Slashdot Mirror

My three daily readings are :

new.google.com - not a reference site per se but sometimes news can be reported from less mainstream media. Chose a national edition (/?ned=xx in url) for other languages, spanish speaking world has quite a different coverage.

Al Jazeera , as many pointed out here. Many subjects are covered with much less biased point of view than in western media. Pretty good and quality journalism. Some in-depth coverage samples: BP disaster and one year later.

Slashdot ... again not a reference site per, but I don't have time to read much more than those three sites.

In French: Mediapart and Rue89 for some alternative views.

I'll have a look at the crowd advice here, nice thread.

My three daily readings are :

new.google.com - not a reference site per se but sometimes news can be reported from less mainstream media. Chose a national edition (/?ned=xx in url) for other languages, spanish speaking world has quite a different coverage.

Al Jazeera , as many pointed out here. Many subjects are covered with much less biased point of view than in western media. Pretty good and quality journalism. Some in-depth coverage samples: BP disaster and one year later.

Slashdot ... again not a reference site per, but I don't have time to read much more than those three sites.

In French: Mediapart and Rue89 for some alternative views.

I'll have a look at the crowd advice here, nice thread.

"And to think some working men think unions are a bad thing."

Thanks to billionaires propaganda see here:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/10/2011102683719370179.html

Apparently, they already did, according to this article:

Moreover, membership in UNESCO normally translates into automatic membership in several other UN agencies, including the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), as a result of reciprocity agreements between them.

Also, this:

Given the margin of Monday's vote, moreover, it looks almost certain that the Palestinians will be admitted to other specialised agencies, including some, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that are important for US national security, according to Wirth and other analysts.

AL Jazeera has been covering it from the start (and a little before)

http://english.aljazeera.net/Services/Search/?q=Occupy%20wall%20street

"I remember hearing about this from a friend, but couldn't find any news articles, didn't see it covered by the TV media, didn't hear about it on the radio, and now it's turning out that ytou can't email about it either..."
Really then you suck at looking for news.
Here let me Google that for you
http://bit.ly/rodGXK
And no rick roll or Goat anything.
Not much coverage because
a. Protests happen all the time on wall street.
b. Just not that many people are involved. If is was the thousands that some claim it would be on the front page of some of the foreign news sites like http://english.aljazeera.net/ .
Just some people that think they are important and figure that the reason they are not getting coverage is a grand conspiracy vs just not that many people care.

Umm... I think not http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2439254&cid=37470742
Sorry but I doubt that any news channel would not show 10,000 protesters on Wall Street. Since the food committee only has $14000 that comes to a buck forty per person. https://www.wepay.com/donate/99275
Yea sure there is this massive secret protest going on.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/ doesn't even see it worth covering. I found a few news stores about it. Let me sum it up for you. Tiny, fringe, crackpot, protest.

The NASA Administrator said that Obama told him he wanted him to do three things "third and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to Muslim nations..." http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/talktojazeera/2010/07/201071122234471970.html This is at about 1:20. The only one of the three things that belongs in the NASA Administrator's purview is the first one.
Yes, Florida is a swing state, but current polling (combined with last year's election results) suggests that it will swing Republican next year.

Is that so...

The US may not be winning the war but they sure as hell are thinning out the Taliban.

Evidence, and over what time period? In 2009 it was reported that "Taliban-led forces fighting US and Nato troops in Afghanistan have increased nearly fourfold since 2006, according to a US intelligence estimate". In the last few years the Taliban have managed to spread their influence (or, at least, philosophy) to largely destabilise the tribal regions of north west Pakistan, suggesting that their power over the last 5 years has increased rather than decreased. This graph of coalition casualties in Afghanistan shows that most deaths have occurred in the last two years, further suggesting that Taliban power isn't waning.

Really? Because I've been following the coverage on NPR, BBC, and Al Jazeera since about the time it started.

The reactions are mixed, though it seems like there are a lot more people who disliked Quadaffi. Back before Triploi was taken, a reporter who snuck away from his chaperone managed to get an interview with someone who basically said "when the rebels come, they'll all have our support." And a lot of that happened. However, there were a few pockets of die-hard Quadaffi supporters who still resisted.

