German Humour; It's No Laughing Matter

But I hardly thought it required a poll to come to that conclusion.

The same poll however puts us Brits at just fourth in the funny stakes, one behind America in fact. Which, as any self respecting Brit will tell you, is nothing short of a pure bloody insult. Taking your average Yankee Doodle, if humour isn't possessed of all the subtlety of a police baton at a First Amendment rally, the response is invariably, yer wot?

A typical example at the bottom of the page.

While they might be world leaders in many fields, the Germans have never really led the way in comedy.

Now an international poll appears to reinforce the humourless national stereotype after concluding that Germany is the least funny country in the world.

More than 30,000 people in 15 countries were asked to rank the nations with the worst sense of humour and Germany came out on top.

But before Britons become too smug, the survey did not rank the UK a great deal higher, placing us fourth behind Russia and Turkey.

Countries including Canada, Holland and Belgium all performed better than the UK when it came to demonstrating wit.

The survey, which was carried out for the social networking site Badoo.com found that most people agreed with the national stereotype that Germans were weak at comedy.

Many of those responding to the survey said they saw Germans as being more focused on rationality and efficiency rather than humour.

In May 2007 the German magazine Spiegel commented that the British had an image of the typical German as a “mercilessly efficient but humourless engineer”.

But defenders of German comedy insist the stereotype is unfair and the structure of the language means many jokes from the English language do not translate easily.

Lloyd Price, the spokesman for Badoo.com, which carried out the survey said: “Germans are brilliant at so many things, including making cars and beating us at football. Unfortunately telling jokes isn’t always one of them.

“If only there was a comedy World Cup, we might stand a chance against them.”

Commenting on Britain’s poor showing in the survey Mr Price said the international perception of the UK was a country whose people were uptight and reserved.

He said: “If we’re no good at football and no good at comedy either, it’s a bit of a pie in the face for us.”

The top ten least witty countries according to the survey were:

1 Germany

2 Russia

3 Turkey

4 Britain

5 America

6 France

7 Poland

8 Belgium

9 Holland

10 Canada
Telegraph

Original source of poll, Badoo.com

SAN FRANCISCO MAN BECOMES FIRST AMERICAN TO GRASP SIGNIFICANCE OF IRONY–

Jay Fullmer, 38, yesterday became the first American to get to grips with the concept of irony. "It was weird," Fullmer said. "I was in London and, like, talking to this guy and it was raining and he pulled a face and said, "Great weather, eh?" and I thought "Wait a minute, no way is it great weather." Fullmer then realised that the other man’s "mistake" was in fact deliberate. Fullmer, who is 39 next month and married with two children, aged 8 and 3, plans to use irony himself in future. "I’m, like, using it all the time," he said. "Last weekend I was grilling steaks and I burned them to shit and I said "Hey, great weather!".

Originally part of this post.

Concerned About Fylde Coast Gas Extraction? (Fracking) Watch This

The first thing I have to admit is that I am woefully slow on the uptake of this potential threat to the Fylde Coast and it's inhabitants. So slow in fact, that others long ago took up the cause, and as such are far ahead of me on the far from benign subject of hydraulic fracturing. (fracking)

Although I shall re-post a few words I had to say on the subject hydraulic fracturing, or more specifically the documentary Gas-Land, which exposes the perils of fracking, far better that I furnish a link to a dedicated site, where you, and I for that matter, can avail yourself of this blogger's efforts to date.

http://dont-frack-with-the-fylde.blogspot.com/

See sidebar at the above for further fracking links.

From a previous post.

Having now watched the complete documentary, I have to admit to being at a loss for words. The sheer scale of eco-vandalism that has laid waste to vast, and I mean vast, tracts of land throughout the United States is mind boggling. The poisoning of the water table, and subsequently air quality surrounding these gas wells, is nothing short of criminal.

I thought the people of Appalachia had a cross to bear due to the effects of mountain top removal, but even their plight seems to pale when compared to the environmental damage caused by gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing.

I have to put this film in the must see category, even if you are not directly effected (yet) by fracking. If you have limited bandwidth, might I suggest at least watch part four on Youtube, (now below) where some frightening facts and figures are given an airing.

The prime villain in all this, the drilling companies apart, Dick Chaney, aided and abetted by George W Bush.

I think the time has come for a bit of hands on activism on my own part.

Below: Gas-Land stills from the trailer, (2m 47s) followed by the complete documentary in seven parts. But I have to stress, gas coming out of the faucet is the least of their problems.

No longer available due to infringement of copyright.

Dancing For Liberty Update

That's the way to do it, en masse. Previous

Dancing For Liberty
This Is What Democracy Looks Like

In Washington DC, hundreds of people have been dancing at the Jefferson Memorial claiming they are exercising their first amendment rights. It comes after last week RT America host Adam Kokesh and four others were arrested by the police for dancing at the same spot.
Video of Adam Kokesh dance flash mob at Jefferson Memorial, June 4, 2011

A Bit Of Doom and Gloom To Cheer You Up

I have featured this batshit crazy motherfucker previously, but in light of the environmental doom and gloom I reported on below, I thought we might have a bit of doom and gloom from the man himself.

Firstly, the previously featured video, complete with caption, followed by ''Doom and Gloom''

Drive on you fuckin' barmpot, let's all have a giggle.

I originally thought this fellow was taking the piss, well you would, wouldn't you.

When I retired in 2001 I fully expected to enjoy full time my avocations of bass fishing and making sculpture. The long, cold Adirondack winters also afforded me a lot of time to renew my interest in the Holy Bible and that's when I discovered I have a unique gift to understand the end times prophecies of Daniel, Esther, Ezekiel, Revelation etc. Not that interpretation is always obvious and so when I have doubts I stop and pray about it, usually Mary's Rosary (I am a practicing Roman Catholic) and the Lord answers, not in an audible voice, but to my mind. When I asked who is the "eagle" in Revelation 8:13, He said "you are". Homepage Youtube

They're Fracking in My Backyard

Bastards!

Blackpool uneasy at prospect of 'fracking' boom on its coastline
By Jonathan Brown
14 May 2011

The allure of Blackpool rock and the rejuvenating effects of its sand and water once made it a magnet for the toiling classes as they took a break from the drudgery of the Lancashire cotton mills.

Today, as the resort battles to cope with the allure of cheap flights to Spain, those three elements are once again attracting outsiders to this part of the English coast in search of a fourth: gas.

Cuadrilla Resources, a British company specialising in the development of shale gas wells, has been hard at work in the resort's rural hinterland since August last year after being given permission by the Government.

Whitehall is due to hold a new round of licensing for shale drilling at the end of the year. So far two wells have been sunk. The first at Preese Hall and the second at the village of Singleton in the picturesque Fylde countryside, an area until now best known for its bracing sea walks and world-class links courses.

The first drill has already penetrated 7,500ft down into the Bowland shale and fracking – the process of releasing natural gas from the sedimentary rock by blasting it with water, sand and chemicals – is already under way.

