jetcloud: September 2005

Friday, September 30, 2005

Sun's direct role in global warming may be underestimated, Duke physicists report

The physicists said that their findings indicate that climate models of global warming need to be corrected for the effects of changes in solar activity. However, they emphasized that their findings do not argue against the basic theory that significant global warming is occurring because of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gases.

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The Seattle Times: Local News: Warming will affect water supply, scientists warn Seattle officials

Earlier this year, Seattle water managers wrung their hands over the dismal snowpack in the mountains.

The city urged residents to start conserving water and warned of mandatory water restrictions if the situation didn't improve.

Expect that to happen more in the future because of global warming, according to the findings of University of Washington scientists.

While late-spring rains helped pull Seattle from the brink this year, the city could expect droughts to come more frequently in the future, the scientists predicted.

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We must hit the streets to demand action on global warming | By Ted Glick | Grist Magazine | Soapbox | 30 Sep 2005

Given the urgency and magnitude of the escalating pace of climate change, the only hope lies in a rapid and unprecedented mobilization of humanity around this issue ... that some spark might ignite a massive uprising of popular will around a unifying movement for social survival and the promise it holds for a more prosperous, more equitable, and more peaceful world." -- Ross Gelbspan, Boiling Point

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Thursday, September 29, 2005

New Case Reveals Routine Abuse of Government Surveillance Powers

EFF: Breaking News: "Cell Phones Used to Track Users Without Probable Cause

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is arguing that a New York federal court should stand by its decision to require probable cause to believe a crime has been or is about to be committed before letting the government secretly track people using their cell phones.

"This is the first case considering when the government can track the movements of your cell phone, and the answer couldn't be more important," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Allowing the government to turn anyone's cell phone into a tracking device without probable cause will enable a surveillance society that would make Big Brother jealous."

Last month, the court denied a Justice Department request to monitor a cell phone's location. The ruling revealed that the DOJ has routinely been securing court orders for real-time cell phone tracking without probable cause and without any law authorizing the surveillance.

Many cell phone users aren't aware that their phones can be used to track their location in real-time, even when they aren't using them. EFF filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Friday to oppose a DOJ motion asking the court to reconsider its pro-privacy decision. EFF argues that the Fourth Amendment requires a search warrant for such invasive surveillance, issued under the same strict standards as warrants that authorize phone and Internet wiretaps.

The government has tried to justify this gross expansion of its authority by combining two surveillance statutes, neither of which authorize cell phone tracking on their own. As EFF explains in its brief, there is no support anywhere for this argument -- not in the statutes' language, nor in legislative history, case law, or academic commentary. Indeed, it contradicts the government's own electronic evidence manual. "It's as if the government wants the court to believe that zero plus zero somehow equals one," said Bankston."

// posted by Unknown @ 8:20 p.m. 0 Comments

Sea Ice Decline Intensifies

"Summer Arctic sea ice falls far below average for fourth year, winter ice sees sharp decline, spring melt starts earlier

This is a joint press release between the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), a part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder; NASA; and the University of Washington.

For the fourth consecutive year, NSIDC and NASA scientists using satellite data have tracked a stunning reduction in arctic sea ice at the end of the northern summer. The persistence of near-record low extents leads the group to conclude that Arctic sea ice is likely on an accelerating, long-term decline.

Considering the record low amounts of sea ice this year leading up to the month of September, 2005 will almost certainly surpass 2002 as the lowest amount of ice cover in more than a century,” said Julienne Stroeve of NSIDC."

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Wired News: Mighty Mice Regrow Organs

Genetically altered mice discovered accidentally at the Wistar Institute in Pennsylvania have the seemingly miraculous ability to regenerate like a salamander, and even regrow vital organs.

Researchers systematically amputated digits and damaged various organs of the mice, including the heart, liver and brain, most of which grew back.

After Wistar Institute researchers pierced the ear of a genetically altered mouse (bottom row), the stunned scientists noted that the hole quickly healed without a trace of a scar. The healing progression of a normal mouse is shown in the top row.

The results stunned scientists because if such regeneration is possible in this mammal, it might also be possible in humans.

The researchers also made a remarkable second discovery: When cells from the regenerative mice were injected into normal mice, the normal mice adopted the ability to regenerate. And when the special mice bred with normal mice, their offspring inherited souped-up regeneration capabilities

// posted by Unknown @ 7:48 a.m. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | Technology | Sub-$100 laptop design unveiled

Last Updated: Thursday, 29 September 2005, 10:14 GMT 11:14 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Sub-$100 laptop design unveiled
Image of Professor Nicholas Negroponte
The laptop for the world's children should be durable and self-reliant
Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, has been outlining designs for a sub-$100 PC.

The laptop will be tough and foldable in different ways, with a hand crank for when there is no power supply.

Professor Negroponte came up with the idea for a cheap computer for all after visiting a Cambodian village.

His non-profit One Laptop Per Child group plans to have up to 15 million machines in production within a year.

A prototype of the machine should be ready in November at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Delocator.ca

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Life in the land where filling up an SUV costs $3 | csmonitor.com

Venezuelans love paying 10 cents per gallon, but critics warn of economic, environmental impact.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

Not that any neocons would believe it but, Religion linked to increased social ills, homicide, STDs and the like... RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today. The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from “ uniquely high” adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested. Mr Paul said: “The study shows that England, despite the social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than America.” He said that the disparity was even greater when the US was compared with other countries, including France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries. These nations had been the most successful in reducing murder rates, early mortality, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion, he added. Submitted on September 27, 2005 5:10 p.m. by anymouse. [UserTrolls]

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KRT Wire | 09/14/2005 | Suffering goes on beyond the klieg lights of catastrophe

In the week that Hurricane Katrina engulfed the Gulf Coast, pediatrician Deborah Frank examined a 2-year-old girl who weighed only 21 pounds. (That's the normal weight of a 1-year-old.)

