid-century modern bargains on eBay rather than using it to engage in more rigorous ...

  • Traumatic postmodern histories: Velvet Goldmine's ...
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935030/traumatic-postmodern-histories-velvet.html September 1, 2004... If modernity was characterized by and imagined itself in terms of a particular awareness of time and history--the unfolding of social, political, and technological projects of pro ...

  • Dangerous spaces: Safe.
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935029/dangerous-spaces-safe.html September 1, 2004... For me, the problem is always in content; we want to define the perspective of a film solely through its content, and not through its form. --Todd Haynes No matter how much we desire, wit ...

Democracy Now!

  • The Man Who Put the Rainbow in 'The Wizard of Oz'
    Thanksgiving is around the corner, and families will be gathering to share a meal and, perhaps, enjoy another annual telecast of “The Wizard of Oz.” The 70-year-old film classic bears close watching this year, perhaps more than in any other, for the message woven into the lyrics, written during ...

  • "First as Tragedy, Then As Farce": Philosopher and ...
    Dubbed by the National Review as “the most dangerous political philosopher in the West” and the New York Times as “the Elvis of cultural theory,” Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek has written over fifty books on philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and po ...

  • The Tortured Logic Continues
    “Extraordinary rendition” is White House-speak for kidnapping. Just ask Maher Arar. He’s a Canadian citizen who was “rendered” by the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year. Just this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York City, dismissed Arar ...

  • The Late Clarence Kailin in his Own Words: "We've ...
    Clarence Kailin was one of the last survivors of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of American volunteers who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. Kailin fought in defense of Spain’s democratically elected government against a military coup led by Gen. Francisco F ...

  • Trick or Treat for Climate Change
    Halloween is around the corner, and children will soon be dressing up and chanting “trick or treat,” their demand for candy backed up by the threat of a prank. Climate-change activists, from pranksters to presidents, are doing the same. Read More Listen to this Column

Farming Pathogens

  • A Visitation of the Influenza
    In seeping through the world’s every nook and cranny, pandemics have a way of forcing themselves into our lives as a lurking presence. Even the most insular of functionaries, who typically makes his living solving problems by ignoring them, straightens up and takes notice.    As an epidemic ...

  • I Do Like Green Eggs and Ham
    Much of what we’ve addressed on this blog has focused on the epidemiological failures of industrial farming. But what of the alternatives? Can we farm in another way? Is another world possible?    It’s only since I’ve moved to the Midwest that I’ve learned that not only is that world p ...

  • Heart of Modeling
    Greed is often mistaken for humanity’s heart of darkness. Look instead to the rationalization that transforms the most rapacious pillaging into an act of benevolence. A one-ton bomb dropped on a peasant wedding party is dissembled into regret without responsibility or, baser yet, a tough love offe ...

  • Bird Flu’s Industrial Revolution
    Public talks can be private affairs. In sharing our work we bare the triumphs and limits of a thinking born in long hours alone or with a few fellow conspirators sworn to secrecy. But in breaking our oaths we are able to take the next step.   In talking bird flu twice this past month I learned [... ...

  • The Agro-Industrial Roots of Swine Flu H1N1
    Mexico appears ground zero for an outbreak of deadly human-specific H1N1.   Of the over 1400 people that have been reportedly infected there so far, 86 have died. Short chains of transmission of the virus have also been reported in California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, New York City, Canada and New Zeal ...

Digg Green

  • The deep-sea crab that eats trees
    Deep under the ocean, a species of crab survives by eating wood that has sunk to the sea floor, scientists discover.

  • The Fight Over the Future of Food
    Nearly 5,000 miles away, in laboratories in St. Louis, Missouri, hundreds of scientists at the world's biggest seed company, Monsanto, also want to feed the world, only their tools of choice are laser beams and petri dishes.

  • Kazakhstan's radioactive legacy (PICS)
    Sixty years ago, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon at a test facility on the steppe of northeast Kazakhstan. Residents in the surrounding area became unwitting guinea pigs, exposed to the aftereffects of the bombs both intentionally and unintentionally. The radiation has silently d ...

  • Taipei 101 To Be World’s Tallest Green Building
    Taipei 101, famous for being one of the world’s tallest buildings, is set to get some major eco-upgrades in an effort to save money, reduce its impact, and gain the much coveted title of “World’s Tallest Green Building.” The $1.8 million in energy efficiency upgrades are expected to yield $2 ...

  • 10 Most Surprising Places in Your Life to Find Pet ...
    About one quarter of the oil consumed in this country is used for industrial purposes. Plastic production is the most obvious example, but oil has permeated more of our lives than most people realize. Here, the most surprising places you'll find oil, in some form, as a key ingredient:

Invisible Opportunity

  • Fort Hoodlum, Fort Hoodwink and those the Gods Dri ...
    By Les Visible It is a staggering thing to see, the highly placed and pervasively visible, going on and on about the fall of The Berlin Wall with no mention of the wall that surrounds Palestine. It is amazing to see so many unnamed mouthpieces mentioning that the Fort Hoodwink psychiatrist was a reg ...

  • Fort Hood Mystery
    By Michael Gaddy First is the report the perpetrator was dead and then hours later the revelation that he was still alive. Exactly how long does it take to determine if a person is dead or alive? Could it be no one knew whom the shooter or shooters were and a story had to be concocted [...]

  • Video – Eye on the Flu Shot
    This would be funny if it wasn’t true…

  • Plague Released on Purpose?
    Whistleblower warning in August by Professor Joseph Moshe to Dr True Ott about Baxter creating a Plague in the Ukraine. Exactly what we are seeing and hearing now. He was then arrested and hasn’t been seen since. The MSM said he was going to blow up the white house. Where is he now ? Lots of [...]

  • Why is Canada Changing Its Flu Vaccine Policy?
    By Dr. Mercola The Irish Independent reports that the some Canadian provinces have suspended the ‘normal’ seasonal flu shots for anyone under 65 in response to a recent study there. However, the vaccine suspensions do not apply for people over 65. The study suggests that people vaccinated agains ...

    Care2 Picks


  • World freedom Day ( To the Tune of 'Annie Get Your ...
    I guess the Nobel Prize made me irritable. The Commander in Chief had an inspiration to declare 'World Freedom Day' More than a few facts in evidence rubbed against that idea. I had fun. Submitted by John Farnham to US Politics & Gov't  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • U.S. cat has the H1N1 virus
    Swine Flu has now spread to multiple animals in the US...Read On... Submitted by Lisa Rinaldi-Kohl to Animals  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Battle at Coal River Mountain Explodes
    Start of the destruction of the range slated for wind project, blasting and forest clearing reported : mining involves hazard of release of reservoirs of toxic ash deposits threatening flood of death and groundwater poisoninghttp://opitslinkfest.blogspot. Submitted by John Farnham to Environment  | ...

  • Top 10 Places to Get Online Radio for Free
    Then grab a pair of headphones, the below top ten places to get online radio, and make the work fly by with your favorite music. Best of all, these stations are completely free to listen to and work with a pop up blocker. Submitted by Sophie Smith to Science & Tech  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Coal Waste
    Sourcewatch compilation of information on coal waste includes information often radioactive/concentrated heavy metal coal ash contaminates groundwater at ALL 'containment' sites Submitted by John Farnham to Environment  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

Insurgency Watch - Newswire

  • Obama, us leaders should contemplate future of Afg ...
    BBC News Obama, us leaders should contemplate future of Afghan women Chicago Tribune Would nuclear-armed Pakistan become even more vulnerable to its own Taliban insurgency ? Will a defeat embolden America's enemies? That line of thinking must ... Vietnam syndrome has begun in Afghanistan Sri Lanka ...

  • Officials: Campus blasts perplexing - United Press ...
    Officials: Campus blasts perplexing United Press International ISLAMABAD, Pakistan , Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The International Islamic University, where bomb blasts killed at least six people, is a unique Pakistani institution ... and more »

  • Schools closed in Pakistan after bombing - GMA new ...
    Schools closed in Pakistan after bombing GMA news.tv An Associated Press reporter met three Taliban fighters Tuesday traveling in a car with darkened windows at Shaktoi, a town close to the border between ... and more »

  • An Evolving Afghan Policy - American Chronicle
    An Evolving Afghan Policy American Chronicle ... triumph for the forces of Islamic extremism, al-Qaeda would once again gain a foothold, and the return of the Taliban would likely destabilize Pakistan . ...

  • Schools close in Pakistan following university bom ...
    Schools close in Pakistan following university bombings Emirates Business 24/7 ... in Pakistan after suspected militants bombed a university close to the capital, sowing fear across the country as the army presses a major anti- Taliban ... and more »

AlterNet - Rights and Liberties

Sideways News

  • Pill 'could' cure deadly lung cancer
    A drug which destroys tumours in a form of inoperable lung cancer has been developed by scientists. The treatment works by blocking the growth of the cancer cells, eventually causing them to self destruct. In early clinical trials, the drug killed all traces of the disease in 50% of the mice it was ...

  • Rare manuscript sells for £84,000
    A 400-year-old manuscript play found in the attic of Powis Castle in Wales has sold at Bonhams for £84,000.

  • Recession leads to best-before boom
    The tightening of purse strings that emerged during the recession has led many consumers to take a fresh perspective on when food is fit to eat.

  • Creature of the week
    We all need a perk during the seemingly neverending last few hours of the afternoon. Take a look at our favourite animals for some light relief.

  • Recession gloom is fading, suggests poll
    The doom and the gloom of the recession appears to be fading in time for Christmas, as a new poll reveals that people are feeling more optimistic about the economy than they have for the last 18 months.

Fabius Maximus

  • Today’s edition of the FM newspaper – ...
    Today’s broadsheet from the FM website pressroom.  There are four sections, all with hot news. Links to interesting news and analysis Today’s special item News about themes from posts past on the FM website Lifted from the comments of the FM website (I)  Links to interesting news and ...

  • About honor killings, crimes of the community
    Honor killings of daughters.  Ubiquitous in many (not all) nations with Islamic majorities.  A growing problem in Europe.  Now appearing in the USA.  There are precedents in western civilization (e.g., Héloïse and Abelard), esp killing of unfaithful wives and their partners.   But the form ...

  • Today’s edition of the FM newspaper – ...
    Today’s broadsheet from the FM website pressroom.  There are four sections: Links to interesting news and analysis Today’s special item News about themes from posts past on the FM website An interesting comment lifted from the FM website (I)  Links to interesting news and analysis â€Â ...

  • About the US Army – an army near the breakin ...
    Here are some recent articles about the US army, under great stress from our current wars. “Task Force Takes Up Effort to Prevent Suicides“, American Forces Press Service, 1 October 2009 “Army Releases September Suicide Data“, DoD, 8 October 2009 “Pentagon, VA Team Up to Improve Mental He ...

  • An opportunity to look in the mirror, to more clea ...
    Two of the most valuable magazines I read are the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books.  They give me a breath of view that I’d never have otherwise, with analysis of books I’d love to read but never will find the time to do so. Here’s an example, important information fo ...

sibeledmonds - tweets

WIRED Magazine | Science

  • World’s Freakiest Worm Gets Expanded Family Tree
    Five years after discovering some of the strangest creatures in the world — mouthless worms that live in the bones of dead whales — scientists have taken a peek into their genes. Though not complete, the glimpse shows these creatures to be far more complicated than was known. digg_url ="http:// ...

  • Giant Asteroid Impact Could Have Stirred Entire Oc ...
    The collision of a large extraterrestrial object with Earth almost 2 billion years ago may have stirred the seas worldwide and delivered a huge serving of oxygen to the deep ocean. The Sudbury impact, named after the Canadian city located near the center of what remains of the ancient crater, happe ...

  • Spirit Rover Wiggles Her Wheels
    The Spirit Mars rover wiggled her wheels for the first time in months. The rover has been stuck in Martian soil for half a year. The movement, seen in the image above, doesn’t mean that Spirit has been extricated, but it did provide some excitement for the rover’s operators and fans. “First d ...

  • The Spider Awards: Wired.com’s Arachnid Hall of ...
    > We admit it. Spiders have become an obsession at Wired Science. It started in September when we reported on a spider-milking machine that was built to extract silk from a million golden orb-weavers, two dozen at a time, to make a 44-square foot cloth. After that, we we ...

  • Taser Wars: The Real Dangers of Loose Triggers
    Iman Morales didn’t answer the door. As his mother stood waiting outside his one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, she grew increasingly concerned. Lately Morales had been acting erratically and having trouble with his psychiatric medication. Desperation mounting, she called 911. When the Emergency ...

