Saturday, December 29, 2007

A Blast from the Recent Past

latimes.com:

Aunt Benazir's false promises


Bhutto's return bodes poorly for Pakistan -- and for democracy there.
By Fatima Bhutto
November 14, 2007
KARACHI -- We Pakistanis live in uncertain times. Emergency rule has been imposed for the 13th time in our short 60-year history. Thousands of lawyers have been arrested, some charged with sedition and treason; the chief justice has been deposed; and a draconian media law -- shutting down all private news channels -- has been drafted.

Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been the hijacking of the democratic cause by my aunt, the twice-disgraced former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. While she was hashing out a deal to share power with Gen. Pervez Musharraf last month, she repeatedly insisted that without her, democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause. Now that the situation has changed, she's saying that she wants Musharraf to step down and that she'd like to make a deal with his opponents -- but still, she says, she's the savior of democracy.

The reality, however, is that there is no one better placed to benefit from emergency rule than she is. Along with the leaders of prominent Islamic parties, she has been spared the violent retributions of emergency law. Yes, she now appears to be facing seven days of house arrest, but what does that really mean? While she was supposedly under house arrest at her Islamabad residence last week, 50 or so of her party members were comfortably allowed to join her. She addressed the media twice from her garden, protected by police given to her by the state, and was not reprimanded for holding a news conference. (By contrast, the very suggestion that they might hold a news conference has placed hundreds of other political activists under real arrest, in real jails.)

Ms. Bhutto's political posturing is sheer pantomime. Her negotiations with the military and her unseemly willingness until just a few days ago to take part in Musharraf's regime have signaled once and for all to the growing legions of fundamentalists across South Asia that democracy is just a guise for dictatorship.

It is widely believed that Ms. Bhutto lost both her governments on grounds of massive corruption. She and her husband, a man who came to be known in Pakistan as "Mr. 10%," have been accused of stealing more than $1 billion from Pakistan's treasury. She is appealing a money-laundering conviction by the Swiss courts involving about $11 million. Corruption cases in Britain and Spain are ongoing.

It was particularly unappealing of Ms. Bhutto to ask Musharraf to bypass the courts and drop the many corruption cases that still face her in Pakistan. He agreed, creating the odiously titled National Reconciliation Ordinance in order to do so. Her collaboration with him was so unsubtle that people on the streets are now calling her party, the Pakistan People's Party, the Pervez People's Party. Now she might like to distance herself, but it's too late.

Why did Ms. Bhutto and her party cronies demand that her corruption cases be dropped, but not demand that the cases of activists jailed during the brutal regime of dictator Zia ul-Haq (from 1977 to 1988) not be quashed? What about the sanctity of the law? When her brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto -- my father -- returned to Pakistan in 1993, he faced 99 cases against him that had been brought by Zia's military government. The cases all carried the death penalty. Yet even though his sister was serving as prime minister, he did not ask her to drop the cases. He returned, was arrested at the airport and spent the remaining years of his life clearing his name, legally and with confidence, in the courts of Pakistan.

Ms. Bhutto's repeated promises to end fundamentalism and terrorism in Pakistan strain credulity because, after all, the Taliban government that ran Afghanistan was recognized by Pakistan under her last government -- making Pakistan one of only three governments in the world to do so.

And I am suspicious of her talk of ensuring peace. My father was a member of Parliament and a vocal critic of his sister's politics. He was killed outside our home in 1996 in a carefully planned police assassination while she was prime minister. There were 70 to 100 policemen at the scene, all the streetlights had been shut off and the roads were cordoned off. Six men were killed with my father. They were shot at point-blank range, suffered multiple bullet wounds and were left to bleed on the streets.

My father was Benazir's younger brother. To this day, her role in his assassination has never been adequately answered, although the tribunal convened after his death under the leadership of three respected judges concluded that it could not have taken place without approval from a "much higher" political authority.

I have personal reasons to fear the danger that Ms. Bhutto's presence in Pakistan brings, but I am not alone. The Islamists are waiting at the gate. They have been waiting for confirmation that the reforms for which the Pakistani people have been struggling have been a farce, propped up by the White House. Since Musharraf seized power in 1999, there has been an earnest grass-roots movement for democratic reform. The last thing we need is to be tied to a neocon agenda through a puppet "democrat" like Ms. Bhutto.

