Fair Use Note

WARNING for European visitors: European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

Thomas Paine

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

Friday, February 18, 2011

18 February - RSS SnapShot! Pt 1

Two ships moored at El Ballah during a Suez Ca...Image via Wikipedia

UPDATES FROM OPIT'S LINKFEST! AT  

 MY OPERA

WATER RELATED SEARCH RESULTS AT BOTTOM

 

Blacklisted News

The Intelligence Daily

My AntiWar

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

  • Israeli FM Threatens War With Iran Over Suez W ...
    Summary: LiebermanFinancial markets the world over are in turmoil and Brent North Sea Crude has reached a new short-term high today after Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Iran of planning to send two warships through the Suez Canal later this evening and suggested this coul ...
  • Washington's Valentine's Day Faux Pas in the M ...
    Summary: Bahrain protestsValentine's Day, and not a whole lot of love in the Middle East, as clashes between government forces and protestors broke out in Bahrain, Iran and Yemen. Washington, as usual, did nothing right. After hemming and hawing through the widespread Egyptian uprising again ...
  • Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Ira ...
    Summary: The admission comes just after the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations in which the then-US secretary of state relied heavily on lies that Janabi had told the German secret service, the BND. It also follows the release of former defence secretary Donald ...
  • UK says in talks on stepping up pressure on Ir ...
    Summary: Increased pressure could mean tightening existing sanctions or imposing additional ones, a government source said. The U.N. Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Tehran for refusing to freeze its uranium enrichment programme, which Western powers suspect is aimed ...
  • U.S. military interests could suffer
    Summary: Could the tiny Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain be the next U.S. diplomatic domino to fall in a rapidly changing Middle East? As riot police in Bahrain attacked hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators Monday with tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades, U.S. strategic i ...

The Daily Galaxy

  • Image of the Day: Great Blue Sand Dunes of Mar ...
    This is image of the Red Planet, snapped by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows blue sand dunes covering part of the Rabe crater, a 100-kilometre-diameter impact site in the planet's southern highlands. The dunes are an accumulation of basalt sands...
  • Japan to Send Twitter-Using Humanoids to the I ...
    The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA), the University of Tokyo and advertising agency Dentsu are ready to develop a humanoid that’s able to support astronauts at the International Space Station and post new information on Twitter and manage the outpost...
  • The Daily Flash -Sci, Space, Tech (2/18)
    The Mystery of the Missing Moon Trees 15 years after NASA astronomer David Williams started searching for them, hundreds of trees grown from space-faring seeds are still missing. The “moon trees,” whose seeds circled the moon 34 times in Apollo...
  • New Tech Zooms in on Potential Twin Earths
    The search for habitable planets outside our solar system is heating up. NASA's Kepler spacecraft has located more than 1,200 planetary candidates, but confirming their planetary status remains a challenge. With some of the Kepler candidates, an eclipsing binary star...
  • Andromeda Provides New Clue to the Evolution o ...
    U.S. astronomers studying the Andromeda galaxy says a thick stellar disk of older stars offers clues to how large spiral galaxies like the Milky Way form. UCLA research astronomer Michael Rich and colleagues from Europe and Australia, using the Keck...

Natural News

  • Food-based zinc and selenium from MegaFood now ...
    (NaturalNews) I first met the MegaFood company at a natural products expo two years ago. We sat down and had a conversation about "food-based nutrients" versus isolated or synthetic nutrients, and it turned into a fascinating hour that left me thinking we should be doing something with the MegaF ...
  • Monsanto, Dow to begin pushing dangerous 2,4-D ...
    (NaturalNews) It is something that many farmers of genetically-modified (GM) crops are already trying to do and failing to succeed in, but that the chemical companies responsible for the problem may soon be pushing as an alleged "solution." The Dow Chemical Company has sponsored a study that aim ...
  • Obama proposes to significantly cut funding fo ...
    (NaturalNews) Last year 44 North Dakota farms and ranches were able to either convert to organic, or improve organic production methods, thanks to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). But these and other programs that prom ...
  • Cancer causing chemicals found in cola colorin ...
    (NaturalNews) The "caramel coloring" used to color all the top cola brands isn't natural caramel coloring at all. Instead, it's made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites at high temperatures. This reaction results in the formation of 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, both of which ...
  • German TV exposes the horrors of toxic GM soy
    (NaturalNews) Widespread environmental pollution; poisoning and contamination of agriculture; countless injuries, deformities, and deaths in humans -- these and many other horrific events are a result of cultivating genetically-modified (GM) crops, and GM soy in particular. A recent news documen ...

Threat Level

  • Patriot Act Extension Lands On Obama’s Desk
    The House forwarded legislation Thursday to the president extending through May three controversial Patriot Act spy measures that were set to expire at month’s end. The 279-143 vote came two days after the Senate approved the same language. Earlier in the week, the House had agreed to prolong th ...
  • Cyberwar Issues Likely to Be Addressed Only Af ...
    When it comes to developing cyberwarfare policy, the U.S. will likely wait for a catastrophic event and then overreact, rather than plan ahead, said former intelligence chief Mike McConnell at the RSA Conference on Wednesday. McConnell was pessimistic that Congress and the public would get its ...
  • Sony Threatens to Terminate Service of PS3 Jai ...
    Sony said Wednesday it would permanently block PlayStation 3 owners from the PlayStation Network if they are using jailbroken consoles. Access to what Sony describes as a “world of entertainment” will be “terminated permanently,” the Japanese entertainment concern announced. “To avoid this, cons ...
  • Surveillance Footage and Code Clues Indicate S ...
    New clues about Stuxnet provide the strongest evidence yet that the superworm targeted a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran, according to a new report. The clues come from surveillance cameras installed by international investigators at the Natanz enrichment plant in Iran – which show Iranian wor ...
  • Senate Extends Patriot Act Spy Bill
    The Senate voted late Tuesday to extend through May three controversial Patriot Act spy measures that were set to expire at month’s end. The 86-12 vote came a day after the House voted to extend the same provisions to December 8. The fate of both bills remained unclear late Tuesday. The action i ...

PERRspectives : Blog

  • For Beck and Fox News, It's the End Times All ...
    Over the past several days, Fox News host Glenn Beck has explained that the unrest sweeping the Middle East augurs a New World Order jointly pursued by a combination of George Soros, radical Islamists and communist unions, all aided, apparently, by Google. But on Thursday, Beck literally turned ...
  • Will GOP Push Ryan's Plan to Ration Medicare?
    On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Paul Ryan blasted Obama budget chief Jack Lew over entitlement spending, declaring "why did you duck?" But for their part, Republicans have yet to offer their own plan for addressing the fiscal health of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. While Majority ...
  • Republicans Punt on Deficits. Seriously.
    If nothing else, the Republican Party is a machine for generating talking points - and irony. While Senators Mitch McConnell and Jeff Sessions insisted President Obama's $3.73 trillion budget proposal wasn't "serious," over in the Speaker House John Boehner and his lieutenant Paul Ryan claimed ...
  • State and Local Governments the Anti-Stimulus
    Back in October, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post warned of the "anti-stimulus." That is, the draconian budget cuts and steep layoffw at the state and local level, Klein argued, were more than offsetting the gains from the $787 billion federal stimulus program. Now, a new analysis from the Na ...
  • Introducing the Bipartisan War Tax Act of 2013
    George W. Bush was the first modern president to cut taxes during wartime. Now, the unpaid $2 trillion bill for the wars he fought - and chose to fight - is long overdue. While President Obama and the Republican leadership in Congress jockey to position their budget cutting plans, it's time fo ...

Blackspot News Feed

  • The Great Tax Cut Debate - Myths and Facts
    In the lame-duck Congress agenda, perhaps the most substantive debate is over whether to continue tax breaks for the rich. President Obama and most Congressional Democrats want to extend the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans, everyone making under $250,000. Republicans want to extend the ...
  • What Landslide?: A Closer Look at the Midterm ...
    By now, everyone has heard of the conservative "tidal wave" that has overtaken Congress and most gubernatorial seats throughout the U.S. Indeed, anyone who has watched mainstream media coverage probably understands the midterm election results as a "rebuke of Obama's policies," with the "Tea Par ...
  • INS Targets Community Leaders, Not Criminals
    When people the world over think of Arizona nowadays, they generally think of Governor Jan Brewer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio or state representative Russell Pearce – the poster children of the state's move toward legalized discrimination and racial profiling. If they are closely following the politics ...
  • Dancing with Dynamite:How Citizens Can be More ...
    Two years ago, President Obama sailed into the White House on the winds of voters’ desire for widespread social change and their disgust with two wars and a massive recession associated with George W. Bush. Only two years into his presidency and the concurrent Democratic takeover of Congress, ho ...
  • Pope Says Condoms Acceptable 'In Certain Cases ...
    Until now, the Vatican had prohibited the use of any form of contraception -- other than abstinence -- even as a guard against sexually transmitted disease.

Consortium News

  • Ray McGovern Bloodied at Clinton Talk
    Ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern was roughed up by Hillary Clinton's security as she hailed peaceful protests, notes Robert Parry. February 17, 2011
  • The Back Story on Iran's Clashes
    The U.S. media presents the new street protests in Iran as a morality play, but they are more complex, reports Robert Parry. February 17, 2011
  • How Egypt's Revolt Challenges Israel
    Egypt's ouster of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak tests Israel's policies toward the Palestinians, writes Lawrence Davidson. February 16, 2011
  • Tear Down This Reagan Mythology
    The idol worship of Ronald Reagan has wildly exaggerated his role in "winning" the Cold War, observes Ivan Eland. February 16, 2011
  • Short-Counting the Taliban
    Gen. David Petraeus wins out in a struggle over counting the number of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, writes Gareth Porter. February 15, 2011

CounterPunch

Institute for Middle East Understanding

Water - AlterNet

Public Citizen in Texas

  • Dallas EPA hearing on CO2
    The EPA and Texas are in a dispute over whether the EPA can legally regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, and whether it has a right to issue greenhouse-gas permits in Texas when the state refuses to do so. It become necessary on Jan. 2nd for the nation’s largest new industrial expan ...
  • WCS press conferance 094 [Flickr]
    Public Citizen Texas posted a photo:
  • NRC revising classification of low-level radio ...
    Reprint of NRC notice No. 11-027 February 16, 2011 PUBLIC MEETING FEB. 24 TO DISCUSS REVISIONS TO KEY NRC DOCUMENT ON CLASSIFICATION OF LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public meeting Feb. 24 in Rockville, Md., to discuss potential revisions to a key docu ...
  • Senate to hear testimony on February power out ...
    The Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce will convene in a joint hearing with the Senate Committee on Natural Resources at 8:30 a.m. on February 15, 2011, in the Senate Chamber.  The purpose of the hearing is to receive updates on the power outages of February 2nd through 4th and to d ...
  • PLEASE MAKE ONE CALL THIS MORNING FOR HEALTH A ...
    We are truly in danger of losing the coal ash fight because of two anti-coal ash amendments tacked onto the House budget legislation.  We anticipate that the first amendment (No. 10) will be on the floor THIS AFTERNOON. These two amendments, Amendment 10 offered by Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-F ...

Unexplained Mysteries

  • UFO filmed above Chinese soccer match
    A video of a strange object hovering near a busy stadium in China has surfaced on the internet. The event took place in Guangzhou, already a hot spot ...
  • Mars thought to be smaller than it should be
    Simulations of the solar system's formation have indicated that Mars should be larger than it is. Planetary scientists believe that Mars should be 5-1...
  • Scientists invent the 'anti-laser'
    Scientists have developed a device that can absorb the light from a laser rather than emitting it. The invention is thought to have considerable poten...
  • Boy without a cerebellum baffles doctors
    Chase Britton is defying all odds due to the fact that he doesn't appear to have a cerebellum. In a story that defies all medical odds and will likely...
  • Roman child's footprints found
    Archaeologists have unearthed two-thousand year old footprints made by a Roman child. The footprints were found during an excavation of a Roman settle...

Grassroots

Climate

  • Judge Tells Government to Resume Permits for D ...
    Source:� New York Times A federal judge in New Orleans ordered the Obama administration to move quickly on permits for new deepwater oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Governments to Debate Kyoto Climate Dilemma
    Source:� Reuters Governments are looking at ways to keep the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol going beyond 2012 in some form to defuse a standoff between rich and poor nations that threatens efforts to tackle global warming.
  • Japan Plans to Ramp Up Renewable Energy Scheme
    Source:� Reuters Japan's government will propose ramping up a scheme to encourage electricity generation from renewable sources, aiming to cut annual CO2 emissions by 2 percent in 2020.
  • Mississippi Governor Critizes EPA's Coal Overs ...
    Source:� AP On a visit to coal country, potential Republican presidential candidate Haley Barbour says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is over-regulating coal. �
  • Chevron Foundation, USAID Give Nigeria $50M
    Source:� AP Chevron Corp.'s foundation and USAID are to pour $50 million into Nigeria's impoverished delta where militants have demanded that more oil profits come back to the region, the U.S. oil giant said.

GreenBiz

Reuters Global

Booman Tribune

  • Public Service Unions
    The Wall Street Journal very predictably supports the public sector union-busting efforts of the Wisconsin Republican Party and their novice governor. To them, all these protestors are just like the unwashed Greeks and Frenchies who take to the streets whenever their betters try to turn the eco ...
  • Casual Observation
    A little bird told me that if an alleged Black Muslim Kenyan Marxist Fascist DEMOCRAT was not President of the United States of America, and a Republican was, Senator Jim Demented Demint would not have said this: "This whole idea that the President is the leader of our country is a mistake," ...
  • Two Questions
    Number One: Do you think the seven million dollars of your tax money that the Pentagon spends to sponsor a NASCAR Sprint Cup racecar actually helps military recruitment and is a good investment? Number Two: Do you think the appropriate way to deal with a congresswoman who doesn't think it is ...
  • Reminder: Use Facebook or Twitter?
    Or other social media? If you are and you see a story or diary you like make sure to use the site to Tweet about it or post it to your Facebook page, etc. Just use the buttons at the bottom of each diary or front page story (on your left). The "other" button includes Myspace, Google Buzz ...
  • Wisconsin Disappearing Act
    The last time Democratic legislators fled their home state they we're trying to thwart Tom DeLay's corrupt redistricting plan. This time they're from Wisconsin: As government workers flooded the state Capitol to protest, Wisconsin legislators were tripped up in attempts to vote Thursday on a ...

European Tribune

Futurismic

  • Personal Information: episode 24
    Personal Information is a new serial sci-fi webcomic from Sarah “Does Not Equal” Ennals. Follow Futurismic on Twitter for more nuggets of near-future fun and weirdness! Share and Enjoy:Follow Futurismic on Twitter for more nuggets of near-future fun and weirdness!
  • Arguments against life extension
    Via Michael Anissimov, here’s a spectacularly empty diatribe against “deathhackers” by TechCrunch‘s Paul Carr. Carr objects to the idea of radical life extension as advocated by transhumanists, which is fair enough, but as written here most of his objections seem to boil down to personal distate ...
  • Daddy, where does innovation come from?
    Plenty of folk have been linking to this excerpt from Matt Ridley’s new book The Rational Optimist, and with good reason – it’s a provocative piece that plays to advocates (and opponents) of free trade, open exchange, copyright reform and much more. The basic thesis? The one persistent factor th ...
  • Replacement arms: mechanical or biological?
    Prosthetic limbs are still in their infancy, but there’s a lot of progress being made: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is working with Darpa (who else?), and has a research grant for trying out their mind-controlled modular prosthetic arm on five test subjects over the next couple of ye ...
  • How to be a futurist
    The irrepressible Scott “Basic Instructions” Meyer has the lowdown if you’re thinking of a career in futurism: Click through for the whole thing. But take it from me, being a futurist is a lot of work for no money. Or maybe that’s just the way I do it… and I’ve never been featured in a [...]Foll ...

Therapy News

  • Ways to Play: Work and Play
    By Mary Alice Long, PhD Play Therapy Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Mary Alice and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile I love this quote; I have to work so hard to play. For many of us play does not come easily. Try wrapping your arms around the idea that you are not your work. Wh ...
  • Successful Parenting: Guiding Your Child to Be ...
    By Melissa Wright, MA, LPC, RPT, NCCPlay Therapy Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Melissa and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile How many times have I heard “So, do you have a manual for my kid?” We learn from very early on in parenting that there is no such thing. Sure, there are ...
  • Self-Sabotage in Setting Goals
    By Tina Gilbertson, MA, Self-Esteem Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Tina and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile Last month we looked at how to set goals that are S.M.A.R.T.: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. The idea of keeping goals SMART is to set your ...
  • Playtime Promotes Inter-Generational Bonding
    A GoodTherapy.org News Summary Affection between grandparents and their grandchildren is one thing. But it can be hard for grown grandchildren and their grandparents to relate to one another. We know how important familial bonds are for a person’s mental health and sense of social support. So ho ...
  • Voice Dialogue and Healing the Inner Scapegoat ...
    By Francesca Starr, MA, LPC, BCPC, Voice Dialogue Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Francesca and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile This is the fourth in a series of articles on the Scapegoat and how Voice Dialogue can help heal this ancient phenomenon that continues to occur withi ...

