2 Dec - News Picks

South Africa: Government Rejects 'Super Spuds'
The government has rejected the Agriculture Research Council's (ARC's) application to provide genetically modified potatoes to local farmers, saying it was concerned about its safety and economic effect.
The development has been welcomed by lobbyists campaigning against genetically modified crops and local food retailers worried about consumer resistance to "super-spuds".

New Source Discovered for Generation of Nerve Cells in Brain 
Researchers discovered progenitor cells which can form new glutamatergic neurons following injury to the cerebral cortex. Particularly in Alzheimer's disease, nerve cell degeneration plays a crucial role. In the future, new therapeutic options may possibly be derived from steering the generation and/or migration mechanism.

Heavy Metal Paradox Could Point Toward New Therapy for Lou Gehrig's Disease 
New discoveries have been made about how an elevated level of lead, which is a neurotoxic heavy metal, can slow the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease -- findings that could point the way to a new type of therapy.

Bacteria Pick Prime Human Body Parts
Learning how our personal microbial communities live could help solve skin disorders.

Spike in Bacterial Infections With Swine Flu
Denver and nine other cities where CDC conducts intensive surveillance are seeing a tripling of cases of severe, life-threatening bacterial infections -- including pneumonia and blood infections -- linked to H1N1 swine flu.

Men's genes 'may limit lifespan' 
Scientists working on mice have highlighted a specific gene that, although carried by both sexes, appears to be active only in males.

They believe it allows males to grow bigger bodies - but at the expense of their longevity.

Bhopal marks 25 years since gas leak devastation 
The factory is now abandoned, but campaigners say it is still leaking toxins into groundwater and soil, affecting surrounding areas.

The BBC took a sample of water from a hand pump in constant use just north of the plant and had it tested in the UK.

It contained nearly 1,000 times the World Health Organisation's recommended maximum amount of carbon tetrachloride, a pollutant known to cause cancer and liver damage.

Campaigners also say that Bhopal has an unusually high incidence of children with birth defects and growth deficiency, as well as cancers, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

Drilling right into a heated environmental debate 
Oil and gas companies have figured out how to turn shale rock into natural gas gushers, but they have also hit a deep well of anxiety about the environmental impact of drilling in some of the country's most scenic areas.The debate revolves around a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, which unlocks natural gas by shattering shale rock with high-pressure blasts of water, chemicals and sand.

Starting up a well requires 3 million to 7 million gallons of water. Drillers mix in chemicals that environmentalists say can imperil rivers and springs. Critics say natural gas can seep into drinking supplies, too.

Large volumes of water, containing leftover chemicals and mineral waste, return to the surface once a well is complete; that water requires safe disposal or treatment. Residents fear accidents, even if firms take precautions such as using steel tanks.

Cabot Oil & Gas has been mired in two disputes. Earlier this year, residents of the Dimock, Pa., area reported evidence of natural gas in their water supplies. Inspectors from the state's Department of Environmental Protection discovered that the casings on some of Cabot's gas wells were cemented improperly, allowing contamination.

On Sept. 16, Cabot's contractors, Baker and Halliburton, spilled 7,980 gallons of fluids in Dimock.
The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, a nonprofit group run by Florida public health advocate Theo Colborn, has identified 344 hazardous chemicals used in fracturing, including 2-butoxyethanol and formaldehyde.

Indian Blogger Sued for Defamation
The defamation suit was filed against me at the Calcutta High court on 24 December 2008 for my writing at www.mandgoa.blogspot.com. The Fomento mining company wants to scare those who dare to speak out against the disaster in Goa for past 60 years called open cast iron ore and magnesium.
Mining is leading Goa towards desertification by drying up the major source of water. Mining companies are operating inside the catchments areas of our major dams -- Selaulim, Opa and Assanora. Besides villages in mining belt in Sattari, Bicholim and Sanguem have become dependent upon mining companies for the supply of water. The conflicts are sharper day by day. A few years ago, one man from Pissurlem village Pandurang Parab was even attacked because he wanted one extra bucket of water! If mining is stopped immediately then Goa will face very acute water shortages. Coastal Goa, cities of Margao, Panaji, Vasco, Ponda and Mapusa all depend upon Goa's hinterlands for their water supplies. Goa's industry -- as well as tourism -- will be badly hit due to continuous expansion of mining leases.
All nine rivers in Goa are affected by mining. So are the 42 tributaries that connect Western Ghats to the these rivers. All these waterways, along with Arabian Sea, are becoming silted. One only has to look at the plight of Kushavati river in order to understand the situation. This river, a couple of years back, went dry for the first time.
On how real estate is snatching land from Goa's tribal people
The following deposition was made at the People's Tribunal organised by Gawda, Kunbi, Velip and Dhangar Federation and headed by Justice Hosbet Suresh, a retired judge from Bombay High Court. Tribunal was held on May 30-31, 2009 in Panaji.

