Countdown to Zero (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)History Is A Weapon.
Ecuador Healthlinks
the PAHO has found a profound increase in the number of illnesses caused by the use of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals.....free reproductive health services have been guaranteed for all
We Want Hex Chrome Out of Our Drinking Water. D... [Published Oct 03 2011 by Switchboard, from NRDC]
Mae Wu, Program Attorney, Washington, DC Nod if you think your drinking water utility should focus on providing you with clean and safe tap water. Now nod if you think your drinking water utility shouldn’t delay efforts to keep cancer causing chemicals ...
Skoll Foundation
“The world is a vast and complicated place and it needs each of us doing all we can to ensure a brighter tomorrow for future generations. Conrad Hilton said it is the duty of successful people to give back to the society from which their success was derived. I feel privileged to have grown up in Canada and to now live in the US, two countries that value and reward education, hard work and good choices. I feel lucky to have been able to pursue my dreams and I hope that my contributions will in some small way lead to a sustainable world of peace and prosperity.”
- Jeff Skoll in his Giving Pledge
Participant Media - News
- Jeff Skoll: Making movies that make change...17:31
- Participant Media's Jeff Skoll at the 2010 EMA Awards...2:10
- Jeff Skoll named The Tech Awards 2011 James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award recipient...2:58
- Part 1 - Jeff Skoll speaks at the 2009 Skoll World Forum...7:20
- Jeff Skoll Award: Global Green's 2009 Millennium Awards...6:15
- Part 2 - Jeff Skoll speaks at the 2009 Skoll World Forum...7:20
- Ted Talk Presentation on Jeff Skoll!!!...7:57
- GGUSA Millennium Awards 2009 Honoree Video: Jeff Skoll...2:52
- Bill Strickland, eBay and Jeffrey Skoll...2:46
- Press Conference: Announcement of Global Humanitarian Award recipient Jeff Skoll...20:35
- Jeff Skoll on taking part in social change...5:16
- Jeffrey Skoll Interviewed By Ken Spector At The 20th Annual EMA Awards...2:46
- Jeff Skoll H1...4:04
- to Jeffrey Skoll, re: Particpant Social Entrepreneurialism...2:31
www.ted.com Film producer Jeff Skoll (An Inconvenient Truth) talks about his film company, Participant Productions, and the people who've inspired him to do good.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from ...
Jeff Skoll makes movies that matterTED Talks
Countdown To Zero
Countdown to Zero explores the history of “The Bomb” since the Manhattan project, including the proliferation and devastating consequences of its use. One of the strengths of the film is showing the mistakes that have occurred 
over the years, that could have been catastrophic, including a moment in 1995 when the Russians believed they were being attacked by the U.S., with nuclear missiles.When asked by a reporter which country posed the greatest “nuclear” threat to the world, Valerie Plame said “proliferation is the biggest threat,” along with ”madness, accidents and miscalculation.”
The film’s shortcoming is its failure to recognize the policies of the U.S. and Israel that have contributed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. The stated goal of the movie is to help change the “minds” of people. Hopefully that will happen first among those who see themselves as being the “good guys.”
Global Zero Leaders Applaud New START Treaty; Urge Ratification
SPECIAL TO THE JERUSALEM POST11/10/2011 23:40
The IAEA report published this week has provided conclusive evidence that Iran has been engaged in activities designed to enable it to produce military nuclear devices.
The findings not only confront the international community with a clear challenge as to how it must respond to the fact itself; it also substantiates the now undeniable claim that Tehran has systematically violated its commitments to the international community for many years. It has shamelessly lied, consistently, both to its own people and to the world at large when its leaders have repeatedly stated that Iran is not engaged in this activity and that its policy is to develop nuclear capabilities for peaceful purposes alone.
This has now been publicly proven to be an outright lie. Dealing with a confirmed serial liar will be no easy task.
This issue will now move to center stage on the background of exchanges of ever-harsher rhetoric emanating from Tehran, Jerusalem and Washington, and last minute, frantic efforts by Moscow and Beijing to prevent publication of the document, arguing that it would push the Iranian regime into a corner.
The findings not only confront the international community with a clear challenge as to how it must respond to the fact itself; it also substantiates the now undeniable claim that Tehran has systematically violated its commitments to the international community for many years. It has shamelessly lied, consistently, both to its own people and to the world at large when its leaders have repeatedly stated that Iran is not engaged in this activity and that its policy is to develop nuclear capabilities for peaceful purposes alone.
This has now been publicly proven to be an outright lie. Dealing with a confirmed serial liar will be no easy task.
