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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

20 February - RSS SnapShot! Pt 1

Egyptian MuseumImage via Wikipedia

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WATER RELATED SEARCH RESULTS AT BOTTOM



Blacklisted News

The Intelligence Daily

My AntiWar

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

  • Iran, Syria and Iraq build pipeline to beat sa ...
    Summary: UPI reports how Iran is working with Iraq, Syria and Turkey to build a new gas pipeline in the region: "Despite tightening international economic sanctions, Iran is driving to boost its energy industry, including a natural gas pipeline to Iraq and Syria that may even run to southern ...
  • WikiLeaks cables show no evidence of Iran's ha ...
    Summary: WikiLeaks cables show US diplomats' awareness of simmering unrest between Shia majority underclass and Sunni minority rulers in Bahrain, and predicted 'it takes only one mistake to provoke a potentially disastrous escalation' source: The Guardianread more
  • SHIFTING BALANCE OF POWER IN THE PERSIAN GULF
    Summary: Bahrain"Washington is now faced again with another hard choice — the legacy of shortsighted decisions made over decades: Continue to go with local repressive regimes out of a misguided sense of “American interests”? Hold on to unpopular military bases at all costs — thereby deepenin ...
  • US Officials Offer Little Clarity On Unintende ...
    Summary: Critics have warned that such an approach creates unintended consequences that are harmful to ordinary Iranians. For instance, in the immediate aftermath of CISADA’s passage, Iranian students seeking to study abroad found that Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exams, wh ...
  • NATO bases in Turkey not to be used against ot ...
    Summary: Every military facility in Turkey is under the control of Turkish commanders, Gul said in an exclusive interview with Press TV Tuesday. "Without our knowledge, nothing can happen there (in the bases), " he was quoted as saying. Gul said Turkey supports Iran's right to the peaceful u ...

The Daily Galaxy

  • Update: The 'Great Hole in Space'
    ESA’s Herschel infrared space telescope made an unexpected discovery: a vast hole in space. The hole has provided astronomers with a surprising glimpse into the end of the star-forming process. A cloud of bright reflective gas known to astronomers as...
  • The Aquarius Stream: Remnant of a Dwarf Galaxy ...
    The shredded remains of of one of the estimated seven trillion dwarf galaxies in the observable Universe has been located buried within our Milky Way Galaxy. Some astronomers think that the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way, Omega Centauri,...
  • 'X-Class' Solar Flare from Jupiter-Sized Sun S ...
    The strongest solar flare in four years disrupted radio communications in southern China, according to the China Meteorological Administration. The powerful solar eruption triggered a huge geomagnetic storm has disturbed radio communications and could disrupt electrical power grids, radio and... ...
  • Galaxy Starbursts Triggered by Dark Matter -"A ...
    Most of the mass of any galaxy is expected to be "dark matter," an elusive X Factor that has yet to be detected but which astronomers believe must exist to provide sufficient gravity to prevent galaxies ripping themselves apart as...
  • Human Vision Traced to 600-Million Year Old Hy ...
    Our eyes that scan the farthest reaches of the universe had their origin in the simple hydra, a members ancient group of sea creatures that along with jellyfish, belong to the phylum cnidaria that first emerged 600 million years ago...

Natural News

  • Superbug named New Delhi to make westerners af ...
    (NaturalNews) The industry of western medicine is steeped in corruption, dishonesty and dirty tricks. One of those dirty tricks became apparent recently when it was revealed that a superbug discovered by western researchers was given the name "New Delhi" in order to make westerners fearful of me ...
  • Scientists admit dementia not a normal part of ...
    (NaturalNews) Contrary to popular belief, dementia is not a normal part of the aging process. The condition, which most often plays itself out in the form of Alzheimer's disease, is an abnormal neurological condition that is likely caused by a combination of factors, including but not limited to ...
  • Join OCA in grassroots fight to stop GMO takeo ...
    (NaturalNews) The Obama Administration's landmark decision last month to overrule the ban on genetically-modified (GM) alfalfa will likely go down in the books as one of the administration's biggest betrayals of the natural health community. But a grassroots campaign currently underway by the Or ...
  • Medical 'experts' pushing HPV vaccines told wh ...
    (NaturalNews) Two British doctors recently wrote a piece in the BBC urging the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) to switch from Merck's Cervarix human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) Gardasil HPV vaccine, in its mass vaccination program for young girls. And the two "expe ...
  • Smoking habits passed from father to son, moth ...
    (NaturalNews) Children of parents who smoke are more likely to smoke themselves than other children, but according to a new study published in the journal Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, the genders of those involved can make all the difference. Maria Loureiro and her colleagues fro ...

Threat Level

  • Patriot Act Extension Lands On Obama’s Desk
    The House forwarded legislation Thursday to the president extending through May three controversial Patriot Act spy measures that were set to expire at month’s end. The 279-143 vote came two days after the Senate approved the same language. Earlier in the week, the House had agreed to prolong th ...
  • Cyberwar Issues Likely to Be Addressed Only Af ...
    When it comes to developing cyberwarfare policy, the U.S. will likely wait for a catastrophic event and then overreact, rather than plan ahead, said former intelligence chief Mike McConnell at the RSA Conference on Wednesday. McConnell was pessimistic that Congress and the public would get its ...
  • Sony Threatens to Terminate Service of PS3 Jai ...
    Sony said Wednesday it would permanently block PlayStation 3 owners from the PlayStation Network if they are using jailbroken consoles. Access to what Sony describes as a “world of entertainment” will be “terminated permanently,” the Japanese entertainment concern announced. “To avoid this, cons ...
  • Surveillance Footage and Code Clues Indicate S ...
    New clues about Stuxnet provide the strongest evidence yet that the superworm targeted a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran, according to a new report. The clues come from surveillance cameras installed by international investigators at the Natanz enrichment plant in Iran – which show Iranian wor ...
  • Senate Extends Patriot Act Spy Bill
    The Senate voted late Tuesday to extend through May three controversial Patriot Act spy measures that were set to expire at month’s end. The 86-12 vote came a day after the House voted to extend the same provisions to December 8. The fate of both bills remained unclear late Tuesday. The action i ...

PERRspectives : Blog

  • Republican Myths in the GOP War on Public Empl ...
    In just the latest front in the perpetual GOP campaign to divide and conquer, Republicans are trying to get Americans to turn on their neighbors who work for government and unions on each other. Of course, the Republican assault on collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin, ...
  • For Beck and Fox News, It's the End Times All ...
    Over the past several days, Fox News host Glenn Beck has explained that the unrest sweeping the Middle East augurs a New World Order jointly pursued by a combination of George Soros, radical Islamists and communist unions, all aided, apparently, by Google. But on Thursday, Beck literally turned ...
  • Will GOP Push Ryan's Plan to Ration Medicare?
    On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Paul Ryan blasted Obama budget chief Jack Lew over entitlement spending, declaring "why did you duck?" But for their part, Republicans have yet to offer their own plan for addressing the fiscal health of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. While Majority ...
  • Republicans Punt on Deficits. Seriously.
    If nothing else, the Republican Party is a machine for generating talking points - and irony. While Senators Mitch McConnell and Jeff Sessions insisted President Obama's $3.73 trillion budget proposal wasn't "serious," over in the Speaker House John Boehner and his lieutenant Paul Ryan claimed ...
  • State and Local Governments the Anti-Stimulus
    Back in October, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post warned of the "anti-stimulus." That is, the draconian budget cuts and steep layoffw at the state and local level, Klein argued, were more than offsetting the gains from the $787 billion federal stimulus program. Now, a new analysis from the Na ...

Blackspot News Feed

  • Madison Protests May Spark a New Era of Protes ...
    by Billy Wharton Guest Writer Dandelion Salad Examiner.com February 17, 2011 February 18, 2011 Protests are erupting across Wisconsin in response to Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to strip public employees of the right to collectively bargain in order to impose a severe austerity package. The ...
  • Night Music: Talvihorros
  • Democratic Senators Leave State to Stall Bill ...
    Madison, Wisconsin - In a continuing attempt to stall a vote on the anti-union bill proposed by Gov. Scott Walker, the 14 Democratic senators have left the state with state troopers dispatched by Republican Senate leaders on their heels. Without at least one additional senator in the chamber, th ...
  • House Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood, Jack ...
    Editors Note: Update, the house voted to defund Planned Parenthood.  Since gaining the upper-hand in the House, Republicans have led what Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called “the most comprehensive and radical assault on women’s health in our lifetime.” read more
  • Security Forces in Bahrain Open Fire on Mourne ...
    Manama, Bahrain - Government forces opened fire on hundreds of mourners marching toward Pearl Square Friday, sending people running away in panic amid the boom of concussion grenades. But even as the people fled, at least one helicopter sprayed fire on them and a witness reported seeing mourners ...

Consortium News

  • Ray McGovern Bloodied at Clinton Talk
    Ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern was roughed up by Hillary Clinton's security as she hailed peaceful protests, notes Robert Parry. February 17, 2011
  • The Back Story on Iran's Clashes
    The U.S. media presents the new street protests in Iran as a morality play, but they are more complex, reports Robert Parry. February 17, 2011
  • How Egypt's Revolt Challenges Israel
    Egypt's ouster of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak tests Israel's policies toward the Palestinians, writes Lawrence Davidson. February 16, 2011
  • Tear Down This Reagan Mythology
    The idol worship of Ronald Reagan has wildly exaggerated his role in "winning" the Cold War, observes Ivan Eland. February 16, 2011
  • Short-Counting the Taliban
    Gen. David Petraeus wins out in a struggle over counting the number of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, writes Gareth Porter. February 15, 2011

CounterPunch

Institute for Middle East Understanding

Water - AlterNet

Public Citizen in Texas

Unexplained Mysteries

Grassroots

Climate

  • Judge Tells Government to Resume Permits for D ...
    Source:� New York Times A federal judge in New Orleans ordered the Obama administration to move quickly on permits for new deepwater oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Governments to Debate Kyoto Climate Dilemma
    Source:� Reuters Governments are looking at ways to keep the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol going beyond 2012 in some form to defuse a standoff between rich and poor nations that threatens efforts to tackle global warming.
  • Japan Plans to Ramp Up Renewable Energy Scheme
    Source:� Reuters Japan's government will propose ramping up a scheme to encourage electricity generation from renewable sources, aiming to cut annual CO2 emissions by 2 percent in 2020.
  • Mississippi Governor Critizes EPA's Coal Overs ...
    Source:� AP On a visit to coal country, potential Republican presidential candidate Haley Barbour says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is over-regulating coal. �
  • Chevron Foundation, USAID Give Nigeria $50M
    Source:� AP Chevron Corp.'s foundation and USAID are to pour $50 million into Nigeria's impoverished delta where militants have demanded that more oil profits come back to the region, the U.S. oil giant said.

GreenBiz

Reuters Global

Booman Tribune

  • Open Thread
    My power is out again. Any little wind...and it's getting dark. What's going on in the Middle East? What's going on in Madison? Discuss
  • We're Going to Blast Them For This
    Probably because the House Republicans' Continuing Resolution didn't pass until 4:30 in the morning, and because it is the weekend, the White House has not yet released an analysis of the impacts of the spending cuts on various programs, departments, initiatives, and the overall economy. Howeve ...
  • Romney's Vacuous Drivel
    Mitt Romney might be the only Republican presidential candidate who I can actually imagine being president, and it's even possible that he wouldn't screw things up as bad as Bush and Cheney. But if this is his idea of how to think about the Israel-Palestine question, there really is no hope for ...
  • The Latest from Joke Line
    Joke Line is not a conservative but he likes to position himself as close to the middle as possible. This means that his primary role in life is what many refer to as "punching hippies." If you think the invasion of Iraq is ill-advised and unjustified, Joke Line is happy to call you names. An ...
  • Horrible People
    Joan McCarter reports on the latest in the War on Women. You know? I'm kind of ignoring what's going on in the House right now because those lunatics are never going to succeed in getting the Senate to agree to 99.9% of the bullshit they're doing on this Continuing Resolution. But when you vot ...

European Tribune

Futurismic

  • Personal Information: episode 24
    Personal Information is a new serial sci-fi webcomic from Sarah “Does Not Equal” Ennals. Follow Futurismic on Twitter for more nuggets of near-future fun and weirdness! Share and Enjoy:Follow Futurismic on Twitter for more nuggets of near-future fun and weirdness!
  • Arguments against life extension
    Via Michael Anissimov, here’s a spectacularly empty diatribe against “deathhackers” by TechCrunch‘s Paul Carr. Carr objects to the idea of radical life extension as advocated by transhumanists, which is fair enough, but as written here most of his objections seem to boil down to personal distate ...
  • Daddy, where does innovation come from?
    Plenty of folk have been linking to this excerpt from Matt Ridley’s new book The Rational Optimist, and with good reason – it’s a provocative piece that plays to advocates (and opponents) of free trade, open exchange, copyright reform and much more. The basic thesis? The one persistent factor th ...
  • Replacement arms: mechanical or biological?
    Prosthetic limbs are still in their infancy, but there’s a lot of progress being made: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is working with Darpa (who else?), and has a research grant for trying out their mind-controlled modular prosthetic arm on five test subjects over the next couple of ye ...
  • How to be a futurist
    The irrepressible Scott “Basic Instructions” Meyer has the lowdown if you’re thinking of a career in futurism: Click through for the whole thing. But take it from me, being a futurist is a lot of work for no money. Or maybe that’s just the way I do it… and I’ve never been featured in a [...]Foll ...

Therapy News

  • Tips to Reboot Your Weight Loss Program
    By Marta Rocha, MHCI Click here to contact Marta and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile The New Year is in motion and how are you doing with your New Year’s resolution weight loss goals? Did you do well for a few weeks and now you are feeling depressed because you haven’t been able to stick with ...
  • What’s Wrong With Me?
    By Norma Lee M.A., M.D., Cancer Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Norma and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile “Anna” is a 48 year-old woman who finished chemotherapy for ovarian cancer about a month ago. She came to see me because she was feeling “kind of depressed” and had very li ...
  • Jung & Play: Re-writing Your Myth
    By Mary Alice Long, PhD Jungian Psychotherapy Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Mary Alice and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile Without playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination if incalculable. -C.G. Jung Jung wr ...
  • Web Conference Follow-Up: “Authentic, Empathy- ...
    A GoodTherapy.org Announcement This morning Noah Rubinstein, LMFT, GoodTherapy.org Executive Director presented “Authentic, Empathy-Based Marketing for Therapists: Methods for Growing and Communicating about Your Practice.” In this free Web Conference for GoodTherapy.org members, Noah offered su ...
  • Ways to Play: Work and Play
    By Mary Alice Long, PhD Play Therapy Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Mary Alice and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile I love this quote; I have to work so hard to play. For many of us play does not come easily. Try wrapping your arms around the idea that you are not your work. Wh ...

Mountaintop Removal

  • My Polluted Kentucky Home - New York Times
    My Polluted Kentucky Home New York Times We were there to protest his support of mountaintop removal, a technique used by coal-mining companies that, as its name implies, involves blasting away the tops of mountains and hills to get at the coal seams beneath them. Since it was first used in ... ...
  • The Hidden Costs of Coal - Care2.com
    Care2.com The Hidden Costs of Coal Care2.com Coal fired power plants spew toxins into our air while mountaintop removal mining practices destroy our mountains and pollute surrounding waterways. Here are just a few of the hidden annual costs of coal from the Appalachian region alone, according t ...
  • EPA fight heads to Senate - Politico
    Politico EPA fight heads to Senate Politico House Republicans led a charge late into the night Friday against Obama administration decisions to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, block mountaintop removal mining and allow increased use of ethanol in ... House scales back mining protections, oth ...
  • Mountaintop Removal Protesters Sit In At Gover ...
    Environment News Service Mountaintop Removal Protesters Sit In At Governor's Office WFPL The group is demanding a meeting with the governor to discuss ending the practice of mountaintop removal mining and creating a new economic model for Kentucky. The group of twenty calls itself Kentucky Risi ...
  • Billions Slashed From EPA Budget - OzarksFirst ...
    Billions Slashed From EPA Budget OzarksFirst.com GOP House members moved to turn back decisions by the Obama administration to block mountaintop removal mining and to allow an increase of ethanol in gasoline. The White House's move to regulate greenhouse gas emissions was also voted down. ... ...

