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Following the script
Nobody
churchofnobody
2008-11-27 16:54:00
Mumbai is ablaze. This attack is huge. My guess is that over a hundred people are involved. All of the people in on this plot ran on a well laid out schedule. Whatever the f*** is going on has been well organised. And whatever it was the organisers intended to achieve, they've achieved it.
Sure enough, it's Muslims. Or so the media tells me. Apparently the terrorists are unhappy with the treatment of Muslims in India. Their plan, as best I can tell, is to kill Indians and foreigners indiscriminately, set fire to major pubic buildings, and take hostages and refuse to release them until Muslims are treated better. Good thinking. Am I alone in wondering at this disconnect?
Between me and the media, it sure looks like it. But it's early days yet. Me, I confidently look forward to the members of the media stating the obvious and saying, 'This doesn't make any sense at all. Who in their right mind would expect that a huge Muslim murder spree would improve the lot of Muslims? How will this achieve anything but having Hindus and Muslims at each other's throats? How would this be in the interest of Muslims?'
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The International Backers of the Mumbai Attacks
Les Blough
Axis of Logic
2008-11-26 16:09:00
Reuters states that at least 80 people have been killed and that, "An organisation calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed it was behind attacks". CNN television is already stating as fact that the Mumbai attacks were funded and supported by foreign sources, implicating Pakistan where President-elect Obama promised to take the so-called "war on terrorism" when he assumes office in January. The attacks which are on-going at this moment set the stage for redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq to Pakistan as Obama promised. George W. Bush has been quick to condemn the attacks and CNN is giving round-the-clock coverage, reminiscent of corporate media coverage of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
Linking Pakistan, Al-Queda, Muslims and Terrorism
CNN, Reuters and other corporate media immediately called these attacks with bombs, automatic weapons and hand grenades "terrorist attacks" emanating from Pakistan with roots in "Al Queda" and "Islamist Terrorists". CNN TV also states that these attacks target "western business people and well-heeled western tourists", staying at Mumbai's luxury hotels. The Deccan Herald states that the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility via a convenient e-mail message received by the Deccan Herald (DC). DC states,
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Flashback: Political Destabilization in South and Central Asia: The Role of the CIA-ISI Terror Network
Andrew G. Marshall
Global Research
2008-09-17 10:48:00
Introduction
Recent terror attacks in New Delhi on September 13, 2008, raise the questions of who was responsible and for what reason these attacks occurred. Terror attacks in India are not a new phenomenon, however, in their recent past, they can be largely attributed to the actions, finances, training and resources of one organization: The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). These new bombings bare the same relationship with the ISI as has occurred in the past, and so it must be asked: what is the purpose of the ISI both in Central Asia as well as South Asia?
The ISI appears to play the role of a force for the destabilization of Central Asia, India and the Middle East. It acts as a Central Asian base of operations for the CIA and British Intelligence to carry out Anglo-American imperial aims.
India will be the main focus of this report, due to the escalation of organized terror and violence against it in the past few years. As India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, after China, its northern neighbor which also borders Central Asian countries, its place in the New World Order is yet to be set in stone. Do western, and particularly Anglo-American elites allow India to grow as China, all the while attempting to co-opt their banking system to the western banking elite, thus, making them controllable? Or, will India be destabilized and dismantled, as is the plan with the Middle East and Central Asia, in order to redraw borders to suit geopolitical imperial ambitions, creating a network of manageable territories feeding the Metropoles of the New World Order, specifically New York (Wall Street) and London (The City of London)?
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U.S. News
Propaganda Alert! NY Rail Plot Details Based on 'Reliable' FBI Source
Richard Esposito
ABC News
2008-11-26 11:35:00
Uniformed police officers have flooded New York City's Penn Station, home to the Long Island Rail Road, following a warning from the FBI of a "plausible but unsubstantiated" threat of a terrorist bomb attack against the system during the holidays.
Law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com, the plot involved a "Madrid-like attack," a reference to the synchronized bombing of the commuter rail system in Spain in March 2004 that killed 191 people.
Click here to read the full FBI warning.
A terror suspect arrested in Pakistan by the FBI in recent days provided authorities with details of a bomb plot against the Long Island Rail Road and other information that led to series of high level intelligence and law enforcement conference calls over the past 24 hour and the issuing of a bulletin warning of an unspecified holiday attack on the New York City region's commuter rail system, ABC News has learned.