The Progressive Realist

  • Syria updates
    Back in fall 2007 and spring 2008 , former Duck blogger Peter Howard was carefully following reports about the apparent Israeli attack on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility of some sort. I just linked Peter's last post on the event, from April 2008, and to a Duck search result that should unearth hi ...

  • What Can America Offer Its Allies?
    What can the United States offer its allies? Throughout the Cold War, the answer was simple: the United States guaranteed its allies security from the Soviet Union. But this question - which seems so basic - is difficult to answer today. It is undoubtedly true that the United States remains th ...

  • Special Ops Commanders Want Large Deployment to Af ...
    Spencer Ackerman’s reporting on the role being played by Vice Admirals WilliamMcRaven and Robert Harward in the Afghanistan policy debate explains why Joe Biden wound up losing the argument over whether we should try to get by in Afghanistan with a “light footprint” and a narrow focus on coun ...

  • Beneficent Empire?: The Effects of American Interv ...
    Le Figaro reports that China is now the number one foreign operator in the Iraqi oil sector. I'm struck by the way in which markets we open, whether by war (Iraqi oil, Afghan copper) or diplomacy (Indian and UAE nuclear energy), are exploited by our friendly competitors (China and France, respective ...

  • Iraq’s Parliament Finally Does Its Job – Passe ...
    On the night of November 8, 2009, Iraq’s parliament finally passed the 2010 election law . 175 of the 195 members were present, with 141 voting for the bill. As mentioned before , the law was originally supposed to be passed on October 16, but disputes over how to conduct voting in Tamim, home to ...

TAPPED - The American Prospect

  • Denying Martydom.
    I want to highlight one other recommendation from the Center from American Progress report on Guantanamo, which I think is seriously worth looking at. Prosecute 9/11 conspirators in federal court and limit military commissions to battlefield crimes. The prosecution of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and hi ...

  • Anticipating A Missed Gitmo Deadline.
    The Center for American Progress released a new report yesterday on Guantanamo, anticipating a missed deadline and urging the administration to set a new deadline for July 2010. That's a good idea -- although from the administration's perspective, setting a new deadline might be a risky proposition, ...

  • On Veterans' Day.
    We'll still be blogging, of course, but take a moment to remember U.S. veterans of wars past and present. President Obama's speech yesterday at the memorial service for the soldiers killed at Fort Hood -- one of the strongest of his tenure -- seems an appropriate way to commemorate the holiday. W ...

  • Feminism Without Feminists.
    Ariel Levy writes a piece for the New Yorker criticizing Leslie Sanchez's book, You've Come a Long Way, Maybe: Sarah, Michelle, Hillary, and the Shaping of the New American Woman . In the book, Republican strategist Sanchez calls for: "No bra burning. No belting out Helen Reddy . Just calm concern f ...

  • Lightning Round: War is a Force that Gives Neocons ...
    It's entirely possible that Harry Reid will bring the Senate health-care reform bill to the floor next week, but I don't see how he's going to cut deals with or twist the arms of the Joe Liebermans and Ben Nelsons of the world who keep making public statements promising to filibuster the legislatio ...

Andy Worthington

  • Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo – ...
    Following the successful launch of the new documentary film “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamoâ€� at the Cochrane Theatre, London, on October 21, 2009 – and the current mini-US tour of the film (with Andy Worthington showing it at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. ...

  • Bringing Guantánamo To New York
    So it’s three days since I arrived in New York, at the start of a ten-day promotional tour (also taking in Washington D.C. and the Bay Area in California) to show my new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed with filmmaker Polly Nash) and to discuss Guant ...

  • Italian Judge Rules “Extraordinary Rendition ...
    In an unprecedented ruling in a courtroom in Milan, at the end of a trial that — in fits and starts — has lasted for over two years, 22 CIA agents and a US Air Force Colonel received sentences of between five and eight years (and two Italian agents received three-year sentences) for their involv ...

  • Military Commissions Revived: Don’t Do It, Mr. P ...
    I was so delighted that the Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by President Obama last Wednesday, included a hard-won concession that the administration can transfer prisoners from Guantánamo to the mainland to face trials (even though the legislation still bears the fingerprints of interfe ...

  • Guantánamo Uighurs In Palau: First Interview And ...
    In the first interview with one of the six Uighurs recently released from Guantánamo to the Pacific nation of Palau, Radio Free Asia in Washington D.C. spoke by phone to Anwar Hassan, who revealed that, although the men were enjoying their new-found freedom, they were all concerned that they were u ...

Buzzflash

  • Bill Berkowitz: America's First All-Christian Pris ...
    BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY by Bill Berkowitz If Bill Robinson gets his way, Wakita, Oklahoma, a small town near the Kansas border consisting of 380 residents, will be the home of the first all-Christian prison in the U.S. Robinson, who runs a Dallas-based outfit called Corrections Concepts Inc. (CCI ...

  • Democratic dysfunctionality on parade
    Body "We are winning," declared former president Bill Clinton to a gathering of Democratic senators yesterday on the issue of health care, in the clearest sign yet that they're losing. When your team must be told that it's winning, when the easy grace of impending victory gives way to th ...

  • Can Any Self-Respecting, Progressive, Pro-Choice W ...
    BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Meg White The news on the passage of HR 3962, a.k.a. the "Affordable Health Care for America Act," in the House this weekend brought me to something of a "What Would Jesus Do?" moment (without the Jesus, of course). Much has been made of the 39 Democrats who voted "no" on ...

  • BuzzFlash Mailbag for November 6, 2009
    BUZZFLASH MAILBAG Want to join the conversation? Share your thoughts with other Mailbag readers by clicking here . You also may comment below; post articles yourself at BuzzFlash.net ; or send urls for BuzzFlash to post to: www.buzzflash.com/contact/newstip.html . Subject: Bachmann A message to Bach ...

  • When Political Bureaucratese Becomes Legal Sleaze
    MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON Buzz Flash,   Misers Thief: Don't make a move, this is a stick-up! Jack Benny: What? Thief: You heard me. Benny: Mister . . . Mister, put down that gun. Thief: Shut up . . . Now, come on . . . your money or your life. (Long pause) Look bud, I said: Your money or your lif ...

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

  • Newspaper punished for criticizing Iraqi leader
    In April of this year, the British daily, The Guardian , published an article by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi citizen, documenting the increasingly autocratic practices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.  The article quoted an Iraqi intelligence official claiming that "Maliki is running a di ...

  • Denying responsibility for the wars one cheers on
    David Brooks' column today perfectly illustrates what lies at the core of our political discourse:  namely, self-loving tribalistic blindness laced with a pathological refusal to accept responsibility for one's actions.  Brooks claims there is a unique evil that one finds in the "fringes of the ...

  • Salon Radio: Rep. Jerry Nadler on State Secrets A ...
    Last Friday, the House Judiciary Committee, by a vote of 18-12, approved a bill entitled The State Secret Protection Act of 2009 , which, if enacted, would be the first law ever to regulate and limit the President's ability to use the "state secrets privilege" to compel the dismissal of lawsuits th ...

  • Can attacks on a military base constitute "terrori ...
    The incomparably pernicious Joe Lieberman said yesterday on Fox News that he intends to launch an investigation into "the motives of [Nidal] Hasan in carrying out this brutal mass murder, if a terrorist attack, the worst terrorist attack since 9/11 ."  Hasan's attack was carried out on a military b ...

  • The universality of extremists
    The Washington Post 's David Ignatius today notes the irony that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being criticized by his country's "hard-liners" for supporting a deal with the U.S. over nuclear issues: The prospect of a deal with the Great Satan produced a political frisson in Tehran. . ...

The BiPartisan Report

Sciencebase

  • Berlin Wall falls in Australia
    Twenty years ago today, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I lay on a bed in a cramped backpackers’ hostel in the Katherine Gorge National Park (now Nitmiluk), in Australia’s Northern Territory, watching news of the fall of the Berlin Wall (now rubble). Outside insects were buzzing ferociously, the ...

  • Alchemical Anomalies
    In the current issue of The Alchemist we learn how to stick methane molecules to metals without breaking carbon-hydrogen bonds and how to make impossible carbene catalysts without the usual prerequisite of an attendant metal centre. Another seeming impossibility comes to light: a new microscopy tech ...

  • Twitter science list categories
    The manually compiled Scientwists list of science people on Twitter grew from around 100 of my contacts in January 2009 to almost 700 members, who asked to join or who retweeted the link as of October. Justin Reid helped automate the inclusion of bios and photos and 2020science did some amazing anal ...

  • My Whole Cell Twitter Interview
    Laura Bonetta wrote and excellent article for the science journal Cell recently in which she quoted various science types who use Twitter on the subject of whether or not scientists should be tweeting. It’s a topic I’ve discussed more generally regarding scientists’ use of social media and onl ...

  • Categories for science tweeps
    Okay. Okay. Pressure was on to categorise my scientwist list…so I’ve made a start. First off, the spillover (lots of tweeps in the T to Z group from the TweepML.org version of my scientwist list, which has 650 members of thereabouts) have now each been given a category as I cannot squeeze them i ...

change: org.

  • Vote for Your Local Food Heroes
    Edible Communities Publications , which publishes a range of free magazines on local and sustainable food and eating in communities across the nation, is calling all food enthusiasts to vote on their own favorite local heroes. You have until December 11 to have your say in the fourth annual Local He ...

  • China's American-Style Healthcare Dilemma
    As we wait for the CBO to score the special interest-heavy Senate healthcare bill so the wheels of reform can begin to slowly grind again, it’s nice to know the country that owns the US now finds itself in a similar healthcare situation to ours. Largely because it followed our capitalistic, priva ...

  • Why Climate Change Will Hit Women Hardest
    I wrote the other day over on Change.org's sustainable food blog about the fact that women produce the lion’s share of the world’s food but own only 2 percent of the Earth’s tillable land. Considering that climate change is going to present special challenges to farmers, who depend on abundant ...

  • America's Veterans Deserve A Healthy Homecoming
    Scott Quilty is a Retired US Army Captain and veteran of the Iraq War. The Campaign for Healthy Homecoming is a project of Survivor Corps . This Veterans Day, as we continue to try to make sense of what happened last week at Fort Hood, one thing is clear: our country has been deeply scarred by the ...

  • Vicarious Trauma Real, But Factor in Homicide?
    After the Fort Hood murders this past week, three big questions about post-traumatic stress are revived in the media. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist who had carried out research at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on post trauma treatment and cared for soldiers returning from overseas, decid ...

Common Dreams-Progressive Newswire

  • House Health Care Reform Vote: Table of Contributi ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 9, 2009 MAPLight.org The U.S. House of Representatives voted Saturday on a historic health care reform bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act . MAPLight.org’s website shows how each legislator voted and the campaign contributions they received from the hea ...

  • National Antiwar Groups Issue Call to Action for P ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 9, 2009 Veterans for Peace Groups that have sponsored some of the largest demonstrations against war in Iraq and Afghanistan today issued a "Call to Action," urging their members to protest as soon as possible President Obama's expected announcement of a troop escalati ...

  • Conservationists File Suit Against Federal Agencie ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 9, 2009 Buffalo Field Campaign A coalition of conservation groups, Native Americans, and Montanans are suing the National Park Service for their role in slaughtering 3,300 wild American bison that inhabit Yellowstone National Park.  Approximately 3,000 bison remain in ...

  • Peace Activist Confronts Netanhayu on War Crimes D ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 9, 2009 CODEPINK At the Annual Conference of the United Jewish Federations in Washington, DC, during the plenary session today, November 9, by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, CODEPINK peace activist Midge Potts stood up with a banner that said “End the Sie ...

  • New Report Looks at Honduran Economy Before and Si ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 9, 2009 CEPR The Center for Economic and Policy Research released a new report on the Honduran economy today. The report finds that the economy has become especially vulnerable to the combined impacts of the world recession and the political crisis that has followed th ...

Common Dreams-Views

  • US Is Doing No Good in Afghanistan
    by Malalai Joya As an Afghan woman who was elected to Parliament, I am in the United States to ask President Barack Obama to immediately end the occupation of my country. Eight years ago, women's rights were used as one of the excuses to start this war. But today, Afghanistan is still facing a women ...

  • El Salvador’s Cold War Martyrs
    by Frank Smyth The curfew broke after dawn. But the massacre took place in the middle of the night. The high command of the Salvadoran armed forces, who were receiving a million dollars a day in U.S. aid, made their decision near midnight. They had been on the defensive over the past four days and n ...

