Jamboree Highlights

From Curt Witcher's session on Military History:

Familiarity with how the military operates will ensure finding & effectively using the widest collection of resources. #Witcher #scgs12

Using Evernote for Genealogy

Web clippings – when I find something that I think I want to refer back to later, I can clip the page into a note. I’ve used various other services for this in the past – Delicious, Diigo, Google Notebooks, and plain old bookmarks. What I like about Evernote is that it captures the page, not just a link to the page, so if the page or website disappears, I still have access to what I wanted.

( Which is what I was using Marigold for when it folded. Ezra Klein used Furl for his personal blogposts and that has disappeared too - though Diigo saved a smattering of my content. And StumbleUpon has archives as well - though I doubt they would like being used for that, being oriented to shared notable content. Since Clipmarks shut down I haven't tried Clipboard ...or used DropBox either. For that matter Current TV has been neglected as well. )

'Do people understand
what deregulation means?'

The Young Turks

'Of course' Romney wants
an oil lobbyist for chief of staff

Tonia Kendrick

Civil War Soldiers & Sailors database lets you download a spreadsheet of search results. Awesome. #Witcher #scgs12

Military veterans to get priority for police jobs under COPS grants

Arab Spring poses UK terror threat: MI5 boss

( Another comedian )

To Whom is a Drone Loyal?

Are Crimes Against Humanity Legal? For Corporations, They Soon Might Be

Spinning the news from Afghanistan

June 8 a mistake happened, but we're sorry. Really sorry. (even though yesterday we were denying we even knew about it).

also see Shaping the "truth" on Syria

Merchant(s) of death

Viktor Bout, who the media calls the "Merchant of Death," just got 25 years for attempting to sell weapons to anti-government rebels in Colombia (actually these particular "rebels" were U.S. agents). Meanwhile, the U.S. and the Arab kings and sheiks who are its allies openly discuss arming anti-government rebels in Syria. Hardly the first such occurrence, of course, since the U.S. armed and funded anti-government rebels in Afghanistan and Nicaragua as well, not to mention Libya, where they not only armed and funded the rebels, they did their bombing for them.

“

The right wings crazy sound machine, broadcasting from sea to sea and in the middle of the country has the citizens totally brain washed. What more can you say money talks, and with 90% of programed radio shows spouting the right wings viewpoints as opposed to 10% Liberal talkers on the radio... ”

TED Talks refuses to publish income inequality speech

Portland considers rules for potentially cracking down on composting scofflaws: Portland City Hall roundup

Hat Tip The Yin Blog

The presumption of innocence, fair trials, and defendants who won't/can't argue "they didn't do it"

http://www.thenation.com/article/168373/when-your-father-accused-terrorism

International law and drone strikes

A Radioactive Conflict of Interest with Tragic Dimensions

Having the Energy Department control radiation health research makes as much sense as giving tobacco companies the authority to see if smoking is bad for you.

Last month, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) heralded an Energy Department funded study indicating that evacuation zones around nuclear power stations might not be needed after a major nuclear accident. The study, which exposed mice to radiation levels comparable to those near the Fukushima nuclear disaster, found no evidence of genetic harm. "There are no data that say that's a dangerous level," says Jacquelyn Yanch, a leader of the study. According to theMIT press release "current U.S. regulations require that residents of any area that reaches radiation levels eight times higher than background should be evacuated. However, the financial and emotional cost of such relocation may not be worthwhile, the researchers say."

Monsanto's dirty soil = diabetes?!

The families of West Anniston live with the legacy of a Monsanto plant, and the toxic soil Monsanto left behind. Now the science shows that residents have diabetes from exposure to chemicals (PCBs, in particular) in that soil. .....we live with a new Monsanto chemical every day: a study of Iowa and Mississippi streams and rivers showed all streams and most air samples laced with a chemical that came next: RoundUp, which Monsanto assures us is "among the safest." A team of international scientists link RoundUp to birth defects

Failing Law Schools

shift from needs-based to merit-based scholarships that has, among other problems, made it even tougher for lower income law students to attend law school without high debt.

Why Julian Assange's Ecuador Move is Brilliant

Although Swedish “justice” officials have not charged* Assange with any crime, they insist that he be extradited to face questions resulting from allegations by two women of sexual assault. This is widely — and in my view correctly — perceived as a subterfuge to deliver Assange into Swedish hands to facilitate his eventual extradition to the U.S. to face even more serious charges for publishing classified information highly embarrassing to Washington.

* And you can be extradited without charges being laid ? !!!

The Truth Behind the Bath Salts "Epidemic"

After the explosion in use comes the demonization. Then the press, despite a total lack of causal evidence, parrots the outlandish accusations.

More than a quarter of Alberta kids face ‘great difficulty’ when starting kindergarten

Fyrehed

Our education system hasn't been concerning itself with producing viable, productive, self-reliant CITIZENS for more than half a century. What they are focusing on is ensuring the best type of CONSUMER is readily available to make enormous profits off of: they have to be willfully* ignorant (*simple ignorance is not enough; they must actively fight and resist knowledge and growth), financially irresponsible, and easily manipulated by advertising. Thus, things like rhetoric (speaking up for yourself), grammar (being understood by others), conflict resolution (the ability to say 'No' to drama), critical thinking, an accurate history of our country and the interworkings of our government, as well as any inclination to think for the collective instead of selfishly, are all completely worthless in the process of creating the perfect generation of morons eager to dedicate their lives to endless consumption, unnecessary waste, and frivolous distractions.
In a nutshell, that's what's wrong with our education 'system' (or lack of one): our goals. The goal of free public education (K-12) should be to discover talents, develop self-discipline, and thereby tap ALL our nation's potential. It should be to encourage every citizen to be their best, not just the rich, smart or pretty ones. As is, the goal is to keep them as quiet and stupid as possible, to let them grow up to be Jersey Shore fans who idolize thirteen-year-olds and don't vote for anything but American Idol and their favorite flavor of Pepsi. The big surprise is how many people actually do think for themselves and are paying attention. The amount of people speaking up for their rights in this country is actually pretty impressive considering almost all of them have been indoctrinated (unsuccessfully, obviously) into the religion of pointless greed and competition.