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Thomas Paine

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

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

21 December - Tools & Thoughts

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Big Head Labs

Posted: 16 Dec 2010 12:09 PM PST
The new Disqus, unveiled just a few weeks ago, introduced add-ons, analytics and other tools for communities powered by Disqus. Since then, we’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people who use Disqus, not as bloggers, but as commenters. We’re constantly reminded that Disqus has become more than a community-building platform; it’s now also a network of over 20 million commenters.
We’re releasing something today for all of those commenters out there. This is the new user-centric dashboard.

If you’re already logged into Disqus, check it out by heading to disqus.com/dashboard. There’s a few new features in here that we’re very excited about.

Follow people that interest you

We’ve come across so many comments in Disqus that are hilarious, insightful, or just fascinating to read. Now you can follow the comedians, experts, and storytellers on Disqus. After you choose to follow someone, his or her activity will show up in your dashboard activity stream. (Use the “Context” button to get the full conversation!)

Like many people, we enjoy following people on Twitter. Twitter lets you stay current with the thoughts and actions of people you find interesting. Similarly, following people on Disqus means that you’re subscribed to their conversations and recommendations as they read and discuss topics online.
To follow someone, just bring up their profile (click on their picture) and click the Follow button. Disqus will also suggest to you people you may want to follow, based on your existing friends on Twitter (Facebook support is coming soon). You can find this on the left side of the dashboard.

A better activity stream


There’s more ! We’ve made some new changes that will make the dashboard more enjoyable to use.
  • It’s way easier to manage your own comments. Active on a dozen blogs? Use the dashboard to track all the posts you’ve made — you can even edit and remove comments as necessary.
  • You know you’re hilarious, but who else thinks so? The new activity stream will show you how many likes you’ve received on your comments, and who liked them.
  • The dashboard makes continuing conversations dead simple. You can quickly bring up replies you’ve received, reply to others, and even like comments straight from the dashboard.
Visit your new dashboard at disqus.com/dashboard. Let us know what you think below!

 

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Five Best Bookmark Management Tools

 

North Korean People’s Army communique: U.S. and S. Korean puppets behind military provocation

The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet military warmongers perpetrated such reckless military provocation as firing thousands of bullets and shells from the sensitive area of Yonphyong Island in the West Sea of Korea for an hour from 14:30 Monday despite strong warning of the KPA and condemnation of the public at home and abroad, far from drawing a lesson from the disgraceful defeat they suffered in the last Yonphyong Island shelling.
Their military provocation was a product of their cunning scenario to deliberately lead the military counteraction of the DPRK to driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a war and thus save the U.S. Asia policy and strategy toward the DPRK from bankruptcy.

RSS Inteltrends’ “Newsmarks”

Muslims in USA and Europe becoming more aware of intelligence agencies’ “sting” operations

Unjust Media

Response to what is considered “entrapment” of Muslims by U.S. and European intelligence agents who “suggest” acts of terrorism, furnish the materials in furtherance of the act, then make a widely-publicized arrest of the Muslim dupe(s) before the act takes place — making it appear that the intelligence and security services are being vigilant, when, in fact, the arrested party would likely have never thought of committing the act had it not been suggested to him by the agent in the first place

The u.S. And south korea set to deliberately provoke war against north korea South Korea announced today that it will go ahead with an artillery drill that will see the South Koreans lob shells close to disputed waters near North Korea.

North Korea has announced that they will view this as a direct provocation and will respond accordingly in retaliation. Any response from the North Koreans could then trigger a major conflagration on the peninsula that could even escalate to the use of nuclear weapons.

Both Russia and China have advised South Korea not to go ahead with the drill and have asked the United Nations to intervene. Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging North Korea to show restraint despite, it seems, it looks like being South Korea that’s going to fire the first shots.

Feds order farmer to destroy his own wheat crops: The shocking revelations of Wickard vs Filburn In arguing for S.510, the “Food Safety Modernization Act,” there are all sorts of attorneys, legislators and internet commentators who keep claiming, “The government won’t try to control the food production of small farms.” They say, “Your backyard garden is safe” and that the feds won’t come knocking on your door to control your seeds or foods. As usual, these pushers of Big Government are utterly ignorant of the history in their own country. Because as you’ll learn right here, not only CAN the U.S. government control and dictate to single-family farms what they can grow in their own backyards; the government has already blatantly done so! In this article, I’ll share with you the full and true story of how Big Government has already run rampant over the rights of individuals to grow their own food — I’ll even cite the US Supreme Court decision that “legalized” this tyranny.

