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Supreme Court Rules Gore Cannot Accept Peace Prize

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:30:56 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

In a stunning reversal, but true to their core beliefs, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today that Al Gore cannot accept the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded him.

The court, in an unsigned finding (as are all Gore decisions) responded to George Bush's anticipatory plea for a restraining order based on the fact that "it's not all that hot out anyhow and what in the hell has that got to do with peace?"

Dana Perino said the White House would have no comment other than an unconfirmed report by a source that declines to be identified, that the president called Chief Justice John Roberts, effusing "this is the second time that bum has had his ears trimmed by this court and you'd think he'd have finally learned a lesson."

Tags: lololo

Low Power Wind Power Breakthrough

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:10:26 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Video at either clipped source. A perfect example of KISS in action.

Clip Source: www.popularmechanics.com

Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, Calif., saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Conventional wind turbines don’t scale down well—there’s too much friction in the gearbox and other components. “With rotary power, there’s nothing out there that generates under 50 watts,” Frayne says. So he took a new tack, studying the way vibrations caused by the wind led to the collapse in 1940 of Washington’s Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie).

Clip Source: www.scribemedia.org

Frayne’s device consists of a flat, taut membrane that flutters within its housing as air passes through it. At each end of the membrane are magnets that oscillate between metal coils as the band flutters, effectively creating an electric charge. According to the 28-year-old Frayne, prototypes of the Windbelt have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines.

Tags: wind power

General Sanchez Blasts Bush's Iraq Nightmare

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:43:37 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: Sanchez continues,

There is nothing going on today in Washington that would give us hope. Our commanders on the ground will continue to make progress and provide time for the development of a grand strategy. That will be wasted effort as we have seen repeatedly since 2003. In the meantime, our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines will continue to die.

Military leaders, one after another are condemning this adminstration and war. Yet the ego-maniacal war criminal in the White House continues to send Americans to their death for no other reason than to enrich his war profiteer buddies.

Clip Source: bravenewfilms.org

According to an article by Robert Parry, the U.S. commander in Iraq for the first year of the occupation lambasted George W. Bush's national security team for "incompetence" that created an endless "nightmare."

Breaking almost a year of silence since leaving the Army, retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez lashed out at almost everyone associated with the debacle. He even acknowledged that the U.S. high command displayed "an absolute lack of moral courage" in acquiescing to the poorly planned war.

General Sanchez said,

There has been a glaring, unfortunate display of incompetence in strategic leadership among our national leaders. They have unquestionably been derelict in the performance of their duty. In my profession, these types of leaders would be immediately relieved or court-martialed.

Tags: going, nowhere, fast

inside iran city life

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 21:20:52 GMT

clipped by: german

Clip Source: conflictiran.blogspot.com

Tags: iran, city

Gore and UN panel win Nobel prize

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:47:59 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth was an unlikely box office hit

Climate change campaigner Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change".

Mr Gore, US vice-president under Bill Clinton, said he was "deeply honoured".

Mr Gore, 59, won an Oscar for his climate change film An Inconvenient Truth while the IPCC is the top authority on global warming.

HAVE YOUR SAY

It would have made more sense to wait and see if Gore et al actually had an effect, but at least this might serve as a wake-up call to the naysayers

Geoff, Bensberg, Germany

Send us your comments

Nobel Peace Prize quiz

Indian's surprise at award

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said he was "overwhelmed" by the award.

Tags: climate change, inconvenient truth, al gore, nobel peace prize

Empire State Building Lights Up for Eid

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:17:01 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.gii-exchange.org

This weekend, the color green will illuminate the Manhattan skyline. On the evenings of October 12-14, the Empire State Building—located in the heart of New York City’s most famed tourist district and recently named “America’s Favorite Building”—will be lit in green to commemorate the Muslim holiday of Eid-ul-Fitr.
We deeply appreciate this recognition of the American Muslim community by one of the United States’ most cherished landmarks and famous tourist destinations. This welcome gesture clearly demonstrates that the principles of understanding, mutual respect, and faith can remain vibrant aspects of our world. In celebrating together with the Muslims of New York City and the United States, the Empire State Building once again shows itself to be a powerful symbol in America’s most culturally vibrant city.

Tags: islam, new york, empire state building

Income-Inequality Gap Widens

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:47:15 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: The gap between the affluent and the poor is growing larger every day in this country and all over the world. The despair that accompanies poverty is seen by many as the primary cause of many of the world's most serious problems. Terrorism, disease, war, political unrest, hunger, malnutrition, polluted water, racial intolerance, crime, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide all can be traced to poverty.

Nothing will test the moral foundation of humanity more than how mankind addresses this issue and nothing will be more important to our physical and spiritual survival.

Clip Source: bravenewfilms.org

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the richest Americans' share of national income has hit a postwar record. They really needed those measly tax-cuts didn't they.

The wealthiest 1% of Americans earned 21.2% of all income in 2005, up sharply from 19% in 2004, while the bottom 50% earned 12.8% of all income, down from 13.4% in 2004. This according to new data from the Internal Revenue Service.

Jason Furman, a scholar at the Brookings Institution said,

We've had a 30-year trend of increasing inequality.

This latest result of laissez-faire capitalism gone amok must bring a smile to the faces of Bush and Cheney whose raison-d'etre has always been the enabling of their rich corporate buddies and enablers and the hell with the needs of working people. I can hear Ayn Rand applauding from the grave.

Tags: the, poor, get, poorer

Blackwater draws guns on U.S. Soldiers

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:18:22 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: More: Testifying before Congress last week, 38-year-old Blackwater chief Erik Prince vigorously defended his company's "dedicated security professionals"

In deflecting questions about a drunken Blackwater operative who allegedly shot and killed a bodyguard for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi in the Green Zone on Christmas Eve last year, Prince said that the employee, later identified as Andrew Moonen, had been fined and fired. But on Friday House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman released a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recounting evidence that Moonen was able to return to Iraq and worked there for another company.

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers

describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee

The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV

His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company

many American civilian and military officials in Iraq also have little sympathy for the private security company

Unlike nearly everyone else who enters the Green Zone, said an American soldier who guards a gate, Blackwater gunmen refuse to stop and clear their weapons of live ammunition once inside

Blackwater

has a well-earned reputation in Iraq for arrogance and high-handedness

Their attitude was, 'We're f---ing security; we don't have to answer to anybody

Gervasio Sanchez

Tags: lawless mercenaries, war, terror, republican, conservative, bush, cheney, politics, liberal

Scientists explain chocolate cravings.

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:05:37 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: More good news about chocolate. Now we can say we have to feed our gut bacteria.

Clip Source: www.mail.com

SETH BORENSTEIN

If that craving for chocolate sometimes feels like it is coming from deep in your gut, that's because maybe it is

Everyone has a vast community of microbes in their guts. But people who crave daily chocolate show signs of having different colonies of bacteria than people who are immune to chocolate's allure

That may be the case for other foods, too. The idea could eventually lead to treating some types of obesity by changing the composition of the trillions of bacteria occupying the intestines and stomach, said Sunil Kochhar

In fact, the study was delayed because it took a year for the researchers to find 11 men who don't eat chocolate

researchers examined the byproducts of metabolism in their blood and urine

amino acid glycine was higher in chocolate lovers, while taurine

higher in people who didn't eat chocolate. Also chocolate lovers had lower levels of the bad cholesterol, LDL

levels of several of the specific substances

are known to be linked to different types of bacteria

Tags: chocolate, craving, bacteriagut, digestion metabolism