Clipmarks | bjtindle's clips

Ukraine recognize famine as genocide

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 05:24:52 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

KIEV, Ukraine - Parliament adopted a bill Tuesday recognizing the Soviet-era forced famine as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people in a vote seen as a victory for pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko.

The bill passed in a vote of 233-1, a small majority in the 450-seat legislature. Many lawmakers chose not to participate in the vote, choosing silence on a highly divisive issue.

Tags: international, ukraine, kiev, russian, russia, famine, genocide, enforced, death

Man's best friend - and medicine - returned

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:51:12 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.rockymountainnews.com

Melody, a 12-year-old border collie mix, was found huddled under a pickup in Sheridan, Wyo., with her collar wedged underneath the tire.

Tags: dog, pet, returned, missing, medicine, wyoming, nebraska, home, man, oregon, reunion

Happy Belated Birthday to the IBM PC

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:39:18 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.chipchick.com

We feel really bad about this. We don't know how to make it up to you, our beloved PCs. You're such an important part of our lives, please forgive us for delivering this message to you so late.... It's just that your grandkids have been keeping us sooo busy. We spend most of our day working on them, playing with them, and sometimes we even live through them. But anyway Happy Birthday to you, the IBM 5150, the first successful personal computer to change world. The 5150 cost $1,565 on August 12, 1981 when it was released. It had 16k of memory, just enough to hold a couple of e-mails.
And dear 5150, we swear that you don't look a day over 25. (Except that 25 in computer years is the equivalent to the Stone Age.) (Source: BBC News)

Tags: ibm, pc, computer, technology, international, world, desk-top

Gunmen kidnap people from Italian vessel

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:10:03 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

LAGOS, Nigeria Nov 22, 2006 (AP)— Gunmen seized several hostages from an Italian oil supply vessel off the coast of southern Nigeria, security officials said Wednesday.

It was not immediately known how many people were taken hostage or what their nationalities were, but two private security contractors confirmed that the incident occurred overnight on a vessel belonging to Agip, a subsidiary of Italian oil giant Eni SpA. The contractors asked for anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Tags: gunman, italian, international, kidnap, people, suspects, nigeria, lagos, eni spa

Officials: Co-Owner of Russian bank shot

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:05:20 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

MOSCOW - A co-owner of a small Russian private bank was gunned down in an apparent contract killing in central Moscow, prosecutors said Wednesday.

An unidentified assailant shot Konstantin

of Spetssetsroibank several times in the head, neck and torso Tuesday night, said Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for the city prosecutors. A murder investigation has been opened, she said.

Tags: russian, bank, owner, shot, contract, killing, moscow, international

Laptop adventures

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 09:15:29 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: bjtindle.blogsome.com

Bought my first laptop, I am gonna throw it in a tub of water and watch it blow up, with glee.

I suppose I should wait until I at least get use to using the mouse. I haven’t figured it out all the way. Sometimes when I click on the “x” to close the window, it gets smaller, other times it closes. Sometimes when I click on the bar to move up and down, the window gets smaller, other times, it scrolls up and down without any apparent help. I just tried to scroll up and down on this page and because I clicked twice, repeatedly, the window has gotten smaller, then bigger, about 5 times.

Tags: laptop, computers, help, aid, adventures, problems, adjustment, adjusting, portable, computing, mistakes, errors

Dems grow spine; oppose Military Commissions Act

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 08:38:16 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Gearing up for a major clash with the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress, several key Senate Democrats are planning to overhaul the newly minted legislation governing military tribunals of detainees.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who is running for president and who, come January, will be the second ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee, introduced legislation today that would amend the existing law.

"The bill goes back and undoes what was done," Dodd told The Hill. Dodd was one of the top critics of the military tribunal bill the GOP hashed out with the White House and was signed into law last month.

Tags: military commissions act, government, bush, dodd, democrats, oppose, politics, politicians, united states

Delta kicks woman off plane for breastfeeding

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 08:36:18 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

According to TikvahGirl (aka: Amie Newman, aka: my sister), a young mother was breastfeeding her child on a Delta plane before take off, when...

A flight attendant asked her to "cover up" and offered her a blanket - which the mother declined. The flight attendant, apparently up-in-arms over this blasphemy, called to a Delta ticket agent to remove the family (!) from the plane. The young mother, feeling extremely embarrassed at that moment, complied.

Tags: babies, mothers, children, health, food, breastfeed, delta, airlines, motherhood, government

The Geneva Conventions and the Military Commissions Act of 2006

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 17:29:26 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: bjtindle.blogsome.com

In the last few months I have heard much about what the Geneva Convention covers or doesn’t cover. Many people are under the impression that the Geneva Convention does not cover civilians. How wrong they are.