A third site is expected to be opened this summer and the company has permission to probe another three nearby, before beginning explorations in the Netherlands and Poland.

But following claims over the safety of the process in the United States, some locals are concerned, with councillors petitioned to object. Blackpool's Green Party chairman Philip Mitchell said an industry was being introduced without adequate investigation by the authorities.

"The potential is catastrophic," he said. "We don't know the science of this or how it will affect people. We are introducing something that we do not know the full dangers of."

Greens claim that there is the risk of explosive well blow-outs, fire, traffic disruption and noise. They fear that, so significant are the deposits and so huge the rewards, the industry could be on the verge of major expansion not just across Lancashire but the whole of the UK.

To add to the sense of unease this week, France's National Assembly voted to ban the process after a sustained protest by green groups. The Senate is expected to follow suit next month making France the first country to ban fracking. (French environmentalists are furious though that a last-minute deal means that research employing the technique will continue.)

Cuadrilla Resources, currently the only holder of a UK fracking licence, believes the process is entirely safe. At present operations are regulated by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) as well as the Environment Agency. The official line is that no one knows how much gas is there until the exploratory phase is completed nor how much it will cost to recover.

In the meantime the company has been conducting a charm offensive inviting local people, journalists and MPs to tour the site. This week the chief executive Mark Miller, from Pennsylvania, compared modern drilling technology to keyhole surgery. He said a dozen wells could be drilled on an area the size of a football pitch with each site capable of feeding gas into a generator capable of producing 100 megawatts of local electricity for the next 30 years.

"We have shown many people around our first shale gas wells in Lancashire and most people comment how quiet and low-profile they are. They make little impact on the surrounding countryside and will hopefully fulfill a useful local function," he said.

A DECC spokesman said: "We support industry's endeavours in pursuing such energy sources so long as tapping of such resources proves to be economically, commercially and environmentally viable. All onshore oil and gas projects, including shale gas exploration and development, are subject to a series of checks, including local planning permission, before they are able to move ahead with drilling activities."

How Hydraulic Fracturing Works




Fracking, or chemical fracturing, is the process by which water, sand and chemicals are used to increase the quantity of gas that can be extracted from the ground.

The mixture is pumped at high pressure into natural gas or methane gas fields, cracking open the rock deep beneath the surface to release trapped reserves.

Gas then flows out of the fissures, which are kept open by the sand and chemicals, and into pipes that lead to the surface.

Drilling companies claim that chemical additives make up less than one per cent of the liquid poured into the gas field. However, the quantities involved are so large that a typical well is likely to pump about 34,000 gallons of chemicals into the ground.

One of the chemicals used is diesel, which contains toxic substances. Other chemicals used can include hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde and arsenic. independent

I have touched on the subject of fracking previously, But the full movie that I mentioned, the one I had downloaded, turned out to be corrupt, so I never got to view the thing. So here is part one, and this is as far as I have got so far.

Update: Having now watched the complete documentary, I have to admit to being at a loss for words. The sheer scale of eco-vandalism that has laid waste to vast, and I mean vast, tracts of land throughout the United States is mind boggling. The poisoning of the water table, and subsequently air quality surrounding these gas wells, is nothing short of criminal.

I thought the people of Appalachia had a cross to bear due to the effects of mountain top removal, but even their plight seems to pale when compared to the environmental damage caused by gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing.

I have to put this film in the must see category, even if you are not directly effected (yet) by fracking. If you have limited bandwidth, might I suggest at least watch part four on Youtube, where some frightening facts and figures are given an airing.

The prime villain in all this, the drilling companies apart, Dick Chaney, aided and abetted by George W Bush.

I think the time has come for a bit of hands on activism on my own part.

Fukushima - IAEA You Couldn't Make It Up: But They Just Did

Fukushima Diaichi, I will have you know, is not an unprecedented nuclear disaster on a global scale, but rather a ''unique opportunity.''

The IAEA mission urges the international nuclear community to take advantage of the unique opportunity created by the Fukushima accident to seek to learn and improve worldwide nuclear safety.

Words we can only attribute to whore turned brothel keeper, (it's just a mild strain of syphilis) shill for the nuclear industry, ''team leader Mike Weightman, the United Kingdom's Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations.''

The summary below is courtesy of The Register, but one must read the full interim report, where we are offered such gems as this:

The Japanese Government’s longer term response to protect the public,
including evacuation, has been impressive and extremely well organized. A suitable and timely follow-up programme on public and worker exposures and health monitoring would be beneficial.

And if you believe that, I have a bridge I want to sell you.

But for me, what really takes the biscuit and has all the subtlety of a turd in a swimming pool, is this little line of encouragement that can be found at the foot of the IAEA's roundup page. (Not to be confused with the IAEA's full interim report.)

(Note to Media: We encourage you to republish these stories and kindly request attribution to the IAEA).

No kidding, how very kind of you.

IAEA: Handling of Fukushima has been exemplary
No one harmed, nothing suppressed, normal life to resume
By Lewis Page
3rd June 2011

A preliminary report by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency has stated that the response to the Fukushima nuclear incident was "exemplary" and that nobody has been harmed by radiation exposure resulting from it.

The report was drafted by an IAEA fact-finding team which has just completed a visit to Japan. The team was led by Mike Weightman, the UK Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations – Britain's top nuclear regulator.

The IAEA team give a brief account of the events of the earthquake – which the affected powerplants resisted without difficulty, despite it being far stronger than they were designed to withstand – and the following tsunami, which caused serious damage at Fukushima Dai'ichi. Only one backup diesel generator survived the enormous wave, at 14m high more than twice as tall as the plant's defences could take.

Now that the situation at the plant has stabilised and investigations inside the reactor buildings have been undertaken, it appears that fuel elements in the worst-hit reactors actually melted down quite soon after most of their cooling equipment was knocked out. This situation is usually assumed to be catastrophic – the very word "meltdown" has come to mean "a rapid or disastrous decline or collapse" – but in fact, apart from putting the reactors beyond economic repair, it has had no serious consequences (as was also the case at Three Mile Island).

As the IAEA notes:

To date no health effects have been reported in any person as a result of radiation exposure from the nuclear accident.

The preliminary report goes on to praise the way the plant staff handled the crisis:

The response on the site by dedicated, determined and expert staff, under extremely arduous conditions has been exemplary and resulted in the best approach to securing safety given the exceptional circumstances.

The operations of the incident command and support base, set up at the nearby "J-Village" football training centre, are particularly highly praised for the careful management of the various workers based there. The careful Japanese practice of having hardened emergency-response centres on site from which to conduct operations during a crisis is also recommended to other nuclear operators worldwide.

The IAEA team bluntly contradicts the many suggestions from the media and anti-nuclear campaigners that information on the incident was or is being withheld or suppressed by the Japanese authorities, or by plant operator TEPCO.

During the IAEA mission, the team of nuclear experts received excellent co-operation from all parties, receiving information from many relevant Japanese ministries, nuclear regulators and operators ...

