Image via WikipediaWhy We Desperately Need a New (and Better) GoogleGoogle has become a jungle: a tropical paradise for spammers and marketers. Almost every search takes you to websites that want you to click on links that make them money, or to sponsored sites that make Google money. There’s no way to do a meaningful chronological search.
We ended up using instead a web-search tool called Blekko.
( Meaningful chronological search. Now you know what I was thinking when I started up RSS SnapShot! Actually, all my news files are based on the premise that, sooner or later, paid Search will 'kill the goose.' It did for Yahoo! and more )
( Meaningful chronological search. Now you know what I was thinking when I started up RSS SnapShot! Actually, all my news files are based on the premise that, sooner or later, paid Search will 'kill the goose.' It did for Yahoo! and more )
California’s SB 1411, which adds a layer of criminal and civil penalties for certain online impersonations, goes into effect starting today. The consequences include a fine of up to $1,000, and/ or up to a year in jail.
True Vision’s timely film tells of the personal tragedies behind the mounting privatisation of water supplies.
After dumping 800,000 gallons of the dispersant Corexit to keep the oil "out of sight and out of mind", BP has certainly tried their best to cover up their little assault on mother nature.Could something as far away as a little spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico be the cause of what ails sneezing and feverish Britons this year?
Back in July a team of researchers from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii released a computer simulated animation showing that the oil droplets released from the Gulf would move all the way north to Georgia and past the Carolinas by October of 2010. Since we're already approaching 2011, just how much further have the oil droplets from this spill progressed into the Atlantic? Have the currents already taken this oil up to northern Europe, and if so, could the toxins from this oil already be present in the European weather systems?
It is possible that this oil floating on the surface, disrupting the normal ocean surface temperatures, has brought weather in Europe to a tipping point in what Polish meteorologists are calling the "coldest winter in last 1000 years". If this trend continues Europe could find itself in the midst of a sudden glacial rebound: a new ice age. At that point nobody in Northern Europe will have to worry about the flu anymore.
In an article from WOAI San Antonio News that speaks of a mysterious flu-like illness plaguing Gulf cleanup workers known as "TILT," or Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance, a doctor from the University of Texas Health Science Center states that:
"What makes [TILT] challenging is that patients show up with non-specific symptoms. Headaches, fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, upset stomach"In other words doctors have a difficult time distinguishing TILT from the typical flu. But toxins be damned, it's got to be the Swine Flu virus as the cause of all this sickness, right!?
Cuban medics in Haiti put the world to shame
Castro's doctors and nurses are the backbone of the fight against cholera
Serfing USA: Corporate America Is Robbing American Workers
What we’re witnessing is a massive national “speed-up” which is enriching the owners of capital, while the workers are getting stiffed. It is the payoff to the ruling class for decades of hammering of trade unions, and also of trade unions cutting deals with the Democratic Party, which in turn has refused to defend workers’ interests.
The national corporate media, itself viciously anti-union, continue to skew news coverage to portray unions as corrupt and greedy, so that the 90 percent of American workers who are not in a union don’t even realize that any pay gains or benefits they get are because employers are trying to avoid unionization of their workforce.
With Ink Barely Dry on START, Fight Looms Over Test-Ban Treaty
Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the Soviet Union when it fell apart in 1991, called on the U.S. to ratify an accord to ban all nuclear test blasts, saying it would strengthen U.S.-led efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
"We have seen that dialogue with even the most recalcitrant governments is possible," Gorbachev wrote in a New York Times op-ed column, apparently referring to North Korea and Iran. "Yet dialogue can work only if the United States abandons the hypocritical position of telling others what they must do while keeping its own options open."
( LOL Whoops ! Iran can laugh now - implying exactly the same....correctly but too subtly
http://www.transcend.org/tms/2010/05/the-npt-and-t he-nuclear-power-trap/ )
Ethnic Studies Classes Illegal in Arizona as of Jan.
Tom Horne, the force behind the Arizona law, says ethnic studies serve to divide rather than unite.
( Glib. Denying diversity is the first step in demonizing differences - real or alleged )
Fighting the Black Anti-Abortion Campaign: Trusting Black Women by Loretta J Ross from SisterSong
The Angry Black Woman
Linkspam: Fighting the Power
Fighting the Black Anti-Abortion Campaign: Trusting Black Women by Loretta J Ross from SisterSong
Sixty-five billboards were quickly erected in predominantly African American neighborhoods in Atlanta on February 5, 2010. Each showed a sorrowful picture of a black male child proclaiming, “Black Children are an Endangered Species.”A Simple Human Right: The History of Black Women and Abortion
Georgia Right to Life and the newly-formed Radiance Foundation spent $20,000 to sponsor the billboards that included the address of a previously unknown anti-abortion website.