Memeorandum

  • Bloggers For Peace Flotilla Arrives In Madison ...
    Lady Liberty / The Gateway Pundit: Bloggers For Peace Flotilla Arrives In Madison...SITUATION TENSE ...Update: Thousands of Walker Supporters Are Here!  —  This is an update from Jim.  He's on the ground and in the thick of things.  He will be phoning in updates throughout the day.  —  There w ...
  • Fake Doctors' Notes Being Handed Out at Wiscon ...
    MacIver Institute: Fake Doctors' Notes Being Handed Out at Wisconsin Gov. Union Rally  —  [Madison, WI] As tens of thousands of public employees skipped work this week to attend protest rallies outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, many wondered if they would face any disciplinary action for un ...
  • Lawmaker: Gov's plan has torn Wisconsin apart ...
    David S Morgan / CBS News: Lawmaker: Gov's plan has torn Wisconsin apart  —  Dem state senator says Scott Walker's proposal to end collective bargaining for most public employees is “absolutely, positively wrong”  —  Protests are continuing at the State Capitol in Madison against Wisconsin Gove ...
  • FDR's Ghost Is Smiling on Wisconsin's Governor ...
    Patrick McIlheran / Real Clear Politics: FDR's Ghost Is Smiling on Wisconsin's Governor  —  Somewhere, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is grinning past his cigarette holder at Wisconsin's governor.  They are on the same page regarding government unions.  —  Except that Scott Walker — Republican chea ...
  • Rep. David Wu's staff confronted him over conc ...
    Oregonian: Rep. David Wu's staff confronted him over concerns about his mental health  —  WASHINGTON — Three days before the Nov. 2 election, U.S. Rep. David Wu's most loyal and senior staffers were so alarmed by his erratic behavior that they demanded he enter a hospital for psychiatric treat ...

Energy & Environment News

5+ quakes - 7 days

  • M 5.0, Alamagan region, Northern Mariana Islan ...
    Tuesday, February 15, 2011 11:04:54 UTCTuesday, February 15, 2011 09:04:54 PM at epicenterDepth: 172.60 km (107.25 mi)
  • M 5.2, New Britain region, Papua New Guinea
    Sunday, February 13, 2011 23:51:01 UTCMonday, February 14, 2011 09:51:01 AM at epicenterDepth: 43.80 km (27.22 mi)
  • M 5.0, Kyrgyzstan
    Sunday, February 13, 2011 19:12:35 UTCMonday, February 14, 2011 01:12:35 AM at epicenterDepth: 41.80 km (25.97 mi)
  • M 5.1, Fiji region
    Sunday, February 13, 2011 19:05:55 UTCMonday, February 14, 2011 07:05:55 AM at epicenterDepth: 206.40 km (128.25 mi)
  • M 5.0, Fiji region
    Wednesday, February 16, 2011 15:56:00 UTCThursday, February 17, 2011 03:56:00 AM at epicenterDepth: 528.50 km (328.39 mi)

China Dialogue

  • Paper protection in western China
    Fragmented by the highways and railways of Xinjiang’s development drive, two nature reserves have come to symbolise the eroding worth of China’s protected areas, writes Sun Danping.At the Kalamaili Ungulate Nature Reserve in Xinjiang, China’s westernmost region, a group of Mongolian wild ass, or ...
  • Building China’s future?
    Following Singapore’s example, Britain is trying to secure a role in China’s eco-cities market. But what does that mean for the green agenda? Olivia Boyd spoke to one of the figures behind the campaign.China’s vice premier, Li Keqiang, spent much of his nine-day European tour in January buying w ...
  • The rough side of rubber
    Rubber plantations in Yunnan are destroying China’s richest biodiversity hotspot. But blaming small-hold farmers will not resolve the issue, writes Janet C Sturgeon.Over the past couple of years, the government in Xishuangbanna, a prefecture in south-west China’s Yunnan province, has finally wok ...
  • Non-profit power
    The role of civil society in global climate policy is mysterious to many in China, writes Chen Jiliang. But public campaigning is crucial work that must persist, even in the face of disappointing results.Civil society has always been a significant force in global climate-change politics. But in ...
  • The Chinese data chase
    Fearful of stifling economic development, China’s local environmental authorities are still falling short on data disclosure, seven grassroots groups found in an innovative study. Amy Sim explains.“As a civil society organisation, we must step up our work to support information disclosure, incre ...

AlterNet Top Stories

Threat Level

  • Patriot Act Extension Lands On Obama’s Desk
    The House forwarded legislation Thursday to the president extending through May three controversial Patriot Act spy measures that were set to expire at month’s end. The 279-143 vote came two days after the Senate approved the same language. Earlier in the week, the House had agreed to prolong th ...
  • Cyberwar Issues Likely to Be Addressed Only Af ...
    When it comes to developing cyberwarfare policy, the U.S. will likely wait for a catastrophic event and then overreact, rather than plan ahead, said former intelligence chief Mike McConnell at the RSA Conference on Wednesday. McConnell was pessimistic that Congress and the public would get its ...
  • Sony Threatens to Terminate Service of PS3 Jai ...
    Sony said Wednesday it would permanently block PlayStation 3 owners from the PlayStation Network if they are using jailbroken consoles. Access to what Sony describes as a “world of entertainment” will be “terminated permanently,” the Japanese entertainment concern announced. “To avoid this, cons ...
  • Surveillance Footage and Code Clues Indicate S ...
    New clues about Stuxnet provide the strongest evidence yet that the superworm targeted a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran, according to a new report. The clues come from surveillance cameras installed by international investigators at the Natanz enrichment plant in Iran – which show Iranian wor ...
  • Senate Extends Patriot Act Spy Bill
    The Senate voted late Tuesday to extend through May three controversial Patriot Act spy measures that were set to expire at month’s end. The 86-12 vote came a day after the House voted to extend the same provisions to December 8. The fate of both bills remained unclear late Tuesday. The action i ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

  • Competing Wisconsin protests draw thousands
    MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) - Supporters of legislation to reduce public employee union bargaining power and benefits in Wisconsin were far outnumbered by opponents on Saturday, as the two sides shouted competing slogans but did not clash.
  • Competing Wisconsin protests peaceful, draw th ...
    MADISON, Wis., Feb 19 (Reuters) - Supporters of legislation to reduce public employee union bargaining power and benefits in Wisconsin were far outnumbered by opponents on Saturday, as the two sides shouted competing slogans but did not clash.
  • Bahrain protesters swarm square, police flee
    MANAMA (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters in Bahrain swarmed back into a symbolic square on Saturday, putting riot police to flight in a striking victory for their cause and confidently setting up camp for a protracted stay.
  • Bahrain protesters swarm square
    MANAMA (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters in Bahrain swarmed back into a symbolic square on Saturday, putting riot police to flight in a striking victory for their cause.
  • Toads in the road bode ill for Freiburg fans
    BERLIN (Reuters) - Migrating toads will force thousands of Freiburg fans to find a different way home when they leave their stadium after Saturday's Bundesliga game against VfL Wolfsburg.

IntelNews

  • News you may have missed #477 (Germany edition ...
    German ex-foreign minister in spat with ex-CIA director. German spy chief claims Mubarak to stay in Egypt [unconfirmed]. Austrian on trial in Germany on charges of spying for Russia. Continue reading →
  • Colin Powell wants answers over fake Iraq inte ...
    Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised by recent news that the Iraqi defector whose information helped build the Bush Administrationâs case for invading Iraq in 2003, has admitted he lied about Saddam Husseinâs alleged weapons of mass destruction. Continue reading →
  • US denies smuggling spy equipment into Argenti ...
    The United States has denied charges by Argentine officials that it tried to smuggle espionage equipment into the South American country under the pretext of transporting training supplies for Argentine Federal Police. The charges were leveled on Thursday, after Argentine customs officials condu ...
  • Mubarak delayed exit in order to shift secret ...
    One of the reasons why Egyptâs disgraced ex-president kept prolonging his rule amidst ferocious anti-government protests this month, was to transfer billions of dollars-worth of personal assets into bank accounts around the world. Continue reading →
  • General arrested in Taiwan’s biggest spy scand ...
    A "tall, beautiful and chic" Chinese female operative, who held an Australian passport, appears to be behind Taiwanâs most serious espionage scandal in almost half a century, according to news reports. Continue reading →

War is a Crime.org

  • Shock Doctrine Wisconsin
  • Last Surviving Nuremberg Prosecutor to Make Im ...
    UPDATE: Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor from the World War II Nuremberg War Crimes Trials and founding father of the International Criminal Court, will make an important statement on U.S. foreign policy at an event with David Swanson and Sandy Davies in Boca Raton on Feb. 26, 2011. Da ...
  • Why Pakistan Cannot Release the Man Who Calls ...
    Shaukat Qadir Islamabad--By now journalists everywhere (except in the US) have come to the conclusion that there is far, far more to Raymond Davis than is being revealed by the US or by Pakistani officials. That he was engaged in anti-state activities in Pakistan and that the two young men he ki ...
  • Veterans: WRONG Direction for Funding {once ag ...
    <------- Remember these? They were a big joke and joy for a group still calling themselves republicans and happened as the Country were sending Military Troops into war once again, wars that still continue, and never a real apology for their joke. I'll bet some of them still have some handy to b ...
  • US Workers: Resurgent or Waging a Rearguard Ac ...
    US Workers: Resurgent or Waging a Rearguard Action? - by Stephen Lendman For decades, organized labor has been hammered after painful years of organizing, taking to the streets, going on strike, holding boycotts, battling police and National Guard forces, and paying with their blood and lives be ...

Grist - News

  • Fish consumption at all time high, says U.N. a ...
    by Agence France-Presse. ROME -- Fish consumption reached record levels in 2010 and world stocks need to be urgently rebuilt, experts at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report Monday. "The contribution of fish to global diets has reached a record of almost 17 kil ...
  • Bordeaux vineyards go organic, slowly but sure ...
    by Agence France-Presse. BORDEAUX, France -- Two historical Bordeaux wine estates have gone green, breaking a long resistance to organic viticulture amongst the region's elite producers. "Still in 2011, there are people who do not trust in the fact that it is possible to grow organic in Bor ...
  • U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon shifts focus from clima ...
    by Agence France-Presse. LONDON -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is shifting his focus away from involvement in international climate change talks and toward new areas in the fight against global warming. Ban is to redirect his efforts from trying to push forward the international clim ...
  • New Senate bill aims to avoid next oil spill
    by Agence France-Presse. WASHINGTON -- Senators plan to introduce in the coming weeks new legislation aiming to prevent another disastrous oil spill like last year's massive gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said Wednesday. A similar bill that would revise offshore ...
  • Big cities are not always the biggest polluter ...
    by Agence France-Presse. WASHINGTON -- Big cities like New York, London, and Shanghai send less pollution into the atmosphere per capita than places like Denver and Rotterdam, said a study released Tuesday. Researchers examined data from 100 cities in 33 nations for clues about which were ...

Popular Bookmarks on Del.icio.us

Technorati - What's Hot in Blogs

Time - Top Stories

Farming Pathogens

  • Egypt’s Food Pyramids
    A million minds momentarily magnetizing themselves along the same axis can turn a country’s deepest despair into an ecstatic sprint for freedom. What a people find revolting–a dictator decorated in American apologia–can be turned by a people’s revolt ridiculous. No wonder so much effort (and mon ...
  • The Scientific American
    Science is the business right now. If the science works, the business works, and vice versa. –Craig Venter Bird flu marinates a chicken in its own juices, a satay best avoided whatever the menu special. In such short an order better for the bistro than the barn, infected birds rapidly bleed from ...
  • Fearful Symmetry
    A colleague, genuinely perplexed, even outraged, asked me what the fuck was going on with all those dead birds in Arkansas. And, tongue-in-cheek, what would Mulder and Scully say? Scully: Mulder, it’s me. I got your message. Really, Beebe, Arkansas for a flock of dead birds? Does Skinner approve ...
  • The Great Recession Flu
    Swine flu is so 2009. Like La Roux and v-neck t-shirts. And yet the United Kingdom is presently suffering a swine flu attack worse than anything it faced in 2009. The number of flu patients in intensive care has risen by 60 per cent in the past week to 738, four times greater than at [...]
  • Alien vs. Predator
    Dallas: [looks at a pen being dissolved by alien's body fluid] I haven’t seen anything like that except, uh, molecular acid. Brett: It must be using it for blood. Parker: It’s got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don’t dare kill it. –Alien (1979) NASA announced earlier this month one of its re ...

Suzie-Q

  • Beck: Some Muslims Are Trying To Bring About T ...
    Glenn Beck: Some Muslims Want To Bring About The Antichrist (VIDEO) The Huffington Post Jack Mirkinson  First Posted: 02/18/11 08:26 AM Updated: 02/18/11 08:28 AM Glenn Beck theorized that some Muslims are trying to bring about the equivalent of the Antichrist on his Thursday show. Beck claimed ...
  • Afternoon Jukebox- Hey, Soul Sister
    Happy Friday! Have a great weekend everybody!   And, congratulations to TRAIN for winning the Grammy for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group! Train- Hey, Soul Sister
  • Curveball doubts were shared with CIA, says ex ...
    Joschka Fischer accuses former CIA chief George Tenet over his knowledge of Iraqi defector’s sketchy background Helen Pidd in Berlin guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 February 2011 14.08 GMT Germany‘s former foreign minister Joschka Fischer has accused the former head of the CIA George Tenet of making ...
  • Russ Feingold: Progressives United (VIDEO)
    Progressives United is founded by Former Senator Russ Feingold. Progressives United will lead the movement to curtail corporate influence on politics, and we will never compromise on our integrity in the allies we work with, the candidates we support, or the donations we accept.
  • Bahrain Security Forces Launch Brutal Assault ...
    Bahrain security forces launch brutal assault on sleeping protesters Crooks & Liars By scarce February 16, 2011 08:26 PM More unrest in the Middle East is met with state-sanctioned savage brutality, this time in the smaller but militarily significant (it hosts the U.S. Fifth fleet) country of Ba ...

Solari

  • Whoa…Cotton Down!
    [click on the image for a larger version] Continue reading the article . . .
  • Egypt to Let Iranian Warships Through Suez Can ...
    By The CNN Wire Staff Egypt has agreed to allow two Iranian warships to cross through the Suez Canal in a move that puts the country’s new military regime in a prickly position with its Israeli neighbor. The post-Hosni Mubarak caretaker government gave the green light to the Iranian warships Fr ...
  • Homeland Security Shuts Down 84,000 Websites
    By QMI Agency The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in an effort to clamp down on websites that host and advertise child pornography, inadvertently shut down more than 84,000 innocent websites across the Internet. In a Feb. 15 statement, the DHS announced the seizure of 10 domain names of w ...
  • Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?
    By Matt Taibbi Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy â but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them. Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer. “Everything’s fu ...
  • Lessons From The Soviet Union Economic Collaps ...
    By Dmitry Orlov Continue reading the article . . . Solari Report Blog Commentaries Dmitry Orlov: Teaching Us to Survive and Thrive

Insurgency Watch - Newswire

  • Times Scare
    ISLAMABAD–The apparent links between Pakistan and Faisal Shahzad are certainly cause for concern, but let’s not lose site of things here. The attack in Times Square was a fizzle. The rush to claim credit is a bit embarassing for the TTP and looks like it was — like the attack itself — a rush job ...
  • Stepping up - University at Buffalo The Spectr ...
    Stepping up University at Buffalo The Spectrum The president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, recognized the direness of the situation and began to mobilize military forces to combat the Taliban. ... and more��
  • Obama, us leaders should contemplate future of ...
    BBC News Obama, us leaders should contemplate future of Afghan women Chicago Tribune Would nuclear-armed Pakistan become even more vulnerable to its own Taliban insurgency? Will a defeat embolden America's enemies? That line of thinking must ... Vietnam syndrome has begun in AfghanistanSri Lank ...
  • Officials: Campus blasts perplexing - United P ...
    Officials: Campus blasts perplexing United Press International ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The International Islamic University, where bomb blasts killed at least six people, is a unique Pakistani institution ... and more��
  • Schools closed in Pakistan after bombing - GMA ...
    Schools closed in Pakistan after bombing GMA news.tv An Associated Press reporter met three Taliban fighters Tuesday traveling in a car with darkened windows at Shaktoi, a town close to the border between ... and more��

AlterNet - Rights and Liberties

Sideways News

  • Could you be a 10:10 community champion?
    The Guardian Newspaper and Franny Armstrong, through the Guardian 10:10 campaign, challenge organisations and individuals to cut their carbon footprint by 10%.
  • Brit mums strict about eco-chores
    Families in the UK are increasingly likely to be nagged about doing eco-chores, a new study conducted on behalf of the Energy Saving Trust has revealed.
  • UK venue offers rainforest weddings
    Getting married in a luscious rainforest has never been easier or more eco-friendly, according to the Eden Project.
  • Battery recycling 'too difficult'
    The European Recycling Platform (ERP) reports that while only a third of households at present recycle batteries, four out of five said they would do so if it was made easier.
  • 10 green resolutions to save you money
    By taking green steps at home, you can save money and make life easier. Being smart about waste, consumption and resources won't only win you the thanks of forthcoming generations: you'll feel the financial benefit immediately. 1. Make money from old electronics As your electronic goods become o ...