  • Gorbachev’s Sermon on the Mount
    by Robert Scheer "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." That biblical quotation certainly applies to Mikhail Gorbachev, a man not honored enough for the example he set and whose past practices and recent cautions about Afghanistan should be heeded by Barack Obam ...

  • Real Recovery Is Easy to Spell: J-O-B-S
    by Jim Hightower The recession is over! The economy is growing! The Dow Jones is above 10,000! Bankers are pocketing profits and fat bonuses! Happy days are here again! Unless, of course, you're just a regular working stiff struggling with falling income and rising unemployment - and sensing that yo ...

  • Signing of Colombia Bases Deal Could Set the Stage ...
    by Moira Birss After several months of secrecy and controversy , on October 30th the US and Colombia signed an agreement to allow the United States military extensive access to s read more

Karl Burkart

Water Privatization

Guardian

  • Mandelson tipped as information minister
    Business secretary could hold weekly televised news conferences to explain government business Lord Mandelson is being tipped as a possible "minister for information" under a shake-up of the way Downing Street holds its media briefings announced today. Officials planning the overhaul believe that on ...

  • Bank chief dampens recovery hopes
    • Mervyn King says economy will start to grow next year, but predicts path back to recovery will be 'long and hard' • Inflation likely to stay below 2% target for next two years The Bank of England warned today that Britain's economic recovery would be long and difficult, with inflation likely t ...

  • Canoe couple to repay nearly £600k
    John Darwin, who faked death at sea, and wife Anne to meet bill after vigorous pursuit by Crown Prosecution Service   The "phantom canoeist", John Darwin, and his wife, Anne, who are serving six-year jail terms for what a judge called calculated and callous fraud, are to repay nearly £600,000. The ...

  • Dresden courtroom killer jailed
    Alexander Wiens, 28, stabbed Marwa al-Sherbini to death after she accused him of ethnic slurs A Russian-born German man has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing a pregnant Egyptian woman in a Dresden courtroom, an attack that triggered outrage in the Musli ...

  • Murdoch 'doesn't think Obama racist'
    News Corporation on defensive after Rupert Murdoch backs Fox News presenter over 'very racist' comment by Obama Rupert Murdoch has been forced to deny he believes Barack Obama is a racist, after appearing to back the controversial Fox News presenter Glenn Beck's comments about the US president. The ...

Diigo | Green Community

  • U.N. Talks in Spain Seek to Salvage Climate Deal
    Climate negotiators from 175 nations meet in Spain next week for a final session to try to break deadlock between rich and poor and salvage a U.N. deal due in Copenhagen in December. Comments: Climate negotiators from 175 nations meet in Spain next week for a final session to try to break deadlock b ...

  • EU Agrees Final Stance For Copenhagen Climate Talk ...
    European Union leaders agreed an offer Friday to put on the table at global climate talks in Copenhagen in December after healing a rift over how to split the bill. Comments: European Union leaders agreed an offer Friday to put on the table at global climate talks in Copenhagen in December after hea ...

  • French Firm Pushes Carbon Capture Solution at us C ...
    Eyeing lucrative markets in China, India and beyond, French firm Alstom on Friday unveiled the world's largest carbon capture facility at a coal plant -- a technology backers hope will fuel a new multi-billion dollar industry and keep the coal industry alive. Comments: Eyeing lucrative markets in Ch ...

  • S.Africa's Tutu criticizes world leaders on climat ...
    Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu criticized European Union leaders on Friday for standing in the way of a global deal to combat climate change. Comments: Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu criticized European Union leaders on Friday for standing in the way of a global deal to combat climate change. ...

  • Will U.S. go empty-handed to world climate talks?
    Without a new law requiring cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. could end up going empty-handed to the international climate talks in December. Comments: Without a new law requiring cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. could end up going empty-handed to the international climate talks i ...

Electronic Intifada

  • Palestinians symbolically dismantle sections of th ...
    Two decades after the fall of the Berlin wall, walls of separation still exist throughout the world. Israel's wall in the West Bank is much bigger than the Berlin wall ever was, as it encloses more th ...

  • Activist confronts Netanyahu at Washington confere ...
    At the Annual Conference of the United Jewish Federations in Washington, DC, during the plenary session by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, CODEPINK peace activist Midge Potts stood u ...

  • Israeli Jews and the one-state solution
    One of the most commonly voiced objections to a one-state solution for Palestine/Israel stems from the accurate observation that the vast majority of Israeli Jews reject it, and fear being "swamped" b ...

  • Bilin's legal struggle continues
    The villagers of Bilin are pushing forward in their nonviolent struggle against the Israeli occupation by appealing a Quebec Superior Court ruling in their case against two Canadian companies. ...

  • Palestinians cling to their homes in Silwan
    OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) - "Make sure your father gets this," the municipal inspector tells a ten-year-old boy at the gate of the concrete house in an alleyway in the al-Bustan quarter of ...

CS Monitor - News

  • October 16, 2009
    The UN Human Rights Council votes to adopt the Goldstone Report on Israel's military incursion into Gaza.

  • October 19, 2009
    Saudi Arabia is wary of terrorists, especially from neighboring states.

  • October 20, 2009
    How some TV insiders view parents and children on reality television.

  • October 21, 2009
    How African Anglicans might respond to the Vatican's offer.

  • October 23, 2009
    US-China economic relations, Microsoft and Wall Street, and September home sales.

The Wonk Room

  • How The Stupak Amendment Changes The Status Quo
    Our guest blogger is Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. On Monday, in an interview with ABC News, President Obama reminded Congress that “this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill.â€� When asked about t ...

  • If Susan Collins Doesn’t Like The Health Bil ...
    Senate Democrats hoping to convince Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to vote for health care reform may be disappointed by her rather unflattering portrayal of the Senate Finance health bill in this morning’s New York Times. “We should rewrite the whole bill,â€� Ms. Collins said. “There is c ...

  • U.S. Citizen And Samoan Diplomat Accidentally Arre ...
    Court House News reports that Hans Joachim Keil, a U.S. citizen and Samoan diplomat, was wrongfully arrested by US immigration authorities who thought he was an “illegal alien” and incarcerated for nine days. Keil alleges that immigration agents confiscated his valid U.S. and Samoan Diplomatic ...

  • The Far Reach Of Stupak’s Amendment
    ver at FiredogLake, Jon Walker points out that the Stupak Amendment “could effectively stop many employer-provided health insurance plans from covering abortions for tens of millions of Americans” and restrict any private plan in the Exchange from offering abortion coverage. The amendment stipul ...

  • Dodd Releases Regulatory Reform Bill — How D ...
    oday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) released a discussion draft of his bill overhauling the nation’s financial regulatory framework. At the bill’s formal roll-out, Dodd called it “sweeping, bold, [and] long-overdue.” With this bill, there are now competing versions of ...

thwap's schoolyard

  • The Faces - "I'm Losing You"
    I first heard of Rod Stewart when he was the lecherous solo singer of "Tonight's the Night" fame. Then he went disco ("Do Yah Think I'm Sexy?') then soft-rock, now soft-soul, now a "crooner" of pop classics. Some friends introduced me to his work with "The Faces." I'd read History of Rock n' Roll ...

  • Hypocrisy and a Link
    First, harpercon house leader, Jay Hill : Hon. Jay Hill (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I rise today on a question of privilege in regards to the disturbance in the public gallery yesterday during question period and charge the member for Toronto—Danforth with ...

  • From That Link ...
    Earlier post today provide a link to the Special Committee on Canada's Mission in Afghanistan. I've just started reading it and thought I'd share Paul Dewar's grilling of Stockwell Day: Mr. Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, NDP) : Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister. I want to start o ...

  • RCMP-CSIS: Jockeying for glory
    I'm of mixed emotions about this National Post article [h/t C-C ]: OTTAWA -- The RCMP disrupted 14 suspected terrorist incidents in recent months, including several in which the alleged activities were interrupted without charges or publicity. The cases all involved suspected national security-relat ...

  • Ezra Levant and Alberto Gonzales
    Two doughy, pimply-voiced, stupid turds. I get the impression that Ezra Levant is trying to get sued by Maher Arar with his revolting assertions that Arar is a liar who was never tortured, and therefore stole 10 million dollars from Canadian taxpayers. He wants to get sued so that hey can torture A ...

Financial Sense Editorials

  • Market Observation: Momentum Shifting - Trend Inta ...
    by Ryan Puplava. "It looks to me like we could be forming the end of a blow-off rally. It’s difficult to measure how high stocks could go from here, but there are some clear shifts in volume, world market trends, and sector rotation that are signaling this bullish trend is coming to an end over th ...

  • California Sending out Notice of Defaults yet Fore ...
    by Dr. Housing Bubble. "California is on path for a record 2009. By the end of the year over 475,000 notice of defaults will be sent to California homeowners. This of course is simply from lenders that actually even bother to send a notice of default."

  • Volume Telling the Tale for Metals and Resource St ...
    by David & Eric Coffin. "India’s central bank taking 200 tonnes (6.4 million oz) of gold from the IMF in an off market trade has certainly lit a fire under the yellow metal. While a trade of that nature was anticipated, India, which is about the savviest of commercial gold players, was not atop t ...

  • India-IMF Deal: Tipping Point for Gold
    by Frank Holmes. "India’s deal to buy 200 metric tons (6.4 million troy ounces) of gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a huge deal – not just the fact that the New Delhi government is handing over $6.7 billion for the metal, but what it may mean for gold going forward."

  • Gold Thoughts
    by Ned Schmidt. "Wow, the light bulb finally went on last week. Perhaps we have never truly understood investing. Bank of England in the 1990s was selling Gold as it plunged to below $300. Now, with Gold soaring above US$1,000, the Reserve Bank of India is buying. The trick is to apparently sell lo ...

on Government Oversight

  • Five Ways Congress Can Ensure Health Care Advisory ...
    On Tuesday, POGO joined 19 other groups in a letter urging Congress to ensure transparency in the federal advisory committees that are likely to emerge from health care legislation. Both chambers have put forth health care proposals that would create...

  • Morning Smoke: Federal Acquisition Coalition Wants ...
    New alliance hopes to spur new talent in procurement field [Government Executive] Is the BLM practicing unsafe CX? [High Country News] Flu outrunning vaccine, experts say [Washington Post] GAO to report on GSA [Fedline] Clash Looms on Banks [The Wall...

  • Some Good News on the Stimulus Front
    A few months ago, POGO blogged about our concerns that many state and local governments with laws limiting contractors’ campaign contributions (meant to reduce the influence of private interests in the public contracting process) are facing obstacles to enforcing these...

  • Morning Smoke: Swine Flu Preparation Wasn't Hog Wi ...
    Tom Toles DCAA caught in the crossfire [Federal Computer Week] Break for Companies in Bailout's Fine Print [The New York Times] Fannie's Draws From Emergency Treasury Fund Reach $60 Billion [Bloomberg] Treasury OKs Another Firm for Toxic Asset Program [Associated...

  • Doc Hastings's Defense Of RIK Calls for a Second O ...
    POGO blog readers know that Interior Secretary Salazar's decision to phase out the Royalty-In-Kind (RIK) program--and hopefully return to Royalty-In-Value collection that includes audits, verifiable data, and real oversight--is in the best interest of taxpayers receiving their fair share for...

    Blacklisted News


  • Blackwater Used ‘Child Prostitutes in Iraq’
    The criminal activities of the firm first came under scrutiny after a group of the firm’s members who were tasked to guard US diplomats in Iraq opened fire on civilians in Baghdad on September 2007, killing 17 people.

  • Ahmadinejad: "Global Economic Order" needs Islamic ...
  • UK to 'spy' on every phone call, email and web sea ...
    All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited.

  • The Vatican joins the search for alien life
    The Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding its first ever conference on alien life, the discovery of which would have profound implications for the Catholic Church.

  • The Fed's Lame Defense of Too Big To Fail
    Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo argues that we should not break up the too big to fails or reimpose Glass-Steagall because....

The Intelligence Daily

My AntiWar

Rogue Government.com

  • General Electric To Spread Green Propaganda On NB ...
    NBC gives new meaning to the phrase "green screen" next week, spreading a pro-environmental message across five of its prime-time entertainment programs.

  • The Vatican Joins Search For Alien Life
    The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a conference on astrobiology, the study of life beyond Earth, with scientists and religious leaders gathering in Rome this week.

