NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope is finding hundreds of new objects at the very edge of the electromagnetic spectrum. Many of them have one thing in common: Astronomers have no idea what they are.
Visit science.nasa.gov. for more
6 Apr 2012
Global warming skeptics are akin to racists and should be “treated” for having a psychiatric disorder
The climate change professor at the center of the scandal over her assertion that global warming skeptics were akin to racists and should be “treated” for having a psychiatric disorder wrote a letter in which she praised Barack Obama for hiring eugenicist John P. Holdren as his chief science advisor, while also urging Obama to ignore public opinion and disregard democracy in favor of enforcing draconian climate change mandates.
Following University of Oregon Professor Kari Norgaard’s presentation of a discussion document at the recent Planet Under Pressure conference, in which she called for global warming skeptics to be viewed as racists who need to be “treated” for mental disorders, every academic establishment associated with her has attempted to memory hole information concerning Norgaard’s biography and her previous work.
More on Prison Planet – Mail Online – Living in Denial by Norgaard
Chomsky: How the Young Are Indoctrinated to Obey
Public education is under attack around the world, and in response, student protests have recently been held in Britain, Canada, Chile, Taiwan and elsewhere.
California is also a battleground. The Los Angeles Times reports on another chapter in the campaign to destroy what had been the greatest public higher education system in the world: "California State University officials announced plans to freeze enrolment next spring at most campuses and to wait-list all applicants the following fall pending the outcome of a proposed tax initiative on the November ballot."
Similar defunding is under way nationwide. "In most states," The New York Times reports, "it is now tuition payments, not state appropriations, that cover most of the budget," so that "the era of affordable four-year public universities, heavily subsidized by the state, may be over."
Chinese websites 'defaced in Anonymous attack'
The Anonymous hacking group claims to have defaced almost 500 websites in China. Targets hit in the mass defacement included government sites, its official agencies, trade groups and many others. A message put on the hacked sites said the attack was carried out to protest against the Chinese government's strict control of its citizens. It urged Chinese people to join Anonymous and stage their own protests against the regime.
The announcement about the defacements was made via an Anonymous China account that was established in March. A list of the 485 sites affected was put on the Pastebin website. Separate Pastebin messages posted email addresses and other personal details stolen when sites were penetrated. Sites defaced had the same message posted to them that chided the nation's government for its repressive policies.
It read: "Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall."
5 Apr 2012
New military trials at Guantánamo
The alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four suspected co-conspirators will face a new trial before a Guantánamo war crimes tribunal on charges that could carry the death penalty, the Pentagon has said. The five are accused of planning and executing 2001 hijacked airliner attacks on New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, resulting in the deaths of 2,976 people.
They are charged with terrorism, hijacking an aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war and other counts, and were referred to a capital military tribunal, meaning they could be sentenced to death if convicted, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
President Barack Obama halted the previous trial and wanted them prosecuted in civilian court. Congress opposed the move and the administration was forced to shift it back to Guantánamo. The decision to refer the case to a military commission means the five will be arraigned before a military judge at Guantánamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba within 30 days.
CISPA: Even worse than SOPA
In the USA an onrush of condemnation and criticism kept the SOPA and PIPA acts from passing earlier this year, but US lawmakers have already authored another authoritarian bill that could give them free reign to creep the Web in the name of cybersecurity.
As congressmen in Washington consider how to handle the ongoing issue of cyberattacks, some legislators have lent their support to a new act that, if passed, would let the government pry into the personal correspondence of anyone of their choosing.
RT: Even worse than SOPA: CISPA cybersecurity bill will censor the Web.
Giant feathered dinosaur Yutyrannus discovered in China
It is by far the biggest feathered dinosaur ever to have been unearthed and raises intriguing questions as to why some of these scaly reptiles developed plumage. Three nearly complete skeletons of the dinosaur have been uncovered in beds of sediment in Liaoning province, north-eastern China, scientists reported in Nature.