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"Coalition of The Willing" Lists Were Altered on White House Website, Study Shows
Thom Shanker
The New York Times
2008-11-24 23:38:00
Before invading Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration mounted a significant diplomatic offensive to rally international support, and officials at the White House, Pentagon and State Department went to great lengths to trumpet those nations that joined what they termed "the coalition of the willing."
But historians researching those early alliance-building efforts say they are troubled by what seem to be deletions of and alterations to the early official lists of nations that supported the war effort. The lists were posted on the White House Web site.
While administration officials acknowledged that the number of nations supporting the war changed over time, academic researchers say three official lists appear to have been changed, yet retained their original release date, making them appear to be unaltered originals.
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US taps online youth groups to fight crime, terrorism
Agence-France Presse
2008-11-25 18:53:00
The US State Department announced plans on Monday to promote online youth groups as a new and powerful way to fight crime, political oppression and terrorism.
Drawing inspiration from a movement against FARC rebels in Colombia, the State Department is joining forces with Facebook, Google, MTV, Howcast and others in New York City next week to get the "ball rolling."
It said 17 groups from South Africa, Britain and the Middle East which have an online presence like the "Million Voices Against the FARC" will attend a conference at Columbia University Law School from December 3-5.
Observers from seven organizations that do not have an online presence -- such as groups from Iraq and Afghanistan -- will attend. There will also be remote participants from Cuba.
They will forge an "Alliance of Youth Movement," said James Glassman, under secretary of state for public diplomacy.
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UK & Euro-Asian News
UK: Outrage over failure to spot incest, abuse horrors
Agence France-Presse
2008-11-26 22:56:00
Prime Minister Gordon Brown voiced anger Wednesday over how authorities failed to spot a harrowing trail of incest which has been likened to the case of the Austrian cellar rapist Josef Fritzl.
Brown said the country was "utterly appalled" by the case of a 56-year-old man who raped his two daughters and fathered nine children but went undetected for a quarter of century until finally being brought to the attention of the authorities in June.
The case has focused the spotlight on the failings of social services, days after another scandal over a baby who died following months of horrific abuse.
Police and social services in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire launched an investigation into the incest case after the man was jailed for life Tuesday for making his daughters pregnant 19 times in almost 25 years.
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Did Britain Just Sell Tibet?
Robert Barnett
New York Times
2008-11-24 20:00:00
The financial crisis is going to do more than increase unemployment, bankruptcy and homelessness. It is also likely to reshape international alignments, sometimes in ways that we would not expect.
As Western powers struggle with the huge scale of the measures needed to revive their economies, they have turned increasingly to China. Last month, for example, Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, asked China to give money to the International Monetary Fund, in return for which Beijing would expect an increase in its voting share.
Now there is speculation that a trade-off for this arrangement involved a major shift in the British position on Tibet, whose leading representatives in exile this weekend called on their leader, the Dalai Lama, to stop sending envoys to Beijing - bringing the faltering talks between China and the exiles to a standstill.
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Around the World
Israeli rabbi held hostage by Mumbai gunmen
Matthias Williams
Reuters
2008-11-27 14:37:00
An Israeli rabbi is being held hostage by gunmen in a Mumbai apartment building after a series of attacks in the city that have killed at least 101 people, police said today.
Indian commando Amit Tiwari told Reuters a woman and a child had been released, and one of the gunmen had been killed, but at least four armed men remained in the building.
The Israeli rescue service Zaka, an ultra-Orthodox organization, identified the hostage as Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg.
He and his wife, Rivka, operate a cafeteria and synagogue for the Chabad Lubavitch religious group, it said, adding that she and a two-year-old child had been released.
Zaka said Indian security had just informed the Israeli foreign ministry of plans to break into Chabad House, where unconfirmed reports say the rabbi has been wounded.
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'Put your hands up if you are British,' gunmen tell terrified travellers
Andrew Buncombe
The Independent
2008-11-27 14:33:00
India's financial capital, Mumbai, was rocked by a series of gun attacks and blasts last night that targeted luxury hotels and restaurants - and especially British and American visitors.
At least 80 people were reported to have been killed and up to 250 injured.
Late last night, armed police were said to be storming rooms held by gunmen on the upper floors of the Taj Mahal and Oberoi, two of the best-known hotels in India. Officials said the terrorists had struck at least seven locations, including hotels, hospitals, a railway station and the Cafe Leopold, the city's most famous restaurant and meeting place for Western tourists.