The Japanese Government, nuclear regulators and operators have been extremely open in sharing information and answering the many questions of the mission.

Weightman and his team add that efforts should now be directed at allowing local people to return to their homes and get on with their business. In general the Japanese authorities exercised commendable restraint in the face of overseas suggestions that the evac zone should be enlarged, but it did in the end embark on some compulsory evacuations that were hard to justify on safety grounds. The IAEA seems to suggest that it will be feasible to clean up any long-lasting contamination in the area - for instance from radioisotopic caesium, whose presence resulted in areas of farmland being abandoned following Chernobyl.

The report says:

The planned road-map for recovery of the stricken reactors is important ... It should be seen as part of a wider plan that could result in remediation of the areas off site affected by radioactive releases to allow people evacuated to resume their normal lives. Thus demonstrating to the world what can be achieved in responding to such extreme nuclear events.

In other words, it appears that in the IAEA's opinion not only will nobody be radiologically harmed by the Fukushima incident, but it ought to be possible to ensure that normal life – living, working, farming etc – can resume in the evacuation zone. TEPCO has already stated that it expects to restart two of the Fukushima reactors in due course (both Three Mile Island and Chernobyl resumed operation as power stations following their accidents, too).

A fuller report will be delivered at a summit conference in Vienna later this month. For now the preliminary document and accompanying information can be found here on the IAEA website. The Register

Talking of evacuation zones, let's hear what Arnie Gunderson has to say on the subject.

White House & NRC Recommend 50 Mile Fukushima Evacuation, Yet Insist US Safe With Only 10 from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Gundersen Gives Testimony to NRC ACRS from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Hmmm

German police train vulture 'detectives' to find bodies

German police are trying out a new weapon in the fight against crime - vultures that can find hidden corpses.

Three feathered detectives - called Sherlock, Miss Marple and Columbo - are being trained in Walsrode bird park in northern Germany.

The birds' keen eyesight and acute sense of smell might make them as skilful as their fictional namesakes.

But worryingly Sherlock sometimes prefers to hunt on foot, rather than scan the ground from above.

Police used a piece of shroud from a mortuary for the training exercise, German media report.

The vultures are thought to be better than sniffer dogs at finding bodies when a large area has to be searched and the terrain is difficult, for example if it is densely overgrown.

But the experiment raises ethical concerns because of the risk that a vulture could start pecking at a dead body, the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper says.

This week Miss Marple and Columbo, from a zoo in Austria, joined Sherlock for the exercise in the reserve, north of Hanover.

Police are using three birds because the vultures prefer to roam big areas as a group.

"The vultures may work much more effectively than sniffer dogs," said a Hanover police officer, Rainer Herrmann.

"There's a lot of interest in this. We've had inquiries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland," he said. BBC

Fascist Firearm Fun in Florida

The story is I suppose, primarily about the cops trying to confiscate the footage of the shooting. But for the likes of us innocents at home, us Europeans, the shooting itself has to figure greatly.

The incident of the shooting was captured by a different third party from his balcony overlooking the scene. It's somewhat ambiguous, there being the sound of gunfire early in the clip. But there is no such ambiguity starting at the 1m-12s mark, none whatsoever, little wonder the final count was one dead, seven injured. A more comprehensive report here.

What a fucking jungle.

Miami Beach Police Ordered Videographer At Gunpoint To Hand Over Phone
But video survived even after police tried to destroy phone

Miami Beach police did their best to destroy a citizen video that shows them shooting a man to death in a hail of bullets Memorial Day.

First, police pointed their guns at the man who shot the video, according to a Miami Herald interview with the videographer.

Then they ordered the man and his girlfriend out the car and threw them down to the ground, yelling “you want to be fucking paparazzi?”

Then they snatched the cell phone from his hand and slammed it to the ground before stomping on it. Then they placed the smashed phone in the videographer's back pocket as he was laying down on the ground.

And finally, they took him to a mobile command center where they snapped his photo and demanded the phone again, then took him to police headquarters where they conducted a recorded interview with him before releasing him.

But what they didn’t know was that Narces Benoit had removed the SIM card and hid it in his mouth, which means the video survived.

Benoit showed the video to Miami Herald reporters on Thursday, who described it in their article.

The three-minute video captured on Narces Benoit’s HTC EVO phone begins as officers crowd around the east side of Herisse’s car with guns drawn. Roughly 15 seconds into the video, officers open fire.

Benoit filmed the incident from the sidewalk on the northeast corner of 13th Street and Collins Avenue, close enough to see some officers’ faces and individual muzzle flashes.

Shortly after the gunfire ends, an officer points at Benoit and police can be heard yelling for him to turn off the camera. The voices are muffled at times. The 35-year-old car stereo technician drops his hand with the camera and hurries back to his Ford Expedition parked further east on 13th Street.

The video shows Benoit get into the car, where his girlfriend, Ericka Davis, sat in the driver’s seat. He raises his camera and an officer is seen appearing on the driver’s side with his gun drawn, pointed at them.

The video ends as more officers are heard yelling expletives, telling the couple to turn the video off and get out of the car.

“They put guns to our heads and threw us on the ground,” Davis said.

Benoit has not posted it on Youtube because he is asking to be compensated. But it sounds as if he won’t have much trouble getting compensated through a settlement with the police department.

However, he first must post the video for the world to see.

Benoit and his girlfriend also said police smashed several phones from other witnesses, so hopefully they were able to recover the videos as well.

The new details emerged a day after police announced they had found a gun in the car they had shot up.

It took police two-and-a-half days to find the gun in the Hyundai but they still haven’t determined if it was discharged that night.

For all we know, it could have been locked away in the trunk of the car.

Four innocent bystanders were shot during that shooting, most likely from police bullets.

Also, an hour after that shooting, another officer shot at a man who she believed was driving towards her. But he turned out to be allegedly drunk, which is why he was driving erratically and eventually into a police cruiser. source

More from this blogger, article includes a couple of links about his arrests for photographing cops. Police Confiscate Cell Phone Cameras After Shooting Unarmed Man On Miami Beach

Here's a short CBS12 interview with the dude in question.




Previous:
Further Fascist Fun In Florida

Florida Cops Tip Quadriplegic Out Of Wheelchair video

Wheelchair Cop Charged With Felony Abuse

Further Tales From a Police State and The Big Fascist Picture Show

An Open Letter to the Troops: You’re Not Defending Our Freedoms

Not dissimilar to a previously featured article: They Died in Vain

An Open Letter to the Troops:
You’re Not Defending Our Freedoms
by Jacob G. Hornberger, May 31, 2011

Dear Troops:

Yesterday — Memorial Day — some people asserted, once again, that you are “defending our freedoms” overseas.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Those people are just repeating tired old mantras. The reality is that you are not defending our freedoms with your actions overseas. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Your actions overseas are placing our freedoms here at home in ever-greater jeopardy.

