Image by adriansalamandre via Flickr

Why positive fantasies make your dreams less likely to come true

"By allowing people to consummate a desired future", the researchers explain, positive fantasies trigger the relaxation that would normally accompany actual achievement, rather than marshaling the energy needed to obtain it.

Toxin from GM crops found in human blood

Scientists from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, have detected the insecticidal protein, Cry1Ab, circulating in the blood of pregnant as well as non-pregnant women. They have also detected the toxin in fetal blood, implying it could pass on to the next generation.

The Decline and Fall of the DMK Empire

US secrecy on ISI-run terror camps in Pak upsets India

AIPAC's Unrivaled Influence

Former ’60 Minutes’ Producer Says Show Could Get No Congressman to Speak on the Record About AIPAC

UPA running dual government: BJP

June 4, 2011

BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain says by forming a NAC to advise the government, the UPA is running a dual government in the country.

Cageprisoners releases report on severely disproportionate sentencing in the US

The focus of this report is on the sentencing guidelines that are used in cases involving Muslims. Even where the convictions against a Muslim suspect bear only a very peripheral relation to terrorism, a terrorism enhancement is being applied which dramatically increases the number of years to be served by the defendant.

Too blunt for just outcomes: Why the US terrorism enhancement sentencing guidelines are unfair, unconstitutional and ineffective in the fight against terrorism

Written by Aviva Stahl
There have been a number of occasions where the US justice system has allowed itself to fall victim to the politics of fear.

The most well known example of how a community has been systematically alienated from the judicial process is that of African-Americans. Through the work of individuals such as Sister Helen Prejean, there has been a great deal of documentation of the ways in which the community has been subjected to biased trials, procedural impropriety and disproportionate sentencing. Even today, discrimination against African-Americans continues as record numbers of black men are incarcerated and sentenced disproportionally.

Guantanamo may well be the symbol of arbitrary detention and removal of due process, however, the US mainland requires much work before it can lay claim to a fair, open and justice system for all.

Anti-terror whistleblower suspended by Nottingham University

Rizwaan Sabir, who was arrested in 2008 as a suspected terrorist whilst conducting postgraduate research at the University of Nottingham, gives his…

When truth becomes treason
Shortly after requesting to testify before Congress about successful elements of Pre-War Intelligence, Lindauer became one of the first non-Arab Americans arrested on the Patriot Act as an “Iraqi Agent.”

Want To Be a Spy? There's a School For That

Think Progress -security

Wikileaks Cables: U.S. Worked To Scuttle Haiti Gas Development Deal On Behalf Of Big Oil

Paul Ryan Doesn’t Think Bloated U.S. Military Spending Is Related To The Debt And Deficit

( Paul Ryan doesn't think would have been more concise )

Israeli Cabinet Minister Calls For Pre-Emptive Attack On Iran

"Yes all the world must bow down before America and Israel, Russia and China have had their Balls snipped and keep their mouths shut like good little puppies, so too Iran must bow down and do what they are told, America is the new ruler of the world and Obama your new God. Kneel now or be bombed."

Comment ; John Farnham ·

'Kneel now and be bombed.' The kneeling is irrelevant.
Any excuse for bombing would be tendered, no matter how lame. No mention is made of Russia's old offer to retaliate enthusiastically on Iran's behalf.

Seymour Hersh: Despite Intelligence Rejecting Iran as Nuclear Threat, U.S. Could Be Headed for Iraq Redux

Seymour Hersh says the US might attack Iran based on distorted estimates of Iran's nuclear and military threat -- just like it did with Saddam in Iraq.

( I've been on this story for at least 5 years. Wonder how much is new )

Thought-controlled video games train brain

Cancer survivors can't shake pain, fatigue, insomnia, foggy brain

Scientists See Breakthrough in the Global AIDS Battle

ImTranslator v. 4.1.1 for Firefox

Cause Bloggers Daily

U.S. Probing Tech Giants' Patent Deals

The Justice Department is scrutinizing Google, Apple and other likely bidders for a trove of patents being sold by the bankrupt Nortel Networks amid concerns the patents could be used to unfairly hobble competitors in the wireless industry.

