Image via WikipediaJapan Earthquake 2011: 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake Hits, 13-Foot Tsunami Triggered
A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii and warnings blanketed the Pacific, putting areas on alert as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast. In Japan, the area around a nuclear power plant in the northeast was evacuated after the reactor's cooling system failed.he magnitude-8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0.Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of coastline were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the epicenter. A large section of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people in Miyagi, burned furiously into the night with no apparent hope of the flames being extinguished, public broadcaster NHK said.
Image via Wikipedia"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference.
Twitter, Facebook become lifelines after Japan quake
An hour after the quake hit Japan this morning, Online Social Media, which tracks social media services, reported that Twitter was experiencing 1,200 tweets being posted every minute. And at most times today, eight or nine of Twitter's top 10 Trending Tropics -- such as #prayforjapan, #tsunami and #japan -- were directly related to the earthquake and tsunami.
Organizations and relief efforts also are taking to Twitter, posting information about everything from emergency phone lines for non-Japanese speakers to tsunami alerts, altered train schedules and lists of shelters for those left homeless.
On Facebook, people not only posted thoughts and prayers for the people of Japan, but used their updates to tell friends and family where they are and how they are doing. Facebook Pages like Japan Earthquake also popped up, grabbing nearly 3,000 followers in about 12 hours.
Brad Shimmin, an analyst with Current Analysis, said today really does show social networks at their very best. "The No. 1 trending topic on Twitter right now concerns the 90999 text message number for Red Cross relief," said Shimmin, who calling sites like Twitter "lifelines."
"From what I've seen today, social networks have brought out the best in people, encouraging them not only to take action but also supporting them in those efforts to bring relief to the victims of this catastrophe," he said.
"While there are so many technologies at this time that isolate us from our fellow beings, social networking tools have shown their ability once again to unify us as human beings, and to bring out what is most altruistic and empathetic in our natures," Shimmin added.
This isn't the first time that people have turned to Twitter and Facebook during trying times. The social networking sites became lifelines for people during the massive earthquakes in Chili and Haiti last year.
Image via WikipediaTwitter, Facebook become lifelines after Japan quake
An hour after the quake hit Japan this morning, Online Social Media, which tracks social media services, reported that Twitter was experiencing 1,200 tweets being posted every minute. And at most times today, eight or nine of Twitter's top 10 Trending Tropics -- such as #prayforjapan, #tsunami and #japan -- were directly related to the earthquake and tsunami.
Organizations and relief efforts also are taking to Twitter, posting information about everything from emergency phone lines for non-Japanese speakers to tsunami alerts, altered train schedules and lists of shelters for those left homeless.
On Facebook, people not only posted thoughts and prayers for the people of Japan, but used their updates to tell friends and family where they are and how they are doing. Facebook Pages like Japan Earthquake also popped up, grabbing nearly 3,000 followers in about 12 hours.
Brad Shimmin, an analyst with Current Analysis, said today really does show social networks at their very best. "The No. 1 trending topic on Twitter right now concerns the 90999 text message number for Red Cross relief," said Shimmin, who calling sites like Twitter "lifelines."
"From what I've seen today, social networks have brought out the best in people, encouraging them not only to take action but also supporting them in those efforts to bring relief to the victims of this catastrophe," he said.
"While there are so many technologies at this time that isolate us from our fellow beings, social networking tools have shown their ability once again to unify us as human beings, and to bring out what is most altruistic and empathetic in our natures," Shimmin added.
This isn't the first time that people have turned to Twitter and Facebook during trying times. The social networking sites became lifelines for people during the massive earthquakes in Chili and Haiti last year.
PESTS sour on fracking, want inquiry
Environmental group is concerned about the potential dangers of the gas released in northern B.C
....call upon the provincial government to launch a formal inquiry under B.C.'s Health Act to delve into the health risks associated with sour gas. The justification for such an inquiry was laid out in chilling detail with the assistance of Calvin Sandborn, at the University of Victoria's Environmental Law Clinic, and Tim Thielmann, an environmental lawyer
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/PESTS+sour+fracking+want+inquiry/4407727/story.html#ixzz1GJ8CUkvr
( Topical Index > Water - Wealth & Power
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/PESTS+sour+fracking+want+inquiry/4407727/story.html#ixzz1GJ8CUkvr
( Topical Index > Water - Wealth & Power
"How to Destroy the Earth's Freshwater Supplies Without Anyone Finding Out"...+ others )
WARNING: FIREFOX 4 BETA IS A DOG
WITH REPRESENTATIVE PETER KING'S Muslim radicalization hearings opening this week and with anti-Muslim sentiment reaching a fever pitch in the United States, it could be enlightening to look across the Atlantic and see how other Western societies are dealing with religion and ethnicity. A new study by the Berlin-based Friedrich Ebert Foundation released today examines just that.