Mountaintop Removal

  • EIA Energy Watcher: We Do Not Count Damaged Pu ...
    EIA Energy Watcher: We Do Not Count Damaged Public Property in Price of Fossil ... Huffington Post (blog) We keep reading about the devastation caused by oil spills, natural gas "fracking," mountaintop removal coal mining, etc. because we are renting our property to bad renters -- people who ar ...
  • A new study about coal - Biofuels Watch
    New York Times (blog) A new study about coal Biofuels Watch The Harvard Medical School study also featured the environmental damage occurred due to the stream contaminations, land restoration for the mountain top removal and the contribution of coal to the emissions and the climate change. ... ...
  • Mountaintop removal spurs musical protest - Th ...
    Mountaintop removal spurs musical protest The News Record The Lucy Becker Trio performs Appalachian-inspired music at Southgate House to raise money to stop mountaintop removal in the Appalachian Mountains. As mountaintop removal becomes a hotter subject, one Cincinnatian's ... and more�� ...
  • Kentucky Aims to Become 'Sanctuary State' for ...
    Kansas City Star Kentucky Aims to Become 'Sanctuary State' for Big Coal ecopolitology Just days after a group of activists ended a four-day occupation of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's office to protest the state's support of mountaintop removal mining, two bills advanced in legislative comm ...
  • Rally at the Capital - Murray State News
    Rally at the Capital Murray State News They all gathered for the same cause: to speak out against mountaintop removal. "(The Appalachian mountains are) one of Kentucky's greatest resources," he said. "Mountaintop removal is a highly destructive form of mining. Effectively, they try to say ... ...

Memeorandum

  • Firefighter refused call to Tucson shooting sp ...
    Arizona Daily Star: Firefighter refused call to Tucson shooting spree scene  —  A veteran city firefighter's refusal to respond to the Jan. 8 shooting spree, citing “political bantering,” may have slowed his Tucson Fire Department unit's response to the incident that left six dead and 13 wounde ...
  • Nancy Pelosi aide says a government shutdown i ...
    Jonathan Allen / The Politico: Nancy Pelosi aide says a government shutdown is likely  —  A high-ranking aide to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Democratic chiefs of staff that a government shutdown is more likely than not, according to attendees.  —  Speaking at a regular meeting ...
  • Jeff Bingaman to retire (Chris Cillizza/The Fi ...
    Chris Cillizza / The Fix: Jeff Bingaman to retire  —  New Mexico Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman is expected to announce his retirement today, according to a source close to the decision, a move that further complicates his party's efforts to hold their Senate majority in 2012.  —  Bingaman had b ...
  • Security Forces in Bahrain Open Fire on Mourne ...
    New York Times: Security Forces in Bahrain Open Fire on Mourners  —  MANAMA, Bahrain — Government forces opened fire on hundreds of mourners marching toward Pearl Square Friday, sending people running away in panic amid the boom of concussion grenades.  But even as the people fled, at least on ...
  • Administration asks judge to tell the states t ...
    Jason Millman / The Hill: Administration asks judge to tell the states that healthcare law isn't optional  —  The Obama administration is asking a federal judge who struck down the healthcare reform law to clarify that states must still implement the overhaul as the appeals process plays out.

Energy & Environment News

5+ quakes - 7 days

  • M 5.1, Baja California, Mexico
    Friday, February 18, 2011 17:47:36 UTCFriday, February 18, 2011 09:47:36 AM at epicenterDepth: 10.00 km (6.21 mi)
  • M 5.2, offshore Valparaiso, Chile
    Friday, February 18, 2011 17:01:04 UTCFriday, February 18, 2011 02:01:04 PM at epicenterDepth: 45.00 km (27.96 mi)
  • M 5.4, Taiwan region
    Tuesday, February 15, 2011 07:18:19 UTCTuesday, February 15, 2011 03:18:19 PM at epicenterDepth: 35.70 km (22.18 mi)
  • M 5.4, Tarapaca, Chile
    Monday, February 14, 2011 21:56:44 UTCMonday, February 14, 2011 06:56:44 PM at epicenterDepth: 96.50 km (59.96 mi)
  • M 6.0, offshore Bio-Bio, Chile
    Sunday, February 13, 2011 10:35:06 UTCSunday, February 13, 2011 07:35:06 AM at epicenterDepth: 13.30 km (8.26 mi)

China Dialogue

  • Paper protection in western China
    Fragmented by the highways and railways of Xinjiang’s development drive, two nature reserves have come to symbolise the eroding worth of China’s protected areas, writes Sun Danping.At the Kalamaili Ungulate Nature Reserve in Xinjiang, China’s westernmost region, a group of Mongolian wild ass, or ...
  • Building China’s future?
    Following Singapore’s example, Britain is trying to secure a role in China’s eco-cities market. But what does that mean for the green agenda? Olivia Boyd spoke to one of the figures behind the campaign.China’s vice premier, Li Keqiang, spent much of his nine-day European tour in January buying w ...
  • The rough side of rubber
    Rubber plantations in Yunnan are destroying China’s richest biodiversity hotspot. But blaming small-hold farmers will not resolve the issue, writes Janet C Sturgeon.Over the past couple of years, the government in Xishuangbanna, a prefecture in south-west China’s Yunnan province, has finally wok ...
  • Non-profit power
    The role of civil society in global climate policy is mysterious to many in China, writes Chen Jiliang. But public campaigning is crucial work that must persist, even in the face of disappointing results.Civil society has always been a significant force in global climate-change politics. But in ...
  • The Chinese data chase
    Fearful of stifling economic development, China’s local environmental authorities are still falling short on data disclosure, seven grassroots groups found in an innovative study. Amy Sim explains.“As a civil society organisation, we must step up our work to support information disclosure, incre ...

AlterNet Top Stories

Threat Level

  • Patriot Act Extension Lands On Obama’s Desk
    The House forwarded legislation Thursday to the president extending through May three controversial Patriot Act spy measures that were set to expire at month’s end. The 279-143 vote came two days after the Senate approved the same language. Earlier in the week, the House had agreed to prolong th ...
  • Cyberwar Issues Likely to Be Addressed Only Af ...
    When it comes to developing cyberwarfare policy, the U.S. will likely wait for a catastrophic event and then overreact, rather than plan ahead, said former intelligence chief Mike McConnell at the RSA Conference on Wednesday. McConnell was pessimistic that Congress and the public would get its ...
  • Sony Threatens to Terminate Service of PS3 Jai ...
    Sony said Wednesday it would permanently block PlayStation 3 owners from the PlayStation Network if they are using jailbroken consoles. Access to what Sony describes as a “world of entertainment” will be “terminated permanently,” the Japanese entertainment concern announced. “To avoid this, cons ...
  • Surveillance Footage and Code Clues Indicate S ...
    New clues about Stuxnet provide the strongest evidence yet that the superworm targeted a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran, according to a new report. The clues come from surveillance cameras installed by international investigators at the Natanz enrichment plant in Iran – which show Iranian wor ...
  • Senate Extends Patriot Act Spy Bill
    The Senate voted late Tuesday to extend through May three controversial Patriot Act spy measures that were set to expire at month’s end. The 86-12 vote came a day after the House voted to extend the same provisions to December 8. The fate of both bills remained unclear late Tuesday. The action i ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

IntelNews

  • News you may have missed #477 (Germany edition ...
    German ex-foreign minister in spat with ex-CIA director. German spy chief claims Mubarak to stay in Egypt [unconfirmed]. Austrian on trial in Germany on charges of spying for Russia. Continue reading →
  • Colin Powell wants answers over fake Iraq inte ...
    Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised by recent news that the Iraqi defector whose information helped build the Bush Administrationâs case for invading Iraq in 2003, has admitted he lied about Saddam Husseinâs alleged weapons of mass destruction. Continue reading →
  • US denies smuggling spy equipment into Argenti ...
    The United States has denied charges by Argentine officials that it tried to smuggle espionage equipment into the South American country under the pretext of transporting training supplies for Argentine Federal Police. The charges were leveled on Thursday, after Argentine customs officials condu ...
  • Mubarak delayed exit in order to shift secret ...
    One of the reasons why Egyptâs disgraced ex-president kept prolonging his rule amidst ferocious anti-government protests this month, was to transfer billions of dollars-worth of personal assets into bank accounts around the world. Continue reading →
  • General arrested in Taiwan’s biggest spy scand ...
    A "tall, beautiful and chic" Chinese female operative, who held an Australian passport, appears to be behind Taiwanâs most serious espionage scandal in almost half a century, according to news reports. Continue reading →

War is a Crime.org

  • Twenty Years Ago Today -- Immolation Revolutio ...
    By Sam Husseini Let a man in a garret but burn with enough intensity and he will set fire to the world. -- Antoine de Saint Exupéry (best know as the author of The Little Prince) � Perhaps it was just a coincidence that he used newspapers to do it.� � But I don't think so. � From what I know o ...
  • They Only Lock Up Heroes at Quantico
    If Bradley Manning turns out to be the hero he appears to be, he will not be the first "detained" at Quantico. In fact, Quantico once locked up the most decorated Marine in history, a Marine who would have been running the Marine Corps rather than getting locked up by it if he had known how t ...
  • Judge Throws Out Suit By Torture Victim on Gro ...
    Judge throws out Padilla suit over alleged torture CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit brought by a man convicted of plotting terrorism and who alleged he was tortured at a Navy brig in South Carolina, saying a trial would create "an international spectacle." ...
  • Go Wisconsin Workers and Students! "What's Dis ...
    From The Nation Magazine: "What's Disgusting? Union Busting!" Chant Wisconsin Crowds That Swell to 30,000; Key GOP Legislators Waver by John Nichols "I have never been prouder of our movement than I am at this moment," shouted Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt, as he surveyed the cro ...
  • EMERGENCY PROTEST at Bahrain Embassy in Washin ...
    Call on Kingdom to stop brutal repression of peaceful protests WHERE : EMBASSY OF BAHRAIN 3502 International Dr. NW, 20008 (Metro Station- Van Ness, UDC Campus) WHEN : FRIDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2011, 12:00 pm WHY: On Thursday Febru ...

Grist - News

  • Fish consumption at all time high, says U.N. a ...
    by Agence France-Presse. ROME -- Fish consumption reached record levels in 2010 and world stocks need to be urgently rebuilt, experts at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report Monday. "The contribution of fish to global diets has reached a record of almost 17 kil ...
  • Bordeaux vineyards go organic, slowly but sure ...
    by Agence France-Presse. BORDEAUX, France -- Two historical Bordeaux wine estates have gone green, breaking a long resistance to organic viticulture amongst the region's elite producers. "Still in 2011, there are people who do not trust in the fact that it is possible to grow organic in Bor ...
  • U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon shifts focus from clima ...
    by Agence France-Presse. LONDON -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is shifting his focus away from involvement in international climate change talks and toward new areas in the fight against global warming. Ban is to redirect his efforts from trying to push forward the international clim ...
  • New Senate bill aims to avoid next oil spill
    by Agence France-Presse. WASHINGTON -- Senators plan to introduce in the coming weeks new legislation aiming to prevent another disastrous oil spill like last year's massive gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said Wednesday. A similar bill that would revise offshore ...
  • Big cities are not always the biggest polluter ...
    by Agence France-Presse. WASHINGTON -- Big cities like New York, London, and Shanghai send less pollution into the atmosphere per capita than places like Denver and Rotterdam, said a study released Tuesday. Researchers examined data from 100 cities in 33 nations for clues about which were ...

Popular Bookmarks on Del.icio.us

Technorati - What's Hot in Blogs

Time - Top Stories

Farming Pathogens

  • Egypt’s Food Pyramids
    A million minds momentarily magnetizing themselves along the same axis can turn a country’s deepest despair into an ecstatic sprint for freedom. What a people find revolting–a dictator decorated in American apologia–can be turned by a people’s revolt ridiculous. No wonder so much effort (and mon ...
  • The Scientific American
    Science is the business right now. If the science works, the business works, and vice versa. –Craig Venter Bird flu marinates a chicken in its own juices, a satay best avoided whatever the menu special. In such short an order better for the bistro than the barn, infected birds rapidly bleed from ...
  • Fearful Symmetry
    A colleague, genuinely perplexed, even outraged, asked me what the fuck was going on with all those dead birds in Arkansas. And, tongue-in-cheek, what would Mulder and Scully say? Scully: Mulder, it’s me. I got your message. Really, Beebe, Arkansas for a flock of dead birds? Does Skinner approve ...
  • The Great Recession Flu
    Swine flu is so 2009. Like La Roux and v-neck t-shirts. And yet the United Kingdom is presently suffering a swine flu attack worse than anything it faced in 2009. The number of flu patients in intensive care has risen by 60 per cent in the past week to 738, four times greater than at [...]
  • Alien vs. Predator
    Dallas: [looks at a pen being dissolved by alien's body fluid] I haven’t seen anything like that except, uh, molecular acid. Brett: It must be using it for blood. Parker: It’s got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don’t dare kill it. –Alien (1979) NASA announced earlier this month one of its re ...

Suzie-Q

  • Beck: Some Muslims Are Trying To Bring About T ...
    Glenn Beck: Some Muslims Want To Bring About The Antichrist (VIDEO) The Huffington Post Jack Mirkinson  First Posted: 02/18/11 08:26 AM Updated: 02/18/11 08:28 AM Glenn Beck theorized that some Muslims are trying to bring about the equivalent of the Antichrist on his Thursday show. Beck claimed ...
  • Afternoon Jukebox- Hey, Soul Sister
    Happy Friday! Have a great weekend everybody!   And, congratulations to TRAIN for winning the Grammy for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group! Train- Hey, Soul Sister
  • Curveball doubts were shared with CIA, says ex ...
    Joschka Fischer accuses former CIA chief George Tenet over his knowledge of Iraqi defector’s sketchy background Helen Pidd in Berlin guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 February 2011 14.08 GMT Germany‘s former foreign minister Joschka Fischer has accused the former head of the CIA George Tenet of making ...
  • Russ Feingold: Progressives United (VIDEO)
    Progressives United is founded by Former Senator Russ Feingold. Progressives United will lead the movement to curtail corporate influence on politics, and we will never compromise on our integrity in the allies we work with, the candidates we support, or the donations we accept.
  • Bahrain Security Forces Launch Brutal Assault ...
    Bahrain security forces launch brutal assault on sleeping protesters Crooks & Liars By scarce February 16, 2011 08:26 PM More unrest in the Middle East is met with state-sanctioned savage brutality, this time in the smaller but militarily significant (it hosts the U.S. Fifth fleet) country of Ba ...

Solari

  • Homeland Security Shuts Down 84,000 Websites
    By QMI Agency The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in an effort to clamp down on websites that host and advertise child pornography, inadvertently shut down more than 84,000 innocent websites across the Internet. In a Feb. 15 statement, the DHS announced the seizure of 10 domain names of w ...
  • Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?
    By Matt Taibbi Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy â but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them. Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer. “Everything’s fu ...
  • Lessons From The Soviet Union Economic Collaps ...
    By Dmitry Orlov Continue reading the article . . . Solari Report Blog Commentaries Dmitry Orlov: Teaching Us to Survive and Thrive
  • A Legal Manual for an Apocalyptic New York
    By William Glaberson Major disasters like terrorist attacks and mass epidemics raise confounding issues for rescuers, doctors and government officials. They also pose bewildering legal questions, including some that may be painful to consider, like how the courts would decide who gets life-savi ...
  • NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes
    By NASA STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) is the third mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program (STP). The mission, launched in October 2006, has provided a unique and revolutionary view of the Sun-Earth System. The two nearly identical observatories - one ahead of Eart ...

