28 Dec - RSS SnapShot!

Feeds Update From Opit's LinkFest!* at My Opera Community
*Blog/About/ Resource Index as well as live Personalized RSS Aggregator Working Demonstration

IPS - Inter Press Services

• RIGHTS: Glimmer of Hope for Detained Pakistani Fi ...
  KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec 28 (IPS) - Mai Asi has never stopped mourning for her two fishermen sons. They have been held behind bars in India for poaching in the waters of neighbouring Pakistan—a crime for which they were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
  
• Q&A: ''U.S. Grand Bargain Can Save Israel From ...
  JERUSALEM, Dec 28 (IPS) - Resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the two-state parameters seems less likely with Israel torn between accepting a Palestinian state and the settler ideology which calls for Israel’s exclusive rule over the whole of Jerusalem and the West Bank.
  
• CHINA: Deep Concerns Amid Rapid Economic Growth
  BEIJING, Dec 28 (IPS) - Economic figures have now confirmed what analysts have long predicted would be the defining event of 2010. After 30 years of spectacular growth, China is poised to overtake Japan as the world’s second largest economy and firmly establish itself as the leading source of gl ...
  
• AGRICULTURE: Cattle 'Black Death' Banished to His ...
  ROME, Dec 27 (IPS) - An animal 'black death' that has devastated livestock around the world for thousands of years, causing famine and untold human misery, is about to be permanently consigned to the history books.
  
• Q&A: Law and Order May Not Improve in 2010
  PESHAWAR, Dec 26 (IPS) - For women in Pakistan’s North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), 2009 has been particularly hard.
  

Scoop - NZ

• Copenhagen - Historic failure that will live in in ...
  The most progressive US president in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speaker-phone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he had no choice, su ...
  
• Artists and politicians gather to save Canterburya ...
  Canterbury's water management needs a serious overhaul, according to artists and activists who gathered for an art exhibition at Christchurch's COCA on Saturday.  »  PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews
  
• The smoking gun at Copenhagen
  This is big news. A confidential UN analysis obtained by the Guardian reveals that the emissions cuts offered so far at the Copenhagen climate change summit will lead to global temperatures rising by an average of 3C.  »  PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews
  
• Planet A +
  "If you will it, it is no dream" So said climate scientist and Jim Salinger to the 2,000 people gathered in Wellington's Civic Square, ready to march to Parliament in support of climate action. Meanwhile a crowd nearly twice that size had assembled in Auckland's Albert Park for a march up Queen Stre ...
  
• A few emails vs global scientific consensus: guess ...
  Like a bad smell, the theft of emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) hangs around the Copenhagen conference and threatens to distract people from what really needs to be discussed. Suddenly, everyone seems to be a scientific expert ready to denounce a global conspiracy but you don't have to di ...
  

Independent ( London )

• Suicide bombing kills dozens in Pakistan
  A suicide bomber blew up a Shi'ite Muslim procession in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi today, killing at least 25 people, in an attack that underscored multiple security challenges facing the US ally.
  
• Desperate plea for Briton on death row
  The family of a Briton due to be executed launched a last minute emotional plea today for a reprieve by the Chinese authorities.
  
• Activists arrested as Iran unrest continues
  Iranian security forces stormed a series of opposition offices today, rounding up at least seven prominent anti-government activists in a new crackdown against the country's reformist movement, opposition websites and activists reported.
  
• Street protests flare in Iran
  Iranian security forces killed at least four people yesterday, including a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, during the fiercest clashes with anti-government protesters in months.
  
• Britain to send £50m to Palestine
  Britain yesterday marked the first anniversary of Israel's military onslaught on Gaza by announcing a £50m aid package for Palestinians, including backing for what it called "a drive against extremism" among the territory's young people.
  

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

• Iran willing to swap nuclear material in Turkey
  Summary: Mottaki TEHRAN, Iran – Iran would be willing to swap nuclear material with the West in Turkey, the foreign minister said in the country's latest counteroffer to a U.N.-drafted deal aimed at thwarting Tehran's ability to produce atomic weapons. source: AP read more
  
• Mainstreaming the Mad Iran Bombers
  Summary: Why spend so much time on a mediocre, unoriginal op-ed? The better question is why the NYT published it. Advocates of such a military strike have been agitating tirelessly for years to mainstream and normalize an idea once seen as mad, using precisely these arguments so often that th ...
  
• Iran Willing to Perform Nuclear Exchange in Turkey ...
  Summary: Iran had previously suggested keeping the uranium on Kish Island, still on Iranian soil but where it was clearly out Iran’s stockpile. Suggestions of a neutral country acting as an intermediary have been floated before, but whether the West will accept the offer remains to be seen. But ...
  
• Iran’s Turkish Path
  Summary: It would be a great disappointment if the West responds with ifs and buts to Tehran’s offer. It’s time to look beyond the minute mechanisms of agreement and rather concentrate on the big picture. Cultivating a harmonious relationship with Iran should be the core objective of the West. G ...
  
• NYTimes Floats the Case for Attacking
  Summary: There are so many substantive reasons why Thursday’s op-ed in the New York Timesby Alan Kuperman was just awful that one hardly knows where to begin. Fortunately,Marc Lynch and Helena Cobban, among others, have covered most of the ground (except, for example, the environmental and healt ...
  

The Daily Galaxy

• Holiday Greetings
  We're posting several of our most popular pieces from the past few months for your enjoyment this Holiday Season. In a couple of week's we hope to go live as a new iPhone app. We'll announce to all once we're...
  
• Did the Universe Have an Infinite Number Of Beginn ...
  That might sound like what happens when a poet reads a physics textbook, but it's an actual theory put forward by Stephen Hawking-grade scientists. Stephen Hawking, in fact, and Professor Thomas Hertog of CERN, who came up with a unique...
  
• Do Black Holes Create New Universes? One of World' ...
  Chris Knight, the finest fictional physicist of our time, once said "All science. No Philosophy. Wrong." It's true that an understanding of existence outside of equations is vital for scientists, both in terms of enjoying life and avoiding things like...
  
• The World's Oldest Plant Discovered - Alive at th ...
  Alive today, the Jurupa Oak sees Christmas like your grandparents see the Wii you got for it - perhaps fun, but a newfangled invention they never needed before. Thirteen thousand years old, it experienced an Ice Age and existed before...
  
• Did "Extraterrestrial Rain" Seed the Buiding Block ...
  "The notion of extraterrestrial rain may also explain another mystery, which is how the rock portion of the Earth came to have hydrogen, carbon and phosphorous – the essential components for life, which were likely lost during Earth's violent beginning."...
  

Natural News

• Acute Pharmaceutical Toxicity killed Brittany Murp ...
  (NaturalNews) The entire pharmaceutical industry is based on the idea that for whatever's wrong with you, there's a patented chemical pill that can make it better. Feeling some anxiety? There's a pill for that. Have high blood pressure? There's a pill for that, too. Suffering from sleepless nights? ...
  
• Advancements in solar technology will allow more p ...
  (NaturalNews) A recent issue of Inorganic Chemistry contains a report about the many advancements being made in the field of solar energy production. The concept of "personalized solar energy", a model by which people power their own homes using the energy from the sun rather than rely on the power ...
  
• Ethanol burns dirtier than gasoline, study finds
  (NaturalNews) A recent study conducted by researchers at Stanford University has revealed that ethanol fuel produces more ozone that regular gasoline. When ethanol is burned through combustion, it produces emissions that are substantially higher than gasoline in aldehydes, the carcinogenic precursor ...
  
• Funeral Workers Have Increased Risk of Cancer From ...
  (NaturalNews) A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has revealed that morticians who use formaldehyde to embalm dead bodies have an increased risk of developing leukemia. A sampling of 400 funeral workers found that those who worked with the toxin were more likely to die ...
  
• James Cameron's Avatar delivers a powerful message ...
  (NaturalNews) If you see just one film this holiday season (or even this year), make it James Cameron's Avatar . It's a powerful, inspiring film that demonstrates movie-making at its best, and it delivers a crucial message for our time: That all living beings are connected and that those who seek to ...
  

  TheGallopingBeaver

• Say, how's that 2010 North American security perim ...
  Yet another article PR piece telling us how the Canada-US border can become 'wafer thin' again, if only we just agree to get inside the North American security perimeter ... Canada warms to the idea of a tougher 'perimeter' reads the Star headline while providing no evidence to support it. Apparen ...
  
• Look who came for dinner!
  This fine fellow showed up on my roof late this afternoon, peering in the windows no doubt in search of Christmas leftovers. I threw him up some grain which he seemed to appreciate. The picture I missed was of Max the Cat peering down on him from above, his little legs pumping furiously up and dow ...
  
• Christmas 2011
  THE LA TIMES has a cheerful report: according to Steven Zeitchik, come Christmas 2011, Marvin the Martian will try to destroy things here on Earth. The Looney Tunes character is getting his own movie -- and now that movie has a director and writers, and could soon even have a star to lend Marvin hi ...
  
• What it's all about, really...
  Merry Christmas !
  
• Santa Visits Stevie . . .

Media Matters for America

• Quick Fact: On CNN, Matalin falsely claims "Bush ...
  On the December 27 edition of CNN's State of the Union, Mary Matalin falsely claimed that President George W. Bush "inherited a recession from President Clinton, and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation's history." In fact the 9-11 attacks occurred eight months int ...
  
• Conservative media revive "death panels" yet agai ...
  The conservative media are now labeling the Independent Medicare Advisory Board created by the Senate health care reform bill a "death panel," even though the board is explicitly prohibited from "modify[ing] eligibility," "restrict[ing] benefits," or "ration[ing] health care" and its recommenda ...
  
• Beck's Dec. '09 Fusion magazine: A rehash ...
  Glenn Beck's Fusion magazine claims to provide its subscribers with "the latest perspective on what is happening in our world, coupled with [Beck's] personal thoughts as 'work in progress' as well as cutting edge comedy and satire." But the December 2009 issue of Fusion simply rehashed many of the ...
  
• O Tannen-Mao? The right-wing's White House Christ ...
  Taking a cue from Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, several conservative media outlets have reported on three ornaments on the White House Christmas tree depicting President Obama's face superimposed on Mount Rushmore, Mao Zedong, and Hedda Lettuce. Despite the suggestion that those three C ...
  
• Morris falsely asserted Medicare Advisory Board i ...
  On Fox & Friends , Dick Morris falsely claimed that the "Medicare Advisory Board" in the revised Senate health care bill will "be saying no, you can't give this person a hip replacement, they are too old, and no, you can't treat this person with colon cancer with the best drug available." In fac ...
  

Global Research.ca

• "Accountability For War Crimes is Imperative": An ...
  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.
  
• Manpower Expands Military Recruitment for Australi ...
  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.
  
• Mounting Political Tensions as the US, Russia and ...
  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.
  
• Iran Sanctions are Precursor to War
  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.
  
• Escalating War in Afghanistan Apt to Hurt Fragile ...
  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.
  

TPM Cafe

• Koestler's Big Week
  Arthur Koestler's authorized biography has just been published. To say that I look forward to reading it is a little like saying I look forward to revisiting every tragic event of the 20th century. And Koestler was a particular obsession... Michael Scammell - Arthur Koestler - History - Zionism ...
  
• Obama's Art of the Possible
  Like many progressives, I've been critical of Obama on Afghanistan, the health care debate and financial reform. But I've also been critical of the institution that is federal politics, with its arcane Senate rules that allow for essential minority "negative"... Barack Obama - Health care - Po ...
  
• It's Obama's Fault! GOP Ready To Pounce On Obama ...
  There is one downside to having a Democratic President. If any act of terrorism occurs during his term, the President will be blamed. It does not work that way when a Republican is in the White House. If the country... Barack Obama - United States - President of the United States - Republican - ...
  
• What Did You Learn In School Today?: Israel's Cent ...
  Dan Ben David, a Tel Aviv University economist, and executive director of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, has led the writing of a report on Israel's failing educational system. He summarizes its findings today in Haaretz. For secular... Israel - Tel Aviv University - Middle East - E ...
  
• How Obama Foreign Policy (Is Supposed To) Work
  Keying off engagement as the one-word synopsis of Obama foreign policy, James Traub offers an assessment of how that's working so far. In his piece, Traub is careful to measure the administration on the basis of its own assumptions and... Foreign Policy - James Traub - North Korea - United Stat ...
  

TruthOut

• Obama's Afghanistan Escalation a Bad Sign for the ...
  Shipping off 30,000 more troops to the land of the Taliban may be infuriating to devoted antiwar activists, but the toll the Afghanistan war is having on the environment should also force nature lovers into the streets in protest. Natural habitat in Afghanistan has endured decades of struggle, and t ...
  
• Inside the Military Media Industrial Complex: Impa ...
  This article has been previously published at Media Freedom Intl . read more
  
• Anti-Government Protests Turn Deadly in Tehran
  Tehran - Security forces opened fire at crowds demonstrating against the government in the capital on Sunday, killing at least five people, including the nephew of opposition political leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, witnesses and Web sites linked to the opposition said. "Ali Mousavi, 32, was shot in th ...
  
• Reports: Iran Protesters Killed by Government Forc ...
  See also: Anti-Government Protests Turn Violent in Tehran Increasingly vocal opposition groups are now calling for an end to the Islamic Republic after a weekend of violent clashes during the Shiite holiday of Ashura. After two days of anti-government demonstrations in Tehran, there are reports th ...
  
• Jim Hightower | Hoping for a New Ethic in 2010
  This special season got me to thinking about America's spirit of giving, and I don't mean this overdone business of Christmas gifts. I mean our true spirit of giving -- giving of ourselves. Yes, we are a country of rugged individualists, yet there's also a deep, community-minded streak in each of us ...
  

Planetsave

• Michigan Offshore Wind Proposal Stirs Waves
  A map prepared for Michigan’s Great  Lakes Offshore Wind Council shows areas of high wind power production potential in the state’s offshore waters. One of the first proposals for a major offshore wind project in America’s freshwater has surprised Michigan regulators and begun to stir oppositi ...
  
• Friendship between LION, TIGER and BEAR
  This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post . . If we could all just get along like these three unusual friends, we would live in a much different world. In human society, people often do not like others simply because they are different. Humans kill over this matter. In ...
  
• Coalition Says MN Climate Solution Includes Nukes
  The Prairie Island nuclear plant at Red Wing, Minnesota, on the Mississippi River.  Nuclear power advocates want to repeal the state’s 15-year-old ban on new nuclear plants. The state that enacted one of the nation’s most farsighted clean energy laws in 2007 may be a battleground over nuclear p ...
  
• Curbside Vs. Deposit and GHG Reduction
  The beverage container industry continues to fight state and national container legislation despite evidence that such laws could contribute significantly to greenhouse gas reduction while providing energy, recycling and litter control benefits. The industry says community recycling programs, which ...
  
• Gender-Bending Chemicals in Minnesota Waters
  The discovery of malformed frogs in the Minnesota River watershed in the 1990s touched off field and lab research on endocrine disrupters that is continuing to yield findings. Minnesota, the state that made national headlines with the discovery of malformed frogs in the 1990s, has found endocrine ...
  

Water Quality - WordPress

• Cow Power Could Generate Electricity For Millions
  [Source: ScienceDaily.com] In the face of reports about the ills livestock generate for the climate,
  
• Las Vegas has Third Worst Tap Water Quality in U.S ...
  A new study just out this weekend shows how unsafe our Las Vegas tap water can be.  The Environmenta
  
• Compliance and Enforcement Annual Results 2009 Fis ...
  US EPA http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/reports/endofyear/eoy2009/index.html [From press rele
  
• SRBC working with East Resources
  http://srbc.net/whatsnew/Newsletters/article_32.asp Here is a link to an update from the SRBC (on th
  
• Stormwater Housekeeping - Pollution Prevention Fai ...
  A recent routine stormwater inspection on a shopping center site in Northern Virginia revealed how N
  

Public Citizen in Texas

• $18.2 Billion! Amores Nucleares: San Antonio Nucle ...
  The San Antonio Nuclear Expansion Soap Opera plot thickens.  Today’s update brings the shocking news that South Texas Project Reactors 3 & 4 could actually cost, not $13 Billion, not even $17 Billion… but $18.2 Billion! With all the trouble CPS has gotten into recently regarding transparency (a gen ...
  
• Green-up Your Life! Make change happen
  By Kirsten Bokenkamp During his campaign, President Obama said “change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” As individuals, we need to internalize this, and act on it. This is the last blog in ...
  
• 60 Seconds to Save the Earth
  Sixty seconds doesn’t seem like a lot of time; however, there are lots of things that can be done in sixty seconds or less.  For instance, an average adult can type 38 to 40 words and blink between ten and 30 times every sixty seconds (sometimes simultaneously).  Furthermore, an elite distance runne ...
  
• Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up
  The Texas Progressive Alliance brings you the highlights from the blogs. As the deadline to file for a place on the 2010 March primary ballot drew near, there was lots of activity on the Democratic side: Kinky Friedman followed Hank Gilbert over to the race for agriculture commissioner, Linda Chave ...
  
• Green-up Your Life! Holiday Edition
  By Kirsten Bokenkamp Happy Holidays! Just saying those words is enough to evoke joyful images of families gathered in the kitchen preparing a succulent holiday meal to be enjoyed together, or excited and wide-eyed children opening gifts next to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. When I close ...
  

Press TV

• Russian police free 15 child slaves
  Russian police have reportedly exposed a sweatshop in the Moscow region, where 15 Kyrgyzstan children under the age of 18 were kept as slave laborers.
  
• Polls close in Uzbekistan parliamentary election
  Polls have closed in Uzbekistan's parliamentary elections and vote counting is underway, after a high turnout in Central Asia's most populous nation.
  
• Scientists find aggressive brain cancer genes
  US researchers have discovered two genes reported to be responsible for the development of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.
  
• Opposition figures arrested after Iran protests
  Iranian security forces on Monday arrested a number of opposition figures one day after anti-government protests erupted in Tehran on the religious ceremony of Ashura, Press TV has learned.
  
• Germans lose faith in political system
  A poll shows that the German public now has less faith in their political system than at any other time since World War II, mainly due to the financial crisis.
  

Axis of Logic

• Pakistan: Did Benazir Die For Democracy?
  
  
• A Manifesto for Today
  
  
• COP15 Copenhagen: A Road to Ecocide
  
  
• Kenneth Mosley now scheduled for execution on Janu ...
  
  
• From Us to You
  
  

They Gave Us a Republic

• Adults in Charge
  President Obama is a corporate-owned centrist happy to fuck over liberals in pursuit of David Broder's approval, but Thank Dog he's an adult who doesn't think starting a war is the appropriate response to an idiot setting himself on fire. Steve Benen explains: If you've been following the news the p ...
  
• Housekeeping Note
  A dual-purpose housekeeping note, in fact. First off, I dropped Chip the Laptop off with Dan an hour before he closed the doors to take a few days off for Christmas, and won't have it back until Tuesday, at the earliest. And Zoe is home from school until the first Monday in January. So here's the bo ...
  
• The Nightowl Newswrap
  Iranian protests escalate. "Four protesters have been killed amid violence between anti-government crowds and police in Iran's capital, Tehran. Opposition sources said the nephew of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was among those killed when police opened fire. A senior police offi ...
  
• Sorry, Nancy, But Obama's Got to Sign the Bill Now
  I second Zandar's endorsement of Aimai's plea to get the health care reform bill signed immediately, before Traitor Joe kills it. And speaking of Lieberdouche, Aimai at NMMNB has a must-read on why Obama has to go over the heads of the Centrists, and ask the House to eat a bowl of crap, and has to s ...
  
• Small Towns in Kentucky Latest Victims of AIG
  KeninNY at Down with Tyranny alerts us to the newest way that Big Corporations have found to squeeze even more turnip blood out of destitute eastern Kentucky. 7. THE PUBLIC ENEMY AWARD To AIG. We've all seen those westerns where the evil, sweaty, filth-encrusted villain holds the water canteen just ...
  

Care 2

• Lifelong Love of the Stage Keeps Japan's Oldest St ...
  A figure in a black kimono and a wig with man's topknot stands on the stage, drawing a laugh from the crowd as it pretends to mistakenly stab itself in the hand with a metal truncheon. A quick trip the the wings and the figure reappears, this time Submitted by Naoko I. to Offbeat  |   Note-it!  |  ...
  
• Rare Cross River Gorillas Captured in Professional ...
  The Cross River Gorillas have been named the rarest subspecies of Gorilla, and just recently, the first professional footage has been captured according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. These gorillas live in the densest part of the jungle in Submitted by Cher C. to Animals  |   Note-it!  |    ...
  
• Six Contentious Animal Culls in the News in Decemb ...
  A recent post on the culling of rabbits on Robin Island, prompted a quick look at news items on culling over the last month. This revealed a variety of motivations for culling, very different numbers culled and a range in the opposition to the culls. Submitted by Cher C. to Animals  |   Note-it!  | ...
  
• Elves,mythological beings or something else
  Elves are mythological creatures that bring good luck Submitted by Draganescu P. to Offbeat  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment
  
• Alleged con artist preys on hopeful parents
  Alleged con artist preys on hopeful parents Submitted by Tonya B. to Offbeat  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment
  

GreenBiz

• What Are You Excited Most About in 2010?
  As the sun began to set on 2009, we asked some of our readers and partners to share their innovations, commitments, and passions for the coming year.
  
• What Are You Excited Most About in 2010?
  As the sun began to set on 2009, we asked some of our readers and partners to share their innovations, commitments, and passions for the coming year.
  
• The Advent of a New 'Oil War' after Copenhagen
  Critics of George Bush say he has led us into a quagmire in Iraq during the last decade from which we will never emerge. They say his way of doing business led to all the disagreements visible in the Copenhagen climate talks. They're wrong.
  
• Ford To Roll Out Plug-Ins, Battery Electric Vehicl ...
  From now until 2012, Ford will introduce a range of electric vehicles, from continuing its work with hybrids to releasing plug-in and battery electric vehicles.
  
• Coca-Coca, Carbon Reduction, Copenhagen -- and Pol ...
  That's Muhtar Kent, the CEO of Coca-Cola, on the right. On the left is a polar bear. I caught up with Muhtar Kent at COP15, where he was one of a few Fortune 500 CEOs to show up in an effort to influence the climate talks.
  

Reuters Global

• Was Nigerian bomber a one-off?
  Although Nigeria is the world's sixth biggest Muslim country by population, there are reasons why it is not likely to produce a rash of bombers like the London-educated Nigerian who tried to blow up a plane.
  
• Lessons for coup makers?
  African coup makers may be better off holding quick elections than leaving confusion about what their plans are, but should the international community support any of them?
  
• Meeting the Banda Aceh “tsunami family&#8221 ...
  Reuters Television producer Masako Iijima, one of the many journalists who covered the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, went back to Banda Aceh in Indonesia to reconnect with a family she had met five years ago
  
• “Earth to Ban Ki-moon” or how a deal w ...
  Sweden complained that the recent Copenhagen climate change summit was a "disaster." British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described it as "at best flawed and at worst chaotic." Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, dubbed the outcome confirmation of a "climate apartheid." For South Afric ...
  
• Pakistan: Through the eye of a needle
  A court ruling overturning a 2007 amnesty has given Pakistan an opportunity to remodel its civilian democracy based on the rule of law. But the way forward is narrow and fraught with difficulties
  

Paul Krugman

• The malleability of history
  Down is up.
  
• Stimulus timing
  Why I and many others are worried about the second half of next year.
  
• More Washington in New Jersey blogging
  No, Washington wasn't trying to get to Walmart in 1776 -- that came later.
  
• Numerical notes on health care reform
  Do the math.
  
• Talking about a Revolution
  A day to honor New Jersey. You got a problem with that?
  

