Julian Assange™

Assange becomes the latest high-profile figure seeking to trademark his name. Sarah Palin, who famously likened Assange to an al-Qaida operative, has applied for similar protection for both herself and her daughter, Bristol Palin.

Assange applied for the trademark on 14 February through his London-based law firm Finers Stephens Innocent. If granted, he will own the trademark to his name for the purposes of "news reporter services", "journalism", "publication of texts other than publicity texts" and "education services".

Assange has long vowed to clear his name of the allegations, which he denies. Earlier this month he said that the charges, made in August last year, had applied a "black box" to his life. "On the outside of that black box has been written the word rape. That box has now, thanks to an open court process, been opened. I hope in the next days you will see that the box is in fact empty."

The combative Australian, described by foes as a terrorist and by friends as a freedom fighter, also looks set to feature as the central subject in a movie about the whistleblowers' site he set up in 2006. Studio executives last month secured the screen rights to the biography of Assange by award-winning Australian writer Andrew Fowler, The Most Dangerous Man in the World,.

The Guardian

Australia proposes ban on 1000s of plants including national flower

Legislation being proposed in Australia would criminalize most permaculturists, farmers, gardeners, nurseries and bush regenerators by banning any plant that contains  DMT – a naturally-occurring hallucinogen.  Five plants are currently criminalized, but the new list will include hundreds (possibly thousands) of other species that are common garden plants and include a significant number of common native plants including the national flower, the wattle. 

Having any of these plants could get you charged with and convicted of a federal drugs violation. The list can be found here, comprising about four pages of the 41-page document.

Food Freedom

Is Libya The New Iraq? U.S. Prepares Libyan Invasion

Many signs are pointing to the potential U.S. military invasion of Libya, much like how the U.S. invaded Iraq for oil, to topple Saddam and replace him with a brand new puppet dictator.

Obama announced that he will send CFR member and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns to Europe and the Middle East. According to Obama, Mr. Burns will “intensify our consultation with allies and partners.” In other words Burns will serve as the point man ahead of the coming intervention in Libya, where there is around 46 billion barrels of estimated oil reserves.

According to the White House spokesman Jay Carney, “no options” have been taken off the table when it comes to the situation in Libya. “Our job is to give options from the military side, and that is what we are thinking about now,” “We will provide the president with options should he need them.” By saying that “all options” are being considered, that is basically a way for the Obama administration to threaten Gadhafi without actually coming right out and threatening him.

It’s quite humorous how Obama is calling out Gaddafi when it was only just last year that Obama contributed $400,000 to Gaddafi’s family. This should be no surprise as the U.S. routinely gives military and monetary aide to dictators including Saddam Hussein and Hosni Mubarak.

No World System

Small Nuclear War Could Reverse Global Warming for Years?

Even a regional nuclear war could spark "unprecedented" global cooling and reduce rainfall for years, according to U.S. government computer models.  Widespread famine and disease would likely follow, experts speculate.

During the Cold War a nuclear exchange between superpowers—such as the one feared for years between the United States and the former Soviet Union—was predicted to cause a "nuclear winter."

In that scenario hundreds of nuclear explosions spark huge fires, whose smoke, dust, and ash blot out the sun for weeks amid a backdrop of dangerous radiation levels. Much of humanity eventually dies of starvation and disease.

Today, with the United States the only standing superpower, nuclear winter is little more than a nightmare. But nuclear war remains a very real threat—for instance, between developing-world nuclear powers, such as India and Pakistan.

National Geographic News

David Miliband attacks David Cameron's 'muscular liberalism'

David Miliband has made a rare intervention into frontline British politics to warn David Cameron his recent attack on state multiculturalism risks pushing people with concerns about race and immigration into "latent hostility or active enmity".

In a Guardian article, the former foreign secretary says the prime minister's "muscular liberalism" offers little to people who are craving what he calls a "greater sense of security" in an ever changing world.

Miliband, defeated by his brother Ed for the Labour leadership last year, makes his criticism of the PM as he endorses a report by the Searchlight Educational Trust into race, multiculturalism and identity. The report, in which 5,000 people were surveyed by the Populus polling organisation, found Britain is now divided into what it called six social "tribes": Confident multiculturalists, Mainstream liberals, Identity ambivalents, Cultural integrationists, Latent hostiles and Active enmity.

More on The Guardian

Bolivia landslide

People try to recover their belongings after a a landslide triggered by heavy rains destroyed around 100 houses at the neighborhood of Valle de Flores in La Paz, Bolivia on Sunday.