…
At Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, where one of the billboards was only a few blocks away, we knew that this race- and gender-baiting campaign would have national implications, driving a racial wedge in the pro-choice movement and a gender wedge in communities of color. The legislation would also trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade.
Although SisterSong had not expected this fight, we could not afford to be silent. We surged into action to challenge the marketing of the billboards and the legislation. We formed a coalition for the fight with SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, Feminist Women’s Health Center, SisterLove, Planned Parenthood of the Southeast Region, and Raksha. We strategized together to use a reproductive justice approach that intersected race and gender as the smartest way to counter this intersectional attack on abortion rights.Here’s how we did it
Speculative Fiction Lovers, Check Out My Stash
Win An eReader And Support Speculative Fiction Writers of Color (At The Same Time!)
Race Culture USA
How race, class, misogyny and homophobia intersected in the Kelly and Antoine Dodson story
About Gulen charter schools
Texas Progressive Alliance Blogger Round-Up Is The Gift You Wanted Most
( slightly different - maybe the cooperative doesn't share the same way any more )
Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up Dec 27, 2010
For sale: all of our forests. Not some of them, nor most of them – the whole lot
Here is Paice is in front of the House of Lords select committee:Part of our policy is clearly established: we wish to proceed with very substantial disposal of public forest estate, which could go to the extent of all of it…Paice also accepts that foreign companies might want to buy up the trees, and that foreign-owned energy companies might want to cut the whole lot down for renewable energy.
( See
This coalition government is a sinister story of revenge below )
Bankster Privilege and the Threat of Right Wing Terrorism in 2011-2012
Since the Bush Cabal was thrown out after 25 years of bankster profiteering and warmongering, and the centrist Obama put in his place to preside over a bankster-collapsed economy, there has been over a 250% increase in bankster-sponsored racist and/or separatist right wing groups that openly brandish their capability and willingness for violence.In fact, if there’s one defining pattern of the last two years, and perhaps the coming two years, it is the “mainstreaming” of right-wing extremism and violence as acceptable to the public discourse in America.
IPS News
- PAKISTAN: Blasphemy Law Carries Over Into New Year
- MIDEAST: Israelis Resist Their Own Arabs
Image via WikipediaU.N. Threatens Ivorian Leaders With Possible War Crimes- HEALTH-BANGLADESH: Equity Key to Cutting Child Mortality
- Tunisian Unrest Stirs Arab World
- DEVELOPMENT: Running Out of Engineers
- RIGHTS-CHINA: Crackdowns Do Little to Address Sex Work
- BURMA: Junta's Drug ‘Exports' to China Test Economic Ties
- SOUTH AMERICA: Closer to a Palestinian State
- A Caribbean Cinderella: St. Domingo's Colonial Zone
New Report Exposes Media Love Affair with Right-Wingers and the Fox News Worldview: ‘Reporters Can’t Get Enough’
Forget about fake moon landings and Obama’s birth certificate. The most enduring unfounded conspiracy theory in America is that our institutions of knowledge – the media, the academy and even science — are biased in favor of liberals. On matters of substance, we are talking about a corporate-owned media that pushes relentlessly for “free trade” deals, foreign wars and fiscal “austerity.”
Pentagon’s Christmas Present: Largest Military Budget Since World War IIHT Suzie-Q
On December 22 both houses of the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a bill authorizing $725 billion for next year’s Defense Department budget.
Eric Margolis, The Huffington Post
The government and media have colluded to paint the picture of a noble, heroic, flag-waving American enterprise in Afghanistan that is, alas, very far from reality. As the cynic Ambrose Bierce pointedly observed of patriots — “the dupe of statesmen; the tool of conquerors.”
Three interesting reports about Afghanistan emerged in Washington last week.
Three interesting reports about Afghanistan emerged in Washington last week.
political whitewash claiming the war was going well and some US troops might be withdrawn next year
Red Cross issued a grim report showing that Afghans were suffering widespread malnutrition and serious health problems after nearly a decade of Western occupation. So much for US-led nation-building.
Third, there were leaks about a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the combined findings of all 16 US intelligence agencies. This key intelligence report is explosive and may not be fully revealed.( Shades of 2003 before the invasion of Iraq when increased terrorism was predicted. Haven't they finished killing the hillbillies starving in that sandbox yet ? )
Iran overhauls education system to erase Western influences
( Iran has had a bellyful of 'Western influences' like BBC broadcasts to run down the government. The Shah and his reign of terror come to mind. Ditto the 9 year war with the CIA's Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Not to mention decades of economic Sanctions thieving their oil payments and foreign credits because of institutional hypocrisy designed to harass promoters of nuclear disarmament. )
"Social Media" and the Sheridan Trial
I was asked last week if I would write a piece about my experience of blogging the trial of Tommy and Gail Sheridan and what that could tell us about the role of blogging and other "social media" in covering criminal cases. I completed it on Thursday while we were awaiting the verdict. more
Loose Cannons
At the moment it’s hard to know for certain whether “Britain’s most liberal government ever” (© Nick Clegg) will allow police to use water cannon on protesters. Home Secretary Theresa May at first said that she would not intervene to stop police from using them, then appeared to rule the prospect out.