I am going to give a link to the history of the Geneva Convention for any who are interested in correcting their misconceptions or self-eliminating their ignorance. For the moment I am going to touch on FOUR ideals of the Geneva Convention as there are FOUR Geneva Conventions, did you know this? Not just one.

The Geneva Convention goes back to the time of the Civil War. Each of the four conventions takes into consideration different aspects of war, which I have listed below and I may have them in the wrong order chronologically, but you can look that up in the link:

Tags: geneva convention, military commission act of 2006, government, legislation, president bush, habeus corpus, non-combatants, military, torture

Department of Peace

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 03:57:06 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.thepetitionsite.com

Target: Dennis Kucinich, Congressman and Co-Sponsor of Dept. of Peace, US House of Representatives Progressive Caucus
Sponsor: Patrick Michaels, Peace Makers News Report

Join us as we accumulate 1 million signatures for the Dept. of Peace legislation and those that support it.

Sponspored in part by PeaceMakers News Report

http://www.goodnewsbroadcast.com

http://www.clubnui.net

And please Visit the DOP Support Center here

http://www.cafepress.com/sliceofparadise/

Tags: peace, congress, representatives, legislation, united states, government, politics

Texas Border Watch Test Site

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:17:37 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.texasborderwatch.com

As part of the Virtual Neighborhood Border Watch Program, the State of Texas has been testing video surveillance cameras in different environments along the 1240 miles of Texas/Mexico border using the internet to transmit the images. The last stage of the test is to stress the system by providing pubic access to eight surveillance cameras.

Thank you for helping test this important capability.

Tags: immigration, border, fence, surveillance, cameras, united states, texas, internet, site

Reducing body temperature extends life span of mice

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:39:26 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle
clipper's remarks: Very relieved to hear they think this is impractical for humans....

Clip Source: today.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lowering the body temperature of mice extended their life span by up to 20 percent, said scientists studying how to prolong life on Thursday, but they said it was impractical to do this with people.

Researchers previously found that the life span of warm-blooded animals could be lengthened by cutting calories consumed.

Tags: mice, experiments, body heat, reduction, science, long-life

'Soldier' details Colin Powell's service to George W. Bush

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 02:28:21 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

There is so much to like and admire about Colin L. Powell as a man and as a public servant that it would be vaguely comforting if his failure as secretary of State were somehow mysterious.

It wasn't, although it still may fairly be described as tragic.

That's one of the conclusions to be taken from journalist Karen DeYoung's rather sketchy -- but intermittently fascinating -- biography, "Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell" (Knopf, 620 pages, $28.95).

Tags: colin powell, george bush, presidency, president, united states, army, secretary of state

Revealed: U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:39:16 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.editorandpublisher.com

The true stories of how American troops, killed in Iraq, actually died keep spilling out this week. Now we learn, thanks to a reporter's FOIA request, that one of the first women to die in Iraq shot and killed herself after objecting to harsh "interrogation techniques."

(November 01, 2006) -- The true stories of how American troops, killed in Iraq, actually died keep spilling out this week. On Tuesday, we explored the case of Kenny Stanton, Jr., murdered last month by our allies, the Iraqi police, though the military didn’t make that known at the time. Now we learn that one of the first female soldiers killed in Iraq died by her own hand after objecting to interrogation techniques used on prisoners.

She was Army specialist Alyssa Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Az., native serving with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at our air base in troubled Tal-Afar in northwestern Iraq. According to official records, she died on Sept. 15, 2003, from a “non-hostile weapons discharge.”

Tags: soldier, army, military, suicide, interrogation, techniques, iraq, government, politics

A sign of the times: signing statements and executive power

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 15:52:44 GMT

clipped by: bjtindle

Clip Source: www.zmag.org

Several months ago in a widely quoted article, veteran Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage detailed pronouncements by the Bush administration, recorded in so-called "signing statements," claiming "the authority to disobey more than 750 laws" passed by Congress, purportedly due to conflicts with the president's interpretation of the Constitution [1]. A major public debate, previously relegated to experts of American constitutional law, subsequently erupted across the country and internationally over legal implications to privacy rights, civil liberty laws, definitions of torture, limits on presidential power, and much else besides. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), in a report drawn up for lawmakers, warned last month that "the sheer number of challenges contained in the signing statements ... indicate[s] that the current Administration is using this presidential instrument ... to aggressively assert presidential prerogatives" in an attempt to "inure Congress, as well as others, to the belief that the president in fact possesses expansive and exclusive powers" [2], a conclusion echoed by legal and political commentators [3,4]. A resolution issued one month earlier by the American Bar Association (ABA) went significantly further, denouncing

Tags: president, executive power, authority, legal, political, government, congress