Fabius Maximus

  • The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Hel ...
    Summary:   Here is an announcement by Chuck Spinney of a new book of interest to anyone who desires to better understand American’s defense apparatus — the largest investment ever made by our government. It is my pleasure to announce the publication of The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays ...
  • The Raymond Davis incident shows that we&#8217 ...
    Summary:   Here we have another case study in disinformation.  The story of Raymond Davis (US covert operative in Pakistan) illustrates how our mainstream media and experts collude to help the government shape our view of the world.  It’s important that the sheep of America receive distorte ...
  • Killing Machines: Promises and Limits
    Summary:  Unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones, UAVs) are a large step toward autonomous killing machines (aka Terminators) that will eventually become another generation of warfare.  By themselves they bring the long-standing dream of precision bombing to a degree undreamed of when first im ...
  • Eventually we’ll have unlimited cheap cl ...
    Summary:  Optimists about energy give glowing forecasts of new technologies, often with wildly underestimated estimates of when when these can generate substantial fractions of our energy.  In the real world technologies take decades to evolve from the laboratory to commercialization.   And then ...
  • Excessive optimism is our enemy, with Coal-to- ...
    Summary:  Confidence provides strengths for a society, but only when coupled with clear vision.  Unfortunately modern America too-often too often sees the future only in terms of doomsters’ pessimism and advocates’ optimism.  Here we have a case study of the latter. In the run-up to the 2008 ...

Open Your Eyes News

  • Panama clashes: Guaymi angry over copper minin ...
    BBC - Police in Panama have clashed with dozens of indigenous protesters trying to prevent copper mining on their ancestral lands. Members of the Guaymi indigenous group occupied a bridge on a major highway on the outskirts of Panama City. Clashes erupted when police tried to move the protesters ...
  • Student strike at University of Puerto Rico ro ...
    Daily News – A student strike at the University of Puerto Rico has forced the resignation of its president and sparked the second political crisis in a year for the island’s rulers. José Ramón de la Torre, head of the 60,000-student system, resigned Friday after a series of violent clashes bet ...
  • Silver Climbs Near 31-Year High
    Wall St Journal – Silver prices neared 31-year highs on a brightening outlook for the global economy and as inflation concerns have revived. Silver for February delivery rose 72.6 cents, or 2.3%, to settle at $32.2980 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was ...
  • Libya Internet Shut Down Amid Protests, Per Mu ...
    Huffington Post – Reports have emerged late Friday that Libya appears to have shut down its Internet due to widespread protests, less than a month after Egypt did the same. The Los Angeles Times was among the first news outlets to report Libya’s Internet outage, citing “multiple reports.” TechCr ...
  • Study Links Hypoxia and Inflammation in Many D ...
    ScienceDaily — When the body is deprived of oxygen during a major surgery, the kidneys, heart muscles or lungs can be injured as a result. The problem is that lack of oxygen can lead to inflammation. Yet some athletes deliberately train at high altitude, with less oxygen, so they can perform bet ...

The Progressive Realist

  • The Case of Libya
    Issandr thinks that Libya’s protests are currently the most important: “Libya shares something important with Egypt and Tunisia: an aging leader (41 years in power) faces a looming succession crisis in which the leading candidates are his own sons. I simply don’t think that’s an acceptable outco ...
  • Apocalyptic Thinking in International Relation ...
    I do not see the discussions about zombies as a type of new or out-of-the-box thinking. If anything, the discussions of zombies that I have noted so far are completely "in-the-box" thinking, except with a touch of geeky humor, parody, and wit that is usually lacking in the discipline. In fact, t ...
  • Afghanistan Surge One Year Later—The Data Does ...
    Derrick Crowe, the Executive Director of Brave New World, wrote this week about the one-year anniversary of the Afghanistan surge that began with the offensive in Marjah. A quick survey of trends coming out of Afghanistan suggests that the new strategy is not looking so good. With virtually ever ...
  • A Tough Day for American Diplomacy in the Midd ...
    In Bahrain yesterday, the security forces of a geo-strategic ally of the United States opened fire on its own people.  There are several dead and scores injured. It is not enough to simply condemn the violence, as President Obama will surely do. Rather, the Bahrani government needs to know that ...
  • Jaw Jaw Is Better Than Wish Wish
    Ahmad Shuja has recently undertaken to hold an "e-jirga,," whereby Shuja asks various Afghan professionals and students for their opinions on the wisdom of negotiating/reconciling with the Taliban. The early responses are worth reading, and one hopes that more such discussion will be forthcomin ...

TAPPED - The American Prospect

  • The Importance of Wisconsin.
    Roger Bybee says that as state workers continue to protest the governor's anti-union proposals in Wisconsin, the stakes get higher and higher. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is just the first Republican governor to try out a new anti-public union game plan that has been brewing among right-wing ...
  • More on Wisconsin.
    As I'm sure you know by now, Governor Scott Walker's rationale for stripping collective bargaining rights from public employees is Wisconsin's budget deficit. With a $137 million shortfall, Walker wants to end collective bargaining as a means to cutting other benefits, and reducing the shortfall ...
  • The Little Picture: Protests in Wisconsin.
    Protests filled the Capitol rotunda in Wisconsin today for the fourth day in a row. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker introduced legislation that would prohibit public sector unions from organizing. (Drew Wisniewski)/via Pema Levy
  • Cool Government Maps!
    Want to know if broadband is available where you live? Or in your state, or in the country? Fear not -- here is the National Broadband Map, courtesy of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the FCC. There are all kinds of ways to play around with the information; thi ...
  • Darrell Issa's First Subpoena.
    The first subpoena issued by Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the Committee for Oversight and Government Reform, was sent Wednesday. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the top oversight watchdog’s first subpoena called for Bank of America to hand over all documents pertaining to Countrywide’s VIP l ...

Buzzflash

  • Obama Should Be Ashamed of His Budget
    LAURA FLANDERS FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT "This freeze would cut the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade, bringing this kind of spending -- domestic discretionary spending -- to its lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was President. Let me repeat that...." That ...
  • Shirley Sherrod vs. Andrew Breitbart: The Sequ ...
    BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT A deceptively edited video portraying her as a black racist - which appeared on a website run by conservative Andrew Breitbart - got Sherrod fired from the USDA. Now, she is suing Breitbart and two others for "publishing false and defamatory statements." ...
  • Discovering Fire
    ROBERT KOEHLER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT "Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Egyptians lock arm ...
  • Can Conservatives be Trusted to Run the Countr ...
    ANN DAVIDOW FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT  There's a strange contradiction inherent in conservative lectures about freedom, individual responsibility and smaller government and the right's determination to undo established law when it comes to personal life-altering decisions. Couched in the end ...
  • The Chamber of Commerce's Cesspool of Characte ...
    MARK KARLIN, BUZZFLASH EDITOR FOR TRUTHOUT When America's top business organization does its commerce out of a cesspool of dirty tricks and character assassination, it's another sign of the nation's moral corruption at the top of the "trickle down" ladder. But that is what the Chamber of Com ...

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

The BiPartisan Report

Sciencebase

  • Five picks from the science news
    Fix your H, increase citations and get more grant money – Citations have become the currency of science, which is used to reward scientists and scientific institutions. Small variations in citation scores can make millions of pounds difference in the financial outcomes of national Research Asses ...
  • Can we count on journal metrics?
    How do you rank science, how do you rate scientists, what kudos do you give their papers and what metrics do you attach to the impact of a paper? They’re questions as old as the scientific literature itself. But, no one has resolved them. Independent organisations and publishers have attempted w ...
  • The perils of ranking
    Today, I discovered I was listed on a Top 100 of UK Twitter users by The Independent newspaper based on the algorithm from PeerIndex. I was #47, since you ask, same as Armando Iannucci. It’s not that long since I made it on to a similar PeerIndex list published elsewhere. It’s all very flatterin ...
  • Heptastic science news
    The full list: The Twitter 100 – Its 200 million users share 110 million messages a day – and if you don't know who rules the twittersphere, you don't understand the 21st-century world. This guide is a definitive who's who of the UK's tweet elite. Although for some reason they included me on the ...
  • Count envy, satisfaction and achievement
    A friend of mine, András Paszternák, runs a thriving online nanotech community called Nanopaprika (he’s in Hungary, hence the name). He started the community (for which I am a Scientific & Advisory Board member) when he was doing his PhD and it has grown rapidly into one of the most targeted n ...

Common Dreams-Progressive Newswire

  • Egypt: Frank Wisner and the Nexus of US Intere ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)Envoy to Egypt Frank Wisner stated this weekend that “President Mubarak’s continued leadership is critical.”read more
  • Free Press Blasts FCC for Asking Questions Alr ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011Free PressFederal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski released his proposal to revamp the Universal Service Fund and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update its broadband data collection efforts at the agency’s open meeting Tuesday. r ...
  • Amnesty International Says Libyan Writer is Ja ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011Amnesty International - USAA Libyan writer and political commentator arrested last week and accused of hitting a man with his car appears to have been targeted, arrested and jailed instead because he called for peaceful protests in the country, Amnesty Inter ...
  • CREW Releases Searchable Version of Issa Docum ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011CREWToday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) praised Congressman Darrell Issa's (R-CA) release of almost 2,000 pages of information related to his letters to corporations, trade groups and research organizations regarding governm ...
  • ACLU Witnesses Brutal Beating Of Los Angeles C ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2011ACLUThe American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU/SC) today condemned a recent brutal beating by two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies of a detainee at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, part of the county jail syst ...

Common Dreams-Views

  • Obama's Scary Budget: Why the Neediest People ...
    by Earl Ofari HutchinsonPresident Obama will unveil his budget for 2012 on February 14. The administration has so far been guarded about detailing how deeply the budget ax will slice. What is certain, however, is that the cuts will be painful, and that the neediest Americans will feel the worst ...
  • Media Miss the Al Jazeera Story
    by Laura FlandersOne of the biggest stories of the past few weeks has been the story of Americans discovering Al Jazeera English.  It shouldn't have been so hard. As the protest movement in Egypt grew, Americans found that Al Jazeera had what no US network has any more: fully staffed reporting ...
  • Nuclear Radiation Is Forever
    by Helen Caldicott and Dale DewarLike most Ontario towns, Port Hope, on the shores of Lake Ontario, has a water treatment plant supplying its drinking water. Incredibly, adjacent to this plant is a huge factory now owned by Cameco. The factory hovers over this picturesque town, emitting uran ...
  • Time for Democracy in Egypt
    by Ralph Nader Those politically savvy people who thought strongman, Hosni Mubarak would be out before the end of the first week of the Egyptian uprising better rethink the odds. For thirty years Mubarak has developed what can be called a deeply rooted dictatorial regime with regular White House ...
  • Reagan’s Third-World Reign of Terror
    by Dennis HansAs the nation pays tribute to Ronald "Dutch" Reagan on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, media coverage is every bit as laudatory as when he turned 90.  I wrote in 2001 about PBS's fawning tributes on the Charlie Rose show and the Jim Lehrer NewsHour.  Then, a ...

Newshoggers - AfPak

  • Polizeros Radio Tonight 10.30pm Central
    By Steve Hynd As usual every Thursday at 10.30 pm Central Time, I'll be podcasting with Josh Mull of Rethink Afghanistan & the Seminal and Bob Morris of Polizeros. The main topic tonight, as it has been for the last few weeks, will be events in the Middle East, as dominos fall. We'll also be tal ...
  • What 'Strategic Relationship' With Pakistan?
    By Steve Hynd Michael Cohen has a good post today looking at what the Raymond Davis affair tells us about America's relationship with supposed key ally Pakistan in the "War on Terror", and gives us a precis of the true state of play. shall we catalog for a moment all the ways in which Pakistan i ...
  • Afghanistan, After The Happy Talk
    By Steve Hynd I've noted often before that the "happy-talk" coming out of the US military about Afghanistan is more about message massaging the US public than about actual success. Today, three different stories underline just how true that is. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the Internat ...
  • On Anniversary of Marjah Push, Escalation Stra ...
    By Derrick Crowe Exactly one year ago, on February 13, 2010, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan launched the first major military operations enabled by President Obama's 30,000 troop increase. President Obama and the high priests of counterinsurgency warfa ...
  • One Year On, Where's That "Government In A Box ...
    By Steve Hynd When General McChrystal sent NATO troops into the area around Marjah, a tiny and scattered township worth of buildings in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a year ago today, we were told that the assault, entitled Operation Moshtarrak, would quickly clear and hold - with overwhelming ...

Water Wars

  • New Reservoirs Proposed to Help Ease Water War ...
    Local governments or Governor Nathan Deal's administration could contract with private partners to build reservoirs in Georgia under legislation proposed by state lawmakers.
  • Summit Series Films Continue
    KENT—Two more films remain in the 2011 Kent Environmental Summit film series. Feb. 15 brings “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” which describes the privatization of water in an era when water is becoming more and more scarce.
  • Senator says water wars Georgia's #1 issue
    Senator Saxby Chambliss says Governor Nathan Deal's federal perspective will help in Georgia's water issue.
  • Summit Series Films Continue
    KENT—Two more films remain in the 2011 Kent Environmental Summit film series. Feb. 15 brings “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” which describes the privatization of water in an era when water is becoming more and more scarce.
  • Summit Series Films Continue
    KENT—Two more films remain in the 2011 Kent Environmental Summit film series. Feb. 15 brings “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” which describes the privatization of water in an era when water is becoming more and more scarce.

WordPress | Economics

Electronic Intifada

Afghanistan Sun

Futurismic

  • Personal Information: episode 24
    Personal Information is a new serial sci-fi webcomic from Sarah “Does Not Equal” Ennals. Follow Futurismic on Twitter for more nuggets of near-future fun and weirdness! Share and Enjoy:Follow Futurismic on Twitter for more nuggets of near-future fun and weirdness!
  • Arguments against life extension
    Via Michael Anissimov, here’s a spectacularly empty diatribe against “deathhackers” by TechCrunch‘s Paul Carr. Carr objects to the idea of radical life extension as advocated by transhumanists, which is fair enough, but as written here most of his objections seem to boil down to personal distate ...
  • Daddy, where does innovation come from?
    Plenty of folk have been linking to this excerpt from Matt Ridley’s new book The Rational Optimist, and with good reason – it’s a provocative piece that plays to advocates (and opponents) of free trade, open exchange, copyright reform and much more. The basic thesis? The one persistent factor th ...
  • Replacement arms: mechanical or biological?
    Prosthetic limbs are still in their infancy, but there’s a lot of progress being made: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is working with Darpa (who else?), and has a research grant for trying out their mind-controlled modular prosthetic arm on five test subjects over the next couple of ye ...
  • How to be a futurist
    The irrepressible Scott “Basic Instructions” Meyer has the lowdown if you’re thinking of a career in futurism: Click through for the whole thing. But take it from me, being a futurist is a lot of work for no money. Or maybe that’s just the way I do it… and I’ve never been featured in a [...]Foll ...

geopolitics | geoeconomics

on Government Oversight

  • Morning Smoke: New Oil Spill Report Lays Blame ...
    Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor. BP knew...
  • Pentagon Fighting Anti-Insourcing Proposal
    By Scott Amey Yesterday, POGO blogged about Congressman Pete Sessions' (R-TX) proposed amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 1), which would prevent the government from bringing certain outsourced jobs in-house regardless of whether or not the insourcing would result...
  • The $20 Cup of Coffee
    Yesterday, POGO Facebook pal Scott Kuechenmeister related an experience from his work as a contractor in Afghanistan that would make most taxpayers cringe: Scott posted the comment on POGO's Facebook wall. Feel free to join the discussion and "like" our...
  • Morning Smoke: ArmorGroup Still Guarding Kabul ...
    Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor. Vodka Butt-Shot...
  • POGO Joins Groups Urging Congress to Ensure Ad ...
    In a letter sent to Congress yesterday, POGO joined a coalition of national, state and local groups raising serious concerns about the funding cuts to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed last...

