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In a far flung corner of northern Afghanistan, Aziza reaches into the dark wooden cupboard, rummages around, and pulls out a small lump of something wrapped in plastic.

She unwraps it, breaking off a small chunk as if it were chocolate, and feeds it to four-year-old son, Omaidullah. It's his breakfast -- a lump of pure opium.

"If I don't give him opium he doesn't sleep," she says. "And he doesn't let me work."

Aziza comes from a poor family of carpet weavers in Balkh province. She has no education, no idea of the health risks involved or that opium is addictive.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/20/afghan.opium.kids/index.html?hpt=C1

Sweet merciful fuck.

Can somebody explain why this is happening? Politics over there confuse the hell out of me.

The party's announcement, after a meeting in Dublin, follows a decision on Saturday by PM Brian Cowmen to quit as leader of his Fianna Fail party.

Mr Cowen had said he would stay on as PM until the election, a move opponents had described as "farcical".

The Greens' decision wipes out the ruling coalition's two-seat majority.

A pterosaur has been found in China beautifully preserved with an egg.

The egg indicates this ancient flying reptile was a female, and that realisation has allowed researchers to sex these creatures for the first time.

Writing in Science magazine, the palaeontologists make some broad statements about gender differences in pterosaurs, including the observation that only males sported a head-crest.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12242596

Pterosaurs, also sometimes referred to as pterodactyls

Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.
Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.



While there are several serious hurdles that make this unlikely, it is still unsettling that it is even being considered.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41188877/ns/business-the_new_york_times/

This gland causes some of us to look at everything sideways, to examine a thing, tear it apart and put it back together. After doing this we sometimes accept a concept, or reject it depending on our findings.

Not everybody has a Suspicion Gland though, True Followers, for example. True Followers have many names, perhaps the most common is sheep. If True Followers ever had a Suspicion Gland they crushed it without mercy. The Suspicion Gland requires one to accept responsibility, leadership at times and the burden of self education.

True Followers have utterly rejected all of the above, because they are afraid. They know there is something lurking just out of sight and they do everything in their power to not see it. They shield themselves with flat screens, drugs or any number of distractions.

Some of see it though, and once seen it is most difficult to ever forget it or unsee it. Once the Truth has been laid bare before your eyes you change. A part of your soul turns black, diseased. This will never "heal".

The Truth is there for all to see and it always will be, but so many will never look.

Can you see or is your back turned to it as you run away?

A friend of mine is trying to join and is getting that message.

The US pastor who planned a mass burning of the Qur'an on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks last year has been barred from entering the UK.

The Home Office ban means Florida-based pastor Terry Jones will not now attend a series of demonstrations organised by a far-right group against the expansion of Islam and the construction of mosques in the UK.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The government opposes extremism in all its forms which is why we have excluded pastor Terry Jones from the UK.

"Numerous comments made by Pastor Jones are evidence of his unacceptable behaviour. Coming to the UK is a privilege, not a right, and we are not willing to allow entry to those whose presence is not conducive to the public good."

"The use of exclusion powers is very serious and no decision is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate."

The preacher received worldwide condemnation last year when he threatened to burn the Qur'an on September 11. He eventually called the action off.

Jones told Sky News he was "disappointed" by the ban. "We would ask it be reconsidered and the ban lifted," he said. "I have done a countless number of interviews and in those I have stated and assured the media and British government we have no intention of doing anything against British law."

"We feel this is against our human rights to travel and freedom of speech."

"We are not against Muslims, we are not against Islam. We welcome Muslims and have only spoken out against the radical element of Islam."

A spokesman for the group England Is Ours, which had invited Jones to the UK, said he hoped other members of the preacher's church would be able to attend the meetings next month if the ban remained in place. Barry Taylor, secretary of the Milton Keynes-based group, said: "I'm very disappointed."

