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Obviously you don't work for the administration. Your story doesn't include a single keyword or have any effect on public perception. How the heck to you expect to bury a story without getting a little crosstalk in the mix.

Here. Let ABC show you how it is done...

Original Story (19 Oct):
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD103799 .htm

ABC News (22 Oct):
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1 236555

Notice how we go from identifying the the specific unit and soldier to "coulda been anybody" (achieved by muting the audio track).

Wait, are we talking about this bill?

The article I link to seems to think that at least the part of it involving drilling in ANWAR *passed*?

Chinese state media is claiming a new, low-cost spray vaccine that could protect birds from the H5N1 strain has been developed. Let's hope this is for real. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15489494 .htm

With reports like this, this and this (Polar ice caps melting), not to mention the fact that events like Katrina are expected to increase in number, you'd think well informed nerds could get over the light headed feeling they get when someone presents the next upgrade to their computer system and consider the impact that their coal-powered l33t-box is having.

I agree. Which, if you note, is why I suggested some money should be thrown at the research first, so we can have a better idea of what is the best direction to be throwing tens to hundreds of billions in. The cost to the American economy and taxpayers of an unneeded Kyoto implementation would be staggering. The cost of repeated rebuilding from ever increasing hurricanes would be comparably staggering. Let's get some more raw data, some more rigorous statistical analyses, and have some nice testing for correlations to competing and null hypotheses to boot. At a later point, sic some economists into the mix to deal with finding which of the solutions likely to give the least overall costs, and come up with some proposals for the most equitable distribution of said costs.

Perhaps, maybe, we ought to blow up a lot of nuclear bombs to cause a likely "Global-Winter" in order to compensate for the possible "Global-Warming" that might possibly be happening.

Possibly. However if it comes to that, using the nukes to deliberatly induce volcanic eruptions is likely to yield greater net cooling per curie of radioactives released; additionally, volcanic ash is generally beneficial to soil fertility in the modestly longer term.

Fortunately, I'm pretty sure we're not there yet. You don't use an impulse drive if a conventionally fueled rocket will work... especially until you're sure what trajectory you want. There's the old question of whether human-CO2 impact is the only thing delaying an ice age.

All I hear as proof is media stories linking to each other as absolute proof.

Yes, yes, we all read Slashdot: far too much of science reporting in the media is bad reporting, even leaving aside the Weekly World News and such. But how much time do you spend reading refereed climatology journals?

Elegant troll, by the way. =)

Perhaps it's the fact that Tokyo is one of the world's most earthquake-prone cities?

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T316888.h tm

The head of the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), Salvano Briceno states "The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does,"

"From an early age, all Cubans are taught how to behave as hurricanes approach the island."

According to the UN/ISDR, Cuba holds an annual two-day training session to help people prepare for hurricanes.

Two days before a hurricane strikes, entire communities of people -- all versed in interpreting information from the Cuban Institute of Meterology -- begin implementing emergency plans. Local authorities assist the most vulnerable people. Transport is organised and hospitals and schools are converted into shelters.

Quotes taken from Reuters: http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/1 09577329151.htm

Actually the communists have 1,500 doctors waiting for the overburdened and humiliated capitalist government to allow them to help.

How about this. Read the last paragraph. Care to respond?

A question though: I am living outside the US, so I don't know if any offers of foreign aid have come in. Not just money, but doctors, freshwater, etc.

The Philippines. Cuba. Lots of others.

Actually, I read one country (Saudi Arabia?) had offered doctors, but hadn't been given the go-ahead to send them, but I can't find where I read that again.

At least thats what this article says.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30306795 .htm

God help us if it fails. Not that I live in New Orleans, but if it really does stay flooded with 10-20' of water for 9 weeks, there won't be anything left, especially of the beautiful portions, like the French Quarter.

As it is, if the city dried out tomorrow, it would take a month to determine the safety of various buildings, and another month to repair them.

2 months for pumping, 2 months for repair.
In all honest, that would be the end of the city.

Right now, the federal government needs to give the army corp of engineers an unlimited budget to fix the leeves & pumping system as fast as physically possible.