However, police officers appear to still be in favour of using water cannons. A recent opinion poll found that 69% supported their use against protesters, as against 23% who thought it unacceptable.Most on the left are rightly shocked that a government could even consider such tactics against peaceful protesters. There are a number of issues with using water cannons.
If you are hit by a water cannon directly in the face, the consequences can be absolutely horrific. Via The Third Estate I came across this:
Wagner’s doctor said the patient was currently blind and might never have his sight fully restored.
This coalition government is a sinister story of revenge
When he says that this will be the greenest government in Britain’s history, you announce a plan to sell off Britain’s forests, raise train fares by 10% and water down emissions standards for coal power stations.
When he says that Britons will be “more liberal” at the end of this government’s term of office in 2015, you revive plans to spy on everyone’s e-mails and text messages, whilst also retaining control orders.Then you find out that Clegg signed a pledge before the election to vote against any rise in university fees:
So you immediately annouce plans to triple them. Then you say to Clegg that it’s fine for him to abstain against the rise if he likes, knowing that if he does then he will be hated by everyone.
Save the Wolves from GOP Predators and Palin
from The Existentialist CowboyA bone-headed decision to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered species list applies to wolf populations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Idaho and Montana, and parts of Utah, Washington and Oregon. Apparently, gray wolves in Wyoming remain protected under terms of the Endangered Species Act. This 'act' has transferred the 'management' of the wolf population from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to state and tribal agencies. In Idaho -- the wolves have become legal targets for hunters in short order.
Ranchers are apparently the largest group demanding the eradication of Wolves.
Ranchers have no legitimate complaint. Many have in fact encroached upon 'ancient' habitats and, in any case, they use land owned by the public for 'free grazing'. Anyone getting a 'free lunch' has nothing to complain about.
Al Qaeda was a U.S. creation, specifically a product of inverted right wing psuedo logic. If 'al Qaeda' did not exist, never mind --the shills would invent it and cite it to justify wars abroad, crackdowns on freedom at home! They would bestow upon it a virtual existence via press releases, propaganda and outright lies --deliberate attempts to mislead the American people!
There had not been anything like it since Bond fought SPECTRE --an evil terrorist organization specializing in terrorism and extortion. In the Bushco rewrite the part of Blofeld is played by Bin Laden.
It was a crock!
It was a crock!
One hopes that thinking about Iraq has gotten clearer since Bush violated U.S. laws and international commitments in order to: 1) seize the oil fields of Iraq; 2) exploit the 'threat of terror' to consolidate his 'base' at home, 3) subvert Constitutional guarantees that give Americans the right to denounce incompetent and/or traitorous 'leaders'. An evil legacy of this idiocy is the recent decree that would allow the government to 'sanction' i.e, kill its vocal opposition.
What the GOP has in mind for the rest of the nation, it has very nearly accomplished in Texas. Under the criminal and incompetent management of George W. Bush and, later, Rick 'Good Hair' Perry, Texas is reduced to third-world status --an outcome resulting from Bush/Perry neglect and overt contempt for public education, the only education that those not born to wealth have any chance of acquiring. The 'elites' would deny you even that!
The privatized Hutto jail, which is also administered by Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), currently interns political asylum seekers who came to the U.S. on legal visas. Most of them are families including pregnant women and children who have never been accused of any wrongdoing but are forced to endure squalid conditions inside literal concentration camps.
It is no coincidence that as high school graduations per capita have declined, crime in Texas, most notably murder, has increased. It is no coincidence that the prison population swells to overflowing. It is no coincidence that the GOP in Texas has, thus, enriched, the corporate, fascist owners.
The U.S. will try to prosecute Julian Assange under laws that violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, laws that were absurd when the U.S. entered World War I and more so now. These are laws that prohibit you from telling the truth about the U.S. government; these are laws that make it a crime to exercise your conscience. Thus, these laws are, by definition, tyrannical.
Let's put aside the myth that we are guaranteed 'Freedom of Speech' in the U.S. Certainly, the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution makes such a guarantee but, in practice, we are often denied that right, most notably when it is the government that is sure to be embarrassed or exposed by the mere exercise of free speech. That is the case today!
Let's put aside the myth that we are guaranteed 'Freedom of Speech' in the U.S. Certainly, the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution makes such a guarantee but, in practice, we are often denied that right, most notably when it is the government that is sure to be embarrassed or exposed by the mere exercise of free speech. That is the case today!
Cyber Wars the movie
The corporate government is not satisfied with having the ability, enabled by Homeland Security, to snoop anywhere they seem fit, but now find the need to control the innertubes. or even shut it down .
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