21 Feb 2011
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.
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.
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.
7 American Comedians Who Were Spurred by Politics to Change Up Their Acts
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.
20 Feb 2011
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.
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?
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.
19 Feb 2011
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."
Corporate Wars
Detail of Robert Longo Corporate Wars: Walls of Influence
1982 - cast aluminium - 87 h x 108 w inches
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
18 Feb 2011
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
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.
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.
17 Feb 2011
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."
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.
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.
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)
16 Feb 2011
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."
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.