Consider your occupation of Iraq, a country that, as you know, never attacked the United States, making it the defender in the war and the United States the aggressor. Think about that: Every single person that the troops have killed, maimed, or tortured in Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

Yet, the countless victims of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq have friends and relatives, many of whom have become filled with anger and rage and who now would stop at nothing to retaliate with terrorist attacks against Americans.

Pray tell: How does that constitute defending our freedoms?

It was no different prior to 9/11. At the end of the Persian Gulf War, the troops intentionally destroyed Iraq’s water and sewage facilities after a Pentagon study showed that this would help spread infectious illnesses among the Iraqi people.

It worked. For 11 years after that, the troops enforced the cruel and brutal sanctions on Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. (See “America’s Peacetime Crimes against Iraq” by Anthony Gregory.) You’ll recall U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright’s infamous statement that the deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children from the sanctions were “worth it.”

By “it” she meant the attempted ouster of Saddam Hussein from power. You will recall that he was a dictator who was the U.S. government’s ally and partner during the 1980s, when the United States was furnishing him with those infamous WMDs that U.S. officials later used to excite the American people into supporting your invasion of Iraq.

The truth is that 9/11 furnished U.S. officials with the excuse to do what their sanctions (and the deaths of all those Iraqi children) had failed to accomplish: ridding Iraq of Saddam Hussein and replacing him with a U.S-approved regime.

That’s what your post-9/11 invasion of Iraq was all about — to achieve the regime change that the pre-9/11 deadly sanctions that killed all those children had failed to achieve.

No, not mushroom clouds, not freedom, not democracy, and certainly not defending our freedoms here at home. Just plain old regime change.

In the process, all that you — the troops — have done with your invasion and occupation of Iraq is produce even more enmity toward the United States by people in the Middle East, especially those Iraqis who have lost loved ones or friends in the process or simply watched their country be destroyed.

In principle, it’s no different with Afghanistan. I’d estimate that 99 percent of the people the troops have killed, maimed, or tortured in that country had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.

Why did you invade Afghanistan or, more precisely, why did President Bush order you to do so?

No, not because the Taliban participated in the 9/11 attacks and, no, not because the Taliban were even aware that the attacks were going to take place

President Bush ordered the troops to invade Afghanistan — and, of course, kill Afghan citizens in the process — because the Afghan government – the Taliban — refused to comply with his unconditional extradition demand. You will recall that the Taliban offered to turn bin Laden over to an independent tribunal to stand trial upon the receipt of evidence from the United States indicating his complicity in the 9/11 attacks.

Bush responded to the Taliban’s offer by issuing his order to the troops to invade Afghanistan, kill Afghans, and occupy the country. In the process, U.S. officials installed one of the most crooked, corrupt, and dictatorial rulers it could find to govern the country, one who is so incompetent he cannot even hide the manifest fraud by which he has supposedly been elected to office.

In the process of installing and defending the Karzai regime, the troops have killed brides, grooms, children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, and countrymen, most of whom never attacked the United States on 9/11 or at any other time. They simply became “collateral damage” or “bad guys” for having the audacity to oppose the invasion and occupation of their country by a foreign regime. (It should be noted for the record that U.S. officials considered these types of “bad guys,” as well as Osama bin Laden and other fundamentalist Muslims, to be “good guys” when they were trying to oust Soviet troops from Afghanistan.) more The Future of Freedom Foundation

Jeremy Morlock - The Kill Team

Jeremy Morlock Spiritual Fitness Fail

US Military Readying For Martial Law?

Thin end of the wedge? The devil is in the details.

Army judges weigh military trials for civilians

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three Army judges are weighing a question that hasn't cropped up in decades: whether a civilian contractor working for the U.S. military can be tried in a military court. The issue eventually could end up at the Supreme Court. more

John Pilger: The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism - Julian Assange and Others

Glowing praise from the man himself, not just for Assange but for other worthies as well.

An Unpalatable Truth
The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism
By John Pilger
June 02, 2011 London

Thank you all for coming to the 12th annual award of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Some would say there are too many awards for journalism that merely celebrate the status quo. The Martha Gellhorn Prize is very different. We believe it’s the most prestigious and sought-after award for journalism in Britain because it recognises that the best journalists are subversives – because the truth is so often subversive.

Let me quote in full why we give it: “This prize is in honour of one of the 20th century’s greatest reporters. It’s awarded to a journalist whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth. It’s validated by powerful facts that expose establishment propaganda, or ‘official drivel’, as Martha Gellhorn called it.”

Martha Gellhorn, an American who settled in britain, is renowned as a war reporter. She was more than that. As both a reporter and humanitarian she was also a pioneer: one of the first in Vietnam to report what she called “a new kind of war against civilians”: a precursor to the wars of today.

She and I became good friends. All my fellow judges have that in common; we knew Martha and understood what she meant by “official drivel”.
Her phone calls were memorable. She would call me very early in the morning and open up the conversation with one of her favourite expressions – “I smell a rat”.

When George Bush senior invaded Panama in 1990, pursuing his uppity, former CIA buddy General Manuel Noriega as a pretext for controlling the Panam Canal, the media reports made little mention of civilian casualties. My phone rang. “I smell a rat,” said Martha.

The next day she was on a plane to Panama. She was then in her 80s. She went straight to the slums of Panama City, and walked from door to door, interviewing ordinary people. That was her way.

She estimated some 6,000 people dead from the American bombing that had accompanied Bush’s invasion. She then flew to Washington and stood up at a press conference and asked a general: “Why did you kill so many people then lie about it?”

Try to imagine the BBC asking that. That is what we are honouring today. Truth-telling, and guts.

This year is different from previous years. It has been a momentous year in journalism that has forced us to modify the rules, such as each submitted article running to at least 1500 words. For the first time, we have gone to the internet and searched for work you are unlikely to read in a newspaper. The choice was amazing. For this reason we are giving a Martha Gellhorn Special Award.

There are the three finalists for the Special Award. They are Umar Cheema, who writes for the website The News International in Pakistan. His work exposing official corruption is simply astonishing. Let me give you a flavour. Here is the first paragraph to one of his pieces:

ISLAMABAD: An officer convicted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of financial and economic crimes for 14 years has been appointed head of the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Economic Crime Wing (ECW) by the PPP government after his crime record was concealed during the promotion process [because] he is a friend of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Imagine writing that in Pakistan, a country in turmoil. Umar Cheema has been harassed and tortured. On Tuesday, the body of another courageous Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad was found, murdered. Umar was due to fly to London to be with us today, but the British High Commission in Pakistan refused to expedite his visa within 12 days of his application – knowing that we wanted to honour him. A disgrace.

The second finalist for the Special Award is Charles Clover of the Financial Times. What impressed us was his powerful investigation into far-right gangs in Russia and their links to the government. This was brave, tenacious and meticulous work. The third Special Award finalist is Jonathan Cook, who is based in Nazareth. I have been reading Honathan’s work on the internet for years. On Palestine and Israel, I can think of no more reliable source. His de-coding of propaganda and analysis is so good, so consistent, it is always bracing.