All Eyes photo blog

25 WAYS TO KILL TRUTH: RULES OF DISINFORMATION

Here Comes The Summer

Moke Website

Oman police clash with stone-throwing protesters

Omani police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters in the industrial city of Sohar on Sunday who were demanding political reforms as unrest spread to the Gulf Arab sultanate, witnesses said. They said scores of protesters had gathered for a second day of protest in Sohar and that police had cordoned them off. Protests were also happening in the southern town of Salalah where demonstrators have been camped out since Friday near the office of a provincial governor. Reuters

Omani ruler Sultan Qaboos has changed six ministers in his cabinet and raised stipends for university students in an attempt to prevent further protests in the tiny Persian Gulf country. Press TV

150 Oil Workers Rescued From Libyan Desert By RAF And British Special Forces

Dozens of oil workers are preparing to return to the UK after being airlifted to safety from the Libyan desert in a dramatic military rescue mission by British special forces.

Two RAF Hercules transport planes swooped into the country and picked up 150 civilians - mostly Britons - from a number of remote landing strips amid fast-deteriorating security conditions.

It comes as the United Nations Security Council agreed unanimously a range of sanctions against Libya.

As well as the mission deep into the North African state, the final Government-chartered flight out of Tripoli delivered another 53 Britons back to Gatwick Airport late last night.

Among them were the staff of the British Embassy in Tripoli which has been closed - with representation being temporarily taken over by Turkey.

Sky News

From Russia with …

Police chased out of Tripoli

LEGO Police State

Move to where needed and help keep LEGO City safe! Chase citizens down on the police motorcycle and put them in the mobile station's prison! The whole Lego City race is only made up with police and villain figures.

LEGO.com

'Too Much Sex Can Be a Bad Thing'

PETA Germany launched a racy new ad featuring playboy Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the slogan “Too Much Sex Can Be a Bad Thing … for Dogs and Cats Too. There Are So Many Homeless Animals – Please Spay or Neuter Your Animal Companion!” Other celebrities who have appeared in “Too Much Sex” ads for PETA and its affiliates include adult film stars Sasha Grey, Jenna Jameson and Ron Jeremy as well as golfer Tiger Woods, although, in his case, as with Mr Berlusconi, involuntarily.

“Il Cavaliere can do a great service by encouraging everyone to have their dogs and cats  desexed”, says our own Mimi Bekhechi. “The hundreds of thousands of homeless strays in Italy don’t make headlines as Berlusconi does, but they need people to pay attention to the crisis caused by the animals’ casual sex.”

More on PETA.org.uk

“Dance, sing, stay up all night - live a life of dignity, with high morals”

Gaddafi addresses Tripoli crowd - Transcript on Al Jazeera

Libya crackdown 'escalates' with thousands feared dead

Reports from Libya indicate thousands may have been killed or injured as the government crackdown escalates "alarmingly", UN human rights head Navi Pillay has said. For the past week, fighting has raged between anti-government forces and troops loyal to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, in power for 42 years.

Witnesses in Tripoli say pro-Gaddafi forces have opened fire on protesters. Nato ambassadors are holding emergency talks. Around the capital, Tripoli, an elite brigade commanded by Col Gaddafi's son Khamis is believed to be dug in.

The UK and France are pushing for an arms embargo and a war crimes investigation. "The violence we have seen is appalling and unacceptable," said Prime Minister David Cameron. "People working for this regime... should remember that international justice has a long reach and a long memory."

Full story on BBC News

John Galliano arrested in Paris after making antisemitic remarks

The British fashion designer John Galliano has been arrested in Paris for alleged assault and making antisemitic remarks after a late-night drinking session. The flamboyant designer, who is head of the French couture house Dior, was arrested in the Marais district after allegedly verbally accosting a couple sitting on a cafe terrace.

Galliano was drinking at a bar before the altercation in which he allegedly hurled insults at a couple. He was arrested and taken to a police station for a sobriety test where he was found him to be just over the legal limit.

Police then escorted back to his home without filing any charges against him. One police source told Reuters the outburst was prompted by stress ahead of the upcoming Paris fashion week, at which Dior's show is always in the spotlight.

guardian.co.uk

MoneyGrabber

Official music video by Fitz and the Tantrums performing MoneyGrabber. Directed by Michael Mohan.
Download this song for free here on fitzandthetantrums.com

US Army of Fake Social Media Friends to Promote Propaganda

It's recently been revealed that the U.S. government contracted HBGary Federal for the development of software which could create multiple fake social media profiles to manipulate and sway public opinion on controversial issues by promoting propaganda. It could also be used as surveillance to find public opinions with points of view the powers-that-be didn't like. It could then potentially have their "fake" people run smear campaigns against those "real" people. As disturbing as this is, it's not really new for U.S. intelligence or private intelligence firms to do the dirty work behind closed doors.