No Quarter

• The System Worked?
  * Bumped Up * Janet Napolitano today proffered the dumbest, most obtuse comments I have ever heard from someone who supposed to be in charge of protecting America from terrorists. Listen and worry that this dunderhead is in charge of DHS. The “system worked?” What system? Candy Crowley correctly ...
  
• “The Magnificent 19″
  As you all know, Larry Johnson was on CNN a few hours ago. I am scouring the CNN site for the transcript and video, which aren’t up yet. But I stumbled across this transcript and video on the growth of radical Islam from Sunday’s Amanpour show (12/27/09), and it chilled me to the bone. This [...]
  
• Catch Larry Johnson on John Batchelor’s Radio Show ...
  UPDATE: Larry Johnson was on CNN a short time ago. We will look for the video. If any of you happened to catch it, please share. Also: Larry returned to the Batchelor show and stayed on through 11 p.m. ET. TONIGHT AT 10:05 PM ET: Tune in to John Batchelor’s syndicated [...]
  
• Now That Is Some Kind Of Generous Gift
  Just in time for the holidays, Emperor Obama gave a gift the length and breadth of which would warm the cockles of your heart – if you happened to be one of the recipients. Because what he gave is something most people cannot afford in this economy for themselves, but guess what? You [...]
  
• The System Worked?
  Janet Napolitano today proffered the dumbest, most obtuse comments I have ever heard from someone who supposed to be in charge of protecting America from terrorists. Listen and worry that this dunderhead is in charge of DHS. The “system worked?” What system? Candy Crowley correctly noted that the ...
  

Environmental Graffiti

• Snowmobiles Are For Sissies
• Thinking Outside the Box: Mark Langan’s Incredible ...
• Heterochromia in Animals
• Brazil’s Valley of the Moon
• Ethiopia’s Cross-Shaped Church Carved out of Unbro ...

Foreign Policy in Focus

• Obama's Surge and Pakistan
  U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan is built on two coups, one in Kabul and the other in Islamabad.
  
• Honduran Elections a Parody of Democracy
  The recent elections are the latest act in the Honduran theater of the absurd, reports columnist Laura Carlsen.
  
• Crapshoot in Copenhagen
  FPIF's weekly update.
  
• The AfPak Train Wreck
  The president's goals in escalating the war in Afghanistan are deeply flawed. Just ask the Russians.
  
• Africa and the Economic Crisis
  While the world focuses on Afghanistan, Africa is addressing the global economic crisis in new ways.
  

Global Elite

• Fear, Intimidation & Media Disinformation: U.K Gov ...
  Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, August 20, 2009 An official UK government report –quoted extensively in Britain’s tabloid media– is warning the British public that there will be c ...
  
• President European Commission Advocated World Gove ...
  Jurriaan Maessen. Infowars. July 24th, 2009 On September 7, 1992, two term President of the European Commission Jacques Delors gave a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affa ...
  
• Billions of People Expected to Die Under Current C ...
  Barbara Minton, Natural News, July 21st, 2009 Your right to eat healthy food and use supplements of your choice is rapidly vanishing, but every effort has been made to keep you in the d ...
  
• Bioweapons, Dangerous Vaccines, and Threats of a G ...
  Stephen Lendman, Global Research, July 7th, 2009 Although international law prohibits the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons, America has had an active biological warfare progr ...
  
• Today we’re all prisoners in the USA
  Papers, Please! June 2, 2009 As of today, June 1, 2009, even U.S. citizens are officially prisoners in the USA, or exiles barred from entering our own country without the government’s p ...
  

Al Jazeera

• Iran seizes opposition figures
  Outspoken critics of the government arrested after a day of violent clashes in Tehran.
  
• Deaths in Pakistan city blast
  At least 12 people killed in explosion at Shia procession in city of Karachi.
  
• Thai army deports Hmong refugees
  Soldiers move in to close refugee camp amid criticism from rights groups and US.
  
• Yemen rebel leader 'may be dead'
  Houthi spokesmen decline to comment on defence ministry claims.
  
• Israel plans east Jerusalem homes
  Palestinians condemn approval of almost 700 new apartments in Jewish settlements.
  

Green Inc. - NYT

• Harnessing the Sun to Store the Wind
  A Phoenix company, Solar Southwest Technology, wants to marry solar energy and a wind farm.
  
• Generating Solar Power After Dark
  Two solar farms planned in the West would use technology that allow utilities to generate electricity after the sun goes down.
  
• Solar Companies Draw Rock Climbers, Too
  Installing solar panels on pitched roofs often requires rope skills, which is a big reason why some solar companies -- like wind turbine repair companies -- are hiring climbers.
  
• A Job at the End of a Rope
  Some rock climbers are figuring out how to earn a living at their hobby -- by scaling wind turbines that need repair.
  
• New Uranium Mill May Be Coming Soon
  The first new uranium mill in the United States in a quarter-century draws closer to final approval.
  

Dot Earth News

• China's Take on How It Saved Climate Talks
  China's official account of the Copenhagen climate talks describes its leader's acumen and President Obama's awkwardness.
  
• From the Files: Christmas in Deadhorse and Beyond
  A holiday thank-you note to Dot Earth visitors and comment contributors.
  
• Views on China's Role in the Greenhouse
  China's dominance in climate talks reverberates.
  
• My Second Half
  Andy Revkin describes his shift to academia and focus on making the Web a tool fostering "one-planet living."
  
• Climate Talks Make Way for a Design Show
  In the wake of talks over a new climate treaty, an empty hall and enduring questions.
  

Doug Feith : Hong Pong

• The Monckton climate battle rap; I want to specula ...
  What could possibly go wrong?! Analysis: Climate summit showcases new world order - thestar.com Tripod operations block coal train - tripods are super funny: Copenhagen failure sparks coal terminal blockade | Rising Tide Australia . Earlier: Indymedia Danmark - If you're in, you're in, if you're ...
  
• Gotta get Guinea goodies: Aluminum pursuit sparks ...
  A strange NBC series called E-Ring, which produced 22 episodes that aired in 2005, exalted narratives of American military adventurism and featured Dennis Hopper. I only saw episode #5, "Weekend Pass," in which as Wikipedia says, "Two US Marines are accused of raping a young local woman in Suriname ...
  
• UN crime chief Costa says it again: banks bailed o ...
  There was a quip about this a while ago, now it is more established. Posted in full cause it's a big deal.... via Agonist . These people are criminals! Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by f ...
  
• The Great Climate Clusterf**k: Good times in Copen ...
  All you ever wanted to know about Copenhagen but didn't care to ask! The only good news so far is that the Yes Men pranked Coke for their voracious consumption of limited water around the world. Soon all of us can live in a utopia of robotic flying machines and carbon-free giant underground fac ...
  
• Mike Connell's mysterious plane crash via 'jackals ...
  Damn straight - those are the chips they are gonna track you with. CHIPS CARRIED BY BIG FRICKIN ANTS. Via the too-speculative ATS thread RFID Microchips In The Swine Flu Vaccine? It's time to push out some links and see if they lead somewhere....This weekend I've been building up a sweet new InfoSp ...
  

Daily Censored

• Detroit Public Schools: Canary in the Coal Mine of ...
  What was once a prospering manufacturing city has now been brought to its knees by the policies of neo-liberalism and late stage capitalism. In an article in Time Magazine, September 24, 2009 entitled “Detroit: The death – and possible life – of a great city”, the author, Daniel Okrent states the re ...
  
• Airline travel, now with even more security checks
  The pantsbomber, as some are calling him, has succeeded in ramping up security at airports around the world. The increase in security is being called necessary due to the pantsbomber, something reminiscent of the shoe bomber. Now, when flying, everything and everyone is going to end up with second ...
  
• Mining the soil: Biomass, the unsustainable energy ...
  Aletho News | December 26, 2009 The promotional material from Big Green Energy, aka Biomass Gas & Electric, presents biomass as “clean, renewable energy”, sustainable and green. The US Department of Energy uses the terms “clean and renewable” when introducing visitors at its website to the topic. Bu ...
  
• Cuts to KPFA’s Flashpoints Spark Outrage
  Cuts to KPFA’s Flashpoints Spark Outrage By HENRY NORR In the face of mounting deficits, KPFA this month began laying off staff. The cuts come as no surprise; in fact, they’re overdue, considering that the station has been running in the red for several years, in defiance of Local Station Board and ...
  
• Trusting your medical information to invisible bra ...
  If you think you can trust your medical information being in one database, don’t. If you think that same company can charge only $5 per year to store your information and keep it absolutely private, think again. Yet, this is the claim made by Docvia, the makes of the invisible bracelet. Invisibleb ...
  

AlterNet's Breaking News

• Obama orders US security review after failed attac ...
• Obama orders security review after failed attack
• GOP strategist Matalin: Bush ‘i ...
• Legendary US civil rights attorney Percy Sutton di ...
• Perfect NFL season bid ends as Colts fall to Jets

Institute for Policy Studies

• Lessons from Sweden for the Immigration Debate
• The Kurdish Closing
• Review: 'Stripping Bare the Body: Politics, Violen ...
• Stephen King Meets the Estate Tax
• The Struggle of Electrical Workers in Mexico Goes ...

Pine River World News

• U.S. security agents "flood" northern Nigeria - lo ...
  Pine River World News / IntelTrends December 27, 2009 Nigeria media is delving into alleged al-Qaeda terrorist Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab's background since his arrest by U.S. authorities over a botched plane-bombing incident on Friday. According to the Nigerian Tribune, "... sources disclose ...
  
• 2010, The Saga Continues
  [ Blogmaster note :  Stanislav Mishin, whose column frequently appears in Russian newspaper Pravda, sets forth his predictions for 2010 in the below article.] The following column is reprinted with permission from Stanislav Mishin. 2010, The Saga Continues ©  Stanislav Mishin Source:   Mat Rodina ...
  
• America's New Crusade: Imperial U.S. vs Political ...
  The following commentary is reprinted with permission from Global Research. America's New Crusade:  Imperial U.S. vs Political Islam ©   Global Research By Rodrigue Tremblay December 25, 2009 "I am as intolerant of imperialistic designs on the part of other nations as I was of such designs on the ...
  
• The Economic Crisis Ends; the Political Crisis Beg ...
  The following commentary is reprinted with permission from Global Research. The Economic Crisis Ends;  the Political Crisis Begins ©   Global Research By Shamus Cooke December 24, 2009 First Iceland, then Ireland, now Greece. Much of Europe is mired in inescapable debt and bankrupt nations, the re ...
  
• The Nevada gambler, al-Qaida, the CIA and the moth ...
  The following article is from The Guardian, UK. The Nevada gambler, al-Qaida, the CIA and the mother of all cons ©   The Guardian By Chris McGreal December 23, 2009 Washington The intelligence reports fitted the suspicions of the time: al-Qaida sleeper agents were scattered across the U.S. awaiti ...
  

  PDA AMERICA

• Christmas and Copenhagen
  By Ted Glick | From Future Hope column, December 21, 2009 The huge—and hugely disappointing, as far as the official results—Copenhagen world climate conference has just concluded. Since the worldwide celebrations of the birth of Jesus ...
  
• Tiny Tim and health care reform in U.S.
  By Breck England | The Salt Lake Tribune The views expressed in this article not necessarily the views of Progressive Democrats of America. The most popular movie this holiday season is about health care reform. “A Christmas Carol” ...
  
• The Health Care Bill Sucks–and What to Do About It
  Cross-posted from Fire Dog Lake The public option was always a fig leaf. Thus, its demise will not really change the fundamental nature of the health care bill, in my opinion. It merely pushes the bill ...
  
• Payoffs for states get Reid to 60
  From the Politico.com Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback,” as the GOP is calling it, got all the attention Saturday, but other senators lined up for deals as Majority Leader Harry Reid corralled the last few votes for ...
  
• PDA South & East Regional Call
  PDA members, long term and new, shared news about actions and campaigns in their states. Strategies for actions around Healthcare NOT Warfare—especially the upcoming Brown Bag Lunch Vigils—dominated the discussion, as well as possibilities for ...
  

Marler Blog

• Terrorism Meets Food Poisoning
  After the events of the last few days, I am thinking twice about traveling to Europe and the Middle East in a month to speak at a food safety conference. Not that I am particularly concerned about being a target of foreign terrorism myself, although I do find the process that you have had to endure ...
  
• USDA had been Warned of E. coli Risk of Mechanical ...
  On Christmas Eve the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Recall 248,000 “beef products” from Oklahoma-based National Steak and Poultry. The recall was issued because the mechanically tenderized, non-intact steaks, were contaminated with E. col ...
  
• Will E. coli Lightening Strike Twice for Applebee' ...
  In September 2004, Quantum Foods, a beef processor based in Illinois, voluntarily recalled 406,000 pounds of hamburger patties and steak after public health officials linked the meat to four E. coil illnesses among customers of Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar locations in Colorado. The recalled ...
  
• UPDATED - People in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michig ...
  How many of you had a streak in a restaurant since September of this year? Did anyone who ate that steak know that the steak came from National Steak and Poultry? Did anyone see that on the box the steak came in that it was labeled ““ EST. 6010T ?” Did anyone realize that the steak might have bee ...
  
• People in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South ...
  How many of you had a streak in a restaurant since September of this year? Did anyone who ate that steak know that the steak came from National Steak and Poultry? Did anyone see that on the box the steak came in that it was labeled ““ EST. 6010T ?” Did anyone realize that the steak might have bee ...
  

AutoblogGreen

• AutoblogGreen for 12.28.09
  10 signs your new car won't be electric, and 5 signs that it will Which list makes more sense to you? Fool's Outlook: Tesla IPO's bumpy road Money maker or bad idea? ...
  
• AutoblogGreen for 12.24.09
  Forget the Tata Nano, Oklahomans can get a new electric car for $865! Who wants one? No new U.S. coal plants in 2009; does this mean a cleaner future for electric cars? Good news, maybe. ...
  
• AutoblogGreen for 12.23.09
  Considering the crazy: will $30 barrels of oil come back? At least one person writing on the Internet thinks so. Can Ford beat the Chevy Volt two years later with a cheaper PHEV? A little bit ...
  
• AutoblogGreen for 12.22.09
  Better Place's Renault Fluence EV to sell for under $20,000 Could be quite the bargain. Free Electric Car! Read the fine print. ...
  
• AutoblogGreen for 12.21.09
  Zombie meme alert: electric cars cause cancer Or so they say. Coda shares low-life battery plan You have 15 miles left on your charge. This is how your car will react. ...
  

Rafe's Radar

• Valley VC learns to embrace government
  Famous venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson avoided politics--as long as he could. Now dealing with the feds is a job skill.
  
• Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Biggest tech storie ...
  This week on the Roundtable: The biggest tech stories of 2009! With my boss, CNET Editor in Chief Scott Ard , and Buzz Out Loud host (and my co-conspirator on Real Deal ) Tom Merritt . Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subsc ...
  
• Dear newspapers: I will pay for your content, once
  Asking subscribers to pay for the same content twice will not work.
  
• Blippy launches the Twitter of personal finance
  There's more to this service that sharing spending data with friends, thank goodness.
  
• Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Google Chrome OS
  What's behind the Google Chrome OS, technologically and from a business perspective? This week on the Roundtable, I discuss the pending operating system with CNET writers Stephen Shankland ( Deep Tech ) and Gordon Haff ( Pervasive Data Center ). Listen now: Download today's podcast Subs ...
  

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 the ...
  
• "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 political th ...
  
• Dennis Brutus (1924-2009): South African Poet and ...
  World-renowned South African poet and activist Dennis Brutus died in his sleep on December 26th in Cape Town. He was 85 years old. Read more
  
• TARIQ ALI: “Obama’s Afghan-Pak Syndrom ...
  Tariq Ali is author of more than 20 books, including history, politics, and fiction. His most recent books are Protocols of the Elders of Sodom (2009) and The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power (2008). He is a regular contributor to The Guardian, New Left Review, and the London Rev ...
  
• The Globe and Mail: Amy Goodman's border woes has ...
  The Globe and Mail: Canada Border Services Agency won’t comment on why the host of the widely syndicated radio and TV program Democracy Now had her speech checked at border Read more
  

Farming Pathogens

• We Are All Astronauts Now
  Five years ago I gave copies of this essay to a few friends and family as a year-end holiday gift. As a first stab I think it’s aged well, despite its ignorance of the work of Berger, Harvey, Reichenbach, among others. I offer it now to everyone else in a similar spirit–all in good fun, [...]
  
• Pigs Do Fly! Implications for Influenza
  The influenza genome is segmented. Eight pieces of single-stranded RNA encode for 11 proteins: PB2, PB1, PB1-F2, PA, HA, NP, NA, M1, M2, NS1, and NS2. The segmentation allows influenza of different subtypes infecting the same host to trade segments like card players on a Friday night. Most of the re ...
  
• Breeding Influenza: The Political Virology of Offs ...
  What better way to medicate against a holiday’s genocidal origins and the hunger now swelling worldwide in the wake of a related banker-brought recession than with a bellyful of turkey, stuffing, yams, and pumpkin pie? Despite its rotten ambiguities Thanksgiving remains my favorite American holiday. ...
  
• 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 wave a ...
  
• 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 possible, it’ ...
  

Digg Green

• NASA study: Lakes warming quickly
  New U.S. scientific findings suggest that climate change may be affecting aquatic environments faster and sooner than the atmosphere.
  
• "Giant Trees of Switzerland",
  Michel Brunner, a graphic artist and author of "Giant Trees of Switzerland", has been measuring and photographing giant trees in Europe for more than ten years. He has listed more than 2,000 trees, of which more than 1,000 are in Switzerland. (Photos: Michel Brunner and André Hübscher; selected by R ...
  
• Leftover soil from London roadworks creates bird i ...
  Thousands of tons of earth dug from under the streets of London are being used to create a new island haven for rare birds off the coast of Kent.
  
• Relentless Focus on Manure Help Dairies Curb Emiss ...
  The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy have agreed to work jointly in support of the dairy industry’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent over the next decade
  
• Scientists map climate-change speed for different ...
  From beetles to barnacles, pikas to pine warblers, many species are already on the move in response to shifting climate regimes. But how fast will they -- and their habitats -- have to move to keep pace with global climate change over the next century?
  

Invisible Opportunity

• Merry Christmas from NaturalNews and the Health Ra ...
  By Mike Adams Here’s a Merry Christmas to all the NaturalNews readers from the Health Ranger. And yes, I do specifically mean Merry Christmas. I don’t mean just “Happy Holidays” or “happy winter break” or even “happy end-of-year time off.” What I mean is Merry Christmas. That’s the holiday name I ...
  
• Lawrence Solomon: Wikipedia’s climate doctor
  By Lawrence Solomon The Climategate Emails describe how a small band of climatologists cooked the books to make the last century seem dangerously warm. The emails also describe how the band plotted to rewrite history as well as science, particularly by eliminating the Medieval Warm Period, a 400 yea ...
  
• Climate change ‘ forcing polar bears to become can ...
  A male polar bear dragged the grisly remains of a cub that it caught and killed in the Hudson Bay area, Canada, after separating it from its mother — one of a growing number of instances of cannibalism on record, according to climate change campaigners. The bears may be forced into eating their own ...
  
• Prescription narcotics cause more deaths than both ...
  By Mike Adams On the heels of the sudden death of celebrity actress Brittany Murphy (http://www.naturalnews.com/027781_B…), people are once again raising the question of just how dangerous prescription drugs might really be. Some are arguing, however, that street drugs are the real danger, not presc ...
  
• Small Community Cancer Cure Crushed by Big Pharma, ...
  By Paul Fassa A small Canadian community’s success with curing cancer naturally was recently crushed, forcing its provider into exile in Europe. Rick Thompson had discovered a cure for himself and then had shared it at no cost with others in the small rural town of Maccan, Nova Scotia. Rick offered ...
  

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 decision I’ve ma ...
  
• 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 Pakist ...
  
• 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 13- or ...
  
• 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

• We Can't Let Politics Keep Trumping Science on Dru ...
  If Obama wants to promote public health -- over politics -- on substance abuse, there are many more bold steps his administration should take.
  
• Touchdowns and Lockdowns: Transcending Racial Poli ...
  I spent a decade organizing sports leagues amongst those who failed in their struggle against violence and oppression: in prison.
  
• Mexico Brags About Killing a Drug Kingpin, But It ...
  The Mexican government is still confused over the difference between "drugs" and the violence in the battle to gain control of the unregulated drug market.
  
• Congress Gets Its Act Together: Repeals Ban on Syr ...
  Washington, D.C. finally seems to be getting the message that the war on drugs has failed.
  
• Former Police Chief Norm Stamper: 'Let's Not Stop ...
  A new poll shows that most Americans are ready to legalize marijuana, but not drugs like cocaine or heroin. A 34-year police vet says it's time to legalize them all.
  

Twilight Earth

• Pope Benedicts 2010 Message to the World: Environm ...
  Pope Benedict's 2010 Environmental message: If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation. Related posts: Pope Says – Environmental Degradation Ends by Living Ethically What is Environmentalism? Full Copenhagen Speech Transcripts of 5 World Leaders
  
• Global Youth Video to World Leaders: Youre Not Don ...
  Check out this awesome video message to world leaders from the global youth climate movement: "You're Not Done Yet & Neither Are We." Related posts: Twilight Earth Exclusive Cop15 Video – China Youth in Copenhagen Full Copenhagen Speech Transcripts of 5 World Leaders One Question for the World ( ...
  
• New Years Message from Pope Benedict XVI – Protect ...
  Pope Benedict XVI has chosen an Environmental Message this year, to share will the people of the world. Related posts: Pope Says – Environmental Degradation Ends by Living Ethically Have People of Religion Forgotten the Lessons of “Creation?” TreeHugger Celebrates 5 Years. Congratulations!
  
• Full Copenhagen Speech Transcripts of 5 World Lead ...
  Speeches are just words, unless the people hold those that make them, responsible. Read the words. Understand the promises. Hold them accountable. Related posts: The World According to Monsanto – Full Documentary That was Then / This is Now – 30 Yr Old Energy Speech Eerily Relevant Social Media + ...
  
• 22 Year Old Katie Spotz to Row Across the Atlantic ...
  22 year old Katie Spotz raising awareness of the global problem of lack of access to clean drinking water, by rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. Related posts: EPA Finds Hydraulic Fracturing Contaminates Drinking Water Wells U.S. EPA Invokes Clean Water Act to Evaluate Ocean Acidification EPA OK’s ...
  

Inhabitat

• China Unveils the World’s Fastest High Speed Train
  China is speeding towards the future of public transportation with the launch of the fastest high-speed train on the planet! Averaging 217 mph (350 km/h), the new train is faster than a speeding bullet train, and will link Wuhan in central China to Guangzhou in the south, covering a total distance o ...
  
• Woolly Pocket Living Plant Bag Lets You Carry Gree ...
  What concrete-jungleite doesn’t enjoy a burst of greenery every now and then, especially when it’s overflowing from a totally unexpected location like…your handbag? That’s right, Woolly Pocket (the company best known for their lush “vert-icle” wall pouches) has come up with a fresh new way to bring ...
  
• Bike Helmets That Don’t Make You Look Like a Dork
  Love the eco-freedom of cruisin’ on your two wheeler, but hate the less than eco-fashionable “helmet-head” look? With Yakkay’s noggin protectors disguised as stylish hats, you’ll get the best of both worlds. They come in all different colors and styles and are interchangeable, so you can always swap ...
  
• What to Do With All That Stuff After Christmas
  Want to get a P.H.D. in what to do with your P.H.W.? That’s short for post holiday waste in case you didn’t know. While you may not have heard of the term (we kind of just made it up), we’re pretty sure you know what we’re talking about. The crumpled wads of giftwrap, the withering [...]
  