At one location, the gunmen had apparently been searching for British and American travellers to take hostage. Reports suggested that several hostages were still being held.
"An encounter is going on at the two hotels, the situation is grave," said Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Maharashtra state chief minister. "Our men are on the job." The Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, said there were four or five armed attackers under siege in each of the two hotels.
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Indian Navy boards ship off Mumbai
Associated Press
2008-11-27 14:31:00
The Indian navy says its forces are boarding a cargo vessel suspected of ties to the Mumbai attacks that killed 101 people.
Navy spokesman Capt. Manohar Nambiar said Thursday that the ship, the MV Alpha, had recently come to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan.
Nambiar says the navy has "located the ship and now we are in the process of boarding it and searching it". He gave no other details.
More than 100 people were killed and 300 injured when suspected Islamic militants attacked 10 sites in Mumbai.
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Flashback: America's Plan to Break Up Pakistan
Pakistan Daily
2008-08-30 10:59:00
Senator Nisar A. Memon of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q alleged in the upper house on Friday that the Americans harboured the designs of breaking up Pakistan.
He urged the government to take cognisance of a research report by Prof Michel Chossudovsky of Global Research (Canada) which said that the recent regime change would be followed by a 'deliberate' political impasse. The report said that the political impasse was part of an evolving US foreign policy agenda which favoured disruption and disarray in the structure of the state.
"Indirect rule by the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus is to be replaced by more direct forms of US interference, including an expanded US military presence inside Pakistan," it says.
An earlier report by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had predicted a "Yugoslavia-like fate for Pakistan in a decade with civil war, bloodshed and inter-provincial rivalries as seen in Balochsitan".
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Flashback: The Real Story Behind the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal
Subrata Ghoshroy
Alternet
2008-10-17 10:31:00
The recently passed nuclear pact was not just a late win for an unpopular president, it was a coup for lobbyists and defense contractors.
At about 2:30 PM on Wednesday, October 8th, President Bush signed into law H.R. 7081, the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act, a.k.a. the "U.S.-India nuclear deal." In attendance were Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is credited as the architect of the deal, members of Congress and an array of Indian American supporters. It was the final milestone in a long road that started on July 18, 2005, when President Bush and India's Prime Minster Manmohan Singh announced the deal in a surprise joint statement. It was also a good photo op for a beleaguered president whose legacy will be an ill-conceived war and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The legislation signed by Bush is technically known as the 123 Agreement because it amends section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which regulates U.S. cooperation with other nations in nuclear matters and prohibits trading with states that have not signed the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Not only is India a non-signatory to the landmark treaty, it is, along with Israel and Pakistan, also in contravention of its underlying principle, having secretly developed the bomb by transferring fissile material from its civilian program.
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Flashback: The Questionable Timing of the Pakistan Blast
Scott Creighton
OpEdNews.com
2008-09-23 08:03:00
Let me see if I got this straight now.
Over the past 7 years we have dumped billions and billions of dollars into Pakistan to help with the Global War on Terror™. Yet, we know that former President Musharraf spent much of that money beefing up his military presence on the border of India, while another large part of that money, just went missing. Some of that money was traced to election fraud attempts. All of this, and the accepted wisdom is that the Taliban and bin Laden, are in Pakistan (of course I think he is dead, but that is beside the point).
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Big Brother
Web spies monitor activists online for police, attorney-general - report
News.com.au
2008-11-26 16:16:00
A private intelligence company has been engaged by police to secretly monitor internet and email use by activist and protest groups, a report says.
The company was hired to monitor and report on the internet activities of anti-war campaigners, animal rights activists, environmental campaigners, and other protest groups, Fairfax Media reported.
It was hired by Victorian Police, the Australian Federal Police and the federal Attorney-General's department.
The Melbourne-based firm has for the past five years monitored websites, online chat rooms, social networking sites, email lists and bulletin boards, the report said.
It has gathered intelligence on planned protests and other activities, and many of those on the watch list have broken no laws, the report said.
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Flashback: Federal Appeals Court: Driving With Money is a Crime
TheNewspaper.com
2006-11-19 08:57:00
Eighth Circuit Appeals Court ruling says police may seize cash from motorists even in the absence of any evidence that a crime has been committed.
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that if a motorist is carrying large sums of money, it is automatically subject to confiscation. In the case entitled, "United States of America v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit took that amount of cash away from Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez, a man with a "lack of significant criminal history" neither accused nor convicted of any crime.