By supporting Ms. Bhutto, who talks of democracy while asking to be brought to power by a military dictator, the only thing that will be accomplished is the death of the nascent secular democratic movement in my country. Democratization will forever be de-legitimized, and our progress in enacting true reforms will be quashed. We Pakistanis are certain of this.

Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani poet and writer. She is the daughter of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, who was killed in 1996 in Karachi when his sister, Benazir, was prime minister.

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Friday, December 28, 2007

Tom and Steve at the Aqus Cafe, December 15, 2007

Tom Overton and I did a couple of hours at the local Aqus Cafe in Petaluma a few weeks ago, and I see one tune is up on YouTube. The noise level is pretty atrocious, but what the heck. You get a glimpse of how good Tom is. He's good. And if I concentrate real hard, I can sing in tune...

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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Israel rules cluster bomb use legal






Israeli military prosecutors have decided not to take any legal action over Israel's use of cluster bombs during last year's war in Lebanon.

The Israeli army said on Monday that it was closing an investigation into a practice that has drawn heavy criticism from the UN and international human rights groups.

The investigation determined that Israel's use of the weapons, which open in flight and scatter dozens of bomblets, was a "concrete military necessity" and did not violate international humanitarian law.

In a statement, the army said its chief investigator, Major-General Gershon HaCohen, determined: "It was clear that the majority of the cluster munitions were fired at open and uninhabited areas, areas from which Hezbollah forces operated and in which no civilians were present."

It said cluster bombs were fired at residential areas only "as an immediate defence response to rocket attacks by Hezbollah" and that Israeli troops did everything possible to minimise civilian casualties.

Whenever firing cluster bombs, Israeli forces were "respecting the laws of armed conflict .... and preserving the ethical values" of the Israeli military, the statement said.

"The use of this weaponry was legal once it was determined that, in order to prevent rocket fire on to Israel, its use was a concrete military necessity," the statement added.

The conclusions were passed on to the military's advocate general, Brigadier-General Avihai Mendelblit, who accepted the recommendation and decided not to press charges. The investigation was launched following the war.

Lebanon reaction

In Beirut, a Lebanese government official rejected the Israeli military prosecutors' decision, saying Israel's use of cluster bombs has been condemned by the whole world.

"The Israeli decision indicates that there is no difference between the judicial authority and political authority in Israel. They all work to commit and cover up crimes which are against humanity," the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused Israel of dropping about four million cluster bombs during its 34-day war against Hezbollah.

They say as many as one million bombs failed to explode and now endanger civilians.

Ongoing explosions

More than 30 people have been killed by cluster bomb and land mine explosions in Lebanon since the 2006 summer war.

The conflict erupted on July 12, 2006, when Hezbollah men attacked an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two.

Amnesty International has criticised Israel for bombing civilian areas and using cluster bombs during the fighting.

It has also criticised Hezbollah for firing nearly 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities and towns.
Source: Agencies

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Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Man wants his $400K back from the FBI


Greg Sowinski | gsowinski@limanews.com - 12.18.2007:




Luther Ricks Sr. sits in the living room of his Greenlawn Avenue home where authorities took more than $400,000 from him earlier this year following a fatal self-defense shooting in his house. The FBI now has his money and is refusing to give it back. (Photo by Matthew Hashiguchi)

LIMA — Two robbers who broke into Luther Ricks Sr.’s house this summer may have not gotten his life savings he had in a safe, but after the FBI confiscated it he may not get it back.

Ricks has tried to get an attorney to fight for the $402,767 but he has no money. Lima Police Department officers originally took the money from his house but the FBI stepped in and took it from the Police Department. Ricks has not been charged with a crime and was cleared in a fatal shooting of one of the robbers but still the FBI has refused to return the money, he said.

“They are saying I have to prove I made it,” he said.

The 63-year-old Ricks said he and his wife, Meredith, saved the money during their lifetime in which both worked while living a modest life.

A representative of the FBI could not be reached for comment.

During the fatal shooting incident inside the house June 30, Ricks and his son were being attacked by two men and his son was stabbed. Ricks broke free, grabbed a gun and shot to death 32-year-old Jyhno Rock inside his home at 939 Greenlawn Ave.

Police originally took the money after finding marijuana inside Ricks’ home, which Ricks said he had to help manage pain.

“I smoke marijuana. I have arthritis. I have shingles, a hip replacement,” he said.

Ricks, who is retired from Ohio Steel Foundry, said he always had a safe at home and never had a bank account.