EFF previously warned that Big Brother wants to be your friend for social media surveillance. While the FBI Intelligence Information Report Handbook (PDF) mentioned using "covert accounts" to access protected information, other government agencies endorsed using security exploits to access protected information.

Full story on PCWorld

Buddy Joe

The Phantom Four & The Arguido

Silence is Not an Option!

The undersigned organisations urge the Human Rights Council to act urgently to respond to the violent repression of demonstrations currently underway in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. The Human Rights Council cannot be a passive bystander of such events, during which the lives of ordinary citizens have been taken or put at risk through violent and unlawful repression. Hundreds of thousands of people in several countries have taken to the streets to peacefully call for their fundamental rights and freedoms to be respected.

Several hundred demonstrators have been killed. Protestors, journalists, human rights defenders, former political prisoners and humanitarian workers have been beaten or arbitrarily arrested. In the face of such wide-spread rights violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms the United Nations Human Rights Council can no longer remain silent.

Read what the Council should do on Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme

Gaza in Plain Language

Gaddafi blames unrest on al-Qaeda

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has said in a speech on Libyan state television that al-Qaeda is responsible for the uprising in Libya.

"It is obvious now that this issue is run by al-Qaeda," he said, speaking from an unknown location. He said that the protesters were young people who were being manipulated by al-Qaeda, and that many were doing so under the influence of drugs. "No one above the age of 20 would actually take part in these events," he said.

"They are taking advantage of the young age of these people [to commit violent acts] because they are not legally liable!" Gaddafi said. He called on Libyan parents to keep their children at home.

The situation in Libya was different to Egypt or Tunisia he said, arguing that unlike people in the neighbouring countries, Libyans have "no reason to complain whatsoever".

Al Jazeera

Much more on Al Arabiya

Julian Assange to be extradited to Sweden

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault. Assange will appeal, his legal team has confirmed. If they lose he will be sent to Sweden in 10 days.

Delivering his ruling at a hearing at Belmarsh magistrates court in London, the chief magistrate, Howard Riddle, dismissed each of the defence's arguments against Assange's extradition.

Assange's legal team had argued that the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny did not have the authority to issue a European arrest warrant. The magistrate ruled that she did possess this authority and the warrant was valid.

Ny's credibility had been questioned by the defence team but Riddle said those doubts amounted to "very little". A retired judge who had criticised her, Brita Sundberg-Weitman, had no firsthand knowledge or evidence to back up her opinion, he said.

More on The Guardian

Julian Assange attacks European arrest warrant after extradition ruling – Telegraph

Consciously Revolutionized Evolution

Love Police / cveitch

Dutch group Conspiracy Cells of Fire claims Rabobank attacks

Final statement Conspiracy Cells of Fire, Dutch Cell:
The attacks on the fascists of Rabobank is dedicated with all our fire to our brothers of the prisoner’s cell of the members of Conspiracy Cells of Fire and the oppressed people of the world. Our comrades and the honest minority of dignified revolutionary Persons political and civil, are not just a piece of our struggle, are not only an aspect of our action, but their choices, attitudes and dignity are the struggle itself as a whole, they are the substance.

Why Rabobank,
The fascists from rabobank where investing in the arms industry (the arms that they are investing is also going to the police, military in the Netherlands, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Libya, Algeria and other country’s).
Rabobank calls this justifies action, and we also get Shell, ING, ABN-Amro, Randstad. All these mentioned fascists company's of the system are paramount in their view that they justify the action.
The attacks on Rabobank justify what we call action! Future attacks on Shell, ING, ABN-Amro, Randstad these companies accountable!
In Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, the above mentioned companies and / or subsidiaries that have been attacked by splinter cells called the Fire. A truth that is not released by the representatives of the system. This shows our strong international solidarity.

Whole statement on Indymedia

Gaddafi speech and Libya unrest – as it happened

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, spoke earlier for more than an hour in reaction to the protests that have been rocking his country and seem to have left much of its eastern half out of his control.

See the speech with subtitles here

Here are the key points:

• Gaddafi is not standing down or leaving the country. He said he would die in Libya "as a martyr".

• He called upon his supporters to take back the streets from those who have been rebelling against his rule. He said they should go out tonight and "chase them".