Before Christmas, it was thought that Jones might attend an English Defence League demonstration in Britain. But last month the EDL said it felt it would be inappropriate to invite him.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/20/pastor-terry-jones-banned-uk

Well then!

doesn't remove that motherfucking flashing t shirt add at the bottom of this page my fucking head is going to explode.

'Social rejection'

The BBC's religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said Baroness Warsi is to say publicly what many Muslims privately complain about - that prejudice against them does not attract the social stigma attached to prejudice against other religious and ethnic groups.
Continue reading the main story
"Start Quote

    It's not a big leap of imagination to predict where the talk of 'moderate' Muslims leads"

End Quote Baroness Warsi

    * Send your comments

"Lady Warsi has broached the issue before," Robert Pigott says.

"She told the 2009 Conservative Party conference that anti-Muslim hatred had become Britain's last socially acceptable form of bigotry, and claimed in a magazine article last October that taking a pop at the Muslim community in the media sold papers and didn't really matter."

In her speech, she is expected to say the description of Muslims as either moderate or extremist encourages false assumptions.

"It's not a big leap of imagination to predict where the talk of 'moderate' Muslims leads; in the factory, where they've just hired a Muslim worker, the boss says to his employees: 'Not to worry, he's only fairly Muslim'," she will say.

"In the school, the kids say: 'The family next door are Muslim but they're not too bad'.

"And in the road, as a woman walks past wearing a burka, the passers-by think: 'That woman's either oppressed or is making a political statement'."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12235237

Have any of our UK members seen this in action?

["He can do a lot of things through the form of government they have."]

"I am going to go back to Washington tomorrow and meet with the president of China. He is a dictator," Reid told local TV talk show "Face to Face with Jon Ralston." "He can do a lot of things through the form of government they have."

The inflammatory remarks were made after Ralston asked if Reid thought the lame-duck tax cut deal was a good one. The Nevada senator quickly backtracked from his statement.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said dictator, but they have a different type of government than we have and that's an understatement," Reid said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/01/19/2011-01-19_harry_reid_senate_majority_leader_calls_chinese_president_hu_jintao_a_dictator_.html#ixzz1BUm8Ybhc

Is it my imagination or was that jealousy? 

Japanese researchers will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.

The researchers will try to revive the species by obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

"Preparations to realise this goal have been made," Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, told the mass-circulation daily.

Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant's egg cell from which the nuclei have been removed, to create an embryo containing mammoth genes, the report said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110117/wl_asia_afp/japansciencemammoth_20110117104445


What could possibly go wrong?

Some people brag about serving scotch whisky that's 15 years old. But three bottles of Mackinlays scotch flown to Scotland by private jet Monday date back to the late 19th Century.

The bottles are linked to famed explorer Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1907. They were found last year in a crate that had been buried beneath a basic hut Shackleton had used during his dramatic excursion, more formally known as the British Antarctic Expedition.

The crate itself was, unsurprisingly, frozen solid after more than a century beneath the Antarctic surface.

But the precious bottles were found intact, and researchers could hear the whisky sloshing around inside. Antarctica's minus 22 Fahrenheit (-30 Celsius) temperature was not enough to freeze the liquor, dating from 1896 or 1897, and experts said it was in remarkably good condition.

And probably tasty too: It is common in London's look-at-me bars to sell some aged cognacs for 50 pounds ($80) a glass or more, but none of Shackleton's stash will be put on this private market, so no one will know how much consumers would have paid for such a historic dram.

The bottles, part of a cache of 11 bottles found, were judged too valuable to be returned to Scotland on a commercial flight — for reasons frequent travelers can understand — so they were flown back in the private jet of Vijay Mallya, owner of Whyte & Mackay's, which bought Mackinlays some years ago.

The Mackinlays whisky will be studied and tasted in a lab for six weeks before being returned to Shackleton's hut under the floorboards of Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island, near Antarctica's McMurdo Sound.

The lab findings will be sent to the Antarctic Heritage Trust.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41122315/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Oh! For just one glass!