I think the coverage was pretty good. Al Jazeera especially did a great job (I subscribe to their RSS feed) and BBC had a lot of great coverage as well.

No, but the police will put a gun to your head while they destroy your phone if you take a photo.

Link please.
Probably should just have mod you a troll.

A quarter of mill does not hide this kind of information, the fact that you received a donation from nuclear companies might be better. Not that its anything more than coincidence, how does undetected radiation cause deaths within 10 weeks in the US. Maybe if in the next few years we get a 35 percent rise in thyroid cancer this would be remotely plausible.

Found the link:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html
It might be right about the extent but causing deaths in the US is bullshit.

Meh, ignore that quote, it was a copy and paste fail from another comment I posted, looks like I didn't manage to properly copy over it what I properly intended:

http://english.aljazeera.net/

of what ?

two additional dicks ? two additional assholes ?

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html

ironic that how much of radiation goes towards usa, the country which built the power plants.

http://english.aljazeera.net/Services/Search/?q=osama%20translation Turns out they have transcripts of almost all of his most current speeches and writings.

When he's claiming the right to summarily execute and/or imprison without trial American citizens, yes, I'd say he's riding roughshod over the Constitution. Now, George W Bush was a bit different, in that he just claimed the right to lock up and possibly torture US citizens without trial, and a lot of people howled that he was riding roughshod over the Constitution, but it's safe to say that right now riding roughshod over the Constitution is bipartisan.

That's because the US makes a big effort not to kill civilians,

While the US doesn't generally engage in atrocities (though there have been instances e.g. in Vietnam) their track record isn't exactly stellar. There's a big effort to keep it out of the US media, I'll grant you that but in the latest Iraq war there were a lot of reports of bombed hospitals and the like available to us not dependent on the US media.

not to plunder and destroy everything but rather protect and rebuild.

That's a joke, it's been true in exactly 1 case: world war 2. Again, in the latest middle eastern wars the "rebuilding effort" seem to be schemes to throw money at corporation friendly to the regime like Halliburton. What is built isn't worth shit, or it only gets half done and is of poor quality, funds go missing (9 billion of Iraqi oil money "missing" at last count), etc. (See for example Scandals, Military, Iraq War, Graft and Fraud

If they shifted to WWII era conquest and occupation you'd see profits - and roughly as much resentment as against the nazis (hello Godwin). The smart weapons are ridiculously expensive compared to just bombing the fuck out of everything. If they stopped giving a shit about protecting civilians and only protected themselves, answered all attacks with massive force, terrified the civilians into cooperating with them rather than Al-Quaeda you'd see costs plummet and profits soar. So it's not that war can't be profitable, just not the way the US is running them now.

The wars are plenty profitable. Not for the US government but for arms dealers, the corrupt contractors that swarm all over the occupied territories and the politicians that retire to cushy jobs on their boards. Follow the money (if it doesn't go "missing" that is.)

People shotting to police with videocameras is a growing problem.

See this video:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201164124745790709.html

Or better, ask your country to create a "firewall" to protect you from seeing videos like this.

Not only do they already have these images - Today was "Children's Friday" demonstration - where kids marched in the streets, carrying placards with the images of Hamza Al-Katib.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/20116392427645443.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/syria-internet-services-shut-down-as-protesters-fill-streets/2011/06/03/AGtLwxHH_blog.html

Al Jazeera has been doing a pretty good job covering what Anonymous is for. They have a slightly different take than you, because they actually have a sense of proportion.

Posting a spoof story is about as far from reason to get all high-and-mighty as possible. I'd try to mock you for your dudgeon, but it'd be like quoting Sarah Palin. The kids gotta practice on something.

That said, this smells an awful lot like lalalalaican'theeeerrrreyouuu, and I hope they get properly shamed for it.

This time was just over money, but there have been others who cancelled appearances when reminded of political issues. A very timely example is Gil-Scott Heron who passed away May 27, 2011.
From wikipedia:

'In 2010 he was due to play a gig in Tel Aviv, but this attracted criticism from Palestinian groups who stated "Your performance in Israel would be the equivalent to having performed in Sun City during South Africaâ(TM)s apartheid era... We hope that you will not play apartheid Israel." In response he cancelled the gig.'

