Polar bears have symptoms of mystery disease

Symptoms of a mysterious disease that has killed scores of seals off Alaska and infected walruses are now showing up in polar bears, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said on Friday. Nine polar bears from the Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were found with patchy hair loss and oozing sores on their skin, similar to conditions found in diseased seals and walruses, the agency said in a statement.

Unlike the sickened seals and walruses, the affected polar bears seem otherwise healthy, said Tony DeGange, chief of the biology office for the USGS's Alaska Science Center. There had been no deaths among polar bears, he said.

The nine affected bears were among the 33 that biologists have captured and sampled while doing routine studies on the Arctic coastline, DeGange said. Patchy hair loss has been seen before in polar bears, but the high prevalence in those spotted by the researchers and the simultaneous problems in seal and walrus populations elevate the concern, he said.

Reuters

God is for idiots

Jim Jeffries

Richard Dawkins and his Foundation at the Reason Rally

Richard Dawkins speaking at the Reason Rally March 24, 2012 is preceded by Sean Faircloth, Director of Strategy & Policy at the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science US, then Executive Director Dr. Elisabeth Cornwell, Executive Director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science US.

Günter Grass barred from Israel over poem

The celebrated German author Günter Grass has been declared persona non grata in Israel following the publication of his poem warning that the Jewish state's nuclear programme was a threat to an "already fragile world peace".

The row over the literary work continued to reverberate over the weekend, with the 84-year-old Nobel laureate saying in a newspaper interview that he did not intend to criticise Israel but the policies of its present government, led by Binyamin Netanyahu.

With hindsight, he told Süddeutsche Zeitung, he would have rewritten his poem to "make it clearer that I am primarily talking about the [Netanyahu] government". He added: "I have often supported Israel, I have often been in the country and want the country to exist and at last find peace with its neighbours." Netanyahu, he said, was damaging Israel.

Israeli politicians and commentators said that Grass had disqualified himself from criticising Israeli policies by his service as a young man in the Nazi Waffen SS. Some said the poem was thinly disguised antisemitism, a response predicted by Grass in his poem. Netanyahu issued a statement denouncing the poem and its author.

On Sunday, Israel's interior minister Eli Yishai used a law permitting a bar on entry to former Nazis to declare Grass persona non grata for his "attempt to fan the flames of hatred against the state of Israel and its people, and thus to advance the idea to which he publicly affiliated in his past donning of the SS uniform". Yishai's statement added: "If Gunter wants to continue to spread his twisted and lying works, I suggest he does this from Iran, where he can find a supportive audience."

Guardian.co.uk

Leaked Video Shows US Contractors Randomly Killing Civilians

Employees of the US military contracting group Academi (formerly Xe, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide) are seen in new leaked video shooting their machine guns at random while driving through the streets of Baghdad, crashing into other cars and even running over a pedestrian without hesitation. Academi received a $250 million contract by the Obama administration to provide military services in Afghanistan.  The Daily Conversation

Also see “The Warrior Class”: The Blackwater Videos on Harpers - Academi (aka Blackwater) on Wikipedia

Sababu

Zita Swoon Group

Anonymous takes down UK Home Office website

Notorious hacktivist group Anonymous has taken down the UK Home Office website. The group owned up to the attack via Twitter, saying it was launched over “draconian surveillance proposals.”

­The Home Office, whose website returned to normal around midnight GMT, confirmed the attack.The group also claims it had launched a cyberattack on the websites of the British Prime Minister and the UK Ministry of Justice “for continued derogation of civil liberties." However, both websites seem to be operating normally at the moment.

British security agencies are pushing for a law which would allow police to monitor text messages, phone calls and emails of their citizens, as well as websites visited, Facebook and Twitter exchanges, and even online game chats. More than $3 billion over the first decade alone is the extraordinary sum the British taxpayer may have to pay to be legally spied upon should the bill be passed.

More on RT

Mali rebels declare independence of Azawad nation

Mali’s Tuareg rebels declared independence of an Azawad nation on Friday, as the political crisis in the country showed no signs of abating. Tuareg forces seized control of the country’s north in the chaotic aftermath of a military coup in the capital, Bamako.

“We, the people of the Azawad,” they said in a statement, “proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from this day, Friday, April 6, 2012.”

Mali’s African neighbours have said they are planning military action to push the rebels back, as well as to restore constitutional rule elsewhere. France, which has already said it is willing to offer logistical support for a military invasion, said yesterday that it does not recognize the new Tuareg state. “A unilateral declaration of independence that is not recognized by African states means nothing for us,” said French defence minister Gerard Longuet. The European Union agreed.

Scotsman.com

Eddie Izzard - Live at Madison Square Garden

Silent world

Lucie & Simon, Silent world. 2009-2012. USA, China, France, Italy. Music by Philip Glass and Daft Punk.

Mysterious Objects at the Edge of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

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

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."

Noam Chomsky on AlterNet

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."

BBC News

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.

guardian.co.uk

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.

Wishery

Pogo

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.

Telegraph

The Fearless Cartooneer

Click to see the answer on Zone 5300

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.

Der Spiegel

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.

James Blunt

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.

The Raw Story

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.

CBS News

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.

Bangkok Post - weiweicam.com