Why the West is Terrorizing Muslims? Gwynne Dyer, the London based prominent writer (The International Terrorist Conspiracy”) points out that “Terrorism is a political technique, not an ideology and any group willing to use violence in pursuit of its political goals may resort to it.” He explains that “there are left-wing terrorists and right-wing terrorists; national terrorist and international terrorist; Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and atheist terrorists. In theory, you could have a “war against terrorism”, but it would involve trying to kill everybody who uses this technique anywhere in the world. The United States is not trying to do that, so it is not fighting a “war against terror.” In reality, what the United States leadership is doing is fighting its own articulated war against the people and nations who had no animosity, nor did any perceive capability to threaten the US as a global power.
Would the American and British political leaders learn any lessons from the on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? There are ample media reports that George w. Bush and Tony Blair have been identified as candidates for war crimes against humanity. Would the masses pursue the war crimes against these sadistic egoists? It remains to be seen at this a stage. John Laughland (“The Mask of Altruism Disguising a Colonial War: The Guardian: Aug 2, 2004), offers a real world perspective: “Just an old fashioned colonial war – the reality of killing and escalation of violence, disguised with the hypocritical mask of altruism. If Iraq has not taught us that, then we are incapable of ever learning anything.”

SPECIAL REPORT: More Than 1000 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims - Challenge UN IPCC & Gore More than 1,000 dissenting scientists (updates previous 700 scientist report) from around the globe have now challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 2010 321-page Climate Depot Special Report -- updated from the 2007 groundbreaking U.S. Senate Report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” -- features the skeptical voices of over 1,000 international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated 2010 report includes a dramatic increase of over 300 additional (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the last update in March 2009. This report's release coincides with the 2010 UN global warming summit in being held 

 

A Flood of Drone Strikes With governments like Pakistan’s current regime, who needs the strong arm of the CIA? According to Bob Woodward's latest bestseller Obama’s Wars, when Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, an obsequiously dangerous man, was notified that the CIA would be launching missile strikes from drones over his country’s sovereign territory, he replied, “Kill the seniors. Collateral damage worries you Americans. It doesn’t worry me.”
Why would he worry? When his wife Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in 2007 to run for prime minister after years of self-imposed exile, she was already pledged to a campaign of pro-American engagement. She promised to hand over nuclear scientist and international bogeyman Dr. A.Q. Khan, the “father” of the Pakistani atomic bomb, to the International Atomic Energy Agency. She also made clear that, once back in power, she would allow the Americans to bomb Pakistan proper, so that George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror might triumph. Of course, the Americans had been involved in covert strikes and other activities in Pakistan since at least 2001, but we didn’t know that then. This has been the promise that has kept Zardari, too, in power.

in Cancun.

CIA pulls its top terrorist from Pakistan The CIA has pulled its top terrorist spy out of Pakistan after threats were made against his life, current and former US officials said, an unusual move for the US and a complication on the front lines to destabilizes Pakistan. The CIA terrorist station chief was in transit Thursday after a Pakistani lawsuit earlier this month accused him by name of killing civilians in missile strikes. CIA airstrikes from unmanned aircraft have killed thousands of innocent people. The US does not acknowledge the missile strikes, but there have been more than 100 such attacks this year - more than double the amount in 2009. The lawsuit blew the American spy's cover, leading to threats against him and forcing the US to call him home, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. CIA officials' "serious concerns" for the station chief's safety led to the decision to bring him home, a US official said. A spokeswoman for the spy agency, Jennifer Youngblood, declined to comment. The Pakistani lawsuit also named CIA Director Leon Panetta and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

West Using Its Military Might To Control World Energy Resources The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s 2009 Year Book documented that international military expenditures for 2008 reached $1.464 trillion. The denomination in dollars is germane as the United States accounted for 41.5 percent of the world total. Earlier this month the Congressional Research Service in the U.S. reported that American weapons sales abroad reached $37.8 billion, or 68.4 percent of all global arms transactions. The next largest weapons supplier was Italy at $3.7 billion, less than one-tenth the U.S. amount. Russia was third at $3.5 billion. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, however, asserted that Germany had superseded Britain and France and become the world’s third largest weapons exporter.