American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Legal Director Jeff Gamso said Ricks has a tough road ahead, not impossible, but tough to get back his money.

“The law of forfeiture basically says you have to prove you’re innocent. It’s terrible, terrible law,” he said.

The law is tilted in favor of the FBI in that Ricks need not be charged with a crime and the FBI stands a good chance at keeping the money, Gamso said.

“The law will presume it is the result of ill-gotten gains,” he said.

Still Ricks can pursue it and possibly convince a judge he had the money through a lifetime of savings. Asking the FBI usually doesn’t work, he said.

“The FBI, before they would give it up, would want dated receipts,” he said.

If the FBI does keep the money, it would be put toward a law enforcement use, if the city of Lima does not fight for it because the city discovered it, Gamso said.

Lima Law Director Tony Geiger said he has not been asked to stake a legal claim for the money.

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Monday, December 24, 2007

Culinary shocker

another from Physorg.com:

Cooking can preserve, boost nutrient content of vegetables

Contrary to conventional wisdom a new study by Italian researchers finds that cooking vegetables can preserve or even boost their nutrient content. Credit: USDA-ARS photo by Scott Bauer
Contrary to conventional wisdom, a new study by Italian researchers finds that cooking vegetables can preserve or even boost their nutrient content. Credit: USDA-ARS photo by Scott Bauer

In a finding that defies conventional culinary wisdom, researchers in Italy report that cooking vegetables can preserve or even boost their nutritional value in comparison to their raw counterparts, depending on the cooking method used. Their study is scheduled for the Dec. 26 issue of ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Nicoletta Pellegrini and colleagues note that although many people maintain that eating raw vegetables is more nutritious than eating cooked ones, a small but growing number of studies suggest that cooking may actually increase the release of some nutrients. However, scientists are seeking more complete data on the nutritional properties of cooked vegetables, the researchers say.

In the new study, the researchers evaluated the effects of three commonly-used Italian cooking practices — boiling, steaming, and frying — on the nutritional content of carrots, zucchini and broccoli. Boiling and steaming maintained the antioxidant compounds of the vegetables, whereas frying caused a significantly higher loss of antioxidants in comparison to the water-based cooking methods, they say.

For broccoli, steaming actually increased its content of glucosinolates, a group of plant compounds touted for their cancer-fighting abilities. The findings suggest that it may be possible to select a cooking method for each vegetable that can best preserve or improve its nutritional quality, the researchers say.

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The Library of Congress in your wrist watch?

Physorg.com:
Every advance in memory storage devices presents a new marvel of just how much memory can be squeezed into very small spaces. Considering the potential of nanolasers being developed in Sakhrat Khizroev’s lab at the University of California, Riverside, things are about to get a lot smaller.

As reported in the latest issue of Technology Review, Khizroev is leading a team exploring lasers so tiny that they point to a future where a 10-terabit hard drive is only one-inch square.

That is 50 times the data density of today’s magnetic storage technology, a technology that has nearly reached its limit for continued miniaturization.

[. . .]

Khizroev said there are a number of challenges for getting the tiny disk drives to the market, including lubricating tiny parts and integrating the nanolaser with a recording head. Still, he insisted, the 10-terabit hard drive will be a near-term innovation, appearing in as little as two years.

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On decrying the commercialization of the decrying of the commercialization of Christmas

Jonathan Schwarz in TinyRevolution:

December 24, 2007

My Christmas Message

I'm so tired of the commercialization of decrying the commercialization of Christmas!

When I was growing up, we didn't need special issues of Real Simple Magazine or episodes of Oprah to decry the commercialization of Christmas. I bet my entire family could have decried the commercialization of Christmas for less money than they spend on one disapproving segment on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric about competing neighbors in Boca Raton who each spend $1 million each year on Christmas decorations in their subdivision. In fact, one year when times were slow at dad's law firm, we decried the commercialization of Christmas without spending any money at all!

That's because we understood the true meaning of decrying the commercialization of Christmas. It's about giving, and sharing, and spending time with your loved ones being angry about the CGI baby Jesus in the Wii commercial.

The worst part about the commercialization of decrying the commercialization of Christmas is that it starts earlier every year. First it was December, then Thanksgiving, then Labor Day. I wouldn't be surprised if we wake up one year soon and we're decrying the commercialization of Christmas on December 26th, before we've even returned the copy of It's a Wonderful Life we bought to decry the commercialization of the previous Christmas!