Being a talented jazz musician and political poet, he undoubtedly had mixed feelings when some labeled him the grandfather of rap. What he did wasn't a thing for the kids, although he reached some of them too. He brought attention to what was going on in South Africa, he's the man who coined the phrase "The revolution will not be televised".

(an early track "Winter in America")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcHOq8i5Pyk

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/05/20115287194489734.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8362518.stm

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Gil-Scott_Heron

There is a bigger picture involved.

During the Egyptian revolution the telecom companies, instead of supporting the people, complied with and acted upon the requests of a tyrannical leader to shut down internet access, in an attempt to silence the people. [1]

They also complied to send out pro-government, anti-democracy [2] mobile text messages [3].

Don't buy Vodafone's excuse, they abide to a mad man's "emergency laws", while the people and journalists risked life and limb to have their voice heard. Vodafone agreed to his terms, a guy who is now facing the death penalty under charge or premeditated murder against civilians[5], and need to grow a pair.

And do you know why?
"Its not clear who paid for the messages which could amount to hundred of thousands of dollars worth of messaging."

[1] http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011128796164380.html
[2] http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=133349
[3] http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/02/03/unsolicited-pro-mubarak-text-messages-from-egypt/
[4] http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml
[5] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-egypt-mubarak-idUSTRE74N3LG20110524

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees have already been shown the pictures. Once the "Osama was a martyr" stuff dies down in the Islamic world, there's no reason not to release them. It's barely front page news on Al Jazeera any more, although they're doing a bin Laden retrospective. Give it six months, and the pictures will be of historical interest only.

There's really not much question that he's dead. Even al-Queda says he's dead.

The really interesting results of the raid will come out as the intel found on-site is processed. It looks like bin Laden's people didn't have a chance to destroy any data, and their records, computers, and video are in US hands. NSA and CIA people are undoubtedly working around the clock on that data. What's left of al-Queda is probably trying to find a place to hide. (They talk about "martyrs", but that's for the people at the bottom, not the leadership.)

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/05/201152141416432205.html

Article contains comments from a "senior al-Qaeda" member as well as a Taliban spokesman. Both are clamoring for revenge for bin Laden's death, rather than claiming it to be false and that their sheik/imam/whatever is still alive.

It was only a "symbolic victory": 'Qais Azimy, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said Afghan officials described bin Laden's killing as a "symbolic victory", since he was no longer directly connected to the group's field operations. '

The endless war, paid for the by the U.S. taxpayer, for the benefit of weapons investors like the Bush and Cheney families, will continue.

Fine, here's a source. And another. And another. And another.

I get what you are trying to say with this, but honestly when everyone says its safe, yet these kind of "accidents" can still occur it makes you step back and really weigh the positives and negatives.

For instance, in these plants they are using plutonium mox fuel. That shit has a halflife of 20,000 years. So it wont be completely nonreactive for approximately 250,000 years or 12000 human generations. Sure it shouldn't happen, and there were no doubt many mistakes by this particular company. But even if it is a possibility that this would happen, and it obviously is, should we not reconsider the long term environmental and other effects when we are possibly going to be affecting forward 12000 generations in the future?

Actually, just one of the six reactors is using plutonium.

Regardless, there has been no large release of such material, nor is there likely to be any. Despite the impression you get from the many extremely alarmist articles, the cores are cooling off and the situation is improving. Probably the worst thing that's happened is a small amount of radioactive cesium has been released into the ocean.

So far in my life time (30 years) there have been 3 major nuclear accidents. Does this not at least warrant a second look?

I'm not sure what you mean by "a second look". The worst by a long shot of those "major accidents" (neither Three Mile Island or Fukushima has produced a confirmed fatality so far) was Chernobyl, which happened in the Ukraine. The reactor design was quite slipshod, with no containment vessel among other safety features. Even so, it required the operators to disable safety features in a stunning display of stupidity and poor judgement for the disaster to occur. How to you propose to globally outlaw or regulate nuclear power in sovereign nations, many of which hate the US and the UN? What about France, which generates 80% of its power from nuclear, and has had exactly 0 problems?