Federal court blocks Obama Administration attempt to spy on cell phones without a warrant The Obama Administration's effort to obtain your location from cell phone towers without a warrant was rebuffed Wednesday by a federal court. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department cannot obtain information about which cell phone towers mobile phones communicate with without a warrant.

FBI spying on all US citizens The US government is assembling a new domestic security measure that gathers information about every citizen and resident in America. The system collects, stores and analyzes information with the help of every state and law enforcement agency about thousands of US citizens and then feeds the information to the FBI, The Washington Post reported. The FBI is building a database with the names and personal information of thousands of Americans whom a local police officer or a fellow citizen believes to be acting suspiciously.
'Israel involved in Kosovo organ trade' A European Union prosecutor who says Israel has been trading with an elaborate organ trafficking network in Kosovo has brought the case to Pristina District Court, a report says. Jonathan Ratel, who serves in Kosovo as part of the EU's rule of law mission, has announced that the seven suspected Kosovons working as physicians for a clinic called Medicus in the capital, Pristina, belong to an international network that trades in the organs of people suffering from extreme poverty, the Associated Press reported. The donors were from Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey and were enticed with the false promise of payments as much as 20 thousand dollars. However, they never got any money. There are also charges pressed against an Israeli individual and a Turkish doctor who have not been arrested yet. The organs were illegally removed from the victims and transplanted into rich recipients most of whom were from Israel, Canada, Germany and Poland. Among the suspects are some of Kosovo's most famous doctors. One of them used to be permanent secretary of health and gave the clinic a false license. Also Dr Lutfi Dervishi, a university professor, who is said to be the ringleader of the group, set up the operations. Police were alerted to the network in November 2008, when a Turkish man, Yilmaz Altun, appeared exhausted at Pristina airport while waiting to board a flight home. When questioned by police, he said he had donated his kidney to an Israeli recipient. Kosovo law forbids the removal and transplant of organs. The Council of Europe has launched a probe into the issue and its report will be released to the public in France on Thursday.

Russian author of NYT confirms, terrorist group KGB-FSB staged racial riots in Moscow A "football fan" with the conspiratorial name Sedoy (Тhe Grey-Haired) who killed by Caucasians in Moscow, as it turned out, previously beat nearly to death a Russian Democratic journalist, Kashin. Many Russians consider Sviridov to a regular agent of the FSB. According to the information from a Moscow journalist Yulia Glezarova, confirmed by Mr. Kashin, a Zio Russian officer of the FSB Yegor Sviridov (conspiratorial name The Grey-Haired) operated under cover of a "football fan" and attacked a Caucasian, Aslan Cherkesov from Nalchik, within another members of the terrorist group KGB-FSB, and an "unknown" thug, who earlier beat up black and blue with a steel rod a Democratic journalist Oleg Kashin, is one and the same person.
 
Why are wars not being reported honestly? In the US Army manual on counterinsurgency, the American commander General David Petraeus describes Afghanistan as a "war of perception... conducted continuously using the news media". What really matters is not so much the day-to-day battles against the Taliban as the way the adventure is sold in America where "the media directly influence the attitude of key audiences". Reading this, I was reminded of the Venezuelan general who led a coup against the democratic government in 2002. "We had a secret weapon," he boasted. "We had the media, especially TV. You got to have the media."

Never has so much official energy been expended in ensuring journalists collude with the makers of rapacious wars which, say the media-friendly generals, are now "perpetual". In echoing the west's more verbose warlords, such as the waterboarding former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who predicated "50 years of war", they plan a state of permanent conflict wholly dependent on keeping at bay an enemy whose name they dare not speak: the public.   

WikiLeaks: US Ambassador Planned "Retaliation" Against France Over Ban on Monsanto Corn

In recent years, several European countries joined France in banning MON-810 and similar biotech crops while the products are reassessed in light of research showing they could harm the environment and human health.