The soil has been dated to around 125 million years ago to the mid-Cretaceous period, at the peak of the dinosaurs' long reign over the planet. The new species has been named Yutyrannus huali, an amalgam of Latin and Mandarin which means "beautiful feathered tyrant." "The feathers of Yutyrannus were simple filaments," said Xu Xing, a legendary fossil hunter from Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology.
4 Apr 2012
Nobel Laureate Grass Attacks Israel in New Poem
Günter Grass, Germany's most famous living author and the 1999 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, sparked outrage in Germany on Wednesday with the publication of a poem, "What must be said," in which he sharply criticizes Israel's policies on Iran.
"Why did I wait until now at this advanced age and with the last bit of ink to say: The nuclear power Israel is endangering a world peace that is already fragile?" Grass writes in the poem. The 84 year old also criticizes the planned delivery of submarines "from my country" to Israel, a reference to Germany's plan to deliver Dolphin-class submarines to Israel that are capable of carrying nuclear-armed missiles. At the same time, Grass also expresses his solidarity with Israel.
In the poem, published by Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and other European dailies on Wednesday, Grass also calls for an "unhindered and permanent monitoring of Israel's nuclear potential and Iran's nuclear facility through an international entity that the government of both countries would approve." It is widely believed that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, although it has never been proven.
No Bravery
There are children standing here, Arms outstretched into the sky, Tears drying on their face. He has been here. Brothers lie in shallow graves. Fathers lost without a trace. A nation blind to their disgrace, Since he's been here.
And I see no bravery, No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.
Jesus Is Not a Homophobe
A high school in Ohio, USA, threatened to suspend a student for wearing a shirt that said “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe,” according to Lambda Legal, who filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the school district on his behalf. Maverick Couch, an openly gay junior at Waynesville High School, wore the shirt during the National Day of Silence last April. The day of silence is meant to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.
“I’ve been bullied and called names, I wanted to wear the T-shirt to encourage respect for all students, gay or straight” Couch said. “I wish my school would help me create an accepting environment for LGBT kids, not single me out for punishment.” School officials said the shirt was “indecent and sexual in nature” and ordered Couch to turn his shirt inside out. He complied with the order. Next year, he asked the principal for permission to wear the shirt again, but was told he would be suspended if he did so.
Burma's president calls elections a success
Burma's president said Tuesday that elections won by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her party were successful, issuing the first government endorsement of the historic polls.
When asked by The Associated Press if he thought the weekend by-elections were free and fair, President Thein Sein said: "It was conducted in a very successful manner." Thein Sein's remark was the first comment by a top government official since Sunday's polls. He spoke on the sidelines of a summit in Cambodia of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, which gave him a vote of confidence Tuesday.
3 Apr 2012
Colonialism in 10 Minutes: The Scramble For Africa
An excerpt from the film Uganda Rising showing in a (very!) brief overview the utter decimation of Africa that took place via colonialism and the so-called "Scramble For Africa."
Despite the film's focus on Uganda, this excerpt sheds light on just how much of the violence that we see today actually has a colonial/European precedent rooted in exploitation and racism.
Ai WeiweiCam
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said Tuesday he had set up four live webcams in his home in a symbolic reference to the 24-hour police surveillance he has been subjected to since his detention a year ago. Ai -- whose activism has made him a long-standing thorn in the side of Chinese authorities -- disappeared into custody on April 3 last year as police rounded up dissidents amid online calls for Arab-style protests in China.
He was eventually released in June, but was given a one-year probation during which he cannot leave Beijing, and has been subjected to constant police surveillance. "In my life, there is so much surveillance and monitoring -- my phone, my computer... Our office has been searched, I have been searched, every day I am being followed, there are surveillance cameras in front of my house," he said.
"So I was wondering, why don't I put some (cameras) in there so people can see all my activities. I can do that and I hope the other party (authorities) can also show some transparency," he told AFP. When he was released, the 54-year-old was charged with tax evasion linked to Fake Cultural Development Ltd -- a company founded by Ai but owned by his wife.