The researchers found that Europe as a whole is seething with racist and xenophobic resentment. Such feelings are not limited to the margins of society but breed at its very core.
Europeans particularly dislike Muslims. Fifty percent of Germans and sixty percent of Dutchmen, Portuguese, and Poles believe that “Islam is a religion of intolerance.”
Those who denigrate one group are very likely to target other groups too. Although prejudices sometimes appear to be isolated they are in fact closely interconnected. Three ideological orientations are especially associated with group-focused enmity: authoritarianism (an underlying attitude espousing law and order and discipline), Social Dominance Orientation (advocating social status hierarchies) and the rejection of diversity (a general rejection of cultural, ethnic and religious diversity within a country).”
What emerged was that the extent of sexism and homophobia clearly increased with religiosity. Religious people have a significant tendency towards stronger prejudices against women and homosexuals. For racism we found a similar tendency in a weaker form. The effect of religiosity on anti-immigrant attitudes, anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim attitudes was small and differed from country to country, making it difficult to generalize except to note that religiosity does not necessarily protect against these prejudices either.
The ideology of inequality … expresses itself in the treatment of others as inferior, in extreme nationalism, in racist categories, in social Darwinism, in totalitarian norms and in an emphasis on ingroup homogeneity. The conviction that violence is a legitimate means for regulating conflicts leads to an acceptance of its use.[…] This group-related generalized hostility endangers democracy and inscribes its signatures into conflicts and violence. If prejudices – often traded as fact – are accepted rather than combated in the European Union intolerance is likely to increase. The extent of prejudice in a society is therefore an indicator not only of extremism, but also of the failure of established democratic forces.
The '80s origins of today's anti-Muslim bigotry
The least intriguing aspect of Republican Rep. Peter King's congressional hearing this week on terrorism and the "radicalization in the American Muslim community" is the spectacle's obvious hypocrisy. King was himself a cheerleader of a terrorist group (the Irish Republican Army), and his hearings ignore new government statistics showing that since 9/11, right-wing and white supremacist terrorist plots have outnumbered those of Muslims. Indeed, as the law enforcement data prove, if "radicalization" is a concern, it is at least as much of a problem in the ultraconservative community as it is in the American Muslim community.
The disappearance of the nightmare Arab
Since 2001, Americans have been living with a nightmare Arab, a Muslim monster threatening us to the core, chilling our souls with the cry, "God is great!" Yet after two months of world-historic protest and rebellion in streets and squares across the Arab world, we are finally waking up to another reality: that this was our bad dream, significantly a creation of our own fevered imaginations.
Since 2001, Americans have been living with a nightmare Arab, a Muslim monster threatening us to the core, chilling our souls with the cry, "God is great!" Yet after two months of world-historic protest and rebellion in streets and squares across the Arab world, we are finally waking up to another reality: that this was our bad dream, significantly a creation of our own fevered imaginations.
First among Tel Aviv’s priorities is their need to maintain traction for the latest geopolitical narrative: a “global war on terrorism” against “Islamo-fascism.” The fact that America’s two latest wars serve Israeli goals remains largely unmentioned in Western media.
When waging war from the shadows, Zionist war-planners concentrate their efforts on key variables. Thus the fear in Tel Aviv that emerging events are loosening control of the Israel lobby over U.S. foreign policy.
To sustain a global “war on terrorism,” instability must be sustained. Anyone familiar with the Israeli use of strategic duplicity found it unsurprising when multiple crises emerged “unexpectedly” in North Africa.
Misdirection also plays a role in such well-timed crises. Tel Aviv just released a report justifying Israel’s deadly boarding of a Turkish vessel last May in international waters carrying aid to Gaza. Yet a post-mortem found 30 Israeli bullets in the bodies of nine dead activists, including one shot four times in the head.
