Clipmarks | papananook's clips

Bats On a Freefall Toward Extinction

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:17:54 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Bats have been dying by the thousands recently in the Northeastern United States. No one knows why, and it may be months, perhaps years, before the cause is determined.

Meanwhile, scientists predict that this summer there will be a population explosion of insects, which bats normally eat in large quantities. Greater numbers of beetles and moths could mean severe and costly losses for farmers and timber producers. There could also be bigger swarms of mosquitoes and other biting bugs, which will mean more discomfort for all of us.The perplexing bat affliction is called white-nose syndrome. Bat biologists have called it the “gravest threat to bats ever known.” Whether its cause is eventually found to be a toxic substance in the environment, a newly emergent infectious disease, lack of food, or something else, it’s clear that this latest blow to bats — and it is only the latest in a long list of injuries — could bring about the regional disappearance of one or more species.

Detainees Allege Being Drugged, Questioned

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:09:08 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Adel al-Nusairi remembers his first six months at Guantanamo Bay as this: hours and hours of questions, but first, a needle.

“I’d fall asleep” after the shot, Nusairi, a former Saudi policeman captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2002, recalled in an interview with his attorney at the military prison in Cuba, according to notes. After being roused, Nusairi eventually did talk, giving U.S. officials what he later described as a made-up confession to buy some peace.

“I was completely gone,” he remembered. “I said, ‘Let me go. I want to go to sleep. If it takes saying I’m a member of al-Qaeda, I will.’ ”

Like Nusairi, other detainees believed the injections were intended to coerce confessions.

Yet the allegations have resurfaced because of the release this month of a 2003 Justice Department memo that explicitly condoned the use of drugs on detainees.

Our policy is, and always has been, to treat detainees humanely,

Aaptos kanuux, New Species of Sponge Discovered

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:05:51 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.greenpeace.org

United States —
It may look slimy and slightly alien, but this newly discovered species of sponge is an ambassador for undiscovered critters living in the nooks and crannies of our magnificent planet. Damaging human activities, like bottom trawling in the oceans, are decimating ecosystems and wiping out creatures before we even know they exist.

Greenpeace journeyed to the Bering Sea in 2007 to document previously unexplored canyon habitats in hopes of strengthening the case to protect these important areas. Half of the fourteen species of corals and two-thirds of the twenty species of sponge we collected were previously unknown to live in the Bering Sea. These findings underscore the unique nature of these canyons, as well as how little is known about the deep sea in general.

[Video]

Bering Sea explored

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:03:24 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.greenpeace.org

The Bering Sea seems so remote for most of us. However, the waters between Alaska and Russia are a rich marine environment home to a diverse array of wildlife. Polar bears, seals, sea lions, walruses, whales and millions of seabirds make their home here. It is also one of the most productive fishing spots in the world. In fact, more than half the fish we catch in the United States comes from Alaska, including salmon, pollock, king crab, and Pacific cod.

But, the fragile ecosystem cannot sustain this level of commercial fishing without paying a price. Factory fishing ships are taking too many fish out of the sea—and leaving too little left for the animals whose lives depend on it. They are also bulldozing the ocean’s seafloor, barely leaving a coral or sponge left standing. Even native communities are feeling the negative impacts of commercial factory fishing on their livelihood and traditions.

Clip Source: go.greenpeaceusa.org

Demonstration Targets Anti-War Protesters

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:57:28 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

When peace activist Medea Benjamin stepped to the podium at the annual New Jersey Peace Action dinner yesterday, she already was known as co-founder of the human rights organization Global Exchange and the women’s anti-war group CODEPINK.Yesterday, Benjamin received another title: terrorist.

“The original Medea murdered her children,” read one protest sign outside The Regency House hotel on Route 23 in Pompton Plains, where the dinner was held. “Medea Benjamin is murdering ours.”

Some 18 people from groups that oppose anti-war protests as “anti-American” hoisted signs condemning CODEPINK as supporting terrorism.

Perlson dismissed the 250 dinner attendees as “terrorists,” but Benjamin said that is “misguided.”

“We get calls and e-mails from people in the military every day saying, ‘Thank-you. We want to come home,’” Benjamin said.

But Benjamin admits she has a “soft spot” for the protesters. “I feel I have more in common with them than I do with most Americans,” Benjamin said.