When you balance the actual track record of nuclear power safety against the estimated 200,000 people that die every year from fossil fuel energy generation, nuclear appears to be far safer. Then there's the global warming argument against energy production that creates CO2. And no, there is no way that "alternative energy" such as wind, solar and geothermal can take up the slack in a meaningful way.

There are plenty of these unsafe plants active in the world, and yes I am aware there are safe reactor designs (CANDU). But when you factor in human greed, nuke plants run by the lowest bidder, should we even be doing it?

Given the alternatives, and the need to perfect nuclear for space exploration purposes, yes.

I was VERY pro nuclear power before this complete mess that has happened. Even though we will run out of uranium by 2100, even though fuel stays reactive for tens of thousands of years. But honestly, if the japanese cant even do it right, what hope do we have for any country out there?

The timescales alone are enough to make one pause. Can you really trust the next 12,000 generations of man to not have any accidents with spent fuel? Is that something that we should be burdening our future generations with for a short term gain today?

There is a realistic solution to safely disposing of nuclear waste - package it appropriately and drop it at the mid-Pacific subduction zone.

The only problem with that idea is that nuclear waste is potentially quite valuable, as it could be reprocessed. You should also read up on thorium reactors, in which the Chinese are heavily investing.

Further reading: 'No safe levels' of radiation in Japan

"Al-Jazeera, the nuclear experts!" Sure...

You should also realize that the Middle East is driven by oil revenue, and anything written there will

I get what you are trying to say with this, but honestly when everyone says its safe, yet these kind of "accidents" can still occur it makes you step back and really weigh the positives and negatives.

For instance, in these plants they are using plutonium mox fuel. That shit has a halflife of 20,000 years. So it wont be completely nonreactive for approximately 250,000 years or 12000 human generations. Sure it shouldn't happen, and there were no doubt many mistakes by this particular company. But even if it is a possibility that this would happen, and it obviously is, should we not reconsider the long term environmental and other effects when we are possibly going to be affecting forward 12000 generations in the future?

So far in my life time (30 years) there have been 3 major nuclear accidents. Does this not at least warrant a second look? There are plenty of these unsafe plants active in the world, and yes I am aware there are safe reactor designs (CANDU). But when you factor in human greed, nuke plants run by the lowest bidder, should we even be doing it?

I was VERY pro nuclear power before this complete mess that has happened. Even though we will run out of uranium by 2100, even though fuel stays reactive for tens of thousands of years. But honestly, if the japanese cant even do it right, what hope do we have for any country out there?

The timescales alone are enough to make one pause. Can you really trust the next 12,000 generations of man to not have any accidents with spent fuel? Is that something that we should be burdening our future generations with for a short term gain today?

Further reading: 'No safe levels' of radiation in Japan

I thought it was a plutocracy http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/20114391843209245.html

What is your reasoning for the need to entomb the site some time soon? There's no evidence of ongoing meltdown, so the heat generated by the reactors is constantly dropping, so the challenges of cooling and stabilising the reactors is getting easier, not harder. And while there's tremendous damage to the surrounding buildings, there's no significant damage to the reactors - there were reports of spikes which may have been consistent with radioactive steam venting through small cracks, but given the radiation levels at the site and the fact that they still need to periodically vent gas from the reactors, it suggests they're still relatively close to air-tight.

Obviously it's hard to tell as we're working from imperfect information which has (perhaps understandably) been rationed by the Japanese gov. and Tepco, however recent news is that the government feels the situation is grave and at least one reactor has been breached:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/2011325112227299174.html

it's not clear they have the situation under control, but let's hope they do. It does sound from recent government announcements as if they're not quite as confident as you are about the outcome though - they have recently started evacuating people from a full 30km radius. I haven't seen any reliable measures of temperature for the spent fuel ponds or reactors which indicate that they're dropping - last I heard a couple of days ago one reactor inexplicably dramatically heated up again. Of course neither of us are experts in the field, and this is all second-hand information.