I sit her alone in silence. If I move things will only get worse. Much worse. I am trapped and it is my fault, mine alone. I had the chance to avoid this trap, but my head was full of other things, important things.

There is no one who can help.

I begin to cry, no one can hear. I know that sooner or later I am going to have to move, have to face this mess.













Why the hell didn't I remember to buy toilet paper? 

After spending nearly 12 hours behind bars, accused of slapping a police horse, a Florida woman is out of jail Monday facing misdemeanor charges in the incident.

"A horse was literally right in my face all of a sudden," Stephanie Six told CNN affiliate Bay News 9. "So I put my hand up into his face as a reaction."

Six, 29, was released after being arrested early Saturday in downtown St. Petersburg, a report from Pinellas County Sheriff's office said.

Police were using mounted patrols to try to control crowds outside a tavern, when they say Six hit the horse, according to local news reports.

Six told the local television station she did not strike the horse.

"They're saying I slapped this horse when that's not the case," said Six. "I was basically getting it out of my face. I did not hit him."

CNN contacted St. Petersburg police and the state attorney's office, but officials were unavailable for comment because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Six is charged with battery on a police horse. In Florida statutes, any person who actually and intentionally maliciously touches, strikes or causes bodily harm to a police dog, fire dog, SAR dog or police horse commits a first-degree misdemeanor.

If convicted of the first-degree misdemeanor, Six could face a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison. A second-degree conviction is punishable by a $500 fine and up to 60 days behind bars.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/17/florida.horse.slapping/index.html?hpt=T2

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday canceled the controversial virtual fence along the U.S. border with Mexico, citing technical problems, cost overruns and schedule delays since its inception in 2005. The Secure Border Initiative-network, a high-tech surveillance system to reduce border smuggling, so far has cost taxpayers almost $1 billion for two regions in Arizona, covering just 53 miles overall on the 2,000-mile border, according to a homeland security report.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/14/bor...ex.html?hpt=T2

Go ahead, argue with my logic.

Empty your fucking voice mail.

In February 2007, Mr Solomon, a Vietnam veteran who says he has been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, was jailed in the Nassau County Correctional Center near New York City, pending trial on charges he had menaced his wife.
He was transferred to a medical observation unit amid worries he was mentally ill. In court documents obtained by the BBC, he claims at night a rat "or similar rodent" emerged from a hole in his mattress and bit him on the penis and hand, drawing blood.
Mr Solomon, 54, claimed the county was indifferent to his treatment and failed to protect him from the vermin, and sued for damages.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12187409

Real life is in fact funnier than fiction.

Unless this has a specific purpose it will kill this board. If it is just going to be another place to be silly, count me gone.

Lebanon's national unity government has collapsed after 11 ministers from Hezbollah and its allies resigned.

Energy Minister Gibran Bassil said the decision was prompted by a failure to settle a dispute over the UN tribunal investigating Rafik Hariri's murder.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Saad Hariri was meeting US President Barack Obama at the White House.

Tension has been high in Lebanon, amid indications that Hezbollah members could be indicted by the UN tribunal.

On Tuesday, officials said efforts by the Syrian and Saudi Arabian governments to reach a political compromise had failed.

There are widespread fears that a collapse of the government could spark an outbreak of sectarian violence, last seen in Beirut in 2008.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12170608

I wonder what effect this will have in the region.

Have you guys been following this story? Brisbane is next.

Three quarters of the state of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone after torrential rain threatened the worst flooding in the state capital in 37 years.

Ten people were confirmed dead in flash flooding Tuesday which swept through the town of Toowoomba, about 125 kilometers (80 miles) west of Brisbane, on Monday afternoon.

The wall of water came without warning, overturning cars and swamping homes. More than 24 hours later, 78 people remained missing.
{snip}
The wave of water that devastated Toowoomba was moving through the Lockyer Valley where it was set to feed into the Wivenhoe Dam, built after the 1974 floods to prevent a similar disaster.