Law as source of injustice to tribal people in Goa

UK plutonium cuts strategy 'in disarray' - scientists 
The UK's plan to cut its stockpile of separated plutonium is in "disarray", a group of scientists has warned.

The British Pugwash Group (BPG) says the way 100 tonnes of the deadly powder is being stored is "ludicrous".

Its experts fear the stockpile at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria - the largest in the world - could be a target for terrorists.

The government said the plutonium was stored safely and securely but recognised the need to make progress.

'Manifestly ludicrous'

The Department of Energy and Climate Change said it would consider the points raised in a forthcoming consultation.

One of the authors of the BPG report, retired general Sir Hugh Beach, said: "It's a total absurdity that we should have 100 tonnes of separated plutonium sitting up at Sellafield in tin cans... that is manifestly ludicrous."

The report also said the failure of a taxpayer-funded facility to make nuclear fuel from the plutonium was "scandalous".

It said the UK had no policy to deal with the deadly material, which was reclaimed from used nuclear fuel by reprocessing, because there are no UK reactors which can use it.

  Climategate: hide the decline – codified
WUWT blogging ally Ecotretas writes in to say that he has made a compendium of programming code segments that show comments by the programmer that suggest places where data may be corrected, modified, adjusted, or busted. Some the HARRY_READ_ME comments are quite revealing. For those that don’t understand computer programming, don’t fret, the comments by the programmer tell the story quite well even if the code itself makes no sense to you.

More On The Climategate Source Code

East Anglia Confirmed Emails from the Climate Research Unit - Searchable 

 Farewell Address Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered 17 January 1961 

European help plan for stranded travellers 
Travellers who book holidays on the internet could receive more financial protection if things go wrong

Boston Bans Cigarette Sales In Drug Stores  Feb 8,2009

Shape Shifters: Researchers Create New Breed of Antennas 
Research from North Carolina State University is revolutionizing the field of antenna design -- creating shape-shifting antennas that open the door to a host of new uses in fields ranging from public safety to military deployment.

Hulu Advanced Search Helps You Find Specific Episodes More Easily 
Although online media giant Hulu has users all across the country saying no monthly cable bills, their site was still a little unruly when it came to its search function. They've listened to user feedback and implemented some really helpful new features.

How HTML5 Will Change the Way You Use the Web
HTML5 is a specification for how the web's core language, HTML, should be formatted and utilized to deliver text, images, multimedia, web apps, search forms, and anything else you see in your browser. In some ways, it's mostly a core set of standards that only web developers really need to know. In other ways, it's a major revision to how the web is put together. Not every web site will use it, but those that do will have better support across modern desktop and mobile browsers (that is, everything except Internet Explorer).

Recent Windows Patch Causes "Black Screen of Death" Unrelated to Microsoft Update 
Windows: The last updates from Microsoft have caused a headache for some users. A bug in the update causes certain programs to fail to render properly blacking out the whole screen. A third-party security company has released a fix. Updated below.

The problem—according to Prevx, the security firm that released a patch to fix the issue—involves the Microsoft patches altering the way registry keys are accessed:

[...] the cause of this recent crop of Black Screen appears to be a change in the Windows Operating Systems lock down of registry keys. This change has the effect of invalidating several key registry entries if they are updated without consideration of the new ACL rules being applied. For reference the rule change does not appear to have been publicised adequately, if at all, with the recent Windows updates.


Stressing the Web, ‘NewsHour’ Begins an Overhaul 

Supreme Court Overturns Decision on Detainee Photos 
Nov 30   The Supreme Court on Monday vacated a lower court ruling that would have required the government to release photographs showing the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.The decision was three sentences long and unsigned, and it followed the enactment of a law in October allowing the secretary of defense to block the pictures’ release. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, for further consideration in light of the new law.
The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act, which makes disclosure of information in the hands of the executive branch mandatory unless an exemption applies. The Second Circuit ordered the photos released last year, and the Justice Department initially recommended against an appeal to the Supreme Court.
But President Obama overruled his lawyers, saying his national security advisers had persuaded him that releasing the photos would inflame anti-American sentiment abroad and endanger American troops.
In the Second Circuit, the government relied on an exemption to the freedom of information law that applies to “information compiled for law enforcement purposes” that “could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.”

Judge John Gleeson, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel of the Second Circuit last year, said the exemption required a specific anticipated danger. The exemption “may be flexible, but it is not vacuous,” Judge Gleeson wrote. Referring to “a population the size of two nations and two international expeditionary forces combined,” he said, is insufficient.

The government’s reading, the judge added, would create “an alternative secrecy mechanism far broader than the government’s classification system.”