Insurgency Watch - Newswire

  • Times Scare
    ISLAMABAD–The apparent links between Pakistan and Faisal Shahzad are certainly cause for concern, but let’s not lose site of things here. The attack in Times Square was a fizzle. The rush to claim credit is a bit embarassing for the TTP and looks like it was — like the attack itself — a rush job ...
  • Stepping up - University at Buffalo The Spectr ...
    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 ...
    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 AfghanistanSri Lank ...
  • Officials: Campus blasts perplexing - United P ...
    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 ...
    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��

AlterNet - Rights and Liberties

Sideways News

  • Could you be a 10:10 community champion?
    The Guardian Newspaper and Franny Armstrong, through the Guardian 10:10 campaign, challenge organisations and individuals to cut their carbon footprint by 10%.
  • Brit mums strict about eco-chores
    Families in the UK are increasingly likely to be nagged about doing eco-chores, a new study conducted on behalf of the Energy Saving Trust has revealed.
  • UK venue offers rainforest weddings
    Getting married in a luscious rainforest has never been easier or more eco-friendly, according to the Eden Project.
  • Battery recycling 'too difficult'
    The European Recycling Platform (ERP) reports that while only a third of households at present recycle batteries, four out of five said they would do so if it was made easier.
  • 10 green resolutions to save you money
    By taking green steps at home, you can save money and make life easier. Being smart about waste, consumption and resources won't only win you the thanks of forthcoming generations: you'll feel the financial benefit immediately. 1. Make money from old electronics As your electronic goods become o ...

Fabius Maximus

  • The Raymond Davis incident shows that we&#8217 ...
    Summary:   Here we have another case study in disinformation.  The story of Raymond Davis (US covert operative in Pakistan) illustrates how our mainstream media and experts collude to help the government shape our view of the world.  It’s important that the sheep of America receive distorte ...
  • Killing Machines: Promises and Limits
    Summary:  Unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones, UAVs) are a large step toward autonomous killing machines (aka Terminators) that will eventually become another generation of warfare.  By themselves they bring the long-standing dream of precision bombing to a degree undreamed of when first im ...
  • Eventually we’ll have unlimited cheap cl ...
    Summary:  Optimists about energy give glowing forecasts of new technologies, often with wildly underestimated estimates of when when these can generate substantial fractions of our energy.  In the real world technologies take decades to evolve from the laboratory to commercialization.   And then ...
  • Excessive optimism is our enemy, with Coal-to- ...
    Summary:  Confidence provides strengths for a society, but only when coupled with clear vision.  Unfortunately modern America too-often too often sees the future only in terms of doomsters’ pessimism and advocates’ optimism.  Here we have a case study of the latter. In the run-up to the 2008 ...
  • A powerful story about America’s dealing ...
    Summary:  We remain ignorant about the world because we reply on the news media for information.  Recent events provide a powerful case study illustrating not only how the US news media misinforms us but why the American government has a dark reputation in much of the world. The sanitized ve ...

Open Your Eyes News

  • UK army’s latest $4million spy drone disguised ...
    Daily Mail – A pocket-sized spy drone disguised as a hummingbird has been unveiled by a major Pentagon contractor measuring just 16 centimetres and weighing less than an AA battery. The mini spy plane can fly up to 11 miles an hour and took five years to develop at a cost of $4million. Army chie ...
  • J&J recalls 70,000 Invega syringes
    Reuters – Johnson & Johnson said it has recalled 70,000 syringes filled with the antipsychotic drug Invega because of cracks in the syringes. A company spokesman said the issue, discovered during routine testing, has been resolved and production of the syringes has resumed at its Belgium manufac ...
  • Libya protests leave 24 dead, says rights grou ...
    BBC - At least 24 people have been killed in anti-government protests in Libya in recent days, rights activists say. Many others were wounded in the clashes between security forces and protesters, the US-based Human Rights Watch said. Protests continued overnight with thousands on the streets of ...
  • Indigenous home-buying scheme struggles for li ...
    The Australian – A total of 16 applications – all on the Northern Territory’s Tiwi Islands – have been approved since the program to provide 99-year leases on communal land was announced in the 2006-07 budget.  The NT is the only jurisdiction in which privately owned homes have been built under ...
  • British Forests sell-off abandoned as Cameron ...
    Guardian – David Cameron has ordered ministers to carry out the government’s biggest U-turn since the general election by abandoning plans to change the ownership of 258,000 hectares of state-owned woodland. Caroline Spelman, the environment secretary, will announce on Friday that a consultation ...

The Progressive Realist

  • Crackdown in Bahrain
    Over the past few days, Bahrain has emerged as a country whose anti-government protests are fairly serious, as demonstrators camped out at the Pearl Roundabout in what was probably a conscious imitation of the Tahrir Square protests in Egypt. Last night, the regime cracked down: “Troops and tan ...
  • Demonstrations Give New Confidence to Oppositi ...
    The Iranian opposition did not break its promise. On February 14, protesters took to the streets of Tehran and other major cities in Iran to express their opposition to the Islamic Republic. Their peaceful protest was met with the forceful hand of the police and the Basij militia, which are und ...
  • Will New Egypt Tip Balance in Palestine’s Fata ...
    This week Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas is accepting the resignations of parliament, again distancing the ruling coalition from the radical party, Hamas, and talking about plans for elections. Meanwhile, rumors arose that protests might be staged to oust Hamas from the Gaza Strip. How much ...
  • Iran’s Opposition Plans More Protests for Sund ...
    The Coordinating Council of the Green Path of Hope, an organization close to Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, has issued a statement asking the Iranian people to participate in mass demonstrations on Sunday, February 20, commemorating the death of two men killed in Tehran’s clashes on Fe ...
  • Techniques of the Counter-Revolution in the Mi ...
    It looks like the Empire is striking back on multiple fronts. So far as I can see, these seem to have been the lessons learned by regional authoritarians from Egypt. Never mind the martyrs. Given that ‘martyrdom’ had a catalytic effect on protest in Egypt and Tunisia, you’d have thought that oth ...

TAPPED - The American Prospect

  • Who Cares About Clarence Thomas's Silence At O ...
    One of my idiosyncratic hobbyhorses is the argument that while there are many reasons to criticize Clarence Thomas, his famous silence at oral argument isn't one of them. So I was happy to see Dahlia Lithwick�at Slate express a�similar view. As Orin Kerr also argues, how much a justice speak ...
  • I Just Don't Want Your Kids to Be Healthy.
    Jonathan Cohn writes about the increasingly absurd protests from the right against First Lady Michelle Obama's healthy kids initiative, reignited because of an IRS decision making breast pumps a deductible medical expense with which Obama likely had nothing to do. As I've said before, nanny stat ...
  • A Tale of Two Victims.
    Today on TAP: Gabriel Arana says that while we were obsessing over the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, we ignored another killing in Arizona -- one that offered a much stronger lesson about our political rhetoric. Shawna Forde saw herself as a Robin Hood figure -- someone on a moral missio ...
  • Fact Check: Creditors Still Lurve U.S. Debt.
    Andrew Sullivan responds to Freddie DeBoer’s post on debt, deficits and “seriousness”: The current math simply demands either massive tax hikes or massive benefit cuts in the future. Adjusting now will make the future, relative suffering less rather than more painful. And like Megan, I'd like t ...
  • Understanding Scott Brown.
    As you may have heard, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has a new book coming out (do you smell a 2016 presidential run?), in which he details how as a child he was physically abused by his stepfathers and sexually abused by a camp counselor. Wendy Kaminer points out something interesting: But th ...

Buzzflash

  • Clarence Thomas is a Role Model for Conflict o ...
    MARK KARLIN, BUZZFLASH EDITOR FOR TRUTHOUT As a role model for conflicts of interest while casting votes on cases before the Supreme Court, it would be hard to beat Clarence Thomas - except for Antonin Scalia. The New York Times has been following Common Cause's accusation that Clarence Thoma ...
  • Cairo: One Day After Mubarak
    CARL FINAMORE FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT CAIRO-I arrived at a nearly empty Cairo airport one day after President Hosni Mubarak resigned, an act thought unthinkable only 18 days ago. Over one million tourists left Egypt in the last week according to the country's press reports, so the hotels and ...
  • 100 Years of Reagan
    WILL DURST FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT Hold up. Slow down. If you wait a half a second, there’ll be time for me to hop on the Ronald Reagan 100th birth anniversary bandwagon, onto which I plan on leaping with both feet. Well, to be honest, not so much jumping on, as using a Sherman Tank to slam ...
  • Monsanto Aims to Own Our Food, While Profiteer ...
    MARK KARLIN, BUZZFLASH EDITOR FOR TRUTHOUT In its latest of many articles on the increasing threat of Monsanto to world agricultural production, Truthout once again points out that the multinational corporation is in the process of privatizing much of our food supply through the patenting and ...
  • The New Iron Curtain of Journalism in America: ...
    STEPHEN PIZZO FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT   I now know what it must have felt like to those folks stuck behind the old Iron Curtain back in the day. They couldn't watch or listen to western TV or radio because those signals were jammed by their own governments. Over the past two weeks, if I wanted ...

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

The BiPartisan Report

Sciencebase

  • Can we count on journal metrics?
    How do you rank science, how do you rate scientists, what kudos do you give their papers and what metrics do you attach to the impact of a paper? They’re questions as old as the scientific literature itself. But, no one has resolved them. Independent organisations and publishers have attempted w ...
  • The perils of ranking
    Today, I discovered I was listed on a Top 100 of UK Twitter users by The Independent newspaper based on the algorithm from PeerIndex. I was #47, since you ask, same as Armando Iannucci. It’s not that long since I made it on to a similar PeerIndex list published elsewhere. It’s all very flatterin ...
  • Heptastic science news
    The full list: The Twitter 100 – Its 200 million users share 110 million messages a day – and if you don't know who rules the twittersphere, you don't understand the 21st-century world. This guide is a definitive who's who of the UK's tweet elite. Although for some reason they included me on the ...
  • Count envy, satisfaction and achievement
    A friend of mine, András Paszternák, runs a thriving online nanotech community called Nanopaprika (he’s in Hungary, hence the name). He started the community (for which I am a Scientific & Advisory Board member) when he was doing his PhD and it has grown rapidly into one of the most targeted n ...
  • An octet of science news
    Perfect Perfume – a video for Valentine’s Day – A bit of fun for Valentine's Day as the team combinesto make our very own "perfect perfume"! The lingering risk of thirdhand smoke – As Dubowski suggests, the notion of thirdhand smoke putatively being hazardous to health is controversial. Research ...

Common Dreams-Progressive Newswire

  • Egypt: Frank Wisner and the Nexus of US Intere ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)Envoy to Egypt Frank Wisner stated this weekend that “President Mubarak’s continued leadership is critical.”read more
  • Free Press Blasts FCC for Asking Questions Alr ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011Free PressFederal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski released his proposal to revamp the Universal Service Fund and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update its broadband data collection efforts at the agency’s open meeting Tuesday. r ...
  • Amnesty International Says Libyan Writer is Ja ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011Amnesty International - USAA Libyan writer and political commentator arrested last week and accused of hitting a man with his car appears to have been targeted, arrested and jailed instead because he called for peaceful protests in the country, Amnesty Inter ...
  • CREW Releases Searchable Version of Issa Docum ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011CREWToday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) praised Congressman Darrell Issa's (R-CA) release of almost 2,000 pages of information related to his letters to corporations, trade groups and research organizations regarding governm ...
  • ACLU Witnesses Brutal Beating Of Los Angeles C ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011ACLUThe American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU/SC) today condemned a recent brutal beating by two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies of a detainee at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, part of the county jail syst ...

Common Dreams-Views

  • Obama's Scary Budget: Why the Neediest People ...
    by Earl Ofari HutchinsonPresident Obama will unveil his budget for 2012 on February 14. The administration has so far been guarded about detailing how deeply the budget ax will slice. What is certain, however, is that the cuts will be painful, and that the neediest Americans will feel the worst ...
  • Media Miss the Al Jazeera Story
    by Laura FlandersOne of the biggest stories of the past few weeks has been the story of Americans discovering Al Jazeera English.  It shouldn't have been so hard. As the protest movement in Egypt grew, Americans found that Al Jazeera had what no US network has any more: fully staffed reporting ...
  • Nuclear Radiation Is Forever
    by Helen Caldicott and Dale DewarLike most Ontario towns, Port Hope, on the shores of Lake Ontario, has a water treatment plant supplying its drinking water. Incredibly, adjacent to this plant is a huge factory now owned by Cameco. The factory hovers over this picturesque town, emitting uran ...
  • Time for Democracy in Egypt
    by Ralph Nader Those politically savvy people who thought strongman, Hosni Mubarak would be out before the end of the first week of the Egyptian uprising better rethink the odds. For thirty years Mubarak has developed what can be called a deeply rooted dictatorial regime with regular White House ...
  • Reagan’s Third-World Reign of Terror
    by Dennis HansAs the nation pays tribute to Ronald "Dutch" Reagan on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, media coverage is every bit as laudatory as when he turned 90.  I wrote in 2001 about PBS's fawning tributes on the Charlie Rose show and the Jim Lehrer NewsHour.  Then, a ...

Newshoggers - AfPak

  • Polizeros Radio Tonight 10.30pm Central
    By Steve Hynd As usual every Thursday at 10.30 pm Central Time, I'll be podcasting with Josh Mull of Rethink Afghanistan & the Seminal and Bob Morris of Polizeros. The main topic tonight, as it has been for the last few weeks, will be events in the Middle East, as dominos fall. We'll also be tal ...
  • What 'Strategic Relationship' With Pakistan?
    By Steve Hynd Michael Cohen has a good post today looking at what the Raymond Davis affair tells us about America's relationship with supposed key ally Pakistan in the "War on Terror", and gives us a precis of the true state of play. shall we catalog for a moment all the ways in which Pakistan i ...
  • Afghanistan, After The Happy Talk
    By Steve Hynd I've noted often before that the "happy-talk" coming out of the US military about Afghanistan is more about message massaging the US public than about actual success. Today, three different stories underline just how true that is. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the Internat ...
  • On Anniversary of Marjah Push, Escalation Stra ...
    By Derrick Crowe Exactly one year ago, on February 13, 2010, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan launched the first major military operations enabled by President Obama's 30,000 troop increase. President Obama and the high priests of counterinsurgency warfa ...
  • One Year On, Where's That "Government In A Box ...
    By Steve Hynd When General McChrystal sent NATO troops into the area around Marjah, a tiny and scattered township worth of buildings in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a year ago today, we were told that the assault, entitled Operation Moshtarrak, would quickly clear and hold - with overwhelming ...

Water Wars

  • Summit Series Films Continue
    KENT—Two more films remain in the 2011 Kent Environmental Summit film series. Feb. 15 brings “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” which describes the privatization of water in an era when water is becoming more and more scarce.
  • Senator says water wars Georgia's #1 issue
    Senator Saxby Chambliss says Governor Nathan Deal's federal perspective will help in Georgia's water issue.
  • Summit Series Films Continue
    KENT—Two more films remain in the 2011 Kent Environmental Summit film series. Feb. 15 brings “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” which describes the privatization of water in an era when water is becoming more and more scarce.
  • Summit Series Films Continue
    KENT—Two more films remain in the 2011 Kent Environmental Summit film series. Feb. 15 brings “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” which describes the privatization of water in an era when water is becoming more and more scarce.
  • Director Iciar Bollain on her new film, 'Even ...
    In Iciar Bollain's new film, "Even the Rain," it is the year 2000 and riots are raging in the streets of Cochabamba, Bolivia, when the director of a film about Columbus' voyages to the New World meets a local official....

WordPress | Economics

Electronic Intifada

Afghanistan Sun

  • Man in Afghan uniform fires on Germans, kills ...
    Afghan police man inspect the site of an explosion in Khost, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb, 18, 2011. A suicide bomber detonated a car rigged with explosives in the eastern Afghan city of ...
  • Taliban must choose war or peace
    Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011, following an all-Senators meeting on Egypt. (AP Photo/Susan ...
  • Residents of Razed Afghan Village Dispute U.S. ...
    KABUL/WASHINGTON, Feb 18, 2011 (IPS) - The commander of U.S.-NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. James Terry, asserted last month that the homes systematically destroyed by U.S. forces ...
  • U.S. Sanctions Prominent Afghan Bankers Linked ...
    Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife In a move that signals the Obama administration may be getting more serious about cleaning up graft in Afghanistan, the U.S. government on Friday targeted ...
  • NATO soldier killed in "rogue" Afgha ...
    KABUL (Reuters) - At least one service member from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan was killed in an apparent "rogue" shooting in the increasingly volatile north, Afghan and coalition ...