  • Dodd's super bank cop faces tough battle
    A U.S. Senate proposal to create a federal super cop to police banks faces formidable opposition from the industry, current regulators and a senior House lawmaker who recently blasted the idea.

  • Senate intensifies climate bill efforts
    A powerful U.S. senator on Tuesday called for tough trade protections that may complicate global climate change talks, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon traveled to Washington to push for progress on a deal.

  • State to 'spy' on every phone call, email and web ...
    All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited.

Innovation Canada

  • Viral control
    Depending on whom you ask, the H1N1 flu virus that is making its way around the globe could be anything from a particularly virulent form of influenza to the next worldwide pandemic. As virologists scramble to understand the virus and develop vaccines against it, a Halifax facility is already on the ...

  • Fear factor
    Let’s say you’re wandering through a deserted alley late one foggy October night. You turn a corner, and lo and behold, you’re surrounded by a crowd of brain-thirsty zombies. Your pulse quickens, your amygdala fires, your respiration is off the charts. You try to run, but you trip and fall. As ...

  • Fuels of the future?
    A recession-related dip in flight demand might actually be considered a green blessing. Just a small one, mind you. The David Suzuki Foundation estimates that aviation is responsible for up to nine percent of the total global climate-change  impact of human activity, so it would take a huge drop to ...

  • i2eye with Bif Naked
    The last few years have been a roller-coaster ride for Bif Naked. After two years of touring, TV work and datelessness following her 2005 album Superbeautifulmonster, the Vancouver-based alt-rock singer-songwriter — whose real name is Beth Walker — met and married her husband, sportswriter Ian W ...

  • Cultural evolution
    When Jane Goodall reported her observations of tools use by chimps to famed anthropologist Louis Leakey, he responded by saying, “Now we must redefine tool, redefine man or accept chimpanzees as humans.” Leakey would have likely had a similar reaction to the current work of University of Calgary ...

Signs of the times

  • British doctors to get bigger bonuses if they meet ...
    Doctors are in line for huge bonuses if large numbers of their patients sign up for swine flu jabs. Managers at a major health trust are offering extra payments on top of the £5.25 that GPs already get per injection. If they vaccinate more than 90 per cent of those deemed at risk of the disease i ...

  • Blackwater Bribe Plot Uncovered
    A report reveals that private US security firm Blackwater had allocated USD1 million to Iraqi officials to buy their support and silence criticisms leveled against the firm after a fatal Baghdad shooting in 2007. In an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, four former executives revealed th ...

  • Swedish Member Of Parliament: Leading Politicians ...
    A Swedish Member of Parliament has pledged support for a new investigation into the events of 9/11, adding that prominent political figures support the view that elements of the U.S. government were involved in staging the attacks. An article headlined "The U.S. was part of the attack" in the Swedi ...

  • Survey Reveals Big Gap in Understanding of Depress ...
    Americans do not believe they know much about depression, but are highly aware of the risks of not receiving care, according to a survey released today by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). See full survey results here. The survey provides a "three dimensional" measurement of response ...

  • Pupils terrified after arriving at school to blood ...
    The pupils were shocked when they turned up at Foxhill Primary to find their teacher had been attacked in a violent break-in. But their parents were more appalled when they learnt the 'crime' had been staged by the school as part of a problem-solving exercise. Children as young as five were greet ...

Threat Level

  • Government Will Pay $3 Million in Coffee Table Spy ...
    The U.S. has agreed to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a bugged coffee table. Rather than comply with a court order to provide lawyers in the case with what the U.S. government says is classified information, ...

  • Feds Charge $522K for FOIA Request
    The Treasury Department wants more than $500,000 to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, a fee an attorney on the case suggested Tuesday might be one of the largest bills of its kind. “I have not seen one that has been larger,” said Noah Wood, a Missouri attorney suing the governme ...

  • 4 Hackers Indicted in $9.5 Million Bank Card Attac ...
    Four men have been indicted in Georgia on charges that they hacked into the Atlanta-based bank card processing company RBS WorldPay. They allegedly used an army of flunkies to steal $9.5 million in cash from ATM machines around the world in a span of hours. Sergei Tsurikov, 25, of Tallinn, Estonia; ...

  • Brazilian Blackout Traced to Sooty Insulators, Not ...
    SAO PAULO, Brazil — A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil has been newly blamed on computer hackers, but was actually the result of a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines. That’s according to reports from government regulators and ...

  • First Ever iPhone Worm Rick Rolls Australia
    The Rick Astley plan to take over the world has entered phase two. iPhone users in Australia were invaded in the last few days by a photo of the 1980s crooner and the words “ikee is never going to give you up,” a reference to Astley’s greatest hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The image, ins ...

PERRspectives : Blog

  • Keeping Extremisms Out of the U.S. Military  
  • ( Related articles 1  2 )

    Revelations that the FBI, the Pentagon and even his medical colleagues were aware of Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Malik Hasan's extremist ideology have raised serious questions about the U.S. military's ability to screen, monitor and remove dangerous personnel from...

  • For Midterms, Republicans Hope to Party Like It's ...
    As Politico reported Monday, Republicans in the wake of Saturday's cliff-hanger health care vote in the House immediately began their campaign to target vulnerable Democrats in traditionally GOP districts. But for a Republican Party looking to retake the House of...

  • House GOP Reverses Role from 2003 Medicare Rx Vote
    With its talking babies and warnings of government takeovers and terrified seniors, the grandstanding by House Republicans during Saturday's narrow 220-215 passage of the Democratic Affordable Health Care for America Act was entirely predictable. And if that vote count sounds...

  • Cheney Turns to Sgt. Schultz Defense in Plame Case
    During the controversy over the Bush administration's prosecutor purge in 2007, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales raised selective amnesia to an art form. In one single day of Congressional testimony, Gonzales uttered some variant of "I don't recall" 64 times,...

  • The Hatch Truth: GOP Blocking Health Care to Preve ...
    A gaffe, Michael Kinsley famously mused, is what results when a politician inadvertently tells the truth. And so it was Monday when Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch came clean about his party's scorched-earth opposition to health care reform being championed...

Blackspot News Feed

  • Energy efficiency now Part 3
    Pollin: For developing countries going green doesn't mean slowing growth

  • Anatomy of casino capitalism
    Jane D'Arista unravels the web of banking confidence schemes

  • California State University System Plans for 10 Pe ...
    California is quickly losing its once-brilliant luster for its commitment to higher education with the announcement that the California State University (CSU) system plans to cut student enrollment by almost 10 percent in the face of a $564 million shortfall next fiscal year. This means 40,000 Calif ...

  • "Everything You Thought You Knew Is Wrong"
    Family of Secrets Russ Baker Bloomsbury Press, 2009 There's alternative history and there's secret history. Generally, in the former, the invisible hand of the market and other presumed movers of events are revealed not to work exactly as advertised and the "standard, orthodox, conventional and usua ...

  • Parents of Iraq Veteran Receive Mistaken Notice fr ...
    The parents of U.S. Army Reserve Specialist Chancellor Keesling, an Iraq war veteran, received a letter yesterday from the VA asking that their son complete his "Post Deployment Adjustment." The only problem is, Chance Keesling had killed himself in Iraq nearly five months ago. We speak with Chance' ...

Consortium News

  • Rev. Moon's Troubled Generation Next
    The right-wing Washington Times is caught up in the messy succession for Rev. Sun Myung Moon's empire, reports Robert Parry. November 11, 2009

  • America's Debt to Italian Justice
    In a victory for justice, an Italian court convicted U.S. intelligence agents for kidnapping a Muslim cleric, notes David Swanson. November 10, 2009

  • Why Lieberman Blocks a Public Option
    With a shrunken "public option" no longer a threat to private insurers, why is Joe Lieberman vowing a filibuster, asks Robert Parry. November 10, 2009

  • US Punditry's Anti-Obama Lensi
    In interpreting last week's elections, U.S. media emphasized the Obama negatives, not the positives, notes Michael Winship. November 9, 2009

  • Blaming the 'Dithering' Obama
    By not getting tougher with Washington, President Obama is earning a risky reputation for "dithering," says Robert Parry. November 9, 2009

CounterPunch

Institute for Middle East Understanding

Water - AlterNet

TruthHugger

  • Texas Progressive Alliance November 9, 2009
    The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone had a happy Election Day last week, and is already looking forward to the next one. Here are this week’s highlights. TXsharon continues to report from a backyard in the Barnett Shale. Despite all the local and national press on drilling related toxins ...

  • Health Care and The Brick Wall
    So, the wellness party is short lived.  The Senate is drunk with its own power … regardless of the fact there are millions  in health care distress.  Senators are so busy posturing in front of cameras, to get elected.  They continue to sabotage the current administration, ignoring mill ...

  • Hooray for the House
    Let me ‘dis’ the local Austin news media.  The 10PM news still says congress is still debating and repeats old news.  CSPAN shows the vote passed at 8:15PM.  Austin still lives in a bubble.  We are very well versed about the Texas football dramas and Austin icon Leslie,  but US ne ...

  • The Economics of Polarization Focus on Nadal Malik ...
    American media is focusing on Hasan's religion more than the cause for his meltdown. Tragedies don't JUST happen.

  • We Have One Twisted Health System, Living Organ Do ...
    The status quo for health insurers is minimalist investment in customers, maximum investment into political influence.  Greasy palms are the face of public health insurance in congress.  Genuine discussion about cost effectiveness and practical application take a back seat to the fears of equi ...

Dandelion Salad - Featured Writers' Posts

Unexplained Mysteries

  • Will our universe collide with another ?
    Its a scenario of apocalyptic proportions but in a theory that is rising in popularity among physicists our universe may not only have the potenti...

  • Boy, 11, declared reincarnated holy man
    An 11-year-old US boy has given up school, moved to India and is now the head of a Buddhist sect after he was declared to be the reincarnation of ...

  • Mystery surrounds holes in roof
    Emergancy workers have been left baffled in Melbourne after large holes were formed in the roofs of two houses. Police believe the incident could ...

  • Space power zapped from space by lasers
    In an ambitious new project that could take over 20 years to complete Japan are aiming to collect solar power in orbit and then beam it down to Ea...

  • Woman diagnosed with fear of vegetables
    A 22-year-old student from Portsmouth suffers from a rare phobia which renders her terrified of vegetables. The condition known as lachanophobia a...

Grassroots

Climate

  • November 11, 2009
    EPA: Dangerous Mercury Levels Found in Fish in Half of US Lakes (AP) Fish in 49% of U.S. lakes and reservoirs contain potentially harmful levels of mercury, the EPA found in a new study. The Obama administration is working on new regulations for mercury emissions from power plants. Climate Take ...

  • November 10, 2009
    IEA: Fossil Fuel Use Must Peak by 2020 (Financial Times) The International Energy Agency warned as it released its World Energy Outlook report today that the world’s use of fossil fuels will have to peak by 2020 if it is to escape a dangerous spike in global temperatures. Climate Breakthroug ...

  • November 9, 2009
    Climate Rift Grows Between US, Poor Nations (NPR) As the world prepares for crucial climate-change talks in Copenhagen next month, there is a growing rift between the United States and some of the world's poorest nations. The gap grew wider this past week, at the final official pre-Copenhagen tal ...

  • November 7-8, 2009
    G20 Fails Again to Reach Finance Deal on Climate Change (Xinhua) The G20 policymakers urged to push forward climate change financing but failed to reach an agreement on how to fund policies to tackle climate change at their two-day meeting in Scotland. Lawsuit Targets AES Coal Ash for Birth Def ...

  • November 6, 2009
    UN Climate Chief: Climate Deal May Take Another Year (Bloomberg) The deadline for a new global-warming accord may slip by as much as one year, as negotiators hold back on pledges to slash emissions or pay financial aid to poor nations, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer says. APEC to Call for Emissio ...

TomDispatch

  • Tomgram: Droning On
    [ Note for TomDispatch Readers : A number of you have recently written in for clarification on contributing to this site through your purchases at Amazon.com. Here's my best shot at a useful explanation: If you click on any book image at this site -- like the book-cover image of The End of Vict ...

  • Tomgram: Jamail and Lazare, Who Will Be Sent to A ...
    In a grim November 3rd Wall Street Journal piece (buried inside the paper), Yochi Dreazen reported record suicide rates for a stressed-out U.S. Army. Sixteen soldiers killed themselves in October alone, 134 so far this year, essentially ensuring that last year's "record" of 140 suicides will be b ...