Quite frankly, loosing New Orleans, one of the most historic cities in the U.S., would be a great tradgey. We're spending any unlimited amount of money to rescue everyone who remains stranded in the city; I hope the government maintains this level of urgency for the repair operations.

... Afghanistan and Iraq both were parties. Your point?

Now, when you're done eating your humble pie over that,

There is no "humble pie" to be eaten.

we can discuss how truly committed you are to being civilized if you rapidly degrade into middle-school name calling:

Then you should also note that it is merely a response to same.

We can also discuss how human scum may or maynot be receptive to the kinder, gentler ways we prefer, and how we may have to adopt more brutal methods when dealing with these particular types if it is the only effective means of supressing and defeating such types.

Calling people names haven't killed or tortured anyone. Granted I have a short fuse for morons but that is my personal failing. What impact does that have on keeping people incommunicado in chains for years on no evidence I am not quite sure. How does it explain this type of behaviour escapes me. Could you explain?

Type 2 diabetes may be helped by some recent research announced in July showing a link between insulin resistance and a protein called retinol binding protein 4.

Manipulating levels of this protein in mouse models appeared to alter levels of insulin resistance and provides a new avenue for drug therapy. So even if this MRI study isn't clinically useful at the moment, there are other promising advances that suggest that both type-1 and type-2 will be even more treatable soon :)

First off, yes, there were denials of warming by some neocons. At least until now:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8917093/

Then there's the argument that, oh, the environment will just adjust and absorb the carbon. Nope:

http://www.sundayherald.com/51146
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umw elt_naturschutz/bericht-47597.html

Oh, and why worry, it's just heat, right?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/20 02377292_ocean13m.html
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29498448 .htm
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/08/05/ne ws/community/friloc07.txt
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/pr/news/2005/news8474. html

The sky is blue is a statment that can be backed up by fact. You can look at the light spectrum and indeed say that the sky is blue (just one of many ways). You can NOT do the same with an embryo in determining when it is a person and when it is not. (or even harder, attempting to prove when the soul enters the body at all. That one will require you to first prove the exsitence of a soul. Good luck with that. ;-))

So the cell divides and multiples, what makes that diffrent from any other animal cell or for that matter, plant cell, out there? Just because it is derived from a human does not automaticly mean it is a person and we should grant it human rights. If the cell was not in a petrie dish, it would DIE. It can not survive outside the (artifically constructed) womb ergo it is not a person.

What I see as interesting is the fact that Bush's adminstaration is worried that legeslation is about to pass that would raise the mandated limits on stem cell research. Now, looking at the US Congress, and I dunno about the House, but the Senate has a sizable amount of Mormon senators, who, although many classify them as neo cons, (and on many of the Duyba's issues the are right in line with the RNC) on the issue of stem cell's they are in the EXACT OPPOSITE opion of the presidents. This may be what the president is worried about. That because of these mormon senators, who don't hold the same view on stem cells as the rest of the RNC (and protestants for that matter) this bill could pass Congress.

I know there is a sizable amount of Mormon represenatives in the house, however, I don't know if it is enough to break the rest of the RNC.

There are, of course other republicans who are not Mormon who do not hold to the same ideal as the majority of the RNC, and these, coupled with the Mormon represenatives, along with the democrats, are most likly what Duyba fears will get the bill past Congress and to his desk.

CBS news has reported that a U.S. satellite had filmed the shooting and that it had been established the car carrying Calipari was travelling at more than 60 miles (96 km) per hour as it approached the U.S. checkpoint in Baghdad.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30104709 .htm

I skimmed through TFA and I think the driver estimated his speed at around 50mph, too. And when he heard the warning shots, he panicked and stomped the accelerator in an attempt to get to the airport faster.

It'd be nice if they would release the actual satellite imagery for verification, though. Regardless, Sgrena has too much of a credibility problem for me to take her word alone over the word of several U.S. troops and photographic evidence.

Of course this is not the kind of behavior you want to encourage. But it has more to do with "your rights online" than a proposed change to cable standards.

China emits less than USA.
from http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK73899. htm
At the rate its economy is growing, China is likely to surpass the United States on emissions by 2030.
"At this moment, if the Chinese government recognises this as the pattern, it has to do something right now to avoid ... replacing the U.S. as the target," Yang said.