When Frank asked if the girl had enough to eat, the child's mother burst into tears.

This was not in New Orleans or Biloxi. It was in Boston. Frank's clinic sees about 25 malnourished children a week.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I don't want to play the "blame game." I want to play "truth or consequences."

George W. Bush didn't learn about 25,000 desperate and hungry people stuck in the New Orleans convention center until 24 hours after the rest of the world saw it on TV. He received the revelation only when an aide brought an Associated Press story into the Oval Office.

That was a predictable consequence of our president's penchant for avoiding the "media filter" and distancing himself from unpleasant news.

// posted by Unknown @ 1:42 a.m. 0 Comments

Monday, September 26, 2005

Global warming a reality: Flannery

Dr Flannery, also the director of the South Australian Museum, says humanity is creating its own weather - releasing thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere and creating a blanket that traps the planet's heat.

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CBC News: Jury convicts U.S. soldier of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison

A United States soldier will go to jail for her part in a prison abuse scandal in Iraq. U.S. Army Pte. Lynndie England became known around the world for photos of her taken in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. One of those photos showed a smiling England holding a naked detainee on a leash.

// posted by Unknown @ 5:52 p.m. 0 Comments

CBC News: U.S. releases 500 from Abu Ghraib

The U.S. military released 500 prisoners from Abu Ghraib in Iraq, a week ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The move partly fulfills a request by the Iraqi government. Another 500 detainees will be freed this week.

The first group were loaded onto public buses and driven out of the notorious prison on Monday.

// posted by Unknown @ 5:51 p.m. 0 Comments

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

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Sunday, September 25, 2005

A 1935 US Plan for Invasion of Canada

Submitted by F.W. Rudmin
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario Canada

Email: rudminf@qucdn.queensu.ca
FAX: (613) 545-6611

The following is a full-text reproduction of the 1935
plan for a US invasion of Canada prepared at the US Army
War College, G-2 intelligence division, and submitted on
December 18, 1935. This is the most recent declassified
invasion plan available from the US archival sources.
Centered pagination is that of the original document. The
spelling and punctuation of the original document are
reproduced as in the original document, even when in error
by present-day norms.

This document was first identified by Richard Preston
in his 1977 book, "The Defence of the Undefended Border:
Planning for War in North America 1867-1939" (Montreal:
McGill-Queen's University Press.) Preston's reference
citation (p. 277) identified this to be archived at the US
Military History Collection, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., coded
AWC 2-1936-8, G2, no. 19A. It was located by the US
National Archives and supplied on microfilm.

The military planning context of this document is War
Plan Red, which was approved in May 1930 by the Secretary
of War and the Secretary of Navy. War Plan Red and
supporting documents are available from the US National
Archives on microfilm, in the Records of the Joint Board,
1903-1947, Roll 10, J.B. 325, Serial 435 through Serial
641. In War Plan Red, the US Army's theatre of operations
is defined to be: "All CRIMSON territory" (p.80), and the
US Army's mission, in bold type: ULTIMATELY, TO GAIN
COMPLETE CONTROL OF CRIMSON (p. 84). CRIMSON is the
colour code for Canada. In 1934, War Plan Red was amended
to authorize the immediate first use of poison gas against
Canadians and to use strategic bombing to destroy Halifax
if it could not be captured.

In February 1935, the War Department arranged a
Congressional appropriation of $57 million dollars to
build three border air bases for the purposes of
pre-emptive surprise attacks on Canadian air fields. The
base in the Great Lakes region was to be camouflaged as a
civilian airport and was to "be capable of dominating the
industrial heart of Canada, the Ontario Peninsula" from p.
61 of the February 11-13, 1935, hearings of the Committee
on Military Affairs, House of Representatives, on Air
Defense Bases (H.R. 6621 and H.R. 4130). This testimony
was to have been secret but was published by mistake. See
the New York Times, May 1, 1935, p. 1.

// posted by Unknown @ 9:17 a.m. 0 Comments

FT.com - Companies bow to pressure on CO2

By Fiona Harvey in London
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Posted: 01:55 PM EDT (18:55 London)

More than 70 per cent of the FTSE 500 companies have agreed to help investors assess the impact they make on global climate change, by disclosing the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.

The Carbon Disclosure Project, supported by a coalition of institutional investors with more than $21,000bn (€17,000bn, �11,500bn) in assets, wrote to every company in the index of the world's biggest companies, asking for information on their output of greenhouse gases. The companies were also asked whether they considered climate change a commercial risk or an opportunity, and to outline the risks.

James Cameron, chairman of the Carbon Disclosure Project, funded by a variety of charities, said investors should welcome the opportunity to know more about companies' risk from climate change: "Who can be against greater disclosure and transparency?"

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News Hounds: Verbal Donnybrook on the Factor - Donahue KO's O'Reilly

Catch the video at Crooks and Liars.