  • Tomgram: Nick Turse, In Afghanistan, the Pentagon ...
    In our day, the American way of war, especially against lightly armed guerrillas, insurgents, and terrorists, has proved remarkably heavy. Elephantine might be the appropriate word. The Pentagon likes to talk about its "footprint" on the geopolitical landscape. In terms of the infrastructure it ...

  • Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich, Why Your Child May N ...
    This week, the Obama White House released a very partial record of those who had visited since January 20, 2009. This it hailed as "transparency like you've never seen it before" and as the beginning of a new White House visitor transparency policy. Unfortunately, the policy applies mainly to po ...

  • Tomgram: Afghanistan as a Bailout State
    [ Note for TomDispatch Readers: Last week, at an event in Santa Fe sponsored by the Lannan Foundation , I interviewed TomDispatch regular Rebecca Solnit. You can catch the audio by clicking here . The event was, in part, in honor of her superb new book, A Paradise Built in Hell , a tiny version ...

Smirking Chimp

  • Legacies, Celebrities, and Media Skanks
    NBC news correspondent Jenna Bush Hager had a news exclusive. And, like news exclusives in the Era of Infotainment TV, this one was broadcast by the entertainment division. Specifically, Jenna Bush interviewed her mother, Laura Bush, on 38th episode of "The Jay Leno Show." It makes no difference wha ...

  • Good Germans
    Honestly, since that travesty of March 19, 2003, have I ever seen such an abundance of gung ho militarism. You tune in a football game and all you see are either commercials for the Marines or Army, or tidbits of how important a job our troops are doing. Fox television even produced their Sunday NFL ...

  • Gorbachev's Sermon on the Mount
    — from Truthdig "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." That biblical quotation certainly applies to Mikhail Gorbachev, a man not honored enough for the example he set and whose past practices and recent cautions about Afghanistan should be heeded by Barack Obama ...

  • Our Debt to Italy
    The United States of America owes much of the hope it has right now of remaining what John Adams called "a nation of laws, not men" to Italian law enforcement. Were it not for the fact that Italian prosecutors, unlike their American counterparts, answer to the law rather than a president, the enforc ...

  • Carrie Prejean's Vibrator Signs Book Deal
    NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) - In a move that took many in the publishing industry by surprise, the vibrator of former Miss California Carrie Prejean signed a deal today to write a tell-all memoir. The book, tentatively titled Still Buzzing, will offer what the publisher called a "vibrator's eye v ...

Ten Percent

  • Bad Handwriting Aside
    Yesterday the Ministry of Defence announced that British forces may take more than the Nato limit of 96 hours’ detention to extract vital intelligence from Afghan detainees before they have to be released from UK facilities.

  • Lack of Courage
    (Reuters) - A former British soldier told an inquiry on Monday into allegations of abuse by British troops in Iraq that he saw two of his colleagues kick and hit a handcuffed Iraqi detainee shortly before he died. Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel clerk, died some 24 hours after he and six others were ...

  • 63% Want UK Forces Out of Afghanistan
    Perhaps showing people have a better understanding of war and remembrance than our bloodthirsty leaders. Public support for the war in Afghanistan is falling, while more than 40 percent do not understand why British troops are fighting there, a poll released on Remembrance Sunday showed. Some 64 per ...

  • 9 Out of 5,000
    Scotland Yard faced calls for an “ethical audit” of all officers in its controversial riot squad tonight after figures revealed that they had received more than 5,000 complaint allegations, mostly for “oppressive behaviour”. Details of all allegations lodged against the Metropolitan polic ...

  • Predictable
    Apparently people are still confused that war involves murder and insanity. Luckily morons, racist and imperialists can hang their denial on ideas of tribal loyalty because -their- god forbid they realise that if this is what a professional dealing with combat trauma does, then the ongoing wars in s ...

Paul Krugman

  • Elizabeth Kolbert can't say that, can she?
    Kolbert builds her essay around an extended metaphor that I'm pretty sure wouldn't be allowed under Times style.

  • Classical cloture
    Back when men were men and women were property, they had ways of dealing with obstructionist tactics from the legislative opposition:

  • Armey of ignorance
    In Dick Armey's world, in fact on the right as a whole, the affirmative-action-made-them-do-it doctrine isn't even seen as a hypothesis.

  • Depression multipliers
    Yes, fiscal expansion is expansionary.

  • The plural of anecdote is data
    Casual observation suggests a stronger recovery than anything I see in published numbers.

No Quarter

  • Today We Remember All Who’ve Given So Much
    This photograph is a memorial to the dead at Fort Hood: NPR has posted photographs and biographies of each of the soldiers murdered by madman Maj. Hasan. And, below, is a poem to remember Veterans Day: First, about Fort Hood, let me just say that it is cruel enough when any soldier dies in combat z ...

  • Ignorance Defense Works on Wall Street
    Ignorance of the law is never an acceptable defense on Main Street; regrettably, the same does not seem to hold true on Wall Street. How so? A recent auction-rate securities arbitration case involving an investor who purchased ARS from a Raymond James financial representative acknowledges the ignora ...

  • gawd - obama truly makes everything about him!
    “Few would have seen on that day that… that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent.” That comment was SO out of place, and SO unnecessary. Yet, SO typical. Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

  • How Obama Sold Women Out
    Reprinted from TheDailyBeast.com with the express permission of Amy Siskind, founder of The New Agenda, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo The health-care abortion mess is just the latest example of how Barack Obama took women ...

  • Putting the Major Hassan Hysteria in Perspective
    I am disgusted by both the left and the right. Several on the left (e.g., Newsweek’s Evan Thomas) want to pretend that Hassan’s murder of fellow soldiers at Fort Hood last week had nothing to do with his twisted vision of Islam. Then on the right you have the baying hounds insisting Islam [... ...

Environmental Graffiti

Foreign Policy in Focus

Global Elite

Al Jazeera

Green Inc. - NYT

Dot Earth News

Doug Feith : Hong Pong

  • Collapse, conspiracy, concern trolling, commidifie ...
    "I have heard much of the nefarious, and dangerous plan, and doctrines of the Illuminati, but never saw the Book until you were pleased to send it to me." "It was not my intention to doubt that, the Doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On t ...

  • The new Boiling Frogs Post/Sibel Edmonds site; Joh ...
    Sibel Edmonds & co have set up a new website called Boiling Frogs Post and they're going to be looking at a lot of shady stuff. The podcasts that have been going for a while have been really good & detailed material from whistleblowers and journalists about what's going on. [BTW here is a good recen ...

  • Ooky spooky Soviet bioscience: 1940 Soviet Zombie ...
    In all likelihood this Soviet propaganda video is fake, but it has a Zombie Dog head. I gotta say they should have had a better angle at the dog head, but it does kinda look real. Via this list of 25 scariest scientific experiments on io9.com. Tuskegee, Mengele and Unit 731 are all noted in the rund ...

  • A time for truth: New York Times reports Brother K ...
    I was a bit surprised to see the New York Times report this evening that embattled Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother has been taking mad CIA cash for some time. [Or rather, the three journalists who did the story are oddly emphasized, 'compartmentalized' on this risky exposure.] Earlier Willia ...

  • A quick hit from the G20: Democracy 101 by Indymed ...
    I was proud to help contribute some footage to this video - soon enough there will be more video out from what happened at the G20. For now please just check this out. It's certainly a "rough cut" and needs some help in the narrative & so forth, but it's a great intro to the widespread police abuse ...

Daily Censored

  • Venezuela Prepares For Conflict With U.S. In Colum ...
    "The empire is more threatening than ever. Don't make a mistake, Mr. Obama, by ordering an attack against Venezuela by way of Colombia." -Hugo Chavez

  • Why Do We Celebrate Veteran’s Day?
    Reflective citizens need to ask what the celebration of Veterans Day is really about. If we are no longer celebrating the cause of peace, and instead are celebrating the military, what exactly are we celebrating?

  • Smart meters raise privacy concerns
    New electrical meters are being rolled out to help reduce energy use, but privacy concerns have risen over how much data is being sent in real time to utility companies. The devices send data on household energy consumption directly to utilities on a regular basis, allowing the firms to manage deman ...

  • Democrats pass health care bill in the middle of t ...
    This is really insane. I cannot believe that we have gotten this far with the propaganda in this country. People, this bill provides no new insurer into the market place, yet forces people to buy insurance. How is this a good thing? The original program was to create a public option that was suppose ...

  • Foreign Contributions and the Supreme’s Overdue ...
    Michael Collins The Supreme Court of the United States will soon announce a major decision on our lightly controlled system of campaign funding.  Will it retain some limitations on corporate influence or will the court blow the lid off and cause a perpetual flood of unrestricted corporate co ...

AlterNet's Breaking News

Institute for Policy Studies

Godspace

  • Truly Ecumenical Firestarters
    Have you ever wondered what happens to all those candles that get used once or twice at church and then disappear? Well here is one possibility: Believe it or not you can get a blaze going in a minute with these firestarters, which combine recycled church candles with wood fiber…. Amen! A truly ec ...

  • Quietness and Rest – A Great Christmas Gift
    Maybe it is just because of the busyness of the last few weeks, or because Tom & I have just booked accommodation for our annual Advent retreat, but I have been thinking a lot lately about the need for rest and quietness in our lives.  I think particularly as we move into what is generally [...]

  • Advent is Coming – Will You Join Me?
    Tom and I are finally done with our travels.  It is good to be back in Seattle and getting my clock and my life turned around after our hectic Fall schedule. I came back to beautiful orchids in bloom which certainly lifted my spirits when I considered the mountain of work that awaits me…. and ...

  • Practicing everyday Justice
    Tom & I are just finishing off our time here at Eastern Mennonite University.  We have enjoyed sharing with the students about how live on purpose in our consumer driven world. I have particularly been impressed with some of the green initiatives on the campus here.  Their campus garden provides g ...

  • What Would Jesus Eat
    It seemed appropriate that just after I added my last blog post I received this information from Mike Morrell.  He and Kevin Beck are hosting a presentation with Lucas Land Thursday evening 8pm New York Time entitled What Would Jesus Eat Lucas is doing a full-immersion internship at a sustainable ...

Equality Trust

  • Our letter to the Guardian
    A letter from Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson to the Guardian was published this morning: We were glad to read your report that the "fierce debate within the government" is now about "how to tackle entrenched wealth inequality" – rather than whether to tackle it (Pressure builds for radical re ...

  • Pressure builds for radical reform of tax system t ...
    A fierce debate within the government on how to tackle entrenched wealth inequality – possibly through a high pay commission or a tax on assets – is to be ignited by a report ordered by Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader and the minister responsible for equalities. Read the Guardian's repo ...

  • Equality, not education, is the key to individual ...
    "Political parties fail to understand or address the root causes of the country's failing education system" writes Lynsey Hanley

  • Interview: Why inequality is bad for you
    Read an interview with Kate Pickett in the Radical Anthropology Journal

  • Sheffield: A city split for rich and poor
    Divisions between rich and poor in Sheffield are growing wider - with the situation today worse than it was 40 years ago, a shock new report reveals. Read more at www.thestar.co.uk

IntelNews

  • News you may have missed #0177
    TV footage shows Afghan insurgents with US ammo. US formally accuses Iran of weapons sales to Hezbollah. Finnish union spokesman was Stasi informant, says paper.

  • Russia claims secret US-Georgia armaments channel
    Several Russian newspapers carried lead articles yesterday, describing the alleged discovery of a secret Washington-led project of supplying the Republic of Georgia with $100 million-worth of US weapons supplies. The articles cited “anonymous Russian intelligence sources” in claiming that the US ...

  • News you may have missed #0176
    Hungarian Cold War double agent dies at 71. US military spies to train Iraqi counterparts. Swiss secret service chief calls for more spies.

  • CIA documents shed light on eventful 1956 Soviet v ...
    A batch of declassified CIA reports obtained by the BBC sheds light on the diplomatic angle of a historic and eventful Soviet high-level visit to Britain in 1956. In April of that year, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, and Nikolai Bulganin, Chairman of the Counc ...

  • News you may have missed #0175
    South Korean spy agency now regards North as ‘international affairs’. Robbery of S. African intel agent was planned, say officials. Interview with ex-West German spy master.

After Downing Street.org

  • Drone Race to a Known Future: Why Military Dreams ...
    Drone Race to a Known Future: Why Military Dreams Fail -- and Why It Doesn't Matter By Tom Engelhardt | Tom Dispatch For drone freaks (and these days Washington seems full of them), here's the good news: Drones are hot! Not long ago -- 2006 to be exact -- the Air Force could barely get a few arme ...