• He railed against the rebels, threatening them with the death penalty and calling them "rats" and drug addicts. He hinted that he had not yet used the type of violence he could do, pointing to China's massacre in Tiananmen Square and the FBI's infamous siege in Waco. At times he would change tack and say he did not blame the young people for rebelling, saying they had been unduly influenced by their counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt.

Follow it on Guardian.co.uk

Ahmadinejad: Mideast leaders should heed calls for change

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday urged Middle East leaders to listen to the voices of citizens who have taken to the streets in masses to demand a change in government -- though such protests in his own country have been crushed with brute force.

Ahmadinejad "strongly recommended such leaders to let their peoples express their opinions," the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"He further urged those leaders of regional countries who respond to the demands of their nations and their revolutionary uprisings with hot bullets to join their peoples' movements instead of creating blood baths."

CNN.com

Iran Unrest - twazzup

As protests crackdowns continue, West lines up to sell arms

More than 80 British firms are represented at the ongoing International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, including BAE, Thales UK and Motorola UK. The firms are offering everything from weapons and communications equipment to parachutes and uniforms.

Lockheed Martin and L-3 communications from the US, France's Renault and Germany's Rhinemetall AG are among other major defence multinationals represented at IDEX.

Now in its 10th year, IDEA has attracted over 1,000 exhibitors this year, most of them from the United States, Britain, France and Germany. European governments have blocked sales of law enforcement equipment, like tear gas grenades, to some countries, but there are few restrictions on the sale of military equipment.

Facing budget cuts at home, western arms firms are desperate for a share of the lucrative Middle East market. "The post-financial crisis reality," said Herve Guillou, president of Cassidian Systems, a subsidiary of European aviation defence group EADS, "is that today it is clearly the Middle East that is seeing the biggest growth." Iran's growing military power has pushed Gulf states into their largest-ever military build up, making purchases worth £76 billion from the US alone in 2010. The largest acquisitions were made by Saudi Arabia, which is spending £41 billion on F-15 fighter jets and upgrades for its naval fleet.

Full story on Telegraph

The International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) Website

More than 1.5 million children in the UK are living in severe poverty

Save The Children described the figure as a "national scandal" and claims the number is likely to grow as Government cuts to welfare and public services bite.

It is calling on Chancellor George Osborne to counter the recent increase in VAT and rising inflation and unemployment with an emergency plan in next month's budget. Save The Children says even more families will struggle to get by unless more jobs are channelled to the worst-off areas and more financial help is given to parents who want to work.

Its research, carried out by New Policy Institute, found that 29 local authorities in Britain have more than one in five children living in severe poverty.

More on Sky News

The Houston Police Department (HPD)

Color of Change has released a revolting video of a swarm of Houston police kicking and beating a 15-year-old kid named Chad Holley who was running away from a burglary.

Some cops kicked him repeatedly in the head and legs, others punched his torso -- all while Holley was lying face down with his hands behind his head in surrender.

You can watch the video here:

More on AlterNet

Surveillance Cameras

Dilbert Website

Iran naval ships enter Suez Canal

Israel says it takes a 'grave view' of the ships' passage - the first Iranian naval vessels to go through the canal since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Two Iranian ships entered the Suez Canal on Tuesday and were heading towards the Mediterranean, an Egyptian canal official said. Iran appears to be testing the state of affairs in the Middle East after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"They entered the canal at 5:45 a.m.," the official told Reuters. No other details were immediately available. Israel is anxious about political upheaval in Egypt and other Arab states aligned with its ally the United States.

Analysts say that Iran see itself benefiting from the upheaval across the Middle East. Dislodgement and weakening of leaders sympathetic to the United States is likely to embolden Tehran, and lessen the chances of it making concessions on its nuclear program. Iran denies it intends to build atomic weapons.
Last week, the prospect of the Suez crossing was described by Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, as a provocation by Iran.

Haaretz Daily Newspaper

Parliamentary commission says first Georgian president was murdered

The Georgian Parliamentary Interim Commission has excluded the possibility that first Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia committed suicide, Chairman Konstantin Gamsakhurdia said.

Gamsakhurdia’s son Konstantin Gamsakhurdia, who heads the commission investigating his father's death, presented the Parliamentary Bureau with a 363-page document about its work. "The main thing that became clear during the commission's work was that there was no suicide. The data we have suggests that he was killed," Konstantin Gamsakhurdia said.

He added that the case of Gamsakhurdia’s death has not been closed. However, no investigation was carried from 2004 until the present day. Accordingly, the commission will send a final document to the prosecutor, who will further consider the case. The commission hopes to question ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze.