Europa also already signed so they acknowledge they have to reduce emissions.

Entirely Off Topic:

From sig:
US & allies kill most Iraqis [bbc.co.uk]

It appears you haven't followed the link in your sig recently. The BBC has come out and issued an apology for incorrectly reporting the deaths. They have updated that page with the apology.

More info from Reuters.
The BBC apologised on Saturday for erroneously reporting that U.S.-led and Iraqi forces may be responsible for the deaths of 60 percent of Iraqi civilians killed in conflict over the last six months. ...
Iraq's health minister said the BBC misinterpreted the statistics it had received and had ignored statements from the ministry clarifying the figures.

Cigarette makers have been found guilty in a court of law of putting additives in cigarettes that makes them addictive.

Concerning addiction, not everybody is created equal. For some people quitting is easy and for others it is impossible. Many people started smoking while under the age of 18 due to peer pressure and then found themselves unable to quit later.

The point is to stop smoking may not be as easy as to choose the colour of one's car.

That was pretty useless. Did you actually watch the show you say is jumping to conclusions, or are you simply jumping to conclusions of your own?

I did watch the show, with, as always, a healthy dose of scepticism. In the interest of full disclosure: I assume the major resarchers were not actors and the research data was not made up. All I can say is that the theories advanced were, if anything, very reasonable - so what if the the narrative was a touch over-dramatic. Rather than regurgitate the entire contents, RTFA or check out this synopsis.. It's pretty much on the ball.

I just love reading the pop-sci crap that gets fed to the public. We observe less solar radiation all over the world, and the next thing you know, we're jumping straight into the conclusion that two man made pollutants are cancelling each other out and keeping the greenhouse effect - an incredibly complicated process to discuss - in check.

Then please, do discuss it instead of disimissing it.

It's hard for them to say "fuck you" while they've got a bigmouthful of US dick. If they didn't object to sugar cane being left out of the Free Trade deal, I doubt they'll stop deep throating just for some scary hacker, sovereign nation or not.

I don't care how bad the job market is, I will never, ever work for a force who will be used to invade small, third-world nations.

Let me help further that point.

Spreading the Word (w/photos)

Col. Gary Brandl: Satan lives in Fallujah

In preparation for the attack, Christian Heavy Metal.

As for other interesting Iraq news for today:

US forces demolish a hospital and target another for releasing casualty figures; 70 journalists are embedded for the invasion; mot of the troops doing the invasion have no major combat experience; and a Georgia man commits suicide at Ground Zero to protest Bush and the war in Iraq.

U.S. bomb-grade plutonium convoy to cross France
...
"About 100 protesters demonstrated near Cadarache with a large banner declaring: "Nuclear kills the future"."
...
"Nuclear energy officials say the aim of the transport is to do what Greenpeace wants -- destroy deadly nuclear material."

When will those dumbasses at Greenpeace learn?

If this is not irony, nothing is.

International election observers noted several issues with the US election process this year. One of the criticisms in their report is electronic voting without any transparency or a paper trail. One of their recommendations was also to use open source code software for the voting machines. Here's the link

International election observers noted several issues with the US election process this year. One of the criticism in their report is electronic voting without a paper trail. Here's the link

The bee is such an insect. But there might be things like ants starting to attack beehives as an food source. Extreme severe colds could suddenly kill a lot of bees which means that the next season might suffer diminished crop yield. This in turn mean less food supply and thus even greater competition by insects and us to it. Imagine a small grain yield, attacked by grasshoppers. Do you think we can really win that one.

This doesn't include the secondary affects by people. I mean once that crap hits the fan society collapse. An easy way to notice that is simply to notice how people change in a large power blackout. If you can't get diesel or poison to fight the insects, the yields go down further. If people want something bad enough they'll take it, once city dwellers goes to occupy farmland we have real big problems. The infrastructure is simply not there to support it, also those people don't have the experience to produce food in large enough quantities let alone in the "new" environment.