Heavy rains have already filled the dam to capacity and authorities are releasing water at staged intervals to release the pressure. That water is flowing into the already swollen Brisbane River. High tides predicted for Wednesday are expected to push the river's water levels even higher before peak Thursday.

The predicted flooding in Brisbane follows a deluge further north that swamped the city of Rockhampton, 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Brisbane in early January.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/11/australia.floods/index.html?hpt=T2

The controversy over airport body scanners has created a crop of entrepreneurs hawking items that promise to keep parts of your body from showing up on the images TSA agents see.

It might be tempting if you're worried about privacy -- but not so fast.

Wear one of the special garments and you're virtually guaranteed a pat-down, the TSA says in a blog post that takes aim at "the products folks have created that are designed to shield private areas of passengers going through our Advanced Imaging Technology."

A recent entry into the line of "privacy underwear" was created by Marc Carey, a Kentucky attorney who says his T-shirts, panties and boxer briefs have strategically-placed logos with special ink on them that blurs private parts to TSA agents.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/01/11/tsa.scanner.underwear/index.html?hpt=C2



Up next, pat down zappers.

[launching point for Pennsylvania to return to "the biblical definition of marriage."]

You might like the tasty pickles that they put on their chicken sandwiches, but if you're eating at Chick-fil-A, you're also eating at an establishment that partners with some of the most ferocious anti-gay groups around.

Take a look at an event scheduled for February 2011, co-sponsored by Chick-fil-A and the Pennsylvania Family Institute, the leading anti-gay group in the Keystone State and a group that has worked hard to try and pass a constitutional amendment in Pennsylvania banning same-sex marriage.

The February event co-sponsored by Chick-fil-A is called "The Art of Marriage," and it's intended to be a launching point for Pennsylvania to return to "the biblical definition of marriage." Given the work of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, it's hard not to see where this event is going to go -- straight for the jugular of anyone who supports marriage equality for same-sex couples.
http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/chick-fil-a_partners_with_rabid_anti-gay_group

Now a good troll would want to take the bolded part and campaign for polygamy.

Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi says his country is now capable of making the fuel plates and rods used inside nuclear reactors.

Western analysts have previously said the Islamic republic did not possess such technology.

The US and other Western nations suspect that Iran is attempting to build nuclear weapons.

Tehran strongly denies the accusation, saying its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.

Mr Salehi told Fars news agency that Iran had completed construction of a facility in the city of Isfahan to produce the plates and rods.

"We have built an advanced manufacturing unit in the Isfahan site for the fuel plates," Mr Salehi, who is also acting foreign minister, told Fars news agency.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12143171

Posturing or fact? I can never tell with those guys.

Washington (CNN) -- Metropolitan police were at a northeastern Washington postal sorting facility where at least one envelope ignited Friday, police spokeswoman Officer Tisha Gant said.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security official said there are "similar characteristics" but no proven connection to incidents Thursday when mailed devices ignited in two Maryland state offices.

The building at 3300 V Street NE has been evacuated, she said.

The envelope that ignited was not opened and did not go off in an employee's hands, a law enforcement source said. The person tossed it into a sorting bin and then smelled smoke. A source on the scene said that all the employees had been accounted for.

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have sent agents to the Washington facility.

The facility -- which was built after the 2001 anthrax attacks to screen mail headed for federal offices -- is a few blocks from the District of Columbia's border with Maryland. Amtrak tracks are nearby.

Mailed devices containing a small battery and an electric match ignited in two Maryland state offices Thursday, mildly wounding two state employees when they opened the packages. The Maryland offices affected were in Baltimore and Annapolis.

Messages accompanying the devices used the words "report suspicious activity." Based on the packages' destinations, a government official told CNN he thinks the person was referring to flashing road signs posted on some Maryland roads that carry those words.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/07/district.of.columbia.mail.ignited/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

This will not end well.

Saudi Arabian officials have "detained" a vulture on accusations of being a spy for Israel, media reports say.

The griffon vulture was carrying a GPS transmitter bearing the name of Tel Aviv University, prompting rumours it was part of a Zionist plot.