Return the Elgin marbles to Athens
The British Museum has had only one request to return something from its vast collections that it regards as official. The Greek government has asked the British government if it can have the Parthenon marbles back. Stephen Fry also thinks the issue of these sculptures is unique. In December last year, in a blog picked up over the weekend by a restitution lobby group, Fry wrote: "The Parthenon affair is a special case."
Which it is. That stunning building embodies the culture that gave us democracy, the Olympic Games and all that classical stuff we used to be taught at school. It inspired the Renaissance and Byron, and now the many who would like to see the bits in the British Museum – about half the surviving sculptures – given back to Greece.
Among the latter was the late Christopher Hitchens. For him the cause was the expression of a solidarity between a free Greece and "British liberals and radicals". Fry agrees, calling the idea of a return an "act of friendship" in the time of Greece's "appalling financial distress".
A big reason for restitutioners to argue for the uniqueness of the Parthenon case is to counter claims that any return would set off a string of demands for other things from other countries: being friendly to Greece would not set a precedent. In practical terms that is probably true – comparable cases would continue to be judged on their own merit. And as the British Museum says, so far no other claims have been put to it through the formal route of one government to another.
2 Apr 2012
New snooping law to allow UK Government access to everybody's emails, texts, and internet browsing
Major changes to surveillance laws are to give the Government the power to monitor email exchanges and website visits of every person in the UK. The new legislation is expected to be announced in the Queen's Speech next month, despite similar 'Big Brother'-style laws being rejected six years ago.
Internet companies will be instructed to install hardware enabling GCHQ - the Government's electronic 'listening' agency - to examine 'on demand' any phone call made, text message and email sent, and website accessed in 'real time'.
Civil liberties campaigners expressed fears that this 'unprecedented' move will intrude on the lives of British citizens, with the measures being compared to strict controls currently exercised in China and Iran. In 2006, Labour was forced to abandon similar plans in the face of fierce opposition from Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and privacy groups.
But now, the Sunday Times reports, the Home Office has confirmed coalition ministers intend to revive the move towards greater surveillance 'as soon as parliamentary time allows'.
Structural Racism in America
About the Trayvon Martin Case - Glen Ford: Vilification of young black youth deeply embedded in American culture
1 Apr 2012
Eddie Izzard at the Reason Rally 2012
Eddie Izzard Reason Rally 2012 Speech. Apologize for the shakiness and average quality. Cell phone videos in the rain suck.
Breakfast in Collinsville
Last December, filmmaker Terrance Huff and his friend Jon Seaton were returning to Ohio after attending a "Star Trek" convention in St. Louis. As they passed through a small town in Illinois, a police officer, Michael Reichert, pulled Huff's red PT Cruiser over to the side of the road, allegedly for an unsafe lane change. Over the next hour, Reichert interrogated the two men, employing a variety of police tactics civil rights attorneys say were aimed at tricking them into giving up their Fourth Amendment rights. Reichert conducted a sweep of Huff's car with a K-9 dog, then searched Huff's car by hand. Ultimately, he sent Huff and Seaton on their way with a warning.
Earlier this month, Huff posted to YouTube audio and video footage of the stop taken from Reichert's dashboard camera. No shots were fired in the incident. No one was beaten, arrested or even handcuffed. Reichert found no measurable amount of contraband in Huff's car. But Huff's 17-and-a-half minute video raises important questions about law enforcement and the criminal justice system, including the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, the drug war, profiling and why it's so difficult to take problematic cops out of the police force.
Breathe
Pink Floyd "Speak To Me / Breathe / On The Run" from "The Dark Side Of The Moon" 1973
Breathe, breathe in the air.
Don't be afraid to care.
Leave, don't leave me.
Look around and choose your own ground.
Sudan governor to troops: 'Take no prisoners'
Troops in Sudan have been ordered to show no mercy to rebel fighters. Al Jazeera has obtained a video clearly showing the Governor of Southern Kordofan ordering army soldiers to take no prisoners. Ahmed Harun tells the men "don't bring them back alive".
Harun is already wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. Peter Greste report from the Nuba Mountains in this Al Jazeera Exclusive.
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