This issue will now move to center stage on the background of exchanges of ever-harsher rhetoric emanating from Tehran, Jerusalem and Washington, and last minute, frantic efforts by Moscow and Beijing to prevent publication of the document, arguing that it would push the Iranian regime into a corner.
Big cost, no benefit
February 21, 2011 by Tom H. Hastings · Comments Off
Filed under: Hans Blix, Jack DuVall, Mohammed El-Baredi, Peter Ackerman, Sojourners
Filed under: Hans Blix, Jack DuVall, Mohammed El-Baredi, Peter Ackerman, Sojourners
Published by Hastings on nonviolence
Just like we’ve been saying all along, the false ‘intelligence’ used to justify invading Iraq was known then and being more and more confirmed now, with the following bit being the latest:“I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that, and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy.”
— Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, aka “Curveball,” admitting to WMD lies used to justify the Iraq War
- Why do corporations rule the world? Oh.
- Land Confiscation
- Moms, kids, and chemicals: framing the fight for the Safe Chemicals Act
- Hungering for justice
- Students occupy rainy Bogotá
- No longer just a pipedream: Obama delays KeystoneXL, Tar Sands Action claims victory
- Q: What is violence and what are some examples of “violence against Society?”
- Toolkit for Occupy Activists
- Building the World We Want:
- The street is for transformation
- Dealing with agents provocateurs
- Consider Birthright Israel occupied
- Is this the movement we’ve been waiting for?
- Occupy Wall Street joins an Assembly of Struggles in Athens
- Revolution in Three Easy Steps
ElBaradei: IAEA Budget Problems Dangerous
Arms Control Today
Nuclear Budget Debate Heats Up
9-27-2011 by info@worldpoliticsreview.com (Michelle E. Dover, Miles A. Pomper)
On top of these challenges, the agency's budget has barely grown over the past three decades, while its mission has mushroomed, leaving few IAEA members satisfied with the share of the IAEA budget that is allocated to their ...
Tehran Times - 11-8-2011
IAEA Director Yukiya Amano made a trip to the US last week, which Iranian officials believe was in line with Washington's efforts to manipulate the report. Ahmadinejad criticized the US government for making allegations against Tehran, saying, “Today, ...
2 hours ago by The European Union Times
Ahmadinejad also took the occasion to rebuke the IAEA director general, Japanese Yukiya Amano, for being “a puppet” of the White House, challenging him to bring accurate and reliable information about the nuclear ...
5-12-2006 by byzantine_ruins
US must address Iran security concerns: IAEA Reuters Friday, May 12, 2006; 10:24 AM THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Iran has legitimate security concerns that the United States must address if the crisis over Tehran's nuclear programme is to be ...
Fool Me Once
Though lacking deep support on his own, Dr. ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and diplomat, could serve as a consensus figure [ie, a figure head] for a movement that has struggled to articulate a program for a potential transition. It suggested, too, that the opposition was aware of the uprising’s image abroad, [the opposition is un-organized, except for the Muslim Brotherhood, so who decided they needed a moderate for a front man? Hint: it wasn't the democratic secular opposition, most of whom are Arabic nationalists and not Jeffersonian democrats, in any event.] putting forth a candidate who might be more acceptable to the West than beloved in Egypt.
In scenes as tumultuous as any since the uprising began, Dr. ElBaradei defied a government curfew on Sunday night and joined thousands of protesters in Liberation Square, which has become the epicenter of the uprising and a platform, writ small, for the frustrations, ambitions and resurgent pride of a generation claiming the country’s mantle.
“Today we are proud of Egyptians,” Dr. ElBaradei told throngs who surged toward him in a square festooned with banners calling for Mr. Mubarak’s fall. “We have restored our rights, restored our freedom, and what we have begun cannot be reversed.”
The reports of the Muslim Brotherhood and secular opposition banding together should be a cause for great concern; we have seen this before:I would like to remind people that after the 1979 revolution in Iran, the secularists and the various religious groups united to form a coalition government. Within a year, the Islamic Republic party (two of the members of which were Rafsanjani and Khamenei) completely took control and turned Iran into a totalitarian state in the guise of a so-called “Islamic” republic that took away many of the hard-earned rights that Iranians had gained in the last century. This regime is still in power in Iran today, executing opposition members and Iranian citizens who dare oppose them.