O'REILLY: In the past Miss [Cindy] Sheehan has criticized Israel, saying it is occupying Palestine, has called Iraqi insurgents "freedom fighters," has accused Americans of killing people ever since we stepped on this continent, has threatened Hillary Clinton with the loss her job unless she calls for a pullout of US troops from Iraq and has called the US action against Afghanistan a failure. Quite a resume and with us now is Phil Donahue, who supports Miss Sheehan's "dissent."
So, I'm assuming you don't - you don't support all her positions that I just chronicled.

DONAHUE: Let's understand what's happening here. Once again we have a woman who got to be just a little too famous for the people who support this war, a minority of the American population, by the way, and so the effort to marginalize this woman is underway and you're helping out.

O'REILLY: I'm the leader of the pack!

DONAHUE: You're suggesting ...

O'REILLY: I'm the leader of the pack!

DONAHUE: First of all, Cindy Sheehan is one tough mother and nothing you say or anyone else is gonna slow her down.

O'REILLY: That's fine. She has a right to ...

DONAHUE: You can't hurt her. She's already taken the biggest punch in the nose that a woman can take.

O'REILLY: How?!

DONAHUE: She lost a son.

O'REILLY: Oh. OK.

DONAHUE: She's lost a child.

O'REILLY: But look - I'm not puttin' words in her mouth ...

DONAHUE: And by the way, she is going to be at the center of one of the largest rallies since the Vietnam War. Proud, patriotic Americans who will show up in Washington this week for one of the most massive, largest demonstrations - protest demonstrations ...

O'REILLY: OK. And we'll cover it.

DONAHUE: ... right outside the President's window.

O'REILLY: And we'll cover it.

DONAHUE: And FOX is in the business of saying that this woman is somehow saying un-American things - hyperbole.

O'REILLY (getting angry): No. No. No. No.

DONAHUE: Listen to what she's saying.

O'REILLY (checking his notes): Nobody said she said anything un-American. We say that her positions are radical. And they are radical!

DONAHUE: Let me tell you what's radical. (getting a little angry himself) What's radical is to send more Americans to die in this war, which is a monumental blunder by a President ...

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Saturday, September 24, 2005

The Globe and Mail: Forces personnel returning from Katrina-stricken coast

Most of the Canadian military personnel sent to help out in the wake of hurricane Katrina are on their way back from the Gulf Coast, officials with the Canadian Forces said Tuesday.

”Ships started sailing home Monday,” Brigadier-General Mike Ward, chief of staff for Canadian Forces operation, said during a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday. The personnel are members of Operation UNISON 2005.

A dive team and the Coast Guard ship Sir William Alexander are still in the regions devastated by Katrina, including Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

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Mirror.co.uk - News - EXCLUSIVE: UP IN FLAMES

In another demonstration of sensitivity, the U.S. administration is burning relief food sent from Britain for Katrina survivors... "Hundreds of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned. US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees." Submitted on September 24, 2005 5:51 p.m. by StephenDownes. [On the Planet]

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Friday, September 23, 2005

The Answer My Friend Is Blowing in Rita's Wind

How many monster hurricanes does it take before governments and
individuals, as a matter of prudence, start taking precautions in response
to climate change? This essay's title is to be sung to the tune of Bob
Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind". As was the case then, the issue of climate
change is ripe for protest and social change. Anyone who spends time
outdoors and is in touch with nature and ecology can tell the climate is
changing dramatically.

// posted by Unknown @ 5:52 p.m. 0 Comments

Weasel-Words Rip My Flesh! - Spotting a bogus trend story on Page One of today's New York Times. By Jack Shafer

New York Times.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005, at 3:38 PM PT

How many "many's" are too many for one news story?

Like its fellow weasel-words—some, few, often, seems, likely, more—many serves writers who haven't found the data to support their argument. A light splash of weasel-words in a news story is acceptable if only because journalism is not an exact science and deadlines must be observed. But when a reporter pours a whole jug of weasel-words into a piece, as Louise Story does on Page One of today's (Sept. 20) New York Times in "Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood," she needlessly exposes one of the trade's best-kept secrets for all to see. She deserves a week in the stockades. And her editor deserves a month.

Story uses the particularly useful weasel-word "many" 12 times—including once in the headline—to illustrate the emerging trend of Ivy League-class women who attend top schools but have no intention of assuming the careers they prepared for.

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How Do You Dump Fuel From a Plane? - Just turn on your fuel dumping system. By Daniel Engber

Dumped fuel flows out behind the plane like a contrail, and then most of it evaporates before it reaches the ground. Exactly how much of the fuel plume evaporates depends on several factors, including altitude, air temperature, and dumping pressure. In general, at least half of the fuel—and sometimes more than 99 percent of it—will dissipate. Fuel dumped from a high altitude in warm weather disperses best.

The Federal Aviation Administration's dumping policy prescribes a minimum altitude for dumping, and a five-mile separation from other aircraft. Air traffic controllers try to direct dumping planes away from populated areas and toward large bodies of water. (Experts guess that more than 15 million pounds of jettisoned fuel rained down into the oceans from civilian and military aircraft during the 1990s.)

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Thursday, September 22, 2005

FT.com - Companies bow to pressure on CO2

More than 70 per cent of the FTSE 500 companies have agreed to help investors assess the impact they make on global climate change, by disclosing the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.

The Carbon Disclosure Project, supported by a coalition of institutional investors with more than $21,000bn (€17,000bn, �11,500bn) in assets, wrote to every company in the index of the world's biggest companies, asking for information on their output of greenhouse gases. The companies were also asked whether they considered climate change a commercial risk or an opportunity, and to outline the risks.