  • Fort Hood, Veterans Day And Defending America
    Fort Hood, Veterans Day And Defending America Rick Rozoff | Stop NATO | Blog site On November 10 President Barack Obama delivered a speech at Fort Hood where five days before 13 soldiers were killed and 29 wounded in a shooting rampage by a U.S. army psychiatrist. The attack resulted in the largest ...

  • Letter from Iraq Veterans Against War delivered to ...
    President Obama visited Fort Hood today. He dropped by Michael Kern's barracks. Michael handed President Obama a letter, saying, "Sir, IVAW has some concerns we'd like for you to address." Obama then dropped his hand and went on to speak to the next soldier. The Secret Service then took possession ...

  • Town Hall Meeting on Afghanistan Today in DC
    FAULT LINES: AFGHANISTAN A televised town hall debate hosted by Al Jazeera’s Avi Lewis Wednesday, November 11, 2009 | 1230pm THE NEWSEUM 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20001 Featuring: Matthew Hoh, Former U.S. State Department Official General Jack Keane, Former U.S. Army Chief o ...

  • The Iraq Peace and Reconciliation College Tour
    By David Swanson Mark Manning, who created the amazing film "Road to Fallujah," sent me information on a new project that should be of interest to peace activists and college students, which sadly are two groups of people without enough overlap. It involves setting up events on college campuses tha ...

Grist - News

  • Europe places outcome of Copenhagen squarely on Ob ...
    by Brendan DeMelle The chief negotiator for the European Commission announced this afternoon in Barcelona that the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass legislation before December has doomed the chances for success in Copenhagen . A climate protest at the Barcelona talks: World leaders with \'big ...

  • Cash for Clunkers brought us ... more clunkers!
    by Jonathan Hiskes So how did Cash for Clunkers work out from an environmental standpoint? You don’t want to know. The $3 billion federal program was kinda sorta supposed to send inefficient, high-polluting, belchy vehicles to an early grave. Instead it put a lot of new large, inefficient vehicle ...

  • Senate Democrats push climate bill through committ ...
    by Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats on Thursday pushed through a sweeping climate change bill, maneuvering an end-run around opposition Republicans who continued their boycott of deliberations. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the Kerry-Boxer bill by a v ...

  • Why developing countries cannot afford failure in ...
    by Brendan DeMelle The African delegation insisted today in Barcelona that its decision to walk out on negotiations Tuesday was necessary in order to jolt the intransigent European Union and other developed nations to move forward with serious discussions, rather than obstruct progress by bringing ...

  • U.S. puts onus on China for climate deal
    by Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON - The United States will not agree to targets cutting greenhouse-gas emissions unless developing countries, particularly China, make similar moves, U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern warned Wednesday. "No country holds the fate of the Earth in its hands more than China ...

Popular Bookmarks on Del.icio.us

Technorati - What's Hot in Blogs

Time - Top Stories

Washington Independent

  • Is al-Qaeda Drifting Away From the Quetta-Shura Ta ...
    I don’t know if this is wishful thinking or solid intelligence work. But Josh Partlow at The Washington Post has a spectacular story today from Kabul about possible fissures between al-Qaeda in Pakistan and elements of the Afghan Taliban coalition. Partlow’s sources indicate that the relationshi ...

  • Ben Nelson: I’ll Block a Health Care Bill Th ...
    Sen. Ben Nelson, the conservative-leaning Nebraska Democrat, vowed to filibuster health reform legislation if it includes a public health insurance plan, ABC News reported yesterday. “Well, first of all, it has more than a robust public option, it’s got a totally government-run plan, the costs ...

  • By Pete Hoekstra’s 2006 Logic, He Might Be T ...
    Check out Rachel Maddow going hard on Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) for publicly revealing that the U.S. intelligence community is intercepting the communications of al-Qaeda-sympathetic cleric Anwar Aulaqi, a former U.S. preacher now in Yemen whom Fort Hood murder suspect Nidal Malik Hasan apparentl ...

  • Tea Parties and Local Elections
    Jim Geraghty bestows credit on the Tea Party movement for this very under-the-radar election in Tuscon, Ariz., where a safe Democratic incumbent was ousted by a Republican novice. There’s something to that, especially when you see that “the city will not have an additional $21 million to work wi ...

  • The Missing Piece in Afghanistan Strategy
    Check out this New York Times piece about the Afghanistan debate’s latest shifts in the White House. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are now on board with a 30,000-troop increase*, as is Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The p ...

CowBoss' Brain Food

  • Animal waste agreement reached at landfill
    CLINTON — After more than a year of negotiations, cattle brain and spinal cord material could start coming to the Clinton County landfill next week, according to recent action by the Clinton County Area Solid Waste Agency board. Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Health & Wellness  |   Note-it!  |  ...

  • Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs
    Pigs were the champion garbage consumers in Cairo. Goats just don't seem up to the task. CAIRO — It is unlikely anyone has ever come to this city and commented on how clean the streets are. But this litter-strewn metropolis is now wrestling Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Society & Culture  |   N ...

  • Divining the Secret of Deformed Roadkill
    Hard as it is to be a voice in the wilderness, Judy Hoy has been sounding an alarm in southwestern Montana for more than 13 years. For years she's been documenting, through autopsies, photos, articles and scientific papers, changes — mutations, really Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Environment   ...

  • Ecosmackdown: Pets Versus Solar Panels
    It takes 17 times more land to feed American pets than would be required by solar farms producing enough electricity to meet all the demand in the United States. Why do we know this? Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Green Lifestyle  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • New Study Finds Canned Food Laced With Toxic Chemi ...
    Consumer Reports has unleashed its findings on toxic levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging on a largely unsuspecting public. Before the report, many felt the BPA danger had passed with the introduction of BPA-free baby bottles and so-called microw Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Health & Wel ...

Suzie-Q

  • Gorbachev to Obama: ‘Prepare the ground for with ...
    By Jordan Fabian,  The Hill, Nov. 10, 2009 Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday advised President Barack Obama to prepare to withdraw forces from Afghanistan, rather than adding more troops. The USSR leader, who in 1986 began the withdrawal of Soviet troops [...]

  • Pilger: Breaking The Great Australian Silence
    John Pilger | ZNet, Nov. 7, 2009 Editor’s Note: An important speech/article by a great writer who has stood for  truth and justice that  needs the attention of all of us around the world. Thank you all for coming tonight, and my thanks to the City of Sydney and especially to the Sydney Pea ...

  • Paid Lying – What Passes For Major Media Journal ...
    Stephen Lendman, Baltimore Chronicle, Noveber 9, 2009 Today’s major media journalism is biased, irresponsible, sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the truth. It’s misinformation or agitprop disinformation masquerading as fact to boost circulation, readership, viewe ...

  • No peace progress as Obama, Netanyahu meet
    Middle East Online, November 10, 2009 ‘Shame on you’, the hardline premier was told Hardline Netanyahu leaves White House without Obama appearance amid Israeli defiance. WASHINGTON – Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the White House Monday after spending an hour and f ...

  • US Generals Flood Israel for Exercise against ‘S ...
    Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News, Nov. 3, 2009 An unprecedented number of American generals, along with 1,400 U.S. army soldiers, are participating with top IDF brass in the high-level Juniper Cobra military exercise that one U.S. Navy commander said is aimed at “specific threats.” Pub ...

Solari

  • Chart of the Day: The Bailout Has Transformed Into ...
    At Clusterstock

  • G20 Leaves Door Open For Fresh Pressure on Dollar
    By Andrew Torchia LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar may come under renewed pressure from emerging market currencies and the euro after a meeting of the world’s top finance officials failed to take concrete action on rebalancing global money flows. Finance ministers and central bank governors of t ...

  • Money & Markets - Week of 11.08.09
    Foreclosure Crisis Caused by Investors. And Lenders. And Politicians. And Buyers. St. Petersburg Times (8 Nov 09) New Bill Would Keep Public in the Dark About Threats to Financial System Huffington Post (6 Nov 09) Cash Crunch, Press Silence Newsbusters.org (5 Nov 09) Fannie Mae’s Sale of tax Cre ...

  • Geopolitical - Week of 11.08.09
    Broader Measure of U.S. Unemploment Stands at 17.5% The New York Times (6 Nov 09) Where Will the Jobs Be in 2010 Financially Fit (6 Nov 09) Un-Skilled Workers Were Annihilated in October The Business Insider (6 Nov 09) The 20 Most Unemployed Cities In America The Business Insider (4 Nov 09) Defense ...

  • Food & Health - Week of 11.08.09
    Victory at Codex! National Health Federation (8 Nov 09)

Global Insights

  • Less Than a Week Away
    We encourage you to register for Awake and Aware. George Green will be a featured speaker. September 19th & 20th • Burbank, CA Click here for Tickets & Reservations  

  • The Georgia Guidestones
    On one of the highest hilltops in Elbert County, Georgia stands a huge granite monument. Engraved in eight different languages on the four giant stones that support the common capstone are 10 Guides, or commandments. That monument is alternately referred to as The Georgia Guidestones, or the Ame ...

  • The Creation
    THE CREATION (A recent message given to George Green from the "guys upstairs") We are pleased to bring understanding and clarification on what is the Creation. This is a challenge because your language of communication has not the words for describing this conception of Creation. So as not to put an ...

  • The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catas ...
    In his previous books, James Kunstler focused on the shortsighted vision of suburban planning; now he expands that view to the country's urban growth challenges and the need to drastically change our current course of auto and oil dependency. The Long Emergency is filled with history plus eye-openin ...

  • About George Green
    Dear Friends, Thank you for your interest in our catalog of unusual and informative materials. The knowledge gained will give you choices in the days ahead and lessons of discernment as the chaos increases. It is necessary for those of you who are now in the "know" so to speak, to begin to focus ...

Insurgency Watch - Posts

  • InsurgencyWatch moving to True/Slant
    In the coming days, InsurgencyWatch will be moving to True/Slant, “an original content news network tailored to both the ‘Entrepreneurial Journalist’ and marketers who want a more effective way to engage with digital audiences.” (That’s what the official about page says.) It’s not a deci ...

  • Kerry-Lugar’s First Victim
    If true, this is total bullshit: After strong criticism on the Kerry-Lugar bill in Pakistan, the government has decided to replace Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani and the announcement in this respect is expected within the next two days. There’s nothing in the bill reasonable Pa ...

  • Pakistan’s Civil War Heating Up
    In the aftermath of this weekend’s assault on the Pakistani General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, the Taliban hit again in Alpuri, in the Shangla district east of Mingora in Swat. According to military sources who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to talk to the press, a 1 ...

  • At Home with a Swat Lashkar
    I just finished up a few days in Swat and while I’m working on a story about it, I thought you might like to see a few pictures I took while there. Enjoy. Share/Save

  • FACTBOX: Uzbek militant leader killed in Pakistan ...
    Washington PostFACTBOX: Uzbek militant leader killed in PakistanReutersBy this time he is thought to have fled the region for the safe haven of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. * Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader ...Pakistan to Target Taliba...

AlterNet - DrugReporter

Twilight Earth

  • EPA Orders Employees to Remove YouTube Climate Vid ...
    The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered two of its attorneys to remove a video they posted on YouTube about problems with climate change legislation. Related posts: Technology Transfer and Climate Change (Video) Barack Obama’s New Video to the Governors Global Climate Change Summit Activ ...

  • Keep Keeping America Beautiful
    During the spring and summer of 2009, more than 3 million volunteers worked tirelessly for 5.2 million hours during the 2009 Great American Cleanup organized by the nonprofit group Keep America Beautiful. Related posts: U.S. Petroleum Industry Responsible for 25% of Toxic Pollutants in North Ameri ...

  • Green Living Ideas and Twilight Earth Form New Maj ...
    Sean Daily, CEO of Green Living Ideas, Inc. and Adam Shake, founder of Twilight Earth, have teamed up to create online media company Simple Earth Media. Related posts: The Twilight Earth Green Friend Force – Weekly Greenosphere Picks Twilight Earth Aquires Another Green Website – Eco Tech D ...