Digital Journal

  • Leading world economies: top to botom
    Camparative quality-of-life and economic data suggest Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands lead thirty-three nations among the world's advanced economies. But there is more to the story.
  • Alleged robber captured via cell phone technol ...
    A Vancouver man has been arrested through the help of a cell phone's GPS. According to the Vancouver police department, the man allegedly pulled a gun on another man and took off with the latter's laptop.
  • The truth behind those computer or website gli ...
    This morning the bank told me, “We can’t give you a receipt for your deposit right now because our computer has a problem. “ On my computer later I had a message, “System down. Check back later," then realized what's behind those website errors.
  • Why Harlequin wants to patent kissing
    The romance book publisher Harlequin wants to patent kissing, if only to publicize the lost of art of lip-locking, says the company's "chief kissing officer" in an interview.
  • Details of William and Kate's visit to Canada ...
    Prince William and Kate Middleton will spend nine days in Canada this summer, visiting Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and the Northwest Territories as part of their first overseas trip as a married couple.

End Homelessness | Change.org

  • Mississippi Launches Plan To End Child Homeles ...
    Fulfilling the wishes and happiness of children is at the heart of the holiday season. So, now seems particularly timely for Mississippi to launch a new plan to end child homelessness (pdf) in the state.  What better way to set the season of giving in motion than by committing to finding safe a ...
  • Thanksgiving 2.0: Food, Poverty and Telling th ...
    This Thanksgiving, most of us around the country shared a bountiful harvest feast with friends and family. We celebrated all that we are thankful for by gorging ourselves right into a food coma. It's the American way. Unfortunately, it's also the American way to be thankful for all that we have ...
  • Homeless People Wanted: Must Be Open to Demean ...
    What are they thinking? People obviously don't see the homeless as human or they wouldn't attempt to hire them to do most of the insane, demeaning and illegal jobs out there. Here's a small sampling: Rob dead bodies. The Aokigahara forest at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan is the site of 50 to 10 ...
  • LA Plans to Make Homelessness Go the Way of th ...
    Instead of pretending homelessness doesn't exist, creating new laws to make it illegal to sit or sleep in public, or sending homeless residents on a one-way trip out of town, Los Angeles County may attempt to actually do something about ending homelessness. And the county is setting the bar high ...
  • Don't Let Violence Against the Homeless Go Unp ...
    Despite its economic troubles, Detroit is not known for being kind to the homeless. That's too bad, since there are nearly 10,000 homeless people living there. In October, police say that Steven James Diponio, 54, became so enraged at Charles Duncan, 42, who was homeless and sleeping behind a sc ...

Ceasefire.ca

  • Former nuclear weapons officer rejects nuclear ...
    Retired Royal Navy Commander Robert Green is coming to Ottawa to speak out against nuclear deterrence. Commander Green served as a naval officer on nuclear-armed aircraft during the Cold War. In his book Security Without Nuclear Deterrence, Commander Green talks about his experiences and what le ...
  • Taylor points to U.S. role in F-35 debate
    Esprit de Corps editor and publisher Scott Taylor comments on the silent role of the U.S. government in the F-35 debate (Scott Taylor, “The silent US hand guiding Canadaâs F-35 debate,” Embassy, 9 February 2011, full text here): Although no actual contract has been signed, the Harper Tories rema ...
  • NORAD role to expand?
    Last week's perimeter security talks between Prime Minister Harper and President Obama included an interesting proposal of expanding NORAD to cover land and sea operations. The proposed new deal would integrate Canada-U.S. command structures, headquarters, and operations with regards to continen ...
  • Go figure: What would it cost to save the worl ...
    $1.6 billion in military spending worldwide in 2010. What else could we have done with that money? Demilitarize.org shows some of the alternatives.
  • Respected Canadian negotiator removed from dis ...
    Respected Canadian disarmament negotiator Earl Turcotte has been removed from his post following American complaints that his stance on the international Convention on Cluster Munitions was too aggressive. Turcotte has since informed his colleagues that he will be resigning from the Department o ...

Kevin Trudeau Show

  • Harmful Medical Devices Get OK Too Easily
    February 15th, 2011 Chicago Tribune By: Lindsey Tanner Most medical devices recalled in recent years because of deaths or life-threatening problems were cleared for approval under less stringent regulations that don’t require human testing, an analysis found. The report comes as the Food and Dru ...
  • The Simple Blood Test That Spots Cancer Six Ye ...
    February 15th, 2011 DailyMail.co.uk By: Fiona MacRae A simple blood test to spot cancer up to six years before a tumour forms could be available in Britain next year. The brainchild of a Nottingham University cancer specialist, it could provide vital early warning of lung and breast cancers – di ...
  • Misleading Study To Scare You About Calcium Su ...
    February 15th, 2011 ABC News By: Todd Neale Calcium supplementation — without giving vitamin D at the same time — appears to increase the risk of myocardial infarction, a new review of past research has shown. Among studies of patients with or at risk of osteoporosis, those who received calcium ...
  • Leading Experts Rethinking Food Allergy Causes
    February 15th, 2011 ParentDish.com By: Mary Beth Sammons The perplexing world of childhood food allergies is enough to make any parent break out in hives. But conventional wisdom is now being questioned when it comes to bottle-feeding whole milk to babies or keeping toddlers away from the peanut ...
  • Could a Pipeline Explode in Your Community?
    February 15th, 2011 AOL News By: Laura Parker The apparent gas line explosion in Allentown, Pa., that killed five people is certain to refocus attention to the 2 million miles of natural gas pipelines that lie under neighborhoods and subdivisions from coast to coast. The Allentown explosion came ...

Pambazuka News

  • Haiti: Government says Aristide can come home
    Haiti's government has said it was ready to issue a new passport to former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which would allow him to return after almost seven years in exile in South Africa. 'The government will give assurances that as soon as it re...
  • Cuba: Cuban organisation fights for release of ...
    Enrique Roman, first vice-president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), has underlined that the movement in solidarity with Cuba prioritises in 2011 the struggle for the release of the five Cuban antiterrorist heroes incarc...
  • Haiti: Returned ex-dictator Duvalier charged
    Haiti on Tuesday briefly detained former dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier, back from exile in France, and charged him with corruption, theft and abuses of power allegedly committed during his 15-year rule. While a noisy crowd of his supporter...
  • Break the Silence Congo week
    The purpose of the Break the Silence Congo Week is to raise consciousness about the devastating situation in the Congo and mobilize support on behalf of the people of the Congo. Break the Silence Congo Week will take place from Sunday 17 October to S...
  • Haiti: Women demand role in reconstruction
    Women's civil society groups were noticeable by their absence from the landmark Haiti donor conference on 31 March, which secured pledges of US$5.3 billion over the next two years to support the country’s post-quake recovery. Their lack of a presenc...

War in Context

  • Who gave the order to kill at Pearl Roundabout ...
    When Bahrain’s army opened fire on unarmed protesters yesterday there was little reason to suppose that this was anything other than a cold and calculated show of force. The lesson from Cairo for many Arab leaders was that a regime that is timid about killing its own people will quickly fall. Po ...
  • Obama’s support for Bahrain’s hereditary dicta ...
    The New York Times reports: At a town-hall-style meeting in Bahrain two months ago, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton got a pointed question from a member of Bahrain’s Parliament: was the United States letting Bahrain, a Persian Gulf ally, off the hook for a string of arrests of lawyers ...
  • Protesters in Bahrain retake Pearl Roundabout
    CNN reports: Thousands of joyous Bahrainis retook a major square in the heart of the island nation’s capital Saturday — a dramatic turn of events two days after security forces ousted demonstrators from the spot in a deadly attack. The sight of citizens streaming into Pearl Roundabout came as ...
  • The moral bankruptcy of Barack Obama
    Who would have thought that two years after George W Bush’s departure from the White House we could look back and say: there was a man with greater integrity and moral stature than the current occupant. Believe me, that is not a compliment to Bush. It is an expression of utter contempt for Bara ...
  • Libyan protesters plead to Obama and the world ...
    Libyan protesters plead to Obama and the world not to be ignored Libyans are painfully aware of the fact that their country does not attract nearly the same level of interest as Egypt or Iran, except perhaps when it comes to the eccentricities of their notoriously flamboyant dictator. This, des ...

Watts Up With That?

  • NOAA’s compendium of climate catastrophe
    From the NOAA “Oceans and Human Health Initiative” website and press release, comes this warning that the algae, Moroccan dust, desertification, bacteria, bad seafood, heavy rainfall, old sewers, climate change is gonna get ya. Climate projections show human health impacts … Continue reading →
  • Fred Singer on the BEST project
    Note: I spent the day with the BEST team yesterday at Lawrence Livermore Berkeley Laboratories and I’ll have a report on it soon, but here in the meantime is what Fred Singer has to say about it, via Climate Realists. … Continue reading →
  • Solar news: Forbush decrease in progress
    The definition at Wikipedia: A Forbush decrease is a rapid decrease in the observed galactic cosmic ray intensity following a coronal mass ejection (CME). It occurs due to the magnetic field of the plasma solar wind sweeping some of the … Continue reading →
  • Apologies
    …for the light postings the last couple of days. I’ve been traveling and in meetings with climate scientists about some upcoming important work. I’ll have more on that later. Some very interesting news to report. In the meantime, if you … Continue reading →
  • House votes to defund IPCC
    From Climate Science Watch , their take on the issue, though a bit political, shows how it is viewed: Just before 2 a.m. on February 19, the war on climate science showed its grip on the U.S. House of Representatives as … Continue reading →

Dandelion Salad

  • Africa: Global NATO Seeks To Recruit 50 New Mi ...
    by Rick Rozoff Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Stop NATO Stop NATO-Opposition to global militarism February 19, 2011 A recent article in Kenya’s Africa Review cited sources in the African Union (AU) disclosing that the 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization is preparing to sign a military ...
  • Egypt… Awakening, 2011 By Gary Corseri
    By Gary Corseri Featured Writer Dandelion Salad February 19, 2011 âThe darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?â –William Butler ...
  • Time to Topple Corporate Dictators by Ralph Na ...
    http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ by Ralph Nader The Nader Page Feb. 18, 2011 The 18 day non-violent Egyptian protests for freedom raise the question: is America next? Were Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine around, they would likely say “what are we waiting for?” They would be appalled by the ...
  • Madison Protests May Spark a New Era of Protes ...
    by Billy Wharton Guest Writer Dandelion Salad Examiner.com February 17, 2011 February 18, 2011 Protests are erupting across Wisconsin in response to Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to strip public employees of the right to collectively bargain in order to impose a severe austerity package.  The ...
  • Noam Chomsky: Democracy Uprising in the USA an ...
    http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ Democracy Now! Feb. 17, 2011 “Democracy Uprising” in the U.S.A.?: Noam Chomsky on Wisconsin’s Resistance to Assault on Public Sector, the Obama-Sanctioned Crackdown on Activists, and the Distorted Legacy of Ronald Reagan World-renowned public intellectual Noa ...

Your New Reality

  • No title
    Volcanic shockwave, with car-sized chunks of debris :
  • No title
    Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on the ammunition of information fueling the Global Revolution : I think you can't discount how incredible the impact is of people having access to knowledge, so they are aware of different ways of living, and they are aware of different possibilities for the futu ...
  • No title
    The Legalities Of Dealing With Post-Apocalypse Aftermath The New York Times chews through a legal manual published by the New York courts systems on just what judges, lawyers and police can get away, necessarily so and otherwise, in the event of an apocalyptic nuclear attack, pandemic or biolog ...
  • No title
    Bahrain : Key US Base Island In Gulf Explodes In Protests & Chaos A shocking point-of-view video of attacks on pro-democracy, pro-reform demonstrators in Bahrain. At least five died in these attacks, with more than 500 wounded : Bahrain is not Egypt. For one thing, its ports are home to the ...
  • No title
    Wikileaks Is Changing How History Of These Days Will Be Written The notoriously easily distracted mainstream media seems far more interested in Julian Assange's broken condom than the near daily jaw-dropping revelations streaming from the American embassies cables streaming from Wikileaks. Whe ...

Wired - Science

  • Mutant Fish Safely Store Toxins in Fat
    Some fish in New York’s Hudson River have become resistant to several of the waterway’s more toxic pollutants. Instead of getting sick from dioxins and related compounds including some polychlorinated biphenyls, Atlantic tomcod harmlessly store these poisons in fat, a new study finds. But wha ...
  • Moon Race Brings 29 Teams to the Starting Line
    When a couple dozen companies sign contracts containing the words “moon” and “landing,” it’s a good indication that private lunar exploration is heating up. The X Prize Foundation on Thursday announced that 29 teams had signed contracts making them the official Google Lunar X Prize competitors, ...
  • Helpful Mutations Didn’t Sweep Through Early H ...
    Humans probably didn’t get swept up in evolution. Scientists have favored a model of evolution in which beneficial gene mutations quickly and dramatically sweep through a population due to the evolutionary advantages they confer. Such mutations would become nearly universal in a population. But ...
  • The Mystery of the Missing Moon Trees
    15 years after NASA astronomer David Williams started searching for them, hundreds of trees grown from space-faring seeds are still missing. The “moon trees,” whose seeds circled the moon 34 times in Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa’s pocket, were welcomed back to Earth with great fanfare in 19 ...
  • Ample Dark Matter Ignites Starburst Galaxies
    By Liat Clark, Wired UK Galaxies need 10 times less dark matter to sustain star formation than previously thought, but just the right amount can set off rapid star formation, a recent study suggests. The discovery was made after European Space Agency photos showed evidence of dark matter 300 bi ...

Israeli Occupation Archive

  • UN set to vote on settlement resolution; US se ...
    US is the only Security Council member that opposes the resolution; though its wording does not conflict with Washington’s stance on settlements it fears that if the resolution passes it will be an... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian la ...
  • “The Genie Is Out of the Bottle”: assessing a ...
    Massive public protests continue to sweep the Middle East and North Africa in countries including Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Iran—many being met with violent government crackdowns. Democracy Now!... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lan ...
  • Nada Matta: The Egyptian Uprising and Workers’ ...
    The scenes coming from Egypt in the last 18 days are testimony to peoples’ ability to overcome fear through collective action and organization. Against state intimidation and killings, popular... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, ...
  • Gideon Levy: How school trips to Hebron resemb ...
    Just as upon return from the state-sponsored trips to Auschwitz, Jewish students will come back from Hebron feeling more nationalist than ever before. The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, now in its fifth decade. Go to the IOA websit ...
  • Shin Bet retracts claim that left-wing East Je ...
    Israeli Civil rights attorney Lea Tsemel: "The [activists] were focused and continue to be focused on legal, democratic and non-violent protest against settlement trends in East Jerusalem . . . the... The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation of Palestinian la ...

Ria Novosti - Military

NewsWise

  • A New High-Resolution Method for Imaging Below ...
    University of Rochester optics professor Jannick Rolland has developed an optical technology that provides unprecedented images under the skin's surface. The aim of the technology is to detect and examine skin lesions to determine whether they are benign or cancerous without having to cut the su ...
  • Large Study of Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repai ...
    Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is highly effective and provides durable results five years after surgery, according to a large, prospective study by Hospital for Special Surgery investigators.
  • UIC Scholar Wins Polish Literary Award
    Michal Pawel Markowski, the Stefan and Lucy Hejna Family Chair in Polish Language and Literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been awarded the 2011 Kazimierz Wyka Award for literary criticism and essay writing.
  • Human Medication Can Be Dangerous For Pets
    Accidental pet poisoning is a common problem when owners intentionally give medication in an attempt to make their pet feel better. Do not reach for the human medicines until you talk to the animal's veterinarian.
  • Importance of Federal Investment in Wheat Rese ...
    Unlike most other crops, wheat is disproportionally dependent on public research. Wheat has a genome larger than that of humans. More than three-quarters of wheat varieties used today came from public research.

Natural Health News

  • Hamster Eating Popcorn on a Piano -- With His ...
    This hamster is impossibly cute.
  • Dog Pushes Stroller
    Just a pug pushing his plush pals.
  • Just How Bad is Aspartame?
    Americans drink more soda than anyone else on the planet -- well over 700 eight-ounce servings each year, on average, and an increasing amount of it is diet soda. They might be more reluctant to do so if they knew about the safety questions still surrounding aspartame.� A number of scientists r ...
  • Why Aren't GMO Foods Labeled?
    You can avoid sugar, aspartame, trans-fats, or MSG if you�re a savvy reader of labels. But if you want so avoids genetically modified organisms (GMO�s), it�s not so easy. They�re not listed on labels. You could buy organic foods, which by law can�t contain more than 5 percent GMO�s -- but now th ...
  • Do the Chemicals That Turn Soda Brown Also Cau ...
    Soda is bad for your health.� But it may be even worse than you�d thought.� According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the "caramel coloring" used in Coke, Pepsi and other sodas are carcinogenic. The artificial brown coloring is made by reacting corn sugar with ammonia a ...