So take my advice: this year, step back from your over-scheduled, stressful life, and decry the commercialization of Christmas the way the old fashioned way. You don't need big corporations to do it for you. Just get together with the people you care about the most, and bitch about like your parents did...and their parents before them. I bet a year from now you'll look back on this as the best decrying the commercialization of Christmas of all.

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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

This is absurd

New York Times:


Families Pay as US Agents Under Attack Fire Tear Gas Into Mexico
The Associated Press

Tuesday 18 December 2007

San Diego - Border Patrol agents are firing tear gas and powerful pepper-spray weapons across the border into Mexico to repel what the agency says are an increasing number of attacks by assailants hurling stones, bottles and bricks.

The counteroffensive has drawn complaints that innocent families are being caught in the cross-fire.

Esther Arias Medina, 41, fled her shanty in Tijuana with her 3-week-old grandson last week in the midst of an attack. The boy had begun coughing, Ms. Arias said, after smoke seeped through the walls of the three-room home, which she shares with six others.

"We don't deserve this," she said. "The people who live here don't throw rocks. Those are people who come from the outside. But we're paying the price."

Witnesses in Ms. Arias's neighborhood described eight attacks since August that involved tear gas or pepper spray, some that forced residents to evacuate.

The Border Patrol said its agents had been attacked nearly 1,000 times during a one-year period. The agency's top official in San Diego, Mike Fisher, said agents were taking action because the Mexican authorities had been slow to respond. When an attack occurs, Mr. Fisher said, the agents often wait hours for Mexican officers, who, he said, usually never arrive.

"We have been taking steps to ensure that our agents are safe," he said.

In October, agents in California and Arizona received compressed-air guns that shoot pepper-spray canisters more than 200 feet. (Agents already had less powerful launchers, which lose their punch after about 30 feet.) Border Patrol SWAT teams along the 1,952-mile border are also equipped with tear gas, "flash bombs" that emit blinding light and "sting ball" grenades that disperse hundreds of tiny rubber pellets.

United States officials say the new tactics may spare lives. In March, an agent shot and killed a 20-year-old Mexican man whose arm was cocked; that fatality occurred in Calexico, Calif., where attacks with stones have soared. And two years ago, an agent fatally shot a stone thrower at the San Diego-Tijuana border.

Mexico's acting consul general in San Diego, Ricardo Pineda Albarrán, has insisted that United States authorities stop firing onto Mexican soil. Mr. Pineda met with Border Patrol officials last month after the agency fired tear gas into Mexico. The agency defended that action, saying agents were being hit with a hail of ball bearings from slingshots in Mexico.

[. . .]

The leader of a union representing Border Patrol employees said the violence also resulted from a decision to put agents right up against the border, a departure from the early 1990s, when they waited farther back to make arrests.

"When you get that close to the fence, your agents are sitting ducks," said T. J. Bonner, president of the union, the National Border Patrol Council.

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Monday, December 17, 2007

Ocean Acidification Update


Oceans' Growing Acidity Alarms Scientists
By Les Blumenthal
McClatchy Newspapers

Sunday 16 December 2007

Washington - Seven hundred miles west of Seattle in the Pacific at Ocean Station Papa, a first-of-its-kind buoy is anchored to monitor a looming environmental catastrophe.

Forget about sea levels rising as glaciers and polar ice melt, and increasing water temperatures affecting global weather patterns. As the oceans absorb more and more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, they're gradually becoming more acidic.

And some scientists fear that the change may be irreversible.

At risk are sea creatures up and down the food chain, from the tiniest phytoplankton and zooplankton to whales, from squid to salmon to crabs, coral, oysters and clams.

The oceans are already 30 percent more acidic than they were at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, as they absorb 22 tons of carbon dioxide a day. By the end of the century, they could be 150 percent more acidic.

"Everything points to dramatic effects," said Richard Feely, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. "There are suggestions the entire ecosystem could change over time."

Originally, scientists thought the oceans could be one of the solutions to the buildup of greenhouse gases, as they absorb about one-third of the carbon dioxide that's emitted worldwide. But they now know that the fundamental chemistry of the oceans has changed, and the possible impacts seem to grow more nightmarish as research accelerates.

"It seems like it is a one-way street, and that is alarming," said Steven Emerson, a professor of oceanography at the University of Washington. "The pH of the oceans could be lowered permanently."

[. . .]

Though cuts in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions might slow or reverse global warming, scientist say it could take thousands of years or longer to reverse the increased acidity of the oceans.