TREND News Agency

"Scumbag" Judge That Was Found Guilty Of Sending Kids To Jail For Cash

Gaddafi clings to power and his brolly

Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi made a bizarre brief appearance on state television last night — cowering under an umbrella. The surreal scene followed days of violent confrontation between anti-government protesters and the country's military.

Perched in the passenger seat of a car while clutching the brolly through the open door, Gaddafi denied rumours he had fled to Venezuela, where South American tyrant chum Hugo Chavez had offered sanctuary. After 42 years of iron rule Gaddafi, 68, appeared to have vanished from his lavish palace in Tripoli yesterday as the growing uprising against him finally engulfed the capital.

But in a statement that lasted less than a minute, he said: "I was talking to the youths in Green Square, just to show them I am here, not in Venezuela." Referring to foreign media, he added: "Don't believe those dogs, those TV channels."

It has been raining in the Libyan capital for two days.

The Sun

The Vinland Mystery

The National Film Board (NFB) of Canada

Huge Solar Storm Triggers Unusual Auroras

Auroras create green curtains of light August 4 over the Rupert River in Waskaganish (see map), a Cree Nation community in Quebec, Canada.

Last week's northern lights—which lasted a few days—were products of a large burst of plasma, or charged gas, from the sun known as a coronal mass ejection. A NASA orbiter called the Solar Dynamics Observatory saw last Sunday's eruption, which was aimed directly at Earth and sparked predictions of a shimmering sky show.

National Geographic

Pakistan hit by deadly drone strike

A US drone strike has killed at least seven people in a tribal region along Pakistan's western border, Pakistani officials have said, the first such attack in a month. The attack is likely to further test diplomatic ties between Washington and Islamabad, following the shooting last month by a US official of two men he says were trying to rob him in Lahore.

At least four missiles were fired on Monday from the unmanned aircraft at a suspected training centre for fighters in Azam Warsak, just west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal agency, intelligence officials in South Waziristan said.
"According to initial reports there were foreigners among the dead," one of the officials said. A second official said the foreign nationals killed included three people from Turkmenistan and two Arab nationals.
It is the first time since January 23 that intelligence officials have reported a US drone attack, marking a resumption of a campaign that has become the centrepiece of Washington's efforts to halt fighter launching attacks on its soldiers in Afghanistan.

While the drone strikes have killed al-Qaeda and Taliban figures, many of the senior fighters are living in cities like
Quetta or Karachi that Pakistan has made off-limits to strikes.

Al Jazeera

The American who shot dead two men in Lahore, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Pakistan and the US, is a CIA agent who was on assignment at the time.

Raymond Davis has been the subject of widespread speculation since he opened fire with a semi-automatic Glock pistol on the two men who had pulled up in front of his car at a red light on 25 January.

Pakistani authorities charged him with murder, but the Obama administration has insisted he is an "administrative and technical official" attached to its Lahore consulate and has diplomatic immunity.

The Guardian

7 American Comedians Who Were Spurred by Politics to Change Up Their Acts

1. Dave Chappelle

Chappelle was worried that his brand of humor -- centered around skewering racist stereotypes with a subversive, sophisticated, line-treading light -- was getting lost on his ever-expanding audience. The final straw: while filming a skit about "the black pixie," in which he dressed up as a Jim Crow minstrel and chided himself to play into black stereotypes, a white crew member laughed just a little too hard. "When he laughed, it made me uncomfortable," Chappelle said at the time. "As a matter of fact, that was the last thing I shot before I told myself I gotta take time out after this. Because my head almost exploded."

Six more on AlterNet (Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Paul Mooney, Judy Tenuta, Patton Oswalt and Pee-Wee Herman aka Paul Reubens)

Gaddafi's son warns of civil war

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, has warned that civil war could hit the country. His comments came in a lengthy TV address to the nation broadcast as anti-government protests spread to the capital Tripoli.

He offered significant political reforms, and admitted that the police and army had made "mistakes", but said the death toll was lower than reported.

Human Rights Watch says at least 233 people have died since last Thursday.

It urged governments to tell Libya to stop the unlawful killing of protesters amid accounts of authorities using live ammunition against them.

More on BBC News

Why It's Not a 'Safe Bet' to Believe In God

There are hundreds upon hundreds of different religions, and different gods these religions believe in. Thousands, if you count all the little sub-sects separately. Tens of thousands or more, if you count every religion throughout history that anyone's ever believed in. Even among today's Big Five, there are hundreds of variations: sects of Christianity, for instance, include Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, Mormon, United Church of Christ, Jehovah's Witness, etc. etc. etc. And sub-sects of these sects include Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Southern Baptist, American Baptist, Mormonism (mainstream LDS version), Mormonism (cultish polygamous version), Mormonism (repulsive infant-torturing version), Church of England, American Episcopalian, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod....