Antemedius

  • Next Stop: The House of Saud
    Originally published at Asia Times Here's a crash course on how one of "our" - monarchic - dictators treats his own people during the great 2011 Arab revolt. The king of Bahrain, Hamad al-Khalifa, has blood on his hands after his mercenary security forces - Pakistani, Indian, Syrian and Jordan ...
  • 'So This is America': Veteran Ray McGovern Blo ...
    From the Partnership for Civil Justice: As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave her speech at George Washington University [Tuesday Feb. 15] condemning governments that arrest protesters and do not allow free expression, 71-year-old Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of ...
  • Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, Weapons of Mass Dis ...
    Originally published at TomDispatch.com Here�s the truth of it: You don�t need an $80-billion-plus budget and a morass of 17 intelligence agencies to look at the world and draw a few intelligent conclusions.� Nor do you need $80 billion-plus and that same set of agencies to be caught off-guar ...
  • Obama's Austerity Budget Means More Unemployme ...
    In Washington on Monday, President Obama proposed his new budget cuts, with no consideration of the enormous Pentagon budget that equals or exceeds the total amount of all 50 US states spending on health education and welfare of their populations. Here's a little bit of what he had to say. As a ...
  • My Tortured Journey With Former Guantanamo Det ...
    Originally published at Truthout.org I've been struggling these past few weeks. I read a book written by a former Guantanamo detainee named David Hicks titled "Guantanamo: My Journey." It's a powerful and heartbreaking memoir and it made a profound impact on me emotionally. I interviewed Hick ...

Climategate

  • Dean of science…suggesting rising seas t…
    Dean of science…suggesting rising seas this next century of up to 100 metres, or Al Gore six metres. When I see things like that I know these are false. You mentioned the IPCC report; that suggests, at worst on best scenarios, 59 centimetres. http://www.google.com
  • ABC science presenter Robyn Williams seeks mor ...
    ABC science presenter Robyn Williams who in 2007 believed seas could rise 100 meters, seeks more truth from scientists after Climategate.
  • How to avoid your own Climategate scandal
    What are the lessons of Climategate? More honesty and transparency in science? Not according to attorney Alan Nelson in the Guardian UK today.  To him, the lesson is how not to get caught next time. So how do universities and academics ensure that their correspondence does not become the “smoki ...
  • What is the “likelihood” that the 2007 IPCC Re ...
    A very interesting analysis of the IPPC Assessment and has some important questions that invite others to help him answer. Please read his article and let him know what conclusions you draw.
  • Schools call for a “balanced teaching of globa ...
    USA Today reports that US schools are finally calling for both sides of global warming to be taught, because it is after all, a theory -- not a fact:

Opinio Juris

  • Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Pablo Fajardo Discusses Che ...
    by Roger Alford by Roger Alford As I discussed yesterday, an Ecuador Court has issued an $8.6 billion judgment against Chevron. I just got off a press conference call with plaintiff’s chief lawyer in Ecuador, Pablo Fajardo. He stated that the plaintiffs will seek enforcement of the Lago Agr ...
  • Welcome to the Blogosphere, War and Law!
    by Kevin Jon Heller by Kevin Jon Heller Max du Plessis and Christopher Gevers, ICC experts who teach at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, have launched a new blog, War and Law.  The blog focuses on international criminal justice from an African perspective, making it a must-rea ...
  • Welcome to the Blogosphere, War and Law!
    by Kevin Jon Heller by Kevin Jon Heller Max du Plessis and Christopher Gevers, ICC experts who teach at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, have launched a new blog, War and Law.  The blog focuses on international criminal justice from an African perspective, making it a must-rea ...
  • Cybersecurity Conference at Fordham Law
    by Duncan Hollis I'm off to Tokyo for a week, but before I go, I wanted to flag a really interesting looking upcoming conference at Fordham Law School.  It's entitled, Cyber Attacks: International Cybersecurity in the 21st Century and will take place next Friday, February 25, 2011.  The progra ...
  • Dehn and Heller on the Targeted Killing of Anw ...
    by Kevin Jon Heller by Kevin Jon Heller Pennumbra, the on-line companion to the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, is hosting the debate.  John’s opening statement and my reply — which is something of a misnomer, because the reply doesn’t directly address John’s arguments — are currently ...

Investigate - Breaking News

  • Free Movie tickets: CONVICTION
    The kind folk at 20th Century Fox have made available some double passes for our TBR, Twitter and Facebook readers to see the new movie CONVICTION, based on the true story of Betty Ann Waters who studied to become a...
  • New-look Investigate magazine HIS and HERS goe ...
    As of Sunday...with more exclusive revelations about the Pike River disaster and police bungles in the rescue operation...and HERS features new poll results showing support for National is wide but shallow, and that a large number of voters want Winston...
  • Investigate Political Poll 2011 - No1
    Investigate magazine's first big omnibus and political poll in more than five years is underway. If you want to fill in the survey form (takes less than two minutes on average) online, you'll find it here.
  • BREAKING NEWS: Arizona shooter of Gabrielle Gi ...
    The young gunman who shot and killed six people, and left Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition, appears to have borne a grudge against Giffords after meeting her in 2007 at the age of 19. According to reports, former...
  • New study says CO2 rise a result of warmer tem ...
    A new peer reviewed study supports another contention I raised in Air Con: that CO2 increase follows temperature increase, and that there appears to be no correlation between fossil fuel emissions and temperature. The paper is available in full in...

My Care2 Picks

  • How Monsanto And Evangelical Christian Organiz ...
    U.S. taxpayer dollars are, against Presidential directive, being funneled from the United States Agency for International Development to Billy Graham's charities for use in Christian proselytizing�all while building Sarah Palin's 2012 campaign army.Submitted by John Farnham to US Politics & Gov' ...
  • CIA & AL QAEDA'S PLANS FOR EGYPT
    In the weeks ahead, if instability continues, al-Qaeda will doubtless start an assassination campaign against Brotherhood leaders...Submitted by John Farnham to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • How to save the world
    Totnes is one of the leaders of the Transition Towns movement here in the UK, an idea that seems to be spreading like wildfire around the world.current.com/11t914c Submitted by John Farnham to Environment �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • BBC Admits Al-Qaeda Never Existed
    It is simply a database of names of jihadists who were trained to fight against the Russians during the Afghan-Soviet conflict. The real purpose is to build up a fake enemy so as to get the American public to support the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq etcSubmitted by John Farnham to US Politics ...
  • The Fiction Of Climate Science
    Many of you are too young to remember, but in 1975 our government pushed "the coming ice age." In a room of the Smithsonian, one entire wall charted the cooling of our globe over the last 60 million years. Submitted by John Farnham to Environment �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment

Angry Indian News

  • Paul Craig Roberts: A Tool for Class War
    Paul Craig Roberts: A Tool for Class War: "By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTSObama’s new budget is a continuation of Wall Street’s class war against the poor and middle class. Wall Street wasn’t through with us... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]
  • What Your Representatives Did While You Were A ...
    What Your Representatives Did While You Were Asleep | Crooks and Liars: "Here are some of the things your House of Representatives did early this morning: * Voted to strip funding from just about... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]
  • Scotland's wild salmon face 'calamity' from tr ...
    Scotland's wild salmon face 'calamity' from trade deal with China | Politics | The Observer: "China's appetite for Scottish farmed salmon is threatening dwindling stocks of sea trout and wild salmon,... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]
  • Suez Canal Authority: No military approval yet ...
    Suez Canal Authority: No military approval yet for Iran warships - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News: "CAIRO - Egypt's Suez Canal Authority has not yet received military approval to allow two... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]
  • Crimean Tatars Gain Support In Building Mosque
    Crimean Tatars Gain Support In Building Mosque - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty � 2011: "SIMFEROPOL -- The Crimean Tatar Medjlis has expressed support for the Simferopol city council's decision to... [[Continue reading Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo...]]

Farm Wars

  • Radio Liberty’s Dr. Stanley Monteith and Barb ...
    Catch me on Radio Liberty at 9:00pm Pacific Time tonight, February 17, with Dr. Stanley Monteith. We will be discussing GMOs. Radio Liberty: http://www.radioliberty.com/
  • America’s Silent Killing Fields 2011
    We have systematically been inundated with GMOs at an alarming rate, with alfalfa, sugar beets, and corn for fuel being completely deregulated. It seems that the process of total genetic control of the planet is on the fast track.
  • Truth Squad Radio: Eric Herm – Son of a Farmer
    Eric Herm joins us this Wednesday evening to discuss the ravages of commercial agriculture, including the GMO blight.
  • Farmers Against Monsanto!
    Do you want to make a real difference in the fight against GMO alfalfa? If you do, then please download this poster and share it with farmers, feed stores, and anyone who might have an impact on alfalfa farmers' seed choices. It's time to take this to the streets.
  • Playing the Global Warming Card
    The global warming myth is thriving internationally, on the federal level and in state and local governments.

True/Slant Headline Grabs

Citizens for Legitimate Government

  • Technology for Autopilot Override of Pilot Con ...
    ShareThisTechnology for Autopilot Override of Pilot Control of Boeing Aircraft Developed Circa 2001 By Aidan Monaghan 03 Feb 2011 The development of the capability of an aircraft Flight Management Computer (FMC) to take control of an aircraft away from a pilot and turn over control to its autopi ...
  • Six killed in Yemen clashes
    ShareThisSix killed in Yemen clashes 20 Feb 2011 At least six people have been killed in clashes between pro-democracy protesters and forces loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime. Four people lost their lives during protests in the southern port city of Aden on Saturday, and a st ...
  • Barack Obama backflip looms on Guantanamo Bay ...
    ShareThisBarack Obama backflip looms on Guantanamo Bay closure 19 Feb 2011 Barack Obama looks set for a policy U-turn on his decision to close the Guantanamo Bay prison after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the prospects for closing the jail for terrorist suspects were "very, very low" be ...
  • Gates defends health-care fee increase for ret ...
    ShareThisGates defends health-care fee increase for retirees 17 Feb 2011 Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Wednesday defended his plan to increase by $5 a month the fee retired working-age military personnel pay for family health-care coverage, after a member of Congress called it a "breach o ...
  • US slammed for violating Afghans rights
    ShareThisUS slammed for violating Afghans rights 18 Feb 2011 A senior Afghan official says the US-led forces have long been violating basic human rights by conducting night raids and killing civilians in the war-ravaged country. Atta Mohammad Noor, the Governor of Balkh Province, says the foreig ...

Daily Loaf

  • Your own private porn star: Carmen Valentina a ...
    Carmen Valentina and Vicky Vette sit in comfy clothes sipping hot tea and coffee. Giant studio lights and a tiny digital camera duct taped to a tripod remain fixed on the couch where these women just had sex. Valentina, a short 20-something Latina, just joined Vette’s online team of adult perfo ...
  • Eckerd College’s Environmental Film Festival k ...
    Programs at this year’s festival highlight themes such as plastic bags, forgotten things, natural gas, independent farming, insect obsessions, astronomy and urban bird watching. All films are free and open to the public, and screen in the Miller Auditorium of Eckerd College.
  • Done deal on high speed rail? Tampa advocates ...
    Though the odds look increasingly difficult that Florida officials will be able to circumvent Governor Rick Scott’s decision to kill the Tampa-to-Orlando high speed rail route, a coalition of interested groups and individuals from the Tampa Bay area plan to hold a rally Monday in front of Tampa ...
  • EarthTalk: One million electric vehicles on th ...
    Will Barack Obama's call for one million electric vehicles on American roads by 2015 be realized? Some predict there could be as many as 14 million on the road by 2020.
  • Bus stop: Valenzuela’s taco empire expands wit ...
    Growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, Rene Valenzuela was interested in the restaurant business. Although his heart belonged to Mexican street food, Rene was intrigued when McDonald’s announced it would open a location in his home town. It would be Mexico’s second McDonald’s in history, and the buz ...

Vaccine Resistance Movement

  • VRM: Dr. Wakefield’s Imminent Vindicatio ...
    Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Study demonstrated “anti-myelin antibodies and digestive tract pathologies in children with autism after being given the Urabi strain triple live virus MMR vaccine. All 12 children in the Study had intestinal abnormalities (known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease), with c ...
  • VRM: A Concise Compendium The Problem With Vac ...
    The advent of cloned DNA vaccines & Synthetic Genomics, backed by proponents of the Trans-humanist & Bioethics movements (this is a post-Darwinian view, in which the species has the power to direct its own evolution), has opened a Pandora’s Box spelling the inevitable death of natural immunity. ...
  • VRM: Medical Industry Data Proves Influenza Va ...
    The Influenza virus itself is constantly mutating from year to year. While mainstream doctors are traditionally divided, several prominent Studies have come forward in recent years challenging the Status Quo on the efficacy of the sacrosanct Flu shot & awakened an increasingly distrustf ...
  • VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part 3 – ...
    For centuries humankind has depended on an inherent natural immunity to survive; adapting to environmental changes while overcoming mutable diseases, viruses, bacterial or biological threats & inter-species cross contamination. With the 21st Century advancement of high-tech laboratory ...
  • VRM: GlaxosmithKline Implicated In Systemic Cl ...
    ‘A psychiatrist on the payroll of GlaxoSmithKline has been sentenced to 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to committing research fraud in clinical trials for antidepressant Paxil. Palazzo enrolled children who did not actually suffer from major depressive or obsessive compulsive diso ...

B.C. Preppers Network

  • You Know You're Getting Old When...
    A few weeks back we received our new high-efficiency front loading LG washer and dryer set and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed by them. The set was only around $1000 (on sale) but I felt like I'd gone from a Chevette to a Cadillac when compared to our old set.� A cute little luxury fe ...
  • Control Your Home Thermostat On the Internet!
    Today a fellow from our natural gas company came by to install a new thermostat as part of the Peaksaver program that we signed up for.�If you haven't heard of Peaksaver, basically what it does is allow the Ontario government electricity provider to turn off your central air conditioner ...
  • Happy Day!: The Water Bill Arrived!
    After being shocked a few months ago with a water bill of over $240 I decided to do a few things to cut down on our water use We converted our main toilet to a dual-flush and installed a water saving device on the second (haven't switched it over to a dual yet). We also installed a new ...
  • Strawberry Picking
    Our family went strawberry picking this morning, it's a fun thing to do once in a while and I think it's a good way to help our 3-year old daughter realize where food comes from. While my wife picked berries with our oldest I went for a walk around the farm with our youngest in the stroller ...
  • Pioneer Solar: PV System For Free?
    I received a flyer from Pioneer Solar in the mail the other day which claims to help people get a solar system installed on their house, farm, or business for free. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, like most things there's good and bad points about it and what might be a good deal f ...

Michael Yon

  • Río de lágrimas: instantáneas al filo de la gu ...
    14 de febrero de 2011 El río Salween marca la frontera entre Tailandia y Birmania. En la ficción, "Rambo" cruzó la actual selva en la película "Rambo IV", pero, desgraciadamente, no hay nada de ficticio en la guerra, las bombas que con frecuencia vuelan desde Birmania a Tailandia, o las minas ...
  • Return to Afghanistan
    Day by Day 17 February 2011 All is looking good for my return to Afghanistan within one week.� The more researched photo-dispatches will be published here.� For daily updates that will not make it to main dispatches, please sign up for my Facebook. Your support is crucial for my work in Afg ...
  • General Petraeus: Unfounded rumors
    16 February 2011 Just got this email from Geoff Morrell, Press Secretary for Secretary Robert Gates: "Despite some sensational speculation by one of the London papers, I can assure you General Petraeus is not quitting as ISAF commander, but nor does he plan to stay in Afghanistan forever. Obvi ...
  • River of Tears: Snapshots from the Edge of a W ...
    River of Tears Snapshots from the Edge of a War 14 Feburary 2011 The Salween River forms a border between Thailand and Burma.� �Rambo� fictionally crossed this jungle current in the movie Rambo IV.� But there is nothing fictional about the war, or the bombs that often fly from Burma into Th ...
  • JFCOM Disestablishment Working Group
    Please Click to download PDF.