"For all practical purposes this is permanent," Emerson said. "That's not true of temperature. But with ocean acidification the time scales are long."

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Jonathan Schwarz and a Costa Rican memo scanned from Harpers

aTinyRevolution.com:

December 17, 2007

The Shepherds Discuss How To Guide Their Flock

Here's an internal Costa Rica government memo about their campaign for CAFTA that was leaked and is now in the latest issue of Harper's. Any connoisseur of government lying should read it:

What I like about this is how it demonstrates how few tools these people have. They have to use the same ones over and over again, now matter what they're selling: trade deals, tax cuts for billionaires, wars. In fact, it's so predictable that this is exactly what I would have come up with if I'd had to guess at what they were saying to each other. Here's how it always goes:

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! You might remember this previous leaked memo from the National Association of Manufacturers in 2001, which went out to lobbyists who were going to attend a photo op pushing for Bush's tax cuts for the top 0.1%:

"The theme involves working Americans. Visually, this will involve a sea of hard hats, which our construction and contractor and building groups are working very hard to provide...But the Speaker's office was very clear in saying that they do not need people in suits. If people want to participate -- AND WE DO NEED BODIES -- they must be DRESSED DOWN, appear to be REAL WORKER types, etc. We plan to have hard hats for people to wear."

So it's no surprise this was exactly the plan in Costa Rica.

Be afraid! As with the selling of the Iraq war, so too with CAFTA. There's something scary out there, and you need us to protect you from it.

Be especially afraid of outsiders! The people who run the world are sophisticated internationalists. So as in this memo, they're embarrassed to appeal to atavistic fear of strangers. But if that's what it takes to sway the "simplest people," then they'll use it. They may vacation in Gstaad with the Saudi royal family, but to sell the Iraq war they'll tell you scary stories about Teh Muslim Darkies. They may themselves take orders from Citibank, but to sell CAFTA they'll scream about "foreign influence."

It's not all about the Benjamins! It's not enough to confuse and terrify the rubes—you've also got to give them something to believe, some larger cause. As they write here, "No one is willing to die for free trade, but maybe they would for democracy." I'm sure there are also White House Iraq Group memos saying, "No one is willing to die for American Hegemony in the world's greatest oil-producing region, but maybe they would for democracy."

All in all, this is a great template for keeping power if you believe human beings are sheep.

INTERNET BONUS: You can send email to one of the authors of this memo here.

—Jonathan Schwarz

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Saturday, December 15, 2007

Up to 400,000 times...

Nature.com:

Semen boosts HIV transmission

Fibres may be more important than viral load in determining transmission rates.

It's not just viral load in semen that matters: other compounds can boost HIV infectiveness.It's not just viral load in semen that matters: other compounds can boost HIV infectiveness.DigitalVision

A component found in semen can enhance HIV transmission by as much as 100,000-fold, researchers have found. The results, if verified in a clinical setting, could identify a new way to help prevent the spread of the disease.

[. . .]

Now researchers have found that peptides clustered together into long fibres may be more important for HIV transmission than viral load. “If that’s true, then we’ve been looking at the wrong thing for a long time,” says Pilcher.

[. . .]

They found that fragments of a protein called 'prostatic acidic phosphatase' strongly enhanced HIV transmission. The peptides were most active when they clustered together to form fibres called amyloid fibrils.

Depending on the laboratory assay being used, the fibres enhanced transmission of the virus by as little as 30-fold or as much as 400,000-fold. The results are published this week in Cell 1. The researchers also tested the fibres in rats that were engineered to be susceptible to HIV infection. Rats injected with both the fibres and HIV had five times more viral DNA in their blood than those injected with HIV alone.

[. . .]

Many human proteins can form amyloid fibrils, and these fibres are associated with several diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. But none had been previously shown to affect virus transmission, says Per Westermark, who studies the fibrils at Uppsala University in Sweden.

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Friday, December 14, 2007

Huge Newfound Part of Milky Way Rotates Backward

Does this make any sense to you?

Maybe it's the way three dimensional space is represented in two dimensions. Think about the center of gravity that the cosmic objects are orbiting. It looks like this would only work as the diagram shows it if the stars and star clusters were attached to the blue sphere, rotating like a hollow glass marble. Sort of Aristotelian...
Space.com:

Huge Newfound Part of Milky Way Rotates Backward
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 12 December 2007
01:00 pm ET

Our Milky Way Galaxy has two distinct parts in its outer reaches that rotate in opposite directions, astronomers announced today.