Futurismic

  • Personal Information: episode 24
    Personal Information is a new serial sci-fi webcomic from Sarah “Does Not Equal” Ennals. Follow Futurismic on Twitter for more nuggets of near-future fun and weirdness! Share and Enjoy:Follow Futurismic on Twitter for more nuggets of near-future fun and weirdness!
  • Arguments against life extension
    Via Michael Anissimov, here’s a spectacularly empty diatribe against “deathhackers” by TechCrunch‘s Paul Carr. Carr objects to the idea of radical life extension as advocated by transhumanists, which is fair enough, but as written here most of his objections seem to boil down to personal distate ...
  • Daddy, where does innovation come from?
    Plenty of folk have been linking to this excerpt from Matt Ridley’s new book The Rational Optimist, and with good reason – it’s a provocative piece that plays to advocates (and opponents) of free trade, open exchange, copyright reform and much more. The basic thesis? The one persistent factor th ...
  • Replacement arms: mechanical or biological?
    Prosthetic limbs are still in their infancy, but there’s a lot of progress being made: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is working with Darpa (who else?), and has a research grant for trying out their mind-controlled modular prosthetic arm on five test subjects over the next couple of ye ...
  • How to be a futurist
    The irrepressible Scott “Basic Instructions” Meyer has the lowdown if you’re thinking of a career in futurism: Click through for the whole thing. But take it from me, being a futurist is a lot of work for no money. Or maybe that’s just the way I do it… and I’ve never been featured in a [...]Foll ...

geopolitics | geoeconomics

on Government Oversight

  • Morning Smoke: New Oil Spill Report Lays Blame ...
    Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor. BP knew...
  • Pentagon Fighting Anti-Insourcing Proposal
    By Scott Amey Yesterday, POGO blogged about Congressman Pete Sessions' (R-TX) proposed amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 1), which would prevent the government from bringing certain outsourced jobs in-house regardless of whether or not the insourcing would result...
  • The $20 Cup of Coffee
    Yesterday, POGO Facebook pal Scott Kuechenmeister related an experience from his work as a contractor in Afghanistan that would make most taxpayers cringe: Scott posted the comment on POGO's Facebook wall. Feel free to join the discussion and "like" our...
  • Morning Smoke: ArmorGroup Still Guarding Kabul ...
    Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor. Vodka Butt-Shot...
  • POGO Joins Groups Urging Congress to Ensure Ad ...
    In a letter sent to Congress yesterday, POGO joined a coalition of national, state and local groups raising serious concerns about the funding cuts to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed last...

Digital Journal

End Homelessness | Change.org

  • Mississippi Launches Plan To End Child Homeles ...
    Fulfilling the wishes and happiness of children is at the heart of the holiday season. So, now seems particularly timely for Mississippi to launch a new plan to end child homelessness (pdf) in the state.  What better way to set the season of giving in motion than by committing to finding safe a ...
  • Thanksgiving 2.0: Food, Poverty and Telling th ...
    This Thanksgiving, most of us around the country shared a bountiful harvest feast with friends and family. We celebrated all that we are thankful for by gorging ourselves right into a food coma. It's the American way. Unfortunately, it's also the American way to be thankful for all that we have ...
  • Homeless People Wanted: Must Be Open to Demean ...
    What are they thinking? People obviously don't see the homeless as human or they wouldn't attempt to hire them to do most of the insane, demeaning and illegal jobs out there. Here's a small sampling: Rob dead bodies. The Aokigahara forest at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan is the site of 50 to 10 ...
  • LA Plans to Make Homelessness Go the Way of th ...
    Instead of pretending homelessness doesn't exist, creating new laws to make it illegal to sit or sleep in public, or sending homeless residents on a one-way trip out of town, Los Angeles County may attempt to actually do something about ending homelessness. And the county is setting the bar high ...
  • Don't Let Violence Against the Homeless Go Unp ...
    Despite its economic troubles, Detroit is not known for being kind to the homeless. That's too bad, since there are nearly 10,000 homeless people living there. In October, police say that Steven James Diponio, 54, became so enraged at Charles Duncan, 42, who was homeless and sleeping behind a sc ...

Ceasefire.ca

  • Former nuclear weapons officer rejects nuclear ...
    Retired Royal Navy Commander Robert Green is coming to Ottawa to speak out against nuclear deterrence. Commander Green served as a naval officer on nuclear-armed aircraft during the Cold War. In his book Security Without Nuclear Deterrence, Commander Green talks about his experiences and what le ...
  • Taylor points to U.S. role in F-35 debate
    Esprit de Corps editor and publisher Scott Taylor comments on the silent role of the U.S. government in the F-35 debate (Scott Taylor, “The silent US hand guiding Canadaâs F-35 debate,” Embassy, 9 February 2011, full text here): Although no actual contract has been signed, the Harper Tories rema ...
  • NORAD role to expand?
    Last week's perimeter security talks between Prime Minister Harper and President Obama included an interesting proposal of expanding NORAD to cover land and sea operations. The proposed new deal would integrate Canada-U.S. command structures, headquarters, and operations with regards to continen ...
  • Go figure: What would it cost to save the worl ...
    $1.6 billion in military spending worldwide in 2010. What else could we have done with that money? Demilitarize.org shows some of the alternatives.
  • Respected Canadian negotiator removed from dis ...
    Respected Canadian disarmament negotiator Earl Turcotte has been removed from his post following American complaints that his stance on the international Convention on Cluster Munitions was too aggressive. Turcotte has since informed his colleagues that he will be resigning from the Department o ...

Kevin Trudeau Show

  • Harmful Medical Devices Get OK Too Easily
    February 15th, 2011 Chicago Tribune By: Lindsey Tanner Most medical devices recalled in recent years because of deaths or life-threatening problems were cleared for approval under less stringent regulations that don’t require human testing, an analysis found. The report comes as the Food and Dru ...
  • The Simple Blood Test That Spots Cancer Six Ye ...
    February 15th, 2011 DailyMail.co.uk By: Fiona MacRae A simple blood test to spot cancer up to six years before a tumour forms could be available in Britain next year. The brainchild of a Nottingham University cancer specialist, it could provide vital early warning of lung and breast cancers – di ...
  • Misleading Study To Scare You About Calcium Su ...
    February 15th, 2011 ABC News By: Todd Neale Calcium supplementation — without giving vitamin D at the same time — appears to increase the risk of myocardial infarction, a new review of past research has shown. Among studies of patients with or at risk of osteoporosis, those who received calcium ...
  • Leading Experts Rethinking Food Allergy Causes
    February 15th, 2011 ParentDish.com By: Mary Beth Sammons The perplexing world of childhood food allergies is enough to make any parent break out in hives. But conventional wisdom is now being questioned when it comes to bottle-feeding whole milk to babies or keeping toddlers away from the peanut ...
  • Could a Pipeline Explode in Your Community?
    February 15th, 2011 AOL News By: Laura Parker The apparent gas line explosion in Allentown, Pa., that killed five people is certain to refocus attention to the 2 million miles of natural gas pipelines that lie under neighborhoods and subdivisions from coast to coast. The Allentown explosion came ...

Pambazuka News

  • Africa: Angola hosts 3rd African meeting on Cu ...
    The third African meeting on Solidarity with Cuba was held in Luanda, Angola, 11-12 September, to consolidate the friendship between the African and Cuban people and contribute to strengthening African solidarity towards the Caribbean island nation. ...
  • Global: Afro-Colombian women fight prejudice b ...
    On an improvised stage “Bombón de chocolate” (Chocolate Candy) is being performed. The play, which narrates the story of an African-Colombian girl who feels rejected because of the colour of her skin, is one of the events at a special day on drug add...
  • Global: May for the Cuban 5
    The month of May started with a great number of activities in support of the Cuban 5. On May 1st hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched on International Workers Day in Havana and other cities. They were joined by hundreds of internationalists in de...
  • Haiti: Where solidarity means survival
    Perhaps more than anything today, Haiti needs a new macro-economy, one based above all on meeting the needs of its citizens. Post-earthquake economic restructuring could include equitable distribution of resources, high levels of employment with fair...
  • 45 years after the assassination of Malcolm X
    Malcolm X was assassinated 45 years ago this weekend. Earlier this year, WNYC Radio unearthed a 1960s interview between the civil rights leader and a reporter named Eleanor Fischer. On this somber anniversary, we consider Malcolm X’s legacy through t...

War in Context

  • Tom Engelhardt: waist deep in the Washington q ...
    Cutting $100 billion?… easy — if only Washington had a brain By Tom Engelhardt Here’s the latest news from Congress, in case you’ve been in Afghanistan for the last couple of weeks.  A debate about slashing the federal budget is now upon us, while fears of a possible government shutdown as s ...
  • Bahrain crackdown will make citizens more dete ...
    Abdulnabi Alekry writes: The 14 February marked the 10th anniversary of the National Action Charter, which is considered to be the blueprint of the Bahraini reform project. In 2001, the charter was accepted almost unanimously by eligible voters, with the aim of leading to a constitutional monar ...
  • Gene Sharp’s theories of non-violent revolutio ...
    The New York Times profiles Gene Sharp, whose writings on non-violent revolution have inspired dissidents around the world. Based on studies of revolutionaries like Gandhi, nonviolent uprisings, civil rights struggles, economic boycotts and the like, he has concluded that advancing freedom take ...
  • Intifada update
    Death toll hits 19 in Libyaâs “Day of Rage” The death toll in clashes between protesters and security forces in the Libyan cities of Benghazi and al-Baida on Thursday rose to 19 as Muammar Gaddafi ’s regime sought to overshadow an opposition “Day of Anger” with its own rally in the capital Trip ...
  • Britain’s role in Bahrain’s torture regime
    Colonel Ian Henderson, who from 1966 until 1998 was Bahrain’s security chief, is alleged to have instituted and overseen a brutal torture regime in the Gulf state, as a result of which he came to be known as the “Butcher of Bahrain.” Numerous human rights organizations have investigated and conf ...

Watts Up With That?

  • Friday Funny
    Carbon trading gets a wedgie, courtesy Josh. Inspiration here: The Carbon Brief – The European rapid response team
  • California’s AB32 cap-n-trade: “co ...
    SPECIAL REPORT-The California Carbon Rush (Hold the Eureka!) It could be worse than sticky, argues Gary Stern, a power utility executive. Stern lived through the disastrous deregulation of the California power market a decade ago and fears the carbon market … Continue reading →
  • The Carbon Brief – The European rapid re ...
    Guest post by Barry Woods The Carbon Brief is a new website designed to provide a rapid response to any climate change related stories in the media. It is also appears to be intended as a resource for articles and … Continue reading →
  • Peer Review, Pal Review, and Broccoli
    Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach The recent problems with the publication of the O’Donnell et al. response to the Steig et al. paper on Antarctica have focused attention on continuing problems with the current system of peer review, problems initially highlighted … Continue reading →
  • Wind Power FAIL
    This seems like a candidate for the FAIL blog, hence my caption. Here’s the story: “We can’t control the weather,” Julie Vitek said in an interview from company headquarters in Houston, Texas. “We’re looking to see if we can cope … Continue reading →

Dandelion Salad

  • Noam Chomsky: Democracy Uprising in the USA an ...
    http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ Democracy Now! Feb. 17, 2011 “Democracy Uprising” in the U.S.A.?: Noam Chomsky on Wisconsin’s Resistance to Assault on Public Sector, the Obama-Sanctioned Crackdown on Activists, and the Distorted Legacy of Ronald Reagan World-renowned public intellectual Noa ...
  • Greg Palast: Oil Dictatorships are the bigger ...
    with Greg Palast Featured Writer Dandelion Salad www.gregpalast.com February 15, 2011 RussiaToday | February 17, 2011 This time Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, talk about Guanxi schemes selling fictional forests for real money, while real farmland cant find even a virtual penny. In the se ...
  • Obama Requests Funding For Venezuelan Oppositi ...
    http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ by Eva Golinger Postcards from the Revolution February 17, 2011 The US government is setting the terrain for the 2012 presidential elections in Venezuela, soliciting funding to back anti-Chavez groups and help prepare a “candidate” to oppose Chavez. Republica ...
  • Bahrain: The Social Roots of Revolt Against An ...
    by Finian Cunningham Featured Writer Dandelion Salad 17 February, 2011 “Have you ever seen an island with no beaches?” The question posed by the young Bahraini taxi man standing among thousands of chanting anti-government protesters seemed at first to be a bit off the wall. But his explanation s ...
  • President Sleiman: Israel knows well that atta ...
    compiled by Cem Ertür Featured Writer Dandelion Salad 18 February 2011 1) Lebanese President Sleiman: Israel knows well that attacking Lebanon is no longer a walk in the park (17 February 2011) 2) Hezbollah leader Nasrallah: Resistance Might Occupy Galilee in Future War (16 February 2011) _____ ...

Your New Reality

  • No title
    The Legalities Of Dealing With Post-Apocalypse Aftermath The New York Times chews through a legal manual published by the New York courts systems on just what judges, lawyers and police can get away, necessarily so and otherwise, in the event of an apocalyptic nuclear attack, pandemic or biolog ...
  • No title
    Bahrain : Key US Base Island In Gulf Explodes In Protests & Chaos A shocking point-of-view video of attacks on pro-democracy, pro-reform demonstrators in Bahrain. At least five died in these attacks, with more than 500 wounded : Bahrain is not Egypt. For one thing, its ports are home to the ...
  • No title
    Wikileaks Is Changing How History Of These Days Will Be Written The notoriously easily distracted mainstream media seems far more interested in Julian Assange's broken condom than the near daily jaw-dropping revelations streaming from the American embassies cables streaming from Wikileaks. Whe ...
  • No title
    It's fascinating just how much more disturbing a horror movie can be when it is given a laugh track and re-edited to unfold like a Seinfeld episode :
  • No title
    Egypt Explodes It's been a long time coming, and now it's going to be all but impossible to turn it back to the way it was. Protesters are prepared to give their lives for this fight, the Mubarak 'government' and police are not so willing. January 25 : January 26 :

Wired - Science

  • Helpful Mutations Didn’t Sweep Through Early H ...
    Humans probably didn’t get swept up in evolution. Scientists have favored a model of evolution in which beneficial gene mutations quickly and dramatically sweep through a population due to the evolutionary advantages they confer. Such mutations would become nearly universal in a population. But ...
  • The Mystery of the Missing Moon Trees
    15 years after NASA astronomer David Williams started searching for them, hundreds of trees grown from space-faring seeds are still missing. The “moon trees,” whose seeds circled the moon 34 times in Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa’s pocket, were welcomed back to Earth with great fanfare in 19 ...
  • Ample Dark Matter Ignites Starburst Galaxies
    By Liat Clark, Wired UK Galaxies need 10 times less dark matter to sustain star formation than previously thought, but just the right amount can set off rapid star formation, a recent study suggests. The discovery was made after European Space Agency photos showed evidence of dark matter 300 bi ...
  • Physicists Build World’s First Antilaser
    Less than a year after it was first suggested, the world’s first antilaser is here. A team of physicists have built a contraption that, instead of flashing bright beams, utterly extinguishes specific wavelengths of light. Conventional lasers create intense beams of light by stimulating atoms to ...
  • Gallery: 10 Stunning Science Visualizations
    See Also: Worms, Fractals and Mars: Top Science Image Galleries of 2010 Video: Kepler’s Exoplanets vs. the Solar System Best Science Visualization Videos of 2009 Do Fear the Reaper: Readers Visualize Death Data Biggest-Ever Night Sky Image Released to Public

Israeli Occupation Archive

  • UN set to vote on settlement resolution; US se ...
    US is the only Security Council member that opposes the resolution; though its wording does not conflict with Washington’s stance on settlements it fears that if the resolution passes it will be an... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian la ...
  • “The Genie Is Out of the Bottle”: assessing a ...
    Massive public protests continue to sweep the Middle East and North Africa in countries including Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Iran—many being met with violent government crackdowns. Democracy Now!... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lan ...
  • Nada Matta: The Egyptian Uprising and Workers’ ...
    The scenes coming from Egypt in the last 18 days are testimony to peoples’ ability to overcome fear through collective action and organization. Against state intimidation and killings, popular... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, ...
  • Gideon Levy: How school trips to Hebron resemb ...
    Just as upon return from the state-sponsored trips to Auschwitz, Jewish students will come back from Hebron feeling more nationalist than ever before. The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, now in its fifth decade. Go to the IOA websit ...
  • Shin Bet retracts claim that left-wing East Je ...
    Israeli Civil rights attorney Lea Tsemel: "The [activists] were focused and continue to be focused on legal, democratic and non-violent protest against settlement trends in East Jerusalem . . . the... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian la ...