Howard Dean strikes again

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:55:28 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

[Video]

No matter how cynical I become, I can't keep up. - Jane Wagner. Check out The Watch at http://professorplum2.blogspot.com

House Democrats work to extend war funding for another year

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:34:32 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Traitors, murderers and thieves.

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

Headline: House Democrats work on huge Iraq money bill

House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet, a measure that is expected to fund the war through the end of the Bush presidency and for nearly six months into the next president's term.

The bill, which could be unveiled as early as this week, signals that Democrats are resigned to the fact they can't change course in Iraq in the final months of President Bush's term. Instead, the party is pinning its hopes of ending the war on winning the White House in November.

The bill is expected to provide $108 billion that the White House has requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lawmakers who are drafting it say it also will include a so-called bridge fund of $70 billion to give the new president several months of breathing room before having to ask Congress for more money.

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

2. pathetic

truly.

This from the so-called "opposition" party.

isn't a 'war'. It's a turkey shoot.

failure becoming an option was inevitable

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:08:44 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Some predict that a majority of the U.S. populace will now opt out of its previous obligation to give it 110 percent, and, in the coming weeks and months, give as little as 45 percent. For underachieving Americans, that number is expected to drop to as low as 5 percent by March.

A recent Interior Department report found that, although failure was not officially an option until this Tuesday, there have in fact been hundreds of billions of cases of it over the past two centuries, culminating in Fort Collins, CO high school junior Tim Kemp's failing grade on a physics exam last month.

Many scholars now believe that such failures have historically been obscured by optimistic slogans and so-called positive thinking, neither of which, according to the report, has had a verifiable effect: Americans' overall failure rate went up nearly 2,350 percent over the past decade, with 1,435,643 instances of failure reported last Sunday alone.

"In retrospect, failure becoming an option was ine

Clip Source: www.theonion.com

WASHINGTON—In a stunning reversal of more than 200 years of conventional wisdom, failure—traditionally believed to be an unacceptable outcome for a wide range of tasks and goals—is now increasingly seen as a viable alternative to success, sources confirmed Tuesday.

"Americans have always been told that they should succeed at all costs," Emory University sociologist Dr. Lauren Hodge said. "But based on new evidence, this can no longer be called true—if, in fact, it ever was. As failure continues to dominate the American landscape, this mantra must be overruled."

"We have no choice but to revoke failure's non-optional status, effective immediately," Hodge continued. "Now all citizens will be able to step back, stare down the hardship and difficulty they will face in the pursuit of success, and say, 'Fuck that—this isn't worth it.'"

Overturning one of America's most cherished and oft-repeated aphorisms is expected to have far-reaching implications for the future of human ambition.

The Secret Government--From Bill Moyers in 1987

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:43:18 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: A good bit of history

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Petraeus Promotion is just more Progress of Disaster

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:53:35 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: The move guarantees endlessly high troop levels in Iraq and gives Petraeus a better shot at inflaming tensions with Iran, a country that Petraeus has recently blamed for all the nasty bits going on in our Baghdad boondoggle. Kewl, huh?

Petraeus' predecessor at Centcom, Admiral William Fallon, resigned abruptly last month after 41 years of service. Fallon wasn't keen on Bush's Iraq policy nor was he a big booster of the saber rattling directed in Iran's direction. He and Petraeus didn't exactly see eye to anus. So, Fallon was given the boot.

One senior civilian official described the relationship between the two men to "The Washington Post:" "Bad relations? That's the understatement of the century. If you think Armageddon was a riot, that's one way of looking at it."

Petraeus' replacement is Lt. General Raymond T. Odierno, a guy who, according to McClatchy Newspapers, "came to the post under a cloud of controversy after some charged that his strong-arm approach to warfare lacke

Clip Source: www.smirkingchimp.com

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon.

As much as I like presidential primary pie fights, quite a few strange things have been happening of late that have nothing to do with supposed sniper fire, Rev. Wright and filched food preparation. A lot of these items have slipped under the radar. So, while Obama remembers to duck and cover, Clinton remembers Pearl Harbor and McCain remembers to zip up his fly, let's examine our nation as it circles the drain.

On the never-ending war front, Bush and company are doing their best to ensure that our great, great, grandchildren will be born with silver bayonets in their mouths. Bush, who recently summed up the Iraq experience with the inspiring, "So long as I'm president, my measure of success is victory - and success,"

Methane Burps: Ticking Time Bomb

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:09:48 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: And still the head-in-sanders go Wha?, me worry?