• How to Recycle Your Holiday Wrapping Paper
  Ah, the day after Christmas – if you’ve been greening your holiday thus far, why stop now? One of the simplest ways to keep up the great eco-work is to recycle that colorful mound of ripped-up wrapping paper left in the aftermath of Christmas day. If you need ideas, we’ve got 5 easy ways to [...]
  

Pogue's Posts

• Verizon's New Motto: Why Not Be Evil?
  Verizon Wireless continues in its efforts to be the least-liked mobile carrier in America.
  
• Verizon Responds to Consumer Complaints
  The wireless carrier addresses two issues raised by consumers and this blog.
  
• Should e-Books Be Copy Protected?
  The issues involved with copy protection haven't changed. They're the same on e-books as they are with everything else.
  
• Free Speech (Recognition)
  This week, I tried out Dragon Dictation, a new, free, very real app for the iPhone from Nuance.
  
• What I Bought This Year
  People seem to be interested in what the consumer-tech columnist would buy for himself and his own family, so it seemed like a slam-dunk.
  

Open Your Eyes News

• Washed up flip-flops get underfoot on Africa’s coa ...
  Boston Globe – The once-pristine Nyongo Sharif beach along Kenya’s northern coast, near the border with Somalia, seems an unlikely dumping ground for the world’s plastic garbage. But the Somali upwelling, a powerful current, sometimes tosses rubbish onto the beach from as far away as Indonesia; ...
  
• Iranian protests spark fresh clashes in Tehran
  BBC – Further clashes have taken place in the Iranian capital, Tehran, following anti-government protests in which at least four people died. Reports say police fired tear gas to disperse crowds of demonstrators in various parts of the city overnight. The nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mous ...
  
• Committed to cleaning the ‘Great Pacific Garbage P ...
  Washington Post – In the Pacific Ocean, a floating garbage dump exists between Hawaii and California that is hundreds of thousands square miles wide and has been estimated to contain approximately 3.5 million tons of debris. This “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is the most extreme example of a serious ...
  
• More Irish Bishops Quit Over Abuse Scandal
  The Independent – Catholics across Ireland were attending Christmas Day Mass today as two more bishops resigned in the wake of a devastating clerical child abuse inquiry. Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field bowed to weeks of intense criticism and pressure, announcing at services across Dublin that they p ...
  
• Colombia denies Venezuela’s claims of spy drones
  BBC – Colombia has denied spying on Venezuela using an unmanned drone aircraft built with US technology. The allegation was made on Sunday by the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez. He claimed the drone aircraft flew over a Venezuelan military base “a few days ago” and took a number of photographs, ...
  

Monkey Smashes Heaven

• Amerikkkans reactionary as hell on the Iran issue
  Amerikkkans reactionary as hell on the Iran issue (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) A new poll confirms that Amerikans are still thirsty for Iranian blood.  A surprising 84 percent of the US population says that it has been following news reports about Iran’s nuclear program. Nearly half, 48 perc ...
  
• More Fuck the Troops
  from Politics Are Over Posted in ..Politics Are Over, Amerikkka, anti-fascism, Communism, Idiot Amerikkkans, Maoism, Maoism Third Worldism, Maoisme, Maoismo, North America
  
• Stalin, Mao, and Lin Biao born in December
  Stalin, Mao, and Lin Biao born in December (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) Three great revolutionaries were born in December. Stalin was born on December 21st, 1887. Stalin is remembered for his great accomplishment of leading the Soviet Union through socialist construction. He is also remember ...
  
• “Merry Christmas”, Published in New Ma ...
  “Merry Christmas”, Published in New Masses (Dec. 1930) by Langston Hughes From the gun-boats in the river, Ten-inch shells for Christmas gifts, And peace on earth forever. Merry Christmas, India, To Gandhi in his cell, From righteous Christian England, Ring out, bright Christmas bell! Ring Merry Ch ...
  
• RAIM-Seattle on the recent WTO 10 year anniversary
  RAIM-Seattle on the recent WTO 10 year anniversary (raims.wordpress.com) The imperialist media hype around the recent slayings of police (the enforcers of empire) in the Seattle and Lakewood, and the predictable show of support for the kkkops by the general cracker population, overlaps the ten year ...
  

PakAlert

• Americans Are Now Restricted To Land Only In Islam ...
  In view of the irregular and suspicious activities of US citizens who have been allowed into the country on visas issued by Mr. Husain Haqqani for the vague purpose of ‘official business’ of the US government, Islamabad moves to restrict the activities of US intelligence and other departments which ...
  
• Video: Pyramid UFOs – One Of The Strangest Types
  Footage shows a pyramid-shaped object hovering above the Moscow skyline Large Pyramid UFO Kremlin, Russia, a short analysis of the giant rotating pyramid-shaped triangular UFO over Kremlin and the Red Square in Moscow, Russia December 9th 2009. Britain’s Telegraph newspaper confirms a giant p ...
  
• What did the Americans cook for China in mysteriou ...
  Chinese Premier Plays Key Role In Evolving Consensus For Global Climate Moot Success By Makhdoom Babar Editor-in-Chief, The Daily Mail of Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—While the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was making all out sincere efforts to come up with a strategy to resolve the global cli ...
  
• Drug Money Saved Global Banks in Economic Crisis, ...
  Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions Rajeev Syal | The Observer Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations‘ drugs and crime tsar has told the Ob ...
  
• Timeline of US-NATO Israel Middle East War 2000-20 ...
  by Eric Walberg 2000 – Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak resigns, marking the end of the Oslo peace process; 2nd Intifada sparked by Ariel Sharon visiting Temple Mount with armed escort; Mohammed Al-Dura killed by Israeli sniper; Bashir Al-Assad inherits the Syrian presidency on the death of hi ...
  

ecogeek

• 10 Most Popular Stories of 2009
  2010 is quickly approaching and we can only hope that it holds even more innovations that will benefit the world we live in.  As we move forward, here's a look back at the stories you clicked on most during the past year.  From gadgets to urine fuel, these are the top ten. 10.  Power-Generating Sho ...
  
• Map of Countries' Emissions, Pledges
  The AP Climate Pool kept us well informed over the course of the COP15 negotiations.  Part of that great coverage is contained in this interactive map of the participating nations' current emissions and the reductions they've pledged to make. You can find plenty of articles analyzing what was accom ...
  
• NASA Unveils Amazing GHG Models
  NASA's Aqua spacecraft has been taking daily CO2 measurements with its Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument (AIRS) for the past seven years and now all that information gathering has led to beautiful and frightening maps and models of the concentration and movement of greenhouse gases in ou ...
  
• OK Residents Can Buy an Electric Car for Less than ...
  If you live in Oklahoma, you have until December 31, 2009 to buy an electric car for about $900.  Through a combination of federal and state tax credits, the Kandi Coco drops from its retail price of $10,600 to a cool $865.  The federal tax credit amounts to $4,435 while the state is offering a 50 ...
  
• EcoGeek Q&A: Graciela Chichilnisky
  Graciela Chichilnisky was extensively involved in the creation of the Kyoto Protocol, designing the global carbon market that became international law in 2005.  She has been a lead author of the IPCC and is a professor of economics and mathematical statistics at Columbia University. She's written a ...
  

Times Online - Science

• Anger as National Trust puts up pre-booked holiday ...
  The National Trust has provoked widespread anger by increasing the rental price of holiday cottages that have already been booked.
  
• Fresh snowfall and freezing weather predicted for ...
  Revellers celebrating the new year across Britain face the prospect of fresh snow and freezing weather, forecasters have warned. Temperatures will fall to minus 3C (27F) in most of England and Wales on Thursday night, New Year’s Eve, and minus 8C in Scotland, with widespread snow showers predicted. ...
  
• Airport delays as security is tightened following ...
  Thousands of travellers flying to America for the new year face delays, body searches and being confined to their seats for the last hour of their flight under security restrictions imposed after the failed bombing of Northwest flight 253.
  
• Passengers face long delays as airlines tighten se ...
  Air travellers worldwide face long delays at departure gates and greater restrictions on what they can take on to aircraft as airlines immediately tightened security after the failed attempt to blow up an aircraft over the United States.
  
• Shoppers stymied by skeleton rail service
  Rail chiefs have been attacked by politicians and passenger groups for providing only 30% of a normal bank holiday service yesterday, despite it being one of the busiest days of the year for shopping, sports and family trips.
  

Environment _ National Geographic

• PICTURES: "Natural Treasure" Threatened by Industr ...
  Mountain lions, grizzly bears, and cutthroat trout are among the Rocky Mountain animals snapped during a recent photography expedition to the Flathead region, which conservationists say is threatened by mining, logging, and drilling.
  
• Rare Gorillas Spied Feasting on Figs
  See what could be the first professional footage of elusive Cross River gorillas, the most endangered subspecies of gorilla, filmed recently in Cameroon. Video.
  
• Czech Zoo Sends Four Rare White Rhinos to Kenya
  Four of the world's eight remaining northern white rhinoceroses have been flown to Kenya in a last-ditch effort to save the critically endangered subspecies.
  
• Presented By:
• Winter Solstice 2009: Facts on Shortest Day of the ...
  Today is the 2009 winter solstice, the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year. Find out why and how the year's darkest day has been celebrated for centuries.
  

drinking liberally in new milford ( with beersphere feeds )

• Do they know it's Christmas time?
  We grabbed a card off of one of those Christmas "Wish Trees" for a local homeless shelter when I took the boys out to get their hair cuts the other day. It was from a 10 year old girl living in the shelter. What was she asking for? "Home Essentials" Ya know: Tooth brush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo ...
  
• Who the heck is Barry Cafero?
  Via ctblogger : I know it's early to be making this call but I'm almost certain no one topping this comment today: It's ok that Larry Cafero doesn't know my name. Over the course of the next year, he'll quickly realize that Connecticut voters don't know his, either. -Connecticut Democratic Party C ...
  
• Monday Morning Peak
  Image Taken From National Geographic Forget about Wednesday being hump day this week. The peak was already hit this morning, if you are among today's sleepy heads that stayed up to watch the Gemenids meteor showers : Coming fast on the heels of its more famous cousin the Leonid meteor shower —which ...
  
• Jon Stewart on Healthcare
  The Daily Show's Jon Stewart takes a look at the healthcare successes of the Democrats: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Democratic Super Majority www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview (h/t GottaLaff :)
  
• Score One For The Working Families Party in NYC
  Score two, actually... Via The Gotham Gazette, The Working Families Party , a political party that has made significant contributions to Connecticut's political landscape, has taken over New York city : Both Liu and de Blasio had the endorsement of the Working Families Party , yesterday and in th ...
  

SPL Center

• Lew Rockwell’s Website Warns of Coming U.S. Civil ...
  You thought President Obama had his hands full sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan? That’s small potatoes compared to the other big military plan on his agenda: returning 200,000 troops from other countries to the U. S. Northern Command in preparation for an imminent civil war at home. At leas ...
  
• Judge Denies Scott Roeder’s “Necessity ...
  A Wichita, Kan., judge has denied Scott Roeder’s bid to use a “necessity defense” when he is tried for the murder of late-term abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller. Sedgwick County Judge Warren Wilbert pointed out Tuesday that the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in a previous case regarding blocking an e ...
  
• Pacifica Forum Speaker Celebrates National Sociali ...
  The speaker blamed “Jewish lies” for the Iraq War, praised the swastika as a symbol of white people, showed a neo-Nazi propaganda video, and led several audience members in an enthusiastic Nazi salute. No, this wasn’t an assembly of America’s largest neo-Nazi organization, the National Socialist Mov ...
  
• Potential Jurors Being Interviewed for the Bill Wh ...
  ROANOKE, VA. — After sitting through his own threat trial in Brooklyn, hate blogger Hal Turner may find himself back in a federal courtroom sooner than expected — this time as a witness in a similar case. Turner was on the list of dozens of potential witnesses that a government prosecutor read durin ...
  
• Uganda’s Harsh Anti-Gay Legislation Has Amer ...
  While activists around the world criticize pending legislation in Uganda they call the “kill the gays” bill, some Americans are being outed for their connections to those involved in the proposed statute. The latest is Richard Cohen, who claims he has successfully counseled thousands of gays to beco ...
  

change: org.

• Tweeting Every Arrest
  Arrests are public information, but exactly how public should they be? Twitter is testing the limits. Every arrest in Denton, Texas, is chronicled on an unofficial twitter feed , built by an art student seeking to explore the possibilities opened by social platforms like twitter to share public info ...
  
• 5 Sustainable Food Trends to Watch in 2010: #3 Int ...
  The third installment of my round-up of top five sustainable food trends to watch in 2010 concerns the old series of tubes where you're reading this right now: the Web. While I'd say this might well be the most important long-term trend to watch for sustainable food, it is unclear to me what stage w ...
  
• Top 5 Coolest People in Healthcare 2009: Coolest E ...
  Part 4 of Top 5 Coolest People in Healthcare 2009 Series Who knew 21 st century house calls could be so hip, so high-tech and so emergency-room oriented? Hospitalization is so last century. ER physician C. Gresham Bayne, MD, is a pioneer in keeping severely ill Medicare patients at home. He’s wring ...
  
• Top 5 Gay TV Moments in 2009
  In the movement for gay equality, it is important to advance on all fronts. Knocking on doors, phonebanking and contacting legislators are all important, but perhaps the most powerful method of advancement is through entertainment media. Here are the Top 5 gay television moments from 2009. 5. Modern ...
  
• 2009 Most Wanted: Sudan
  Sudan is perhaps the most deserving member of the 2009 Most Wanted List of governments responsible for crimes against humanity, if for only one reason: The government --  or more precisely, the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) -- severely crippled the humanitarian aid operation supporting some f ...
  

Common Dreams -News

• Kucinich: Generals Who Spoke Publicly on Afghan St ...
  by Jordan Fabian Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) this week said that U.S. generals who spoke publicly about the nation's Afghan strategy during the president's deliberations should lose their jobs.  Kucinich, who is known for his anti-war views, told Russia Today in an interview Wednesday that Co ...
  
• Mousavi Nephew Among Several Dead in Iran Clashes: ...
  by Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl TEHRAN - A reformist website said a nephew of Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi was killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in Tehran on Sunday. Earlier, the opposition Jaras website said four people had been killed in a second day of vio ...
  
• New Gas Wells Leave More Chemicals in Ground
  by Abrahm Lustgarten For more than a decade the energy industry has steadfastly argued before courts, Congress and the public that the federal law protecting drinking water should not be applied to hydraulic fracturing, the industrial process that is essential to extracting the nation’s vast natural ...
  
• Poet, Anti-Apartheid Activist Dennis Brutus Dies
  by Hillel Italie NEW YORK -- South African poet and former political prisoner Dennis Brutus, who fought apartheid in words and deeds and remained an activist well after the fall of his country's racist system, has died. He was 85. Brutus' publisher, Chicago-based Haymarket Books, said the writer die ...
  
• Senate Democrats to W.H.: Drop Cap-and-Trade
  by Lisa Lerer Bruised by the health care debate and worried about what 2010 will bring, moderate Senate Democrats are urging the White House to give up now on any effort to pass a cap-and-trade bill next year. “I am communicating that in every way I know how,” says Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), on ...
  

Lifehacker

• Sprixi Helps You Find Relevant and Free Images [P ...
  If you've been having trouble finding free or Creative Common-licensed photos for use in your projects, Sprixi filters out the fluff to help you find the images you really want. One of the frustrations of searching for anything on the internet, let alone images, is imprecise search results. If you'v ...
  
• Access Facebook Updates from a Feed Reader [Faceb ...
  Want a cleaner, less Farmville-filled Facebook experience? Try loading your friends' and fan pages' status updates, links, notes, and other material into an RSS reader. Facebook doesn't make it easy, but it can be done with some clever URL copying. LiveJournal user Jamie Zawinski details the steps n ...
  
• The New Flight Security Rules, So Far [Air Travel ...
  After an attempted explosive attack on a U.S.-bound flight Friday, air travel security tightened and rules were changed. No official procedures were announced, but here's what fliers and news agencies are reporting as the standards for the time being. Photo by Joshua Davis . The first thing anyone f ...
  
• Low-Hassle Plant Projects for Your Home or Office ...
  Your garden or office could probably use some more green, and we're not talking about eco-friendly printer paper. If you're not quite the gardening type, Apartment Therapy has a round-up of 15 planting projects that require very little afterthought. Some of these projects, like the lightbulb terrari ...
  
• Create Realistic HDR Photos [Photoshop]
  High Dynamic Range photoraphy is a revolutionary tool in the photographer's toolkit, but it can be over done and done poorly. Take more realistic photos with these tips. For the unfamiliar, HDR photography is where you take a series of exposures of a given scene and use software to combine them toge ...
  

Newshoggers - AfPak

• Yet Another Picture of the Week Plus A Rant
  Commentary By Ron Beasley Blue Monday - Click on Picture for larger image. My partner here at Hoggers, John Ballard, sent me this link to a piece by Robert Parry: Why Obama Is Failing. Faced with a dire financial crisis and two foreign wars – not to mention a host of long-festering problems like hea ...
  
• Clinton II
  Commentary By Ron Beasley With apologies to Pastor Niemöller: First they came for the banksters, and showered them with money and put them in the Administration in a way that was not change we could believe in. Then they came for the military industrial complex, and sent more and more of our childre ...
  
• Contemplation of Drone Strikes in Quetta Belies Ob ...
  By Derrick Crowe Once again, the United States is rattling a saber about killing people in Quetta, despite all the inevitable civilian death and mass outrage. Such a move would show the shallowness of the "just war" talk in President Obama's disgraceful Nobel paean to Mars. Quetta is a city of 850,0 ...
  
• "Flooding The Zone" - How McChrystal Bulldozed Oba ...
  By Steve Hynd The best piece you're likley to read on how the Obama administration came to the decision to surge 40,000 extra US and allied troops in Afghanistan is by Mark Perry, writing for the Asia Times (h/t Russ Wellen). Unlike the stenographed versions in the Washington Post or New York Times, ...
  
• Great Losers
  By Dave Anderson: The Security Crank points out claims that a significant portion of the entire Chechan population is supposedly in Warizistan: At some point, this kind of thing moves beyond parody. According to the reports Haji Akbar Ali Mehsud, a 55-year-old resident of Zinda village in District S ...
  

Water Wars

• Ga. urged to embrace 'no regret' water standards ( ...
  Georgia must embrace a series of "no regret" water conservation standards regardless of the outcome of a looming 2012 deadline that could leave Atlanta with a drastically reduced water supply, a key state water panel concluded Tuesday.
  
• Ga. urged to embrace 'no regret' water standards ( ...
  Georgia must embrace a series of "no regret" water conservation standards regardless of the outcome of a looming 2012 deadline that could leave Atlanta with a drastically reduced water supply, a key state water panel concluded Tuesday. The final report from... Georgia - Water supply - Atlanta - Wate ...
  
• Ga. urged to embrace 'no regret' water standards ( ...
  Georgia must embrace a series of "no regret" water conservation standards regardless of the outcome of a looming 2012 deadline that could leave Atlanta with a drastically reduced water supply, a key state water panel...
  
• Ga. urged to embrace 'no regret' water standards ( ...
  ATLANTA — Georgia must embrace a series of "no regret" water conservation standards regardless...
  
• Ga. urged to embrace 'no regret' water standards ( ...
  Georgia water task force urges state to embrace 'no regret' water conservation measures
  

WordPress | Economics

• Saving Mexico? Who's going to save U.S.?
  Yet another article advancing the idea of drug legalization, this time from the  Wall Street Journal
  
• An Interview with Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
  Free Market Mojo is proud to present an interview with Dr. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, President of the Mina
  
• Basic Concepts of Macro Economics for Business
  There are some basic concepts of macro economics which are important in business management: Stocks
  
• Economics: The Dismal Profession
  Arvind Subramanian writes recently in the FT that the field of economics has “made amends
  
• ILEIA: new magazine on small-scale sustainable agr ...
  ILEIA, the Centre for learning on sustainable agriculture, has announced the launch of its new magaz
  

Electronic Intifada

• Israeli forces kill six Palestinians in West Bank, ...
  On Saturday morning, 26 December 2009, Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians in two separate attacks in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli occupat ...
  
• Israel resembles a failed state
  A year after Israel's attack and after more than two-and-a-half years of blockade, the Palestinian people in Gaza have not surrendered. Instead they have offered the world lessons in steadfastn ...
  
• Villages challenge occupation on human rights day
  As tortuous as the occupation is for the people of al-Tuwani, on 10 December -- International Human Rights Day -- they decided to offer support to other Palestinians by highlighting the discrimination ...
  
• US campaign for academic boycott gaining strength
  The United States Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel was formed in the immediate aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, bringing together educators of conscience who were unable ...
  
• Labor for Palestine comes under attack
  Labor for Palestine's 14 December Open Letter from US Trade Unionists to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: Boycott Apartheid Israel has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response. Howeve ...
  

CS Monitor - News

• podcast091204
  Fewer US jobs lost in November and impact on economy.
  
• 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.
  

The Wonk Room

• Gingrich Claims Iran ‘Will Use’ Nukes, ...
  Discussing President Obama’s foreign policy approach on Meet The Press, host David Gregory asked Newt Gingrich whether “pragmatism” was appropriate in the face of threats faced by the United States. Gingrich responded “Pragmatism assumes you know what the facts are. To be pragmatic is to be in touch ...
  
• Catholic Hospitals Endorse Senate Abortion Comprom ...
  The Catholic Health Association — which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals across the country — said said in a statement that it was ‘encouraged’ and ‘increasingly confident‘ that the abortion compromise in the Senate health care bill “can achieve the objective of no federal funding for abort ...
  
• Another Bad Argument For Iran Strike: ‘The W ...
  Today, Iran’s leading daily newspaper featured an op-ed by a conservative Iranian university professor insisting that there is only one way to deter the American war on Iran that all serious Iranian analysts believe is coming: A massive wave of guerrilla attacks on American military facilities. Thi ...
  
• Senate Passes Health Care Reform 60-39, Reid Promi ...
  Moments ago, the Senate passed a comprehensive health care reform bill by a vote of 60-39, ending more than four weeks of contentious floor debate. “This morning is not the end of the process,” Reid reminded his colleagues and progressives dissatisfied with the Senate bill. “It’s only the beginning. ...
  
• Republicans Lead A Revolt Against 10 Percent Tax O ...
  Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) decision to replace the so-called Botox-tax in the Senate health care bill with a 10 percent levy on indoor tanning salons has sparked quite the outrage. Republican lawmakers, appalled at the idea of using spray tans to maintain those artificial orange glows for the C-SPAN c ...
  

thwap's schoolyard

• Democracy vs. Climate Change
  I'm not sure why anyone is so afraid of the economics of responding to the threat of global warming. 1. Create (in Canada) tens of thousands of jobs retro-fitting older homes with better windows, doors, insulation, alternative power sources. Build constantly improved public transit infrastructure ...
  
• If Parliament Can't Do It, WE WILL
  This prisoner torture in Afghanistan isn't the most important issue before us as a nation. It's damned serious, but I'd say Canada's ancient policy of cultural genocide against the First Nations is the biggest issue. But on this issue the harpercons have clearly crossed the line and violated inter ...
  
• Afghanistan, Patriotism and the Olympics
  I came in to Toronto on the daily turnip-truck from Hamilton a couple of days ago and I noticed all the subway station posters (sponsored at least in part by Coca-Cola) celebrating the Olympic torch and Canadian patriotism about same. The images are pretty inane, with a torch-bearer surrounded on e ...
  
• Rick Hillier and Second-Hand Information ...
  Private Mann:"General Hillier, 'Amnesty International' has a scathing report about Afghan prison conditions." Hillier: "Those detestable peacenicks and bleeding-hearts! Why should I care about such second-hand information!!" Private Mann: "The PMO just called. Prime Minister Harper wants us conf ...
  
