Wednesday, May 01, 2013

1 May - Blogs I'm Following

Clock Tower building, University of AucklandClock Tower building, University of Auckland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
JALLALLA BOLIVIA!!!JALLALLA BOLIVIA!!! (Photo credit: telly gacitúa)
English: Rangitoto Island as seen from the pat...English: Rangitoto Island as seen from the path around North Head, in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Auckland waterfront at nightAuckland waterfront at night (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sarasota - Meals on WheelsSarasota - Meals on Wheels (Photo credit: roger4336)
English: View of central Auckland, New Zealand...English: View of central Auckland, New Zealand Taken by Joseph Watkins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
No Meals on WheelsNo Meals on Wheels (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Meals on Wheels 'HotShot' delivery ve...English: Meals on Wheels 'HotShot' delivery vehicle, Hamburg Township, Michigan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Duncan Bunk 09Duncan Bunk 09 (Photo credit: Paul-W)
https://www.facebook.com/regenerativeleader?sk=photos

Greenwoods Corner 

Community pulling together



Short Walks in Auckland
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McDonald’s goes belly up in Bolivia 
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Nine foods you should never eat again

Health benefits of fresh grapefruit juice 

Avocado Health Benefits: The World’s Most Perfect Food?

Dzokhar Tsarnaev's back-pack was photo-shopped out



1:36pm MDST

Way of the Future: Medical Abortion, Private, Safe, Cheap

noreply@blogger.com (fern hill) at DAMMIT JANET! - 2 minutes ago
This TIME writer has the right idea (my bold). As both pro-choice and pro-life forces attempt to put Kermit Gosnell to use to argue the moral rectitude of their position, and the jury in his trial continues to deliberate, there is a danger that we will lose sight of what Kermit Gosnell really is — an *anachronism*. . . . Gosnell was a stop of last resort for woman late in their pregnancies. They sought an abortion past the point of fetal viability — a choice illegal in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. For these women, Gosnell and his ilk are their only option. But reg... more »

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New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 2 minutes ago
*What’s gonna happen to Chess Piece Face? ~moosedenied*

Duncan (ALEC-ALUM) - Legislating "The Market"

2old2care at Because I Can - 12 minutes ago
Snips *from HuffPo* this morning - *GOP Census Bill Would Eliminate America's Economic Indicators* Posted: 05/01/2013 7:31 am EDT | Updated: 05/01/2013 9:06 am EDT Rep. Jeff Duncan has introduced a bill to stop nearly all U.S. Census surveys. , WASHINGTON -- The bill, introduced last week by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), would bar the U.S. Census Bureau from conducting nearly all surveys except for a decennial population count. Such a step that would end the government's ability to provide reliable estimates of the employment rate. *Indeed, the government would not be able to... more »

Look at all the hungry people

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 12 minutes ago
Think Progress looks at real world effects of Meals on Wheels cuts brought to you by the GOP sequester clown car. Directors of Meals on Wheels programs across the country spoke with ThinkProgress about how they are coping with decreased funding. Some, like Meals on Wheels of Western Broome in New York, are private nonprofits that don’t rely on government funding and will therefore be shielded. But by and large, the heads of these programs described facing deep cuts after having already slimmed down in response to lean times over the past few years. The list is depressing but olds g... more »

Best and worst jokes from the weekend’s big dinner!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 27 minutes ago
*WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013* *Obama, O’Brien both score:* We’re sorry to return to Maureen Dowd, but we were struck by the joke she chose to belittle in this morning’s column: DOWD (5/1/13): How can the president star in a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner satirical film pretending to be Daniel Day-Lewis playing Barack Obama in Steven Spielberg’s movie “Obama,” and not have absorbed the lessons of “Lincoln”? “Some folks still don’t think I spend enough time with Congress,” *he said in an alleged joke at the dinner Saturday night.* “Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McCo... more »

Toronto Maple Leafs - 2013 Playoffs | Shake It Out

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 34 minutes ago
Toronto Maple Leafs - 2013 Playoffs | Shake It Out. Source: AMANJOTROCKS.

Bedroom Tax Bedroom Definition

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 37 minutes ago
The bedroom tax. An entirely punitive policy allegedly designed to shove “under-occupying” social housing tenants into size-appropriate properties when there is a massive shortage of one bedroom homes. Not that it matters to the Tories, of course. Very few people hammered by this policy are likely to place their cross against the blue party anyway come election time. But there has been something of a black hole in the rules governing the bedroom tax. It boggles the mind, really. If you are creating legislation designed to punish those who do not use all the bedrooms in their house ... more »

Michael James : Hope Springs Eternal

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 55 minutes ago
Comiskey Park, Chicago, 1990. Photo by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James' Pictures from the Long Haul. Pictures from the Long Haul: Hope springs eternal on opening day at Comiskey Park By Michael James / The Rag Blog / May 1, 2013 [In this series, Michael James is sharing images from the past, accompanied by reflections about -- and inspired by -- those images

She's so sorry

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 1 hour ago
I'm sure you heard retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor issued a sort of pseudo-mea culpa the other day. She didn't apologize for inflicting the Bush years on us by voting to appoint him president, but she was very sorry SCOTUS took the case at all because, in retrospect, it made the court look like a gaggle of politicking assclowns. Today Linda Hirschman at TNR unearths a tasty bit of historical trivia making it rather clear Justice O'Connor voted her personal politics in Bush v. Gore. Although most of O’Connor’s papers are private, her legendary secrecy could not p... more »

Telewarrants not to be granted merely as a convenience

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 hour ago
R. v. Lao, 2013 ONCA 285 holds: [65] It will be recalled that s. 487.1 of the *Criminal Code *permits an application for a search warrant application to be made by telecommunication where it would be "impracticable" to attend personally. The trial judge found that while it would have been inconvenient for DC Wallace to attend in person to apply for the warrant, it was not impracticable. Having found that the standard of impracticability had not been met, use of the telewarrant procedure was in breach of s. 8 of the * Charter*. [66] In reaching this conclusion, the t... more »

Dog in Repulse Bay

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 hour ago

Dirty Coal on Navajoland: Hold the media responsible

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 1 hour ago
By Brenda Norrell Censored News www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com Navajo horseback ride to protect Black Mesa The media, like the Navajo Nation Council, is responsible for that vote for more dirty coal energy from the Navajo Generating Station. The media has refused to tell the real story. Reporters that could have been out on Black Mesa all these years talking to the people, never bothered to

MORE TALKING STUFF

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 hour ago
My workshop at the weekend conference in Syracuse.....

@teachingquality, please tell me this is a joke. It has to be. @edushyster?

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 2 hours ago
Am I missing something? Teacherpreneurs, this sounds like a joke. Is this author serious? Exhibit A: I know what you’re thinking. You want to make an impact beyond your classroom while feeding your creative passions (which probably drove you into teaching in the first place). Thirty years of teaching in a silo might not sustain [...]

Harry Targ : Speaking Truth About Violence

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 2 hours ago
Window into violence: A boy and his bird in Gaza. Image from chemicalcollisions / Tumblr. Towards a just society: Speaking truth about violence Violence engendered by the rich and powerful and responses from the poor and powerless are embedded in the system of structural violence. By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / May 1, 2013 Establishing causal connections between “variables” and violence is a

ALEC, Legislation Without Representation

2old2care at Because I Can - 2 hours ago
*TODAY - on the floor of the Ohio House and Senate* *is pushing the ALEC right-to-work language.* *The projection is that Ohio will be a right-to-work-for-less state* *BY THIS FRIDAY.* *By Friday - Ohio will be Michigan #2. * *They are limiting the debate.* *They are limiting public input. * *YOU must watch YOUR ALEC legislator very carefully right now. * *You must be ready to act, to mobilize - at a moment's notice.* ALEC legislators try to make the public believe – through MISLEADING press releases that – ALEC legislation that is introduced – it is done with transparency – givin... more »

Into The Lair Of The Beast... Bula Journeys To A Paul Ryan Town Hall In Elkhorn

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 2 hours ago
Yesterday our Wisconsin correspondent, Bula, covered Paul Ryan's town hall meeting at the Monte Carlo Room in Elkhorn the Walworth county seat. Last November it was heavy big margin Ryan had rolled up in Walworth County that helped him overcome Rob Zerban's big win in Kenosha County. *Has The Shine Worn Off Paul Ryan In The Conservative Heart Of WI-01? - by Bula* That was the question I wanted to find out at a Paul Ryan town hall meeting in Elkhorn, WI. This is not an election year for the Congressman, so I was curious to see the turnout. The parking lot was only half full, but th... more »

ALEC Legislators Subsidizing Private Education Profit with Taxpayer $$$'s

2old2care at Because I Can - 2 hours ago
*EXCELLENT* article this morning, brought to my attention at Crooks & Liars Almost a month old and missed the mainstream somehow. Here's only two snips - an excellent read *>>>HERE<<< * *The Corporations Colonizing our Public Schools* April 10, 2013 - Culture Brew, News Brew - Tagged: April 15-May 15 Issue, Brooklyn, Charter School, education, Impact Schools, Michael Bloomberg, poverty, Queens, Restart School, schools In an era of corporate aggression into the public sphere, not even the classroom is safe. As the corporate reach extends into public schools, our kids are increasin... more »

I don't think I'll be doing either today...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 2 hours ago
*sigh.* H/T *Jon Acuff*