Ria Novosti - Military

NewsWise

  • Saint Louis U Scientists Partner on Malaria Re ...
    Drug discovery drives a new collaboration between Saint Louis University's Center for World Health & Medicine and China's Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health.
  • Beating the Winter Blues
    Winter's chill, dark days, devoid of sunshine can send the best of us spiraling into a bad case of the blues. This time of year is especially difficult for Eric G. Wilson, author of "The Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace." Ever since his teen years, he has spent winters quarant ...
  • Knee Replacement Surgeries Take More Time, Are ...
    Knee replacement surgery takes far more time to conduct in overweight and obese patients than in normal weight patients, according to recent research at Hospital for Special Surgery.
  • Depression Symptoms Increase Over Time for Add ...
    While alcohol problems and antisocial behavior tend to decrease in addiction-prone women as they age, depression increases, U-M study finds.
  • High-Volume Hospitals Improve Orthopedic Outco ...
    Patients who undergo elective orthopedic surgeries at high-volume, regional hospitals have better surgical outcomes and experience fewer complications than those who undergo those surgeries at local hospitals.

Natural Health News

  • Hamster Eating Popcorn on a Piano -- With His ...
    This hamster is impossibly cute.
  • Dog Pushes Stroller
    Just a pug pushing his plush pals.
  • Just How Bad is Aspartame?
    Americans drink more soda than anyone else on the planet -- well over 700 eight-ounce servings each year, on average, and an increasing amount of it is diet soda. They might be more reluctant to do so if they knew about the safety questions still surrounding aspartame.� A number of scientists r ...
  • Why Aren't GMO Foods Labeled?
    You can avoid sugar, aspartame, trans-fats, or MSG if you�re a savvy reader of labels. But if you want so avoids genetically modified organisms (GMO�s), it�s not so easy. They�re not listed on labels. You could buy organic foods, which by law can�t contain more than 5 percent GMO�s -- but now th ...
  • Do the Chemicals That Turn Soda Brown Also Cau ...
    Soda is bad for your health.� But it may be even worse than you�d thought.� According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the "caramel coloring" used in Coke, Pepsi and other sodas are carcinogenic. The artificial brown coloring is made by reacting corn sugar with ammonia a ...

Antemedius

  • 'So This is America': Veteran Ray McGovern Blo ...
    From the Partnership for Civil Justice: As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave her speech at George Washington University [Tuesday Feb. 15] condemning governments that arrest protesters and do not allow free expression, 71-year-old Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of ...
  • Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, Weapons of Mass Dis ...
    Originally published at TomDispatch.com Here�s the truth of it: You don�t need an $80-billion-plus budget and a morass of 17 intelligence agencies to look at the world and draw a few intelligent conclusions.� Nor do you need $80 billion-plus and that same set of agencies to be caught off-guar ...
  • Obama's Austerity Budget Means More Unemployme ...
    In Washington on Monday, President Obama proposed his new budget cuts, with no consideration of the enormous Pentagon budget that equals or exceeds the total amount of all 50 US states spending on health education and welfare of their populations. Here's a little bit of what he had to say. As a ...
  • My Tortured Journey With Former Guantanamo Det ...
    Originally published at Truthout.org I've been struggling these past few weeks. I read a book written by a former Guantanamo detainee named David Hicks titled "Guantanamo: My Journey." It's a powerful and heartbreaking memoir and it made a profound impact on me emotionally. I interviewed Hick ...
  • An Interview With Former Guantanamo Detainee D ...
    Originally published at Truthout.org Editor's Note: Click here to read Jason Leopold's story on David Hicks and click here to read an excerpt from Hicks' book, "Guantanamo: My Journey." David Hicks was one of the first "war on terror" detainees to be sent to Guantanamo the day the prison facil ...

Climategate

  • Dean of science…suggesting rising seas t…
    Dean of science…suggesting rising seas this next century of up to 100 metres, or Al Gore six metres. When I see things like that I know these are false. You mentioned the IPCC report; that suggests, at worst on best scenarios, 59 centimetres. http://www.google.com
  • ABC science presenter Robyn Williams seeks mor ...
    ABC science presenter Robyn Williams who in 2007 believed seas could rise 100 meters, seeks more truth from scientists after Climategate.
  • How to avoid your own Climategate scandal
    What are the lessons of Climategate? More honesty and transparency in science? Not according to attorney Alan Nelson in the Guardian UK today.  To him, the lesson is how not to get caught next time. So how do universities and academics ensure that their correspondence does not become the “smoki ...
  • What is the “likelihood” that the 2007 IPCC Re ...
    A very interesting analysis of the IPPC Assessment and has some important questions that invite others to help him answer. Please read his article and let him know what conclusions you draw.
  • Schools call for a “balanced teaching of globa ...
    USA Today reports that US schools are finally calling for both sides of global warming to be taught, because it is after all, a theory -- not a fact:

Opinio Juris

  • Setbacks in the Case Against Julian Assange
    by Kevin Jon Heller by Kevin Jon Heller It’s been a while since I checked in on the WikiLeaks kerfuffle, so now that the HILJ symposium is over — and I thought it was great — I wanted to flag this recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which reports that the government has found no eviden ...
  • The Shift from Proportionality to Necessity an ...
    by Kenneth Anderson by Kenneth Anderson Oh heck, one final comment about the Texas International Law Journal discussion of the model air and missile warfare manual, which does run to Gaby Blum’s article and discussion here at OJ.  It is only somewhat responsive to the article, so I’ll put it ...
  • The Model Air and Missile Warfare Manual
    by Kenneth Anderson by Kenneth Anderson I don’t mean to interrupt the flow of this outstanding set of articles and exchanges on the several HILJ articles - really a glittering collection, and great commentary here, so I’ll put my comments on the Texas discussion below the fold.  Also, while ...
  • A Response to Robert Ahdieh by Eric A. Posner
    by Harvard International Law Journal by Harvard International Law Journal [Eric A. Posner, co-author of Universal Exceptionalism in International Law with Anu Bradford, responds to Robert Ahdieh] I am grateful for Professor Ahdieh’s illuminating comments on my paper with Anu Bradford. Ahdieh ...
  • The Rule of Law as a Condition of Development?
    by Kenneth Anderson by Kenneth Anderson A proposition at the center of much international development work in the past decade or more has been the importance of institutions - whether one talks about “good governance” or the “rule of law” or other terms referring to institutions of governance ...

Investigate - Breaking News

  • Free Movie tickets: CONVICTION
    The kind folk at 20th Century Fox have made available some double passes for our TBR, Twitter and Facebook readers to see the new movie CONVICTION, based on the true story of Betty Ann Waters who studied to become a...
  • New-look Investigate magazine HIS and HERS goe ...
    As of Sunday...with more exclusive revelations about the Pike River disaster and police bungles in the rescue operation...and HERS features new poll results showing support for National is wide but shallow, and that a large number of voters want Winston...
  • Investigate Political Poll 2011 - No1
    Investigate magazine's first big omnibus and political poll in more than five years is underway. If you want to fill in the survey form (takes less than two minutes on average) online, you'll find it here.
  • BREAKING NEWS: Arizona shooter of Gabrielle Gi ...
    The young gunman who shot and killed six people, and left Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition, appears to have borne a grudge against Giffords after meeting her in 2007 at the age of 19. According to reports, former...
  • New study says CO2 rise a result of warmer tem ...
    A new peer reviewed study supports another contention I raised in Air Con: that CO2 increase follows temperature increase, and that there appears to be no correlation between fossil fuel emissions and temperature. The paper is available in full in...

My Care2 Picks

  • Who Needs Wheat Anyways? The Top 50 Celiac Blo ...
    Celiac disease, also known as Celiac sprue or Coeliac disease, is an autoimmune disorder of the digestive system. Suspected to be in one out of every 133 Americans, this disease is basically an allergy to wheat. Submitted by Deena Marriecar to Health & Wellness �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Walk Like an Egyptian
    Cowardice is talking about democracy for others while actually undermining it when you don't like the results.Cowardice is talking about how other people should have human rights delivered to them by foreign militaries.Submitted by John Farnham to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • The Live Launch of the Worldwide Permaculture ...
    Enable permaculturists everywhere to: Put themselves on a clickable map Showcase their work as individuals, and the work of any projects Searchable Network Advertise courses and services Inspire positive,systemic changeSubmitted by John Farnham to Environment �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Cairo and the Impossibility of Intelligent For ...
    Washington is paying the Egyptian military to kill Egyptians to keep them in line. But something is wrong. The soldiers aren�t doing it. It�s weirdSubmitted by John Farnham to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Accessing WikiLeaks Violates Espionage Act, US ...
    Americans who have accessed the WikiLeaks web site may have violated the Espionage Act, under an extreme interpretation of the law advanced by Air Force officials last week.Submitted by John Farnham to US Politics & Gov't �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment

Angry Indian News

  • Man sets himself on fire by Senegal presidency
    Man sets himself on fire by Senegal presidency: [washingtonpost.com] "DAKAR, Senegal -- A man set himself on fire in front of the presidential palace in Senegal on Friday, the latest self-immolation... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]
  • APA - Shusha State Musical Drama Theatre to co ...
    APA - Shusha State Musical Drama Theatre to commemorate Khojaly genocide: "Baku. Ulker Gasimova – APA. Shusha State Musical Drama Theatre will hold the commemorative event on the 19th anniversary of... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]
  • First lady depicted as fat, chowing down hambu ...
    First lady depicted as fat, chowing down hamburger platter in cartoon – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs: "Washington (CNN) - First lady Michelle Obama is often praised for her taut arms and... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]
  • In dramatic turnaround, US to censure Israel i ...
    In dramatic turnaround, US to censure Israel in Security Council | The Raw Story: "WASHINGTON – In a dramatic departure from longstanding policy, the United States intends to support a United Nations... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]
  • Bahrain uses UK-supplied weapons in protest cr ...
    Bahrain uses UK-supplied weapons in protest crackdown | World news | The Guardian: "The British government has launched a review of arms exports to Bahrain after it emerged that the country's... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]

Farm Wars

  • Radio Liberty’s Dr. Stanley Monteith and Barb ...
    Catch me on Radio Liberty at 9:00pm Pacific Time tonight, February 17, with Dr. Stanley Monteith. We will be discussing GMOs. Radio Liberty: http://www.radioliberty.com/
  • America’s Silent Killing Fields 2011
    We have systematically been inundated with GMOs at an alarming rate, with alfalfa, sugar beets, and corn for fuel being completely deregulated. It seems that the process of total genetic control of the planet is on the fast track.
  • Truth Squad Radio: Eric Herm – Son of a Farmer
    Eric Herm joins us this Wednesday evening to discuss the ravages of commercial agriculture, including the GMO blight.
  • Farmers Against Monsanto!
    Do you want to make a real difference in the fight against GMO alfalfa? If you do, then please download this poster and share it with farmers, feed stores, and anyone who might have an impact on alfalfa farmers' seed choices. It's time to take this to the streets.
  • Playing the Global Warming Card
    The global warming myth is thriving internationally, on the federal level and in state and local governments.

True/Slant Headline Grabs

Citizens for Legitimate Government

  • Madison Schools Cancel Classes Friday
    ShareThisMadison Schools Cancel Classes Friday --District Closes Schools For Third Consecutive Day 17 Feb 2011 Madison public schools are closed again on Friday because too many teachers are taking the day off to protest Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit union bargaining. It's the third cons ...
  • Nine Arrested As Capitol Protests Continue
    ShareThisNine Arrested As Capitol Protests Continue --Man Apparently Tried to Charge Into Assembly 17 Feb 2011 Nine people have been arrested in the third day of widespread protests at the state Capitol. The state Department of Administration estimated 20,000 people attended protests outside the ...
  • GOP State Sen. Proposes Elimination of Child L ...
    ShareThisGOP State Sen. Proposes Elimination of Child Labor Laws 15 Feb 2011 Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham says her quest to change Missouri's child labor laws is driven by her belief that the current restrictions are "implying that government can make a better decision than a parent." But ...
  • Mo. Senate panel advances 'right to work' bill
    ShareThisMo. Senate panel advances 'right to work' bill 16 Feb 2011 A Missouri Senate panel has advanced legislation that would prevent people from having to pay union fees as a condition of employment. The legislation cleared the Senate General Laws Committee on a party-line vote Tuesday, with ...
  • Mississippi governor refuses to denounce propo ...
    ShareThisMississippi governor refuses to denounce proposal to honour former Ku Klux Klan leader 16 Feb 2011 The governor of Mississippi has refused to denounce a Southern heritage group's proposal for a state-issued vehicle license plate that would honour a rebel general who was an early leader ...

Daily Loaf

  • District 3 candidates debate everything from h ...
    Tampa's District 3 city council seat is up for grabs on March 1. Candidates debate on Mitch Perry's radio show, Last Call on Thursday night.
  • 3,000 volunteers needed for Tampa Clean City D ...
    Friends of Clean City are looking for 3,000 volunteers to help clean up Tampa on March 12, 2011. With over 100 beautification projects around Hillsborough, thiswill be a day to invest in your community.
  • Dining Guide: Desserts and sweet treats in Tam ...
    This week we’re giving you a guide to the spots in Tampa Bay where you can get your fix for that sweet tooth.
  • Greco-Scott dispute new wrinkle in Tampa mayor ...
    Happy Friday to one and all – and it certainly is for us, considering we began the working week bedridden with a vicious flu virus. Speaking of vicious, we hate to get all cliche ridden on you, but the Tampa mayoral race is becoming more bitter by the day (just 11 to go).  Read our report [.. ...
  • Lightning fall to Red Wings 6-2
    Thursday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings was a huge opportunity for the Tampa Bay Lightning, as they hoped to establish they belonged with the top teams in the NHL. The main story line going into this one was the reuniting of former Red Wing great Steve Yzerman playing against his ...

Vaccine Resistance Movement

  • VRM: Dr. Wakefield’s Imminent Vindicatio ...
    Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Study demonstrated “anti-myelin antibodies and digestive tract pathologies in children with autism after being given the Urabi strain triple live virus MMR vaccine. All 12 children in the Study had intestinal abnormalities (known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease), with c ...
  • VRM: A Concise Compendium The Problem With Vac ...
    The advent of cloned DNA vaccines & Synthetic Genomics, backed by proponents of the Trans-humanist & Bioethics movements (this is a post-Darwinian view, in which the species has the power to direct its own evolution), has opened a Pandora’s Box spelling the inevitable death of natural immunity. ...
  • VRM: Medical Industry Data Proves Influenza Va ...
    The Influenza virus itself is constantly mutating from year to year. While mainstream doctors are traditionally divided, several prominent Studies have come forward in recent years challenging the Status Quo on the efficacy of the sacrosanct Flu shot & awakened an increasingly distrustf ...
  • VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part 3 – ...
    For centuries humankind has depended on an inherent natural immunity to survive; adapting to environmental changes while overcoming mutable diseases, viruses, bacterial or biological threats & inter-species cross contamination. With the 21st Century advancement of high-tech laboratory ...
  • VRM: GlaxosmithKline Implicated In Systemic Cl ...
    ‘A psychiatrist on the payroll of GlaxoSmithKline has been sentenced to 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to committing research fraud in clinical trials for antidepressant Paxil. Palazzo enrolled children who did not actually suffer from major depressive or obsessive compulsive diso ...

B.C. Preppers Network

  • You Know You're Getting Old When...
    A few weeks back we received our new high-efficiency front loading LG washer and dryer set and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed by them. The set was only around $1000 (on sale) but I felt like I'd gone from a Chevette to a Cadillac when compared to our old set.� A cute little luxury fe ...
  • Control Your Home Thermostat On the Internet!
    Today a fellow from our natural gas company came by to install a new thermostat as part of the Peaksaver program that we signed up for.�If you haven't heard of Peaksaver, basically what it does is allow the Ontario government electricity provider to turn off your central air conditioner ...
  • Happy Day!: The Water Bill Arrived!
    After being shocked a few months ago with a water bill of over $240 I decided to do a few things to cut down on our water use We converted our main toilet to a dual-flush and installed a water saving device on the second (haven't switched it over to a dual yet). We also installed a new ...
  • Strawberry Picking
    Our family went strawberry picking this morning, it's a fun thing to do once in a while and I think it's a good way to help our 3-year old daughter realize where food comes from. While my wife picked berries with our oldest I went for a walk around the farm with our youngest in the stroller ...
  • Pioneer Solar: PV System For Free?
    I received a flyer from Pioneer Solar in the mail the other day which claims to help people get a solar system installed on their house, farm, or business for free. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, like most things there's good and bad points about it and what might be a good deal f ...