7 stories Obama doesn't want told 
Presidential politics is about storytelling. Presented with a vivid storyline, voters naturally tend to fit every new event or piece of information into a picture that is already neatly framed in their minds.

No one understands this better than Barack Obama and his team, who won the 2008 election in part because they were better storytellers than the opposition. The pro-Obama narrative featured an almost mystically talented young idealist who stood for change in a disciplined and thoughtful way. This easily outpowered the anti-Obama narrative, featuring an opportunistic Chicago pol with dubious relationships who was more liberal than he was letting on.

A year into his presidency, however, Obama’s gift for controlling his image shows signs of faltering. As Washington returns to work from the Thanksgiving holiday, there are several anti-Obama storylines gaining momentum.

The Jobs Imperative 
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: November 29, 2009
If you’re looking for a job right now, your prospects are terrible. There are six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings, and the average duration of unemployment — the time the average job-seeker has spent looking for work — is more than six months, the highest level since the 1930s.
There’s a pervasive sense in Washington that nothing more can or should be done, that we should just wait for the economic recovery to trickle down to workers.

This is wrong and unacceptable.

U.S. Military Prepares To Move Out Of Iraq 
Military logistics teams will have to move an estimated 1.5 million pieces of gear from some 300 bases around the country.The task is compounded by the fact that there are still about 100,000 American troops in Iraq, "and they still have to eat, they still have to get fuel"

Financial Investment by Unbelievers in Bonds Around the Islamic Realm 
In European christian countries, interest on capital based on the duration of a loan was repudiated as immoral since the earliest times. In these modern times we all got over it and the Jews are no longer the outcasts saddled with the unsavory duty of just making fistfuls of money with nothing but money.

And yet, here we are in the 21st century and some of the richest countries on the planet are regulating themselves under Islamic Sharia Law as interpreted from reading the Koran, prohibiting any interest payment on loans.
under Sharia laws you can still issue a note of indebtedness, sovereign bonds and take up loans, but instead of the usual formula of getting a percentage of interest payments and installments of principal plus interest over a set period of time, you get instead, a "participatory interest" in a specific project for which the loan is to be granted. A bit convoluted. Does it work? Not really.

Roughly speaking, under islamic law, lenders and borrowers are quasi partners. Very roughly speaking of course, because there are some further devilish details.

Take the little detail of risk management in the huge Dubai "world" real estate projects for example.
Considerable amounts of money for these "I had a dream.." projects came from the Islamic Financial Institution (IFI). (Don't you just love this acronym in this context?) All such loans for example from the big brother emirate next door, Abu Dhabi of course fall under opaque regulatory principles of Sharia law, as interpreted by an equally nebulous Sharia Board.

It is simply money loaned on faith.
A board composed of elderly well seasoned religious experts without much if any knowledge or training in basic economic principles, sit down and make up rules as they go. No big deal. Our Fed governing board does the same after all. And the Fed is not regulated or audited either. Not yet anyway.

There are however some diferences. If one looks at Wikipedia under "islamic banking" one is greeted with the superimposed bold notation that "this article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with... quality standards". Yes. Indeed. Let me rewrite this hysterical article from the historical perspective.

My guess is that the proscription of interest (aka usury) in islamic law may well be due to just two interrelated historical facts.

1) When the rules were written well over a thousand years ago, time was worth little or actually nothing. So the changing value of money over time (if there even was such a change) was nothing either. and…

2) Historically, the only currency i.e. money accepted as exchange value was gold and/or silver which did not change in their relative value over long periods of time either.

Contrast that with the western history of constantly debased coinage (since Roman times) or our modern fiat paper "debt" money, constantly subject to loosing value and inflationary pressures. To return a modicum of equal value over time such money must of course pay interest.

The concept of not charging for the time value of money is closely related to the obsessive and probably intuitively quite smart habit of hoarding gold in most middle eastern societies because of the unique property of gold in retaining value.

The Dubai Disaster 
It turned out that environmental degradation, geography, culture, religion, bedu history, tribal allegiances, the spread of little bin Ladens all had little to do with the ticking time bomb that was muffled by the sound of cranes. It was actually just American business schools and the Chicago charlatans that were the problem. What happens to all those in the labour camps of Dubai is open to question. As for Dubai's ruler, it is perhaps no wonder that he recently told media critics to "shut up."

Human Terrain Systems, Anthropologists and the War in Afghanistan   A Better Way to Kill?
By DAVID PRICE

“Agricola first laid waste the land. Then he displayed to the natives his moderation.”