James Cameron, chairman of the Carbon Disclosure Project, funded by a variety of charities, said investors should welcome the opportunity to know more about companies' risk from climate change: "Who can be against greater disclosure and transparency?"

// posted by Unknown @ 3:03 p.m. 0 Comments

Homeland security action against illegals lacking

WASHINGTON -- The agency charged with interior immigration enforcement all but ignores going after illegal aliens in the workplace, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released yesterday.

The GAO found that an antiquated system for businesses to verify employees' right to work has hindered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in its mission of tracking and deporting illegal aliens in the nation's interior. In addition, the widespread use of fraudulent documents has made it difficult for both employers and ICE to detect illegal workers.

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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Insurance will cover it — when pigs fly

>by Heather Mallick
September 18, 2005

Here's one Americans weren't expecting: If you're a relatively calm New Orleans homeowner, because a) you're alive and b) you're insured, think again. Insurers won't pay out. You protest that there was a hurricane. And you were covered for that.

No, your insurer says. Your house wasn't damaged by a hurricane. It was damaged by a flood and you weren't covered for that.

You may be insured for the aneurysm that starts travelling to your brain upon hearing this, but only if you die. If you survive the aneurysm, the phrase “pre-existing condition” will haunt your days and nights. Of course, it wasn't a pre-existing condition until the hurricane hit, but it's these fine issues of timing that make insurers so very rich and you so very homeless.

The only way you would be covered in New Orleans is if you had bought a second policy from the National Flood Insurance Program, which is, get this, part of the famed Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fewer than half of households had held such a policy, but given that FEMA was being run by a guy whose only qualification was having roomed in college with one of George W. Bush's pals, and FEMA didn't even have hurricane-issue Kleenex, don't expect cash any time soon.

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Ottawa to host 'climate change' summit

OTTAWA -- Environment ministers from more than 30 countries will gather here this weekend to open what is likely to be a difficult and bitter new round of negotiations on climate change.

The meeting is being held behind closed doors, and no agenda has been released. But environmentalists expect frenzied lobbying and alliance-building by opponents and supporters of the Kyoto treaty.

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Glaciers on the Roof of the World at Risk

BANGKOK, Thailand, September 6, 2005 (ENS) - The mountains of Asia, including the towering Himalayas, are facing accelerating threats from a rapid rise in roads, settlements, overgrazing and deforestation, experts are warning in a new report.

New calculations by experts with the Chinese Academy of Sciences indicate that China’s highland glaciers are shrinking by an amount equivalent to all the water in the giant Yellow River each year.

There is concern that the region’s water supplies, fed by glaciers and the monsoons and vital for around half the world’s population, may be harmed alongside the area’s abundant and rich wildlife.

"Mountain areas are especially important and particularly vulnerable," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "These are the water towers of the world and often home to unique wildlife species upon which local people depend for food, medicines and other important materials. They have often been saved from uncontrolled development by their remoteness. But modern engineering methods mean this is no longer the case," he said.

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Nasa Scientist Detect Rapid Thinning of Greenland's Coastal Ice

Scientists who want to monitor the state of our global climate may have to look no farther than the coastal ice that surrounds the Earth's largest island.
A NASA study of Greenland's ice sheet reveals that it is rapidly thinning. In an article published in the July 21 issue of Science, Bill Krabill, project scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA, reports that the frozen area around Greenland is thinning, in some places, at a rate of more than three feet per year. Any change is important since a smaller ice sheet could result in higher sea levels.

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Kuwait Urges US Solution to Striking Guantanamo Detainees

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's foreign minister has urged the United States to resolve the issue of hundreds of Muslim detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the official KUNA news agency said Tuesday.

Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah said he told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that "Guantanamo represents a moral and legal challenge to the United States."

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Bush Administration Diverts Law Enforcement Resources to Fight Porn | Bayosphere

Washington Post: Recruits Sought for Porn Squad. "I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity because poking fun at (FBI) headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."

But hey, they have to placate the right-wing base of the party. (Of course, given the size of the pornography market, millions of Bush voters are surely among the industry's customers.)

This isn't about child porn, which is a disgusting and evil crime and deserves punishment. As the Post story notes, what bothers the attorney general and his boss is material produced with consenting adults and sold to adults.

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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Warmer soils add to climate worry

Higher UK temperatures are causing soils to "exhale" large quantities of carbon dioxide, probably accelerating global warming, scientists report.

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NASA - CloudSat: NASA Will Reveal Secrets of Clouds and Aerosols

Two NASA satellites, planned for launch no earlier than Oct. 26, will give us a unique view of Earth's atmosphere. CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (Calipso) are undergoing final preparations for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
+ Full story

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Monday, September 19, 2005

Daily Kos: Cindy Sheehan ushered away and rally organizer arrested by police.

Daily Kos: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.

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Sunday, September 18, 2005

radiofreesrini.com - the universe is a computer simulation

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US doctors prepare for first human face transplant

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US doctors prepare for first human face transplant

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Global cooling / Seven steps you can take to fight warming of planet

Until now, global warming has been an abstraction to most Americans. Yes, the polar ice caps are melting. Yes, ocean waters are heating up. Yes, species of birds are altering their migration and breeding patterns because of climate changes.