Michael Yon

  • Return to Afghanistan
    Day by Day 17 February 2011 All is looking good for my return to Afghanistan within one week.� The more researched photo-dispatches will be published here.� For daily updates that will not make it to main dispatches, please sign up for my Facebook. Your support is crucial for my work in Afg ...
  • General Petraeus: Unfounded rumors
    16 February 2011 Just got this email from Geoff Morrell, Press Secretary for Secretary Robert Gates: "Despite some sensational speculation by one of the London papers, I can assure you General Petraeus is not quitting as ISAF commander, but nor does he plan to stay in Afghanistan forever. Obvi ...
  • River of Tears: Snapshots from the Edge of a W ...
    River of Tears Snapshots from the Edge of a War 14 Feburary 2011 The Salween River forms a border between Thailand and Burma.� �Rambo� fictionally crossed this jungle current in the movie Rambo IV.� But there is nothing fictional about the war, or the bombs that often fly from Burma into Th ...
  • JFCOM Disestablishment Working Group
    Please Click to download PDF.
  • Great Britain Loses one of its Finest
    03 November 2009 British soldiers at war are an incredible group.� Courageous, competent, and committed in very difficult conditions.� An email came today from London, from a BBC correspondent who has been to Afghanistan saying that Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid had been killed. To see the ...

The Killing Train

  • Wikileaks and the Future of Information
    Wikileaks and the future of information from Justin Podur on Vimeo. read more
  • Settle in and wait for the coup in Egypt
    Most people are interested in something that no one knows or can know: what is going to happen in Egypt? It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future (that's from Keynes). There are lessons from past revolutions that might help us understand what is happening, but from where ...
  • More such philanthrocapitalism we shall be utt ...
    Philanthrocapitalism, a book by Bishop and Edwards, argues that philanthropy will help the public accept a new age of plutocracy (the rule by wealth). The rich are giving their money away so effectively, they say, that the public won't mind increasing inequality. read more
  • I am not a gadget
    Jaron Lanier, author of "You are not a gadget", is very well-informed about what he is writing about, which is some of the social consequences of the internet, and some of the implicit ideologies that are built into the internet as we are living with it today. Lanier was one of the early minds b ...
  • Raj Patel's "Value of Nothing"
    For various reasons I found myself with several hours on public transit and with Raj Patel's fine book "The Value of Nothing" in hand. I really liked a few things about it. First, it's a very readable summary of a lot of economic theories (and ideologies) that guide policies today. For a more ma ...

treehugger

  • Can You Trademark Urban Homesteading?
    Photo Credit: Kristine Paulus via Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License. The Dervaes family of Pasadena is well-known for practicing self-sufficiency on their urban lot. They grow over 7000 pounds of food. They use very little power from the grid. They have been an inspiration to many ...
  • Coal Plant Shutdown a Long-Awaited Step in the ...
    Photo credit: Mona Miri It is a step towards victory for Massachusetts—a top official at Dominion Energy publicly announced the Salem power plant is expected to shut down in the next 5 years. In 2005, I began my environmental series documenting the coal and oil power plant that was resp ...
  • When Pollution Becomes a Public Health Issue
    Rosa Perea spends many days struggling to help her five-year old son, Yousef Abdallah, control his severe asthma. Her Chicago neighborhood is home to numerous polluting industries—most of which emit soot and smog pollution. "It's so hard," Perea says, "before this I've never been close or ...
  • Massive Ethical Business Strategy Revealed by ...
    Image credit: The Cooperative Group From Wal-Mart's controversial sustainability efforts to Marks & Spencer's aggressive Plan A program, there have been some major top-down green strategies revealed in the business world. But one chain of supermarkets, banks, pharmacies and more is setting ...
  • California Bill Brings Rainwater to Your Toile ...
    Photo by Ladycliff via Flickr Creative Commons While rainwater collection is a contentious issue in some areas, California is looking to make it a little easier to use your rain barrels as a water source. This week, AB 275, the Rainwater Capture Act of 2011 was introduced into the Californi ...

Democratic Voice of Burma

Telegraph - Climate Change

National Geographic | Environment

Jurist - Legal Research

  • Federal judge dismisses Padilla torture suit
    [JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of South Carolina [official website] on Thursday dismissed [order, PDF] a lawsuit filed by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive], ruling that he has no right to sue for constitutional violations. Padilla alleged he was ...
  • Financier Stanford sues federal agents over ci ...
    [JURIST] former financier Allen Stanford [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], accused of defrauding investors [indictment, PDF; JURIST report] out of $7 billion in a Ponzi scheme, filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing federal agents of violating his constitutional rights. The suit, filed in the US D ...
  • House passes short-term Patriot Act extension
    [JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] on Thursday voted 279-143 [roll call vote] to extend three surveillance provisions of the USA Patriot Act [text; JURIST news archive] through May 27. The measures were set to expire on February 28. The provisions extended include roving ...
  • UN Security Council weighs Kosovo organ traffi ...
    [JURIST] UN Special Representative to Kosovo Lamberto Zannier on Wednesday requested [press release] that the UN Security Council [official website] open an independent investigation into alleged incidents of organ trafficking [JURIST news archive], inhuman treatment and other crimes by the Koso ...
  • Federal judge denies immunity to former Somali ...
    [JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] ruled Tuesday that former Somali prime minister and defense minister Mohamed Ali Samantar is not entitled to legal immunity from civil lawsuits. Samantar, who has lived in the greater Washington, D ...

Atlantic | Mark Ambinder

  • Sarah Palin's New Economic Aide: Bristol Palin
    A Political Carnival blogger unearths this nugget in the Los Angeles Times report from a Palin appearance Thursday on Long Island: Seated in an armchair on a small stage, Palin was interviewed by the head of the Long Island Assn. at the group's annual luncheon. Kevin S. Law, a former utility ...
  • Sen. Jeff Bingaman Will Retire
    Bingaman with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. credit: nmfbihop/Flickr Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., will announce shortly that he will not seek reelection in 2012, according to Democratic sources, a move that puts another of the p ...
  • Obama Condemns Violence in Bahrain, Yemen and ...
    The recent wave of violence in Bahrain has presented President Obama with what is turning into a familiar conundrum -- how and how intensively to intervene as an Arab U.S. ally uses violence to suppress a pro-democracy uprising among its people. Obama condemned that violence Friday in a written ...
  • Showdown in Wisconsin: Photos
    As protesters swarmed the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin this week, a local political story has become a national one. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has proposed stripping some collective bargaining rights from public employees--taking away, for instance, their right to strike over issue ...
  • Backing Unions Against Taxpayers
    I was surprised to see Obama inserting himself into the fight in Wisconsin over public employees' collective-bargaining rights. Obama accused Scott Walker, the state's new Republican governor, of unleashing an "assault" on unions in pushing emergency legislation that would nullify collectiv ...

COAT - Coalition to oppose the Arms Trade

Bulletin of American Scientists - News

Tikun Olam

  • Israel: Pressures Egypt to Refuse Passage of I ...
    If you want to know the definition of chutzpah: it’s Israel’s hysteria at the prospect that two Iranian ships might be allowed passage through the Suez Canal on their way to Syria: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel could not ignore the planned sailing of two Iranian naval vesse ...
  • Ashkenazi Questioned by Shabak
    While Israeli media is reporting that former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi was questioned today for four hours by the Israeli Controller, that is, the chief investigative officer of the government, there is an important factor that is under gag and can’t be published inside Israel.  An Isra ...
  • Jobs Destroys Jackling House, California Archi ...
    Steve Jobs has earned another distinction in his long career of technological innovation: destroyer of architectural history.  He tore down Jackling House, one of the finest examples of Spanish revival home architecture in northern California and he did it in a mere two weeks.  The home was desi ...
  • Jewish National Fund Bulldozers Destroying Al ...
    Alarming, devastating news that the battle of the Al Araqib Bedouin to remain on their village lands has taken an ominous turn. This from Israeli peace activist, Michael Warshavsky: Shooting and heavy violence in Al-Arakib: The people of Al-Arakib encircled in the cemetery The 17th violent evict ...
  • The Wages of Stuxnet Are Havoc
    While the wages of sin are reputed to be death, the wages of Stuxnet will be unforeseen havoc for years to come.  Several interesting reports out about the cyberweapon, which outgoing Israeli chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi took credit for in his farewell party yesterday.  Those who read my blog ...

Ode Magazine

  • A valentine for peace
    By: PeaceCorso Well, here we are at the holiday that so many of us love to hate: Valentine’s Day. We’ve all heard the cynics blaming the Hallmarkians of the world for sentimentalizing love. Why have a holiday to celebrate love? My relationship doesn’ ...
  • Mizukaburi Matsuri: Keeping at bay
    By: Anne Thomas Japan has wonderful festivals throughout the year. Some are huge and world renown. Others are so small only locals attend. But no matter the size, all of them are filled with great enthusiasm and merrymaking as people give their all to ...
  • The muse in the moment
    We all know meditation helps you relax. But can it also ease the symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders and improve quality of life for people with chronic diseases? Recent research suggests it can. For those of us who haven’t practiced it, meditation can seem like a ...
  • The secret life of metaphor
    By: James Geary Metaphor is most familiar as the literary device through which we describe one thing in terms of another, as in Shakespeare’s famous line from Romeo and Juliet, “Juliet is the sun.” But metaphor is much more than a mere literary device ...
  • A new food manifesto
    Itâs time to take back control of what and how we eat. Hereâs why. Food isn’t just something we need to shovel down our gullets each day to survive. It’s far more potent: the means, more than any other, by which we humans shape our planet and ourselves.Photo by Marko Matas ...

OpEd News

  • Deregulation of GM Corn for Ethanol ... A Bad ...
    The USDA recently deregulated Genetically Modified Corn for the production of ethanol. Growing food for fuel production is bad idea made possible by government subsidies. This bad idea was recently made much worse when the USDA deregulated Genetically Modified corn for the production of ethano ...
  • Wisconsin to Washington: GOP declares war agai ...
    The GOP is waging a war against teachers, against firefighters, against police, against programs that create jobs, against men and women who hunger for jobs, against pay equity for women, and against the economic recovery that has only begun.
  • The Abu Salim Massacre: Cables on Libya's Cont ...
    Two days ahead of calls to protest the Gaddafi regime in a "Day of Rage" on February 17, members of the Committee of the Families of the Victims of the Abu Salim Massacre came out to protest. Libyan attorney and human rights activist Fathi Terbil, who represents families that had family members ...
  • BUDGET CUTS THREATEN CANCER BREAKTHROUGHS
    As the government keeps funding two wars and ongoing tax breaks, curing diseases like cancer is being threatened in the budget debates underway. In both the State of the Union and Budget Message, President Obama promised investment in biomedical research. However, House Appropriations Chairman H ...
  • Can Football be Played Safely?
    Can football be played at an acceptable safety level? And what is an acceptable safety level?

Switchboard

  • Receiving the Medal of Freedom, Celebrating an ...
    This week, I had the extraordinary honor of receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. I accepted this honor on behalf of the people who really made it possible: the staff and supporters of NRDC. I am just lucky these dedicated people helped me live out my dream of ...
  • House Republicans Pretend Global Warming Doesn ...
    Today the US House of Representatives is expected to vote on an amendment which would deny any US funding to international efforts to determine whether global warming is happening and how much damage it will have on humanity.  The amendment from Rep. Luetkemeyer (R-MO) would block ...
  • The remarkable story of Oakland's Fruitvale Tr ...
      (Part 1 of this post may be found here.) By the mid-1990s, the Unity Council and the Fruitvale community had made immense progress, obtaining a planning grant from the federal DOT along with encouragement to lead the design of an alternative vision, centered around community b ...
  • Greening our Cars and Trucks
    Want to help reduce U.S. oil dependence, cut dangerous carbon pollution and save money at the gas pump? Providing Americans with more choices of clean, high-efficiency cars and trucks is vital to reaching those goals. We must also focus on how we fuel our vehicles. Fortunately, we ...
  • EPA: the natural gas industry emits a lot of g ...
    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a draft report on�U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from 1990-2009. The draft is now open to public comment. Among other things, EPA looked at�natural gas systems, wihch�include�hundreds of thousands of wells, hundreds o ...

Lawyers,Guns,& Money

  • “We’ll Take Your Money, But We Don ...
    Fortunately, the imminent win for the heavily state-subsidized for-proft education industry in the House is unlikely to result in new legislation for now.   But the lobbying muscle of for-profit education is pretty formidable and the risk of a bad law eventually passing is considerable. Rela ...
  • Hacktacular!
    It probably goes without saying that the recent discovery by Republicans that once a party has won an election it should be able to pass any legislation it wants without any parliamentary gimmickry from the minority is seconded in particularly shameless form by Althouse (who, at least, is making ...
  • Facebook: Relationship Status Updates
    As noted here, Facebook’s relationship status options now include civil unions and domestic partnerships. A long overdue change. But I still think “it’s complicated” should be a cross-cutting category. Related posts:The Civil Union Question My Thoughts Exactly A Brief Essay On How Political P ...
  • Friday Nugget Blogging
    “First you liked him then you stopped liking him, then you liked someone else, now you like him again? Girls make no sense.” Yep, well neither do Republican Congresspersons. Related posts:Friday Nugget Blogging Friday Nugget Blogging Friday Nugget Blogging Related posts:Friday Nugget Bloggi ...
  • Off the rails
    I know I shouldn’t grasp at fruit hung so low, but the offers of the folk over at a place I’ll link to shortly are mighty tempting fare. Just the other day, their Commander in Grief decided that his ethos would be enhanced if he penned a manifesto in the style of an online [...] Related posts ...

Desert Research Institute

  • 2010 DRI Annual Report
    The 2010 annual report is now available for download. This issue includes an interview with Executive Vice President for Research Dr. Terry Surles, our involvement with a large NSF grant to study climate change, an overview of the work in our divisions and centers, select researcher profiles, an ...
  • Tracking the Air Quality at Lake Tahoe
    In order to better understand the pollutant sources that are affecting Lake’s Tahoe’s water quality, Research Professor Hampden Kuhns, began studying Lake Tahoe in 2003 when he assembled the areas first emissions inventory. The inventory included local measurements using his TRAKER road ...
  • Building Concepts for Clarity
    Todd Mihevc has a knack for finding the right tools for the job, but he’s no handyman for hire. For 25 years, Mihevc, an Assistant Research Hydrogeologist at DRI, has been instrumental in developing equipment that surveys, studies, and samples water systems in Nevada. His latest research concern ...
  • Top Cited Article in the Journal of Human Evol ...
    Dr. Glenn Berger is lead author in top-cited article in Journal of Human Evolution. The article "Luminescence chronology of cave sediments at the Atapuerca paleoanthropological site, Spain" was the top-cited article published in the Journal of Human Evolution for the period of 2008 to 2010.
  • DRI Researcher Published in Nature Geoscience
    The atmosphere over the Dead Sea, researchers have found, is laden with oxidized mercury. Some of the highest levels of oxidized mercury ever observed outside the polar regions exist there.

Earth Techling

National Law Journal | U.S.

How Shall We Do The Mountain ?

  • Gas driller pays Pennsylvania state Senator Jo ...
    I received this comment from another blogger on this same article: “To paraphrase Jim Cramer, well known for his investment & corporate financial opinions on television and internet, the United States has the best government money can buy.” Published: Sunday, February 13, 2011, 11:04 PM Updated ...
  • FrackTracker
    Here’s an exceprt from the blog at Fracktracker, a useful site for info and maps and visuals. The Environmental Protection Agency has submitted a draft of its Hydraulic Fracturing Study Plan, which is to be reviewed by the Science Advisory Board (SAB), a group of independent scientists that w ...
  • A Comprehensive Website for News Headlines
    The below site, while not covering everything, does offers a lot of info in one place. Newspaper Headlines: http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Gas-Drilling_NEWS.htm
  • Groups File Federal Gas Drilling Lawsuit again ...
    Delaware River Basin Commission Served Notice Trenton, New Jersey —The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Damascus Citizens for Sustainability have joined forces in filing a federal lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) in federal district court in Trenton, NJ. Complaints were ...
  • Oil and Gas Companies Illegally Using Diesel i ...
    By Adam Federman, Earth Island Journal Posted on February 1, 2011 The 2005 Bush-Cheney Energy Policy Act famously exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. But it made one small exception: diesel fuel. The Policy Act states that the term “underground injection,” as it relat ...