Israeli wildlife officials dismissed the claims as ludicrous and expressed concern about the bird's fate.

Last month, Egyptian officials implied the Israeli spy agency Mossad was to blame for shark attacks off its coast.

The vulture, which can have a wing span of up to 265cm (8ft 8in), was caught after it landed in the desert city of Hyaal a few days ago.

When locals discovered the GPS transmitter, they suspected the worst and handed it over to the security forces, said Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper.

Conspiracy theories quickly began circulating in Saudi newspapers and on websites that the bird was involved in espionage.
'Terrible price'

Israeli officials told Ma'ariv they were "stunned" by the allegations and concerned that the bird could meet a horrible punishment in the notoriously severe Saudi justice system.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12120259



omfg.

A group of state legislators opposed to illegal immigration plan to propose a legislative "fix" Wednesday that would prevent children of illegal immigrants born in the United States from being citizens, a spokesman said.

The group, State Legislators for Legal Immigration, will reveal their strategy at a Wednesday morning news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Ty McCauslin said.

The coalition counts members from 40 states. It argues that the 14th Amendment has been wrongly applied to so-called "anchor babies."

The 14th Amendment says that "all persons born ... in the United States" automatically become U.S. citizens.
Should birth grant citizenship?
2010: 14th Amendment rewards immigrants?

The group's proposal "is to fix the misapplication of the 14th Amendment as it applies to the children of illegal aliens," McCauslin told CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/01/05/legislators.illegal.immigration/index.html?hpt=T2

That will show those wetbacks!

Have you ever been tired? Not the kind of tired that a good nights sleep can cure, but that bone deep fed up tired.

Sick of the clamoring of fools and the screaming of idiots, everything and everybody using every thing they can to try to claim a piece of you tired. Constant yammering of who makes the best car or TV or watch. Angry at the way commercials think that by being obnoxious they can force you to buy their product.

Disgusted at politicians who preach from their gilded pulpits about how they are the only one who really cares about you and how all the other ones are only out for themselves. Non-stop media blitzes from every medium pounding at your senses with utter bullshit designed to make you think The Right Way.

Fed up with ordinary people who tell you who you are and what to think, meanwhile all one hears is nothing but emo shit oozing from their pores. Social media designed to spread things in their life that you simply don't want to hear and couldn't care less about.

Very few, if any, of us are exceptions to this disease. While I am spending the time here to rant about it I stand guilty of the very same thing. It is hopeless. My ears are ringing with the rattle of the human race and it makes my head hurt. This includes the pathetic whining of my own voice.

My wife asked me last night what she could do to fix me. When I asked her what she meant she informed me that I wasn't the man she married, that the man she married could do anything, anything at all. Talk about a full body slam on concrete. She is right.

The truth is made of pain and clarity. This year I want my life back. The life where I felt invincible and in charge.

Even if I have to make it up.

Have you been dreaming of a white Christmas? Scientists may soon be able to show your winter scene on a computer screen once you've drifted into a peaceful slumber.

A Japanese research team has successfully processed and displayed images directly from the human brain, they said in a study to be published in the US magazine Neuron.

While the researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have only reproduced simple images from the brain, they said the technology could eventually be used to display dreams.

A spokesman for the Kyoto-based company said it was the first time that it had ever been possible to visualise what people saw directly from their brain activity, a spokesman said.
http://www.curiousread.com/2008/12/dreams-could-be-soon-watched-on.html

I don't think so, thanks anyway.

Italy is a nation known as much for its food as for the ubiquitous plastic bag, given out freely with every purchase around the country and often left to litter streets or landfills. A new ban coming into effect January 1, however, may change that.

Mexico City last year banned shops from giving out plastic bags that are not bio-degradable. France also imposed a similar law.

China has adopted a strict limit on them, reducing litter and eliminating the use of 40 billion bags, the World Watch Institute said, citing government estimates. Although compliance has been spotty, violation of the law carries a possible fine of 10,000 yuan ($1,463), World Watch said.