Jonathan Cook and Charles Charles Clover, together with Umar Cheema, are the winners. It was impossible to choose. Each of you receives a cheque for £2000.

I mentioned that this was a momentous year for journalism. A revolution is taking place: a revolution in information that threatens old power orders, in politics and journalism. WikiLeaks is at the forefront of this revolution.
When he founded WikiLeaks in 2006, Julian Assange wrote, “The goal is justice, the method is transparency.” This moral dimension of truth-telling and justice has been largely ignored, and WikiLeaks has been portrayed as a phenomenon of the hi-tech age, which it is. But it is much more. It reveals what our politicians say in private, and how they lie in public. It tells us how wars begin and how innocent men, women and children are killed and maimed in faraway places, in our name.

This information is precious for it not only informs; it empowers people rising up in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia and Palestine.

In 2008, when he was running for president, Barack Obama, said: “Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal.” As president, Obama has pursued and prosecuted more whistleblowers than any other US president. Bradley Manning for one.
And this prize-giving occasion pays tribute to the heroism of that young man.

Julian Assange is an editor, publisher and journalist in the oldest and finest tradition of our craft. He is brave. He is a true agent of people; and I should say that those who dismiss him a hacker merely betray themselves as hacks.

WikiLeaks has given the public more scoops and more truth than most journalists could imagine: certainly more than those who police the perimeters of the mainstream media, who indulge in a censorship by omission and who understandably feel threatened by Assange and WikiLeaks, whose independence and achievements stand in vivid contrast to their own.

In March 2008, a Pentagon secret document made clear its plans to destroy trust in WikiLeaks. Criminalising and smear would be the methods. One of the ways of fabricating a charge against Julian Assange in Washington is to somehow prove he is not a journalist and is therefore not protected by the First Amendment. We judges were unanimous. The award of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism repudiates that slur; above all, it honours a remarkable recipient. ICH+ short video.

The Outsiders: Martha Gellhorn from John Pilger on Vimeo.

Video courtesy of johnpilger.com

See also: Controversy dogs Chomsky as he accepts Sydney Peace Prize

Julian Assange Wins Martha Gellhorn Journalism Prize

In a roundabout way, Assange reminds me of Spencer Tunick, He does his thing all over the world without any problem, everybody turns up and has the craic and goes home after being a part of something unique. He does the same in America and the powers that be are running around after him with arrest warrants.

Julian Assange wins Martha Gellhorn journalism prize

WikiLeaks founder praised as 'brave, determined, independent' by judges

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has won the 2011 Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism.

The annual prize is awarded to a journalist "whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or 'official drivel', as Martha Gellhorn called it".

"WikiLeaks has been portrayed as a phenomenon of the hi-tech age, which it is. But it's much more. Its goal of justice through transparency is in the oldest and finest tradition of journalism," Martha Gellhorn prize judges said in their citation.

"WikiLeaks has given the public more scoops than most journalists can imagine: a truth-telling that has empowered people all over the world. As publisher and editor, Julian Assange represents that which journalists once prided themselves in – he's brave, determined, independent: a true agent of people not of power."

The judges also gave Martha Gellhorn special awards for journalism to Umar Cheema, of the International Times of Pakistan; Charles Clover, the Financial Times's Moscow correspondent; and Jonathan Cook, a freelance journalist based in Nazareth.

Judges for the 2011 awards were Dr Alexander Matthews, John Pilger, James Fox, Shirlee Matthews, Cynthia Kee and Jeremy Harding. gruniad

Global War On Drugs a Failure

One trillion dollars later.

Global war on drugs 'a failure'
High-level panel declares international anti-drug measures a failure and suggests legalising cannabis and other drugs.

A high-level international commission has declared the global "war on drugs" to be a failure, and has urged countries to consider legalising certain drugs, including cannabis, in a bid to undermine organised crime.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy, in its report released on Thursday, called for a new approach to the current strategy of reducing drug abuse by strictly criminalising drugs and incarcerating users.

It said the new approach should focus on battling the criminal cartels that control the drug trade, rather than targeting drug users.

"The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," the report said.

The study urged "experimentation by governments with models of legal regulation of drugs", adding: "This recommendation applies especially to cannabis, but we also encourage other experiments in decriminalisation and legal regulation."

Illegal drug use

About 250 million people worldwide use drugs that are currently deemed illegal, with less than a tenth of them classified as "dependent". Millions are also involved in the cultivation, production and distribution of drugs, according to the United Nations estimates quoted in the report.

The study said decriminalisation initiatives have not been accompanied by a significant spike in drug use, citing the implementation of such policies in Australia, Portugal and the Netherlands.

"Now is the time to break the taboo on discussion of all drug policy options, including alternatives to drug prohibition," Cesar Gaviria, the former Colombian president, said.

The commission called for the urgent implementation of fundamental reforms in national and international drug control policies.

In particular, it recommended that the focus of drug control policies be moved from users as well as "farmers, couriers and petty sellers", and onto the large criminal organisations involved in the drug trade.

It called on governments to "end the criminalisation, marginalisation and stigmatisation of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others".

"Arresting and incarcerating tens of millions of these people in recent decades has filled prisons and destroyed lives and families without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organisations," the report said.

Treatment services recommended

It said that drug users who need health and treatment services should be offered them.

"Let's start by treating drug addiction as a health issue, reducing drug demand through proven educational initiatives and legally regulating rather than criminalising cannabis," Fernando Cardoso, the former Brazilian president, said.

The changed approach would focus law enforcement resources more against violent organised crime and drug traffickers, while providing alternative sentences for small-scale or first-time drug dealers.

The report said "vast expenditure" had been spent on criminalisation and repressive measures.

"Repressive efforts directed at consumers impede public health measures to reduce HIV/AIDS, overdose fatalities and other harmful consequences of drug use," it said.

The 19-member panel includes current Greek prime minister George Papandreou, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, British businessman Richard Branson and former US secretary of state George Shultz.

Other members include former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, former Swiss president Ruth Dreifuss, former EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and former US Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker. Al Jezera + video

Pravda on NATO-Libya

Don't you just love it when Ivan takes the high moral ground? Well I don't suppose the writer, Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey is all that Russian, but the article is reported nonetheless in Pravda.

For those who support the Libyan "Opposition"

Maybe those who refuse to call the Libyan Opposition terrorists and instead continue to accuse the forces of the Libyan Government of attacking innocent civilians - see the photos accompanying this piece - could answer some of the questions posed in this article. If not, then maybe they could ask themselves why they are supporting Islamist terrorists.

Under which United Nations resolution did NATO get the right to murder civilians? Why did NATO murder Colonel Gaddafi's son if their remit was to impose a no-fly zone to protect civilians? Why did NATO murder three of Colonel Gaddafi's grandchildren? Why has there been no accountability for the murder of innocent children? Why is nobody calling Cameron, Sarkozy or Obama a cold-blooded child murderer?