I would like to remind people that when Khomeini came to Iran he promised freedom, democracy and human rights. As we are seeing today — with people telling us not to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt — in Iran in the early days of the revolution people said the same about Khomeini and his minions. Western media and even western leaders, including former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, tried to deal with the government of Khomeini, only to see radical so-called “students” who called themselves “Followers of the Imam’s Line” occupy the U.S. embassy in Tehran and take its employees hostage for 444 days, only to release them on the day that Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President, humiliating Carter and releasing a new meme–the idea that Islamic revolution could spread throughout the world. Radical Islam has been with us since.
In fact, one of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood, involved in the assassination of former liberal Egyptian President Anwar Saddat, is Ayman Al-Zawahiri, one of the leaders of Al Qaeda. Remember them?
Barry Rubin supplies some useful quotes that you will not see in the MSM delimiting the "moderation" of the Muslim Brotherhood: GaryP said...
Call me cynical but...
The media supported Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Khomeini, Chavez, Arafat etc., etc., etc.
They extolled their virtues and concealed or excused their crimes (usually by blaming the West and the US).
That the media is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood is neither a surprise or an indication of naivety. It is what they do. When (if) the MB takes over and starts killing their own citizens and terrorizing ours, they will be shocked, shocked that this has happened and will blame it on the Administration (if it is Republican) or on Western Civilization (if a Democrat is in charge).
I ignore most of the MSM. Did Soviet citizens read Pravda? Probably many did because there was no other source of news.
The only reason to listen to NPR, or most of the MSM, is to keep track of the latest lies of the enemies of freedom. They are always predictable. Keep telling the truth and ignore the lies. Solzhenitsyn could not drown out Pravda but eventually their lies were revealed. We cannot drown out NPR but eventually, perhaps too late, their lies will also be revealed.
There can be no productive conversation with liars and tools of despots. They know they are lying but excuse it because it serves a "higher cause." They cannot be reasoned with, they cannot be convinced. Thankfully, the Internet provides a means of a parallel conversation (much like the samizdat did for Solzhenitsyn) with the bonus that we can't be arrested (yet) for using it.
Emotional Healing Without Pathologizing or Drugging: from When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home. How all of us can help veterans
Given the huge and rising numbers of war veterans who are isolated, homeless, experiencing family breakdown, abusing alcohol or drugs, or committing suicide, it is clear that the vast numbers of therapists in the military and the VA systems, combined with the vast numbers of prescriptions for psychotropic drugs handed out in those systems and in the private sector, are at the very least woefully insufficient.
In a subsequent essay some weeks from now, I will describe the approaches in detail and name the names of the programs. But for today, Veterans Day, what is important to know is that at the conference, speakers described their work, which ranged from the use of the arts to help with healing to the training of service dogs to help bring vets gently out of terrifying flashbacks to various community initiatives to Native American re-entry rituals to training vets to work for nonprofits and many, many more.
A major theme that ran throughout was the irreplaceably important act of listening to veterans’ stories of war and attempts to come truly home
The media supported Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Khomeini, Chavez, Arafat etc., etc., etc.
They extolled their virtues and concealed or excused their crimes (usually by blaming the West and the US).
That the media is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood is neither a surprise or an indication of naivety. It is what they do. When (if) the MB takes over and starts killing their own citizens and terrorizing ours, they will be shocked, shocked that this has happened and will blame it on the Administration (if it is Republican) or on Western Civilization (if a Democrat is in charge).
I ignore most of the MSM. Did Soviet citizens read Pravda? Probably many did because there was no other source of news.
The only reason to listen to NPR, or most of the MSM, is to keep track of the latest lies of the enemies of freedom. They are always predictable. Keep telling the truth and ignore the lies. Solzhenitsyn could not drown out Pravda but eventually their lies were revealed. We cannot drown out NPR but eventually, perhaps too late, their lies will also be revealed.
There can be no productive conversation with liars and tools of despots. They know they are lying but excuse it because it serves a "higher cause." They cannot be reasoned with, they cannot be convinced. Thankfully, the Internet provides a means of a parallel conversation (much like the samizdat did for Solzhenitsyn) with the bonus that we can't be arrested (yet) for using it.
Judge Crater said...
"The best case scenario in Egypt is another dictator who is willing to begin the process of constructing a more free, more democratic society; the worst case scenario is the triumph of Thanatos, in the person of the Sunni Islamists."
That pretty much sums up the neoconservative, Pax Americana, view of the world doesn't it? Freedom, with Tea Parties and "Second Amendment remedies" and "Don't Tread on Me" rallies by Medicare recipients for the good Ole USA, but despots and dictators (of the correct political persuasion) for the rest of the world. It really is all about us isn't it?