Look at what is happening in Zimbabwe due to Robert Mugabe's farm resettlements. Basically people without skills are given farmland, they simply cannot produce food on a large scale. As soon as that happens, you end up with people dieing from hunger. Or basically you diminish the population's immunity to diseases, then suddenly plagues start to spread much easier. Imagine a new out break of the Bird Flu with not enough resources to "manage" it and a population more susceptible to disease. There is one out now as I am writing this.

These are all things that no "modern human" has experienced before, maybe that is what happened to the people from Atlantis or the Mayans. Are we prepared, do we even have enough time still left to prepare ?

It's hard for them to say "fuck you" while they've got a bigmouthful of US dick. If they didn't object to sugar cane being left out of the Free Trade deal, I doubt they'll stop deep throating just for some scary hacker, sovereign nation or not.

Fine. I'll spend all of 5 mintues with Google News since you're incapable of doing so yourself:

Reuters AlertNet
United Press International
The Chicago Maroon.
The Cornell Daily Sun
The Diamondback
The Massachusettes Daily Collegian

The last 4 are university newspapers who had people there.
"Oh, no! That must mean they're biased since they're filthy protesters!"

Face it. People like you have blinders on. If someone says something that disagrees with your worldview, you'll loudly trump about how they're a liar and biased. In that way, you're exactly like the Iraqi Information Minister, going on and on about how there are no infidels in Baghdad's airport and how they're being killed in streets even as coallition forces roll over the countryside. Think, research, and stop making kneejerk, assinine posts accusing someone else of lying when you can't be bothered to verify the information yourself.

Pakistan spy service 'aiding Bin Laden'
Pakistan Ended Aid to Taliban Only Hesitantly
Pakistan denies N Korea nuclear deal
INTELLIGENCE; U.S. SAYS PAKISTAN GAVE TECHNOLOGY TO NORTH KOREA
Pakistani Who Threatened Bush Is Among Deportees
Pakistanis rally against US
Pakistani on US al-Qaeda charge
Pakistan insists it gave no nuclear aid to Iran
Guantanamo prisoners speak out

We shouldn't be doing business with that country anyway !!!

Don't forget about this from last year. This was a modified Soyuz rocket (not capsule), I think. One soldier was killed on the launch pad. Actually, I stumbled onto a nice chronology of space accidents. To your point--the Russians make good (capsule) and not quite as good stuff (booster). Looking over that chronology, the lesson seems to be that space travel is dangerous.

• US largest donor in Liberia
  
• US largest donor in Ethiopia
  
• US largest donor in Uganda
  

The much-hated French have repeatedly intervened to stop "brushfire conflicts" in Africa, without US assistance. At the moment, they are intervening in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with UN blessing, to help stop a war that has killed tens of thousands. They've also intervened to try to end civil war in Ivory Coast, among other places. So your "without exception" claim is incorrect.

The museum looting story seems to have been overblown. During much of the looting of the museum, US forces were under fire from inside the museum and could not have prevented the looting without damaging the museum itself.

You think that kind of infrastructure just gets restored overnight? Shit, we had a squirrel zap one of our transformers yesterday. The circuit has 100 families on it. It took the local power company 6 hours to get our power turned back on. Multiply that by a whole country...

... And also for the record, much of Iraq's long tradition of "civilization" has consisted of conquering and looting its neighbors.

Afghanistan is probably better off today than at any time since the start of the Soviet invasion.

SARS is a big deal. It has a mortality rate of about 4% and this is with suspected patients rushed to hospital, pumped full of advanced antiviral drugs and kept in the best intensive care money can buy. Its mortality rate is much higher in untreated cases. It seems to be at least as virulent as the flu.

Do the math. The flu, which has a mortality rate of only 1-2%, kills hundreds of thousands around the world each year. If SARS is not successfully contained, millions will die, mostly in the third world which does not have the kind of medical care available in Singapore.

SARS is still spreading. The outbreak is not over yet. If it reaches densely populated poor urban centres like Calcutta, Rio de Janeiro, or the projects in LA, Chicago or New York, all hell will break loose. This is bigger than some minor conflict in Iraq. This is serious shit.

