Image via Wikipedia- More Teachers Being Replaced By TechnologyThe neoliberal wetdream coming to fruition. From Fast Company: Districts all over are experimenting with teacher-less computer labs and green-lighting entire classrooms of adult-supervised children exploring the Internet--an Android powered tablet designed specifically for students. Teachers' u ...
Maine Librarian's Pointed Budget Message Hits the Mark
She talked about how, over there, the budget contains $200 million in tax cuts -- including an expansion of the estate-tax exemption from $1 million to $2 million -- that largely would benefit Mainers who aren't exactly scraping to get by.
And how, over here, that loss of state revenue is more than offset by $413 million in various curtailments on benefits earned by retired state workers -- many of whom, like McDaniel has at King Middle for the past 11 years, served long and nobly in Maine's public schools.
Observed McDaniel, "I don't understand the rationale for this proposal."
She said she doesn't buy the idea that the tax cuts, putting significantly more money back into the pockets (or portfolios) of Maine's wealthy, will stimulate the economy.
Citing reports from the Congressional Budget Office, McDaniel said "the best way to stimulate the economy is to give modest increases to the poor. Wealthy people tend to hold on to their money, while poor people tend to spend it as they get it."
"It's not economically sound. It's not morally sound. And I think you know that," she said. "I would be embarrassed to support something so ludicrous -- taking from the poor to give to the rich.
"Maybe you're testing us, checking to see if we, your constituents, are really paying attention, really listening," she continued. "I hope that's what's going on, because the alternative involves me losing faith in representative government, in democracy and in you, the elected officials."
Clinton calls intervention in Bahrain 'alarming'
The United States finds intervention in Bahrain by the Persian Gulf kingdom's neighbors "alarming" and wants all players in the region to keep "their own agenda" out of the struggle between the monarchy and anti-government demonstrators, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday
( Do what I say - not what I do )
War Is Illegal - Even in Libya
by davidswanson
It's a simple point, but an important one, and one that gets overlooked. Whether or not you think a particular war is moral and good, the fact remains that war is illegal. Actual defense by a country when attacked is legal, but that only occurs once another country has actually attacked, and it must not be used as a loophole to excuse wider war that is not employed in actual defense.
......For much of U.S. history, it was reasonable for citizens to believe, and often they did believe, that the U.S. Constitution banned aggressive war.
( I was first to comment on this at Antemedius....and did so exhaustively. For all I tend to think that ranting against war and torture is 'blowing off steam' uselessly...I still like to see it well done. The group was once a rather long named list of collaborators with their own weblogs : Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus )
28 Countries Helped U.S. Detain War on Terror Suspects
by Sherwood Ross
March 30, 2010 - 11:43amTwenty-eight nations have cooperated with the U.S. to detain in their prisons, and sometimes to interrogate and torture, suspects arrested as part of the U.S. “War on Terror.”
The complicit countries have kept suspects in prisons ranging from public interior ministry buildings to “safe house” villas in downtown urban areas to obscure prisons in forests to “black” sites to which the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) has been denied access.
According to published reports, an estimated 50 prisons have been used to hold detainees in these 28 countries. Additionally, at least 25 more prisons have been operated either by the U.S. or by the government of occupied-Afghanistan in behalf of the U.S., and 20 more prisons have been similarly operated in Iraq.
As the London-based legal rights group Reprieve estimates the U.S. has used 17 ships as floating prisons since 2001, the total number of prisons operated by the U.S. and/or its allies to house alleged terrorist suspects since 2001 exceeds 100. And this figure may well be far short of the actual number.
All-American Decline in a New World: Wars, Vampires, Burned Children, and Indelicate Imbalances
Tom Engelhardt
March 2, 2011 - 6:22pmOriginally published at TomDispatch.com
This is a global moment unlike any in memory, perhaps in history. Yes, comparisons can be made to the wave of people power that swept Eastern Europe as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989-91. For those with longer memories, perhaps 1968 might come to mind, that abortive moment when, in the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and elsewhere, including Eastern Europe, masses of people mysteriously inspired by each other took to the streets of global cities to proclaim that change was on the way.
For those searching the history books, perhaps you’ve focused on the year 1848 when, in a time that also mixed economic gloom with novel means of disseminating the news, the winds of freedom seemed briefly to sweep across Europe. And, of course, if enough regimes fall and the turmoil goes deep enough, there’s always 1776, the American Revolution, or 1789, the French one, to consider. Both shook up the world for decades after.
But here’s the truth of it: you have to strain to fit this Middle Eastern moment into any previous paradigm, even as -- from Wisconsin to China -- it already threatens to break out of the Arab world and spread like a fever across the planet. Never in memory have so many unjust or simply despicable rulers felt quite so nervous -- or possibly quite so helpless (despite being armed to the teeth) -- in the presence of unarmed humanity. And there has to be joy and hope in that alone.
