Thursday, March 31, 2011

31 March - Late Links

GOP Continues Its Assault On Free Thought
http://www.care2.com/causes/politics/blog/gop-continues-its-assault-on-free-thought
The Republican party has really launched an all out assault on ideas. Not only is it going after esteemed historian and professor William Cronon, it is also serving broad public records requests to at least three in-state universities with departments that specialize in labor relations.

The requests seek all emails related to the union battle in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Those on the receiving end of the FOIA requests speculate that the real motivation is to try and catch faculty engaged in illegal political advocacy--such as advocating for the recall or the election of a particular representative--on state time.

The report only lends more support to the argument that Republicans are orchestrating national anti-labor policies through state-by-state operations with their specifically chosen, and funded patrons. And as noted by Dave Weigel at Slate, these latest efforts to chill research and dissent among the faculty at public universities reflects the larger goal of de-funding the Democratic base.

Yes, Prof. Cronon, Let's Talk About ALEC
http://bigthink.com/ideas/31765#comments
Getting over half a million hits on your very first post is every blogger's dream. That's what happened to Prof. William Cronon, a distinguished professor of American history at the University of Wisconsin, but his unexpected success as a blogger turned his life upside down.
Cronon made a splash with his inaugural post, entitled "Who’s Really Behind Recent Republican Legislation in Wisconsin and Elsewhere? (Hint: It Didn’t Start Here)."

Quick and Dirty: Tracking ALEC “model legislation” through real legislatures
https://dbapress.com
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization (reporting about $6.5 million in annual revenue in recent years) which claims more than 2,000 (roughly one third) of the nation’s state-level lawmakers as members.

According to the group’s promotional material, ALEC’s mission is to “advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.”

ALEC currently claims over 250 corporations and special interest groups as private sector members.

Oil dispersants worsen BP disaster (3:42)
http://www.eoearth.org/video/view/164875/?topic=53727

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
Where Science and Democracy Meet
http://www.ieer.org

WHAT'S NEW / WHAT'S HOT (But not radioactive!)
	*Spent nuclear fuel pools vulnerable to terrorist attacks: Kyodo News. Or see version*. Op-Ed by Arjun Makhijani (March 21, 2011)
	Radioactive Iodine Releases from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Reactors May Exceed Those of Three Mile Island by Over 100,000 Times. Or see /English version. IEER Press Release (March 25, 2011)
	Fact Sheet: Radiation and Human Health (March 17, 2011)
	Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcomes. Statement of Arjun Makhijani (March 14, 2011)
	KHOU TV: EPA underreports radiation in America's drinking water. Arjun Makhijani featured in Mark Greenblatt's report on Houston TV. Links to the full KHOU series and IEER's calculations (February 21, 2011)
	Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy *Sign: Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free Statement of Principles* Book: Free download [PDF 4.4MB] or order the paperback Go to our Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free page to find: Summaries in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, News, Radio and TV interviews, and more.
	Healthy from the Start: Campaign to Include Women, Children, and Future Generations in Environmental Health Standards U.S. Radiation Protection Regs. Heavily Rely on "Reference Man" - Often Leaving Women, Children At Greater Risk of Cancer. Go to our Campaign page to find IEER reports: Use of Reference Man in Radiation Protection Standards and Science for the Vulnerable and more.

International Campaign to Banish Nuclear Weapons

New signature campaign for a nuclear ban

Gensuikyo, a major Japanese organization committed to nuclear disarmament, has launched a new petition campaign for a ban on nuclear weapons.
23 February 2011 | Read more »
Disarmament education conference in Japan

The Japanese Foreign Ministry and the United Nations University will host a conference on disarmament education in Nagasaki 17-18 March.
23 February 2011 | Read more »
Soka Gakkai release annual peace proposal

Soka Gakkai International president Daisaku Ikeda has released his annual peace proposal, "Toward a World of Dignity for All".
22 February 2011 | Read more »
WMDC Commission Recommendations Available in German http://www.inesap.org/content/wmdc-commission-recommendations-available-german
The independent, international Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC ), chaired by Hans Blix, launched its final report Weapons of Terror – Freeing the World of Nuclear Biological and Chemical Arms in June 2006. The Report describes the international system for non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control, and includes 60 recommendations on how the global community – national governments, civil society and the business community - can and should face the global challenge constituted by weapons of mass destruction.

In order to inspire the German speaking civil society to engage in further efforts to support international disarmament and to prevent further spreading of WMDs, as well as to stimulate a free debate regarding these topics, the summary of the Commission’s report and its recommendations have been translated into German.* It is the hope to spark a large interest among the German speaking community to contribute to the efforts to reach disarmament and non-proliferation by this translation.

Funding of Bretton Woods II by George Soros Exposed
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/north-america-mainmenu-36/6895-funding-of-bretton-woods-ii-by-george-soros-exposed

Earth Pulse Daily News

Before It's News
( Lots of content : below is only one of many news modules )

America’s Growing Intolerance: How "Enemy Creep" is Guantanamo-izing the U.S.

Contributed by blackandred on Wed, 2011/03/30 - 6:25pm

In sections:

America’s Growing Intolerance
How “Enemy Creep” Is Guantanamo-izing America
By Karen J. Greenberg; March 30, 2011 - Znet
http://www.zcommunications.org/america-s-growing-intolerance...
Source: TomDispatch
Just in case you thought that “political correctness” had been thoroughly discredited in the culture wars of the 1990s, it’s back -- and this time it’s being treated as a stalking horse for terrorism and getting pummeled all over again.

http://mostlywater.org/node/106803

Earth Warmed by Trails of Clouds that Jets Leave Behind
http://www.livescience.com/13462-contrails-climate-change-global-warming-clouds-air-travel.html

“HOW And WHEN TO Eat Fresh Fruit For Maximum Benefit”

codelovely

Tutorial: Create a Thrilling Scene Using Cosmic Elements in Photoshop

http://inspiredcore.com/2011/03/tutorial-create-a-thrilling-scene-using-cosmic-elements-in-photoshop/

link 1 points posted 5 days ago by sanjeevan comments

For this post I prepared a very SF, apocalyptic but still pretty nice tutorial. Using the combination of retro colors, some realistic elements ( Pyramids, Planets, Aurora Borealis ) plus a feeling ...