Watergate and Conspiracy Theories

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 3 hours ago
For those who don't read the Watergate posts, I want to draw your attention to a terrific comment from the April 30 edition. I'm just going to make a post of it...this is all commenter Adam: I'll come back and add a bit more at the end: -- One of the key things this retrospective has taught me is not just the limitations of Presidents, but the limitations of *conspiracies*. These posts should be required reading for anyone tempted to believe in a conspiracy theory. Which isn’t to say conspiracies don’t happen. This is, after all, an actual criminal conspiracy at the highest levels... more »

Ottawa "looses track" of 3.1 billion dollars meant "to fight terror"

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 3 hours ago
Muddying the waters Between 2001 and 2009, Ottawa awarded $12.9-billion to 35 departments and agencies charged with ensuring the safety of Canadians to use for public security and fighting terrorism. The money was allocated through the Public Security and Anti-Terrorism Initiative...... But Auditor-General Michael Ferguson said only $9.8-billion of that money was identified in reports to the Treasury Board as having been spent specifically on anti-terrorism measures by the departments and agencies. *The rest was not recorded as being used for that purpose. * * "The rest was not ... more »

3 More People in Custody in Boston Bombing Case - NYTimes.com

Eduardo Cantoral at GlobaLove Think Tank - 3 hours ago
3 More People in Custody in Boston Bombing Case - NYTimes.com: "BOSTON — Three additional people were taken into custody Wednesday in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings last month, according to Boston police and a federal law enforcement official." 'via Blog this'

Chief Arvol Looking Horse's Message May 2013

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 3 hours ago
Reposted with permission from Raven Redbone 'Make No Bones About It' http://ravenredbone.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/chief-arvol-lookinghorse-message-for-may-2013/ Photo by Mark Johns Colson Hec'el oinipikte (that we shall live) Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Pipe Mitakuye Oyasin! My Grandmother shared with me a powerful time when the people

Aaronson's anthropic dilemmas

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 3 hours ago
If you read my previous observations on Scott Aaronson's book including all the comments, you will see my remarks about all the chapters up to Chapter 15 about the quantum computation skeptics – where I agree with almost everything Aaronson writes although he seems to focus on the dumb criticisms and writes too little about the more intelligent ones (and e.g. about the error-correcting codes). Chapter 16 is about learning; perhaps too much formalism if we compare it with the relatively modest implications for our understanding of the process of learning. Chapter 17 is the most har... more »

Climate change compounds rising threats to koala – ‘The koalas are highly susceptible to heat stress and dehydration’

Jim at Desdemona Despair - 3 hours ago
[image: A koala and its baby. Koalas are susceptible to heat stress, and recent Australia temperatures have been beyond their 'climatic threshold'. Photo: John Giustina / Getty Images] Australia's iconic marsupial is at risk from shrinking habitats, road traffic and dog attacks – and increasingly, global warming By Neena Bhandari for IPS, part of the Guardian Environment Network 30 April 2013 SYDNEY (guardian.co.uk) – Australia's iconic marsupial is under threat. Formerly hunted almost to extinction for their woolly coats, koalas are now struggling to survive as habitat dest... more »

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Josh Busby at Duck of Minerva - 4 hours ago
e-International Relations asked me to write a piece about doing policy-relevant research. I thought I’d cross-post it here, especially timely given recent posts on this blog along with Ronald Rogowski’s screed that our work is too policy-relevant but policymakers just don’t want to hear what we are saying (HT: The Monkey Cage). Here is the Continue reading

Why not support the site which is right!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 4 hours ago
*WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013* *We’ve been right since 1972 and since 1999:* In this morning’s major post,we blow our own horn about the statewide test-score scam we uncovered a few years ago. Of course, when it comes to education issues, we’ve been right since 1972! In that year, we first approached the Baltimore Sun about the problem of cheating in Baltimore schools on the city’s standardized tests. In February 1981, we wrote an op-ed column about some Baltimore schools which had impossibly strange scoring patterns. To peruse the text of that ancient column, just click here. The nation... more »

Your government at work: Terrifying video...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 4 hours ago
*let's make it go viral.* H/T *Cold Fury*

An open admission from a “scholar.” #highered #AERA13

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 4 hours ago
I am not a writer. I am not an author. I’ve written. I’ve authored. But I am not a writer. I am not an author. I’ve written many papers. I’ve authored book chapters and articles. Being halfway decent at writing these documents is likely what set me up to pursue a PhD. It’s not as [...]

Jonathan Karl asks a sensible question!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 4 hours ago
*WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013* *As Dowd gets her usual pass:* It was left to Obama himself to mock the absurd Maureen Dowd. Two Sundays back, Dowd wrote her usual gong-show column about the way Weakling Obama can’t make the Congress do what he wants. Just before passing out on her shag, Dowd authored this ludicrous thought: DOWD (4/21/13): *The White House should have created a war room full of charts with the names of pols they had to capture, like they had in “The American President.”* Soaring speeches have their place, but this was about blocking and tackling. Dowd had seen President... more »

ALEC – MORE Secretive, Intentionally HIDING Stuff

2old2care at Because I Can - 4 hours ago
*What is the American Legislative Exchange Council HIDING? Why do they need to hide it?* * * *Excellent, important read at PRWatch* this morning that documents ALEC’s CURRENT deceptive practices to circumvent any type of transparency about the organization. Snips below - PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING *>>>>HERE<<<<* *ALEC Covering Tracks in Advance of Oklahoma Meeting* by Brendan Fischer — May 1, 2013 - 8:18am What's on the agenda for this week's meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Oklahoma City? Hard to say. Despite ALEC trying to spin itself as a "tr... more »

Iraq’s Oil Industry Still At A Plateau

Joel Wing at MUSINGS ON IRAQ - 4 hours ago
After hitting a 30-year high in oil exports at the end of 2012, Iraq’s oil output has since faltered. March 2013 was no different as the amount of petroleum shipped out fell from February, and matched the average for last year. The Oil Ministry tried to cover that up by claiming that the aggregate numbers and revenue were up for the month, but that’s because March has 31 days compared to February’s 28. Overall, the country’s leading industry has hit a plateau for at least the short-term. Tanker docked at one of Iraq's new mooring points in Basra (*Reuters*) March witnessed a drop i... more »

Peters (SD-ALEC) Dems Will Benefit from ALEC

2old2care at Because I Can - 5 hours ago
More In relation to South Dakota forcing Dems to belong to ALEC. Don’t blame me – this is what the paper wrote. Group membership fees divide SD lawmakers South Dakota Democrats say it's inappropriate for the state to pay for lawmakers' membership in an organization they believe is a conservative group dominated by Republicans and large corporations. Republicans say the American Legislative Exchange Council involves both parties, along with businesses, and is aimed at developing better policy. The South Dakota Legislature's Republican-dominated executive board voted recently to pa... more »

Seeds of the Dogmatic Scholar

plthomasedd at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 5 hours ago
The think tank as a pseudo-scholarly mechanism to promote free market ideology depends on the dogmatic scholar. All aspects of education in the U.S. have been directly and indirectly impacted by the rise of think tank advocacy and dogmatic scholars, even as departments in flagship state universities such as the school choice advocacy coming out [...]

THE PROFESSORIATE FAILS US AGAIN: This is the way our system works!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 5 hours ago
*WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013* *Interlude—An earlier failure:* Why didn’t anyone fact-check the world-famous Harvard professors? Three years later, why was this task left to three graduate students? Yesterday, we asked these questions about the case of Reinhart and Rogoff, the bungling economics professors who managed to skew the world’s economic discussion. Let’s quickly review the facts: Early in 2010, Reinhart and Rogoff released a paper which became extremely influential. We’ll ask Paul Krugman to give us the thumbnail account: KRUGMAN (4/19/13): *At the beginning of 2010, two Harvar... more »

14 Year Olds Denied Their Civil Rights...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 5 hours ago
*will it never end?* * **The FDA is Pulling 14 Year Olds to the Dark Ages or Something*

Here’s what those “civil rights” organizations really wanted to say

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 5 hours ago
The original post here. Filed under: CHALK FACE: General News & Commentary Tagged: civil rights, copaa, dfer, easter seals, Education Trust, letter

DRONE STRIKES ARE THE FACE OF AMERICA

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 5 hours ago
Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemeni youth activist and writer, testified April 23 at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights chaired by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) on the moral, legal and constitutional issues surrounding targeted killings and the use of drones.

It is time for public school advocates to become “irate.”

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 6 hours ago
This video is of a Boston man going into a beautiful rant against right-wing conspiracy nuts affiliated with radio host Alex Jones, who believe that the FBI purposely set the bombs during the marathon. I’m not suggesting we make comparisons between “education reform” and terrorism or vast government conspiracies. However, some are out there pushing [...]