Curate Your Clips

Center for American Progess

Bringing Fracking to the Surface

More Scrutiny Needed on Natural Gas Development

Current environmental laws exempt the gas industry

Download this brief (pdf)
Read this brief in your web browser

Clean Energy from America’s Oceans, by Michael Conathan, Richard W. Caperton
Low-carbon Innovation, by Bracken Hendricks, Sean Pool, Lisbeth Kaufman

FracFocus, the hydraulic fracturing chemical registry website. This website is a joint project of the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.
On this site you can search for information about the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells. You will also find educational materials designed to help you put this information in perspective

You searched for: fracturing groundwater casement We have highlighted matching words that appear in the page below
( Note : when talking about recharging groundwater systems, representation is being made to reusing a broken container. Am I the only one who sees an inherent flaw in that 'strategy'? )

Chesapeake's Monster FRAC Pond

Texas is Gonna be Toast

NPR Covers Fracking in south Texas... - "And our water is undrinkable right now. And the one thing that nobody's really talking much about is the air. You know, at night, there's a lot of flaring...
the Science of Fracturing

Good on Mitt Romney: Taking a Round-Earth Position on Climate Science

Opit in Comments
You’ve been blogging around a couple of my favourite topics : water – especially for drinking – and climate change.
I’ve never been worried much about being framed as a right winger…I could use a chance for a good snicker ! Likewise the idea of being a Christianist – those being the ones who ‘honour’ the alleged Jewish-sourced collection ( biblio being that ) as an icon and idol… and ignore the warning about state mandates of belief, being the story of the murder of a freethinker.
As a doubter of the proposition that one can prove scientifically that one can usefully forecast future conditions from simplified mathematical models which ignore inconvenient uncertainties, insane complexity of ‘calculation’ of unknowns and uncertains; the ‘denier’ political muckmaking desperately promoting an untestable thesis on grounds of expediency breaks new ground in lame misrepresentation and obfuscation. ‘Denierism’ itself in fact ! And G.I.G.O. too ( Garbage In = Garbage Out ).
Can you reliably conflate this source with the preferred political misrepresentations ?
http://suzukielders.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/climate-change-evidence-from-the-geological-record/

Article:

70% of Science Award Finalists Are Children of Immigrants

many immigrant parents emphasize hard science and math education for their children, viewing those fields as paths to success.

Article:

Can Copper Reduce E. Coli Outbreaks?

Furnishing workstations in meat processing factories with copper surfaces rather than stainless steel ones could reduce bacteria on these surfaces, In a 2006 study, Keevil and his colleagues placed 10 million cells of E. coli O157, an infamous food-borne bacteria strain, on a copper surface. All the bacteria died in about an hour. More recently, the researchers found a copper surface can kill other strains of E. coli bacteria in about 10 minutes.

( Time was , e coli was tested for as a simple evidence of contamination compared to other more dangerous threats for which it is harder to test. Its presence in the gut is normal.)

Public News

Florida Lawmakers Bow to Land Developers?

Public News Service - FL June 3, 2011

What's tossed in the Water, Stays in the Water

Public News Service - VA June 3, 2011

DMACC Culinary Students Put to the Test at Swine Event

Public News Service - IA June 3, 2011

“Secure Communities” & “English Only” Terminated in NY

Public News Service - NY June 3, 2011

AZ Hotel Workers Speak Out Against Guest Misconduct

Public News Service - AZ June 3, 2011

Asthma in Minnesota May Rise Along with the Temperature

Public News Service - MN June 3, 2011

more…

Natural Gas: A Bridge to Nowhere

As program director at Rainforest Action Network, Jennifer Krill helped lead campaigns to protect old growth forests and break America’s oil addiction. She is currently the executive director of EARTHWORKS, an advocacy group that focuses on the negative impacts of mineral and energy extraction.

“Natural gas: the bridge to a clean energy future!” Nice sound bite. But the reality is that natural gas is nothing but a bridge to more natural gas – and with it more water contamination, air pollution, global warming, and fractured communities.

The natural gas industry, joined in good faith by some environmentalists, touts natural gas as a “bridge fuel,” cleaner burning than coal and less destructive to extract, a way to transition to a renewable energy economy. But communities across America – from the Rocky Mountains to Texas, Pennsylvania, and New York – know this is a false choice. Just like coal, the drilling, processing, and transport of natural gas is dirty and dangerous. And new research calls into question natural gas’s advantage over coal in terms of global warming pollution when the full life cycle (from extraction to transport to use) is considered.

courtesy EARTHWORKSLarge volumes of methane are released during
natural gas drilling and production.

Due to advances in “hydraulic fracturing” (commonly known as “fracking”), America’s gas fields are no longer “somewhere else”: They’re right next door. Chances are good they’re right upstream from you.
And thanks in part to fluids used in fracking, America’s water is being poisoned with dozens of toxic drilling chemicals including benzene and toluene. Residents are being forced from their homes by air emissions, which are neither measured nor mitigated in any consistent fashion. Gas wells are surrounding peoples’ homes, with drill rigs within 150 feet of residences in some areas. In many cases, drilling is moving forward without the consent of the landowners and communities that are directly affected.