It is not clear if Stapleton's retaliation scheme was ever implemented. 

MON-810 is engineered to excrete the Bt toxin, which is poisonous to some insect pests. A stacked version of MON-810 is also engineered to be resistant to glyphosate, an herbicide first popularized by Monsanto under the brand name Roundup.
The debate in France over Monsanto's GM products has grown ugly in recent years.
A recent Truthout report detailed the story of Dr. Gilles-Eric Seralini, a scientist at the University of Caen in France. Seralini's supporters claim the scientist has faced intimidation from within the French scientific community after he published several studies showing Monsanto GM corn and glyphosate posed risks to human health.

White House Drafts Executive Order for Indefinite Detention

The order establishes indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial.

Nearly two years after Obama's pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo, more inmates there are formally facing the prospect of lifelong detention and fewer are facing charges than the day Obama was elected.

 

  Paralysis deniers have subconscious insight into their disability

The benefits of thinking about our ancestors

 Harder-to-read fonts boost student learning

 How male oil rig staff learned to lose their machismo

'Dangerous workplaces provide a window on how processes associated with masculinity unfold in organisations, and highly effective dangerous workplaces provide a window on how these processes could be different. Indeed, if men can "undo gender" on offshore oil platforms - arguably one of the most macho work environments in the modern world - then they should be able to undo it anywhere.'

When and how psychological data is collected affects the kind of students who volunteer

Psychology has a serious problem. You may have heard about its over-dependence on WEIRD participants - that is, those from Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich Democracies. More specifically, as regular readers will be aware, countless psychology studies involve undergraduate students, particularly psych undergrads. Apart from the obvious fact that this limits the generalisability of the findings, Edward Witt and his colleagues provide evidence in a new paper for two further problems, this time involving self-selection biases.

 Do political scandals really distract us from important issues?

A new study by Beth Miller at the University of Missouri-Kansas City challenges the assumption that scandal is a distraction.

Provoking paranoid interpretations in a 'healthy' sample

Traditionally, psychiatrists saw the paranoia exhibited by patients with schizophrenia as qualitatively different from the feelings of mistrust and suspicion expressed by 'healthy' people. Today that view is changing. New research, much of it by psychologists, is demonstrating that clinical paranoia is on a continuum with the experiences of the general public

Brain Injured Vets Benefit from "Horses for Heroes" Rehabilitation

It was pure luck that Craig and Loren became the first Horses for Heroes participants from the VA Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics (VA SORCC). The booths for VA SORCC and Stable Hands, Inc., a Horses for Heroes chapter, were across from each other at a Veterans' appreciation event in May. Staff at VA SORCC had already been considering animal-assisted therapy for their patients. When they met representatives from Horses for Heroes, both sides recognized an opportunity for Craig and Loren, patients at VA SORCC.
"We identified them as Vets with TBI and related chronic pain issues and in talking with the therapist, we thought they'd be good candidates," said Christopher Petrone, LCSW, Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Program Manager for VA SORCC. Because Horses for Heroes is run by a nonprofit with both a small staff and budget, VA SORCC volunteered only two Veterans for a trial run.

VA reaches out to homeless Veterans through stand down events
VA offers several permanent, transitional and temporary housing programs to Veterans. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and VA Supported Housing (HUD-VASH) Program provides permanent housing and ongoing case management treatment services. VA also provides funding to community-based agencies providing transitional housing or service centers for homeless Veterans through the Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program.

Veterans Using NASA Anti-Gravity Treadmill Feel Like They are "Walking on the Moon" 

Psychologist Helping Veterans Makes TIME’s Top 100 List

Therapy involves identifying thoughts and situations that trigger painful memories and then gradually exposing the patient to those memories.

According to Dr. Foa, “Prolonged Exposure (PE) was found to reduce severity of PTSD symptoms, depression, and anger in Veterans who suffer from chronic PTSD even 30 years after the traumatic events.
Psychologist Joan Cook of Yale University described the rollouts of the treatment “unparalleled in the mental-health field.”
Veterans and their families can read more about the therapy here: http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/prolonged-exposure-therapy.asp

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