How do you know which one to wager on?

The differences between these gods and religions aren't trivial. If you obey the rules of one, you're guaranteed to be violating the rules of another. If you worship Jesus, and Islam turns out to right -- you're screwed. If you worship Allah, and Judaism turns out to be right -- you're screwed. If you worship Jehovah, and Jainism turns out to be right -- you're screwed. Even if you get the broad strokes right, you could be getting the finer points wrong. And in many religions, the finer points matter a lot. Taking Communion or not taking Communion? Baptizing at birth or at the age of reason? Ordaining women as priests or not? Any of these could get you sent straight to hell. No matter if you're Catholic, or Baptist, or Mormon, or Anglican, or whatever... there are a whole bunch of other Christians out there who are absolutely convinced that you've gotten Christianity totally wrong, and that you're just pissing God off more and more every day.

Whole story on AlterNet

Space Station Moon

Strange lights and objects have been recorded on our moon for hundreds of years.  In 1787, legendary astronomer, Sir William Herschel, recorded strange lights traveling across the dark lunar surface.  On one particular occasion of that same year, he spotted 3 red lights in the darkness of the lunar surface, describing the brightest one as being brighter than a recently discovered comet. He also believed there to be large "lunar cities" within the moon's craters and strongly believed in extraterrestrial life - something almost  laughable during the 18th century.

 

 

The classical Greek philosopher, mathematician and scientist Plato also reported anomalous lights on the moon sometime around 400 BC.  There is even a crater named after him which experiences high volumes of 'transient lunar phenomenon' - a term that NASA uses to describe these spooky lunar lights.  Between the years of 1540 and 1967, over 570+ lights and flashes were recorded over the moon's face.  While NASA and other lunar scientists attribute these moving and flashing lights to outgassing and impacts - few reports concerning these phenomena are ever published in peer reviewed scientific journals and are rarely ever discussed among the scientific community.

So could great historical minds like Sir William Herschel have been correct?  Could it really be possible for a race of extraterrestrials to have been living on our moon for hundreds or thousands of years without public knowledge on Earth? 

Read the whole story on spacestationmoon.blogspot.com

Floods uncover evidence of feudalism's impact on Pakistan's poor

The floods that swept across vast tracts of land from July to September 2010 covered many fields, houses and roads in a sea of swirling water - but they also played a part in exposing the depth of existing poverty and deprivation in Pakistan.

“The malnutrition we are seeing is not new. It has nothing to do with the floods; it is just that we are seeing it now as people come into contact with medical teams,” Shershah Syed, a gynaecologist who has devoted himself to caring for impoverished women requiring care during pregnancy and birth, told IRIN.

Some of the ways in which powerful feudal families - in many cases linked to the political and bureaucratic elite - acted to protect their own interests at the cost of ordinary villagers have been well documented. Feudal overlords have been accused, both in the southern Punjab and in Sindh Province of influencing decisions regarding the diversion of floodwater or the breach of over-flowing dams to protect their own land.

Full story on AlertNet and more on csmonitor.com

Caravaggio's crimes exposed in Rome's police files

Four hundred years after his death, Caravaggio is a 21st Century superstar among old master painters. His stark, dramatically lit, super-realistic paintings strike a modern chord - but his police record is more shocking than any modern bad boy rock star's.

An exhibition of documents at Rome's State Archives throws vivid light on his tumultuous life here at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries.

Caravaggio's friendships, daily life and frequent brawls - including the one which brought him a death sentence from Pope Paul V - are described in handwritten police logs, legal and court parchments all bound together in heavy tomes - and carefully preserved in this unique repository of Rome's history during the Renaissance and after.

The picture the documents paint is that of an irascible man who went about town carrying personal weapons - a sword and dagger, and even a pistol - without a written permit, boasting that he enjoyed the protection of the ecclesiastical authorities who commissioned some of his most famous works.

He had frequent brushes with the police, got into trouble for throwing a plate of cooked artichokes in the face of a waiter in a tavern, and made a hole in the ceiling of his rented studio, so that his huge paintings would fit inside. His landlady sued, so he and a friend pelted her window with stones.

Full story on BBC News

Colin Powell was ‘manipulated’ by Cheney into justifying Iraq war

Colin Powell's ex-chief of staff said Thursday the former Secretary of State was lied to and manipulated by Vice President Dick Cheney into justifying the US invasion of Iraq.