A Luminous Doom

gail zawacki at Wit's End - 6 hours ago
First daughter rides her newest horse Sleeping In The Forest ~ Mary Oliver I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night I rose and fell, as if in water, gr... more »

Why Should Young Voters Be Embracing Cynicism? Barack Obama

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 6 hours ago
Keith Ellison is as crystal clear as one can be-- without coming out and trashing Obama completely-- that the president's willingness to compromise with America's mortal enemies (the Republican Party and the oligarchs and plutocrats who own them) is bad for American working families. Yesterday Alex Isenstadt explained the politics of this in a *Politico* piece for people who have been sleeping for the last several months. He explains how Obama has blurred the lines-- lines going back 100 years-- between Democrats and Republicans on protecting working families with popular social ... more »

Read Stuff, You Should

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 6 hours ago
Happy Birthday to Von Joshua, 65. What's not to like? Picked up on waivers from the Dodgers just in time for a freakishly good 27 year old season, then let go 40 games into the next year after he turned back into a 4th outfielder at best. I suppose the downside is that his "emergence" might have had something to do with giving away Garry Maddox, but the Giants in those years were foolish enough to have done that anyway, alas. Good stuff: 1. Steve M. on "the low-information media." Oy. 2. Andrew Rudalevige has something to say about "juice," too. 3. Yes, Obama beats McCain without ... more »

One May Smile And Smile

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 7 hours ago
Tom Walkom writes that no one should be taken in by the cosmetic changes to the Temporary Workers program, which Jason Kinney announced two days ago: The backpedaling Monday by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney underscores a bitter truth about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. It has been forced to retreat marginally from its long-running campaign to push down wages in Canada. But it hasn’t given up the war. Kenney’s tactical retreat was announced with much fanfare. As cameras clicked, the minister announced numerous changes to Ottawa’s temporary foreign wor... more »

FCC Nominee Wheeler - Former Telecom Industry Lobbyist

2old2care at Because I Can - 7 hours ago
Awhile ago – I put up a request for people to sign a White House petition for Susan Crawford to be the new Chair of the FCC My update to that entry was: *It is so disappointing to me - when people shoot themselves in the foot* and that is exactly what the readers of this entry are doing. You are going to end up with some DAMN old fart from the Telecom industry running the FCC - because you are choosing not to take this blog entry viral - Shame on you. Don't you dare complain about Comcast. CenturyLink, AT&T screwing you - here you have the chance to make a major contribution to ... more »

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New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 7 hours ago
*John Georges buys The Advocate* *The Advocate: 1 SomeTimes-Picayune: 0 ~Ryan Chittum* *Former Times-Picayune editors will lead Baton Rouge Advocate, which has a new owner ~Andrew Beaujon* *Happy 42nd Birthday Amtrak!* ~*Today marks the 42nd birthday of Amtrak, America’s Railroad, and there’s a lot to celebrate. Not only have we connected more than 500 destinationsacross the country, but we’ve employed tens of thousands of Americans, including the more than 20,000 folks who keep your trains running 365 days a year. *Special thanks for Photo above of the City of New Orleans as she c... more »

Unreasonable verdict

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 7 hours ago
The principles applicable when there is an allegation of unreasonable verdict are summarized in *R. v. R.P.*, 2012 SCC 22 (CanLII), 2012 SCC 22, [2012] 1 S.C.R. 746. Deschamps J., for the majority wrote: [9] To decide whether a verdict is unreasonable, an appellate court must, as this Court held in *R. v. Yebes*, 1987 CanLII 17 (SCC), [1987] 2 S.C.R. 168, and *R. v. Biniaris*, 2000 SCC 15 (CanLII), 2000 SCC 15, [2000] 1 S.C.R. 381, at para. 36, determine whether the verdict is one that a properly instructed jury or a judge could reasonably have rendered. The appellate cour... more »

Lin Yi-shih's family gets a walk

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 8 hours ago
*Sand dunes along the seashore south of Yuanli.* Former Executive Yuan Sec-General Lin Yi-shih got an interesting sentence yesterday. The Lin case had been closely watched. Before you read the Taipei Times account below, go back and read my long post on some of the political fallout and prosecutorial issues. Lin got 7+ years, basically two years for one count and five for the other. Taipei District Court spokesman Huang Chun-min (黃俊明) said the court ruled Lin had not violated the Anti-Corruption Act (貪汙治罪條例) because as a lawmaker at the time, he was not in a position to decide wit... more »

China's Labour Camp Expose

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 8 hours ago
It has been clear for some time that we have a real civil war happening between the two factions of the Chinese government and they are certainly playing with fire. The reform faction does not have sufficient power to forcibly purge the so called bloody hands faction outright although they certainly have the moral high ground and the apparent leadership high ground. This explains the ongoing agitation taking place on China's borders that serve no conceivable purpose whatsoever except to possibly trigger a nasty border incident and induce all those countries to strengthe... more »

Ancient Microraptors Adapted to Fish

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 8 hours ago
It is also pretty clear that larger pterosaurs were likely eating fish by the expedient of diving into the water and going after the fish. They also appeared to be nocturnal. This explains why some apparent extant creatures are rarely seen. The microrapter may have used similar methods. The take home is that fish were hunted during the age of dinosaurs by flying creatures as almost a preferred strategy. Such hunters would generally be immune to most attackers themselves. *Fish was on the menu for early flying dinosaur* * by Staff Writers* * Edmonton, Canada (SPX) Ap... more »

Paper on Chinese Rice Lead Retracted

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 8 hours ago
This article is a really good examination of the real difficulties every scientist faces in his attempts to produce good data. Yes, these folks muffed it and they should have done much better, but that it happened at all is a reminder that most data gathering starts of with a ton of mistakes. Then you figure out what works and all is good. Let me share a story with you. When we assay for copper values in a strange piece of rock, we send it to the lab and a value comes back. All good if the chemistry is something the lab is used to. However imagine instead that we are d... more »

Plesiosaur Updates

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 8 hours ago
We have come to a pretty clear grasp of the life way of the pleiosaurs that remains extant. I will also add though that there are additional observations that suggests that we have more than one species involved. However they all reside most of their lives in the deep ocean under the thick surface layer, putting them well out of our reach. Present observation is quite poor simply because we make an awful lot of noise when we are at sea and thus never catch them unaware when they do come to the surface. This did happen during the days of sail. The result is rare sightings ... more »

Eye witness shares stories of oil spill Photojournalist in Kaikoura

CREEKKEEPER at BP Slick - 10 hours ago
What a long strange trip it's been!I will be making my public debut here in NZ on Wed. It is an honor to be representing My friends and family in the Gulf and my brothers and sisters of the Waterkeeper Alliance. A local radio station here interviewed me today and I told them the truth. We had thousands of people, hundreds of ships, boats and even Corexit and we failed miserably at keeping it off of our shores and our people got sick then and still today are sick from that failure! This was in the local paper here in Wellington today. Eye witness shares stories of oil spill Photojo... more »

Bad Economic Development Ideas from Conservatives

Kenneth Thomas at Middle Class Political Economist - 10 hours ago
Good Jobs First today released a new study debunking so-called “business climate indexes” and showing them to be cover for an ideological agenda of cutting taxes and cutting wages. “Grading Places: What Do Business Climate Indexes Really Tell Us?” is written by University of Iowa emeritus professor Peter Fisher, a well-known expert on investment incentives and fiscal policy, with a preface by Good Jobs First director Greg LeRoy. This is an ambitious study that analyzes six different indexes published by five different groups. Four are simple combinations of a wide variety of p... more »

Five Most Popular Posts for April

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 11 hours ago
The five most read posts of the month were: 1. A Vile Product 2. The Demonisation of Paris Brown 3. Thatcher 4. A Quick Note on Ed Miliband and George Galloway 5. Dogging and Dogging Tales Thatcher passes into the night and still the two hideous *Daily Mail*scandals from the last four weeks trump her. An unremarkable post pushing a common sense interpretation on the "secret" meeting between EdM and Gorgeous George got a surprising amount of traction while my pondering of, ahem, dogging pulled in the numbers too. I always knew you were a mucky lot. What will feature next month? Your g... more »

“College and Career Ready” Contest Begins!

Kris Nielsen at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 13 hours ago
There it is again! Arne Duncan and John King said it at almost the same time! “College and career-ready.” If someone would give me one dollar for every time I hear that phrase come out of some Common Core supporter’s mouth, I could probably leave work an hour early every day. Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, [...]

Genus 5+ supermoduli space is not split

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 13 hours ago
*In multiloop diagrams, superstring theory is more than bosonic string theory with a cherry on a pie* Three weeks ago, I discussed the possible shapes of the two-dimensional torus. They were parameterized by the parameter \(\tau\in\CC\) with an extra symmetry, "modular invariance" \(SL(2,\ZZ)\), identifying countable sets of values of \(\tau\). The torus may be considered as a genus-one Riemann surface (a sphere with \(h=1\) added handle to it) and it plays the role – aside from other roles – of the 1-loop "thickened" Feynman diagram in string theory (with purely closed strings).... more »

DUTCH ROYALS; NAZIS; PEDOPHILE RINGS

Anon at aangirfan - 13 hours ago
*Holland gets a new King. Qatar's Sheikha Moza bint Nasser al Misned, Morocco's Princess Lalla Salma and Prince Albert II of Monaco. http://www.dailymail.* The Dutch Royal family is popular because of its alleged links to Nazism and pedophile rings? *New Dutch King Willem-Alexander and his wife Queen Maxima* Simon Kuper (The Beatrix factor) writes in the Financial Times: *Holland's "Willem III liked to stand on the balcony of his Swiss villa on Lake Geneva and open his bathrobe when a tour boat steamed past. * "In Dutch slang, he was a 'pencil salesman'." According to The New Yo... more »

wut d kidz r list n 2 deez daze

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 13 hours ago
Stuck standing on the GO bus becauz all d yung-ass punx wanted to hear deez muther-fukkerz: sut=vevah

Your moment of Zen

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 13 hours ago
Red tulips mean I love you. [Source unknown]

Was Kaesong a Hole in the Korean Iron Curtain, or a Subsidy to the Kim Monarchy?

