Friday September 03, 2010
New rig explosion raises spectre of second Gulf of Mexico oil spill
Alan Sayre
Independent
A mile-long oil sheen has spread from an offshore petroleum platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, west of the site of BP's massive spill.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough said the sheen was spotted near the platform owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc.
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Wednesday September 01, 2010
US undergrads crash NASA satellite into Arctic
Lewis Page
The Reister
Whoa, dude, check this out
Undergraduate students in America managed to get control of the manoeuvring thrusters of an orbiting 2000-lb NASA satellite at the weekend, sending it plummeting into the Earth's atmosphere to rain burning fragments across the chilly seas north of Norway and Russia.
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China demands ID from all buyers of mobile phone numbers
Associated Press
Government says it hopes junk will be sunk by rules on new numbers, but critics fear more monitoring of citizens
China began requiring identification from anyone buying a new mobile phone number today in what it says is a bid to stamp out junk messages.
But critics say the move gives the government a new tool for monitoring its citizens.
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The Nazification of the United States
Paul Craig Roberts
Counterpunch
Chuck Norris is no pinko-liberal-commie, and Human Events is a very conservative publication. The two have come together to produce an important article, “Obama’s US Assassination Program.”
It seems only yesterday that Americans, or those interested in their civil liberties, were shocked that the Bush regime so flagrantly violated the FlSA law against spying on American citizens without a warrant. A federal judge serving on the FISA court even resigned in protest to the illegality of the spying.
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Sunday August 29, 2010
Free market has turned us into 'Matrix' drones
Rachel Shields
Independent
Ha-Joon Chang, the new kid on the economics block, is out to bust open a few myths
A leading economist has likened the nation's acceptance of free-market capitalism to that of the brainwashed characters in the film The Matrix, unwitting pawns in a fake reality.
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Wednesday August 18, 2010
Big Brother: the series that made surveillance acceptable
John Walsh
Independent
It was the TV show billed as a social experiment. But as Big Brother draws to a close, John Walsh argues that it has made Britain more like Orwell's dystopia than we could have imagined
Soon it will all be over. Next Tuesday, the nation will decide whether John James, the handsome but peevish Australian, or Sam Pepper, the goofy prankster, or jolly Josie, the farm girl turned MC, or indeed somebody quite unforeseen is the housemate who should win the prize money of £50,000 plus a brief sojourn in the national limelight.
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Tuesday August 17, 2010
Hungary Defies IMF and European Authorities
Mark Weisbrot
Counterpunch
The government of Hungary has taken on a lot of powerful interests in the last couple of months, and so far appears to be winning – despite provoking outrage from “everybody who’s anybody.”
“The IMF should hold the line,” shouted the Financial Times in an editorial the day after Hungary sent the IMF packing in July. “With so many countries in vulnerable positions, it cannot be seen to be a soft touch. Showing a few yellow and red cards is a good way to send a signal to other governments that might be tempted to flirt with indiscipline.”
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 10:25 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
The Ecstasy of Empire
Paul Craig Roberts
Counterpunch
The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times column, “Welcome to the Recovery.”
As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear on many occasions, an appearance of recovery was created by over-counting employment and undercounting inflation.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 07:19 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Scientists reveal bacteria have 'noses'
John von Radowitz
PA
Common bacteria have "noses" that respond to smells, scientists said.
A study shows how certain bugs detect the presence of rivals by picking up whiffs of chemicals in the air.
The discovery means lowly bugs are now known to possess four of our familiar five senses.
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Monday August 16, 2010
New Outrages Keep Gushing From BP
Jim Hightower
t r u t h o u t
With BP's well capped and CEO Tony Hayward exiled to Russia, perhaps you thought that surely there will be no additional revelations about BP to enrage you. But now comes this: prison labor.
In its national PR blitz to buff up its image, the oil giant has loudly been boasting that it has hired devastated, out-of-work local people to handle the clean-up.
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