The primary justifications offered by the Bush administration for invading Iraq were that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and had possible links to Al-Qaeda. Both turned out to be false.

Iraqi defector "Curveball," ostensibly a source corroborating Hussein's biological and chemical weapons program, this week admitted he knowingly concocted the story in an effort to get rid of the dictator.

Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army Colonel who ran Powell's staff at the time, was asked by MSNBC's Cenk Uygur if he believes he and Powell were "flat-out lied to."

"I cannot come to any other conclusion," he responded, saying that some intelligence sources had warned Curveball may not be reliable. "I think there was some manipulation of the material and there was some outright lying."

Full article on The Raw Story

Corporate Wars

Detail of Robert Longo Corporate Wars: Walls of Influence
1982 - cast aluminium - 87 h x 108 w inches

See full object and buy it at Liveauctioneers.com

Libyan Security Forces Kill 84 Over Three Days

Government security forces have killed at least 84 people in three days of protests in several cities in Libya, Human Rights Watch said today, based on telephone interviews with local hospital staff and witnesses.

The Libyan authorities should immediately end attacks on peaceful protesters and protect them from assault by pro-government armed groups, Human Rights Watch said.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the eastern Libyan cities of Benghazi, Baida, Ajdabiya, Zawiya, and Derna on February 18, 2011, following violent attacks against peaceful protests the day before that killed 20 people in Benghazi, 23 in Baida, three in Ajdabiya, and three in Derna. Hospital sources told Human Rights Watch that security forces killed 35 people in Benghazi on February 18, almost all with live ammunition.

"Muammar Gaddafi's security forces are firing on Libyan citizens and killing scores simply because they're demanding change and accountability," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Libyan authorities should allow peaceful protesters to have their say."

Muammar Gaddafi has ruled Libya for 42 years.

More on Human Rights Watch - algathafi.org

The Story of the Bluefin

Short animation video about one of the most endangered species of our planet: the Bluefin tuna. This video gives you the whole story of the Bluefin, with lots of detailed information and some shocking facts.
More info on www.howtosavethebluefin.com

New World Next Week

Corbett Report

Deadly 'day of rage' in Libya

Libyan protesters seeking to oust longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi have defied a crackdown and taken to the streets on what activists have dubbed a "day of rage". There are reports that more than a dozen demonstrators have been killed in clashes with pro-government groups.

Opponents of Gaddafi, communicating anonymously online or working in exile, urged people to protest on Thursday to try to emulate popular uprisings which unseated long-serving rulers in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt. "Today the Libyans broke the barrier or fear, it is a new dawn,'' Faiz Jibril, an opposition leader in exile, said.

Abdullah, an eyewitness in the country's second largest city of Benghazi, who spoke to Al Jazeera, said that he saw six unarmed protesters shot dead by police on Thursday.

Opposition website Libya Al-Youm (cache) said four protesters were killed by snipers from the Internal Security Forces in the eastern city of al-Baida, which had protests on Wednesday and Thursday, AP news agency reported.

Al Jazeera

Video footage posted on YouTube shows protesters in the city of Tubruq tearing down a 'Green Book' monument on Thursday. The Green Book is a book written by Gaddafi, which outlines his political views.

Curveball doubts were shared with CIA, says ex-German foreign minister

Germany's former foreign minister Joschka Fischer has accused the former head of the CIA George Tenet of making implausible claims about the handling of the Curveball case by the US.

On Wednesday Tenet, the director of central intelligence between 1997 and 2004, issued a statement on his website saying he discovered "too damn late" that Curveball – the Iraqi defector who became a key source for the CIA and the German secret service (BND) – might be a fabricator.

Reprinting an extract from his autobiography, Tenet claimed he only found out in 2005, two years after the Iraq invasion, that the BND had doubts about Curveball's claims to have witnessed first-hand Saddam Hussein's bio-weapons programme.

Asked by the Guardian whether Tenet's claims were plausible, Fischer said: "No. I don't think so."

guardian.co.uk

More Canadian use of Agent Orange found

Hundreds of Canadian forestry workers were exposed to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange clearing forests in Northern Ontario, the Toronto Star said Thursday.

An investigation by the newspaper showed government records of the carcinogenic chemical's use beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the 1970s.

The chemical gained notoriety when U.S. forces began spraying it from aircraft in Vietnam in 1961 to expose enemy positions in dense jungle. Thousands of U.S. soldiers later began showing various illnesses including cancers, liver and skin disorders and impaired immune, endocrine and reproductive functions, the report said.

