Image via WikipediaUnearthly music: Astronaut has four flutes with her in orbit
Liberals vow to cancel stealth fighter deal
Party insiders later added that an Ignatieff government would be in no rush to purchase any new fighter jets. They said such a huge military procurement would not be a priority for Ignatieff at a time when the federal government’s books are awash in red ink.
Ignatieff has been hinting for months that a Liberal government might cancel the Harper government’s commitment to buy 65 F-35 Lightning II jet fighters at an estimated cost of $14 billion to $16 billion, including long-term maintenance.But he said the last straw was the scathing “wake-up call” issued Tuesday by Auditor General Sheila Fraser on the Harper government’s botched purchase of military helicopters.
( Interesting. Yet Canadians will elect one of these bozos as a 'leader'. Apologies to the bright sheep...Baaaaa!! )
In Burlington they know how good they got it
Michel Chikwanine was a child solider forced to shoot his best friend
Khadr should go back to Canada: UN official
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict, said Khadr represents the "classic child soldier narrative: recruited by unscrupulous groups to undertake actions at the bidding of adults to fight battles they barely understand."She also said the fact that Khadr was abused by his own father exacerbates the harm done to him.
From FDR To IOU: Social Security Hits Tipping Point
Social Security has now officially gone cash negative — and that means a nation that borrowed surplus Social Security revenues for decades will have to start paying that money back.Over the years, Social Security has collected about $2.5 trillion more than it has paid out. Those extra funds have been used to buy special bonds from the U.S. Treasury, building up what's come to be known as the Social Security Trust Fund.
Russian money revives Plastic Logic
Deal gives nascent field of plastic electronics a shot in the arm.
Plastic Logic finalized a deal worth $200 million with a consortium headed by the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano), the state-owned venture-capital company for nanotechnology, and says it will use the money to produce a more advanced reader at a new state-of-the-art factory on the outskirts of Moscow.
Industry watchers say that the deal is huge by the standards of the nascent field of plastic electronics. John Rogers, a materials scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, describes it as "eye-popping", while Michael Holman, a New York-based analyst at international research advisory company Lux Research, likens it to a "Moon shot." "There is the potential for Plastic Logic to become a major manufacturer and for Russia to have a new industry," Holman says. "But there is a lot of risk on both sides."
Plastic Logic is one of several companies developing electronic devices made not from silicon but from new kinds of organic molecules that can conduct and semiconduct.
These molecules can be dissolved to form inks, allowing components to be printed onto easy-to-handle substrates such as plastic. The process potentially slashes the cost of chip production and opens the way to completely new applications, such as flexible displays or tracking devices that can be printed onto clothes, food packaging or even people. The industry is currently worth about $2 billion a year, but market analysts IDTechEx, based in Cambridge, Mass., estimate that it could grow to about $60 billion by 2019.
How to Break into a Windows PC (And Prevent It from Happening to You)
Fourth-generation wireless: A tale of two providers
Zoologger: The sharpest mind in the farmyard
Too Much SP2 Protein Turns Stem Cells Into 'Evil Twin' Cancer Cells
Scientists Discover New Genes Linked To Rheumatoid Arthritis
Primates' Unique Gene Regulation Mechanism: Little-Understood DNA Elements Serve Important Purpose
Maquat discovered that Alu elements team up with molecules called long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) to regulate protein production. They do this by ensuring messenger RNAs (mRNAs), which take genetic instructions from DNA and use it to create proteins, stay on track and create the right number of proteins. If left unchecked, protein production can spiral out of control, leading to the proliferation or multiplication of cells, which is characteristic of diseases such as cancer.
Is there a moral dimension to being anti-environmental?
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/is-there-a-moral-dimension-to-being-anti-environmental
One of the blogs I contribute to is Dr. Judith Curry’s Climate Etc. Its unique selling point is that Judith is a prominent Warmist who’s taken the unusual step of engaging with us folk of a sceptical persuasion. The current post is about the Lisbon workshop on ‘Reconciliation in the Climate Change Debate’. As posts go, it’s not particularly controversial per se but I certainly had problems with it because of some underlying or perhaps unconscious assumptions.