On May 28, 2003, a Nebraska state trooper signaled Gonzolez to pull over his rented Ford Taurus on Interstate 80. The trooper intended to issue a speeding ticket, but noticed the Gonzolez's name was not on the rental contract. The trooper then proceeded to question Gonzolez -- who did not speak English well -- and search the car. The trooper found a cooler containing $124,700 in cash, which he confiscated. A trained drug sniffing dog barked at the rental car and the cash. For the police, this was all the evidence needed to establish a drug crime that allows the force to keep the seized money.
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Axis of Evil
RIGHTS: Former Child Soldiers Work to Save Those Left Behind
Mirela Xanthaki
IPS News
2008-11-26 01:26:00
"An AK-47 is not made for a kid. It is not made for a human being, let alone a kid," said Kon Kelei, a former child soldier from Sudan. Kelei was taken to a camp when he was four or five years old -- he is not precisely sure -- and trained to fight in battle.
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Israel drums of Iran war bear down on Obama
Mohammad Davari and Dex A. Eastman
Press TV
2008-11-23 12:20:00
As if 'change' were really on its way to the White House, Israel has been desperately at work to demonstrate that it would accept no other approach toward Iran than that of a hawk.
In an apparent attempt to forewarn the next US administration that Israel is both capable and willing to use unilateral force against Iran, officials in Tel Aviv along with the Israeli military have been using a familiar rhetoric over the past couple of weeks.
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Flashback: US 'supported anti-left terror in Italy': Report claims Washington used a strategy of tension in the cold war to stabilise the centre-right
Philip Willan
The Guardian
2000-06-24 18:52:00
The United States was accused of playing a large part in the campaign of anti-communist terrorism in Italy during the cold war in a report released yesterday by the Left Democrat party.
The explicit accusation is contained in a draft report to a parliamentary commission on terrorism.
The formerly communist LDP is the biggest party in Giuliano Amato's centre-left government, and the report could sour relations between Italy and the United States and unleash a storm of domestic political controversy.
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Middle East Madness
Violence by Extremists in the Jewish Settler Movement: A Rising Challenge
Matthew Levitt and Becca Wasser
The Washington Institute
2008-11-25 20:06:00
Thirteen years after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli security officials are expressing heightened concern that a new wave of violent extremism among fringe elements in the Jewish settler movement threatens not only Palestinian civilians, but also Israeli national security and the future of any potential peace diplomacy.
Recent Trends in Violence by a Settler Fringe
The vast majority of the approximately 300,000 Israelis living in West Bank settlements are law-abiding citizens. An extremist fringe element within the settler movement, however, has been responsible for a substantial increase in violent incidents. According to a November 2008 report by Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, security officials recorded 675 cases of violent activity perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and Israeli security forces from January to November 2008. These incidents include assault, causing damage to property, trespassing, violating orders, using a weapon, and "causing death."
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UN President calls for sanctions against Israel
Saed Bannoura
IMEMC News
2008-11-27 19:38:00
The President of the United Nations General Assembly today called for international sanctions to be imposed on the state of Israel.
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann said that the international community should engage in a 'boycott, divestment and sanctions' campaign against Israel, similar to those enacted against South Africa two decades ago.
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Secret SOFA provisions exposed
PressTV
2008-11-27 16:04:00
An Iraqi media outlet has exposed 'secret' provisions of the US-sought security pact amid ongoing parliamentary deliberations on the deal.
The US seeks to legitimize its presence in Iraq beyond the expiration of its December 31 UN mandate in the country. The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) it has pressured Iraq to finalize could provide Washington the legal backing it needs.
As far as the actual content of the pending SOFA is concerned, the White House has refused to publish the official English text of the agreement.
While US and Iraqi government officials have alleged that no part of the US agreement has been kept confidential, al-Moheet on Wednesday published what it called secret segments of the pending agreement.
The 'secret' articles posted on the Arabic-language website follows:
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Sewage Saturates Sadr City as Billions Fail to Reconstruct Iraq
Daniel Williams
Bloomberg
2008-11-25 23:58:00
Spare tires come in handy in Sadr City when lakes of sewage overflow trenches or bubble up from broken underground pipes. Pedestrians pull them from at-ready stacks to create a foot bridge across the excrement.
It's a routine honed by years of neglect, indifference and, recently, good intentions sucked into a cycle of despair. Almost six years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, sewers in the sprawling Baghdad slum have become the most odorous example of how things don't get done in Iraq.