Islamofascist Nonsense
Misguided Pentagon officials, including Mr. Islam and Mr. England, have initiated an aggressive “outreach” program to U.S. Muslim groups that critics say is lending credibility to what has been identified as a budding support network for Islamist extremists, including front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
Well, being the “Pentagon specialist on Islamic law and Islamist extremism” may be akin to being the Oral Roberts University expert on fellatio and anal sex. A terrific title for one with no genuine expertise.
Islamofascist Nonsense
Misguided Pentagon officials, including Mr. Islam and Mr. England, have initiated an aggressive “outreach” program to U.S. Muslim groups that critics say is lending credibility to what has been identified as a budding support network for Islamist extremists, including front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
Well, being the “Pentagon specialist on Islamic law and Islamist extremism” may be akin to being the Oral Roberts University expert on fellatio and anal sex. A terrific title for one with no genuine expertise.
TakeOverWorld
Fear of poverty
Green Investment Bank must not be compromised, say MPs
The UK could lose out on hundreds of billions of pounds in green investment and fail to meet climate change* targets if the government compromises on its Green Investment Bank
( Topical Index > 'Energy' : check articles on Wind Power
Europe is hobbled by treaties not ratified by China or the USA. Meanwhile 'Climate Skeptics' resisting Denying of natural cycles are well covered in 'Climate in Contention' ...in the Topical Index )
The Bushwhacking of NPR
Without culture you do not have a country. You have no collective national consciousness to balance the insidious vapidity of crass commercialism which rolls along F. Scotts Fitzgerald's definition of cheap entertainment as simply heroin of the soul. Even rabid conservatives want to go see a fine play or enjoy a night at the symphony after a long day of taking bottles from children and cutting out funding for the education, women, infants, and poor people. But alas, they cut out culture too and instead of Stravinsky they are stuck with Die Hard 6.
As Calls Grow for No Fly-Zone in Libya, Questions over Legality and Past Precedents Give Pause
a no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses. That’s the way you do a no-fly zone.
All your previous programmes to bring the east and the west closer have failed, and some of them have made things even worse. Don’t start something you cannot finish, don’t turn a people’s pure revolution into some curse that will befall everyone. Don’t waste the blood that my friend Ahmed spilt for me..a popular sentiment
I would think that the concern that is being expressed by Lieberman, McCain and Hillary Clinton is not for the revolution in Libya, but is a concern for oil and for the destabilization of the Egyptian revolution, because of the long-term implications of this revolution for Africa and the Middle East.
The workers in Wisconsin gained confidence, gained support, gained courage from the peoples of Egypt. We’ve seen signs where the people say they’re standing up for their rights. In moments like these, when the Governor of Wisconsin is cutting back on expenditure on health, on education, for the poor, and the Pentagon is spending over a trillion dollars in its budget, it is times like these that the conservative forces need to whip up a new militarism in the United States of America to divert attention from the struggles of the working peoples, from students, from women, from the youth, who are against the capitalist system as it exists. We are in the midst of the most intense capitalist crisis since 1930s. This struggle internationally is a struggle against capitalism.
Russian Military Claims Libya Air Strikes Did Not Happen
7 posts - 5 authors - Last post: 2 Mar
According to Russia Today correspondent Irina Galushko, ... Russian Military Claims Libya Air Strikes Did Not Happen 161008pptv3 ...www.prisonplanet.com › Featured Stories )
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- Walkouts, Bank Boycotts and Recalls: Wisconsin Protests Intensify As Union-Busting Legislation Pushed Through State Assembly
- Mother of 9/11 Victim Condemns King Hearing on Muslim "Radicalization"
- “My Fear is that Climate Change is the Biggest Crisis of All”: Naomi Klein Warns Global Warming Could Be Exploited by Capitalism and Militarism
- Naomi Klein on Anti-Union Bills and Shock Doctrine American-Style: "This is a Frontal Assault on Democracy, a Corporate Coup D’Etat"
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Duncan: 'No Child Left Behind' creates failure for U.S. schools
This law has created dozens of ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed. We should get out of the business of labeling schools as failures and create a new law that is fair and flexible, and focused on the schools and students most at risk
"By mandating and prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions, No Child Left Behind took away the ability of local and state educators to tailor solutions to the unique needs of their students," Duncan said calling the concept "fundamentally flawed."
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, asked the secretary if he though he could be successful without an increase in funding saying, "If you cut the right way and put the money into the systems that you know work, could you do that?"
The education secretary answered, "We have to do that, anyway, and I continue to think we under-invest" compared to higher-performing countries.
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