Robert Kelly at Duck of Minerva - 13 hours ago
So it increasingly looks like the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial zone is closed for good. (The Wikipedia write-up is a pretty good quick history of it.) The zone was set-up during the Sunshine Policy period (1998-2007). It was to do 3 things: 1) Lead to some liberal-capitalist spill-over in the North, 2) Expose regular North Koreans Continue reading

Ypsilanti Vampire May Day

rc at GlobaLove Think Tank - 13 hours ago
- As for the crisis of our own lives, in 2009 Matt Taibbi assigned blame to the banks, calling Goldman Sachs “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Reverend Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan, referring to the Emergency Manager which was wrapped around the face of his city, said “he’s for the corporations that suck the life out of people.” Banks, insurance companies, and corporations belong to the total circuit of capitalism whence the sucking originates. When Alan Haber, the fi... more »

April 30, 1973

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 14 hours ago
The resignations are released to the press earlier in the day, with Nixon then returning from Camp David late in the day and giving a prime time address. The key paragraphs, in which he again embraces the new cover story for the cover-up (full transcript here; watch it here): -- Until March of this year, I remained convinced that the denials were true and that the charges of involvement by members of the White House Staff were false. The comments I made during this period, and the comments made by my Press Secretary in my behalf, were based on the information provided to us at th... more »

Is It Wrong To Tax the Old Today To Enrich the Old of the Future? (Is It Only the Media, Stupid?)

Bill Greider has always been a voice of reason who provides excellent historical context for the smoke and mirrors journalism deluging us today. April 26, 2013 by The NationObama: Mortgaging the Living to Save the Wealth of the Dead by William Greider President Obama discusses the federal budget at the White House. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) At the start of his second term,

Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW)

Small Footprints at Reduce Footprints - 15 hours ago
Welcome to Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW)! If this is your first visit, please click HERE for information and a complete list of all the challenges we've taken on so far. There's a lot of great information in this post and I encourage you to read through it ... however, if you don't have the time right now, you might find the following quick links helpful: - The #CTWW Gang - The Honor Society - My Final Thoughts on Our Last Challenge - This Week's Challenge We continued our paper theme last week and asked that no more than 6 squares of toilet paper be used at one t... more »

Mohawk Nation News 'Circle the Wagons"

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 15 hours ago
CIRCLE THE WAGONS Posted on April 30, 2013 Mohawk Nation News http://www.mohawknationnews.com   MNN. Apr 30, 2013. Federal Court of Canada was asked: Does Canada have a constitution? Are Sections 109 and 132 still part of the British North America Act 1867? If so, our rights to our lands, resources, funds and our sovereignty supersede that of Canada. [Thahoketoteh

A Couple of Comments

Karen Garcia at Sardonicky - 15 hours ago
Thought I'd paste my two New York Times comments in this space tonight, since the subject matter is interrelated. I was so busy writing my rich people post this morning that I missed Obama's presser, and didn't catch a replay of the sadness until later in the day. This guy is not only a lame duck, he's damn near a dead duck. All flapping wings, whiney quacks and absolutely no soaring flight to the oratorical heights. It apparently marked his 100th day of his second term in office. So, does that make him the ill-fated *Barry of the Hundred Days*, starring Daniel Day-Lewis? Is there a... more »

Arms transfers to Africa: Hold the phone!….China is the good guy?

amurdie at Duck of Minerva - 16 hours ago
This week’s topic for both my grad and undergrad human rights courses is “foreign policy and human rights promotion.” On the list of readings-not-on-last-year’s-syllabus is this little gem: “Enter the Dragon! An Empirical Analysis of Chinese versus US Arms Transfers to Autocrats and Violators of Human Rights, 1989-2006” by Indra de Soysa and Paul Midford. Continue reading

high stakes testing moratorium? @slekar says not enough!

Timothy D. Slekar at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 16 hours ago
Sorry, but Randi Weingarten’s call for a “moratorium on the consequences of high stakes testing with the Common Core standards” is worthless! We don’t need a moratorium on “consequences” associated with the Common Core. We need the abolition of all high-stakes testing and dissolution of the Common Core. Anything else is a capitulation to the [...]

Here are the new bank bills

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 17 hours ago

While Harper's Conservatives chase after single Mom's on EI ... they let affluent Canadians accumlate over $29 Billion in unpaid income tax ...

leftdog at Buckdog - 17 hours ago
** *"But the leader of the Official Opposition didn’t have time to dwell on the inconsistency of billions potentially being spent on something other than that for which authority was granted. He was off on the next damning chapter of the report — “turning a blind eye to $29-billion hidden in tax havens” — followed in turn by another that criticized the Aboriginal Affairs department for failing to co-operate with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to create a historical record of Indian residential schools."* *John Ivison*

Alan Waldman : Brit Crime Series ‘Cracker’ is a Gripping, Off-Beat Winner

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 17 hours ago
Waldman's film and TV treasures you may have missed: Former comedy star Robbie Coltrane is outstanding as an obese, alcoholic, degenerate gambler and psychologist who profiles sicko criminals for the Manchester Police. By Alan Waldman / The Rag Blog / April 30, 2013 [In his weekly column, Alan Waldman reviews some of his favorite films and TV series that readers may have missed, including TV

Untitled

leftdog at Buckdog - 17 hours ago

"How It Really Is"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 17 hours ago

“Aw, You're Just Figuring It Out, Are You? (WSJ)”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 17 hours ago
*“Aw, You're Just Figuring It Out, Are You? (WSJ)”* by Karl Denninger “One of the more-amusing aspects in observing and commenting on whatever goes on in a given day, whether it be in the political or business arena, is how many editors and writers ignore the obvious for weeks, months, years or even decades and then drop a "quip" that sounds pithy but in fact illustrates the vapidity of their mental prowess. This is one of those times: One of the enduring—by now even touching—assumptions of people who advocate for ideas like gun control is that if the government waves its ha... more »

National Poetry Month 2013: Gods and Marble

Batocchio at Vagabond Scholar - 17 hours ago
April is National Poetry Month. As usual, I'm posting late and wanted to recommend the wonderful Favorite Poem Project. This year, I thought I'd look at two poems involving the Greek god Apollo. The first one is better known: Archaic Torso of Apollo By Rainer Maria Rilke
 (Translated by Stephen Mitchell) We cannot know his legendary head with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso is

Lamar W. Hankins : 'Dirty Wars' and Bush-Obama Foreign Policy

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 17 hours ago
Yemini writer Farea al-Muslimi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Screen grab from Democracy Now!. Dirty Wars: The terror of Bush-Obama era foreign policy While some Bush policies may have been changed, the Obama administration has found new ways to accomplish the same purposes using Bush’s and Cheney’s tactics in slightly different ways. By Lamar W. Hankins / The Rag Blog /

If Gay Marriage Were Legal In 1998, Maybe Paul Crouch Would Still Be Preaching

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 17 hours ago
Pastor Paul and his lover Enoch Oh... he still is... at least on TV. Crouch, the founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network empire, the country's largest "Christian" television network, is 79 and pretty senile-- though not when it comes to sharp business dealings and milking the cash cow TBN has become. His baby, the international network, is bigger than CBS, bigger than Fox and bigger than NBC. The Crouch family has been using it as a personal piggy bank for years-- which has very serious-- and very unexplored-- tax implications. In 2010, *Forbes* reported that Crouch was paid just ove... more »

Replacing Nuclear Weapons

Daniel Nexon at Duck of Minerva - 18 hours ago
This is a guest post by Jarrod Hayes. He is Assistant Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. He received his PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Southern California in 2009. His research broadly focuses on the social construction of foreign and security policy. They are complex weapons. They are expensive. Continue reading

NDItech: In Bed with CISPA Sponsors, Seeks Hacktivists to Spread Corporate Fascism Worldwide

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 18 hours ago
Seeking to co-opt the tech community, NDItech opens doors and taxpayers' pocketbooks to lure in talent. *Image: A visual representation of the corporate-financier interests represented on the National Endowment for Democracy's (NED) board of directors. NDItech falls under the umbrella of NED. While NED and NDItech pose as fighting for "democracy," their corporate-financier interests lie poorly disguised just beneath the surface. Surely Goldman Sachs, Exxon, and the SOPA-sponsoring US Chamber of Commerce don't care about democracy or freedom - on the Internet or elsewhere. * .... ... more »

“Off to See the Wizard”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 18 hours ago
*“Off to See the Wizard”* by Byron King “Author Lyman Frank Baum wrote the original book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. The book, published in 1900, was whimsical. But among other things, it poked fun and caricatured the gold and silver debate in the U.S. in the 1890s. More broadly, Wizard was an allegory about life and political populism in the U.S. in the 1890s. Author Baum had a keen eye for the gold-silver debate because he knew something about the subject. Baum was wealthy, and heir to serious family money that came from the 19th-century oil fields of Pennsylvania. So he ... more »

The Economy: "On the Value of Information"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 18 hours ago
*"On the Value of Information"* by David Galland “It has become tradition at La Estancia de Cafayate for Casey Research to host an intimate conference in conjunction with the Harvest Celebration. In the most recent of the series, Bill Bonner, co-founder of The Daily Reckoning, kicked the program off with a thought-provoking discussion about the nature of information. With a nod to Nietzsche, Bill dissected the nature of information into two categories. The first sort is that which is derived from direct observation. For an example, Bill pointed to the tangible information th... more »

Blessings on a pagan holiday

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 18 hours ago
A blessed Beltane to all. May the fire bring the sun and your fields, real and virtual, be fertile and the Faeries be kind.