The galaxy has a bulbous core where stars are tightly packed and orbiting rather furiously around the central black hole. Then there's the big flat disk with its spiral arms, also orbiting the galactic center somewhat in the manner of a hurricane's spiral bands. We live on one of those arms. Around it all is a halo of stars that don't all behave in such an orderly fashion. That much researchers knew.

Now they find the halo has two parts.

"By examining the motions and chemical makeup of the stars, we can see that the inner and outer halos are quite different beasts and they probably formed in different ways at different times," said Daniela Carollo, a researcher at Italy's Torino Observatory and the Australian National University.

The finding, detailed in the Dec. 12 issue of the journal Nature, is based on 20,000 stars observed as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

The main galactic disk, home to our sun, rotates at an average speed of 500,000 mph. Surrounding the disk is what's now called the inner halo. It orbits in the same direction at about 50,000 mph. The outer halo, a sparsely populated region, spins in the opposite direction at roughly 100,000 mph.

There are chemical differences between the two parts, too. Stars in the inner halo have three times as many heavy atoms, including iron and calcium. These heavy elements were produced by massive stars that exploded fantastically and begat subsequent generations of stars.

"The halo is clearly divisible into two, broadly overlapping components," said study team member Timothy C. Beers of Michigan State University. "The discovery gives us a much clearer picture of the formation of the first objects in our galaxy and in the entire universe."

The study adds to other evidence showing the galaxy was not built in a cosmic day. Rather, it assembled over time, gobbling smaller galaxies in one of nature's greatest construction projects.

The inner halo probably formed first, from collisions between smaller galaxies that had been captured by the Milky Way's gravitation. The outer halo formed later, the thinking goes, as small galaxies (orbiting opposite our own) were lured in and torn apart.

"We still have a lot to understand," said Masashi Chiba of Japan's Tohoku University.

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Wexler Gets Serious

Raw Story:

Spurned by major newspapers, Dem Congressman takes 'impeach Cheney' appeal to Web

Nick Juliano
Published: Friday December 14, 2007

del.icio.us del.icio.us


Print This Email This

As the House Judiciary Committee continues to refuse any action on proposals to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, three of that panel's members tried to take their case to influential op-ed pages of the nation's largest newspapers.

They were turned down by every one -- including the New York Times, Washington Post and Miami Herald -- so now one of the lawmakers has taken his campaign to the Internet.

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) on Friday launched a new Web site, WexlerWantsHearings.com to advance his call to impeach Cheney. The site hosts an op-ed article censored by the nation's major newspapers and outlines the case for impeaching Cheney.

"The truth is the mainstream media have no interest in this issue," Wexler said Friday.

"They have bought into the notion that impeachment hearings are outside the bounds of what the congress ought to be doing," the six-term Congressman elaborated during a conference call Friday.

The House Judiciary Committee has before it a resolution introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) calling for Cheney's impeachment and accusing the vice president of a raft of high crimes, including manipulating intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war, obstructing federal investigations and conspiring to expose the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said impeachment in strictly off the table, and the Judiciary Committee seems unlikely to move forward with any hearings. Wexler encouraged impeachment supporters to sign a petition on his new site to allay the notions of Democratic leaders that impeachment supporters are little more than "a fringe, marginal group of people."

Wexler said the House has the constitutional obligation to begin impeachment hearings to investigate malfeasance within the Bush administration, and he blamed the lack of enthusiasm thus far on the "bad taste" left by the GOP's last impeachment crusade.

"People are just afraid that we would just be putting the shoe on the other foot and just doing ... what the Republicans did to Bill Clinton," Wexler told the conference call, which was organized by Democrats.com.

The "kangaroo court" Republicans used to impeach Clinton, on grounds that he lied about his liaison with an intern, cannot become the precedent by which the constitutional tool is judged, Wexler said.

Although Bush and Cheney will be leaving the White House for good in 13 months, Wexler said impeachment hearings were necessary because of the need to ferret out possible criminality in the administration.

"We have to follow the evidence where it leads," he said. "We have an obligation to do it, and to do it as thoroughly as possible."

Wexler posted the following video appeal on his impeachment Web site.