The Killing Train

  • Wikileaks and the Future of Information
    Wikileaks and the future of information from Justin Podur on Vimeo. read more
  • Settle in and wait for the coup in Egypt
    Most people are interested in something that no one knows or can know: what is going to happen in Egypt? It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future (that's from Keynes). There are lessons from past revolutions that might help us understand what is happening, but from where ...
  • More such philanthrocapitalism we shall be utt ...
    Philanthrocapitalism, a book by Bishop and Edwards, argues that philanthropy will help the public accept a new age of plutocracy (the rule by wealth). The rich are giving their money away so effectively, they say, that the public won't mind increasing inequality. read more
  • I am not a gadget
    Jaron Lanier, author of "You are not a gadget", is very well-informed about what he is writing about, which is some of the social consequences of the internet, and some of the implicit ideologies that are built into the internet as we are living with it today. Lanier was one of the early minds b ...
  • Raj Patel's "Value of Nothing"
    For various reasons I found myself with several hours on public transit and with Raj Patel's fine book "The Value of Nothing" in hand. I really liked a few things about it. First, it's a very readable summary of a lot of economic theories (and ideologies) that guide policies today. For a more ma ...

treehugger

  • Minnesota Moose Population Crash Possibly Corr ...
    The end is near. Image credit:Mark Lenarz. (excerpted from slide show) I recently was chided a bit for suggesting (without having providing a link to supporting scientific evidence) that the behavior of a central-Wisconsin black bear emerging from the den in early February might well be at ...
  • Green Awards Celebrates Local Green Innovators
    Making a "giant" green difference in your community? The Green Awards Program is giving away more than $100,000 and is searching for people like you! Have a green program that's creative and is impacting your community, but you could use more funding? Make a short video (less than one min ...
  • New York Fashion Week: Bodkin Presents Unusual ...
    Bodkin Fall 2011, New York Fashion Week. Photo: Emma Grady Next up in our on-site coverage of the best of green ready-to-wear at New York Fashion Week is mod eco-conscious label Bodkin. For Fall 2011, lead designer Eviana Hartman offers up well made--and slightly unusual--classics, from ...
  • Can You Trademark Urban Homesteading?
    Photo Credit: Kristine Paulus via Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License. The Dervaes family of Pasadena is well-known for practicing self-sufficiency on their urban lot. They grow over 7000 pounds of food. They use very little power from the grid. They have been an inspiration to many ...
  • Coal Plant Shutdown a Long-Awaited Step in the ...
    Photo credit: Mona Miri It is a step towards victory for Massachusetts—a top official at Dominion Energy publicly announced the Salem power plant is expected to shut down in the next 5 years. In 2005, I began my environmental series documenting the coal and oil power plant that was resp ...

Democratic Voice of Burma

Telegraph - Climate Change

National Geographic | Environment

Jurist - Legal Research

  • Pakistan court issues second warrant for ex-pr ...
    [JURIST] A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday issued a second arrest warrant for former military president Pervez Musharraf [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] for not appearing in court for charges related to the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC obituary; J ...
  • US military tribunal sentences Guantanamo pris ...
    [JURIST] A US military tribunal on Friday sentenced Sudanese Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Noor Uthman Mohammed [DOD materials] to 14 years in prison following a plea agreement [JURIST report] in which he admitted to helping al Qaeda and providing material support to terrorism. M ...
  • Jury reaches mixed verdict over Pennsylvania j ...
    [JURIST] A jury in the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania [official website] reached a split decision on Friday in the corruption trial of former Pennsylvania judge Mark Ciavarella, convicting him of 12 counts, including racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy, and a ...
  • UN SG calls for an end to violence against Mid ...
    [JURIST] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] on Thursday called for an end to violence against protesters [statement text; video] in Bahrain, referencing recent attempts to quell protests sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa [BBC backgrounder]. Ban said that he is "di ...
  • Turkish authorities jail journalists over alle ...
    [JURIST] Three Turkish journalists allegedly involved with aiding the Ergenekon coup plot [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] were jailed Friday amid foreign concerns for the treatment of journalists within the country. Members of the Ergenekon plot allegedly planned to assassinate prominent ...

Atlantic | Mark Ambinder

  • It's Not Just Wisconsin
    Newly elected governors Rick Scott of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and John Kasich of Ohio are all battling to slash state budgets. One is a bald, blue-eyed former hospital executive brand new to public office. Another is a career politician who leads statewide motorcycle tours ...
  • Pawlenty Tells Walker to 'Stand Strong'
    Until recently, Tim Pawlenty served as governor of the state next to Wisconsin. Like Wis. Gov. Scott Walker, Pawlenty was a Republican at the helm of a northern-Midwest state -- Minnesota -- with a distinct progressive strain in its political culture. Walker is now engaged in the political equiv ...
  • Will the U.S. Attorneys Scandal Rear Its Ugly ...
    Here's a possible blast from the not-so-distant past: The 2007 U.S. attorneys scandal could get rehashed as a campaign issue in a 2012 Senate race. With Sen. Jeff Bingaman's (D-N.M.) retirement, the names of possible successors are being batted about, and one of them is former Rep. Heather Wils ...
  • Sarah Palin's New Economic Aide: Bristol Palin
    A Political Carnival blogger unearths this nugget in the Los Angeles Times report from a Palin appearance Thursday on Long Island: Seated in an armchair on a small stage, Palin was interviewed by the head of the Long Island Assn. at the group's annual luncheon. Kevin S. Law, a former utility ...
  • Sen. Jeff Bingaman Will Retire
    Bingaman with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. credit: nmfbihop/Flickr Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., will announce shortly that he will not seek reelection in 2012, according to Democratic sources, a move that puts another of the p ...

COAT - Coalition to oppose the Arms Trade

Bulletin of American Scientists - News

Tikun Olam

  • Links for 2010-05-04 [Digg]
    Dershowitz Incites Hate Against Michael Lerner It is absolutely no accident that Alan Dershowitz singled Rabbi Michael Lerner out for special opprobrium in his most recent Jerusalem Post and Huffington Post column...
  • Big Boys Shouldn’t Play With Guns
    I’ve argued here after his dust-up with Turkey’s prime minister at Davos that he was senile and should be kept under lock and key.  This photo may be further proof that my advice should’ve been heeded.  They say that boys shouldn’t play with guns, but clearly Peres’ mom didn’t tell him that ei ...
  • Links for 2010-03-21 [Digg]
    Happy Passover: Settlers, Immigrants, and Jewish Values "You shall not oppress the stranger because you know the soul of the stranger for you yourselves were immigrants in the land of Egypt (Exodus 23:9)"
  • Digital Activism in the Age of Revolution
    Remarks I’ll deliver tonight at a conference on the Egyptian Revolution at St. Mark’s Cathedral: I wanted to make a few remarks on the impact that the Egyptian Revolution will have on relations with Israel, and on Israelâs internal political dynamics, along with some thoughts on how this may imp ...
  • Shabak Alleged to Have Murdered Detained 16 Ye ...
    An Israeli source confirms the horrifying news that one of the five Israeli Palestinians detained a few days ago in secret by the Shabak has been killed today (or possibly yesterday) in custody in Jalameh prison near Haifa.  The victim was Ashraf al-Baladi of the northern Israeli Palestinian vi ...

Ode Magazine

  • A valentine for peace
    By: PeaceCorso Well, here we are at the holiday that so many of us love to hate: Valentine’s Day. We’ve all heard the cynics blaming the Hallmarkians of the world for sentimentalizing love. Why have a holiday to celebrate love? My relationship doesn’ ...
  • Mizukaburi Matsuri: Keeping at bay
    By: Anne Thomas Japan has wonderful festivals throughout the year. Some are huge and world renown. Others are so small only locals attend. But no matter the size, all of them are filled with great enthusiasm and merrymaking as people give their all to ...
  • The muse in the moment
    We all know meditation helps you relax. But can it also ease the symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders and improve quality of life for people with chronic diseases? Recent research suggests it can. For those of us who haven’t practiced it, meditation can seem like a ...
  • The secret life of metaphor
    By: James Geary Metaphor is most familiar as the literary device through which we describe one thing in terms of another, as in Shakespeare’s famous line from Romeo and Juliet, “Juliet is the sun.” But metaphor is much more than a mere literary device ...
  • A new food manifesto
    Itâs time to take back control of what and how we eat. Hereâs why. Food isn’t just something we need to shovel down our gullets each day to survive. It’s far more potent: the means, more than any other, by which we humans shape our planet and ourselves.Photo by Marko Matas ...

OpEd News

  • Africa: Global NATO Seeks To Recruit 50 New Mi ...
    Africa: Global NATO Seeks To Recruit 50 New Military Partners
  • Katrina Through the Lens of Filmmakers Tia Les ...
    Our challenge was to find these stories, and to distill them into a fluid narrative without recycling the images, sensationalizing the story, or re-inscribing the racist stereotypes that had saturated the 24 hour news cycle. We found the real deal --smart, funny, undefeated, and determined survi ...
  • The Reason We are Becoming a Second Rate Natio ...
    We need, more than any other legislation, honest campaign finance reform. The money that has entered politics has brought heinous results. The Republicans and many Democrats are working hand in glove with the people that keep them in power
  • Wisconsin to Washington: GOP declares war agai ...
    This is not a war against deficits, it is a war against collective bargaining, a war against job-creating programs, a war against the very idea of government creating jobs. In many cases this is a war against policies that help women, a war against pay equity for women, a war against new jobs fo ...
  • The Genie is out of the Bottle
    The Arab Awakening is not a matter of months or a few years. It may well be a prolonged struggle, with many failures and defeats, but the genie will not return to the bottle. The images of the 18 days in Tahrir Square will be kept alive in the hearts of an entire new generation from Marakksh to ...

Switchboard

  • HR1: Deaf, Dumb, and Blind on Climate Change
    Early this morning, after making an atrocious bill even worse, the House of Representatives passed H.R.1 on a vote of 235 to 189, with only three Republicans joining all the Democrats in voting no. What was supposed to be a “continuing resolution” to fund the government through the ...
  • Dir-Tea Water Bill Passes
    Maybe we should’ve expected it.  The Boston Tea Party was certainly the 18th Century’s most well-known example of dumping into America’s waters, so maybe the Tea Partiers that led the Republican House to pass a dirty water bill that would open our waters to pollution far more perni ...
  • Tea Party Gets US House To Throw Clean Energy ...
    The U.S. House passed a spending bill (H.R. 1) early this morning that rolls back environmental protections and guts investments in clean energy.  As my colleague David Goldston explains here, the Tea Party Republicans are behind this effort that would increase pollution, harming h ...
  • Kern County Water Agency Admits that House Bud ...
    KQED radio’s Forum show this morning was focused on Delta issues.  (You can listen to the podcast here.)  One of the guests was Jim Beck, General Manager of the Kern County Water Agency.  The most interesting moment came when Mr. Beck stated that Congressman Nunes’ proposal in the ...
  • So far so bad. Earmarks make a very bad bill w ...
    The Congress needs to pass a bill to continue funding the government by March 4 or the government will shut down.  So you’d think the House of Representatives would be spending its time figuring out how much money to responsibly allocate to different programs, with an eye toward re ...

Lawyers,Guns,& Money

  • On Thucydides
    As Bahrain, Libya, and Wisconsin burn, I’ve been in San Antonio for a Liberty Fund conference on “Strategy and Liberty in Thucydides Peloponnesian War”.   There are sixteen participants, sporting a reasonably diverse set of understandings of the relationship between the state and international ...
  • Today In Wastes of Money and Human Energy
    When I see that Michael Bay has produced a movie based on a James Frey novel, I…well, an utter lack of talent has never necessarily been a barrier in the mass-production film business.   If you ever thought to much about people with actual ability denied capital to film something like this…you ...
  • Anti-Choice, Anti-Contraception
    The House vote to end Planned Parenthood funding would make very little sense — in some alternate universe where people who want to criminalize abortion were primarily concerned about protecting fetal life rather than regulating female sexuality.   In our actually existing political universe, ...
  • “Shared Sacrifice”
    …is pretty much the opposite of what’s happening in Wisconsin. Related posts:The Sacrifice We Make So much for "Shared Governance!" The Vote Fraud Fraud Related posts:The Sacrifice We Make So much for "Shared Governance!" The Vote Fraud Fraud
  • The Packers Are With The People
    They won the Super Bowl. Theyâre owned by the people of Green Bay, not some schmuck billionaire. And now the Pack is standing in solidarity with their union brothers and sisters. If only Brady Poppinga would tackle Scott Walker. If the green and gold are down, you already know what side to roll ...

Desert Research Institute

  • 2010 DRI Annual Report
    The 2010 annual report is now available for download. This issue includes an interview with Executive Vice President for Research Dr. Terry Surles, our involvement with a large NSF grant to study climate change, an overview of the work in our divisions and centers, select researcher profiles, an ...
  • Tracking the Air Quality at Lake Tahoe
    In order to better understand the pollutant sources that are affecting Lake’s Tahoe’s water quality, Research Professor Hampden Kuhns, began studying Lake Tahoe in 2003 when he assembled the areas first emissions inventory. The inventory included local measurements using his TRAKER road ...
  • Building Concepts for Clarity
    Todd Mihevc has a knack for finding the right tools for the job, but he’s no handyman for hire. For 25 years, Mihevc, an Assistant Research Hydrogeologist at DRI, has been instrumental in developing equipment that surveys, studies, and samples water systems in Nevada. His latest research concern ...
  • Top Cited Article in the Journal of Human Evol ...
    Dr. Glenn Berger is lead author in top-cited article in Journal of Human Evolution. The article "Luminescence chronology of cave sediments at the Atapuerca paleoanthropological site, Spain" was the top-cited article published in the Journal of Human Evolution for the period of 2008 to 2010.
  • DRI Researcher Published in Nature Geoscience
    The atmosphere over the Dead Sea, researchers have found, is laden with oxidized mercury. Some of the highest levels of oxidized mercury ever observed outside the polar regions exist there.

Earth Techling

National Law Journal | U.S.

  • Huge settlement? No thanks.
    Plaintiffs' lawyers who obtained the record $624 million class action settlement last year on behalf of shareholders of Countrywide Financial Corp. are scrambling to remake their deal after more than two dozen major institutional funds opted out.
  • Litigation funders face discovery woes
    While battling its insurers over funds to cover hurricane damage, a Florida hotel company consulted an investmnet group which funds lawsuits for a share of the recovery. The investment never happened, according to court documents — but the conversations weren't forgotten by the parties the hotel ...
  • Firm seeking payback from Abramoff pal
    Lawyers for Greenberg Traurig are demanding that Abramoff business partner Michael Scanlon make restitution to the firm to cover its losses.
  • Federal judge enters default against China in ...
    A federal judge has granted a default motion against the People's Republic of China in a $2.2 billion lawsuit brought by a California software firm over copyright infringement.
  • News: Big bankruptcies, big legal fees
    With complex issues and huge money at stake, cases yield millions for firms.

How Shall We Do The Mountain ?

  • Gas driller pays Pennsylvania state Senator Jo ...
    I received this comment from another blogger on this same article: “To paraphrase Jim Cramer, well known for his investment & corporate financial opinions on television and internet, the United States has the best government money can buy.” Published: Sunday, February 13, 2011, 11:04 PM Updated ...
  • FrackTracker
    Here’s an exceprt from the blog at Fracktracker, a useful site for info and maps and visuals. The Environmental Protection Agency has submitted a draft of its Hydraulic Fracturing Study Plan, which is to be reviewed by the Science Advisory Board (SAB), a group of independent scientists that w ...
  • A Comprehensive Website for News Headlines
    The below site, while not covering everything, does offers a lot of info in one place. Newspaper Headlines: http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Gas-Drilling_NEWS.htm
  • Groups File Federal Gas Drilling Lawsuit again ...
    Delaware River Basin Commission Served Notice Trenton, New Jersey —The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Damascus Citizens for Sustainability have joined forces in filing a federal lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) in federal district court in Trenton, NJ. Complaints were ...
  • Oil and Gas Companies Illegally Using Diesel i ...
    By Adam Federman, Earth Island Journal Posted on February 1, 2011 The 2005 Bush-Cheney Energy Policy Act famously exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. But it made one small exception: diesel fuel. The Policy Act states that the term “underground injection,” as it relat ...