Why is NATO trying to murder Colonel Gaddafi? Why have the leaders of this act of butchery changed their tune, starting off by declaring that "This is not about removing Gaddafi" (Cameron) to now describing him as a legitimate target? Why is NATO targeting civilian structures, as it did in Iraq, with military hardware?

Why did the Libyan "Revolution" start on the frontiers where Revolutions had already occurred in Tunisia and Egypt and in Misrata where NATO military personnel deployed through the port? Why are NATO personnel on the ground when NATO is not allowed to deploy troops? Why are western mercenaries being deployed inside Libya?

Why is NATO taking sides in a civil war? Does NATO not know that it is illegal to get involved in an internal conflict? Does NATO know that the UNO cannot under any circumstances permit the use of force against a sovereign nation unless it is attacking its neighbours? Why has NATO accused the Libyan government of using cluster bombs against its own population when:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yL7tAWLNyA&feature=player_detailpage

Why are 90% of the Libyan tribes on the side of Colonel Gaddafi? Why are the Benghazi based terrorists called "The Rats" by the population of Libya? Why are they for the most part anonymous? Why did they ask NATO to bomb the building where the records of their corruption were kept?

What is the role of Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi inside the rebellion? Does NATO know he has links to Al-Qaeda? Does NATO know he was arrested for fighting alongside Al-Qaeda against the American and British forces in Afghanistan? Does NATO know that he recruited terrorists to be suicide bombers in Iraq? Does NATO know where most of the suicide bombers in Iraq came from? Answer: Benghazi.

Why are French lawyers preparing to launch a case against Sarkozy for crimes against humanity?

Who was the first international leader to issue an arrest warrant for Osama bin laden and Al-Qaeda? Answer: Muammar al-Qathafi. Who was the African leader who financed African satellites so that Africans would not be saddled with a payment of 500 million USD a year, every year, to use Western satellites? Answer: Muammar al-Qathafi. Who was the African leader behind the African Union so that Afhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrica could find the solutions to its problems? Answer: Muammar al-Qathafi. more Pravda

Related Pravda: The Crime of the Century: The theft of the Libyan sovereign funds

WSJ: Pentagon to Congress: Don’t Cut Funds for Libya Operation

The Hill: Kucinich's Libya resolution pulled from House schedule

USA: ''Apart from killing people, we really don't do anything anymore''

The header included, there's not much I could argue with in this Mike Whitney article.

One thing that did catch my eye, but which might have been meaningless had I not my own metric for regarding the question thus: So, how can you sustain a middle class on a measly $9.50 per hour? prompting me to do a little research on the issue.

Firstly, my personal yardstick. Imagine one edge is measured in years past and the opposing edge in dollars and cents. Travelling back forty years on my rule, the opposite number would be $8 (Canadian) What a dollar then bought back in 1971, I couldn't be too sure of, but what seems to stick in my mind from 1967, the year I first landed there, is 55c. A gallon of gas 55c, a pack of cigarettes similar, and not that I smoked cigars, but a pack of five King Edwards 55c. The King Teddies only sticking in my mind, because to purchased a pack in the UK at that time would have required a second mortgage. What's my point here? well I guess it's that a buck did actually buy a bit of something back then, but I hate to think what it would purchase in this day and age.

The first thing in trying to get an accurate picture of what's what, is to leave out the word average in any search terms, it's the median we are concerned with. The following piece, courtesy of Mother Jones, is about the most concise I can offer. Although we do end up with an average income, circa $32,000, this is the median for ninety percent of the American population. Wealthiest Americans Dramatically Increase Income

It hardly takes an economist then to come to the conclusion, given this $32,00 average, that indeed this figure of $9.50 is quite realistic. But in some cases, Walmart for instance, it's not unusual to see the figure of $8. Forty years on.

Our Goose is Cooked
By Mike Whitney
June 02, 2011

This must be what it was like in Russia before the Soviet Union collapsed. The government's so crooked that nothing works right, the infrastructure's in a shambles, millions of people are scraping by on government handouts, and everyone's on a permanent downer. Welcome to the Soviet States of America 2011.

I mean, seriously, things are really looking bad. Apart from killing people, we really don't do anything anymore. We have a humongous, over-bloated military that lumbers from one war to the next spreading misery wherever it goes, and meanwhile, back at home, things continue to go to the dogs. How long can that go on?

You can't get a job anymore, because all the jobs have been shipped off to Guandong Province or someplace South of the border. The best you can hope for is some part-time gig jerking double-tall-mochas or steering folks towards the red-dot special on Aisle 9. So, how can you sustain a middle class on a measly $9.50 per hour? It can't be done.

And just look at Washington. What a joke. The White House is just a protection racket for big business. And Congress, well, what can you say about congress? We'd be better off if they just packed their bags and went home for all the good they do. Then at least we could turn the House of Representatives into a homeless shelter or something that had some practical value for people. At any rate, we wouldn't have to listen to the bloviating of numbskulls like Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid anymore. That's got to be worth something.

You know our goose is cooked, don't you? You know we're not going to get out of this, right? The country is disintegrating. It's obvious. It isn't even America anymore; it's like we're on some kind of movie set where everything looks real, but it's all just props. Everything is perfectly placed to make you feel like you still live in a free country, but you know you don't. You know the government spying on you and going through your mail. You know if you stand in front of the state-house with a peace sign you'll get rousted or pepper-sprayed or something. You know if your name turns up on the wrong list, you'll either get bounced off your plane or dragged off to some far-flung blacksite where they keep you in a 6 ft. box until they want to waterboard for the millionth time. Yeah, everything still looks the same, but it's all changed. Everything's different now.

You watch news, right? It's all propaganda, every bit of it. In fact, they all read from same script. Maybe you went to some toffeenose college so you prefer PBS's Jim Lehrer News Hour, because you're smart and you want more "in depth" coverage. So, you get two brainy experts on each segment. But, there's one little problem, isn't there? Both experts are from corporate-funded think tanks, and both of them have exactly the same views on every single issue. But you think, "Hey, at least public TV airs different opinions." Right.

It's all George Orwell. It's all 1984. You know that. That's why we're all so frustrated. It's bad enough that the country's going to Hell in a handbasket, but it's even worse that they have to lie to you about it 24-7. That just reinforces the feeling that we're all goners; that the whole society is just propped up on one big freaking lie.

Have you looked around lately? Have you noticed the women at the grocery store who keep their head's down at the checkout stand while they load the boxes of mac n' cheese onto the conveyor-belt hoping like Hell that one of their credit cards will be accepted? Have you noticed that there are more kids at school showing up like ragamuffins and piling into the cafeteria for a free lunch. Have you been to a state park lately and seen the people who sleep in their cars at night and then spend $.50 to shower in the public restrooms. Have you taken a look under the freeway overpasses where small encampments are turning into tent cities.

I'm telling you, our goose is cooked.