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The Can-do Bush Administration Does... and the Presidency Shines (for twenty-six minutes)

As for those crucial supplies: Without a single mishap, the rescue team delivered to central New Orleans its own generators, lights (not just the warm-glow ones for the President but the HMI movie lights to set the cathedral in the background ablaze), the camouflage netting that was needed to hide from viewers any sign of the surrounding devastation, and even its own communications equipment. And then there was the matter of crowd control -- okay, maybe not exactly crowds in depopulated New Orleans, but soldiers from the 82nd Airborne were effectively deployed, just in case, "to keep regular citizens several blocks back."

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Severe hurricanes increasing, study finds - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

Using satellite data, the four researchers found that the average number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes -- those with winds of 131 mph or higher -- rose from 10 a year in the 1970s to 18 a year since 1990. Average tropical sea surface temperatures have increased as much as 1 degree Fahrenheit during the same period, after remaining stable between 1900 and the mid-1960s.

Georgia Tech atmospheric scientist Judith A. Curry -- co-author of the study with colleagues Peter J. Webster and Hai-Ru Chang, and NCAR's Greg J. Holland -- said in an interview that their survey, coupled with computer models and scientists' understanding of how hurricanes work, has given the researchers a better sense of how rising sea temperatures are linked to more-intense storms.

"There is increasing confidence, as the result of our study, that there's some level of greenhouse warming in what we're seeing," Curry said. "Is it the whole story? We don't know."

Higher ocean temperatures result in more water vapor in the air, which, combined with certain wind patterns, helps power stronger hurricanes, Webster said. Small increases in sea temperature, he added, can "exponentially provide more and more fuel for the hurricanes."

Only one degree - what happens with a two, five, or more degree increase?

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Saturday, September 17, 2005

UC NewsWire -- High-vegetable diet linked to protection against pancreatic cancer

In one of the largest studies of its kind, UCSF researchers have found that eating lots of fruits and vegetables -- particularly vegetables -- is associated with about a 50 percent reduction in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose and remains largely untreatable. It kills about 30,000 people in the U.S. each year and has a five-year survival under four percent.

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UC NewsWire -- Tobacco industry weakened pesticide regulations, UCSF study shows

The tobacco industry coordinated cross-industry campaigns to delay and weaken federal and international regulations on pesticide use, according to new findings by UCSF researchers.

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Corporations cotton onto climate change

More U.S. corporations than ever before now factor climate change into the risks and opportunities faced by their businesses, according to a new report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a coalition of institutional investors with more than $21 trillion in assets.

It suggests that increased interest from the investment community, in conjunction with related macro-economic developments, is encouraging the development of strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The CDP's third report shows a marked increase in awareness of climate change and disclosure of related data among U.S. corporations, some of which are establishing leading positions in the growing markets for low-carbon technologies and solutions.

"Wall Street is waking up to climate change risks and opportunities," said James Cameron, Chairman of the Project.

"Considerably more of the world's largest corporations are getting a handle on what climate change means for their business and what they need to do to capture opportunities and mitigate risks. This all points to a continued elevation of climate change as a critical shareholder value issue for investors."

// posted by Unknown @ 5:50 p.m. 0 Comments

The Weather Channel's climate ace chats about Katrina and sexing up global warming | By Amanda Griscom Little | Grist Magazine | Main Dish | 15 Sep 20

The Weather Channel's climate ace chats about Katrina and sexing up global warming
By Amanda Griscom Little
15 Sep 2005

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AlterNet: Hurricane Katrina: Overkill in New Orleans

Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for its work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force. Several mercenaries we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on the personal security details of the former head of the U.S. occupation, L. Paul Bremer and the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.

"This is a totally new thing to have guys like us working CONUS (Continental United States)," a heavily armed Blackwater mercenary told us as we stood on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. "We're much better equipped to deal with the situation in Iraq."

Blackwater mercenaries are some of the most feared professional killers in the world and they are accustomed to operating without worry of legal consequences.

// posted by Unknown @ 4:37 p.m. 0 Comments

Global Warming 'Past the Point of No Return'

A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.

They believe global warming is melting Arctic ice so rapidly that the region is beginning to absorb more heat from the sun, causing the ice to melt still further and so reinforcing a vicious cycle of melting and heating.

The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a "tipping point" beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically.

Satellites monitoring the Arctic have found that the extent of the sea ice this August has reached its lowest monthly point on record, dipping an unprecedented 18.2 per cent below the long-term average.

Experts believe that such a loss of Arctic sea ice in summer has not occurred in hundreds and possibly thousands of years. It is the fourth year in a row that the sea ice in August has fallen below the monthly downward trend - a clear sign that melting has accelerated.

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Friday, September 16, 2005

HousingMaps

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

Tomdispatch: Chip Ward, Bush's Holy War on Nature

When Katrina hit, it blew away yet another administration-managed scrim of irreality. First for scores of reporters and then for millions of Americans, it connected so many things (including what was happening in Iraq and here) that might otherwise have remained unlinked for months or years more. It suddenly revealed, at an extreme, the world Bush has made for us. New Orleans is now a vast toxic dump (and, as at Ground Zero in New York after 9/11, a toxic cover-up is sure to follow, endangering relief workers today and returning residents tomorrow); the city's embattled wetlands are in dismal shape; a superfund toxic waste site remains underwater; the whole area may prove an "underwater Love Canal"; parts of the Gulf of Mexico are now covered with huge, if unacknowledged, oil slicks; and much of the damage, long and short-term, had a human hand associated with it.