While the U.S. has been able to pacify once-roiled areas, electricity is still spotty, drinking water is scarce and health care is limited -- even though America has spent billions of dollars on reconstruction and the Iraqi government has taken in hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue.
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Urgent Statement by Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews
Uruknet.info
2008-11-23 23:49:00
How long will Jewish and non-Jewish leaders who claim the mantle of civilization and morality remain silent in the face of the ongoing state terrorism practiced by the Zionist state against the Palestinian People, most visibly today in Gaza, where the Zionists believe they can starve the Palestinians into submission in violation of all tenets of international law, all religious values in general, INCLUDING the values of the Jewish faith???!!
How long will this be allowed to continue??
We urgently plea to the world community and world leaders to put an end to Zionist state terrorism!! In the name of God!
In the name of humanity!
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"Violence against Iraqi women continues unabated", says UN expert
United Nations Human Rights Council
2008-11-25 23:31:00
"Iraqi women have seen their rights eroded in all areas of life while the world observes from afar," warns the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Yakin Ertürk, on the International Day on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November).
"The ongoing conflict, high levels of insecurity, widespread impunity, collapsing economic conditions and rising social conservatism are impacting directly on the daily lives of Iraqi women and placing them under increased vulnerability to all forms of violence within and outside their home", says Ms. Ertürk.
Although too often overlooked, "violence against Iraqi women is committed by numerous actors, such as militia groups, insurgents, Islamic extremists, law enforcement personnel, members of the family as well as the community", laments the UN Special Rapporteur.
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Grand Theft Economics
Don't Worry, the Ultra-Rich Are Doing All Right
Rob Larson
AlterNet
2008-11-26 13:07:00
The obscenely wealthy still have enough money to buy massive super-yachts and overpriced art.
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While Some of Us Are Hoping for Change, Others Are Literally Starving for It
Chris Hedges
Truthdig
2008-11-27 12:45:00
The swelling numbers waiting outside homeless shelters and food pantries around the country have grown by at least 30 percent since the summer.
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China slashes interest rates as panic spreads
Malcolm Moore
The Daily Telegraph
2008-11-26 12:24:00
The People's Bank of China cut interest rates by more than 1pc point as the economy crumbles and millions of jobs are predicted to go ahead of Christmas.
The move came just one day after the World Bank predicted that China would grow by 7.5pc next year. The level of growth may appear robust by Western standards, but it would represent the slowest economic expansion in China for the last two decades.
It is also perilously close to the 7pc minimum level of growth that Chinese economists believe is necessary in order to create enough jobs for the 6m university graduates who will enter the jobs market next year.
It is the fourth interest rate cut from the Chinese central bank in the last ten weeks as the government desperately battles an evident economic collapse. "China is out to save itself here," said Patrick Bennett, an analyst with Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
The PBOC reduced its main borrowing rate by 1.08pc points to 5.58pc, the biggest one-off cut since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.
In recent weeks, a series of riots across central and southern China have flowered as disgruntled employees aired their grievances at the downturn.
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US treasury market reaches breaking point
Helen Avery
Euromoney.com
2008-11-26 12:04:00
As attention focuses on the treasury market's ability to cope with the US's growing funding needs, Euromoney reveals the structural issue that could cause the world's market of last resort to grind to a halt in its hour of greatest need.
The problem: the settlement system for the US government bond market has broken down
The US treasury market, the foundation of government bond and corporate bond markets worldwide, is suffering a crisis of confidence at the worst possible moment. Investors in treasuries are the lenders enabling the US government bail-out of the country's broken financial institutions. That leaves them financing purchases of equity of volatile and highly questionable worth and backing a ragbag of distressed assets. For now, treasury yields are at record lows across the term structure as investors with cash to invest conclude that they can trust no one else with their money. But investors must wonder at what point the expanded supply of government debt and its use will make the borrower inherently less creditworthy.
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The Living Planet
146 low temperature records set in the US during the past week
Hamweather
2008-11-26 07:31:00
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Stubborn glaciers fail to retreat, awkward polar bears continue to multiply
Christopher Booker
Telegraph UK
2008-11-23 05:59:00
Second only to the melting of the Arctic ice and those "drowning" polar bears, there is no scare with which the global warmists, led by Al Gore, more like to chill our blood than the fast-vanishing glaciers of the Himalayas, which help to provide water for a sixth of mankind. Recently one newspaper published large pictures to illustrate the alarming retreat in the past 40 years of the Rongbuk glacier below Everest. Indian meteorologists, it was reported, were warning that, thanks to global warming, all the Himalayan glaciers could have disappeared by 2035.
