jetcloud: December 2004

Thursday, December 30, 2004

EO Newsroom: New Images - Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis

// posted by Unknown @ 11:00 a.m. 0 Comments

Monday, December 27, 2004

Pentagon Is Pressing to Bypass Environmental Laws for War Games and Arms Testing

The WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 - The Defense Department, which controls 28 million acres of land across the nation that it uses for combat exercises and weapons testing, has been moving on a variety of fronts to reduce requirements that it safeguard the environment on that land.

// posted by Unknown @ 11:55 p.m. 1 Comments

Friday, December 24, 2004

China Emerging as U.S. Rival for Canada's Oil

"Canada, the largest source of imported oil for the United States,: has historically sent almost all its exports of oil south by pipeline to help quench America's thirst for energy. But that arrangement may be about to change as China, which has surpassed Japan as the second-largest market for oil, flexes its muscle in attempts to secure oil, even in places like the cold boreal forests of northern Alberta, where the oil has to be sucked out of the sticky, sandy soil."

// posted by Unknown @ 7:14 p.m. 0 Comments

Torture reconsidered: Shock, awe and the human body: printer friendly version

Torture reconsidered: Shock, awe and the human body: printer friendly version: "In January 2002, the White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales (who is soon to become attorney general), advised George W. Bush that it could be done by fiat. If the president simply declared 'detainees' in Afghanistan outside the protection of the Geneva conventions, the 1996 U.S. War Crimes Act - which carries a possible death penalty for Geneva violations - would not apply."

// posted by Unknown @ 12:53 a.m. 0 Comments

Thursday, December 23, 2004

New Scientist - Flexible scanner works on curved surfaces

// posted by Unknown @ 2:42 p.m. 0 Comments

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Arctic lights blamed on climate change

Inuit hunters are telling the government's weather station at Resolute Bay - Canada's second most northerly village, 1,000 miles from the North Pole - of a new light in the sky.

// posted by Unknown @ 7:47 p.m. 0 Comments

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Belly Cast Kits by ProudBody: belly cast gallery of pictures

// posted by Unknown @ 2:11 p.m. 0 Comments

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

"Rich walk ever taller in Canada"

rabble columns: The C. D. Howe Institute recently set up a “Tax Competitiveness Centre” to recommend far-reaching tax reforms. That spells trouble for most Canadians.

Unless you're a rich investor, hold onto your wallet. Whenever the business-funded institute starts poking around in the tax system, it finds lots of things to change — mostly for the benefit of the rich.

That means the rest of us end up paying more taxes, or face cuts to social programs or benefits.

With the federal government trying to decide what to do with a surplus of $9 billion, the institute has been full of ideas.

Its latest — advocated by Jack Mintz, head of its new Tax Competitiveness Centre — is strikingly similar to one favoured by the Bush administration:

Lift the tax burden entirely off income from investments and place the full tax burden on income from labour.

// posted by Unknown @ 2:06 a.m. 2 Comments

Anarchism For Kids

Anarchism For Kids: "A right-wing hate group which calls for genocide against Arabs and Muslims claims to have convinced NetFirms to shut down the 'Anarchism for Kids' website. The right-wing group argues that anarchists have no right to educate their children. They claim that NetFirms agrees.
If this website should go down, it will be republished at http://www.stephen-devoy.com/anarchismforkids/

// posted by Unknown @ 1:49 a.m. 0 Comments

Brain Activity Reflects Complexity Of Responses To Other-race Faces

Brain Activity Reflects Complexity Of Responses To Other-race Faces: "CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Psychologists have found that the amygdala, a subcortical region of the brain involved in emotional responses, is associated with a measure of unconscious race bias, especially when responding to faces presented subliminally. Their research also indicates that other higher areas of the brain that are involved in deliberative thought processes can moderate the amygdala activity."

// posted by Unknown @ 1:17 a.m. 0 Comments

We're Here, We're Not Queer, and We Hate Minorities: American Censorship in 2004

We're Here, We're Not Queer, and We Hate Minorities: American Censorship in 2004: "Feel a chill in the air? What better way to warm up than by burning a book?
By Matt Hutaff Dec 14, 2004

To those who enjoy discriminating against their fellow citizen and think we're doing the Lord's work in the Middle East, I ask you this: what the fuck is wrong with Holden Caulfield?"