The other day my bank shut-down after 30 years in business without any sign they were in trouble.
Whoa. You talk about shattered confidence; that'll do it every time. There I was in a long line of nervous-looking 50-somethings chewing on their lower lips and scowling while they made their way through the front door of the bank.

"Er, Mr. Bank Teller, could you tell me; do I have any money left?"

Don't kid yourself, when your bank goes under, it changes your world view. And it changes your feelings about America, too. Forget about security; it doesn't exist anymore. They'll fleece you out of your life's savings without batting an eye. Bankers are all crooks, every last one of them. And we're all just chickens for-the-plucking.

There was an article in USA Today that really sums up how bad things have gotten. The article is titled "Feds chase more student loan defaults". Here's a clip:

"The government increasingly is threatening to sue people who've defaulted on their student loans to get the money back. The number of loan defaults that the Education Department has referred to Justice Department lawyers for possible legal action has risen dramatically since before the recession and nearly doubled from 2009 to last year....

If the government does sue, it can go after wages and bank accounts, put liens on people's property and hold parents responsible for their children's debt if they co-signed the education loans. "The most important thing to remember is we want the loans repaid," says Jane Glickman, Education Department spokeswoman.

Can you see how sick this is? Since when has the Justice Department become a collection agency for private industry? Let the banks hire their own goons for Chrissake. They'd probably like that better that anyway.

And why is the DOJ shaking down our kids when the guys on Wall Street who created this mess are still slurping Bordeaux and figuring out new ways to ripoff Uncle Sugar? The whole thing is backasswards.

Any country that preys on its kids to make a few bucks is on it's last legs.

America has lost its way. Sooner or later we going to wind up in the same dustbin as the Soviet Union. ICH

Once again, might I remind you of the comments section.

Three arrested, accused of illegally feeding homeless Orlando

Floridians will have to submit urine, blood or hair samples for drug testing before receiving cash benefits from the state

Global war on drugs 'a failure' (link soon)

Previous related.
Louisiana's Fucked Up (The Arse) Laws
Peripheral (priorities)
The Big Vibrate Inn and Sex Is Icky Page

More TSA Molestation

Although the video is embeddable, I shall just offer a link. Not unusually in cases like this, the comments are just as interesting as the footage.

Woman Alleges Sexual Molestation By TSA

Just a few of the many TSA cartoons that abound the web.

Global Warming Our Greatest Threat

It wasn't the cartoon by Tom Tomorrow (below) that inspired this post, it fell into the inbox only today. But for a couple of days I have been trying to cobble a post together as a result of few other article alerts, two of which I list here.

The Sky Really Is Falling
31 May 2011
by Chris Hedges

The rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming, which is disfiguring the ecosystem at a swifter pace than even the gloomiest scientific studies predicted a few years ago, has been confronted by the power elite with two kinds of self-delusion. There are those, many of whom hold elected office, who dismiss the science and empirical evidence as false. There are others who accept the science surrounding global warming but insist that the human species can adapt. more truthout



Global warming: Bleaker and bleaker
30 May 2011
New figures show we are still hurtling towards dangerous climate change - at a time when policymakers are running out of ideas

Sometimes a quotation really does say it all. As chief economist of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol is not given to overstatement – so his comment in our paper today that the latest figures on greenhouse gas emissions are "the worst news" should be taken seriously. It is not just that the statistics showing another record leap in carbon output – 30.6 gigatonnes of CO2 over 2010 – to make the highest annual total in history are grim. They also come at a point when the old centrist certainties about how to tackle climate change are palpably out of date, and yet no new ideas have come along as replacement. more gruniad

In spite of all my recent coverage regarding nuclear power and its deadly and unacceptable legacy, the biggest single threat we face today by far, is the release of fresh melt-water due to global warming.

Although other global ocean currents would also be affected, it is the threat to the Gulf Stream, due to de-salination, that is of the greatest concern. In a nutshell, if the thermohaline circulation (conveyor belt) of the Gulf Stream ceases, we are doomed.

Europe will start to experience the type of severe winters that are comparable with other regions of the globe that share the same latitudes. My own line of latitude in the UK for instance, runs through the southern half of Hudson's Bay, an area one could hardly described as temperate. But the implications and consequences of such an event are far greater than, a bit of a cold spell for Europe, button up your overcoat; it will herald the onset of climate change of cataclysmic proportions.

This short video explains the general situation. The first three minutes only, unless you want to bring Veganism into the equation.




Below: BBC's The Big Chill. 4mins



This 2002 article is as good as any that I have come across in explaining the situation.

A Current Controversy: Is Europe About To Freeze?
ScienceDaily
Feb. 22, 2002

One of the odd possibilities that could emerge from global warming is that much of Europe, robbed of the ocean current patterns that help keep it warm, could rather abruptly enter a deep freeze and have a climate that more closely resembles Alaska than the modest temperatures it now enjoys.

Researchers from Oregon State University explored this potential phenomenon, and the fluctuations in "thermohaline circulation" that could trigger it, in an analysis to be published Thursday in Nature, a professional journal. It's by no means certain that climatic changes of this magnitude and speed will come to pass, the scientists say, but even the reasonable possibility that they might are a cause for serious concern.

"To answer difficult questions such as this we depend a lot on our computer models, and in this area different models reach different conclusions," said Peter Clark, an OSU professor of geosciences and one of the world's leading experts on glaciers and prehistoric climate changes.

"What is fairly clear is that if the ocean circulation patterns which now warm much of the North Atlantic were to slow or stop, the consequences could be quite severe," Clark said. "This might also happen much quicker than many people appreciate. At some point the question becomes how much risk do we want to take?"

The big variable in this particular equation, Clark said, is whether or not changes in global temperature and precipitation patterns might affect a gigantic conveyor belt of warm, less-salty surface water that moves from the tropical Atlantic Ocean until it finally becomes so cold and salty in the far north Atlantic that it sinks, moves south and continues the circulation pattern.

This process, called thermohaline circulation, only happens in two regions of the Earth's polar areas. But it is responsible for much ocean circulation, including the critical currents that help keep parts of North America and Europe far warmer than they would otherwise be, considering the far north latitudes at which they lie – most of Great Britain is at the same latitude as central Canada.

This circulation process, researchers say, is not inevitable. Research suggests it may have fluctuated or even stopped numerous times in Earth's distant past, and that it's especially sensitive to moderate increases in temperature or influxes of fresh water. The same very cold, very salty water that sinks in the far North Atlantic Ocean simply won't sink if it's just a little bit warmer or a little bit less salty. And at various times, it appears these changes have happened not in geologic terms of thousands of years, but rather decades.

"This system does not respond in what we call a linear manner," Clark said. "Once you start putting on the brakes, this circulation pattern could slow down faster and faster and eventually stop altogether."

Research has found that some of the Earth's most rapid climatic shifts – up to 15 degrees in decades or less – have in the past occurred during glacial periods, when large ice sheets advanced from the polar regions as far south as New York City, among other places. Some scientists have even theorized that the wild temperature fluctuations of the last ice age may have retarded the evolution and development of humans as a species, as they struggled to cope with rapidly changing conditions.