Full story on UPI.com

Operation Bahrain

The Hackers News

Internet Kill Switch Beta: US Government Blocks 84,000 Websites

Under the banner of fighting child pornography, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice knocked out 84,000 websites last week. The websites did not host or link to child pornography as the government claims.

“As part of ‘Operation Save Our Children‘ ICE’s Cyber Crimes Center has again seized several domain names, but not without making a huge error. Last Friday, thousands of site owners were surprised by a rather worrying banner that was placed on their domain,” reports TorrentFreak, a tech site.

If passed, the law would give Obama and future presidents the ability to designate the internet – and other network computer systems – as vital to national security. If the government decided to shut down the internet or certain parts during a declared emergency – more than likely a contrived false flag event – it will not be “subject to judicial review,” in other words the Fourth Amendment will not apply. The power to declare such an emergency would not come from Congress.

Kurt Nimmo on Infowars

Bahrain: terror as protesters shot

What had been days of mostly peaceful demonstrations changed dramatically in Bahrain early Thursday morning when police swarmed into the capital city and forcibly removed protesters from the Pearl Roundabout.

Police came in with dozens of vehicles, surrounded the roundabout and began firing "pellet bullets," rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators, witnesses said.

At least three people were killed early Thursday morning during the incident, emergency hospital services said. (CNN)

Live updates on The Guardian

Al Jazeera Today

Violent protests break out in Libya	Protesters killed in Yemen clashes
Bahrain protesters hold ground	Iran funeral triggers new clashes
Iraqis attack government offices	Much more on Al Jazeera

Japan halts whale hunt after chase by Sea Shepherd

Japan has suspended its annual Antarctic whale hunt following protests from a campaign group. Activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have been chasing the Japanese fleet's mother ship. An official at the country's fisheries agency said whaling had been halted "for now" because of safety concerns.

Commercial whaling was banned in 1986 but Japan uses a regulation permitting hunting for scientific research. Iceland and Norway have lodged official objections to the ban and continue to hunt commercially. BBC News

Sea Shepherd - Japanese Whalers Escorted out of the Whaling Grounds

Now Violent protests break out in Libya

Protesters have clashed with police and government supporters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, reports say.

Demonstrators gathered in the early hours of Wednesday morning in front of police headquarters and chanted slogans against the "corrupt rulers of the country", Al Jazeera's sources said. Police fired tear gas and violently dispersed protesters, the sources said without providing further details.

The online edition of Libya's privately-owned Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi, said the protesters were armed with petrol bombs and threw stones. According to the newspaper, 14 people were injured in the clashes, including three demonstrators and 10 security officials.

Al Jazeera reports – More on Al Arabiya

WikiLeaks row intensifies as US makes 'privacy' move against Twitter

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, praised the role of social networks such as Twitter in promoting freedom – at the same time as the US government was in court seeking to invade the privacy of Twitter users.

Lawyers for civil rights organisations appeared before a judge in Alexandria, Virginia, battling against a US government order to disclose the details of private Twitter accounts in the WikiLeaks row, including that of the Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, below.

The move against Twitter has turned into a constitutional clash over the protection of individual rights to privacy in the digital age.

Clinton, in a speech in Washington, cited the positive role that Twitter, Facebook and other social networks played in uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. In a stirring defence of the internet, she spoke of the "freedom to connect".

The irony of the Clinton speech coming on the day of the court case was not lost on the constitutional lawyers battling against the government in Alexandria. The lawyers also cited the Tunisian and Egyptian examples. Aden Fine, who represents the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the leading civil rights groups in the country, said: "It is very alarming that the government is trying to get this information about individuals' communications. But, also, above all, they should not be able to do this in secret."

Full article on The Guardian

Israel video shows Stuxnet Virus as one of its successes

A showreel played at a retirement party for the head of the Israel Defence Forces appears to back claims that the country's security forces were responsible for the Stuxnet cyber attack on the Iranian nuclear programme.

The video of Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi's operational successes included references to Stuxnet, a computer virus that disrupted the Natanz nuclear enrichment site last year, it was reported.

Although Israel has not officially accepted responsibility for the Stuxnet attack, evidence of its role has been mounting since the virus was first revealed in July. The virus, unprecedented in its sophistication, was designed to infiltrate the control systems at Natanz and make hidden, damaging adjustments to centrifuges.

Security researchers say factors including complexity of the operation point strongly to Israel as the source. It has also been reported that a special facility was set up with American co-operation in the Israeli desert to test the weapon.

More on Telegraph