In Tanzania, selling the bags carries a maximum six-month jail sentence and a fine of 1.5 million shilling ($1,137).

Mumbai, India, outlawed the bags in 2000 and cities in Australia, South Africa and Taiwan have imposed bans or surcharges. Ireland reported cutting use of the bags by 90 percent after imposing a fee on each one.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/31/italy.plastic.bags/index.html?hpt=Sbin


I had no idea.......

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Rev. Jesse Jackson sharply criticized Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Tuesday over his reaction to the arrest of six black juveniles in Jena, Louisiana on murder charges, accusing the Illinois senator of "acting like he's white," according to a South Carolina newspaper.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/19/jessie-jackson-obamas-acting-like-hes-white/?iref=obnetwork

I predict JJ will continue to say dumb shit and that Obama will continue to suckle at the GOP tit.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/12/29/tsr.savidge.wrong.textbooks.cnn?hpt=C2
Fourth grade history textbooks are being reviewed for accuracy after dozens of mistakes are found.

LOL

A letter from about 30 prominent rabbis' wives was causing a stir in Israel Wednesday because it urges Israeli girls not to date Arabs.

The open letter comes three weeks after the uproar caused by another letter, which was written by 50 state-appointed rabbis and told Jews not to rent or sell property to non-Jews.

The latest missive, which was published by some websites and news outlets, says Arab men act polite around Jewish girls and "act as if they really care about you," but it says that's a ruse. The men, it says, even change their Arab names to Hebrew forms like Yossi and Ami in order to get close to the girls.
[snip]
The letter was initiated by the head of Lehava, an extreme right-wing group that says it aims to prevent the "assimilation of the Jewish people" and works at "saving Jewish girls from Arab villages."

"It's known that girls who go out with Arabs are beaten, these girls are in danger. ... There is a violent social trend and everyone ignores it," said the head of the group, Anat Gopstein, in a radio interview Wednesday morning.

The head of Israel's Reform movement, Rabbi Gilad Kariv, harshly condemned the letter and said, "Israeli society is falling into a deep, dark pit of racism and xenophobia," according to spokeswoman Yuli Goren.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/12/29/israel.letter.arabs/index.html?hpt=T2

People really, really suck, regardless of race, creed or religion.

No one did more to glorify the athleticism and spirit of the Olympics than Bud Greenspan.

The filmmaker, who started covering the Olympics as a radio reporter at the 1948 games in London and most recently produced the official film of last year's Vancouver Winter Games, died on Christmas Day at his New York City home. He was 84
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsmoviecricket/50942949-66/greenspan-percent-akwari-games.html.csp

I hope they have Olympics wherever you are.

China has said it will cut exports of rare earth minerals by 10% in 2011.

World manufacturers are heavily reliant on China for these minerals, which are essential for making many electronic goods, such as TVs and PC monitors.

China has 97% of the world's known supply of the goods. The US mined none last year.

Rare earth minerals have been a thorny trade topic for some time, and China has previously promised not to cut supplies drastically.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12088195

Maybe instead of bitching about this they should invent another process for manufacture.

[international financial transactions]

An international group of scientists are aiming to create a simulator that can replicate everything happening on Earth - from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on Milton Keynes' roads.

Nicknamed the Living Earth Simulator (LES), the project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12012082

Somehow this makes me squirm uncomfortably.

A Texas produce distributor has recalled nearly 7,000 cases of cilantro and curly parsley after samples in Quebec, Canada, and Michigan tested positive for salmonella, the company said Monday.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/28/salmonella.produce/index.html?hpt=T2

Happy my cilantro is not in this batch!

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a communique that the White House was troubled by "what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends".

"We are deeply concerned that a Russian judge today has indicated that for a second time Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev will be convicted," he said.
Continue reading the main story
"Start Quote

    It is not a bad thing that Khodorkovsky is in jail. But it is a bad thing that others like him are not in jail"

End Quote Sergei M, St Petersburg

    * Views from Russia

"The apparent selective application of the law to these individuals undermines Russia's reputation as a country committed to deepening the rule of law."

Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the verdict would have a "negative impact on Russia's reputation".

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he was "very worried" by the conviction.

"The way the trial has been conducted is extremely dubious and a step backward on the road toward a modernisation of the country," he said in a statement.

"It is in the interest of our Russian partners to take these concerns seriously and to stand up for the rule of law, democracy and human rights."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12083773

Wow. I love the way they like to point at other countries and then justify their own actions.

After making headlines this year for her skimpy outfits, sexually charged performances, and smoking salvia from a bong, Miley Cyrus has vowed to be a changed woman in 2011. In a recorded message to fans, the 18-year-old "Hannah Montana" star claims she is dedicating her life to helping others.

"I'm really looking forward to 2011," says Cyrus, who is seen coloring with her 10-year-old sister Noah. " I've got some new ideas, I want to go on some cool trips, I want to travel, I want to make this the year that I go out and do what I'm here to do, and that's to help people and make people happy."

That would certainly be a relief to her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus. After video of Miley smoking the hallucinogenic herb salvia surfaced earlier this month, he apologized to fans and tweeted, "Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. I'm so sad."

Though Cyrus and wife Tish are currently in the midst of a divorce, they managed to spend quality time in Tennessee with their children over the holidays. Miley and Noah even did a karaoke duet of the teen star's song "Can't Be Tamed," according to a tweet from their big sis Brandi.

Because your hate is weak. 

[won't slash funding for defense,]

Republicans view their midterm electoral victory as a mandate to cut spending, and cutting $100 billion from a $3 trillion federal budget sounds like a reasonable goal.

But GOP leaders say they will focus only on non-security discretionary spending, and won't slash funding for defense, Social Security or Medicare.

That makes their task a lot harder.

Cutting non-security discretionary funds by $100 billion means a 21% annual reduction in the part of the budget that includes funding for education, health and human services and housing and urban development, among other things, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank.

In other words, the sacred cows of domestic Democratic policy.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/27/news/economy/GOP_budget_promise/index.htm?cnn=yes

Is the GOP strategy really going to be this obvious? Will anyone really notice?

Guy, Arkansas (CNN) -- Things are still shaking in Arkansas.

More than 500 measurable earthquakes have been reported in central Arkansas since September 20, ranging in magnitude from a barely noticeable 1.8 to a very noticeable 4.0 (recorded on October 11), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Geologists can't say whether they'll stop anytime soon.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/23/arkansas.earthquakes/index.html?hpt=T2

Good place to stay away from!

Shortages of some 150 crucial medicines have killed at least three hospital patients, according to reports from  a patient safety group.

One of the hospital drugs in shortage is morphine, and two patients died of an overdose when hospitals substituted a more powerful drug instead, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).

Another patient died when doctors had to use diluted epinephrine, which is also in short supply.

"This is a big deal," says Michael Cohen, president of ISMP.

In an ISMP survey of some 1,800 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare practitioners, 80% said they'd had difficulty obtaining a suitable alternative for a drug that wasn't available.
http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/23/shortage-of-medicines-kills-us-patients/?hpt=T2

Wow.

When it comes to airport security, Americans have a case of cold feet.

Thirty-seven percent of air travelers rank removing their shoes at the airport as the most dissatisfying aspect of their flying experience, according to a survey conducted for the U.S. Travel Association, a nonprofit oranization hoping to increase travel to and within the United States.

Even amid recent outcries against new security measures, taking off shoes before going through a metal detector ranked more negatively than both pat-down body searches and full body X-ray scanning, according to the survey, which was conducted online by Consensus Research Group and included 1,000 air travelers who have flown in the past two years.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/12/22/travel.association.survey/index.html?hpt=T2


Sure give up your rights, as long as you can keep your shoes on, right?