Withdraw the Last Combat Politicians from Washington
davidswanson
August 28, 2010 - 11:39pmPretending to end a war and occupation, while stationing 50,000 soldiers, 18,000 mercenaries, and 84,000 support contractors in massive and permanent military bases in Iraq is a far cry from what candidate Barack Obama described as ending "the mind-set that got us into war in the first place." It fits better with Nobel Peace laureate Obama's description of war as "not only necessary but morally justified."
Over the past 20 years, the United States has imposed on Iraq two intense wars and many years of bombing and deprivation, the death of millions, and the displacement of more millions now left desperate and abandoned in Iraq and around the region. Violence in Iraq is common and increasing, sex trafficking is on the rise, the basic infrastructure of electricity, water, sewage, and healthcare is in ruins, life expectancy has dropped, cancer rates in Fallujah have surpassed those in Hiroshima, anti-U.S. terrorist groups are using the occupation of Iraq as a recruiting tool, there is no functioning government, and most Iraqis say they were better off with Saddam Hussein in power. And this is all prior to the hell to come when the agreed upon complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces at the end of next year turns out to be a fraud.
But the greatest damage of the ongoing War on Iraq, as with the War on Afghanistan or the War on Pakistan or any wars our planet has known, is its contribution to future wars. During the past century, war has become far more deadly. Its victims are now primarily non-participants. And its victims can be almost exclusively on one side. Even the participants from the dominant side can be drawn from a population coerced into fighting and isolated from those making the decisions or benefitting. Participants who survive war are far more likely now to have been trained and conditioned to do things they cannot live with having done. In short, war ever more closely resembles mass murder, a resemblance first put into our legal system by the banning of war in the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact in 1928. The United States Senate, that same institution that on a good day can now get three percent of its members to vote against funding war escalations or continuations, 82 years ago voted 85 to 1 to bind the United States to a treaty it is still bound by in which we "condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in [our] relations with" other nations. In 1945 our nation became party to the United Nations Charter, which also binds us, through Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, to using war only in actual self-defense. And earlier this year the International Criminal Court, despite U.S. opposition, established the policy of prosecuting future crimes of aggression.
If our government were busily ending the mind-set that makes wars possible, we would be withdrawing our military from Iraq, making reparations to the Iraqi people, and building peaceful cultural ties with them. Instead, we're using this ongoing war as a means to legalize aggressive warfare through the immunity being granted its architects. And we're establishing the dangerous precedent whereby a permanent occupation, whether hot or cold, can be defined as a war that has ended. War is thus peace. Meanwhile, repeated drone bombings and troops on the ground in Pakistan, secret military operations in other nations, wars by proxy, and official -- if illegal -- policies of assassination and regime change are establishing that wars can be launched and indefinitely continued, not only without public or legislative support, but without ever being identified as wars at all. What the tribunal at Nuremberg called the supreme crime is ceasing to be a crime, not because we have new weapons or face different enemies or elect the wrong leaders or organize the wrong peace movements, but because the masters of war face no prospect of accountability for what they've done and what they may potentially do.npr
Shock Begins To Turn To Anger In Japan
Shock among survivors of Japan's earthquake and tsunami turned to anger Wednesday as nearly a half-million people displaced by the disaster and resulting nuclear crisis remained crammed in makeshift evacuation centers, many with few basic necessities and even less information.
The governor of northeastern Fukushima prefecture, the site of a badly damaged nuclear power plant, fumed over what he saw as poor government communication and coordination.
"The anxiety and anger being felt by people in Fukushima have reached a boiling point," Gov. Yuhei Sato told broadcaster NHK. He said shelters do not even have enough hot meals and basic necessities for those living near the plant who have already been relocated.......Developments In Japan
- The confirmed death toll from the quake and tsunami stood 3,700, but officials expected the figure to climb to more than 10,000 because so many people remain missing. More than 450,000 people were staying in temporary shelters.
- U.S. Embassy in Tokyo advises American citizens within a 50-mile radius from the badly damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to evacuate the area.
- Japan's Emperor Akihito called the nuclear crisis "unprecedented in scale," while Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered officials to take radiation level readings and relay them to the public.
- Experts say the economic cost of the disaster, which Japanese officials described as the worst since the end of World War II, will likely exceed the estimated $159 billion for the 1995 Kobe earthquake.
- Thirteen U.S. ships were participating in relief operations for Japan, but poor visibility limited humanitarian aid flights.
The four most severely affected prefectures — Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki — are home to key industries ranging from farming to auto parts to electronics, and make up some 6 percent of Japan's economy.