My reasoning for needing to entomb the reactors is simply that if they don't have the reactors sealed they won't be able to cool them reliably, steam could escape explosively, those racks could widen, and they will continue to leak radioactive material until sealed, rendering the buildings difficult to clean up and work in. Also there is some erosion of fuel rod casings from the spent fuel ponds which isn't a good sign (zirconium found at the water outlets), so they have a lot of problems on the site, on top of periodic spikes in radiation making it difficult to work there and the wreckage of the buildings making it very difficult to assess damage (I assume that's why there are no clear indications of the state of spent fuel ponds for example). But let's hope they do get the situation under control without drastic measures.

Bradley Manning did not give those documents to someone who is not supposed to have them.

He gave them to us. Remember us? We the people? You may not have heard about us very much recently, given all of the things going on that are too important to hear about. But we're still here, and theoretically, all those important people in the government work for us.

Perhaps Manning was excessively honest with his superiors (who are, if you'll recall, us.) But excessive honesty to one's superiors is generally not considered an offense worthy of torture in the civilized world. It is often considered heroism.

This talks article and interviews answer alot of questions about what caused Libya's Civil War.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/2011318121134680476.html

Only one reference to Wikileaks

"US diplomatic cables sent from the Tripoli embassy in 2008 - released by WikiLeaks earlier this year - described eastern Libya as an impoverished region and a breeding ground for Islamic extremism."

Sad to see more and more comments about greed and problems in Japan, too. :-( Like this one:
    "Reports: Lax oversight, 'greed' preceded Japan nuclear crisis"
    http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0316/Reports-Lax-oversight-greed-preceded-Japan-nuclear-crisis

Or this:
    "As Japan nuclear crisis unfolds, a small town questions government reassurances"
    http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0316/As-Japan-nuclear-crisis-unfolds-a-small-town-questions-government-reassurances

Now workers are having to abandon a plant, although return:
    http://www.adn.com/2011/03/16/1756438/radiation-level-soars-after-japan.html

And the plant design was said to be unsafe:
    "JAPAN DISASTER: GE engineer says he quit over unsafe reactor design"
    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2011/03/17/2003498413

Basically, it would seem like any reactor design that requires active cooling is unsafe and should be mothballed? Passive cooling ones like Hyperion or stuff like TRIGA is better.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIGA
    http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book/chapter10.html

In the robot capital of the globe as Japan is, where are the robots for nuclear cleanup? I helped a tiny bit with the Workhorse project for TMI (helping make a model mockup that helped get the contract):
    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=three-mile-island-robots

Do they have stuff like Workhorse for nuclear disasters in Japan? If not, that is indeed lack of planning.

Other comments by me and someone else related to this thread are here:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2036928&cid=35486070

So, it seems like Japan is struggling with issues about corruption and incomplete planning too? Even if so far, overall, they still seem to be doing better than the USA after Katrina under Bush... Or even now? Especially as the USA now is seemingly expanding its torture policies to torturing US soldiers going down a slippery slope as is suggested here (in response to someone probably concerned about wrongdoing by his country):
    http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/2011310153040668605.html

Pictures of the Japan devastation:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/powerful-quake-aftershocks-rattle-tokyo/2011/03/11/ABX65lQ_gallery.html

Very sad to see so much disaster. I can hope for the best for everyone there. "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls..."

Sigh.

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

I support the Arab people.

To me it is hypocritical for the US to stand for freedom and then turn around and be agaisn't the protestors because of what happened in Iran *might* happen elsewhere.

I believe through elections and freedom the muslim part of the world will modernize and integrate more with the west. They will realize they no longer have to be victim to extremists. I believe this will be the biggest blow to Al-Quada as many poor Arabs no longer feel strapping a bomb to themselves for a cruel organization as the only way to hope for their people. Infact, the populace does not want a muslim theocracy as they just escaped a nationalist on in Egypt and in other areas. My guess is these countries will be muslim and modern ala Turkey. I can handle that. Maybe the new Libyan government can hire native Libyans to run the oil and gas fields to help the population achieve the middle class rather than hire foreignors.