• Canadian Self-Satisfaction
  Generations of Canadians have sewn little Canadian flags onto their backpacks when travelling abroad, in order to avoid being taken for US-Americans. At its most vapid, this tradition is probably inspired by nothing more than a vague, self-satisfied notion that Canadians are great and US-Americans a ...
  

Financial Sense Editorials

• Market Observation: Trading, Investing and Specula ...
  by Tony Allison. "Today’s culture seems to have a very short-term perspective on the just about everything. Wall Street focuses on this quarter’s results; Washington’s vision extends only to the next election cycle. The average Joe looks to the coming weekend, or perhaps his next paycheck. As the na ...
  
• Th*nk*ng (Presentations)
  by Fred Cederholm. "I’ve been thinking about presentation. Actually I’ve been thinking about 2009, Obama, the economy, jobs, bailouts, Bernanke, and St. Johns Lutheran Church. The year 2009 will always hold a special place in my memory."
  
• Silent Night, Silent Market
  by Paul Nolte. "Two very quiet weeks now confront investors, as the Christmas and New Year’s holidays cut the trading for the week to but a whisper. Amid the quiet and solitude however are some rumblings from last year’s financial earthquake."
  
• Caught In A Lie
  by Captain Hook. "It’s no secret governments and our ruling elite (the bureaucracy) lie for their own benefit, and this has been increasingly prevalent for years now. Perhaps the most well known statistics in this respect center on the Employment Report"
  
• Coppertunities
  by Ray Long. "Today let's discuss copper opportunities, from the other side of the coin. In past weeks I've touted the advantage gained by those first to explore a new investment niche. Specifically copper. Copper pennies, to be even more precise. "
  

on Government Oversight

• LANL Researchers Blow Up Building with Civil War-l ...
  Nope, that's not a headline from The Onion. POGO has just learned that researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory accidentally blew a building apart a few weeks ago with a massive gun that acts like a Civil War cannon....
  
• A Video Message from Danielle
  As Danielle says, it's been one heck of a year over here at POGO. We covered a lot of ground and are proud of our accomplishments, but we wouldn't have been able to make it without you. Thank you for...
  
• Morning Smoke: Obama Signs Defense Appropriations ...
  Spending Bill Becomes Law [Air Force Magazine] Classified Bomber Under Consideration [Aviation Week] Oshkosh FMTV Bid 'Unbelievable [DoD Buzz] New Executive Order Awaits Presidential Decision [Secrecy News] Washington to Reduce Funding for U.S. Contractors in Pakistan [ProPublica] Doctors' Spat Expo ...
  
• Morning Smoke: More Tales of Moneyed Military Ment ...
  Military mentors hired, fired in discreet fashion [Federal Times] Defense Bill Earmarks Total $4 Billion [The Wall Street Journal] Inadequate Oversight Cited in Weatherization Program [The New York Times] White House seeks input on federal research info sharing program [Federal...
  
• California Courts to Whistleblower: 'You're Out of ...
  Accountable California, a project of SEIU Local 721's Center for Public Accountability, has posted a story about Michael Paul, an employee of the California Administrative Office of the Courts. Paul thought he saw misconduct occurring on multimillion dollar contracts and...
  

Science Express

• Chronic infection now clearly tied to immune-syste ...
  A new study finds the cross-talk between 'killer T-cells' and 'helper T-cells' can only happen in the presence of interleukin-21, a powerful immune-system protein. UAB researchers say if interleukin-21 is missing, the immune system's anti-viral efforts fail. The study mice were treated for lymphocyt ...
  
• German 'science train': next stop Shanghai 2010?
  How will we feed nine billion people in the future? Can we ever have a disease-free world? Can robots play football?
  
• New mechanisms of action found for drugs used to t ...
  (PhysOrg.com) -- In the course of his or her life, every seventh German will develop an anxiety disorder that will require treatment. Standard anti-anxiety medications (anxiolytics) are based on the benzodiazepine class of drugs. These calm the patient and quickly diminish feelings of anxiety.
  
• Milky Way's super-efficient particle accelerators ...
  Thanks to a unique "ballistic study" that combines data from ESO's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have now solved a long-standing mystery of the Milky Way's particle accelerators. They show in a paper published today on Science Express that cosmic rays from ou ...
  
• Physical reality of string theory demonstrated
  String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been made that have not been lived up to. Leiden (The Netherlands) theoretical physicists have now for the first time used string theory to describe a physical phenomenon. Their discovery has been reported in Science Express.
  

TechDirt

• Amazon Announces It Sold More Kindle Books Than Ph ...
  Lots of folks have sent in various versions of Amazon's hyped up press release about how it sold more ebooks on Christmas than physical books . While this ought to make some publishers reconsider their hatred of ebooks, there are two points that make this rather meaningless. First, how many physic ...
  
• AT&T Sorta, Kinda Limiting iPhone Sales In New Yor ...
  A bunch of folks are sending in variations on this story saying that AT&T has stopped its online sales of iPhones to anyone in New York City . This is fueling all sorts of speculation, given that the NYC market was one where there were quite a lot of complaints about congestion problems for iPhone ...
  
• Former Musician Now Lawyer Comes To Terms With Wha ...
  G Thompson sends in this absolutely wonderful read by law professor Ben Challis, a former punk musician, explaining the mental back-and-forth he went through after discovering that some of his band's old music is available online -- specifically discovering that some sites are selling unauthorized c ...
  
• Why Are Publications Trying To Bite The Google Han ...
  Someone anonymously submitted a decent writeup by John A. Byrne, the former editor-in-chief at Business Week who recently left (amid the shakeup due to Bloomberg buying the magazine) to start a new media effort called C-Change Media. In this blog post, Byrne argues that the media complaining about ...
  
• Elementary My Dear Watson....It's Called The Publi ...
  Fletch writes "Here's an interesting little article on why Sherlock Holmes remains so popular . Of course it happens to come right before the new movie opens and I am just sure it is pure journalism even though CNN and Warner are owned by the same company. Though I do find it rather odd that they do ...
  

VacTruth

• Medical sales reps work alongside doctors, even in ...
  A perfect example of how sales representatives are influencing medical professionals.
  
• EXPLOSIVE CONFLICT OF INTEREST: WHO PROFITS FROM T ...
  . . Source: www.insolutions.info S. By Jon Rappoport www.insolutions.info www.nomorefakenews.com DECEMBER 25, 2009. I have to begin by saying you need to know about Walter Burien.  http://CAFR1.com Walter curls people’s hair.  For many years, he has been investigating the investments made by gover ...
  
• Investigative Journalist Implicates Partnership fo ...
  Investigative journalist, Sherri Kane, implicates the Partnership for New York City, David Rockefeller, Rupert Murdoch, Goldman Sachs, Merck behind flu scam.
  
• Advisers on Vaccines Often Have Conflicts, Report ...
  GARDINER HARRIS New York Times December 18, 2009 WASHINGTON — A new report finds that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did a poor job of screening medical experts for financial conflicts when it hired them to advise the agency on vaccine safety, officials said Thursday. Most of the ex ...
  
• How Pharma Creates A New Disease to Sell its Drug
  . . . Meryl Nass http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com 12/23/2009 How Merck Created a New Disease (Osteopenia) to Sell its New Drug, FOSAMAX/ NPR MUST_READ from NPR (thanks to Marc Crispin Miller) … armed with the firm conviction that he was about to do good in the world, and coincidentally sell a ton ...
  

BroadSnark

• Times Are Tough
  
  
• Some Things You Might Have Missed
  Everyone wants to think that they are a good person.  But the truth is that all of us are capable of doing horrible things.  As a Nadder! points out in Milgram, Rape & Silence, “It is much safer to acknowledge your violent potential since then you’re better placed to watch out for signs things a ...
  
• Snowball War Update
  The agro cop that pulled out his gun at the snowball fight might actually be in a tiny bit of trouble here. Yesterday, when I wrote about this, there were only a few articles around.  Now there are so many that I can’t even begin to give you all the links.  It’s being covered everywhere from [...]
  
• Bad Cops, Lying Media, and Anarchist Scapegoats
  I’m having a really hard time deciding who are worse – police or media. As you may have already heard.  There was a giant snowball fight at the corner of U and 14th in Washington, DC.  I was there from about 2:30 to 3:00 and it was fun as hell.  Maybe 100 or 150 people were [...]
  
• Anarchy as Responsibility
  Conservatives like to talk about personal responsibility.  By that they mean taking responsibility for your own well being and perhaps that of your family and community.  But if you are not within the circle, what that comes down to is “fend for yourself.” Liberals talk about taking responsibility ...
  

Executive Intelligence Review

• Why Do We Call Susan Rice a Racist?
  By Lawrence K. Freeman Reprinted from Executive Intelligence Review, December 25, 2009, Vol. 36, No. 50
  
• The Failed System Has Become Unmanageable
  By John Hoefle Reprinted from Executive Intelligence Review, December 25, 2009, Vol. 36, No. 50
  
• The Copenhagen Summit: Lies Have Short Legs, or, t ...
  By Helga Zepp-LaRouche Reprinted from Executive Intelligence Review, December 25, 2009, Vol. 36, No. 50
  
• Bernanke Exits Now!: National Banking
  By Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. Reprinted from Executive Intelligence Review, December 25, 2009, Vol. 36, No. 50
  
• Intensify Obama Security Screen, Says LaRouche
  EIR News Service press release.
  

Armies of Liberation

• US Sanctions Iran Based al Qaeda, Zawahiri Promise ...
  The US Treasury Department placed financial sanctions on Saad bin Laden, thought to be in Pakistan, and three alleged al Qaeda operatives in Iran including a Yemeni. The terrorist designation Friday froze their assets within US jurisdictions and prohibits Americans from financial dealings with the ...
  
• Arabian Peninsula al Qaeda groups merge
  In the face of Saudi Arabia’s success against the al Qaeda organization, many Saudi operatives have fled to the more hospitable climate in Yemen, joining others who recently arrived from Iraq, Somalia, and Pakistan. Al Qaeda in Yemen announced its merger with Saudi Arabia’s al Qaeda organization to ...
  
• Yemen strikes multi-faceted deals with al Qaeda
  Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently struck a deal with Ayman Zawahiri, and Yemen is in the process of emptying its jails of known jihadists. The Yemeni government is recruiting these established jihadists to attack its domestic enemies as it refrains from serious counter-terror measures aga ...
  
• Yemen’s Multi Faceted Deals with Al Qaeda (A ...
  اليمن تعقد صفقات متعددة الوجوه مع القاعدة كتبت: جين نوفاك – فبراير/ 2009 عبدالله عبدالوهاب ناجي- ترجمة خاصة بالمستقلة عقد الرئيس اليمني علي عبدا لله صالح مؤخرا صفقة مع ...
  
• Yemen’s three terror fronts
  By Jane Novak March 28, 2009 3:18 PM Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took credit in an internet statement Friday for a pair of suicide attacks that targeted South Koreans in Yemen. A teen-aged suicide bomber killed four South Korean tourists in Shibam, Hadramout on March 15. A second terror att ...
  

Dark Politricks

• Twitter Updates for 2009-12-28
  7 reasons why #Google #Chrome is the #browser I use for surfing the net http://bit.ly/8p8ZJD #Internet #web #webdev # Reason 1 #Google #Chrome is great > Its simple 2 use, not full of BS features you never use, does the job well #Internet #web #Browser # Reason 2 #Google #Chrome is great > ...
  
• Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-27
  Ron Paul on #Cavuto watch the interview > http://bit.ly/5cjgju #ronpaul #endthefed #auditthefed #videos # Is #America still a nation of laws? A look at how the courts have misinterpreted case law http://bit.ly/7QhBKi #justice #law #courts # Goldman Sachs attempt to ambush the dollar aborted, tactic ...
  
• Bomber Had No Passport, Helped To Board Plane By S ...
  Travelers harassed by intense airport security after Nigerian on terror list was allowed to attempt attack on Flight 253 Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Sunday, December 27, 2009 A passenger who boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in Amsterdam with attempted plane bomber Umar Farouk A ...
  
• Kucinich: Obama should fire generals who spoke out ...
  Daniel Tencer Raw Story Sunday, Dec 27th, 2009 Obama ‘giving his generals a little too much leeway’ Congressman Dennis Kucinich says President Barack Obama ought to fire the generals who publicly aired their views on the war in Afghanistan during this fall’s deliberations on a troop surge. The Ohio ...
  
• Airport Tyranny Ramped Up After Staged Plane Bombi ...
  Youtube Sunday, Dec 27th, 2009 Passengers flying into the United States from abroad should expect additional security measures at U.S. and international airports a day after a passenger detonated a device aboard a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan, the Transportation Security A ...
  

food and water watch

• Day 1 in Rome
  Hello from Roma, viva Roma. I am Dave Andrews, Senior Representative for Food & Water Watch. I am in Rome for the World Food Summit which is taking up the issue of one billion hungry people in the world, most of them farmers and most of them women. The solution of the US is high [...]
  
• Day 4 in Rome
  The official FAO meeting began on the 16th of November with the Pope followed by Libya’s Gaddafi, an interesting pairing! The Kings and Presidents (but not Obama) had the roads of Rome closed off for them, getting near the FAO was a big challenge so I waited until things calmed down later in the day ...
  
• Pangasius Pandemonium
  Last week, the state of Alabama instituted a stop sale order on imported catfish and pangasius, a catfish-like fish (pangasius is frequently mislabeled as catfish) after discovering that high numbers of the samples that had been inspected were contaminated with illegal antibiotics called flouroquino ...
  
• Day 3 in Rome
  Today, a group of us from Agribusiness Action Initiative and other NGOs went to the Civil Society Forum early in the morning and visited the farmers market that was set up there. We visited other NGO representatives from Via Campesina, International Federation of Agriculture Producers, Greenpeace, P ...
  
• Day 2 in Rome
  Today, we began the official Civil Society Forum on the Peoples’ Food Sovereignty. The morning started with an opening by the Mayor of Rome and by Jacques Diouf, the Secretary General of FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization).  He encouraged us to insist on our rights and told of how he has wo ...
  

treehugger

• London is Good Enough to Eat
  Image from mail on line There is something so irresistible about these vegetable "foodscapes". Examining the detail and the ingenuity can provide endless minutes (surely not hours) of fun. The Houses of Parliament are built from asparagus, green beans and runner beans, mixed with baby sweetcorn t ...
  
• Wintermarket Wonderland at the Seaport
  Fine and Raw's chocolate elves at the New Amsterdam WinterMarket photo credit: Bonnie Hulkower Hundreds of people weathered the blizzard last Sunday to support New Amsterdam's Wintermarket in lower Manhattan. The New Amsterdam Market is not your typical market. Its goal is to promote local agricu ...
  
• Is Fat Tire Taking Over the World? Green Beer Goes ...
  Image credit: Sami Grover When I got stranded in the mountains of North Carolina last weekend, we checked into a motel to wait out the storm. Fancying a beer, I trudged through the snow to the gas station. Sitting among the Bud Lites and the Millers was a large bottle of New Belgium's Fat Tire. I ...
  
• Are School Lunches Safe?: 26,500 Schools Lack Prop ...
  photo:J Novak Over the past few years, a commonly muddled bureaucracy and the resulting lack of trust in government has further tainted our nation's food supply system . Now that mistrust is spilling over into school cafeterias. According to an article on Mother Nature Network , many school lunche ...
  
• Cheap Great Lakes Water Offered In Exchange For Jo ...
  Sustainable urban aquaponics: the Sweetwater Organics example in Milwaukee WI. Image credit: Sweetwater Organics blog. It's quite common for US state and local officials to entice businesses to build factories... Read the full story on TreeHugger
  

Biosingularity

• Researchers Decipher Parts of the Neuronal Code
  The human brain works at a far higher level of complexity than previously thought. What has been given little attention up to now in the information processing of neuronal circuits has been the time factor. “Liquid computing” — a new theory about how these complex networks of nerve cells actually wo ...
  
• Gene Therapy May Stall Inherited Emphysema
  A new type of gene therapy may help stop the progression of emphysema in young people who have an inherited form of the deadly disease. Researchers say previous attempts to correct the gene mutation that predisposes young people to emphysema have failed to achieve lasting results. But a new study sh ...
  
• Nervy Repair Job
  In a lab at the University of Pennsylvania, a plastic dish holds two rows of tiny black dots, pairs of them connected by dozens of thin, hairlike filaments. Each dot is a cluster of thousands of neurons, explains Douglas Smith, who is a professor of neurosurgery and the director of Penns Center for ...
  
• Technology Review: Making Drugs Survive Longer in ...
  Taking a hint from natural antibiotics, a startup spun out of Stanford University is developing a way to chemically alter existing drugs to dramatically improve their half-life By sequestering the drugs within cells, the researchers hope to protect them from the bodys efforts to destroy them. So far ...
  
• Artificial Red Blood Cells for Drug Delivery
  Since the 1950s, researchers have been trying to mimic the abilities of red blood cells. These flexible discs carry oxygen throughout the body, squeezing through the smallest capillaries to do so. But the physical characteristics of red blood cells, including their doubly concave shape, have made th ...
  

CFACT

• Illegal aliens: An environmental boon?
• Peta's thrust into classrooms
• Drilling for straight facts on ANWR development
• Greens change tune on hydrogen tech
• Fruitful Dominion: A new environmental ethic?
  Responsible stewardship can bring prosperity to all of the earth's inhabitants
  

Ria Novosti Online News

• Barack Obama and family vacationing in Hawaii
  Barack Obama has taken Christmas vacation. On Thursday, the U.S. President arrived in Hawaii with his wife and daughters. He had to delay his departure for a day waiting for a Senate vote on national health care. Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama with his wife and daughters departing for Hawaii
  
• RIA Novosti’s choice: ten major international even ...
  RIA Novosti presents the past year’s ten most important global events, as chosen by its correspondents.
  
• Medvedev says Russia past worst stage of financial ...
  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday though the global credit crunch still exists, his country had successfully passed the worst stage of it.
  
• Germany approves Russia's Nord Stream gas pipeline ...
  Germany issued permission on Monday for the construction of Russia's Nord Stream gas pipeline in its exclusive economic zone.
  
• Phone terrorist warns police about bomb on ferry t ...
  Greek police have detained a man who called earlier warning about a bomb on a ferry with over 500 passengers on board, a Greek border guard representative said.
  

Ria Novosti - Science & Technology

• Soyuz crew warned about poor weather in landing zo ...
  Three astronauts who left the International Space Station (ISS) have been warned that the weather in the landing area was worse than expected, Russian Mission Control said on Tuesday.
  
• Large Hadron Collider
  
  
• World's largest atom smasher back to life after po ...
  Scientists continue efforts to resume the regular operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) following a recent power failure which shut down the device.
  
• Russia plans to send 10 spacecraft to ISS next yea ...
  Russia will launch four manned and six cargo supply missions to the International Space Station in 2010, space agency Roscosmos said on Friday.
  
• Russian expert maps out ways to combat climate cha ...
  Energy efficiency and energy saving are the key to reducing the human imprint on climate change, a Russian expert said on Monday.
  

Pruning Shears

• Through the Looking Glass With the DOJ
  No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post The case of Guatánamo detainee Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi took a bizarre turn last week. He is represented by habeas lawyer H. Candace Gorman and is, as Andy Worthington pointed out , overwhelmingly likely to be innocent. He has neve ...
  
• This Week In Tyranny
  No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post David Obey Bluster Watch. On Afghanistan :“There ain’t going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan,” House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. “If they ask for an incre ...
  
• America's Metastasizing Intelligence Apparatus
  No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post Barack Obama’s reversal on the Patriot Act was in the news again this week courtesy of Elizabeth Gorman’s reporting ( via ). It is not cynical or misanthropic to say the reversal is not surprising. He ended up supporting the FISA A ...
  
• This Week In Tyranny
  No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post It looks like the January 2010 Vanity Fair has two, count ‘em, blockbuster reports: One on Goldman Sachs and one on Blackwater. Marcy has some analysis the latter. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about both in the coming months as f ...
  
• Thomas Hoenig For Fed Chairman
  No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post At Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s reconfirmation hearing last week he offered this stirring defense of his tenure: “We did not - certainly not do a perfect job by any means. But I don’t think we stand out as having done a wo ...
  

  Rogue Government.com

• New Restrictions Are Imposed on Air Passengers
  In the wake of the terrorism attempt Friday on a Northwest Airlines flight, federal officials on Saturday imposed new restrictions on travelers that could lengthen lines at airports and limit the ability of international passengers to move about an airplane.
  
• Congress raises debt ceiling to $12.4 trillion
  
  
• Goldman's Attempt To Ambush Dollar Aborted, Tacti ...
  Fear not Goldman, there is only three months at most before Bernanke announces that he will be forced to buy all MBS from the end of QE 1 into perpetuity.
  
• Swindler duped CIA over Al-Qaeda decoding scam: r ...
  A con artist convinced the CIA and other US agencies in 2003 that he could decode secret messages sent by Al-Qaeda through Al-Jazeera broadcasts, Playboy magazine reported.
  
• Pentagon Spending For War Exceeds That Of All Sta ...
  The U.S. spends more for war annually than all state governments combined spend for the health, education, welfare, and safety of 308 million Americans.
  

Innovation Canada

• i2eye with James Hesser
  Two years ago, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, people around the globe have been marking the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei. Laypeople, especially children ...
  
• Model scientists
  When hurricane season officially blew to a close in the Atlantic basin at the end of November, two Quebec researchers did not exhale in relief. That’s because René Laprise and Louis-philippe Caron were still looking for hurricane data from the past to help create a tool to predict future storm patte ...
  
• i2eye with Andrew Weaver
  As a child growing up in Victoria, if Andrew Weaver had to choose between watching a hockey game or a Jacques Cousteau program, the ocean explorer won out every time. Now a professor and Canada Research Chair in Climate Modelling and Analysis at the University of Victoria, Weaver has joined a crew o ...
  
• Extreme exposure
  It’s about 5°C in the chamber, and Geoff Hartley, wearing a burlap tunic and sandals, is trying with numb fingers to put small pegs in small holes. It’s just another day of chillin’ out at the Brock University lab of Stephen Cheung, a world-renowned scientist who studies the impacts of extreme tempe ...
  
• Green Growers
  Deborah Henderson likes to think about the Cuban capital of Havana when she goes in to work. Not the music or the beaches, per se, but the vegetables and the gardens. “Over 75 percent or more of the vegetables consumed in Havana are produced within the city,” claims Henderson. As the director of the ...
  

Signs of the times

• Underused drilling practices could reduce pollutio ...
  Versions of this story were published in the Albany Times Union and the Times Herald-Record. As environmental concerns threaten to derail natural gas drilling projects across the country, the energy industry has developed innovative ways to make it easier to exploit the nation's reserves without po ...
  
• New security restrictions could hurt airlines
  New York - Tighter security measures at U.S. airports following an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound jet could dampen enthusiasm for air travel, hurting the airline industry just as it seemed poised to recover from a period of bruising losses, some industry experts say. Airline passengers this we ...
  
• Feds probe banker Allen Stanford's ties to Congres ...
  The ties between indicted banker Allen Stanford and members of Congress -- including millions in contributions and weekends in five-star Caribbean resorts -- are now the subject of a sweeping federal investigation. Just hours after federal agents charged banker Allen Stanford with fleecing investor ...
  
• Israel to build 700 apartments in east Jerusalem
  Jerusalem - Israel said Monday that it will build nearly 700 new apartments in east Jerusalem, drawing tough criticism from both the Palestinians and the United States, which denounced the plan as an obstacle to peacemaking. The dispute over east Jerusalem is the most intractable - and explosive - ...
  
• Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCg) in Green Tea Confi ...
  Joint research with University of Shizuoka also suggests efficacy in preventing infections by flu virus subtypes other than H1N1- Tokyo -- Joint research conducted by the Central Research Institute of ITO EN, Ltd. and Professor Takashi Suzuki of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of ...
  

Threat Level

• Former Morgan Stanley Coder Gets 2 Years in Prison ...
  The two great friends talked every day and shared information about all of their exploits — sexual, narcotic and hacking — according to prosecutors. Now another thing they’ll have to share information about is their experience in federal prison. While accused TJX hacker kingpin Albert Gonzalez await ...
  
• Obama Appoints Former Microsoft Security Chief New ...
  It took seven months but President Obama has finally found someone to take the cybersecurity czar job no one wanted. Howard Schmidt,  a former Microsoft security executive and a one-time cybersecurity adviser to President George W. Bush, has been appointed to the position of cybersecurity coordinat ...
  
• 7-Eleven Hack From Russia Led to ATM Looting in Ne ...
  Flashback, early 2008. Citibank officials are witnessing a huge spike in fraudulent withdrawals from New York area ATMs — $180,000 is stolen from cash machines on the Upper East Side in just three days.  After a stakeout, police arrest one man walking out of a bank with thousands of dollars in cas ...
  
• Albert Gonzalez Enters Plea Agreement in Heartland ...
  Albert Gonzalez, who has admitted hacking into TJX and other companies, has filed a plea agreement in charges that he breached Heartland Payment Systems, Hannaford, 7-Eleven and two other companies. Under the terms of the agreement, Gonzalez, a former Secret Service informant, will plead guilty to ...
  
• TJX Hacker ‘Will Never Commit Any Crime Again’
  Confessed hacker Albert Gonzalez’s turn as a Secret Service informant led him down a dark path of obsession, culminating in the largest identity-theft spree in history. Frances Gonzalez Lago, Gonzalez’s sister wrote his sentencing judge that her brother’s work as an informant between 2003 and and 2 ...
  

PERRspectives : Blog

• Lumps of Coal for Time and the New York Times
  Judging by two articles which appeared in their publications this holiday week, Time and the New York Times won't be getting a visit from Santa. Time's Amy Sullivan predictably stirred up right-wing rage with her just-in-time for the holidays, "No...
  
• Will John Kerry Take Reagan's Cake and Bible to Ir ...
  Word that Senator John Kerry has suggested to the White House that he undertake a mission to Iran predictably has the conservative commentariat apoplectic. But while many worry that such a high-level U.S. visit could undermine the opposition at a...
  
• Remembering Kennedy - and the Republican Goal - on ...
  Senate passage of the health care bill this morning naturally brought fond remembrances of reform's long time champion, Ted Kennedy. While his successor Paul Kirk announced, "He's having a merry Christmas in heaven," Kennedy's long-time Massachusetts colleague John Kerry concurred,...
  
• IRS Audits Finally Reversing GOP Bias for Wealthy
  Score one for working Americans. After enduring both the worst economic downtown and steepest income inequality since the Great Depression, new data from the Internal Revenue Service revealed that lower and middle class taxpayers are being audited at lower rates...
  
• Bipartisanship's Willing Executioners
  Republicans win, even when they lose. That appears to be the conventional wisdom after the Democrats' crucial victory in the Senate health care vote this weekend. In its wake, media outlets gave credence to John McCain's assertion that thanks to...
  

Blackspot News Feed

• Thanks to Dems' Pussyfooting, Health Industry Stoc ...
  The bump does not appear to be indicative of broader economic improvement.
  
• How to Trap a President in a Losing War: Petraeus, ...
  Excuse the gloom in the holiday season, but I feel like we’re all locked inside a malign version of the movie Groundhog Day.  You remember, the one in which the characters are forced to relive the same 24 hours endlessly.  Put more personally, TomDispatch started in November 2001 as an email to frie ...
  
• Reid Schedules Final Vote on Health Care Bill for ...
  The Hill reported this afternoon that a final vote on the Senate health care bill will take place at 8 am Christmas Eve, about 11 hours earlier than originally expected. read more
  
• House Blue Dog Switches Party, Stiffing Democrats ...
  Rep. Parker Griffith enjoyed campaign support of $1 million from the Democratic Party. But that was a year ago, and this is now.
  
• Touchdowns and Lockdowns: Transcending Racial Poli ...
  I spent a decade organizing sports leagues amongst those who failed in their struggle against violence and oppression: in prison.
  

Consortium News

• A Christmas Eve Battle for Freedom
  In the early 19th Century, runaway African slaves and Seminoles fought for their freedom, recalls William Loren Katz. December 24, 2009
  
• Reader: A Christmas Story for Truth
  Reader Judith C. Berry regrets teaching the Christmas story of Jesus's birth as real when it actually was a pleasing myth. December 24, 2009
  
• Legal Challenge to US Health Reform
  The Senate's health bill raises a constitutional issue about forcing citizens to buy a profit-making product, says David Swanson. December 24, 2009
  
• Break the CIA in Two
  Forty-six years ago, ex-President Truman warned that CIA analysis must be protected against influence, Ray McGovern notes. December 22, 2009
  
• 'Gott Mit Uns': Christians Excusing War
  A contradiction of the Christmas season is how a religion founded by a pacifist could so embrace war, says Gary G. Kohls. December 22, 2009
  

CounterPunch

• Alexander Cockburn : Disappointments in Samarra
• Mark Rudd : What It Takes to Build a Movement
• Ralph Nader : Read, Then Act: the Year's Best Book ...
• Nicola Nasser : Palestinians on the Brink of Explo ...
• John Ross : Where the Holidays are a Cruel Hoax

Institute for Middle East Understanding

• Child born into a life of conflict in Gaza (BBC)
  Mariam al-Sharif was born a year ago into a world of conflict and violence. Her extended family marks her first birthday, crowding around a cake with one pink candle on it. The walls of their front room in n ...
  
• Gazans mark anniversary of war (Al Jazeera)
  Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are marking one year since the start of Israel's 22-day offensive on the territory, which left hundreds dead and damaged millions of dollars worth of infrastructure. Hamas offi ...
  
• Gaza aid still stuck in Aqaba amid Turkish mediati ...
  An aid convoy trying to reach the blockaded Gaza Strip through Egypt was still stranded in Aqaba on Sunday amid Cairo's refusal to let it cross through its territory. Members of the convoy, which is led by B ...
  
• Britain to send 50m pounds to Palestine (Donald M ...
  Britain yesterday marked the first anniversary of Israel's military onslaught on Gaza by announcing a £50m aid package for Palestinians, including backing for what it called "a drive against extremism" among ...
  
• Top Palestinian intellectual Anis Sayegh dies of h ...
  Anis Sayegh, a Palestinian intellectual who suffered serious injuries from a 1972 letter bomb that he alleged was sent to him by Israeli agents, has died at age 78. Ata Khairy, the Palestinian envoy to Jorda ...
  

Water - AlterNet

• NASA Report Highlights Need to Retire Drainage Imp ...
  The retirement of drainage impaired land on the San Joaquin's west side should be a priority if we want to preserve California's limited water supply and fisheries.
  
• Stealing Water from the Future: California's Massi ...
  California is heading for a catastrophe of huge proportions if the overdraft of groundwater continues at the same rate as the last few years.
  
• Underused Drilling Practices Could Avoid Pollution
  The energy industry has developed innovative ways to make it easier to exploit the nation's natural gas reserves without polluting air and drinking water.
  
• Canadian Cities Leading the Charge Against Bottled ...
  Seventy-two municipalities from 8 provinces and 2 territories have implemented restrictions on bottled water.
  
• The Latest in the Bottled Water Mania: Water From ...
  Now you can down a beverage originating in one of the most guarded and protected areas on earth. So, what?
  

TruthHugger

• Try To Remember America
  Well, few public schools, and few private schools, will fill in the gaps between America the fantasy and America the reality.  The name of America has been invoked with reverence when describing its history of righteous endeavors.  What is seldom included in these filtered history lessons, is some o ...
  
• Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up Dec 14, ...
  TXsharon at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS helps you follow the money to see why Governor Perry and others want Texans to keep breathing toxic air. BossKitty at TruthHugger is proud to give a Hat Tip to Houston – Annise Parker inherits a City of Progress. The Stonewall Democrats of Denton Coun ...
  
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Coney Islands of the Mind: ...
  Christ Climbed Down Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Ferlinghetti, famous for running the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, wrote this poem in the 1950s and published it in his book: A Coney Island of the Mind, Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, A New Directions Book, Copyright 1958 by Lawrence Fer ...
  
• Hat Tip to Houston – Annise Parker inherits a City ...
  Houston, Texas has become an island of hope in a sea of doom and gloom.  Progress is measured with attention paid to the real issues facing any population, as opposed to a narrowly defined image of “normalcy”.  In a state where normal is defined vigorously as anything outside the envelope, as long ...
  
• Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up Dec 7, ...
  Once again it’s time for the Texas Progressive Alliance to bring you the highlights from the blogs. Power to the People! Head over to Texas Vox to learn more about the Fair Elections Now Act. Xanthippas at Three Wise Men airs out some thoughts on the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and some pa ...
  

Dandelion Salad - Featured Writers' Posts

• by Chris Hedges
  by Chris Hedges Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Truthdig Dec. 28, 2009 Copyright © 2009 Truthdig Chr
  
• Obama’s Rope-a-Dope Politics, More Pain Than Gain ...
  By Robert S. Becker Featured Writer Dandelion Salad rbecker@cal.net Dec. 27, 2009 Though torture sup
  
• The American-Israeli War on Gaza by Jeremy R. Hamm ...
  by Jeremy R. Hammond Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Foreign Policy Journal 27 December 2009 One yea
  
• Air Toxicity in Passenger Jets by Malcolm Steinber ...
  by Malcolm Steinberg Featured Writer Dandelion Salad December 26, 2009 Patricia was 5 years old when
  
• Bomb, Bomb Iran: Lessons From Iraq Unlearned by Je ...
  by Jeremy R. Hammond Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Foreign Policy Journal 26 December 2009 In a Ne
  

Unexplained Mysteries

• Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning
  In a world first scientists have succeeded in cloning an extinct species of animal by combining DNA from skin samples of an extinct ibex with DNA ...
  
• Glowing tadpoles to detect pollution
  Researchers looking for more effective and less expensive ways to detect harmful pollution in water have come up with a genetically engineered tad...
  
• Couple call 911 after Bigfoot sighting
  A homeless couple in San Antonio called 911 after they allegedly witnessed a Bigfoot which they said was eating a deer carcass and which screeched...
  
• Feeding birds 'changes evolution'
  Researchers have revealed that the act of putting food out for the birds can result in a whole new evolutionary path. European blackcaps for examp...
  
• What if the Hadron Collider fails ?
  A former Harvard physicist has said that if the Large Hadron Collider doesn't find the Higgs Boson particle the failure could bring science in to ...
  

Grassroots

• Money’s Coming to Cool the Planet
  Subheadline:  What’s the Winning Spending Plan? Outside Author:  Daniel Moss Previous publication:  Foreign Policy in Focus ...
  
• Cooling the Earth with Food Sovereignty
  Outside Author:  Loie Hayes Previous publication:  Insights, Vol. 23 #2 (Fall 2009) brazil200907-332.jpg   read mor ...
  
• We can’t change the climate, but we can change the ...
  logoforblog.png   read more
  
• The Story of Cap and Trade
  As the Climate Summit in Copenhagen plods onward, various so-called solutions to global warming are being tossed around: Alternative energy, Cap and Trade, adaptation and mitigation, and many more. It can be hard to make sense of them, and even more difficult to unpack the myths from the realities. ...
  
• Why We Left Our Farms to Come to Copenhagen
  Henry_Saragih-un-org.jpg As dignitaries and politicians meet in Copenhagen to discuss ways to curtail climate change, some of the people most affected by the crisis are also present, including the Via Campesina. One of Grassroots International ...
  

Climate

• December 26-27, 2009
  Obama Faces Tough Senate Fight to Deliver on Climate Pledges Made Overseas (Washington Post) By brokering a climate deal in Copenhagen, Pres. Obama committed himself to a more daunting task: pushing for climate legislation in the Senate in 2010. China Adopts Law to Boost Renewable Energy Indus ...
  
• December 25, 2009
  Mexico Calls for Binding Climate Accord at 2010 Summit (AP) Mexico, host of next year’s COP16, seeks to accomplish what the Copenhagen conference failed to do: Secure an agreement between developed and poorer nations to cut emissions 50 percent by 2050. It would use 2000 as the base point. Ch ...
  
• December 24, 2009
  France to Reboost Climate Momentum (COP15) President Nicolas Sarkozy intends to invite countries that signed the Copenhagen Accord to a meeting next spring. One purpose will be to reinstall the goal to halve global emissions by 2050. How China Wrecked the Copenhagen Deal (Guardian) As rec ...
  
• December 23, 2009
  Copenhagen Green Lights Plan to Streamline CDM (Business Green) Reforms agreed to at the Copenhagen summit should make it easier for emission reduction projects in developing countries to qualify for the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon offset scheme, despite ongoing concerns. Re ...
  
• December 22, 2009
  China Considers Compulsory Green Energy Purchases by Grid Operators (Xinhua) China's top legislature today discussed a legal amendment that would require electricity grid companies to buy all the power produced by renewable energy generators. Some Climate Experts Seek Alternative to UN Proces ...
  

TomDispatch

• Tomgram: 'This Administration Ended, Rather Than ...
  [ Note for TomDispatch Readers: On Friday evening, TomDispatch will be switching to an updated version of this site. It's possible that you might not be able to reach TD for some hours. If so, we expect to be back up on Saturday morning. Tom ] The Afghan Speech Obama Should Give (But Won't) ...
  
• Tomgram: Pratap Chatterjee, Afghanistan as a Patr ...
  It's now a commonplace of the Afghan War. Western leaders in London , Berlin, Amsterdam , and Washington , as well as on flying visits to Kabul or even Kandahar , excoriate Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the "corruption" of his government. In return for their ongoing support, they repeatedly ...
  
• Tomgram: Max Blumenthal, How Palin Became a Rogue
  It can't get better than this, can it? A first printing of 1.5 million copies sent out into an otherwise dead book market. Possibly as much as $7 million dollars going to the author, who already has interviews lined up with Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters. A bus tour of the "real America" tha ...
  
• Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Surveillance State, U.S.A.
  Wars come home in strange, unnerving ways -- as Americans have just discovered at Fort Hood. Even before Major Nidal Malik Hasan went on his killing spree, that base, a major military embarkation point for our war zones, was already experiencing the after-effects of eight years of war and repeate ...
  
• 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 ...
  

Smirking Chimp

• Top Ten Predictions for 2010
  No. 10: Sarah Palin announces on her Facebook page that she has found the one true faith, as taught in Gaudiya Vaishnava. "Khrisna is God," she wrote, "Hari, Hari, a very Hari Krishna to ya all." In the spirit of her new religion Palin Tweeted that said she would henceforth be known as by one name ...
  
• An AVATAR Awakening
  Let's face it, if James Cameron had made a movie with the Iraqi resistance as the heroes and the U.S. military as the enemies, and had set it in Iraq or anywhere else on planet earth, the packed theaters viewing "Avatar" would have been replaced by a screening in a living room for eight people and a ...
  
• Homeland Security Considers Making People Fly Nake ...
  WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - Responding to the botched terrorism attempt on board Delta flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it was considering a new rule that would force passengers to fly naked. "They won't be able to hide any powders ...
  
• A Convenient Delusion
  "Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." --Richard Feynman The same sort of public relations wizardry that once convinced a sizeable portion of Americans that cigarette smoking was harmless, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and had a han ...
  
• Infinite Progress
  Despite the fact that we are still waging wars of aggression, we can point to progress in that we now have our very first black President. In 2012 we can look forward to even more progress, although we'll still be waging wars of aggression, and elect our very first female President. By 2016 we shoul ...
  

Ten Percent

• Global Peace Index
  And the figures are in for ‘09! Possibly only as meaningful as the top 40 but, notice the bottom four are nations with US support/involvement/intervention while the US is at 83 sandwiched between the Ukraine and Kazakhstan, hey Mr ONobel give peace a chance eh?
  
• Gaza, Not A Difference A Year Makes
  A year ago- Israel Defense Forces will try to “send Gaza decades into the past” in terms of weapon capabilities while achieving “the maximum number of enemy casualties and keeping Israel Defense Forces casualties at a minimum,” GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant said. “What happened in the Dahiya quar ...
  
• Friday! Sergei Prokofiev- Troika from Lt. Kije
  And there’s always The Waitresses
  
• Happy Holydays
  
  
• Viva Palestina Allowed, Freedom March?
  gazafreedommarch.org twitter.com/gazafreedom gazafreedommarch.wordpress.com Contact the Egyptian government for the Gaza Freedom March Find your local consulate here and appeal to them on behalf of the Gaza Freedom Marchers Gaza Freedom March congratulates the Government of Egypt on its change of po ...
  

Booman Tribune

• Being of Two Minds
  Ezra Klein is right. The Senate is broken and we have to deal with it. I particularly liked this metaphor. Law professor Lawrence Lessig often compares the dysfunctions of the Congress to the woes of an alcoholic. An alcoholic, he says, might be facing cirrhosis of the liver, the loss of his fa ...
  
• Serious Question
  What percentage of the population do you think understands what non-pejorative means?
  
• Let's Invade Dubai
  Apparently there was an attempt to blow up a passenger jet on Christmas and the right-wing is very exercised about it. I'm guessing that this means we are supposed to invade and occupy some country in Asia that we have not already invaded and occupied. I hear things are cheap in Dubai these days. ...
  
• Serious Thought
  Yeah, there is basically no way that the president can pass his climate change agenda through the Senate. None. I don't even know if he can muster 50 votes for it. Probably not. But, if he can quietly round up 50 votes, I suggest that this is the issue that should be used to attack the filibuste ...
  
• Froggy Bottom Cafe
  
  

European Tribune

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 28 ...
   A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1931 – Birth of...
  
• Sunday after Christmas Open Thread
  Open tread!...
  
• Emmanuel Todd on Sarkozy's race baiting
  Another fascinating interview in Le Monde this week-end with one of the most interesting political...
  
• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 27 ...
   A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1896 – Carl Zuckmayer,...
  
• Boxing Day Open Thread
  or your equivalent......
  

Futurismic

• Fighting back against the advertising overload
  So, welcome back! Did you have a good holiday? I did… though the season comes with its share of annoyances, and if you’re anything like me you’ll be a happy human if you never see a perfume or aftershave advert again for as long as you live. But pity the Los Anglelinos for a moment, because [...] Pr ...
  
• Happy Holidays
  Does Not Equal is a webcomic by Sarah Ennals – check out the pre-Futurismic archives, and the strips that have been published here previously. [ Be sure to check out the Does Not Equal Cafepress store for webcomic merchandise featuring Canadians with geometrically-shaped heads! ] Project Wonderful ...
  
• Festive downtime
  Hi folks; just a quick note to apologise for the radio silence here over the last week! I’ve been off doing that family thing for the festive season alongside finishing up all the fiddly details of my recent house move (an experience I’m glad to have seen the end of), and there simply hasn’t been [. ...
  
• The legislation of fabrication – should 3D printin ...
  Here’s another sf-nal thought experiment to keep your brain occupied. We frequently mention 3D printing and fabbing here at Futurismic, but usually in the context of its positive disruptive potential – a potential sea-change in capitalist economic systems, for example. But here’s a negative response ...
  
• Potential outcomes of pervasive surveillance
  Sometimes it really feels like science-fictional thinking is becoming a much more mainstream thing to do. Following on from yesterday’s mention of CCTV control software that can learn to recognise suspicious behaviour (as defined by operator feedback, natch), out-bound BoingBoing guest blogger Paul ...
  

Therapy News

• Interpersonal Therapy Shows Promise for Preventing ...
  A GoodTherapy.org News Summary Pressure to stay thin while growing up has been significant for many years, as the fashion and beauty industries project images of notably thin women and other media portrayals of beauty suggest that a wraith-like appearance is most desirable. But as waistlines across ...
  
• Therapy, Psychiatric Clients Facing Sudden Insurer ...
  A GoodTherapy.org News Summary Health insurance is something that can cause significant financial burdens for some policy holders, but most are able to justify the costs of monthly pay-outs by feeling secure in the knowledge that if they need medical help, they’ll be able to acquire and afford it. S ...
  
• Reports from Fort Hood: Holidays Cast in Blue Desp ...
  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline The massacre at the United States Army base in Fort Hood this November has been responsible for a great deal of disappointment and sadness, though efforts to provide personnel and their families with qualified therapists and counselors have been considerable. As many ...
  
• Nation’s Unemployed Experiencing Grip of Depressio ...
  A GoodTherapy.org News Summary Many people, even those who may not particularly enjoy their jobs, are nevertheless able to feel a sense of self-worth and meaning from the process of producing a good or service that is of use to other people. In fact, several studies have suggested that returning to ...
  
• Mental Health Courts Worker Notes: “Miracle” Portr ...
  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline For most people, Miracle on 42nd Street is a film typically watched around the holidays, perhaps with a mug of cocoa and plenty of good cheer. Those in the mental health professions, however, including therapists and counselors as well as lawyers and court clerks who ...
  

Mountaintop Removal

• Fear of violence grows in mountaintop mining fight ...
  Kansas.com Fear of violence grows in mountaintop mining fight The Associated Press And Bonds — like many in a place where labor disputes have a violent history — fears more blows will follow as the fight escalates over mountaintop removal , ... Big coal worried about 'Appalachian Restoration Act' C ...
  
• Fear of violence grows in mountaintop mining fight ...
  Austin American-Statesman Fear of violence grows in mountaintop mining fight Austin American-Statesman And Bonds — like many in a place where labor disputes have a violent history — fears more blows will follow as the fight escalates over mountaintop removal , ... and more »
  
• After Copenhagen, Now What? - SolveClimate (blog)
  After Copenhagen, Now What? SolveClimate (blog) ... goals that exceed any that emerge from Congress and legislation that forbids utilities from burning coal produced by mountaintop removal in Appalachia. ... and more »
  
• Rockefeller: W.Va. will have voice in climate deba ...
  Rockefeller: W.Va. will have voice in climate debate Bluefield Daily Telegraph When discussing the ongoing debate over current mountaintop removal permits, Rockefeller is quick to point out two success stories in our region — Mount ... and more »
  
• Mountaintop removal flies under US radar - Washing ...
  Mountaintop removal flies under US radar Washington Observer Reporter Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. ... New surface mining head has cautious approach The Associated Press Dav ...
  

Memeorandum

• At least eight dead in Tehran street battles (Mart ...
  Martin Fletcher / Times of London : At least eight dead in Tehran street battles   —  At least eight anti-government protesters, including a nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Iran's opposition leader, were shot dead yesterday as the smouldering confrontation between the regime and the so-called Green ...
  
• Iranian protesters are dying for freedom - where i ...
  Nile Gardiner / blogs.telegraph.co.uk : Iranian protesters are dying for freedom - where is Barack Obama?   —  I wrote back in June about the shameful silence of the Obama administration during the mass street protests that greeted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fraudulent re-election victory as President o ...
  
• Memphis Man Arrested: Accused of Making Bomb Threa ...
  WJKT-TV : Memphis Man Arrested: Accused of Making Bomb Threats & Threatening to Start “Holy War”   —  MEMPHIS, TN - Tonight, Mohamed Ibrahim is out after posting $100 bond.  Earlier in the day, he was arrested after police say he walked into several Memphis businesses and threatened to blow them u ...
  