The biggest port on the northeast coast, Sendai, was essentially destroyed by the quake and tsunami. It handled mainly container shipments of exports including rubber and marine products, office machinery, paper goods and auto parts. Three others — Hachinohe, Ishinomaki and Onahama — were severely damaged and will likely be out of commission for months.
Six oil refineries that can turn 1.4 million barrels of oil a day into fuel — a third of Japan's refining capacity — also have been shut down. Two closures were due to fires, and an out of control blaze at one refinery raged for a sixth day.Enlarge Toru Yamanaka /AFP/Getty Images People rest on the floor at a evacuation center after the recent tsunami and earthquake in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 16.Toru Yamanaka /AFP/Getty Images
People rest on the floor at a evacuation center after the recent tsunami and earthquake in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 16.
"The destruction to ports, power plants and oil refineries in northeast Japan has been extensive," economists Matt Robinson and Ruth Stroppiana at Moody's Analytics wrote in a report. "The cleanup will take months, and the rebuilding of key infrastructure will take substantially longer."- Tracking The Latest At The Fukushima Nuclear Plant
- Radiation By The Numbers: Isotopes To Watch
- At Their Own Risk: What Will Happen To The Fukushima Workers?
- Fukushima, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl: Putting It All In Perspective
- Interactive: A Visual Guide Inside Japan's Reactors
- Explainer: What Are Spent Fuel Rods?
- Why Iodine Tablets Come Out When Radiation Threatens
- Sizing Up Japan's nuclear emergency - no Chernobyl
Sniffing out Shoe Bombs: A New and Simple Sensor for Explosive Chemicals
Triacetone triperoxide (TATP) is a high-powered explosive that in recent years has been used in several bombing attempts. TATP is easy to prepare from readily available components and has been difficult to detect. It defies most standard methods of chemical sensing: It doesn't fluoresce, absorb ultraviolet light or readily ionize.
The few methods available to screen for TATP aren't feasible for on-the-ground use in airports, as they require large, expensive equipment, extensive sample preparation, or relatively high concentrations of TATP in solid or liquid form. There is no simple way to detect TATP vapor.
Kenneth Suslick, the Schmidt Professor of Chemistry at the U. of I., and postdoctoral researcher Hengwei Lin have developed a colorimetric sensor array that can quantitatively detect even very low levels of TATP vapor -- down to a mere 2 parts per billion. They wrote about their findings in an article published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
To create the sensor array, the researchers print a series of 16 tiny colored dots -- each a different pigment -- on an inert plastic film. A solid acid catalyst breaks down TATP into detectable components that cause the pigments to change color, like litmus paper.
Each pigment changes colors depending on the concentration of TATP in the air. The array is digitally imaged with an ordinary flatbed scanner or an inexpensive electronic camera before and after exposure to the air.
"Imagine a polka-dotted postage stamp sensor that can sniff out the shoe-bomber explosive simply by using a digital camera to measure the changing colors of the sensor's spots," Suslick said. "The pattern of the color change is a unique molecular fingerprint for TATP at any given concentration and we can identify it in a matter of seconds."
The array is uniquely sensitive to TATP. Unlike many other chemical sensors, Suslick and Lin's array is unaffected by changes in humidity or exposure to other chemicals, such as personal hygiene products or laundry detergents. It also has a long shelf life, so airport security and other users can keep a supply on hand.
Implant Sciences Receives Order from China for 20 Handheld Explosives Detection Systems
(WAKEFIELD, Mass., April 12, 2006) Is Sugar Really Healthier Than Corn Syrup?
Unlike glucose, which the body stores in various tissues for use as fuel, fructose is sent to the liver for processing. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California-San Francisco, has shown that it causes a buildup of fats there, triggering a host of health problems including diabetes, gout, and heart disease. Most worrisome, Lustig says, it can lead to insulin resistance, a hormonal snafu that makes you feel hungry even when you're full. "The way fructose is metabolized leads you to want to eat more."
Some nutritionists have even argued that fructose should be regulated like a drug.
Filed under Weekly ColumnWork of activists helped prevent Fukushima-style cluster of nuclear reactors on Long Island
By Juan Gonzalez/New York Daily News
The explosions and fires at four separate nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan, are a haunting reminder that nuclear power can produce catastrophic results. This was the nightmare scenario the nuclear power industry assured us would never happen. Karl Grossman, a SUNY Old Westbury journalism professor and author of several books on the nuclear industry, recalls such assurances going back to the 1960s. That was when New York’s own power companies started planning a Fukushima-style cluster of nuclear reactors on Long Island.
South Africans Question the Push to “Go Down the Nuclear Road” to Meet Rising Energy Demand
We speak with South African nuclear expert David Fig, who says, “We need to really assess as a country whether we want to go down the nuclear road for further energy purposes.”
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