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Snow depths in Switzerland up to five times normal
IceAgeNow
2008-11-25 20:08:00
Here's an email from skier Rhys Jagger
The chart below documents snow depths in Switzerland compared to the long-term mean.
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Researchers Discover Secret Of Speedy Dolphins
Science Daily
2008-11-26 18:46:00
There was something peculiar about dolphins that stumped prolific British zoologist Sir James Gray in 1936.
He had observed the sea mammals swimming at a swift rate of more than 20 miles per hour, but his studies had concluded that the muscles of dolphins simply weren't strong enough to support those kinds of speeds. The conundrum came to be known as "Gray's Paradox."
For decades the puzzle prompted much attention, speculation, and conjecture in the scientific community. But now, armed with cutting-edge flow measurement technology, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have tackled the problem and conclusively solved Gray's Paradox.
"Sir Gray was certainly on to something, and it took nearly 75 years for technology to bring us to the point where we could get at the heart of his paradox," said Timothy Wei, professor and acting dean of Rensselaer's School of Engineering, who led the project. "But now, for the first time, I think we can safely say the puzzle is solved. The short answer is that dolphins are simply much stronger than Gray or many other people ever imagined."
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Health & Wellness
Mothers' Mental Games Increase Depressive Symptoms In Daughters
Science Daily
2008-11-26 22:56:00
A new study in the journal Family Relations examined the effects of a mother's psychological control on the risk for depression of African American adolescents.
Researchers found that girls whose mothers played mental games with them like making them feel guilty or withdrawing expressions of love reported much higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of personal agency.
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Flashback: Hope In a Time of Hopelessness
George Washington's blog
2007-09-11 15:58:00
Several long-time activists have told me recently they are overwhelmed, worried, and think that we may be losing the struggle to end the imperial wars, save our Constitution, and stop false flag terrorism.
One very smart friend asked me if there is any basis for hope.
But hope is an act of will, not a passive mood. Admittedly, things are easier when circumstances bring hope to us, and we can just receive the hopeful and inspiring news.
But if we care about winning, we have to be able to decide to have hope even when outer circumstances aren't so positive.
I have children who are counting on me to leave them with a reasonably safe and sane planet. As I've said elsewhere, "I care too much about my kids and my freedom to be afraid. I care enough about them that it gets my heart beating, connects me to something bigger than myself, and that gives me courage, even when the chips are down."
If I allowed myself to lose hope about exposing false flag terror, about protecting our freedom, about preventing World War III, I would be dropping the ball for my kids. I would be condemning them to a potentially very grey world where bigger and more violent false flags are carried out, where their liberties and joys are wholly stripped away, where every ounce of vitality is beholden to "the war effort".
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Buried Secrets: Is Natural Gas Drilling Endangering U.S. Water Supplies?
Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica
2008-11-27 14:42:00
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'Barcode Chip' For Cheap, Fast Blood Tests Developed
Science Daily
2008-11-26 18:58:00
A new "barcode chip" developed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) promises to revolutionize diagnostic medical testing. In less than 10 minutes, and using just a pinprick's worth of blood, the chip can measure the concentrations of dozens of proteins, including those that herald the presence of diseases like cancer and heart disease.
The device, known as the Integrated Blood-Barcode Chip, or IBBC, was developed by a group of Caltech researchers led by James R. Heath, the Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor and professor of chemistry, along with postdoctoral scholar Rong Fan and graduate student Ophir Vermesh, and by Leroy Hood, president of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington.
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Publication Bias Found Among Trials Submitted To FDA
Science Daily
2008-11-26 18:20:00
A quarter of drug trials submitted in support of new drug applications to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) remain unpublished five years after the fact, says new research published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine.
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Science & Technology
Scholar finds Mayans' buried highway through hell
Mark Stevenson
Associated Press
2008-11-09 00:07:00
Legend says the afterlife for ancient Mayas was a terrifying obstacle course in which the dead had to traverse rivers of blood, and chambers full of sharp knives, bats and jaguars.
Now a Mexican archaeologist using long-forgotten testimony from the Spanish Inquisition says a series of caves he has explored may be the place where the Maya actually tried to depict this highway through hell.