• Flight 253 hero Schuringa to be prosecuted (Donald ...
  Donald Sensing / Sense of Events : Flight 253 hero Schuringa to be prosecuted   —  WASHINGTON, D.C.—The hero of Northwest Airlines Flight 253, lauded by passengers as the man who first reached would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, will be arraigned this week under federal charges, the US Justi ...
  
• Obama "Likely" to Speak About Flight 253 (Politica ...
  Political Punch : Obama “Likely” to Speak About Flight 253   —  ABC News' Yunji de Nies Reports:  —  White House sources tell ABC News the President will “likely” speak publicly about the alleged attempted terrorist attack on Flight 253 in the next few days.  The President is on vacation in his na ...
  

Energy & Environment News

• The Pulse: City Tests LED Lamps in Wicker Park Are ...
  City Hall is considering installing white lights to replace the yellowish-orange lamps along Chicago’s streets and alleys.
  
• Politics: Air Quality Guidelines Face Unexpected C ...
  California’s battle against greenhouse gases is likely to come to the Bay Area soon, but some fear that a new set of guidelines may have unintended consequences.
  
• A Grudging Accord in Climate Talks
  After delays, theatrics and deal-making, climate talks ended with an agreement to “take note” of a pact shaped by five nations.
  
• New Group Seeks to Bring Greener Power to Marin
  With holiday lights glowing around Marin County, Calif., a debate is heating up from Belvedere to Novato about who should procure the electricity that keeps them lighted.
  
• In the Region | Westchester: Towns Tackle ‘ ...
  Several Westchester municipalities that have in recent years struggled with the intricacies of laws on green construction.
  

5+ quakes - 7 days

• M 5.3, Kepulauan Talaud, Indonesia
  Monday, December 28, 2009 10:18:10 UTC Monday, December 28, 2009 06:18:10 PM at epicenter Depth : 56.10 km (34.86 mi)
  
• M 5.1, Kuril Islands
  Monday, December 28, 2009 08:05:43 UTC Monday, December 28, 2009 07:05:43 PM at epicenter Depth : 120.50 km (74.88 mi)
  
• M 5.5, Antofagasta, Chile
  Monday, December 28, 2009 00:57:16 UTC Sunday, December 27, 2009 09:57:16 PM at epicenter Depth : 31.80 km (19.76 mi)
  
• M 5.2, Hokkaido, Japan region
  Monday, December 28, 2009 00:12:50 UTC Monday, December 28, 2009 09:12:50 AM at epicenter Depth : 83.70 km (52.01 mi)
  
• M 5.6, near the coast of southern Peru
  Thursday, December 24, 2009 14:01:59 UTC Thursday, December 24, 2009 09:01:59 AM at epicenter Depth : 61.60 km (38.28 mi)
  

China Dialogue

• Briefing: the Copenhagen Accord
  What happened at the COP15 climate talks? Tan Copsey explains the new agreement. After two chaotic weeks, 188 countries reached a limited agreement in Copenhagen to continue global efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in order to address climate change.  The talks were quite unlike the ...
  
• Slideshow: eye on Mozambique (1)
  In the first section of a two-part slideshow about environmental concerns in the southeast African nation, Daniel Ribeiro introduces deforestation, water and energy issues. NEXT: Sorting the rubbish in Mozambique
  
• Solving the incinerator uproar
  China faces difficult decisions over waste disposal, as local residents vent their opposition to garbage-burning plants. Ma Jun suggests a way forward. China has seen fierce debate over the building of garbage incinerators in recent months. City authorities believe increasing quantities of urban was ...
  
• Down to the wire
  chinadialogue follows the climate talks as they reach their conclusion. Read the full text of the Chinese premier’s speech, breaking news, blogs and analysis. chinadialogue is blogging the climate talks from Copenhagen on "the daily planet". Click here to read the full text of the Chinese premier’s ...
  
• To seal a deal, we need justice
  An agreement seems beyond reach at Copenhagen. Ma Jun blames an inability to balance the need for efficiency with the principle of equity. Climate change is one of the most complex challenges that faces the world today. The fact that international society has come together to negotiate a plan to red ...
  

AlterNet Top Stories

• Jesus Hated War -- Why Do Christians Love It So Mu ...
  There are no "blessed wars". Yet virtually all evangelical, conservative and many mainstream church leaders were active supporters of the Bush wars.
  
• Wall Street's 10 Greatest Lies of 2009
  Lies that justify screwing over Main Street.
  
• Why Aren't There Sleazy Sex Scandals Involving Pow ...
  That question often elicits the sexist "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" claptrap. But the truth is much more complicated.
  
• Why I Quit Working in Porn
  I didn’t leave the porn industry because I object to porn. I left because I love it.
  
• Beyond Magical Thinking: How to Really Make Change ...
  Successful political movements do not spring fully formed. They require long-term, nuts-and-bolts organizing.
  

Threat Level

• Former Morgan Stanley Coder Gets 2 Years in Prison ...
  The two great friends talked every day and shared information about all of their exploits — sexual, narcotic and hacking — according to prosecutors. Now another thing they’ll have to share information about is their experience in federal prison. While accused TJX hacker kingpin Albert Gonzalez await ...
  
• Obama Appoints Former Microsoft Security Chief New ...
  It took seven months but President Obama has finally found someone to take the cybersecurity czar job no one wanted. Howard Schmidt,  a former Microsoft security executive and a one-time cybersecurity adviser to President George W. Bush, has been appointed to the position of cybersecurity coordinat ...
  
• 7-Eleven Hack From Russia Led to ATM Looting in Ne ...
  Flashback, early 2008. Citibank officials are witnessing a huge spike in fraudulent withdrawals from New York area ATMs — $180,000 is stolen from cash machines on the Upper East Side in just three days.  After a stakeout, police arrest one man walking out of a bank with thousands of dollars in cas ...
  
• Albert Gonzalez Enters Plea Agreement in Heartland ...
  Albert Gonzalez, who has admitted hacking into TJX and other companies, has filed a plea agreement in charges that he breached Heartland Payment Systems, Hannaford, 7-Eleven and two other companies. Under the terms of the agreement, Gonzalez, a former Secret Service informant, will plead guilty to ...
  
• TJX Hacker ‘Will Never Commit Any Crime Again’
  Confessed hacker Albert Gonzalez’s turn as a Secret Service informant led him down a dark path of obsession, culminating in the largest identity-theft spree in history. Frances Gonzalez Lago, Gonzalez’s sister wrote his sentencing judge that her brother’s work as an informant between 2003 and and 2 ...
  

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• "Army Wives" re-enlisted for Season 4
  LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Lifetime has renewed its signature drama "Army Wives" for a fourth season.
  
• Indonesia's wart-stricken "tree man" seeks help
  TANJUNG JAYA, Indonesia (Reuters Life!) - Sacked from his job, deserted by his wife, shunned by neighbors -- "tree man" Dede has been treated as a freak for most of his life because of the gnarled growths sprouting from his hands and feet.
  
• Man shot 34 times in head with nail gun
  CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian police released Friday a shocking x-ray photo showing the skull of a murdered Chinese immigrant shot 34 times in the head and neck with a high-power nail gun.
  
• Engrossing "Cat Dancers" stranger than fiction
  LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - This seems to be the season for documentaries that chronicle mind-boggling true romances.
  
• Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists
  MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.
  

Equality Trust

• Call for fundamental rethink of the value of work
  Hospital cleaners are worth more to society than city bankers, according to a new method of calculating the value of different jobs published today. The new economics foundation (nef) called for a "fundamental rethink" of how the value of work was recognised and rewarded. The think tank said its s ...
  
• The Spirit Level - New Statesman book of the decad ...
  Wilkinson and Pickett's study gave scientific weight to a long-held claim of the left: that people are happier and healthier when they live in societies where wealth is distributed more equally. But the book's influence stretches across party lines and its findings are likely to shape political deba ...
  
• Levelling the bankers' bonuses
  Read a letter by Malcolm Clark, Director of the One Society Campaign in today's Guardian, about the positives for bankers of losing their bonuses. Peter Preston (The rewards of banking, 7 December) has a point: bankers are human too. Most of them want exactly the same as us: a decent quality of life ...
  
• Dr Lynne Friedli on the impact of inequality on me ...
  Dr Lynne Friedli talks about the impact of inequality on mental health, in a discussion with John Humphrys on the Today Programme - scroll down to 07.33 Listen to the discussion
  
• Plans to force banks to reveal millionaire staff
  Banks will be forced to reveal how many of their staff earn more than one million pounds a year, under recommended reforms of the financial sector to be released today. Read more
  

IntelNews

• News you may have missed #0235
  How the CIA was conned by a compulsive gambler.Obama names intel advisory board members. Turkey arrests three on espionage charges.
  
• News you may have missed #0234
  CIA insider speaks about US "war on terrorism". CIA operative says US should have shielded her in Italy kidnap case.
  
• US to stop funding scandal-prone Colombian spy age ...
  The US Congress has voted to stop subsidizing Colombia’s soon-to-be dismantled Administrative Department of Security (DAS) intelligence agency.
  
• News you may have missed #0233
  Lithuanian report uncovers two CIA secret prisons. Break the CIA in two?
  
• Missing Polish intel officer probably defected to ...
  We have been keeping an eye on the mysterious case of Stefan Zielonka, a senior signals intelligence officer with Poland’s Military Intelligence Services (SWW), who disappeared without trace in early May. The seriousness of Zielonka’s disappearance stems from his extensive knowledge of Polish underc ...
  

After Downing Street.org

• "Accountability For War Crimes is Imperative": An ...
  "Accountability For War Crimes is Imperative": An Interview With Cindy Sheehan By Mike Whitney | Global Research Mike Whitney ---President Barack Obama recently visited Dover Air Force Base where he was photographed with the flag-draped coffins of soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. ...
  
• An Avatar Awakening
  By David Swanson Let's face it, if James Cameron had made a movie with the Iraqi resistance as the heroes and the U.S. military as the enemies, and had set it in Iraq or anywhere else on planet earth, the packed theaters viewing "Avatar" would have been replaced by a screening in a living room for e ...
  
• US Air Force Confirms 'Beast of Kandahar' Drone
  US Air Force confirms 'Beast of Kandahar' drone | Yahoo! News | December 8, 2009 The US Air Force on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that it is flying a stealth unmanned aircraft known as the "Beast of Kandahar," a drone spotted in photos and shrouded in secrecy.The RQ-170 Sentinel is being dev ...
  
• Announcing International Conference on Achieving A ...
  International Conference on Achieving A Nuclear Weapons and Missile Defense Free Asia Nagpur, India | October 9-12, 2010 Click "Read more" for Agenda, arrangements, contacts! read more
  
• Virginia Coalition To Hold 'Jan. 9 March on the St ...
  Virginia coalition announces Jan. 9 march on State Capitol to oppose budget cuts & layoffs | Press Release On Saturday, Jan. 9, the Virginia People's Assembly, a statewide coalition of labor, community and peace organizations, will sponsor a march on the State Capitol to oppose more budget cuts an ...
  

Grist - News

• On the move: Species face race against climate cha ...
  by Agence France-Presse PARIS -- Land ecosystems will have to move hundreds of meters each year in order to cope with global warming, according to a letter published on Thursday in Nature, the British-based science journal. On average, ecosystems will need to shift 420 meters (about a quarter of a ...
  
• Global warming hike may be steeper
  by Agence France-Presse PARIS -- Global temperatures could rise substantially more because of increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than previously thought, according to a new study by U.S. and Chinese scientists released Sunday. The researchers used a long-term model for assessing climate ...
  
• Brown blames China for ‘farcical’ clim ...
  by Agence France-Presse LONDON -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday accused countries of holding the U.N. climate summit to ransom as bitter recriminations swirled over the outcome of the negotiations. British Prime Minister Gordan Brown. While China's Premier Wen Jiabao insisted his go ...
  
• Copenhagen outcome: a real climate catastrophe
  by David Roberts President Barack Obama negotiating with, from left, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller, and Israeli President Shimon Peres, at the Copenhagen climate conference.Photo: White House/Pete Souza This piece appeared first in The Daily Beast .Sa ...
  
• Climate scientists underwhelmed by Copenhagen Acco ...
  by Agence France-Presse COPENHAGEN -- Top climate scientists said Saturday that the 11th-hour political deal hammered out at U.N. talks in Copenhagen falls perilously short of what is needed to stave off catastrophic global warming. What many had hoped would be a planet-saving treaty locking major ...
  

Popular Bookmarks on Del.icio.us

• Get Rid Of Wasps: Traps & Tips : TipNut.com
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• そとあそび

Technorati - What's Hot in Blogs

• Tracy McGrady Would Like the Rockets to Give him M ...
  After six games since returning from a major injury, Tracy McGrady would like his alpha-dog status back.
  
• Joan Rivers to Host E!'s Fashion Police>/i> for 20 ...
  Joan Rivers to host E!'s new format of Fashion Police for 2010.
  
• Controversial Religious Movement Gaining Ground
  “Mighty Men” phenomena drawing thousands of followers to farm in Kwa-Zulu/Natal, South Africa
  
• Broken Pipe Floods Reagan Terminal
  Borken water pipe floods terminal; causes minor disruption for travelers and airport staff
  
• Designing for Better Value: Dining Rooms
  Though used only occasionally, the formal dining is often the most elegant and best furnished room in the house.
  

Time - Top Stories

• A Report Card on Obama's First Year
  While the nation's 44th President has not been overmatched, he has not yet mastered the role either. A look at five things Obama is doing better than you may realize, and five things he is doing worse
  
• One Year Since Israel's Offensive, Gaza Still Suff ...
  The cease-fire may have held, but Israel's blockade has prevented Palestinians from rebuilding Gaza, and an Egyptian effort to block smuggling tunnels may worsen Gaza's pain
  
• A Brief History of Naming the 2000s
  Naming the 2000s
  
• Can U.S. Baseball Diplomacy Get the Save in Nicara ...
  Washington's ambassador in Managua, Robert Callahan, does some of his most effective work while wearing a mitt
  
• In Calcutta, A Veteran Travel Writer Finds A New M ...
  With his latest novel, A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta, American travel writer Paul Theroux builds on his distinction as the contemporary author most responsible for the West's vision of Asia
  

Washington Independent

• ‘Death to Khamenei’
  Speaking of the Green Movement, the Iranian regime directed a new spate of violence against the Greens during street demonstrations yesterday commemorating the Shiite holiday of Ashura, which remembers the climactic battle between the martyred saint Hussein and his persecutor Yazid. Protesters, amaz ...
  
• Iranian Dissidents Fear Repercussions of U.S. Sanc ...
  Iran's Green Movement and its allies are concerned that crippling sanctions against the regime would harm Iranian citizens and discredit the opposition.
  
• 4. An ACORN in Every Bill
  ACORN, the advocacy group for low-income people, has long been a favorite bogeyman of the right, and this year conservatives tried to convince America that ACORN was not only stealing votes and corrupting the census, but also receiving massive kickbacks from the Democratic Party. Conservatives succe ...
  
• 3. Sotomayor Is a Racist Who Favors ‘Wise La ...
  Within moments of Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, it was all over the airwaves: Obama’s pick had claimed that Latina women made better judges than white men. Sotomayor had said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more o ...
  
• 2. Birtherism
  Too far-fetched for even the likes of Rush Limbaugh to discuss as anything but the punchline to a joke, “birtherism” has gained 9/11 truther-like staying power this year, triumphing over widespread ridicule from liberals and conservatives alike. Despite the fact that Barack Obama long ago produced h ...
  

CowBoss' Brain Food

• Change, They Say, Is Good. But Is It?
  It's said that Alexander the Great wept when he realised there were no more lands left for him to conquer. In other words, there was nothing new to challenge him; there was no raison d'être. It's a laughable thought today, isn't it? Submitted by cowboss Left CareII to Society & Culture  |   Note-i ...
  
• Teacher breaks 4th grader’s arm for ‘forgetting Iq ...
  LAHORE: A female teacher of a private school thrashed Muhammad Jahanzeb, a fourth grade student when he was unable to explain a poem by Allama Iqbal, causing multiple fractures in his arm. Submitted by cowboss Left CareII to Society & Culture  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment
  
• We're expanding, while economy shrinks
  Americans now have another excuse for hitting the fast food establishments and getting farther out of shape by adding unwanted weight, and it's allegedly not their fault. The latest health discovery is called "recession pounds," and some researchers Submitted by cowboss Left CareII to Society & Cul ...
  
• Reports call for radical rethink on food policy to ...
  The food and farming sector is not pulling its weight when it comes to tacking climate change and food shortages could be the consequence if we fail to make fundamental changes to the way we farm, process, distribute and eat our food over the next 20 year Submitted by cowboss Left CareII to Society ...
  
• TV host curious about attacks on animal ag (audio)
  “Anybody from a city, in my opinion, who spends a day, a week, maybe even just a few hours on a working farm is going to be quickly disabused of a lot of what they believe,” Rowe told AgriTalk radio host Mike Adams last week. Submitted by cowboss Left CareII to Society & Culture  |   Note-it!  |  ...
  

Suzie-Q

• My Darling… Would you Join My HMO?
  We’ve all heard of “shotgun weddings,” but here in the USofA, our first-rate, employment-based private insurance system has led to a whole new form of marriage-the “stethoscope” wedding. The writer of this CNN article lays out why she found herself becoming a “Mrs.” I will say that this is indeed a ...
  
• Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul Bill
  ROBERT PEAR | NYT | December 24, 2009 WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to reinvent the nation’s health care system, passing a bill to guarantee access to health insurance for tens of millions of Americans and to rein in health costs as proposed by President Obama. The 60-to-39 party-line vote, ...
  
• Marjorie Cohn: Obama’s Af-Pak War is Illegal
  by Marjorie Cohn, CommonDreams.org, Dec 21, 2009 President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize nine days after he announced he would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. His escalation of that war is not what the Nobel committee envisioned when it sought to encourage him to make peace, not war. ...
  
• Falk: Gaza, Afghanistan and International Law
  Interview with Richard Falk Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and author of “Crimes of War: Iraq” and “The Costs of War: International Law, the UN, and World Order after Iraq” recorded October 17, 2009 in Seattle Information Clearing House, posted D ...
  
• Ex-US diplomat predicts Afghan troop surge failure
  BBC | 22 December, 2009 A senior US diplomat who resigned over the war in Afghanistan has told the BBC that the troop surge there “will not make a difference”. Matthew Hoh stepped down from his position in the US state department in October 2009. The former marine, who served in Iraq, had previousl ...
  

Solari

• Technology - Week of 12.27.09
  China To Require Internet Domain Name Registration Reuters (22 Dec 09)
  
• Life - Week of 12.27.09
  Don’t Mess With Texas: More Americans Moving In CNN Money.com (23 Dec 09) Go Forth and Steal, Says English Priest Sphere (22 Dec 09)
  
• Money & Markets - Week of 12.27.09
  YRC Has Until Yearend to Corral Bondholders, Avert Bankruptcy Bloomberg.com (27 Dec 09) BOJ Members Were Ready to Take Action, Minutes Show Bloomberg.com (27 Dec 09) Who Is Buying All These US Treasuries (And Can They Keep It Up in 2010)? Jesses Cross Roads Cafe (24 Dec 09) Citi, Wells Repay TARP ...
  
• Precious Metals - Week of 12.27.09
  Metals-Linked ETFs Closer to Reality The Wall Street Journal (26 Dec 09) Now, Gold Coins From United Nations CommodityOnline (19 Dec 09)
  
• Mortgage Markets - Week of 12.27.09
  Fannie, Freddie Executives Get Big Payday The Wall Street Journal (24 Dec 09) Big Paydays For Fannie And Freddie Bosses CNN Money.com (24 Dec 09) The Fed’s Worst Enemy, The Mortgage Vigilantes, Are Back Zero Hedge (22 Dec 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 - Newswire

• Stepping up - University at Buffalo The Spectrum
  Stepping up University at Buffalo The Spectrum The president of Pakistan , Asif Ali Zardari, recognized the direness of the situation and began to mobilize military forces to combat the Taliban . ... and more »
  
• 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 . ...
  

AlterNet - Rights and Liberties

• Nigerian Man Attempted to Blow Up US Airliner
  A young Nigerian man with reported links to Al-Qaeda was under arrest Saturday after trying to blow up a US airlinerv headed for Detroit.
  
• Israel Declares War on NGOs and Human Rights Group ...
  One year after its devastating siege of Gaza, Israel's efforts to discredit peace groups have intensified, while settlement activity has expanded.
  
• Have Americans Traded Freedom For Security?
  According to polls, Americans support torture and don't mind that their government spies on them without obtaining warrants from a court.
  
• The Torture of Two Innocent Men Who Just Left Guan ...
  The release of Mohammed Sulaymon Barre and Ismail Mahmoud Muhammad is another example of the hysterical and false claims that Guantanamo is full of hardcore terrorists.
  
• Obama's Af-Pak War is Not Just Deadly and Counterp ...
  Some 30 percent of all U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have occurred during Obama's presidency. His escalation of that war is not what the Nobel committee envisioned.
  

Sideways News

• Week in pictures 28th December 2009
  A picture for every day, taking a snapshot view of what is happening in the world around us. Come and browse through our gallery of this week's most inspiring images.
  
• Nude cyclists get off scot-free
  Cycling has long been advocated as a way to experience freedom in the confines of a city - it's exhilarating, good for the body and spirit, and leaves you with toned muscles to be proud of. But how much freedom is too much freedom? This was put to the test in New Zealand this week. Two nude cyclists ...
  
• Wok-fried Brussels sprouts with ginger
  Taken from the Riverford Farm Cook Book Serves 4 This is a great way to convert even the most hardened sprouts-haters to ardent fans of the vegetable. This makes a great side dish for leftover meat, or can form the main part of a light lunch.     Ingredients
  
• Roasted root vegetables
  Taken from the Riverford Farm Cook Book Serves 4 You can adapt this recipe to suit your own tastes - and what you've got in your fridge. Extra herbs can be added for more flavour but, left alone, these make a great accompaniment to most types of meat and also serve as a filling meal on their own.   ...
  
• Sideways News' heroes of 2009
  From climate action, through charity, to Becks making a comeback (again) - Sideways News picks the heroes who’ve inspired us during 2009.   Creative hero: James Cameron Titanic: the highest grossing box office release ever. How do you follow that one? By spending 15 years producing a follow-up, wi ...
  

Fabius Maximus

• A look at the gradual decay of our armed forces
  These reports are disturbing, but more so are the disturbing comments of the war’s advocates to the posts about these things.  Beyond denial, they attack those concerned about our troops.  They love the war, but not our troops.  Much like Senator McCain, who votes in favor of any war — but agains ...
  
• Government economic stimulus is financial heroin
  Summary:  A powerful metaphor, widely used, about this recession — the worst since the 1930’s — providing important insights. Excerpt from “Financial Heroin”, Don Coxe, Coxe Advisors, 16 December 2009: … my father was a doctor in the Canadian Army in WWII, and served in the Italian campaign. He bec ...
  
• We collect our winnings in Iraq
  What did we win in Iraq?   At vast cost in blood and money we’ve turned a weak secular state into a potentially strong Islamic ally of Iran.   Women and religious minorities have paid a high price for our victory.  Despite 5 years of pressure on the Iraq government, they refused to pass the ...
  
• Quote of the day
  From John Cole, Informed Comment, 17 December 2009: “Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says that it is up to President Obama to sell his troop surge to Democrats in Congress. Then she called for a bowl and washed her hands.” Based on remarks by Pelosi to reporters: “The president is going to have t ...
  