News Blaze

  • Women of The Americas: Catalyst for Change
    Women in the Americas are working to promote strong and vibrant democracies, advance the region's commitment to the rule of law, and uphold fundamental human rights and freedoms. They are cabinet officials and heads of government. They serve in exe
  • U.S. Strongly Opposes Continued Israeli Settle ...
    The United States and our fellow Council members are also in full agreement about the urgent need to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, based on the two-state solution and an agreement that establishes a viable, independent, a
  • Warm Up At NASA's Sun-Earth Day Tweetup; Regis ...
    Tweetup participants will be given a personalized tour of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space museum in Washington. They will observe the sun - weather permitting - from the museum's public observatory and hear from Smithsonian ex
  • Dr. Linda Ordiway Joins Ruffed Grouse Society ...
    Linda was part of a ground-breaking study that demonstrated the need for early successional habitat, or forest-openings resulting from timber cutting, by interior bird species like some of the thrushes and the scarlet tanager.
  • Did Deadly Honey-Trap Kill a Whistle-Blowing S ...
    The woman, however, was arraigned at a Mombasa Magistrate's court today, Friday, and sent to remand prison until further investigations conclude.

environment 360

  • New Hydrogen Cartridges Can Power Small Device ...
    A University of Michigan scientist has developed a small hydrogen fuel cell that can recharge laptops, cell phones, and GPS units in the field and also supply limited electricity to power electric lights in homes in the developing world. The researcher, James Dye, worked with SiGNa Chemistry to ...
  • Heavier Downpours Linked to Increasing Greenho ...
    A comprehensive computer analysis of heavy precipitation events in the Northern Hemisphere from 1951 to 1999 has shown that the intense downpours that have hit many countries in recent decades are at least partly the result of human influence on climate. Reporting in the journal Nature, a team o ...
  • Climate’s Strong Fingerprint In Global Cholera ...
    For decades, deadly outbreaks of cholera were attributed to the spread of disease through poor sanitation. But recent research demonstrates how closely cholera is tied to environmental and hydrological factors and to weather patterns — all of which may lead to more frequent cholera outbreaks as ...
  • Cambodia Approves Titanium Mine in Threatened ...
    The government of Cambodia has approved a 78-square-mile titanium mine in the dwindling rainforest of the Cardamom Mountains, a highly biodiverse area that lies within one of the world’s most threatened forests. While the United Khmer Group says their proposed mining operation will yield $1.3 bi ...
  • Asian Smart Meter Market to Surpass 350 Millio ...
    The number of smart meters in Asian markets will increase from 52.8 million in 2010 to more than 350.3 million by 2016 as governments and electric utilities across the region increasingly emphasize the technology, according to a new market report. That represents an annual growth rate of about 3 ...

Red Ice Creations

  • Young women are freezing their fat so they can ...
    Young women are being offered the chance to put some of their body fat ’on ice,’ which they can use to smooth out lumps and bumps 30 years in the future. Fat transfer - or ’grafting’ - from one part of the body is now quite a common procedure especially moving fat from the bottom to the breasts. ...
  • Foxes see Earth’s magnetic field and use it to ...
    Foxes are the first animals thought to use Earth’s magnetic field to judge distance, not just direction. Birds do it. Bees do it. Now, foxes are the most recent of Earth’s animals suspected of utilizing Earth’s magnetic field as part of their everyday functioning. Foxes that are hunting small an ...
  • Man to have microchip implanted in brain to st ...
    For years he has been trying to avoid sticking his tongue out, squeaking and wobbling his head while he conducts wedding ceremonies. But for Mike Sullivan, the country’s only registrar with Tourette’s syndrome, help is at hand. He is to have two transmitters implanted in his brain in pioneering ...
  • 1,500-Year-Old Church Found In Israel
    Israeli archaeologists presented a newly uncovered 1,500-year-old church in the Judean hills on Wednesday, including an unusually well-preserved mosaic floor with images of lions, foxes, fish and peacocks. The Byzantine church located southwest of Jerusalem, excavated over the last two months, w ...
  • D-Day: Million-strong crowd braced for ’Day of ...
    It’s been billed as ’Final Friday’. Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters in Egypt are gathering in Cairo’s central square in the latest attempt to force President Hosni Mubarak out of office. It’s the eleventh day of the unrest and protesters say they’re hoping for a turnout of about a ...

Russia Today

  • International synergy needed to win war on dru ...
    Drug trafficking from Afghanistan is considered to be a major worldwide problem, and the UN is planning to launch a new regional anti-drug program, revealed Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and...
  • Belarus solution requires more than sanctions
    Belarus opposition will be "bashed in the head" unless it stops destabilizing the country, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. While opposition activists are being sentenced to jail, the country is in bad...
  • China preventing Egypt syndrome
    Calls for a “Jasmine Revolution” in China have popped up on the internet. Several activists have been detained, and access to a number of sites and social networks have been restricted.
  • Vietnam’s deadliest tourist shipwreck in years
    Tourists were among 12 people that died when a cruise boat sank in Halong Bay in northeastern Vietnam. Fourteen have been rescued.
  • Russian cosmonauts imitate landing on Mars
    Almost nine months of isolation, training and preparation have finally paid off, as cosmonauts have “set foot” on the Red Planet for the first time.

Dad2059′s Webzine of Science Fiction, Science Fact and Esoterica

  • WikiLeaks, Allnewsweb and the TEA Party
    When one looks at the above title, the individual has to ask, WTF? What could these three things have in common? Well, according to ‘Mirage Men‘ author, Mark Pilkington, not really a whole hell of a lot, just rampant opportunism: When the first mention of UFOs in the tranche of diplomatic paper ...
  • Even Gary Bekkum is skeptical
    Gary Bekkum’s  STARpod.org’s site is usually replete with government conspiracies, psychic spies, hamsters, Bigelow’s Skinwalker Ranch, Laura Eisenhower’s Mars Colony and other wondrous esoteric oddities that it’s hard to believe that Gary could be skeptical of anything. But he is. He is very s ...
  • More Paracast: George Filer
    Yeah I know I’ve been lazy lately (or so it seems), but trust me on this one. You won’t be disappointed with this interview Gene Steinberg and co-host Chris O’Brien of the Paracast had with Eastern MUFON Director George Filer, who also has the website Filer’s Files (which caters to guess what? Y ...
  • The Paracast: Clifford Clift of MUFON
    This week’s Paracast with Gene Steinberg and Chris O’Brien is a conversation with MUFON International’s Clifford Clift. Subjects range from the nuts and bolts aspects of UFOs to the possible paranormal links with ghosts, angels, demons and Sasquatch. This was a down to earth and civil interview, ...
  • Bizarre Beachcoming: Review of the Codex Serap ...
    Dr. Beachcoming, that eccentric collector of all things of an exotic historical nature, reviews The Codex Seraphinianus,  a book written by Luigi Serafini that is purportedly about an alien world complete with language, customs, architecture, flora and fauna. Luigi Serafini, Codex Seraphinianus ...

Tippers News

  • Why Did Aggie Boys Buy Sex at the Chicken Ranc ...
    The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the Texas A&M football team celebrates a win with a visit to their local brothel, the Chicken Ranch. The Aggie Boys are fSubmitted by Rose NoFWDSPLZ to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Two survivors of human trafficking share their ...
    She fiddles with her cell phone. In mid conversation, she holds it out, showing off who�s on the screen. Submitted by Rose NoFWDSPLZ to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Trip to India inspires Everson woman to help v ...
    EVERSON - Touched by her own memories of being adopted as an orphan, Sue Ann Heutink took her first overseas venture to help victims of human trafficking. Submitted by Rose NoFWDSPLZ to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Free Human Trafficking Victim Sara Kruzan From ...
    Sixteen-year-old human trafficking victim Sara Kruzan was sentenced to life in prison without parole when, in a desperate act to escape captivity, she shot her pimp. Submitted by Rose NoFWDSPLZ to World �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment
  • Edward Janus | Disability Advocate and Activis ...
    Edward Janus | Disability Advocate and Activist (Disabled myself). Doing Daily Internet Activism for Supporting Causes of Change. Talking about: Armchair Activism for Oil-Spill Animals.Submitted by Edward Janus to US Politics & Gov't �|� �Note-it! �|� �Add a Comment

The Freeman

  • Spending in Current Fiscal Year Still Being Fo ...
    “Having turned its focus from spending cuts to social issues and an assault on the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda, a battle-weary House reconvenes Friday in hopes of wrapping up action on a big Republican spending bill that would impose sweeping cuts across domestic programs. The measu ...
  • Stimulus Hasn’t Lived Up to Its Billing
    “A bill to jump start the economy. That was the main idea behind the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the âstimulus bill,â which became law two years ago today. However, the nation is still waiting for the bill’s promised jolt.” (CNN) Another broken promise. FEE Timely Cla ...
  • There’s Got to Be a Better Way
    What’s so remarkable about events in the Middle East is that a significant number of people who had felt powerless looked around at what they’d seen every day of their lives and thought for the first time: “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
  • Freeman articles on American Presidents
    Selected from the Freeman Archives: Our Presidents and the National Debt, By Burton Folsom During the last 75 years the United States has failed to balance its annual budget over 90 percent of the time. What’s worse, the government has spent money so recklessly that we now owe over $8.2 trillion ...
  • Patri Friedman’s Work Gets Stossel&#8217 ...
    Patri Friedman, coauthor of an article about seasteading in the upcoming March issue of The Freeman and the next guest in The Idea Room, is featured in John Stossel’s syndicated column this week. Read it here.

Teaching Online Journalism

  • Web literacy: Should be required
    A student calls me on the phone. “Professor McAdams, I wonder if you could help me. I’ve never taken a class with you, but …” “Yes, what can I do for you?” I reply. “I bought my own website, but I’m not sure how to get my Web pages there.” From past experience, I know what I need to ask now. ...
  • Can journalism education rise to the challenge ...
    Most journalism programs face the same challenges: How to find, employ and retain faculty who are comfortable teaching new skills and techniques. How to provide equipment and software to students (especially with shrinking budgets). How to keep up with a rapidly changing field. Perhaps mos ...
  • HTML and CSS Resources for Teaching
    Every year around this time, I update the resources I use in teaching my advanced online design class. I know there are a million lists like these online. I try to keep mine short, simple and current. Also, I’m not teaching programmers or graphic design majors. My students are journalists. C ...
  • Visual narratives: Empirical data
    From a research study by two scholars at Stanford: In this paper, we investigate the design of narrative visualizations and identify techniques for telling stories with data graphics. We take an empirical approach, analyzing visualizations from online journalism, blogs, instructional videos, an ...
  • Teaching HTML and CSS to journalism students
    I’ve been looking at the open-source course materials for Web Design 1, from the WaSP InterACT curriculum project. I think these materials can easily be adapted for use in a journalism curriculum. The idea is to acquaint our students with the building blocks of the Web they use every day. For s ...

Facing South

  • Report raises concerns about redistricting abu ...
    By Naomi Martin, The Lens Louisiana politicians could use their control over the upcoming congressional redistricting process to keep themselves -- and their parties -- in power for the next decade, according to a new report by the Public Affairs Research Council, an independent non-profit ba ...
  • Southern Republicans launch sneak attack on co ...
    The House is expected to vote as early as today on amendments to a budget bill that would take away the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate toxic coal ash as a hazardous waste. Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.) have offered amendments to a continuing reso ...
  • INSTITUTE INDEX: A chilly budget for the poor
    Size of the budget proposal unveiled this week by President Obama: $3.7 trillion Amount the White House says the plan will reduce the deficit by over the next 10 years: $1 trillion Portion of debt reduction that would be achieved via spending freezes: 2/3 By tax increases: 1/3 Number of year ...
  • VOICES: Obama's $36 billion nuke-powered givea ...
    By Harvey Wasserman Barack Obama's 2012 budget marks a major escalation in the nuclear war against a green-powered future, whose advocates are already fighting back. Amidst massive budget cuts for social and environmental programs, Obama wants $36 billion in loan guarantees for a reactor in ...
  • 'Respect my Vote': Backlash grows against vote ...
    When Republicans launched campaigns in 20 states this year for laws requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls, they likely saw it as a chance to score a quick political victory on one of their favorite causes. But the GOP's urgent and coordinated push is encountering growing resistan ...

Worldpress - Africa

Telegraph UK - oil

Ian Welsh

  • You don’t always get what you vote for
    but you sure don’t get what you don’t vote for. Fianna Fáil, the party in power for 20 of the past 23 years, faces a drubbing in Irelandâs general election on February 25, with Fine Gael, the other centre-right party, appearing to pick up support rather than the left-of-centre Labour party or m ...
  • You don’t always get what you vote for
    but you sure don’t get what you don’t vote for. Fianna Fáil, the party in power for 20 of the past 23 years, faces a drubbing in Irelandâs general election on February 25, with Fine Gael, the other centre-right party, appearing to pick up support rather than the left-of-centre Labour party or m ...
  • Words or Dollars
    From TPM’s David Kurtz: let’s take note of Obama’s clear-eyed understanding of America’s role in the world and the real limits of American power as he just stated it in his press conference: What we didn’t do was pretend that we could dictate the outcome in Egypt — because we can’t. So we were v ...
  • Words or Dollars
    From TPM’s David Kurtz: let’s take note of Obama’s clear-eyed understanding of America’s role in the world and the real limits of American power as he just stated it in his press conference: What we didn’t do was pretend that we could dictate the outcome in Egypt — because we can’t. So we were v ...
  • Elites continue to be mad for draining ordinar ...
    Simon Ward in the Financial Times argues that current inflation in the UK (running at 2.4% officially, or 2.75% by his estimates) represents “an overly-loose monetary policy stance” and requires the Bank of England to raise rates sooner than expected. Now, by any historical standards in periods ...

Media Consortium

Reality Asserts Itself

  • Drug Wars in Juarez Fuels Boom in El Paso
    My colleague Malak Behrouznami recently returned from Juarez Mexico where she grew up as a child. She as a wonderful heritage - her father is Iranian and her Mother is Mexican. She went Juarez for family and journalistic reasons. One of her objectives was to find out why Juarez has become a terr ...
  • PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI NEGOTIATIONS TO NOWHERE NO ...
    A few months ago when shooting a documentary in the Middle East, we met Zeina, a 13-year-old Palestinian living in a Beirut refugee camp. She was traumatized as she watched the Israeli Gaza war on television. It changed her life. She now thinks of revenge and cannot understand the Israeli childr ...
  • FROM JOE McCARTHY TO GLEN BECK – TIME TO END F ...
    I listened to Glen Becks "Restoring Honor" speech today hoping to find something of substance to write about. I found a stringing together of such empty phrases it does not bear discussion.  The more important issue is why a man whose megalomania seems to have no bounds can become such a phenome ...
  • PAKISTAN FLOODS AND A FAILED POLICY - UN Sec. ...
    Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, says of the flooding in Pakistan "The world has never seen such a disaster. It's much beyond anybody's imagination". At least 20 million people have lost their homes, more than 1600 have died, and disease and hunger will claim many, many mo ...
  • China and the end of the end of history
    Many economists and political analysts think the current recovery, as it's being called, is a rather temporary phenomenon. Many expect the recession to kick back in, and perhaps within a few years get much more serious. What does that mean in terms of the future of the world economy and world po ...

Great Beyond ( Nature )

  • NIH spared, EPA skewered as House passes budge ...
    A bill that would include billions of dollars in budget cuts to US science-related and regulatory agencies was approved by the House of Representatives in a pre-dawn vote today. While the final version of the bill includes many of the same severe spending measures introduced by House Republicans ...
  • A WISE eye on the sky signs off
    Posted on behalf of Adam Mann Old satellites never die; they just get decommissioned. At least that was the fate of NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), when project officials turned off the telescope’s transmitter on 17 February. WISE had already completed its principal missio ...
  • An elementary energy problem
    The United States needs to “take control of its energy future” and prevent future resource crunches of ‘energy critical elements’. So says a new report from the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society, which echoes many of the same concerns and solutions as the US Department ...
  • Climate research under fire at US science budg ...
    First came the plan, now comes the sales pitch. Following the release of President Obama’s FY2012 budget request earlier this week, John Holdren, Assistant to the President’s for science and technology, took center stage yesterday to defend strategic increases for science funding. In his ...
  • NIH wants to know about your lags in productiv ...
    Got an excuse? The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) wants to hear it. The biomedical funding agency is giving scientists the opportunity to explain lags in productivity in their grant applications. Rather than a nod to Generation X scientists who grew up watching films like Slacker and ...

new geography

  • Obama’s High-Speed Rail Obsession
    Perhaps nothing so illustrates President Obama�s occasional disconnect with reality than his fervent advocacy of high-speed rail. Amid mounting pressure for budget cuts that affect existing programs, including those for the inner city, the president has made his $53 billion proposal to create a ...
  • The Evolving Urban Form: Seoul
    Based upon the preliminary results of the South Korea 2010 census, Seoul has become the world's second largest metropolitan area. The jurisdictions making out the metropolitan area, the provincial level municipality of Seoul (which is the national capital), the province of Gyeonggi and the p ...
  • Chicago Takes a Census Shellacking
    The Census results are out for Illinois, and it's bad news for the city of Chicago, whose population plunged by over 200,000 people to 2,695,598, its lowest population since before 1920.  This fell far short of what would have been predicted given the 2009 estimate of 2,851,268. It's a huge n ...
  • Mortgage Meltdown: How Underwriting Went Under
    The White House remedies for the mortgage meltdown were presented on Friday. Congress will debate the life extension, death, or rebirth of federal mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the coming weeks. When the noise has died down, don't expect substantial change. But those wh ...
  • A Leg Up: World's Largest Cities No Longer Ho ...
    Throughout much of history, cities have served as incubators for upward mobility. A great city, wrote René Descartes in the 17th century, was “an inventory of the possible,” a place where people could lift their families out of poverty and create new futures. In his time, Amsterdam was that city ...