Talk about solipsism. When our deals with the devil - whether it is Mubarak or Sadaam (he was our buddy once) or the Shah of Iran or any of a score of other puppets and oligarchs - don't pay off, as they inevitably don't, then we have to double down. In other words, keep meddling.
Keep the CIA busy doing black ops, put guys like Ahmed Chalabi on our payroll, rattle sabres, send carrier groups, expeditionary forces, even entire American armies into harm's way. Maybe our next puppet in Cairo, in addition to beginning the process of democratization, will allow us to fill they skies with Predator drones to keep the Muslim Brotherhood hunkered down.
Because, of course, it's worked so well over the past 50 or 60 years. The tens of trillions of dollars spent on these adventures, and countless American and foreign lives lost or destroyed, have produced little besides more and more dangerous foreign venues where the neocons hope, in their relentless and compulsive way, to extend their stupendous losing streak.
It's not the 19th Century anymore. A few hundred British civil servants can no longer run India for Queen and country. Tens of thousands of American troops can't drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan or put Humpty-Dumpty Iraq back together again. Every "regime change" we engineer, every foreign pawn we cleverly move on the global chess board only drives us deeper into the quicksand. No sparrow falls anywhere on the planet where we, in our fevered and imperial-minded altered state, don't imagine that America, and/or its President/military, isn't responsible for good or ill.
Historians are likely to look back in time and wonder not about the mainstream media (which will be a small footnote), but about the imperial vision that somehow seduced the United States and took the nation down a dangerous and reckless path.
That pretty much sums up the neoconservative, Pax Americana, view of the world doesn't it? Freedom, with Tea Parties and "Second Amendment remedies" and "Don't Tread on Me" rallies by Medicare recipients for the good Ole USA, but despots and dictators (of the correct political persuasion) for the rest of the world. It really is all about us isn't it?
Talk about solipsism. When our deals with the devil - whether it is Mubarak or Sadaam (he was our buddy once) or the Shah of Iran or any of a score of other puppets and oligarchs - don't pay off, as they inevitably don't, then we have to double down. In other words, keep meddling.
Keep the CIA busy doing black ops, put guys like Ahmed Chalabi on our payroll, rattle sabres, send carrier groups, expeditionary forces, even entire American armies into harm's way. Maybe our next puppet in Cairo, in addition to beginning the process of democratization, will allow us to fill they skies with Predator drones to keep the Muslim Brotherhood hunkered down.
Because, of course, it's worked so well over the past 50 or 60 years. The tens of trillions of dollars spent on these adventures, and countless American and foreign lives lost or destroyed, have produced little besides more and more dangerous foreign venues where the neocons hope, in their relentless and compulsive way, to extend their stupendous losing streak.
It's not the 19th Century anymore. A few hundred British civil servants can no longer run India for Queen and country. Tens of thousands of American troops can't drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan or put Humpty-Dumpty Iraq back together again. Every "regime change" we engineer, every foreign pawn we cleverly move on the global chess board only drives us deeper into the quicksand. No sparrow falls anywhere on the planet where we, in our fevered and imperial-minded altered state, don't imagine that America, and/or its President/military, isn't responsible for good or ill.
Historians are likely to look back in time and wonder not about the mainstream media (which will be a small footnote), but about the imperial vision that somehow seduced the United States and took the nation down a dangerous and reckless path.
Emotional Healing Without Pathologizing or Drugging: from When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home. How all of us can help veterans
Given the huge and rising numbers of war veterans who are isolated, homeless, experiencing family breakdown, abusing alcohol or drugs, or committing suicide, it is clear that the vast numbers of therapists in the military and the VA systems, combined with the vast numbers of prescriptions for psychotropic drugs handed out in those systems and in the private sector, are at the very least woefully insufficient.
In a subsequent essay some weeks from now, I will describe the approaches in detail and name the names of the programs. But for today, Veterans Day, what is important to know is that at the conference, speakers described their work, which ranged from the use of the arts to help with healing to the training of service dogs to help bring vets gently out of terrifying flashbacks to various community initiatives to Native American re-entry rituals to training vets to work for nonprofits and many, many more.
A major theme that ran throughout was the irreplaceably important act of listening to veterans’ stories of war and attempts to come truly home
Iran and weapons of mass destruction
Iran is not known to currently possess weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and has signed treaties repudiating the possession of weapons of mass destruction including the Biological Weapons Convention,[1] the Chemical Weapons Convention,[2] and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)[3]. Over 100,000 Iranian troops and civilians were victims of chemical weapons during the 1980s Iran–Iraq War.[4][5] On ideological grounds, a public and categorical religious decree (fatwa) against the development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons has been issued by the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic Ali Khamenei, and the rest of the clerical establishment.[6
The IAEA has been able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran, but not the absence* of undeclared activities
* You cannot find evidence something doesn't exist.. Of course, you can gin up 'evidence' it does!