A Principal Retires on Principle

Chris Cerrone at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 18 hours ago
A colleague of mine shared this letter from her child’s beloved principal here in Western New York. Kathleen Knauth’s “early retirement” is another example of how the current education reforms are driving dedicated, child-centered leaders out of our public schools. With Mrs. Kanuth’s permission, I would like to share the letter to the parents at [...]

Mixed Messages?

antiqueteacher60 at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 19 hours ago
Reblogged from An Antique Teacher: Today, my inbox had two very interesting bits of information. 1. Commissioner King's "News and Notes" showed up telling me: "As you know, the Common Core will not just arrive in the mail in a shiny, new box. (The truth is, the CCSS show up at schools in brown cardboard [...]

The Harper Broadcasting Corporation . . .

Edstock at The Galloping Beaver - 19 hours ago
STEVIE IS MOVING IN ON THE CBC. According to Lauren Strapagiel at Canada.com with an article, "If Harper ran CBC programming", there is "newly tabled legislation that would give Prime Minister Stephen Harper a tighter grip on Canada’s national broadcaster". Go read the article, and keep Stevie from turning the CBC into the HBC.

Happy Birthday Duke Ellington

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 19 hours ago
My apologies, I forgot to pay tribute to the great Duke Ellington on his birthday this week, April 29. He would have been 114. Ellington always said his instrument was his band. Here he is in a rare performance video, playing beautiful solo piano on a tribute to his co-writer and arranger Billy Strayhorn. Here’s a trio take on his signature tune: What looks to be his 1948 band (with Ben Webster back in the sax chair) playing a classic Ellington medley: And, proving his music can’t die, here’s the Harlem Jubilee Singers singing one of the showstoppers from his *Second Sacred Conce... more »

Bob Feldman : More African-Americans Enter Texas Politics, Prisons, 1974-1995

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 20 hours ago
Hoe squad from Texas' Clemens Unit in early 1970s. Photo from Texas Prison Museum. The hidden history of Texas Part 14: 1974-1995/1 -- More African-Americans in politics, prison By Bob Feldman / The Rag Blog / April 30, 2013 [This is the third section of Part 13 of Bob Feldman's Rag Blog series on the hidden history of Texas.] Between 1970 and 1990 the number of African-Americans who lived

A Real Food Manifesto

cowboss at WALLACE SPRINGS CATTLE COMPANY - 20 hours ago
*The moment we restore food’s proper value, we begin to see where it belongs—not at the periphery of society, but at its heart. For example, “cheap food”—the apparent triumph of modern agribusiness—is an oxymoron, an illusion created by externalizing food’s true costs. Once you factor in all the fossil fuel consumption, rainforest destruction, soil erosion, pollution, water depletion, carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, rural depopulation, animal suffering and obesity that result from cheap food, it doesn’t look quite so cheap. In fact, we pay a very high price.* picture cour... more »

An Offer of Service....with Love

        AMERICAN KABUKI at AMERICAN KABUKI - 20 hours ago
*An Offer of Service...with Love* By Brian Kelly April 29, 2013 (The very first article I put out is what inspired this post) ~BK When I decided to follow my heart and leave my 9-5 job in late February, I took into consideration there was an outside chance I would need to raise some funds before the new system launches and cash shortages become a thing of the past. (Based on yesterday's post, it appears that may be happening sooner than later). I know, without a doubt in my mind, I need to stay committed to this work. So, I carefully scanned my options and came up with a plan wh... more »

Photos: Occupation of Alcatraz Exhibit opens on the Rock!

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 20 hours ago
'We are still here!' Photos and video by Tony Gonzales, AIM West Censored News Photo 1: Eloy Martinez, veteran of the occupation of Alcatraz Island November 1969 until June 1971, speaking  Sunday, April 28, 2013, on the occasion of the National Park Service providing a secure site on the Rock to exhibit artifacts during the occupation and that we are still here! And here to stay!

San Francisco: Indigenous Arts Coalition Tonantzin Jams

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 20 hours ago
TONANTZIN JAMS INDIGENOUS ARTS COALITIONSUNDAY MAY 511-5pmTenderloin National Forest 509 Ellis Street, San FranciscoTraditional and contemporary indigenous art, activists and rockers: Speakers:Wichapiluta Candelaria (Ohlone)Anthony Sul (Ohlone)Douglas Duncan (Pomo)Clayton Duncan (Pomo)L. Frank Manriquez (Tongva-Acjachemen)POBREs/Po' Poets Project - Poets in Poverty Using the word, to heal,

Elsewhere: ACA, Cruz, Post-Policy

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 20 hours ago
Today I have a post over at PP about the ACA, implementation, and public opinion. Yesterday at PP I had a fun one about "How to be Ted Cruz." Alas, it sort of got lost because Jennifer Rubin posted her Ted Cruz slam at almost exactly the same time. At Plum Line yesterday, I wrote about post-policy Republicans and the debt limit. Oh, and at Salon over the weekend, another one about term limits, focused a little more on why it keeps coming back. And I'm just going to add: I've been enjoying the last two months of Watergate blogging, but I'm really, really, ready for things to calm d... more »

Pro-life Activist Lila Rose from Live Action on Bill O'Reilly...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 20 hours ago
*good for her.* Let's save whales and kill our little human babies. That makes sense...

The next Elizabeth Warren

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 21 hours ago
I've never heard of her before today, but it sure looks like Susan Crawford is to telecom reform as Elizabeth Warren is to banksters. She was briefly part of the Obama administration but quit out of disgust with the Beltway kabuki. She's now taking on the telecom industry as a private citizen. The telecoms loathe and fear her, with good reason. She's armed with dangerous facts. Like this: Last year, Americans paid Comcast a monthly average of $153 for television, telephone, and Internet. According to a New America Foundation study, Parisians paid as little as $34.47 a month for th... more »

Hardly working

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 21 hours ago
There are millions of Americans who have been out of work for so long they stopped even looking for a job. There are millions more who are barely employed in jobs that don't pay a living wage. I've heard that there are fast food joints that now require a bachelor's degree to apply for a position as an assistant manager. Against that backdrop, this was the scene at a Joint Economic Committee in the Senate hearing on long term unemployment. The hearing started with only one out of 20 members of the committee in attendance. Eventually three others managed to show up. Shortly thereaf... more »

Yes, it’s May Day. Remember the fallen.

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 21 hours ago
*“When, at the age of twelve, at the time of the Russian revolution, I first heard the Communist principle that Man must exist for the sake of the State, I perceived that this was the essential issue, that this principle was evil, and that it could lead to nothing but evil, regardless of any methods, details, decrees, policies, promises and pious platitudes. This was the reason for my opposition to Communism then— and it is my reason now. I am still a little astonished, at times, that too many [adults] do not understand the nature of the fight against Communism as clearly as I... more »

Native Youth Filmmaking Workshop! Outta Your Backpack Media

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 21 hours ago
Outta Your Backpack Media Greetings! OYBM MAY 3-5, 2013 NATIVE YOUTH FILMMAKING WORKSHOP! MEDIA JUSTICE! Greetings, OYBM will be hosting a Free Filmmaking Workshop at our Media Center located at 1700 N. 2nd St. East Flagstaff, AZ. Come and join us to learn hands on script writing, camera operating, video editing, and media justice! The workshop is FREE & open to Indigenous

Recent Buzz

noreply@blogger.com (Roger Pielke, Jr.) at Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog - 21 hours ago
Is it only Tuesday? It seems like a full week already. Here is a quick round-up of a few items of my week thus far: - At the Guardian's Political Science blog James Wilsdon (@JamesWilsdon) and I have a piece up responding to George Monbiot's over-the-top attackon newly appointed UK Chief Scientific Adviser Mark Walport. The conversation continues in the comments and on Twitter. - At the Lowy Interpreter I provide a rejoinder to the last few defenders of the EU ETS. I suspect that its defenders will long outlast the program itself. My post is a response to a respon... more »

Mohawk Nation News 'Shadow Government'

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 21 hours ago
SHADOW GOVERNMENT Posted on April 29, 2013 MNN. Apr. 29, 2013. The conquest of our resources by a few who impose misery, oppression and indignity is ending. The “Council of Chief Executives” CCCE describes itself as a “not-for-profit, non-partisan organization” of CEOs of Canada’s largest corporations. They are the shadow government devoted to theft and genocide! It

Parents and Students Have the Power – Now Use It!

freetoteach at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 22 hours ago
From the Atlantic Journal Constitution. How to end overtesting in schools: Tell kids to answer only half of the questions http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/apr/29/how-end-overtesting-schools-tell-kids-flub-tests/ Filed under: JUDY RABIN: Schools Matter

Ted Cruz vs Chris Van Hollen-- How To Win Friends And Influence People

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 22 hours ago
Ted Cruz wants to make a name for himself as the Senate's biggest douche bag. Fellow Texans Louie Gohmert and Steve Stockman could give him a run for his money in the House, but in the Senate... Cruz is as bad as it gets. I suspect other Republican congressmen don't like being publicly referred to as squishes by this loudmouthed Texas pissant. And outside of Texas, it's not a good idea calling the grieving and sincere parents of the murdered Newtown victims political props. In his short time at the Capitol, Senator Ted Cruz, a freshman Republican from Texas, has shown little rega... more »