The Senate voted Wednesday to approve the new nuclear arms control treaty with Russia -- a major foreign policy victory for the Obama administration near the end of the lame-duck session of Congress.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, was cleared by a 71-26 vote. Several Republicans joined a unified Democratic caucus in support of the treaty.

Under Senate rules, the treaty required support from a two-thirds majority of voting senators for final approval.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, was cleared with the help of solid Democratic support, as well as the backing of several Republican senators.

If ratified, the treaty would resume inspections of each country's nuclear arsenal while limiting both the United States and Russia to 1,550 warheads and 700 launchers. It still needs to be approved by the Russian parliament.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/22/start/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

Still enough firepower to destroy the world, but a good thing.

Annnnnd the nutjobs opinion....


Not all Republicans were convinced, however.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, argued on the Senate floor that the basic premise of the treaty -- that America's nuclear arsenal should be at parity with Russia's -- is flawed.

"Russia is a protector of none and a threat to many. America is a protector of many and a threat to none," DeMint said.

Prime Rib, cooked to a perfect 90 degrees. Candied yams. Pistascio (sp) pudding. Deviled eggs. Corn bread. Green bean caserole.

Served with au jus from the drippings.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/22/gotta-watch-holiday-double-take-haiti-quake-27b-museum-conan-redux/?hpt=C2

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/12/20/tsr.meserve.cuba.cigars.cnn?hpt=C2

100,000 Cuban Cigars will be destroyed by U.S. Customs.

in committee.

A Bill

To ensure that certain Federal employees cannot hide behind immunity.

      Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

      This Act may be cited as the `American Traveller Dignity Act of 2010′.

SEC. 2. NO IMMUNITY FOR CERTAIN AIRPORT SCREENING METHODS.

      No law of the United States shall be construed to confer any immunity for a Federal employee or agency or any individual or entity that receives Federal funds, who subjects an individual to any physical contact (including contact with any clothing the individual is wearing), x-rays, or millimeter waves, or aids in the creation of or views a representation of any part of a individual's body covered by clothing as a condition for such individual to be in an airport or to fly in an aircraft. The preceding sentence shall apply even if the individual or the individual's parent, guardian, or any other individual gives consent.

For many Americans -- particularly those who live in rural areas -- the future of the Internet lies in mobile services. But the draft Order would effectively permit Internet providers to block lawful content, applications, and devices on mobile Internet connections.

Mobile networks like AT&T and Verizon Wireless would be able to shut off your access to content or applications for any reason. For instance, Verizon could prevent you from accessing Google Maps on your phone, forcing you to use their own mapping program, Verizon Navigator, even if it costs money to use and isn't nearly as good. Or a mobile provider with a political agenda could prevent you from downloading an app that connects you with the Obama campaign (or, for that matter, a Tea Party group in your area).

It gets worse. The FCC has never before explicitly allowed discrimination on the Internet -- but the draft Order takes a step backwards, merely stating that so-called "paid prioritization" (the creation of a "fast lane" for big corporations who can afford to pay for it) is cause for concern.

It sure is -- but that's exactly why the FCC should ban it. Instead, the draft Order would have the effect of actually relaxing restrictions on this kind of discrimination.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-franken/the-most-important-free-s_b_798984.html?ir=Politics

Gotta love it. The death of Freedom of Speech.

Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.

The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The government's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, which is in charge of terrorism investigations in the United States.

Other democracies - Britain and Israel, to name two - are well acquainted with such domestic security measures. But for the United States, the sum of these new activities represents a new level of governmental scrutiny.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-america/1/


Even employment history is being collected. Think you are safe because you aren't a suspect? Think again.

The administration's top counterterrorism adviser said Friday that the al Qaeda group based in Yemen poses a greater threat to Americans than Osama bin Laden's group based in Pakistan.

John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said the Yemen-based group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is "increasingly active" in reaching out to find terrorist recruits, even in the United States.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/17/al.qaeda.yemen/index.html?hpt=T2

Looks like the warhawks have a target all picked out.