I read Al Jazeera as CNN and MSNBC has mixed coverage. Many hear are agaisn't that story because of the blog's credibility, so here is one that is credible. As an American I feel we can't get involved as it would rally the Gadhafi loyalists and people agaisnt the great satan the US and would backfire. But I do support the revolution. I just wished there was no bloodshed and it was a more peaceful revolution like Egypt.

Bringing Gaddafi in from the cold was a good deal in 2003-2004. The guy did give up his WMD program to the US/UK and opened up for inspections.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/2011227162155530547.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapon_proliferation#Libya

If the US and UK hadn't bridged the gap, then he'd had mustard gas to drop on the Free Libya movement and social networking technologies like Twitter, Skype would be banned from distribution to Libya.

As it is now, there is mustard gas a few hundred km south of Tripoli (where the US/UK can see it from satellite) at a military base but no bomb canisters for deploying it.

Al Jazeera (or someone) is manipulating the news from Libya (or at the very least, posting doctored images).

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/sites/default/files/imagecache/FeaturedImagePost/images/game.jpg

Open that image in an editor, then look closely at the bullet hole at the final "a" in Al Jazeera. The paint goes right over it. Zoom in closely. There is another to the left.

Photo-shopped.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/africa/2011/02/23/live-blog-libya-feb-24 I have to wonder if soldiers confiscating electronics offer to sell them back to the people they confiscated them from? Nothing like a falling regime to bring out the entrepreneurial spirit.

Of course the military wants more soldiers and money, that's the nature of the forces. However, what's at issue here is were these soldiers lying to the Congress in order to get their way?

I don't find it that difficult to believe that when Senators showed up, the military gives them a finely crafted Potemkin village of happy Afghans and maps showing the Taliban all in retreat. Anyone who watches BBC or Al Jazeera English knows that's just not the case.

"Some of the Dictators like Ghadafi might get more aggressive but the majority are going to have issues doing it because it will crimp their own lifestyles and impact their families."
More than getting kicked out of power?
As I said some will get over thrown but some will become far more brutal.
I fear that a lot more will become far more brutal.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121714223324820.html
for example

"as far as you're aware"?
Do you watch Iranian TV channels? How about international news channels based in the region like Al Jazeera? Don't speak Arabic or Farsi? How about PressTV or AJE? (they both have "Watch live online" buttons)

Still No? Then it's kinda bold of you to say that it's something like zero people who articulate balanced critiques of Israeli foreign policy. Has it occurred to you that news outlets like CNN will never air such material unless it's inflammatory and "News-worthy?" Believe it or not, there are intelligent and rational people in other parts of the world who have forums, commentators, and Op-ed pages just like the US and Europe do.

You're operating on outdated ideas there.

First, the Quran does not say that, I think you're getting such a ridiculous notion from a neocon/zionist/Islamophobe. No "real Palestinian" (who?) would tell you that.

Second, look at The Palestine Papers. The Palestinian government just fell because the PA was scandalously offering to give away Jerusalem and most of Palestine with nothing in return, and yet Netanyahu's government rejected the offers.

Thirdly, the president of Iran is such a red herring. Does he control the military? No. Did he say "wipe Israel off the map?" No. To quote his exact words in Farsi: "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad." No such idiom exists in Persian, and Ahmadinejad actually just quoted an old speech of Khomeini in which he said “The occupation regime (over Jerusalem) must vanish from the page of time.” It's not about tanks going into Israel, but more like how Regan said the USSR would one day only exist in a history book. Of course Ahmadinejad does wish Israel would disappear, but he is not the Supreme Leader so he cannot make such an order. It's like the US Secretary of the Interior saying Iran should be invaded, he has no authority to do so. Believe it or not, Ahmadinejad denies he is anti-Semitic, he supports Jewish leaders in Iran and groups like Naturei Karta, and insists he is anti-Zionist, not anti-Judaism.

I believe it is region dependent, but some can see them from their own site with no problem. wikipedia has plenty of background info on them. Their depth of coverage surprised me.