• FM newswire for 26 December, hot articles for your ...
  Today’s links to interesting news and analysis. Today’s links to interesting articles Best summary yet of the Copenhagen follies Afterword Excerpts and details (1)  Excerpts “Some notes on Teddy Roosevelt“, The Edge of the American West, 22 December 2009 “Rising Tide“, Mark Steyn, National Revi ...
  

sibeledmonds - tweets

• sibeledmonds: Happy Holidays From The Boiling Frog ...
  sibeledmonds: Happy Holidays From The Boiling Frogs Post Team:-) http://boilingfrogspost.com
  
• sibeledmonds: Charlie Wilson’s War: the chil ...
  sibeledmonds: Charlie Wilson’s War: the child-like fantasy that has been resurrected over & over again. By Gould & Fitzgerald http://boilingfrogspost.com
  
• sibeledmonds: Charlie Wilson’s War:The Rally ...
  sibeledmonds: Charlie Wilson’s War:The Rallying Cry for an Arms Buildup & to End Public Debate about American Foreign Policy http://boilingfrogspost.com
  
• sibeledmonds: From Boiling Frogs- Fitzgerald & Gou ...
  sibeledmonds: From Boiling Frogs- Fitzgerald & Gould on Charlie Wilson’s War: A Fantasy & the Rallying Cry for Arms Buildup! http://boilingfrogspost.com
  
• sibeledmonds: Jamiol Presents at Boiling Frogs Pos ...
  sibeledmonds: Jamiol Presents at Boiling Frogs Post: Editorial Cartoon http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2009/12/22/jamiol-presents-10/
  

WIRED Magazine | Science

• Warming Already Speeding Up Insect Breeding
  Summertime and the insect breeding is easy. That old song rings especially true for 44 species of moths and butterflies in Central Europe, according to an analysis by ecologist Florian Altermatt of the University of California, Davis. As the region has warmed since the 1980s, some of these species ...
  
• Tidal Forces Trigger Tremors on San Andreas Fault
  The subtle changes in stress caused by tides in Earth’s crust can trigger small, deep quakes along a seismically active portion of California’s San Andreas fault, a new analysis suggests. The same forces of attraction that cause ocean tides also cause tides in Earth’s rocks, says Amanda Thomas, a s ...
  
• Saturn’s Moons Are Cuter Than Sugarplum Fair ...
  We love Cassini more with every amazing image the intrepid spacecraft sends back from its travels, and this latest treat is no exception. The Cassini imaging team has assembled images of some of Saturn’s moons in action into this sequence, bringing another corner of the solar system to life for ...
  
• Tidal Forces Trigger Tremors on San Andreas Fault
  The subtle changes in stress caused by tides in Earth’s crust can trigger small, deep quakes along a seismically active portion of California’s San Andreas fault, a new analysis suggests. The same forces of attraction that cause ocean tides also cause tides in Earth’s rocks, says Amanda Thomas, a s ...
  
• Saturn’s Moons Are Cuter Than Sugar Plum Fairies
  We love Cassini more with every amazing image the intrepid spacecraft sends back from its travels, and this latest treat is no exception. The Cassini imaging team has assembled images of some of Saturn’s moons in action into this sequence, bringing another corner of the solar system to life for ...
  

The Progressive Realist

• The Year In: Afghanistan.
  During the 2008 presidential campaign, we argued that Barack Obama offered, "the most sweeping liberal foreign-policy critique we've heard from a serious presidential contender in decades." This first year was his chance to show how it would affect the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here are ...
  
• Khamenei is the New Shah: There Will Be (More) Bl ...
  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's legitimacy as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran is at a very fragile moment and being challenged by Iranian citizens throughout the nation, according to reports streaming in, despite media controls and a Western press blackout. To see a very disturbing video in ...
  
• Iraqi Islamist Terrorists Return To Sectarian Atta ...
  Beginning in August 2009 Al Qaeda in Iraq began attacking government institutions. On August 18 they bombed the Foreign Affairs and Finance ministries , killing 101 and wounding 1,023. On August 25 they attacked the Ministry of Justice and the Baghdad provincial council building resulting in 135 cas ...
  
• Gingrich Claims Iran ‘Will Use’ Nukes, Whines Abou ...
  Discussing President Obama’s foreign policy approach on Meet The Press, host David Gregory asked Newt Gingrich whether “pragmatism” was appropriate in the face of threats faced by the United States. Gingrich responded “Pragmatism assumes you know what the facts are. To be pragmatic is to be in touch ...
  
• Abdulmutallab’s Al-Qaeda Connections
  When I first heard about the Christmas airplane plot, my working assumption was that we should discount talk of an internationally orchestrated campaign. After all, as far as terrorist attacks go this was a pretty lame one. There was none of the redundancy, simultaneity and good planning that were o ...
  

TAPPED - The American Prospect

• The Year In: Afghanistan.
  During the 2008 presidential campaign, we argued that Barack Obama offered, "the most sweeping liberal foreign-policy critique we've heard from a serious presidential contender in decades." This first year was his chance to show how it would affect the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here are ...
  
• The Year In: Books and Culture.
  You come to TAP for health care, Afghanistan, and, well, pure policy wonkery. We get that. But sometimes, even the most devoted political observers need to take a break to catch a movie. This past year we dived into: Was Susan Sontag a bad mother because she walked away from family to chase her in ...
  
• The Year In: Health Care.
  Barack Obama entered office wanting to fix our long-ignored and mostly broken health-care system. Now, after countless compromises and roadblocks, the Senate has passed its health-care reform bill. Here are our top articles explaining the stakes: Health-care reform was never really about tacking ye ...
  
• Until the New Year.
  The TAP team will be taking time off for the holidays. There may be some intermittent posting next week, but we won't be back in full swing until Monday, Jan. 4. Thanks, all, for reading us, and see you all in the new year! -- The Editors
  
• Obama Year One.
  Paul Starr on Obama 's first year: As Barack Obama ends his first year in office, there is much talk about disillusionment with the president among progressives. The litany of complaints is obvious: unemployment still at 10 percent, economic policies unduly favorable to Wall Street, the surge in Af ...
  

Andy Worthington

• At Christmas, Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Is Reunited W ...
  On December 21, the following article, written by Kevin Cullen, was published by the Boston Globe. It brings up to date the story of Oybek Jabbarov, an innocent man from Uzbekistan, held in Guantánamo for nearly eight years, who was finally freed in September and given a new home in Ireland. As I re ...
  
• Who Are The Four Afghans Released From Guantánamo?
  Over the weekend, 12 prisoners were released from Guantánamo, as the Justice Department announced in a press release on December 20. I have previously reported the stories of the two Somalis who were released — emphasizing how nothing about their cases demonstrated that they were “the worst of th ...
  
• “Hell on Earth”: Released Somali Speaks about Guan ...
  AFP secured an interview on Monday with Mohamed Saleban Bare (known to the Pentagon as Mohammed Sulaymon Barre), the Somali refugee, released from Guantánamo at the weekend with eleven other men (including another Somali, Ismail Mahmoud Muhammad), who ran a money transfer operation for the Somali di ...
  
• Serious Problems With Obama’s Plan To Move Guantán ...
  Last Tuesday, in a letter to Illinois governor Pat Quinn, five senior Obama administration officials — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Securit ...
  
• The Stories Of The Two Somalis Freed From Guantána ...
  Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald broke the news on Saturday that 12 prisoners have been released from Guantánamo. The news followed hints in the Washington Post on Friday that six Yemenis and four Afghans were set to leave, but Rosenberg — and the East African media — reported that the men had a ...
  

Buzzflash

• The Gloom of the Disillusioned Voter
  Body   The president needs to stop papering over the obvious deficiencies in the Senate health-care bill by re-defining the meaning of “is.” The American people have been all through that exercise and seek reassurances about medical reform not soothing bromides. It isn’t helpful for him ...
  
• Speaking truth to the powerless
  Body There is likely little in this world that would nip a column's cyber-readership in the bud faster than an antique quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, but what the hell, I'm feeling defiantly bold this morning: "[T]he sour faces of the multitudes...," mused the 19th-century philosopher i ...
  
• Midge Hough Suffered Through Personal Loss and Att ...
  WINGS OF JUSTICE Midge Hough Celebrating the first holiday season after losing a loved one has to be a very difficult experience. But that experience can be amplified if you speak in front of a crowd about your loss, have people make fun of the deaths of your loved ones, and have the video broadcast ...
  
• A Tea Party President? Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hann ...
  BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT by Jeffrey Joseph Cries from the far right for political upheaval often gain traction with the FOX News pundits like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, but absent substantive or useful solutions for the situations they bemoan, will O'Reilly and Hannity offer themselves as the solut ...
  
• Michael Winship: Where Are the Snows -- and Shovel ...
  BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY by Michael Winship We had our first snowstorm of the winter in Manhattan this past weekend and it served to remind me that I have not actually shoveled snow in decades -- the result of living in a city where other people are hired to do it for you. It once was said that th ...
  

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

• The Joys of Airstrikes and Anonymity
  Each time the U.S. bombs a new location in the Muslim world, the same pattern emerges.  First, officials from the U.S. or allied governments run to their favorite media outlet to claim -- anonymously -- that some big, bad, notorious, "top" Al Qaeda leader "may have been" or "likely was" killed in t ...
  
• Salon Radio Transcript: Gregory Johnsen
  To listen to this interview, go here and click on the recorder at the bottom, or for an MP3 file, go here : GG : My guest today on Salon Radio is Gregory Johnsen, who is an expert on Yemen; he's a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and has advised the U.S. and British g ...
  
• Salon Radio: Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen
  Over the last week, there have been several extremely significant though unclear events in Yemen.  As I wrote about earlier this week , last Thursday there were two sets of attacks -- one in the North on a rebellious Shiite group and one in the South on "suspected Al Qaeda sites" which caused numer ...
  
• Reason Editor suggests his own magazine is lying a ...
  "The Congressional Budget Office now reports that this bill will reduce our deficit by $132 billion over the first decade, and by as much as $1.3 trillion in the decade after that" -- Barack Obama, Tuesday . " Obama's Latest Health Care Lie :  There are actually multiple lies and deception ...
  
• The NYT's view of "journalistic objectivity"
  (updated below) I've written many times before about Sami al-Hajj, the Al Jazeera cameraman who was abducted by the U.S. in late 2001, tortured at Bagram, sent to Guantanamo for seven years -- where he was never charged with any crime and was interrogated overwhelmingly about Al Jazeera's ope ...
  

The BiPartisan Report

• Sheldon Whitehouse brings truth to the Senate floo ...
• Pesky facts spoil GOP’s mammogram arguments
• Those holier than thou Conservatives
• Dennis Kucinich: Enemy of the good, pursuer of the ...
• Betsy’s Bullshit, Round 2

Sciencebase

• Intute hot topics in physical science
  Over on the Intute site in the physical sciences section you will find the December science news round up from yours truly: What’s the buzz at the LHC? – After a frustrating false start, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) finally got it up and running in its underground home at CERN on the Swiss-Frenc ...
  
• Five-step plan for green design
  I recently saw a research paper discussing the lack of tools for designers hoping to make their products greener, more environmentally benign, sustainable even. The paper focused more on the likes of coming up with a green espresso machine and offered a five-step scheme for getting the green creden ...
  
• Happy Solstice Event
  Wishing all readers, commenters, contacts, fellow tweeps and scientwists, Facebook fans, and friends everywhere a happy mid-seasonal, solstice feast event from sciencebase.com… …I couldn’t just say Happy Christmas could I? It’s not as if it’s scientifically possible to reconcile a belief in any arc ...
  
• Religious science and other science books
  Having posted about atheism recently on the SciScoop science forum, it seems quite apt to have received for review a couple of books with a religious theme at this time of year. The first is The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade. Wade is a well-known New York Times writer who presents the case for an ...
  
• Myrrh, bones, and medical waste
  Hepatic epiphany for myrrh – A statistical analysis of experimental data on laboratory animals shows that the resin of the middle-eastern tree Commiphora, better known as “myrrh” can act as a protective antioxidant against liver damage caused by organic lead compounds. Myrrh is a rust-coloured resi ...
  

Common Dreams-Progressive Newswire

• China: Forcibly Returned Uighur Asylum Seekers at ...
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 22, 2009 Human Rights Watch (HRW) The Chinese government should immediately allow access to the 20 Uighur asylum seekers who were forcibly deported to China on December 19, 2009, in what was a breach by the Cambodian government of its obligations under international la ...
  
• Alaska Native, Tourism, and Conservation Groups Se ...
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 22, 2009 Conservation Groups A diverse coalition of Alaska Native, tourism industry, and environmental organizations took action today to protect some of  the last pristine old-growth areas in the Tongass National Forest. These areas are important to Southeast Alaskans ...
  
• National Lawyers Guild Calls On President Obama to ...
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 22, 2009 Center for Constitutional Rights The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Sharon Browne to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). On December 17, Obama announced his intention to nominate ...
  
• CREW Unveils Its List of Top Ten Ethics Scandals o ...
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 22, 2009 CREW Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) unveiled its choices for the Top Ten Ethics Scandals of 2009. As was true of last year's Top Ten list, this year's list features ethical lapses in both the legislative and executive branch ...
  
• European Court: Landmark Ruling on Racial and Reli ...
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 22, 2009 Human Rights Watch (HRW) The ruling today by the European Court of Human Rights, that the exclusion of Jews and Roma from Bosnia's highest state offices is unlawful discrimination, is a major step toward ending racial and religious exclusion in Europe, the Ben ...
  

Common Dreams-Views

• A New START
  by John Feffer Richard Nixon was the greatest peacemaker in U.S. history. He orchestrated the historic opening with Beijing. And he presided over the most significant arms control treaties of the détente period: the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the ABM treaty. read more
  
• Why a Resister Chose Canada Over the War in Iraq
  by Rodney Watson I am from Kansas City, Kansas, and I joined the U.S. Army for financial reasons in 2004 after my steady job of seven years ended. I enlisted for a three-year contract with the intention of being a cook and not in a combat role. I wanted to support the troops in some way without bein ...
  
• A Decade of New Youth Activism
  by Raj Jayadev Around this time last decade, I was wading through clouds of tear gas and dodging rubber bullets from the Seattle Police Department. I was 24, it was the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests and a moment that I thought signaled the inauguration of a new youth activism that would hi ...
  
• Copenhagen: Just a Cop Out?
  by Tom Athanasiou Copenhagen was obviously a failure—if you judge it by "the numbers," the formal emission targets and financial commitments that are needed to support a fair, effective, emergency global climate mobilization. If you judge it, that is, by what is necessary . The more pressing questio ...
  
• Of War, Peace and the Distant Memory of a Christma ...
  by John Nichols This has been a year of war, not peace, when a president elected to end conflicts instead expanded the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. So as it closes we would do well to recall an old warrior who came to see the futility of fighting. British veteran Harry Patch was the last survivor ...
  

Karl Burkart

• Highlights from Copenhagen
  Video clips from the great Copenhagen march for the climate.
  
• Monbiot takes on the 'Climate Denial Industry'
  A hilarious accounting of 'Climategate' and why universities need professional PR help.
  
• Helsinki Cathedral to house hi-tech source of ener ...
  WWII bomb shelter becomes a chapel for energy efficient servers while heating hundreds of homes.
  
• Boy discovers microbe that eats plastic
  PhDs have been searching for a solution to the plastic waste problem, and this 16-year-old finds the answer.
  
• The bright side of 'Flopenhagen'
  My 13th and final report on the Copenhagen climate talks. What happened. What's next.
  

Water Privatization

• Marin's top 10 stories of 2009 (Walnut Creek Journ ...
  Marin County in 2009 struggled with a stagnant economy, wrestled with energy, water and health care issues and dealt with tragedies that included brutal murders.
  
• 2009 flubs and fiascoes of Mayor Daley (Chicago Su ...
  Mayor Daley has endured countless highs and lows in his 20-year reign, but the seesaw seemed to stop in 2009: It was one gigantic downer. The city's parking meter privatization fiasco drove Daley's approval rating to an all-time low -- and most of the $1.15 billion windfall was drained to fill a mas ...
  
• To solve pollution problems, planners examine stea ...
  FAIRBANKS - The roots of downtown's largest plant tunnel under much of the city, thick steel pipes twisting beneath intersections and sidewalks on their way toward the city's biggest buildings.
  
• 2009 flubs and fiascoes of Mayor Daley (Chicago Su ...
  Mayor Daley has endured countless highs and lows in his 20-year reign, but the seesaw seemed to stop in 2009: It was one gigantic downer. The city's parking meter privatization fiasco drove Daley's approval rating to an all-time low -- and most of the $1.15 billion windfall was drained to fill a mas ...
  
• To solve pollution problems, planners examine stea ...
  FAIRBANKS - The roots of downtown's largest plant tunnel under much of the city, thick steel pipes twisting beneath intersections and sidewalks on their way toward the city's biggest buildings.
  

Guardian

• Plane bomb suspect's family warned of radicalisati ...
  Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father had notified Nigeria's security agencies of his son's behaviour The family of the plane bomb suspect said today that they had contacted international security services to raise concerns that he had been radicalised by Islamic extremists. The family of Umar Farouk A ...
  
• Iran holds seven opposition activists
  • Second day of clashes between authorities and reformists • At least nine dead, including the nephew of opposition leader Clashes between the Iranian authorities and the reformist movement continued today following yesterday's crackdown which that left at least nine dead, including the nephew of th ...
  
• Briton learns of China execution fate
  Akmal Shaikh, who supporters say has bipolar disorder, due to be executed tomorrow for drug smuggling British man condemned to die in China tomorrow morning has been told of his fate, campaigners confirmedtoday . Akmal Shaikh, 53, who supporters say has a mental illness, is due to be executed at 10. ...
  
• Polanksi letter thanks supporters
  Film director under house arrest and facing extradition to US 'overwhelmed' by worldwide messages of sympathy Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning film director under house arrest on charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl, has expressed his gratitude to his supporters in an open letter to the Fr ...
  
• Good for caterpillars, bad for frogs
  National Trust expert Matthew Oates explains how this year's weather affected British wildlife
  

McClatchey

• How Grupo Mexico tried to use U.S. law to avoid cl ...
  WASHINGTON — A 562-foot smokestack that spewed a plume of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals over 1,000 square miles of Washington state's Puget Sound for nearly a century remains a fitting symbol of the largest environmental bankruptcy in U.S. history.
  
• Attack on Shiite march in Pakistan kills at least ...
  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least 20 people were killed Monday in a bombing of a Shiite Muslim religious procession in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi, the fourth such attack in recent days, raising fears of a sectarian conflict to compound the country's spiral of violence.
  
• War on fat: California trans-fat ban goes into eff ...
  SACRAMENTO — California will bar restaurants from cooking with trans fat beginning New Year's Day, becoming the first state to crack down on the substance tied to clogged arteries, strokes and coronary heart disease.
  
• GOP's internal wars are playing out in Placer Coun ...
  SACRAMENTO — In GOP-rich Placer County, the Placer County Republican Central Committee chairman views himself as a brand manager of sorts.
  
• Texas prosecutor who brought down Tom DeLay to run ...
  AUSTIN — After flirting with a run at governor, former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle decided Friday to shoot for the next highest office by filing to seek the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.
  

BBC - Richard Black's Earth Watch

• Best wishes from a white land
  Just a quick note, today, to say "best wishes" to everyone about to celebrate Christmas or some other winter festival. Here in London, it's been refreshing (in more ways than one!) to see snow on the ground and kids out playing in it - a reminder of childhood days. For me, it's time to put the lap ...
  
• COP15: (No) Hopenhagen?
  Everywhere you go in Copenhagen, you're met with two kinds of advertising poster. One sells lingerie, the morning walk to the railway station bringing a sequence of scarcely clad models smiling unfeasibly in the freezing morning air. The other sells hope. "Hopenhagen" has been the city's alterna ...
  
• COP15: Deal or no deal?
  0043 CET Saturday: Now, we are totally - totally - into uncharted territory. A US president has reached an climate change agreement with leaders of just four countries - although a few more clearly had a inkling of what was going on. The White House announced the deal - this is supposed to be a UN ...
  
• A tale of two superpowers
  1926 CET: It's supposed to be about two degrees. It appears to have come down to two men. As I write, US President Barack Obama and China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao are locked in a room somewhere around this conference centre - a meeting that could answer the question of whether ther's a deal here ...
  
• COP15: Saving the planet or saving face?
  1641 CET: We're into a strange dark limbo-land here. The draft political agreement that leaders are supposed to sign today has gone through more changes than Eva Longoria at an awards ceremony. The latest version, we're told, sheds many of the frills. It's a jeans and t-shirt job compared with the ...
  

Afghanistan Sun

• Pakistani forces kill 15 militants near Afghan bor ...
  Islamabad, Dec 28 (DPA) The Pakistani military said Monday that 15 militants were killed as troops repelled an attack at a checkpoint in the South Waziristan tribal district on the Afghan border.
  
• Troops deaths in Afghan war seen rising with surge
  The arrival in Afghanistan of tens of thousands of reinforcements to fight the Taliban will lead to a higher death rate among foreign troops, adding pressure on Western leaders to get out altogether, ...
  
• 2 police killed in west Afghanistan
  Afghan police say two officers were killed when militants attacked a checkpoint in western Afghanistan.Afghan National Police spokesman Raouf Ahmedi said Monday that three other officers were missing ...
  
• Afghan war museum displays past's horror
  Afghan human rights activists have opened the country's first war crimes museum on the site of a mass grave, taking a first step towards national reconciliation for victims of atrocities.At the foot o...
  
• Police, militants killed in latest Afghan violence
  Kabul - Taliban fighters killed two police officers in western Afghanistan, while nearly a dozen militants died in a NATO airstrike in the eastern region, officials said Monday. A group of Taliban fig...
  

Futurismic

• Fighting back against the advertising overload
  So, welcome back! Did you have a good holiday? I did… though the season comes with its share of annoyances, and if you’re anything like me you’ll be a happy human if you never see a perfume or aftershave advert again for as long as you live. But pity the Los Anglelinos for a moment, because [...] Pr ...
  
• Happy Holidays
  Does Not Equal is a webcomic by Sarah Ennals – check out the pre-Futurismic archives, and the strips that have been published here previously. [ Be sure to check out the Does Not Equal Cafepress store for webcomic merchandise featuring Canadians with geometrically-shaped heads! ] Project Wonderful ...
  
• Festive downtime
  Hi folks; just a quick note to apologise for the radio silence here over the last week! I’ve been off doing that family thing for the festive season alongside finishing up all the fiddly details of my recent house move (an experience I’m glad to have seen the end of), and there simply hasn’t been [. ...
  
• The legislation of fabrication – should 3D printin ...
  Here’s another sf-nal thought experiment to keep your brain occupied. We frequently mention 3D printing and fabbing here at Futurismic, but usually in the context of its positive disruptive potential – a potential sea-change in capitalist economic systems, for example. But here’s a negative response ...
  
• Potential outcomes of pervasive surveillance
  Sometimes it really feels like science-fictional thinking is becoming a much more mainstream thing to do. Following on from yesterday’s mention of CCTV control software that can learn to recognise suspicious behaviour (as defined by operator feedback, natch), out-bound BoingBoing guest blogger Paul ...
  

geopolitics | geoeconomics

• Geithner's Dirty Little Secret
• Swine Flu
• Putin and the Geopolitics of the New Cold War: Or ...
• The Fake Oil Crisis of 1973
• Fossiles Erdöl
  
  

Whistleblowers Protection Blog

• EEOC announces proposed federal sector rules and i ...
  The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued proposed amendments to its rules for handling complaints by federal employees.  The EEOC's press release identifies changes that will allow federal agencies to implement pilot programs, and that would require agencies to follow EE ...
  
• Liberian president issues executive order to prote ...
  The African Press Agency reports that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has issued an Executive Order to protect anyone who discloses information about actions of impropriety against the public interest that is occurring, has occurred, or will occur in any public or private institution.  It is known a ...
  