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Advanced Rechargeable Batteries out in March

Engadet:

Toshiba launching SCiB batteries in March: 5 min charge, 10 year lifespan


How does this sound: a battery capable of recharging to 90% in under 5 minutes while remaining useful (i.e., 5,000+ recharges) for 10 years or more? Sounds like the stuff of jetpacks and food replicators right? Nope... March, 2008. It was a long, long time ago when we first brought you news of these so-called "Super Li-ion" batteries. In March of 2005 to be exact. Now they're here, courtesy of Toshiba who just announced their Super Charge ion Batteries, or SCiBs. The wee 2.4V version measures 62 x 95 x 13-mm / 150-grams while the big, bad 24V version measures in at 100 x 300 x 45-mm and 2000-grams. Oh, and they won't short-circuit and explode. The problem? The first production run is for industrial-use (non-CE) class devices like hybrid cars and the like. Oh pretty please Toshiba, with sugar, won't you make a laptop version?

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cryptogon

I have perhaps, oh, a trillion links bookmarked. Ok, less that a trillion. But still a lot.

One that I happened to check just now is http://cryptogon.com. I had forgotten exactly what it was.

I just read most of the recent posts, and it has a most wondrous selection of articles blogged.

Things like this (these are just the intros):

Via: Popular Science:

Green Tech
THE MICROWAVE MAGICIAN

Microwave Machine Recovers Natural Gas and Oil from Any Hydrocarbon Based Material

December 14th, 2007

Frank Pringle has found a way to squeeze oil and gas from just about anything

I’m not sure if I’m watching a magic trick, or an invention that will make the cigar-chomping 64-year-old next to me the richest man on the planet. Everything that goes into Frank Pringle’s recycling machine—a piece of tire, a rock, a plastic cup—turns to oil and natural gas seconds later. “I’ve been told the oil companies might try to assassinate me,” Pringle says without sarcasm.

The machine is a microwave emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects—or at least anything made with hydrocarbons, which, it turns out, is most of what’s around you. Every hour, the first commercial version will turn 10 tons of auto waste—tires, plastic, vinyl—into enough natural gas to produce 17 million BTUs of energy (it will use 956,000 of those BTUs to keep itself running).


WHEAT: LIMIT UP

December 13th, 2007

Via: AP:

Wheat prices surged the daily trading limit Wednesday on expectations that U.S. exports will continue at the high pace of recent months and deplete domestic supplies.

Energy futures, other agricultural products and gold also rose, boosted in part by the dollar’s weakness Wednesday.


CHINA: 36 MAJOR CITIES TOLD TO KEEP FOOD, OIL RESERVES

December 13th, 2007

Via: China Daily:

The central government Tuesday instructed 36 major cities to each maintain a minimum 10-day reserve of food and cooking oil supplies, as part of its measures to ensure market stability during the current period of rising food prices.

A notice jointly issued by five ministries led by the country’s top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, said the move was necessary to ensure a “ready” emergency production and distribution system.

The cities include Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.


James Turk: Liquidity Won’t Help Insolvency

December 13th, 2007

Of course, James Turk has more riding on gold than just about anyone, but this is a good read anyway.

Via: Kitco:

The Federal Reserve today announced a new scheme to inject more liquidity into the money markets. It cobbled together a partnership arrangement, as the Canadian, UK and European central banks also agreed to participate in the scheme.

The process of ‘injecting liquidity’ is a euphemistic way of saying ‘creating money out of thin air.’ The Federal Reserve doesn’t need a printing press to do this. They simply create a book entry on its balance sheet, and presto, $40 billion (or whatever amount they deem appropriate) of new ‘money’ is created, which the Fed then lends to those bankers coming to it hat in hand.


Import Prices Rise 2.7%, the Most in 17 Years

December 13th, 2007


U.S. DOLLAR HOLDERS MAY BE FORCED TO ACCEPT IMF RESERVE ASSETS IF THEY WANT TO DIVERSIFY; FLOOD OF DOLLARS THREATENS GLOBAL ECONOMY

December 12th, 2007

WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.

“This is the warning I’ve been repeating for years: You do not want to try to reach the exit as millions of other people attempt to do the same thing. Waiting for clarity is not often rewarded.

Cryptogon: Waiting for Clarity on the Brink of Oblivion

This is easily the most dire financial story in a generation.


Pentagon Poised to Resume Open Air Chemical and Biological Weapons Testing

December 12th, 2007

* shaking head * * mumbling *

Via: Scoop:

The Pentagon has denied President Bush issued a directive for it to resume open-air testing of chemical and biological warfare(CBW) agents that were halted by President Richard Nixon in 1969. Yet, the Pentagon’s stated preparations make it appear it is poised to do just that.