Some Say, When the Wind is Blowing Right, It Still Does

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 22 hours ago
1,900-million years ago, Ontario smelled like rotten eggs. Some say, if the wind is blowing just right... more »

PROTECTING DRONE CRIMES

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 22 hours ago
I was honored to be involved in the weekend drone conference and protest in Syracuse, New York organized by the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars. I've just returned home after spending Sunday night in jail (with maybe one hour of sleep) and the long eight-hour drive back to Maine. So my mind is slipping a few gears, my wrists still hurt after about 11 hours of wearing handcuffs, but my heart and soul feel strong from the experience. The drone conference began on Friday evening at a local community center in the Syracuse black community. More than 200 fol... more »

So Called 'Fiscal Conservative' Gov't Won't (or) Can't Explain Where Missing $3.1 Billion Tax Dollars Are!

leftdog at Buckdog - 22 hours ago
[image: Progressive Bloggers] *"Federal departments and agencies spent about $3.1-billion less on public safety and anti-terrorism activities than they were allocated, and no there was no explanation for the gap. In a report released Tuesday, Michael Ferguson revealed that the Harper government has been unable to explain why so much money set aside in recent years for the anti-terrorism initiative has simply gone missing. Furthermore, he found the government did not have a clear handle on whether it had met the strategy’s objectives of keeping terrorists out of Canada, and deterr... more »

Look at the HEAT coming from Fukushima Daiichi

Majia's Blog at Majia's Blog - 22 hours ago
The heat is both REAL and METAPHORIC. The real heat can be viewed in this video clip. See it in full screen if possible. I started at about 1:20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZqPIrPANQ4&list=UUDu1KkkwuzybKx6MXQgGHuw&index=1 (hat tip: Elibi at Enenews posted the link from Enenews) Majia here: Recent observations of radioactive heat at Daiichi I've made include steam erupting from the ground, steam emissions directly above unit 3, the common spent fuel pool, and steam above the dry cask storage area. The rising heat has also been documented in spiking radiation levels in Fukushima ... more »

West's WMD Lies Fray as Syrian Army Overruns Terrorist Proxies

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 23 hours ago
Absurd "chemical weapons" claims begin to fall apart amidst NATO's desperate bid to save its collapsing terror front in Syria. *Image: Chemical weapons were used extensively during the 8 year Iran-Iraq War during the 1980's. Despite vast quantities of chemical agents being used, both mustard and nerve gas, these "weapons of mass destruction" would only constitute 2-3% of all of the war's casualties. Not only has the West lied about Syria using chemical weapons, but they have once again lied to the world about the threat posed by such weapons in the first place. * .... * * *May 1, ... more »

Anne Lewis : Corporate Crime Scene in West, Texas

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 23 hours ago
Putting on the makeup. Television reporter on the scene at the fertilizer plant explosion in West Texas, Thursday, April 18, 2013. Photo by Patrick Bresnan / The Rag Blog. Getting the picture: Corporate crime scene in West, Texas How do we avoid the news story framework that gives us nothing but heroes and victims when tragedy strikes? How can those narratives, as seductive as they may be,

Lightning Round--Flake Popularity Craters, Reaction to Jason Collins, Obamacare is Still a Thing, Tebow Released, Blogs Are Dead

Jay Allbritton at Jay Allbritton - 23 hours ago
*TPM: *Several of the Senators who voted against the bill to reform background checks for gun purchases have registered sharp drop offs in support in polling done since the vote. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona is doing particularly poorly, hitting 32 percent according to PPP.* *Josh Marshall attributes his poor numbers at least in part to his late decision to vote against the bill, which alienated both sides of the debate. ** * **DKos: *Most of the reaction to NBA player Jason Collins's announcement that he is gay has been positive. The next three items are examples of the opposite of... more »

Bill Goes for the Anti-Marketing Dollar

Jay Allbritton at Jay Allbritton - 23 hours ago
Bill Hicks planted seeds.

Official story unraveling for Boston marathon bombing; clear evidence points to bomb squad’s prior knowledge by Mike Adams

Jason Leewig at Our Manmade Disasters - 1 day ago
(NaturalNews) It’s now becoming clear that members of the Boston bomb squad had *advance notice* of the horrific bombing that took place at the marathon today. As an eyewitness reports, once the bombs went off, officials began announcing, “this is just a drill!” This logically means they were all informed of the “bomb drill” beforehand. Otherwise, why would they respond with, “this is just a drill” ? According to Local15TV.com, a University of Mobile’s Cross Country Coach said there were bomb-sniffing dogs at both the start and finish lines, long before any explosions went off. He ... more »

Joel Klein’s latest pitch, featuring Charlie Rose!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013* *This time, he’s peddling MOOCs:* We always let the analysts shower after they watch Joel Klein. The former head of New York City’s schools now works for Rupert Murdoch. Last week, he appeared with Charlie Rose, selling on-line education. We’re not opposed to on-line education—to on-line college classes, for instance. We *are* opposed to people who make grandiose claims like this: KLEIN (4/25/13): I mean, you can get the greatest, take the ten best professors in the world— *You know, take what Michael Sandel does on justice. If you have sat in on his clas... more »

Nuclear time bombs

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 1 day ago
The problems at Fukushima keep getting worse: Two years after a triple meltdown that grew into the world’s second worst nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is faced with a new crisis: a flood of highly radioactive wastewater that workers are struggling to contain. Groundwater is pouring into the plant’s ravaged reactor buildings at a rate of almost 75 gallons a minute. It becomes highly contaminated there, before being pumped out to keep from swamping a critical cooling system. A small army of workers has struggled to contain the continuous flow of radioac... more »

Johnny Hates Jazz: The Comeback

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 1 day ago
This is weird. I doubt there have been many people who, over the last 20 or so years have thought "you know who I really miss from my yuppie bar days? Johnny Hates Jazz". And yet, remarkably, they're back with a new single, video and album. I don't know, maybe it's just me - I think this is a very weird comeback. Not because the song is particularly bad or far out, it's not like they drop a few wub-wubs or anything. It's inoffensively pleasing Radio 2 fodder for the shoulder pads and hairspray generation. But the question I ask myself is is there any need for a new Johnny Hates Jazz ... more »

Oy, Fournier

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 1 day ago
Ron Fournier: A president is in trouble when he’s forced to defend his relevancy, as Bill Clinton did 18 years ago, or to quote Mark Twain, as Barack Obama did today. “Rumors of my demise,” he said at a news conference, “may be a little exaggerated at this point.” Not wrong – just “exaggerated.” Not forever – just “at this point.” Parsing aside, Obama channeled Clinton’s April 18, 1995 news conference by projecting a sense of helplessness – or even haplessness – against forces seemingly out of a president’s control... “So my question to you,” ABC reporter Jonathan Karl asked Obama,... more »

A Voice from Guantanamo

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 day ago
When we think of the men held captive by the Americans at Guantanamo we probably conjure up images of men in orange jump suits with long beards but that's about it. Although most of them have been held for years, the public hasn't heard their voices or learned much of their treatment in captivity. *Slate.com* is changing all that by publishing a 3-part memoir from a 466-page manuscript handwritten by prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi. In his years of captivity the captive has taught himself English. He's still there even though nobody, not the authorities in his homeland of Maurit... more »

Colorado Observer and Sunana Batra (@cold666pack) Censor Comments supportive of Teacher Brian White

Timothy D. Slekar at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 1 day ago
Do you remember Brian White? You know…the teacher from Colorado that decided to fight back against corporate education reform. The teacher who spoke these words at his local school board meeting: Good evening. My name is Brian White. I’m a parent of two young children currently enrolled in Douglas County schools, a taxpayer, involved community [...]

“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.”

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago
[image: Marcel Proust] ― Marcel Proust

HANCOCK DRONE PROTEST IN SYRACUSE, NEW YORK

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 day ago
See the full news article *here* Also a bit of coverage in the Portland Press Herald of my arrest (thanks to Maine friend and fellow activist Lisa Savage for alerting media here in the state.) See it *here*

Beyoncé Mrs Carter Show: the pictures she doesn't want you to see - Telegraph

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/10027126/Beyonce-Mrs-Carter-Show-the-pictures-she-doesnt-want-you-to-see.html

On Receiving the Ella Baker/Septima Clark Human Rights Award

Roberto Rodriguez at Dr Cintli - 1 day ago
*Cualli Yohualli Nehua no toca Roberto Dr Cintli Rodriguez * Tlazocamati huel miac – thank you to members of the Ella Baker/Septima Clark Human Rights Award Committee, American Educational Research Association, Division B, for 2013. I first want to acknowledge the Ohlone peoples – the peoples Indigenous to these lands. And I want to pass on a teaching I received: everyone of us, we are all Indigenous… to somewhere. That should create the consciousness within us to help us understand that we are all stewards of this earth, responsible for the health of Pachamama. Secondly, I wo... more »

DANCING PRIESTS & NUNS

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 day ago
From Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea

The Realist Report with John Friend

John Friend at John Friend's Blog - 1 day ago
On this edition of *The Realist Report*, we'll be joined by Andre from * TotalFascism.com*. Andre and I will be discussing a wide variety of subjects, including some of his recent articles. We will also be addressing potential political, social, and economic solutions facing our nation and race from a variety of perspectives. Scott Roberts from * TheForbiddenTruth.net* will likely make an appearance as well. Stay tuned for what will surely be a lively and interesting conversation! You can download the entire program *here*, or subscribe to the American Nationalist Network via iTune... more »

Bagram airfield crash 29 apr 2013 - YouTube

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
The weirdest planet crash ever? Seriously scary. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=icfVsql38oc&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3DicfVsql38oc&client=mv-vf-uk&safesearch=always

The Benefits (and Costs) of School Reform in Three Cities Part I

John Thompson at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 1 day ago
The contemporary school “reform” movement has been amazingly brazen in proclaiming their supposed successes in increasing student performance. A study by Elaine Weiss and Don Long of the Broader Bolder Approach shows, however, that those achievements evaporate upon close examination. “Market-Oriented Education Reforms’ Rhetoric Trumps Reality” documents the minimal gains and the significant damage done [...]