  • Massey Energy is Blasting on Coal River Mountain, ...
    Appalachia's West Virginians unite to stop Massey Energy Mountain Top Removal Related posts: Residents to Protest at Massey Energys Toxic Coal Sludge Dam Coal Country Film: Inside Modern Coal Mining West Virginians Come to DC to Protest Mountaintop Removal at the EPA

  • Big Coals Effects on Your Families Air – Indoor ...
    130,000 people in the U.S. die every year from fine particulate matter from Coal burning power plants. How does it effect your families indoor air quality? Related posts: What Color Is Your Air Quality Today? Beefs Effects on People, the Environment and Society Foreclosures Effects on People and t ...

Inhabitat

  • Incredible Sun Valleys to Light Up the Night and D ...
    This incredible Sun Valley is one of a six giant funnel-shaped canopies that are currently springing up in Shanghai in preparation for the 2010 World Expo. When they are all completed they won’t just be a pretty sight – the towering LED-studded structures will also collect rain water and act as ...

  • Opportunity Green Proves That Green Design is Good ...
    This year’s Opportunity Green conference proved that good design means good business, and it started from the moment we walked in the door. We were bestowed with a Kor water bottle (to be refilled at water stations placed throughout the conference groups) and full set of To-Go Ware complete with c ...

  • Creating Cylindrical Prefab Homes From Renovated G ...
    If pop art were to cross paths with prefab housing, the result would likely look this Warhol-worthy prefab home. Designed by Austin + Mergold, A-House-In-A-Can is a single-family residence built in the round interior of a grain silo. Constructed with off-the-shelf components and clad with a prefabri ...

  • Beautiful Buildings Made From Whole Trees
    According to the Forest Products Laboratory, a whole, unmilled tree can support 50 percent more weight than the largest piece of lumber milled from the same tree. Putting this principle into practice, Whole Tree Architecture is dedicated to building with materials that lumber companies consider scra ...

  • Wireless Road Trains Keep Highway Vehicles Linked ...
    What if you could drive onto the highway, take your hands off the wheel, and sit back and read a book? That might not be as far-fetched as you might think if an EU-financed research project is successful. The project, dubbed SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) wants to link vehicles togeth ...

Pogue's Posts

  • Cleaning Up the Clutter Online
    A new Web tool strips away all the flashing and the blinking and leaves you with clean, readable prose.

  • Medical Apps for the iPhone
    Last week, I spoke at the TED MED conference. My assignment was to speak for 18 minutes about medical apps for the iPhone. Sounds easy, right? Only one problem: there are about 7,000 medical apps.

  • Return to Sender
    Have an amazing idea? Here's why Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer and Sergey Brin don't want to hear about it.

  • Are You Nice or Am I Famous?
    Do columnists or other prominent people get special white-glove treatment from customer-service reps? Hard to say, but anecdotally, the evidence is thin.

  • Pogue Answers Reader Questions on Windows 7
    Whenever I review something that affects so many people, I can count on getting a lot of feedback - and I did, even though the review appeared only last night. Here's a sampling, with my responses.

Open Your Eyes News

  • US military sees increase in wounded in Afghanista ...
    AP – Far from winding down, the numbers of wounded U.S. soldiers coming home have continued to swell. The problem is especially acute among those who fought in Afghanistan, where nearly four times as many troops were injured in October as a year ago. Amputations, burns, brain injuries and shrapnel ...

  • Artificial snowstorm brings chaos to Beijing
    ABC – Chinese scientists have artificially induced the second major snowstorm to wreak havoc in Beijing this season, state media said, reigniting debate over the practice of tinkering with Mother Nature. Read Article

  • UK Government to keep DNA of innocent for six year ...
    The Guardian – Home Office ministers are expected to announce a six-year limit on the retention of DNA profiles on the national database for people arrested but not convicted of any offence, bringing it more in line with Scotland, where five years is the norm. The predicted climbdown comes after t ...

  • Blackwater approved payments in Iraq shooting: rep ...
    Reuters – Top Blackwater executives authorized about $1 million in payments to Iraqi officials to buy support and silence criticism of the private security firm after a deadly shooting in Baghdad in 2007, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. In September 2007, Blackwater workers fatally shot at ...

  • Police shoot dead three-year-old in South Africa
    The Guardian – Police in South Africa have allegedly shot dead a three-year-old boy because they mistook a metal pipe he was holding for a gun. Atlegang Aphane’s family, who claimed the officer responsible showed no remorse, questioned whether their son had been the victim of a “shoot to killâ ...

Monkey Smashes Heaven

  • Fragging statement: MSH and Anwar al Awlaki
    Fragging statement: MSH and Anwar al Awlaki (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) All the facts about the Fort Hood shootings are not in yet. The facts may never be fully known. After all, the bourgeois media, the accused’s handlers, and others, will try to craft their own narratives around the eve ...

  • Floating parasitism
    Floating parasitism (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) Royal Caribbean International has just launched the world’s largest cruise ship. The Oasis of the Seas weighs 225,282 tonnes. The ship is 360 meters long and 72 meters high above the water line. Passenger features include luxuries such as tw ...

  • Third World countries protest First World countrie ...
    Third World countries protest First World countries over climate change (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) 50 African countries walked out of a UN working meeting on climate change in Barcelona, Spain. The African and 70 other Third World countries have been protesting U.N. climate negotiations th ...

  • Lackeys in Iran: Help! Obama! Help!
    Lackeys in Iran: Help! Obama! Help! (monkeysmasheshheaven.wordpress.com) This week witnessed demonstrations in the streets of Tehran. According to reports, these are the first significant ones since the end of demonstrations surrounding the contested presidential elections months ago. The recent pr ...

  • Sa Liyab ng Libong Sulo
    Sa Liyab ng Libong Sulo (amihanmalaya.wordpress.com) Ang “Sa Liyab ng Libong Sulo” ay isang bidyu-dokumentaryo na gawa nuong 1996 at hango sa librong, “Lipunan at Rebolusyong Pilipino,” ni Amado Guerrero. Inilalarawan nito ang kasaysayan ng pakikibaka ng sambayanang Pilipino magmula nuong ...

PakAlert

  • India’s Breakup Is Inevitable
    INDIA: Before and after maps “The decline of India is inevitable, Mr. Speaker, for many of the same reasons that doomed the Soviet Union,” – Congressman Edolphus Towns in his 1998 speech. “The Indian state, in its present manifestation, practices the same repressive violent policies as that ...

  • Max Keiser: There will be a Violent Revolution in ...
    Must See: US Collapse: Economist Predicts Second Crises Wave Will Shatter U.S. in 2010, Shattered Union To Begin with Texas Ron Paul: Be Prepared for the Worst No Recovery. It’s a Cover up! Recession To Worsen ­ Revolution To Follow Video: 2 Million people march on Washington. The Second Ame ...

  • Swine flu death toll crosses 500 in India
    More than 500 people have died from swine flu in India since the first fatality was reported in August, the Indian health ministry said. The western state of Maharashtra has seen the largest number, with 207 deaths from the influenza A (H1N1) virus, the ministry said in a statement. Besides the 502 ...

  • Nuclear Doubts: Pakistani Weakness Is Eroding Inte ...
    Seymour Hersh might have come up with some absurd findings, like concluding that religious extremism has multiplied in Pakistan because no one offered him Johnny Walker Black during his recent visit.  But apart from that, Pakistan’s national security managers should sit up and take notice of on ...

  • List Of Underground Bases In The US
    This is a list of known or suspected U.S. Underground Bases, the purpose of each , how they’re set up and any other info known about them. Although most of these are supposed [...] Read More at http://pakalert.wordpress.com/

ecogeek

  • Garmin Offering "Eco" Cable to Go with S ...
    Garmin has revealed screen shots of its new Eco-Route add-on for the Nuvi 1xxx GPS systems with Bluetooth.  The Eco-Route is a cable that plugs into your car's diagnostic communications port and feeds data to your GPS. Eco-Route reads air, fuel, throttle position and combustion mixture information ...

  • Bacteria Could Rid the World of Packaging Waste
    Consumer and shipping packaging can be incredibly wasteful.  Some companies are downsizing their packaging, but many products sitll come wrapped and boxed in ridiculous amounts of plastic, paper, cardboard - you name it.  One designer has come up with a way to get rid of the waste by wrapping obj ...

  • KLM Testing Biofuels on Passenger Flight
    As many of us in the U.S. are planning our Thanksgiving menus, Dutch airline company KLM is planning the first biofuel flight with passengers on board.  On November 23, a Boeing 747 will take off running on a 50/50 combination of biofuel and jet fuel. The biofuel being used in this test flight wil ...

  • Desklamp Powered by a Phone Jack
    From my perspective, they very fact that this is possible is the news here. It's a "reading" lamp that can be powered by a phone jack. That's right, your phone jack has a tiny amount of power that comes through along with the phone signal to power things like ringers and speakers and microphones. I ...

  • US Government Surpasses Google for Geothermal Fund ...
    More than $300 million in funding for research and development of geothermal energy has been announced by U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. This now pushes Google.org into second place behind the government in domestic geothermal R & D funding. The projects funded by this progra ...

Times Online - Science

  • Alan Johnson accused of 'political expediency' as ...
    The Home Secretary was again under attack from scientific advisers today after three resigned from the government's drugs panel.

  • A benefit of being square
    Look around you and you will see numerous examples of shapes repeating themselves left-right, up and down, back and forth. Glance down at the pavement and different shaped paving stones are pieced together in repeating patterns across the street. The bricks in the wall are arranged in periodica ...

  • Three more members of drugs advisory panel resign ...
    Three members of the Government’s drugs advisory panel resigned today after Alan Johnson failed to persuade them to stay on after his sacking of David Nutt as the body’s chairman.

  • Genital damage could be reversed after tissue is g ...
    Damaged human genitals could eventually be restored to full function after penis tissue has been successfully grown in the laboratory and implanted into animals.

  • No excuse for muddled thinking which could lead to ...
    Peak UK electricity demand could exceed available capacity as early as 2017 owing to the planned closure of current nuclear and coal power stations and a short-term lack of replacement options.

Environment _ National Geographic

drinking liberally in new milford ( with beersphere feeds )

  • Do the Math
    Susie Madrak at C&L suggests you do the math, and I do not think you'll like it: The bill provides financial assistance on a sliding scale. Premiums range from 1.5 percent of income to 12% for those at 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. The plan provides additional assistance for households up to 40 ...

  • Gov. Rell: "The Computer Ate My Homework!"
    When you read stuff like this you really don't have to wonder if Dautrich focus group tested this message before she sent it out: A review of documents provided by the university to The Day also shows that the governor's office did not fully comply with previous requests for public records, leaving ...

  • If you are like most Single Payer supporters...
    I think you'll find the following links are the bomb! Weiner Amendment || Kucinich Amendment || Public Option || Healthcare Reform || Republican Healthcare Plan || Democratic Healthcare Plan || Doctors on Healthcare Reform || Nurses on Healthcare Reform Don't be shy to click on them and feel free ...

  • Flushing Out the Ongoing Bank Fraud and Financial ...
    The number of foreclosure filings hit a record high in the 3rd quarter: "Despite signs of broader economic recovery, number of foreclosure filings hit a record high in the third quarter - a sign the plague is still spreading." And banks are keeping losses off the books as they ignore the people t ...

  • Shorter Erick Erickson: "It's because he's black!"
    And he is Jimmy Carter too! "I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota for it, but that is the only thing I can think of for this news. There is no way Barack Obama earned it in the nominations period." Per usual, Red State's Trike Force always keepin' it classy ... A ...

SPL Center

  • Lies, Betrayals and Self-Promotions: The Shawna Fo ...
    Shawna Forde, the anti-immigration crusader who has been accused of murder in the home-invasion killings of an Arizona man and his 9-year-old daughter, got the full treatment on Sunday from her hometown paper. The full treatment — more than 5,000 words of it by reporter Scott North in The Herald o ...

  • Neo-Nazi Leader White Likely to Remain Jailed Unti ...
    An appeals court today overturned the decision of a federal judge who had released neo-Nazi leader Bill White on bond after setting several conditions. In making its decision, the three-member panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals characterized White as “a highly intelligent person appare ...

  • New ‘Patriot’ Group Begins First ‘Border Wat ...
    The Patriots Coalition, a new antigovernment ‘Patriot’ group founded by the former vice president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, is carrying out its first border vigilante operation targeting Latino immigrants and drug smugglers. Along with Patriots Coalition members, the month-long event ...

  • UNC Chancellor Shuts Down Right-Wing Youth Group
    The chancellor of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has shut down the UNC chapter of the anti-immigrant group Youth for Western Civilization after its faculty adviser joked about his proficiency with a Colt .45 handgun. The adviser, professor of psychology Elliot Cramer, was responding to ...