GM Watch

spiked

Cryptogon

  • Bank Run: South Korea Suspends Four Savings Ba ...
    Via: Bloomberg: South Koreaâs Financial Services Commission suspended the business of four local savings banks for six months from today due to a liquidity crunch. The four banks are Bohae Mutual Savings & Finance Co. and three subsidiaries of Busan Savings Bank — Jungang Busan Savings Bank, Bus ...
  • Japanese Official: Doubling of Sales Tax Neede ...
    Via: Bloomberg: Japan needs to more than double its 5 percent consumption tax to shore up the government’s finances given soaring debt and welfare costs, a member of Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s tax and social security panel said. “I don’t think an increase to 10 percent is enough,” former Financi ...
  • Cryptogon Support So Far in February
    Thank you: Pookie $75 BS $25 MW $20 Thanks also to the owners of sakdent.com and kristofersimpson.com for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $180 as a result.
  • January Earnings
    Cryptogon earnings in January totaled $1705.21. Thanks to everyone who sent contributions and conducted business via Cryptogon’s affiliate links.
  • Washington: State Legislation Would Require Co ...
    Via: ZeroHedge: A bill proposed in the State of Washington (House Bill 1716), by representatives Asay, Hurst, Klippert, Pearson, and Miloscia, whose alleged purpose is to regulate secondhand gold dealers, seeks to capture “the name, date of birth, sex, height, weight, race, and address and telep ...

The Economic Collapse

  • Are The Wild Teacher Protests In Wisconsin A P ...
    Have you seen video of the teacher protests that are going on in Wisconsin?  We haven't seen anything like this in America in quite some time.  If you haven't seen video of the protests yet, some very good raw footage is posted below.  On the one hand it is good to see Americans ...
  • Barack Obama’s Budget For 2012: A Comple ...
    Is Barack Obama trying to play a joke on all of us?  The budget that the Obama administration has submitted for fiscal 2012 is so out of touch with reality that it may as well be a budget for "Narnia", "Fantasy Island", "Atlantis" or some other mythical land.  You can view the h ...
  • 21 Signs That The Once Great U.S. Economy Is B ...
    Once upon a time, the United States was the greatest industrial powerhouse that the world has ever seen.  Our immense economic machinery was the envy of the rest of the globe and it provided the foundation for the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world ...
  • Is Ben Bernanke A Liar, A Lunatic Or Is He Jus ...
    Did you see Ben Bernanke's testimony before the House Budget Committee on Wednesday? It was quite a show. Bernanke seems to believe that if he just keeps on repeating the same mantras over and over that somehow they will become true. Bernanke insists that the economy is getti ...
  • 10 Reasons Why It Has Become So Soul-Crushingl ...
    Have you been unemployed lately?  If so, then you probably know how frustrating it is to try to find a job in the United States today. It now takes the average unemployed worker about 33 weeks to find a job.  There are millions of Americans that have not been able to find a full ...

Desertification

  • Water and adaptation to climate change in tran ...
    Read at : Water Issues Announcement List information_notice_adaptation_and_transboundary_cooperation_workshop_final_rev Second workshop on water and adaptation to climate change in transboundary basins: challenges, progress and lessons learnt (Geneva, 12-13 April 2011) We ...
  • Southern Sudan will need to invest in infrastr ...
    Read at : http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?Reportid=91951 SUDAN: Farming the future in the South YEI, 17 February 2011 (IRIN) – With independence only months away, Southern Sudan will need to invest in infrastructure to feed and employ its people, while seeking alternatives to … Continue read ...
  • Knowledge Management for the UNCCD: Invitation ...
    Read at : Land Degradation Announcement List KM for the UNCCD The Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification would like to invite you to participate on a side event on Knowledge Management for the UNCCD. In … Continue reading →
  • African nightshade (Solanum scabrum) : interes ...
    Read at : http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/african-nightshade-an-underappreciated-native-comes-into-the-light/ African Nightshade: An Underappreciated Native Comes into the Light Danielle Nierenberg By Matt Styslinger The term ânightshadeâ refers collectively to a wide-ranging gro ...
  • The spineless prickly pear cactus (Opuntia fic ...
    Read at : Google Alert – desertification http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/farmers-serve-prickly-feast-to-livestock Farmers serve prickly feast to livestock Megan Detrie (Writer) The prickly pear cactus will soon be grown on UAE farms as a water-efficient food for animals. Known as Optunia ...

The Paper Trail

  • District of Columbia’s Poor Pay Triple f ...
    Poor residents of Washington, D.C. receive the worst internet service and pay three times more than wealthier neighborhoods, according to a recent survey.
  • Bankers Take Debit Fee Duel To Friendly Territ ...
    Bankers dueling with retailers over a Federal Reserve plan to limit debit card processing fees took the fight into friendly territory today at a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing.
  • GAO: Worst of the Worst Federal Programs
    The Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service, already the butt of many bad jokes, are among the poster children on the GAO’s list of federal agencies at “high risk” of waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement.
  • Federal Panel Says FBI Overstated Science Behi ...
    Federal investigators overstated the strength of the scientific evidence against a late Army researcher blamed for the anthrax mailings that killed five people in 2001, a panel of scientists said Tuesday after an 18-month review. However, the panel didn't contradict the FBI's conclusion that the ...
  • Budget Deliberations Silent on Medicare or Oth ...
    True fiscal hawks likely won’t find much to celebrate in this week’s budget machinations, talk of spending cuts aside. That’s because neither President Obama nor Congressional Republicans have much to say about cutting the entitlement programs that are driving the nation’s long-term debt problem ...

backofthebook.ca

  • False news is good for you. Really.
    By Frank Moher The last time Avaaz.org organized an online petition, I wasn't too nice about it. But when it comes to "false news" -- yes, you read that right -- the activist organization is right on money. What is false news? Funny you should ask. I wondered exactly the same thing, ...
  • Bieberbortion
    by Rachel Krueger Bye Bieber Bunting rocks the cover of Rolling Stone next month, looking as bad-ass as his infant-face is capable of.  The Stone is teasing out its Biebernterview by releasing all the salacious bits, and the PITCHFORKS ARE A-GATHERIN.  Particularly around the Bieb’s stance ...
  • Who is Bev Oda’s Con-sigliere?
    By Montreal Simon He rose in the House of Commons yesterday like a mob boss defending one of his gang members. While Bev Oda sat there wearing sunglasses, looking like her tongue had been cut out. But all I could see was the fear in his eyes, and his pudgy hands. And all I ...
  • McLuhan saw this coming
    By Dave Brindle Lost in all of the hum online about Egypt and the CRTC was that 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marshall McLuhan. He was right. When I tweeted that, my friend Rod Mickleburgh of The Globe and Mail shot back: @davebrindleshow mcluhan was certainly right ...
  • Red, warm, and close to the heart
    By Jodi A. Shaw I’ve never been shy about my distaste for Valentine’s Day.   I don’t endorse or encourage celebrating it, I don’t accept Valentine’s Day gifts from anyone other than small children who have an innocent appreciation for the "holiday." Instead, every year I close my eyes, plug m ...

Worldnews

  • Lonely Planet leaves Australian orbit
    Sydney - Leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet has lost its last connection to founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler with the Melbourne-based English-Irish couple selling their remaining 25-per-cent stake to majority owner the British Broadcasting Corp. The BBC Worldwide paid 67 million ...
  • Pruning is a necessary evil, and can be d ...
    Pruning can't help but wound a plant. But the injury doesn't have to compromise its health. Your job, as a pruner, is to pinch, snip, lop or saw in such a way as to facilitate your plants' natural healing. Plants have an uncanny ability to deal with wounds. Immediately after any wound, whet ...
  • As crop prices rise, farmland soars
    JEFFERSON, IOWA - The bidders drove over snow- and ice-covered highways for a chance to own one of the most lucrative properties in the Midwest: 120 acres of farmland in Greene County, Iowa. The winner of last month's auction offered $8,200 an acre -- nearly $1 million. That's 44 percent hi ...
  • Iran says enemy does not fear bombs
    Tehran, February 20: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the enemies of the Iranian nation have no fear of weapons, missiles and bombs yet they accuse the country of pursuing a military nuclear program. “How can a government which possesses more than 5,000 fifth-generation nuclear bom ...
  • 2010 Winter Olympic sites become world cl ...
    One of the most successful winners at the 2010 Winter Olympics was the Canadian ski resort of Whistler. Home to both the Whistler and Blackcomb Mountain ski resorts, the ski village two hours north of Vancouver has been rated the top ski resort in North America for the past 12 years in a ro ...

Alex in Wonderland

MY Daily Apple

Common Dreams

  • The Insurers’ Real Agenda for Change
    by Wendell Potter The media had lots of health care news to obsess about last week. A federal judge ruled the health care reform law unconstitutional, and Senate Republicans tried in vain to repeal the law. But most of the press paid virtually no attention to a potentially much more impor ...
  • Vermont Governor Lays Out Details for Single P ...
    by Nancy RemsenThe Shumlin administration released the legislative details of how to move the state to a single payer health care system, with the first steps beginning this summer."We are committing to reforms that get us as many of the benefits of a single payer as possible under current feder ...
  • Protests Swell at Tahrir Square
    read more
  • 'Sheik al-Torture': Washington's New Man in Ca ...
    by Pepe EscobarCAIRO - The Egyptian revolution is being dissolved right in front of the world's eyes by an optical illusion. The protesters who have been on the streets for two weeks still want President Hosni Mubarak out. Now. Yet United Stat ...
  • Virginia Debates Opening Largest Uranium Mine ...
    by Scott HarperVIRGINIA - The National Academy of Sciences on Monday took up the controversial issue of possible uranium mining in Virginia, with experts testifying for hours and environmentalists protesting what they say is a dangerous business idea.The all-day hearing came less than a week aft ...

The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Examine Religion - Tweets

Energy Collective

Green House - USA Today

  • Does my green house meet the passive standard?
    Just how tough is the passive house standard that's starting to catch on in the United States? I put my own new green house to the test.
  • Passive houses aggressively reduce energy
    Heat your home by throwing a dinner party? This concept may sound bizarre, but it's feasible in cutting-edge green homes that are so well-insulated, they don't need a furnace or boiler. They'll stay warm simply with body heat. A hairdryer might also suffice. Such passive homes, popularized in Eu ...
  • Poll: Americans OK with newer light bulbs
    Most Americans support the U.S. law that begins phasing out traditional light bulbs next year and, despite some consumer grumbling, say they're satisfied with more efficient alternatives, according to a USA TODAY poll.
  • World Bank: High food prices impoverishes 44 m ...
    Rising food prices have pushed about 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since last June as food costs near peak 2008 levels, the World Bank warns in a new report.
  • Greenest cars? Not all are electric or hybrids
    Plug-in electric vehicles may be the hip newcomers on U.S. streets this year, but they aren't the only eco-friendly stars, a scorecard of greenest cars reveals Tuesday.

Prior Art

  • Recent Patent Litigation Weekly Columns
    Much of the patent news that was published on this blog has been moved to the IP Insider section of the Corporate Counsel website. Here's a list of the last several Patent Litigation Weekly columns— Oct. 25, 2010: Big Patent-Licensing...
  • Paul Allen v. The Internet
    Former Microsoft executive and billionaire Paul Allen sued several major Internet companies and three large retailers for patent infringement today, asserting that four patents originating at Interval Research, Allen's dot-com era think tank, cover basic web browsing and e-commerce technologies. ...
  • Citing Possible Bias, ACLU Asks Rader to Recus ...
    With the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit set to consider a landmark case over the validity of human gene patents, attorneys for the plaintiffs in the suit are asking the court's chief judge to recuse himself from the matter—before the panel that will hear it has even been s ...
  • Law360 Calls Lawyer-Owned Shell Company a "Pub ...
    seems to have a pretty flexible definition of that term. Last month, it included . Who is so concerned about such fairness? That would be , the Texas law firm that owns Americans for Fair Patent Use, which is a limited liability company set up to prosecute a false marking lawsuit filed ...
  • Eben Moglen on Bilski, software patents, and b ...
    Moglen's position on the subject of software patents—that they should be banned—is, to say the least, outside the mainstream in legal circles. It has, however, garnered support among software developers and other techies, especially those who work in the world of open-source and free s ...



TO DO

renewable recycling conservation
Utilities' renewable energy pacts expensive
San Francisco Chronicle
Since 2002, California's utilities have committed to spend about $6 billion more onrenewable power contracts than they would have paid to buy the electricity from new power plants burning natural gas, according to a state report issued Friday. ...
Related Articles »
Omaha firm acquires ethanol plant
Omaha World-Herald
By Erin Golden Green Plains RenewableEnergy has acquired a Minnesota ethanol plant, expanding the company's production capacity to about 715 million gallons per year. The Omaha-based company is the fourth-largest ethanol producer in the United States. ...
Related Articles »
MT bill to boost renewable energy standard nixed
Bloomberg
(AP) — Legislative Republicans have quickly shot down an attempt by Democrats to increase Montana's renewable energy standard Montana utilities are required to procure a certain percentage of retail electricity sales from renewable resources such as ...
Related Articles »
Renewable Energy Generation rises on high volatility and expanding price range
Power-Gen Worldwide
Renewable Energy Generation (WIND.L) traded between an intraday low of GBX53.0 and a high of GBX54.50. The price range has expanded in the last two days (from GBX1.40 two days ago to GBX1.50 today) which, accompanied by a price rise, ...
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HUMAN HABITAT

ecology water energy
Fatal SW WA crash involves truck carrying bleach
Seattle Post Intelligencer
The Washington state Ecology Department says it has responded to a fatal crash involving a delivery truck and a car on US Highway 12 in Rochester, Wash. State Patrol Trooper Guy Gill says a car crossed the center line and crashed into a 1995 ...
Related Articles »
The Living Earth and the Living Dead: TheEcology of Vampires
Huffington Post (blog)
Is there an ecology that includes vampires in realistically facing our own extinction? Probably not. But as long as we're using our imaginations, why not expand our story lines? Maybe in all of this apocalyptic fervor about the end of the Earth and us, ...
Public Invited to Comment on Stormwater Plan
Water World
The plan contains water quality conditions required by the federal Clean Water Act. Bellevue must submit a stormwater management plan each year to the state Department of Ecology, which describes actions the city will take in the upcoming year to ...
New York State Legislation May Reduce Tuition For Out-of-State Students
Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun
By Sam Cross Don Sim '11 has spent his four years in Cornell's College of Human Ecologypaying out-of-state tuition. As a result, Sim has worked as a barista in Libe Cafe as part of his federal work-study on top of a rigorous pre-med course load. ...
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WATER POWER

water floods pollution
Feds boost water supplies for many Calif. farms
San Jose Mercury News
Federal water managers plant to boost deliveries to farms, industry and cities this year thanks to this winter's abundant rainfall. US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Friday that agriculture contractors south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin ...
Related Articles »
State auditor finds little wrong at soil, wateragency
Louisville Courier-Journal
The state auditor has recommended that the Jefferson County Soil and WaterConservation District do a better job of documenting its human resources policies and tighten up check-writing procedures. But a review by the auditor's office of allegations of ...
Related Articles »
Sen. Tolleson Offers New Mechanism to FundWater Projects
Water World
Ross Tolleson (R-Perry) has introduced a bill that creates new options for financing waterprojects in communities throughout the state. The Georgia Public/Private Water Supply Act of 2011 (Senate Bill 122) will allow state and local governments to ...
Related Articles »
Reese Witherspoon Talks Robert Pattinson
Gather Celebs News Channel
Reese Witherspoon isn't holding much back when talking about her Water for Elephants costar, Robert Pattinson. The two had some pretty intense make out sessions in the film and Reese had nothing but great things to say about RPattz. "I am so lucky. ...
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