The network of underground chambers, roads and temples beneath farmland and jungle on the Yucatan peninsula suggests the Maya fashioned them to mimic the journey to the underworld, or Xibalba, described in ancient mythological texts such as the Popol Vuh.
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Sources of Saturn Moon's Supersonic Water Jets Revealed
Richard A. Lovett
National Geographic News
2008-11-26 23:03:00
Jets of water vapor blasting out of Saturn's moon Enceladus at supersonic speeds are coming from vents each about the size of a professional sports stadium, a new study says.
Scientists first saw a plume of water vapor and dust shooting from the moon's south pole in 2005.
Research later determined that the water geysers are gushing out at about 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) an hour from a series of 100-mile-long (161-kilometer-long) fissures dubbed tiger stripes.
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Potentially Universal Mechanism Of Aging Identified
Science Daily
2008-11-26 18:54:00
Researchers have uncovered what may be a universal cause of aging, one that applies to both single cell organisms such as yeast and multicellular organisms, including mammals. This is the first time that such an evolutionarily conserved aging mechanism has been identified between such diverse organisms.
The mechanism probably dates back more than one billion years. The study shows how DNA damage eventually leads to a breakdown in the cell's ability to properly regulate which genes are switched on and off in particular settings.
Like our current financial crisis, the aging process might also be a product excessive deregulation.
Researchers have discovered that DNA damage decreases a cell's ability to regulate which genes are turned on and off in particular settings. This mechanism, which applies both to fungus and to us, might represent a universal culprit for aging.
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Hubble Captures Outstanding View Of Mammoth Stars
Science Daily
2008-11-26 18:51:00
The Hubble telescope has captured a spectacular image of a pair of colossal stars, WR 25 and Tr16-244, located within the open cluster Trumpler 16. This cluster is embedded within the Carina Nebula, an immense cauldron of gas and dust that lies approximately 7500 light-years from Earth.
The Carina Nebula contains several ultra-hot stars, including these two star systems and the famous blue star Eta Carinae, which has the highest luminosity yet confirmed. As well as producing incredible amounts of heat, these stars are also very bright, emitting most of their radiation in the ultraviolet and appearing blue in colour. They are so powerful that they burn through their hydrogen fuel source faster than other types of stars, leading to a "live fast, die young" lifestyle.
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Our Haunted Planet
Argentina: UFO or Condor Over Tupungato?
Inexplicata
2008-11-27 19:41:00
A tour operator organized a tour to La Carretera in Tupungato and took a photo of the landscape. Upon downloading the file to his computer, he saw a strange object. He had it analyzed by [Argentina's] most prestigious ufologist and she confirmed that it was indeed a UFO.
Is it a UFO, a condor or a spot? Those were the questions that ran through the mind of Flavio S., 31, when he downloaded the photo to his computer and saw a sort of round disk in the air. The event occurred on November 8, 2008, while he was on a tour with Mendozan tourist operators who intended to visit a local estancia (ranch) in La Carretera, Tupungato.
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Argentina: An Entity in Colonia Elia
Andrea Pérez Simondini and Daniel Szauter
Inexplicata
2008-11-25 19:28:00
Very early in the morning on October 8, a team from Vision Ovni headed for the locality of Colonia Elia in the Province of Entre Rios to research the manifestations of a strange creature that appears in smallholds and fields, slaying farm animals as well as calves and sheep. This was the information presented to us by the national media, which had taken an interest in the story. It was thanks to this interest that we became aware of the case.
Once we had reached the site, 260 kilometers distant along Route 14, we entered Colonia Elia through a dirt road in search of the witnesses. As always, we employed an old but sure-fire strategy to get information. We stopped a man who was riding along on horseback, and he quickly indicated the location of the Restayno family home. This was the family that had witnessed the events involving the unusual creature.
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Argentina: West of Buenos Aires-Reports, Lights and Strange Beings?
Daniel Valverdi, Daniel Szauter and Jorge Marron
Inexplicata
2008-11-25 19:11:00
On October 4, 2008 we headed out to this area once more, which has recently become the focus of our efforts, given that one report leads us to another and we successively begin to close out a large number of "unusual" episodes reported by qualified local witnesses.
Jorge Marron, Daniel Valverdi and Daniel Szauter met at 16:00 hours at Reserva Los Robles in the Municipality of Moreno, Greater Buenos Aires, and we traveled together to the Archeological Museum that is near this reservoir.
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