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Jacob Appelbaum’s weblog » Radio station has been blocked

FEMA blocks emergency radio broadcasting in the Astrodome... "It's all about information control. There's a mindset that feels threatened by uncontrolled access to information and will do whatever it takes to put themselves in the middle of the datastream so they can monitor & censor it, or failing that put it out of business. Whether it's useful isn't the question. If it's not controlled, it's a threat that has to be stopped." [NewsTrolls]

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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".

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Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Interview: Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson... "I think the US is in a terrible state of denial," he says firmly. "Worse than that, we seem to be caught in a kind of Gotterdammerung response: we'd rather have the world go down in flames than change our lifestyle or admit we're wrong. Even here in California, 50% of cars on the freeway are SUVs, and they're political statements: they say, we're going to take the rest of the world down with us because we don't give a damn."

// posted by Unknown @ 9:47 a.m. 0 Comments

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

CREDIT: Brent Foster, National Post
Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson delivers a fairwell address to the Empire Club of Canada at the Royal York Hotel Wednesday, September, 14, 2005.
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Women's hockey getting Clarkson Cup

TORONTO -- Outgoing Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson says she is following in the footsteps of one of her predecessors by inaugurating an elite hockey trophy.

Just as Lord Stanley created hockey's ultimate prize in the NHL's Stanley Cup, Clarkson is minting the Clarkson Cup to honour the best in Canadian women's hockey.

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CTV.ca | Gov't apologizes for bungled CSIS investigation

Liddar said he was "pleased" with the minister's response, and that he is "delighted that the government has issued a security clearance" to him.

"I am also pleased with the SIRC decision and look forward to serving Canada."

Gauthier's report, dubbed "Top Secret," offered some of the most strongly worded criticisms against the spy agency ever uttered by an official.

It claims CSIS investigators routinely destroy screening interview notes and are not above lying and manipulating information to achieve its ends.

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NOW . Science & Health. Losing Ground - New Orleans and the Delta Overview | PBS

"Three years ago this month, NOW presented a two-part story on the disappearance of the Mississippi River delta. 'Losing Ground,' uncovered how one of the biggest civil engineering projects in U.S. history — the leveeing of the Mississippi River — had brought Louisiana and the nation to the brink of what could be the most costly environmental disaster in history. In 'The City in a Bowl,' NOW examined another ominous effect of this crisis — the risk that a massive hurricane could drown New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina has now made these predictions a reality."

Video

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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'

"Outside one house on Kentucky Street, a member of the Army 82nd Airborne Division summoned a reporter and photographer standing nearby and told them that if they took pictures or wrote a story about the body recovery process, he would take away their press credentials and kick them out of the state.

'No photos. No stories,' said the man, wearing camouflage fatigues and a red beret."

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Bush Tells Iraqi President U.S. Support "Will Not Waver" - US Department of State

Welcoming Talabani to the United States, Bush thanked him for Iraq’s “generous pledge of aid” to the victims of Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast

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TomDispatch - Tomgram: The Reconstruction of New Oraq

"At times it is hard to ignore the comparisons between Baghdad (where I was less than a month ago and have spent more of the last two years) and New Orleans: The anarchy, the looting, some of it purely for survival, some of it purely opportunistic. We watched a flatbed truck drive by, a man on the back with an M-16 looking up on the roofs for snipers, as is common in Iraq. Private security contractors were stationed outside the Royal St. Charles Hotel; when asked if things were getting pretty wild around the area, one of them replied, ‘Nope. It's pretty Green Zone here.'" (David Enders, Surviving New Orleans, Mother Jones on-line)

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Global warming: Adapting to a new reality - Europe - International Herald Tribune

While Americans quibble ignorantly over whether climate change is really happening, Europeans are already adapting to it. Swedish foresters are being told to plant trees that will thrive in warmer temperatures. Planners of a new subway system in Copenhagen, Denmark, raised all structures to accommodate an anticipated 1.5-foot rise in sea level over the next century. New docks in Hamburg, Germany, and Rotterdam, Netherlands, are also being built with rising oceans in mind. Austrian ski resorts short on snow are planning hiking trails and golf courses. Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the European Environment Agency, says Europe's Arctic and southernmost reaches are especially vulnerable to global warming. Changing conditions may turn people from those regions into climate refugees, forced to move toward the continent's center. "Our resilience is quite low in the face of climate change," she says.

straight to the source: International Herald Tribune, Elisabeth Rosenthal, 13 Sep 2005

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Bush Says Katrina Exposed Flaws in U.S. Capabilities

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said Hurricane Katrina ``exposed serious problems'' in the nation's capability to handle another severe storm or a terrorist attack and took responsibility for the federal government's failures.

The slow reaction to the disaster on the U.S. Gulf Coast uncovered flaws ``at all levels of government,'' Bush said in response to a question during a news conference today with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Washington.

``To the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility,'' he said.

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Today's News - NewsTrolls

A series of articles from around the world, all saying basically the same thing, all uttering a truth that Americans have, for the most part, refused to face about their nation and themselves for the last quarter century... that the American dream is a myth, something reserved only for the wealthy minority, that American rights and freedoms are a sham, exposed as facades covering poverty, racism and inequality, and that American power and supremacy are hollow shells of what they once might have been

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New Orleans Flood Map

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Monday, September 12, 2005

U.S. Meteorologist Says Russian Inventors Caused Hurricane Katrina - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM

A meteorologist in Pocatello, Idaho, claims Japanese gangsters known as the Yakuza used KGB inventions to cause Hurricane Katrina, Wireless Flash reported Thursday.

Scott Stevens says after looking at NASA satellite photos of the hurricane, he’s is convinced it was caused by electromagnetic generators from ground-based microwave transmitters.