Clip Source: www.energybulletin.net

The Arctic Council's recent report on the effects of global warming in the far north paints a grim picture: global floods, extinction of polar bears and other marine mammals, collapsed fisheries. But it ignored a ticking time bomb buried in the Arctic tundra.

There are enormous quantities of naturally occurring greenhouse gasses trapped in ice-like structures in the cold northern muds and at the bottom of the seas. These ices, called clathrates, contain 3,000 times as much methane as is in the atmosphere. Methane is more than 20 times as strong a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.

Now here's the scary part. A temperature increase of merely a few degrees would cause these gases to volatilize and "burp" into the atmosphere, which would further raise temperatures, which would release yet more methane, heating the Earth and seas further, and so on. There's 400 gigatons of methane locked in the frozen arctic tundra - enough to start this chain reaction

How to Be a Climate Hero

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:57:33 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Scientists tell us we have ten years, if that, to make significant changes. Every indication, from ice caps to defrosting tundra, seems to show this is the tipping point. This is our moment. Perhaps you never thought you’d get a chance to play hero. Here it is. The kid on the train is screaming out for help. The weather is convulsing. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t sure what to do. Make your best guess. Call 9-1-1. For god’s sake, get the conductor.
Whatever the hell that means...but do somethiung --locally, on the intawebs, whatever. Just don't stand there mouth agape going , "we all gonna die!"

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

One afternoon last summer, I was on a commuter train when I heard someone yelling behind me. I didn’t pay attention because I was breaking up a fight between my kids. But the third time the person yelled, I turned around.

It was a boy, about six years old. He was standing on his seat screaming, “My mom’s having a seizure!” The only part of his mom I could see were her legs, sticking out into the aisle, convulsing. And arrayed around the train car were forty other people, mouths open. Not one of them doing a thing.

Humans tend to freeze like this-the Bystander Effect, it’s called.

horrible is happening to the planet’s climate. The heat waves and forest fires, the floods and droughts. But there are 6 billion of us now-quite the Bystander Effect. So we stay in our seats filling out forms, trying to ignore the smoke swirling thicker around us. We bustle about our normal lives, assuming it can’t be as bad as it seems because surely, then, everyone would be marching in the street about it.

Iraq: Poverty Gets the Survivors

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:41:33 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: One might almost expect that Americans themselves might acquire some insight into the real “terrorist” threat they face daily and that they might even be inclined to join their brethren throughout the world in opposing it. But one must not be too unrealistic about the capacity for perceptiveness of the inhabitants of the “greatest democracy on earth”. Blegh!

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

DAMASCUS - More than a million Iraqis were lucky enough to flee into Syria. But in this relatively safe haven, there is no getting away from poverty.

Mohammad Saleem ran a successful supermarket in Baghdad. “I was leading a comfortable life with my family, despite the 13 years of UN sanctions,” Saleem told IPS in Damascus. “My four sons worked together to keep our supermarket running, and so we passed the dark sanctions period successfully. The big suffering started with the 2003 occupation that brought closed roads and reduced income for people.”

The day came when they were told by militias to leave within 24 hours, he said. “It is not possible for us to start over in Syria, and so my brother is selling our property piece by piece so that we can survive.”

A very large number of Iraqi refugees live on charity from Syrians.

This is US “liberation” at its glorious best. Strange, isn’t it, how the people who get “liberated” never seem to have much say in the matter

Wrangle With CIA Over ‘Ghost Prisoners’get disappeared--what then

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:30:49 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: And when you or I get disappeared, what then...when will we stop this shit?

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

NEW YORK — The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has refused to release more than 7,000 documents related to its programs of secret detentions, renditions, and torture, and is asking a federal judge to dismiss a Freedom of Information lawsuit demanding disclosure.

The refusal came last week in the CIA’s response to a lawsuit brought by three human rights groups, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Human Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law (NYU IHRC).

The CIA filed a motion with the court for a summary judgment to end the lawsuit and avoid turning over more than 7,000 documents related to its secret “ghost” detention and extraordinary rendition programs.

The CIA claimed that it did not have to release the documents because many consist of correspondence with the White House or top George W. Bush administration officials, or because they are between parties seeking legal advice on the programs