A Moment to Ponder Time

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 day ago
If you want to beat your intellect to a pulp, ponder time. What is it? Does it exist? Is it really what we perceive it to be or is it something else or many other things? The fact is nobody can prove that time actually exists. I heard that first from the commander of the U.S. Naval Observatory who oversaw the operation of the world's timepiece, the atomic clock. Back in the fourth century, St. Augustine wrestled with the question of time. Here's how he summed it up. "*What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not kn... more »

Is the Truth Out There?

Majia's Blog at Majia's Blog - 1 day ago
This is a fun video about ETs from Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2013/04/20134302349604843.html I'm an agnostic on ETs myself. I think that in some respects the ET debate is a distraction. Too often ETs are depicted as race-destroying villains or saviors. In truth, *we *are the ones that inhabit those roles. Humanity needs to look to itself for salvation from the problems it has engineered. Consider our circumstances from the ETs perspective: Would you want to save an alien race that is aggressively plundering and destroying its own home ecosystem? Would yo... more »

The Benefits (and Costs) of School “Reform” in Three Cities Part One

John Thompson at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 1 day ago
The contemporary school “reform” movement has been amazingly brazen in proclaiming their supposed successes in increasing student performance. A study by Elaine Weiss and Don Long of the Broader Bolder Approach shows, however, that those achievements evaporate upon close examination. “Market-Oriented Education Reforms’ Rhetoric Trumps Reality” documents the minimal gains and the significant damage done [...]

The long winding route to a waiting ambulance >50 yards away when it could be as near as 5 yards.

Jason Leewig at Our Manmade Disasters - 1 day ago
Why choose the long and winding route to an ambulance > 50 yards away when a direct (green arrow) path to a waiting ambulance could be less than 5 yards in <1/2 minute? That must be the question to ask. In a real emergency situation, there would be no opportunity for the cameramen to catch a glimpse of the STAR ICONIC VICTIM with the severed blown legs, especially if the severed legs were covered with blankets on a stretcher. What! All that trouble and no photo-shots to display the severed legs to billions of people around the world. NO WAY, Jose'. We need those "shocking shots... more »

Ron George (MD-ALEC) Just Say NO to ALEC! on June 5th

2old2care at Because I Can - 1 day ago
Committee to Elect Ron George Special Campaign Announcement Scheduled Annapolis, MD - 4/30/2013 By Committee To Elect Ron George, Anthony Pelura, Treasurer Maryland State Delegate, Ron George (R-Annapolis) will be announcing his plans for the upcoming 2014 elections at a special event, Wednesday, June 5th 2013 at 6pm at the Sheraton Hotel in Annapolis, Maryland. *He serves on the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force. * *PLEASE make sure that this person is NOT elected!!!!!* *Would be nice if there were some anti-ALEC protestors at this anno... more »

The Benefits (and Costs) of School “Reform” in Three Cities Part I

John Thompson at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 1 day ago
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ACTION: Need Your Help with Big Eddie

2old2care at Because I Can - 1 day ago
*Need your help.* I have written to Big Eddie multiple times – including sending hard copies of reports on the American Legislative Exchange Council to his office in Fargo. *To NO avail.* Big Eddie NEVER talks about ALEC and when a guest does – he doesn’t acknowledge the reference to ALEC – cause IMHO – he doesn’t know what ALEC is and he is not taking the time to educate himself.. Big Eddie claims to speak for the people. How can you do that if you aren’t aware of or talk about ALEC? Please help me with an email campaign to Big Eddie. Email Address: ed@edschultzshow.com If yo... more »

The Future of English

Russell Potter at History of the English Language - 1 day ago
The future of English has long been speculated about, and science fiction and fantasy novels and films offer multiple notions about what it might look and sound like hundreds of years from now. Bladerunner (1982) famously offered us "Cityspeak," described in Harrison Ford's voiceover as " gutter talk, a mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German, what have you." And, as shown in the original screenplay, it was exactly that, including words from Hungarian, Japanese, German, French, and Korean (thought notably *not*Spanish). However, while it's true that on a drive through LA one can pass ... more »

USW - Depicts the Nastiness of ALEC

2old2care at Because I Can - 1 day ago
From the webpages of The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union This webpage is a pretty good introduction to ALEC RAPID RESPONSE NEWS | April 02, 2013 *Who the Heck is ALEC?* Article Brief As we continue to deal with a barrage of state focused legislative battles, it is imperative that we understand exactly who is behind them. The answer? The American Legislative Exchange Council, or better known as ALEC. But this comprehensive graphic from their webpage is really good. I would like to call it –... more »

C'mon, Take (More) Questions, Barack Obama

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 1 day ago
Barack Obama holds relatively few press conferences -- and must answer fewer questions when he does than any other president. At today's press conference he called on six reporters. Granted, some of the questions were two entirely separate parts, but at best it was maybe eight or nine questions. Here's a press conference from Ronald Reagan in which, if I'm counting correctly, he took 23 questions, although here's a later one in which he took just 9. Counting question is sometimes pretty tricky; here's one with George H.W. Bush, after the tax reversal, with over a dozen separate que... more »

Can an assessment officer conduct an assessment where there is an underlying dispute between the solicitor and the client about the nature and validity of the retainer agreement?

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago
Cookish v. Paul Lee Associates Professional Corporation 2013 ONCA 278 holds: [16] Ms. Pagliaroli submits on behalf of the appellant that an assessment officer does not have the authority in any circumstances to deal with disputes concerning the retainer, other than disputes regarding quantum alone. In my view, while that is true where an order is obtained on requisition under s. 3(1), it is not accurate to say that such authority may never be given to an assessment officer. However, the preferable procedure is for a judge to determine these issues. Once they have been reso... more »

Bill Good And CKNW, What Is Wrong With Them?

Grant G at The Straight Goods - 1 day ago
What is wrong with Bill Good, what is wrong with CKNW, will they ever present honest talk radio, honest unbiased commentary, let me be clear, I certainly didn`t expect Bill Good to jump on the Adrian Dix bandwagon but.. But how can you bring on air Gordon Wilson to give what Bill Good called a honest assessment of last night`s television debate. Gordon Wilson is not only a self serving pundit, he is extremely bias, he has been bashing Adrian Dix on Twitter, bashing Farnsworth, Horgan, Jenny Kwan and every other BC NDP... How can you Bill Good bring on Gordon Wilson for an opinion ... more »

Well, Of Course Rich Kids Are Smarter Than Poor Kids

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
My pal Roland teaches in an inner city elementary school in one of the toughest neighborhoods in L.A. Everyday he comes home exhausted and frustrated and drained. "Maybelline was suspended again," he seems to tell me more often than I ask him if he wants to eat at Ink or M.A.K.E. Maybelline is 8. I remember when he first told me about her at the beginning of the semester. He said he thought she might be a genius, definietly the smartest child in his class. He seemed excited to play a role in helping her reach her potential. Now he's relieved when she doesn't terrorize his other st... more »

UNCLE RUSLAN, USING CIA AGENT'S HOME, SENT AID TO ISLAMISTS IN CHECHNYA

Anon at aangirfan - 1 day ago
*Ruslan Tsarnaev, uncle of the 'Boston Bombers'* According to researcher Daniel Hopsicker, *'Uncle Ruslan' aided terrorists from a CIA official's home.* In 1995 Ruslan Tsarnaev set up a company called the "*Congress of Chechen International Organizations*." This company sent aid to 'Islamic terrorists' in Chechnya in Russia. Ruslan was listed as the company's resident agent. The company's address was 11114 Whisperwood Ln in Rockville MD. This is the home of Graham Fuller, the one-time Vice-Chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA under President Reagan. *Graham... more »

Herschel retires

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 1 day ago
*...and other events and anniversaries...* The Herschel Space Observatory lost its ability to see after four years: Science World Report, Google News, Herschel on TRF. The life expectancy, 4 years, is pretty short, isn't it? What was the reason why Herschel had to end its mission? Well, it ran out of the liquid helium coolant. Such things are finite. Incidentally, I think that the general claims that we're running out of helium on Earth are heavily overblown. The telescope was the largest space telescope sent by humans. It was named after Sir William Herschel who discovered t... more »