“There is absolutely zero chance that this is natural, zero,” Villagevoice quoted Stevens as saying after Katrina’s landfall, pointing out suspiciously rectilinear shapes in the satellite-photoed hurricane clouds

The generators emit a soundwave between three and 30 megahertz and Stevens claims the Russians invented the storm-creating technology back in 1976 and sold it to others in the late 1980s.

Stevens says the clouds formed by the generators are different from normal clouds and are able to appear out of nowhere and says Katrina had many rotation points that are unusual for hurricanes.

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US develops strategy for first use of nuclear weapons against WMD

Independent Online Edition > The Pentagon has drawn up a new strategy, built on the 2002 "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive military strikes, that would allow the United States to make first use of nuclear weapons to thwart an attack using weapons of mass destruction against the country.

Under the scheme, developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff but yet to be ratified by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, commanders would be able to request permission from the President to use nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.

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Katrina: The Space Database

Satellite photographs of the damage unleashed by Hurricane Katrina have shocked people the world over. They also offer stunning testament to the power of Mother Nature.

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Cheney-Bush-fucks

"Cheney Faces Criminal Indictments; Other Illegal Actions Raise Warning Flags at White House
By TERESA HAMPTON
Editor, Capitol Hill Blue
Jul 8, 2004, 04:59"Cheney, however, is standing firm and recently told Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont to “fuck off” when the Senator questioned him on the Halliburton matters.

According to White House sources, President George W. Bush laughed the matter off at a recent cabinet meeting. “Fuck ‘em all,” Bush said.

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Social Justice @ jeandugal.com

Social Justice, like Food Security, is a broad concept.

Social Justice is concerned not only with the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society but also claiming/reclaiming the global and local commons for a fair, sustainable and compassionate world.

(KH-click on the hot links and foto's-Kd:)

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http://jeandugal.com/NonFiction.html
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A Very, Very Good Idea___“Go fuck yourself Mr. Cheney

“Go fuck yourself Mr. Cheney,” Marble screamed just off camera as the event played out live on CNN. “Go fuck yourself you asshole!”

Secret Service agents subdued Marble and CNN yanked the video off its web site but copies of it float around the Internet and Marble, who’s homeless after Katrina destroyed his Gulfport home, is offering a copy for sale on EBay.

Republicans, of course, jumped in with carefully-crafted indignation over Marble’s “inappropriate remarks” to Cheney, forgetting the Vice President used the same words to tell off a Senator just last year.

Cheney offered his outburst of obscenity because that Senator had the gall to question his relationship with scandal-scarred Halliburton, the company he used to run and that’s now ripping off taxpayers in Iraq. All Marble had to be upset about was loss of his home, death of close friends and family and destruction of the city he loved.

Yet Marble, who also plays with punk rock bands in the Gulfport area, could become the symbol of frustration felt not only by residents of the hard hit area but every American who recoils in shock and anger at the government’s lackluster and uncompassionate response to the horror, death and destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

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CNN.com - U.S. won't ban media from New Orleans searches - Sep 10, 2005

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Rather than fight a lawsuit by CNN, the federal government abandoned its effort Saturday to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of the dead in New Orleans.

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Sunday, September 11, 2005

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Canadian ships set up Fla. logistics site

The Canadian Forces will use a small coastal city in Florida as its main supply centre, from which it will ferry tonnes of hurricane-relief materials to the devastated U.S. Gulf Coast region.

Officials said Friday that they will set up their forward logistics site in Pensacola, Fla., to support four Canadian vessels, three Sea Kings and future flights bringing additional relief supplies to the hurricane-stricken area.

The ships left Halifax on Tuesday for a reconstruction and relief effort that could last months. Crew will deliver everything from diapers and blankets to tents and medical supplies.

"We're certainly setting up temporarily here," Lt.-Cmdr. Geoff Wallington said from Pensacola, which is about 100 kilometres east of the Mississippi coast.

"We might move closer to New Orleans, but for now this is what the U.S. navy is using as their logistics hub so we're going to establish ourselves here. If we can move our aircraft and everything in closer, then we will."

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The Globe and Mail: Canadian Katrina aid to arrive Monday

By MURRAY BREWSTER

Saturday, September 10, 2005 Updated at 6:52 PM EDT

Canadian Press

Pensacola, Fla. — A Canadian relief convoy was blown slightly off course Saturday by hurricane Ophelia and will arrive along the previously storm-battered U.S. Gulf Coast one day later than anticipated.

It won't be until Monday that three warships laden with humanitarian supplies will be able to unload their cargo.

The fact that Canadian ships and aid were on the way came as a surprise to some rescuers and hurricane Katrina survivors, who remain huddled in Pensacola, Fla. hotels.

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George W. Bush Still Rocks! / Stop criticizing! The rich man's CEO president is executing his job requirements perfectly

This is what they're saying. Kanye West was right, Bush doesn't care about black people, or the poor, or anything that doesn't directly serve his handlers' agenda or flatter his monochromatic ego or anything that isn't spelled out for him in nice simplistic pie charts and reassuring matronly tones.

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Saturday, September 10, 2005

CNN.com - Red Cross calls for 40,000 volunteers - Sep 10, 2005

Bush's fatcats may be making money off the blood of the Gulf area, but there are thousands of ethical Americans who are helping out the survivors with their own money and time.
No one is paying them.
Those billions approved to help the victims of Katrina should go to the victims, not to pay Bush's fatcat friends to come in and clean up.
The least the fatcats could do would be to donate the "pay" the government gives them back to the people who need it most.