News Blaze

  • U.S. Allocates $150 Million for Egypt's Recove ...
    The United States stands ready to provide assistance to Egypt to advance its efforts. I'm pleased to announce today we will be reprogramming $150 million for Egypt to put ourselves in a position to support the transition there and assist with their
  • EPA Awards $5.5 Million to Support Nanotechnol ...
    Nanotechnology is the science of very small matter called nanomaterials, which are structured in size between 1 to 100 nanometers. A nanometer is 100,000 times thinner than a strand of hair.
  • Secretary Hillary Clinton Congratulates Kosovo ...
    As I said during my visit, the United States is committed to your future and we are honored to be your friends and your partners. You are charting a new future for your country and for the region.
  • Art Institute of Chicago Develops Lesson Plans ...
    Lesson plan says that Vishnu has 10 avatars. They are the savior gods who come to earth to save humanity from evil at different intervals during the cycles of existence. In this activity, students write a story about a problem on earth. They imagine
  • 'House Republicans' Bill Would Gut Decades of ...
    The 2010 budget resolution expires March 4. The continuing resolution is supposed to simply provide stop-gap funding to keep the government from shutting down. Debate on the bill began today; a vote is expected in the House later this week.

environment 360

  • Bangladesh’s Booming Leather Industry a Public ...
    The rapidly growing leather tannery industry in Bangladesh is exposing most of its workforce to poisonous chemicals and dumping untold amounts of toxic waste into public waterways, according to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP). In the Dhaka district of Getty ImagesA Bangladeshi tannery ...
  • New Hydrogen Cartridges Can Power Small Device ...
    A University of Michigan scientist has developed a small hydrogen fuel cell that can recharge laptops, cell phones, and GPS units in the field and also supply limited electricity to power electric lights in homes in the developing world. The researcher, James Dye, worked with SiGNa Chemistry to ...
  • Heavier Downpours Linked to Increasing Greenho ...
    A comprehensive computer analysis of heavy precipitation events in the Northern Hemisphere from 1951 to 1999 has shown that the intense downpours that have hit many countries in recent decades are at least partly the result of human influence on climate. Reporting in the journal Nature, a team o ...
  • Cambodia Approves Titanium Mine in Threatened ...
    The government of Cambodia has approved a 78-square-mile titanium mine in the dwindling rainforest of the Cardamom Mountains, a highly biodiverse area that lies within one of the world’s most threatened forests. While the United Khmer Group says their proposed mining operation will yield $1.3 bi ...
  • Asian Smart Meter Market to Surpass 350 Millio ...
    The number of smart meters in Asian markets will increase from 52.8 million in 2010 to more than 350.3 million by 2016 as governments and electric utilities across the region increasingly emphasize the technology, according to a new market report. That represents an annual growth rate of about 3 ...

Red Ice Creations

  • Huge solar flare jams radio, satellite signals ...
    A powerful solar eruption that has already disturbed radio communications in China could disrupt electrical power grids and satellites used on Earth in the next days, NASA said.The massive sunspot, which astronomers say is the size of Jupiter, is the strongest solar flare in four years. "Ground ...
  • Arkansas Cities Feel Unexplained Surge In Eart ...
    Jim Sutterfield was briefly puzzled by a thumping sound that seemed to slam the back of his office chair. But when the small-town Arkansas fire chief turned and saw no one was around, he quickly realized it was just an earthquake — again.Several earthquakes ranging from 1.8 to 3.8 have rattled A ...
  • Bahrain crush protest camp, locks down capital
    Army patrols and tanks locked down the capital of this tiny Gulf kingdom after riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into demonstrators, many of them sleeping, in a pre-dawn assault Thursday that uprooted their protest camp demanding political change. Medical officials said four ...
  • Obama Honors Bush With Medal of Freedom (Serio ...
    President Barack Obama honored former President George H.W. Bush with the nation’s highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom, at an emotional White House ceremony. Also awarded were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Billionaire Warren Buffet, and Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of slain President J ...
  • Oops: Widespread Human DNA Contamination Seen ...
    Nearly 20% of the nonhuman genomes held in computer databases are contaminated with human DNA, presumably from the researchers who prepared the samples. The contamination may mislead researchers who assume that any sequence is highly accurate. The problem will become more serious as individuals ...

Russia Today

Dad2059′s Webzine of Science Fiction, Science Fact and Esoterica

  • WikiLeaks, Allnewsweb and the TEA Party
    When one looks at the above title, the individual has to ask, WTF? What could these three things have in common? Well, according to ‘Mirage Men‘ author, Mark Pilkington, not really a whole hell of a lot, just rampant opportunism: When the first mention of UFOs in the tranche of diplomatic paper ...
  • Even Gary Bekkum is skeptical
    Gary Bekkum’s  STARpod.org’s site is usually replete with government conspiracies, psychic spies, hamsters, Bigelow’s Skinwalker Ranch, Laura Eisenhower’s Mars Colony and other wondrous esoteric oddities that it’s hard to believe that Gary could be skeptical of anything. But he is. He is very s ...
  • More Paracast: George Filer
    Yeah I know I’ve been lazy lately (or so it seems), but trust me on this one. You won’t be disappointed with this interview Gene Steinberg and co-host Chris O’Brien of the Paracast had with Eastern MUFON Director George Filer, who also has the website Filer’s Files (which caters to guess what? Y ...
  • The Paracast: Clifford Clift of MUFON
    This week’s Paracast with Gene Steinberg and Chris O’Brien is a conversation with MUFON International’s Clifford Clift. Subjects range from the nuts and bolts aspects of UFOs to the possible paranormal links with ghosts, angels, demons and Sasquatch. This was a down to earth and civil interview, ...
  • Bizarre Beachcoming: Review of the Codex Serap ...
    Dr. Beachcoming, that eccentric collector of all things of an exotic historical nature, reviews The Codex Seraphinianus,  a book written by Luigi Serafini that is purportedly about an alien world complete with language, customs, architecture, flora and fauna. Luigi Serafini, Codex Seraphinianus ...

Tippers News

  • DNA testing a proven weapon in fight against h ...
    DNA testing is a proven aid in solving child trafficking cases in the country, a well-known international research institute says.Submitted by Rose NoFWDSPLZ to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Three men helped starve kids, court tol
    Three men helped starve five children in Adelaide until they looked like they had came from a famine-affected Third World country, a court has been told.Submitted by Rose NoFWDSPLZ to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Chinese sex traders challenge verdict
    The three Chinese nationals who were jailed by an Accra Circuit Court for transporting 10 Chinese girls into the country and engaging them in sex trade have appealed against the verdict. Submitted by Rose NoFWDSPLZ to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • The real terrorist was me - US Soldier -
    The Truth from a American Soldier who fought in an Unjust WAR in Iraq; thankfully his conscience willed him to admit that it was just a war for the rich elite few to get richer and had nothing to do with Patriosm or Security of Americans.He is a True HeroSubmitted by Mary P. to US Politics & Gov ...
  • BRUTAL TRUTH Of IRAQ WAR
    'War' on any country is a 'Terrorist Act.' How can it be anything else?? People sit in their cosy homes; happy and Falsely believing that the soldiers are in a Patriotic War; Well see for yourself and ask Whats Patriotic about Suffering of Human Beings?Submitted by Mary P. to US Politics & Gov' ...

The Freeman

  • Spending in Current Fiscal Year Still Being Fo ...
    “Having turned its focus from spending cuts to social issues and an assault on the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda, a battle-weary House reconvenes Friday in hopes of wrapping up action on a big Republican spending bill that would impose sweeping cuts across domestic programs. The measu ...
  • Stimulus Hasn’t Lived Up to Its Billing
    “A bill to jump start the economy. That was the main idea behind the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the âstimulus bill,â which became law two years ago today. However, the nation is still waiting for the bill’s promised jolt.” (CNN) Another broken promise. FEE Timely Cla ...
  • There’s Got to Be a Better Way
    What’s so remarkable about events in the Middle East is that a significant number of people who had felt powerless looked around at what they’d seen every day of their lives and thought for the first time: “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
  • Freeman articles on American Presidents
    Selected from the Freeman Archives: Our Presidents and the National Debt, By Burton Folsom During the last 75 years the United States has failed to balance its annual budget over 90 percent of the time. What’s worse, the government has spent money so recklessly that we now owe over $8.2 trillion ...
  • Patri Friedman’s Work Gets Stossel&#8217 ...
    Patri Friedman, coauthor of an article about seasteading in the upcoming March issue of The Freeman and the next guest in The Idea Room, is featured in John Stossel’s syndicated column this week. Read it here.

Teaching Online Journalism

  • Web literacy: Should be required
    A student calls me on the phone. “Professor McAdams, I wonder if you could help me. I’ve never taken a class with you, but …” “Yes, what can I do for you?” I reply. “I bought my own website, but I’m not sure how to get my Web pages there.” From past experience, I know what I need to ask now. ...
  • Can journalism education rise to the challenge ...
    Most journalism programs face the same challenges: How to find, employ and retain faculty who are comfortable teaching new skills and techniques. How to provide equipment and software to students (especially with shrinking budgets). How to keep up with a rapidly changing field. Perhaps mos ...
  • HTML and CSS Resources for Teaching
    Every year around this time, I update the resources I use in teaching my advanced online design class. I know there are a million lists like these online. I try to keep mine short, simple and current. Also, I’m not teaching programmers or graphic design majors. My students are journalists. C ...
  • Visual narratives: Empirical data
    From a research study by two scholars at Stanford: In this paper, we investigate the design of narrative visualizations and identify techniques for telling stories with data graphics. We take an empirical approach, analyzing visualizations from online journalism, blogs, instructional videos, an ...
  • Teaching HTML and CSS to journalism students
    I’ve been looking at the open-source course materials for Web Design 1, from the WaSP InterACT curriculum project. I think these materials can easily be adapted for use in a journalism curriculum. The idea is to acquaint our students with the building blocks of the Web they use every day. For s ...

Facing South

  • Southern Republicans launch sneak attack on co ...
    The House is expected to vote as early as today on amendments to a budget bill that would take away the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate toxic coal ash as a hazardous waste. Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.) have offered amendments to a continuing reso ...
  • INSTITUTE INDEX: A chilly budget for the poor
    Size of the budget proposal unveiled this week by President Obama: $3.7 trillion Amount the White House says the plan will reduce the deficit by over the next 10 years: $1 trillion Portion of debt reduction that would be achieved via spending freezes: 2/3 By tax increases: 1/3 Number of year ...
  • VOICES: Obama's $36 billion nuke-powered givea ...
    By Harvey Wasserman Barack Obama's 2012 budget marks a major escalation in the nuclear war against a green-powered future, whose advocates are already fighting back. Amidst massive budget cuts for social and environmental programs, Obama wants $36 billion in loan guarantees for a reactor in ...
  • 'Respect my Vote': Backlash grows against vote ...
    When Republicans launched campaigns in 20 states this year for laws requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls, they likely saw it as a chance to score a quick political victory on one of their favorite causes. But the GOP's urgent and coordinated push is encountering growing resistan ...
  • Mississippi coal plant taken to court
    By Ada McMahon, Bridge the Gulf On Monday, Feb. 14, the Sierra Club took Mississippi Power's proposed lignite coalmine and power plant to court, as part of its ongoing attempt to stop the project from being built. � In a morning press conference, the environmental group and a diverse range ...

Worldpress - Africa

Telegraph UK - oil

Ian Welsh

  • You don’t always get what you vote for
    but you sure don’t get what you don’t vote for. Fianna Fáil, the party in power for 20 of the past 23 years, faces a drubbing in Irelandâs general election on February 25, with Fine Gael, the other centre-right party, appearing to pick up support rather than the left-of-centre Labour party or m ...
  • Words or Dollars
    From TPM’s David Kurtz: let’s take note of Obama’s clear-eyed understanding of America’s role in the world and the real limits of American power as he just stated it in his press conference: What we didn’t do was pretend that we could dictate the outcome in Egypt — because we can’t. So we were v ...
  • Words or Dollars
    From TPM’s David Kurtz: let’s take note of Obama’s clear-eyed understanding of America’s role in the world and the real limits of American power as he just stated it in his press conference: What we didn’t do was pretend that we could dictate the outcome in Egypt — because we can’t. So we were v ...
  • Elites continue to be mad for draining ordinar ...
    Simon Ward in the Financial Times argues that current inflation in the UK (running at 2.4% officially, or 2.75% by his estimates) represents “an overly-loose monetary policy stance” and requires the Bank of England to raise rates sooner than expected. Now, by any historical standards in periods ...
  • Elites continue to be mad for draining ordinar ...
    Simon Ward in the Financial Times argues that current inflation in the UK (running at 2.4% officially, or 2.75% by his estimates) represents “an overly-loose monetary policy stance” and requires the Bank of England to raise rates sooner than expected. Now, by any historical standards in periods ...

Media Consortium

Reality Asserts Itself

  • Drug Wars in Juarez Fuels Boom in El Paso
    My colleague Malak Behrouznami recently returned from Juarez Mexico where she grew up as a child. She as a wonderful heritage - her father is Iranian and her Mother is Mexican. She went Juarez for family and journalistic reasons. One of her objectives was to find out why Juarez has become a terr ...
  • PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI NEGOTIATIONS TO NOWHERE NO ...
    A few months ago when shooting a documentary in the Middle East, we met Zeina, a 13-year-old Palestinian living in a Beirut refugee camp. She was traumatized as she watched the Israeli Gaza war on television. It changed her life. She now thinks of revenge and cannot understand the Israeli childr ...
  • FROM JOE McCARTHY TO GLEN BECK – TIME TO END F ...
    I listened to Glen Becks "Restoring Honor" speech today hoping to find something of substance to write about. I found a stringing together of such empty phrases it does not bear discussion.  The more important issue is why a man whose megalomania seems to have no bounds can become such a phenome ...
  • PAKISTAN FLOODS AND A FAILED POLICY - UN Sec. ...
    Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, says of the flooding in Pakistan "The world has never seen such a disaster. It's much beyond anybody's imagination". At least 20 million people have lost their homes, more than 1600 have died, and disease and hunger will claim many, many mo ...
  • China and the end of the end of history
    Many economists and political analysts think the current recovery, as it's being called, is a rather temporary phenomenon. Many expect the recession to kick back in, and perhaps within a few years get much more serious. What does that mean in terms of the future of the world economy and world po ...

Great Beyond ( Nature )

  • Japan ends this year’s Antarctic whale hunt
    Posted on behalf of Anjali Nayar Japan suspended its Antarctic whaling operations early for the first time in history today, after sustained attacks by a US-based conservationist group. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society fleet has been playing cat and mouse with Japanese fishing vessel ...
  • Vote for police dings NASA budget
    By Adam Mann It’s been a volatile week in the US capitol as legislators work to pass a continuing resolution. HR 1, to fund the federal government for the current fiscal year. During a House debate on 16 February, Rep. Anthony Wiener (D-NY) introduced an amendment to the bill that would trans ...
  • Malaspina expedition: Water, water everywhere ...
    Freelance journalist Lucas Laursen is joining the Malaspina expedition, a Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)-sponsored
  • Sanofi-Genzyme’s Never-Ending-Story comes to a ...
    Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, a pharmaceutical company called Sanofi-aventis declared its undying love. Sadly for Sanofi, its love – the alluring Genzyme – was shy, and for a long, long time would not respond to its advances. Now however the two companies have finally agreed a deal ...
  • Scientists get first dibs under UK immigration ...
    International researchers hoping to get visas to work in the UK will not be hit as badly as feared by the government’s decision last year to limit immigration for highly-skilled migrants. Details of the new visa rules, published today, show that scientists will get priority if more people wa ...

new geography

  • The Evolving Urban Form: Seoul
    Based upon the preliminary results of the South Korea 2010 census, Seoul has become the world's second largest metropolitan area. The jurisdictions making out the metropolitan area, the provincial level municipality of Seoul (which is the national capital), the province of Gyeonggi and the p ...
  • Chicago Takes a Census Shellacking
    The Census results are out for Illinois, and it's bad news for the city of Chicago, whose population plunged by over 200,000 people to 2,695,598, its lowest population since before 1920.  This fell far short of what would have been predicted given the 2009 estimate of 2,851,268. It's a huge n ...
  • Mortgage Meltdown: How Underwriting Went Under
    The White House remedies for the mortgage meltdown were presented on Friday. Congress will debate the life extension, death, or rebirth of federal mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the coming weeks. When the noise has died down, don't expect substantial change. But those wh ...
  • A Leg Up: World's Largest Cities No Longer Ho ...
    Throughout much of history, cities have served as incubators for upward mobility. A great city, wrote René Descartes in the 17th century, was “an inventory of the possible,” a place where people could lift their families out of poverty and create new futures. In his time, Amsterdam was that city ...
  • China Housing Market More Stable Than You May ...
    The sensationalist reporting of rising China tends to celebrate the country’s ascent. But there is one area where both economists and casual observers see a potential disaster: the real estate market.  Media reports of skyrocketing housing prices in first tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai ...