  • From a Law-Enforcement Veteran, Common Sense About ...
    Why is it a bad idea for local law enforcement agencies to act as immigration cops? Because it undermines public safety. William J. Bratton, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, explains why in this op-ed essay that ran last week in the Los Angeles Times. He also explains his decision not to ...

Rio Times

  • Blackout Hits Brazil
    By Doug Gray, Senior Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Rio, Sao Paulo and Recife were among the major cities affected by a blackout that hit nine states on Tuesday night as power problems that began over the weekend continue to affect the country. After several Rio neighborhoods were affected in the early ...

  • USAID and Esso/ExxonMobil, Film in Amazonas
    By Ananda Alves, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Mamirauá, which is an indigenous word for “baby manatee”, is a 1,124,000 hectare Sustainable Development Reserve, located in the Amazonas state, the largest reserve of its kind protecting flooded forest (“varzea”) in Brazil. Esso/Exx ...

  • Woody Allen Film Planned for Rio
    By Harold Emert, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO - A Woody Allen film shot in 2012 may happen for Rio de Janeiro after the recent visit of the director’s sister Letty Aronson and Allen’s agent Stephen Tenenbaum.The pair reportedly received an offer of US$15 Million to produce the film fr ...

  • Watching NFL Football in Rio
    By Jayme Monsanto, Senior Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO - In a country renowned for its love of futebol, it is not always easy to find a place to watch any sport other than Brazilian soccer. If the sport you want to watch is American Football, things get even harder. With less than two months before the ...

  • Salgueiro: Dance With The Champs
    RIO DE JANEIRO - As temperature rises in Rio de Janeiro, Samba School madness heats up. This week, The Rio Times brings to its readers, 2009 Carnival Champion, G.R.E.S. Academicos do Salgueiro. The red and white ‘gremio’ from Tijuca, after last year’s great success, is getting ready for anothe ...

change: org.

  • Vote for Your Local Food Heroes
    Edible Communities Publications , which publishes a range of free magazines on local and sustainable food and eating in communities across the nation, is calling all food enthusiasts to vote on their own favorite local heroes. You have until December 11 to have your say in the fourth annual Local He ...

  • China's American-Style Healthcare Dilemma
    As we wait for the CBO to score the special interest-heavy Senate healthcare bill so the wheels of reform can begin to slowly grind again, it’s nice to know the country that owns the US now finds itself in a similar healthcare situation to ours. Largely because it followed our capitalistic, priva ...

  • Why Climate Change Will Hit Women Hardest
    I wrote the other day over on Change.org's sustainable food blog about the fact that women produce the lion’s share of the world’s food but own only 2 percent of the Earth’s tillable land. Considering that climate change is going to present special challenges to farmers, who depend on abundant ...

  • America's Veterans Deserve A Healthy Homecoming
    Scott Quilty is a Retired US Army Captain and veteran of the Iraq War. The Campaign for Healthy Homecoming is a project of Survivor Corps . This Veterans Day, as we continue to try to make sense of what happened last week at Fort Hood, one thing is clear: our country has been deeply scarred by the ...

  • Vicarious Trauma Real, But Factor in Homicide?
    After the Fort Hood murders this past week, three big questions about post-traumatic stress are revived in the media. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist who had carried out research at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on post trauma treatment and cared for soldiers returning from overseas, decid ...

Common Dreams -News

  • Plan for Bhopal Tours Causes Outrage
    by Sonma Laxmi, in Bhopal It was announced this week by state authorities that the sealed pesticide plant that leaked deadly methyl isocyanate gas on December 3 1984 is to be opened to the public for a week next month to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the disaster. Around 3,500 pe ...

  • 9/11's Delayed Legacy: Cancer for Many of the Resc ...
    by Ed Pilkington in New York A spate of recent deaths of New York police and fire officers who took part in the emergency operation at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks has heightened fears that it could be the start of a delayed epidemic of cancer-related illness. Five firefighters and police offi ...

  • Pharma Deal With White House on Course to Net Indu ...
    by Sam Stein The deal struck between the pharmaceutical lobby, the White House and Senate Democrats has drastically improved Big Pharma's expected profits, a private industry report finds. IMS Health, a company that supplies the pharmaceutical companies with sales data, predicts that new health ref ...

  • India Ramps up Nuclear Power With Help From the Un ...
    by Priyanka Bhardwaj At the insistence of the United States, India has been granted global “nuclear exception” status despite being a non-signatory on nuclear non-proliferation treaties, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The Indo-US civilian nucl ...

  • Yoo's Lawyers Warn of Flood of Political Suits
    by Bob Egelko SAN FRANCISCO -- A ruling that allowed a prisoner to sue former Bush administration attorney John Yoo for devising the legal theories that justified his alleged torture threatens to "open the floodgates to politically motivated lawsuits" against government officials, Yoo's lawyers say. ...

Lifehacker

  • X3Studios Makes Abstract Wallpaper Creaction Easy ...
    If you're a fan of the abstract and grungy vector-based wallpapers floating around X3Studios is free tool for creating abstract wallpaper without needing a copy of Illustrator and a pile of stock images. X3Studio sets up a palette, element selection guide, and workspace right in your browser. You c ...

  • Get Extra Gmail and Picasa Storage Real Cheap [On ...
    Need some extra space for your gigantic Gmail habit, or to stash more pics in Picasa Web Albums? Google took a knife to its extra storage prices, offering, for example, 80 GB for $20 per year. At the bottom end, 20 GB goes for $5 per year, or a bit over 41 cents per month. Want to get crazy with it? ...

  • Emulate Windows 7's Aero Snap Sizing in Linux [Li ...
    Windows 7's Aero Snap is a pretty neat feature, allowing for easy side-by-side window sizing of any application. You can get a similar effect in Ubuntu by tweaking your Compiz configuration settings. Getting a half-size, Aero-Snap-like window when dragged to the edge of a window is easier than it mi ...

  • Protect Your Wi-Fi Connection at Airport Hotspots ...
    Enticed by Google's free airport Wi-Fi to lug along a laptop this holiday season? PC World reminds us that taking a few precautions in how you connect is a very wise move. Photo by Mr.Thomas . Google's Wi-Fi hotspots will probably be fairly well-marked, or at least under a partner name like Boingo. ...

  • DIY Interactive Multitouch Display [DIY]
    Touch screens are all the rage right now, so it's no surprise that there's a large DIY movement to accompany their popularity. Instructables user Turkey Tek details how to construct your own DIY multitouch display. Turkey Tek has used a LCD projector and a few inexpensive components (readily avai ...

Newshoggers - AfPak

  • "We have tested all the assumptions"
    By Steve Hynd I'm loathe to link uber-dork Jake Tapper but he does have the story of the day: Senior administration officials tell ABC News that President Obama at his war council meeting tomorrow will assess four different specific strategies for Afghanistan and Pakistan, including two different op ...

  • UK's New Afghan Tactic: Give Appearance Of Exit St ...
    By Steve Hynd With British public opinion now overwhelmingly against the occupation of Afghanistan following the deaths of five UK soldiers at the hands of an Afghan policeman last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has taken only seven days to do his own strategic review. Unsurprisingly, he's come u ...

  • UK Independent's front page Remembrance Day call f ...
    By Steve Hynd It was inevitable that Remembrance Sunday would mean a lot of British soul-searching over continued military involvement in Afghanistan. That introspection was evident in national newspapers today, including in the London Times, where foreign correspondent Christina Lamb had a long and ...

  • Occupiers
    By Ron Beasley As Steve noted below Obama's National Security Adviser, James L. Jones has some serious doubts about sending additional troops to Afghanistan. As Jones said: "we can't want this more than the Afghans" Well increasingly the Afghans want it less. “What have the Americans done in eight ...

  • James L. Jones: "Generals Always Ask For More Troo ...
    By Steve Hynd In a new interview with German mag Der Spiegel out today, Obama's National Security Adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, is sounding skeptical about the McChrystal escalation request for extra troops in Afghanistan. He says, dismissively, that "generals always ask for more troops". SPIEGEL: T ...

Water Wars

  • Deltona, Volusia County spar over water (The DeLan ...
    While municipal suppliers of water in West Volusia talk publicly of working together, a skirmish is brewing between Deltona and Volusia County over the right to sell water and sewer. Deltona has staked out the right to provide water and sewer services in the unincorporated area five miles east of it ...

  • Water wars: Snake Valley issue is not as simple as ...
    SNAKE VALLEY — Jerald Bates climbs into his dusty Ford truck, drives a quarter mile up a winding dirt road, gets out and points to his lifeblood. The water bubbles up from the ground, surrounded by lush grass as it courses over rocks.

  • California water bill falls short (Ventura County ...
    Winston Churchill paid tribute to the young fighter pilots who staved off Nazi Germany’s aerial assault on England during the Battle of Britain with characteristic eloquence: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” California politicians’ machinations ov ...

  • Wolk upset with Delta plan (The Daily Democrat)
    While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made the rounds Wednesday, touting the water deal approved by the Legislature earlier that morning, representatives of the Delta area lambasted the entire package as a "boondoggle.

  • Ingrid Newkirk: Come on Al, Steak or the Earth? (T ...
    Considering that the meat industry produces 40 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's transportation systems, we see no reason to back down in our criticism of Al Gore, among others.

WordPress | Economics

McClatchey

BBC - Richard Black's Earth Watch

  • Copenhagen Countdown: 31 Days
    Most of those concerned with climate have had their eyes on Barcelona this week, where delegates from 192 countries plus hundreds of observers, campaigners, lobbyists - and journalists - convened for the final session of preparatory talks before the UN climate summit in Copenhagen . As I've reporte ...

  • All's fair in the climate blame game
    At the UN climate negotiations in Barcelona. It's a story that's been coming for the last few months; now that it's being written , the first cards of the blame game are being played. Remember the UN climate conference in Bali two years ago , and the road that stretched from there to Copenhagen? ...

  • Climate talks: To the wire and beyond
    At the UN climate negotiations in Barcelona. It looks like the UN climate summit in Copenhagen is shaping up to be another final-night, early-hours, last few seconds kind of affair. On the surface, what we're witnessing here at the final preparatory session in Barcelona is a stand-off between a pa ...

  • Copenhagen countdown: 38 days
    This post - my second weekly round-up of political moves as we approach December's UN climate summit - is a little delayed, partly because the week's most important event took place on Thursday and Friday. "File on final whistle," as editors say to football correspondents - most of whom are much be ...

  • Magnetic attraction of climate 'scepticism'
    There's been interest on this blog and elsewhere about a meeting organised on Wednesday by Piers Corbyn , the independent UK weather forecaster who argues that the sources of modern-day climate change lie in magnetic interactions around the Earth rather than greenhouse gas emissions on it. So - a g ...

Afghanistan Sun

Futurismic

  • Under the dome: the Winooski that wasn’t
    Score one for internet serendipity, and another for news organisations republishing archive articles. Both SlashDot and architecture/design webzine Inhabitat.com ended up pointing toward the story of Winooski, Vermont, and the flirtation that city had during the last gasp of the seventies with the i ...

  • White faces in the day labour queue
    I clearly remember my first day travelling in Mexico, walking out from my hostel to check out the zocalo at the centre of El D.F. and catching sight of long rows of men stood by their open toolboxes, with little signs explaining what sort of work they’d do, and for how much money. I’d never [... ...

  • The other sort of hacking: Baltimore’s ghost tax ...
    Dovetailing neatly with yesterday’s article about innovative low-budget urban living in Detroit comes a piece on Baltimore’s “hacks”- illegal and unlicensed taxi services provided by anyone with a car to anyone in need of a budget ride across town [via MetaFilter; image by Marcin Wichary]. â ...

  • Microfluidic diagnostic chips are (almost) child†...
    Pity us poor Brits and our ox-bow lake of eighties pop-culture – until today I had no idea what Shrinky Dinks were. But now I know… and I also know that code 6 polystyrene sheets (which is what Shrinky Dinks are made of) can be used to make single-run prototypes of microfluidic diagnostic chips, ...

  • Now that’s minimalism: Art with microbes
    The Microbial Art site features graphics created with fungi and bacteria. The dozen or so artists on display include Alexander Fleming, and the styles range from homey-sampler to fractal-abstract.  A set of aesthetic criteria hasn’t emerged yet, but I particularly like the pictured work: Artist ...

geopolitics | geoeconomics

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