Meanwhile, ethical Americans, who have been asking to do more to help their own, can now sign up and volunteer with the Red Cross who is now seeking 40,000 more volunteers...

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Kanye, "Bush Doesn't Care About Black People"

SpikedHumor.com - Come and spike your fun.

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Democracy Now! | Is the Government Trying to Stem the Tide of Images From New Orleans by Threatening Journalists?

Journalists covering New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina report that militarization in and around the city has hindered their work and threatened their physical safety. We hear from two journalists who were reporting in New Orleans recently. [includes rush transcript]: "Video/CD "

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Democracy Now! | Crisis Profiteering: Dick Cheney, Halliburton and Hurricane Katrina

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Friday, September 09, 2005

Hugh Hewitt - When Will MSM Review MSM's Role in the Disaster?

September 9, 2005 06:56 AM
From yesterday's interview with NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen (complete transcript at Radioblogger):

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Houston Mall Is a Lifeline For Vietnamese Who Fled - Los Angeles Times

Houston Mall Is a Lifeline For Vietnamese Who Fled - Los Angeles Times: "The owner, who took a perilous journey as a refugee from Vietnam in 1978, mobilizes aid."

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Vietnamese Americans Use Their Media as Katrina Lifeline

Pacific News Service > News > News Feature, Andrew Lam,
Pacific News Service, Sep 09, 2005
Editor's Note: The Vietnamese American community relies heavily on their own mass media in times of crisis, and the Katrina hurricane accentuates how indispensable it is.

SAN FRANCISCO--When the levee broke in New Orleans and water rose to his knees at the Lavang Church in Versailles, a small town outside of New Orleans, Father Vien Nguyen reached for the phone. He did not call CNN or 911. Instead, he called Saigon Television Broadcasting Network to report that dozens of elderly Vietnamese were taking shelter in his church and to ask for help.

At a time when America was wringing its hands, wondering why government did too little and too late to help hurricane Katrina's victims, Vietnamese Americans affected by the disaster -- there were some 55,000 who lived in the areas hardest hit by the hurricane -- looked first and foremost to their own.

Within a few hours, the story was headline news in the Vietnamese American media, and Vietnamese communities across the United States were immediately mobilized to give help. Calls were made to the Red Cross, other emergency services as well as local politicians. National Public Radio got hold of the story when a resourceful woman named Trang Nguyen spammed news organizations and politicians in Washington, D.C. The priest and his congregation were rescued a couple days later.

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Charlie Cray: As Waters Recede, Watch Who Cleans Up - Yahoo! News

Do you think it's a coincidence that
Dick Cheney and the disaster lobby showed up to assess the damage the same day Congress is pushing a "very impressive" $50 billion through without any consideration for contractor accountability?
ADVERTISEMENT

Cheney's in Mississippi while Joe Allbaugh, the former head of FEMA is helping clients obtain disaster relief contracts in Louisiana, the Washington Post reported today.

Among Allbaugh's many clients is Cheney's old firm, Halliburton, which got its first cleanup order last week, under an ongoing $500 million Navy contract that it renewed in 2004, before Allbaugh joined the team and started rolling in the Hallibacon.

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Charlie Cray: As Waters Recede, Watch Who Cleans Up - Yahoo! News

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Sprol.com » Gulfport, Mississippi Before and After Hurricane Katrina

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Soil Ain't Green - British soil is losing carbon -- and may be contributing to global warming

Dirt may be one of the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitters -- and that could throw a very heavy wrench into efforts to fight climate change. In the journal Nature, researchers report that as the soil in England and Wales has warmed over the past quarter century, many millions of tons of carbon trapped there have vanished. They say much of it has likely been released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, as higher temperatures have increased the rate of organic decay in the soil. "The warmer it gets, the faster it is happening," said lead researcher Guy Kirk of Cranfield University. The study results indicate the same phenomenon may be happening in temperate zones across the globe. According to another article in Nature, the amount of carbon released by British soil now completely offsets the gains the country has made in curbing industrial CO2 emissions. "Our findings suggest the soil part of the equation is scarier than we had thought," said Kirk. Indeed.

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National Geographic News Photo Gallery: Pets: Hurricane Katrina's Other Victims

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Thursday, September 08, 2005

Mystery Bulge in Oregon Still Growing

BEND, Ore. (AP) -- A recent survey of a bulge that covers about 100 square miles near the South Sister indicates the area is still growing, suggesting it could be another volcano in the making or a major shift of molten rock under the center of the Cascade Range.

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Tomdispatch Interview: Howard Zinn, The Outer Limits of Empire

[Note to Tomdispatch readers: You have to be careful these days about predicting the obvious. In my last piece, Iraq in America, I wrote, "…don't hold your breath about either the Pentagon's or the administration's nation-building skills in the U.S. (But count on ‘reconstruction' contracts going to Halliburton.)" Well, as readers were quick to inform me, I was already behind the times. The first contract -- to repair Katrina storm damage at Gulf Coast naval facilities -- had already been issued to our Vice President's former company.

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CLIMATE CHANGE:

European leaders pin Katrina blame on global warmingEnvironment Minister Juergen Trittin wrote a column for the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper blaming White House environmental policies for increasing the risk of severe storms and floods around the world. "The American president closes his eyes to the economic and human damages that are inflicted on his country and the world economy by natural disasters, like Katrina, through neglected climate protection."

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