GM Watch

spiked

Cryptogon

  • Protesters Killed in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya
    Via: Reuters: Unrest spread across the Middle East and North Africa on Thursday as Bahrain launched a swift military crackdown on anti-government protesters and clashes were reported in Libya and Yemen. Troops in armored vehicles took control of the Bahraini capital after police firing buckshot ...
  • Air Force Wants Troll Persona Management Softw ...
    Via: Federal Business Opportunities: Online Persona Management Service. 50 User Licenses, 10 Personas per user. Software will allow 10 personas per user, replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent. Ind ...
  • As Hillary Clinton Extols the Virtues of Free ...
    Via: Raw Story: The official position of the US Secretary of State is that countries around the world should respect their citizens’ rights to free speech, free expression and free assembly — and that’s precisely what Sec. Hillary Clinton said during a Tuesday speech at George Washington Univers ...
  • Florida: State Farm Blames Sinkholes for 28% R ...
    [???] Via: Tampa Bay Online: Citing sinkhole losses and higher operating expenses, State Farm Florida asked state regulators today for a 28 percent premium increase on its homeowners policies. Sinkhole claims, which are approaching $2 billion over the past five years in Florida, have exploded at ...
  • Silver: Breakout
    Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Silver hit $31.78 and is up and out of the previous range. Gold is up, but still rangebound.

The Economic Collapse

  • Doom And Gloom
    Have you noticed that most Americans seem to know far more about American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Justin Bieber and their favorite sports teams than they do about world affairs?  Most Americans cannot even find Tunisia and Algeria on a map, and if you told them that food r ...
  • Shocking Video Of Howard Dean Declaring That I ...
    In the shocking video you are about to watch, Howard Dean declares that it is the job of the government to redistribute our wealth.  Not only that, he says it in such a way that indicates that he believes that such a notion should be obvious to anyone with half a brain.  Well, w ...
  • 20 Shocking New Economic Records That Were Set ...
    2010 was quite a year, wasn't it?  2010 will be remembered for a lot of things, but for those living in the United States, one of the main things that last year will be remembered for is economic decline.  The number of foreclosure filings set a new record, the number of home re ...
  • House Prices – Up Or Down In 2011?
    How soon will it be before people finally start using the term "depression" to describe what has happened to the U.S. housing market?  It has been four and a half years since housing prices began to decline, and they are still falling.  In fact, U.S. housing prices have now fall ...
  • 10 Things That Would Be Different If The Feder ...
    The vast majority of Americans, including many of those who believe that they are "educated" about the Federal Reserve, do not really understand how the Federal Reserve really makes money for the international banking elite.  Many of those opposed to the Federal Reserve will poi ...

Desertification

  • Southern Sudan will need to invest in infrastr ...
    Read at : http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?Reportid=91951 SUDAN: Farming the future in the South YEI, 17 February 2011 (IRIN) – With independence only months away, Southern Sudan will need to invest in infrastructure to feed and employ its people, while seeking alternatives to … Continue read ...
  • Knowledge Management for the UNCCD: Invitation ...
    Read at : Land Degradation Announcement List KM for the UNCCD The Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification would like to invite you to participate on a side event on Knowledge Management for the UNCCD. In … Continue reading →
  • African nightshade (Solanum scabrum) : interes ...
    Read at : http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/african-nightshade-an-underappreciated-native-comes-into-the-light/ African Nightshade: An Underappreciated Native Comes into the Light Danielle Nierenberg By Matt Styslinger The term ânightshadeâ refers collectively to a wide-ranging gro ...
  • The spineless prickly pear cactus (Opuntia fic ...
    Read at : Google Alert – desertification http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/farmers-serve-prickly-feast-to-livestock Farmers serve prickly feast to livestock Megan Detrie (Writer) The prickly pear cactus will soon be grown on UAE farms as a water-efficient food for animals. Known as Optunia ...
  • The “African Great Green Wall” (DN ...
    Read at : Announcement of the CSFD new report  on  the “African Great Green Wall” CSFD_FicheActualiteGMV_web CSFD_TopicBriefsGGW_lowres At the occasion of the Second Special Session of the Committee on Science and Technology of the UNCCD*,  the CSFD** launches a new … Continue reading →

The Paper Trail

  • Bankers Take Debit Fee Duel To Friendly Territ ...
    Bankers dueling with retailers over a Federal Reserve plan to limit debit card processing fees took the fight into friendly territory today at a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing.
  • GAO: Worst of the Worst Federal Programs
    The Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service, already the butt of many bad jokes, are among the poster children on the GAO’s list of federal agencies at “high risk” of waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement.
  • Federal Panel Says FBI Overstated Science Behi ...
    Federal investigators overstated the strength of the scientific evidence against a late Army researcher blamed for the anthrax mailings that killed five people in 2001, a panel of scientists said Tuesday after an 18-month review. However, the panel didn't contradict the FBI's conclusion that the ...
  • Budget Deliberations Silent on Medicare or Oth ...
    True fiscal hawks likely won’t find much to celebrate in this week’s budget machinations, talk of spending cuts aside. That’s because neither President Obama nor Congressional Republicans have much to say about cutting the entitlement programs that are driving the nation’s long-term debt problem ...
  • Judge Says Fannie Mae Whistleblower’s La ...
    As Congress begins to tackle the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-chartered mortgage giants that have been kept alive with $150 billion in taxpayer aid, a whistleblower lawsuit has been given the green light to proceed.

backofthebook.ca

  • False news is good for you. Really.
    By Frank Moher The last time Avaaz.org organized an online petition, I wasn't too nice about it. But when it comes to "false news" -- yes, you read that right -- the activist organization is right on money. What is false news? Funny you should ask. I wondered exactly the same thing, ...
  • Bieberbortion
    by Rachel Krueger Bye Bieber Bunting rocks the cover of Rolling Stone next month, looking as bad-ass as his infant-face is capable of.  The Stone is teasing out its Biebernterview by releasing all the salacious bits, and the PITCHFORKS ARE A-GATHERIN.  Particularly around the Bieb’s stance ...
  • Who is Bev Oda’s Con-sigliere?
    By Montreal Simon He rose in the House of Commons yesterday like a mob boss defending one of his gang members. While Bev Oda sat there wearing sunglasses, looking like her tongue had been cut out. But all I could see was the fear in his eyes, and his pudgy hands. And all I ...
  • McLuhan saw this coming
    By Dave Brindle Lost in all of the hum online about Egypt and the CRTC was that 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marshall McLuhan. He was right. When I tweeted that, my friend Rod Mickleburgh of The Globe and Mail shot back: @davebrindleshow mcluhan was certainly right ...
  • Red, warm, and close to the heart
    By Jodi A. Shaw I’ve never been shy about my distaste for Valentine’s Day.   I don’t endorse or encourage celebrating it, I don’t accept Valentine’s Day gifts from anyone other than small children who have an innocent appreciation for the "holiday." Instead, every year I close my eyes, plug m ...

Worldnews

  • German Defense Minister Drops Doctoral Ti ...
    By PATRICK MCGROARTY BERLIN—Embattled German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said he will stop using his doctoral title until an investigation into allegations he plagiarized parts of his dissertation is completed. View Full Image Associated Press German Defense Minister Karl-Th ...
  • Lady Gaga: I Want To Be In Movies
    Lady Gaga: born to be a movie star? The Grammy-winning singer, fashion trailblazer, gay rights activist and recent hatchling is no stranger to the camera, and in an interview on Friday, she said she plans on taking that to the next level: the big screen. Speaking to "The Morning Mash Up" on ...
  • Dina Lohan: Lindsay faces `lifelong` addi ...
    Dina Lohan says daughter Lindsay faces a 'lifelong struggle with addiction'. Dina and Michael Lohan head into Nassau County Family Court outside New York. Michael has filed papers to re-open their divorce case...
  • Tablet Explosion Looking More Subdued
    A Gartner survey highlighted the continued success of smartphones as the top selling device again this year, but tablets sat way down at the bottom of the list. "Smartphones were followed by laptop computers and desktop computers in rankings of U.S. consumers' average intent to purchase in ...
  • Hillary Clinton to urge Taliban to reject ...
    Continue reading the main story Taliban Conflict Make-or-break year ahead Can Afghan forces step up? Who are the Taliban? Pakistan's very unhappy new year US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will say on Friday that Taliban fighters in Afghanistan face a stark choice between war and peace, ...

Alex in Wonderland

MY Daily Apple

Common Dreams

  • The Insurers’ Real Agenda for Change
    by Wendell Potter The media had lots of health care news to obsess about last week. A federal judge ruled the health care reform law unconstitutional, and Senate Republicans tried in vain to repeal the law. But most of the press paid virtually no attention to a potentially much more impor ...
  • Vermont Governor Lays Out Details for Single P ...
    by Nancy RemsenThe Shumlin administration released the legislative details of how to move the state to a single payer health care system, with the first steps beginning this summer."We are committing to reforms that get us as many of the benefits of a single payer as possible under current feder ...
  • Protests Swell at Tahrir Square
    read more
  • 'Sheik al-Torture': Washington's New Man in Ca ...
    by Pepe EscobarCAIRO - The Egyptian revolution is being dissolved right in front of the world's eyes by an optical illusion. The protesters who have been on the streets for two weeks still want President Hosni Mubarak out. Now. Yet United Stat ...
  • Virginia Debates Opening Largest Uranium Mine ...
    by Scott HarperVIRGINIA - The National Academy of Sciences on Monday took up the controversial issue of possible uranium mining in Virginia, with experts testifying for hours and environmentalists protesting what they say is a dangerous business idea.The all-day hearing came less than a week aft ...

The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Examine Religion - Tweets

Energy Collective

  • Is High-Speed Rail Worth Its Cost?
    The editors of the Washington Post have expressed serious reservations concerning the administration's plans for investing up to $53 billion in new high-speed rail systems, with the goal of linking 80% of the US population by a new fast rail network.
  • Is the deregulated market in the ERCOT region ...
    Michael Giberson
  • Solar Power Growth Up 70% Worldwide
    While the United States isn’t reaching its solar power potential, new information from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association makes it clear that over the past year growth has been substantial worldwide.
  • Graph of the Day: The Cost of Production Of Oi ...
    TreeHugger points to a TOD post looking at the cost of production for oil from various sources - Does Peak Oil Even Matter?. The summary - "Peak Oilers have always pointed out that we will never run out of oil, it will just get a lot more expensive.
  • Greening our Cars and Trucks
    Want to help reduce U.S. oil dependence, cut dangerous carbon pollution and save money at the gas pump? Providing Americans with more choices of clean, high-efficiency cars and trucks is vital to reaching those goals. We must also focus on how we fuel our vehicles. Fortunately, we know the polic ...

Green House - USA Today

  • Does my green house meet the passive standard?
    Just how tough is the passive house standard that's starting to catch on in the United States? I put my own new green house to the test.
  • Passive houses aggressively reduce energy
    Heat your home by throwing a dinner party? This concept may sound bizarre, but it's feasible in cutting-edge green homes that are so well-insulated, they don't need a furnace or boiler. They'll stay warm simply with body heat. A hairdryer might also suffice. Such passive homes, popularized in Eu ...
  • Poll: Americans OK with newer light bulbs
    Most Americans support the U.S. law that begins phasing out traditional light bulbs next year and, despite some consumer grumbling, say they're satisfied with more efficient alternatives, according to a USA TODAY poll.
  • World Bank: High food prices impoverishes 44 m ...
    Rising food prices have pushed about 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since last June as food costs near peak 2008 levels, the World Bank warns in a new report.
  • Greenest cars? Not all are electric or hybrids
    Plug-in electric vehicles may be the hip newcomers on U.S. streets this year, but they aren't the only eco-friendly stars, a scorecard of greenest cars reveals Tuesday.

To Do

renewable recycling conservation
MT bill to boost renewable energy standard nixed
Bloomberg
- Feb 18, 2011
- 2 hours ago
(AP) — Legislative Republicans have quickly shot down an attempt by Democrats to increase Montana's renewable energy standard Montana utilities are required to procure a certain percentage of retail electricity sales from renewable resources such as ...
Related Articles »
clipped from Google - 2/2011
Arizona Public Service issues RFP on renewable projects
Bizjournals.com
- Feb 18, 2011
- 3 hours ago
Arizona Public Service Co. has started bid solicitations for one of its renewable generation programs. The APS Small Generation Standard Offer program is seeking renewable energy projects that can give the utility between 2 and 15 megawatts. ...
clipped from Google - 2/2011
California renewable energy project endangered under GOP planned budget cuts
Examiner.com
- Feb 18, 2011
- 3 hours ago
If the United states truly is seeking domestic energy independence, then the advancement of Renewable(and Clean) Energy should not be halted. Please contact your Congressional Representative and support the POLIS AMENDMENT(No.67) to HR1 which will ...
Related Articles »
clipped from Google - 2/2011
Aren't solar panels on rooftops all we need?
San Diego Union Tribune
- Feb 18, 2011
- 12 hours ago
By Richard Caputo Some people say that putting solar panels on buildings in San Diego is all the renewable energy needed. They claim that there would be no negative impacts from this since there would be no need to use land that is not already ...
Related Articles »
clipped from Google - 2/2011
powered by

Human Habitat

ecology water energy
Waste Management fined $2000 for cooking-oil spill into Coulon creek
PNW Local News
- Feb 18, 2011
- 2 hours ago
By DEAN RADFORD Waste Management Inc. has been fined $2000 by the state Department of Ecology for a spill of about 140 gallons of used cooking oil last May into Johns Creek in north Renton. The spill occurred on May 28, when a solid-waste truck driver ...
clipped from Google - 2/2011
New York State Legislation May Reduce Tuition For Out-of-State Students
Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun
- Feb 17, 2011
- Feb 17, 2011
By Sam Cross Don Sim '11 has spent his four years in Cornell's College of Human Ecology paying out-of-state tuition. As a result, Sim has worked as a barista in Libe Cafe as part of his federal work-study on top of a rigorous pre-med course load. ...
clipped from Google - 2/2011
BOST welcomes Southwark's change of heart on ecology cuts
London SE1
- Feb 18, 2011
- 5 hours ago
BOST joined forces with Walworth Garden Farm, Surrey Docks Farm, London Wildlife Trust, Trust for Urban Ecology and the Pumphouse Educational Museum to make the case for the environmental, health and social benefits of the organisations' work in the ...
clipped from Google - 2/2011
BU's Kunz to introduce new discipline of aeroecology at AAAS symposium
EurekAlert (press release)
- Feb 18, 2011
- 4 hours ago
BOSTON—A team of research biologists headed by Thomas H. Kunz, professor of biology and director of the Center of Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University, will conduct a symposium on the emerging scientific discipline of aeroecology at ...
clipped from Google - 2/2011
powered by

Water Power

water floods pollution
Body pulled from water identified as missing 45-year-old Vallejo man
San Jose Mercury News
- Feb 18, 2011
- 5 hours ago
By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen VALLEJO -- A body pulled from the Carquinez Strait near Vallejo on Wednesday afternoon has been identified as that of Robert Mast, a Vallejo man who went missing Feb. 5 after going out to walk his dog. ...
clipped from Google - 2/2011
Former sheriff sentenced for Clean Water Act violations
Water Technology Online
- Feb 18, 2011
- 4 hours ago
A former Iberia Parish Sheriff was sentenced yesterday for the negligent operation of a water treatment facility, according to KATC.com. WaterTech e-News Daily™ reported on Sept. 23, 2010 that Sidney J. Hebert, part-owner and president of ...
Related Articles »
clipped from Google - 2/2011
Decatur Utilities hires engineering firm to study water plant failure
Water Technology Online
- Feb 18, 2011
- 4 hours ago
In an effort to determine the cause of the utility's plant failure in January, Decatur Utilities (DU) has hired an outside engineering and consultant firm to conduct a water treatment study, The Decatur Daily reported. The firm — HDR Engineering Inc. ...
Related Articles »
clipped from Google - 2/2011
Trailer: Fish-Out-of Water God Thor Meets Mortals, Faces Monsters
Wired News (blog)
- Feb 18, 2011
- 7 minutes ago
The new trailer for Marvel's upcoming superhero flick Thor gets laughs from the fish-out-of-water predicament of an ancient Nordic god (portrayed by Chris Hemsworth) who crash-lands in modern times. Once Thor hooks up with Natalie Portman's scientist ...
clipped from Google - 2/2011
powered by
Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted by opit at 2:03 PM
Labels: , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)