-- Tacitus
The counterinsurgency program generating the greatest friction among anthropologists today is Human Terrain Systems (HTS) – a program with over 400 employees, originally operating through private contractors and now in the process of being taken over by the U.S. Army. Human Terrain embeds anthropologists with military units to ease the occupation and conquest of Iraqis and Afghanis – with plans to extend these operations in Africa through expanding units with AFRICOM. Some HTS social scientists are armed, others choose not to. In the last two years, three HTS social scientists have been killed in the course of their work, and HTS member Don Ayala recently pled guilty in U.S. District Court to killing an Afghan (whom Ayala shot in the head-execution style while the victim was detained with his hands cuffed behind him) who had attacked HTS social scientist Paula Loyd.

The anthropologist Montgomery McFate has become the public spokesperson for Human Terrain, and while she has increasingly pulled back from public discussions of the workings and implications of Human Terrain, in reading her early writings on British counterinsurgency operations against the IRA, we find a model of how she (and, it appears, her military sponsors) view anthropology working as a tool for military conquest. Supporters of HTS claim the program uses embedded social scientists to help reduce “kinetic engagements,” or unnecessary violent contacts with the populations they encounter. The idea is to use these social scientists to interact with members of the community, creating relationships to reduce misunderstandings that can lead to unnecessarily violent interactions.

HTS sells itself to the public through remarkably well-organized domestic propaganda campaigns that have seen dozens of uncritical articles on HTS, with personality profiles, as a “peaceful” means of achieving victory.

Today, in Iraq and Afghanistan, anthropologists are being told that they’re needed to make bad situations better. But no matter how anthropological contributions ease and make gentle this conquest and occupation, it will not change the larger neocolonial nature of the larger mission; and most anthropologists are troubled to see their discipline embrace such a politically corrupt cause.

The Militarization of South America Through recently executed agreements with Colombia, the US has grand ambitions for the military bases it intends to construct there
With or without nuclear weapons, the bilateral agreement on the seven Colombian bases, signed on 30 October in Bogota, risks a costly new arms race in a region. SIPRI [Stockholm International Peace Research Institute], which is funded by the Swedish government, said it was concerned about rising arms expenditure in Latin America draining resources from social programmes that the poor of the region need.

Much of the new US strategy was clearly set out in May in an enthusiastic US Air Force (USAF) proposal for its military construction programme for the fiscal year 2010. One Colombian air base, Palanquero, was, the proposal said, unique "in a critical sub-region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from... anti-US governments".

The proposal sets out a scheme to develop Palanquero which, the USAF says, offers an opportunity for conducting "full-spectrum operations throughout South America.... It also supports mobility missions by providing access to the entire continent, except the Cape Horn region, if fuel is available, and over half the continent if un-refuelled". ("Full-spectrum operations" is the Pentagon's jargon for its long-established goal of securing crushing military superiority with atomic and conventional weapons across the globe and in space.)

'High levels' of force at prison"Extremely high" levels of force are used to subdue prisoners at Belmarsh high-security jail, an inspection report has revealed.

Dirty Essex hospitals prompt call for system reform
Director Katherine Murphy said: "How many times do the public need to keep hearing about this before the government is embarrassed enough to do something about it?

"The evidence was there but not acted on. That is completely unacceptable. The system of regulation and supervision needs to be urgently reformed."

 War Crimes Looming, Sri Lankan General Eyes PresidencySix months after he engineered the defeat of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers), Sri Lanka's former top general announced plans Sunday to headline a broad opposition ticket in his country's special elections in January. His bid—on the heels of one of the bloodiest and longest-lived civil conflicts in modern history—is not without international controversy.

Wind Farmers Go to School on Fish
Designing wind farms with close packing of turbines, based on schooling fish, could greatly increase efficiency, say researchers at a meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society

Kaku on the Science Channel and UFO Disclosure ‘FAIL
Starting today, Dr. Kaku starts a new television show on the Science Channel called “Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible” in which he discusses subjects that would’ve been considered “tinfoil hat” a decade ago:

Explore the world of the seemingly impossible with the all-new series SCI FI SCIENCE. Hosted by internationally-renowned physicist and co-founder of string field theory, Dr. Michio Kaku, this series poses the idea that science fiction may not be so far from science fact. Examine topics that currently seem so far out… of the realm of possibility, such as invisibility cloaks, teleportation, time travel and more.

Is he a self promoter? Sure. He has to be in order to get the general public interested in science. Especially hard to understand esoteric physics.

Clips of Kaku’s show on the Science Channel

The Hundred Paths of Transhumanism 
Greg Egan is the consumate trans/posthuman author and I have been a reader and fan of his for ten years. He is stunningly accurate and it amazes me how fertile his imagination must be.

Could he be getting quantum information from the future?

And I think I’ve read almost all of Greg Bear’s work over the past twenty years, including his Foundation works. His nanotech fiction is astonishingly prescient. Is he tapping into the quantum information highway too?


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