Jeffrey Skroll
Skoll is also the founder, chairman and owner of Participant Media (formerly Participant Productions), a Los Angeles based media company he created to fund feature films and documentaries that promote social values while still being commercially viable. Its first three films were Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, and North Country along with the documentary Murderball. These films accounted for 11 Oscar nominations in 2006.
Subsequent films have included An Inconvenient Truth, American Gun, Fast Food Nation, and The World According to Sesame Street. An Inconvenient Truth won two Oscars in 2007 and has been credited with extending the public debate over climate change. Other films in 2007 included Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, The Kite Runner directed by Marc Forster, Angels in the Dust about an AIDS orphanage in South Africa, Darfur Now about the genocide in Darfur with Don Cheadle, and Jimmy Carter Man from Plains, a film about Jimmy Carter directed by Academy Award winning director Jonathan Demme.
Films in 2008 included The Visitor, by Thomas McCarthy with Richard Jenkins and Hiam Abbass; Chicago 10, based on the 1968 Democratic convention protests; and Standard Operating Procedure, a documentary about Abu Ghraib by Errol Morris. "Nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards"
Retrieved 11 February 2010. documentary about the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan; The Crazies, an updated version of the George A. Romero biotoxin thriller from 1973; and Pressure Cooker, a documentary about an inner-city school cooking contest, set in Philadelphia. One announced 2010 release, set for Earth Day on April 22, is Oceans, a documentary about the oceans by Jacques Perrin, director of the Oscar-winning Winged Migration. Films in 2010 included "Waiting for Superman."
The company also has publishing and television divisions, and operates Takepart.com
, an online site catering to social activists.
Deficit Committee Should Consider Cutting Nuclear Arms, Lawmaker Says
“America needs a new nuclear weapon as much as Lady Gaga needs another new outfit,” Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said at a Capitol Hill news conference.
“Our nuclear policy is the epitome of overkill,” the Massachusetts lawmaker said. “When you get your annual flu shot do you think, 'Well, one shot protects me from the flu, then 10 flu shots must give me 10 times more protection.' Of course not and that's exactly what we're doing with our current nuclear policy.”Meanwhile, a group of roughly 50 nongovernmental organizations, including arms control advocates, and social policy and religious groups, distributed a letter asking members of Congress to support Markey's recommendations.
Iran Continues Atomic Site Construction: Satellite Images
( You may recall heavy water moderation was a feature of original German systems - and is a basis for Canada's Candu reactors - which do not leave fissile repositories unused )
Iran Containment Cast in Doubt
( Continuing the practice of characterizing Iran's nuclear program as a viable arms project....despite decades of rebuttal and debunking )
Canada Contributing $10M to Secure Libyan WMD Materials
The Jewish hand behind Internet
In the following document we will give an insight into the Jewish penetration of the Internet and also show the level of cooperation between leading Jewish Internet entrepreneurs and the racist Jewish Apartheid state of Israel.
The Jews - contrary to the "liberal" views they officially say they profess - in their suppressive acts practically demonstrate that they always seek to dominate the information flow, they don't tolerate any dissent. It is just as when Israel says "Shalom" while Israel's military at the very same time pounds its Arab neighbour states with bombs and missiles.
The Arabs have learnt the hard way the falsehood of these Jewish statements, it is now time for the rest of the non-Jewish world to get this right, and to see that the freedom of information on the Net is seriously threatened.
International Jewish Billionaires
Visualizing Respect for Groundwater
Groundwater is being depleted at an unsustainable rate and since many people don't know where their water comes from they're not aware that this is a problem. Visualizing.org wants to change that with its latest data visualization contest, called Heads Up.
( I wonder if Hydrofracking loss / containment breach is Included in the depletion. )
Tech Awards: Water-cleaning device, solar in a suitcase
The winner of the Intel Environment Award is Agua Clara, which solves the problem of delivering clean drinking water to people in Honduras. The gravity-powered water treatment unit operates without electricity. The water project brings drinking water to more than 20,000 people, who often live off $2 per day. Additionally, the program trains local entrepreneurs to further promote sustainability within the community.
Doing A Job On Us ( Sept )
This is a bad jobs report....and it's gonna hurt. Just wait till the markets open if you don't believe me...
Arcade Fire: Stars shine light on Haiti
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