Breaking: Obama- No Rush to Judgement on Chemical Weapons/Syria

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 1 day ago
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-no-rush-to-judgment-on-chemical-weapons-in-syria/2013/04/30/60eca3a6-b1a0-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html The headline changed to some spin about Gitmo..Original url above * **Obama: No Rush to Judgement...* *Obama said he needs more time to decide whether the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in such a way that would violate a “red line” he has set as a trigger for escalating U.S. intervention in the violent conflict in that country.* * **“What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria,” h... more »

10 Tips to Make Sure Your Activist Group Isn't Set Up by the Feds

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Daniels) at Global Political Awakening - 1 day ago
Jason Charles The FBI and federal government have been caught red-handed setting up groups , staging terrorists attacks,staging drills, creating patsies, and infiltrating activist groups. Here are 10 good tips to avoid the embarrassment of your group ending up in the headlines as another excuse to further the police state agenda. No matter if you are a 9/11 group, anti-GMO, anti-war, Christian, Muslim or whatever the cause may be. If you run a group these tips are for you. *#1 Make everybody introduce themselves each meeting* When meeting as an activist group always have new peopl... more »

Disturbing report indicates Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s requests for a lawyer were ignored

Mark Daniels at Global Political Awakening - 1 day ago
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Madison Ruppert A recent report reveals a disturbing fact about the treatment of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: his multiple requests for a lawyer during his interrogation were ignored. While reports indicating that Tsarnaev’s Miranda rights were being withheld were disturbing enough, this new aspect pointed out today by Glenn Greenwald is far worse. Apparently, Tsarnaev was Mirandized only because a federal magistrate decided to hold an in-hospital hearing for the suspect during which he was advised of his right to remain silent and appointed a lawyer... more »

Texas Prepares to Survive Global Economic Collapse

Mark Daniels at Global Political Awakening - 1 day ago
*YouTube - RT* A restoration and self-sufficiency project. RT travels to the Republic of Texas and meets Texans who are proud of their heritage, embrace self-reliance and are ready to live by what they preach, even if it strays from the norms of mainstream American society. Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter: Delivered by FeedBurner Be the Change! Share this using the tools below. Sharing on Reddit and Newsvine will help the most.

Take your savings acounts out of the "too big to fail banks" before they confiscate them. It's perfectly legal ...and inevitable, given the precarious conditions of the big banks due to their derivative speculations and the fact that futher taxpayer bailouts are now against the law. It's called a "bail-in." The FDIC can't save you, it's already broke. And don't let your stock broker keep your cash in money market funds, because these are mostly run by TBTF banks.

David L Griscom at Cherchez la Verite - 1 day ago
------------------------------ Bail-out Is Out, Bail-in Is In: Time for Some Publicly-Owned Banks Posted on April 29, 2013 by Ellen Brown “[W]ith Cyprus . . . the game itself changed. By raiding the depositors’ accounts, a major central bank has gone where they would not previously have dared. The Rubicon has been crossed.” —Eric Sprott, Shree Kargutkar, “Caveat Depositor” The crossing of the Rubicon into the confiscation of depositor funds was not a one-off emergency measure limited to Cyprus. Similar “bail-in” policies are now appearing in multiple countries. (See my ear... more »

Stop Imperialism – Episode 64

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 1 day ago
*Lots of good info, if you have the time to listen entirely. If not it is possible to pick that which interests you for listening.**1. United States * [image: us] Boston bombing suspect cites U.S. wars as motivation, officials say Martial law in Boston: American democracy in shambles Canadian government unveils “terror plot” as it adopts draconian new law New report on torture, extraordinary rendition The money helping CISPA through Congress CISPA’s immunity provision would allow corporate hacking Segment Start: 00 h 11 min 08 secSegment End: 00 h 48 min 22 sec*2. Syria * [image: syria_80... more »

Korean Toddler gets new Trachea at OSF-CHOI...OSF's Haitian Patients Refused Care

John Carroll at Dying in Haiti - 1 day ago
Toddler youngest in world to get lab-made windpipe in Peoria operation shar.es/lpMUZ via @sharethis — John A. Carroll (@haitianhearts) April 30, 2013

Talking with GOD

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 day ago
If the only thing that comes forth from these episodes of lucid at death experiences, happens be be a simple willingness to go through death's door in expectation of bliss, than much has been gained. We do see also that all those so affected returned completely settled in themselves, often for the first time in their lives. I will go further. The near death experience is extremely good for the individual. That is an objective reality beyond denial. What this describes is an actual communion with GOD and an instruction to share the experience. I am seeing this instruction ... more »

Resuscitation Medicine

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 day ago
A lot of what we know about death is changing drastically. It is also becoming clearer. I also think that CPR is additionally important in that it keeps disturbing the oxygen rich blood and postpones real cell death. That is not suggested here. It is noteworthy that the brain goes almost immediately into a dormant state and stays there until it is safe to come back. What we do learn here is that if death is merely postponed, the consciousness will recall activity even without the direct use of sight and experience a common connection with an apparent entity that welcome... more »

Fertility Needs in High-Yielding Corn Production

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 day ago
The fertility needs of modern corn culture will not be resolved until we master the biochar protocol which allows sequestering of all nutrients on a continuing basis from either chemical treatment or natural decay based release. In the meantime, corn happens to be our most hungry crop. Thus fertility is a challenge at best. We need to perhaps find a way to engineer corn to somehow be a better citizen as we are completely set up to work with it in particular. *Fertility needs in high-yielding corn production* * by Staff Writers* * Urbana IL (SPX) Apr 22, 2013* ... more »

Large Earthquakes can Trigger Another Far Away

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 day ago
I am sorry chaps, but if rock is cracking and breaking, then it is pretty obvious that stress is moving through the system and not obviously settling down however gentle it might appear. Put another way, when a real collapse takes place, you have lost control of your assumptions and must wait until it truly settles down before you begin testing your ideas again. Of course, no one wants to do this. This also naturally implies that stress release in one locale sets up stress elsewhere especially in a quake environment. For that reason, we observe long faults taking turns r... more »

Electric Cars Will Be Great

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 day ago
A number of things are somewhat overstated in this story, but that is not particularly relevant. What is relevant is that we still do not have a meaningful deliverable as far as the battery is concerned. We do have several ways to get there now that are completely creditable but are still grinding through the design realization stage. This always takes time even when you know that you will touchdown. What we have instead is a body of rapidly improving technology that is simply waiting for the battery deliverable. Everyone knows now that we are going to get there. Also... more »

Never a dull moment

risa bear at A Way to Live - 1 day ago
Almost May! Frost this morning, expecting 80s later in the week. View from kitchen window. Fence has been set back up to regulate doggy's bathroom activities (it's usually there in winter for when the poultry are cleaning up the garden). Also at upper left, extension of poultry moat has returned. Now the ducks and chickens get a ringside seat as things grow -- and get to help interrupt even more slugs migrating toward the goodies. In middle ground, center, Lacinato kale going to seed. Foreground, potatoes, knocked back by a freeze but recovering. Upper right, compost drum and the... more »

Crazy Huge Mother's Day Giveaway!

Debra Hawkins at Housewife Eclectic - 1 day ago
Today I am thinking about my Mother. Every year I spend hours trying to come up with the perfect gift for my mom. To try and show just a little bit about what she means to me. I have come to the conclusion that even with a million dollars I wouldn't be able to show my mom half of what she means to me. My mom went without year after year, so my siblings and I could play sports, take music and dance lessons and just have money to see summer movies and go to the pool. My mom is the most selfless person I know, she serves everyone around her and blesses everyone that meets her. She i... more »

CCA Private Prison Stealing Tax $$ - Not Once, But Twice

2old2care at Because I Can - 1 day ago
Fool me once - shame on you Fool me twice - Shame on Me CCA - Stealing US taxdollars - not once - but TWICE Shame on US. *From Alternet* *The Corrections Corporation of America's Latest Shady Business?Tax Evasion* To save millions in money they would have to pay to taxes, the CCA is now claiming to be a "Real Estate Investment Trust." April 26, 2013 | Earlier this year, the Corrections Corporation of America offered to take over state-run prisons, provided that they remain 90% stocked full of inmates ready for cheap labor. Now, the CCA -- which runs 44 private prisons and deten... more »

Obama is having some sort of news conference...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 1 day ago
*allow me to sum it up for you.* Ahhhhhh, I, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, er, er, bbbbbbbbbbb, I, I, I, ah, ah, ah, annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, thaaaaaaaaaaaaaat, I, um, ah, ah, ah , ah. Ahhhhhh, um, um, I. um, um, um, um, um, um, I, um, um, er, er, bbbbbbbbbbb, ah, ah, ah, *annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd*, *thaaaaaaaaaaaaaat,* um, ah, ah, ah , ah. Ahhhhhhhh, ah, ah I... Oh, yes - he took time at the end to praise Jason Collins for having weird sex and the progress we peons have made in our acceptance of the aforementioned weird sex. And we as Americans should be proud!! We judge ... more »

You're Not the Chamber of Commerce, You're the Government.

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 day ago
Canada's business community has the understandable view that the Harper government is the handmaiden of commerce. And so, when the conservative government was caught out over abuses of the temporary guest worker programme and had to enact modest reforms, that set the business types to howling in indignation. Doesn't this government understand that filling jobs with cheap foreign labour pads the bottom line? The Chamber of Commerce (corporate sector) had a warning for the Chamber of Commerce (Harper sector) and the Canadian public - stand up to us and these businesses will leave... more »

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