Spokesperson Chris Isleib did not respond to a request for comment on a passage from the Defense Department’s annual report sent to Congress last April that suggests the Pentagon is gearing up to resume the tests.


Voice to Skull Technology in New York

December 12th, 2007

Via: AdAge:

New Yorker Alison Wilson was walking down Prince Street in SoHo last week when she heard a woman’s voice right in her ear asking, “Who’s there? Who’s there?” She looked around to find no one in her immediate surroundings. Then the voice said, “It’s not your imagination.”

Indeed it isn’t. It’s an ad for “Paranormal State,” a ghost-themed series premiering on A&E this week. The billboard uses technology manufactured by Holosonic that transmits an “audio spotlight” from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium. The technology, ideal for museums and libraries or environments that require a quiet atmosphere for isolated audio slideshows, has rarely been used on such a scale before. For random passersby and residents who have to walk unwittingly through the area where the voice will penetrate their inner peace, it’s another story.


Washington Mutual to Close 190 Offices

Via: San Francisco Chronicle:

Washington Mutual Inc., the nation’s largest savings and loan, said Monday that problems in the mortgage and credit markets are forcing it to close offices, lay off more than 3,000 workers and set aside up to $1.6 billion for loan losses in its fourth quarter.


Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S. Government, Halliburton/KBR

December 11th, 2007

Via: ABC News:

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.

“Don’t plan on working back in Iraq. There won’t be a position here, and there won’t be a position in Houston,” Jones says she was told.

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Sunday, December 09, 2007

At last, a voice of sanity!

I remember Tony from his National Lampoon days.

December 08, 2007
Bush Vows to Take Out Iran's Non-Existent Nukes

Tony Hendra | Bio

(37 minutes ago)
Speaking at an emergency press-conference in the White House, President Bush has just announced that air, sea and land elements of a massive US invasion force are being assembled in the Persian Gulf and on Iran's Western borders.

Citing Monday's NIE which established "beyond the shadow of a doubt" that since 2003 Iran has developed a massive arsenal of non-existent nuclear weapons, Bush said he had no option but declare an immediate preemptive assault on the obstinate regime in Tehran.

"The complete absence of evidence that Iran has hostile intentions towards the West is the most conclusive evidence we have yet seen that Iran has hostile intentions towards the West," said the president, adding that the NIE's lack of any indication that Iranians are working on long-range delivery systems for their non-existent nukes can only mean that they are. He warned that all 50 states of the homeland are in dire peril, including the state of Israel. "We Americans are not a war-like people" he went on somberly. "We are patient. We are slow to anger. But once our righteous wrath is roused, we will kick the crap out of your sorry brown ass."

Israel itself has between 200 and 400 nuclear weapons which don't exist. Questioned about the difference between weapons which don't exist and non-existent nuclear weapons, Bush said non-existent nuclear weapons are far more dangerous because they're so hard to locate. He added that while Israel's weapons now non-exist in a legal limbo, they would become legal under the new Non-existent Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, which he is proposing to introduce in the UN Security Council. It would also authorize Israel to add as many weapons which don't exist to its arsenal as it deemed necessary to keep Arab nations in their place. The president stressed that the new treaty should not be confused with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which applies only to nations whose populations are 10% or less of Euro-American origin. The new Non-existent Nuclear Proliferation Treaty would only apply to nations whose populations are 80%-plus of Euro-American origin, a category which includes Israel.

In the follow-up question period Bush spokesperson Dana Perino reacted negatively to a reporter who asked whether under the Cold War principle of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) Iran did not have the right to develop non-existent nuclear weapons to deter the use of Israel's nuclear weapons which don't exist. Ms Perino characterized the question as 'treasonous' (The reporter in question is en route to Khorogos in eastern Kazakhstan for questioning about his questioning). Ms Perino also revealed that in cooperation with Webster's Dictionary and Microsoft's SpelChek Inc., the White House proposed to change the official English-language spelling of "nuclear' to "nukuler."

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10 Steps to Fascism

Naomi Wolf:
video—38:29


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Friday, December 07, 2007

Keith Olbermann nails it

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Saturday, December 01, 2007

Perhaps the strangest video I've ever seen

It's here.

It manages to be at once both hysterically bizarre and somehow frightfully chilling.

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