We are now in an "interglacial" period that, in theory, may have less volatility, but could also be coming to an end.

Global warming will simply delay the inevitable, Clark said, because it actually should be about time for Earth to enter its next ice age. There's a fairly well defined pattern of about 10,000-year-long interglacial periods followed by 90,000-year-long ice ages, and the current interglacial period is already more than 10,000 years old.

"At this point we just aren't sure what to expect in terms of climatic volatility," Clark said. "But the more we learn about them, it becomes clear that these thermohaline circulation patterns are quite sensitive to temperature and influxes of fresh water, such as you might get with changing precipitation patterns triggered by global warming, not to mention melting ice caps or glaciers."

So the paradox, the scientists say, is that the same greenhouse effect which might make the Earth warmer, overall, could have the opposite effect on much of Europe by slowing or shutting down the warm ocean circulation patterns on which it depends.

"Most, but not all, coupled general circulation model projections of the 21st century climate show a reduction in the strength of the Atlantic overturning circulation with increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases," the researchers said in their report in Nature. "If the warming is strong enough and sustained long enough, a complete collapse cannot be excluded." This prospect – the collapse of the thermohaline circulation patterns that dictate its climate - has raised enough concern, Clark said, that Great Britain recently launched a $40 million research program to analyze this phenomena and its possible implications. And the National Academy of Sciences recently issued a report that made reference to an "inevitable surprise" of "climate changes with startling speed."

At this time, Clark said, some of the best potential to improve the ocean and atmospheric computer models that could help resolve some of these questions about future climate lie in studies of the distant past. Ice cores from Greenland glaciers have been instrumental in this work, he said, providing a look backwards at climatic conditions more than 100,000 years into the past, and work in that area will continue. Science Daily found at http://www.gulfstreamshutdown.com/ a big page of links.

A comprehensive article on the subject of coal.

Down With Coal! The Grassroots Anti-Coal Movement Goes Global

Germany; All Nuke Plants to Close - Fukushima News

I remind you, the bits I have highlighted are TEPCO's estimates.

Germany to Shut Down Nuclear Plants
31 May 2011
by Sarah Turner


Germany will close down all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, according to reports out Monday, as fallout from Japan’s disaster continues more than two months after the event.

“There will be no clause for revision,” Germany’s Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen said, according to a BBC report.

The German government had been reviewing the role of nuclear power in the country’s electricity needs after an earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in March.

The power station‘s operator and the Japanese government are still struggling to control the situation at the reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco — operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant — won’t be able to stabilize all reactors at the complex this year, Kyodo News reported Monday, citing senior officials. See report on outlook to contain Japanese nuclear reactors.

Tepco said in April it was aiming to bring the reactors at the plant into cold shutdown, or a stably cooled condition, within six to nine months.

Japan is currently facing power shortages, as nuclear energy provided around 30% of the country’s electricity needs before the disaster.

Germany isn’t as dependent on nuclear power as Japan had been, although the technology provides just over one-fifth of the country’s electricity, the reports said.

China is also reportedly reviewing its nuclear energy policy after the disaster. Truthout

Don't Hack The Pentagon Or Else!

Update 9th June 2011
Cyberwar, Stuxnet and People in Glass Houses

You might end up with a missile down your chimney.

I can see why they are a tad concerned, given that some bloke sat in his bedroom can drive a coach and four through the Pentagon's super duper security system, but there is more to think about here, and the more you think about it, the scarier it becomes.

If we take a look at this paragraph, raising the concerns that it does, I think we can assume that a sophisticated attack by a hostile nation or group isn't going to leave a trail a mile wide leading back to the hacker's bedroom as in the case of Gary McKinnon. At best it's going to be hidden, at worst it's going to be attributed to someone else entirely.

The report will also spark a debate over a range of sensitive issues the Pentagon left unaddressed, including whether the U.S. can ever be certain about an attack's origin, and how to define when computer sabotage is serious enough to constitute an act of war. These questions have already been a topic of dispute within the military.

But let's take this thing a step further and think American hegemony. Given America's penchant for false flags, be it the Gulf of Tonkin or more recently weapons of mass destruction, and gawd knows how many inbetween, little alarm bells start to go off in my head.

Not that Twenty First Century America seems to need false flags any more, bombing the shit out of anybody who doesn't toe the line seems to be the order of the day, and doing it with impunity I have to add. If this proposed law/edict gets onto the statute, it's nothing more than carte blanche to up the stakes and widen the scope of America's bombing agenda.

Imagine for a moment if this declaration had been in place during the Bush years, nobody would have heard of WMD, or more recently Obama's humanitarian intervention in Libya, we would have been spared all the bullshit about mushroom clouds et al, and we would have been spared the truly nauseating lies and hypocrisy of Bush Lite, Barack Obama.

America is under cyber attack! says who? the Pentagon. Yeah right.

Cyber Combat: Act of War
Pentagon Sets Stage for U.S. to Respond to Computer Sabotage With Military Force

The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.

The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country's military.

In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official.


Recent attacks on the Pentagon's own systems—as well as the sabotaging of Iran's nuclear program via the Stuxnet computer worm (previous) have given new urgency to U.S. efforts to develop a more formalized approach to cyber attacks. A key moment occurred in 2008, when at least one U.S. military computer system was penetrated. This weekend Lockheed Martin, a major military contractor, acknowledged that it had been the victim of an infiltration, while playing down its impact.

The report will also spark a debate over a range of sensitive issues the Pentagon left unaddressed, including whether the U.S. can ever be certain about an attack's origin, and how to define when computer sabotage is serious enough to constitute an act of war. These questions have already been a topic of dispute within the military.

One idea gaining momentum at the Pentagon is the notion of "equivalence." If a cyber attack produces the death, damage, destruction or high-level disruption that a traditional military attack would cause, then it would be a candidate for a "use of force" consideration, which could merit retaliation.

he Pentagon's document runs about 30 pages in its classified version and 12 pages in the unclassified one. It concludes that the Laws of Armed Conflict—derived from various treaties and customs that, over the years, have come to guide the conduct of war and proportionality of response—apply in cyberspace as in traditional warfare, according to three defense officials who have read the document. The document goes on to describe the Defense Department's dependence on information technology and why it must forge partnerships with other nations and private industry to protect infrastructure.

The strategy will also state the importance of synchronizing U.S. cyber-war doctrine with that of its allies, and will set out principles for new security policies. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization took an initial step last year when it decided that, in the event of a cyber attack on an ally, it would convene a group to "consult together" on the attacks, but they wouldn't be required to help each other respond. The group hasn't yet met to confer on a cyber incident.

Pentagon officials believe the most-sophisticated computer attacks require the resources of a government. For instance, the weapons used in a major technological assault, such as taking down a power grid, would likely have been developed with state support, Pentagon officials say. more

Have a play on the user interface after it has loaded.

Least We Forget: Fuck America