I have a problem with the whole idea of reconciliation in the climate debate and for once, it’s not political but moral. When an area of science mutates into pseudo-science and attracts a large following, it is always hijacked by political forces, which give it a whole new and terrible dimension. In the end, people get killed or hurt and the sum total of human suffering is increased.
Rashid Khalidi: Leaked "Palestine Papers" Underscore Weakness of Palestinian Authority, Rejectionism of Israel and U.S.
First-Ever Global Map of Surface Permeability Informs Water Supply, Climate Modelling
University of British Columbia researchers have produced the first map of the world outlining the ease of fluid flow through the planet's porous surface rocks and sediments.
The maps and data, published January 21 in Geophysical Research Letters, could help improve water resource management and climate modelling, and eventually lead to new insights into a range of geological processes."This is the first global-scale picture of near-surface permeability, and is based on rock type data at greater depths than previous mapping," says Tom Gleeson, a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences.
Chinese authorities warn of continuous drought in spring, urge measures to minimize drought impact
China's organic farms rooted in food-safety concerns
food safety is a major issue in a country where even government agencies have food grown for their staffs to avoid problems.
China's government promises tougher penalties, better supervision and greater transparency, yet the public will take some convincing. Almost 70% of China's consumers feel insecure about food safety, according to a survey released recently by Insight China Magazine and the Tsinghua University Media Survey Lab.
Now some individuals and companies are taking action to ensure the produce on their dining tables, or in work canteens, is fit to eat. A small but growing number of people are starting or joining organic farms that abide by the community-supported agriculture (CSA) model being used in the USA.
Tourism-researcher-turned-organic-farmer He Pinru opened his Foshan Leyang farm in December, in southern China's Guangdong province. He says almost 3,000 people have signed up for regular deliveries of seasonal vegetables.
"Food safety is a serious problem in China, and not all the so-called organic foods in shops are really organic," He says.
Shi Yan, 28, a rural development expert, says she was inspired by the CSA model when working for six months in 2008 at the Earthrise farm in Madison, Minn. Shi says she shocked her parents by choosing the life of a peasant despite her degrees from a top Chinese university.
Media mergers likely to be more frequent as efficiencies rule the day
No sooner was the ink dry on AOL's $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post than the Wall Street dream machine kicked into high gear, floating rumors and sky-high valuations for Gawker and Politico.
KBIA91.3 Review of GM Crops on Wildlife Refuge Lands Underway http://www.kbia.org/news/review-of-gm-crops-on-wildlife-refuge-lands-underway For years National Wildlife refuges have used farming as a tool for restoring natural habitat. But a recent lawsuit has prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct an environmental review of the use of genetically modified crops on wildlife refuge lands in several states, including Missouri. In many wildlife refuges, farming is used to prepare a weed-free seedbed where natural grasses can later be grown. By the end of 3 years most of that weed seed in the ground is gone and then we come back and seed it back with native grasses.” Sixty to 70 percent of the land being farmed in the Fish and Wildlife region that includes Nebraska and Kansas is seeded with genetically modified Roundup ready seeds. This means the crops can withstand spraying of the weed-killing herbicide Roundup. “Is this a tool that’s appropriate to use on refuges? Are there other things that could be used that would accomplish the same objectives? That’s what we’re reviewing, not the farming itself, but this new technology of GM soybeans and corn.” But Charles Benbrook, chief scientist at the Organic Center in Boulder Colorado says using genetically modified seeds can lead to an inverse adverse effect. “This will accelerate the emergence of weeds that are genetically resistant to Roundup and not controlled by applying it and in that case there can be proliferation and spread of weeds as a result of these crops .” Benbrook says if Wildlife refuge managers were to contract with farmers that are willing to grow with little or no pesticides it would be better on the biodiversity. Now you can weigh in… public comments on the environmental assessment are being accepted. ( Go for the gusto. My initial reaction is 'They're doing WHAT !! ' If you wonder why, you're not up to speed on Monsanto,Rumsfeld,corporate pharming and much more. Hint : Agent Orange is not an aid to organic nutrition. The Topical Index is only meant as a springboard for self-enlightenment. )I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly guardian.co.uk
The ethical case against eating animal produce once seemed clear. But a new book is an abattoir for dodgy arguments
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