You should be thankful that cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and Toronto are trying so hard to keep SARS under control. Singapore and Hong Kong are the world's two busiest seaports and both are major air transport hubs. They are now the world's bulwark against contagion and if they fail millions will die.

Singapore is the best equipped city in the world to weather the storm. She is a first world country, with per capita GDP equal to the UK. She has the best health care system in the world.

The country is highly controlled and regulated. I am all for civil rights and freedom, but this is one of those times that strong authority is needed to enforce quarantines and stop people acting stupidly. The government is on the ball, among other things shutting down schools, imposing mandatory screening at the airport, and even deploying the army to stop SARS. Honestly, if Singapore cannot contain SARS, the world is fucked.

As an aside, most of the SARS deaths in Singapore are health care workers working with those infected with SARS at the hospital where they are all being concentrated in. I salute the duty, bravery and valor of these men and women.

I suppose when your enemy is trying to figure out where you are so they can drop bombs and grenades on you, it's best not to have a beacon broadcasting your GPS location!

not be placed in inhumanely small cells outside of the view of the world, not given any rights, kept from the sun, their family, with no hope of ever being released.

Assuming that you are referring to the Afghans at Guantanamo, do you feel stupid?

And they matter how?

I just got finished reading on MSNewsweek that the US economy is as large as the next 3 added together (Japan, Germany and Britain). Our military budget (4% of our GDP, lowest in any wartime in history) is as large as every UN member country's added together (191 countries). What I see is a majority of the world ruled by nationalist gov's trying to protect THEIR interests who don't let their people express views like we are allowed to here --- with state-owned medias, who don't show us what their citizens really think, only what CSPAN with its anti-american biases filters for the local audiences.

I see Iraqis who fled their homelands actively protesting Saddam, and supporting american liberation of their country.

I see Turkey opressing their Kurdish populations, with a government against the US because they don't want the Iraqi Kurds to have their own nation-state.

I see Arabian & OPEC countries protesting the US because they are about to lose their dominance of the oil market -- Iraqi freedom fighters have already said they will not honor Geman & France's existing contracts for oil exports when Iraq is democratized. Iraq has the worlds's second largest oil reserves, most of which are still untapped. Middle eastern nations live in fear of this reserve coming under US control.

I see Germany's socialist government on shaky ground about to collapse with an almost 11% unemployment rate. Don't forget that in Germany's January elections, the existing anti-american socialist party lost LOTS of electorates. Not to mention that Iraq is a good customer for German weaponry... Germany doesn't want the world to discover that they are arming these tirants.

I see France living in fear of the "National Front" party, consisting of Islams who are persecuted by the French government, like African-Americans were in the US in the 40's and 50's. They will not do anything to anger this sector of population, or Chirac and his socialist party are sure to be kicked out (which if you recall he almost was, two years ago by Le Pen during a run-off)

Then you have Britain... All these stories about Blair being in danger of being removed for supporting Bush. Don't forget that they have a parlimentary system -- the people don't vote for Blair, they vote for the party, and the party appoints Blair. And the labor party hates Blair now, even though 75% of likely voters would support the war if the UN says go.

The united states is experiencing a surge in support rallys, but the television won't show them. The rally in Atlanta yesterday (of several thousand people) was reportedly larger than the one in Washington DC, but the anti-war ralley got the 12 hours of TV time in CSPAN. Today's ralley in Valley Forge PA is expected to be even larger.

Ask yourself, who is really against the united states? the governments (who only wish to protect their personal interests), or the populations themselves who don't have a voice? As long as the anti-conservative media controls what we see, we'll never have the real picture presented to us. Only those that bother to keep themselves know that the citizens of the world NEEDS the US to act, and that these misguided governements need to fall.

As one of those who fought for a stop to torture of suspected terrorists by the 'general security agency' here in Israel, and won -- I know that currently the U.S. is using Jordan and other friendly arab countries for its 'investigative' needs, and not Israel (as it used to do previously).
See this for example.

• Any oil revenues will be placed in a trust to be used only for the benefit of the Iraqi people.
  
• The primary problem with Iraq is the totalitarian regime in power.
  
• The US imports 3% of its oil from Iraq. In contrast over 8% comes from Venezuela.