// posted by Unknown @ 1:10 a.m. 0 Comments

PhysOrg: New class of airborne particles unaccounted for in climate models

PhysOrg: New class of airborne particles unaccounted for in climate models: "Dry dust reacts with air pollutants to form dewy particles whose sunlight-reflecting and cloud-altering properties are unaccounted for in atmospheric models. 'Calcite-containing dust particles blow into the air and encounter gaseous nitric acid in polluted air from factories to form an entirely new particle of calcium nitrate,' said Alexander Laskin, a senior research scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington."

// posted by Unknown @ 1:03 a.m. 0 Comments

RedNova News - Scientists Warn of Global Warming Results

RedNova News - Scientists Warn of Global Warming Results: "BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Scientists warned Tuesday that a long-term increase in global temperature of 3.5 degrees could threaten Latin American water supplies, reduce food yields in Asia and result in a rise in extreme weather conditions in the Caribbean.

The warnings came in a report by a group of European scientists on the sidelines of an annual U.N. conference on climate change.

Carlo Jaeger, a scientist at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said if the long-term temperature increase was 3.5 degrees above from a century ago, it could collapse the Amazon rain forest ecosystem and lead to rising sea levels affecting Greenland."

// posted by Unknown @ 1:01 a.m. 0 Comments

Planet Ark : Climate Change Impact? Look in Your Backyard

Planet Ark : Climate Change Impact? Look in Your Backyard: "To witness the impact of a warming planet, one need not make a costly trip to the melting Arctic ice cap. Proof of climate change is right there in most people's backyards, scientists said on Tuesday.

There, plants, birds, insects, mammals and fish are rapidly responding to changes in the climate. Flowering may happen earlier, while birds may not survive extreme temperatures."

// posted by Unknown @ 12:30 a.m. 0 Comments

Reason: Adapting to Climate Change: From Reason and Tech Central Station, continuing coverage of the COP10 negotiations in Buenos Aires

Reason: Adapting to Climate Change: From Reason and Tech Central Station, continuing coverage of the COP10 negotiations in Buenos Aires: "Adapting to Climate Change"

// posted by Unknown @ 12:23 a.m. 0 Comments

Sunday, December 12, 2004

NewsTrolls ~ News Under the Radar

"The right wing's favorite potty-mouths are up to it again,bashing Canada with a boatload of misinformation and prejudice... Submitted on December 11, 2004 8:46 a.m. by StephenDownes."

// posted by Unknown @ 1:00 a.m. 0 Comments

Friday, December 10, 2004

Computer program will allow Canadian troops to disarm land mines with laptops

"Laptop-toting Canadian soldiersmay soon venture into live minefields and be able to identify and disarm mines on-screen before actually putting their lives at risk."

// posted by Unknown @ 12:47 p.m. 0 Comments

News about Submarines at StrategyPage.com's How to Make War.

The Month Long Voyage of the Chinese SSN"

// posted by Unknown @ 12:29 p.m. 0 Comments

Two Snowbirds crash during training

"A pair of Snowbird jetscrashed south of Moose Jaw, Sask., on Friday in an unexplained accident."

// posted by Unknown @ 12:23 p.m. 0 Comments

Shipwreck off Alaska becomes major oil spill

"Slickmeasured at 2.5 miles in diameter and expanding"

// posted by Unknown @ 12:09 p.m. 0 Comments

Thursday, December 09, 2004

First-ever safety study of medical cannabis use in Canada launched

"A first-of-its-kind study of safety issues surrounding the medical use of cannabis has just been launched. Known as the COMPASS study (Cannabis for the management of pain: assessment of safety study), the research initiative will follow 1400 chronic pain patients, 350 of whom use cannabis as part of their pain management strategy, for a one-year period. Seven participating pain clinics across Canada are now enrolling patients for this study. "

// posted by Unknown @ 4:59 p.m. 0 Comments

Solar Powered HydrogenVancouver's NRC Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation Showcases Renewable Hydrogen Generation System - National Research Council Ca

Solar Powered HydrogenVancouver's NRC Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation Showcases Renewable Hydrogen Generation System - National Research Council Canada: "Solar Powered Hydrogen
Vancouver's NRC Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation Showcases Renewable Hydrogen Generation System"

// posted by Unknown @ 4:51 p.m. 0 Comments

Sea-Level Clue to Climate Chill

UIC News Release: "It sounds like a disaster film: rising temperatures melt polar ice, causing a flood of freshwater to rapidly enter the salty North Atlantic. As the fresh and salty water mixes, density changes, altering the Gulf Stream ocean currents that moderate the North Atlantic climate. In just a few years, average temperatures plummet, ushering in a deep freeze that lasts a century or more before fresh and salty water is back in balance, ocean currents adjust and temperatures return to normal. "

// posted by Unknown @ 4:39 p.m. 0 Comments