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

A free-to-air satellite system can legally pick them and others up for just the price of the hardware.
Galaxy 19 North America 12152 H / 20000 / 3/4

They're also on MHz WorldView which is on some cable systems and public tv stations (such as subchannel 28.4 of KCET Los Angeles) (a couple of newscasts a day) MHz WorldView also has news from Israel, Japan, France, Germany and other English language international news sources)
Note they they carry other interviews and in-depth features not included when getting only the newscasts.

http://proweb.myersinfosys.com/week.php?timezone=0&station=world&channel=MHz+Worldview&airdate=

http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/programming/

KCET has been running extra newscasts on their main 28.1 channel and cable feeds, and at least temporarily streaming from their web site.

http://www.kcet.org/egyptcrisis/

As always it's good to get a broad perspective and be less affected by any bias by getting news from a variety of sources

If something you'd like to see isn't on a cable system you use, ASK THEM TO ADD IT.

Those who saw news that didn't provide info on Google advertising employee Wael Ghonim from Dubai, part of the "April 6" group, the one who posted the January 25 Revolution Facebook page and got training from some involved with actions in elsewhere, may have seen more limited coverage. Wael Ghonim was detained for 12 days. His at times tearful interview following release certainly boosted the protest crowds that had started to wane after so many days. Early-on, RT (Russia Today) showed matching fist graphics used by the April 6 group and another and claimed that showed U.S. ties. (I'd ju

It's not every day one sees whip-carrying police on camels and horses. (I almost chocked on a sandwich when I saw NHK Japan report the animals as ceremonial. Opps! They missed the scenes showing the riders with whips. The blankets on the animals were surprisingly colorful. NHK generally has very high quality programmming) The Israeli broadcasts reflect nervousness,,,

On a funnier note, checking out some Spanish language coverage online led me to find a bug in Google translate (also seen in a 3rd party Mac Widget that uses it).

Does Google know something we don't??

"en esta capital" in Spanish translates to "in Beijing" in English!

http://translate.google.com/

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/calculate_convert/texttranslation.html

(those utilities are useful if one checks out some of the twitter feeds mentioned in coverage which include some in Arabic language)

It's on the Internet, though, and I know most slashdotters don't use that much.

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

Also on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish

The ./ editors must be getting kickbacks from that beat.tv blog and dailymotion to run such a lame story.

The military leadership are all war veterans from before Mubarak and are all career professional soldiers.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121185311711502.html

Egypt's military isn't one where the military leadership are there by grace of Mubarak like Iraq's was. Egypt has a professional officer corps along the British system, reinforced by the Soviets and augmented by 30 years of sending folks to War Colleges in the United States.

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi is a Nubian too, so for older Egyptians he has that tie to Sadat and he's worked his way up over the decades, not a political appointee.

http://www.mmc.gov.eg/Commanders/general/default.htm

Not looking good on the live stream: Plain clothes government paid thugs are attacking the demonstrating Egyptian public, trying to make them all go home.

Al Jazeera media network is by far the best coverage, but unfortunately it is more or less censored in the US apart from the above live stream (Censored in the same way that Paypal/Visa/MCard "censored" wikileaks, that is).

Ah, the paid thugs must be government and not Muslim Brotherhood. I see where you are coming from. You saw the receipts, right?

Not looking good on the live stream: Plain clothes government paid thugs are attacking the demonstrating Egyptian public, trying to make them all go home.

Al Jazeera media network is by far the best coverage, but unfortunately it is more or less censored in the US apart from the above live stream (Censored in the same way that Paypal/Visa/MCard "censored" wikileaks, that is).

Ah, the paid thugs must be government and not Muslim Brotherhood. I see where you are coming from. You saw the receipts, right?

Not looking good on the live stream: Plain clothes government paid thugs are attacking the demonstrating Egyptian public, trying to make them all go home.

Al Jazeera media network is by far the best coverage, but unfortunately it is more or less censored in the US apart from the above live stream (Censored in the same way that Paypal/Visa/MCard "censored" wikileaks, that is).

Not looking good on the live stream: Plain clothes government paid thugs are attacking the demonstrating Egyptian public, trying to make them all go home.

Al Jazeera media network is by far the best coverage, but unfortunately it is more or less censored in the US apart from the above live stream (Censored in the same way that Paypal/Visa/MCard "censored" wikileaks, that is).