• Maine judge issues a fine order for attorney fees
  Last week, Justice Joyce A. Wheeler of Maine's Androscoggin Superior Court issued an excellent decision awarding attorney fees in Maine Human Rights Commission v. Saddleback, Inc., Case No. CV-06-219 (Dec. 17, 2009, Order Regarding Attorneys Fees ). The case arose when electrician Robert Duggan rais ...
  
• Comment on Metro safety, the STAA and the Washingt ...
  On October 14, the Washington Post ran a story on Metro drivers going " Strictly by the Book " (p. B-1). The story highlights safety issues that reach beyond Metro. That the Post's writer would be concerned about the disruption reveals a prevalent but dangerous attitude that speed is more impor ...
  
• Jury awards Colin Browne $282,000
  Mr. Colin Browne worked as a program advisor for the UDC Career Counseling and Development Center. Throughout his term, he discovered many flaws within the system. For example, Kevin Naiker, the former Director of UDC’s “Team 100” retention program, and others were purposely spinning the retenti ...
  

Defense and the National Interest

• On War #323: Milestone
  William S. Lind 23 November 2009 One of the ongoing themes of this column has been gangs and the role they play in a Fourth Generation world. Here in the United States they already serve as an alternative primary loyalty (alternative to the state) for many urban young men. Gangs will likely be a m ...
  
• DNI to close — update
  23 November 2009 Many thanks to everyone who wrote in.  My wife and I are deeply touched. We’ll try to find someone to at least take over the site as it is and keep the links intact.  Several people have contacted me with ideas.  In the meantime, I’ll leave everything up unless we start having mo ...
  
• DNI to close
  Probably on Monday, November 23, depending on how my travels work out. Please go ahead and download any thing you’d like to keep — I’d particularly recommend Boyd’s briefings and the 4GW manuals. I have great faith in the growing number of bloggers and commentators who cover many of the same subjec ...
  
• On War #322: What Is “Political Correctness?”
  William S. Lind 18 November 2009 In response to the killing of 13 American soldiers at Ft. Hood by an Islamic U. S. Army major, a number of senior officials have expressed their fear, not of Islam, but of a possible threat to “diversity.” “Diversity” is one of the many false gods of “Political Corr ...
  
• What should we do with terrorists?
  Security guru Bruce Schneier has the right idea: We should treat terrorists like common criminals and give them all the benefits of true and open justice — not merely because it demonstrates our indomitability, but because it makes us all safer. Once a society starts circumventing its own laws, the ...
  

Digital Journal

• New drug-resistant malaria found in Thai-Cambodia ...
  As deadly infectious diseases are concerned, malaria ranks among the very top of any global list. Now a new form of malaria has been discovered - one that is resistant to all current drug treatments.
  
• Iran protests continue into 2nd day, 10 protesters ...
  It's a scene that sends shivers rippling up and down the nape of the neck - untold hundreds, possibly a thousand or more people - are in the streets of Tehran, equipped with cameras, chanting.
  
• Bring In Judge Weinstein In the Pacquiao-Mayweathe ...
  Arum and Schaefer enlisted the service of Weinstein,who successfully helped resolve lawsuits between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions three years ago. It is now time to bring in the high profile mediator in the Pacquiao-Mayweather boxing negotiations.
  
• A Big Fish To Fry with Pacquiao
  In light of the drug-testing fiasco surrounding the Pacquiao-Mayweather boxing negotiations, several fighters have expressed interests in fighting Manny and Floyd Jr. if the mega-fight falls through.
  
• Pamela Anderson Performs In a London Pantomime
  Pamela Anderson plays Genie of the Lamp in a London Pantomime. The musical show provided christmas entertainment for people of all ages.
  

End Homelessness | Change.org

• Waiting for Section 8
  Karen is waiting for a Section 8 inspection to move into a new residence. Unfortunately, in the mean time, she's staying on the streets. And it's been three weeks so far. She's feeling the pain and frustration of living amongst drug-users and drug-dealers as she tries to enter into a new phase of he ...
  
• The Story of American Heartbreak
  From $90,000 a year to the streets, James is a story of American heartbreak. Working in the auto industry and as an electrician, he seemed on top of the world. He accepted an early buyout, took the chance to go back to college, and graduated to find no opportunities. Shelters and abandoned buildings ...
  
• 10 Places People Slept in 2009
  Living without a home of your own is a devastating experience. But sleeping without a home is downright difficult. Today, we're looking back at 10 places homeless people slept in 2009. Some of these places received media attention this year; others did not. But all of these overnight accommodations ...
  
• Family Downsizing
  The first time I ever heard the term "families downsizing" was this past July during an interview with the Nevada Partnership Of Homeless Youth (watch the interview here ). Larry Lovelett, Homeless Youth Transition Specialist, said this was currently their biggest challenge. He explained that since ...
  
• Church Sells Window to Keep Shelter Doors Open
  A small church in Brattleboro, Vermont is learning the hard way that desperate times call for desperate measures. With fledgling funds, the congregation faced a difficult decision: cut off services to the homeless, or sell an invaluable piece of church history? ABC News reported last night that memb ...
  

Ceasefire.ca

• Treatment of prisoners not Roman problem: Pilate
  Perhaps inspired by the Christmas season, Prime Minister Harper has reached back into biblical history for a new answer to the torture allegations dogging his government. Channelling the infamous Roman governor of Judea, the Prime Minister argued earlier this week that if Canadians hand detainees ov ...
  
• Decal offer from Bill and Rhyl Stollery
  Dear Ceasefire.ca supporters, You might be interested in this offer from Bill and Rhyl Stollery in Edmonton. Magnetic decals 3 1/2 ” x 8″ to display on rear of vehicles $2.00 each or 10 for $15.00, plus mailing To order and receive details to promote campaign: e-mail rstoller@shaw.ca or hready@shaw. ...
  
• World leaders agree on climate change
  World leaders and their representatives attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen failed to achieve a binding agreement to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the close of the conference on Friday, in effect agreeing instead to continue their collective experiment i ...
  
• McChrystal in Ottawa
  The commander of U.S. and ISAF forces in Afghanistan, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, visited Ottawa Wednesday to discuss Afghanistan strategy with Canadian Chief of Defence Staff General Walt Natynczyk and other officials. He also made a speech at an event sponsored by the Conference of Defence As ...
  
• Torture file: Colvin shoots back; government ducks
  The Canadian diplomat whose mid-November testimony to the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan ignited a firestorm of controversy over Canadian transfers of Afghan detainees to probable torture by the Afghan authorities has fired back at his critics. In a 16-page letter sent to t ...
  

Kevin Trudeau Show

• Dr. Jeff McCombs
  Click the picture or link below to hear Kevin’s interview with Dr. Jeffrey McCombs. Click here to order The McCombs Plan and click here to purchase LifeForce: A Dynamic Plan for Health, Vitality, and Weight Loss. Dr. Jeff McCombs 12/23/09
  
• The Kevin Trudeau Show: 12-23-09
  Today, Kevin gives you the hard evidence behind the September 11th conspiracy, the reasons why Barack Obama is merely a puppet and his solution to Obamacare!! Plus, Dr. Jeff McCombs, the author of LifeForce, explains how Candida is polluting your body and what you can do to rid your body of this to ...
  
• Two Years of Failure in Directing the Economy
  December 23, 2009 The International Forecaster As we look back and this year comes to an end we find two plus years of failure. Even government admits to 1-1/2 years of negative growth - a sorry record after having poured trillions of dollars into the economy. The recent 3rd quarter results supposed ...
  
• Wait 18 Months To See A Doctor
  December 23, 2009 Info Wars By Paul Joseph Watson Eye surgeon and senatorial candidate Rand Paul warns that under ObamaCare, Americans could be forced to wait a year and a half merely to see a doctor due to Canadian-style rationing of health care being imposed. As an eye surgeon with his own private ...
  
• Health Care Bill Is A Huge Tax Heist
  December 23, 2009 Prison Planet By Paul Joseph Watson A Boston Globe analysis of the health care bill which Democrats are trying to ram through before Christmas illustrates how the legislation is a gigantic tax heist which will further economically cripple Americans already laboring under the worst ...
  

Pambazuka News

• USA: Black coalition to protest expanding U.S. war ...
  A newly-formed Black coalition has announced a rally and march on the White House to take place November 7, 2009 beginning in Washington, D.C.’s historic Malcolm X Park. The rally and march are to protest the expanding U.S. wars and other policy ini...
  
• Brazil: Bloggers on why there is still racism in t ...
  Two weeks ago, Global Voices Online reported the story of Januário Alves de Santana, a black man who had been beaten and punched by security guards of one of the largest international retailers in Brazil. He was waiting for his family in the car park...
  
• Global: It takes a Villager
  Owino Odhiambo left his tiny Kenyan village less than a decade ago to immerse himself completely in American culture. Equipped with American citizenship, two degrees, and five years experience working as a dedicated graphic designer in New York City,...
  
• Honduras: Implications of coup for Afro-descendant ...
  Currently, the country of Honduras in Central America is experiencing its worst political crisis in decades. In the aftermath of the military coup that forcibly removed President Manuel Zelaya Rosales, there have been various developments that have r...
  
• Guadeloupe: Demand for support for the independenc ...
  Felix Alain Flémin, secretary general of the Guadeloupe Communist Party (GCP) has called for international solidarity in support of the struggle for independence and self-determination of the people of those Caribbean islands under French colonial do...
  

War in Context

• YEAR IN REVIEW: VIVA PALESTINA!
  YEAR IN REVIEW: Viva Palestina shows the power of the people By Paul Woodward, War in Context, March 9, 2009 While governments have repeatedly demonstrated their indifference, incompetence, and apparent impotence when it comes to responding to the plight of the population in Gaza, a bunch of ordina ...
  
• Gaza ceasefire in jeopardy as six Palestinians are ...
  Gaza ceasefire in jeopardy as six Palestinians are shot By Rachel Shabi, The Observer, December 27, 2009 Israeli troops yesterday shot dead six Palestinians in two separate incidents, as evidence emerged that an increasingly fragile ceasefire between armed groups loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas’s F ...
  
• GAZA UPDATE
  The Children of Gaza share their experiences of “Cast Lead” Al Jazeera, December 27, 2009 Viva Palestina convoy held up in Jordan Al Jazeera, December 26, 2009 Gaza aid convoy members prepare for hunger strike The Palestine Telegraph, December 27, 2009 Members of the Viva Palestina international a ...
  
• YEAR IN REVIEW: Barbarianism unmasked
  YEAR IN REVIEW: Barbarianism unmasked By Paul Woodward, War in Context, January 30, 2009 The conceit of every autocratic leader is that power fits comfortably upon his shoulders. Even if he has not been chosen directly by his people, his right to rule reflects a natural order. The World Economic For ...
  
• YEAR IN REVIEW: The peace process is irreversibly ...
  YEAR IN REVIEW: The peace process is irreversibly over By Paul Woodward, War in Context, January 26, 2009 If you did not see it already, watch Bob Simon’s report (below), “Is Peace Out Of Reach?” from last night’s edition of 60 Minutes. In the history of American reporting on the Palestinian-Israeli ...
  

Watts Up With That?

• G. P. Bear goes to Washington: part 3
  “Act of Endangerment” TASIILAQ, EAST GREENLAND Grandpa, Mother and Junior were at Erik the Red’s Sports Den. The place was crowded for the big Monday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. Every bear in the bar had their eyes glued to the TV monitors. Just as the B ...
  
• The Unbearable Complexity of Climate
  Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach Figure 1. The Experimental Setup I keep reading statements in various places about how it is indisputable “simple physics” that if we increase amount of atmospheric CO2, it will inevitably warm the planet. Here’s a typical example: In the hyperbolic language that has ...
  
• Our current weather: A test for forecast models &# ...
  It has often been said that “Weather is not climate”, but ultimately it provides the only meaningful way to verify climate models. Did the climate models predict the cold, snowy weather which has been seen across much of the US? According to NOAA, October was the third coldest on record in the US, w ...
  
• 877 new snowfall records set or tied in the USA in ...
  And that’s not all, for the week ending Dec 13th, there were 815 new snowfall records set. December 2009 is shaping up to be quite the snowmaker. Here’s a map showing continental USA records: Here is the daily count data from NCDC, with links to tabular reports  and source for the snowfall records: ...
  
• G. P. Bear goes to Washington: part 2
  “Junior gets brainwashed” Of all the animals the Inuit traditionally hunted, Nanuk, the polar bear, was the most prized. Native hunters considered Nanuk to be wise, powerful, and “almost a man.” Some called the bear “the great lonely roamer.” Many tribes told legends of strange polar-bear men that ...
  

Dandelion Salad

• One Day We’ll All Be Terrorists by Chris Hedges
  by Chris Hedges Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Truthdig Dec. 28, 2009 Syed Fahad Hashmi can tell you about the dark heart of America. He knows that our First Amendment rights have become a joke, that habeas corpus no longer exists and that we torture, not only in black sites such as those at Bag ...
  
• Ahmadinejad: Iran is solid and united + Protesters ...
  http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ http://therealnews.com Ahmadinejad denies that troops intimidate opponents, defends nuclear policy more about “Story“, posted with vodpod *** Transcript: Ahmadinejad: ‘Iran is solid and united’ by Jon Snow Channel 4 News 23 Dec. 2009 Exclusive: as police and ...
  
• ‘Explosion attempt’ on US flight + Pas ...
  http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ Various news organizations’ reports on the incident in Detroit. Al Jazeera English Dec. 26, 2009 A reported attempt by a Nigerian man to light an explosive aboard a US passenger aircraft has been described by the White House as “an attempted act of terrorism”. ...
  
• The Deficit Commission
  http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ http://therealnews.com Hickey: The Republican proposed deficit committee would be used to force through cuts in social programs Roger Hickey is co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, an organization launched by 100 prominent Americans to expand the n ...
  
• Ray McGovern: Obama, Afghanistan and Iraq
  http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ talkingsticktv December 27, 2009 Interview with Ray McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) about the Obama Administration, Afghanistan and Iraq. Recorded November 14, 2009 in Seattle more ab ...
  

Your New Reality

• No title
  "You Imagine Missing It All And Suddenly It's So Much More Precious" Carl Sagan in interview May 1996 : Carl Sagan died on December 20, 1996
  
• No title
  "They leave a data footprint. They tell me what they are interested in. They tell me what kinds of things they are searching on. They tell me what kinds of articles they are reading. They tell me whether a user is interested in preparing for the tax season for next year. They tell me whether the us ...
  
• No title
  It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like A "Fuck You" Christmas.... Update, Dec. 21 : Rage Against The Machine have the UK Number One Single for Christmas, and sent tens of thousands of pounds the way of a homeless charity. Frontman Zack De La Rocha declares victory for real music with something to say ov ...
  
• No title
  From the National Geographic documentary, Extraordinary Animals In The Womb. More Here
  
• No title
  From Life Magazine archive . In 1937, American Nazis hailed, praised George Washington as the "First Fascist":
  

Wired - Science

• Warming Already Speeding Up Insect Breeding
  Summertime and the insect breeding is easy. That old song rings especially true for 44 species of moths and butterflies in Central Europe, according to an analysis by ecologist Florian Altermatt of the University of California, Davis. As the region has warmed since the 1980s, some of these species ...
  
• Tidal Forces Trigger Tremors on San Andreas Fault
  The subtle changes in stress caused by tides in Earth’s crust can trigger small, deep quakes along a seismically active portion of California’s San Andreas fault, a new analysis suggests. The same forces of attraction that cause ocean tides also cause tides in Earth’s rocks, says Amanda Thomas, a s ...
  
• Saturn’s Moons Are Cuter Than Sugarplum Fair ...
  We love Cassini more with every amazing image the intrepid spacecraft sends back from its travels, and this latest treat is no exception. The Cassini imaging team has assembled images of some of Saturn’s moons in action into this sequence, bringing another corner of the solar system to life for ...
  
• Tidal Forces Trigger Tremors on San Andreas Fault
  The subtle changes in stress caused by tides in Earth’s crust can trigger small, deep quakes along a seismically active portion of California’s San Andreas fault, a new analysis suggests. The same forces of attraction that cause ocean tides also cause tides in Earth’s rocks, says Amanda Thomas, a s ...
  
• Saturn’s Moons Are Cuter Than Sugar Plum Fairies
  We love Cassini more with every amazing image the intrepid spacecraft sends back from its travels, and this latest treat is no exception. The Cassini imaging team has assembled images of some of Saturn’s moons in action into this sequence, bringing another corner of the solar system to life for ...
  

Israeli Occupation Archive

• Gaza Aid Convoy members prepare for Hunger Strike
  Diplomatic negotiations are also taking place between the Turkish and Egyptian governments over the convoy's entry to Egypt. IHH, Turkey's main humanitarian aid agency, has 63 vehicles travelling on... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, ...
  
• One year on, Gaza war violations still unpunished: ...
  The New York-based rights group also criticised the Israeli blockade which "created massive humanitarian need and prevented the reconstruction of schools and homes" in the Hamas-run Palestinian... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, now i ...
  
• Haaretz: War on protest
  The war the police and the Israel Defense Forces are openly waging against protests by left-wing and human rights activists has heated up in recent weeks. As a result, concern is growing over... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, now in ...
  
• Zeev Sternhell: Not all refusal is the same
  [...] great efforts have been made to create an artificial symmetry between the systematic rebellion in the settlements and the refusal to serve in the territories that was prevalent at the beginning... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, ...
  
• B’Tselem: IDF may have executed unarmed Palestinia ...
  [...] in two of the three cases the troops behaved as if they were preparing for an execution, not an arrest. Relatives and eyewitnesses told B'Tselem that the two were unarmed and did not attempt to... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, ...
  

Ria Novosti - Military

• Russia's Nerpa sub passes final trials
  Russia's Nerpa nuclear attack submarine, damaged in a fatal accident during tests in November last year, has successfully passed final trials.
  
• Russia eyes new arms markets in Asia-Pacific regio ...
  Russia is planning to strengthen its positions as a key supplier of weaponry in the Asia-Pacific region by seeking new customers at a major arms show in Malaysia, state arms exporter Rosoboronexport has said.
  
• Iran's nuclear program
  
  
• Russian missile cruiser arrives in Vladivostok
  A task force from the Russian Pacific Fleet led by the missile cruiser Varyag has returned to Russia's Far Eastern port of Vladivostok after a visit to Singapore.
  
• Vietnam could become key importer of Russian weapo ...
  Vietnam could become a key importer of Russian weaponry if several contracts on the purchase of diesel submarines and aircraft are signed in the near future, a Russian newspaper said.
  

NewsWise

• Study Shows Key Protein Helps Control Blood Pressu ...
  University of Iowa researchers have shown that a protein channel helps nerve sensors in blood vessels keep blood pressure in check. Without the protein channel, known as ASIC2, the sensors are unable to send the brain the signals it needs to properly control blood pressure.
  
• Overwhelming Majority of Americans Support Global ...
  The overwhelming majority of Americans support action to limit carbon pollution and move the U.S. toward a clean energy future, according to a new poll released today by National Wildlife Federation.
  
• Students Return to Africa to Help Improve Flooded ...
  A Rowan University Engineers Without Borders-USA team will return to The Gambia in Africa to help alleviate road flooding that severely impacts eight impoverished villages.
  
• Phragmites Partners with Microbes to Plot Native P ...
  University of Delaware researchers have uncovered a novel means of conquest employed by the common reed, Phragmites australis, which ranks as one of the world's most invasive plants.
  
• Research Yields New Agent for Some Drug-Resistant ...
  Dana-Farber scientists have discovered a compound capable of treating non-small cell lung cancers that have grown resistant to Iressa(R) and Tarceva(R). The compound (WZ4002) acts against an EGFR kinase that carries a specific structural defect.
  

Intel Trends

• The Mujajideen Command reported the elimination of ...
  The following article is reprinted with permission from Kavkaz Center, Caucasus mujahideen news agency. The Mujajideen Command reported the elimination of Daniil Sysoyev, an outspoken enemy of Allah Source:   Kavkaz Center , citing Hunafa.com Publication time:  December 28, 2009   15:34 Djokhar tim ...
  
• Is Gadaffi after Uganda’s oil?
  The following article is from The Sunday Vision, Kampala. Is Gadaffi after Uganda’s oil? ©   The Sunday Vision By Vision Reporters December 20, 2009 Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gadaffi plans to buy up to 10% shares in Eni, the Italian company that on Friday signed a deal with Heritage to take over ...
  
• IntelTrends 21-DEC-2009
  ISRAEL: IDF, U.S. National Guard to share defense ideas J'Post, 21 Dec In face of the growing missile threat against Israel, the IDF Home Front Command and the U.S. National Guard have decided to exchange liaisons to enable a steady exchange of information on civil defense, The Jerusalem Post has l ...
  
• N. Korea Navy Sets up Firing Zone on Demarcation L ...
  The following article is reprinted with permission from Korea News Service (KNS), Tokyo, quoting North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang. KPA Navy Sets up Firing Zone on MDL ©   KCNA December 21, 2009 Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Navy Command of the Korean ...
  
• YEMEN: Prosecution investigates with 4 suspects ac ...
  The following article is from Yemeni 26 September news agency. Prosecution investigates with 4 suspects accused of spying for Iran ©   26 September Net December 21, 2009 The Specialized Penal Prosecution in the capital Sana'a continued investigations on Monday with four suspects accused of spying f ...
  
  
  
  
  
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  To Do

  renewable recycling conservation

  Ind. Lawmakers Hopeful About Renewable Energy Bill

  ABC News

  - Dec 28, 2009

  - 1 hour ago

  While the General Assembly seems unlikely to require Indiana utilities to generate a specific amount of electricity from renewable energy sources, ...

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  clipped from Google - 12/2009

  New Chinese Law Requires Purchase of Renewable Energy

  SustainableBusiness.com

  - Dec 28, 2009

  - 1 hour ago

  China on Saturday adopted a law requiring the purchase of all renewable energy generated in the country, according to numerous reports. ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 12/2009

  Abu Dhabi emerging as hub for renewable energy and climate change

  Al-Bawaba

  - Dec 28, 2009

  - 2 hours ago

  Renewable energy policy makers, government officials, business leaders, technologists, financiers and academics will come together in Abu Dhabi during the ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 12/2009

  Germany Gets 16% of Power From Renewables, Handelsblatt Says

  Bloomberg

  - Dec 27, 2009

  - Dec 27, 2009

  27 (Bloomberg) -- Renewable energy currently makes up 16 percent of total electricity consumption in Germany, Handelsblatt reported, citing an industry ...

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  clipped from Google - 12/2009

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  Human Habitat

  ecology water energy

  Crissy Field Center moves quickly into new home

  San Francisco Chronicle

  - Dec 28, 2009

  - 5 hours ago

  There are two classrooms as well as an ecology lab and workshops for media and hands-on art. "The location is absolutely stunning, and we were able to ...

  clipped from Google - 12/2009

  Avatar: Tantalizing Possibilities Laced With Disappointment

  OpEdNews

  - Dec 28, 2009

  - 8 hours ago

  However, after being presented to us, the neurological metaphor of Pandora's ecology is seemingly abandoned by Cameron. For instance, what role do the Na'vi ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 12/2009

  Wash. Governor Wants to Lessen Carbon Footprint

  ABC News

  - Dec 24, 2009

  - Dec 24, 2009

  Chris Gregoire wants state government to be carbon-neutral by 2020, and announced the Department of Ecology would be the first agency to start enacting ...

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  clipped from Google - 12/2009

  Our Town In Brief: 12/28/2009

  Traverse City Record Eagle

  - Dec 28, 2009

  - 4 hours ago

  Family sailing and ecology adventures are the centerpiece of a summer of hands-on activities aboard the 77-foot tall ship, which sails on Grand Traverse Bay ...

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